Luke 9:49-56
Introduction:
1 Corinthians 1:27-28
Your reaction when a believer does good? If they are being blessed and aren’t a part of your group?
Your reaction when people reject Jesus?
See the disciples making some mistakes in these areas today! We can learn from them if we need to adjust ourselves to better conform to Jesus.
Text: Luke 9:49-56
Theme: Two More Ways the Disciples Fail – And What We Can Learn from Them
Verses 49-50
If we are to understand these two verses, we need to recognize that verses 46-50 all go together. They happened in the same event. As far as our sermon goes, we all heard 46-48 last week, but when that story actually happened verses 49-50 happened immediately after. They are the same event, separated perhaps by only a minute.
So to understand verses 49-50, we need to refresh our minds about what was going on when John said this and when Jesus said this.
What was going on was that the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. They were treating Christianity like a competition and were curious about who was going to end up in first place at the end of the race. They had become prideful about their proximity to Jesus and the authority they had been given. They thought they were special. They thought they were going to get special recognition. They thought, whoever is going to be the greatest must surely be amongst our number.
But Jesus laid them flat by pulling aside a small child, a person very definitely not elite by the worlds standards and physically very small, and telling the disciples that “greatness is found in being the least of all. It is the least and most selfless person who will be the greatest. You guys are on the wrong track right now.”
Understanding that whole situation helps us to understand where John is coming from with this statement, and what the question is behind it all.
Now that John and the others have been confronted about their elitist attitude, John is thinking “oh, so greatness isn’t about who is a part of this inner circle and has the most power and influence? Oops!”
And then he thinks, and he remembers the time the disciples tried to stop a person who was successfully exorcising demons in Jesus’ name. He realizes that he might have messed up to try to put a stop to this guy just because he wasn’t a part of the group.
In short, what is really happening here is that John is asking this question: “so, there was a guy who is not a part of our group who was casting out demons in your name. Does what you just said mean that we messed up by trying to stop him?”
And Jesus says: Yes, you did. Do not stop him. For the one who is not against you is for you.
What all that means is that these verses have to do with how believers view one another. Because this exorcist that they tried to stop was successful, and he was doing it in the name of Jesus, that means that this man was a believer. He was for Jesus. They were trying to stop a fellow believer from doing good, just because that believer was not a part of their elite group.
Jesus says that is wrong. Believers ought not to stand in the way of one another doing a good thing based upon an ungodly evaluation of greatness and smallness. As far as believers’ relationships to one another go, they must remember that if a believer is not doing something against you, then they are to be viewed as for you.
Consider these scenarios:
Let’s say that a believer has gotten the creative idea to start an outreach with a coffee shop in a foreign country. There aren’t a lot of believers there, so they want to make a coffee shop which has some Bible verses and study groups that meet there and they have Christian books on shelves for people to read at their leisure. They are seeing some success. There are some people coming to Christ through it.
Then, one day, another believer gets a similar idea. They think: “Hey, I’m also going to open up a Christian coffee shop a few blocks down the road. This is a good thing. I want to help exalt Jesus too.”
But the original coffee shop owner goes up to the new guy and says “Hey now, this is my area. You go somewhere else.” That’s a Luke 9:50 situation. That’s what it is talking about. It would be wrong for this believer to try to put a stop to the good of the other believer.
You might think that shocking, but I even happen to know of a Christian organization that sued another Christian organization because they didn’t like how similar their names were. The courts ruled in favor of the little guys, but the big guys were determined to put a stop to it. I won’t mention any names as I’m not sure if I’m supposed to, but it did happen. It’s was a Luke 9:50 situation. Among other things.
Believers should not try to put a stop to other believers who are doing good, just because they aren’t a part of our circle. Now if someone is doing evil in the name of Jesus, that’s a different story where different principles apply.
But if a believer is doing good in the name of Jesus, it is wrong to stand against that good. The disciples did that. Believers today can sometimes do that too. Don’t oppose believers who are doing good.
So we know that believers ought not to oppose one another in doing good, but how is a Christian to respond to people who don’t receive Jesus? They aren’t doing things in His name at all; in fact they want nothing to do with Him. How should believers respond in that situation?
Is it with anger and fire?
James and John, as we’ll soon see, seem to think so.
But as Jesus’ reaction reveals: they’ve made yet another mistake that we can learn from. Here it is:
Verses 51-56
So, the situation:
The unnamed village in Samaria did not want Jesus to come to them. And the principle reason was the animosity between Samaria and Jerusalem. Samaritans thought that they had the correct temple. They thought the Messiah would come to them. They had their own ideas. The Jews likewise had some issues with them. This all goes back to a split that happened in Israel long before, right after King Solomon died.
A woman from Samaria once memorably asks Jesus “how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
The Samaritans hear that Jesus is just intending to go through Samaria to go to Jerusalem and they say “Nope. Don’t want him here! Not if he’s going to Jerusalem we don’t!”
And then James and John, who are Jewish men, become indignant at the insult to both Jesus and the Jews and want permission to destroy them with fire. “These people have rejected you and your people Lord, should they not be destroyed?”
But Jesus turns and rebukes them. Their response is wrong. Jesus had already told them what to do in this situation: Luke 9:5 “and wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” He did not say call down fire from heaven to destroy them. He said brush yourself off and move on. They knew better. Perhaps because of the mutual dislike between Jews and Samaritans they thought that Jesus would make an exception in this case. He did not.
This is an important message for us to remember in this day and age. The general opinion toward Jesus in America today is not nearly so positive as it once was. There’s not a lot of middle ground anymore. Many have made up their minds for good or for evil. And from some people, the rejection can be much stronger than what the Samaritans did. The Samaritans are tame by comparison.
That can be upsetting, can’t it? When people reject Jesus and His people? And if you let it get to you, it can grow into anger and bitterness and a desire for destruction. But that is not the way of Christ and not what He has called us to.
What we have been called to is to share the Gospel with people in gentleness and respect. We do it motivated by love for God and love for people. We know God is the best and we want other people to have the best.
When people respond negatively to that, it can be shocking and hurtful. But we aren’t to seek or beg for their destruction. When someone doesn’t want Jesus, we instead “brush ourselves off and move on to another person.”
Application:
It is wrong to stand against believers who are doing good.
It is wrong to seek destruction and vengeance upon those who reject Jesus.