[0:00] Please join me in Luke chapter number 9. We do serve a gracious king, and it's in his word that we learn that. We have a God that has revealed himself to us, and that we can know that.
[0:12] And one of the ways that we see that he is a gracious king is in the way that he is patient with his disciples. Last week we went on the Mount of Transfiguration with three of the disciples, and we read about something that we have not yet experienced.
[0:25] They saw the glory of the Lord, and then they were there with Moses and Elijah. And the challenge that we all had was that we, just like these disciples who were facing a hard task and knowing that in following Jesus he would face death, and they would, and they needed to take up their cross.
[0:44] But then they beheld the glory of God, which brought incredible encouragement to them. It brought great clarity about what God was doing. But it's a real challenge to relate with that story because we haven't been in that.
[0:54] I am very thankful for the passage that we're about to go to here in Luke chapter 9. And just as we read together, we're going to see these disciples are far from perfect.
[1:06] When you read the different gospel records, I'm always interested in what gets included in Luke that isn't included in Mark or what we might learn. And we try to think about what is the reasoning for that.
[1:17] Why is this story told over several verses in one book and then another? And we try to see the intent. And this group of passages, some of the stories that are longer in other gospel records are real short, but they're just in short order telling us.
[1:30] And the summary of it is these disciples are just like us. They're very much far from perfect. They struggle with many things, and God is patient with them.
[1:40] And I have to admit that I enjoy reading this more than I should. I feel like I may need to apologize to the disciples when I meet them in heaven for how much I enjoyed reading about them mess up in the Bible.
[1:52] Because I just relate so much with that. The overarching thing that would shadow, the shadow over this passage is seen in verse number 44, which is, Let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men.
[2:10] That's a good expression. You may use it with your kids this week, right? Let this sink down into your ears. Here's the truth. I keep telling it to you, but you are fighting it going into your heart and mind.
[2:21] You're hearing it. You have the ability to comprehend it, but you're fighting it. And that's what he's telling them. And they're showing some immaturity. They're just showing, they're acting in a way that many of us do, myself included.
[2:33] But remember, these guys are doing this in real time. They're out on the street. I mean, they're learning the truth and they're having to put it in the practice. They're not in a controlled environment like we are in here. We're in a controlled environment where in the summer, it's cold in here.
[2:46] And in the winter, it's cold in here. All right? It's a controlled environment. We can make it whatever we want it to be. And so here the disciples are reacting very quickly.
[2:57] And you say, well, if I was sitting in church that day and I had an opportunity to reflect on what they heard and I had an invitation, I might have got that right. Well, what if you're in the middle of the road and you're having to act?
[3:08] We all know what happens, right? Does every one of you that came here on Sunday also live Monday through Saturday? And you know that sometimes, many times, living out what we know to be true is more difficult in real time.
[3:21] And so we're going to see that here from these far from perfect followers as they end the Galilean time of ministry. When we say followers, often that's considered a negative word.
[3:32] You tell your kids, don't be a follower, be a leader. And there's some truth to that. If the kids that they're getting around are leading them in the wrong direction, they need in the right way. But the word follower is not a bad word at all.
[3:44] Before I'm ever called to lead anything in my family or in a church, I'm called to be a follower of Jesus. That is my primary calling in life. And the same for you as a follower of Christ.
[3:56] And so it helps us to see other followers and their struggle and the gracious king, the faithful king that was just sung about, and his patience with them. I know we haven't read the passage yet.
[4:07] But before we do, let me remind you what we saw in Luke chapter number 9, that they were going to be chosen representatives of the Lord. He said, then he called his 12 disciples together, and he gave them power and authority over all devils to cure diseases.
[4:21] And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. They were going to be a demonstration of his compassion. They were also going to distribute hope. Where they went, they were going to preach the kingdom.
[4:32] They were going to preach repentance. They were going to heal the sick. They were going to show the character and nature of our God. And they were going to preach the gospel. And in that area where people were learning about Christ, they had such a high responsibility.
[4:45] Wherever they went, people said, oh, you're of that group. You're one of those little Christ. You're one of those little Jesus people that are going around. You're a follower of the way. You're in the truth.
[4:57] And so they were being called many things. They were called in Christ. You know, way beyond being called Christians, which I think happens twice, we're called in Christ throughout the Bible over and over. It's that association that we are in him, that we follow him.
[5:10] And they have that responsibility. But you know, we also, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5.20, now we are ambassadors for Christ. Representatives. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead.
[5:24] Be reconciled, representatives, ambassadors, a reflection in 1 Peter 2.11. It causes strangers. It causes pilgrims, which means that our citizenship is placed in another place, in another world, and that we are now passing through the world that we are in as strangers and pilgrims.
[5:43] If you're strange, that's optional, all right? Not necessary. But you're a stranger to this world. We're pilgrims in this world, and we represent another kingdom. Our allegiance is there before it is in any other place.
[5:59] So where they went, they had a responsibility to reflect the kingdom they were from. They had a responsibility to be an ambassador of Jesus. And now we follow right after them and our responsibility and where we go to be as ambassadors and to reflect as well.
[6:14] And these disciples are far from perfect, as we will see in the text. Before I read, I'll give you six things to look for. Jesus is going to succeed in an exorcism where the disciples have failed.
[6:25] The disciples are not going to understand his mission in this world. The disciples need to learn their human ideas of greatness do not belong in the kingdom of God. They're going to learn that the boundaries of God's work and grace are wider than the disciples thought that it was.
[6:41] That he's going to lead and he's going to head to Jerusalem, and he's going to have to rebuke the disciples who desire to retaliate to those that had rejected him. And so just in short order, we just see the disciples being far from perfect.
[6:55] Verse 37 of Luke 9, And Jesus answering said,
[8:22] Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us. And it came to pass, when the time was come, that he should be received up. He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers before his face, and they went and entered into a village of Samaritans to make ready for him.
[8:38] And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when the disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, even as Elias did?
[8:50] But he turned and rebuked them, and he said, Ye know not what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
[9:01] Heavenly Father, I ask that you would allow me to give the intent of this passage to your people, where that the encouragement would come, that you and following you, Lord, we should mature in our understanding.
[9:12] Lord, thank you for being a kind and gracious and patient king. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So you already see some of the problems that we have here. Or some of you may already see yourself in some of these disciples and the problems that they are facing as we would read this.
[9:30] A good portion of the passage has to do with the healing of a young man. And we've seen several miracles by now, and we're going to see more. And if you make this the lesson of healing that Jesus can heal, which is most certainly true, the question would be, why do we keep hearing that Jesus is healing?
[9:47] Well, around these healings, there's other things that we are going to learn. Like, for example, in this one, we learn that Jesus brought healing, but the disciples that were with him, which he had given power to exercise, to have demons come out of people, they had not believed him, and they were not able to do this.
[10:04] So first off, we see how helpless they are without Jesus. It becomes very clear. As they were up on the mountain, up on the mount, Jesus with three of the disciples.
[10:15] So people came to the disciples, verse 40, to cast him out, and they could not. And they saw that. So down from the hill, down to a normal, messy life.
[10:26] Verse 37, when they were come down from the hill, much people met him. It's as if Luke is taking us right from this Mount of Transfiguration, right back down into the trouble of everyday life.
[10:39] And down here in the normal, everyday life, the disciples didn't lack the power or the resources, but they lacked the faith in God to do what he had commanded them to do. They were not believing the word.
[10:51] And so it's the other gospel records that show us, that's the application in this passage. It says, that tells us in Luke 9, 35, remember the Mount of Transfiguration, he's telling them, this is my beloved son, hear him, listen to his words.
[11:05] Very easy for me to point my finger to the disciples and say, you know what, Jesus gave you authority over demons, why didn't you believe his word? Why weren't you able to do this? Matthew 17, it tells us it's a matter of belief.
[11:18] Verse 19, it says, Then came the disciples, this is the same story as recorded in Matthew, then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto him, because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if you have the faith, the grain of a mustard seed, you shall say unto this mountain, remove hence the yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you, howbeit this kind goeth out by prayer and fasting.
[11:45] He told them the reason they weren't able to do this is they did not believe his word. I'd like to make a little sidebar, a side note here, that there is a false teaching, a word of faith movement that says that a person can't be healed because their faith is not great enough.
[12:01] And so that a person would come, they would come to a great crusade, a person would go forth and say, I'm going to heal you, and that person would say, well, I'm not healed, and the person would say, it's because your faith is not strong enough.
[12:12] That's not what this passage is teaching here. We're looking at a group of disciples that have been given power and authority to bring healing and to cast out demons here, and they did not believe God's word as given to them as the apostles at that time.
[12:27] And so when I point my finger to these disciples and say, come on, guys, he just told you a couple chapters ago, and I know they didn't measure things by chapters, they didn't have a watch on that was chapter oriented, right? But they just told you that you could do this, and now that he's gone, and three of your main disciples aren't there, you lack the belief, and then I ask myself, well, he also told me that all things work together for good.
[12:50] He also told me that his word would not return void. He also told me that lacking believing his word is going to shape my life, and I ask myself, I'm in the same situation these disciples are, which is not believing his word in the middle of the road when the test has really come and being given to me.
[13:08] It's easy to obey God on the mountain, but it's real difficult down in the street and in real life and in real time. So we see a lack of belief in them, a lack of trust. We also see a lack of spiritual discernment.
[13:20] It's not intellectual comprehension, but it is letting this sink down into your ears. Don't you understand? See, their believing is not in that they can't cast out demons is not as big as the fact that they're not believing that he is going to head to a cross.
[13:35] And so they lack the discernment. Discernment doesn't just come from proximity to Jesus. They are literally walking with him every day, but they're not able to discern the things of God.
[13:46] They're not able to understand what he is saying. And we'll look at this in a little bit to know that discernment is just not a matter of having knowledge, but it's a matter of obedience. If you want to grow from being a babe in Christ to growing to being a mature believer, you're going to have to exercise discernment, which means obedience.
[14:04] And then we see very plainly here their self-centeredness. Then there arose a reasoning among them which of them should be the greatest. Right after he told them he was going to go to the cross and died, the conversation that they're going to have is, well, which one of us around here is going to be the greatest?
[14:20] But we love this kind of stuff, right? As Americans, we love this. 1964, 22-year-old boxer from Kentucky defeated the world heavyweight champion and on a microphone was thrust into his face.
[14:32] This is what he declared. I am the greatest. I'm the greatest thing that ever lived. I've just turned 22 years old and I upset the heavyweight champion of the world. I must be the greatest. I've showed the world.
[14:42] I've shook the world. I'm the king of the world. Listen to me. I'm the greatest. I can't be beat. And you know him as Cassius Clay or Muhammad Ali, right? He was very good at hyping things up.
[14:54] And that's kind of comical in the world that he lives in. And if I'm about to be punched by a heavyweight champion, I would probably want to psych myself up pretty well as well, you know, as part of his mentality.
[15:05] But in other areas of life, there's a book, Rhonda Burns, called The Secret, number one seller for a long time. And here's The Secret. This is what she would tell you to tell yourself.
[15:16] The earth turns on its orbit for you. The oceans ebb and flow for you. The birds sing for you. The sun rises and sets for you. The stars come out for you. Every beautiful thing you see, every wondrous thing you experience is all there for you.
[15:31] Take a look around. None of it can exist without you. No matter who you thought you were, now you know the truth of who you really are. You're the master of the universe. You're the heir to the kingdom.
[15:43] You're the perfection of life. And that is the secret. I think even Muhammad Ali is going to blush at that. Like, calm down, lady. That's a little bit much, isn't it? And so that's the kind of selling that's going to be done.
[15:54] You will have no, you'll have an endless market if you can write and produce books like that because that is everybody's favorite message, a self-centeredness that the world doesn't exist.
[16:06] This room did not exist until I walked into it. Everything's a blank canvas until I walk into it. It's a self-centered way of thinking. It is addressing a problem that you'd have of brokenness and feeling alone and shame and applying another form of sin, of pride and self-centeredness to us.
[16:24] Your completeness ought to come in the fact that Jesus Christ loved and died for you. It doesn't come from telling yourself that you are the master of the universe. And so that's some heavy stuff that's written in a book.
[16:36] But these disciples, that's something else, isn't it? They're having a conversation that they knew they shouldn't be having. And then they're territorial, verse 49. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name and we forbade him because he followeth not with us.
[16:51] We told him, you need to stop doing what you're doing right now. You're not one of us, so stop doing that. So it was his instinct to protect the distinctiveness of the Jesus brand, that there's a worldly motivation defending his group's own interest.
[17:05] It might have been that John's attitude was perhaps motivated by the fact that he was jealous because this one man's having great success as their disciples have failed. And this should not be the attitude among us as believers.
[17:18] In Numbers 11, it talks about Moses. They come to him and there's some unauthorized prophecy. And what was Moses' answer? Verse 29, he says, And Moses said unto him, Envious thou for my sake?
[17:31] Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord put his spirit upon them. So when you hear about other people doing something and that God's working through their lives, we rejoice, right?
[17:43] We're not protecting our brand. We rejoice in what they're doing. But here are the disciples being territorial and saying, This is getting out of bounds. We can't control this. These guys aren't part of us.
[17:53] They're not part of our brand. They're not part of our group. If things are starting to happen, we're supposed to have a monopoly on what God is doing. And he tells them that is not the way to view life in the ministry.
[18:04] This is a disease that can plague us if we believe that we are indispensable, that we're the only ones that can perform anything. Ministry is not a franchise and we do not have an exclusive license to it.
[18:16] That we rejoice when we hear that God is working through other churches and through other people and they were territorial. And that's shown in their self-centeredness. We just see they're going through a bad day, aren't they?
[18:28] We've already read it. And it was all grouped together in short order for us so you would not miss that these were far from perfect. Then they go on to resist his mission. Verse 51, it says, And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up.
[18:41] He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. Steadfastly set his face to Jerusalem. They were working, those in his family, and disciples were trying to keep him from going to Jerusalem.
[18:55] They knew what Jerusalem was about. They knew that in Jerusalem he would be handed over to people and that he would die and they're constantly resisting it. Remember in Luke 4, 8, Jesus answered and said, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.
[19:12] What was it that Peter was suggesting? It was just basically, Don't go to Jerusalem. Let's just change the mission a little bit. And so they're resisting his mission in this world. And then lastly, we see here verse number 53 through 55, And they did not receive him because his face was though he would go to Jerusalem.
[19:31] And his disciples, James and John, saw this and said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did? This is just unbelievable, isn't it?
[19:42] They're walking with Jesus so people didn't accept him and they say, Do you want us to call fire down from heaven like Elijah did and smoke this place? All right? And man, he spoke for so many of us so many times.
[19:58] Jesus' ministry and the incarnation that we just celebrated at Christmas, it did not call fire down upon sinners, but his mission was that he would come down and he would be consumed by God's wrath for sinners, that he would pay the price, that he would come and he would absorb the wrath, that he would stand in the place for us and now they were completely opposed to his way of thinking.
[20:21] In Mark 3.17, it says, And James, the son of Zebedee, John the brother of James, and he surnamed them Bonerges, which is the sons of thunder.
[20:32] I love that so much. All right? So they get a nickname from that day forward that they were going to be called the sons of thunder. And you can't tell me that Jesus and disciples were not having a good time together as they walked around.
[20:47] And they were called the sons of thunder because they're just like, I just can't imagine that anybody let that go. I know I'm not letting that go. I'm constantly bringing that up. Like, hey, remember that time we were there?
[20:58] Yes, we know. Yeah, we're the sons of thunder. Very funny. All right? And that attitude that they would have in being the sons of thunder, wanting to call down fire from heaven, not representing the love and gracious and spirit attitude of our Lord, which goes to tell us that as we see here, being a follower of Jesus is no guarantee of spiritual maturity.
[21:23] That you may have been walking with the Lord for a long time, or you may have put your, let me say it like this, you may have made a profession of faith or came to know Christ many years ago, many decades ago, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're living out spiritually mature in areas of your life.
[21:40] And I'm so thankful that I got to see the disciples on a really bad day or on a series of bad days because I know that's where I live, that my spiritual immaturity and some things that I know would be true have not seeped into my ears, that it has not got into my heart.
[21:56] So the disciples are going to grow obediently. People are ignorant of what it means to follow after Christ. We heard this the other night on Friday night, David Dubois read 1 Corinthians 6, 9.
[22:07] Know you not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God, be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor abusers of themselves of mankind. And he pointed out and I hadn't paid attention, but he was saying you need to watch out.
[22:21] There's people that are going to come in and try to teach you that it's okay, that these things are okay. They're trying to deceive you that this is the way people live even if they follow Christ and says do not be deceived.
[22:34] I know Daniel Cooper is in Children's Church over there with Greg, but he gave a testimony afterwards and he said, I had met Mika and I told her, yeah, I'm a Christian, but then I told her all about my life and Mika said, well, you may say you're a Christian, but there's nothing about your life that is reflecting that you really know Jesus.
[22:54] And that was the day that Daniel Cooper got lost. And then a little bit time later, he came to Christ, Brother Robert led him to the Lord. It's a great day when you get lost, right?
[23:04] It's a great day when you recognize that you did not know Jesus Christ. And that's what happened to him. He was being deceived into believing that these were characteristics that a person that followed Christ that are becoming to them.
[23:18] Sometimes believers are just immature. Point to somebody that you, no, I'm just kidding. All right, believers can be immature. That would be pretty immature. Danger, there's a danger of becoming unkind, a perfectionism, Colossians 3.13.
[23:31] It tells us forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Forbear one another, which means that there does not need to be this area of perfectionist around here.
[23:43] We need to be loving and patient to people and let them grow. But on the other ditch, on the other side of the road, is this danger of a carelessness about sin. Follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.
[23:58] If you don't have a holy life, if you don't have a hatred for sin, if there's not a battle inside of you against sin, then I should lovingly come to you and say, there's a real danger because without holiness you'll never stand before the Lord if He hasn't made you holy.
[24:10] The Bible tells us to be patient with one another. Now we exhort you, brother, and warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient towards all men.
[24:20] Warn the unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, but be patient to all men. We need to be patient with one another. We don't know where people are at.
[24:32] We need to grow and forbear with each other and be patient with them. If you came to Fowler Park and you see me and brother John and you saw we were at the track and we said, we just ran three miles, what you would need to do is you would need to congratulate me and say, great job, Trent, that's a lot farther than you normally run and you'd also need to say, well, brother John, you normally run farther than that, you're going backwards.
[24:55] But when somebody's running on the track, you don't know if they're running for the first mile or if they're supposed to be running 10 miles, but we need to be patient with them. We need to encourage them in what they're doing. I read a very credible article by a newspaper called the Babylon Bee, very prestigious newspaper if you don't know about it.
[25:12] And what it says was it was listing your theology by the type of chair that you sit in at your church. It says, if you have a hard wooden pew, then you have good theology, all right? Because you wouldn't sit there if it wasn't good theology.
[25:24] If you have a firm cushion pew and if it's an avocado color, you're probably at an old fundamental Baptist church and your theology is strong and unchanging like your Bible, all right? If you're at a modern church with interlocking chairs, oh man, this is where we are, then I got some bad, your theology may be bad because the chairs interlocked one another like the church interlocks with the sinful ways of the world.
[25:47] Repent, tell your pastor to get back to the pews, all right? And the old path. If you're in folding chairs, you're probably at a church plant at an elementary school. The theology is good, but they're going to want you to lead children's ministry next week, all right?
[26:00] If you're out on a stump in the woods, you're not at a church or part of an ancient druidic cult, you need to leave, all right? If you're in movie theater seating, soft reclining chairs, the match of soft maledible theology of your celebrity pastor, that's not good.
[26:14] If there's no chair in sight, you may be at a revival meeting at a Pentecostal church. Be careful, all right? If you're on golden thrones, you're probably on TBN. And if you're on a couch at home, you're not at church and you need to be, stop watching your preacher online and go to church, all right?
[26:29] That's what they said. If you're watching online at home, I'm very glad that you are. But it's just a funny way that we judge each other, right? That we do that. People would say that, obviously, that was satire.
[26:41] A lot of people don't know that about that website, but it's completely satire. But there's so many ways that we judge other Christians. But the Bible tells us to be patient and to be loving because I need you to be patient and loving with me.
[26:54] But it's okay for you to expect better of me. It's okay for you to encourage me in the truth, but to be loving and to be patient with me. So what does it mean to be mature? Philippians 3, 15, let us therefore as many be perfect, be thus minded, and if anything be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you.
[27:11] And so perfect means whole or complete. 1 Corinthians 13, 9, for we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come. And so the Bible contrasts a maturity or a perfectness between a man and a child.
[27:25] When I was a child, I spake as a child and I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. So thinking as an adult as opposed to a child, not being inexperienced in the Christian life, having discernment in your life.
[27:40] And so here we see that the disciples, they grow in this area of discernment. They will grow to a place in the book of Hebrews, There's false teachers, there's questioning about Moses, but the believers there, in Hebrews 5, 14, But strong meat belongeth to them that are full age, even those who, by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
[28:03] And so the pathway of maturity to solid biblical food is not first becoming an intelligent person, but it's becoming an obedient person. In the world we live in, we're prone to think that education is the key to maturity, but that's not the case.
[28:18] Obedience upon the knowledge that you've been given leads to maturity, which leads to a side note. I would be happy to know that there was 360 Bible studies happening in our church.
[28:30] I don't know why I came up with that number, all right, happening throughout a week. I would be very happy to know that, but gaining knowledge about the Bible is not all that we are called to do, which means that when we gather together, it's not just meeting in the Word, which is very important, but we should be involved in all kinds of things together, all kinds of forms of obedience to His words, because we're maturing and recognizing what God has called us to do.
[28:53] If you want to fully appreciate a passage that's right in front of you, then obey the passage that you had read before and understood. Biblically speaking, the hearer is not just to listen, but it's to understand and obey.
[29:05] And our heads learn faster than our hearts, and it's very dangerous. We can be very biblically knowledgeable, but spiritually immature. We see that in the disciples, and we can see that in us.
[29:17] We also see that the disciples, they're going to grow in faith. That they later on in Luke chapter number 17, the apostles are going to say to the Lord, increase our faith. They're going to ask Him, can you help us?
[29:29] Like we know that we struggle and we want to grow, and He's going to give them two stories. One of them teaches that God Himself, not the quantity of our faith, is the decisive factor in removing a tree or a mountain from your life, and He will tell them but the grain of the mustard seed.
[29:43] He's going to teach them that the object of your faith is what matters, that you need to put your faith, trust, and fully in Him. And then He's going to tell them a story about a man who has a servant, and after working all day long, he comes to the servant and he takes care of him before he takes to himself, and he receives no thanks, because not even when you do all that you can, we are still completely dependent on Him, and we are debtors to His grace.
[30:11] The owner or the slave does not become a debtor to the slave no matter how much work the slave does. No matter what we do, we remain debtors to His abundant grace. God does not owe us.
[30:22] No matter how much ministry, no matter how much you do, we are debtors to His grace, and they're going to grow in that. They're going to grow in their understanding of Him being the object of their faith. They're going to grow in their understanding that they're not trading Him, that He is abundant, and He is gracious, and they'll also grow in their understanding of greatness.
[30:40] There they were. They say, who is the greatness? And Jesus looks around and He takes a child. That even in the society that we live in, we would understand that a child has less respect, they're not seen as the same as adult, but our understanding, the gap is way smaller than it would be back in their day.
[30:55] I mean, children were to be seen, and we say, our grandparents said children are to be seen and not heard, in their day, they would just say children aren't to be seen at all, right? They shouldn't be in this room, they shouldn't be around, we have no use for the children.
[31:07] That would have been the cultural understanding of it. But there He was, and they're ordering about who the greatest is, and Jesus brings among them a child, and He sets them there. We find that again throughout the Bible.
[31:19] Let those, between spiritual people, the least among you should be able to help settle this, that a person with a childlike faith, a child is somebody that God can work through, and He can show Himself through.
[31:30] And so they're going to grow in their understanding. And James and John, they will later on go and preach to the Gentiles. The quote says, ambition in this life for greatness, ambition in this life for greatness, in this life, will end up stealing your life.
[31:47] If you want to know who the greatest is, then you're going to spend your life in a way that wasted. That's not what you're supposed to do. Jesus came to be a servant to all. He came to die in our place.
[31:57] They knew better. In Mark 9, 33, it says, And He came to Capernaum and being in the house, He asked them, What was it that you disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace, for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest.
[32:12] So they're talking. They're leaving one place and they go to another and Jesus sees them talking and when they get to where they're going, Jesus says, So what were y'all talking about? They're like, I ain't telling them, alright? Have you ever, some of you parents are thinking about the rear view mirror where you ask your kids, What are you talking about?
[32:25] And they look at each other like, I ain't saying nothing, alright? I don't want to tell Dad what it is we were arguing about and the disciples knew that that was His foolishness that they should be talking about that.
[32:37] Jesus had came in a manger to die on a cross. What more do we need to know? I mean, how foolish was it? He just told them that He was going to die in their place.
[32:49] Love this quote, it says, True greatness isn't the kind that appears in bold letters on your favorite website or newspaper. No, it shows up in the details of other people's lives.
[33:01] True greatness means that your name and your love for people is written in a lot of different people's stories that you did something for them, that you cared for them, that you served them, that you gave them the truth, not that it would be found on somebody's newspaper or website.
[33:15] And so these sons of thunder, what a wonderful name, they're going to mature through the years. They're going to go back and they're going to preach in Samaria. And then James was going to be the first apostle to be martyred.
[33:26] And John became known as the apostle of love. He was the author of the Gospel of John and first and second and third John. God made James and John into different people than they were before and He can do the same for you and He can do the same for me.
[33:41] These disciples had many things to learn but they had even more things to obey and so do we. There's an expression that says with age comes wisdom but sometimes age comes alone, right?
[33:55] And it's the same in your Christian life. Just because you've been a Christian for a long time doesn't mean that you're maturing in areas that you know that you need to be maturing in.
[34:06] And that is something that would be between you and the Holy Spirit to recognize and say, God, this is an area in which I'm not maturing. And we find that it's not a matter of mental comprehension. It's not even a matter of knowledge.
[34:19] You might even be able to quote the memory verses that apply to it but the answer, the question is, are you being obedient to it? This world needs to come to know Christ, right?
[34:30] But what they need to do is they see this example of mature believers. Maturity means that it affects us in our everyday lives. not just on the Mount Transfiguration but everyday just out on the road when we have to make a decision.
[34:45] The way that we would believe Him, the discernment that we would have, that our emotions would not be untethered to truth. That's what they had, right? They said, you want us to call fire down from heaven?
[34:55] And He's like, that is not what I came here to do. Maturity says that our emotions are going to be tethered to truth. And there's so many ways as believers we need to mature and we need to walk with Him and we need to obey Him.
[35:10] One of the best things that you could do today is ask Him to address it. It's the beginning of the year. Another year could come around and you could say, I'm in the same place that I was a year ago in my Christian life.
[35:22] I've heard more sermons, I've memorized a few more things, but you know where you're at. A babe in Christ that's receiving the milk, you're not ready to discern, you're not ready to receive heavier things, you're not ready to move on.
[35:34] Maybe you've been there for a long time and now would be a time to move forward and say, God, I know that you've told me to do these things but I've not been obedient and because you've not been obedient, you've been stuck in that stage.
[35:45] Some of you may say, I've been like a teenager, just always controlled my passions, my emotions and then teenagers are great, right? Because you get a glimpse of what they could be as an adult and then you get a glimpse, reminder of who they were as a kid, right?
[35:56] They're somewhere right in the middle between the worlds. Sorry teenagers, you know how I feel, I've told you this before. Okay? But it's just great, you see both. Well, some of you would say, well, I know that's where I'm at in my Christian life, that there's just not that consistency that needs to be there, that I'm due right at seasons of life but other times I am just way out from where I need to be and disobedient.
[36:17] We need to grow in that and even no matter what age you are, you can grow in that area of spiritual maturity but it's going to come from addressing the issues in your life and then being obedient to them.
[36:29] And so we see some examples here of the disciples and maybe they would be the same in your life or maybe it would be a different area but kind of encourage you today to make a commitment towards growth, a commitment towards maturity in your Christian life.
[36:43] Don't stay where you're at. Obey Him and let Him grow you. He saw what He did with the sons of thunder, right? Some of you may consider yourselves the sons of thunder today but He could take you and make you the apostle of love which is what John was called.
[36:57] He transformed him as he obediently followed the Lord and that's what we should do as well with our days.