Wednesday
Evening Bible Study
February 21, 2001
Introduction
Jesus took Peter, James and John up to the mountain where He was
transfigured before them and spoke with Moses and Elijah.
After coming down from the mountain, they were faced with a demon-possessed
boy.
Then the disciples struggled with wanting to know who was going to be the
greatest in the kingdom to which Jesus responded that you needed to be humble
as a child to be great.
:49 And John answered and said,
Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because
he followeth not with us.
Master – epistates – any
sort of superintendent or overseer
casting out – ekballo – to
cast out, drive out, to send out
we forbad – koluo – to hinder,
prevent forbid; to withhold a thing from anyone; to deny or refuse one a thing
he followeth – akoloutheo –
to follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant, accompany him; to join
one as a disciple, become or be his disciple; side with his party
A.T. Robertson: “As if John wanted
to change the subject after the embarrassment of the rebuke for their dispute
concerning greatness”
We’re going to see a side of John the disciple (“John the beloved”) that
isn’t too pretty. Jesus didn’t pick
perfect people.
:50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us
is for us.
forbid – koluo – to
hinder, prevent forbid; to withhold a thing from anyone; to deny or refuse one
a thing
We are too protective of our position.
I think that sometimes it starts when some of us have taken the time to
examine other churches and we make a deliberate choice as to which church or
group we choose to be with.
There’s nothing wrong with this. I
believe God allows different churches and denominations to be able to
accommodate the huge variety of people that become Christians. Some people need quiet rituals, others need
wild emotions. Others are somewhere in
between.
Of course, we need to be careful how far we take this. There is such a thing as a church preaching
“another Jesus” (2Cor. 11:4), and there are “false apostles” (2Cor.
11:13). there are non-Christian cults
like Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses that are not following our Jesus. But within the Christian church, there is a
huge variety of styles and flavors.
But once we decide on a particular group, we can find ourselves becoming
defensive if God would ever choose to bless another church.
We sometimes can find ourselves thinking that no other church is legitimate
because it’s not “ours”.
Moses encountered something similar with Joshua:
(Num 11:24-29 KJV) And Moses went out, and told the people the
words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people,
and set them round about the tabernacle. {25} And the LORD came down in a
cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave
it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested
upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. {26} But there remained two of
the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other
Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were
written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.
{27} And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do
prophesy in the camp. {28} And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one
of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. {29} And Moses
said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD'S people
were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!
Lesson
Encourage other ministries.
Don’t get defensive when you talk to other Christians at work who attend
other churches. Encourage them in their
church. You don’t have to have the
attitude that yours is the ONLY church in the world. We’re not even the only church in Fullerton. There are lots of good churches all around
us.
We are all part of the body of Christ.
We are all on the same team.
Illustration
I remember Pastor Chuck telling a story of when he used to
belong to something like the Rotary Club years ago. They had an “invite your enemy” banquet where each of the
business was to invite their competition.
Someone asked Chuck which pastor he was going to invite. Chuck responded, “I’m not in competition
with other churches. I’m going to
invite the bartender at the bar down the street.” That’s the right attitude.
Make sure you keep the real enemy as your enemy.
You may even find from time to time that there are Christians out there who
aren’t very nice. Just because someone
is mean to you doesn’t make them your “enemy” in this way.
Paul said,
(Phil
1:15-18 NLT) Some are preaching out of
jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. {16}
They preach because they love me, for they know the Lord brought me here to
defend the Good News. {17} Those others do not have pure motives as they preach
about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to
make my chains more painful to me. {18} But whether or not their motives are
pure, the fact remains that the message about Christ is being preached, so I
rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice.
If a person is preaching Jesus, that ought to make us
rejoice. Even if we don’t always agree
with how they do it or what we think their motives are.
:51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received
up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
was come – sumpleroo –
to fill completely; of the hold of a ship; to complete entirely, be fulfilled:
of time
the time – hemera – the
day, used of the natural day, or the interval between sunrise and sunset, as
distinguished from and contrasted with the night; used of time in general, i.e.
the days of his life.
received up – analepsis –
a taking up
face – prosopon – the
face; countenance, look
stedfastly set – sterizo –
to make stable, place firmly, set fast, fix; to strengthen, make firm; to
render constant, confirm, one’s mind
Jesus is getting ready for His last trip to Jerusalem where He will fulfill
His prophetic mission in dying on a cross for the sins of the world.
:52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a
village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.
messengers – aggelos –
a messenger, envoy, one who is sent, an angel, a messenger from God
face – prosopon – the
face; countenance, look
village – kome – the
common sleeping place to which labourers in the field return, a village; the
name of the city near which the villages lie and to whose municipality they
belong; the inhabitants of villages
to make ready – hetoimazo –
to make ready, prepare; to make the necessary preparations, get everything
ready; metaph.; drawn from the oriental custom of sending on before kings on
their journeys persons to level the roads and make them passable
There could have been close to 50 people traveling with Jesus by this
time. In the next chapter (Luke 10),
Jesus will send out seventy to preach for Him. It required quite a lot of preparation to find lodging and food
for all these people as they traveled.
:53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would
go to Jerusalem.
The Samaritans had a corrupted form of religion.
When the Assyrians took the northern kingdom away in 722 BC and repopulated
the land with foreigners, they had problems with all the wild animals. They thought that if they brought back some
of the Jewish priests, they would “appease” the local gods. As a result, some of the Jewish people
intermarried with the foreigners and thus was born the race of
“Samaritans”.
The Samaritans rewrote some of the Mosaic Law and changed the names and
places so that Abraham offered Isaac on Mount Gerazim instead of Moriah, and
the feasts were all celebrated in Samaria instead of Jerusalem.
Because the Samaritans knew that Jesus was heading to Jerusalem, they
weren’t too happy as He passed through.
Today, there are still about 200 Samaritans left, but many of them have a
form of idiocy because of all the inbreeding that has gone on between them.
:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt
thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as
Elias did?
Lord – kurios – he to whom
a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
wilt thou – thelo – to
will, have in mind, intend; to be resolved or determined, to purpose; to
desire, to wish; to love; to like to do a thing, be fond of doing; to take
delight in, have pleasure
command – epo – to speak,
say
fire – pur – fire. The idea of “fire” from heaven is lightning.
to come down – katabaino –
to go down, come down, descend; to come (i.e. be sent) down
consume – analisko – to
expend; to consume, e.g. spend money; to consume, use up, destroy
It is thought that this is why Jesus came up with the nickname for James
and John:
(Mark 3:17 KJV) And James the son of Zebedee, and John the
brother of James; and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of
thunder:
Keep in mind, James and John have just seen Jesus talking with Elijah back
on the mountain.
Elijah and the King of Israel were not friends. King Ahaziah was the son of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The northern kingdom of Israel was also
known as Samaria.
(2 Ki 1 KJV) Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the
death of Ahab. {2} And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber
that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said unto them,
Go, inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this
disease. {3} But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go
up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not
because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the
god of Ekron? {4} Now therefore thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not come down
from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah
departed. {5} And when the messengers turned back unto him, he said unto them,
Why are ye now turned back? {6} And they said unto him, There came a man up to
meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say
unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel,
that thou sendest to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou
shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely
die. {7} And he said unto them, What manner of man was he which came up to meet
you, and told you these words? {8} And they answered him, He was an hairy man,
and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah
the Tishbite. {9} Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his
fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he
spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down. {10} And Elijah
answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire
come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire
from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. {11} Again also he sent unto him
another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O
man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly. {12} And Elijah
answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven,
and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and
consumed him and his fifty. {13} And he sent again a captain of the third fifty
with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on
his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I
pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious
in thy sight. {14} Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the
two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life
now be precious in thy sight. {15} And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah,
Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him
unto the king. {16} And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as
thou hast sent messengers to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron, is it not
because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? therefore thou shalt
not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. {17}
So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And
Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of
Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son. {18} Now the rest of the acts
of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of
the kings of Israel?
I find it interesting that James and John aren’t asking Jesus to call down
fire, but they’d kind of like to try it themselves.
In a way, this might seem kind of endearing to Jesus, that James and John
would want to defend Him like this.
Jesus doesn’t need defending like this.
The Crusades – the idea of killing people for the sake of the gospel is not
what Jesus is all about. The idea that
you find in Islam of the jihad, where a good Moslem is promised all
kinds of heavenly rewards for killing the infidel. This is not the Lord.
:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of
spirit ye are of.
he turned – strepho – to
turn, turn around
rebuked – epitimao – to
show honour to, to honour; to tax with fault, rate, chide, rebuke, reprove,
censure severely; to admonish or charge sharply
(Gal 5:22-23 NASB) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, {23} gentleness, self-control;
against such things there is no law.
:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save
them. And they went to another village.
Lesson
Don’t hate them.
Jesus didn’t destroy these people.
He left them alone.
(1 Pet 3:8-9 KJV) Finally, be ye all of one mind, having
compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: {9} Not
rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing;
knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.
I’ve known that feeling, wishing I could call fire down on people I get mad
with. I’ve heard of people praying
“curses” on people they’re mad at.
That’s not Jesus.
:57 And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said
unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
I will follow – akoloutheo –
to follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant, accompany him; to join
one as a disciple, become or be his disciple; side with his party
goest – aperchomai – to go
away, depart; to go away in order to follow any one, go after him, to follow
his party, follow him as a leader; to go away
Lord – kurios – he to whom
a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord
It sounds to me like this man is having one of those “emotional”
experiences.
Emotions are good. Emotions are
great. But they’re not the things to
base your decisions upon, especially your decision to follow Jesus.
It is not uncommon for people to have an emotional experience when the meet
Jesus. It is not uncommon for people to
make commitments based on their emotions.
:58 And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have
nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.
foxes – alopex – a fox; metaph.
a sly or crafty man
holes – pholeos – a
lurking hole, a burrow; a lair
birds – peteinon – flying,
winged; flying or winged animals, birds; the birds of the heaven, i.e. flying
in the heaven (air)
nests – kataskenosis – the
pitching of tents, encamping; place of tarrying, encampment, abode; of the nest
of birds
to lay – klino –
transitively; to incline, bow; to cause to fall back; to recline; in a place
for repose
Lesson
Count the cost - It’s not easy to
follow Jesus.
Jesus doesn’t promise to take your problems away.
Note: Jesus has just been
rejected by one of the villages in Samaria.
They are moving on to another place.
Not everyone was welcoming Jesus.
Not everyone will welcome you.
You may find a whole new set of problems as you follow Jesus.
Don't follow Jesus if you have to be comfortable.
Understand what you’re getting yourself into.
Will you still follow Jesus when the Samaritans reject you?
:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first
to go and bury my father.
Whereas the first person asked to follow Jesus, this time, Jesus invites
the person to follow him.
follow – akoloutheo – to
follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant, accompany him; to join one
as a disciple, become or be his disciple; side with his party
suffer me – epitrepo – to
turn to, transfer, commit, instruct; to permit, allow, give leave
to go – aperchomai – to go
away, depart; to go away in order to follow any one, go after him, to follow
his party, follow him as a leader; to go away
bury – thapto – to bury,
inter
:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and
preach the kingdom of God.
Let – aphiemi – to send
away; to permit, allow, not to hinder, to give up a thing to a person
dead – nekros – properly;
one that has breathed his last, lifeless; deceased, departed, one whose soul is
in heaven or hell; spiritually dead
bury – thapto – to bury,
inter
go – aperchomai – to go
away, depart; to go away in order to follow any one, go after him, to follow
his party, follow him as a leader; to go away
preach – diaggello – to
carry a message through, announce everywhere, through places, through
assemblies of men etc.; to publish abroad, declare
If you’re not careful, you can read this verse and think that Jesus is cold
and cruel, expecting dead people to bury themselves or something. But in those days it was common for a son to
stay at home and help out on the farm until the father passed away. The father isn’t necessarily even old and
sick, it’s just that the son wants to wait until his father is passed away.
Lesson
Jesus wants first place.
It’s not wrong to honor your father and mother. We are commanded to do that.
But the danger is when another person has the ability to keep you from
following Jesus.
(Mat 10:37-38 KJV) He that loveth father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me. {38} And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is
not worthy of me.
(Luke 14:26 KJV) If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
The idea is that you “hate” your father and mother in the sense that you
love Jesus more than them. We need to
keep this in balance with the Scriptures that tell us to honor our parents.
Look at how some of Jesus’ other disciples responded:
(Mat 4:18-22 NASB) And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw
two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net
into the sea; for they were fishermen. {19} And He said^ to them, "Follow
Me, and I will make you fishers of men." {20} And they immediately left
the nets, and followed Him. {21} And going on from there He saw two other
brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with
Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and He called them. {22} And they
immediately left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Who has first place in your life?
:61 And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go
bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.
follow – akoloutheo – to
follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant, accompany him; to join one
as a disciple, become or be his disciple; side with his party
let – epitrepo – to turn
to, transfer, commit, instruct; to permit, allow, give leave
bid … farewell – apotassomai –
to set apart, separate; to separate one’s self, withdraw one’s self from
anyone; to take leave of, bid farewell to; to renounce, forsake
:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
put – epiballo – to cast
upon, to lay upon; to throw one’s self upon, rush in; to put one’s mind upon a
thing; attend to
plow – arotron – a plough
looking – blepo – to see,
discern, of the bodily eye
back – opiso – back,
behind, after, afterwards; of place: things that are behind
fit – euthetos (“well”
+ “to place”) – well placed; fit; useful
Lesson
There’s no going back.
You can’t go forward while you’re looking backward.