Wednesday Night, May 19, 2021 PM

Chapter 9, the last little bit of Luke chapter 9 verses 51 through 62 will be our devotional for tonight.

Let's begin with a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for gathering us together, I pray that our time reading your word would be profitable to our faith, that you would strengthen our faith, that you would encourage us in our walk with your son

Jesus Christ, I pray that we would see his worthiness, that you would humble us as we follow your calling upon our lives.

We thank you for your holy word that is breathed out by you, perfectly rendered and delivered to us that we may know who you are and what you desire and who we are and why we exist, may we glorify you tonight in our fellowship and in our prayers, thank you for loving us for the sake of your son

Jesus, it's in his name that we pray, amen. So Luke chapter 9 verses 62, now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face.

And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him, but they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.

And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said,

Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?

But he turned and rebuked them and said, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of for the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

And they went to another village. Now, what happened as they journeyed on the road, someone said to him,

Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

Then he said to another, follow me. He said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

Jesus said to him, let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.

But Jesus said to him, no one, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, but the kingdom of God.

So when we read this passage, there are some interesting extremes.

We noticed the extremes of James and John wanting to see if calling down fire and wiping out this

Samaritan village is the best course of action. Seems a little extreme.

We also have Jesus saying things like, no, you can't bury your father and you can't even say goodbye.

That sounds pretty extreme. And so here at the end of chapter nine, there are these items, these ideas that kind of catch our attention.

Why was Jesus rejected by the Samaritan village and why was

Jesus so harsh with the inquirers? You know what, what's going on here? It seems like nobody can get along from the beginning to the end of this passage.

Well, notice how it starts. Verse 51. Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

So what time is it in the ministry of Jesus? Okay. So apparently we're coming to the cross, crucifixion.

That's what's going to happen when he, eventually when he gets to Jerusalem, the hour has come.

The hour has come, glorify your son, John 17. Jesus sets his face like flint towards Jerusalem because the time has come.

Now what's going to happen in Jerusalem? He's already told them. He's already told his disciples what's going to happen in Jerusalem.

And he told them and well, at one point, verse 21 of chapter nine, he strictly warned and commanded them to tell this to no one, that he's the

Christ of God saying, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes.

Now, where do they live? They live in Jerusalem. Okay. So he has to be rejected by these folks who live in Jerusalem and be killed to be raised the third day.

And then later on, he says something that the disciples were afraid to ask him about.

It sounded so strange to them. And he said to his disciples, the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.

Well, we don't understand what that means. And they were a little scared to ask about it. All that's going to happen at Jerusalem.

So he set his face toward Jerusalem because the time had come, but what does the text say?

To be taken up. So where was the focus of Jesus?

What was the goal? Where was it all heading? The goal was not to be brutally mistreated and to be unjustly treated and to be murdered and killed upon the cross, though that was necessary.

And it was a righteous and good thing in the plan of God. And at the very heart of why we can have forgiveness of our sins, that he would die on the cross propitiating the wrath of God.

That wasn't the penultimate goal. That wasn't the ultimate goal.

It's not just the death of resurrection, the death of Jesus Christ, but also the resurrection. Without the resurrection, we are still in our sins,

Paul says. Otherwise, the cross does not save.

The cross does not save. The Protestant cross has no Jesus on it.

The Catholic crucifix has him on it. Jesus rose from the dead.

That is essential for our salvation, but he didn't stay very long afterwards.

He stayed for a while, but the time had come for him to be received up.

What was the goal that he was looking forward to? For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

Yes, that's right. The joy set before him was when he ascends to the

Father. We have several different pictures in the scriptures, but he receives power, authority, dominion, a name which is above every name, glory, and honor.

He reigns from the right hand of the Father even now. This is where he's headed.

The time had come to pass, the time had come for him to be received up. For the joy set before him, he endures the cross.

So he sets his face to go to Jerusalem. So it was through suffering that he went on to glory.

This is how he brings many sons to glory, Hebrews 2 says. Christ is the pathfinder, the captain, the author, our chief in this, that he goes through suffering to glory and brings us with him, brings us with him.

So his goal was not death, ascension, but of course, what was necessary.

Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me, but not as I will, but as you will. And the cup was necessary.

And so for the joy set before him, he heads to Jerusalem. He knows what's going to happen there.

He's already told his disciples what's going to happen there. But he's heading there anyway, heading there anyway.

Now, he's got to go down from Galilee to Jerusalem.

And you had a variety of different ways you could go. You could take the King's Way out through Jericho.

You could take the way of the sea out by the coast. Or you could go overland straight down the gullet of Samaria.

And that was not an attractive option for the Jews. To go through the land of Samaria, because it was filled with Samaritans.

And they had a longstanding problem with the Samaritans. Anybody know who the Samaritans were, by the way?

It wasn't a rival baseball team. Anybody know who the Samaritans were?

Yeah, they were half breeds, as they would say.

They were those who did not go into exile with the

Jews into Persia, Babylon, and so on. There were those who stuck around, had maybe fled to the hills, or so on and so forth.

They stuck around the area. And they intermarried with the people who were around them, just like they did in the days of the judges and so on.

They were considered turncoats, traitors, half breeds, so on and so forth. And being isolated from the rest, they began to come up with their own ideas, own understandings of things.

And they believed they were to worship on one particular mountain. Remember the conversation

Jesus had with the Samaritan woman? They thought they would worship on one mountain, and the Jews said, no, you have to worship on Mount Zion.

And they had a big theological controversy. And they both thought each other were heretics.

Remember that one of the big breakthroughs of the gospel in Acts was when

Philip went to Samaria, and he preached the gospel to Samaritans.

And they began to come to Christ. And then the apostles came down.

They're kind of slow on that. They were always against that moving out of their comfort zone.

But that was a big breakthrough, that they would begin to evangelize the

Samaritans. Well, Jesus sent some messengers ahead of him to let them know that, hey, check out the hospitality of the next town.

They don't use hotels and inns very often at all. And the idea in that ancient world was you would show up in a town and go to the city gate or the town square or the marketplace area, and somebody would take you in.

That was just the way everybody did it. Everybody expected it from everybody else. And if you didn't do it, you belonged to one of the worst towns in history.

It was a shame thing. Well, Jesus sends some messengers ahead because he's got kind of a larger group.

So see if there's enough accommodations in this next village. Now, Samaritans did not mind

Galileans too much. But, again, they hate Jerusalem. They hate them.

So when they hear, oh, you're heading to Jerusalem? Sorry, no room.

Yeah, we don't mind your Galilean accent and so on and so forth, but we don't. If you have any dealings with Jerusalem, we're not interested.

We're not going to facilitate you doing anything in Jerusalem. If you're going to the temple there, we're on total ends of the spectrum.

We're not going to support you. We're not going to help you. So this gives occasion for James and John to be very upset.

And in Mark's account, this is Mark 3, Jesus gives James and John a nickname after their suggestion of blowing up the town,

Sons of Thunder. I think the

Aramaic is Bunarges, Sons of Thunder, because they want him to call down fire or have them command fire to come down out of heaven and consume them in Elijah's style.

Like the false prophets of Baal saw the fire come down on the altar at Carmel, and then they all died as judgment.

They think the same thing should happen here. So they have a lot of confidence in Jesus, obviously. But again, this is another occasion for them to be more clear on the mission of Christ.

He has exemplified before his disciples, and he has equipped his disciples.

We see this throughout the beginning part of Luke 9, to preach the gospel in connection to acts of mercy.

Heal the sick, heal the lame, cure the disease, cast out demons.

These are all acts of mercy. What are they wanting to do here? What kind of act do they want here?

Yes. Jesus is exemplified and equipped them to do acts of mercy.

What they want to do here is an act of justice. You see the contrast?

These are not the same thing. Mercy would be healing the sick.

Mercy would be feeding the hungry. Mercy would be casting out demons.

That's mercy. Justice is encountering heretic blasphemers and the wrath of God coming down and consuming them.

That's justice. So these things are polar opposites, and we observe that here.

So Jesus is saying, look, guys, this is not my purpose in, this is not my mission.

I've come to save, not to destroy. Vengeance.

And Jesus will orchestrate and arrange for judgment and vengeance.

But it's on his timing, and it's not now. Later on in chapter 10,

Jesus has a lot to say about judgment of God against those who reject

Christ and so on. And he assures them that it's coming. But when he came to die and be raised and to sin, this was preaching the gospel.

This was coming to save men's lives, to warn them of the wrath to come, to warn them.

So Jesus' mission, his goal was not vengeance, but mercy, calling people to salvation, to repent of their sins and be saved.

He's showing his priorities to his disciples.

These are his priorities, and they need to be their priorities.

So we keep on reading, and we see that as they journey along, some want to get involved, some want to follow

Jesus. One volunteers, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus says, well, even the wild beasts have a place to hole up, but I have nothing.

There's nothing. The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. This is in great contrast to even those in Israel's history.

I mean, even Moses had a place to lay his head. Jacob had a place to lay his head. He had a rock pillow, but at least he had a place to lay his head.

The Son of Man doesn't even have that. Moses and all their wanderings through the wilderness, they had their tents, they had a place to lay their head.

Jesus says he doesn't have one place to lay his head. And then notice this. He actually calls another, follow me, like he would some of the other disciples.

Like he would say to Matthew or to Philip or so on, follow me.

But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And there's a whole lot packed into that about the duties of a son to his father when he is infirm.

And then there is a lot of detail that the

Jewish tradition gives about how you're supposed to handle these situations. And then when it's time to bury the dead, the oral tradition of the rabbis suspended everything else in order for someone to go bury their dead.

That was more important than anything else, more important than studying Torah, more important than the

Sabbath, more important than anything. You could suspend everything else to go bury your dead. And you had to do it right.

And there's all sorts of laws of cleanliness and so on and so forth. You had to be very, very careful. So there was a ton of rules, but it took precedent over everything else.

And so this is a very natural thing for this man to say, well, first I would go bury my father.

Well, that takes precedence over everything, right? Jesus says, no. No, it doesn't. And then we have someone else say, well,

I can follow you if you won't. I'll follow you, but I just want to go home and say bye to the folks first.

And then Jesus says, nope, sorry, can't. Nobody who puts his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Well, this is interesting as well. So remember the calling of Elijah?

Elisha was walking down the road and he sees Elisha. Now, what is Elisha doing?

Plowing. And when Elijah calls Elisha to follow him, what does

Elisha do? He says, I will follow you, teacher, but first I'm going to go back and say goodbye to everybody.

And Elijah says, that'll be fine. And Elisha does. See, following Jesus is way more of a big deal than following Elijah.

You see the contrast? Yeah, is it showing us that Jesus is

God and Elisha is a man, a prophet? That's right. So when

Jesus is using these statements, it's definitely a hyperbole. Like he would say, if your right hand offends you, cut it off.

If your right eye offends you, pluck it out. He's making a point. He's making a point here, and it's rooted in the

Old Testament. It's rooted in Jewish tradition even. He's saying, you know, with Moses you had a place to lay your head.

You're not going to have it with me, but following me is more important than following Moses. You think it's more important to go bury your dead because your tradition is built upon the law, but no, it's not more important than following me.

Jesus is more important. Jesus' words are more important than following the law, the oral tradition, and so on.

And wouldn't that be shocking to a Jew? Very. Yeah, all this is very shocking. I mean, shocking to us because we think, oh, that's kind of harsh.

But they understood what he was getting at, so it would be even more of an impact. And then finally, following Jesus is more important than following Elijah.

Now, this end of the chapter, you see, is an echo from what happened earlier in the chapter, the transfiguration.

You go back to chapter 9, verses 28 through 35. Now, it came to pass about eight days after these sayings that he took

Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the appearance of his face was altered, and his robe became white and glistening.

And behold, two men talked with him who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, or as we talked about, his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Right? And in our passage, he's talking about his ascension. So he must go to Jerusalem.

Right? Hear that echo, that connection, and then Moses and Elijah. But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep, and when they were fully awake, they saw his glory in the two men who stood with him.

Then it happened, as they were parting from him, that Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah, not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came over and overshadowed them, and they were fearful as they entered the cloud.

And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved son. Hear him. Hear him.

Not traditions. Hear him. It's not about Moses. Hear him. It's not about Elijah.

Hear him. Right? And they've come to talk with him about his exodus that he's going to accomplish when he gets to Jerusalem.

What does Paul say happens when Jesus ascends? He takes the captives with him.

Right? Elijah and Moses talked to Jesus about his exodus.

Oh, he's going to liberate captives? Okay. Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up.

Exodus is coming. Someone greater than Moses is here. Someone greater than Elijah is here.

Somebody whose words matter way more than your traditions is here.

And this is the emphasis here as these three different individuals do not end up following Jesus because of the contrast.

Following Jesus means more than following Moses. It means more than following tradition, more than following Elijah. He is the fulfillment.

Now, this is important for a Jew because just as Jesus has said, and it matters to everybody, no matter if you're a

Jew or Gentile, to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me, he says.

Right? So if we're going to follow him, we have to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Forsaking all else, follow him.

For the Jew, they're going to have to do what? They're going to have to lay down Moses to follow

Christ who fulfills Moses. He'll tell them what Moses means. They're going to have to lay down their traditions and follow

Jesus. He'll tell them what the law means. They're going to have to lay down Elijah and follow

Jesus. He's the great prophet. You see, and are they willing to do that or not?

That's the big question here at the last part of chapter nine. Are they willing to do that or not? Yes, exactly.

They're blind to what they're seeing. Yes. They're not understanding the difference. Peter's expressing the sentiment that the regular

Jews would have. Yeah, another great rabbi has risen. No, it's no.

Christ fulfills. He is the fulfillment. He is superior too.

So, and this fills in nicely with the beginning part of our story where the disciples are like, hey, let's do what

Elijah did. Right? They're in that mode. Let's call down fire like Elijah.

Right? They're in that mode of thinking, and Jesus, you've got to break free of that. No, no, this is not. We're not on par here.

To follow Christ means setting aside all of our own personal agenda.

Jesus is the son of man. He says it again and again. He's the son of man who brings the kingdom of God to save those who forsake all to follow him.

Following Jesus means we set aside all of our own personal agendas, whatever those are.

So, what are the priorities of Jesus? His priority was to reign. The time had come for him to be received up.

That's his priority, to reign. His priority is to save. Okay? And these things should be our priorities as well, submitting to his reign, rejoicing in his salvation, making that known.

These are his priorities. And does justice need to be done?

Does vengeance need to be wrought? Yes. Yes, most definitely yes.

And thankfully, Christ being the son of man and God having all power and all sovereign power, we can wait upon his timing for that.

We can wait upon his timing for that. We're not in control of that. We can certainly leave it to him.

We can certainly pray about that. It is actually very helpful to pray for God to take his vengeance in his way in his time and not be consumed in fret and worry about the great wrongs and evils that are being done.

To actually pray and give that over to God is very helpful for the soul. And I think this text is also saying we've got to follow

Jesus where he leads, as the hymn says. Where he goes, wherever he leads,

I'll go. And very often that will mean, like we said, putting aside our own personal agendas.

Okay, any questions or thoughts about this last part of Luke 9? Peter sees this fantastic and amazing supernatural.

He still is kind of hesitant. It's almost like he still doesn't get it.

I always thought that Peter never really got it until after Christ left and the Holy Spirit was sent.

And then he seemed to settle down and be a little bit more reasonable and hot -headed.

Somebody I heard describe Peter as somebody that always entered the room mouth -first.

Yeah, and Peter says later in one of his letters that the transfiguration experience was not as important as the word of God.

Oh, wow. The word of God gives us a more sure testimony than any supernatural experience.