Being 938 for the 956: Incarnate Church (Matthew 9:38-10:15)

Praying 938 in the 956

Last week, we began the New Year here at The Table with a challenge: to pray Matthew 9:38 for one week, every morning at 9:38am. How many of you all did that?

We are praying that Jesus give us his heart of compassion for people who are in distress. People who have no hope. People who are confused. When we hear sorrow, when we hear guilt, when we hear shame, when we hear distress, we move with compassion towards those people. And we do it because this is the heart of Jesus.

Matthew 9:36 When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.

It all starts with Jesus and his compassion, not just for the harvest, but for us. His compassion becomes our compassion. We're praying for compassion. We're praying for more of Jesus and his heart in our community. We're praying for Jesus to do His work in His harvest. Through us. We're praying for others to join us.

Let’s Pray that prayer again:

Lord of the harvest, Please send workers into Your harvest. Here in the 956.

Jesus is on mission

In Matthew 9 we find Jesus, like most rabbis of his day, travelling throughout Israel, attracting crowds and preaching and teaching. But he’s doing much more than this:

Here’s what this rabbi is doing in his teaching and preaching:

Matthew 9:35 Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness.

Matthew has already said it once in his biography and he says it again:

Jesus is visiting all the towns and villages Jesus is teaching in the synagogues Jesus is preaching the Good News of the kingdom Jesus is healing every disease and every sickness

But Jesus sees the crowds… he sees they are distressed and dejected. He sees the enormity of the work and he tells his disciples to pray the prayer of Matthew 9:38… that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into the harvest.

Jesus sent workers

The question arises: What does the answer to that prayer look like? That’s our focus today. Matthew actually gives the answer. No sooner than Jesus has given his disciples instructions on prayer the 938 prayer, he’s doing this:

Matthew 10:1 “Summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.”

After telling us the names of the twelve disicples, Matthew goes on to say this:

Matthew 10:5 “Jesus sent out these twelve”

Oh. OK. This task is so huge, the crowds are in such need and there are so many, there’s no way we can do this by ourselves, Pray that the Lord of the Harvest sends workers. This answers two questions…

Who is Lord of the Harvest?

Who is the Lord of the Harvest? Well, who is sending the disciples? Yeah… Jesus. Don’t miss this. Jesus says pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers… and the next thing you know, Jesus is sending workers. “Jesus sent.” The very one who is there with those crowds, teaching, preaching, healing. The one with so much compassion. That’s the One Who has the harvest. It’s His harvest. This is His mission. This is His work. The second question this answers...

Who is the answer to the 938 prayer?

The answer to the 938 prayer are the ones praying the prayer. This is one of those stories that is loaded with irony. The disciples pray the prayer. They find themselves the answer to the prayer. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest sends workers. Jesus sends his disciples as the workers. Have you ever prayed a prayer and found that the answer was right in the room? That’s this.

So much could be said here, but this is where we begin to understand that Jesus’ mission is their mission too. Jesus is only going to be around for a little while. When he see a distressed and oppressed crowd, they are to see a distressed and oppressed crowd. When he has compassion, they are to have compassion. And his answer for their distress, is their answer for distress: being a shepherd who gives them hope and healing. Shepherds who are ready to talk about the Good News and provide healing and rest for their hearers.

Jesus gave instructions

Jesus sends, but he also provides them with a how-to manual:

Matthew 10:5 “Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions:

Jesus doesn’t just send them… there is a sense in which, yes, they are being thrown into the deep end of the pool. However, one of the responsibilities of Jewish rabbis was to train their followers how to do what they do. Jesus does that here. We’re going to run through this list… we’re not going to go in-depth here, but there are principles here that we should take note of for our own mission.

The Gospel is your message

Matthew 10:7 As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

The kingdom of heaven is the story of Jesus. The kingdom of heaven is that God has become one of us in order to die for our sins and give us eternal life. Distressed and dejected people need to hear this and know this. The sign that the kingdom is near in Jesus is also here: they are to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. All the same stuff Jesus is doing, they are to be doing.

Don’t ever forget: The Gospel is a Gift

Then he says this:

Matthew 10:8 Freely you received, freely give.

Jesus is a free gift. Forgiveness is a free give. Distressed people need to know they don’t have to do anything to enjoy all of the benefits of the kingdom. Jesus gives everything to us free. And so it is free for others.

The Gospel is not for sale

And as if to hammer that point home, Jesus says the gospel isn’t for sale

Matthew 10:9 “Don’t acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money-belts.”

Too many see this as a vow of poverty. That’s a bad reading of this. The context is this: don’t take money on this trip because the distressed and oppressed need to understand that there is no obligation with the Gospel. Just hear and believe. The Gospel is not for sale. I was reminded of this in a recent conversation in which someone wondered out loud when God was going to start providing financial benefits because they had given a lot of money to church. That tells me that there are shepherds still telling people that the Gospel is for sale. The Gospel isn’t free. You want material benefits? Send money. Instead of seeing material benefits from God as totally free and in spite of our sin. Material benefits are grace, just like the Gospel is grace. And the moment you start thinking of God as a vending machine, then the gospel itself is all part of God being a big vending machine. You put money in, you get salvation out.

Year ago, the San Francisco philosopher Huey Lewis complained about a fat man selling salvation so that Huey could be part of the chosen few. As long as there has been the gospel of free grace, there have been those trying to sell salvation. Jesus here is saying “Freely you have received, freely give”. It’s all free for the sinner. It’s not free to Jesus. He died to forgive sinners. But that forgiveness is free. And there is freedom in the Gospel. Pray your freedom forward. It was free for you. It’s free for others. No strings attached.

As you go (Mission wherever)

What we should see in these instructions is that Jesus is sending them on his mission. The very thing Jesus sees and feels… that there are many distressed and dejected sheep and the task is too much for any one person is happening in the very next chapter. The disciples are to mimic and duplicate Jesus. They are to be Jesus. Jesus sends and in his sending Jesus says “Go”.

Matthew 10:7 “As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’

This is exactly what Jesus was doing. They are to be doing the same thing. And this little band of twelve disciples is going to grow because they go. In just a few chapters, Jesus is talking about a new idea, the idea of “church”. The gathering of people Jesus died for. Everybody looks at the book of Acts as the beginnings of mission and church and the disciples taking the Good News to the ends of the earth… and it all happens with a big splash at Pentecost. But I think here in Matthew 10, what we are seeing is the infancy of that idea.

Because the movement starts here. It begins with a bunch of ragtag disciples. Jesus doesn’t use the perfect. Jesus doesn’t use those who have their act together. Jesus doesn’t use those who have their lives together. "As you go”. I kept coming back to that verse and that phrase this week. Jesus has a lot of presumption. Would you trust anything to these guys? And just a few chapters later he is talking about church? A worldwide movement.

None of this is because Jesus has confidence in them. Because they aren’t to be trusted. They really don’t get a lot of this, even as they are being sent here. But Jesus has confidence in the Gospel. God’s kingdom has come near because I have come near. I have come as One of you and I have confidence that the Gospel will do its work with sinners and growth this into a movement because this is my mission, this is my harvest. I will accomplish this.

At the center of the mission is “church”

At the center of Jesus’ plans for the Gospel to move from these twelve and from Israel to a large movement and to the world is the church. The church is central to Jesus’ plans. When we talk about church, we’re not just talking about the worldwide body of believers… we’re talking about the local expressions of that worldwide body. In fact, Matthew is the only biography of Jesus in the New Testament to talk about church both ways… both the local body and the worldwide body that includes all Christians everywhere for all time.. including the saints who have gone on before.

Church is the gathering of those Jesus died for

Church is the gather of those Jesus died for. The church is gather by the Gospel, for the gospel. Here in chapter 10, we are given a glimpse of what the church is supposed to be up to. The church does not exist for itself. The church is for the world. And as we see here, the church mimics Jesus mission. The church is sent on mission to be Jesus to the communities. The church is sent “as Jesus” with the Good News of Jesus. The church is the result of the harvest, and then participates in the harvest by spreading the Good News. The church is the answer to the prayer of 938.... the church is the collective of workers going into the harvest… being the answer to the prayer.

The church is being human Jesus for the world. It’s how Jesus is bringing the Good News into people’s lives… with the same healing and hope that Jesus is providing to people who are distressed and dejected. The church is a place where there is always Good News… the Good News that Jesus has come near, that Jesus provides forgiveness and grace FOR US.

Being 938 in the 956

I hope we can see that all this stuff going down in chapter 10 is our own story. The Table is sent. We have the Good News, we have what people desperately need. We aren’t perfect. We’re just a bunch of ragtag followers of Jesus. We’re broken. We’re a mess. And Jesus says, I’m going to use you anyway. “As you go”. That’s an awful big presumption of Jesus, but that’s what gives us hope. We’re not by ourselves. This isn’t up to us. This isn’t our harvest. This is Jesus’ mission and harvest.

The Table is a church. We’re going to talk about that in the next few weeks. We’ve been gathered together by Jesus for Jesus. The Gospel brought us here. Mission here at The Table happens in a couple of ways, both of which are interconnected.

Mission: Word and Sacrament

Mission all begins here. In fact, it’s happening right now as we receive Jesus’ forgiveness and hear His Good News for us all over again. This is the place where Jesus tells us He loves us. This is where Jesus tells us that He is for us, and if He is for us, who can be against us? He gives us our identity here. He gives us community. That happens every week here… or should happen every week here. If it doesn’t, you need a new pastor. Because we must be a place where there is Good News to be heard and tasted.

Mission: Where we live, learn, work and play

But the mission that Jesus starts here, becomes mission out there: where we live, learn, work, and play. This is where we are the human Jesus that connects with others. Wherever we are, doing whatever we’re doing. “As you go”. He’s not waiting for us to have our lives together. In fact, no one does. We’re honest about that. We need Jesus and so do many of the people in our inner circles.

We have a treasure: The Gospel

That brings us to this. I said this last week. We have something our community needs. We have Jesus. We have a treasure. We have the Gospel. It’s not something we keep to ourselves. So here are a couple of questions we should always be asking ourselves. These are the questions that drive me… as I think about all the distressed and dejected people around us who need the Good Shepherd.. who need the Gospel:

Are we convinced that The Table is what people need in their lives? Are we convinced that The Table is THAT important?

If I think this is what I need, do I believe this is what other people need? I know there are right ways and wrong ways to answer this question. We don’t have to presume that we are the only ones who have what people need. We have a lot of brothers and sisters meeting around this morning who also have Jesus. But still, the question remains… are we convinced that the Table is what people need. This is the rhythm of Matthew 9 and 10… what is good for the disciples is good for the world. We all have the exact same need: Jesus. And it’s here in the Good News.

If we struggle to answer this question… here are a couple of other helpful questions:

How has The Table impacted you? Do you want that same impact for people you know, i.e. family & friends?

We’re going to come back to these questions in a couple of weeks. If you or I struggle in answering whether or not The Table is what people need, we can ask it this way: How has the Table impacted you? In what ways? And do you want that same impact for people you know… in your circle of influence. Jesus is using us to connect people to himself. As you go. Jesus presumes we are going, as messed up as we are… we are his hands and feet with the Good News that He loves, He forgives, He gives us life.

Let’s Pray

The Table

This is where Jesus meets us with Good News. This is where Jesus gives us identity. This is where Jesus tells us he loves us. He gives us of Himself… in his body and in his blood. This is where sinners come to be new all over again.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26 May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.