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well it's me again take your Bibles and turn to Luke Chapter n and I realize I have a couple of jobs to do the first one obviously is to preach the word of God to you that is I should make it understood and my target is everyone even the kids here I have you in mind when I preach so it might make sense to you as well as to all of us and it should be able to make sense so that's that's my job I see that as my job it should be compelling as well I'm not reading from a phone book and then uh the other thing is I understand that it's the latter part of the day most of us I'm sure have had a very good meal and you might be actually tired that's okay it's on me to keep you awake if you fall asleep that's my fault not yours uh remember ticus he did fall from the second floor I think when Paul was preaching too long Paul didn't reprove him he raised him from the dead so Luke Chapter n I'm going to read a very short section in your hearing now okay in verse 51 I'm sorry verse 51- 56 now it came to pass and the time had come for him to be received up that he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem and 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 when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them just as Elijah did but he turned to rebuke 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 the saved lives and they went to another village now I want you to do some work tonight metaphorically speaking if you could have a back pack and I'm going to give you three things to hang on to and then as I'm preaching through this passage I want you to pull those things out of the backpack because they will help make sense of the of the passage that we're looking at the first thing is something I mentioned this morning the Bible principally teaches two things if any of you know anything at all about the Westminster catechism what do the scriptures primarily teach they primarily teach what Duty um what man has to believe concerning God and what Duty God requires of man so I want you to put that in your backpack and pull it out when we need it in other words what is it that we are to believe what that we are to do it should be expressed in God's word especially what it is that we are to do second thing I want you to keep in mind is that there was a great Prejudice between the Jews and the Samaritans a great difference a great controversy a great Prejudice between them so much so that you had the Samaritans which were in the northern part of Israel they were called half breeds and they adopted many of the false religions of their of their land and then you have the Jews that were down in Judah they worshiped at Jerusalem and so you have this great Prejudice they it got to a point where they didn't even talk to each other okay and the third thing which is closely related is light of this is that there were two places of worship one was Mount gism which is where Israel Worship in Samaria and then of course Jerusalem which was in Judah that's where the Jews went to worship so take those things stick them in your backpack when I tell you to pull them out like an energy bar we'll pull it out and hopefully will be of help to us now I think it's important for us to look at this in its context and the context is that our Lord has had a goodly amount of Miracles he's also healed many people of their sicknesses and so he has become well known as a prophet but he's also been opposed by the religious leaders in this particular chapter James and John and Peter go up to the Mount and our Lord is transfigured there okay when he comes down in Mark's account he sees the scribes arguing with the disciples because they couldn't cast out a demon from a boy so there we already have fusting and fighting going on right there our Lord heals the boy and then our Lord also predicts of his death and then you have the disciples getting into an argument about who was going to be the greatest so they're fussing and fighting about who's going to be the greatest then you have John coming to our Lord saying we saw someone who's casting out a demon he doesn't follow us should we forbid him to do that again he wants to get into a little fight with this guy because the fact that he's casting out demons in jesus' name and he doesn't follow him and our Lord forbids him to do that that's the arena that we're in the atmosphere of the day is that there was just a lot of bickering and complaining and fighting going on and it would appear that James and John have been affected by that and we will see later later on about that but that's the that's the uh the atmosphere that's the only word I can think of right now it's just one of contentions people were always at each other verbally as well as physically now verse 51 our Lord is on a mission as he has an appointment to keep and that is the will of his father and that was his suffering and his death which is found in verse 44 of the same chapter says let these words sink down into your ears for the son of man is about to be betrayed into the hands of the men but they did not understand this saying it was hidden from them so our Lord knows that he has a mission he is going to have to suffer the wrath of almighty God and in order to help him with that he has two two blessings in his mind the first one I can we can see that from other scriptures because of the fact that he was going to bring many sons to Glory that was a blessing to our Savior that's one of the reasons why he went to the Cross there's many other reasons as well but there's a second reason too the reason why he was going to the cross and that is he was going to ascend he was going to ascend now it came to pass when the time had come from him to be received up Mr Hendrick and I like him a lot for commentaries he writes that this can be translated instead of being risen up he ascended he is going to ascend and so it came to pass when the time had come for him to ascend now we know what that is that's after his death after his resurrection when he's received up into Glory our Lord has this in his mind to be a help to him to be a blessing to him to strengthen him remember our Lord while he is fully God he's also fully man same weaknesses as us I mean think about our death I'm sure we're not exactly rejoiced in that except for the fact that in the death of the Christian we have a refuge but still there's that human factor that we have to die there's suffering and death there's just no way of getting around it our Lord takes it a step further because all of the sins of God's elect are going to be on our savior that's quite a burden to bear tough enough for us that when we come under conviction of sin to bear that sin but now to Bear the sins of the elect our Lord does it though but he's knows he has a mission as he sets out for [Music] Jerusalem if you want um some references in regards to Ascension which verify I think this is his Ascension that he's that he's speaking of Mark chapter 16 talks about him being received up into heaven 16:19 acts 1:2 he was taken up into heaven and of course first uh Timothy 3:16 when you're looking at the attributes of Our Lord one of them was that he was received up into Glory so now we're going to verse 52 is my pattern is I like to explain a text and that's what we're going to do we're going to go verse by verse here verse 52 is even though the Final Destination was Jerusalem our Lord sends Messengers to find lodging in a Samaran place okay I'm going to want you to give me a little bit of Liberty here I think it'll make sense as we get to the L latter part of this verse but I I think that when they went there it appears that the messengers were successful in securing a place of refreshment a place they could spend the night get some food and continue on to Jerusalem I think they got permission to do that it was our Lord's custom to send men ahead of a village that they're going to obviously the one that comes to mind is when our Lord goes to celebrate his last passover with his disciples he sent two disciples to make the room ready I think he does the same thing and I'm pretty certain it's James and John that go ahead and and get permission from the leaders of that Village they could stay there and get refreshment okay but something happens in verse 53 the Samaritans change their mind they are not going to allow Peter James John the other disciples as well as our Lord to stay there and I think it's because of the temple issue I think that's the reason why first of all in John 4:20 you can turn there or just listen remember our Lord meets a Samaritan woman at the well and they get into a discussion about worship and in verse vers 20 the Samaritan woman says this our fathers worship on this Mount and that's Mount gism and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship so the controversy of where to worship was still alive and well however our Lord's face was set for Jerusalem he was going to go to Jerusalem if Jesus and his disciples would have worshiped at Mount gism it would have given validity to mount gim's place of worship because Jesus is a prominent teacher he's a prominent healer a prophet and if he and his disciples would have stayed there and worshiped at that particular Temple it would have brought controversy to his ministry which our Lord is approaching a time where that is eventually not going to be very important word to worship because he says to the Samaritan woman John chapter 4 there's going to come a time it's not going to matter where you worship because God is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth obviously what I'm saying here is that you're not supposed to go look for other places of worship your members here you should be here worshiping God if you're away you're away but I'm saying all that to say that there was definite controversy and if our Lord and his disciples had decided to stay there it would have been a there's no need to get involved in secondary issues which our Lord did not want to so as a result verse 54 James and John are upset when they saw this they said Lord do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume this Village that's why I think it's I'm pretty certain it's James and John they probably went they got permission they find out that it's Jesus coming oh maybe we can get him to go to mount gism and worship there and then we can gain some more validity our Lord doesn't get involved that because he has his face set for Jerusalem James and John get upset with these Samaritan leaders and in the spirit of their day they ask our Lord you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume this village now where did they get that we all see it from Elijah I'm curious do you know where that where that's at by any chance if not that's no no great sin but it's in 2 Kings chapter 1 it's during the time of the Kings of Israel continuing to fall away from the Lord and his name is King aazia he happens to be the son of Ahab and Jezebel ahab's already died aaz has adopted the religion of Jezebel he is an idolator following the god of econ Bales above he's on his roof he falls and he's injured seriously so he calls his Messengers to say can you go and find out if I'm going to uh recover from this injury so The Messengers they are going to go to the prophets of baales abub the god of ekron and Elijah is on a hill somewhere and an angel of the Lord comes to him and says this has happened to aazia we want you to inter we I want you to intercept the uh Messengers and ask them is the reason that there's no God in Israel that's why you're going to inquire of Bales ab and tell them thus sayeth the Lord the king will not recover from his fall so Elijah intercepts The Messengers does exactly what I've just brought out the messenger ERS turn heels and they go right back to their King King said what are you doing here so quickly it's taking you so long I mean what what took you so long to get back here so to speak I'm using sarcasm there they said well there's a man that told us the reason are we going to the god of ekron is because there's no God of Israel here and this man also told us that you will not recover aazia just says okay I'm going to get a captain 5050 men go get him he says by the way what this guy look like he say's a hairy man with a with a belt he said that's Elijah he sends his captain with 50 men and normally when a king sends a captain and 50 men it wasn't to invite you to dinner it was he's going to harm Elijah so the captain the 50 men they ride through at the hill Elijah's up on the hill and he calls out the captain says man of God come down the king command you to come down Elijah says if I'm a man of God May Fire come down from heaven and consume you which it does aazia doesn't even get phased by it he sends another Captain with 50 men they do the same thing the same thing happens again aazia he he does it again it's like he's going to keep sending people there's no one left in the in the land of Samaria but he sends a third Captain this third Captain humbled himself before the king before Elijah and he said spare my life we come peaceably please come down God tells Elijah he's not going to harm you go down and tell that King he's not going to recover Elijah does that the man dies the issue is is that Elijah did indeed call fire down from heaven to consume that 50 James and John were very much aware of that story and they thought like many people think today hey if it's in the Bible I can do it hey if Elijah called fire down from heaven I can do it a lot of people say that these days hey if it's in the Bible I can do it you know I can if I can speak in tongues and it happened in the New Testament I can do it great Peter walked on water go walk on the Pacific Ocean God hasn't commanded it now let's pull that thing out of our backpack has God commanded us at any time to command fire to come down from heaven did he ever command James and John to do that no however it's not be's too strict on James and John at least they ask permission even though I think their intention was definitely sinful so now our Lord is going to rebuke them he's going to correct them by advising them that do not understand the ministry of Salvation and life as opposed to judgment and death salvation for lives and souls that was the min Ministry of Our Lord look at the amount of people that he healed look at those who are relieved from demon possession look at how our Lord forgives sins his ministry was not one of destruction of men's lives but to preserve their lives he fed 4,000 he fed 5,000 our Lord's Ministry was so different than the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the religious leaders when our Lord raised Luke from the dead what did those religious leaders do not only were they plotting how to kill our Lord they were plotting how to kill Lazarus this was the atmosphere of the day and you can see in our context they come down from Mount from the mount that our Lord was transfigured on Sadducees are arguing with the disciples later on the disciples are arguing about who's going to be the greatest later on John is upset because someone is casting out demons it's just they've adopted part of the ministry of the Sadducees our Lord is saying you do not know but manner Spirit you are of as a result our Lord is very long suffering and he teaches them this is not my Ministry of Destruction my Ministry is one of Salvation and the greatest blessing is that he has Authority at this time on Earth to forgive sins and he has Authority in heaven to forgive sins through his shed blood his resurrection from the dead his Ascension this is the blessing of our Lord's Ministry he came during a time of great violence and he is the Prince of Peace what a difference what a difference our Lord was and he shows it right here now getting back to James and John I'm not going to let them off that easy they had Pride they had Revenge they did not have a holy humble gracious Spirit but they were sinful and though they may have called it Zeal for the Lord they were not imitating our Lord's Ministry they had been with our lord for a few years they had not learned that part of our Lord's Ministry and I've got to ask the question can it be that that Samaritan Village later on here's the word of God from Phillip and is converted I'm only asking the question if you go to your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 8 and I think I'm kind of a positive guy what I mean is I'm not living in a Fool's Paradise where everything is roses but I I want to believe that at times when people rejected the gospel God had mercy on him later on in Acts 8 verse 5 and 6 then Phillip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them and the multitudes with one Accord heeded the things spoken by Phillip hearing and seeing the Miracles which he did I'm simply asking the question can it be that some of those here maybe all of them here that had rejected our Lord did not allow he and his disciples to stay that they heard that word from Philip and we're converted just doesn't hurt to ask that question can it be that they were converted could be could be but I like the way that this our story ends here no fire fell from heaven look at that it says and they went to another village now my Bible right or wrong all of our Lord's words are in red okay so you have all this fire so to speak from his disciples you want us to call fire down from heaven our Lord you know he gives them command and then there's a contrast there and it and it says and they went to another Village I love that they went to another Village our Lord doesn't consume them he doesn't rebuke the Samaritan hey you said that we could stay here doesn't do any of that he goes to another Village you see the I say this with all reverence you see the courtesy of Our Lord the kindness of Our Lord Lord he doesn't Bend to the opinion of James and John but they just simply go to another Village our Lord is not argumentative he's not contentious he has good manners if you will there's a time when our Lord would dig his heels in with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the herodians but here he shows Mercy to an ignorant Village an ignorant Village and what did they do they simply went to another Village crisis averted if you will well there's some points of application and the first thing is the blessing before our lord of his Ascension helped him to go forward to the cross the blessing of Heaven of our sins forgiven our future the blessedness of being in Christ of having the righteousness of Jesus Christ will help all of us in our daily walk it will give us that shot in the arm we were talking with bre I think it was on Friday night one of the blessings of the Lord's day is that let's you know for six days it's difficult that's why it's good for us to read our Bibles to pray to have those family devotions but the Lord's day was meant for God's people because we are affected by unbelief it does indeed have an effect upon us and when we come into this place the blessing of being in Christ of having our sins forgiven of God being for us and not against us him loving us with an everlasting love helps us in our daytoday struggle with temptation and sin our sickness and our death seven years ago I had cancer I did not do very well I wish I could say oh yeah I it was great I was Victorious and came out of it I was I crumbled to a piece of bread is what I did it was not easy it was just simply not easy but the thing that helped me get back on my feet get back in the Pulpit after years of struggling with it was the blessing of Jesus Christ I have loved you with an everlasting love I have saved you from your past sins again going back to where I was and I'm sure some of you have that s same story is we were headed for Destruction and yet he had mercy on us and for us to reive up into glory to see our Lord face to face helps us in our day-today walk remember this Brethren when the Lord Jesus comes back these old bodies that we have that will eventually go into the ground we get resurrected bodies no more sin no more remembrance of sin and no more consequence of sin and as you get older some of you young guys don't understand this yet us older guys do everything hurts that's is the bottom line it's part of the curse of Adam but we now as we've gotten older realize that these bodies that we lay down we will get glorified bodies when the Lord Jesus comes back if we happen to die before he comes back we get to go and be with our Lord absent from the body present with the Lord see his face we will see his face and so that's the thing to encourage us and to help help us in our daily walk as our Redemption draws nearer when you get up in the morning if you can do this try to remember this kids you need to do this too when you get up in the morning say one day closer you're one day closer to Eternity we all got up one day closer to Eternity now for the Christian we say with a smile on our face the unbeliever he doesn't because he thinks this is all that he has has is this life so he's got to take life and suck everything out of it that he can because this is all he has is this life that's why they say after their their friends die well you know we got to make the most of the day most everything that we can this day let's take it and grab it and hang on that's all they have is this life but we say calmly with a smile upon our soul knowing that God is for us another day closer another day closer closer to Glory another day closer to Eternity thankfully another day closer of leaving our remaining sin behind us that dead body of ours behind us that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to take care of our bodies we should our bodies are a stewardship that God's given to us we should do what we can U to be in you know reasonable shape a better quality of life you will enjoy things more that way but we want to glorify God in our bodies secondly we are not in this life to desire the destruction and Judgment of the ungodly but we are to desire their salvation Christians are not to be persecutors let the governing authorities bear the sword of wrongs done in society but let not the church let not the Christian practice Vengeance May Christ's Ministry of reconciliation by his death his resurrection his Ascension him being king of kings and Lord of lords may that be our message we have been saved from so much and think about how gracious God has been to us and as a result think about the one before you came to Christ about how kind they showed the kindness they showed to you my brother Jim came to me and I was probably the last person on Earth that someone would think this guy is going to be a Christian one day he's going to be a pastor one day you would not recognize me 44 years ago but my brother showed kindness to me and witnessed to me and he just had to say a couple of words God used it and I was Off to the Races after that I had to flee from my sin and flee to Jesus Christ many of you I'm sure have stories like that about how kind people were to you even just to invite you to church give you a Bible give you a track even preach to you Jesus Christ we've been saved from much and as a result Christians should not be persecutors we don't win them with a sword we win them with love love goes a long way and if they don't hear you go to another Village move on to the other person or to be ready to give that answer for the hope that lies within you with meekness and fear and with fear so take your time if even if they may not hear you you keep going to them if there's a door that's open you're not to be contentious and you're not supposed to get into fist fights with people my youngest brother Mike fell away he made a profession of Faith he fell away every time I talked to him he just said back off his wife dies tragically he contacts my brother Jim and I and he talks to us every night and he wants to talk about the Lord and the only advice I could give him when he made his confession he was confessing his sins I said Mike it's great you're confessing your sins but go to the Lord for that you've sinned against him he and he just said I just don't know what to do I said start reading your Bible and if you start reading your Bible and I was thinking I know he will be reading his Bible because he'll have questions I mean you read your Bible you've got questions and he did and he started calling my brother and I all the time with all these questions and the Lord saved them we don't give up we pray for their good regardless of how contentious they may be how angry they may be be careful there's no need for you to cast Pearls Before Swine and you don't tell them that but you know you don't cash your Pearls Before Swine but if need be just simply go to another Village go to another person and see if maybe in Acts 8 happens to them where they hear that word gladly sometimes they simply will not hear us maybe they will hear another person that's okay that's fine we desire for their good but we are not to be persecuted there has been so much destruction done by those who make a profession of the Christian religion and they murder people imprison them just look at at the history of those who claim to be you know God's people and they're persecutors when you take a look at the Protestant Reformation but Mr Luther had to escape I should tell you something the Roman Catholic institution is an institution of blood they've been like that for years they've changed now they're a chameleon they will continue to change my dear Brethren let's pull out that backpack what has God commanded us what has he commanded us to believe what has he commanded us to do we are to be kind gracious compassionate just as God was kind and compassionate towards us so hopefully if we ever burned a bridge let's try to go back and repair it if you will uh I had I was a black sheep of my family my family threw a party when I left home but I was an ungodly man and um things did not go well with my parents and I when I became a Christian things changed I went to to them told them I was wrong I should have obeyed them they were the authority that God had given to me and I asked him to forgive me and they did and we patched up sad thing is is that because of the fact we were no longer Roman Catholic they eventually kicked us out of the family happens but that doesn't mean I Clos the door on them doors open and then my dad saw that I was not the man that I used to be I had my wife I loved her we have kids we were raising them they couldn't argue with the results that was going on in our family and so he opened the door we gladly came in even though I think I rejected that my wife said we should go back I was real upset with my parents U because they had kicked me out of the family because of my religious convictions and then I just said I don't want to go back there again and my wife said no you should go back I disagreed with her she let's go talk to our pastor I know what he's going to say so we remember them he said you should go back and be reconciled to your parents and I did and I'm thankful that I I was but God's word teaches us about being Winsome he who wins Souls is wise so we want to have wisdom and being of help to one another our interaction with others is not to be physically harmful not to be calling names I do not go on social media I just every now and then I pirate Karen's account but what I see that goes on is an embarrassment guy's fussing and fighting over things in a public Arena no you shouldn't do that they're obnoxious and contentious they should just go to another Village stop the fighting stop the bickering especially among Brethren or sometimes books are are published and it's because one teacher has a vendetta against another one I think we do a lot better when we're United and even though we may have differences if those differences Aren't Enough To Lose A flee over let him go let him go then you'll find that with family you'll find that with friends and we want to be gracious to them we want to be that one that they come to if need be because we've been kind to them we've been gracious to them we should make the main truth be the main truth and don't get involved into debates I am against debates I'm against any public Arena where you allow your opponent to spew his filth out of his mouth and then you come in afterwards and try to disprove it I just don't see debates being commanded from God's word I just don't see it I I think there's a lot of harm doing it granted some may be converted by it or some that do believe may fall away from it but I don't want to give a false religionist the platform to spew out his filth his mouth should be closed we should preach we should teach we should be ready to give that answer that's within us I think our Lord's example here is phenomenal there is that prejudice we pull that thing out of our backpack again the Prejudice between the Jews and the Samaritans in my country the Prejudice is against the Democrats and the Republicans it's amazing what goes on there those prejudices should be put aunder it's it's not an issue of the Gospel at times it is but we need to be very very careful of fighting fight for the right things but make the main truth the main things especially the ministry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so he turned to them and rebuked them and said you do not know what Manner a spirit you are of here's the blessing the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them and they went to another Village let's pray our heavenly father we thank you for how you have changed our heart you've given us a new nature and you've granted unto us the righteousness of Jesus Christ in heaven our account is blessed we are blessed we thank you for the righteousness we thank you for his wonderful work of regeneration within us oh Father we at times fall over our words out of thankfulness for how kind merciful and gracious you have been to us day in and day out even when we sin oh Father we sin against great life we acknowledge our sin before you and trust you will forgive us and Grant unto us a new spirit hear our prayers Grant unto us a blessed week preserve your people from Temptation and sin save our young our children have mercy upon their souls and we pray pray oh father that the word that we have heard this day morning and evening would remain within us that we might grow in your grace and knowledge to be conformed more and more to your son's image hear our prayers answer our requests for your glory and for the good of our souls for we pray in jesus' name amen