The First Mission Trip

Jesus sent his disciples to preach the gospel while bringing healing to a sick and demonic world, and we are called to the same mission.

Note: This transcript was auto generated and may have errors.  

[00:00:00] Well, we get to talk about one of my favorite things to talk about this morning, the mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus. As most of you know, I spent about five and a half years as a missions pastor down in Pennsylvania. I look, I took that role after ending a run as a church planter in Indiana. That church plant did not go so well. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had a lot of passion for missions, but I didn’t have a lot of strategy or a lot of experience. And then I took the role of a missions pastor, and I got to unite my passion for the proclamation of the gospel to the strategy of reaching unreached people groups around the world. And I found out that during my time in that role, that careful planning has to be wedded to passion, urgency, and sacrifice. If we’re going to do what Jesus is calling the church to do, you got to wed those two together to do what God is asking us to do. We need to walk in step with the Holy Spirit for sure. But that doesn’t mean that we are haphazard with our resources, or that we work without planning and direction. And it means that we are prayerful while we plan. Okay, so we are looking to the Lord. We are asking the Holy Spirit, show us how to do the mission you called us to do.

[00:01:27] But yet at the same time, we are planning constantly looking to God’s Word for guidance as we make decisions and sensitive to the leading of the spirit. As we weigh out the options that are in front of us. And there’s there’s something else that I learned about missions, too, as I searched the scriptures. And it’s this there is there is no distinction between the church Jesus saves and the mission team that he sends. I’ll say it again. There’s no distinction between the the church that Jesus saves and the missions team that he sends. Have you ever noticed that on multiple occasions now, in the book of Luke, as we’ve been going through this book, someone has been healed by the power of Jesus and then immediately becomes a witness for Jesus. Have you seen that? We’ve seen that over and over again, testifying to the power of Christ Church, that that’s because there is absolutely no distinction between Jesus Church and Jesus missions team. It’s the same group, same group of people. This is not to say that every single person will do exactly the same thing on that team. We certainly don’t. We’ve all been gifted in different ways. But, but, but somewhere along the line, some somewhere in church history, I’m not sure exactly where it was, but somewhere along the line, many people in the church started to make missionary a separate category from believer. Missionary became a special person.

[00:02:59] Someone, someone specifically called to go and tell others about Jesus. And and that’s a fine way to use the word. There are people who specifically go across salt water and go to places to tell people about Jesus, and it’s fine to use the word missionary there. But but somewhere along the way, a missionary became distinct from just your average Christian who believes in Jesus, attends church services, sings, and serves in some ministry, but for the most part keeps to himself. We we have, to a degree, lost the full church missionary call to go and to make disciples. Before we look at our passage in Luke this morning, I want to I want you to to take you to one of the final things that Jesus says to his disciples. You’ve already heard it read, and I’m going to read it again, and I want you to I want you to see this maybe with new eyes. It’s a passage very familiar to you, but there’s a detail. There’s a detail in this passage that perhaps that you’ve missed. This is Matthew 1828 18 to 20. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

[00:04:17] Now the part you may have missed is the part here about teaching. Jesus tells his disciples to make other disciples who will be taught to obey everything that Jesus commanded the first disciples. So basically they are to reproduce themselves in the same pattern of belief and ministry that Jesus is shaping his original disciples. Do you know what Jesus commanded his original disciples to do? He commanded them to be missionaries. He. He raised up a team of of gospel, sharing good works, doing men and women who were sent to go make more missionaries. It would be right to say that every local church is a missions organization that’s only doing its job when everyone is functioning together as a disciple making missions organization. Not just a few elite workers, not just a couple of people with a particular call. Everybody. Everyone who names the name of Christ in a church. Not just missions minded people. Everybody. Everybody’s called everyone who follows Jesus is called to be a missions minded and missions engaged Christian. That’s the pattern Jesus set for his original disciples. And we are clearly commanded to continue to make disciples using that same pattern. This morning, we’re going to explore the very first time that Jesus sent his disciples out on a mission trip. Now, some of you have been on a mission trip before. Uh, I have to. I bet it doesn’t look anything like the trip we’re going to look at this morning.

[00:06:05] Uh, we’re going to see passion for the gospel. Uh, wedded to careful planning, urgency and sacrifice to create a strategy for spreading the gospel. It has some some quirky bits in here that we need to explain, but it gives us several principles for what a mission should look like for us as the church today. Jesus sent his disciples to preach the gospel while bringing healing to the sick and to the demonic world, and we’re called to that same mission. So follow along with me in Luke chapter nine, verse one. It will be on the screen this morning. I’m going to read this in full, and then I want to show you four principles of Jesus mission that are true for us today, just as true for us today as it was for them in the first century. Luke chapter nine, verse one. And he called the 12 together, and he gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money. And do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart, and wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust of your feet as a testimony against them.

[00:07:30] And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. So not everything in this passage looks exactly today like it did in the first century, that that has mostly to do with with cultural strategy today for spreading the gospel. But the principles here are universal and should guide every discussion that we have as we talk about the mission of the church today. So let’s look at the four principles. And the first one is that the mission is backed by power and authority. Power and authority are tied together here. Authority is the right to do something. Power is actually doing it. So if you think about law enforcement, you can sort of picture the distinction between power and authority. See, police officers have the power to come into your home, but only if given the authority by a warrant or the presence of danger. So authority is the right to act. Power is the act itself, and authority is limited by higher levels. We only have as much authority to express power as the levels of authority above us allow. So in the case of Jesus and His mission, we have to ask the question what level of authority does Jesus have? What level of authority does Jesus have? Because the answer speaks not only to whether Jesus mission can be accomplished, but whether it should be accomplished. See that? We can do it. Should we do it? You know, not everyone who has an idea about what should be done in this world should be listened to.

[00:09:19] Have you noticed this? Not. Not everybody should be listened to. It feels like everybody has an opinion today on what we ought to be doing with our time and with our our resources. And frankly, my usual thought on this is whenever, anytime somebody says, here’s what you ought to be doing. My my usual thought is, well, who are you? And based on what standard should I be doing that? But you’ll notice for the last 2000 years, a whole lot of people have taken up Jesus mission. A whole lot of people have listened to what he has to say. That’s because they believed that they believed Jesus. When he says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, all of it. He said that after he spent three years demonstrating his his power to heal, to cast out demons, to raise the dead, to tell other people what to do, to tell the weather what to do right. He was displaying his authority and his power. He also did it after coming back from his own death. Jesus power demonstrated his authority. So. So Jesus authority permitted his power and it affected everything. Everything. The world, spiritual and natural. Jesus level of authority does not go up a chain of command. It starts with him and goes down the chain of command.

[00:10:49] Sometimes people get confused, thinking that God is locked in some sort of eternal struggle with with Satan and the demonic world, or that he’s he’s doing his best to fight back against sickness and evil and and brokenness in the world, that somehow this is sort of a battle that God has with his with his equal. No, no, no. God has authority over all of it. God has authority over everything that happens. He has the power to wipe out evil and to restore all brokenness. He struck the decisive blow against Satan on the cross. He’ll he’ll strike the final blow of all time when Jesus returns. And in the meantime, the only evil that God will allow to prevail under his authority is that which he is using to draw his people into his kingdom for his glory. That’s what’s happening right now all across the world. So here in our passage, Jesus gives his own authority over all the demons and to cure diseases to his church as an extension of his own authority and power in the world. That’s that’s what our mission is. Church. Okay. Our mission is the extension of Jesus authority. It’s the extension of his authority over all the heavens and earth. Right. So he says, I give this to you. You are my arm. You are to exercise the power of Christ, the Holy Spirit, acting through us as we carry out Jesus commands.

[00:12:25] That’s the church in the world. Our part in that is to be faithful. Jesus, what do you want us to do? What do you have for us? What are you. What are you calling us into? How can we be faithful to you? We don’t have any authority or power on our own to accomplish anything. We don’t. We don’t have any counsel to give unless it comes from the authority of God’s Word. We don’t have any hope to bring unless it’s Christ. You don’t. You don’t need my best version of hope for your life. You need what? What? Jesus in his power and authority is saying who you are and what he’s made you for. That’s what you need for hope. So what is what is Christ’s mission then entail? If he’s given all power and authority to his church as an extension of himself in the world, by the power of the spirit going out and doing his work? What is that mission? What does it entail? Well, here’s our second principle, and that’s that. The the mission consists of proclamation and healing. So let’s address the tricky question this morning of of demons and healings. Jesus gave authority and power to the 12 apostles to cast out demons and to heal diseases. Now, does that mean then, that Jesus is also given everyone in his church that authority? Uh, I would liken this to the question of spiritual gifts and point out that not everyone in the church is given the same abilities.

[00:13:58] Clearly, not everybody in the church is able to cast out demons and to heal people. Uh, to my knowledge, I can do neither one. I can’t do those things. Some would argue that these sorts of abilities are no longer part of our world, that they were for a time, and that they were for they were special only in Jesus day, and for the spread of the gospel in that first century and for the establishment of the church, I would be much more open to the idea that God still does act in power like this today at times, but it’s probably rare, and it’s probably as special as it was in Jesus day. And any exercise of this power would be a special commissioning of the Lord, a special commissioning of of authority and power that comes from the Lord as it is here in our passage. What I do think is universal in this passage is the pattern of ministry. Okay, the pattern appears to be universal. Jesus establishes this pattern. The disciples are sent out to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God. And then they illustrate that preaching with healing, just like Jesus did. This is the pattern of ministry that we see in so many places throughout the Bible. James says living faith is displayed in works. That’s how you know you have faith. It has these works that you do that go along with it.

[00:15:29] It pours out of you into your actions. Paul in Ephesians two says that we’re saved by grace that results in a life of doing good works, that God has prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them. So God is saving his people, and then he’s preparing these opportunities. And then we faithfully walk in these these opportunities that God opens up for us when we preach and share the gospel of Jesus, we point people to eternal spiritual healing. And when we bring physical healing or justice or mercy or anything that that we might do as a part of the mission in the world to people who are afflicted, we are tangibly demonstrating the spiritual reality of the gospel that we are preaching. That’s the purpose of the works. Now, the relationship between preaching the gospel and doing good deeds in missions has been a hotly debated topic for a long period of time. You may or may not know that, but in in in missions, books and things, it’s always talked about how do these two things relate to each other? Some liken evangelism and good works to the two wings of a plane. They say, yeah, they are. They are of equal value and you have to have both of them. Otherwise your plane’s not taking off, right? So you have to have both and they are of equal value. I would say biblically, as I read scripture, I would say that that is not right.

[00:16:58] That’s not that’s not quite right. Uh, others like Tim Keller, a favorite of mine, say that evangelism and disciple making are the primary work in missions, and that good works play a secondary but also inseparable role. And that’s closer, I think, to to what what the Bible is saying. But I’d still argue a little bit against it as much as like Tim Keller, I think I’d still argue against that a little bit, because we have plenty of places in Scripture where the gospel is preached and no good works are done. Acts chapter two comes to mind. Actually, to my knowledge, we have no places in Scripture where humanitarian aid and good works are performed when the gospel isn’t preached. Those are always an illustration of the gospel preached. And and maybe most tellingly, in the Bible, we have John chapter six, where Jesus refused to do the miracle of feeding the crowd again when when it was clear that they didn’t understand the spiritual reality that was being taught by that miracle, they missed the spiritual. Reality the first time he fed them, and it was clear in the second time he said, I’m not going to I’m not going to make any more food because you don’t understand what the food is pointing to. Or in Matthew chapter 13, where Jesus doesn’t perform many miracles in his hometown. Why? Because of their lack of belief in him.

[00:18:21] So clearly displays of power and good works in missions are meant to back up to, to illustrate, to, to complement the preaching of the gospel and of making disciples and church. The reason this is important for us, the reason this is important for us to know that is if if we’re going to be the missionaries that Jesus has sent us out to be, we need to know and we need to stick to what what we’re sent to do. We don’t give ourselves a mission. We look to Jesus. He tells us what we’re supposed to be doing. The good news of Jesus Christ is the medicine that a sick and dying world need. They need the gospel. Our mission goes beyond just fixing things and making them better here on earth. It goes beyond simply making a better society. You know, every time there’s a tragedy in the world, okay? Every time there’s some, some big thing that happens, especially something really large scale, like a, like a war or a shooting or something like that. Many of my friends who don’t know Jesus are left wondering, what’s wrong with the world. They just look at that and they go, something’s wrong and they’re right. There’s something wrong. But they’re they’re left wondering what is wrong, what is wrong with this world. And their search for answers sort of begins again when something happens like this and people start to make declarations about societal changes that have to be fixed and made, we have to make these changes.

[00:19:52] We got to fix our world. And here’s how we got to do it. My non-Christian friends struggle because they’ve spent a lot of time and energy relativizing and eliminating a category of evil. So when they’re faced with it, they don’t know what to do with it. They don’t know how to explain it because they’ve been explaining it away for so long. Relativizing no good, no evil in the world. Suddenly they have evil in their face. They don’t. They don’t know actually what’s wrong. They don’t know what is actually wrong. Church. We know what is actually wrong. We know what’s wrong. And we have the authoritative and powerful Savior who’s making it right now. There’s nothing wrong with with working toward an equitable, equitable, and just society that’s safer, that works better for everyone. That’s good work. That’s it’s important work. Nothing wrong with that. But the church is on a mission to do more because through the church and its proclamation of the gospel, Jesus is redeeming broken people and transforming broken hearts and minds in the world. So the church needs to do what only the church can do. We get, we got to do what we can only do. We focus on evangelism, church planting, and making disciples. Not because we don’t care about doing other things that can help the world, but because proclaiming the gospel is what will ultimately help the world the most.

[00:21:23] So helping people with clean wells and good schools and hospitals and and to recover the in wake of tragedies. That’s all. That’s all good work. It’s all fine work. But only the church can meet these temporary needs while preaching eternal solution. Right. We got both. And we have to be doing both. Now how? That’s the mission. How do we do this work? How do we do what? What will it cost? That’s the third principle. The mission requires trusting in God’s provision. You probably noticed Jesus is a little particular about what he wants these guys to take with them on their journey. No bread, no staff. Can’t take a second tunic. You’re thinking, I’m doing really, really well. I don’t even have one tunic. It’s good. These are pretty standard things, wouldn’t you say? Going on a long journey. Food and clothes. Can’t take food and clothes. You should see the quantity of snacks that get packed into my car for a two hour journey in any direction. You’d think we were heading to the wilderness the way my family packs. Why can’t these guys have food and clothes? Why can’t they have that? Why can’t they have what they need for their trip? The answer is not obvious actually in this passage. Why he does it. Jesus doesn’t say why they can’t have these things. But later in the same book, in Luke chapter 22, verse 35, right before Jesus is arrested, he refers back to this moment with his disciples.

[00:22:57] He’s talking to them. And he says to them, when I sent you out with no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything? And they said nothing. See, sometimes the teachable moment comes later. The answer is, is, is that that they weren’t going to lack anything. Jesus wants them to trust in him. They will never lack what they need. And you can kind of see that in our passage. If you think about what it would be like to to be a disciple as you’re about to head out into a, in a team of two people with your friend, and Jesus has you unpacking your stuff right before you go. Right. What would you be saying to your friend as you’re taking the things out of of your bag? You can’t even take your knapsack along. You’d be saying, boy, we have to put a lot of trust in Jesus here. We got to put a lot of trust in him, he says. There are people out there who will who will feed us, and that will take us in. He’s he’s telling us this will happen. Not only are we to trusting in his authoritative power, we are trusting. Jesus knows what we’re going to encounter, that he knows what is ahead of us, and that when we get there, we are not going to be left fending for ourselves.

[00:24:12] Church to do this mission right, to do what Jesus is calling us to do. We’re going to need to trust that Jesus knows exactly what we’re going to encounter, and will provide everything we need when we encounter it. Over 7000 people. Groups on our planet are still unreached. Of that 7000, 4888 are what are called frontier people. Groups used to be called the unengaged people groups. Now they call them frontier people groups, which are unreached people groups with no church presence, no missionaries and no Bibles in their language, no gospel presence at all, and nobody even preparing to go to those people. Over 2 billion people live in those 4888 people groups. It’s a quarter of the Earth’s population has no access whatsoever to the gospel. Now. Why are they unreached? Well, a lot of the reason that they’re unreached, unengaged is the fear of of the unknown. And an unwillingness to step out in faith and say, Jesus, I’m going to go and I’m going to be be content with whatever you provide for me. Whatever it is, Jesus wants us to trust him with the entire process of the mission. In this case, trusting Jesus means staying in the houses where the disciples are received, trusting that those families are the ones that are going to provide for them. That’s not a set strategy for all missions. But the concept of trust is a principle for all missions.

[00:25:55] For Paul, it meant planting churches while making tents to provide for himself. When Jesus speaks to these same disciples in Luke 2235, he tells them at that point to change strategy. Did you know that that quote I gave you from Luke 22 earlier? He tells them in that time he says, now’s time to trade up the strategy. Now you can take a bag of money with you when you go. It’s going to be a little different this time, he says. The exact strategy for missions is not set for all time. We’re going to have to work on how to reach people in our time, but trusting Jesus to provide is for all time. I wonder sometimes how many of the unfinished task of missions today remains unfinished, because we’re not willing to unpack our tunics, metaphorically speaking. I’m not willing to say I’m going to go. And whatever you provide, that’s what I’ll take. I wonder how much comes from our desire to cheer on missions from the stands, while being unwilling to take the field ourselves. And Jesus says, when we’re engaged in the mission, we’re not going to lack anything. We’re going to lack nothing. But I think a lot of the mission remains unfinished because we don’t really believe that. We don’t. We we believe we we can give ourselves what we need. So let me summarize Jesus mission. Is empowered and authorized by Jesus.

[00:27:23] It’s centered in the preaching the gospel, and the gospel is illustrated by healing, and it’s provided entirely by Jesus. So it is empowered by Jesus. It’s a proclamation of Jesus, and it’s equipped by Jesus. So it’s a it’s a mission entirely centered on Jesus. And that’s important to see for this last principle to make sense. And that’s that. The mission includes gauging reception. This is not a popular part of missions talk. Okay. Talk about missions. This is the part where people kind of press against it a little bit, but it’s a very important for us to think about it, for the strategy of missions. And it comes from Jesus himself. Do you see where Jesus tells these guys that if a town won’t receive them, that they should move on from that town, and before they do, they should shake the dust off of their feet as a testimony against the people in that town. That is a visual sign of God’s condemnation. It’s not necessarily final condemnation. Maybe their hearts will change in the future. Maybe this this town will receive it later. They’ll receive Jesus in his gospel. But for now, they’ve turned away from Jesus disciples. And so they’ve turned away from salvation. They have rejected God’s grace to them. And in those cases, the physical sign of the spiritual reality is not going to be healing. It’s not that’s not the that’s not the physical thing that’s going to happen for these folks to show spiritually what’s going on.

[00:29:04] It’ll be the shaking of dust off the feet of the disciples as they move on to towns where people actually want to hear about Jesus. The disciples weren’t just to sneak through town quietly. Oh, they don’t want us here. Let’s just quietly make our way out of this place. They weren’t to to stay and keep trying. They were to preach the gospel. They were to gauge the reception of the gospel, and they were to move on, if necessary, with a clear sign of testifying of God’s approval, disapproval of these people. Now, once again, the particular strategy of the mission trip is not set in stone for all missions. Prophet Jeremiah famously was told by God before he went to the place where he was going to be, telling the people God’s Word. He said, you’re going to go to them and they are going to reject you. But I know that I got some other things going on behind the scenes that you’re not going to be aware of. But I want you to go and I want you to to tell them anyway. And I’m going to tell you in advance that they are not going to listen to you. How many want to do that? But he went. Why? Because God told him to. Sometimes Paul would be beaten up and thrown out of a town. One time he sneaked out of town in a basket.

[00:30:25] Before he could be beaten up. They lowered him down in a basket and he slipped out of town before they could beat him up. One time, the final time, he went to Jerusalem willingly, knowing full well that he would be tried and convicted despite all of his friends telling him not to go. So one time he’s fleeing. Another time he’s going into the danger. My point is, strategy and missions changes. But what doesn’t change, what is constant in all of these examples, is the need for us, as God’s missions team, to gauge the reception of the gospel. There are going to be times when we need to recognize the rejection of Jesus, and we’ll need to be willing to show people the spiritual danger that they’re in, actually tell them about it. And nobody wants to do this. No one. No one wants to tell another person. Their rejection of the gospel is spiritually dangerous and foolish. But church, it’s part of the mission. Is part of the mission to talk about what it means to reject the gospel with people. And it might seem unloving to you to move on from a person, but the strategy of mission that Jesus has designed will sometimes require moving on from someone. And it’s a bit of an art to know when to move on. I grant you that it’s not always super easy. It’s fairly individual.

[00:31:52] It’s hard to know when not to continue to invest time and energy into people who are rejecting the gospel. In some cases it’s easy if they reject you and treat you poorly like the disciples in this passage. Usually. Usually that’s an indication to move on. But there are times, other times when the rejection of the gospel doesn’t include rejecting you per se. But it might still be time to stop investing so that you can better use your time. I met a I met a guy a few years ago who was always talking to me about spiritual things, and I love that he’s always bringing it up. He always wanted to talk to me about spiritual matters, always asking my advice, always giving me opportunities to share the gospel. That sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you love that? Yeah, I would. I would love that. In every relationship that I have, I’d jump at opportunities like that. I’ll walk with somebody a very long way in conversation, and I’ll talk with them a long time, for hours, if they’re open to hearing the gospel. But what I found over time with this particular guy was that that he was spending all of his time explaining away everything that I said. He was always pushing away the gospel with a yes but kind of answer. And I was spending a lot of time and energy sharing the gospel with this guy, trying to trying to figure out what he was, what his what he was thinking.

[00:33:14] But it started to dawn on me that this was not time well spent. Eventually I just had to say, look. You’re my friend and you’re always going to be my friend. But you’re pushing away the gospel, and I really don’t know what else to say. I’ve shared everything I can with you. But you’re pushing away the gospel. There’s so much for us to accomplish. Yet. We all got a limited time. It’s not an endless resource. We got only so much time in this world. There’s so much for us to accomplish in that limited time. In the mission of Christ. We have to really think about strategically how we use that time. There’s only so much time to take ground to, to advance into new territory. There are people who have heard the gospel and they need to hear it more. Okay. They’ve heard it and they need to hear it more. There are others who haven’t heard it yet, and they’re going to require even more of our resources to reach them, more of our time just to get an audience with them. And so we have to be prayerful and strategic and willing to move on. If the spirit prompts us to go. We only get so much time on the mission field church. This is our time. God has us here now in this world. This is our time. Let’s pray. Let’s make it count.