without the justice developing any kind of personal emotional bias against those that are bringing the arguments to the bench. They should, the nominees or the evaluators of this nominee should want to examine whether or not this particular nominee can uphold the Constitution in spite of what might be public opinion not in favor of the decisions that actually are based on the Constitution and not a rewriting or a new interpretation of it. They should also want to examine or ascertain whether this nominee can maintain a spirit of cooperation with his or her judicial colleagues on the high bench, seeing as how they are going to have to work together And they're gonna have to work together through some times and some decisions and arguments in which there may be significant disagreement. But can they do that with a temperament of collegial grace? You see, just because a person may be brilliant as a jurist, and they may know constitutional law, He or she still has to interact with competing and sometimes violent disagreements about the direction in which a decision that they're working through will go. They have to be able to maintain their judicial objectivity. And without a right temperament, they are not going to be able to function effectively in order to serve the people, to serve the nation. And that is what they are called to do. The same thing was true for the disciples of Jesus Christ, certainly in a different way and for a different purpose. And at the point that we are coming to in the text that we encounter this morning, at this point in the life of Christ, it was only six months before he would enter into Jerusalem on Passover week, and at the end of that week, he would be crucified. and then he would rise from the dead and he would commission these disciples that he was with here in Luke chapter nine, he would commission them to be representatives for him in the world and to reproduce themselves in order to send out more disciple makers into the world. That would be the commission of the Lord Jesus Christ for them. Now, the disciples, would need to be able to reproduce the temperament of Jesus in order for them to be effective as representatives of him and the message of the kingdom to come. It wouldn't just be sufficient for them to know the doctrine, to recall the teachings of Jesus. Because there was more than a message, there was also a person who was the Savior that they needed to reproduce in their own conduct, in their own manner of transmitting His message. Fundamentally, a message of grace. So there was going to have to be training. There was going to have to be growth. There was going to have to be transformation of the temperaments of these men. And the same thing is true today for us. If you and I are going to be effective in Jesus calling to each one of us, to be representatives of Him, of course His message, but also Him, who He was, His character. We have to be growing in the temperament of the Lord Jesus Christ. That, my friends, is not natural. We did not come into a relationship with him having that temperament already in place. It becomes a lifelong quest. But it should be something that we see as fundamentally a directive from Jesus to us to submit to him so that we can be transformed into his character and we can be possessive of his temperament so that we can be effective to represent him just as much as the earliest disciples were. If this kind of devotion, if this kind of soul commitment to this kind of growth is not part of where you are and where you're going. You're gonna fall somewhere into the scope of failing witnesses who either say nothing or do nothing in complacency, or you will be one of those prickly or perhaps even offensive representatives of Jesus and the faith. Folks, we have got to be listening to Jesus. We have got to be imbibing the Spirit of the Word of God in order for this transformation to be working in us so that it can come out in that wonderful, marvelous representation of who He is. In our text today, which is from Luke chapter 9, verse 49 to 56, we encounter two teaching episodes. And these episodes have been brought together by Luke, the author of this gospel, to show us how needful it was for the Twelve to be in temperament training. There are other examples of temperament training in the Gospels, but these two are interesting, they come together, and they come together at this very significant moment in the life of our Lord, because you recall that he had just spent somewhere around two and a half weeks in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles, And while he had done some wonderful things there in the city, the capital of the nation, the center of Judaism, and he had taught some wonderful things, he continued to get nothing but blowback from the leadership. And the people watching their leaders and being intimidated because of the way the leadership operated, were continually backing away from Jesus, except for the few who could see and could hear in what he was saying, words of life. And they were compelled to come and say, how can a man who's not from God speak this way and do these things? But Jesus had left Jerusalem, he'd gone back up into Galilee, And we find him, as Luke describes, here on this occasion where he is teaching, and he is teaching his disciples. And it's early November, kind of a few weeks earlier than where we are here now. It's a little bit warmer in the climate of Palestine than it is here in Pennsylvania. But Jesus has traveled up to Galilee, And he is fully aware that in another couple of weeks he will return back to Jerusalem, back into the pit, and he will be there for dedication. And we'll see that again when we return to John chapter 10. Dedication was what we commonly know of today as Hanukkah, the Jewish celebration of lights. But back then it was particularly focused on the dedication of the temple. Then from Hanukkah forward, there would be three and a half months of ministry leading up to the final return to Jerusalem for his last Passover and the events of Passion Week. Now by this time, We've watched the disciples. We've seen that they're growing in their confidence. They're confident about who Jesus is, and they've seen what he can do. And they themselves had been sent out by Jesus on mission, and he had granted them authority. He had granted them powers. They had been able to dispatch demons. They had been able to heal people. They had had some very exciting experiences. And they were also proclaiming that the kingdom of God is at hand, and people need to repent, and people need to know who Jesus the Messiah is. And of course, their message was being confirmed by the things that they were empowered to do. But this practical training, as important as it was, was not enough. That was sort of skill training. But there was messenger training as well as message training that needed to be taking place in these men. And much work lay ahead for Jesus to train these disciples so that their temperaments would be suitable for the apostolic ministry which they would be on their own doing once he ascended to heaven and he had commissioned them. And we see from this passage that at this point the disciples They appear to be like a veritable cluster of loose cannons in the way they bear themselves, the way they represent Jesus. Now let's look at the beginning here of this passage at verse 49 in Luke chapter 9. And first Luke shows us Jesus teaching that the temperament of thankfulness must overrule jealousy. The temperament of thankfulness must overrule jealousy. Now the first two verses of this passage in 49 and 50 record a statement from John about an experience that he must have been thinking about, certainly he had experienced, and we don't know if he had just recently experienced this or maybe this was something that had happened during the mission that Jesus has sent the 12 out to do two by two earlier, which would have taken place about eight months prior to this moment. We're not told. But it's in the mind of John. I wonder if in the presence of Jesus, he's recalling this and feeling a slight bit of burden as to whether or not it was appropriate. And you'll see why he might have had some concern about that in just a moment. Look at verse 39. We saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us. Now, when you hear this, it sounds like John was interested to find out whether or not his actions had been appropriate. Notice how he says, we tried to stop him. So he's, whether it was John alone or not, he's adding the disciples in. We do that a lot of times too. I'm not the only one who said it. He's gathering the disciples in here in that little word, we. Don't miss those. I wonder if the other disciples said, wait a minute, John. Hey, that was you, buddy. But in this case, we're not told, so we just assume that the others are standing by going, yeah, yeah, that's the way it went down. Had they been justified in trying to protect Jesus' campaign from being polluted from what might have been considered a renegade exorcist? He was driving out demons in your name. but he doesn't follow us. Catch that? He doesn't follow us. Why didn't you say you, Jesus? John sounds like he felt this man had no business doing ministry that Jesus had specially authorized the 12 to do. So what disposition in the disciples is suggested by John's announcement? They were of the mentality that anyone not part of the select group of disciples should not be doing these kinds of things. After all, they were the authorized ones. Subtext, they were the privileged ones. In other words, rank has its privileges in the kingdom of God, right, Jesus? Oh, and they never said that to him, of course. But even deeper than this was a root attitude. And John, on behalf of the others, was expressing jealousy. About what? Well, in order to maintain the prestige of the inner circle. Now, basically, he's still looking for some personal recognition in this discipleship program. I mean, after all, if any Tom, Dick, or Reuben can do the kinds of things they're doing, you know, well, why don't they just stay at Capernaum? I mean, what makes them special? Where's the prestige? See that? Where's the recognition gonna be if everybody else didn't do this stuff? See, John is totally missing the point of the privilege that he has of being with Jesus. The exorcist that they saw, that person does not have this privilege of being with Jesus. But John is blowing, John's not paying attention to that. Because he, you see, he's wrapped up in prestige. The temperament of jealousy. What John and his brother and the other disciples were learning in close contact with Jesus was going to take them into a far greater satisfaction than the opportunity to cast out a few demons. You see what I'm saying? They were with him. And they were learning directly from the master. What a privilege. John's not making a count for that. Then in verse 50, Jesus explains why such helpers in his ministry should not be hassled or ridiculed. Because anyone who is not against those who minister the gospel is an ally. Look at what Jesus says in verse 50 in response. Don't stop him, Jesus told him, because whoever is not against you is for you. Huh. And basically, Jesus was saying, don't consider others who are ministering in support of what we're trying to do. Don't consider them as rivals. Look at them as allies. Just because they don't join our church or follow our method of doing ministry, they're not our opponents. Now, Remember, Jesus' message was unsettling from the day he got started. It's unsettling all throughout Galilee, all throughout Judea. And we're going to find that it's somewhat unsettling in Samaria, although in the early part of his ministry, there had been a great revival at Sychar with the woman at the well. But that hadn't transferred all through Samaria at this time. And we'll see that in just a moment. The Jesus message is unsettling. The scribes and the Pharisees rejected him. In spite of the miracles that he did, somehow they were able to just discount that. Oh, well. He says the wrong things. And later in chapter 12 of Luke's gospel, Jesus is gonna declare his own recognition that his ministry is one that's gonna divide people. So he's telling the disciples, what you get from me is not always winsome. It's not always peacemaking. It's not always healing. But that doesn't give you the excuse to be obnoxious and offensive and prickly. Let the message be what it is. And he says in Luke chapter 12, do you think that I came here to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division from now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. And Matthew puts it in a different way, but says essentially the same thing. I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. And that's the nature of the gospel. Folks, the gospel message will cleave between people who, in earthly relationships, we would assume would be very, very close. But the gospel message, when it's embraced, creates a brand new supernatural allegiance between a person's heart and that person's creator with whom they've experienced the wonder of reconciliation through belief in the redemptive work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. There's a new relationship that now is in the heart of a person, supersedes all other privileges, all other relationships. And the people around who are not benefiting from that kind of reconciliation with God, they don't get it. And when you're happy in the Lord, they're not happy. Because they don't get into that like you do. So for Jesus, if someone was not working against him, he considered that a kind of support. And it's the same way today with our society growing increasingly hostile to the Bible. We should be thankful for anyone who sincerely seeks to promote the message of Jesus and to speak out in support of his teachings. You know, anybody who's dropping the name of Jesus where they are and who can properly represent him and the gospel, We should be saying, you're an ally, not my opponent. And Jesus is telling us, if you think you're doing the right thing, do it. Let God exalt you by blessing you. And we here at Crossway, we have a big enough job getting the message of the gospel out into our community. We do not need to be sidetracked. by zeroing in on people who don't necessarily do it our way, aren't necessarily here in our church, but are still speaking in the name of Jesus out in our community. They are our allies, according to what Jesus is saying. Now, it's natural to believe that we have a great church for people to get involved in, and I hope you feel that way like I do. And if we're striving to keep focused on the essentials of what a biblical church is, and we're striving to cultivate the temperament of Jesus, we should feel confident that anybody who comes into this spiritual community is gonna thrive. And we hope that we are concerned that they do. I think you are. But it seems that Jesus was telling us to avoid getting wrapped up in criticizing other Christians' ministries. Let's just, we just don't need that. Okay, now the second lesson that Luke presented was Jesus teaching that the temperament of patience must prevail over anger. And in the next section of our text, it starts at verse 51, we see Luke recording the beginning of what was going to be the focus of the Lord going forward for the next six months or so, which I've said will be in various segments of travels. But what was happening here, as we'll see in verse 51, was Luke telling us that the thought focus of Jesus was now all about the ultimate getting to Jerusalem at Passover in six months. In spite of the fact that he knew that there would be another many intervening activities and travels before that, but that becomes his focus. Look at verse 51. The days were to a close for him to be taken up. He determined to journey to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of him and on the way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him. But they did not welcome him because he determined to journey to Jerusalem. In this incident, Jesus seeks to purge out of James and John an inappropriate spirit of indignation. An indignation that flares up over the fact that this village of Samaritans is not offering hospitality to the Lord. I mean, our great Messiah. And the text tells us that Jesus and his group was heading to Jerusalem. This would be, by the way, the trip to Jerusalem that would be one of those intervening trips in which he would be there for dedication, which was the end of December. So reaching Jerusalem is approximately six and a half, seven weeks away at this point. Now at this time, in relations between Samaritans and Jews, there was just fundamental hostility between these two. The Jews considered the Samaritans half-breeds. They were the ancestors of the Jews that the Assyrians had moved into Palestine when they had conquered the ten northern tribes and had transported the ten northern tribes of Jews out of the land and replaced them with Gentiles from other lands that they had conquered. And then the Jews that were the scrubs that had been left there in Palestine in the northern part of Israel, they intermarried with these Gentiles, these goyim that had come in from the northern territories brought in by the Assyrians, Assyrians. And so the Jews who were the purebred Jews considered these half-breeds as unapproachable. And the Samaritans, to them, Jerusalem was no center of worship. Mount Gerizim was, and that was because they only held to the five books of Moses. They didn't hold to the other writings of the Jews, the history, the poetry, the prophets. And since only Gerizim was noted as a place of worship in the books of Moses, then Jerusalem was just invalid. And they'd also, this group had also been part of a conspiracy of peoples surrounding Judea. that fought against the returnees from Babylonian exile, rebuilding the temple and rebuilding the walls. Remember the episodes with Nehemiah and all the intrigues against the Jews he was trying to lead in this rebuilding of Jerusalem. Well, the Samaritans had played a major role in that, and that had not created happiness between these two peoples, and it continued to fester for 400 years, folks. So this animosity between these two groups can explain why the Samaritans were not particularly joyful and ready to welcome the entourage of Jesus and his disciples. I don't think it was that the Samaritans were hostile to the gospel. that caused them to not welcome Jesus. I really do think it was this inhibition due to racial prejudice, due to longstanding social unhealth between them that had gone on for generations. But James and John, they are very incensed. by this display against the conventions of hospitality and what they took as rejection of Jesus. They're upset. Look at verse 54. When the disciples James and John saw this, the rejection by the Samaritans, they said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them? Now, I use that tone of voice because look at what they were asking for. This was not, Lord, would you like us to call down fire upon them? No, no, no, no. What were they asking? Beloved, look at what they were asking for. They were asking for a violent execution of these people. Were they not? Shall we not call down fire from heaven to what? Consume, to kill them. What? Do you see why I'm saying this is a bunch of loose cannons who need some serious temperament transformation? Huh? Despite what James and John may have believed, Jesus was not on a mission of destruction. He was on a mission of mercy. Actually, in this situation, by refusing hospitality to Jesus and the travelers, think about it. The Samaritans may not have been destroyed physically by Jesus granting the disciples their vile request, but actually they lost out something even greater, didn't they? What did they lose out on? They lost out on receiving the message that would have brought them into reconciliation with the true God. which would have brought them into proximity, into their own houses, the Messiah. Do you see how sad it is? They got worse by their own choosing than James and John had even recommended. And yet James and John are so off from what Jesus is about. How did Jesus respond to James and John's violent proposal? Verse 55 tells us, he turned and rebuked them. We're not told what that rebuke contained. Would have been interesting. But some translations do add, and said, you don't know what kind of spirit you belong to. It's almost as though the scribe making the copy of the earliest manuscript of Luke's gospel said, there has to be something that he said here. And he said, I'll just make a suggestion. And he added it to the scroll that he was copying. You don't know what kind of spirit you belong to, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy people's lives, but to save them. And most commentators do not regard that edition as being part of the earliest manuscripts, based on their examination of most of the manuscripts of Luke, the earliest and the best quality preserved manuscripts. And that's why most of you will not see them in your translations, but some of you will. And in the end, it says in verse 56, and they went to another village. But I would make the point that a number of commentators make that I think is legitimate. This is not a situation in which you have a corruption of the Bible, because what the scribe added really is reflective of the temperament and the teaching of Jesus. So while it is inappropriate that they would add it, it's understandable that what they added really does reflect what Jesus could have said. So it does not really violate the tone of what Luke is trying to present. Now as the disciples of Jesus were heralds of an era of grace, So also are we. This is what our calling is. We're heralds of an era of grace. And we're called to announce a message of mercy even to those who are unkind to us, even to those who might be downright miserable and offensive towards us because of what we say, hopefully not because of how we behave. That's the point of the lesson. We speak of a love that was not overcome by evil, but overcame evil by sacrifice. You catch that? We overcome evil, as Paul put it in Romans 12, with love. But that love requires sacrifice because it's not fun. It's not easy. It's not comfortable to be rejected. Can I get an amen? But if we hope to be effectively representing the Lord Jesus Christ, just like his disciples, we have got to be able to face rejection and hostility with the kind of temperament that he is telling disciples they need to cultivate. I mean, Jesus did tell his disciples to expect rejection. He said in John chapter 15, if the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. Let's get real, folks. Jesus is telling us that this is not unusual, it should not be extraordinary, that you experience blowback from the world when you drop the name Jesus because it's about Him. They're having a problem with Him because He is a very narrow promoter of reconciliation with God. He says, it's only me. There is no other way except through me. You want to go to heaven, I'm the door. You want to have any other religion, you're out. That's the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead. But as I said, rejection is rarely painless. And the only way that you and I can cope with this real life phenomenon is if the goal of our relationships with people and our communications with people is what can we contribute to them? What kind of value can we add to their lives? But this is totally counterintuitive to the way the world operates. The world operates by saying, what am I going to get from these people? How do I get them to serve my purposes, my goals? And Jesus' whole point is, that's not what I'm about. I'm about what are you contributing to them? And then you see, brothers and sisters, when there's rejection, there's rejection of what you have tried to contribute to them. It's not about you. It's that they don't want what you have to offer, especially if it is backed up by in the name of Jesus. And if your goal is with people to contribute to them and they don't want any part of it, then you are free to accept in the marriage covenant you are free to back out of that relationship. Because after all, Jesus said in verse 56, or Luke tells us in verse 56, what Jesus did in reaction to the Samaritans. You see that? What did they do? They moved on. They went to another village. Patience and kindness have a powerful way of softening rejection. The thing is, you cannot control people's reactions, but you are responsible to control your bearing, your manners. And Jesus' honor and glory are not at stake if people reject him. Their eternal destiny is at stake. Jesus is Lord and sovereign God and king of the universe, coming king of this world, regardless of how they respond to him. But his reputation can be positively elevated when your response to their reactions, which may not be happy or healthy, when they are responses of patience and love. That's supernatural. That ain't natural. That's the transforming purpose of Jesus in your life. And whenever you speak up in the name of Jesus, understand this, get this, listen. Whenever you speak up in the name of Jesus, you are setting up an opportunity. You don't know how people will react, but you're setting up an opportunity that if there is negative blowback, you get the opportunity to present the temperament of Jesus by being kind and patient and gracious. And here's the thing. That disturbs people. That intrigues people. And it's hard to shake loose of being disturbed and intrigued. You see what I'm saying? You're throwing out, you're putting out there the crazy glue. They don't even know it's coming. And you see, we all have acceptance from God if we know Jesus. And we're in this place where Whatever people might do to us, we have acceptance with the God of the universe who made us and everyone else. What are we afraid of? We're accepted. Doesn't matter what you people reject us out there. We still got our acceptance. We're going home. Sorry for you all, but we're good. But without Jesus, people can't have it. But I'm telling you, they crave it. They want to be in a place where they will not be afraid of what people will say about them, to them, in reaction to them. Because everyone out there, all of your friends who don't know Christ, and all of us should know, we all make mistakes, we all say stupid things, we all offend people, sometimes totally unconsciously and without being aware of what we are doing. And they know that too. And it makes them afraid. every day that they may encounter rejection as a result. We don't need to be afraid of that. But we see clearly from this episode what Jesus desires of his disciples, and that is the temperament of patience and forbearance, not anger and retaliation. And sometimes the hardest rejection to deal with is not from strangers, but from friends and loved ones. And you guys are going to be, you know, at homes and Thanksgiving and your families will be together and they may not all agree with you spiritually, you know, and maybe some other dimensions. But this is going to be your time to practice cultivating the temperament. of grace and patience. Slowness to take offense. Making an effort to see if there's been any improper temperament presented that has caused an offense. Reflecting, just like the disciples did in the first situation, reflecting on, hmm, I wonder if we had the right approach there. That's good. and considering whether you really tried to contribute something positive to the relationship. This is what Jesus expected from his disciples, and just like the work that he's going to do in them over the next six months of the time that he had with them before the cross, this is what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life for however long it is before he says, homecoming time. And he wants to mold us into effective representatives of who he is, the gracious, loving Savior. Get it? Let's pray. Father, we're in need of temperament transformation. We thank you for the body of Christ. We thank you that together we can help each other's blind spots, and we can hold each other up to the mirror of your word, to the wonder of who Christ is, and we can change because the power for that is within us. We have been delivered from the binding power of sin and we can grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is our quest, which is our prayer, in his name, amen.