You Missed It By A Mile

OPEN WITH VIDEO, “A SERVANT’S HEART”

Read , ,

1 Corinthians 4:6–7 NLT

Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

1 Corinthians 3:5–11 NLT

After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:5–11 NLT

After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building. Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 4:6–7 NLT

Dear brothers and sisters, I have used Apollos and myself to illustrate what I’ve been saying. If you pay attention to what I have quoted from the Scriptures, you won’t be proud of one of your leaders at the expense of another. For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

I listened to another pastor yesterday, and of how he talked about Jesus and His mind always being upon and thinking of people, that is, He was always thinking of others and not Himself!

Probably one of the greatest examples of this very thing, is at a point and time in the life of Jesus, when He is at the pinnacle of suffering and pain and shame; that is, when He was hanging upon the Cross of Calvary.

You have to try and think and capture the full extent of what that day would have done to a person’s mind: If you were completely innocent of all guilt and crime and yet you were handed over to a group of the most lascivious and cruel men that existed (men who prided themselves and were especially placed at their positions, by the Roman guard, because of their lust for pain and humiliation)!

If you were unclothed before men and women and then whipped and scourged and taunted and spat upon and smacked and your family was made fun of and you were paraded around in front of thousands upon thousands of people in mockery.

And if you were marched up a hill and stripped down, possibly totally naked, or at the very least, with a small loin cloth (because of Jewish customs) and then you were nailed onto a wooden structure and then stood up in front of the jeering crowds and left hanging there............

Where would your mind be? What would you or I be thinking about and yelling out?

My point here and leading back to what the preacher said yesterday, is that Jesus’ mind was still upon the good of the people and saving them; NOT LASHING OUT AND DEMANDING JUSTICE!

Two of the things that let us know that this is where His mind was at that exact time, were the statements that He made with regard to His mother Mary, when He called out to John, His disciple and told him to look after His mother and make sure that she was taken care of.

And then, probably the most famous statement that He yelled out, in the midst of His torment and agony, was when He cried out, “Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing!”

You see, Jesus always had the good of the people and their betterment on His mind, versus His own self and making Himself look better or feel better before others!

tells us,

Philippians 2:5–8 NLT

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

It is because of this, that Paul goes on to tell us that we are to, “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”

In other words, Make sure that everything we do, is done for His glory and His honor.

It is never to glorify or honor us, or make us better in the eyes of others! AMEN?!

So, this morning, I wanted to read a particular set of verses, that deal with a particular time frame in the lives of the disciples.

In doing so, my hope and my goal is point out what I believe God wants to stress to us in our walk with Him.

I really struggled with this all day yesterday. And, in fact, I tried to find a different topic and a different set of verses to read and discuss with you this morning!

And it was like some funny movie scene, every single time I would turn to another passage and start trying to move in another direction; I would involuntarily turn back to this section!

(Mimic your hand being made to turn back as you protest and fight doing it!)

We are going to read this morning from the gospel of Luke, in chapters 9 and 10 and we are going to look specifically around the time frame of when Jesus commissioned and sent out the two sets of His followers.

And in looking at these two instances, what I feel the Lord was pointing out to me, is the way in which both groups got caught up in a sense of pride of self and in their own abilities and their own wants and desires.

Has anyone in here ever in your life, looked out for your own wants and desires and put them above others?

Turn with me to , ,

Luke 9:1–6 NLT

One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes. Wherever you go, stay in the same house until you leave town. And if a town refuses to welcome you, shake its dust from your feet as you leave to show that you have abandoned those people to their fate.” So they began their circuit of the villages, preaching the Good News and healing the sick.

Luke 9:10 NLT

When the apostles returned, they told Jesus everything they had done. Then he slipped quietly away with them toward the town of Bethsaida.

So, this is the trial run for Jesus’ 12 disciples.

It is here that He sends them out into the Jewish towns and villages, as we see in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 10:5-6 about this same account, as opposed to the gentile regions, like you see with the next group that He sends out, the Seventy two!

There are no specifics exactly as to why Jesus sent the twelve to the Jewish people exclusively, except that we know that the Gospel Message that Jesus brought, was given to the Jews first, as we see in ,

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Now, I just mentioned that Jesus also sent out a second pilot group, which we know to be the seventy two messengers, that Jesus chose.

Turn with me to ,

Luke 10:1–11 NLT

The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them: “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don’t take any money with you, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don’t stop to greet anyone on the road. “Whenever you enter someone’s home, first say, ‘May God’s peace be on this house.’ If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand; if they are not, the blessing will return to you. Don’t move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don’t hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay. “If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you. Heal the sick, and tell them, ‘The Kingdom of God is near you now.’ But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘We wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this—the Kingdom of God is near!’

Now, although they are two different groups, does everyone see that they are almost identical in the directions that Jesus gave to both of them?

Both groups were sent out in pairs ( tells us this about the 12)

Both groups were sent out with the authority and power to cast our demons and heal all manner of sickness and diseases.

Both groups were instructed to not take any money for their journey, or extra sandals (I know this would be hard for a lot of ladies, especially with your love for shoes!), nor take a traveler’s bag, or food, or even a CHANGE OF CLOTHES!

Think about how we are when we travel and what all we pack for a weekend getaway and then try to imagine being sent out from town to town, city to city without a change of clothes, or a bag to carry anything in, or even SNACKS!

Both groups were to announce to the town/city that the Kingdom of God was near.

Both groups were to stay in the same house that they entered until they departed that town. (This was largely, probably to deter showing favoritism and also to demonstrate humility and thankfulness!)

Both groups were to bless each house that received them in and that they stayed at.

And bother groups were told that if a city or town rejected the gospel message of the kingdom that they were bringing, then they were to “shake the dust off of their feet” as they left that town and move on to the next one.

This was done as a symbol of old an Rabbinic custom that held that the dust of a place was a defilement and not worthy to be carried into the next region. It was, in this situation, a sign of judgement that was being pronounced for the people’s rejection of the Gospel Message, for as Jesus, Himself, stated, “ Anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God, who sent me.”

By the way, this has not changed. If you reject the entirety of the Gospel Message, then you reject Jesus, Himself. And in doing so, you also reject God the Father!

So, both groups go, out and both groups return to Jesus. And in both cases, they were successful in their mission objectives, as they report back and discuss them with Jesus!

What I want to point out about these two groups, is something that we see, more so with the 12 (probably just because the Bible is more focused on them), that Jesus was wanting to reroute and get them away from.

Large and in part, I am speaking about pride and self ability!

And with this comes a tendency to be inwardly focused and not outwardly and looking out for the needs and betterment of others.

You can start to see this very quickly with the 12 disciples, right after their apostolic test run, in , which is the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

In this account, they have just returned from their adventure and are excited to share with their teacher all that has happened. In return, Jesus decides to have them all get away from the crowds so that they can have some time to talk and share.

Instantly, the crowds are drawn to Jesus, because of His miracles and the disciples lose their private time with Jesus.

In verse 12 the disciples come to Jesus and this is what happens, “Late in the afternoon the twelve disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night. There is nothing to eat here in this remote place.”

Note the way that this scenario plays out: DISCIPLES - “Send the crowds away to the nearby villages and farms, so they can find food and lodging for the night.” (Then they turn and start walk away.)

JESUS - “YOU give them something to eat!”

The disciples probably whipped around like, “SAY WHAAAAAAAT? Um, look Jesus, we only have 5 loaves and 2 fish and unless we walk to some village and make, like a huge purchase for some 15,000 people, then they aren’t going to be eating tonight!”

How quickly they forgot, or chose to ignore, who they were talking to and what they had just finished experiencing in their mini disciple outing!

Instantly, after having just returned from casting out demons, healing the sick and lame and declaring the gospel message, (which is actually a message of LOVE), the disciples turn a cold heart and demand that the LORD send away the people, instead of asking how they can serve the people!

INWARDLY focused on their part!

Then, right after this, we read of the account where Peter makes the amazing confession of who Jesus is before the other 11 disciples and then of course, we see the powerful statement that Jesus makes to Peter.

“Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.”

Now, this is not a case of pride, or self focus on Peter’s part, but as we look at other instances of the disciples, you can easily imagine how this might have pumped his ego around the others!

(Mimic Peter after Jesus tells Him all of this!)

Right after this, is when Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes Him: “And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

The very next thing, we see Jesus taking His three closest confidants of the 12 disciples up the mountain and where we witness the Transfiguration.

Again, there could have been some sense of pride in rank and position, as these three were privileged to attend this secret meeting on the mount, in which Moses, Elijah and Jesus, discuss the very near and imminent departure of Jesus.

Peter, again, vocalizes when he really doesn’t know what he is talking about, which stems from a lack of true Godly wisdom; (, “ Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”)

Even as Peter is saying this, God the Father shows up and not only clarifies who they are beholding, but also corrects Peter for speaking so rashly!

Again, I am not saying that Peter was operating out of pride and conceit, yet it is a fact that these three were more privileged to the private affairs of Jesus, than the other 9, which would have easily been a breading ground for pride.

Just as many today, seek both position and title within churches and organizations, as well as gifts of the Spirit for pride and pomp!

And what if exclusivity was what the disciples were looking for with Jesus; did it help them attain more in their ministry and spiritual power?

Well, as soon as Jesus and Peter, James and John were coming down from the mountain, they were greeted with situation of the father and the possessed son, whom the other 9 disciples couldn’t deliver or heal.

We instantly pick up on that Jesus was not happy with both the crowds lack of faith and belief, but equally so, even His disciples lack thereof!

You see, this becomes even more stressed after Pentecost and Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh; we are all equal in importance within the Kingdom and equally part of the body!

As Paul said to the church at Corinth, one part of the human body cannot say to another part that it is more important, or that one part is not needed, because one cannot do another’s part and thus each part is of equal value to the good of the body!

And as soon as the demon inside of the boy saw that it was before Jesus, it wen into a fit and Jesus instantly took ALL authority over it and cast it out!

Literally, just a short period later, we find another circumstance within the 12 disciples, in verses 46-48, where they were arguing amongst themselves as to who was or would become the greatest in this new Kingdom, or more the superior of the group!

Jesus quickly squelches this argument, as He already knew the reasonings of their hearts and tells them that the least among them, is the greatest!

Pride of self is the enemy’s specialty! It is the one thing that will drive each of us to lie, cheat, steal, curse, envy, slander and murmur, gossip, idolize and covet, commit sexual sins of all natures, murder and brutalize and all the while, feel vindication for it!

Paul W. Powell once observed: “Pride is so subtle that if we aren’t careful we’ll be proud of our humility. When this happens our goodness becomes badness. Our virtues become vices. We can easily become like the Sunday School teacher who, having told the story of the Pharisee and the publican, said, ‘Children, let’s bow our heads and thank God we are not like the Pharisee!’”

Guess what, the very next set of verses, 49-50, you see more of the disease of pride and self rearing its ugly head, once again before Jesus. In verse 49, John says this to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in OUR group.”

How many times have you seen this very thing in the church body?

I grew up in a larger church and there were more cliques and factions in that large church, than there were days of the year!

Whenever we hold exclusivity to ourselves and do no accept others, just because they aren’t like us, then you are eat up with cancer!

Does everyone know that PRIDE is a literal cancer of the soul and that we all have it?

In the spiritual sense, we are born with the disease of PRIDE CANCER and it will rage out of control and consume us, if we do not provide the cure for it.

The only CURE for this spiritual cancer is to apply the blood of Jesus Christ to it and then keep regular doses of Holy Spirit help running washing over your soul!

In verse 50, Jesus says this in response to John’s statement, “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you.”

The man may not have been in their group, but he was obviously working in the right direction and had some form of faith and belief in the mighty name of Jesus, by virtue of the fact that he was casting out demons in the name of Jesus!

We just saw that even the elite group of disciples could not yet cast out all demons for their lack of faith and yet here is a man who doesn’t walk in the inner circle of the chosen 12 or even of the 72 and he IS casting out demons!

How and why was he able to do it? Simple, he used the only prerequisite to enter into the kingdom; FAITH and BELIEF in Jesus the Messiah!

Maybe it would serve us all well in our walk, to look at the father’s words to Jesus of the young boy whom Jesus had just cast the demon out of.

The father said to Jesus, “IF you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to this, “IF YOU CAN?! (Or in the NLT it reads as, “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?”)

Then Jesus said, “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

It is the next words that the father uses, that I mention we should consider applying to our own lives many times over; he instantly CRIED out to Jesus, “ I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

What a beautiful display of honesty before the Christ! He had enough faith to come to only TRUE source of help and yet he admits that he needs help, because his faith and belief was far from perfect!

AS we close out chapter 9 in Luke, we are greeted one more time with the staunch and cold attitude of the 12, where we see Jesus sending out messengers ahead of them to a Samaritan village to prepare for His coming to it.

The Samaritans refused this, not because they were rejecting Jesus and His disciples and their message, but because of racial/political indifference. (The Jews didn’t like the Samaritans and the Samaritans didn’t like the Jews.)

So, when they heard that Jesus was passing through their region and His primary destination was Jerusalem, they said, “NO”.

Listen to what the brothers James and John said about this “refusal” to Jesus, they said, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?”

“I mean why not; it worked pretty stinking well for Elijah and he got a lot of notoriety from it, so.......(make gesture with hands like “yes”/”no?”)

The Bible says that Jesus REBUKED them, again, by saying, “You guys don’t get it, do you? I didn’t come down to the earth only to destroy the people; I CAME TO SAVE THE PEOPLE!”

You see, the Samaritans were not rejecting Jesus and the Kingdom Message that He brought, they were simply blind and illiterate because of their and the Jew’s hearts towards one another out of racial indifference!

And finally, getting into , we see the outcome of the 72 and their trial run for Jesus, as they return with JOY and excitement and say to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”

You see, they were already heading in the direction of being enamored with their authority and power that they had been given and instead of coming back and telling Jesus of how lives were being transformed and hearts being turned towards Jesus and His Father, they only mentioned their authority over the demons!

Listen to what Jesus told them, “ “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

There is much speculation about the response that Jesus gave as to Satan in this passage, but I feel more inclined to agree with the reasoning of this response given because Jesus was watching and could see the imminent defeat of Satan, already, as His disciples were trampling all over Satan’s army with their Kingdom authority.

And so, He saw, as quickly and as brilliantly as a flash of lightning strikes, Satan and his dominion over mankind, FALL in defeat.

This also being more pronounced now, with Jesus looking to and making His way back to face the Cross and complete and total defeat of Satan!

But what is most important that Jesus said to the 72 disciples was this, “Don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

When we begin to look at our spiritual gifts and authority given us, we sometimes lose focus on what we really have and we let pride come in. It has destroyed more great ministers ad evangelists and teachers than anything else.

There is true and old story told about a man by the name of Ali Facid. He had a small farm and a family. One day, the story goes, a Buddhist priest came by and said to Ali: “You know, there are valuable stones called diamonds, and if you find one of these you could be a wealthy man."

Ali Facid went to bed that night, but the words of the old priest haunted him. He was so obsessed that he felt that he must find one of these diamonds so that he could become rich. He sold his farm, put his family out to neighbors and went out to find his acres of diamonds.

Months passed. He was broken in body and spirit. His funds were gone. And at the Bay of Barcelona, he threw himself into the sea, never to walk this earth again.

Meanwhile, the man who bought his farm bent over one day and picked up a little stone. He laid it on the mantle that night not knowing what it was.

A few days later the old Buddhist priest came by and saw it and exclaimed: “Ali Facid must be back from his search”.

“No”, came the response. “Then where did that diamond come from?”

The farmer replied: “I was out plowing in the garden and found it there.”

And from that very garden, came the jewels and diamonds that today adorn the crown heads of Europe and Russia.

In Ali Facid’s own back yard there were acres of diamonds and he knew it not.

He threw his life away in search of that which was under his nose the whole time.

Friends, do you understand what is MOST important and most valuable in your life today and why you and I MUST guard it by keeping out all pride and self seeking thoughts!