LUKE 9:49-56 MIND YOUR MANNER OF SPIRIT2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 9:49-56 Mind Your Manner Of Spirit

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Well, as we look at our passage this morning here in Luke chapter 9, verses 49 through 56, we're

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Continuing on, really a theme that we've been seeing here in chapter 9, as Jesus has been really focusing on his disciples and teaching us a lot about being a disciple, and we'll continue that next week as well as we finish off the chapter. But for the past few times, we've seen that Jesus is helping his disciples understand, hey guys,

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Ministry, the kingdom of God, is not the way that you think it is. A lot of times, as we've talked about over the past few weeks, we forget that God's ways are not our ways. We forget how opposite we are. We forget that God said as high as the heavens are above the earth, that's how high his ways are above our ways. We began to see this theme a few verses back as we saw Jesus heal the demon-possessed boy.

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And as Jesus healed the demon-possessed boy, the crowd is excited. They're rejoicing. There's this big celebration going on. But Jesus ducks out of the celebration for a moment and calls his disciples over. And he says, hey guys, there's something more important going on. There's something more important about to take place. More important than healing and this releasing of the demon from this boy is I'm going to be betrayed.

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And we saw that God's way often uses betrayal to accomplish victory, uses suffering to accomplish success. And it's opposite of what the disciples were expecting. They were expecting a big, you know, crowning celebration of Jesus, not a rejection and a crucifixion of Jesus. And Jesus is explaining to them, it's not the way that you think. My victory will be through betrayal.

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Well, then that continued on as the disciples go from there and they get into an argument about which one of them is the greatest. And they're thinking, you know, which one of us is going to have the most power? Which one of us is going to be esteemed most highly? Which one of us is the best of the best?

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And Jesus then has to address them again and say, hey guys, it's not the way that you think. The greatest in the kingdom of God will be the one who serves the most. It's opposite of what we think. Not lording it over, not having high authority. That doesn't accomplish you greatness in the kingdom of God.

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but humbling yourself and serving one another. That is what brings greatness in the kingdom of God. And so the disciples have had to be corrected. They're a little bit confused about the kingdom of God and the work of Christ. And that continues on today. I titled our message this morning, Mind Your Manner of Spirit.

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Because Jesus has to correct the disciples on their manner of spirit and the type of, well, the type of believers that they are seeking to be. We see in verse 55, Jesus rebukes his disciples and says, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of.

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He says, guys, you're not behaving according to me. You're not following me. You're not following my example. You're paving your own way and it's not Christ-like.

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You've forgotten or you don't know what manner of spirit you are of. Now as we consider this portion and this correction that Jesus offers to his disciples, of course it's appropriate for you and I today. Well, because it still continues on today that disciples, believers in Jesus Christ, perhaps you and I this morning, they don't know what manner of spirit they're of.

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So these are some important things for us to consider. The first point to consider found in verses 49 and 50 is don't hinder your teammates. Don't hinder your teammates. Look at verse 49. It says, Now John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.

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I use the word team or teammate because, well, it's really a good picture of the kingdom of God. It's something we need to remember and grasp hold of. And that's the lesson that Jesus will be teaching his disciples here because John, the apostle John, comes to Jesus and he says, Jesus, I want to let you know about a situation that we took care of for you. You don't have to worry about it. You can just pat us on the back because, well, we took care of the problem.

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What was the problem? Well, you see, there was this guy and he was casting out demons using your name. But he doesn't go with us. He's not with us on the journey. He's not following with us. So you can thank us now. We put a stop to it. We told him to knock it off, Lord. You're welcome. Now, what's amazing about this is, consider, this guy that they're dealing with is casting out demons. You know what that means?

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That means that there are people who are demon-possessed, and he's setting them free in the name of Jesus. He's releasing them from that torment, that bondage. He's doing this great work of God in releasing them from this. But the disciples aren't so much concerned about the people who are inflicted with this issue and being set free. They're concerned about this guy who

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Lord, he's not part of us. So we told him to knock it off because he can't be using your name unless he walks with us. We forbade him, which means to hinder or to prevent. We told him to stop because he doesn't follow with us. That word follow, it means to be an attendant or to accompany. So it's not that he didn't believe in Jesus. It's just that he wasn't part of the group. He didn't travel on the journey with them. He wasn't part of the group of disciples that was always with Jesus. And so John says, we told him to stop.

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One commentator said they became the guardians of truth. They established themselves, the committee that regulates ministry. They are now the decision makers. Who can do what in Jesus' name? It's kind of the mentality that was being developed here within the disciples. Hey, we're following Jesus. This guy, he's over there. He's using his name, but he's not with us. So we told them to stop. But notice Jesus corrects him in verse 50. It says, But Jesus said to him,

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Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side. Jesus corrects these guys, his disciples, and he says, don't forbid him. That's not what I want you to do. That's not what you should be doing. That's not your role. It's not your responsibility. Hey guys, he who is not against us is on our side. He's on our team.

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What you're doing, disciples, is you're hindering your own team. You're preventing your teammate from fulfilling the role that they were called to. What Jesus is trying to explain to his disciples is that God's work is bigger than the 12 disciples. The work of God, the kingdom of God, is bigger than just those 12. Or if you were to put that idea in our context today, the work of God here in Corona is bigger than Calvary Chapel Living Water.

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The work of God in the world is bigger than Calvary Chapel. That we need to understand there's many different people who are working in the name of Jesus and they're on our team. And it's not our role and responsibility to forbid them from doing the work that they're doing. We're not to hinder them. We're not to try to keep them from that because they're on our team. Jesus says, he who is not against us is on our side.

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Now I'm using this idea of, you know, team or teammate or it's a team sport because I think it's a really good picture for us to explore. There's a lot of parallels between this idea of a team sport and the kingdom of God. In my younger years when I was kind of first beginning to get involved here at Living Water, they had Thursday night basketball ministry.

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And I was never much into sports. I didn't really know how to play any sports. And yet, Pastor Tom, you know, he encouraged me. And you know how he is. He's able to encourage you to do things that you never wanted to do, right? So I started to get involved and learn how to play basketball. And it's good because, well, I learned some important parallels between that team's sport and the kingdom of God. When you're on the basketball court, you're playing for one of two sides, right?

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And that's it. There's only one option. You're either working towards that basket or you're working towards that basket. You're working with this team or you're working with that team. The same is true in the kingdom of God. You're working for one side or the other. You're with Jesus or you're against Jesus. And that's what Jesus is saying. If they're not against me, they're on our side. They're on our team. There's two goals on the court. And you're either working towards one or the other.

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As a team, there's different positions, there's different roles, but you're all working together to accomplish the victory. There's a lot of parallels there. You can continue to consider those things later on. But the point is, we're teammates. We're teammates with a lot of people that, well, maybe we would like to follow the example of the disciples and say, hey, we don't like the way that you're doing that.

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We don't agree with the philosophy of ministry that you follow. We don't agree with those things that you're doing. So you should probably knock it off. Stop it. We would like to forbid. We'd like to be the authority and say, who can do what? But that's not the role that God has given to us. And so in thinking about the kingdom of God as a team sport, there's three things I just want to highlight or point out for you real quick. One,

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to help us consider what Jesus said when he said, he who is not against us is on our side. The first one is the word defend. As teammates, we are to defend one another, that we would be able to continue on in the work that God has given to us. For this, I remember the example of Moses.

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In Numbers chapter 11, God is pouring out his Holy Spirit upon the elders that were appointed by Moses. God said, hey, gather them all to the tabernacle and I'll put my Holy Spirit upon them. And so all the elders that Moses is appointing gathered together and the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them there at the tabernacle and they begin to prophesy. They begin to speak forth the word of God empowered by the Spirit of God.

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Well, this is all wonderful and great, except for a messenger comes in from the camp. And the messenger says, hey, there's two guys out in the camp who are also prophesying. These two guys, Eldad and Medad, they're in the camp and they're prophesying. And Joshua becomes really concerned about this. And Joshua says, Moses, you got to forbid them. If they wanted to prophesy, they should have been here with the rest of the group. They can't be out there in the camp and prophesying. That's not right.

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Joshua says, Moses forbid them. But I love Moses' response. It's Numbers chapter 11 verse 29. You can check it out later on. It says, then Moses said to him, are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them. Moses says, look, are you zealous for my sake?

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Are you zealous for me? You think this lessens my role in the kingdom of God? You think I have to give authority and, you know, be the one that tells everybody what to do? Are you zealous for me? No, Moses says. It's not about me. Moses says, look, this is an answer to prayer. In fact, I wish it was even greater than this. I wish all of the camp would experience the Spirit of God and prophesy and speak His Word. It's not about strengthening my position, Joshua.

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It's about glorifying the Lord. And so Moses defended their right to be led by the Spirit, to speak forth the Word of God. But Joshua had the mentality, like the disciples, hey, they're not part of the group. We need to put a stop to this. Wanting to kind of control it, wanting to kind of be the authority of it, Moses says, no, they need to be led by the Spirit. In fact, my prayer is that more would be led by the Spirit.

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There's a lot that we could get into there. But again, looking at this idea, he who is not against us is on our side. There's another word that came to mind and that is rejoice. Rejoice. For this, I saw the example of the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter one. Here's Paul in prison, but he writes the book of Philippians, a book of great joy. Why?

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Well, because Paul's ambition in life, his main mission was not to live in luxury and not have any difficulty. His mission was to further the kingdom of God, to spread the gospel. That was his mission. And so he could have great joy in prison. Well, because what he is telling the Philippians is through these chains, the gospel is being preached. Again, it's not the way that we think.

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God accomplishes his works often the opposite of the way that we would accomplish them. We wouldn't do it through prison, but here in Paul's life, God is using this. And Paul explains to the Philippians in Philippians chapter 1, he says, Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife and some from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains.

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Paul says, look, I'm happy here. I rejoice because the gospel is being shared. But he also acknowledges, well, I understand, Paul says, not everybody who's preaching the gospel has the right heart and right motives in it. Some of them are motivated by envy and strife. They have selfish ambition and they're not sincere. They don't even really believe the things that they're preaching, Paul says, in some cases.

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Their hearts are not right necessarily. But then he says in verse 18 of Philippians 1, he says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. You see, Paul acknowledges not everybody preaching Christ has the right heart, has the right motive. Not everyone is going about it the right way. But here's what I rejoice in.

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Christ is being preached. This is amazing. Paul did not think it was his responsibility to go around and stop all those people who had the wrong heart and wrong motives. He wasn't the, you know, gospel policeman. His goal was that the gospel would be preached. And that's to be our goal as well. That the gospel would be preached. And when the gospel is preached,

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We should rejoice. In the same way, on a team, you know, you're playing and someone scores. You don't get mad and say, hey, I'm supposed to score. What do you think you're doing? You're supposed to pass it to me. Now, you might say that, but you're not a good team player. Paul says, look, I'm rejoicing. Hey, people are making baskets. Praise the Lord. That's awesome. The gospel is being preached. That's the point. I rejoice.

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And we are to do the same. You see, we're not trying to get the biggest church. That's not our objective. We're not trying to get people from other churches to start coming here. That's not our objective. That's not our goal. Our goal is to preach Christ, to preach the gospel, to reach those who've not heard. But sometimes, when we get caught up in the moment...

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It's like on a basketball court. You know, when you're trying to get the rebound, you're trying to get the loose ball, and you grab it, but then someone else grabs it too. And so you're kind of yanking it back and forth, trying to get the control. And then someone off to the side says, same team, same team. And you look up and you realize, oh, that's my teammate. I've been fighting against trying to take the ball from my teammate this whole time. We forget. We get caught up in the moment. And we're fighting over...

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Well, we're on the same team. We're on the same side. We're not trying to take it from each other. We are supporting one another. We need to rejoice as they get the ball, as they make the basket, as they do the work that God has called them to do. One pastor shared a while back to a group of other pastors, we all win as the kingdom of God advances. We all win when people get saved.

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Whether they go to this place or that place, the kingdom of God advances so we all win. That's our goal. That's our mission, to reach the lost in the name of Jesus Christ. And so we rejoice when Christ is preached. Jesus said, he who is not against us is on our side. Well, the third word that came to mind as I was meditating on this thought from the Lord is the word block.

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The word block. Because he says, he who is not against us. So the question is, who is against us? Who is it that in this sport we're playing against? Well, I would put it this way. Two things. Anyone who preaches another gospel and anyone who preaches another Jesus. The real enemy is Satan. We'll talk about that in just a few moments. But

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Who we're playing against. Who we are to oppose. We're not to forbid those who are preaching Christ. But we are to intervene when there's those who are preaching another gospel and another Jesus. There is an issue where we need to block. You don't block your own teammates. But you do block those who are against us. Paul said in Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 9 that if anybody preaches another gospel...

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then they'll be accursed. There's more than one gospel. There's only one gospel that's real, that's biblical, that fits the message that God has given through his word. But there's many who present gospel messages that are not legitimate. There's many who present gospel messages that will not result in salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life.

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The gospel message as presented in the word of God is the only legitimate gospel message. It's the only good news. It's the only way of salvation. That by faith in Jesus Christ for his finished work upon the cross, you and I can be forgiven. It's by grace, God's goodness towards us, through faith that we're saved. Not of works, but by believing in Jesus Christ who did the work for us upon the cross.

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And so that gospel message is essential. And those who preach another gospel, we're not teammates with. They're not on our team because there's only one way of salvation. In the same way, anyone who preaches another Jesus is not on our team. How many Jesuses are there? Well, Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 4 that he's concerned for the Corinthians because if someone comes and preaches another Jesus, they might put up with it.

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Again, there's only one true legitimate Jesus, that is the Son of God, who being God the Creator, became man to die upon the cross for us. That's the Jesus that the Bible presents. But there are those who use the name Jesus, but don't follow the biblical definition of who that is. Anyone who preaches another Jesus, well, they're not on our team.

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And so if we align on those two things, the gospel and Jesus, if we have a team jersey, we've got the gospel on one side, Jesus on the other. That's our identification. That's how we know we're on the same team. And so those involved in ministry, in preaching, that preach the gospel and preach Jesus, well, we're to defend them. We're to rejoice with them.

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But those who are against us are those who preach another gospel or another Jesus. In Matthew chapter 7 verse 15 and 16, Jesus says, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Jesus says, watch out. There are people who will pretend to be on your team, but they're not really on your team. They're really ravenous wolves. They're false prophets.

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but you'll know them by their fruits, that is the gospel and Jesus. You'll know them by their message, by their lifestyle, if it's in agreement with the gospel and with Jesus. Now within the kingdom of God, there's many different styles of ministry. There's many different philosophies of ministry. There's many different kinds of people, many different activities.

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Many different ways of reaching out to people. There's great variety. Different denominations. And we can look around and we can think, I wouldn't do it that way. Well, that's not the way that I would do that. I don't think I would approach ministry that way. I don't really even agree with that approach at all. But Jesus would say, if they're not against us, they're on our side. If they're preaching the gospel and they're preaching Jesus, they're on our side.

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It's not our job to make everybody conform to the style, to the methods, to the practices that we like or that we hold to. It is important that we hold to the essentials of the faith, the doctrine of who Jesus is and the gospel message, but everything else, well, that's not our job. It's not our responsibility. We're not the gospel police, just as Paul was not. Those who are against us are those who preach another gospel.

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and another Jesus. And Jesus said, he who is not against us is on our side. So don't hinder your team. Well, the second thing we find as we continue on in verses 51 through 56 is don't destroy people. As Jesus is calling us to mind your manner of spirit, to pay attention to the attitude, the heart that you have regarding the people around you, whether on your team or not. He's teaching us the lesson that we are not

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To be destroying people. That's not our mission. That's not our objective. Verse 51. Now it came to pass when the time had come for him to be received up, that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

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Now there's a little bit of setup here before we get to the point of don't destroy people. Because here in verse 51, we see a change taking place in the gospel of Luke. We're beginning kind of a new journey, new section of the gospel here in verse 51. Because now the time has come, it says, for Jesus to be received up. Referring to his ascension, his return to heaven.

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Which means that this is kind of the final segment of Jesus' ministry. We're heading into the last few months, and during these last few months, He's making His way to Jerusalem, where He will be crucified, and then of course resurrected, and then soon after ascended to the Father. This is the final part of His ministry. He's heading to Jerusalem, and

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for the last time. Now we see this fulfilled in Luke chapter 19, where Jesus finally enters into Jerusalem. The next 10 chapters are part of his journey to Jerusalem, and really recording mostly the teachings that he shared on the way. But in Luke chapter 19, as Jesus enters Jerusalem, you're probably familiar with that, because that's what we refer to as the triumphal entry.

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When he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, that's the conclusion of his journey that we're beginning here in verse 51, his journey to Jerusalem. And so he's been up in the northern area in Galilee, ministering there for some time. Now he's heading to Jerusalem for his final few months of ministry and then his crucifixion and resurrection. Verse 52.

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And he sent messengers before his face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for him. But they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. So as Jesus is going to Jerusalem, he sends messengers ahead. And the messengers go ahead to prepare a place, to prepare the accommodations.

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They go and they make sure there's a room available. Now in those days, there were not like motels and hotels and all those kinds of things available. So basically you'd go and see who's willing to give us a room for the night, who's willing to open up their home and accommodate us for an evening. And so they would go ahead into the village to try to make some connections and see who might be willing to open up their home for Jesus and his disciples.

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But here it says that they did not receive him because his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. Well, here's a map of the region of Israel as it would have been divided in the days of Christ. There was a bunch of different regions. I'm not going to get into all those. But kind of towards the top of the map there in the northern area of Israel, you have the Sea of Galilee.

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That's the area where Jesus did most of his ministry. He was around the Sea of Galilee a lot, going back and forth. That's where he walked on water. On the shores there, he fed the 5,000 and so on and so forth. And it's that area where Jesus has been in the last few chapters that we've been studying in the Gospel of Luke.

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Jerusalem, though, was in the southern part of Israel, right there near the top of the Dead Sea or the Salt Sea. And so Jesus is now making this journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. Now, in order to make this journey, he was going through this other area, this other section of Israel that was called Samaria. Samaria.

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Most of the Jewish people wouldn't go this route. They would actually cross over the Jordan River to the other side, go down through Perea, cross over again to go on to Jerusalem to purposely avoid the region of Samaria. Why? Well, the reason is there was a lot of tension, a lot of animosity between Jews and Samaritans. It's not really a surprise that this Samaritan village did not receive Jesus.

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The reason why there was this animosity was because the Samaritans were, well, they were called half-breeds by the Jewish people. It goes back a couple hundred years when Assyria conquered that region.

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And the Jews who began to live there intermarried with the other nations who were there. And so they became kind of a mixed nation. They weren't full-blooded Jews any longer. Now they had married with these other nations. And so they were part Jews, but not full Jews. And so they were looked down upon by the Jewish people.

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And so it created this animosity between them. There was always this friction between them. But in addition to that, they also went further and the Samaritans began to modify the Jewish religion.

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They began to modify Judaism and rewrite history for their own, you know, sake and began to change the places of worship and things like that. So the Samaritans declared that Abraham sacrificed Isaac not on Mount Moriah, which is what the scripture records, but on a mountain that was located in their region. And so that's where they would go and worship the Lord while the Jews went to the temple in Jerusalem.

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And so not only was there this racial aspect of it where they weren't full Jews, now they are also modifying the religion and creating this tension, this barrier between them.

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You might remember when Jesus was with the woman at the well in John chapter 4, that she was surprised that he would talk to her. In verse 9 of John 4, she says, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. So there was this tension, this animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews.

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And so as the disciples now are preparing the way of the Lord, they're going ahead of him as he's going through Samaria to Jerusalem. They go into the town and they say, hey, anybody want to, you know, house us for the night? And the Samaritans would not. And it says specifically because he set his, or his face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. Here's how I picture it in my head. There's a knock at the door. Samaritan opens up.

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Hi, I was wondering if we might be able to stay here if you have an extra room available tonight. My rabbi, my teacher, he's coming into town with a few of us and we need a place to stay. The person responds, oh, okay. Well, we might be able to do something. Well, who are you? Where are you headed? Oh, well, his name's Jesus and we're his disciples and we're headed to Jerusalem. Boom, door shuts. We don't serve your kind here is the idea.

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You're on your way to Jerusalem. You're Jews. Never mind. We don't want to have any part of you. Go on. And so the disciples go into town. They try to find reservations. Nobody will receive it. The town basically says, nope, you're heading towards Jerusalem. We don't want any part of you. And so they come back and they give the report to Jesus and his disciples in verse 54 results. It says, and when the disciples, James and John saw this,

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They said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did? Gotta love James and John, huh? James and John. This is the passage that's often referred to when we try to figure out why Jesus called them the sons of thunder.

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In Mark chapter 3 verse 17, it tells us Jesus gave these two brothers, James and John, the nickname Sons of Thunder. And often we look here and we think, well, maybe they had this fiery temper, you know, and so it's just this lightning and thunder just boom, you know, and they begin to rumble. Their quick temper perhaps is what earned them the nickname Sons of Thunder. Let's call down fire from heaven. They don't want to put you up for that. I'll show them. I'll teach them a lesson.

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You know, that's their thinking. Let's do it, Lord. As if they could, right? I mean, have they ever called down fire from heaven before? So really what they're saying is, hey, Lord, you gave us power to cast out demons and to heal the sick. Give us power to cast out fire and we'll show you how to use it. Teach us, Lord. I mean, show us, give us power and we'll take care of this problem for you. Can't believe they'd reject you. What disrespect. How dare they? Elijah did it, Jesus. How come we can't do it?

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Now Jesus is going to go on to correct them. But you know as we kind of chuckle a little bit over James and John and how upset they become, it does cause me to wonder, do we follow their example as believers? You know it's amazing how Christians can get so angry at unbelievers. We get angry and bitter over their actions and attitudes, over their rejection of the Lord, their rejection of morality, the laws of God.

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We get angry and upset. And I think many times we can have the attitude in the heart of James and John here. Where we just wish, you know, God just take them out. Why put up with these fools anymore? We get so angry and worked up many times over those who are unbelievers. Now here's the thing. For those who are not believers in Christ, listen.

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I don't mean this to sound terrible, but it is pretty terrible because evil should be expected from unbelievers. Wickedness should be expected from unbelievers. It's not a surprise that those who, well, they've not been set free from sin. They're still blinded by Satan. It's not a surprise that they engage in all kinds of wickedness.

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And sometimes we have a conflict for us as believers today here in America because there's part of us, you know, we identify with our nation and we love our nation and we see our nation making terrible choices and making laws and passing things that they're just ungodly. And it's wickedness. And that aspect, you know, we can get real worked up. Especially as we head into an election. And we get real angry and we can become very bitter. But

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That's as we're identifying with the nation. But we need to remember our first allegiance, we need to identify with Christ. And as we identify with Christ, we remember they're lost. They're blinded. Of course they're going to act that way. It's no surprise that they behave like that and make those decisions.

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You see, as we identify with Christ and we see the sin, the wickedness, the decisions, the immorality, all of these things happening, it should invoke our mercy, not our anger. As we look and we see the devastation, the wickedness, and we know the destination of it, the result of it, it should invoke our mercy, our compassion, not anger and bitterness. But sometimes we can be like James and John.

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Instead of being compassionate upon this town who says, no, we don't want anything to do with Jesus. And realize, oh man, without Jesus they're lost. Here they are caught up in the moment. They say, let's just burn them all. Just get rid of them. How dare they disrespect Jesus and use his name like that and talk about him that way. Verse 55. But he turned and rebuked them and said, you do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.

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And they went to another village. You see, James and John, they're all worked up. Man, Jesus, they disrespected you. Let's call down fire from heaven and just consume them. But Jesus, he didn't act that way. In fact, he rebuked them. He said, you guys are wrong. That's not the right heart to have. And I love what it says there at the end of verse 56. And they went to another village. They went to another village. Jesus says, okay, you guys are going to reject me?

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I'm just going to go to another village. He just went, moved along. Someone else ready to receive? All right, great. I'll stay with you. He just moved on to another village. The disciples were angry. They were upset. And Jesus says, look guys, you don't know what manner of spirit you're of. You don't know what I'm all about. And you're demonstrating that because you're so angry and upset right now. It reminded me of the prophet Jonah. You remember Jonah?

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The reluctant prophet, right? God says, hey, go minister to Nineveh. He says, I don't think so, Lord. I'm going the other way. So God had to work with him a little bit. And Jonah finally comes around and says, okay, fine, I'll go. And he goes into Nineveh. He preaches like the most simple message ever. This town's going to be destroyed in 40 days. And he just preaches that message as he walks through Nineveh. But an amazing thing happens. The whole city repents.

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massive group of people. There's a massive revival that takes place in Nineveh as Jonah reluctantly announces the message that God had given to him. But what's interesting about Jonah is the last chapter gives us some insight into Jonah's heart. In Jonah chapter 4 verse 2, Jonah is upset. The people have gotten saved. The Lord's relented in this judgment. And Jonah says, our Lord has

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Was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish. For I know that you're a gracious and merciful God. Darn it. Slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness who relents from doing harm. Jonah says, I wanted you to judge them. I wanted fire to come down. I wanted, they deserved it. And I knew you're merciful. I knew you're gracious. And oh, it's so frustrating because I wanted them.

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See, Jonah forgot what manner of spirit he was of, just like the disciples, just like you and I can. We forget. Listen, God loves people. He's not out to get them. He sees the wickedness. He sees the sin and it grieves him, but he wants to give them opportunity to be saved. Hey, you don't want to receive me right now? I'm not going to just wipe out the town. There'll be another opportunity. The Holy Spirit's going to work and there's going to be more opportunities for you to hear of Jesus, to be saved.

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So he preserves the Samaritan village because he's looking out for their eternity, not just responding to the moment. Listen, we are to be of the Spirit of Christ. His manner of spirit is the manner of spirit we are to have. As John said, he who says he abides in him ought to also walk just as he walked. We're to be like Jesus. We're to have his same manner of spirit.

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And so, mind your manner of spirit is essentially saying, be Christ-like. Be like Jesus. How did Jesus deal with sinners? We saw earlier in the Gospel of Luke, he ate and drank with them. And it infuriated people how he could be with the sinners and show them love and mercy and compassion. But that's what he did. We're to be like Jesus. To show love and mercy and compassion.

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With sinners, with those who are living a lifestyle of rebellion and sin. How did Jesus handle rejection? He just moved on to the next village. He didn't try to go back and teach them a lesson. I'll teach you to reject me. He just moved on to the next village. Who wants to receive? Who wants to hear about what God has, about what God is doing? How did Jesus handle false accusation? Well, we'll see that later in the Gospel of Luke. As a sheep before its shearer is silent, he was silent.

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We are of the spirit of Christ. We're to be Christ-like. And that's what Jesus is correcting James and John about. You don't know what manner of spirit you're of. You're not being like me. Because he says, I didn't come to destroy people's lives, but to save them. That's my goal. That's my purpose, Jesus says. I'm looking for their salvation, not for their destruction. I'm not trying to wipe people out.

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I'm trying to save them. They're already being wiped out by sin, by Satan. They're being deceived and led astray and their lives are being destroyed because the wages of sin is death. That's already happening. Jesus says, I don't have to come to do that. Sin is doing that. They're trapped in it. They're bound by it. I've come to set them free. And when we get upset and angry and bitter like James and John at the unbelievers around us,

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We're in that same position where we've forgotten, where we do not know the manner of spirit we're of. And so when we curse people on the freeway, it's because we don't know the manner of spirit that we're of. And we might have just been worshipping, you know, to that CD just a couple seconds before that, boom. We forget. The most important thing is their soul, their eternity. And we get sucked into the moment and so upset.

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You know, fire is not the only way to destroy people's lives. We can destroy people's lives with our tongue. Remember what James said? The tongue is a world of evil. It's set on fire by hell. It brings great destruction. Do you destroy people with your words? Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers? He says, look, make sure that your words only bring grace.

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Not judgment, not cursing, not destruction, but building and grace. Remember the manner of spirit that you're of. Remember to be Christ-like in what you say. Because yeah, that grocery store clerk might make you really angry. That guy who crashed into you might make you really upset. The boss who treats you so poorly, oh, maybe infuriates you. But the most important thing is not that you have the recognition you deserve at work.

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That's not the most important thing. But the souls, the eternity of those people that are so frustrating you and upsetting you and making you angry. So don't let any corrupt communication, corrupt word come out of your mouth. Build them up. Show them Christ. Be Christ-like. Now you could also consider your actions, your attitudes, your plots and schemes, your plans. Are you Christ-like? Do you know the manner of spirit which you're of?

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You see, because our enemy is Satan. It's not people. Paul said in Ephesians 6.12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. And we so quickly forget that. And we begin to grapple and wrestle with those people in front of us. But they're not the enemy. They're not the enemy. It's Satan. Those are the people that were sent to rescue. You know, if someone is drowning...

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And you're sent to rescue them. And they say, you're stupid. I don't want any part of you. You don't say, well, fine, drown then. See if I care. I'll push you under. No. You're desperate. No, I'm here to save you. I want to help you. That's the mentality. That's the manner of spirit that we're to have. That's the mind of Christ. Because that's what he did. He saw us drowning in our sin.

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He saw our desperate need of a Savior that there was nothing we could do. We couldn't work our way to heaven. We couldn't do enough good deeds. We couldn't compensate for our sinfulness. So what did He do? He came to rescue. He became man to die on the cross for us. And this morning we get to partake of communion together and remember just that. Now worship team, you can get ready. Ushers, you can make ready. We're remembering Christ looking at us. The manner of spirit that He is.

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Where he saw our need and said, I'm going to help. I'm going to reach out. I'm going to offer them salvation by sacrificing myself. By receiving the penalty and the punishment for their sin. And that's what communion represents. The body represented by the cracker represents his body which was broken for us, Jesus said. And the cup represents his blood which was shed for us, he told us.

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And he says, I want you to do this. I want you to remember me and what I did for you. I think it's the best way to mind your manner of spirit. Listen, if you've been off, if you've been hindering your teammates and critical of those who are doing ministry in a way that you would not, trying to prevent those who you disagree with,

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Or if you've been out to destroy people with your words or actions or plots or screams, listen, it's a good opportunity as we look at the cross to mind your manner of spirit. Remember who it is you represent, the way that he was, and follow his example. And so the ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup and the worship team is going to lead us in worship. Hold both portions. But I want to encourage you, listen,

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If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, if you've not received this gift of forgiveness and been born again, then you can right now. And this is a great opportunity because as you hold the bread and the cup, these are symbols. They're not his actual body and blood. They're symbols. And as you receive it, you're saying, yes, Lord, I receive this.

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Your work upon the cross, your forgiveness. I believe in you, Jesus, and I want to follow you. Now, if you don't say that, if that's not your heart, don't partake today. Because if you partake, you're saying, yes, I understand what Jesus did. I understand what it means, but I don't want any part of it. Well, you're just testifying against yourself. But if your heart is, yes, I want the Lord. I want to follow him. Maybe it's a recommitment. Maybe it's a first time. Or maybe you as a believer today, you just need to

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Be reminded of the manner of spirit which you're of. That's what this time is for. So let's worship the Lord. Ask God to work in your heart to show you those areas where you've been hindering your team or destroying people around you. As you reflect upon the cross, the place which unites us all, the place which is the core of the gospel and the person of Jesus Christ. So let's worship Him. Hold your portions and we'll partake together at the end.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.