Bring Someone With You! Series

Bring Someone With You

Made for Mission: Week 6

March 1st, 2020 CCCAG

Scripture- Luke 8

Good morning. We are in the last week of our six-week series called Made for Mission.

Over the past five weeks we’ve talked about how all Christians have been called by God to join in His mission to reach the world.

We’ve talked about what we’re supposed to say, who we are supposed to say it and why we should live on mission to begin with.

If you have missed any of them, they are on the podcast. The links as well as the scriptures we are looking at today are on the back of your bulletins.

A quick question to start us out

By a show of hands, how many of you know your great grandparents first names?

Have many of you know your grandparents first names?

I use this example to show you a truth-

You are only a few decades away from being totally forgotten.

A great, motivational thought for a Sunday morning isn’t it?

Now here is the good news. God’s calling, on your life, is always bigger than your lifetime.

While just about all of us can’t go back three generations in our own family trees, that is not the case with our spiritual family. Based on how the Bible reads I have a suspicion that in Heaven we will be able to study our spiritual family trees forward and backwards.

Since God is outside time, I wonder if we will be able to see how ultimately we became followers of Jesus.

I’m wondering if we will be able to follow up to see the ripples of our life time in impacting those in the future spiritually.

Kind of like ancestory.com but on steroids.

Today we are going go back to a familiar portion of scripture that has been used a lot this series. It’s a scene in the life from a disciple of Jesus named Peter.

We’ve talked about Peter a lot in this series. Peter is one of those insert foot open mouth kind of guys. He was always getting into trouble for speaking before thinking.

If you’ve ever done that before then you’ll be able to relate to him.

If you ever make bonehead mistakes, Peter is your guy. For some of us, he might even be your patron saint.

Today we are going to read two stories found in the book of Luke.

Read Luke 8:40-42

Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him.1 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

Jairus meets Jesus and His disciples just as they get off the boat.

His description as the synagogue leader was a big deal. In that culture think city council member or even mayor of that area.

From a church growth perspective, this could be a really big opportunity for Jesus and his movement. If a synagogue leader were to become a follower, he might influence the whole city and even the surrounding region.

I’ve heard reports that Justin Bieber has become a Christian.

For anyone over 45 or so- he’s a famous pop music star. This this generations Elvis, or if you are a really seasoned person, Frank Sinatra.

So often the church loves to take advantage of a celebrity’s influence to spread the gospel but I don’t think that is normally how God chooses to work.

God loves doing extraordinary things through very ordinary people.

We will see that in a minute. Back to the story-

I don’t know what Jesus is thinking but I bet the disciples are not blind to the opportunity at hand which meant that Jarius is the immediate priority for them.

Check out what happens next.

Read Luke 8:42b-48

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,[c] but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

It’s almost funny how this scene starts. Here Jesus is, in a massive crowd of people, all pressing in to get his attention.