DISCIPLESHIP LESSONS FROM LUKE(TALK 1/9: SENT)

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

CONNECT: How are you “entering God’s rest” on a daily basis?

WARM-UP

1. What are the key places that you spend most of your time each week? What difference does it make to acknowledge that Jesus has dispatched you there?

READ Luke 9:1-4

2. What are all of the ways in which Jesus was involved in sending the disciples out? How does Luke make it really clear that being sent has little to do with us and everything to do with Jesus?

3. What are the top two or three frontlines that Jesus has sent you? What difference does it make to know that you have been sent by Jesus, according to his authority and power?

4. What is meant by the disciples being sent to proclaim the ‘Kingdom of God”? Compared to the disciples, how do we know even more than they did (at this time) about Jesus’ mission?

5. What are the two key aspects involved in the task of proclaiming the Gospel? 6. How do you think Jesus desires you to show and share the Good News on your frontlines? 7. Why did Jesus instruct them not to take anything with them? What lesson is being taught? 8. On your frontlines, how has God provided everything you need to share and show the Good News? 9. What would help you to show and share the Good News more? Could you pray and ask God for this?

READ Luke 9:5-9

10.Why were the disciples to be dependent on the hospitality of strangers? How does your involvement in other people’s lives provide the opportunity for you to show and share with them in a vulnerable way?

11.What was the ‘shaking of dust’ from their feet all about? Should we act in the same way in our settings? 12.What helps you to cope when rejected for trying to proclaim Jesus? How are people’s responses

actually out of our hands? 13.What effect did this missionary journey have? Why is it so amazing (and important) that the lives of the

disciples caused people to ask questions about Jesus (and not about them)? What in your life causes people to want to ask questions about Jesus?

APPLY: Where has God sent you this week? What is one way that you can show or share the Good News on one of your frontlines this week?

PRAY: Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we are sent to proclaim your Good News on our frontlines. Please embolden us to show and share your Gospel, relying on your authority, power, and the gifts that you have given us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU "

DISCIPLESHIP LESSONS FROM LUKE

(TALK 1/9: SENT)

GOING DEEPER RESOURCES On Your Front Line this Week

• Who in your closest circle of friends doesn’t follow Jesus? Could you invite them to join you for the Public Lecture on Friday 2 August? You might want to offer to go to event of their choosing too. Register here: stbarts.com.au/roryshiner

For Families

• VIDEO: “The Bible Theatre: The Great Commission”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LigbFyfVWBM

Audio and Video

• “How to Cope with Rejection” by Hugh Palmer https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/1157/

• “The Call to Preach” by Kent Hughes: https://resources.thegospelcoalition.org/library/the-call-to-preach-the-gospel

Other Helpful Resources (For Series)

• ARTICLE: “The 6Ms - Uncovering Fruitfulness Where You Are” https://www.licc.org.uk/resources/6ms/

• BOOK: “The One About…8 Stories about God in our everyday” by Mark Greene: https://www.licc.org.uk/ourresources/theoneabout/

• BOOK: Over of Luke by the Bible Project: https://thebibleproject.com/explore/luke/

• BOOK: “Luke (Read, Mark, Learn Series)”:https://www.koorong.com/search/product/luke-volume-1-read-mark-learn-series-william/9781781919118.jhtml

• TALK: “An Introduction to the Gospel of Luke” by William Taylor: https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/53737/

For sermons and additional resources, visit STBARTS.COM.AU "

TALK 1/9 (DISCIPLESHIP LESSONS OF LUKE): 21/07/19 “SENT"

by the Rev’d Adam Lowe

Bible Passage: Luke 9:1-11

Today, we begin a new series, focusing on discipleship lessons from Luke. • Over nine weeks, we’ll be looking at chapters 9-14 of Luke,

to help us to grow not only as disciples of Jesus, but also as disciplemakers for Jesus.

• If you’ve ever read through Luke’s Gospel, especially in one sitting, you may have noticed that right up until the end of chapter 8, that whilst there’s a bunch of disciples following Jesus around the place, they generally take a backseat role.

• But all of sudden when we get to chapter 9, something extraordinary happens: the disciples go from merely following Jesus about, almost as observers of Jesus’ mission,to being unleashed on the world, dispatched by Jesus, as participants in Jesus’ mission.

• It’s quite amazing, that this bunch of guys, who really still have quite a lot to learn about Jesus, who really still need to grasp why Jesus’ mission will lead him to the cross, are ALREADY being prepared by Jesus to continue his work when he is gone.

• And so, in many ways, these chapters read like a series of training exercises. • But it doesn’t just stop there, because…Luke - both here and in Acts -

wants to make it extraordinarily clear to the readers, which includes us, that just as God’s mission continued on through the disciples, it now continues on through us.

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• If you’re a Christian, you are SENT.You are part of a 2000 year long project, of taking the Good News to the ends of the earth.

• The way that God has chosen for his Good News to be announced, from Galilee to the ends of the earth, is through the followers of his son.

• Wherever you spend your time, your main frontlines, I want you to have that place in mind, is where Jesus has sent you.

• We are:

Sent with a TASK;Sent in DEPENDENCE ON GOD’S PROVISION; and Sent without FEAR OF REJECTION.

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#1 SENT WITH A TASK \\ LUKE 9:1-2

So first, followers of Jesus are sent with A TASK: A task that is set by Jesus, and a task that focuses on Jesus.

When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

• Who is the one who calls the twelve together? JesusWho is the one who gives them power? JesusWho is the one who gives them authority? JesusWho is the one who sent them out? JesusWho is the one that their message focuses on? Jesus!

• This wasn’t a brilliant idea sparked by the disciples and done in their own strength.They are sent by Jesus, fuelled by Jesus, directed by Jesus, to proclaim Jesus!

• There’s a pattern in the New Testament: Christians are sent in response to Jesus’ call, in his power, by his authority, with a message that focuses on him. //

• It’s telling that when the disciples go out, it causes people not to want to know more about them, but to want o know more about the one of whom they speak.

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• That doesn’t mean that we will be able to do everything that the Apostles did, That doesn’t mean that we are necessarilly meant to go from village-to-village, but it does mean that wherever your frontlines are, wherever you are this time tomorrow - be it with family, friends, work, school, uni, you have been dispatched there, by none other than the Lord of the universe…//

• I want you to imagine for a moment, that tomorrow morning, and every day this week, when you arrive at whatever your main frontline is, that you remind yourself of your name, and who has sent you there.

“My name is Adam, and I have been called by the Lord Jesus, and given power and authority to proclaim the Kingdom of God….”

• I’m not suggesting you announce that out loud, but remember who has sent you, by what power you go, and that the task finds its focus in him.

We are to proclaim the Kingdom of God: Which means we are to SHOW and SHARE the Good News. • That’s precisely what we see in this encounter.

When they healed people, it was a glimpse that God’s Kingdom had arrived in Jesus. When they proclaimed the kingdom, it was the news that Jesus was God’s King. They SHOWED and SHARED the Good News, and that’s what we are to do as well.

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• Now that doesn’t mean that God is going to act precisely as he did here. God will act according to his purposes, for that time and place. The Apostles, in this instance, had a very specific way to express their call. But that doesn’t make our task of pointing to Jesus any less significant, or any less reliant on what we say, and what we do.

• That means speaking the Good News. • Praying for Gospel conversations, that we’d have the words to say,

boldness to invite people, courage to be identified as a Christian, ready to answer when we’re asked about what we believe.

• But it also means showing, or demonstrating, the Good News. • That’s what the healing was all about - it was a sign pointing to a new reality,

a coming reality that was being made possible through Jesus. • The healing wasn’t the goal in-and-of itself, it was a pointer. The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, talks about six ways, or 6M’s, of proclaiming Jesus on our frontlines, in word and deed. They are to: • MODEL godly character; because you’re reflecting Jesus’ character…

MAKE good work; because everything we do is for God’s glory…MINISTER grace and love; because God is the ultimate source of loving grace…MOULD healthy culture; because the Gospel transforms for good…

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Be a MOUTHPIECE for truth and justice; because that is the very nature of God;Be a MESSENGER of the Gospel; because people need to know the Good News of Jesus,of our need to repent, and that only Jesus alone can save.

• The first four are mostly about living consistently, the last two are really about living courageously.

• If you show concern to a friend, your pointing to the character of God; When you forgive someone in your workplace, your ministering love and grace;When you act with integrity, your being a mouthpiece of truth and justice;When you give an answer for the faith that you have, You’re being a MESSENGER of the Gospel.

• They’re all ways of pointing to God’s Kingdom, and our King. • Not that people would be impressed with us,

but that they would be impressed with the one for whom we live. • We are SENT WITH A TASK to proclaim the Good NEWS.

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#2 SENT IN DEPENDENCE ON GOD’S PROVISION \\ LUKE 9:3-4

Second, we are sent in dependence on God’s PROVISION.

[Jesus] told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. (vv.3-4)

They’re going with nothing but the shirt on their back… • If you’re an adventurer then this might really thrill you

as some sort of survival exercise, but for most people, this is terrifying! • In practical terms, as the disciples go out, from village-to-village,

it would have made them really vulnerable. • No staff to help them walk along or to defend them as they went.

No bag to carry things that they might be tempted to collect as they go.No bread to eat, nor any money to buy food.No means to pay for accommodation, not even a spare shirt.

• Now the point of course that Jesus was teaching them, could not have possibly been that all Jesus-shaped mission is poverty-stricken, nor that all Jesus-shaped mission should be devoid of any form of planning!

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• That can’t be the point, because later on in Luke, in chapter 22,Jesus has quite a comprehensive list of what they should take, instead of comprehensively prohibiting them from taking anything at all!

• No, what is being expressed here, is that as the disciples respond to Jesus’ call of being sent, in the reflection that they only ultimately go in his power and authority, that they are to go in utter dependence on him.

• On what he provides because that is all that we ultimately have. • We often delude ourselves to think that we do things in our strength or by our own power,

in a way that can cause us to drift into independence rather than dependence on God. • Sometimes it’s not until everything is stripped back, that we begin to press into God!

Can you imagine, stripped of food, money, spare clothes, what that would have done for the disciples prayers lives as they went!

• If the disciples are to do what God had in store for them, and if we are to do, what God has in store for us, we can only begin to attempt it, if we are dependent on the one who makes the impossible possible.

• If we think it’s dependent on us, of course it will limit the way we act. We can think, well I can’t possibly tell someone about Jesus until I’ve done more training, or read another book, or until God gives me a gift of evangelism,

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when in fact the reality is, that if God’s sent us into a situation, in the power of his Spirit,then we’ve got to trust that he’s actually provided everything that we need.

• What is missing is so often not the thing we think we need, but an expression of dependence in what God has already provided.

But the Apostles dependence on God’s provision, was not just for their own benefit, but also for those to whom they were sent.

• See, not only would have staying with people, as they opened up their homes, given the Apostles an opportunity to demonstrate the Gospel with their lives, not only would it have given deep opportunity to share Good News, but it would have also left no mistake about what motivated them to do it.

• When the Apostles’ went out, there were false prophets who went from village-to-village, to make themselves rich. They did it for their own comfort and personal gain.

• But the Apostles - who were clearly not doing it for their own gain - could not possibly be accused of that.

• Can you imagine, as they went out expressing such a radical dependence on God,just how powerful of a witness that would have been!

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• That should cause us to wonder, that as we go to our frontlines, what are the ways in which our lives express a dependence on God?

• Do we only do things when we think that we’re able? Or when we’re comfortable? Or do we trust in God no matter how things looks because we’re confident in his provision?

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#3 SENT WITHOUT FEAR OF REJECTION \\ LUKE 9:5-6

Finally, we are sent without fear of REJECTION.

If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” (v.5)

Shaking the dust from their feet would have been incredibly offensive! • There were strict Jews at the time who when they left a Gentile area,

would shake the dust from their feet as a sign that they were separate from the Gentiles. • But through the dust being shaken, Jesus is making the point that,

if the people of a Jewish town rejected the Apostles, they are the ones who do not belong to the Kingdom of God.

• Now - this is not an invitation to go and do the same! As the Apostles went from village-to-village, in a Jewish context, in a temporary missional setting, it was a poignant cultural symbol.

• If you do that to people, they will just think it’s weird and rude. • If someone at work turns down your invitation to the public lecture, I don’t recommend

in some dramatic scene to shake dust from your shoes and storm out! !12

• That’s going to build a real barrier, make it really awkwardwhen you turn up to work the very next day, and the day after that, seeing to be a witness for Jesus in that place.

• No, that’s not what we’re meant to learn or apply from this. • See the reason why the disciples could do this,

the reason why the disciples could move on, and not be devastated because they were so discouraged, because it reminded them that they were not ultimately responsible for how the message was received.

• They absolutely had a responsibility to present the Good News in an appropriate way,but they couldn’t possibly take responsibility for how people responded.

Sometimes we can feel so discouraged when people seem disinterested. Sometimes we can have a sense of personal rejection, like it’s me who has been rejected. • But the Apostles are being reminded, that it’s Jesus who has been rejected, not us,

and that when we do all that can do in that moment, we must leave the rest up to God. • You see what is happening here?

That we can go without fear of rejection, not by avoiding it, but by how we cope with it. • Not by wanting to come out fighting, or wanting to run and hide,

but continuing on with the task, in the places where God has sent us. !13

CONCLUSION \\ Sent or Receiving?

If you’re a Christian, being SENT isn’t an optional extra. • You’re sent now. God has placed you right in the place where he would have you,

He’s given you everything that you need, to show and share the Good News. • And the way that we tap into the resources that he has provided,

is by expressing our dependence in him. // • I love that as the Apostles go out, as the news of the events spread,

that it causes people not to enquire about who they are,but to ask about WHO WAS this person of whom they spoke.

• The things they said, and the way they lived, had the natural result that caused people to want to know more about Jesus.

• Herod was perplexed and so he wanted to know more about Jesus. // • I love the idea that tomorrow as we are all dispatched to our frontlines,

that people all over Toowoomba, in every nook and cranny, might be so intrigued by the message of the Gospel, and the ways that Christians live,that they can’t help by want to know more about this Jesus who we believe has sent us.

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And if you’re here today, and you don’t yet count yourself as a follower of Jesus, we believe that you’re here for a reason. It really is the most extraordinary news: • You’re here, because God, just like he did with the Apostles,

has sent his followers to you this very day, so that you might hear the incredible news of Jesus: and decide for yourself who this Jesus is.

• Some people found accepting Jesus so difficult that they came up with all sorts of other solutions.

• Some people found it too challenging and simply rejected the news.

• But today the Good News has been sent to you. Today is your opportunity to respond.Today is the day to decide exactly who Jesus is.

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