Following Jesus: Empowered + Sent
Passage: Matthew 10:1-8, Luke 10:1-21 , Acts 2:1-41
Preacher: Mark Kingston
Sermon Summary – “Following Jesus: Empowered and Sent”
When churches misunderstand their mission - when we take one small part of God's story and make it the whole thing - things tend to go wrong. For example, Church can becomes a place of judgment instead of healing or a place of behaviour checkboxes instead of deep relationship. A place of control instead of freedom. When this happens, we forget what God intends His church to be and to do.
We also have a tendency to misunderstand the Holy Spirit. We fear the unpredictability of His presence, so we lock Him quietly in a cupboard while still talking about Him in theory. This leaves us without God’s power to do what he’s calling us to do.
Or we hype it all up, trying to force the moment with moving music, dimmed lights and high emotion. That's when people end up manipulated or burned.
So what should we do?
First, we need to get the "big story" straight. The Bible doesn't start with people escaping earth, and it doesn’t end that way either. It starts in a garden, and ends in a garden-city: heaven coming down, creation fully restored. That’s God’s plan: full restoration.
And Jesus is the centre of that plan. As we watch Jesus, he makes it clear that God's restoration project isn't just a future promise. It starts now! That's why Jesus takes time to tell the story of what God is doing in the world right now and what life in God's kingdom is like. He announcing that God's kingdom is breaking into our world. And then he proves that his teaching is true by showing it too. He heals, forgives, frees, restores, welcomes and brings peace because that is what happens when God's kingdom comes.
That brings us to Matthew 10, when something amazing happens. Jesus says to His followers: Now it’s your turn. In other words, we discover that God wants us, His church, to get involved too!
Jesus sends his disciples to do what He’s been doing: healing, restoring, freeing, and proclaiming that God's Kingdom is here.
Jesus also sends them to do this relying not on their own strength, but on the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus too. If Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to do God's Kingdom work, then so do we. That’s why it is important to remember how unlikely a team those first disciples were! They couldn’t have achieved anything without God’s help.
Jesus is showing us that His Kingdom mission doesn’t rest on our talent or perfection, but on our willingness to be filled and guided by the same Spirit that filled and guided Him. So don’t disqualify yourself. Your story isn’t too broken. You're not too old or too young. What matters is your openness, your availability. God wants to empower you. He wants to fill you with His Spirit because he wants you to join in, to work with hIm to bring His Kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven".
If that’s something you long for...if you want to see lives healed, brokenness mended, courage grow, prayers answered, and joy rekindled, then begin where the early church began: by waiting. And as you wait, pray the prayer Christians have whispered for centuries:
"Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Holy Spirit."
If you offer God your availability and share with Him your longing, He will come. Maybe not how or when you expect, but He will come.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Have you ever been in a church that seemed to miss the big picture and focus on one bit at the expense of the whole?
What happens when churches focus on one part of God’s story and lose sight of the whole thing? How have you seen that play out in you or around you? What was it like?What’s been your experience of the Holy Spirit?
Have you ever felt like the Spirit was boxed away and ignored? Or maybe hyped up and pushed too hard? Why do you think that was? How does this passage help us picture a Spirit-filled life that’s real, grounded and good?When Jesus says, "Now it’s your turn," how do you feel?
Does that feel exciting? Scary? Encouraging? What might be holding you back from stepping into the kind of life Jesus is inviting you into?Jesus depended fully on the Holy Spirit. Do you?
Where in your life do you most need the Holy Spirit’s help right now? What would it look like to stop striving and start trusting the Holy Spirit more deeply?What do you long to see change In your heart, in our church, in Gibsons?
Take a moment to bring those longings to God and simply wait for Him to move in you and through you.
Why not take a moment to pray: "Come Lord Jesus. Come, Holy Spirit"...
