Luke 9:46-62

Sermon Notes

Luke 9:46-62

The Greatness of Humility

Pastor Jim Thomas

1. Gospel Greatness

Luke 9:46-48

“Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important”
T. S. Elliot

“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”
Jesus, Matthew 20:26

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Nothing is more obnoxious in us who claim to follow Jesus Christ than arrogance, and nothing is more appropriate or attractive than humility.”
John Stott, The Bible

God can do tremendous things through people who are ready to love, give and serve, and don’t care who gets the credit.

2. Gospel Unity

Luke 9:49-50

“In the essentials- unity, in the non-essentials- liberty, in all things- charity.”
Meldenius

“The church is meant to be the preeminent example of unity in diversity – a place where people who are fundamentally different from each other can still call each other, brother and sister, because what unites us is far bigger than what separates us.”
Justin Brierley, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God

3. Gospel Mercy

Luke 9:51-56

“We must hold firmly that pardon and peace are to be offered freely through Christ to all without exception. We never know who they are that God will draw, and have nothing to do with it. Our duty is to invite all, and leave it to God to choose the vessels of mercy.”
J. C. Ryle, Commentary on the Gospel of John

“In an ego-centered culture, wants become needs (maybe even duties), the self replaces the soul, and human life degenerates into the clamor of competing autobiographies. People get fascinated with how they feel and with how they feel about how they feel.”
Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be

“How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it; if you could really look at other men with common curiosity and pleasure.”
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

“God’s mercy must, and will make us merciful – if it doesn’t, then we never understood or accepted God’s mercy in truth.”
Timothy Keller, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I?

4. Gospel Priorities

Luke 9:57-62

“The Christian landscape is strewn with the wreckage of derelict, half-built towers — the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish. For thousands of people still ignore Christ’s warning and undertake to follow him without first pausing to reflect on the cost of doing so. The result is the great scandal of Christendom today, so-called ‘nominal Christianity’.”
John Stott, Basic Christianity

“Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated by the shorthand ‘the kingdom of God.’”
James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love