This is a summary of the sermon preached on August 30, 2026.
- Date: Sunday August 20, 2026
- Venue: A Sunday service at Saitama International Church
- Title: "Listen to Jesus and follow Him"
- Scripture: Luke 9:43b-50 1
Introduction
Today’s passage, Luke 9:43b–50, contains three different stories.
What these three stories have in common is the truth that
Through this passage, I would like us first to be reminded once again that
Then, having recognized that truth, I would like us to consider
God’s Salvation
While the crowds were marveling at all the miracles Jesus was performing and the things He was teaching, Jesus told His disciples that
In other words, He was telling them that
Yet
The disciples believed that Jesus was the Messiah (Luke 9:20).
But the Messiah they envisioned was a political leader—a king who would deliver them from the Roman Empire and establish a kingdom for the Jewish people.
So for the disciples, the idea that the very One who was supposed to become the king of this new kingdom would instead be handed over and killed was completely unthinkable.
And yet,
Here we see very clearly
We may look at a situation and say, “This cannot possibly be what God intends.”
We may think, “Surely God would never allow this to happen.”
Yet
What looked like defeat was actually victory.
What looked like the end was actually the beginning.
What appeared to be foolishness in the eyes of the world became the very means through which God accomplished salvation.
The Value of a Person
For the disciples, Jesus was still, at least in part, the future king of a new Jewish kingdom.
And because of that, the question of who would occupy the position immediately below Him seems to have been extremely important to them (Luke 9:46; cf. Luke 22:24).
Jesus knew what was in their hearts, so
In our modern society, children are generally treasured, protected, and valued.
But the world of Jesus’ day was very different.
More than two thousand years ago,
Jesus took someone who was considered socially insignificant and brought that child to His side.
He then taught His disciples that
In other words, Jesus was telling them to
Then Jesus made the point even more clearly:
Here again, we see that
Human beings tend to ask,
But Jesus asks a different question:
In the kingdom of God, greatness is not measured by status, power, or prestige.
That is God’s way of looking at people.
And once again, it is very different from ours.
The Family of God
In Luke 9:49, John tells Jesus that they had tried to stop someone from driving out demons in Jesus’ name because that person was not one of their group.
I suspect that many of us can understand John’s reaction.
The truth is,
We naturally feel comfortable with people who belong to our group.
We tend to trust people who think like we do, worship like we do, belong to our denomination, or share our theological convictions.
And when someone is outside our group, we can easily become suspicious.
But Jesus responds very differently.
He tells them not to stop that person (9:50).
The important issue is not whether he belongs to their group, but
Jesus teaches us that even when someone does not think exactly the way we do, we should not reject them simply because they are different from us.
Jesus says, in effect, that the standard for determining who is truly “on our side” is not whether that person belongs to our group.
The real question is
Again, God’s thoughts are very different from ours.
We tend to define people by boundaries:
God looks deeper.
Conclusion
Today, through these three stories, we have once again seen that
The first story teaches us this truth concerning God’s salvation.
The second teaches us about human value—who is truly great.
And the third teaches us about the family of God—who is truly on our side.
In each case, God’s perspective is profoundly different from the perspective we naturally have as human beings.
And actually, this is not something we see only in today’s passage.
Without going into all the details, both the story immediately before today’s passage, Luke 9:37–43a, and the story immediately after it, Luke 9:51–56, also show us that the disciples’ thoughts and attitudes were very different from those of Jesus.
In other words, in Luke 9:37–56, Luke records five episodes that could almost be described as a series of failures on the part of Jesus’ disciples.
Through these five stories, Luke repeatedly emphasizes the fact that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts.
But
The answer can be found just before these five stories, in Luke 9:35.
At the transfiguration, God declares concerning Jesus:
God is telling the disciples that Jesus is His Son, the One whom He has chosen, and therefore they are to listen to Him.
Then, immediately after that declaration, Luke records these five stories in which the disciples repeatedly misunderstand God’s purposes.
I believe Luke is teaching us something very important.
Even the disciples who had personally followed Jesus, listened to His teaching, witnessed His miracles, and spent years walking with Him did not naturally think the way God thought.
So if even the disciples could misunderstand God so profoundly, then surely
In other words,
And if we are going to listen to Jesus, Sunday worship alone is not enough.
We need daily prayer.
We need to read and study Scripture.
We need to hear God’s Word preached.
We need to continually bring our thoughts, desires, assumptions, and plans under the authority of Jesus and His Word.
At the same time, we must admit something.
No matter how carefully we listen to sermons,
no matter how much we pray, and
no matter how much we read the Bible,
And even when we do understand what God wants,
What should we remember at those moments?
We must never forget this:
God does not love you because you listen perfectly to Jesus.
He does not love you because you immediately understand everything Jesus teaches.
He does not love you because you always succeed in living the kind of life Jesus desires.
Even when you fail to understand God’s thoughts, He continues to love you.
Even when you ignore His will and live selfishly, He does not stop loving you.
Even when you know what God wants but fail to live accordingly, His love for you does not change.
You are loved by God.
You are accepted by God.
You are needed by God.
And none of that depends on how perfectly you understand Him or how perfectly you follow Him.
You may feel completely lost.
But God is not the kind of God who abandons you at such times.
The truth is that
While we are in the middle of a situation, we may see no meaning in it at all.
We may wonder, “Why is God allowing this?”
Yet
And eventually we may come to the conclusion that
One thing is certain:
We can entrust ourselves to Him.
We can trust that God knows what He is doing, even when we do not.
And we can trust that,
That is the work of God’s absolute sovereignty.
And
From a human perspective, the cross looked like disaster.
But from God’s perspective, it was the fulfillment of His plan of salvation.
Whether we understand or do not understand God’s thoughts, there is one thing we are always called to do:
Remember the unconditional love of God that is revealed through the cross.
Remember the absolute sovereignty of God that is revealed through the cross.
And then, let us be faithful with what we can do today.
Let us be faithful with what God has entrusted to us.
Let us serve the people He has placed around us.
Let us humble ourselves.
Let us trust Him.
And above all, let us listen to Jesus and follow Him.
Amen.
Bibliography and Notes
- Bock, Darrell L. Luke 1:1-9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Bk House, 1994.Darrell L. Bock, Baker Academic (1994/12/1)
- Edwards, James R. The Gospel According to Luke. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2015.James R. Edwards, Eerdmans Pub Co (2015/5/1)
- France, R. T. Luke. Teach the Text Commentary Series. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2013.