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This morning we are going to
examine four shortcomings for all of those who are in Christ.
Now there are more than four shortcomings, but there's four
that is derivative from the text this morning. We fall short in
all of these, all of us, in various degrees and capacities. My prayer
for all of us this morning is that the Lord would open up eyes,
that he would warm our affection. Why? So we can see our sin, repent
of it, and cling to Christ. You would please open to Luke
chapter nine, please Luke chapter nine. After this Lord's Day, we will
not see Luke again until next year. Lord willing, of course. Luke chapter nine, verse 37. On the next day, when they had
come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Then,
behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you
to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, the spirit seizes
him and he suddenly cries out, it convulses him so that he foams
at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. And
I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not. Jesus
answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to
bear with you and bear with you? Bring your son here. While he
was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean
spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.
And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they
were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his
disciples, let these words sink into your ears. Son of man is
about to be delivered into the hands of men. They did not understand
the saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might
not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him
about this saying. An argument arose among them
as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning
of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said
to them, Whoever receives this child in my name receives me
and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is
least among you all is the one who is great. John answered,
Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we
tried to stop him because he doesn't follow with us. But Jesus said to him, don't
stop him. for the one who is not against
you is for you. Just as a reminder, it's been
three weeks since we've been in Luke. You'll remember the
last time we were here, we examined the Mount of Transparency or
the Mount of Transfiguration. You'll remember that Jesus took
with him how many of his disciples. Three, Peter, James, and John
up to what? The mountain. And we saw the
importance of mountains. Jesus prays on a mountain. He preaches on mountains. He
heals on mountains. He gave the sermon on the mount
on a what? Mountain. He chose his disciples
on a mountain. He was crucified on a mountain. And when he returns, his feet
will touch a mountain. And so he takes with him, Peter,
James, and John. And well, we find out, what about
Peter? He takes a power nap. He's sleeping
as both Moses and Elijah appear. Why Moses and why Elijah? Because
Moses represents who? The law. And Elijah represents
who? The prophets. And they were speaking
with Jesus about his what? Exodus. About his departure. And so as the men were departing,
you remember Peter woke up from his nap. And he said, I have
a great idea. Let's build three, shelters,
and it was almost as if the Father from heaven quieted his foolishness
by sending a what? Cloud. And we saw the cloud,
this Shekinah glory, a theme. This same cloud was the cloud
that, or a similar cloud that led the nation of Israel in the
wilderness. It was the same cloud or similar cloud that rested
on top of Mount Sinai. It's the cloud that descended
in the tabernacle in the temple. This cloud made them afraid. And just to clarify everything,
Moses and Elijah fade away in the distance, Jesus alone is
there, and the voice from heaven declares, this is my son, my
chosen one, listen to him. And verse 36 reads, and when
the voice had spoken, Jesus was found, what? Alone. Why? Because Jesus alone is to
be worshiped, listened, and followed. So this leads us here to our
first observation from our text. The first failure, the first
shortcomings of all of us is this. We fail to believe God
and trust God at all times. We fail to trust God and believe
God or believe in God at all times. Mark's account here in
verse 37 informs us that they had come down from the mountain. Do you see that? And this mountain,
as we saw last time, it was presumably Mount Hermon. And with the parallel
account in Mark chapter nine, you remember, what did Jesus
and his disciples, the three, what did they see the other nine
doing? They were arguing with who? With the scribes about something. So I want you to picture this,
Jesus, Peter, James, and John are coming down from the mountain,
and they're witnessing and watching a crowd surrounding the disciples,
and the nine disciples are there disputing with scribes about
something. We don't know what they were
arguing about. And We notice as well that in verse
37, that a great crowd met him. Do you see that great crowd?
Well, previously we examined the interesting notes about crowds,
but from Luke chapter nine and moving forward, it is no longer
about the crowds. It's about Jesus and his disciples. And so this whole text is really
focused on the failures of the disciples. but not only them,
but the failures of us and shortcomings of all of us as well. And it
is when Jesus was with the 12 that this father here, you'll
see it in verse 38, he cries out and he asked Jesus, notice
what he asked Jesus. He says, look at my son, look
on my son. So what is he doing? He's appealing
to the compassion and the mercy of God. That if Jesus would only
see my son, he'd offer compassion. I know you saw it, but verse
38, the father says that it is his what? Only son, do you see
that? Have we seen this already? Well,
the answer is yes. We've seen it how many times?
Twice already. Remember in chapter 7, verses
11 through 17, you remember the widow from Nain? Remember who
died? It was her only son. And then
in chapter 8, verses 40 through 56, We meet Jairus's daughter
who is an only daughter. And this is the third only in
terms of our text. And so I'm just waiting for Jesus
to do something amazing. And the petition of the father
is insightful. Look at my son. As we read in the, Gospel account
of Mark, it was this father who said, I believe, help my unbelief. And it's gonna make sense in
a second. And so as the father is bringing this demon possessed
boy to Jesus, we'd learn something that is very disturbing that
elicits an ethos and pathos within really all image bearers following
along. Physically this boy and it's
interesting to see how commentators kind of fight over it, but Interestingly
this boy may have had some kind of form of epilepsy But what
made it worse is that the demon is enhancing the seizures He's
uh, he's prolonging them. He's he's essentially making
the boy powerless When the demon seizes the child, the boy, the
boy screams. He grinds his teeth. He foams
in the mouth. He becomes stiff as a board. And on many occasions, both Mark
and Matthew tells us on many occasions, listen, the demon
throws the boy into a fire. It tries to burn him alive. It
tries to drown him. And Mark informs us that this
demon-possessed boy, it's happened how long? Since his childhood. How old is he? Well, we don't
know, but it's been happening for years and perhaps decades. As a matter of fact, this account
may be worse than the demoniac in chapter eight. But even what makes it worse
than that is that this is this man's only what? Son, so if this
boy dies so does the what the future of the family? So let
me put it together. This is a seizing foaming at
the mouth fire burned, almost water drowned, screaming, grinding
at the teeth, stiff as a board, convulsing, demon possessed boy. This boy is absolutely helpless. And notice what happens. In verse
42, Luke says, when he was coming, the demon threw him, this is
the boy, to the ground and convulsed him. Do you see that? This word
here, throwing down, it's the picture of a wrestler picking
someone up and literally power slamming them. You can only imagine
what this looked like. This is a horror. And so when,
When this demon sees Jesus, do you know what it does? It cheap
shots the boy. It knows its time is running
out, so it tries to kill him. It tries to kill him first by
slamming him, and then it tries to kill him by suffocating him. When I played college soccer,
I'll never forget it. My senior year, we played actually
a college right outside of Pittsburgh. And we were winning. I can't
say that often my senior year, but we were winning. And I'll
never forget being on the field, it was actually the playoffs,
and the time was ticking down, and I remember standing, I was
a forward, so I remember looking across the field, and I saw a
ball in the open, and I saw my teammate and the opponent, they
were losing, the opponent ran full speed, not at the ball,
but at my teammate, cleats up, trying to break his ankle. Game was over. They lost. And
what did he do? Tried to take him out. A cheap
shot. We see the same thing in football,
don't we? Game's over, and what happens? Player on the other team does
a cheap shot. Red card, penalty. This demon
here, it knows it's about to be removed. He's losing his place
of residency. So he tries to break the boy
by slamming him and tries to suffocate him. And one other
note as well about this boy, can you imagine what this boy
looked like? Think about it. From his childhood, seizures,
being thrown into the fire. He's got wounds. He has scars. He has scabs. You can only imagine
the kind of disfigurement. As a matter of fact, the synoptic
accounts, Mark and Matthew inform us that when the demon left this
boy, he looked like he was dead. But notice what he does. The
end of verse 42, Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed
the boy, I love this, and what? Gave him back to his father.
He didn't just tell the boy to get up, he helped him up. That's the compassion and the
tenderness of God in Christ. Now, I don't want to be way down
with the order of events, but if you were paying attention
to what I read in the Gospel according to Mark, what Jesus
says about this faithless and twisted generation, it has a
different order, but I do want to focus on what we find out. We find out that when Jesus,
Peter, James, and John were on the Mount, that the other nine
attempted to heal this boy, but couldn't. How do we know? Look at verse 40. I begged your
disciples to cast it out, but they, what? Couldn't, do you
see that? I pleaded with them, I begged
them, I petitioned them, please help my boy, but they couldn't. So here's the question, why,
right? Why couldn't you? I mean, the
disciples cast out all demons before, didn't they? It was eight
days ago, maybe nine days ago. They came back from a demonic
cleansing campaign, talking about it, sharing it. And now when
Jesus is up in a mountain, the nine can't even heal this boy.
What is going on? Jesus answers this. I don't want
you to look at it, please. Look at verse 41. Jesus answered,
oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you
and bear with you? Bring your son here. Here's the question. Who is he
talking to? Primarily, he is talking to the
disciples. Secondarily, he's talking to the crowd. And third,
He's talking to the father, the boy's father, a little bit. Primarily
to the disciples. The disciples are the twisted
and perverse generation. Now, perverse in our culture,
it typically has a sexual deviancy to it, doesn't it? But it's not
so at this time. Perverse, it literally means
twisted. It means bent. You remember that
Peter, just in verse 20, Peter just said that Jesus is the Christ
of God, didn't he? The disciples have witnessed
all kinds of things. And what happens? Jesus goes
and they can't. Here's the question. Is the fact
that they can't an inability or an unwillingness? There's
a big difference, isn't it? Is it they couldn't because they
didn't have the power? Or is it because they couldn't
because they didn't have faith? The answer is they couldn't because
they didn't have faith. And we know that because Jesus
calls them a twisted generation. Now, if you know your Bible,
you know your Old Testament, what should come immediate to
mind? This is Moses rebuking the nation of Israel for their
crookedness in the wanderings. And what's so fascinating about
it, don't miss this. What's fascinating is that The
Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, they talk
to Jesus about his what? Exodus or his departure, right?
And Jesus is alluding to the nation of Israel's departure
and exodus. Do you see it? just as the nation
of Israel did not listen to God's representative and spokesperson,
Moses. So in the same way, the disciples
and the nation are not listening to Jesus. They don't trust Jesus. They don't believe Jesus. Both
the nation of Israel and the disciples primarily have failed
to trust and exercise faith. I wanna give you four points
of application. The first is this. We see the
intention of demonic and satanic forces in our text. It is of
no incident that this demon has possessed a young boy. It's no
accident that we see demonic oppression even today. And much
of that is seen in the doctrine. Satan hates children, you know
that. He'll do everything he can to
murder them in the womb. And if they get out of the womb,
he wants to confuse them. He wants them to question whether
or not they're who they feel like. And look, what Christians
rightfully get blamed for is crying and complaining about
the problems of society, but saying nothing and doing nothing
about it. And so really the question is this, where God has you in
your life, will you interpose on their behalf? Will you stand
in the gaps with every child, every pregnant mother, every
expecting father, will you stand in the gap and say, children
are an inheritance from the Lord? Life begins at conception because
God says it begins at conception. And biology affirms that. Will
you tell children that God doesn't make mistakes, that they are
fearfully and wonderfully made? There is no division of gender
and sex, there's just one. Will you encourage them? And that's unpopular. You're
gonna upset a lot of people. But when you committed your life
to Christ, we just sang, the hymn we just sang, You've given
it all for me, what have I given for thee? You think about that. You think about that. We need to be a people who interpose
on behalf of children. You follow Christ, count the
cost. Second point of application is
this. For those of you who help with the little ones, I know
they're not here. Some of you who help are here.
Those of you who give your time to help the little ones, whether
it's the infants in the back, the baby, whether you get up
and you leave mid-sermon to serve them, whether you go to people's
houses throughout the week, whether you help out with the women's
ministry, with the men's ministry, there are many of you who do
this. And you need to know that your labor and your work is not
in vain. You know how I know? I know because
I ask my children what they learned in the back. And this is over lunch. Say, so what did you learn? I
learned, they tell me, and I said, oh, you learned that from daddy.
He said, nope. I learned it from Mr. So-and-so
or Mrs. So-and-so. And you need to know
that your work, your labor will make and has made and impact on them. And you don't
remember every meal you eat, but it's nourished you. In the
same way, those who help, thank you for Jesus' care. Not just childcare, Jesus' care. May the Lord bless you and strengthen
you. The third point of application
is this, that we learn a very important truth about what this
Father did to every parent, regardless of the age of the children. Point
your children to Christ. That is the role of parents.
Bring them to Jesus. You can't save them. That is
the work of God and God alone. But you can bring them to the
throne of grace. And the fourth is this. Don't
be discouraged when it seems like there's no hope in gospel
advancements. You know, this father here, who
did he bring his son first to? The nine, right? The nine didn't
heal him, and he brought him to Christ. And we need to be
like that. And I want to talk to the parents
here who have a heavy heart. And you know what that is. Out
of nowhere, Child who you've brought up all these years drops
the bomb. You know what the bomb is? I'm
not interested. I don't want to go. I don't believe
what you believe. I'm an agnostic. I'm an atheist. You know that. The heaviness
of it. The weightiness of it. or perhaps
the discouragement from seeing that the child's profession does
not match the child's possession. That is the lips do not match
the life and how discouraging that is. The prodigal child,
the apple of your eye, the one who you've poured thousands of
hours into, of sweat and tears who breaks your heart. But what we learn about this
father, and please listen, is a father did not have a pity
party. You notice that? He wasn't in despair. And if
you miss anything from this application, it is this. While your child
lives, there is hope, okay? Because this child is still alive,
there is hope. You must do what this man did.
Petition the kindness of God. Plead for his mercy and grace. There is great power in intercession. Just as the honeybee, he doesn't
just That doesn't just buzz around the flower, does it? It doesn't
just hover around the flower, but it settles in it. It rests
in its petal. It goes inside, labors and works
to retrieve the nectar. And in the same way, parents,
don't be discouraged. God's time of conversion is not
ours. If the person is still living,
you have no reason for despair. God can save to the uttermost.
Do not be discouraged, but wait and persevere and watch as the
watchman waits for the morning. Point number two, the second
shortcoming. that all of us struggle with,
not just that we, like the disciples, fail to trust God at all times,
but second, we refuse to submit to God's self-disclosure through
His Word. Now, verses 43 through 45, it
forms almost like an inclusion, and the reason is because you'll remember the
disciples had curiosity previously. Do you remember when Jesus calmed
the storm, the disciples asked, who is this? Who is this? Mark informs us that after Jesus
fed the 5,000 that the disciples didn't really understand the
feeding of the loaves. And so the crowd is marveling
in verse 43, and the disciples, they're marveling at everything
that Jesus has just done. Now the timing of it, I don't
want to burden you with the timing of this, but all you need to
know is that as there is the wow factor of the disciples in
the majesty of God, Jesus now is going to address the disciples
like parents do with children. It's almost like the wonder and
the awe, it just fades in the background, and Jesus is going
to tell his disciples, hey, listen, I need to tell you something
very important. Look, look, look. Look, you squirrel,
right? Look, look. Listen to me, I need
to tell you something very important. And he says in verse 44, let
these words sink on your ears. Listen, I'm about, the Son of
Man is about to be delivered. Do you see that? Delivered. This word here, delivered, Into
the hands of men this word delivered here. It is the divine passive
in the greek This essentially Is the mission of the incarnate
yahweh? God is going to deliver himself
to his creatures. Oh my Now in order for god to
deliver himself He has to have something to deliver, doesn't
He? So what does He have to do? Well, He has to assume on Himself
a body. Why? Because God essentially
is omnipresent, isn't He? He's everywhere at all times.
He fills the universe. And so in order for God to give
Himself to man, well, He's got to assume on Himself a body.
A body that he doesn't essentially possess, but he will possess
now at the moment moving forward. Now he doesn't give himself to
those who are worthy, but he gives himself for those who are
unworthy. I want you to think about this.
God assumes on himself human flesh so he can lay his life
down to redeem those who are unworthy. Have you ever thought
about that? This is the giving of God. God will hand himself over to
sinners so he can save them, not only through his death, but
in his resurrection and ascension. But Luke here informs us in verse
45, something fascinating. He says, they did not understand
this saying because it was concealed from them. Here's the question,
who or what is doing the concealing? Is God concealing it from them
or are they just hardened? I give you the two options on
the outline. First option is that God has
concealed the meaning of what Jesus is saying from his disciples
because they would have hindered the cross. And so God intentionally
discloses the meaning of what Jesus is saying, so they just
kind of stay, sit still. Or the second option is that
they're actually morally responsible for refusing to believe because
they're fearful. I want you to notice what's at
the end of verse 45. They were afraid to ask him about
anything. Now I'm thinking here, asking.
Why are they afraid? The parallel account in Matthew
notes that they were distressed. Contextually, the answer is this.
Contextually, God, Jesus, holds the disciples accountable for
refusing to change their theology and to trust God at His word. They won't allow God to define
himself. Now, evidence of that is what
happens in the next text. We're not gonna get there. But
do you remember what he called his disciples in verse 41? What
does he call them? Faithless in what? Twisted generation. It has to do with them embracing
and changing their theology in light of Jesus' progressive revelation. I wanna give you three points
of application here. The first is this. Our theology and our understanding
of God must be flexible as we learn more about his word. And
once we know more about him, we must submit to what God has
revealed about himself. Let me help you with this. If
you question, or if I question, we question the character of
God, the problem is not with him, the problem is with us.
The second point is this. That Jesus will oftentimes place
us in situations that are uncomfortable, that we don't expect, that we
don't plan for, but that God in his marvelous providence will
bless. He'll grow us and he'll sanctify
us through it. And the third is this. Those who are mature in the faith
have to be very patient with those who aren't. We must be
a people who patiently bear with the shortcomings of others. Men, women, and children are
regenerated. Most of them have a big heart,
but a small head. It's usually the other way with
infants. Usually they have bigger heads and smaller hearts, but
for my analogy part, You know what I mean, right? They want
to serve the Lord. They're all in, but their theology
is a little bit off. And we need to be very careful
that we're nurturing that faith and that we're patient with them.
Why? Because God was patient with you. We all come into this
world as infants. And we all enter the kingdom
of heaven, beginning at regeneration as infants. Do not stifle them. Be patient with them. Why? Because God has been patient
with you. Here's the question you need
to answer. And if the answer is yes, then be patient. First, do they love Christ? Second question, do they belong
to him? The answer is yes. And if Jesus
could endure such slowness from the disciples, we should also
be able to with others. Remember, everybody begins as
an infant. Point number three, I want us
to look at the third shortcoming. Of all of us in Christ, not only
do we fail to trust God, not only do we fail to submit to
God's word, but third, we pursue greatness for ourselves, period. Look at this in verse 46. An
argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. So not only are the disciples
slow to learn, slow to believe in God, but now they're gonna
argue about who's gonna be the greatest, who is the greatest
and who's going to be the greatest. You know what this demonstrates?
They haven't even been listening to Jesus' second, first and second
passion prediction that he is going to die. They're arguing
about not only who's gonna be the greatest, who is the greatest,
But who's gonna be the greatest in the kingdom? And Matthew informs
us this in chapter 17 and 18. Now again, them arguing, listen,
it was not an issue of ignorance. It was not an issue of inability. It was an issue of arrogance
and selfishness. They're fighting over who's gonna
get the biggest room. over whose pearl and emerald
in their proverbial crown is gonna be the biggest. They're
fighting over who's gonna sit next to Jesus. I mean, I can
just picture this. As they're walking, Jesus, in
verse 47, Luke informs us Jesus knows the reasoning in their
hearts. Now, whether or not Jesus is there or not, it's a side
issue, but Jesus knows. I can just picture Peter, saying
to the other nine, you know, if I wasn't up on the mountain
with Jesus, I would have healed this boy. Hey, Thomas, were you
up there? No, no, no, you weren't. Yeah,
I was there. Sons of Zebedee were there. You
know, it was amazing. The glory, the curtains of Jesus'
essence was pulled back. It was crazy. It's insane. Moses and Elijah were there.
You saw that. No, no, you didn't. That's right. You were on the
bottom of the mountain. Oh, and you know what was crazy about
it too? Is that a cloud came. You know, the same cloud in the
wilderness? rested on Sinai and the temple and tabernacle. You
know that cloud? Yeah, look, we were almost in
glory. It just overshadowed all of us. I didn't see you, Thomas.
Where were you? Oh, yeah, you weren't there.
Clearly I'm greater. You were down there. Oh, and
by the way, you couldn't even heal that boy. And then Thomas
perhaps said back to Peter, hey, Peter, I heard you took a power
nap. I heard you slept again. Surprise. Yeah, yeah, Peter, you didn't,
you didn't. I heard from two reliable sources that you slept
the whole time. And then you woke up and you
tried to build three shelters. And then they all fade in the
distance. And then you were afraid of the cloud. No, Peter, the
reason why Jesus took you with him up in the mountain was not
because you were special, it's because he didn't trust you.
He had to keep a leash on you. He left us to ourselves. It's
just this kind of bickering, right? Just back and forth. God incarnate just told them
that he was about to die and they're arguing about who's the
greatest. And this quarreling here is perceived
by Jesus, and so he's going to give them an object lesson. Look
at what he does. In verse 47, he takes a child,
and he puts the child by his side. Children were not in a position
of honor during these times. As a matter of fact, half of
all children died, at least by the time of adulthood, due to
primitive medical knowledge and hygiene practices. In addition,
children did not generally contribute to the workforce. They didn't
contribute anything to the enhancement of a family's honor, at least
as young, so they really weren't viewed as significant. Listen
to what one rabbi wrote, and I quote, morning sleep, midday
wine, chattering with children, and tearing in places where men
of the common people assemble destroy a man, end quote. So keeping company with children
doesn't enhance anyone's honor, and so at this time, you don't
really bother with children. And so what does Jesus do? He
throws the Jewish and the Roman customs and social conventions
on its head. Very important, don't miss this.
I want you to notice who Jesus is telling his disciples to be
like. Look at the text. Whoever, what? Whoever what? Whoever receives this child. This text is not teaching that
we are to be like children toward Jesus, but that we're to be like
Jesus toward children. Do you see it? What's the point? To be Christ-like
is to give attention to those who are dishonored and overlooked
in society. That's what he's getting at.
Let me give you two points of application for this. And the
first one is one on pride. You just heard a sermon on humility
a few weeks ago, so I'm not going to drive the nail any farther
into the wood. It's deep enough. I do want to
remind you that pride will oftentimes wear garments that appear to
be one of humility. And pride and arrogance is deeply
rooted not only in the unlearned, but in the learned as well. The
disciples were given the keys to the kingdom. They saw more
than anyone else. They had special visits, so to
speak. They were favored. And everybody
here who is in Christ, anybody here who has received favor,
you must be on guard not to think of yourself more highly than
you want to. As Paul asked the rhetorical
question, what do you have that you didn't receive? And if you
received it, why do you go on boasting about it? Were you wiser? Were you smarter? What about
you caused God in Christ to have mercy on you? Why you? Because God was pleased. God hates prideful people. He breaks prideful people, but
he gives grace to who? The humble. Anyone who's been
regenerated, justified, adopted, and bound for glory They realize
that they bring nothing to the table but their what? Poverty,
in exchange for Christ's righteousness. In any way, in any manner, that
they resemble any Christ likeness, it's because of what God is doing
in them and through them. We accept responsibility when
we sin, but we give God all the thanks when we resemble Christ. Second point is this. We must have people in our lives
who we are ministering to whose society views as lowly
or unworthy. That's the point, isn't it? That's why Jesus picks up a child. The point is not be like a child
and trust God, though it's true. Jesus is calling the disciples
to be like Jesus to children. Be like Christ to those who are
dishonored in society. That's his point. Fourth way
in which all of us fail as Christians. We're already looked at. We failed
to trust God. We failed to submit to God's
disclosure of himself. We're selfish and we long to
be greater than others. And fourth, we confuse friends
and enemies with enemies and friends. And we see this here
in verses 49 and 50. Please look at it. John answered,
Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your names and
we tried to stop him because he does not follow. Who? With
us. You see that? With us. But Jesus
said to him, don't stop him. For the one who's not against
you is for you. If the disciples were playing
baseball, they'd be like 0 for 3, and they're about to be 0
for 4. No one's drafting them. Failure
after failure, and they're not done. The disciples had witnessed an
unnamed man casting out demons in Jesus' name. Now, the Greek
tense for try to stop him, it's actually in the imperfect. In
the imperfect tense, it means that it didn't just happen once.
It means it happened multiple times. They saw this man, he's
unnamed, but they tried to stop this man casting out demons in
Jesus' name multiple times, and notice who speaks up, John does. It's interesting, isn't it? Usually,
if any gospel writer mentions anyone in specific, oftentimes
it's who? It's Peter, isn't it? But here
John is, and as a side note, I don't have time to unpack this,
but there's a reason why Luke mentions that John said this,
by the way. But John said it. John had the
problem. He was the spokesperson for the
disciples. And he makes this complaint,
and please, notice what he says. He says, we tried to stop him
because he does not follow with who. Us. You see that? He doesn't say because he doesn't
follow you. He says he doesn't follow us. The disciples still possess an
elitist and superior position in their standing with Jesus
and rebuke the man for not being with them. Now, think about this. John and the others think that
they're the greatest and that they're model citizens of the
kingdom. They don't get it. They didn't
have enough faith to heal the boy, did they? You didn't believe Jesus' second
passion prediction. You're arguing about who's the
greatest. And here this man is, casting out demons, and you can't. You can't even do it. And you're
rebuking the man for not being with you? No. You need to learn from this man.
Because he's doing good kingdom work. and you're bickering and
arguing. Making Jesus known is more important
than who makes him known, isn't it? It's said that it's easy to be
in unity when everyone agrees, right? The shortcomings of many
of us It's that we become so sectarian and so elitist that
we confuse our enemies with our friends. And what's fascinating among
all of us is that we believe that we think what the non-negotiables
are. But it eventually grows, and
the minor things, the tertiary issues, become major things,
don't they? The question really for you is
this. If you've got someone in your life doing God's business,
they don't have to conform to you or me. Look what he says
at the end. The one who is not against you
is what? For you. Ulrich Zwingli, who was the Swiss
reformer, he Him and Martin Luther got
along with about 95% of things until it came to the Lord's table.
Luther did not agree with the Catholic Church with transubstantiation,
but he did believe that as you partook of the bread, or as you
partook of the cup, that you received grace. Zwingli, on the
other hand, argued that it wasn't his literal body. Jesus used
repeatedly in the Gospel of John, he says, I am the door. Well,
Jesus is not literally a door. I'm the vine. Jesus isn't literally
a vine. And whether it's a like, or whether
it's an as, it doesn't matter. But this issue actually became
a big issue, and it prevented both the Swiss reformers and
the Jewish reformers from coming together. One of the men who I've had a
chance to really invest in over the last three years have been
George Whitefield. I know I've mentioned him several
times. I just can't put him down. He was the greatest evangelist
that has ever stepped foot in North America. And during his
campaign in the 1740s along the colonies as he was preaching,
One of his good friends, his college buddy, John Wesley, he published, who
was an Arminian, Calvinist, Whitfield was a staunch Calvinist. But
while Whitfield was preaching along the colonies, John Wesley
in Britain was publishing the tracts. that actually undermined
Whitefield's preaching. And so when Whitefield actually
came back to Britain, he was confronted with this. It was
a low blow. Proverbially, it took the steam out of Whitefield's
public evangelistic engine in many ways. And so when he found
out about this literature, someone had asked him and they
said, so Mr. Whitefield, Do you believe that
you're gonna see John Wesley in heaven? And Mr. Woodfield replied, no,
I don't think I'll see him in heaven because he'll be much
closer to the throne of grace than me. We need to make sure that we
distinguish between false teaching, heresy, and selfish personal
preferences. We need to make sure that just
because these people in this group, because they're not part
of our group, they're not part of Christ's group. The question
you need to ask is this, is Christ being proclaimed? and are the
essentials of the faith being heralded, Jesus gives the direction. The one who's not against you
is for you. Jesus didn't make any comment
on what the man was doing. So he's basically saying, hey
John, are you for me? You should be for him. Let him cast out
demons. He's doing a good work. And just as a side note, him,
this man casting out demons, you hear about someone casting
out demons, that's not something that you can let go. It doesn't
transfer to today. but others who, let me make it
simple, whether you've got one petal on your flower or whether
you've got four or five, it doesn't matter as long as Christ is to
be proclaimed. That's all that matters. I have
noted several times now that there is an allusion to the nation
of Israel. One of Moses' servants came and told him that other
men were prophesying. I guess they wanted to get Moses
to be upset. And then Moses says, this is
in Numbers 11, Moses said, are you jealous for my sake? I wish
that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would
put his spirit in all of us. Paul says, if Christ be preached,
I rejoice. and that should be the theme
of all of our lives. May we be a people who trust God at all
times, who submit to his revealed word, our humble servants, and
our fellow co-laborers with others who are committed to God's business. Let us pray. Father, again, we
are thankful for your word, thankful that there are areas in all of
our lives that haven't been conformed to your word, that we have grieved
your spirit, but that you welcome the broken and the contrite.
Thank you not only for the forgiving work, but the cleansing work
of your spirit inside of us. And we're thankful for Jesus,
who who became sin, who was rendered sin for us so that we may receive
his righteousness. Thank you for the great exchange. Our rags for his riches. Give us grace. We'll walk in
faith and give you the thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.
Four Shortcomings of All Christians
Series The Gospel According to Luke
| Sermon ID | 1014231733104856 |
| Duration | 57:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Luke 9:37-50 |
| Language | English |
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