College Park Church Live Stream

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go to the next video. Oh, sure. Yeah. They're fine.

It's like this size feels like this is the exam. We're beginning to risk the uh... I'm going to get rid of it. Oh, yeah. You know, one of the most irritating pictures of the boys was sitting there for several events, and people are walking in. - Yeah. - Watch it. - With all that, all the time. - Yeah. - Watch it. - Watch it. - Heep, heep, heep, heep. - What was the program, Donnie? - I hate just me. - Are you ready to try this? - Everybody here, you know what? - Did he hit? - When he ended up going down his day? - Oh, that was, that was crazy. - Yeah, yeah, he was so crazy. - I was like, "Man, I don't know what he did." and I haven't sent them to play on them.

I don't know, I don't know, I'm just going to figure out how to play it. I'm just going to figure out how many times. So, now if you notice my phone. How can you do the iPhone? It's beautiful. The other thing you can do is have to give you the kids to play around.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Hey, do you want a big room? I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do.

It's not always there to be a leader. I don't even know how to get out of here. I don't know how to get out of here. Look it up. It's not by our fire. I mean, you don't have to. We can deliver. Like, we can deliver. It's not a good thing to get for you. Yeah, that's going to be like an extra $25 for robbing your free cap. But, no, if you want it, we'll figure it out. So the only thing it might not is how much it works. It could be maybe like this one. No, but there will be a lot of them. Well, that's what he's spending. So we're going to do everything right now. I'll do it on the pink TV. I'll do it on the pink TV. I'll do it on the pink TV. I know. I don't know. Thank you. I don't know. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. - What? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I get a lot of mining, so I feel like I scream all the time. Yeah, I can tell you were her thing. Thank you. Oh, I'll grab it for you in a moment. - Yeah, no, they're just doing it out there.

It is. They said what they do. They said, we got to make a class. And we're going to have to make a class. And we're going to have to make a class. And we're going to have to make a class. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I did. Okay, I think we're getting started, the kids will be back in a little bit. so they're downstairs practicing they're going to sing some songs this morning I think so okay so we're going to get started this morning it's a little cold and I'm still tired from the time change we should we'll just power through if we want to go ahead and stand we're going to be reading together out of Isaiah this morning and it's going to be out of Isaiah 12 verses 2 through 4. And it says, Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid, for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, Give thanks to the

Lord call upon his name make known his deeds among the peoples proclaim that his name is exalted this is the word of the Lord let's pray God we thank you so much that we're able to gather here this morning and we thank you for coffee and we thank you for the fellowship that we have together we thank you for those that are watching online and we just ask that our worship today will be glorifying to you and be with Brandon as he brings the sermon today and just thank you so much for the promise all throughout your word in both the New Testament as well as the old we thank you for your wells of salvation that always refresh us and just be with us today as we worship you in Jesus name amen all right our first Song we're going to do is our God saves

In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come. We are gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to call on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering As your saints bow down, as your people sing We will rise with you, lift it on your wings And the world will see that Our God saves Our God saves There is this day Morning turns to songs of rest Our God saves Our God saves In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come, we gather together, to lift up your name, to call on the Savior, to fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offer, as your saints bow down, as your people say, arise with you, lift it on your wings, and the world will see that.

Our God saves, our God saves There is hope in your name Morning turns to songs of praise Our God saves Our God saves Hear the joyful sound of our offering As your saints bow down, as your people sing We will rise with you, lift it on your wings And the world will see that Our God saves Our God saves There is hope In your name Mornings and love all right it's nice to know in a few years we'll have a lot of volunteers for a full band so that's good we'll keep them in mind so all right our next song we're going to be doing is How Majestic Is Your Name from Psalm 8 and then we're going to have our prayer and share time so if you're watching online, just please text the number if you have anything you'd like us to share and then we'll be muted here during that time. I pressed play. I pressed play. We might sing it.

No. You want to do something else? Okay. Share time. Let's do that. So if you want to sit down, we'll be back after this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Next time we're going to be singing Man of Sorrows. Man of sorrows, Lamb of God, by his own betrayed. The sin, the man, and the wrath of God Has been on Jesus' name Silent as he stood accused Beaten, mocked, and scorned Bowing to the Father's will, he took the crown of course. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out on me. Now my soul cries out, Hallelujah, praise and honor unto Thee.

Send of heaven, God's own Son, to purchase and redeem. And reconcile the very one Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation Where your love worked out over me Now my soul cries out, Hallelujah, praise and honor to Thee. Now my death is paid, it is paid in full, by the precious blood that my Jesus spilled. Now the curse of sin has no hold on me When the sun sets free, oh it's free indeed Now my hand is paid, it is paid in full By the precious blood that my Jesus spilled Now the curtain has no hold on me, and the sun sets free me in thee. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, hallelujah, praise and honor unto Thee. See, the stone is rolled away, behold the empty tomb.

Hallelujah, God be praised. He's risen from the grave. Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation, where your love poured out over me. Now my soul cries out, Alleluia, praise and honor, love to Thee, praise and honor, love to Thee.

So there are times I find myself in life, probably like many of us, where we maybe need help, but we are not very excited about asking for help. The project may be too big or the thing we're trying to move too heavy. And so rather than just simply asking for help, we say, I'm going to do it myself. And sometimes maybe just by an inch we're able to do it, and then other times we're frustrated and broken. And so Jesus, on the night before he goes to the cross, he meets with his disciples. They celebrate the Passover together in a wonderful, beautiful remembrance of God's salvation in the past. And unknown to the disciples, a beautiful and wonderful foreshadowing of God's salvation in the future. And in the Gospel of John, Jesus will take several chapters and he'll just sit down with his disciples

and he will prepare them for what is about to happen, while also kind of teaching and explaining to them some important things. So in John 15, he says this. I am the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. for apart from me you can do nothing and so that part of my self-sufficiency that says to me when i say to me i can do this all by myself Jesus gives us this picture of a vine growing and says if the branches are separated from the vine they no longer have nourishment they no longer bear fruit and he says the way in our life is to be close to Jesus you see Jesus is challenging this attitude and idea that we all have that we can do things by ourself and then Jesus will end

by speaking to the disciples i think they realize in that moment how poignant it is but he will say at the very end after he talks with the vine and the remaining in him he simply say this greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends and

Jesus, they'll walk him through a mockery of trials and eventually crucify him. Jesus, for his friends, we come to the Lord's Supper and we drink this little piece of beer and we drink this cup, because they remind us of all our souls, it's a connection and And it's a reminder to us that our strength is sufficient, but the strength of Jesus in heaven. For the power in heaven, Jesus is self-sufficient, and we would try to help you alone. I'm trying not to stand under our own strength, but through the strength of this meal together. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. As we pray, we pray that there's a last word where Jesus will say, this is me, we'll partake together. Amen. And as you eat bread and drink this, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

We're going to jump right into our text, which is going to be in the loop chat. This morning, it's a slow start. Start, start, so for a moment, come in and listen and say God's word. Okay. And so we're going to sing a couple of short children's songs. Thank you so much. I'm a little bit more than a day. I'm a little bit more than a day.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm a little bit more than a day. I'm a little bit more than a day. I'm a little bit more than a day. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you. But now that I'm so much in the situation, I'm actually in the job of the Hill. I think that he's a big fan of the Hill. I was running away from the Hill. I was running away from the Hill.

the fulfillment and power of grace of God and then he turns he begins to have a focal outcome of Jesus' life and you can see God poured out through the gift of his son. The guy by the name of Zophilus, and he's saying I've researched all the things that Zophilus made in a Christian, maybe he was going to make a humanity too. But one of the reasons you have this well-ordered

Everything is going to change and transition. So let me read to you our text this morning, and we'll spend a few minutes just unpacking it. Chapter 9, verse 51. When there was a day for him to be taken up, there was a space 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 know that 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. And so Jesus, at this point in his ministry, we're more than halfway through the ministry of Jesus.

We're walking toward the cross, and Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem. Now this journey to Jerusalem, there's two routes you can take as you're going from down to Jerusalem. You can go sort of the western route, which will take you down sort of the western side of Israel. It's going to go through real mountainous and hilly terrain. So, for example, if you've hiked on the Appalachian Trail in the area, there's a section near the roller coaster where it just goes up and down and up and down, a little longer than it might normally because of all the hills. And so where Jesus, if he was to take the western route, it would be up and down, up and down, and it would take longer. It was more difficult. Not a lot of people live along that area.

And so what would happen is you would leave Galilee, cross over the Jordan River, and come down through Samaria and end up eventually in Jerusalem. And so what's going to happen is Jesus is going to take that route. And the problem with the easy route is that the Jews and Samaritans, they do not like each other. They do not get along with each other. There's issue that the Samaritan people come from the Jewish people, but when the Jewish people went into exile, the Samaritans will intermarry with the people in the land, and so the Jewish people will come back and they will say, well, you're not really Jewish, we only discriminate against the Samaritans. They worship differently. They worship God on Mount Gerizim rather than on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and so you have all of these differences.

And in fact, in Jesus' day, Samaria became kind of a hideout from people who are on the run from the Jewish authorities. So it's like, I'm getting in trouble here in Israel. I'm going to jump across the river to Samaria. They have non-extradition with Israel, so I will be safe there. And so there's this sort of difficult choice that you have to make going from Galilee to Jerusalem. And that choice is simply, am I going to take the route to the mountains? It's strenuous, it's hard, there's not a lot of places to stop. Or am I going to take this route through the Samaritans where I don't like them because they're different than I am? I don't like them because they worship differently, and I don't like them because there's a lot of outlaws. And so what Jesus does is he chooses to travel through Samaria.

And one of the lessons that we see here about Jesus is he doesn't really care a lot for what some of us think of as norms, right? Jesus cares about saving people. He doesn't look at their opinions and look down on them and say they're not worthy of my time. In fact, from this text, it seems that Jesus wants to go into the church and teach and help them to understand the gospel. And so you have a picture of Jesus sort of declaring through his actions that nobody is outside of the word of God. Now, Jesus, the other thing that's happening is Jesus is traveling just a little bit differently than most of us are. So for us, when we go on a trip, what we want to do is we want to go as far and as fast as possible.

So we look at our destination, and we say, right, at 75 miles an hour, I can do this trip in this amount of time, and that's what we shoot for. Now, Jesus' journey is not so much about how fast he can get to the destination. It's that he's ultimately going to end up there. And so on this journey, he's going to stop, and he's going to teach. He's going to heal. He's going to help people. He's going to point people toward the goodness of God. It's ultimately going to end in Jerusalem. And so I want to just for a brief moment about those people that Jesus encounters in these verses. First of all, you have James and John. If you've ever gone on a walk or gone hiking with kids, one of the things that kids tend to do

is they like to run on ahead of you, scout the trail, and then sometimes they'll run back and tell you to hurry up and then they'll run ahead, and they'll run back and say, you're not going fast enough, and oh, we found something amazing that you have to see. There is a tendency for some people to try to run ahead. Now, in this text, we're going to see that happen in two ways. One is that Jesus is going to intentionally tell some of his followers to run ahead. Run into town, and whether he's making arrangements to stay, to find food, or whether he's made arrangements for them to allow him to speak and to preach and to teach, we don't know. All we know is that some people are sent ahead under the instruction of Jesus.

But then we're going to see James and John, and they're sent ahead, not necessarily distanced, but sort of in their idea of what Jesus should be doing. Kind of saying, Jesus, you need this, instead of what he is doing. So these couple disciples that run ahead, they get to this town in Samaria, and they want to come here, and the town is a resounding no, we want Jesus. We'll talk about that more in just a minute. So they come back out, and they tell Jesus and the disciples, and I want you to see how James and John sort of run ahead, maybe in terms of the mission they think Jesus should be on. So here's what they say to Jesus. The people in the town come out and say, we don't want you. James and John will say, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

What they're saying is, let's light this town up. They don't want you here. They don't deserve to be here. This is a really kind of James and John type of thing to say. Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, when they're listing the disciples, he will call James and John, sort of give them this nickname called Boanerges, And it just means Sons of Thunder, which, to be honest, is kind of a cool nickname, right? To be called Sons of Thunder. It does that because these are young guys and they have a temper, right? So when somebody comes up again, they're like pretty stormy dudes. And so when somebody offends them or says something they don't like, they're going to respond, maybe not in the most polite way, and in some cases, they're just going to start to throw hands.

And so this reaction by James and John is not necessarily out of character for them, but it is for a follower of Jesus. And Jesus will turn around, he'll correct, he'll rebuke them sternly, and you see Jesus' love for all people, even Samaritans. And so we see that James and John are kind of stormy people, but they have kind of a terrible track record thus far of following Jesus. So just in Luke chapter 9, let me tell you what has happened. All the disciples are kind of gathered together, and they're trying to argue about who's better, right? I'm a better disciple, I'm a better disciple. Interestingly, they just get back from a mission trip, and so they're all kind of gathered, well, I did this, and I did this, so I'm better than you because I did this.

And they're bragging about who is the best in the followers of Jesus. And what's interesting is that this is not the first time that this argument has happened among the disciples. And in fact, one of the times in Matthew chapter 20, this is what James and John do. Listen to this. Then came the mother of the sons of Zebedee, that's James and John. They came up to Jesus with her son, kneeling before him. She asked him something. He said to her, what do you want? She said, say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand, one at your left hand, in your kingdom. James and John, in their desire to be better than all of the disciples, they get their mom to go up to Jesus and go, hey, my sons are more than all these other clowns. One should

be second in command. One should be third in command. Now, I have to imagine that that does not endear James and John to the other disciples, right? When they get mommy to come snitch to Jesus that her sons are better than everybody else. And then in Luke 9, 49, listen to what John will say. Master, speaking to Jesus, 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, do not stop him for the one who is not against you is for you. So what they do, James and John specifically is walking along, sees the guy in the middle of spiritual warfare. He's casting out demons, and he goes, hey, you're not one of us, meaning the 12, and they kind of pin him up against the wall.

You don't get to do that. That's only for us. And they come back and tell Jesus how they told one of his other followers that he can't do what Jesus has called them to do. And now, sort of progressively worse, they want to firebomb an entire town, right? For these guys, they've kind of gone from lovable doofuses to people who are now advocating for something really terrible. If you think through the implications of what it means for them to say, call down fire on this town, right? They don't care about the property. They don't care about the loss of life. All they care about is getting the recognition that they deserve. And I'll And I'll say this, the struggle of James and John, whether it's the fight for position or sort of this possessiveness over the ministry of Jesus,

or even calling down fire on the town, these are all symptoms of a bigger problem. They're symptoms of a problem that begins in the heart. And it's not just that they're getting this wrong, but it's become this sort of ingrained pattern of behavior. They have become focused on what I think is best in Jesus. So they think, hey, Jesus, it's best for second and third command. It's best if we get to decide who gets to do what we want, who get to sort of give out judgment. James and John, although they're friends with Jesus, they're not really walking with Jesus, right? They're following their own path and their own desires. And here's the thing that is so, so important. You and I can be so close to Jesus and still get things really, really wrong.

And that's where James and John are in this text this morning. They're close to Jesus. John is referred to as the disciples of the disciples of the disciples of the disciples of the disciples of the disciples. The Samaritans, when Jesus seeks to come, did not receive him. And here's the reason why his face was set toward Jerusalem. Now, we don't have all the details. Maybe they didn't receive him because they didn't want him staying with them. Maybe he didn't receive him because they didn't want to hear him teach. But the big reason is because he was going to Jerusalem. He's going to go to the wrong mountain, worship God in the wrong way with the wrong people. We don't want him here. And what you see, it's the same story as the disciples, right? We have our own agenda, our own plan, the only thing we want to follow.

And Jesus, like, you're not really a part of it. And so you have the disciples and you have the Samaritan of both their lives of pride that we know better. James and John say, we know better who should be in charge. We know better who should be teaching and preaching. We know better who should be bringing out judgment. And the Samaritans say, we know all of these things about what's better, and it's not Jerusalem. And so the disciples for the ministry of Jesus, and so they run out ahead of Him. And I'll say this, energy and excitement for Jesus without the knowledge to follow Him is going to get you into trouble, right? When you start to get ahead of Jesus, that goes badly. And the Samaritans, they're upset because Jesus will go to Jerusalem

and why? Good enough. And it's his focus on himself and on me. And as a result, both groups end up missing the message of Jesus in this place. Now Jesus comes back to both John and to James and to Samaria, but I want to contrast this selfishness. Jesus, we're going to bring down judgment and this idea of Jesus, We don't want you here. I want you to see the contrast with the attitude of Jesus. And so let's take a look at the mission of Jesus. This is in Luke chapter 9 and verse 51. And it's both heartbreaking and it's wonderful. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to... These words I think are filled with both grief and wonder, right? These words are filled with grief

because what is in Jerusalem for Jesus is betrayal, suffering, and death. In fact, in Luke chapter 9, in the verses that precede this, Jesus will tell us, Jerusalem, they're going to arrest me. We're going to go to Jerusalem and they're going to kill me. And when Jesus sets His face to go to Jerusalem, He knows where He's going and He knows what's going to happen. So read these things because at this moment Jesus is setting His face towards the cross but I think these words are also filled with wonder that should lead us to worship because here's the thing this trip to Jerusalem was planned and there is no doubt in my mind that as Luke writes these words maybe solemnly maybe with wonder maybe with grief he writes these words The Spirit of God directs Him.

Because these words echo words elsewhere in Scripture. In Isaiah 50, verse 7, you find these words. But the Lord God helps me, for I have not been disgraced. I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shed shame. Those words were 700 years before Luke will write this verse in Luke chapter 9. Our prediction of a Messiah who would come. The verse that immediately precedes it is this, I gave my back to those who would strike. I gave my cheeks to those who would pull out the beard. And I did not hide my face and spit. And in the very next verse, you find this Redeemer saying, I set my face like flint, knowing the suffering that was ahead of me. I looked at it with a stony face and I did not look to the right eye.

I fixed my eyes on the redemption of God's people. When Luke writes in Luke 9, verse 51, he sets his face to go to Jerusalem. He's calling us back to this picture of a promised Savior who set his eyes on the redemption of God's people. That this is God's plan. In fact, if you look back through Scripture, you find it's echoed. It's echoed in Psalm 22, those words that Jesus cries out on the cross, God, my God, for your safety. Or in Genesis 3, where it talks about this battle with the serpent, where you will crush His head and He will strike your heel. And the early church, as they pray, as they're suffering from persecution in Acts chapter 4, they will say about Jesus and His suffering that this is what God's hand and plan

had predestined to take place. The understanding of the early church was that the cross was not, and this is part of God's plan. And I want you to be filled with wonder as you see this happen. God's plan is to save and to redeem His people, and nothing will stand in His way. And if you think about the brokenness of sin that occurs in Genesis chapter 3, the hiding and the fear and the shame and the excuses and the blame and relationships that are shattered. And God promises there is redemption. And you see throughout the Old Testament that God walks with some people. He wrestles with Jacob. He leads the people out of Israel. He speaks as an angel and a warrior to Joshua. He walks in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And then, as Paul will say, in Galatians 4, when the full God stepped into human history, not in power and in royalty and in majesty, but humbly born in a manger. And then, as Jesus goes through his life, he will say, I must be about my Father's purpose. And that purpose is the redemption. There's a sense of longing in the words of Jesus as he sits down at the Last Supper with his disciples and he says, I have long desired to deal with you. He's not just talking about, man, I've really been wanting to have dinner with you. But this last meal marks a that God has been moving all over, and that is the salvation of his people. And so when Isaiah says he has set his face like a flint, it's set on the redemption

of his people, and it's with I wonder, I think, that we realize as it says this of Jesus in Luke chapter 9, it happens because of His love. And as we read this morning, Jesus will say in John 15, greater love has no man than this, that He lays down His life for His friends. Think about the friends of Jesus for a minute. The ones that are sitting around the table with Him. One's going to deny Him in front of the Romans, and the rest are all going to run away, With the exception of the Apostle John, who will come back and stand at the foot of the cross, Jesus' friends either betray Him, deny Him, or abandon Him. Then think about what kind of friend we've been to Jesus. Because it's really easy for me to beat them up.

But what about me? While we were still weak, at the right time, God's only. For one will scarcely die, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die. But God shows His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Or 1 John 4. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He has loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation. Here's the wonder of this passage that Jesus sets His face to go to Jerusalem firm in His resolve. His face is like flint. And He walks towards suffering, not pushed, not forced, intentionally. And He goes out of love out of a desire to do good and broken people. And so Luke, in this section, what he's doing is he's calling us to make a decision about following Jesus.

He's saying, you've seen Jesus, you've heard about Jesus, Jesus has now set His face on your redemption. What are you going to do about it? And when we hear things like that, and this call to maybe evaluate our life and look at it, I'll be honest, as a Christian, yeah, I follow Jesus, right? And my tendency is to tune that out. Here's the thing, you know who else followed Jesus in this passage and really messed things up? James and John, right? And they followed Jesus more closely. John was his best friend on earth. And they're about to blow up a town. And it's not even the first time for them. At one point, they try to get their mom to curse Jesus into making them more important in the kingdom. And if they can miss what God has called them to do,

if they can miss the mission of God, how much more can you and us be the mission of God? When He calls us Jesus, this is not just for those who may be Christians. This is for us as Christians as well. And so the question for us this morning is are you following God or are you following yourself? God can change you and it's not hopeless. This is what I love about the good news of the gospel. Jesus dies, he's buried, he rises again. James will end up as the head for a short period of time and then he will die for Christ. The apostle John, the one who had cajoled his mom into trying to get Jesus to make them more important, the one who's sort of beat up a guy for trying to do similar things,

the disciples, the one who sought to call down fire on a town who missed Jesus. He devotes his life to Jesus in a different world that lives the longest. He suffers. He is persecuted. He is tortured. He is exiled. This guy from wanting to blow up a town and kill everybody in it. From church history, we learn at the end of his days, they will carry him into church because he can't walk on his own. And he can't preach a sermon because his voice is too weak. And they will bring him into the church and everybody in the church will gather around this beloved apostle. And he'll just say one thing to them. He'll say, beloved, love one another. Look at how God has changed him from looking at those outside and saying, you know what?

We don't need them. to now with His dying breath calling the church to love one another, to follow Jesus, God can transform you. And so the question for us as we evaluate our life, it's so easy for us to say in pride, yeah, I follow Jesus. Well, James and John in Luke 9 thought they were following Jesus too. And it took some realization and some hard conversations with the Savior to be changed. How are we operating? How do we treat those who disagree? How do we treat those who are outside? Are we seeking to follow Jesus or are we seeking our own agenda? Let's take a look at the Samaritans just very quickly. Jesus cares for those that nobody else does. We don't know what happens specifically, but we do this before He goes back into heaven.

In Acts 1, in verse 8, He'll say to the disciples, you will be My witnesses here in Judea, or in Jerusalem, in Judea, and then Samaria, and to the ends. Do you know what happens? The Gospel, intentionally by the command of Jesus, goes to Samaria. Not a big place, likely to this very town that rejected Jesus, gets a Gospel preacher to tell them about the good news of the Gospel. But more is fine in the book of Acts. Ends up being a place of revival, a new church has begun. The Gospel spreads out from Samaria, just as it spreads out from Jerusalem and Judea to the ends of the earth. And what we see is that it is not hopeless. Here are people who reject Jesus. This one town in Samaria, and when Jesus ascends back into heaven,

He says, make sure you go tell people in Samaria about Me. And they do. And a church is formed, and the Holy Spirit comes, and good and wonderful things happen. I want you to see God's patient pursuit of those who are far from Him. And in this text, we see two interesting things. We see sort of this salvation or transformation in James and John. And in terms of the Samaritan people, we see this transformation of salvation. And what Luke is calling us to this morning is maybe it's the transformation of maturity. Saying, I've been following myself, my own opinions, my own ideas. It's time to set those aside and follow Jesus. But maybe He's calling you to transformation. to see your brokenness and your hurt and your shame and your fear and to see that in Jesus

He takes that away and He gives you a new life and a new direction and a new strength and a new place to walk and He doesn't just tell you how to do it but He walks there with you and ahead of you and He puts His Spirit within you and He transforms and changes you. So this is a call this morning for both transformation in terms of our maturity and in terms of our salvation. Let's pray. In heaven, I thank You for Jesus. I thank You for grace. Help us as we look at our hopes and as we look at our priorities and as we look at where we're walking and what we're doing and how we're doing it, that You would cause us to be convicted if we're walking in our own pride.

And we thank You that You call us to maturity and You change us and transform us. And we thank You that You call us to salvation and You save us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And then sing glorious day.

came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt among men, my example is He, the Word said, the light shined among us, His glory revealed, living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified freely forever, one day He's come, oh glorying this day, oh glorying this day.

They led him up Calvary's mountain, one day they nailed him lay on a tree, suffering anguish detected, very now since my redeemer is he. The hands that healed nations, stretched down on a tree, took the nails for me. Living he loved me, dying he believed me. Buried he carried, my sins far away. Rising, free forever, one day he's coming, oh glorious day, oh glorious day. One day the grave could conceal him no longer. One day the stone rolled away from the door. Then he arose over death he had conquered. Now is ascended, my Lord, evermore. Death could not hold him, the grave could not keep him rising again. Living he loved me, dying he saved me, he carried my sins far away, rising he justified, freely forever, one day is coming, oh glorious day, oh glorious day.

I want to thank you all for being here this morning. Just a couple of announcements. We'll be here Wednesday night for our Wednesday night Bible study. Coming up here in a few Sundays. So three Sundays from now is Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday. So I want to give you kind of an idea of what we're doing leading up to that. So on April 2nd, not next Sunday, but the Sunday after, is Palm Sunday. And that's the day that Jesus comes into Jerusalem sort of as a triumphant king. And it's kind of a remarkable thing because you've got a bunch of people celebrating, a bunch of kids singing, everybody's waving palm branches and putting them on the road. There's some people grumbling. The disciples think they're at top of the world. Jesus, by contrast, as he looks at the hurt and the brokenness of this city, is weeping.

So we're going to sort of join Jesus as he goes into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Additionally, from the Gospels, we know more about the last week of Jesus than any other period of time. And so that week we won't have Wednesday night Bible study, but on Thursday night we'll get together at 6 p.m. We've done this, I think the last time we did it was, what, 2019? We did a Passover, kind of a Passover meal. And the purpose of that is not just to come together and eat, but help you have some context for what is happening with Jesus. And so we'll have this sort of a symbolic Passover meal, sort of picturing the original salvation that was celebrated at Passover of Israelites out of Egypt, but pointing forward to Jesus. Certainly a very good, kind of encouraging, and kind of a very different time.

So we'll eat together, we'll do some stuff. There's always really hot horseradish as part of it, as part of the meal. So I want you to join us for that. We have to RSVP for that, though, because there's a lot of extra things that go into that. For the symbolic meal, we have to put together sort of an individual thing for every person who's coming. So you can let me know. We'll have a sign-up sheet next Sunday, or you can shoot me an email. But it's been kind of a good service in the past, and we're looking forward to doing it again. And then on Good Friday, we'll be here at 6 p.m., and we're going to do kind of a Good Friday service as we remember the cross. It's going to be probably a little darker and a little quieter, a little shorter.

We're going to focus more, I think, on worship and worshiping through Scripture and through song. So that will be on Good Friday as we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Then on Easter Sunday, we come together and we celebrate the good that God has done, the victory that is achieved through the resurrection of Jesus. So those are coming up. They're in the email we sent out yesterday. They're also on the little handouts in the back. And so just a reminder, the Passover meal is for all ages. In fact, one of the big things that is very clear in Scripture is that, in fact, it's specifically focused on helping children understand not just words, but through action. So you eat this that helps you understand that. So it's just a really good time, and I'd encourage you to join us.

We're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer and sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your church and for your people. Thank you for Jesus and for grace and for hope. As we leave this place, that we would seek to follow you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.