Learn to Disciple from Jesus, part 5

July 16, 2006

Jack Hughes

Well, if you have your Bibles, turn to Luke 9. I’m sorry to say [that] we’re actually going to finish verses 1-11 this morning. I know, we’ve hurried through—sometimes you’ve got to do it.

How do you feel when you read the newspaper or watch the news on TV and you see [that] pretty much every single thing is negative, bad, corrupt, [or] sinful? Do you get angry inside when you see people breaking the law and getting away with it? Does it grieve you to see the moral decay of our country, and our world, and how our country is working tirelessly to eliminate God, and eliminate morals, and eliminate the family? Does it bother you when you read the news and the only details [that] an article has serve some unspoken but obvious agenda to attack a person, to support a party, to make a statement—not report the news, but to use the news as a tool to manipulate you?

Does your soul ever feel like righteous Lot’s whose soul was tormented while living in Sodom and Gommorah because of the immorality and wickedness around him [see 2 Peter 2:7-8]? When you look at our society and you realize that fornication, adultery, and homosexuality are normal and prevalent and people don’t even think about people engaging in that kind of thing? As a matter of fact, if you’re a person who doesn’t engage in those activities and who speaks out against them, you are stupid. There’s something wrong with you. What is wrong with you? Get into the modern age! What about alcohol abuse, and drug abuse, especially the abuse prescribed by psychiatrists who are trying to replace parenting, self-control, and discipline with drugs?

Does that bother you? Do you hate sin? I think most of us have felt that way. When you look at the world and you see all of that, does it make you want to hide? Does it make you want to move to Kamiah, Idaho? You don’t know where that is, do you? That’s the whole point. You know, we’ll just buy a piece of property, get up there in the mountains, build our little fortress and just hunker down until death or the Second Coming. A lot of people do that—run. Is that the solution? Or does [the corruption and sin] make you want to do something about it? You don’t know what, but you’ve got to do something.

So what is the answer to this? Do we need more government? Do we need more laws, more taxes to pay for more inept programs, more corrupt politicians? Is the solution the propagation of more churches [that] entertain people, make them feel good, do drama, tell people what they want to hear, pep them up? Is that the solution? [With] more churches like that, everybody’s going to feel good and the whole country’s going to be transformed by churches [that] are catering to the felt needs of the unregenerate populace.

A.W. Tozer has rightly said, “A widespread revival of the kind of Christianity we know today in America might prove to be a moral tragedy from which we would not recover in a hundred years.”^[1] He wrote that a long time ago. J.C. Ryle, in his work Christians Leaders of the Last Century—which from our perspective would be two centuries ago—speaking of the 1700s in England, describes what it was like one generation after the Puritans had their heyday. The Puritan era was at its heyday between about 1620 and 1685. [It was a time when] these incredible, godly men who were solid theologians and preachers and livers of the truth transformed society. It [came] on the heels of the Reformation—Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli—and then it came into England and the Puritans and the Westminster Confession, and all of these great, godly men transformed society. [Then], less than 100 years after that, England was characterized by corruption, bribery, mismanagement in high places, drunkenness, obsession with entertainment, [and] gambling. Ryle says, “Purity was an exception. [It was] a time when there were many laws, but most were ignored because there were no police. Lawlessness ruled the day.” Ryle, speaking of the state of the church, said:

The Church of England existed in those days with her admirable articles, her time-honored liturgy, her parochial system, her Sunday services, and her 10,000 clergy. The Non-Conformist body existed with its hardly one liberty and its free pulpit. They existed, but they would hardly be said to have lived. They did nothing. They were sound asleep.

He goes on to say, “Natural theology,” that’s the talk of science and things in nature, “without a distinctive doctrine of Christianity, cold morality, or barren orthodoxy, formed the stable teaching both in the church and the chapel.” He said, “The land was deluged with infidelity and skepticism. The prince of this world made good use of his opportunity. His agents were active and zealous in promulgating every kind of strange, blasphemous opinion.” He tells of the then-celebrated lawyer, Blackstone:

who had the curiosity early in the reign of George III to go from church to church to hear every clergyman of note in London. He says that he did not hear a single discourse which had more Christianity in it than the writings of Cicero and that it would have been impossible for him to discover from what he heard whether the preacher were a follower of Confucius, of Mohammad, or of Christ.

And, people, this is less than 100 years after the heyday of some of the most godly preachers and people who have ever lived.

Everybody knows the axiom that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Our country started out gloriously. The Puritans, who were kicked out of their pulpits [in Europe], came over here. We have a declaration [and] a constitution based on the Word of God, [and] a law system based on the Bible. We had so many blessings early on. The Bible was read and taught in every public school. Presidents and statesmen openly acknowledged God and the Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, who was the sovereign judge of all in virtually every public arena. And here we are today right where England was in the 1700s. Yet, get this, [100 years after] England was at its low, [Puritanism] was having a heyday. Churches had sprung up that were preaching the Word, evangelism was rampant, missionaries were being sent out. Society was radically transformed. Why? Why was that? What was the solution? What was the remedy?

Ryle says [the solution] was a small group of preachers who decided to start preaching the Word and evangelizing the lost. It was these preachers who, in training their congregations, created an army of people who had a passion for the lost, sound doctrine, and the things of God. Those people went out, lived their lives, lived for Christ, and changed the whole nation. Biblical preaching, making disciples, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded, was the solution for England, and it’s the solution to our nation[‘s problems] as well. It must start with you, and me, and Calvary Bible Church.

As we’ve been working through Luke 9:1-11, we have looked at this text from the perspective of signs and wonders as Jesus sent His disciples out for the first time on their own, giving them power to cast out demons and heal all manner of disease and sickness. The question always arises, “Can we do that today?” So we answered that question. Then we started looking at the text from the big picture of why Luke includes it here: this is Jesus sending out His disciples for the first time.

When we look at the text, we see that embedded in it are eight great principles for discipleship that we can learn from Jesus [and] that we need to apply to our own lives, to our own discipleship relationships, to our own church. Many know [that] the Great Commission calls us to “make disciples of all nations,” baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded [see Matthew 28:19-20]. You could even go to a liberal church and most people know that. The Great Commission is kind of standard if you’ve been in the church for a while.

But how are we supposed to go about doing discipleship today? In this text, [the disciples] left everything [and] they followed [Jesus]. They were wandering around the country, living nomadic lives. [Christ gave] them supernatural powers to do miracles. You can look at this, and go, “Well, Jack, I see what’s happening here, but Jesus isn’t around, He’s not doing miracles, I don’t have those powers, I’m not living a nomadic life, [so] how do I go about doing discipleship?” [Well], that’s what we’re learning from this text.

If you have your Bibles, look at Luke 9 and follow along as I read verses 1-11:

And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. And He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city. And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was happening; and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the prophets of old had risen again. Herod said, "I myself had John beheaded; but who is this man about whom I hear such things?" And he kept trying to see Him.

When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida. But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.

We’ve already covered the first five [discipleship] principles [from this text]. Let me just review them quickly and then we’ll get to the last three. The first was: Call your disciples to engage in ministry. This is kind of a no-brainer—if you’re going to do ministry, you’ve got to do ministry. As part of [being] a discipler, you call people to engage in ministry. The reason you are saved, the reason you have been given spiritual gifts, is for the edification of the church and the evangelization of the lost. Every Christian needs to be engaged in ministry.

Second, we learned that you need to train your disciples through instruction and example. We see this, for instance, in [Luke 9:]3-5, [where] Jesus instructs the disciples concerning what to do, what to bring, what not to bring, and how to respond as they go about doing ministry. You need to do this with your disciples.

Third, you need to give your disciples opportunities [that] empower them to serve. If it’s in your power, and you’re over a ministry, and you’re discipling somebody, then let him do it. [The disciples] followed [Jesus] for quite some time, [and] they [were] kind of backseat ministers. Jesus was preaching the gospel, people were coming to the Lord, people were repenting of their sins, and [the disciples] were kind of like the ministry help team along with a crowd of [other] women and other men, as we have learned. [Then Jesus gave the disciples] an opportunity to do [ministry]—on their own, by themselves.

Fourth, send your disciples out, teaching them to trust God. No ministry gives glory to God unless those doing the ministry are trusting in the Lord. Yes, God gives us the grace to minister on His behalf, [and] He never calls us to do anything that He does not give us the grace to accomplish, but it is also incumbent upon every believer to constantly trust in the Lord, to call upon the Lord, to ask Him for help, to rely upon Him in ministry. As you are discipling people, you need to teach them to constantly rely on the resources that God supplies.

Fifth, you must teach your disciples to expect and respond properly to rejection and persecution. We saw this in [Luke 9:]5 and 7-9. Jesus says, “You may have to shake the dust off your feet.” And then Luke, we learned, actually takes an historical episode [that] hasn’t even happened at this point in Jesus’ ministry (because [Luke is] writing from after the fact), and actually inserts it as if it was happening at that time. The reason [Luke] does that is to let us know that Herod chopped off John the Baptist’s head for doing what [Christ] is calling His disciples to do. It was a great illustration of what the disciples were being sent out into. In the parallel text in Matthew 10, we learned [that] Jesus goes through this big monologue, which Luke leaves out, and starts it off by saying, “I’m sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” [see 10:16].

What we see [in Luke 9:1-11] are these principles from Jesus’ life. We can look at this [text], see Him working with His disciples, and we can do the same thing that Jesus did. And we should. I mean, we can’t take people and give them powers to cast out demons and heal every manner of disease and sickness [see Luke 9:1], but these other principles that we’ve already looked at, and the ones that we are going to look at this morning, are principles we can all apply. That’s why they’re in the text—so that we can do them.

These last [three] principles every believer needs to understand and apply so the Church can be and function like God intended it to be and function for His glory. So this is the sixth one: Encourage your disciples to embrace the work of the ministry, [as in Luke 9:]6. You might think to yourself, “Well, Jack, that sounds very similar to calling your disciples to engage in ministry, or [like] the third principle [of] giving your disciples opportunities to serve.” But it’s not. Here the two operative terms I want you to consider are: “embrace” and “work.” Look at verse 6, where we read: “Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.” They did it. They went after it. They didn’t say, “Whoa! This is gnarly! Jesus has given us powers! He’s telling us to actually go out on our own. Let’s sit around and talk about it, write a book about it, and think about it.” They went after it, man! They got up. They went into every city and did exactly what Jesus said.

A person can be gifted, he can be called, he can be trained, he can be given opportunities, and then [still] just dabble in ministry. He gives the crumbs of his life to God, [and] the lion’s share of his life he gives to pleasures and entertainment, and worldly pursuits, and the acquisition of things that will be burnt up. The vulture’s share, he gives to God. But these disciples, they went for it. They went into every city, they preached the gospel, they healed everybody.

Many people serve, but few embrace the ministry. Few look at their lives as, “I am a minister of Jesus Christ, a soldier of Christ. I serve Jesus—not just in church, not just in Sunday school, but when I’m out.” It doesn’t matter what you do. It doesn’t matter whether you’re at the store buying groceries, or whether you’re a businessman or a housewife, or the butcher, the baker, or the candlestick maker, it doesn’t matter. You can be a servant of Christ wherever you are. You are to be a servant of Christ wherever you are. You are to live for Christ, for His glory. People who embrace the ministry like this, they can’t do enough for Christ. They know they owe Christ an infinite debt they can never repay. They know they will never regret ever serving Him or ever sacrificing anything for Him. They go home at night, marveling, “God has used me, a wretched sinner. I have the privilege of serving the God of all creation. Me! Amazing!”

Not only should every disciple embrace the ministry, [but] they [also] need to embrace the labor, the work—the hard work—of the ministry. Embracing the ministry is fine, but you don’t want to produce disciples who say, “Yeah, I’ll do the ministry, but I don’t want to do anything hard.”

Many serve impulsively. They come to church, and somebody says, “Hey, could you help me?”

“Sure.” And you know what? It’s good. They help move some chairs, they help do something—collect the offering or whatever. The task is small, the sacrifice low.

I mean, it’s all good and fine, but [if] you go [to their] homes and say, “Let me look at your calendar. Let me see where you are planning to engage in the work of the ministry,” [on] many of those calendars you will seek and not find anything. They don’t want to work. They don’t want to plan to serve God. They don’t want to commit to labor. They just throw crumbs to God.

Recently I was contacted by the Compass group—that’s our singles’ ministry—and they offered to come to my house and help me with [a] project. I said, “Hey, you know, I’m Mr. Fix-it, and the only project I have is killer hard.” I said, “[It’s] digging in hardpan, rocky soil. That’s it. You don’t have to do it. You know, it’s nasty. I understand. I mean, you could do other things, go serve other people.”

They said, “No, no. We want to come over on this particular Saturday.” It was the Saturday of the men’s breakfast, so some wanted to go to that. They show[ed] up at 11:30, but the problem [was that] the forecast was [for temperatures of] low 100s.

And so, I tried to give them every out: “You don’t have to come. It’s OK. I’ll get it done in the morning piece by piece.” (Instead of going to the gym, I dig dirt.) And so, I [said], “You know, you guys don’t have to come…”

And they said, “No, no. We’re coming.” Five guys showed up and dug in the hot sun for three-and-a-half hours. They were sweating so profusely [that] it looked like somebody had shot them with a hose. These men planned to do ministry, they embraced the ministry, they sacrificed their Saturday to serve me. And I know [that just] about any other thing in the world would have been more fun than that. I was out there—I know.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say, “’Embrace the ministry’ means coming over to my house and serving me.” The dirt’s all dug, sorry. But I want you to see this as an example of planning to serve others, [as] a good example of intentionally thinking, “My life is going to be bent on serving others. I am going to plan on doing this.” Remember that your service to others in the Body of Christ is ultimately service to Jesus Christ. It should be part of your life. You should want to embrace and work hard in ministry.

The disciples were being sent out into hostile territory and they did it, and they did it gladly. We saw [in our] last [sermon] how scary Jesus made it sound. And, yes, [the disciples] were persecuted, and, yes, they were abused at times, and, yes, they had to shake the dust off their feet and yet they still did it. Why? Well, it’s not because they received a bunch of accolades and encouragement from the people that hated their guts because they didn’t want to hear [what the disciples had to say]. It’s because they loved the Lord, that’s why—because they knew that by serving these people, they were serving Christ.

Do you remember what Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 25:40, when he’s talking about the judgment of the sheep and the goats? Do you remember what he says of the sheep? “To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” You see, people who embrace the work of the ministry do it for the love of the Lord regardless of what happens. They are not looking for a way out. They’re not [thinking], “You know, I need to take a break for a couple of years. I did that three years ago, [so] let other people do it.” They love the Lord; they love serving the Lord. They embrace the work. And you know what? You need to be among them. Every Christian needs to be among them.

There are those in this body who labor relentlessly and tirelessly and you know what? You don’t even know who they are, and they don’t want you to know who they are. They are the large muscles in the Body of Christ, and they serve. They’re not looking for attention, they’re not looking for accolades, they don’t need anybody to say, “Way to go, Joe.” They’re serving because they love Jesus and they have fixed in their hearts to serve Him. They’re serving you, and you benefit from it and you probably don’t even know who they are.

Paul, in 1 Timothy 4, speaks about the excellent minister. I know we went through this not too long ago—about four years ago—but let me remind you of some of the things [Paul] describes as characteristic of the excellent minister. He tells Timothy these things because Timothy is to be an example [to follow] for others in the church. [Paul] says, “You need to be constantly nourished on the words of the faith.” He says, “You need to be constantly nourished up on sound doctrine. You need to discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. You need to labor, you need to strive, you need to agonize in doing the ministry. You need to be commanding, and teaching, and being an example. You need to give yourself to biblical teaching and preaching, and not neglect your spiritual gift. You need to be absorbed in these things, you need to take pains with these things. You need to persevere in these things.”

Do you remember why? Do you remember the reason [Paul] gives at the end of the big list in [1 Timothy 4]:16? He says, “For as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.” That is what changes the world: the gospel, preached and lived, [and] disciplemakers teaching other people to observe all that Jesus commanded, which is to make disciples, and to teach everybody all that Jesus commanded.

I marvel that there are so many professing Christians who do not want to serve Christ here on earth but [who] think [that] they will be in heaven serving Him. Listen, if you don’t want to serve Him here, you aren’t going to want to serve Him there. As a matter of fact, you won’t serve Him there because you won’t be there. Do you remember what we learned in Luke 6:46? Jesus says, "Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” [He’s saying], “Why are you marching in Satan’s ranks and claiming to be My follower?” There’s a problem there.

Now, if this is you, I caution you, do not think that by doing you’re going to get into heaven. You are not. You cannot [think], “OK, I’m going to start teaching the children, I’m going to start handing out bulletins, and then I’ll feel like I’m going to heaven.” No, no, no. Do not let your conviction of sin drive you to serve out of fear or out of guilt or out of compulsion.

If you are a professing believer who does not like to serve, your lack of service is an indication of a soul problem, a heart problem, a relationship-with-Jesus problem. It may be [that] you don’t know Christ and you just think you do or say you do. Granted, you might know Christ and maybe you’re a young believer, or maybe you’re caught up in some circumstance that is preventing you from being involved in ministry in the local church. But listen, if you look back at your life and you realize that you’ve never served, that you’ve never embraced the hard work of the ministry, the Scriptures diagnose you as somebody who does not know the Lord, who does not love Christ.

I’m not trying to be harsh, here, I’m just telling you what the Scriptures say. The remedy for your reluctance to embrace the work of the ministry is not to start serving out of guilt and compulsion with a complaining, grumbling, “all right, I’ll do it” spirit. The solution is to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the solution. It is to turn from your wicked ways and your unrighteous thoughts and receive the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, and was resurrected for your justification. [It is] to become a new creature so that old things pass away and all things become new [see 2 Corinthians 5:17]. Then, then, you have this nagging within you. You have the Holy Spirit pecking at your mind, [saying], “Serve, serve, serve, serve.”

Finally, it’s like, “I’m getting involved! I can’t help [but to] get involved. I’ve got to serve.” And if you aren’t [serving], you want to. And if you are, you wish you could do more. That is what the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a believer.

If you are not serving, if you have a pattern of not serving, do not become a Pharisee. Do not think, “Well, OK. Um, I’m going to start serving so that my conscience is clear.” Wrong motive. “I’m going to start serving so that others will see me serve.” Wrong motive. “I’m going to serve because it will give me accolades and people will look at me as a moral person.” Wrong motive. The Church doesn’t need any more Pharisees. We don’t need any more moral people going through the motions for the wrong reasons. The Church needs brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ who love Him. Who love Him. Who love Him more than anything else and are more than happy and willing to serve Him.

It may be that when you look back on your life, you remember a time when you used to be involved in ministry. You used to be entrenched in ministry. You look back, and say, “Man, there was a time in my life [when] ministry was my life. What has happened to me? Ministry is now zero in my life. What happened?” Well, Satan is a wily foe. He knows just how to get you off course. He knows he can’t un-save you. And so, if he knows he can’t un-save you, then what he wants to do is render you ineffective. He wants to deceive you. He wants to lead you astray. He wants to get you off the mark so that pretty soon you are not even following Christ.

You’re like a man who stands next to the road, looks up and sees this mountain but there’s [a] huge forest in between you and that mountain. You’re determined to go straight up that [mountain] and look out at the sights. So you start marching through the forest, and the clouds come over and you can’t tell which direction the sun is [in], and there are no shadows, and pretty soon, you have this rude awakening: you’re back where you started. You’re completely turned around. You’re walking toward your car! It happens.

Well, it not only happens in the forest, it happens in the Church. Satan will use hobbies, jobs, spouses, children, and a million other things to first get you to cut back a bit, and then to cut back a bit more, and then to take a small sabbatical, and a larger sabbatical, and pretty soon, you look back and your service to the Lord is history, not present reality. If that is you, you need to get your bearings, straighten out your priorities, get into the compass of God’s Word, remind yourself of what God wants you to be doing. [You need to] confess those sins that have caused you to deviate from the straight and narrow and “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” [Philippians 3:14], and get back on the path with the Compass in hand, and keep looking at it so you don’t deviate. Go home this week, spend time with the Lord, praise Him for saving you, praise Him for giving you gifts, praise Him for giving you life. Get your bearings back, because you need to be serving.

[The seventh principle is]: [you are] not only to embrace the hard work of the ministry, [but] you [also] need to get and give feedback from those you disciple after you send them out to minister. Look at the first part of [Luke 9:]10, where we read, “When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done.” So they went out from village to village, teaching [and] healing everywhere, and then they reported back. They gave an account. You need to do the same thing. You don’t just get a disciple, and say, “Hey, so you want to serve in the children’s ministry, huh? OK, here you go. Here’re thirty two-year-olds. Get ‘em.”

No, that’s not what happens. You have to train people. If you wanted to serve in the children’s ministry, you’d call up Brock [Bolde] and say, “Yeah, I’m thinking of maybe getting involved in the children’s ministry.”

And he would say, “All right. Well, let’s talk about it.” You’d have to jump through all these hoops [until] you finally got approved. [Then] what happens? Well, you show up and somebody else is teaching and you’re observing, you’re learning, you’re watching. (You know, huge sacrifice: “I’m watching.”) You see how the teacher, who is experienced, is teaching the class, and controlling the children, and going through the motions. You look at that and think, “Man, praise God. This is cool.”

You ask questions, and you grow in wisdom and knowledge, and finally it becomes your turn. The [other teacher] says, “You know what? Let’s put you in.”

“OK. Can you help me?”

“Sure, sure. I’ll help you. Go through the lesson. All right.” And [they] give [you] an opportunity. [Afterward, they] say, “OK, how do you think you did?” [They] give [you] feedback, you talk, [they] give [you] a few pointers, and pretty soon [you’re] teaching the class on [your] own, and [then you’re] training the next guy [or gal] coming along.

I do this in preaching all the time. It amazes me [that] some seminary students think that because they’ve read two books on preaching [that] they’re experts. You can’t teach them anything. It’s like trying to pound water into granite. They’re just, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve read the book.” They know it.

But you know what? You say, “OK, it’s time to get out there and preach.” They preach, [you] say, “Now, watch your video,” and [once they’ve seen it] they’re suicidal. They become extremely teachable.

They’re like, “Man, you need to help me. I was bad.”

And you know what? I don’t say, “Well, here are the seventy-five things you did wrong.” I just say, “You did this right. You did this right. This was pretty good. Just work on these one or two things.” You bring them along, piece by piece. You give them feedback. You encourage them. That’s what it means to disciple somebody.

Discipling somebody isn’t getting together for a Bible study and saying, “Yeah, let’s talk about what we could be doing.” Yeah, it includes that, [but] then it’s, “Let’s get doing. Let you be doing, and I’ll watch you, and then we’ll talk about it and I’ll help you do better.” So that’s what we need to do.

[The eighth principle is]: model for your disciples what you are teaching them to do. Look at the middle of [Luke 9:]10: “Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida.” Now, keep in mind that before this time, [the disciples had] been traveling with Jesus—[they were] nomads. They’ve left all to follow Jesus. So, the disciples have already embraced the ministry with passion and conviction. They’re doing the hard work. Even though they have been sent out on their own just one time, they, [along with the other women and men who are following], have [still] been laboring as Jesus’ clean-up crew as He’s going through these cities and ministering.

Now, imagine [that] you’re among them, and you’re roaming around the country. You’ve left your home, sometimes you’re sleeping in the dirt and under trees and bushes, and sometimes you’re sleeping in different people’s houses on their floors and stacked up like cord wood in their central room. I mean, you’re just a nomad. That can get tiring.

Jesus finally gets you together and you’re all alone with [Him]. He says, “Come on, guys. Let’s go to Bethsaida.”

You’re thinking to yourself, “Oh, praise God! I get to have a day off! Finally! You know, it’s not that the ministry just hasn’t been super thrilling, and it’s just great seeing souls saved, and the miracles, but, man, just to have a couple of days to just chill, and relax, and recover. And you know what? We get to go to Bethsaida, the home of Andrew, and James, and Peter.” And maybe you are Andrew, or James, or Peter, and you’re thinking, “Oh, great! We get Aunt Martha’s cooking. We’re going to sleep in a bed. Man, our relatives and our friends are going to treat us like royalty. This is going to be great!”

Look at [Luke 9:]11: “But the crowds were aware of this and followed Him; and welcoming them, He began speaking to them about the kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.” Labor always follows those who are servants of Christ, and it never goes away. It never goes away. You know, if I go on vacation where I know a lot of Christians, vacation becomes a sustained counseling session for me. That’s it. If I go to Idaho [where] I helped plant these churches and I know these Christians, I meet with people and just talk to them about all their ministry problems—all week long. Afterward I think, “Oh, man. I can’t wait to get back to Calvary and deal with the problems there.”

And you know what? Did Jesus complain? Did He grumble because they just wouldn’t leave Him alone? Did He get angry because they bothered Him during His intended respite? No. No. The text says He welcomed them. He said, “Yeah, come on. I’ll heal you.” He just kept preaching and He got right back into the labor.

Most people have jobs [that] have these defined hours [of] when they go to work and [when] they come home from work. When it’s your day off, it’s great, isn’t it? It’s like, “Oh, praise God! I’ve got tomorrow off!”

What if you had worked for three weeks straight and your boss called you up, and said, “I know you haven’t had a day off in three weeks, but I need you to come in.”

What [would] you think? “Right, pal. Listen, I’ve got a life!” Well, just to let you know, when you’re a Christian, you don’t ever get a day off. Ever. You don’t get to quit being a Christian when you leave church on Sunday. You don’t get to stop acting godly. You don’t get to stop walking in the Spirit. You don’t get to stop sharing the gospel. You’re just a Christian, a soldier on active duty everywhere you go, all the time, twenty-four hours on call.

[If] somebody calls you up in the middle of the night, [and says], “I’m having a crisis,” [you can’t say], “Hey, listen, I’m sleeping! Tomorrow I’m planning on mowing the lawn. Can I call you in a day or two?” No, you help him out.

Mark 10:45 sums up Jesus’ life, [saying], “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” That’s why He came. That was His example. Even though Jesus is sending His disciples out, He’s not saying, “Finally, I’ve got them trained and now I can kick back.” He’s still modeling for them what it means to serve others. All Christians need to lay their lives on the altar of sacrifice to God and be those living sacrifices that Paul speaks about in Romans 12[:1], which are holy and acceptable to God because this is our spiritual service of worship.

Listen, we have repeated the mistake of England after the English Reformation, and we need to repeat the cure. The way we repeat the cure is to preach the Word, teach the Word, and live the Word. To have you be an army of people who go out into the world and speak the truth, speak out against sin, call sinners to repentance, teach them to observe all that Jesus commanded. All of us need to grow and excel in the things that we have learned from Jesus’ example of discipleship in this text. We all need to be a church of hard-working, laboring, self-sacrificing servants of Jesus because that’s what it means to be a Christian.

So when you leave here today, remember to teach your disciples to embrace the work of the ministry. Train your disciples by giving them feedback and encouragement. Model and be an example of what it means to be an excellent servant of Jesus Christ because this is what gives glory to God. This is how we love God. This is what we were saved for. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank You so much that You are patient with us, that the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Father, all of us need to improve in our devotion to You, our service to You. We could be better lights, we could be better servants, we could give more to You, but we can never give as much as You deserve. Father, I pray for those here who might not know You, those who have never repented of their sins, have never been transformed from the inside out, have never been created into new creatures in Christ. I pray that right now they would confess their sins, repent, turn from their lifestyle of selfishness to submission and obedience to the Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. And, Father, for the rest of us, who do know You, may we look at our lives and see if we’re not walking in the wrong direction, that we have our bearings, that our eyes are in the compass of your Book, and that we’re headed toward “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” [Philippians 3:14]. Father, help us all to be this way, and ever increasingly so, that we might be the spark that lights the fuse which transforms Southern California, the whole West Coast, and then our nation. Father, help us to be this way, for Your glory. We pray in Christ’s name, Amen.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New American Standard Bible®, ©1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation