“Sent Out”
Luke 9:1-6
October 14, 2001
Are we living in the End Times? Is the final battle between God and Satan spoken of in the book of Revelation about to begin? That question is on the minds of many Christians. Was the fiery end of the twin towers and the death of so many thousands just the beginning of the end? Is our bombardment of sites in Afghanistan the trigger that will detonate World War III and the end of civilization as we know it?
I’m an optimist, most of the time. I don’t want to believe that God has given up on humanity. I keep hoping that, given enough time, we will move beyond our petty selfishness and take on more Christ-like attitudes and lifestyles. I like movies and novels that give us hope that the future will be better.
There is a line in one of my favorite movies that reflects how I feel about the possibility of an imminent Armageddon. (Armageddon is that biblical description of the final great outpouring of God’s judgmental wrath on the earth. It’s found in Revelation 16.) The movie is Contact, and the subject is whether there is life out there in the vastness of space. The line is spoken by several different characters in several different places in the movie: “If it is just us – seems like an awful waste of space.”
I agree completely, and I have very similar feelings about time and history. We have come a long way since the caves. As humans we have accomplished so much and learned so many wonderful things. But we have so much yet to learn, and so much to experience. It would be a sad waste of the future if the Lord were to put an end to it. Sad because I am an optimist, I believe we can have a better world, and I believe we can be a better people, given enough time.
But, maybe I’m just fooling myself. I know that there are times when I refuse to hear or see the truth. On the morning the twin towers were hit, one of our members came by the church. I knew the towers had been hit, I heard that on the way to church, but I had not been watching the television, and when he told me the towers had collapsed I refused to believe it, even when he told me he had just witnessed it on television. My mind just wouldn’t accept it, even though I completely trust him to tell me the truth. Maybe I’m refusing to hear the truth about our condition as human beings. Maybe it is time for God to put an end to this.
In the early days of Christianity there was a movement we know as Gnosticism. Those who bought into Gnosticism believed that knowledge was the key to salvation, and that it was possible through wisdom to become like God. All one has to do is look around to confirm that education doesn’t automatically improve our humanity.
Karl Marx was educated but inhumane, as was Stalin and now is Osama bin Laden. I’m educated, but I still have a mean streak that my love for God keeps squashed, most of the time. Maybe our moral condition hasn’t improved at all since those cave days, maybe we have just become more sophisticated at hurting each other.
The orthodox Christian viewpoint is both pessimistic and optimistic at the same time. Pessimistic in that it recognizes our basic sinfulness. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, Paul wrote in Romans 3:23. Pessimistic in that the Christian understands that it’s literally impossible to keep God’s commandments, to be perfect as God is perfect, even though our Lord told us that’s what we should be. Pessimistic in that we understand that sin is killing us and there is not a thing we personally can do about it, we cannot save ourselves.
A lot of modern Americans don’t want to have anything to do with that pessimistic attitude. Many of our neighbors don’t want to hear about sin, they just want to think about God’s love. And many of them have made up their minds that God is so loving that he will overlook their little sins. They are fooling themselves into hell.
If you believe that you are basically good, your sins just little sins, and that God is so compassionate that he will make an exception for you, then you are in the wrong faith. Islam would be better for you. It has great appeal to anyone who stubbornly clings to the belief that “being good” will earn eternal life. Islam is based on works to save, but it’s dead wrong.
I can be the best father and pastor any of you have ever known, but if I have even one speeding ticket I’m going to pay the state. If sins were speeding tickets I would have my name carved over a cell at the Tarrant County Jail. When we break the law and get caught, we pay.
The Ten Commandments, God’s laws, were tough, Jesus one commandment to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48) is impossible. We cannot be perfect, we are human. We sin. We hurt each other. We love ourselves more than we love God. We cheat, we take what is not ours and hoard, we deceive.
Heaven is perfect, and God doesn’t make exceptions to allow imperfection into Heaven. Exodus 34:6-7 says “The Lord, The Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” Sins unforgiven wreak havoc down through the generations. You have seen it yourself, you know its true.
Is there any hope for this sin-infected world? Is there any hope for you and me? The short answer is NO, there is no hope as long as we place our hope and confidence in ourselves, or our leaders. We humans are the carriers of the disease that infects us all! We are the problem, not the solution.
When I break the law and am caught I have to pay. When my body is infected by a disease organism my body will pay the price. Sin is both breaking God’s laws and a disease of the heart and soul. The price sin extracts is death. Death to joy, death to hope, death to possibilities, death to a long beautiful life, and finally, most horrible of all, eternal death to a loving relationship with God.
But there is great hope for us when we confess our inability to save ourselves from the disease of sin, and turn to God for his cure. He has prepared a way to salvation, not because we deserve to be saved from death, but because he loves us so much. The Bible says “God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) “We all like sheep have gone astray”, Isaiah says, “each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)
“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:23) “What, then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.” (Romans 9:31-32a)
Are these the end times? I don’t know! It wouldn’t surprise me. But this I do know, like the twelve disciples of so long ago, the Lord is sending us out to give a ray of hope to a fallen world. The need is obvious, the pain and sickness of sin is as near as the house next door.
Are we qualified to go on behalf of the Lord? No, not any more qualified than that first twelve. And that is exactly the way Christ wants it to be, for you see, he wants us to trust him, not ourselves. That is why he sent them out with instructions not to take anything.
Today the Lord is calling us together, giving us his power and authority to tell the gospel, the good news. And that good news is simply that God loves us, sent his Son to take our sins on himself, and all we need do to be saved is quit trusting our own sinful selves and start putting our trust in what Jesus has done for us.
When people hear and receive that good news marvelous things begin to happen. Demons that once chained them run for cover. Hopeless situations have good resolutions. Family relationships are healed. Children loose their fears, us too.
In Luke 9 we have read the story of Jesus sending out the twelve. In Luke 10 we will read about Jesus sending out 72. That must be the first ever recorded Evangelism Explosion ministry. Each of the original 12 trained 5 more, then they all went out. And when they came back they reported “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” (Luke 10:17) And Jesus replied, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20)
In Revelation 20 we read these words from John: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Rev. 20: 12, 15) God put us here, in this place, to put some names in that book of life! That’s your job, and mine, lets do it.
