Luke chapter 9 verse 43 and it
says this, this is the Word of God. And they were all amazed at the
mighty power of God. But while they wondered, every
one, at all things which Jesus did, he said unto his disciples,
Let these sayings sink down into your ears, for the Son of Man
shall be delivered into the hands of men.' But they understood
not this saying, and it was hid from them that they perceived
it not, and they feared to ask him of that saying. Then there
arose a reasoning among them which of them should be greatest,
And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child
and set him by him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive
this child in my name receiveth me, and whosoever shall receive
me receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you
all, the same shall be great. 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. And Jesus said unto him,
Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. It is remarkable, I think, how
deep-rooted and well-established were the notions held by the
disciples concerning an imminent earthly kingdom with Jesus at
its head and themselves foremost in its ranks. Everything in this
short reading today points to the disciples' delusion and confusion. on this central aspect of Christ's
ministry. And remember, despite what the
Lord told them repeatedly, for three years, they nurtured this
idea. And even on the very night before
the Lord was crucified, he was still having to deal with this
misunderstanding in their thinking. And it appears that they incorporated
every statement and event that appeared to support their misconception,
and at the same time dismissed every opposing statement from
the Lord that taught them differently. And that said, it's probably
something we all know something about from personal experience.
Because, well, I'll only speak for myself because far be it
for me to impute something to you that you don't know anything
about. But often when I get an idea
fixed firmly in my head, especially one that's been reinforced by
one or two supportive facts and maybe some influential people,
it's hard to lay that down. even to the point where we're
willing to ignore clear evidence to the contrary. And things that
one might imagine ought to cause us to re-examine our assumptions
get dismissed completely and ignored or reinterpreted to make
it support our opinion. That's a danger, I think, in
theology, as well as in other matters just of our general life. It ought to be, perhaps, that
we draw a lesson from the disciples in this matter, because I think
this is what had happened to them. Let me give you some examples. Peter, James, and John had just
seen the Lord Jesus glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration.
Perhaps, perhaps just, you know, the night before, they had seen
a glorious vision of Moses and Elijah and heard those two men
speaking with Jesus, whose own body shone brilliantly. And then
the voice of God coming from a cloud that overshadowed them.
This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him. And that reinforced their
preconceptions of the imminent, glorious reign of Christ among
them because that was their assumption. They came to that revelation
with a preconceived idea and they slotted the revelation into
their preconceived idea. And it was easy to overlook the
significance of the topic of the conversation between Moses,
Elijah, and Jesus, namely the decease which he should accomplish
at Jerusalem. And again, they come down out
of the mountain of transfiguration, and we have this public healing
of a demon-possessed boy. so dramatic that the opening
verse of our reading today tells us that they were all, that means
everybody, not just the disciples, but all of that mass of people
that now had come and had prior to this been arguing with the
nine disciples because they had been unable to help this boy,
but they were all amazed at the mighty power of Jesus. the disciples
and all the multitude present marvelled at the divine power
manifested in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was miracles like
these and, for example, the feeding of the 5,000 with a few loaves
and fishies that made the people clamour to anoint Jesus King
at once and establish his kingdom. You see, the Jewish people had
been trained to expect such a divinely empowered leader. And messianic
fervour was running high throughout the whole country at this time,
no doubt fuelled by the domination of their nation by these Roman
occupiers. and prophecy and destiny rolled
into one with an increasing certainty in the minds of the disciples. And as the crowds cheered and
chanted Jesus' name, it's little wonder the disciples were carried
along in the enthusiasm. And all this excitement fed into
their own personal prejudices regarding Christ's kingdom. Surely
it was just a matter of time until this mass movement became
so powerful as to be unstoppable. Jesus would be recognised by
everyone, even as they now recognised him. He would be crowned in Jerusalem
and nothing, not the religious leaders, not the Romans, would
stand in his way. For the disciples, the question
was not if, but when, not whether, but on a more personal level,
what would be their respective roles and status in the new order? When the Lord Jesus realised
the prevailing mood of his disciples, he once again tells them that
they are wrong to think this way. His kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. It is going to be accomplished
in a much different way through his death and his resurrection. And his comments are strong.
In verse 44 of our passage today, he says, We might say something about get
your fingers out your ears or something like that. Listen to
what I'm saying to you and think about what it is that you're
hearing. The Son of Man shall be delivered
into the hands of men. Matthew puts it like this because
again, Matthew, Mark and Luke all speak about this incident.
Matthew puts it like this. in chapter 17 verse 22 and 23. The son of man shall be betrayed
into the hands. That's the emotive word in Matthew's
account. The son of man shall be betrayed
into the hands of men and they shall kill him and the third
day he shall be raised again and they were exceeding sorry. Luke tells us, but they understood
not this saying, and it was hid from them that they perceived
it not, and they feared to ask him of that saying. I wonder
if perhaps their fear to ask Jesus about this was the reason
for their sorrow. They had some regret, they thought
it was a dubious idea to ask Jesus about this. Maybe they
remembered that Peter had rebuked the Lord on a previous occasion
when the Lord spoke about his death, and Peter in turn had
been rebuked for his trouble. and none of the others seemed
willing to speak any more about this, and yet they could not
grasp and understand what Jesus meant. The rest of the verses
in those verses that we read together here, the rest of these
verses speak about where the disciples argue amongst themselves
as to who will be the greatest in the kingdom, and the question
arises about their opposition to this secret supporter who
is casting out demons in Christ's name. But I think that both of
these points, both of these examples, are located here because they
are really of a oneness. It shows their conviction. It's like the gospel writers
are supporting the views of the disciples, their conviction for
the earthly kingdom. We're being told that that remains
steadfast. and they were jealous. Their
jealousy was sharp towards this man who used Jesus' name to cast
out demons. Now perhaps if they had understood
the kingdom spiritually rather than physically, they would not
have been so perturbed about this individual, be that as it
may. it's likely that they had encountered this individual when
they had been sent out by the Lord to cast out demons, to preach
the gospel and cast out demons in his name. If there was to be a kingdom,
then it appears that the disciples didn't want any rivals moving
in on their patch and perhaps benefiting inappropriately. And maybe, just maybe, John was
somewhat ashamed of his actions in rebuking this man after Jesus
had used the example of the little child to explain the nature of
true greatness in Christ's kingdom. Be that all as it may, I think
the Lord's reaction to both of these examples is interesting. The example of the disciples'
ambition and arguing amongst themselves who will be greatest,
and their jealousy towards this man who was casting out devils,
demons, in Jesus' name. And it shows that in the Lord's
view of things, The Lord had an expectation of a transformation
that takes place in a believer's heart within Christ's spiritual
kingdom. And that's what the Lord is speaking
about here. He's speaking about the attitudes
that will prevail amongst believers in his spiritual kingdom. Greatness
in Christ's spiritual kingdom does not reside in position or
influence, far less in power and authority and material wealth. Greatness is a matter of generosity
and kindness and service. Greatness in Christ's kingdom
is measured in how the weak and the humble and the downtrodden
are received for Christ's sake and treated. And those who are
humble, lonely, lowly and meek enough to care for the humble
and lowly and weak demonstrate true greatness. It's a fine ambition
for a believer not to aspire to walk amongst the rich and
famous, but rather to comfort the poor. Not to desire to converse
with the mighty. but to encourage the weary and
the outcast. And I'll just make one little
analogy here. What we discover in denominational
churches, hierarchical churches, is that you get layers and levels
of importance and positions to the point where you end up getting
people all dressed up in fancy garments and clothes and being
honoured and recognised amongst the good and the great of society
for that position that they hold. That's not New Testament apostolic
Christianity. We remember Paul said, not many
wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are
called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. Let that be a truism amongst
us. Our flesh must not glory in the
kingdom of Jesus Christ. Glory in Christ's kingdom is
not as nature reckons glory and indeed we must always be careful
not to promote ourselves as some great one when to do so would
cast a shadow upon the Lord himself from whom every blessing comes
and from whom every talent is received. We, none of us, have
anything to glory in, for none of us have anything good in us
that we have not received from Christ as a free gift. We, none
of us, have anything to glory in, for all we are and all we
have is due to Christ's greatness and his grace, and it is nothing
of ours. And remembering this ought to
give us a suitably humble opinion of ourselves and enable us to
be more useful servants in the kingdom of our God. And here
we're reminded, I think, that as believers, our greatest privilege
is to emulate our Saviour and follow His example. It is not
law that motivates and inspires the Lord's people, but clearer
views of the humility and sacrificial nature of our Lord's own ministry. The Apostle Paul again told the
Philippians, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and
took upon him the form of a servant. and was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. One final thought and then I'm
done today. The identity of this secret witness
is not given or even hinted at in the Scriptures, in the Gospels.
Now if his name, his identity was important, the Holy Spirit
would have told us. And yet I wonder if there is
not a lesson in the Spirit's silence as well. We do not know
who are the Lords. We may test the spirits with
doctrine and come to our own conclusions based on such gospel
criteria as is fitting, but in the end, in the final reckoning,
the Lord knoweth them that are his. Now, I'm not saying that
we should simply accept everyone who claims to be a believer. There are many who claim to be
preachers, who manifestly preach another gospel and cannot be
said to be for us, or at least cannot be said to be for the
gospel that we preach. They are against that very gospel. Yet even here, such a person
need not be denounced and condemned because they condemn themselves
from their own lips when the true gospel is preached and compared
with what they teach. So let us simply note the existence
of this anonymous man, this unknown man, and Let us accept it as
true that the Lord will doubtless take the glory for all who are
saved by his sovereign grace. And he will draw praise from
his church by revealing some true believers in that day who
will surprise us. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.