The Mission and the Message pt. 1 - Luke 10:1-8

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to pass through places and people without really seeing them or even noticing them?

I think we do this all the time.

We drive through neighborhoods, we stand in lines at the grocery store, we work at jobs surrounded by people every day, and most of the time we're just trying to get somewhere.

We're just trying to get to the next destination.

Last week I had the opportunity to travel, and I kind of did a little bit of that.

Not paying attention to anyone around me, jumping on the plane, jumping off the plane, and just trying to get where I was trying to go.

And I don't, I think most of us are probably not the kind of people who like to start conversations with just anyone we meet, right?

We probably try to avoid those people when we see them coming.

Well, the scriptures show us that Jesus never merely passed through people.

He didn't let the journey become about the destination.

In our passage this morning, Jesus and his company continue to make their way to Jerusalem.

Remember, Jerusalem, Jerusalem is his final destination here on earth.

This is where he's going to die.

And as he is going, he has a mission that he wants to accomplish along the way.

He wants to spread the message of the kingdom to the towns that are before him.

In other words, he wants the gospel to be shared in all of the towns and in all of the villages that he is passing by.

He doesn't just want to pass them or go through them.

He wants to deposit the good news of the gospel along the way.

We get a glimpse here of the heart that Jesus has for the nations.

He desires people everywhere to be saved, to come to faith.

He wants for people of all nations to believe in the gospel.

He invites all and everyone who will hear him to come into the kingdom.

He could have easily overlooked these towns on his road to Jerusalem, but instead he said, if I'm going to pass through them, why not tell them the good news?

Why not let them know the reason why I came into the world?

Why not offer them the opportunity to believe in my name?

And today Jesus continues to have that same heart for the nations.

His mission and his message are still the same.

His mission is to save people from their sins, and his message is that if you believe and trust in his name, you will be saved.

And how does he accomplish all of this?

Well, in the same way he did in his day.

His mission hasn't changed, neither has his message.

This is what we're going to be looking at this morning in our passage.

I titled this sermon, The Mission and the Message Part One.

Because this morning we're going to look at the mission part of the passage, and next week we're going to look a little closer at the message part of the passage.

You know, one of the dangers of familiarity is that we can hear words so often that they start to lose their weight.

I think words like mission and evangelism and discipleship and church are words like that.

We hear them so often that we don't think much of them anymore.

We hear them so much that they become religious vocabulary instead of living realities.

But in our passage, Jesus reminds us that his mission is not a set of abstract ideas, it is living work that is happening in real towns with real people through real disciples.

So how is the mission of Christ accomplished in our world?

In other words, how is God's plan to bring the nations to himself through his son Jesus Christ being accomplished today?

Well, we will look at our passage and note, again, it's the same way that it was in his day.

Number one, the mission is accomplished together.

Number two, the mission is accomplished by prayer.

Number three, the mission is accomplished by faith.

And number four, the mission is accomplished by rest.

The mission is accomplished together.

It is accomplished by prayer.

It is accomplished by faith, and it is accomplished by rest.

Let's look at that first one.

The mission is accomplished together.

Chapter 10, verse 1 says, After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, in every town and place where he himself was about to go.

Let me stop there.

So again, as Jesus is traveling to Jerusalem, it seems that there are more than just the twelve disciples who are in his company.

Apparently, there were other disciples besides the twelve who were with him.

And Jesus has a message, a mission for them as well, to go into every town proclaiming the gospel.

Similar to the mission that he gave the twelve disciples, you may remember back in chapter 9.

Here he gives the commission to 72 others.

Now in Genesis chapter 10, here's an interesting thing.

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

There are 70 nations listed who came from Noah and spread throughout the earth.

You may remember once the flood came, mankind was wiped out.

Noah and his family were the new Adam, if you will, they were commanded to go and populate the earth and to fill the earth.

And in that chapter, in Genesis chapter 10, we get a list of 70 different nations.

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

Now some scholars see a connection between the number of those nations that are mentioned in Genesis to the number of disciples that Jesus is sending out to proclaim the gospel.

In fact, in some manuscript, there is a list of 70 disciples instead of 72.

Whatever the case, the mission is clear.

The mission is to bring the good news to every nation.

And as he sends out these 72, he sends them out two by two.

He thought that it'd be best that the disciples not be sent out alone, but that they have someone who is with them to accompany them on their mission.

The fact that Jesus sends out others besides the twelve, and the fact that he sends them out two by two makes one thing very clear to us: that the mission to bring the gospel to the world is not a work that is done in isolation.

Neither is it a work that is reserved for a select few.

This is the work of all who follow Jesus Christ, and it is a work that is meant to be accomplished together as a church, as one body.

You know, the church is not formally established until Acts chapter 2, but here already in Luke, we are starting to see how the church will operate in her mission.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It will operate not in isolation, not with one superstar, not with one person who is gifted and talented, but it will operate as a body.

It will work together.

It will not be a mission accomplished by one person, or not even a mission accomplished by one local church, but by all of God's people working together to do what Jesus is sending us to do out in the world.

Acts chapter 8, verse 1, we read, and there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout this read the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.

Acts 8:1

Let me skip down to verse 4.

And those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

So notice who were scattered here in this chapter or in this verse here in Acts 8.

It was all those except the apostles, meaning those that were scattered, not the apostles, the others, the other Christians went about scattered, and they went about preaching and spreading the gospel.

It was being done by them, not just the 12.

It was being done by all.

It was being done together.

Jesus thought it was best to send out the 72x2 because he knew that along the way they would need each other.

Along the way, they were going to need one another.

They were going to need the company of each other, of one another, for the mission that they were being set out to accomplish.

And today, this mission is accomplished the very same way.

It is accomplished in the company of others.

It is accomplished through the local church, through the people of God, through the body of Christ.

We as a collective have been given a mission to be the salt and light of the world.

We have been given a commission to go and make disciples of all nations.

When we speak of the church, we speak of its nature and we speak of its mission.

Its nature is who we are, its mission is what we do.

Who we are is God's people.

We are the elect.

We are God's chosen people.

That is who we are.

Gathered in the name of Jesus Christ.

We are God's people who gather on Sundays to worship God, to proclaim his name, to read the scriptures, to give him glory.

What we do is, as John Piper says, make more worshipers.

Make more of us.

We multiply ourselves.

It's not the work of, and this is not the work of one individual.

It's the work of the church.

What we do is to bring the gospel, the good news to the nations.

What we do is we disciple the nations, right?

We we make them become disciples of Jesus Christ through Scripture, through the study of the Word.

And just like in Jesus' day, this is going to be accomplished together.

It's not the work of one pastor, it's not the work of one leader, or it's not the work of a certain select group of people in the church.

This is the work of the whole church coming together for the mission of Christ.

Look what it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 4, verse 9.

Ecclesiastes 4:9

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.

For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls, and has not another to lift him up.

Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him.

A threefold core cord is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes gives us three reasons why company is better than isolation.

One is to lift each other up when we fall.

Along the course of the Christian life, along the course of your Christian life, and maybe you haven't gotten there yet, but you will.

You will have a stumble.

You will have various falls.

We all fall in various ways.

Sometimes we fall into sin, sometimes we fall into discouragements, sometimes we fall into despair, at times we fall into apathy, just laziness.

And if we fall in isolation, if we fall when we are by ourselves, who is going to be there to pick us up?

If we fall when no one's around, who will be there to exhort us when we are in sin?

If we fall when we're just down and out, who's going to encourage us?

Who's going to motivate us?

Who is going to spur us on when we're lazy and when we don't want to evangelize, when we don't want to come to church, and we want to do the thing, we don't want to read our Bible.

Who's going to do those things?

We need the company of others to be there when we fall.

Woe to him who is alone.

Jesus knows our weaknesses and he knows our limitations and he knows that brothers and sisters are there to help us in our Christian walk.

The next reason we need company according to Ecclesiastes is to help each other meet each other's needs.

It says, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone?

In the ancient world, travelers or poor laborers would sleep close together at night to keep each other warm.

Some of you who are married might might do this, and some of you may not like it, and you might push your spouse away because you just don't like someone sleeping close to you.

But well, we're not gonna throw out names here.

But this is what the church does.

It helps support one another.

There's a metaphor for support, it's a metaphor for comfort, it's a metaphor for mutual care.

The church needs each other in her mission.

It needs the support of one another.

It needs all of us pulling together to accomplish this mission.

You know, I come, and we we talked about this a little bit in our Sunday school, but I come from more of a non-denominational background.

And sometimes I didn't get or understand the importance of denominations.

And to be clear, they're not perfect.

But one of the benefits that I found in being part of a denomination like we are, we're part of the Southern Baptist Convention, is churches being able to pull their resources together to support ministry efforts like church plants and missionaries across the world.

The SBC's missionary board, the IMB, is the largest missionary agency in the world.

In other words, they train and send out more missionaries than any other organization.

And that is made possible by churches coming together, cooperating together, putting their resources together, praying together to send those missionaries out.

There are missionary works and church plants that would have never gotten started without the prayer and the support and the collaboration of other Christians.

And we're one of them as a church plant, and we're one of them as a giver.

We give to the SBC, we give to the IMB.

So we're part of that.

This is the beauty of the body of Christ.

Jesus intends for Christians to help and support each other in the mission of the kingdom.

A third reason two are better than one, according to Ecclesiastes, is for protection.

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him.

So as the church sets out to accomplish her mission, it's going to face some things, some dangerous things.

It will face dangers from within and dangers from without.

Within, there's going to be, at times, there's going to be people who come into the church who are going to try to divide us.

There's going to be, uh, as has scripture says, wolves that come into the church to try to destroy it.

From without, there's going to be ideologies and cultural pressures.

We've seen this in the past few years where churches have kind of gone by way of the culture.

And all these things are kind of meant by the enemy to take us off our mission, to take our eye off the mission of what we should be doing.

And we need one another during those times to protect one another.

To say, hey, brother, what are you listening to?

Sister, what are you what are you watching?

Who are you hearing?

You know, be careful there.

You're that's getting you off the mission.

You're thinking more about this than the word of God and the glory of God and things like that.

We need each other to speak into each other's lives.

We need to exhort one another and encourage one another to keep our eyes focused on the mission of the kingdom, on the on what has God called us to do.

Proverbs 17, 17 says, A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

This mission is not meant to be accomplished alone.

It takes every follower of Jesus to get involved in some way or another.

Maybe you can't preach, but can you pray?

Maybe you aren't confident in sharing the gospel yet, but can you share a track?

You know, can you can you share some of your maybe your resources to support the work?

There's room for everyone to get involved in the work of the kingdom and the mission that Jesus is sending the church on.

Next, the mission is accomplished by prayer, verse 2.

And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

So as Jesus sends out these 72, he assesses the missage, the mission for them, and he pretty much says, There's good news and there's not so good news.

Here's the good news the harvest is plentiful.

Now, this is an encouragement for these 72, and it should be an encouragement for us and for every laborer in the kingdom of God, because in agricultural terms, a harvest is a good thing.

A harvest means that the crops are ripe and they're ready.

A harvest is what every farmer works for and hopes to see.

After a long wait, it's now time to go and collect the grain and gather the fruit and collect the vegetables.

And Jesus is saying that in the kingdom of God, the harvest is plentiful.

There is an abundance.

In other words, there are many people who are out there in the world who are ready to be collected for the kingdom of God.

The Spirit has done the work in the hearts and minds of men and women.

He has sent other Christians before you to plant the seed, to water the ground, and he has brought the increase and making their hearts receptive to the gospel.

They're ready, they're ripe to go to hear this gospel.

Now, who's going to go and tell them?

Who's going to go and bring them this good news?

Who's going to go and get them?

That's the not-so-good news part of Christ's assessment.

Because he says, there's only a few laborers.

The harvest is ready, but the laborers are very few.

The demand outweighs the supply.

There are so many people out there who are ready to hear and receive the gospel.

But here's what the church needs: it needs laborers.

Now, laborers can come in many forms.

In the ancient world, gathering a harvest involved many different kinds of work.

You needed reapers to cut the stalks, you needed binders to tie the grains into bundles, you needed gatherers to collect and transport the sheaves.

I can go on, but the point is there were many different jobs to do in collecting the harvest.

Not everyone did the same exact thing.

And we need the same kind of laborers in the kingdom of God.

We need laborers here and there doing all kinds of work.

This is what the church needs as the church goes forth on her mission.

We need laborers.

We need people with all kinds of gifts and all kinds of skills to come and work and take part of the work for the kingdom of God.

You know, some people, sometimes people will ask me as a church planner, some of you may have asked me this when you came, what do you need help with?

Or where can I serve?

And I love that question because it shows the heart and the willingness of people to come and serve.

It shows that who's ever coming to this church knows what they're getting into.

Not just a church to go to, but a church that's on a mission.

But oftentimes, my answer will be we just need people.

We just need workers.

We're gonna figure out what role you play in the mission along the way, and as your gifts become identifiable, that's what happens in the church.

But for now, we we just need people who are already to be a part of the mission.

We just need laborers, people who are ready to go and have a heart for collecting the harvest, people who are ready to play their part in gathering, whatever that looks like, be it evangelizing evangelizing or playing an instrument or setting up chairs or tables or inviting friends and family to church or going door to door, knocking on doors, or or greeting people as they come in, people who are ready to go and collect the harvest, people who are ready to play their part in gathering, again, whatever that looks like.

Church simply needs laborers.

But notice something.

Notice how Jesus says those labors are going to come.

He says, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest.

This word earnestly in the original Greek, it's translated, it can be translated as beg.

Beg the Lord in prayer to send laborers into the field.

We might miss this, but there is a snapshot of the sovereignty of God here.

He is the Lord of the harvest.

In other words, the harvest is his, it belongs to him.

He is ultimately the one who's gonna make the harvest grow.

And he also chooses how the harvest is collected.

He does what he pleases.

He's in the heavens and he does what he pleases.

If he chooses to send many laborers into the fields, then much is going to be gathered.

But if he only chooses to send a few, only a few will be collected.

This is why the collecting of the harvest is dependent on who or how many labors are being sent out.

And how many labors are being sent out is dependent on the God who sends them.

Prayer is a show of our inability to send people.

It is a show of our inability to go.

It is a show of our dependence on God for the entire mission.

It is saying, Lord, I cannot do this.

I cannot do what you are calling me to do, but I know with your power and under your authority we can do this.

It is coming, prayer is a coming to an end of ourselves and placing what we want to see in the hands of God.

Colossians 4, verse 2 says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Colossians 4:2

At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of the world.

Of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

I love this.

Notice Paul's prayer requests.

It's for ministry work.

He's asking them to pray that God would bless the work that they're doing by opening up these doors for them, but that he would speak clearly when he speaks to them.

And I think this is an area that we can all grow in.

Because if we're honest, a lot of our prayers are focused on our business instead of God's business, on our needs, on our wants, on what we want to see, on what we hope to see, on our friends and our family.

But how much of our prayer, of our prayer time, are focused on God's mission in the world, on what he's looking to accomplish, or what we want to see him accomplish in this world.

Not that we shouldn't be praying for our needs or we shouldn't pray for our desires and our wants or we shouldn't want God to see do things in our lives and in our families.

But like Paul says, at the same time, in other words, pray for that.

Pray that you, you know, you're strong, pray that you you live a godly life.

Earlier in Colossians, in Colossians 3, that's what he's talking about.

Pray that you live a righteous life and all that.

But at the same time, in other words, don't forget, pray for me too.

Pray for my my mission work, pray for my evangelizing, pray that God does something here.

Because this is how it's going to be done.

Can we pray for his kingdom to come and his will to be done?

Can our prayers start having more of an outward focus?

How often do we pray that the Lord raises up and sends more missionaries in the world?

When is the last time we prayed that?

I'm talking to myself.

I'm convicting myself here.

When is the last time we pray for more church plants to get started in needed communities or for more evangelists to go out into the streets?

How often do we pray for them and for their protection and for their support?

Because if we truly want to see it happen in our world, this is how it's going to happen.

It's going to happen through prayer.

Prayer is the means by which much of God's work is accomplished in our world.

I can't remember who I heard saying this, so I can't give them credit.

But I remember one time in a sermon, and I think of it often, that, you know, sometimes we're prone to think that prayer gets in the way of our work.

In other words, you know, sometimes we we we're we're thinking, you know, as we set out in the morning and we want to do something, we want to evangelize, want to tell somebody about Jesus, or maybe we're coming together for a community outreach and we're like, well, let's let's hurry up and pray so we can get that part over with, and let us just go do the work.

You know, kind of like when we're ready to eat, right?

Like, let's hurry up and pray so I can get to my food.

But this this this pastor during the sermon, he says, as he said, he says, sometimes we we tend to think of prayer as getting in the way of our work.

But what if we shifted our thinking and realized that prayer is the work?

That God can accomplish more in an instant than we can ever accomplish in a lifetime.

Whatever we are looking to see God do in our world or in our country or in our city or in our church or in our family, we will only see it if we pray, listen to this, earnestly for it.

If we beg God to see it, if we say, Lord, if this is going to happen, you must make it happen because I can have all of the gifts and all of the charisma and all of the talents and all of the plans and the strategies to believe that I can do it, but I know this work is your work, and it is dependent on you because you are the Lord of the harvest.

This mission is and will be accomplished by prayer.

Next, the mission is accomplished by faith.

Verse 4 carry no money bags, no knapsacks, no sandals, and greet no one on the road.

Whatever house you enter, first say, peace be to this house, and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him, but if not, it will return to you.

Now every mission is different.

Some missions are short-term missions, some missions are long-term missions.

This seemed to be here a short-term mission that Jesus was sending the 72 on.

And he tells them to do something that is going to require faith as they trust in him.

He tells them, take no money bag or knapsack.

In other words, don't take any money with you because you're not going to need it.

I'm going to make sure that people will provide for you along the way.

He says, take no sandals.

This is more than likely an instruction not to take any extra pair of sandals.

I'm sure they had some on their feet.

In other words, just go as you are.

Don't pack.

Don't take anything more than what you have on.

Just go.

Don't greet anyone on the road because the time is short.

I don't need you stopping and chit-chatting and getting off track.

Don't greet anyone.

Just go.

You need to get on with the mission that I'm sending you to be on.

Whenever you enter a house, say, peace be to your house.

In other words, offer a blessing of peace to the houses that you enter.

But like any blessing, blessing, they must be received by faith.

If there's a son of peace there, your peace will rest upon him.

And if not, your peace will be returned back to you.

Meaning, if there's someone who welcomes you into their home, then they're welcoming your blessing.

If they're inviting you to their home, then they're inviting you in to hear the gospel.

Then that person whoever welcomed you will have this peace of God resting upon you.

Why?

Because they received the peace of the gospel.

But the one who rejects you and the message of the gospel will not have the peace that comes with it.

Because it is a gospel of peace.

And those who reject the gospel, those who says, those who say, I do not need the gospel in my home, will not have the peace of God resting upon them.

Now, later on in chapter 2, I got to throw this in because some of you might be thinking of this.

Jesus will tell his disciples to take a money bag for their mission.

You may remember, he asked them on behalf of if they have a sword also, and they say, Yeah, here's two.

So that's kind of the one text we go to that say that we say it's okay to pack, you know, there's two swords there.

Anyway, so there is something to be said for things like planning, right?

And strategizing and you know, fundraising and things like that.

There's something to be said for those things.

But in every work, whether it is the work that he gives them later on in chapter 22 or this work here in chapter 10, in every work, it does take faith and trust in the Lord.

It takes faith and belief that God is going to provide for what we need along the way.

You know, we speak about the importance of walking by faith and not by sight in our personal lives, which is true.

But what's also true is walking by faith and not by sight in the mission that the Lord has us on.

And sometimes that's just as hard as in our personal lives because we know that it takes resources and provisions, and when you're trying to church plan, it takes people for the mission to be accomplished.

And you will know Jesus didn't tell the 72 not to eat.

He didn't tell them not to stay in the home.

He understands that they're going to need those things.

But what he is saying is, trust me.

Trust me.

I'm going to provide for you along the way.

I'm going to give you the help that you need.

Matthew 6, verse 31 says, Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat?

Matthew 6:31

Or what shall we drink?

What shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things.

And your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

You know what happens when we're anxious about those things, especially in ministry work.

We're focused on those things.

And our attention starts getting tied up in those things.

And our hearts and minds are not where they need to be.

Instead of being on the mission, our hearts and minds are on what's missing in the mission.

This is why it takes faith.

This is why it traits it takes trusting that the Lord will not lead us to streams without waters.

Though we might pass through some along the way and get sidetracked by what we don't see, we must remember the Lord that we serve, that He owns a cattle on a thousand heels.

And look, I think this is where I want to insert some encouragement to our church plan here because sometimes, you know, I think the reason, look, the reason you're here is because you want to see this church, you know, planted and flourish.

You're not coming to a church like this if you just kind of just want to sit down, because this is it's a mission church.

We're all mission.

And sometimes, you know, we we do outreaches and we put on things, and and and some of you might get discouraged because we don't see a lot of fruit and we don't see a lot of people come.

And you know, we're passing our tracks, and and those people that we passed our tracks to don't come.

And this is where I want to encourage you because sometimes we have to walk by faith and not by sight, right?

We have to walk by what we believe God is gonna do rather than what we see.

Because when we walk by sight, we can get discouraged and we can say, you know what, I don't know if it's even worth getting up on a Saturday morning to go pass out tracts or to go be a part of an outreach, because it's not working.

But it's not about what's working, what's not working, it's about are we being faithful?

Are we being faithful to the mission that the Lord has called us upon?

Because we trust Him with the results, we trust Him to bring the increase.

We're sometimes worried that we're not seeing things, but we need to, this is why we're we're had we're called to have this faith.

Here's something else I want to point out in instructing the 72.

When he instructed when Jesus instructed the 72 not to take anything with them, he not only wants them to exercise their faith, but notice he also wants others to exercise their faith.

As the 72 went out, he wanted to test their faith, but he also wanted to test the faith of those who would or wouldn't open the homes to them.

He wanted to give others opportunity to participate in the work.

Would there be a son of peace and by faith receive the blessing of the disciples and open up their homes to them, or would there not be?

Would they share their means?

Would they share their resources?

Or would they be scared to?

You know, some of us come from a bad theological upbringing when it comes to giving.

We've heard things like if you don't give, you're gonna be cursed, or you need to give and you're gonna be blessed with untold prosperity and things like that.

Various what I would call manipulation tactics in giving.

But we have to be careful that the pendulum doesn't swing too far the other way.

Because there is a component of faith in our giving.

I mean, because let's face it, giving isn't easy.

And we're sometimes a little worried that if we give, we're not gonna have enough.

That's why it takes a measure of faith to give.

We have to believe that God will provide for our needs as we provide for the needs of the ministry.

2 Corinthians 9, verse 6 says, the point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

2 Corinthians 9:6

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work.

Note how this scripture has a few promises to the giver in the passage.

One is that grace will abound in you.

In other words, his grace, his strength, his encouragement will rest upon you.

You will be supplied with supernatural strength as you give and as you help to serve him in this way.

Next, you will have all sufficiency.

He will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory, as Philippians 4.19 says.

And the third is you will abound in every good work, meaning his hand will be upon your work.

Everything that you do for him, it's gonna prosper.

Now notice the difference there.

There's a difference in that kind of, even in that scripture, I didn't even have to unpack it and do much teaching.

There's a difference in just reading that scripture from that, from the way that we've probably heard giving taught in prosperity gospel churches, right?

Uh there's prosperity giving and there's biblical giving that I believe that we see here in the passage.

One says, the prosperity gospel says, give so that you can receive health and wealth and prosperity.

The other, as in the passage, says, give so that you will be cheerful and blessed in the work of the kingdom of God.

One has a worldly focus, the other one has a kingdom focus.

Notice the difference.

But you know what it takes to give this way?

It takes faith.

It takes saying, Lord, I trust you with my giving.

I might be a little frightened, I might not understand, but I want to be that son or daughter of peace who shares what I have and wants God's peace to rest upon me.

When Jesus told the 72 not to take provisions, he wanted to guard them from trusting in their own means.

But he also wanted to encourage others to share their own means.

And both trusting God to provide and trusting God as we give, both of those take faith.

And we know from Scripture, faith is what pleases God.

Amen.

Next, the mission is accomplished by rest, verse 7.

And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages.

Do not go from house to house.

Here, Christ says to remain in the home of the person who welcomed you.

Eat and drink what is offered, and don't feel like you're being a burden to them.

After all, a laborer is worthy or deserves his wages.

This is consistent with what the Bible teaches elsewhere.

1 Corinthians 9 14.

In the same way the Lord commanded that all who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.

Again, as a way for everyone to take part in the ministry and to do so sacrificially, Jesus wants the people not only to open their homes and provide lodging for the 72, but he also wants them to care for their needs.

Give them something to eat, give them something to drink.

And as the 72 are received, they are to stay at that home and they're to be content.

He says, don't go from home to home.

In other words, don't go looking for a place, a better place to stay.

We've probably done that a time or two in our lives.

Hotel hopping, right?

I don't like this hotel.

I'm gonna go to the one down the street.

Jesus is saying, don't do that.

Be satisfied where you are at.

Appreciate what has been given to you.

Don't be anxious for more.

Don't get greedy.

Ministry work, you know, is an area where, especially when you when you start seeing success, you know, it can it can tend to pride.

You know, if you're someone who's maybe reaching a lot of people for Jesus, you know, that you gotta be careful because the enemy can kind of slip in here and say, look at look at you and look at your work, rather than look at God and his work, right?

So we have to we have to guard against these things.

We we have to also remember that sometimes we just have to rest and be content in what God is doing.

You know, and again, sometimes that can be hard because we want to see people come to faith.

We want to see God do things, we want to see marriages restore, we want to see lives change, we want to see churches grow, but on the other hand, we have to remember that it is the Lord in his timing who's gonna bring the increase.

There's a difference between being lazy and trusting God to bear fruit in his time.

Jesus was not telling the 72 to stay at a home, get complacent, turn on the TV, they didn't have TVs, but you know, enter a home, spend all your time there eating and drinking.

He wasn't encouraging them to be lazy, but what he was saying was once you've been received, rest.

Don't have an unhealthy appetite for more.

Be satisfied with what you have been given.

Trust me, be content with what you have.

Notice that Jesus not only commands them to work, but he also commands them to stay put.

Receive what is given.

Be content with your provision.

These people who will open their homes to you have done so because I have moved their heart to do so.

Do the work that I've commanded you to do, but rest and be assured that I am working alongside with you.

First Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6.

1 Corinthians 3:6

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building.

You know, sometimes we can read this passage and miss out one important key thing that Paul is saying that we are God's fellow workers.

Now we all have co-workers, right?

We know what it means and looks like to work with someone at work or someone on a task, but God, he's not just any co-worker.

He's not the guy in the next cubicle.

Neither is he a guy in the corner office.

He is the God of the heavens.

He is the God who sits in the heavens and does as he pleases.

He's the God who speaks and things come into existence.

And Paul is saying that God is your co-worker.

He's not only working with you, but he is also working on your behalf.

So how can you not rest?

How can you not have full confidence that this work that you are on is a good work, and that this work will be accomplished because God will make sure of it.

This is encouraging news for you, Christian, to know that the mission that God has you on is ultimately not dependent on you, but it is dependent on God.

Because it's his church and it is his people and it is his mission and it is his work, and his work does not fail.

At the end of the day, you know what mission work is?

Mission work is simply getting involved with what God is already doing in the world.

He's already calling the nations to himself, he's already saving people out of darkness, he's already building his church.

And as he says in his word, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

As we close, notice how Jesus intends to reach people on his way to Jerusalem.

Not through political power, not with wealth, not through any kind of spectacle, but through ordinary.

No name.

We don't know their name.

We don't know the names of the 12, but we don't know the names of these 72.

Through ordinary, no-name disciples who pray and who trust and who labor together, through people who are dependent entirely upon God to do something that they cannot do on their own.

And here's the amazing thing: the mission is not changed, and the need is still the same.

People still need to hear the gospel, which is the power into salvation.

People are still trapped in the bondages of sin and death.

There are many who need to hear and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

Here's the question for us: Who's gonna tell them?

What church out there is going to answer this call?

What church is gonna pray fervently begging the Lord?

Who's gonna provide for the work?

Who will trust that God can accomplish much through a church's, no matter how small it is, willingness to be faithful to the mission of Jesus Christ.

May it be us.

Amen.

Let us pray.