1.    The mission is not our, but His

3Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.

It is our Lord Jesus who is sending us out into the fields, it is his mission to restore this world.

So often we forget this, we get so caught up in fear of what people might do to us, say of us, the fact that people might attack us personally, What will be of us, physical harm was also a thought.

But Jesus says to them “Go! I am sending you”

Jesus is aware what this mission is like, he is aware that it is dangerous after all “he is the lamb that was led to the slaughter” .

God will provide for His workers, he will take care of them. Jesus is telling his disciples to not be weighed down or slowed down by the concerns of having the right shoes, the right amount of money. God will provide for those he has called into the mission.

7 years ago when I started college I remember I had $4000 to my name, only just enough to pay for the first term of tuition and accommodation. It was amazing time after time how when I was about to run out of support, I would find a good paying job, during the holidays (such as driving Thomas the tank engine) which would give me just enough to pay the next term tuition, a trainer at the gym would get sick and I would take their clients for that week, one time I was really struggling to pay for registration on my car, i received an envelope in my mail box with a note "Kepp doing the work of God" it was just enough to pay the registration and a full tank of fuel.
When I finished college I didn’t have a cent to my name, but neither did I have any debts.

The other aspect which reminds us that it is God’s mission and not ours is the little statement “and do not greet anybody on the road” According to a canon of the Jews, a man who was about any sacred work was exempted from all civil obligations for the time; forasmuch as obedience to God was of infinitely greater consequence than the cultivation of private friendships, or the returning of civil compliments.

So they would have understood the significance of this statement, not only the urgency of their mission, but also the fact that it was a mission from God.

2.    We find how this mission is to be undertaken

5"When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

8"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ 10But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11′Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.‘

As disciples there is this sense o being peace makers, bringing peace upon people. After all that is what God is offering us.

Verses 5-7 are following local customs and teachings of the time.

“a proper guest acknowledges all, and says, ‘At what trouble my host has been, and all for my sake!” while an evil visitor remarks: ‘Bah! What trouble has he taken?’ (Jerusalem & Babylonian Talmud)

The disciples are to be agents of peace and respect.

We also need to remember that in the first century Israel was still under Roman rule, and peace was something that was not common as there were constant insurrections. As the disciples enter a town they are to be agents of peace. The depth of this statement is not to be lost.

Bringing peace is the first port of call that the disciple is required to do, and depending on the response to that peace there was one of 2 options.

If they are welcomed, they are to do one thing, and if they are not welcomed they are to do another.

Welcomed

And as they enter they are to verse
"When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. 9Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’

This is the ultimate example and summery of what our ministry as disciples is to be like, we are to heal the sick and tell them “the kingdom of God is near you”

There is so much in the one statement.
a.    The kingdom of God is near you, is  a message of hope for the people, they have been oppressed and persecuted by the Romans for so long, God is going to come and put an end to it.
b.    God has not left you, he is still operating in this world
c.    God loves you and He has a plan
d.    God is coming to establish his kingdom we should make sure we are being His people.

That is to be the process and content that we as disciples take to people.

Here we see the freedom of Christ in action and in word, it is something that needs to go hand in hand.

We cannot separate healing the sick and the great news of the gospel

Some Christians super spiritualise this passage and say “there is nothing more important than them hearing the Gospel” but that is a cop-out reading of this passage we are presented with the fact that healing the sick and the sharing of the kingdom go hand in hand.

Unfortunately many churches seem to go to extremes, some struggle with the whole idea of dealing with peoples sickness’ and just preach the Gospel at them, and others just go down the road of doing good and forget God’s word, while the others react in fear of liberalism and run to the opposite end on the spectrum.

John Stott has said that for a Christian, evangelism and social responsibility are like "two wings of a bird". That is, they must function together, in harmony and balance.

So where does that leave us? It raises a couple of questions for me as a pastor, How am I being Christ’s disciple, what are my concerns?
How am I fulfilling this command of healing the sick?
How am I sharing the fact that

God’s kingdom is near you?

As a community of faith how are we doing?

Over the past couple of weeks I have heard stories about people here from smas doing some truly disciple like things. One person was at a party with a lot of their non Christian mates who were drinking and trying various different drugs, and she stuck around and when her friends were passed out covered in vomit, she was the one who took them home, she was the one who cleaned them up put them to bed, and when she was asked why “she answered Jesus cleaned up all my mess, and he wants the same for you”

That in my opinion is an example of what it looks like to be a disciple healing the sick and telling them the kingdom of God is near. And I am so excited to see that in action. There is nothing more amazing than seeing the transforming power of God actioning in peoples lives.

Then we find what is suppose to happen when as disciples we are unwelcomed

Unwelcomed

10But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11′Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ 12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

The Jewish law regarded Israel as the “Holy Land” and there were 10 degrees of holiness from the boundaries of the nation to the temple which was the holiest place. The very dust of heathen countries was unclean and defiled by contact. If a spot of heathen dust had touched an offering it had to be burnt straight away. There were certain points where if Jews were travelling back into holy land, they were to shake off all the dust.

So when Jesus tell his disciples to shake off the dust and to tell them that the kingdom of God is near. It was highly offensive, as it was telling that town that they were not God’s people, and they were unholy.

The Kingdom of God is near.

Similar statement to before but totally different meaning.

The Jew understood that the kingdom of God was going to come back, but to tell someone that they were not holy and then tell them that the kingdom of God was near, was to remind them that when God comes he will take those who are his to himself, and those who are not his, who are not holy, there will be punishment.

12I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

13"Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.[b]

16"He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." 

Those who listen to the good news that we have to bring are listening to Jesus himself, but those who reject the good news, are rejecting God Himself.

That is the harsh reality of the Gospel, and in some sense it is what should drive us in mission, the urgency that the kingdom of God is near and some people aren’t part of it yet.

Do we see the urgency or are we just comfortably waiting around?

I find verses 10-12 really hard to digest, it seems to me that Jesus is saying that if people are not going to be prepared to listen to the Good News, that we should not spend any more time with them. I find that really hard because when I see someone rejecting this awesome news, I want to try and convince them to come back, to reconsider.

But at the same time it makes sense doesn’t it. By being prepared to move on if people are not prepared to listen is realising that it is not in and of our strength that we can bring people to Christ, but it is God’s mission, our role is to Go and bring the good news.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:6

6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

I am not saying we don’t spend time with people who are hard, or have fallen away, but don’t become all consumed with them that you are not sharing with people who are open a ready to listen.

I am thinking of one person in particular who I have met with countless times, helping them sort through issues, praying through stuff, reminding them of the way God has set out for them, yet still they reject it to the point where I have handed it back to God and moved on, I still keep in contact every 6 weeks or so.

The urgency of the mission is to big, we need to keep on moving, and when we are prepared to move on it reminds us that this mission is not our endeavour but it is God’s.

There are a couple of things that I have learnt from this passage
1.    The Kingdom of God is near, there is no time to waste
2.    rethink how I operate as a disciple, maybe I have been spending too much time focusing on telling people about the Kingdom of God and not living it out
3.    How do I use my time, who am I missioning to, are they ready to listen
4.    I need to take the hard line with some people who are not listening, and tell them the reality of their situation and what they are heading for, and dust off my shoes and move on.
5.    I need to hand back to God his mission, and be faithful in healing the sick and telling them the kingdom of God is near them. That is what we did last Monday as 43 of us gathered for prayer in the church. I firmly believe as we become more aware of the urgency of the mission, as we realise that it is God’s mission of restoration, as we live out what it means to be a disciple, we are going to see radical changes in this suburb and this valley.

The question for you as an individual is “ are you going to take part and be a disciple, and live and teach and follow the way a follower of Christ is suppose to, or are you going to stick with the religion of Christianity that requires pew sitting?