church

INI
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 7, 2013
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

ADVANCE TEAM FOR JESUS:
It’s a Great Job!
Luke 10:1-6

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole
spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. Today we will meditate on the Word of God in Luke chapter ten,
beginning with verse one, as follows:

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and sent them two
by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to
go. 2 Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are
few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His
harvest. 3 "Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. 4
"Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the
road. 5 "But whatever house you enter, first say,`Peace to this house.' 6 "And if
a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.
This is the Word of God.

In the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Who Himself is our Peace and has
commissioned us ambassadors of peace, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

In "The Art of Advance," political campaign expert Ben Donohower describes
how important the so-called "advance team" is for every successful political
candidate. The advance team are the people who show up a day or two ahead
of time in every town where the candidate is scheduled to speak. They take care
of all the details, like checking out locations, organizing volunteers, and lining
up media appearances. The most skilled advance teams are able to anticipate
problems and eliminate them before they ever occur. The public simply sees a
polished looking candidate at a successful campaign event. What they don't see
are the many advance team members working behind the scenes, making sure
that things go smoothly, and that their candidate has an opportunity to shine.
Do you think you'd be good at a job like that?

You'd better be! Because as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you're a member of his
advance team whether you realize it or not. Jesus does not materialize bodily
before the eyes of people to whom he wishes to bring his message of salvation.
That's not how he has chosen to work. He works through the gospel – a
message of peace that is carried to the world by ordinary people, people like
you! You Christians are his ambassadors, his advance team, bringing the good
news to people you know and meet and work with. Our text for today will tell
us a lot about carrying out this important job for our Savior. Join me in
considering the theme:
ADVANCE TEAM FOR JESUS:
It’s a Great Job to Have!
I. The companionship is great.
II. The need is great.
III. The danger is great.
IV. The urgency is great.
V. The message is great.

Jesus was about to embark on His final, great journey from Galilee to
Jerusalem. It would be His death journey, at the conclusion of which He would
offer His life on the cross, a sacrifice for the sins of the world. He sent His
disciples ahead of Him into the region of Perea on the east side of the Jordan.
They were a sort of advance team for the Savior. And Being on the advance
team for Jesus is a great job to have! Why? First of all because the
companionship is great. How did Jesus send out His disciples? He sent them
two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was
about to go. He does the same today. Jesus is constantly coming into the hearts
of believers by faith. We’re the advance team, we get there first with the
message about Jesus. That’s our job. But it’s not a lonely job, because God
gives us companions for the journey. Friends we can rely on who will
accompany us, whose mission is the same as ours. Look around at the other
believers sitting with you this morning – they’re your companions! Your
successes are their successes, and vice versa. Your sorrows are theirs as well.
They’ll pray for you and encourage you and support you, and you’ll do the same
for them. That’s why we assemble here at least once a week – to encourage one
another and to build each other up. That’s why the writer to the Hebrews says,
[Let us not forsake] the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some
is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching. --Hebrews 10:25.

Why is BEING ON THE ADVANCE TEAM FOR JESUS SUCH A GREAT
JOB TO HAVE? Another reason, Jesus says, is because the need is so great.
Then He said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few;
therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. If
you look carefully at Jesus’ words you realize that He’s not just saying the field
is great. We know that. The field of our endeavor is the whole wide world. Jesus
is saying that the harvest is great! There are many, many souls who are ready
right now to be saved! People who feel their sin, who realize their lost condition
and are ripe to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe. I read a story about
two shoe salesman years ago who were sent to the darkest interior of Africa.
Soon, one of them sent a telegram back to the U.S. that said: “Get me home,
nobody here wears shoes.” The other salesman sent a telegram that said: “Send
me all of the shoes you have, nobody here wears shoes!” Which kind of
salesman are you? Do you know that the Seattle-Tacoma area is the
second-least-churched area in the country (after Portland)? Only 34% of people
here are members of a church. What a great place to be a missionary! Where
could the need possibly be greater? In another place Jesus said, "Do you not
say, `There are still four months and then comes the harvest '? Behold, I say to
you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for
harvest! 36 "And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life,
that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.” –Jn 4:35-36.

It’s true that BEING ON THE ADVANCE TEAM FOR JESUS IS A
GREAT JOB TO HAVE. The rewards are great. But lest we think there are no
risks involved in this job, our Lord reminds us that the danger, too, is great.
"Go your way; He said, behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. We
know that the world in which we live is a hostile place, hostile especially
toward those who proclaim the gospel of Christ. Just in recent weeks the
hostility of the world toward Christians, and Bible-based morality, has
particularly been on display. Jesus doesn't pull punches, He presents this dark
picture of the terrible danger we Christians face in this world – He sends us out
"as lambs among wolves." Well, who would do that? Who would send
defenseless lambs into the midst of vicious wolves? Jesus our Good Shepherd
would, and that's the key to this whole passage. Yes the danger is great, but our
Good Shepherd, the one who protects and cares for us, is far greater. We are
weak, but He is strong! The great preacher Charles Spurgeon had a wonderful
comment about this:
As soon as I say, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” I am safe! The sheep is not safe
because it says, “I am stronger than the lion,” or, “I am able to escape from the
bear,” or, “I shall always be able to avoid the wolf.” Silly sheep, what can you
do to protect yourself from your foes? Yet the sheep might feel safe enough if it
knew that the shepherd was near, to snatch it out of the jaws of the lion, or to
rescue it from the paws of the bear. And, beloved, we know that our Shepherd
will never let any of His sheep perish! He has owned us too long and bought us
too dearly—and loved us too well to ever let us go. You remember that He said
to His disciples, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand.”
- That is the security that Jesus gives to the members of His advance team!

Yes, BEING ON THE ADVANCE TEAM FOR JESUS IS A GREAT JOB
TO HAVE. The next point Jesus emphasizes is that the urgency is great.
Because that’s exactly what’s implied when He tells His disciples, "Carry
neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. The
point here is not that they were to go barefoot or unclothed. There is no
intrinsic virtue in Christian poverty or self-deprivation. No, the point here is
quite different. The disciples were not to carry any extra supplies with them,
they were not to wait until they had a wallet full of money and a knapsack full
of extra gear. The task before them was too urgent for that. There was no time
to waste! Greet no one along the road, Jesus said. When you're on the advance
team for Jesus, there is no time to stop and chat along the way. You are an
ambassador of the King, sent with the message that means the difference
between life and death. Your task is urgent! 17th century preacher Richard
Baxter conveyed some of the urgency of our task as ambassadors for Christ
when he said, "I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to
dying men!" You're a preacher too, and your task is urgent! Every chance you
have to share the gospel with a friend, a relative, a coworker, may be the last
chance you ever get. It may be the last gospel that person ever hears. Can you
afford to waste that opportunity? No! The urgency is too great!

The companionship, the need, the danger and the urgency – for members of
JESUS’ ADVANCE TEAM, each of these is great. But greatest of all is the
message we proclaim! That message is summed up in our Lord’s instruction to
His disciples: But whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house.' 6
"And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to
you.

Maybe your first thoughts on hearing those words were the same as mine: it
sounds like a standard greeting. But it wasn't. In Hebrew, the standard greeting
was shalom alekem, "peace to you." This is something quite different, shalom
labayet hazeh, or "Peace to this house!" This is a substantive message, a
message of peace. And one of the meanings of the Biblical word for peace is “a
state of reconciliation with God." As in Acts 10:36: "The word which God sent
to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ-- He is Lord of
all. As a member of Jesus advance team, what you have to give people is
something real and substantial. They can be reconciled with God. Your whole
mission is to bring people this precious message of peace and reconciliation, as
Paul tells the Corinthians: God… has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus
Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was
in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to
them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then, we are
ambassadors for Christ --2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

Ambassadors for Christ – what an awesome job! We get to tell people that
despite their sin, despite their failures and shortcomings, despite all their guilt,
there is a way to be at peace with God, simply by trusting in Jesus. For God
sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved! Jesus gave up his life on the cross, the innocent for
the guilty. He was the lamb of God who died to take away the sins of the world.
Through faith in him we have peace with God. Peace of conscience, in knowing
that our sins are forgiven. In the ultimate peace of knowing that we shall spend
eternity in paradise with our Savior!

That's the peace we have to offer! That's the precious treasure of the gospel
that we carry around in our frail human bodies, like carrying coins of pure gold
in cracked old clay pots. What a precious gift you have to give when you, as an
ambassador for Christ, say "peace to this house!" The person to whom you're
speaking may receive this good news or they may not – that's no business of
yours. Paul said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. --1
Corinthians 3:6. Your work is to proclaim the message of peace through Christ.
God will see that the word you so bears its intended fruit.

“Every army needs a general,” writes political expert Amelia Chass in her
article, “Winning the Advance Game.” A candidate can have a great advance
team and dozens of volunteers, but things will still go badly wrong if there isn’t
someone in charge, someone who is clearly in authority. We Christians don’t
have that problem. We know who’s in charge. For Jesus said, "All authority has
been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
Amen. --Matthew 28:18-20. BEING ON THE ADVANCE TEAM FOR
JESUS IS A GREAT JOB TO HAVE. The companionship is great, the need is
great, the danger is surely great, but the urgency is great as well. Most of all, the
message itself, the message of peace with God through the atoning work of
Jesus Christ, that message is truly great. God grant that we may fulfill our
calling as bearers of that message, and members of our Lord’s advance team!
AMEN.