Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Good morning, everybody.
[00:00:06] Are you there? Morning.
[00:00:09] It's really good to see you. My name's Graham, and Liz and I have been part of this congregation for coming up for a couple of years. So it's really great to be joining with us this morning as we come and look at a passage from the Gospel of Luke together this morning. So if you have a Bible with you, we're going to be looking at Luke, chapter 10, and we're going to be reading the first 24 verses. And as I do so, I would encourage you to be thinking about your week to come. Just think about the places that you may be going, the places you know about, maybe a workplace, maybe visiting family, maybe you're going on holiday, maybe you're going away, and maybe there are places you don't know yet where you'll be going. And as we read this, be thinking to yourself, are you willing to say to the Lord, send me.
[00:01:02] Send me to proclaim the kingdom of God. So Luke, chapter 10.
[00:01:07] The Lord now chose 72 other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit.
[00:01:17] These were his instructions to them. The harvest is great, but the workers are few.
[00:01:23] So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest. Ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go. And remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don't take any money with you, nor a traveler's bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. And don't stop to greet anyone on the road.
[00:01:44] Whenever you enter someone's home, first say, may God's peace be on this house. If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand. If they are not, the blessing will return to you. Don't move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide.
[00:02:01] Don't hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work deserve their pay.
[00:02:07] If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you, heal the sick and tell them the kingdom of God is near you now.
[00:02:16] But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, we wipe even the dust of your town from our feet to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this, the kingdom of God is near. I assure you, even wicked Sodom will be better off than such a town on Judgment Day.
[00:02:36] What sorrow awaits you, Chorazin and Bethsaida? For if the miracles I did had been done in Wicked Ty, if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon Their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. Yes, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on Judgment Day than you. And you, people of Capernaum, will be honored in heaven. Will you be honored in heaven? No. You will go down to the place of the dead.
[00:03:07] And then he said to the disciples, anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me. And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God who sent me.
[00:03:20] When the 72 disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name. Yes, he told them, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Look, I've given you authority over all the power of the enemy. And. And you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.
[00:03:41] But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey you. Rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.
[00:03:49] At the same time, Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit. And he said, oh, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever and for revealing them to the childlike.
[00:04:03] Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.
[00:04:06] My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father. And no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
[00:04:18] When they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said, blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen. I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but they didn't see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn't hear it.
[00:04:33] Shall we pray?
[00:04:36] Just to invite each one of us now to say a prayer in our hearts to the Lord, asking him to show us what he wants to teach us this morning. It'll be different for each person here.
[00:04:54] There'll be people here who have read Bibles for years.
[00:04:59] There'll be people here maybe who are very new to it.
[00:05:02] The exciting thing is the Lord has something to say to each and every one.
[00:05:07] And so our prayer, if you're willing to pray, is, lord, teach me this morning.
[00:05:12] Show me through your spirit something new, something fresh, something inspiring, encouraging and challenging that will help me proclaim the kingdom of God.
[00:05:23] In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:05:27] Amen. It is a really challenging and exciting passage, and I come to it with a bit of trepidation because I wouldn't call myself a great missionary. I wouldn't Call myself someone who is very good at going out and telling people about Jesus. There'll be people in this room or people listening to this podcast who will be much better at it than I am. So I am not an expert, but I will share with you some of the things I think this passage is telling us. I'll share a story, something that happened to me a few weeks ago that I find helpful in understanding this passage. But I am encouraged that I think that for myself. I think I probably tell people more about Jesus now than I did before.
[00:06:07] And I still think there's plenty of room for improvement. You may identify with that.
[00:06:13] This passage is about them. In the midpoint of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus has been gathering his followers together. He's been teaching them about the kingdom of God, and now he's beginning to send them out. In chapter nine, he sent his 12 disciples out. Now he's sending 72, or some translations have 70. He's beginning to send them out to represent them. And before we get into it, there's two sort of introductory things I just wanted to say. First of all, I. I don't think this passage is a template for how to do mission. It's not saying you have to do mission like this. You have to get into groups of 72, you have to go out in pairs, you have to have a spare pair of sandals. You have to go and live in somebody's home. It's not saying that's how to do it.
[00:06:57] It's neither that. But it's not a one off either. It's not Jesus having a good idea on the spur of the moment and thinking, I know, I'll just send out some people, people to tell people about, about the kingdom of God and then we'll never do it again. It's not like that either. It's part of the whole biblical narrative which shows God wanting his people to reflect him back to the world, to represent him into the world. So it's applicable, I think, to all of us this morning.
[00:07:26] It's also, and I think this is important, this passage to me is not about friendships, family relationships. There are types of different types of evangelism, different types of mission. And sometimes, you know, if we have a close relationship with somebody, that will take time.
[00:07:43] If we're married to someone who's not a Christian, if we have long standing friendships where they're not a Christian, that's slightly different. This passage here is about being sent out into places where you don't know people so well and you don't necessarily know who you're going to be encountering. So we'll be looking at it for, from that point of view this morning, encountering people we don't know with the express purpose of proclaiming Jesus.
[00:08:08] So we're going to look at it in two ways. We're going to go through the passage a couple of times, very briefly. The first time we're going to be thinking about what does it mean to proclaim the kingdom of God. I think this passage is saying to us, go out and proclaim the kingdom of God. But it's also telling us we need to recognize we're doing it within the context of a spiritual battle.
[00:08:28] There is a battle going on, there is one who doesn't want us to proclaim. There is one who doesn't want people to put their faith in Jesus. And this passage is very real about that.
[00:08:38] So let's have a look at proclaiming the kingdom of God. I've got quite a few points, but they're very short. So don't panic.
[00:08:44] Don't panic. So first of all, we need to recognize this passage tells us that proclaiming the kingdom of God is Jesus's strategy. It's not our idea, it's not something we've come up with. It's Jesus's strategy. It tells us here in verse 1, the Lord chose, the Lord sent, these were his instructions.
[00:09:03] He sent them to places that he was planning to visit. And then in verse 19, he says, I have given you authority.
[00:09:11] We are sent by Jesus himself. We're commissioned by Jesus, we're empowered by his spirit. It's not our idea, it his idea. And we are joining in with him so we can go confident that we have been sent by Jesus himself. And in verse 17 and 20 and 21 you can see they come back. These disciples come back and they, they are excited and they tell Jesus what's been happening. And Jesus is really thrilled for them. And he loves the fact that that's been going on. And what we see here is an ancient discipleship pattern. It's called Talmudim.
[00:09:47] And it's what the rabbis in Jesus day would have done in order to teach people how to be a follower. Sometimes in our education system we think to ourselves, what you do is you go to school, you learn something, and then you go out into the world and you put it into practice and you see how it all goes.
[00:10:04] The Rabbi way of doing things with Hitler disciples was to say to people, I want you to go out and do something and then come back and tell me how it went, and let's learn from the experience. And that's what Jesus is doing. He's saying, you've been with me for a number of years, I've taught you lots. Now I want you to go out and do it and then come back and tell me how it went. And we'll reflect and we'll review and we'll learn, and then we'll go out and do it again. And that's a really great thing to learn.
[00:10:30] So being a follower of Jesus is not a passive academic exercise. It's about listening to him saying, off you go, pray for the sick, do what I've asked you to do. Come back and let's chat about it and let's learn from it, and then let's go out and do it again.
[00:10:47] So it's engaged and in action. The second thing we learn after the fact that it's Jesus strategy is it's a team effort. He sends them out two by two and says, off you go.
[00:10:59] And there's probably two reasons for that. One is because it's always good to have someone's back, isn't it? It's always good for you to travel with someone and to be able to talk to them about how things are going, the challenges, the difficulties, the excitements and so on. Having somebody who's got your back is really important. But also In Deuteronomy, chapter 19, verse 15, it says that facts must be established by two witnesses. And so it's like Jesus is saying, I'm sending you out two by two so people will know that what you're telling them is the truth. It's not just one person going out, it's two people going out.
[00:11:32] And I think that's really important.
[00:11:33] So a question that I can ask myself is, have I got someone to tell my stories with? Have I got someone who's got my back? Have I got someone who I can check out the truth with and say, this is what I'm thinking. The Bible is saying, do you share that understanding with me as well? That's what it is. Be part of being a team effort. It was wonderful the other day to go out on prayer walks and in pairs and in groups to be able to pray for our communities and then come back and share those stories through WhatsApp and Facebook and so on. Really exciting stuff.
[00:12:08] But then in verse four, if you've got your Bible with you, verse four, things start to turn, a slightly uncomfortable turn. So it's really exciting. Yes, I'm going to go out in pairs yes, I'm going to go out. Yes, I'm going to tell people about Jesus. And then it says in verse four, don't take any money with you, nor a traveler's bag, nor an extra pair of sandals.
[00:12:29] And in verse 19, it talks about snakes and scorpions as well. Just to make things even less comfortable.
[00:12:35] Does anyone watch Race across the World?
[00:12:37] Yeah. You know, that season, that bit at the beginning of each season in Race across the World, where they turn up to wherever they're going to begin the race and they have to hand in their cash and their credit cards and their mobile phones and they've got nothing apart from what the organizers choose to give them. It's a bit like that, isn't it? Jesus saying, I don't want you to rely on your own resources, I want you to rely on my resources. And what I have is sufficient for what you need. Psalm 23, verse 1 says, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And last week Elie talked about the cost of following Jesus. It's not always easy. It's the cost of comfort, the cost of giving up control, the cost of making commitment. It's not always easy. But Jesus is reminding us, you've got to stay focused. You have got to keep the main thing, the main thing which is talking about Jesus and the kingdom of God. He says, don't even stop on the way to greet anyone. He's saying, don't be distracted, don't be, don't be turned aside from your mission to go. And I could be very easily distracted. It would be very easy for me to stop off and have a cup of tea with somebody on my way to talk about Jesus to somebody else.
[00:13:49] So he's saying, make sure you draw on the resources that I have for you.
[00:13:56] And then in verses 5 to 11, he's saying that mission and telling people about Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of God is actually something that involves discernment.
[00:14:08] We don't just go out willy nilly and tell every single person exactly the same thing.
[00:14:13] We have to be wise as to what we say and who we say it to. There's an author called Mike Breen who talks about identifying people of peace based on this passage. And a person of peace is someone who's open to hearing about Jesus. When you talk to them, they may have questions, that's fine, but they're open.
[00:14:33] Your answers to their questions or you're exploring with them will move them closer to Jesus. You may have encountered people for whom it's the exact opposite. They just Put up question after question after question with no intention of getting closer to Jesus. It's just a defense mechanism. And Jesus in this passage saying, it's okay if you have a sense that someone is just deflecting you all the time and nothing you can do or say is going to help them get closer to Jesus. Move on and talk to the people who will receive. And so we have him saying, go into people's homes, offer God's peace.
[00:15:05] And in the context of local conflict with the Samaritans and conflict with Rome, that was a very radical thing to do, to go into somebody's home and say, peace be with you.
[00:15:15] It was very radical. And so having made a really radical statement, people have that opportunity to receive it and say, yeah, okay, would you like to stay and we'll chat a little bit more and then you can receive the hospitality. Then you can start healing the sick and proclaiming the kingdom. Note that comes after you've identified the person of peace. You've identified someone who is likely to be receptive. And then you pray for healing and then you pray, proclaim the kingdom.
[00:15:42] If it's not welcomed, you shouldn't waste time. It says you should leave and kick the dust off your feet. Which was a sign of rejection in those days.
[00:15:51] We need to give ourselves permission to move on from conversations that are going nowhere. It's a bit like, and I'm not a great tech person, so those of you who are tech minded, will, can correct me if you want.
[00:16:03] If you've got an iPhone and you try to download an Android app, will it work?
[00:16:13] No, I don't think it will. Because the operating systems are different. If you meet someone who's got an iPhone operating system in relation to Jesus and you're trying to, and you're trying to give them the message of sorry, their iPhone operating system, say, is the way of the world. And I'm not making casting judgments on iPhone people at all could go the other way. So your iPhone operation is the people who see the world non Jesus way. And then you come along with your Android operating system and you're going to say, this is another way of looking at the world. It's another way of doing things.
[00:16:45] This person is either going to say brilliant and change their operating system or they're going to say, no, you can't put one on top of the other like that. This person has to choose to replace their operating system.
[00:16:56] I hope that makes sense. It makes sense in my head. It makes sense in my head and I hope it makes Sense.
[00:17:02] But notice that in this passage, both households, the one that is peaceful, the one that is rejecting, they both get to hear the same message. The kingdom of God is near.
[00:17:13] So while we don't get to decide who hears the message, we do need to be wise about how much time and energy we invest in subsequent conversations.
[00:17:24] Moving on. In verse nine, it talks about words and deeds. It says, go and heal the sick and proclaim that God is near. Mission involves words and deeds. Healing was a physical sign of the kingdom of God breaking into the world. It was evidence that God's power was bringing wholeness into place, places of brokenness, recreation into places of de creation. When we say, when it says the kingdom of God is near, it's the same thing like when we pray, Father, the Lord's Prayer.
[00:17:58] May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I want to see happening in front of me right now the sorts of things that will happen in heaven. Healings, deliverances, restoration, recreation, newness.
[00:18:12] That's what we want to see and that's what we're being encouraged to pray for when we meet with people.
[00:18:20] But we also need to talk to people. We also need to tell them about the Kingdom of God. We need to tell them the gospel. We need to say to them, you need Jesus because your life without Jesus ultimately is going to be fruitless and is a dangerous place to be. You need to know Jesus, so we need to do that. So have we practiced telling people our story?
[00:18:43] Are we able to tell very shortly and in a very jargon free way, this is my experience of Jesus. This is how I became a Christian. This is how I know what the kingdom of God is. How do we feel about praying for the sick? Do we feel comfortable with that or do we feel a little bit anxious about it? And there's nothing wrong with feeling anxious about it, but it'd be good to chat to somebody and practice and go out in pairs and work with someone.
[00:19:08] And then finally in this section, proclaiming the kingdom of God involves joy and it involves blessing. If you look at verse 17, the disciples came back with joy. And Jesus said, blessed are the eyes, have seen what you have seen. The blessing is not that they've been successful in worldly terms.
[00:19:27] It's not that they've developed a new mission technique that they're going to come back and share with everybody so they can do it.
[00:19:33] It's because people's names are registered in heaven. It's because a widespread. It's because this widespread biblical Metaphor of a book or a scroll that contains people is basically saying, these people are seen by God, these people are known by God, these people have put their trust in God and their eternal destiny is secure in God. That's what we're rejoicing about, not the technique that we've been following it. It's a joy that these people will be known by God forever. It's a joy that the wise and clever cannot perceive. It's a blessing that prophets and kings longed to see but didn't. The joy is that the kingdom of God has broken into people's lives, that the power of the enemy is being weakened and that people are being renewed and recreated. And so that's what we do when we go out to proclaim the kingdom of God. That's what Jesus is asking of us to do. I wonder how we feel about that in the places that we live, in the places that we go now. The challenge as we go through the passage again is that not only are we called to proclaim the kingdom of God, we're also reminded that it's part of a battle, that it's not necessarily going to be easy or. Or straightforward.
[00:20:53] So if you'll allow me for the next sort of 5, 10 minutes or so, just to go through a couple of things, four things that Jesus warns us about, and then I'll just tell a story that for me exemplifies a lot of what I want to say.
[00:21:06] The first thing that Jesus warns us about is he says there's a lack of workers in verse 2.
[00:21:11] Jesus knows that the task is huge.
[00:21:15] He knows there's a harvest, people who are people of peace. A harvest must represent people who are ready to hear the gospel, not. Not people on the thorny ground or the stony ground or any of those things. These are people who are on the good soil in the parable of the sower, who are ready to hear the gospel, who are waiting for somebody to come and say, can I tell you about Jesus? And Jesus is saying there's not enough people to go out and tell them.
[00:21:40] And very often in the Christian world, and in my experience, we can sometimes flip, flip what we think what Jesus is saying, and we think Jesus is saying.
[00:21:48] Actually we've got loads of people in churches, loads of people sitting here this morning, loads of people in church in Exeter, but there aren't that many people who are really interested in Jesus. So we'll just sit tight and not tell anyone. That's not what it says. It says, pray to the Lord for the harvest why didn't Jesus pray himself?
[00:22:08] Couldn't have Jesus just gone like that and then created a whole load more workers. But he doesn't. He says, I'm partnering with you, you disciples. You are involved in this. Not just going out to do mission, not just to proclaim the kingdom of God, you are also to pray for the harvest, for the workers. So our responsibility here this morning is not just to pray for ourselves as we go out and tell people about Jesus, it's to pray for more people to go out and talk about Jesus. And it's urgent. It's important because Jesus has asked us to do it. He says, pray for the workers. Do we do that? Do I do that?
[00:22:49] And then he says, and I'm not sure of this about a motivational strategy. Go out like lambs among wolves.
[00:22:58] How about that? Yay.
[00:23:00] Go out as lambs among wolves. Lambs were considered to be gentle, fluffy, vulnerable, sacrificial. Wolves are ferocious and ravenous and dangerous and not pleasant. In the Bible, wolves are used to describe the leaders and the rulers of countries. They used to describe people who are implacably opposed to what God is wanting to do. And Jesus is saying, as the shepherd, I'm sending you my flock, you my wolves, my sheep. I'm sending you out to the wolves.
[00:23:31] I'm sending you out to people who are going to be impeccably opposed to what you want to say. And that's a challenge.
[00:23:42] But he's saying, even if it appears you're going in a position of weakness, I am with you. Do not be afraid.
[00:23:49] I am with you. I know what I'm doing. And in verse 19 we come back to the idea of the snakes and scorpions and Jesus giving them authority to walk amongst the snakes and scorpions. This isn't an invitation for Riverside for rediscover to create a weird cult like tradition of bringing snakes in and scorpions to scutter around here in the morning so we can stample on them. Stample? Is that a word? Trample on them?
[00:24:14] Stample. That's a new word. I could have that.
[00:24:18] It's not about going to the local zoo and saying, I think I'll just pop into the snake pit for a minute.
[00:24:24] It's saying there is evil in the world. The snake is the representation of evil. It's the representation of things that are wrong. It's Jesus saying, you will encounter things that are wrong. People are sick, people are far from God, people do not believe in God. People are questioning God. People are worried and anxious and Fearful. Those are the snakes and scorpions. But I'm giving you authority to defeat that in my name.
[00:24:50] Sometimes we may feel apprehensive about going out on mission and talking to people about Jesus. And that's okay, it's all right to be apprehensive.
[00:24:59] But don't let that hold us back from proclaiming the kingdom of God.
[00:25:05] And then in verses 12 to 16, there's some really challenging stuff about judgment. And we do need, we can't just gloss over it, we do need to look at it. Because there's an urgency in what Jesus is saying, asking his followers to do. He mentions six geographical places that have not responded well to God's plans for them. There's the fate of Sodom, which is told in Genesis 19, a town of wickedness that was destroyed. Chorazin and Bethsaida are Jewish towns to the north of the Sea of Galilee. And Tyre and Sidon were gentile communities further to the north that had had prophecies spoken against them in Isaiah and Ezekiel because they were very proud and they were very independent and they set themselves up as being as God or more important than God. And Capernaum is Jesus. His own base of operations is where he does a lot of his ministry. Capernaum. And he's saying even Capernaum isn't necessarily going to be free from judgment.
[00:26:09] And so there's a real message to people and communities here who, who even though they may see miracles, even though they may have encountered Jesus as he came to them, they still reject him and say, no, I don't want anything to do with that. You know, C.S. lewis talks about people for whom God says, or how you say, let your will be done and, and then others to whom God says, no, let your will be done. You know, we are, we, we, we have a choice about whether we accept Jesus, whether we do things our way or whether we do things his way.
[00:26:47] The message that Jesus is sending with his followers is not a self improvement scheme. It's not a get better quick routine for life to make sure that life is all okay for us. That's not what being a Christian is about.
[00:27:00] It's a clear choice between the life that God has for us or a life without God.
[00:27:06] Those are the choices. Some commentators believe the judgment referred to here is about the destruction of the Jewish temple in AD 70, a direct consequence of God's people refusing to accept the message of Jesus. Other commentators refer to this as the final judgment, when people will be judged and receive an eternal consequence for their whether they have followed Jesus or not.
[00:27:29] Either way, if you don't follow Jesus, the message is you will end up in a place you really don't want to be.
[00:27:36] It's really, really important. And if you're not a Christian here this morning, if you're not someone who's put your faith in Jesus, this isn't scare tactics. This is just a message that says there is an eternal destiny for each and every one of us. Have you thought about what yours is?
[00:27:53] Because Jesus loves you.
[00:27:55] He wants you to be part of his family.
[00:27:59] He wants to rescue you and save you from anything that could damage you or hurt you in the future.
[00:28:07] So please do think about it. And Jesus wants his disciples to have that sense of urgency that we need to be telling people about these things.
[00:28:16] And then finally there's a vision of Satan's defeat. I think it's really encouraging that Jesus doesn't go with the disciples.
[00:28:23] He sends them off. He lets them go into all these different places and towns. And there's no record of whether Jesus actually went to these places on the route to Jerusalem. So it's possible that the disciples were the only representation of Jesus that these towns and villages saw. But what Jesus does do is he prays.
[00:28:41] He prays and he supports his disciples as they're out there proclaiming the kingdom of God. And he has a vision of Satan form falling from heaven. In verse 18. Satan is the accuser. He's the adversary. He's the one throughout the Bible who tries to stop people becoming everything they're designed to be. From Eve in the garden of temptation, from Eve in the garden to the temptations in the wilderness, to Satan entering Judas.
[00:29:11] He tries to distort and overthrow and pervert God's plan for his people through the death on the cross, his resurrection, his return to his father, Jesus deals a decisive blow against Satan. He defeats him total. And the book of Revelation talks about the ultimate fate of Satan at Jesus return. Total destruction. That's encouraging, isn't it? Total destruction.
[00:29:39] And by sharing this message now, by sharing his vision now, Jesus is saying to his friends, I know how this all ends.
[00:29:46] I know it looks like Satan's in charge. I know there's sickness. I know there's illness. I know there's distress. I know there are problems. But one day that will all come to an end.
[00:29:55] One day there will be no more sickness. One day Satan himself will be defeated.
[00:30:00] And it will be brought about by my death on the cross and by my resurrection. It will happen.
[00:30:06] But for now, I need you to go out and be the advance God.
[00:30:11] I need you to proclaim the kingdom. I need you to pray for the sick. I need you to demonstrate what that kingdom will look like in the future, here and now. And that's your. And my role is to go out and tell people about Jesus and proclaim him.
[00:30:25] The victory that Jesus won over Satan in the wilderness is being implemented through his followers in this story and by us today.
[00:30:35] I'd like to finish just by sharing a story with you and then we'll pray.
[00:30:41] A few weeks ago, I went on a walk, a couple of hours walk locally.
[00:30:47] And I don't do this every time, but on this particular occasion, I set off on my walk and I prayed, lord, would you, as on this walk, would you bring across my path someone to whom I can talk about Jesus or I can proclaim the kingdom of God? I didn't use those words. That was being a bit proprietary, but some, you know, the kind of prayer like bring somebody across my path today. And off I went on my walk, and for two hours I met nobody, not a sausage or a person.
[00:31:18] And then towards the last 20 minutes, I was coming down this very, very steep hill. And at the midway down this hill, there was an older person than I was. And for the benefit of the tape, I'm 22.
[00:31:31] No, I'm not. I'm not 22.
[00:31:33] An older person that I was with a walking cane going quite slowly. And so I thought, well, the chances are I'm going to overtake this person. So this is my moment.
[00:31:44] What am I going to say? So I thought, right, okay, what can I say that would ease into the conversation? And I thought the best thing to say was this is a really steep hill, isn't it? I wish I brought my walking cane because I didn't have my walking poles with me. So I approached him and I said, good morning. He said, good morning. And I said, it's a steep hill, isn't it? And he said, yes. And I said, I wish I'd brought my walking poles.
[00:32:08] And then he said, yeah, I was at the top of this hill and I was walking further. I was going to set off much further. I was intending to walk much further. And I think I've sprained a muscle or I've pulled a muscle and my leg really hurts. And so I'm going back.
[00:32:27] And I said, oh, that's a shame, and walked off.
[00:32:34] And then about 30 seconds, about 10 seconds later, 30 seconds later, I was walking off and he was hobbling behind me. I thought, oh, my Goodness, Graham, you complete idiot. That is the one person you've met in two hours. You prayed for somebody you could declare the kingdom of God to, and all you've done is say, oh, that's a shame, and moved on.
[00:32:54] What an idiot.
[00:32:56] So I. Fortunately, there was a bench not that further on from where we were. So I sat on this bench and I said, lord, I'm really sorry. Can I have another go?
[00:33:04] Let me have another go. So I sat on this bench, and he comes hobbling up towards me, and I stand up and I said, I'm really sorry to bother you again, but I am a Christian, and I do believe that God cares for you. And I do believe that he would. He makes people better. And I do think it would be nice. And I could feel my words just disappearing. I thought, what am I saying? I'm making no sense at all. Complete idiot. And I. And I think God would like, would you be okay if I talk to God about your leg and ask him to make it better? And he looked at me like I was a complete fool, and he said, yeah, all right. You can. You can. You can talk to your God about my leg if you want, but I've got a bus to catch. And off he went.
[00:33:45] So he carried on down the path, and I was still on this bench.
[00:33:48] So I sat on this bench, and I said, oh, okay, Lord. And he told me his name. So I prayed for his name. And I said, lord, would you please bless this person? If you would like to heal his leg, that would be really great.
[00:34:00] And if there's anything that I've said that would help him know Jesus, then that would be really great, too. And the thing that was interesting in this story to me was as I sat on this bench and I prayed, my prayer reflected on it. It was like in the book of. In the film of Pinocchio. You know, you have your kind of your Jiminy Cricket voice, your good Jiminy Cricket voice. And then there's a kind of evil Jiminy Cricket or something like that. There's your good conscience, your bad conscience, sit on Pinocchio's shoulder. And it was just like that. There was a voice in my head, effectively, that said, graham, you are a complete idiot.
[00:34:36] You could not have made a worse job of telling somebody about Jesus if you'd tried. That man has probably gone off and thought that all Christians are completely loopy. They stalk you when you're sitting, trying to walk back.
[00:34:48] They make no sense when they speak, and they just interfere. That was that voice. And then on My other shoulder. There was a voice that said, well done, well done. Thank you for trying. It may not have gone quite how you wanted, but I'm happy with that.
[00:35:05] Thank you for trying.
[00:35:07] And I think when I read passages like this and I think of my own story, I know that I don't tell as many people about Jesus as I'm sure I should. But I know I tell more people about Jesus than I did.
[00:35:19] And that's my goal, to tell more people about Jesus, to be open to that person of peace who may well ask me some questions, who may well want to talk to me about Jesus, whether that's in the town or where I'm on holiday, on one of my walks, wherever it is, for you.
[00:35:38] So can I invite us to pray and Matt, I don't know. Very good.
[00:35:43] Let's pray.
[00:35:49] Let's just take a moment to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.
[00:35:59] This passage tells us that we are called to proclaim the kingdom of God.
[00:36:07] We are called to tell people about Jesus, that the one who loves them, that the one who wants to rescue them, the one who wants to save them, the one who wants to heal them, the one who wants to deliver them, the one who wants to make them whole, the one who wants to be fullness of life to them.
[00:36:30] He wants us to tell people.
[00:36:33] And it's urgent.
[00:36:34] It's urgent because there are not that many workers.
[00:36:38] It's urgent because Satan doesn't want us to do it.
[00:36:42] And it's urgent because unless we tell them, they're going to have an eternity without God.
[00:36:52] And so I would just encourage us as we pray in our own hearts.
[00:36:56] Think about the week ahead.
[00:36:58] Think about where you will be tomorrow morning.
[00:37:04] Think about where you will be through this week.
[00:37:09] Think about the people you might meet, the ones you know you will meet, the ones you don't know.
[00:37:16] Can you already see some people of peace in your mind?
[00:37:24] And what would you like to say to the Lord?
[00:37:27] What would your prayer be at this point?
[00:37:30] What's he stirring up in your heart?
[00:37:44] Show me the people of peace, Lord.
[00:37:49] Give me the confidence to pray for the sick.
[00:37:55] Give me the words to proclaim the kingdom of God.
[00:38:03] Give me the gift of accepting hospitality from people who want to know about Jesus and being able to spend time with them.
[00:38:15] Help me overcome any trepidation or anxiety I have about talking about you, knowing that you are the one who gives me the power and the authority to talk about Jesus.
[00:38:32] And if there is anyone here this morning who maybe you wouldn't describe yourself as a Christian yet, what would you like to say to God?
[00:38:48] And it is very simple. If you would like to become a Christian, all you need to do is say, Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me.
[00:38:57] Thank you for forgiving me.
[00:38:59] I want to follow you.
[00:39:02] I want to make you the most important thing in my life.
[00:39:07] And in doing so, I know that I will be with you forever.
[00:39:11] And that the consequences of all the things that I've done wrong will be wiped away and I will know eternal life.
[00:39:21] And if that is you, then please do chat to somebody this morning. Let us know that you're interested in Jesus Name we pray.
[00:39:35] Amen.
