Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: So we're going to read Luke 8. Sorry, 9. Jacob, you're going to come and help me halfway through, aren't you?
So here we go. Let's read the word of the Lord this morning. So when Jesus had called the 12 together, he gave them power and authority. Everyone say power and authority. Power and authority to drive out some demons. No, you're knowing your word. I love it. To drive out all demons or it is behind and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He told them, take nothing for the journey. No staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. There's some faith, isn't them? Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them. So they sat out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere. You can just sense the excitement, can't you Just. We're being sent out for the first time as disciples.
We're going to go and do what Jesus did. Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on and he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been. Had appeared, sorry John had been raised from the dead. Others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. But Herod said, I beheaded John.
Who then is this I hear such things about? And he tried to see him.
Just mention something about this, you know. The disciples went out. Herod didn't want to see the disciples.
Herod wanted to see Jesus because of what the disciples were saying. It's so important that we always point people to Jesus, not ourselves, right?
When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done.
Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida. But the crowds learned about it and followed him. Poor Jesus.
He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who who needed healing. Late in the afternoon, the 12 came to him and said, send the crowd away so that they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.
Jesus replied, you give them something to eat.
They answered, we only have five loaves of bread and two fish unless we go and buy food for all this crowd. About 5,000 men were there and he said to his disciples, have them sit down in groups of about 50 each. The disciples did so and everyone Sat down, taking the five loaves and the two fish. And looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of broken pieces of bread that were left over.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Once, when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, who do the crowd say I am?
They replied, Some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. And still others that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.
But what about the issue? He asks, who do you say I am?
Peter answered, God's Messiah.
Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. Then he said, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law. And he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
Then he said to them all, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will save it.
When God is for someone to gain, what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Whoever is ashamed would be me. And my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Truly, I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Jacob. May God bless his word to us this morning. So this morning, what we're going to do over chapter nine because it's quite meaty and we're going through. Want to finish the end of this year, the book of Luke. We going to look at some key moments in chapter nine that I believe. The Lord wants to speak to us this morning.
The first key moment in chapter nine.
Okay. Jesus sends the disciples out to proclaim the kingdom of God. We've got a map coming up. Have we got a map coming up?
Yeah. So this is the map that you're well acquainted with.
You can see there. We're going to be crossing to Bethsaida today.
But all around Galilee, Jesus has had his ministry with his disciples. And this is the moment you get to go on mission. Jesus is like, I have spent all this time training you. It's now over to you. I can imagine. There is this. We're excited, but, oh, crumbs, here we go.
We're going out.
We are going out.
And they were to proclaim the kingdom of God. For a moment. Can we just see what scripture says about proclaiming the kingdom of God? It's not us going, hey, we know a man called Jesus.
And then going, if you run into a supermarket and go, hey, Jesus is alive. He's real, and runs out.
I mean, that's a start.
But it's not fully proclaiming the kingdom of God. Let's just look at what Jesus says. He says, I have given you power and authority.
If you feel very small being a Christian, right?
Yeah, kind of. Good, because this is all about Jesus. But he has given you, little saint, power and authority.
Yes. You and you and you and you.
He's given the mum at the back. He's given you power and authority only in his name.
He's given you power and authority to drive out demons. Oh, sounds a bit scary, doesn't it? It's not really, because we're in a spiritual battle.
If the saint can't drive out demons, then the church is in trouble.
Okay?
He's given power and authority to cure diseases.
If the church doesn't believe in the supernatural power of God to heal, then we're in trouble as well.
Because let me tell you, you don't need healing in heaven.
We don't need healing ministry in heaven.
We don't need the gospel preaching in heaven.
Come on, we'll be completely perfect.
And then Jesus says, I want you to go and heal the sick.
So it was a proclamation of the gospel, but it was also a demonstration of the gospel. All right, for too long, the church has been great at proclaiming, but we are at a time now that is serious. You heard Phil talk about it where people need to see a demonstration.
Yes, the disciples. And it's not that the church is going well. Unless we see these signs and wonders, we're not going to believe in the power of God. No, no, no, no, no.
God is saying, I've given you power of authority. You need to exercise what I've given you in faith.
And then you will see the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. So in other words, expect God to show up.
Jesus was releasing the disciples and he was saying, expect me to show up. When I'm with you, expect me to show up. And 2,000 years later, he is still saying to the church, expect me to turn up.
I'm not sure we really do, because if we did, our faith would be really great.
We would have a lot of boldness.
Have you ever stepped out and you're like, I feel like a little sheep Here I don't feel like a lion, but that's okay because he says, all you need is faith as a mustard seed.
Trust in me.
Trust in me.
In Luke 9, I don't just go over historical facts here. Is everybody with me?
Yep, you're all there. Right. Okay. In Luke 9, we reached a real crucial point in the chat in the book of Luke. All right? Did you know that we are already two years in to three years of Jesus's ministry?
Actually, just over two years.
So when we've reached Luke chapter nine, two years have been covered already.
Wow.
All of the ministry has been done in the north, in Galilee.
Right. Two years is significant. I sense the Lord say to me, right, there are some lovely new Christians or people have recently committed their lives back to Christ. Okay?
I want to say to you, I believe two years is significant for our new Christians in this place.
Right?
Two years. The disciples, there were three years in total, but there was two years of significant training for the disciples. If you are a new Christian, I want to say to you this morning, spend the next two years, should the Lord tarry, spend the next two years sitting under the preaching of God's word.
Get yourself hungry and thirsty. Get yourselves in the Scriptures, okay? And then within two years, I believe the Lord is going to do incredible things in your life.
Right? Two years is crucial. I'll tell you why. Because people either drop off, they either walk away. Phil spoke about it the other week, about the parable of the Sower. In that time frame, people either leave the church and they go and they realise, actually maybe I just got caught up in emotion, it wasn't really true.
Or after two years, there's a disciple in the making ready to be used for the purposes of God. Two years. Do it consistently.
Sit under the preaching, the anointing, I mean the anointing now of the preaching of God's word for two years. Get your paper copy, mark it, because as you read it, the Lord is going to speak to you.
I remember my first Bible that my dog chewed. I had it like, from a young teenager till I was about 20 and God had spoken over my life. I marked it with dates and my flipping golden doodle annihilated it one day when I was in the house of God.
I was in the house of God. I'm like, lord.
And he annihilated it. Oh, I'm not forgiving him. That's the only person I'm not. Well, he's not a person, is he? He's a dog.
So two years and for two years they were with the Lord.
And I sensed the Lord saying, expect me to show up church.
He's given us authority and power.
I just want to delve into 1 Corinthians really quick. 1 Corinthians 2.
Paul actually says this. He says, I came to you.
My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. Can we just. Is it up? Can we.
Does it come up? Yeah, brilliant. With wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power. Now get this bit so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
We have rested as the church on human wisdom.
People in the pulpit, that sound great. We have, we prayed in the upper room today. We said, lord, let it not just be a day of proclamation, but a day of demonstration.
Are you expecting, I hope you don't mind me saying, I spoke to Andrew today. Andrew's got, you know, some illness. I said, put your hand during the service, put your hand wherever you need healing. And in the name of Jesus, we're going to believe that God is going to heal people today right here in this space. And Paul says, I'm not come. He said, so your faith might not rest on human wisdom.
Don't let your faith rest on human wisdom.
If anything that I say that is not in the Spirit, don't let, don't rest on it.
Rest on God's power.
You see, true faith.
True faith banks on God showing up.
Let me say that again. True faith banks on God showing up. It says, lord, I am stepping out and I am relying on your power to back me up. That's what true faith is.
Isn't it about time that we put our trust and faith in God turning up with a demonstration of his power? Heidi Baker, if you want to read some stuff over summer, I'm going to send out a list. In fact, a few of you have asked, what can I read this summer? So I'm going to send out an email. But Heidi Baker. Get some books by Heidi Baker in Testimony's and I hope I get this story right. If I don't. Well, Heidi listens to my sermons often so she will correct me if I'm only joking. You can laugh.
But Heidi Baker, she as a 45 year old woman, she was a burnt out missionary.
She had gone in her own strength, wanted to save the world, going to the nations.
And she went to a little revival called Toronto. In a place called Toronto where God touched her mightily, all right?
And she said God changed her ministry.
And she went out to Mozambique. She's planted over 10,000 churches.
She's seen hundreds of people healed. They've seen resurrections from the dead.
And she said, but it took a few years of stepping out in faith, what I've said, taking on the authority and the power that God has given us. And she said, there was a lady she came across who had leprosy. I remember when we looked at the man with leprosy, we looked at what that looked like, the horrible images of leprosy. And leprosy is very contagious, all right. But Heidi had such faith in the Lord that she went close to the woman. If you know anything about Heidi Baker, when she goes close, I mean, she goes close, sweat tears on her, everything of the other person, all right? And she is praying over this lady with leprosy.
Nothing happens.
And so Heidi goes away, doesn't see the lady. And for three weeks, the enemy taunts her.
The enemy says to her, speaks over her and says, you've gone too far.
You're going to die now of leprosy, You're a goner. For three weeks, the enemy taunts her.
The discipleship. Life's fun, right?
After three weeks, she's walking in the marketplace in Mozambique.
This woman runs up behind her and she says, mama, Heidi, Mama, Heidi, I'm healed. I'm healed. And this is recently. I'm healed. I'm healed. I'm healed.
And Heidi's like, they just embraced each other. And she knew then she knew not just the woman was healed, but the taunts of the enemy had spoken, stopped. And Heidi hasn't got leprosy.
But can you see? That's the faith carrying the authority and power and stepping out in faith and knowing God. You're going to back me up. You're going to back me up. I better move on.
And Paul goes on to say, I love this. I haven't got time to go into it. Can you go to the next one? He says, I'm going to come. So he talks to the Corinthian Church. He says, I'm going to come to you very soon. And there are some people really mouthing off.
Christians, so called Christians, mouthing off, giving it large. And Paul comes along. I love Paul. Think about the first person you want to see when you get into heaven. I'm going to go to Paul.
And Paul says, do you know what?
I'm going to find out who these arrogant people are who are giving it everything. I want to see what power they've got.
And he goes on to say, you see, because the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk.
It is of power.
It's of power.
Expect God to show up. Tilly and the family aren't here this morning, but Tilly sent us another amazing kind of story of what's been happening at Dayo Gloria this week.
There's been just some wonderful encounters with people.
God showing up in the every day of our lives.
And then this is what he prays. Paul says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope. Everyone say hope, to which he's called you. Do you know the hope, the riches of his internal inheritance in the holy people. And then lastly, it says, in the incomparable great power for us who believe as a leadership team. This week I sent this to our leadership team, and I said, get this. Get this out.
I said, we are praying this over. Rediscover Newton Abbott for the rest of this year that we may know the hope to which he's called us. The riches of his great inheritance and the power of God in and through our lives. Amen. Because the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.
If we believe that the same spirit.
All right, so the first thing, the first key moment was that Jesus sent out the disciples. If he sends out the disciples, it wasn't just for 2000 years ago. He sends us out. It's great to gather like this on a Sunday, but tomorrow, you know, we get sent out.
We get sent out.
And I want you to remember these words that he has given us authority and power.
I just want to make an important note here on this journey that the news reached Herod. Herod was one of four kings in the area who were kind of left to look after the Holy Land.
I don't want to go too much into this because somebody will preach on it, but Herod hated Jesus.
He hated Jesus. He became an enemy of Jesus. It is this same Herod that when we get to the end of Luke, Pontius Pilate, Jesus is in chains and Pontius Pilate is thrown before Herod. And it's at this point that Herod finally sees Jesus after hearing about him. All right, but in Luke 13, Jesus was warned about Herod.
And it's funny, isn't it? The Pharisees, the Pharisees warned Jesus.
Herod wants to kill you.
And this is what Jesus says. He says, go tell that fox.
Imagine Jesus calling somebody A fox. You fox.
So if I call you a fox one day, I'm just doing what Jesus. No, no, I'm kidding you.
Jesus said, get this. It's amazing. Go tell that fox I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow.
And on the third day, I will reach my goal.
In other words, he's telling him, I will not be scared of you. I have been called to bring the kingdom to Earth. And not only that, I'm going to do it every day because God has purposed me to do this. And I'm not going to be scared of you because I'm. The third day, I'm going to reach my goal. I am going to fulfill the mission. I'm going to do what God has called me to do. I'm going to accomplish my purpose.
In other words, Jesus was saying, no one can stop the power of God. No one.
When we look out and see an awful lot of power in our world, across leaders and nations, let me tell you, no one can stop the power of God.
Okay, moving on really quickly. I've only got three. Okay. Another key moment in chapter nine. Feeding the 5000. Discoveryland kids are feeding the 5000 today. Not feeding the 5000. They're doing. The 5000 disciples turned from their mission and Jesus took them to Bethsaida. And this is really important because there's now a turning point. There's a turning point of where they're going.
Three key things. I just want to brush over this really quickly this morning. Three key things about feeding the 5,000 that I want to talk to us about as a church.
Jesus said to them, you go and feed them. Didn't he?
Okay. And they're looking and going, well, I've got some five loaves. Some kid has brought five loaves here and I've got two fish here. And they're looking at it.
I want to say to us as a church, right?
Surrender everything you have to the Lord.
Massive, isn't it?
Surrender absolutely everything. Parents, surrender your kids, surrender your bank accounts, surrender your plans, because that's the kind of disciples he's looking for.
Surrender your relationships.
Let him work with your five loaves and two fish.
Let him work with it every day. Keep going. Say, God, this is all I have, but I am surrendering it to you. Why is surrender so important?
Laying down is important because unless something is buried, killed, dead, surrendered, there can't be a resurrection. There can't be life. There can't be multiplication, There can't be miracles without the surrender.
This is the kingdom way.
Could five loaves and two fish bring a miracle?
Disciples didn't think so.
And you're like, well, I've only got this.
You speak over what you've got.
You surrender it to the Lord and you say, this is a miracle.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: In.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: In the waiting.
This is a miracle waiting to happen.
In my finances, in my school, in my university, in my relationships, in my marriage.
If you think it's dead, don't try and resurrect something in your own strength.
Surrender it to the Lord.
If you think your marriage is dead, if you think your children are far away from the Lord, surrender and say, lord, this is my miracle about to happen.
This is it.
This is the Kingdom way.
Remember what Paul said. Again, let's remind ourselves I'm not testing on human wisdom. I'm not resting myself on human wisdom. One of the first verses in the Bible I Learned was Proverbs 3, verse 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think. I think I know. But remember the Lord in everything I do, and he will show me the right way.
He will make all it right when I don't rely on my human wisdom.
Obey him, even when it looks impossible.
Oh, I love it.
Anybody ready to kind of like step out a bit?
Anybody really ready to go for it? Anybody fed up of a bit of boring church that we've had for decades?
Don't look at me like you in a disagreement. I know you agree it might look a bit messy.
Obey him, even when, naturally speaking, it looks impossible.
It's the Kingdom way.
Forget the world's way. It doesn't work. I'll give you that for free. It doesn't work. Some of you can raise your hand and go, I know it doesn't work because I've been in the world for too long. But thank God, he saved me.
Finally on this section, he wants to work through us. He wants to work through ordinary people. And I cannot bash this drum enough, okay? It is not for the superstar Christian.
The Kingdom work is not for the one who seems to have it all together. It is for average, everyday people like you and I.
At 20, I would never have even got in a pulpit.
I used to blush from here to here if anybody used to speak to me. I mean, I didn't get married till I was nearly 30.
I lacked so much confidence.
But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and he empowers you, he fulfills his purposes through us, and miracles start to take place. Corrie 10 Boom. Anyone like Corrie Ten Boom?
Boom. Sorry I had to do that. Corrie 10. Boom. So in Nazi Germany. Do a quick story. Nazi Germany.
Corrie and her sister Betsy and her father, they hid a load of Jews from the Nazis in Holland. And they actually, in Corrie's bedroom in the top floor, they put a false wall and hid a load of Jewish people, families behind the false wall so that when the Nazis came and raided their home, these Jews would be safe. And they did that, okay, for a period of time. But their neighbour, we all love neighbors, grassed on them.
And the Nazis came in, bashed down the false wall. And Corrie, her sister Betsy and the father, in fact, she never saw her father again after this, were taken to a concentration camp.
In the concentration camp, Betsy's sister had a vitamin deficiency, all right? She. She needed these drops, these special drops to keep her blood sugar, all that kind of stuff, all right? And when they went, when they were taken into the concentration camp, in the prison camp, Corrie only had a few little drops to give her sister. Probably would only last a couple of days, all right? And when Corrie gets in this room, in the prison room that, that they're in with a load of other women, she finds out there's a handful of women who also have this deficiency in these vitamins.
And Cora's looking at this tiny little, tiny little vitamin drop bottle, thinking, I've only got enough for my sister.
Like literally two days, maybe three days worth.
There's all these women, Lord, what do I do?
And she sends the Lord say, give every single one the drops that they need.
She's like, this is serious. In those days, her sister could have died from these lack of vitamins.
So every morning she would put a drop. She would go down the line and put a drop in each of the women's mouths. All right? Day two came.
She goes down the line, oh, there's still some.
Maybe tomorrow it's going to run out. But she said, no, I'm going to keep going. Day three puts the drops in.
A week later, the drops, couple of weeks later, the drops are still going. And then on a certain day, the drops stop.
She runs out and she goes before the Lord and she says, lord, has my faith disappeared?
Have I stopped having faith for this miracle to continue?
Heard nothing.
Nighttime comes. It is getting serious. She knows tomorrow morning she needs. She hasn't got anything. Okay, Nighttime comes.
One of the women, who obviously were very cheeky, had gone out and stolen from a store cupboard from the Nazi camp a load of boxes. Medicines had arrived on site. That day.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: And.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: And she had stolen a load of boxes.
Didn't know what was in them. You know where I'm going.
Steals all these boxes, runs back quickly to the room where all these women are, and they start to take out the medicine, hoping there could be something. And there are bottles upon bottles upon bottles of these vitamin drops that they need.
When God multiplies, he does it good.
The day that those 5,000, there was more than 5,000, that was just men.
When God multiplied the loaves and the fishes, there was more left over.
Do you know why?
Because he's good.
He's more than good, he's great.
And he wants to do above and beyond in your situation. Situation.
But we've just got to believe that the miracle is going to happen.
For nothing is impossible with God.
He wants to use you. If I can use a little Danish lady to see miracles in a Nazi camp, he can use you.
The final thing this morning, we just. Yeah, let's just. Let's just posture our hearts. The Lord wants to speak. The Lord is moving this morning. We're going to wrap up. Can we have a bit of music on?
I just want us to get into a bit of a worship time this morning. Third thing is, could you have the map back on as well? Only when you've got time, Jacob.
We've spent two or so years in Galilee.
The lovely teaching, the miracles that they've seen.
I imagine the disciples were on a real high.
Yeah.
But now the gaze is towards Jerusalem.
We are heading towards the cross.
Yeah.
The gaze is now to the cross. And this is something the disciples could not understand. You wouldn't, would you? Come on, let's be honest.
Jesus is predicting his death. And they're like, what's he going on about? We know because we know.
And they failed to understand. And Jesus was giving them a revelation of the cross.
He was explaining to them why Jesus had to suffer.
Jesus had to suffer for the sins of the world. He had to. That was his mission.
Jesus had to be rejected.
I know some of you have been rejected because of your stance for the gospel. Because you tell me some family members just don't get.
Don't get it.
Jesus was killed.
Jesus had to be then raised to life.
That's why baptism is so important, the symbolism of baptism, because all of these things had to happen.
And so when it comes to us today as disciples, the way that we unite ourselves with Christ is that when we go down into the water, we're saying, jesus, I am dying with you.
Do you know why because without a death, there's no resurrection.
Word of God says that if we will die with him, if we will die to self, then we also will rise to a new life in Christ. Amen.
Those who follow him must take up. Look, verse 24 must take up their cross and daily follow him.
Regardless of what you think, regardless of what your human wisdom thinks today, if you want to be serious about your discipleship journey with Christ, it's taking up your cross.
Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Whoever tries to find their life. In other words, if you try to keep your own life, you're going to lose it.
Jesus said to Peter, I'm finishing up here. He said, who do you think that I am after two years of being with Jesus? Jesus says, come on then, who do you really think I am?
Don't we need a revelation today of who he really is? And we hope this series the Fullness of Christ. I think we've had glimpse, but we haven't really understood the fullness of who Christ is. Two years they've been with Jesus. They don't know it, but time is of the essence.
They've got about another 12 months left, if that with Jesus. And they didn't know it. Jesus knew it, but they didn't know it. And Peter's response, yeah, we'll just turn the music off now, it's fine. Peter's response, just turn it down.
He says, I've seen the healings, I've seen the miracles. I've seen you feed 5,000. I've seen you still in the storm. I've seen you raising the dead.
You are the Christ.
And this is really important because do you know what that means when he says you're the Christ? It says, jesus, you've lived before.
Powerful.
You've lived before.
You've not just existed these 30 years, you are from eternity.
You are the king, you are the savior of the world. You are the promised Messiah that has come to save people from their sins, to bring the Kingdom of God church. I pray that we have such revelation this year as a church of who he is, who he is. The discipleship life is a tough life.
It's tough, honestly. The mad people that just say, oh, you get it so easy. You must get it so easy, right? My dad has got weeks to live.
Like, weeks to live.
I had a brother that died. Things have not been easy.
But I have got a history with God that makes it maybe look easier than what it is, but it isn't easy. It is a tough life. You know what you have to do? You have to die to self.
We've got some changes coming up as a church.
They're exciting, but not all of you may think they're exciting, but they're for the good of the church.
And they're exciting because we want to see Newton Abbott one for Jesus.
We're not getting cosy in the four walls here.
There's not enough dead Christians.
Do you understand what I mean by that?
There's not enough dead Christians. Christians who will say, I'm dying to self.
We've got to die again. Will you just stand with me this morning?
Tough life, but the best life.
I want to give us an opportunity this morning.
First one. If you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, I'm going to give you an opportunity to respond. I'm not going to call you out. I'm just going to get you to raise your hand in a moment. And then the other opportunity I want to give this morning is for people to recommit their lives afresh to God.
In other words, you're saying, I'm going to step out again today and pick up my cross.
I'm going to pick up my cross. I'm going to put my life on the altar again.
