Different Reactions

Life is full of variety, and because we’re all different, life is also full of a variety of personal preferences.  For example, some prefer to think of Die Hard as a Christmas movie, some more sane people do not.  Some prefer live Christmas trees over fake ones.  Some prefer apple cider over eggnog.  Some prefer to open presents on Christmas Eve, some on Christmas morning.  Some prefer Hallmark Christmas movies, others prefer classics like It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, White Christmas, or one of my favorites, Elf.

Because we’re all different, we can look at the same thing and come to different conclusions.  And this is good and right.  God didn’t make us robots.  He made us in his image with the ability to think and process and feel and reason.  But then of course, there’s sin that blurs our vision of the true, the good, and the beautiful.  Which is why some insist that Die Hard is a Christmas movie!

The same thing can create different reactions.  This is a basic law of life.  Living with open hands and open minds on things that the Bible leaves open is the path to Christian freedom and church unity, as we hold tightly to things that are clear and loosely to things that aren’t.

Who Is This?

One of the things that the Bible makes clear is the person and nature of Jesus.  As we learned this morning in Training Class, the Bible says that Jesus is fully man and fully God, two natures in one person.  To deny this is to deny Christianity and be headed to hell.

But when the Son of God made his first advent two thousand years ago around the north shores of the Sea of Galilee, it wasn’t immediately clear and obvious who he was.  As we’ve studied Luke’s Gospel, we’ve seen the question “Who is this?” pop up several times (5:21, 8:25, 9:9).

The response to Jesus’ teaching and miracles was varied, different people came to different conclusions.  Some were amazed, some were afraid, some were curious, and some were furious.  The same seed of Jesus’ word fell on all sorts of soil.

Some Receive, Some Don’t

That’s what we see again today in our text, Luke 9:1-9.  In this text, Jesus sends out his apostles to extend his work and some receive it, some oppose, and some are suspicious.  This parallels what happens after Paul preaches in Athens (Acts 17:32-34a).

The main point of our text today is that, as Jesus’ work spreads, some receive it and some don’t.  We’ll see a successful mission in verses 1-6, a suspicious leader in verses 7-9, and then consider a strategic pattern in this text.

A Successful Mission

First, in verses 1-6, we see a successful mission.  Thus far, the twelve have been Jesus’ companions and audience, but now they become his special agents, widening the scope of his mission.

They’re empowered to go out and do what Jesus has been doing: healing and preaching.  Jesus remains the source of the authority and power, but he’s extending his ministry in the region by sharing his authority and power with the apostles.

By delegating his power and authority to the apostles, Jesus is extending and expanding the scope of his saving mission.  His movement now becomes more than a one-man campaign.  And he’s preparing the way for the authority he’ll give to the church to carry on his work.  His followers in all ages will continue the good work of helping the hurting, pushing back darkness, and proclaiming his word.

Travel Instructions

In verse 3, Jesus gives the twelve specific travel instructions.  I once used this verse when I was leading a mission team to China to encourage everyone to pack light.  Jesus is saying they should pack light, but he’s saying much more than that.  He’s not just telling them to not take too many bags.  Rather, he’s instilling in them the same thing he was teaching Jairus, that they needed to come to the end of themselves and be totally dependent on God for everything they need.  He’s telling them to go out with an attitude of total dependence on God’s ability to take care of them.

They’ve seen all the miracles Jesus has been doing, so they know that Jesus can do anything, from calming storms to raising the dead, so now they need to trust that he can also provide meals and housing and clothes for them.

If you’re thinking about pursuing vocational ministry, or making your living through serving the church, then this verse is highly instructive for you.  The Lord calls, empowers, sends out, and then promises to provide for those he sends.  Entering full-time vocational Christian ministry means signing up for, as one writer says, “a simple lifestyle committed to dependence on God.”[1]  The Lord knows what you need and never sends out his messengers without the promise of provision.

But notice verse 4.  The way God will provide for his messengers is through the hospitality of those they’re sent to.  Provision will come from the houses that welcome them.  He tells them to stay in the house that welcomes them until they go to the next town.  Unlike other itinerant teachers, they weren’t to hop from house to house looking for more and better provision.  They were to stay where they were received and be content with what was provided for them.

When They Do Not Receive You

But, as I said earlier, people can look at the same thing, or hear the same thing, and have very different reactions.  So in verse 5, Jesus gives them instructions on what to do when they’re rejected.

Jesus gives them permission to leave a town that doesn’t receive them.  They aren’t forced to stay where they aren’t welcome.  But as they go, they’re to “shake off the dust from their feet,” and this is a “testimony against them.”  What’s happening here?

When a Jewish person traveled to a Gentile land, they’d “shake the dust off their feet” so they wouldn’t bring home contaminated dirt from unclean areas.  Jesus is telling the apostles to do the same thing when the Jewish villages around Galilee reject them, thus treating Jews who reject their message as though they were Gentiles.

This act was a symbolic warning of impending judgment to those who reject their message if their decision doesn’t change.  The message being rejected was a message of repentance, as Mark says, “They went out and proclaimed that people should repent” (6:12).  People who don’t want to own their sin before a holy God and change their ways in light of his kingdom coming in Jesus are setting themselves up for judgment.

Those who reject repentance, reject grace because they assume they don’t need it.  This kind of self-righteousness, or belief that sin isn’t a big deal and that good deeds can make up for any faults, is the pathway to hell.  The reason is because, as Jesus says in 10:16, if you reject the message of repentance, you reject Jesus, and if you reject Jesus, you reject God.  Hopefully you can see why repentance is a necessary fruit of conversion.  Those who don’t repent, aren’t saved.  Those who reject repentance accept judgment.

Learning from Mrs. Beaver

What do we do when this is the posture of people we know and love and share the gospel with?  We give them over to the Lord.  Let me illustrate this with a scene from C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  When the four children first visit Narnia, it’s still frozen over.  They’re traveling with the Beavers and after having a meal together they realize that Edmund, the disgruntled brother who ate the witch’s food and was infected by her lies, has disappeared.  Wise Mrs. Beaver instantly knows that he’s gone to find the witch because she has tempted him with power.  Peter and Lucy want to go look for him, but Mrs. Beaver says, “Go to the witch’s house?  Don’t you see that the only chance of saving either him or yourselves is to keep away from her?”  Then Lucy cries out, “Oh, can no one help us?”  “Only Aslan,” says Mrs. Beaver, “we must go on and meet him.  That’s our only chance now.”[2]

Mrs. Beaver is illustrating Jesus’ point in verse 5.  She tells the children that they can’t bring back someone who isn’t ready to join their righteous cause, that only God can do that.  Those held captive by the smooth talk of the White Witch, with all her boasting and allurements, can only be set free by the grace of God.  So while we pray for those caught in her web, we don’t have to subject ourselves to her poison.  We shake the dust off and keep moving.

Despite rejection, verse 6 says that the apostle’s mission was a success: the gospel was preached and people were healed.  As Jesus’ saving work spreads, some didn’t receive it, but some did.

A Suspicious Leader

But then we come to verses 7-9 and we see someone who doesn’t outright reject Jesus’ message, but he is suspicious: “Herod the tetrarch,” a suspicious leader.

Popular speculation about Jesus reaches the top of society, the local king’s court.  This Herod was in charge of the region of Galilee so Jesus’ activity in his region gets his attention.  Perhaps it was one of his employees, Chuza (8:3), who told him what’s happening.

People were saying that Jesus was either John the Baptist or an ancient prophet come back from the dead, or Elijah.  Public opinion was that Jesus was some sort of prophet, an unidentified agent of God.  And there was some truth to that, but contrary to Islamic theology, Jesus is much more than a prophet.

When Herod hears all this, he’s “perplexed” (v. 7), or as one translation says, it “caused him acute anxiety” (Phillips).

Why is he “perplexed”?  Matthew says that Herod’s opinion was that Jesus must be John the Baptist risen from the dead, and that’s why he could do miracles (14:2).  It seems especially troubling to Herod that Jesus may be John the Baptist resurrected, which is why he declares that he killed him (v. 9).

Why would Herod be troubled that Jesus is John the Baptist?  Because John told the truth about Herod (3:19).  People who don’t want to repent of their sin don’t like their sin being exposed, so Herod declares that John and all of his truth telling is dead (v. 9).

Herod’s persecution of John foreshadows his later treatment of Jesus.  They both preached a message of repentance, which is probably why Herod connected them, feared them, and ultimately wanted them dead.

At this point, Herod is still curious about Jesus.  But his curiosity will soon turn into malice (13:31, 23:6-11).  When Jesus won’t perform the way Herod wants him to, Herod falsely accuses him, mocks him, and sends him back to Pilate dressed as a king to publicly embarrass him.

Back in chapter 9, Herod wants to see Jesus, perhaps out of curiosity, wanting to see what’s trending in Galilee.  But also out of suspicion that Jesus may’ve picked up John’s mantle as a truth-teller.  So he’s “perplexed” and wants to know “who is this.”  But his seeking isn’t a genuine seeking.  It’s a self-centered seeking driven by fear, not by faith.

Again, as news of Jesus’ work spreads, some receive it and some don’t.  And some, like Herod, though initially curious and suspicious, will eventually work to silence Jesus.  But in God’s infinite wisdom, by sending out the twelve, Jesus is laying the groundwork for how his movement will outlast his time on earth.  God is always a thousand steps ahead of his enemies.

A Strategic Pattern

And that brings us to our third point, a strategic pattern.  In this text, we see that God is already planning ahead for Jesus’ departure by getting the team ready who’ll carry on his work when he’s gone.  But there’s more strategery going on here, what I’m calling a “strategic pattern.”

In this text, Jesus extends his work by delegating his authority to the apostles.  But remember who these guys are.  They’re fishermen, tax collectors, skeptics, and political activists.  They’re ordinary guys, so ordinary that they’re barely mentioned by name in the Gospels.  Yet Jesus gives them his power and authority.

The pattern is this: Jesus chooses the weak to do his work.  The strategy is that, by doing so, he clearly displays his strength.  So the strategic pattern is that Jesus chooses the weak to reveal his strength.

Jesus sets his power on fallible men who’ll make mistakes and argue and grumble and sin.  Yet these are the guys who’ll advance his agenda in the world.  All so that he gets the glory, not them.

This is why, in Acts 1:8, Jesus tells them that they’ll only be his witnesses after they receive his power from the Holy Spirit.  Without the Spirit, they’re weak.  But with the Spirit, they can do things they couldn’t imagine or think possible.

Here’s my point: God’s work in the world follows a common course.  God’s way is to raise up the weak in order to reveal his strength.  Think of dishonest Abe (Abraham), stuttering Moses, young David who slays the giant, Ruth the Moabite, Rahab the prostitute, Gideon from the weakest clan, Judah who makes terrible decisions but owns them and repents, or Amos the shepherd.

These all point to the fulfillment of the strategic pattern: Jesus Christ, born to a virgin teenager, laid in a cattle trough, raised in the middle of nowhere, loses his dad too soon, works with his hands, no formal training or great wealth, lives a nomadic existence as a grown man, is accused of the worst things imaginable but doesn’t fight back, allowing himself to be executed like a criminal.  Some of his friends betrayed him, the rest ran off.  He hung naked on a cross designed to shame you while you slowly died.  Jesus’ life and death are clothed with weakness.

Yet it’s through his weakness that he reveals his glory.  As Paul says, “Christ crucified…is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23-24).

Why do you think weakness triumphing over strength is the major story arch in so many stories?  Think of all the stories where the young and small ones are the heroes.  From the children in Narnia to the hobbits in Middle Earth to The Karate Kid to the teenagers in Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and Stranger Things, weakness triumphs over strength.  This is the major story arch in so many stories because it runs along the grain of reality, along the grain of the ultimate story of the Strong One becoming weak to save us.

At Christmas, we remember that the Strong One became weak to show us and give us his strength.  God shows us his power by defeating power with weakness.  Who would’ve thought that an obscure man hanging on a cross would mean the undoing of every broken and evil thing?  Who would’ve thought that this defeated man would rise victorious three days later, reversing the curse hanging over the world?

The Kind of People God Chooses to Use

As Jesus’ saving work spreads across the world, some receive it and some don’t.  The ones who do are those who own their weakness and find strength in the Savior.  The strong ones are left out because “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Js. 4:6).

Those who understand their weakness are just the kind of people God loves to choose to advance his glory in the world.  Again Paul says, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor. 1:26-29).

God’s plan is to triumph through the most unexpected people so that it’s clear who deserves the credit.  God’s way is to raise up the weak in order to reveal his strength.  Do you understand your weakness?  Do you know Jesus’ strength?

[1]Darrell L. Bock, Luke, Volume 1: 1:1-9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994), 819.

[2]Quoted in R. T. France, Luke, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2013), 167.