Jesus Establishes His Church
His Plan and Purpose, the Place, the Proclamation, and Power
You've heard something like this before: "I believe in God, but I don’t believe in organized religion." That seems weird to me because it's kind of like saying, "Flying is fine, but I don’t think airports are a good idea." or “I love baseball, but I don’t like the idea of teams at all.” Maybe you find it curious too, but, then again, maybe we can understand how a person comes to feel that way.
The other day a driver in front of me was clearly on his phone as he weaved his way to the stoplight, stopping abruptly and remained there far too long after the light turned green. A friendly tap of my horn was intended to simply draw his attention back to the road. It was not hard to see the decent-sized cross that dangled from his rearview mirror, as he sent me a message: it was not expressed with a friendly wave of his hand but by an unfriendly wave of just a part of his hand. The way the man behaved spoke more loudly to me than the cross which was intended to represent who he was.
Since you and I are not immune from behavior and language that is sometimes contradictory to our faith, maybe you can see why people are sometimes unimpressed with Christians and their churches.
That’s not the only reason people are sometimes against “organized religion though. People have been hurt. They’ve witnessed what they call “church politics ” They’ve experienced sitting through what they felt were boring rituals. Add in some horrible, hurtful things from history and a handful of horrendous news stories, and it’s tough to blame them. But even all that doesn’t exactly get them off the hook—there’s still the matter of their sinful nature rejecting what God says about his Church.
His Plan and Purpose
When someone claims to be spiritual but not religious, when a person claims to be a Christian, but they don’t have a church, a pastor, and a weekly routine of worship… there’s something I think is worth sharing. Any of us can remember this and share it in a very simple way. Here it is: God has always organized his Church and, as an example, you can see it in the worship life he designed for his people. It’s really simple to see.
God organized his people under the leadership of Moses. He set up the tabernacle for regular worship. He arranged for priests to lead and the people to listen to them.
When Jesus came along, the very Son of God made time every week to go to listen or to lead at the local synagogue.
The New Testament tells us that God gives pastors who bless his people gathered in churches as they share God’s Word.
This isn’t so hard to remember and not difficult to understand. Priests and tabernacle Jesus and synagogue. Pastors and churches. This has always been. To reject that is to oppose the organized plan God has always had for his Church and what he expects to continue until the day Christ returns. I’d like to think this kind of thing gets a person’s attention and leads them to reconsider. Then we can share something like what we see in the gospel today.
You see the way Jesus organized things for his people and for the proclaiming of his Word, right? This is outside of a worship setting, but it is another organized way of sharing of God’s Word. Jesus went beyond the 12 called to be his closest disciples and appointed 72 of his followers to go out to share the peace of God in the surrounding towns.
This was his plan: He paired them up and told them what their work would be like and what they were to say and do. His purpose was to bring peace to people by providing physical and spiritual help and prepared them to see Jesus
There was a shape and structure to the work. It was put together so that people could meet and know their Savior who was making his way to Jerusalem for the last time. When these people later heard about the One put to death on a cross, they would remember him. This was the purpose of Jesus sending out his people.
It is important for us to see—and the sending out of the 72 is an example of it—that Jesus organizes his Church with a plan and purpose. In a world skeptical of institutions, including the Church, it is critical to see that the Church isn’t a man-made organization —it’s a Christ-made one. And it has a purpose, a mission—to point people to Jesus.
This Place
Pastors, teachers, and staff ministers today are sent out by Jesus so that people will come to believe in him as their Savior. These men and women hear the Great Commission Jesus gave to go into all the world with the gospel and they respond, offering themselves to do that full-time
It is so important to have those people! Jesus says to pray about them, to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Hearing about the 72 might remind us that as vital to his church as those full-time ministers are, Jesus still calls the rest of you to go out into your part of the world with the gospel.
We heard a bit about this kind of thing last week too. Pastors can’t get everywhere and teachers can sometimes hardly escape their classrooms! The plan of Christ’s Church to proclaim peace in him is carried out by you too.
We go out eyes wide open though. It doesn’t seem like the greatest motivational speech when Jesus warns those he sends that they would encounter a hostile world. Lambs among wolves, he said. Unpeaceful. Unwelcoming. People would reject them for sharing peace in Christ, for healing people with problems, for helping those possessed by demons. You hear that and you think, “How dumb could they be?!” As crazy as it sounds, their world…our world…this place…is filled with people who rebel against the very Savior who can help them physically, and more importantly, spiritually.
This really shouldn’t surprise us if we understand that we all, deep down—the way we’re born into this world we all want nothing to do with God. Even when it doesn’t make sense. Even when he comes in love and extending a healing hand
But God has overcome that rebellious attitude in you and given you a love for him. His plan is that since you know him and love him and understand his love for all people, you will go out into this sinful place, this broken world, and proclaim peace in Christ to it. If you have been neglectful of your calling, I pray that this reminder moves you to repent and be committed to the mission Christ has given you.
The Proclamation
Peace to this house was not some casual greeting like “Good morning” sometimes is Jesus’ followers literally meant what they were saying. They were offering a blessing and bringing the kingdom of God near to those people, wanting them to know the peace that comes from God. Sometimes they would be welcomed and invited in Then they certainly shared the good news about Jesus, who would soon be in their town, and the peace of God rested on them all.
But sometimes people rejected the blessing and message about Jesus—and then things got a little dramatic, we might say. But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
There are times when Christ’s Church has to proclaim difficult things. If a person, a household, even an entire town rejected those Jesus sent, they were really rejecting Jesus. Then it was necessary for God’s people to explain what that meant The same is true for his Church today. God comes near to people through Jesus. When he is rejected, it means that on the Last Day, it will be unbearable for that person. Their separation from God will continue eternally
People sometimes say, “I like Jesus, but I don’t like the Church.” But Jesus says that’s not possible. He is the one who established his Church and has tied himself to it like a husband to his bride. To listen to the Church and its pastors faithfully preaching His Word is to listen to Jesus himself and this brings peace with God. To reject that is to reject Jesus
Power
Can you imagine your reaction if you were among those 72, the church-in-action? Can you imagine returning to Jesus with this news: “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name”?! Of course, he already knew. He knew about every defeat of a demon and every victory of the gospel in people’s hearts “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,” he said.
What an amazing thing for them to experience the success of the gospel message! Pastors get to experience this a lot. We don’t cast out demons every day, but we see Satan beaten and evil defeated all the time because we proclaim a powerful gospel and God blesses it
We see Satan pushed back when we baptize a baby We see hearts cleansed and godly attitudes renewed when we serve communion. We hear praise and thanks to God when we share the gospel of forgiveness. We see the changes Christ makes in people’s lives.
It is a blessed calling, and Christ’s church needs us to do that. You heard Jesus say to pray that God would send even more out into this world with his Word. He needs you to do that too. If you’ll just share peace in Christ, he’ll supply the power for the message for you too
He sent his followers to proclaim, “Jesus is here. Salvation is here.” God had broken into their world and they needed to know. Jesus tells all of us and calls some of us to do this full time—to proclaim “Jesus is here. Salvation is here.” God has broken into this broken world with a message of peace and people need to know.
As excited as they were about the good results of their ministry, Jesus redirected their joy from their success to the success the gospel had on their own hearts that gave them the promise that they would be in heaven one day. As we serve in Christ’s Church, we find joy in what Jesus accomplishes through our service, but our greatest joy is found in what Christ has accomplished in us.
I pray that God has used this Word of his today to assure you or reassure you that Jesus Establishes His Church, organizing it in a way that allows it to carry out its mission of saving souls. He calls and sends out messengers with the powerful gospel that brings peace of forgiveness and salvation in Christ. I also pray that you will follow two commands of Christ: ask the Lord of the harvest to send out more workers, and be a messenger of the gospel wherever you can also. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.