Like Lambs Among Wolves
Dr. Larry Thorson
We’re in a seven week sermon series called “Two By
Two”. It deals with the story of how
Jesus prepared a team that he used to turn their world upside down. I want us to see how Jesus prepped his team but
I don’t want you to be just spectators, watching what Jesus did with other
people. I want you to see yourself as a
player in turning your world upside down just like these 72 people did. You don’t have to board a plane and fly 14
hours over a large body of water to find lost people. They’re right on your block. You don’t even have to master a new language
because they probably speak English. All
you have to do is ask “Would you like to go to church with me this Sunday? If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior it’s that simple to be a missionary for Jesus.
Now let’s read what Jesus said to prep these 72
people before he sent them out in Luke 10:2-4 .
2
He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the
Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3
Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag
or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
Scripture in this
sermon is taken from Today’s New International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005
by International Bible Society
When Jesus says the harvest of souls is plentiful
we have to believe him, it’s plentiful. People
are more hungry for an invitation than you think. But maybe you’re like Marc Durocher who wrote
the blog I read online recently and who had a hard time inviting people to his
church. He writes: “I would never invite
someone to our
Another article I read online from the
I know that our service isn’t perfect but Jesus
said the harvest is plentiful, we just have to invite them to come. “Would you like to go to church with me next
Sunday?
The next command Jesus makes of his team after
commanding them to pray for more workers is real simple – go! Period.
Go! You don’t need theological
training to go. You don’t need an
evangelism primer course. Go! You don’t need to buy a book. Go! You
don’t need role playing training in talking or listening to people. Go! “Would
you like to go to church with me this Sunday?”
That’s it. Go.
We try to make it too complicated. Jesus didn’t make it complicated. He said go.
What does go mean? It means
move. How deep do you want me to get
here? Do you want me to expound the
original Greek word in the original New Testament for go? Would that help? That’s not what Jesus did. He said go and when Jesus says go what are
you going to do.
Next he displayed his great motivational
strategy. Jesus told his 72 workers that
he was sending them out as lambs among wolves.
Now we all know sheep are no match against wolves. Wolves are the biggest challenge shepherds
and border collies have in the wilderness.
You want to stay away from wolves not be placed among them. That kind of reminds me of the words of
Winston Churchill when recruiting soldiers in World War II, "I have
nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat." Translation: you are going to be eaten alive.
What did Jesus know about motivating people that
we have missed? Often we operate under the assumption that people are motivated
toward that which is pleasant and away from that which is painful. If this were
true, I would assume that offering people blood, tears and sweat would tend to
de-motivate them. Not true. When Jesus sent the disciples out as sheep among
wolves, they actually got out of their chairs and into the work!
People are motivated more by a great cause than by
comfort. We want our lives to count for something. We want to make a
difference. If it costs us, so be it. If it is painful, so be it. We want to
matter. This is what caused the disciples to face the wolves. In the words of Bonhoffer, Jesus bid them to come
and die. He called them to make a difference. He called them to a vision.
The starting point in recruiting people is to
recruit them to a dream--not just a job. Don't recruit people on the basis that
something is not all that much trouble. If you do this, what you will get is
not all that much. You get what you ask for. Ask people to lay down their lives
for the great and noble task of making planet earth a better place. Ask them to
give up their convenience and their time and for a great cause known as the
Great Commission. Ask them to go to the mat for something they believe in.
We have the medicine to humanity's illness. At the
core of all of society's problems is sin. The human soul has a disease and we
have the cure. We have the solution to the crime problem, the homeless problem,
the drug problem. We have God's solution. The world is acting as expected, but
we need to step up to the plate and make a difference on planet earth.
The best recruiting is done individually. It is
done face to face or phone to phone. It is done heart to heart. It is not done
as a mass announcement from the pulpit, "We need someone somewhere to help
with something over there." This almost never works. What works is getting
in someone's face and asking, "What are you doing to serve God and the
kingdom? Are you offering yourself to God as a living sacrifice? Do you know
the thrill of spiritual battle?" This is the way Jesus recruited: person
to person; one on one.
The best recruiting starts with the people and
moves them toward ministry, not the other way around. We often start with the
vacancy on the organizational chart and try to find someone to fill it. Jesus
went the other way. He started with the person and said, "Go!"
Because we care about people and believe that there is no joy like the joy of
spiritual battle, we invite everyone into the game. We start with individuals
and move them toward ministry.[1]
Next he tells them what to take along for the
trip. This Friday I’m taking the middle
schoolers to a three day winter camp at Forest Home. I’ll be back on Sunday to preach and then
back to Forest Home. This past week I
gave them the “Forest Home Packing List”.
It has the usual items like clean socks and clean underwear, mittens,
gloves, scarves and for specifically southern
They also have a long list of what not to bring to
the retreat. Weapons, such as knives or
any other item or weapon designed to hurt someone. Air soft guns. Cell phones.
Pagers. PDA’s. Computers and other electronic video
games. Then finally they say “please,
please avoid preventable heartache; do not send anything that is
irreplaceable.”
Let’s look again at Jesus’ list in v.4 “Do not
take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.” Try to picture the typically dressed Jew
in
The twenty-third Psalm, familiar to all of us,
offers a helpful image. David writes out of his own knowledge as a shepherd.
One line of the Psalm is "He restores my soul." From time to time a
shepherd is required to restore his sheep ” for sheep have a tendency to get
"cast down."
Phillip Keller, in his book A SHEPHERD
LOOKS AT PSALM 23, describes what happens when a sheep is cast down. It finds
itself on its back, all four legs straight up in the air, and unable to get
back up. The attentive shepherd will set it back on its feet, massaging life back
into its limbs. The shepherd restores the sheep.
What causes the sheep to become cast down in the
first place? Sometimes it's because it wanders off into soft spots. But most
often it's simply a result of having too much wool! The sheep's fleece becomes real
long, gets heavily matted with mud and burrs and other debris so that it is
weighed down with its own wool, rendered totally helpless and useless.
Wool in the Scripture is an interesting symbol. No
high priest was ever allowed to wear wool when he entered the Holy of Holies.
It spoke of self, of pride, of personal preference and the priest believed
these things would bog him down.
Sheep do not particularly enjoy being sheared, but
it must be done and when it is over, there is a great relief. There is no
longer the threat of being cast down and there is pleasure in being set free
from the hot, heavy coat. Set free to follow the shepherd once again.
Have you ever moved into a new home? What's the
most common complaint in getting ready for such a move? "How did I
accumulate so much stuff?" Most of us have too much stuff. Too much stuff
can be a problem for missionaries. The more things we accumulate the more our
freedom is restricted. The more stuff we have the more it demands our
attention. The more attached we get to our stuff the harder it is to hear the
call of Jesus. Jesus' call to travel
light may be a call to simplify our lives ” to become more carefree ” so we can
regain a kind of "singleness of eye and heart," as Dietrich
Bonhoeffer called it.[2]
Do you remember a little poem that goes like this:
If I had my life to live over, I'd pick more daisies. I'd try to make more
mistakes next time. I would be sillier than I have been this trip.
I would relax, I would limber up. I know very few things I would take
seriously. I would take more trips, travel lighter. I would be crazier. I would
be less hygienic. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains, swim
more rivers, and watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and less beets.
I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. You see, I am one
of those people who live practically and sensibly and sanely, hour after hour,
day after day. Oh, I have had my mad moments, And if I had it to do over again,
I'd have more of them. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so
many minutes ahead. If I had my life to live over. I'd spend more time at fun places. I'd try to be more in touch with God and
those I love. I'd pray aloud more and
not care what people think or expect of me.
Yes, I'd pick more daisies next time.
Churches can have the same problems as
individuals. We get bogged down in our
stuff. But what Jesus really called us
to do was to invite people to get right with God by accepting Jesus’
forgiveness on the cross. Rather than
worrying about things and how we’re going to pay for them a church is called to
invite.
Jesus is sending you out two by two as gentle
lambs among wolves to ask this one question “would you like to go to church
with me this Sunday?” Would you pair up
with someone and do that this week before it’s too late?