Team Tanzania - Jeff Radichel: Today’s Modified Sermon

Here is the modified sermon after the help this week from Robert.  I enjoyed being able to work with him on it and the opportunity to participate in today's service.

Sent in Weakness

Kutumwa Katika Udhaifu

Old Testament Reading: Judges 7:2-7

Epistle Reading: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Gospel Reading: Mark 16:9-20

Sermon Text: Mark 16:15

Section 0: The Mission Is Bigger Than Us

Section 1: Jesus Sends Forgiven Sinners

Section 2: Jesus Finished the Work

Section 3: God Alone Wins the Victory

Section 4: Come and See

Section 5: He Says Go

Section 0: The Mission Is Bigger Than Us

1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. It is a great blessing to worship with you this morning.

3. This week our team has traveled across Tanzania.

4. We have visited congregations, schools, and families.

5. One visit has stayed especially close to my heart.

6. We visited believers living in a very remote region.

7. Many have never had the opportunity to learn to read.

8. They have no electricity.

9. They walk an hour each way just to carry water home.

10. They have no resident pastor.

11. They have very few earthly resources.

12. Yet they gathered around Christ and His Word.

13. They sang with such joy that I could not help but smile.

14. I even shed a tear.

15. We witnessed six baptisms.

16. We also celebrated the Lord's Supper together.

17. Our circumstances are very different.

18. But their struggles reminded me of my congregation at home.

19. My congregation is also small.

20. We have about 25 people.

21. We do not own a church building.

22. For several years, we also worshiped without a pastor.

23. Congregations around the world often feel small and weak.

24. Yet they all have the same risen Savior.

25. They all have the same Gospel.

26. They have all been given the same mission.

27. But before Jesus gave that mission, something remarkable happened.

28. Let us return to Mark's Gospel.

29. Let us meet the first men Jesus sent into the world.

Section 1: Jesus Sends Forgiven Sinners

30. Just a few days before our Gospel reading, Peter made a bold promise.

31. He said, "Even if all fall away, I never will."

32. Only hours later, Peter denied Jesus three times.

33. The other disciples ran away in fear when Jesus was arrested.

34. Jesus was crucified.

35. He died.

36. He was buried.

37. On the third day, He rose from the dead.

38. Even after Jesus rose, the disciples still struggled to believe.

39. Mark tells us about their unbelief.

40. He tells us about their hardness of heart.

41. These men were not simply inexperienced.

42. They had failed Jesus.

43. They had doubted His Word.

44. They had abandoned Him.

45. Peter had denied Him.

46. If you were choosing people to spread the Gospel, would you choose these men?

47. I do not think I would have.

48. But Jesus did.

49. Jesus came to them in the middle of their failure.

50. He did not cast them away.

51. He did not condemn them.

52. He forgave them.

53. He restored them.

54. Then He said, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel."

55. Jesus did not wait until they became perfect.

56. Jesus sent forgiven sinners.

57. He still does the same with you and me.

58. We also fail Him.

59. We also doubt His promises.

60. We also trust our plans more than His Word.

61. We often think we must become stronger before the Lord can use us.

62. But everything depends on what Jesus has already done.

Section 2: Jesus Finished the Work

63. Jesus did not send the disciples because they had earned it.

64. He sent them because He had already finished the work.

65. Jesus did not send them to complete salvation.

66. He had already completed salvation.

67. He sent them to proclaim what He had accomplished.

68. The Gospel is not, "You are not good enough. Try harder."

69. The Gospel is, "Jesus has done it for you."

70. He lived the perfect life that we could not live.

71. He carried our sins to the cross.

72. He suffered the punishment that we deserved.

73. Before He died, Jesus said, "It is finished."

74. He did not say, "I completed 99 percent."

75. He did not say, "Now you must finish the rest."

76. The work of your salvation is finished.

77. You do not need to finish what Jesus has already finished.

78. Sometimes we keep trying to dig our own way to God.

79. Put down the shovel.

80. Christ has already come down to you.

81. He died for you.

82. He rose for you.

83. He forgives you completely.

84. Your salvation rests on Christ.

85. It does not rest on your performance.

86. Salvation is based on Christ's finished work.

87. It is not based on human perfection.

88. Christ finished the work.

89. We proclaim the work.

90. That is why forgiven sinners can go with confidence.

Section 3: God Alone Wins the Victory

91. Throughout Scripture, the Lord teaches us the same lesson.

92. His strength is seen most clearly in our weakness.

93. Consider Gideon in Judges chapter 7.

94. The Midianites were coming against Israel.

95. The Bible says they were as numerous as locusts.

96. Gideon began with 32,000 soldiers.

97. God said, "The people with you are too many."

98. God reduced the army from 32,000 men to only 300.

99. Why did God do this?

100. God said Israel might boast against Him.

101. Israel might say, "My own hand has saved me."

102. The greatest danger was not only the Midianite army.

103. The greatest danger was the sinful human heart.

104. The human heart wants to take the credit.

105. The human heart wants to boast in its own strength.

106. Our sinful hearts are the same.

107. We naturally want to believe that we contribute something.

108. We even want to contribute something to our salvation.

109. But God alone won the victory for Israel.

110. God alone receives the glory.

111. Paul learned the same lesson through his thorn in the flesh.

112. Paul asked the Lord three times to remove it.

113. But the Lord did not remove it.

114. The Lord said, "My grace is sufficient for you."

115. He also said, "My strength is made perfect in weakness."

116. Paul's weakness was real.

117. But God's answer was not, "Become stronger."

118. God's answer was, "My grace is sufficient for you."

119. Our standing before God does not depend on our strength.

120. It does not depend on overcoming every weakness.

121. It does not depend on our ability to overcome every thorn.

122. It depends entirely on Christ's finished work on the cross.

123. God does not wait until our weakness is gone.

124. He works in our weakness.

125. He works through His Word.

126. He receives all the glory.

127. And perhaps there is no better picture of this than a little child.

Section 4: Come and See

128. I would like one child to come up and help me.

129. What is your name?

130. Do you believe that Jesus loves you?

131. Can you tell everyone, "Jesus loves me"?

132. Thank you.

133. How did this child learn that Jesus loves her?

134. The Holy Spirit taught her through God's Word.

135. No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

136. This child may not know everything in the Bible.

137. But this child knows that Jesus loves her.

138. She knows that Jesus is her Savior.

139. That truth is enough to share with someone else.

140. Jesus often used little children to teach great truths about faith.

141. You do not need to know everything before the Lord can use you.

142. You simply tell others what Christ has done.

143. Philip once told Nathanael, "Come and see."

144. He invited Nathanael to meet Jesus.

145. We can give the same invitation.

146. We can say, "Come and see."

147. Come and hear what Jesus has done for you.

148. Let us all say it together.

149. "Come and see!"

150. Again.

151. "Come and see!"

152. One more time.

153. Loud enough for those outside these walls to hear.

154. "Come and see!"

155. That is what Jesus sends each of us to do.

Section 5: He Says Go

156. Jesus still says, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel."

157. The Lord will place people in your path today.

158. Some are in your home.

159. Some are in your neighborhood.

160. Some are where you work.

161. Some are where you go to school.

162. Some may live in a remote village.

163. You may be the person the Lord uses to say, "Come and see."

164. You do not know what the Lord will do through His Word.

165. You are not responsible for changing another person's heart.

166. You are not responsible for producing faith.

167. You are not responsible for making the seed grow.

168. You simply scatter the seed.

169. The Lord gives the growth.

170. We have seen that this week throughout Tanzania.

171. I have seen it throughout the world.

172. I see it in my congregation at home.

173. We see it here in your congregation.

174. We are one Church.

175. We have one Savior.

176. We have one Gospel.

177. The work of salvation is finished.

178. Christ has done everything necessary to save you.

179. Salvation is based on Christ's finished work.

180. It is not based on human perfection.

181. Christ finished the work.

182. We proclaim the work.

183. Now the risen Savior says, "Go."

184. Go as a forgiven sinner.

185. Go in His grace.

186. Go with His Word.

187. Go in His strength.

188. To Christ alone be all the glory.

189. Amen.