The Question of Who Is the Greatest

All right. Um, morning everyone. Um, couple announcements for us before we get started. Um, we have our anniversary service coming up the first Sunday in August. I think that will be the 6th. Um, 7th and 7th.

Um, so that will be here. Um, and then we are not sure at this point where we will have the pi party that we normally have, but we will have one somewhere. So, just keep looking out for that. Um, and then members, if you've not seen your email, we sent out an email ear earlier this week. Please go and find that, take a look through that. Um, we have an important member meeting coming up, not tonight, but next Sunday night.

Um, so make sure you are ready for that and have any questions that you may have. So, um I think at this point, uh we will send the three and fives to their three, fours and fives to their class for Sunday school or little district or whatever we want to call that. Um and then we'll go ahead and get started. Um I know Julie and I are glad to be back. We were out last week. Uh my brother-in-law got married and took the whole weekend to do family stuff.

Um which was really good. Um, but it was a really nice reminder of the gospel and and Christ's love for his church and the bride of Christ that was displayed through that wedding, which is just always refreshing to see. Um, especially when it's done well. Um, today we are going to be in Luke 9:46-50. So, if you want to open your Bibles and get there. Um, as I sat down to prepare for this this week, um, my initial thought was, okay, this passage has kind of two ideas.

Having childlike faith and then the second thing that Jesus says that's really confusing and seems like he contradicts himself. Um, so I really wrestled with that because the just it just seemed wrong and I'm like this can't be wrong because I know scripture is true. Um, so I wrestled and wrestled and fortunately that's not the case. It's not a contradiction. And I have an explanation for that. But um there was a moment where I was something was just wrong in my brain.

Um so this has been really good for me to study and get into. Um and even with the topic of this sermon, I have some repenting that I need to do and some work to ask the spirit to do in my heart as well. Um so um starting off Luke 9:46. Um I'll actually read from my little Bible instead from the sheet. Um, so it says, "An argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest. But Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side 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."

And 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." But Jesus said to him, "Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you." So, let's go ahead and pray. Um, God, you are good. We just thank you for the gift of scripture um and the gift of um the access to just knowledge about you and being able to study your word and study who you are. Uh we just pray that today um that you would speak to us and that you would soften our hearts to hear your word.

um and that we would be encouraged and edified um and equipped to to better serve you and to better glorify you in our daily lives. Um we thank you for that and just um just ask that you would you would be present in our hearts this morning. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Um okay, so today I have really just one I think main point and I'm not certain how to plainly state that. Um, and this might sound cliche, but I feel like it's it's one of the better verses to explain what I think the solution is.

Um, but in Luke 10:27, um, there's a discussion between Jesus and a lawyer. Um, and the lawyer responds to Jesus and says, "And he answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor and your neighbor as yourself." And like Jesus says, "Hey, good job. you actually understand this well, but the lawyer isn't satisfied and keeps going on and um that's not in today's text, but that's that story. Um but here in in Luke 9, we see some squabbbling between the disciples u which one of them is the best disciple and we also see them bickering with someone else um outside of their group. Um in the previous verse with what the lawyer said, the summary of the whole scripture is to love God and to love others.

That offers correction for these two behaviors. We see the disciples doing um the disciples lost sight of what they were there to do to love God at the expense of loving others, the other disciples, what they're arguing. Um we're not going to have a neat little packaged classic three-point here's my three bits I'm going to do today. Um I tried to come up with an outline that did that, but every time with this text, it just felt like I was forcing it and it wasn't being faithful to what this text is for has for us today. Um, so I'm sorry for those of you who like the bullet points. I did try, but you don't get them.

Um, so instead we're going to look at this in two chunks. Um, verses 46 through 48 and then verses 49-50. And then we'll see kind of how that fits in the whole narrative of Luke um, and what that means for us. So with that first section, um, Luke 9:46 and 48, the disciples are arguing with each other. Um, from our point of view, having the hindsight that we do, this seems petty and childish, and it really is. Um, but this argument reveals that there was discord within the disciples um with the sin of pride that they were struggling with.

Uh, one possible explanation for this could be that Jesus took only Peter, James, and John with him for the transfiguration few verses before. Um, they were also the only ones present for the raising of Gyrus's daughter in Luke 8. Um, and so let me ask, um, if you guys had a close group of people, close group of friends, and regularly two or three of them were always getting invited to go do the cool stuff with everyone else, or they were getting the special attention or um, you know, whatever it was, how would that make you feel? Would there be a jealousy there? Um, would you question your place and your value in the group? Um, personally, I know that I've had these thoughts before and I've struggled with this in in various contexts.

Um, but one thing that I really like about this passage and many, many, many others throughout the New Testament is that it emphasizes the humanity of the disciples. It's really easy for us to romanticize their faith and boldness because we see the great stories in Acts, you know, of what the disciples doing, the works and their miracles and the preaching and the faith they have even horrible circumstances with prison and the threat of death and all of these things. And it's easy to romanticize that and be like, "Wow, these were really great men." But all throughout the gospels, we see them failing and failing and failing. And um it's just an excellent reminder that they were humans um and that their their boldness of faith truly comes from Christ, not from them. Um and so that we like when we sin and we struggle ourselves, we have that reminder that faith and boldness and and the just majesty of Christ that we see displayed through the disciples is actually from Jesus and also can be done through us as well.

not by our own ability. Um so nevertheless, um the disciples here arguably have some grounds for thinking that some of them are better than others or at least more important. Um one of my professors with some seminary classes that I have stopped taking recently. um it's been too difficult of a season. But um but he he believed that Jesus established disciplehip groups within the 12 and that Peter, James, and John would have been the leaders of these smaller groups to help them equip each other for going out and doing the work after uh the resurrection. Um and so um there could have been a debate there about which one of them was the greatest.

Um, but regardless, they were concerned enough about this concept of one of them being the best that they were arguing about it. And so, how does Jesus respond to this? If I'm someone in that group, if I'm one of the disciples, I would want Jesus to be like, "Okay, fine. He's the best." And pick someone. That way, it'd be over.

And we could be like, "All right, you're in charge." Um, but that's not what he does. Instead, he takes a child and he pulls him up next to him and says, "Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me." Um, children were almost completely inconsequential in the ancient near east. They had no status, no voice, no real purpose in society. In ancient Jewish culture, children were supposed to study the law in the hopes that they would one day be called to follow a rabbi and potentially have students of their own.

otherwise they would work some sort of trade. Um each of the disciples would have known this u very intimately and each of them had failed to be considered learned enough to be selected by a rabbi in their youth. Um it wasn't until they were adults and working that Jesus called them to follow him. So here we have this child a physical reminder of their own position in society prior to Christ as well as the physical embodiment of humility. Initially I had some questions about where this kid came from. um at minimum it means there was a child present uh at least in the vicinity when the disciples were arguing but it could mean they were arguing in full view of the public.

Um and this is another one of the great treasures we have in scriptures that we have what are called the synoptic gospels with Matthew, Mark and Luke and they have parallel passages that are told in each story. So we can see different perspectives from those. And so if we look at the parallel passage in Mark which is 9:33 and 37 um it says and they came to Capernaum and when he was in the house he asked them what were you discussing along the way. So we get a little more context. It's not just they're fighting somewhere. We have context for where it is.

But they kept silent for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the 12. And he said to them, "If anyone will be first, he must be the last of all and servant of all." And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me." Adding in Mark's account, we see that they were traveling to Capernaum, and Jesus overheard the argument along the way. Mark also points out that the disciples kept silent because they knew that what they had been doing was wrong.

Um, so it's like when Reuben, we ask Reuben all the time, Reuben, did you lie? No. And he like obviously knows that he sinned and he tries to hide it from us because that's what sin does. It tries to hide. It doesn't like being exposed. Um, and so they kept silent.

Um, additionally, I find it interesting that Jesus waited to respond to them, not in the moment, but until they were at the house in the presence of other people. Um, it's when he chose to rebuke them. Um, I like to think that this is Jesus serving an extra slice of humble pie to the 12. It's like, I could have reu rebuked you in private when it was just us, but I'm going to wait and do this with other people because you need to get this message. Um, but he wasn't being vindictive about it. Um, it uh yeah, it's just it's just a difficult lesson for them to learn and he was doing it with grace and with gentleness.

Um, and Jesus deeply loves him and wants the best for them, but not in the sense that they really want and for us, not even often in the sense that we want. Um, you know, it's like with your kids. They want snacks all the time, but they need to eat what's good for them. And so there's there's wisdom in that. Um, and so the disciples were arguing over fame and essentially status and not um not unlike celebrity pastors today, vying for the spotlight. Um but Jesus offers them a way to be more like him.

Offers a sweeter, gentler intimacy with who he is and how he is to be reflected in their lives. He says, "Whoever receives his 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." I think there are two ways we can interpret what Jesus means to receive the child. And I think both of them achieve the same purpose. Um as I said earlier, children were almost as low as you could go in the social hierarchy.

Um, and I think you can take this to mean be like this child. Humble yourselves and think of yourselves like a child. Um, which would be consistent with what he says in Matthew 18 saying, "And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." We even see the same language of the least being the greatest. You could also interpret receive here to mean care for or care for the least of these.

Get off your high horse and wash some feet. Um I think this is the the more correct way to view this passage. Um it's consistent with Matthew 25:40 where he says, "And the king will answer them, truly I say to you, as you did it uh as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me." Mark's account also adds some context here by saying if anyone who would be first he must be last of all and servant of all. Um primarily the metaphor of receiving the child here is meant to emphasize the humility of in service to others. Jesus saying that our view of status and value is broken.

Um and that humility of service humility and service of others are more important than any acclaim we could esteem. Um and that this humble service of others is what will actually be rewarded in heaven. Um, before we move on to the next chunk of verses, I do want to take a moment um, and think, have you guys think about your own position? Um, whether it's at work or at home, friends, family, neighborhood, um, or even here where you serve at church. Um, just just take a take a second and think, why are you in the place that you are? Um, what do you hope to get out of it?

Um, and ask are you are you seeking influence and wealth or praise? Are you desiring to serve or encourage or bless others or maybe a confusing mixture of all of those things? Um because that's I believe that's a very real reality. Um but just take a minute um maybe pray for a second or write down wherever you're taking notes um what you're thinking about and ask the Holy Spirit to renew your mind and how you consider consider those things. So, um, Jesus has witnessed the disciples arguing about who's the greatest. Um, kind of beat that into the ground at this point.

Um, and he rebukes their pride with some gentle instruction. So, how how do the disciples respond? I'm picking up in Luke 9:49 says, "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. But Jesus said to him, do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you." This response seems strange to me. Um Jesus had just told them not to quarrel over who is the greatest.

Um and instead instructed them to humbly serve others. And here John, one of the disciples closest to Jesus, excuse me, seemingly brags about something they did, which we see invites even more rebuke. Um, I feel like the disciples had a t-shirt it would say like something like constantly rebuked or something along those lines because it's just every single verse it seems like they're getting it wrong. Um, so yeah. Um, at some point in their journey though, the disciples had sought seen this man casting out demons in the name of Jesus. Um, I think for most of us, if not all of us, um, exorcisms are, um, fairly foreign.

Um, I don't know that I've ever seen one. I've never experienced that to myself. I know a couple people that have seen stuff similar, but, um, but from what we see in scripture, um, people are only able to exercise demons by the power of Christ. Um, in Acts 19, we see some people who tried to cast out demons by the name of Jesus, but they didn't have his authority, and the demons overpowered them and even mocked them. Um, in Matthew 12, some Pharisees claim Jesus is casting out demons by the power of the devil, which he immediately rebukes and proclaims his own authority. So given those examples, if this unnamed man is successfully casting out demons in the name of Christ, then he must have Christ, plain and simple.

But the disciples still sought to stop him. Um Jesus rebukes them for trying to stop this man. At first I thought that these two sections weren't related. Um the part about the quarreling and the part about them them stopping this man. Um but this reaction to someone else is working miracles is a continuation of their pride. Someone else outside of their group was doing works to make the name of Christ famous and in service of others.

Exactly the sort of thing Jesus told them to do in verse 48. Um, Matthew Henry says in his commentary on the passage, um, now if ever any society of Christians in this world had reason to silence those that were not of their communion, the 12 disciples at this time had, and yet Jesus Christ chid them for what they did and warned them not to do the like again. The disciples thought that they were the only ones who should get to cast out demons. They thought much of themselves and little of others, and Jesus rebukes them. Um, and maybe I can reframe this in a more modern context that you could potentially see yourself fitting into. Um, but let's say you're downtown some week and going out to eat.

Um, and you come across someone sitting with and caring for a homeless man on the street and you walk up to them and you realize it's your Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran, non-denominational, whatsoever friend um that is from college or high school, whatever. some friend of yours that's not with our body, not with our group of Christianity, um, ministering to them and sharing the gospel with them. What's your first thought in that situation? Like just a real gut check there. Is it somewhere along the lines of, man, I hope this guy's not misle they're not misleading that guy. They're not teaching him the wrong gospel or whatever.

Or are you excited that they are taking care of a need and you're like, hey, I know you. Can I do this with you? Can I come alongside you and support you in this? um more immediately, how do we look at the other church that we share a space with? Um do we view them as co- lababorers in the faith or someone working against us? Um I have to confess, I often find myself fixating on what we call secondary or even tertiary issues um and neglecting more important things.

Um and don't get me wrong there, I think it's very important to have those discussions about the the accessory issues of the faith and theology. Um, and it's even good to have those between different denominations, but that isn't ultimately why we are here. And we shouldn't thwart someone else's service because they disagree with us in those ways. Um, or because, as Matthew Henry puts it, they aren't of our communion. Um, Jesus plainly rebukes that mentality in any subsequent actions here by saying, "Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you." Um, some of you may be familiar with another time Jesus said something similar to this.

And this is what I thought was seemingly contradictory. In Matthew 12:30, we have another exorcism. This time by Jesus, and he says at the end of that encounter to the Pharisees, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. It's pretty much the opposite of what he tells the disciples here. Um, and for context, the Pharisees in this passage could not rationalize that Jesus might actually be the Messiah. And so they assumed he must be casting out demons by the power of beelible or the devil and his his host.

Um, this is also where we see the house divided cannot stand saying. And so what does this mean? Um, is this one of those fabled contradictions people claim discredits the authority of the Bible? At first glance, it looks like that. Um, but that isn't the case. Um, and it's a good example of why it's important to use um, good translations when you're studying scripture.

Um, I don't know if there's any KJV only people in here. Um, I'm sorry if this is hard to hear. U, but the King James is not the best translation out there. Um, and it's in defense of the people who translate it. It's not their fault. Um, so the way we determine if a translation is a good and solid translation is based on largely on uh what source material is used.

So we like to use the oldest and best copies of manuscripts to make translations. And the KJV didn't use the oldest and best because they hadn't been discovered yet. Um, so we've dis since the KJV was translated, we've discovered older, closer to the time of writing manuscripts that are much more authentic and accurate to what was written by the authors of the Bible. Um, and so I think I've got a slide for this, but if we look at we're going to look at the Christian Standard Bible and the KJV side by side, Luke 50, um, the Christian Standard Bible says, "Do not stop or don't stop him, Jesus told him, because whoever is not against you is for you." And the KJV says, "And Jesus said unto him, forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us." Um, and I think the key difference here, um, is that Jesus is included in the direct object in the King James and he is not in the SV or the Christian Standard or a lot of other translations.

Um, and technically it's not a mistransation because the manuscripts the King James had used a different Greek word there than the manuscripts that we have today. Um but um there is a difference. Um and so why is that important? It's not a whole lot different. But um and I and and disclaimer, the King James isn't wrong here and you can interpret it correctly, but if you're just reading it at face value, that us can be th can throw you off. And so just a reminder when you guys are doing your own Bible study, be cautious with what translations you use and how you dig into into that stuff.

Um, but in Luke 9, Jesus is telling the disciples that just because someone isn't in their close-knit group doesn't mean that they aren't following Jesus's teaching or that they aren't genuinely working for the good of the kingdom. In the Matthew story, Jesus is pointing out that the Pharisees are not with him. Um, and that they are against him. Not because they are physically with him, because they are in that context. They're right there. Um, but they are not with him spiritually.

They just claimed that he had worked by the power of the devil against the devil. um Pharisees were not with Jesus and they were against him and this was evidenced by their behavior. Whereas with the unnamed man casting out demons, he was not physically with the disciples, but he was with them in mission and spirit as it was evidenced by his success in casting out demons in Jesus' name. And so the same goes for us. Um and I think this can be difficult a difficult distinction to make sometimes. Um but there are two ways that Jesus classifies people as being together in spirit and in person.

Um all of us here in this room are together um in the same sense that the disciples were in that we're physically working towards the mission of the gospel together as one body of believers. Um, however, the Rights family that was here a few weeks ago, they're not a part of this body, right? They don't come to our church here. They are members here. They don't even live here. Um, but they are still working towards the same goal of spreading the gospel and making the name of Christ famous somewhere else.

And we should be excited and encouraged that they are doing that. Um, and so, uh, and this should be a supreme encouragement to us u because we are called to go and make disciples to serve humbly and to love and worship the Lord. And it is a really tall order. Um but it is a wholly rewarding one. Um and it should encourage us that we are not alone in that. Even more so that we don't have to agree with everyone uh everyone every other's view that people are working towards with this.

Um let me back up. That was horrible. Other people who are working towards the mission of the gospel. We don't have to agree agree with every issue that they agree or believe. We have to agree on those close ones and they're advancing the name of Christ. And we can be excited about that.

Um the parallel passage in Mark 9 again gives us a little more info. Um it says, "But Jesus said, "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me." Um it's like people who are advancing the name of Christ love him. Um there's there's no way around that. Um and even if we degree disagree on some less important things um those that are working for Christ are working with us and we should be with them as well. Um as many of you know our lease here in this building is up at uh near the end of this year.

Um and one of the key things that has been discussed with wherever we end up has been a desire to partner with our landlord um to serve the community. Um, and this is not something that you guys have to wait on us um to be in a partnership relationship with for you to go out and partner um with others. Um, and maybe maybe that's serving in a food pantry, maybe that's volunteering at Wheeler Mission downtown. Um, maybe it's participating in another church's rumage sale fundraiser of sorts, something along those lines. Um, and I do want to clarify that serving with someone else does not mean you agree with them on everything, but there are cases where you should consider um, potentially not serving alongside with someone else. If um, what they believe and what they are supporting would be implied that you serving with them, you also believe, um, I would just ask that you be cautious and ask the Lord for wisdom with that.

Um, and maybe that's something that would be different based on your individual consciences, but um, there are churches and denominations out there that do not preach truth, but still claim Christ and claim to work for him. And so working in association with those groups could imply that you are in agreement with those things. And so just be cautious with that. Um so um in the broader narrative of Luke um this passage is a reminder of the humanity of the disciples and just how powerful the Holy Spirit works in their hearts later on. Um the story isn't the only time the disciples get into this argument. Um they just they just really don't learn until it's the right time and Jesus lets them learn.

Um so that it happens again in Matthew 20 um before Jesus is entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Um James and John's mom comes to Jesus and asks them to seat him at his right and his left when he is in glory and the rest of the disciples understandably get really angry with this. Um it happens again in Luke 22 after Jesus has instituted the Lord's supper. Jesus is Jesus is just working on their hearts over and over and over again so that after he leaves they will be prepared to work together to advance the gospel and and more immediately in the story line. um he's about to send them out again in a few weeks with the sending of the 72. Um and so there's practicality too.

If there's quarrels between them about who's greater um you know that that might affect their uh their witness on their journey that might make people discredit them and that does not glorify God in that work if they're arguing um about petty things like that. Um and so for us, what is the takeaway here? How does this apply? Um hopefully um you were able to write something down or or think of something earlier um some way that you can humbly serve in your context. Um as a church we are looking to find ways to partner with other organizations in our community so we can better serve humbly as a body of believers. Um but we also need to be willing to serve outside of our immediate community and to rejoice that there are many many more than just us working for the glory of the Lord.

we have this great gift and that we ultimately have a greater communion of believers than just our congregation. Um, and this is something that we celebrate each week with communion. As believers, we believe that the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us, working towards our ultimate sanctification and when we are reunited with Christ in heaven. But this same spirit is simultaneously in all of us, binding us together and equipping and sustaining all of us to do the work of ministry. When the 72 return to Jesus in Luke 10, they are overjoyed because even the demons were subject to them. But Jesus says,"Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Each week, we take time to remember this very fact, to rejoice that our names are sealed by the spirit in heaven. That same spirit that works in our hearts daily to make us more like Christ, that convicts us of our sin and leads us to repentance. Um, if you are not a believer this morning, then you fall into the category of the Pharisees and that you are not with Christ and thus against him, which is a little more harsh than we normally phrase this. Um, but but it is the reality. You are separated from God and not in communion with him. But Jesus died on the cross to save us from that exact situation.

Um, our sin separates us from God. But Jesus in his infinite love, mercy, and grace offered himself in ourstead on the cross as a divine substitute for our deserved death. If you do not know this in your heart today, um then we're ask you guys to refrain from taking communion um and instead find someone to talk to. I know Josh or myself would be more than happy to talk about this. Um, but if you are a believer, you guys go ahead and stand up and come down and um grab the the elements there and then the band can go ahead and come up.