Journey To Jerusalem

well good morning how are we doing this morning good excellent my name is Josh I'm one of the lead pastors here at the district church and uh I know I say this every week but it is always a joy and an honor to be able to open up God's word and worship with you and so if you have your Bibles go ahead and open to Luke chapter nine we're going to be in starting in verse 51 this morning and this time we'll go ahead and dismiss all of our three to five-year-olds to the little District where they'll be learning about Jesus as you're turning to

Luke chapter nine I want to give a couple quick announcements if you're a member in here and have not received our emails about our member meeting this evening we are having one 5 P.M to 7 P.M there will be child care provided however there will be no food provided so just come prepared either bring your food here eat as we have the member meeting or eat before or plan to eat after but again we will have that member meeting tonight here at five o'clock we're going to be going over some building updates as well as Financial updates and things like that so if you have

not seen any of those emails check your promotional or spam for any of those updates that we'll be talking about in that meeting and then the second one is a celebration of sorts we will be celebrating our seventh year on August 6th so we can praise God for that and then we will be also celebrating as we have done every year with a pie party in the evening and so if you've never been a part of any of those celebrations what we do is we have you sign up whether it's a suite or savory pie whether you want to make it or purchase it and

bring it bring a pie celebrate with us and then we will in the morning time have a service of Celebration where we are singing praises to God and just talking about what he has done in the last seven years of the district church so we want to invite you out to that the pie party right now the location is still to be determined but most likely we will have it here in the evening time we're just trying to work out whether or not the other church we partner with and share this building with will be here so we'll we'll let you guys know this week

by the latest of where the the location will actually be but it will be on August 6th in the evening time at least the pie party the worship service is still the same so come on out at nine o'clock and celebrate with us our seventh year so those are the just a couple quick announcements that I have for you guys and hopefully you have found your way to Luke chapter nine but I want to I want to open up by asking this question have you guys ever wondered what truly defines great this all right what what really makes something great or a person great every

generation has their own arguments of who is the goat am I right the greatest of all time when it comes to basketball the argument is always is it Jordan is it LeBron is it Kobe and if you're old enough maybe you would argue Bill Russell or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar some people would argue and I know a lot of people here because it's Indianapolis will boo at this but a lot of people argue that Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time right I'm just making a statement I'm not making a claim all right or even music right some people believe Michael Jackson is the greatest

of all time or country music George Strait I don't know where people land right now is it Beyonce or is it Taylor Swift maybe you guys can make that decision when I grew up it was between Tupac and Biggie so that's kind of different Generations have their their different goats but what's interesting is and I agree with an article I found on the Gospel Coalition this week um the author wrote calling anyone the goat at anything is fairly ridiculous no one has an all-time perspective from which to accurately draw these conclusions and while I think this is true I do love a lively debate on

whether or not who is the greatest of all time so it's fun to talk about those things but we should have them in the perspective that we are in a minute portion of time and we don't have the ability to see truly all time but if I were to ask you this morning who in here wants to be great I think every one of us would raise our hands if we're talking about being a great spouse or a great friend or a great co-worker whatever it might be I I do think that we have Ambitions of wanting to be great at anything we do and

while none of these Ambitions or desires are sinful or wrong they can be clouded by a worldly perspective of what greatness is and distorted by a sinful Pride and a view of ourselves that is marred by a a sin within us right is marred by a sin of selfish ambition that might Cloud how we actually view greatness now the world through the dictionary defines greatness this way it's an unusual or a considerable degree of power or intensity or notable remarkable and being exceptionally good at something oftentimes when we Define greatness however it is as one author puts it perceived success whether it's financial status security

or power oftentimes greatness can be attributed to success or accomplishments that we have achieved but I want to ask you this morning is this how the Bible defines greatness last week we saw the disciples have their own greatest of all time argument now they weren't arguing of who was the greatest Shepherd or who has been the greatest high priest what they were arguing about was who amongst the disciples was of the greatest as ransford pointed out last week maybe this argument stemmed from the fact that Peter James and John three out of the 12 went with Jesus to see his glory on the mountain of

transfiguration and they became prideful Luke doesn't tell us but we can potentially infer how this argument began but Jesus was trying to show the disciples last week something about their own sin and they're about their own Pride that had blinded them it had blinded them to not recognizing and not understanding the reality of why Jesus came and what he was trying to teach them about his coming death and his resurrection and he's trying to teach them and us as his disciples now that the kingdom of God flips the world's definition of greatness upside down you see Jesus taught us last week and taught his disciples

as well that the kingdom greatness comes from Faith like a child Kingdom greatness also does not exclude those who are doing work for the kingdom but rejoices in the fact that the gospel is being spread this week we'll see that Jesus teaches his disciples the kingdom greatness shows Mercy to our enemies and loves them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and recognizes as we talked about in our confession that the humility that we should have towards people who we would consider enemies overflows from the fact that we were once enemies and because of the blood of Jesus Christ we are now considered friends of God

and next week we'll look at what Jesus will teach about Kingdom greatness and that it comes through service and sacrifice which is the cost of following Jesus so this morning when it comes to Greatness I I want us to take a look at Jesus's life and his death and how it shows us where true greatness lies and so that's my main point this morning Jesus's life and death shows us where true greatness lies and I want to show you this through two parts of this story the first part is through a resolved Grace that we see in Jesus's life and death and the second is

that he shows us greatness through his responses of Mercy both through a rejection as well as a rebuke so let's take a look at what Luke has to say when it comes to Jesus's showing us what true greatness actually is starting in verse 51 Luke writes when the days Drew near for him to be taken up he set his face to go to Jerusalem and he sent Messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him but the people did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem and when his disciples James and John saw

it they said Lord do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them but he turned and rebuked them and they went on to another Village this is God's word let us go to him in prayer this morning and ask him to reveal more of his nature and character and grow us into the image of Christ Lord thank you for your word thank you that in it we see the nature of the kingdom of God and through Jesus we see what true greatness looks like we see that it's not selfish ambition we see that it's not Pride or a striving

to accomplish something only for ourselves we see that it's not putting ourselves first and not worrying about the consequences or damages that it may cause others but it is a heart that is humbled by the reality that we were once enemies of yours and that it is through your great mercy and Grace you've saved us and now call us your own Lord give light to this text this morning help us have the ears to hear and the wisdom to receive your word so that we may trust you as our King and that we may have certainty in the things that have been taught to us

about Jesus as your servant this morning speak through me let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable To You O Lord my rock and my redeemer it is for your glory and our joy that we praise you this morning in his name amen one of the things that Heidi and I like to do throughout the week whenever we're relaxing is watch Duck Dynasty I don't know if you guys are familiar with that TV show I don't know if you knew but we found this out recently that they actually have their own channel and so all of their seasons are

just played over and over and over again I'm pretty sure it's on in our house right now because our dogs now love it but one of the episodes we were watching is where one of the children were getting married and oftentimes in Duck Dynasty they'll interview different people and at this point they were interviewing Jeb who is the fourth son of Phil Robertson and his wife Jessica and they were talking about weddings and marriage and Jeff made this comment he said weddings should be about the groom and then his wife shot him a look what's funny I guess maybe it's not funny and reveals a

little bit of our household but Heidi just laughed and said ours was and I was like well yeah you're right it was and the reason that I bring this up and the reason that it made me think about the passage today is because as we look at verse 51 we begin to see a shift in Jesus's Ministry where he sets his face towards Jerusalem but if you were here on Palm Sunday and remember Jesus entering into Jerusalem the example that we can often picture is that of a bride walking towards his groom or her groom to be married to end the marriage ceremony and what

we see in this passage today is the beginning of that wedding procession so from here on out Jesus's sole focus is walking towards his bride and securing her through death and so as we see Luke shift this Focus we can begin to think about how a wedding procession starts right usually the groom and the uh the officiant walks down and then it is followed by either groomsmen and bridesmaids or just the Bridesmaids but you can begin to see the beginning of that wedding procession in people coming down and it's the same In this passage today from here on out Jesus is walking that long walk

towards securing his bride by death on a cross and so when Luke writes in verse 51 when the days Drew near for him to be taken up he sets his face to go to Jerusalem this is that shift that we begin to see this is Jesus focusing solely on why he came but this interesting phrase that Luke writes when he says taken up is not just about the cross it's not just about the people who would come and take him and bring him to trial and then eventually bring him to the Cross to where he would die Luke has in mind the consummation of all

things where Jesus would be taken to the Cross but that he would also resurrect that he would also Ascend that he would also sit at the right hand of God and that one day he would return for his people ultimately defeating sin and Death on their behalf and ruling and reigning in glory and so this is what Luke is looking towards is that ultimate day and here the Journey Begins this journey towards Jerusalem is not just a change in direction that Jesus and his ministry was doing it's not just a journey towards Jerusalem for a festival or a celebration or Passover Jesus knows that Jerusalem

is the place where he as he has already told his disciples will be rejected where he will suffer and where he will die a sinner's death on a cross and this is the reason why he came this was the Triune God's plan to save and redeem his people as Peter tells those at Pentecost in Acts 2 he says men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to you by God with Mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourself know this Jesus delivered up according to the definite and foreign definite plan and foreknowledge

of God you crucified and killed by the hands of Lawless man God raised him up loosening the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it you see this was not just a reluctant decision by Jesus to go to Jerusalem or that somehow he was by happenstance in Jerusalem at the time Passover was happening and then all of a sudden he got caught up with the wrong crowd and that they decided to kill him this was the Divine calling as the savior of the world so when Luke tells us that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem there is a

resolution to die Luke is indicating that Jesus was resolved and not like a resolution that we have it's not like a resolution where we make in the beginning of the year and then like 30 days later we put it aside and forget it and then say next year we'll come back to it no this was a resolution that Jesus has made he has had made in order to redeem his people there was no reluctance there was no questioning the plan he had set his face towards Jerusalem knowing what was to come and as the author of Hebrews tells us Jesus being the founder and Perfecter

of our faith who for the joy set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is now seated at the right hand of God knowing that the cross was coming knowing as he traveled toward Jerusalem this was what was going to happen there was Joy because he knew what was to come from his death on the cross now what is this joy that was set before him ultimately it is the glory of God and that the Redemption of God's people is now come through Jesus the Messiah but there's also joy that salvation for God's people has been made that you and I who are

once enemies rejected by God dead in our sin Jesus has made a way Jesus Through the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood has made a way for us to be adopted in to the family of God what good news for us right that Jesus would have joy to go to the Cross because he knew what it would bring forgiveness of sin Redemption for God's people this resolved savior set his face to Jerusalem knowing what was to come and what was to come it's a really hard thing to read in the New Testament because we see that Jesus was handed over to

the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees we see that Jesus was rejected by his own people we see that Jesus was despised shamed mocked brutally beaten we see that even his own disciples abandoned him and we see that he knew that death was coming on a cross and yet he still was resolved to go with joy knowing what was to come if you're here today and if you ever wonder if God cares about you or he loves you look to the cross this is the greatest act of love that God could ever show you and me if you think your sin is too much

for him to cover if you're wondering if he cares for you in your present circumstance if you're uncertain how a holy perfect just God could ever look at you and love you and adore you as his children find joy in this resolution that Jesus had to go to the Cross to go to Jerusalem to endure rejection to endure shame to endure suffering on the cross for your behalf so that you and I could be redeemed and saved and adopted into the family of God what a humbling truth this morning that we have in front of us Jesus here shows us what true greatness looks like

that it doesn't come from our own accomplishments or our own successes but from his accomplishment on our behalf and that we are truly great in the kingdom of God when we follow him in his death and like we talked about a couple weeks ago many of us it won't be a physical death that we follow him in but it is a daily death it is a death to self it is a death to our own flesh and desires it is taking up our cross denying ourselves and following him daily so the question that we have before us this morning is that is this will we

resolve ourselves to follow him as he calls us to will we resolve ourselves to pick up our cross daily and trust in him because this is where the greatness and the kingdom of God starts by humbling ourselves by denying ourselves by taking up our Cross by following him on this journey to death even when the world rejects us as it did him we see this rejection come from the Samaritans but we also see a response of Mercy to two different groups first it being the Samaritans who reject him as well as a rebuke that comes to his own disciples and as we walk through the

Book of Luke I hope you've seen that there is a common theme of rejection throughout we've seen as Jesus early on as Jesus's Ministry starts and he reads Isaiah and then says this day has been fulfilled through me there's a rejection of the crowd rejection of the Pharisees and scribes that he could truly be the Messiah there's rejection from the crowds as we have walked through Jesus's Miracles and mighty Works people who are unconvinced that Jesus is truly who he says he is and we see as we walk to the road of Jerusalem as he enters into this great City just a few days later

the crowd rejects him and crucifies him the theme of rejection is throughout the Book of Luke and here we see the same from the Samaritan Village look back at verse 52. Luke writes and he sent Messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparation for him but the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem What's Happening Here is that Luke is introducing a new group the Samaritans now if you've grew up in church maybe you've heard the Good Samaritan maybe you've heard different stories about who these people were that's great but I I

want to as we walk through Luke if this is the first time you're reading this book I want you to be introduced again to who these people were and see why it is significant that Jesus would walk through this region you see Jesus on his journey from where he was in the northern part of Israel had to walk to Jerusalem which would have been 35 miles south and in between those two cities would have been this region called Samaria now a lot of commentaries would say that many Jews would walk around Samaria because they rejected or despised these people to be honest with you I

mean I grew up hearing that I don't know if you grew up hearing it uh I kind of looked a lot of the different stuff up and read some Jewish historians this year or this week um and it doesn't seem to be the case I'm just going to want to point that out because sometimes we can have uh things that are taught to us and we never check out ourselves and so if you wanted to go check that out that the Jews actually walked through Samaria even though they despised them and rejected them you can read Josephus some other Jewish historians itself that's just a

side point because I knew I grew up with that and I I kind of had to wrestle with that this week of like is this actually true is this something I just heard anyways so Jesus has to walk through Samaria to get to Jerusalem and the reality of the situation is in fact that there is historical Bad Blood between these two Nations there is political hostility there is ethnic hostility there is religious hostility we see back in the Old Testament there is a time in which the nation of Israel split into 10 tribes and two tribes the northern kingdom would be the ten tribes and

they would be under the king of jeroboam and this was the wrong choice that they actually made when trying to split as the nation of Israel but they called themselves the Northern Kingdom of Israel or Israel itself and so those two Southern tribes chose to follow David's lineage and they followed the king rehoboam and they were eventually called Judah now this is important because in this bad blood between Jews and Samaria they would look to this political hostility as one of the reasons why they despised the Samaritans because jeroboam ultimately would set up his own place of worship in the northern tribe and reject Jerusalem

and reject all that David had set up in the temple and eventually in their Rebellion God would take them and bring them into captivity so in their rejection of what God had to say through his word finally they're brought into captivity through the nation of Assyria but if you know from your old testament as well eventually the southern tribes also were taken into captivity in Babylon because they were also rebellious but this political hostility lived throughout all the way up to the first century into Jesus's time but there was also ethnic hostility you see what happened when the uh the the ten tribes who were

captive under Assyria were allowed to go back to their land what we find in the Old Testament is that other people had moved into that land other Pagan religions other Pagan Nations had moved in there and so when the Jews came back what they started to do is they started to intermarry with those other nations now nowhere in scripture are you going to find that intermarrying other races is wrong sin or sinful but there is scripture that shows even the Old Testament and the new that for God's people intermarrying into other faiths is wrong and so that's what the problem with the Jews at that

or the Samaritans at that time is that they were intermarrying into Pagan faith and they were allowing those Pagan faiths to then Rule and Reign Over them when essentially and initially God had called them to only worship Yahweh and they were not and so there was hostility between the Jews and Samaritans here because the Jews viewed them as what some would call half breeds or half-bloods because they weren't truly worshiping the god of Israel that the Jewish Nation or Judah was and finally there was religious hostility as the Samaritans began to create their own religion and their own belief they rejected the books of the

Bible especially the Old Testament books all they kept were the five beginning Hebrew scriptures and they threw out the major and minor prophets and they found themselves rejecting as I said earlier the place of worship that God had set up through David in Jerusalem they claimed that God had actually sent up the right place of worship at Mount girizim which is conveniently located in the middle of Samaria and so they were saying This Is The Place To Worship and the Jews were rejecting that because they knew and they had the Old Testament scriptures that pointed to the right place of worship is in Jerusalem at

the temple that David and Solomon had built so here is this deep hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans and neither of these groups wanted to associate themselves with the other the the blood ran deep for them it was again political moral social and it eventually led to Wars and fights and bloodshed between the two groups and so by the end of the first century when Jesus comes on the scene Jews despise Samaritans so much that the worst thing for a Jew to be called was in fact a Samaritan we see in John 8 where the Jews began to label and despise Jesus by calling

him a Samaritan so that they could distance themselves from him and the reality is if either two of the groups found themselves amongst one another it could end poorly we have writings that again the Jews would travel through Samaria because it was the fastest route to get to Jerusalem and there were times that Samaritans would get so upset with this that they would murder and kill and destroy any of the Jews that came through their City because of this hostility but what I want you to see in this passage this morning is this is the town that Jesus chooses to go to First on his

way to Jerusalem when the normal response for a Jew was to despise and to mock the Samaritans Jesus wanted to travel into their town and not only did he want to travel into their town he wanted to set up shop for a couple of days by sending the disciples into Samaria and saying make preparations for us his plan was to stay there we don't know how long but Jewish custom would be maybe two to three days before he moved on to Jerusalem and what we see by Jesus doing this when his brothers and sisters would ultimately despise the Samaritans what he is showing is worth

value and dignity to this region he wants to extend compassion and mercy to those who would typically be despised and as we see Jesus show compassion and mercy and worth and value and dignity to the Samaritans it should cause us to ask ourselves who do we consider despised who do we consider rejected who do we consider enemies of ours and enemies that we think are against what we believe or what we hold to as righteous now I'm not asking as a general who do the who's the church reject I want to make this personal I want you to ask yourself who is that group that

you consider despised that you would not find yourself amongst or who you would consider an enemy of God and I'm also not talking about as Believers some non-believers in here or non-believers that we might hang out with in the world that look like us what I'm trying to get at here is we can have non-believing friends that are simply like us or we get along with or maybe we would call them enemies of God because of their status in regards to not trusting in Jesus but we still love them we still care for them these are not the people I'm talking about the people that

I want to point out and I want to challenge us with this morning is the ones that we would not find ourselves normally with that we would not put ourselves in their path to engage with them to be friends with them to share the love of Jesus with them because I think each and every one of us in here has a category who we would consider to be despised unclean and Unworthy of our time who are these people for you does it have to do with politics does it have to do with your beliefs in regards to how the the government should run things maybe

it's social and moral differences how someone views God's design for marriage maybe it's religious and I want to add a caveat here because I I think as Believers it is easier for us to maybe associate ourselves with people who might be similar to us so what I mean by that is as Believers we should have a uh an orthodox faith that we hold to right justification by faith we need to hold that with a closed fist the the Triune God hold that with a closed fist the inerrancy and authority of scripture we hold these things to be true we sang about that this morning in

the song I believe this is stuff we would hold to and we don't waver from but there are some that might look similar or might call themselves Christian that we can associate with maybe you have Catholic friends or Lutheran friends or Methodist friends people that might look similar but what about somebody that is from the Nation of Islam or a Muslim who doesn't hold to the similar faiths or similar view that you do what about a Mormon Scientology I mean the list can go on and on when it comes to religions that we would not associate ourselves with because we despise them or maybe we

wouldn't use the word despise but we would not find ourselves being friends or being put in a room with them or whatever it might be you just don't associate with these people because they're not worthy of your time and a question I want us to consider as we're thinking about these groups of people who we would despise or consider enemies do you believe the power of the Gospel can save them does your life in not interacting with these people groups reveal that you don't actually believe the gospel can save or do you think that it's only effective for you and for those that you love

and those who are around you but would this passage would this decision by Jesus to go to Samaria cause you to consider how you can actually love someone enough to share the gospel with them even if they would be considered a group that you despise or do you respond like the disciples with hostility hostility that defends Jesus name with a Zeal for who he is but in an unbiblical way we see this in the rebuke that Jesus has for his disciples when he says that James and John who saw what these Samaritans had done asks Jesus Lord do you want us to tell fire to

come down from heaven and consume them and Jesus turns and rebukes them and they went on to another Village I don't know if you've noticed as we walk through this chapter the disciples are not looking good right now right Peter makes an exclamation on the mount where Jesus or or God the Father actually has to audibly tell him to be quiet the disciples can't cast out a demon when seemingly in the beginning of the chapter they knew how to they're arguing last week on who's the greatest and Jesus has to rebuke them here and then they even get rebuked in regards to trying to say

this person isn't working for us even though he's working in your name and Jesus is like why why are you going after him I love what ransford had to say last week is let us find comfort in the fact that Jesus continues to bear with his disciples even in their ignorance but what's being revealed here in James and John's attitude is that they have a Zeal for defending Jesus name but they do not have an understanding of the nature of the kingdom of God we are called to be lights in a dark and dying world not antagonists who fire up a cause in Jesus name

and I wonder if Jesus were in our day and age if he were walking around the majority of the American church and people who we see all over Twitter the internet or whoever speaks for the American church I wonder if he would rebuke us for our Zeal but our misunderstanding of the characterization of the kingdom of God now I'm not saying that we don't have convictions I'm not saying that we don't hold to the Orthodox Faith with clarity yes we need to call Sin Sin yes we need to call people to repentance and yes we need to show people The Joy found in the Forgiveness

of sins but we can't do it through aggression and Zeal that doesn't share in the compassion and mercy of Jesus I love what JC Ryle says here In this passage he says it is possible to have more it is possible to have much Zeal for Christ and yet to exhibit in it the most Unholy and Christian ways it is possible to mean well and have good intentions and yet to make most grievous mistakes in our actions it is possible to fancy that we have the scripture on our side and to support our conduct by scriptural quotations and yet to commit serious errors it is clear

as daylight from this and other cases related in the Bible that it is not enough to be zealous and well-meaning very grave faults are frequently committed with good intentions from No Quarter perhaps has the church received so much injury as from ignorant but well-meaning men guys evangelism is important it is important to share the good news of Jesus Christ we are called to that's what Jesus gives his disciples as he ascends in to Glory that we are to make disciples of all Nations but as we read through the New Testament and and honestly as we read through the scriptures as Jesus says the two greatest

Commandments are to love God and love others as we see in the scriptures that are filled with people going and proclaiming the gospel with mercy and compassion one of my favorite verses in first Thessalonians 2 8 says that we would share life and the gospel with people because they had become near to us and dear to us this is Paul writing to the church in thessalonica and what he is showing is the reality of the relationship that he had with this church and as we walk through the book of Acts you see that this is the same way in which Paul interacts with every city

he walks into he goes into the marketplace and he goes into the synagogue and he gets to know people and and draws near to them and stays with them for multiple years in order to share his life in order for people to become dear to him and to be able to share the gospel with them greatness in the kingdom of God comes through death to self and humbling ourselves and that can only come through the humility of recognizing that we were once enemies of God that's where that humility has to come from that's where our evangelism has to have its foundation in that we were

once like the world but God saved us despite of ourselves forgave Us by the shedding of his blood and the breaking of his body and now he calls us his own by no works of Our Own and he calls us back in with this same humility and I think as I've grown up in church I think that we can become so indifferent to that reality that we were once enemies and yet the scriptures remind us over and over and over again even in these passages of the failing disciples that it is God's Great mercy and compassion towards us that draws Us near to him it

is not our own works and because it's not our own works we should have joy and humility when it comes to sharing the gospel with others not a zeal that lacks understanding and lacks knowledge of the kingdom of God this is where greatness in the Kingdom starts with humility of remembering where we once were in this merciful rebuke that Jesus gives here he continues to walk Faithfully with his disciples and teaching them about this nature of the Kingdom but what I want us to see is that this story doesn't end here we see that James and John are in arms up in arms against these

Samaritans and Jesus rebukes them but the power and the transforming the transforming power of the Gospel ultimately humbles their heart to where we find in Acts 8 it is Peter and John who go to the Samaritan villages to ultimately preach the gospel to these people as Luke records in Acts 8 he says now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God they sent to them Peter and John who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the holy spirit for he had not yet fallen on any of them but they had only been baptized in the name

of the Lord Jesus now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord they returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans in Jesus's merciful rebuke James and John and I would assume Peter because he's a part of these disciples as well we're humbled and ultimately once Jesus died resurrected and ascended and these men received the Holy Spirit they saw what the nature of the Kingdom looked like and that they were to go to places like Samaria who they were ready to burn down they are now humbled with compassion and mercy towards this city to share what the gospel

has for them this good news of Jesus Christ and one of the things I want to encourage Us in is that we would not despise the loving rebuke of Jesus as his disciples that even in passages like this that our hearts would be softened to those who we might despise those who we might see unclean those who we might see are Unworthy of our time and Unworthy of the Gospel let this rebuke through the word of God soften our hearts towards those people and pray that God would use you like John and like Peter to go to these crowds that the gospel might be proclaimed

and that the kingdom might grow and that Jesus name might be magnified in this city as we close in communion this morning I want to again remind us of where we once were enemies of God and it is because of Jesus's blood that we are now considered Sons and Daughters of God and we have been brought near by the blood of Jesus as we read in Ephesians 2 this morning I want to read again Paul writes therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands remember that

you were at that time separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world but now in Christ Jesus you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ this is every single one of us in here before God saved us and redeemed us that we were far off that we were not counted as righteous that we were enemies of God and yet by his grace and mercy he has saved us and called us his own and so every time we come to the table of

communion may we be reminded of that position that we are brought near because of the finished work of Jesus and we can celebrate this reality every time we take this bread and every time we drink this juice because this is a reminder of the sacrifice that Jesus made in Jerusalem this is a reminder that he did resolve himself to go to the cross on our behalf and for those who trust in him as Lord your sins have been forgiven his righteousness has now been imputed to you because he has taken on your sin and he has taken on all the wrath of God in order

for you to be alive in him you no longer have to try to make yourself righteous it is through Jesus's finished work on the cross that we are healed that we are made clean and that we are adopted in as Sons and Daughters of God so would you come and would you grab the elements and I will lead us in our time of communion and then we'll continue to worship through song together