The Greatest Ever!
Notes
Transcript
The Greatest Ever!
The Greatest Ever!
You would not think that Luke, or any Gospel for that matter, would discuss the greatest human.
But it does.
And it may not be who you think.
We are going to see more of this as we move through the Gospel, Jesus becoming more pointed in his teaching and interactions with people.
When we left Jesus, he was on a mountain up near Caesarea Phillipi, and he is just a few weeks from his crucifixion.
We are in Chapter 9 our of 24 chapters, so you can see the bulk of the material centers in and around the last days of Jesus.
All the gospels are arranged this way. These are the events that led up to his death and resurrection.
What we are going to see in the reading today should sober us.
The question is this...
Who is the greatest ever?
Not including Jesus.
This question may hit you a few different ways.
Some of you might pick a biblical character.
Some of you might pick a historical or modern day person.
Some of you want to say Jesus, but that may not be a fair comparison, since not many were born of a virgin!
Most, if not all of you would agree, it is not you.
But, you definitely know people who are worse than you, so you might rank yourself somewhere in the middle, or a little lower, or maybe slightly above others.
Uncomfortable yet? Good. That is going to be the point of this section.
Let those thoughts settle into your mind, and the scripture will give us a way to measure our greatness. Who knows…perhaps the greatest is among us right now!
Okay, let’s get moving...
Luke 9:37-40
The next day, after they had come down the mountain, a large crowd met Jesus. A man in the crowd called out to him, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, my only child. An evil spirit keeps seizing him, making him scream. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It batters him and hardly ever leaves him alone. I begged your disciples to cast out the spirit, but they couldn’t do it.”
On the next day…They have left the mountain.
What has happened on the mountain?
Jesus has shown the unseen realm who he is.
He did it on their turf, on their territory, with all the various temples to all the ancient and current gods in sight.
Moses and Elijah show up, that is pretty cool.
God shows up in a cloud and speaks.
It is so amazing that Peter comes up with the great idea to build three summer homes there for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
Then Peter will know right where to find them whenever HE WANTS TO FIND THEM.
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A man in the crowd...
We have a man (again) and his child (son) and unclean spirits.
What did Jesus just do with the unseen realm? He showed them who he really is.
The disciples saw it too. Now we don’t know if the disciples the man is speak are other disciples of Jesus or one of the twelve. I tend to think it was probably one of the twelve.
We will see why I think that in a bit.
But, the disciples could not deal with this evil spirit.
That seems interesting. They were sent out before, and there is no indication that they had trouble then. But here near the mountain, where the gates of hell are located, where Jesus calls out the fallen Sons of God, they seem to be having trouble.
The Gospel of Mark has more detail on this event, and the disciples ask him why they could not cast this unclean spirit out.
Jesus replies, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”
Perhaps this was a different level of rebellious spirit, hard to say.
Regardless, Jesus deals with this directly...
Luke 9:41
Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be with you and put up with you?” Then he said to the man, “Bring your son here.”
You see how his language is changing?
Important to keep in mind that Jesus has been teaching and announcing the Kingdom of God for almost three and a half years.
But, this is a real outburst of emotion. Jesus is certainly showing his human side. But consider what he just went through with God the Father on the mountain.
And more than that, consider what the three disciples JUST SAW and HEARD!
I like the Mark version too, it is far more detailed.
So what happens?
Luke 9:42-43
As the boy came forward, the demon knocked him to the ground and threw him into a violent convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy. Then he gave him back to his father. Awe gripped the people as they saw this majestic display of God’s power. While everyone was marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,
All of this sounds like epilepsy. And it is possible that is what the boy had. But the authors are writing about a demon.
Let’s keep the demon in the narrative, it is here on purpose.
Diomonion…sounds like dominion…interesting.
There seems to be something different here though.
Now, the crowd “everyone” marveled at God’s power, as if something is different here.
But he has something to tell the disciples.
Luke 9:44-45
“Listen to me and remember what I say. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.” But they didn’t know what he meant. Its significance was hidden from them, so they couldn’t understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
Who just got through telling the disciple to listen? God the Father through the cloud on the mountain.
He is going to start talking about his death, because in a few weeks, they are going to see him betrayed, arrested, put through a sham trial by the priests and the romans, flogged, and crucified.
And I can assure you, this is on his mind. He is going to get very direct.
This faithless people are the very ones he is going to the cross for, so he wants them to PAY ATTENTION!
But, they did not understand what it meant.
This plan has been hidden from everyone, human and spiritual beings. Nobody knows the plan that is unfolding.
Luke 9:46-48
Then his disciples began arguing about which of them was the greatest. But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he brought a little child to his side. Then he said to them, “Anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me also welcomes my Father who sent me. Whoever is the least among you is the greatest.”
Then his disciples...
Have I told you how genius these biblical authors are?
I want you to stop and think about what has just happened.
God appears on a mountain to proclaim Jesus as his son, LISTEN TO HIM.
They are sleeping
The come off the mountain and they cannot deal with and evil spirit
Faithless generation, how long do I have to be with you
Jesus declares he must die
None of them understand it, and now they are afraid to ask him
And now…they are arguing about who is the greatest.
Why? Let’s play pretend since we don’t know.
If he is going to die, then who will take over?
Maybe they are arguing about who has cast out the most demons and healed the most people?
Maybe they are comparing who knows more scripture?
Maybe they are comparing who has more gold?
Maybe they are comparing age and experience?
What in the world is going on here? It is as if Jesus has lost total control of his group. They have gone rogue on him.
And what we will discover later is that a key to his mission is UNITY. “They will know you are mine because of your love, one for another.”
They just DO NOT GET IT…and before we get too big for our own britches, NEITHER DO WE.
If you and I have ever engaged in this “who is better or worse” game then we are the faithless generation. We don’t understand either.
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Anyone who welcomes a little child...
He takes someone from the crowd, a young child, and uses them to make a point. And it is an important one.
We learn a lesson about their culture.
The child is compared to the LEAST among you. It says they did not regard children as the greatest.
Do you realize what the Gospels did for women and especially children?
The culture we have in the west is one that recognizes children have value. They are weak, they don’t know much, but in the kingdom equation they are the greatest.
And if Jesus is going to equate care for a little one as the mechanism for God the Father welcoming you, then you might take that seriously. Because the opposite is true. Anyone who hurts one of these…Jesus would say, it is better for a 400 pound stone to be tied around their neck and be thrown into the lake.
This child, who some parents consider a nuisance to “their life” is the GREATEST in the kingdom.
I mean lets be honest, kids are something we desire but the work they require leaves something to be desired. Crying, feeding, changing diapers, broken things, they get hurt, in this culture they can get simple cuts, get infected and die, you have to teach them, train them, and wait a decade before they can really help, and then you are just getting started!
And these…these are the greatest?
At this point the disciples are probably feeling small.
And they should.
But it gets worse, I love biblical authors!
Luke 9:49-50
John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.” But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you.”
John said to Jesus...
Interesting…there are others who have been listening to the teaching and doing it.
Oh my, what a start to the journey to Jerusalem.
God has shown up
Jesus has been transformed before them
Demons are cast out, not by the disciples, but by Jesus and STRANGERS.
They are arguing about who is the greatest.
A child welcomed “in my name” means you welcome the Father.
And now, others are casing out unclean spirits “in Jesus name.”
And we have to stop him.
Why?
Why do they have to stop someone who is doing what they cannot?
Insecurity. Embarrassment. Maybe shame.
What is their first thought when they see the power of God at work?
STOP IT.
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Don’t stop him!
Good grief guys, this is way bigger than you twelve!
Why would you stop the work of God?
Do you want people to suffer?
They are at the Gates of Hell, and others are tuning into how this works, and the disciples are trying to grind this to a halt.
We cannot allow this to spread
Unless WE ARE IN CONTROL.
Unless WE ARE THE GREATEST
Unless WE GET THE CREDIT
Who is the greatest?
Jesus is going to become the greatest by laying down his life for all people. He will be greatest because he is going to become the least.
Do you recognize the danger in comparing yourself to others?
When we compare:
We recognize what we have
But fail to see our brother or sister in need
We are greater
We resent what others have
We are angry that they have a greater share of Babylon (their tower is bigger than ours)
We believe we deserve greater, and we CUT THEM DOWN
Some of us really get this twisted...
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How great would God be if he _______?
In other words, what would God have to do for you to consider God the greatest?
Would he have to kill himself trying to help you?
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How great I would be if ______?
This is a question that leads to dark places.
If I had money, if I had this car, if I had this job, if I had this family, if I had the power of a president...
If I were God…then I…(fill in the blank)
There is a Hebrew Bible command for this.
Do not covet. Covet is a word we don’t use much, but it is a powerful word. Its loss has led to many repeating the mistake in the Garden.
We SEE we DESIRE we TAKE.
We are going to see next week that this DESIRE is going to consume a couple of the disciples such that they want to kill people.
You wonder why Jesus is so reactive, because this is what he is dealing with.
People like you and me.