Luke Week 8 • Luke 9:51-10:37

Show Notes

Sunday, February 28th • Beau Bradberry

"In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will." — Luke 10:21

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Beau Bradberry

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Thanks for listening.

Good morning.

Glad that you guys are here with us.

If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to Luke chapter 9.

We're going to start here in verse 51 in just a moment, but I'm going to tell you, it is

an absolutely beautiful day outside.

I got to get out in the backyard yesterday, get some work done.

Aaron pointed out we had some blueberry bushes planted near where I was working.

She's like, oh, they're starting to bud already, and so springtime is here, and I am excited.

So here's what I'm talking about, the beautiful day outside.

We are so appreciative.

There's a lot of things you guys could have gone and done today, but we're so appreciative

that you're here with us so that we can celebrate and worship Jesus Christ together.

If you're one of our first-time guests, thank you so much for being here, for choosing to

worship with us as well this morning.

And hopefully you can let us know that you're here through our text messages, but also please

feel free to stop by.

Let us know.

We would love to meet you and speak with you on your way out.

Also, I want to draw your attention.

You've got these cards that are on your chairs there, and one of them is for our student ministry.

We've got a Sunday afternoon plan for our 6th through 12th graders to head to the Plex

to do some ice skating and to experience the trampoline park, all right?

And so there's some way we need to RSVP so we can let them know so that we can have the

right amount of people in there, right, so we can get our whole team through there.

If you would like to, parents, come and observe what will happen and take place, here's what

I'll tell you.

A few weeks ago when we went bowling as the student ministry, it was wonderful for me to

go and be able to bowl with them.

Now, the game has been changed a little bit, and there is ice and trampolines, which in my

brain for me says, torn ligament and concussion.

So I will be on the outside encouraging all of our students and whatever adults decide that

they would like to join them as well.

But we would love to have your kids with us as we continue to grow together in our student

ministry.

So we're going to dive back into Luke, and really these last three weeks have kind of been

a series inside of a series.

As we've walked through the book of Luke since before Christmastime, right, one of the first

things that we pointed out is this gospel is addressed to an individual.

Luke is writing it to Theophilus, for Theophilus to have a confirmation about what he's heard

about Jesus Christ and being able to filter it through the words of the gospel that Luke writes

for him, and you and I have this distinctive advantage for almost some 2,000 years later

to be able to sit back and open up those words and read this letter from one friend written

to another friend about his Savior, Jesus Christ.

And over the last several weeks, what we've seen is that within here, chapter 9 is a big

deal.

We've been kind of moving through a chapter a week, kind of hitting the high points, and

we've pumped the brakes a little bit over the last several weeks, but even within doing

that, we haven't read every encounter that's there.

But chapter 9 is huge as we see all that has happened and all that has taken place.

We saw at the very beginning of Jesus sending out the 12, which was different.

We see Jesus feeding the 5,000 and building and culminating to a point where Jesus sits down

with the disciples and says, hey, who do they say that I am?

I mean, we were just with 5,000 men, so maybe 12,000 people.

Who do they say I am?

And then they say, but who do you, Jesus says, but who do you say I am?

And Peter gives the declaration that he's the Christ, that he's the Messiah, he's the suffering

servant written in Isaiah.

He's the one that the whole world has been waiting on to cure their problem of sin, to

give them hope and glory.

And then Jesus tells about his death.

He tells what he must do, what he must bear.

And then he says, in order for you to follow me, you must do the same.

You must take up your cross and follow after me.

And then we saw last week at the Mount of Transfiguration of what is seen there and what

this looks like, and we see this mountaintop experience, and we see what Jesus does with

the group that's there with him.

And then we see him journey off of the mountain down to the valley where he meets a man whose

son is both afflicted by a disease and possessed by a demon.

And Jesus culminates us into this moment of understanding, like the problem, the brokenness, what everyone

is feeling and working through is this lack of faith.

And so Jesus challenges them on their faith and their faith in him.

But Luke 9, 51, this is a big moment, not only in Scripture, but in the history of the world.

In Luke 9, 51, where there's a turning of the page to head to a new chapter of life of what's

going to happen, of what's going to take place.

And let's read it this morning, and it says, when the days drew near for him to be taken

up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

You see, Jesus had been on the outskirts in the small towns, being this rabbi who wandered

around with this ragtag group of followers, some in large number, some in small number.

He's got tax collectors and prostitutes, and those were just referred to as sinners.

Kind of following around with him.

But now, he's taken his ministry to the big city.

But that's not the point of Jerusalem.

As Jesus turns to turn his face to head toward Jerusalem, he's not looking at the lights of

the city.

His eyes are fixated on the cross.

And so, Jesus in this, it's the culmination of us understanding that in all of the things

that Jesus had done, in God's sovereignty, and in God's power, he sent Christ, and he

healed, and he taught, and he performed miracles, and he built relationships.

But all of it comes down to the single task of where Christ's life is pointing to, of the cross.

The death and resurrection.

And in Jesus' knowingness, he turns his face, and with a positioning of determination, heads

toward, at a greater depth, for us to be able to see, of obedience.

Jesus has been fully obedient in everything that he's done.

There's not a moment of sin in his life.

There isn't a glimmer of moral filth found within him.

But in this, what we see for us is this deeper layer of obedience as Jesus turns his face, and

he begins to head toward Jerusalem.

Now, from this time moving forward, the crowds are going to be smaller.

The miracles won't be as often.

And his public teaching won't be as frequent.

But we will see that he begins to talk more and spend more time in sending out the others

to go and to proclaim and share the message.

In fact, as he begins his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus sends out messengers ahead of him, in

the words of Scripture, to make preparations for him.

So he sends them into this Samaritan village, like, let's get a place to stay, let's get some

food, let's get everything lined up so that we can come here on our journey to Jerusalem.

And as Luke talks about this, what we find out is that he was rejected.

Now, Jesus wasn't rejected because of a message, because of a miracle, because of any of these

things.

Verse 53 tells us that they rejected him because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

So he's clear.

He's making it known to everyone, this is where I'm heading.

And so this Samaritan village rejects Christ because of the mission he came to fulfill.

They didn't understand.

They didn't know what was fully going on.

You see, the Samaritans, they were considered during their day second-class citizens.

And in fact, a lot of people thought, right, like, I'm a dog lover, right, but this is from

custom, from tradition, that Samaritans were lower than dogs.

And so these Samaritans, they were viewed this way because they weren't considered ethnically

pure.

They were a mixed race people, so they weren't considered as good as others, especially by the

Jewish people.

And so here, what they see is there is a Jewish man who is coming into our city, who is headed

toward Jerusalem.

And this Jewish man, we know that he is a rabbi.

So they begin to line the boxes up of what we don't like.

We don't like Jewish people because they don't like us.

We don't like the Jewish faith because the Jewish faith rejects us.

And the focal point of all of these things is Jerusalem.

Strike one, strike two, strike three, Jesus, you're not welcome here.

And here's what's important for us.

Based off of what they think, based off of their perspective, based off of their real-life

tangible experience, they reject Jesus.

And I think what we're going to find in this is that that sentiment still rings true in many

today and maybe in some of us who are in here in this moment.

Based off of a real-life of what I've gone through, based off of a real-life perspective

that I have, based off of all of these things that have culminated in my life, I have a

misunderstanding of who Jesus is.

So Jesus presses on and Jesus continues.

And this is really the part that we're going to focus in on this morning as he keeps his

eyes turned toward Jerusalem.

Jesus is going to continue on the road and he's going to have three different encounters

with individuals who seek to follow him.

Now, you would think that Jesus is going to welcome this, right?

Like, being a follower of Jesus is something throughout this that he's welcomed.

There's an audience, there's a crowd, there's a group.

And Jesus speaks some words and some challenges.

He's dove into, with his closest followers, of what it means to follow him.

But now on his journey to head in his obedience, to do what God has called him to do, there's

going to be three people who are like, hey, we want to go on this journey with you.

And you would think, Jesus is like, absolutely.

Come on.

Let's do this together.

Let's walk with determination.

Let's walk with obedience.

But he doesn't.

But he doesn't.

That's not what we see.

And instead, what Jesus does is Jesus attacks idols.

And I think this is an important piece for us to see in a culmination of how do you and I

take what we've seen, of what we've heard, of what we've experienced in this whole journey

in the gospel of Luke, but primarily in Luke chapter 9, and how do we apply this into our

lives?

And I feel like, right, like if you're with me and on the journey, like, I want to grow

Jesus in my depth of obedience to you.

I want to grow Jesus in my dedication and my commitment to you.

Lord, I want to take off and I want to run after you.

And Jesus is like, cool.

But let's attack some of those idols first.

And let's see what's really going on.

Let's talk about idols for a moment, all right?

Idols, it's a churchy word.

It's not word outside of American idol, right, that we hear oftentimes in culture, right?

In fact, we really didn't hear it at all until that came.

And then there's a positive connotation to it.

But in church, we talk about idols.

And so it's easy for us to separate those out into categories or thinking that that doesn't

apply to us.

And when we think of idols, we think of statues for many of us.

But we also think of what I'm going to call like externally selfish items, like really easy

to identify.

Like I've been in other countries and seen a depth of physical idolatry that I'd never

experienced before as I literally watch men and women bring sacrifices to statues and fall

down and worship statues.

But I've also seen within our own world and even within myself, our willingness to pursue

after these external selfish items, right?

And so it's easy for us to categorize and say, yes, these things are idolatrous items, like

money.

That could be an idol.

Drugs and alcohol and the things that we want to surrender our life to where we think

we can find comfort, right?

That's an easy, low-hanging fruit idol.

Lust, right?

Like that's a good, low-hanging fruit idol.

And if we're not careful, for us, idolatry are those extremes.

Well, I don't struggle with that.

I ain't got enough money to have idolatry, right?

I'm not good-looking enough to have idolatry.

Oh, I'm not in some far eastern world that has statues, and I don't do that.

I go to church, I don't have idolatry, but idols, understand this, number one, an idol can

be anything, anything, anything that you have, anything that you desire, anything that you

long for, an idol can be anything.

But let's also understand this, secondly, in and of itself, an idol can be a good thing.

An idol can be a good thing.

In fact, in the encounter that Jesus is going to have with these three individuals, what

we're going to see Jesus attack are good things.

Things that you're like, oh, I need that in my life.

I want that in my life.

God has blessed me with that in my life.

An idol can be anything.

An idol can be a good thing.

So here is how I want to define idolatry for us this morning.

Idolatry in your life and in my life is when we elevate the gift above the

giver or creation above the creator.

So you and I, not in an extreme, but in a practical sense, oftentimes in our life, God,

the giver, gives us something and we elevate it above him.

God, the creator, creates something and we elevate it above him.

And that's what we do.

And that's those areas in our life are those hard to find idols that we become blinded to.

But Jesus is going to say, if you really want to follow after me, if you really want to seek

after me, then there has to be nothing that comes in idols for you.

So when these three come to Jesus, his response is loving, his response is kind, his response is gracious,

and his response is 100% truthful.

And so look down at verse 57.

It says, and as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.

And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

Man, this is a weird encounter.

Jesus, I'm going to follow you wherever you go.

Cool.

I ain't got anywhere to sleep.

I don't have anywhere to go.

And what Jesus is doing in that moment is he's attacking an idol,

which is keeping so much of the church from pursuing after him.

Jesus attacks the idol of comfort.

Of comfort.

I read this week from Pastor John Piper.

He said, to follow Jesus is to not only follow the person, but to also follow the mission.

And the mission of Jesus is not met with comfort.

Jesus and the mission of God cannot be separated.

It's what he came.

It's what he was called to do.

It's what he did.

It's what he fully fulfilled in his full obedience.

Jesus and the mission of God cannot be separated.

And what stops you and I so often from following and obedience to the mission of God is comfort.

It's comfort.

This guy says, wherever you go, I'll go.

Where's Jesus going?

Jerusalem.

What's waiting for him?

Rejection.

Imprisonment.

Beatings.

And death.

Why is he doing this?

Because obedience to the Father supersedes the comfort of his life.

Jesus had already attached the mission of God to the cross for those who wanted to follow him.

Take up your cross and follow after me, Jesus said.

Church, what you and I have to embrace is that the mission of God is an uncomfortable mission.

It's a mission that can hurt both physically and emotionally.

But in order to fulfill the mission where we move from a mindset of comfort, we begin to embrace a mindset of satisfaction that is found in Christ and in Christ alone.

And so none of these things matter.

Do I want them?

Yes.

Do I enjoy comfort?

Absolutely.

Do I long for that in my life?

You bet you that I do.

But the moment comes for us in our world, whether you're talking about social comfort, physical comfort, emotional comfort, financial comfort.

But what if Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem and none of those are found there?

And he says, but if you want to chase after those things, then you can't be on this journey with me.

Something good.

But Jesus says, it can't be more than me.

It can't be more.

Look down at verse 59.

Another person comes up to him.

And it says to another, he said, follow me.

But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.

And Jesus said to him, leave the dead to bury their own dead.

But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

All right, now, this is going to be a hard one for us, all right?

It's going to be a tough one for me.

In my group on Thursday morning, me and a couple of guys, Tim and Raymond, we've been meeting and working through some scripture and kind of got to deal with some of this this week in my life, all right?

So here it is, family.

Family.

Now, there's a lot about this encounter that we do not know, all right?

Number one, let's understand this, right?

Jesus isn't saying that you can't come after him and care for your family, right?

Jesus is not telling us that we should not care for, provide for, come alongside, like our parents and our children and our family that God has blessed us with, okay?

That's not at all what he's saying.

Let's don't jump to an extreme.

In fact, Jesus, right, entrusted his mother, Mary, to be cared for by John.

So we see that in his own life, the embracing of this.

Now, something else we don't know.

We don't know if this person's father is dead or not, okay?

So it could be implied here, Lord, first let me go and bury my father, meaning my dad isn't dead, but I need to hang back here until he does,

because I've got responsibilities that I feel like that I need to be obligated to.

And so once all of these things within my family are exactly perfect and lined up, Jesus, then I'm going to chase after you, man.

Then I'm going to follow you.

Let me do this first.

We don't really know the dynamic of what's existing within there.

Now, the third thing we need to understand that we don't necessarily know, okay?

Now, let's say his father had passed.

Now, there was a tradition that allowed the burial process, right, to happen over an extended period of time, right?

And I'm not talking about visitation on Friday, right, and burial on Saturday, right?

I'm talking about weeks as you'd work through all of the process, right, and mourning and all that would take place.

We don't know the exact circumstance, and here's where I believe is the heart of Christ in this moment,

that Jesus wants his relationship with you and with me to be deeper, to be more intimate,

to be more personal than any other relationship you have.

And that includes your spouse, your kids, your parents.

Jesus says, this is the depth of intimacy that I long for you.

And this is what hits me.

My wife is a beautiful gift of God that God has blessed me with.

My kids are wonderful blessings that God gave us to raise and to release.

I love my mother.

I love my father.

I love my in-laws and the value that they are in my life.

They are good in all of those instances, good gifts of God created in the image of God.

But I cannot elevate the goodness of the gift or the creation above the gift giver and the creator in my life.

And now what we find is that we, when we love others well,

we love others from the depth of love that we have experienced and that we know in Christ.

If you're struggling right now, here's what I want to say.

Stop trying to figure out the five ways to be a better dad, to be a better mom, to be a better child, to be a better spouse.

And start diving into loving Jesus more.

Begin with him.

Rest in him.

Start knowing him more.

Jesus isn't saying, Bo, reject your wife.

No, no, no.

That's not it, right?

Paul tells me how I'm supposed to love my wife as Christ loved the church.

We know about the precious gift that children can be.

We know about how we model care as we care for those who are older than us.

We know what this looks like.

But Jesus is saying, hey, hey, the depth of the relationship of love, it's got to begin, it's got to rest in me, and this is where it is.

And now I know for a lot of us, this is hard.

But where have we elevated the gift above the giver?

Where have we elevated creation above the creator?

So one more is going to come to Jesus.

It says in verse 61,

And yet another said,

I will follow you, Lord.

Let me first say farewell to those at my home.

And Jesus said to him,

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

And the idol that I want to challenge us with this morning,

that I believe that Jesus is laying out here,

is the idol of trust.

Is the idol of trust.

What this person said,

Let me first go and say farewell.

Let me take care of everything that needs to be done in my past,

so that I can take off and go with you in the future.

And Jesus says,

No, no, no, no.

Like, here's what has to happen.

If you're going to follow after me,

you have to trust,

and you have to follow me.

And then Jesus gives a farming illustration.

He says,

No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Now, I don't know about you, but I've never worked a plow, all right?

Anybody in here?

Like a handful?

Maybe?

Maybe?

There we go.

We got one.

Bruce has done that, right?

For the rest of us, like,

Jesus, we're lost here for a minute.

Could you kind of help us out?

So here's the challenge I want to give to you today.

When you go and you get in your car here in just a little while,

when you begin to take the drive and begin to head to the restaurant,

to home, to the grocery store, right?

Like, wherever you're going,

I want you to put the car in drive and go forward.

But I want you to do that and drive the entire way of where you need to go

by keeping your eyes in the rearview mirror, all right?

A little challenge, right?

We're going to all agree that we're going to walk out there and do that.

If you get in an accident, if you get stopped by the police,

tell them that your pastor, Pastor David Allen, challenged you to do that, right?

And you'll be good.

No.

No.

If you're 16 and you're in here, please don't do that, all right?

But Mom, Bo told me to do that.

No, no, no.

Don't.

We would all agree this is crazy, right?

We can't do this.

But that's how we try to follow Jesus.

Jesus is headed toward Jerusalem.

Jesus is headed toward the obedience to the mission.

And he says, you can't do it if you're trying to look back as you're headed toward.

If your heart is still back there, if your thoughts are still back there,

you can't pursue me in where I'm headed.

Beginning of this passage, verse 51, Jesus was clear.

In his full obedience to the Father, he set his eyes on Jerusalem.

And at the very end of chapter 9, he tells us, you can't look back.

And in that, he attacks our trust.

What do we look back on?

What we know.

What we've obtained.

What we've experienced.

And in looking back, we lean in and we trust in ourself.

For so many of us, trusting God is difficult.

The conflict of faith that we have comes in conflict to what we know.

It comes in conflict of what we've experienced.

It comes in conflict of what we've gone through.

So receiving Jesus for us is difficult.

And we find that we're a little bit more like those Samaritans in that village than we thought.

But he's a Jewish man.

I know how he feels about me.

But he's attached to this faith.

And I know what this faith, what I've heard it says about me.

But he's in that place.

And he's headed to that place.

And I know, I know what that place symbolizes for me.

And so because of what they hold in the palm of their hand,

of what they know, of what they've experienced,

of what their perspective is,

it causes them to completely miss out on an encounter with Jesus.

And I'm afraid for so many of us,

the depth of the obedience that we're longing for,

the depth of obedience that we think in each Sunday,

every night at Bible study,

every morning in our devotional, in our quiet time,

we run up alongside Jesus on the path.

And we say, Jesus, I want to follow you.

And he says, but if you don't follow me,

I'm headed on the mission.

And I'm going to need you to lay aside those idols.

I'm going to need you to lay aside the gift

that you've elevated above the giver,

the creation above the creator.

And I just need you to follow after me.

You know, we're going to find out as we read through

where that road goes

and the journey that it'll take.

But for so many of them who were following Jesus during that time,

they're clueless.

They're just walking after their rabbi.

But do you remember what I said at the very beginning?

The crowd's going to get thinner.

Fewer and fewer are going to come running up to him.

Less and less, the mission is going to be embraced.

And more and more, people are going to pursue after him.

But Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem.

As we close up this morning,

I want us to think about where we are on that road.

And I don't know where you are.

I don't know the experiences that you've gone through.

I don't know the perspective that you have.

I don't know your trust issues,

but I've got mine.

I don't know about your comfort struggles,

but I've got mine.

I don't know about the depth of the relationship

that you have with your family,

but I've got mine.

But here's what I know.

I know that you and I, without Jesus,

are sinners with no hope.

That every commandment of God that he's ever given,

we, you, me, have violated and destroyed it.

And you and I, we deserve the full wrath of God.

But we have hope.

Because that rabbi set his face toward Jerusalem

and was rejected and was beaten.

And was imprisoned and died on the cross.

But three days later, rose again.

And so now, we want to follow him.

We want to follow him.

I want to ask you this question this morning.

Why do you want to follow Jesus?

Why?

Is it for a get out of hell free pass?

Or is it because you understand

the beautiful man and the mission of God?

We can't follow Jesus and not be on the mission.

Go make disciples of the nations.

Here, there, and everywhere.

And we can't follow Jesus.

We can't be on mission and carry the idols with us.

So this morning, in just a moment, I'm going to pray.

We're going to go into a time of response and worship.

Don't think of statues and extremes.

Right?

Think of gifts.

Think of creation.

And I want to ask you this.

As my prayer for you in my office earlier this morning

was, Lord, reveal to us the gifts

that have been elevated above the giver.

Lord, open our hearts to the creation

that we've placed on the throne

that it should be for the creator in our hearts.

And so as we respond to him,

would you listen to the Holy Spirit in your life?

And would you be willing to lay down

and say, Jesus, yep.

Jesus, yep, yep.

Push them all out of the way

so that I can follow after you.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, we thank you so much for this morning.

Lord, I pray that as we respond in worship,

Lord, that your spirit would speak to us.

Lord, that you would open the hard-to-see areas of our life.

Lord, that you would point out the idols

that we have placed on thrones

in our heart and in our life.

Lord, that we would repent

of abusing what you've given us.

And Lord, I pray that we

in that would find the grace

and compassion of God

who says, join me on the mission.

Join me as we head to Jerusalem.

Take up your cross

and follow after me.

With every head bowed

and every eye closed.

The response is for all of us.

It's been a tough week

to get to go through this in my own life,

in my own heart.

But can I tell you,

the process may be tough,

but the result is sweet.

And it is good.

And it grows in a depth of love for Christ

that renews.

So this morning,

maybe it is for you statues

and extremes.

But maybe it's not.

Pray that God would make the gray areas

of your wall black and white.

Lord, speak to us,

convict us,

draw us

in only how you can

for your praise

and for your name.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

I'll be back at the back

if you'd like to talk,

if you'd like to pray.

The altar is open.

I would invite you,

maybe you feel like the Lord,

say, no, bring it right down.

Bring it down in front of everyone.

Lay it down at the foot right now.

Surrender it.

A wise man this week told me.

Bo.

It's not yours to begin with.

Yet God gave it to you.

Stop closing your fingers around it.

Hold on to it,

but with an open hand.

Right?

Those good gifts

from God

that He's given you,

release the grip.

Keep it in your hand,

but know that it's His.

Right?

Lord, do with us

what you will.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening

to the Willow Ridge Church

weekly podcast.

We hope that you enjoyed

listening to this week's message.

If you'd like to learn more

about who we are

or explore additional resources,

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at www.willowridgechurch.com

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