Luke 6:17-19--Jesus Ministers to a Great Multitude

Luke 6:17-19
English Standard Version
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Jesus Ministers to a Great Multitude
17 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, 18 who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19 And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.

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Immediately after choosing the Twelve (I will try to stick with this as much as I can, since it's going to avoid some of the confusion that we talked about last time about the term "apostle."  Notice there is a great crowd of "disciples" (followers) here from all of the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the surrounding Gentile areas (see the attached map which shows Tyre and Sidon are parts of Phoenicia).  These Gentile communities were not looked on favorably by the Jews, and Luke is intentionally pointing out that Jesus accepted disciples from among the Gentile nations from the very beginning of Him ministry.

These followers were coming for healing of their diseases and those who were demonized.  Note that Luke again uses the term "unclean spirit" and uses the same word "cured" to emphasize the spiritual healing that took place that was the same word as those who were healed from physical diseases and disabilities.  Jesus was there to heal not only the body, but more importantly, the soul.  Notice again that they only understood the power of healing to be in Jesus' physical touch, so they came to His physical location hoping for them to reach out and touch Him so they would be healed.

The rest of this chapter in Luke is going to be what we'd call The Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7.  I've also emphasized that so far all the people have come to Jesus for Him to touch them because we'll see something different happen in the beginning of the next chapter (Luke 7).  So, pay attention to how Jesus even says He can do greater miracles as the faith of the people increases (it's all about them recognizing the source of the healing and giving glory to God).