Sent out with God
Link: https://youtu.be/oPdoxG63R5c
Readings: Luke 8:1-3, Luke 10:1-24, and Psalm 37:1-11
I remember when I was a kid hearing someone say evangelism is the scariest word for them. I’ve heard others say that it is a bad word. I don’t think this is an uncommon sentiment. This has resulted in many people keeping their faith internal, not sharing it with their kids, grandkids, friends, or strangers. Someone told me they wanted their kids to decide on their own so they never brought them to church, this resulted in their kids rarely hearing the gospel if at all. Paul reminds us “how do we expect anyone to hear unless someone tells them? How can anyone follow unless someone leads them?” So, if we truly believe that Jesus has saved us and is redeeming this world. If we believe that He is the way, the truth, and the life, then we cannot let fear hold us back, if we are like those two women from last week that find true life in Christ, we cannot let evangelism become a bad word.
The first difficulty with evangelism is that we often think it needs to be something that it doesn’t. You don’t need to have all the answers, you don’t need to have the strongest faith, you don’t need to be forceful or talk about faith all the time. Evangelism is simply sharing God with others. So one of the simplest ways to do this is to invite them into your journey with God. This might be sharing stories, inviting them to events, or discussing with them questions, revelations, or passages you read. There are so many ways that our natural walk with God creates opportunities to invite others in. Then of course our lives are meant to show the change that we profess.
I have a friend who tells the story of his grandmother’s coming to faith. He had been telling her why he believed and why it was important as his faith was challenging him to change his life. Then one day she says to him, “If this God can get you to quit smoking, then it is a God I want to believe in”. He shared his faith and then she saw it.
Another hard part is that many of us don’t know where to turn for great examples of evangelism. Our first reading is about these twelve men and many women who followed Jesus and saw him sharing His faith. They had the best example. We might not like all the examples we see out there now though. The people that lead with guilt, or the people on street corners, or that knock on our doors. We don’t have to be this kind of evangelist, though we should acknowledge that much of what they do is important too. The people on street corners and knocking on doors meet people where they are, and when those people are searching for something, questioning, or scared those door knockers are there filling a gap. Yet, we have far better news, the true hope that can fill all of those gaps and offer more.
How was faith shared with you? Many of you may have grown up in the church, so you will recognize that worshipping and participating in the Christian community had a part in sharing faith with you, but it was more than that. Was there someone or numerous people in your life who told you faith stories, who looked at the bible with you, who accompanied you on this journey, who invited you in, and/or maybe it was even a book or two? These are all great guides for sharing faith and can teach us a lot.
On top of that, we do have Jesus’ example. You could say, yes, of course, we see Jesus in the bible, but we have also seen him in our lives too. By necessity, He has led you to this place in faith. He has shared with you, he has led you, he has accompanied you, he has helped through questions and struggles, he has given and served you and he keeps speaking to you the whole way through. It was not just the moment of your conversion, God has been evangelizing your life the whole way through. We can and should look back at all the ways that God has evangelized us because this will help us understand how we can do it too.
So let's look at this passage about Jesus sending out the 70. It starts out with us hearing that they are sent ahead of Jesus. This is actually really important because this faith doesn’t depend solely on us. Instead, we are called to prepare the way for Christ, to open hearts and minds, to open eyes so that they might see and understand Jesus. We prepare the way for Christ. This means that we have to trust that God will follow us, that he will show up in people’s lives as we share. Not everyone will be open to him, but if anyone welcomes us in his name that is a good sign that they will welcome him too.
Notice also that in its ideal evangelism is not a lone effort. Sometimes out of necessity I have shared faith privately, but this only goes part of the way and has often led people to think I am different from other Christians, or sometimes this has meant I get too caught up in a particular argument that loses track of the point of the good news and hope. We need each other in this work. So Bible studies or invitations to an event or introducing people to Christian friends, or group discussions have often been essential to me in this work of evangelism.
I have a lot to learn when it comes to evangelism, but one of the strangest unexpected things is how open friends were to these faith conversations. I have asked friends if they would be interested in doing a personal bible study, or if I could spend 30 minutes telling them my faith, or I have asked them their struggles, or I have shared with them my own and almost always it was welcomed. I might have felt a little bit of awkwardness, but honestly, that probably came from me more than from them. This speaks to me about what Jesus says next: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. I believe and have experienced that there are way more people out there that are open and willing than those that will respond with hostility, though those exist too; as Jesus reminds us there will be wolves. But we are also reminded by Jesus that some people are even longing for you to share your hope and faith. As Jesus prays later, we hear that the wise, learned, kings and prophets have longed to know the things that you know.
So realize, in your faith, you have a lot to offer that people need. The passage speaks of miracles and we can trust that God will show up miraculously, but that is something I am still just beginning to understand. The two other things we can offer from today's passage are peace and Jesus himself as King and Lord. Today, people need peace more than ever. God’s peace that settles us in the midst of everything else is a spectacular gift.
Another surprising thing in this passage is how Jesus sends them out. He sends them out telling them not to prepare or pack bags or money or to make arrangements as they go. And so, they went out weak and in need, depending on those they were serving and so through these acts they also stepped out trusting that God would provide. This stepping out in weakness and trust did numerous things. 1st it was the people the disciples were talking to who were comfortable and at home. Just like God comes to us where we are, the disciples went to these families where they were. 2nd it showed the worth of the good news. As the disciples would be housed and fed simply because they shared Christ. 3rd our weakness allows God’s strength to shine through. When we don’t have anything, but somehow there is more than enough, what can it be but God’s strength. 4th it actually pushed them to build relationships of mutual support with people that cared; this would become the bedrock for the Christian community. I am sure there is more reason, but this is all to say that our weakness in evangelism is often an instrument for God. When you feel incapable or that you don’t have enough, don’t let that stop you, but rather trust God and trust those you serve.
One of my first solo ministries was in Creston, BC. When I got there, I didn’t know anyone. The church was small and had very few connections. This forced me to depend on people and search for households of welcome and peace. I was very uncomfortable and lonely at first, but then I found them. I found people I got to share faith with and encourage. I was only there for 2 months, but it felt like a lot longer as the relationships that I saw formed for God were incredible. It wasn’t my own strength, in fact, it was my weakness and lack that made space. It was God’s strength.
There is a lot more in this passage, but I am going to stop there because I want you to remember the things we've looked at. 1st Evangelism doesn’t have to be scary or a bad word. It is meant to naturally flow out of our relationship with God as we invite others into it as well. 2nd We have plenty of examples from Jesus, the bible, and our own lives that we can learn from. 3rd Trust that God moves ahead of you to prepare the way, but that he also moves after you. He will come to meet people in your life and build a relationship with those you share him with. It is our job to make space and prepare others for that meeting. 4th Most people are open if not longing for someone to share truly good news with them and we have a lot to give in Christ. 5th Along with this, we should not do this work alone, we should invite others to share in it. And lastly 6th, our weakness is often the very place that makes space for God to work through us. So if we feel weak or incapable it is even more reason to step out in faith and trust. Remember what this faith has meant to you and so many others, share it from that reality and God will show up to fill the space we make for him. AMEN
Questions
Readings: Luke 8:1-3, Luke 10:1-24 and Psalm 37:1-11
Luke 8:1-3
What is important about this passage that Luke decided to include it?
Who is it that empowers Jesus’ ministry in this passage?
Luke 10:1-24
Vs. 1 How does Jesus appointing 70/72 to go out relate to Moses appointing 70 elders/judges to help him in the desert after the exodus from Egypt?
Why would he send them out in twos? Does this tell us anything about sharing our faith?
What were the disciples doing if Jesus was just going to go to these towns later? Why was this work important? What does this tell us about God’s call on us to share our faith?
Vs. 2 What does it mean that the harvest is plentiful? Could that also be true today?
Why do we need more labourers? Why should we pray for this?
Vs. 3 Why does Jesus compare us to lambs in this moment? Who are the wolves? How do these wolves relate to the plentiful harvest?
Vs. 4 Why would Jesus send them out with so little? How could this have helped their work?
Vs. 5 What would it mean to find houses or people of peace? Why is this important to our sharing faith?
Vs. 7 Why is it important that they stay in one place and not move around?
Vs. 5-9 What are the disciples bringing to people? What is the work they are doing? How can we do this?
Vs. 10-11 What would shaking the dust off their feet mean? How could this be a natural consequence to their not being welcomed? What is a natural response to our/Jesus’ not being welcomed in a town or home?
Vs. 12-16 Sodom was a city destroyed in Abraham’s day because they were committing violence/evil and finally because they sought to abuse God’s angels. Why would it be worse for these towns that do not welcome the disciples? Do you feel like this is just? Can you imagine why it is?
How are they rejecting God when they reject the disciples?
Vs. 17 What does it mean that something was done in someone's name? Jesus or others
What got the disciples so excited when they came back? Was there more than is obviously written here? Why was this such a joy?
Vs. 18 What does Jesus mean by this? Is he talking about the past, present, future or all? How does this happen?
Vs. 19 What is the power Jesus gives to his disciples? How does this compare to the curse/hope given to Eve/humanity at the fall? (Genesis 3) Does God give us this power?
We know from biblical texts and history that many of these very disciples were harmed. Jesus later even tells them this. Why does he say that they won't be harmed here? Hint: what is it that the disciples have power over and should be joyful over?
Vs. 20 What does Jesus tell them to be excited about? Why is this reframe important?
Vs. 21 Why is Jesus so joyous?
What does it mean to rejoice in the Spirit?
How does God conceal this from the wise? Why?
How are the disciples/we like children?
Vs 22 What does it mean that everything has been put in Jesus' power through the Father? How does this relate to Jesus giving us power?
How does Jesus' limiting choice to reveal himself relate to the disciples sharing him before he comes?
Vs 23 How are we blessed to see what the disciples see? How does this reinforce our desire to share it?
Vs. 24 Why and how have others longed for this? Why were they unable to see it? Why do many long for it now, but cannot see it?
Extra:
Psalm 37:1-11
Do you ever struggle seeing others succeed? If so how?
What does this psalm tell us about those situations?
How does this show God’s justice?
Vs. 4 If we delight in the Lord how is God better able to give us our desire? (Hint: Relate the word delight with desire.)
Vs. 5 What does it mean to commit your way to the Lord and trust in him? How does our action relate to his action?
Why is patience so important in practicing faith and in our lives with God?
How does fretting lead us to evil?
How can we control our fretting? (Hint: relate to previous verses)
How does this psalm show us that the meek will inherit the earth, even though that seems counter intuitive?
