September 13

Luke 9:1-5

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

9 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, ² and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ³ He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. ⁴ Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. ⁵ If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

I said to Alexander, I'm glad that he did not kick that bucket. Some get it, some don't. Good morning.

Good morning. It's always good to be with you. Why are you not playing? Oh, okay.

He has a really good excuse. I missed you. I missed you.

Thank you, worship team Small But Mighty. As you said, we'll get back into the groove after next week, because next week we're gone, and Catherine and Dave are going to help us again. Thank you for being here.

And what a wonderful place that we have so many folks that are gifted that just come, and then we can just do what the Lord asks us to do. I'm so grateful for that. Brother, we are in your holy presence, and that's such a gift.

You know, Lord, that as we gather in this place right now, it is not a group of people. It is your people, each one that is loved by you in compassion. And as we sit here, Lord, maybe with a loved one next to us, or maybe alone, we know that it's not just us, because right next to us, you are sitting with your Holy Spirit.

Thank you for speaking loud and clear into our hearts and lives again today, Holy Spirit of God. And in these moments, may we see Jesus and only him. Amen.

At the Christian conference once, they asked, how do you measure the spiritual maturity of a church? For a moment, there was this, and then someone said two words, others focused. And at that moment, it was like a light bulb just went on for everyone. It was, that's true.

It's not about how many courses I've done, how many studies I've done, where I've been, where I've worshipped. It's about how my life functions in serving the public, because isn't that what Jesus did and what Jesus asked when he said, follow me? Serve. Serve others.

Just think about it for a second. When he calls and he says, come follow me, be my disciple, he says, you can't be that unless you do a few things. Number one, you make me number one in your life.

Number two, you take your cross every day and you die for yourself. Number three, you walk in my footsteps and walk wherever I am going to walk. And where did he walk? He was always looking for people.

He was always serving people. He went into dark alleys where no one else would go. He spoke to people that no one else would speak to.

He loved and cared. So when we speak about following today, let's hear what Jesus asks of us. I'm going to take you to Luke chapter nine.

I'm going to read verses one to five. That's our first reading. When Jesus had called the twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases.

And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them, take nothing for the journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shift. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.

If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. So as we meet them here, the disciples have been with Jesus for quite a while and they've seen him do his work. They've seen the miracles.

They've seen him heal people. They've seen him love people. They've seen him care for people.

They've seen him associate with those on the periphery, giving so freely of himself. And in this moment, he's kind of looking at them and he's saying, so let me tell you how the kingdom of God works. What you've been doing is you've learned from me and I've been training you.

Working and living in the kingdom of God is not about you sitting back and watching me do all the work and say, boy, Jesus, that's really good. What you've been doing is learning how to go out into this world and to go do what I have been doing. So do you see what's going on here? Up to this point for them, it was all about them.

Who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom? Who's going to be the first of us? Who's going to be the leader of the pack? Who's going to sit in this place of honour next to Jesus? And Jesus just in this moment flips that script and says, following me is not about you. Following me is being trained to go do what I've been teaching you. But didn't you notice when he sends them out, he does not say, can I just ask you 12 quickly, put up your hands, who thinks that they are really well qualified to go do this? Who thinks that they've had enough training? Who needs another little course somewhere to go do this? He doesn't ask them that.

He says, go do. But he says a wonderful thing in verse 1. It says, and he gave them his power. When he sends you, he gives you his power.

That word power in Greek is a beautiful word. It's the word dynamos. You know that from the word dynamite.

You know that from the word dynamic. You know it from a word that sounds like dynamos called dynamo. Dynamos means strength, power, but it's a beautiful little word in there too.

And the Greek meaning ability. He said to them, I will give you my strength, my power, and the ability to do my serving. So see, here's the thing about serving.

Not only does it take you right out of your comfort zone, but it also starts working in you and allowing the power of the kingdom of God to start working in you. And the moment that happens, it starts changing your life. Can I make up a word today? It dynamizes you.

Or maybe the English word, it's empowers. It gives you all you need. All you need to do is to say yes.

To me, the most beautiful verse, and I think Alexander was written this down for my funeral. The most beautiful verse in the Bible, Philippians 4.13. Who knows what that, no, I'm not going to ask that because Dave's going to put up his hand and then I have to buy him a coffee again. Philippians 3.14. I can do all things.

Why and how? Through Christ who gives me strength. You know which is the word strength that Paul uses here? In Dunamouti, who gives me his power, his strength, his ability. Go.

But it doesn't stop there. Let me read the second passage with you. Chapter 10.

First four verses. After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, the harvest is plentiful but, and there's the but, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send out workers into his harvest field. Go. I'm sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Do not take a purse or bag or sandals and do not greet anyone. Did you see what happens here? So he sends 12. And now he multiplies that 12 by 6 and he gets 72.

What is he saying? It's easy to look and say, oh it was the 12 that he sent and they learned from him. So no, no, no, no, no. 12 became 72.

72 became us who are sent into this world to go and to do what he has taught us to do. To go and to live what he has taught us to live. To go and to show and to tell people about Jesus.

The one who saves, the one who gives, the one who loves, the one who empowers. Did you notice the other thing about them? Nowhere does it say they were extraordinary. They were just ordinary people that Jesus chose and said go do the work and they went and did.

And it's so strange that when Jocelyn comes up today and we didn't plan this to say I need some folks and will you come help. That the Lord planned this sermon for this week about going and serving and having the ability to serve and getting the power from God to serve. So God had a plan for this day.

Then he says to them, verse 3, go because the harvest is horrible. The fruit potential is off the charts. It is such a harvest day.

There is so much to harvest. Just go and go do the work that I am asking you to do. Unfortunately, I think somewhere along the road, and I don't like to say things like this because you know I'm not a negative person and I'm not saying this in a negative.

Somewhere along the road, sometimes I think the church gets lost and they forget about this. They do not see the fruit potential. We just kind of work this way.

The kingdom of God does not work this way. The kingdom of God works. Just think of the fruit potential.

I'll come back to this now for a second of what we do every summer. Our goal was a thousand boxes this year for the fruit bank. We did a thousand boxes, nearly 1200 boxes.

Thank you. Do you realise what that does? Put two boxes in one household and we have served 600 households with at least a little bit of something to eat and give to the kids. Imagine the fruit potential when we start serving and doing and giving of what we have.

But I think Jesus knew about the 80-20 principle, the principle they call the Pareto principle, where 20% of the people do 80% of the work. Because what does he say to them? The harvest is plentiful, but the work isn't. We pray the Lord of the harvest.

We sin no more. We can't do this work if we don't all do this work. Each one of us is needed for what God asks us.

Then he says to them, there's an urgency to eat because that harvest is ready. And you know what happens to the harvest if it's ready and you don't harvest it, it will go to waste. Can you imagine that? One day we stand before the king, we said there was a harvest in the middle of the day.

Go, raise the garden down. But there is an urgency. Go, he says, leave all the stuff behind.

Don't even greet the people on the road. That sounds a little rude. But what Jesus was saying to them, remember, they're not Canadians.

I found it hard when I got here in the beginning. I walk in the store and someone says, how's it going? So number one for me, I'm English, it's how are you doing? But how's it going? And then they say, I'm good. And there they go.

I learned, hi, how are you? I'm fine, thank you. How are you doing? For them it was even worse. You stop to greet someone at the road, you're going to have dinner with them that evening.

That's how it worked. You have to ask about the family. You have to ask about what they were doing, how their friends are doing.

And then it ends up, and you remember where we come from in South Africa, the African tradition. You don't just say, you have to do a lot more than that. And what he's saying is, folks, there's a time for that.

But right now there's an urgency that harvest is out there waiting. Go, please go. Don't hang on.

It's time. Now is the time to go. You can't say tomorrow.

Maybe we have today. Today is the agency to go and be part of the workers that bring in the harvest that God has prepared. Will it cost you something? Of course it's going to cost you something.

Look at Jesus. When he came and did this, it cost him his life. Are you going to pay a price for that? Of course you're going to pay a price for that.

His life wasn't very easy. For them it was even worse when he said that. Because he says, I'm going to send you like lambs among the wolves.

And for them, they were persecuted. And yet, can you remember the story of the church? And yet they went and they did this. Acts 1 and 2, go read that again.

Here's this fisherman man called Peter. He's out there preaching because God said, go do this. 3,000 people come to Christ.

What a harvest. Chapter 2 tells us about the church in its beginning. What did they do? They came together every day.

They broke their bread together. They sold their homes. They sold their stuff so that they could help one another.

They loved people. They cared for people. And people looked at that and said, we want that.

And the word says, and God added to their number every day it was of lambs among the wolves. And yet they continued to do what he said, go, go. Unfortunately, Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire.

And the church became complacent. They'd go out on a Sunday and sit in church and they'd go home. And they'd come back next Sunday and they'd sit in church and they would go home.

And what happens to the harvest? I'm not sure it's recovered yet. I'll do that. But we can change that.

And that's why the call to follow is a call that says, go, go, go. Because I'm sending you. Go.

Go mentor young people. Go become teachers to young people in the church. I need a small group.

He is the cool thing. Verse 1, chapter 10. He sent them to go ahead of him to all the places that he was going to lead them.

When he sends you to go, you're not going alone. He's right there following you. All you have to do is knock on the door.

And once you've knocked on the door and they open, you'll go right in. That's it. That's it.

All you have to do is go, go, go. Hi. Now let me take you to verse 17.

Thanks, Ted. You're gonna do 17 and 18. Verse 17.

So they go, they do this. The 72 returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. They came back and they didn't say, man, we're tired.

We're worn out. We just can't do this anymore. They come back and they are filled with joy because they did what Jesus asked them to do.

That's what happens when we go out into that harvest that he puts out there. We come back with the joy of the Lord in our heart. He does not tyre you.

He energises you. But then verse 18. And he replied, Jesus said, you can add a little few words in brackets.

And Jesus said, while you were serving me, I saw Satan fall like lightning. When we go out, when we do what he asks us to do, when we put others first, we're putting hell out of business. And you say, I thought I was playing, just playing the piano.

I thought I was just kind of getting the team together and doing this. I thought I was just reading at the door. I thought I was just helping with the coffee in the back.

I thought I was just the guy who made sure that the preacher man, boss man, had a mic that was working. I was just the guy who put the slides on the screen. Every time you serve, you're putting hell out of business.

What do you think? Are you going to be part of that team? It is not easy, Lord, when you say, come follow me. We spoke about easy. The cross was never easy.

Spikes on your back was never easy. The nails on the cross was never easy. Yet you say follow me.

For there is an amazing promise. Thank you that we may be part of your team. Thank you for this amazing thing that gives of itself so freely, gives of its gifts so freely.

May you continue, Lord, to bless us and help us to go freely. Thank you. In the precious name of Jesus.