Frustrating Jesus
Luke 9:37-45
November 18, 2018
We are rapidly approaching the Christmas season,
Where the church focuses on the reality that Christ came into the world
And with that we also focus on WHY HE CAME.
For us today, it is clear.
Matthew 1:18-21 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Jesus came to save sinners.
John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
He came to be the Savior that the world so desperately needs.
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”
Jesus came to live a righteous life and die an atoning death
That He might redeem sinners back to God.
Everything about His life was ultimately for this purpose.
His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His preaching, His resurrection,
IT WAS ALL ABOUT HIS ATONING DEATH.
That is why He came,
And apart from that death, no man can be reconciled to God.
• We now understand the necessity of the cross.
• We now understand why the cross is the priority of all Christian
understanding.
WE KNOW THAT NOW.
But getting that truth into the hearts of people in Jesus’ day was not easy.
Men wouldn’t see it Men couldn’t see it
They DIDN’T UNDERSTAND why they needed the cross
It certainly was NOT WHAT THEY WANTED
And it didn’t seem to matter how many times Jesus mentioned it,
People just failed to see it.
THEY KEPT MISSING THE POINT.
In Jesus’ own words the generation Jesus ministered to
Was “unbelieving” and “perverted”
They were backward about everything.
It certainly must have been FRUSTRATING for the Lord.
He must have felt like
He was beating His head against a wall over and over again.
And this morning that frustration even manifests itself.
If I may remind you of THE SETTING.
• 9 days ago Jesus solidified His identity with the disciples.
• He is in fact the Christ of God; the Messiah; the Savior of the World.
• He then told them not to go out preaching that message because
reigning as King on the earth, was not the immediate plan.
• He had come to suffer and be rejected and be killed and be raised.
This would be the message.
• The disciples however were grieved by that announcement (Peter
even rebuked Him)
• And so Jesus had to clarify with them that His death was a certainty
• He also had to clarify that anyone who wanted to follow Him had
better come to grips with that.
He wasn’t here to give people their best life now.
He had come to call sinners to forsake their life
That they may gain life eternal.
That is hard for us to hear today,
You know it was hard for those who heard it for the first time
Back when Jesus introduced it.
But that was the message Jesus announced
Just 9 days ago to the disciples.
ONE DAY AGO (yesterday) Jesus had Peter, James, and John up on the mountain with Him
• And He revealed to them His glory,
• Emphasizing that the kingdom of Heaven is in fact real.
BUT ALSO ON THAT MOUNTAIN
The message and necessity of the cross was once again solidified
As Peter was rebuked by God and emphatically told to listen to Christ.
And now, Jesus and those 3 disciples are headed down the mountain.
MEANWHILE DOWN IN THE VALLEY…
• The other 9 disciples are in a bit of a dilemma,
• And the situation they are facing, along with their response to it
• Is about to cause the frustration of Jesus to manifest.
Jesus is dealing with unbelieving, perverted, and ignorant people.
They are a people who refuse to see the truth,
And it provides yet another opportunity
For Jesus to address their Messianic Misconceptions.
Let’s work our way through the text.
#1 THE REQUEST
Luke 9:37-40
We read “On the next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met Him.”
What is not explicitly stated, but apparent is that
• Jesus and His disciples have now made their way back from the desolate region of Caesarea Philippi,
• They have come back across the Sea of Galilee and are once again in the populated region of Galilee.
And here, after ascending the mountain and being transfigured,
Jesus has now returned and “a large crowd met Him.”
Luke then adds that, “a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only boy, and a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly screams, and it throws him into a convulsion with foaming at the mouth; and only with difficulty does it leave him, mauling him as it leaves.”
Mark’s gospel adds
• That it is “a spirit which makes him mute” (9:17)
• And that during his episode he “grinds his teeth and stiffens out.” (9:18)
• And that “From childhood [the spirit] has often thrown him into the fire and into the water to destroy him.” (9:21-22)
Only Luke includes the father’s statement that “he is my only boy”
And so it’s obvious that not only is this a tragic situation,
But also one meant to pull a little at the strings of your heart.
If you’ll remember Luke has included another story thus far about Jesus addressing a parent whose only son was afflicted.
Luke 7:12 “Now as He approached the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her.”
It’s obvious Luke is making the connection here
Of the expected compassion that would overtake Jesus
When faced with such a tragic reality.
And now that Jesus has descended the mountain
• The man cries out to Jesus
• Because the disciples have been unsuccessful in their efforts
(40) “I begged Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.”
Granted now, that comes to us a little peculiar
Since we already witnessed at the first of the chapter that Jesus had given these same disciples authority over the unclean spirits.
Luke 9:1 “And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.”
So we’re already a little perplexed with the problem that’s occurring,
But at the very lease we see yet another desperate situation,
With yet another person begging Jesus for relief from their affliction.
THAT IS CLEAR.
NOW, WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO, is to take all your expectations in your mind that you have developed about what you think about Jesus,
And looking at those 4 verses I want you to develop
What you think Jesus is about to do.
• I mean, we know Jesus right?
• Full of compassion, full of mercy.
• We’ve seen Him dealing with the sick and afflicted.
I think everyone at this point most likely expects Jesus to be overcome with sympathy and to say something like,
“O you poor thing, come here and let me fix that!”
Well, hold on because His response is going to be a bit of a shock.
The Request
#2 THE REBUKE
Luke 9:41-42
This point really should be called “the rebukes”
Because there is going to be more than 1 handed out.
But this boy’s father approaches Jesus who begs Jesus to look at his son in hopes that Jesus will deliver him.
And the response of Jesus is this:
“And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
Now be honest, is that what you expected to hear?
You can sense His frustration can’t you?
A statement like “how long shall I be with you and put up with you?”
Can’t really be interpreted any other way.
Jesus is clearly frustrated.
In fact, He calls them an “unbelieving and perverted generation”
“unbelieving” is APISTOS
(pistis) is the word for faith or belief, the “a” makes it a negative like an “a” theist.
Jesus says that this is a generation that has no faith.
They have no belief.
He then calls them “perverted” DIASTREPHO
“Dia” = through
“Strephos” = to turn
Literally it means “to turn through”
(as in to make crooked, to twist inside out) ultimately to mislead.
Jesus says that this is a generation that does not believe the truth
And one that distorts, twists and perverts the truth they do have.
And because this is who they are,
Jesus asks “how long” does He have to put up with them?
Someone might be tempted to ask if Jesus is just having a bad day.
To understand His frustration you need to see the whole story.
TURN TO: MARK 9:14-32
Here is the same incident in Mark’s gospel.
(READ 14-18)
Already the story is clearing up for us.
• While Jesus was on the mountain revealing His glory the other 9 disciples were in the valley
• And they were approached by a man whose son was demon possessed.
• Luke’s gospel indicates that the man “begged” them to cast it out.
• Mark’s gospel merely says that he “told” them to do it.
• Either way, the man approached the 9 disciples wanting his son to be delivered.
And we know that the disciples could not do it.
Now there is the first problem.
Why could they not?
(READ 28-29)
I like the statement, “This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer.”
Now, I don’t know what the disciples were doing,
But I know what they weren’t doing. They weren’t praying.
They weren’t seeking God’s help in the matter.
Matthew’s gospel gives even more insight here.
Matthew 17:19-21 “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. [“But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]
Their problem was a “littleness” of faith.
Expressly revealed in their lack of prayer.
The indication is that the disciples
Tried to deliver this boy by their own strength.
They tried to deliver this boy by their own works.
I don’t know what that looked like for them.
I KNOW TODAY we see people rebuked, slapped on the forehead, punched in the stomach, and many other manners of ridiculous attempts, and it’s all foolishness.
But that already explains part of Jesus’ frustration.
He has just expressly laid it out for the disciples what is expected of them.
• Namely the preaching of the cross, and ultimately faith in Him
• And it’s apparent that the disciples have missed it on both counts.
And when this man approached them this demon kicked their tail.
Jesus was clearly frustrated with the disciples misunderstanding
Of their purpose and the source of their power.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.
By the time Jesus arrives a crowd has already gathered
According to Mark’s gospel “they saw a large crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. Immediately, when the entire crowd saw Him, they were amazed and began running up to greet Him. And He asked them, “What are you discussing with them?”
Are you starting to understand what’s going on?
• These disciples tried to deliver this boy in their own strength and failed.
• And their failure looked like the just the open door that the scribes wanted to try and discredit Jesus.
And by the time Jesus arrives there is already a debate,
No doubt dealing with what a sham Jesus is.
And when Jesus shows up, they put Him on the spot
Wanting Him to prove He can do what His disciples claim.
So when Jesus asks what all the argument is about,
IT IS THEN that this man speaks up and says, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute…I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not.”
The disciples have just entered Jesus in a demon fight.
Does that make sense?
• He just came down off the mountain where His mission on the cross was reiterated by Moses, Elijah, and the Father
• And now He finds that the other 9 disciples have entered Him in a battle against a demon that they couldn’t defeat.
And it is apparent that the crowd, (even the father), are SKEPTICAL.
Look at Mark 9:21-23
Did you catch the father’s immediate statement?
“But if You can do anything…”
You can hear the skepticism of the crowd
Even coming through the request of this desperate father.
So maybe now Jesus’ frustration seems a little more legitimate.
His disciples have totally disregarded the truths Jesus has just revealed back in Caesarea Philippi
• They have entered a battle, which they lost.
• They then got into an argument that Jesus could do it, and in effect entered Him into a battle with this demon
The crowd is skeptical and the scribes are no doubt spreading the word that Jesus can’t do a thing.
And after all that does His rebuke seem a little more fitting?
“You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
He came down off this mountain
And was instantly greeted with unbelief and perversion.
Is He compassionate? Yes (He’s going to heal the boy)
BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE THAT HE IS FRUSTRATED
By both the crowd and the weak faith of His disciples.
This is NOT what His ministry is supposed to look like.
• He is not in this thing to prize fight against demons.
• He is here to save the lost through the preaching of repentance and through an
atoning death.
The disciples and the crowds have distorted all of that.
And so they earn a rebuke.
That’s the first rebuke.
The second rebuke is for the demon.
(42) “While he was still approaching, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.”
Now this scene is actually a little comical.
• Apparently after defeating the disciples
• And getting pumped up by the skepticism of the crowd,
• This demon is ready for a fight.
The demon even puts on a little display (like a pompous wrestler entering the ring) “the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into a convulsion.”
The demon in effect flexed his muscle.
Then comes the fight, but it’s not exactly Rocky II
“But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.”
Battle over.
Mark’s gospel gives a little more detail.
Mark 9:26-27 “After crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, “He is dead!” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up.”
It is once again the tremendous power of Jesus.
• He never raised a finger.
• No headlocks, No kidney punches, No body slams,
• Just a rebuke and this heralded demon was gone.
It is yet again the tremendous power of Jesus.
What is far too much for humanity is not even difficult for Jesus.
His authority is not pretend, it is real
His power is not over-hyped, it is legitimate
Certainly the disciples new that,
But they had totally missed the point of His prior warning
To leave that part out and to go and preach His cross.
Instead they entered Him in a fight in order to prove how powerful He was.
Do you see why they got a rebuke?
The Request, The Rebuke
#3 THE RESPONSE
Luke 9:43-45
And here we could also call this “the responses” because there is actually 3 here.
You get:
• The Response of the Crowd (43)
• The Response of Jesus (44)
• The Response of the Disciples (45)
Now this is important.
• The disciples entered a Jesus in a demon fight,
• The crowd did not think He could win it, they were unbelieving.
• And yet, Jesus overwhelmingly defeated the demon.
And here’s what we read about the crowd.
“And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.”
Luke also adds that “everyone was marveling at all that He was doing”
They were “amazed” and they were “marveling”
“amazed” is EKPLESSO
It means “exceedingly struck” or today we might say, “blown away”
They just couldn’t believe what they just saw.
“marveling” is THAUMAZO
It means “to wonder” or even “to admire”
So stop there for a second.
• These disciples just entered Jesus in a battle with a demon in order to defend His power and maybe even His divinity.
• And Jesus won the battle and all the crowd was blown away and admired Him.
They, in effect, lifted Jesus on their shoulders
And carried Him around hailed Him as the champ!
BUT STOP!
Jesus already expressed the problem of the crowd.
What was it?
They were “unbelieving”
Does it say that now they believed? No, they were just blown away.
Does it say they denied themselves and followed Him? No, they just admired Him.
Can I again state the obvious to you?
• OUR GOAL IS NOT TO JUST AMAZE PEOPLE WITH JESUS
• OUR GOAL IS NOT TO JUST CAUSE THEM TO BE BLOWN AWAY WITH ALL HE CAN DO
Hell will be full of amazed people.
Hell will be full of demons that are blown away at the sight of Jesus
The requirement for salvation is NOT that you are AMAZED with Jesus,
• It’s that you believe in Jesus.
The requirement is NOT to ADMIRE Him,
• But that you deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Him!
And no doubt someone in our culture would say: “But don’t you think that showing off how powerful Jesus is will cause people to believe?”
(That’s what so many in our world seem to think)
Well, you tell me.
• Did it work for this crowd? No
• In fact, I can’t see that it really ever worked.
Jesus said:
Matthew 12:38-39 “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;”
This is why we are not trying to push signs and wonders.
What does cause people to believe?
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Romans 1:15-16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
It is the preaching of Christ that leads to faith.
Isn’t that what Jesus has been saying?
And yet even Jesus’ disciples seem adamant
That they just want to put Jesus in situations
Where He can put His power on display,
Thinking that will be more effective than preaching the cross.
Incidentally Paul addressed this specifically to the Corinthians.
(Remember they were caught up in mystical signs and wonders and especially a desire to speak in tongues)
Here is what Paul wrote to them:
1 Corinthians 14:23-25 “Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are mad? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.”
It’s not the demonstration of powerful signs and wonders that leads men to faith in Christ, it’s the preaching of His gospel.
THIS IS WHAT JESUS HAS BEEN SAYING.
But the disciples haven’t wanted to hear that!
• They don’t want to hear about Jesus suffering and dying
• They don’t want to hear about following Him to death
• This is why Peter rebuked him back in Caesarea Philippi
• This is why Peter spoke up on the mountain
They would much rather convince people to follow Jesus
By reason of His tremendous miraculous power.
That’s what the disciples want,
AND HERE they even defiantly pursued that course with this crowd,
And it didn’t work.
• The crowd was amazed
• The crowd marveled
• But they did not believe
• They did not submit
Woe to us if all we do is produce a multitude of people
Who are amazed with Jesus but who do not believe in Him.
That’s the response of this crowd,
And their response brings about then A RESPONSE FROM JESUS.
(43b-44) “He said to His disciples, “Let these words sink into Your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”
What a statement!
“Let these words sink into Your ears”
• You can hear His frustration again.
• You guys just aren’t getting it!
Might I say that what Jesus says here to the 9 disciples
Is precisely what God the Father had said to Peter up on the mountain.
LISTEN!
“the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”
• It doesn’t matter how much you think that popularity is the goal…
• It doesn’t matter how effective you think a publicity stunt can be…
• None of that changes the fact that the ordained plan of God is that I suffer and die on the cross.
We’ve said it over and over now for the past month.
The Cross – The Cross – The Cross
That’s where Jesus is going
That’s where His followers are going
That’s what we preach
Don’t get sucked in to thinking that
• This world can somehow be redeemed just by making Jesus famous.
• This world can somehow be saved if we can just show them how powerful Jesus is.
• If we just tell the world that Jesus is powerful and can heal all their diseases and solve all their problems that it will somehow lead the world to believe.
IT WON’T!
The plan has always been the cross and the preaching of the cross
“Let these words sink into your ears”
(i.e. “get it through your thick skulls”)
What a message for the church today.
But then we come across THE RESPONSE OF THE DISCIPLES, and it is both peculiar and disheartening.
(45) “But they did not understand this statement, and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it; and they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.”
Well FIRST WE RECOGNIZE that despite the emphatic statement,
They still didn’t get it.
It’s not registering to them that the cross is the only way of salvation.
But the peculiar part is the statement which says, “and it was concealed from them so that they would not perceive it”
Our first question would be: Who concealed it?
Well, there’s only two options.
SATAN:
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
But that one seems a bit unlikely since the disciples do believe.
They have faith, granted Jesus just exposed it as little faith, but they do have faith.
Well then the only other option is GOD
But why would God conceal something from the disciples when Jesus just told them to let it sink into their ears?
We have been told why God does this before.
Matthew 13:11-13 “Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
• There are truths that people will not see and so God makes it where they cannot see.
• There are truths that people will not hear and so God makes it where they cannot hear.
The apparent truth here is that
While Jesus was emphatically telling the disciples
To embrace the message of the cross
That the disciples still did not want to hear it,
And so it was concealed from them where they could not hear it.
And all they were left with was fear.
“they were afraid to ask Him about this statement.”
The disciples had every opportunity to graduate to the next level of ministry.
• They had rightly been shown that Jesus was the Messiah.
• And they had been told of His plan of atonement through the cross,
• But because they didn’t want to see it they couldn’t see it and the training continues.
It is just another incident where Luke reveals to us the tremendous MESSIANIC MISCONCEPTIONS of the disciples.
They still didn’t get it.
THE CROSS IS THE MESSAGE
• Don’t fight it when Jesus reveals it
• Don’t reject it when Jesus requires it
• Don’t omit it when seeking to minister
But the disciples are still stuck in their refusal to die to self and embrace the cross and follow Jesus, so the education must continue.
What is clear is that their unwillingness to yield is frustrating to Jesus.
“How long shall I be with you and put up with you?”
Friends, that is not where we want to land as the church.
• I don’t want to be the church that frustrates Jesus.
• I don’t want to be the church that Jesus must reluctantly tolerate.
LISTEN TO WHAT HE IS SAYING.
• The cross is the means of salvation for the world
• The cross is what Jesus came to do
• The cross is what we embrace
• The cross is what we carry
• The cross is what we proclaim
Getting sidetracked with other things
Is to miss the point and to frustrate Christ.
