TRAVELING LIGHT – Mark 6:6b-13
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on June 14, 2015 under 2015 |
Message preached Sunday, June 14, 2015 from Mark 6:6b-13
Theme: The specific commission that Jesus gave to the twelve teaches us principles we can apply in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
The story of this commission is found in Chapter 6. Jesus had just visited His own home town Nazareth. Sadly, the people of Nazareth rejected Him. And true to the principles that He established in His own teaching and practice, He left those who didn’t want Him and went elsewhere instead. Jesus did not stay where He was not welcomed—not even in His own home town.
But their rejection didn’t mean the end of His earthly work. He left Nazareth and went about the ministry of teaching and preaching in the other cities and towns of the Jewish people. After His rejection from Nazareth, we’re told,
Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching (v. 6b).
And apparently, it was after He had completed that tour of teaching that He gave His apostles this commission:
And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts— but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics. Also He said to them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place. And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” So they went out and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them (Mark 6:7-13).
What a great adventure it must have been that He sent them on! These twelve men were very fallible; but He must have had great confidence in His work in them—and in the power of the message that He gave them to declare—to have sent them out in this way with so little in the way of provisions. And if we were to read on to verse 30-32, we’d find that they accomplished the mission He had sent them on. Mark tells us that, after a time,
Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves (vv. 30-32).
The mission was accomplished! And then, they all went away with the Lord and had a time of rest and debriefing together.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; there have been a lot of groups in times past who have taken this commission as their own. They have gone out two-by-two, and have sought to do the things that it says. But I don’t believe we today should take this particular commission as our own. You see; this wasn’t a commission for everyone. It was a commission given at a specific time—that is, during our Lord’s earthly ministry; and to a specific group of people—that is, to the twelve apostles; and for a specific audience—that is, to the people of Israel who were living at the time of our Lord’s first coming. In fact, when we read about this same commission in the Gospel of Matthew, we find that Jesus had told His disciples,
“Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6).
So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; this commission isn’t for you and me. It was to the twelve apostles; and it concerned only the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Their King had come; and the twelve were sent forth to announce Him and to call the people of Israel to receive Him.
The people of Israel, however, didn’t receive their King when He came to them. The Bible tells us that “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). But we’re also told, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name . . .” (v. 12). And praise God!—the invitation that the Jewish people rejected has now been extended to the Gentiles! He hasn’t rejected His precious Jewish people; but rather, He has extended His grace beyond them to include the Gentiles also. As Paul wrote, the gospel of Jesus is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
And if I may—this all touches on a commission from the Lord, dear brothers and sisters, that you and I have been given! We should never think of ourselves as living without a commission. We are a people who are constantly under orders in this world—and we ought to always remember and be living for our authoritatively-appointed duty. That commission is found at the end of Matthew’s Gospel; and we often call it ‘the Great Commission’. It’s the one that Jesus gave to all of His followers after He was raised from the dead. He said;
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).
Now; one of the reasons I have been sharing all this with you is because I believe it’s important for us to keep from mixing up ‘commissions’. I believe it would be a terrible mistake to take a commission that Jesus gave to someone else, and try to fulfill it as if it were our own. We need to stick faithfully to the commission that He clearly gave to us, and not take up the commission that He gave to another.
But having said that, I also believe that there are some valuable lessons to be learned from the Lord’s commission to the twelve apostles that can help us in fulfilling the Great Commission that He has given us. And so, this morning, I ask that we go back through this passage and draw out some of those lessons.
* * * * * * * * * *
I believe that a first lesson we can learn from the apostles has do to with . . .
1. THEIR TRAINING.
I see this suggested to us in the latter half of verse 6. That’s where we’re told this about the Lord Jesus; “Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.”
What you need to know about this is that this isn’t the first time that He went about all the villages teaching. If you trace the story of the Gospels together, you find that this is Jesus’ third tour of teaching through the towns and villages of Galilee. The first one was what was told to us in the first chapter of Mark’s Gospel. His growing group of followers told Him that, after the miracles He had performed, everyone was looking for Him. But He told them,
“Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth” (Mark 1:38).
Apparently, some of His followers went with Him on that first teaching tour. But He had not yet officially called His twelve apostles. After He had called the apostles, He went on another tour. Luke 8:1 tells us;
Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the twelve went with Him” (Luke 8:1).
On that second tour, the twelve apostles were really getting some experience! They would have watched our Lord, and would have heard His message, and would have seen how He served the needs of people. And now, in this morning’s passage—after a third tour—we find that He is sending them out on their own to do some follow-up work. And by this point, they would have been trained well. They would have had a great deal of personal experience in walking with the Lord Jesus; and they would have been will familiar with His words and His ways.
And I suggest to you that that’s something you and I also need to be trained in as we go out to fulfill the Great Commission. We need to go out and tell the people of this world about Him as people who have spent time with Him, and have been well-taught by Him, and who truly know Him in a personal and relational way. We become powerful ‘Great Commission’ people when that happens. I love what we’re told about the apostles in the Book of Acts, and about why it was that their ministry of preaching about Jesus was so effective in spite of the opposition they received from the religious leaders who had crucified the Lord:
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).
The best training for going out into the world to declare the Lord Jesus is to spend much time sitting at His feet, being taught of Him. We need to do that. We can truly do nothing without Him!
* * * * * * * * * *
Next, we learn a lesson from . . .
2. THEIR CALLING.
In verse 7, Mark tells us; “And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two . . .” And let’s consider the details of that.
First, we notice that “He called” them to Himself. It’s easy to miss the significance of that. They didn’t just run out into the world and begin to tell everyone about Him on their own initiative. Rather, He called them to Himself and gave the task to them. He sent them; and that means that they went—not in their own authority—but under His authority. That’s very important to remember when it comes to our own commission. Do you remember how He began the Great Commission? “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore . . .!” So; we are called by Him and go in His authority. The world may say “No!”; but the Possessor of all authority says “Go!” And so, we go!
Second, notice that we’re told that He “began” to send them. That’s an interesting way to put it, isn’t it? Apparently, He didn’t send them all out at once. He sent them out in bits and pieces—with perhaps one group being sent this way, and another group being sent that way; and all under His authority and according to His will. In the original language of Mark’s Gospel, this is put in the ‘imperfect tense’; which suggests that it was a work in progress. And isn’t that they way we are to operate in our commission? Did you know what the real command of the Great Commission is? You might think that it’s to “Go”. But that’s not really the main command. The way it literally reads is “Going therefore, make disciples of all the nations . . .” ‘The making of disciples’ is the command; and the act of ‘going’ is assumed. We make disciples as we go to wherever He sends us in this world. It’s an ongoing work—even to the end of the age.
And finally, notice that He sent them out “two by two”. He didn’t send twelve disciples out into twelve different directions at once, all to do the work in an “each man for himself” kind of way. Rather, He sent out six teams of two. That would have been important to the Jewish people as they bore witness of Jesus; because the law of Moses taught that “by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15). And it would also have been important to the disciples; because each one would have always had a partner in ministry with them to encourage them and support them in the work. I believe that’s true for our work in the Great Commission too. The Great Commission was given as a group commission; and so, as Paul put it, we need to “stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). This is so that we “may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6).
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; let’s go on to look again at Jesus’ commission to the twelve; and take notice of . . .
3. THEIR ENABLING.
We’re told that as He called them to Himself and began to send them out two by two, He “gave them power over unclean spirits.” Just as our Lord stunned everyone by His authority when He cast demons out of people—and caused people who watched to marvel and say, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him” (Mark 1:27)—I believe that people would have watched the apostles ministering the message that Jesus gave them to deliver, and would have seen them cast out demons, and would have realized that the message they were proclaiming had the same authority as the message Jesus Himself proclaimed! They would realize that the apostles truly went forth in the authority of Jesus.
Now; I believe we need to be careful here. This would be an example of how this commission we’re studying today was particular to the twelve apostles. And in fact, as we read elsewhere in the Gospels, there were times—even after this commission—when they were unable to cast demons out. Remember the man who approached Jesus when He came down from the Mount of Transfiguration?—the man who complained that he brought his son to the apostles to cast an unclean spirit out of him, but they were unable to do it? I believe that the power given to them in this commission was a unique enablement that was meant to authenticate the message that those apostles were then being sent to declare. I would be hesitant to say that it’s something that we are to expect to be able to do in our own work of the Great Commission. It may be that it is so; but I’d be very hesitant to say that it is necessarily so.
But I do believe it does indicate to us that, when the Lord Jesus sends us out in our work of the Great Commission, He does not send us out in our own power. I love the promise that He makes at the end of the commission that He gave to us—“and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” I know that when He sends His people out into the world to tell others about Him, He Himself goes with them—in the enabling Person of the indwelling Holy Spirit—and empowers each of His faithful servants to do whatever it is that He calls them to do. He Himself authenticates the message that He gives us to declare.
That’s a reminder to be careful not to rely on our own power, but to trust in His enabling. He Himself said, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
* * * * * * * * * *
It’s very interesting to go on to read of what Jesus told the twelve about . . .
4. THEIR BEHAVING.
Mark tells us, “He commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bag, no bread, no copper in their money belts— but to wear sandals, and not to put on two tunics” (v. 8). I have to tell you—there are an awful lot of cults that like to take the other parts of this passage and use it to justify their work of going door-to-door to solicit things from people. But it seems to me that most of them leave this particular portion out!
When our Lord sent the twelve out on the commission that was specifically meant for them, He didn’t want them to look like the traveling ‘teachers’ of the day who were really out to take things from people. He wanted them to go out in such a way as to show themselves to be strictly dependent upon His provision—as people who expect God to provide for His own workers. On the one hand, He wanted them to operate on the principle that “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8); and on the other hand, He wanted them to trust that “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Timothy 5:18).
And again, I don’t believe that this is necessarily a command that is specifically to be applied in our Great Commission work. It may at times be so; but not necessarily so. But what I do believe it illustrates to us is that because we are constantly to be Great Commission people who are always on the job, we need to live with a loose hold on the goods of this world—ready to use them at His command, ready to give them when He tells us to do so; ready to drop them if He commands us to let them go. We are to trust God that if we ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”, then—as Jesus Himself said—“all these things shall be added” to us (Matthew 6:33).
* * * * * * * * * * *
As we go on, we see what the Lord told them about . . .
5. THEIR ANTICIPATING.
As they went out at the Lord’s call, they were to anticipate that some would welcome their message—and that some would not. He told them, “In whatever place you enter a house, stay there till you depart from that place.” When they found a household that was worthy, and they were welcomed in, the two traveling apostles were to stay there. They weren’t to start out with one family, and then go shopping around for a better deal later. They were to stay put when welcomed in.
But He also went on to tell them, “And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them.” Apparently, there would be times when the people of a city would not welcome them—just as our Lord Himself was sometimes not welcomed. And when that happened, they were not to stay and argue. They were to move on. But before they left, they were told to shake the dust off their feet as a testimony against that town. This was clearly intended to be a public act that bore testimony to the town that they had rejected the message of Jesus that was brought to them, and that they would not have Him, and that they now resign them to their fate. It would have been a terrible thing to have to do.
Did you know that the apostle Paul did this twice in his missionary journeys? Once, when he and Barnabas had visited the city of Antioch, they went first to the Jewish leaders with the gospel. When the Jewish leaders rejected them, they went instead to the Gentiles of the city. And when the Jewish leaders rallied the Gentiles against them, Paul and Barnabas “shook off the dust from their feet against them” and went to the next city (Acts 13:51). On another occasion, when Paul was ministering in the city of Corinth to the Jewish people in the synagogue there, “they opposed and blasphemed”; and he shook his garments and went to teach the Gentiles next door to the synagogue (Acts 18:6). Always, it seems, this was done only to Jewish opponents of the gospel as a sign to them; and only when they aggressively rejected the message of the gospel that was first brought to them. I would hesitate to say that it’s something that we are to do today in the Great Commission to people—both Jews and Gentiles—to whom we are sent.
But I do believe that it illustrates an important principle to us. Just like the apostles, we need to anticipate that some will welcome the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and some will not. Some will receive us and believe the message, and others will oppose us and seek to silence that message. We are not to be surprised by either response.
And I believe we’re not to think of any rejection as permanent. Some who reject the gospel will later receive it! One of the greatest opponents of all—Saul of Tarsus—later, by God’s grace, became Paul the Apostle! When we meet with strong opposition, let’s remember that we might be meeting up with someone who may, one day, become an evangelist!
* * * * * * * * * *
Notice also what we find about . . .
6. THEIR PROCLAIMING.
Mark tells us in verse 12, “So they went out and preached that people should repent.” And first, I ask that you notice that word “preached”. You cannot see this except in the original language; but the word that is used here for how they were to deliver this message—the word translated “preached”—is one that means “to cast something out”. It is, in fact, the same word that is used in the next verse; where we’re told that they “cast out” demons. It gives us a picture of a man carrying a bag of seeds; and just reaching in the bag, grabbing a handful, and “casting them out” into the field. That’s how they proclaimed the message that Jesus gave them. They didn’t try to get too specific about who they declared it to. They just simply “cast it out”; and by the grace of God, the seed often fell on good soil and took root.
And notice also what it was that they declared. It was a message that you don’t often hear today. It was the message “that people should repent”. To “repent” simply means “to change one’s mind” or “to change one’s attitude” or to “change one’s position” about something. Remember that the people to whom they were sent had already heard and seen much about Jesus. He had already gone on three speaking tours throughout the land; and everyone was already talking about Him. Bur many did not yet believe on Him. And the commission that the Lord Jesus gave to His apostles was to go out to these same towns and villages, and call people to ‘change their minds’ about Him.
Did you know that that was the very same message that John the Baptist preached? John came preaching a baptism of “repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4). Later on, Jesus took up the same message; and began to proclaim, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14). After Pentecost, when Peter preached his powerful message in Jerusalem, all the Jewish people who heard him asked what they should do; and he told them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). The apostle Paul told King Agrippa that his message to the Gentiles was, “that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance” (Acts 26:21).
People make a lot of fun of that message today. They mock the call to “repent”; and make it sound like a quaint old saying from a bygone era. But it’s not! It’s to be the first declaration of the message of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I believe that the fact that the apostles were sent to declare this message illustrates that it’s what we need to be calling people to do today in response to the gospel of Jesus Christ—and that we need to cast that message far and wide.
* * * * * * * * * *
And finally, note what we’re told about . . .
7. THEIR LABORING.
We’re told in verse 13, “And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.” And again, some parts of this may have been a part of what the apostles were enabled to do in order to authenticate the message that the Lord gave them to proclaim—something unique to their commission. Some parts of it illustrate what we are to do—since the Book of James urges people who are sick to call for the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil (James 5:14-15).
But I feel very certain that it is meant to illustrate to us that, as a key part of our work in the Great Commission—as a part of our call to proclaim the gospel and make disciples of every nation—we are also to make sure we actively serve people with the love of Jesus. I appreciated what one dear brother pointed out to me recently: the casting out of demons illustrates that we are to minister to people’s spiritual needs; and the anointing with oil for healing illustrates that we are also to minister to their physical needs. Wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed, works of love to people are to also be done. As Titus 3:14 says, we are to learn to “meet urgent needs”.
* * * * * * * * * *
So; this then was a commission that the Lord Jesus specifically to the apostles. I suggest that we be careful not to take it up as our own. After all, we already have one given specifically to us. But it does illustrate to us something of what ought to be happening in our work of fulfilling the Great Commission that Jesus gave to us.
May we learn from their commission something of what the Lord would have us do in ours!
