Demonstrating the Father's Love -through Spiritual Gifts

Last Sunday we looked at the mission journey the 72 were called to: travelling together; travelling where Jesus wanted to go; travelling light and travelling to bless.  One of the ways Jesus blessed and calls his followers to bless is through Supernatural power, the active work of the Holy Spirit.  In today's reading   Jesus gave the twelve  authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. (v. 1) And told them to Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. (v. 7)  For the 72 it was “heal the sick and tell theme 'the Kingdom has come near to you.'”

Many Gifts - one mission
Jesus says “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons” (v. 8) listing a variety of different activities.  In his own ministry, he healed in different ways, and besides healing, used different gifts of the Spirit including on at least two occasions prophetic insight.  Remember Zacchaeus, hiding up a tree; Jesus not only knew he was there, but knew his name (Luke 19).  Remember the woman from Samaria; Jesus knew that she had been through five husbands and was now living a man she wasn't married to. (John 4).  In the early Church, as well as lots of healing and deliverance,  prophetic and other gifts cultivated a sense of God's presence among his people which drew people to Jesus.

• Tongues in acts 2, Pentecost was a missionary work of the Spirit.  The disciples were in an upstairs flat, praying, when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Seconds later, they are overwhelmed by God, and the gift the spirit gave enabled them to speak in the languages of all the people who were bustling about in the streets.   
• supernatural guidance (Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8); 
• visions and dreams (the conversion of Saul in Acts 9; the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10).
• Paul speaks about using gifts like tongues, interpretation and prophecy in such a way that not-yet-christians become aware of the power of God present among his people. (1 Cor 14. 23-24)  

I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe his gifts are for today. BTU they are for today's mission.  The supernatural is about mission.  The Holy Spirit is a missionary.  He is “God on the move”.  His gifts are given to Christians; they are given to build one another up.  But they are given for mission.

When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus., he immediately spent forty days and nights out in the wastelands, alone with his Father and with the Devil.   And the first thing the Devil said to him as “Hungry, eh?  But you're the Son of God, you've got power, right?  See these stones? Turn one into bread.  You've got the power; use it for yourself”.  Next the enemy said “throw yourself down from the high point in the temple”.  You’re the son of God; you've got the power. You can float down. Then everyone will follow you....”   What the enemy attacked was the mission of Jesus.: to get Jesus to use his power for himself, so he could feel good and look good, would have been a triumph for the enemy.  And whenever the enemy can get us to be distracted from mission, he's winning a battle.

We often spend our time arguing about the gifts of the Spirit., or playing with the gifts of the Spirit.  But if you read the book of Acts, you will find that everything the Spirit does is about mission.  When he is not touching the lives of people who don't yet know Jesus, he is prodding those who do know Jesus, to get them to look outwards.

Jesus-shaped misison.
...so says Michael Green, a leading evangelist in the Church of England,  The supernatural in mission is part of Jesus-shaped mission; but there three ways in which gifts for mission need to be shaped by Jesus.

When he saw the crowds... 

Compassion. Jesus sends the twelve to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (v. 5)  That's the heart of Jesus. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (9. 36).  It's about caring for people's felt needs; it's about entering into people’s sorrows.  It's about feeling in your guts, the pain that people feel round about you.”

Character.  Jesus expects his servants to move among people with a transformed attitude to material things.  We thought last week about the importance of travelling light.  He expects us to be trusting God rather than our bank accounts and possessions. He expects us to be generous rather than demanding.  Travelling preachers could expect to be looked after when they came to a village. He expects us to be courageous in our attitude to rejection and even persecution.

 So often, healing ministries are brought into disrepute by people who will pray for you and encourage you to claim your healing – but also to send in a cheque.  People like that are not safe hands to be entrusted with the power of the Spirit; you may say, “that's not me”...  but if  you can't or won't address these two issues of Character and Compassion (I'm not saying you have to be perfect; just addressing the issues) then as far as I am concerned, forget about demonstrating the Father's love through gifts.

Connection Entering a house, the disciples are to greet it: the Greek word means “ to enfold in the arms.”  It's exactly the thing that the 72 wee not to do on the road – remember it took up valuable time!  But in the village, entering a home, they were to give time and effort to getting to know people, putting them at ease, and building relationships.  That is never, never done in a few moments.  The gifts come into their own  in the context of a relationship based approach to mission. where we show the father’s love by being Godly and generous.

Kingdom  Proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' (v 7)  Jesus gives the same instruction to the 72 (Luke 10:9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.') and Jesus says over and again to the people he heals, “The Kingdom of God has come near...”  ((9. 35: proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease...)

When Jesus heals a disabled person, when a demon leaves or a dumb person talks, it is a foretaste of the Kingdom of god.  Occasionally, in the supermarket, there is a wee stall with someone  offering you a free sample to try.  Now you are never going to survive on the give-away samples you get in the supermarket.  They are not meant to be a meal: they are a sample that is supposed to make you think, “on Saturday evening, when I'm relaxing and watching a movie, I could have some of these.”  realigns and other supernatural things are a sample of heaven; they are pointers to say that the messed up state of the world is not God's plan.  When God's rule is established, and God's rules are kept, then we have a perfect world.

As we learn to show the father's love, in godly character, generous compassion and supernatural gifts, it's a foretaste of God's  Kingdom; and as we show the father's love, we will have the opportunities, too,to tell the Good news that “Our God reigns; God has become King”  Jesus has conquered death and evil, and is today seated at the Father's right hand.  From there, at the right moment he will return and there will be a new heaven and a new earth! And everyone who puts their trust in him can be part of that, now and for eternity!

It's for us 
The instructions Jesus save to the twelve are an interesting mix.  Some of them were very specific for that time and place.  He sends them "only to Israel" (v. 5).   But others didn't actually apply to that point in time.  Jesus tells them what to do "When they drag you into court" (v. 18) and talks about speaking to kings and governors and to the Gentiles (v. 19). He's obviously thinking about the mission of the whole Church.

Bruce & Joyce: part fo our Church family.
We all have a call to mission

There is a consistent thread of declaration and demonstration, preach and heal, speak and act running through

• the ministry of Jesus himself, (Matt 9. 35: “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction”; 
• the twelve, (verse 7 “proclaim the Gospel, heal the sick”); 
• the 72 (Luke 10. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’); 
• the Church in Acts,  “In the name of Jesus, walk” (Acts 3. 6) .  
• and the teaching of Paul.  “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” (1 Cor 2. 4)

This is something we are all called to: to engage in the supernatural; to use the gifts of the spirit in mission. So, whatever gifts you have – or don't have – learn to expect God to use them, to demonstrate his loving presence not only here in the safety of the Christian community but more importantly in the world.  


© Gilmour Lilly October 2012

Luke 10. 1-11: The mission of the seventy-two

What does the word “mission” conjure up in your minds?  Write one word on the paper that sums it up!

Mission is about going. It comes from the Latin word “Send”.  It is a journey!  Jesus sent his twelve closest allies out to tell the good news of of God's Kingdom. Then he sent seventy (or seventy-two) others with a similar mission.  Later he sent people like Cuthbert and Aidan to bring the Gospel to our part of Scotland.  A hundred years ago eh sent people to the new community of Rosyth who were believers and started a children's work and soon after this Church. And he sent Andrew and Maria to Northern Iraq. And today we bless Alan and Kay because he has sent them to be part of KLM Church in Edinburgh.  And he has sent some of you to be part of this church.  And he is sending all of us to our community.

I want us to learn four simple things about this “Mission journey”..

1. Travelling together. Jesus sent the seventy-two out two by two.  Isn't that good?  The whole business of reaching out to other people may be a scarey journey sometimes.  But we travel together. We can support each other. We can pray for each other.  We can challenge and encourage each other. We can take care of each other. And in fact, Jesus sent them in twos as a mission strategy: in Jewish culture the evidence of “two or three witnesses” was reliable. The very fact that we travel together is a prophetic thing: it is a challenge and a rebuke to our individualistic society.  It is vital that we build community.  We are not an organisation. Sure we have an AGM (coming up!) and accounts and so on; but these must never be allowed to define who and what we are. We are a community.

2. Travelling where Jesus plans to go.  That's what Luke records (v. 1) “to every town and place that he intended to go.”  And what is exciting is that whatever they were going to do there, however well they got on, whatever mistakes they made, they knew that Jesus was planning to follow on after them. They were part of his plan for reaching these places, and they were places that were often left out and looked down upon.  But he was going to visit these towns, preach as only he could preach, heal as only he could do, debate as only he could do and triumph as only he could do.

That should be an encouragement to us, too. Our journey may seem scarey, difficult. It may seem like “Mission impossible!”  But Jesus is sending us where he plans to go. The situations that we fumble in; the situations that we find threatening – like lambs among wolves – are the situations that Jesus wants to visit, to touch, too speak to.

3. Travelling light.  Jesus said “Don't carry a wallet, a travelling bag, or sandals, and don't greet anyone on the way.”   No wallet meant not only were they going with very little, but they intended to stay that way: the wee leather bag might be really useful for putting the collection in. In fact the Greek word purse literally means a bag to throw coins in. it could be a begging bag.  No rucksack for food; no shoes, made them the poorest of the poor. Being told not to greet anyone on the way seems harsh and distant.  But remember that greeting other people involved long social rituals, asking questions, having a drink together.  It's actually about having a sense of urgency and being different in a way that will make people sit up and think.   No time for empty small-talk.  Greeting someone on the way in an Eastern context could involve stopping for a drink and something to eat,) It was the same when he sent out the twelve: Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.  I like the Message translation of the mission of the twelve (Matthew 10. 9-10), which says “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light."

We carry a lot of baggage with us as we travel together.  As individuals we are all caught up in the economic and material realities of the world we live in.  Some of you are working long hours in difficult circumstances; some of you who thought you had reached retirement, are finding yourselves as busy as ever you were – just with a bit less energy!  It's good, sometimes, to review our lifestyle and be sure that we are not on  a treadmill.

And as a Church, we have committed ourselves to improving our building.  That is good.  It isn't right to let it fall down,  God has given us a special location here to use for mission.  But it must alwasy be a sending base for mission.  We need to be careful that – as we get on with the job of fixing the building – we don't  allow all our energies to be distracted into fund-raising; we don't develop the habit of simply going to our community asking for money; and we don't allow the financial needs of the building to become a pressure to the people who make up the Church.

We can add on a lot of extra stuff to carry in the life of the Church.  If we are going to have the time and energy to do the real stuff God's Kingdom is made up of, we need to ensure that we keep the structures and activities of the Church light.  If we are going to have the time to talk to people who don't know Jesus, we need to keep the demands of Church light. If we are going to get the best out of busy people, and avoid burning them out, we need to keep the demands of the church light.  If we are going to develop relationships – with each other, with our neighbours and with Jesus, we need to keep the structural stuff of he Church light.,


As a Church, we need to remember that “We are the equipment.”  In a very real sense we are the Church.  There's a wee sign outside that says “Church.”  I know why it's there and I know what it means.  But I sincerely hope that one day it will be replaced with something a bit more theologically correct: we are the Church. We are the equipment.

Rainbow at Durness.  August2012. 

4. Travelling to bless.  There is a simple strategy Jesus gives the seventy-two as they go out into the villages.  As soon as you enter a home, say, “God bless this home with peace.” If the people living there are peace-loving, your prayer for peace will bless them. But if they are not peace-loving, your prayer will return to you.”  (vv 5f)  You travel to bless.

This first thing we want to do as we journey among people, in he world around us, is bless them.  And that means...  to speak good about people and to speak good into their lives.  It is as old as creation itself:

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

It is something the people of God, from our very earliest roots in the Old Testament:  this is what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12. 2f: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Who does God want to bless through his people Israel? All nations. Who does God want to bless through you and me? All nations.

We need to learn how to speak blessing into our world.  To speak positively and affirmingly about eh people we meet week by week. To speak good things from god into the lives of others, and expect our words to make a difference.

After all, God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.   (Eph 1:3)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

© Gilmour Lilly September 2012