I'll do a little overview here
of Luke 9 to get where we're going to get to. The first part
of the 9th chapter, Christ sends out the 12 disciples. He sends them out. He sends them
out with the ability. Obviously, they understood the
Gospel, so they preached the Kingdom of God, and to heal the
sick. So they do that. And when they
come back, they are excited and they tell the Lord the things
which He had done through them. And then the next section is
the feeding of the 5,000 men, so at least 5,000. And it came to pass in verse 18, as
Christ was alone praying, His disciples were with Him, and
He asked them saying, Whom say the people that I am?" Christ
says, what's the talk? What's the gossip? And some said
John the Baptist, others Elias, others one of the prophets of
old and risen. But Peter said, the Christ of
God. The Christ of God. He hit that
exactly as it was revealed to him. And then he says, Verse
22, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of
the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and
raised the third day. They didn't understand exactly
what he was saying. But then they go to the Mount
of Transfiguration and it specifically says, In verse 31, they appeared
in glory, this is Elias and Moses, and spake of His decease, which
He should accomplish at Jerusalem. And they didn't really understand
what was going on. Peter says, let's make three
tabernacles, let's do this. Then the voice from heaven says,
this is My beloved Son. Verse 35, hear Him, hear Him.
This is My beloved Son. Hear Him. The next section, a man brings
his only child or asks Christ to heal his only child who was
possessed with a demon. And he said, I asked your disciples,
they couldn't do it. So, Christ answers in verse 41, O faithless
and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and
suffer you? Bring your son thither. Bring
him to Me. And he obviously drove the demon
out in verse 43, and they were all amazed at the mighty power
of God. But while they wondered, every
one at all things which Jesus did, Christ said unto His disciples,
let these sayings sink down into your ears. And I had never seen
it worded like that. He always says, listen, take
heed, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But how is this
worded? Let these things, 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, and they perceived it not, and they feared
to ask Him of that saying. And then they immediately began
to say, who's going to be the greatest? Who's going to be the greatest? And the Lord just basically rebukes
him and says, don't be like that. And then, the very next instance,
the disciples saw John the Baptist, we saw one casting out devils
in your name, and we forbade him, because he followed not
with us. He wasn't of the party spirit.
And Christ said unto them, Forbid him not, for he that is not against
Me is for us." Not against us, it's for us. And this is the
section I want to look at, verse 51 forward. And it came to pass, when the
time was come that Christ should be received up, He steadfastly
set His face to go to Jerusalem, which complies with all the other
Scriptures we've just looked at. He's got to go to Jerusalem. And Christ sent messengers before
His face, He sent others ahead of Him, and they went and entered
into a village of the Samaritans. Now you know the issue that the
Jews have with the Samaritans and the Samaritans have with
the Jews. To make ready for Him. He's going to spend the night
there. He's going to stay there. He's going to lodge there. And,
verse 53, they, the village of Samaria, I don't know if it was
a few, many, the whole village, 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 Christ turned and rebuked
them." Now this is not a mild, you know, you did wrong, you
said a few things, this is a stern rebuke. And he said, you know
not what manner of spirit you are of. Now these are believers.
These are believers. For the Son of Man is not come
to destroy men's lives, but to save them. and they went to another
village. I just have a couple of intriguing
things to say about this lesson, this passage before us. The first
thing is Christ must need to go onward to His humiliation. In verse 51, it came to pass
when the time, when the time, a fixed time, a set time, was
come. that He should be received up. He steadfastly set His face to
go to Jerusalem. Look at the readiness and resolve
Christ showed in regards to our redemption and our salvation. This is why He's going. Now,
obviously, He's going to honor the Father. But He came to seek
and save that which is lost. Look at the resolve that He had for you and for me,
if we trust Him, if we believe Him. Just as in all instances
in the Scriptures and times here on earth, there was a fixed time,
day and hour for the suffering and death and resurrection of
our Lord Jesus Christ. None of this didn't catch Him
off guard. This wasn't like us. We have our minds set to do something
and something else comes in, or we physically can't do it,
or mentally can't do it, or financially. These may have been objections,
but they did not deter him. He set his face steadfastly.
That word, I looked that up, steadfastly set. That means to
turn resolutely in a certain direction. Or it means to confirm. It is said that He steadfastly
set, He turned resolutely, as the God of all creation, as the
God of all men's hearts, as far as He can turn them with us whoever
He will, just like the king. He, knowing all things that would
befall Him, meets head on. And that with joy. Hebrews chapter
12 verse 2. The joy that was set before Him.
I don't understand that. I never have really understood
that. Joy. The only thing I could figure
is he looked past, as several writers, I looked at a bunch
of writers on this and they all seemed to say he looked past
what he was going to suffer, though it was going to be reality. He looked past that. The joy
and the honor of his father and glorify his father and glorify
the commandments, the hand ordinances that were written against us.
and bring many sons and daughters to glory." That's the only thing
I agree with that. I don't know what I think about
me in a situation. If I knew the exact hour, the
day, the time of my death, I'm sure I would act different, but
it would flume over me constantly. He, as it were, looked past the
shame and mocking and beheld the glory that should follow,
1 Timothy 3.16. As he says, he steadfastly set
his face to go to Jerusalem. Moses and Eliza, we saw earlier
in the chapter as we went through it quickly, spoke of this event,
spoke of his decease. For this end he was born, and
now he will straightly go and meet with the insults, the mockery,
the contradiction of sinners against himself. And when I think
of that, I've got some questions. Who can know the extreme woe
that he endured? I know we try to explain it from
the pulpit. We try to explain it. Many people have tried to
explain it poorly. You know, it's not the English
language, it's just human language. How can we explain, how can we
understand the extreme woe that he endured? And how can we know
the magnitude of our iniquities and corruptions that placed him
on Calvary's tree? That's another issue here. Our
sins put Him on the tree. The Scripture says the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes, we are
healed. Turn with me to Isaiah 50. Isaiah
50 verses 5-7. This is what he steadfastly said
to his face toward Jerusalem. Why? The Lord God hath opened
mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave
my back to the sliders, and my cheeks to them that pluck off
the hair. I hid my face from shame and spitting, for the Lord
God will help me Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore
have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
ashamed." This is language in the Scriptures worth reading.
And I pray we can comprehend looking through that glass darkly,
just view him a little bit. Like a magnet is drawn to metal,
So too our Lord could not refuse the very purpose of His Father
or His Father's will." Listen to this in lamentation. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by, Christ on the cross, behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. This
is what He set His face. This is what Elias and Moses,
this is what they spoke to Him concerning. This is what He told
to them and they didn't understand and they were too afraid, which
you know how you get that way. When somebody answers you and
you think you perceive in them that they know and you're like,
well, I'm not going to ask them anymore. I'm just going to let
it go. This monumental event, which I say is, everything in
history is pointing to this one event, that He must steadfastly
set His face to go to Jerusalem. Well, why? Hebrews 9 verse 6 says He
did it to put away sin. Matthew 1.21, He did it to save
His people from their sins. Isaiah 42 says to magnify the
law and make it honorable. John 17, He did it to glorify
His Father. He was every wit successful,
without variableness, neither shadow of turning, exceptionally
reliable and without failure. Christ our Redeemer cannot lose
this fight. He has never been defeated. Why? As He is right now seated on
the right hand of the Majesty on High, Hebrews chapter 1. So
this is why He came to pass when the time was come that He should
be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.
Now this next series of events humbled me This is what we are. This is
what we are. Verses 52-56, we see the rudeness
of the Samaritans and the two disciples. I don't know if they
were elders, but the two disciples, the sons of thunder, trying to
become the sons of lightning and fire. No. He sends messengers before His
face Verse 52, they went and entered
into the village of the Samaritans. It doesn't even give the name.
It's probably a good thing because that city is going to be better
for Sodom and Gomorrah than it would be for these folks to make
ready. But they didn't receive them.
They didn't receive them. He sent messengers. And they,
I'm sure, were willing and ready to pay. Christ did things according
to the law. He was honorable. He would not
just expect free gratuitous, you know, He was going to make
sure that His folks paid. They, the Samaritans, would have
ample time to receive Christ. They sent Him ahead. He sent
them ahead. But they were uncivil. This uncivil act was one of pride,
arrogance, and meanness, and probably prejudice. Well, we
know that the Samaritans don't have, and we looked at this in
John chapter 4, last week or the week before, They didn't
have any dealings with them and back and forth. Well, what was
the issue? Well, one of the main issues
is like the woman of the well said, we know we say you worship,
the Samaritans say you worship, and you can look this up in the
Old Testament, it was a mountain called Gerizimah, it was near
Sychar. This was the place where the
Samaritans set up camp. The Jews set up camp in Jerusalem.
So it was about where to worship. Remember, she said, we say we
worship here, you say you worship there. And Christ, He just said,
you worship God in spirit and truth. You don't have to look
to the east, to Mecca. You don't have to be in a certain
place. The Lord is everywhere. And we worship Him in spirit
and truth. That was His point. But they couldn't get over the
hang-up. Neither the Jews could, nor the Samaritans. But the Samaritans,
they're like, no. And I don't know if it was a
couple men, it was the leaders of the village, I don't know
what it was. I would be surprised if it was everybody, because
that's not how things did in Eastern cultures. I'm sure Christ
would have, like He says in the Scriptures, He would have done
good had they let Him stay there. He perhaps would have preached
the Gospel once more, but they refused, they rebuffed Him, and
eventually their sins would find them out. Oh, foolish pride!
Which is one of the seven things in Proverbs chapter 6 that the
Lord hates. And that's the first one. Pride. It's no excuse. But what about these two disciples?
What about our brothers? What's their reaction? But look also, what manner of
spirit are we, then who are so resentful to others. Well, they offended my mom, or
they offended my dad, or they offended my brothers, or they
weren't nice to them, so I'm going to be mean to them. When I was looking at this, I
do remember my daughter, who doesn't believe the gospel, she
knows, understands it. And I was doing a funeral at
Ford & Sons, and she heard some men talking about me behind my
back. And boy, she got mad. She came and told me. She got
mad. I thought it was kind of cute.
It was nice that she stood up for me. But calling fire down
to destroy, to kill everybody in that village. But we get angry. And what does it say when we
get angry at our brother? That's death, that's murder. After having been with Christ
for so long, they saw His humility, they saw His love, they saw His
grace. The only thing I can say truly,
in the flesh dwells no good thing. They were in the flesh. They
were in the flesh. What? Destroy with fire the whole
village, the children and men and women, boys and girls, destroy
because they didn't want your master. Well, here's what bothers me
even worse. They quoted the Bible. Did they not? The disciples, verse 54, James
and John, saw this. They said, Lord, wilt thou we
command fire to come down from heaven and consume them as Elias
did? 2 Kings 1, verses 10-12. Oh, we remember it. I'm going to use the Bible to
justify my position. Oh, we are something else. We
are something else. What? Even quote, Bible to prove
our unholy zeal, a zeal without knowledge? What? Think that they were right because
of their injustice showed their master? No, no. What did their
master say? He said, well, come on, we're
protecting you. And then the master says, rebuked
him, he says, you know not what manner of spirit you are of.
This is why I came, not to destroy, but to save. That is ever, should
ever, and I know it's difficult, oh boy, when somebody starts
messing with our children, or our grandchildren, no, no, it
cannot be. Christ never did such a thing
even to His most despised enemies. Remember the Sadducees and the
Pharisees? He said, show us a sign from heaven. He could have brought
down fire. He didn't do it. And He says, My kingdom is not
of this world. John chapter 18, if it were of
this world, My soldiers would fight. And we didn't really look
at that in Deuteronomy. I didn't touch on that. Earthly
wars are about money, greed, all these different things. That's
not what a believer is about. If this kingdom was His, like
the world of kingdoms, His people would fight, but it's not. He
says that very plainly in John 18. In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul
says our weapons are not carnal, spiritual. Before you get aggravated
at somebody, before you road rage, before you just have rage,
pray about it. Ask the Lord to give you grace
to stop you in your tracks. Matthew 26, he talks about the sword. Put it away. He told Peter to
put it away. You live by the sword, you're
going to die by the sword. You live by the handgun, You're going
to die by the handgun. I've got one. It's still in a
box. It's been in a box ever since
we bought it. There's never any instance in
Scriptures where you can find New Testament because we're under
grace, not under law. Paul says about the Jews that
they had a zeal without graceful knowledge. Romans chapter 10. They did have a zeal, but it
wasn't according to knowledge. It was according to what they
thought. Let us learn from this passage. Not to use Scripture
for anger, self-justification, or for unholy means. That's exactly
what they did. They quoted. Well, this is what
happened. And he had just told them when
they were fighting amongst themselves just a little while ago, who's
going to be greatest. And for bad, they rebuked those
men who were casting out because they weren't with them. He said,
if they're not against me, they're for us. We get our I's dotted and our
T's crossed and our denominations all set. Sometimes I wish there was no
denomination. I wish it was biblical. Just the church at Jackson. The church at Corinth. The church
in Danville. The church, etc. We get all these
party afflictions. And we're all guilty. But let
us ever follow after the Spirit of Christ and Christianity, which
is, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save them. That's what we ought to be about.
Love them that despitefully use you. That's what the Scripture
says. Bless them that curse you. May we call for grace from heaven,
not fire. The Lord takes care of His own,
and He does. Let us seek wisdom from above
as He was meek and lowly of heart. So what do you do? The last phrase
in verse 56, "...and they went to another village." No, I've got to set up, I've
got to get my armament, I've got to get my bullets, I've got
to get my cannon, I've got to get all this together. No, you
just walk away. Sometimes you can't. No turn
the other cheek. Like I said, these are things
that we need to learn by the grace of God. Do not take revenge, but yield
to somewhere or to someone else. In my work, I met many idiots. And you couldn't talk to them.
You couldn't talk to them. They would either not let you
get a word in edgeways, or they would just over-talk you, or
get louder. My wife says I do when we've
got an argument, I start getting louder. Just kind of drown her
out, you know. That's what we do. No. Just... Thanks for your time. See you later. He says, wipe
the dust, shake the dust off your feet. Go to another house.
Go somewhere else. Oh, it's... He is faithful that
called you. He'll do it. We doubt God. And we pull from Scriptures incorrectly
to prove our point. Go to someplace else or someone
else, and if possible, Romans chapter 12 says, if possible,
live peaceably with all men. That's difficult. I was reading somebody this week,
Phil Potter, somebody, and he said, you get aggravated at unbelievers,
but they don't know any better. But we don't look at it. They've
got to learn, they've got to listen to what I say, what I
mean, just back off. I still say what Scott Richardson
said so many years ago, a lot of times, people don't care how
much you know until they know how much you care. Are you just
talking? Words? There are no actions.
An email here, a letter here, this or that? Just sending stuff
out? We got something the other day from one of Melinda's friends,
hadn't heard from her in years. All of a sudden, hey, what are
you doing? What's that all about? Oh, I
looked you up on Facebook. No, she's not on Facebook. So let us see Christ in the Scriptures
pre-eminently. And may we live like Him and
desire to be like Him because we are new creatures in Christ.
And as He steadfastly said, His face to go to Jerusalem. May
we steadfastly set, may we help people, help our neighbors, help
our friends, I'm not saying to be mean, but let us set our face
to the new Jerusalem, to our new home. And not be all preoccupied
with all the stuff going on here, though we live here. I understand. Pay bills, this
and that. I understand that. But may we be like Christ. He couldn't be dissuaded. He
was going to do good to that village, I'm sure. They didn't
want him. Oh well, go somewhere else. For He has not come to destroy
men's lives, but to save them. Is that what the Lord has sent
us to do? Is to preach the Gospel? Not
be so concerned with all these little... and we do, we get encumbered
by many things. When you let it go, you can breathe so much easier. When
you let go of the anxieties, when you let go of the, oh, what
am I going to wear? What am I going to eat? He says,
the Gentiles think about these things. I'm your Heavenly Father. I'm going to take care of you.
This place shouldn't even be here, humanly. Former pastor,
tried to make sure he destroyed everything. But we're not much,
but we're here. The truth is here. Lord, help us to live for Christ,
be like Christ, and act in a manner that glorifies Christ. Nathan,
would you close us please?