Ministry, Jesus Way

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

It's our hope that these sermons will draw you

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sermon. God Bless. Let's pray again. Lord God,

thank you for your Word. Thank you that you have

given it to us and you have used it throughout

your world to bring many repentance into faith.

Lord, your Word goes out with power. It's like

a seed that is tossed out. And Lord, today we

pray, looking back on that parable from a few

chapters earlier, that we would be fertile soil

We would bear fruit, keeping with repentance.

God, that we wouldn't be like hard ground, but

that we would be fertile, that your word would

be planted within us, and that we would bear

the fruit of living with Christ and being indwelt

with the Holy Spirit. God, bless your word now

as we give our attention to it. In your name

we pray. Amen. Okay, so I read this sentence

this week. American Christianity wears the history

of the United States on its congregations. American

Christianity wears the history of the United

States on its congregations. So it's almost like

a garment in a way that you can see it when you

look. I thought this was just a really interesting

statement and initially I kind of read that and

I wondered, I don't, I wonder. What does that

mean? What's that look like? And I thought, of

course, of the 17th century history of the Puritans

and the Congregationalists up in New England.

And I thought of the role of the, particularly

the Methodist riders, you know, oftentimes given

just a Bible and a horse and sent out West with

Western expansion. I thought, my wife is from

Louisiana, of the Catholic influence and the

Catholic history there in Louisiana, where counties

are not counties, they are parishes. I thought

of our own Commonwealth in Pennsylvania, with

William and the Quakers, and that Quaker influence

that then later, of course, they invited over

the German Mennonites. And then, of course, the

Lutherans and the Presbyterians. The German Reformed,

a significant part of our own history. Maybe

some of you know this. Do any of you know that

the first Presbytery, the first Synod, and the

first Presbyterian General Assembly all took

place right here in Pennsylvania? Yeah. Citing

history, right over there in Philadelphia, first

Presbyterian 1706, the first general assembly

1789. But there's a truth to this, that American

Christianity wears the history of the United

States in its congregation. And the reality is

that in some ways is very interesting and maybe

good, and in some ways is also unbelievably tragic.

We all know, you probably all have heard that

the greatest hour, celebrated hour in the United

States is Sunday mornings. Let me tell you about

Richard Allen. Richard Allen was born into slavery

on Valentine's Day in 1760, February 14th. He

was born in what is now Delaware to a property

owner Benjamin Chu, he was still pretty young.

He and his siblings, he actually had five siblings,

and his mother were then sold to Stokely Sturgis

who worked another plantation. Sturgis got into

some financial trouble and so Richard Allen's

own mother and three of his siblings were sold

to another family. Torn apart. family torn apart

by slavery. His older brother and sister remained

there with the Sturgis family and actually they

began to attend a Methodist meeting, a meeting

of the Methodist society that was specifically

targeting in a way, caring for, specifically

trying to share the good news with slaves. And

he gave his life to following Jesus. He gave

his life to following Jesus when he was 17 years

old. And what he did is he began evangelizing

other slaves, telling them about the good news

of Jesus. Well, after the Revolutionary War,

which was almost exactly right around that time

when he became a Christian, there were a number

of Methodist preachers. Actually, this happened

really throughout the Eastern Seaboard, but here

in the Mid -Atlantic, there were preachers that

were going throughout. teaching the good news

of Jesus, but also preaching emancipation and

encouraging landowners to free their slaves.

So Sturgis actually offered all of his slaves

the ability to purchase their freedom. And so

Richard Allen did that. He actually worked extra

hours and gained his freedom. Here's a pretty

remarkable thing. A few years later, Richard

Allen was actually, he passed the exams and he

was So he qualified and then he was admitted

to be a preacher there in and around Baltimore

within the Methodist Church, the Methodist Episcopal

Church, which was the early Methodist Church,

Methodism coming out of the Anglican Church in

England, particularly this movement in Oxford

with the Wesley Brothers. Here's the thing, even

though he was licensed, he was qualified to preach,

he was not allowed to vote in their meetings.

Why? Because he was black. So a couple years

later, he moved to Philadelphia where he took

a preaching role at St. George's Methodist Episcopal

Church. There, he moved there in part because

of this conflict over race. Now he comes and

he starts to have all these people come and listen

to him. The black congregation under his preaching

was growing and growing, but the vestry of that

church said, you cannot actually worship with

us. It's dominantly white congregation. You have

to worship at the earliest time and be done before

all the other folk come. So after this discrimination

and after this segregation continued, he actually

gathered a friend, Absalom Jones, and they began

the Free African Society in 1787. about this.

1787 in Philadelphia, there's also a very important

event that happened in Philadelphia in that same

year, which was the Constitutional Convention,

right? Who are the leaders there? George Washington,

James Madison. Freedom! And yet in the church,

it's reflecting the history of our country there

is this great segregation and this great divide

that takes place. So in that very same year the

African Free Society happened and then later

on that moved into what that developed out of

Richard Allen's leadership into the African Methodist

Episcopal Church. And some of you know that the

AME continues to be one of the great historic

and most influential black denominations in our

country. Now, I share this with you because it

shows in some ways that there is something that

is very lovely going on and something also deeply

tragic in how we wear sort of the world that

we live in. How the church itself sort of puts

on a sort of garment and it's reflecting the

world that it's sort of soaking in. So of course,

the question is, what are you soaking in, right?

What kind of world are you putting on? American

Christianity wears the history of the United

States on our congregations. And at times that

is beautiful and at times it's very, very ugly.

People have truly given their lives to following

Jesus and planting churches and evangelizing

and loving their neighbors. And people in the

church have pushed each other out. I've said

our union has primarily to do with our skin rather

than our baptism and our union with Christ. Our

union primarily has to do with our political

identity than our Christian identity. I mean,

think of Richard Allen's story. In some ways,

it's so remarkable and so lovely. A preacher

going to the slaves and him giving his life to

following Jesus. and evangelizing and telling

other people and then working hard enough that

he could get his freedom and then going and working

and becoming a preacher. And then there's so

much loveliness in it. And there's of course

so much sadness in it also. Think of it, it's

full of beauty and tragedy. But I think it forces

us to ask sort of what is shaping our church?

What's shaping ministry? Who or what is shaping

the church and what is it to look like? I mean

think if you were to just ask like What are the

prominent names in Christianity? I mean a lot

of people might say things like Joel Olsteen

Steven Furtick Andy Stanley, maybe Mark Driscoll

in a bygone era or depending upon where you live

But what does that say is it just it's a reflection

of a celebrity culture Which is the culture that

we live in? Celebrity culture. We wear, in a

way, the world that we soak in. When many people

think of the church, many think of Christianity,

they might think primarily of a voting bloc.

You get all those people to vote in a certain

way. I mean, you very likely could largely at

least guess how somebody votes by the church

they attend. Which does sort of, the question,

are they more united around that or around the

personal work of Jesus? Anyway, we are back in

Mark after last week's snow break. And we have

this little passage and Jesus is sending out

the 12, right? That's how it begins. He's sending

out the 12. In fact, pretty interesting. If you

look back a few chapters, to chapter 3 when he

calls them, when he calls the 12 apostles to

himself, it says, and he went up on the mountain

and called to them those whom he desired and

they came to him and he appointed 12 whom he

named apostles. Apostle means sent one. so that

they might be with him and might send them out

to preach and to have authority to cast out demons.

So we know from the get -go that this is the

intent of this group of people that he's gathered

together to him, to be, in a sense, his ministry

for the world. That's from the get -go. Jesus

calls these guys to himself for the sake of sending

them out. But here he's actually doing it. Here

the ministry is happening. The apostles are the

sent ones. And here's Here's the ministry happening.

And so this morning I want to sort of address

two things that I think this text sort of invites

us to reflect on. The first is it's like, what

is ministry about? I mean, what is the church

supposed to be about? That's part of it. And

then the other is, how's ministry supposed to

be done? If we can kind of look and say, oh,

we're influenced by, you know, sort of the history

and the place and the setting that we're set

in, well, what are we supposed to be about? And

what is it supposed to look like? So what's ministry

about? Well, you just heard from chapter three,

verse 14, that he calls these guys to himself,

these apostles, these sent ones, that he... send

them out to preach, it said that he might do

that and that they might have authority to cast

out demons, to preach and heal. And in our passage,

I think pretty interestingly, these two things

that he called them to himself to then do are

done. They're in fact, I think the main things

that are taking place. So look with me down at

verse seven. Verse seven says, and he called

the 12, and began to send them out, two by two,

and gave them authority over the unclean spirits."

Now, what we know so far in Jesus' ministry is

that he has this authority. He has authority.

In fact, what we had just seen in the previous

chapter, right, are these three different narratives

of Jesus displaying his authority and people

going, whoa. That guy's got authority. You know,

you remember the wind and the waves, you know,

story about Jesus, the disciples and the boat.

And you probably remember Jairus's daughter whom

he heals and he raises from the dead and the

woman with the bleeding, all of that. And then

right in between those stories, there's this

man who is said to be a demoniac. He has a demon

and he's living among the tombs and he was out

of his mind. In fact, we kind of have a sense

that he was out of his mind in such a way that

he was hurting himself. It says he would take

stones and cut himself, but also in a way he

was hurting others. One of the texts says that

people tried to bind him and they couldn't, why

would they do that? But that he was actually

harming those around him. All this to say is

that in the most immediate context of this story

right here, What we have is Jesus having authority

to cast out demons, of course, over the wind

and the waves and over somebody who has a discharge

of blood, a hemorrhage, and also over this child,

this 12 year old who dies. So he has the authority

to heal and now he's saying, you do it. But part

of what I wanna say is that ministry has to do

with this act of healing. Ministry is for the

life of the world, for the good and for the blessing

of others. And ministry is about, in some ways

we could say from that text, ministry is about

healing from our own self -destructive ways and

community destructive ways. Okay. And this is...

This passage is also saying that the need for

healing is always connected to a spiritual reality,

which I don't mean, actually, this is important

to say. When I say that healing is always a spiritual

thing, that they're supposed to cast out demons

here in this passage, that does not mean it's

non -physical. Spiritual and non -physical don't

really, that's not an antithesis in the Bible,

okay? The demon had all kinds of physical effects

on the man, right? And that man, because of that

spiritual reality, had all kinds of physical

effects on the community that he lived in. But

that man couldn't be healed of the things that

were destructive to himself, or the things that

were destructive to the community, unless the

spiritual reality healed. So the spiritual problem

was the root problem, okay? Jesus doesn't just

tell his disciples to go out, work for the healing

of the world, which in itself you'd say is a

good thing, but he says go out and cast demons

out, right? Work for the healing of the world

that is connected at its root to a spiritual

problem. So, you know, we're going to have our

congregational meeting after the service. And

one of the things I want to encourage you to

do is to get involved in the life of the church.

And one of the ways you get involved in life,

the church is through ministry teams here at

our church. So is our benevolence team doing

ministry? Well, yes, right? I mean, as they care

for those who can't pay their electrical bills

maybe when it's freezing outside, they're working

for the healing of the world. But that isn't

Christian ministry per se, unless it's also saying,

let me tell you about a spiritual reality, right?

That there is something that is going on within

our hearts that is actually hurting ourselves

and our communities. That for Christian ministry

to be Christian ministry, it is for the healing

of the world, but it is healing at a spiritual

level also. Our English language classes, are

they doing the work of ministry? Yes and amen.

And by helping others learn English, they're

addressing a very practical and very real need

that people have as they've come from other countries.

They're settling in our city and they are wondering,

how do I do life? But that physical need goes

hand in hand with a spiritual need. Let me say

this. If you are interested in caring for immigrants

in our community, get involved in our English

language classes. It's a very practical and very

helpful way to do that. Part of what I'm suggesting

is that ministry is about the healing of the

broken world, but that broken world that has

all these physical effects in the world, right?

Divorces, estrangement from loved ones, all kinds

of things that happen that harm our world, they

have at their root this spiritual reality that

needs to be healed and is only healed in Christ.

So that's partly, I think, what's going on here.

Ministry is healing, but it is healing that says

there is a spiritual root problem that needs

to be addressed along with the physical reality,

the physical healing. But beyond this, in our

passage, I think one of the main things that

it's saying is that ministry is preaching. Now,

I don't want to say necessarily that it's preaching

like what I'm doing right now. I'm standing up

in front of, you know, not all you're supposed

to do this, but it is proclaiming and it is encouraging

and it is actually calling back. to life with

God. So Jesus sends them out and he gives them

authority over unclean spirits. But when he instructs

them, right, he talks about his disciples being

in a place that will not receive them. So if

you look down, actually verse 12 and 13, no,

11. And if any place will not receive you and

they will not listen to you, Right, so he says

actually what the thing that they're not doing

when they're not receiving you is they're not

listening But the assumption is that you part

of ministry is you are talking And you're talking

in a way that they are either receiving or not

receiving you Now if we keep going actually it

says more specifically verse 12 so they went

out and proclaimed that people should Which is

why I say ministry is preaching. Because what

does Jesus do? He preaches repentance. And his

people are proclaiming with their words, turn,

turn. So what is ministry about? Ministry is

about healing, but three is also about preaching

and proclaiming repentance. Ministry is about

sharing the good news. that the way that you

are going in life can actually turn around. That

the path you're going down that is isolated and

solitary and self -seeking, that is going away

from God can actually come back to life as it's

meant to be with God. Change can happen in Jesus.

to repent was to turn around, or is to turn around.

So I didn't tell her that I was gonna share this.

Kathy and I were talking earlier this week and

she shared with me of a local counselor friend

of theirs, Jake Thiessen. And maybe some of you

know him. He's written a little book called,

A Tiny Shift. And there's this great encouragement

that Kathy shared with me. And it's just a simple

question. And yet the simple question feels so

significant. And it's a question for married

folk, but maybe it can be a good question for

friends or siblings. And the question at the

end of the day was this, have I hurt you today?

And all of you married folk know, oh, that sounds

like such a short, simple question to ask. But

we know it's not, because what does it invite

us to do? It invites us to repent. That's not

an easy thing. Because to repent is to say, I'm

sorry, and to turn, right? Say, I don't want

to do that, I'm gonna turn. Change my ways. It's

a question that invites repentance. The disciples

proclaimed that people should repent. To find

that there is a new way of doing life, there's

a different way of doing life. And change is

possible in Jesus. Ministry is about calling

people back to God. Ministry is calling people

away from focus on self, what we can grab, what

we can take. The tree looks beautiful and delightful,

right? The fruit of the tree. Yet it brought

death. And God says, where are you? Come back

to me. Ministry is calling people back to God.

The Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright

actually included one quote from him. in our

meditation quotes this morning, which is written

pretty extensively on the idea that the Bible

is not just a book that has missionary texts

in it. Like I mentioned, Psalm 67 is one of the

great missionary Psalms. Or you think of the

great missionary text of Matthew 28 and the Great

Commission, right? When Jesus sends out the disciples

there at the end of Matthew, or you think of

the whole book of Acts. A lot of people think

of that as one of the great missionary texts.

Or maybe think of Revelation chapter seven, where

every tongue and tribe and nation is there falling

down before the lamb who was slain. But instead,

what Chris Wright says is the Bible isn't just

a book that has missionary texts, but the Bible

is itself a missionary text. That the whole point

of the Bible The revelation of God who is calling

people back to himself. The creator God that

is saying, I'm going to come and get you and

I'm going to call you back to myself. That the

whole point of it is a repentance. Come back,

turn from your ways, turn from your sin and find

new life in Jesus. Ministry is about healing,

but ministry is also about repentance. This is

why very truly ministry really does happen in

the context. In the context when we can hear

God's call, often through another's voice to

repentance and we can act and we can change.

So what I want to suggest to you is that actually

ministry often does happen. in this kind of setting,

right? When you hear God's call to come and worship

and you're like, okay, I'm gonna come. And when

we hear God's call to repent, you're like, I'm

gonna repent. And you hear God's words and you

say, oh, I'm forgiven. And that's really God

doing ministry in you. And it's in this setting

where you hear preaching and it's in the setting

when we hear God saying the Lord bless you as

you go. And you're like, okay, I'm gonna go.

But also it often happens, and you know this

happens, ministry often happens when you're having

like coffee with somebody. And there's an honest

conversation that's taking place. And maybe it's

an encouragement. Keep following Jesus. You are

doing something good. Walk in His way. Or maybe

it's actually when your friend says, hey, the

tone that you have with your wife is actually

deeply harmful and it's not for healing. and

you can change and you can repent and you can

find new life in Jesus. And ministry happens

in that context, right? So often ministry, this

is what happens in the gospel. So often ministry

happens around a dinner table where people are

talking about life and they're saying, oh my,

let me encourage you to repent. Let me encourage

you to follow the Lord. That's so often ministry

is happening. Ministry is happening in community

groups and ministry teams and Bible studies.

As you gather together and you proclaim a new

life, a repentant life in Christ. What I'm suggesting

to you is that ministry is healing and preaching.

But here's another thing that I think is really

lovely about this passage is that it doesn't

just talk to us about what ministry is, but it

also talks to us about how is ministry done.

There's a few things in this passage, okay, about

how ministry is done. The first thing that is

actually really significant here is that ministry

is done in community. So there is no Christian

life lived in isolation. And there is no Christian

ministry that is done all alone. If you notice

this passage, it begins like this, and he called

the 12 to him and began to send them out two

by two. Interestingly, how that two by two is

written is actually sort of unique. There's not

other instances of that sort of phrase in ancient

Greek texts. It's just duo, duo, two, two. And

people think that maybe it was written like that

because it's emphasizing it. It's wanting you

to go, wait, that's not how you say it. Wait,

I need to pay attention to that. It's two by

two. You cannot do ministry. alone. Ministry

is just not something you do in isolation. And

of course, this is the pattern of the Bible.

God calls a community to Himself. He creates

a community, male and female, right? He creates

them together. He calls a whole family to Himself,

and He says, you're going to multiply, and through

you, all the nations are going to be blessed.

But then when you come to the New Testament itself,

as Jesus did from the very beginning of His ministry,

He calls other people to Himself. Or if you look

at the book, particularly the book of Luke, but

also you can find this actually very little bit

in the beginning of Mark. John the Baptist and

Jesus' ministry go hand -in -hand even before

he calls the disciples. It's like somebody else

is right there ministering with him. And if you

go into the book of Acts, of course you find

the same thing with Paul and Silas and Paul and

Timothy, or actually in Acts 18, what do we hear?

Paul is in Corinth and Silas and Timothy came

to him. You can think of Barnabas. Ministry is

always done with others. It's always done in

community. Again, I'm just gonna say that one

of the best ways you can actually grow and do

the work of ministry is just join a community,

a ministry team. Just say, I don't even know

what I should do. Put me on something and I'll

find some place to just put you and we'll see

if it works or not. But you do it with other

people. Okay, the other thing that I think we

see really clearly in this passage is that, so

ministry is done in a community, but ministry

is always done in dependence on God. So verse

8, He charged them. Charged them to take nothing

for their journey except a staff, no bread, no

bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals

and not put on too tight. Now, we know from other

passages that the disciples had bread. here and

there. We know from other passages that disciples

had a money bag. We know that. It's not that

those things are in and of themselves bad, but

what he's saying is if you're going to do ministry,

you've got to learn dependence. You have to learn

dependence on me. And these other things, you're

tempted to find that if you can take them along,

maybe you can rely on them and not on my own

provision for you. teaching them that ministry

demands dependence on Him. Just like you cannot

do ministry alone, you cannot do Christian ministry

outside of dependence on God. Which is to say

that Christian ministry demands giving up control.

And maybe, maybe that is why so often so many

pastors fail at Christian ministry because pastors

love control. I'm speaking from experience. It

also means, as Jesus says in a way, that sometimes

ministry will go well, humanly speaking, and

sometimes it won't. Sometimes people will welcome

the message of repentance and sometimes people

will not. The image that we have here is shaking

the dust off your feet. And that image actually

came from a Jewish practice that we know from

other writings around the time of when the Jews

would wander outside for various reasons, outside

of the promised land that they lived and they

would come back and they didn't want any sort

of any bit of the Gentile world coming into their

world. And so even the dirt would just kind of

be brushed off, get rid of it all. And what Jesus

is doing is he's sending his disciples out into

Galilee, which was The Christian community, the

Jewish community and saying, you know what? There's

gonna be times where even they will not receive

you and you've got to understand that they're

unbelievers. Brush it off. Which is to say sometimes

ministry, you're not gonna have the success that

you want, right? We start, since I've been here,

we've started a few things and then we've said,

you know what? Let's stop doing that. That didn't

seem to work too well. What's next Lord? Anyway,

let me in a way wrap this up for us. We've seen

at least some of what ministry is, some of how

ministry is done. One thing that's really neat

in this passage is that you get this sense, it's

very short, but you get the sense that there's

a real success that these disciples have. Maybe

you know elsewhere and in Luke they come back

and they say Wow, it worked Jesus. We really

did cast out demons in your name but um But here

it says And they cast out many demons painted

with oil By the way, nobody is quite sure what

the oil is there. So I didn't get into that with

the how there's a lot of different fairly compelling

takes Many who were sick and healed them. King

Herod heard of it, for his name become known.

They obviously have this degree of success in

what they are called to do, this ministry that

they're called to. So how? I mean, how is this?

I mean, I suggested at the beginning of this

sermon, that it's significantly true that American

Christianity wears the history of the United

States on its congregations. That we kind of

resemble in a way often for, there's some beauty

in this and there's some very bad stuff in this,

we resemble this world that we live in. What

I wanna suggest to you is that ministry will

resemble what you are soaking in. And what have

the disciples been soaking in? I mean, Jesus

called them to Himself in chapter three, and

it said in chapter three, He did that so that

He could send them out and they could cast out

demons and they could preach repentance. They

said that in chapter three. Why didn't He do

it in chapter three? I want to suggest to you

because they needed to soak in Him, right? And

what do we find when we look actually in that

gap between chapter three and chapter six? What's

chapter four? Preaching. It actually begins with

preaching repentance. Well, and there's parables

and stuff, but I mean, think of the purpose of

parables, chapter four, verses 12. So that they

may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed

hear, but not understand, lest they should turn

and be forgiven. He's actually saying turn. Even

the style of preaching is for repentance and

for a revelation of whether or not he needs to

brush the dirt off His foot or not? Are they

hearing? Are they turning to Him? Chapter four

is all about Jesus preaching. What's chapter

five about? Jesus' healing, right? So the success

that they have, and let me suggest to you this,

the only way that we will not just resemble the

world that we live in is if you are soaking in

who Jesus is and what He has done and the words

He has said. That's the only way. The way for

Christian ministry to be done and to have some

level of true effect in the world is for us,

the church, to be soaking in Jesus, to put on

Christ, to be Jesus, the reality of what we wear,

because otherwise we will just resemble whatever

is around us. Friends, we confess every week

when we confess the creed that we believe in

the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We

believe that the Church is the community of the

sent ones. The community of the sent ones, that's

what apostle means. May we wear as we are sent.

Christ. And may he be known. May his healing

be known. May repentance and faith and the real

reality of a changed life be known. And may we

do that together, always depending and resting

on him. Amen. Let me pray. Lord God, pray Lord

that we would soak in you. that we would hear

that this text is for us because we are the apostolic

ones. We are the sent ones. God, would we see

the beauty in a call from you to heal the world,

to address the needs of our neighbors with compassionate

love and to not divorce that from their spiritual

need? God, would we find um that proclaiming

repentance to one another in our families and

in our in our friendships sitting around coffee

sitting in a community group god in all these

different ways lord attending worship god would

we find that there is life in these god we eagerly

do it together holding hands together and holding

fast to you God, would you please, Lord, this

coming year see fit to bless us as we seek to

be faithful to you? God, as we are sent by you

into the highways and byways, the alleys, the

interstates, wherever you would call us, Lord,

would we be faithful to you? And would you please

bless us? How we think of the success that you

gave to these apostles long ago. Lord, as we

are clinging to you, as we are putting you on,

as we are following in your ways. You also bless

us in our ministry here at Second City. We pray

in your name. Amen. Thank you for listening to

Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon

has encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate

the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing

to this podcast and joining us in person each

Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us online at

secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram, Facebook,

and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. God

bless.