Luke 9:49-56 Fire from Heaven?
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: August 20, 2018 Luke 9:49-56
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
John answered, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.” When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. And they went on to another village.
(Understanding the Text) This experience with someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name had to have happened either when the disciples were out on their own or after the Mount of Transfiguration. I think it interesting that the questioner is named: young John. I think it interesting that we are not told that the other man was effective, but the question implies that he was. I get two lessons from this. The first is that not all of Jesus’ true believers are in the same group. Jesus has people everywhere and I cannot judge who they are by the group that they belong to. The second lesson is to bring these issues to Jesus when I am confused.
(Revelation of God) Jesus was going to Jerusalem, and He was announcing it to the world. The people would take this as a sign that He was about to take over the kingship of the Jews. The hosannas did not come from thin air. Jesus was building up the expectations by sending people ahead to make preparations and give the destination. Jesus knew that being so public would help to set in motion the events that would lead to His death. He knew that this was His final journey with His disciples. He knew that the knowledge that He was coming to Jerusalem would cause fear and then rage in the hearts of the Jewish leaders.
(Understanding the Text) Why the need for preparations? Jesus’ followers had grown so numerous that it was just sound judgment to send people ahead to prepare the way. They needed more food, more places to stay, and more crowd control. Also, Jesus was traveling faster now, going directly to His destination rather than wandering around from place to place seemingly randomly.
The Samaritans weren’t simply angry that Jesus wanted to go to a city called Jerusalem. They were jealous because they understood that Jesus was going to the Jewish capital of Jerusalem to be pronounced king. They saw Him as rejecting them for the Jewish temple. They perceived bigotry against themselves. They had trusted that Jesus was theirs in a special way, and now they felt deceived. Rather than letting Jesus reject them, they rejected Him first.
I wonder if James and John had been sent to prepare the way with the Samaritans and were still hot under the collar because of the abuse they had received at the hands of the villagers who must have yelled at the representatives and maybe even physically abused them in some way. That would make more sense than a simple frustration with the Samaritans for saying “no” to Jesus coming in. Even if they had not experienced the Samaritans’ yelling and hitting firsthand, the representatives who returned may have told stories of the Samaritans hurling insults at Jesus and His followers and the representatives may have been bleeding and bruised. The point is that there were probably angry words directed at Jesus and physical abuse given to His representatives in order to provoke the reaction of James and John.
(Revelation of God) This is why Jesus’ reaction was even more remarkable. The Samaritans probably deserved to be punished, yet Jesus would not think of responding in kind. James and John’s reactions are actually probably the appropriate proportional worldly reaction to the Samaritans. They were thinking of Jesus’ reputation and rise to the throne and wanting to get the Samaritans in control with force. If the fire came from heaven, no one would dare reject Jesus. They did not understand that God would prefer to be rejected than to use power to force compliance. God only wants our voluntary allegiance because that is the only true loyalty. God wants to woo us to His side. Jesus looked at the rejection of the Samaritans as only the first in a series of rejections that were about to happen while James and John looked at the rejection as an obstacle to their path of victory. The desertion of the Samaritans was a forerunner of the desertion of James and John in the garden of Gethsemane. Fortunately, God forgives and understands. God’s plans are not determined by human standards of success, and His ways are not human ways.
Jesus had already given the disciples instructions when He sent them out that if they were rejected, they should just shake the dust off their feet and go on. Somehow they expected Him to react differently than the way He had instructed them to act. They were believing that Jesus was operating on the principle of “do as I say not as I do.” Jesus showed them by example that He acted according to His own words, and they went on to the next village.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I need to look at rejection through God’s eyes. There is sadness, but there is also hope. The first rejection does not mean ultimate rejection. I need to return good for evil and love for rejection. I cannot do that myself, so I ask You to do it in me.