Trusting God

SLIDE 1-2 During World War II battles in the Pacific, a sailor in a United States submarine was stricken with acute appendicitis and was near death. The nearest surgeon was thousands of miles away. The sailor’s friend, Pharmacist Mate Wheller Lipes, watched his temperature rise to 106 degrees. The man’s only hope was an operation. So Lipes said to his stricken buddy, “I’ve watched doctors do this operation. I think I can do it. What do you say?” The sailor consented.

In the wardroom the patient was stretched out on a table beneath a floodlight. The mate and assisting officers, dressed in reversed pajama tops, masked their faces with gauze. The crew stood by the diving planes to keep the ship steady. The cook boiled water for sterilizing. A tea strainer served as an antiseptic cone. A broken-handled scalpel was the operating instrument. Alcohol drained from the torpedoes was the antiseptic. Bent tablespoons kept the muscles open.

After cutting through the layers of muscle, the mate took twenty minutes to find the appendix. Two and a half hours later, the last catgut stitch was sewn just as the last drop of ether gave out. Thirteen days later the sailor was back at work.

It was a great accomplishment, greater than the appendectomies done by surgeons. Not because it was better, for it was not, but because an unskilled shipmate performed the surgery.

This story can helps us understand the promise Jesus made to his disciples shortly before he left the earth, when he said in the Upper Room: SLIDE 3

John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

SLIDE 4 Jesus said that his followers would do greater things than he did. It’s not that the works themselves are greater, they are greater because of who we are — frail and sinful human instruments who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We are in Luke 9 this evening. Jesus is going to send out the apostles out in pairs to preach and heal.

Luke 9:1-6 1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.

Jesus had already chosen the twelve men who would be his apostles. Remember, the word apostle simply means messenger. An apostle is someone sent on a mission with a message. Jesus sent these twelve men out with a message of God’s kingdom. It’s what John the Baptist did. SLIDE 5

Matthew 3:1-2 1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

It’s what Jesus did. SLIDE 6

Matthew 4:17 “17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

SLIDE 7 Now Jesus is sending the apostles out to proclaim the good news about the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom is wherever God is being served and obeyed. In the Model Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom: “Your kingdom come.” And then, Jesus explained what the coming of God’s kingdom meant: “You will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The apostles were to go out proclaiming as John and Jesus had that God’s kingdom was near. God’s rule was coming.

Jesus didn’t just send them out to preach though. Jesus also sent them cast out evil spirits and to heal the sick. They weren’t just sent to preach, they were also sent to help take care of the needs of the people. They cast out demons and healed the sick. There is still that two-fold aspect of the ministry.

General Booth of the Salvation Army was once condemned for offering food and meals to poor people instead of just simply gospel. Booth responded saying, “It is impossible to comfort men’s hearts with the love of God when their feet are perishing with cold.” We need to share the gospel but we also need to do what we can to help those in need. Remember what James wrote about the religious practices that God accepts. SLIDE 8

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

SLIDE 9 James tells us that we are to help take care of those who can’t take care of themselves. While it's possible to place too much emphasis on the material, the material needs should never be overlooked.

Luke tells us that Jesus gave them both the power and the authority to do these things. Power is the ability to accomplish a task and authority is the right to do it. It’s possible to have one without the other.

We were driving down Carter Boulevard Sunday afternoon. At the four-way stop we noticed lights flashing in front of Loretta’s house. A car had been pulled over and there were two police cars behind it with their lights flashing. I texted Laverne and asked if the police had finally located him.

I don’t know why there were two police cars but I also don’t know why the car had been pulled over. You will see that though. A car gets pulled over and if there’s another police officer nearby they’ll come as backup. They have the authority to pull you over if you’ve done something wrong but it may take more than one officer to make sure they have the power they need to enforce their authority. We’ve heard too many stories about someone getting pulled over and then overpowering the officer.

I remember my mother telling the story of my aunt Carol calling her in tears. Through her sobs she told my mother that my cousin Sandy had just received her first spanking. To which my my mother calmly replied, “No it wasn’t.” There was a time when if you did something wrong down the street you got disciplined there and then you got disciplined again when you got home.

How many people remember getting in trouble at school only to get home and find out you were in trouble there as well? You got spanked by your teacher or principal and then you got spanked again by your parents. They had the power and the authority to discipline you. I still remember the paddles some of my teachers proudly displayed in their rooms. They still have the ability to spank a child but they no longer have the authority.

Jesus gave the apostles the ability to cast out demons and heal the sick, but he also gave the authority to so. The ability did not come from themselves, but from Jesus. It was his power and his authority which he gave to them.

In Acts 19 we read a humorous story (at least it’s humorous to me) about some seven Jewish brothers who were going around driving out evil spirits. Evidently, they had been around when Paul had cast out some spirits because they used Paul’s name to try and do the same thing. They would say: “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” It sounds like they had the ability to cast out the demons because they kept doing it. However, one day an evil spirit answered them and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then, the evil spirit left the man and jumped on them. Luke tells us that the spirit overpowered them beating them up so badly that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. They had the ability to cast out the demons but not the authority.

When you are going on a trip, when do you start packing? Do you start the week before? If we’re leaving in the morning I don’t usually start till the day. If we’re not leaving till after lunch, I may not start till the day we leave. In other words, I wait till the last minute.

Mary Anne, on the other starts planning several days before we leave. That’s because while all I’m packing is my clothes, she’s making plans for everything else we need to take with us. For example, if we’re going to the beach and staying in a condo for a week, she’s planning the meals. She makes a schedule of what we’re going to eat when. And then she makes a list of what we’re going to take with us and what we’ll buy when we get there. She is very detailed oriented and that’s a great thing because someone needs to think about those details. Then, when she’s got everything packed, I get to carry it out to the car and load it. And I get to unload it at the condo.

Jesus is going to send the disciples on a trip and before they leave, he will tell them not to make any plans. They weren’t to pack anything and they weren’t to take anything.

Before Jesus sends them out he gives them some instructions. First, they weren’t to take anything with them: no walking stick or a bag (assumed to be used for begging), no food, money, or even a change of clothes. They were to only take what they were wearing. I think this only emphasized their need to trust God. By not taking anything with them they didn’t have the ability to provide for themselves any more than they had the ability to cast out demons or heal the sick. It wasn’t them doing it, it was God. It was God’s power at work in and through them and not the result of their abilities or their planning.

There wasn’t time to pack or plan because there was an urgency about the matter that left no time for the apostles to plan and pack. They just needed to go.

In the early years of our country’s history, there were two different approaches to evangelism. The Methodist Church felt the West was expanding so fast that there wasn’t time to thoroughly equip and train preachers and lay evangelists. They sent out anyone who had the call, and the West was evangelized by Methodist circuit riders. The Presbyterians felt the gospel was so important it could be entrusted only to seminary graduates with a background in Greek and Hebrew. They never caught up with the Methodists in claiming the expanding frontier for the kingdom of God.

Sometimes we devote so much time to planning that the job doesn’t get done. We just need to trust God and go.

The second instruction Jesus gave the apostles was to stay in the same house until they left town. I guess there would have been the temptation to move to some nicer accommodations a few days later if they were offered. Jesus instructed them to be content with that they were offered.

An early church writing called “The Didache,” warns of wandering false prophets and contains careful instructions about receiving prophets. There was a story written by an unbeliever in around 160 AD making fun of Christians. In it, the writer described a man who pretended to be a Christian and lived off the generosity of Christian hosts.

In that culture hospitality was important as it still is today. Travelers were dependent on it as well. Travel was difficult and accommodations were poor. They depended on the hospitality of others to give them a place to stay. To be accepted and then to move to a nicer place the next day would have been an insult to the host. Too, it would cast suspicion on their true motives. Were they there to teach or make money?

The apostles were not traveling in order to receive but to give. They were to freely give what they’d been given from God and trust God to provide for their needs.

Third, if they were not welcomed in a town, they were to shake the dust from their feet when they were leaving. This sounds like a strange command but it was a common custom of that day. It’s believed to originated from Exodus 3 and the story of the burning bush. When Moses approached the bush, he was told to remove his sandals for the ground upon which he was standing was holy ground. Later, Jews applied this to walking through a predominantly Gentile region. If they could not avoid the area, when they got back to a Jewish area they would stop and shake the dust from their feet before continuing.

Jesus tells the apostles to do the same thing to do the same thing when leaving communities that would not receive them and their teaching.

In Matthew’s telling of this story, he includes the instruction that they were not to go to the Gentiles or Samaritans but “only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The apostles were then to treat unreceptive villages like they would treat unbelieving Gentiles. In the next chapter Jesus will condemn some of these places for their unbelief. SLIDE 10

Luke 10:13-15 13 Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.

SLIDE 11 Because of the miracles they had seen, they had every reason to be believe but wouldn’t. As William Barclay wrote:

A village or town which would not receive them was to be treated as a strict Jew would treat a heathen country. It had refused its opportunity and had condemned itself.

When the apostles started shaking off the dust from their feet the people would have recognized what they were doing and what it meant. They would have understood that they were being compared to unwashed pagans. I wonder how that would have made them feel.

SLIDE 12 In the next chapter, referring to casting out evil spirits, Jesus would say:

Luke 11:20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

SLIDE 13 The apostles went out performing miracles. Those miracles pointed to the authority Jesus had given to them and to the coming of God’s kingdom. Authority over demons and the ability to cure diseases are powerful signs that pointed to the validity of the disciples’ message about the coming of God’s kingdom. While some welcomed the apostles and received their message, there were others that turned them away.

Even though not everyone believed, word about Jesus was still getting out and even reached Herod.

Luke 9:7-9 7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9 But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.

There were four different Herods. The first was Herod the Great. SLIDE 14 He ruled over much of the same territory as David had ruled over Israel. He is not called great because he was a great ruler. He was a treacherous ruler. SLIDE 15 Herod was so afraid of being killed while in office that he would have anyone he thought might be a rival. That included two of his sons and his first wife. The saying of the day was that it was safer to be his sow than it was to be his son. Because pigs were unclean the sow was safe, his sons were not.

Herod was called great because of his buildings. He was responsible for the construction of Masada and Herodium, fortresses south of Jerusalem. He had aqueducts, theatres, and other public buildings built. He had the temple mount greatly enlarged and the temple remodeled. He also introduced numerous architectural innovations and construction techniques. Many of his construction projects are still around today.

The second Herod was Herod Antipas, one of the first Herod’s sons that managed to outlive their father. He is sometimes referred to a king, but Luke uses his correct title which was tetrarch. A tetrarch was the ruler over a fourth of a region. After his father’s death the area had been divided up. His son’s rule was limited to the region of Galilee. When Jesus was arrested, Pilate, not wanting to have to make a decision about what to do with Jesus, sent him to Herod since Jesus was from Galilee.

Herod’s first marriage had been one of convenience. He married her that there might be peace with a neighboring ruler. A few years later he was visiting his brother Philip in Rome. While there he had an affair with his brother’s wife. They arranged for each of them to divorce their current spouses and then they’d get married. When Herod’s first wife learned of his plans she divorced him and went home to her father who later attacked him. It was because of this second marriage to his brother’s wife that John the Baptist denounced him. Herod had him arrested and then at the request of his stepdaughter had him beheaded. This was a wonderful family.

When Herod heard stories about what Jesus and the apostles were doing he was a little puzzled. How could anyone do the miracles he was hearing about? Some suggest that John had risen from the dead and that’s who was doing the miracles. But, John the Baptist had already been killed, or at least Herod had been he was killed. Others suggested that one of the Old Testament prophets had come back from the grave.

It reminds me of the comments the disciples made when Jesus asked who the people thought he was later in Luke 9. SLIDE 16

Luke 9:18-21 18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” 19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” 20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.” 21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.

SLIDE 17 We read the that this is exactly what the people were saying. Even Herod was wondering these same things.

Herod wanted to see Jesus. It wasn’t because he wanted to learn more about Jesus and determine if perhaps Jesus was the Messiah. Herod only wanted to see Jesus for the entertainment. He wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle. Herod would not get a chance to meet him until Jesus was arrested. He asked Jesus to do a miracle, but Jesus wouldn’t say a word to him.

In verse 10, we’re told that the apostles returned to Jesus and told him everything they had done. I wish we had been given that report to. What we can be sure of is they had some great stories to tell as God worked through them to preach and heal. Jesus not only called them to go but equipped them to do it what he had called them to accomplish.

There was a medical doctor who went out to the Far East to be a medical missionary. He and his wife studied and were thoroughly prepared for the ministry they would have when they got there. However, through unforeseen circumstances, he and his wife were moved to Somalia, not to practice medicine but to oversee a refugee camp of eighty-three thousand people. They were totally unprepared and untrained for that, but God was there enabling them. They just need to trust God.

This is a hard lesson to learn, even for preachers. Maybe, it’s especially hard for preachers. I went to Bible College and was taught how to study the Bible and preach. Then I went to seminary to learn some more about studying the Bible and preaching. It would be easy to depend on my own abilities and knowledge but that’s not what you need. You don’t need to hear from me, you need to hear from God. You don’t need what I can give you, which is pretty limited, but what God can give you, which is unlimited. So, I study each week and prepare for each message praying that God will help me understand his word better and that he’ll show me what we need to hear and learn from that passage. Instead of running off on my own, I have to learn to depend on him.

It’s the same lesson we all need to learn. God not only calls us to serve, he also equips us to serve.