(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 07/15/07)

INTRODUCTION:

The headline appeared on a page toward the back of the Gwinnett Daily Post.  Local Clergyman Dead at 43.  The first line of the article read as follows: Pastor Michael Schultz of Sola Fide Lutheran Church collapsed and died of massive heart failure this past Tuesday at 7:00 P.M. as he walked into the congregation’s scheduled outreach meeting to be greeted by 72 members eager to hit the streets.

This is not some kind of sarcastic slam or insult.  It is not a shaming device to get people to serve.  It’s a sermon introduction to get us thinking what a sermon on a lesson like this is supposed to accomplish in a Christian congregation like ours.  Is this only a sermon to recruit door to door callers or follow-up visitors?  It can’t be, because this word of God is for every worshiper who comes to church today.  It’s Jesus talking to people who trust him, people who love him because he loved them first.  It’s Jesus reminding you that -

It’s Always Time For Outreach

Instead of specifying one or two specific results that should happen at Sola Fide, let’s review the key points Jesus makes and let the applications fall where they will – for all of us. 

Truth is, I would be happy to have 72 people form 36 two-person visiting teams.  We only have a small handful of people who are following up on people who visit us or inquire about us.  But when Jesus had 72 people other than the 12 disciples who were ready to travel and talk about him, the first thing he told them was 72 wasn’t close to enough.  There are so many to reach and so relatively few to reach them.  So our Savior’s first order of business is something we can all commit to – pray for workers. 

There are young people and some not so young people in schools right now, preparing to go out as full time workers in Christ’s church.  We do pray for enrollments to climb and for God to bless those people who will be our future pastors and teachers.

But there’s no need to limit our prayers to one setting.  There are several hundred souls who hold membership in this congregation and guests whom we hope will join us in this congregation for whom we also want to pray, “O Lord, open our lips, that our mouths may proclaim your praise.”  Not I, but Jesus is asking for your prayers, as if we were to add an entry into the prayer list in the service folder under special needs: Jesus has requested your prayers for more workers to go into the harvest fields.

The work of outreach doesn’t require a four page job description.  Jesus captured it in a single word: Go!  Being sent out as lambs among wolves would seem to indicate that you won’t, as the saying goes, be preaching to the choir.  Even the most mild-mannered unbelievers, whether they know it or not, are hostile to Christ.  Whoever is not for Jesus is against him.  The message we have to share has the power to change that.  If you wanted to memorize something, you could say it in seven words: “You have peace with God through Jesus.”  You could say plenty more, but essentially there’s nothing more and nothing less to communicate.  You have peace with God through Jesus.

Jesus is backing you as you speak about him.  Remember what follows the command to go.  “I am sending you,” Jesus said.  He is the one who promises to provide you with all you need, even the words you’ll say.  Outreach is your work but it’s Jesus’ word that gets the job done.  Jesus Christ spoke the universe into existence in seven days.  His word has the power to destroy unbelief and to create faith. 

And however many times you’ve heard it before, hear it once more.  If people trust the message you share, they’re trusting Christ.  If they don’t, it is Christ they are rejecting, not you.  You have nothing to lose and they have everything to gain.  As you think about the work of going out for Jesus, it is awfully sobering to remember that rejecters of Jesus will have it worse than the people of Sodom.  We wouldn’t want that for anyone.  If people won’t listen, Jesus said to tell them they’ve been warned, and move on.  But as long as they’re willing to listen we want to plant and water the seed and trust God to make it grow.

There will be success stories.  Whether it’s in your family or your workplace or our community, some will believe.  And when Satan falls like lightning from the sky because he’s lost more people to Jesus, what will your joy be?  Not that you pulled it off, but that your name is on the most important list that exists. 

Steven Spielberg put together a very moving motion picture when he directed "Schindler’s List".  Oskar Schindler arranged the rescue of 1000+ Jews who would otherwise have been murdered under the Nazi regime.  During the movie you hear the phrase, “The list is life.”  With all that you may do to reach others with good news about Jesus, your joy, your highest joy is to know that your name is on God’s list for life.  Your name has been written in heaven.

Why you?...Why me, when so many perish apart from Christ?  I have no idea why.  I still can’t fathom why Jesus would be willing to burn in the hell of separation from God in place of everyone in the world, how he could be so selfless for someone as selfish and sinful as me, a person who has forgotten to pray for workers, failed to witness to others, complained about problems instead of rejoiced about forgiveness.  But it’s as true at the end of each day as it is at the beginning of the next.  There is your name and there is mine, written in the Lamb’s book of life.

There also are the names of those who don’t even know or believe that God has written their names in heaven.  Our work to reach them does not flow from a desire to grow this church bigger.  It flows from a desire to have more people safe in the kingdom of Christ and fewer people in the clutches of the devil. 

So what happens when Luke 10 is the sermon text at Sola Fide?  What’s the result supposed to be?  People who trust in Jesus are reminded that it’s always time for outreach, and they leave today encouraged to pray for workers more regularly, to witness more boldly, and to rejoice even more gratefully that their names are on God’s list for eternal life.  And should it perhaps happen that people turn out in double digits to canvas neighborhoods or make thank you visits or follow up calls, I think my heart will be able to take it.  With that, I say to you what Jesus said: Go!

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