Turn with me then, if you have your Bibles, to Luke chapter 9. We will be reading verses 1 through 6 today of Luke chapter 9, where Jesus sends the twelve to proclaim the gospel in the surrounding villages where they were, and this was likely, most likely, in Galilee. We're not told the names of the villages, but there were many in the area. And the Lord sends them out. We pray that God would be with His Word today and that we would listen to it. Luke chapter 9 verse 1, he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases. And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money. Do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. And they, that is the 12, departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. The first thing that might cross your mind, and I don't know what that is, but it might cross your mind, other than Brother Bart, I don't know of anyone else who's been called to preach, and you might think, Well, this message is not going to apply to me. This message is about the apostles being sent. And so it's for preachers, or pastors, or ministers, or missionaries. So you might think that this is just for them. But I believe that what we have read, and I believe in this passage, there is the answer or an answer to one of those age-old questions of what this life is all about for all of us. We're going to see here. As I studied and prepared to come today and present to you what God has placed on my heart to tell you from the word of God, by the end of it, I started to see a bigger picture. I believe with the help of the Lord to see that there is something here, certainly for absolutely every one of us. And this passage does apply to you. This passage has something for every one of us. We're told even in 2 Corinthians where Paul is writing in chapter 5 verse 18, Paul says, this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we ambassadors for Christ." And if you follow that passage and you refer, you understand what is being referred back to when Paul says, we are ambassadors for Christ, he's talking about those whom have been reconciled to God. He's talking about all that have been saved. Every one of us who knows the Lord, we are ambassadors for Christ. We have been sent to proclaim the message of Christ to the world. We are to make the appeal of Christ to the world. Every one of us. And I would like to speak to you today from this passage where I see three things. And if you want a title for the message, it's Full Hearts, Empty Hands, and Dusty Feet. Full Hearts, empty hands and dusty feet. That is how all of us ought to be living our life, spiritually, with full hearts and empty hands and dusty feet. But I find in my life that one or more of these three things can and often is missing. While these 12, though, receive this specific calling, to go into these surrounding villages, every believer has been given the ministry of reconciliation. And so I have to ask myself this question as we begin today. Is my heart full of the message of Christ? Are my hands empty of the things of the world to free me to present that gospel in the way that is most effective? And are my feet dusty? Have I traveled with the gospel anywhere. And I'm not talking about some great missionary journey overseas. I'm talking about just in our lives are our feet covered with the dust of the journey of taking the gospel to our friends and neighbors. We're not all sent out in the same way, and I don't believe any one of us are sent out in the same way that these 12 were, but we are all sent to proclaim the message of Christ. Whether or not we realize it, that is our purpose. That is our job. That is what provides meaning in our life. That and that alone. Full hearts, empty hands, and dusty feet. This carrying of the message of the gospel is what will fulfill your life like nothing else will. Yet, we look for those things in so many other places. But Jesus, in sending these 12, gives us pattern, some things to think about and consider in our own life. But as we begin, I do want to make time, and I prayed and considered whether this was something we should include. And I think it's important. So we're going to include it today. Just an opening word of caution here in context about these six verses. We must be careful with scripture, and we've talked about this before, we must be careful with scripture to see when and where it is being prescriptive, or specifically instructing us what exactly to do. Prescriptive, a prescription for behavior. We must be able and spiritually discern when the scriptures are being prescriptive in that way, or when they are being descriptive of some other specific situation. This is one such passage. Many people, I believe, have gone astray, even in the best of intentions, by taking these six verses and making them entirely prescriptive, or specifically how we are to obey the call of God to carry the gospel to the world, rather than descriptive. And there is some of both here. I believe there are many things that we can take from this account of Jesus' sending of the 12. And I'd like to look at some of those today. But while we do, we should know where and how this passage is descriptive and where and how it is prescriptive. This, what we just read, was a specific time, a specific place to a specific group of men on a specific journey. that would never again be repeated just like it was here in Luke. So while there are prescriptive principles that we can draw from this passage, some of Jesus' instructions here are descriptive of this particular mission and should not, I believe, be rigidly followed in some legalistic manner. This is how all of them should go. And I'll perhaps say more about that as we move forward in the message today. But to begin, full hearts, verses 1 and 2, equip these 12 with hearts that were full. Is your heart full today? Is it lacking something? Is your heart full of the message and the commission and the calling of Christ? Because that is where it begins here. And he called. The first three words of verse 1 here in chapter 9, and he called. It begins with a calling from Christ. Have you been called by Christ to go and to be a missionary of sorts? And again, we have these ideas in our mind of what a missionary is, and there's nothing wrong in that, I don't suppose. There are men that have been called to that specific work to be a missionary to people in a particular place. But we've all been called to be ambassadors. We've all received, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you have a calling from him, I believe. Do you know what it is? Have you felt his call to some obedience? He calls these 12 and he sends them to a specific place, but it begins with a call. Your heart will never be full, by the way, until you hear and feel and are confident of the calling of Christ on your life. That is what will fill your heart more than anything else, is the call of Christ on your life. Nothing else is going to fill that spot. No success in the world is going to fill your heart like the calling of Christ, your God, who created you in your mother's womb. These twelve men went to these villages and they went with full hearts because they knew Jesus has called us to this work. I ask you, is your heart full of the call of Christ this morning, or is it empty of that? Is it lacking? Is there a lack of clarity in your mind as to what you ought to be doing with your life? Then I would advise you to go to Christ in prayer and to ask him where it is that he would have you to go, what it is he would have you to do, who he would have you to speak to, the decisions that you are to make to further his gospel in the world. They took this specific journey for one reason, Jesus had called, that's it. They went to these villages and proclaimed the gospel and healed the people for one reason, Jesus had called. A lot of people in it, many, I believe, have taken substitute reasons for such a trip as these men took. Those in the ministry, it might be ego. Some might be some, love of adventure, or even maybe it's guilt of some kind, trying to make up for something, or pressure that others might place on you. Others, it's to escape the current reality that you're in. But whatever those other substitute reasons are, they will never substitute truly to such a point that you'll have a full heart as you serve the Lord in that mission effort or that sharing the gospel If there's a lack of a calling of Christ in the first place, they didn't take it upon themselves. They didn't say, I think this is something I want to do merely. I hope that there is in them a desire. I hope that when these 12 people heard Jesus say, come to me, I've got a place to send you, I hope in their hearts they thought and that their hearts left at that, that Jesus has a job for me to do. He's got something for me to do. My Savior, whom I love, who has delivered me from eternal destruction and eternal separation from God and eternal loneliness and darkness and burden and sorrow. He's delivered me from that. This one I love more than anything else. He's got something that he would like me to do. And I hope their hearts leapt at that. And I hope yours and mine does the same, as it's full when we realize that our Savior has something for us to do. But all of those other reasons that we might come up with, they won't fill our heart like that will. And as you examine your own heart to determine and discern whether or not you are in a right place or not, you can ask yourself a question like this. If no one ever knew, would I still go? If the doors are closed and the results are small, would I still be content in faithful obedience to the call of Christ? Because that's what's filled my heart. Nothing will fill it like the call of Christ will fill the heart to know what he is about and to be about what he has called you to. It begins with a call. Then he goes on. It says he gave them power and authority. The power and authority that they took with them on this journey was given to them by Christ. This is another essential idea that we find in scripture. When we find our calling, not only are we called, but God does provide the power and the authority that is needed to fulfill that call. When God calls you to something and you feel as though you lack the power or authority, that's good. You're exactly right, you do. But He does not. Is your heart full of the calling of Christ? If it is, then you can be assured that He is going to also fill you with the power and authority, and your heart will be confident as you face the call of Christ on your life. On our own, we have neither of these things, power or authority. With Christ, we have both, if He has called and if He has given. And I do want to make a special note here as well about these special gifts that these twelve, I believe, alone were given. You know, Jesus clearly separates these twelve from the other disciples. There were many people following him. There were many other believers. Jesus clearly separated these 12, even from those who were following Christ at that time. So even at the time this happened, it was not a general empowering of every disciple or follower of Christ. And I'll say this as well, if you're ever confronted with this, and if you ever go overseas, and Aidan's seen this in Ghana, there's Pentecostal idea of the gifts remaining and that I've met in Liberia one particular man who came and claimed, I am an apostle and I have been given these gifts and I can heal, and I've run into them in Romania as well, and you run into them in other places more than in the circles that we typically run in. And I want to address that. biblically here and equip us with an understanding that I believe, as what is often called the cessationist argument, that those gifts died with these 12 men. I believe that they were given to them specifically, and they weren't given to others even at the time. Nowhere do we read in Scripture where Jesus says, by the way, you 12, go give these gifts to other men. They weren't told to do that. Self-professed, by the way, apostles today, they were probably, in most cases, and well, in many, you wonder if they even meet the basic requirements of discipleship, much less what these twelve were. The twelve apostles being the men specifically called by Christ and Paul out of due season, as he said it, but called personally by the person of Christ while on the earth. demands humility and dependence, and rejects any pride and selfish ambition. And many apostles that I've run into seemed far more interested in their professed calling than in their professed Christ. They often line their pockets and have many bags and tunics and staffs. The only empty hands that they see are the hands that they've emptied as they've received from those that they deceived. speak often they do of what they can do than what Christ must do. I believe this is a unique calling for these twelve and a unique empowering and a unique authority given to them and given to no one else. That does not mean that we are not called because certainly as we've said we are. and we are empowered and we are given the authority that is needed. Jesus said it in the Great Commission before he gave it, he said, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Full hearts, not only are they full because they've been given a calling and full because they've been empowered and given authority, they are full because they've been given a clear purpose. Clear purpose. One of the things I think that we can miss in our Christian walk is just that, clear. purpose. We know it in general. It is to glorify God. It is to lift up Christ. It is to serve Him, to love Him, to be to Him what we have been called to be. But here, these men were given not only a calling, which is essential, not only power and authority, which is essential, they were also given what I believe is essential, this clear purpose. I want you to go to the surrounding villages. I want you to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. Their primary objective then was clear, as is our own. It is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God. That is the calling. And what is the gospel? We don't want to overlook that, move past it, because every last one of us has no hope outside of it. Man is created in the image of God. That's why you're so complex. That's why there's something in you that recognizes and acknowledges that there's more than what we see with these natural eyes. You've been created in the image of God. Man was in the beginning when God created it and called it from nothing, and from nothing came something, and somewhere along the way that must have taken place. Somewhere, at some point, there was nothing, and then there was something, and God is the answer to that question. There was nothing, and He created man. He created him in His own image, and He placed him on an earth that He formed and shaped, inside a universe that He formed and shaped, and as far as man knows, is continuing to expand. And he created him in his own image, and so he's unique and he's different. That's why you're not like the animals. That's why you have an inward sense that that's true. But man fell from the law that God gave him. And he said, just don't eat of this tree. And it's the way that you can show me your love and obedience. And some might say, well, that seems backward, or that seems wrong of God. But that's because we think wrongly about the whole situation. He is God, and we are the creature. And he gave us one simple law. Don't eat of this one tree. We did. We all became sinners. And I think inwardly, we all know that as well. Sin led to death and eternal separate leads to death and eternal separation This is why so many don't want to hear the gospel because they don't want to face that reality They don't want to think about that reality They want to live their lives and enjoy everything they possibly can hear and convince themselves that when they die It's over and there's nothing after that but inside your heart, you know, that isn't true there's something beyond this and it's because God has put his image in you and And there's a reflection, as marred as it may be by sin, that we know there's something else. We fell from the law, and we're all sinners, and we stand condemned before God's law. But the gospel is God sent his son, Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, 2,000 years ago. He sent him to us, and he lived a sinless life and paid the penalty of all the sin of the whole world. When he conquered death in the grave, he rose again. And this is why we have hope. This is what we have to proclaim. This is what Jesus told those 12 men to go and tell the surrounding villages. The one who was promised has come. He's here. His name is Jesus. And he calls all men to repentance. Jesus and John the Baptist both, the beginning of the gospel, repent and believe, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The gospel is that all men without Christ are without hope, both here in this life and in the eternity that is to come. That's the gospel. That's what they were sent to proclaim. And Jesus gave these 12. We move from prescriptive to descriptive here. He gives these 12 the power to heal and the power and authority over all devils. But like Jesus' own words and like Jesus' own miracles, the gifts they received served the message. It's not the other way around, and we've preached a message on that some time ago. But when we elevate the miracle over the message, we quickly lose the meaning of the message. So focused, we become on the miracle. If a miracle would distract the message, then the miracle must go. If anything would distract the message, then it must go. The message is primary. It is the point. And Jesus, here at the beginning of the establishment of his church, as he is now forming it in his earthly ministry, he empowers these men with a demonstration that these men are from God. There's no other way to explain it or describe it. And this was a unique gifting for this unique time. But even then, The message was the main thing, but it wasn't the only thing they were told to do. And I believe this is where we slide into prescriptive again, where Jesus says, go and I want you to proclaim the kingdom of God, but I want you to heal them and cast out the demons. To follow the pattern of scripture here and elsewhere, we must do what we can to ease and alleviate earthly burdens of those to whom we minister and proclaim the gospel. That is the scriptural pattern we see again and again. And it's been the historical method of missions, but mostly it's because it's been based in scripture. It's important that both are present. Jesus said both. He specifically said it. Proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God and heal their diseases. James that well-known passage in chapter 2 verses 15 and 16 read this if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them go in peace be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body what good is that speaking empty words without meeting real and obvious needs is not the pattern that Jesus established full hearts We'll move quickly, if we can, through these next two empty hands. He said, don't take anything with you. Take nothing for your journey, no staff, no bag, no bread, no money. Do not have two tunics. And I think that this is a descriptive line for us. It was prescriptive for them, but for us, this was a short journey. By chapter 10, these men are back with Christ. I don't know how long that is, but the vast majority of what seems to be recorded is it wasn't that long. So it's different, right? But at the same time, it describes a mentality of mind and heart with which we must go. Empty hands. We don't know the exact length of this journey, but it appears, again, to be relatively brief. But it seems to me that Jesus' instructions for taking nothing and only a single tunic was to communicate the need to be quick and light and ready to move when the opportunity presented itself. Ready to go. Is your heart full? Has God called you to a work? Have you realized you're an ambassador for him? Are you making the call on his behalf to those in your life? And does that fill your heart with hope and purpose and meaning and direction? Have you been empowered by God with the authority and the power needed to do that? And are you ready to go? Is it making your heart leap and be excited about the fact that God has a place for you to serve and your heart is full. That's wonderful. Now it's time for empty hands, to let go of the things of this life. Jesus, I believe, was communicating here this need to be quick, a clear teaching that the 12 were to go in complete dependence on God with no backup in place, nothing else upon which to depend. In this, we see the need for the one who is sharing the gospel to be... Listen, this is important. I think it's important for us to hear, and I know it's important for me to hear again. It is important that the one who is sharing the gospel demonstrates and appears, by all accounts, to be as dependent on Christ as the one to whom they are sharing the gospel with, the speaker and the hearer alike. dependent upon Christ, upon God. Empty hands. We think of Peter at the temple after Christ had ascended. Man's begging. Peter says, I don't have silver or gold. My hands are empty of that, but what I have is a full heart. I'll give you what's there. Rise up in the name of Jesus. We see the need again for the one who is sharing the gospel to be as dependent on Christ as the one who is hearing the gospel. Our own obvious and sincere dependence on Christ will empower our witness when we encourage others to do the same. And, by the way, the other side of the coin, an apparent lack of trust on our part, it'll throw cold water on the flames of the gospel that you're trying to share. We, these men and we, that are called today by Christ, must have hearts full of a calling, full of the power and the authority of Christ, and we stand on firm ground when we go to share the gospel of Christ, and we go with full hearts but empty hands. I don't have the answers for you, but the one who's filled my heart does. Whatever you are holding on to in this life, I would advise you, and perhaps it's fine and not wrong for you to have things, but I would advise you to hold them with a loose grip. Don't allow those knuckles to be white as you grip things in this world. They're not yours, and you don't know how long you'll have them. And God only knows the answers to that question, and we ought not hold those things so tight because our heart is so full of the call of God that it leaves our hands loose as we hold the things he gives us here because our hearts are full. With the message of the gospel, we should not lose sight of how By the way, as we think of this and we think of these 12 men, remember how the typical Jewish mind was set to expect the Messiah? Do you remember that? He's going to come. He's going to conquer Israel's enemies. He's going to reestablish the earthly kingdom of Israel. He's going to overthrow the Romans. He's going to establish the kingdom again in Israel. Their expectations was a mighty savior, earthly wise, a kingly warrior who would gather his army and overthrow their enemies. But instead, what do we find? And what did they find? We find Jesus sending a small band of 12 uneducated men with almost no provisions, in fact, a commission to carry none with them, no safety net of any kind. This is not what they would have been expecting the calling of their Messiah to look like. It was a lot of faith that they were demonstrating when they obeyed, because it wasn't what they were expecting the Messiah to do. As we go on our own journeys to proclaim the gospel, we can sometimes allow the wrong ideas to govern our hearts and the work, and we can Say things like, I've gone Lord, surely you will bless and manifest in a wonderful way. I'm on a journey for the Lord. Surely he will smooth the road before me, remove all the obstacles in my way and vindicate me. Consider though here that Jesus did not promise success. Indeed, he prepares them to be rejected. So then a principle emerges, we go. because He is called, and our hearts are full of that calling. He has granted the power and authority to do so, and so we go because the Savior has called, and we go with empty hands, either metaphorically or literally, but our hearts are holding things loosely except for this one thing, I've been called to go. I've been called to live before others with the message of the gospel, hearts full, hands empty, and now dusty feet. Jesus told them to go, and if they found those who received the gospel and were receptive, and at this time, and you probably know this, at this time those who would go from village to village teaching and proclaiming a message, they were dependent upon the culture of hospitality of the day where people felt compelled to house and feed and provide a roof over the head of those who are teaching. And these men, as these 12 were sent, Jesus said, if you find those who receive the gospel and receive the message, stay with them. Stay in those homes. stay in the homes of those that proclaimed that they believed the gospel that was being presented. It allowed them to identify with the message and make a public profession of faith to those around them. I'm housing these men. I have confidence in them and their message. And by the way, when the apostles were called to move on, it would leave representatives in the community of what the apostles had taught and brought. to the village. It would allow them, those who hosted these men that were sent by Christ, it would allow them to serve those who were serving Christ themselves. And one of those services, interestingly, would have been to give them water to clean the dust from their feet. You know, either way, the dust from the village is going to be removed. either from those who are hospitable and a typical traditional way to to receive visitors and guests at the time was to give them water to clean their feet. There's going to be another way that is that these that were sent these 12 apostles were to shake them up shake the dust off of their feet themselves. But Jesus says to go and remain in that house but then it says and then go and then move. Whatever house you enter stay there and from there depart. It might have been preferred by these men to stay in the house where they were accepted. That would have been the temptation. These people have received the message, and I'm going to stay here. But Jesus says, no, don't stay there beyond the time that is appropriate from their depart. It seems evident here that Jesus did not want them to stay long, but to move on to others. When we have accomplished the task that God has given, it's time to move on, even if we might prefer to stay. I believe that there's something that God's people have been hindered by. I won't lay the blame anywhere in particular, but it feels, it seems apparent to me that We have lost many of the skills needed to engage an unbelieving world, and even those who might agree with most of what we say and teach, but not everything. It feels like we just want to stay in the homes where everybody agrees 100% of the time, and we just want to stay in the house. But Jesus says, no, I've got other places to send you. Go. Move. And if they don't receive you, we're told what to do by Jesus in verse five, wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. This shaking of the dust off their feet was not done in anger on the part of these apostles. It was done as a witness to those who rejected the gospel, to show them and to point them and to make them look and see you have rejected the message Shaking the dust off as a result of the rejection of the people tells us that Christian missionary efforts are not compulsory. We do not, as Christian missionaries or as people of God, as ambassadors of Christ, we do not carry a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other and say convert or die. That is not the message of scripture. It's not what Jesus did. The gospel message is a plea. It is not a threat. It is a plea to hear the one who came and died for them so that they might have life. Shaking the dust off of their feet showed them the people of that village, you've rejected him. So that they might be completely clear and understand what the ramifications of that would be. They come in verse six and we are told that they do precisely what they were called to do. They departed and went through the villages preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Having received the call to go and having been warned that they would be both received and rejected, and having been told to go with little to no provision, what did they do? They went. They went preaching the gospel. They had good news to tell, as we talked about earlier, and so they told it. The great advantage of the Christian missionary is that he has good news to give to the people. You don't have to overthink it. You don't have to necessarily over-strategize it. You just have to go where He has sent you, and you have to be mindful and thoughtful as you go, and realize and again understand the balance between the prescriptive nature of this particular passage and the descriptive principles and calling of God on our lives today. But we have news to share that people need to hear. The calling is first and essential, the empowering and the authority is second, and it is essential, but the call and the authority and the power must be met with obedience on our part. And by the way, I think there would have been no small concern on the part of these 12 to leave the presence of Jesus, but that's what he was asking them to do. You know, God often in our lives wants to encourage us to grow spiritually, And he is always near and he is always there in the presence and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. But sometimes we want our service to God to be in the midst of a congregation of other believers on Sunday. And that's where it stops because out there on a Wednesday afternoon at work, it's not nearly as friendly. There's people who are rejecting us and we're having to wipe the dust off of our feet. And we're not really wanting to do that, but they went anyway. That calling was there. Might have been preferable to stay with Jesus, but they went anyway. As we conclude today, I would ask you about this idea that has continued to percolate and will continue, I think, for some time to percolate in my own mind, this idea of full heart, empty hands, dusty feet. Which of these three is missing in your walk with the Lord? Is your heart empty of the calling? Do you know what it is? Do you know what it is? Do you feel Him pulling you to obey, to make a public proclamation to the village that you're in? Jesus of Nazareth, He's my Lord, He's my Savior, He wants to be yours. I have the gospel of the kingdom of God to share with you. Is your heart full of that or is it a little empty of that calling? Are your hands empty? to such a degree that you can move and pivot and turn without a second thought? Are you holding on to some things that if Christ were to come and say, I want you to set that down because I've got a place for you to go and where you're going, I don't want you to take an extra tunic, I don't want you to take a bag, I don't want you to take a staff, I don't want you to take the things that you're holding on to right now. I gave them to you in the first place. I'm asking you to set them down because I have a calling for you. Is your heart full of the call, or is it empty? Are your hands empty and ready to move, or are you burdened, holding on to too many things? And are your feet dusty? In your life, do you have spiritually dusty feet from the road you've traveled to share the gospel and the kingdom of God with those in your life? Or looking down, are they pretty clean I have discovered certain ways serving the Lord and taking a journey that he sends you on. It's messy and your feet are going to get dusty. And there's two ways for that dust to be removed. In the presence and the fellowship of people who receive the gospel and you enjoy that fellowship and you wash that dust off, clean those feet, ready to get them dusty again. Or the second way is they rejected it and I'll knock the dust off. But my feet were dusty. Full hearts, empty hands, dusty feet. Let's answer the call if God's giving us this call. With hearts full of His calling, hands free of any dependence on anything but Him, and feet willing.