The Unexpected Christ

The Unexpected Christ

morning church. Hey, I like that. Some response. That’s great. My name is derek grumpy one of the pastors here. Um, I also get the pleasure of heading up our college ministry. Yeah, thanks brian. It’s exciting for him. I paid him, paid him little 20 slipped in there. But I, so I had, it’s exciting what’s happening on the campus. I just want to say thank you to solar church to you guys for blessing us. Uh the work we’re doing on the campus, praying for the work supporting the work. And it’s exciting to see the fruit. That’s, that’s God’s bringing about on the campus and the last, we’ve got to celebrate some of that with some baptisms and um this is exciting to see a church come behind the work that’s happening and bringing the gospel, making disciples on the campus. So thank you for that. With that we’re gonna be in Luke. Chapter nine continuing on in the book of Luke and Let’s Pray father God, we worship you this morning. You are our God, the one true God who is good, right and true, who is holy, who is merciful? Who was faithful? Well, we ask that you would direct us this morning as we look into your word that you would open our eyes to understand and behold the wonders of your word, pray this in jesus name. Amen Amen. Alright Hope and change make America great again, unite for a better future. Sure. Some of these might sound familiar to you and these are three of the slogans that have been used in the past by the past three presidents and their presidential campaigns. Uh when I think about these slogans bring up these slogans because these slogans address uh, some of the longings of our hearts, right? They weren’t just come up with in a couple of minutes by uh people who didn’t know what they’re doing. There are people who are paid a lot of money, spent a lot of time to say what would relate to the most amount of people. And up came the slogans and they speak to, like I said, the longings of our hearts and that’s why they uh they are used, that’s why they impact and our ra memorable, memorable for us. So what do they speak to? What are the longings of the heart piece is one of them. Justice is one that these slogans and things like them address uh prosperity, Freedom. These are things that we long for that we want to see and that we see represented in these slogans. And every four years we build up a fervor. We build up a hope that we can get the right person in place in this area of life, the sphere of life, the civil government area, and they’ll put the right policies in the place, the right actions into place and bring about the peace, the prosperity, the freedom, the justice that we all long for and desire? Now? This is not a new thing, right? This is old and and ongoing. In fact, we see in the second century with the Jews, the people of God. So about 150 200 years before Christ they were under the oppression of a Greek king named Antiochus and they were prevented from purely and freely worshiping god. They were restricted in their worship and under this oppressive king and people now they had this, you know, familiar with the old testament that the jewish people, God had given promises to his people that they would have a messiah that they would have one who would come and deliver them and bring about his kingdom and established his ways, his peace and prosperity. So they had these, these promises and then they’re under this oppression. Well in steps a man named judas, Maccabees, a god fearing man a jew. He also was known by Judah the hammer which is a cool name and uh maybe a nickname I can give to to one of my sons be fun. Uh so due to the hammer brought together a small militia and he defeated the greek king. This this greek people that was in their land and he restored the temple cleansed the temple, restored the temple that they could worship God and all the sacrifices and all that that came with that. And the people saw due to the hammer as the christ as the messiah right, this is before jesus comes on the scene they saw him as the christ well uh you’ll likely be unsurprised to find out that he wasn’t the christ wasn’t the messiah, the romans came in not long after this and began to oppress the people of God, the jewish people once again restricting them in the worship and and all that comes with that. So I share this story because I believe it gives us helpful sense of the expectations of the jews in this time. The expectations of the disciples uh in the first century when jesus comes into play and what they expected, what they thought of was that God would send a messiah, God would send the christ to be a political leader, a military leader who would deliver the people of God from the romans or before that whatever people was oppressing them, that the messiah would deliver them, that he would restore the temple and the worship of God and that he would allow justice, peace And freedom to rain uh and to prosper as God reigns as king over his people. That was what they expected. That was what they long for. And we’re going to see in our passage today in Luke chapter nine that jesus doesn’t deny or change this Messianic calling. He doesn’t uh he doesn’t shy away from some of the delivering from people’s and bringing justice and freedom. He doesn’t go away from that, but he does help his disciples understand his kingdom and how it’s coming rightly and I think we need likely need and continue to need some of that similar readjusting of our thinking of how does the kingdom of what is the kingdom of God and how does it come? How does it, how does it bring about the things that we desire and that God has promised? I mean we see last week dan talked about how the kingdom of God is God’s plan, it’s what Jesus preached about, taught his disciples about, it’s what he established in his death and resurrection and its what he continues to press on and bring about. That’s what he taught us to pray. You know that kingdom come, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So the kingdom of God is here and it’s coming alright other uh maybe more familiar language is the Kingdom of God is now, but not yet. So the kingdom of God is here, but it’s not gonna fully come until jesus returns uh and and brings it about fully the kingdom of christ where he uh the kingdom of God which is him ruling and reigning in the earth. That is where we find the blessings of God. The things that we desire that I spoke of God’s kingdom’s ways are often different than what we may seem, what may seem right to us or what the culture around us always is accustomed to. So we need to adjust our thinking and our way of living to his. So with that let’s look at the word of God Luke. Chapter 9: verse 37, it says on the next day when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him and behold a man from the crowd! Cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold a spirit seizes him and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out. But they could not, jesus answered, oh, faithless and twisted generation, How long am I to be with you? And to bear with you bring your son here! While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him, but jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father and all were astonished at the majesty of God. So here we see Jesus coming down from the mountain last week, looked at the transfiguration, jesus being transfigured in all of his glory before the peter James and john and moses and elijah. There, this great experience. He comes down and he meets a crowd that’s not unusual that often takes place in the gospels and in his life and ministry, he’s met with the crowd. This crowd has some of his disciples, it’s got some of the scribes, some of the religious leaders, some of the common people and then there’s this father son combo that’s in serious need of help. It says the sun has been occasionally sees and tormented by this evil spirit for a number of years and the father is desperate. He takes into the teacher and hope against hope is trusting, hoping wanting his son to be delivered from this demonic oppression. And we see here that he first goes to jesus disciples and that they’re unable to cast out the demon, the evil spirit. And then he comes to jesus and after describing the situation, Jesus responds in a way that I think we would often find uh isn’t our typical, isn’t what we would think would be typical of jesus. He says, oh, faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and to bear with you? Not the nice soft jesus, but but very clear and what he’s saying, but it’s it’s not so clear in terms of who he’s speaking to, right? It’s like okay, who the father is asking him coming to him, is he speaking to the father? Is he speaking to the disciples? Is he speaking to the religious leaders that are being hypocritical? And I think it’s it’s not necessarily clear, but it’s it’s likely a mixture of of them all, where you have the disciples who have been given authority to preach the gospel and to heal and to to deliver people from evil spirits and then not acting out of the authority and the faith, trusting God and his power, the hypocritical leaders and even likely the father and and maybe representing the people and their their faithfulness, faithlessness yet. So despite his his just indignation that jesus shows and has here, we also see his his his mercy, his compassion towards this father and towards uh this sun and we see this great display of compassion and healing his son and what I want us to see here in part is that this is an indication this healing. This deliverance is an indication that the Kingdom of God has come near the Kingdom of God is here, right? There’s sometimes a question of the Kingdom of God now is it only to come right, but it’s here and it’s coming. But in Luke chapter 10 Jesus, we’re going to see in the coming weeks telling his disciples go out, preach the gospel heal people and when you do, you are to say the Kingdom of God has come near to you. So in this healing, in this deliverance, we see that the Kingdom of God is at hand, the Kingdom of God is near and that christ rule and reign, brings about writing all that is wrong, christ comes and his kingdom comes to write all that is wrong and that’s what we see in his kingdom, which leads to a question of mine, as I read this text, how do we view major health problems, how do we view major issues in life, Like what we see here, Right? If the Kingdom of God is here, if jesus heals and delivers, how do we understand, how do we view some of the problems that come and face us? Whether it be depression and anxiety, whether it be uncertainty related to Covid, whether it be other major health issues that are very much out of our control, how do we view them? How do we respond to them? Is our first and primary instinct to think I need to go to a doctor, I need to go to a therapist to help with this situation or is our first instinct to think I need the help from the great physician and his kingdom power. Now clearly I see and understand that medical doctors are a great blessing that biblical counselors are a great blessing to his church to us. But I think it would be uh, unwise or uh we would not fully understand what’s going on if if we don’t realize that we are susceptible to miss aligning the balance or the understanding of the great physician and his work and his under physicians and the doctors, medical doctors and counselors in that way, that we in the general societal view of these things in our own hearts can often be and go astray in terms of facing major issues in our lives, are we trusting the great physician even as we go to people who can help us in our enemy because what I see here in this passage with this father is celebrating or highlighting the fact that he is persistent in going to the teacher, going to jesus to try to find help and healing. He goes to his representatives, the disciples and they’re unable to bring the healing the deliverance that they’re longing for. And then he persists, he presses on despite some of his remaining doubt and jesus comes and heals him. So what I wanted to see is that the kingdom of God, what’s been promised throughout the ages is here and it is coming, there is a reality that the fullness of it is not here that we will experience pain suffering and death that jesus doesn’t heal us from everything that we face. Uh medical uh, physicians aren’t able to deal with everything that we face. Uh, it’s not here in all its fullness, but we do see that jesus is still king. That what he’s doing here is not different than what he continues to do today and what we can believe for him to do today. And even when we don’t see it happen up front or when we press, on just like the woman who uh, we looked at several weeks ago that had the bleeding for 12 years pressing on and faith trusting jesus, uh, looking to him, praying to him, that that would be our first and foremost pursuit and trust when we face trials of many kinds. So it’s here, it’s coming christ kingdom, his rule and his reign is where we find the blessings that we desire, including health, including the freedom from oppression in this way again, he makes right all that is wrong and his ways are often different than what we typically think right. I tried to address that. I mean when I’m thinking about, hey, I got an issue, I need to go find help. I want in my heart to say God, I want to trust in you. Even in this work that is happening, it’s often different than what may seem right or what’s acceptable around us. We need to adjust our thinking and our way of living to his, Let’s continue on here, verse 43 through 48 says. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, let these words sink into your ears. The son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. But they did not understand this saying and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it and they were afraid to ask him about this thing. In verse 46, an argument arose among them as to which of them was the greatest, but jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them. Whoever receives this child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me for he who is least among you all is the one who is great. So after this deliverance of this young man setting him free. The people that says were astonished at the majesty of God, the power of God, the love of God to set this, this young man free and you would think Jesus would say, wow, well done, you do well in uh marveling at the majesty of God. But instead he addresses the impurity of their marveling. He addresses the failing of their hearts in their marveling because he says to the disciples, the son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men. He doesn’t celebrate it, but he addresses the impurity in this way. It’s not unusual. We see the disciples failing to get it, which gives me a little bit of comfort, uh and my often failing to get things that Jesus is trying to teach me. Uh and in fact it says that it was concealed from them by God, but one of the reasons why I think we see they’re failing to understand what Jesus is saying here is that they had the old testament, promises of God towards his people strongly in mind. Most of them, they missed Isaiah 53 but the promises of a messiah, a son of man that would come and deliver his people an example of this Daniel chapter 7 13 through 14, it says, I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven. There came one like a son of man, One like a son of man. He came to the ancient of days or God the Father and was presented before him and to him the one like a Son of man was given Dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples nations, languages should serve him. His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. The Son of Man was to receive an everlasting kingdom over all the ends of the earth. He was not to be delivered into the hands of men. What are you talking about, jesus? I want us to consider also the fact that Peter and the disciples just had a conversation with jesus about who he was and he said rightly, you are the christ of God, you are the messiah that we long for. Uh you see the three disciples with jesus and then being transfigured in all his glory before them with moses and elijah. You see him healing people, casting out demons, stilling the winds and the waves. Surely this has to be the christ, this has to be the messiah who has promised to deliver his people to establish his kingdom and to bring about the rule and reign the Dominion of God and the earth to bring blessings to all the earth and which is why you see later on, the people trying to make jesus king because they long for these things and they saw him as the messiah. But he, jesus understood that this was not the way that this was to come about and not the time. And it says that Jesus understanding, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, which is humbling even just to consider that that jesus is able to know the reasoning of our hearts. But he knowing this said uh that he brought this this child before them and to show them the humility of it and he’s showing them that the son of man is to be delivered at the hands of men and that the way to life, the way to the kingdom of God is not the way of these great men is not the way of we would typically think, but the path of the kingdom of God is God’s the path of loving submission and obedience to the father. That when we want to see these these elements of justice, these elements of peace, elements of prosperity and freedom. That the path for this is loving submission and obedience to the father. It’s the path of self denial. It’s the path of the cross. This is the path that christ took to bring about his kingdom. This is the path that he called his disciples to take on this is the path that he calls us to take on a loving submission to the father, the path of self denial, the path of the cross. And we see this continue uh in their conversation uh amongst themselves, the disciples start arguing, which as I read that because it’s all it’s in three of the gospels, I’m always struck by how Jesus just tells them, I’m about to die, be delivered in the hands of men, and then they start arguing over who’s gonna be the greatest in the kingdom of God, who’s gonna sit at his right hand, his left hand, who’s gonna be these great rulers with him, It’s like you totally are missing it, but it also goes to the fact that they understood that jesus was to be king and that he was to bring his blessings to the ends of the earth, but like I was saying, and as the passage says uh Jesus, knowing the reasoning other hearts brings the child before then and says anyone who receives this child in my name receives me and whoever receives me receives him, who sent me for who he, who is least among you all is the one who is great. So disciples are going back and forth, Jesus brings this child now to us, it’s like, you know, Children are, we regard Children highly, we love Children generally and we view them as great loving and amazing, but we also see that we see the weakness, we see their inability now in that day, Children were viewed very lowly, they were not regarded highly, very much seen as as very low. And so that’s why we see it’s amazing that he brings them and says, if you receive this child, you’re receiving the christ and the father, there’s a very significant exalting the one who is least among you all to the place of greatness for he who is least among you all is the one who is great. So what I see here is that the justice that we long for in our society, the freedom that we long for these things that we, the blessings of God. We long for. They’re not going to come about through the people who are great in our eyes more often than not. Uh, it’s not just gonna be merely the pastor or the evangelist who brings about the kingdom of God. It’s not going to be merely the right political leader, great leader who brings that about. There’s a place for those things. But the kingdom of God will come about through the people of God, following the path of christ and humility and service to God. That is how the kingdom of God will come about. There’s a couple examples I think of with this, I think of the mother and the father who loved their Children day in and day out and the sacrificial acts that it takes to change diapers constantly to make, provide food day in and day out uh, to take the time and the energy to read the bible together, to pray together, to speak of God’s laws and ways all along the way of Deuteronomy six speaks of this is surely how the kingdom of God is to come about. It’s the mustard seed that grows into the largest tree in the garden. The Kingdom of God. We’ll work through seemingly small work of building strong and spiritual healthy families. That is one way that the Kingdom of God will come about. Another example I think of as a woman I know who serves the church with her life so much, her faithfulness to come together with the people of God to worship our great and Holy God weekend and week out her constant prayers for the people, her giving her cleaning up after almost every event and her welcoming people, welcoming people in her home. Her service to the church is that is how examples like that is how the kingdom of God is to come for the least among you all is the one who is great. It’s the unnoticed to the world christ like commitment and service to the church in the areas that God has called us to now. I mentioned those two examples and they fit within three of the major spheres of life. Oh, that God has created family church And the state is the 3rd 1 or the civil government. Right? These are three spears that are our major that we are to, to do rightly in. And I mentioned the first two family and church in part because when we think about blessings in life in society a lot of times in our day, we can move towards thinking and looking towards the civil government and and how do we get that right? How do we serve in this area? And there’s a place for that? That’s good. We need to get that right. But oftentimes we are susceptible to miss aligning and getting out of line those three areas and what God has called us to and we need to have a similar passion that we have for the civil government that we have for family and church. You know, I think about the next time an election comes around the next time an injustice stirs our hearts on twitter or in our own lives, injustices stir hearts and rightly so that same passion, that same fervor that we have. Do we have that same passion and fervor for serving our families, serving our church, blessing these areas that are more unnoticed and really many times more potent and seeing lasting true kingdom, work and change in our lives and in our communities. The Kingdom of God is here and it’s coming and that’s where we find God’s blessings. That’s where we find his way is in christ and his kingdom. Lastly here versus 49 and 50 says john answered master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he does not follow with us, but jesus said to him, do not stop him. For the one who is not against you is for you, The one who is not against you is for you. Lastly here we have john uh speaking to Jesus and bringing up another area where we can go awry and serving God and his kingdom and its uh thinking that we are the ones who have what is right, we are the ones that are pleasing to God and the other people. The other churches you could say are the ones who are not doing it the right way and this is what I want us to, to to take away from this is this this idea of seeing that even other faithful churches who do things maybe a little bit different. Other faithful christians who might think a little bit different that we would not see them as people who are totally off who are opposing christ but that similar to jesus saying the one who is not against you is for you, that these faithful brothers and sisters, we should be praying for, we should be celebrating the work that God is doing in and through them and that’s just so important for our own souls, our own hearts to continue to press and celebrate the work that other christians are doing. So I want to close with looking at how jesus christ, the Prince of peace, our great redeemer and deliver the eternal king of all kings of all presidents. He has come into history to fulfill all the promises, spoken to him, spoken about him to the jews, to the people of God. He has come in history 2000 years ago to fulfill what God said would come about to bring about the peace and the justice that we desire to all the ends of the earth, all the nations. He came to set the captives free and to heal the sick. He came to write all that was and is wrong and to bring reconciliation between him and all things. He is the one who came to do that, who is doing that and will do that. He is our hope, he is our salvation And he accomplishes this through what we see in Colossians. Chapter two. What you see on the screen where he making us, who are dead in our trespasses and sins. He made us alive together with him and he did so, having forgiven us all of our trespasses, he did this by canceling the record of debt towards God that stood against us with its legal demands. This legal condemnation that we had from God. He set aside nailing it to the cross in himself and he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, jesus death and resurrection is the core and the means of our freedom from sin. It is the core and the means of our knowledge of God, our relationship with God. And it’s the way to the kingdom, Life that is here and coming. That is the source of the things that we long for and desire that we, that we are passionate about. The seed that produces justice, freedom, peace and prosperity. And it’s very often his kingdom ways are often different than what we’re accustomed to, what we see in the world. And we need to renew our thinking constantly in our way of living. So church, let’s be a kingdom. People in a culture and society that has less and less understanding of God’s kingdom weighs less and less regard often for God’s kingdom. Ways were to be solved the church’s salt and light to this world. That’s what we are to be and don’t shrink back as paul says, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and be constant in prayer and make God’s kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. Let’s pray father. We pray as your son taught us to pray, that your kingdom would come, that your will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Would you show us the areas where you’re calling us to serve to seek first your kingdom. Would you show us where we need to trust you and readjust our thinking and our way of living God. Help us to be faithful to you. Help us to trust you to look to you for our hope, for our salvation, for all of life. Well, we love you. We pray that you would be exalted in jesus name.