Sermon: "I Am Sending You"

Second in the "Sent by the Father" series,
as part of Central's 2006 Missions Week Event: Focusing on HIV/AIDS.
Delivered September 17, 2006 by Rev. John Schmidt.
Other sermons in this series - 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

Theme: Being involved in what God is doing in the world is a big job - bigger than we are. But we are not alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit to make that happen in us. God is not asking for us to do this for him. He wants to do this in us, among us, and through us - the whole church.

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Sermon Notes are at the end.

What will we do? I don't know about you but when I hear about things of this size, of this magnitude it scares me. Last week we thought about how as the Father sent Jesus he is sending us in to the world. We thought about the fact that we are built for something bigger than life as usual, just pursuing our own needs and our own desires, but when I am confronted with something the size of a genocide or something the size of the AIDS epidemic in the world it is scary. I mean what possibly can I do to be a meaningful part of that? And so we get these sorts of challenges at church, but to be honest maybe you feel something like me, God I don't feel like I am built for something bigger. Regular problems are big enough. We've got conflict in our family. We've got illness and depression. We've got financial issues. We've got a time crunch. We all have a time crunch. We've got a hard job and demanding responsibilities at home, schoolwork and on top of it all personal weaknesses. And so when we think about what God is doing in the world, I think one of the first questions that comes up is God there is not enough of me to go around the world. Who is going to take care of me? And I think that is a normal and valid question. How can this vision of being partners with God in doing God's work and being part of God's calling in the world, how can it be a realistic thing given the fact that we are part of the problem. We are broken too. We have needs.

In the same passage we looked at last week where Jesus talks about sending us out, we see something that deals with that need that we have. And so, just like last week we got a chance to see how God has made us for something bigger than life as usual. This week we get a chance to look at the fact that we are not alone. So let's go to Chapter 20 of the Gospel of John and we are going to look at the 19th through the 23rd verses.

"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together with the doors closed for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone in sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Particularly for today, Verse 22,

"And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

Let's pray. God, we thank you for this your word and for this time for us to think about it together, and we pray that you will speak to each one of our hearts so that we will be able to give a response to you that grows from our faith. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Verse 22, he breathed on them. When John writes these words down, he is consciously remembering another place in scripture where God breaths upon his people and that comes up in the very start of scriptures, Chapter 2, Verse 7 of the Book of Genesis; Genesis 2:7 where is says, "The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being." Creation. God breaths and life appears where there is no life. And here in the Gospel of John Jesus breathes out and life, spiritual life, appears where there isn't life before. There is re-creation happening. It's a sovereign act of God where life appears where life has not been before. And so Jesus breathes on his disciples. Receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, when we think about this point, that Jesus has given the church, given us the Holy Spirit there is all kinds of confusion. Some of us are so concerned and don't understand how God might be working through the Holy Spirit that affectively we ignore the fact that God is inside of us at work through the power of the Holy Spirit. We ignore that part of our lives. We are kind of "golly that's confusing", "I don't know what to expect", "I am just going to have to get by". On the other hand there are times that we think, well, if the Holy Spirit does anything in our lives, it's going to be like gigantic fireworks; everybody is going to know and it's going to be an explosive event. And so if the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, well not only will everybody know it, but I am less involved if the Holy Spirit is at work in my life.

So if God's is working in us through the Holy Spirit we don't need to think because the Holy Spirit will lead us. We don't need to think anymore. Wouldn't that be great? We don't need to work, to change in our lives anymore because the Holy Spirit will do that for us without us having to exert any effort. Or our ministry will never be small things or invisibly things or human sized things, because of the Holy Spirit it's going to be big and miraculous and everybody will know it. Those are misconceptions; both are misconceptions of what the core work of the Holy Spirit can be in our lives.

Jesus says, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And so when we look at the life of Jesus what we see in his life that helps us to understand some of the ways that the Holy Spirit is going to be at work in us. Well, certainly when we look at his ministry we understand that part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to give special power to the church, even miraculous power to the church in order to advance the kingdom of God. That's true. At the same time, when we look at the whole life of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in his life, we learn other things as well. Let's take a look at his birth. It's the biggest miracle imaginable. God comes in human flesh. But when you think about his birth, how many people actually knew what was happening at that moment? Maybe less that two dozen people. Here is this gigantic miracle of God, earthshaking in its ultimate impact and nobody knows about it. And the miracle that endures there is that God is at work inside of humanity in Jesus Christ and that is one of the things that is going on in us; in a very different way, but in a very real way. God is still at work in human flesh, in people and the miracle of that isn't very visible. It's a gigantic miracle. Life has appeared where there wasn't life before, but it might not be something we immediately can see in an external fashion. God is at work in people.

We look at the life of Jesus. Jesus was the Son of God his whole life and yet Jesus did not always do ministry. He was not always on the street. There were 30 years in Jesus' life. There was a whole season in his life where still being God in flesh he was doing nothing that was out on the streets changing people's lives. He was spending time with his family. So, one of the things we see about the work of the Holy Spirit is that there are seasons that even if the Holy Spirit is at work in us, there are times that we need to be learning and being trained. There are times of growth, that even Jesus learned obedience. And so as we look at the life of Jesus we realize that not everything the Holy Spirit is going to do is going to be instantaneous, but some things will take time and there will be seasons in our lives.

The third thing we can look at if we look at Jesus being sent in the world, is that Jesus suffered. One of things that we would love to be true is that if the Holy Spirit comes into our lives that we will not suffer, that the Holy Spirit is insulation, if we pray we will escape. But did that happen in Jesus' life? "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you". Did Jesus suffer? Yes. But because of the work of God that suffering can have purpose and can have power, but its not insulation. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. The Holy Spirit is in us in various seasons of life training us, convicting us, showing us sin, encouraging us, comforting us and doing this all across time knowing that at certain times with power he chooses to use us as well and sometimes he will use us as he leads us through very difficult times. "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." The thing here is that we are not alone. The Holy Spirit is in us.

I think sometimes we feel alone though and I think we feel alone because we don't remember that this is a relationship that God has done between us. And so, we are looking in the wrong places for evidence of the Spirits works in our lives. We are looking for the miraculous answers to prayer and for all the times we are protected from things, and yes God is at work there, but that's not the only place that God is at work. God is also at work in those inner moments giving us the power to face difficulties with love and patience, training us, growing us, doing small things in us. We are not alone in another way. Not only is God in us and with us, but when Jesus breathed on this group and gave them this assignment, he did it to a group of people, not to an individual. "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Plural. We have one another. We are not alone. Together we are sent into this world with different gifts and different burdens. We have different levels of participation in different seasons of life.

Together we are sent. It's not an individual burden that we have to carry alone in all of its complexity. And part of that is getting our own needs met. We have needs and we look to the church for small groups for Children's Sunday School, for Adult Sunday School, for worship services that inspire. We are looking for all of that and that is okay. We are looking for financial counseling if that is what we need. We are looking for prayer, but let's be careful as we think about what we need from the church that we recognize that what we get from the church is not from the institution of the church. It's not the programs. I hope we have good programs. I hope they bless us, but it's not the programs. And its not the officers of the church, it's not the elders or the deacons and pastors that represent officially what God is doing in your life and doing to help you. You are the church and so when you minister to each other that is God at work in the church. You are not alone, but sometimes you are the giver and sometimes you are the receiver, but you are not looking at something top down from the institution of the officers. You are looking for something from one another, because we are all called to minister and to support one another. Sometimes you are the helper. Sometimes you are the one helped. Sometimes you are the one who extends in love and sometimes you are the one that is covered in love. In different seasons, in different times and different needs you will be in a different place, but we are the church. We are not alone.

1995, January, 17th of January, at 5:45 in the morning a freight train hit our house. It's wasn't a real freight train, but it did the same damage because it was the Kobe earthquake. As soon as the earthquake happened our family ran downstairs and we opened up the front door of the house and stood inside of the archway for about the next hour as aftershock after aftershock hit our house threatening to cause it to fall. We thought that that might be the strongest place to go. And after the aftershocks eased up some we went through the house noticing all the damage. We noticed that we didn't have gas, didn't have water and we didn't have electricity. We felt totally overwhelmed. God I am not ready for a world-class disaster in a foreign country.

Later that morning Jonathan and I went up the mountain behind our house to find the cleanest water we could just in case we needed water later. So we went and we found a ditch that had reasonably clear water running down it. We loaded up a few bottles thinking that if nothing else we will find a way of boiling it and use that if we have to. Later that day, we got a visit from a woman who was part of one of the churches that we were involved with and she came to our house with the specific message, "Do you know where you can get clean water?" And we said, "no" and she took us out of our house and took us immediately behind our house and there was a coffee shop that had a wagon load of spring water that they used for coffee and they were giving this water out free, clean water for people to use to drink; happening just by our house. We would have never known it unless she came and told us and what's touched us most deeply in this is that while she was sharing this, she knew that her own home was burning down at that very moment, because her part of town had caught fire.

And so, while her house was burning down she is at our house saying, "Do you know where to find clean water?" We were not alone. Over the next few days people came all kinds of ways, walking, on motor bikes and every possible way coming and bringing things to us, things that we could use and things that we could give away to others. We were not alone. I didn't have to be fully equipped to deal with this on my own because I was only part of what God was doing.

In the next few weeks we are going to be taking a look at some of the biggest problems in the world; a problem that demands a response from the church of Jesus Christ and are we ready for that kind of challenge. Part of getting ready is realizing that you are not alone, that it's not all on your back. But, that is going to require some kind of responses from us and like I said earlier sometimes we feel alone, but its because we are not necessarily taking advantage of what God is doing. Sometimes we think we are too busy to be in a small group, too busy to have a one to one relationship where we meet over breakfast, lunch or dinner with someone to talk about spiritual things, too busy for that and then we feel alone. Well, you are alone. Sometimes we are feeling alone in our relationship with people where there is something that we could extend ourselves and reach out to them or allow them to reach out to us, but we hold them at a distance.

Sometimes that is with God too, that we hold God at a distance where we feel like - I leave too early to pray or have a Bible study. I come home too late to pray or have a Bible Study and so we do nothing to deepen that relationship with God that God gave us. When Jesus breathed on them, he started a relationship that they had to cultivate for the rest of their lives. When Jesus comes into our life through the Holy Spirit, it's the start of a relationship that we cultivate for the rest of our lives. And so, sometimes we are feeling distant from God because we haven't taken advantage of the relationship that He has given us.

There is a prayer that I am just going to read to you. It's not going to be up on the media, but I have printed out a few copies on DayTimer pages in case you are so busy that you are always working out your calendar you can get one and put inside of there. We will also put it on the website. It's a prayer of invitation for the work of God in our lives.

"Father I am not my own. I was bought with a price. I am not alone. You have put your Holy Spirit inside of me. You are present with me every day and every hour. Holy Spirit, I submit right now to your work in my life. Guide me. Convict me. Change me. Strengthen me. Use me. I invite you Lord Jesus to live your life in me today."

We are not alone. When I faced that crisis in Kobe years ago, if I would have insisted upon walking 3/4 of mile up that mountain to get dirty water out of a ditch to drink when someone had told me that there was water immediately behind my house that was clean, would that have been smart? Golly, this group is really struggling with that one, okay. Why then, in our spiritual lives when God through the body and through the work of the Holy Spirit is showing us where clean, refreshing water can come into our souls, do we insist upon walking on our own making use of none of the help and insisting upon going to the same dirty little gutter that's failed us in the past.

We are not alone. And if we understand how much our community is part of what's going on, the same things that God has sent the Holy Spirit to do, to convict the sins, to instruct us, to guide us, to strengthen us, to encourage us, those are the same things he uses the church to do in our lives. So the Holy Spirit uses the church and if we gather that and grasp that and live that, what kind of an effect would that make on Towson? If they knew that Central was the sort of place where people really loved and supported each other, where we encourage people filled with the spirit encouraged each other to a different kind of life and convicted each other of how important it was, but yet would love and accept and forgive each other when we failed. And that we would celebrate together, share in the excitement, share in the hard times, share with other people in need. What kind of affect would that have? I think we have a good start already as a church, but the problems are big. The needs are great, but together as God's people we can have an impact on that. It doesn't depend on any one of us. It's not something that God wants us to do for him. It is something that God is asking that we allow him to do in us, among us and then through us. God has given the Holy Spirit to make that happen. We are not alone.

"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you: and he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, do your work in us."

Let's pray. God, we acknowledge, we admit right up front that we are not ready for the challenges that you put in to our lives, but we thank you for the Holy Spirit indwelling us and we thank you for the gift of relationships with other Christians. Thank you, that we can give and take in these relationships and that you will use all of this to strengthen us and to proclaim and demonstrate your gospel in this world. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Sermon Outline Notes:

Prayer of Invitation

Father,
I am not my own.
I was bought with a price.
I am not alone.
You have put your Holy Spirit inside of me.
You are present with me every day, and every hour.
Holy Spirit, I submit right now to your work in my life.
Guide me, convict me, change me, strengthen me, and use me.
I invite you, Lord Jesus, to live your life in me today.
Amen.

© 2006, Rev. John Schmidt
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org