Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Luke 9:46-56, NASB
- Series: Luke (2025-2027), no. 31
- Date: Sunday, September 14, 2025 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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The Danger of Sabotaging Ourselves
As we work our way through Luke chapter 9, we’ve seen a transition take place. The disciples have gone from training for the ministry Jesus is going to give them to entering a phase where they’re actually being sent out for short periods of time on mission. They’re preparing for what that mission is going to look like and how they’re going to carry it out, and they’re having to care about things like mission and strategy—things that are going to be very important to their ministry later on. I love things like strategy. I can’t say that I’m always good at it.
I can’t play chess to save my life, but there is a game I love called Mancala. The objective is to move rocks around a board, lining them up in certain ways so that you can get extra turns and collect as many of the rocks in your cup as possible. I’ve loved this game since I was a kid, so much so that I have had a multi-decade strategy of parenting and raising opponents who could play me. I started them very young, showed them no mercy, and never once let them win. Now at least my older two can play this game and sometimes beat me, which makes it a great challenge. But there is some strategy involved, and part of my problem is that Benjamin knows my strategy. He’s figured it out.
If you can line up these rocks in certain numbers and patterns, you can clear the board in one turn. He will try to do this to me, and I’ll try to do it to him. We each try to arrange things so that we can go around and mess up the other one’s strategy. But even easier than sabotaging your opponent is sabotaging yourself. It’s always easier to sabotage yourself than to sabotage somebody else. If I’m not paying attention or if I’m overly confident, I can miscount. I can line them up in the wrong pattern, and my whole strategy is gone. It’s always easier to sabotage yourself.
When we think of the word sabotage, if you’re like me, your mind goes to something that happens in a war, where somebody sneaks behind enemy lines and tries to disrupt the railroads or blow up bridges. We think of that as sabotage. But sabotage can also be the things we do on a daily basis that interfere with the mission we are trying to complete.
As we’re talking about the mission the disciples are being sent on, we come to a section of Luke chapter 9 where Luke points out three stories about the disciples. As they prepare to be sent on this mission, they begin to act in ways that will sabotage the mission Jesus is sending them to fulfill. They are doing things that work against the strategy they should be following.
We’re going to look at these things and hopefully learn from their example of how to sabotage our mission. These are things not to do as we seek to serve Jesus Christ and fulfill the mission He has given us. We could also look at the opposite of these things as part of our strategy.
Luke begins, “An argument started among them”—that is, among the disciples—“as to which of them might be the greatest.” But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their hearts, took a child and stood him by His side. John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow along with us.”
When the days were approaching for His ascension, Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead of Him, and they entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
But He turned and rebuked them and said, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” And they went on to another village.
Here we see three things the disciples did that were setting them up to sabotage the mission Jesus was sending them to fulfill. We could look at doing the opposite of what they did as a good strategy for our mission. To be clear, these are not the only three things we could do to sabotage the mission He has given us, but they are the three things pointed out here. From the outset, these three things will doom our mission—or at least our participation in the mission—to failure.
The Mission Christ Has Given Us
Before we get into what these steps are, it’s important to make sure we understand what their mission was and, by extension, what our mission is. To do this, we can go back to the beginning of chapter 9. It’s been a few weeks since we looked at this, but in Luke 9:1–2, as Jesus prepared to send the Twelve out for the first time, it says:
“And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing.”
Before the incidents in the section we read, Jesus sent these disciples out and told them that they were going to heal, cast out demons, and preach. They were to draw people’s attention to Jesus. This is what they were sent out to do before the crucifixion.
After the crucifixion, one of the final things Jesus did on this earth was commission His followers to go out and do the same thing. The difference is that now we have more information about the good news we’re supposed to proclaim. The believer’s mission is to tell other people about our King and prepare them for His Kingdom. Jesus gave these same marching orders in Luke 24:
“It is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
He tells them that the message must go out from Jerusalem: the Messiah has suffered and died for sins, and He has risen again. It must be proclaimed that forgiveness of sins is available in His name because of what He has done. The message must go from Jerusalem to every corner of the world, and He says, “You are witnesses.” It began with them. It was their job.
Folks, that commission was not given only to the people who were physically present the day Jesus spoke those words. Jesus gave those marching orders to His church, and that is still our mission today: to carry the good news about our King and His coming Kingdom to the ends of the world—to every nation, tribe, and tongue, to those across the street from us and those overseas from us. That was their mission. That’s our mission.
They were about to do some things that would sabotage their ability to fulfill it. As we looked at last week, one of the worst things we can do is fail to understand the mission and what He has left us here to do. We get easily distracted. We get caught up in our own agendas, our own missions, and things that look like good ideas but aren’t the best idea. But He gave us this mission. He gave us one thing to do with a sense of urgency.
I think some of us have felt that sense of urgency over the last week. Even before this week, people in our church have been talking about how short the time is. One of the ladies in our church chased somebody down the street the other day because the Lord said, “Go make sure that he knows about Jesus, because the time is short.”
Am I saying Jesus is coming back in our lifetime? No. I wouldn’t dare speculate about when He’s coming back. But He could come back at any moment, and He could come for any one of us at any moment. We don’t know how much time we have to be on this mission. It isn’t something we put off until tomorrow. It isn’t something we merely think about doing tomorrow. It’s something we engage in today because it is the one thing He gave us to do.
We cannot allow ourselves to become focused on anything else. If something doesn’t further that mission, we shouldn’t have much time to spend on it.
We Make the Mission About Us
The first thing the disciples did to sabotage the mission was make it about themselves. In verses 46–48, they started arguing about which of them was the greatest. If you remember from last week, they still misunderstood what the Kingdom was and what the King was about. They thought Jesus was going to establish an earthly kingdom, throw the Romans out, and usher in a new golden age for Israel. It would be like the second coming of David. They thought it was going to be great, and they all wanted to be at the right and left hand of the King. They wanted positions of power and authority.
They were debating among themselves about which of them was the greatest. This is like the stuff children argue about: “I’m better than you are.” “No, I’m better than you are.” “No, you’re not.” “Yes, I am. I’m telling Mom.” That’s the kind of thing they’re doing.
Are they going to be able to focus on the mission He has given them when they’re making the mission all about themselves? No. They’re too focused on what they’ve done and why they ought to be considered the greatest. They’re seeking honor, praise, and position based on all the things they have done—how often they have done them, how long they have done them, how well they have done them, and how pleased everybody was. This debate naturally caused friction within the group and kept them from focusing on the work. How do we know it caused friction? Because they were arguing about it.
Luke uses that word. They were arguing. They were debating. They were not focused on what Jesus had come to do. They were focused on how it made them look.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to do a good job in the things we do for the Lord. When we do something for the Lord, we ought to do it to the best of our ability. Will what I do for the Lord look as good as what you do for the Lord? Not necessarily. But the main thing is that each of us does our best in what we do for the Lord.
The moment we start promoting ourselves, however, we stop promoting Jesus. The moment we make the mission about ourselves, we stop making the mission about Jesus. Then it is no longer about promoting the King and preparing people for the Kingdom.
To help them understand this, Jesus brings a child over in verse 47. We look at that in our culture and think, “How nice.” We have children come forward for the devotional, and we see them as sweet and innocent. We all care about the children, and that’s wonderful. But the disciples saw this differently because children were weak and dependent compared to adults.
Up to a certain age, children were not taught the Torah, the Old Testament. They were not instructed in the Law. For a teacher or rabbi like Jesus, there appeared to be no point in engaging with these children. It would have been considered beneath Him. But Jesus knew what was in the disciples’ hearts. He knew the pride and self-centeredness that lurked there.
So He brings this child—someone considered beneath a teacher’s attention—to Himself in all his weakness and dependence. He says in verse 48 that whoever receives this child in His name receives Him. The disciples were worried about being the best, being better than one another, and being better than everybody else. Jesus brought up this child and said, in effect, “It’s about those who are weakest. It’s not about your glory and your prestige. You go to those who least deserve it and can do the least for you in return.”
“He who receives or welcomes this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” If they ignored their mission to the most vulnerable, they were ignoring the fact that they were serving Jesus, and they were ignoring the will of the Father.
Jesus ties their treatment of the least—those considered beneath them—to their treatment of Him and their reception of the Father. It is hard to make our service about ourselves when we stoop in humility to reach out and serve somebody who is beneath us in the world’s eyes. I heard another preacher say that it’s hard to be prideful when you’re washing feet.
To be great in the Kingdom, we have to serve the Father in humility. To do that, we have to serve the Son in humility. We have to come through the Son in humility. My pastor used to say when I was growing up that the church and the Hells Angels were the only two organizations you had to admit to being bad before you could get in. If we’re going to come to Jesus, we have to come in humility.
He doesn’t want all our self-righteous boasting: “Look at all I’ve done.” Jesus wants us to come to Him in the words of the song we sang: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” We don’t come boasting about what we’ve done. We come admitting that we are sinful, that we are wicked, that we need His forgiveness, and that we cannot do anything to earn or deserve it.
We have to come to the Son in humility, and we have to serve the most humble in humility. To fulfill our mission, we serve in humility and keep the focus and glory on Him, where they belong. We sabotage the mission when we make it about us.
We Act Like Gatekeepers
In verses 49 and 50, John comes to Jesus, and he is so proud of himself. I read this in a child’s voice because I can hear a tattling child in John’s words: “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he wasn’t one of us.” He’s almost tattling on this other man.
We sabotage the mission when we act like gatekeepers. Gatekeeper is a word I’ve learned in the last few years, but it sums this up well. A gatekeeper is what it sounds like: somebody who opens and closes the gate to let you in or keep you out.
The word is also used figuratively. For example, the White House chief of staff is the gatekeeper to the president. If you can’t get through the chief of staff, you can’t see the president. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the cabinet or who you are. If you can’t get through the chief of staff, the president doesn’t take your call.
If we’re not careful, we can act like gatekeepers to Jesus, deciding who gets in and who stays out—even when it comes to ministry. I don’t think we would ever do that in terms of somebody getting saved, although I recently heard about a pastor whose church became angry because of the person he led to Christ and baptized. They didn’t want that person in their church.
What I’m talking about here is ministry. The disciples were upset because someone outside their group was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they tried to stop him because he wasn’t part of their group. Why did they object to this man casting out demons? There are a couple of reasons. First, he didn’t have the right connections or credentials.
Unfortunately, this is sometimes the way the world operates. I once heard of a ministry committee dismissing a candidate simply because of the school he attended. But somebody can have all the wrong credentials on paper and still be called by God to ministry. Somebody can lack the right schooling, the right training, or the right family background and still be used incredibly by God in His service.
This man was not part of their group, yet he was casting out demons. The disciples were upset that he didn’t have the right connections or credentials, and he became a threat to their own power and prestige in the Kingdom. “If this man starts casting out demons, then anybody can cast out demons. If anybody can cast out demons, then we’re not special.”
Then who would be impressed by them in the Kingdom? What if Jesus liked that man better? What if that man got to sit at Jesus’ right hand when He came into His Kingdom? They were bothered by that.
Another thing we learn by taking Luke as it was written, piece by piece, is that this man’s success was embarrassing to them because he did what they could not. In Luke 9:1–2, Jesus sent them out with authority to cast out demons. But last week we saw in verse 40 that a man came to Jesus and said, “I begged Your disciples to cast the demon out of my son, and they could not do it.” The disciples lacked the faith they needed to do what Jesus had told them they could do. Now here was somebody else who wasn’t even part of their group, and he was showing them up.
Sometimes we want to gatekeep because we think somebody else might serve Jesus more effectively than we can. Do I think anybody in this room is doing this? No. I share it because it’s in the Word and because it’s something we need to guard against. The disciples didn’t want anybody infringing on their position.
Jesus told them in verse 50, “Do not hinder him.” This man was on the same side. If he was not actively working against the Kingdom, he was on the same team. In another Gospel, Jesus adds that nobody can cast out demons in His name and then immediately speak evil against Him. If the man could do this in Jesus’ name, it meant they were on the same team.
To fulfill our mission, sometimes we have to serve alongside other faithful servants whom God has placed in situations we don’t think they ought to be in. We may think, “God, I wouldn’t have called that person to do that.” That’s fine. He did. They’re the Lord’s servants, not ours.
We Fail to Show Grace
Finally, we sabotage the mission when we fail to show grace. This may be the hardest one of all.
In verses 51–56, Jesus and His disciples approach a Samaritan village on their way to Jerusalem. Luke presents these stories one after another. He doesn’t say they all happened at the same time, and we know this third event took place a little later. But Luke puts them together so that we see the comparison among the three stories.
Traveling from Galilee to Jerusalem required them to pass through Samaria among people whom the Jews regarded as half-breeds. They were descendants of Jews who had intermarried with pagans. The Jews didn’t like the Samaritans, and the Samaritans didn’t like the Jews. It was a very tense situation.
Jesus sent the disciples ahead to prepare for His visit. Verse 53 says the village did not receive Him, meaning they did not welcome Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. The people in this Samaritan village were upset not simply because He was Jesus or because He was Jewish, but because He was going to Jerusalem. He was heading there to observe the Jewish feasts at the Jewish temple instead of lingering there to worship as they did. There was a long-standing conflict between the Jews and Samaritans about the proper place to worship.
They were not interested in supporting the ministry of someone who did not agree with them. They wanted Jesus to compromise on the truth. Since they did not receive Jesus as quickly and readily as the disciples thought they should, the disciples had a bizarre reaction: “Lord, how about we call down fire from heaven on them right now? Let’s burn up the whole village.”
I have struggled with this passage for years because that reaction seems so bizarre. Who does that? Then I felt it this week. I felt it in response to what happened in the news. Everybody has made it about politics, and I think that is only because we have taken biblical issues and allowed them to be reframed as political. What people may not realize, if they haven’t watched Charlie Kirk’s videos, is that he was motivated by the gospel.
Someone may say, “I don’t like his politics.” Okay, fair. You probably wouldn’t like mine either. I don’t like what mine were ten years ago. That’s part of human existence. But his motivation was to speak on issues not merely to point out where people were wrong, but to call people to Jesus Christ. He did that frequently on college campuses.
Frank Turek—and that name may sound familiar because I quote him often—was at that event because they were there to do ministry together. A few moments before Charlie Kirk was shot, he was talking about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus and inviting people to trust Him as their Savior. At thirty-one years old, that young man had done more to advance the gospel in the dark abyss of this nation’s college campuses than almost anybody. And he was shot and killed.
I found myself strangely devastated over somebody I had never met. Then, by the time I left church Wednesday night, I saw people celebrating, and I became angry. I understood the disciples’ reaction, because if I had had the opportunity, I would have called down some fire right then too.
It’s understandable that we would feel that way and react that way in the flesh. But when Jesus was outright rejected by the Samaritans, He rebuked the disciples for that response. It was not because their anger was inexplicable, but because that is not what we’re here to do. The mission is grace.
Even when Jesus was rejected, beaten, and despised at the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” It doesn’t matter how something affects us personally, how angry we may be over a circumstance, how wounded we may be, or how disrespected we may feel.
Jesus set an example for us at the cross of extending grace to those who mistreat us. Grace does not mean surrender. Jesus didn’t compromise and say, “It’s fine. I’ll go worship on Mount Gerizim.” He didn’t compromise at the cross and say, “I’ll back off some of these claims about being God.” Jesus stood for truth, but He did so graciously, and that’s what we’re called to do as well.
Nothing will sabotage our ministry faster—personally or corporately—than failing to show grace. That doesn’t mean giving in. Notice that the way Jesus showed grace in this situation was to walk away.
There is a place and a time for judgment. That’s what the disciples wanted, and God’s judgment is just. Their idea was simply, “Let’s call down His judgment right now.” When God’s judgment falls, it will be just, deserved, and perfectly executed. But this was not the time for it. God will decide when that time is.
Until then, our responsibility as we carry out His mission is to show grace. We want people to understand the grace of a King who could have come to be served but instead allowed Himself to be betrayed, taken into custody, despised, rejected, and mistreated in every conceivable way. He allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross, mocked, scourged, and killed. He shed His blood and died.
He is a King who did not have to do any of that, but He willingly did all of it so that those of us who least deserved His grace could receive it freely. Even me.
The Grace Our Mission Proclaims
When we fail to show grace, when we fail to respond to things the way Jesus would, and when we’re just a little too excited about the reality of judgment, we sabotage the mission.
Jesus told us that He did not come into this world to condemn the world. The world is condemned already. Instead, God sent His Son into the world so that the world might be saved through Him. Our responsibility is to carry the message about that King and His Kingdom to a dark and depraved world that needs to hear it.
If you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior, that’s where all of this begins. It begins with the realization that each and every one of us has sinned against a holy God. None of us deserves fellowship with Him. None of us deserves to be right with Him.
Yet in spite of our sin, He loved us enough that Jesus Christ came to earth to pay for our sin. God could not simply ignore our sin, let it go, or compromise with it. It had to be punished. But Jesus Christ came to take that punishment in full so that you and I could go free.
He rose again three days later so that we could have the hope of eternal life, and now He promises that life to all who believe. If you know that you have sinned and that your sin has left you separated from God, but you believe Jesus died to pay for your sins in full and rose again, you can ask Him for forgiveness, and He will give it to you.
