The Unconventional Plan of Christ - Luke 9:51-56

So in World War II, when the Allies prepared to invade Nazi occupied Europe, they didn't just rely on brutal force.

They relied on deception.

They created these fake armies, inflatable tanks, and false radio signals to convince the enemy that this invasion would happen somewhere else.

And to anyone watching this from the outside, it looked a little confusing.

It looked even foolish.

Why not just strike directly?

Why not just come at them with all of your power and with all of your force?

But this unexpected plan did exactly what it was supposed to do.

It led them to victory.

It convinced Germany that the invasion would happen somewhere else when the real invasion hit Normandy instead.

You know, sometimes the path to victory doesn't look like victory at all.

Sometimes it looks like weakness or misdirection or even defeat.

And as we come to our passage this morning, we see something even more surprising.

Not a general, but the Son of God not marching toward a throne, but headed toward the cross.

You know, up to this point in Luke's gospel, Jesus has been doing most of his ministry in and around Galilee.

But here we come to a turning point in his life and in ministry.

Luke will devote most of the next nine chapters to his ministry on the way to Jerusalem.

In verse 51 of our passage, we read that Jesus set his face to Jerusalem.

This one verse pretty much lays out the plan for the rest of Luke's gospel.

Jesus is basically saying, it's time.

It's time for me to fulfill what I came to do, to be rejected, to be delivered into the hands of wicked men, to be put to death on the cross, to be laid in a tomb, and to ultimately rise again on the third day.

And all of this is going to take place in and around Jerusalem.

You know, sometimes we'll read a book or see a movie where the hero of the story eventually gets captured or something or has some type of defeat or setback.

And, you know, we see that after the setback, the hero of the story ultimately finally secures victory.

Sounds a lot like the story of Jesus.

Before his ultimate victory, he gets taken and defeated by his enemies.

But there's one major difference between Jesus and those other heroes.

Being captured and beaten and put to death was in his plan.

In those other stories, the hero gets captured and suffers this setback, but that setback wasn't in the plan.

No one plans for defeat, no one plans to lose, no one plans to take on pain and willfully suffer.

No one that is except Jesus.

I titled this sermon, The Unconventional Plan of Christ.

Because when you look at his plan, it is a little unconventional.

It is a bit out of the ordinary.

It's unexpected.

It's not the normal way you would do things.

In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7, we read, In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.

Ephesians 1:7

Paul tells us here in Ephesians that Jesus was set forth as a plan.

In other words, the plan to send Jesus into our world to die for our sins or for the sins of the people who would call his own was not plan B.

It was the plan all along.

You know, sometimes we're tempted to read the Bible like this.

God creates Adam to be his representative here on earth, but Adam disobeys, so God has to come up with this new plan and a new representative.

Finally, he says, you know what?

I'll make a people or I'll call a people and I'll have them be my representative, the nation of Israel, but then they disobey, and then he has to scratch that and come up with another plan, and then he says, you know, I'll just send my son Jesus.

He'll certainly walk in my ways and he'll be obedient.

Let me send him.

In other words, we read the Bible and think God's plan didn't work until he finally sends Jesus.

As if all of those other plans were, or all of those other setbacks weren't in his plans.

As if he came up with plan Jesus at the final hour.

But as we read in Ephesians 1, Jesus was the purpose of his will.

He set forth Jesus as a plan for the fullness of time.

When we read the fullness of time, that's telling us that there was a time, a day, a moment that God had planned to reveal a mystery that was hidden from all eternity.

It was a mystery that he had kept hidden from mankind, but he had a set day in which he was going to reveal his plan.

And that plan was revealed in Jesus Christ.

He wasn't a third option or fourth option.

He was the only option.

He wasn't plan B or C.

He was always plan A.

He was always the true and greater Adam, the obedient son and representative of God to the cosmos.

He would be the one who would unite all things because through his life and his death and his resurrection, he would reconcile the world back to God.

The world which had been estranged to God through its sin would be united to God through the work of Jesus Christ.

Through his work of redemption, he has made it possible for us sinners to be reconciled and united back to our Father.

Adam's sin in the garden was dealt with once and for all on the cross.

If you want to sum up the Bible into one simple phrase, you can simply sum it up this way: Jesus succeeded or Adam failed.

Because both are representatives of mankind.

Adam sinned, Jesus obeyed.

Adam needed to be saved, Jesus saved.

Adam fell short of the glory of God, Jesus reached the glory of God.

So what does all of this have to do with our passage?

Well, all of what I just mentioned, the mystery hidden before all ages, the purpose of God revealed in the fullness of time, the successful plan A of Jesus Christ is all about to be set in motion with this one tiny phrase from our passage this morning.

He set his face to go to Jerusalem.

Because all of that is about to be accomplished in this city.

This unconventional plan of our Savior winning by dying, of our Savior willfully going to a place where he knows he's going to be taken and beaten and put to death is about to get going.

And here he stands, ready, purposeful, and resolved to go forth and do what he came to do, to go to Jerusalem and die.

This phrase, he set his face to go, shows us that he was determined to go.

He didn't cower, he didn't back down.

Instead, he said, Let's go.

It's time to fulfill my plan.

And again, what an unconventional plan it is.

Why not come up with a legion of angels and come and overtake Rome?

Why not overcome the Jewish leaders with his supernatural might and power?

Why not call down fire from heaven like the disciples wanted to do?

Because his ways are not our ways.

His thoughts are not our thoughts.

His plan to redeem and save us from our sins was going to be accomplished by him going to Jerusalem, where he would be taken and slandered and beaten and put to death.

What a plan.

If I could sum up this morning's sermon in one sentence, it would be like this Christ's plan of redemption, accomplished through his purposeful journey to the cross, defies human expectation, and calls for a right response to his grace.

So the question for us this morning is how will we respond to this plan?

How does humanity respond to the plan?

Well, I believe in our passage we we have at least three ways that are shown to us, and that's what I want to point out to you this morning.

How does humanity respond to this unconventional plan of Christ?

Number one, some will partake in it, number two, some will reject it, and number three, some will misunderstand it.

Some will partake in it, some will reject it, some will misunderstand it.

Let's look at that first one.

Some will partake in it.

Let's look again at verse 51 of our passage.

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.

Again, this is the beginning of a shift in Luke's narrative.

From here on out, he's going, he is about to be talking about Jesus' road to Jerusalem where he will be put to death and again resurrected.

As he says, when the days drew near for him to be taken up.

This is a reference to his ascension, when he is taken up back to the Father.

He sets his face to Jerusalem, meaning he is ready and he is determined to go and fulfill the events that will take place there.

What's going to take place there?

His capturing, his sentencing, his death, his resurrection, and ultimately his ascension.

Now, this road to Jerusalem would lead them through Samaria.

They would have to pass through this village to get there.

Scholars will note that this journey through Samaria would have taken about three days.

So obviously they needed lodging along the way.

This is why Jesus sends a couple of messengers into the village to make preparations for him.

Now I'll unpack a little more later, but the Samaritans and Jews, needless to say, weren't friendly to one another.

And it's not just that they didn't get along, they pretty much despised one another.

This wasn't like a cowboy fan not liking an Eagle fan, because I might not like an Eagle fan, but at the end of the day, I'll probably go to lunch with them.

Maybe reluctantly, but I'll probably go.

Now, this was more like, this was more like Israel and Gaza today.

These are two groups of people who've been at odds for generations.

So these messengers that Jesus sent ahead, they knew what they were getting into.

They were Jews, and they knew that it was very unlikely that when they get to this village, they're not going to be received.

This, that there is a possibility that when they go there they will be rejected.

This is possibly the point of Jesus sending them ahead, just to check if it would be okay if they could pass through.

And this is where I want to pause and consider the messengers in this story.

We're not told who they are.

We don't know their names, but we do know that they are faithful to Jesus.

We do know that they followed out his plan.

They knew that Jesus was set upon going to Jerusalem, and they needed to pass through Samaria to get there.

So they go and they do what's necessary for him to go where he needs to go.

They simply followed the Lord's direction.

Did they know everything that was about to happen in Jerusalem?

Probably not.

I mean, Jesus had already mentioned his death twice in this chapter alone, and the disciples didn't even get it.

So it's highly it's it's highly unlikely that these messengers didn't have it all together.

It's also unlikely that they would have known the major theological significance of everything that was going to take place in Jerusalem, but they weren't necessarily concerned about all of that at the moment.

Right now they were worried about doing what their master told them to do.

Their eyes were set on pleasing their Lord.

They knew Jesus had a plan, and they simply wanted to partake in that plan.

They wanted to help in fulfilling it, even though they knew that it was going, it was going to be difficult, that it wasn't going to be easy, and that there was a strong possibility that they were going to be rejected.

You know, throughout the ages, there have always been men and women like these messengers, people who will take part in the plan of God, those who will partake in his work, those who will say, like Isaiah the prophet, Lord, send me.

There's something to learn here from these unknown messengers.

Note their obedience to Christ despite not knowing all the details.

Again, they knew he wanted to go to Jerusalem, but they likely didn't know all that was about to happen there.

If you've ever taken care of a child as a parent or an aunt or an uncle or a teacher, you probably know the frustration of the why.

Go clean your room.

Why?

Go eat your food.

Why?

Don't do that.

Why?

A child wants to know the reason for every instruction.

Why are you telling me to do this?

But these messengers don't seem to be too concerned for the why.

They're just doing what Jesus told them to do.

And you know, sometimes obedience just doesn't make sense in the moment.

There are times when disobedience is what actually makes more sense.

But if we're going to partake and participate in what Jesus is doing in our lives, in our world, in our church, and sometimes we have to say, Lord, I really don't know what you're doing here, but you are commanding me to do it, so I'm gonna do it.

I'm gonna be obedient.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, you know it?

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

You know, this verse seems to present a dichotomy between the Lord's ways, the Lord's ways, and our understanding.

If I am to trust in the Lord, then there are going to be times when I must not lean on my own understanding.

This means that there are going to be times when I don't understand what the Lord is doing.

But I know he's not calling me to understand.

He's calling me to trust.

If I'm going to walk this straight path and not the crooked one, then in all my ways I must acknowledge him.

And how do we do that?

We do that by acknowledging his scripture, by acknowledging his word, by being obedient to what's said in his word, by being led by the Spirit, by submitting our will to his will, and by simply admitting that he knows what he's doing in my life better than I do.

So I'm going to be obedient to his commands.

Even when I want to ask why.

You know, sometimes we can give a child the answer to why.

But we don't because we just want them to obey us.

We want them to learn to trust us and that their obedience is for their good.

If you were to tell a child, don't go play in the street, and they question why, because I said so would be good enough.

Because I'm the parent or the guardian, and I'm telling you not to do this.

But notice what the child doesn't see or get.

He or she doesn't get that playing in the street can be pretty dangerous, and that they could get ran over by a passing car.

So there's a reason I'm telling you not to play in the street.

You might not get it, or you might not understand it, but trust me, it's for your own good.

Our obedience to Jesus often looks like that.

We might not understand why Jesus wants us to forgive someone who did us wrong.

We might want to retaliate.

We might not understand why Jesus in this moment wants me to stay in this difficult marriage when I want to leave.

But again, he's not asking us to understand.

He's not asking us to lean on our own understanding.

He is asking us to trust in him.

He is asking us to acknowledge him in all our ways.

And as we do so, he is fulfilling his plan in us and through us.

Sanctification, that work which sets us apart to be more like Jesus, happens when we obey God's word.

And sanctification, though not the grounds of our salvation, is always a part of our salvation.

Ephesians 2.8.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Our works, which are accomplished through our obedience, are not the means of our salvation, but they always accompany our salvation.

We're not saved by works, but we are separated, as the text says, to do good works.

So when we speak of the plan of Jesus, it's to save people to himself, our obedience is a part of that.

In other words, when we obey Jesus, we are partaking in his grand plan for our lives.

As Ephesians says, this was always the plan.

God prepared this beforehand that we should walk in them, that we should be created in Jesus to walk in good works.

And before we move on, notice the confidence and trust of these messengers.

They must have known that they were being sent into enemy's territory.

But they said, if Jesus is sending us, then it must be okay.

When we make it our goal to trust in whatever God is doing, we're gonna have to have a certain resolve at times.

We're gonna have to make up our minds that along this journey, I'm going to encounter some things that might might make me feel a little afraid and a little uncertain.

But because I believe in God's plan for my life, I'm gonna be obedient.

I'm gonna take part in his plan.

I'm going to do my part by trusting and obeying.

Amen.

Let's look at the next point.

As we think of this plan of God, some will partake in it, but others will reject it.

Look at verse 53.

But the people, the Samaritans, did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

So when the messengers got to Samaria to prepare a place for Jesus, they were faced with probably the expected opposition.

The Samaritans didn't want Jesus and his company to pass through because, as the text tells us, his face was set toward Jerusalem.

Again, the Samaritans held animosity toward the Jews and vice versa.

If you've ever read the book of Kings or Chronicles, you would know that the kingdom of Israel was divided between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom.

This happened after the death of King Solomon.

And from the start, the northern kingdom developed its own worship centers, which the southern kingdom viewed as illegitimate because worship was supposed to be centered where the temple was, in Jerusalem, which was part of the southern kingdom.

And then in 722 BC, Assyria conquers the northern kingdom and brings the people into exile.

Those who remained in the land started to intermarry, which produced a mixed people known as the Samaritans.

Many years later, when the Southern Kingdom returned from their own exile to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, they rejected the Samaritans' help, which forced the Samaritans to establish their own worship center on Mount Gerizim.

And since that time, both the Jews and the Samaritans saw their place of worship as legitimate.

And they saw the other's place as illegitimate.

You remember this in the story of the woman in the well that Jesus met, the Samaritan woman.

Our people worship on this mountain and so forth.

So you see why the Samaritans didn't want to roll out the red carpet for a company of Jews headed toward Jerusalem.

Jews would frequently have to travel to Jerusalem for various feasts, and they were usually forbidden from traveling through Samaria to get there.

Needless to say, the Samaritans wanted no part of Jesus passing through their land.

We're not told all that went on, but this must have been more than the messengers arriving and being told that they're not allowed to come through, because we are also told that James and John saw it.

Whatever it was that they saw, we don't know, but they saw something.

Was it anger?

Was it hostility?

Was it cursings?

We don't know.

But whatever they were doing, they were doing it long enough for Jesus and his disciples to see it when they arrived.

This was some open hostility toward Jesus and his disciples.

This was outright rejection.

They didn't invite him in to hear him out to ask him and inquire what are his plans?

Why are you traveling to Jerusalem?

Instead, they shut him out from the moment they heard he was coming, from the moment they heard he was passing through.

The rejection of Christ is a theme in the Gospels.

He's rejected a room at his birth.

He is rejected in his hometown of Nazareth.

He is rejected in the synagogues.

He is rejected by the chief priests and the scribes.

He's rejected by the Pharisees.

He will soon be rejected by the Jews.

And today he continues to be rejected in the hearts of men.

We don't have to look long and hard to see how much this world rejects Jesus.

There are many places where he is just not welcome.

Marriages have no room for him.

Families have no room for him.

Companies, universities, politics might make room for him if he's convenient, but people live their lives rejecting Christ every day.

And this is why John 3, 19.

And this is the judgment.

The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

People reject the light because light exposes things.

Because when one receives Jesus, who is the light, this is what happens.

Their sins start to get exposed.

What's done in darkness starts to come to light.

And people don't want a light shined on their sins, so they keep the light far away.

Jesus will expose some things in our lives.

He will expose our idols and who we truly live for.

He will expose our addictions and our habits.

He will expose our pride and our vanity.

He will expose our lack of love for our neighbor.

He will expose our laziness and our apathy toward his word.

People will say, if that's what happens when, or if I receive Jesus, I would rather reject him.

I don't want him coming into my life and messing up a good thing.

I mean, I'm living for myself here.

I'm doing my own thing.

I'm not sure if I want Jesus to change any of that.

And look, there are people who have no problem with affirming Jesus publicly or even promoting some of his teachings.

I mean, we see this.

We see this through movie stars when they accept the words, they thank Jesus.

We see this on social media as my friends we know are not serving Jesus, but they're posting, I love Jesus, all over the place.

So people have no problem promoting some of the teachings of Jesus, but they will make no room for him in their heart.

What was the reason the Samaritans rejected Jesus?

Was it just an ethnic thing?

You're not one of us, so we're not letting you pass through.

Now, there was some of that.

But their animosity stemmed from a worship problem.

It wasn't just that Jesus was different than them.

It was that Jesus and his people were a threat to the way they worshiped.

And this is why Jesus is rejected today in the hearts of men.

Not because he teaches to love your neighbor, not because he preaches love and peace.

It's not even because of his sexual ethic.

Marriage is only between a man and a woman.

Because again, people will use those things to advance their own agenda.

The left will use Jesus' love and the right will use his sexual ethic.

That's not where people reject him.

They don't have a Jesus problem as much as they have a worship problem.

Jesus is a threat to who and what and the way they worship.

And I don't mean worship in the sense of music and feelings.

I mean worship in your total allegiance and submission to Jesus, as in Jesus has my heart.

We love to use the language, I invited Jesus in my heart, or Jesus is in my heart.

That's not the question.

The question is, does Jesus rule your heart?

This is where people reject him.

Not by refusing prayer in school or refusing to put the Ten Commandments in the classroom, but by saying, I will worship what I want, when I want, and where I want.

And if Jesus is going to mess that up, I would rather not have him here in my life.

And that's happening every day.

It's happening by people inside the church and outside the church, by people on the left and the right, by the rich, by the poor, by the married, by the single.

Every day, Jesus and his plan of freedom and salvation are being rejected in the hearts of men.

One more thing to look at concerning this plan in our passage.

Some will partake, some will reject, and some will simply just misunderstand.

Look at verse 54.

And when his disciples, James and John, saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

In Mark's gospel, James and John are called the sons of thunder.

Apparently they were a couple of fiery brothers who ran a little hot.

So here they didn't take too kindly to the rejection by the Samaritans.

They asked if they should call down fire from heaven to consume them.

Not only were they a little presumptuous, they were also a little presumptuous.

Remember, a few verses back, they didn't even have the faith to cast out a demon.

But here they assume that they have the faith to bring down fire from heaven.

More than likely, these brothers were thinking of Elijah calling down fire to consume the messengers of Azariah who rejected God in 2 Kings chapter 1.

2 Kings 1 · chapter mention

There, Uzziah, who was the king of Samaria, rejected the Lord and had turned to Beelzebub, the god of Ekron.

So Elijah calls down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans who rejected God.

And here, Jesus and John want to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans who rejected Jesus.

But notice the response from Christ: He rebukes them.

There's not much more that's given to us.

We're not told what else he said or why it was okay to consume the Samaritans in the Old Testament, but not these.

But one thing is for sure, Jesus was showing them grace.

Because if he wanted to, he could have consumed them.

And if we're honest, we probably wouldn't have had a problem with that because that's our way.

We want retaliation for those who do us wrong.

We're a lot like James and John.

But Jesus was not willing to bring down judgment just yet.

G.K.

Beale comments saying that this rebuke points to the arrival of a new era when God will act in a new way.

Not that God changed his character, but he changed the way he was dealing with sinners.

The mission of God was moving outward.

It was moving toward the nations.

As Paul says in Acts 17, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

God is not changing his attitude towards sin, but in Jesus he is offering grace to the sinner.

John 3 17.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Now there will come a day when the unrepentant sinner and those who reject Jesus will be condemned, and they will hear, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, you rejected me, now I'm rejecting you.

But that time is not yet.

If you are living and breathing this day, you have a chance to believe and trust in the name of Jesus to receive his free offer of salvation.

James and John couldn't understand this grace.

And the truth is, few of us can.

It's hard for us to understand why Jesus would show grace and mercy to sinners.

It's hard for us to believe that his plan was to live and die in the place of the guilty.

Romans 5, 7.

For one were scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The gospel.

The good news that Jesus died to save sinners from hell just doesn't make sense to us.

You know what does make sense to us?

Earning heaven.

Doing enough good to earn our way into it.

As Tim Keller says, we are wired for legalism.

In other words, legalism, doing good to earn something from Jesus, that makes more sense to us.

Grace doesn't.

This might be the reason why Jesus rebukes James and John.

Not just because they were being vindictive, but also to warn them.

James and John, you need to be careful here.

Because if sin merited fire to come down from heaven, then you would be consumed along with the Samaritans.

You think that you're guilty for, or they're guilty for rejecting me in their own town.

James and John, how many times have you rejected me in your own heart?

How many times have you failed to be obedient to my plan?

How many times have you rejected my way in favor of your own?

They might not have welcomed me in their village, but there have been times where I haven't been welcomed in your life.

This was a good rebuke for the sons of thunder.

As the proverb says, better is an open rebuke than a hidden love.

They needed to be taught this lesson, and so do we.

We need to be reminded how much we are like these Samaritans who said no to Jesus.

As we close, what is our attitude toward this plan of Christ?

What is our response to his grace?

Where do we find ourselves in this story?

Are we like these messengers believing and trusting in the plan of God, willing to obey, though it might be costly, willing to partake in whatever Jesus might have for us?

Or are we like these Samaritans who reject Jesus, who have no time for him, who want no part of him coming into our lives and changing things, who don't want him exposing who and what we worship?

Are we afraid of him exposing or even destroying our idols?

Or are we like James and John?

Do we misunderstand his grace?

Do we presume on it?

Do we take it for granted?

As 2 Peter 3:9 says, the Lord is not slow in fulfilling his promises, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all reach repentance.

2 Peter 3:9

Look, there will come a day when fire falls from heaven.

Look what it says in Revelation 20, verse 9.

Revelation 20:9

Speaking of the deceived nations, it says, And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.

But fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Yes, salvation is his plan, but so is judgment.

And the question for sinners is which plan are we a part of?

If you're a believer, get on board.

If you're a Christian, get aligned with the plan that he has for the nations.

Don't despise sinners.

Don't be like these two brothers.

Don't despise sinners.

Love them.

Love them enough to tell them about the grace that you have received.

Be about the mission that he is about.

His heart is for the nation.

The question is, is ours?

And lastly, don't misunderstand the wonderful plan that he has for your life.

I'm not speaking about health or wealth or success, but his plan for you to live and die for his glory.

That is the wonderful plan that he has for you.

Serve him with gladness.

Love him with all of your heart, soul, and mind.

Embrace and own the gospel in your life.

Walk as the scripture says and step with it.

Say to Jesus, Lord, here I am.

I'm submitting my life to your plan for me.

And I know that others around me see this as strange, and some might call it unconventional, but I believe in you and I trust in you.

Here I am, Lord.

Sign me up.

Let us pray.