If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. And this morning we'll take as the text for our sermon verses 35 through 38. Luke 22 verses 35 through 38. Hear the word of the Lord. And he said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag, or knapsack, or sandals, did you lack anything? And they said, nothing. He said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. 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. And they said, look, Lord, here are two swords. And he said to them, it is enough. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come to your word this morning. With eagerness, with hope. To receive. From your word. Your truth, we pray that you would. Illumine our hearts and illumine the truth to our hearts that we might see. what's here revealed that you would open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things that are in your word. We pray that you would give us insight to the meaning of the scriptures, but we pray also that you would open our hearts. We pray that we wouldn't zone out, we wouldn't neglect to wrestle with the text of scripture. We pray that you would not allow us to to engage with our minds only and not to think carefully about how your word and your truth intersects with our lives and what applications there might be for us, what truths that might need to be believed or commands that might need to be obeyed, what comfort which we might derive from this text that we might apply to our circumstances, and we just ask that in every way that you would minister to our hearts and accomplish your purposes through your word in us, your people, and that ultimately you would exalt your son, Jesus Christ, as we spend time in his word this morning. We pray all of this in his name. Amen. In Deuteronomy 8, Moses prepares the people of God for what will come next for them after they have crossed over the Jordan and entered into the land of promise. And the situation or the context in which Deuteronomy is first read or God's law is first given, you know, God's law, the first five books of the of the Testament, which sometimes called God's law, the Pentateuch, It covers all the way from the beginning and covers all of the history of the patriarchs and the people of God up until they're entering into the promised land. But all of this is written and it's compiled and it's carefully laid out under the inspiration, the direction of the Holy Spirit for the benefit, first of all, the first audience being the people of God gathered on the plains of Moab on the east side of the Jordan. as they prepare to enter into the promised land. And into some degree of uncertainty, the situation is going to change for them. Their circumstances are going to change dramatically. They won't have Moses with them. And they'll be under new leadership. The way that God has provided for them in the past will change in Deuteronomy 8. Moses prepares them for these changes which they're going to face. And as he does so, he reminds them of God's miraculous provisions in the years of their wilderness wanderings. And he says that the bread from heaven that they received, this manna, was given to them by God in order to, he's very explicit about this, in order to humble them. So you think about that. They had this ready provision that was miraculously given. It was evidently from the Lord. There could be no mistaking it as coming, and in this extraordinary manner, from the hand of God and given to them in this way. And it was to humble them, to teach them, to depend not on what their hands could accomplish, but on what God alone makes possible and can provide. even as they were in this former time, throughout their wanderings, as they came out of Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land. taught in these ways to learn to depend fully on God, now the situation is changing and their provisions will come rather from the abundance of a land that is fertile and rich in these natural resources. It's called a land flowing with milk and honey. In other words, it's a land that is so overflowing with abundance and You can just imagine all of the pollinators that are the bees and all of these insects that are, so there's lots of honey, you know, and so there's honey that, if it's flown with milk, it means that there's lots of rich grasslands for cattle to graze, and so they're given a picture of a land that is just perfectly well-suited to provide for their needs in what they might think of as being a natural way, not a supernatural way, an ordinary rather than extraordinary way. And the danger with this, and Moses makes this point in Deuteronomy 8, is that with this kind of transition from primarily being provided for in an extraordinary way to their needs being met in an ordinary way, that the people would forget that it is God who still is the one who's providing for all of their needs. And the same lesson is being learned by the disciples in Luke 22. on the night when Jesus was betrayed. This is some of his final instruction, and between the synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but also John adds quite a bit of detail to this, what Jesus teaches them before his crucifixion on this last week and even these final hours. There's a real concern for Jesus to prepare them for changing circumstances. Part of that is just that, I won't be with you. Similarly, Moses not being with the people of God as they enter into the promised land, Jesus is going to tell them, I'm going to return to the Father. You're not going to have me with you. And so that's going to introduce a new source of anxiety, a new difficulty, and certainly a changing circumstance. It's not that he's left them without help and he's promised to give them his spirit. But in addition, their circumstances are changing in very similar ways to the people of God on the plains of Moab as they prepare to enter the promised land. Because God has promised, he has provided for them in miraculous ways or in extraordinary ways. And that's what Jesus refers to here in verse 35. but he's preparing them for a time when they're gonna have to actually make provisions for them, ordinary provisions for themselves. And there's some lessons here about learning to trust the Lord through these changing circumstances, seeing that whether extraordinary or ordinary, it's still the Lord who provides, not to forget all of his benefits and to look to him to meet their needs. And this is a lesson for us also. Your circumstances will change. for the better or for the worst. And maybe as you think about even recent circumstances, you can think about how they've changed, either for the better or for the worse. And it's when they change for the worse that we are led to seek the Lord and depend upon him. But it's when they change for the better that we're tempted to forget about him. Either way, God is calling you to view your life through the eyes of faith and with a focus on the cross. And so let's consider these verses together then. And we'll consider them under three headings. We see here our provision, our preparation, and our purpose. We'll begin in verse 35. And look at our provision. Here Jesus says, let's read this again in verse 35. He said to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? And they said nothing. And Jesus is referring them to, there are these missionary journeys. In the middle of his ministry, there were these missionary journeys. He sent his disciples out two by two on these sort of preaching tours. And there, if you flip back to Luke chapter nine, for example, verse one, he called the 12 together, gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart, and wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing. everywhere. And so Jesus wants them to know in this circumstance, in this period of their life, he's teaching them to depend fully on him. And just as they're going to rely on his power to cast out demons, to cure diseases, to preach with the power of God, and they're going to see God minister to others through them in an extraordinary way. So they're going to find that their provision is met in extraordinary ways. They don't have to make provisions. They don't have to bring extra or run through a pack list and try to make sure that they've got what they need, make sure they're carrying enough funds. He's saying you just take it on faith and I will show you how the Father knows your needs and how He'll meet your needs. in whatever ways, I mean, as they go along, doors, they need a place to stay, doors are open to them. They need food, tables are open to them, and they're welcome to invite it in to eat and to take a meal together. And so Jesus is referring to this former time, and during that extraordinary time, they didn't have to concern themselves about their daily needs or provisions, because it was at that time, God's will that their message would be, by and large, well-received. And people along the way would take care of them. Well, this must have been some way to live. If you've ever lived in any way close to this, we tend to make preparations by and large to worry about things. But there are historic examples. I think about George Mueller of Bristol. And we were talking about him in Sunday school this morning. I'm not sure that in every way he's a good example because of this passage. I think that that kind of extreme reliance upon God's extraordinary provisions is a misunderstanding of certain passages of scripture, like Luke 9, which was unique to that time, to God's will for his disciples in that time. But certainly, George Mueller prayed made no plans or took no common sense, ordinary, made no ordinary provisions for his ministry, which is to run an orphanage in Bristol, England. And yet God always came through for him and just taking it upon faith, the needs that he had, the needs of the orphanage were always met in abundance. God sometimes leads us through, maybe unwillingly. You know, we didn't, unlike George Mueller, who wouldn't let his needs be known. He wanted this all to be done miraculously as a testimony to the Lord's power to provide and certainly God is free to work in whatever way he chooses. More often, if we've ever experienced these kinds of times, it's not because we wanted to. We didn't willingly enter into times of hardship or deprivation where we were at a loss for how are we going to provide for our needs or what are we going to do? But nevertheless, God sees fit to bring us through seasons in which we're at wit's end, we're at a loss, we don't know how we're going to provide, how we're going to put food on the table or what we're going to do next. And God, he works in a wonderful way in those times. And there's a lesson in this, I think, and there's a lesson for the disciples here. It's why Jesus reminds them of these former times, so that they'll remember God always provides. He will always provide for you. He tells us not to worry. He says, look at the birds of the air, look at the flowers of the field. And do they concern themselves with making provision? No, they just, they're provided for, and the Lord loves us far more. We have greater value than they, and so we're not to worry. We're to seek first the kingdom. All these things will be added to us. And I'm afraid that too often whenever, whether it's a sickness, whether it's some kind of hardship in life, our prayers are all concerned with getting out of that bad circumstance as quickly as possible. All of our prayers about the circumstance are, God, free me from the circumstance. God, heal me from the disease. God, provide for my needs. Get me out of this tight spot, whatever it is. And we're certainly free to, we need to bring our concerns to the Lord like this, but if that's our sole purpose is to say, I don't know why God brought me in this situation, but all I know is he better get me out of it, and I'm gonna trust him for it, but that's my only concern is how quickly can God bring me to a more secure, set me on a more secure footing? Then we'll miss the lessons that God has for us to learn in those. I remember going to visit Shane McCorkle when he was diagnosed with cancer before he died, and telling him, you know, I'm gonna pray for you, Shane, that God would heal your body of this cancer, I'm not sure if that's God's will or not, but what I would just encourage you to do is to ask yourself, not just to pray for healing, we'll do that, but to ask yourself, why has God allowed me to suffer in this way? What are the lessons here for me to learn? Because I can pray to God for healing, but the same God that can answer the prayers for healing could have kept you from getting cancer in the first place. It was obviously His will for you to come into this hardship. It's God's will for us to come into the hardships that we come into. What is he trying to teach us about his provision? What is he trying to teach us in terms of our dependence upon him? Moses makes the point explicitly in Deuteronomy 8, that's why God did this, to humble God's people, to teach them dependence. This is why Jesus allowed them to experience God's direct and extraordinary provision. So there would be no mistaking, even when we don't have what we need, humanly speaking, we don't have the resources, we've not brought them along, God's going to take care of our needs. And so we see something here about God's provision. Now the mistake that we can make is we can, and Jesus, I think, disabuses us of this false idea that it's either God is providing for our needs in an extraordinary way that goes beyond We've not made any effort to do anything about this. God has come through in a miraculous, supernatural, extraordinary way. Or, we ourselves have stepped up and we've done something. And so, it's either God or it's us. But what Jesus, I think, is bringing out in these verses is that your circumstances may have changed, but it's still the same God who provides for you, who you're to depend upon in both cases. That's the whole reason why he reminds them of this. He says, you remember whenever God provided for you extraordinarily? He said, but now you're going to have to make ordinary common sense provisions for your ministry, for your life. but do that in view of God's former mercies, his kindnesses, the ways that he's provided for you in times past so that you know that even though your hand has done something, you yourself have made an effort, you have brought along money bags and knapsacks and swords that whether it's provisions for your your belly or for your body, but that's ultimately God who's the one who's providing for your needs. So that we're not forgetting God in the mix of this. And it's a lesson that I think too many people forget. And in most cases, this is why I say George Miller, maybe not always the best example, is because God's not calling you to sit there at home and not work and trust that your refrigerator's gonna be full at the end of the week. We work for our bread. We do the things that we're called to do, and we take care of our bodies and our health, and we make provisions for our shelter and our food and all of this, and it's not an either-or. We pray that God would provide, we go out, we make the efforts that we need to provide for ourselves, But if we're avoiding the eye that we're thinking, then we can do that. And then after we've worked, we've been able to buy bread, nevertheless, we go to the Lord, we give Him thanks. Because after all, who's the one that gave us strength to work? Who's the one that has caused our efforts to succeed? On a spiritual level, this is Paul's point when he talks about sanctification and just growth in the Christian life, he says to those to whom he writes, he says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You're going to have to, as a Christian, not to become a Christian, but as a Christian, you need to make an effort to grow in godliness. And yet, he says, here's how you can do that with confidence, knowing that this is not going to be in vain. He says, for it's God who is at work within you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. It's not either or, it's both and. We work, God provides for our spiritual needs so that having worked hard to grow, at the end of the day we give glory to God. This is still God's provision. So the first lesson I think here is just to learn something about God's provision. We see God's provision in lean times when he comes through for us extraordinarily. We ought to see God's provisions even whenever we've had to make preparations for ourselves. And that's the second thing we see here is our preparation. In verse 36, he said to them, but now let the one who has a money bag take it, and likewise a knapsack, and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. And so here is the new situation. This is, as he's gonna kinda go on to imply in verse 37, you may have enjoyed popularity, and you may have been well-received by and large in these former times that he's referred to in verse 35. That's no longer gonna be the case. And just like Jesus himself, who suffers, who finds not only the religious leadership, but many of those among the crowds of Jerusalem to be hostile to him and ultimately to put him to death, they are likewise just to expect hostility. And so part of this is just to prepare them for the reason why the circumstances are changing is God provided for them extraordinarily And part of that was through Jesus' popularity. Crowds are coming out to hear him. He's becoming sort of like a celebrity, itinerant minister. And his disciples are enjoying the benefits of that so that they don't have to provide for their needs and their needs are being met. God is providing for them even if they're not making the effort themselves. But now things will be different. And he's telling them that this is going to be the case in the church age. that we're going to have to take these ordinary precautions and make ordinary provisions for ourselves. A money bag and a knapsack are two things. There's just financial realities that are important to take into consideration. A knapsack is just, you know, John and I are going to Ecuador, and I had to get a boot bag that I can wear that's big enough to carry all of our stuff into the jungle. I'm not trusting that if I just go in with a shirt on my back that I'm going to have everything that I need once I get there. We're just going to take bags. That's all that Jesus is saying here is you're going to have to make sure that you're thinking through what you need and not presuming that God is going, not presuming upon the kindness and the mercies of God to meet your needs when he's not promised to do that. He's called on you to take these precautions yourself. and let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one, he says here. There's a lot of interpretations of this verse that I think are really stretching just the plain reading of this text. So many of my favorite commentators and theologians are saying it's a metaphorical sword. I don't know how you buy a metaphorical sword with the money that you got from selling your cloak. They'll say that it's a metaphorical sword, it's just talking about the hostility. You have to be prepared for hostile relations with the people to whom you minister. And they'll say, well, verse 38, they're talking about literal swords. See, we got two swords. And Jesus says, it's enough of this talk about swords. I wasn't talking about swords, real swords. That's the way that a lot of people interpret this. I think a much more natural way of thinking about this is that Jesus is talking about carrying around the kind of weapon that you would need to hunt for your provisions if you're out in a wilderness place or for self-defense against robbers or something like this. These swords that people carried, we know from just the historical context, they're short swords. They're not battle swords. you know, claymores or some kind of giant battle sword. They're short swords, they're almost like a long dagger, and they're self-defense weapons. You know, this isn't really the point of the text, but a clear case can be made from Scripture for self-defense, that there are types of killings that are legitimate and that we can use force proportionately in order to thwart those who would bring harm to others or to ourselves. And so there's a rich tradition of interpreting the Bible so that there's a defense of this idea of self-defense. And we won't go there this morning, but I think that's not, to say this is metaphorical because the Bible teaches some sort of pacifism is not right. And yet, the call to arm themselves is not permission to have a stockpile of weapons for some kind of insurrection or to use them to oppose the government. Because after all, within just a few verses, soldiers are going to come. Governmental authorities are going to come and Jesus tells them to put the swords away. Peter's ready to fight with these swords, but Jesus says it's not the time. We don't use this to oppose legitimate authorities that have been put in these places of authorities from God, but if you have a high-rate robber, you need a sword. He's just saying that you cannot assume that God will, just as you can't assume that God's going to provide for you miraculously, we shouldn't presume upon God's ability to provide or to protect us miraculously and not be willing to protect our families or protect our own lives or the lives of others. So I do think this is in support of not only making ordinary provisions for our sustenance, our physical life, but actually protecting our physical life. So preparation is legitimate. It's not unspiritual to do this. I recently was listening to a pastor talk about when he was early in his ministry he read where Jesus says, you know, in Luke 9 talks about not making these preparations and elsewhere we have not to Think about what you'll say, you know, whenever it comes time to speak. And he thought, perfect. He got invited to speak at a conference. He says, I'm gonna test this out. I'm just gonna not make any preparations. I'm gonna get up there and I'm gonna preach. So he does, and the words just flow. And it really is, goes really well. There's a lot of positive feedback. So he feels vindicated. He thinks, this is God's will that I not make these preparations, sermon preparations in this case. Next year he gets invited to speak at the same conference. And he gets up thinking, here goes. And it just falls totally flat. He has nothing to say. The words don't come. He's embarrassed. He preaches for 10 minutes. He sits down. And he's learned his lesson. He's been properly humbled. He has confused God's mercy to him in the first case with God's will for him. And God was merciful to him. God can give you the words to say like that, even if you've not prepared. But as a preacher of the gospel, as a minister of the gospel, not to make responsible preparations to speak God's Word is to, it's presumption and it's fanaticism to always be doing this. And so we, on the one hand, we are ultimately trusting in God's provisions. There's no amount of ordinary preparation that I can make that can secure my life. because I can have millions of dollars in the bank and have everything well thought out, and if it's God's will to take me, I'm gone, you know? All of that, the stock market can crash, my house could burn down, everything could be taken away from me. There's no amount of preparation that could secure my life. Ultimately, this is the Lord. I look to Him for my provision. but I also need to reckon with the fact that God has called me to make preparation. I want to say third here though that we see our purpose in verse 37. So as he's calling them to these new circumstances where they're going to face hardships that require preparation that require dependence upon God and his provision through their preparation, he reminds them here of their purpose. And he does so by quoting scripture. So verse 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. And we can read this as just another prediction about Jesus suffering is crucifixion, and certainly it is. But in the context of what he's helping them to be ready for with the changing circumstances that they find themselves in, I think we see here Jesus giving them their focus and setting their purpose before them. They will suffer and they have to make preparations. All of this is for this overarching goal of their life, which is a cross-centered one. It is a God-focused and cross-centered purpose for their life. And this helps us to discern what God is doing in His work in our life. As I say, if you come into difficult circumstances, you're trying to decide, what is God ultimately trying to teach me through my sufferings? Well, for Christians, God's purpose through us is to conform us into the image of a suffering Savior who is counted among the transgressors. who died for our, identified with our sins, died for our sins, that we might live to God. And God is going to, He is going to crucify the world to us. He is going to work in us so that our sins are put to death. And so this cross-centered purpose for our lives needs to be borne in mind as we think about what God is doing in our changing circumstances. If you suffer, some kind of bodily ailment, and you're praying that God would heal you, certainly pray that God would heal you, but what is he doing in the midst of it? Is he not helping you to identify with a Savior who suffered for your sake? Is he not helping you to depend upon the Lord, to draw closer to the Lord in communion with the suffering servant of the Lord and our Savior? If whatever circumstances of poverty, of hardship you come into, what is God's purpose in all of this? the opposition and the hostility that we face in the world. God's purpose is, it is a, it's cruciform. It is cross-shaped and cross-focused. And so we too ought to look to Christ and to order our lives and shape our lives in this way as we pray together. Father God, we thank you for, we thank you for our work and our lives, both the ways that are obvious to us, the ways that are less obvious to us. God, we thank you for the time whenever you provide for us in extraordinary ways that bolster our faith and remind us that we indeed have a God who knows our needs and is powerful to meet our needs. God, ways which humble us and are a reminder that there's very little that we can do ultimately in the face of life's great uncertainties and changing circumstances. We thank you for the way that you both humble us and remove God's sinful self-confidence and simultaneously increase our faith. God, we pray that you would help us to make these common sense provisions in preparation, not to presume upon your kindness, and God, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, God, knowing that you are supporting these efforts so that we can rely upon you at end of day and rest well, knowing that even while we sleep and rest from our labors, God, that you hold us in the palms of your hands, you take care of our needs that maybe seem overwhelming to us, going straight over our heads, drowning in the cares and the difficulties and hardships of life, yet God, you will sustain us. We pray that you'd help us to embrace our identity, our Christian identity, as cross-bearers of those who walk the way of the cross. God, as we make our way to glory, we pray all of this in Christ's name, amen.