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The Greatest Invitation
Luke 10:1-16
Sermon 11
June 14, 2009
Basically, I find that at our house we receive four things in the mail: bills, advertisements, appointment reminders and invitations. I don’t know about you but there’s only one of those that has any attraction to me. I don’t care about bills. I throw away advertisements faster than a New York minute. Appointment reminders…let’s just say that my Dentist and Doctor are much more interested in seeing me than I am in seeing them. A few years ago I got a postcard reminding me that I needed to make an appointment to schedule a colonoscopy. Boy, I nearly broke me neck to get to the phone to schedule that!
But every now and then I get an invitation. A few years ago a couple of our members periodically had Brewers tickets and would invite me. You know, I always found a way to somehow clear my schedule. And FYI, if you have tickets to see the Atlanta Braves play anytime, anywhere and need someone to go along. In fact, if it’s Sunday, I regret to inform you that Mike Cote will be preaching that day…just kidding!
Need someone to go with you to Red Lobster, Famous Dave’s…even the Cracker Barrel…I’m your man! Every time I get a book sale invitation, I’m looking over my schedule trying to find a way to fit it in. I love book sales. St. Louis has one every spring where they have half a million books. It drives me crazy that I haven’t been able to fit it in the last few years.
A few weeks ago Bill Tromblay asked me if I wanted to go fishing this summer. Man, he knows how to hurt a guy. With Aaron graduating, going to East Asia for a missions trip and then to college this fall. I just knew that buying a license was a waste of money. I’m not a great fisherman but I love to go fishing. I just love invitations…everyone does.
Did you know that’s what evangelism is? It’s The Greatest Invitation. It’s inviting folk to a wedding, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It’s inviting people to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s inviting people to be forgiven and part of God’s Forever Family. It’s inviting people to have a purpose and a transformed life. That’s why the very word gospel literally means “good news.”
For too many of us the word evangelism has bad connotations. We picture cults knocking on doors or cramming our beliefs down someone’s throat. We picture heated arguments and nerds and making a fool of yourself and having others call you Deacon or Bible-banger or worse. But we’re really just sharing an invitation, The Greatest Invitation…God’s Invitation.
Most of us love getting invitations and most of us are good at giving invitations to others. We invite people to come to our home for a dinner or invite a friend to join us for a movie. We’ll invite someone to meet us for lunch. We enjoy a good book, and we invite a friend to read the book. We find a television show we really like, so we invite others to watch it.
How many of you are parents? How many parents had pictures made of your new baby? When your child was born, or your grandchild – didn’t you invite people to look at the picture of the baby? Of course you did.
You know where I’m headed with this. We have a wonderful Savior and an awesome God. God has blessed us with a great church. We have some great things happening. So forget about evangelism. Think invitation! We should be inviting people to meet Jesus. We should be inviting people to come with us to church. We need to be part of sharing The Greatest Invitation. My Bible is open to Luke 10:1-16 (p. 734).
Luke’s Gospel records something not found in any of the other gospel accounts, that Jesus appointed 72 others besides the 12 and sent them ahead of Him to proclaim the gospel in the cities and villages where He was going to come. They were involved in one huge invitation sharing. And the Lord has called each of us to do the same thing: “Go into all the world and preach the good news” (Mark 16:15). “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
In Luke 10 Jesus sends these workers out with instructions and warnings similar to those He gave the 12 before their preaching mission in Luke 9. Some of these instructions were unique to these men and to this mission, and don’t apply directly to us. But the principles here and the overall thrust of the passage do apply to us. The overall thrust is that the gospel is crucial because people will be judged eternally on the basis of their response to it. There are many ways that we could break down this passage but let me suggest that this passage focuses on Four Key Words: Prayer, Mission, Message, and Urgency. If you’re taking notes….
1. Prayer: Do you pray for the harvest? Jesus said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (v. 2). What a mystery, that God is the sovereign Lord of the harvest, and yet He limits Himself, as it were, by our prayers for more laborers for His harvest!
When we think about the Lord's words in vs. 2, we need to ask: “Do I pray for the harvest? Did I pray for the harvest this past week? Do I regularly pray for the Lord's work around the world? Do I pray for His work in Burlington? At Grace Church? Do I ask Him to raise up and send out more workers into His harvest?”
Let's be very honest: We all pray for the things that really matter to us. We pray for our children because they matter to us and our spouses because they matter to us. If I get sick, I pray for my health, because that matters to me. If we're in a financial difficulty or need a job, we pray earnestly for those needs, because those things matter to us. But the important question is, “Does the Lord's harvest really matter enough to me to motivate me to pray often for it?”
In the Lord's Prayer, what comes first? Prayer for the glory of God, that the Father's name would be hallowed or revered. For that to happen, we must pray next that His kingdom would come and His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Yet, it’s only when people submit themselves daily to God as King and seek to do His will that He is hallowed or glorified on earth. Jesus shows us that our priority in prayer should be for the Father's glory and for His kingdom. Only after that does He instruct us to pray for our own personal needs, such as daily bread, forgiveness, and victory over sin. Our Lord's instruction in that well-known prayer is clear, that if we’re not praying first and foremost for God's glory to be increased through the spreading of His kingdom, we’re not praying correctly.
To be obedient then, we must pray, "Lord, send out workers into Your harvest." Maybe you’re thinking of young people who’ll dedicate themselves to world missions or of young men who’ll feel called to the pastorate. It’s true that there’s always a need for more godly missionaries and pastors. It’s also true that a person should not go into those areas of service without a distinct call from God, and that not everyone has such a calling. Only some should devote themselves full-time to the work of the ministry. But there’s another sense in which every believer is to be a worker in God's harvest field. Every believer is given a spiritual gift from God and is instructed to use it for His Kingdom. Every believer is to be a witness of Jesus Christ to others in his/her sphere of influence. Every believer is to be a good steward of the material resources God has entrusted to them, so that we use our money and possessions to further His cause. So, you can't pray for workers very long before the Lord taps you on the shoulder and asks, “What about you? I want you to work in My harvest."
Interestingly, too, we don’t have to pray about the harvest. It’s ready. It’s ripe. We can’t spend all of our time praying for the harvest. We need to spend our time praying for the harvesters. We don’t even need to pray that God will prepare a harvest for this church or for you individually. He’s already done that. We just need to begin to pray that each of us will get actively involved in harvesting, and that God will send us more harvesters.
Too many of us spend all of our time praying, “Oh, God prepare my spouse to get saved, prepare my children to get saved, prepare my friends, my neighbors, my community, my world.” When according to Jesus our prayer should be “Prepare me to win my spouse, my children, my friends, my neighbors, my community, my world.” Our prayer should be God send us more people who are bold enough, brave enough, radical enough to witness because the harvest is ready. We just need to pray for more people to get busy reaping! That leads to the second word…
2. Mission: Do you labor in the harvest field? Pastor Greg Dawson writes: “Last week Rosemary and I went strawberry picking with her parents. When we got to the fields there were already a larger group of people hard at work picking. We each received a card board flat to hold the strawberries we would pick and headed into the fields. As we headed down the rows looking for a good place to start, visions of strawberries heaped high and overflowing filled our minds. That is, until we began to pick. After about ten minutes of bending over the rows of strawberry plants, our backs began to ache. So we got on our knees and pushed the flat of strawberries in front of us. Our backs stopped hurting but soon our knees began to give out. Before you knew it Rosemary and I were combining our two flats into one and calling it a day.”
Have you ever had days like that? You start out strong, just to end the day worn out and dragging your feet. After days like that are you prone like me when you hear Jesus say, “The harvest is plentiful” to want to reply, “Oh, my aching back?” The harvest is plentiful but the harvesters are few! Yes, we all know that. We’ve heard it before. We all know what’s coming next. A call to be more involved. A challenge to be more committed. A prod to reach out to that new neighbor. A nudge to invite that lost friend to lunch and add one more activity to our already overflowing schedules. We know what to expect, after all we’ve heard it all before. “Go therefore, and make disciples” Go, I tell you. go, go, go.
And that’s how we’re able to get out of having to do anything. It’s simple really. Who’s got the time to do more than what we’re already doing? We’re already running here and there, doing this and that. There’s work, family, church. There’s no more time in the week. We’re all booked up, so we can just tune this sermon out. No need to listen a moment more because we can’t comply with what you expect from us. Now if you were a missionary or had received God’s call to be a pastor, that would be different. But since I’m not free to go, then this sermon must not be about me…right? Wrong!
You see, that wonderful passage in Matthew that ministers love to use to preach “Go” actually doesn’t command us to go. In the original language the commandment that Jesus gives is not “go” but “make disciples.” Literally, the passage says, “While you are going I command you make disciples baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” So let me ask you, how many of you are going somewhere this week? It doesn’t matter where, just somewhere? Then that’s God’s call to you and to me to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
“The harvest is plentiful,” says Jesus, “but the laborers are few.” “Pray therefore to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” And so do we pray? Not on you life. Why? Because we know how God works. “Lord please send out laborers into your harvest.” “Ah,” says God, “A volunteer.” We know there’s a need for laborers. We know God is seeking for those who will labor in His harvest. So like the typical soldier we all take one step backwards, when God asks for the next volunteer to take one step forward. After all, who’s got the time to do even one more thing? So we keep our mouths shut and keep our hands down. Perhaps, we think, God won’t notice us if we just don’t move. You want to bet on it?
These men though went out with a sense of mission. Granted, it was a special mission. Not everyone is commissioned by God to do what they did. But, if we're all commanded to seek first God's kingdom and righteousness (Matt. 6:33), it's hard to escape the fact that we all should have a sense of mission from God. We may fulfill that mission in different ways, according to our various gifts and situations. But whatever we do for the Lord, we ought to have the seriousness of purpose that comes from realizing that we have a job to do and will give an account to the Lord of the harvest for what we did about what He told us to do.
While Jesus’ instructions to these men were unique for their mission, the overall impression you get is that they were to be focused on their task and not let anything get in the way of their mission. Jesus warns them right off that He is sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves (v. 3). There will be opposition and danger, and they will be helpless by themselves to stand against it; thus, they must depend on God for protection.
Jesus tells them (v. 4) to not carry “a purse or bag or sandals” (presumably, extra sandals). They were to travel light and trust God for the provisions they’d need. They shouldn't get distracted by the belongings that they were carrying with them, but stay focused on their mission. They were to “not greet anyone on the road.” This didn’t mean that they were to be rude or unfriendly, but rather that they weren’t to get distracted with lengthy chit-chat that didn’t contribute to their mission. The disciples are not to be distracted from their mission by moving from house to house in search of the best food and lodging (vss. 5-8). Rather, if someone is willing to house and feed them, and the person is sympathetic to the mission, they should stay there and get on with the work.
While the specific instructions don’t apply to us, the main point does: We are not just to dabble in the things of God. We must stay focused on our mission. Jesus commands every believer to "seek first His kingdom and righteousness."
A man was fishing without success when he noticed a woman nearby who was reeling in one after another. Frustrated, he finally asked the woman her secret. "Are you fishing for supper or for sport?" she asked. "I'm fishing for sport," he answered. "Well, there's your problem," the woman stated. "I'm fishing for supper."
We aren't to ask the Lord to send out hobbyists into His harvest. We're supposed to pray for workers. Workers are intent on the job, because they're working for their supper. If we care about the things God cares about, we’ll entreat Him to send out workers into His harvest field. But we can't sincerely pray for workers if we aren't one of them. So we should begin to pray, "Lord, what is my mission? What do You want me to do to further Your cause?" Once you figure that out, these verses give at least two warnings:
a) Don't give up because of opposition or rejection. Rather, expect it. Sheep wandering in the midst of a wolf pack shouldn’t expect to have a party. Most of the opposition that Jesus and His workers encountered came from the religious establishment. When I went into the ministry, I expected that most of my opposition would come from outside the church. The fact is, unless you try to shut down an abortion clinic or an adult bookstore, outsiders don't give a rip about what you're doing. The main opposition you face comes from those in the church. Be prepared: If you get involved in serving the Lord, you’ll be criticized, mostly by those in the church.
b) Don't get distracted by social contacts or material possessions. Rather, stay focused on your mission. Just as these workers could easily have been distracted by engaging in meaningless chit-chat with those they met along the way, we can be distracted by social contacts that are extraneous to our mission. We need to stay focused on our purpose. Jesus was known as the friend of sinners because He went to their social gatherings. But He never went just to socialize. He always went with a purpose, to seek and to save the lost. If you go to social gatherings without a sense of purpose, you'll get sucked into the world's meaningless ways and you'll cease to be a worker in the harvest. The harvest worker's focus is always, "Where is this person at spiritually and how can I be a part of bringing him or her to the Lord?"
Also, we need to be careful not to get distracted by material possessions. While God graciously supplies us with all things to enjoy, we’re not to fix our hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God. We are to be rich in good works, storing up the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that we may take hold of that which is life indeed (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
God wants us to work in His harvest field. Sadly, too many Christians are still studying about how to work in the harvest field, rather than just getting to work. John Maxwell has a great illustration of how many Christians are so bloated with biblical knowledge but never put it to work for the Lord. He takes out his handkerchief and tucks it in his collar as a napkin for a meal. Then he looks up and says: Feed me preacher…feed me. Then he says, “after another huge spiritual meal you get your overstuffed body out of the pew and head for the door and say, ‘burp…good sermon preacher! See you next Sunday’.” As if you need another sermon! Maxwell asks, “How many times before it takes?” We need to be fed and then work for the Master harvesting for the Kingdom of God! Prayer, Mission, …
3. Message: Do you proclaim the Kingdom of God by your life and lips? These harvest workers were to heal the sick and to say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you" (v. 9). If their message was rejected, they were still to proclaim as they left town, "Be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near" (v. 11). Thus by their lives (healing) and by their lips, they were to proclaim the message of God's kingdom.
Clearly, that kingdom had come upon these people whether they accepted it or rejected it. While this healing ministry here was unique, in that these men were given power to heal everyone indiscriminately as a sign of the coming of the Kingdom age in Jesus. No one in our day is given that kind of gift, since its purpose was unique. But, even so, we’re to care for the total person and while we cannot promise God's miraculous healing for every person, we can and should pray that God would be merciful in healing those who need it. But by far their greatest need is to come into submission to God as Lord and King.
The Kingdom of God is that realm in which He rules. By saying that the Kingdom had come near, or come upon these people, Jesus was not saying that there was no further fulfillment in the future. The day is still coming when Jesus will return and reign over Israel and the nations in accordance with all that the Old Testament prophets predicted. But the Kingdom in its initial phase had arrived in the person of Jesus and the message was that people must submit their lives to the King.
The message of the Kingdom of God draws a definite line in the sand by announcing peace to those who submit to Jesus as King, but terrible judgment to those who refuse to submit. When the workers entered a home, they were first to announce peace to it. Those weren’t just nice words, but an actual announcement of God's blessing if the people accepted and submitted to the message of God's Kingdom. If the people wouldn’t accept the message, the pronouncement of peace would return to the worker and it was to be replaced with a terrible warning of certain judgment to come (vss. 10-15).
One Christian periodical recently found that 49% of professing Christians agree that, "All good people, whether they consider Jesus Christ to be Savior or not, will live in heaven after they die." If that shocking statistic is true, then almost half of professing Christians do not believe what Jesus plainly taught about the judgment to come and hell!
Our Lord didn't speculate about the future judgment; He spoke about it with authority! He makes it clear that people will be judged according to the degree of light that they rejected. There will be degrees of punishment in hell. It will be worse for those who heard plainly of Christ and rejected it than for those, such as Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon, that lacked a clear witness.
But the real warning that we must take to heart is this: These cities that Jesus warns of terrible judgment to come were religious cities that were familiar with Jesus' message and miracles. Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon were pagan Gentile cities. The warning is that those who sit in church and yet remain unmoved by the offer of peace with God through Christ, those who are familiar with spiritual truths, but who refuse to submit to Christ as Lord – these religious people will be judged far more harshly than raw pagans who are ignorant of the gospel.
Some will say that if they just saw a miracle or actually heard Jesus in person, they’d believe. Not so! These towns heard Jesus and saw His miracles, but they hardened themselves against Him. They wouldn’t submit to Him as King. To hear Jesus' messengers is to hear Him, and to reject them is to reject Him (v. 16). Jesus predicts Capernaum's demise. They thought highly of themselves, but Jesus thought otherwise, and His word stands. The city of Capernaum is now an uninhabited heap of ruins.
And the same thing that happened to them, could easily happen to America. The United States has had great light, yet many who profess to know Christ show by their disobedient, self-centered lives that they’re not subject to His Lordship. It’s a terrible thing for those with such knowledge to reject the gospel!
This passage shouts at us the words: Prayer (do you pray for the harvest?); Mission (do you labor in the harvest field?); Message (do you proclaim by life and lips the kingdom of God?). Finally….
4. Urgency: Do you live and bear witness in light of the fragility of life and eternity? Again, I realize that we must be sensitive to people. We can't grab them by the lapels and shout warnings about hell. But even so, do we have a sense of the urgency of our mission? "That day" (v. 12), the day of judgment, is coming soon. Our message is not, "Try Jesus and you'll feel better and have a happier life." We must sensitively but plainly warn people that they’re sinners who face God's certain judgment, but they can know peace with God if they’ll simply trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Time is short; we must keep eternity constantly in view.
During the 1981 Byron Nelson Golf Tournament in Dallas, a massive tree limb broke off and fell on a spectator who was killed instantly. It happened near the third hole where Charles Coody was playing at the time. Shortly after the accident, he was interviewed on the radio and he said, "After running over and seeing the accident, I tried to play golf, yet I had no desire to play after that. All of a sudden those three foot putts didn't seem all that important."
The suddenness and certainty of death should instill in each of us who know what Jesus taught about the judgment to come a sense of urgency. We should pray for openings with lost people. We should pray that God's people would be working in the harvest with a sense of mission. We should clearly proclaim the message, that Jesus is Lord and King, and that people must accept His offer of peace now, or face the terrible consequences later.
Conclusion: The papers ran a story about a man who jumped from a plane and his parachute didn't open properly. It took him more than a minute to fall 3,000 feet to the ground. In those circumstances, a minute is a long time! What do you suppose he thought about as he sped toward the ground? I don't know the answer to that question, although somehow the man survived. If that experience didn't make him think soberly about eternity, nothing will!
People all around us are plummeting toward eternity without a parachute. Jesus Christ is that chute. If you know that fact, pray for the harvest and for more workers. Go with a sense of mission to labor in the harvest field. Live and speak the message in a way that honors Jesus Christ as Lord and King and that shows lost people His offer of peace. But don't compromise the urgent warning, that to refuse the offer means certain judgment. In light of eternity, the gospel is the crucial message. We are the messengers.
So what lessons can we learn from the sending of the seventy? Let me suggest four closing comments related to sharing The Greatest Invitation.
1) We need a wider vision for a world-wide harvest. We must see the need for more workers and then pray that God would launch more laborers into His harvest fields, here in this community and to the ends of the earth. We will pray for what matters most to us. Let’s pray that God will send more missionaries, and while we’re praying for others, let’s make sure we are ready to go ourselves.
2) Spend time with lost people. Evangelism is what spills over when you bump into someone. Some of us are not in any position to present Christ to people because frankly we’re not close enough to Christ and to lost people in order to allow the gospel to spill out of our lives. Elton Trueblood once said, “Evangelism occurs when Christians are so ignited by their contact with Christ that they in turn set others on fire.”
3) How people respond to the gospel is God’s responsibility. Remember that Jesus is “the Lord of the harvest.” Our job is simply to go where He’s already been and where He’s still coming. It’s He who brings people to Himself. Some will be upset, others will be interested, and still others will come to Christ. That’s up to Him, not us.
4) How I respond to God is my responsibility. It’s important to have the right methodology when telling others about Jesus and Luke 10 gives a number of ways that we can do this. It strikes me however, that our problem is really not insufficient methodology but inadequate motivation. Put simply, many of us just don’t care enough about lost people.
So here’s a suggestion. Whenever you talk to someone, ask yourself this question: “Where is this person at spiritually and how can I have a part in bringing him or her to the Lord?”
I’m challenged by the covenant D.L. Moody made to share Christ with at least one person each day. One night, about ten o’clock, he realized that he hadn’t talked to anyone about Jesus so he went out into the street and spoke to a man standing by a lamppost. Moody was pretty direct in his approach as he asked: “Are you a Christian?” The man flew into a rage and threatened to knock Moody into the gutter. Three months later though, Moody was awakened at the YMCA by this same man knocking at the door. This is what he said, “I want to talk to you about my soul.” He apologized for his behavior and said that he’d no peace ever since that night Moody shared with him. He then prayed to receive Christ.
72 witnesses! I wonder if there are 72 people here at Grace today who are willing to make a commitment to not only care for people, but to also share Christ with them. Can you imagine what would happen if just 72 of us got active in sharing our faith? Will you be one of them?
As we close this morning, let me read Philemon 6 as our closing benediction: “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” May that be true of each of us!!
