Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Jesus Already Packed Your Bag - Luke 9:1-9

God, we thank you for today. We thank you for this moment just

to open up your word, dive into it and hear what you have to

say to us today as we're as we're working our way through the Gospel of

Luke. God, I pray that we have hearts that are just open and

ready to be challenged by you, ready to be encouraged by you to do

what you've called us to do. God, we thank you that you've given

us your word. We thank you that you've given us the fellowship the church

together to come and just learn from you, to worship you, to feel

the benefit of being with our brothers and sisters in Christ. So God,

we just thank you for all of that. Pray that you lead and guide

every single aspect of the rest of the service today. God that every word

that comes out of my mouth is a word that you intend to be spoken,

not something that I intend to be spoken. But God, I pray

that only your words are spoken and heard today. So God, challenge us,

encourage us, rebucus if necessary. But God, we just love you,

and we're so grateful for this time together. And Jesus name, everybody

said a man, Okay, we've been in a series going through Luke,

like we've been talking about, going verse by verse through Luke. Called Luke

the orderly account of Truth because Luke went and investigated everything. He went and

investigated all that Jesus did and taught, and wrote an orderly account of truth

for us and Theophilus to know the truth, the exact truth about who Jesus

is and what Jesus taught. So we're grateful to have that, and we're

grateful to be going through that account today. And last week we got to

see Jesus do some pretty amazing miracles. I don't know if you guys remember

last week's message. Jesus healed a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.

And if you're like, okay, just bleeding, well it's not a

big deal. No, it is a big deal. That meant she was

unclean for twelve years, not able to be a part of the fellowship,

the same type of fellowship that we're getting to enjoy today. She didn't get

to enjoy that for twelve years. Not only that, but she was suffering

for those twelve years bleeding. She also was broke. Bible told us she

was broke. Why because she'd spent all that she had, going to doctors

trying to solve this problem, only to not get better, but to get

worse. So for twelve years she's been bleeding, and Jesus healed her.

Jesus also raised Jyrus's daughter back to life after she died. That's kind of

a big one. It's pretty cool. He raised her to life, even

though everyone was laughing at him, saying because Jesus said, she's just asleep,

and they knew that she was dead, so they're laughing at Jesus.

But his repeated message to these people as he was doing these miracles was that

their faith in Him is what healed them. Or he told him to just

believe, right, That's what Jesus repeated message was to these people he was

interacting with. So our whole goal last week in preaching was to trust in

God, to grow our own faith, to believe, to truly believe that

He is able to do the impossible things. Do you guys feel your faith

grow at all? After you guys learn about these things. It's amazing,

like these things are given to us by God. Thank you God forgiving this

to us so that we can grow our faith in Him. How many times

you say, ye of little faith, if you want to go back to

the new King, James of the King James, come on isaaah, I

see you out there. He's my KJV guy, You of little faith.

Right, Jesus said, grow your faith, and he gives us these moments

of history, the things that are truly happened, and it grows our faith.

I mean, if you just look at the track record that Jesus had,

he had a pretty good one. Right he was there was he did

nothing to prove that he couldn't do something. That was a really weird way

to say that. Everything he did proved that he just has the ability and

can do the impossible. That's what his track record is. He is able.

He proved it over and over again. So this week we're going to

be in Luke chapter nine. But I have a question. Before we start,

I'm going to take like a poll of everybody here. So we're going

on a trip in our favorite rocket ship. Anyone has kids, They're like,

I'm okay, we're going on a trip. Who are my minimalist packers?

Raise your hand. You only bring what is necessary, sometimes underwear.

That was what I just got shouted out. You only bring what's necessary.

Because here's the deal. You can wear them inside out. This disgusting.

We'll talk later. You only bring what's necessary, the bear essentials. Right,

So we have our minimalist packers. What about our overpackers. Those are

overpackers. You bring something for every single occasion. How many pairs of shoes

you bring in a trip? Five? Six? The minimalists are like one,

I wear combat boots. I can take a shower in them. I

can go to the beach in them. I can walk. Yeah, I

can do everything like a hike. No, you got to bring a bunch

pair of shoes because you don't know what you're gonna be up for, right,

you gotta be ready for everything. Those are the overpackers. What about

the uhre's. Here's another category that we sometimes forget. The forgetful buy it

when we get their packers. Anybody, we're forgetful. We're spontaneous. Though

you're like, oh, let's just go, we'll figure out. How's we

go? Like it's no key, there's no problem. I'm pretty I get

a little stressed out in those situations personally, because if I forget something like

oh no, then we gotta buy it. I didn't want to spend the

money? Did we put that in the budget? I might be that way

because my wife just a little bit, because she's fantastic at budgeting and planning

those things. So those I think those are the three categories of packers that

I could think of. But whenever we go on a trip as a family,

Jesse always puts together a packing list, which I really do appreciate because

I I don't have to think about all the things that I need right because

she's very thorough. But the first because she's an overpacker, it's very true.

But the first thing that I do whenever I get this list from her

is I take it and I cross off all the stuff that I don't think

I need because I'm somewhere in between forgetful and minimalist, you know, so

minimal I forget things. So I cross the stuff off that I don't think

I need and I add the things that I want or I need for the

trip. That's what I usually do. I'll change the list based on what

I think I need or what I would want from the trip. But how

many of you guys know that our packing list is very different based on what

we're going to do when we get to our destination. Right, so if

we bring shorts or pants, very different based on where we're going. You

go to the beach, probably not gonna be wearing jeans, right, What

about boots or flip flops? Okay? Or shirts or tank tops, long

sleeve shirts and parkas right? Very different. A vacation packing list and a

missions trip packing list is not the same a business trip or a family trip.

They are not equal when it comes to your packing lists. They're very

different. We're not bringing snack packs and gogerts on a business trip. Probably

I might still bring them snack packs. Come on, they're different packing lists

based on where you're going. And so today in our text, we're gonna

see that Jesus actually sends his disciples on a trip and then he tells them

exactly what they need for the trip. In fact, it's actually more than

that. He didn't just tell them what they needed, He actually gave them

what they needed for their trip. So today's message is called this, Yes,

Jesus already packed your back. Jesus already packed your bag. And even

as I'm saying this, I realize it's like a double entendre. So we'll

get to it, But it's pretty cool. There's lots of meanings behind that.

Jesus already packed your bag. Jesus sends the disciples out on a trip,

and he packed their bag for them. And Duncan and I were talking

about something this past week and we were noticing that when you're reading through the

Book of Luke, he doesn't include certain parts or certain aspects or details of

stories that we do see in other gospel accounts. Do you guys ever notice

that when you're reading the four Gospel accounts sometimes like, oh not all.

They don't all match exactly, like some have different details. Sometimes there's little

things in there that we didn't see in other gospel accounts, Like if you

saw Jesus do something in one town and then he moved on to another town,

that a different gospel account might tell you what he did in between that

trip or what he did on the way. Right, So the different gospel

counts will have different things in there. And I think I think God used

different authors on purpose for these gospel accounts, and they were all according to

his purpose that He had for them to include the different pieces that they included.

Okay, four different gospel accounts and The coolest thing I think about having

four different gospel accounts is we get even more insight into what's going on that

will help us better understand what's being taught, spoken about, written about.

I think we get a more holistic picture because we have the different four accounts,

and it's very helpful for us to understand the point of what we're reading.

And with all of that said, what I'm gonna do when we first

starting today's text is actually read from another gospel account, So we're not even

gonna start in our text. We're gonna read from a different gospel account about

what Jesus did right before what we're gonna read in our text. So I

want you to keep your spot in Luke nine if you already turned there,

because that's gonna be our anchor text for the day. But we're gonna be

talking about the Gospel of Mark, and then we're gonna actually look at Matthew

chapter nine. So just bear with me. We have a bunch of puzzle

pieces. I'm gonna put them all together and it's gonna make perfect sense by

the end. Okay, all right. Gospel Mark tells us that Jesus,

after he raised Cyrus's daughter from the dead. He returned to his own hometown

and taught there. That's what he did. After he taught in the synagogue,

but they didn't receive him. So he went there spoke, taught,

and they didn't receive him. In fact, it was even more than that.

They were offended by him, and they rejected him. So what did

he do after that? He moved on to the other towns and villages around.

And this is where I want to pick it up in Matthew chapter nine.

So we took a little look at Mark. Now we're going to Matthew

chapter nine. And this is right after Jesus raised Cyrus's daughter and after getting

rejected in his own hometown Verses thirty five through thirty eight. Jesus went through

all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news

of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the

crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like

sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his decise, the harvest is

plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,

therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Jesus sees this great

need of people and he compares it to a harvest field that is plentiful and

ripe to be harvested. But then he says that the workers are few.

There's not enough people to go out and work. So what Jesus is doing

is he's helping the disciples see with eyes of compassion to see what he has

with his eyes of compassion on the people, and he's bringing them on this

mission that he's going on. And then he tells them to ask the Lord

of the harvest to send out workers. Do you see this foundation that Jesus

is setting here. He reveals the need to disciples. He gave them the

heart to care about the need. And what Jesus says next, I call

a ball or move. And now we're going to get to our today's text,

which is in Luke chapter nine. So remember this foundation of Jesus revealing

the need, giving him the heart to care, and he's going to ask

them to do something. So let's go to Luke chapter nine, verse one

and read just nine verses. When Jesus had called the twelve together, he

gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases.

And he sent them out to proclaim the good excuse me, the Kingdom of

God, and to heal the sick. He told them take nothing for the

journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no

extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.

If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust

off your feet as a testimony against them. So they set out and went

from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere. Now

Herod, the tetrarch heard about all that was going on, and he was

perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others

that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long

ago had come back to life. But Herod said, I beheaded John.

Who then is this? I hear such things about, and he tried to

see him. So this is our text for today. Jesus knows what he's

doing. He shows the disciples the needs by telling them that the harvest is

plentiful, but the workers are few. Then he gives them a heart to

care about the need by telling them to pray and to ask God to send

out workers because we pray for the things we care about, and we care

about the things we pray for. Then he sends them out to meet the

need they just prayed about. He basically says, you're the answer to your

prayer. See the need, pray about the need, Now go meet the

need. Is what just happened. And I think it's both genius and hilarious

on Jesus' part. But let's look back at verses one and two now that

we have this foundation. Said, when Jesus called the twelve together, he

gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,

and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the

sick. Jesus called his chosen twelve disciples together. And at this point,

there was a lot of disciples that were following Jesus, but there's only twelve

that he hand picked and he brought them together for a specific purpose. And

it was at this moment that Jesus is moving these twelve disciples from disciples to

apostles. That's what's happening here. And to help us understand that. Let's

look at the definitions of those two words. First, one's disciple withthatees if

you want to say it in the Greek, a learner, a pupil,

or disciple. That's the word that's being used here when we say disciple.

This is what the twelve have been as they have been following Jesus everywhere since

he first called them. And this is also what all the other people who

have been following the teachings of Jesus would have been called as well. Okay,

so that's disciple. But let's look at the definition of apostle, apostle

apostolos. Probably I think that's how you say it. A delegate, a

messenger, one sent forth with orders specifically applied to the twelve apostles of Christ.

So this moment is when the twelve disciples go from the ones who are

just learning from Jesus, who are pupils or learners. Right, They're moving

from a learner or a pupil of Jesus, and they're moving to someone who

is a delegate, a messenger, one sent forth with orders. They're moving

from disciples to apostles who are sent in His power and authority. This is

a big deal. They finally graduated from Jesus School. They made it.

And now Jesus is saying, you guys are ready, It's time. I'm

going to send you out. And this is actually the same process that he

sent that we go through as Jesus sends us. I think we uh one

way to say it is like this. And Jesus teaches us for the mission.

He's the one who teaches us for the mission. He's the one sending

on the mission. He's the one teaching us for the mission. We followed

Jesus and he teaches us everything that we need. We learned from him everything

we need to know to be sent by him. And since we don't have

the luxury of Jesus physically walking around right now, right in front of us,

where do we go to see his teachings, his word the Bible?

Yes, exactly. God planned ahead and had awesome people like Matthew. When

I say had them, created them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

write down the things that Jesus taught so we could have it today. And

not only that, he had people like Paul Silas, Timothy, James,

Peter, and Jude write down and keep pointing back to what Jesus had already

taught and said, God set this all up beforehand. We have access to

the very words of God. There is nothing hindering us from being taught by

our King and Lord Jesus. At our pre service huddle for everyone who's serving

we always meet together before service, Pastor Jordan asked a good question like where

are you trying to grow and what are you doing to get there? And

a lot of us brought up our Bible reading, which is actually good,

but for us to remember that there's nothing hindering us from knowing what Jesus taught

us. We literally have it in front of us, in our hands,

on our coffee tables, on our bookshelves, on our phones, wherever my

phone's at, like, we have access to it. There's nothing that's hindering

us from being taught by our King and Lord Jesus. We hold the truth

in our hands. We hold the teachings of Jesus in our hands. We

have everything we need. Any Kanye fans out there, we have everything we

need. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, don't even

decide worth looking up, But we have everything we need. Okay, let's

get back to the verse of verses one and two. When Jesus called the

Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and

to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God

and to heal the sick. When Jesus called the twelve together, he gave

them power and authority to do what drive out all demons, not some demons,

all demons. Jesus gave them the power to do that, to drive

out all demons and to cure diseases. He gave them the supernatural power to

do what he had been doing all throughout his ministry. He gave them the

abilities the ability to do that. Who gave it to him? Jesus gave

it to him. Right, the one with the power is the one who

gave the power. They didn't just get to decide that they wanted to be

able to do these things. I think this is something important to talk about.

They didn't just get to say, you know what, I want to

be able to do this, so I'm just going to go do it now.

No, Jesus gave them the power to do that. It's the one

with the power that gave them the power who gave them the power. And

that's just like what we see in one Corinthians twelve regarding our spiritual gifts.

Right, if you guys have been reading in First Corinthians at all, it's

God, the Holy Spirit who distributes them to each one just as he determines.

It's God, the creator of everything, who decides how and when to

use his gifts through his people. He gets to side those things. So

at this time, God, the son Jesus Christ, he chose and decided

to give power and authority to the twelve. And he did it for a

very specific purpose. Because after he gave him this power and authority, what

did he do? He sent them out to go and proclaim the same thing

he had been proclaiming, the Kingdom of God. And why is he proclaiming

the Kingdom of God because King Jesus is That's why King Jesus is here.

That's why he's saying to proclaim the Kingdom of God is near, because the

King has arrived and he told him to go make this proclamation and to heal

the sick. And I think this is something we should take a pause and

kind of think about or talk about. Is regarding the healing the sick part,

I think there was another reason as to why Jesus had them heal and

it's beyond just the fact that he had compassion on the Jews. I think

there's another reason in there, and this is something that we consistently see in

all of Scripture as we see Jesus performing these miracles or even sending the apostles

to do miracles after his ascension. Is he would speak the truth and then

he would validate the truth of what he just said by performing a miracle.

So it makes me think that one of the main purposes behind the miracles was

to show and to prove to the people that what he was saying was true.

That's why he was doing some of these miracles. They were validating the

gospel message. And not only that, but if you have the apostles going

out preaching what Jesus preached and then doing the things that Jesus was doing,

there was no doubt that they were actually sent from Jesus. So it's a

way to validate their message. Again, if you're preaching what Jesus preached and

you're doing the things that Jesus was doing through his ministry, then you had

to have come from him. So it validates the apostles in continuing on jesus

mission that he gave them. So next up, Jesus gives them their packing

list, so let's go look at that. In the next couple verses,

he told them take nothing for the journey. No staff, no bag,

no bread, no money. No bread, no money are not the same

thing. No extra shirt. That was a dumb joke. You shouldn't have

laughed at that. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that

town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the

dust off your feet as a testimony against them. I guess it's more of

an anti packing list. It's not really a packing list, right, It's

like an anti packing list. Jesus tells them not to bring basically anything other

than the clothes on your back and the sandals on your feet, and that's

packing pretty light. Talk about minimalist packing. That's a real minimalist right there.

But if you read Mark's account of this moment, you might have noticed

that he records Jesus telling the disciples to bring nothing except a staff. So

it's a little bit different, but based on both Luke and Matthew's account in

Matthew chapter ten. You can read it there as well. We can understand

this to mean that Jesus didn't want the disciples to bring an extra staff,

don't bring an extra staff, to only bring one in the same way as

telling them not to bring an extra shirt. Here and you read the Matthew

count and it's very obvious that's what he means. So Jesus telling him not

to bring any of this stuff, but instead what he wants them to do

is to completely rely upon the hospitality of their fellow Jews. The generosity and

hospitality of their fellow Jews. All the Jews would have been taught the law

of Moses growing up. It's the same law that Moses received from God on

the mountaintop. They al would have been taught this. And in that law

there are commands of God's people to show hospitality to each other, not just

to each other, but also the traveler, even if they're a stranger,

sojourning with them, they're supposed to treat them as a native. So even

bigger than that, or I like how it's put in Isaiah fifty eight.

If we look at Isaiah fifty eight and verse seven. Is it not to

share your food with the hungry, and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter

when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away

from your own flesh and blood. This is the kind of hospitality that Jesus

is telling the apostles to rely on as they're going about from town to town.

And he's been preaching consistently about having faith in Him to provide everything they

need. Right, just believe you were healed because you had faith. So

now it's time for these disciples who are sent out now as apostles to put

that faith to the test. We put verse four back up there. Please,

whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If

people do not well, can you leave their town shake the dust off your

feet as a testimony against them. So bring nothing with you, and whatever

house you enter, stay there until your job's done. Basically, stay there

until the job is done, which is different than most of the traveling teachers

back in the day. They would go from house to house. Whether they're

a true teacher or a false teacher, they're moving from house to house to

house. And most of the time they would do that because they're trying to

get as much as they can out of people. Either that are trying to

lessen the burden. If I get people the benefit of the doubt, they're

trying to lessen the burden on one house and spread it out among others.

But the evil side of the human condition, even heart, especially for the

false teachers, is they would go from house to house to house to bleed

them all dry, to get as much as they could. So no,

Jesus didn't tell them to go to all the different houses. He said,

when you enter a town, stay in one house, stay there, accept

the hospitality of that one house, and that's when you leave. Is once

the job is done in the town. But what if no one welcomes them,

What if nobody welcomes them into their home, or nobody welcomes them into

the town, even they just reject them, just like Jesus was rejected in

his own hometown. What if they do that, Well, Jesus told them

what to do. He told them to leave their town and shake the dust

off their feet as a testimony against them. Who here knows what that means

anybody? Pastor Jordan's just showing off over there, just kidding. When you

come across something weird in the Bible, research it, I think you should

stop and look into it, like what does that mean? But back in

the day, that was a very common Jewish phrase that they everyone who back

in that time would have known exactly what was being said and what was be

meant by that. So I'm gonna give you a little cultural context behind that,

because I didn't know when I first read what the heck it meant.

So when the Jewish people would travel throughout the different areas and they'd go to

other nations or other surrounding regions around them, upon returning to their own land,

the holy land that God gave them, what they would do is they'd

shake the dust off their feet to make sure they didn't bring any whole unholy

or tainted dust into their own land. They want to contaminate their own land,

so they'd shake the dust off their sandals and even I think off the

robes and everything, so they're not carrying anything from these foreign pagan dust lands

into their own holy land. So every time they'd come home, they'd shake

off the dust. But if that's what this common phrase means, then why

would Jesus tell the twelve to do this when they're only traveling in Jewish areas.

He didn't send them out into pagan areas or other regions he was sent.

He sent them to the Jews. So why would he say this type

of a phrase to the Jews? And I say this is where it's a

little spicy. If they arrived at a Jewish town and no one would welcome

them, no one would show them the normal hospitality, the same hospitality that

God commands them to show to their own flesh and blood, their own people,

and even strangers. If they're not even showing that type of hospitality,

what does that say about what they believe? Who are they acting more like?

If they're refusing to show hospitality, or they're refusing to obey God,

or they acting like the people of God, his chosen people called to follow

and obey their King, or they acting more like the pagan nations, the

unbelieving nations. They're acting like the Pagans, that's the answer. But to

tell the twelve to dust off their feet as a testimony against them would be

to show them how they're acting. It's to show the people that they're acting

more like the Pagans. He's like I'm not even going to keep the dust

of your town on my feet when I part, because you're not a Jewish

nation. You are not the people of God's evidence or proof against them,

or even almost as a sign of judgment against them from the Lord. So

Jesus said, if they don't welcome you, get that dirt off your sandal.

That was my alternate title for the message, thank you. Let's keep

moving before this gets more ridiculous. We're gonna go to verses six through nine.

So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good

news and healing people everywhere. Now, Herod the teterar heard all, excuse

me, heard about all that was going on, and he was perplexed because

some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, others that Elijah

had appured appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago

had come back to life. But Herod said, I beheaded John, Who

then is this? I hear such things about? And he tried to see

him twelve go out and do what Jesus told him to do. And word

got around to Herod right, so they were obedient and did what he told

him to do and word made it all the way to Herod. But now

we have another person we got to talk about, like who is this Herod

guy who is Haird the tet Trark And tet Trark is actually a title and

it just means the ruler of a fourth, that's what it means. And

he was the ruler of the fourth of the region. His actual name was

Herod Antipass and he was one of the sons of Herod the Great. He

has no hair the Great. Herod the Great is the guy who's in charge

when Jesus was a baby, and he was the one who ordered the slaughtering

of all boys two years old and younger in Bethlehem and its vicinities, all

trying to kill the baby Jesus. We talked, Yeah, big thumbs down

for that guy. So that's who heired. The I say great was he

wasn't so great, and Herod Antipass or Haird the tet Trark was one of

his sons, and he also wasn't much better than his dad. He's the

one who was responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist. So we're gonna

look at Mark chapter six, and it's kind of a little bit bigger chunk

of texts. But this is just to explain who this guy is. King

Herod heard about this, for Jesus name had become well known. Some were

saying, this is from the account of the story that we're reading in Luke

from Matthew. In this moment, some are saying, John the Baptist has

been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work

in him. Others said he is Elijah, and still others claim he is

a prophet like one of the prophets of long ago. But when Herod heard

this, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from

the dead. That's what he thought. For Herod himself had given orders to

have John arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. So

if you guys remember back in Luke when we talked about John sending his disciples

back to Jesus, say, are you the one who is the commer?

Shall we wait for somebody else? He was in prison when he did that.

This is why he was in prison. We're about to find out he

did this because of Herodias his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married.

So Herod the tetriarch had married his brother's wife. For John had been saying

to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife,

which is true. That's not cool, so Herodias. The woman nursed a

grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she was not able to

because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and

holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled, yet he

liked to listen to him. He's like, I got no idea what he's

saying, but I like to listen to him. It doesn't make sense to

be saying, but keep talking. Finally, the opportune time came. On

his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and

the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced,

she pleased Herod and his dinner guest. The king said to the girl,

asking me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you,

And he promised her with an oath, whatever you ask, I will give

you up to half my kingdom, which I was reading in a commentary.

He couldn't even have done that. I think that was an unlawful oath for

him to make, even as the ruler. She went out and said to

her mother, what she'll ask for the head of John the Baptist. She

answered at once. The girl hurried into the king with the request, I

want you to give me right now, the head of John the Baptist on

a platter. The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and

his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her, so he immediately

sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went beheaded John

in the prison and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it

to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of

this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

The Herod boys real stand up family, right, They're terrible. When

Herod here's rumor that this might be John out there doing these miracles, he

freaks out a little bit, like the ghosts has come back to haunt him.

He completely ignores it. If some people thought it could have been Elijah,

which is kind of cool, or there could have been one of the

other prophets of God from like seven or eight hundred years before. But maybe

it was due to the incredible guilt that he felt for his hand in the

murder of John the Baptist. But he thought John was back in the dead.

He thought John was on his way back to him. But it wasn't

John. No, it was the one that John was sent to prepare the

way for That's who it was. And before we weep over John, remember

what he said back in John chapter three. He said that his joy was

complete, that Jesus must become greater and he must become less. So as

far as John was concerned, mission accomplished. He did his job. And

the last verse in our text today says this nine. But Herod said,

I beheaded John. Who then is this I hear such things about? And

he tried to see him. Harod knew that John was dead, so he

wanted to go to see go and see who is this that's doing these things.

And maybe he was like, just to make sure it's not John.

I'm on a double check, but let me go see who it is.

But we know from the biblical account that Herod the tet trarch doesn't actually get

to see Jesus for a really long time or for a while later, really

long is I guess subjective it's like eighteen months, I think. But he

doesn't get to see him until after Jesus is betrayed by Judas he's arrested,

he's brought before Pilot. Pilot finds out that Jesus is from Herod's district or

his jurisdiction, and sends him back to Herod. That's when Herod finally gets

to see Jesus face to face. But he only wanted to meet him so

that he could see Jesus perform a sign or a miracle in front of him.

He was like the rest of that adulterous generation who's only seeking a sign.

That's who Herod is, Haired the Tetrarch, kind of the band.

Come back up or wherever's coming up? Please, that's our boy, Haired

the Tetrarch. So Jesus, just to put all this into like a little

bite sized chunk summary, Jesus brought together his twelve guys, his chosen disciples.

He gave them power and authority and commissioned them for a task to proclaim

the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. That's what he sent them

to do. Then he sent him out as his apostles, and he told

them not to bring anything with him. The apostles trusted in what Jesus said

and that he gave him everything that they need for the mission that he sent

them on. And the result was a successful mission. How do we know

it was a successful mission because word made it all the way up to Herod

made it all the way up there. He had heard about all of it.

And this was before social media and mass media, so everything basically was

like spread around by word mouth, which I think makes it even more impressive.

So that's a summary of everything we've gone through today. Just really quick.

What does that all mean for us? What does all that mean for

us? The apostles were sent to proclaim the kingdom of God? What are

we sent to do? What are we sent to do? Sturned to Matthew

chapter twenty eight, look at the great commission. Then Jesus came to them

and said, which by the way, I should have gone back in other

verse, because they some of them doubted after seeing Jesus. And then he

says, this, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to

me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the

name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let

me just back up before we keep going, all authority in heaven and on

earth has been given to me. I always read this, and I feel

great comfort because I'm like, Oh, Jesus is in control of everything.

So I have massive comfort in that little sentence right there. Sometimes I forget

to understand the Therefore, in this situation, we're being told to do something

by the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. It's not

just I get comfort because that's the one who's going with me. No,

the one who is in charge of everything told me to do something. Therefore,

go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them

to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always

to the very end of the age. That's the mission we've been given.

Our mission is to go out and make disciples of all nations, to go

and share the Gospel message with a lost and dying world, a perishing world.

And my big argument for you today. Is this. Jesus gave you

everything you need for the mission. He gave you everything you need for the

mission. Jesus already packed your back, gave you everything you need to go

and do what He has called you, commanded you to do. You are

lacking nothing. You hear that you are lacking nothing. He saved you.

That means you have the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit residing in

you. He is transforming you more into his image. He is your guarantee,

your seal that you were sealed until the end times like he's your promise,

the Holy Spirit. You have His word in your hands. You have

the same gospel message that you were told and that you believed. You have

that in your hands. And you have your own story. You have a

story. God has taken you on a journey. Rosie. You share some

of your story with me every time, and I get way pumped every time

you tell me. And I already loved Jesus. I love it God.

You have a story. Share that story. You don't need anything else to

go out and tell someone the good news about what Jesus has done. Don't

ever feel like you're missing something. Jesus told the twelve not to take anything.

You don't need to pack anything else either. The moment you put faith

in him, he packed your back the moment you believed in him. Now

it's just down to us being obedient, and we're gonna go do what God

commanded us to do. To go and tell the world that in sin,

we all stand condemned before God. It's the bad news before the good news.

Right, in sin, we all stand condemned before God. But Jesus

lived the perfect life. He was crucified as the perfect sinless sacrifice that paid

the debt owed to God for sin, that fully satisfied his wrath on sin.

The death of Jesus fully satisfied that debt. And all those who look

to the Son, who look to Jesus and believe that the sacrifice Jesus made

covers all of their sins, past, present, and future. Amen,

we receive forgiveness and we get to look forward to eternal life face to face

with Jesus. That is good news. There is no better news than the

fact that God made a way for us to be right with him. That

is the best news there is. So our challenge is we need to go

out and be obedient, be obedient to our King and Lord Jesus, the

one who has all authority in heaven and on earth, all authority. Let's

go out and tell the world about him. We need to be intentional.

We need to look for opportunities. Safe bet to say, you walk by

dozens of people every single day who are non believers who desperately need to hear

the good news of Jesus Christ. And if it's not dozens, it's hundreds

that you walk by or interact with. So we need to be intentional.

I know it's something every Christian would be like, Yeah, I know,

I got to tell people about Jesus, right, But where does it sit

in our head? I say, there's things that sit in the back of

our head, and there's things that sit in the front of our head.

And a lot of times I think this great commission, this command from God

says in the back of our heads. We're busy. We've got lots of

things going on, got aspirations, we got goals, we got jobs that

need to be done, we got things we gotta do. But what gets

pushed out when our lives get busy the very thing that should never be pushed

out. That's our relationship with the creator of the universe, and then he

told us to do something. So how are we putting that as the epicenter

of our life? How are we at reordering and reprioritizing our life? With

Christ at the center, we can go do the everyday things that we do

and put Christ at the center of that. I heard one pastor say this

way, when you eat a steak, and you've heard me say this before.

When you eat a steak, A lot of people are like, man,

that's a great steak. Where does the praise terminate? How do you

eat that steak? Unto the Lord? You say, this is the greatest

steak. Thank you God for creating cows, for creating cows and creating chefs

with the creativity to know the perfect cut, to know exactly how it should

be cooked, which is not well done, to the preach to the servers

who are working, who would bring it to me? Or my wife,

who cook said, who's an amazing cook? That all came from God.

Praise doesn't terminate on the thing. Praise terminus on the Lord. We can

do all the things we would consider mundane things of life, all to the

glory of God. With Christ at the center, we just have to reorient

our hearts and reorient our heads all around Christ being central every aspect of our

life. So be intentional, look for opportunities. If someone you're at work

comes up to you and you're like, hey, how are things going,

We're like, oh, not very good. What's your response? Oh that's

a bummer, Or let me be praying for you, And then they might

look at you funny, be like, pray, what are you talking about?

You're like, oh, yeah, I love Jesus. I don't know

if if that made that clear to you. You're opening the door. You're

starting conversations right. You're building a bridge of friendship from your heart to theirs

so that Jesus can walk across it. Do you have the eyes of compassion

that Jesus had and told the disciples and showed the disciples how to have for

people where he looked across to the Jewish people and he saw them with compassion

like a sheep without a shepherd. Is that how we view the loss and

dying world. I'm convicted because I don't always view the world that way,

and I'm the one standing here preaching. Take that conviction. Put on those

lenses of compassion. And say they desperately need to know about the Gospel of

Jesus. Have those eyes and then pray for them. Have the eyes to

see, and a prayer that will change my heart because you care for the

things you pray for. Don't believe me, Put a list in your phone,

write a paperless, I don't care. Start praying for them. You're

gonna care. You're gonna care about the ones you're praying for. And then

go put action behind that prayer and tell them the gospel. Pray for them

right there, say do you need to meet up for coffee? Whatever it

is our hope, not in this world, our end destination, not earth.

We don't just cease to exist once we bite the dust. Eternity is

a long time, and we want people to be right with the creator.

So find those opportunities to tell people the good news of Jesus Christ. And

the biggest, most important thing to remember today is that he already packed your

bag. You're lacking nothing. You can go out right now with the full

confidence of the one who has all authority in heaven on earth is going with

you to go do what he called you to do. He did it all,

So just go tell people Amen, Can you guys stand your feet