13. Who is Jesus?
November 14th, 2010
The Sending
Our text this morning is extremely important for our Spiritual development. As we see how Jesus trains His disciples to be leaders in the kingdom of God. After a long stretch of relentless ministry things have finally slowed down enough for Jesus to get a little rest. He has been traveling and ministering in the region of Galilee for over a year and the disciples have been following Him around listening and watching. Jesus has recently made His way back to His hometown of Nazareth for the last time in His ministry and here He calls the disciples together. These guys have been very close to Jesus: they have watched Him heal the sick, cast out demons, calm storms, and preach about the kingdom of God. Now He is getting ready to send them out to do the same.
We are in Luke 9:1. Jesus gathers His twelve disciples and sends them to the cities and villages of Galilee to heal the sick and to preach about the kingdom of God. Jesus is a leader but He does not lead alone. He takes on these disciples. At first their job is just to learn from Him and He invests Himself in them. The two times in the Gospels where Jesus stops to explain a parable He is stopping to explain it to the disciples. He is not just hanging out with them. He is training them to be leaders in His kingdom. When Jesus is done there wont be one man preaching about the kingdom of God, there will be twelve.
You can only learn so much from watching. The disciples are amazed by Jesus but they don’t think for a moment that they can do what He does. Biblical leadership is naturally replicating. Jesus knows He is not going to be around forever. The day will come when He is not with anymore and they will have to carry on without Him so He sends out His disciples to do the things that He was doing so that after He is gone His work will continue. This is a two week practice run. He is putting them on a bike with training wheels. This is like boot camp for the disciples.
When they are sent out they are sent out in pairs. Jesus does this for a few reasons: Mosaic law states that the testimony of two or three witnesses is considered valid. Thus having two disciples go gives a legal authority to what they are saying. At the same time this would enable them to protect, encourage, and support each other. Going out in pairs is also followed in Acts making it a good evangelistic model.
Before Jesus sends them out He gathers them together. The unifying force in the church is the mission of Jesus. We fight and divide over differences in theology because we have lost sight of our mission. Jesus trained the disciples to send them out into the world so they could save lost people. When we look inward we become very religious. We compete and argue over different interpretations of Scripture, and we divide because our identity is found in ourselves and in what we believe. When Jesus brings the disciples together He is giving them a common goal, a unified purpose, a singular identity. When our identity is found in the mission not the belief we are unified by Him, in Him, and through Him. Our shared mission is to bring the love of Jesus to the world.
Lk 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, Lk 9:2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
You can imagine getting this kind of power from Jesus would be pretty awesome. Most of us would probably feel pretty good about our relationship with God if we could cure diseases and cast demons. One thing we must not forget: Judas was among the disciples. He would have been preaching, healing, and casting out demons just like the rest. His testimony of what happened was no different from the others. He experienced everything the other disciples did even to the point of experiencing the power of God working through Him. Thus we conclude that it not possible to evaluate a person’s true character by their religious activity.
Before Jesus sends the disciples out He equips them with the tools they will need. He gives them authority to preach about the kingdom of God and to heal every disease. Jesus gives the disciples a message but He also gives them the tools to get people’s attention. Their miracles will give authority to their message. In addition He gives them power to cast out demons. So the disciples are prepared to handle natural and supernatural ailments. They are equipped to deal with people’s physical and spiritual needs. Jesus prepares the disciples and then He sends them out to serve. This is an important distinction. He doesn’t send them out right after He calls them.
This is well over a year into Jesus ministry. Jesus sends them out only after they have spent considerable time with Him. One of the most important things for a new believer needs to do, is just spend time with Jesus. The reason Jesus doesn’t send out the disciples sooner: is they were not ready. The goal of our relationship with God is to become mature, productive kingdom workers. Most of us don’t start out there. If you are new to the faith then what you need to do is channel your passion for God into studying His Word and spending time with Him. We can all share our story and bring people to Jesus but before we dive in to carrying out His mission we need to make sure our relationship with Him is solid. You don’t help anyone if you run out too early and your faith fails because you weren’t properly prepared.
Our spiritual lives develop much like our physical ones. When you first come to Christ you are like a baby. You don’t really do much, you just eat and grow. Babies don’t produce anything, except poop but I don’t have a spiritual connection for that. Then as you get older you start developing and as you mature your parents give you chores. You reach an age where it is time to help out around the house that a level of maturity. Then as you grow you get the point where you are ready to make it on your own. You go out and you prepare to start a new family. Same is true in our spiritual lives: you start off cute but useless and you grow to being mature and productive.
This is the brilliance of Jesus method. He is a leader. He calls regular people, who would never have been leaders on their own, to follow Him. As the follow they get to hear Him speak and see Him work and their faith grows. They believe in the power of Jesus and they become committed to Him. They become servants until the point comes when they are ready to lead. Jesus takes them from where they were and leads them step by step to being like Him. This is the progression of our Spiritual lives: the call to follow Christ is a call to leadership.
Lk 9:3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. Lk 9:4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.
Jesus is sending His disciples on a short tour. So He tells them to pack light so they can move quickly. For the disciples one of the main points of this trip is to learn to rely on God’s provision. If they were well prepared to travel then they would only rely on themselves. The goal of this is to build the disciples trust in God. Jesus has been traveling around this area for over a year. His is immensely popular and the disciples would be known by most of the villages for their close association with Jesus. It should not be hard for them to find a warm welcome and lodging.
Jesus is sending the disciples only to Jewish towns at this point. The message of the kingdom of God is still very new and the Jews are barely ready for it. Going to the gentiles at this point would be premature. After the resurrection Jesus will instruct the disciples to go to all people with the message of salvation. Jesus also instructs His disciples to stay at one house the whole time. Moving from house to house could get them stuck in village politics. They would be popular and a lot of people will try to get them to stay at their home. Moving would waste time and also be a temptation to the apostles to continually seek out the best accommodations for themselves. The disciples are not a rock band. While they would be popular they are there to do the work of God not to see who offers the softest beds and best breakfasts.
Lk 9:5 If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.” Lk 9:6 So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
If the disciples were welcomed into a home then they should bless that home. If they were not welcomed then they were to shake the dust off their feet when they left the town. This was a cultural Jewish action that basically said even the dust of your town is defiling and I rid myself of you. If we stayed someplace really dirty we might take a shower just to wash off the gross feeling we had from staying there. That basically the idea: just being around you makes me dirty.
Rejecting the disciples was in turn rejecting the message of Jesus. Shaking the dust off their feet would be treating Jews like they were gentiles. This is a warning that if they don’t change they will no longer be God’s people. So the twelve not only have power to heal and cast out demons but to curse a city. That curse holds stock with God.
Lk 9:7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed, because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, Lk 9:8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. Lk 9:9 But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.
A good portion of the Jewish population believed in resurrection but they also had some really funny ideas about it. They thought a dead spirit could come back in another person and their spirit would empower the living being. This is how many Jews explained Jesus miraculous power. They believed some great prophet was at work in Him giving Him power to heal and perform miracles. Many of them speculated that the prophet possessing Jesus was John the Baptists, which creates a problem for Herod as he already had John the Baptist beheaded. Pretty impressive that a few ordinary guys traveling around doing the work of the kingdom of God would reach the ears of such a powerful political leader so quickly. The disciples mission was a great success. The Word of God was spreading. They went out and shared the message of the gospel with the world and because if it people came to believe and the Kingdom of God expanded.
For a long time I wrestled with church growth because I didn’t want it to sound like it was all about numbers. What I realized: each number represents a soul. Every person here is one person who is connected to the love of Jesus. Our mission is to go out into the world and bring as many people as we can to Jesus. What if we started but just inviting the people in our lives to be a part of what we are doing?
The disciples had time to sit and learn. Then Jesus sent them out to bring people in to the kingdom of God. We have had time to sit and learn. It is time for us to go out and bring people in to the kingdom. Jesus is sending us out into the world and to share the good news of His love. Every day we walk past people who need His love in their lives. This week I want to ask you to reach one. One person who needs Jesus, no excuses, no justifications, just go to them, share Jesus love with them, and bring them with you next week. It is time for us to grow the church by expanding the kingdom of God. In John 20 Jesus says: Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you. Jesus sends us out into the world to show the world His love. It is time for us to fulfill the task that Jesus gave us. This week, start with one.
