Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
more into the life of following God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and
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sermon. God Bless. Let's pray again. Lord God,
thank you for your Word. Thank you that you have
given it to us and you have used it throughout
your world to bring many repentance into faith.
Lord, your Word goes out with power. It's like
a seed that is tossed out. And Lord, today we
pray, looking back on that parable from a few
chapters earlier, that we would be fertile soil
We would bear fruit, keeping with repentance.
God, that we wouldn't be like hard ground, but
that we would be fertile, that your word would
be planted within us, and that we would bear
the fruit of living with Christ and being indwelt
with the Holy Spirit. God, bless your word now
as we give our attention to it. In your name
we pray. Amen. Okay, so I read this sentence
this week. American Christianity wears the history
of the United States on its congregations. American
Christianity wears the history of the United
States on its congregations. So it's almost like
a garment in a way that you can see it when you
look. I thought this was just a really interesting
statement and initially I kind of read that and
I wondered, I don't, I wonder. What does that
mean? What's that look like? And I thought, of
course, of the 17th century history of the Puritans
and the Congregationalists up in New England.
And I thought of the role of the, particularly
the Methodist riders, you know, oftentimes given
just a Bible and a horse and sent out West with
Western expansion. I thought, my wife is from
Louisiana, of the Catholic influence and the
Catholic history there in Louisiana, where counties
are not counties, they are parishes. I thought
of our own Commonwealth in Pennsylvania, with
William and the Quakers, and that Quaker influence
that then later, of course, they invited over
the German Mennonites. And then, of course, the
Lutherans and the Presbyterians. The German Reformed,
a significant part of our own history. Maybe
some of you know this. Do any of you know that
the first Presbytery, the first Synod, and the
first Presbyterian General Assembly all took
place right here in Pennsylvania? Yeah. Citing
history, right over there in Philadelphia, first
Presbyterian 1706, the first general assembly
1789. But there's a truth to this, that American
Christianity wears the history of the United
States in its congregation. And the reality is
that in some ways is very interesting and maybe
good, and in some ways is also unbelievably tragic.
We all know, you probably all have heard that
the greatest hour, celebrated hour in the United
States is Sunday mornings. Let me tell you about
Richard Allen. Richard Allen was born into slavery
on Valentine's Day in 1760, February 14th. He
was born in what is now Delaware to a property
owner Benjamin Chu, he was still pretty young.
He and his siblings, he actually had five siblings,
and his mother were then sold to Stokely Sturgis
who worked another plantation. Sturgis got into
some financial trouble and so Richard Allen's
own mother and three of his siblings were sold
to another family. Torn apart. family torn apart
by slavery. His older brother and sister remained
there with the Sturgis family and actually they
began to attend a Methodist meeting, a meeting
of the Methodist society that was specifically
targeting in a way, caring for, specifically
trying to share the good news with slaves. And
he gave his life to following Jesus. He gave
his life to following Jesus when he was 17 years
old. And what he did is he began evangelizing
other slaves, telling them about the good news
of Jesus. Well, after the Revolutionary War,
which was almost exactly right around that time
when he became a Christian, there were a number
of Methodist preachers. Actually, this happened
really throughout the Eastern Seaboard, but here
in the Mid -Atlantic, there were preachers that
were going throughout. teaching the good news
of Jesus, but also preaching emancipation and
encouraging landowners to free their slaves.
So Sturgis actually offered all of his slaves
the ability to purchase their freedom. And so
Richard Allen did that. He actually worked extra
hours and gained his freedom. Here's a pretty
remarkable thing. A few years later, Richard
Allen was actually, he passed the exams and he
was So he qualified and then he was admitted
to be a preacher there in and around Baltimore
within the Methodist Church, the Methodist Episcopal
Church, which was the early Methodist Church,
Methodism coming out of the Anglican Church in
England, particularly this movement in Oxford
with the Wesley Brothers. Here's the thing, even
though he was licensed, he was qualified to preach,
he was not allowed to vote in their meetings.
Why? Because he was black. So a couple years
later, he moved to Philadelphia where he took
a preaching role at St. George's Methodist Episcopal
Church. There, he moved there in part because
of this conflict over race. Now he comes and
he starts to have all these people come and listen
to him. The black congregation under his preaching
was growing and growing, but the vestry of that
church said, you cannot actually worship with
us. It's dominantly white congregation. You have
to worship at the earliest time and be done before
all the other folk come. So after this discrimination
and after this segregation continued, he actually
gathered a friend, Absalom Jones, and they began
the Free African Society in 1787. about this.
1787 in Philadelphia, there's also a very important
event that happened in Philadelphia in that same
year, which was the Constitutional Convention,
right? Who are the leaders there? George Washington,
James Madison. Freedom! And yet in the church,
it's reflecting the history of our country there
is this great segregation and this great divide
that takes place. So in that very same year the
African Free Society happened and then later
on that moved into what that developed out of
Richard Allen's leadership into the African Methodist
Episcopal Church. And some of you know that the
AME continues to be one of the great historic
and most influential black denominations in our
country. Now, I share this with you because it
shows in some ways that there is something that
is very lovely going on and something also deeply
tragic in how we wear sort of the world that
we live in. How the church itself sort of puts
on a sort of garment and it's reflecting the
world that it's sort of soaking in. So of course,
the question is, what are you soaking in, right?
What kind of world are you putting on? American
Christianity wears the history of the United
States on our congregations. And at times that
is beautiful and at times it's very, very ugly.
People have truly given their lives to following
Jesus and planting churches and evangelizing
and loving their neighbors. And people in the
church have pushed each other out. I've said
our union has primarily to do with our skin rather
than our baptism and our union with Christ. Our
union primarily has to do with our political
identity than our Christian identity. I mean,
think of Richard Allen's story. In some ways,
it's so remarkable and so lovely. A preacher
going to the slaves and him giving his life to
following Jesus. and evangelizing and telling
other people and then working hard enough that
he could get his freedom and then going and working
and becoming a preacher. And then there's so
much loveliness in it. And there's of course
so much sadness in it also. Think of it, it's
full of beauty and tragedy. But I think it forces
us to ask sort of what is shaping our church?
What's shaping ministry? Who or what is shaping
the church and what is it to look like? I mean
think if you were to just ask like What are the
prominent names in Christianity? I mean a lot
of people might say things like Joel Olsteen
Steven Furtick Andy Stanley, maybe Mark Driscoll
in a bygone era or depending upon where you live
But what does that say is it just it's a reflection
of a celebrity culture Which is the culture that
we live in? Celebrity culture. We wear, in a
way, the world that we soak in. When many people
think of the church, many think of Christianity,
they might think primarily of a voting bloc.
You get all those people to vote in a certain
way. I mean, you very likely could largely at
least guess how somebody votes by the church
they attend. Which does sort of, the question,
are they more united around that or around the
personal work of Jesus? Anyway, we are back in
Mark after last week's snow break. And we have
this little passage and Jesus is sending out
the 12, right? That's how it begins. He's sending
out the 12. In fact, pretty interesting. If you
look back a few chapters, to chapter 3 when he
calls them, when he calls the 12 apostles to
himself, it says, and he went up on the mountain
and called to them those whom he desired and
they came to him and he appointed 12 whom he
named apostles. Apostle means sent one. so that
they might be with him and might send them out
to preach and to have authority to cast out demons.
So we know from the get -go that this is the
intent of this group of people that he's gathered
together to him, to be, in a sense, his ministry
for the world. That's from the get -go. Jesus
calls these guys to himself for the sake of sending
them out. But here he's actually doing it. Here
the ministry is happening. The apostles are the
sent ones. And here's Here's the ministry happening.
And so this morning I want to sort of address
two things that I think this text sort of invites
us to reflect on. The first is it's like, what
is ministry about? I mean, what is the church
supposed to be about? That's part of it. And
then the other is, how's ministry supposed to
be done? If we can kind of look and say, oh,
we're influenced by, you know, sort of the history
and the place and the setting that we're set
in, well, what are we supposed to be about? And
what is it supposed to look like? So what's ministry
about? Well, you just heard from chapter three,
verse 14, that he calls these guys to himself,
these apostles, these sent ones, that he... send
them out to preach, it said that he might do
that and that they might have authority to cast
out demons, to preach and heal. And in our passage,
I think pretty interestingly, these two things
that he called them to himself to then do are
done. They're in fact, I think the main things
that are taking place. So look with me down at
verse seven. Verse seven says, and he called
the 12, and began to send them out, two by two,
and gave them authority over the unclean spirits."
Now, what we know so far in Jesus' ministry is
that he has this authority. He has authority.
In fact, what we had just seen in the previous
chapter, right, are these three different narratives
of Jesus displaying his authority and people
going, whoa. That guy's got authority. You know,
you remember the wind and the waves, you know,
story about Jesus, the disciples and the boat.
And you probably remember Jairus's daughter whom
he heals and he raises from the dead and the
woman with the bleeding, all of that. And then
right in between those stories, there's this
man who is said to be a demoniac. He has a demon
and he's living among the tombs and he was out
of his mind. In fact, we kind of have a sense
that he was out of his mind in such a way that
he was hurting himself. It says he would take
stones and cut himself, but also in a way he
was hurting others. One of the texts says that
people tried to bind him and they couldn't, why
would they do that? But that he was actually
harming those around him. All this to say is
that in the most immediate context of this story
right here, What we have is Jesus having authority
to cast out demons, of course, over the wind
and the waves and over somebody who has a discharge
of blood, a hemorrhage, and also over this child,
this 12 year old who dies. So he has the authority
to heal and now he's saying, you do it. But part
of what I wanna say is that ministry has to do
with this act of healing. Ministry is for the
life of the world, for the good and for the blessing
of others. And ministry is about, in some ways
we could say from that text, ministry is about
healing from our own self -destructive ways and
community destructive ways. Okay. And this is...
This passage is also saying that the need for
healing is always connected to a spiritual reality,
which I don't mean, actually, this is important
to say. When I say that healing is always a spiritual
thing, that they're supposed to cast out demons
here in this passage, that does not mean it's
non -physical. Spiritual and non -physical don't
really, that's not an antithesis in the Bible,
okay? The demon had all kinds of physical effects
on the man, right? And that man, because of that
spiritual reality, had all kinds of physical
effects on the community that he lived in. But
that man couldn't be healed of the things that
were destructive to himself, or the things that
were destructive to the community, unless the
spiritual reality healed. So the spiritual problem
was the root problem, okay? Jesus doesn't just
tell his disciples to go out, work for the healing
of the world, which in itself you'd say is a
good thing, but he says go out and cast demons
out, right? Work for the healing of the world
that is connected at its root to a spiritual
problem. So, you know, we're going to have our
congregational meeting after the service. And
one of the things I want to encourage you to
do is to get involved in the life of the church.
And one of the ways you get involved in life,
the church is through ministry teams here at
our church. So is our benevolence team doing
ministry? Well, yes, right? I mean, as they care
for those who can't pay their electrical bills
maybe when it's freezing outside, they're working
for the healing of the world. But that isn't
Christian ministry per se, unless it's also saying,
let me tell you about a spiritual reality, right?
That there is something that is going on within
our hearts that is actually hurting ourselves
and our communities. That for Christian ministry
to be Christian ministry, it is for the healing
of the world, but it is healing at a spiritual
level also. Our English language classes, are
they doing the work of ministry? Yes and amen.
And by helping others learn English, they're
addressing a very practical and very real need
that people have as they've come from other countries.
They're settling in our city and they are wondering,
how do I do life? But that physical need goes
hand in hand with a spiritual need. Let me say
this. If you are interested in caring for immigrants
in our community, get involved in our English
language classes. It's a very practical and very
helpful way to do that. Part of what I'm suggesting
is that ministry is about the healing of the
broken world, but that broken world that has
all these physical effects in the world, right?
Divorces, estrangement from loved ones, all kinds
of things that happen that harm our world, they
have at their root this spiritual reality that
needs to be healed and is only healed in Christ.
So that's partly, I think, what's going on here.
Ministry is healing, but it is healing that says
there is a spiritual root problem that needs
to be addressed along with the physical reality,
the physical healing. But beyond this, in our
passage, I think one of the main things that
it's saying is that ministry is preaching. Now,
I don't want to say necessarily that it's preaching
like what I'm doing right now. I'm standing up
in front of, you know, not all you're supposed
to do this, but it is proclaiming and it is encouraging
and it is actually calling back. to life with
God. So Jesus sends them out and he gives them
authority over unclean spirits. But when he instructs
them, right, he talks about his disciples being
in a place that will not receive them. So if
you look down, actually verse 12 and 13, no,
11. And if any place will not receive you and
they will not listen to you, Right, so he says
actually what the thing that they're not doing
when they're not receiving you is they're not
listening But the assumption is that you part
of ministry is you are talking And you're talking
in a way that they are either receiving or not
receiving you Now if we keep going actually it
says more specifically verse 12 so they went
out and proclaimed that people should Which is
why I say ministry is preaching. Because what
does Jesus do? He preaches repentance. And his
people are proclaiming with their words, turn,
turn. So what is ministry about? Ministry is
about healing, but three is also about preaching
and proclaiming repentance. Ministry is about
sharing the good news. that the way that you
are going in life can actually turn around. That
the path you're going down that is isolated and
solitary and self -seeking, that is going away
from God can actually come back to life as it's
meant to be with God. Change can happen in Jesus.
to repent was to turn around, or is to turn around.
So I didn't tell her that I was gonna share this.
Kathy and I were talking earlier this week and
she shared with me of a local counselor friend
of theirs, Jake Thiessen. And maybe some of you
know him. He's written a little book called,
A Tiny Shift. And there's this great encouragement
that Kathy shared with me. And it's just a simple
question. And yet the simple question feels so
significant. And it's a question for married
folk, but maybe it can be a good question for
friends or siblings. And the question at the
end of the day was this, have I hurt you today?
And all of you married folk know, oh, that sounds
like such a short, simple question to ask. But
we know it's not, because what does it invite
us to do? It invites us to repent. That's not
an easy thing. Because to repent is to say, I'm
sorry, and to turn, right? Say, I don't want
to do that, I'm gonna turn. Change my ways. It's
a question that invites repentance. The disciples
proclaimed that people should repent. To find
that there is a new way of doing life, there's
a different way of doing life. And change is
possible in Jesus. Ministry is about calling
people back to God. Ministry is calling people
away from focus on self, what we can grab, what
we can take. The tree looks beautiful and delightful,
right? The fruit of the tree. Yet it brought
death. And God says, where are you? Come back
to me. Ministry is calling people back to God.
The Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright
actually included one quote from him. in our
meditation quotes this morning, which is written
pretty extensively on the idea that the Bible
is not just a book that has missionary texts
in it. Like I mentioned, Psalm 67 is one of the
great missionary Psalms. Or you think of the
great missionary text of Matthew 28 and the Great
Commission, right? When Jesus sends out the disciples
there at the end of Matthew, or you think of
the whole book of Acts. A lot of people think
of that as one of the great missionary texts.
Or maybe think of Revelation chapter seven, where
every tongue and tribe and nation is there falling
down before the lamb who was slain. But instead,
what Chris Wright says is the Bible isn't just
a book that has missionary texts, but the Bible
is itself a missionary text. That the whole point
of the Bible The revelation of God who is calling
people back to himself. The creator God that
is saying, I'm going to come and get you and
I'm going to call you back to myself. That the
whole point of it is a repentance. Come back,
turn from your ways, turn from your sin and find
new life in Jesus. Ministry is about healing,
but ministry is also about repentance. This is
why very truly ministry really does happen in
the context. In the context when we can hear
God's call, often through another's voice to
repentance and we can act and we can change.
So what I want to suggest to you is that actually
ministry often does happen. in this kind of setting,
right? When you hear God's call to come and worship
and you're like, okay, I'm gonna come. And when
we hear God's call to repent, you're like, I'm
gonna repent. And you hear God's words and you
say, oh, I'm forgiven. And that's really God
doing ministry in you. And it's in this setting
where you hear preaching and it's in the setting
when we hear God saying the Lord bless you as
you go. And you're like, okay, I'm gonna go.
But also it often happens, and you know this
happens, ministry often happens when you're having
like coffee with somebody. And there's an honest
conversation that's taking place. And maybe it's
an encouragement. Keep following Jesus. You are
doing something good. Walk in His way. Or maybe
it's actually when your friend says, hey, the
tone that you have with your wife is actually
deeply harmful and it's not for healing. and
you can change and you can repent and you can
find new life in Jesus. And ministry happens
in that context, right? So often ministry, this
is what happens in the gospel. So often ministry
happens around a dinner table where people are
talking about life and they're saying, oh my,
let me encourage you to repent. Let me encourage
you to follow the Lord. That's so often ministry
is happening. Ministry is happening in community
groups and ministry teams and Bible studies.
As you gather together and you proclaim a new
life, a repentant life in Christ. What I'm suggesting
to you is that ministry is healing and preaching.
But here's another thing that I think is really
lovely about this passage is that it doesn't
just talk to us about what ministry is, but it
also talks to us about how is ministry done.
There's a few things in this passage, okay, about
how ministry is done. The first thing that is
actually really significant here is that ministry
is done in community. So there is no Christian
life lived in isolation. And there is no Christian
ministry that is done all alone. If you notice
this passage, it begins like this, and he called
the 12 to him and began to send them out two
by two. Interestingly, how that two by two is
written is actually sort of unique. There's not
other instances of that sort of phrase in ancient
Greek texts. It's just duo, duo, two, two. And
people think that maybe it was written like that
because it's emphasizing it. It's wanting you
to go, wait, that's not how you say it. Wait,
I need to pay attention to that. It's two by
two. You cannot do ministry. alone. Ministry
is just not something you do in isolation. And
of course, this is the pattern of the Bible.
God calls a community to Himself. He creates
a community, male and female, right? He creates
them together. He calls a whole family to Himself,
and He says, you're going to multiply, and through
you, all the nations are going to be blessed.
But then when you come to the New Testament itself,
as Jesus did from the very beginning of His ministry,
He calls other people to Himself. Or if you look
at the book, particularly the book of Luke, but
also you can find this actually very little bit
in the beginning of Mark. John the Baptist and
Jesus' ministry go hand -in -hand even before
he calls the disciples. It's like somebody else
is right there ministering with him. And if you
go into the book of Acts, of course you find
the same thing with Paul and Silas and Paul and
Timothy, or actually in Acts 18, what do we hear?
Paul is in Corinth and Silas and Timothy came
to him. You can think of Barnabas. Ministry is
always done with others. It's always done in
community. Again, I'm just gonna say that one
of the best ways you can actually grow and do
the work of ministry is just join a community,
a ministry team. Just say, I don't even know
what I should do. Put me on something and I'll
find some place to just put you and we'll see
if it works or not. But you do it with other
people. Okay, the other thing that I think we
see really clearly in this passage is that, so
ministry is done in a community, but ministry
is always done in dependence on God. So verse
8, He charged them. Charged them to take nothing
for their journey except a staff, no bread, no
bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals
and not put on too tight. Now, we know from other
passages that the disciples had bread. here and
there. We know from other passages that disciples
had a money bag. We know that. It's not that
those things are in and of themselves bad, but
what he's saying is if you're going to do ministry,
you've got to learn dependence. You have to learn
dependence on me. And these other things, you're
tempted to find that if you can take them along,
maybe you can rely on them and not on my own
provision for you. teaching them that ministry
demands dependence on Him. Just like you cannot
do ministry alone, you cannot do Christian ministry
outside of dependence on God. Which is to say
that Christian ministry demands giving up control.
And maybe, maybe that is why so often so many
pastors fail at Christian ministry because pastors
love control. I'm speaking from experience. It
also means, as Jesus says in a way, that sometimes
ministry will go well, humanly speaking, and
sometimes it won't. Sometimes people will welcome
the message of repentance and sometimes people
will not. The image that we have here is shaking
the dust off your feet. And that image actually
came from a Jewish practice that we know from
other writings around the time of when the Jews
would wander outside for various reasons, outside
of the promised land that they lived and they
would come back and they didn't want any sort
of any bit of the Gentile world coming into their
world. And so even the dirt would just kind of
be brushed off, get rid of it all. And what Jesus
is doing is he's sending his disciples out into
Galilee, which was The Christian community, the
Jewish community and saying, you know what? There's
gonna be times where even they will not receive
you and you've got to understand that they're
unbelievers. Brush it off. Which is to say sometimes
ministry, you're not gonna have the success that
you want, right? We start, since I've been here,
we've started a few things and then we've said,
you know what? Let's stop doing that. That didn't
seem to work too well. What's next Lord? Anyway,
let me in a way wrap this up for us. We've seen
at least some of what ministry is, some of how
ministry is done. One thing that's really neat
in this passage is that you get this sense, it's
very short, but you get the sense that there's
a real success that these disciples have. Maybe
you know elsewhere and in Luke they come back
and they say Wow, it worked Jesus. We really
did cast out demons in your name but um But here
it says And they cast out many demons painted
with oil By the way, nobody is quite sure what
the oil is there. So I didn't get into that with
the how there's a lot of different fairly compelling
takes Many who were sick and healed them. King
Herod heard of it, for his name become known.
They obviously have this degree of success in
what they are called to do, this ministry that
they're called to. So how? I mean, how is this?
I mean, I suggested at the beginning of this
sermon, that it's significantly true that American
Christianity wears the history of the United
States on its congregations. That we kind of
resemble in a way often for, there's some beauty
in this and there's some very bad stuff in this,
we resemble this world that we live in. What
I wanna suggest to you is that ministry will
resemble what you are soaking in. And what have
the disciples been soaking in? I mean, Jesus
called them to Himself in chapter three, and
it said in chapter three, He did that so that
He could send them out and they could cast out
demons and they could preach repentance. They
said that in chapter three. Why didn't He do
it in chapter three? I want to suggest to you
because they needed to soak in Him, right? And
what do we find when we look actually in that
gap between chapter three and chapter six? What's
chapter four? Preaching. It actually begins with
preaching repentance. Well, and there's parables
and stuff, but I mean, think of the purpose of
parables, chapter four, verses 12. So that they
may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed
hear, but not understand, lest they should turn
and be forgiven. He's actually saying turn. Even
the style of preaching is for repentance and
for a revelation of whether or not he needs to
brush the dirt off His foot or not? Are they
hearing? Are they turning to Him? Chapter four
is all about Jesus preaching. What's chapter
five about? Jesus' healing, right? So the success
that they have, and let me suggest to you this,
the only way that we will not just resemble the
world that we live in is if you are soaking in
who Jesus is and what He has done and the words
He has said. That's the only way. The way for
Christian ministry to be done and to have some
level of true effect in the world is for us,
the church, to be soaking in Jesus, to put on
Christ, to be Jesus, the reality of what we wear,
because otherwise we will just resemble whatever
is around us. Friends, we confess every week
when we confess the creed that we believe in
the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We
believe that the Church is the community of the
sent ones. The community of the sent ones, that's
what apostle means. May we wear as we are sent.
Christ. And may he be known. May his healing
be known. May repentance and faith and the real
reality of a changed life be known. And may we
do that together, always depending and resting
on him. Amen. Let me pray. Lord God, pray Lord
that we would soak in you. that we would hear
that this text is for us because we are the apostolic
ones. We are the sent ones. God, would we see
the beauty in a call from you to heal the world,
to address the needs of our neighbors with compassionate
love and to not divorce that from their spiritual
need? God, would we find um that proclaiming
repentance to one another in our families and
in our in our friendships sitting around coffee
sitting in a community group god in all these
different ways lord attending worship god would
we find that there is life in these god we eagerly
do it together holding hands together and holding
fast to you God, would you please, Lord, this
coming year see fit to bless us as we seek to
be faithful to you? God, as we are sent by you
into the highways and byways, the alleys, the
interstates, wherever you would call us, Lord,
would we be faithful to you? And would you please
bless us? How we think of the success that you
gave to these apostles long ago. Lord, as we
are clinging to you, as we are putting you on,
as we are following in your ways. You also bless
us in our ministry here at Second City. We pray
in your name. Amen. Thank you for listening to
Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon
has encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate
the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing
to this podcast and joining us in person each
Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us online at
secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram, Facebook,
and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. God
bless.