Weekly Sermon Notes
March 8, 2026
The Power You Can't Keep
This past Sunday in our Meeting Jesus on the Road series, we explored one of the most surprising moments in Jesus' ministry: the sending of the disciples (Luke 9:1-6).
Jesus commissioned them with extraordinary authority — power over illness and evil — and then immediately told them to pack nothing. No food, no money, no extra clothing. Total dependence on the hospitality of strangers.
Drawing on a memorable scene from the film Dogma, the sermon explored why Jesus structured the mission this way. Like Dogma's Muse, whose gift only works when given away, the disciples discovered that kingdom power is not something to be possessed or wielded from a position of strength.
By sending them out with nothing, Jesus was also ensuring that the mission could never become self-sufficient or self-important — it would always depend on relationship, welcome, and mutual trust. Kingdom power only works when it flows through vulnerability — when the one serving is also willing to receive.
This is a pattern Jesus holds throughout his ministry, and one the church has struggled to follow. When Christians have claimed power over rather than power among, history has not gone well. But the road Jesus sent his disciples down was not a road of domination — it was a road of trust.
If we want to meet Jesus on the road, we need to travel the way he did: willing to meet people where they are, open to receiving as much as giving. The power of the kingdom was never meant to be possessed. It only works when we give it away.