Feb. 14, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
13:45
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| Welcome back to another God's Graces Greater segment where we go and do a deep dive into the scripture. | |
| We're continuing in Luke chapter 9 today, and we have this very powerful story about Jesus throwing a demon out and overcoming it through a way that really was a little shocking to the disciples and really made them question who was the greatest among the disciples. and we have this very powerful story about Jesus throwing And Jesus gives us the answer in no uncertain terms, and we're going to talk about that story here today. | |
| So if you guys are ready, we're in Luke chapter 9. | |
| We're going to go verse 37 through 50. | |
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| Now, let's get into this incredible set of verses. | |
| Where we're picking up from is where we left off with Jesus and he had just gone through the transfiguration. | |
| So... | |
| He has just been shown to some of his disciples, Peter, John, and James, that he was the Messiah. | |
| God said, this is my son, the chosen one. | |
| Listen to him. | |
| And he was with Elijah and Moses, and it's this incredible moment. | |
| And if you want to learn more about that, that's in yesterday's episode of the Transfiguration. | |
| You can find it on my channel, wherever you're watching, on all the channels that's in there. | |
| Today, though, we're picking up where Jesus casts out a demon that his disciples couldn't. | |
| But there was a specific reason why they couldn't. | |
| And it led to an argument amongst the disciples about who was the greatest. | |
| And Jesus gives us an answer as to who that is. | |
| And you're going to want to stick around and hear this. | |
| So, let's go ahead and read from 37 in chapter 9 of Luke, all the way up to verse 50. | |
| It says... | |
| The next day they came down from the mountain. | |
| A large crowd met him. | |
| Just then a man from the crowd cried out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son. | |
| Because he's my only child, often a spirit seizes him. | |
| Suddenly he shrieks and it throws him into convulsions until he foams at the mouth, wounding him. | |
| It hardly ever leaves him. | |
| I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn't. | |
| Jesus replied, You unbelieving and rebellious generation, how long will I be with you and put up with you? | |
| Bring your son here. | |
| As the boy was still approaching, the demon knocked him down and threw him into severe convulsions. | |
| But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, cured the boy, and gave him back to his father. | |
| And they were all astonished at the greatness of God. | |
| While everyone was amazed at the things he was doing, he told his disciples, let these words sink in. | |
| The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. | |
| But they did not understand this statement. | |
| It was concealed from them so that they could not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it. | |
| Then an argument started among them about who would be the greatest of them. | |
| But Jesus, knowing the thoughts of their hearts, took a little child and had him stand next to them. | |
| He told them, Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me. | |
| For whoever is least among you, this one is great. | |
| And John responded, Yes, Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us. | |
| Wow. | |
| Powerful, powerful sequence of events here. | |
| So you imagine, first off, that the disciples are there, and... | |
| Jesus has just been on the mountaintop with Peter, John, and James, and the transfiguration is just taking place, where Jesus shines bright as the brightest light, and he's accompanied by, I guess, the physical corporeal body and likeness, or the physical being of Moses and Elijah. | |
| And they have this conversation that the disciples, and we don't really get a description on what's said between Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in this conversation, But, we have this exchange where Peter tells them, I should make you a tabernacle, and he has this exchange of, you know, I'm going to do these things for you, and essentially what ends up happening is God shows up, and in front of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, says, this is my son, the chosen one, listen to him. | |
| And now they've just come down from the mountain and that's where we're picking up today. | |
| And as they come down from the mountain, you can imagine that Peter, James, and John are probably still in a little bit of shock at this point. | |
| They're probably still kind of trying to grasp and comprehend what they just saw and what just happened because I know if I was a part of something like that, I would probably be doing that as well. | |
| But immediately he's confronted by a man who begs Jesus to heal his son. | |
| Now what's happened here? | |
| Well, what's happened here is that as Jesus with Peter and James and John was on the mountain, the disciples, the rest of them, were down with this large group of people waiting for Jesus. | |
| And apparently what had happened was this man had a son who was being convulsed and seized by demons that he begged the disciples to drive out. | |
| Now, Jesus had given, in a previous part of the Gospel that we read, power when he sent his disciples out to drive out demons and perform miracles in the name of God and in Jesus' name. | |
| They were able to do this. | |
| He gave them power and authority to do it. | |
| So, presumably, while Jesus was away, they should have been able to drive the demon out of this boy. | |
| Which kind of leads us to the response we get from Jesus here. | |
| After being begged by the man to heal this boy who has these problems, Jesus replies, a little upset it sounds. | |
| He says, Now, why do you think Jesus is saying that? | |
| He's saying that because, again, the disciples are very much like a representation of you and I. We are essentially disciples, and we are connected to Jesus just as the disciples were, I believe. | |
| And we learn from their example, and their example, I believe, is all these stories that we learn in the Gospel are meant to help us connect in a way to help us understand what the human natural response is to the Messiah. | |
| And in this way, when Jesus leaves and he takes three disciples with him, it seems as though there was a little bit of trouble with the disciples that were left over. | |
| And apparently they weren't able to drive out this demon, and Jesus is upset about it. | |
| Because he's thinking probably to himself, I would imagine, given what we've read and contextually speaking beforehand, he had given them a power and authority to drive out demons. | |
| So he tells them they're unbelieving and rebellious. | |
| Meaning, they still hadn't gotten the picture yet. | |
| Now, Jesus performs this great miracle and he drives out this unclean spirit. | |
| He cures the boy. | |
| He gives him back to his father. | |
| And everyone was astonished. | |
| And then Jesus turns to his disciples and he says this. | |
| Let these words sink in. | |
| The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. | |
| But then hear this. | |
| It says they didn't understand the statement. | |
| That's what it says here. | |
| It was concealed from them. | |
| So they could not grasp it. | |
| And they were afraid to even ask him about it. | |
| Now why was it concealed from them? | |
| Why were they unable to understand what Jesus was saying? | |
| Well, because as we know from other gospel readings in other gospels, Matthew and Mark up until now, That the disciples had a very different image of what a Messiah was supposed to look like as opposed to what Jesus was trying to teach them the Messiah actually was. | |
| The disciples are convinced that Jesus is going to be, if he is the true Messiah, he is going to be a king. | |
| He's going to wear armor. | |
| He's going to have a sword. | |
| He's going to ride on a horse. | |
| He's going to have a great kingdom on earth. | |
| He's going to overthrow the Romans, and he's going to do all of this to save and uplift the tribe of That is the chosen of God, the Jewish people of the day. | |
| But along the way, Jesus has been trying to teach his disciples that the kingdom of heaven is not something that's on earth. | |
| It's something that is in heaven, and that that is the kingdom that we should all be striving toward, especially when Jesus tells us that we should be building our treasure in heaven and not on earth. | |
| Now, disciples still don't understand that, so when he tells them that the Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men, and he tells them before this, the first time, that he's going to die and he's going to have to suffer at the hands of man, they just don't understand it. | |
| It doesn't even compute. | |
| It just goes right over their head. | |
| And in that same way, I believe we sometimes forget to realize that Even though we know God wins in the end, it may not happen the way that we expect it to happen. | |
| God is the ultimate judge, and we're all going to face that judgment at the end of our lives. | |
| There may be retribution in this world. | |
| There may be justice that God decides is just and brings, but it's not up to us to make that decision. | |
| And in the same way that the disciples seem to be unable to understand that Jesus is building a kingdom in heaven and teaching us to store our treasure in heaven, And they want things to happen the way they envision it on this world. | |
| We, too, have that same folly of sinful thinking that the disciples had themselves. | |
| And this story tells us who the greatest among us is, because Jesus explains. | |
| He grabs a child, knowing what's in the hearts of the disciples, mind you. | |
| That's what it says here. | |
| And he takes this child, he says, Now, this is all after the disciples had decided to essentially argue with one another about who is the greatest. | |
| Right? | |
| Now, what we learn from this reading is that the greatest among us is going to be those of us who reject this world and put our lives in the hand of Christ and call out on His name to help us help others. | |
| We may not be kings or queens. | |
| We may not be the rich and powerful. | |
| We may not be the most mighty and militarily strong. | |
| We may be none of those things. | |
| But what we will be is strong in our faith toward Jesus. | |
| And that can help us do great things. | |
| When John responds, Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he does not follow us. | |
| Jesus tells him, don't stop him! | |
| Jesus told him, because whoever is not against you is for you. | |
| I think what he's telling us there is that, and what he's telling his disciples and us through it, is that the kingdom of heaven is not just for those who believe in the fact that Jesus is going to come a certain way and do a certain thing. | |
| It's for all those who believe. | |
| And that we can do great things through Christ who strengthens us. | |
| We don't have to be as special as a disciple or as powerful as a king or as rich as a ruler. | |
| We just have to be in faith toward Christ. | |
| So I'm going to say a prayer and then we'll wrap it up. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you for this incredible scripture today that we were able to read through. | |
| Lord, help us remember in our own lives who the greatest among us are, and that's those who, in your name, help others and find strength in you. | |
| Let us find a will to be great in that way, Lord, and not to strive for our will to be done, but allow for your will to be done. | |
| We thank you for that opportunity to make that choice freely, And willingly to turn our lives over to you and allow your will to be done. | |
| Help us do that. | |
| Help us learn from the lessons that we are taught in the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. | |
| And thank you most of all, Lord, for our eternal salvation. | |
| In Jesus' name, amen. | |
| All right, well, I hope you guys enjoyed that. | |
| We're going to go ahead and wrap it up there, but please, description below, there's links to everything, all my social media, everything. | |
| If you want to support the channel financially, there's a link that's right under the support button there. | |
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| I appreciate it. | |
| But with that being said, I want to say thank you for watching another God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. |
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