Luke 9:49-50

Luke chapter 9, I’m going to read with verse 46 through 50. Our focus is on verses 49 and 50. And there arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest. And Jesus perceiving the thought of their heart, took a child, set him by him, and said unto them, whosoever shall receive this child, in my name receiveth me. Whosoever receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. For he that is least among you, the same shall be great. And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he falleth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us. God bless to us his sacred and holy word. This morning, there was a man doing evangelical work, and he was preaching to a large congregation that was filled with people from different churches, different denominations and so forth. And after the service, a woman came up to him and said, well, what denomination do you belong to? He said, I belong to the same denomination as David. And the woman looked, puzzled for a moment and said, I didn’t know that David belonged to a generation. A denomination. And then he replied, quoting Psalm 119 in verse 63, I am a companion of all them that fear thee and of them that keep thy precepts. Now in our text, Jesus teaches his disciples not to have a sectarian spirit. We must be accepting of those who may belong to a different denomination if indeed they are true believers in Jesus Christ. You must follow, I think David’s criteria for evaluating their spiritual state. We can embrace them as a companion in Christ who, one, generally defear the Lord, and two, keep His commandments. So our topic this morning is avoiding a sectarian spirit. Now let me begin by saying this. You should evaluate your life by the teachings of Christ. It’s interesting how this verse 49 begins. And John answered and said, John hearing what Jesus had to say, John hearing what Jesus had to say about receiving Even the weakest disciples, as we see from verse 48, is moved to respond and say something to his master. So this word answered is a response to what he’s just heard. It seems that John’s conscience and about probably those of other of the disciples was aroused by what Jesus had just said. John begins to suspect that Jesus might disapprove of how he and the other disciples hand wrote this man who was an exorcist who was casting out demons. You notice how he says, we saw and we forbade him. We saw him doing this and we forbade. He’s not saying I did it personally, but we all together. words he’s including the other disciples here as if they did it in unison together now this demonstrates here how john was very carefully listening to what jesus had to say because evidently he felt convicted by it he was thinking of how he and he these fellow disciples behaved with regard to this man that was casting out demons in the name of of Christ. So he says, I’ll lay the case before Christ. I’ll see if we did the right thing or not, but he suspects, I think, that maybe we didn’t, that maybe they had done wrong. But he wants the final verdict. So you find the disciples here convicted by Christ’s teaching. Now, friends, this is an important point, I think. I think it’s vital, it’s vital for you and I, by the teaching that we hear from Christ or from the word of God. You remember the Lord’s rebuke of the Israelites in the time of Ezekiel, the prophet. He sent Ezekiel to proclaim his message to the Israelites, and the Israelites listened to the prophet, but they had no intention putting God’s word in practice when they heard it. Here’s what the scripture says, Ezekiel 3331. And they come onto thee. as the people cometh, they sit before thee as my people, they hear thy words, but they will not do them. They sit before you as my people, as if we are the people of God. But they have no intention of putting into practice what God tells them. They weren’t listening to obey. They were not convinced. evicted, evidentity they have a hardened heart about. In fact, God goes on to tell Ezekiel, you know, they look on you as entertainment. They find you interesting. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument, for they hear thy words, but they do them not. Ezekiel 33, 32. hate to say this, but I think this is fairly typical of many who sit in various churches and denominations across our land. People who claim to be God’s people, but when they hear the Word of God, they have no intention of putting in into practice. Goes in one ear and out the other. Listen to Jesus in Matthew 724. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. I will liken him onto a wise man that build his house on a rock. Applying the word of God to your life is essential. In fact, it provides a solid foundation for your life. And it provides some protection when the storms of life come up. Now, if you would, turn with me to the book of James, Chapter 1, verses 22 to 25. James Chapter 1. verses 22 to 25. James says here, But be a doer’s of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightly forgetth what manner of man he was. But who so? looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed here we have fairly the same kind of message as we’ve heard before hearing the word hearing the word of God is like looking at yourself in a mirror. And you see the Bible reflects who you are in the mirror of God, as God would look at you, as God would reveal to you how you stand before him. And it would be foolish to look in the mirror in the morning and see your hair is all unkempt and disheveled and your faces, still egg on it from breakfast and you need to shave and ignore it all and rush out the door to work. But here is what the scripture is telling us people do this in the spiritual realm all the time. For they hear the word of God and God reflects to them and shows them who they are, how they stand before, and they ignore it. Now you notice this text is very careful to tell us the person who hears the word of God, that in and of itself does not bring the blessing. we must put into practice what we hear. We must be a doer of the word. True believers like John are concerned. When they hear what God has to say and they get convicted about it, they’re thinking, well, did I do right? Did I do wrong here? And so they’re thinking about how they can address their life so that it matches up with what the word of God says. Does this describe you? Are you sensitive to Christ’s teaching? After you convicted about hearing what Christ has to say, do you do something about the wrong you see? So you should evaluate your life by the teachings of Christ. John answers here. He’s saying, boy, I don’t think we did the right thing. Notice secondly, you should avoid a sectarian spirit. Verse 49, back here in Luke, gives us the thinking here of the disciples. John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbade him, because he followed not with us. Now here we find that you may find people who are not of your local church, perhaps not even of your denomination, And yet, they’re serving God. Who this man was and why he did not join with Christ’s disciples, we are not told. He’s not even of the 70 that later in chapter 10 will be sent out to preach the gospel. It’s very likely, however, that this man was probably a follower of John the Baptist. Because he was informed by Christ, he did his casting out de Christ. demons in the name of Christ, and he may have occasionally heard Christ or his disciples preaching. He evidently was led to believe on Christ, instructed in the gospel. For John certainly did point people to Christ, did proclaim a gospel to them about salvation in the Lord. Jesus does not give us any indication that this man is out-sombed. of Christ. So he appears to be a saved individual. And he certainly was opposed to Satan’s kingdom because he’s busy casting out demons. And it’s clear he was given the power to do this. Of the Lord. This is not the case that we read up in the book of Acts of the seven sons of Sceiva, vagabond Jews, who tried to be exorcist. Do you remember that? they took it upon themselves the call over them who had evil spirits in the name of Christ and they said this Acts 1913 we adjured you by Jesus whom Paul preached that you will come out but they were foiled in their endeavor because the scripture says this in Acts 19 and the evil spirit answered and said Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye and the man in whom the evil spirit was leapt on them overcame them it prevailed against them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded they didn’t do so good in their work but they were unconverted even if they tried to cast out in Christ’s name they were unconverted I tell you it’s this why I think this man that we’re talking about in our text is a converted me. He actually did perform the miraculous cures here. Now you’ll find different levels of Christians among various denominations. I’m not saying everybody in those denominations are converted either, but you ought not to suppose or to claim that grace is only confined to your church or your denomination. That only those who walk exactly, that grace is is only confined to your church or your denomination. That only those who walk exactly as your group are doing God’s will, but the only saving grace is limited to those of your denomination or local church. God is pleased to work at times through those who perhaps have less knowledge and are less mature Christians. So you may find people who are not of your local church, a denomination serving God. And this man seems to be in that category. No, you’ll notice here, you should not automatically oppose those who are not of your local church or denomination. We forbade him. The apostles rebuked him. They restrained him. They told him to desist. Don’t do these exorcisms. They didn’t want them praying over these people to get rid of the evil spirits. And perhaps whatever witness of the gospel he made to them, they didn’t want that either. Because they didn’t follow Christ like the disciples did. They didn’t join in with the disciples group. Even though we find that this man sought to honor Christ, he did good for those that were cured. And he opposed Satan. this kingdom as we talked about. And so the apostles here seemed to have acted rashly. And then did not ask Christ about it first. They assumed that they were right. He was not one of the apostles. And they seemed to think perhaps he didn’t have the authority to cast out the names. After all, God, Christ gave us the authority to do that. What are you doing? Doing this? This is not unlike the religious leaders in the temple who said that Jesus, By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave you this authority? In both cases, the miracles themselves should have been enough to realize that God must have given them the authority. It seemed that John’s mistake has been repeated down through history. This is not something, you know, we read this in the scripture and you might read over it. The whole point of this being included is for our benefit. that we may learn from this situation. Some have not yet learned the biblical lesson of this text. Christians have often tried to stop those who do not work for Christ according to their own methods and their own schemes and the same way they do. As if you cannot be a soldier of Christ, unless you belong to the same branch of service as them, and maybe even the same regent. When I was going to seminary, there were those who talked about the Baptist bride of Christ. In other words, only Baptists make up the true church. You weren’t a Baptist, you weren’t included. That was it. There are those who claimed that, you know, our denomination is the purest manifestation of the body of Christ on earth. Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. I’ve read of those who claim that no Baptist congregate. or any other independent is converted. So they’re not in the true church of Jesus Christ. And it’s strange. A Protestant Reformed Church is one of the groups that would say such things as I read some of their writings. And it surprised me because I would agree with them on like 90% of their doctrine. But because I didn’t belong to some type of church with a hierarchy to it. And I can’t be in the true church. Friends, some don’t labor for Christ in the same approved way that we would think of. Maybe their biblical understanding is not the same as ours. Perhaps it’s limited. Perhaps they have mixed motives. I don’t know. Now, what we have to be careful about is just writing everybody off as if, well, they have no use at all for the kingdom of God. They’re not serving Christ. We have to have a more balanced, I think, approach to this. Now the danger is, in our day and age, is that we have to avoid the ecumenical movement, which will accept any church that claims to be a Christian. Even when they deny the faith that was once delivered to the saints, deny the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, the need for regeneration, and then deny the second personal second coming of Jesus Christ and so forth, but because they have the name Christian on them, we got to accept it. No, no, that’s not what Jesus is saying here. At the same time, the balance is, let’s realize that there could be true believers mixed among the various denominations. Like I said, I’m not saying everybody in that denomination is converted. There could be those who are true believers. truly believers make sense. So we are to avoid here a sectarian spirit. The third point this morning is this. Why you should avoid a sectarian spirit? And we see that here in verse 50, where Jesus said unto him, forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us. Why should you avoid this spirit? Because your Lord told us. you not to be like that. Forbid them. Now it’s interesting that Jesus says forbid him not here. Jesus rebukes the disciples for doing this. It’s like giving a warning, don’t do this. Don’t do this. You don’t do this again, at least. You know, don’t follow this procedure. Since this man has the same purpose as you do and he’s casting out devils. Don’t forbid him. Now, Jesus doesn’t praise the man, nor does he condemn the man for following this independent course from the disciples. He simply declares, don’t stop him and don’t condemn him. Let him continue doing what he’s doing because this is a good work that he’s doing in my name. Sometimes the Lord would have us leave a alone those who do not fully agree with our church or our denomination or whatever the case may be and wait upon the Lord to unify his church. On the whole people may adhere to much sound doctrine without fully agreeing with us. We have to avoid what Job spoke of all about his counsel, his three companions. We are the men and wisdom shall die with us. Well, we have to avoid that kind of spirit, you know, that we got it all and nobody else has anything. So your Lord told you not to do it. The second thing here is you were to follow Christ’s great principle. He that is not against us is for us. Now, here we have one of those passages that we have to carefully explain. Because we’ll get a couple pages ahead here. in your Bible just a couple chapters. Look with me at Luke 29, 23. Look 11.23. Jesus says this. He that is not with me is against me. There you go. Contradiction to Bible, right? People, critics of scripture often appealed like, well, see, you see this contradiction? Just a couple pages later, Luke writes this. The Jesus. These are what we call apparent inconsistency. We put the word. on the word apparent. They’re not really in consistencies because when you look at the context, you’ll understand exactly what Jesus is saying so that there’s no contradiction here. It’s only an appearance. It’s not in reality. The problem is if you just took these two verses out of the context, you just look at them and say, well, they seem to be the opposite of one another. Yeah, but look at them in the context. In the case of Luke 1123, The reference here is the difference between those who are friends of Christ, those are friends of Bielzab. If you read verses 17 through 22, Jesus is talking about those who are of the scribes or the Pharisees here, who were casting out demons. You saying, I’m doing it by the devil. Well, what are your sons doing it by? But the point is, those individuals are not converted. They’re not the same. as Christ. In other words, we have a difference here between the supporters of the gospel and the opposers of the gospel. There can be no common ground. Those who do not rank among Christ’s friends have to be reckoned among his enemies. You know, these people opposed Christ in his message. However, when we get to Luke 950 here that we’re looking at at this morning. The references between enlightened and consistent disciples of Christ, the 12 disciples, and one who is less enlightened, less consistent, but he’s still a friend of Christ. He’s casting out demons in the name of Christ and he’s probably a disciple of John. So here we have. two groups, but one’s a believer as well as the other. Whereas before, we had those among the Pharisees who were not believers and in Christ’s people who were. So we see the distinction. If we put those phrases in that context, then there’s no problem. This man casting a demon in Christ’s name is a friend of Christ. He may be inferior in knowledge, but he’s still a friend. He’s support. Christ’s cause. So Christ does not denounce him here as an enemy. So there is no contradiction. And we should never think there ever was. Whenever we come across something like this, always think, well, then I don’t quite understand it properly. If I understood it properly, there would be nothing that would be contradictory because I know God inspired all that he wrote, and therefore it has a consistent message to it. So you have to think, I must be wrong about my thinking. I must straighten something out about my thinking. So this is distinct from Luke 1123. I just mentioned this because it could come up, and you should be aware. Notice, you should appreciate in others what is good and favorable to the truth. Now, it’s sad there’s so many divisions, so many different opinions, so many different opinions, which exist among professing Christians. I wish it were not so, but it is so. Divisions are not good overall for God’s church on earth. There are just too many of them, really. However, it is the spirit of God that must bring believers to a unity of mind about differences. And you can’t do this by force. you can’t coerce people into believing exactly like you do. Their conscience has to come to that point where you’re brought into agreement with them. So as you pray and you wait for the Spirit’s work, learn to be tolerant of other believers who differ from you. As long as they’re true believers. This doesn’t mean we tolerate error, but we look for whatever is good, whatever is useful in this person, whatever is advantageous to the kingdom of God and we think positive thoughts about that. Are they right about the major doctrines of Scripture? Is the gospel being proclaimed? Is Satan’s kingdom being torn down? Now I had Russell read a passage from Numbers this morning. Joshua has many fine qualities about it. In fact, he’s only a couple of times in Scripture. This is one and the other. The other one was where they forgot to check out the Ghibionites carefully and made a peace treaty with them, a covenant with them, when they went into the land. Those two things stand out. But overall, he said, good, godly man, Joshua. The 70 elders were leaders of the tribes of Isher who were summoned to the door of the tabernacle, but two of them. L-dad and me-dad refused to come. It was a disrespectful attitude toward Moses. Now, God promised Moses, as we saw from that text, that I’m going to take the Spirit which is upon you and cause it to rest upon them. I will put it upon them so that the elders, so that they could bear some of the weight and responsibility of caring for the whole congregation. And the Lord does. so. And when the Spirit rested upon the 70 elders, they prophesied and did not cease as we read. However, the Spirit also rested upon Eldad and Me Dad, and they too prophesied, even though they didn’t come to the door of the tabernacle. Joshua, hearing this, says to Moses, my Lord, forbid them. Restrain them. silence them for they were causing division they were opposed to Moses however notice how Moses checks this attitude to Joshua he says envious thou for my sake would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them numbers 11 20 whatever is good and beneficial must not be prohibited though there may be some some defector irregularity connected with it. Now look with me in the New Testament. Here’s another example. In Philippians chapter 1, verses 14 to 18. And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill, the one preached Christ, the one preached Christ, Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for defense of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. There were some who preached Christ out of envy and strife and some with goodwill. The key point is that it was. as he says to us is that Christ was preached. In other words, it was the true gospel that was being preached. Maybe their motives weren’t too good sometimes. If it was not the true gospel, he would have said, let them be cursed, as he does in Galatians 1. This despite the fact that these motives were somewhat not good here, at least questionable. But at least the gospel was preached, and perhaps people were being converted by it. Because what happened is that God overlooked, overrode, if you would, the flaws and the sinful parts of these ministers in order to call his elect people to salvation anyhow. So we should always cheerfully acknowledge and avail ourselves of whatever in others is favorable to God’s truth in his kingdom. people may not be as spiritually advanced as you like, but whatever is good in them. Acknowledge that. They hold of whatever is right in their views and lay the groundwork for perhaps talking to them about some of the things that are wrong about their views. So this is why you should avoid a sectarian spirit. I’ll close. All Christians belong to the same denomination as David. because he’s a companion of all them that fear God and keep his preseps. You must not have a sectarian spirit. It must be willing to accept those who belong to different denominations or churches or something if indeed they are believers in Christ, and that is what we have to weigh. We should be charitable, tolerant toward other Christians, even when there may be minor defects or errors they need to correct. Be thankful that the truth is being proclaimed by them, or they’re accomplishing something good for the cause of Christ. Find common ground on which to deal with them. And I think that would be the thrust of this message this morning for us. Let us close with a word of prayer.