The Christian Duty of Hard Work, Discipline, and Courage

Introduction

Opening: We are continuing our sermon series verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke. And today we come across another one of those highly practical passages in Luke, where Christ simply lays out clear and simple instructions for his disciples. In this passage Christ is looking forward to the days ahead, after his death and resurrection, and in somewhat strange language, he lays out a vision of how the disciples are going to go about continuing the work of Christ after he leaves.

Context: This passage has a few exegetical challenges to it, where we’ll have to use our study skills to figure out what exactly Christ intended to say. But I believe as we sort through those challenges, that what we’ll find is that Christ’s word not only feed our soul, but provide us with overwhelming clarity of the mission at hand for us today.

Doctrine: God ordinarily works through the means of prayer-saturated hard work, planning, discipline, and courage.

Luke 22:35–38 “And he said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one. For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.””

Explicatio

When I Sent You Out (35): Jesus begins by looking backwards. He reminds them when early in Christ’s ministry how he had sent them out in groups of two. This event happened way back in chapter 10. If you recall that event, Jesus sent seventy-two of his disciples out in groups of twos to all the surrounding towns and places where Jesus himself was about to go. They were in a sense preparing the hearts of the people whom Jesus would eventually preach to. And his instructions back then were clear. He said,

Luke 10:3–6 “Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.”

Lambs in the Midst of Wolves: First, notice that even back then Jesus warned them of the perilous work in which they were to engage. They were being sent as lamb among wolves. These disciples, from early in Jesus’ ministry were instructed that to follow Christ, and to obey Christ, was to guarantee some kind of suffering. As they went forward, the message that they brought would cause many to treat them shamefully.

Peace or Judgment: And he instructs them that as they enter some towns they will be greeted well by some. Some will welcome them into their house and feed them and show them all kinds of interest in the message they proclaim. When they are treated that way, the disciples were to pronounce a blessing over the house. He warns though that they will come to other towns where they will not be received. Jesus tells them to shake off the dust from that town that clings to their feet, and to know that judgment will come.

No Moneybag or Knapsack: Secondly however, there is a funny little instruction that connects this earlier instruction of Christs, to our current passage. He says they are not to take with them a moneybag, or a knapsack, or sandals with them on the road. This was a peculiar instruction. But it made sense for that moment. Those disciples had a short term assignment. It would last a few weeks at most. And in everything they did they were to trust that God would provide for them, and that one of the ways he would provide for them was through the folks whom they were going to minister. As they went to towns they would be given food, clothing if needed, and perhaps even money to continue on their journey.

Did You Lack Anything?: Back to our passage in Luke 22 today. Jesus reminds them that in that time they went out, they never lacked anything. The message is clear, God is their provider. There is no part of the mission that God calls them to, that he will not totally provide everything they need in order to accomplish the mission.

But Now: Now Jesus looks to them, knowing that he is about to depart, and he gives new instructions. Verse 36 begins “But now…” In other words, the way I provided for you in that previous mission was to demonstrate for you that God will always provide your needs. “But” says Jesus, the days coming ahead are such that you will not go out in the same way. “Last time you didn’t take moneybag or a knapsack. This time…”

Luke 22:36 “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.”

Jesus now looks to the days ahead, and he says the mission ahead is slightly different than the mission behind. In the days behind the normative way you went about proclaiming my kingdom was through supernatural means alone. But in the days ahead, the normative principle of how you will go about proclaiming and living my kingdom, will be hard work, planning, and discipline. That is not to say that God is any less a part of the latter provision than he was in the former. It is simply to say, it will look different. You’ll need to plan with money “a moneybag”, and take food with you when you go “a knapsack.”

Illustration: The Wilderness Years: Perhaps the greatest parallel for us to understand this is Israelites transition from the wilderness years into the promised. While they were in the wilderness, God provided food for them miraculously, manna from heaven, water from a rock. He continued to do that for forty years. And then when the cross the Jordan River and entered Israel, the manna from heaven stopped. It’s not that God stopped providing for them. It’s just that the means by which God provided for them would transition from a miraculous provision of food to a more practical provision of food. In much the same way, Christ has told his disciples, his provision for what they need to accomplish the work he is giving them will normatively be through hard work, planning, and discipline.

The Sword: Now, there is one funny aspect to Jesus’ instruction here, and it has to do with his instruction to buy a sword. Why did Jesus tell them to buy a sword? There are two ways to interpret this and I believe one of them is a better interpretation than the other.

Literally: The first way is “literally.” Jesus could have been telling them to buy a sword, not for offensive purpose, to go out and kill in his name, but for protective purposes. I’m sending you out into a very dangerous mission field. There will be times when you will be attacked, and you need to be ready to defend yourself and your loved ones from evil-doers. While I do believe in self-defense, I am not a absolute pacifist, I believe a father must protect his children against those mean harm, using physical force if needed. I don’t think that is what Jesus means here, for two reasons.

Peter Uses the Sword: The first reason is that in just a few verses, Peter uses a physical sword in exactly this way, and Jesus tells him to stop.

Luke 22:49–51 “And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.”

Enough of This: But the second reason for the very last verse in our passage today. The disciples come to Jesus after hearing that they need to buy swords, with two swords in their hands.

Luke 22:38 “And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.””

That phrase “It is enough.” Is another tricky translation. It could mean that Jesus is affirming them and saying “Those two swords will be sufficient for what I just meant.” But other translations put an exclamation point after the phrase “It is enough.” And the reason they do that is because they believe that Jesus is not affirming their holding two swords, but rather he is ending the conversation abruptly when he sees how ridiculously literal they took his comment about the sword. So Jesus is not saying “Two swords is sufficient.” Instead he’s saying “Really Peter? This conversation is over.” I tend to agree with that translation.

Figuratively: So if it is not literaly, what is Jesus saying about buying a sword? I think he is speaking figuratively, which would have been a common way of using the term “sword” in that day. Essentially, with this interpretation, Jesus is saying that the days ahead are going to be rough. Be prepared to defend your life against those mean you harm. Not, “go out and conquer,” but rather “the path ahead of you is full of trouble. Arm yourself with courage. The same courage that you would need were you to enter into sword battle. That needs to be your mindset for what is coming.

Quote from Isaiah: It is very interesting that in the very next verse he quotes from Isaiah 53, the greatest chapter in the Old Testament.

Luke 22:37 “For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.””

Isaiah 53 is that chapter in the Old Testament that speaks of the suffering servant messiah, who give his life for sinners, who would be despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, and aquainted with grief. Who would carry our sorrows. Isaiah 53 says that this suffering servant would be “pierced for our transgression” and “crushed for our iniquities.” Isaiah 53 is that great clarity in the Old Testament that explains that the Savior, when he came, would accomplish a wonderful work on the cross. On the cross, Christ would suffer the punishment we deserved, in order that we might get the blessing he deserved. This is the Gospel, that our sin has earned the justice of God, but if our faith is in Christ alone, God the Father counts his death as our punishment paid, and infinite love of the Father is poured out into our life.

Why?: Why quote from Isaiah 53 here? Jesus looks to what is about to happen to him. He is about to be mercilessly slaughtered by his enemies. And he’s looking to his disciples and he’s saying “If they do this to me, what do you think they’re going to do to you, when you go out in my name after this?” And so this passage is a great breath of courage in the disciple’s heart. The days ahead will be harder than you can imagine. It is going to take hard work, planning, discipline, and courage, but as you exert your energy in that way, you will find that God is the one providing for you miraculously every step of the way, no less than when he giving you manna in the wilderness.

Applicatio

I have shown you this text, no I want to move to apply this text in your life. At the center of the Christian faith is a relationship with the living God, who loved and gave his life for you. At his right hand are infinite pleasures. God is glorious beyond words, and in Christ we live lives of participation in that glory and in that love. It is the love of Christ on the cross that flows through our veins, that mobilizes us for life. And if you really think about it, this Christian life is an extraordinary thing isn’t it. Each and every day, when we wake up we breathe in a new day filled with new conversations, new decisions, new prayers, new responsibilities, new relationships. All stewarded to you by God. All entrusted to you by God.

What Jesus is communicating to his disciples here, is that in this age, God ordinarily works through the means of prayer-saturated hard work, planning, discipline, and courage. Christ knew that he was commissioning them for the work building the Kingdom. And there is to be an intentional, Christ exalting, attitude of the Christian to see Christ formed in their own life, Christ formed in their family’s life, and Christ formed in the life of their community.

So let me give us three implications and applications from this idea.

1 WE MUST USE OUR LIMITED TIME TO THE GLORY OF GOD

Time is a precious thing. Time is so short, and the commissioning that we have from God is so great, that frankly we have no time to spare. We have to prepare for eternity with Christ. We have to prepare our kids for eternity with Christ. We have to labor in God’s kingdom. All of these things and so much more take great time and effort and diligence and hard work. In each of them we experience set backs, that need to be overcome.

No Time For Sloth: Therefore Christian, there is not time for sloth or laziness. The book of Proverbs which gives us wisdom for life is full of this kind of counsel

Proverbs 12:11 “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.”

But there is a war for our attention today. There is a war for our time. With all the great and wonderful works that Christians are called to, how many minutes are spent slipping away on our phones. We don’t realize it but this is a spiritual battle, for your time, to distract you from that which will truly form you. Doom scrolling is what they call it, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes… So much time doing what? Filling our minds with that which builds up, and equips, and strenghens, and celebrates the glory of God? Or filling our minds with a cesspool of garbage. This is forming us whether we like it or not.

Repent: We are Christians. We must repent of this absolute sloth in the use of our time. And we must plead with the Lord to make us diligent faithful Christians who really live as if our commissioning were from the Lord himself. And plead with God to help you slow down, walk in the ancient paths that truly form our souls. Let me show you just two here.

Personal Godliness Takes Great Time & Effort: Godliness takes great time and effort. You don’t wake up one day after spending the last ten years two hours a day scrolling through social media, and suddenly find yourself mature and godly and wise. And you are called to godliness, to honor Christ in your hunger for the Word, and your hunger for the Spirit, and your hunger for obedience to His law, and your hunger for exalting Christ at your work and in your home.

Hebrews 12:1 “… let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,”

There is not a moment to lose!

God Glorifying Marriages Take Time & Effort: Another example is that God glorifying marriages take great time and effort. If a husband comes home from work and crashes on a couch and turns on the television, he will not have a marriage that flourishes, a wife that is abounding godliness and support. We must be intentional in our marriages. We must seek our wife’s heart. We must listen with godly ears, and open the scriptures to see what we ought to do, together. This takes great time.

There is not a moment to lose!

God Glorifying vocations, God glorifying hobbies, God glorifying reading, God glorifying friendship, God glorifying children, God glorifying churches, God glorifying trials, God glorifying worship. This all takes time. And there’s no time to lose

2 WE MUST FOSTER A HOLY COURAGE AMONG OURSELVES

Second application, we must foster a holy courage among ourselves. When Jesus told his disciples to bring two swords with them, he was speaking about arming themselves with courage, the kind of courage a warrior has when they go into the battlefield.

Worldly Vs. Godly Courage: In order to understand what I am saying we must separate between worldly courage and holy courage. Many men and women have a worldly courage. But Godly courage is unique to the Christian. It is rooted in the Word of God, grounded in faith, it is aimed at the supremacy of Christ, and it is mobilized by the Holy Spirit that keeps you in relation with God. Godly courage draws strength from the promises of God regularly. It soaks the firm and unwavering hope that God's Word will prevail. And when everyone else bows to cultural pressure, godly courage stands strong, rooted and anchored in Christ.

Three Seasons When Needed Most: The great writer Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a powerful book titled The Excellence of Holy Courage in Evil Times of which we would all do well to read. I might call out three particular seasons when godly courage is most needed.

Seasons of Moral Decline: The first, is when culture around you is experiencing a season of moral decline. When the attitudes and the posture of the average person you come across has less and less consideration of God’s law. When the activities that are considered an abomination in the eyes of God are lauded as celebratory, and even a public good. It is in these times, when Christians must work all the more diligently to unashamedely and boldly bear witness to the goodness of God’s law by living it, believing it, stating it. We cannot bend.

Seasons of National Confusion: The second, is in seasons of national confusion. In the long arc of history nations rise and nations fall. There are times in the stories of the various nations and kingdoms of this world, where a cultural division takes place in such a way that what once was a common unified culture seems to be tearing at the seams, as if there were two or three or four different nations all competing for control of the one. During these seasons, there is utter confusion, as ideologies swirl, as various voices compete to be the loudest. Anger amid the people grows bitterness and contempt. And in the midst of all of that God has sovereignly placed his people to be a light to the nations. As the secularism ground shifts and sinks beneath their feet, the Christian remains standing on the same solid ground they began, unswirving, immovable.

Seasons of Christian Persecution: The third is in times of Christian persecution. Around the globe our Christian brothers and sisters suffer greatly for their Christian faith. They are pressured with fear for their life, for their safety, for their well being, for their jobs, for their money. And there are certainly degrees of this that we encounter even in America, as Christians who really believe the Bible, and who really believe that Christ’s law is to be obeyed, face slander and silencing. It is right in the midst of that, that Christian courage has its greatest impact.

Wrap Up: Many Christians have been saved from the spirit of the antiChrist, and yet they still carry with them an antiChristian spirit, a spirit that is in many ways ashamed of Christ and ashamed of His Gospel. May the Lord foster among a holy courage to stand boldly for Christ.

3 WE MUST NOT CONFUSE PLANNING AND HARD WORK FOR A LACK OF FAITH

Third, and finally. We must not confuse planning and hard work and leadership for a lack of faith. Jesus instructs them to bring a moneybag, a knapsack, and two swords. In other words, “Prepare for the work ahead. It’s going to be difficult. Don’t walk out without any money in your pocket. Make sure you can support yourself and the work you set out to do.”

Miraculous Provision: I have been around many different church contexts. I of course have many stories of God’s provision both in my own life and in the lives of many of the saints I have met and read about. The God we serve provides all that we will ever need to accomplish his purposes. I have read of stories of George Mueller fed 10,000 orphans for years on end with nothing but prayer. And I believe that God is able to do far more than that. We serve a miraculous God.

Some Believe: But one challenge I have found, is that some folks, out of a misplaced sense of faith, believe that planning and due dilligence are somehow faithless. I’ve seen this in a few ways.

Sermons: I’ve heard preachers say they don’t plan their sermons. They take it by faith that God will provide for them in the moment. And in general, those are very bad sermons. They lack depth of insight. Rather, I believe that God is working faithfully through the hard work of preparation and study and thought. He is providentially underneath and in and through all of those moments.

Businessmen: Likewise, I know of Christian businessmen whose businesses were struggling for one reason or another. And they said “No, God will provide.” And they refused to change anything they were doing. They were faithful in praying, that was good. But their expectation was that God would cause a miraculous deal to just blow in on the wind. And their businesses suffered. Because, the normative way that God’s providence works, is that as we saturate our labor in prayer, and believe by faith that God is at work through our hands, we then go out and plan, and execute, and work dilligently. Thomas Watson says it this way

“We must not cast away the means under pretence of living by faith. Faith and means must go together. Though Joshua believed the walls of Jericho would fall, yet he must march around them. Though Hezekiah trusted in God, yet he made a remedy of figs for his disease. Trust in God is a duty, but so also is the use of lawful means. To neglect the one is to tempt God, not trust Him.”

Wrap Up: What are you laboring towards right now? What area of the Kingdom has God assigned you to build?

If you are a Small Group Leader, how are you fervently praying, and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead you in forming godliness and a hunger for biblical community in your Small Group?

If you are a deacon, how are you fervently praying, and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you in caring for those whom God has placed under your care?

If you serve with our children’s ministry, or with our hospitality ministry, how are you fervently praying, pleading with God, and then diligently planning and executing so as to accomplish excellence in the work God has assigned you.

If you are a Mom or a Dad, its primarily your children’s live and character. How are you fervently praying and planning diligently to raise your children to know and love God.

If you are college student, here on a summer mission, how you are you fervently praying, seeking the Lord’s face, and diligently working in order to fulfill the work assigned to you?

Closing

Church, if we truly claim to have been saved by Christ, to have had our sins forgiven, to be adopted into his family, empowered by the Holy Spirit, called to an eternity with Christ, let us demonstrate it by lives that make the most of our short time, by lives that foster holy courage among us, and by lives that plan and work dilligently in the Kingdom.