Trinity Baptist Church

The Book of Mark

Ordinary Men, Extraordinary Calling, Pt 1

Mark 6:6-12, 30-32

 

The next section of scripture we will deal with in our study begins with Mark is 6:7 and here we find another of those stories within a story.  The verses we are going to study begin and end with the sending of the Apostles of a short-term mission trip, but nestled in between is the murder of John the Baptist.  So we’ll look at the beginning and the end and leave the middle for later. 

 

Verses 6-12, 30-32

 

Now historically, this section marks a very significant transition in the Lord’s earthly ministry. And then  practically it is highly instructive to all who minister the gospel.

 

Let’s start with the historical side of it.  As I said, there is this very significant transition that takes place as the Lord sends out the Twelve on their first preaching mission.  For the very first time they are going out without Him.

 

The Lord delegates to chosen representatives, twelve of them, the responsibility of representing Him, of taking His preaching and His power to the villages and towns and to the people of Galilee.

 

Notice what we read in verse 6b

 

The main word there is “He”. He was the only preacher. He was the only healer. He was the only one teaching.

In fact, for well over half of the three years of His earthly ministry, He did it all. And at the time of this writing, He is headed to the cross. There are only a few months left in the Galilee ministry. There were three tours of Galilee. He is about to launch the third and final one in the winter of the next to the last year of His life on earth.

 

And up to this point, He has done it all.  All the preaching, all the teaching, all the healing, all the deliverance from demons, all the raising of the dead He has done. And if you got in on what His ministry was all about, you had to be where He was. And consequently, the crowds continued to grow larger and larger. 

 

But something happens between verses six and seven.  In six, it’s “He”.  In seven, He is sending the twelve out two by two.  The time has come for these men who have been in training to put what they’ve learned and observed into action. 

 

So in verse 7 that’s exactly what happens. 

 

He summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs. They went in pairs for obvious reasons.  There would be mutual support and protection and encouragement as they traveled together.  He did the same thing we do on Tuesday night visitation.  And He transitions the ministry from a single person responsibility to a team of followers who have been called, taught, trained and commissioned. 

 

Now I would say that was a rather risky move, wouldn’t you?  At least from a human perspective it was risky.  After all, they are just ordinary men.  A few months ago, they were common fishermen. 

History has been kind to them and we elevate them to being very special men.  After all, they are the 12 Apostles.  But they weren’t special to anybody back then.  They are just common day laborers. 

 

Among them there is not a single priest or rabbi.  There is no scribe or Pharisee.  There is no one of notoriety or fame.  These men are from the commonest of people.  Suffice it to say they are a very unlikely group to be entrusted to go out and do what Jesus had been doing for three years. 

 

But that is exactly how His ministry began. He calls these 12 men to follow Him and then sends them out to do the work of the ministry. So that is the historical transition of His ministry.  No longer will it be just Him out preaching and healing and casting out demons.  They have been empowered to go and do the same things. 

 

Now as they go, they become a great model to us of how to do the work of the Kingdom and what I want to do tonight and next week is show you some of the characteristics of their ministry that mark them and us as faithful messengers of Christ.  They are very simple and they come straight from the text. 

 

First of all, number one, faithful messengers of Christ

 

 

That’s almost too obvious to mention.  But unfortunately, the basic responsibility of kingdom work sometimes gets overlooked or ignored.  But we should never forget it is our responsibility as a faithful messenger of Christ to preach the gospel.

 

Notice what we read in verse 12

 

They went out to publicly proclaim that it was possible to have your sins forgiven and be a part of the Kingdom of God. 

 

Now if that sounds familiar, it should.  Look back at chapter 1:14-15

 

That had been learners; now they are practicing what they’ve learned.  And notice their message is exactly the same as that of Jesus.  Verse 12 says they were preaching the necessity of repentance.  What did we read in verse 15?  Jesus said, “Repent and believe the gospel.” 

 

That’s what Jesus preached. That’s what John preached. That’s what they preached. That’s what we preach. We preach that sinners must repent and believe the gospel. 

 

That’s what faithful messengers of Christ do.  They proclaim Salvation. 

 

The second thing I see in this text that identifies faithful messengers of Christ is they were to

 

 

Verse 7

 

Now at first glance, we don’t see compassion in that verse.  It seems to be more about power and authority.  The word for “authority,” can be translated authority, if you’re talking about the right to do it.

Or it can be translated power if you’re talking about the ability to do it. And here it means both.  They had both the right to declare unclean spirits to be gone and that had the ability to do it.

 

But look down to verse 13.

 

The had the power and ability of Jesus, but they also had the compassion of Christ.  Where do we find Christ?  He is out among the people putting God on display.  Our Lord is compassionate and sympathetic.  He is tender.  He is drawn to the drawn to the poor and sick and demon-possessed. 

 

And the Lord sent the Twelve to do the same thing that He had done in order to demonstrate that God is a God of love and mercy and compassion and kindness and tenderness and He feels your pain.

 

And anybody who says he is a servant of Christ and goes out to minister in the name of Christ and preaches as a messenger of Christ will be found first of proclaiming salvation and secondly showing compassion. 

 

That is si the example given to us by these very first preachers the Lord sent out.

 

The third characteristic is they had to learn to  

 

 

verses 8 and 9

 

 

 

Here are the road trip rules.  As you go to preach, remember to be compassionate and don’t put a price on your ministry.  Don’t be a burden to people.  Don’t go out looking for what’s in it for you.   Instead, just trust God. 

 

Why is that message so important?  Well, remember what we read in verses 7 and 13.  They are going out with the authority to cast out demons and heal the sick.  You know as well as I that sick and suffering people will pay anything if they think the person can help them.  People will pay out of desperation.

 

And the Twelve had to deal with this tremendous temptation to get rich off the power they had been given.  And Jesus warns them before they go.  That’s not how this is going to work.  It didn’t cost you anything to get what you have so just go and freely give. 

 

The lesson in that is they were just going to have to trust God and Jesus is telling them, “You’re going to have My power with you. You’re going to preach My message. But you’re going to have to learn to trust Me for everything as you go.”  They were about to learn that God will provide.

 

Everything that is mentioned here was just the basics that could be grabbed as you went out the door.  No advance preparation was necessary.  Just grab you sandals and tunic and your stick and go. 

 

By the way, the consistency of God is amazing. When God called Moses to lead His people out of captivity, what was Moses holding in his hand?  Just a stick.  But God used it to do amazing things! 

When the Israelites were told to leave Egypt, you find the same things mentioned there. They were leaving a pagan land and they were going to leave everything behind and just take what they had in their hand and on their back.

 

I find that very interesting.  Could this be a small sign of the beginning of a new era in redemptive history? Is this a new exodus from a pagan Israel? Is this the gathering of a new nation and these are the leaders of that new nation?  Would it not require the same kind of trust and dependence on God?

 

So when you go, he says, just take a staff.  That’s a walking stick you could use to defend yourself against an attack of a robber or an animal.  And then he goes on to say, “No bag, no food and no money”. 

 

Now think about that.  It’s not so easy to just follow Jesus and become a Christian, is it?  We make it so easy.  We never talk about the cost of being a disciple.  He says to them, “Take no money, take no extra clothing, take no food and take no bag to put anything in to assure you are cheating on the others.  You just go.”

 

This is high level training in trust. This is stripping away every normal thing that you would assume you would need to take a journey.  And our missionaries mumble under their breath about the restrictions the airline places on them! Try flying “Jesus”!

 

By the way, is this the way a Christian is supposed to live all the time? 

 

Turn to Luke 22 and notice verse 35.

 

He says, “Remember when you were in school?  I sent you out without anything.  No money, no clothes, no bag.  Just a stick and what you had on your back.  But you didn’t lack anything, did you?”

 

But what they learned was they could trust God.  By the way, if you got kids in college or that have just gotten married, the worst thing you can do for them is bail them out all the time.  Let them learn to trust God and that knowledge will serve them the rest of their life!  So is that how God wants us to live forever? 

 

Look at verse 36

 

We need to know that God will provide because there’s going to be times and there have been times in all our lives when we were in one degree of desperation or another wondering where in the world we were going to be able to get what we needed to make it. 

 

“But now” He says in verse 36.  “Now” is different from “then”.  “But now, make sure you’ve got some money and a bag packed with some clothes and make sure you’ve got a sword.”

 

It sounds like we’re going to be living in a dangerous world.  It’s not going to be easy out there. You may have to kill your food. You may have to defend yourself against an enemy. You’re going to need supplies.

 

This is the normal life.  School is over.  The training is done.  This is life.  Plan, prepare, and take advantage of what God has provided.   Pack it up and get out there and do what you’re going to do.

Listen:  They were there when Jesus said, “If the Heavenly Father had clothed the lily of the field, He’ll clothe you.  They heard Him say if He feeds the birds of the air, He’ll feed you.  They’d heard Him say not to worry about anything.  Just seek God and His righteousness and everything else is going to be added.”

 

They had learned their lesson on trust when the time came, they had all the food and lodging and protection they needed.  When they left, they didn’t have anything but a stick in their hand, but every need was met.  We had all the lodging we needed. We had everything we needed the whole trip. We had nothing in our hand but the stick when we left and we had all our needs met.

 

One of the greatest lessons we will ever learn is the lesson of dependence. Most of us will waste our life trying to serve God in our won power and strength. 

 

Well if you want to be a messenger that stands in the long line of faithful messengers descending down from the Apostles, then just go talk to people about Jesus, show them the compassion of Christ and depend on God. 

 

Those are the first three principles.  We’ll look at three more next week. 

 

Let’s pray.