Bring Jesus To Your World

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,

‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ (vs. 9)

            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.