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Luke 10:1-11: A pattern for evangelism.

Here are some principles of mission that will always be relevant:

a.) The priority of prayer (2): first they prayed, and then they went. But the ones who prayed were also the ones who were sent forth. Praying about evangelism is likely to get you fired up and give you even more of a heart for it. How seriously do you take the command of Jesus to pray for ‘labourers’ for the ‘plentiful’ harvest field? Prayer is indispensable for a powerful ministry. If we are going to ‘do the stuff’ as John Wimber put it (9); if we’re going to perform the miraculous works as well as speak the merciful words, then we must recognise the paramount importance of prayer, and this belief must not remain on the theoretical shelf, with all the other concepts we admire, but do nothing about. Jesus gives the authority to do His miracles, so walk with Him day by day; keep in His glorious company.

b.) The importance of team work (1). We need each other ( Ecclesiastes 4:9-12; Matthew 18:19, 20);

c.) The danger of our work (3): We operate in a war zone and cannot expect an easy life. The sergeant on  the 80’s television series ‘Hill Street Blues’, at the end of each morning’s briefing, used to say to his police squad about to go out onto the mean streets, ‘Hey, let’s be careful out there.’ As long as we live in this fallen, demon-infested world we will need both courage and wisdom in our kit bags;

d.) The Lord will provide (4): it remains the case that ‘God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply’;

e.) Mixed responses (5-12): Not everyone will respond positively, but know this – you can establish a base of operations with those who are responsive. Also it is a very serious matter for people to reject the gospel of Christ. This has never changed.

Prayer: ‘I am thine O Lord, I have heard thy voice, and it told thy love for me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee.’

Luke 9:57-62: ‘First’.(please click here for todays passage)

The first voice in this short section expresses a superficial, perhaps careless,                        ill-considered promise to follow Jesus. Do they really understand what they are getting into? It’s not been thought through.

In listening to the second and third voices we are brought face to face with the matter of priorities: Who or what comes first? Jesus does not encourage ‘easy-believism’; a shallow approach to follower-ship. We preachers should not do so either. Let would be disciples count the cost ( see 14:25-33). I am reminded that someone said, ‘Entrance to the Kingdom of God is free, but the annual subscription is all that you’ve got.’

Compare these words with the wonderful story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:8-16). Note especially Elijah’s words: ‘But first…’ (13), and see how God blessed her when her priorities were aligned with God’s (Matthew 6:33).

Prayer: Help me Lord to always put you first.

Luke 9:51-56: The ministry of tears.(please click here for todays passage)

I heard a leader ask, ‘Does good leadership walk away from a problem or towards it?’ I instinctively knew the answer, but was also aware in that moment of how much I feel the temptation to walk away from some things.

When you know that a difficult experience lies ahead, but you recognise that it must be part of God’s will for you, it is good to be resolute in determining to go through it, with His help. Set your face to ‘go to Jerusalem.’ Embrace the way of the cross. There is an unavoidable cost in Christian discipleship. Some things just have to be faced bravely; they cannot be avoided. You can’t fly over them; you have to go through them.

‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.’ Isaiah 43:2

And here’s another thing. Some Christians seem to be gung-ho about preaching hell and judgment. They seem to relish it. You can almost sense they are rubbing their hands together at the prospect.Theycan hardly wait to see people getting zapped; to watch fire falling on contemporary Samaritan villages. But one preacher said we should never speak about Hell except with tears in our eyes, and I rather find that I am drawn to his sentiments.

Prayer: ‘Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.’ C.T. Studd.

Luke 9:49,50: Be wary of criticism.(please click here for todays passage)

There are people doing good work for Jesus who do not belong to our particular sector of the church. Fancy that!

When the young, teenage, Spurgeon wrote home to tell his parents that he was going to be baptised by full immersion, his mother wrote him back to the effect that whereas she had prayed for his conversion she had not prayed that he would become a Baptist! (They were Congregational by affiliation). With his characteristic humour evident even then, Charles replied to the effect, ‘Ah mother, the Lord in His bounty has done far more than you could ask or think!!’

Writing in 1991 Dallas Willard said, ‘In previous times, to be a Protestant and to be a member of a particular Protestant denomination was a very serious matter. On occasion it had been, as history shows, a literal matter of life and death. People were persecuted and even killed over differences of denomination, and those of one denomination rarely held out much hope either for the moral decency or the eternal prospects of those from others. As late as the forties and fifties of this century, intermarriage was strongly discouraged and deep friendships rarely found across denominational lines’

Thankfully, he could go on to add, ‘In the sixties and seventies, by contrast, such attitudes effectively disappeared from the American scene…it is a fact that during the last two decades we experienced the complete trivialisation of sectarian dogmatism along denominational lines.’ (‘The spirit of the disciplines’, p21.)

The same thing can also be said of the UK. We recognise across the Bible-believing churches that we have much more in common than things that cause us to differ, and the differences tend to be about secondary matters.

Eugene Peterson writes about how for many years, in his town in Maryland, he was part of what he calls ‘the company of pastors’. They met in his study at 12 noon every Tuesday and came together to help and encourage each other in the pastoral task. Most of them were following the same lectionary, so they would talk together about the text for the following Sunday, and try to give help with exegesis and illustrations. They would discuss how to apply this Scripture passage to every aspect of their week.Not every minister in the town joined them, but many did. I understand that today, probably more than 40 years after its inception ( and long after Peterson moved on) the ‘company’ is still going. It sounds marvellous and something I would love to be part of. We have so much to learn from other believers of different stripes.

It remains the case of course that we have a duty to guard the gospel, and not compromise by our associations. But let’s be wary of judging others, and keep clear of dismissing people whose methods and views may differ from ours in some ways. God has the right to use people I don’t like; those I might disagree with. There are many doing good work for Jesus who don’t belong to my ‘church’. God bless them I say!

Remember this dictum: ‘In essentials – unity; in non- essentials – liberty; and in all things – charity.’

Prayer: Lord give me a big heart towards all who own you as Saviour and Lord, and a willingness to learn from all my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Luke 9:46-48: ‘The relentless smell of the self.'(please click for todays passage)

Yet again we see an expression of ‘the upside down kingdom’.

We can’t hide from Jesus; He sees and hears us.

People who follow Christ are called to be humble. ‘For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment…’ (Romans 12:3). ‘Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.’ (Philippians 2:2).

Here are three challenges from this short reading:

1. What is my attitude to status (48b)? Am I willing to take the lowest seat? (14:7-11). We have the example of Jesus ever before us (Philippians 2:1-11), and it teaches and rebukes and corrects us.

2. What is my attitude to children? Do I see their worth and value? Do I care for them, and listen to them and treat them with dignity? Do I welcome them and see Christ in them? (18:15-17). Do I regard the Sunday School as of less importance than the ‘main church service’?

3. What is my attitude toward others? (46). Is it one of unfavourable comparison; of competition? Do I feel myself to be in some way superior and want to be thought of in that way? What happened to the idea of all being on level ground before the cross? The irony is that the One who truly was ‘the greatest’ in that group made Himself least among them. But Jesus exemplifies God’s law of gravity, that ‘what goes down must come up’ ( see 1 Peter 5:5,6).

In his autobiography, ‘The Pastor’, Eugene Peterson describes how, at one time, two young people, ‘Sarah and Steve’, came to see him regularly to talk about what is involved in being a pastor. In one conversation he said this to them, ”You are at your pastoral best when you are not noticed. To keep this vocation healthy requires constant self-negation, getting out of the way. A certain blessed anonymity is inherent in pastoral work. For pastors, being noticed easily develops into wanting to be noticed. Many years earlier a pastoral friend told me that the pastoral ego ‘has the reek of disease about it, the relentless smell of the self.’ I’ve never forgotten that.”

Prayer: Lord I see that every Christian grace grows in the soil of humility. I hate my prideful egoism. Help me to humble myself under your mighty Hand.

Luke 9:43b-45: The centrality of the cross(please click here for todays passage)

In the previous section, a desperate man pleaded with Jesus for help for His son, calling the Lord, ‘Teacher’ (38). But the section ends with the words: ‘And all were astonished at the majesty of God.’ The Divinity of Jesus was revealed in His mighty works, and the next paragraph opens with, ‘But while they were all marvelling at everything he was doing…’ (43b). However, things took an unexpected turn, in spite of what Jesus had said earlier (21,22). The more they saw of Jesus’ miracles, possibly the more they thought of Him as the conquering Messiah who would evict the Romans once and for all, and bring in the final expression of God’s Kingdom there and then. But the fact was that Jesus was going to die in the next scene of the drama (44). The cross is central to Christianity and we should let the Bible’s words about it ‘sink into’ our ears (44).

There is a mystery to the workings of God in this world as He reveals His truth to people (45). But I am so glad to be able to say that although once I was blind, I now can see.

Prayer: Jesus keep me near the cross.