Called and Sent! Mark 6:6b-13

Called and Sent!

Mark 6:6b-13

Introduction: Mark introduced his story of Jesus with the phrase, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” He, like the other gospel writers, wants us to understand correctly who Jesus is and why He came. He wants us to understand what it means to follow Him. So, we see the various characters in the story struggle with their own answers to those questions, and we are invited to follow along, to examine our own heart, to ponder the question “Who is this?” And then, to consider the implications of His person and work, and the implications of His call on our lives.

       He had already called the twelve, with the intention of sending them out (3:14). Now the time had come to put their training into practice, and to seek to multiply the outreach of the gospel. This first “short term mission” experience would prefigure the sending out of the church after the cross / resurrection / Pentecost. Remember Mark, like the other gospel writers, is writing from a post-resurrection perspective, telling us what happen “then and there,” and inviting us to consider the implications for his readers, including us, “here and now.” Mark says, “He called the twelve and began to send them out…” That brings us to…

The Maine* Idea: God has called us to Himself and He is sending us with His message as His ambassadors to a desperately needy world.

I. Jesus came to serve: He modeled faithful ministry and continued preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to those who would hear (6:6b).  

“And he went about among the villages teaching…”

       Even in this context, where we’ll see Jesus sending out the twelve as His authorized representatives, Jesus himself is their example. Remember the previous context, Jesus had presented himself for a second time in the synagogue of His hometown, Nazareth. And for a second time, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not…” The first part of verse six tells us “…He marveled at their unbelief…” That should remind us that the way is narrow that leads to life, and few there are that find it. It illustrates the truth that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, and He cannot understand them since they are spiritually discerned. How does Jesus react? Does He abandon the mission? Does He begin to question His calling? No, rather, He continues on, preaching the Gospel and calling the people to repentance and faith.

       Have you ever faced rejection as you went to your own people, those closest to you—friends, relatives, neighbors—and sought to point them to Jesus? I have! And I am pretty sure that if you have ever shared your faith you have as well. Jesus was still teaching His disciples, by His example, and preparing them for the mission that still was before them.  In the upper-room He is preparing the disciples to continue the mission without His physical presence. He tells them not to be surprised if the world hates them—the world hated Him first!  In fact, in the next context, we’ll see the depth of the hatred and rejection of the world in the martyrdom of John the Baptist. Only after Mark gives the report of John’s death, does he tell us that the disciples return and “…told him all that they had done and taught.” (Mark 6:30). Later in chapter 8 we’ll see what I think is a key verse for Mark in 8:34-35, calling would-be disciples to count the cost… 

³⁴ And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  ³⁵ For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

That is a sure-fire recruitment line! No sugar coating the truth for Jesus, His “would-be disciples” needed to know that following Him would mean entering into a battle, and they needed to count the cost. Mark has been inviting us to consider: What does it mean to follow Him? God has called us to Himself and He is sending us with His message as His ambassadors to a desperately needy world.

II. We are called to serve in His name: Jesus called the twelve and sent them out with spiritual authority (7). Remember Pastor Gregg’s message, “There is no plan B!” God has a remnant that will believe on this peninsula, and His plan includes us to be His witnesses exactly where we are! We are called to reach out to those around us with the “good news” of salvation by grace, through faith in Jesus!

 ⁷ And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 

       First, we see the model of TEAM Ministry, Jesus does not send each disciple out to do his own thing. Rather, He sends them “two by two.” None of them were sent out as “lone ranger” missionaries. There were probably several reasons for this. The principle spoken by Solomon in Ecclesiastes certainly applies, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil…” (Eccl 4:9).  Why are two better? 1) They would have been safer traveling together. 2) There may have been complementary personalities and giftedness among them. That is certainly true in the church. 3) They could hold each other accountable, and be a second witness testifying to the truthfulness of what was being taught (remember the principle of “two or three witnesses”). So, He sent them out two by two.

       Mark’s language here is interesting, “…He began to send them out…” Each pair was specifically chosen and personally directed to the ministry the Lord had for them.  He put a team together and sent them in one direction, and chose another team and sent them somewhere else. In His sovereignty, and through His providential guidance, the Lord had “divine appointments” for these men to keep. They were all a part of the mission, but each pair had their particular direction and calling.  As I considered that I realize this isn’t yet the church, the church would be born after the cross and resurrection on the day of Pentecost, but this does prefigure the church and our mission in the world. God has chosen each of us who know Him to have a part in his mission. He has placed us in the family in which we are, with the co-workers and neighbors that are around us, the people that we live life with. Remember the statistic: 95% of those who believe come to faith primarily through the witness of someone who is already in their life. On average, each of us has somewhere between 8 and 15 people that we regularly interact with. They know us and they are watching us (like it or not!). Hopefully by our life we are earning a hearing, we have their respect. And we are called to point them to Jesus.

       Even the verb “…to send…” which is used here is instructive. It is the verb apostello, the same root from which we get the word “apostle.” These men were sent and commissioned as the authorized representatives of Jesus. They were to be His ambassadors to the people to whom they were sent. Later Jesus will say to them, “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you…” They weren’t seeking to make disciples for themselves, but rather their mission was to point people to Jesus.

       Notice also that “…He gave them authority over unclean spirits…” This is the initial fulfillment of His expressed purpose in calling them back in Mark 3:14-15, 

¹⁴ And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach  ¹⁵and have authority to cast out demons. 

This was that! And notice His plan from the beginning was that they would be Empowered for Ministry. They had no authority or power of their own to cast out demons, he gave them authority and sent them out in His name. If some of that sounds familiar we see some of the same language used, after the cross and resurrection, in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20,

¹⁸ And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

In case you missed it, that is the Maine* Idea: God has called us to Himself and He is sending us with His message as His ambassadors to a desperately needy world.

III. Outwardly Focused: Ready to go when He calls, where directed, and ready to be re-directed when necessary (8-10). I thought of Paul’s admonition to Timothy, “Be ready in season and out of season…” Or, as my Bible College teacher used to say, “Be ready to preach, pray, or die on a moment’s notice!”

⁸ He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff- no bread, no bag, no money in their belts-  ⁹ but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.  ¹⁰ And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there…”

       The instructions here might sound strange. Why limit what the disciples were to bring on this first “short-term mission”? It seems the idea was to call them to believe, to trust in God’s providence, and to urge them to be unencumbered, ready to move, to travel light. It is reminiscent of the instructions given the Israelites for eating the Passover on the eve of the Exodus…

In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover… (Exodus 12:11).

Sadly for the Israelites, it wouldn’t take them long before they started lamenting life in the wilderness, and longing for the “good old days” in Egypt. When God said “Go!” they needed to be ready to move quickly, and they needed to trust Him to be with them. John admonished the readers of his first letter,

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  ¹⁶ For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions- is not from the Father but is from the world.  ¹⁷ And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever… (I John 2:15-17).

This may be one of the biggest challenges we face, particularly as 21^st century Christians in the United States. We are too addicted to our comforts and our security. We love the blessings of life in this world and that makes it harder for us to take a risk and reach out with the message of the Cross, the cost seems too high.  That is not unique to our context however. Later in Mark’s Gospel, we’ll read the story of Jesus encountering a rich, young, ruler. As He is pointing the man to the way of life Mark writes,

“…And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’  ²² Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions…” (Mark 10:21-22).

We need to realize that you can’t take it with you! Life is short. But we were created for eternity! God has a plan, and He has called us to Himself and He is sending us with His message as His ambassadors to a desperately needy world.

IV. Unfazed by opposition: Don’t be surprised by animosity or opposition (11).

¹¹ And 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." 

        The language of “shaking the dust off your feet” was well known in the Ancient Near East in general. The Jews then would customarily “shake the dust off their feet” when they left a pagan land so as not to contaminate the Holy Land on their return. The disciples were being sent out to Jews, and to “shake the dust off their feet” after leaving them would be a dramatic testimony of the seriousness of their rejection of the Gospel message. Bob had an interesting suggestion in our Tuesday morning men’s meeting: the origin of the practice might have been an acknowledgment that they had not even been received with proper respect and hospitality, they weren’t even given water to wash their feet!  For their part, the disciples presented the message, calling the people to repentance and faith, with gentle persuasion, not with forceful intrusion…   If they were rejected they were to just move on… Others would hear. Just as Jesus went on after being rejected in His home town, their ministry of the Word must persist through difficulty…

       Remember Paul’s word to the Corinthians:

 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain…” (I Cor 15:58).

God has called us to Himself and He is sending us with His message as His ambassadors to a desperately needy world.

V. We have an urgent mission (12,13). There is a sense of urgency throughout this passage… this is implicit here, and throughout Mark’s Gospel.

¹² So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.  ¹³ And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

       The entire Gospel of Mark has been presenting the ministry of Jesus in a setting of urgency. The repeated use of the word “immediately” [euthus] serves to give the reader of this gospel the impression that the ministry of Jesus, and by extension, the ministry of his followers, is a vital mission and presents an urgent message that the world desperately needs to hear and believe.  At the start of the Gospel, John was “…baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…” (Mark 1:4). Then we read that Jesus

“…came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,  ¹⁵ and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel’” (Mark 1:14-15).

Now the disciples who He is sending continue the mission, calling people to repentance and faith. Preaching the message, speaking the words of Christ and calling the people to repentance is at the heart of their mission. And just as we see in the book of Acts, the Lord “…bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands…” (Acts 14:3). Those attesting miracles were a testimony to the people, an evidence that God was at work. They gave a preliminary glimpse into the future. As Jesus said in Mark 1, “The kingdom of God is at hand! Repent and believe the gospel!”

What is God saying to me in this passage? God has called us to Himself and He is sending us with His message as His ambassadors to a desperately needy world.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? You know the story of the Lord calling the twelve… have you acknowledged His call on your life? Yes, I believe that the “Apostles” had a unique ministry in the foundational period of the church. In fact, Paul says the church is “…built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone…” (Eph 2:20). The foundation was laid in the first century as those men spoke and acted in His name, and by the end of that period they brought the final books that would form God’s completed written Word to the church. Their ministry was unique, but we too are sent, with a mission, to the world.  As Jesus gave the Great Commission as we have it at the end of Matthew, He said, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The implication is that the call to make disciples of all the nations continues until He returns. Communion reminds us of the price that was paid to reconcile sinners to God. Our mission is to proclaim the Gospel to all who will hear!  Jesus is building His church. He would use us to bring the message! AMEN.