Christ in the Midst of Unbelief

In this passage, Jesus and his disciples come down from the mountain and are met by a large crowd. A man in the crowd asks Jesus to heal his son, who is possessed by a spirit and suffers from convulsions. The disciples had previously tried to drive out the spirit but were unsuccessful. Jesus rebukes the crowd for their lack of faith and heals the boy. He then predicts his own death, but the disciples do not understand. They begin arguing about who among them is the greatest, and Jesus teaches them that the one who is least among them is actually the greatest. Lastly, John tells Jesus that they had tried to stop someone from casting out demons in Jesus' name because he was not one of their group. Jesus tells them not to stop him, as anyone who is not against them is for them. This passage highlights Jesus' power to heal and deliver and emphasizes humility and unity among his disciples. reading of Scripture. We are in Luke chapter 9 verses 37 through 50, our text for today, as we are wrapping up this portion of our study of Luke's Gospel. So Luke chapter 9 verses 37 through 50 is our text for this morning. And this is God's Word. The next day when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met them. A man in the crowd called out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams. It throws him into convulsions, so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him, and it is destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not. Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here. Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. An argument started among the disciples, as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. And then he said to them, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all, he is the greatest. Master, said John, we saw a man driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us. Do not stop him, Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. So as I said, we're wrapping up our study of According to Luke, the Truth Concerning the Christ, and today we get to look at a story of Christ in the midst of unbelief. And here's how we'll study the text. It's in kind of three portions. Verses 37 through 43, it's the only begotten Son who heals the only Son. And then verses 43 through 45, Jesus again predicts his own death, and verses 46 through 50, the disciples confirm their incomprehension. So to give you a little bit of information of where we're going with today's text, we come to the end of what we would generally refer to as Jesus' Galilean ministry. We've noticed that Jesus' ministry has primarily engaged in the region to the west of the Sea of Galilee, the west of the Jordan River, places like Nazareth and Nain and Capernaum and Bethsaida. And then we notice in verse 51 that the attention of Jesus shifts. The text says, as the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely sets out for Jerusalem. And we generally refer to the text, beginning with verse 51, as Luke's travel narrative. It's the time in which the cross becomes larger and larger in Christ's field of view. And so we're going to, after today, we'll set aside Luke's gospel, we'll pick it up again after Christmas, Lord willing, and we'll jump back in to finish chapter 9 and then go on into Luke's gospel from there. So today we're in verse 37 and we notice the first half of the verse sets the stage for everything. Look at the first half of verse 37. The text says, The next day when they came down from the mountain. Now the reference, of course, is to Jesus and to the three disciples, Peter, John, and James. And recall they were on the mountain with Jesus during his transfiguration. Jesus appears to the disciples bearing the countenance of divine glory, and Moses and Elijah then appear with him. And then we read of the voice of God declaring the Father's divine enthronement and endorsement of the Son. Really amazing stuff. If you haven't had a chance to read this previous text about Jesus' transfiguration, you're going to want that for homework with this week because it's really great stuff. Luke's observation is that the four have come down from the mountain and they have left behind the place of the display of the divine presence and they have descended back into the world, the dark and broken and sinful world. This world of sickness and sorrow and death, a world where the need is tremendous, a world where people are in need of healing and deliverance and salvation, and Jesus knows the needs of the people who are waiting for him. And certainly this is familiar territory for Jesus. We have known of the incarnation, the word incarnates means having taken on flesh or embodied in flesh. Christ Jesus is God incarnates. He is the Emmanuel. He is God with us. He entered this world, of course, as a newborn baby, and so he entered this world devoid of the ability to engage with the world, just like any newborn baby, an ability that is acquired as the baby grows and develops. And so from this we fast-forward some 30-plus years and at the transfiguration, Jesus gets a brief respite from this world, but just as quick, it is over, and now he comes down from the mountain. Now this is definitely not a reincarnation. We don't want to attach that term to it, but it is a re-entering into the burdens and the cares and the challenges of this world. Christ engages with this world again, fully aware of the sin and the darkness and the brokenness of it, and as the discussion that Jesus had with Moses and Elijah indicates, Christ engages with this world again fully aware of the Father's plan of redemption, fully aware of what he must do and what he will do to once and for all deal with the sin and the darkness and the brokenness of this world. So when Jesus came down from the mountain, he knew that he was headed for the cross, and he goes to the cross willfully and obediently, and are we indeed not grateful, eternally grateful, that Jesus came down from the mountain because he does so for your salvation and for my salvation? And so Jesus descends from the mountain with the intention of ministering to the needs of the people. He doesn't ignore them, he doesn't avoid them. Jesus has come down from the mountain, and Luke tells us that there's a large crowd waiting for him, and he knew that people were waiting for him, and he goes to them. Now Luke doesn't tell us much about this crowd, other than the crowd was large and was waiting there. Mark, though, has some insight for us, because Mark recounts the same event in his gospel. Mark chapter 9 verse 14, Mark writes, when they, Jesus and the three disciples, came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and the teachers of the law arguing with them. And then in verse 15 of chapter 9 of Mark, it says, as soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder, so they were amazed to the point of being distressed, and they all ran to greet him. Now why all the ruckus? Well, we find out here that someone calls out to Jesus, requesting a miracle. Look back at our text in Luke chapter 9 verses 38 and 39. A man in the crowd called out to Jesus, he yelled at Jesus, and said, teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. A spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams. It throws him into convulsions, so that he foams at the mouth, and it scarcely ever leaves him, and it is destroying him. Now it appears that while Jesus and the three disciples were with him on the mountain, this man had made the same requests of the other disciples, without success. Notice verse 40, I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not. And doesn't this seem a bit odd to us? Because we recall at the beginning of Luke chapter 9, remember this a few weeks ago, when Jesus sent out the twelve, he sent them to do what? To communicate the gospel, and to perform miracles. Remember chapter 9 verses 1 and 2, it says, when Jesus had called the twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons, and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. So then in verse 6, it says, so they sent out, and they went from village to village, preaching the gospel, and healing people everywhere. And then verse 10, when the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. So all the disciples had been trained by Jesus, they had been empowered by Jesus, and they had been authorized by Jesus to do precisely the thing that this boy's father asked the disciples to do. In fact, the father begged the disciples to act, but act so as to bring healing to this boy, they could not. And we read in Mark that as Jesus approached the crowd, he rather pointedly demands of the other disciples, this is what it says in Mark's gospel, Jesus says, what are you guys all arguing about? The general understanding here is that the teachers of the law, the scribes and the Pharisees, are arguing with the disciples as to whether they can claim the boy could be healed, and whether the disciples should even attempt to do so. So here's the scene, the scene of the crowd when Jesus has come down the mountain, a young boy suffering from both illness and demonic possession, an exasperated father yelling and begging for a miracle, a distressed crowd, an argumentative group of Pharisees denying Jesus of the power and authority he extended to the disciples, and then the nine remaining frustrated disciples unsuccessful in bringing healing and deliverance to the boy. And it is at this point that Jesus speaks to the truth to them all, notice verse 41, oh unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? And we might want to push back here a little bit, we might want to complain that Jesus' words seem a bit harsh, perhaps, but in fact we know that Jesus' emotions are always right, they're always proper, they're always consistent, because they're always in line with his perfect will. So Jesus here is right to express anger and sorrow and exasperation, he is right to do so, so he is right to describe the people as an unbelieving and perverse generation. Unbelieving, they are faithless and they are without trust in God, and they're also perverse, they're crooked and distorted and perverted and broken, and this is the entire generation, this is the crowds and the religious leaders and even the disciples. He knows that there is much for people yet to learn, there is much for the disciples yet to understand, but he also knows that the clock is ticking, the cross is getting nearer, here Jesus asked this generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? And of course we've seen before, we know that this is not really a question, Jesus knows that his day in Jerusalem is coming soon, Jesus knows that his time is short, so it's Christ in the midst of unbelief. Now Jesus has some stern words for the disciples, and we're going to find those in a moment, but the priority certainly must be concerning the boy, and so to the boy Jesus attends. Look at our text in Luke, the next verse says this, bring your son here, Jesus commands the boy's father, and we notice that in verse 42 that the demon who has possessed this boy is not giving up without a fight, the text says even while the boy was coming the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion, but just as quick Christ pours out his blessing upon this boy. Notice the second half of verse 42, here's the miracle, but it's very quick, Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. The Pharisees complained and argued, the crowd stressed and murmured, and the disciples stammered, and in the midst of all this, Jesus stepped in and did what needed to be done, he healed this boy. And as the first half of verse 43 closes out this little story, Luke concludes that all who were there, the crowds and the Pharisees and the disciples, all were amazed at the greatness of God. And yet, a nagging question persists, does it not? And the question is this, why? Why? Why must this little boy suffer as he does, both with illness and demon possession? Why does this little boy suffer? Why must this happen? Why does any of this have to happen? You know, when we think of little children throughout the world, abandoned and abused, beaten, broken, hungry, used as political pawns, used as human shields, trapped in slavery, laboring to dig cobalt out of the ground so we could have lithium-ion batteries in our cell phones? Why must the most vulnerable and the weakest and the innocent among us suffer? That's a good question. The story of this boy, and millions of stories like this, break our hearts. And they should, because if they don't, if our hearts aren't broken like this, then we have a problem. When will this come to an end? When will this kind of suffering come to an end? I know you've heard those questions before, you've told me about those questions before, loved ones and friends and family members and neighbors who ask those very questions. Why does God allow pain and suffering? Why doesn't he stop it? When will this come to an end? Now, admittedly, we don't know when, but we do know how. We know that Christ will one day bring all evil to judgment, and he'll bring all evil to eternal condemnation. And we know that one day every wrong will be brought to light, and one day righteousness will prevail. In this we trust, and in this we have hope. So not that someday man will finally correct his behavior and get things right. Don't hold your breath for that. Rather, there is a day coming when Christ will make all things new. And then there's one little detail that we might have missed. It's important for us to hear. Recall the beginning of the story when we first introduced the Father. We first introduced to the Father who tells Jesus that this boy is his only son. And so now we realize that the only begotten son heals the only son. In fact, we find that it's only the only begotten son who can heal the only son. Now we come to verses 43 through 45. Jesus is not distracted by the acclaim of the people, the buzz that now reverberates around this location where this miracle took place. Notice the second half of verse 43. While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, Jesus turned away from the crowd, and he turned to his disciples, and he spoke to them in what characterizes very stern and a very direct manner. Verse 44, Jesus says, listen carefully to what I'm about to tell you. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. Now recall two Sundays ago, we noticed that when Jesus told the disciples that his life was going to come to an end, here we see again that Jesus again predicts his own death. But there's a subtle difference between the two statements. So a couple of weeks ago, we studied, we saw in Jesus' words recorded in Luke chapter 9 and verse 22, Jesus said, the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests, teachers of the law, and he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life. And we notice that the word Jesus uses twice in that text is the word must. Jesus discusses the necessity of his death. In today's text, verse 44, we notice that Jesus doesn't say must, but he does use the phrase is going to. Notice that in the text, the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. So where formerly Jesus spoke of the necessity of his death, now he speaks of its certainty. And both are correct. The death of Christ is both a necessity and a certainty. And here we see that Jesus commands his disciples to receive what he is saying. William Hendrickson, the 20th century pastor and professor and theologian, he expounded on this in his commentary. He says, let these words sink into your ears. That is, pay close attention to what I'm about to tell you. Listen very carefully. Store it up in your memory. Roll it over your mind. Take it to heart. And so did the disciples heed the command of Christ? Of course not. Look at verse 45. The text says, but they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so they did not grasp it, and they were even afraid to ask him anything about it. Now why does Luke say that this truth was hidden from the disciples? Isn't that strange? Why is it hidden from the disciples? If something is hidden, then this, by inference, means that someone or something has hidden it. And the conclusion here, of course, is that it is divinely hidden. God, by his Spirit, reveals, and so it also makes sense that God, by his Spirit, conceals. It is, of course, the big reason why Jesus is here, to carry out his Father's plan of redemption. If it's such a big deal, why hide it? Why hide it? Why is it hidden? Well, the word here rendered as hidden means that which is covered over, that which is concealed. Something covered over and concealed can, of course, be mere inches away and yet impossible to see. If I set something down on a table and then put a blanket or a towel or something on a sheet over the top of it, it's right there, it's right in front of you, but you can't see it because it's concealed. It's hidden in that way. Something covered over and concealed can, of course, be mere inches away and yet impossible to see. The truth is this. The followers of Christ will never comprehend the death of Christ until they witness the death of Christ. Because, of course, as we noticed before, the Old Testament promises the death of Christ, the death of the suffering servant. Jesus himself speaks of its necessity and its certainty, but the cross will prove to be the revelation of Christ. The cross itself will prove to be the revelation of Christ. And here we read the disciples not only lack understanding concerning Jesus' prediction, Luke tells us that the disciples were also afraid to ask Jesus about it. Think about this for a minute. I mean, put yourself in the disciples' sandals. You've just heard the rebuke of Christ lumping you and the other disciples in with the rest of the unbelieving and perverse generation. Next you witness Jesus perform a miracle that you yourself could not bring about. And then you heard Jesus predict his death, and even though you heard it, you couldn't make the eye nor hair of it. The word here rendered as afraid, the word there in the text is afraid, it's the same word from which we get our word phobia. What are you afraid of? Do you fear spiders or snakes or confined spaces or darkness? The disciples were deathly frightened by the events on this text and the words of Jesus. They were terrified of this. They were nearly put to flight through this. Now to their credit, the disciples didn't run away at height of hearing of this, but they did deflect, and they did so by engaging in the oddest arguments, and by doing this, the disciples confirmed their incomprehension. Notice this in verse 46. An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. So these guys respond to all of this by arguing. Of course not with Jesus, but they're arguing with each other, and you can just imagine the content of this argument. It goes something like, I'm certainly not a part of this unbelieving and perverse generation. If I had a try, I would have healed the kid, and whatever Jesus had said, well of course I'm all for it. I can't understand it, but I'm all for it. We come to verse 47, and we need to understand the words of Jesus here have more precision, and they're more vivid. Most of us are reading the New International Version, but the language here is a little more precise than what we have described. Instead of the rendering that says, Jesus knowing their thoughts, the text actually says, offers a phrase that is a little difficult for us to understand, but we'll think about it, and we'll understand it. The text actually says, but Jesus knowing the dialogue of their heart. But Jesus knowing the dialogue of their heart. So Jesus knows the thoughts of man, and Jesus knows the heart of man, and here God's word declares that Christ even knows the dialogue of the heart. What's the dialogue of the heart? Well, it's the recurring stream of thought. It's the running commentary. It's the continual loop of cares and concerns and fears, and the things that are the default to each one of us, when we don't have anything to think about, we're not busy doing something, the thoughts that pop back into our head, or the things that keep us up at night. It's the belief and the knowledge and the wisdom and the logic and the reasoning, and it's how all of these things work together to inform our thoughts and our motivations and our affections. The dialogue of the heart. And knowing all this about each of the disciples, Jesus here posits three arguments for them all. First, he's in verse 47 of the first half of verse 48. Jesus took a little child and had him stand beside him, and then he said to them, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Now, Jesus has a little child in front of him, but when Jesus references children in this manner, he's not necessarily referring just to age or physical stature, though Jesus does invite a little child to stand in his midst. Rather, here Christ looks to those who possess humility before God and trust in God and devotion to God, childlike in the sense of the relationship that God's children have with God the Father. Jesus here reminds the disciples to skip this argument, drop this argument about who would be the greatest, and instead seek the conduct of a child who would be humble and faithful, and then be ready to seek and engage with the ones who would possess a similar humility and a similar faithfulness. And in this way, Jesus says, you connect with me, and by connecting with me, you connect with God. Commit to loving a life of humility and faithfulness as unto God. Not new concept, the scriptures have told about it before. Isaiah chapter 57, Isaiah writes, for this is what the high and lofty one says, he who lives forever, whose name is holy. I live in a high and lofty place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the hearts of the contrite. Yes, we readily admit that this scheme of being the greatest by being the least is absolutely counter to the dictates of this world and society's schemes for success. There's plenty of high power thinking that laughs at this and rejects it outright. But my friend, here's the truth, God is the creator of this universe, and God is the sustainer of this universe, and God is bringing this universe to its fulfillment. So if this is God's call for us in this life, why would we seek anything else? If God's word is presenting this to us, perhaps the guy who made everything knows what he's talking about. And then we come to the third argument, this is 49 and 50. And here, John makes reference to an incident in which the disciples encountered a man who was able to deliver people from demonic possession. John tells this story, and John here seems to suggest the disciples did not personally know this man, but they were at least aware of his faith in Jesus. It seems that they understood that. Nevertheless, as the story goes, the disciples tried to stop this man from casting out demons, and their reason for attempting to do so was because he was not one of the disciples. He was not one of the twelve. You should be part of us if you're going to do this. Now Christ, of course, being omniscient, that means being all-knowing, would have known this man, and because Christ knows the dialogue of the heart, he would have known this man's motivations and his affections. And so Christ, therefore, instructs the disciples to endorse this man's ministry. Notice verse 50. Now this same logic will prove necessary for the disciples in the future. Think about this for a moment, because a day will come when a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus will seek to communicate the gospel to the Gentiles. He will have an encounter with Christ, and he will become a believer, and he will seek to communicate the gospel to the Gentiles. But he will not be one of the twelve. But in that day, and we know this to be true because we'll see the story in Acts chapter 15, the Council of Jerusalem. We know that the apostles will see and sense that Saul is indeed called by Christ, and they will indeed endorse and affirm his mission to communicate the gospel to the nations. So this is coming for them some day in the future. And Grace Point Church has been called in a similar manner. Because, of course, as we all know, we have another church in town which uses our facility for their youth group. And we have no denominational affiliation with this church. And though we do closely align theologically on many matters before the church, indeed our church and their church would have a major fundamental disagreement, considering differing views on baptism. But we're not working against them, and they're not working against us. Because we're both about the task of what? Communicating the gospel. Christ would have our two churches serve each other and encourage each other. Because in this way, the kingdom is being advanced. And so with this, Luke articulates the conclusion of Jesus' Galilean ministry. From here, Jesus sets his course to heaven, and the journey will take him through Jerusalem, where the cross awaits. Now why do we need to know this? How do these stories serve any purpose for us? They kind of seem like kind of random stories. One kind of falls after the other, but they kind of just fall in line here in place. And why do we need to know these stories? How do they serve any purpose for us? Well, we recall here, and we looked at it briefly, but let's look at it again, that Luke wrote that Jesus' relationship with the disciples was such that he knew what Luke calls the dialogue of their heart. And is this not true for all of us too? Because does not Christ know the dialogue of the heart of each and every man and woman, and each and every boy and girl? And of course he does. Not only does he know your thoughts and motivations and affections, but he also knows where those thoughts and motivations and affections are leading. He knows the trajectory of your thoughts and motivations and affections. Now, hearing this, you might be tempted to say something like, Tom, listen, I confess that oftentimes my thoughts and motivations or affections are not good, and they're not in line with God's Word. And I say, look, I get it, because I too confess that all too often my thoughts and my motivations and my affections are not good, and they are not in line with God's Word. So with regard to the dialogue of your hearts, because he already knows it and because he desires to lead it, perhaps it's time to step back so as to see Christ rewrite the dialogue. See Christ rewriting the dialogue of your heart. See Christ recalibrating the trajectory of your thoughts and motivations and affections so that they are henceforth in line with Christ. So what would this look like, to see the dialogue of our heart rewritten by Christ? What would that look like? Well, actually, the Scriptures already describe it for us, and let's look at it together. So turn with me, please, to Philippians. So after Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, you get to Philippians. If you get to Colossians, you've gone too far. The way I always knew these was Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. I learned it by General Electric Pepsi-Cola. That's how I learned the fourth in order. I couldn't remember the order, but someone told me that one day. I thought, that's perfect. So we're going to go to Philippians. Let's look together at Philippians chapter 2, starting with verse 12. We're going to look through verse 16. Now, you'd be wise to highlight this, underline this, commit it to memory, get it tattooed on you somewhere so you can easily read it. Something, somewhere, do something to get this into your brain. Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 through 16. This is how, this is what it looks like to see the dialogue of our heart rewritten by Christ. Look at God's Word. Philippians 2, verses 12 through 16. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you continue to work in us. You have saved us. And you are saving us. And you will save us. It's the process of sanctification that goes on in the life of each believer as we are readied for eternity, as we are fitted for glory. And in that process, we know and we see, because you make it aware to us by your Holy Spirit, that there are times and there are things which need to be corrected. And each one of us has these things because we're human. And we're not yet ready for glory. And yet we know you're working on us. So, Father, would you this day rewrite again the dialogue of our heart? Would you so move in us and so rework and redirect us so that we might be more like Christ? That we might put away the language of this world and the darkness that is around us and the sin that besets, the anxieties and the fears, the jealousies and the rage. Father, that the dialogue of our heart might be rewritten. That the trajectory of our life might be recalibrated. And that we might be re-aimed again towards you. Would you do that in us today, Father? Would you remind us again of the areas in which you desire to work? And then, Father, would you begin that work? And we thank you you do so. We know that those you love you reprove and chastise. We know that your correction for us is for our good. And we know that your correction for us is the evidence of your hand upon us. And so, Father, would you this day rewrite the dialogue of our hearts? So that our hearts might be more in line with the heart of your Son. Thank you, Father. We trust you with this. And we know that you are trustworthy. Because you have promised to never fail nor forsake us. And so we trust you with this. We trust you with our life. We trust you with the lives of those around us. We trust you with our cares and concerns. We trust you, Father. You have proven yourself worthy. And we know that you will continue to do so. We praise you, Father. We give you glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.