God Sends Us to Give Us

I grew up on a cul-de-sac and running parallel to the street was a sting of electric transformers powering our small town. One afternoon I was sitting with some friends on that street, about 4 or 5 houses from mine. The sky was cloudy but didn’t seem threatening. But out of what seemed like the middle of nowhere lightning struck the nearest electric transformer. And it was so close thunder boomed simultaneously. It was so bright and so loud it knocked me back. And it was so bright and so loud I stood up and ran as fast as I could home. To this day there are rumors that no 10 year old has ever ran faster.

That instant flash and crash sent me running. In the same way we are going to meet 72 disciples who hear the crash and the flash of Christ’s command to go. He sends them with authority and sends them with a message, and like me on that porch 30 some odd years ago, they take off.

Christ’s command and work are the lightning and thunder that keeps sending generations of people into the world

Jesus has sent His people, He is sending people. By the Command of the Son, through the Will of the Father, by the power of the Spirit He is sending people into the world. We are called to be in the world expressing God’s Kingdom and peace in word and deed.

With the same flash and crash of God’s words into our lives we are called to go. Our job in this generation is make sure a new age can hear and respond to life in God through Christ.

Luke 10:1–2 ESV

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

The 72 are sent ahead of where Jesus where “he himself was a bout to go.” This sending is not about a lack of something, it is not about not having enough, it is not about gaining territory, it is rather about meeting the Lord of the harvest in the places He already is. His work, His fields, His harvest. The issue is not whether there is enough. If there is something missing, ask the One who owns the harvest. If there is not enough, look to the Lord Himself. And He will send out others into His harvest.

That the story of the Gospel is good enough, the promise of God in Christ is reliable enough, the hope through the Spirit is renewable enough for this group of 72 to go and it is still powerful enough that there are still people travelling all over the world to share that a King with a Kingdom has changed everything and that unmerited and unshakeable peace has come to homes and families.

Have you heard the flash and the crash of God’s words in your life? Has His goodness in your life, His claim of you as His own sent you running to invite others into that same peace? God has sent and is sending us. He is sending us to our neighbors, the unrelenting reminder to love our neighbor as ourselves. And the call to go to cultivate relationships that bear the weight of Gospel peace. The peace that Christ gives, wholeness, eternal life, contentment in Him, we give to others. But Jesus sends us in a particular way.

Own calling?

Jesus reveals two ways that He sends His people. In our passage this morning we see resources and sources. The resources what we go with, the source is what sends us. We are all sent with the same source and His resources. We are called to tell others that Christ’s Kingdom is present and His peace is real.

The Source: Every Event begins with Christ

If Christ is reconciling the whole world back to Himself and inviting all of creation into it, you are a part of that. You are invited in. God in Christ has made great claims on the world, and those claims are equal in your own soul. We go to tell others but celebrate that it is true in our own lives as well.

The work of witness in the world, of being sent, happens miraculously to us first then through us. What we share is not news about a strange world but is the story about a God who has come close. We need to begin at the end of our passage. Luke reminds us that while going is necessary, being found is foundational.

The 72 leave the Lord of the Harvest and do what He tells them to. They come back rejoicing:

Luke 10:17–20 ESV

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

We need to plant the end in the beginning. That going in Christ means that Christ has already come. Jesus has acted on our behalf and that has changed the entire trajectory of human events. It has changed my life and has changed yours. The fact that Jesus has come into the world and has come into our lives, gluing back together what our sin has torn apart changes things. In fact it changes everything.

Jesus tells us “rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” The issue is not about power or prestige of going, or of asserting, or of influencing, but that we are known. That we are identified. The miracle is not about going to change the world the miracle is that the world in us has been changed, known, and accounted for. If you are in Christ then you are known and held. If you live in a world where Christ has come to the earth, lived a perfect life and went to the cross, only to be raised on the third day, then you are one who Christ has called and invited to be known. Trusting His work and word writes your name in heaven.

The world of ourselves (what Maximus the Confessor calls a “second cosmos”) is changed entirely, repositioned with Christ at the center. When that happens we work to see the world set back in order.

The Resources: We are sent with Nothing and Given Everything

Jesus own words are the sending force of this passage. Go with nothing other than the very anunciation of God on your life. We don’t need much, just the crash and flash of Christ’s words.

Jesus’ recruitment methods are nearly laughable. Actually they are quite laughable. Let’s take a look at how Jesus recruits and sends people to carry out His work in the world:

Luke 10:3–4 ESV

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.

Jesus is issuing forth a command with the full presence and power of heaven. He is assured of His work. He is assured of the plans of His Father. It is such an assurance that to us it looks absurd.

Go with nothing in your hands

This might be such a strange way to recruit that it is ludicrous but it actually begins to represent some helpful news for us this morning. Participating with Christ does not take the right course in life or the right tools or the right experience or the right resources. Jesus sending out the 72 shows that doing what He is calling us to do is not limited to just the 12 disciples. Ministry is not intended for the professionals or the experienced. It is for anyone who holds out hope in what Christ is doing and is courageous enough to realize that the peace He gives is for more than just “me” or “us.”

Jesus tells us to go without a backpack but with the blessing of the One who owns the harvest. We may have nothing but are given everything. You might think this morning that you don’t have anything to give. That you barely have the shoes on your feet. But that is a resource issue. Christ doesn’t send based on resource, He sends based on the working of His will. And in Christ you are a part of that will. He is inviting you to participate with Him.

Go like lambs among wolves.

This almost feels offensive. We are told to go like lambs who have very little strength, into the places where there are wolves, who have all the strength. We may kind of squirm a little at how embarrassing this is. We prize strength in our culture, we give accolades to whoever is strongest, smartest, fastest. We give awards to wolves, not lambs.

Lambs do not have the best strategy. They are never the strongest or smartest. Lambs are contingent, meaning they cannot exist on their own. To be a lamb is to confess that someone else will care for you. They do one thing really well, they learn to follow the shepherd.

Lambs are often a symbol for God’s people. Jesus calls His church lambs (John 21:15-17, Matthew 10:16, Luke 12:32, Matthew 18:12-14, Matthew 9:36) but He also calls Himself a shepherd (John 10:1-16, 27, Matthew 9:36, Psalm 23). So we are called to be lambs, to go as lambs, meaning we go contingent, we are connected to a Shepherd who will guide us and lead us and care for us.

So we can be lambs in the middle of wolves because we have a shepherd who cares for us. Lambs who go out into the world, who are unafraid of the wolves, who aren’t worried or anxious about what a wolf will say or do. Jesus is sending these 72 to go into towns and proclaim there is an entirely new kingdom, that peace with God is not only possible, that it has arrived. There is nothing that holds back the church in this regard because we are sheep led by a capable shepherd.

Cultivate Trusting Relationships

Luke 10:5–12 ESV

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. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

The 72 are instructed to go into towns and into homes and declare that God’s peace is with them. They are called to bless the homes they enter. And Jesus tells them, if someone is there to receive that peace, then stay and receive their hospitality. And that if someone does not receive the peace that is offered them they are to wipe off the dust from their feet. Jesus is clear that, regardless of how people respond, whether welcoming or rejecting peace, the kingdom of God has come near.

Just like sheep aren’t worried about the conditions and whether or not there will be enough, they are just aware of the shepherds, so the 72 can go from town to town looking for people of peace. Those paying attention to the harvest are speaking peace and inviting people to recognize the Kingdom of God. That means workplaces are places of plenty. You speak peace and some people respond, others don’t. Schools are places of plenty. Your neighbors are places of plenty. I assure you there is peace to be proclaimed in schools and in neighborhoods and at work. And as you do cultivate relationships that express God’s love for the world.

We are called to go, to live in and talk about God’s goodness in our lives. To go and make disciples, people who have also heard the peace of God and His reconciling work in Christ. Some people do this in the the towns and cities where they live. We, as a local church practice this. We have responded to the crash and the flash of God’s Word.

There are homes you may be in this week where God’s peace can be known. When you think of who needs God’s peace in your life, who comes to mind. Take a moment to pray for them. Take a moment to reach out to them this week.

We talk about who God is in Attleboro and in our lives and families. You are a part of this, part of the story redeemed by God, part of the work of sharing God’s work in the world. We do this as we go about our lives in this area.

This kind of life means prioritizing relationships with others over anything else. The way we engage with others in relationship in the Mission of God is expressed in our passage this morning. Christ is pulling all of creation back to Him and we, as the church, get to show and remind and proclaim that reality. That we are invited into the whole picture and will of God in Christ.

But some of us are called to go and find Christ and proclaim His peace in other places. If we take God at His word then we have to trust that people are being raised up. Maybe you are here this morning trying to figure out your life but there is something compelling about God and His work. There is something pulling at you to go. Pay attention to that. Maybe you are midway through but God is calling you into a career change. Maybe you are 6 years old and God has gotten a hold of you, has made a claim on your life. Parents this is where we fan into flame the gift of God in our kids.

We want to be a church that asks the Lord of the Harvest to send people and that sees the Lord of the Harvest do so. For generations we have sent people all over Attleboro, New England, and the world. People who grew up in this church are serving in places like Baltimore and Senegal. We have commissioned people from this stage to serve in New Hampshire, Vermont, and elsewhere.

In about 2 years we will do the same to Sage and Benjamin Vincent. I asked Sage to come up and share her story about how God called her into ministry and missions, to go into the harvest proclaiming the peace of God in each place she goes.

Invite Sage up: