The Greatness of Humility: Lessons from Luke 9

Again, we're in the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke. We're in Luke chapter

Luke 9 · chapter mention

9. And today, you know, last week we looked at the transfiguration, right?

Today we're looking at the big come down to start with, okay?

And let me explain it. Because we transition from the preceding verses that

we looked at last week into this next episode in this chapter.

It's a really jarring transition. Because up on the mountain,

if you remember, Peter, James, and John had just seen Jesus in unspeakable glory.

But as they descend down the next morning in verse 37, they're met by just this

startling reminder, y'all, that the world is oftentimes an ugly, broken place.

And on the mountaintop, they witnessed God the Father's delight in who?

In his glorious son. Remember last week he said, that's my son in whom I'm well pleased.

Listen to him. But in the crowd below, there's a father in agony because what?

His only son, as we read earlier, is afflicted terribly by a demon.

It says in verse 38 and 39, and it's a powerful reminder, I think today,

Eastwood, that the son of God,

Jesus, did not come to live in glory here on earth

did he but to wade into human misery and set captives free hey all of us here

before you came to know christ we were captives to sin right we were dead in

our trespasses and sins but thank god he didn't leave us there and i think that

two things make this story.

Particularly memorable and first the the child's affliction here i mean if you

look at it in scripture, as we read earlier,

it's really, it's very, it's truly to be pitied, right?

Truly, it's like a horrible situation that's going on with this child.

I mean, the demon's oppression of the child is actually described in scripture.

You know, it's just heart-wrenching terms, right? The boy, what does he do?

He shrieks and is thrown into convulsions, foaming at the mouth with hardly

any relief, it says in verse 39.

And it seems that the child is suffering both from a terrible physical ailment,

this talked about in Matthew 17, 15, it really identifies this as epilepsy.

And also from demonic oppression.

And I really want to note, though, that the New Testament views these two as

entirely separate conditions.

In fact, it talks about that in Matthew 4, Verse 24, but the father,

Matthew 4:24

like the other helpless parents in Luke's gospel, sees his son being destroyed

and can do nothing to stop it.

I mean, can you imagine that helpless situation? I also think that the other

memorable feature of this particular passage, this incident,

is that the disciples, look at verse 40 again, the disciples' inability to cast this demon out.

Now, y'all think about this from the other weeks.

Presumably, the disciples in question here are the nine who did not go up on

the mountain, but their inability here is surprising because,

remember, Jesus had previously given, what,

authority to drive out all demons to the entire 12, all the way back in verse 1.

And their failure here in this passage was, I want y'all to see this,

church, was not due to a lack of power or authority given by Jesus.

There had to be something else at work in this situation. And as we see,

Jesus' response to the Father's plea is probably not what we would expect.

And in the face, think of it, in the face of terrible demonic oppression,

he expresses exasperation, not with the forces of evil at work in his child's

suffering, but with the people around him.

Jesus, his reaction, right? He indicates that there's a serious spiritual problem.

Do you see it there at work in the crowd? Look at verse 41.

Jesus says, an unbelieving and perverse generation. condemnation

and i think those words church echo the

old testament's condemnation of israel in

isaiah 65 verse 2 that we read about as does jesus here he's thinking about

Isaiah 65:2

he's musing about how long he will have to put up with them that's kind of reminiscent

back in numbers 14 right and so it's not clear whether it's the disciples or

or the larger crowd that is being addressed by Jesus's words,

but initially it seems like the crowd,

because it's strange choice of words if Jesus were referring to just the 12

when he says entire generation, right?

But Mark records for us a conversation that takes place at the end of this incident

where the disciples asked directly in that gospel about the reason for their

failure to drive out the demon.

Now this is found in Mark chapter nine, talking about this same story in verses

28 and 29. Let me share it with you.

Jesus identifies their lack of prayer as the problem in that passage.

In fact, in Matthew's account, Jesus emphasizes that their lack of faith is

the fundamental problem in Matthew 17, 20.

And so in the end, if we look at this closely, it seems that both the larger

crowd and the 12 in particular, they're all guilty of lacking faith, right?

And the good news, I want y'all to get this today. Don't leave today without

hearing this. The good news, however, that Jesus' power and authority are not

limited by any human weakness or failing, nor even by our lack of faith.

Aren't you grateful for that?

Jesus' power is not limited, is it? And despite the demon's last ditch efforts

here to afflict the child, as we see in verse 42 of Luke 9, what does Jesus do in verse 35?

Jesus rebukes that evil spirit. He heals the child's body in verses 54 through

55, as we look ahead a little bit. and he restores the boy to his father.

And it's a powerful picture here. I want y'all to see this today,

a powerful picture of redemption.

Jesus has put, look at this, he has

put back in order all of the chaos and brokenness in this family's life.

Have you ever experienced that chaos and brokenness before in your life?

You know, as we see in this next slide, this account presses home. the need for faith.

And in this particular case here, faith is confidence in Jesus's power and authority to help us.

He's come to save us. He wants to help us.

And it's normally pretty easy to trust Jesus when things are going well, isn't it?

How many of you have a problem trusting Jesus when everything is going well? Probably no one.

But in fact, we might even find faith close at hand when we need to trust Jesus

with a problem, so long as a reasonable solution is apparent and likely to us.

But it's in circumstances, church,

like this one, that really reveal the degree to which we trust Jesus.

We trust his wisdom. We trust his timing.

We trust his love. We trust his power.

When the disease, think about this church, when the disease is not cured,

when the job offer does not materialize, when the relationship is not reconciled,

in those cases, we see what or better who is it that we really trust?

Amen. And thankfully, we don't have to earn Jesus's love and help through our own faith, do we?

It's not as if Jesus is waiting for us to like clear a certain bar of faith

in our life, at which point he's going to come in and he's going to intervene in all of our problems.

But instead, when we come to Jesus, when we come to him, he even helps us with

our ongoing struggle with lingering disbelief.

Now, I got to be honest with y'all. How many of you ever doubted God today?

Have you ever found a place in your life where you doubted God or doubted his

ability to take care of you in whatever situation it might have been?

Well, I want you to know Mark 9 verse 24 talks about that we can cry out like this boy's father.

Mark 9:24

I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.

What a prayer. What a cry to the Lord. Well, I want to talk for just a moment about true greatness.

True greatness. In fact, in response to the healing of the child,

Luke actually tells us in verse 43 of Luke 9, they were all amazed at what?

The greatness of who?

God. The greatness of God. It was evident that God had been at work in this situation.

And while the three disciples got a glimpse of the majesty of Jesus,

think about it from last week at the transfiguration,

the people down below here got a glimpse of that same glory at work in his victory

over demons, over demon forces, right?

You can imagine the excitement in the crowd. Just think about it for a moment.

Jesus has just waltzed into just a crazy situation and accomplished the seemingly impossible.

And perhaps that's why the disciples are arguing in verse 46.

If you can believe it or not, Brother James, the disciples are arguing about

who's going to be the greatest in God's kingdom.

I mean, it seems that Jesus's incredible display of greatness has whetted their

appetite for the coming of his kingdom.

And naturally, they begin to wonder about their own relative place in the kingdom.

And guess what? Each of them wants to be what?

Well positioned for a place of power when Jesus finally turns his marvelous

power on the occupying Roman forces.

Remember, they're thinking about a kingdom right now, right?

Like taking care of this right now.

You know, Jesus, Messiah, you've come to free us from Roman oppression today, right?

But Jesus, it says, acted immediately to crush their misguided aspirations, right?

You know, while they were still marveling about who's going to be the greatest,

he pulled his disciples aside for a lesson.

He warned them to pay careful attention. He explained for the second time here

that the Son of Man, listen to this, This is so important in verse 44,

and also we'll see verse 22 as well.

He said, the son of man was going to be delivered into the hands of men.

Do you see what he's saying here, church? The adoration of the crowds is not going to last.

The fickle hearts of men would betray him and send him to his death.

And the irony is thick here. I want y'all to see that this morning.

While the disciples here, insignificant in every way, they were thinking about

their own grandeur, Jesus, the truly glorious one, was thinking about what?

His upcoming suffering.

And y'all, you see the disconnect there. It's easy to understand why the disciples

failed to understand Jesus's meaning as it talks about in verse 45. Verse 45.

But because Jesus knew their thoughts, it says, he made an object lesson here

of a child who must have been nearby.

Verse 47, he was saying, in effect, that this is greatness in my kingdom.

If the disciples, in other words, are willing to embrace and receive a child

in his name, that is for Jesus' sake, they'll be receiving who himself? Jesus himself.

And if they receive Jesus, he would, they will have received who?

The father who sent him, it says in verse 48.

So the point is not, as some have suggested, that Jesus is saying that there's

something inherently great about children. Although we love kids,

we love our children, right?

They are a blessing from the Lord, but that's not what he's teaching here about

the greatness of children.

Instead, Jesus is actually taking the child as an example of somebody who has

very little that would seem great.

A child, think about it, has no power, they have no money, they have no recognition,

and they have no accomplishments.

And it's easy to be kind to the rich and powerful, isn't it?

They can bless you back. It talks about in chapter 6, verse 33.

But Jesus here in this passage, don't miss this, is calling his disciples here

to imitate him by showing love to even the very least of these.

Wow. You know, you think about that, in that imitation, we find a definition of true greatness.

It's hard for us because most of us are not content, are we,

to pursue holiness by just humble, self-giving love for the lowly.

In fact, most of us not only want to be great, but we want to also be perceived as great by others.

Like the disciples, we want to be great in comparison to who?

Other people to be the greatest.

Think about how ridiculous this scenario is, right?

It's not enough for them. Think about it for a moment. It's not enough for them

here that they were in the enviable position of being part of whose inner circle,

the Messiah's inner circle, Jesus' inner circle here.

As his disciples, you might think that they would be content with that much greatness.

But their hearts won't settle, will it, until they're recognized as what?

The greatest of the inner circle.

They even go so far in this passage, church, to try, you know,

to get Jesus to stop someone from outside their group of 12 who's trying to

minister in Jesus' name.

You see that in verse 49 and 50, right?

And notice here, Jesus doesn't necessarily attack the human impulse to achieve

greatness, does he? I mean, it's always good to want to do something that's

worthwhile to put our best effort for God's glory, not our own.

Instead, what does he do? He redefines it, as we see in this next slide,

so that we can see what it really means to be great.

That is greatness as God sees it.

It's a call, Eastwood, to humility. It's a call to service.

It's a call to love what Jesus loves and to do what Jesus does.

Amen? And already in Luke's gospel, the people who have been held up,

think about it for a moment, as models of true greatness, the heroes,

if you will, who have they been?

The marginalized, the insignificant.

Think about it for a moment. A woman with a bad reputation, a pregnant virgin.

A tax collector, an unclean woman.

The people who seem great in the eyes of the world, don't miss this,

are not necessarily perceived in the same way by the king of God's kingdom, are they?

Wow, what an eye opener. I mean, if you and I are going to follow a crucified

Messiah, a son of man who has been delivered over to the hands of men, then guess what?

You're going to have to accept, I'm going to have to accept all of us,

that genuine greatness is going to look different than you might naturally think it's going to look.

And at this moment in time, the world around us tells us what?

To measure personal worth in terms of what? Physical appearance,

material possessions, how much do you got?

Professional or academic accomplishments, or even our social media presence, believe it or not.

Those are barometers of significance in the culture that can be understood, right?

I mean, they're quantified somehow, even diligently sought after.

But Jesus is saying here in this passage that the truly great one,

if you want to be great in God's kingdom, right, is the one who is willing to

humbly love the insignificant person for Jesus's sake.

The one who's going to be basically the servant of all.

Maybe the greatest person in your church. In fact, I'll just simply say it out for you.

The pastor is not the greatest person in your church.

Maybe even though your pastor occasionally might preach a brilliant sermon here

and there that everybody might appreciate, but you know who is and could be the greatest?

The ordinary member of Eastwood Baptist Church who is willing to drive 15 minutes

out of their way to pick up an elderly person who cannot get to church meetings on their own.

That's the kind of people Jesus is saying is great in his kingdom.

The way to find life is to deny yourself. As we saw last week,

the way to save your life is to lose it.

How can it be that we who know the sacrificial love of Christ so often,

as we see in this next slide, so often we have the greasy fingerprints of pride all over our lives?

Think about it, church. How can it be that we who know the sacrificial love

of Jesus, so often have those greasy fingerprints of pride all over our lives.

Why is it that we are so easily offended, so quick to anger when we don't get

our way, so slow to serve those who can't do anything for us?

In light of Jesus's sacrifice that we see, It should be totally inconceivable

that a Christian would be consumed by a passion for his or her own glory,

right? I'll get it out in a minute.

But the disciples here is like tone-deaf argument they give about their own personal greatness.

It reminds us, though, I think today that pride is a foe that we need to battle every single day.

Perhaps that's why we're challenged to take up our cross. How often?

Daily, right?

You see, every day looking to Jesus and his death for us on the cross.

In fact, I'm reminded of the words that the great hymn writer Isaac Watts penned

300 years ago that remain the prayer or should remain the prayer of every single believer.

You'll know this hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the prince of glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.

You see, church, when you understand the gospel, you realize that it's all God.

It's God reaching down to man.

Literally in the word of God, we're dead in our trespasses and sins.

It's God Almighty raising us spiritually to life, regenerating us in the power

of the Holy Ghost, where we understand and believe the gospel.

There is no hope apart from that. Y'all, our responsibility is what?

To say, yes, Lord. Amen. To say, yes, Lord.

Realizing that none of us did anything to earn our salvation,

nor can we ever do anything to keep it. It is in God's hands.

And he has assured us that no man, as we sang earlier in Christ alone,

will ever pluck us from his hands as we know him. We put our faith and trust in him.

Today, I want to challenge y'all just for a moment. You can bow your heads just

for a moment. Just shut out distraction. Nothing magical about this.

But think about it today. Have you come to the place in your life where you

realize that, you know what? I'm not the great one.

Jesus is truly the greatest of all. He is the son of almighty God.

As we talked about last week, he's the one that I need to listen to.

And maybe today you realize for the first time that, hey, I've never put my

faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone.

I've been dependent in my own good works. I've been dependent in my way instead of God's way.

If that's you today, right now where you're at, you can simply say, Lord, forgive me.

Forgive me a sinner, Lord. The times I have lied, the times I have stolen,

the times I've taken your name in vain, Lord, I broke all the Ten Commandments,

Lord. I violated your law.

But Lord, this morning, I want to give my heart, my life to you totally, completely.

And some of us today may need to be reminded as believers even.

Maybe today we're kind of full of pride. Maybe we've been thinking that,

hey, it's all about me or it's all about my agenda.

Instead of about serving those who cannot help themselves, serving those who

cannot repay you in any way.

And maybe today some of us need to come to the altar, maybe where you're at,

maybe some of us just need to say, Lord, forgive me.

Lord, pour contempt, Jesus, on all my pride, Lord.

Lord, help me to realize that nothing good have I to bring. Only to your cross I cling.

Y'all it's all of God salvation belongs to the Lord and today I challenge all of us,

as God's Holy Spirit works in our midst respond to him in obedience there may

be some today that maybe maybe you know this should be your church home I don't

know if it is maybe God have you to walk down today and say hey I want to be

a part here at Eastwood Baptist Church I want to be a part of this fellowship

and reaching this community for Jesus.

Whatever it is, you do business with God. I'm gonna ask you if you would to stand.

We're gonna pray together. Father God, I just thank you for today.

I thank you for bringing us together.

Lord, I thank you for your word.

I thank you that, Lord, you've promised that it will not return void.

And Father, today as your Holy Spirit does business in our midst,

Lord, I pray that we'll all respond to you in obedience and faith.