Good Things Come in Small Packages

Selections from Matthew 9 and 10

Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.” – Matthew 9:35-10:7, 10:39-42

Twelve people.  That’s all it took to change the world. 

Jesus picked twelve people to deliver his message of hope and love and today more than 2.5 billion people consider themselves Christians.[1]  Just twelve.  He sent them out to minister to those in need without money, a suitcase, a change of clothes, or reservations at a nearby hotel.  They didn’t have a support staff to help make arrangements for their arrival.  They didn’t have a marketing team or social media to promote who they were or what they planned on doing.  Literally, all they had were the clothes on their backs.  This morning, I have with me my Bible, my iPhone, my laptop, a watch, pen and paper.  And I just live down the street.  Can you imagine trusting God so much that you would carry nothing with you but your clothes?  Christ told them to trust in the Lord to provide for their needs because “the worker is worth his keep.” And so they did.  Just twelve people.  And it’s not like there were tons of Christians around that they could go and stay with.  These were the FIRST twelve so they were pretty much on their own.  Now, we have churches with anywhere from a handful of members to literally tens of thousands.  But these twelve people stepped out in faith and were willing to do God’s work and together they changed the course of history.

I wonder if those early disciples could see some of our churches today what they would think?

Could you imagine being Peter or John and walking into a mega-church or a giga-church like Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church or Adam Hamilton’s Church of the Resurrection where literally thousands of people are all gathering together and worshipping God?  I’ve been in places like that, and I have to tell you there is something incredibly powerful being in a room the size of a concert hall where everyone is singing, praying, and listening to the Word of God together.  It makes you feel connected to a much bigger movement in the world and can make you feel Christianity is powerful and growing.  But as many people in church circles are discovering, bigger isn’t always better.  Bigger isn’t always better.  Bigger doesn’t mean that you are more in touch with God.  Bigger doesn’t mean Christ will come into your life in a deeper way.  There is a reason why most of these mega-churches heavily rely on small group ministries.  There’s a reason why they want you to get involved in Sunday School, in mission work, in local charities.  It’s because God doesn’t appear to us in anonymity.  God is reaching out all the time to you, to me, and to all of us, but if all you do every week is walk into a mega-church, pick up a hymnal, sing a song, and leave, do you know Christ any better than you know Paul McCartney or Beyonce?  Christ walks with you every day and everywhere.  He wants to have a deeper relationship with you beyond a once-a-week, 20-minute sermon.  He wants you to know him and to experience His love for you firsthand. Big churches mean more people and more resources, but that doesn’t mean that small churches can’t do big things, too. 

Size alone is not a measure of worth to God. 

Size alone is not a measure of worth to God.  If God only cared about size or wealth or prestige or any of the other things the world generally measures “success” by, he never would have chosen Israel to be his chosen people.  Abraham and his children would have been just any family of Joe Schmoes wandering the desert.  Moses himself told the assembled peoples of Israel in Deuteronomy,“The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.  But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).  We see in the Bible, time and time again how true this statement is; God does not pick the mightiest or the smartest or the strongest of people to be his messengers.  Often, they are normal, flawed people like you and me.  Take for example the story of Samuel.  If you remember, God rejects Saul as King of Israel and tells Samuel to go looking for a new one.  During his search he goes to meet Jesse of Bethlehem and immediately, he thinks he’s found the new king in Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, but the Lord hears Samuel’s thoughts and says to him in 1 Samuel 16:7, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.  Man looks at outward appearances, but the Lord looks at the heart.”   So, in a scene reminiscent of Cinderella[2], Samuel asks to see each of Jesse’s other sons.  But as each one walks by, God says “Nope, not the one.”  And after all of Jesse’s oldest sons walk by and the Lord rejecting them all, Samuel asks “Are these all the sons you have?” and Jesse admits, “There is one more, but he’s out in the back tending the sheep.”  Tending the sheep!  Could there BE any clearer sign for Samuel?  It was like the glass slipper fit right on this youngest son’s foot.  And when the youngest son walks in, God tells Samuel, “That’s the one.”  And so began the reign of King David, slayer of Goliath and long considered the greatest king of the Israeli people.  David wasn’t the biggest or the oldest or the smartest nor was he free of sin, but God did say that David was a man after His own heart, and THAT’S what was important to God.  His heart, not his size.

In our earlier reading, we heard about Gideon, one of God’s heroes.

In fact, I would say one of God’s first superheroes.  If there were comic books back in those days, he certainly would have been up there with the Avengers and Batman.  They would have called him The Amazing Gideon or The Incredible Gideon or something like that.  Gideon is one of my favorite characters in the Bible because to me, Gideon is the everyman.  He has doubts.  His faith doesn’t come easy.  He feels unworthy.  And he’s afraid of failing.  When the angel appeared, Gideon even said, “But Lord, how can I save Israel?  My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”  But God tells Gideon, “I will be with you…”  So God puts Gideon in charge of saving Israel from the Midianites, who are not a small clan and an incredibly violent one.  By this time, the Israelites have had to hide out in caves in the mountains to try and avoid them.  To make it worse, the Midianites teamed up with the Amalekites and a bunch of other people.  The Bible says there were so many of them that they were “thick as locusts” and that “their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.”[3]  So Gideon calls up an army of 32,000 men hoping that’s enough to defeat these overwhelming odds, and God tells him, “That’s too many.”  Now if I were Gideon, I’d be thinking God was kidding.  But instead, Gideon tells them if they have fear they may leave, and 22,000 go away.  I wonder how many of us would have been in that 22,000.  And then the Lord says, “Still too many.”  And he tells Gideon to divide them up by how they drink at the river.  In the end, Gideon is left with 300 men.  That’s it.  300.  To take on the grains of sand on the seashore.  And you know what?  He wins.  Gideon, this guy who threshes wheat, who has doubts, and who is afraid of failing.  This guy who is the least of his family in the weakest clan of Manasseh.  Because it’s not size that matters to God, but your heart. 

Inspiration doesn’t just come only from the Bible, though. 

God gives us many real-life stories to learn from. too. When I was in seminary, there was a small-church of 86 members who started a program to feed every school-aged child during the summer for six-weeks. [4]  St. Andrews UMC saw a need in the community and wanted to fill it.  They petitioned for assistance from the county and were told that if they were willing to commit to the project, the county would, too.  They did. And within a short time, St. Andrews was sponsoring 7 different food locations around one of the poorest counties in the state.  Every child who needed a meal got one five days a week, for six weeks.  Soon, other churches from all different denominations and even the local community center all pitched in to help out.  And this little church of 86 people was able to pass out 6,000 meals to hungry children.  They weren’t a huge mega-church or a giant corporation with millions of dollars, but a small family of God reaching out to the community.  They didn’t have a lot of resources, but they had a heart for God and a desire to help their fellow human beings, and through their effort, they were able to bring the light of Christ to the lives of these children.  Our God is a God of miracles and He lives in the world today.  God can work wonders in you, too. If we keep God as the central focus of our lives and our church, He will help us grow and be effective stewards of His will in the world.  You don’t have to BE big to do big things you just have to have a BIG heart. Just remember, every big thing started out small.  Rick Warren’s church of 30,000 people started off with just him and his wife.  Gideon had only 300 men and they took on an army!  St. Andrews UMC had 86 members and passed out 6,000 meals in 6 weeks.  And just remember, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, called to him only 12 people who forever changed the world. 

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[1] https://goodfaithmedia.org/global-christian-population-projected-to-reach-3-3-billion-by-2050/#:~:text=The%202%2C604%2C381%2C000%20estimate%20for%20mid,than%20the%202022%20report’s%20estimates.

[2] http://www.asails.freeserve.co.uk/King%20Eliab.htm.  Rev. Andrew Sails used the Cinderella reference in a sermon on a completely different subject, but it was such a clever comparison, I wanted to use it.

[3] Judges 7:12

[4] Sybil Davidson, “Small-membership church leads effort to feed kids county-wide,” 8/18/2006.