Mark part 27…August 12th 2015
Chapter 6-1-13 part one.
God is a God that is not reckless, in any way. He is a God that takes His time.
He could have spoken the whole world into existence in one day or one minute…
But He chose to do it over a period of six days.
God is also One who continuously works on and trains His people.
I believe that God prepares us for what He has prepared for us.
God will not put us into a place that we are not prepared for.
Once He places us where He wants us He will continue to train and teach us.
But God never puts anyone in any place where they will fail due to lack of training.
I believe that as we look back over life some of the things we have done, some of the things we
have experienced and some of the things we have learned maybe through a job…
God used or uses as preparation for the place He has prepared for us.
We will see all of that tonight in these verses.
When you look at the end of verse 6 it says He went about the villages in a circuit teaching.
Notice the words He went about teaching.
It doesn’t say they went about but Jesus went about teaching.
Jesus was the only preacher other than the demoniac that was sent by Jesus after he was saved
and delivered.
Jesus was the only preacher, Jesus was the only teacher, Jesus was the only healer, Jesus cast out
demons, Jesus was the only One who answered questions.
For well over half of His three years of ministry Jesus did it all.
For anyone to experience His power they had to be where He was.
This was fine in the beginning but now the crowds are huge and very demanding.
And the larger the crowd the harder it was for Jesus to get to them.
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He was pressured for time and Jesus was just One man while on this earth.
He needed rest and time to unwind.
Jesus needed to end the singleness of His ministry.
To fix the problem of time and not being able to be but at one place at a time Jesus divided the
responsibility and delegated His power to the disciples / apostles.
By dividing the responsibility Jesus could multiply Himself 12 times.
The time had come for the disciples who had been with Jesus in training 24 hours 7 days a week
for over a year…
They had heard every message of Jesus day after day and week after week and they knew the
message.
They had been sitting under or being trained by the Master Preacher and Teacher.
So the time had come for them to take what they had learned and go out on their first mission
trip.
Jesus’ objective was for them to go out and then come back and see where they needed more
training.
Jesus had told them He would make them fishers of men and now it was time to go fishing.
Verse 7 says Jesus began to send them out 2x2…began means Jesus sent out some then waited
then sent out some more in stages.
Wherever the disciples are listed in the gospels or the book of Acts they always appear in
2s.
There are reasons for the pairs.
Mutual support, mutual protection, things were confirmed or witnessed then by the mouth of 2
witnesses.
He sent them in pairs so their gifts, talents and skills could be blended.
And He sent them for their protection.
Jesus had trained them so it was time to send them out.
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As I have already covered why 12 was significant…
The 12 represented judgment on Israel.
12 represented the 12 tribes of Israel so that means the 12 disciples were in effect the new leaders
of Israel.
The leaders of Israel had corrupted the faith of the O.T.
Their religion was legalistic, condemning, self-righteous and filled with hypocrisy.
So Jesus spiritually replaced them with 12 men who were not a part of it and were not even
Priest’s, rulers or educated in the things of God.
Jesus elevated them to the new spiritual leadership of Israel.
1st Cor. says that He chooses not many noble, not many mighty, Jesus at times chooses the lowly
and the no bodies so that all glory may belong to Him.
Jesus had pulled them out now He sends them out.
They had been learners or students…
Now they are messengers and preachers.
There comes a time in our walk with God that we have to apply what we have been taught.
The student must go out of the classroom and into the real world to express what they have
learned and then come back into the classroom to continue to be taught.
Notice the first thing Jesus did was He gave them power over unclean spirits.
It is important to understand why this is the first thing mentioned.
The reason is because power over unclean spirits is the greatest expression of power.
Demons are personal powers, massive powers and supernatural powers.
Demons unlike disease fight back.
Disease has no power to fight back because disease in itself is not a personal power and it can’t
stop the efforts of the healer.
Demon’s is where they would get the resistance.
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So in order to handle what would fight back and talk back Jesus gave them power to dominate
the demons they would encounter.
Jesus gave them supernatural power to authenticate the message.
Verse 8 Jesus commanded them to take nothing for the journey except a staff, no bag, no bread,
no copper in their money belts.
Verse 9…They were to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics.
A tunic is a shirt.
These were the rules they were to follow.
Everything Jesus said to them was no packing, no back packs.
Take nothing except a staff or a stick.
The staff was used to walk with, to defend against wild animals or robbers.
And the staff could be used to kill for food.
No back pack meant to take no food, taking no copper meant taking no money.
No extra clothes.
Why? What’s wrong with being clean and having a snack or at least a can of pork and
beans?
Jesus strips them of every normal thing a missionary would carry.
This is almost like a vow of poverty.
But remember this is a training event their first training.
You could call this missionary boot camp.
Jesus was basically saying they were to go symbolically bare before God.
Why?
They had heard Jesus say and teach that if He clothed the lily of the field He would clothe
them.
They had heard Him say if He feeds the birds of the air He would feed them…
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They had heard Jesus teach be anxious for nothing…
They had heard Jesus say and teach seek first His righteousness and everything else will be
added.
One of the greatest lessons they had to learn was to depend on God.
They had to learn that God would provide because there was going to be times in their life when
they would find their back against the wall.
Times when they would wonder how they were going to make it.
Times when they would wonder how they would get what they needed.
So Jesus sends them out with bare minimum.
Jesus wanted them to be adequately supplied but not to the point of ceasing to live by faith.
They had to learn to depend on God.
I believe there are times that God allows tough times to come.
Tough times in our health and in our finances.
Tough times in our business…
Tough times in the church when there is more going out than the offerings coming in.
Tough times where it seems all doors and all channels all stopped up.
In those times God is at work testing us to see if we will depend on Him.
God gave us a job but He doesn’t want us to depend on that job He wants us to depend on Him…
And the way He teaches us dependence is to strip us down to where all we have is Him.
But that is not the normal thing for God to do that is the testing thing for God to do.
Luke 22:35 we see Jesus speaking to them later or looking back over the first time they
went out and He says to them…
Remember when I sent you out that first time?
You had no money, no extra clothes and no food with you?
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Did you lack for anything?
And they answered and said…no not a thing.
They learned the lesson we all need to learn about depending on God.
Verse 10…Jesus also said to them, I whatever place you enter a house stay there till you depart
from that place.
This means God had a place for them to stay and be fed but they were not to pick and
choose.
They were to be servants and not pampered guests.
Don’t like the room tough stay in it.
Don’t like the food tough eat it any way.
This was boot camp not the Hawaiian Hilton.
But in verse 11 Jesus did tell them and…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 unto you it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the judgment than that city.
Verse 12…So they went out and preached that people should repent.
So they went out…they went out and did what Jesus told them to do.
Verse 13… And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and
healed them.
God’s commandments always include God’s enablements.
Favor always follows obedience.
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