Luke 9:37-50 | From the Mountain to the Valley

Morning

this morning

starting verse

31.

Behold, the spirit sees him and he

suddenly prays. They propos

him and will hardly leave him. And I be

your disciples to cast it out, but they

could not. Jesus answered, "Oh,

faithless and twisted generation."

While he was coming, the demon threw him

to the ground. Jesus

and gather

and all were astonished with the majesty

of God.

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,

but they did not understand the

concealed

as to which of them was the greatest.

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 the least

among you

all is the one who is great."

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. Jesus said to him, "Do

not stop him. For the one who is not

against you is for you.

Good morning.

Hope everybody's keeping well.

Um, what a minefield of a few chapters

we have this morning or a few the chap

or the verses we have this morning. When

I first read this, I was like, what is

going on here? There's a lot going on in

these passages, isn't there?

So, can you remember last week when

Kevin spoke about the transfiguration?

We heard about God's glory.

We heard about God's glory being seen on

the mountaintop.

We heard that God's voice was heard on

the mountaintop.

Kevin reminded us that the

transfiguration was all about seeing and

hearing.

Well, this morning I'd like to talk

about understanding

and how understanding is connected to

our hearts

and how this is the reason why the

apostles or the disciples didn't

understand and this is a reason why

sometimes we don't understand.

So Kevin said that he took us a trek up

the mountain. So we're coming down the

mountain and we're going back into the

valley. Have you ever noticed mountain

tops always glorify God? You got the

covenants giving the mountain tops. You

got this happening in the mountain top.

But we all live in a valley. We live

down in the valley.

I looked at Mark's and Matthews of

accounting this as well because you had

to tie in the whole accounts and that

actually was mind that was uh very

interesting what they had to say as well

about the account.

So Jesus and his disciples are coming

down a mountain.

They go straight into a hellish,

fateless, selfishness scene with people

arguing amongst each other.

Remember when Kevin told us last week

about Peter? Peter saw it saw what was

happening in the in the transfiguration

and he wanted to build tents.

When I was reading this, I wondered, did

Peter just step off the mountain after

witnessed what he witnessed and said,

"Man, I knew he should have stayed in

the tents." Because that's what I'd be

thinking after what I heard, what I seen

in the mountain. You're coming down into

the valley and you you're you're you're

in front of you what you're witnessing

and I'd be saying to myself, "Would have

stayed in the tent in the mountain."

So, can you imagine experiencing this

and what you're going to walk straight

into?

I just want to remind you as well that

we need a balance when it comes to

mountaintop experiences.

We need mountaintop experiences to keep

our faith going. Gives us encouragement.

But we need to minister God's word in

the valley.

Do you want to know what mountaintop

experiences look like in the valley?

When we worship on a Sunday,

it's a mountaintop experiences. God's

greatness is seen. God's greatness is

heard. When we pray, we have a

mountaintop experience.

But we must not stay on the mountaintop.

We need the come down off the

mountaintop experiences and we must

evangelize in the valley.

So let's have a look of what they walked

down to and the scene when they stepped

off the mountain and went into the

valley versus 37 to 40.

The next day when they came down from

the mountaintop a large crowd met him.

A man,

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 forms at the mouth. It

scarcely ever leaves him.

and he is destroying him.

I begged your disciples to drive her out

but they could not. That is the scene

that Jesus and the three disciples

walked into.

It reminds us of what Psalms the Psalms

speaks in Psalm 23 verse4 the valley of

shadow of death.

So did you notice mountain tops again

are always about God's graces and God's

glory

and here is Jesus a desperate man

approaches him

begging him

to stop his only son

from being destroyed by a demon.

In Matthew's account, he says the man

was on his knees.

Can you see this? Can you picture this

desperation of the man?

But did you also notice that the man

said he begged his disciples to cast it

out, but they could not.

He must have went to every one of the

disciples to cast a demon out for his

son. He must have went

to one of them. He tried, couldn't do

it. Can you imagine this? The crowd

looking at this and said, "I thought

these were the disciples of Jesus and

they can't even cast out a demon."

Why couldn't they?

Why couldn't they cast out the demon?

They got the 13 verses in in chapter 9

verse one.

Do you remember verse verse one in

chapter 9? When Jesus called the 12

together, he gave them power and

authority to drive out all demons and

cure diseases.

So why couldn't they cast out this

demon?

Mark tells us why.

In Mark 9:28,

Mark 9:28

after Jesus had gone indoors, his

disciples asked him privately, why

couldn't we drive her out? Do you know

what the answer was?

He replied, "This kind comes out only by

prayer."

Only by prayer. The disciples didn't

even pray.

Jesus is gone for the small amount of

time and they stop praying.

They get caught up arguing with crowds

and they forget the simplest thing as

prayer.

How many times have we felt distant to

God? How many times have you felt

distant to God? I don't know about you,

but I know the first time I feel

distance to God, do you know what goes

the first thing to go? Prayer. It's the

first thing to go in my life is prayer.

Prayer aligns us with God.

And all we do is because of him. When we

don't pray, our alignment is out

and we can feel it.

And you know what'll keep happening if

we keep on not praying?

We become weak in our faith.

Can you imagine what Jesus must have

been thinking thinking when he saw this?

Listen to his response. Verse 41.

You unbelieving and perverse generation.

Jesus replied, "How long shall I stay

with you and put up with your and put up

with you?" [clears throat] That's some

response, isn't it? You un perverse

generation.

Who do you think Jesus is thinking to

talking to here?

Who do you think G Jesus is speaking to?

Based on what the father or the boy just

told Jesus

and looking at the verses to come, I

think Jesus is talking to the disciples

firstly,

but he's also talking to the crowd.

It might look first that Jesus is angry.

Jesus is not angry. Jesus is frustrated.

He is frustrated of the disciples lack

of faith.

After everything he has done, they still

lack faith.

They're still are only looking for him

to fulfill their own needs.

Jesus is not saying that he wants to

leave them because he's angry. It's

because he's frustrated.

So, I just like to say at this point,

Jesus will never be frustrated with us.

It's I'm not saying that Jesus wants to

leave us. He doesn't. He doesn't want to

leave us. Jesus will never be frustrated

in our need of him.

He will never leave us in our need of

him while we suffer. He is right there

in our suffering.

He will never get sick of us calling out

to him.

But he is frustrated.

He is frustrated

because unbelief.

The word here

perverse

it means twisted.

He is frustrated by their twisted faith,

their hardened hearts.

and they can't see beyond themselves.

That's why he's frustrated.

So, we seen Jesus divinity in the top of

the mountain last week.

In this verse, we see Jesus humanity.

Some human, it's a human response, isn't

it? Frustration.

But we must know that Jesus, even in

Jesus' humanity,

he still shows his divinity.

Jesus says in the end of that verse,

"Bring your son here."

Jesus still wants to help people even

when he's frustrated.

Now, before we look at verse 42, I just

like to say something quickly.

Just want to highlight something at this

point because it's important.

The devil hates you.

The devil hates anyone who comes to

Christ. The devil hates anyone who's

thinking about coming to Christ.

When you're thinking about coming to

Christ, do you know what the devil does?

He will throw anything at you to stop

you coming. Anything he has, any

footholds he's given, he will throw them

to stop you from coming.

Do you want to hear a few things he

threw at me? He threw my past at me. He

will throw everything.

He told me I wasn't good enough.

I don't deserve God's grace.

He will never forgive me. I'm too

sinful.

I'm beyond forgiveness. I've called out

so many times and at times he must be

sick of me. He will never surely forgive

a sinner like me. There's some pride not

in there. [laughter] I'm so sinful. I

can't be forgiven.

But you know what he doesn't tell you?

He doesn't tell you that the devil is a

liar and a thief.

The devil doesn't tell you that.

Jesus has come for the least and the

lost. He didn't tell you that.

And everyone will fall short to the

glory of God. The devil will never tell

you that.

So what did the devil do to this boy

when he was just about to come to Jesus?

His final attempt to stop him.

Look at verses 42.

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.

Wow,

that verse ended with a beautiful

phrase, didn't it?

He gave him back to his father.

He restored a father and son's

relationship.

The father receives his son holy.

Jesus does the exactly does exactly the

same thing to us when we come to him.

He brings us back to our father. He

mends the relationship to our father

so that one day we may come

face to face and look at God's face.

That's what Jesus does to us as well. He

mends a rel a broken relationship with

our father.

Look at verses 43. And they were all

amazed at the greatness of God.

While everyone was marveling at all the

things 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.

Do you notice up in the transfiguration

they saw God's glory?

They saw God's greatness.

James, John, and Peter

saw God's

greatness.

And did you notice here in verses 43

that Luke uses the word God when he sees

and they were all amazed by the

greatness of God. What is going on here?

Jesus is showing them a small bit of the

transfiguration that was on the

mountain. He's showing the rest of the

nine disciples the greatness of God that

they didn't see in the mountain. That's

what's going on here.

But notice as well when everybody was

marveling about all this that was

happening, Jesus took him off the

mountain. He put them back straight into

the valley. He stopped them from going

up into the mountain because he didn't

want to get too ahead of themselves. So

he brought them back down. He humbled

them

and he said, "Put these words

into your ears." Listen.

Listen.

I love the ESV version. They put it

like, "Let these words sink in your ear.

Jam them into your ears.

Leave them sink."

Do you ever notice in scriptures the

eyes, ears, and the heart are always

attached? We see, we hear, and then we

understand.

But what happens when we harden our

heart? We have no filter.

We can see, we can hear, but we don't

understand.

Have you ever heard the term,

"My [clears throat] head is mad. Crazy

head. Can't stop thinking." I heard it a

few times. [laughter]

[gasps]

But it's like when your head when you

can't get out of your own head, it's

because the heart is hardened.

So it's you're thinking, it's going down

to the heart.

The heart is hardened. There's no

filter. It can't come out. So it goes

shooting back up to the head again.

Happens to me with resentment. The

second I get resentment, my heart

hardens towards the person.

And I'm walking around the place for

days with this guy in my head. Can't get

him out. I start praying and I start

reading scripture. My heart hard. My

heart softens and it's gone.

It's like why didn't I do that faster?

So when we harden our hearts, it's very

hard for our head to go down into our

hearts and come out. So we can hear, we

can see, but we don't understand. But

what Jesus is saying is like just put

them into your ears and leave it sink in

because one of these days you will

understand, but right now your heart is

hardened. You won't understand.

Also notice here that it's Jesus' second

time

that he predicts his death.

The first time Peter, James, and John

were only there. But this time, all the

disciples were there. Even Judas.

[clears throat] Judas was there this

time when Jesus predicted his own death.

But they did not understand what he was

saying. It was hidden from them. So they

could not grasp it.

And they were afraid to ask him.

Have anybody got such afraid was in such

afraid he just didn't want to ask

questions?

I did once.

Once I can remember I normally get

afraid and with fear I just don't want

to ask the questions. But this kind of

thing that happened to me was with my

dad. My dad was diagnosed with cancer

five years ago.

We were inside the room and the doctor

came in and they said, "Ted, you've got

cancer. We can't do nothing for you."

I looked at my dad and my dad looked at

me. And you know what? We couldn't think

of one question to ask the doctor. The

doctor said, "Have you got any

questions?" We looked at each other. We

had none.

We had a lot of questions afterwards

when it sunk in, but at that moment, we

didn't have one question to ask him. Do

you know why? Cuz we didn't want to hear

it. We didn't want to face up to the

reality of what was about to happen to

my dad. We didn't want to face up to the

reality that my dad was going to die. We

just shut down and we asked no

questions.

And that's what's going on here with the

apostles.

The apostles don't want to hear him

talking about his death. The apostles

doesn't want to hear about him

leaving.

And what fear does, fear keeps us

silent, doesn't it?

Especially when we don't know something

and we're afraid to ask.

But this can turn into pride very fast.

We become prideful to ask.

But the apostles had no interested was

not interested and had no interested in

the crucified suffering Christ. They

didn't want them. All they wanted was

the all powerful Jesus. They didn't want

them to be crucified. They didn't want

them to suffer that they didn't realize

without the s without the suffering or

the crucified Christ there is no

salvation. They were only interested in

what he can do for them.

In some churches in Ireland,

especially Irish culture churches,

they only have the crucified and

suffering Christ that never comes off

the cross. He's up there. He didn't come

off. And they're not interested in all

the all risen powerful Jesus. They're

happy with the crucified and surface

suffering Christ.

Sound familiar? the upside down kingdom.

But can I ask you something?

When you call yourselves Christians,

do you call yourself Christians when

everything is going fine? But as soon as

something happens, you tend to take the

foot off the accelerator a bit.

You don't want to suffer. Who wants to

suffer? So as soon as suffering comes

along,

you're half out.

Jesus isn't looking for supporters,

lads. Jesus is looking for followers.

Jesus is looking for followers when

times are hard and when times are

suffering because we are going to

suffer. We're living in this world.

We're living in the valley of death.

There is going to be suffering. Jesus is

not interested in supporters. He's he's

interested in followers. We must follow

Jesus.

This is brilliant. [laughter]

Have a look at the disciples

uh hearts in verse 46.

An argument started amongst them

among the disciples as which of them

would be the greatest. They argued.

They just blanked out everything that

Jesus has said and they start arguing

between themselves which one of us is

the greatest.

They were obsessed with themselves.

All they were thinking about was like,

can you imagine James, John, and Peter

at this at this argument? We were just

up in a transfiguration. We seen God. Do

you know? And and the lads are looking

around like and they couldn't say

nothing because Jesus told them not to

say nothing. But they were thinking

that. They would think I'd be thinking

that if I was in that conversation, you

think you're so smart. I just saw God up

in the mountain. I can't tell you. You

know, so so there was an argument that

broke out. Which one of them is the

greatest? That's crazy.

Aren't we a bit like that?

What happens when we first come to

Christ? We're broken.

We cry out desperately for him to come

in and take us out of a life that's

leading us to hell.

But there will be come a time and there

is a there always a time

when we get a bit confident in our

faith.

We feel a bit good

and all of a sudden we start looking

down on people.

I am the greatest. Reminds me of cats

and dogs. Do you ever pet a dog? A dog

would look at you and he said, "This guy

must be God. He's petting me." A cat

would look at you and say, "I must be

God. He's petting me.

We start off our life like dogs and we

end up like cats.

We think we are the greatest. We're all

guilty of it. I'm guilty of it. It's

like a spiritual snobbery that nobody

speaks about. But our hearts

our hearts are made up with every single

kind

of deceitful jealousy type.

We start comparing ourselves to people

especially when it comes to church

people or believers or fellow our fellow

church. We can we can compare ourselves

to him.

So the disciples here are thinking

following God is like a political

stance. They're looking at us and who's

the greatest? Where am I in this

political stance? Because they're used

to political stances in Jerusalem. So

they think when you follow God, you're

in this kind of level of you're all

right. You're getting there and then

you're from Cork. It's like the top one.

But Jesus exactly knows their hearts.

Look at verses 47.

Jesus knowing the thoughts thoughts took

a little child and had him stand beside

him.

Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes

this little child in my name welcomes

me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the

one who sent me. For it is the one who

is least among you,

all who is the greatest."

Strange response, it just gets a child,

puts him next to him, says, "Have a look

at this child. Whoever is like this

child

is the greatest.

Doesn't make sense. Why? Why? Why would

he put a child there?

Jesus is humbling him.

Jesus is saying you think you're great,

but your greatness

is determined on how you treat the

weakness around you. That's what he's

saying.

In Jerusalem, a child was counted as

pointless.

They're pointless.

They're worthless. And they were

considered a waste of time to sit down

to talk to, especially when it came to

theological things. They were useless in

that time.

Romans 12:3

Romans 12:3

reminds us, "For by the grace given me,

I say to everyone of you, do not think

of yourself more highly than you ought."

[clears throat]

When you look at a child, they have no

interest in status, do they?

Jesus is saying true greatness is seen

in the love and care for the little

ones,

for these helpless people, for those who

the world just passes by.

True greatness of people who humble

themselves to associate with believers,

to associate themselves with unbelievers

who are unimportant

and insignificant and sometimes even

despised by society.

We are commanded to go and make

disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 23:19. Not just the people who

Matthew 23:19

are comfortable with

but everyone even the people that make

us feel uncomfortable.

And you know everyone here today

everyone here today is equipped to do so

because we have the gospel of Jesus

Christ.

And again the disciples didn't

understand what Jesus was saying

because straight away this is

fantastically straight straight away in

verses for verse 49 what does John say?

Master said John

we saw someone driving out demons in

your name and we tried to stop him

because he was not one of us.

Do not stop him. Jesus said, "For

whoever is not against you is for you."

Everything that Jesus said,

you can see John standing there. He puts

his hand up. Master, I've just seen a

guy casting out demons of your name.

He's not a part of us. Who does he think

he is? He just does exactly what Jesus

said not to do. He didn't get it either.

John here is after going into a

spiritual jealousy. He's jealous.

Instead of celebrating what he just

seen, he's thinking, "Who does this fell

think he is? He's not one of us.

He's not a part of us."

He thinks he's the only one that has the

power to Jesus.

He starts seeing other people doing what

they're doing and he gets jealous.

John sounds like a bad guy, don't he?

But you know what? Do you have spiritual

jealousy in your heart? Cuz I have to

examine my heart all the time for

spiritual jealousy cuz it is lethal.

And if you do have spiritual jealousy in

your heart, repent of it straight away

because it will destroy you.

Especially when it happens to fellow

believers.

We can see other people grow in their

faith

and think, who do they think they are?

Which soon follows with these words,

what about me?

What about me? Me?

Look, Irish people.

What culture is into this style of

thinking? But the more I meet other

cultures, I realize like, no, it's not

just the Irish people. I think everybody

has it. Right to from Cork and then the

Irish. But I think everybody has that

thing inside them. We see people have

things.

Irish people don't want to work to get

the things. They just want them.

I want what he has. You know, I work 40

hours in the No way am I doing. I just

want it. We want things without doing

work. So any opportunity that we come,

we reject it. I don't want to do

anything for it. I just want to give it

to me. Spiritual jealousy.

Brothers and sisters,

we must try to stay away from spiritual

jealousy

when it comes because it will separate

us from each other and it is used by the

devil himself.

We can look out into other churches and

think, who do they think they are?

We can easily fall into the trap and

think we are the only gospel church in

Cork.

There is no church in this world more

greater than God's kingdom. None.

But we must be against churches that are

not grounded in scripture.

But it is not. But it is the truth of

Jesus

that will stop these churches, not us.

So we must keep walking in our faith

together

and not get into arguments

with other churches

or with fellow believers.

We must pick up our cross and walk daily

in our suffering

with Christ and his people

until one day we hear these words.

Welcome, good and faithful

servant.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

unmeasurable grace. We thank you for

your spirit and we thank you for

everything

you have given us. We pray, Lord, that

when we go home, we'll be able to open

our hearts to the people around us,

Lord. We'll be able to think of people

instead of ourselves. We repent of all

selfishness inside our hearts. And we

ask for the strength to re redirect our

hearts to you and to the cross of Jesus

Christ

in Jesus name. Amen.