EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
7/11/2026 6:27 PM
My
Worship Time Focus: “The Popularity of Jesus”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke 6:17
Message
of the verses: “Jesus came down with them and stood on a level place; and
there was a large crowd of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all
Judea and Jerusalem and the costal region of Tyer and Sidon.”
This
evening we will look at what MacArthur’s calls “The Popularity of Jesus,” as
this is the first sub-point after what
became a very large introduction to the verses that he will go over in
this chapter of his Commentary on the gospel of Luke which he entitled “The Popularity
and Power of Jesus.”
Jesus
is in the early stages of His ministry on planet earth and this was the time
when his popularity was enormously popular, much more than anyone else in
Israel had ever been. As we look back at
people like Abraham, Isaac, and then Moses and eventually Daivd we know that
they had popular ministries, but Jesus is the God-man who came to earth and
came to preach and teach, and also to teach His apostles in order for them to
take up after His time on earth was ended.
Jesus had many, many people following him to whom He taught and He
taught to many crowds, up to 5000 men along with women and children, so it
could be as many as twenty thousand or more.
Let us look for example to Luke 12:1 “1 ¶ In the meantime, when so many thousands of
the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his
disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is
hypocrisy.”
“Now
Luke sorts the people present on this occasion into three groups. The first were the newly appointed twelve
apostles. Then after spending the nigh
in prayer and choosing them as seen in Luke 6:12-16, something we spent many
days looking over each of them, Jesus came down with the Twelve and
stood on a level place. As will be
discussed later on in Luke 6:20-26, the sermon Jesus was about to preach in
verses 20-49 is Luke’s condensed version of what is known as “The Sermon on the
Mount” seen in Matthew’s gospel chapters 5-7.
The level place was therefore not a plain, but rather a plateau
on the side of a mountain that is mentioned in Matthew 5:1. Some identify the location with a plateau
near Capernaum. Jesus like the rabbis, customarily
sat down when He taught as seen in Luke 4:20; 5:3; Matt. 5:1; 13:2; John
8:2). Jesus stood at this time
because He was not yet teaching, but was at this time healing those who were
sick and casting out demons, “18 who
came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were
troubled with unclean spirits were cured.” (Luke 6:18).
The
second group consisted of a large crowd of His disciples. Now the apostles were the messengers
chosen by the Lord to preach the gospel.
They were just beginning their formal training as the first generation
of gospel heralds. The disciples, on
the other hand, were an assortment of people who were just regular followers of
Jesus. They were at various levels of
understanding and commitment, but all considered Jesus to be their
teacher. Some, at time would prove, were
genuine followers; most it seems, were not and would eventually desert Him as
seen in a wonderful section of John’s gospel, John 6:66, “66 After this many of his disciples turned back
and no longer walked with him.” A
consistent pattern of obedience to Christ’s word (John 8:31) distinguishes the
wheat who are true disciples from the tares which are false disciples, as the
Lord’s parable indicates (Matt. 13:24-30).
Jesus in His divine omniscience knew who were the real disciples, and
who were not as seen in John 2:23-25; 6:64).
“Now
the final group were the ever-present curious whom Luke described as a great
throng of people. Sometimes Luke
used laos (people) to refer to God’s people (e.g., 1:68, 77;
2:32). But more often the term refers to
those who were inquisitive, but uncommitted (e.g., 7:1, 29; 8:47; 9:13; 18:43;
19:48; 20:1; 21:38; 23:35). Luke
distinguished them from Jesus’ disciples, who had at least a normal commitment
to following Him. The large crowd was from
all Judea, and this is used in a non-technical sense to refer to all of
Israel, not just the southern region, which included Jerusalem, the
religious and cultural center of the nation.
Some of those from Jerusalem were members of the religious establishment
spying on Jesus. 17 ¶ On one of those days, as he was teaching,
Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every
village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was
with him to heal.” (Luke 5:17).
MacArthur
concludes “In addition to those from Israel, this last group also included
people from the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon. Those two cities were the most important
ones in Phoenicia (cf. Jere. 47:4; Joel 3:4; Matt. 11:21-22; Acts 12:20), the
region north and west of Galilee on the Mediterranean Sea, in modern day
Lebanon. Phoenicia was a predominantly
Gentile area, but some Jews also lived there. Tyre and Sidon had
been significant seaports in Old Testament times, until they were destroyed by
the devastating judgment prophesied in Ezekiel 26-28. Their sordid immorality made the two cities
emblematic of pagan religion. Jesus’
appeal knew no bounds; pagans, common people, and the religiously literate were
all drawn to Him. And later He made a
visit to the region of Tyre and Sidon (Mar, 7:24-31).”
7/11/2026 7:09 PM
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