That's Luke chapter nine and
reading from verse 51. 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 sent messengers before his
face and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him. And they did not receive him,
because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And
when his 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? But he turned and rebuked them
and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the
Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them,
and they went to another village. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We've become accustomed perhaps
to linking the idea of the Lord's being received up to his ascension
into heaven following his resurrection. And there's justifiable reasons
for that. It's a phrase that is used, it's
a word that is used, that the Lord was received up into the
air and received up into heaven. But actually, the ascension of
the Lord is still quite a long way off in the Lord's ministry
at this time in the account of Luke. Christ's return to heaven
was 40 days after his resurrection according to Acts chapter 1.
And it seems likely, depending on what feast this was to which
the Lord was going with his disciples to Jerusalem. what feast they
were going to participate in, it seems likely that there was
still at least six months to go until his crucifixion. So there would be the crucifixion
in perhaps six months, there would be the resurrection a few
days later, and then another six weeks before the Lord ascended
into heaven. It's a question then as to what
Luke means when he says the time was come when he should be received
up. And it may well be that the ascension
was in view here. But there's perhaps another way of
thinking about this. The time was come when he should
be received up. There was still much to be done
in the Lord's ministry, even at this stage, and he had been
predominantly ministering in Galilee. There was still work
to be done in other regions and in other areas, particularly
in Jerusalem and Judea before the time of his crucifixion.
And following this journey to Jerusalem, we don't actually
read any more of the Lord exercising a ministry in Capernaum and around
the Sea of Galilee where he had previously made his base. And this has led some people
to wonder if the reference here to being received up means that
he was now leaving the low country around Galilee and ascending
into the more hilly region around Jerusalem to pursue the final
stage of his earthly ministry of preaching and teaching and
healing the sick. In the United Kingdom, We speak
about going up north and going down south, up to Scotland and
down to England. So perhaps there is a sense and
an emphasis here that the time was come when the Lord's ministry
in the lowlands of Galilee had begun to wind down and his activity
in the high country of Judea had begun to ramp up, that he
was about to be received into a phase of more active ministry
in Jerusalem and Judea. Either way, whatever it is that
is meant by this little phrase, what we discover is that the
Lord steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. He knew that
Jerusalem was where he had to be. And I just want to make a
little application on this point. In reference to this idea of
a day of opportunity, There is a day of opportunity when the
Lord speaks to a people by the gospel. We sometimes use the
phrase the day of grace. It's not actually a Bible phrase
as such, but I think we know what we mean by it. There have
been days when the gospel of grace was preached widely throughout
our land. and the true gospel of free and
sovereign grace could be heard preached from pulpits and churches
across the nation. But now, sad to say, there are
towns, there are cities where we would be hard pressed to find
a single church preaching a true gospel message at all. and hard-pressed to be able to
recommend a church for someone to attend if they were seeking
Bible teaching. For many Christian denominations
so called, we would have to say the glory has departed. And it's
a serious thing if the gospel is no longer preached in a community. if in the providence of God the
opportunity to hear the gospel is passed and the witness is
ended and the gospel light is extinguished and the candlestick
removed. And literally a day came when
the time of opportunity to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak,
a day came when the time of opportunity to be cured by Him, passed for
the men and women of Galilee because the Lord no longer walked
there. Now I'm not denying that the
sovereign power of God to gather and save His people wherever
and whenever He wishes still remains. Nevertheless, God uses
means to build his church and it is sobering to realise how
the certain sound of the gospel of grace has been widely and
largely replaced by an uncertain sound of man-centred religion. Yes, we have a sovereign God
and yes, he will lose none of those whom he has chosen to save
and has ordained to everlasting life. But let us not lose a sense
of the value of a faithful gospel ministry, and let us cherish
having access to fellowship with like-minded believers. Let us
thank the Lord that he has given us, even in these days of death,
the opportunity to fellowship with brothers and sisters in
these great and glorious truths of free grace. The loss of a
gospel pulpit is a judgment on any town. Here's another thing
that we notice from these verses before us today. That is the
prejudice of religion. The Lord sent two messengers
to prepare a place for him to stay as he travelled from Galilee
to Jerusalem. So he was going through this
Samaritan place, or the land of Samaria, and he sent two messengers
ahead to prepare accommodation. Now, we don't know who these
two messengers were. Let me speculate that perhaps
it was James and John since they appear in this story to have
been so personally and intimately upset by the cold response that
the Lord received from these Samaritans. And we read in verse
53, they did not, the Samaritans did not receive him, that's the
Lord, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. It seems as though these Samaritans
were offended that the Lord Jesus did not plan to stay with them
and perhaps to repeat the works and the miracles they'd heard
about him performing in other places. Or maybe it was that they were
offended because of Jesus' drive, because of Jesus' commitment
and interest in travelling to Jerusalem to worship there at
the feast. because they contended that their
own religious sites and their own religious practices were
just as valid as those insisted upon by the Jews. You remember
the account of the woman of Samaria, we're talking about the same
principles, we're talking about the same people. The woman of
Samaria, the woman at the well in John chapter four, she argued
Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in
Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." So maybe
it was that these Samaritans were offended because Jesus was
coming down on this side of the argument, which they felt very
passionate about, because he was pressing on to Jerusalem. Whatever the reason, they did
not receive him. But let me draw my point, my
application. How successfully Satan has employed
religion to hide the gospel. And men will fight all the way
to hell about whether their religion is better than another religion. Whether their way of worshipping
is more acceptable than another way of worshipping. And I am
sure we all know many people who don't give the gospel a second
thought because they're quite content with their own religion. Thank you very much. The Jews and the Samaritans could
be replaced by any number of religious affiliations and denominations. But if anything comes between
a people, an individual, and the presence and experience of
the Lord Jesus Christ, then that is to the detriment of that individual's
eternal soul. They would not receive Jesus.
Why? Well, he wasn't going to commend
them in their own religious state. We're reminded thereby, surely,
of the necessity of Holy Spirit conviction and quickening. It really doesn't matter what
religion you are. It really doesn't matter what
views you have as far as your worldview is concerned. The reality
is if the Holy Spirit does not bring a man or a woman to conviction
through his quickening work, men and women will be content
with their own religion or their no religion. and until the Holy Spirit reveals
to them their sin and shows them how useless are their own self-righteous
efforts to please God, they will continue lost and they will continue
on the way to hell. Lord Jesus told the woman at
the well, if only you knew the gift of God and who it is that
saith to thee, give me to drink. And we could take that and apply
it to these Samaritans into whose village the Lord Jesus Christ
had come. If only you knew the gift of
God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. But the trouble was she did not
know until it was revealed. And it is only when a sinner
dead in sin is born again and made to taste that living water,
Christ alone gives. that such a knowledge is received.
It's only when quickened to hear with spiritual ears the living
word of grace, only by spiritual transformation is there a bringing
of an awareness of sin and a need for cleansing and the experience
of righteousness that comes by faith. The Lord Jesus told the
woman in John 4, verse 23, The hour cometh and now is, when
the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Grace
is a divine work. Salvation is of the Lord. And here's a third point that
we have revealed to us here in these verses. The misplaced zeal
of James and John. These two disciples, so close
to the Lord in so many ways, so often blessed by him, particularly
in that trio of Peter, James and John, they resented the way
the Samaritans treated the Lord on this occasion. They resented
it so much they clearly took it personally and they wished
to bring instant punishment upon these Samaritans for their insolence. I don't know whether they remembered
the way that the Lord had been speaking to Elias and Moses and
the Mount of Transfiguration just a little bit earlier and
the glory that had been manifested and the voice of God coming from
heaven and they thought to themselves, how dare these people deal with
such a lord of glory in this way and so they called, they
desired fire from heaven thinking that that would be a good demonstration
of divine displeasure upon these people. And how readily that attitude
resonates with us. Well there you are, I'm using
I'm using us again but Do we not feel indignation at sin? Is there not a rising up that
sense of fury at the way the Lord Jesus is mocked and ignored? Are we not outraged at the false
teachings spreading all around? and we wish that the hand of
God could be seen to correct the wrongs and reassert what
is right. And in many ways, I see my own
censorious attitudes reflected in this response of James and
John. Well, by all means, let us be
zealous for the Lord. but let us be careful how our
zeal is displayed, how it's manifested. The history of the church has
been a history of trying to force and coerce men and women into
doing religion as a duty, as the powerful see fit, as the
powerful think it should be done. and often it has been the true
church, the true church that is seeking to worship in spirit
and in truth that has suffered most at the hands of this misplaced
zeal because it doesn't know what spirit it is of. And what
sort of enduring testimony would James and John's approach have
given to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of salvation. Imagine if the Lord had indulged
the anger of these two disciples. The church ever after would be
calling down fire on Saul of Tarsus and all the other perceived
offenders that crossed its way. In reality, within a year, James
would be dead at the hands of Herod. But John learned his lesson
from the Lord, and we never again hear of him seeking harm upon
his enemies. But thereafter, content to serve
his enemies, and to leave judgment and retribution in the hands
of the Lord himself, whence it is far better applied. Which
leads me to my final point, the mercy of Jesus in this matter. And what a beautiful climax to
this incident we have in these few verses. The Lord tells James
and John that they have the wrong spirit A spirit of gentleness
and pity and patience and forgiveness and kindness is much more appropriate
in the Lord's people, in the Lord's church. And the whole
contentious issue of the rejection of the Lord by these Samaritans
is resolved easily by the Lord. with the words that Luke gives
us, and they went to another village. That was all that was
required. The Lord just moved on. He just
passed them by. They would not have him. He passed
them by. But hear what our blessed Saviour
says, and rejoice in this with me. Verse 56 says, For the Son
of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And what a witness this is in
comparison to the witness that would have been left by James
and John drawing down fire from heaven. How did the Lord manifest
not destroying men's lives but saving them? How did he do it?
By laying down his life for men in sacrificial suffering. Grace
and mercy are desirable qualities in the lives of God's people
because we have experienced grace and we have discovered mercy. We've known God's pity, we've
felt the blessings of forgiveness and as we have experienced these
blessings, so we are called to exhibit them. Our high calling
is to point men and women to the source of life, the source
of our salvation. Satan is destroying men's lives
every minute of every day, but the Lord Jesus Christ is plucking
brands from the fire through the cleansing of blood and the
gospel of grace. I've spoken too long already,
so let me just finish with the Apostle Paul's words to the Galatians. Brothers and sisters, as we have
opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith. Amen.