author: Ryan Hayden Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 9. Luke 9. We are going to read the first 9 verses of this chapter today, Let's go ahead and do that.

[!bible] Luke 9:1-9 - KJV

1. Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
2. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
3. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.
4. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart.
5. And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
6. And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.
7. Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead;
8. And of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again.
9. And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this, of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him.

It turns out that our text today is a text about missions. Jesus here was sending out his disciples 2x2 in a kind of "dress rehearsal" for what their mission would be after He ascended.

Jesus knew that He would be dieing for our sins and resurrecting, and then going into heaven and leaving us a job to do, and so Jesus' spent a huge portion of His time preparing the disciples to minister without Him. Preparing them to spread the gospel around the world.

The disciples marching orders are still our marching orders. We are still commanded to carry out Christ's mission.

So I was studying this passage this week and thinking about missions this week, and then on Thursday afternoon I was sitting at work and I got a text message from Amanda that said Josh Sullivan had been taken at gunpoint from church in Motherwell.

Now, most of you don't know Josh Sullivan. But I do. He is not a missionary we support, but he works hand and hand with Mark Coffey and Kevin Hall, who we do support. I consider him a friend.

I preached in that church about this time last year. Matt and I hung out in his house. His oldest daughter, Malorie, is my oldest daughter Audrey's best friend, and they talk on the phone with each other almost every day. In November, right before they went back to South Africa, we got together with Josh and Meagan Sullivan at Yoders in Arthur.

So I've been a wreck. I've hardly been able to think about anything but Josh and his family since Thursday evening. I feel like we are the church in Acts, praying for Peter to be released when He was imprisoned.

And this morning, I get to talk about missions.

Let's look at our story. I'm going to give you five points this morning as we walk through this story. They are five points that relate to what Jesus sent the disciples to do here, but they also relate to our job of carrying out the great commission.

The first point is:

1. The Mission

In the first few verses that we read Jesus gathers the 12 apostles and tells them that they have power and authority over devils and power to cure diseases, and He sends them out to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick.

Like I said before, this was a dress rehearsal. This was a test run of what the disciples - and all Christ's disciples (including us) - are called to do to this day.

At the end of Jesus' earthly life He gave His disciples the great commission, which shows up in several different places:

[!bible] Matthew 28:19-20 - KJV 19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

[!bible] Mark 16:15 - KJV 15. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

[!bible] Acts 1:8 - KJV 8. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

This is still our job today - preach the gospel to every creature, baptize those who believe, start churches, teach people what Jesus commanded. So this story here in Luke 9 was just a taste of what Jesus called us to do. Preach the gospel to every creature, and there are things we can learn about our mission here in this chapter.

God has called us to go into our neighborhoods, our surrounding communities and to all the world to preach the gospel. That's what Josh Sullivan was doing there in South Africa - preaching the gospel.

That's why we support missionaries. That's why we evangelize here. We have a mission.

So the mission. That's point number 1. Let's go look at the second point, which is...

2. The message

If you look at verse 2 it tells us:

[!bible] Luke 9:2 - KJV 2. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Their message was "the kingdom of God" and God granted them the ability to heal people to support that message.

Let me briefly tell you what I think about miracles. There are those who today claim to have "the gift of healing" or who claim to have other miraculous gifts and in general - I think they are frauds. I don't believe it.

But that doesn't mean I don't believe in miracles. In the Bible - miracles weren't constant. Miracles came in periods. For instance, there were a lot of miracles around the time of Moses. There were a lot of miracles around the time of Elijah and Elisha. But you don't read about miracles happening between those two times. It seems like there would sometimes be hundreds of years without miracles happening in a widespread way.

And if you examine when miracles did happen, they always happen when God has a message He is trying to get across. When God is trying to break His message through.

And so it was in the New Testament. The message of Christ and His kingdom was a new message, it was a hard to believe message, and so God backed it up with miracles. As the message was excepted, the miracles started to cease.

You see this even in the New Testament. At the end of the New Testament when Paul was writing to Timothy about his stomach issues, he didn't say "go find a healer in the church" he said "take a little wine for your stomach's sake."

So I do believe in the power of miracles, I just don't believe they are constant - and particularly, I think as the message of the gospel is accepted - then the miracles go away. Because the miracles are always the handmaiden of the message - they always serve the message. They don't exist for themselves.

So what was the message? You see it in verse 6. It was the gospel. It was the good news of the kingdom.

The disciples were saying:

• Good news the king has come.
• His kingdom isn't what you expect.
• He's gathering people to be a part of His kingdom.

That was the message. And we still preach a form of that message. Of course, we have some thing to add to it that the disciples didn't quite understand yet - we know that Jesus came and died for our sins and rose again - and that He is coming again someday to establish His kingdom.

So what is our message? Our message is that Jesus died to offer His enemies a place in His kingdom.

If you've never trusted Christ - then you are His enemy. You are in a state of emnity with Him. But He died for you. He died to pay your penalty and make you part of His kingdom.

That's the message we preach - and for the disciples, it was a very new message and a very hard message. The people were looking for a physical kingdom. They were looking for a political savior - and they got Jesus. They got forgiveness of their sins and a place in a spiritual kingdom and the promise of a someday physical kingdom. It was a radical message.

Think for a second about the people on the mission field who are being preached to. The people Josh Sullivan was preaching to when he was kidnapped on Thursday. God has a place for them. God can take them from their animism. From their ancestor worship. From their anger and make a place for them in His kingdom.

And that message is no less true to the people on your street who live without Christ. They might not be saved from animism, but they are saved from other forms of self-justification. They are saved from the idols they chase. God has a place for them.

So we've talked about the mission, we've talked about the message.

Let's think about the third point:

3. The Mindset

Look at verse 3:

[!bible] Luke 9:3 - KJV 3. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

Staves were walking sticks or staffs. In the parallel passage, Jesus told them to take A walking stick and A pair of shoes.

So here Jesus is saying "don't bring along any extras."
A scrip isn't referring to a prescription, a "scrip" in King James English is a small bag - like a backpack.

If you keep reading Jesus was saying when you stay at someone's house, don't be looking for an upgrade. Stay there until you leave.

What was the point of this instruction?

The point Jesus was making is that when the disciples went out on mission, they were to keep it simple. They were to stay focused. This was an urgent mission. They were not to bring a bunch of baggage along with them. They didn't need a bunch of extra fancy equipment - they had all they needed with the spirit of God.

And I think a lesson for us today is that God's mission, the great commission, isn't accomplished through bells and whistles. God doesn't need a production. God doesn't need a smoke machine. Just people sharing the gospel. Just the simple truth of the word. Preached in simplicity and earnestness.

I'm reminded of how Paul described his ministry in 2 Corinthians 1:12

-> [!bible] 2 Corinthians 1:12 - KJV

12. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

God doesn't need fancy suits, or intricate stage craft, or polished leadership - God works through the simplicity of the gospel. And rather than trying to get all of that extra baggage, we just need to share the gospel.

I think a second thing about the mindset God wanted them to have is they weren't to be too concerned with their own comfort. They were servants - on a mission from God - they were not to be worried about how soft their bed was.

The truth is, if we worry about ourselves too much, if we insist on our comfort - God's work will never get done. There will always be excuses. There will always be danger. There will always be something we could do to make it better and easier. We shouldn't worry about all that - we should just get after it.

A third thing about this mindset is that they were dependent on God. They weren't bringing a bunch of money. They weren't bringing a bunch of luggage. They were trusting God to provide.

And so, as we do God's work, we need to adopt this mindset:

• Keep it simple.
• Don't worry too much about ourselves.
• Trust God to provide.
• Just do the work.

So we've talked about:

• The mission - how we are sent out by Christ
• The message - preach the gospel
• The mindset - we are to go out with simplicity and urgency.

Two more things. Number 4...

4. The responses

If you look at the rest of this passage, you see the different responses that the disciples would get as they preach their message.

Some would believe. Some would be healed. Praise God for that.

But Jesus wanted to prepare the disciples for the fact that not everyone would receive the gospel. Some people would reject the gospel. So Jesus said when that happens, you are to "shake the dust off your feet."

In Bible times, the orthodox jewish people would do this when they left a gentile area. It was a way to demonstrate "I'm through with you. I don't want any of your dust coming with me."

And I think the key message for us is this: God doesn't want us to worry about converting people. That is not our job. Our job is to preach the gospel. Some people are going to recieve that and some people are going to reject it. Don't worry about the ones who reject it. Shake that dust off your feet.

You know, in marketing they have this idea called "the funnel." Marketers know that 90% of the junk mail they send out never gets read. Maybe 10% of the time someone picks it up and actually reads and and thinks about it. And of those 10%, maybe 2% actually act on the sale.

So you would think that if 98% percent of marketing is wasted, no one would do it right? No. You are wrong, because it's not about the 98%, it's about finding the 2%.

And when we share the gospel, and someone isn't interested. That's ok, that's just another person you can mark off on your quest to find the 2%. Shake off the dust and move on.

So some believe, some reject. But this story ends with a mention of Herod. It might seem out of place. Herod was the king at the time and he had just killed John the Baptist and he hears about Jesus.

He was probably stricken in his conscience about what he had done to John the Baptist. But he becomes fascinated with Jesus.

And do you know what? Jesus never gave him the time of day. And the next time we here Herod mentioned in Luke, the Pharisees are telling Jesus "Herod will kill thee".

So listen, when we preach the gospel, we can expect converts. We can expect a lot of people to reject Him. But we can also expect some people to outright oppose the message we are preaching.

Remember, Satan is the controller of this world, and Satan hates the gospel. So when set out to preach the gospel, we can expect opposition.

You can read about what people in other countries go through to preach the gospel. Read about how Chinese Christians are sent to jail for preaching the gospel. How many muslim countries will execute you for preaching the gospel.

Think about John Leonard - our missionary to Brazil who was shot for preaching the gospel.

Think about my friend Josh today. Probably tied up in some slum somewhere. Why? For preaching the gospel.

Listen, when we obey God and preach the gospel, we are entering into a spiritual warfare and we can expect some opposition.

That's not a surprise to God. Danger isn't an excuse to not obey God. Rejection isn't an excuse to not obey God. Discomfort isn't an excuse to not obey God.

God has called us to a work, and we have to do it.

So we've talked about:

• The mission
• The message
• The mindset
• The responses There is one more thing I want you to see and it is...

5. The result

Do you know what happened when the disciples started preaching? The name of Jesus got out.

It got out so much that it made it's way to King Herod. Everyone was talking about Christ.

And do you know what the goal of preaching the gospel is? It is to make Jesus known. It is so that people would hear about Jesus.

Listen, if our message is perceived to be: Live a clean life. Dress right. Be a better husband. etc.. Then we have absolutely failed in our mission. Those things might all be results of trusting Christ - but they are not our message. Our message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:2

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 2:2 - KJV 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

In 1 Corinthians 1:23 he said:

[!bible] 1 Corinthians 1:23 - KJV 23. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

That's the message - we preach Christ and our goal is that people would know Christ so that they can receive Him and go to heaven.

The old Moravian missionaries had a rallying cry and I think it needs to be ours as well

"That the lamb that was slain would receive the reward of His suffering."

That is why we serve Christ, that is why we preach, that is the result we are after - that God be glorified.

Conclusion

So let's wrap this up: We’ve seen today in Luke 9 what it means to be sent by Jesus.

• The mission—He calls us, like the Twelve, with His power and authority to share the gospel, just as He called Josh Sullivan to South Africa.
• The message—it’s the good news of God’s kingdom, that Jesus died for sinners and offers a place to all who believe, a message Josh preached faithfully.
• The mindset—we go with simplicity and urgency, trusting God, not chasing comfort, just as the disciples traveled light and Josh lived humbly for the gospel.
• The responses—some will believe, praise God; some will reject, and we shake the dust off; some, like Herod, may even oppose, as Josh faces now in captivity.
• But the result? Christ is preached. Christ is made known. That is our goal.

So what are we to do about it?

• I think we need to pray. Pray for Brother Sullivan. Pray right now for all of our missionaries. I'm going to tell you, specifically, I'm praying that this isn't used to keep people from surrendering to missions. I've seen what God is doing there, and it is worth it.
• Second, I think we need to go. We need to be personally faithful to God's commisssion for us. Maybe that's not to South Africa - but it might be to your neighbor or your coworker.