Then He says: then heal the sick; and after you've fellowshipped and healed the sick - THEN announce that the kingdom of God is here. So Jesus' way of growing the church was this: Fellowship; then Demonstrate what the life's all about; and then Announce.
Later on He says: …and if you're welcome, fine; and if you're not welcome, don't sit around and argue with people. Don't sit around and give your 19 bullet points on why you're right and they're wrong. How many of you know that never works?
He says: simply shake the dust off your feet, and respectfully leave. Yeah, people ask me all the time, they say: oh, I've got his neighbour, and they're into something, some kind of denomination or something. What do you think about that?
I'm going: I don't have anything to think about that. Well what should I do to help them? What should I do to save them from that? I'm going: last time I checked, there's not a vacancy in the trinity for you!
Last time I checked, it's not your responsibility to save anybody - especially not with sound argumentation; it’s your responsibility to demonstrate what the life of Christ looks like, lived out - and leave the rest to God.
Actually to do it the other way is counter-productive; and we get ourselves a reputation for being belligerent people, who think that we're the only one who is in, and everybody else is out. Jesus is very hard on that.
Luke 13:23-30, Jesus goes into this village in Galilee, and these people in Galilee say: “Lord, are only a few going to be saved”? Jesus goes nuts on them - why? The reason is that, in that village in Galilee, it was filled with a group of people, who thought that they had the only way to salvation. Since they had the only way to salvation, they were the only ones in, and everybody else was out - so they're trying to get Jesus to agree with them. They're trying to get Jesus to agree that they're the ones, the only ones that are going to be in, and this is what Jesus says: Just the nature of your question tells me you're not.
He says: “at my marriage table, many will come from the north, the east, the south and the west, but you who actually think you're in will be shut out, because you think you're better than other people”.
Are we hitting home here? Is this just a story about a group of people in the first Century; or are we finding ourselves in these stories? Jesus' way for us, to be leaders in His biggest idea, is to: eat whatever's put in front of us; heal the sick; and then announce.
Fellowship - in other words, be friendly; then demonstrate what the life looks like; and then announce.
Fellowship, and then be respectful to your husband in front of them, and then announce what the peace in your marriage is all about.
Fellowship, and be loving to your wife in front of them, exhibiting peace in your home, and then announce: this is what the kingdom of God does for you.
Fellowship, and then watch emotional wholeness come to somebody's life, and then, then announce the kingdom of God is at hand.
In Luke 7:8 they ask Him a question: “are ou the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else”? In other words, they're trying to figure out if Jesus is the new Moses; because remember, the Jews were enslaved for 430 years, then Moses shows up. They get out of slavery for 430 years, and then they're put back into slavery - and so there's 430 years exactly from Babylon into Jesus, so it all fits together.
Everybody was looking for this new Moses. Are You the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Then there's a bit of dialogue there, then He says: at that time, Jesus cured many sick, demonised, and blind; and He said: go back and tell John what you have seen.
In other words, Jesus' way of spreading the word about Himself, was not sound argumentation, it wasn't: hey, here's all the prophecies from the Old Testament; and let Me show you how I fulfil every one of them. He never did that.
Jesus simply healed the sick, and cast devils out of people - and that is hard to argue with. He says: don't go back and tell them all the prophecies, and all the sound argumentation, and all this. Just simply go back and tell Him what you saw. Fellowship; then demonstration; and then announcement.