Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Introduction

Let me read two examples of courage...

Desmond Doss

Doss’ religion forbade him from carrying a gun or threatening another human life, which was very inconvenient when he was drafted into the Second World War.

So Doss was a conscientious objector - someone who objects to violence - placed as a non-combatant, and was the target of ridicule from the other soldiers.

He was serving as a field medic in Okinawa when the Japanese attacked his unit on top of a cliff, cutting down nearly every man.

Doss quickly rigged up a stretcher that could be lowered by a series of ropes and pulleys to the ground below.

Then, by himself and under fire, he retrieved each soldier in his unit one at a time and lowered them to safety.

Irena Sendler

When the Nazis invaded her native Poland and rounded up all the Jews into a walled-in ghetto, Sendler knew what was going to happen.

She was a social worker and got credentials as a nurse so she could sneak food and medicine into the ghetto.

What she snuck out was even more phenomenal: It’s estimated that Sendler and her group helped get approximately 2500 children out of the ghetto—sedated and placed in the bottom of toolboxes or lying in burlap sacks at the bottom of her truck—and sent them through a network of likeminded comrades to Christian orphanages, where they were given new identities.

She kept their real names in a jar buried in her backyard.

Sendler was eventually caught by the Nazis, who imprisoned and tortured her, breaking both of her legs.

When the war ended she devoted herself to reuniting children with their families, though it proved nearly impossible to do so.

Pause

These are acts of courage!

Real life acts of courage.

And you’ve got to ask yourself, why would someone do these acts of courage and bravery?

What possesses someone to go to such lengths, putting themselves in such danger for the sake of people they don’t even know?

And I’m sure there are many answers for this, but one that stands out for me is this...

These people faced the danger and even death because they believed in something bigger than themselves.

They believed in something bigger than the danger they faced.

They were prepared to face the torture, the ridicule, the imprisonment because they believed that saving the lives of children or saving the lives of soldiers was more important than their own comfort.

Saving people’s lives is, or at least SHOULD BE, more important than our own comfort.

Let’s imagine for a second that we have a modern day Noah’s Ark happening in Lisburn.

Imagine for a second that God speaks to you - like you really hear an audible voice from God and he says that he’s going to destroy the world again by a flood (and yes, I know, the rainbow is the promise that God won’t do that again).

So, let’s say God tells you he’s going to destroy the world by fire.

He’s going to burn the place up, except for the churches in the country.

All churches will be saved.

And God tells this to YOU.

And it’s going to happen in 3 day’s time.

What would you do?

Would you run into a church and stay there?

Or would you spend those 3 days getting everyone you know into a church?

Would you spread the world that God is sending fire on the earth but if anyone is in a church they will be saved from the fire.

Would you take those 3 days running around telling people this, warning them of this fire that it coming?

Or would you run into a church yourself - save yourself and forget about getting anyone else with you?

I think most people would at least tell their friends and family.

Would you tell others too?

And what about those people who don’t believe you and ridicule you about this?

Would you care about that if you could get even SOME people into the churches to be safe?

Would you be like Desmond Doss or like Irena Sendler and face the danger and the ridicule in order to save people’s lives?

Pause

Of course that sounds a bit far fetched - independence day kinda stuff.

I’m showing my age, what’s the latest disaster end-of-the-world movie?

Truth is, what I’ve described is not far from the truth.

God will not ever flood the world again - the rainbow promises us that.

But God WILL destroy the world with fire...

And the ungodly are those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour - those who have not trusted in him for the forgiveness of their sins.

And we have the good news that those who trust in Jesus Christ, who have their sins forgiven will escape this judgement of fire and will instead live in paradise.

And not only do we have this good news, we are asked to pass this on to those who do not believe so that they too can escape this judgement.

So my imaginary story wasn’t that far off.

The difference is that being in a church building doesn’t save us - being part of the church - the community of believers through our faith in Jesus is what saves us.

Pause

Question is…do we have the same bravery and courage that Desmond Doss and Irena Sendler had?

Do we believe that saving the lives of men, women and children is more important than our own comfort?

And if so, how can we go into the world as sheep amongst wolves?

Cos, let’s face it…that IS scary and it takes a level of courage that most of us don’t have.

Well, thankfully we can take some comfort and strength from our passage today.

Pause

In today’s passage, Jesus sends out the 12 disciples and he tells them that he’s sending them as sheep amongst wolves...

And their quest - their mission - is to preach that the kingdom of heaven is near, they are to heal the sick and cleanse the lepers, drive out demons and even raise the dead!

That’s pretty impressive stuff right there.

But you might think - hang on a second, these are Jesus’ disciples.

I mean, these are his right hand men.

Of course they’re going to be able to do this amazing stuff.

This is stuff that the ORIGINAL disciples did.

Nobody else did this.

OK, but think about the disciples - remember the list of the disciples from the start of the passage…There was a tax collector, a few fishermen, a zealot, and a thief.

These weren’t special people.

They were ordinary people with a special friend.

[The disciples were ordinary people with a special friend]

But I hear what you’re saying - they WERE the 12 disciples, so they were pretty special in some ways too.

But then what do we make of Luke 10, which we read out a few weeks ago at the evening service...

Now we’ve got a problem - these weren’t just the 12 disciples.

These were 72 other people who Jesus sends out and also gives them the power and authority to do stuff that they wouldn’t normally be able to do on their own.

So that’s not really an excuse.

Pause

And then in Matthew 28, Jesus sends his disciples out saying this...

And this is what we’ve looked at a few times…Jesus tells his disciples to make MORE disciples.

And as disciples of Jesus this is a command to us too.

We are commanded by Jesus himself to spread the good news that Jesus offers salvation from this firey judgement that is coming - that Jesus can free them from their sin give them new life - eternal life.

And Jesus gives US the same power and authority he gave the 12 disciples and the same power and authority that he gave the 72 others.

Power to heal the sick, power to even raise the dead.

Because there is more than 1 way to be sick, and there is more than 1 way to be dead.

We can be physically sick, but we can be spiritually sick.

We can be physically dead, but we can also be spiritually dead.

And Jesus gives us the power to heal the sick and raise the dead, because there are people all around us who are spiritually sick - who think they are right with God because they come to church or maybe they don’t even come to church but they think they’re a decent enough person who hasn’t done any harm.

In fact, these aren’t just spiritually sick - these people are spiritually dead…dead in their sins....

And they are going to be judged for their sin because they haven’t asked Jesus for their forgiveness, and they’re facing this firey judgement.

And then there are people who are spiritually dead - who don’t believe in God or Jesus - who have no interest in him whatsoever.

And these people are also facing this firey judgement and will miss out on eternal life if SOMEBODY doesn’t tell them that there is life to be found in Jesus Christ.

Pause

And this is where we come in.

We are all commissioned by Jesus to go into the world and proclaim that the kingdom of God is at hand and it is found in Jesus Christ.

But while this takes immense courage, look at the last verse on the screen…Jesus says, ‘Surely I am with you always.’

We often take this out of context and use it to remind ourselves that we are not alone in this life - that Jesus is always with us.

Now that IS TRUE, but in the context of this passage, Jesus is saying that he has given US his authority - the authority from God himself - authority over sickness and death - authority over life...and that while we go as sheep amongst wolves HE WILL BE WITH US ALWAYS!