Mission Ready
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Good news euaggelion; Evangelist euaggelistes
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The heart of missions is God's goodness. The gospel is so good that we can't be silent!
The gospel is the seed from which once bathed by the Holy Spirit grows into the church. Some people like to use DNA to describe it. Its life, zeal and love readily replicates itself.This word 'to send' is very significant. If we roughed up the English language a bit, we would say that Jesus 'apostolized' them, that is, He sent them out with a specific task. The word mission and missionary both come from Latin (Roman) word missio. This is equivalent to the word apostle, meaning sent with a purpose as a delegate. We unfortunately have so narrowed the meaning of apostle to only refer to the twelve apostles, but the word is used more generally.
Jesus sent 70 disciples out making them apostles. Jesus does not here state what their position was. Perhaps they would get prideful and so Jesus avoided official positions. He instead had them focus on their task at hand. They were more specifically told what they should do later in Luke 10:8 and the following verses. This will not be discussed here. We do, however, want to make a few observations.
The missionaries would be on their own for a little bit. They would not be in the shadow of Jesus. Before they were watching, but now they would be doing. As they went out, they would be able to do what before they could not. Their willingness to go where Jesus sent them was not easy. It was much easier to let Jesus do it. Now they were to do the miracles and preaching. Jesus would come, but in the meantime their faith had to grow. This transition of a baby faith (He can do it) to a mature faith (I can do it) is very important but never easy.
Notice that Jesus was not power hungry. He was willing to have others join in on the work. Jesus was not careless. He first trained others on how to do it and then gave them opportunity to do it. Jesus wanted to share the joy and reward of ministry with others. A fatal problem of leaders is that they get carried away with their own gifts and ministry and do not train others to join in. All of this is much more incomprehensible seeing that it is really Jesus who was so great and glorious and those around Him were only His disciples who wrestled over their own life commitments.
Remember, Jesus was the Master, they were the slaves. He was the Healer, they were the healed. He was the Professor, they were the students. We are talking about a wonderful thing that Jesus would ever entrust ministry into the hands of those who would make so many mistakes. This, however, was part of God' s great plan.
God was deliberately involving those that He rescues and adopts into His family to join Him in His work. The task as a whole is called 'The Mission.' Missions describes how the gospel is to expand out into the world, the methodology. People are sent. His disciples are still being sent right now while we sit here. I hope if you are one of them that you will not let anything hold you back. You were made for it.
We wish we had more details here but do not have them. The disciples would be cared for as they went out carrying out this task. They didn' t need to take food along. But what happened after Jesus got there? It doesn' t say. Would they come back home or go on? We do not know.
I was no doubt sent forth to Taiwan. I loved missions work. Once trained in language and church culture, we put ourselves to church planting.
After in Taiwan for eight years, Linda and my daughter's asthma got worse and worse. We decided to come home and see if their health improved. We are thankful that the asthma has gotten so much better. We are such fragile creatures. It is amazing that God would entrust us with His majestic word. The challenge for me and you is to go where He appoints and sends.
Some feel called but are waiting for release or direction. Stay close to Jesus and follow Him. He will train you well. And remember, that when you go on to where He has appointed you, He will go on after you. You need to go first. His truth must precede His work. We are not so important but the truth, the message of the kingdom of God is crucial.
Some of you might be asked to go within your occupation. You will not need to raise support to go (prayer support is still needed), but the Lord is sending you to reach out to a certain people within your occupation. I am not trying to minimize the appointment that Jesus gave to these disciples, but neither do I want to depreciate the great work that He can do through anyone that makes Himself available.
We must not tell the Lord how to use us. As His servants, we go without question. We trust Him for what is to come. But all that we do must be done in expectation of how He will bless the Word of God that is preached.
God is calling many to go. He wants to send them out. They should be heart-ready. They should have been by Jesus' side to watch how He did things. They would need to stretch out their faith. That is always the challenge. He will bless your work. He will come and bless His Word that you proclaim in preaching or in discipling.
"And He (Jesus) said to another, 'Follow Me.'" (Luke 9:60). |
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Bible study on Abraham's growth in faith
Optimized for Growth (1 John 2:3-11)
Biblical Foundations for Freedom - Resources on the Gospel of Luke
INTRODUCTION TO CHRIST
(Luke 1-3)Luke Introduction pdf
Luke Teaching Outline pdf
Luke 1:26-38 Christmas Lights pdf
Luke 1:45-55 Christmas Prayer pdf
Luke 1:56-75 Notes pdf
Luke 1:57-80 John's Birth pdf
Luke 2:1-20 Jesus' Birth pdf
Luke 2:8-20 Good News pdf
Luke 3:1-38 Jesus & John pdf
Luke 3:21-38 Genealogy pdf
THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST
(Luke 4-9:36)
Luke 5:27-32 Needy pdf
Luke 5:33-35 Fasting Discipline pdf
Luke 5:36-39 New-Wineskins pdf
Luke 6:1-11 Sabbath pdf
Luke 6:11-19 Character & Calling pdf
Luke 7:1-10 Faith html
Luke 7:11-17 Widow & Son html
Luke 7:18-35 John the Baptist html
Luke 7:36-50 Two-debtors html
Luke 7:1-50 Faith pdf
Luke 8:22-25 Storm-Stilled pdf
Luke 8:26-39 Demoniac pdf
Luke 8:40-56 Power-Death pdf
Luke 9:1-36 Handout Questions pdf
Luke 9:1-10 Sending out Twelve html
Luke 9:11-17 Feeding of 5000 html
Luke 9:18-26 Life of Denial - Questions html
Luke 9:27-36 Glory of Christ html
Luke 9:37-48 Greatness pdf
Luke 9:45-55 Pride & Leadership pdf
Luke 9:57-62 Discipleship html | pdf | Questions html | pdf
Luke 9:57-10:2 Mission Ready html | pdf {See NT Library for more}
Luke 10:1 Mission Involvement html
Luke 10:2a Mission Worldview html
Luke 10:2b Prayer & missions html
Luke 11:1-5 Content of Prayer pdf
Luke 11:14-26 Participating in Prayer pdf
Luke 11:14-28 Prayer Strategy pdf
Luke 11:5-13 Persistent in Prayer pdfINSTRUCTION IN VIEW OF CHRIST'S REJECTION
(Luke 12-19:27)
Luke 12:25-26 A Perspective on Worry html
Luke 13:1-5 Understanding Disasters html | pdf
Luke 13:18-19 Mustard Seed pdf
Luke 13:20-30 Leaven & Decisions pdf
Luke 13:31-35 Mission Growth pdf
Luke 14:1-14 Teaching html | pdf
Luke 14:15-35 Commitment html | pdf
Luke 15:1-2 Lost pdf
Luke 15:3-10 Lost Sheep pdf
Luke 15:11-32 Lost Son pdf
Luke 16:19-31 Lazarus pdf
Luke 17:11-19 Perfect Response pdf
Luke 18:1-34 Being Prepared pdf
Luke 18:1-8 Hopelessness html
Luke 18:9-14 Self-righteous html
Luke 18:15-17 Neglected html
Luke 18:18-27 False-Confidence html
Luke 18:28-30 Faithfulness html
Luke 18:31-34 Remember html
Luke 18:35-43 Blind Man pdf
Luke 19:1-10 Tax Collector pdf
Luke 19:11-27 Ten Minas pdf
PASSION OF CHRIST & BEYOND
LUKE 19:28-24)
Luke 19:28-40 Palm Sunday pdf
Luke 19:35-38 Entry html
Luke 19:41-44 Weep Lost pdf
Luke 19:45 20-47 Preach pdf
Luke 20:26-40 Eternity pdf
Luke 22:1-06 The-Plot html
Luke 22:1-30 Introduction html
Luke 22:7-13 The Preparation html
Luke 22:14-23 The Passover html
Luke 22:24-30 Leadership html
Luke 22:1-30 Lord's Supper pdf
Luke 22:29-36 Temptation pdf
Luke 22:31-65 Temptation Handout pdf
Luke 24:13-35 Questions pdf
Luke 24:13-53 Resurrection pdf
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