Men With A Mission - Mark 6:7-13
Men With A Mission - Mark 6:7-13
January 17, 2010 AM
By Pastor Lee Hemen
More than ever before God is calling men to minister in his name. Sadly, fewer men are responding to the call of God in their lives. Fewer men are man enough to sacrifice their time, talent, and treasure for the cause of Christ. The church has created a whole cadre of chaps that are weak-willed and willing to allow others to go in their stead. However, this has not always been the case. In fact, we discover that Jesus used men almost exclusively to do ministry while he walked this earth. Why would Jesus do that? Did he think that men could do a better job? Honestly, I do not believe so, but I do believe Jesus did have specific reasons why he empowered and sent out his men with a mission.
From fishermen to tax collectors and even common laborers Jesus makes his chosen men into the apostles his church would need to spread the good news. They become men with a mission. We find that Jesus did several things before sending out his apostles and each was important for them in order for them to understand their ministry and mission not only now, but also later when Jesus would no longer be with them. Let’s therefore discover what Jesus does and why it is important for us today as we look at men with a mission…
READ: Mark 6:7-13
We live in a day and age where instead of being encouraged to be loyal to a single place of work, people are actually encouraged to jump from job to job. The same holds true for relationships and even marriage. We live in an age where we think that anything that may tie us down is a form of personal restriction that should be avoided at all cost. This has infected people’s thinking about service in the church, ministry and mission work as well. Few men want to be constrained to a life of doing one task, yet we find…
I. Jesus calls out his disciples for a specific purpose! (V. 7)
1. God has a purpose for our lives! Jesus first called his men to him in order to give them specific instructions, secondly Jesus gave them authority over evil spirits, and finally, he sends them out. Back in Mark’s gospel, we learned that Jesus “appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” (Mark 3:14-15) These men Jesus chose were to be his “sent out ones,” his Apostles. They would become known as “the twelve.” In Matthew’s gospel, we discover their names were “Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 10:2-4) We can also realize that when Jesus calls, we are to respond immediately -- as his Apostles did. Point in fact Jesus would relate that no one who put anything between his calling and responding would ever be considered a disciple of his! Here we see him sending them out in twos. This was not only for legal purposes, because it took two witnesses to testify to the truth, but it was also for their own encouragement and spiritual strength. Where two or more were gathered, Jesus’ presence was with them -- as it always is with his church. (Matthew 18:20) But Jesus had a particular task for them to do. He sent them out with “authority over evil spirits.” The kingdom of God was at hand. The Jews believed that when the Messiah came, his followers would display his authority just as Jesus’ did. Their testimony would be both legal and carry impact with those they witnessed to because of whom they represented – Jesus. Jesus called out his disciples for a specific purpose: To testify to who he was – the Messiah -- and to display his authority.
EXAMPLE: God is calling men to his specific purposes today as well. Many are called but few are willing to follow. It should give us pause to consider what would occur if men were as willing to be sent of Christ today? We get too caught up in such silliness as “open and closed doors,” when in fact we find no such proposition within the pages of Scripture. We discover that when God calls, he usually calls with a specified purpose and with specific instructions. There is never guesswork involved by either those people who are called of God nor in the instruction, he gives them. Repeatedly we find that those who in fact question God are the ones who are out of the will of God. Remember God got peeved with both Moses and Gideon for continually questioning his calling of them. The men Jesus called he called for a specific purpose. What has God called you to do?
Just as single-mindedness has become a dirty concept in many lives today, we find that giving instructions and expecting them to be followed has gone out of vogue as well. Instead, people want to reinterpret for themselves the gospel message. They also want to reinterpret God’s instructions to suit their own desires. However, we find here in Mark’s gospel that…
II. Jesus gives them specific instructions for the task! (Vv. 8-11)
1. God’s instructions are made to be followed! The urgency of their mission required that they travel lightly. They were to take only an ordinary walking stick and to wear simple sandals. But they were not to take bread, a traveler’s bag (they were not beggars, as some would have you believe), money, or even an extra tunic like an inner garment used as a covering at night. To us this seems rather odd and kind of restricting, even kind of cultish. However, they were to depend on God to provide food and shelter through the hospitality of their fellow Jews. Jesus wanted them to remain focused. Interestingly, the wording in Matthew relates that they were not to take money to purchase extra sandals or staffs. (Matthew 10:9-10) Whenever the disciples entered a house as invited guests, they were to stay there making it their base of operations until they left the town. They were not to impose on the hospitality of many people or accept offers that are more attractive once they were settled. They should also expect rejection. If any place (a household, synagogue, or village) would not offer hospitality or listen to their message, they were to leave there and to shake the dust off their feet. Devout Jews did this when they left Gentile (non-Jewish) territory to show that they were dissociating themselves from it. This would tell their Jewish listeners they were acting just like pagans in rejecting the disciples’ message. And, here is the crux of the task given the disciples: They were to tell the message that Jesus was the Messiah, that the kingdom of God had arrived. This is not the message of eternal salvation because Jesus had not yet been crucified but rather one of preparation. They were to make their listeners ready for the Messiah by having them repent and asking for forgiveness of their sins. Both healing and hearing would come when they had prepared themselves to listen and respond. The Apostles’ specific instructions related that they were to rely totally on God and to go and proclaim the kingdom had come because of Jesus the Messiah!
EXAMPLE: What do you do when you receive instructions with the products you buy? Do you read them or throw them away? There is an old joke that asks, “When putting something together, what are the instructions good for? Answer: Starting a good fire!” When I used to work for a bicycle shop, we would get a huge amount of paperwork on how to put together different bicycles. We all laughed when one of the European models came in with this caution printed on the inside of the bicycle box: “Now that you have taken your bicycle out of its container, find the paperwork and read it. Yes, we know you do not like to read instruction manuals, but the first question we will ask you when you call us to gripe about missing a certain part or that your bike is not going together properly is this: Did you read the instruction manual first? Your warranty is void if you do not do so and we may hang up on you.” Instructions are important and Jesus gives his followers specific instructions for the task. God has done this for us as well. He instructed us to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
What do you suppose would have happened if Jesus’ disciples had gone to him and said, “We do not want to go and do what you have asked to do, instead we want to do it the way we see fit.” Perhaps he would have looked for other disciples or perhaps he would have given them a well-deserved lecture on what it means to be obedient. We see very quickly that…
III. Obedience to the task God calls us to produces results! (Vv. 12-13)
1. Obedience proves our walk with God! We read that because the Apostles “went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” In following Jesus’ instructions, the Apostles learn a couple of important things concerning Jesus and their relationship to him. They learn that Jesus’ power extended beyond his presence, that when Jesus gives you authority to do something, you have his authority completely! As do all Christians. Of course, Jesus’ authority here was only given for the specific task he had given the Apostles at that time. Later, Jesus would give all believers the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised to give all who believed in him the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and that “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:16-17, 20) He told his followers “’As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:21-23) Jesus’ Apostles also learned that the kingdom of God had indeed come! Sadly, one would still desire to mold Jesus into someone he wanted to control and saw Jesus as something else. He would betray Jesus at the first opportunity because he loved money more than the message. Far too many today have forgotten the importance of the message of the Gospel and its impact for the lost and spiritually ignorant of the world. They desire to mold Jesus into a message that is more palatable to a spiritually irreverent world. They bring Jesus down in order to lift themselves up. They have become modern-day Judases. In contrast, we discover that obedience to the task God calls us to produces results!
EXAMPLE: We later read that, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.” (Mark 6:30) We find the disciples had obediently followed Jesus instructions and they were blessed because they had done what he had asked them to do. This is exactly what every parent in the world desires from their children! Sadly, few Christians are being obedient to the instructions God has already given them. If they were, we would see the blessed results. Instead, we measure what we are supposed to do for the Lord by our standards of: 1) Is the task God has given me convenient for me to do? 2) Will I like doing it? Or, 3) Does it fit within my own personal parameters? Jesus told his disciples to go out the way he did in order to see if they would be obedient or not. They learned that ministry and sacrifice go hand-in-hand, but the results were well worth the effort. Obedience to the task God calls us to produces results.
Conclusion:
We learned today that Jesus calls out his disciples for a specific purpose; that Jesus gives them specific instructions for the task; and that obedience to the task God calls us to produces results.
---
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2009 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission...
January 17, 2010 AM
By Pastor Lee Hemen
More than ever before God is calling men to minister in his name. Sadly, fewer men are responding to the call of God in their lives. Fewer men are man enough to sacrifice their time, talent, and treasure for the cause of Christ. The church has created a whole cadre of chaps that are weak-willed and willing to allow others to go in their stead. However, this has not always been the case. In fact, we discover that Jesus used men almost exclusively to do ministry while he walked this earth. Why would Jesus do that? Did he think that men could do a better job? Honestly, I do not believe so, but I do believe Jesus did have specific reasons why he empowered and sent out his men with a mission.
From fishermen to tax collectors and even common laborers Jesus makes his chosen men into the apostles his church would need to spread the good news. They become men with a mission. We find that Jesus did several things before sending out his apostles and each was important for them in order for them to understand their ministry and mission not only now, but also later when Jesus would no longer be with them. Let’s therefore discover what Jesus does and why it is important for us today as we look at men with a mission…
READ: Mark 6:7-13
We live in a day and age where instead of being encouraged to be loyal to a single place of work, people are actually encouraged to jump from job to job. The same holds true for relationships and even marriage. We live in an age where we think that anything that may tie us down is a form of personal restriction that should be avoided at all cost. This has infected people’s thinking about service in the church, ministry and mission work as well. Few men want to be constrained to a life of doing one task, yet we find…
I. Jesus calls out his disciples for a specific purpose! (V. 7)
1. God has a purpose for our lives! Jesus first called his men to him in order to give them specific instructions, secondly Jesus gave them authority over evil spirits, and finally, he sends them out. Back in Mark’s gospel, we learned that Jesus “appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.” (Mark 3:14-15) These men Jesus chose were to be his “sent out ones,” his Apostles. They would become known as “the twelve.” In Matthew’s gospel, we discover their names were “Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 10:2-4) We can also realize that when Jesus calls, we are to respond immediately -- as his Apostles did. Point in fact Jesus would relate that no one who put anything between his calling and responding would ever be considered a disciple of his! Here we see him sending them out in twos. This was not only for legal purposes, because it took two witnesses to testify to the truth, but it was also for their own encouragement and spiritual strength. Where two or more were gathered, Jesus’ presence was with them -- as it always is with his church. (Matthew 18:20) But Jesus had a particular task for them to do. He sent them out with “authority over evil spirits.” The kingdom of God was at hand. The Jews believed that when the Messiah came, his followers would display his authority just as Jesus’ did. Their testimony would be both legal and carry impact with those they witnessed to because of whom they represented – Jesus. Jesus called out his disciples for a specific purpose: To testify to who he was – the Messiah -- and to display his authority.
EXAMPLE: God is calling men to his specific purposes today as well. Many are called but few are willing to follow. It should give us pause to consider what would occur if men were as willing to be sent of Christ today? We get too caught up in such silliness as “open and closed doors,” when in fact we find no such proposition within the pages of Scripture. We discover that when God calls, he usually calls with a specified purpose and with specific instructions. There is never guesswork involved by either those people who are called of God nor in the instruction, he gives them. Repeatedly we find that those who in fact question God are the ones who are out of the will of God. Remember God got peeved with both Moses and Gideon for continually questioning his calling of them. The men Jesus called he called for a specific purpose. What has God called you to do?
Just as single-mindedness has become a dirty concept in many lives today, we find that giving instructions and expecting them to be followed has gone out of vogue as well. Instead, people want to reinterpret for themselves the gospel message. They also want to reinterpret God’s instructions to suit their own desires. However, we find here in Mark’s gospel that…
II. Jesus gives them specific instructions for the task! (Vv. 8-11)
1. God’s instructions are made to be followed! The urgency of their mission required that they travel lightly. They were to take only an ordinary walking stick and to wear simple sandals. But they were not to take bread, a traveler’s bag (they were not beggars, as some would have you believe), money, or even an extra tunic like an inner garment used as a covering at night. To us this seems rather odd and kind of restricting, even kind of cultish. However, they were to depend on God to provide food and shelter through the hospitality of their fellow Jews. Jesus wanted them to remain focused. Interestingly, the wording in Matthew relates that they were not to take money to purchase extra sandals or staffs. (Matthew 10:9-10) Whenever the disciples entered a house as invited guests, they were to stay there making it their base of operations until they left the town. They were not to impose on the hospitality of many people or accept offers that are more attractive once they were settled. They should also expect rejection. If any place (a household, synagogue, or village) would not offer hospitality or listen to their message, they were to leave there and to shake the dust off their feet. Devout Jews did this when they left Gentile (non-Jewish) territory to show that they were dissociating themselves from it. This would tell their Jewish listeners they were acting just like pagans in rejecting the disciples’ message. And, here is the crux of the task given the disciples: They were to tell the message that Jesus was the Messiah, that the kingdom of God had arrived. This is not the message of eternal salvation because Jesus had not yet been crucified but rather one of preparation. They were to make their listeners ready for the Messiah by having them repent and asking for forgiveness of their sins. Both healing and hearing would come when they had prepared themselves to listen and respond. The Apostles’ specific instructions related that they were to rely totally on God and to go and proclaim the kingdom had come because of Jesus the Messiah!
EXAMPLE: What do you do when you receive instructions with the products you buy? Do you read them or throw them away? There is an old joke that asks, “When putting something together, what are the instructions good for? Answer: Starting a good fire!” When I used to work for a bicycle shop, we would get a huge amount of paperwork on how to put together different bicycles. We all laughed when one of the European models came in with this caution printed on the inside of the bicycle box: “Now that you have taken your bicycle out of its container, find the paperwork and read it. Yes, we know you do not like to read instruction manuals, but the first question we will ask you when you call us to gripe about missing a certain part or that your bike is not going together properly is this: Did you read the instruction manual first? Your warranty is void if you do not do so and we may hang up on you.” Instructions are important and Jesus gives his followers specific instructions for the task. God has done this for us as well. He instructed us to “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
What do you suppose would have happened if Jesus’ disciples had gone to him and said, “We do not want to go and do what you have asked to do, instead we want to do it the way we see fit.” Perhaps he would have looked for other disciples or perhaps he would have given them a well-deserved lecture on what it means to be obedient. We see very quickly that…
III. Obedience to the task God calls us to produces results! (Vv. 12-13)
1. Obedience proves our walk with God! We read that because the Apostles “went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” In following Jesus’ instructions, the Apostles learn a couple of important things concerning Jesus and their relationship to him. They learn that Jesus’ power extended beyond his presence, that when Jesus gives you authority to do something, you have his authority completely! As do all Christians. Of course, Jesus’ authority here was only given for the specific task he had given the Apostles at that time. Later, Jesus would give all believers the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised to give all who believed in him the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and that “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:16-17, 20) He told his followers “’As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:21-23) Jesus’ Apostles also learned that the kingdom of God had indeed come! Sadly, one would still desire to mold Jesus into someone he wanted to control and saw Jesus as something else. He would betray Jesus at the first opportunity because he loved money more than the message. Far too many today have forgotten the importance of the message of the Gospel and its impact for the lost and spiritually ignorant of the world. They desire to mold Jesus into a message that is more palatable to a spiritually irreverent world. They bring Jesus down in order to lift themselves up. They have become modern-day Judases. In contrast, we discover that obedience to the task God calls us to produces results!
EXAMPLE: We later read that, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.” (Mark 6:30) We find the disciples had obediently followed Jesus instructions and they were blessed because they had done what he had asked them to do. This is exactly what every parent in the world desires from their children! Sadly, few Christians are being obedient to the instructions God has already given them. If they were, we would see the blessed results. Instead, we measure what we are supposed to do for the Lord by our standards of: 1) Is the task God has given me convenient for me to do? 2) Will I like doing it? Or, 3) Does it fit within my own personal parameters? Jesus told his disciples to go out the way he did in order to see if they would be obedient or not. They learned that ministry and sacrifice go hand-in-hand, but the results were well worth the effort. Obedience to the task God calls us to produces results.
Conclusion:
We learned today that Jesus calls out his disciples for a specific purpose; that Jesus gives them specific instructions for the task; and that obedience to the task God calls us to produces results.
---
Pastor Lee Hemen has been the outspoken pastor of the same church for 25 years in Vancouver, WA. He writes regularly on spirituality and conservative causes and maintains several web blogs. This article is copyrighted © 2009 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission. You now have my permission...
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