Kim Duk-Soo will never forget November 20, 1950. That was the day Communist troops found him hiding with his father in a root cellar. He had been among the thousands of Christians who escaping the North for free South. Kim says, “When we heard the soldiers coming, I was sure we would be killed. My Daddy told me we could not tell a lie to save our lives."
But Kim and his father, a preacher of 42 years, were caught. They were put in a makeshift prison, to be executed the next morning. That evening, a captain approached Kim. "Are you a Christian?" he asked. For a fleeting moment, life for a lie seemed the only logical thing to do. But the young boy remembered his father's instruction. "I am a Christian," Kim said.
The captain drew closer, and whispered, "I am a Christian too. I used to be a Sunday school teacher before the war. You must escape tonight. I will help you." Kim escaped that night, having to leave his father behind.
It is Mother's Day at First Presbyterian in Taegu. "A Mighty Fortress" reverberates from 2,000 Korean voices. As he has done for 30 years, Kim plays the organ. "I should have been killed after the Communists found me, but God sent that Christian guard to help me escape. When I play the organ at church. I am doing it for God."
Kim’s story is just one of the thousands of times that God sent someone to do His work.
Jesus knows about sending people to do His work
(Matthew 28:18-20) Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
(Mark 16:15) He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Turns out, His whole reason for gathering 12 men around Himself and spending almost 3 years with them was to send them out to do His work after He left.
I’m not sure but what we’ve missed the boat – that the Church shouldn’t be gathering people as much as it should be sending. I don’t see billboards around town or hear commercials for churches saying, “Come here and get sent.”
Still, that line works for certain organizations: travel agencies; auto clubs; the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Yep, you know that if you go to one of those places, they’re going to send you somewhere. If you need to travel, that’s the place to be. But an add that says, “Come here and we’ll send you away” won’t work for a realtor or a nursing home!
The Church is in the “sending business.” We’re supposed to be a place where people come who don’t want to stay here forever. We’re supposed to be carrying on the work that Jesus chose His Apostles to do. Amen?
This Church is in the “sending business.” Or haven’t you noticed the number of people who’ve gone out from VHCC in the past 18 months for the sake of overseas missions, or the number of people here who are directly involved in some of the many ministries in Joplin, or the number of students who will be here, some of them just long enough for us to get to really know and appreciate them, and then they’ll graduate and be gone from here. And I say Praise God – because we’re in the sending business.
Now, I know that by saying this, I’m making it sound like the business of caring for the Church gets cast aside. In fact, there’s a school of thought that you either have to be outward minded and focused on reaching people outside the church, or you have to be inward focused and caring for the people already in the church – that you have to choose one or the other. I mean to tell you that’s a false choice! Which would Jesus choose? We’re in the sending business, and since that runs so counter to how many in the Church of today are thinking, I want you to see today that God is in the sending business. And a serious business it is…
*Mt 21:33-39
I. God Sent His Son
The first and greatest evidence that God is in the sending business is that He sent His Son into the world.
I started chasing this phrase “into the world” through the NT. One fact stood out to me: Jesus didn’t just “come” to the earth; He was sent.
(John 3:17) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
(John 10:36) what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world?
(Hebrews 1:6) when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
(1 John 4:9) “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
Step back and consider with me the wonder of this fact: Jesus was sent into the world.
He was sent out of heaven:
(Philippians 2:5-8) “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,” Jesus left heaven behind.
He was sent into subordination:
(John 8:42) I have not come on my own; but he sent me.
(John 12:49) For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.
“taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient”
He was sent into death on a cross:
“. . . and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!”
Do you think maybe Jesus understood what it means to be sent?
You think of this sending business and you’re not so sure you want to be sent, and especially not so sure you want your children or grandchildren sent. But God would have us consider the sending business in light of this fact: God sent His Son to die for us!
Yes, God is in the sending business.
II. God Sent Peter
The scene is sometime after Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus is asking Peter to reaffirm his love for Him. 3X Jesus asks “Do you love me?” 3X Peter says yes, and in response Jesus tells him “Feed My lambs. Take care of My sheep. Feed My sheep.” (Jn 21:15,16,17). You don’t take care of sheep by not going anywhere. You see, Jesus was sending Peter.
On the day of Pentecost, it was Peter who stood up and preached the first gospel sermon about a resurrected Jesus. It’s later, in Acts 10 that Peter gets sent again. God gives him a vision to help him learn that non-Jews can be forgiven through Jesus too.
(Acts 10:17-20) While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate. 18 They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there. 19 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. 20 So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
God told Peter to go:
• Go to people you used to avoid – the Gentiles!
• Go with My message to a place where others will talk bad about you! (Acts 11:3 - "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.")
• Go because I don’t show favoritism (Acts 10:34-35) Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.)
Go, Peter. Go into your world. Take who you are, your background and experiences, your strengths and weaknesses, your preparation, and impact your world!
Yes, God is in the sending business!
III. God Sent Saul
We can watch how God sends people in the life of another man named Saul. He was on the road to Damascus, when Jesus appeared to him. Later, a man named Ananias comes and explains to him about Jesus, and Paul recalls his words in…
(Acts 22:14-16) "Then he said: 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.'
(Acts 26:16-18) 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'
Notice this: when God called Saul of Tarsus to Himself, that invitation also included “Here’s where I’m sending you!”
Later, Saul, who became better known as the Apostle Paul, would be careful to write to the Galatians “Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father”
I know Saul’s story is a lot different from Peter’s, but they both have this in common: they’re both a good example of how God is in the sending business.
Now, that brings us to our point. (This sermon really only has one point – and this is it)
IV. God is Sending You
(John 17:18) As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
(John 20:21) Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Don’t miss this point this morning. In just the same way that Jesus was sent, Jesus has sent you.
1. It’s like God to send someone – even His very best – to carry out His plan.
He did the same thing in the OT – He sent angels to announce all kinds of things, Moses to speak to Pharaoh, Jonah to speak to the Ninevites, Nathan to speak to David, Jeremiah to speak to Judah, Elijah to speak to Ahab, He even sent hornets to drive out nations ahead of the Israelites.
-He could have done it all directly. In fact, sometimes He did. But the norm was to involve someone else.
-God uses agents to carry out His plan.
2. It’s like God to expect us to go right from the start
God is in the sending business. It shouldn’t surprise you that accepting His forgiveness also means being sent into world on His behalf.
3. There are several fronts where we can “get into the world” for God:
When we mention going into the world, most people think of being a missionary, or visiting one. That’s definitely going into the world because God has sent you. But I also want you to see that there are several fronts where we can get into the world for God:
• Schools – you have to go there anyway! Why not be sent by God there instead of just going? Can you imagine how that would change the way you look at it? “What are you doing?” “I’ve been sent by God to affect the world through my school.”
• Work places – you have to go there anyway! Why not be sent there by God instead of just going? “Why do you work so hard? Why are you always on time? Why don’t you fudge on your time or your work like everyone around you?” “Because God has sent me here to impact my world through my workplace.”
• Ball teams, civic groups, volunteer work – you’re going there anyway! Why not have those be places in your life where you are sent by God instead of just going?
We all have those places – places in our regular world where God is sending us into the world to make it different for Him. God has sent us into the world.
Most importantly, God is sending us to impact the people of the world.
As a practical application, I want to suggest 3 ways we need to get into the lives of people because Jesus has sent us to make a difference in our world:
1. Into peoples’ eyesight.
Ill – I never cared for the verse in the old hymn “In Beulah Land” that said, “Safe am I within the castle of God’s word retreating…”
-God hasn’t called us to retreat into the castle where it’s “safe.” He’s sent us to go outside where the people of the Church are actually seen by the people outside.
-We’re supposed to break it up and not just hole up in our own groups to the exclusion of any who might stumble upon us. We need to get into peoples’ lives by getting into their eyesight.
-Maybe that means planning fellowship events where unchurched people are going to see them. Maybe that means working at getting those people to visit your home Bible fellowship. Maybe that means changing a place you shop or do some kind of business just for the sake of putting yourself around non-Christian people.
Now, some of you don’t have to change where you’re working at all to be around non-Christians. That’s fine, just make sure that you’re a Christian in peoples’ eyesight by the way you conduct yourself at work or school.
2. Into Peoples’ Heads
-God’s has sent us into the world, and that means we ought to be getting into peoples’ heads
-There’s little doubt that the devil has gotten into peoples’ heads. How did he get there? How can we get there?
-First, we need to be using our heads! We need to be looking around us with wide open eyes and see what really connects with people.
Ill - MTV, an industry who has as their stated mission to shape the values and political views of the youth of America, has several employees who spend all their time just finding out what their target audience thinks and wants. They conduct surveys constantly, because to win over the thinking of today’s young people takes work – and they’re working at it!
Try thinking this way the next time you make eye contact with someone at the mall or in a grocery store. What hope does that person have? Where has he placed his life’s treasure? What are his fears? What gets his attention? What sends him other way?
We need to be using our heads!
-Then, we need to make God’s truth central to our message. There’s something very simple and refreshing about sharing something from the Bible with someone and acting like it’s absolutely true. People don’t just need a whole wheelbarrow full of “I think” and “I feel like.” If our message is going to carry any punch, it will have to be God’s truth at it’s very center.
God has sent us into the world – that means we need to get into peoples’ heads.
3. Get Into Peoples’ Hearts
We live in an era when the rules have changed. Because the idea of absolute truth has slipped, people are waiting to hear not just what speaks to their heads, but first connects with their hearts. They want to know that something is real and that it works more than they want to know if you can prove it on paper.
Their motto is “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care.” How do we do that? First by really caring about them, and then by making it known.
Joplin is full of opportunities to care about someone. We don’t have to live in the inner city to find them. People who aren’t used to anyone really caring for them are all around us.
And they aren’t used to the Church caring about people outside the Church either. To the person on the outside, we’re a self-serving bunch of too-goods unless they see otherwise. To get into peoples’ hearts we’re going to have to really care about them, no strings attached, and then come up with some way to make that known.
I suppose we could put up a big sign that says, “We care!” out front. But then a church down the street could put one up that says “We care more!”
But I think that people going out from this congregation, and somehow demonstrating God’s love by service to others would be a lot more convincing. I think a person who has been sour on the Church would have a hard time bad mouthing the people who just washed his car for free and who wouldn’t accept any money for it. I think saying “We want you to know that God loves you” becomes a lot more believable to the average person when there’s a smile and a no-gimmick act of service to go with it.
Right next door to you, or one cubicle over, or in your classroom, or in the store where you shop is person into whose heart you can potentially pave a highway just by deliberately caring for that person and then showing it.
What a great work God has called us to. God is sending you!
Conclusion:
(Matthew 21:28-31) "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' "'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. "Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered.
They were right. These 2 sons were different. One started with bad intentions but had a change in heart about being sent by his father. The other may have had good intentions, but somehow it became alright to ignore what his father said. Their real answers weren’t in what they said, but in what they did. And even a son who started out on the wrong foot answered his real answer by what he did, and he’s the one who did what his father wanted.
God is sending you. God sends all of His children into the world. What will you answer?
