Sent and Supplied

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0:00And on the fifth Sunday of the month, whenever we have one of those, all the seekers and explorers stay in for the sermon. So welcome, seekers and explorers. I see your little faces out there. I'm glad that you're here. I want to start by just talking to you guys for a second. Now, August is almost here. Two more days until August. Raise your hand, seekers and explorers, raise your hand if you've already bought some school supplies. That's all right.

0:35All right, if you're not seekers or explorers, even if you're an adult, raise your hand if you've bought some school supplies already. Yeah? Okay. That's all right. There's still a few more weeks.

0:49Okay, so seekers and explorers, here's another question. Even if you're not excited about school starting, who kind of likes to get some new school supplies? Raise your hand. Yeah? It's kind of fun to get new school supplies. It's great. You like getting the stuff, even if you don't like using it, right? New packs of pencils, fresh markers with the tips that haven't been bent, you know? Perfect little tips. You almost don't want to use them because they're just, they look great. A new lunchbox, maybe a new backpack to stuff it all in. You're marching into school and you're excited. Even if you're excited about nothing else, you'll see some friends and you've got your new stuff. Now, let me ask you this, kids. Why do you need to go off to school with school supplies? What happens if you walk into school without supplies? I'm going to just shout out an answer. You're not ready. Yeah, you're not ready. Kids, who buys those school supplies for you? A parent does. You mean you don't buy your own school supplies? Adam's looking at me like I have two heads.

1:58Yes, of course not. Parents buy them. That's what they're there for, right? Or one of the things that they're there for. You need the school supplies, but you need someone to give them to you. You can't, you don't have the resources by yourself to go out and buy all the school supplies. It's too long a list. Your allowance is not great enough, right? You need parents to give you what you need so you can walk into school prepared. Today, we're going to talk about Jesus sending ordinary people like me and like you out to do great things. But just like you kids, when you're walking into school, you need to be supplied. You need to be geared up so that you can do the great things that you can do in school. But you don't have the resources by yourself. You need someone to give those things to you, to supply you with what you need. So today's sermon is all about school supplies, basically. Only it's God's mission that he's going to supply us for. He's going to take whatever we have and he's going to make it even greater. He's the provider. He supplies for us.

3:05Kids, if you haven't picked up a clipboard yet, if you want a clipboard with some activity sheets, raise your hand and Mr. Elder, Jackson wants one, Mr. Elder is going to pass those out. Thank you so much, Craig, for doing that. So turn with me in your bulletin or look up on the screen. Luke chapter 9.

3:30Kids and adults, this is God's word for us today. We can trust it. We can listen carefully. We can believe it. We can build our life on it because God's trustworthy all the time. And he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money. And do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the Tetrarch heard about all that was happening and he was perplexed because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen.

4:45Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this about whom I hear such things? And he sought to see him. On their return, the apostles told him all that they had done. And he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. And the crowds learned that they followed him and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing. Now the day began to wear away and the 12 came and said to him, send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and the countryside to find lodging and get provisions for we are here in a desolate place. But he said to them, you give them something to eat. They said, we have no more than five loaves and two fish unless we are to go and buy food for all these people. For there were about 5,000 men. And he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. And they did so and have them all sit down.

5:51And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing over them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up 12 baskets of broken pieces. Pray with me. Jesus, we're grateful that you supply everything that we need. Everything. So Lord, I pray that you would do that right now. Even now, Lord, work among ordinary people like me.

6:33Do extraordinary supernatural work by your spirit. Help us to understand this passage, not just in our heads, but in our hearts. Help us see you for who you are clearly, to be compelled by your beauty, your majesty, your strength, so that we would live and follow you joyfully as your disciples. Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen. Sent and supplied is the title for today's passage, today's sermon. Jesus gives us good work to do and provides for us as we do it. That's what this passage talks about. We've just finished a little series about Jesus's miracles. He did great things. He conquered a storm. He conquered thousands of demons. He conquered sickness and death. It's going to transition now to focusing a little bit more on the disciples and their role in the kingdom of God. So let's talk about how the disciples are sent out by Jesus. So he did all these miracles, Jesus did, and now he called the 12 together. He had done great things and now it was their turn to do great things. But they can't just do them by just mimicking what Jesus did or repeating what he said, just copying him. They need something more than that if they're going to do what he did. And that's what he gives to them. He gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. The miracles that Jesus had done, they had shown Jesus he was the one had all power and all authority coming from the Father, right? All of these forces that assail us, Jesus conquered them all one by one. So it's remarkable to look at this passage and look at that

8:30he gives them power and authority. A measure of the same power and authority that he just showed that he had. It was his and it was his to give. And that power and that authority, it's not just for showing off, to make their name glorious. It's not for any of those things. Here's the purpose. He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. So we need to talk for a minute about who he's talking to and how that relates to us, okay? Because he's talking to the apostles. These 12 men that he's talking to right here, that he gave the power and authority, they were specially chosen by Jesus. They were apostles. The word apostle means sent one. These 12 apostles, their personal time with Jesus, their eyewitness testimony to his words, and their particular commissioning by Christ, it gives them a particular role in the history of redemption, an unrepeatable role, a unique role. Nobody else here can fill that role because we don't have what they have. It wasn't their talent. It wasn't that they were eloquent, that they were educated. It's just that they had been with Jesus. They were eyewitnesses to his works, and they were specially commissioned by him. If you ever meet someone who claims to be an apostle, you should run the other direction. That office is finished now. This assignment in Luke 9, it's a preview of what they're going to do after Jesus is gone. When Jesus died and was resurrected and he ascended and the gospel just explodes out from Jerusalem, it was them that carried that message

10:10forward. They carried it out. The role of the apostle was temporary, but it accomplished something that outlasted them, something that pertains to you and me. Look at this verse from Ephesians. Paul says this, you, if you trust in Christ, he's talking to you. You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. The household of God, it's the capital C church.

10:51I'll read it again. You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. The household of God is the capital C church, the universal church, the church across history and time and place. All those who have faith in Christ, that church, the household of God, it's built, Paul says, on the foundation of the apostles. Their teaching, their testimony, their ministry.

11:21That means the apostles' empowerment is the church's empowerment. The apostles' authority is the church's authority. The apostles' mission becomes the church's mission. When you read this passage and passages like it, the Great Commission, Matthew 28, you should understand that. He's talking to the apostles as the foundation of the church. The Great Commission is the church's mission. But since you are a member of the church, the household of God, then it's also your mission.

12:02The new Mission Impossible movie is out. I don't know if anyone has seen it, but I haven't seen it. One of my favorite parts of that whole franchise, to tell you the truth, I haven't seen any since the first one that came out in the 90s that was based on the TV show. My favorite part is when the agent gets the secret message from IMF headquarters. It was actually taken from the TV show. And it always says, your mission, should you choose to accept, is this, right? Well, I got news for you. If you have accepted Christ, then you have accepted his mission. You can't accept one and not the other. You can't accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and not accept the mission. You have accepted it.

12:50But here's the thing, if you're still tracking with me, it is not your mission to do all by yourselves. Remember, you're a member of the household of God. One part of the whole, it's the whole that's on that mission. Each part has its own role to play. Think of it this way. If I signed up for the Monument Avenue 10K, my entire body will run the race, right? Does my eye run the race? Yeah. Does my heart run the race? Yeah. Do my legs run the race? Do my lungs run the race? Of course, but none of those parts run it by themselves. My eye doesn't plop out of my head and scooch over to the starting line and then take off down the road. That would be creepy. But neither do my eyes plop out of my head and stay home on race day and say, good luck, body. Let us know how it goes. They're in the mix. My eyes, they serve a function on race day. They look at the road and they tell my legs which way to go, right? My legs propel me forward. My lungs get oxygen from the air, right? And send it to my heart, which then sends it to my muscles and allows me to keep going.

14:16You see what I'm getting at? That's how you should understand yourself in relation to this passage, Luke 9, okay? It is your mission, but it's not your mission to do by yourself. Don't think of it as just me all by myself doing this, but neither do you think of it as, oh, that's the church's job. It's just some institution somewhere. It's their job to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. It's your job because you are part of the church. You have to understand those things. Resist the two impulses to say it's somebody else's job or it's my job to do all by myself. You're on this mission as part of the Capital C Church. Together, my friends, we are seeking to love our neighbors, to love our classmates, to love our friends, to love our enemies. We encourage one another as we serve one another. Together, we try to be Christ-like at work and at school, working with integrity, acting with humility. Together, we teach one another. We teach the younger generation and one another about Jesus and the Bible and how to live as his disciples. It's a together activity. Together, we participate in the church, stirring up each other to love and to good works, using our gifts and our time and our energy to nurture one another in the faith.

15:52We tell people about the gospel together, how this good news has changed our lives, are changing each other's lives, and we invite them into a community where new life is happening. It's a together thing. Yes, you have individual activities in there, but see it as part of a whole. Now, that's a little sidebar because otherwise you might read this text and be like, ah, Jesus was talking to the apostles. I'm not an apostle. Pastor Joel told me that, so it doesn't pertain to me. Yes, it does pertain to you because you are part of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles. Now, getting back to the text here, verse 3, Jesus gives guidelines for this mission. Let's look at them briefly. He says in verse 3, we take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, and do not have two tunics. Jesus's point is this. If you want to write something down, you can write this down.

16:58Don't depend on your own resources. He wants the apostles to depend on him, not their stuff. He knows that we all tend to look in our backpacks at what we have with us, the things that we can offer. He, so he sends them out with a distinct lack of material things. He tells them to leave stuff at home because he wants them to depend on him. Here's the second thing, verse 4, whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. Here's what he's saying, be patient when God opens the door. Be patient. The mission of the kingdom is urgent, but it's not frantic. It's not impatient. When God puts you in a relationship or puts you in a context for ministry, for mission, for good work, be consistent and persist faithfully in that. Stay there. That's the equivalent of him saying to the apostles, stay in that house. Be persistent. Finally, in verse 5, wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. Now, this one has the most applicability to the apostles, quite frankly, because they're the ones actually going from town to town. The church now is stationary, largely. It's not a bad thing, not a bad thing to have a presence in a community. Here's how this does relate to us now. Remember who you're representing. You're an ambassador. You're a diplomat from a foreign country. When we come as ambassadors of Christ, we are going to encounter resistance.

18:54Some people, sometimes even whole communities, will reject the gospel. As long as we've done our best to live at peace with all people, like Paul says, we should remember that it's not ultimately us that they are rejecting. They're rejecting Jesus. We can simply move on without retaliating, without speaking ill, and just leave it to God. That's what Jesus is saying to them about shaking off the dust on your feet. Just move on. Leave it to me. So the apostles go out on their mission. We don't know what they did.

19:35Aren't you curious about what happened when they were gone? I bet they had some stories to tell. But we do know this. It gets the attention of Herod. So much is happening around that Herod, the ruler of the Judean region of Rome, he starts paying attention. The mission of God through his church, it disrupts the status quo, and it raises attention, sometimes negative attention. John, I beheaded, Herod said. I took care of this. Why is this happening again?

20:05Okay, so part two. They're sent by Jesus, but they're supplied by Jesus. The disciples return, and they're full of stories. They're eager to tell Jesus about it. He knows that they've experienced a lot, and so he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida. Wouldn't it be great to be a fly on the wall when they're talking to Jesus about this, when they're telling story after story about what they did? They're saying things like, Jesus, this man came up, and I didn't know what to do at first. I was pretty nervous, but then I thought back to what you had done, and I reached out, and I touched him, and he was healed. Can you believe it? Another one says, the Pharisees were following me all around Jesus. Everywhere I went, the Pharisees were right on top of me, criticizing me, challenging me, and then I remembered what you said, and I just went on proclaiming the work and proclaiming the kingdom. You should have seen their faces, Jesus, when I just kept on going, and maybe all of them were saying, I never imagined that I could be used by God like this. They probably wished their time with Jesus would never end, but the thing about Jesus is that he's just magnetic. People want to see him, so sure enough, a crowd starts forming again. I don't know how this long, how long this little break lasted, but it probably wasn't long, because when the crowds learned it, they flocked to Jesus. They found him.

21:46They came to him. As the numbers increase and the daylight fades, the disciples say this. They get antsy, and they say, send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging, and get provisions, and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place. Isn't it funny how forgetful people are? Does anyone ever feel forgetful? They just got back from this Christ-empowered assignment. They had just been telling Jesus about what happened, a mission where they had little.

22:28They were sent out with little, but they did much. Now they look at this crowd, and they look at how little they have, and they're hitting the panic button. Jesus, get them to go away. They're overwhelmed. Anybody here feel overwhelmed in the last month? You're in good company. Sometimes all you can see is this daunting situation, and your meager resources. That's all you can see. Like we often do, they could have asked Jesus to help them, but instead they just asked him to make the problem go away.

23:16You see the difference? He doesn't give them an easy out. He loves them too much to give them an easy out. He says, you give them something to eat. I imagine that this just frustrated them. Because all they do is just point at how little they have, and they're like, Jesus, we told you this is all we have. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they're looking at Jesus like, yes, two heads. Jesus, look at this. This is all we have. You want us to go into town and buy food? So he takes what they bring him. He blesses it. He starts to divide it, and that's when the miracle starts to happen.

24:01The food multiplies. Hungry people in a desolate place are now eating. We read this earlier. Turn back in your bulletins to the scripture reading. Skip down about halfway through, and you'll read this. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine. I want you to look at that, and I want you to see that that's Jesus that Isaiah is talking about. When Jesus is making the food multiply, with his very hands, with his very touch, he's declaring, I'm the one. I'm the one who's going to make this feast happen for you.

24:46I'm going to provide for you a feast of great food and well-aged wine on that mountain. Come to me. You're hungry people. Come to me, and I will meet your need. But did you notice how the people got the food? Jesus does not tell the apostles, you know what? You of little faith, step aside and let me handle this. You've forgotten again. You stand over there. You watch me do it, and then I'll ask you later what you learned.

25:25He doesn't do that, right? He says, first of all, go and get them prepared. You go prepare them. It probably took a lot of time for them to go out, have people sit down in fifties, and they come back. It's the disciples who give out the food. He gives them, he gives the food to them. They go out and give it. The miracle comes from his hands. It comes to the people through their hands. Here's the point I'm making. Jesus supplies more than just nourishment for you.

25:53He supplies for the mission itself. He supplies everything that the church needs for the mission of God to continue, to flourish. He's reminding the apostles, this is why I sent you out with nothing, because I'm going to provide for you. Friends, listen, when all we offer people is our own wisdom, our own love, our own strength, it runs out very quickly.

26:26It's just five loaves and two fish. We just don't have very much in us. But Christ has a never-ending supply. He can multiply the impact of what you have to bring, but you have to bring it to him first. He's got to touch it. He will multiply it, but you have to bring it to him. This is often as easy as just asking this. Before you try to help someone with whatever you want to do, to help them, to serve them, to offer them some wisdom, some service, some love, whatever you have to offer, just ask yourself, have I asked God to work through my efforts?

27:11Sometimes it's just as simple as that. Jesus, before I go into this conversation, before I pick up the phone, before I empty the dishwasher, would you please multiply my efforts? Make this impactful. That's taking your five loaves and your two fish to Jesus and saying, will you please touch this? Make the impact more than just what I have to give. And that is exactly what he does. When we're engaged together in the life and the mission of the church, whether it's interior, internal work, where we're mutually encouraging one another, teaching one another, loving one another, serving one another, or we're going outside the church, whichever direction it is, let's make sure that what we offer people comes from Jesus and not from us.

28:06Take the little bit you have and take it to Jesus. Ask him to bless it and to multiply it. And when we do that, you might not have much. You might say to yourself, you know, all I have is five minutes between this and that, but I'm going to call someone because I think that they need encouragement right now. I've just got five minutes. You might think, well, what's five minutes? I can tell you, there have been five minute phone calls that have deeply encouraged me.

28:39You might not have very much to give, but if you take it to Jesus first, he will multiply it. That's where the power comes from. It's not waiting until you have an hour to call someone. It's answering the prompting of the Spirit to call someone right then. In just a minute, checking in with them, praying for them, telling someone that you're thinking about them. Even just five minutes. It's amazing what God can do with so little. Isn't being a part of a church plant just evidence of that week after week?

29:18It's amazing what God can do with so little. He exalts himself. Yes, the needs around us are huge. Yes, the land is desolate. Yes, our resources are few, but Jesus is with us. He will make the mission fruitful. He will bear new life and make it happen in us and through us.

29:46I'm going to close with this. Imagine yourself in the crowd that day, but imagine yourself way back. There were 5,000 men, the text says, accounting for all families, women and children. It's probably 8,000 to 10,000 people. Imagine yourself way back. Jesus is just a little dot. You can barely hear what he's saying. You've been there all day. You're getting so hungry, but you don't want to leave. Jesus is here. I'm not going anywhere. You see the food is getting passed out way up front.

30:22You can see something happening. It looks like they're passing out food. Are they passing out food? But then your hopes fade because you're like, you look around and you're like, I'm all the way in the back. It's never going to get to me. But then the food keeps coming and it keeps coming and it keeps coming. Next thing you know, you're holding food in your hand and you're eating and the food keeps coming. And next thing you know, you've had all you want to eat.

30:59You're satisfied. They all ate and were satisfied. I must confess, I've been known to invite people over without having food for them. Inviting them over for a meal, I mean. And it's Nikki that's like, you better go to the store, she says to me. If you want to feed them, no such worry with Jesus. He has a supply that is so abundant, there's 12 basketfuls left over. All the time. This is not a snack that he gives them. It's not hors d'oeuvres. He doesn't just give them a protein bar and say, you know what, that'll tide you over.

31:50Hurry and get to a grocery store. Everyone got a meal with leftovers to spare. Jesus is the bread of life, my friends. For hungry people like us, when we trust him, when we come to him in repentance and faith, hungry people like us are satisfied and we are provided for because his death reconciles us to the Father. And his resurrection gives us life now and a hope for the future. Our call is to depend on Jesus for our nourishment as we follow him.

32:34When he returns, we're going to be fully satisfied. You can count on that. Jesus gives us good work to do and he provides for us now and always as we do it. Let's pray.

32:57Lord, we have so little. Sometimes we wish we had more, God, and that's what we pray for sometimes. I know that I do. Just give me more, God, and then I'll have enough to do this and that.

33:14Lord, I'm praying for me and for everyone here that we begin to learn a new pattern of prayer, which is to come to you and say, Lord, it's true, we have so little, but would you multiply it?

33:28Because we know that you want to do great things through us and in us. And in fact, it's the multiplication that begins to show us again how great a Savior we have. Lord, will you help us to rest on you, to rely on you, and to look to you alone for our provision and for our satisfaction. Jesus, we love you and we pray this in your name.