Transfiguration

Good morning, we have a lot we're going to try to cover this morning actually several passages and we're going to pick up a passage from last week that we didn't cover. We were going to cover, but because the transfiguration got so rich, there's just so much material in that passage to cover that we put this off and even after that when I looked at it, I realized that the next, it really does fit into the next three passages. We're going to cover four passages, scholars call them pericopy, that's our technical term. Little, these little isolated units of tradition that the gospels are kind of strung together here, we're going to look at four of them and they are all closely related to one central theme, the theme of true greatness. We will weave them together and I also think as Billard often does, there will be some things that are relevant to the crisis that has unfolded here in this area over the last few days. You probably know from my work and my teaching here, I'm a history buff, I love history and I love reading history, I would rather watch what my kids would call a boring PBS history special than American Idol or something like that. I'm fascinated by history, I love reading about historical events and about great leaders. Have you ever noticed that when they name kings and great leaders, oftentimes they'll call them the great, the great, so and so, the great, I was thinking about this, there's of course Alexander the great, I talk about him a lot in my classes because Alexander the great unified the Greek city states and conquered much of the eastern Mediterranean region and then really brought Greek language and culture and spread it very, very far so they call him Alexander the great, there is Cyrus the great, he shows up in the Newt in the Old Testament actually because Cyrus the great is the great Persian king who conquered the Babylonians and then who allowed Israel to return from Babylonian exile to return to their land. There is Herod the great, he's pretty important in the New Testament, he was of course the king who was ruling when Jesus was born, they called him the great because he was incredible builder, there's Charlemagne moving forward in history, I thought, I don't know if you know that Charlemagne means Charles the great, Charlemagne united the Franks and conquered much of western Europe, there's Peter the great, Peter the great was the one who dragged medieval Russia kicking and screaming into the modern era, you have to have a woman of course, so I thought we'd throw in Catherine the great who's who followed Peter and really built Russia up into a major and modern global power, so now you could list, I know you're probably thinking of others from your history, you could list probably 30 or 40, and I was thinking about this and I thought how do you get the name the great, you know, is there some kind of greatness hall of fame and the committee meets together and discusses this, I mean what do you need to do as a ruler to become so and so the great, if you look at them, most of them it has to do with conquest, sometimes it has to do with culture, sometimes they have to do with building, here at the great was called the great because it was a master builder, refurbished and renewed the Jerusalem temple, built palaces and fortresses all around Israel, so what what makes, and that raises the question what makes someone great, what is the essence of greatness, and in the passage we're looking at today, Jesus talks about the essence of true grace, greatness, and he takes the world standards of greatness, you know, the chart that starts with the top guy and then the next two, the organizational chart, the top guy, the next two, then down here are the peons, and then he takes that chart and he seems to turn it upside down in terms of defining true greatness, now as I said we're talking about four different passages today, and so I want to move through the passages, the first one, and when we did it have time to cover was the healing of a boy, a demon possessed boy in chapter 9 verses 37 to 43, we learned first of all about the boys, or the father's dilemma, the next day, the next day after what, well the next day after the transfiguration, the event we talked about last week, when they came down from the mountain a large crowd met him, a man in a crowd called out teacher, I begged you to look at my son, for he is my only child, we've run into that theme before, haven't we, the idea of someone with an only child, Jesus shows compassion on them, he describes what happens, the spirit sees as him and he suddenly screams, it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth, it scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him, I begged your disciples to drive it out but they could, they could not, now it's interesting the boy's condition sounds a lot like epilepsy, doesn't it? And in fact, Matthew's account of this identifies it with a word that was used for epilepsy, now we find, before we stop and say well was it demon possession or was it epilepsy, we find in biblical accounts and in ancient accounts as well, sometimes a disease is actually attributed to a demon, we've talked about how the physical and spiritual realms are very closely related in terms of disease and evil in that regard, and so oftentimes a physical disease that we can identify is actually identified with a demon causing that disease, so this could well be in fact epilepsy but it's provoked by some kind of demon oppression, Luke, I mean sorry Matthew caused it selling the abzu mai in terms of his seizures and it actually means it means moon struck, that's sort of the literal meaning of it because these seizures were considered to be associated with the full moon, you know today, if you've anyone worked in an emergency room they always say this, is that true? On full moon people act weird, I mean there's something about it and the ancients knew that and they recognize that and so they actually identified epilepsy in some sense with moon struck, but here it's expressed the identified as being the result of demonic oppression, not only that but the disciples have failed to heal him, I begged your disciples to drive it out but they could not, so Peter James and John have been up with Jesus but the other disciples on the way down as Jesus is coming down have tried to cast out that demon and have been unable to, and Jesus responds, you unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you, bring your son here to me? Now there's a big question exegetically, who is Jesus talking about? He suddenly seems to lash out at someone who is this evil generation, there's really three options here, it could be the father of the boy, it could be the disciples because he's just said the disciples, I tried to get them to cast them out, they've been unable, it could be the people in general. Now that's a tough question and I'm not sure I have the answer, I would tend to say it's the nation in general and sometimes the disciples represent the nation, in other words sometimes they fail and reject God's purpose, sometimes they represent the way of God, the way of the kingdom, so I think in the sense of frustration that people, Jesus is recognizing that people are not seeing the power of the kingdom, so the disciples in this regard are in some sense failing to see the power of the kingdom, the people who are present are failing in the same way. At question and answer time you can pick that one up, the issue of who the generation is, but the generation usually refers to the people of Jesus' time who are rejecting the message of the kingdom, who are rejecting the message of salvation. The healing then, Jesus heals the man, he says bring him to me, verse 42, even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion, he had one of these seizures, but Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father, and they were all amazed at his greatness, at the greatness of God there. So Jesus once again as we've seen before, we've seen before this powerful healing, the demonstration of the power of the kingdom of God. I just want you to notice something, we sometimes talk about different emphases of the different gospels, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell the same story, they all tell this story, but they all emphasize something slightly different. In Matthew we won't turn there because of our time constraints, but in Matthew Jesus says you should have had more faith, so he basically blames the disciples for not having enough faith, and then what's interesting is right after that he says with the faith of a mustard seed you can move a mountain. Now think about that, is that a little odd to you? He first of all says you needed more faith, then he says you don't need any, all you need is this much faith. Now what does that tell you? I think what it tells us is the disciples really didn't believe God could do it. How much faith does it take to accomplish the impossible? Well Jesus makes it clear, it takes this much faith, it takes mustard seed faith, but it's the object of that faith that is key. So if they had trusted, truly trusted in God. So Matthew emphasizes the lack of faith, but we're not in Matthew, so we'll move on from there. Mark actually says this one needs to come out with prayer, more prayer, and I think that's basically the same thing, right? This is more dependence on God, you're simply not depending on God. Now Luke does not say that, he doesn't mention that, instead as you can see all he does, Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, and then you get the response of the people. So in Luke the issue is the greatness of God. Obviously in contrast to the failure of the disciples, you see what we've got? We've got the disciples fail to cast him out, but God succeeds in casting him out. So the whole issue is what God can do even though human beings fail. Now that's very important, and this is what links it to the next passage, I think. What is the essence of true greatness? What's the essence of true greatness? Look at all those Alexander the Great, Cyrus the Great, it's what people can do. It's the amazing ability to people to influence others, to conquer their world, to powerfully manipulate their world around them, and in this passage human attempts do nothing. All they needed though was mustard seed faith in the power of God and they could have done it. So what is the key to true greatness? Is it conquest? Is it power? Is it influence? Servinhood? Okay, it's God, right? It's a dependence on God and trusting in him and then lifting others up as we will see. So I think this passage actually does relate to the next passages that follow. Let's go on then to our second passage, one down, three to go. We're going to get through these. We get first of all the second passion prediction. Now if you remember just in the previous chapter, well in chapter eight we had the first prediction, did I say chapter eight? Is it chapter eight? No, it's chapter nine. In this chapter actually we had the first prediction of Jesus's death, the first passion prediction. Now in verses 43 and 45 to 45 we get the second passion prediction. They were all amazed at the greatness of God while everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did. Okay, this incredible power he exhibits. He says now wait a minute. He said to his disciples, listen carefully to what I am about to tell you. The son of man is going to be delivered over to human hands. Now there's a very abbreviated account. Oftentimes it then goes and says he will be arrested, he will be scourged, he will be crucified, but then he will rise from the dead. But still he does, you can see, he predicts his arrest and by implication then he predicts his crucifixion and his resurrection there. Verse 45 then but they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them so that they did not grasp it and they were afraid to ask him about it. They did not get it. They did not grasp it. So let me raise this question. Why did they not get it? Okay, we might say whose fault was it that they did not get it? It's interesting the way it's stated, isn't it? You would expect maybe if it's blaming the disciples, you would expect it to simply say they just, they were dumb, you know, and they just did not comprehend. They didn't, they didn't understand. But instead he says they did not understand what this meant. A, it was hidden from them so that they did not grasp it. Then that sounds to me kind of like both end to you. Does it sound like, or to me? Does that sound like that to you? In other words that they were not really listening but then also there's a sense that God is in fact blinding them to the truth. Is that problematic to you? Does that sound, does that sound like maybe what's going on here? So I think that's exactly what's going on to be honest. And I think there is both in this, and Luke is intentionally stressing both a human dimension. They didn't get it because they weren't thinking rightly. A, but also because God is doing something here. God is going to accomplish his purpose and plan. And we're going to see this again and again throughout Luke X. That human beings are going to act against God's plan in one sense or another. But then God is going to take that opposition and accomplish his purpose anyway. Okay? Now I want you to get that theme in your mind. If you have to write it down, that's fine, but get it in your mind that the human beings are going to oppose God, but God is going to accomplish his purpose anyway. And even through that rejection. All right. Now I could turn you to about 10 passages in Luke's gospel to stress it. I just want to show you one. Turn over to Acts. Acts chapter two. This is Peter's Pentecost speech where Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter two, verse 22, people of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you. Throw him as you yourselves know evidence of the kingdom of God, right? Just what we see in Luke's gospel. This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. Okay? So did wicked people oppose Jesus and put him to death or did God in fact make it happen? Yes. You can see what's happening. The answer to that is yes. There's not an either or it's a both end and that is a that is a theme throughout Luke and Acts that despite what human beings do God is going to take that and he's going to accomplish something good through it. Now if that doesn't hit you right now today, I don't know what does, what can, right? We look at what looks to be an awful horrific terrible situation. Can God work good through something like that? God can even accomplish something through that. So we want to pray not just for salvation, deliverance, safety, finding, but we want to pray that God would accomplish something through this. We see that he accomplished our eternal salvation through evil and wicked men. Isn't that amazing? God could accomplish our eternal salvation even through evil and wicked people and so keep that in mind today and keep that in mind as we continue to read what God is accomplishing here in Luke's gospel. All right the Passion Prediction is part of a larger section on true greatness. Sometimes I think that disciples are not listening very well because immediately Jesus had just said, you know, Son of Man is going to be delivered over to human hands and I realize they were kept in some way from getting it, but verse 46 an argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Which of them would be the greatest. Now perhaps where did this idea come from? What prompted this discussion? Perhaps it's related to what has happened just prior to this. Remember Peter has confessed what? What has Peter said? You're the Christ, you're the Messiah from the disciples perspective. What does that mean? He's the king. He's the powerful mighty conquering king. You know who's going to, with a sword of his mouth, he's going to slay the wicked. That's what we are expecting. That's what the disciples are certainly expecting. So what do you think they're thinking? Jesus is great. Yes exactly perfect. They're thinking Jesus is great. He's going to establish his throne. He's going to conquer the Romans. So they start talking who's going to do the best in the Messianic wars that are coming, right? So maybe they're thinking who's going to lead our armies together with Jesus in the Messianic wars? Not only that, but once Jesus gets on the throne in Jerusalem, who's going to get the perks? Who's going to be on the right hand in the left hand? Now there's a passage. It probably sounds familiar to you. It's not in Luke's Gospel, but in Mark 10 James and John come to Jesus and ask for those positions. And it's after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Messiah. Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem and they say we want the chief seats in the kingdom. We want to be on your right hand on your left hand. We want those key positions. Well who gets those key positions? The greatest. The best. The greatest. That's what we, that they were thinking, right? Jesus says it's not for for me to decide that. It's been decided by the Father. But you see, they're focusing. So almost certainly what prompted this discussion was they're thinking Messianic enthronement. They're thinking Jesus is going to seize the kingship. He's going to defeat the Romans. Who of us? There's 12 of us. That's a lot. There's 12 of us. Who's going to be the best? Who's going to get the chief seats? Poor Jesus. He has just said the Son of Man is going to be delivered over to human hands. The Son of Man is going to suffer and die. He's predicted it twice and they still don't get it. Look at his response. Jesus knowing their thoughts took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to him, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me for whoever is least among you all is the greatest. So what does Jesus do? He brings a child or he points to a child. Now we sometimes miss this because children in our culture do not function like children in the first century Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Ancient Near Eastern, world. Children today rule. They basically rule our lives. At least in our country, obviously not in every culture around the world. What's the typical day? Even the title Soccer Mom, right? It's taking them to school. It's taking them to work, or the soccer. It's taking them to music lessons. It's sending them off to camp. It's taking them to all the sports activities, right? It's getting them their game boys because you think commercials kind of gear towards children? They're iPods and the music they want and having the right clothes. I remember, my mom is here this morning. Remember when we moved to California, do you remember? We moved to California from Alabama and we were so out of style and it was like we went to school with the wrong clothes, the wrong shoes and it was a disaster. It was like we came home and mom, we need this and we need it now. I will not show my face at school again until we get these particular shoes and these particular jeans and this particular, you know, and that's the way it is today. You cater to the kids in many ways. Parents are the servants. Parents are the chauffeurs. And so when we say children, we think, yeah, you know, we love our children because we invest everything we have in our children. That's not at all how this passage would have been heard in the first century, right? For Jesus to say, welcome a child. Welcome a child. What were children? What was the status of children in the ancient Near East? First of all, they were completely insignificant. They were simply property, right? Until they achieved the status of airship. They were powerless. They had zero rights essentially. They were the property of the father, especially but also the parents. They were socially irrelevant. So children, now people love their children, of course, in that age as they do today. So we're not talking about lack of love, but we're talking about the way they were viewed socially. So for Jesus to say, welcome a child. Whoever welcomes a child is welcoming God basically. Now that's amazing. That's amazing because we've talked about this before. Everything in the ancient Near East was socially stratified, right? Everyone knew their place. Who in Israelite culture was on the top? How about God? Okay, sorry, trick question. Okay, God was on the top. Who was on the bottom? Slaves in children. That's the way it was, right? So do you see what Jesus says? Whoever welcomes, okay, Jesus, of course, is the Messiah, the glorified one, just one step below God in terms of that perspective there. And so what does Jesus say? Whoever welcomes a child welcomes me. That's just shocking socially in that context. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. God himself. Do you see how this is to us? This is, yeah, that's so sweet because children are so cute and lovable and adorable. That's not what they're thinking. They're thinking, what? The lowest? You welcome the lowest. Welcome means accepting as a social equal, accepting as a social equal, lifting up to your own status. So Jesus says essentially children are of equal status in God's economy to the greatest, right? Not not to the greatest among us. You see, he then says that whoever is least among you is the greatest. He specifically says that. Growing up as a kid, we would have pick up football games in the backyard. You ever do this? And what happens? This is the great pressure situation. Okay, who's going to be captain? You know, the two biggest guys or the two best athletes? Okay, line up. They line all the kids up. Okay, now we're going to choose teams. Let me go last. You know, it's like, well, I get him. The best athlete. I get him. I get him or her. Right? And then it's like, oh, the right, you can have the rest. You know, it's like, oh, you don't ever want to be now. You can have the rest group. You know, it's, Jesus says, I pick him and he chooses the scrawnyest kid out there. He says, that's the one who is the most exalted. Whoever welcomes that, whoever picks him first is like picking God for their team. And God never loses at touch football. He always wins at touch football. So it's a, it's a shocking statement. Welcoming a child means reversing the social order and treating all as equal. So here's, here's the contextualization, the application to today. Jesus wanted to have said today, if Jesus was right here and teaching us this lesson originally, he wanted to have said, whoever welcomes a child, I'm convinced, whoever welcomes a child welcomes me. Now this could get dangerous, but who do you think, who would he say maybe? Yeah. Whoever welcomes a homeless person welcomes me. Anyone else want to venture into this uncharted, yes. Okay. Whoever welcomes an ill legal immigrant welcomes me, beggars. Okay. Whoever welcomes an AIDS patient. Now there's a lot of the stigma has left that, obviously, as it, that it once was. Welcomes me. You see, we have to think who would be, in our mind, who would be on the bottom of that social hierarchy and realize that Jesus is calling for something radically different in terms of what it means to be great. To be great doesn't mean having the power, having the influence. Being great means welcoming those who are unwelcome in our culture and our context and our society. Here's our first takeaway. True greatness comes from a humble, servant attitude, humility, compassion, respect, dignity. Hold your place here and turn over to James, chapter two. James, chapter two, verse one, my brothers and sisters, believers in our Lord, our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Verse two, suppose someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say, here's a good seat for you, but say to the one who is poor, you stand there or sit on the floor by my feet. Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? So James says the same thing, only puts it in the context of the worship community of the church. Two people come into the back of the church service. One of them has just left his grocery cart with all of his possessions out back, or maybe he's brought it in, maybe into the lobby, right? And the other is a couple. They're just beautifully dressed. They have the cutest little children, and you recognize him as a prominent doctor in the area, and she's a kinder garden teacher. What could we love more than that, right? And they come in, and you've seen them in the community and think, oh, perfect. This is just the kind of people we want in our church. Come on in, welcome. Seat them where? And now you'll be friendly. I know we're friendly, but you'll find a spot in the back, inconspicuous, and hope he doesn't come back next year, right? So James says the same thing. We become partial to certain people. Jesus says greatness comes from welcoming even the most lowly. My wife has a funny story about, I don't know if I've told you the story or not, you can stop me if I did. Years ago in a manual faith in Escondito, where my father was pastor. She would do the sign language, she would do the sign language interpretation because she was an interpreter for the deaf, and they kind of relegated, back then they relegated the signer to the back. Now you're supposed to have them up front with the the deaf people up there, but she was all the way in the back of the balcony, and she would bring her music stand. Did I told you the story? No, okay. She would have her music stand out there with her notes on it as she was signing. And the ushers every week, she would leave the stand there, and she put a note, please leave this here. It's for the deaf interpreter. And so she would leave the stand there, or put it off to the side and say, please keep it there because she, every Sunday she'd have to get there and she'd have to go out and find a stand somewhere because it was always, and the ushers would always take it and take it away and put it away and some cabinet or some closet somewhere. It's very frustrating for her. So every week she's doing this, finally she's so far, she's leaving a note, every week, finally she's, she leaves a note. My wife's name is Roxanne. Her middle name is Lin. My father's name was Richard L. Strauss. So she wrote, and I don't even know that she thought about doing this, but she wrote on that stand the note, she said, please leave this music stand here, RL Strauss. That music stand never moved an inch from that place, from that point forward, because the interpreter is nobody, but the senior pastor, right, is somebody. And so even unintentionally, those ushers suddenly, whoa, this is worth, this is someone worth welcoming, this is someone worth paying attention to. James says, it's sin. That kind of partiality is sin. All right, let's go on. Verse 49, more lessons on greatness. Master said John, new story. Master said John, we saw someone driving out demons in their name, and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us. Do not stop him, Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you. Now this is a fascinating episode right here. He says, someone is casting out demons in your name. Here's the first interesting question. Who was this guy, right? Who did John see? James did John see casting out demons in Jesus' name. Well, we don't know, but we do know that there was a much larger body of Jesus' followers in this context. We're going to see that in Luke's Gospel. In a little while, he's going to send out 70 followers before he sent out how many. Do you remember 12? He sent out the 12, but then he's going to send out a much larger body. So there are hundreds of people who are following Jesus. And even though we have this top tier of the 12 that he's chosen, we've got to realize there's a lot more under that. And so some of them evidently are out there doing the same thing. They're preaching the kingdom of God. They're healing the sick. They're casting out demons. And so John sees this going on. He goes, we're the Jesus boys, you know, us 12. We're the ones. We're the specially select. And so he tries to stop them. You see? Sometimes you demonstrate your power at discrimination. Sometimes you demonstrate your power with envy, jealousy. We protect our position. We protect, it's our franchise, they're saying. It's a short story written by GW Target entitled The Window. Chuck Sondal tells the story in his book The Laugh Again. Let me just read you the story. Two men both seriously ill occupied the same small hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their jobs, their homes. Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window would sit up. He would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. The man said ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm and arm amid flowers on every color of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees traced the landscape. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picture as seen. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. The other man couldn't hear the band he could see it in his mind's eyes. But unexpectedly an alien thought entered his head. Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything? Well, I never get to see anything. It didn't seem fair. As the thought fermented, the man felt ashamed at first, but as the days passed by he missed seeing more sights. His envy eroded into resentment, and soon turned him sour. He began to brood and he found himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window, he thought. Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to cough for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button, which could have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes the coffee and choking stopped. Now there was only silence, deathly silence. The following morning the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital tenants to take it away. No words, no fuss, just took it away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could move, be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. In other words, the man was describing it in order to cheer up his friend. His motives were to encourage. Envy took hold and became incredibly destructive. Jealousy envy is a powerfully destructive. John is looking to this rival exorcist and rejects him. Why did John try to stop him? Because this was their authority. This was their position. Look at Jesus' response. Do not stop him, Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you. What is Jesus' point? His point is this is not about us. Is it? This is not about our power. This is not about our prestige. This is about the kingdom of God. I have to show you one passage in Philippians. Turn over to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, Paul says in verse 12. Now, I want you to know brothers and sisters that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. So Paul says, because of my chains, he is in prison chains in Rome, others are proclaiming the gospel. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. The latter do so out of love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. Anathema to them. No, that's not what it says. Is that what your verse says? No, verse 18. But what does it matter? What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this, I rejoice. See what Paul says? He says they're out to get me. They don't like me. And so even their ministries, they're putting me down in their ministries. But instead of saying, God, you need to judge them because I'm important. I've started all these churches. I've written all these letters. I'm important. I know that's not what he says. He says it doesn't matter because I don't matter. It's the kingdom that matters. If people are coming to Christ, if Christ is being preached, then praise the Lord because I'm irrelevant. I'm just God's object to accomplish his purpose. So just an amazing principle here. Whoever is not against us, Jesus says, is for us because it's not about your power, John, or James, or whoever. It's about the kingdom of God and God's purpose in the world. I'm going to skip over this right here. But you may notice that in a few chapters, you're going to say just the reverse. So you're going to bring that up in Q and A. So we wait till Q and A. And I'll come back to this. Okay. That is slide number 16. Remind me. Okay. Okay. He says exactly the opposite. Well, sort of the opposite. He was not with me as against me later on. But we don't have time. So we'll come back to that. All right. The next passage. Here's number three. Samaritan opposition, the context. Jesus resolutely sets out for Jerusalem. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, we already looked at that passage last week, right? The ascension. The ascension is one piece with the death, a resurrection, ascension to the right hand of God. He sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When disciples James and John saw this, they asked, Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? What's the essence of greatness? I'll tell you what the essence of being able to call down fire. There was nothing like that. You know, if I could call down fire, they would call me mark the great. I mean, there is no doubt about that, right? Calling out that's the, that's power. Anyone who can call down fire from heaven, that's just amazing. We'll wait for Jesus's response in a minute. Okay. The Samaritans reject Jesus. He sends messengers ahead to the Samaritan village and they reject him. Why do they reject them? Well, we're going to get into the Samaritans more. But briefly, let's talk about the Samaritans. Who were the Samaritans? Samaria is that region between Galilee in the north. You see the Sea of Galilee and Judea in the south. That province in the middle there is Samaritans. The Samaritans arose from intermarriage between the Israelites and ethereal colonists. Let me explain that briefly. The ethereal empire conquered Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel, and they took the people into exile and they brought in some of their own or some from other captured people. And they intermarried with with the Israelites there. And the Judeans in the south didn't like that at all because now you've that sort of mixed race and sort of a mixed religion in their opinion. So they were sort of rejected from Jerusalem worship and they established worship in Mount Gharazim. A mountain, I don't know if you can see it up there. It's right down. Well, and never mind. It's too small. That's Mount Gharazim. They would worship there instead of Jerusalem. And they said, that's the right place to worship God. So there was all kinds of bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans because of that and because of constant war and conflict. They were viewed by that Jews as both enemies but also heretics. Worshiping God falsely because they were worshiping on Mount Gharazim because they only accepted part of the old testament as the Bible. Luke has a fond place for Samaritans. You've probably heard a famous parable, right? The parable that good Samaritan is in Luke's gospel. There's also an episode of 10 lepers where one comes back to thank Jesus. He's identified as a Samaritan. Then we get to the book of Acts and Samaritans get the gospel. The gospel goes to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth. So Samaria is going to be a very significant place but there's all this bad blood. Now, where is Jesus headed right now? Jerusalem, right? He's headed for Jerusalem. There's hints that he might be the Messiah. Well, he's headed the wrong direction. You see, from a Samaritan perspective, he should not be going to Jerusalem. Not only that, he's the king from the line of David which is the southern power there. So they probably learn that he's headed to Jerusalem. They hear these rumors that he might be the Messiah. So they say, we don't want him. We're not interested. And so James and John decide to call down fire and just burn this village up because of their rejection. Now, that reminds us of someone. If you know your Old Testament, you know that one of the great prophets Elijah called down fire from heaven. So James and John are acting like a prophet, right? This is righteous indignation. What do you think motivated James and John to say this? Jealousy, okay? Righteous indignation, do you think? Probably not, right? They're probably thinking power. They could have said, let's organize a particularly culturally sensitive evangelist crusade to the Samaritans, you know? Let's find a way to communicate so they're not offended by this and then we'll get the gospel to them. No, let's just burn them up, you know? That's easy. And then the rest will welcome you. That's always a nice way to get others to welcome you. Burn this village to a crisp. The next one will say, come in, you know, we'd be happy. Happy to have you. So James and John forget that they are disciples and think that they are bouncers, ready to take on the next Samaritan village. The other thing we have to remember is what was their nickname? Do you remember sons of thunder? And we get a little hint, okay? I always turn my students when we're talking about the disciples. I always turn my students to this passage. John says this rive lexersis, you know, is he wants the power not this others? And then these two try to burn up this Samaritan village. So it's not all that surprising. Perhaps righteous indignation, but Jesus rebukes them. Oops. But Jesus turned verse 55 and rebuked them, then he and his disciples went on to another village. There is no room for prejudice in the kingdom of God. Let me say that again. There's no room for prejudice in the kingdom of God. The gospel message is about reconciliation. It's about bringing people together. I don't know about you, but whenever I see a picture of KKK where there's some kind of Christian symbol or Christian slogan, it just makes my skin crawl. It's right, or white supremacy, supremacistists have the same thing. And since they're calling on supposedly a Christian heritage to promote any kind of prejudice. Here's our takeaway right here. Takeaways, true greatness comes from loving people without prejudice. Loving people without prejudice. Now, I'm not saying without discernment. I'm saying without prejudice. Now, there's not, we don't hate others. We love others. We identify someone as our enemy because they oppose us or they're attacking us. What do you do with your enemies? You love your enemies. You defeat them through love. You attack them through love rather than attack them through violence or through violent, violent words. Paul says something radically, radical in Galatians 3.28. In Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free male nor female for you are all one in Christ. In our context, we could say there is no black or white, no rich or poor, no American and Iranian. There's something special about being an American in the kingdom of God. I'm going to get myself into dangerous ground there. I think there's a hockey game tonight, right? Nationalism will rear its, it's not an ugly head, that's a positive thing. There's a time and a place for nationalism. Do not get me wrong. I'm proud to be an American, but I am prouder to be a Christian. And I have a closer relationship in every way with a native and Iranian jaya who's never seen electricity, but is a born-again believer, then my neighbor next door who shares all the same television programs, all the same music, all the same interests as I do. That's something really striking that I think we can miss. We can miss because we are in such an amazing country and we love our country, love our freedom and so forth. We are still not of this world, right? And our brothers and sisters are those who share that same loyalty to Jesus Christ, our ultimate brothers and sisters. All right, one more dangerous statement here. In what context might Jesus review God? Might He turn and review God? Is that fair to throw out to you with only two minutes left in our time?

Yes. When my theology is more significant than someone else's, okay, thing else. Yes. Okay, additudinal sins. What kind of what are additudinal sins? Okay, discrimination. Any kind of additudinal sins? Okay, thinking of yourself as a superior to someone else. Yeah. Yeah, good. Any others? Okay. Did I see? Did I hear another? Oh, hypocrisy of any kind. Yeah. We have one more passage. It actually is not 57 to 82. It's 57 to 62. That reference is wrong there. Three potential disciples. And let me just run through these real quick and then we'll take a few questions. The first one says, I'll follow you wherever you go. And Jesus says, his famous quote, foxes of holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. In other words, he says, I will go anywhere with you. And Jesus, what if that's nowhere? In other words, what if it means you don't have any possessions or what if what we just said? What if you don't have a country to call your own? Would you still follow me? In others, we are so connected to our culture and our place and purpose around us. The second one, let me first go and bury my father. Now, that's a confusing statement. Has the father just died? Probably not. Probably that's an idiom that means let me wait till my father dies. In other words, wait until I can settle all of my fears around my house. When I have security, when I get the inheritance, when I get established, then I'll follow you. That's probably what it means. Jesus' response is let the dead bury their dead. Now, obviously dead people can't bury their dead. He must mean let the spiritually dead. Let unbelievers take care of that. We have a higher calling. Do you see how this connects to the previous passage? We are first and foremost children of the kingdom accomplishing his purpose. The third potential disciple, let me first go and say goodbye to my family. Jesus says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back as fit for service in the kingdom of God. And that one sounds a little harsh to me. Does this sound harsh to you? I just want to say goodbye. Well, we have to realize Jesus is using a rhetorical event because he's alluding to something that every Jewish person would know in this context. Someone had to say goodbye. It's Elijah and Elijah. Do you like that? Yeah, here. Here's Elijah, the prophet Elijah, who we just referred to, right? Calling down fire from heaven. Elijah went from there and found Elijah. He was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elijah then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, he said. Let me tell you the scene. Elijah is calling Elijah to take on his prophetic mantle to be the next prophet of Israel. He throws his mantle symbolically on him and Elijah says, I'm coming. Let me just say goodbye to my parents. Now, what does Elijah say? No problem. Go back and do it. Go back and say goodbye. So, what's Jesus' point? Jesus isn't saying no, no, no, no, no one can go. If you're going to be a missionary, you cannot say goodbye to your family. But I just get up and go. You know, we're going to all meet, you know, right after service and head off to ear and die. You can't say goodbye. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is this is even more pressing than the time of Elijah and Elijah. You see, that's how it would be heard because Elijah, Elijah was able to go back, but this is a more critical issue. The kingdom of God is more important than even the prophetic revelation, the prophetic ministry of Elijah and Elijah. So, he's taking everything up a notch. Do you see, that's what all this, rhetorically, he's taking everything up one notch. This is about the kingdom of God. So, suddenly, all the homes, all the stocks, all the cars, none of that matters ultimately when it comes to with reference to the kingdom. We have a higher mission, a higher calling, even than the old covenant. This is the fulfillment of the old covenant in the new. All right. And our final takeaway then, which is just that, is living with a kingdom mindset. Jesus causes disciples to a kingdom mindset, even more than a prophetic mindset of Elijah and Elijah. Okay. Did we try to cover a little too much? Maybe not this morning? No, no. I see no. Okay. Any questions? We do have, and again, if you need to slip out that's fine, but because we started a late, we said we'd go a little late, and we, so we can take some time with Q and A if there's Mary over here. When Jesus rebuked the disciples and said they needed more faith, you made the point, and I thought it was the genuine point, which is that we need to have faith that God can accomplish this. Faith is a mustard seed. Is it possible he was saying to them the object of their faith was in the wrong place? In fact, they had come to trust their own ability to cast out demons or heal the sick when in fact they should have the object of their faith. I think that's precisely the point, and if I didn't make that clear, I meant to make that clear. Is the idea that a mustard seed faith isn't a lot of faith, but it's a faith in the right object. It's just enough to say I can't do this. God can do it. So it's the right, precisely, the right object of faith. I was just going to say on 11, 23, that phrase that seems to be backward from the one that he had said about those who are not against us or for us. So in 11, 23 where he says he who is not with me is against me. Right. It seemed to me that the gentleman in the first example was really with him. Yes. Yeah. So these are not. And that's his point. Okay. And let me hear the two quotes. And you'll see all the Bible contradicts. I said, no, that doesn't contradict itself. These are proverbial statements. Proverbs apply to specific situations. So here's the first one, whoever is not against you is for you. Those who are proclaiming the gospel are with you. So the churches in our community are not rivals. They are partners. And you have to know from the perspective of a pastor, this is really hard. This is really hard, especially if your church is shrinking. And this church down the street because they use better music or because they have better drama or because they're growing and saw because of the flood. It's not because of the solid teaching of the word. They're growing and you're shrinking. It's very frustrating. And you kind of want to secretly root against them. You know, I mean, this is just realities of ministry because we all have ego's. We all have pride. And so Jesus says, hey, you focus is wrong. Your focus is wrong. Whoever is not against you, we are in this together accomplishing God's purpose. And so get your focus off yourself and your pride and onto the kingdom. The second one is also related to the kingdom. But now Jesus has the his opponents are challenging him in this context. And he says, look, you got to choose a side. There is no middle ground. There's no fence sitting in the kingdom of God. If you choose not to follow Jesus, you are choosing the side of Satan. You're choosing the side of darkness instead of light. You can't sit on the fence. Now it makes sense. Who is not, he is not with us. He who does not choose to follow me in my kingdom purpose is really opposing me in my kingdom purpose. So they both make perfect sense in the context in which, in which they're given. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that one up again. That was it. This was it. This is light's instinct. Yeah. I can't help thinking about the disciples who wanted to call down fire. They just, I think in our society, we see so many movies and we read so many books, we kind of have a tendency sort of mystify a lot of things. I think when we look at the the amount of transfiguration, we kind of missed a point of how significant that was. Yeah. Yeah. So now a couple of days later at this point, James and John, I mean, they've been with Elijah. Yeah. Yeah. And that experience had to have had some kind of effect. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's right. And that's not off. Yeah. I agree. And in one sense, we I do this when we talk about Mark chapter 10. In one sense, think about it. This is Peter just confessed Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. This is James and John's confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. This is their way of doing it. Right. I mean, if you say, Lord, do you want us to call down fire? What are you saying? I believe you're the Messiah. I believe you have the power to give me the power to burn up this village. Right. And then we'll take care of the Samaritan village, then we'll bring in a few Roman legions and we'll wipe them out too. So in one sense, it's an act of faith, but they're not listening to Jesus' message because the message of the kingdom of God is radically different than they were expecting it to be. They thought it would be about torching their enemies. Instead, it's about delivering their enemies from their sin, reversing the world essentially. The kingdom of God is about destroying the works of Satan and the works of sin. And they don't get it yet. That's why Jesus rebukes them because they don't get it yet. So their problem is the same as Peter's problem. They've got the right focus that Jesus is the Messiah. They've got the wrong focus on what he's going to do to accomplish that purpose. Yeah. There's two up here. Oh. It seems like there's a prejudice that worked there, too, because they never called down fire on the Pharisee, but they're willing to burn up a few Samaritans. Yeah. That's a good point. Very good point. Yeah. Yeah. What are Samaritans? I mean, they're expendable. Yeah. Yeah. Bill's got one.

So much of my faith is pivotal on Christ's humanity. And I alluded last night I was up at one, you know, working with this passage. And this whole thing about how long shall I put up with you? This, and I think it was a rebuk against the disciples, but it struck me that you know, Jesus and John said, I do nothing except the Father. I always do things that please him. So everything he did was by the instruction of the Father or at the order of the Father. So he empowered these, excuse me, knuckleheads. They had no moral clarity, yet they had this tremendous power he just gave them. They're going out exercising this power without moral clarity, like giving strength to Samson. I mean, it's ultimately destructive. And two of these disciples, at least two, had contact with the Father and the boy who was possessed. They could do nothing. They didn't follow the chain of command. They didn't go back and say, excuse me, Master, we get a problem. We couldn't deliver this guy. And he suffered. They just want to forget about it. Yeah. Yeah. And so the Father came. Right. And so by misrepresenting the kingdom, probably to an entire village, because they couldn't deliver this kid. Right. Right. It made Jesus, the name of Jesus looked weak. And so, you know, this, this frustration is part of that. Right. So what it might take away from that was that it's not a sin to be frustrated or exasperated. Yeah. Yeah. So much of my life is frustration and exasperation. Right. Right. And you know, in my earlier, I guess, Calvary days or whatever, I mean, I, I would read the Old Testament stories. You can't, you know, it's sinful for the Israelites to grumble against God. And you grumble and complain. That's a sin. Right. Well, my frustration, my exasperation now is not a sin because the humanity of Jesus, God, the Father put him in a position where he was frustrated. Right. Right. I gave these power. And we give that to God. We give that frustration to him and say, God, I'm frustrated with this. Yeah. Great. Very good. Thanks, Bill. That's really helpful. Yeah. Real quick. I agree with that. I think in 44, Jesus is demonstrating frustration. Yeah. Yeah. And so much so that he jumps to the end of the story. Don't you know, I'm going to be betrayed, crucified and risen. Yeah. Yeah. And then he blocks him from understanding. He probably, and it's almost like he's saying, and I probably shouldn't have even brought that up. Right. Very good. Okay. Let's close in prayer. I'll stick around it. Oh, okay. We'll do it next time or you can come forward. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for this. These passages that teach us what true greatness is because in our world, true greatness is represented about power, about by power, by influence, by being able to manipulate others, for our means. But, Lord, it's not about our means. It's not about our purpose. It's about your kingdom. Now, Lord, we lift up to the situation that's unfolding outside again. And we pray for Chelsea. We pray for her family. We pray that you would bring good from all of this. And we ask for your hand to be at work and in saving, Lord, and then in bringing others to you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. See you next week.