A real mission and a training mission all rolled into one. We look to the reading of God’s word. If you would please join with me in prayer. Bless are you, O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you, Father, are all mercy and all goodness. You have elected us, you have called us, you justified us, you have sanctified and glorified us all through your son, who is the living word. And we ask them that it would please you today to take these blessings of your word to us that you would feed us by the spirit of your truth working in us. And this we ask to Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Beginning in verse 7. Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for the journey except to staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on to tunics. And he said to them, whenever When you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. If any place will not receive you, and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.
So they went out and complained that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Over the years, I’ve met many self-confident people. Sometimes it’s warranted. Amen. One gets the idea from reading the Gospels that Peter and James might fall into this self-confident category. No doubt, when Jesus cut the 12 loose, some of them were ready to go. I’m sure at the same time, several were likely nervous and doubtful of their ability. It was all so soon, all so fresh. Seems a little bit like driver’s Ed. At 14: 30, you get your permit and away you go. The rest of us look with amazement as you drive by, certain that we never looked that young when we started to drive. I can clearly remember at 15, I confidently put my car in the ditch in my very first winter storm. My mother let me go. Didn’t think it was a good idea, but it was a learning experience. So you’re aware, wide smooth tires look good in chrome rims, but they don’t travel well on snow.
My grandfather pulled me out of the ditch with his tractor, and in order that I would be better prepared, he marshaled all the vocabulary he learned as a Navy sailor, and he instructed me on the finer points of my air. I bought my first set of snow tires. When we look at the Gospels and we see Jesus sending out to 12, fairly early on in their ministry, we wonder about his wisdom. Given how little they seem to understand him or his mission, it seems premature. They have failed so many ways to really get what he’s about. It It’s a head scratcher. It doesn’t seem like they’ve had a lot yet to be able to send them. Most of us would look at Peter with this eagerness in his eyes and be like, Oh, wait, I’m not giving you the keys to the car. You are not ready to go. But here they are, apprentices sent out by Jesus, and they’re sent out with real power and real authority given by him. But that’s the key, isn’t it? Because Jesus is the sending his disciples out, they are fitted with exactly what each one needs as he goes.
Remember, the time of Jesus’s ministry was only about three years in length. His time was short, his training was fast. From the start, Jesus was preparing his disciples for future ministry, and he’s providing for them as they go. Well, this preparation for ministry we see taking place here, but first, we just to orient ourselves as we start. Disciples have been with Jesus. They’ve seen him quiet the storm as they crossed the Sea of Galilee. When they got to the other side, they witnessed this surreal encounter between Jesus and a demoniac that ended in a legion of demons and a herd of pigs going into the sea to their death. Following this, two amazing healings. The woman just touches Jesus’ garment and she’s healed. A young woman is raised from the dead by the words of Jesus. But Chapter 6 begins with Jesus going back to his hometown in Nazareth. Now Jesus is the one who’s amazed, but it’s over their hard hearts and their unbelief. Mark tells us that Jesus could do no mighty work there because of it. Then we read in verse 6, he went out among the villages teaching. By Mark’s count, this is the third tour of the region of Galilee.
It was never Jesus His intent to do it alone, though. His calling of the twelve was always for the purpose of his mission. Notice that Mark characterizes as Jesus’ mission, he said it’s verse 6, it’s his teaching. His words of truth are the main thing. And verse 7, he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two. Why in twos? Well, probably many reasons. Two people are an encouragement and they strengthen one another. There’s also the issue of safety. But it could very well be as well. The principle of the law given in Deuteronomy, a matter must be established by the witness of two or three. And they are going out to witness to Jesus. And on this training run, Jesus limited what they were to bring. He charged them, verse 8, to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belt, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. What was the purpose of this? To be sure it’s not a rule that Jesus set for the future. It is what he is doing to prepare his disciples at this time to depend on God.
He’s preparing them by exercising their faith. With just these mere essentials, they are to trust in the one who sent them, not in their own provisions. When you consider these items that you could bring, there should be maybe a little A little bulb of memory lighting up as well. These four items that are mentioned are the same as mentioned in Exodus 12. During the Passover meal, when they were getting ready to leave Egypt, the Lord instructed them, said, In this manner, you shall eat. With your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, you shall eat it in hast. A preparation for their departure from Egypt. Mark has highlighted several parallels with Jesus in the Exodus, crossing the storm at the sea, the drowning of the pigs into the water. Jesus would provide bread for the feeding of the 5,000. We are to see a new exodus and a new Moses has finally come. Jesus said to them, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. Hospitality was a very important issue in the ancient world. You didn’t have motels all over the place when you If you were a traveler, you were left to the mercy of the elements without hospitality.
Jesus is telling them, because of that, when someone aligns with the mission that you’re about, you are to honor them by staying there with them during the whole time. Don’t upgrade to a better place if given the opportunity. No upgrades, no upsells. You stay where you are because of the kindness of the people who are extending this to you until you move on. Also, Matthew who tells us that they were just to go to the villages in Israel. In this initial training, they start with what is near and what is familiar to them. Verse 11, If any place will not receive you, and they will not listen to you when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. Now, this is an incredible statement by Jesus. Well, why? It was well known that any Jewish person, if they traveled outside of the region of Israel, when they got back, they would shake the dust off their clothes of the Gentiles so they did not pollute the Holy Land when they came back in. It was a symbolic way of declaring their uncleanness or, as Jesus is doing here, a warning to them against their hard-heartedness.
But Jesus is efficiently calling this Jewish village essentially heathen for rejecting him. That’s an incredible statement. Everything is centered around the person and work of Jesus. Rejecting him, rejecting those he sent, is an indictment of the state of their soul. Jesus is also preparing his disciples for the rejection they are going to continue to receive after he leaves them. Because those who rejected Jesus will reject those who come in his name. Those who have accepted Jesus will accept those who came in his name. One of the great teaching moments that Jesus is preparing his disciples with is to show them that they are absolutely dependent on him wherever he sends them and with whatever resources is at their hand. Three years of his ministry was part of his disciples’ preparation for going in his name. This brief commissioning at the beginning, at the forefront was training them for the great commission, which was to come after his resurrection when he ascended to the Father. What they learned here is that Jesus would provide what was necessary for them. Now, that may not be the same as their expectations of what he should provide. That’s rarely what happens.
But it was Jesus’ provision that he He deemed necessary for the ministry he sent them to. He is the one who provided. Well, what did he provide for them? You might notice I skipped over the last half of verse 7, and there it says, And Jesus gave him authority over the unclean spirits. Matthew fills us out a little bit more. He said, Jesus called to him the twelve and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, to heal every disease and every affliction. What Jesus provided them with was his authority. That’s why he’s not concerned with the disciples like we would have been, because they’re not ready. He knows that. I appreciate one commentator, he put it this way. He said, Uncomprehending and ill-prepared disciples nevertheless typify believers in every age and place who are sent by the Lord of the Harvest. No matter how much exegesis Theology and counseling one has studied, one is never prepared for ministry. A genuine call to ministry always calls us to that which we feel inadequately prepared for. No one ever feels they’re ready enough. Jesus sends them because it’s not about anyone but the sender, not the sent.
And verse 12, So they went out and complained that people should repent. They claimed the same message they heard Jesus telling people, even though likely they really didn’t understand it fully because we’ve already seen that. This is their driver’s-head moment. They’re going out equipped with just enough that Jesus deemed necessary to tell people about him. The Kingdom of God was at hand in Jesus. The little that they understood the time was sufficient because it was never about the messengers. It was always about Jesus, the message. Then it goes on. It summarizes here, Mark does in verse 13, And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. Now, this contrasts with this a few verses earlier when Jesus with Nazareth said he could only heal a few people. He could only heal a few. Here in his name, the disciples are healing many. Besides James 5, this is the only reference to anointing with oil that we see in the New Testament. Now, some have thought this might speak of some medicinal use of olive oil, rubbing it into the wounds. Now, it could include that, to be sure, but it certainly speaks more than that.
A symbolic act is taking place. If you recall when Jesus first came into the synagogue in Luke 4, and he read from the role of Isaiah 61, there he read, The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberties to captives, recovering sight to the blind, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus was anointed for this task. This anointing that the disciples are bringing forward, who are they doing it in? They’re doing it in his name. They’re doing it in his authority. It’s a proclamation, the favorable year of the Lord has come. The oil of gladness is now upon them. The Kingdom of God has broken in. The good news is being complained. Its power is made manifest in writing a broken and fallen creation. Jesus provides his disciples with his authority to be the proclamation of God’s good news, which is himself. Notice that like on the storm at the sea, Jesus just speaks, and it is so. He doesn’t pray to God to give this authority. He gives it himself. It’s one more way that we see in Mark, Jesus taking the prerogative of God.
Jesus can grant his authority to others. Jesus continues to do things that only God can do. Well, one question that does arise from this is, what are we to make of all this demonic activity. A few biblical observations. First, the Old Testament is unlike any ancient and near-eastern writing that we have. It is decidedly monotheistic. What does that mean? It means it’s all about God. Other writings have this duality between God and the demons or the war of the God. There’s always this conflict taking place. There’s always this power struggle between them. But not in the Bible. Even in Genesis, the sun and the moon, what are they called? They’re called luminaries. In the other writings, they’re gods. Not here. They’re not gods. They’re created things. While other spiritual beings are mentioned in the Bible, they are decidedly not given any prominent place or authority. It’s all about God. Nothing happens outside of his control. We’re not even told who these evil forces are, how they came about. When Jesus ushers in the Kingdom of God, we are shown a power encounter that’s completely one-sided. Jesus comes in and they leave. There’s no real conflict here.
They all know who Jesus is, and they’re terrified of him. They’re actually the only ones that know. The disciples are ignorant about who Jesus is. They only have a vague awareness of who he is. The demons know, and they are terrified. The New Testament is also unlike any writing of the time. Enough information is given, but just enough. We’re not to have an unhealthy preoccupation with spiritual beings, nor are we to ignore them as if they don’t exist, as if they don’t matter. Some want to relegate this type of activity of Jesus, these exorcisms as healing, psychological delusions or sicknesses rather than being demonic. But the gospel writers keep a very clear line between diseases and demonic activity. Luke himself was a physician, very careful on how he speaks about these matters. And what we find is there’s no one like Jesus in human history. He’s an exorcist and healer par excellence. In the literature of the ancient world, the first century, there are almost no accounts of exorcism like anything we read in the Gospels. What’s also surprising is that Jesus is in the land of Israel as well as the disciples. One of these encounters that Mark has already told us about in chapter one is a demoniac in the synagogue.
That’s a little bit surprising, isn’t it? You’re in church. And there’s someone possessed of a demon. That’s not what we would expect. What we see consistently is that we need a a new exodus, a new and final one. But these things aren’t just problems out in the greater world or around the Gentiles. They’re a problem for all people, including God’s people, that we are locked in a state of sin in misery, and we need to be set free. We need someone with the power and authority to free us. And that’s exactly what happens. Besides human hard-heartedness and sin, there are malevolent beings at work We speak of the world, the flesh, and the devil, an unholy trinity of sinful destruction and distraction. Notice how Mark refers to these spirits as unclean spirits. There are no white magic or benevolence about them. That’s why the New Testament categorically condemns witchcraft. As Paul said, Idols may be nothing, but they’re connected to false worship and evil. We are to have nothing to do with. It should not surprise us that when the Son of God breaks in with the kingdom that those who have unlawfully set up court are being swept away because it’s not theirs.
It’s the Kingdom of God being established in God’s good creation. And Jesus has come to reestablish church. Now, it’s also true that there are far too many Christians that are not content to stop where scripture stops with this. We have given a certain amount of information and no Speculation doesn’t do us any good. We don’t go beyond what is written. We have enough. And what we see is the absolute power and authority of Jesus over all creation. Inanimate objects like a storm, a malevate beings like a demon, and healing the sick. Jesus, the Lord of glory, has come. What are we to make of this calling and ascending? First, to be called by Jesus means to be called to go to others. If Jesus has called you to himself, that means he’s called you to himself to go to others. That’s always been part of the plan. We have all been given a message, we’ve all been given a mission. Because the Christian life is a life lived in imitation of Jesus. It’s here that we should be greatly encouraged. The authority of Jesus has been given to his followers. Now, we might complain that the highly visible part, like the healings and exorcism, is not something that we regularly experience.
In church history, this has not been seen in this dramatic and extended way after the age of the Apostles. It just hasn’t. But even with all these mighty displays, people routinely rejected Jesus. So it isn’t the case that, Oh, my goodness, wouldn’t it have been so much better had we had these things? Jesus was rejected by his own people, accused of demonic activity himself. Because they would not attribute to him the power and the authority of God. The emphasis of Jesus and the disciples were upon his word. He came to proclaim, to preach a message of the kingdom, and his disciples did the same thing. Theirs was primarily a message of the word. They claimed Jesus. They claimed the kingdom. There’s something else then we see about Jesus’s authority that we are to imitate. That Jesus was never using his authority for his own selfish advantage. His authority was never selfishly done. We’ll look at this in a few weeks, but we will read from Mark 10. Jesus calls his disciples to him. He said, You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentile lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them, but it shall not be so among you.
Whoever be great among you must be your servant, whoever must be first among you, a slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served But to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. How important that is for us to understand because it is we who have been given the authority of Christ if we are his followers. And how easy it is to take that authority and use it for our own ends. History is full of this. Taking that authority given by God for our own selfish ends and sinfulness. But that is not the way of Jesus. We see that Jesus prepared his followers and he provided for them. The commissioning we see at the beginning of Mark was preparation for that break commission at the end. For Matthew 28: 17, they had gathered together in Galilee and Jesus was with them and said, When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. That’s an amazing thing to point out by Matthew. They still are doubting some of them. They’re not really sure what to do with this. Some worshiped, some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, all that I have taught you, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. What Jesus has provided his people is his presence. That’s why he’s not afraid to send what we would think of as ill-prepared, ill-timed mission forays from the disciples who can’t get it because his presence is with them. It’s never been about them. Most Some of them died in obscurity. We’re not really sure what happened to most of them. But the message didn’t. The message is the mission. The mission field that you have been given is the field that you’re currently placed in. It’s not a really hard thing to figure out. Now, God may call you somewhere else. Fantastic. But until he does, your mission field is the field you’re currently in. If you are a parent, the authority you have as a parent has been given by God for you to unselfishly pour your life into your children, to raise them in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.
How easy it is to abuse that authority. You in your workplace have been given an opportunity in the field to take the love of Christ, the love of others and neighbors, to pour out into those around you, to work heartily as unto the Lord in whatever capacity you’ve been given. That involves the field of your community, the field of politics, the field of your hobbies and activities that you are just joyfully engaged in because they’re fun. It’s a field of mission. Because wherever you go, goes to presence of Jesus. It’s not about you. You bring forth the authority and the power of Christ if you are his follower. And even as we think about that question that was asked of Jesus to justify bad behavior, well, who is my neighbor? Meaning, who can I exclude and who can I actually spend time with? We know Jesus’ answer is the Good Samaritan. I’ve had to summarize before and said, your neighbor is the person who’s in your direct line of sight now. Who is your mission field? The person in your direct line of sight now. That’s your neighbor. That’s the one who God has placed in your life currently for you to be an imitating witness of Christ to.
The good news, even as we have said from the Heidelberg Catechism, beautiful summary, you share in Christ’s anointing. You have been anointed to confess his name. You take that anointing, that authority with you as one who bears the name of Jesus. You will feel inadequate and unprepared because this isn’t easy for anyone when you’re stepping into places that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable and you’re like, I don’t know enough. I can’t think fast enough on my feet. I don’t know how all these things connect. Go where you’re sent. It’s not about you. It’s about the good news of Jesus presence with you to proclaim to people, he’s the one who opens blind eyes, he’s the one who opens deaf ears. We don’t. None of us have that ability in us. The disciples weren’t going around, look what I did. They’re like, look what Jesus did through us. The people recognize these disciples, who were they with? They were with Jesus. They knew that this authority wasn’t theirs. They were apostles, which simply means those who are sent. They were ambassadors of Christ. He put them on a particular mission field, near and familiar to them, preparing them for when he would send into the world.
Some of them stayed rather close. Others went rather far. And none of us are without a mission field. Where you are planted, who is in front of you right now Now, that who has Jesus given to you to bring his presence to, he has commissioned you, he has given you his authority, he has given you his power. That’s exciting. Take your fear, take your inadequacies, walk with them in the midst of where Christ has put you because they are not going to overcome his mission. It didn’t with the disciples, it’s not going to with you. Be a 15-year-old with your learners’ permit, and it’s sufficient in the kingdom. Brothers and sisters, that Jesus would receive the reward of his suffering in the lives of his people is a glorious thing that we can offer back to him in gratitude for what he has done in our lives. Pray with me. Father, we come before you and we just say thank you. Father, thank you that you have used us for this good proclamation of Jesus. Lord, we confess we are inadequate, we are unskilled. Father, this is so far beyond what we can do. And we pray that in the midst of the doing that Jesus would receive the glory, not us.
Father, that the message would become clear and evident through us. Father, we do pray and ask where we have ever used the authority that you’ve given us for our own selfish ends or to the harm of others, we ask, Lord, that you would not only forgive us, but, Father, that you would restore the damage that has been done, that the authority of Jesus would be seen in its purity, its clarity, its selfless wonder. We bless you, Father of all good, for sending to us your son, in whose name we now pray. Amen. Please stand all to Jesus, I surrender..
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.