Disciples Rebuked by Jesus

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Thanks so much Kelly and the team and thank you all for joining us and lifting our voice in praise to our God. It's so good to sing His praise and to declare these truths that we know to be true about our God. It's great to glorify Him in that way together. Thank you Joel and the tech team up the back making everything work for us. That's really helpful. There's a lot of technical stuff up there. I don't know about half of what they do up there but it's great. So thank you so much. It's encouraging to see the church using the gifts and abilities that God has given to them under His glory. It's great to see people steward that under Him. If you have got a gift out there and you are not plugged in in any way in service here in the Kabuchah Baptist Church and you've been here for a while and you'd like to get plugged in somewhere. Do have a chat to us. There's lots of ways that you can serve and if you're not sure where you fit with that, do let us know. That'd be great. If you've got your Bible there, you'll need that. We're going to be in Luke chapter 8 and chapter 9 a bit this morning. We're in our integrated study as Doug mentioned. We're up to week 3. If you haven't got one of those books, they are at the welcome desk. You can race out now and grab one if you like. There's a notes page in there if you want to take notes. It's not a lot of space if you're a big note taker. That's okay. The slides will be up on the website later in the week. If you would like those before they make it to the website, if they don't get up there quick enough for you, just email us in the office or give us a ring and we can get them sent out to you directly if you'd like them. If you're struggling to take notes, if I'm going too fast or whatever, the notes will be available on the website for you. What we're going to do this morning is, as I mentioned, we're in week 3. Doug's already mentioned the topic. It's the disciples rebuked by Jesus. If we're honest, nobody likes correction. If you think about your own life, your experience, in that to this point, whether it's been a parent, a coach, a teacher, or a boss who was doing the correcting, it's uncomfortable to be told that you're wrong, or that maybe you're misguided, or that perhaps your thinking on that particular thing may be a bit immature. That can sting a little bit. I've found that being rebuked can be uncomfortable. None of us enjoy being accused or convicted of being out of line, and yet that's exactly where we find the disciples this morning in our two readings. They're on the receiving end of a rebuke from the Lord. And yet, as uncomfortable as this may have been for them, it might just have been one of the more loving things that Jesus could do for them, and also for us when we find ourselves under the Lord's corrective gaze. What if correction is a gift? And that's the question I'd like us to ponder this morning as we dig into the Scriptures, because I think we'll see that. Jesus doesn't just rebuke his disciples to humiliate them, but to shape them. He rebukes not to shame, but to sanctify. And the reason why he does this is because he loves us, and he desires that we grow as his disciples. Let's pause in prayer before we dig into Luke 8. We'll pick up our reading in verse 22. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, give us teachable hearts this morning, Lord. Guide us by your Holy Spirit as we look now at your Word. May we allow these words, Lord, to mold and shape us more and more into the image of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Have a look at Luke 8, verses 22-25. Luke records it for us this way. He says, One day Jesus said to his disciples, Let us go over to the other side of the lake. So they got into the boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we're going to drown. He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters. The storm subsided, and all was calm. Where is your faith? He asked his disciples. In fear and amazement, they asked one another, Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him. This event which Luke records for us here is also recorded in Matthew's account of Jesus' life. You find that in Matthew 8, verses 23-27. Mark also records the account that was taught to him, probably from Peter, and he writes that in Mark 4, verses 35-41. These other Gospel writers give us a few extra insights which help enrich the story a little bit. For instance, Luke's account begins with Jesus saying to his disciples, Let's go over to the other side of the lake. And the disciples obey as good followers of Jesus ought to do. They obey the Master's command. They follow him on the boat and they set out. But we're not told by Luke's account what day this was. It's just a particular day. We have to have a little look into Mark's account to see that this was actually the same day Jesus had been preaching and teaching down around the Sea of Galilee. You can see that in Mark chapter 4 and verse 1 if you want to look that up during the week in your discipleship groups. The crowd had gathered around Jesus as they had begun doing it by this stage in his ministry. There were so many people there that Mark tells us that Jesus actually had to get into a boat and get out on the water a little bit so that the people could crowd along the edge of the lake there and he could teach them and they could hear him. Jesus taught this crowd all day as he'd been doing day after day in the lead up to this. And it's no wonder that when evening came on this particular day he needed to get away for some quiet rest, maybe some refreshment, some respite from the intensity of the crowd. So Jesus and his disciples get into this boat and they begin to head to the other side. Luke told us that a squall came up, a storm. And Mark tells us that as they're heading across the lake there there were other boats with them as well. Maybe if they'd walked around instead of taking boats across the lake the crowd might have followed them, they might not have got the rest that Jesus needed. We're not entirely sure but that's where Jesus wanted to go and he was very clearly tired from the long day of teaching. They get caught in this fierce storm and we know it was fierce because even these seasoned fishermen, some of the disciples, some of the followers who were with Jesus were career fishermen. They were semen and they would not normally have been prone to panic unless it was pretty bad but we see in the text that we've just read that they were indeed quite afraid. It was quite serious. Matthew's account tells us that the waves were covering the boat in Matthew 8.24. Mark's account says the boat was nearly swamped and Luke picked that up as well too. It was a very dangerous situation. Verse 23 of Luke's account tells us that. It's interesting that Matthew describes the effect of this storm with some interesting Greek words. He says it's a seismos megas, a mega seismic event. It's kind of like a word for a quake or like a water quake or something. He's describing the movement of the water, the shaking, the agitation, the waves that have been stirred up at this particular time by these winds. Disciples were quite rightly in a bit of a tears, in a bit of a panic and they come to Jesus with this cry that almost seems like an accusation. Master, master, we're going to drown. Mark's account says teacher, don't you care if we drown? Now like any chaotic situation it's very likely that maybe some of the disciples said both of those things and Mark and Luke are just recording from their memory the bits that they remember. We're not sure but clearly it was a very chaotic situation and they were very scared. What does Jesus do in response to this? We see that he rises and he rebukes the wind and the waves in verse 24. And then he turns to the disciples in verse 25 and he rebukes them as well. Where is your faith? Matthew's account, Jesus actually said, you have little faith. Why are you so afraid? Mark records Jesus' words in this way. Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Maybe you've noticed it. Jesus doesn't rebuke them for waking him. He doesn't rebuke them for being afraid. He rebukes them for a lack of faith, for not trusting him in the middle of the storm. See this account, it's not about the weather. It's about their heart. This rebuke reveals a painful truth. Though they had seen Jesus in the time that they'd been spending with him up until this point in his ministry, they'd seen Jesus heal the sick. They'd seen him cast out demons and yet they still struggled to trust him in the midst of their own personal crisis. It's interesting. They'd seen his power. They'd seen his compassion. They'd seen evidence of his authority and yet in this crisis, their confidence in him evaporated and that's, I think, why Jesus rebuked them. He's not condemning them but rather he's seeking to calibrate them. He's calling them to a deeper level of faith in who he is, in his sovereignty, in his power, in his lordship over all creation. This is a teachable moment for these disciples if they allow themselves to be trained by it. And friends, I guess that's the question that then we apply to ourselves this morning. The disciples were rebuked for their lack of faith. We ought to ask ourselves that calibrating question this morning. How is our faith as we journey as disciples of Jesus? I think it can be sometimes hard in the midst of difficult circumstances when the storms of life roll in to not feel like the disciples in this situation. A bit panicked and worried about going down with the ship. It can be easy to give in to our fears in the severity of our situation and instead of trusting the Savior who's called us to follow him and promised to go with us along the way, we can give in to fear and our faith can falter. And if we're not careful, it can evaporate. We've got to be careful to not be too hard on the disciples here at this particular point in Jesus' ministry and their journey with him. This is probably the first instance where their life has been on the line. Up until this point, they've seen Jesus do amazing things with casting out demons, with healings, with exercising authority over the physical realm. But this is the first real instance where they're in the thick of it and it's personal for them. And so I think we need to give them a little bit of slack because if we think about it honestly in our own life, we can be a little bit like that ourselves at times. Sometimes we get caught up in storms of our own making, whether that's because of our disobedience or sin or just making unwise choices in life. That can be a season of difficulty and trial that we might find ourselves in. Other times it can be simply because of the fallen world in which we live. Jesus warned his disciples in John 1633 that in this world you will have trouble and perhaps you've experienced that in your own life. Apostle Paul said to the believers in Rome in Romans 822 that the whole of creation groans and suffers because of the effects of sin. Just living. Life is hard in this fallen world. Sometimes we face the storms of life just because of that. Other times we face the storms of life not because we're walking in disobedience or because of the fallenness of humanity. Sometimes we walk into the storms of life because we're being obedient. We see that this morning. Jesus had said to the disciples, come with me, we're going over to the other side and they obeyed. They get into the boat. They go where Jesus wanted them to be, to go with him. And yet he leads them right into the storm. Why would he do that? Well, I think it's because he wanted this opportunity to strengthen their faith, to give them this opportunity, to trust him, to experience his deliverance so that they might know that he's not just the Lord of the calm waters when things are going okay, but he's actually the Lord of all creation and he is with them in the midst of that storm. He will deliver his people. It's a comforting thought and it's one we ought to meditate on as his disciples this morning. Turn over in your Bible to Luke chapter 9. We'll look at verses 51 to 56. We fast forward a little bit. Luke chapter 9 verses 51 to 56. Luke says that as the time approached for him, that's Jesus to be taken up to heaven. Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messages on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. Familiar with the time period in history where Jesus lived. We had the Samaritans in the north as Jesus is heading down to Jerusalem. The Samaritans and the Jews, they didn't get on. And what we see here is that as Jesus sends his messages into this Samaritan village to get things ready for him, they're not welcome. Not because they were Jews or there was Jews amongst his disciples, but because Jesus wasn't staying in Samaria. He was on his way to Jerusalem. And so there's a tension there. The disciples, James and John in verse 54, Luke says they see this and they ask, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them. And then he and his disciples went to another village. Jesus is resolutely turned his face to Jerusalem. He's heading to the cross. He knows that this is the mission that God has called him to. And he's on his way there. It's getting to the pointy end of his mission. And as he sends these messages into that Samaritan village there, people refuse to receive it. James and John, these are two brothers whom Jesus had given the nickname Sons of Thunder. You can read about that in Mark chapter 3. And they hear of this rejection of Jesus and they say, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? You can almost hear their hearts beating. They've dishonored you, Lord. We can't let that stand. Let's torch them for it. It's like a righteous anger that they're feeling. It sounds like these were pretty volatile guys that blew up. They got a bit angry, a bit heated, quite hot under the collar. I don't know whether they were tired or hungry, maybe wanting to rest. Often that's time when anger can come out and you say things that you don't want to say, don't mean to say. But whatever the reason, these two men had felt like their Lord had been dishonored. And they wanted to rebuff these people that were dishonoring the God of the universe in human flesh. They were outraged. You want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them. What do you think made them do that? It's a bit of an interesting thing for them to say. We're not told in any of the Gospels up until this point that James and John had ever done anything like that before. This is the first time we hear them suggesting it. They'd gone out with the disciples as Jesus sent them out and we'll learn more about that next week when we look at Jesus sending the disciples out. But they'd gone out in in twos and they were given authority to heal, to raise the dead, to cast out demons, to preach the gospel. But none of the reports of them coming back has anybody calling down fire from heaven to destroy people. You wonder what they were thinking? Well, I think that because of the region where they were walking, the journey that they were taking through Samaria into Jerusalem, it's interesting that perhaps they had some of their Old Testament Bible knowledge in mind. So if you're familiar with Elijah, the prophet, back in 2 Kings chapter 1, verses 1 to 15, you can read about that during the week. We won't look at that now. Elijah, the prophet of God, he was in this same region at a particular point in the history of God's people. And some enemies of God had got into this situation where the king, the pagan king at the time, was out for Elijah. And he'd sent this group of 50 men to go and get Elijah. And they turned up to where Elijah was in this particular region. And are you the man of God? And if I am, Elijah said, let fire come from heaven and destroy you. And God sent fire and these 50 men who'd come to kill him were taken out. We're told that the word got back to the king, that he'd lost these men. He sent another troop of men. And same thing happened again. And then by the third group that came, they realized that maybe negotiating was a better deal than trying to kill him. And yeah, you can read about that in 2 Kings chapter 1, verse 1 to 15. But yeah, it's interesting there that Elijah, at that particular point in salvation history, he was used by God as an instrument of God's destructive judgment. And so maybe these two disciples had their Bible history in mind. They had the teachings that they knew of the prophet Elijah. And they're thinking, yeah, we know what can happen here. God can do this. Lord, do you want us to ask God to do this? They're thinking, let's do this like Elijah did. And you might notice in your Bible, some of you had a footnote in the passage that we read there that said, when those two disciples asked, do you want us to cool down fire from heaven in the footnote? It says like Elijah. That's what it's referring to there, the story from 2 Kings. Jesus rebukes them. He doesn't go for it at all. Jesus would have known this story of the Old Testament as well too. But it's not what Jesus is here for. And this is why he turns that he rebukes these disciples. The rebukes, again, not because of what they've said, but it's because they've misunderstood the mission. It's misguided zeal. These guys were zealous for the Lord. And that's not what they're getting in trouble for. That can be a really good thing to be zealous for the Lord. But the zeal needs to be in the right direction. There, misguided zeal was, it was proud. It was vengeful. It was not the way of Jesus. Remember, it was Jesus who said, when he entered Jericho and met Zacchaeus in Luke 19, verse 10, the Son of man came to seek and save the lost. In John chapter three, verses 16 and 17, familiar words to many of you, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Misguided zeal can put us offside with the mission of God. Sometimes we may find ourselves a bit like James and John. We could see rejection, mockery, sin, and we want God to deal with them. We want God to step in and deal injustice. We see injustice in the world and we want God to fix it. Sometimes in our zeal for the gospel, for God, we can lose sight of the mission and it can become about winning arguments instead of winning hearts for Jesus. We can act more like judges than witnesses for Christ and that's not the way of Jesus. True discipleship involves humility. It means having a heart that breaks for the lost, not one that burns with contempt. Jesus rebukes this prideful zeal because it misrepresents the heart of God. We have to be careful, friends, that we don't become so passionate about the truth that we forget that we're all in need of God's grace. We just need to take that warning this morning. Turning your bibles to Hebrews chapter 12. There's a third passage that I'd like us just to briefly look at this morning. We won't have time to go through the whole thing. You do a whole sermon on Hebrews chapter 12, these first 12 verses. One of the other things we see about Jesus rebuking his disciples is that it's a mark of God's love for his children. We see this quite clearly in the scriptures and this passage in Hebrews is helpful to our understanding of that. Have a look at Hebrews chapter 12 verses 1 to 12. The author writes, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline and do not lose heart when he rebukes you because the Lord disciplines the one he loves and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you're not disciplined and everyone undergoes discipline, then you're not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the father of spirits and live? They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who've been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. There's a lot to unpack there. And like I said earlier, that we could do a whole sermon just on that passage. We don't have time this morning to plumb the depths of that. So just a few observations. The writer to the Hebrews is reminding us that the journey of discipleship is not a program that we can graduate from, but it's a lifelong journey of walking with Jesus. It's likened to a race, a race that we're all invited to run. And to run a good race, we've got to fix our eyes on Jesus like we were seeing this morning. We've got to follow the godly example of those who have come before us, maybe those who have mentored us or encouraged us in our Christian walk, those that the Bible gives us as heroes of the faith in Hebrews, chapter 11. These are the people that the author has in mind here where he talks about this great cloud of witnesses, those who've gone before us and have set an example in our Christian walk. But the writer also says, we remember that God is our spiritual father and he loves us. And just like biological fathers trained us, corrected us because they loved us, and we respected them for it, how much more does God train us for our benefit that we might share in his holiness? And we saw that there in the text we just read, verses five, six and ten. It's the father saying to us, his children, I love you too much to let you keep going the wrong way. That's what he's talking about here. You think of a coach maybe correcting a sprinters form, they don't do that to embarrass them, they do it to help them win the race. And this is what we hear here. God's loving discipline is proof of our sonship and daughtership. It's said it there in the text is proof that we're God's children. That little bit that there was talking about the illegitimate children and the legitimate children. This is kind of an understanding of the time period in which this letter to the Hebrews was written. See in ancient Greek and Roman world, in the ancient Greek and Roman culture, wealthy people tended to have a lot of illegitimate kids. They were wealthy enough, they had servants and they didn't look at marriage the same way we did. And they had legitimate kids and they had lots of illegitimate kids as well from all of these different relationships that they had. The kids that were theirs, the ones that were legit, the proper heirs to the family name, those children they were taught, they were educated, they were trained so that they could continue the family business or get involved in politics or whatever the family was into, they were schooled. The illegitimate kids often ran wild because they didn't invest the money or the time into those children. They didn't see them as legitimate children, which is awful for those poor kids. What the writer to the Hebrews tells us is that God disciplines his children. He corrects us for our good so that we might grow in holiness. That's a wonderful thought. God's rebuke isn't petty, it's purposeful. It's not punishment, it's preparation for eternity. We need to be very careful as we think about this passage. Often we think of discipline as punishment. But we know, don't we, that Jesus went to the cross, he paid the price for our sin. God doesn't discipline us in punishment, that's already been taken care of at the cross. So the correction, the discipline, the rebuke that the writer is getting at here, it's not punishment, it's correction, loving preparation for eternity. It's so that we might grow in holiness. So we need to ask ourselves the question this morning, are we teachable? Do we receive correction with a hard heart or with a humble one? God doesn't waste his rebuke, it's always for our good. The writer to the Hebrews says sometimes it's painful in the moment, but later on it produces that harvest of righteousness and peace for those who've been trained by it. In the final book of the Bible in Revelation, John's vision. In Revelation chapter three verse 19, Jesus speaks to the churches and one of the churches he's speaking to in Revelation chapter three is this church in Laodicea, a church that Jesus described as lukewarm, people who appeared rich in the world's eyes, but they were poor in spiritual terms because they weren't hot for Jesus, they weren't on fire for him, they'd stopped running the race. And Jesus says in this corrective letter that he writes to them in Revelation chapter three, read it during the week, but in chapter three verse 19 he says, those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. That's the loving call of Christ as he rebukes us. It's not because he's angry, because he loves us. Rebuke is not the absence of love friends, it's the evidence of it. Jesus loves his church too much to let us drift. He corrects us not to push us away, but to draw us back. And the picture that he gives in Revelation chapter three is him standing at the door of that church and knocking, waiting for them to open their hearts to his correction. Friends, Jesus rebuked his disciples for lack of faith, for misguided pride and anger, for misguided zeal, but that rebuked came out of love in action. None of that says that as disciples we need to be perfect. We are stained by sin, that Jesus is sanctifying us day by day, making us little by little more and more into his image, but that's a process that takes a lifetime, won't be finished between here and glory. True disciples are not perfect, they're teachable, and that's what we want to be. We want to receive the Lord's correction, not as a rejection, but as a redirection. That's where I think the challenge is for us this morning. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just want to thank you Lord for your word, thank you for these examples. Just a couple of examples, there's many more, and I'm sure we'll dig into that as we go through the study that Michael and Deborah have laid out for us during the week in our discipleship groups. But Lord, we thank you for these accounts of Jesus loving rebuke of his disciples. Thank you Lord for the way in which that helps to calibrate our faith, to reorient our zeal, and Lord to remind us that as you discipline us, it's always for our good and for your glory. Lord, may we have hearts that are open to your rebuke. May we hear and be subject to your word as the authority in our life. May we come under your will. Lord, we pray that we would be disciples of Jesus who are growing in holiness because we surrender to your discipline. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.