Sunday 14th June – Sent – Guilt Free – Pastor Adrian Kitson

At the RAH while preparing for open heart surgery nearly 10 years back, the nursing staff assured me that I would be fine. She said that those heart surgeons really know what they are doing. Any surgeon has watched a thousand operations then done another thousand operations under supervision before they ever get to pick up the scalpel to lead the operation.

Same with Jesus in this text. He knows how to train people. He has a three-part strategy that makes his followers into sent ones:

Stage 1: Learn what it is/see me do it

Stage 2: You do it and tell me how it went

Stage 3: You go do it in my authority.

This moment of sending the Twelve is the switch from stage one to stage two. Stage three will come at Ascension and Pentecost.

Stage one is complete. These disciples have heard the nature and shape of what life is to be in this new creation kingdom that Jesus is establishing in that Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).

Then they witnessed Jesus doing what he said the Kingdom is – healing the sick, freeing the captives, opening the eyes of the blind and opening the ears of those who could not hear. The new kingdom creation had begun.

Now, stage two. Time to expand. These followers are now being sent on vicarage; like a student teacher or nurse or doctor or tradie they do on-the-job-training.

We hear who the group is. These motley crew of fisherman, tax-collectors for Rome alongside of revolutionary zealots against Rome are now, for the first time in Matthew’s telling, named ‘apostles’ or ‘Sent ones’.

Why is Jesus expanding? Why the training?

Motivation of Jesus for turning followers into sent ones? Compassion. Not numbers. Not power. Not building our own kingdom, Compassion.

This is because of the failure of the current shepherds of Israel.

Time to lift a finger. Time to go get the sheep. Time to go to harvest.

Jesus has prayed for this.

Now, the Lord of the harvest does his own prayer. We have the first workers in the new harvesting operation of the new creation….

Like any harvest or vintage, there is a plan.

What about Samaritans and all the Gentiles like us? That will come later.

There will come the time when Jesus’ followers will go to all the world, but for now, harvest is limited to one variety: canola first – God’s people.

This is not exclusiveness but simply timing. Go first to Israel so that every promise to them is properly fulfilled, and so that Israel can be given the opportunity to do what it was always means to do – be the means through which the Lord blessed the whole world.

What’s the message?

OK, Sounds easy enough. But what about the next bit?

That must have sounded pretty overwhelming. I suspect if I was there, I would find myself saying, ‘I can’t do that!’

We don’t have to. The message always does things to people – things we don’t control! Proclaiming the compassion and presence of God creates things, changes things, re-creates people.

So, Jesus is not asking them or us to find ‘the magic’ to do these things from within ourselves.

We do what we see Jesus doing in his authority. Phew! That means our task as ‘Sent ones’ is not to imitate Jesus but simply to join him.

We can expect Jesus’ presence and Word truth to actually transform things. Because of that, we are not merely engaged in a ‘mind thing’; a matter of thinking or intellectually agreeing on certain truths. We are engaged with people – in all their glory and in all their mess and need. We will carry this message to people’s disease, relationship brokenness, poverty, disability… everything.

We are not just here to ‘preach the gospel and save souls’ as if Christianity is just an idea or a think tank or an intellectual agreement on a set of truths. The truth actually ‘sets people free’. We are engaged in being his compassion and bearing his message in poverty, social segregation, sickness, health care, injustice – all human need.

What we do is not merely a ‘social gospel’ devoid of clear proclaiming of the crucified and risen Lord. Neither is it just some scheme to ‘get them to church on Sunday’ as if all the other things that they are struggling with are out of Jesus’ reach or interest.

And we do it for free.

Should my stipend be cut? Hopefully not. This direction is not so much about the money as the heart and effectiveness.

Sent Ones are not to roll into town like some self-sufficient corporate representatives seeking to expand their influence and market share. That shows a divided heart.

Neither will rolling up in a fancy red Ferrari with a suitcase full of designer clothes do the any favours in having Jesus’ gospel call taken seriously.

What will be taken more seriously is compassion, serving, listening and speaking and truly taking the time and making the considerable effort to be with, or live close to the people to whom Jesus sends them.

Maybe we are learning this way of mission in our time. We used to turn up, open a place or even build a building and invite them to our world. It worked a bit. We expected them to come to us on our terms, eat our food, sing our songs, dress like we dress, learn our language and be like us.

They have not been coming for two generations now.

Maybe now we are finally ready to adopt more of Jesus’ approach?

We are sent. We go to them. We eat what they eat. We learn to talk like them (like we did in The Centre and in PNG). We welcome their differences and tend to their needs with compassion and words of Jesus.

And apparently, we do so when we know we have not got any backup supplies in the bag, extra shoes for the tough journey ahead … We simply trust the presence of Jesus and his authority over us and those to whom he has sent us and cooperate with Jesus.

Pressure off. No guilt. Just listening and speaking and doing as we can.

The only skill ‘sent ones’ need is a sensitivity to the welcome or rejection of the kingdom they represent; the message they carry.

Harvest begins with greeting in Jesus’ peace (not blasting in antagonism or silent avoidance of any God talk).

Our peaceful greeting is either received in good faith or rejected. The trick is to sense either. Sometimes it is very clear. Sometimes it is not. Most of the time it takes time.

Jesus’ presence and word always depend on responsiveness. This is for two reasons:

1. The gospel does not bulldoze its way into people’s lives.
2. Us who carry it are not given the authority to ‘laud it over people’.

Sent people of God, we are sent and sent in Jesus’ authority.

We go to people. We listen. We wait for the moment to speak words of our own faith in Jesus, and his goodness and truth as enabled and see what Jesus does.

Sometimes we sense a welcome. If so, then we are listening to a person of peace. If that is the case, we stick. We stay. We continue to conversation and relationship.

Sometimes the message we carry is rejected. If so, we move on….

I heard one of the bike riders in the Finke Desert Race in The Centre on the weekend who had a good chance of winning have major mechanical trouble that put him out of the race. After pushing his bike through the sand for kilometres in the warm sun, and obviously being deeply disappointed, he was interviewed. He said;

“If you are not able to get over the disappointment in less than ten minutes, you are in the wrong sport”. We will move on.

Same for us. We don’t have control over the welcome or rejection of our listening and loving in Jesus’ name. We only ever operate under Jesus’ authority. We are only ever cooperating with him as he keeps doing his saving lost sheep, one sheep at a time, harvesting one paddock at a time.

And if the message is welcomed, and if a new life is born and if another lost sheep is back in the pen with green pastures and quiet waters in victory over darkness, depression, loneliness, poverty, injustice or the pain of broken heart, that is the reward enough for us.

Go – without guilt!

Sent – without fear!

Personal Reflection Bible Study

Read Matthew 9:35–10:8, 12–15 again slowly. As you reflect, notice Jesus’ compassion, his authority, and the way he sends ordinary people to join him in his kingdom work.

Summary of Sermon: “Sent – Guilt Free”

This sermon reflects on Matthew 9:35–10:8, 12–15, where Jesus sees the crowds with compassion because they are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. His response is not frustration or pressure, but compassion — and from that compassion he sends the Twelve.

The sermon presents Jesus’ way of forming disciples as a three-stage process: first, they watch and learn from him; then they practise under his direction; finally, they are sent in his authority. In this passage, the disciples move into that second stage. They are no longer only followers watching Jesus minister; they become apostles — “sent ones.”

Jesus sends them first to the lost sheep of Israel, not because others are excluded, but because God’s promises to Israel are being fulfilled first. Their message is simple: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Their actions — healing, freeing, serving, and restoring — are signs of that kingdom.

The sermon emphasises that disciples are not sent to imitate Jesus in their own strength, but to join Jesus in his ongoing work. The authority belongs to him. This removes guilt, fear, and pressure. The task is to go, listen, serve, speak when the moment comes, and trust Jesus to do what only he can do.

Mission is not about building influence, forcing belief, or getting people to come to us on our terms. It is about going to people with compassion, peace, humility, and presence. We offer what we have freely received. When peace is welcomed, we stay and continue relationship. When it is rejected, we move on without bitterness or control.

The sermon concludes with encouragement: we are sent in Jesus’ authority, but without guilt and without fear. We simply cooperate with him as he seeks and restores the lost, one person at a time.

Key line:
We are not sent to imitate Jesus in our own strength, but to join him in his authority — guilt free and fear free.

Reflect

1. Where do you see people around you who seem “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd”? What might Jesus’ compassion look like for them?
2. When you hear Jesus say, “Th harvest is plentiful but the workers are few,” what do you feel first: guilt, fear, pressure, hope, or something else?
3. What difference does it make that Jesus gives his authority before he sends his disciples?
4. Where might Jesus be inviting you simply to join him, rather than trying to imitate him in your own strength?
5. Who might be a “person of peace” in your life — someone open to conversation, welcome, prayer, or deeper relationship?
6. Where do you need freedom from guilt or fear as one of Jesus’ sent ones?

Respond

• Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send workers — and be open to being part of that prayer’s answer.
• Choose one person this week to greet with Jesus’ peace through listening, kindness, or a simple word of encouragement.
• Look for one practical way to “freely give” what you have freely received.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you that you see the crowds with compassion, and that you see me with compassion too. Free me from guilt and fear. Help me trust your authority, receive your peace, and join you where you are already at work. Send me gently, wisely, and courageously, so that I may freely give what I have freely received. Amen.

LATEST BULLETIN

LIVE STREAMS

PASTOR’S SERMONS

WORSHIP TIMES