Life of Christ #3 – Jesus Bound the Strong Man | Understanding Christ’s Authority

You know what peripatetic means. That’s right—everything was learned on foot. It was a moving classroom. Peripatetic. They followed Him around, and He taught while He walked, and whatever He did, they were present; wherever He was. All of this is in the first words: “and He went on a tour.” It was the greatest seminarian and the greatest theologian of all time, given the task of training—raising up, not training but raising up—men upon whom the foundation of salvation and the church itself would rest.

He went on a tour. There were not 50 professors on top of a hill. It wasn’t 25, 75, 100, or 200. It was one man, loaded with past experience, who went on the tour and took the 12 men with him. Most of the studies made of the Lord’s life, here and in other places, concentrate on what He did out there on the tour and totally overlook the fact…they say He went out on this tour to cast out demons, to show compassion, to prove His healing ability, to declare the kingdom of God—all phooey. I mean, He did all that, but it was secondary. He went on a tour so 12 men could watch Him. That’s what He went on that tour for. He was broadening their experience as wide as He could. He was giving them every kind of possible observation of every kind of possible experience He Himself could have.

They watched Him getting grilled. They watched Him getting accused. They watched Him in so many tight spots. They watched Him talk His way out of those tight spots. They watched how He healed, how He prayed, how He lived, how He got up, how He went to bed, how He slept. That tour was for those twelve men He took. It was a peripatetic ministry, and it is time—past time, way past time—that some ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ got back to a peripatetic ministry. It will revolutionize the Christian faith, if done properly.

The Ephesian line. Why not Galilee? Why do we do it the way we do it? Why don’t we do it the way Galilee did? All that’s in two words: “He went on His tour.” It was extensive. Listen, you go to one city, you get one reception. You go to another city, another reception. You go to another city, another reception. If you go to a village, you’d get a totally different kind of reception. If you go to another village, you get a totally different one. You get city cosmopolitan thinking, and rural village thinking…rural problems, metropolitan problems.

He went from city to city, village to village, more cities, more villages, and of course, He was healing, and He was declaring the kingdom of God. I wonder what those 12 men later declared. They declared the kingdom of God, and that was, in fact, exciting news. In fact, it was good news. He declared the kingdom of God. It was a very positive, wonderful thing. While He declared it, He healed, and while He healed, He prayed, and while He prayed, He preached. While He preached, He taught. While He taught, He lived. While He lived, He walked. And while He did all of those, twelve men watched. It’s a wonderful word. It needs to be restored. A peripatetic ministry. One man. Disciples are not numbered in hundreds and thousands. Disciples are numbered in dozens or less. You’re only a disciple when you are with and under a man who is your spiritual superior, whom you hope one day will no longer be your spiritual superior, unless it’s the Lord Jesus, who will forever remain our superior here.

Okay, there were—oh, there was the casting out of demons; I left that out. There were twelve men, and how many ladies? Mary, Joanna, and Susanna. Those three. There were others. By the way, if you read the Wuest translation of this, you will discover in it, hidden within the Greek, the impression that not only are there these people, but in every town and village He picked up a few people who, when He walked out of that village, they didn’t go back home, but they kept following Him to the next village, and the next, and the next, and the next. I think it was among these people who would not stop following the Lord that He chose His inner circle—not only the twelve, but maybe the hundred and twenty, or the five hundred. Those who just weren’t there to be healed, or see a demon cast out, or hear wonderful teachings, but to go and be as close to that man for just as long as possible. And that, in itself, is leaving mother and father and sister and brother and home. Maybe not permanently, but at least for a few weeks or a few months—to be with Him.

Now it is fascinating, isn’t it? There are twelve men and three, or four, or five women following Him. There are probably around eighteen men, not twelve. Twelve have a special selection. This is the only passage of scripture in the New Testament that tells us how the Lord Jesus lived financially. I think it’s beautiful. Where’d He get His money? Well, He didn’t need any. The people took care of Him. Yeah, there are always some expenses. Brother Mike, where’d He get His money? He got His money from a small group of women. A small group. That’s absolutely mind-boggling: that while God himself, incarnated in human flesh, was upon this earth, everybody was willing to be healed by Him. Everybody was willing to listen to Him preach and go shout hallelujah, right up to, “You, they crucified Him.” But it took three pragmatically minded women to recognize that He needed finances. I still have the impression it was all women. All the women are taking care of Him financially. It also admits that finances have something to do with Christian ministry. That’s something I’ve had a very difficult time dealing with throughout my whole life.

I don’t know, have I ever told y’all that I still have the first ten dollars I was ever paid to preach the gospel? I could not. I was given a check, and I never cashed the thing. I’ve got it in the scrapbook. I thought that was the most horrible thing in this world, that somebody would pay me to preach about Jesus Christ. Paid? I would pay him to this day; I would pay. In fact, if they would let me, I would pay to go to some places now to be heard to preach. I consider it an honor, but these young ladies were more pragmatic than I am. They recognized that running a crusade like this took money. They had to go out, buy food, and fix it. They had to buy lodging for Him from time to time. Shoes needed to be repaired. Clothes needed to be replaced. Who knows what else had to be done

It was sisters—brothers, please note—who had that kind of love. The brothers were all religious, and they probably all starved to death before it ever crossed their minds that they and He needed caring. I think it’s one of the most beautiful things in scripture, this very simple, little, almost offhanded remark. Where did they get their money? I’ll tell you where one of them was getting it. One of them got it from her husband, whom Herod had paid. Mary Magdalene seemed to have cared nothing about wasting her money on Him. She had already spilled costly money, and of course, I know nothing about Susanna—what she did—but they were, some way or other, maybe they were even passing the hat, making sure that money was given.

I can just see Mary Magdalene getting up after a meeting and saying, “Listen, we’re going to the next village, and all you people have gotten healed, and the Lord sneaks out the door at this time, and we don’t have any money, and he hasn’t eaten today.” Now you people, start giving me some money so I can go out and buy him something.” I can almost see that tough little gal doing that. Maybe that’s what they did. I kind of doubt it. Somewhere, perhaps much more discreetly than that, they were providing for His need. I think it’s beautiful, and I want to say praise the Lord for those. And others, yes. Oh, and many others. Thank you. Do you know? I’ve never seen that. And many others who kept on providing for Him. By the way, it does say, “from their own means.” There was no collection, was there? Alright, we’re learning a little bit here.

Now then, I’m again impressed with two things. Can you imagine a throng that gets so large, so vast, that they go into a house to get away from it? And while they’re in there, someone says, well, it’s time to eat anyway. They sit down to eat, and so many people get inside the room where he is, and they press and push. Now I see a room full of people standing up, and they’re pouring into the windows and the doors, and they’re pressing in, and they’re just standing there staring at Him to the point that neither the disciples nor the Lord can even lift their hands to get them up to their mouths. It was almost a riot.

This is what is said. This shows how successful and well received He was by the masses, because they were getting healed and having evil spirits cast out of them. The other interesting thing is His family’s reaction. Somebody who was kin to Him peeped through the window or was sitting in the crowd, and they were horrified, and they ran all the way back home to Nazareth and said, “Get the family and get on the road. We got to get over there to where He is.” Oh, by the way, this could have actually happened in Nazareth. “And let’s get Him out of there. He is gone stark raving mad.”