And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2
and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3
And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.[a] 4
And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5
And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6
And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
In our passages this morning Jesus calls His church, which is pictured here in the disciples and then later in chapter 10 in the seventy. He calls His church to go
forth, in His name, and with authority that HE gives and follows the pattern that He has set. I realize that I am taking us a bit out of order in jumping to chapter 10 and over the next few weeks I will try to put it in its context. But I want us to see again
how it is that Jesus not only died for us, but
He also lived for us. He lived both to secure the perfect
righteous life that the law required, a righteousness that is counted as our own…And sadly, that
is where many Christians stop…and as glorious as that
is, it is not the whole. He also lived for us to set
the pattern, to show us how we are to live. To make the Christian life as clear and plain as it can be so that we won’t miss it.
Jesus says, “As the master so shall the servants be.” And those that He called, He now sends.
The 12 and the 70 are in a microcosm of the church. Think about it; There is a hypocrite among them. There is one who has no saving faith, but who nonetheless goes
undetected, at least to everyone but Jesus. Judas is doing ministry, he presumably casts out demons, heals sick people, preaches sermons, and no less effectively than did the others. No one could tell, and no doubt that Judas himself did not realize at this
point that his allegiance to Jesus was superficial and would prove to be short lived.
Is this not the way it is in the church now as well? Is it not the case that we have seen over and over again, hypocrisy in the church and to the deepest level? For
such people the Christian life is all pretense where spiritual things are embraced but not for the honor of Christ but for self-promotion. But it is not always easy to know who the hypocrite is.
Now, I am compelled to make a tangential comment. Some will say that ALL Christians are hypocrites and they say this because all Christians sin. That is, they will
confuse being a hypocrite with being a sinner. All are sinners, but not all are hypocrites. Hypocrisy is pretending you are something that you are not. It comes from a word that speaks to wearing a mask as part of a play on stage. It is feigning to be what
one is not or acting like you believe something you do not believe. Being a sinner does not necessarily make one a hypocrite. And although all hypocrites are sinners, not all sinners are hypocrites. Hypocrisy is a great evil, but it is not the same thing
as a Christian who sins and knows he sins, confesses his sin and seeks to be forgiven, while doing battle against his or her sin, seeking new obedience.
Another way that the 12 and 70 are a picture of the church is that it consists of a great crowd of nobodies. We are familiar with Peter and John and we do know something
about Matthew, but of all the rest we know virtually nothing but their names. And when it comes to the 70, we don’t even know that! And what we DO know of the 12 would never lead us to conclude that they were extraordinary men, not as the world would think
of it. There was nothing about them that was important to record for posterity. They were men of no great skill or ability, and of no reputation. And look what they did. Look what faith allows to be accomplished.
I wonder if we do so little for the Savior, we take such few risks, we throw caution to the wind so seldom and keep a lid on our zeal, refusing to speak when we should
and live boldly for the kingdom…I wonder if this is in part due to the fact that we think we can’t, or we don’t have the clout, the reputation, we aren’t important enough, no one will listen to us. But that way of thinking, as humble as it sounds, is not humble
at all, it is rather filled with self and misses the point altogether. Namely, it is not about us! It is not up to us! Jesus doesn’t need us to be big shots. He doesn’t need us to be the most gifted folks in the office, the classroom, or in the church. He
doesn’t need us to have the most money or the most influence with the movers and shakers. He needs us to be faith-full!
The 12 and then the 70 go forth with nothing, relying on what others will be moved by the Spirit to do for them and to give them. They were to take no money in the
bags. The point that Jesus is stressing to us is that this is a journey of faith and trust from first to last. We read later at the end of Christ’s earthly ministry that He gave his disciples quite different instructions. There he tells them, “Take a purse,
take a bag, take an extra pair of sandals.” Now, why would Jesus later tell his disciples to do the exact opposite in the details than he does here? Why would it be that here the church in Galilee was to make no financial provision for themselves and then
later they WERE to make provision?
We look at history and we see that there are times of the Lord’s showering His favor upon a people. The harvest, Jesus said, is great, but that is not to say that
it is ALWAYS great. There are the days of small things and although we are warned never to despise the day of small things, we are, however, called to discern between the two. I realize that this rocks our evangelical boat a bit. We hear this verse quoted
all the time, as if the harvest is ALWAYS great. But I don’t think the immediate context, nor the greater context, nor history allows us to say that. There have been times in our history when the harvest was so great that ministers literally forgot everything
they were doing and rushed to reap, for the Lord was doing something unique, something great in the quantitative sense. During the Great Awakening for example, it was common for ministers to be found preaching 5-7 times a week. But times are not always like
this. And, if it is like this in one place, it doesn’t mean it is like this everywhere. The Lord Jesus is not giving us a manual, He never gives us a manual or a checklist. Rather He is setting forth principles of the kingdom. What are those principles?
The work we are about as we follow XP is not safe.
Following Christ is not safe. Never in the Bible do we find the disciples or the early missionaries and church planters, or for that matter the early Christians, praying
for safety, rather they are found praying for faithfulness. The Lord does not hide from you what this will cost and what will be your lot in this world. “I send you out as Lambs among wolves.”
What was Jesus but the Lamb of God and He was sent out among wolves and the wolves killed Him? And the church is patterned after Jesus, therefore what does this tell
you about our agenda in this world and our MANNER as we carry out that agenda? I am not trying to be melodramatic but it is this simple. Jesus said you are called and you are sent, you are sent as a sheep. You are sent to bear your cross, sent to serve, sent
to die and in this world, you are among those who, knowingly or unknowingly are aligned with the one who seeks to destroy the church.
Jesus told these men that they are to take nothing for their journey, no money, no staff, no bread or knapsack or sandals and not even to greet people on the road.
Why these instructions? Are we to be unprepared and rude? To meet some Christians, one might think so. But again, that is to miss the point for the details. In a thousand different ways the Lord will teach us that our hope is in trusting Him and not ourselves,
it is that simple. We are about HIS plan and we are here in this world as His children on HIS agenda. We are to look to Him in everything.
The disciples were to behave like men who had no time to waste on empty compliments and conventional courtesies, which is what Jesus is helping us to understand when
he tells us not to greet one another on the road. It is the urgency of our message that is being made clear. The urgency of the gospel that Christians are to live with, that we are to live with. As the Lord provided for the disciples, they were to show themselves
full of faith, by being content and having an urgency for the message. They go into a house and whatever is given them they eat, enjoy and are thankful. Whatever it is that the Lord provides us as we carry our cross and live this life is to find us grateful,
thankful, and filled with praise for the provision God has made.
We do not make judgments that we don’t have what another has, or pine for what we do not have.
As Bishop JC Ryle put it, “The sermon about things unseen will produce little effect when life preaches the importance of the things that are seen.”
Brothers and sisters, we are the called ones of God and we are the sent ones as well. Sent to this world as ambassadors of Christ Jesus. You will never raise the
dead…but you can love your enemies and bless those who curse you, forgive those who harm you. You will probably never cast out a demon… but you can live the life of faith that trusts the Lord and praises Him for all He is doing, especially when circumstances
are not what you would have wished. You will do no miracles…but, you can carry a cross…and you can wear an apron as you bow to wash the feet of the saints. The pattern is set, the pattern is Christ and for you to live IS Christ…so go…go as one called, go as
one sent.
Prayer: Father, I confess that I seek a life of ease and rarely does my faith cost me much, in anything. While I praise you for a life of peace and relative
rest from the bondages that many of my brothers and sisters around the world face daily, I ask that you not let me grow complacent, taking my faith, Your love and calling, lightly. Give me gospel boldness and Christ-like humility to live, speak and think as
your child, through Jesus my Savior, Amen.
Hymn: Savior of the Nations Come