“Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
– Luke 8:39
Oh, what a great picture. This man, who had just seen demons go out from him, who is overjoyed and filled with peace and he’s healed. And Jesus sends him away saying, “Return to your home. Declare how much God has done for you,” and he did it.
Luke 8:39 Teaches us to proclaim God’s good deeds towards Us
He went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. And here’s the picture I have when I read this verse, and here’s how I want to lead us to pray. The picture I have, as a pastor, is when we gather together as followers of Jesus in a local church on a Sunday for worship, we praise God for who He is, and thank God for what He’s done in our lives, and we hear His word and confess our sin and we receive His grace.
So the picture I have is then the church scattering, going away, and in our city, in metro Washington D.C., proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus has done for us. And I want to encourage you to just picture the same thing in your local church; A gathering together on a Sunday, and then you scatter, for what purpose? To spread, throughout your city, how much Jesus has done for you, for each of you, for all of you. And this is the church, this is what we do.
We gather together and then we scatter, proclaiming the Good News of who Jesus is and what He has done in each of our lives. We’ve been healed. We have been saved. We’ve been filled with His Spirit. We have been changed. We’ve been redeemed. We have been transformed. We’ve all got a story to tell of what Jesus has done in our lives.
So let’s scatter, and not just in our cities, let’s scatter to the ends of the earth. This is what the Spirit of Jesus is in us to do. “You’ll receive power. My Holy Spirit comes upon you,” Jesus says, “you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria to the ends of the earth, proclaiming throughout the whole world how much I have done for you.” So, is this what you are doing? Is this what your church is doing? Or is this what I’m doing? Is this what my church is doing?
Luke 8:39 Is a call to Scatter around the World to Proclaim His Goodness
Are we scattering every Sunday to spread the Good News of what Jesus has done for us? Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday and coming back together again, hopefully with more people who’ve now been changed, and transformed, and redeemed, and ransomed, and saved by Jesus and then scattering all over again.
God, we pray that this would be our Christianity; that You would save us, deliver us from a Christianity that consists of going to a worship gathering on Sunday, or maybe even not going, even just watching online, observing; regardless, being a spectator and then leaving and not telling anybody what Jesus has done for us till we get back together the next week. Having not proclaimed to anybody how much You have done for us. God, please don’t let us miss out on the scattering picture in Luke 8:39. Don’t let our Christianity be defined by silence during the week.
God, we pray for boldness to share the Gospel. We pray for compassion. Lord, we pray for success in sharing the Gospel. We pray for zeal. God, we pray for Luke 8:39-like zeal, just like this guy who is healed of demon possession. I could just picture him smiling everywhere he went, telling everybody who would listen how much You had done for him. God, we pray that that would be true of our lives. And, God, that it would be true of Your church around the world until all the ends of the earth have been reached with this Good News.
Praying for the Kalmyk People
We pray for the Kalmyk people of Russia, God; Originally Mongolian in origin, and living in poverty and the Caucasus Mountains. God, we pray for the scattering of Your people to reach the Kalmyk people of Russia. We pray, especially during these days, for the spread of Your grace, and Your love and Your mercy in Russia and in Ukraine. God, we want the Gospel spread throughout both of those countries, we pray for that. And we pray that You would send out laborers to go there.
We pray for Your blessing on our brothers and sisters in Christ in Russia, and our brothers and sisters in Christ in Ukraine, for the spread of the gospel, especially during these days that more and more people in Russia, Ukraine, and more and more people around us, where we live, would hear how much You, Jesus, have done for us. In Your name we pray, according to Luke 8:39. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
