Called for Others

What does it mean to be chosen by God? In this message from Matthew 9–10, we follow the journey from wilderness to mountain to mission, discovering that God calls ordinary people, gives them a new identity, and sends them into the world as His witnesses.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

With me to the Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter nine. The Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter nine. And you'll begin to see, as was already started last week, really, that we are entering into what's often called in the liturgical year in our Christian calendar. It's proper time or ordinary time, as it's sometimes times referred to. And that is, there's no big holy days that are.

That are. I mean, you know, once we get around Advent, then you get Advent, Christmas. I mean, you're just boom, boom. And we're celebrating and we're moving and we're shifting our thinking to these massive events that God has done on our behalf, which is amazing. But now we enter a time where things begin to sort of settle down into ordinary time.

And yet there's extraordinary things that are happening, of course, because we're under a period of time where it's the time of the Spirit. So the Spirit has been given. We've already marched through these massive events. And then the last one was Pentecost. And now every Sunday subsequent is just simply the Sunday ex.

Sundays after Pentecost, right all the way until we come to the end of the season. All right, which is this is the longest season, is ordinary time. So that's what we're in. Notice this Gospel reading as you have found. Matthew, chapter nine.

Go ahead and stand with me for the reading of God's word this morning. We're going to begin with verse 35 of Matthew 9 and go down to 10 8. Notice these words. This is the word of God. Jesus went about all the cities and villages to teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming or preaching the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Then Jesus summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles.

First, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew. James, son of Zebedee and his brother John, Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector James, son of Alphaeus and Thaddaeus, Simon the Cananean and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions. Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As you go, proclaim the good news. The kingdom of heaven has. Has come near. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment.

Give without payment. Lord Jesus, thank you for your holy word. And thank you, Lord, that just as you call these 12, so too you call us in this room to be your disciples, to be those who are sent out. Teach us your ways through the preaching of your word. Today we pray in your name.

Amen. You can be seated.

Well, there's a lot of things going on in our text today, but one of the neat things as we're in this season of ordinary time and is we actually are taking. There's two different tracks you can actually take with the readings. We take track two, which actually pairs on purpose the Old Testament with the Gospel reading. So each week, when you hear the gospel. Sorry, when you hear the Old Testament section read, listen in when the Gospel is read, because they're paired together.

And if you remember, the Old Testament reading comes to us from Exodus 19, which, if you're good with your outline of Exodus, you remember what happens in chapter 20, right? Is the giving of the Ten Commandments. Okay? And so here we are right up to the mountain. You heard it.

He summoned them to the mountain in the wilderness. And then he's going to give them the law, which is an identifier for them. They become his people, and in this way. And then, of course, when they get other side of the mountain, he's going to send them out. And we have this same sort of thing happening here with Jesus.

Right? Think of it. The twelve disciples. Doesn't that pair with the twelve tribes of Israel? Yes.

So the same sort of thing is happening. So I want to kind of, kind of use like a geographical, spatial way to think of my outline, if you will, of the sermon, which is to say, first and foremost, we come to the wilderness, and the wilderness in the Old Testament, as anybody who's ever read the Old Testament knows, or. And the New Testament, quite frankly, is it is a place of testing. It is a place of trial. It is not a place of plenty.

This is why it's necessary that God give them manna in the wilderness. Because quite frankly, manna wouldn't grow in the wilderness, even though it was something given by God. I get that. But nothing's growing in the wilderness. That's the whole point with calling it a wilderness.

A desert is another way to think of it. And isn't it interesting that most of the important Major events that happen in the Bible begin in the wilderness. Now, we can say that symbolically of our own lives, can't we? None of us come to God having it all together. But rather he finds us in the wilderness of our own sin, the wilderness of our own depletion of resources.

In other words, he finds us in the wilderness of our need, doesn't he? Not in our plenty. We don't come to go, oh, yeah, God, I got plenty. But yeah, I'm going to add you to my life. No, no, we've already talked in weeks before.

It is not a matter of adding God to our life. No, he is the ground of all things, being the Creator of all things and the giver of our life.

And so God comes down into our wilderness. And of course, this is paired exactly with what God does in Jesus Christ. He comes down into the wilderness of the Roman Empire. You think about that nasty regime. I get it.

There's other nations out there that are nasty and we know them from history and this and that. But this is like the epitome of nastiness when it comes to politics. And that's the one. Jesus slips into that kind of wilderness, that kind of self serving that kind of sin. And so I want us to first just consider the wilderness that we came from.

Because Israel doesn't stay in the wilderness, do they? They're there for a time and they're actually there longer because of their unbelief. Think about that for just a second.

They wander, in fact. And so there's a lesson to be learned here. And that is we don't come to God with it all together. We don't come to God with our resources, as if that really matters to Him. He needs nothing.

And that's a good thing to begin to understand. But it's likewise also good to understand and remember that his grace is always first. So that if we are responding to something that God has given to us, if we've had the opportunity, in other words, to be here this morning to hear His Word, that is a gift of God. Do not count that as your own doing. No, no, grace first.

He comes to us, as Paul says, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, there was nothing to merit in us, and yet he did it while we were still sin.

Now, there's something else here, just a note about being lost. Because we get that language here, don't we? And we get it in the Old Testament and we get it in the New Testament. It's kind of the premier Language of the sinner, okay, is one who is lost. And I used to think of lostness as, like, outside of the camp, you know, outside of the people of God, outside of the church.

But if you've ever been to church before, you know there's sinners in the church. Some people are surprised by this. So I just want to make sure we're all on the same page.

Oh, I don't go to church because of xyz. Well, newsflash. There's sinners everywhere you go. And here's what Jesus actually says. I'm not going to pull up the wheat and the weeds right now.

They're going to coexist for now. But, you know, I found that to be his grace because I was one of those weeds for a while in the house, in the garden. And he didn't pluck me up and send me to the fire, thanks be to God. He didn't. He had great patience with me and didn't just pluck me up and throw me away.

You see, there's a type of lostness that I think in my mind of as kind of wild. You know, it's the crime to Christ sort of testimony. I mean, you just go wild. You don't care about God's church. You don't care about the things of God.

You're just doing your thing, right? That's the wild way, okay? That's the wild kind of lostness. You're just a wild sheep that has no flock. But.

And we find it here. Jesus own words he tells his disciples, go to the lost sheep of Israel. Which means these are people that do belong somewhere. They're supposed to be in a sheepfold. They're supposed to be with a shepherd.

And yet they have found themselves to be lost. You understand what I'm saying here? There's people outside the church that are lost, and there are people inside the church who are lost. All need to be found. All need to be found.

Perhaps some of you in this room feel that lostness. You used to belong, but now you don't feel like.

Reminds me of the coin that the woman was looking for. You remember? The coin belonged to her, you see, but it had become lost in the house. I think of it as rolling under the oven, perhaps, or rolling under the dishwasher. Nobody checks under there.

And when you do, it's pretty scary.

It hasn't been cleaned in some time. And just imagine being that lost coin. It's the same life, same room, same sounds. Think about it. But you're lost.

You're misplaced. You ever feel like that? Sometimes depression will make you feel like that. Anxiety will make you feel like that. It's literally the same life, but it doesn't feel like it.

You become lost. It's time to be found again. Start calling for the shepherd, because he's listening.

He comes looking for the one, doesn't he?

And then I love the way Jesus gives that detail. He carries that one that he finds on his shoulders. He's not dragging it behind on a leash, you know, like a dog that doesn't gonna want to go somewhere. No, he carries that thing right on his shoulders. In other words, Christ welcomes the lost and so should the church.

The wild ones on the outside and the sinners the inside. Both are lost and both need to be called home. And isn't it good when you. When you actually get home? You know, like most of us probably have traveled somewhere and it's cool and all that, but there's something about your bed.

There's something about your routine. There's something about the view out of your window. You know what I mean? I get it. Greece is awesome window to look out.

But there's things here that I love, that I don't want, that I didn't have when I was traveling. And it's good to come home. And some of us thought it was nice out there. But it's time to come home. The word is today.

It's time to come home. Hear the shepherd's voice and obey. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. That's what Jesus says.

So again, his grace always comes first. He's already died to reconcile us to himself. He has no hidden animosity against you. Some people have this problem with God, like, oh, no, he's just like this mean father. Listen, he's already sent his son to die for us.

It's already done. He's already reconciled the world to himself. It's now time to come home. You see? Come home.

The way has already been made. Remember the Father who runs after the Son. It's the whole prodigal son thing, right? The Son belongs somewhere, but he become lost by wandering. Stop the wandering.

Come home, you belong. Okay, second point. Come out of the wilderness. Okay, we come out of the wilderness and now we belong. So now we're at the edge of the mountain, just like.

Just like the Israelites were right in Exodus. Here we're at the base of the mountain, which is its own problem really. You know, there's God up there, but it's a firestorm so what do the people say? We're too scared to go up there. And I'm sure Moses was scared too.

But they say, moses, you go for us. And he has this priestly ministry. Think about this. Because this features throughout, especially in what Jesus is saying here about calling Israel home. A priest always.

This is literally what a priestly function is or action is to represent the people to God and then turn around and God turns the people. Now, we symbolize this when, for instance, I'm here at his holy table and I'm offering you his gifts. Not my gifts, his grace. Not my grace. I am a representative of him.

So I'm representing God to you. But then notice when we confess our sins, remember that part. Holy Communion. When I turn around and join you with my back to you and bow before the king, what am I doing? I'm now representing you to him.

And that's a sacred moment. Both are. That's why a priest is a mediator between God and man. Now, of course, who's our high priest, but Jesus Christ himself, who mediates between God on the one hand and man on the other. Because he is God and man in his own person, fully God, fully man.

Not just a representative like me, but rather the exact imprint of God himself. So that Jesus can say, when you've seen me, you've seen my Father.

I am Yahweh. I am the Great. I am.

What a God, what a salvation, what a mediator, what an advocate. But there's better news. Say what? How? There's another advocate that that advocate sends, and that is the Holy Spirit of the living.

Go God into us.

Not just working on our behalf, but working in us to bring about the love of God. What a God, what a salvation, what an offer. In other words, when we ascend the mountain. And by the way, the Gospel of Matthew, remember, we're in year A in the liturgical calendar. It's all about Matthew.

If you read Matthew's gospel, he's more concerned about mountains than the other guys are. Sermon on the Mount, Transfiguration. He tells us that the Great Commission happened on a mountain. He's all about them. Why?

Because on the mountain is where we get our identity, not in the wilderness. Now, this is a principle. Our sin does not define us.

It does not. So don't define yourself by your sin. You were a liar. You were sexually deviant. You were consumed with yourself.

That does not. The world wants that to define you. The enemy wants that. Your past wants that to define people in your past. Want that to Define you.

But God says, I am making all things new in you. He sees a different vision. He sees more than we could ever even see.

And that's why we have to trust his call.

Look, if you were looking for merit from me at 17, you would have been out of luck. My report card read all Ds and an F in Spanish too.

And my life was nothing worth looking at. And it was full, chock full of Marshall. That's how he found me. That's not how he left me. Thanks be to God, he never leaves us where he finds us.

He moves us on higher up, up, up into the high country.

When he calls you, you can't see it. I could not see it.

I was later to go to college and then seminary and my grades actually improved as I went higher up. And as you know, I just did another degree and you know, had fairly good grades until the end when it all fell apart and I got a B.

It wasn't how smart I was, it wasn't how good of a speaker I was.

And it wasn't for Israel how smart they were. He didn't go find them at Yale.

It wasn't how good looking Jewish people are. That wasn't, wasn't. They were a cut above the rest and they're going to go on to do great things. No, in fact, God tells them plainly you are a stiff necked people. Now I'll tell you who's stiff necked in the animal world.

That's being referred to there. You probably know them. A donkey. Right.

In other words, you go this way. That's why people ride horses most of the time, not a donkey. Right. If a donkey stops up, it's going to. Right.

Get the neck going. Right. Just stiff neck. In other words, you go where you want to go. But I want you to let me lead you moving from that animal nature to something higher.

Because when my spirit comes in, you're no longer just animal, you're more, you're no longer just human now. You're, you are human with Christ in you now. Still human. Of course, we're not talking about some kind of becoming equal to God, but let me tell you, we are to literally share in the divine nature that is our end. Anything less won't do.

No, we're called to higher things. You see, up on the mountain, right? That's where we get our identity. But notice, notice Jesus never lets them just stay on the mountain, does he? No.

Good things are happening on the mountain. You remember Peter's like, hey, let's just Build. Build some tabernacles up here, baby. Let's go. I love this.

And he's. No, no, no. Peter, Peter, get up. Let's go. Let's go.

Down, back, back down, back. No, I want to go back down. But that's exactly what the Lord did. And we do what our Lord does. He came down for us, therefore we come down the mountain for others as well.

We're not just going to stay in this sanctuary and geek out on how good God is, but rather take that message now to the world. That's why we dismiss each time with a benediction. We start and we stop so that we then can go out to find the lost sheep. We were one of those lost sheep. Thanks be to God.

We were found. We don't take that and say, oh, we were found. Because, you know, I'm kind of foundable. Findable, you know. No, that's not what it was.

Wasn't how good you are able to be found. No, no. It was his grace. And now, freely we've received, freely we give. Give.

Remember Abraham? Pastor Emily talked about this last week. Remember Abraham? His fundamental call. I'm going to bless you, Abraham, so you can just be better than everybody else.

What? No, I'm going to bless you to be a blessing to all nations. He starts with one nation.

That's Israel. He doesn't just do it across the board equally. He starts with one family. That's the family of Abraham.

They are a called people. Their identity literally rests in the fact that he called them and so does ours.

We are a called people. It is not our own doing. And this is why. This is why the language that Jesus even uses here, he uses actually two words here at the end, Disciples. The twelve disciples.

Which disciple means learner. So we all become students of our master when we start following him. But then he uses the second word, apostles. That's that term apostolic, you know, that we use from time to time, which actually just means sent ones. We learn so that we can be sent.

We don't learn just to get smarter. We learn so we can share it with another.

We receive, we give.

Now, this final thing about being sent is where the spatial image gets much broader. So wilderness, Mountain. Now we're sent to the ends of the earth. It's kind of like our little jingle here at harvest point, right? Gather, scatter matter.

Okay? It's the same sort of concept there's. Which is really just another way of saying, worship God above all else with the body of Christ regularly, weekly, and then scatter into Discipleship groups where we're learning God's word from one another and living it out and helping one another live that out. And then mattering to this city, like this particular city. Not places just around the world, but like this community.

We are supposed to have a witness here, right here in Madison, right here in Decatur and the surrounding areas. Wherever we live, we gather, but then we scatter so that his kingdom can spread. And you know, it then becomes almost a little troubling when you hear Jesus say, guys go nowhere among the Gentiles. I thought this was to the ends of the earth. Yes, but not yet.

His work needs to be accomplished first. And there's a principle in the Bible, you don't have to like it, but it's there. To the Jew first and then to the Gentile or Greek. This is Paul. So this is a New Testament principle that continues to stand.

So this. And listen, there's a whole revival, if you will, of interest in what should Christians think about Israel. And although I would love to park there for 15 hours with you about that discussion, I promise I won't do that. Okay. But I do want to offer this.

This is God's word. It's not human made and we submit to it. We don't take it and form it into our ways. That would be stiff necked again, wouldn't it? We don't want to do that.

Okay, so we want to wrestle. Why would Israel be a chosen people? And that's a good question to ask. Why would they be the elect ones and all the other nations not? It doesn't sound fair, especially to our American ears where one of our greatest virtues here is, is equality.

And rightfully so in politics. You want that? Okay. But you have to understand, election. Election is not God choosing Israel over and against or against the other nations, but rather choosing Israel for the other nations.

In other words, I'm going to call one of you out so that I can sit here to represent me to the world. This is exactly why Paul is going to say, I'm sorry, not Paul. You are a royal priest as Moses is Exodus, my treasured possession out of all peoples right now. Why? Why?

Because you are my priestly king. This is Exodus, this is Exodus 19. This is way back. You are my priestly kingdom. Remember what a priest does?

That's what I told you. You got to keep that in the hopper, representative both ways. You're gonna be that one. That's who you are. A holy nation.

Now, holy meaning other set apart. Different. Okay, but not different. Just to Be different. Na, na, na, boo, boo.

I'm better than you, right? No, no, no. Different. So that they can call you up, you say, up the mountain. Up to the things of God.

Out of darkness into his marvelous light kind of stuff. In other words, Isaiah is clearest on this. As a prophet, he says, israel was always called to be a light to the nations. Now, were they that light? Well, God himself says no.

God himself says, I position myself against you, and yet I will never forget you. I will never leave you. This is his special people. Again, you don't have to like that, but that's his doing. And in some sense, we do the exact.

Not in some sense, in a real way, we do the exact same thing with family.

Equality is nice in politics. And you want that equality in the law. You know, the whole blind thing, it's yes, 100%. We want that. But let me tell you something.

I do not love other people's kids as much as my own. Now, you can say amen to that, you know. But listen, my kids have their own problems, you know, and you probably don't like some of them. I don't know. You might not like me.

I have no idea. But here's the point. If you're in a family, those are the people you're supposed to love. Like, sure, you can go love somebody way over here, but here's the real point. You cannot love every single person in Madison, Alabama, Huntsville.

That's impossible. In fact, you'd be, you know, spreading your butter here so thin, it wouldn't matter at all. Like people that say, yeah, I love everybody. Okay, thanks. You're awesome.

Like what? With just that word. When I love my kids, it's not just with my word. It's with my time. Even when I don't have time.

You give intentionally. That's exactly the way God says it should be, in fact. And my wife, above even my children. Like, there is an order of love. This comes from St. Augustine, who discussed this very thing.

Ordo amoris, the order or hierarchy of love. We all do it because we only have so much to give as finite human being beings.

And God teaches us by choosing his first people, the people of Abraham, the Jewish people, Israel.

And then there's something more. And it hit me the other week because I've been like. I've been in discussions, by the way, about this very thing. That's why I don't want to just drop all the way into it. If you're interested, we can certainly talk sometime.

But something hit me in this Discussion that seems extremely obvious and that is this. Just as God chose Israel, so too he elected His Son. And by getting very particular with his electing of his son, his beloved Son, the one and only living Son of God, that opened up salvation universally to all people.

So it's not a universal salvation to a universal. No, no. It's a particular electing for the sake of the world, a particular high priest. And guess what his nationality is. Just take a wild guess.

It's Jewish. He is actually Jewish, like right now. It didn't disappear when he received his resurrected, glorified body any more than his maleness disappeared. No. He is the man.

Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, born of Mary, who's a Jew. You see, God keeps his promises. When he said they're going to be a light to the nations, oh boy, they're a light to the nations. Because the true light that has come into the world is Jewish.

Anybody? Okay? Now, because of that, salvation goes to the ends of the earth to all nations. And we know that God does not favor. We're told he doesn't play favoritism.

Okay, no. His choosing is on purpose. Not because of merit again, but because he sees something and it's his to give. Just like me. I wasn't chosen because I was better than you.

Because I'm here doesn't mean I'm better than you. In fact, there's more weight on me because I'm here. And the Jews were chosen to suffer, just as our Lord was chosen to suffer. So guess what? When Peter turns around and says, you are a royal priesthood, talking about the church, the elect people.

Now guess what our job is to do? Be a light to the nations and suffer in his name. This is why later we didn't keep reading. But later Jesus says this, I send you out as my little sheep. Here we're thinking, yes, thank you.

I love it. My nice green pasture. I send you out as lambs among wolves. I'm sorry, come back on that. What?

You know what lambs do to wolves. And he says, yes, the same thing they did to me, they'll do to you. That's how they'll taste and see that the Lord is good. Are you okay with that?

I mean, one of the Beatitudes, Remember, rejoice when you suffer. In other words, the happy life, the good life, the blessed life is one where we suffer in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now listen, we went deep today. That's some deep stuff. But it's also very simple. He still calls. He still calls, elects us in this very room to certain ministries, to certain people groups.

And it's not all the same, thank God. It's not that we're all not the same. He doesn't have equality of personality in this room, does he? Or equality of gifts. No, absolutely not.

Thanks be to God. It's a beautiful kaleidoscope that he puts together that, that exemplifies and illuminates by his brilliance, not ours. So when he calls, answer, he sees something in you, just like he did with Peter. I mean, go back through that list of the apostles here, by the way, he. Notice how he puts them in pairs here, Matthew's.

I figure he's like a numbers guy because he's a tax collector, right? So he puts them in pairs. Plus Jesus says, I send you out in two by two, right? So he puts the disciples names in pairs. You start with two brothers and then you hit another set of two brothers, right?

So you got two brothers. Two brothers right away, boom, boom, boom. But just imagine, just think about if you're looking at Peter back in the day. I'm sure he was probably arguing and he's like trying to get stuff done and I mean, you know, and pretty rough around the edges. And it's like Jesus, like, I'm going to use that.

I can't wait to use that guy. You think of Matthew, the tax collector, the corrupt guy of the like. I mean, the betrayer of all betray, like to do that job. Boy, that is a low, low betrayal as a Jew. He says, I'm going to use that guy walks by his tax booth.

Come on, bud, let's go. Okay, let's go. And on and on and on and on. It wasn't because they were better than everybody else. It was because Christ asked them to do it.

Stop with the excuses. Not smart enough, not articulate enough. Stop. Moses was a stutterer, right? And yet God says, that's my guy right there.

Paul says I wasn't eloquent in my speech. Yep, that's my guy. That's my guy. He still calls. The church is his elect.

And he still has a plan for the Jews. Like right now, they're still part of his plan. He's not done with them. There's still promises yet unfulfilled.

So today, would you gather in the wilderness so that we can go up the mountain, so that we can come down to the ends of the earth? That's the mission he calls us to. Do you hear his voice? If so, say yes. Yes, Lord.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.

Total Duration 00:39:47