Since Saturday morning when I made my last Pastor’s Chat
post, I have driven over 2,000 miles as we took Kimberly and Luke to the Boston’s
Children Hospital. We can’t thank you enough for all your prayers as the Lord wonderfully
blessed us with traveling mercies and a great visit with the doctor there. As
we already posted, Kimberly was extremely excited with his evaluation and recommendations
for future treatment for Luke. Our family is very thankful for your friendship,
love, prayers, and support that so many of you have extended to all of us these
past two and a half years regarding Luke and all his challenges! Again, thank
you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Today, we will finish looking at Luke 9. Jesus is preparing
His disciples to become the “pillars” of His church (Galatians 2:9). As we read
“in between” the lines in the Gospels during the three and a half years that
the Lord spends with them, it appears to be an impossible task. But we must remember
that “with God all things are possible”. Despite all their shortcomings,
the Lord never gives up on them and patiently continues to teach and love them!
As we think of an overview of this chapter, we see at least three things that
were still lacking in their lives that are necessary to be fruitful disciples
of Jesus Christ! They are power, love and self-discipline!
The disciples lacked the power to cast the demon out of the
young boy (vv. 37-43). They lacked love for the multitudes (v. 12; “send them
away”), for each other (vv.46-48), for those who weren’t in their “group” (vv.
49-50), and for those who rejected them in a village of Samaria (vv. 52-56; “…call
fire from heaven to consume them…”). With His answer, (“the Son of Man
did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them”), Jesus reminded them
and even us today, that we are not to fight with those who reject us or our
message, but with God’s grace and mercy we should love them.
Now in these final verses 57-62, Luke tells us of three men
who could have become disciples, but they would not meet the
conditions that Jesus laid down. They lacked discipline! The first man was a
scribe (Matthew 8:19) who volunteered to go until he heard the cost: he had to
deny himself. Apparently he was accustomed to a comfortable home. The second
man was called by Jesus, but he was rejected because he would not take up the
cross and die to self. Jesus is not suggesting here that we dishonor our
parents, but only that we not permit our love for family to weaken our love for
the Lord. We should love Christ so much that our love for family would look
like hatred in comparison (Luke 14:26).
The third man also volunteered, but he could not follow
Christ because he was looking back instead of ahead. There is nothing wrong
with a loving farewell (1 Kings 19:19-21), but if it gets in the way of
obedience, it becomes sin. Jesus saw that this man's heart was not wholly with
Him, but that he would be plowing and looking back (see Gen. 19:17, 26; Phil.
3:13-14). No wonder the laborers are few! (Luke 10:2)
It would appear that what Jesus taught His disciples, and
the multitudes had done them little good. They lacked power, love, and
discipline, and they grieved His heart. If we today lack these spiritual
essentials, we can never truly be His disciples, but they are available to us
from the Lord. "For God did not give us a spirit of fear (or timidity),
but of power, of love and of a sound mind (self-discipline)" (2 Timothy
1:7).
Today, are we a joy to Jesus Christ, or are we breaking His
heart?
God bless!
