The Message Must Go Out

We went to Ashburton last week. On the way back I chose a Spotify playlist of the 100 Greatest Christmas Songs Ever. Not one of them had any Christian content! Surely, out of 100. We get a bit frustrated with things like that, don’t we? Probably there will be little acknowledgment of the real Christmas in any of the television programming. We get concerned that the true meaning of Christmas has been lost amongst all of the commercialism. We want to reminding people that Jesus is the reason for the season. That is exactly what you did last weekend by adding the Christian dimension to the Santaland event. You knew that there would be families here and you said, “Let’s be where the people are and tell them about Jesus”. The message must go out.

Today we are going to see lots of things that are all connected – themes that crop up again and again – with the central concept being the “The message must go out”.

The first Christmas included proclamation of the good news. The angels announced the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds. The shepherds, after they had seen Him, spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them” (Luke 2:17-18). The story of Jesus is a story that needs to be told.

We have been looking at Bible passages that say why Jesus came. Most of them talk about Jesus being the Saviour of the world. I have come that you might have life, life in all its fullness.

Last week we saw that Jesus divides people because some love Him but others reject Him, or are distracted by other things, or maybe haven’t heard the gospel. If Jesus is the Saviour and many people haven’t heard of Him, what is the natural conclusion? The message must go out. Sharing the gospel is hugely important.

It also ties in with some more passages on our sheet. Some of those passage say that Jesus’ mission was to proclaim the message.

Mark 1:38

Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

Luke 4:42-44

⁴² At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. ⁴³ But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” ⁴⁴ And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Jesus was sent to preach.

In that Luke passage, many people had brought people who were sick and demon-possessed and Jesus had healed and delivered them. No wonder they wanted Him to stay but Jesus said no. He could have stayed; He could have built relationships; He could have healed more people but something else was higher priority. He had been sent to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God. His mission was to make sure people knew this good news.

Matthew 9:35

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

All of the towns and villages. He went everywhere. He kept moving on. If there were people somewhere, He would go to them. Everybody needed to hear. Jesus’ mission was to tell them.

Jesus lived mainly up north in Galilee. He travelled all over Galilee visiting village after village. But He taught in Jerusalem a number of times. That meant various trips to Jerusalem – 127km each way. He taught in villages around Jerusalem. He travelled through Samaria where He met the Samaritan woman at the well and stayed two days in her town where many became believers. He went across the Sea of Galilee into the Gentile territories. He went up to Tyre and Sidon which are today in Lebanon. Jesus went all over the place to preach and to heal and deliver. During His ministry He walked thousands of kilometres. Why? To tell people. The message had to go out.

Tell them what? What was the message that was so important?

Mark 1:38 just says that Jesus had come to preach. It doesn’t tell us the content of His preaching. But Luke 4:43 does. “I have been sent to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God.” We can see that Matthew 9:35 says that He went to all the villages and towns proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. Likewise, Matthew 4:23 talks about Jesus proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. It is all about the Kingdom.

John 18:37 is another passage on our list that says why Jesus came. When on trial before Pilate, Jesus said, “The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth.”

Notice the context there. It was a discussion between Pilate and Jesus about whether or not Jesus was a king. Jesus had said His kingdom was not of this world. His Kingdom is not a geographical or political kingdom. It is a different sort of Kingdom. Maybe the truth Pilate could have learned was that Jesus was a King. The truth that Jesus was born to testify to is the truth about the King and His Kingdom.

The wise men had talked about Jesus as the one born to be king of the Jews. Everything connects.

There’s a fourth passage on your sheets. It doesn’t quite say, “This is why Jesus came” but it is often considered Jesus’ mission statement. It talks about being anointed by the Holy Spirit to preach and sent to proclaim. It doesn’t mention the Kingdom of God but listen to what it does say.

Luke 4:18-21

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

If a prisoner is set free by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God is present and Satan who has held that person prisoner is defeated. Jesus didn’t actually set any literal prisoners free although He did later when Peter was miraculously released from prison and Paul and Silas were miraculously released from prisoner. But many other people were released from bondage to demons and bondage to sin and bondage to addictions and bondage to… all manner of other things. And every time someone was set free, that was evidence of the presence of the Kingdom of God.

Likewise, every time someone was healed of blindness – either literal physical blindness or spiritual blindness – that was evidence of the presence of God and a defeat for Satan.

Etcetera. Every time a poor person responds to the good news, that is evidence of God ruling and defeating Satan. The Kingdom was proclaimed with words and with works.

When John the Baptist had doubts and sent messengers to Jesus to ask if He really was the Messiah, Jesus simply pointed them to what was happening. “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Luke 7:22). Was He the Messiah? What does the evidence say about the Kingdom of God being present in their midst?

Jesus was constantly proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. His words proclaimed the Kingdom. His actions proclaimed the Kingdom.

Two other passages on our list say that Jesus came to defeat the devil or to heal all those under the power of the devil. Have a wee look at Acts 10:38 and 1 John 3:8. Whenever God has a victory it is a sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God and a defeat for the devil. Those passages really are also about the proclamation of the Kingdom.

The New Testament church continued the same mission. They had a passion to preach the gospel. The outstanding example, of course, is Paul but ordinary Christians also knew that their mission was to share the good news. If you look through Acts there are various verses talking about preaching the Kingdom of God. It is exactly the same thing. And the preaching was accompanied by miracles.

That responsibility now rests with us. That is why we want to use Christmas as an opportunity, just like the angels and the shepherds. But, as we know, the responsibility applies every day, not just at Christmas. Jesus made a huge priority of making sure people knew. He travelled all over to make sure people knew. He said, “This is why I have come. I must preach the good news of the Kingdom.”

After the resurrection, He said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. Our mission is the same as His. Our mission is to make sure people know. He commissioned us. We are to go and make disciples of all nations (as Matthew puts it) and preach the gospel to all nations (to use Mark’s words). The command to go to all nations emphasises that everybody needs to know and echoes Jesus’ determination to get to every village and town.

The verse that says about Jesus going to all the towns and villages is immediately followed by these words…

Matthew 9:36-38

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Jesus linked His preaching ministry to the need for workers in the harvest field. Notice also that Jesus’ motivation was compassion for people who were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd – compassion for people who are lost and helpless and in need. There are many people around us who are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

All of these things are connected throughout the story of Jesus and the early church. You will remember that, when the 72 were sent out around the town and villages in Luke 10, Jesus again said, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”. His instructions were, “Heal the sick and tell them the Kingdom of God has come near to you.” Again, it was works and words that both proclaim the good news of accepting God as King. But Jesus was concerned about the lack of harvesters, even when the harvest was plentiful.

All of those things are connected. The message of King Jesus and His Kingdom, proclaimed by words but also by demonstrations of the presence of the Kingdom is linked to our Christmas, the first Christmas, the fact that Jesus is the Saviour but many do not know that, Jesus’ mission, the early church’s mission and our mission. Everything says the message must go out. Jesus commands us to pray that God will send out harvesters into the harvest field. This is important.

This Christmas, can we take a few moments to pray for some people we know who do not yet know Jesus and let’s do as Jesus commanded and pray that God will send out workers into the harvest field.

1623