When Disciples Just Don't Get It - Luke 9:37-50

The disciples at this point in Luke chapter 9 and in Luke chapter 8 have seen evidences of who Jesus is.

Luke 9 · chapter mention Luke 8 · chapter mention

Peter has actually spoken to say that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah to come to save Israel.

But we're going to see this morning that while their minds might be right, their mind is disconnected from their heart.

And the way they argue amongst one another, and the way that they argue against those who seem to not be on their team but are working for the Lord.

That's what we're going to look at this morning.

In verses 18 through 27 in Luke chapter 9, we saw Jesus reveal his plan to suffer and the call of every disciple who would follow after Jesus, their call to suffer as well, to deny themselves, to take up their cross daily and follow after Jesus.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

And then in verses 28 through 36, we saw Jesus revealing his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Peter, James, and John all together got to see the glorious Son of God and the hope of all those who would follow after him.

Again, not without suffering, because as Jesus said, Peter, you can't stay here now.

We're going to go back down the mountain.

Well, this morning we're going to see how much formation and misunderstanding the disciples still have.

And I want us to be careful.

We're going to look at four misunderstandings of the disciples, four things they just don't yet get, four failures of the disciples, and we don't want to stand back and say, well, they're just dumb.

There's a few reasons why, and we'll get to that toward the end, but we want to be careful that we don't overestimate ourselves to make the right decisions in every moment, because if we know ourselves very well and we're honest with ourselves before the Lord, we know we still struggle with sin.

We still are often led away from the God that we love.

We're also in a part of salvation history, redemptive history, where the Holy Spirit has not indwelt the disciples, and so there are some misunderstandings.

We know that the Holy Spirit will dwell within the disciples and all believers in the beginning of the book of Acts, Holy Spirit, who will lead the disciples and all believers to the truth, convict them regarding sin, and help teach them regarding righteousness.

So we don't want to look back like we would at Adam and Eve and say, I'd never do that.

Well, certainly we sure might.

But we do want to examine these four failures of the disciples, where they heard the truth, but their hearts were still disconnected from what they heard.

Okay?

Four things.

You have notes with you that you probably received as you walked in.

Number one, the disciples don't yet understand ministry.

The disciples encounter Jesus' power, yet they trust themselves.

Let's walk through it together.

Verse 37.

On the next day, when the disciples had come down from the mountain, that's Peter, James, and John, a great crowd met Jesus.

And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.

And behold, the spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out.

It convulses him so that he foams the mouth, it shatters him, and it will hardly leave him.

And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.

Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?

Bring your son here.

While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.

And all were astonished at the majesty of God.

Jesus, in the beginning of our text today, comes down from the mountain of glory, down in the valley where there is suffering, demonic oppression, and unbelief.

Last week we looked at the Mount of Transfiguration and how it almost parallels, in a sense, Moses and his experience on the mountain receiving the word of God.

Remember the story?

In Exodus, Moses ascends the mountain and he goes kind of into the glorious cloud where he receives on stone the words of God.

Well, now the disciples on a mountain, encircled by the glory of God like a cloud, receive the very Word of God revealed to them, the Son of God, who is the Word of God.

Well, even more now, we have almost another parallel.

You know the story.

In Exodus, Moses descends from the mountain, and there he finds Israel in idolatry and misdirected or misapplied worship, faithless Israel.

And now Jesus descends the mountain, and what does he find?

A faithless and twisted generation, he says.

In one sense, I think we are to see the fact that this is the story of the gospel kind of almost in like a microcaustic way, like a in a brief way.

Jesus, who was with his father in glory forever, second person of the triune Godhead, condescended to come to sinful man, so that those who had turned their back against God and did not enjoy all the things that he had given them, but instead sinned against him, defying his order and disobeying his commands.

Well, they're the very people that Jesus came for.

Who Jesus came for?

Jesus, who comes from the glories of heaven to serve and save sinners by suffering at the hands of sinners who are enjoying everything he's given them, but in a distorted way.

Look at verse 40 with me.

The man says to Jesus, I begged your disciples to cast out the demon within my only son, but they could not.

And there's a big question that comes here.

Why could the disciples not cast out the demon?

Because if you remember, in verse 1 of chapter 9, they were given the authority to do so, at least for a time.

So what's going wrong here?

It's not as if they had not done it before or like they hadn't like learned it yet in their ministry.

So what's the reason?

Well, the reason is simply this: the ability Jesus had previously given them did not give them a sort of independent power that they could wield at will.

Jesus didn't give them a supernatural superpower that was now theirs to have.

The authority the disciples had and would have is and was always derivative of Jesus' authority and power.

The disciples were completely dependent on Jesus' plan to send them and the power he would authorize them to have.

Disciples do not have an independent ministry.

They do not have an independent ministry.

And they should have never believed they did.

Think of Matthew, the same account.

Matthew chapter 17, the same story.

Matthew 17 · chapter mention

The disciples ask, why couldn't we cast that out?

And Jesus says, because of your little faith.

Mark's account, same story, emphasize their lack of dependence upon him.

This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.

So Matthew says faith, and Mark says dependence.

Those, however, are not competing explanations.

Faith and dependence are expressions, faith and prayer are expressions both of dependence upon the Lord.

And what do we say?

Disciples do not have an independent ministry.

So the problem wasn't like the disciples needed a better exorcism technique.

It's not the problem.

What is the problem?

Well, the disciples apparently began functioning as though the authority they received from Jesus could be exercised independently of Jesus.

The disciples began treating the power Jesus gave them like something they possessed rather than someone they depended on.

Listen, Jesus gave them authority.

He did not give them autonomy.

And we know that.

The book of Acts, Acts chapter 1, Jesus tells the disciples that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the ends of the earth.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

But what does he tell them?

Wait here in Jerusalem, do not go with the story of what I have accomplished until I send my spirit, who will empower you to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria into the ends of the earth.

You can't do this without me.

Beware thinking you can.

It will not be accomplished without my help, without my spirit.

Disciples do not have an independent ministry.

And therefore, you, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, do not have an independent ministry.

Everything that you do for the Lord, you must need the Lord.

Everything.

To have any sort of lasting spiritual, eternal impact, you do not have the authority or power apart from the Lord to accomplish these things.

You cannot.

You can have ministry experience, you can have years and years of seminary, you can have a title or a position in a local church, you can have great spiritual gifts, but still find yourself completely ineffective in ministry when you begin relying on what God has given you rather than God Himself.

Ministry in our own power is spiritually powerless.

It will have no lasting effect.

You can imagine some saying something like, I know how this works.

Dangerous.

Dangerous.

We should not overestimate ourselves and underestimate our need for Jesus at every moment of our day.

For the mercy he provides and the ministry he empowers, for lasting effect in our life and lasting ministry in the world.

God's first and most important calling in your life and in my life was to himself.

So we should not think or believe that any subsequent, any subsequent substantial ministry can be accomplished apart from him.

So when Jesus says, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?

quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 32, one scholar says, Jesus is rebuking the unbelief of the generation around him.

Deuteronomy 32 · chapter mention

But the disciples stand at the center of the moment because they, more than anyone else, should have learned by now to depend on him.

It's essentially as if Jesus is saying, after everything you've seen, how long will this unbelief persist?

There's almost a sense of, how much longer do I need to be physically present with you before you learn to trust me?

The disciples are learning from Jesus.

They're disciples, they're learners, they're learning from Jesus how to continue carrying his mission forward as after he ascends to his father.

But when he is apart from them for just a moment, his disciples seem to like collapse.

Now Jesus steps in, and notice what happens.

The demon that can convulse the boy is immediately controlled by Jesus.

Immediately.

Demons are terrified of him.

The demon that's powerful when compared to the disciples is absolutely powerful when compared to Christ.

The demon's terrifying when measured against the disciples, but is terrified and helpless when measured against Christ.

You know, sometimes uh we read stories like this, and we think, I need stronger faith so that I can become more powerful.

And we misunderstand the point.

And what is the point?

No, you need Jesus.

Not of any lasting effect.

No, you no, you need Jesus.

I need Jesus for life and ministry today.

I need Jesus for life and ministry tomorrow.

And all my days, I need Jesus.

Luke concludes, and all were astonished at the majesty of God.

Jesus exercises authority, people are astonished at God's majesty, God receives the glory.

And then number two, the disciples don't yet understand the cross.

Multiple times Jesus says that he's headed to a cross.

He said that earlier in chapter 9.

He said the Son of Man must suffer and die.

He puts, of course, in that passage Daniel 7, the prophecy of his Son of Man, who will receive all glory, honor, and dominion.

To him will be given the nations, with Isaiah chapter 53, the suffering servant.

Isaiah 53 · chapter mention

He puts that together for them.

This is two prophecies and one man.

Son of man must die, be delivered, and then raised on the third day.

And then, of course, Moses and Elijah are talking with Jesus on the mountain of transfiguration, and they're discussing, of course, the cross that's yet to come.

And Jesus says they still don't understand.

You read it, verse 43, but while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, that is, of course, removing the demon from the boy, Jesus said to his disciples, now this is important to notice, while everyone is amazed at the power of God, Jesus looks at his disciples and says, But don't forget the cross.

Don't forget the cross.

He looks at his disciples.

Let these words sink into your ears.

The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.

Again, Jesus' words about what this Messiah is going to experience, it seems to contradict what they expected.

They expected a rider on a horse to come and deliver them from the bondage of Rome and Roman power.

And here he again says the Son of Man must die, must be delivered up, must suffer.

Come close.

The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.

Jesus does not want his ministry defined merely by the miracles he performs.

He does not want that.

Jesus didn't come to dispel demons by his life.

Merely, Jesus came to destroy them by his death totally.

Jesus didn't come to give people longer or easier lives, temporarily free from the effects of the fall.

Jesus came to give eternal life, reversing all effects of the fall.

Jesus didn't come so people could see him exercise the power of heaven.

Jesus came so that people might be saved, that they might be present with him in heaven.

So miracles are not the main point.

Miracles serve two purposes.

They are great.

They should be marveled at.

Miracles serve two purposes in Jesus' ministry.

You know this.

Number one, they confirm Jesus is who he says he is.

Miracles serve to confirm he's God in the flesh.

Confirm.

Confirmation.

The second thing, miracles accomplish.

Miracles serve the purpose of confirming Jesus as God in the flesh, and then miracles give confidence in the lives of those who follow after Jesus, that everything that has gone wrong in the fall will be made right, and there's no contest, there's no struggle for power.

Jesus can rid all wrongs.

He can make everything new.

He can wipe away the stain of sin, sickness, sorrow, and strife syndromes, tears and what caused them, aging, anger, depression, loneliness, apathy.

And replace it with joy in his presence.

Miracles are not the primary mission of the Messiah.

What he has come to accomplish, and I use the word accomplish because that's what he Luke writes that he came to accomplish these things.

He came to accomplish substitution.

He came to pay the penalty in the place of sinners who sinned against his father.

He came to take upon himself the right and just wrath of God, so that those who draw near him in faith would not experience the punishment of God, but rather the pleasure of God and warm reception of God to enjoy him forever.

If a miracle is the point, it's the miracle that the God who created us would give his life.

To save people who use their lives to defy him and disobey him.

Verse 45, but they didn't understand the saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it.

And yet they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

So they they couldn't see past the miracles to yet understand the mission.

I mean, they could see pain and suffering, and what Jesus, of course, did to eliminate that, at least temporarily.

But less clearly they could see the sin they needed to be saved from and the great high cost in order for it to be dealt with.

There is a mysterious divine element to their lack of understanding.

It says that the text says it was concealed from them.

So Luke tells us what's going on is not merely an intellectual problem.

There's something about the cross they just can't yet comprehend and don't yet want to confront.

God is progressively revealing his plan, not only in their minds just to hear it, but in their heart to understand it.

They don't yet understand how the cross does not contradict Jesus' authority.

They don't understand that yet.

They've not been able to totally reconcile that the cross is in fact the means by which Jesus will accomplish his saving mission on the earth.

They don't totally get it yet.

The crowd is marveling at what Jesus can do, and then Jesus turns to his disciples and says, Okay, here's what I came to do.

I still don't totally get it yet.

If your understanding of Jesus has room for his power, but but no room for his cross, you still don't understand Jesus.

And if your understanding of Jesus is wrong, most certainly your understanding of what it means to follow after him is also wrong.

For the one who came to die tells us to die daily.

The one who came to sacrifice himself tells us that worship is giving ourselves like living sacrifices.

The one who came to serve sinners is the one who calls us to serve sinners.

If you follow Jesus for power, but not for him, and not with a cross on your back, you'll misunderstand his ministry just like the disciples in this moment.

Again.

Number three they don't yet understand humility.

Humility.

Jesus teaches humility.

They compete for who's better.

An argument arose among them, verse 46, as to which of them is the greatest.

Now, the irony here, irony here, is almost comical and sad.

Jesus has just said, I am going to be delivered into the hands of men.

And the conversation amongst the disciples is, okay, well, yeah, but but which one of us is the greatest?

And you kind of begin to understand, I understand why Jesus is frustrated.

Verse 47, Luke says, Jesus knows the reasoning of their heart.

So Jesus is identifying a heart problem, and it's their desire to be known.

It's not the desire.

They do not have the desire to know Jesus deeper.

Understand what he means.

Their desire, as it's revealed, is to be known.

And not by Jesus, but by the world.

Who's going to be the greatest?

Fame.

Status.

Eyes.

So he takes a child.

Jesus does, he puts him by his side.

And he said to them, Whoever receives this child receives me, and whoever receives me receives my father who sent me.

For he who is least among you, among you all, is the one who is great.

Now we want to be careful not to hear the word child and immediately think sweet and innocent and cute.

And children are sweet and innocent and cute.

That's not the point of this passage.

Children, of course, in ancient society had no status and no power to give you any sort of great influence.

They didn't have influence in the culture, and so they couldn't really offer you anything.

So if you give your attention to them, you're not getting anything back.

Does that make sense?

Right?

If you spend time with them, it's time you could spend making your name great, getting to know people greater than you, advancing social status, earning money.

So what's Jesus' point?

Well, it's not about becoming innocent like a child here.

Jesus says, whoever receives this child receives me.

So greatness according to Jesus is revealed, and how you treat people who can offer you nothing.

How you treat people who can't make you look important or advance your status.

And that's sure interesting, right?

Because he just talked about what he came to do.

And what did Jesus come to do?

He came not only to serve, but to die for people who could offer him what?

Nothing.

Who could give him nothing in return?

It wasn't to advance his own status.

He didn't come riding a horse to advance military victory and show everyone how strong he was.

Jesus in his ministry models for us service.

He's not performing like self-deprecation here.

Everyone look at how humble I am.

He's redefining greatness.

You know, the world asks, who recognizes me?

That's the world's picture of greatness, fame, recognition.

Jesus asks, Who are you willing to receive?

That's Jesus' picture of greatness, unmerited love, unmerited love, warmly receiving those who can do nothing for you.

And of course, is Jesus Himself, as I've already mentioned, not the ultimate picture of unmerited love.

Right?

Jesus is preparing to give himself to receive those who can offer him nothing in return.

And he says, Will you follow me in my footsteps?

So greatness is first demonstrated by Jesus, who gave himself up for those who could not advance him but would kill him.

And as that is true, so it is in Jesus' kingdom.

Greatness is not measured by how many people might know your name, but by how you are willing to serve people who can do nothing for your name.

Give your life serving others, asking for nothing.

Give your life serving others without payment.

Number four, the disciples don't yet understand cooperation.

Cooperation.

Jesus works through someone else and they're jealous.

Verse 49, John answered, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he doesn't follow with us.

Now notice John's complaint carefully.

John does not say he doesn't follow Jesus.

John says he does not associate himself with us or follow us or know us.

That's the problem.

The disciples have subtly moved from like a Jesus-centered allegiance to a group-centered allegiance.

And there's an irony here as well, right?

Because they're just recently frustrated that they can't do what Jesus allowed them to do in verse 1, and now they see someone who successfully is calling out demons, casting out demons in Jesus' name.

And so their response is, well, should we stop them?

You know, if God isn't doing it through us, maybe we he shouldn't be doing it.

Verse 50, but Jesus said to him, Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.

Let's be careful.

Jesus is not abolishing doctrinal discernment.

Of course, there are multiple passages throughout the New Testament where we talk about beware of false prophets, and we're warned about ravenous wolves kind of hidden in sheep's clothing that come to harm Jesus' people and his church.

Oh, there is absolutely a call for doctrinal discernment.

So we should notice that this man is genuinely acting in his name, in the name of Jesus, in your name.

So he appears to be honoring Jesus.

He's just not a part of the twelve.

So what is Jesus correcting?

Well, I I would submit to you, Jesus is correcting a sort of tribalism and jealousy in the heart of the disciples that should not be there.

They're here to learn the kingdom of God belongs to Jesus ultimately, not the 12, not the 72, not our church, not our ministries, not our denomination, but to Jesus.

So then how do we understand Luke 11, 23, where Jesus says, Whoever is not with me is against me?

Well, again, notice the difference in Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Whoever's not with me, Jesus says.

In Luke 9, the issue is the disciples are saying, not with us.

So the dividing line of faithful ministry is not us, but Christ and His Word.

That's where discernment begins begins, right?

Are they obeying, following Jesus?

Spiritual maturity, I would argue, means learning to celebrate what Jesus is doing, even if it's not through you.

Even if it's not through you.

We must not eliminate theological conviction or doctrinal discernment, but we should eliminate within our hearts kingdom jealousy wherever it exists.

I want us to be, your pastor speaking to you, a great commission church.

I pull verbiage from another pastor here.

I want us to be a great commissioned church.

Why not Tennessee?

Revival here, Lord.

The question is, in praying for the salvation of our city, will we rejoice if God chooses to use a Bible-preaching church just down the street for the revival we seek?

Are we just as happy?

If God chooses North Knoxville Baptist and Pastor Jim McNeil, or a local church and Pastor Layne and Reynolds.

Bible preaching churches.

We want to be a Great Commission church.

Again, a pastor here, the Great Commission does not call churches to act like professional sports teams.

Where we're glad if other teams exist, but we cannot comprehend a world in which we're not in one way trying to beat them.

So here are a few questions to see if we have an Our Team is best mentality.

And I encourage you to ask yourselves these questions.

Do we happily give away our players to other churches and other places for the sake of the gospel if the Lord calls us to send?

Do we rejoice if, after praying for revival, revival comes to the church down the street?

Do we pray regularly for the church down the street as well as other churches in our city?

A great commissioned church does not compete with other gospel preaching churches because it knows every gospel preaching church is playing for the same team.

So, like I said at the beginning, the disciples saw who Jesus was, but they still yet hadn't learned to think like Jesus.

In ministry, toward the cross, in humility, or in Catholicity and cooperation.

Their biggest problem was it that they didn't know who Jesus was.

Peter already confessed who he was.

The problem was they didn't still yet understand what kind of Messiah had come, and how the greatest problem wasn't things that were going wrong in the world, but the greatest thing beneath all of them, the sin against God that they had in their hearts that needed forgiveness.

They didn't yet understand Jesus' power was meant to produce dependence on him.

They didn't yet understand Jesus' cross redefines the path to glory in the call of what it means to be a disciple.

They didn't yet understand Jesus' humility helps us understand true greatness, and they didn't yet understand Jesus' kingdom extends even to people we don't personally know.

They didn't understand these things yet.

Not this side of the cross, not yet without God's Spirit empowering them.

But this side of the cross, empowered by God's Spirit, let us not make the same mistake.

Let's resolve together to live and serve others totally dependent on Christ.

Let's live and resolve together, willing to deny ourselves and bear our cross daily, following in the pattern of our Savior, to glory with him.

Let us live and resolve together, to humble ourselves, counting others more significant, like the call in Romans 12.

Let us live and resolve together, believing God can and will use others as he uses us to complete his commission before he comes back.

Can we?