Extending The Ministry

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Please turn to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. We'll begin reading at verse 1. [00:00:38] Then he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor script, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye enter into, there abide, and thence depart. [00:01:12] And whosoever will not receive you when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust of your feet for a testimony against them. And he departed and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was done by him and he was perplexed because that it was said of some that John was risen from the dead and of some that Elijah had appeared and of others that one of the old prophets was risen again. [00:01:47] And Herod said, John have I beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see him. And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. As we look at this passage, we first of all acknowledge it as the very Word of God. [00:02:28] And we want to see it in the context of the thrust of the Gospel of Luke. We have been studying the Gospel of Luke for a year and a half on Sunday morning as we've had opportunity. And have only gotten this far, some would say. But I trust that the Lord will speak to each of our hearts this morning. In this passage of Scripture, we have one of the commissions of the Lord. [00:03:05] There are several in the Gospel record. There's the commission to the 70, for example. Here we have a commission to the 12. This is the Great Commission, which we need to take extremely seriously in its application to each one of us. That does not mean that we do not need to take this extremely seriously. What we'd like to look at is the issue of extending the ministry. [00:03:38] As the Lord extends his ministry here, having trained the twelve apostles to this point, and now sending them out on a specific mission. We would also acknowledge that in the Scripture there is a progressive revelation. We often think of that as it relates to the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that is true. But it's even true to an extent in the New, because the commission that is given to us in the form of the Great Commission is an amplification and even additional direction to these earlier commissions that we have. [00:04:26] The Lord is particularly extending his ministry through the disciples to the Jewish people at this point. We find the amplification then in the Great Commission to all peoples as particularly personified in the ministry of the Apostle Paul [00:04:58] as he turns his major attention to the Gentiles later on. And so while Gentiles are not excluded here, this issue of the signs that is a major part of this commission would be particularly to the Jews. If I understand 1 Corinthians 14 correctly, various things of that sort were assigned to the Jews, particularly. [00:05:32] That doesn't mean they aren't assigned to others, but they are assigned particularly to the Jews. And so the signs that we would not disregard today, But we do not see emphasized as much today. The signs are very central to this commission. And you'll notice it in verse 1. He called them together, he gave them power and authority over all demons [00:06:04] and to cure diseases and sent them, verse 2, to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Now we can spiritualize that and it's not wrong to do but we need to first of all understand its literal thrust that it is a sort of a multiplex commission it is not merely the gospel of the kingdom [00:06:34] but it includes these other physical issues as well which have spiritual overtones Having thought of that, let's not major on that, but rather see that the Lord Jesus Christ here is not merely doing ministry himself. He is rather training and extending that ministry through the disciples. [00:07:09] And that part of the lesson should never stop. As we think of ministry today, it needs to have at its core that continuous instruction and learning by following example, learning by doing, and that should actually infiltrate our whole congregation [00:07:41] and reach out to the community and beyond. The approach that the minister is the only one that can do ministry is very Catholic. And that which we and our forebears departed from, for biblical reasons. Everyone has a ministry. [00:08:12] Now, that doesn't mean everybody has a preaching ministry. It doesn't mean that everyone has a public teaching ministry. I'm not trying to say that. But everyone has a ministry. And it is our responsibility to train and encourage and use all of the gifts in that process. Now that way I would see that as an application of what happened here. But I think that it's important for us to note that the work of God needs to be extended to all of the congregation ultimately. [00:08:57] So that we all are counseling each other, encouraging each other, All involved in rebuking each other as needed That organism that we call the church Which was not yet pulled together in the way that it was in Acts 2 But it's in preparation here as he sends out the twelve Now there is the matter of focus secondly [00:09:31] that I would like us to think about for a few moments. You'll notice in verse 3, he calls them to focus on this ministry. Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor script, neither bread, neither money, and neither have two coats apiece, and so on. There are various understandings of what this is saying. [00:10:06] We will not attempt to go into them all. But I would like to give a summary thought about this section. And the summary thought is that Jesus Christ is calling his disciples and calling us to focus on ministry. rather than on things. I know that the strong dispensationalists look at this thing and they say, [00:10:39] well, that was then and that was to the Jews only and now we're now and all that. That's not where I want to go with this passage, and I think that it presses the passage into a preconceived mold. I think what the Lord is saying here to them is it's not a living exercise that he wants us to major on, but rather on ministry. [00:11:12] In other words, they were not to get their motorhome enlarged and well-stocked and all the paraphernalia they could possibly patch onto it and load into it. And then go enjoy the weekend while they did some ministry. And please understand I have no criticism for those of you who have motorhomes. But the point was ministry was the focus. [00:11:48] And I would call us again to accountability in this issue. How much time do we spend just living? I mean eating, taking care of clothes, cleaning house, those things that are a part of living and are necessary and proper, by the way. [00:12:19] It would be scriptural to do those things. But how much time is spent just doing that as compared with ministering to the needs, particularly the spiritual needs of others? And is there any way that we can trim down those living things so that we have more time to minister to others? [00:12:50] I think those are the questions of our day in a very real sense. We can spend all of our time living. We get this convenience or this thing and then we have to take care of it and it breaks down and we have to repair it and eventually we can get ourselves into a situation where we're just living. As far as reaching out to others, as far as sharing with others, we don't have time. [00:13:28] We're totally bound up in living. And please understand, it would be contrary, clearly contrary to Scripture if we didn't spend some time living. The Bible has something to say about that to the Thessalonians. The guy who won't work shouldn't eat And all of the amplification of that principle So yes, it is important to spend some time living [00:13:59] And you can even think of some of that in the realm of ministry But not all of it by any means And so the Lord brings a focus here He said, don't take anything that will distract you Don't take two coats because you will need to take care of two coats. I'm reminded of the need to lock things up. [00:14:41] And my father was one who, and still is, who locks everything up. So I come by that a little bit. And I probably can almost admire some of you who just leave your doors unlocked and all that. I'm not sure I can actually do that. Maybe I could learn. But I say that to say this. If you have to lock it up so someone doesn't take it, that's extra effort. [00:15:12] That takes you away from the focus of serving the Lord. You may even have something you don't need. At least you have something that's going to take a bunch of time to maintain, even to lock up. I know some of it's country versus city. Most city people wouldn't think of not locking their car every time they get out of it. And we country people don't think much about it. And then some of us have vehicles that we don't care about particularly. [00:15:45] I remember a brother in our church in Ohio that had an old van and he made a practice of leaving it unlocked with the windows down and the keys in it and sort of hoped somebody would take it off his hands. And he said he couldn't get rid of it that way. But we come back to the issue of treasure and where our treasure is and why we have to lock things up and so forth. Do we have things we don't need? [00:16:19] If we measure ourselves in our service to God, particularly in our service in the gospel, to you sisters, is cleaning your house, which is a very good thing and proper thing to do, but is cleaning your house more important than the eternal soul of your neighbor? Can you drop the cleaning and share with a neighbor if the opportunity comes? [00:16:55] Can you even leave your house dirty for a week if it means ministering to someone else? The glorious treasures of the grace of God. I hope we can. And I think that is a part of what was built in here. There was more there. The Jewish thing as it bears on the nation of Israel and the particular ministry to the Jew first and all of those ramifications of Scripture and the fact that they should take care [00:17:28] and they had been taught to take care of those who minister to them and all those things are here. But I believe the central focus is the need to focus on the ministry and not on what traders full of stuff we have to take along in order to do ministry because to do ministry doesn't require a lot of things. It requires the sacrifice of self and surrender to the Lord. Diversity, that is in terms of living and all of the things involved in living, [00:18:06] that type of diversity is somewhat the enemy. of focus on people, on needs, on the truth, on reaching out to people in every circumstance, in every organization, and every place in ministry. We all have that responsibility, not just the ministers. So how much time is spent in living? [00:18:37] and could you shave it down so that you could spend more time in ministry? Could you minimize it? The American dream would not allow you to minimize it. The American dream calls you to maximize the stuff so that you can enjoy yourself. But isn't it a deeper and more thorough enjoyment to know that you can hear from the King of kings and Lord of lords, [00:19:11] well done, thou good and faithful servant. Isn't that the height of enjoyment? The stuff of America only brings a passing, a passing fancy. It's only a passing happiness. So let's concentrate on focusing on the gospel and ministry to others. [00:19:45] That does not mean, and I know we haven't covered all of those statements that the Lord makes there, But that does not mean that the world, that your neighbors, that your friends will receive the ministry in the same way you, by God's grace, give it. If that were true, then Paul would have become a colleague of Caesar, rather than being put to death by Caesar. [00:20:23] He would have always had the best hotels instead of spending the night in the Philippian dungeon. No, the reception is not going to be all that we might wish. But we serve the Lord, not men. We serve the Lord and His will. and that is a part of what is being said here. [00:20:55] You don't go in luxury. You go lean as the business people say, lean and mean. You focus on the work of God, the ministry of God. Now the reception was mixed. Some were curious, as personified by Herod in verses 7 to 9, he was curious. [00:21:32] In fact, he was a bit shook up, because he knew he'd beheaded John, and some people were saying, this is John come back from the dead, and he wasn't too sure, apparently, about whether Elijah would come back from the dead. or from heaven, whatever, how much ever he knew about that, he was confused, he was shook up because he heard about the miracles and he heard about this work that was going on and he heard about the fact that the disciples of Jesus were doing these great things and he wanted to know what was going on. [00:22:20] something very interesting. In response to the disciples' ministry and the extension of the ministry of Jesus Christ through them, old Herod wanted to see Jesus. You notice it? And he desired to see Him. So, what did all this accomplish as far as Herod was concerned? It accomplished the desire to meet with Jesus. [00:22:57] Good result, eh? And so as we think about extending the ministry of Jesus through ourselves, One of the goals would be to create a curiosity, a desire to meet Jesus. Taking the opportunity to introduce people to Jesus. [00:23:35] The disciples were obedient, it says in verse 6. Preaching the gospel, healing everywhere, going through the towns as they were commanded to do. The response apparently wasn't all bad. We're not told about all of the results here. But it is important to note that when the gospel goes forth, there will be those who reject it. [00:24:07] The Bible promises that. There will be those who receive it. The Bible promises that. And there will be those who are curious and want to hear more. And Herod personifies that. So the work of God, the ministry of God, never is unfruitful. Always is fruitful in some way. Those who reject the ministry, as Paul said to the Ephesians, are not rejecting you, they are rejecting God. [00:24:54] So what God asks from us is what he asks of the disciples, and that is faithfulness. in living out and proclaiming the gospel and in ministering to the needs of others. That's what he asks every single child of God here to do. That doesn't mean that everyone has to preach. It doesn't mean everyone has to teach Sunday school. It doesn't mean everyone has to go out and hold an open air meeting. [00:25:26] But there are likely those among us who will do those things if they are obedient to the Lord. And some may set a table and invite the lost in so that they might show them the love of Jesus. And others will manifest the ministry of the gospel in other such ways. But everyone is responsible to follow the commission of our Savior in one way or another. [00:26:05] And then everyone is accountable to the Lord. If you will notice the passage again in verse 10. And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And we are responsible to the Lord to report. Now, I'm not saying that he doesn't already know how he did. He does. I think he did here. [00:26:40] For he was the God-man. I would understand then that he knew what they had done. but they gave a report and I would suggest that after a day's ministry you give a report to the Lord you can say well he already knows well he already knows everything we're going to want to pray for but that doesn't mean we shouldn't pray and he has said that we are to seek and that we are to ask [00:27:12] and he does respond to prayer. So the fact that he knows has little to do with our responsibility to come to him and give a report. It also does something for us. If we give a report at the end of the day of what we've done for the Lord, the conviction of the Holy Spirit may rest upon us while we're giving the report because it may not be a very good report. We may not have been very faithful. So it gives the opportunity for accountability on our part as well. [00:27:48] And then it is also good and biblical to report to the church or that part of the body, a small group or whatever, What we have been doing and how the Lord has been working or how the Lord hasn't yet been working and asked for prayer that He will. The disciples gave a report to the Lord and so should we. [00:28:22] Now the rest of verse 10 we'll get to next time, Lord willing. And we'd like to enlarge on that to the parallel passages. about the command to come apart and rest a while. And as it has often been said by others, if you don't come apart and rest a while, you will come apart. But that's our study for next time. [00:28:55] May I call us all, May I call us all to ministry. To ministry in obedience to the command and commission of the Lord Jesus Christ. To a focused ministry. To attempt by the grace of God and in reliance upon God's leading to focus and to trim down the fat of our lives [00:29:25] so that we don't spend quite as large a percentage of the time just living but making more and more room in our lives to reach beyond ourselves to a lost and dying world that needs to hear and see the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word. We thank you for your goodness to us [00:29:57] and permitting us to gather here and read the scriptures together. Now we pray that your Holy Spirit will work in our hearts on the basis of what we have read. Guide us in seeing our responsibilities clearly and give us wisdom not to overreact but to properly respond. to the call of the Lord Jesus Christ to go and to share without the worldly frills and embellishments. [00:30:34] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.