Commissioned for the Kingdom

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Well, it is not unusual for us to be sent on errands for other people. I got sent yesterday. Charla called me after I’d got into town and said, can you go pick up Abigail’s birthday cupcakes?

And I said, okay, where from? She said, Walmart. And if you ever doubt my love for you, I went to Walmart on a Saturday.

All right. But we, you know, I’ll send her to pick up curbside orders at Atwoods. We do those things for each other.

I’ll send the kids, you know, if we’re sitting at a restaurant, hey, would you go get me a refill? My knees are older than yours. We send other people on errands.

We’re sent on errands. In the ancient world, it wasn’t unusual for kings to send people on errands. I read about Charlemagne, the famous Frankish leader in the Middle Ages, used to send him out two by two, a bureaucrat and a clergyman, together to the different parts of his empire.

And they would be kind of his eyes and ears and his hands and feet throughout his empire and make sure everything was running the way it was supposed to be. I read another story this week about Genghis Khan, the Mongol ruler, and about his interaction with the Khwarezmian Empire that he was friends with. Now, how many of you have ever heard of the Khwarezmian Empire or Khwarezm?

Okay, a couple. Of course, you two have. There’s a reason why the Khwarezmian Empire is not famous.

And I’ve heard of it, but I know very little about it other than this story. There’s a reason the Khwarezmian Empire is not really famous, and that’s because they were friends with Genghis Khan, and he would send his emissaries out as a king would, and in that day, they were supposed to be respected the way the king would be. And the way you treated their emissary, the way you treated their ambassadors, the way you treated the king.

And so they were used to trading with each other, and they were on friendly terms. He was one of the few people that Genghis Khan was on friendly terms with, until one day he sent these emissaries to the sultan of Corazam, who was disrespectful to one of his emissaries, and so Genghis Khan invaded and just obliterated the entire empire, just gone, took it over, burned their cities, salted their fields, there’s no more Corazam. That’s why we don’t hear about it, because somebody disrespected the king’s emissary, or the Khan’s emissary. It was expected that somebody was going to go out and they were going to serve on behalf of the ruler, and they were going to do what he called them to do, and they came with his authority, and so they were supposed to be treated likewise.

As we continue our study in the book of Luke, and if you’re a guest with us today, we’re glad you’re here. We’ve been studying piece by piece through the book of Luke, and we’re in Luke chapter 9 this morning, where Jesus acts like the king that he is and sends out emissaries on his behalf, and we’re going to look at the way He sent them out, what He sent them out to do, and what it means for us as well. So Luke chapter 9, if you haven’t already turned there, please turn there with me.

And once you find it, if you’ll stand as we read together from God’s Word, if you can’t find it or you don’t have your Bible, that’s all right, it’ll be on the screen for you as well. But however you get eyes on the text, get eyes on the text and we’ll read along together. Luke chapter 9 verse 1 says, and he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.

And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, neither a staff nor a bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not even have two tunics a piece. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city.

And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was happening, and he was greatly perplexed because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again.

And the other gospels tell us that Herod himself even thought for a moment, maybe this is John the Baptist that I beheaded, and he’s come back from the dead, and now he’s mad. But Herod ends up concluding verse 9. Herod said, I myself had John beheaded, but who is this man about whom I hear such things?

And he kept trying to see him. When the apostles returned, they gave an account to him of all that they had done, taking them with him. And he withdrew by himself to a city called Bethsaida.

But the crowds were aware of this and followed him and welcoming them. He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing. And you may be seated.

Luke wants to make it very clear, as do the other gospel writers, that Jesus calls his followers to be on mission for him. That is the purpose of this text, that he took these 12 who had been walking with him and began to send them out. It says in verse 2, he sent them out.

He called them to go and represent him throughout Galilee. This was in preparation for Jesus to move on. Because the stories we’ve been looking at lately have been taking place in Galilee, up in northern Israel.

This is sort of Jesus’ home turf. And this is where the people tend to be a little friendlier to Him than they are down south in Judea. Now, that doesn’t mean everybody there is excited about Jesus, but just in general, the crowds are friendlier to Jesus in Galilee.

But before too long, he’s going to leave and he’s going to begin to make his way elsewhere. He’s going to visit some Gentile areas. He’s going to go through Samaria.

He’s going to end up going into Judea where the people are still Jewish, but they’re much less friendly. But before he leaves, he wants to make sure that the villages, the people in the far-flung villages get a better idea of who he is so they can be prepared for what he is bringing them as far as the gospel. And these 12 that we’re looking at, these are 12 disciples that he has called and set apart as apostles.

At that time, there were a lot of people, we’ve talked about this before, there were a lot of people who were following Jesus around. And we’ve talked about the difference between following Jesus and following Jesus around. These crowds followed Jesus around because they wanted to see what miracles he was going to perform.

They were there for the show. But within that, there were these 12 who had grown closer to Jesus, he had called them into a deeper commitment, and they had become his disciples in the sense that they were committed to him, and he’s been preparing them to be apostles. Now, the 12 disciples were also the 12 apostles, but those words don’t mean the same thing.

A disciple is somebody who follows, and an apostle is somebody who is sent out like an ambassador. So, he’s been preparing them for this, and now they’re finally ready, and so by sending them out, he’s ensuring that all the villages throughout Galilee are able to hear the news about him and his ministry. He’s also preparing at least 11 of these men for what they’re going to do after he has risen from the dead and ascended back to the Father.

But this is, Jesus does this all throughout the Gospels. He takes some time in the beginning to prepare them for what’s going to come, but from here on out, he is sending them repeatedly. That becomes their job, is to be sent and to be on mission.

When we get to the next chapter, Luke chapter 10, he sends even more disciples. Now that’s not more apostles, that’s more disciples, but he sends them out to represent him as well. He sends 70 or 72, depending on the text we’re looking at.

He sends them out to prepare people for his arrival all throughout Galilee, and we’ll see that in the next chapter. In John 20, 21, on the day of his resurrection, later that Sunday, when they’re all locked in the upper room, and everybody’s there but Judas who’s dead and Thomas who we don’t know where he is but he’s full of questions wherever he is. In that room Jesus tells his disciples that he’s giving them the Holy Spirit and he says he is sending them out just as the Father has sent him.

So again we’re told you’re going to be sent you’re going to be given a mission and you’re going to go on that mission. Then right before he ascends into heaven in Matthew 28 he commissions all of his followers to carry the gospel throughout the entire world. And that’s the mission for us today as his followers, that great commission, that he has called us to be on mission for him, telling people about who he is, telling people about what he has done, telling people about what he can do for them, and speaking with his authority.

Not that we say, well, you have to listen to me because I’m better than you, but we have authority because we’re speaking the truth. We take his words and we share what his word is, and his word is the authority. But he’s given us that opportunity to represent him.

That calling applies to us today. So as we look at this and we recognize that obviously these 12 people were called to be on mission for him, we need to recognize that even though their calling was a little bit different, they were in different circumstances, they had a different title than we do. I’m not an apostle, neither are you, in the sense of holding that office.

but we are sent, which is connected to that word apostle. We have a different circumstance. We have a different title.

We have all these different things, but we serve the same master, and he has called us to be on mission for him. So as we look at their story, even though the instructions he gives them are for them, we can also learn some things that we apply to the calling that he’s given us as believers under the New Testament to go and make him known. And we can also do this with confidence.

If you’re thinking, I’m supposed to go out on a mission, that sounds terrifying, I’m not prepared, he’s got you covered. Some of you are planners, and I won’t ask for shows of hands, but there are two different kinds of people, planners and non-planners, and they usually marry each other. Charla is the planner.

We cannot leave the house without days worth of provisions. I am not that way. But some of you, especially if you’re a planner, you’re thinking, I’m not prepared.

I don’t know all the answers. I don’t know this. I don’t know that.

Jesus has got you. He sends us out with everything that we need. If he’s going to send you on a mission, he’s going to supply you with everything that you need.

Jesus does not just say, here, go do this and figure it out. You’re on your own. He doesn’t do that to us.

He didn’t do that to them. Verses two through six here are all about what he was going to supply to them. And again, he supplies these things to us.

So what are the things that we need as we go out. First of all, we need his message. If our mission is to represent him, we need to know what that entails and what it is we’re supposed to tell people.

His message, it says in verse 2, he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. So they were sent out to spread a message, and that’s what they did. Verse 6 tells us they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel, and healing everywhere.

Now, this is not the gospel in all of its detail that we would be familiar with today, which is not to say that it’s a false gospel. Jesus would not send them out to teach a false gospel either. But the gospel, as we understand it on this side of things, looking back, the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the offer of salvation that we have through him.

That’s the gospel. What has not happened yet at this point? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They don’t know that.

And even as Jesus has begun to give them hints about it, and sometimes he just flat out says, I’m going to die and then three days later I’ll be back. They still don’t get it because they are all in a panic when he’s crucified. They’re all in a panic when they start seeing him raised from the dead.

And fair enough, we would be the same way. But they didn’t understand all of that, and yet they’re taking this good news to Jesus. They don’t understand yet the death, burial, and resurrection.

So this is not all the details of the gospel. But what they’re doing is they’re preaching the coming of the Messiah and his kingdom. They’re taking what they do know about Jesus, and they’re proclaiming it, that the Messiah has come.

That’s kind of the basis of the gospel. Jesus was not just some guy. He was the Messiah.

He was God the Son who was sent by the Father to die and to be buried and to rise again. So they took this good news that the Messiah has come. God’s answer to our problem of sin has come.

The King is here, and we are called to repent and believe in him. And again, they’re missing some details that they would have later on, but this is sort of laying the groundwork for those who would hear. The people in the villages of Galilee, this would prepare them for later on when they hear the message that Jesus died and rose again.

That’s the proof to them that this is true, that he’s the Messiah and that he’s come. It’s also preparing the disciples because they have this foundation of now they’re used to going out and telling people about who Jesus is and why he’s come. And so when they get the full picture later on, they just take that and run with it.

This is preparing everybody with the message. And these healings that are mentioned over and over, they’re not incidental. They confirm the message and they showed what Jesus was about. So when these apostles came through and they’re preaching about Jesus and they’re healing people, that’s something that would have gotten people’s attention where they would say, this is real because these miracles don’t just happen.

This is real. And like I said, it also showed who Jesus is. It shows when they come on behalf of the king and they’re preaching his message and they’re calling people to respond and to repent, but they’re also healing the sick, it shows that he’s a compassionate king. He’s a king who came with our best interest at heart.

And so the Lord sends us out with everything we need. That includes his message. That includes his authority.

Verse 1 says he gave them authority over all the demons. And that word authority is just what it sounds like. It means it’s the right to speak or to govern on somebody else’s behalf.

Now, I don’t believe that you or I have any special authority over the demons beyond the name of Jesus and what the Word of God says. If we’re to cast out demons, it’s not because you or I have the power, it’s because Jesus has the power. But you and I, when we speak what His Word says, we speak with His authority.

Hey, this is what God wants. This is what God doesn’t want. Well, who are you to say, oh, I’m nobody, but he said it, I’m just repeating it.

Because that’s the world’s answer to the preaching of the gospel. Well, who are you to say, it’s not about me. I have no authority.

I’m nobody. I’m just telling you what the king said. So we have authority to speak what he commanded us.

When we step out and speak, it’s not based on our authority. It’s not based on how powerful or compelling we are at sharing the message. The authority is in what the king said, and he gave us, he gives us his power.

These two things are intertwined in verse one. He gave them not only the authority over all demons, but he gave them the power to heal diseases. So what he sent them out to do, they had the power to do.

Power and authority sound like the same thing, but they’re not. You can have power and no authority. I could probably walk into somebody’s house and say, I live here now.

This is mine. I have that power, depending on how well-armed they are, right? I have the power that I could walk in and say, this is my house now.

Do I have that authority? Absolutely not. At the same time, I may send one of my kids to tell on my behalf, one of the other kids something to do.

They’ve been given the authority to tell that child what to do. Can they physically make them do it? Not without a whole host of other problems, right?

Most of the conflict in our house comes from somebody trying to parent somebody else when they’re not a parent. Power and authority are not the same thing. Authority is the right to do something, power is the ability to do something.

And when it comes to representing him, the good news is he’s given us both. And he promises his provision as well. Verse 3 explains that they weren’t supposed to pack extra supplies, which would be terrifying again for some of you who are planners.

Even me who is not a planner, there are certain things I don’t leave the house without. And he’s saying, no, no, no, your trust is not in those things you bring with you. You’re traveling light.

You’re not being burdened down by all these things. You go, you do what I’ve told you to do, and the Lord is going to provide for you. He says, I’ll provide.

When we get to verse three, he tells them, don’t take anything for your journey. Don’t take a staff. One of the other gospels says to take a staff.

I think what he’s telling them here is don’t collect staffs. He may have said two different things at two different times. Don’t take a bag.

Don’t take bread. Don’t shoes. In other words, don’t think I’ve got to provide everything I need in order to do the Lord’s work, because then you start trusting in yourself and your provision, and you get worried when I don’t have enough, well now I can’t step out and do it.

He says, go do what I’ve told you to do, and I’m going to provide what you need in order for you to do it. And he does that. When we’re obedient to him, he provides everything we need.

He does not necessarily provide everything we want, And that’s an important distinction. But he does provide everything we need. And I’m not just talking about financially.

He’s talking about the provision for their daily lives. He’ll provide that for us too. If we’re walking in obedience to him, he’ll take care of our actual needs.

But this extends also to the things that we need in order to fulfill his work. There may be things God has called you to do as he calls you to be on mission for him that you say, I can’t do that. Listen, if he’s called you to do it, absolutely you can.

I’ve told you before, I am an extreme introvert who grew up with a speech impediment. I am the last person on paper that I would have picked to be a pastor and preaching the word every Sunday. Some of y’all are aware of this.

You’ll sit and talk to me in the office. I get tongue-tied just trying to talk to people one-on-one. And yet God provides.

God provides the ability to stand up and share his word. I don’t know how it works, but he takes care of it. Whatever it is God is calling you to do, whatever the mission is he gives you, he’s going to to equip you with everything that you need to fulfill that.

And this is so important. Verses four and five, he gives you his guidance. Sometimes we step out in faith and we say, okay, I’m going to trust your provision.

I’m going to do what you told me to do. I’m going to serve you. How?

Something comes up, some scenario that we didn’t expect. How do I navigate this? He gave them some instructions starting out that we’re going to be specific to their situation.

But I think this teaches that he gives us his guidance regardless. He told them, you’re going to go and you’re going to find houses where the people are glad to have you there. And Matthew and Mark give more detail on this presentation.

But he says, as you travel, you’re going to find people who are excited to have you. You stay with them, and I’m going to provide for you through them. But you’re going to stay there, and you’re going to do my work for as long as I have you there.

And then you’re going to move on. You’re not going to have to figure out night by night, where am I staying, where am I going? you just go find a spot and minister around there.

And then when it’s time to move on to the next place, you’ll do the same thing. And what happens if we come to some place where they’re not ready to receive us? Have you ever wondered about that as God sends you out on mission?

What happens if somebody is not ready to receive? What if they don’t want to hear it? What if I’m rejected?

Well, he has advice for that too. As for those who do not receive you, go out from that city, shake the dust off of your feet as a testimony against them. He says, if they don’t want to hear, then you go on.

If they’re not interested in what I have to say. He tells us elsewhere it’s not you they rejected it’s me. But he said if they’re not interested in what I’ve sent you to share then you just move on.

And the whole shaking the dust off the feet I wondered about that because it just kind of feels like an aggressive move. Oh you don’t want to hear what I have to say? Well you know shake the dust off.

Apparently it was a tradition for them that when they traveled outside of Israel they traveled through pagan countries as they prepared to cross back into Israel they were supposed to shake the dust off of their feet in a reminder that this was the promised land God had gave them it had been consecrated to the Lord and when you’re in Israel you’re supposed to save the Lord or serve the Lord we’re not bringing anything pagan in with us and so you would before you exited that pagan country to go into Israel you would shake the dust off of your feet so you didn’t bring anything unclean in with you. And so when he says, shake the dust off, he’s talking about there were people in Israel who were going to reject the Messiah and they were going to be treated like the pagans. This was a mark of God’s judgment.

And so the idea that somebody is going to reject what we have to share, it’s between them and the Lord. It’s not between them and us. It’s not something for us to take personally.

And I say that even as somebody who really struggles with the idea of not taking it personally. And it’s something the Lord has to work on me in, work in me about. But when they were wondering, well, what do we do if people don’t want to hear?

He says, you move on and you leave it between them and the Lord. And so he gives us his guidance. How am I supposed to step out and do what he called me to do?

He’s going to give you everything you need, his message, his authority, his power, his provision, his guidance. And then we come to the responses. And I’m just going to summarize quickly here in these responses we’ve already read.

They had gone out preaching, again, not the full message of the gospel that they later would preach, but the gospel as far as they understood it at this point, which is the idea that the Messiah, the king, was here. This is good news. God has sent the Messiah.

He is in the process of fulfilling his promises to Israel, and we need to be prepared to repent. We need to be prepared to seek the Lord’s salvation. Their message was about the coming of the king, just as ours is.

We just have the benefit of seeing what happened after this. So we can say the king has already come, and the king has already conquered. The king already died and rose again, and he conquered death, and he conquered sin, and he conquered everything that holds us back away from God.

And right now, you can have a relationship with God just the way he intended for it to be if you come to him through faith, and you repent, and you trust in him for your salvation. We have the ability to say this is what happened, but our message to the world is not about how to have a good life. Our message is not how to get what you want.

Our message is about a king who has come. And the fact that that message was about the king and is still about the king shows up in their responses. Herod is not at all bothered by the fact that these 12 men have gone out performing miracles.

He’s bothered by the stories about the man they’re all talking about. He’s bothered by who is Jesus. That’s the question that they have to come to terms with.

Who is Jesus? in verses 7 through 9. And in verses 10 through 11, these apostles had gone out and done phenomenal miracles in the villages, and the people began to flock, not to see the apostles, but to see Jesus.

See, Jesus was the focus of their mission, and Jesus is the focus of our mission. Our job, as we’re sent out on mission for Him, is to make Him known, to help people who are estranged from God, to help people who are alienated from God, know Jesus Christ and the salvation that he’s provided. That’s our job as a church.

That’s what we do when we gather on Sundays, is to lift him up so that if there’s anybody in our midst who doesn’t know him, they’re introduced to him, but also prepare us to go out and live out that mission so people understand who Jesus is. That’s being the church out in Lawton, Oklahoma, that is our job, to make Jesus the focus of our mission, to go and tell people about this King that we have who’s come. In just a moment, when we observe the Lord’s Supper, Jesus is the focus of what we do.

Our message is not about how wonderful we are, and there’s some pretty wonderful people sitting in this room, but that’s not our message. I love this church, but our message is not about how wonderful Central Baptist Church is. Our message is that we serve a king who has conquered.

We serve a king who died for us and then conquered death so that we could be forgiven. And if you’ve never met that king before today, it is as simple as understanding that we’ve sinned against God. Sin is anything we think, say, do, or don’t do that displeases God.

And we’re all guilty. And our sin separates us from God. and there’s not a thing in this world that we can do that will erase the sin we’ve committed.

No amount of good works erases that. That sin had to be paid for and it had to be punished. And Jesus Christ, our King, came voluntarily.

Nobody took his life from him. He laid it down himself. Our King came and took responsibility for our sins and took all of the punishment in our place and made all the payment on our behalf and then rose again conquering death, conquering sin, conquering hell so that you and I could be forgiven.

This morning, all that’s necessary for you to do is to believe that your sin separates you from God, believe that Jesus Christ died to pay for it and rose again to prove it, and ask for that forgiveness, and you’ll have it.

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