“To Purpose and Send”
Notes
Transcript
One of the greatest privileges God has entrusted to us is that we have been chosen to carry on the work that Jesus Christ came to this earth to accomplish. Just before he ascended, Jesus told his disciples, Acts 1:8 “…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…” We are here today as Christians because someone in every generation between those disciples and us was faithful to tell of the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Although bearing witness for Christ is one of our greatest privileges, it is not an area where most believers feel strong. There’s a time in the Bible where God speaks through a donkey and I can tell you that when I’ve felt inadequate about how I bear witness to Christ, I’ve been helped greatly with the realization that if he could make a donkey talk then, then he could make this donkey talk now.
I have also thought about how God could have chosen a more efficient method of spreading the gospel than entrusting it to someone like me! He could have picked the angels to proclaim the good news, and it would have gotten done much more quickly. Jesus himself could have returned to earth to visit a different people group every month and single-handedly would have done a much better job than the Church has done over the centuries. But the fact is, God chose us to proclaim the good news. The very fact that his Church is still going in spite of us is a testimony to his grace and power.
This morning’s passage records the first instance of the disciples going out under Jesus’ command to preach the gospel. Up till now, they had stood by and watched Jesus do it, but now Jesus sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God. Now, I want to you to know at the outset that what is happening in this passage isn’t the standard Christian experience, nor is it even the regular experience for those whom God has called to preached. What we have here is a unique situation and Jesus gave unique instructions which we will find he later modifes before his crucifixion (Luke 22:35-36). But even so, there are some principles here that we can apply as we seek to proclaim the good news of Christ as he has commanded us to do.
For people to believe in Jesus Christ, they must understand who he is. When they do understand who he is and believe in him, then they must proclaim him to others so that they have the opportunity to be saved and not to come into judgment.
We proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom because of who Jesus is
We proclaim the good news of God’s kingdom because of who Jesus is
In order to arrive at this takeaway this morning, there are two questions for you and I to explore. The first question is, “Who is Jesus?” followed closely by, “What are you and I to do in light of who he is?”
Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Lord
Who is Jesus? Jesus is the Lord
The matter of who Jesus is has been a crucial one in Luke right from the beginning. The angel announced to Mary that her child, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, would be the Son of God. At his birth, the angels proclaimed that the one born was the “Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Simeon and Anna both bore witness to the fact that this child was the Lord’s Christ, the Savior. John the Baptist testified that he himself was not the Christ, and that he was not fit to untie Jesus’ sandals because Jesus was far mightier than he.
At the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, even the demons recognized that He is “the Holy One of God” and “the Son of God.” When Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins, the Pharisees grumbled, Luke 5:21 “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Later, when John the Baptist was wavering in faith while in prison, he sent messengers asking, Luke 7:19 “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus sent back the reply, Luke 7:22–23 “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Later, when Jesus was having dinner with the Pharisee and he forgave the sins of the woman who anointed his feet, the other guests grumbled, Luke 7:49 “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” After Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples fearfully asked, Luke 8:25 “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” When we gather in a few weeks, we’ll see Jesus will ask the twelve, Luke 9:18 “Who do the crowds say that I am?” Then he asks Peter specifically, “But who do you say that I am?” which results in Peter’s confession, “The Christ of God.” The ultimate confession comes from God the Father, who testified at Jesus’ baptism, Luke 3:22 “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” and, again at His transfiguration, Luke 9:35 “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
So Herod was asking the right question where in Luke 9:9 he asks, “Who is this about whom I hear such things?” But, Herod was not asking the question with a view to repentance, but only out of his curiosity. His guilty conscience was nagging him about putting the righteous John to death, and now he feared that perhaps John had come back to life to haunt him. But as we examine the context, we learn three things about Jesus as Lord:
Jesus is the powerful Lord
Jesus is the powerful Lord
Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.
Now, we need to understand this: that power is the force or ability to do something; authority is the right to use that power. It is one thing for a person to have power over demonic forces and power to heal, but quite another thing to be able to use this power on others. Jesus has that power and authority.
Furthermore, Jesus had the authority to summon and send out these men to do his bidding. They did not vote on the matter or discuss whether his plan was a good one. They did not negotiate the terms in order to get the best contract. Jesus commanded and they obeyed. Jesus sent them out to do two things: Luke 9:2 “to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.”
These two tasks were not of equal importance. Preaching the kingdom of God was the primary task; the healings were to authenticate the message. They were proclaiming that in Jesus, the kingdom of God had come in fulfillment of God’s promises through the prophets. The miracles that Jesus and the twelve performed gave assurance to the people that he was indeed the promised one.
In our day, there are some Christians who argue that we are to emphasize God’s healing along with the gospel. Let me explain what they’re saying. They will take into consideration a verse like this, which are the word of Jesus:
John 14:12 (ESV)
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Now, they’ll take that verse and claim that the “greater works” that Jesus predicted that his followers would do after receiving the Holy Spirit include signs and wonders. So they believe that if you and I are not regularly seeing God use us to perform miracles, then we are not proclaiming the gospel correctly.
What do you and I say to that? First, God is just as able to perform miracles through his servants today as he always has been. We must be careful not to limit God’s power because of our unbelief. But, having said that, we must also be careful to understand the place of miracles in God’s working. While there are miracles reported throughout the Bible, they mainly occur in clusters around the time of the exodus, during the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and during the time of Christ and the apostles. The purpose of those increased miracles was to authenticate the Word of God or, to say this another way, to give validity to the messengers of Jesus during critical times in the history of his people. But once the purpose for the miracles had been accomplished, the miracles decreased in frequency.
For example, the Book of Hebrews was written to a second-generation church of mostly Jewish Christians who were tempted to go back to Judaism. The author is trying to convince them of the superiority of Jesus. In Hebrews 2:3-4, he states,
Hebrews 2:3–4 (ESV)
how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
The author is saying that the truth of the gospel was authenticated, it was verified, by these miracles performed by those who had been with Jesus.
But—here’s the point—the letter to the Hebrews doesn’t say that signs and wonders are what are bearing witness. The author says they bore witness, past tense. If these signs and wonders were still happening, you’d think that the author would have argued to what was a common experience of miracles as a proof of Christianity than to appeal to miracles they people who are reading this had not even seen. Or, if the Hebrews were not experiencing such miracles, but should have been, he would have told them to believe God for such things to take place among them. But apparently such miracles had generally ceased. His appeal was to the authenticating nature of such signs as performed by the apostles and reported to these people as evidence of the true identity of Jesus as both Lord and Christ.
Another reason I do not believe that we should be emphasizing signs and wonders when we proclaim the gospel is that both Jesus and Paul got after those who sought for such things. The Jews saw Jesus multiply the loaves and fishes and yet they challenged him to perform more signs. But they would not submit to Jesus or believe in him. Paul said, 1 Corinthians 1:22–24 “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
The real issue of the gospel is sin, righteousness, and judgment. People can gawk at miracles, but if they are not convicted about their sin and their need for a Savior, they will not be saved from God’s judgment. The miracles that Christ and the apostles performed authenticate Jesus as the promised Savior. While we can pray that God would graciously heal a person of some disease, and he may do it miraculously, our emphasis should be on the person’s need of a Savior from sin. Jesus is the powerful Lord who can save every person who believes in him.
Jesus is the providing Lord
Jesus is the providing Lord
Jesus sends his disciples out on this mission with instructions that they should take nothing for their journey. Rather, God would provide for their needs through the generosity of those to whom they ministered. Later, we’ll find that Jesus refers back to this moment and comments on how they did not lack anything. But Jesus then changes the instruction and tells them to take along money and other provisions. Why the change? Apparently, here Jesus was concerned both about the urgency of their going immediately and the vital lesson they needed to learn about trusting God to provide for their basic needs. Trusting God and God’s provision for basic needs is driven home when Jesus feeds to 5,000, which follows this.
While Jesus’ instructions to the twelve on this occasion are not to be applied literally, there is a valid principle here for all of his followers, namely, that our focus in life should not be on acquiring the world’s junk, but on spreading the message of God’s kingdom. You and I really don’t need another gadget or another toy or you name it. In other words, Matthew 6:33 “…seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things [meaning our basic needs] will be added to you.” Our focus should be on serving others. Our focus should never been on things. If our focus is right, we can trust the Lord to provide for our needs. Not all our wants. Our needs.
Let’s make a point of this to really drive this home. Jesus says “take nothing for your journey.” Jesus is saying, travel light and depend on God. How many of us are traveling light? Ladies, how many pairs of shoes do you have? Do you really need them all? And since I’m an equal opportunity offender… Guys, how many different tools or calibers of firearms do you have? Do you really need them all? How much do we squander on extra stuff that we don’t really need so that we don’t travel light and depend on the Lord? You and I get to wrestle with that…
So our text shows Jesus to be the powerful Lord and the providing Lord. Thirdly,
Jesus is the prophetic Lord
Jesus is the prophetic Lord
The multitudes were still not clear on who Jesus was but, at the very least, they all knew that a great prophet had arisen in Israel. Some thought that John the Baptist had risen from the dead, others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of old had risen again. As Peter will correctly confess, Jesus is more than any of these; he is the Messiah of God.
But in a true sense, Jesus was also the greatest prophet, the one predicted by Moses. As the prophet above all of God’s prophets, Jesus can rightly pronounce God’s judgment on those who reject him. Thus Jesus instructs the twelve to shake the dust off their feet in witness against any village that rejected their message about God’s kingdom. When the Jews of that day traveled in heathen territory, they would shake the dust off their feet as soon as they entered Jewish territory, so as not to contaminate the land. By doing this, the twelve were giving a prophetic demonstration that the village was as pagan as the Gentiles were. It was a pronouncement that they had rejected God’s good news and that their blood was on their own heads.
The point is this: There comes a day at the end of time known as judgement day. The issue on judgment day will be, what have you done with the Lord Jesus Christ?
He is the only way to God. If you receive him as Savior and Lord, you pass from death to life and you will not enter into judgment. If you reject him, you remain under God’s righteous condemnation. To reject the message about Jesus was and is still is a serious matter! Because Jesus is Lord, a person ignores or rejects Jesus at his own peril.
If Jesus is Lord such that he possesses all the power and is perfect in his provision and speaking absolute truth, in light of who Jesus is, what are we to do?
We proclaim His kingdom in His power and authority
We proclaim His kingdom in His power and authority
Proclaiming the good news of God’s Kingdom
Proclaiming the good news of God’s Kingdom
The message we proclaim is the good news of God’s kingdom rule
The message we proclaim is the good news of God’s kingdom rule
The disciples proclaimed “the kingdom of God,” which is also called “the gospel.” The kingdom refers to the fact that God is King and that people must submit to his rule over their lives. The gospel is that if anyone will turn from his sins and submit to Jesus as King, God will graciously forgive his sins and welcome him into his kingdom.
But the good news also contains bad news. As Jesus here implies, some will not submit themselves to his rule. For these, the sober action of shaking the dust from their feet signals that they had rejected the reign of God and thus could only await his impending judgment. As Paul put it, the same message is an aroma of death to some, but of life to others.
I wonder if the people in these towns realized the tremendous fork in the road of life that stared them in the face when the disciples passed through proclaiming the kingdom of God. If they refused the offer, the opportunity was gone and they were left under judgment. If they welcomed the offer, they were forever different, under God’s rule, looking ahead to the day when they would see the King and be with him for eternity.
The gospel we proclaim is the greatest news in the world! If a sinner responds to it by trusting in Jesus as Savior and Lord, he is changed for time and eternity! The gospel was and still is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.
By the way, you never know how far your witness for Christ will reach. None of the twelve spoke directly to Herod, but their message still got to him. Although Herod did not respond in faith, God will use the disciples’ witness to hold Herod accountable when he stands before the great white throne. Herod had the authority to behead John, but he couldn’t stop the powerful spread of the gospel. This morning, a brother from a church in little, Devine, Texas, is going from home to home, sharing the gospel with souls in Communist Cuba. Will he share the gospel with the Cuban leader? Maybe not, but that won’t stop the powerful spread of the gospel.
The message we proclaim should point people to the King
The message we proclaim should point people to the King
The disciples went out proclaiming the kingdom and the result was that Herod and the multitudes were talking about who Jesus was. That’s how it should be: when we bear witness for Christ, people should either understand or else be haunted by the question, “Who is this man, Jesus?” While you may have to answer some basic questions and objections, don’t get sidetracked on secondary matters. We love to get swallowed up in debates with non-believers about the age of the earth or the end of the earth, but those are secondary matters, friends.
Direct people to who Jesus is and to what he did on the cross. Encourage them to read the gospel accounts. As the Apostle John explains, he wrote his gospel John 20:31 “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
Friends, we proclaim to people the good news of God’s kingdom rule in the person of Jesus the Messiah.
We proclaim the gospel by deed and by word in God’s power
We proclaim the gospel by deed and by word in God’s power
The battle we fight is primarily spiritual, and so we must pray that God will deliver people from Satan’s domain of darkness. God must open their eyes to the truth of the gospel. In the Great Commission, Jesus said, Matthew 28:18–19 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” He said, Acts 1:8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Relying on Christ’s authority and power, we tell people about the saving grace to be found at the cross of Jesus Christ.
Here’s the thing… Our lives must back up our message. The disciples were common men whose lives were different because of Jesus. When they went, they lived simply and stayed in homes. The people could see that their lives were in line with the message they proclaimed. If people see the reality of Christ in us, they will be more inclined to listen to our message. The disciples not only preached, but also healed in Jesus’ name. This means also that we must perform deeds of mercy that minister to the whole person. Certainly we can and should pray that God would heal the illness of the one with whom we are sharing the gospel. If they need basic medical care, we should try to provide it. If they need food and shelter, we should help the person obtain these things. But every person’s greatest need is not physical; it is spiritual. If we provide for the person’s physical needs but neglect the spiritual, they still will die and face God’s judgment. Each person desperately needs to know Jesus Christ as Savior.
There are so many ways in which you can offer assistance here, ministering to spiritual needs of souls. The physical often opens the door to the spiritual. So let me first share with you that we have a great and growing need with our Wednesday evening suppers to help shop for and prepare the wonderful meals that are being served weekly. We are still looking for parents and others to step up and help with the children’s areas on Sundays - one Sunday a month from each parent would probably get things covered.
And what I know is in the back of our minds, we are without a staff member to lead us in music. Pastor Carlos has been called to shepherd a flock out west. Friends, I have to inform you, that just like there are buyers and sellers markets in real estate, there are times which favor churches when we are seeking to staff and there are times that favor candidates who are searching for God’s call. Right now, things favor the candidates. For several reasons, there are thousands more church openings than there are candidates to fill them. In time, our church is going to be adding our two positions to those thousands. Why am I telling you this? You’re going to need to step up and proclaim the gospel by deed and by word in God’s power. Right now, we need more of you whom God has imparted the talent of singing to join in this ministry. The prophet Isaiah, when he was given that grand vision of Heaven’s throne room heard the question, “Whom shall we send?” He responded boldly, “Here I am. Send me.” Please don’t hear this appeal, in light of hearing how Jesus has purposed you for gospel ministry, and just sit there and whisper, “Here I am Pastor, ask me!” Call, text, smoke signal when there’s not a burn ban.
There’s eternal consequences to this stuff. Some of you may know that there used to be a TV show called “The Lone Ranger.” Some of you probably watched that quite a bit. I remember catching re-runs when I’d stay home sick from school. I remember that at the end of each episode, after the Lone Ranger had saved the victims from some villain, he would mount his horse, Silver. The rescued victim would ask Tonto, who always managed to be standing nearby, “Who is that masked man?” Tonto would reply, “Don’t you know? That’s the Lone Ranger.” Silver would stand on his hind legs, the Lone Ranger would wave and cry, “Hi ho, Silver, away!” He would ride off into the sunset and get ready for the next episode when he would rescue someone else in need.
Through our witness, people should be able to answer the question, “Who is this man Jesus?” They should know, “He is the Lord God in human flesh, who offered himself in the place of sinners. Whoever trusts in him is reconciled to God and receives eternal life as his free gift.” God has entrusted to us the great task of carrying on the work of Jesus. As Peter instructs us, 1 Peter 3:15 “in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”
Jesus is the Savior and Lord, coming to judge the world and reign as King! Let’s boldly proclaim it.