Kings, Kingdoms, and Freedom

The New Revised Standard Version The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

6 He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” 5 And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6 And he was amazed at their unbelief.

The Mission of the Twelve

(Mt 10:5–15; Lk 9:1–6)

Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7 He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; 9 but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10 He said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. 11 If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

Introduction: Diving In

In between my last job and coming here to LPC, I took some time with a few friends for a bikepacking trip.

This is where lunatics like me will put everything we need for a few days on our bike, pedal around a bunch, and camp out.

Trust me, it’s fun.

Our particular trip was three days long.

The first day we biked 93 miles from our driveways to Confluence along the Great Allegheny Passage.

The second day, the plan was to bike from Confluence, up to Myersdale, and then back through Confluence to spend the night in Connelsville.

This all took place in July, and it was murderously hot.

So on our way up to Myersdale, we saw some folks who had stoped to swim in the Castleman River.

But we were on a mission, so we just kept right on pedaling...

Until we turned around and came back. It was too tempting.

So we pulled aside, parked the bikes, and walked down to the river.

The three of us talked it out back and forth, and ultimately decided that we wouldn’t actually swim in the Castleman

Have you ever tried to bike in soaking wet bike shorts? Miserable!

Plus we didn’t exactly have spare clothes, we only brought enough for these three days.

So we settled on putting our feet in the river and calling it good enough.

But then what followed on the rest of the ride, and to this day really, was probably pretty predictable.

Anytime I’m with David, he will at some point in the conversation say “I wish I had jumped in that river...”

The regret is real!

We were right there!

Conditions were absolutely perfect!

And we were probably never going to get a situation exactly like that again, where all three of us were together at that river on a hot summer day.

For all the adventure that was available to us, for all the goodness we could have experienced, we…settled.

Today’s scripture has a moment like this kind of hidden right in plain sight.

There is something in this story that calls us to a great and grand adventure, and I think some of us are all to willing to settle for just dipping our toes in the water.

My hope and prayer is that by the end of this service today, you are ready to dive in with me.

Bible Breakdown

Trouble at Home

You have to be careful how frequently, and how you say this, but I totally relate to Jesus in the first part of this story.

My first job in ministry was at the church I grew up in.

It was the same church that I broke the ceiling tiles in the fellowship hall.

It was the same church that I showed up to lead the prayers one Sunday morning with bright blue dyed hair.

It was the same church that, sad to say, more than a few people had changed my diapers.

And now, as an intern, I was trying to get people to take me seriously?

Any time I would try to preach something that was even the slightest bit challenging or difficult, folks had a hard time with that.

Jesus is seeing the same thing.

At first, everyone is on board with who Jesus is and what Jesus is up to!

Where did this dude get this?

He’s got some power going on!

He’s pretty wise!

But then you can see things start to take a turn.

Isn’t this guy just a carpenter?

Isn’t that Mary’s kid?

Is he the brother of those trouble makers?

All of a sudden they went from sure that he’s getting wisdom from on high, to taking offense at him...

Amazing how fast a challenging word can be discredited when we don’t want to hear it.

It’s so amazing, that it seems to surprise Jesus!

He was amazed at their lack of faith.

So what do you do if you’re having trouble at home?

Let’s Get Out of Town

Since things at home aren’t going so well, Jesus decides to hit the road.

One of the subtle and neat things in this passage is the trickle down nature of God’s wisdom:

In Nazareth everyone assumes that God must have given Jesus his wisdom and power.

Now, Jesus is gathering the 12 to him, and Jesus gives away what he has.

He gives away authority.

What God gives us is meant to be given away.

We are never, ever to be the sole recipients of our blessings.

They are given to us, that’s for sure, but we are meant to give them away to others.

But there’s a hidden gift in this passage that Jesus gives to his disciples.

Packing List

Last week you heard from our youth group who went on the mission trip.

One of the things I like most and least about a mission trip like that is the packing list.

I like it the most because for me, it’s a focusing list.

You take the items on the list, and if it’s not on the list you leave it at home.

I like it the least because

Kids don’t read it.

And even if they do, they often ignore it and bring suitcases big enough for a month in Barbados.

Jesus is sending his disciples, teenagers themselves, out on a mission trip.

And, it turns out he gives them a packing list.

It’s…not big.

Take a walking stick.

Sandals.

One tunic. Not two.

In fact, the list of what not to bring is bigger than the list of what to bring.

No bread

No bag

No money in your belt.

No iPhone

No hairdryer.

No snacks.

Jesus invites his disciples to take what they need for this trip, and not one single thing more.

Why?

Real Freedom

To be able to survive on a trip like the disciples were embarking on, with as little as Jesus would let them take, they were going to have to rely on two things pretty heavily:

Other people.

Jesus straight up tells them that they are going to be dependent on the generosity of others.

You are going to depend on strangers for a place to live.

You are going to depend on strangers for something to eat.

You are going to depend on strangers for all your material needs.

And ultimately, you are going to depend on God

When you are robed of the tools to provide for yourself, you have to let God provide for you.

When you leave behind your ability to make things happen, you have to pray and let God take the lead.

And, here’s the pay off pitch, when you leave behind the burden of what you think you need, you find a freedom in God that you never knew you had.

In fact, everything Jesus tells these disciples in preparation for their missionary journey is about freedom.

Jesus says you are free from the material possessions that so many thing they need, so that you can rely on God.

Jesus says you are free from guilt when it comes to leaning on the generosity of others.

Jesus says you are free from the opinions and approval of others. If someone has a problem with you, shake the dust off your feet and move on.

Jesus gives these disciples a tremendous gift of freedom.

But almost as amazing as the gift that Jesus gives these disciples is how they choose to use it.

Use it for healing

The disciples go on their journey with the same message Mark tells us Jesus had at the beginning of his ministry:

Repent!

I like the way the Common English Bible translates this word:

“So the disciples went out and proclaimed that people should change their hearts and lives.”

But Mark tells us that they don’t just go out and preach a good message.

These disciples go out and cast out many demons.

They use that authority that Jesus has given them, and they help liberate other people who are trapped.

They anointed folks who were sick.

It means that they spent some of their missionary time at the bedside of some folks that were not doing well.

It also means that on a very limited budget, they still made room to get oil, which back then wasn’t exactly cheap.

But it was an important ritual in the Jewish tradition to anoint those who were sick, so they were bringing a comfort to people who didn’t have much comfort of their own.

And they cured people.

It wasn’t just lip service and time well spent.

These disciples actually took what Jesus gave them and chose to bless others.

They used what they had been given to heal others.

And so that cycle we saw earlier continues.

God gives Jesus wisdom and power, at least enough so that those that are listening to him speak can see it.

Jesus gives that wisdom, power, authority, and freedom to his disciples so that they can go out on their own missionary journey.

The disciples use that wisdom, power, authority, and freedom to heal people that society had all but forgotten about.

And, if you read just a little bit farther, those people who were healed started to talk about what they had been given so much that it reaches the ears of King Herod himself.

Application

Are we as free as we think we are?

We as Americans like our stuff...

In 2020, in the deep middle of the global pandemic, when NO STORES WERE OPEN, Americans spent 9 billion dollars.

In fact, stats are in and we spent 6.3 Million Dollars online PER MINUTE!

The average American holds $6,000 in credit card debt alone.

Tack on all kinds of other debt, and we’re up to more than $90,000 per person.

Kind of shocking to me, and really sad, right now folks 18-23 years old carry more than 16,000 in debt already.

That’s like starting out in life with an ankle weight already attached.

And that’s just the financial captivity most of us are struggling with.

We’ve talked in this room before about the captivity of alcohol and drug addiction.

We’ve talked in this room before about the captivity of mental illness.

Some people even, kind of jokingly but kind of seriously, say that they are addicted to their smart phones, to social media, to entertainment.

The dead giveaway?

Sometimes when we’re gearing up for a mission trip, and I’m trying to enforce the packing list with teenagers, they’ll use the phrase “I can’t live without...

I can’t live without my hairdryer!

I can’t live without my iPhone!

I can’t live without my tamagatchi (Ok, I’ve been doing youth ministry for a long time)

I wonder if, on the day our nation celebrates freedom, we’re really ready to dive all the way in, or if we’ve settled for dipping our toes in the river of Freedom.

Are we as free as we think we are, or are we still being held captive by our stuff?

Are we as free as we think we are, or are we limited to an us versus them view of the world?

Are we as free as we think we are, or are we locked in to a particular social media diet?

Are we as free as we think we are, or are we really enslaved to drugs or alcohol or gambling or pornography?

Galatians 5 is one of my favorite quick little verses:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

You are free!

Not you might be free some day.

Not you will get freedom if you do all the right things.

Not free if you say the right prayers.

You are free now.

So stand firm.

Take a good hard look around at all the ways we choose to limit our own freedom, and stop submitting to it.

What are you using that Freedom for?

We had a kid in a previous youth group who was kind of obnoxious on every level.

He would say horrible things to other kids.

He would break the rules of every game we played.

He would argue back with me at almost every opportunity.

And every time we’d call him on it, he’d have the same snotty response:

“It’s a free country!”

And this is a comical example, but I wonder if it points to something a bit more toxic lying just beneath the surface.

What “It’s a free country!” meant to this young man was that he was free to do anything he wanted, and who really cares what it means for anyone else!

If he’s free to say whatever he wants, what concern is it of his if someone takes offense?

If he’s free to play the game how he wants, what concern is it of his if anyone else gets to have fun?

If he’s free to disagree with me during teachings, who cares if anyone else gets anything out of it.

And I’ll be honest, the way I see a lot of people talk about freedom in our country, I get the same impression.

Freedom for some means that they can do whatever they want, and they don’t really care what it does to anyone else around them.

This, quite simply, is not how Jesus meant for freedom to be used among the disciples or us.

Freedom was given to these disciples so that they could trust their God.

Freedom was given to these disciples so that they could rely on the generosity of strangers, and build new community.

Freedom was given to these disciples so that they could speak the good news of the Kingdom of God.

Freedom, ultimately, was given to these disciples so that they could bring healing and release to their neighbors.

If your freedom doesn’t benefit others, if your freedom is just an excuse to do whatever you want, if your freedom isn’t healing anyone or anything, you have to ask yourself if it’s real freedom.

Trouble at home?

We here in America have, and should indeed celebrate, tremendous freedom.

You and I are able to gather not just publicly, but in a building with a big huge steeple that is just down the road from a big bright sign that announces our presence.

No one’s coming to arrest me because of what I’m preaching.

Some might think I talk too long, but that’s another story.

We can practice our faith in public as long and as often as we’d like.

So you would think with all that freedom, particularly freedom of religion, that Christianity would be growing fastest right here in the US, right?

Wrong.

Christianity in fact is on the rise principally in three places: Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

Three places not often associated with freedom.

We have to ask ourselves if, like Jesus, we have a little bit of trouble at home.

What if Christian faith has become more about what we restrict people from than what Jesus frees them up for?

What if Christian faith has become more about what we say no to than what we say yes to?

What if we’ve become so comfortable here that even when we do want to offer a challenging message, folks take offense to us?

And often when someone brings something like this up, believers will cluck and roll their eyes and blame some sort of secular culture for our decline.

But let’s not be those people today.

Instead, on this independence day...

Let’s be the kind of people who dive all the way in to freedom.

Let’s be the kind of people who need only to rely on God.

Let’s be the kind of people who are generous enough that others can rely on us.

Let’s be the kind of people that celebrate freedom by inviting others in to a deeper freedom than they’ve ever known in Jesus Christ.

And, most importantly, let’s be the kind of people who celebrate our freedom from sin in Jesus Christ, who loves us, gave himself up for us, all so that we could know what real freedom is all about.