While the kids are heading back there, you can turn with me to the Gospel of Luke. We are continuing our series, "Kingdom Come," in Luke's Gospel. We are still in Luke chapter 9. So we are going to be continuing in Luke chapter 9 this morning. If you don't have a Bible with you, the text should be displayed on the screen as well. We are going to look this morning at verses 37-45. So Luke 9:37-45. Hear God's holy and authoritative Word. "On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met Him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, 'Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child.' And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out, It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth and shatters him and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.' And Jesus answered, 'O faithless and twisted generation! How long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.' And while he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, 'Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.' But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying. The word of the Lord. May He write His truth upon our hearts.
Well, as a recap to set the context, last week in Luke 9, we were at the Transfiguration. So we were at that moment when Peter takes some of his best friends, his closest disciples, right? Peter, James, and John. We said last week he even gave them nicknames. He renames Simon Peter, James and John are the sons of thunder, right? He takes his buddies. And He goes up on the mountain. And it's this incredibly memorable scene where Moses and Elijah show up. More than that though, Jesus' glory is revealed before them. The curtain gets pulled back and there's this moment where the glory of God, the majesty of God actually shines forth out of Jesus. His flesh doesn't clothe the glory anymore. So there's this point where God is miraculously, all the time that Jesus is on the earth, from the moment He's born all the way through His death, God is clothing, He's keeping His majesty inside the flesh of Jesus. It's an incredible miracle, maybe the greatest miracle. But for a moment, in the Transfiguration, He allows that majesty and that glory to break through. We saw that last week.
One of the things I was thinking that we didn't get to last week that's pretty amazing, you know the story of Moses when he was on Mount Sinai, right? He's on the mountain and he has an encounter with God's glory as well.
What's his request of God? Remember what he asks Him? He says, "Show me Your glory." And what does God respond? He says, "I can't show you My glory. You can't see My face. You can't handle it." It will undo you. And so he hides him in the cleft of the rock. He says, what I'll do is I'll have my glory pass by and you'll see the back of my glory. So when Moses is alive, he asks God on a mountain, similar mountain to the Transfiguration, that's similar imagery, show me your glory. And God says, you can't handle it, Moses. Isn't it amazing to look at the Transfiguration and see who's there? Moses is Jesus is there. And here he is, he was denied a glance at God's glory, a true vision of it on that mountain, on Mount Sinai, but there at the Transfiguration his request is answered. Show me your glory. And he sees the glory of God in the face of Jesus.
So that's the Transfiguration, that's where we were last week. Now Luke starts out and he says, on the next day when they had come down. And that's actually our first point. Our first point is just titled, "Coming Down." That's really what's happening here. This is really the ultimate coming down from the mountaintop experience. If there was ever a mountaintop experience, it was Peter, James, and John seeing Jesus in all of His glory. Now they're with Jesus and they're coming down off the mountain back into everyday life.
And as soon as they come down, they are hit right in the face with reality. It's just, it's there waiting for them. That's how Luke draws the picture. Jesus descends into the same old broken world. It's a world of chaos and disorder, not as God designed it to be. And we see in this text, it's a world filled with demonic spirits and with mayhem. The scene unfolding is really chaotic, and the chaos ultimately reminds us that this world is disordered. It's broken. Jesus has just been with Moses and Elijah. It's like this incredible moment of conversing and discussing what's to come, and then the Father commends Him in front of the disciples. And now he walks right down into the thick of all the normal mayhem of life. And I kept thinking of that word mayhem as I was actually working on the sermon, thinking, I think that captures well what life in this world is like. And as I was thinking of it, of course, what comes to mind is Mayhem, the Allstate commercial, right? You guys familiar with Mayhem, the Allstate guy? Mayhem is this guy that appears in all these different outfits. He's always got the suit on. And there's a couple little things he'll add to his outfit that kind of set him out as the character he's going to be in whatever commercial it is. But for each commercial, he's always functioning as a metaphor for the disaster, the mayhem that can befall you in life. And so Mayhem goes on to warn people that if they don't have enough insurance coverage, they might have to pay for whatever happens out of their own pockets. And these are funny commercials. I was actually reading the whole idea behind Mayhem was Allstate realizing they were losing market share in terms of visibility to Progressive and Flo and to Geico and the Gecko. And so they thought, "We're going to invent Mayhem because he can kick Flo's butt." Like, that's literally what they thought when they were sold the advertising. "Hey, this will set you apart." Well, my favorite Mayhem one out of all of them, there's one where Mayhem is driving a pink SUV. So it's just this pink Dodge Durango. It's this pink SUV. It's the grossest looking thing you've ever seen. He's got pink sunglasses like set on his head. And you're thinking, what character is he this time? He's got like a little flip-up cell phone like the old school ones, you know, like you should be embarrassed if you still have them. And if you don't, it's a sign that you've truly moved beyond fear of man. He's got the little flip cell phone and he's driving through a mall parking lot. And you know, then he does this whole ma'am sh— stick, right? And he says, "I'm a teenage girl." And it's just hilarious. Like, he says it in this, you know, gruff, like, Mayhem's voice. "I'm a teenage girl." And he's basically dressed like a teenage girl, driving a pink SUV. My BFF Becky texts and says, "She just kissed Johnny." "Well, that's a problem, 'cause I like Johnny!" He tosses the cell phone in the backseat. Now I'm emotionally compromised. I'm all, "Becky's not even hot!" And he starts swerving and sideswiping cars in the mall parking lot. And if you've got cut-rate insurance, you could be paying for this yourself. So get Allstate. You could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. I'm a teenage girl. Now I'm all emotionally compromised, 'cause Becky's not even hot! And Becky's kissing Johnny, and I like Johnny! They're brilliant commercials. They're brilliant advertising. They're memorable, they connect you to the brand, and they convince you to buy the product. Lord save us from emotionally compromised teenage girls driving through Oak Park Mall while I go holiday shopping. The idea goes, in a world of chaos, mayhem, and unpredictability, the solution is to have the right insurance. Protect yourself from mayhem.
6 · The pastor pivots from the Allstate illustration to make a theological claim: insurance is not ultimate and cannot save, heal, or restore
The thing is, I've yet to see the Allstate commercial where mayhem is a demon-possessed teenager, right? Insurance isn't evil, it's not bad to have insurance, it's actually wise to have insurance. But insurance isn't ultimate. The problem for us is that we can be naive in thinking, if I have insurance, Somehow that's gonna insulate me from life's problems. That's kind of what the Mayhem commercials are trying to tell you. As long as you get insurance, it'll all be okay. Mayhem's gonna happen, but Allstate is gonna take care of you. Allstate's gonna save you. Allstate's gonna deliver you. But insurance can't do that. It can't insulate us from life's problems. And when mayhem hits, When a broken world does what a broken world does, all insurance can do is reimburse you after your deductible. It can't restore you. It can't heal you. It can't reconcile you.
7 · The pastor walks through the father's description of his demon-possessed son in vivid, gut-wrenching detail, slowing down the narrative and inviting the congregation to personalize the horror by imagining their own children in the boy's place
The father in Luke 9, he knows mayhem. He knows there is no insurance that can help his afflicted son. He goes into this gut-wrenching detail about how his son is afflicted. It's not like other times where we're told someone is demon-possessed and Jesus heals them. At this point, Luke actually details for us, he walks us through what's happening. I think to really get the sense, this is where it's important as we read through the Gospels to slow down. We recognize the story if you've been there before. We have confidence about what Jesus is going to do, but what Luke wants you to do in giving us those details is to slow down and to let the narrative sink in. If you've got kids, read this and insert one of their names. And then go back through the father's descriptions. Your one and only son, or your daughter. If you don't have kids, your brother, or your father. The apple of your eye is constantly being overtaken by a demon. And he'll start screaming for no reason. You don't know what's going on, but he just loses his mind and loses all rationality. Just screaming and calling out, and he's foaming at the mouth. And this happens, the text says, all the time. This isn't like once a week or once a month. It seems to be increasing in intensity. The father is at a point of desperation. This demon hardly leaves him alone. He's screaming and foaming more than he's your son. And on top of that, the demon pummels him around. You start to get worried that he's going to be injured or even die. When I put Case's name into the story, when I imagine this is Sadie or it's Lincoln, it puts a whole other dimension.
8 · The pastor defends the spiritual diagnosis of the boy's condition against naturalistic reduction, citing Luke's authority as a physician
And this is a world where there's no medicine. There's no pill to stop it. And we want to make it, we want to imagine that, right? We want to think, well, man, if only there had been modern medicine. Clearly he's epileptic and that's the problem. No, he's not epileptic. Luke's whole point is this isn't a physical thing. This is a spiritual thing. Luke, what's Luke's job title? The good physician, right? Luke is a doctor. And the doctor is diagnosing and saying this wasn't a physical deal. There was no pill. In the day of pharmaceuticals, this would still be a problem. It was really interesting, we were listening to D.A. Carson teach on Revelation this week. We went and took a course. And it was an incredibly rich course, but he talked at one point about Revelation, there's lots of angels and demons and stuff, right? He said there was a Bible commentary that was put out, the Africa Bible Commentary. And so he purchased it, just kind of wondering, their different take on the text. And he said, you know, 90% of it was really similar to the kind of stuff we'd find in our commentaries. He said, you want to know where you really saw the difference? You saw it with like ancestors and genealogies and things like that, really important to people on the African continent. And you saw it with angels and you saw it with demons. They have an awareness of the reality of these things. That we just seem somehow naive about, that we somehow want to ignore or push to the back of our minds. What do you do against a demon? Ah, but there's hope, the neighbor tells the father. I imagine there's a neighbor that comes, and there's this group of men. They've been traveling around recently, And there have been all sorts of people coming to them with diseases and demons, just like your son. And they've been getting healed. There's these 12 guys, they've been all over the neighborhood. And they're doing all this. Remember the guy Jesus we heard about? These 12 guys are doing all of this in His name. That's the context of Luke 9, right? The beginning of the chapter. What happened? Jesus sent them out with what? All of His power and authority. To cast out demons in His name and to heal disease and perform miracles. They've been going through the country doing just that. Go! That's what's behind this father coming to the disciples. There's nothing random about this. He's coming. See, this is my last opportunity, my last chance.
9 · The pastor heightens the emotional stakes by describing the disciples' failure to heal the boy, which would have been devastating to the father who saw them as his last hope
And so you come to see these men, the last hope for your son. Luke says, "His son, his only son." And they do what they normally do, they approach your son, they lay hands on your son, they say the stuff they are supposed to say, "In Jesus' name," over your son, and then the demon just starts raging all over again. I mean, it would be totally devastating. There's no doctor with a second opinion here. This was it. This was your chance. You get a sense when you think of that and you think of your loved one in that situation about how desperate it all is. And then he hears Jesus is coming down from the mountain.
10 · The pastor observes that Jesus' first move is not to heal the boy but to rebuke the disciples, which raises a question: why is Jesus so harsh when the disciples have been faithfully trying?
Jesus enters the scene and Jesus hears the report of what's happened, right? The guy comes and basically says, "This is all that happened. This is the issue with my son. And I came to your guys and they couldn't do anything." And it's fascinating what Jesus does. You think like, kind of triage. Well, first, let's deal with the demon. No, the first thing Jesus does is He rebukes. He rebukes the disciples. He rebukes them for their failure. There's part of you that's like, "Man, I can't even imagine going to battle with demons like this. Why is Jesus so hard on them? Maybe this is a really tough demon." Right? Jesus rebukes them.
11 · The pastor emphasizes the ease with which Jesus defeats the demon, contrasting it with the disciples' failure
And then the demon puts up one final fight and he throws the kid down. It doesn't matter. Jesus, again, with one word, defeats it. And the abrupt way Luke describes it points to how easy and how simple it is for Jesus. He rebuked the unclean spirit, He healed the child, and gave him back to his father. That's a direct quote. That's all that Luke says. Simple. It's easy. And it's done with.
12 · The pastor applies the text by asking whether our first instinct when mayhem hits is to turn to Jesus or to worldly solutions and complaining
When I read that, my thought was, Is that my instinct? In a world of Allstate Insurance, right? Health insurance, savings accounts, gifted doctors, and MRIs, and CAT scans, and modern medicine. When mayhem comes, when difficulty comes, wherever on the spectrum we're talking, it's financial difficulty and hardship, it's physical sickness, it's relational discord, maybe it's even spiritual oppression, is my first instinct to go to Jesus? Do I turn to a better insurance company? When hard things come, I have to admit my instinct is usually to complain first and then to complain more and then to find a fresh person to complain to, because after a while people get sick of hearing you're complaining, right? So you got to widen the circle of your complaints. But here I think Luke is showing us when mayhem hits, there's a place we're supposed to turn to. We're supposed to go to Jesus. That he's the one who actually has solutions to these issues.
13 · The pastor transitions from the first movement (coming down) to the second (the coming distress)
Jesus is coming down off of the mountain and he's coming right back into the thick of it. And you kind of like, if you're like me, sometimes you have like a great experience. It's a wonderful time of worship where it's just, it's a great quiet time or whatever it is, something where just you connect with the Lord and then you come back. And what happens when, when reality hits you in the face? Oh, come on! I couldn't have like 5 more minutes to enjoy this? You know, Jesus seems to come down and immediately enter in. And there's a beautiful picture of the gospel in that. He has come for the purpose of rescuing us. And so when he comes down off the mountain, off of this incredible experience, He's not bothered that this man has this issue. He's bothered that his disciples didn't have the faith to deal with it.
14 · The pastor identifies the reason for Jesus' rebuke: the disciples have failed to believe His teaching about the cross
And it's here that he points us to the coming distress. That's the connection with why he's frustrated with the disciples. They have failed to see the coming distress that he's already pictured, that he's already told them about. When I say coming distress, I'm pointing us to the fact that Jesus, for the last chapter, has been talking more and more and more about the cross. It's not just that Jesus rescues the boy. The disciples are incapable of helping him. That's what Luke is pointing us to. So why do the disciples fail in this casting out? They've been doing it all through Luke 9, right? Everywhere they go, Jesus, We cast out demons and they flee in your name. Why here? Why can't they do it here? And why does Jesus, instead of like coaching them up, oh, it's okay guys, I'll show you how to do it. No, he rebukes them. Why? He doesn't mince words. He says, oh faithless O faithless and twisted generation. He's now comparing the disciples to unbelieving Israel in the wilderness. That's what the allusion is. O faithless and twisted generation. The generation that made an idol out of a calf while Moses was up on the mountain getting the law. The generation that didn't believe I could actually take them into the Promised Land. They had seen me deliver them from Pharaoh in Egypt, and now they get to the Promised Land and it's a bunch of Canaanites? And they think I can't handle it? And so they have to go wander around in the wilderness and all die so their kids can go into the Promised Land. That's what He accuses the disciples of. "Oh, faithless and twisted generation! How long am I to be with you and bear with you?" "Bring your son here," He says to the man.
15 · The pastor distills the issue: the disciples are not listening to Jesus' teaching
The issue is they aren't hearing. They aren't listening. And this is where the context of Luke 9 is essential for us to remember.
16 · The pastor traces the narrative arc of Luke 9, showing that Jesus predicted His death just before the Transfiguration
Just before the Transfiguration, just before Jesus gets lit up with glory, what does He do? He predicts His death. He tells them of the coming distress. Suffering is coming. I'm going to be handed over. I'm going to suffer. I'm going to die. And if you're with me, the same thing is going to happen to you. The entire sequence of events has been about Jesus trying to show the disciples why he has to die. And the transfiguration happens right in the middle of all this so that we would make the connection, so the disciples would make the connection. Jesus's glory doesn't happen apart from the cross. This distress that he's talking about, this suffering, it's not optional. This is the path for glory that the Father has set out.
17 · The pastor makes the controlling theological claim of the sermon: the disciples' failure to cast out the demon is directly caused by their refusal to believe Jesus' teaching about the cross
So why do they fail to cast out the demon? Because they don't believe what Jesus has said about the cross. They refuse to believe what Jesus has said about his death. And so he has to tell them again, fix these words in your heart. In your ears. The Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men. Fix these words, get it through your thick skulls. Because they won't listen, they can no longer heal.
18 · The pastor explains the progressive nature of revelation and responsibility in the Gospels
You see, the more Jesus reveals to them, the more they're responsible for. And as the gospel goes on, there's more and more revelation about who he really is. And so the ante for their responsibility is raised as well. Initially, they go out with Jesus' name, right? And they're hoping He's the Messiah. And He says, "Hey, go out in My name and you're going to do great stuff." "Awesome! We've seen Jesus do great stuff. We believe He's going to do great stuff." And so they go out and they're doing it all in Jesus' name. But now, they know, He's told them, He's going to have to suffer and die. And so when they reject that news, when they stumble over it, "Ugh, I don't know if that's the kind of Messiah." Maybe we can still convince him. Peter is going to try and do that, right? "No, Lord, you can't suffer." When they start to reject that news, their power over the demons, their ability to heal, immediately diminishes. It erodes right before their eyes. They can no longer claim to be doing things in Jesus' name. They can no longer claim in a sense to be on Jesus' team because they're rejecting Jesus' destiny.
19 · The pastor articulates the New Testament pattern: suffering with Christ leads to reigning with Christ
Basic New Testament theology: if we suffer with him, we will reign with him. That's what take up your cross and lose your life is all about. If we suffer with him, suffering with him meaning we implicitly accept his suffering on our behalf as well, then we'll reign with Him. And that's what the healing is. It's the disciples getting a little foretaste of what it's like to reign with Jesus. Dude, we're overcoming demons. We're making lame people walk. We're healing leprosy. I don't even know what I'm doing. I just say Jesus' name and stuff happens. You know? This isn't, "Well, I've been through residency and I'm properly diagnosed." It's just, "Jesus!" Whoa! You know, that's a foretaste of reigning with him. But as soon as they reject suffering, there's an erosion of that foretaste. When they bristle at the notion of the cross, they lose the power that comes with it. And I think the same is true for us. Individually and as a church.
20 · The pastor diagnoses contemporary culture's embarrassment with and even hatred of the cross
We live in a society, there's no other way to put it, that is embarrassed by the cross. And that's maybe the nice people. Some people just flat out hate the notion of a cross. There are lots of people in seminaries today, professors in seminaries, who really loathe the idea of the cross, who avoid the idea of the cross as they train pastors to lead churches. That's where our society is at. The cross is an embarrassing thing. Because you can't talk about the cross unless you talk about the need for the cross. Unless you talk about sin and depravity and a creation and people at the top of that creation rebelling against their Creator. The cross happens because we need saving. And to talk about the cross You have to talk about God's wrath. That's what happens at the cross. The physical suffering, if you read the Gospels, it's really remarkable how little they talk about the physical suffering of the cross. You almost want more details, right? I want more details so I can more fully meditate on what's happening. No, they're not telling you all the details of the physical suffering because that's not what he suffered most. What He suffered most is He gets stained with our sin. And the One who has never sinned is condemned. And the wrath of God is poured out on Him.
21 · The pastor warns that churches can be tempted to avoid the cross in pursuit of relevance or novelty
We live in a society that does not want to think about that. Doesn't want to acknowledge we're totally dependent on God's grace. That there's no mechanism for saving ourselves. And it can be tempting for churches too. We've got to do something new. We've got to do something different. Now this isn't making it so pastors can be lazy and just always do the same old thing. But there can be this subtle temptation to tweak the message, to change the message, to come up with something in vogue rather than talk again about how Jesus suffered. To keep from making the connection that only if we suffer with him will we reign with him. If you don't talk about the cross, Jesus is actually fairly safe to talk about.
22 · The pastor illustrates his polemic against crossless Christianity with a contemporary cultural example: the Wheaton professor suspended for claiming Christians and Muslims worship the same God
It's all over the headlines just this week, right? What happened at Wheaton? You got a professor who says she's going to wear a hijab, you know, the Muslim headscarf, in solidarity with her Muslim brothers and sisters because we have the same God, Christians and Muslims. And then Wheaton suspended her. They said, no, we don't. And then the secular media just went nuts, like, how can you say that? You debate about who's from Abraham and who's not, but you are the same. It's like, you can say that, you can believe that as a Christian, these are my Muslim brothers and sisters worshiping the same God, only if you forget the cross. Islam doesn't have a view of God suffering and dying. Islam has a view of conquest. Islam has a view of submitting everything to God through conquest, and so Good Muslims submitting all the earth to God's law, His Sharia law, but it has no notion of salvation. It has no notion of atonement and making payment for sin.
23 · The pastor argues from the structure of Luke's Greek that the climax of the passage is not the exorcism but Jesus' prediction of His death
Yet here in Luke 9, Jesus' prediction of the cross and suffering is the climax of the entire scene. Luke even arranges things in the text. He uses a special grammatical construction There's a way that he constructs the Greek that we lose a little bit in our English, but he constructs it to show you that this is the climax. It's not the casting out of the demon, and it's not all the crowds marveling at the glory of God. That's not the climax. The climax, all the Greek points to, is Jesus again talking about His death. Let this sink into your ears. "Listen to this. Hear this. I'm going to be handed over. I'm going to die." Matthew and Mark's version of the exorcism, they bring in other details, and Luke leaves all the other details out. Why? Because he wants us to see two things: Jesus' tremendous power over this demon and a connection with the cross.
24 · The pastor asserts that Jesus' power to heal and cast out demons is not rooted in prayer technique but in the cross — the healings are a preview of what the cross will accomplish
This is the kind of demon you have to cast out with prayer. No, Luke wants us to see Jesus has tremendous power, and that tremendous power over the demonic and broken people and broken bodies and healing, that tremendous power is connected with the fact that He will suffer and He will die. The reason the demon submits, the reason He can heal people, is all in anticipation a preview of what the cross will accomplish.
25 · The pastor cross-references Matthew 8:14-17 and Luke 4 to show that Matthew explicitly connects Jesus' healings to Isaiah 53's prophecy of the cross
In Matthew 8:14-17, we read the same account of what happened in Luke 4. It's the scene of Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law, right? He heals the mother-in-law, and then immediately after, in both of the episodes, in Matthew's version and Luke's version, they start bringing in all these people for healing, and it says in both versions, "And all these demons are cast out." And then Matthew Matthew makes a comment to explain it. In verse 17, the mother-in-law gets healed, all sorts of demons are getting cast out. Verse 17: This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He took our illnesses and bore our diseases. Matthew and Luke understand that the healings and the exorcisms And exorcisms are really just a type of healing, right? It's a certain way the fall disorders our life. The healings and the exorcisms, every one of them, they're a result, they're an overflow of the cross. Even though the cross hasn't even happened yet. That's what Isaiah 53 is a prediction of, right? Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of the cross. So how can Jesus healing people be a fulfillment of Isaiah 53? He hasn't died on the cross yet. Because Matthew is connecting, Luke is connecting, this stuff happens because it's looking forward. In God's view, stepping outside of time, He's viewing it all together. In our view, the power of the cross, what Christ accomplishes on the cross, is flowing backwards. The demons are forced to their knees. They're forced to run because of the cross flowing back in anticipation of how Jesus will heal us on that tree. The kingdom and the reign of Christ is brought to bear.
26 · The pastor applies the disciples' failure to the congregation: no matter how much we serve or love, if we do it without the cross in view, it is eternally powerless
And like the disciples, for us, it doesn't matter what we do in Jesus' name if we don't have the cross in view. We can love refugees. We can set up amazing ministries to the homeless. We can be the most service, servant, servant-hearted church the world has ever seen. We can love our neighbors incredibly passionately all day long. But if it's all done out of some, some vague crossless connection to Christ. "Oh, I just love Jesus. That's why I'm serving you." And it's worthless. It's ultimately, eternally powerless. What we do in the name of Jesus will be as impotent as the disciples' work with this demon in Luke 9. If we don't do it with the cross in view.
27 · The pastor qualifies his previous statement: he is not saying we should not serve, but that we should serve from the motivation of the cross — because we look at how Jesus served us in His death
Now that's not saying we don't do it. We should love our neighbors. I want us to be a church that serves like no other church, right? But I want us to serve that way, not because, well, we feel like we're supposed to serve, or this makes us feel better, but because we look at Jesus and how Philippians says He has served us in His death.
28 · The pastor sets up an illustration of his own childhood teaching about praying in Jesus' name, preparing to critique it as superstition
I was taught as a kid, "You gotta pray in Jesus' name, otherwise your prayer won't even get through the ceiling." I was literally taught that. If you don't pray in Jesus' name, just— Jesus' name! You know, like, I really thought, like, okay. But you know what that is?
29 · The pastor critiques the superstitious understanding of praying in Jesus' name as mysticism that reduces Jesus to a good luck charm
That treats Jesus like a little He's a little good luck charm. It's just mysticism.
30 · The pastor begins to reframe what it means to pray in Jesus' name, rejecting the mystical explanation
You know why you pray in Jesus' name? Not because all of a sudden your prayers are mysteriously more holy.
31 · The pastor paints a vision of God's unapproachable majesty from Daniel and Isaiah to show the terror of approaching God without mediation
You pray in Jesus' name because it's an implicit recognition and reminder. I bring this request into the throne room of the Ancient of Days. And His hair is white as wool, and He is surrounded by fire. And there are myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands and ten thousand of ten thousands there to serve Him and to worship Him. And the holy cherubim and seraphim, they cover their eyes with their wings because they can't look at Him. So who am I to bring this request into the throne room of the Ancient of Days.
32 · The pastor contrasts the superstitious understanding of praying in Jesus' name with the gospel reality: we approach God based on Christ's finished work and His current intercession
Well, I brought my lucky rabbit's foot, Jesus? No, I bring this request in the name of the Lamb who was slain. I bring this request in Jesus' name, knowing that He suffered and He died and He was raised, and now He intercedes for me. "Would you bend your ear to my request, Ancient of Days? Would you bend your ear and listen like a Father? Because I come in the name of your Son." Do you see the difference? You see how significant it is?
33 · The pastor makes an absolute claim: all access to God — healing, mercy, rescue, forgiveness — is exclusively through the cross
There's no healing in Jesus. There's no mercy to be found if we don't come by the cross. There's no rescue from this broken world. There's no forgiveness from our rebellion and our rejection of God if we don't approach through the cross.
34 · The pastor steps out of the argument to address the unbeliever directly, pressing the heart reality that they know they cannot approach God and need the cross
And if this whole idea of why would I need to be forgiven for something is just totally foreign to you, the words of this book are true. And that description we read of the Ancient of Days, that's who God is. And deep down in your heart, you know, you know you can't approach a being like that because you're broken and because you've rejected Him and because you've chosen to worship trinkets and stuff. You have chosen to worship His good gifts instead of worshiping Him. Unless you come in the name of Jesus. Unless we come in His name. We come mindful of His sacrifice.
35 · The pastor argues that even the disciples — who are far beyond vague cultural Christianity — are rebuked because they do not understand the cross
I am just affected by thinking of the disciples. You look at the disciples in this passage. We have this idea, I think, in our culture that as long as you've got some sort of vague notion of Jesus, you're okay. And there's a lot of people, a lot of our neighbors, a lot of our coworkers that just think, I've got a vague notion of Jesus, so I'm going to be okay in the last day. Right? If they had to self-identify themself, more and more wouldn't identify as Christians, but there's still a lot of people who would just, well, I guess if I'm going to cross a box, I never really thought about it enough to be an atheist. And I'm certainly not a Muslim, right? I don't get the whole Buddhism thing. I'm a Christian. I'm an American. That's how people think about it. And so they cross the Christian box. And it's nothing more than a vague idea of who Jesus is. You think of the disciples in this passage. They're way beyond a vague idea, right? They're following Jesus. They've given up careers. They've given up homes. They've left family. They've been healing people in Jesus' name. They've been performing miracles. They've got a whole lot more belief in Jesus than average Joe Schmo American checking Christian on the census. They've got a whole lot more than just a vague idea of Jesus. It's just a veneer of cultural Christianity that a lot of Americans cling to. Maybe you're clinging to that this morning. I don't know. The disciples have way more of an idea than that vague Jesus, but the disciples here, they don't understand the cross. They're way beyond vague Jesus, and yet they don't understand the cross of Christ. And so they don't know their need for salvation. They don't understand that they won't get to be a part of Jesus' kingdom just because they hung out with Him. Right? They don't understand Jesus goes to the cross to make payment for sin. And so Jesus rebukes them. He calls them faithless and twisted. And that's true of us. It's true of every American, everyone in the entire world, everyone sitting in this church. It doesn't matter if you go to care group a lot. It doesn't matter if you're a care group leader or if you're a pastor.
36 · The pastor illustrates the danger of crossless Christianity with a personal story of a pastor's son who believes his father is unsaved despite a lifetime of ministry
I was meeting with a guy a month ago for coffee. His dad is a pastor and he told me, he is like, "I don't think my dad is saved." How do you explain the gospel to a guy who has talked around the edges of it for his entire life and made it a career? But he has no notion of what it is to be saved in Christ Jesus.
37 · The pastor issues a concrete gospel call: understanding the cross does not require theological sophistication but recognition of sin, humble faith, and repentance
The point is, if we don't understand the cross, we won't have any part of Jesus. And to understand the cross doesn't require a PhD in atonement. It doesn't require that you know the ins and outs of the Levitical sacrificial system and how it's completed in Hebrews. It requires that you recognize your need for a Savior and that you humble yourself and you cry out in faith and repentance asking that Jesus would do just that, that He would save you, that His blood would cover you and make payment for your sins. And if you do that, you won't have to fear the awesome and horrible day when the Ancient of Days sets all things right. Some people will fear that day. Because they'll realize their vague Jesus wasn't enough. But if you come to Him because of His sacrifice, pleading for mercy and repenting of your sins, on that last day you will see the Ancient of Days in all of His glory. And next to Him you will see the Lamb that was slain. And He will open the Book of Life and He will point to your name. And the Ancient of Days won't just be the Ancient of Days, He'll be your Father. And He'll welcome you home.
38 · The pastor closes in prayer, asking God to move in the hearts of those with a vague notion of Jesus and to reveal Christ to them
Would you bow your heads? Oh Father, It is good to call you by that name, but it is better to remember that we can call you Father, because your Son, your eternal Son, the Word of God, hung on a tree and bearing our sins and bearing our shame and bearing our guilt He was forsaken. There was a time when He was not considered Your Son anymore because He had stood in our place. And so, Father, we want to call You Father with a full knowledge of what it means. We want to call You Father recognizing the infinite blessing of being loved by the all-powerful eternal God. We want to call you Father, remembering that was secured for us by Jesus. Lord, I ask now that your Spirit would just move in the hearts of people who have a vague notion of Jesus. God, would you break through? Would your sovereign Spirit Rip away the scales. Pierce their hearts. Take a heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. Let them see Jesus. Reveal to them your perfect provision. I pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.