The Commissioning of the Twelve

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, July 14th, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I urge you to turn with me, please, to the Gospel according to Mark, Mark's Gospel, and the sixth chapter, as we resume again this morning our consecutive expositions of this wonderful record of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus as given to us through the pen of Mark, Mark chapter 6, and I shall read verses 7 through 13, Mark 6 and verse 7. And he calls unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two. And he gave them authority over the unclean spirits, and he charged them that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only, no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse, but to go shod with sandals, and, said he, put not on two coats or tunics.

1:20 And he said unto them, Wheresoever you enter into a house, there abide till you depart. Thence, and whatsoever place shall not receive you, and they hear you not, as you go forth from that place, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony unto them. And they went out and preached that men should repent, and they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. And now if you'll turn to the parallel.

1:58 In the parallel passage in Matthew's gospel, I want to read several verses in which something of the setting of this incident is more fully revealed to us. Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, through the first verse of chapter 10. Matthew 9 and verse 35. And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of disease and all manner of sickness.

2:35 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered, as sheep not having a shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest indeed is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth laborers into him, and he call unto him his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of disease, and all manner of sickness. Let us now again seek the face of God, and ask God by the Holy Spirit to give us understanding in his truth. Our Father, we do praise you as we have done in this. At last, him we have sung together, that you have chosen in the gospel of your Son to make your eternal counsels known, that in that gospel we see the clearest delineation of your character that we shall ever behold this side of the world to come, that in that gospel we are told of the miseries of sin and of the glories of your grace.

4:02 And we ask this morning, that as we return to study this segment of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus, that we shall be given eyes to behold his glory, ears to hear his voice, feet to run in the way of his commandments. O Lord, be present by the same Spirit that rested upon your Son, the same Spirit that rested upon the apostles, the same Spirit that inspired and moved, marked to write this account. O may that selfsame Spirit be present to illuminate our minds and to warm our cold hearts, and so to minister to us that the livingness and the power of Jesus will be manifested in this congregation under the preaching of the Word. Hear us in this our corporate cry and this corporate confession of our need. Come, O Holy Spirit, come, great gift of the ascended Christ, and do your work amongst us. Amen.

Context: Jesus' Galilean Ministry and Nazareth's Unbelief

5:17 Now as we return to our studies in the Gospel of Mark this morning, it's important to remember the basic framework of this particular section in Mark's Gospel that we are presently studying together. You will remember, I trust, those who have been with us for these expositions, that our Lord, who has been ministering in the Galilean region of Palestine, that is, the northern area up around the Sea of Galilee. Galilee, chapter 5, contains the record of some of his most amazing miracles. The wonderful transformation of the Gerasene demoniac, the healing of the woman who had a 12-year issue of blood, and then his raising of Jairus' 12-year-old daughter from the dead. And then chapter 6 opened with the sad and shocking record of the horrible unbelief which dominated the spiritual climate of our Lord's hometown of Nazareth. A climate so thick with unbelief that it led our Lord Jesus to say in verse 4 of chapter 6, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. And he could do there, no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them.

6:44 And then the only time in the Gospels, apart from his marveling at the faith of a Gentile, it is said that Jesus marveled. Jesus was amazed. Jesus was astounded. And that which caused him to marvel was this thick, heavy, dark, pervasive spirit of unbelief that like a blanket out of hell was found encompassing the city or the town of Nazareth.

7:17 But then, as we noted in the conclusion of our last exposition, this did not deter our Lord from fulfilling his mission. He goes out from that climate of unbelief in Nazareth and according to the last statement of verse 6 in Mark chapter 6, he went round about the villages teaching. And the significance of that verb is that he was making another circuit of preaching. In other words, he committed himself to another preaching tour.

7:48 Some describe it as the third Galilean preaching tour. Now it is this tour to which Matthew makes reference in the parallel passage that I read in your hearing from the latter part of the ninth chapter of Matthew. And it was during this time, as our Lord in a systematic way went through the villages and towns of Galilee, that he was impressed, if not for the first time, impressed to a degree that it warranted a specific description. He was impressed with the tremendous task that lay before him in attempting to bring the message of his saving mercy to the tribesmen, to the tribes of Israel. And he saw these vast multitudes, distressed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd. And he recognized that he could not do the work by himself. And he calls upon his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out others to share in the burden and the task of bringing the message of his own salvation and grace, the message of the kingdom, to these vast and distressed, distressed multitudes.

The New Threshold: Commissioning of the Twelve

9:09 And it could well be that in obedience to that command, pray the Lord of the harvest, that the very activity recorded in chapter 10 in verse 1 of Matthew, which finds its parallel in Luke chapter 6, verses 7 and following, I say it could well be that this very activity of the special commissioning of the twelve to go forth for the first time unaccompanied by their wives, to go forth in six pairs of two to preach the gospel was in direct answer to the prayers that the Lord of the harvest would send forth laborers into his harvest. But be that as it may, what happens in the paragraph before us today is the crossing over of a new threshold in the ministry of our Lord and the ministry of the twelve. For you'll notice in verse 7, it says that he began to send them forth by two and two. Here is a new beginning. A method is adopted here and implemented which is new in the pattern of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

Authority Conferred Upon the Twelve

10:28 And so as we come to consider this paragraph which can very simply be entitled the commissioning of the twelve, let us note what is set before us in the text. First of all, with reference to the authority conferred upon the twelve. We find that in verse 7. And then we shall consider the charge delivered to the twelve in verses 8 through 11 and then the obedience rendered by the twelve in verses 12 and 13.

11:00 First of all then, the authority conferred upon the twelve. Verse 7 reads, And he called unto him the twelve and began to send them forth by two and two and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Now you will remember, I trust, that back in chapter 3 we have the record of our Lord singling out the twelve and calling them into a relationship of intensified fellowship and fellowship and communion with himself. Chapter 3 and verse 14.

11:42 And he appointed twelve that they might be with him. So from that time onward, the twelve, though often found amidst the multitudes who followed the Lord Jesus, gathered for his preaching and often surrounded him in his miracles, in a special way from this point on, the twelve are found as the inner circle of his followers. But the passage goes on to say that they were appointed not only that they might be with him, but verse 14 of chapter 3 says, and that he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to cast out demons. Up until now he has not done that. There is no record in any of the Gospels that up until now although he had appointed the twelve, that he had conferred upon them the special authority to preach on their own and to cast out demons and even to heal the sick and to raise the dead. So on this threshold of a new dimension of responsibility and ministry, we find our Lord conferring special authority upon them.

13:06 He marks them out in pairs and then he confers authority, that is the right and the power to act in a certain way. For the word for authority and in this context its obvious meaning is just that. Authority is the right and the power to act or perform a certain action or actions. And here it is said that our Lord conferred authority on them.

13:35 And here it is said that our Lord conferred upon them the authority over unclean spirits. And if we read the parallel passage in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 10 in verse 1, and in Luke 9 in verse 1, it is clear that he also gave them authority to heal diseases. And that's obvious even from Mark's account of what happened in verse 13. They cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.

14:11 And according to Matthew 10, 8, he said, raise the dead. So apparently what our Lord did apart from the authority to calm the raging forces of nature, all of the miracle working authority which our Lord had is now conferred upon the twelve. The authority to cast out demons, to heal all manner of sickness and disease, and even to raise the dead. Now precisely how did our Lord confer this authority upon them?

14:48 Well, the Scripture is utterly silent with reference to the answer to that question. Did he lay hands upon them? Did he speak to them? Did he stretch out his hands over them?

15:01 Did he seek the face of his Father in their presence? My answer is I don't know. Neither does anyone else know. He may have done any one or combination or all or nothing of those things.

15:16 But all we know is that he conferred this authority upon them. And verse 7 records it in beautiful simplicity. The authority conferred was the authority to preach in his name, to heal in his name, to cast out demons in his name, even to raise the dead in his name. And this authority was given for them as with our Lord in order to validate their identity as messengers of God and to validate their message as the Word of God.

15:59 They were not given authority to cast out demons, heal the sick, and raise the dead as messengers of God. As ends in themselves or as the supreme or primary end of their mission. For you'll remember in the parallel passage in Matthew's Gospel, it is said that their primary mission was to go forth and to preach. He gave them authority that they might speak forth the Word of the Living God.

16:34 It is this for which he gave them authority and therefore we read in Mark 6, verse 12, they went out and preached and the casting out of demons and the healing of the sick as with our Lord was a validation that these were true messengers of God and an authentication of the message which they brought. So much then for what we are told about the authority conferred upon us. Now in verses 8 through 11 we have a record of the charge delivered to the twelve.

The Charge Delivered to the Twelve: Material Necessities

17:14 And he charged them. Now that word charge is most frequently translated in the New Testament command. And it is one of the few standard words in the New Testament for the issuance of an authoritative directive by a superior to an inferior. When the chief jailer spoke to the jailer in Acts, it says he commanded the keeper of the jail to put them in stocks and to watch over them.

17:50 So here the Lord Jesus, the Lord and Master of his followers, the one in authority, the one in the place of superiority of position and person, speaks to them in an authoritative word of direction. And this charge contains two major categories. First of all, he gives them a charge regarding their conduct and attitude respecting their basic material and physical necessities. He's sending them out to preach and to heal and to cast out demons, but they do not go out as disembodied spirits.

18:29 They do not go out to serve as angels. They go out to serve him as ordinary people. Ordinary mortals who have stomachs, who get hungry, who need clothing to shelter them and to give them a measure of modesty, who need everything that we need for the sustenance and protection of our physical existence. And the first part of his charge touches this matter of their conduct and attitude respecting these basic material physical necessities as they go out and go forth to preach.

19:07 And basically, what our Lord is saying in verses 8 and 9 is simply this. As you go forth, do not take the time to get together the amount of materials that you would normally accumulate for any kind of a journey, whether of a week or two weeks. The normal thing for anyone going on a journey is to figure out how long I'm going to be away, what clothing will I need, what provisions will I need to purchase food, what will I do for shelter, shall I call ahead and rent a boarding house or shall I rent a motel or hotel or call a friend or write a friend. And that kind of foresight and planning in most circumstances is not only proper and legitimate, it is our duty to make it. And failure to do so is presumption that God will provide for us and, as it were, cover up the tracks of our carelessness and our carelessness and our presumption. But in this particular instance, because it was a special mission upon which these special twelve were being sent, our Lord gives some special directions about this matter of their basic material and physical necessities in verses 8 through 10. And what He tells them is, do not stop to stock up provisions for this mission.

20:33 He charged them, that they should take nothing for their journey except a staff, an ordinary walking stick, no bread, no wallet, perhaps the best description for that would be no tote bag or knapsack. That's probably the closest thing we have in contemporary items. And no money, literally no brass in their sash around the middle. That's the place where they would stick their coins, much like people may use a money belt in our day.

21:03 He's saying to them, now, look, as you go forth, normally, you would think about your provisions. Don't do it. However, I don't want to impose the hardship that would make people think that I'm a cruel master. Take a walking stick that you may need to lean upon if a wild dog comes near you and need to shoo him away.

21:22 Fine. And, by the way, you may take your sandals. I don't want you to go out and walk over territory that has rocks and briars and thorns and have your feet bleeding. And then people ask you, what are you doing?

21:35 And you say, we're on a message, we're on a mission proclaiming a message from our Master Jesus and have them look at your bleeding feet and say, what kind of a master sends people out on those terms? So, the exceptions have to do with taking what they presently have with them in terms of the staff and the sandals that would be for their own protection. Furthermore, he says, as you go forth, you can expect that into whatever town or city you come, you will there be received by some as the messengers of God and whenever you find such a place, enter into that house, verse 10, and stay there till you depart. And probably two things are involved in that. Number one, don't be overly fastidious and compare one house with another. You may hear that somebody's in a house across town and is getting better treatment than you are if your basic needs are being met, you stay there. Don't go hopping from house to house looking for a place that's got fancier meals and six-course meals instead of four-course meals.

The Charge Delivered to the Twelve: Reception of Their Mission

22:41 That was probably involved to be a check upon a carnal desire for something better and probably to keep them under the sense of the compulsion that they were not to stay too long in any one place and wear out their hospitality and therefore forget that there was an urgency in this mission upon which they are being presently sent by their Lord. So the first part of the charge had to do with meeting the basic necessities of life. But now the second part of the charge had to do with their conduct and attitude respecting the reception of their persons and their mission. Verse 11, Whatsoever place you shall into whatsoever place shall not receive you and they hear you not as you go forth from that place and they hear you not shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony unto them. Here our Lord informs them that they will not everywhere be received for what they really are. They are in their persons authorized messengers of the King.

23:57 They have been given authority to preach to heal to cast out demons even to raise the dead that's what they are. Humble, ignorant, Galilean peasants but they are now messengers of the King. Furthermore, they bear the message of the King that they have heard from his own lips that they have been taught in his more immediate tutelage over this period of time and yet he tells them you will go into some places where you in your persons will not be received notice the emphasis verse 11 whatsoever place shall not receive you your persons they will not acknowledge you to be what you are all they'll see is Galilean peasants and you will tell them that you're an authorized messenger and they will not receive you as such they will reject your persons and furthermore he says they will not hear you they will reject your message you see those two things are distinct and yet they are joined they won't receive you and they will not hear you again the emphasis falls you see upon their function as preachers doesn't say and if they will not accept your miracle

25:27 working powers he said if they don't receive you and hear you the emphasis falls upon what men do with their ears to these messengers the emphasis again centering on the message which the messengers bear now when they come upon such a town such a city such a household such a village what were they to do Jesus said as you go forth assuming they would they come and they are not received they seek to give utterance to their message and people have no time no interest in the message he's assuming they will go forth out of that city out of that town out of that village and as they do Jesus said they were to shake off the dust that was under their feet for a testimony unto them they were to go through a ritual in which when they came to the border of the town they would either take off their sandals and literally shake the dust out of them solemnly place the sandal back on the foot turn their back and walk in the direction of another town or with the sandals upon the feet they were to go through some kind of a shaking ritual now what did this mean well the commentators all take their guesses and that's all they are is calculated guesses but one thing is clear the people of that day understood what it meant

26:56 because it says when you do this it will be a not an enigma unto them but a testimony unto them it will be it was a custom with which people of that day were familiar since we are distanced by two thousand years from the custom we cannot say for certain probably the best guess is that we are told that the Jews did have a custom that when they had to travel through a Gentile land and finally came to the borders of Palestine realizing they would have picked up some Gentile dust and thereby have been defiled and then defiled in passing through Gentile lands they would go through a ritual of shaking the dust out of their garments as Paul does in Acts in one place and the dust out of their sandals to indicate that they were leaving behind them the uncleanness of Gentile ism so it could well be that this was the significance but in any case it was a solemn act which was only to be used when people had committed this highest and most solemn of sins rejecting the authorized messengers of the king and refusing to receive his message now this was a charge from our Lord touching

Obedience Rendered by the Twelve and God's Provision

28:26 both of these areas their attitude and conduct with reference to the supply of their own material necessities and their conduct and attitude respecting the reception of their persons and of their mission now then notice in the third place the obedience rendered by the twelve we've seen the account of the authority conferred upon the twelve the charge given to the twelve now verses twelve and thirteen record the obedience rendered by the twelve and the third they went out or perhaps better translated having gone out and preached that men should repent they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them in a terse succinct simple way Mark summarizes their obedience and the fruit of it they went out they did not go back home saying this is ridiculous you don't go out to preach without enough money to buy a loaf of bread come on Lord let's be reasonable they didn't do that when it says they went out it meant they went out in the terms of the charge given by their

29:55 Lord no time to go back and kiss their wives goodbye say goodbye to their children the very passage we read from Luke 9 has great implications

30:07 of urgency this mission was a unique mission it demanded unique and immediate obedience and so Mark tells us they went out and they preached that men should repent and they cast out many demons and they healed them ah but you say Pastor Martin you left out that business about anointed with oil many that were sick what's all that mean well all I can say is it's the only place recorded in all of the gospels where anyone healed in conjunction with anointing with oil and the only other reference in the new testament to a practice and that was not by apostles but by elders is found in James what's the significance I don't know neither do the commentators all they can do is line up all the theories and the more responsible ones will line them all up and say in essence take your pick but one thing is clear again that the oil did not heal and the silly notion of the Roman Catholic Church that this is the basis of extreme unction is a case in demonstrating the futility of Rome to try to find a semblance of scriptural justification for some of her nonsense they did not go out and find people who were breathing their last or had already died and then spread a little oil on them and whisper some mumbo jumbo and Latin over them and call it extreme unction and

31:37 then say oh here's the basis of it no no the people they anointed with oil didn't go into morgues and into funeral parlance they went back home healthy people so whatever

31:58 and that's my only purpose for showing the discrepancy between this and what Rome claims to be one of her sacraments given by Jesus Christ so Mark just gives us this wonderful simple summary of the obedience rendered by the twelve and as they went forth no doubt their minds were full of questions can you imagine what it be like you've been with your Lord and you've seen him touch a leper and say to the leper be clean and he's clean you've seen your Lord heal all forms of sickness and disease you've been with him you've witnessed it you've seen him speak to angry waves and say be still and there is calm as glass but now for the first time without your Lord at your elbow you go out into a village and you look upon a man all twisted up with disease and all you've got is some words from Jesus in your ear that he's conferred his power and authority upon you and you're to do what he did I wonder what they felt like the first time they met a person like that and tremblingly and haltingly spoke over such a person maybe the oil was used to help strengthen their own faith I don't know some commentators suggested but one can only imagine what happened and in a sense the very next incident is a parenthesis to bring us right on to the story where they come back and

33:28 report what happened when for the first time they went out two and two and without their Lord at their elbow they saw these mighty works accomplished as they spoke the word of exorcism as they prayed and as they spoke the word of cleansing and of healing and furthermore as they went forth in obedience to the Lord's charge with reference to their material necessities and with reference to their conduct and attitude towards those who would not receive them or their message God wonderfully provided for their physical necessities and wonderfully protected them from those who rejected their persons and their message for in Luke chapter 22 and verse 35 Jesus could say to them when I sent you forth without purse and wallet and shoes did you lack anything and they said nothing they saw the Lord fulfill his own word in the provision of all their needs well that's taken us through the passage at least in a cursory way opening up the basic contents of it now then what practical lessons and abiding message comes to us from this record of the commissioning of the twelve in what sense is this scripture profitable to us for

Application 1: Christ Alone Defines and Equips His Servants

34:57 doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness well as time permits let me draw four or five lines of application first of all this that is very obvious on the surface of the passage Christ alone Christ alone has the right to define the mission of his servants and the power to equip them for that mission Christ alone has the right to define the mission of his servants and to equip them for that mission look at the paragraph the opening section and notice how the emphasis falls upon the activity of our Lord and he calls them verse eight and he gave and he charged verse ten and he said and we read nothing of what they did until verse twelve and they went out the tremendous emphasis in those opening verses falls upon the fact that it was now our Lord's time to define the activity of the twelve it was our Lord's prerogative to mark out where they should go

36:27 how they should go two by two in what circumstances of physical support and provision they should go and it was our Lord's prerogative alone to confer upon them the authority that is the right and the power to act in his name to accomplish the task which he gave them to do as then so now for the Lord Jesus has never relinquished that prerogative nor has he conferred it upon another as surely as Christ alone in this setting had the right to define the mission of his servants and Christ alone had the power to equip them for that mission so in this present hour Jesus Christ alone a right shared with no other has the right to define the mission of his servants and Jesus Christ alone has the power to equip them for that mission you see the twelve did not come sauntering up to the Lord Jesus and say Lord we remember back then when you chose us out from the vast multitude of your followers that you

37:56 said we were to be with you and to have authority to preach and to cast out demons now Lord don't you think it's about time we got on with the latter half of this business nor did they come to him and say Lord we see that the work is simply not being done you just can't carry this on all by yourself don't you think it's about time you gave us some of this power and this authority no this commission did not arise out of the consensus of the twelve as they thought to advise their Lord and it certainly did not arise from the people they were not sent out to take a survey as to what the tribes of Israel at that time thought would be a helpful expedient in the mission of Jesus certainly sovereignly unilaterally in obedience to his father he called the twelve to him he said to the twelve two by two and for the more full account of the delineation of the mission you read in Matthew ten he said don't go into the way of the Gentiles you're to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel it was our Lord's prerogative to define the mission of his servants then when it came time to give them the power to accomplish that mission

39:25 he did not send them to the priest he did not send them to look inward to themselves he conferred upon them all of the necessary graces and dynamics of the spirit in order to accomplish their task you see Basti you've made the point now why labor it for the simple reason that large segments of the church of Jesus Christ obviously don't understand this principle they feel that they are free to determine the mission of the servants of God that they are free to determine the nature of the responsibilities of a preacher of the word the nature of the responsibilities of an elder a shepherd a bishop an overseer in many so-called Christian denominations they feel they are free to determine who is qualified for that office that scripture precludes any woman intruding into that office is patently clear but they don't care what King Jesus says in the word they say we're living in the day when women have come of age and come into their own the church will be looked upon as an anachronism as something out of the dark must be passed if she does not give to women the place that society has given and if society has given to women a place

40:55 of equality with man the church must do it at every level or the church will not have a hearing what do we say to that we say rubbish one intrudes upon the rights of Jesus to define what his servants are to do and who are to be his servants and alas only he has power to equip them for that work yes he may use various means he may use an academy a seminary he may use other circumstances of concentrated theological and practical training but ultimately if Christ does not give a man that peculiar measure of the unction of the spirit essential to the task of oversight and preaching and teaching he can go to ten hundred schools and have a thousand pairs of hands laid upon his head and he'll be a barren stick and a fruitless tree oh how we need to understand that as then so now Christ alone has the right to define the mission of his servants and Christ alone the power to equip them for that mission but thank God he continues to do both he didn't stop then and he continues

Application 2: Priority and Centrality of Preaching

42:23 to give to his church what she needs in this area but then I hasten to a second application and it's this Christ has established the priority and centrality of preaching in the mission of his servants in every age Christ has established the priority and centrality of preaching in the mission of his servants in every age our Lord had many things to do as Messiah if he were to fit all of the credentials of Messiah as they were outlined in the Old Testament scriptures but supreme among them all is this the spirit of the Lord God is upon me for he has anointed me to preach oh yes to open the eyes of the blind to unstop the deaf ears yes but he has anointed me to preach and so no sooner does the spirit of God come upon our Lord and after his trial of temptation it says he came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and saying repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand and there's a marvelous little stroke that we would not normally pick up in our English translations but it's there in

43:53 the original when Mark is summarizing the obedience of the twelve verse thirteen twelve and thirteen they went out and preached that men should repent a form of the verb is used which means that the primary activity for that whole block of time was preaching you Greek students it's an heiress they went out and preached the historical heiress that summarizes the activity that dominated they preached and then you have two imperfect and they were casting out that is from time to time casting out demons and from time to time anointing with oil those that were sick and from time to time healing them but you see the emphasis falls upon the dominant activity they preached and to validate their identity and their message they healed they cast out demons but central even in a period of concentration of the miraculous and that's my point when the miraculous was essential to validate the messenger and the message even then the miracles were not central or ends in themselves preaching was central and the miracle was to validate the preacher and his message isn't that the teaching of Hebrews 2 4 this message he said

45:22 that began to be preached by our Lord and then further was proclaimed by those who heard him God bearing them witness by signs and wonders and diverse miracles given by the Holy Spirit so that in this very age when miracles were essential to fulfill prophetic utterances essential to validate the message and the messenger even then preaching predominated preaching had primacy now that in that sense miracle workers are no longer needed for God no longer has messengers bringing a new message he has messengers who simply expound and apply the message once for all delivered to the saints though God does wonderful things in answers to the prayers of his people and I am not excluding those wonderful things that he has done and can and continues to do in many places and in our own lives at times in answer to the prayers of his people that could in one sense be said to be miraculous in a loose sense even when he does those things it is not to validate a messenger or a new message the message is delivered it's been validated once for all in the apostolic history

46:52 but even then preaching the central now do you see the point that what do we say of those in our day who claim to have the Holy Spirit upon them with power and whose central message is not preaching with its emphasis upon the twin themes of sin and grace notice they went out and preached that men should repent that's what Jesus preached that's what he told the apostles to preach Luke 24 45 to 47 but these so-called messengers who say they do miracles in the name of Christ and in the power of Christ and they gather the crowds to see their miracle and to have their miracle happen and if there is any message it is minimal on the great issues of God and sin and law and guilt and the cross and imputed righteousness and repentance and faith if it has any of that it only comes in obliquely what are we to say to all of that dear people the kindest thing we can say is that it's miles away from biblical Christianity Christ has established the priority and centrality of preaching in the mission of his servants in every epoch of the history of his church and then the third thing we see in this passage is this Christ has pronounced the most horrible judgment

Application 3: Horrible Judgment for Rejecting Christ's Message

48:20 upon those who reject his messengers and their message Christ the meek the lowly the gentle Jesus Christ has pronounced the most horrible judgment upon those who reject his messengers and their message I remind you in our text that he charged them verse 8 it was a solemn commandment from a superior to an inferior that in whatsoever place they were not received and their message was not heard no matter what they felt emotionally no matter how disinclined psychologically they were under the under orders not simply to slink out of town but to leave town with this solemn ritual of sandal shaking they were commanded why lest people get wrong thoughts about God if these messengers could come and say we've been sent by the king in our persons we are his ambassadors here is our message the kingdom of heaven is at hand repent and believe the gospel here is our message here is the validation of our identity and our message the sick have been raised up the demon possessed have been delivered and if people turn a deaf ear and say well if that's your bag fine if that's your thing fine but it's not mine

49:49 go your way he said don't just walk out of town you'll misrepresent me you'll give people the impression they can take it or leave it and there are no dire consequences you will tell a lie if you simply turn on your heel and walk out of town like an unwelcome guest you must go through the ritual of sandal shaking why because only then will men understand my heart my heart full of pity and compassion the very heart that so yearned over the multitudes that it says he was moved with compassion that said to his followers pray the lord of the harvest that may have even precipitated from the human side the commission of the people of the twelve at this time that heart moved with compassion that's the heart that says shake the dust let them know that when they reject my messengers and reject the message I give through them they expose themselves to the most frightening danger Jesus said don't misrepresent me as a messiah of all love and no more love no wrath you will misrepresent me don't misrepresent me give the overtures of my mercy tell them

51:18 the kingdom is at hand a healing delivering salvific kingdom let people see in the miracle of broken bodies healed that I've come on no mission of destruction but on a mission of mercy and life giving grace and power show them let them see with their physical eyes if their ears are so dull that they cannot and will not hear let them see with their eyes that when you come as my messengers to preach my message you come on a mission of mercy but if they despise that overture of mercy let them know judgment awaits them shake the dust off the soles of your feet and my friends as then so now there is no greater joy to any true servant of Christ when you one duly commissioned by him in the way of his appointment through his church and anointed by his spirit to preach there is no greater joy for Christ messenger to proclaim that the message of Jesus is a message of deliverance a message of healing of life and of power what greater joy can the servant of Christ have than to point to the cross and say that in an immolated incarnate God is man's only hope

52:46 for salvation and if they will but look they will live that in him all the chains that bind them can be broken in him they can be endowed with the gift of the spirit and given power to live the life they cannot live without him what greater joy can any man have than to point people to Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world as the one who imparts his spirit to every believing sinner who's committed himself to be the shepherd of his sheep but my friend listen every one of us who brings that message is under solemn obligation to tell you that if you reject it it's not an either or issue you can take it or leave it I'm not under a commission to shake the dust off my shoes it would have no meaning for you I'd just look like a fool doing some stupid thing on a Sunday morning but you see the symbolism has a message and it's that message I proclaim to you young or old man or woman and it's this you reject God's messenger and his message and you bring the most horrible judgments of the compassionate Christ upon your own soul in the parallel passage in Matthew it says it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than for such people for those Sodomites

54:13 who try to rape angels yes Sodomites who try to rape angels will be better off in the judgment than people sitting in Trinity Church and will not embrace the Son of God as he's freely offered in the gospel you'll covet the place of a Sodomite in the day of judgment now let me ask you professing Christian is that your Christ?

Application 4: Trusting Christ for Provision in Obedience

54:49 do you fall down in loving worship before him as the Christ of compassion? of pity of overflowing concern for man in his wrecked and wretched state when you hear of the Christ with eyes as a flame of fire and the two-edged sword out of his mouth and who shall rule the nations with a rod of iron and break and dash in pieces like a potter's vessel all of his enemies you say well that's not my Jesus my friend if that's not your Jesus this one can't save you because that's only half of Jesus and that's not your Jesus and it takes a whole Christ to save a whole sinner then in this passage we also see a very vital lesson I'll just touch upon it briefly Christ is to be trusted by his messengers to supply their needs in the way of obedience to his word you see he had just taught them in the Sermon on the Mount as we try to piece together the various gospel records in this period of time our Lord had uttered those words seek first the kingdom and all things shall be added unto you say not what shall we eat what shall we drink your Father knows what you have need of and how wonderfully they proved the Lord he could say to them as we read earlier in Luke 22 35

56:13 when I sent you forth telling you take no ordinary provisions did you lack a thing they could turn and say Lord nothing we never went to bed hungry we never found ourselves exposed to danger but what your providential care was over us what a wonderful lesson you see Jesus was leading us leading them along teaching them lessons of faith and he is the same yesterday today and forever and dear people of God he is to be trusted not only by his messengers but by all of his people to supply their need in the way of obedience to his word you say if I go in that course of obedience I know if I desist from that compromise at work I may lose my job and if I lose my job then I've lost everything no no my friend if losing your job comes as a necessary accompaniment of the path of righteousness God's going to take care of you you're not going to starve because he said seek first my kingdom and my righteousness and all things will be added to you but he'll put you to the test can you imagine what they felt like going out on a mission they didn't know for how long and how far and all they've got is the clothing on their back and they don't even have a second heavy undershirt that's what the tunic was it was sort of like a like a an insulated shirt that you know construction man or whatever in the winter time you wear when you go out in the cold it was a long undershirt and the Lord said don't even take two of them

Application 5: Wisdom of Companionship in Service

57:41 I mean that's risky business but not a one of them lacked oh may we have faith to trust him that in the way of obedience to his word we have the pledge of his provision and then finally note how Christ is so wise in the manner in which he appoints his messengers to their service he sent them out two by two and I haven't read a commentator on this on the passage who doesn't underscore the fact that here our Lord is showing his own sensitivity to the principle of Ecclesiastes 4 that two are better than one when one falls the other is able to pick him up and Bishop Ryle in his own perceptive and yet simple way states it this way there can be no doubt that this fact of sending them out two by two is meant to teach us the advantages of Christian company to all who work for Christ for the wise man had good reason for saying two are better than one Ecclesiastes 4 9 two men together will do more work than two men singly they will help one another in judgment and commit fewer mistakes they will aid one another in difficulties and less often fail of success they'll stir up one another when tempted to idleness and less often relapse when tempted to indolence and indifference they'll comfort one another in times of trial and be less often cast down with melancholy woe to him that is alone when he falls for he has not another to help him Ecclesiastes 4 11

59:10 it's probable that this principle is not sufficiently remembered in the church of Christ in these latter days the harvest is undoubtedly great all over the world Jesus knew it was great in this instance he said the harvest is great labors are few but he didn't send out twelve singly he sent them out two by two the labors are unquestionably few in the supply of faithful men far less than the demand the arguments for sending men out one by one under these circumstances are undeniably strong and weighty but still consider the conduct of our Lord in this the fact that there's hardly a single case in the book of Acts where we find Paul or any other apostle working entirely alone is another remarkable circumstance it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that if the rule of going forth two by two had been more strictly observed the missionary field would have yielded larger results than it has well surely the great principle is there that in the labor of Christ there is a necessity for companionship in labor and again people may argue and say but it doesn't work if one isn't assigned the place of captain and the other co-captain or underling you just can't have two men working as equals without strife and division it won't work well it says here they went out and did what he did and there's not a record any of them had a fuss

60:38 no record it did work and may God grant that such grace will suffuse our hearts the grace of humility in yielding one to another and in the language of scripture each esteeming other better than himself in the language of Romans 12 having realistic assessment of our strengths and weaknesses that as we think of new spheres of labor and responsibility we will cry to God for grace to recognize this principle that in most situations it is far better that two men should labor side by side and then let us pray that the spirit of God will give such grace and power that their laboring together will greatly advance the cause of Christ rather than be the occasion of scandalous division and carnal rivalry and jealousy well how rich is the word of God and in this simple account of the commissioning of the twelve are these four or five vital lessons I trust we shall lay them to heart and that as this passage according to Matthew found its issuance in history in response to the heart of our Lord that we will feel something of that heart and we will cry to God not to raise up apostles no the twelve apostles are part of the foundation of the church and God's never going to lift the superstructure and stick a few more in the foundation is laid

Conclusion and Prayer

62:07 but we can cry to him that he will equip and furnish men and make them mighty in the scriptures and so clothe them with his spirit that there will be the validation of the message and the messenger not by miracles of an external sort but by the miracle of transformed lives and godly churches and vigorous holy spirit anointed worship and gracious self-giving sensitive and congregational life these things that only God can produce may God grant that we shall cry to him to bless us with such laborers in our day let us pray our father we thank you for your holy word we thank you for this record of the commissioning of the twelve we thank you our father for the many principles that it contains and we ask that by the holy spirit we would lay them to heart and that you would write them upon the fleshy tables of our hearts we ask that we shall ever gladly give to our lord Jesus his proper place of authority in this church and oh we ask that throughout the churches men may see the wickedness of seeking to set up their own standards

63:34 for who should be a messenger and how the messengers should conduct themselves and by what means they should be made efficient and how oh lord Jesus we ask you to come with power refining purifying power upon your church and oh forgive us for our unbelief forgive us we pray for every sin against the light of your word may your spirit help us duly to consider the solemn responsibility that is ours to hear the word of life and salvation may it never be that spiritually you shake out as it were the dust from your own sandals as you visit us in mercy through the preaching of the gospel only to leave us to ripen for judgment oh lord hear our cry have mercy upon us and may your word be blessed to our life and to our salvation and not to our judgment and to our increased damnation hear our cry and may the blessing of your grace rest upon us throughout the hours of this day we plead through our lord jesus christ amen