June 7, 2026 - The Gospel of Luke - Week 6 - Sent for More

Highland Christian Church - Asheville, NC

Communicator - Jason Garris

Luke 4:42-44 - "I must preach the Good News of the Kingdom in other towns b/c that is why I was sent." The Kingdom cannot be contained – Jesus keeps moving toward those on the “outside.” 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

But God has always used ordinary people answering Jesus' call to follow me. When he saved you, he sent you. Look at the descriptors of God's people. Uh I just wanna look at this. Salt, light, ambassador, witness, messenger, peacemaker, reconciler. Do you do you see yourself as any of those? Right now. Or is it just church attender? For most of us, it's just church attender. These are the identities that the scriptures say the people of God will be known as. Welcome in everyone. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the pastors of the Christian Church. On behalf of our team, I just wanted to say thanks for taking some time to journey with us through the scripture. Our hope is that these words would cause you to think carefully about this Jesus, claiming that you would choose to trust him in your day-to-day. And as always, if you're in the Asheville area, whether you live here or you're visiting, we'd love for you to come join us at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street in person at the Dr. Wesley Grant Senior Southside Center. Our prayer is that God's words would equip you for every good work that He's prepared for you to do today. I was actually looking for a video because it really made me think of what we're talking about today, but I couldn't find it. So about 19 years ago, I got to get on a plane with a pilot and start talking about navigation systems and things like that. And so it was a fun conversation. It was it was one of those things where it you found the video? Okay, well, thanks for saying that. This was made 19 years ago. Please don't judge.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

It's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Anyways, this little video here, explain to me the pink line.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Um, and if you can use Star Wars terms, language. Okay. So let's say here's our airplane. Our destination is represented by this small white triangle. And of course, we fly is the pink line. Well, if we don't create some things, uh variation, things of this nature. Instead of flying to our destination, we end up off course. And you know, when you multiply that by thousands of miles, instead of San Francisco, you end up in Seattle. You can see the problem.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Hmm. Always wanted to know this. If you're flying in Europe, do you have to fly on the other side of the sky? Did you a lot of paint chips when you're a kid? Dave, we've lost engine one. I can't hear. I can't hear you. Are you saying anything? I would really, really love it if we could reenact the Beatles coming to the United States. Would you be willing to do that? Is he serious?

SPEAKER_02 4:15

It's been a long day's night. And I've been working like a dog. It's been a hall days night.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

You can be my wingman anytime. No. Can I be yours? No. Yeah, that video is almost 20 years old. So when I see my kids with their dyed hair and cut hair, and you know, obviously there's a story behind that haircut and God spell and a musical phase of my life. So, anyways. But when it got down to it, Dave uh was trusted to fly this plane. I mean, he's still flying planes, and it's an amazing responsibility. But when he's talking about course correction, everything made sense to me. All the dots started being connected. You slightly drift to the right, you slightly drift to the left, and then systems are in place to keep this course correction stuff happening. Um, because you can you can end up way off of course. You I just don't know if we realize how dangerous that can actually be. And what I'm learning about people after spending over half of my life in ministry is that our lives work that way too. I've known very few people who wake up one morning and decide, you know what? Good morning, world. I think I'm gonna abandon God's purposes for my life today. It's a new day, a great day to derail my life. I don't know too many people who that's what they say when they wake up in the morning. We drift a little over time, a little bit of comfort here, a little bit more distracted here, a little more busyness here, a little more focus on building my castles and my kingdoms, and here we are. Part of my responsibility as a pastor, as your pastor, is to continually call people to reconsider their agendas. I find that's what I end up doing most of the time in pastoral counseling or when I'm sitting across the table or having coffee or in a small group, it's not because most people are rebellious, but because all of us drift, and it is so very easy to do. Luke 4 gives us one of the clearest pictures in scripture of someone who refused to drift, and that's Jesus. We're looking at Jesus. After one of his most successful days of ministry, as uh Mr. Reen was talking about, healing, demonic forces being defeated, nonstop compassion. Jesus wakes up and he goes to a place but to be by himself. Verse 42. Early the next morning, Jesus went out to an isolated place. The crowds searched everywhere for him, and when they finally found him, they begged him not to leave. But he replied, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns too, because that is why I was sent. So he continued to travel around preaching in synagogues through Judea. Why spend a Sunday on three verses? Right? Why spend so much time focusing the morning after a full day of amazing ministry that Jesus did? Here we can find a rich theology of mission for our church to anchor in. And this is the first time Luke gives Jesus the mic, and Jesus says, Here's what I must do. Verse 42, Jesus went to an isolated place. Some of your translations may actually say, a desolate place. And that sounds terrible. How many of you wake up in the morning to go to a desolate place? Most of you do not. We go to the most comfortable place in our house, the dining room table. We get our coffee, we sit down, we're as comfy as we can possibly be. But throughout scripture, the wilderness places were often places where God spoke. The wilderness wasn't simply an escape, it was a time of an alignment. Moses, Elijah, Israel, Jesus. Jesus had just experienced demons delivering people. Peter's mother-in-law's been healed, crowds have been flooding in, miracle after miracle, morning to night, yet he withdraws. The question is, why? Because Jesus understands something that we forget. You can't continually pour out if you're never filling back up. Jesus was God and he had access to everything, yet Jesus modeled retreat and prayer. Why do we think we're going to be able to do anything different? Jesus retreated, not because people don't matter, but because mission matters. Relationship and communion with his father mattered. Jesus refused to let the busy work of ministry ruin his relationship. Many of you have been through that. You've worked so hard pouring yourself out, pouring yourself out, pouring yourself out. And for some reason, Christians have this thing that's called the God complex or savior complex. And we think if we're just going, we're sacrificing for the Lord and we're doing and we're doing and we're doing that, it's a good thing. It's actually not. God instilled Sabbath rest in the foundations of the universe. And somehow we think I'll just keep going. I'll go, I'll rest when I die. That's our attitude. It's a terrible attitude because God never intended for the human to go and go and go and go. And I'm not talking about a rest that just says, I'm gonna binge seven shows on Netflix. That's what we think rest is. Or we think rest is getting to the beach for one week out of the year. The beauty of Jesus' rest is Jesus' mission was fueled by his time with his father. Christians work from rest, not for it. The grind in the American culture is I work, work, work, work, work for rest. That's not healthy. The way of the follower of Jesus is to rest in what God has done, rest in how he has provided, rest in who he is, and then we work for six days. Jesus ultimately rested because the mission mattered. Some of us need to hear that retreat is not laziness, retreat is alignment, silence, prayer, reflection, listening. Not because we're trying to escape God's mission, but because we're preparing for whatever the Lord has for us. So little mini retreats every morning when you get up and you go for your walk and you're praying while you're walking. If you're somebody who like me, when I go on my run, I gotta pray when I'm running. When I sit still, and if I'm trying to sit in my room, my room praying, I can't. I just can't focus. There's too many things I think about. As soon as I get on that pavement and I hear my feet and I hear the sounds of the city around me, man, I can start praying. I can start listening. Some of you need those moments where you need to be reminded of who you are and why you're here and all of those things because we drift. And drifting is a killer. It really is. Surprisingly, the retreat that prepared Jesus for his next challenge. And his next challenge was not opposition, his next challenge was popularity. I mean, really, that that's it. We don't we're not introduced to the enemies of Jesus in this moment. We're introduced to people who want to hijack Jesus' mission. They won't be like, Jesus, we like what you got. But we'd like it to stay here. We'd like it to stay put. While retreating, the crowds find him. And Luke says they tried to keep him from leaving. Think about it. They're not his enemies, they're grateful people. We would want that too. We would want Jesus to stay. They've experienced healing, freedom, hope, and they want more of it. But they want Jesus on their terms. You stay with us. One thing that Luke has already pointed to, and he will continue through his gospel, is that people tend to want the power of Jesus more than they want the presence of Jesus. What can Jesus do for me? Jesus, I'll just add him to my collection of lucky rabbits' foots and put it in my pocket. And Jesus, I'll call on you if it works for me. Jesus, if you work for me in this moment, I'll reach out to you. Well, if money's not working for me and relationships aren't working for me, then Jesus, maybe I'll give you a try. That's how we treat him. These people, we're just like them. We'd rather have Jesus' answer to our prayer than his presence in our life. That's drift. We forget those things. We forget about the presence of God. It's what we were made for. Do they want relationship or do they just want results? Do you want relationship or do you just want results? Do you want a king or do you want what the king can do for you? This is drift. Before we judge them too quickly, we should ask ourselves the same questions. Many people today want a version of Jesus, not the Jesus of the scripture. We want a political Jesus. He stands with us and our causes, and he's against them and their causes. We want a therapeutic Jesus, someone who comes alongside me and just tells me everything's gonna be okay. We want a podcast, Jesus, where all I do is just listen to people talk about Jesus, and yeah, it's awesome for me. My podcast list is full of Jesus podcasts. We want a social media Jesus where we wear a wear a fear of God sweatshirt, or we wear put a little Jesus quote in the top of our profile page, and that's the Jesus we want. We don't really want Jesus. We want a version of him. But here's the problem some of you may be running into. He will not fit in your box. And if he does, chances are you've made yourself an idol. If Jesus never disagrees with you, if Jesus only agrees with you, you have made an idol for yourself. If Jesus is your co-pilot and he tags along with you wherever you go, building your agenda, building your castles, building your kingdom, you have made an idol. And probably looks just like you instead of Jesus. Jesus goes on to tell these well-meaning people, I have an obligation and I must talk about God's kingdom, not build yours. This is the Jesus we don't want. Because we're hearing Jesus say no. We don't like that. We think Jesus should say yes to everything I've asked for, but he is not, as I've said before, our co-pilot. He is Lord. He did not come to help us accomplish our agenda, he came to invite us into his. Matthew 6 33 is a verse we quote around my house all the time. Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Seek first the kingdom, not second. Not after you retire, not after your kids are grown, not after life settles down, not after you find the right job or the right friend group or the right mate first. Jesus didn't tell the people, No, I'm not gonna stay. He gave them a reason. Verse 43, but he replied, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God in other towns too, because that is why I was sent. When you hear people try and tell you why Jesus came, and it doesn't sound like this, you need to go, well, let's look at the scripture. Let's see why Jesus said he came, because he tells us. We like to come up with ideas of what we think Jesus would want. Why wouldn't we just go here? Why wouldn't we just anchor it here? Because he's told us. Notice what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say, I must heal, I must perform miracles, I must grow my platform, I must gather bigger crowds. He says, I must preach the good news of the kingdom. This is the first time in Luke's gospel that Jesus clearly explains what he believes his mission is. And will we believe Jesus about his own mission? What is the kingdom? The miracles were never the main thing. The miracles backed up the message. Jesus made sure we understood that. The message is the kingdom. Now we could spend so much time here, but simply put, the kingdom is God's rule and God's reign over all things, revealed in Christ and now through his church. We are to be a people who care about revealing this God who is ruling and reigning through his son and now his church on the earth. It's not about getting into heaven, it's not about church attendance, it's not just about getting you and me saved. The announcement is, and here it is, God has always been king, but in Christ, his reign is breaking into the world in a new and visible way through Jesus. Jesus is announcing the reign of God is arriving. And people, we must respond to this arrival. That's where Luke will take this, which we'll talk more about soon. When Jesus inaugurated, what Jesus inaugurates, we see it hazy right now, right? And we'll talk about moments like that, but the book of Revelation fills us in on the eventual tot eventual total rain. Revelation 11, verse 15. We all like freak out when we read the book of Revelation because we're like, what does that even mean? Well, here are some things you can know. The world has now become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. That's the point of Revelation. That the kingdom that Jesus brings into the world, and we read about it just two weeks ago, that Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to lift the bondage off of those who are broken, to uh free the oppressed, give sight to the blind, that the Lord's favor is coming. It's here. I'm it. He's like, I'm fulfilling that. And then one day that will be in total. We don't see it all right now. And it's hard to see it right now. But one day that will be in total. This is why preaching and teaching mattered to Jesus. God does not want people to be uninformed. There are so many Christ followers walking around uninformed because we have formed a view of Jesus that is not from his words. God never intended for us to have to guess about who Jesus is and why he came. The kingdom must be announced, but it also must be understood. The kingdom becomes visible every time God's people obey Jesus. Can I just tell you that again? The kingdom becomes visible every time the people of Jesus, God's people, obey his commands. If obedience to his commands are not important to you, this kingdom will not matter to you. This kingdom will not be revealed. And if you're like, well, I never see the kingdom, well, do you ever obey? Do you ever say, Jesus, I'm so glad you gave us a new way and the power to do what you said? I think I should obey. Because I want to see his kingdom revealed here on the earth. This is the beautiful invitation that we have been given. When we forgive, when we love enemies, when we serve, don't treat me like a servant, when we pursue reconciliation and justice, I would rather pursue revenge and injustice, right? When we care for our neighbors, when we refuse revenge, just to name a few, we reveal this kingdom at work on the earth. It's impossible without obedience to the words that Jesus spoke. Every time we live this way, it's like pulling a little veil back, letting people see another way of being human. Every earthly kingdom eventually falls. Empires have risen, empires have fallen, yet there is one kingdom, one kingdom that we are still talking about. It's the kingdom of Jesus. And it will stand forever. Then Jesus says something remarkable. He says, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to other towns also. This whole week I have just become obsessed with that phrase, other towns. These two words have been sitting with me. Other towns. Capernaum wanted Jesus for themselves. Jesus refused because there were other towns, other people, other families, other lives, other hearts where the kingdom announcement needed to be heard. Highland, this is exactly how God's mission works. There are other towns you you specifically. Are invited to go to. Jesus' prayer in John 17 begins to connect the dots for us. Here in Luke chapter 4, we have the beginning of Jesus' ministry. I must go. John 17 houses Jesus' last words after three years of going. And at the end, John 17, verse 3, and this is the way to have eternal life. To know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. Jesus has not gone to the cross yet. He's not died yet. He's not risen from the dead yet. But he has completed something that the Father asked him to do, and that is to make known the kingdom of God, the good news of the kingdom of God. And that by faith, repentance, turning from sin, turning to God, we get to be a part of it. In John 17, 18, he says, just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. He's talking about the disciples. Now, you might be like, Well, that's for them. I'm not sent. I don't have to be sent. I'm just going to sit by and let Jesus do his thing, and I may check in with him every once in a while, but I'm going to keep doing my thing. Right? Verse 20, we don't get off the hook. Jesus prays for those who would later believe. I am praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. We don't get off this sent hook. We are a sent people. That's us. We're included. Jesus isn't saying this just about the disciples then. When God saved you, He sent you. You're the only one. He can send you. You're it. Right? The church. We're it. We're planning A. This isn't that we're not backups. This is the plan. You may not like the words evangelism, witnessing, bearing testimony, right? Like these are religious words, and people are like, that gives me the heebie jeebies. I don't care what you call it. You were sent into the world to reveal the kingdom of God is ruling and reigning. You were sent. However, you learn to do that, obey. When God brings that to you and He shows you these gifts and these the way you're wired and all the things, just do it. Stop with the excuses. I mean, we all make them. Your other towns, right? What are they? Is it your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your family, your gym, your sports teams, your coffee shop? What are your other towns? Where are you supposed to be going? Don't worry about them or over there. Where are you supposed to be sent? And are you obeying? Most of us aren't resisting this sending because we're evil. Most of us aren't avoiding it because people are getting in our way, because most people aren't. People aren't stopping you from sharing the good news. We're distracted. We're busy. We're afraid. We're timid. Like Moses when God wanted to send him to Pharaoh, Exodus 4, right? God's like, Moses, go. Moses says, Um, what if they don't believe me or listen to me? What if they say the Lord never appeared to you? Right? That's not the end of the conversation. The Lord's like, I'll do this, this, this, this, and this, and it'll be all good. Moses in verse 10, but Moses pleaded with the Lord, Oh Lord, I'm not very good with words. I never have been, and I'm not now. Even though you've spoken to me, I get tongue-tied and my words get tangled. Then the Lord asked Moses, Who made a person's mouth? Right? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, or see or do not see? Isn't that I, the Lord? Now go, I'll be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what you say. All right, Lord, that's awesome. Verse 13. But Moses again pleaded, Lord, please send anyone else. Then the Lord became angry with Moses. How frustrated do you think God gets with us when he's like, I know exactly who you are, I know exactly what you're capable of, and you keep saying no to me. Like, how how frustrating would that be? Right? Like, I love that he's like, no, God, I am angry with you, Moses. Like, I'm I'm God. I made the mouth, I made the hearts, I made the ears, I made the eyes, and here you are, still giving excuses. Seriously, we all would be frustrated in this moment. Jeremiah, the same thing. Jeremiah, I'm giving you a message. Go. What does he say? Oh sovereign Lord, I can't speak for you. I'm too young. We all walk through these things when it comes to being sent. We deal with the internal battles. I'm not smart enough. I'm not qualified. Someone else should do it. I'm too busy. Now here's the deal. If you can recognize that you're too busy to be sent, you need to sit down and evaluate. You just do. If you are capable of recognizing you are too busy to be on mission, then you need to evaluate that. And maybe you need to let somebody in and go, hey, can we look at my schedule? I just feel overwhelmed. And some of you, if you spend six hours a day on your phone, I'm telling you why you feel overwhelmed. You probably have a ton of time. You just feel like you don't. So if you can admit I'm too busy, there's a good chance you need to look at your agenda. Look at what you prioritize. We deal with this, but God has always used ordinary people answering Jesus' call to follow me. When he saved you, he sent you. Look at the descriptors of God's people. Uh, I just want to look at this salt, light, ambassador, witness, messenger, peacemaker, reconciler. Do you do you see yourself as any of those? Right now? Or is it just church attender? For most of us, it's just church attender. These are the identities that the scriptures say the people of God will be known as. That's not passive. That's not sitting on the sideline. That is active trust that God is able to make me into those things by his spirit. That's who you are. This is not a spectator. This is a participant. Luke tells us that Jesus continued to travel around throughout Judea. That's about 80 miles away from Capernaum where he was currently at. That could take two and a half to four days to travel. That means that Jesus went town to town and on his way there. That's pretty symbolic for us going to other towns is one step at a time. You may not see yourself being everything to everyone, but we start with drifting from mission, and now we're being invited to step into mission. And as the man comes, we'll close with these thoughts. This week, if you said yes to any of these things, what could happen? What if you were to begin to pray for the kingdom of God? Just, I dare you. I triple dog dare you. To begin to pray, God, your kingdom come. I don't know what adventure the Lord may take you on in just starting that prayer. I do know that it will change the direction of our hearts because our hearts tend to point towards our castles. But you begin to pray, God, your kingdom come. Your kingdom. What if you were to write down three names of people that you know don't know Jesus? What if you just do that? Write down three people's names that don't know Jesus. And if all you know about those people is that they don't know Jesus, it might be time to build some bridges and kind of figure out who they are. Learn to know them. People are not projects, okay? They don't like to be treated like projects. I'm not a project, you're not a project, but people need to know about the kingdom of God. And do you think the Holy Spirit can inspire you on how to introduce people to the kingdom? Jesus said this is eternal life, to know you, the one true God, and his son, Jesus Christ. Do you know how to introduce people to the one thing they need to know? What if you were to start just simply praying for three people? What if you were to start asking for opportunities when you woke up? Could you imagine, like, if everyone in the church in the United States simply started saying, God, would you give me an opportunity to reveal your kingdom today? How different could things be? I don't know. What if you were to start practicing one teaching of Jesus? This is where we all be like, oh wait, that sounds like legalism for me to do anything. I'm a grace first person. I just sit and soak up his grace. Well, you're soaking up a lot more stuff too, but you're taking up a lot of space too. Soaking up the grace of God also inspires obedience. First John tells us, like in 1 John chapter 5, he said, It is my obligation to serve, but it is also my privilege to serve. Do you see it as a privilege? What if you were to practice one teaching of Jesus? This is actually what the Great Commission means. Matthew 28, right? We all read this one. Therefore, go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you and be sure of this. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. This is this we're like, that's the missionary verse. That's the Lati Moon offering verse. That's for those people who they're crazy. They sell everything and then they go move to some country where there's no phones. This is actually what we are all instructed to be a part of. And teaching people the ways of Jesus is revealing his kingdom here on the earth. It's revealing that God is at work, and one day in total, we will no longer by faith see God, we will by sight. It's gonna be in total and it's gonna be complete. We are being taught what Jesus brought to us from heaven when we teach others to follow Jesus' ways. Before your feet hit the floor, tomorrow morning, could you simply pray, Lord, open my eyes to the other towns around me? I don't know. What would the Lord do? Imagine standing in a wheat field that stretches all the way to the horizon. Every direction you look, there's grain ready for harvest, right? But there's only a handful of workers. That seemed a little bit overwhelming. You can almost hear the words of Jesus: the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Like I just remember seeing this image, and like I'm I'm gonna make it my desktop background because that's what it feels like. Guys, the problem with the harvest is not the harvest. Problems in the church. We have forgotten that we are sent into the world to reveal the rule and reign of God wherever we go. Now imagine those workers, that's just those three workers right there. Maybe they're standing discussing farming techniques, talking about the weather. Maybe they're taking selfies with the field. Meanwhile, the grain is still waiting. At some point, somebody has to pick up the sickle and go into the field. Harvest is not the issue. It's not getting harder out there. It's always been hard. Life's always happened. Life's always interrupted. Those are lies we just believe. Well, it's so hard today. Guys, Rome? If you knew about Rome and compared it to this place, we would look like a church camp. Jesus already told us the harvest is plentiful, the workers are the issue. Kingdom is advancing, God is still saving, God is still restoring, he's still calling. The plane only stays on course because corrections are made. Maybe today is course correction for you. Not because you've abandoned Jesus, but maybe you've drifted from his mission. Maybe you've forgotten what Christ invited you into. There are still other towns, there are still people that need to hear, there are still fields ready for harvest, and there is still a king sending his people into the world. Let's pray. Father, as we close our time, may we not forget that as you were sent by the Father, so you send us into the world. Wherever we are, would your kingdom be front and center in our mind? If we've forgotten, or if we've drifted, or if we've gotten distracted, would you just help our hearts to remember our first love? To remember the moment you rescued us from sin, death, hell, uh, defeat, victory, or all the things that we now have received. Would you wake us up to not just float downstream with the ways of the world, but Father, the uphill swim. This is not a float course. This is a this is a hard, hard walk against a current that would take us if we'll let it. Forgive us for being so easily distracted. Thank you for giving us a bigger picture of your kingdom through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Thank you for Luke's words this morning. May we be a people who say yes, Lord. Here I am. Send me. In your name we pray. We just wanted to say thank you for listening to the Highland Christian Church podcast today. And if you ever want to connect with us, send a prayer request, ask questions, or for any other reason, you can visit our website, www.highlychristian.com. Or you can send us an email at info at highlychristian.com. God bless you guys.