Sent Out!
Matthew 10:1-20
Harry Stoliker
January 4, 2009 EBC
Listen
The title of this sermon is simply: Sent Out! We are going to be talking about what
it's like to have a deep sense in your heart that Christ has sent you
out on a mission in life. This chapter is all about Jesus sending his disciples
on their first missions trip.
I can clearly remember a time standing in front of an abortion clinic
in PA holding a sign that attempted to reveal abortion for what it really
is, and having a woman come up and get in my face saying to me: "It's MY life
and I'll do what I want with it!" I think that attitude is part of
the American psyche. "I decide what I do with my life, I control my life,
I'm the captain of my fate. I'll pursue what I want to pursue and use my time and
energy to get what I want. No one can tell me what to do." How do you think
that squares up with the way Paul describes the Christian life in
2 Timothy 2:3-4 "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please
his commanding officer." So, soldiers in Christ's army do not pursue
what they want to pursue, they find out what pleases Christ and that becomes
their consuming desire.
How else did Paul describe his entire life as a follower of Christ? One of
my favorite passages is Acts 20:23-24 "I only know that in every city the
Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider
my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete
the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel
of God's grace." Paul had a mission in life, a task from God. He
had a purpose for living each and every day. He never forgot that
purpose. It was the most important thing in life to him. He was driven by
that purpose. He didn't get up in the morning and say: "What is life all about?
What can I do today to reach my own personal goals? How do I want to spend
my time today, after all, it is MY life and I'll do what I want with
it!" Look at Acts 21:12-13…V.13 "Then Paul answered, "Why are you
weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in
Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." Paul's clear mission in
life: to testify to the gospel of God's grace gave him
the courage, stamina and peace to face anything that came to him. Do you have
such a grasp on your mission in life? Is your mission in life from God or
from your flesh?
Wouldn't you agree that Jesus had a profound sense of being SENT by His Father
to accomplish a mission on earth?!Doesn't the NT give us a clear window into
what drove Jesus Christ every day of his life, from a young age all
the way through the crucifixion?
If we are ever going to feel like we have been sent by Christ on mission,
then we need to see how He Himself was controlled, motivated and sustained
by His own calling and sending by the Father. It was NO SMALL ISSUE
to Him! Let's think about some of the places where Jesus shows us his passion
about being sent into the world by His Father.
On one of his family pilgrimages to Jerusalem, when he was 12 years
old, he turned up missing when the family was in route for home. After 3 days of
searching and back tracking, his parents found him in the temple
with the religious leaders, listening to them and asking them questions.
I would have loved to have been there to hear what questions he asked
them!
Listen to the conversation he had with Mary and Joseph: Luke 2:48-50
"And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said
to him, "Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching
for you in great distress." And he said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did
you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And they did not understand
the saying that he spoke to them." The footnote in most translations
shows that it could also be translated "I must be about my Father's business."
He felt compelled to be in the Temple, the place of God's presence on earth,
doing the same work He saw His Father doing. Notice the key phrase: "I must…"
Later when he read the scroll of Isaiah in the synagogue in Nazareth,
he turned to what we call chapter 61 and read His divine commission
from the Father: Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because
he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." – then
in V.21 he said: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus had come on His great mission to proclaim good news to the poor.
One day, after spending some quiet time with Father, he returned to the crowds
and told them he was leaving. They tried to keep him with them but we read
his response in Luke 4:43 "but he said to them, "I must preach the
good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent
for this purpose."
Once his disciples were arguing about who among them was the greatest. Jesus
used this as a teaching time. Luke 9:48 "and said to them, "Whoever receives
this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent
me. For he who is least among you all is the one who is great."
He taught them humility and based the teaching on his own mission from His
Father.
His disciples could hunger for food, but Jesus said in John 4:34 "My
food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."
When they thought about food, he thought about His mission on earth!
John 5:23 "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who
sent him."
John 7:28-29 "So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple,
"You know me, and you know where I come from? But I have not come of my own accord.
He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from
him, and he sent me."
Even when speaking of the Cross: John 8:28-29 "So Jesus
said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I
am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught
me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always
do the things that are pleasing to him."
We could go on and on just quoting the many times Jesus revealed his deep
and true sense of being sent by His Father to accomplish the salvation of the
elect. I don't believe there was a minute of any day that
he didn't have this wonderful sense that God the Father had sent him. It
was his food, his energy, his source of endurance, his source of purpose
in life. Every time he preached the kingdom and every time he performed a
miracle that gave proof that the kingdom had come in power, Jesus rejoiced
in his sense of mission. All he did was significant because He was sent by
the Father.
Yes, Jesus was a Man of Sorrows, but can you think of a time when he greatly
rejoices? He greatly rejoiced when the disciples finally believed
that he was the Sent One: John 17:8 "For I have given them the words that
you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came
from you; and they have believed that you sent me." The accomplishment
of His mission came up in His most intimate conversation with His Father. It meant
that much to Him!
He desired strongly to share this joy with his disciples. He wanted
them to feel the thrust of energy and power that sense of being sent
by God would create in them. He said to them after his resurrection: John 20:21 "Peace
be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."
Doesn't this mean that we are to enjoy some level of the power from
being sent that motivated our Lord Jesus? Shouldn't a sense of being sent
be as precious to us as it was to Jesus Christ!
We could ask ourselves just how was it that the Father sent Jesus into the
world. The Father sent him with specific things in mind:
1. Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
He was on a mission to save souls from hell. So are we.
2. John 17:4 "I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work
that you gave me to do." He was on a mission to glorify God's name
and to be successful in the work. So are we.
3. Luke 4:43 "but he said to them, "I must preach the good news of
the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose."
He was on a mission to preach the gospel of the kingdom! So are we. As the
Father sent the Son, so the Son sends His people.
4. John 9:4 "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is
day; night is coming, when no one can work." He was on an urgent mission
that had a definite time frame. So do we. Jesus wanted his disciples to sense the
urgency of the mission:
The thing that makes the Christian life so exciting is that we have been sent
out into the world to expand the Kingdom of Christ. Jesus didn't say,
"Hey, just find something to do that you enjoy and keep yourself busy with 'whatever'
until I decide to come back and get you. Get a career, raise a family, do the
vacations and then retire. Enjoy yourselves until I finish the mansions in heaven
and then I'll come get you." Rather He 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." (Mt. 28:18-20)
Application: How do we translate all this to the grass roots level
where you live out your daily existence in an insanely fast-paced world?
What are we supposed to do, sell our houses, quit our jobs, put on some sandals
and just hit the streets preaching the gospel? How would our kids feed themselves?
No, that isn't what Christ is calling us to do, not all of us. Perhaps that
is what he wants some of you to do, to some degree.
Here is where we begin: We must ask God to deeply impress our hearts
that He has in fact called us and sent us out to the world. We have to feel
deeply that we have been sent. If you could get that far this morning, it
would be a good day's work! That is the main problem with American
Christianity; we act like Jesus' call to expand His Kingdom is an imposition
to our lifestyle. We so often lack that 'soldier's mentality' Paul
mentioned in 2 Tim. 2. The "civilian affairs" (our personal lives and agendas
to be rich, comfortable and successful in the world's eyes) become what we
think we have a RIGHT to! What does God say to that? "You have been
bought with a price and you are not your own!"
A young person might say: "I want to study to be a doctor at med school."
We respond, "Hey, that's a great goal and desire for your life." Or they might
say, "I want to get my MBA and open my own business." Or "I want to go into
sport's medicine" or "sports journalism" or become a "high school guidance counselor."
We should be saying to our young people: "What does God want you
to do with your life! "You have been bought with a price and you are not your own."
Make His Kingdom your first passion, not your highly desired career."
Then you can figure out how to expand His Kingdom through sports medicine
or guidance counseling or whatever career HE leads you into. What is your first
passion????
A life that isn't lived with a deep sense of being SENT by God on the mission
to expand His Kingdom is a WASTED LIFE. God is a SENDING GOD!
He is always SENDING people to do His work. By God's providence do you know
what my quiet time was this morning? (Of course you don't). It was
Exodus 3! God says to Moses in V.10 "So now, go. I am sending you
to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." That got me
thinking of all the places in Scripture where God SENT people! Of course,
the greatest is God's sending of His own Son, Jesus Christ to redeem lost
sinners from their sins. Galatians 4:4-5 "But when the fullness
of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."
What am I calling you to do this morning?
I'm calling you to get alone with God and ask him to give you a burning sense
that He has specifically and individually called you and sent you
to live for His glory in the specific situation you find yourself in.
I want you to ask Father to refresh, deepen and enliven your sense of being
on a Kingdom mission in your life.
Then, when the Spirit of the Living, Sending God does that for you, and you
are leaping for joy, begin to ask yourself how this sending should be worked
out right where He has put you! Will you do that? Let's pray.