Hold Your Fire

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Transcript:

Well, turn with me tonight, if you would, to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. We’re going to look at a brief portion of this chapter tonight.

One of my favorite stories about the disciples, and one of the reasons I think it’s so funny, is that I have felt the same way that the disciples feel in this. You know, there are so many times we look at the disciples and we either see them as these, well, if I can say it this way, we either sort of look at them as these buffoons who just don’t get it. Jesus is talking to them and how do they not see?

How do they not understand? And we don’t realize we would be the same way if we were in their shoes or we give them, so we don’t give them enough credit or we give them too much credit and think they must be these super spiritual men who, you know, we look up to. And certainly they were extraordinary men, but they were just men and men who serve an extraordinary God.

But I have felt and I suspect that all of us have at times felt the way that they do in this passage. Jesus, as usual, is teaching and we know that he traveled extensively throughout his about three years of ministry. And in Luke chapter 9, we come toward the end of his ministry.

It’s getting toward the end of his ministry. And we know this because it talks about, excuse me, in verse 51, his desire, his determination to go to Jerusalem and his reasoning being that he’s going there for the final week of his life leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection. And it says in Luke chapter 9, starting in verse 51, and what I’ve said about feeling the way the disciples do, you’ll understand in just a minute.

In verse 51, it says, And it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. Okay, so he’s in the Galilee area. If you know anything about the geography of that part of the world or if you take a look at the maps in the back of your Bible, Galilee and Judea are sort of the opposite ends of Israel.

Galilee’s in the north. That’s the area where Jesus grew up around Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. Spent a lot of time ministering up there as well.

And then Jerusalem is in Judea at the southern part. And in the middle of the country is a region called Samaria. And the Samaritans were the descendants of the Israelites who had intermarried with the pagan tribes around them.

And God had told the Israelites for centuries that they were not to intermarry with the pagan tribes around them. And it wasn’t an ethnic thing. It wasn’t God hates you because you’re this ethnicity or God hates you because you’re this tribe.

But I think it was because God understood that when the worshipers of the one true God intermarried with the pagan tribes around them, the people who worshiped Baal, who worshiped Molech, that problems were going to arise. I think God understood, you look at the story of Solomon in particular, I think God understood the power that a wife has over a husband at times. Men, are there not times that your wife says, I need you to do this or I want you to do this, and you’re thinking, I really don’t want to do that, but okay, if it’ll make you happy, it’ll keep everybody happy, and you do it anyway.

And we see this in the life of Solomon, that he married these pagan women when God had said, don’t do it. And these women would come and whisper their sweet little nothings to Solomon, and next thing you know, you’ve got Solomon, the king of Israel, leader of God’s people building temples to pagan gods. And folks, that wouldn’t have happened, that wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t married pagan women.

Well, in the northern kingdom, as we talked about this morning, Amos had been one of many prophets who came and said, you know, the northern kingdom is pretty much doomed at this point because they’ve rejected God over and over. And in around 722 BC, give or take a couple years, around that time, the Assyrian empire that we talked about, they’re the ones from Nineveh, came in and wiped out, not in the sense that they killed everybody, but came in and wiped out the country of Israel, the northern ten tribes. They came and conquered the people, and they took most of the Israelites and scattered them throughout the rest of their empire.

They were an empire that had conquered many tribes, and they said, we’re going to mix everybody up. They said, okay, Israelites, we’re going to scatter you around our land and mix you with the other tribes, and we’re going to put other tribes in your place. And the reason for doing that was they kept everybody divided where they couldn’t get together and rise up.

See, if you’ve got, I think the Romans learned this lesson. The Israelites were all gathered in Israel. The Jews were mostly gathered in Israel.

And when they got irritated with the empire that controlled them, since they were all there together, they could get together and form a nice little rebellion that the Romans were continuously having to put down. The Assyrians who came before didn’t make that mistake. They said, we’re going to scatter the Israelites.

And yet God had told them, don’t intermarry with the pagan tribes around you. And some of the people had disobeyed God and they’d intermarried with the pagan tribes. And the Samaritans were the descendants of these marriages.

Now, the reason for telling you this is not just to give you all the history, but to help you understand why it was such a big deal that Jesus would go through Samaria. There are other places in the Bible where we see him going through Samaria at other times. The most direct route between Galilee and Judea was through Samaria.

But the observant Jews would go the other side of the Jordan River or they’d travel along the coast. They’d go the long way because they didn’t want to go through the land of the Samaritans. Are you kidding? Those people?

You expect me to interact with those people? Most observant Jews wouldn’t do that. And Jesus went a few times through Samaria.

And that’s why we see the woman at the well acting so surprised. Perceiving that Jesus was a Jew and a prophet of the Jews. Being so surprised that he would even speak to her.

And Jesus again says, it’s time for me to go to Jerusalem. It says in verse 51 that it was the time that he should be received up. The time is coming.

Folks, Jesus was not, I’ve said it before, and I feel like I have to repeat it all the time because I hear people who call themselves preachers talking about God in some of the most unflattering terms. There’s one preacher, I believe, up in Michigan who has sort of a national following who has referred to God as a cosmic child abuser. Folks, Jesus Christ didn’t just wander haplessly to the cross and God crushed him for our sins. Jesus knew exactly what he was coming to do and he came willingly to die for our sins.

And we know this because Jesus perceived. Jesus knew what he was there to do. And in verse 51, we see that he perceived that the time was coming that he was supposed to be received up.

He not only knew that he was to be crucified for our sins, but he knew the time was getting close. And so it says he was determined. He set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Excuse me. And when the time came for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and fulfill the Father’s will for him, he didn’t waste time by going the long way, the scenic route, and taking forever to get there. He said, it’s time for me to go to Jerusalem and be received up.

I’m taking the shortest route, and I’m going straight there. And so he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And to make sure that he was able to do that, he sent messengers.

He sent some of the disciples. We can infer here that it included James and John. I don’t know which others it included, but probably at least them.

He sent messengers before him, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him. They went into this town, this little village, and made arrangements for Jesus to lodge there overnight, a place for him to stay, a place for him to eat, that sort of thing. And first of all, in the Middle East, just like then, it’s the same way today.

Hospitality is just about the highest virtue. And about the worst insult you can give to somebody is to not show hospitality. Is to not show hospitality.

I have watched documentaries a lot, if you haven’t figured that out from how many times I refer to them. I have watched documentaries where journalists from Great Britain have been embedded with the Taliban. And they’ve gone and they’ve videoed them, they’ve interviewed them, and have asked the Taliban or Al-Qaeda or whoever they’re with and said, what assurance do I have that you’re not going to kill me while I’m here?

They said, because you’re our guest. They would lose face. And I’m not saying they’re good people. But they have that going as part of the Middle Eastern culture, hospitality.

You’re our guest, and you will be treated as our guest. And tell them, you know, you come back not as our guest, and that’s a different story. But you’ve been invited, you’re our guest, and you’re going to experience hospitality. I’m told that even today in Arab countries, that if you go to somebody’s house and you admire something of theirs, that they give it to you.

I mean, this could work to, why don’t we go in and tell Saudi Arabia, boy, I really like your oil fields, but it could solve our energy crisis. statements like that that mean I’ll never be elected to Congress. Anyway, hospitality was part of the Middle Eastern culture then as now, and they were glad to put out a spread for Jesus, in particular because, as we see from the other interactions when he goes through Samaria and talks to the woman, I perceive you’re a prophet, and suddenly she wants to talk to him.

Here’s a Jewish religious leader. He’s actually willing to talk to me. When most of the Jewish people look at us like we’re less than human and and I want to talk to him about the temple you remember she asked him you know our our prophets say that you’re supposed to worship here at the temple on Mount Gerizim and the Jewish prophets say only at the temple in Jerusalem and and which is it and that’s when Jesus gives her the famous statement that true worshipers will will worship in spirit and in truth and so for them this is not only an obligation that they have to provide somebody with hospitality I mean, to give the shirt off their back.

But also, it’s a little bit of an honor here to say, there’s a Jewish prophet, somebody like Jesus. I mean, by this time, people knew who Jesus was. He’d healed people.

He’d brought people back from the dead. People pretty well in that area knew who Jesus was. Here’s a Jewish religious leader, a man with a following, and he’s going to come to our village.

To them, they’re saying, okay, this is kind of showing the world we’re a little more acceptable than they’re used to thinking about us as. This is telling us, hmm, the Jewish people are starting to accept us. This was a pride thing for them, to have somebody like Jesus come and sit in their midst and spend time with them.

So this was kind of a public relations coup for the people of this village. It says in verse 53, And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. so it’s not we see from this one verse there’s a lot of information in just this short verse we see from this that they did not receive Jesus they did not display hospitality but it wasn’t that they rejected the idea of Jesus coming there and then giving him hospitality putting him up feeding him that sort of thing as he was coming through the reason they did not do what the disciples asked was because Jesus was determined, I am going to Jerusalem.

And what it reads like to me, and I’ve read other commentators to see if I’m on the right track here, and I think I am. What it reads like to me is that the disciples went into this village, made all the arrangements with these Samaritan people. They were glad, I mean, they were ready to kill the fatted calf because this prophet was going to come and spend some time with them.

And Jesus gets there and they find out he’s just staying for the night. He’s not staying there to teach them and demonstrate how he accepts them and all of this. And they’re not going to get the recognition as a result of this that they think that they were expecting.

And when they realize they’re not really part of the itinerary, their town is just a stop on the way to Jerusalem, just a place to rest your head for the night on the way to Jerusalem, I think they resent it. oh, you’re not going to stay with us because you’re on your way to Jerusalem. You’re on your way to the temple.

You’re on your way to the worship down there. And suddenly the conflict that’s been going on between the Jews and the Samaritans for hundreds of years rears its ugly head. And they say, then we’re not doing anything for you.

You can just go on out of our town. And for us, we’d say, okay, I’ll just go on to the, I’ll drive on to the next town. There’s probably a hotel there.

For them, to decline to offer somebody hospitality was a terrible, terrible insult. I tried last night. I sat there and thought about it for a little while.

And I cannot come up with a parallel in our society. There probably is one. But really, the closest thing I could think of is to have somebody spit in your face.

I mean, I’m a very peaceful man. I have never been in a fight, never hit anybody. I think if somebody spit in my face, I’d have trouble restraining myself.

I mean, that’s a huge insult. I think for them, declining to show a guest, a traveler, hospitality, was an even greater insult. And so we see in the next few verses, the disciples are very, they’re noticeably angry about this.

Says in verse 54, and when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elijah did? Okay, Jesus, after they did that, you want we should call down fire from heaven just like Elijah did? And I have always read this and thought it was a reference to Mount Carmel, where the prophets of Baal stood against Elijah and they built the altars and said, we’re going to call down fire.

I love that story too, by the way. I see, I don’t know if it’s just because I’m sarcastic by nature, but I see sarcasm and humor all throughout the Bible, and I love it. But I love the story of Mount Carmel, where they stand opposing, and they say, we’re going to prove to the nation of Israel once and for all who the true God is, if it’s Baal, or if it’s the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and we’re going to do that by laying out our animal sacrifices.

We’re going to slaughter a bull, we’re going to build altars, slaughter the bull, lay it out on the altar, and then whoever’s God sends down fire from heaven in order to burn up the sacrifice, that will be the proof that their God is God. And as the prophets of Baal begin to, in the morning, and the Bible says from the morning through the whole day, they’re out there and they’re praying to Baal and they’re calling out, oh, Baal, send fire down from, and nothing, as you would imagine, nothing comes down out of heaven. No fire comes down out of heaven.

And I love the smart aleck that Elijah is. Says, oh, maybe you need to shout louder. Maybe your God is hard of hearing.

Or maybe he’s asleep. Or maybe he’s out shopping, you know, that sort of thing. Where is he?

Talk louder. Maybe he can’t hear you. And they’re out there, and I mean, they’re working themselves into such a frenzy that they’re cutting themselves, thinking maybe their God will notice the blood and all of that sort of thing.

And folks, Elijah, when it’s time, digs a trench around his altar and has so many buckets of water brought in to soak the altar and soak the ground around it, and it runs down and fills up the trench. He’s got a moat around his altar and everything is just soaking wet. And I’ve not tried to start many fires in my life.

But when I have, you know, it’s harder to do with things that are wet. And everything here was just sopping wet. And he prays and asks God, will you send down the fire?

And the Bible says the fire comes down and consumes the whole altar, consumes all the water. Everything is, all the water is burnt up, is evaporated instantly because of the heat of the fire that comes down from heaven. Wonderful story.

wonderful account. One of my favorite stories from all of the Bible, and yet that’s not what he’s referring to. I discovered this week there’s another place where Elijah is sent to speak to a wicked king, and I won’t go into all the details, but the king doubts Elijah’s word, and he sends a captain of the 50s, and I’m given to understand that means he had 50 soldiers under his command.

He sends a captain of the 50s with this snarky message to Elijah, calling him man of God, and in a way that they often did, meaning man of God sarcastically, and says, oh, man of God, come down, the king wants to talk to you. And Elijah basically says, God, will you take care of this? And fire comes down from heaven, because it’s not just Elijah they’re doubting, it’s God’s word.

Elijah had been, he was known as a prophet, he was known to speak for God. And so they’re not just questioning him, they’re questioning God’s authority and the word of God. And so he says, God, you want to just take care of this?

That’s my paraphrase, by the way. That’s not what it says in the King James. And God sends down fire and consumes the 50s.

Well, okay, that would be, I think, all it would take to convince me. Another captain of 50s comes out and does the same thing. And God consumes him and his 50 men.

The king sends out a third captain of 50s. And this man gets it. He comes to Elijah on his knees and says, Would you please have mercy on me?

Would you just look on my pathetic little life and consider it precious in your sight? And Elijah says, okay, okay, I can do that. And it wasn’t because he was showing deference to Elijah, but because he recognized the power of God and the authority of his word.

And this is the story that they’re looking at when they say, okay, Jesus, they’ve rejected you. They’ve rejected your word. They’ve done all of this.

You want we should call down fire on heaven for them, toward them, on them? And this is what I say, I understand this feeling. You ever understand this feeling?

I’m not saying you’ve thought about calling down fire from heaven. I have. I do remember in junior high school.

And folks, if the story’s not true, I will tell you, I think it’s a made-up story that I heard somebody from the pulpit say. My stories are true. And you’ll probably think I’m weird for this, but I was weird as a kid.

In junior high school, I was known as a Christian. and I was a lot less laid back than I am now too. And a kid was making fun of God.

He was making fun of me. And I said, boy, do you know that I could call down fire from heaven on you right now? He said, no, you can’t.

I said, Lord! Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I couldn’t call down fire from heaven.

I wouldn’t promise that ability, but I bet I could bluff it. Folks, unlike me, they had the ability. They had the authority.

Jesus had told them they would do miracles in his name. And it’s sort of like they’ve got the power and they’re wanting to take the training wheels off. Hey, God, can we practice on these people here?

I mean, they’re making a mockery of you. Lord, they’re disrespecting you. Can we try out these miracles that we can do now?

And I understand the feeling because I’m tired. I’m so tired. I’ve seen the way that God’s name and God’s word and God’s authority is dragged through the mud.

And there are days I’d just like to do something about it. Maybe not hurt anybody. Probably not hurt anybody.

Folks, I ran over a squirrel on the way home. I’ve never done that before. I ran over a squirrel on the way home this afternoon and just about cried the whole way home.

I don’t want to hurt anybody. But I sure would like God to give me some sharp tongue phrases where I could just put somebody in their place next time I hear them making fun of God. Folks, I really would just like to do something about it.

The way that God is rejected and maligned. And so I completely understand here their thought. You want us just to get them?

But even more than I love that question, I love Jesus’ response, because it tells us, folks, it tells us a lot about what the disciples actually were thinking. They thought this is our motive. Jesus saw through it and said, you’ve got a different motive over here.

It tells us about what’s really going on with the disciples and probably what’s going on with us when we feel that way. And it also tells us about the character of the God we serve, the Lord who died for us. And folks, I love that.

In verse 55, but he turned and rebuked them and said, ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

The Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. Folks, Jesus didn’t need them to call down fire from heaven. He could have called it down.

He didn’t even have to say it. He could have just willed it, and that village could have disappeared into the bowels of the earth. I mean, my goodness, Jesus was present with God the Father participating in creation.

All God had to do was say the word, and not only the universe, but the atoms and elements that make it leapt into existence. This village was no problem for Jesus to deal with. And yet he says here, you know not what spirit you’re of.

You know not what manner of spirit you’re of. And folks, I have to be reminded from time to time, I know not what manner of spirit I’m of. Because see, the disciples thought here that they were really acting out of one motivation.

And God says, Jesus reminds them, it’s another. They would look like they were mad for Jesus’ sake. I can’t believe they disrespected you that way.

But they were the ones sent in to make the arrangements. They looked disrespected in this whole arrangement too. And I think what we see here is that it’s not just this righteous indignation that they felt on Jesus’ behalf, this zeal, this passion that they had for Jesus.

I’m sure there’s some of that. But folks, we can’t overlook the fact that these were fallen sinful men just like the rest of us. And I’m sure, based on Jesus’ response, I’m not just trying to speculate what I want to see in the text.

Based on Jesus’ response and saying, you know, they said, we’ve got this zeal for you. You want us to call down fire because of what they’ve done to you? And Jesus says, you don’t even understand your own motives here.

We cannot discount the fact that there was some pride involved here. Their pride had been wounded. Yes, that yes they had attacked their master these people had had shown utter grave disrespect for their master for their teacher but there was some pride for them in that there too told you about the time I I threatened empty threat to call down fire from heaven I can’t believe I did that I see people now from high school and junior high school and have to say by the way I’m sorry I’m much nicer now.

I was a committed Christian then, but hadn’t quite figured out how to temper all of that with grace yet. I probably still have a long way to go with that. But there was pride there.

Folks, it wasn’t just God they were making fun of. I felt like my pride was afflicted because this is the God that I serve. And if you’re saying he’s wrong, you’re saying I’m wrong.

And folks, we can’t discount the fact that there was some pride involved. And he tells them that they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did? Well, first of all, buddy, you’re not Elijah.

You’re not Elijah. And you know what? You look at it and say, well, I could call down fire from heaven like James and John did.

I know me and I’m no James and John. And so they appeared to be angry about the way that Jesus was treated because the village had declined their hospitality. And Jesus says, you don’t even understand your own motivations.

Okay, part of this may have been an expression, part of their reaction may have been an expression of loyalty toward Jesus, but that wasn’t all that there was there. Their own pride was wounded as well. There’s a great Baptist writer from a few hundred years ago who said about this verse, this is not the true spirit of zeal, but of anger and revenge.

And folks, as we look through, and there really are just three points tonight, I think we’ll move through it fairly quickly through the rest of this. The first point, and by the way, this message tonight is on holding our fire. Sometimes we need to learn to deal with the world outside that acts like pagans because they are.

We need to learn to deal with them with a little more grace than we may be accustomed to. And I’m not saying you’re not. I’m saying sometimes I don’t.

And I think we all need a reminder from time to time. But first of all tonight, do not confuse pride with righteous indignation. There are going to be times that our faith is maligned, that our faith is attacked, that the God we serve, people make fun of the God we serve.

And we’ve got to check ourselves very carefully before we, there’s a tendency for, I’ve noticed for Christians to want to lash out in anger when that happens. And we need to check ourselves very carefully and make sure that when we respond to that, that it really is out of a love for God and not out of a sense of wounded pride. And well, I’m just going to get you because you’re talking about my faith.

You’re saying I’m wrong. You’re saying I’m foolish for what I’m following. Folks, we need to respond.

I’ve told you before, I’m a big believer in apologetics, meaning what we believe, why we believe it, and being able to make the case to other people. But folks, we’re not just looking to win an argument here. And when we respond to the world outside that acts lost because it is lost, we need to remember that too.

But we need to check ourselves and check our motivations and make sure that we respond out of a genuine love for God. Because I think if we genuinely do respond out of love for God, it’s going to demonstrate itself through a love for other people as well. And we’ve got to make sure that we don’t confuse pride, which I’m guilty of.

I know y’all are better than me, so y’all probably don’t have that problem. But we’ve got to make sure we don’t confuse our pride with righteous indignation. That’s what they were doing here.

When Jesus said, you don’t understand the manner of spirit you’re of. Second of all, we’ve got to make sure we don’t confuse revenge with justice. There’s a desire sometimes to get even.

There’s a desire, and not just when our faith is attacked, when we feel like we’ve been wronged and we think, somebody needs to get that person because it’s right. I’ve been wronged here, and Jesus told them in the next verse, in verse 56, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy men’s lives. And we look at the way that Jesus responds to people.

We look even at the way God responds throughout the whole Bible. When there’s judgment, when there’s justice, God never sent the prophets in and said, I’m going to get you. I’m going to wipe you out.

God always makes the case and says, this is why. This is what happened. This is the law that was set up.

This is the principle that was violated. Here are the opportunities that I gave you to repent. And it’s not this angry, vengeful bloodlust that humans are so capable of.

God acts more like a righteous judge. I heard a story on the radio the other day about a judge screaming at a woman during sentencing. And the woman was out of line, but then so was the judge.

Judges are supposed to be impartial and dispassionate and calm, application of the law. That’s what we see with God. That’s what we see with God, and that is not at all what the disciples look like.

There’s no dispassionate response of a just judge dispensing punishment that fits a particular offense. Instead, their response to these people of the village is unbridled anger. I have never been so, I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry that I’ve actually wanted to call down fire from heaven on people.

I may have threatened it, but I haven’t actually wanted to do it. And what we hear in their voice, as they call out wanting to destroy these people and their whole city, folks, is the response of somebody who’s been injured. I won’t deny that their pride had been wounded, that they had been shown great disrespect.

but it’s the voice of the voice saying can we call down this fire is the voice of somebody who’s been wounded who’s been harmed who’s been hurt but also forgets none of us are innocent and we call for justice and say justice needs to be done justice needs to be served that person needs to be punished folks I don’t want justice in a sense in the sense of secular law and all that sort of thing justice is a is a good thing it’s also an imperfect thing in the sense of God’s law I am the last one who be demanding justice. Because I start demanding justice for somebody else and what they’ve done to me, folks, God owes me justice as well. And I don’t want what I deserve.

I want what I don’t deserve, which is mercy and grace. I love a story that R. C.

Sproul tells on the radio. I’ll try to tell it more quickly than he has done, but I think it illustrates this point, where as he was teaching in a Bible college, he said, you know, there are so many papers due this semester, they have to be, He laid out the beginning of the semester how many papers there were, what days they were due, no exceptions. And the due date of the first paper, you know, 10% of the students came in and said, we’re so sorry, we’re late, can you just give us more time?

And he says, yes, but don’t let it happen again. Otherwise, they’re going to lose like half their grade. And he gave them mercy.

And the second time, then about 20% come in and say, we’re sorry, we’re late, can you just give us one more week? On the second paper, he says, fine. I think it was on the third paper, they come in toward the end of the semester, and they said, it’s all right, we’ll have it for you next week.

It’s not a big deal, about half of them. And he said, z