Sovereign Revelation
Sovereign Revelation
Scripture: Luke 10:21-24
Let’s sit down at the feet of Jesus and listen to what he has to say to us about God’s sovereignty.
[00:00:00] This morning we are returning to the Book of Luke to continue walking through his account of Jesus’ life and ministry. Now, I’m aware that quite a number of you perhaps are right now thinking: returning to the Book of Luke? When were we ever there in the first place? Some of you may have come this summer when we were in second Timothy, came and joined Calvary for the first time in the summertime. Or perhaps you came during our marriage series. But before all of that, we were working through the Book of Luke together. Uh, we just haven’t been there since June 16th. It’s a big book. It’s 24 chapters. It’s going to take us a long time to get our way through it. So, we take breaks with other shorter series. Let me just say really quickly why it is that we preach through books here as our regular diet of learning at Calvary. The most basic reason we do this is because the word of God comes to us in 66 units. We call them books. They’re not all books per se. Some of them are letters and different genres, but we call them books. Comes to us in 66 units, each written by an author, as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit to write down exactly what God would have us to know. These units make their complete argument over the course of the entire book. So, what happens later in that book is shaped by and formed by what happens earlier in the book.
[00:01:35] If you want to know what happens in Luke chapter two, it’s really helpful to know what happens in Luke chapter one. Wouldn’t you agree? And by the way, that’s not just how the Bible works. That’s how everything works. I just described life. Okay? Have you ever watched a series of movies starting with the second movie? You can do it. So, you can usually figure it out. But wouldn’t it be nice to know who these characters are? I think so. My wife will sometimes ask me a question that has no discernible attachment to anything that is happening around me. She actually did this just yesterday, and the reason she asks a question like this is because it’s entirely based on what she has been silently thinking about for the last 20 minutes. And so, I’ll just be standing in the kitchen making a sandwich, and she’ll turn to me and say, well, do you think she should go? Who? What? Where? When? Why? It’s like a whole journalism class for me at that point. By preaching through books, we have the prior knowledge. By preaching through books, we have the foundation of knowledge to build on the next passage. We need that so we don’t get it wrong. You can mishandle the Bible. If you don’t have that information. We can see theological themes unfold.
[00:02:57] We can learn from the Lord. We can learn more from him. We become better disciples approaching the Bible this way. Also, by preaching through books or large passages of Scripture, we allow the Lord to set the menu for our regular diet. We’re required to consume passages that may be hard to understand or difficult to apply them or that are simply unpopular. You don’t need me jumping around to different verses in the Bible, pulling out little bits of information so I can pack them together to preach on my favorite topics. You don’t want that to be true. We need to hear all of what God has to say to us through the writings of Luke or John or Paul or James or Isaiah or whoever it happens to be. And with that in mind, our next passage up, which is Luke chapter ten, verses 21 to 24, addresses a doctrine that some in the church find to be very difficult. We’re going to hear from Jesus on the topic of God’s sovereign control in revealing himself to some and not to others. God’s sovereignty in saving his people according to his own will. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon once said, no doctrine in the whole word of God has more excited the hatred of mankind than the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God. It really stirs folks up. And I know, when we get to this passage, I know that you’re going to see that the next passage is the Good Samaritan, and everybody loves the Good Samaritan.
[00:04:42] And why can’t we just jump right to the Good Samaritan? It’s because we preach through books here at Calvary. This is a monster topic for a lot of folks. Some of you are very excited right now to hear about God’s sovereign will because it stokes the fires of your reformed theology. Others of you are just as excited because you’re hoping that Jesus will make human free will the deciding factor in salvation. And then there’s a group of you who don’t know what you think yet, but you’ve been around these debates enough to know that you’d rather not talk about it. I think we would all agree, though. I think we would all agree that knowing the truth is the most important thing. Right? Knowing the truth is the most important thing. No good comes from winning debates. That’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to do that here. But a lot of good comes from having our minds and hearts shaped by the truth of Scripture and what Jesus has to say about God’s sovereign revelation. And how salvation works is a great benefit to all of us, even if it means we have to change our minds. And so today, I want to invite us all to sit down at the feet of Jesus and hear what he has to say about God’s sovereignty.
[00:06:04] Again, the passage is Luke 10:21-24. You can turn there. I will have it on the screen as well. What I want to do this morning is I want to walk through the entirety of Jesus’ argument, sort of beginning to end. And then I have three conclusions that follow directly from this passage on what Jesus has to say about God’s sovereignty. So, let’s walk through the passage, starting with a recap to catch us up to speed. Jesus has just sent out 72 of his disciples to take the gospel to villages throughout the region. So, they’ve been out healing the sick, casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and teaching the people that the kingdom of God has come near to them. So, they are now operating as an extension of Jesus’ ministry. That’s what Jesus did. And so these disciples who go out are doing the same thing. Some of the people that they encounter in these villages reject the missionaries. So, what happens for them is they receive a warning for the danger of rejecting Jesus and His lordship, pushing away the kingdom of God. Others receive the disciples and their message, and they spiritually enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus describes what’s happening spiritually in very vivid terms. In verse 18 he says he watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
[00:07:36] So, preaching the gospel is God’s plan of attack against Satan. That’s what Jesus means when he says that. It’s an attack against Satan’s limited power and authority here on earth. So, when we engage in evangelism, we are engaging in a spiritual battle on a grand scale, It looks like conversation. It is spiritual warfare. God uses the sharing of the gospel to release people from captivity to sin and to Satan. Jesus has the power to defeat the satanic grip of sin in the hearts of people. In verse 19, you’ll see that he gives that authority to us. Now we do not have the authority. We have the extension of Jesus’ authority. And Jesus ends that passage, he ends his teaching there in verse 20, where he tells us as disciples, not to get excited about the fact that we’ve been given authority, but to rejoice in the fact that our names are written in heaven. Not to get wrapped up in the ministry that we’ve been given and pridefulness in that. Don’t get puffed up with pride because you have the truth, rejoice because you have been given the hope of Jesus. You’re part of the kingdom. This next part, beginning in verse 21, which is our passage this morning, expands on what is happening spiritually when the gospel of Jesus is shared with others. And it’s a deeper and more detailed look at exactly what’s happening, the spiritual realities of the mission.
[00:09:17] And it begins with a short prayer. In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, father, for such was your gracious will. So, you can see that this is a prayer from Jesus to the father that is motivated and moved by his joy in the Holy Spirit. This is one of those places in Scripture where you can see the entire Trinity working together. This is God interacting within his three persons father, son and spirit. They have different functions, right? The three persons have different functions, but they are all equally and together one God. So, Jesus is moved by joy that’s been given to him by the Holy Spirit to thank the father for his divine revelation, for what he has chosen to reveal and what he’s chosen not to reveal. The content of that revelation is these things, that little phrase, these things. I believe, that is referencing the entirety of what was explained in verses 1 to 20, the truth about God’s kingdom and the fall of Satan. When people receive the kingdom, that’s what these things are. And so, Jesus is thanking the father for what he has done with the preaching of the 72 disciples that he just sent out.
[00:10:52] He sent them out as missionaries. Now he’s thanking the father for accomplishing what he accomplished. But notice what Jesus thanks the father for. He does not just thank the father that some people were saved at the preaching of the gospel. He thanks him for how the father has gone about saving people. Jesus thanks the father for hiding salvation from people who are wise and understanding and revealing salvation to little children. Now, right away, some of you may be feeling hesitant with this. Is Jesus thanking the father for not revealing the gospel and saving certain people? He is. That’s exactly what he’s doing. But you need to hear the whole argument. Jesus says that the father has hidden the gospel truth from those who are wise and understanding. Now that means wise in their own understanding, wise in their own eyes. It’s good to be a wise person, but that’s not what he’s talking about here. These are people who are too smart to believe in something so silly as the kingdom of God. They’re too smart for that sort of thinking. This is the same thing that Paul says in first Corinthians chapter one, when he talks about the foolishness of the cross that was rejected by wise Greek people, right? They couldn’t fathom a God who would die on a cross to save them. They were too smart for something like that.
[00:12:31] You may know some people who fit this category. They’re too smart. They’re too intellectual. They know the world too well to believe in something as silly as Jesus. Some of you were that person at one point in your life. You were just too smart and educated to believe in a God who dies on a cross and calls us to enter into his kingdom. Some of you are there right now, and what you’re doing is you’re just pushing away Jesus. That’s not for me. I can’t believe these things. Here Jesus explains why that rejection is happening. It’s because God is hiding. He is actively hiding his gospel from people who think that they’re too smart for it. See, God is not just sitting back hoping somehow his gospel will break through into the mind and heart of those who reject it. He’s not just wringing his hands going, boy, I really hope this works. It’s not God’s doing. He’s actively hiding the gospel from them. And on the flip side, Jesus thanks the father for revealing his gospel truth to little children. And think about little children. Some of you have little children. Some of you have little children with you right now. I can see them. Think about little children. Think about what they’re like.
[00:13:55] They’re trusting, dependent, unable to do anything for themselves, unable to provide for themselves. And so they’re open to guidance. They’re still learning about the world. Jesus says it’s these folks, these dependent, needy little children to whom God chooses to reveal the good news of his kingdom. They’re the ones who will see it and receive it and enter into it. Now, of course, he’s not talking about the age of the people that will receive the gospel. He’s talking about the hearts of people of all ages who receive the gospel. It’s those people who realize just how spiritually needy they are who will trust in Jesus. And they’ll do so with a childlike faith. That’s why in Mark chapter ten, Jesus says, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. You’ve got to receive it as one who understands that you are incredibly needy. And how did we end up with this scenario? How did we end up in this situation where some receive the kingdom while others have it hidden from them? Is that just a result of human choices? No, it’s the result of God’s plan all along. You can see it right there in the passage. Your gracious will. It’s God’s plan. Jesus is rejoicing in the father’s plan to give his unearned, gracious salvation to humble, needy people while hiding it from those who believe that they are too smart for it.
[00:15:37] And then Jesus gives us another detail in the selection process. All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows who the son is except the father, or who the father is, except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. So, at first glance, this verse may be a little confusing because it seems to say almost the opposite of what Jesus just prayed. He prayed thanking the father for his divine will in choosing who to reveal the kingdom to. And now Jesus explains that he’s the one given authority to choose. And we’re going to unpack that here in just a second. But are you getting the sense church? Are you getting the sense here that at no point in the entire process is the power to reveal the gospel and to save people outside of God’s divine control? Are you getting that sense? That’s what Jesus is talking about. See, we like to talk about our human will and choosing Jesus. This passage describes the father’s gracious will and Jesus’ choice of us. And this is not to say that there isn’t a place for calling people to choose Jesus. I would tell you this morning to choose Jesus, but there is an act of the father’s gracious will that is mediated through Jesus’ choice that has to happen to enable your choice.
[00:17:07] And we don’t always talk about that. But that’s what’s happening. As Jesus explains in John chapter six. Nobody can come to him unless the father first draws him. So here Jesus gives us another peek into the inner working of the Trinity. God the father gives God the Son all things, which again I believe is a summary phrase. It’s summarizing this entire process of salvation and this process of entering into the kingdom. Jesus is in charge of that. He has that. He has authority over that. And then we get this description. No one knows who the son is except the father. This is probably a reference to Jesus’ deity that has been veiled in humanity at this point in history. So people can look and they see Jesus. They see Jesus, the man. They don’t fully understand yet everything. The father knows exactly who Jesus is. People are getting glimpses that Jesus is God through his miracles and through his authoritative teaching. But no one yet knows Jesus like the father knows Jesus. And then Jesus turns that around. No one knows the father except the son. Jesus is the only one who completely and thoroughly knows and understands the character and the will of God the Father. But this is where Jesus brings us in. This is where he includes us. He chooses those to whom he will reveal the father. Jesus is saying, if you want to know God the Father, you have to hear and receive the revealing work of God the Son.
[00:19:02] So if you put verse 21 and verse 22 together, it’s the father’s gracious will to hide the kingdom from some and to reveal it to others. And this revelation is enacted through Jesus, who does the choosing. Only Jesus can give us access to the father. He’s the only one. Peter would later preach that there is no other name given among men under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. There’s no other name. There’s no other way forward. Jesus is not the Christian way to God. He’s the only way to God for everyone, everywhere. He is the one ultimately in charge of who will see the father and who won’t. Anybody who claims to know God or have a relationship with God or have a sense of who God is without a commitment to Jesus, doesn’t actually know God at all. They’re deluded. And what they need is to hear the gospel of Jesus. That’s what they need to hear so that if God chooses, he can reveal himself through the preaching of that gospel. And then Jesus talks privately to his disciples. Then, turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.
[00:20:42] Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. That’s actually a really good way of describing all disciples of Jesus. All of us have blessed eyes if you follow Jesus. Remember, Jesus chose his disciples. Remember that? Hand-selected them. Called them to follow him. And when they responded in faith, what did Jesus do? Jesus thanked the father for revealing himself to them. Here he says, your eyes are blessed. Paul would later pray that the Lord would open the eyes of the heart so that people could see and follow Jesus. That’s what Jesus means here. Everyone can see Jesus physically, right? They can see his body. The Pharisees could see Jesus physically, the man Jesus. But disciples are those who have been chosen by the father and the son to truly see, to truly know and embrace Jesus and enter into the kingdom of God. The kings and the prophets of the Old Testament, the believers of the Old Testament who believed in the Lord and had faith in the Lord, longed for the day for Jesus to come into the world. They didn’t get to see that fulfillment. These disciples got to see it. They got to see the fulfillment of the promised coming King and the kingdom that would last forever. And the Messiah foretold by the prophets who would bring it all to pass.
[00:22:11] And although lots of people couldn’t see all of this in Jesus, these disciples got to because the father and the son had chosen them for that task. That’s why he says their eyes are blessed. Your eyes are blessed, blessed by God. He doesn’t say congratulations, you were smart enough to put it all together. Well done with all the facts and figures. You put it all together and you figured out who God is. He doesn’t say that to them at all. He says you’re blessed by the gracious will of God. Now, I completely understand that the theological depth of this passage may be hard. For some of you it may be hard to follow because it contains the mysterious work and the will of God. For others of you, it may be hard to swallow because God’s sovereign choice doesn’t align with your longing for free will. And I get that. I understand that. So, I want to end this morning with three challenging yet I think, encouraging conclusions that should be drawn from this passage. And you can use these conclusions to wrestle with what Jesus says here. The first conclusion is that God’s choice doesn’t stop the mission. It empowers it. There’s an underlying assumption that goes along with a high view of the sovereignty of God in saving sinners. And it goes something like this: If God is the one who chooses who will be saved and who won’t,
[00:23:49] doesn’t that make evangelism unnecessary. You’ve heard this before? Doesn’t that make evangelism unnecessary? Or said another way, why go through the trouble and expense and risk of sharing the gospel if God is just going to choose who he saves anyway? The logic of that argument is pretty clear for us. If God is sovereignly in control, then his plan will be accomplished whether we are involved in it or not. And that cuts the legs out from underneath missions and evangelism. And if that’s how you feel, if that resonates with you, let me just make a couple of observations. Let me just give you a little bit of food for thought. The first thing is to remember that Jesus just taught this to a group of 72 missionaries he just sent out to preach the gospel. He just sent this group out there to go and share and evangelize and share the gospel with lots and lots of people and then he teaches them this. See, it’s God’s full control of saving his people out of the clutches of Satan that made their mission effort successful. It was God that made them successful. Jesus didn’t commend these disciples for accomplishing so much. Look what you did. Look how amazing you guys are. Look at all that you accomplished. He doesn’t do that. What does he do? He thanked the father for all that was accomplished through these disciples.
[00:25:19] I am very thankful that as I share the gospel with other people it is God who works in and through me to accomplish what he sets out to do. I don’t have to do God’s part. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to do God’s part? Oh boy, I am certainly glad that I do not have to do God’s part. I just have to be faithful with my part and rest in the firm, solid control of a God who will do with his gospel exactly what he plans to do with his gospel. And secondly, if your inclination is to do less evangelism because you know God is sovereign anyway, why bother? I’d like to gently suggest to you that that has more to do with your own bad attitude than it does with God’s plan. You are part of the salt and light of the earth. That’s what Jesus said. You’re part of the salt and light of the earth that God is using to accomplish his purposes. You have been called to go and make disciples. The feet of those who preach the good news of Jesus to people who need to hear it are beautiful according to what God says in His Word. Those are beautiful feet, who would go. The mission of Jesus is more than a command. It’s a privilege to be part of. What are you saying about your own passion for Christ, your own commitment as a disciple of Jesus if you refuse to obey him, because God’s plan doesn’t sound like the plan that you would have drawn up?
[00:26:55] God’s sovereignty doesn’t undermine the mission. It ensures that it will be successful for God’s purposes every time, every single time we are faithful, God will do what he plans to do. Here’s another conclusion from this passage, and that’s that we need to share that salvation is only possible through Jesus. What I mean is salvation doesn’t come by some other means. The exclusivity of Christ is really not popular in our culture, but it’s the clear teaching of Scripture. Pope Francis recently told a big group of young people in Singapore, “All religions are paths to God. I will use an analogy. They are like different languages that express the divine.” Now, I’m not a fan of Pope Francis, but even I didn’t see that coming. I didn’t think he’d say something like that. People are falling all over themselves trying to defend those remarks. David French, a guy I like to read, wrote an op ed piece in the New York Times where he defended Francis, saying that he was simply, “expressing existential humility.” Meaning that from our limited perspective, we don’t want to make judgments about different beliefs. But church, listen to me. Saying all religions are a path to God isn’t humble at all.
[00:28:33] That is not a humble statement. That is a theological statement. That contains doctrine in that statement. It’s a theological statement that is flatly denied in Scripture by Jesus himself. You know what Jesus says? Jesus says you need Jesus. That’s what Jesus says. Jesus says you need Jesus. No one knows the father except the son. Jesus is the key. We cannot broaden what God has made narrow. And so, this is the challenge for us today. We can’t engage in mission without delivering the message of salvation through Jesus and life in the kingdom under the Lordship of Jesus. It’s not enough to just tell people that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Which God? How is that plan carried out? It’s not enough. Big ambiguous phrases, they’re not enough. We can’t just do nice things for people in the world and not share the gospel with them, and then go tell everybody else that we were the hands and feet of Jesus. That wasn’t Jesus’ mission. That’s not what he did. How could it ever be our mission if that’s not even what Jesus did? See, our job is to be the extension of Jesus’ work in the world. His work was to preach the kingdom of God and let the gospel crush Satan and open the eyes of blind sinners.
[00:30:06] And there’s one more conclusion that I draw from Jesus’ teaching on divine revelation. I want to share it with you, and that’s that those of us who see Jesus are blessed and we should act accordingly. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God means that there is no one who has Jesus’ salvation because they earned it. We didn’t earn it. You didn’t enter into the kingdom of God because you found the door with your great intellect. Now, you may have explored Christianity at one point, but you didn’t choose Jesus until he chose you. You weren’t a good enough person or a smart enough person to earn it. You weren’t selected by God because you’re such a high draft pick. There was nothing inherent in any one of us that made us eligible for entrance into the Kingdom of God. All of that happened because of God’s grace. God opened our blind eyes to see our need for salvation and the grace that comes from Christ, and he drew us into it. Church, that should make us very humble. That should make us very humble as people, and very thankful to God, and very gentle with those who don’t yet know Jesus. There should be no condemnation coming from us to non-Christians in our lives. Just share the gospel. Just be loving and kind and gentle and share the gospel. See, were it not for God’s grace, you’d be right there with them. So just point them to Jesus. Let’s pray.