Dear Christian friends:

In July 1966 Richard Speck murdered eight nurses in their apartment house - the worst crime in Chicago's history. Three days after the killings the police arrested Richard Speck. On his forearm they found a tattoo with these prophetic words: "BORN TO RAISE HELL."

All people are born to "raise hell," not just Richard Speck. 'We are, by nature (as we are born) sinful and unclean," the Bible teaches. Read the newspapers or watch the news on TV if you doubt that. But we Christians who have been born again by water and the Holy Spirit are born to conquer hell with Jesus. We are born to a good and holy purpose, not a bad and evil one, like the unbelievers. We are born into the Church with a good purpose. Our text tells us about that.


What is the purpose of the Christian Church? The purpose is twofold: 1. Preach the Gospel and 2. Heal the sick. We read in our text: "Jesus called the 12 disciples and sent them out by twos. Jesus gave them power over the evil spirits. So the disciples went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them." (verses 7,12,13)

We are Jesus' disciples today. Therefore we should preach the Gospel; tell men to stop their sinful ways, and be sorry for their sins; tell people to believe in Jesus who died upon the cross for all people's sins and then arose from death. Preach that Jesus will come to judge all nations on the Last Day, that He will separate the believers from the unbelievers as a shepherd divides the goats from the sheep. Preach that Jesus will take the believers with Him into eternal life, but the unbelievers He will send away into eternal punishment. (Matthew 25: 31-46 )

Preaching the Gospel is the first and chief purpose of Jesus' Church on earth and the second purpose is to heal the sick. Visit the sick and others in trouble or need. Pray for them, help them and minister unto their needs. We are now doing that through our Senior Citizen Housing Development Corporation. We have built and operate Pilgrim Towers. We hope to build Pilgrim Haven, a convalescent hospital for the deaf. This is one way our congregation is trying to obey the Lord's command. There are other ways we can serve the sick and needy as you know.

Well, you see we Christians have a good and exciting purpose for living. We should never feel bored or depressed, like many who have no good exciting purpose in life. Even when we Christians retire we can still work and help support preaching the Gospel by supporting our congregation here and by supporting our District and Synod missions and ministries. Even if you can't give much money for the support of church and missions you can pray for your pastor every day that God will help him to preach boldly and clearly. You can read about the missions in the Deaf Lutheran and the Lutheran Witness, and then you can pray for God to be with the missionaries and bless their work. Also you can do volunteer work here at Pilgrim. Also you can work to help raise the seed money that we need for Pilgrim Haven. Some of you volunteer and work at the Red Cross each week one day. That is fine. Maybe more can volunteer.

As members of Jesus' Church we have an exciting and precious purpose for living.

Sometimes church members do not take up this work as they should. They have various excuses: "It costs too much money. I'm too old, I'm too ignorant. It's too hard. People will laugh at me." If we use these excuses we show no faith or trust in Jesus and no love for Jesus. We need to remember that Jesus calls us and sends us to do this work.

In our text we read, "Jesus called the disciples and sent them out two and two, and He gave them power over evil spirits." (verse 7) As Jesus sent the first 12 disciples, so He sends His friends, you and me today. We have Jesus' power to go; we should not be afraid. Jesus the Lord over all, He sends us and His power goes with us. He gives us the power to forgive sins in His name. That is the greatest power on earth. That is the power of the keys of heaven. So we should not be shy or afraid to do our purpose.

Also we should not be afraid to do this work because Jesus tells us exactly how we should do it. Jesus' style is very good here in our text.

Jesus told the 12 disciples to trust in Him and not worry about money or food or clothes when they go out to preach and heal. (verses 8-9) Often churches and individual members fail to do mission and ministry work because they say, "We have no money for that. We can't do it." Well, Jesus says, "Stop worrying about the money! Go ahead and take up the work. I will make others support you. I will touch the hearts of certain persons and they will give you the support you need. Have faith and obey Me!" You saw that happen 25 years ago when you planned to build this church. You saw that happen when 16 years ago you built Pilgrim Towers. If we will have faith and go ahead as Jesus commands He will provide the money. That's His way, His style. Sometimes He delays a few months or years to test our faith but He never breaks His promise to us.

Jesus also told His disciples not to worry about the results of their preaching and ministry. (verses 10-11) Jesus told them that some people will welcome their preaching and believe, but others will not welcome them and will not believe. Often we don't want to preach because we are afraid people will not listen to us and will mock us. But we should not worry about that. Those people whom God has called and chosen for heaven, they will welcome our preaching and believe and thank us. But those whom God has not called or chosen, they will not welcome us and they cannot believe because the Holy Spirit did not give them faith. God planned this before He made the world. God chose some and not others. (Epistle Lesson for today) So don't worry about the results. Our purpose is to preach and minister to the needy. Let God worry about the results.

We Christians are not born to raise hell like Richard Speck. We have been born again for missions and ministry.

Amen.