February 9, 2025

Luke 9:46-62

The Greatness of Humility

Sunday Sermons

In Luke 9:46-62, Jesus confronts two of the most pressing issues in the life of a disciple—ambition and commitment. As the disciples argue over who is the greatest, we see a reflection of our own struggle for significance and recognition. Jesus turns our idea of greatness on its head by teaching us that true greatness in the Kingdom of God is not found in status or success but in learning to love and serve others.

The call of Jesus is radical and uncompromising: choosing to follow Him will require complete surrender, the abandonment of personal priorities, and a willingness to embrace the cost of discipleship.

This passage is not just a theological lesson; it’s a challenge to radically reorient our lives around Jesus and His Kingdom. Join Pastor Jim as he helps us consider questions like: What are the things we cling to that hinder our walk with Christ? How can believing the Gospel of grace shape and influence us to greater humility and deeper spiritual growth?

Speaker

Jim Thomas

Series

The Gospel According to Luke

Go to Series

Scripture

Luke 9:46-62

Topics
Calling & Vocation Growth & Discipleship

Sermon Notes

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

Discussion Questions

  • Jesus often used children to underscore a point, as in Luke 9:47-48. What is the difference between childish and childlike? Which word best describes the disciples as they argued about who is the greatest?
  • Why is “people wanting to be important” (T.S. Elliot) the source of so much trouble in this world? Can you think of a time when your “wanter” was broken?
  • Read Tim Keller’s quote and ask yourself if there is someone in your life from whom you are withholding mercy. What does an unwillingness to extend mercy demonstrate?
  • Two people in v.57-62 had an opportunity to follow Jesus. Both responded with, “Lord, let me first…” Why is this a problem? Have you ever responded to God’s prompting with, “Lord, let me first?”

Transcript

So, we study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. If you would like a paper copy, raise your hand up real high. We’ve got a few extra copies. If you don’t, we have the QR code up on the screen there. You can get the notes and quotes in advance. I want to say a special thank you and greet our friends who joined us over the last week or so from Muscat, Oman; from Singapore, from Manassas, Virginia, Greenville, North Carolina, and the Washington DC metro area as well. We’re so glad that you were able to join us over the last week and love having a response from you who watch online and join us. Let us know you’re out there! We want to give you a shout-out and connect with you in any way that we can. We are indeed studying Luke, Chapter 9, verses 46 through 62. We’ll finish the chapter today. I’m going to call this study “The Greatness of Humility.”

Jesus confronts two of the most pressing issues in the life of the disciple of Jesus, ambition and commitment, as the disciples have just come down from this experience of failing to be able to cast out the demon from this little boy. We just read about that last week. There was a transfiguration and Jesus, Peter, James and John came down the mountain. The nine other disciples had been attempting to cast a demon out of this young boy. His father had begged them to do that, and they could not do it. So, it had this moment where they just failed, just a horrible moment of failure. And the irony of it all is that we roll right from that into a discussion about which of them, or an argument actually, about which of them is the greatest. So, you can see the irony there. The passage is not just a theological lesson though, it’s a challenge to radically reorient our lives as members of His kingdom, and the ambitions of our lives as well, around Jesus and His way of thinking.

So, we’re going to consider questions like: What are the things we cling to that hinder our walk with Christ? What are the things that we ought to direct or channel our ambitions into? Can we believe the Gospel so much so that it shapes and influences us to a greater humility and a deeper spiritual growth as we learn what it means to serve our King and His kingdom? Let me pray for us and then we’re going to read the entire text: Oh God, who are the way, the truth and the life, we want Your, we seek Your, we desire Your guidance today in all that we do. As we open Your Word, let Your wisdom counsel us. May Your hand lead us. And Lord, may Your arm support us. Breathe into our souls holy and heavenly desires and ambitions. Make us like our Savior in that way, that in some measure, we may live here on Earth as He lived and do in all things as He would do. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen and amen.

So, Luke, Chapter 9, verse 46. And write in all caps in your Bible, if you want, even in the pew Bible, write “Ironically.” And it’s following on the heels, as I said, of this horrible failure, this ministry fail thing that happened. These guys now have an argument that arises in verse 46 among them as to which of them might be the greatest. And now here’s Peter, James, and John who just came off the Mount of Transfiguration. They have got to be feeling pretty good about themselves. They got called into the personal space of Jesus up there on the Transfiguration Mountain. Got to meet Moses and Elijah, pretty cool, right. And then the other nine guys, they’re probably down the hill and they’re just wrestling with the fact that they’ve failed. They’ve probably been yelling and screaming at each other. You didn’t do it right, you didn’t strut, you didn’t spit enough, you didn’t yell and scream at the demons enough, whatever.

And now they’re arguing about who is the greatest in the Kingdom. “Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, and He said to them [the disciples] “Whoever receives this child in My name, receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives Him that sent Me; for he who is least among you, this is the one who is great.” So childlike, not childish. They were behaving childishly, but childlike is a good thing for all of us. “And John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name; and we tried to hinder him because he does not follow along with us.” In other words, he wasn’t wearing, they probably had swag, one of the original 12, a t-shirt or whatever, and he wasn’t following along. He wasn’t with us, and so we dismissed that guy out of hand, right? “And Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you.”

And this is really, I think, a profound little snapshot of a discussion there. Verse 51: “It came about when the days were approaching for His ascension, that He resolutely set His face to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him. They went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.” He’s making his Aliyah. He’s going up to Jerusalem. That’s what Jews would do as they sang. They would sing the songs of ascent, the psalms from back in the Old Testament, several of these songs they would sing and Jesus probably singing. I’d love to hear His voice sing. I would love to hear Him sing some of those psalms. But as that is about to happen. They went and they were going through and there was this village of the Samaritans, and some of His disciples had gone on ahead to make arrangements for Him, verse 53. And they did not receive Him, these Samaritans didn’t, because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.

You have to understand there was a lot of animosity. There was racial and religious bigotry and acrimony between Jews and Samaritans, and they just hated each other. That’s why the story of The Good Samaritan is such an incredible story. It’s powerful. It has great impact. Why? Because you just would never expect “good” and “Samaritan” to go together if you were a Jewish person. And so here they’re going through this village. They didn’t receive Jesus because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem. He’s going to go there; He’s going to lay down His life down… He must go there. He’s already said that, right? The Samaritans are mad because He’s headed that way. They don’t want to receive Him because He’s going to Jewish territory, Jerusalem, the capital city of the Jewish religion. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come out of heaven and consume them?” So, they’re like bouncers among the disciples.

They’re the big guys, the pro wrestling dudes among them. They probably got tats all over them. And probably Hebrew tats, like modern-day worship leaders. I mean, that’s just one of those kinds of things where you’re just really proud of it. Not ours, not our worship leaders, no. But you can check Tommy, you could check the other ones as well. But these guys are like bouncers. And what they’re saying to Jesus is, “Because these Samaritans are not receiving you, you want us to get up in their grill? You want us to call down fire and brimstone from heaven on them? We’ll take care of them for you.” Stepping in, trying to protect Jesus, like Jesus needs our protection, okay, or anybody’s protection for that matter. So, verse 55: “But He turned and rebuked them.” Not the Samaritans, He’s rebuking James and John. And by the way, He nicknamed them at one point, Boanerges. It means “Sons of Thunder.” They were boom and boom. Boom and boomer, whatever.

“And they went on to another village from there,” verse 57. “And as they were going along the road, someone said to Him [to Jesus] ‘I will follow You wherever You go.’” See, there’s just a lot of confidence and even a little bit of hubris in this passage as we’re reading it, isn’t there? “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” The Son of Man is the most often used self-referential title that Jesus will employ. He calls Himself the Son of Man over and over and over again. And for first century Jews, that’s speaking loudly that He sees Himself as the Messiah, the title Son of Man being lifted right out of the book of Daniel. So, He’s saying, “Hey, you follow Me, you’re following somebody that doesn’t even… I don’t want to have a house. I can’t get a reverse mortgage if I want one. I don’t have a house. I don’t have a place to lay My head. If you choose to follow Me, think about what you’re doing. Count the cost before you do that.”

So, Jesus turns to another person and calls that person to follow Him. And that person says, “Permit me first to go and bury my father.” Some of your translations will say, he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” I’ll point out that “me” and “first” don’t go together if Jesus is Lord. You don’t say “Lord” and then say, “me first.” It’s always Jesus first if He’s Lord, okay. And so, this is somebody Jesus called, the guy that we just read before, somebody that came up to Jesus and said, “I’ll go with You wherever we go.” Now this is somebody He’s called and this guy’s saying, “Let me first go do something else.” “But He said to him, ‘Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.’ And another also said, [so we got a third encounter here] I will follow You, Lord, but first…” Here’s another.

“Me firsts” are breaking out everywhere, aren’t they? Maybe they break out in your life as well as they do in mine. I read that and I’m convicted because I say “me first” all the time to God. “Now Lord first permit me to say goodbye to those at home. I’ll follow you but first let me do that.” Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” So, there’s an abandonment that turns into an allegiance to Jesus, and if we’re going to follow Him, indeed that’s what is called for. What a great closing to what we call chapter nine. Of course, Luke didn’t write in chapters like that, like we have it separated in our English Bibles. But I’m so glad that he wrote this particular section and that we’ve chosen to run this all together because there is a bit of the greatness of humility on display here.

It begins with a redefinition by the Gospel, I would say, of what greatness really looks like. And that’s back in verses 46 to 48. These guys weren’t just interested in becoming great. They’re arguing about who’s the greatest. They weren’t just interested in becoming great, they were interested in becoming and being known to be greater than the next guy. And that’s really the problem for a lot of us, isn’t it? How much is enough of anything, just a little more than the next guy? That’s how much. I always want, just a little more fame. I always want just a little more money. I always want just a little more respect than the next guy. And so, we fixate on things we can buy or on pleasures we might be seeking, or on recognition we might be in pursuit of in so many different categories. They were interested in becoming greater than the next guy, and so the Gospel really does redefine what greatest means, I think. T.S. Eliot once said, “Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important.” Let’s read that aloud together: “Most of the trouble in this world is caused by people wanting to be important.”

Now I want you to know, don’t sit here and hear me saying or the text saying or anything of that sort, that your desire for a significant life is wrong or sinful or whatever. No, that’s not that. That’s not what he’s talking about here. See, we are just constantly like these disciples, and I love these disciples. I don’t think I’m smarter than them. I’m just grateful that the story that we’re given in the Bible is actually real. I mean, it resonates with me. Why? Because I can even see myself in them. I want to be greater than the next guy. I have a lust for that. See, lust is not just a sexual thing. Lust is for greatness too. That’s why we find ourselves with such ambition that has run amok. And yet Jesus elsewhere in Matthew 26 says, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.” That could summarize the entire passage we just read. You want to be great in God’s kingdom? Seek the servanthood. That’s what you want to be in pursuit of. Because the kingdom of God and the Gospel of grace redefines your understanding of greatness.

We’ve all been schooled in it ever since we were in school. We have been taught that… It’s sort of a performance-based greatness. And in some categories of life, I love meritocracy. I mean, you’re probably going to watch a certain sport activity today, some of you. And you really want there to be a full-on display of people with an ambition to win, right? I’m not going to ask you who you’re for. I’m not going to tell you who I’m for, but I just know this. I don’t want it to be 38 to 3. I want a good game, and I want everybody to play at their best level. So being great is good. And winning the game, okay, that’s fine, you can win the game. But in about two or five years, I’m going to forget that you won that game. Even though it’s the biggest game in the world this year, this moment, this day. It really ultimately doesn’t matter as much as we’re all ginned up to think it matters. And so again, not stifling your enthusiasm for the event itself, but have ambition toward excellence. That’s good.

I think it’s usually good, most often good, but it’s got to be directed at the right thing. If not, it becomes left to the pursuits or the desires of our hearts that sometimes are, as we said yesterday in our greenhouse program, we said “our wanter is broken.” We talked about how we’re sometimes delighting in good things and sometimes we’re delighting in things that aren’t so good for us. And if I’m delighting in your demise, a lot of times that’s just because I want to feel superior, or I’m just not being patient with you, or I just don’t have enough grace for you and I don’t think, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. You could roll on and it could be that way in your household. It could be that way at work, it could be that way in your neighborhood. But there’s no repugnant others when you’re a follower of Jesus. Why? Because you were the repugnant other to God. You were at enmity with God as a sinner, and He loved you in spite of that. And He was patient with you and continues to be patient with you even to this day.

So, I think that’s really important. Our ambition can quickly devolve into competition, tournament, pride and “look what I did” hubris. There’s no competition in the body of Christ. So, in this category that we’re talking about, which is being members of the kingdom, and that’s what those guys are arguing about, who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God. You can read Matthew’s version of it in Matthew 17 and Mark’s version of it in Mark, chapter nine, and you’ll find out that’s what there are. Who’s the greatest in the kingdom of God? And there’s no competition in the kingdom of God. Why? Because there’s enough love, grace and mercy on offer to cover all of us and for all of us to be lavished with God’s love, to be lavished in God’s grace and His mercy. We should, like the apostle Paul, be so devoted to one another in brotherly love that we give preference to one another in honor. Romans 12:10.

That directive is for me to do that in spite of how you perform. I’m to honor you and respect you no matter what level you’re at in society, no matter what level of educational prowess you may have achieved. No, I’m to honor my brothers and sisters in Christ. And the watching world sees a group of people who don’t think in the same categories that they think in, but a group of people that honor one another, that cross all kinds of boundaries. I mean, think about the Samaritans and the Jews, right? If you cross racial lines and religious lines there, I mean, for the Jews, Jerusalem was the holy city, not so for the Samaritans. When you start crossing those lines, people start scratching their head wondering, “How is that possible?” And the answer is, it’s possible because we have the same preeminent one. His name is Jesus. He’s the most important one. And we are here actually to serve His purposes.

Paul from prison would write to the church at Philippi: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourself.” Can you let that sink in? Is the person that irks you more important than you? Let that sink in. That directive from Paul is so powerful. “Do not merely look out for your own interests,” he says, “But also for the interests of others.” I got to be honest with you. You come into a room like this, there’s a bunch of us here, and it’s so easy to fall into the thing of just looking around the room to see who’s here. That might be more important than the person that’s standing right in front of me or sitting right over there all by themselves. And if somebody’s sitting all by themselves, that’s a three-alarm fire in my view. Let’s get on with the business of being the church. Nobody goes unnoticed when they walk in this door. That’s really important. And we should prefer one another. We should see one another as more important than ourselves.

So, my exhortation to you, and to myself, is always give away what you need. If you’re feeling lonely like nobody noticed you in this church, then go give away what you think you need. That’s the way of Jesus. Give away His life because we need life. He wanted to redeem us, He wanted to save us, and we need to do that same self-sacrificial kind of thing. So, Lewis says: “True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.” What a great turnaround. Now what a great turn of phrase. It’s so wonderful. I mean, that’s the kind of thing you would want to put up on your mirror as you’re getting ready to go out to work or go out for a run or whatever. Think of yourself less and think of others a little bit more. When you’re with other people, for instance, is the conversation always turning back to you somehow? Is that the habit you’ve gotten into because you just always want it to be about you?

That’s so easy for me to fall into. I have this problem. I hope God will continue to purge me of that and all of us of that. Well, I want to get to that a little bit more in just a second, but this is really, really important. Redirect your ambition toward becoming a servant. Have a holy ambition to serve Christ, His kingdom purposes, His church and His people. Become a conductor of your conversation. You can actually tell yourself what to talk about and what to think. Conduct it like an orchestra. And every now and then, let somebody else speak. And once in a while, Iet it just be about the others. And that around here, the joke is, “Well enough about me. let’s talk about my career now,” or “Enough about me, let’s talk about whatever else I’m into.” G.K. Chesterton. I don’t have it on the screen, but I love this quote. I have it memorized. G.K. Chesterton once said in his book Orthodoxy, “How much larger your life would be if yourself could be smaller in it?”

I should have put that on a slide, shouldn’t I? “How much larger your life would be if yourself could be smaller in it?” He goes on to say, I like this too, he says, “If you could really look at others with common curiosity and pleasure…” I have a friend that’s really good at this, and I watch this friend do this all the time, it’s always a question being asked, not about, “Did you like what I did there or do you like…” No, it’s always a question about, “Hey, what brought you here? What’s significant to you? What’s inspiring you?” Somebody just think about a way to make it about others. You’ve such a more attractive role that you might play in the community. Ask questions, show interest in others. Resist the urge to turn every encounter into a self-referential recital of your accomplishments or worse, your adversities. God gave you two ears and one mouth. Use them in that proportion. Really, really important. I think God can do tremendous things through people who are ready to love, give and serve and don’t care who gets the credit. It’s really, really important.

And yes, I’ll throw that up there too. “Nothing is more obnoxious in us who claim to follow Jesus than arrogance, and nothing is more appropriate or attractive than humility.” Secondly, the greatness of humility is seen in how the Gospel redefines unity itself. We saw that in verses 49 to 50. Set your eyes right back on the page there as well, 49 to 50. This is when John said, “Hey, Master, somebody was coming casting out demons in your name, and we tried to hinder him because he does not follow along.” He’s not wearing the TVC t-shirt. Couldn’t be a Christian. He’s not wearing our jersey. But Jesus said to him, “Do not hinder him. He who is not against you, is for you.” Now, that’s so important, isn’t it? 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.

And those of us who’ve been to seminary, those of us who have looked behind the curtain, so to speak, in the denominational higher-up towers where people end up a lot of times sadly, dividing. Because they don’t do that. We don’t do things together with them. We’re not going to join with them. They don’t baptize like we do. We’re not going to join with them, if they let women speak in the room at all, or up on the stage or pray, oh no. So, we don’t want to separate ourselves even from those who are looking at us that way. Village Chapel, we see ourselves as part of the universal church. We’re all united in Christ, and He’s more important than what divides us. He’s more important to me than me taking personal offense that somebody out there thinks we’re doing it wrong. I’m still connected to them because I’m in Christ. And they’re in Christ too, and they’re possibly being wrong about one issue or another. Doesn’t mean they aren’t in Christ. And so, John needed to learn that. He saw that kind of thing in this person.

He felt like they needed to be a part of the same herd he was a part of. And this brings me back to that phrase… And it’s been credited to, Rupertus Meldenius, but I’ve also seen it credited to others. So, whether it’s Rupertus or not, doesn’t matter; it’s really still true. “In the essentials – unity, in the non-essentials – liberty.” That is there’s room for two lanes, three lanes, four lanes, whatever. “…in all things – charity.” This is the tone with which we should look at others. Charity as love, not charity as in just giving to the poor, but love, charity as love. And that’s I think a very, very important thing. As this began as an argument about greatness, you can see where humility, a gospel understanding of humility, starts to help be the resolution or the antidote to the problem itself.

I remember, and you probably have heard this as well, that the conductor and composer, Leonard Bernstein purportedly was asked at one point, “What’s the hardest instrument to play?” And his answer was “Second fiddle.” He said, “I can get anybody to play first fiddle. It’s just really hard to get anybody to play second fiddle.” And then he said, “And that’s a problem because if we have no second fiddle, we have no harmony.” And that’s really good. I think that’s a really excellent thing to have said there as well. “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 they get fascinated with how they feel about how they feel.” Does that sound like the world we live in today? Yes, it really does, doesn’t it?

People are thinking with their feelings instead of thinking in a lovely sort of way. Justin Brierley has one of the books over the last year that has got to be one of my top five books for the year 2024. The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. “The church is meant to be the preeminent example of unity and 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.” That’s worth reading about 10 times. I’ll just do it twice. Gospel mercy is the third aspect of the greatness of humility, it’s the way that the Gospel redefines or recasts mercy. And we see that, don’t we? In 51 through 56 where the whole encounter with the Samaritans happens. James and John want to call down fire and brimstone to consume them. And the Lord says, “No, we’re to be merciful, we’re to be gracious.” And that’s just so important.

J.C Ryle, “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.” You got that? And leave it to God to choose the vessels of mercy. So, who am I supposed to withhold the Gospel from? Nobody. Who am I to share the Gospel with? Everybody. That’s why we’re still here. That’s why He hasn’t wrapped up human history. He wants us to be His witnesses. He wants us to be a city on a hill, a light that can’t be hidden because the Gospel is just shining forth. People, the watching world, see this gaggle of people that call themselves The Village Chapel, and on down the road, see all of our sister and brother churches all over Nashville and literally all around the world.

We want them, the Lord wants them, to see Jesus and what Jesus can do to transform lives that would otherwise not be able to get along, that would otherwise want to call down fire and brimstone on each other. And so, the Lord Jesus sets that right. “God’s mercy must and will make us merciful,” Keller says. “If it doesn’t, then we never understood or accepted God’s mercy in truth.” Do you get that? That’s a pretty profound little statement there. He’s really drawing a line. You can tell how, whether or not you’ve received God’s grace and mercy in whether or not you find yourself just always wanting to withhold it from others. Well, you know what? You probably don’t really understand grace and mercy if you’re just always withholding it. But if you’re just there as a vessel of God to be the ambassador of Jesus Christ, ambassador of the Gospel in this world, then you will be so excited to freely share the Gospel with any and all – and especially those nobody else seems to care about, whomever the Lord puts in front of us.

So, we want to have this greatness of humility that redefines greatness, unity and mercy and also priorities. We see that in the last little section verses 57 through 62. And we have three different examples there, don’t we? We have this one that’s about the price or the cost of discipleship. The second one’s about the priorities of discipleship. A man that Jesus invited to follow Him, but this guy had some “me firsts.” And then we have that perspective of discipleship. The man who wanted to follow Jesus without putting Jesus first. He didn’t want to make Christ preeminent. And I’m going to tell you, this does not work. I’ve just been walking the pilgrim way long enough to know that people can tell if you’re not authentic. In one of those small groups that I’ve visited in our greenhouse program yesterday, there was a conversation about authenticity that was really good. That people can tell whether or not you mean it or not.

And I think we need to keep that in mind when we’re sharing the Gospel, when we’re following Jesus. Let it be Jesus we’re following and not just religious rule following. Because when others look at us and see the way we treat our friends, our neighbors, our fellow church members, the person that we just run into along the street that has needs, whatever, and we just dismiss them out of hand, because they don’t look like us, think like us, dress like us, don’t act like us, don’t have a lifestyle like us. There are no repugnant others for us because Jesus came to die for sinners. He didn’t only come to die for people that look like Jim and act like Jim and dress like Jim, whatever. He came to lay His life down so that all who would repent and believe could turn to Him and receive salvation as a free gift, and then be called onto this great adventure of following Jesus and beginning to unfold further in more detail His kingdom here in Nashville, here in this little part of Nashville.

Here in this one church of many in Nashville, where we are probably the most churched city in America. And yet the Lord is busy here. He’s busy in the other churches as well, but He’s quite busy here, and I’m so glad to see it. I think when we lose sight of these principles and the way that the Gospel redefines greatness, redefines unity, redefines mercy and reorders or directs our priorities in life. I think when we lose sight of all of that is when we get off track. When we’re on that, when we’re focused there and allowing the grace of God to overflow us, to flow into us and out of us. When we’re seeing ourselves as I really actually belonging to everyone else who belongs to Jesus for good or for bad, whether I think they’re weird or not. I mean, everybody in the room has a crazy Aunt Virginia or a weird Uncle Eddie, don’t you? We all have that. I hope your name isn’t Virginia or Eddie here in the room today.

But we all have somebody in our family or somebody in our workplace or whatever, that we might think of as just a little strange or odd or whatever. And I think the Gospel starts to reshape and reframe our hearts and we start to see people differently. Mercy begins to flow. Why? Because we’ve received it even as Jesus taught us in Matthew, Chapter 6, in the Lord’s Prayer. “Lord forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others who trespass against us.” It’s the only conditional line in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s really important though. Matter of fact, in Matthew, Chapter 6, Jesus repeats it after He has the Lord’s prayer. He even says, “If you want your Father to be merciful to you, you have got to be merciful to others as well.” In other words, give away what you need. And that’s I think so important for us as well. We struggle, some of us, with this, that’s why we need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

That’s why we need the Lord’s life to blossom in us and to flow through us. That’s why the apostle Paul would write that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Why? Because we leak. And at the same time, He wants us to overflow, not just leak, but to overflow. And we can’t do that with our own love. We need the love of God to do that in our hearts. Second time I’ll quote Stott this morning, if you’ll permit me to. “The Christian landscape is strewn with a wreckage of derelict half-built towers – the ruins of those who began to build and were unable to finish.” You might know some, you might be one, and you just happen to come back in here today. “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.”

I think this whole passage that we’ve read today, this would be a great word to those kinds of people that Jesus is talking about. And the result, Stott says, is the great scandal of Christendom today, so-called nominal Christianity. What we’re called to, what the Lord Jesus calls us to – and you can jump back to Matthew, Chapter 5 through 7, the Sermon on the Mount, you can reference there what Christ wants His church to actually look like. And it looks like something. It’s not just nothing. It’s really different. It’s different than the irreligious person who doesn’t believe in any kind of God or any kind of moral lawgiver. It’s different from that kind of person, but it’s also different from the nominal Christian. You see? We are to be other in a way from the nominal Christian and from the unbelieving person.

So, the call to us as we study a passage like this is, are we ready to step up and follow Him? To serve as Jesus served, to love as Jesus loved, to be united with those that might strike us as a little weird or odd or perhaps tedious in some way, and to be merciful to all of those that Jesus would put across our path, and to order our priorities in life in such a way that we are seen to love and live just as Jesus would? I’ll close with this quote from James K.A Smith. You Are What You Love is his book. I highly recommend it too. “Jesus’ 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 to crave a world where He is all in all – a vision encapsulated by the shorthand ‘the kingdom of God.’”

Let’s pray: Lord, thank You for choosing and calling us to join You in Your kingdom. Now, the Holy Spirit move in my heart, move in our hearts as to how we will respond to that call. I understand it’s not just a one and done. Yes, we must enter, but we also want to live our lives now and until You return and change us and renew us, and renew all things, Lord. We want to live our lives for Your glory as Your church, Your bride, Your beautiful bride, preparing for the return of the bridegroom. Holy Spirit, do a good work in each individual within the sound of my voice, and in my heart as well, Lord. Help us look more like Jesus, day and day and day after that. We pray in His name. Amen and amen.

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“His Mercy Is More“by Matt Boswell, Matt Papa
“Revive Us Again“ by John Jenkins Husband and William Paton MacKay
“We Will Feast In The House Of Zion“ by Sandra McCracken and Joshua Moore
“Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God“ by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
 “Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: Make a Joyful Noise

Leader: Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
People: I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Leader: Believers in Christ, bless the Lord; let all that is within you bless his holy name!
People: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

All: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Amen!

Confession: The Apostles’ Creed

We believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Classic Prayer: Augustine, 354-430

Father, you are full of compassion, I commit and commend myself unto you, in whom I am, and live, and know. Be the Goal of my pilgrimage, and my Rest by the way. Let my soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thoughts beneath the shadow of your wings; let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in you, O God. Amen.

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