Kingdom Workers
Notes
Transcript
Countdown
Countdown
Something fun (eg. Game, video, etc.). It is not necessary for this to have a tie in to the lesson, but it can.
Introductions
Introductions
This is culture/ introduction to the series.
Basic Opening Statement: We are glad that you are here with us at bcsm and we want you to know, more than anything, that you have a community of people here that love and care about you, you have a purpose or a place within this community which means we are better off with you than without you and you have a mission outside of this community. All of that rests on this one foundational truth that we want you to hear and want you to share: God wants to have a relationship with you.
I am _______________ and before we start, let me pray.”
*Pray for God to use what you have to say to move someone further along in their journey towards Jesus.*
We are continuing our Kingdom of Heaven series where we will are exploring the very first book of the New Testament, Matthew, a couple chapters at a time. Matthew is one of four biographies of Jesus that we have in the Bible, we call them the gospels, which is just a fancy word for good news. But Matthew tells us a little bit about the things that Jesus did while he was walking around here on earth, it tells us what he taught, how he healed people and ultimately it tells us about his death and resurrection. These gospels give us an insider’s perspective on the things that Jesus said and did. But each of them has kind of a different angle, some things that they want to focus in on about Jesus’ ministry. What we are going to focus on in the book of Matthew is something that he is keen to bring out: this idea of the Kingdom of Heaven. So far we have talked about Jesus’ origins and his preparations for ministry. Today we are covering three chapters of Matthew that immediately follow Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is a large section of text and has a lot of little stories in it. So we will not be able to do all of it justice today, but that is not the goal. We want to help you understand this section of the Bible enough so that you can perhaps, explore it on your own. bcsm does put together daily devotions that follow along with what we talk about in here on Sunday mornings at thebcsm.com or through the church app. So if you are interested in exploring more those could be helpful.
But the Bible was never meant to be something that is super cut and dry and something that we could spoon feed to you anyway. We could pick through this passage a word at a time and still not delve into the depths it has to offer. The Bible is meant to be studied and meditated on over your lifetime. And as you do that you get to see more and more of what God is doing in, around and through your life to spread the good news of his Kingdom… the Kingdom of Heaven.
Teaching
Teaching
This is the main point/ story of your lesson. Everything you want your students to Know should be covered here.
With all of that in mind we are going to kind of gloss over chapters 8 and 9 today by saying this. After the Sermon on the Mount Jesus starts going around and healing people, driving out demons and doing all sorts of miracles. But the pace that he is doing these things is like relentless. He is healing people through the night and stuff. Suffice it to say, Matthew is pointing out all sorts of important things here. But we are going to zoom in on
And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 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 pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Jesus has got to be tired. He is working his tail off. So what does he do about it?Jesus picks twelve guys to go and do the work he is doing. Twelve is a significant number in the Old Testament. Think, the twelve tribes of Israel. Remember we are building a New Kingdom here. The twelve were to go out and heal people like Jesus was doing and tell people “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” like Jesus was doing. There is an urgency in this sending out. He tells them, go right now, with what you have on. Don’t like go to Walmart and stock up on supplies. Go.
Now, in that same vein he tells them to just go to Jews. And I want to just take a couple of minutes here. This is something that comes up a lot in Jesus’ ministry that I want to address real quick. Several times throughout his ministry Jesus says something to the effect that his focus is on Jews. This kind of thing is especially prominent in Matthew’s telling of the story because he is writing to Jewish people.
Matthew is pointing out that God has been revealing himself in many different ways throughout the centuries recorded in the Old Testament. So God has been like teaching a class about his nature and what He was going to do for centuries. The Jews had been in that class. They had been studying and preparing for the final partly because they were not sure when it would happen. So they see themselves as prepared. Jesus comes on the scene and he is the answer to all of the questions posed by the Old Testament. So He goes around and is telling them, “Hey, John the Dunker was the study guide and the final is here. The answer is me.” But this answer is surprising to them. What is even more surprising is that many people who don’t have this background are Acing the exam. But Jesus really wants the Israelites to have every opportunity to reorient their minds around this new view of the Kingdom, the new Israel, the new Garden, the new King.
So it is not that Jesus’ message is not for people outside of Israel, we see lots of examples where outsiders are welcomed. In fact these examples kind of stand as a rebuke to the Israelites who don’t believe in Jesus. It is like Matthew is saying, “You had every opportunity.” But they get the first chance to respond.
Now, Jesus charges the Twelve to go out and tell everyone about the Kingdom of heaven. This is part of God’s relentless insistence that we become coworkers with him. He wants to work alongside of humanity to bring goodness to this world. But when they go out, Jesus tells them that they will face persecution because of their message, but that should not stop them from being bold, because, don’t forget, the kingdom of heaven is upside down. So even if you lose your life for Jesus’ sake, you will find it.
Tension
Tension
What is the rub? Create some questions and feeling.
Now it is important when we read parts of the Bible like this one, that we don’t just say, “Jesus is talking to me,” because in a very real sense he isn’t. And we should not take this and say, “Matthew is writing to me.” Because he isn’t. Jesus is talking to the Twelve (not even all of his contemporary followers) and Matthew is writing to first century Jews.
The Bible is not written to us, but it is written for us. That is an important distinction. A lot of what Jesus is saying here does not apply to your life. For example,
Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.
I have never heard of anyone being flogged in a synagogue in Cincinnati for talking about Jesus. But if you look at
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.
This is still true. The more our lives resemble Jesus’ life, the greater the liklihood that we will face the consequences of that life. Jesus was crucified for being who He was. I am tempted to say, right now death is not a real possibility in our current culture and context. But we also like to make this idea too figurative. I am taking up my cross by doing chores without complaining. But for Jesus it was a literal execution.
Maybe, if following Jesus does not feel risky to us, are we not following Him close enough?
I am not suggesting for you to run out and exhibit all sorts of risky behavior in the name of following Jesus. Jesus advocates wisdom.
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
He is saying that following Him is inherently dangerous, not that we should make danger for ourselves just so we feel like we are following Jesus.
But what if you were so committed to following Jesus that it was dangerous?
Now I have to be careful here because I don’t want your mom to call me and yell at me. That would be uncomfortable for me. Especially if they were yelling at me because you got yourself beat up for telling someone about Jesus.
But if we really believe this stuff, If we really believe Jesus is who He says he is, if we really believe that He brings with Him this upside down Kingdom of Heaven where first is last and last is first, where death is life, why would we not risk everything to tell everyone? Why would I not risk telling you that there is something here in this whole Jesus thing that is worth living for? Why would I not risk telling you that there is something in this whole Jesus thing that is worth dying for? In a figurative sense? Yes. But also in a literal sense.
Let’s say that you got exactly what you wanted for Christmas. I don’t know what you want. Let’s say it is a can opener. You really like opening cans. When you wrap a can opener, it becomes pretty obvious what it is even without unwrapping it. Especially if that is what you have been asking for, right? So you are given this amazing can opener and you come down on Christmas morning and you see it there under the tree. You run and grab it and you see it was from your dad. So you hug it tightly and you say, “Thank you so much dad. I love opening cans and now I have my very own can opener.” But then you don’t stop hugging it. You don’t even unwrap it. That night you go to bed holding it like a teddy bear. The next day, you are still cherishing this can opener. You are so happy to have it. You can not put it down. So later at lunch time, you grab a can of soup, but you don’t want to use the can opener you got for christmas. You open the drawer and try to use the old can opener, but it is not working because you can’t put the new can opener down. Eventually you realize you can not open cans anymore because you are too busy holding onto what was supposed to be a gift.
I know that is a stupid illustration. But your life is like the can opener. It is a precious gift. You should protect it and cherish it but not so much that you are not willing to use it for its intended purpose.
Response
Response
This is the response portion. Everything you want your students to Do should be touched on here, but you should have at least one immediate action that can be taken.
The purpose of our lives is to grow into an understanding of our place in the Kingdom of Heaven. The purpose of our lives is to work alongside of God to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to those around us, to turn this world upside down. And for some people that costs them everything. Certainly not everyone. But following Jesus is inherently, by definition, dangerous. And his call to the Twelve was not to shrink from the danger, but to face it. To be careful, to protect your life, to cherish your life, but not so much that you are not willing to use it for its intended purpose.
This was not spoken or written to us. But I believe that does not mean that it was not written for us. I think this still applies. We are to be bold in proclaiming the message of Jesus to everyone no matter what it costs.
And that is hard. It is hard.
But the message of Jesus is, it is worth it.
Matthew 10:39 (ESV)
...whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
It is worth it.
That is huge, right? So how do we respond?
To be honest, I am not sure.
I think the best I can give you, is that Jesus is calling for workers. He says the workers are few. There is so much to do to spread the Kingdom here and elsewhere. And though the work is dangerous, as followers of Jesus we gotta respond. Will you be a Kingdom Worker?
If you have already proclaimed that you are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, by being baptized, does it feel dangerous? Does it make you nervous? Or are you completely comfortable with where you are in your walk with Jesus? Because many times that is where I find myself. So maybe you need to find that edge, that spot that makes you a little nervous, where it feels dangerous, and lean into it. How can you bring the Kingdom of heaven there?
Maybe you have not committed yourself to the Kingdom yet and you are like, death,? no thanks. I get it. I am not selling it too well today.
Maybe you are there and you are like, “I have been looking for purpose. I have been looking for some reason to live. Something I could die for.” Maybe you have found that in Jesus. If that is you we would love for you to join us as a citizen as a brother or sister in the family of God. You enter in by becoming baptized. If that is you, let me know.
But right now we are going to do what we do every week to remember Jesus and his death on the cross. We eat a piece of bread to remind us of his broken body and we drink some grape juice to remind us of his blood poured out for us. So I am going to play a song and feel free to move around. You can grab the bread and juice, or if you want to make a commitment today or you need prayer or just to talk with one of the dults here, you can do that too. Or if you just want to sit and listen to the song, that is an option as well.
Song
Song
Take All of Me- Hillsong United
Discussion
Discussion