Mission Possible

Proper 9, Year C. Luke 10:1-20

Transcript

Today in our Gospel lesson, we are going to see what it is that the city of God does when they are sent out into the world. And we are going to experience Jesus instructing his disciples on how it is that they engage in the world around them. But before we do, we need to understand what is going on here In Luke chapter 10, number one, you need to know that Jesus. This is the second time that Jesus sends his disciples out. First in chapter nine, he sent his 12 out and they went to the lost sheep of Israel.
Now he sends 70 disciples out to the places in which he will go. If you remember, I have told you that In Luke chapter 9, verse 51, we are told that Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem, which means he's intentionally walking to Jerusalem to accomplish the will of God to do, to bring salvation to all those who will come to believe. That's his aim. And so he is sending out others, these 70 into these places as he is journeying towards Jerusalem. And what he is doing as he's sending out the 12 and the 70, is he is doing this trial run of the mission that they will do once he ascends to the Father.
So just like a good coach who, who watches film with the football team in order to prepare for the game that's coming up. So Jesus sends out his disciples before he ascends to the Father and instructs them on what they are going to do and what it's going to look like when he's no longer present among them, but will be present within them by the Holy Spirit. So that's what we need to see is happening here. This is a practice run for the disciples and we're going to see how they come together and they watch film about all the things that they were capable of doing in their mission that Jesus sent them out to do. Now I kind of liken what Jesus is doing to the, to what Melissa and I have been doing for what seems like an eternity.
We have a six year old, his name's Bo. And Bo doesn't always like to do chores. Bo doesn't know how to do a lot of chores. And so Mary, maybe you guys can understand this, but you have to train a child how to do chores. They don't come with a download of instructions already knowing how to feed the chickens, take out the trash, wash the dishes, that would have been a great thing, God.
But for whatever reason, that's not what they. They are prone to laziness. They're prone to make things up. They think washing dishes with mud is way more fun than with soapy water. And so what we've kind of been committed to over these last several weeks is training Beau instead of running outside with a mop handle and chopping down trees and fake enemies is to when you wake up, let's start doing chores.
But I realized that he doesn't know what chores look like unless we demonstrate it. So one of the first things that you have to do with a child is you have to demonstrate it yourself. You have to do it and let them watch you doing it. I mentioned this last week. Our kids are in worship right now.
And adults, you know the faith, You've been practicing the faith. And it is important that you in worship, demonstrate to them how it is that they can be encouraged to worship alongside with you. They are watching you. So if your posture is ho hum. If you're just sitting back, not doing anything, guess what they're going to learn about worship?
That you don't like it and it's not fun and that it's not something special. But if you're engaged, if you're singing, men, right? Not just the ladies, right? But if men, you're singing, then my little guy can learn that men can sing and lead in singing, right? So you first have to demonstrate to them.
Then after you demonstrate it to them, you need to teach them what you're doing and allow them to do it along with you, right? Like I just don't say, okay, now you, now you've seen me take out the trash, now you go and do it. You need to be with them and watch them as they struggle, lifting that heavy bag out, as they drag it on the floor, as the chicken juices all over the floor. You need to say, no, no, no, let's pick this bag up. Let's pick it up like this.
You have to do it along with them. So first step, you show them, watch me do this. Next step is I'm going to be here with you doing this. I want to teach you how to do it right? And then you need to observe them doing it on their own before you assign them all the chores by themselves.
So now I have confidence because we've walked through this process that Bo knows how to take out the trash. And if he doesn't do it right, he's just being lazy, right? Same with what's going on with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus has been doing his ministry in Galilee and all over the region, and his disciples have been observing him doing these things, healing people, casting out demons, right? Feeding people, building relationships with people walking from place to place with nothing to himself but his two feet, right?
Having nothing, no place to lay his head. Jesus would say they've observed him. Jesus has been teaching them. Jesus offers them instructions here, and then he sends them out while he's present with them in the world to go to perform the mission that he will send them out to do later after he accomplishes the will of his Father, which is in Jerusalem, which is his death, burial, and resurrection and ascension, so that they can continue on the mission having been practiced with their coach. Right, so that's what we're looking at today.
And we're going to walk verse by verse, because what I find in this passage is instructions that are relevant to us. Right? This is more than just an evangelistic program. There's so many of those things, so many evangelistic explosions and little programs that people might find helpful. But what I think is, as we look at what King Jesus tells his kingdom to do and go out into the world to do, is he gives us enough instruction to do that.
And I find that it's actually the burden and the yoke of being under Christ isn't that heavy, that it's light. His burden is light to go and do this mission. And that's what I find. So let's just walk through this, his instructions, verse by verse. And then we're going to look at that highlight reel of the disciples coming back and how they.
What they experienced. And so we're right out of Luke, chapter 10, verse 1. This is what it says now. After this, The Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. So this is the mission Jesus is sending out.
This is the concept that the church, the gathering of the kingdom, is not the place to be doing evangelism, because everybody in the kingdom is. Is already of the people of faith. And we're living with Jesus and we're doing life together. But there is this sending out. This is the very point of why I do a benediction, and we call it the commissioning is because when you exit out those doors, we recognize that you are bringing the kingdom of God out into your places in which you live.
We are sending you out, having fed you and filled you up and encouraged you and shared peace with you. You're now ready to go, and you're equipped to go out into the world and advance this kingdom of God, the city of God. Right? That's what we're doing when we send out. Right.
A lot of Times I heard a pastor say that everybody thinks that this is evangelism. When you just invite somebody to church, you never tell them about Jesus. You don't talk to them about the City of God. You don't pray for them, for healing, and you don't discern the spirits and try to exorcise demons from people's lives. Instead, you say, hey, why don't you just come to church with me?
And that's a real easy way to get around from having to do this mission that Jesus is calling everyone who follows after him. Inviting people to church might be helpful and it might be real easy, but that is not part of the instruction. We are sent out to go perform work and a mission, and then we come back together and do the City of God thing, the Kingdom of God thing. We feast in here, we have language in here, we celebrate and sing in here. This is what we do when we gather.
But we have a mission when we are sent out. But not only this, they're sent out in pairs. So, good news, this mission you're not supposed to do alone. That's amazing. And why is.
Because when you're going out there, you're bringing with you this Kingdom of God, the City of God. And it is true. It's a reality. It's real and it's present. And there's this whole concept that truth is accounted for in the presence of two or more witnesses.
And so you have somebody that can come alongside of you, and both of you together in tandem are advancing this kingdom, the City of God, into the streets of your lives. Not only that, but even Jesus himself says, where two or more are gathered, there My presence will be also. It's almost as if you're reading Scripture and he says, don't be alone. Christianity, the Kingdom of God, you're never alone. Don't be alone.
Don't be trying to do this on your own. Don't try to live your life in a personal relationship with Jesus, but live your life in a communal relationship with Jesus and his people. Don't do it alone. Matter of fact, when you're not alone, my presence is there. And so you never do this mission alone.
Jesus presence by way of the Holy Spirit is right there. And so we're told in Luke 10:2, that the mission is guaranteed, or, sorry, that the mission is. There's a lot to the mission that's going to be easy to accomplish. There's more than enough work out there for everybody to do. And he was saying to them, the harvest is plentiful.
But the laborers are few. Therefore, beseech the Lord, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Notice first that he says, pray to the Lord of the harvest. Is that your harvest? Are those your crops?
Are those your people that you are saving? No, this is the Lord's work and the Lord's harvest. And you're going out as his people to collect what he has already been doing. So you're not going out there trying to save anybody the Lord saves, right? You're not trying to coerce them in any way, shape or form to bow their knee to King Jesus.
That's the good news. You don't have to go and stand on a street corner and yell at people and yell the gospel until somebody bends the knee. You go out in pairs and you go into places, into the streets where you're familiar into the areas of your life. Your areas of your life look different than mine. We go in different places and in different directions.
And he's not asking you to go anywhere that you haven't already gone or aren't already familiar with. He's sending you out to your places to bring the kingdom of God, the city of God, into it, to bring it near to them.
And there's a lot of work to be done that shows us and demonstrates to us and declares to us that God is on the move in a lot of places, more than all of us right here can even do and harvest ourselves. So Jesus says, pray that God will increase the laborers because there's more than enough work for everybody. But not only this. Jesus also says that the mission that he sends us out to do is going to have guaranteed opposition. Verse three.
Go. Behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. So let's just get that out. If you're going to be guaranteed opposition, then you shouldn't think that this is just going to be something that's extremely quick and easy and that you need to be very discerning when you're doing it. And Jesus is going to spell that out later on.
But we need to be mindful that this is what Jesus is saying. You're going to a world that has opposed me. You're going out into the world. I am sending you out into the world that has killed me or will be killing me at this point. So you too are going to be among wolves.
Not only wolves, but there is a. A prince of the power of the air that would seek to halt anything you're going to try to do. You have to Be mindful of this. You have to be wise about this.
I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. So there's definitely going to be spiritual warfare, but not just spiritual reality. You're also just going to have warfare with the world. The world opposes Christ. But not only that, not only spiritual warfare and worldly warfare, but also religious warfare.
You're going to be engaging in false religion. You're going to be engaging in all the ways Satan has twisted the word of God and built up these false religions that look so much like this kingdom that you're proclaiming. So you have to understand what the city of God, what the kingdom of God is and what it looks like and how it's built so that you can discern that when you meet these wolves that exist even within the church, right? Wolves put on sheep's clothing and they come in. All the epistles are naming these realities.
Be on your guard, contend for the faith, Jude would say, because there are wolves coming in, trying to creep into the church, the city and the kingdom of God and to break down its walls. And we don't allow that to happen. So the wolves are threefold spiritual realities. It's worldly realities, and it's even false religion that looks this close like Christianity, but it isn't. Looks this close like the kingdom of God, but it's the kingdom of the world.
The only way you can discern the difference is, is by the word of God, is by gathering with his people, by receiving the instruction of Jesus Christ through his word, learning it, understanding it, and implementing it. That's how we do it. So maybe consider spending more than just an hour and a half on Sunday mornings learning your Bible with other fellow believers. You could do Bible study on your own, but then you're making up your own interpretation, your own thoughts. We gather together on Wednesdays and we study the Scripture.
We study the Gospel lesson in more depth. We talk about it. Because there's some things that you all see in the scriptures that I don't see. And I need you to speak into my life as I speak into yours. And we teach each other and we build each other up in the Scriptures and we come to an agreement of understanding and that helps guide us in our mission out into the world when we're sent out.
But then the mission doesn't require any special tools or equipment either. It is something that you can get up and just start doing in your Life. Luke, verse 4. Carry no money, belt no bag, no shoes, and greet no one on the way. So Jesus is not telling them to do anything that he's not already doing.
He already does not have a money belt. He already does not have shoes. His disciples have some things. But he's saying, when I send you out, go with nothing, because my Father is going to provide for everything. See, this whole mission is God's mission.
This is his work that we just get invited into, and that's what we're doing. And so you don't have to prep for this physically. You don't have to take anything with you. It can be done at any time, at any place that you are. Now.
Hopefully you've been instructed by Jesus. You've been sitting under his teaching, and you've been reading what he has done and how he's done it himself. So now you're equipped to do it. You have a frame of reference, but you don't need to take special equipment. You don't always have to carry around a Bible or a little brochure or pamphlet that you can hand out.
You have a mouth, you have legs, you have arms, you have eyes. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And when you don't have anything to say, it can speak through you. And hopefully you've been studying the Scriptures, you don't have to take anything with you. So that when you're on the way, living out your life in Christ, whenever you see those moments where the Spirit's speaking to you to speak and bring near the kingdom of God, you can do it right then and there.
You don't have to drop what you're doing, go home, bring your doctor bag with you, right? And come in and say, okay, now I'm ready. The task that it doesn't require special equipment. But then there's also this little phrase, greet no one on the way. And we brought up this question on Wednesday.
So what does that mean? You mean I can't be friendly along the way? That's obviously not what it means, because Jesus says, speak peace into the places you come, and if it's received, it will rest on them. And if it's rejected, you move on. So what does it mean to not greet people on the way?
And this is what it means. There is this concept of greeting. It's a Hebrewism that when you greet somebody, it's usually somebody you're very familiar with. This is how we would identify friends and family. Right?
We tend to linger in conversation a little bit longer with our friends and family than we do strangers. That's a little bit more of an awkward conversation. And so When Jesus is saying, I'm sending you out intentionally on a mission with purpose, don't use this time to gather together and huddle, right? And just talk with your partner or talk with other people that are friends and family. Go out in your lives and this is the mission that you are going to people that the Lord is going to reveal to you that is ready for harvest.
Don't go to people that have already been harvested. Don't find comfort in, like, we're just going to hang out, right? Me and Richard is going to meet for coffee. And we can't call that advancing the kingdom because we're already in the kingdom. We're advancing the kingdom when we're going to coffee and sitting in breakfast.
And the Lord lays on my heart to go speak to this guy who's struggling for whatever reason, and I sit there with him, and I. And I do everything that the Lord is instructing us to do here with him. I'm trying to bring near the kingdom of God to him. That's what he's saying. So don't stop by and greet and go visit your friends and family.
That's not the time when you're sent out. We visit with friends and family in the kingdom. We spend a lot of time in the kingdom, a lot more than what we probably do on a weekly basis right now, because this is our favorite place to be. And then we're set on mission out there.
And then they seek out those who are peaceful. Since Jesus is telling you you're going out among wolves, then when you go out, seek people that respond to your peace. In Luke 5 and 6, he says this. Whatever house you enter, first say peace be to this house. If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him.
If not, it will return back to you. This is the where we're supposed to be going. Jesus is instructing us to go and visit people, right? Go and build relationships, as we're going to see in just the next verse. And if that person is putting up a front against you, if that person is not receiving the peace that you're bringing.
And here peace is synonymous with salvation. So if you're offering them the kingdom, but they're just rejecting it, they're opposed to it, you could tell those people, you could tell they don't want to have anything to do with what you say. And the good news is, you don't have to worry about it. You can move on. Jesus gives you permission.
But if somebody's receptive, if somebody is receiving the peace that you're laying down, stay there. That's your number one indicator. They're open to what you are about to tell them. The Holy Spirit's been working on them, tearing down their cold heart of stone and making it flesh. And now they're ripe for the picking.
And God wants to use you to bring them into the fullness of the kingdom of God. You're bringing it near so that they could be invited into. And that's the first thing that we need to look. If you begin in, I believe it's John, when Jesus calls his disciples, the number one thing the disciples do is they don't go out to strange people in the community. They go to their own friends and family in their own hometowns and begin to express, I just met Jesus.
The one that the scriptures have been declaring is the Messiah. Like, really? Yes, Come on. They're familiar already. And this is, we're building upon this.
Jesus is instructing us to go and do these things in your area of influence, where you are, you go out, you're sent out to go to those places that only you can go, because that's where you are. And you're, you're finding these people of peace. If you meet opposition, move on. But if you don't meet opposition, stay and linger. Build that relationship.
He continues on to say in verse seven, stay in that house eating and drinking what they give you for the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not keep moving from house to house. Jesus wants you to linger. Even if it's just that one relationship that has that element of peace to it, where they're open to the kingdom of God and Jesus and the gospel and you begin to share with them what you're doing, but you're feasting with them, you're. You're giving them glimpses of what Jesus is leading them into.
Because when they come into the kingdom of God, we sit down with each other and we eat a meal. When we sit down, we talk with each other, we extend peace to one another. So you're giving them a glimpse by staying with them, building that relationship with them. Because you. I find it that it's impossible to communicate the kingdom of God and the gospel.
It was just a drive by. Right.
I feel like a lot of times like we think of evangelism, as long as I could just like machine gun it out there and we'll see what, where it hits. But I find that Jesus instruction is more relational, more lingering than that. And so what I would find and I would challenge each and every one of us is this next year as we continue to build on this concept that we are the city of God and we're sent out here into the world to transform it to become the city of God. That you can just find one relationship that you can begin building, spending time with, eating meals with and introducing them and bringing near to them the kingdom of God in a very peaceful situation, talking with them, sharing with them the gospel and Jesus and the Scriptures.
And then when they want to follow after Jesus like you, you say, well, there's a place to come follow him, come to the city. And they come, and then they get to follow Jesus, just like each and every one of us here. And they join us and we all venture together. But also here, this is also the way that God provides for his laborers. This is the way in which God says, don't take anything with you, because when you meet that person of peace that I'm ripened and is ready for the harvest, I'm going to feed you too.
I'm going to take care of you. That's why you don't need anything. Jesus has his whole enterprise worked out. He's like, I got this. I'm the king of kings and Lord of Lords.
I got everything. And that's how he provides. And I found this true in my life. When I made the poorest decisions of my life, when I was in shambles, when my life was forfeit, I couldn't get a job at Dollar General. I didn't know or have any hope forward, but I had to provide for my family.
I didn't know what that looked like or how I can even do that. Because of the poor decisions, the consequences of my life, I have cornered myself into a place where I could not do anything. I've ruined my life. So how's it go from here? Well, then my dad gets cancer.
And it was this time he had insurance where if you got cancer, they gave you a cancer check. And I said, dad, I don't have a job. I don't know where to go. But I hear a rumor that there's an oil field in North Dakota, Montana, a place I've never been, don't know anything about. And in an industry I have absolutely nothing, I know nothing about, that I might be able to get a job there.
So my dad hands me his debit card. He goes, go try to find a job. And so I try to go and find a job in North Dakota, Montana. Never been there before. Don't understand the oil field industry.
I'm kind of like one of those white collar workers. I can like read and write and do the office thing, but like, and I can work with my hands, but I don't know that I'm not mechanical. And so I'm going out there and it is such an oil boom. You cannot find any car to rent, you cannot find any hotel to stay at. But there are a plethora of jobs.
And so I get a one way plane ticket to Williston, N.D. and not knowing where I'm gonna sleep, not knowing how I'm gonna get around not knowing anything, I just began to talk to people on the plane like, hey, what's the oil field? Like, what should I do? Blah, blah. And all I had was like some clothes and a suit for an interview, because that's how my mind works. And so I get off the plane.
It's a small airport, like, I mean you can just like blink and walk through it and you're done. Small airport. And I get off and I see this guy go up to the rent a car center and he drops off the keys. And I'm just kind of looking at people, see if they're going to run and rush it. And I'm like, I don't have a car.
Maybe I'll go up there and just ask. Because he couldn't. Nowhere online could you find a car rental. So I go up there and there's. I asked the lady, I said, do you have a car that I might be able to rent?
And she goes, yeah, this guy just turned in a vehicle. I said, I'll take it for three weeks, Because I didn't know. So I got a car. I was like, well, I can sleep in a car now. I have some transportation, drive around.
So I got in the car, drove around, wasting time. It was a Sunday, so I got there before everybody opened up on Monday. And I was just like, okay, I'm going to sleep in the car, but let me just waste time. Let me go to all these hotels around here. And so I'm going to hotel hotel.
And there's actually other people in line asking if they can have a place to stay as well. And they're all being turned away. And I'm being turned away. No, we're completely booked up and full. I said, okay.
So then I drive by this place called international airport inn and it looks massive. And the car ratio to the massiveness of the hotel didn't line up in my mind. I'm like, they have to have some room. And so there's three people ahead of me in line. And I'm waiting.
I have nothing else to do. They're getting turned away. I can literally hear the interaction. And then I step up. As I step up, the receptionist goes and answers the phone and a new one steps in.
She's like, how can I help you? And I said, I already know the answer, but do you might have a room that I can rent? She goes, well, actually we have one for you. You must be our emergency. I said, I'll take it for three weeks.
Lady gets off the phone, she goes, what are you doing? She's like, oh, I gave him our emergency room. She said, no, Halliburton just bought out this hotel. We have no rooms. But I was already in the system.
So now I have a car, now I have a hotel, and all I'm there to do is get a job. And so that night I'm kind of prepping. I go down to get some coffee from the lobby. I talk to the guy who's on nights, and I just talked to him. I said, where should I begin looking for jobs tomorrow?
He goes, well, first maybe it was from how I was dressed or the way I was carrying myself. He's like, what are you wearing to these interviews? I go, oh, I got a suit and tie. He's like, no, your supervisor's gonna wear normal clothes. Like a button up in blue jeans, frs.
And I was thankful for that. So I got my blue jeans and a button up. I didn't wear suit and tie. And I went the next day and I went from moving from not knowing how I'm going to get a job at Dollar General and not having anything to my name to getting a job as a roustabout making the more money I've ever made in my whole entire life. And I share that very long story because that's part of the testimony of how God was pulling me out from the life that I ruined and say, hey, you, follow me.
You listen to me. I can redeem the situations you have forfeited, my friend. Follow me. And every step of the way, those miracles just was demonstrating how God is in control. And how when he says, take nothing with you, no money, no shoes, no well shirt, but don't take any of that stuff, I will provide for you because a laborer is worthy of his wages.
And so Jesus continues on to instruct and he says in verse eight and nine, whenever you, whatever city, you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you and heal those in it who are sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. So this is really the crux of what our mission is for. We just don't go to only speak with people, but we also go to demonstrate, not just declare the kingdom of God, but also demonstrate the kingdom of God in the lives of others. See, you are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation because you are in the kingdom of God.
And so when you are sent out, don't act like you're not. Go out with Christ's authority, which you're about to see, that he himself from his own mouth says that you have. And when you go out, you can pray in faith over people who are sick and ask God to heal them, because God hears the prayer of the righteous. And if you're in the kingdom, then Christ has clothed you in his righteousness. And so you can intercede and ask on behalf of Jesus, using his name, to the Father, and the Father will grant its request.
It happens. And that's what we're called to do. And as we'll also see, we're also called to be at war with the powers and principalities of the world and evil. And we are the ones, we are the agents that can exercise that evil out. We can dethrone them from their places of power just by bringing the kingdom of God near.
But you don't know how to do that if you're not sitting under God's word and being instructed. But the important part here is, if they're receiving you, stay. What happens if they reject you? Verse 10 and 11. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive, you go out into its streets and say, even the dust of your city which clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.
Yet be sure this that the kingdom of God has come near. Now notice this rejection does not mean that the kingdom of God is not near or does not have power because it didn't impact this person's life or this area's life. It could be that they just reject. It could be that their lives are already good and they want to live in their kingdom rather than the kingdom of God. You say, okay, it's good.
Go to the people that are ripe. Go to the people who will receive the peace, who want to receive the news. And you can discern this. You can discern this. It doesn't take much skill to discern whether somebody's receiving or rejecting it.
Don't spend your time and don't spend your wills with the people that are rejecting it. The Lord hasn't come to prune them yet they're not ready. They're not ripe yet. Jesus wants you to go to those who are already ripe that he's made ripe.
And how. And then verse 16, the one who listens to you listens to me. The one who rejects you rejects me. And he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me. See, if you ever are in opposition with somebody and they say, like, who do you think you are?
You're not Jesus. They're wrong. You are like Jesus to them. You are the kingdom of God on earth. You are the city on the hill.
You have authority. And it's not because you declare it. It's because Jesus says, hey, look, when you go out, you bear my name, you bear my authority, and everything's been given to me in my hands. There's not one place or one square foot in this whole entire cosmos that Jesus isn't have that he doesn't have authority over. He does.
Everywhere and everything belongs to him because he's earned it and the Father has handed it to him. And he now says, look, whatever you do for the kingdom of God, well, however you're impacted, you're received or rejected, that's a reception or rejection of me. You're bound to Christ, and that's why you can walk out with confidence and encouragement and authority. And we need to do that. We need to bear that in mind when we go out.
So how does all this work? Those are the instructions. So how. What happens when these 70 go out to do that? Well, let's read about that in these next, just three verses 17 through 19.
The 70 returned with joy, saying, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. See, this is a little bit of a turn because Jesus doesn't mention that earlier in his instructions. At least Luke doesn't mention it.
But then they return and they're most amazed, they're most compelled by the fact that they were dethroning the. The powers and principalities of the world. They were healing people. They were eating with people. They were.
They were with people of peace. And by bringing the kingdom of God near, they were watching Satan fall from his throne. That's the power the kingdom has, that the gates of Hades cannot prevail against our kingdom.
Our kingdom lasts forever, and his is falling. How does it fall? You, you have the power to not only Offer healing to people to not only exorcise their demons, but also to dethrone powers and principalities in this world. Did you know that you guys are the secret operation to dethrone kings and presidents and governments that are wielding its evil in the world? So we are political.
And how we're political is we got a king who has the real authority, and we're his people who have his real authority on us. And so we're not going to tolerate when people want to kill babies, we're not going to tolerate the shedding of blood because Jesus has done enough, and we go and propagate the gospel and the kingdom of God. This has already happened historically. Roman Rome, right? Roman falls in the 4th century, Augustine comes into power, and all of a sudden in Constantinople, this whole thing gets changed.
The Roman Empire that crucified and allowed Jesus to be crucified, the Roman Empire that killed people to advance his kingdom, had Christians in its streets all over the place. And it's through those streets that they were advancing the city of God, speaking with people of peace who are wanting to receive this good news of Jesus Christ. And eventually it gets all the way to the emperor. And the emperor believes, and the whole kingdom of Rome, empire of Rome changes, becomes Christian. And the first great cathedral was built where early Christians who were meeting in houses and empty synagogues were gathering together at the Empire's headquarters and worshiping God.
The same thing happens in our lives each and every day.
If we would just go out when we're sent and take the kingdom of God with us and advance his kingdom.
And he says this in the last instruction. He goes, but nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. And I'll just say this in closing this right here, Jesus kind of brings us back to reality. He goes, I have given you so much authority, like I have instructed you in this mission. But whatever happens on your mission, no matter if you ever recount, no matter if you ever encounter somebody who receives you, maybe your whole life in advancing the kingdom is only met ever with rejection.
Don't rejoice over the ones who seemingly have more impact than you do. You just do the mission. You do the mission. I'm not going to review how successful you are, because success is not about you. It's not about your ability to dethrone powers and principalities has nothing to do with your performance, has everything to do with your placement.
You're in the kingdom of God. You Are your name is written in the book of life. And that is why you do what you do. Rejoice in that. Because if you rejoice in that and you're met with rejection to the point where even they take your life, they can't take your placement.
The early church, the apostles, the disciples themselves, laid their life down in order to advance the kingdom. This is why it's often referred to that the blood of the martyrs, the blood of the disciples, the blood of the apostles that was shed when they were martyred for their faith was the seed of the church, that Jesus, who offered his life and then was resurrection, was resurrected. So too, when you lay down your own life, even if it's forfeit and taken from you by the rejection of the world, even in your death, life will sprout up because God uses his people, whether they live, whether they die. You're in a win win situation because your name's written in the book of life. It's not about your performance, it's about your placement.
So Fairview Methodist, last week I started talking to you about being a city of God. Now this week we've looked and have instructions on how we ought to take that city and implement it out in our own personal lives with each other. Can we commit ourselves to do this? Can we think about what we're doing when we gather? Can we join together as often as we gather to build each other up, to be equipped with God's word so that when you go out those doors, you don't go live your own life.
You go and live the life of a citizen of the kingdom of God. And you go and everywhere you walk, you're bringing Jesus.
Can we do that? Will we do that? How will that look like in your own life? I'm not going to places where you're going. You're not going to places I'm going.
But all of us together, even if there's just two of us, we can make a big impact. Would you consider for the remainder of the year to find just one person, one person to spend that time with, that person of peace, to eat with, to share with and to invite to be part of the kingdom of God once they want to follow after Jesus? Will you guys keep that in the forefront of your mind? Will you keep that language, that gospel, on the edge of your tongue so that no matter who you encounter, whether it's at that gas station with those three ladies in that pickup truck that was looking for gas and I paid, but they were going to get gas, but they were also going to get the message of the gospel.
We do that. We do that with people of peace who are willing to receive that. So hear the good news that you're sent on a mission, that you get to join God in what he's already doing.
We just need to get going and doing it. And this morning we have a privilege. We gather here to worship God and then we're going to come to his table in just a moment. And when we come to his table, this is the meal, the fine dining of the city where we take in Jesus, where we eat on him and feast on him and he fuels and nourishes us so that when you're sent out, you're encouraged, you're united and you're with Jesus. That's what we get to do.
It's very special moment for us. So let me close this in prayer and then we'll transition to that part of the service.