Untitled Sermon (4)

Scripture Introduction:

We will be in Luke 9:1-9 this morning.

Imagine with me that you are at some show in Branson where you’ve got some dude on the stage juggling stuff. You’ve got front row seats and you’re amazed at his skill and the way he is able to captivate the audience. He started with tennis balls and now he’s amped it up chainsaws that are on fire. Something crazy like that. You give a riveting applause at his trick and then he turns to you and says, “now it’s your turn”.

You’re thinking no way. I’ll lose a limb. I might try juggling a couple tennis balls but I’m not about to touch those flaming chainsaws.

In our story this morning we will see something similar. Last week David, who did a great job, had us look at the story of Jairus’ daughter and the bleeding woman. So what you have in that text is a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and also a little girl who Jesus raises from the dead. That’s your “juggling chainsaws”. Then as we’ll read here in Luke 9:1-9, Jesus calls his twelve disciples to himself and says...”now you go and do it.” But there is even more than that....listen in.

READ LUKE 9:1-9

Sermon Introduction:

Did you hear that? Not only was Jesus saying, “here you juggle some chainsaws” he was telling them “do it blindfolded”.

Now there are a few things missing or different here in our illustration. For one these aren’t strangers in a crowd who have no relationship with Jesus. These would have been people who signed up to be on mission with him. So it might be better to say that these are apprentices who have been watching the master juggler for a few months now. But they’ve never really juggled themselves…certainly not publicly.

Another difference is notice in verse 1 that Jesus is giving them power and authority. That’s huge. We’ve seen Jesus’ power throughout the narrative so far. Even in our text last week we saw as the woman touched the hem of his garment power passed from him. But it’s not just power that Jesus is giving to them it’s also authority.

It’s one thing to be able to do something but you don’t have the authority to do it. It’s not your job. It’s not what you are called to do. You could, in theory, put together a team of people to go outside and tip over one of our church vans. But you wouldn’t have the authority to do that. You’d be misusing your power if you did it.

It’s also possible to have the authority to do something but not the power. I’m not sure that pastoral authority would extend to tipping over a church van…I’d probably argue that it absolutely does not…but for the sake of illustration let’s say it did. I’d have the authority but I wouldn’t have the power. Unless I ate some spinach…which isn’t going to happen.

So Jesus here is investing the disciples with his power and his authority. I’ve given you the ability to juggle chainsaws and the stage on which to do it. That’s what he is saying. And so it’s not just picking some ill-equipped stranger off the street and saying, “now go juggle these chainsaws.” It’s Jesus saying I’ve given you everything you need to accomplish this mission....do you trust me?

Now this morning we’re going to see four things in this text. They aren’t lengthy. Just simple quick points. And we’re also going to do a bit of visioning for our Wednesday nights in the Fall. I had said a few months ago that our hope is to really put some attention towards this area and we had asked you to pray…thank you for doing that…and hopefully you’ve been praying about how God might use you. You’ll have an opportunity this week and next in that regard.

I believe what we’re seeing here in this text is tied to some of the fears and questions and concerns that we might have with doing ministry in these perilous times. I get it. I really do. But I believe our mission doesn’t change…perhaps just the way we execute that mission.

But before any of that takes place there is one big question we have to answer. Does this apply to us? Of course it does…you know that it does…but can we argue ourselves out of what is happening in this text? Can we say, “that power and authority was given specifically to the disciples…not us…that charge to cast out demons…that call to not take bread…all that stuff was given to the disciples and not to us specifically.”

Can we connect our mission with that of the disciples? In other words is this one of those sections in the Bible which is descriptive—as in, here is what happened, don’t try this at home. Or is it one of those sections in the Bible which is prescriptive—as in, here is what happened and you’d better do this too if you want to be faithful. Put simply has Jesus commissioned every believer to do what the Twelve are here commissioned to do?

What they are doing here is essentially pushing back the works of the devil. They are sharing the message of the kingdom. They are in the business of working to create passionate worshippers of God at the expense of idolatry. They are sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with folks and calling them to repent. And so is this our same mission today or was this unique to them.

Though we could complicate this and go into a bit more depth, I think we can answer this relatively simply by looking at Matthew 28. This is known as the Great Commission. Here Jesus says all authority has been given to Him and He is giving the authority to the disciples to Go, baptize, and teach everything He commanded.

You say, well that was him commissioning the disciples. He isn’t telling us to do the same thing. True. But I ask you why would the command to “go, baptize, make disciples, and teach” not be part of “everything I’ve commanded you”? This isn’t the Great Suggestion it’s the Great Commission. As these disciples teach and make other disciples these new disciples share in the same union with Christ and therefore the same mission of Christ.

And so while the specifics of our mission might play out a bit differently I believe we can see here in this text four things that should inform our mission in the 21st century. Let’s look now at the first of these.

I. Jesus’ authority means we shouldn’t be scared but merciful

Now, I don’t know for sure that the disciples were afraid. But it’s not difficult to imagine that this is so. We certainly know from other places (and we’ll even see one of these next week) where the disciples feel ill-equipped and like they don’t have what it takes to do what Jesus is calling them to do. And so it wouldn’t be shocking for them to have a bit of a pause when Jesus heals a woman who had been sick for over a decade and raises a little girl to life…wouldn’t be shocking for them to say, “uhmmm....we aren’t exactly ready for this.

But Jesus giving them power and authority is all they need. Jesus is equipping them to do that which is scary. And I’d also make one little side note—that fear can make our claws come out and do stuff that we later regret. We don’t tend to give mercy to people whom we fear. We tend to keep them at a safer distance and don’t actually get to know them. Mercy can’t be given from a safe distance. And so fear can shut down ministry.

And I suppose just for the sake of clarity it would also be helpful for me to say that in these days there are multiple types of fear. Yes, there can be an unhealthy fear of dying, a fear of disease, and those types of things can but not necessarily morph into a sinful type of fear. But there is also a fear of losing our way of life that can be just as dangerous. It’s often a hidden fear and not even recognized as fear—it often masquerades as bravery. So no matter where you land on any of our 50 million points of disagreement these days—know this, fear sells. Fear motivates on both sides of the aisle. We’d do well to look for fear in our own hearts instead of in others—remember that whole speck and plank thing?

The antidote to fear—no matter in what form—is the power and authority of Jesus. Notice what is happening here. Jesus is giving them authority over the works of darkness. In other words, believer we’ve got the upper hand on the works of darkness.

I appreciate these words from Dr. Moore:

A confident people have the freedom to show mercy because we are winners. As a matter of fact we are more than conquerors…this is why we don’t overcome evil with evil, you overcome evil with good. You don’t exercise vengeance….You know there is a day of judgment and so you don’t have to exercise judgment—instead feed those who are your enemies. Show them mercy because you are not threatened.

The authority of Jesus means we go into the darkest of places with His authority, proclaiming His gospel, and to do so without fear.

II. Jesus’ sufficiency means He doesn’t need our stuff but rather our dependence

In verse 3 Jesus gives the disciples their packing list. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

Doesn’t this seem a bit counter-intuitive? No bread. Won’t they starve? No bag. That means no supplies. No survival kit. Even if they happen to go somewhere and they get a haul of stuff to save up for tomorrow they can’t because they don’t even have a bag. And worse yet they are to take no money in their belts. They can’t even order off the dollar menu. They leave with nothing. A walking stick, a tunic (not two, though) and the sandals on their feet.

Why? Because Jesus is teaching them something significant. Much the same lesson that the Israelites were taught in the wilderness. Jesus is the Bread of Life and they are completely dependent upon the sovereign Lord of the universe. Disciples are to be dependent upon the all-sufficient Christ rather than upon our own talents and resources.

Or to put that another way God doesn’t need all my junk. In fact it might even be a hindrance to mission. The most dangerous person to the cause of Christ is the one who is self-sufficient. You know what this tells me? It tells me that in this climate---going through a pandemic, having massive cultural shifts, seeing disunity abound, all of the reasons why we CAN’T do ministry, why we are just scratching our heads saying, “I have no clue how to do this”…we might be in a better spot for doing ministry in the power of the Spirit than we have been for years.

III. Jesus’ sovereignty means we aren’t jockeying for position

So why stay at the house? It’s nature for us to try to get into an even better house, and then a better house, and then the next thing you know we’ve got our eyes fixed on our missionary surroundings rather than the mission and the One who has called us to mission.

God is going to provide for us. He is sovereign. He will direct our steps. But we don’t need to be jockeying for position. Competing with other churches, concerned with what other churches are doing or other people engaging in mission. You worry about you. You be faithful on what you’ve got and the sovereign Lord of the universe will take care of the rest. He’ll find you a home. He’ll see that the gospel thrives. Let us fix our eyes on him and not jockey for position.

But there is also something else taking place here. We need other people. We cannot do ministry alone. And it’s also really beautiful what is taking place here. Look at the disciples…they don’t have a home, they don’t have a place to sleep…but somebody else does. And so it’s all working together—doing the thing YOU are equipped to do, called to do, with all the passion that you can. Own your ministry. That’s what is happening here.

IV. Jesus’ holiness means we should expect opposition

Shake the dust off your feet. Likely an old idiom about shaking the unclean Gentile dust off your shoes. It’s kind of a symbolic way of making yourself pure again. But Jesus is flipping this here—allegiance to him is what makes one clean/unclean is kind of his point. What we see here is a bit of a sign of discontent and leaving someone to the judgment of God. There is much more that we could likely see here but for now it’s enough to say that we’ll likely face opposition. Because of the gospel we proclaim.

But notice verse 6. They did what Jesus called them to do. They departed and went through the villages. Notice what they do…and notice where they do it. Preaching the gospel…that’s proclaiming Jesus. And healing everywhere…that’s making people whole wherever they go. You could some that up pretty easily--”talk about Jesus and love people”.

That’s really the vision behind what I’m going to share with you here. And we’ll share some of this next week as well. On September 15th we are looking at launching a new Wednesday evening. I think it has the potential to reach many families—to help us talk about Jesus and love people.

First, we’re hoping to provide a free community meal. We’ll open up the doors at 5:30 for our seniors just as a way to honor you. Then at 5:45 the doors will open.

But let me tell you about something I learned when we did something similar to this at a previous church. We started out just providing a meal from 6-7 (I think that was the time). First week I think we had something like 117 people in total. The next week it shot up in the 170s. We were shocked. And here was the really crazy part…we had everything in a gym. On one end people trying to eat—on the other 70-80 kids of all ages trying to play basketball and who knows what else. It was chaotic....we didn’t anticipate that kind of growth. And let me tell you kids don’t eat for an hour. They eat for like 10-15 minutes then they want to burn off all that food.

So very quickly we developed a strategy to help with this. We created 5-6 different stations for the kids to go to. The idea—the vision behind this was very much like Luke 9:6. Love them and tell them about Jesus. We had one room dedicated to board games—play checkers with them. Other games. Another room was video games—not the latest and greatest but challenging them to things like Pac-Man or Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo. We had another room for crafts…a quick and inexpensive little craft. Another one was a movie room—basically 15 minutes of Veggie Tales. One was dedicated to doing your own creative projects....drawing, play-doh, LEGO. And then one that I was really excited about---loved this one—was a room called Skills. There kids learned various life skills. The sky is the limit on this one. We had them learn how to tie knots, how to iron, how to sew on a button, how to microwave an egg, just all kinds of stuff. And the kids loved it.

Because it was adults taking the time to invest in them. Story is told I think it was D.L. Moody…this has motivated me for years…he went to church 2-3 miles away from his home in the snow. He passed a handful of other churches on the way. Somebody asked him why he went there…he said, “it’s because they love a fella over there.”

So those stations—and we’re hoping to run these from 6-6:30 will be an opportunity to do just that. There is a way in which all of this flows—with bracelets and signs and all of that stuff that I’ll explain later. But I don’t want us to get bogged down in those. I don’t really want us to ask this week...”how in the world is that going to work...” I want us to dream and say, “what if it could?”

What you’ll see on that paper are 5-6 big picture categories.

Kitchen

Hospitality (Security)— 5-6 strategic locations

Check-In

Stations

Van Ministry

The good news here is that I think we’ve already got somebody who is willing to oversee all these areas. But what we need now are volunteers. Maybe some of these stir you. Let us know that. You’re not signing up for any kind of forever commitment. We’ll have built into this thing jumping off and jumping on seasons—that’s when you can say, “you know, I don’t think I need to be doing this ministry in this season”. So you’re making a commitment this time until let’s say sometime in November.

Yes, we do need several volunteers to pull this off. And I suppose some might say, “There is no way you’ll get enough volunteers. No way you can pull this off.” Possibly. But I’m not asking you to worry about that. I’m not asking you to worry about what everybody else is going to do. How might God use you on Wednesday evenings to talk about Jesus and love people?

I also know there are many other questions—should we be doing something like this during COVID? I can tell you that we’re going to keep an eye on the school districts on this one. We’re going to work to create a safe-environment. We’re going to take the precautions necessary---and we might have to rethink things along the way. But I CAN tell you this....no matter what…we are called in regards to children, youth, adults within our community. We are called—non-negotiably called—to talk about Jesus and work to make people whole.

We’re going to go back to verses 7-9 and close this up in just a moment. But just for clarity I want to share again what the night will look like.

Seniors come at 5:30

Doors open at 5:45

Stations are from 6:00-6:30 (many adults and kids might still be eating during this time)

6:30-7:30 Bible Study and Class Time as we’ve been doing.

You’ve got a sheet with all the possibilities on there. Maybe you’ve got a dream that isn’t there. Let us know. But pray about this. Or maybe God has already stirred your heart. (Tell about Amy with the food). You know exactly where you’d like to serve. Fill it out that little sheet put it in the baskets in the back. Or give these to myself, Russell, JT, or David.

It’s really simple love people and preach Jesus. That’s possible because of who the Lord Jesus is. And so let us engage in confident mission.

Now let’s close with verses 7-9. Herod. Things are happening and Herod is confused. Who is this guy?

Maybe that’s a question you are asking today. Who is this guy? For Herod he saw in Jesus a guy who could have been a threat to his power and authority. Of course, he’s both right and wrong on that charge. Jesus isn’t after Herod’s throne, he isn’t after his earthly kingdom. Herod can have all that. But Jesus does have more power and authority than Herod. Some day Herod WILL bow to King Jesus. So Herod isn’t totally off base here. In fact, for Herod to become a disciple it would mean a certain kind of death—just as is true for all of us. A death to self and a trusting in Christ alone.

But why will every knee bow and every tongue confess?

Philippians 2:1–11 ESV

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Who is this Jesus? He is the king. And as the narrative of Luke unfolds we’re going to continue to be confronted with this question. Who is Jesus? Who do you say he is? And that’s the most important question you can ask. He is Lord. He is Savior. He is Master. He is King. He is Brother. He is Friend. He is Redeemer. He is the one who makes us whole. He is the one who is making all things new. Do you know this Jesus?

But it’s not just something that demands an intellectual response or acknowledgment. Our mission is really tied up into this as well. Can we say that Jesus is Lord and then tell him no? Will we be creatures of worship? Will we be in awe of God and respond appropriately to who this God is? Or will we be like Herod---keeping him at a distance, trying to master and control him. No, Jesus has all power and authority. May we surrender to him today.

Yes, I will.