Harvesting As Lambs Among Wolves

What do these three things have in common?

Dead flowers.

Grass?

Any ideas?

What is life?

Job fourteen, one and two.

Mortals born of a woman are of few days and full of trouble.

They spring up like flowers and wither away.

Whoops! They um like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.

Psalm 103, 15 and 16.

The life of mortals is like grass.

They flourish like a flower of the field.

The wind blows over and it is gone.

In its place remembers it no more.

And now listen, those of you who say, Today or tomorrow, we'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.

Why?

You don't even know what will happen tomorrow.

What is your life?

You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

So, this is God's description of your life.

Now, the question is, what are you gonna do with it?

So, living life with an eternal perspective is so important.

It's the idea of living purposely with the end in mind.

If eternity is like a line that goes on forever in both directions, our life is like, our entire life is just like a little tiny dot somewhere on that line.

But how often are we always thinking about the dot?

And we give maybe not enough time or attention to the line.

The Bible says that there are three things that last forever: God, his word, and the souls of men and women.

It's worth taking the time to ask ourselves: what am I doing to invest in these things that truly last?

So, you know, we showed a picture of the team that came over to Toulouse.

You regularly send teams to Czech and other places, and I think short-term missions is one example of many where we can make a deposit in eternal things.

It helps advance God's kingdom as well as helps us grow in Him personally.

When there's just something about when we're out of our comfort zone in a foreign context, we might not know the language or the just the way people think or act, where we pray differently.

We really have to depend on God in a new way.

And uh and um you know we grow a lot in that in that process.

Well, but while I'm a huge proponent of a short-term missions experience, I'm absolutely convinced that God is at work just as much in and through us in our everyday relationships, at work in our neighborhood, or in our families.

And if you're a disciple of Christ, uh you and I are called by our Lord and Savior in Matthew 5 to be salt and light on the earth.

We are commissioned to be ambassadors of God's love and grace and hope to those around us.

And so do we embrace this calling?

The thing is we can kind of know it in our heads, but sometimes the urgency and the importance of this mission can kind of fade.

We need reminding just with the day-to-day busyness of life and the routine of things.

And I just I hope that as we walk through Luke, the our text this morning in Luke 10, that it will help us all, myself included, to recenter our purpose as a disciple of Jesus Christ so that we will invest our mist of a life well.

Because it goes by quickly and we don't have the time to waste.

So I think our text this morning contains some principles that are key for us as disciples that are sent out sometimes to new places, but also to live as sent ones for Christ where we already are.

So this morning we're going to be looking at an interaction between Jesus and some of his followers in Luke chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

So just to give you a little bit of context, Jesus has foretold his death to his disciples and he is preparing them for his departure.

In this passage, he's talking to a large group of his followers, not just the 12 disciples.

They've been with him as he's been traveling and teaching and performing miracles, and they've seen how people have both turned to follow him as well as rejected him.

And he's explained the cost of following him, and many responded, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go.

But first let me dot dot dot.

But Jesus wanted total abandon, total allegiance.

If Jesus walked into this room right now and said, Okay, you, you, you, drop everything, follow me.

Yeah, wouldn't we have a similar response?

Wouldn't we say, oh, okay, great, but uh I just, I'm gonna call my mom.

Or I just I gotta sell my house.

Or we've been planning this family trip at the lake all year.

We've really been looking forward.

It's just next weekend.

Can we just wait until after that?

Uh but but Jesus, following Jesus in these days, it was hardcore.

He wanted a response just like the first disciples.

Drop your nets, follow me.

So it's in this context where he has some disciples who are ready to follow him radically that he gives this command to go out two by two into the surrounding area and proclaim the good news of the kingdom.

So let's read this text together.

It's Luke chapter 10, verses 1 through 12, and verse 16.

Luke 10:1–12

So after this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.

He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

Go.

I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

Do not take a purse or bag or sandals, and do not greet anyone on the road.

When you enter a house, first say peace to this house.

If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them.

If not, it will return to you.

Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give to you, for the worker deserves his wages.

Do not move around from house to house.

If you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you.

Heal the sick who are there and tell them, the kingdom of God has come near to you.

But when you enter a town and uh and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you.

Yet be sure of this the kingdom of God has come near.

I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Verse 16.

Whoever listens to you, listens to me.

Whoever rejects you, rejects me.

But whoever rejects me, rejects him who sent me.

Now you may be thinking, does God really call me to live that radically for him?

That sounds crazy.

While the details of what Jesus asked the disciples to do in this story, in this context, and what he might be asking each of us to do today may be different.

The principles are still the same.

Ask yourself: am I really ready to follow Christ with reckless abandon?

I need to ask this too, even though I've been in France now 13 years, if he says, okay, tomorrow, Yemen.

If I'm a disciple of Christ and he's my Lord, I need to be listening.

But I think in this text there are some principles that we can pull from this encounter with Jesus and his disciples that we can apply to our lives as disciples of Christ today.

I'd like to walk through what I call the six harvesting principles for disciples sent out as sheep among wolves.

So let's look back at verse one for the first principle that we can observe together, which is that Jesus sends his disciples to where he himself is going to go.

Verse 1.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to go to every town and place where he was about to go.

Isn't that an interesting thought?

That he's planning to go to these towns and villages himself, but he sends out the disciples to these destinations first.

So many ancient manuscripts of this text read 70 and 2, uh, so some translations say 70, and some say 72 for the number of the disciples sent out, but many scholars agree on this: that the number sent on this mission, whether 70 or 72, had spiritual and symbolic overtones.

The Jews held that the Gentiles, that is, all the non-Jews in the world, were made up of 70 nations.

And at their Feast of Tabernacles, 70 oxen were offered on behalf of the Gentile nations to cover over their sins and reconcile all the nations symbolically to God.

So some interpret this passage not only to be a mission for these disciples in the area where Jesus would visit before his crucifixion, but also as foreshadowing of Christ sending his disciples out to all the nations and readying the world for his coming.

It's all over the pages of Scripture from beginning to end.

God sends his people to the nations as his ambassadors.

And if you feel God's leading to a particular person or place, there's probably a strong chance that God has placed that desire on your heart.

It may be Jesus trying to communicate to you, I want to go there.

I want to change lives there, so I'm sending you to prepare the way.

So principle one, Jesus sends his disciples to where he himself is going to go.

Before they go, Jesus gives them a heads up about the spiritual state of where they were going to go in verse two.

He told them, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

So the spiritual reality that Jesus shares with them is there's a big harvest, but few workers.

This news can be both discouraging and encouraging.

Good news, he's sending them out into a harvest field, not a barren wasteland.

They're gonna reap a harvest.

But there is hard news.

The hard news is that there's a lot of work to be done and not many workers.

So being a witness for Christ often feels like that, doesn't it?

When I think of a harvest, I think of a time, there's a particular season.

There's hard work to be done, and there's an urgency to it because if you don't roll up your sleeves and go to work, you may lose some of the crop.

I think sometimes we mistakenly assume that the harvest is just going to patiently stay ripe until we arrive.

But that's not the case, is it?

God knows that we can feel overwhelmed with how heavy the task feels for only a few people to reach the world for Christ.

But if, you know, uh if the people in this room, imagine, were the only Christians in the state, and Jesus came in and said, okay, it's up to you to reach North Dakota.

It might feel pretty overwhelming.

Even if it was just the city of Grand Forks and the surrounding area, it's like, whoa.

But maybe this kind of God-sized mission is given to motivate us to stay dependent on the Lord to do principle number three, which is pray.

Again in verse 2, he told them, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

So Jesus sends his disciples to where he himself is going to go.

There is a big harvest, but few workers.

And we are exhorted to call upon the Lord of the harvest to send out reinforcements.

Other translations say, pray earnestly.

So since we are but a mist, pray to the Lord of the squirt bottle that he would send more mist so that we can cover these plants.

I have never yet heard of a revival or great movement of God somewhere that wasn't anchored in prayer.

When is the last time that you have done this?

We all kind of know that we're supposed to pray, right?

But when's the last time?

I'm speaking to myself too.

You know, when um when you've looked around your workplace, your school, your neighborhood, your family, and said, Lord, help.

Please reach these people.

Send reinforcements or help use me.

Um, there's just something that happens when we pray earnestly.

God, help.

I need you.

I can't do this without you.

I love this person, but I can't change their hearts.

You can.

I don't know what to say, but you know.

Just give me the words.

You can make the blind see, you can change their lives.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

And it's just, it's one thing to know that we should do this, it's another thing to just do it.

So why not try it this week and see what God does?

Because you know what happens in this process of praying?

Your heart begins to change.

You pray for others, but God changes you.

You get a vision, you start getting connected to the heart and mind of God when you pray.

And your desires start to be like His, and He starts to work both in you and around you.

When we work, we work.

When we pray, God works.

But watch out.

When we pray, principle number four might happen to you.

You may be the answer to your own prayers.

So verse three.

Jesus says, Go.

I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

So he tells them, yes, pray, ask the Lord of the harvest.

But what is the very next thing that Jesus says?

Don't wait for the reinforcements to get here.

Get to it.

Now, this is not an easy thing to do.

I kind of think of the movie Lord of the Rings, where it just seems like the whole movie, there are these little hobbits surrounded by these huge armies, insurmountable odds.

It just, you're always thinking, how in the world can they do this?

But they just kind of keep hope alive and um and just keep fighting the good fights.

But the reinforcements always seem to arrive just at the right time to help them win the battle and accomplish their mission.

And, you know, when you look around the world today, it's easy to lose heart at the mission field.

When just watch the news for five, ten minutes, huh?

And but notice that Jesus knows that the battle is fierce.

And our sending is not going to be based on our strength or ability.

He doesn't say, I'm sending you out like bears among wolves.

He says, sheep among wolves.

Now think about that.

What are a bunch of sheep gonna do in front of a bunch of wolves?

Isn't that a weird image for a mission?

But perhaps that the sheep are supposed to just go and call for the shepherd.

And maybe he can do something.

Does it take faith for a sheep to face wolves?

You bet.

I remember an experience when I was a student here at UND in communications, and I did an internship with Studio One, which is their live television program here.

And I remember thinking, okay, Lord, how can I be a witness for you here?

And I prayed for some of the people around me, and this idea got planted in my head.

And it was send an email to the 40 people in this internship to start a Bible study.

And I knew one or two Christians that were there, but for some reason, this idea of sending out an email to start a Bible study just would not leave my mind.

And I kind of tried to ignore it.

But I just knew I instead of just talking to the one or two Christians that I knew, I was just supposed to send it to everybody.

So I did, and one person wrote back immediately don't send me emails like this.

He was European.

He was, but uh but uh five people actually showed up for the first Bible study, and they were all from different church backgrounds.

So I was pretty encouraged and surprised, in particular, by seeing our meteorologist Eric show up, who I didn't really know at all.

Uh the attendance varied over time, but Eric, he was always there, every week.

Sometimes it was just me and him.

Later I learned that he wasn't a Christian at the time.

But I didn't know that at first.

But one night, after Bible study, God got a hold of his heart, and he knelt by his bedside and asked God to forgive him of his sins, and he placed his faith in Jesus Christ.

And God totally transformed his life.

He later went on uh like a spring break missions trip, learned how to share his faith with others, and it was there that he met his future wife.

Excuse me.

And uh and today he's actually a pastor in Duluth.

Now, God was there all the way.

Uh I wasn't by his bedside when he received Christ, but it was my job to pray and then respond to what God had put on my heart.

I'll never know what would have happened if I wouldn't have risked my reputation and sent out the email, but I'm sure glad I did.

How many stories have all of us missed out on in life?

If we chose to ignore that nudging from God's Spirit to do something?

We are all sent to be sheep among wolves, no matter what.

We might as well be harvesting something while we're out there.

I may need more.

Is there um so is there any person or plan that God has been laying on your heart that you feel that you need to be obedient to?

I encourage you to listen and go forward by faith.

If there is something that God is laying on your heart, I believe that this next principle will encourage you.

Excuse me.

God will provide what you need.

If God calls you to it, he'll bring you through it.

Verses 5 to 12 are all verses where Jesus calls them to extreme dependence on God.

No money, no change of clothes, wait until someone invites you in, stay with that person, don't shop around for nicer accommodations.

And he gives them instructions of what to do if a city does not receive them well.

God will provide the people, the circumstances, the money, the faith, whatever you need.

You just need to provide the trust and obedience to go.

This is the part that many of us have never experienced growing up in, you know, thank you.

Uh Christianity in America, to depend on God with that with that kind of faith.

That's why I suggest at some point in life it's great to take a step of faith and go on a mission strip somewhere.

I guarantee that your faith will grow as as God provides the guidance and the resources you need to accomplish the task he sends you on.

But we also need to ask ourselves when is the last time I took a step of faith right where I'm at?

Excuse me.

Do you believe that God can provide you the words to say?

Do you if you are in a time of transition in life or transition?

Trusting God through a hardship, moving, going through a big decision, a relationship, a new job, moving to a new city or whatever, God can provide what you need.

Now, I'm preaching to myself as I prepare for my 20-year high school reunion next uh weekend.

And I know people are gonna be like, so Aaron, what are you doing now?

I can never describe it in a way that people kind of get it.

Even if I do, they're just like, oh, uh that's nice.

And I know they're thinking, when are you gonna get a real job?

Or uh, oh, France, or they just want to talk about you know France as a country, or uh and I'm trying to already think about like okay, I don't want it to be a conversation killer.

Um but uh you know, I also, you know, do I say something like, oh, I'm working for a nonprofit organization in southern France?

It's not a false statement, but I don't think that's what I'm already feeling like God wants me to say a little bit more to open up some conversations.

So we'll see what happens.

So Jesus sends his disciples to where he himself is gonna go.

Big harvest, few workers, do the work of prayer, but realize that you may be the answer to your own prayers.

Know that God will provide what you need for what he calls you to do, and lastly, if you do go out, expect mixed reactions.

Not everyone's gonna react favorably to the gospel.

Uh so some will embrace it and will want to know more.

There truly is a harvest that awaits, but there are also going to be those who reject the message.

Jesus knows this, and he knows that rejection is not a fun feeling.

That's why he tells his disciples in verse 16 Whoever listens to you, listens to me.

Whoever rejects you rejects me.

But whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.

So the last principle is people's response to you equals people's response to God, at least in that moment.

People's response to you equals people's response to God.

As an ambassador for Christ, we are, we carry a name that is not our own.

We are representatives.

If an ambassador from another nation came over to meet with our government and we shaved his head or something, it would be like a direct slap in the face to that nation who sent him.

In the same way, if we treat this person kindly with special dignity and honor, it will bode well for the relationship between the countries.

As God's messengers, God has our back.

He can't control people's response.

We can't control people's response, but we can control our obedience to the mission that God has given us.

In the time I've been in France, I've had friends and family who think I'm weird and still don't really get what I'm doing.

Uh I've had students in Toulouse that don't really get it.

They're wondering if we're some weird cult.

Um I even got punched in the face for being at a prayer event for unborn babies.

But the positives of answering God's call to go to Toulouse far outweigh these things.

I've formed lifelong friendships with teammates and students.

We've seen people come to Christ, and our team has gone from being an all-American to mostly French.

So to sum it up, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God is calling you into mission for him.

Here is your life.

Will you use it to invest in things that will last forever, namely your relationship with God or others?

Pray to the Lord, or Lord of the harvest and go.

Let's pray.

Father, we all have a tendency to be sheep that stays with the herd, the flock.

And I'm thankful that we're not alone.

You do send us out as a church, as a body, the Christ, you are the head.

But we need you.

Holy Spirit, I pray that if you want to speak to this church as a whole or individuals this morning, I pray that you would just ingrain that idea in their mind and heart and don't let them ignore it until that they just take a step of faith and just see the adventure that awaits on the other side.

I pray that uh you would clarify the calling that you have for each one of us.

Thank you for the gifts you've given and the background, the history that each of us have, and the calling that you have to bring glory to your name.

And I just pray in all of it that you I'm thankful for your promise, that you are right by our side.

You are the good shepherd.

You guide and protect us, you direct us.

We love you.

And I just am so excited to see you someday.

And I just pray that each of us would be motivated with the desire that our lives count for something that is greater than ourselves, especially the advancement of your kingdom and the glory of your great name.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to be here and and worship you this morning with my dear brothers and sisters.

And I just pray that you would help us all to surmount any fears that we may have and just go and by faith, knowing that you are with us and that our eternity with you is sure.

And I pray that that hope of heaven will will drive us with joy and hope and love to reach out to those around us.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Uh please stand with us.

We'll be finishing with uh a song that's kind of new and kind of not new.