Lambs in the Midst of Wolves
Download MP3If you would turn in your bibles to Luke chapter 9. For the next 3 weeks actually, we're going to be looking at chapters 9 and 10 of Luke. And so if you're sitting there after we read this thinking Joel we just skipped over a bunch of stuff in our reading tonight. Don't worry, we're gonna get to it in the weeks ahead. Tonight we're gonna look at what it means to live a missional life or to live a sent life.
Jeffrey Heine:Next week, we're going to look at the transfiguration, and the following week, we are gonna look at what it means to follow Jesus. What it means to follow Jesus. Begin reading chapter 9 verse 1. And he called the 12 together and gave them power and authority over all demons and 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 2 tunics.
Jeffrey Heine:And whatever house you enter, stay there and from there depart. And whenever wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. And And they departed and went through the villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Go to verse 10. On the return, the apostles told him all they had done, and he took them and withdrew apart to a town called Bethsaida.
Jeffrey Heine:When the crowds learned it, they followed him. And he welcomed them and spoke to 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 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 we have no more than 5 loaves and 2 fishes unless we were to go and buy food for all these people.
Jeffrey Heine: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 had them all sit down. And taking the 5 loaves and the 2 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.
Jeffrey Heine:And they all ate and were satisfied. And what was left over was picked up 12 baskets of broken pieces. Go to chapter 10 verse 1. After this, the lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him 2 by 2 into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Jeffrey Heine:Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money bag, nor knapsack, no sandals, and greet greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, peace be to this house.
Jeffrey Heine:And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house eating and drinking what they provide. For the laborers deserve his wages. Do not go from house to house.
Jeffrey Heine:Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, the kingdom of god has come near to you. But wherever you whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of god has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than that town.
Jeffrey Heine:Pray with me. Lord, I ask that you would come and you would speak in power. That through your spirit, our minds would be opened. Our hearts would be opened. You would make them good soil to receive a good word that will bear much fruit.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, my words are death. Your words are life. Breathe life here. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, let your words remain and may they hit their mark.
Jeffrey Heine:And I pray this in the powerful name of Jesus. Amen. A lot has changed in the last 2000 years, but the church's calling has not changed. The words Jesus said before his ascension, most of you know all all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples.
Jeffrey Heine:That is still our calling. For some of us that means that we need to go and preach the gospel in places where people have never heard. And every Christian, I believe, in this is seriously consider this call. Don't always assume that's for others. I think every Christian yearly should ask the Lord, Lord is this me?
Jeffrey Heine:And we should all have the prayer of Isaiah that says, here I am Lord send me. For those of you who who maybe are not called to the mission field, you are still called to go and share the gospel and to make disciples. And this might mean, you know, walking across the street and sharing the gospel with your neighbor or sharing the gospel with a coworker. For some of you, it might mean something a little more radical and it might mean moving. It might be moving to places like Woodlawn or to Ensley or to Fairfield or someplace like that and having an impact there.
Jeffrey Heine:Whatever the Lord's calling on your life, you must obey and you need to continually ask for his leading. Don't just assume you're on the right path. Ask God's Spirit. Lord, am I where you want me to be? Am I doing what you want me to do?
Jeffrey Heine:What is your calling for my life? Because I know I need to fulfill this great calling to make disciples of all men. This is a serious and it is a joyful task. And let me just start by saying that if we actually took hold, if we actually understood and put to heart the things that we just read, I honestly believe all of Birmingham would be changed more than Birmingham. We have more people in this room than the disciples or the 72.
Jeffrey Heine:We have more resources in this room than were available to them. What we lack is an urgency and a clear sense of purpose and calling. And we lack faith. You know, by and large, if you look at the American churches, they compensate for these things, for their lack of faith, their lack of urgency, and their lack of calling. They compensate for these things by greater facilities, very detailed vision statements, technology.
Jeffrey Heine:They compensate through a lot of different programs, a lot of different means. But really, they lack power. They lack the ability to truly change a community. Now Luke 9 and Luke 10 stand in stark contrast to this. And beginning in Luke 9, there's a radical shift in Jesus' ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:Up to this point, Jesus has been doing everything. He's been doing all of the teaching. He's been doing all of the healing. And the disciples have just kinda stood by waiting for him to usher in the kingdom of God at this point. But here he actually sends them.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, now you go. You go. And I cannot imagine how intimidating this would have been for these disciples. They're not a bunch of Billy Grahams. This is not something that comes natural to them.
Jeffrey Heine:Some of them are fishermen, not the most eloquent people. Matthew was a tax collector. He worked for the IRS. How many of you know many charismatic IRS people out there? Yeah.
Jeffrey Heine:How many of you would like to talk, spend an extended time talking to someone who works from the IRS? It's no different. I mean, Matthew was used to when he entered a room, people would leave. A tax collector, they would often go to the docks, and they would wait for the sailors to come in. And they would enter the boats before the sailors got off the docks, because they knew that once the sailors reach land, they were gone.
Jeffrey Heine:They would never ever be able to collect the money from them. And now Jesus tells people like Matthew, I want you to go and talk to people about this good news. What an intimidating call. How is he supposed to do that? None of these disciples have a lot going for them.
Jeffrey Heine:And now they're given this enormous task. And Jesus, he seems to put restrictions on it. He says, not only is this task going to be great, but here's a lot of things you're not allowed to do. Okay? He says you're not allowed to bring anything with you.
Jeffrey Heine:Cannot bring a staff, which means you cannot bring protection. No money, no extra clothes, meaning you're supposed to travel very, very light. And you got to kind of read between the lines here, but Jesus is actually telling them y'all are going to go hungry and homeless at times. Because remember, they're not bringing food. They're not bringing money.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus just said, some of the cities you go into are going to reject you and you're gonna have to leave. Meaning, they're not going to feed you and you're gonna be kicked out of the city. You're gonna leave. They're not going to give you a bed. You're gonna have to leave.
Jeffrey Heine:And you don't have anything. You don't have any money. You don't have any food. You don't even have an extra tunic to keep you warm. So what Jesus is saying in this calling, this commission is there are gonna be times in your life where you're gonna be hungry, you're gonna be homeless, you're gonna be cold.
Jeffrey Heine:But the calling's worth it. This is a great calling. When he commissions the 72, he says, you're not even supposed to greet people on the way. And this doesn't mean, you know, you're supposed to be rude to people, you know, and not say, hey, or howdy, or whatever. It means you're not distracted.
Jeffrey Heine:He gave you a mission, and you're not going to get distracted. There's an urgency that Christians are to live their life. Now let me step back and just say I I need to be careful here. I've heard this passage preached a number of ways that, extremes on both sides. You know, I've heard preachers say, you know what?
Jeffrey Heine:This is just to the disciples. Doesn't apply to anybody. And I've heard other preachers really laying on thick with a guilt trip and saying, you do need to give all of your money, you know, all of your time. You need to be homeless and all this to reach the community. And the truth is in the middle.
Jeffrey Heine:Because there are times later in Luke that Jesus says things like carry a purse, carry this. This is a very specific calling for this time. Yet, we can take away from this that there are times when Jesus will give us a calling and it might be necessary. It very well might be necessary for us to give up our money, to give up our beds, to give up a lot of things for the gospel. Now, Jesus gives them all of these restrictions or these commands for a number of reasons.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, we mentioned they're not allowed to have a staff because well, he doesn't want them to have protection. He wants them to call out to the Lord for their protection, to depend on him for protection. They were not to carry a bag because he did not want them to be slowed down with possessions. Now, by nature, I think we're collectors. By nature, we we we collect things.
Jeffrey Heine:I I know a woman. She's not here, so I can say it. I know a woman who collects Santas. There are cowboy Santas, skiing Santas, disco Santas, Elvis Santas, Santas that dance, Santas that sing, Santas that say ho ho ho every time you enter the room and you wanna get a shotgun and blow it across the room, drive you insane. And they collect.
Jeffrey Heine:They feel this need to collect. And Jesus is saying, don't waste your time collecting all of these things that are just going to slow you down. Some of us are carrying these huge bags with us as we're trying to fill the Great Commission, these huge bags. And for some of us, just our home payments or our car payments are so large because we're living so beyond our means that we have nothing left for the kingdom. We're trying to support this huge lifestyle here here and we have nothing left.
Jeffrey Heine:So don't be slowed down by possessions. Don't waste your time. And whether you realize it or not, you have been programmed. You went to school so you could get a job, so you could get money, so you can have things. You you you've been programmed this way.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus, he's asking, but what are you gonna do with this money? Are you gonna use this money for the kingdom? Because the world is not impressed if you have a really big house and a really nice car and you drink, you know, $300 bottles of wine or something like that. They will not be impressed with God. They will be impressed with you.
Jeffrey Heine:They will be impressed with your lifestyle. But they will not be caught up in His majesty. There's nothing to draw them in that direction. They will be in awe of you. And we must show the world where our treasure is, who is our treasure, by how we spend our money, by what we collect and do.
Jeffrey Heine:Now, the reason these disciples were not to carry bread or money or extra clothes was to teach them dependence. There would indeed be times where they would be homeless and hungry. Try. Just try and this is gonna take some imagination, but try to put yourself in the shoes of these disciples, the sandals of these disciples. Jesus gives you a task.
Jeffrey Heine:Go share the gospel to all these cities. And he's given you some, you know, general guidelines here. But it's a pretty big task for you to go. And so you're thinking, well, how do I get started? I mean, that would be the first thing I would really think of.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you know do I just kind walk into a town? Do I go to city center and get a bullhorn and just start preaching? Do a little mime show? Do something, you know, what is it to try to get people's attention and and share the gospel? What do I do?
Jeffrey Heine:How do I get started? I mean, I think this when I think of, you know, Woodlawn or, you know, how do I get started in there? Or Birmingham, how do I get started? What do I do to share the gospel? They have the same questions.
Jeffrey Heine:They would enter into a town and likely they would see the person who was broken, see the person who was down, the person who was sick or lame, and they would heal them. They would meet their needs and heal them. And word would spread and then they would heal another and then word would spread and they would heal another. And before you know it, they had a platform for the gospel. They just shown the gospel in action.
Jeffrey Heine:Now they can share the gospel in word. We begin to understand why Jesus told them not to bring all of these things. Because to minister to the poor at times they would have to become poor. To minister to the homeless at times, they would have to become homeless. You you see this later.
Jeffrey Heine:We'll probably get to in about 5 years when we get to acts. In acts chapter 3, you see 2 of the disciples, Peter and John, and they come across a lame beggar. And they say, we don't have any money, but we have this. In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. Where do you think they learned that?
Jeffrey Heine:They learned it here when Jesus sent them out with no money, and he said heal people, Take care of their needs. Jesus wants to pound us in. And we see this clearly in the feeding of the 5,000. Now now Luke I love Luke. Luke gives the most boring accounts of the feeding of the 5,000 of all the gospel writers.
Jeffrey Heine:Now this is the one miracle that Jesus does that is in all 5 or all 4 gospels that, you know, 5th hidden one. No. And and all 4 gospels, this is the only miracle that's in all of them. And Luke just kind of gives the facts, and it's a really boring account. But he does it for a reason.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't want you so much to focus on that story. He wants you to see this story in light of what preceded it and what comes after it. That's where he wants your attention to go. He wants you to see this story in light of the 12 returning. The the 12 return from their mission and they tell Jesus all they have done.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus says, okay. Let's see what you've learned. Let's see what you've learned. There are 5,000 men over here, which you know is probably about 20,000 people, said feed them. And I would have just loved to seen the reaction.
Jeffrey Heine:Luke spares us from showing who was the one who tried to answer first. But, they came up with a, you know, the solution. Well, Jesus, we we've got some biscuits and some, you know, little sardines. We could do that. Or unless you want us to go and try to buy food for everybody, And Jesus is thinking, you missed it.
Jeffrey Heine:I just sent you on a training mission to learn how to minister without anything. And now you come back and I give you your first task and you fail. You missed it. I'm not asking for a practical solution. I'm not asking for a human solution.
Jeffrey Heine:I asked you to do this because you didn't have any money, because you didn't have any bread or any fish of great quantity. And Jesus says, sit them down. He blesses the food and he feeds them. He didn't want a human solution. They immediately went to money.
Jeffrey Heine:They immediately became very practical in how they should minister to the world. And Jesus says, throw your practicality out the window, let me teach you how to minister in faith. Makes me think, has the church forgotten how Jesus taught us to serve? I guess a more appropriate question would be, have we forgotten the God that we serve? We still make disciples the same way.
Jeffrey Heine:By faith, we preach the gospel and we meet people's needs. We go into the towns and we find those that are hurting, those who are desperate, and we meet their needs. And we share with them the good news of Jesus Christ. Chapter 10, Jesus, he says that he is sending out the disciples like sheep among the wolves. Let's read this chapter 10 verse 23.
Jeffrey Heine:And he said to them, the harvest is plentiful, that the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Go your way. You know, the the fields are ripe for harvest. And so we need to pray that God sends out workers into the harvest.
Jeffrey Heine:And so usually a church tries to fulfill this by, you know, 1 week out of the year. We have our big missions conference week. You know, we'd have our big missions push and we we pray for our missionaries and we take a few moments to pray and see if God wants us to go ourselves. And that's how we try to fulfill this verse. I love what Jesus does.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, see, there's there's lost people out there. Pray that the Lord would send people to go reach those lost people. Now you go and reach those lost people. Put some feet to your prayers. Go.
Jeffrey Heine:Go. And then he says, I'm sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Now this is insanity. This is absolutely insanity here. Don't just glance over this verse.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, have you ever looked into the eyes of a sheep? Have you ever? I mean, go to the Birmingham Zoo. There are all the animals there are geriatric. Hardly any of them move.
Jeffrey Heine:You could get really up close. Look in the eyes of one of the sheep they have there. There is nothing behind those eyes. They're the dumbest animal there is. And at and at the zoo, you know, I feel comfortable actually getting little Georgia, my 1 year old, and putting her in the pen, which you're allowed to do with a lamb.
Jeffrey Heine:And I don't have to worry about, you know, some wild rabbit lamb coming and attacking her or or eating her. She's perfectly safe because lambs don't do that. There's a reason you you you don't find wild sheep out there. You know, you're traveling through the woods and you're like, hey, y'all be careful. Look out for sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:There there's a reason hunters don't have them mounted up on their walls. Stuffed, mounted. Look at the sheep I killed. He was like a 100 yards out and I got him. There's there's no fear of sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:All all sheep are are fluffy packets of meat for prey. That's it. Jesus says that's what you are. He doesn't say I'm sending you out as a hunter, a mighty hunter to go out there and to kill the prey. Because if you were that, then you would get the glory.
Jeffrey Heine:He says, no, I'm sending you out sheep to be slaughtered. And the only prayer that you have to be saved, the only prayer you have to survive is if the good shepherd takes care of you. Otherwise, you will be absolutely destroyed. You'll be devoured. There it reminds me I mean, this is right before the 72 are being sent out.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, can you imagine like a big game? Basketball game and a coach, like, here's his pep talk. He huddles you up. Guys, you don't stand a chance. Have you looked at that other team?
Jeffrey Heine:They're huge! They're going to destroy you. I mean, if any of you have any hope of winning this game, go ahead and confess. Put it out right now because that needs to be put down, Okay? We're gonna lose this game.
Jeffrey Heine:We're gonna lose it badly. 1, 2, 3, break. Go. You know, very similar when Jesus says, I'm sending out a sheep among wolves. It's insane.
Jeffrey Heine:He is saying your mission is dangerous, very dangerous. He is saying that there will be no way to protect yourself, That unless you stay close to the shepherd, you'll be devoured. Let me ask you. Is your calling and your mission dangerous? Is it?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you even have a mission? Or you're just kind of floating through life? Jesus, he is saying here, disciples, you need to live your lives in such a way that I will most certainly get the glory when you go out, because there's no other way to explain how you live. Take such risk for the kingdom that you are doomed to fail unless I intervene. We're not always as Christians to play it safe.
Jeffrey Heine:We're not always supposed to be practical. There might be seasons of that. But there will also be seasons where we are supposed to take risk, seasons where we are to go without money, seasons where God might be calling us to be homeless, to give up food or clothing for the sake of the gospel. There's going to be seasons when God asks us to risk much for his kingdom. I love it when the 72 return from their mission.
Jeffrey Heine:They report back to Jesus what they've done. Look at verse 17. Says the 72 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the powers of the enemies and nothing shall hurt you.
Jeffrey Heine:Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, father, lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, father, for such was your gracious will. Now verse 21 says that Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit. Now you will never find another verse like that in scripture.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the only time that Jesus ever does this. He rejoices in the Holy Spirit. Literally, he is so filled with the spirit and filled with joy that there is a overflow of an emotion at that point, of pure joy at when he sees his disciples return. He's bursting with it. And the reason he's bursting with it is because he sees a bunch of dumb sheep coming back saying, look at what I did.
Jeffrey Heine:And he laughs and he's filled with such incredible joy as they're relaying this. And he says, God, thank you. Man, what a plan that you would use such idiots, that you would use such sheep, that you would use such children. That's fantastic, God, because he knows that when we go out and we're dumb sheep and we trust Him and the calling that He has given us, when we go out and we do that, he gets all the glory, all of it, when we return. And Jesus laughs.
Jeffrey Heine:Just wow, they get it. They they got your gospel. They understand it. It's working in their hearts and lives. Bless you, father.
Jeffrey Heine:I meant what I said earlier, that if we actually understood this, chapter 9 and 10, if we actually understood this and it were to work into our hearts, all of Birmingham would be changed. I really mean that. We have greater resources than these disciples do. Than these disciples do. You know, one of the things I think is the greatest resource we have is our homes.
Jeffrey Heine:It's It's one of the philosophies of our church is to constantly be opening up our homes to our community and inviting people in. We need to use those resources. We have transportation. We have money. We have clothes.
Jeffrey Heine:We have all these things that could be used for the kingdom when we loosen our grip on them. And if God gives us clarity, if he gives us purpose and he gives us an urgency, then watch out. Pray with me. Lord, we cannot work up urgency or clarity of purpose or passion. Now we we could try really hard and come up with some kind of emotionalism, maybe work ourselves into a frenzy like that, but not not anything that will last.
Jeffrey Heine:You would break open our hearts, break open our minds, and that you would transform us into people who live a scent life, a missional life, not people who just sit around wasting time. Give us a clarity of purpose. Give us an urgency that we lack. This is a serious and a joyful task. Make it our prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:Here I am, Lord. Send me. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
