The Disciple's Mission

Why is Christ in You?

If you have your Bibles with you this morning, let’s turn to Galatians 1:15-16. Over the last two weeks, we’ve seen the truth of what it means to be in Christ and Christ to be in us. I pray you’ve been able to experience the mammoth effects of this truth in your lives over the last few weeks.

The question I want to ask this morning is, “Why has God put Christ in us?” And what you see in your notes is the circle we started looking at week before last. And you see Christ in the middle is a picture of Christ in you. And how Christ infiltrates everything about who we are.

Over the next few weeks we’re going to unpack this. But this morning I want us to look at this outer circle, the picture of mission. And I want us to ask the question, “Why does Christ affect our mind and our emotions, our body and our will and our relationships?” He does that for a reason. He wants all of who you are. He wants every facet of you to display His glory to all the world. He has a purpose for being in you. Listen to what Paul says in Galatians...

Galatians 1:15–16 NKJV

15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,

Did you catch that? Paul said God put Christ in him for a purpose…so that He could proclaim Christ to the nations. This is one of the reasons why Christ is in us.

Christ is in you for them

For everyone who does not know Jesus. Jesus left this earth over 2,000 years ago. For the first time God has not been with His people or near His people. Jesus took care of that by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in the believer. And we learned last time together that Christ is in us. We are the vessels through which the world will see Christ.

I want us to go to Matthew 9 and look at an amazing passage of Scripture. It’s a heart-rending passage that gives us a glimpse into Jesus’ heart that is life transforming. We’ll start in v. 35. As you’re turning there, I want you to know the context because the context is so important.

Matthew 3, Jesus is baptized. Matthew 4, He is tempted. Basically end of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5, He begins His ministry. And His ministry revolves around teaching and preaching and healing people. That is what verse 35 actually tells us. He went throughout all these places, preaching and teaching and healing people of every disease. That is what we have seen up unto this point in Matthew. Matthew 5–7 He is teaching—the Sermon on the Mount. Then in Matthew 8 and 9 you see Him preaching the good news and healing people, just kind of back and forth.

This is a summary of what Jesus has been doing. Then in chapter 10 He sends out His disciples to do the same thing. This is why He needed to go to heaven to send His Spirit to live in us, for Christ to be in us, so that we would do exactly what He did.

And so when we reach this text, I want you to realize that the picture you’re going to see here is the same Christ who dwells inside of you if you have trusted Christ. Keep that in mind as you listen to what it says.

Matthew 9:35–10:4 NKJV

35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” 1 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. 2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

So when Christ is in us, how does that affect the way we view the world around us?

Your life is now consumed by the love of Christ for them

It’s as if the Holy Spirit is opening up the heart of Christ just to give us a picture here

Matthew 9:36 NKJV

36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

And this is such a rich word. What is really interesting about this word, is throughout the New Testament it is used nine different times, but what is interesting is every single time that it is used, it is used to talk about the compassion of Christ. It is never used, not once, it is not used to describe the compassion of anybody else but Christ.

So this word is unique to Christ in the New Testament. It is a compassion that He had. And there is a picture here for us. The compassion of Christ is not something that comes naturally to any one of us. This is not something that we automatically have. The compassion of Christ is something that He puts in us that flows from us. It only can come from Him as the source. So I want you to see how His compassion plays out. How does His compassion affect us? How does it consume us?

In Christ, we see the size of the multitudes

When He saw the crowd… God help us to see the size of the multitudes without Christ.

Hudson Taylor, missionary from England to China, said this. “How can all the Christians in England sit still with folded arms while these multitudes are perishing, perishing for lack of knowledge, for lack of that knowledge which England possesses so richly?” God help us to see their size, to see the masses who haven’t even heard His name.

In Christ, we feel the suffering of the multitudes

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them. Why?

Matthew 9:36 NKJV

36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

And the picture here is rich. Why did He have compassion? Because they were harassed and helpless. And it literally says, “He was moved with compassion.” This is more than just an intellectual or a mental compassion, knowing something was wrong. It is an emotional, literally, a physical feeling of compassion.

King James says, “Fainted and scattered abroad.” Basically this word “weary”, literally means, “to be distressed” or “troubled”, literally, “to be torn apart”. And the picture of scattered is literally, “to be thrown down”, to be “utterly weak”; “without anything”. That is how Jesus perceived the crowds.

In Christ, we realize the separation of the multitudes

They are described as sheep without a shepherd. Sheep wandering around with no one to lead them, no shepherd to lead them. When speaking about their country, one person said, “These people that you see, they have not rejected Christ, they have never even met Him.” Sheep without a shepherd.

And it is at this point that Jesus transitions into a picture of the harvest. If you look throughout the Bible where it talks about the harvest, it overwhelmingly connects it with God’s judgment of sin, Isaiah 17:10-11, Matt. 13:30, Rev. 14:14-20. The time when God would separate the wheat from the chaff. That is the picture that we have got in the Bible of the harvest.

And so when Jesus uses this imagery for these Jewish Christians who are reading this to know … This is the picture. Why did Jesus have such compassion for those who are lost? Why was He urging them to get into the harvest field? He is urging them because God’s judgment is sure. God judgment on sin is eternal. His judgment on sin is everlasting and if you don’t get to the harvest now, then you will lose the harvest forever. If you don’t take the gospel to these people today then many of them will experience God’s judgment forever. That is why He had compassion. He saw their sighs and He felt their suffering and He realized their separation.

And as a result, we can no longer live for ourselves

Not with that picture of need and the heart of Christ in us. There is no way to live Christianity for self-consumption anymore and it is Christianity for them, Christ in you for them. We are consumed by the love of Christ for them.

Your life is now committed to the body of Christ for them

And I want you to see what happens. This is so interesting. The passage is focused on Christ’s love for those who are lost, those who are apart from Him. But then when He begins to talk to His disciples, He doesn’t talk about those who don’t know Christ. He talks about the church. He said to His disciples,

Matthew 9:37–38 NKJV

37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Isn’t that interesting? You would expect Him at this point to say, “They are harassed and helpless they are without the Father and so pray for them. Pray that they would come to know the Father. Pray for them.” That is not what Jesus says. Jesus does not say to pray for the lost. I am not saying that it is bad to pray for those who don’t know Christ. I think there are other parts of the New Testament that do give us that picture, but not here. Jesus is not saying to pray for those who don’t know Christ. He is not saying to pray for the lost. He is saying to pray for the church.

Jesus’ concern is not that the lost will not come to the Father, His concern is that the church will not go to the lost

Wow, what a picture. How can we penetrate the world with the Gospel?

We must pray for laborers

Pray for harvesters.

Again He is not saying pray for the lost. He is saying pray for the church. Pray that the Lord of the harvest would wake up the harvesters. In church buildings across this land, pray that God would wake up harvesters to see that there are things in the world that are infinitely more important than 401k’s and football—God help us.

We must pray for laborers and we must lead by example.

We must lead by example

God has given us so much. He has given us so many resources, so much opportunity, so much influence and we will be held accountable before the God of the universe for how we use those resources to expand His kingdom around the world. We need to lead by example.

That leads us to the last picture.

Your life is now commissioned in the work of Christ for them

Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers. That phrase ‘send out’ is the same phrase that is used when Jesus cast out demons in other parts of the New Testament. Cast out literally means to “fling out”. I love that. Ask God to start flinging His church all over the world. Just fling the church. We are a church flung. I don’t know if that is a word, but that is what we are praying God would do. Fling the church out.

Matthew 10:1 NKJV

1 And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.

He sent them out. He sent them out with a commission.

We have the authority of the King

When He sent them, He also gave them authority. Authority of demons, sickness, etc.

Right before the Great Commission He says,

Matthew 28:18 NKJV

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

So Jesus has given us the authority to go out and spread the Gospel. And in closing...

We live and die to multiply the Kingdom

This is the picture we have in verse 2. He lists their names.

Matthew 10:2 NKJV

2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

We also see a picture in the gospels of dividing to multiply. Jesus sent out his disciples 2 by 2. Jesus knew that if they were going to expand this message of the Kingdom, they couldn’t all stay together in one group, they had to multiply.

We don’t win the world in here. We win the world out there. Are we going to be a harvester?