Services | Disciples Sent to Minister

Bulletin

Hymn # 164 “Grace Greater than Our Sins”

SCRIPTURE READING – Ephesians 2:8 - 10
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“In the House”
“Who You Say I Am”
“Endless Light”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Disciples Sent to Minister”

“Way Maker”

Sermon Notes
Mark 6:1 – 6 Jesus’ hometown was offended by Him
Mark 6:7 Jesus sends out His disciples by two giving them authority over unclean spirits
Mark 6:8 – 11 Jesus gives them instructions
Mark 6:12 & 13 The disciples preach, cast out demons and heal the sick

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

When faced with opposition, especially with those who claim to know you well, many people will start to pull back or maybe even in what they're trying to do. Others may take the opposition as more energy to pursue it harder. Jesus takes a different tack. Let's see how Jesus handles it's difficult to come back. Jesus is going to find that very same thing when he returns to Nazareth, and that he is going to be who Jesus is, but those who should know him refuse to acknowledge who he is. And so if you have your Bibles, and you should, turn to Mark, the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6, and we'll start with the very first verse.

It says this, "Jesus went out from there and came into his hometown, and his disciples followed him." Now, it's interesting the phrase "hometown" because technically his hometown would be Bethlehem, because that's where he was born, and that's where his ancestors had been born. But his hometown, in the sense of that's where he moved to after he came out of Egypt and lived for a number of years before he started his ministry, was in Nazareth, and that's why people said that Jesus, the Nazarene of Jesus of Nazareth. So he comes home, and his disciples followed him. So it wasn't something that Jesus was just going to go home on vacation. He was going to go there, and he's going to do what Jesus does. He's going to minister. He's going to minister at home.

"And when the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and the many listeners were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to him, and such miracles as these performed by his hands?" And so they're going, "Wait a minute. This isn't the person that we think we should know, because we know him, and we're listening to him, and we hear these astonishing things that he's teaching.

We heard about and expressed the knowledge of his wisdom that he seems to have insight to things, and that he has been performing miracles." Now, at this point, they've only heard about miracles because it hasn't been performing miracles in their midst. And so they're just saying, "This is what we've heard. We've experienced his teaching, and we're astonished by it, and we see the wisdom, and we've heard about his miracles."

But notice their response.

"He's not this the carpenter.

Isn't this the guy who works with his hands?

He's not an intellectual. He's not someone who's been learned. He didn't go to rabbi school.

He's just a carpenter.

And we know his family, the son of Mary." Now, they're not saying this because they're identifying who he is. They're doing this because rumor has it Jesus is illegitimate.

He's the son of Mary. He's not the son of Joseph.

He's the son of Mary. While they're accurate, he's the son of Mary. They're not saying this because in Jewish custom,

you are known by your father, not by your mother. So therefore, they're saying, "We don't know who his father is." And the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, he has brothers. We know about those guys and are not his sisters. He is with us, which means he's got at least two of them. They never say, "So we know where there's James and Joseph and Judas and Simon, so there's four and there's at least two sisters." So there's seven children in this household. We know these people.

And they took offense at him.

Why?

Because he spoke and taught astonishing things with wisdom. That's why to take offense.

Because he didn't come from the right class to see these things. That's why we take offense at him.

How hard-hearted-- and I want to say it, stupid are these people.

When you hear amazing teaching and you hear wisdom, wherever it comes from, you should say, "I should listen to that."

Because sometimes you can be surprised where you may get wisdom. It might actually come from an idiot.

You ignore the idiot portion, but if they speak some wisdom, then you incorporate that. But because of Jesus being where he was, a carpenter, a man who worked with his hands,

and from a family that we know about, we are not going to take what he says. We are going to just be offended by him.

And Jesus said to them, one of those maxims about returning home, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and his own household."

You can be the smartest person in the room, but your family doesn't necessarily think so.

And that is true.

And I'll explain it to you.

Churches today still have a problem with this. Now, I'm going to exempt this church because I'm going to say why I'm exempting this church. But I have known a number of churches, and there used to be a church that occupied this facility as well.

And they had a lot of young people, and their young people would grow up.

But you know what their young people had to do? Their young people had to leave and join another church in order to serve,

because they were just kids.

And kids can't do anything. We've seen them. We had to change their diaper. They're dumb.

And so instead of taking the wealth that they had done in their congregation and having fed those children to raise up into young people and young adults, instead of taking them and saying, "We're going to use their ministries," they go, "In order to minister, we have to go to a different church." And that is repeated over and over and over. The reason I exempt this church is because I grew up here.

Now, many of you didn't see me growing up here. And so you just know me as the pastor.

I'll pray for you because that's all you know. But there are still some of you who remember me as a kid. And yet you still chose for me to be your pastor. You broke that mold of, "He can't serve here because he grew up here."

In essence, that's what there's... Jesus can't be the Messiah because he grew up here.

Jesus can't be the person that God has called for this place because he grew up here. There are two reasons why I like our young people involved in our service.

One is that there's never a time when it is not acceptable to serve Him.

Because even out of the mouth of babes, God will get glory.

And so I don't want us to wait until you're a certain age in order to serve the Lord. I wanted to give an opportunity for our young people to serve the Lord while they're young people. So maybe when they're old people, they'll continue to serve in the Lord. Whether they say, "Well, they didn't want me. And so I'll wait and I'll wait and I'll wait and then I die."

Even Paul had to write to Timothy and say, "Don't let them look down on your youth." It's always been a problem. You can't have that wisdom because you're either too young or you're not educated.

Some of the most spiritual people I've come in contact never went to college, never went to seminary, but they seem to understand the Word of God. Why? Not because of their intellect, but because they sought the Lord and the Spirit revealed their truth in them and then they expressed it to others. Some of the seminary professors I've had,

they were saved, but I was skeptical about some of their belief system.

I would literally think while they're teaching the class, I went, "Maybe you ought to sell insurance because you're not really committed to the Word." And so there's this sense.

And so Jesus comes home and He teaches and they're astonished and they see the wisdom.

And yet they refuse to accept it because of who He is,

or at least who they think He is because they're wrong.

He is the Son of God. But because of their hard heartedness, they refuse to honor Him and give Him the glory. And so we as a church need to be understanding that sometimes God chooses people we wouldn't choose.

But it shows them that we might understand who He is.

And He could do no miracles there, except that they laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. Now I want to correct an assumption that a lot of people make.

The assumption is that you must have faith for Jesus to work.

That's wrong.

My faith never limits Jesus' authority of power. Jesus can do and God can do whatever God determines to do, and He doesn't have to ask my opinion or my faith to do it.

So why is it that He does no miracles there?

Because the point of doing miracles is to bring about faith. But if they're not going to have faith, then what's the point of the miracle?

So He does know miracles not because He doesn't have the power, but because it's useless. It doesn't come and bring about the result that it ought to bring.

People all too often want to have the miracle.

And the miracle is not the miracle. It's that from that I now believe that that grace has been applied to me that now I have faith.

It's not, "Oh, what? Let's go to a miracle service and see all the miracles." If a miracle service doesn't produce more faith than it was just a show.

And so Jesus is not limited by your permission, but He doesn't do things just to do them. It needs to have their results.

And He wandered at their unbelief.

How sad.

His hometown, Nazareth.

And what He has to say about it is He wanders at their unbelief.

The people who should know Him the best know Him the least and believe in Him the least.

What a sad commentary.

And so again, for our understanding, if someone teaches the Word accurately and amazingly and with wisdom, it doesn't matter where they came from. Even if they're your brother, your sister, your aunt, your uncle, your father, your grandfather,

your son, your grandchildren, the Word of God, that is important.

And He was going around the villages teaching. So you see, Jesus doesn't give up. He doesn't say, "Oh, well, my hometown doesn't believe, so what's the point? I just give up." Now that's what a lot of people would do.

Well, if my mom and dad don't believe in me, then what's the point?

When I was seven years old, I wanted to be a lawyer.

I didn't come from a wealthy family.

So my mother kept telling me, "I should maybe take drafting."

And I go, "Mom, have you seen me draw a straight line? I can't even do that. That's not where I ought to be."

But she knew that being a lawyer cost a lot of money and took a lot of education, and we didn't necessarily have that. And so it wasn't that she discouraged me, but she didn't encourage me to do what I wanted to do. I could have said, "Well, nobody believes in me and whatever."

Now I kind of backtalked her because when I told her I was getting married, she goes, "I thought you were going to be a lawyer." First time she told me, "I thought you were going to be a lawyer." I said, "I didn't say I was going to be a lawyer. I just said I was getting married."

Just what it is. And so I didn't stop doing what it is I wanted to do because it wasn't approved by everybody.

So Jesus doesn't stop doing what Jesus is called to do to preach and to teach that the kingdom of God is at hand and that people need to believe in Him.

So he goes around teaching, but he does more than that.

"And he summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs and gave them authority over the unclean spirits."

Jesus not only did not stop doing what He was doing, He decided to expand.

He's going to send out His twelve disciples in pairs. So there's six pairs of people going and preaching and teaching what Jesus is doing. So rather than being discouraged and say, "Well, I guess I'll limit what I'm doing." No, no, He expands in opposition.

So when we are witnessing to our friends and when we're witnessing to others and people don't seem to understand, we shouldn't be pulling back. We should say, "What can I do to expand my ministry?"

And that's exactly what Jesus does. He expands it. Now, you would think God would be a type A personality.

Only God can do what God can do.

But He sends out twelve guys who, as we've seen through the gospels and we'll see,

are not that bright and they're not all that faithful and they're not all that persuasive.

And Jesus could say, "You can't send these guys out

because they are who they are."

Because He's been teaching them and He's been training them and He's been giving them instructions on what to do. And guess what? The only way to really learn is to do.

I can talk to you all about an A and a B and a C and how those letters all of a sudden will form words. But unless you start writing an A or an A and a B, you don't know how to do it because you don't have the skills to form the letters. Or if you want to paint or draw, you have to paint or draw. Now, it may be terrible what you do, but you don't say, "Well, I know how I'll get better. I'll just sit here." No, you work at it and you work at it and you work at it. So when you want to preach or whatever, you speak. Then maybe you listen to yourself and you go, "Oh, that was kind of cruddy. Maybe I should do this. Maybe I should do this." And you hone your craft so that you should get better, and you get better, and you get better. You get better by doing. And Jesus knows that He can sit there and give them a seminar all day long on how to minister.

But the only way to learn how to minister is to minister.

And so even though they're not perfect, and even though they're not maybe all the way ready, it is a part of their development to do the ministry. And maybe, just maybe, that's the same with you.

Now, I'm not going to suggest that we think about what the disciples thought when He said to do this. I want to say what you would do if Jesus said, "I'm sending you and someone else to go minister, and I want you to preach. I want you to teach. I want you to heal. I want you to kick out unclean spirits."

I bet you would feel intimidated.

I've seen Jesus do it.

I'm not too sure about what I can do. You know, I've only been there as a backup. I've only been there as a witness. I've been there as a witness. Now He wants me to do what He has been doing. That's kind of intimidating and somewhat exciting. He trusts us to do this.

He must see something in me. I don't see in me.

I'm sure there's nerves in their excitement

that we would have if Jesus called us to do this. Well, guess what? Jesus has called us to be His witnesses.

Yes, there's excitement. And yes, there's a little intimidation. And yes, there's, "Well, I don't know if you should call me or not." But He has called us. How did I know? Because He's told His disciples that they were to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, in the uttermost parts of the world. Well, guess where we are?

So He's called us to witness here. And we ought to be excited about it and prepare for it. As Peter tells us, to be ready to give a defense for the faith that you have.

Not about persecution, but about how to describe why it is that you believe what you believe.

We should be developing and training and then using that information to make us better at being witnesses.

So maybe you have an example. And then that example falls flat. So you don't, you say, "Okay, well, what example is better?" And you hone your craft so that you understand how to be His witnesses. But notice this. He gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

And He instructed them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a mere staff. No bread, no bag, no money in their belt. He's saying, "When I send you, guess what I'm sending you with?

Trust in God."

Well, thanks a lot, Jesus. You mean I can't have an extra five bucks unless whatever, I'm hungry? No, don't take any bread.

Well, what if I get hungry? Trust God.

Well, what if no one invites me into their house and I got to sleep at night? You get one coat, the one tunic. You don't get two. You don't get a blanket.

Well, what if I need to buy something?

Too bad. Trust God.

That's probably the greatest impediment the disciples have. It's not the excitement. It's not the intimidation. It's your being, I have to trust God.

In our witnessing, guess what? We have to trust God.

The seed is not ours. The seed is the Word of God. It's a good seed.

The ground is not ours. It's either rocky or a street or good soil or thorny.

The land where the seed lands is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to cast out the Word of the seed.

And God does what God, we are to trust God on what it, and so Jesus says, I'm sending you, but I'm sending you under the exact same circumstances I have.

Trust God.

Don't trust the co-operative program.

Don't trust First Baptist Church, FBC West to provide for your needs. Trust God.

But He does allow one thing, but to wear sandals, which means at least they don't have to have their feet bloodied and dirty as they're walking.

He gives them a little bit of comfort. And He added, do not put on two tunics.

And He said to them, wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave town.

Now, why does He say that? Because you're not to look for other people to be beneficial. So maybe the first place that accepts you is a one bedroom studio apartment where six people live and you got to sleep on the floor.

Your job is not to look in Newport Beach for a nice place on the water.

You accept the first people's gracious hospitality that are given to you. You don't go looking for better places.

So you accept that very first place and you stay there until you decide to go to another town.

And any place that does not receive you or listen to you, as you go out from there, shake the dust off the soles of your feet for testimony against them.

And I did that once, did it outside of Fresno.

I was on the executive board and I was tasked with a study of the cooperative program and why it was seeming to be splintered because a lot of churches, instead of giving it to the cooperative program, was giving to certain other activities and they wanted to know why.

So I went and I went places like to Oakland and to San Diego and Ontario and various places flew over the state to come up with a report. Now when you're in the committee, you kind of got to compromise for what the committee says because what the committee decided would have not entirely what I would have said. I'd have been much harsher than what the committee decided, but because it's committee, you got to take everybody's input. So we came up with this report and we wrote it and we gave it and my job was at the executive board meeting to present my report.

In about five minutes before I was supposed to present my report, they told me we changed it.

I go, what? We changed it because they didn't like my report

because I criticized them. But there was reasons that people splintered the cooperative program.

And I was so upset that when I left Fresno, that's because that's where the convention headquarters were. When I got on Highway 99, when the end of Fresno, I got out of my little Suzuki Jeep.

Suzuki Jeep was so great. I had, it was the only time I ever followed trucks because I could go faster behind a truck than I could on my own. It would just suck me along because I saw a little and whatever. So when I got on, I pulled over the road and I went out and I shook my family. I'm going, how dare they be so hard-hearted to not listen to at least some reasonable criticism. And so he's saying, don't carry even the dust with you.

Don't let it have an impact on you when you go to the next.

Shake it off.

Isn't there a song now? Shake it off. Anyway, there's, so we're supposed to eliminate the things that held us back. So they don't accept it great. That is not going to affect. So guess what? When we witness and this person and we go, you know, I did a bang up job. It's the best witness I've ever done. And they go, no, thanks.

You don't let you shake the dust off and you go to the next person and you keep speaking. And sometimes we present our testimony, not by saying, you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Sometimes you just at dinner, you're just meeting and you're just talking. And then the conversation kind of ebbs and flows and goes there. And then you take the opportunity. You don't have to say, well, how, how is I'm going to work this in? God will allow things to work it in. But if it doesn't work out, dust your dust off your sandals and go to the next person.

They went out and preach that men should repent. They're doing what Jesus told them to do. Repent the kingdom as God is at hand. Turn your lives around and not, instead of following the world, turn around and start following God. Repent, turn.

They should do that.

And they were casting out many demons. You see, they had the same impact Jesus did.

These fishermen, tax collector, political zealot, all these people that you and I probably would not have called to join our team to do anything, let alone change the world.

Because Jesus gave them authority and instructions

and had instructed them, they were able to preach, cast out many demons, not just a demon.

And we're anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.

Now, there is kind of oftentimes in this time, oils were used as a healing agent. And they are today. There are certain times when you can have an anointing, maybe you have an infection or a bumble man, you place the oil and it can have a healing effect.

But also the anointing of oil also represented God's appearance on you.

David was anointed king.

He wasn't sick. It was the Holy Spirit, a representation of the Holy Spirit of being upon them. And they're appointing them with oil saying, the Spirit heals you. I don't. I know you hear these people, they're faith healers. No, even faith healers don't heal. God does.

So they're showing that the healing comes from God, not them.

And they were healing.

Jesus and his disciples are working in unison, doing the same thing. And the situation is this and Jesus's earthly ministry. He could only be at one place at one time.

Now they're at seven places at one time, six pairs and Jesus.

They just multiplied the impact of the ministry.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine?

People say they're like a billion Christians.

I think that's high.

There may be a lot of people who claim to be believers, but, you know,

as somebody once said, going to church making you a Christian is not the same thing as being born in a garage making you a car. You know, there is a sense that just cause you show up at church or just because you were baptized or, or whatever confirmed that that makes you a Christian people who follow Jesus, because they understand he is the son of God and that by faith in him, they have eternal life and they confess him as Lord.

So let's say, let's say, I'll go high. Let's say there's a hundred million of us out there.

That means Jesus has access to a hundred million events.

His ministry has expanded from one to six to a hundred million.

Yeah. When he says the kingdom of God grows like a mustard seed into a large plant, guess what? We're there.

And if these two, one pair of disciples can have this kind of impact,

what kind of impact can you and me have?

Sometimes there was a two together. Sometimes it may take a lot in order to form a hospital to heal the sick. Or maybe a bunch of us get together so that we can then send a missionary to some place that hasn't hurt.

It's amazing what we can do together.

Jesus didn't send out the disciples by themselves.

He sent them in pairs. And we see that they took that same very aspect. It was Paul and Barnabas or Paul and Saul, all these, they went out as teams.

So there's nothing wrong with finding someone can be your partner in ministry. And don't let opposition stop you from doing what he has called you to do.

View it as a sign that Satan doesn't want you to continue because you might have success

in him. But if I can keep you diverted and discouraged and defeated, you'll sit on the sideline.

Shake the dust off and you keep going.

It's amazing what God can do through you.