46 An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. 47 But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.”
Anyone Not Against Us Is For Us
49 John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” 50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.”
A Samaritan Village Rejects Jesus
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.
The Cost of Following Jesus
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And 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.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 46-62 ESV
Luke 9: 46-62
An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest - Who is the GOAT? When Jesus set the twelve apart it was not because of their greatness as we saw before, but a lesson in humility for those he chose them over. These were mostly unlearned men, fishermen, with a lot of bad doctrine that needed working out. The essence of this section is pride, the pride of life, riches, the honor that comes from men, and the disciples have not yet been broken of this worldliness, and I dare say that pride will be the most prevalent and continuous fight until we die.
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world— the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life— is not from the Father but from the world. 17The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.… 1 John 2: 15-17
He who is least among you all is the one who is great - He is calling them to serve, and they had no great pedigree to support their claims, but He chose them, and gave them authority over sickness and disease, three of them saw the Transfiguration, and the twelve are in Jesus school. We reason like this, "if God did this for me then there must be something special about me, I should be honored, after all, my mother always said I was special." James and John even get their mother to approach Jesus on their behalf because they are not understanding the call. They are not seeing that their teacher has condescended from the highest place that can be known, the throne of heaven, and taken on a body to become a man, do what none of these men have been able to do, which is to live in perfect obedience to God. Christ, God the Son, humbled Himself even to the point of taking their place under the wrath of the Father in order that they could receive God's mercy. I see so called pastors and ministers that are this way today, just like the corporate world and the old system of monarchies, they love titles, love to be honored by men and will even accept compliments that are often untrue or come from sketchy givers with questionable motives. We hear of shepherds, elders and deacons in the Bible, and these describe roles, not just titles to make you feel good or cause other people to put you on a pedestal. They come with great responsibility and often a lot of sacrifice. God demanded that these men had character, but today I see that character has taken a back seat not only in the work place, but in the church as well, and they throw around titles like Bishop, Cardinal and a host of others that pay homage to worldly men, men who like flattery and use flattery to gain the weak minded.
1This is a trustworthy saying: If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3not dependent on wine, not violent but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.… 1 Timothy 3: 1-3
20Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and knelt down to make a request of Him. 21“What do you want?” He inquired. She answered, “Declare that in Your kingdom one of these two sons of mine may sit at Your right hand, and the other at Your left.” 22“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” the brothers answered.… Matthew 20: 20-22
John answered - This apparently made him think of something; it's not that John just changed the subject, but John answered as in this was his response to the current conversation.
Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name - It doesn't say attempting to, but "casting out", and we saw earlier in the chapter where the disciples themselves struggled with casting out a particular demon. That first episode should have been a lesson in humility, and now there is a man outside of their core group who God has allowed to do this, hmm, yet another lesson in humility. The "Your name" here was legit, he was pointing people to Christ, the One Who grants the power, and the only name under heaven whereby men can be saved. This man appears to be a true believer, not just one who uses the name vainly, as those to whom Christ says, depart from Me.
…22Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ 24Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.… Matthew 7: 22-24
Hendriksen - With this man the phrase "in Christ's name" was not a magical formula; it was reality.
We tried to stop him because he does not follow with us - He was doing the same work, and giving honor to Christ, and this is definitely different than the ones who did it for show, or like Simon the magician who would want this for power and material gain, trying to buy and sell the Holy Spirit. It wasn't a question of observing the man's fruit, and seeing that he had none or it was bad, but rather that he wasn't a part of their group, their clique.
13Now there were some itinerant Jewish exorcists who tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits. They would say, “I bind you by Jesus, whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15Eventually, one of the evil spirits answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”…
…16Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. The attack was so violent that they ran out of the house naked and wounded. 17 This became known to all the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, and fear came over all of them. So the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18Many who had believed now came forward, confessing and disclosing their deeds.… Acts 19: 13-18
For the one who is not against you is for you - This happens in the church a lot, pride divides people, causes huge factions. We all start out as babes in Christ and should move on toward maturity, but pride is the thing that stunts me the most, that makes some seem intolerable to me. A thing that was always great for me to see was the love between John Macarthur and R.C. Sproul. Both men helped me immensely in correcting my doctrine and bringing me back to the pure gospel, both men defended the gospel, and even together, yet they differed on some less essential matters. The gospel is something we can't get wrong, otherwise we have believed and taught something that is another gospel, and though we use the name, Christ, yet we have presented a different Christ, not the Son of God, not the Word become flesh. The sons of Sceva did not follow Christ, but thought His name could be used as an incantation. The Word Faith movement and so many other brands of fringe, feral Christianity, are similar in their approach today, and we should separate ourselves from them because they do teach another gospel. I go to a Reformed Presbyterian church where they hold up the Word of God, and the pastors and elders see themselves as under the word of God, and though I disagree with them on infant baptism and I'm sure some lean toward the hipster beard versions of eschatology, yet we are still brethren regarding the gospel. We are able to question and confront each other because we are not worried about being considered right by men, but whether what we believe is right according to God's word. You have to be open to correction, or once again we are wallowing in our pride, and it is so much more grotesque than we ever care to imagine.
…4who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 6I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—…
…7which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! 9As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!… Galatians 1: 4-9
He set His face - He had a goal, and not one that any of us would ever knowingly want. Like He said to James and John about drinking from His cup, "you don't know what you ask." He is going to become the Passover, so that the Holy Spirit will paint His blood upon the door post of my new heart, and the wrath of God will pass over me.
First, if you are going to have a personal revival, you must “set [your] face like a flint” (Isa. 50:7). A plow that is going to be used on sod must have a sharp point. Likewise, if you want a personal revival, you have to have a hard-nose because of all of the schemes and tricks of the world. You must set your face like flint and say, “I go by the grace of God. I want all that the New Testament has for me.” A. W. Tozer
But the people did not receive Him - Samaria is in the Northern Kingdom where they had gone to an apostate form of Judaism after the death of Solomon. The temple was in Jerusalem, but they had made their own places of worship up there, a political move by a king who didn't want the people of the north to turn back to Judah. Every year they were to travel to the feasts, but they did not, and many true Jews defected to the South. Eventually Assyria took the northern 10 tribes captive with only a few remaining in the land, and replaced many with captured peoples from other areas. Only the land belonging to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained until the Babylonian captivity. The Jews in Jerusalem referred to the Samaritans as half-breads, but it was a Samaritan woman who was one of the first people that Jesus revealed Himself as Messiah to.
…21“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.…
…24God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” ( called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” 26Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”… John 4: 21-26
Leon Morris notes that the "feud with the Jews was so bitter that they would not help anyone travel to Jerusalem, though apparently they did not mind receiving Galileans as such. Josephus tells us that Samaritans were not averse to ill-treating pilgrims going up to Jerusalem, even to the extent of murdering them on occasion." (Borrow The Gospel According to St. Luke: An Introduction and Commentary)
Do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven - Jesus hasn't done a miracle like this, but their faith in Him has grown none the less, and they must attribute even this power to His name as well. It is reminiscent of Elijah.
…10Elijah answered the captain, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men. 11 So the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. And the captain said to Elijah, “Man of God, the king declares, ‘Come down at once!’” 12Again Elijah replied, “If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed the captain and his fifty men.… 2 Kings 1: 10-12
But He turned and rebuked them - Later they will carry the gospel to their enemies in Samaria.
Son of Man has no where to lay His head - Do you still want to follow Him?
…17Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. 18Truly, truly, I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And after He had said this, He told him, “Follow Me.”… John 21: 17-19
"I'll follow my Christ, Who loves me so."
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