We are the Lord's Answer

It is amazing a land of such wealth and prosperity suffers shortages. Since it hasn’t rained this year, we have a bit of a water shortage here in what may become a permanent drought. According to some, farmers have a worker shortage so we need illegal immigrants to harvest America’s fields and orchards. The newspapers tell us there is a security shortage, with al-Qaeda daily growing in power and expertise. “What can we do?” most experts bemoan as they ineffectually wring their hands waiting for their consulting paychecks to be cashed.
When it comes to matters of faith, America seems to be on the short end of the stick also. Polls reveal most Americans believe in a God, but a majority of them aren’t sure how to get there. Here’s the real kicker –3 out of 4 Lutherans (Barna, 2001) agree that works get you into heaven! Our synod is facing a financial shortage, for the what, sixth year in a row? And if we end up closing one of our preparatory high schools some swear we will have a shortage of workers. “What do we do?” say the religious leaders as they plan for the purchase of retirement homes in some of the neat places their business travel brought them to.
Am I the only who thinks this is crazy? Hasn’t it hit you that we are the answer? I mean, not to some of these problems, because it’s not the preacher’s duty to tell you which detergent to use, whether to switch to xeriscape or keep that lawn, whether to vote for or against your representatives in Washington because of their stand on immigration, but the church problems, it must have dawned that
We Are the Lord’s Answer.
1.To the worker shortage (1-4).
2. To the peace shortage (5-12, 16).
3.To the security shortage (17-20).
Jesus thought so. He sent out seventy-two missionaries as advance men for his arrival at towns and villages. Luke records his words for us.
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road (Luke 10.2-4).”
Jesus had work to do and he had to do it fast. He didn’t have nineteen years, like I’ve had here in one congregation. He had less than three years, max, for an entire country. He needed more workers. He tells his followers to pray for workers because the souls were there for the saving. It seems they did pray. Matthew’s account records a bit of a time lapse between Jesus urging them to pray and Jesus sending them out. But after they pray, Jesus turns around and tells them they are the answer to their own prayers. They are the Lord’s answer to the worker shortage. Two-by-two he sends them out on a mission so urgent, they weren’t to dilly-dally along the way and they weren’t to waste precious time worrying about what they would eat or dragging around needless luggage.
I’ll just cut to the chase today on this one, because it is hot out and there’s no place like home. You and I are the Lord’s answer to the shortage of workers.
Haven’t we all prayed that a close friend, a son, a daughter, a spouse or other relative, be converted, be saved by finally believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior? If we think we haven’t, what in the world are we praying for in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come”? Isn’t it that God’s saving grace come to us and through us to others? And what has happened to those prayers? God hears them all, but are we hearing his answer? When will it dawn on us that we are the ones the Lord wants to spread his saving message to those so near and dear to us. “Ah, Pastor, I’ve tried. I’ve talked and talked and talked until I’m blue in the face!” Well, keep trying, but don’t keep banging your head against the wall in the same place. Keep living our Christian life as a testimony to those people. I meet a lot of non-Christians who know members of our church and when I mention that name, they say, “Oh, I know him/her. He/she is a great person!” Well, if that person is a consistent churchgoer, what a powerful testimony there is that they are a great person because they have a great God. If they are a delinquent, barely making Christmas and Easter services, what kind of Christian testimony does that give this nice unbeliever who needs to realize church is where he needs to be on Sunday mornings to find out how to get to heaven? Deeds, not words. Maybe that unrelenting Christian example you give in your life is the persistent river the Holy Spirit will use to cut through that bedrock of unbelief so the person you love will finally take the time to hear the Word of God and by hearing, come to faith.
I would be a complete idiot not to mention the public ministry. I’ve been here, almost twenty years. Who is this congregation going to send into the ministry to replace me? I’m 53, that’s 12 more years until retirement. Golly, there is no time to lose, because if a young man enters high school today, he’s got just enough time to get though college and seminary to be my replacement. And I’m not going to even mention all the other pastors this congregation has talked our synod into sending into this town (4). Don’t we feel a responsibility to help restock for them, too? There is not another profession like it in the world. Never will you be bored, never will you be lonely. You will be the messenger that brings so much comfort and joy to people who do not know where else to go. And, lest the girls think they are being left out, I’ve got a secret for you. Our teachers in the school aren’t getting any younger. We’ve got to have not only preaching ministers, but teaching ministers as well. There is never going to be a surplus of called workers in the WELS until the day after Jesus has come back.
We are the Lord’s answer to the peace shortage. Jesus gave his missionaries these instructions.
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ I tell you it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me (5-12).”
There’s a shortage of peace on earth. We’re the cause. Our sins have separated us from God, Isaiah tells us. We’ve got the chip on our shoulders. That’s why we call natural disasters “acts of God.” That’s why, when terrible things happen, we ask, “Why did God let this happen?” There’s this feeling deep down that God is out to get us. That’s a guilty conscience at work inside us.
We are the Lord’s answer to the peace shortage. The missionary’s job was to spread the message of peace. “Peace to this house.” It wasn’t a 60’s idle wish, “Peace, man.” It was the peace that came through the forgiveness of sins God would accomplish through Jesus the Savior. That was the Kingdom of God. The time was near when all sins would be paid for on the cross. Already now, God was making his appeal to hurting and hateful mankind, “Be reconciled to God.”
“Yeah, but what if they don’t listen to me.”
Oh, come on! You’ve never had kids that didn’t listen to you? What did you do? You kept talking to them until they listened. And the kingdom of God is a lot more important than getting their feet off the living room sofa.
“But I don’t like being rejected.” It’s not you they are rejecting. You are just the mailman delivering the message (and what a wonderful message it is). If they reject the message they are rejecting Jesus and the God who sent him. Look at it the other way. Not a one of us would brag, “They became a Christian because of me.” That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s because of what Jesus has done to pay for their sins. That’s the result of the Father’s love for all mankind. No one would be so megalomaniac as to claim credit for saving another soul. And no one should have such a high opinion of themselves as to take people’s rejection of the Gospel as a rejection of them. The message is still the same and the outcome will still be the same. The kingdom of God is near. People are going to enter heaven. So get the word out! We are the Lord’s answer to the peace shortage.
And to the security shortage.
The missionaries were tremendously successful. “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name (17).”
Heady stuff. The Holy Spirit had enabled them to perform miracles as signs that they were men sent from God. That is what the Jews expected. Their prophets often were miracle workers as proof of their credentials. Naturally, the missionaries were pumped up about it. Jesus puts it into perspective.
“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (18-19).”
Yes, their work is delivering a knock-out blow to Satan and his hellish minions. Jesus pictures their work as stomping on serpents and scorpions, symbols of evil. They are overcoming the enemy. The devil cannot harm their soul. But that’s not where the problem will come from.
“However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven (20).”
They must focus on the eternal life that has been given to them and, by God’s eternal promises, assured to them. What good is power over the devil if you throw your own faith away? What good is spreading the Word of God, if you determine along the way it is all a bunch of myths and fairy tales?
I know a lot of pastors who, you just get this feeling, had to be pastors. It was the only way they were going to actually listen to sermons—their own! I know a lot of people who had to be Sunday School teachers, because that was the only way they were going review those saving stories about Jesus. I know many, many young men and women who had to go to Catechism class, because that was the only way they were going have the building blocks of their faith memorized so they would have the answers at the weirdest times when friends asked them what they thought about life after death or God.
Jesus promised us that by believing in him and diligently studying his Word, we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. Free from the insecurity of not knowing where we are going to be when we die is one of the biggest freedoms that comes to mind.
So, there you have it.
We Are the Lord’s Answer.
1.To the worker shortage (1-4).
2. To the peace shortage (5-12, 16).
3.To the security shortage (17-20).
We going to be part of the solution? Or are we going to be part of that wimpy, whiny band of hang wringers waiting for the next disaster to fear?