JRNT 119 09/27/2026 The Gospel of Luke: A Crucial Turn Luke 9:51-56 Jesse Randolph Well, you have heard me mention it several times in our study of the Gospel of Luke, but the text that we are going to be in this morning, Luke 9:51, it marks this major pivot point, this major turn in the narrative of Luke's Gospel. Up to this point in the account Luke has been focusing largely on Jesus's ministry to the region of Galilee and towns like Capernaum and Nazareth and Cana and Caesarea Philippi, but starting in our text this morning in Luke 9:51 there is now this noticeable shift in our Lord's ministry on earth, one that is a directional shift as He now heads southward toward Jerusalem to the Holy City, but one that is ultimately going to take Him, as we are going to see as we study this, to the cross, to the tomb and then ultimately to the Father's right hand after our Lord's ascension into heaven. Turn with me if you would in your Bibles to Luke 9, again we're going to be starting in Luke 9:51, we're going to make our way through verse 56. That's our text for this morning, Luke 9:51-56, God's Word reads, “Now it happened that when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled, He set His face to go to Jerusalem. And He sent messengers on ahead of Him and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem. And 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? But He turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.” Now before we begin wading into the details of this text, I do think there are a few items worth mentioning as they relate to the Gospel of Luke as a whole. Number one is this, that everything we've covered up to this point in our study of Luke—the prediction of the birth of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, the boyhood of Jesus, the baptism of Jesus, the temptation of Jesus, the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, the Pharisaic opposition to Jesus, the healings of Jesus and the teachings of Jesus. Everything that we've covered over the span of some nine chapters now in Luke's Gospel and from where we sit, 2½ years of studying Luke's Gospel, it has all spanned about 33 years of our Lord's life. Now as we're going to transition today into this next section of Luke's Gospel which is going to take us from our text, Luke 9:51, all the way to Luke 19:27, leading up to Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the next ten or so chapters of this Gospel took place over the course of just 3-4 months of our Lord's life. So the sending of the 70, the account of the Good Samaritan, the account of Martha and Mary in Luke 10, Jesus's teaching on prayer and the sign of Jonah in Luke 11, His teaching on the unpardonable sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, His teaching on worry and anxiety, His teaching on how He came not to unite families but to divide families in Luke 12, His teaching on the cursed fig tree and on the narrow door in Luke 13, His teaching on the cost of discipleship in Luke 14, His teaching on lost sheep and lost coins and a lost son, the prodigal son, in Luke 15, His teaching on the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, His teaching on having to be a forgiving person and having faith like a mustard seed in Luke 17, His interaction with the rich young ruler in Luke 18, His interaction with a man named Zaccheus in Luke 19. Each of those interactions and teachings which occurred while Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem occurred over the span of about 3-4 months. Then comes the triumphal entry in Luke 19:28, and everything that Luke records from that moment in his Gospel to the very end of his Gospel, meaning the plot of the Scribes and the Pharisees to kill Jesus and the last supper and His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane and His betrayal and arrest and His appearance before Pontius Pilate, His crucifixion, His burial, His death, His resurrection, His post-resurrection appearances, His ascension, all those major episodes took place over the course of eight days. So if we think about the Gospel of Luke as being divided upon these three lines or taking up these three major sections, the first section that we finished last Sunday took about 33 years, this section that we are embarking on this morning and will be in for probably a couple more years, that took about 3-4 months, and then the last section which we won't start for some time now, the Lord may come for us first, that will span just about eight days. So that's one item, just kind of laying out the outline here of the text. Another thing to mention about Luke's Gospel in the section of the Gospel that we're about to embark upon is that it is full of accounts of Jesus's teaching and specifically His teaching through parables, meaning these story-driven teaching devices where He would connect some deeper spiritual concept to a very relatable and practical life experience or scenario or situation with which people would be familiar. For instance, it is in Luke's Gospel that we encounter parables involving a good Samaritan and a rich fool and a prodigal son and a lost coin and a persistent widow and an unjust judge and a Pharisee and a tax collector. In fact, each of those parables I just mentioned is unique to Luke's Gospel, meaning they are not found in the Gospels of Matthew or Mark or John. So while the first section of Luke's Gospel, which we finished up last Sunday morning, the one we've been studying for the past 2½ years, has more to do with Jesus's works and His actions, His miracles, His healings, His exorcism of demons and such. In this second section of Luke's Gospel, we're going to be exposed to a treasure trove of Jesus's teaching, teaching which is not mentioned elsewhere in many cases but here in Luke's Gospel. And many of these teachings, as I just mentioned, are by way of parable. So that is all background, let's get into our text in Luke 9:51 which again begins with these words, “Now it happened that when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled, He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Our first point if you are a note taker this morning is THE ROUTE. Now as we see from these words here in verse 51 it would be very easy to assume that the turn in the narrative here is ultimately from Galilee to Jerusalem, that that would be the route change that we are talking about this morning. After all the language does say very clearly that Jesus “set His face to go to Jerusalem,” verse 51. Then if you note down the page in verse 53 it says that He was “journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.” As we keep moving on through Luke, this second section of Luke specifically, we keep learning more about His procession toward Jerusalem. Luke 13:22 tells us that Jesus was “proceeding on His way to Jerusalem.” Luke 17:11 says He was “on His way to Jerusalem.” Luke 18:31, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Behold we are going to Jerusalem.” Luke 19:28, we're told that Jesus was going ahead, “going up to Jerusalem.” On top of all of those references in Luke to Jesus going to Jerusalem, the words here that “He set His face,” Luke 9:51, “to go to Jerusalem” were in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, namely the words of Isaiah in Isaiah 50:6-7 where it says of God's coming Servant, the Messiah, not only that He would “give His back to those who strike Him,” Not only that He would give His cheeks to those who pluck out the beard, and not only that He would hide His face from dishonor and spitting (that sounds a lot like Jesus in His crucifixion), “but that He would set His face like flint,” it says in Isaiah 50:7. It says, “Therefore I have set My face like flint,” speaking of the Messiah who would come. That's a common Old Testament expression, to set one's face. It speaks of resolve, determination, like when Jacob in fleeing from Laban in Genesis 31 “set his face,” it says in Genesis 31:21, “toward the hill country of Gilead.” Or when the prophet Ezekiel was told by God in Ezekiel 21:2, “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and speak.” Or God Himself said in Jeremiah 21:10, speaking of Jerusalem, “I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good.” So, there is something definitely going on in this text in Luke 9:51 where Jesus was “setting His face like flint,” as it says in Isaiah, to go to Jerusalem. He was doing so with a steely sort of resolve, He was doing so with divine grit, He was doing so as the author of Hebrews would say in Hebrews 12 “for the joy set before Him.” But at the same time, we can't lose sight of the reality that Jesus's journey from Galilee to Jerusalem in preparation for His ultimate triumphal entry into that city, it wasn't only about traveling from the north down south to the Holy City. It wasn't only about Him traveling from one place on the map to another place on the map. No, look at the very first half of Luke 9:51, look what comes before the words “He set His face to go to Jerusalem.” Luke says that all of this happened, “Now it happened,” and then look what comes next, “that when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled.” Let's park there for just a moment as we recognize and understand and grapple with the reality that where Jesus was headed ultimately was not only to Jerusalem and not only to the cross but ultimately where He was headed was to heaven at His Father's right hand. Turn with me if you would go over to Luke 24, where we're going to see where all of this would head and where all of this would culminate. Luke 24, the very final chapter of Luke's Gospel and we'll pick it up in verse 36. This would be Luke 24:36. The setting here is Jesus has died at His crucifixion, He has risen, He has left an empty tomb, He has appeared to some of His disciples and now He is going to make another appearance to disciples, starting in verse 36. It says, “Now while they were telling these things,” meaning telling each other about the appearances Jesus had made after His resurrection, “He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, Peace to you. But being startled and frightened they were thinking that they were seeing a spirit. And He said to them, Why are you troubled and why does doubt arise in your hearts? See My hands and My feet that it is I Myself. Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.” So, Jesus appeared again and in doing so He showed His disciples that it was in fact Him. Now look at verse 41, it says, “And while they were still not believing because of their joy and were still marveling, He said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and He took it and ate it before them.” This was concrete evidence, tangible evidence that Jesus not only rose but that He rose physically, that He rose bodily. The disciples in this scene were not watching a ghost or a phantom, or a spirit eat a piece of broiled fish, they were observing Jesus in bodily form, resurrected form, risen from the dead eating that piece of fish. Verse 44 now, Jesus gives them this crash course on theology and how what we know as the Old Testament—the Law of Moses and the Psalms and the prophets—were pointing forward to Him. Look at verse 44, “Now He said to them, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you,” meaning before My crucifixion and death, “that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of My Father upon you, but you are to stay in this city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Now look at this next part where we have the final four verses of Luke's Gospel which by my projection, we'll get to by about 2029 or 2030. Verse 50, “And He led them out as far as Bethany and lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it happened that while He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.” And there it is at the end of verse 51, this event known as the Ascension of Christ. The ascension would have been and was this historical event whereby God the Son who came to earth to do the Father's will returned back to the Father. He was carried up into heaven. Jesus came down from heaven to earth in His incarnation and we know from Scripture that He came to earth to do the will of the Father. That's what He said in John 6:38. He said, “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” Then He said He came to offer salvation to the lost, that was one of His purposes for coming to earth in the first place in His incarnation. John 6:51, these are the words of Jesus, He said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.” Now after accomplishing those ends of coming to earth and doing the Father's will and offering salvation to the lost, Jesus did eventually, as it says in our text back in Luke 9:51, He was taken up. He ascended into heaven, and He ascended into heaven as only He could do. In fact, in John 3:13 listen to these words of Jesus, it says, “And no one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” So that's a little bit of the context of the words of our Lord here in Luke 9:51. Yes, Jesus was setting His face on an earthly plane to go to Jerusalem, but our Lord's journey to Jerusalem was set against this backdrop of this grander plan. This divinely orchestrated plan through which He would ultimately ascend back to His Father. Our Lord's journey to Jerusalem was laid on top of His underlying obedience to God the Father, and it was laid on top of His underlying eagerness to carry out the will of God the Father. I quoted for you John 6:38 where He said, “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him who sent Me.” But He said something similar in other places as well about His eagerness to do the Father's will. Here is John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.” Or Matthew 26:39, this is Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane where He says, “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will but as You will.” Now those statements from Jesus, God the Son who is co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father, that He would always seek to do the will of God the Father, that it was His will as He says in John 4 to do the will of God the Father, that ought to do something in us. That ought to stir something in us, it ought to lead us to some form, some degree of self-examination where we are thinking along the lines of something like this. I'm not Jesus, I'm not co-existent with God the Father, I'm not co-eternal or co-equal with God the Father. Instead, I am a creature, I've been created by God, I'm fully dependent upon God and I know from God's Word that Jesus always sought to do the will of God the Father. So, working from greater to the lesser, lesser being me, shouldn't I be doing the same? Shouldn't it be my food, my desire, my wish, my will to do the will of God the Father? I mean, if my goal ought to be, going back to two weeks ago when we studied I John 2:6, how we want to be like Him, if I want to be like Him in doing the will of God shouldn't I know God's will for my life? Shouldn't I strive, shouldn't I yearn to seek out God's will for my life? Shouldn't I study God's Word to find God's will for my life? This week's discussion questions are going to give you some food for thought on this very question about the will of God, seeking out the will of God, doing the will of God. I'll leave that to you to work through that question in your home Bible Studies or in your personal devotional time, but I will give you now just a little hint about the will of God and how to seek out the will of God so that you can do His will. It starts, seeking the will of God and doing the will of God, with a consecrated heart, one that is truly and fully given over to the Lord. And then it also involves a transformed mind, one that has been renewed and washed by the living and abiding Word of God. You can jot down Romans 12:1-2 where Paul says, “Therefore I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy and pleasing to God which is your spiritual service of worship.” Then he says, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that,” purpose clause, “you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Back to our text. After Luke says in verse 51 that “when the days for Him to be taken up were soon to be fulfilled, He set His fact to go to Jerusalem,” next in verse 52 he brings us back down to earth, you could say. He takes us away from the ascension momentarily and now he puts his finger on the map for Theophilus, showing him the route that Jesus took as He made His way down to the Holy City. Look at verse 52, it says, “And He sent messengers on ahead of Him and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.” Now if you were to pull up a map of the land in which Jesus ministered in the 1st century A.D. in the Holy Land as we call it today. In fact, if you have one of those maps in front or the back of your Bibles right now feel free to pull it up as I try to verbally lay out what you are going to see visually. On that map you would see these two prominent bodies of water separate from the Mediterranean Sea out in the west. First, you would see the Sea of Galilee, up top in the north. You've heard me reference the Sea of Galilee many times in our study of Luke because it was there around the Sea of Galilee and the region of Galilee that Jesus was ministering up to this very point. Now if you were to look at that same map down south you would see another larger body of water called the Dead Sea. On that same map between and connecting those two bodies of water you would see a thin blue line that is identified as the Jordan River, connecting the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Dead Sea in the south with the sea in the north populating and depositing into the sea in the south. Now on that same map if you were to look to the west of those two bodies of water up top you would see three regions essentially. You would see the region of Galilee up north; you'd see the region of Judea down south and sitting between them you would see this region called what? Samaria, right? Those are the three regions you would see on the western edge of those two bodies of water. Now here is the thing, among the Jews of Jesus's day the Samaritans, those who occupied that middle territory of Samaria, they were a detested, hated people. See, the Samaritans, those who occupied Samaria, were a mixed people, they were part Jewish and they were also part, I guess you could call it, Assyria. See, their origins traced back, the Samaritans, hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. The whole story there is that the Assyrians conquered and invaded Israel sometime around 722 B.C. What happened was when the Assyrians conquered Israel they not only took the people of Israel, the Israelites, out of their land, many of them, and repopulated them elsewhere; but they would take the peoples of the other lands they had conquered, gather them and resettle them in the land of Israel. So, there was all this mixing and matching of people groups. And what would happen is all these people in these other population groups as they were resettled in Israel, in many cases, they intermixed and intermarried with the people of Israel. The descendants of those intermarriages became the Samaritans of Jesus's day and those Samaritans, again, were detested by the 1st century A.D. They were derisively known as half-breeds, they were mixed. In fact, there is that whole episode of Jesus's interaction in John 4 with the woman at the well. You might remember that whole scene; and that whole scene is really colored by an actual parenthetical comment that John makes in John 4:9 where he says, “Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” That gives you a sense of the interrelations or lack thereof between the two groups at this time. This was the state of affairs in the 1st century A.D., the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Now again as I am trying to kind of visually demonstrate it, maybe your map does a better job of this, it was essentially from north to south, a straight shot from Galilee in the north down to Judea in the south and it was about 85 miles. All a person had to do was go straight through Samaria to get from Galilee to Judea or from Judea up to Galilee. But what many Jews would do at this time, whether they were coming from the north, let's say in Galilee, is they would cut over the Jordan River and then they would go all the way down the eastern edge of those two bodies of water, through the Decapolis, then they would cut back west into Judea, bypassing Samaria altogether. They would take that really long and circuitous route, even having to go over rivers and over water and through the woods and all the rest to avoid having to pass through the land of the Samaritans. That's how low their estimation was of Samaria and how low their estimation was of Samaritans. It was preferable to go that far out of your way rather than passing through the land of the Samaritans. I mean, that would be like you and me knowing that we have to go to Grand Island today, which I believe is 85 miles from where we sit (verify that later). That would be like you and me, knowing that we have to make a trip to Grand Island today being so opposed to passing through all those towns off I-80 like Seward and Utica and York and the rest that we would go clear up to Columbus, cross the Platte River and take Hwy 30 all the way back down to Grand Island simply because we don't want to interact with those half-breeds from Hampton and Henderson. That would be the state of mind. That's what was happening in the days of Jesus. For the Jews of this time the Samaritans were this people to be avoided, Samaria was this place to be avoided. But Jesus as He was known to do, He went against the grain. Look at verse 52 again. He is on His way to Jerusalem with His traveling band and it says, “He sent messengers on ahead of Him and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.” So, our Lord had this entourage, He had a posse, you might say. He wasn't on His own, it was no longer just Him and Peter and James and John at this point, it was actually not just Him and the twelve. In fact, if you flip ahead to Luke 10, we'll be here in a couple of Sundays, Luke 10:1, you'll see that from this traveling party that He was leading Jesus appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. So, the point being He is leading this large party with at least more than 70 people in it, and He is leading them through Samaria. As a courtesy the way that you or I might call a hotel ahead of time to say we have a bus full of baseball players coming or a bus full of football players coming, do you guys have enough rooms to manage us? That's what He is doing here, He is sending “messengers ahead of Him and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him.” This was a courtesy, this was Jesus being nice to the people of Samaria, to the Samaritans. He is letting them know this large party is coming your way so make sure you reserve a certain number of beds for us and for the entourage. Well, look at how Jesus and His messengers, those who were putting in the reservation, so to speak, how they were received. Verse 53, “But they did not receive Him because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.” Our second point if you are a note taker is THE REJECTION. What I have already highlighted for you is how the Jews of this time viewed and treated the Samaritans. Well, in fairness we must consider both sides here. As time went on and as the decades and centuries even rolled on, the ill will between these two groups in the hundreds of years leading up to the birth of Christ this ill will between Jews and Samaritans was very much mutual. The Jews resented the Samaritans because, as we've already seen, they viewed them as these half-breeds, they were half-breeds racially, but they were also like half-breeds religiously. They were religious apostates; they were mixed racially but they were mixed religiously. They were syncretists is the big word. They would mix together Judaism, but they would also mix together the paganism of their Assyrian ancestors. The Samaritans had their own version of the Old Testament. They embraced the five books of Moses—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy—but they rejected each of the other prophetic books of the Old Testament. The Samaritans had their own liturgy; they had their own religious traditions. In fact, the Samaritans hundreds of years before the birth of Christ built their own temple to worship God on Mt. Gerizim in Samaria. Because of those practices the Jews of Jesus's day had great animosity toward the Samaritans as we've already established. In fact, one quote I forgot to give you is that in John 8. John 8 is this scene where Jesus is really ramping up in the presence of the Scribes and the Pharisees of His day that He is God. This is that section of John's Gospel where Jesus says “Before Abraham was I AM.” In that same scene as He is making all these claims to the Jewish religious leaders that He is God, the Jewish leaders responded to Jesus this way in John 8:48. They said, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” See what they were doing was they were acting in accordance with conventional Jewish thinking at this time which was to suggest that being a Samaritan was akin to or like being or on the same level as being demon possessed. They were synonymous in the eyes of many Jewish leaders. Again, the animosity between these two groups, the Jews and the Samaritans, really flowed in two directions. It was known by the Samaritans that the Jewish rabbis of this time, many Jewish rabbis of this time, as they would pray in their synagogues, they would actually pray that Samaritans would not inherit eternal life. That was known to the Samaritans that the rabbis were praying that way against them. It was known by the Samaritans that they weren't allowed to testify in Jewish courts. And it was very much known by every Samaritan that that temple I mentioned that was erected by the Samaritans on Mt. Gerizim had been torn down by, destroyed by the Jews a little over a century before the birth of Christ. So, it wasn't only Jews who harbored animosity toward Samaritans, the Samaritans were equally harboring hostility and animosity toward the Jews. There was mutual dislike, mutual disrespect and mutual disdain. That played a part in the reception that Jesus and His disciples received. Again, verse 52, the “messengers went ahead and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him,” but then verse 53, “but they did not receive Him because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem,” even though Jesus had passed through Samaria before, that's recorded in John 4 where He had that encounter with the Samaritan woman. And we know from John 4 also that when He passed through many believed in Him at that time. Well apparently, this gathering of Samaritans in a different village wanted nothing to do with Him. Two years ago, I took two of my sons to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City for a Husker/Hawkeye football game on black Friday. And I remember a few things about that game. I remember it was cold; it was 16 degrees at kickoff and dropping. That's cold for anybody. I remember that the Huskers lost on a last-minute field goal. I watched it sail through the uprights and realized I had a very long drive home that night. I remember the long drive home that night and how sad it was, as the boys slept in the back. But I also remember, and this is what ties into our text for today, and maybe some of you remember this scene. I remember the coin toss before that game two years ago, Huskers/Hawkeyes, Iowa City. They do that ceremonial coin toss before kickoff where you have four players on each side right next to the logo on the 50-yard line and the four captains from those two teams were on either side of the Hawkeye logo and what happened was the Iowa players extended their hands to offer handshakes to the Nebraska players. And then sort of famously now the Husker players just kept their hand by their sides and completely rejected the offer from the Hawkeyes. I absolutely hate making the Hawkeyes the good guys in any sermon illustration, but they really were in this case. You know notwithstanding the rivalry, the Iowa players offering that handshake was a gesture notwithstanding overlooking the animosity between the two programs, and then the Husker players refused. There is something similar happening in our text where Jesus through His messengers is extending this courtesy to the Samaritans, letting them know He is passing through, making nice, playing along, but the Samaritans refused to reciprocate. The Samaritans refused to extend their hands for a handshake, you might say. Verse 53, “But they did not receive Him because He was journeying with His face toward Jerusalem.” Well, the unkind and inhospitable treatment of the Samaritans in this scene provoked a certain response on the part of our Lord's disciples. Look at verse 54, it says, “And 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?” Our third point if you are a note taker is the reaction. Now it's interesting, is it not, that the disciples who are recorded here as having this reaction were James and John. And I say that is interesting because James and John were there not too long before this along with Peter to witness something really incredible, something we studied actually just a few weeks ago. Look up the page with me to Luke 9:28 where we have Luke's account of the transfiguration. Luke 9:28 says, “Now it happened some eight days after these words that taking along Peter and John and James, He went up on the mountain to pray. And it happened that while He was praying the appearance of His face became different and His clothing became white and gleaming. And behold two men were talking with Him and they were Moses and Elijah who appearing in glory were speaking of His departure which He was about to fulfill at Jerusalem.” So, James and John were there to witness Moses and Elijah, it says. They witnessed Elijah, they beheld Elijah, and further it says, “He was appearing in glory.” Not long after that we know these same two men along with the other disciples were “arguing among themselves as to which of them,” verse 46, “was the greatest” in the kingdom they believed had arrived in that very time. Now fast forwarding to our scene, having just been rejected by the Samaritans in this village as they began to make their way on Jesus's behalf to Jerusalem, and now having this burst of prophetic zeal, one fueled no doubt by having just beheld days before Elijah in his glory, these two disciples, James and John, were ready to command fire to come down from heaven and to consume the people in this little Samaritan village. They were ready to go all fire and brimstone; they were ready to go scorched earth and call fire down from heaven to wipe out these wicked Samaritans. Now there are a couple of reasons at least to commend the zealous attitude of James and John here, and I say that with caution because when we get to verse 55 Jesus is going to rebuke them. So, there is something wrong with what they did. But there are a couple of reasons why there is something commendable in part to what they did. Turn with me if you would to II Kings 1, and I'm going to submit to you that these two men, James and John, one reason to commend them for their approach here is that they knew the Scriptures. These men knew, from their familiarity with the Old Testament Scriptures, that Elijah, a hero when Israel had done something similar to what they were proposing in this scene. II Kings 1:1, what we have here is this interaction between Elijah, the prophet of Israel, and a king named Ahaziah who is situated in, and surely this is no coincidence, he was situated in Samaria. Look at II Kings 1:1-2, it says, “Now Moab revolted against Israel after the death of Ahab. And Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber which was in Samaria and became ill.” So, there is our reference to King Ahaziah, he was injured and then he became ill. Here is where things really go off the rail. Middle of verse 2, “So he sent messengers and said to them, Go, inquire of Baal-zebub the God of Ekron whether I will live from this sickness.” Ahaziah, though a king over Israel, asked some false god to give him an answer as to whether he was going to survive his illness. Verses 3-4, the scene shifts. “But the angel of Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Now therefore, thus says Yahweh, You shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up but you shall surely die.” So, Elijah here was charged with delivering this message of doom, this message that King Ahaziah was going to die. End of verse 4, “Then Elijah departed.” Verse 5, “So the messengers returned to him,” meaning the messengers that Ahaziah had sent out returned to them, “and he said to them, Why have you returned?” Verse 6, “And they said to him, “A man came up to meet us and said to us, Go return to the king who sent you and say to him, Thus says Yahweh, is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up but shall surely die.” Verse 7, “And he said to them.” This is the king now speaking to the messengers, “What kind of man was he who came up to meet you and spoke these words to you?” Verse 8, “And they said to him, He was a hairy man with a leather girdle girded about his loins. And he said,” this is the king, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” And here is where things get really interesting, and this ties directly into our account in Luke 9. Look at verses 9-10. “And the king sent to him a commander of 50 with his 50,” these are going to Elijah. “And he went up to him and behold he was sitting on the top of the hill. And he said to him,” this is the messenger to Elijah, “Oh man of God, the king says come down. And Elijah answered and spoke to the commander of 50, If I am a man of God let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50. Then fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.” So 50 men from King Ahaziah's army, pouf, up in smoke, certifying Elijah's claim to be a man of God. Now look at verses 11-12. “So, he again,” this is the king, “sent to him another commander of 50 with his 50. And he answered and spoke to him,” meaning to Elijah, “Oh man of God, thus says the king, come down quickly. And Elijah answered and spoke to them, If I am a man of God let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your 50. And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his 50.” Just like that another batch of King Ahaziah's soldiers are charred to a crisp. Surely, it wouldn't happen again, right? Verse 13, similar beginning, different ending here. “He again sent the commander of a third 50 with his 50. Then the third commander of 50 went up and came and bowed down on his knees before Elijah and he begged him and said to him, Oh man of God please let my life and the lives of these 50 servants of yours be precious in your sight.” A totally different reaction, right? Totally different reaction from the first two. Then verse 14, “Behold a fire came down from heaven and consumed the first two commanders of 50 with their 50s, but now let my life be precious in your sight.” There is that phrase again, “Let my life be precious in your sight.” The first two commanders, what they were doing was trying to wield their authority over Elijah the prophet, the man of God on behalf of the king, but this third commander is portrayed as submitting to Elijah, knowing ultimately that Elijah spoke for God. Then look at the different result. Verse 15, “Then the Angel of Yahweh spoke to Elijah, Go down with him, do not be afraid of him. “So, he arose and went down with him to the king.” Then verse 16, along with this commander we see that Elijah went straight into the presence now of King Ahaziah. “Then he spoke to him, Thus says Yahweh, because you sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed where you have gone up but shall surely die.” I don't know if you are still with me, I hope you are tracking, I hope you are following, but this connects directly back to our text in Luke 9:54 where the disciples asked Jesus, James and John specifically, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” As I mentioned just a few moments ago one reason that James and John can be commended for the question they asked Jesus here, the request even they make of Jesus here is that their question, their request revealed their familiarity with the Scriptures, specifically the scriptural account of Elijah calling down fire from heaven to deal with wickedness and the worship of another god. Here is another reason that James and John, at least in some sense, can be commended for the question they asked Jesus here in verse 54. Their question revealed a great zeal for Christ. Their question revealed that these two men, these sons of Zebedee, these sons of thunder as they are referred to in Mark 3, they were ardent in their allegiance to Jesus Christ. They were intensely jealous for His honor. The reality was their teacher, their Lord, their Master, on this account He had been rejected and He had been dishonored and it bothered them greatly. On one level their white-hot passion for Jesus and His honor was good, but as we are going to see in just a moment here their passion needed to be tempered, it needed to be countered with other considerations. See, there were things to commend about their question here in verse 54, but there were also some major problems and major red flags associated with what they were asking, hence the rebuke from Jesus in verse 55. Now for starters in terms of the red flags or the negative aspects of their request. The disciples, in fact these two disciples had already been told specifically and explicitly by Jesus what they were to do in this specific scenario. Go back with me to the very first verse of Luke 9. Look at Luke 9:1, it says, “And calling the twelve together,” the twelve would include who? James and John. “Calling the twelve together He gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And He said to them, Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff nor a bag nor bread nor money nor have two tunics apiece. And whatever house you enter stay there until you leave that city.” Now look at verse 5, “And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city” wipe them out, slaughter them, level them.” Right? No. “Shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” He gave them their orders, they had already been told what to do in this specific situation, and the answer was not to level the town to rubble or to turn the town into finely ground powder. No, He said, “Shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” But now James and John didn't merely want to shake the dust off their sandals, they wanted to turn this village into dust, they wanted to turn the people into dust. So that was one big issue with them making this request as they did. They were failing to heed the very specific, clear instructions that Jesus had given them not long before. Here is another issue with this reaction that these two had in verse 54 where they sought to go nuclear against this village in Samaria. Their reaction was graceless; it completely overlooked and bypassed and ignored the grace of Jesus. I mean, it is absolutely the case and absolutely true that at the Lord's Second Coming Jesus is going to come to stamp out and judge and wipe out and destroy His adversaries. At His First Coming, though, which is the context of these two men, He came for a much different purpose. Jesus didn't come 2000 years ago to bring divine vengeance upon stubborn unrepentant Samaritans. In fact, the testimony of His very words over and over in the Gospel accounts says the exact opposite. Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” John 3:17, “For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” John 12:47, “For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” Now we know, again, that when He comes a second time, He is going to judge the world. In fact, tonight when we go to the book of Revelation, we're going to be in Revelation 14 and we're going to be in that scene where right around Jerusalem there is bloodshed so severe at the Lord's Second Coming that it goes up to the horses' heads, to their bridles in some 200-mile radius around the Holy City. That's a lot of blood, that's a lot of bloodshed, that's a lot of judgment. That day is going to come. But when Christ came the first time, as we see here, He came for an altogether different purpose. These two disciples James and John didn't get that. They had loyalty to Christ, and again that is commendable, but they had no love for the lost, namely the lost here in Samaria. They had passion, passion for Christ but they had no concept of grace. They had zeal, zeal for Christ, but they were misguided in their zeal. Now here is what I always find so encouraging. You read an account like this of the disciples in their earlier years and then we track with them in their later years. That is fodder for praise as we think about how God works through us and in us from our more immature phases of Christianity and faithful living for the Lord to later years of living. You know later in their lives these two men would have quite a different testimony, both James and John as age and experience and godliness formed them and shaped them. Both of these men, these sons of thunder as they were once called would have the Spirit develop in them what was lacking when they were younger men. In fact, if you would, turn with me over to Acts 8. We know that Luke, humanly speaking, is the author of the book of Acts. He wrote this in two parts, Luke being part 1 and Acts being part 2. But look at Acts 8 and we're going to see something here pretty remarkable. Look at Acts 8:14, it says, “Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent them Peter and John who came down,” meaning from Jerusalem, “and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.” Note that. All those years before John was asking Jesus if He might please be able to call down fire to wipe out Samaria so that they would have no chance to hear the message that Jesus came to proclaim. But now having witnessed Christ's resurrection, having witnessed His ascension, having witnessed Christ sending His Spirit, having witnessed Christ building up and establishing His church in Acts 2, John is now back in Samaria. He is acting as an ambassador for Christ and this time he is praying that those very Samaritans would be privileged to receive the Holy Spirit. I'd say that's a major change, a major progression, a major area of growth for the Apostle John. We see that all throughout his writings later in the New Testament that this former son of thunder becomes later known as the apostle of love. Later on, John is writing things like this in I John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” And he writes this in I John 3:16, “By this we have known love, that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers,” the same son of thunder who was calling down fire from heaven or wanted to call down fire from heaven in our account. Now speaking of laying down one's life as John mentions it in I John 3:16, the other son of thunder, James, also son of Zebedee, that's exactly what he did. He lay down his life. If you are in Acts 8 move over to Acts 12. Acts 12:1 says, “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to harm them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with the sword.” So again, James was the one who had wanted to put the Samaritans to death for turning away Jesus but later he would give up his life for that very same Jesus. This is a man in whose wrath he in his earlier days wanted to destroy the people of Samaria and now we have him depicted here as laying down his life for the sake of the Savior who died for all, not only Jew but also for the Greek, barbarians, Scythians, slaves, free and yes, Samaritans, half-breeds. Now in our context back in Luke 9 these two men, James and John, still in their younger days what we see here as we go back to their younger period is that they had zeal, but it was unrestrained zeal. It wasn't tempered zeal, it was zeal without knowledge, really. These two men in this earlier phase of their life, they were not only lights for Christ, but they were also more like blowtorches for Christ. Right? And He rebuked them for it. Look at verse 55, it says, “But He turned and rebuked them.” And then “they went on,” verse 56, “to another village.” Our fourth point if you are taking notes is THE REBUKE, starting in verse 55. Apparently, Jesus was facing away from James and John when they made this request or this suggestion about calling fire down from heaven, hence His need in verse 55 to turn. “But He turned,” and then “He rebuked them.” Now that language that you see in brackets, you're probably wondering if you have an LSB or an NASB why I have been skipping over that wording. That is rightly placed in brackets because that language does not appear in the earliest Greek manuscripts that we have of this text. That language does appear in later versions of this text, meaning it was many centuries later likely jotted down by some non-inspired scribe or copyist, but we don't have great confidence that those words in brackets were actually in the original autographs, meaning what Luke wrote from pen to parchment as he was taking this down from the Holy Spirit. So, it is best to leave it out. What we do know that God breathed out are the words that are not in brackets in verses 55-56. We know that Jesus turned, we know that He rebuked these disciples for suggesting that they go all scorched earth in Samaria. And why, why the rebuke? I think there are two reasons for the Lord's rebuke. First on a very simple human level He rebuked these disciples because He loved them. He didn't rebuke them in anger, He didn't rebuke them to punish them, He didn't rebuke them to shame them. No, He rebuked them because He loved these men. He loved them when He washed their feet, He loved them when He served them, He loved them when He was patient with them and He loved them when He rebuked them, when He disciplined them. That's Hebrews 12:6, “The Lord loves those whom He disciplines.” He does the same with us, does He not? I don't have time to tease out that topic of the Lord and His discipline in Believers' lives this morning, at least not extensively. But you will have time this week again in your study questions to work through that question of how the Lord's discipline in my life has shown me the love that He has for me. The Lord loves those whom He disciplines. I don't discipline your kids, I discipline mine. Why? Because they are my kids, I love them. And He disciplines His kids, children, because He loves them. Hope you are encouraged by that truth, I hope you are having some time this week to reflect upon that truth. If you are in Christ and you know Christ and you go through trials as you seek His face and seek to worship Him faithfully, know that one of the reasons He may be bringing you through this is simply that He loves you and He knows that this is what is good for you in this phase of your life. That's what Jesus was doing here with James and John, He was rebuking them because He loved them. He also rebuked them as we've already seen because it wasn't time to bring judgment on Samaria. At His First Coming that wasn't the mission, it wasn't to come and destroy wicked men and to rain fire and brimstone upon Samaria. No, He came to bring release to the captives as He said in Luke 4:18. He came and charged His disciples to proclaim the message of forgiveness and salvation. This First Coming of Jesus was not a time for divine club-wielding or zealous fire starting over unrepentant cities, it was a time, rather, of grace. Samaria didn't need to be struck down in this scene; it needed to be evangelized. This wasn't a time for vengeance; this was a time for truth spoken in love. The disciples had been taught better, they knew better and they just weren't getting it and so He rebuked them. He rebuked them for their wayward thinking. Last part of verse 56 we are told this, “And they went on to another village.” I mean, I think that's interesting as you bookend the entire chapter here of Luke 9. In Luke 9:1 He tells them exactly what they are to do, when a village rejects you “shake off the dust from your feet” and move on. Well, they finally got it by verse 56, “They went on to another village.” That's all we have time for this morning, folks. Next Sunday morning, Lord willing, we are going to finish Luke 9 where we are going to learn what it means to be an almost follower of Jesus Christ.