What Jesus Thinks of the Importance of Your Mission
In training and preparing his apprentices to multiply what he had been doing, Jesus sent them on their first, “I watch you,” supervised mission. In Jesus’s mind, sending them in his name, under his anointing, with his authority to say what he wanted said, was a very serious and significant matter. This was no fun party trip as far as he was concerned; this was a royal delegation of grave importance.
Jesus’s pre-trip briefing for his apprentices’ first supervised mission trip was long and full of deeply important points—ones that apply to us too, every time we go anywhere or do anything in his name:
(Matthew 10:14–15 NKJV) “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. (15) Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”
The first point we note is that when someone doesn’t receive our ministry of Jesus, our shortcomings didn’t caused the failure. The enemy always tries to tell us that we didn’t say it right, preach it passionately enough, teach it clearly enough, or structure our message with just the right illustrations, applications, or length. Our enemy wants us to feel like failures so we will give up—thinking this is all about us not being good enough, clever enough, in with the “cool” clique, etc. But this is far from how Jesus sees it.
For example, after preaching at an outreach, the enemy put me under great condemnation: “you didn’t preach the gospel well enough; you were too long, too short, same old message, etc.” So I asked Jesus, “Is that true? Do I not know the gospel well enough for people to receive salvation?” Deep in my spirit he replied, “Do you know it well enough for you to get saved?” Before I could answer, I saw his point: the gospel is not difficult to understand; if you know it well enough to receive salvation, then you certainly know it well enough for anyone else to receive it too:
(1 Corinthians 15:1–5 NKJV) Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, (2) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (3) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, (5) and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
According to the apostle Paul, our gospel message is very straightforward. It’s not about the messenger any more than the citywide move of God in Jerusalem at Jesus’s triumphal entry was about the donkey (See: Mark 11:1–10). When we present the plain facts of the gospel—as summarized by Paul above—the issue is then between the message recipients and God. The Holy Spirit does all the convicting that’s necessary. Of course, that is not to say we don’t need to do the preparation in prayer, intercession, meditation on God’s word, and ensure we have the word Jesus wants delivered, etc. But it does make Mat. 10:14 very relevant:
(Matthew 10:14 NLT) “If any household or town refuses to welcome you or listen to your message, shake its dust from your feet as you leave.”
“Shake its dust from your feet” and “leave.” This is crucial for some very important reasons:
First, shaking off the dust is clear communication to those who refused the King’s message through his delegates. Luke records a little more detail of Jesus’s statement:
(Luke 9:5 NKJV) “And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”
Second, what the Lord says here is the best advice ever given to anyone in ministry. We are Jesus’s messengers; shaking off the dust is a prophetic act to ensure that none of their rejection of him sticks to us. If we don’t do this, we fall for the trap of thinking it’s about us: “I’m not good enough; I’m not worthy; I didn’t preach it well enough; I failed to teach it clearly, passionately enough; I went too long; I didn’t show enough love, transparency; I failed so far, I guess I will have to keep at it until they accept me.” No! Thinking along this line is a deadly trap from the enemy—primarily because it takes our eyes off Jesus and onto ourselves, but also because it keeps us in a place and ministry that Jesus said to leave.
In truth, if we speak and do only what we see and hear with him, it’s not us they are rejecting; they are rejecting the one in whose name we delivered the message. If we continue to live under those conditions—when Jesus is telling us to shake it off and move on—we become bogged down in failure, condemnation, self-effort, and rejection. In reality, if they have rejected Jesus and the message he sent through you, you can never be good enough, articulate enough, loving enough, or pray enough to be accepted by them. Obey Jesus; leave.
(Matthew 10:23 NKJV) “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Jesus wants us to stay fresh, in tune with his simple message, and ready for his new doors to open. He says here that he will never run out of people and places for you to go with the message he has given you. Keep in step with his Spirit; stay alert to his still, small voice showing you where and when to share the pearls of wisdom he has entrusted to you.
The apostle Paul applied the “shake off the dust and move on” principle:
(Acts 13:50–51 NKJV) But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. (51) But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium.
If you are stuck at the moment, if the people you are pouring yourself into have rejected the One who sent you to them; then maybe it’s time to release them to him, and listen afresh for his re-commissioning. I’m not suggesting you yield to the enemy’s pressure to quit; but I am suggesting that you don’t let him use recalcitrant people’s rejection of Jesus against you—telling you it’s your fault; you have failed. It is not your fault; they are responsible before God for what they do with his message. Your only responsibility is to sit at Jesus’s feet and listen to his word and watch for what he shows you—then, to imitate what you see with him and to say what you hear with him to whom he sends you to say it. He certainly doesn’t want you to become discouraged, depressed, and despondent; he wants you full of life, joy, and enthusiasm about your life with him—the overflow of which will be your ministry to others
4
People Reached
0
Engagements
Like
Comment
Share