Luke 22:35-38 Trouble is Coming
Good morning! Turn with me once again to Luke 22, this morning we will look at verses 35-38, and that’s on page 882 in the pew Bibles.
We are going to look at a short but pivotal passage this morning. It’s a passage where Jesus is instructing His disciples on the past, present, and future on the night He was betrayed and arrested.
This passage takes place after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper, giving a whole new meaning to the Passover, showing that Jesus Himself was the Sacrificial Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
This passage takes place after Jesus told Peter that Satan had demanded to have the disciples to sift them like wheat and that he would indeed put Peter through that sifting process but that he would turn again back to the Lord and strengthen his brothers after denying that he even knew the Lord three times.
Now Jesus turns His attention to the eleven remaining disciples, Judas had gone to betray Jesus to the chief priests, so now only eleven remain.
35 And he said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” 36 He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. 37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” 38 And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.”
Let’s pray.
So Jesus begins our passage for this morning with a reminder of the last time that He sent them out, two by two, to preach the gospel in Galilee from Luke chapter nine.
I think we would be well served to read that and remind ourselves as well.
Luke 9:3-6, And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Mark 6:12-13 says, 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
By all accounts, the first gospel mission that the disciples were sent on was a great success! They found open ears and open hearts, they preached the Good News and people received it, and their message was accompanied with the ability to heal the sick and cast out demons in the Name of Jesus.
35 And he said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.”
The disciples were greeted warmly and taken in and gladly heard because they belonged to Jesus and people wanted to hear all about Him. What reason could they possibly have to think that it would be otherwise in the future?
Remember that at this time the disciples were still expecting Jesus to set up His kingdom on earth, they expected Him to restore the kingdom to Israel, this was still just a new kind of political movement to them. They loved the Lord to be sure, and they believed what He said, they just didn’t fully understand it.
In Acts chapter one, which we will study more in depth when we finish the Gospel of Luke, forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, after he had appeared to them and taught them and ate with them, the disciples asked Him right before He ascended to Heaven…
“Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Jesus did exactly what He said He would do and they saw it all happen right in front of them but they stood there looking up at the sky completely dumbfounded because Jesus didn’t do what they thought He would do. They still couldn’t see it, they still were convinced that it was an earthly kingdom, that it was still all about the kingdom of Israel.
So when Jesus reminded them of their first missionary trip and how they didn’t need to take anything with them because they were so warmly received and everybody gladly listened to them and took them in and fed them, their expectation was that it would most likely continue that way. Why wouldn’t everybody want to hear about Jesus, why would we worry?
Welp… As it turns out, as it often does, the training wheels were still on last time, and they are about to come off…
In the disciples’ estimation everything had been moving along on this happy trajectory towards Jesus’ coming kingdom. Even though He had clearly told them multiple times that He would be handed over to the Gentiles and killed and on the third day rise again, they still thought that there was nothing but victory in store for them and for Him.
And then Jesus turns the page.
“When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” 36 He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
Last time, you guys found open ears, open hearts, and open homes, but this time, danger awaits you.
This world is hostile, it was then and it is now. Ten of those remaining eleven would eventually be killed for preaching the gospel, only John would die of old age, but in exile.
They had everything they needed provided by those who heard them last time, but this time they needed to provide their own support, their own supply, and their own protection.
Jesus said in John 15:18-21, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.
It is because the world does not know the Father that they will not listen to Jesus, and they will not listen to those whom He has sent. But the father has been at work from the beginning to bring people back to Himself.
Jesus proves that to be true when He quotes Isaiah 53.
37 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.”
Here is another example of how the English language doesn’t do us any favors. The tense of the verb in the statement, for what is written about me has its fulfillment, says that what is written about Jesus is having its fulfillment now, it is presently being fulfilled.
It was at this same time that Judas was betraying Jesus to the chief priests, cooking up a plan to guide the soldiers to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane just hours later.
Isaiah 53 is quite possibly the most important chapter in all of the Old Testament. It describes the “Suffering Servant,” and it is recorded from the perspective of backwards looking Jews, meaning those who were looking back in history at Jesus’ death on the cross.
The phrase that Jesus quotes, “And He was numbered with the transgressors,” is verse 12 of Isaiah 53, and it is way more powerful than I ever gave it credit for.
When I read this statement before, I always thought that the people who numbered Jesus with the transgressors, who counted Jesus as a rebel, or a law-breaker, were the Jews and the Romans. They made Him out to be a criminal and killed Him like one.
But the truth is, in order for Jesus’ death on the cross to purchase pardon and forgiveness for all who would believe in Him, in order for our sin to be laid on Him so that He could die in our place, it had to be God the Father who numbered Him with the transgressors.
He was counted with the lawless by God because He was our substitute. Though He was the Spotless Lamb, He was slain in our place.
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
And in response the disciples offer two swords, and Jesus says, “It is enough.”
It’s a kind of sad irony. In the face of the whole might of the world, and the devil, and death, and hell, the disciples think they had a head start because they already had two swords. They only needed nine more! But truthfully, two swords were enough for the eleven disciples because their future protection didn’t depend on them. In just two short paragraphs we’ll see that they still didn’t get it.
Let’s make sure we do.
Jesus said in John 16:33, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Amen.
