Damein Schitter: Hello everyone.
Damein Schitter: This is Pastor Damian.
Damein Schitter: You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, orlando.
Damein Schitter: At New City, we believe all of us need all of Jesus for all of life.
Damein Schitter: For more resources, visit our website at newcityorlandocom.
Damein Schitter: Thanks for listening.
Nadia Chong: Your scripture reading from today is from Matthew.
Nadia Chong: And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
Nadia Chong: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Nadia Chong: Then he said to the disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
Nadia Chong: Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Nadia Chong: And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction.
Nadia Chong: The names of the 12 apostles are these first, simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother.
Nadia Chong: James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother Philip and Bartholomew.
Nadia Chong: Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector.
Nadia Chong: James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus.
Nadia Chong: Simon, the zealot, and Judas, iscariot, who betrayed him.
Nadia Chong: These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Nadia Chong: This is God's word.
Nadia Chong: Good morning.
Nadia Chong: My name is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Ben, this is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Good morning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My name is Ben.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm a pastor here with New City.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I kind of my voice is on the fritz, I might have a little bit of a cough, so that's because I live with three Petri dishes that I call children, and so I invite you to pray for me, as that the Lord would sustain my voice as I preach this morning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So today we're beginning a short, really quick two-part miniseries called Bear Witness, and when Nate Claiborne heard this, he decided to ask ChatGPT to come up with a rendition, a graphic for us for this sermon series, which looked like that my favorite part is the world is watching.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What will you say?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Chat GPT uses like intensity to motivate people, apparently.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So okay, so this is not what we're talking about.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The word bear actually has three other meanings besides large furry, carnivorous mammals.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To bear means to bring forth, like to bear fruit.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A tree bears fruit right.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To bear also means to bring, like you come bringing or bearing gifts, you might say.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But to bear also means to kind of hold up under something to endure without resistance, to kind of hold up under something to endure without resistance, and all three of those meanings are really important when we talk about what it means to bear witness to Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We need to be able to do all three of those things, because to bear witness to Jesus really looks like bearing a type of fruit, bearing a gift called the gospel, and then bearing up the weight of what it means to actually speak and tell other people about Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so we're going to look at Matthew 9, which is the beginning.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The end of Matthew 9, beginning of Matthew 10 is the beginning of what's called the missionary discourse of Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is a significant passage in Jesus's ministry and really what I want to look at is I want to look at what?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How does Jesus show us, how we can bring forth witness from the heart, so it doesn't feel like it's this coercive thing that's imposed on us that we ought to do but don't want to, but something that emerges from within.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that actually mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now I define the word bear for you, but I also should define the word witness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Acts 4.20, it says this they said, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, in that way, a witness is similar when you're witnessing to Jesus, you're witnessing in a courtroom, you're speaking, you're telling about what you have seen and heard.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I wanna take the pressure off for a moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When I talk about bearing witness to Jesus, I don't mean you have to speak the entirety of the gospel every time you're talking to somebody.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What I mean is there's something significant just to tell the testimony, to witness to.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What have you seen and heard about Jesus in your own life, in our cultural moment?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A person's personal testimony, their own story, you can't refute it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so there's a power to being able to bear witness to Jesus in that way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, quick caveat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so there's a power to being able to bear witness to Jesus in that way.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, quick caveat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I came to know Jesus through a campus ministry, and if you wanted to go from junior varsity to varsity in my campus ministry, it meant that you went out and you shared your faith with people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, by temperament and personality, I'm an extrovert.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've never had a hard time talking to people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I like a good verbal joust every now and again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Argument is like a good old American pastime for me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I never had a hard time telling people about Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was not a challenge.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But I want you to hear me say that was mostly natural, not supernatural, and digging into this text, I realized the true motive for mission.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Digging into this text, I realized the true motive for mission.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Believe it or not, it's not Christian status symbols.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The true motive for mission we're going to see in the text from Jesus himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So if you have a Bible or a device or the worship of God, get Matthew 9 and 10 in front of you and we're going to look at this together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The first point I have for you is the compassion of the King.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The compassion of the King.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 35, says this and Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now I'm going to pause there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus in the gospels was a man on the move and the early church was actually really impressed with something in this text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The early church picked up on the fact that Jesus was humble enough to go to the cities and the villages, to Orlando and Bysslot.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He went to the Manhattan and the Manaheim I don't even know if that's a real city, but like he went to the places that nobody really.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He goes to the places where people wouldn't typically go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, because Jesus really believed that everyone, rich and poor, important and unimpressive needed what he had to offer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And what does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Around here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We often say all of us need all of Jesus for all of life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: All of us do, those in the cities and those in the villages.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, what was it that Jesus came to offer?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 35 with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It goes like this he was teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does Christian mission look like according to Jesus?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, mission is both word and deed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's both gospel proclamation and kingdom demonstration Around here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We call it work and witness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's both of those things together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we live in an interesting cultural moment to be Christians where there was a divorce within the Christian church of sorts, and in the divorce it looks like this In the divorce, bible-believing Christians got to hold onto things like evangelism those people were called the fundamentalists.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the culturally engaged Christians got to hold onto deeds of justice and mercy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Those people were called the modernists.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So there was this split.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then in the middle there came this new group in the early 1900s called the evangelicals, and their goal was to hold these two together people like John Stott and Francis Schaeffer and they believed what God has joined together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let no man separate.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Word and deed go together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're inseparable in gospel witness and that's why Jesus goes around teaching and healing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He does both.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's proclaiming the kingdom and then he's demonstrating the kingdom, and so here at New City, we will be about both work and witness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They both matter if we're going to be true witnesses to who Jesus is and his coming kingdom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, well-meaning people say things like this preach the gospel at all times and, when necessary, use words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But as much as that sounds like a good tweet, it's bad theology.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the reason why it's bad theology is to say preach the gospel at all times.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If necessary, use words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's like me saying to you hey, can you give me your phone number?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If necessary, use digits.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The gospel, by definition, is news.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a message.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, if the gospel was good advice, you could show the gospel by your actions and then you could just say do what we are doing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the gospel is not good advice, it's good news.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's fundamentally about Jesus Christ and what he has done and what that means for us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so people kind of meaning well will see a picture of Christians feeding the poor or putting shoes on orphans and be like that's the gospel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, it's not.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's a demonstration of the gospel 100%.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But the gospel is the good news.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's the good news of the King of Kings has come into your hometown and he right now is offering you access to his saving reign through his death and resurrection.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And anybody can get in on this if you'll simply turn to him and trust in him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the gospel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That is the gospel proclamation, the good news, not merely good advice.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This matters for Christian witness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This matters for our mission, because that gospel is such good news that it often motivates profound works of mercy and justice.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So what is that motive for mission?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is the heart of witness?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, look with me again at the text, verse 36.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 40 times in the gospels Jesus is mentioned looking at people and most of those times you should go through and underline this in your Bible when you see this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says and Jesus saw, and he had compassion, something about Jesus seeing people around him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It moved him in his inner being.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a scholar from a few generations ago named BB Warfield who wrote an article called the Emotional Life of Our Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can find it online for free.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's worth the read.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he points out that the number one emotion that Jesus has shown experiencing feeling in the gospels is compassion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Not low-grade irritation, not frustration, not anger, because people can't get in on with the agenda already Compassion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Bb Warfield goes on to say Jesus' whole life was a mission of mercy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is the heart of Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why does this matter?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, the whole reason why there's any witness at all is because Jesus looks out on the world and he's moved with compassion.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the motive for mission.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why we do what we do when we go and tell people about Jesus is because the heart of Jesus is moved for those people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, compassion, calm passion, means to suffer with.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's this fellow feeling that Jesus has for people who are distraught and beaten down and going through difficulty.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The motive for mission is not fear or guilt, or shame or anger because of the evil around us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The motive for mission is not fear or guilt or shame or anger because of the evil around us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The motive for mission is to share in, participate in the compassion of Jesus for our world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now my real invitation in this sermon I've got two things the kind of action steps I'm going to invite you this week to ask Jesus to let him see what he sees and feel what he feels about the people around you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the invitation, that's the action step.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You want to know what is the?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What are you going to do after this?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not you got to go give the four spiritual laws to somebody that doesn't know Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's not that yet Next week.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But it is Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would you just let me see what you see and feel what you feel for the people around me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want you to have a heart of compassion, like Jesus has, and that that would be the motive for which you would speak to people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because I think one of the reasons we don't talk to our neighbors about Jesus is because we look at them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of them, you know, middle class, well-adjusted, seemingly doing fine on their own, and we don't think they really need much.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, some of us envy our neighbors who are not yet disciples because they don't have some higher power who will in any way infringe upon their authenticity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They don't have somebody calling them to hold on to some countercultural sexual ethics.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They don't have a God telling them what they should do with their time and their money.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So we look at them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We always envy the quote-unquote freedom they seem to have.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And when we look out at our world, we don't see what Jesus sees.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In fact, when we look out at our world, we don't see what our world sees Right, because in the New York Times, lauren Jackson, in an article called Americans Haven't Found a Satisfying Alternative to Religion, says this peer research shows that religious people report that they are happier and healthier.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now here's the double-click on the healthier piece.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: People who are actively engaged in their faith are less likely to be depressed or to die by suicide or alcoholism or cancer or cardiovascular disease.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Going further, in a long-term study, doctors at Harvard found that women who attend religious services once a week were 33% less likely to die prematurely than women who have never attended Last one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Religiously affiliated Americans are more likely to feel gratitude, spiritual peace and have a deep sense of connection with humanity than people without any religious affiliation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our world is seeing that to be without jesus is to be harassed and helpless.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why can't we see it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want to see and be moved with compassion, like Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What did Jesus see?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at the text again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In verse 36, it says when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: These two words, harassed and helpless, they're almost like word pictures.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To be harassed, you could say, is when life kind of has you by the throat.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To be helpless is like when life has you pinned down.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's looking out and he's seeing people that seem to be something's got them by the throat and they're pinned down and it moves him with compassion and Jesus sees them as they are.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is the heart of witness, not a missionary strategy, not some training or equipping.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's not where we start.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We do those things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Where we start is touching the heart of compassion that Jesus has for our neighbors who are harassed and helpless.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But what does Jesus think that they need?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do they need to kind of look inside and find their true selves and then they won't be so harassed and helpless?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: No, no, in fact, that lie, that ideology, is part of the reasons our neighbor is harassed and helpless.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What Jesus thinks they need is some good leaders.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says they're like sheep without a shepherd.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so what does he do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, my second point is the commission of the king.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 37.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then Jesus said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What I love about Jesus is he sees all of this and, rather than being overwhelmed or discouraged, he sees an opportunity and a problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The opportunity is the harvest is huge.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The problem is the laborers are few.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now you might look at this and go the harvest is plentiful.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus, really Like there's just people all around me and where I live, work and play, just waiting to hear about Jesus and they're ready to like, jump on it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Yes, that's exactly what Jesus is saying, and I experienced that anecdotally, and I've got new research to show that that's true too.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've been living on this research for like six months since I read this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is amazing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen to this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 66% of all US adults say that they have made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important in their life today.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 66% of US adults commitment to Jesus important in their life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, listen, this is the part that's really fun.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's a 12% increase since 2021.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Y'all, I don't know if you track with what that means.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is evidence of what you could call a spiritual awakening in our cultural moment.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We're living in an incredible time to be alive, what Jesus is calling opportunity, that the harvest is plentiful.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm saying, yeah, we have actually got research that this is happening.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I mean to double click on that number even more.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Among Gen Z men, commitment to Jesus jumped 15 percentage points between 2019 and 2025.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Millennial men were 19 percentage points.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why this is important there has been a decline in people committing themselves to Jesus for decades now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I mean, people were wondering if the church in the US was ever gonna recover from this.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And not only are we seeing that decline stop, we're seeing a reversal, and a reversal among the people who are least interested in Christianity in the last generation young men.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is good news.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Jesus' answer, being really clear, that the harvest is plentiful.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's happening in our midst and among us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to be ready, I want to get in on it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What an exciting opportunity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But there's a problem.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The problem is the laborers are few.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The workers are minimal.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is why we're doing a series on bearing witness, because this is a real significant issue, and now I'm going to talk about some of the reasons next week.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But one of the reasons why I think the workers are few is because we're so busy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I've said for years that I think one of the primary discipleship issues with the people of New City it's not necessarily how you spend your money or what you click on online or the ways in which you talk to your friends, it's busyness.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Corrie Ten Boom says if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is a real issue and it's one of the things that prevents us from being able to bear witness to people about Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We just have so much going on in our lives Me too and so Jesus tells us what's the answer Tighten the screws of guilt and shame Really like try harder, work better, no, no, no, it's simpler than that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pray, pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 38.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Therefore, that connects it right.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The huge harvest, the small workers, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm going to walk through this like word for word, because this verse is so important Pray earnestly, listen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If the divine source of mission is the heart of Christ beating with compassion for our world, then the human source of mission is the heart of Christ beating with compassion for our world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then the human source of mission is prayer meetings.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Like you just read the book of Acts, acts 1, acts 4, acts 13.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The church was born and sustained by prayer meetings.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why we pray every Wednesday for a couple hours.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why the church staff here tithes our time in prayer every week, because we really believe this, that the work of God has always been preceded in scripture and in history by extraordinary united kingdom-focused prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So let's give ourselves to it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so Jesus says pray earnestly, but who?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To whom?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To the Lord of the harvest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love that language.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: To talk about God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now there's a saying this little sidebar is only going to mean something to a few of you, but bear with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a saying that goes work like an Arminian, sleep like a Calvinist.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's another saying that says pray as if everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't like either of those things.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here's why If you believe that God is the Lord of the harvest, then he cares more than anybody about his work in people's lives.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So I would rather say work like a Calvinist, rest like a Calvinist.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You do the work, god carries the weight.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What a gift.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's so freeing when Jesus is saying that God is the Lord of the harvest and everything we do is just jumping in on the mission he's already up to in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God does not have a mission for his church in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God has a church for his mission in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He has a church for his mission in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's already doing the thing and he's saying you want in, it's your choice, you don't have to.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You can do the boring Christian existence of sitting on the sidelines.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You totally can do that and you'll be with Jesus for eternity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's all right.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You could do that.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But if you want adventure, man, does God have it on offer for you?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Join the Lord of the harvest and what he's up to in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's the invitation of this text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so he goes on.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He says we're asking the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now that word send out is the same word that shows up in verse 10, chapter 10, verse one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at there.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: 10, verse one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says and he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, ekbalo.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What's going on here?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Why does God have to cast out workers into the harvest, like he's giving us authority to cast out demons?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What is happening?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, I think God knows that in every Christian church there are people who know.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They know what's going on, they know the call in their life, they know the commission of the King.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But until the Holy Spirit lights a fire in their life to see their friends and family members and co-workers who don't know Jesus, to see them come to know Him and enjoy Him, we've got to pray God.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would you cast them out?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would you send them out into the harvest?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Would you motivate them, stir them up for an adventure?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I think that's why that word is used there, but don't gloss over this to send out laborers into his harvest, his harvest Again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God's the one who is already at work around us and we just get to join in the mission.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So the question is, lord, how are you at work around me today, like, what are you up to in the lives of the countless people I see over the course of a week?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: How are you already doing things in your harvest?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I love it's the language.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The call here is not to go sow.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The language here is we don't have enough people to reap.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The work's already been done.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We just got to go gather them in.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's essentially the metaphor Jesus is using.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 says I planted, apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The invitation is to be faithful, to bear witness to Jesus and abandon the outcomes to the Lord of the harvest to do what he does.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now Jesus tells us not only to pray, but then he tells us to go where our best prayers would lead us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The third and final point is the call of the King.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at chapter 10, verse 1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Chapter 10, verse 1 says and Jesus called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In verse 5, it says this these 12 Jesus sent out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus called, and then he formed and then he sent his disciples.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he does in this text and there's hints of the harvest that Jesus has in the names of these sent ones here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's look at this more closely.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at verse 2.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says the names of the 12 apostles are these it says first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, his brother.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus calls people to himself through families.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: If you know the story in John 1, andrew goes and finds Simon, peter, his brother, and says hey, dude, I think we found the Messiah.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: My sister is the one who faithfully bore witness to Jesus in my life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's why I'm standing here right now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Through families, jesus calls people to himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Some of you, it's your parents or grandparents, some of you just the recognition that your dining room table might be the most fruitful mission field in your life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But second, look at the next group.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here it says and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus calls us through coworkers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's a little bit of a stretch, bear with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In Mark 1, 19, it says that they were quote in their boat mending the nets.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: These are fishermen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They're just doing their thing on their daily job and Jesus comes along and calls them to himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We have, reasonably, simon, peter and Simon and Andrew and James and John.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were both, they were all fishermen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were kind of co-workers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: They were partners together.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: There's this way in which Jesus works through our workplaces to bear witness to Jesus, to himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The third one Philip and Bartholomew.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus calls us through friendships.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Through friendships, philip brings Bartholomew, who's also known as Nathaniel, to Jesus in John 1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is his beautiful but simple invitation Come and see.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come and see this guy.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're not going to believe it, but they were friends and he went and told his friend come and see Jesus, come and see what he looks like.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is how Jesus calls people to himself, there and then and here and now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so the principle here and we're going to do more work on this next week the principle is simply that the gospel spreads naturally through networks of relationships.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: One of the reasons why I'm so committed to the fact that my job as a pastor is to equip the saints to do the work of ministry.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's because there are people in your network of relationships that I will never meet, that I will never, even if I were to meet them, have an open ear to talk to them about what Jesus means in my life.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, until the, I just want to put clericalism to death.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The fact that I'm the one who gets to do the work of ministry and you all get to all get to give money and sit there and watch.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's not Jesus' method.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus' method is that the saints are spread throughout our city bearing witness to him in all of your networks of relationships, and that's how he calls people to himself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look with me at verse one again.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says and he called to him his 12 disciples and he gave them authority.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Verse 5, these 12 Jesus sent out.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We call form and send disciple makers.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's our mission here at New City and we like to think we get it from Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And the reason why is because witness is not enough.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, we need not just witness but disciple making.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what Jesus actually does here.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: In 935, jesus does the Jesus stuff.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And then in 10, one through seven, the disciples do the Jesus stuff.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I'm borrowing that phrase from John Wimber.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is what I mean.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at 935.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this Jesus is quote healing every disease and every affliction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at 10, one.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The disciples are to quote heal every disease and every affliction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at 10.1.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The disciples are to quote heal every disease and every affliction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look again at 9.35.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Jesus is quote proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at 10.7.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The disciples are to quote proclaim as you go, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Do you see how the disciples mimic the mission of Jesus?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What I think is happening here is Jesus is multiplying his life through others.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He's still doing that today, like this is the genius of Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He knew that even he himself was not enough for the whole harvest.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The only way that the harvest that this world-changing revolution that he started in the first century would actually play out, the only way is if he called and formed and then sent other people to continue doing the work that he started doing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is why, in John 17, jesus can say to the Father I completed the work that you accomplished me to do or gave me to accomplish.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Wait what?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He didn't go to the cross yet, jesus why?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Because he passed on this mission to his disciples, to the next generation and the next generation and the next generation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And here we are, about 2,000 years later, standing in that true apostolic succession from Jesus through his apostles, disciples to disciples, to disciples, till today, and we get to join in and he invites us to share in what is an incredible opportunity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's astonishing to me that Jesus staked the hopes of his world revolution on these 12 dudes and on you and me, continuing it to this day.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I want to close by looking at verse seven.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It says this and proclaim as you go I love that as you go, I love that as you go, just as you're doing your thing, everyday life, with gospel intentionality and proclaim as you go, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: What does that mean?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Well, last night I was coughing a lot while I was sleeping and I reached over to my nightstand and I found my water and I took it and I said behold, the water is at hand.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's not true, but you track with what I'm saying.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So for something to be at hand means it's near enough to grab, it's close, it's in proximity.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so for the kingdom to be at hand means it's reachable, it's accessible.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The kingdom of God is God's comprehensive and definitive vindication of creation from the power of evil.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what the kingdom is.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So in verse one it says and he called to his disciples, his 12 disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You see, jesus came to conquer the devil and to cure the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: That's what he came to do, and he's still doing it through us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let me tell you a quick story to close.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A few years ago my brother-in-law was at Barnes Noble here on Colonial and he was in the spirituality section and he ran into a guy there, long, dark hair.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Guy's name was Christian foreshadowing, and Christian was looking in the Eastern mysticism section.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now my brother-in-law already knew that I had done some study into Eastern mysticism so I could understand it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So he told Christian hey, man, you should meet my brother-in-law, ben.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So we made this connection.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Christian and I began meeting up every week at Dandelion Cafe, RIP, and we would sit down and we would read 1 John together and talk about Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he would talk to me about how, you know, jesus was really about aligning your chakras and this, that and the other.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And I was like, no, he wasn't.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Actually, this is what he was about.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Look at the text.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And we had this pleasant relationship back and forth.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But then a friend of mine, unbeknownst to him and unbeknownst to me, was praying one morning and since that, the Holy Spirit said to him go to this coffee shop and look for a man with long dark hair.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Listen, if that makes you nervous, he's not a Presbyterian.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So the Holy Spirit can do that with him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's cool, it's cool, it's all right, it's fair game.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Holy Ghost isn't bound in that situation.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Okay, he's not Presbyterian.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So, my friend Cameron, he goes to this coffee shop.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lo and behold, he sees a man with long dark hair and he goes up to him and says hey, I don't know if this is weird, but I was praying this morning and I think I'm supposed to talk to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was my friend, christian.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So Cameron goes up and meets this guy, christian, and starts talking to him, sharing Jesus with him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Cameron and I eventually make the connection.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It was insane when we made the connection.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now, meanwhile, christian does the same thing with Cameron.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's kind of this like new agey, I'll get a little Jesus, but I want a little Buddha too, type thing.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And until he goes to a ayahuasca ceremony which is when you take some psychedelics to have a spiritually transcendent experience goes to a ayahuasca ceremony and his eyes are open and he literally sees demons climbing all over the place and it terrifies him.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It terrifies him Now.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Was he having a bad trip?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or was he seeing reality for what it is?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I don't know.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But he literally leaves immediately, goes home, blazing his bed, shaking with terror, and he starts crying out to the name of Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And these are his words.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: A bright and warm light flooded my room and I was able to calm down and rest that night.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Christian goes to Cameron and tells Cameron the story and Cameron leads him in repentance and faith in King Jesus.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I wish it was me, it was Cameron.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It's all good, I'm not upset about it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Evangelism's a team sport.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Here we go.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: I tell you that story, because Jesus is still about this work.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is still what he's up to in the world conquering the devil and curing the world's ills and he wants to work with us and through us in that journey.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And so, listen, if you want a little adventure, a lot of adventure and a little danger, then I'm inviting you to hear the call of this compassionate king into his compelling commission.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Let's pray.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lord Jesus, we thank you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We thank you that you did not leave us to our own devices.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We thank you that you came from heaven to earth to be with us, to shape us, to change us, to catch us up into your work in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Lord Jesus, would you, by your spirit, now move, lead us, guide us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want to bear witness to you.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We want to faithfully join in the work that you're already up to in the world.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You are our king.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Share your compassion with us.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: We pray In your name, amen.