The School of Humility

Our text this morning comes from Luke chapter 9, and it is specifically verses 46 through 56.

! So if you'll find that in your Bible and I'll read that. Luke chapter 9, verse 46 through 56. The Bible says, Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest, most them, meaning the apostles.

And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and sent him by him. And said to them, Whoever receives this little child in my name receives me, And whoever receives me receives him who sent me.

For he who is least among you, Paul, will be great. Now John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we obey him because he does not follow with us.

But Jesus said to him, Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side. Now it came to pass when time had come for him to be received up, That he steadfastly sent his face to go to Jerusalem and sent messengers before his face.

And as they went, they entered the village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. But they did not receive him, because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?

But he turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy these lions, but to save them.

And they went to the village. All right, now, it may strike you, maybe on an issue here, that we have here three seemingly separate incidents involving the apostles.

First of all, you have this dispute among the apostles over which one of them will be the greatest when they get to heaven, when they get to the kingdom of heaven. Secondly, you have this dilemma, or this unnamed person, who was part of some other group, not a part of their group, their group of followers, who was casting out demons in Jesus' name.

And then third, you have this desire on the part of James, or John, rather, to call down the fire of judgment upon the Samaritans who rejected Jesus.

They have three incidents involving the disciples, and they seem to be separate, seem to be unrelated. But you really don't have to think about it very long to figure out that there is one point of commonality that each of these three share, these three incidents.

And let me tell you what it is. All three incidents reveal a sin problem that existed in the hearts of the apostles.

In fact, of course, it is a sin problem that is common to all mankind, and especially, and even, rather, I would say, even the followers of Christ.

And simply put, it is the sin of pride. Pride. Pride is the common denominator in all three of these seemingly separate incidents involving the apostles.

Pride. Pride is in every one of us. Amen? Pride, I would even say, is in every sin we commit.

It's involved in there in one way or another. Whether it's the root of it, the beginning of it, the ultimate end of it, the substance of it, pride is involved in every sin that we commit.

Pride is, we could say, an attitude of the heart that says, I really do not need God. I really do not need His word. And so it says, pride says, I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul.

Pride says, God, I am going to do it my way and not do it. And as we shall see in these three incidents, pride fools us, always fools us into thinking that we are better spiritually than we really are.

And pride causes us to look down on those we judge to be inferior to us. And pride also causes us to be judgmental rather than operating according to grace.

And that's what we're going to see in this passage. Now, pride is something in all of us, and I would say that most of us don't think we have a problem with pride.

I might just speak for you. We think we don't have a problem with pride. In fact, it's those who have the biggest problem with pride are the ones who are least likely to recognize it, realize it, admit it.

One man said to his friend, he said, Well, at least I don't have a problem with pride. And his friend replied, he said, Well, why shouldn't you? You don't have anything to be proud of? Oh, yeah, I'm supposed to be proud of you.

You see, it's in all of us. And it raises its specter, its head, just suddenly out of nowhere. We all have a problem with pride. It's in every one of us.

And by the way, pride is what made Lucifer the devil. The Bible says in Isaiah 14, 12, How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.

For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. And God said in response, Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, hell, to the lowest depths of the depths.

Pride is what made Lucifer the devil. And pride has been hopelessly rooted in the flesh. Ever since Adam and Eve, our parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.

And so it's because of pride that Satan, or Lucifer, was cast out of heaven. And it's because of pride that Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. And it's because of pride that we are alienated from God.

Like the way, Tom and Arthur put it, he said, Pride has to be broken for people to be saved. And it has to be continually broken for people to be sanctified.

That involves all of us. And so, the three incidents involving Jesus' apostles here are meant to teach us some lessons on pride. How pride is manifested, what it looks like.

It's not going to be an exhausted lesson, but we're going to see three key areas where pride raises its head. So we're going to learn these lessons. That's what this passage is intended to do.

And as I read the text a moment ago, surely you experience some measure, some sense of surprise. And I hope that you experience some level of shock as we read these stories.

I mean, these are shocking, this is shocking behavior on the part of the apostles. I think you would agree with it. I mean, the apostles, the very idea of the apostles disputing over who's going to be the greatest among them.

The very idea that the apostles would demand that this person who's not in their circle, someone outside their circle, but yet ministering in Jesus' name and demanding him to stop.

The very idea that the apostles would desire to call down fire and consume the unbelieving Samaritans. I mean, this is shocking behavior.

And it makes us want to ask, have they not learned anything in their time with Jesus? I mean, think about that. Listen, the disciples have now been with Jesus night and day, 24-7, for over two years.

That's right, by the time you get to chapter 9, because there's a lot left in the Gospel of the Blue, by the time you get to chapter 9, the disciples have been traveling with Jesus over two years.

So over two years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they have been with Jesus, and everywhere they've traveled has been a classroom. And every experience they have has been an opportunity to teach a lesson.

what is seminary program the apostles were enrolled in? Think about that. And Jesus is their professor. And everything Jesus taught was true, absolutely true, and everything was a correct interpretation of the divine will and word of God, inherent, infallible, that I've spent a number of years in seminary myself.

And I've sat under dozens of professors with PhDs, multiple PhDs, but I have never, ever had a professor whose teaching was infallible, inerrant, with discipleship.

And listen, you have a pastor with a PhD, big deal. But you don't have a pastor whose teaching and preaching is infallible, inerrant. But these apostles have been in a seminary program with Jesus day and night, 24-7, for over two years, and it seems as though they hadn't learned a single thing.

And so, the class is in session in this text. They, and we, by the way, have been enrolled in the school of humility. Not the school of theology, the school of humility.

I think, you know, and I have a school of humility in all of our seminaries. Pastors are the worst of us. And so, they, and we, need a lesson about the sin of pride.

And so, that's what we have in our passage of Scripture for this morning. Three examples of pride. Pride being manifested. And, with those three examples, we have three lessons.

Three lessons on pride. And it's interesting to know that the first lesson is relative to self. Right? It's a square in our own hearts and minds.

It's a lesson relative to self. The second lesson is relative to the saints at large. That is, how we relate to the body of Christ. Not just our local body, but the body of Christ at large.

And the third lesson broads us go even further and it's relative to sinners. That is, how we relate to those who are outside of Christ. outside of the body of Christ.

And so, with each lesson, the scope is broad. All right? Enough introduction. Let's look at this passage and see these lessons.

First lesson. A lesson on narcissism. If you're taking notes, you can spell it any way you want. A lesson on narcissism.

That is, pride overestimates personal greatness. It's narcissism. Pride overestimates personal greatness.

Now, verse 46, it's shocking. I mean, it really is. It's amazing. When I read it, especially in light of what has happened just before, I think, what are they thinking?

Verse 46, again, then a dispute, an argument, and it was an ongoing argument, not just a one-time little thing that they were doing as they were sitting around. It was an ongoing argument.

An argument arose among them, that's the apostles, as to which of them would be greatest. That's shocking, isn't it? These are the holy apostles.

And as I've said, they've been with Jesus all this time. And Jesus, the perfect, ultimate model of humility. And they have learned. And so they've been wondering, who's going to be the greatest?

Matthew 18, verse 1, the parallel of this passage in blue, records it this way, at that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven that is still among us?

You know, we came beside ourselves to unicide, Jesus. Shocking, unbelievable, shameful. How can we explain this to him to a part of the apostles? Well, you need to remember that chapter 9, and I reminded you of this last week, it opens with Jesus calling and sending out his apostles.

And really, the idea there is that he endows his apostles with the Bible social power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.

And, the Bible was going to say they went out preaching the gospel and teaching everywhere. They even had the authority to make judgments or pronouncements on those cities that would not receive them or rejected them.

Jesus said, you could shake off the buried dust from your feet as a testimony against them. Now, they had given his great power.

Thorne went out and saw that active in their ministers. An amazing experience. And I think we can conclude from our passage this morning that the result of that, the outcome of that, was not necessarily glory to God, but rather, it resulted in pride.

Personal pride. They allowed their powerful and successful ministries to feed their sinful pride. I mean, you can almost imagine the conversation that's going on here.

It's kind of read between the lines. you know, for example, maybe Peter says to John, he says, you know, how many people did you heal? And, and John says, 16.

And Peter says, wow, that's amazing. I have 24. And you can imagine maybe, uh, James saying to, to Matthew, one of the apostles, what kind of sicknesses did you heal?

A skin rash? Really? Pneumonia? You healed a broken heart? Wow. Well, I only had a blind person healed and a couple of leathers.

You see, the competition and on and on probably went, you know, comparing their healings and comparing their exorcisms and comparing, maybe we don't know, their resurrections. And what about Peter, James, and John?

Remember, it was only just a day or two, if two days, when they were taken up on the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, and they had been there with Moses and Elijah, and they, they had seen the glory of Christ revealed.

They had heard the very voice of God the Father. And after they came down from the mountain, this speculative argument commences among them, you know, who will be the greatest in heaven?

Maybe John says to Matthew, you know, Matthew, I'm sorry, I love you, brother, but I don't think you're going to be the greatest because after all, you are invited to be with us up on top of the Mount of Transfiguration. And it might be Peter, it might be James, but you know, I think it's really going to be me.

And so there's just, this competition is going on. In fact, it's interesting, in Matthew 20, 20, this became so important to two particular guys, James and John, brothers, it became so important to them that they got their mother to go and talk to Jesus about how her sons could be honored and how they would be allowed to sit one on the right hand and one on the left hand when he comes into his eternity.

Shameful! And Matthew, he tells us that when the ten, the other ten heard about that, they were ticked off. Now that's my translation. They were greatly displeased with the others, with their brothers, the two brothers.

And you bet they were because they had, they didn't think of it first. But this is basic narcissism. And he was overestimating personal greatness over everyone else.

And then comes the lesson. All right? Jesus is going to allow him to experience the pride for us, the exact pride, and pride, and now he's going to give them a lesson.

Verse 47. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, and they could not hide that from him, of course, took a little child and set him by him.

Listen. Jesus is so wise. This is the perfect object of blessing. A little child. In the Greek, it's the word pineon, and it means, it probably was a toddler in his life.

Could have been an infant, but at one point he had to stand there, and so, but probably a toddler, small enough to hold, and yet small enough, old enough to stand up on his own.

The point is this, no greatness about it. No greatness about this little child. He had lived long enough to have any great thing happen. No great achievements in life.

No, no honored accomplishments in life. Weak. Vulnerable. Dependent. Absolutely dependent.

Everybody else around him. Always needy. Ignored. I mean, you know, we don't own children, but when it comes to serious things, we pretty much ignore our kids.

And especially, you know, taking them serious when they have some wise thing to say, and he's going to pat little Johnny on the head, well, that's as good as you. No, they were giving you respect and everything, you know.

And Jesus sets this little child before his apostles, and he says, look at this little child. In verse 48, he says, whoever, again this, pay attention to this, whoever receives this little child in my name, receives me.

He says, this is amazing. Profit. Do you understand what he's saying? It's a truth, really, that goes beyond just this petty argument about who's going to be the least.

What is the lesson? Well, in a general sense, in a larger sense, that little child represents all true belief. He's kind of standing for all true belief.

God's with other children. In fact, Mark 9, verse 6 says that Jesus had taken him in his arms before he taught the lesson. See, all little children belong to Jesus.

And Matthew says, Matthew 18, 3, he said, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

So, the point is, that the child is a stand-in for all true believers in Christ. But in a very specific sense, however, that little child represents those believers among us we deem insignificant.

We won't be inferior. the ones who have no greatness really about them.

The ones who, in our view, in our judgment, have never to offer them. The ones you don't have time to bother with.

But Jesus says, to receive them is to receive me and ultimately receive the final. And so, folks, the lesson is, we are to receive welcome, actively love every believer regardless of who they are, just as we have received Christ.

As if we were receiving Christ. Literally, is what I say. To receive that other believer as if you were receiving Christ himself is the idea.

And the indication, of course, being to reject or despise or view as inferior, any other believer is to reject Christ. That's the information.

Very strong. And so, we are to receive every believer just as if we were receiving Christ. We are to love every believer just as if they were Christ himself.

And we are to serve every believer just as if we were serving Christ. That's the principle being taught here. And pride really wants no part of it. that this is the way of doing it.

I think that each of the apostles was campaigning to be the greatest. That's what they were doing. They were campaigning to be the greatest, overestimating their personal greatness, not realizing that they were at the same time labeling all others inferior to them.

people. And that doesn't enter into our minds really. Again, pride is something we hardly recognize, hardly admit. But this is what they were doing.

They were viewing every other one, the other eleven apostles as inferior. And to treat another believer, whomever they may be, as inferior to yourself is to call Jesus inferior.

because to receive them is to receive Christ. And to receive Christ is to receive the Father. Seriously. This sheds a whole new light on our relationship with one another as morning in believers.

Then Jesus says, for he who is least among you all will be great. There's the statement in the person. Maybe say, really, basically, my kingdom is different than the world.

It operates totally different from the world, totally upside down from the world. The greatest in my kingdom are those who humble themselves, those who serve others expecting no honor, those who consider themselves least among the raven and sisters.

Ask yourself, is there anyone in this knowing that you consider to be inferior to you? you would ever admit that in the living here to you? And yet how we relate to certain ones, or rather how we have no relation else ever with certain ones, the beings the pride of the heart, estimating our personal greatness, overestimating our personal greatness.

Is there anyone in this building to whom you would have to go out of your way to be kind, to be friendly, to have go out of your way to be friendly?

Are you ever tempted into thinking that you are better than certain other people in the church? To receive them is just like receiving Christ himself.

Receive them just as you would receive Christ. That's the first lesson here on humility. The lesson concerning pride.

A lesson on narcissism. Pride overestimates personal greatness. The second lesson broadens the scope. As I said, each one is broad.

It's in a large improvement and so forth. And so the second one has in mind the Christian community at large as a whole. And so second, here's the second lesson.

A lesson on sectarianism. That one is about sectarianism. What is that? Pride overlooks the purposes of God.

Might add the greater purposes of God, the larger purpose of God. Pride overlooks that in sectarianism. Because sectarianism then brings the purposes of God down to a very narrow view and to a narrow number of people.

verse 49, John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade you because he does not follow with us.

There it is, the attempt to pride in the heart of John and really probably in the heart of all the apostles. Now, the issue here, the important issue is about the act of casting out demons.

You want to ask the question about how is this other person able to cast out demons? That's not the issue. It could have been someone healing in Jesus' name and John would have had the same problem.

And the issue also, and this is important, the issue is not a false or counterfeit religion. Because the Bible does not say that the man was trying to cast out demons.

The Bible says that the man was actually casting out demons and doing it in Jesus' name. So this is bonafide. That's how we think this is true, real, bonafide.

This is of the Lord. The issue here is sectarianism. And we know that from what John said, the problem John had with this.

He does not follow with us. That's the key, that's the clue that John is being very sectarian. He does not follow with us.

That is, he's not part of our group, our church. He's not part of our denomination. He doesn't wear our label. He doesn't have the same doctrinal distinctives that we do believe the same way about every doctor.

He's not a Calvinist, non-reformed. He's not pre-millennial, not pre-rapture tribulations. His church doesn't worship like us. They play rock music in their church.

They dance in their church. They have a coffee bar in the foyer. Mercy. Or his church has a woman pastor and women deacons.

His church sprinkles instead of a mercy. And on and on and on I could go. What did Jesus say?

Verse 50, but Jesus said to him, do not forbid him for he who is not against us is on our side. Now, don't twist this passage and make it mean something for which it was not intended.

And don't hear me wrong me either as I try to explain this. Jesus is not saying that we shouldn't care about theological issues and theological differences.

I mean, listen, the core doctrines of faith, they do matter. And at some point, they have significant implications in regard to fellowship and other quote, believers.

The core doctrinal differences do matter like the tribune nature of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And others that I believe to the most important probably would be the way of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

if another so-called believer deviates from that then they're not a true believer, not a true Christian. And we're not talking about that because again, this man was casting out demons in Jesus' name and Jesus said, let him do it because it's bona fide, it's real, it's a work of mine, it's a part of my larger purpose than just this small group that I'm with here.

so don't stop him. So the point is, really, and this is what Jesus is saying, if he is in Christ, the boy and believer, and if he is doing his best to serve Christ, and if he is for Christ, then stop trying to him.

Start trying to him. That's the point. And I said, we have a tendency, don't we, to work pride when we see other churches maybe doing better than we do.

Larger than our church. Growing faster than our church. And maybe it's just pastors have a problem with that. I don't know. We get jealous. Or are you jealous of another church, another church of what God is doing in another believer's life?

we get jealous, or we get insecure, we get suspicious. Why? That's not the work of God.

Okay. We get suspicious. Listen, when we see the biblical Christ exalted, Christ divided, truly exalted, and when we see the true gospel as given to us in scripture, we truly see the true gospel preach, even so, some of the peripheral doctrinal distinctives differ from our own, and we ought to praise God.

We ought to praise God when we see his kingdom being advanced. I had to learn this when I started teaching in Ukraine a hundred years ago. I had some differences with some of their doctrines at the seminary, I guess.

and I really had to re-evaluate my position on this when I started teaching in China. I got a group of students out there, and maybe a third of their women pastors, and other various different peripheral doctrines.

We're in the school of humility with the apostles. Jesus is our incredible professor, and he has taught us a lesson on narcissism, pride over us in his personal dreams.

He has taught us a lesson on sectarianism, pride over looks the larger purposes of God. And finally this morning, a lesson on judgmentalism.

That's not a word. I made that one up. You know, it's okay just to add his and Steve where you want to. you've crossed the point. A lesson on judgmentalism, and I would define it this way, pride tends to overrule the priority of grace.

Pride overrules the priority of grace. What James and John suggested to Jesus is perhaps the most disturbing thing in this entire passage.

If you think about it, if at any point you were shocked, it certainly is it. Verse 51, how it came to pass, when the time had come for him to be received up, and we're not really sure what that means exactly.

I think he said the meaning of the final fulfillment of what Jesus had come to do is near, very near, and it's going to take place in Jerusalem. So, received up by the people in Jerusalem, received up to the cross, or ultimately received up to God, to heaven, in the ascension, whichever it is.

It's coming close. And so what does he do? He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. That means he turned his face to the direction of Jerusalem, and it's an idiom that means that nothing was going to deter him.

He's headed to Jerusalem, and he's going there, he's headed there, and that's the direction he's going to go. And he sent, let's go on with the passage, he sent messengers before his face, that direction, direction to Jerusalem.

And as they went, they entered the village of the Samaritans, because he's going to go through Jerusalem, he's not going to go around it, going to go through it, excuse me, he's going to go through Samaria, and not going to go around it.

So he sent these messengers out ahead, and they're away, but they, the Bible says, did not receive him. So they possibly go into one city, Samaria, Jesus sprang to preach there, minister there, and they said, no, we don't want you to do.

And when the disciples, James and John saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did?

That's shocking, that suggestion. And we don't have time to flesh all this out, but for one thing, of course, the Jews hated the Samaritans, you certainly know that, and as for the Samaritans and their feelings about Jews, the feeling was mutual, and you know, the Samaritans historically were a mixed race of pagans and Jews left over from the Assyrian invasion and conquering of the northern kingdom, Israel, back in the 700th B.C., and so some of the Jews were allowed to remain in that land, and they intermarried the pagans, and they gave their loyalty to the Assyrian king, and Jews never after, hating them as traitors and, of course, as actwines.

So they hated them. I read all that a little bit about the background. But now, since the gospel, of course, was intended for the world, that is, all people, including Gentiles, and Jesus desired to go through Samaria and to preach them.

And so James and John are sent out ahead of Jesus, so now he's coming and to prepare them to receive him. And so I imagine they just have to Jesus to Christ is coming to your town.

The Messiah is coming to your town. The Savior of the world is coming to your town. But alas, they do not want him. They did not receive him. And for mine, that's not really important.

It is what James and John wanted to do today. that is religious. What did they want to do? To command fire, to come down from heaven, and consume them just as Elijah.

That's what they wanted to do. Now just put aside for a moment, we'll just put aside all together how the world, James and John, would ever have thought they could do it in the first place.

They didn't have that back out. That's ridiculous. you have to get into their thought process. Remember, they had been on the mountain with Jesus, with Peter.

They saw Moses and Elijah, two great prophets, and both of those guys, Moses and Elijah, have been allowed to do some pretty horrific things, unbelievable.

And especially Elijah. and I think that was what most in their mind. Specifically, something had happened in Samaria in Elijah's day that you can read about in 2 Kings chapter 1.

We're not going to read it, but I'm going to give you kind of the gist of it. Ahaziah was king of Israel, the northern king at that time. The Bible says that Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and his moratorium.

So he's dead near death. And Ahaziah wants to know if he's going to live another. And so instead of sending a word for true prophet to come, true prophet to God, this king of Israel, Israel, God's chosen people, he sends a messenger to get the answer from Baal's above, God of Philistines, Echron.

Now, God sends Elijah to head off the king's messengers, and he sent Elijah, or Elijah sent them back to the king with a message of his own.

And he said, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of elzabobo, the god of Echron, and then he said, tell the king this, you shall surely die.

That's what you want to know, king, are you going to live or die? I'm telling you, in the strength of God, you're going to die. And they had a life that was a certain time. They were mad.

And so he sent a captain and fifty soldiers to arrest Elijah, and they found Elijah sitting on the top of a and Elijah said, well, if I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and her fifty men.

And the fire came down from heaven and consumed all fifty of these men and their captain. And so Abraham made the really intelligent guy that he is he sent out another captain and fifty more sisters.

And cruised and fire came down from heaven and destroyed all of them too. You can read the rest of the story in 2 Kings chapter 1. But do you now see the connection how James and John could have come up with this idea this erroneous idea that's very trite funny.

They saw Elijah on the mountain top. And they made the connection between some of the great things that Elijah had done. And especially that thing that you did there in Samaria and now the disciples are in Samaria and so that comes flooding back into their minds and also the Samaritans were rejecting God.

And so it's just very easy to see their thought processes. And so they wanted to send fire down and destroy it just like Elijah going to try it judgmental it now maybe they deserve fire from him maybe they deserve that I don't know I don't think so but that's not James and John's business not our business either that's God's business and so what did Jesus say in verse 55 he said but he turned and rebuke them and he man or spirit you are we might say this way for the son of man did not come to destroy his lives but to what save them to save them crimes he says judge them humility says have mercy have grace humility actually says those who hate

Christ there are in my neighborhood world today humility says those who hate Christ are not my enemies they are my mission people that's a totally different way looking that's the way of humility that's not the way of pride because pride is judgmental pride overrules God's priority of grace have you ever wanted God to just take a certain person out of this world that's tyrant like Hitler back in those days some of them you know those kind of characters ever just really want to drop that's

God saying send fire around destroy them have you ever wanted God to strike dead with those extreme religious cults who are behind Christians blowing up our soldiers blowing up buildings in the name of their God have you ever wanted God to strike dead and abortion not you I want to go with marriage where is the grace in that where is God's grace where is God's mercy you have received your mercy grace are you there are you better and so pride is always different it over rules that pride always embrace

Thank you.