Luke 10:1–24
10After
this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place where he himself intended to go. 2He said to
them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the
laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers
into his harvest. 3Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. 4Carry
no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. 5Whatever
house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6And if anyone is
there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it
will return to you. 7Remain in the same house, eating and drinking
whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about
from house to house. 8Whenever you enter a town and its people
welcome you, eat what is set before you; 9cure the sick who are
there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of
God has come near to you.’ 10But whenever you enter a town and
they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, 11‘Even
the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against
you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12I tell you,
on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. 13“Woe
to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in
sackcloth and ashes. 14But at the judgment it will be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon than for you. 15And you, Capernaum, will you be
exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. 16“Whoever
listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever
rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
17The
seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit
to us!” 18He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a
flash of lightning. 19See, I have given you authority to tread on
snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will
hurt you. 20Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits
submit to you, but rejoice that your
names are written in heaven.” 21At that same hour Jesus
rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent
and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious
will. 22All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no
one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” 23Then turning to
the disciples, Jesus said to them privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see
what you see! 24For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired
to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not
hear it.”
My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea,
So burdened with sin and distressed,
Till I heard a sweet voice, saying, “Make Me your
choice”;
And I entered the “Haven of Rest”!
I’ve anchored my
soul in the “Haven of Rest,”
I’ll
sail the wide seas no more;
The
tempest may sweep o’er the wild, stormy, deep,
In
Jesus I’m safe evermore.
By
now I am assuming that you understand that we have a reason for being here. The
God we serve has always chosen a group of people to act as his witnesses in the
world. At this time in history, we are those people. We have the responsibility
of going out to the world we live in and search for those people who are living
(as the song says) in “sad exile” “burdened with sin and distressed.” We are
responsible for helping those people (people who are being tossed around by the
storms of life) find a relationship with the living Jesus that provides peace for
the moment, hope for the future and strength to face each challenge.
Like
those first disciples whom Jesus sent out, we have been commissioned to
proclaim to the people we meet that,
We
are not telling people that the kingdom of God is coming like it is some future
event we can predict and plan for. We don’t have to wait for the last trumpet
call of God and for Jesus to appear on the clouds. We are bringing the kingdom
of God right into their presence. We are saying to the people we meet, “if you want to see what the Kingdom of God
can do in the life of an ordinary person then all you have to do is look at
me.”
I
know this sounds intimidating but I believe this is our responsibility. You and
I are supposed to be putting ourselves forward as present time examples of what
God is able to do in the lives of ordinary people.
Does
this mean we will have to be perfect? No. What this means is that we will have
to be forgiven AND there’s a difference. Does this mean that we have to have
memorized the bible? No. This means that we need to be able to share what God
is doing in our lives every day. No memorization required. Do we have to feel
called to be a preacher? No, but we do need to be convinced that we children of
God.
We
are not offering people our wisdom or our guidance. We are not expecting that
people will adopt our political leanings or dress like we dress; we are
offering people an opportunity to be in a relationship with Jesus that we
believe will change their lives. In a paraphrase of the Apostle Paul, we have
been blessed to be a blessing.
8And God is able to provide you with every blessing in
abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share
abundantly in every good work. 2
Corinthians 9:8
What
we are asking is that you be willing to share your blessings with the people
you know.
Not
everyone is going to be receptive. Some will be downright hostile.
I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of
wolves. (vs. 3)
This
means that we need to be convinced that what we do is important. It needs to be
important enough to us that we will take whatever risk is required. Our job is
not to harangue people and try to argue them into the kingdom. Our job is to
share with them what God has done to bless our lives; to show them that the
Kingdom has arrived.
If
they don’t want to hear it then we need to simply let it go and move on. I know
that’s hard when you care but there are other witnesses who might be better
suited to touch those people’s lives AND there are always other people who are
waiting to hear what we have to say.
Those
first disciples were told to take nothing with them. They were supposed to
depend on God to provide for them everything that they would need as they did
their Master’s work. This is an important reminder for us as well. We need to
learn to trust God to provide for us. We probably aren’t going to be tromping
down dusty roads and depending on the charity of strangers for our food and
shelter but we do need to trust that God will provide the opportunity for us to
share the Good News we carry, that he will provide the words we need to say to
make the message effective and that he will provide the touch upon people’s
hearts that will move them to take a step closer to the Kingdom.
We
need to realize that we have been enormously privileged to be able to carry
this wonderful Good News out into our world. This isn’t work we do because we
are trying to prove ourselves worthy of heaven; this isn’t about having power
of gaining influence over people’s lives. We aren’t seeking status or even
recognition. This is work we do because part of us is already living in heaven
and we are simply grateful to be counted as one of God’s children.
…do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to
you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (vs. 20)
But,
just as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, we don’t have forever which
means that there will always be a sense of urgency about what we do. The phrase
“…greet no one on the road.” (vs. 4) doesn’t mean that we
are supposed to be rude or unfriendly. What it means is that we have lots to do
so we don’t have time to get distracted. We are not out for a stroll we are out
doing Kingdom work.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. (vs.
2)
Summer
has seemed to just flash by and the older I get the faster it seems to go. I
remember as a child that summer had moments when it seemed to go on forever and
I also remember once making the mistake of saying to my mother, “I’m bored.” Her response to me was, “why don’t you go and clean out the garage.”
Our
garage was big enough for two full sized cars but we never parked a car in it.
It was never quite finished. It had a dirt floor and was packed full of stuff.
It was like a scene from American Pickers. Right in the middle of the floor was
a handmade cement mixer that my father picked up with the intention of mixing
up enough cement to put a floor down in the garage but there was all this junk
that had to be cleaned out.
From
my perspective, “cleaning out the garage” was a life sentence AND I never really
knew where to get started.
I
have a feeling that for many of us being told that we are being sent out into
the world to embody the kingdom is a lot like standing in the doorway of that
garage. How long is this going to take? Where do I start? There are all kinds
of reasons why this doesn’t happen.
I
was trying to decide where this conversation was headed and I realized that
this sounded a lot like we were going to conclude by saying AGAIN (for umpteenth
time) that we need to commit ourselves to bible study, prayer, worship,
fellowship and service AND that would all be OK. We really do need to commit
ourselves to those disciplines in order for us to live a Christian life.
BUT
first, it seems to me that we have to take one step back and have a little talk
with Jesus about the PURPOSE of our lives.
As
Christians, the goal will always be for us to see the purpose of our lives
differently. We have been called out of the world (that’s what the word “church”
means) to live by God’s rules and to fulfill God’s expectations. WE HAVE said that we are willing to
make sacrifices in order to be God’s hands and voices and this requires that we
be prepared but more than that this requires that we be HIS. WE HAVE TO BE
CONVINCED THAT WE BELONG TO HIM.
IN
JESUS’ DAY THE DISCIPLES MIGHT HAVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH A FEW PARLOUR TRICKS LIKE
STEPPING ON SNAKES AND SCORPIONS BUT WE LIVE IN A MUCH MORE CYNICAL WORLD AND GOING TO JAIL FOR JESUS OR EVEN
GOING TO A CROSS FOR JESUS MIGHT ACTUALLY BE THE EASY WAY OUT.
WE
HAVE TO BE WILLING TO LIVE FOR JESUS. That’s the hard part. WE NEED TO BE
WILLING TO SAY TO OURSELVES AND TO ANYONE WHO WILL LISTEN THAT OUR LIVES are
not our own. We ARE NOT in the world simply to achieve success or make A LOT OF
MONEY OR TRY TO HAVE THE MOST FUN. REMEMBER “THE ONE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST
TOYS” IS JUST AS DEAD.
Jesus
gave this same speech in his sermon on the mount. He said that we shouldn’t
make seeking food and clothing the focus of our lives. He said that we should
never let ourselves get so entangled with money that we allow our bank account
to become our god. He said that what we treasure will be where we invest our
lives and then he said that we should invest our lives in God’s kingdom; in
this relationship with our heavenly father.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and
all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
I
GUESS WHAT WE’VE COME TO IS THIS…OUR FIRST TASK IS TO SEEK GOD, TO DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO HEAR HIS VOICE, TO MAKE
WHATEVER changes are REQUIRED TO take on his nature and to be able to live our
lives as his faithful children. Then we will take the Kingdom out into the
world because we CAN’T HELP OURSELVES. It will be so much of who we are that we
will do what we are called to do without even trying.
WE
PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES HERE (in this place) TO HELP YOU FULFILL THIS GOAL. There
are programs like Disciple Bible Study (which has just gotten started), three
different adult Sunday School classes, times when you can pray, mid-week Bible
study opportunities, opportunities to serve at The Gathering and Children’s
Services AND a new focus small groups. Think of these as basic studies in
Christian living and THINK OF THIS place AS your FIRST STOP ON a JOURNEY OUT
INTO THE WORLD. Prepare yourself, go out into the world and live for Jesus
every day.
I yielded myself to His tender embrace,
In faith taking hold of the Word,
My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul;
The “Haven of Rest” is my Lord.
I’ve anchored my
soul in the “Haven of Rest,”
I’ll sail the wide seas no
more;
The tempest may sweep o’er the wild,
stormy, deep,
In Jesus I’m safe evermore.
The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole,
Has been the old story so blest,
Of Jesus, who’ll save whosoever will have
A home in the “Haven of Rest.”
I’ve anchored my soul in
the “Haven of Rest,”
I’ll sail the wide seas no
more;
The tempest may sweep o’er the wild,
stormy, deep,
In Jesus I’m safe evermore.