SPEAKER_00: Thank you for a beautiful spring day.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for waking us up today.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, thank you for your family of faith.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for bringing us together.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, we invite you in to speak today.
SPEAKER_00: We invite you in to speak to illumine for our hearts and our minds what your word would have for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, encourage us in the gospel of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Open our hearts to conviction and refining.
SPEAKER_00: Whose hands can we trust more than yours?
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Feel free to take a seat.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Skyline Church.
SPEAKER_00: My name's Adam.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors.
SPEAKER_00: And it is truly an honor and a privilege to be with you guys here today.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to begin by talking about something that we all universally hate.
SPEAKER_00: To a person.
SPEAKER_00: We all hate this thing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about rejection.
SPEAKER_00: I remember uh I remember my first girlfriend in seventh grade.
SPEAKER_00: We started dating, didn't know what that means.
SPEAKER_00: And a month later, she broke up with me, and I was like, why?
SPEAKER_00: She was like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, dang, is this rejection?
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: I remember uh in Denver at like the peak of coffee snobbery, probably in the country and in Denver, there was a coffee shop, I can't even remember what it was called, up in Rhino across the street from the source.
SPEAKER_00: And this this coffee shop was one of these shops where they didn't want you to have coffee the way that you wanted it.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted you to have it the way that they wanted it.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember standing in line, and there's a guy in front of me, and he was he ordered like, you know, drip coffee or something.
SPEAKER_00: And then he goes, Great, thanks.
SPEAKER_00: You guys having like creamer I could put in it?
SPEAKER_00: And the guy goes, We don't do that here.
SPEAKER_00: This guy was like trying to give them money and he got rejected.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Rejection, whether it's romance, whether it's I mean, there's basically no category that escapes this with us, right?
SPEAKER_00: Friendship.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have experienced bullying growing up, and even now, being on the outside trying to work your way in, applying for schools, jobs.
SPEAKER_00: Applying for jobs now is brutal, man.
SPEAKER_00: Every job has like a hundred applications, and kind of the new norm is for companies to just ghost you.
SPEAKER_00: You send in an application, it's as if you never, it's as if you emailed a taco because you never hear back, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you do, but it takes a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Like rejection is such a normal part of life.
SPEAKER_00: Even within a marriage, you can experience rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Cold shoulderedness, distance, and separation.
SPEAKER_00: Rejection is a universal aspect of life, basically across categories, let alone faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let alone if you want to talk about the gospel of grace, let alone if you want to talk about who the Lord Jesus is, invite people to come and hear about him.
SPEAKER_00: Rejection is a normal thing to experience in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_00: And when we experience rejection, we have different responses to that.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are tempted to isolate.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you get rejected and you say, and I will never do that ever again.
SPEAKER_00: I will never try that ever again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never try and go on a date ever again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never apply to this company ever again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never try this, throw this party ever again.
SPEAKER_00: Some people are tempted to isolate in response to rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Others are tempted to retaliate.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you rejected me?
SPEAKER_00: I'll make sure you never do that again.
SPEAKER_00: Retaliation, also anger, another common response.
SPEAKER_00: And also, you have the option to reinitiate.
SPEAKER_00: Isolate, retaliate, and reinitiate.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by reinitiate?
SPEAKER_00: I mean get up and try again.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of things that determine our response in any given moment, but it's worth asking this question as we step into this text in the Gospel of Luke today.
SPEAKER_00: How do you respond when you're rejected?
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to take a minute and think recently, maybe the last six months, in any of these categories, where it was work, a relationship, a job, a family member, romantic life, how did you respond in a moment of rejection?
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of Luke today, it's a hinge point.
SPEAKER_00: It's a huge hinge point in the book.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the main idea that we're gonna see, if you're taking notes here today, the main idea that we're gonna see is whether Jesus is received or rejected, we must be resolute.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's what we're gonna see.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read it in sequential parts.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be in Luke 9, 51 through 10, 16.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have it up here on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be doing it in the ESV version.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the first five or so verses.
SPEAKER_00: When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make preparations for him.
SPEAKER_00: But the people did not receive him, because his face was set to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when his disciples, James and John, saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
SPEAKER_00: But he turned and rebuked them.
SPEAKER_00: And they went on to another village.
SPEAKER_00: Before we talk about that wild moment, I wanted to see if you caught this transition.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we've been preaching through the Gospel of Luke now for maybe three-quarters of a year.
SPEAKER_00: And a huge transition just happened.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, part one of Luke, preparation before Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_00: This is the opening few verses of the Gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The author, Luke, talks about why he wrote it.
SPEAKER_00: Then we hear about Jesus' genealogy, we hear about his birth story, we hear about all the things that God was doing leading up.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus grows up into a man and he is baptized by John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: He's led into temptation into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: This is part one of the Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_00: And then he began his ministry in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: This was part two.
SPEAKER_00: Part two, what we've seen really for the last, you know, six or so chapters, is the authority of Jesus expanding to every sphere of reality.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing that does not bow to him, seen or unseen.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen what it means to be a part of his kingdom, the king's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen his character.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen what he's like, we've seen his compassion.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen all kinds of stuff about Jesus in part two.
SPEAKER_00: And today begins part three.
SPEAKER_00: Today begins the downhill walk, verse 51.
SPEAKER_00: He set his face to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And today begins the downhill walk to the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So we're calling it Jesus toward Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: This will take us all the way through chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus makes this pivot, as he begins to quote unquote set his face to Jerusalem, he goes through Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: And if you understand the cultural context, the historical context of Judea and Samaria at the time, basically we see in the Old Testament there's this moment where a big chunk of the Israelite kingdom gets lopped off to the Assyrians, and the Assyrians deport a bunch of Jews and repopulate it, and the population gets intermingled.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Jews during Jesus' time looked at Samaria.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was hatred, but it was a specific kind of hatred.
SPEAKER_00: It was ethnic hatred.
SPEAKER_00: Because they viewed them as, to use a Harry Potter word, half-bloods, mud bloods, half-breeds.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what was going on there.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible will actually give you this historical context.
SPEAKER_00: If you read the whole thing through, it actually explains that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: You can go in the Old Testament and look at that.
SPEAKER_00: But either way, Jesus is going through Samaria and they reject him because they know that his face is set towards Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is ready to move on.
SPEAKER_00: Enter James and John.
SPEAKER_00: James and John most likely, it's hard to know for sure, most likely between the ages of 18 and 25 at this point.
SPEAKER_00: They're young adults.
SPEAKER_00: And they ask Jesus, after the Samaritan village rejects him, they ask Jesus if they can call down fire to consume the village.
SPEAKER_00: Had they ever done that before?
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Why did they say it at this moment?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you gotta think that ethnic hatred has some part to play about it.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the short verse 55.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus turned and he rebuked them.
SPEAKER_00: And then they're moving on.
SPEAKER_00: They're moving on to the next village.
SPEAKER_00: And look, if I'm there, I don't know about you, but if I'm there, I'm with Jesus' chosen twelve.
SPEAKER_00: These are the guys that he picked.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm standing there, and Jesus and the disciples, the apostles, get rejected by this village of Samaria, and then maybe like 19-year-old John says, Lord, can we call down death from the sky and kill them all?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not about you, but I'm gonna be standing there like Jesus is gonna leave, and this is who we got, like, this is not looking good.
SPEAKER_00: But it just continues this theme that we actually saw with Jeremiah's sermon last week.
SPEAKER_00: This theme that Luke has continued to develop, the shortcomings of the disciples, and that he picked them.
SPEAKER_00: This is not all the all-star team.
SPEAKER_00: This is the regular team, this is the median average team.
SPEAKER_00: This is the average data set.
SPEAKER_00: And the shortcomings of the disciples have continued to be revealed to us, and yet Jesus cherishes to use them.
SPEAKER_00: And uh they accept his rebuke, and ironically, in the Gospel of John, the guy who would literally, in this moment, in this scene, literally later write a gospel, says this in John 12, 47, he quotes Jesus as saying this if anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
SPEAKER_00: How ironic for John to report Jesus saying this later.
SPEAKER_00: What's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: The first coming is not about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: This is why they move on to the next village.
SPEAKER_00: The first coming is about the king coming into the world.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is expanding across the world.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus has come to bring the love, salvation, and grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And make no mistake, he's in the same way, the same literal way.
SPEAKER_00: He came two millennia ago.
SPEAKER_00: There was a real person named Jesus Christ of Nazareth who walked the earth and brought the salvation of God.
SPEAKER_00: So too will he literally come again.
SPEAKER_00: And this time, the second coming, it will be about judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Make no mistake.
SPEAKER_00: But at this moment, this is why they're moving on to the next town.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus, I mean, I don't have this in my notes, but later in Acts, when the gospel goes to Samaria, who's to say it's not this very village?
SPEAKER_00: Several years later, because Jesus gave them time.
SPEAKER_00: And so they wanted to respond with retaliation, James and John.
SPEAKER_00: James and John wanted to respond with retaliation to their rejection.
SPEAKER_00: But this first point, and the thing that we see in this first segment of our text is that when people reject us, we must respond like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: When people reject us, we must respond like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so again, I just want you to call to mind a recent rejection.
SPEAKER_00: A really common one, especially relationally, is anger, a retaliatory anger, where someone, maybe, maybe you get dumped, like me, seventh grade.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a job rejects you.
SPEAKER_00: The natural tendency in a moment of rejection like that is to then conclude, and therefore this is the worst person who's ever lived.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore this company is corrupt, and therefore they can't see and don't understand anything.
SPEAKER_00: The natural inclination for us in a moment of rejection, whether that rejection is just or unjust, is to respond with judgmentalism.
SPEAKER_00: Or despair.
SPEAKER_00: Or you'll never do it again.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never try that thing ever again.
SPEAKER_00: And I love how Jesus responds in verse 56.
SPEAKER_00: And they went on to the next village.
SPEAKER_00: Point number one, when people reject us, we must respond like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Point number two, we've got to read verses 57 through 62.
SPEAKER_00: Look at what it says.
SPEAKER_00: As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_00: To another he said, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead.
SPEAKER_00: But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: So in this next scene, the point number two here is we won't receive him perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what we see in this next scene.
SPEAKER_00: On the road with Jesus, on the way to Jerusalem, is a number of people finding out what it means to follow Jesus, and it's hard to do it the way that he wants.
SPEAKER_00: And there's basically three people here, three things that Jesus wants us to see that Luke records here for us.
SPEAKER_00: So here's thing number one, verse 58.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it means he's a little bit homeless.
SPEAKER_00: And part of the implication of that is his life is really uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: He's given up a lot of the comforts of life for the work of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so part of what he's implying to this first guy, you want to follow me?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, do you want have you counted the cost?
SPEAKER_00: This is, Lucas said this a couple different times now in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone would come after me, we saw a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying the same thing to this person.
SPEAKER_00: I have nowhere to lay my head.
SPEAKER_00: Are you okay with that?
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna get into this with me, do you see clearly?
SPEAKER_00: Person number two, verses 59 through 60.
SPEAKER_00: This one Jesus initiates, follow me.
SPEAKER_00: But this guy hesitates.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Lord, let me first bury my father.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're like me, you read that and you're like, sounds pretty reasonable.
SPEAKER_00: If his dad just recently died and he wants to go bury his dad, I mean, what I'm not gonna say no to that.
SPEAKER_00: But what does Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Leave the dead to go and bury their own dead.
SPEAKER_00: I think part of what he's saying here is leave the spiritually dead to go and bury the physically dead.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some commentators will say, will point to historical cultural context of the time, and they say, well, funerals often happened in two parts.
SPEAKER_00: So first, right away, day one, day two, because they didn't have ways to preserve bodies, so they had the funeral right away before decay.
SPEAKER_00: But then oftentimes, a year later, they would take bones and do another part of the burial.
SPEAKER_00: And some commentators are pointing at this and being like, it's probably the second part, where they take the bones later.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is saying, you don't need to do that, dude.
SPEAKER_00: You already buried your dad.
SPEAKER_00: Is that possible?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Is that in alignment?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is the thrust of this whole second set of five verses that we just read?
SPEAKER_00: What's the tone?
SPEAKER_00: Is Jesus saying, it's easier to follow me than you think, or it's harder to follow me than you think?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, guys, Jesus, loving your father and mother, obeying your father and mother, honoring your father and mother, literally made the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Later in the Apostle Paul's writings, he will say, If you do not take care of your family, you have denied the faith and are worse than an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: Does the God of the Bible want you to love and take care of your family?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Part of what Jesus is saying, though, that should that ever, for whatever reason, conflict with the work of the kingdom, what comes first?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the whole point of everything that he's saying here, it's supposed to cause you to be like, what?
SPEAKER_00: This guy can't even bury his dad?
SPEAKER_00: That's the level of call here?
SPEAKER_00: That's how high Jesus' ask is?
SPEAKER_00: The whole point is the commitment is higher than you think.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, contextually, part of the reason why he's probably saying it to him, we just saw in verse 51, we're downhill to Jerusalem from here, dude.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to follow Jesus, to walk with the incarnated God man, Jesus Christ, you don't got much time left.
SPEAKER_00: And so, if this is something that you want to do, and you have a family member that dies, well, you're gonna have to make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: This is part of the tension that Jesus is trying to build for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an excuse to neglect, it's a priority structure.
SPEAKER_00: The discomfort that the Lord is walking through, the ultimate priority of the kingdom of God above any and all other things.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the third person in this, we won't receive him perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Point.
SPEAKER_00: Third person.
SPEAKER_00: Let me first say farewell to those at my home.
SPEAKER_00: You kind of see in the theme that's developed through here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, person number one, Jesus is like, you're not gonna have a home, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Person number two, let me go back to my home and bury a key family member from my home.
SPEAKER_00: Person number three, let me go back and say farewell to those in my home.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the themes of this whole segment.
SPEAKER_00: Like family.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke will say more about this further.
SPEAKER_00: How you're he begins to redefine the definition of family.
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, your eternal family are those in the family of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And there will be brothers set against fathers, siblings set against each other, sons and daughters set against each other.
SPEAKER_00: And person number three says, Let me say farewell to those at my home.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, dude, this one.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, No one who puts their hand to the plow, which is to say, kingdom work, no one who puts their hand to the plow and looks back, just like the slightest moment of hesitation, he's not taking his hands off the plow.
SPEAKER_00: He's not abandoning the plow.
SPEAKER_00: Just looks back, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to us if we try and water down what Jesus is trying to say here.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the other day I uh I picked up my daughter from preschool.
SPEAKER_00: And we usually take the stairs out of the preschool, but there's an elevator there.
SPEAKER_00: And every five-year-old wants to take an elevator so they can push the button.
SPEAKER_00: But I have read the book Anxious Generation, and so I know that it is important for you to challenge your kids to do hard things so they can build resiliency.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought to myself, what a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Sweetie, you can take the elevator if you take it by yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And she kind of looks at me and she's like, um, okay.
SPEAKER_00: She kind of walks in, I was like, babe, just push number two.
SPEAKER_00: Don't push anything else.
SPEAKER_00: Just push number two.
SPEAKER_00: She pushes it, and I start to walk upstairs.
SPEAKER_00: The door slides and shuts, and then she shrieks like a banshee.
SPEAKER_00: God! No! I mean, talk about putting your hand to the plow and looking back.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, it was just immediate.
SPEAKER_00: It was totally immediate.
SPEAKER_00: And then she calms down and everything was fine.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord willing, she took a step toward resiliency or towards counseling.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows.
SPEAKER_00: Um, what's Jesus saying with these three sayings?
SPEAKER_00: He's showing, he's trying to get people to see the true cost of following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had this conversation, or maybe you even think this way yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here today and exploring faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is an honor and a privilege for us to have you here.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see very clearly the way that Jesus characterizes following him.
SPEAKER_00: Because you will find other people out there that cheapen it, that make the cost way less.
SPEAKER_00: The gift of grace is free, but when Jesus asks for your whole life, it's not a small thing.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever talked with someone who maybe is a believer?
SPEAKER_00: And you're talking about faith, you're talking about whatever, and then as you're talking, you're saying something that you do or whatever, of church or evangelism, whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_00: And the person goes, Oh, I mean, I'm a Christian, but I'm like not that, I'm not that Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm not, I don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: And it's moments like this where you read Luke 9 and 10, and somebody would say that, and it's like, have we are we reading the same book?
SPEAKER_00: Like, there is no Bud Light version of this.
SPEAKER_00: There is one version, and the cost is really, really high, such that Jesus is literally here saying, if you hesitate, you're not worthy of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you choose to bury your dad in the kingdom, should be a higher priority, you're not worthy of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the message that he's trying to say?
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that it's important that we don't add water to the tea here?
SPEAKER_00: Let's not take from him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's of course a deeper meaning, though.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever wanted comfort over the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever had a priority that you figured should be below Jesus and the things he's asking you to do, but you put it over?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever put your hand to any kingdom work, obedience?
SPEAKER_00: What it means to follow the Bible's sexual ethics, God's design for sex.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever put your hand to any kingdom plow and looked back and just hesitated even a little bit?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever put your hand to the plow of generous financial sacrifice and looked at your tax return and been like, ooh.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we did it.
SPEAKER_00: We did that this year.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, for me personally, I've only been a pastor now for I guess three years now.
SPEAKER_00: And I was in the marketplace for 10 years.
SPEAKER_00: The number of times now that I have thought, because I grew up in affluence.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in a Fortune 500 zip code.
SPEAKER_00: I grew up in the Silicon Valley where millionaires are minted every week.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And the number of times that I have thought to myself, ah, what would it have been like to make a lot, a lot of money instead?
SPEAKER_00: Things would have been so different.
SPEAKER_00: The numbers, I mean, I'm like, all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And so the what we're talking about then, I mean, have you ever have you ever tried to put your hand to the plow of treating and speaking to someone with love and respect and gentleness, but even just thought about unloading?
SPEAKER_00: That's just a look back, not even actually unloading.
SPEAKER_00: So what we're talking about here, what we're talking about is not, have you ever done this?
SPEAKER_00: What we're talking about is how many dozens of examples can you think about in literally one minute?
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're actually talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: And so you should naturally feel in this text a distance.
SPEAKER_00: You should naturally feel not, oh, I mean, I do a lot of sacrifices.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'm willing to go without coffee in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is not what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The distance between you and this text is miles.
SPEAKER_00: Ever looking back, ever desiring comfort over God?
SPEAKER_00: That is the natural response to this.
SPEAKER_00: But you forgot about verse 51.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus set his face to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we look back.
SPEAKER_00: Because we look back all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can't pull it off.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can think of examples this week of where you put priorities over God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And comfort over God's kingdom, which makes the gospel all the more glorious.
SPEAKER_00: That our Lord is teaching this as he's walking to the cross, as the downhill has begun to his torture.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in Luke, Jesus suffers a lot.
SPEAKER_00: In this book, we'll see at the end.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to suffer a lot.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to face a lot of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't hesitate.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't even look back because of his love for his sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't choose comfort over us.
SPEAKER_00: And the more that you realize this, the more that you allow him to illuminate the gap, and the more you allow him to convince you that he went to the cross for you, the more it empowers you to do these things.
SPEAKER_00: You ever met someone who's given up their whole life for the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: It's because they taste sin so deep.
SPEAKER_00: And they taste grace so deep.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And the cost is high, and it's also free.
SPEAKER_00: When people reject us, we must respond like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We and they won't receive him perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Point number three.
SPEAKER_00: We must be resolute in kingdom work.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the last part.
SPEAKER_00: After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Go your way.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace be to this house, and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him.
SPEAKER_00: But if not, it will return to you.
SPEAKER_00: And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages.
SPEAKER_00: Do not go from house to house.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you.
SPEAKER_00: Heal the sick in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you.
SPEAKER_00: But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near.
SPEAKER_00: I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, Chorzin, woe to you, Beth Seda.
SPEAKER_00: For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyran Sidon, which are Gentile cities, by the way, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
SPEAKER_00: But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.
SPEAKER_00: And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?
SPEAKER_00: You shall be brought down to Hades.
SPEAKER_00: The one who hears you, hears me.
SPEAKER_00: And the one who rejects you rejects me.
SPEAKER_00: And the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: So this last segment, only Luke has this account.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen already Jesus send out the twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Apostles are sent ones.
SPEAKER_00: These are people that Jesus called and chose to himself to send and preach the kingdom, and eventually they're going to lead the church, and they're going to give us the New Testament, basically.
SPEAKER_00: But this story is different.
SPEAKER_00: He sends out 70, or some manuscripts say 72.
SPEAKER_00: Both of those manuscript traditions are really strong, and so commentator is different on should it be 70 that he sends out or 72?
SPEAKER_00: And probably, I think most likely with this section, the 70 or 72 is probably alluding to two parts of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: One is in Genesis 10, when the Tower of Babel happens and everyone's speaking one language, but then God confuses their languages and you get the nations, they're 70.
SPEAKER_00: And so probably a part of what's happening here is the 70 going out, the 72 going out, is representative of the fact that the gospel is going to go to every nation, every tribe, nation, and tongue.
SPEAKER_00: Also, though, Numbers 11 has a similar moment where Moses is up on the mountain with God, and then God's like, I call 70 elders to you, and they are going to help you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to put my spirit on them the way I put my spirit on you.
SPEAKER_00: And they call 70 elders, and it says that they prophesied.
SPEAKER_00: God put his spirit on them, they prophesied, but they didn't continue doing it.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a greater moment even than that, because as we're going to know, God's going to not only put his Holy Spirit on these 70 and his disciples, but on everyone who calls on Jesus' name of faith.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's probably some allusion happening to those Old Testament passages here.
SPEAKER_00: And just like what we talked about when Jesus sends out the 12 apostles, when he sends out these 72, it's the same movement that we talked about before Jesus begins by saying, I do you watch.
SPEAKER_00: I do you help.
SPEAKER_00: You do, I help.
SPEAKER_00: You do, I just watch.
SPEAKER_00: This is that same transitioning happening, not just with the 12, but with a bigger group now of people that are following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The 72.
SPEAKER_00: And again, the reason that I love this so much is because sometimes when we read about people praying for the sick in the New Testament, and sometimes when we see God doing incredible works through his people in the New Testament, we're tempted to say, well, it's the 12 apostles, dude.
SPEAKER_00: They're establishing the church.
SPEAKER_00: This is the named 12 apostles that are going to judge the 12 tribes of Israel that Jesus used, they all died, martyrs, deaths, they're superheroes, bro.
SPEAKER_00: Not here.
SPEAKER_00: 70 unnamed people who you won't know until you get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus, who he says, to go and preach about the kingdom and about the king and pray for the sick.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is not for celebrities, bro.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the reasons why I love this text so much.
SPEAKER_00: Lest you out there say, Well, I don't do some of these things because I'm not an apostle, neither were they.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, here they are, preaching the kingdom, praying for the sick.
SPEAKER_00: So we should do likewise.
SPEAKER_00: I am saying that that is part of the application here.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Jesus talks here, he's basically says two things.
SPEAKER_00: He's he's shaping their expectations, and then he's basically helping them be resolute to continue on.
SPEAKER_00: As far as the expectations go, expectation number one comes in verse two, which is a hard one for me.
SPEAKER_00: He says, propositionally, he says, the harvest is plentiful, and the laborers are few, so pray for more.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes when I read about different Christian eras or biographies or different things, it feels like, not in every era, but a lot of times, especially people that get books written about them, it feels like they're like looking at people on the street, and the person breaks down crying and says, Give me Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, dude, what in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Here in Denver, and look, again, we could be in Iran, we could be, we could be in Afghanistan.
SPEAKER_00: It's much harder, many other places in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And nonetheless, for us and for me, it's often felt like we're on the back of a truck on a freeway scattering seeds.
SPEAKER_00: And here's Jesus saying, propositionally, the harvest is plentiful.
SPEAKER_00: There's so much harvest, you need to pray for more workers.
SPEAKER_00: And for me, this has been something that I've clung to because while God has been faithful to save a lot of people through this church, more than I expected.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm greedy.
SPEAKER_00: And this verse has encouraged me a lot in rejection.
SPEAKER_00: And I can cling to the truth that Jesus says the harvest is plentiful, and you labor in the harvest seasonally, he will bring fruit home.
SPEAKER_00: Expectation number one, he's shaping them around.
SPEAKER_00: Um expectation number two, you're gonna be like lambs in the midst of wolves, which is to say, it's gonna be dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be innocent, and it will be dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: People will mean you harm, and you must maintain your righteousness and innocence in the midst of it.
SPEAKER_00: The harvest is plentiful, and people are going to oppose you.
SPEAKER_00: Expectation number two.
SPEAKER_00: And then, after he builds the expectations, verses five through twelve is basically him explaining kind of what to do when you received and when you rejected.
SPEAKER_00: And he's encouraging them to be resolute in all of it.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna call death down from the sky on people that reject us, okay?
SPEAKER_00: If if uh, I mean, this is interesting.
SPEAKER_00: If they receive you, stay with them.
SPEAKER_00: Let them provide, which I think is a helpful principle for us.
SPEAKER_00: When people are responsive to the gospel, don't move on.
SPEAKER_00: Be a mutual blessing to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Spend the time that's necessary.
SPEAKER_00: If they decide to follow Jesus and they begin their infancy in their spiritual life, they need help.
SPEAKER_00: I think is a really helpful principle for us as we make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Um people respond, we don't just move on.
SPEAKER_00: But when we rejected, we do.
SPEAKER_00: We don't force something on people.
SPEAKER_00: For me, you know, the way that this has happened typically, you know, when I've been rejected for the gospel over the last decade, it's not usually super combative, super um aggressive.
SPEAKER_00: It has been sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: But most times, it's something like this.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about the gospel and they say, yeah, I mean, look, Jesus is a great guy.
SPEAKER_00: But I I don't want to give up my life for him.
SPEAKER_00: Like I don't want to pay that cost.
SPEAKER_00: That's usually what happens, for me at least.
SPEAKER_00: And in those moments, having texts like this in mind, what I've tried to say is, okay, dude, I thank him for being honest, because thank God.
SPEAKER_00: I thank him for being honest, and then I say, I just want you to know you don't have infinite time.
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow's not promised to you.
SPEAKER_00: And so I appreciate you said you tell me what you think, and but like I just want you to know that as you're thinking about this, you don't get infinite time.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is helping his disciples to give appropriate warning to people that reject them, and then they move on.
SPEAKER_00: They're resolute, they get back up, they go on to the next village city.
SPEAKER_00: We must be resolute in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um and it's worth kind of pointing out, I think.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Jesus says these things at the end, woe to you, Charazin, what do you Besseda, what do you Capernaum?
SPEAKER_00: These are Jewish Judean cities that they have been working in and have seen a lot of miracles.
SPEAKER_00: And he basically compares them to Gentile, non-Jewish cities who haven't seen as much.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, dude, if we did this there, they would have repented.
SPEAKER_00: Long ago.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and then he basically gives them a warning.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of worth pointing out, I think, like when we think about being on the road with Jesus, being received and rejected, the idea of being both received and rejected is kind of like a helpful signal to us.
SPEAKER_00: If this isn't happening with some level of rhythm in our lives, well then you're probably not really in the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might look at this and be like, yo, like they went out two by two full time, dude.
SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't, I have to provide for my family, my household, like I can't just go out full time.
SPEAKER_00: Which I say, yeah, that's fair.
SPEAKER_00: So in your evaluation of yourself, in your assessment of your life, just extend the timeline.
SPEAKER_00: How many times has it happened the last six months?
SPEAKER_00: Been received, been rejected the last six months, the last year.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is just a helpful signal for us.
SPEAKER_00: Are we on the road with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Are we in the harvest with Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because you will experience both.
SPEAKER_00: For me, recently, you know, we're doing alpha right now, and I think I invited maybe four people, and about half of them, a little over half, were like, thanks.
SPEAKER_00: But I could see in their thanks that they're like, no way, bro.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then another couple of folks uh said yes and came, which is kind of surprising, honestly, to me.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they came.
SPEAKER_00: Some rejected, some received.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is shaping our expectation.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep among wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Some will receive, some will reject.
SPEAKER_00: And he is asking us to be resolute in the midst of it, which is why he ends with this beautiful verse in 16.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says in 16.
SPEAKER_00: The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is tying not just himself, but the Father to you in this experience.
SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, Pentecost passes.
SPEAKER_00: We get the Holy Spirit inside of us, and so part of the implication is as we're laboring in the harvest, is Jesus is saying, the Trinity is with you.
SPEAKER_00: And they reject you, that means they've rejected me, just like they did when I was here.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the way that Jesus ends this because again, we've we've seen a high call from Jesus here, a high cost, and we felt conviction about it.
SPEAKER_00: And the way that he closes this segment as he's sending them out is by reminding them that they're doing life with him.
SPEAKER_00: Sky Jathani wrote a great book about this called With God, which basically just describes the different postures we sometimes want to take to God.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we approach life under God.
SPEAKER_00: He's like this slave driver, and you've got to do all the things that he says, otherwise you're gonna be punished.
SPEAKER_00: You're under God, or sometimes you're over God, where he is your puppet.
SPEAKER_00: You at least you try to get him to be.
SPEAKER_00: You want him to do whatever you want, and when you'll come find him when you need him.
SPEAKER_00: Life over God.
SPEAKER_00: And but the the thesis of the book is that it's not those.
SPEAKER_00: As a Christian, you're doing life with God.
SPEAKER_00: He's alongside you.
SPEAKER_00: Because your judgment, your salvation is not contingent on your performance.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is a free gift of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, he calls you into the harvest to bring glory to him and to look, he doesn't need you to save people, but he wants you to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so life is not necessarily under God in that sense, over God in that sense, it's with him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what verse 16 is pointing to.
SPEAKER_00: The Trinity, after Pentecost, is with you in your receiving and in your rejection.
SPEAKER_00: And this is meant to be a part of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you feel conviction about this, as I did, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of what the text intends.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus wants you to join him in the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna get to see things you never thought that you'd get to see.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We confess to you that we want to avoid it at all costs.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Lord, the work that you call us to do, we'll experience rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, God.
SPEAKER_00: Build us up.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that you set your face to the cross for our sake.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us that in our failure is your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Remind us, God, that we're not out there alone.
SPEAKER_00: We're with you.
SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that you would bring many to faith.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Lord, that you would let us see the truth that the harvest is plentiful, God.
SPEAKER_00: Fulfill your word, Lord, we call on you.
SPEAKER_00: Let it be far more plentiful than any of us could ask or imagine.
SPEAKER_00: God, keep us from our sins of retaliation, of isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Keep us from sinning against you and against others when we're rejected.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we need you.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't take you for granted.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, amen.