Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Be Faithful In The Faithful - Luke 9:37-45

We are continuing in our series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth, where

we've been looking at the investigative account of Jesus's servant Luke as he looks at

eyewitness testimony from all the people that witnessed the life, the ministry of the

death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Last week, we looked at

when Jesus took Peter, John and James with him to a mountaintop to pray,

where he was transfigured before them. His appearance was changed. His face

and clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning, as his glory,

the glory of God the Sun was shown to them. While that was happening,

Moses and Elijah appeared before them and spoke with Jesus about his coming death

and all that his death would accomplish. A cloud surrounded them and they were

in the glace glory of God, and God the Father spoke to them,

commanding them to listen to his son, his chosen one, to listen to

Jesus. In our text, today, Jesus comes down from the mountain and

we're going to see him rebuke both a demon that was tormenting a boy and

his disciples who were unable to cast the demon out of the boy because of

their lack of faith. My sermon today is titled be faithful in the faithful,

Be faithful in the faithful. If you brought your bible, turn with

me to Luke Chapter nine, verse thirty seven. If you need a bible,

we have some on the table there. We will have some on the

table there. They're not there right now. Pastor Duncan's gonna get them.

Thank you Dunk. When those bibles appear there for you to keep if you

need one, all right, let's get into it. Chapter nine, verse

thirty seven. The next day, when they came down from the mountain,

a large crowd met him. A man in the crowd called out, teacher,

I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only

child. A spirit seizes him, and he is suddenly and he suddenly screams.

It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It

scarcely ever leaves him, and it's destroying him. I begged your disciples to

drive it out, but they could not. You unbelieving in perverse generation,

Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you? And put up with

you bring your son here. Even while the boy was coming, the demon

threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit,

healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were

all amazed at the greatness of God. While everyone was marveling at all that

Jesus did, he said to his disciples, listen carefully to what I am

about to tell you. The son of Man is going to be delivered into

the hands of men. But they did not understand what this meant. It

was hidden from them so that they did not grasp it, and they were

afraid to ask him about it. Let's pray, Lord Jesus, we thank

you for this word in written by your servant Luke, inspired by your Holy

Spirit, that we get to read from and learn from. Lord. I

pray that this word, this truth of your gospel, would change us,

help us to trust in you, help us to be faithful in your commands

and all that you're going to speak to us today, change us from the

inside out. Lord, in your name, we pray. Amen. All

right, let's read through verse thirty seven to thirty eight again, and then

we'll get into it. After Jesus was transfigured, after God, the Father

commanded his disciples to listen to what he says. The next day, when

they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. A man

in the crowd called out, teacher, I beg you to look at my

son, for he is my only child. Now there's an interesting and unspoken

thing happening here that I want to draw our attention to, because it's going

to be important for later. Last week, I spoke at length about how,

up until the moment of Jesus' transfiguration, he has always appeared as a

man. He was wise, he was authoritative, he worked miracles, but

he had always appeared as a man, and most of the people that were

around him viewed him as such a man, a miracle worker, a teacher,

all those things. But notice that neither the crowd that met him here

or the man that's speaking to you just noticed anything different about him. After

his transfiguration. He is no longer appearing to them in that way. He's

his face is no longer unger, shining like the sun, his clothes as

bright as a bolt of lightning. They see him as they've always seen him,

a teacher a man. What's interesting is that when we read the story

of Moses in Exodus, we see God reveal his glory to Moses, and

it clings to him. God's glory clings to Moses, and the Israelites were

scared to be around Moses because of it. In Exodus chapter thirty three,

then Moses said to God, now show me your glory, and the Lord

said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you,

and I will proclaim my name the Lord. In your presence. I will

have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on

whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face,

for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said,

there is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When

my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock

and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will

remove my hand and you will see my back, but my face must remain

must not be seen. Then God gives Moses the ten commandments. He gives

them the law, and Moses comes back down the mountain to deliver God's Law

to the Israelites. Skipping ahead to chapter thirty four, when Moses came down

from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Covenant Law in his hands,

he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the

Lord. When Erin and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant,

and they were afraid to come near him. So when Moses descended Mount

Sinai, the glory of God was still radiating from him. He was still

shining from being in the presence of God, from having God reveal himself to

him, and that was just from seeing the back of God. If God

had allowed Moses to see his face, we'd be reading about a Raiders of

the Lost Dark situation. Here you face melting. But when Moses returns,

the Israelites were afraid to even be near him because the glory of God that

was still shining off of him, that was still clinging to him. So

on one hand, it's interesting that the people that come to Jesus after he

descends the mountain are not having the same reaction that the Israelites did when they

saw Moses. But on the other hand, like we saw last week,

Jesus was not on the earth to show who he is in that way.

That wasn't his mission. While God the Father revealed a glimpse of himself to

Moses as a sign for the Israelites, Jesus in a sense hid his whole

self from them because his signed the people was his resurrection from the dead.

The resurrection was the central evidence of who he truly was and is. All

of this is because of and according to God's good and perfect plan for all

things, His perfect plan for all things, his plan here being that Jesus

would reveal himself as the son of God through his resurrection. It would prove

that he is the son of God. It was the evidence that he was

the son of God his resurrection from the dead. The disciples that were with

him on the mountain were simply and graciously blessed to witness his glory beforehand.

So why is this important, Jordan? Why are you spending all this time

talking about Moses. Why are we talking about Jesus not revealing his glory.

I believe it matters because in life, this is just one example. In

life, we're going to meet and know people that we care about. By

God's providence, and according to his plan, He's going to bring people into

our lives to witness to and to share the love of Christ with. He's

going to give us those opportunities, and sometimes we're going to be left frustrated

with their rejection of the truth. We're going to be hurt for them and

the rejection of who God truly is, because we want them to know him,

we want them to see all of who he is. But what we

have to remember is that we're not the ones that save people. God saves

people. We're not the ones that grant them the knowledge of who he is.

God does that. God reveals himself as he sees fit. God reveals

himself to whomever he is decides to. When he decides to, He does

use us to bring the truth of who he is. How sweet are the

free? How sweet are the feet of those who bring the good news?

But how a person responds to him is according to his timing and his purposes,

all to his glory. Our job is to be faithful and obedient,

to pray for them, and to trust in God's perfect plan for everything and

everyone. According to his perfect timing, God reveals himself to whomever he decides

to when he decides to remember that for later, put in the put it

in the back of your head somewhere all right. Back to the text is

verse thirty eight through thirty nine. A man in the crowd called out,

teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my

only child. A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams. It throws him

into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever, leaves

him and is destroying him real quick. I want to point out you read

this and think, Okay, this is epilepsy. This sounds it checks most

of the marks. But remember we've talked about this very early on in our

series. But I'll remind you that Luke is a doctor. He's a physician.

So when he's doing his investigative work and collecting all these eyewitness testimonies from

the people who witness this event, he knows, okay, this is an

epilepsy. This is a demon, the demon revealing itself in tormenting this man's

only son with signs of at the epilo with signs of epilepsy English. Also

a quick thing to note, there's a wild contrast happening here between what happened

on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured before the disciples and after they descended the

mountain to the valley below. To begin with, just one day earlier,

Jesus was up high on a mountain. Now he has come down to a

valley. Up on the mountain there was glory, glory revealed in the sun.

But down in this valley there's turmoil. Up on the mountain, Jesus

displayed his majesty. Down in this valley, Satan is displaying his cruelty.

I just thought that was an interesting contrast. So we see this father approach

Jesus, begging him to look at his son, his only child, because

a demon has possessed the boy and is tormenting him. Let's go back to

verse forty. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could

not. You unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, how long shall I

stay with you? And put up with you? At first glance, this

seems harsh Jesus' response. His response is clearly voiced in justified frustration. He

says it this way because not too long ago, he gave his disciples the

authority and power to do exactly what this father needed them to do for his

son to drive out demons. So imagine a father coming before Jesus begging him

to look at his only son, his only child, who's likely about to

die, who's being tormented by this spirit, and the people you placed in

charge to do your work could not do it. That's where this frustration is

coming from. Jesus came down the mountain and finds his other nine disciples failing

to exercise what he had given them to do. Jesus response actually reminds me

of the frustration us parents feel when our kids don't do what we tell them

to do. None of the kids looked up talking to you, June,

Still nothing Okay. Granted, our frustration is likely always sinful because our responses

come from anger and impatience. Impatience, but our reactions sound much the same

way, don't they. How long would you go on doing these things?

How long before you learn? Do I have to hold your hand the entire

time? Luke, Chapter nine, verse forty one, bring your son here.

Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground

in a convulsion, but Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and

gave him back to his father, and they were all amazed at the greatness

of God. Notice that Jesus, even though he was frustrated with his disciples,

he still made it a point to show compassion to this father. Regardless

of the frustration he had towards his disciples, he extended compassion. Oh,

there's a lesson there for all of us. Regardless of his frustration, he

still did what he had to do. He still chose to show compassion to

this man and his only son. How often do we put off or avoid

doing what we're supposed to do because of our own frustration, because of our

own anger. How many of us have felt so justified in our frustrations,

justified in frustrations towards the situation or another person, that we choose not to

do what we're supposed to do. No, I'm angry, and I'm right

to feel angry. I'm not gonna do what I'm supposed to do. Does

it ever make it right? No? Kids, listen up, this is

for you. How often do you not obey your parents because you're frustrated with

something they told you to do? Sometimes a lot it happens. We all

get frustrated, and we all sin out of that frustration. But what we

need to remember is that our frustration often comes from a sinful place our hearts,

because we wanted something for ourselves and we didn't get it. We all

expected this thing but got the other thing. I remember as a kid,

and this will I'm sure all you kids can relate to this. I remember

as a kid wanting a later bedtime because all my friends got to stay up

till nine o'clock. But my parents knew if they let me stay up past

eight thirty, I turned into a monster. But guess what my parents knew

what was better for me than I did. When we're frustrated with another person,

when we respond and sin toward them, especially our parents, it's important

that we that we avoid further sin by responding in our frustration, by saying

hurtful things, by shouting at them, by disobeying the rules. Look at

what Paul said about responding in anger Ephesians four. In your anger, do

not sin, do not let the son go down while you are still angry,

and do not give the devil a foothold when we're frustrated. When we're

angry, we need to practice responding the way Jesus responded to this man who

was before him and begging him to save his son. Jesus was justly frustrated

with his disciples, but he did not respond and sin. He responded by

doing what he needed to do. He responded with compassion, and he acted

towards the father. In that compassion got that kiddos, I tried, parents,

I triedntinue on. In verse forty three, while everyone was marveling at

all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, listen carefully to what

I Am about to tell you. The son of Man is going to be

delivered into the hands of men. Now. At this point, over the

last three weeks, this is the third time Jesus has told his disciples that

he is going to die. He is going to be handed over to the

Pharisees, to the chief priests, to the leaders there. He's going to

be delivered into their hands. He's trying to drive a message home, the

message being I'm not going to be around here much longer. My mission is

handed over to you. Get it together. That's where his frustration is coming

from. Be steadfast in the mission I've charged you with, and place your

faith in the one that gave you the mission. When Jesus descended the mountain,

he came face to face with a man that desperately needed God's intervention in

his life. He needed a miracle. His son was tormented and needed to

be saved. But the people that represented Jesus, his disciples, his apostles,

his emissaries could not do what they were given the authority to do.

Why because of their lack of faith. Look at how this whole situation plays

out in Matthew chapter seventeen. The Father says, I brought him to your

disciples, but they could not heal him. You unbelieving in perverse generation.

Jesus replied, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I

put up with you? Bring the boy here to me. Jesus rebuked the

demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at

that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private. They don't want

to have this conversation in public. Why couldn't we drive it out? He

replied, because you have so little faith. Truly, I tell you,

if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to

this mountain. Move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing

will be impossible for you. This is why Jesus was so frustrated with his

apostles, his emissaries. It's why he responds by saying, you unbelieving in

perverse generation? How long shall I stay with you? And put up with

you? It was because of their lack of faith. If the disciple has

only had faith, they could have driven out this demon. They saved this

boy and help this father, and not just faith faith the size of a

mustard seeds. They're big, that's all it took. Yeah, that's small.

Now, Jesus is not giving his disciples a formula, a formula that

says this much faith equals this result, or this much faith equals this results.

That's not what's happening here. And actually, when you think that way,

that's where the wrong theology comes in. And that's when you start to

hear things like, oh God didn't show up the way you wanted. Your

faith must not be strong enough. Oh God didn't move the way you expected

him to move. Your faith is weak. That's not what he's saying.

That is false. That is wrong. Theology not only is wrong, it's

misleading. It's not the faith you have that matters. It's the one you

place your faith in that matters. It's not the faith you have that matters.

It's the faith you put in the one that matters. John fifteen five.

Here's why it matters. I am the vine. This is Jesus speaking.

You are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you,

you will bear much fruit. Catch this. Apart from me, you

can do nothing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. It's not

the amount of faith you have that matters. It's the one you place your

faith in that matters. We all have mountains in our lives. Take us

thing to think about a mountain in your life figuratively speaking, don't think about

mount rainier. Figuratively speaking, think about a mountain you are facing right now,

a mountain that's placed in your path. We are all faced with opportunities

or situations, or we're faced with the choice to either trust ourselves, put

faith in ourselves to climb the mountain, or alternatively, put your faith in

the one that moves it. Did you catch that You can choose to climb

over the mountain or put your faith in the one that moves it. Aside

Jordan's shouting again, Yeah, I am deal with it. To summarize it

in a point, I put it like this, your faith doesn't move the

mountain. The one that granted you faith does. Your faith doesn't move the

mountain. You can struggle all you want, you're gonna end up climbing it.

You're gonna get so high you're gonna need oxygen, and you're gonna wish

you had put your faith in the one that moves it. With that kind

of faith, I'm not saying that you're not gonna have doubts along the way.

I'm not saying that at all, we will always struggle with doubt.

It was doubt in God's commands when the devil planted that the devil planted in

Eve's mind the meaner question what God said, what God had meant. It

caused her to sin by taking a bite to the fruit that God forbade them

to eat of. Even the man that approaches Jesus in our today had his

own doubts when they brought his son, his demon possessed son, to Jesus.

Mark's Gospel tells us this, Jesus asked the boy's father, how long

has he been like this from childhood, he answered. It has often thrown

him into fire or water, trying to kill him. But if you can

do anything, take pity on us and help us. Watch this. If

you can, said Jesus, If you can, everything is possible for one

who believes. Amazing response by Jesus. But watch this father, Watch how

this father immediately responds. Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed, I do believe.

Help me in my unbelief, Teacher, Lord, I believe. Help

me in my unbelief. Like this father, we are going to have moments

of doubt, and like this father, we need to respond to that doubt

the way he did by exclaiming, Lord, I believe. Help me in

my unbelief. I believe in you. I believe in what you can do,

but I have doubts. Help me with my doubt, Help me with

my unbelief. So how do we overcome our doubts? How do we overcome

our unbelief? In turn? How do we strengthen our faith? How do

we move from doubt to faith in the things God has said and the things

God is sane? We do it like this. We know and trust in

what God says. We know and we trust in what God says. We

talked about this at length last week. I did you patiently sat there?

Well, I shouted at you. But go listen online if you'd like a

refresher. The point is knowing what God said and says in his word.

That's the key to strengthening our faith in Him. Reading your Bible, knowing

what he says to have faith in the one that moves the mountain in our

lives. Don't you think it would be helpful for us to know how He's

already moved mountains in the past. So just think that would help us be

secure in the one where I put in our faith in seeing how He's moved

in the past, reflecting on how He's moved in the past in our own

lives. This is what the Psalmists and seventies wrote. I will remember the

deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.

I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds.

Not only remember them, not only study them, meditate on them. Meditate

on the deeds, all the miracles and workings of God. God gave us

this word, his word, his holy scriptures. He gave us these words

as a testimony of his works in the past, so that we will have

a reason to trust Him in our present. By reading his holy scriptures,

we can have an understanding of what God has done in the past, what

He has promised for us in the present right now, and what we could

expect from Him for our future. I'm gonna trust you all heard that it's

the sunshine making you all sleepy. To testimony of His works in the past

gives us reason to trust in Him for our present and what we can expect

from Him for our future Romans fifteen four. For everything that was written in

the past was written to teach us so that through the endurance taught in the

scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope. We might have

hope. It's in Him that we place our faith, because it's in Him

that we find our hope. And I don't mean the world's understand of hope.

I'm not talking about wishful thinking. I'm not talking about, Oh,

I hope this will happen, or I hope this doesn't happen. I'm not

talking about that. That's not biblical hope. Biblical hope, the hope of

the believer is confident expectation. Confident expectation, it's the firm assurance about the

things that are unclear and unknown, the firm assurance about the things that are

unclear and unknown. That's what it means to have hope at our Lord Jesus,

confident expectation based on the promises of his word. Faith is not the

removal of doubt, but it is the remedy for it. Faith is not

the removal of doubt, but it is the remedy for it. And when

we study and know who God is, all that he has done, and

all that he promises to do, we can overcome our doubt. Can I

get the band to come up? Or can I get Duncan to come up?

I think he's coming up by himself. Luke nine, verse forty five,

verse forty four. Excuse me, listen carefully to what I'm about to

tell you. The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands

of men. But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden

from them so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to

ask him about it. Earlier, I spoke about how Jesus had, in

a sense hidden his whole self from the people around him until the appointed time.

Talked about how God gives us opportunities to witness to people about the work

of his son. I talked about it, sometimes we're going to be left

frustrated with the rejection of His truth by the people we witness to. We're

going to be hurt for them and the rejection of who God truly is because

we want them to know him, we want them to see all of who

He is. That frustration brings up doubts about how God works. It brings

up impatience when we're trying to wait on God to do something or to work

in someone. The things that are sometimes hidden from us, Much like how

the true meaning and weight of what Jesus was telling his disciples was hidden from

them, The inner workings of God's plans are not always for us to know.

We don't always know why He brings some people to faith and others not.

We won't always know why He allows some things to happen and some thing's

not. But sometimes it's not for us to know. Sometimes it's not for

us to know. But what is for us to know and do is faithfully

trust in the one that does know. That's on us always. We're not

always going to know his plans that mountain in your life, why it's there

in the first place. Sometimes you won't know. Maybe it is an opportunity

to test your faith. Maybe it is an opportunity to test your faith to

have a dependence on him. I don't know. You may not know.

What we do know is that we put our faith in the one that is

all together trustworthy, that is all together good, and that has the perfect

plan with the perfect timing for each and every one of us. Sometimes it's

not for us to know. But what is for us to know and do

is faithfully trust in the one that does Isaiah fifty five. This is God

speaking for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,

declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so

are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

His ways are higher, His thoughts are higher. His understanding is complete and

true. There are some things that are not for us to know. Those

things are for him to know, as we obediently serve him and faithfully wait

upon him, faithfully wait upon him, which is that's a tough one too,

waiting upon the Lord, trusting in his timing. Aw Tozer said this

about faith. The great test of faith is to wait on God, not

expecting to push a button and get whatever we want. Now, this was

a long time ago that he wrote this. Think about how relevant this is

for us today, when we literally just push a button and almost anything happens.

There's no waiting. We've grown so impatient as a society and as believers,

we've almost lost the ability to be patient, to wait on God's perfect

timing. You may not get what you want. There's a faulty way of

thinking that I grew up hearing this is not biblical, it's Christianese. It's

feel good. I'll say garbage. God never says no, He says yes,

maybe, or I have something better. Get that mind out of Get

that thought out of your mind. God constantly says no. But here's why.

Because his ways are higher, his thoughts are not our thoughts. He

knows what's best for us. It's our job to trust in him as his

ways become clear to us, to wait upon him, to faithfully trust and

obey in the God who is higher, greater, and above every mountain in

our lives. Amen. You may not get what you want, Have faith

and wait on God. He what he wants is greater and better for us.

And I don't mean what he wants is in Oh, I want this

to happen. No, what he says is gonna happen. First of all,

is gonna happen. Second of all, it's gonna be better for you.

You may not understand God's plan. Have faith and wait on God.

His ways are higher than yours. You may have doubts, Have faith and

wait on God. He is the perfect one we place our hope in as

we wait upon Him and his perfect knowledge, his perfect plans, his perfect

timing. Keep the faith, Keep the faith in the one that is faithful. Amen,