Odyssey: The Call
Matthew 10:1-8
I am a student of history. By the mid 1700’s, the East Coast was settled and civilized. There were virtually no settlements and only a few forts west of the Allegheny Mountains because it was a very dangerous territory. People would get scalped in the frontier, but no one was getting scalped on the East Coast. In cities like Boston, many of the streets were paved in brick. They had gas street lamps and running water and many of the modern conveniences of the day. But the city settlers heard these tales of opportunity and the expanse of free land in the west, untold riches, and of gold and made a commitment to become pioneers. Can you imagine that? Setting off for the wide-open wilderness when they were used to all the modern conveniences they enjoyed. Of the people who made the commitment to become pioneers, the majority stopped in Pittsburgh. That’s how Pittsburgh was founded, by people who set out west, and decided it was too hard. A few of the brave made it to Ohio and Cincinnati and then quit the quest and settled. Fewer still made it to St. Louis. So all of the folks who made the commitment to become pioneers eventually became settlers. And the same thing has happened in the church. Many of you who made a commitment to the wild unexpected adventure of following Jesus have become settled in your faith, instead of hearing and responding to the continued call of God to the odyssey. Too many Christians have become settlers in their faith rather than pioneers on a journey. They have gotten comfortable in their routines and are living low commitment, low sacrifice and low risk lives. They are in a place of comfort and complacency.
In the last two verses of Matthew 9. Jesus says, “The world is lost and needs a lot of help. That is why I have come. So the harvest out there is plentiful, the work is great but the laborers are few, so pray to the Lord of the harvest for workers.” In our Scripture today, Jesus is commissioning the disciples to the work of the kingdom. This is when their odyssey, their journey of faith begins and what a ride it will be!
There are several things we learn about the call to the odyssey. First, Jesus calls us to himself. Jesus doesn’t send us out to go do some great works. Instead the first thing that Jesus calls us to is an intimate relationship with Him. Our first passion in life should be our relationship with Jesus Christ. He should be our identity, our defining life center. There are a lot of people that believe in Jesus, but their defining life center isn’t Jesus. It’s their profession or money or sexuality or material possessions. Here is what is so sad. Somehow, we have lost our first love. And when you lose your first love for Jesus Christ, another passion comes in to fill that void. Today people say they love Jesus, but Jesus is not their passion, something or someone else is their passion. See ultimately it’s about your passion. See that is your first call, Jesus called his disciples to be in an intimate relationship with him. That it be your first passion, because it is really your passion that will determine how you really live your life.
Everybody in the room believes in healthy eating, but what sabotages your belief is your passion for food. You see, sisters and brothers, you always gravitate towards that which you secretly love most. When Jesus calls us, the first call is not to go do good works, that’s a byproduct. It’s not to be moral person, that’s a byproduct, but to be in an intimate relationship with him. You will become as small or as great as your controlling desires. The disciple’s life is defined by the relationship with Jesus. Everything stems from that. So you see the first call of Jesus Christ is to an intimate relationship with himself. He becomes our defining life center.
Second, Jesus calls everyone. Did you notice “Who” Jesus called and “Who” Jesus can use. There was significant diversity within the disciples. Simon, Andrew, James and John came from the world of fishermen. Levi was a despised tax collector, considered to be a thief and unclean in the eyes of the Jews. Simon was a zealot, an extreme nationalist for God. James and John, the sons of Zebedee, must have had a rough and tumble sort of volatile personalities that you might find in a biker bar, Judas was the only disciple from Judea. In Acts 4 it says when people looked at Peter and John they recognized immediately that they were unschooled and uneducated men. None of them were part of the religiously correct, or, by contemporary culture terms defined as successful. The point is this. Jesus did everything intentionally and thus he was intentional about diversity amongst his followers. But in choosing this diversity Jesus is saying that he calls everyone and that means Jesus is calling you and He is calling me too.
Third, Jesus calls us to unity amidst this diversity. This unity is based on three things. First is a shared faith or hunger for more. Each time the disciples were called to follow Jesus, they immediately left everything and started to follow him. They saw in Jesus’ invitation the opportunity for something more out of life and they knew the place to pursue that was in Jesus. But if you look beyond the disciples, what you find is that these people were really hungry spiritually and some were even desperate. They would scream until they got Jesus’ attention. They would destroy someone’s roof in attempt to get to him, and they would crash dinner parties uninvited. These are the people Jesus can use, whose spiritual hunger and desire for something more leads them to do anything and abandon everything for the sake of Jesus. When you come to a place where you know that you can’t do life by yourself then you’re in the place where Jesus can use you.
Second is a shared relationship. Not only is this relationship with Jesus our identity, but it is the basis for our unity. Our community and fellowship is based on the relationship with Jesus we share. Jesus is telling us this community will not be based on politics or identity; your unity will be in relationship with Him. Third is a shared mission. “and he gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” Jesus said, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons, freely you have received, freely you give.” This is our purpose and our work. And when we join together through the power of the Holy Spirit then we are joined together beyond race, belief, politics, personalities or social causes. Here is what the word says, “The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you.” Every believer has within themselves the potential to change the world. I don’t care if you have an 8th grade education. Jesus doesn’t choose us based on our ability, but based on our dependence. But it begins with becoming a new person in Christ. This is why Jesus said that new birth is absolutely essential. You must be born again in Him.
Fourth, Jesus calls us to community. We are called to be in a community of people that will be the embodiment of the Kingdom of God on earth. That will be the message. People will have to see it before they believe it. I’m going to give you a definition of what the Kingdom of God is: it is where the purpose of God is being actively carried out by those living under God’s rule and authority. In other words, this community of people will embody the Kingdom of God through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. We will be the gospel before people will believe the gospel. His whole purpose wasn’t to get you into heaven later, but to get heaven into earth right now through you. Discipleship is a journey, it is not something that happens when you come up to the altar one time, or you say a simple prayer of salvation. It is a journey. But more importantly, it is a journey with others.
Fifth, Jesus calls you to new life. I think a lot of people in the church have never been born again. New birth happens in Jesus; I call it the cross point of your life where you really come to the cross. Remember how Jesus said, “If anyone comes after me they must deny themselves and take up their cross daily.” It’s when you come to the end of your rope and you say to Jesus, “Every area of my life I submit to you.” I know a lot of people who say, “Jesus, I agree with these areas and I am going to give you this, but I am not going to give you the sexual part of my life.” Or, “I am not going to release the financial area in my life to you. It just doesn’t make sense.” The majority of people in the church today are not born again because they haven’t trusted Jesus with every area of their life. That is why less than 10% of Christians ever move onto maturity in Christ. Instead they stay stuck where they are. New birth happens when you come to him and say, “There is not an area of my life that is not yours.” I freely and willing give it all to you and fully submit my life to Jesus.
After you surrender and empty yourself, the Holy Spirit is free to enter your life. It is then that transformation begins. The same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave is at work in you. But it doesn’t mean that you are always going to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. What many of us do right out of this time of new birth is experience incredible power in our life. What happens is that you have this incredible experience of power and then all-of-a-sudden, God brings an area where you want to be in control to the surface. You still have the Holy Spirit, but it is one of those resistant areas that you have to give to the Lord. Whatever is most important in your life you will find time for and money for, right? So then Jesus will say, “Now Tim, you know it has nothing with you being right or wrong because that area of your life doesn’t belong to you anymore.” See the cross point in your life is the point of no return. You see, you don’t quit following. It is about continually surrendering to him. You say, “You are right, Jesus, that area is not mine anymore. So, what happens is you go to a new level in the Holy Spirit. The whole journey continues the same way and what this is called is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in your life. You know what God is doing; he is transforming you into the image of Jesus. You begin working on this with the Holy Spirit. This is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
Where are you in this journey? A lot of you are have given your life to Christ but you know there are areas of your life which you have yet to surrender to Him. And that is okay because the disciples were there for three years. Some of you may think you are born again but realize you are not because you have held onto areas in your life that you have never given to the Lord. Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in.”? Jesus will only come when he’s invited. The same is true with evil too. This point here is so critical because you invite must Jesus into every area of your life.
Some of you may be sitting here today thinking, “No, wait; there is one area in my life that I have never surrendered to Jesus and even areas that I am not aware of.” Others of you have the Holy Spirit in some area in your life, but somewhere along the line, you stopped in Pittsburgh. You made a commitment to this odyssey, to this incredible journey, and made the commitment to be a pioneer but you have become a settler. I want to tell you that at 46, I don’t want the same old, same old. Is there anybody in this room that doesn’t want every year to look the same? But whatever life you have left ,you can commit to this quest of the highest and the best. That’s me sisters and brothers. I don’t like Pittsburgh, and even though it’s hard, I am going to go on. But what about you? Will you join me in responding to the call of the Odyssey?
Will you bow your head right now? Lord Jesus, there is nothing that I want to be more passionate about than my relationship with You. I am not going to substitute religion for it, orthe Bible for it, but every day just be aware of Your presence with me and depend upon You in everything I do. Lord Jesus, I am just thankful that we can come here, all of us, in different stages of this journey and relax in Your presence. We realize that a relationship with You is not based on this formal one-hour religious experience but that it’s about real, every day life right where we are. During all of the struggles we go through in our relationships, our commitments and parenting, we know that You will never leave us or forsake us. All we ask, Lord, is for Your strength and courage and that we don’t stop and become settlers. We pray this together in Jesus’ name. Amen.
