“The Mission”

Scripture: Matthew 10:5-15

During the past few weeks, I’ve been preparing for my last seminary course – “Mission”. The reading has been especially interesting, even though one of the books was pretty heavy and needed a lot of focus and attention. But all in all, I think that this will be one of the more interesting and relevant classes that I’ve taken. It has also challenged me to share much of what I have been learning with all of you, and just to give you an inkling of what that may entail, here is a passage that has come to mind, and one that I will be basing one of my papers on – John 20:21 – “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Jesus had to leave his home in glory to reach out to us, and in like manner, we must leave our comfort zones if we are to reach out to this lost and hurting world that is all around us.

Mission, as I have mentioned a few times before, is the effort that extends us beyond the 4 walls of the church in order to carry out the call that Jesus places on our lives. Perhaps “outreach” is a more familiar term, but they both mean the same thing. They represent and define the true task of the church, as evidenced in the life and mission of Jesus Christ. Mission includes all of those things that the Lord has told his Church to be about, and not only occurs in faraway places, but just as importantly, in our neighborhoods and community, and even in our families.

Our series on healing has been a part of that mission, but we are never to keep it to ourselves – we are to carry that sense of healing out to the lives of others. But in truth, there is so much more than just this.

Read Matthew 10:5-8

Jesus’ first call to mission isn’t to some other place – it is to the disciples’ home towns, to their own nation, to their own people. That’s where we all start. And notice that he doesn’t send them to the faithful of Israel – it’s to the “lost” of Israel, the same people who Jesus reached out to. The 12 are to do the same things that Jesus did for them, and without actually saying it, to experience the same rejection and persecution that he did. Be careful, though, that you don’t think that Christ’s followers are never to go to these other people – it’s just that to begin with, they are to go to familiar places and familiar faces.

Jesus even gives them the core message that they are to preach – that “The kingdom of heaven is near.” Did the 12 understand what Jesus was saying to them? Do we understand what this message is all about? Was his reference to “near” about time, or proximity? Was it his nearness that they are to preach, or the fact that little time was left to prepare for eternity? And what is the implication that “the kingdom of heaven is near”? The possibilities are endless, and sometime in the days to come, we just may delve into a discussion of these, but for now, we’ll simply recognize that Jesus is giving his followers direction and guidance and training for the next phase of their lives in him.
He even gives them assignments to carry out when they do reach out in his name. And it’s quite a list, isn’t it? Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse them of leprosy, and drive out demons. Preach, heal, give life, free them from evil – in essence, do all the things that they had seen Jesus do!
The Lord doesn’t expect, or even want, us to make up things to do on our own. He wants to guide us, to shape us, to prepare us for each step we take in faith, and if we branch out on our own, that’s when we get in trouble. We need to either stay or go just as the Lord tells us – no closer, no further, no sooner, no later.
And what are we to gain from all that we do? “Freely you have received, so freely give.” What have the gifts of God cost us? Absolutely nothing, so that is exactly what we must expect from others when we carry the message and gifts of Jesus to the world. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there is no reward at all for service in the name of Jesus – it’s just that any meaningful reward will also come from God. Our God is Jehovah Jireh – which means “God provides”. And he does!

Read Matthew 10:9-13

But there are things that we need in life – food, clothing, shelter, warmth – shouldn’t we make provision for these things? Apparently not! The Lord’s people, at his direction, will care for these things, too. This is the concept that missionaries and mission-minded people have labored under for 2,000 years – that their contribution to the ministry and mission of Christ will be supported by others who work in partnership with them. Even Israel, during their time of wilderness, had to solely depend on God to provide them with the necessities of life. In 40 + years of wandering, their clothing and footwear never wore out; drinking water came out of solid rock; food was provided every morning and every evening (except on Sabbath. Every day fresh blessings would come to the people, and so it will for all who step out in the name of Jesus.

Jesus tells his disciples that when they enter a town, they are to look for a person who is worthy of their presence. He doesn’t say “who is willing” to help you – it is those who are worthy of them. This tends to put servants of the Lord in a very special class of people – at least in the eyes of the Lord! And how do we know if a person is worthy of helping us? We offer a “greeting” – a blessing, if you will - upon the town, the home, and those who live there, and if we receive a sense of peace from it, we stay. If not, we move on.

Read Matthew 10:14-15

And if a person, a home, a community is not welcoming of you and the message of hope that you carry, move on. “Shake the dust from your feet”. In other words, take nothing of this place or people with you – not even the dust from their road. They aren’t worthy of you, and nothing about them is of any worth to you. This may seem a bit drastic – after all, isn’t all of God’s creation worthy? Yes, of course, but humanity has one gift that the rest of the earth does not – we can choose to live in that worthiness, or to reject it. And when the people of God are rejected, that’s the same as denying the Lord. Shake their dust off and leave it behind. Don’t waste your time on them - just move on to the next opportunity. You may, one day, be called back to them, but for now, no.

This is what mission is, basically, all about. There is much more, of course, as evidenced in Matthew 25:35-36, and in Matthew 28:18-20, but it all comes down to the basic lesson before us in today’s text – go and do exactly what the Lord says, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and do no more, and no less, than that. Nothing more is necessary, nothing more is asked of us, nothing more is expected.

And today, he asks us if we are weary, or burdened, or struggling, or suffering – if so, he wants to bring rest and renewal and freshness into our lives. And when you come forward to seek his blessing, remember the lessons that we learned from the woman who was bleeding, and the paralytic and his friends, and the 10th Leper, and Bartimaeus. Come in their example; come in faith.

At this point in our services, a healing service was held.