The Training of The Twelve (Mark Sermon 26)

Turn in your Bibles to Mark 6. We are looking this morning at verses 7-13. Clay is one of the most common substances on the surface of the Earth. In its natural form, it is close to worthless. But in the hands of a skillful potter or master artisan, it can take shape and grow and develop into a masterpiece worth thousands of dollars.

One of the greatest potters in the last 100 years was a Japanese craftsman named Shōji Hamada. He specialized in ceramics, used in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. A simple but elegant teapot crafted by his skillful hands has sold as high as $5,000. Imagine, taking clay from the Earth, putting your skillful hands on it and shaping it to something of that level of value.  Perhaps you’ve seen a master potter at work at his wheel maybe, spinning the wheel with his feet, throwing the wet clay in the center and applying his skillful hands to the wet lump. It rises up off the wheel as if it were being raised from the dead, from an amorphous lump to a certain specified height that he has in mind. As the craftsman continues to apply moisture and skillful pressure, a delicate vessel appears before your eyes.

This process has been used for millennia of human history, and the analogy between God’s skillful work on his people and the potter’s craftsmanship with clay is ancient as well. That analogy has been around a long time. Through Jeremiah, the prophet, God taught this kind of living parable as in Jeremiah 18, “This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, ‘Go down to the potter’s house, and there, I will give you my message.’ So, I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands. So, the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then, the word of the Lord came to me, ‘Oh, house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does declares the Lord? Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you and my hand, oh, house of Israel.’”  It’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? Of God at work in his people, shaping them for his purposes. So it was with the twelve apostles in the hands of the master, Jesus Christ. They were just wet clay until He shaped them to be leaders of the church whose lives and doctrines would change the history of the world.

Today, we’re going to see another major step in the training of the twelve, as Jesus sends them out on their own for the first time to do ministry. It’s their first solo flight, a major part of their apprenticeship. It offers for us timeless lessons to all who carry on in their evangelistic work in our own generation. We may well ask, not only why did Jesus train the twelve like this, but why did the Holy Spirit want us to know about it by putting it in Mark’s Gospel? Those are both very important questions.  For we are all called to this work. We are called on to make disciples of all nations. The church is called to the Great Commission- baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded. We’re called to the Great Commission, and like the twelve, we need to be shaped and molded for this work.

Do you feel it? “Oh, God, work on me. Make me an evangelist. Make me effective in sharing my faith. I want to be shaped. Would you please train me?” Like all of them, we can at some point, feel overwhelmed by this work and feel as the apostle Paul said concerning the ministry of the gospel, “Who is equal to such a task?” You need to feel that. You should not feel, “Hey, I can do this. I got this, this whole evangelism thing.” No. Who is equal to such a task?  But in the hands of the master potter, we can be shaped and prepared and be used to be instruments for the salvation of people in our generation. This is Christ’s strategy to reach the world.

I. Jesus’ Strategy to Reach the World

Jesus, in his brief time on Earth, had a very limited scope to his evangelistic ministry.  He said very plainly in Matthew 15:24, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” That was just while he was on Earth, that’s what He was sent to do, but he knew very well that had been planned before the foundation of the world, that he would be the savior of the world.  In Isaiah 49:6, God the Father is speaking within the Trinity, to God, the Son, before Jesus was ever incarnate.  In Isaiah 49:6, 600 years before the birth of Jesus, God said, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Jesus, the light for the Gentiles.

To that end, Jesus had always intended to call and train and send out followers into the world as his messengers; it’s part of the plan. This passage represents, as I’ve said, a major moment in the training of the twelve, the shaping, the preparing of the twelve, and a major turning point in the ministry of Jesus. Up to this point, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has been doing everything himself.  He’s done all the healing. He’s done all the driving out of the demons. He’s done all the teaching. He has stood in the gap alone with no one joining in because they were not ready. But now, the time has come to prepare the twelve for the role that they’re going to play for the rest of their lives.  Now this was always his intention, As you remember in Mark 1:16-17, “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘And I’ll make you fishers of men.’” We can come back to that verse, but I’m just saying from the very beginning, this was Jesus’ intention.

As he continued to go, as we’ve been working our way through the Gospel of Mark, in Mark 4, a critical chapter, Jesus is getting them ready for this work. The cycle of parables that he teaches there,  the parable  of the seed and the different kinds of soils. That was fundamentally about evangelism. Also, the statement about no one lighting a lamp and putting under a bowl instead it’s to give light to everyone in the house.  In Mark’s Gospel, the context of that statement is, “I don’t intend for my parables to stay secret. I want everyone in the world to understand them. I want my teachings to shine throughout the world.” Then, the statement about the farmer, planting a seed in the ground and night or day, whether he sleeps or works, the seed sprouts and grows. He does not know how all by itself, the soil produces grain versus stock and the head and the full kernel in the head.  As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts a sickle to it, and harvest has come. That’s evangelism. But it’s putting us in our place saying, “We can’t do any of the growth, only God can.” We have a role to play. We can plant the seed, we can harvest by bringing people to faith in Christ. It’s evangelism.

Also there’s the parable of the mustard seed. He’s setting expectations, things are going to start small, and then, they’re going to get bigger and bigger, and bigger and bigger, and more and more glorious. So, it is again and again, it’s not just one time, over and over in different cities and different tribes and languages and cultures. It’s the work of the gospel, it starts small, it’s unimpressive. Then, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It’s a lasting principle. All of this was getting them ready for evangelism and formations.  His handling of the twelve is a timeless paradigm for every generation that followed, getting them ready to do evangelism too. That’s the answer.

The second question, why does the Holy Spirit have this in the Gospel of Mark, and also, in Matthew and Luke? Why does he have it in here? Get us ready. But there are some key exceptions. We are not apostles.  I’m not an apostle, you’re not apostle, so there’s going to be some significant differences. We need to understand the difference, but also sit under the lessons as well. Every one of Jesus’s true disciples has a role to play in the spread of the gospel to the ends of the Earth. We all have a role to play. Jesus made this very plain. Matthew 12:30, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.” What is gathering with Jesus, if not evangelism in missions?

“Every one of Jesus’s true disciples has a role to play in the spread of the gospel to the ends of the Earth. We all have a role to play. Jesus made this very plain. “

If we’re not active in evangelism missions, we are scattering. It’s one or the other. There’s no third option, we’re either gathering with Jesus or we’re scattering, one or the other. So, we have role to play. Now, Jesus is doing this gathering through evangelism, through missions, and we need to be active in this.  His pattern of training in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is timeless.The Bible provides the sufficient answer.  We want to know, how do I get ready? What do I need to understand? What’s my technique, my approach? All of it, it’s in the Bible,  but there are some key exceptions. The apostles were unique.

We need to understand the uniqueness of the apostles. They’re unique compared to the centuries of followers who would take up the mantle of world evangelization.  First of all, they were eyewitnesses of Jesus, eyewitnesses of his life, his death, his resurrection, and we aren’t. We’ve never seen Jesus. Their eyewitness testimony is the foundation of the entire New Testament. All of the 27 books in the New Testament come ultimately from apostolic teaching, and all of the succeeding generations of Christians have based their theology on the teaching ministry of the apostles. But that’s not our role. We don’t have that role.  Their authoritative teaching would therefore, shape the doctrine of the church for all succeeding generations. They were given the power to bind that which was loose. They were given authority that we don’t have, doctrinal statements that everyone who followed had to obey. We don’t have that role.

Furthermore, in this text, they were given supernatural power to drive out demons and heal every disease and sickness among the people. These were signs that the apostle Paul said mark out an apostle. That clearly implies most disciples didn’t have them. If everybody had them, then it wouldn’t mark out an apostle as unique. They’re unique. None of these things are true of us. We are not the twelve. We are not relevant to the foundation of the church as they were. But having said all that, there are some common aspects of the lives and ministries of the twelve apostles to us, and on these, we’re going to focus for this sermon.

There is in general a calling to preach the gospel and win lost people to faith in Christ, and also to warn those who reject the gospel of the grave danger of that rejection. There is a calling to show compassion to the hurting and the suffering of the world. There is a calling to live holy lives above reproach, to be willing to suffer for the gospel and many other details beside. In this way, they are patterns and there are examples for all of us.  We’re going to walk through that now. For the rest of the sermon, what I’m going to do is, drive from the text the timeless ten lessons lessons that were zeroed in on the apostles.  Then, at the end, very briefly, I’m going to run through them again and translate them over to us, so that we can put them into practice.

II. Timeless Lessons on Evangelism from the Twelve

Number one, prepared by Jesus, verse 7, the calling of the twelve to him. Before Jesus could send them out, He had to call them to him, and this is bigger than just one day. He didn’t said, “Hey, everybody, come and listen to me.” It was bigger than that. He’s calling them to follow him through repentance and faith. They had to be disciples of Christ. All of their mission for Christ flows out of their relationship with Christ.In Mark 3:14 says, “He appointed twelve, designating them apostles that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” Do you see the two step? Be with him, go out and preach. Jesus is going to state it even more emphatically in John’s Gospel the night before he was crucified, with this beautiful image in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches, whoever abides in me and I in him, he, it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.” You want to be fruitful evangelistically? You have to abide in Jesus by faith in Jesus.  Everything they will do in their mission, they will do because they first saw him do it. Everything they will teach in their mission, they will teach because they first heard him say it. We see in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the stages of their preparation. It didn’t happen all at once. Jesus is getting them ready.

First, their initial faith in Christ, “I had to follow Jesus.” I think perhaps the best account of that is in John’s Gospel.  In John 1:35-37, John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, himself had disciples. He had people who followed him, who were learning from him. Two of those disciples heard John say, when they saw Jesus passing by, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” They heard him say that, the second time they’d heard it.  When the two disciples heard John say this, they follow Jesus. There’s clear indication that these are two of the twelve. We don’t know who they are, but probably John was one of them. First they were following John the Baptist, now, they’re following Jesus. Jesus saw them following. This is the beginning of the whole conversation. Jesus turned around,  and Jesus’ first words in John’s gospel, “What do you want?” It’s anti-climactic. John’s Gospel, “What do you want?” It’s just these two disciples following Jesus. They said, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” He said, “Come and see,” and they spent time with him. It was just simply, time. Stunning to think such a filtered, edited, carefully chosen gospel this fourth gospel is, but that account made it in there because I think that was John’s first time with Jesus, and there’s no way he’s cutting that out. “You asked me what was my first time listening to Jesus’ talk, sitting with him spending time? It was just a simple time. We had a meal together. We just had some time together.” Then, as we’ve already noted, He called them to make a significant sacrifice to leave their jobs.

In Mark 1:16-20, as Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother, Andrew, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “’Come follow me,’” Jesus said, “’And I will make you to become fishers of men.’” At once, they left their nets and followed him. When he had gone a little farther, he saw James’s son of Zebedee and his brother, John, in a boat preparing their nets without delay. He called them and he left their father Zebedee in the boat with a hired men and followed him.”They had to leave their family. They had to leave their jobs and do something different. I would say parenthetic, the number one reason we don’t evangelize is, we don’t make time for it. We don’t make sacrifices for it. We’re busy with our lives. We’re busy with our jobs. We’re busy with what we’re doing.  I’m just asking you to think about what that’s going to look like when Jesus asked you about it on judgment day. Do you think that’s going to wash on Judgment Day? “Hey, we were too busy to share our faith. We’re too busy to make the changes that the sacrifice needed.” They followed him.

Then, they are all the time with him, and they’re listening to the general training that He gives to all the crowds. They’re listening, they hear Jesus’ words day-after-day. They hear what he says. They observe his miracles. They see all the way that He interacted with people. They saw the glory of Christ in everyday life situations. They saw his demeanors, characters, love, and just the way he dealt with people. They’re learning.

Then came that time when the twelve themselves were identified out of the larger mass of disciples. Disciples are just followers, there was a big group of them. But then, one night Jesus goes off on a mountain. He spends all night praying, comes back down and calls all of the disciples that were there to him and chose out of them twelve.  In Mark 3 He called them apostles, which means “sent ones,” like ambassadors. They haven’t been sent anywhere yet. That’s in our text today and then beyond. But that’s what they’re going to be. They’re going to be the “sent ones.” Then He gives them more and more specialized training. He focuses on them. He’s got his inner circle, the twelve are the inner circle.  Then, there’s the inner, inner circle, which is Peter, James, and John. He gave even more time to them, He’s focusing on them. They got all of these special instructions. Mark 4:34, “He did not say anything to them, the crowd without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” It was insider information. He’s giving them specialized training.

And now, practical apprenticeship, this trial mission. I can just say to you directly, you can’t learn evangelism in a classroom alone, studying techniques. You can’t do it here. You can do some things, you can learn some things that you can say, questions to ask, memorize the gospel outline. You can do all that, but you got to go out. You got to go out and try it. You got to learn by doing. That’s what’s happening here, He’s sending them out. Then, the final commissioning after his death, after his resurrection, 40 days of training, and then He ascends to heaven. His final words, the Great Commission, and all four gospels have a different version of the great commission. Mark’s version is Mark 16:15-16, “He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel, the good news to all creation. Whoever believes in his baptized will be saved. But whoever does not believe will be condemned.’” That’s the Great Commission, “sent out,” and they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit [ Acts]. Acts 1:8, “You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the Earth.” Without the Spirit’s power, we cannot be witnesses. The spirit is given to do this work in us and through us.

So, step-by-step like a master craft, Jesus is shaping and training and preparing them for this work, then He sends them out. Verse 7, “Calling the twelve to him, He sent them out.”  He sent them out physically. This is essentially Jesus’ plan, as I just said. The world will not come to the gospel. The gospel has to go to the world. We have to bring it out.  We will not reach Durham by hoping Durham comes here. Some will. I assume, every week, including today that God has brought some people here that are as yet unconverted. I assume that, and I preach the gospel. But the overwhelming majority of people that we’re going to reach with the gospel, we will have to go out to where they are. We’ll have to go out and find them, talk to them. So, he sent out. He sends them for this apprenticeship.

Thirdly, preach the gospel.  You may be saying,”Pastor, that’s not in the text.” It’s not. It’s not in Mark, but it’s in Matthew and Luke. I believe there’s a division of labor with the Gospels. Mark had his job to do, Matthew had his, Luke had his. I’m good with using them all.  Now, I don’t have time to preach four Gospels week after week after week. Some of you wondering, when are we ever going to start picking up the pace? And Mark, we’re only in chapter 6. We’re going to go however much pace we go, but I’m going to occasionally reach out to Matthew and Luke, and I’m going to tell you, these guys were sent out to preach the gospel. They were sent out to preach the gospel. It’s pretty clear from Mark 16:15-16, which we already quoted. Jesus makes it very plain there. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. “Preach the gospel, preach the message of salvation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” This was preaching a message for the purpose of saving lost people from their sins and from judgment from God. That’s what they’re being sent out to preach.This is the good news of the gospel. Sinners can be forgiven. They can be reconciled to God by simple faith in Jesus. Repenting of their sins, turning away from their corruptions and their wickedness, turning to God, receiving from him, forgiveness all of all their sins past, present and future by faith in Christ.

That’s the same message Jesus was preaching day-after-day. Mark 1:15, “The time has come. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” He did that every day. He’s sending them out to do the same thing. Now, essential to that is the good news He said to the paralytic. You remember the guy that was carried by his four friends, lowered down through the roof, lowered down right in front of Jesus? “When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven.  Then He did the miracle to prove that He had the authority, the right to forgive sins. We’re going out to proclaim that Jesus has the right to forgive people’s sins. That was it.

Now, of course, it goes without saying, this message wouldn’t be complete until Jesus actually, died on the cross, shed his blood on the cross, and then rose again in space and time, in history.  I don’t know that they preached the same message at this point that they would later preach after Jesus had ascended. They could from the prophetic scripture, but it could be, they were just doing some of what John the Baptist was doing, calling people to repent and trust in the one who is coming. But the final message would be written in the blood of Jesus.  1 Corinthians 2:2, Paul said, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” So, that message would be consummated and completed once Jesus had actually, died and risen again. Again, 1 Corinthians 15, “For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures that He was buried, and the third day, raised from the dead.” And according to scriptures, that’s the gospel message.

At this point, the twelve are not prepared to preach that in the same way they would later. But they were sent out to preach good news, and we should do it joyfully, shouldn’t we? Isaiah 52:7, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring glad tidings, who proclaim salvation.” What a wonderful work we have to do.  However, nervous you feel when you’re doing evangelism, don’t let us show in your face. You’ve got good news to tell. So, be happy. Be evidently filled with hope. Give people a sense you’re excited about your future. You should be. Your future, if you’re a Christian, your future is bright. Now, you’re going to heaven. You’re going to a glorious place. You should be filled with hope. You should be filled with so much hope, people ask you to give a reason for the hope that you have. So, just be happy. It’s good news.

But they went out and they called for repentance. Look at verse 12, “They went out and preached that people should repent.”  Essential to the good news is the bad news. The bad news is, we have sinned against the king of the universe. We are law breakers. We have broken God’s laws, the 10 Commandments, we’ve broken all of them.  If you know what to look for, we’ve broken them all multiple times. We have broken the two great commandments. We have not loved God. We have not loved others. We are law breakers, and the wages of sin is death, and we deserve to die. Not just physically, but eternally. We are under great danger because of this. People must turn from sin. John the Baptist preached repentance. Jesus Christ preached repentance.  The twelve apostles preached that people should repent. This is the very thing that enraged a lot of people. People don’t want to hear that bad news. They don’t want to hear that they’re going to be condemned to hell if they don’t repent. But these twelve did not go out and tickle people’s ears with a fluffy message. They told them to flee the wrath to come and that the king of the ages, the king of the universe, the holy God that gave us these laws is willing to forgive through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. But they have to repent.

Fifth, they were paired up.  Verse 7, “Calling the twelve to him, He sent them out two by two.” There is such wisdom to this, isn’t there? I mean, evangelism is hard. Isn’t it nice to have the fellowship of a partner who, after someone trashes you and treats you badly, you can walk off together and talk to each other and say, “That was rough. You good brother? I’m good. How about you? I’m good. Let’s pray for him.”  When you’re alone, it’s easier to get picked off by Satan, who will get you discouraged, will get you down. So He sends them off two-by-two. Also, there’s a legal aspect to this. Every matter is established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. So, we’re going out as witnesses together to say, “Hey, this is true. These things that we’re saying is true.”

Next, we see the power to heal, verse 7. He sent them out two-by-two and gave them authority over evil spirits. Again, Matthew gives us the fuller account. Matthew 10:1, “He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”  Mark doesn’t tell us that, but it is true. It wasn’t just exorcisms they were sent out to do. They went out and did this comprehensive healing ministry like Jesus had been doing. It’s corroborated by verse 13 in our account,“They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” So, there it is. They were doing this healing ministry.  Jesus is conferring on the apostles, supernatural power, similar to his own. These miraculous powers, as I said, establish the unique authority, of the apostles to preach the word. It established their authority to drive out demons who are gripping people, holding people in their dark grip. They had the power to break that grip. Evangelism is fundamentally a rescue effort from Satan’s dark kingdom into the kingdom of light, and they had the power to do that, to break Satan’s power, demon’s power, the authority of Jesus Christ.

“Evangelism is fundamentally a rescue effort from Satan’s dark kingdom into the kingdom of light.”

These healings also give a picture of Jesus’s compassion. Jesus cared about people who are hurting. When we go out and evangelized, we need to find out what sin is doing in people’s lives. How is sin breaking your world apart? What is sin doing in your marriage? What is sin doing in your family? What is sin doing to you? What patterns of addiction?  I’m not saying we’re going to necessarily ask, “Come on out with it, what are your addictions?” Maybe you can have that conversation, but just knowing that they’re getting crushed and trampled by Satan and by sin, just know that sin is hurting them. Jesus had compassion for people. You have compassion for people that are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.  The present-day church is not called to do this apostolic healing. I’m not getting into all that today, friends. You want to hear my sermons in 1 Corinthians on sign gifts, go over there. What I’m saying is, pretty clearly, we’re not called on to do apostolic healings like they did. It’s a unique moment in time.  But these apostolic healings in every case anyway, pointed to the real healing, which  is referred to in  Luke 5, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I’ve not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Every sinner that repents has been spiritually healed. Do you see that? It’s a healing work Jesus has done in their souls. So, this is a picture of that healing.

Next. We see purity from possessions, verses 8-10. These were his instructions, “Take nothing for the journey except to staff. No bread, no bag, no money for your belts. Wear sandals, but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.” Jesus is calling them to a radical trust, relying on God to meet their needs. We tend to be anxious about our lives, what we’ll eat or drink and about our bodies, what we’ll wear. We are so worried about us. The apostles were sent out in a radical display of God to meet their needs. No extra equipment, no bread, no bag, no money, no extra tunic. It was a life of simplicity. Freedom from materialism.  They’re not bringing any money, and they’re not going to charge any money for the healings. Do you know how much money they could have made? When you think about it, think about that woman with the bleeding problem and she’d spent everything she had and she didn’t get better. Imagine having the power of God to heal every disease and sickness and say, “That’ll be a denarius.” Do you think people would’ve paid? Oh, you better believe they would’ve paid.  But Jesus said in Matthew 10:8, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” You’re not to charge anything for your healings. They’re modeling Christian contentment. They’re modeling a lifestyle of simplicity. They’re not at in for the money, they’re not charlatans, they’re not frauds.  2 Corinthians 2:17, Paul said, “Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit.” We’re not in it for the money. “But we speak in Christ with sincerity as men sent from God. We don’t want your money. We want you to be saved and go to heaven. We want your fellowship for all eternity. That’s what we want. We don’t want your money.”

What is this one house rule? If you go in a village or a town and somebody takes you in, stay there until you leave that town. What’s this one house rule? How would it feel for your host family? If you once said, “By the way, there’s a nice villa right on the sea. And they’ve invited us. We’re going to be there the rest of the time.” It’s like, look, that’s not why you’re there.  When you find a place, that’ll put you up, stay there. At the end of the day, eat a meal with them and go to bed. The next day, do it again. And guess what? In Matthew 10:42, he says, “That the people that do that for you, that put you up and feed you and do all that support ministry stuff, will get the same reward you get.” How about that? That’s a good deal.  The support enabling ministries are equally rewardable as the upfront preaching ministries. That’s an incredibly important principle, it’s very important. Is Jesus permanently calling his messengers to a lifestyle of poverty, as in the style of medieval monastic orders that took vows of poverty? No, He is not. He’s not calling them to that aestheticism.  Later in Luke 22:35-36, Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without a purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything? Nothing, they answered.” But He said, “But now, if you have a purse, take it. If you have a purse this time, take it.” Interesting. “If you have a bag, take it”,  so different orders next time.  This was just for the first time.

Now, the international mission board of the Southern Baptist Convention sends out teams to cities to make commitments. They make commitments then IMB makes commitments to care for their needs, materially, financially. The average cost to send a unit, an individual missionary with the IMB is $60,000 a year. For a couple $120,000 a year, and beyond that it’s health insurance, travel, medical emergencies, different things like that. That’s the money.  So, no, we do not believe that we’re called to a lifetime of begging literally on the streets. You find a way to get on a transatlantic ship somewhere down in the cargo hold, you end up somewhere in Singapore. And then, you sleep on a park bench and start begging while you preach the gospel. No, that’s not the pattern. I think those medieval monks that took those vows of poverty were misreading scripture.But I think the idea of a simple lifestyle and not in it for the money that is a timeless principle.

Then He gives power to warn. Look at verse 11, “If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave is a testimony against them.” The Jews would do this. They’d go over into pagan lands. When they came back from Samaria, they came back from Moab or whatever, they’d do the “shaking the dust” stuff.  In effect, saying, “May the dust of paganism be cleansed from my body.   I’m not in any way linked with all their wickedness.”  But here’s the thing, these apostles are being sent to whom? To Jews. And if they will not welcome you, and if they will not listen to your words, treat them like pagans. Say, “You’re outsiders. If you will not listen to the message of the Messiah, I’m going to shake the dust off of me.”

It’s also a warning of coming judgment of the wrath of God, because it says in Matthew 10:15,” I tell you the truth. It will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” It is true that I believe judgment on Judgment Day is proportional to the amount of biblical knowledge that people had and rejected it. The more biblical knowledge they have and reject it, the worse it will be for them on Judgment Day.  Therefore, be warned those of you that are growing up in Christian families and have Christian parents, but are as yet unconverted. The worst place to go to hell is from a good Christian family, because you have had the gospel lived out in front of you.  Again, Mark 16:15-16, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Condemned means sent to eternal conscious, torment and hell. That’s what we’re saved from. That’s the gospel. We have a responsibility to tell people the truth. We have to let them know it’s not okay to reject this message. May God give us grace to do that.

So, what happened? Their obedience led to fruitfulness. The disciples obeyed and God blessed with amazing results. Verse 13, “They drove up many demons, anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” We don’t have the full records of their works here, but later, we have the Acts of the Apostles, and we have a fuller record of some of their stories, and we have people being won. We have churches being planted. We’re getting the whole story. I want to know what all eleven of the good apostles did, and all the ways God used them, not just from tradition or from even church history. I want the whole thing. I want all the details. These guys were getting groomed and prepared and trained and sent out.

Finally, accountability. Jesus is the one who sends us. They go back to Jesus. Look at verse 30 of Mark 6, “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.”  Here’s the thing, Judgment Day is coming. 2 Corinthians 5, probably the most intensive chapter on evangelism in the New Testament, different details. But one of the things Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.”  We’re going to give Jesus an account. Does that include all of the evangelistic encounters He set up for us ahead of time? God gives us things ready for us to share the gospel, will He ask us about that? Will He talk to us about opportunities we had in Durham to win the loss? Yes, He will, accountability.

III. The Lessons Translated To Us

Those are the ten lessons. Let’s finish by applying them quickly to ourselves. First of all, prepared by Jesus. First of all, recognize that if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ,He is calling you first to himself, not to evangelism. You’re not saved by your evangelism. You’re saved by faith in Christ. So, come to Christ, repent of your sins, trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins. And then, feel that love relationship, have that testimony of the spirit inside your heart, that you are a child of God, regardless of how well you do in evangelism. Come to Christ, draw near to Christ, and then let your evangelism flow out of abiding in him. It’s the best way. The only way really, to do evangelism.

Secondly, sent out by Jesus. Ask Christ to send you out in his name, to win lost people, understand that you must be active in gathering scattered centers. Say to him, “Here am I, send me somewhere today.” You know what you’re going to find? You’re going to find that you are going there, anyway. Tomorrow morning, you’re going to get in your car and go somewhere probably.  Jesus is a sending you somewhere. You likely to interact with some people when you get there. So, wait a minute, pastor, are you talking everywhere? Yeah. Gas station. Sure. Supermarket? Yeah, why not. Taking your garbage out to the street and you see your neighbor taking his garbage out to the street? Sure. God send me, send me.

Thirdly, preach the gospel.  When you go to lost people, preach the timeless unchanging gospel. The good news of forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus Christ. We have the completed message now. We’re not wondering, we know Christ has actually died. He shed his blood in the cross, so that guilt, our guilt would be a tone for. Preach that gospel, preach Christ resurrected. Fourthly, call people to repent. Be bold to do this. Use the law, use the 10 Commandments and the two great commandments. Everything you need to bring people to repentance is in there. Study the law and apply it. Call them to repent.

Fifthly, paired up. Don’t be a lone ranger, evangelists. I mean, some of the stuff we’re going to do alone. But find somebody that can hold you accountable and say, “Hey, let’s go out. Let’s go do some things. Let’s take some face steps. Let’s find some opportunities to share the gospel.” Hey, church, let’s do this together. What do you say? Let’s reach Durham together. Let’s find ways for us to share the gospel together.”

Six, power to heal. What am I going to say about this one? Come to the healing class, Tuesday evening and I’ll give you apostolic healing powers. That is not happening. No, but remember what I said, two things, first of all, a display of Christ’s compassion to the way that sin has crushed people. Can we do that? Yes, we can do that.  We can find ways that sin is hurting people’s bodies and their lives, and let’s step in and find ways to minister. Secondly, the real healing is still spiritual. It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, it’s the sick. “I’ve not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Seventh, purity from possessions. Ask the Lord to show you the way your materialistic lifestyle or materialistic ambitions and desires are hindering your evangelistic life. Say, “Lord, show it to me.” How am I orchestrating my life primarily for money and not for winning lost people? Show it to me. I think it probably is the single greatest practical difficulty our church has when it comes to evangelism. Number eight, power to warn. Tell people the truth about hell. Tell people the truth about eternal conscious torment and the penalty of damnation. Don’t be afraid to do it. Tell the truth to them. Number nine, obedience, leading to fruitfulness. Move out, do something that God calls you to do, act. Be bold and see what God will do, how He can use you.

Then, finally, meditate on your accountability to Jesus. Picture yourself, giving Jesus an account for everything that you’ve done in the body, whether good or bad. First, Baptist church, let’s be faithful to this call. Close with me in prayer. Lord, we thank you for the time we’ve had to walk through this text and learn its principles. Pray that you would take our hearts now and mold and shape them like a potter. Lord shape us as seems best to you, shape us as you will, so that we can be maximally fruitful for your gospel. Pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Clay is one of the most common substances on the surface of the earth. In its natural form it is close to worthless. But in the hands of a skillful potter, a master artisan, it can take shape and grow and develop into a masterpiece worth tens of thousands of dollars.

One of the greatest potters in the last hundred years was a Japanese craftsman named Shoji Hamada. He specialized in ceramics used in the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and a simple but elegant tea pot crafted by his skillful hands has sold as high as $5000.

Perhaps you have seen a master potter at work at his wheel… spinning the wheel with his feet, throwing the wet clay on the center and applying his skillful hands to the lump. It rises as if being raised from the dead from an amorphous lump to a certain specified height. As the craftsman continues to apply moisture and skillful pressure, a delicate vessel appears before your eyes.

This process has been used for millennia of human history, and the analogy between God’s working on his people and the potter’s craftsmanship with clay is ancient as well. Jeremiah the prophet was taught by God through this kind of a living parable:

Jeremiah 18:1-6  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.”  3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.  5 Then the word of the LORD came to me:  6 “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

So it was with the Twelve Apostles in the hands of the Master, Jesus Christ. They were just wet clay until he shaped them to be the leaders of the church, those whose lives and doctrines would change the history of the world.

Today, we will see another major step in the Training of the Twelve, as Jesus sends them out on their own for the first time to do ministry. This was their first solo flight… a major part of their apprenticeship. And it offers timeless lessons to all of us who carry on their evangelistic work in our own generation.

For we are all called to this work… we are called to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey all of Jesus’ commandments.

Like the Twelve, we need to be shaped and molded and prepared to do this work.

Like all of them, at some point we can feel overwhelmed by the work and feel completely inadequate for it. The Apostle Paul said it well:

2 Corinthians 2:15-16  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  16 To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?

But in the hands of the Master Potter, we can be shaped and prepared and used to be instruments for the salvation of the people of our generation.

This is Christ’s strategy for reaching the world.

I. Christ’s Strategy to Reach the World
A. Jesus Had a Limited Role in Reaching this Lost World

Matthew 15:24  “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

B. But He Knew That God Intended to Reach the Entire World

Isaiah 49:6  “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

C. To That End… Jesus Always Intended to Call, Train, and Send Out His Followers to Win the World

D. This Passage Represents a Major Turning Point in the Ministry of Jesus

1. Up till this point in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has been doing everything himself

2. He has done all the healing, all the driving out of demons, all the teaching

3. He has stood in the gap alone with no one joining in, because they were not ready

4. But now the time has come to prepare the Twelve for the role they will play for the rest of their lives

E. This Was Always His Intention

Mark 1:16-17  As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

F. The Cycle of Parables in Mark 4 Got Them Ready for This Work

1. The parable of the Seed and the Soils was fundamentally about evangelism

2. The statement about no one lighting a lamp and putting it under a bowl or a bed represented his commitment to let the light of his teaching shine throughout the world

3. The statement about the farmer planting a seed and it growing all by itself without him doing anything to make it grow was about evangelism… that only God can save a soul

4. So also the parable of the Mustard Seed… getting them ready for the growth of the Kingdom of God from something small and unimpressive to something stunning and massive… that was about evangelism

5. Now, he wants to get them ready for their role in scattering the seed of the gospel everywhere

G. His Handling of the Twelve is a Timeless Paradigm for Every Generation that Followed… with some key exceptions

1. Everyone of Jesus’ true disciples has a role to play in the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth and to the end of time

Matthew 12:30  “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

We will either GATHER WITH Jesus or we will scatter… there is no middle ground; and he is GATHERING his sheep into his fold; he is GATHERING the wheat into the barn…

He is doing this through evangelism; and if we are not active in winning the lost, we are SCATTERING

His training of the Twelve is essential to every generation that would follow… with some key exceptions:

2. The Apostles were unique compared to the centuries of followers that would take up the mantle of world evangelization in that…

a. They were EYEWITNESSES of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection… we aren’t

b. Their EYEWITNESS testimony would be the foundation of the entire New Testament, and on their eyewitness testimony the faith of all succeeding generations would rest; we’ve NEVER SEEN JESUS!

c. Their AUTHORITATIVE TEACHING would shape the doctrine of the church for all succeeding generations; they would have the power to bind and loose—to make authoritative doctrinal statements that everyone that followed must adhere to; we do not have that role!

d. Furthermore, they were given SUPERNATURAL POWER to drive out demons and heal every disease and sickness among the people… these signs were to mark apostles as different, even in their own generation

e. None of these things are true of us… we are not the TWELVE… we are not the foundation of the church of Jesus Christ (according to Ephesians 2)

f. BUT there are some common aspects to the lives and ministries of the Twelve Apostles, and on these we will focus for this sermon

3. In their general calling to preach the gospel and win lost people to faith in Christ, and to warn those who reject of the grave danger of rejection… the calling to show compassion to the hurting and suffering of the world, the calling to live holy lives above reproach and be willing to suffer for the gospel… these things are TIMELESS EXAMPLES for every generation

II. Timeless Lessons on Evangelism from the Twelve
A. Prepared by Jesus

Mark 6:7  Calling the Twelve to him…

1. Before Jesus could send them out, he had to prepare them first

2. Fundamentally, all mission flows from a relationship with Christ

3. One of the basic, practical job descriptions of the Twelve was to be with Jesus

Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve—designating them apostles—that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach

4. Jesus will state it even more emphatically the night before his death

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

5. So, everything they will do in their mission, they will do because they first saw him do it; everything they will teach in their mission, they will teach because they first heard him teach it

6. Stages of their preparation

a. Initial faith in Christ

John 1:35-37  The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.  36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”  37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.

b. Sacrificial following

Mark 1:16-20  As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  18 At once they left their nets and followed him.  19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.  20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

c. General training (given to the crowds)

i) Hearing Jesus’ words day after day

ii) Observing Jesus’ miracles day after day

iii) Seeing the glory of Christ—his character, his love, his demeanor, his holiness

d. Identification of the Twelve

i) Already mentioned…

ii) Jesus went up on a mountain and spent all night in prayer

iii) Afterward, he called all his disciples to him and chose the Twelve, designating them to be Apostles (Mark 3)

iv) BUT the term “apostles” literally means “sent ones”

v) He gave them this title before he ever sent them out anywhere…

e. Specialized training

i) Focused more and more on the inner circle

ii) Especially Peter, James, and John… but all Twelve got specialized instructions—especially the explanation of the parables

Mark 4:34  He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

f. Practical apprenticeship (this trial mission)

i) You can’t learn evangelism by word only

ii) You have to go out and try it… do it

iii) Jesus wanted them to get practical experience on their own

g. Final commissioning (after his resurrection)

i) The Great Commission

ii) Mark’s version

Mark 16:15-16  He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

h. Empowerment by the Spirit

Acts 1:8  You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth

7. So… step by step, like a master craftsman, Jesus got the twelve ready for their responsibilities

8. Jesus PREPARED THEM before he SENT THEM

9. But then… he sent them out

B. Sent Out by Jesus

Mark 6:7  Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out…

1. Going back now into Mark 6, this was the first time Jesus sent them out physically

2. This is essential to Jesus’ plan for the world

3. The world will not come to the gospel; the gospel has to go out into the world

4. We will not reach Durham by hoping Durham will come to us

5. We have to go out to them

6. Furthermore, as I just said, evangelistic training has to include active ministry… going out and trying it

7. They would be on their own, as they would be after Jesus ascended into heaven

8. So, Jesus sent them out for a apprenticeship

9. If FBC wants to win the lost of our region, we have to be prepared for some real life practical training

C. Preaching the Gospel

1. Ok, I realize that this is not mentioned at all in Mark 6 per se

2. I think that just shows the division of labor the Holy Spirit intended for the various Gospels

3. Matthew 10 and Luke 9 also record the more extensive instructions Jesus gave to his apostles upon sending them out

4. So, while it is clear that they were sent out to preach the gospel, it does not say so here

5. But it clearly says it in Mark 16:15-16

Mark 16:15-16  He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

6. This was a preaching for the purpose of saving lost people from their sins

7. That is the GOOD NEWS of the gospel… that sinners can be forgiven and reconciled to God by faith, by repenting of their sins and believing the gospel… as Jesus himself did in his own preaching day after day

Mark 1:15  “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”

8. And essential to that good news is the forgiveness of sins

Mark 2:5  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

The healing of the paralytic was done to teach one central lesson essential to the WONDERFUL GOOD NEWS:

Mark 2:10-12  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” He said to the paralytic,  11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”  12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.

9. The disciples were sent out to preach the good news of forgiveness of sins

10. Of course, it would not be until after Christ’s atoning death and bodily resurrection that the fullness of the gospel message could be proclaimed, as the Apostle Paul would make very plain:

1 Corinthians 2:2  I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

 1 Corinthians 15:3-4  For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

11. At this point, the Twelve are not prepared to preach that message… the very basis for the forgiveness for our sins; but they are being groomed for it

12. They are sent out to preach GOOD NEWS… joyful news

Isaiah 52:7  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation

D. Calling for Repentance

Mark 6:12  They went out and preached that people should repent.

1. Essential to the good news is the BAD NEWS… we have all sinned and stand under the judgement of God

2. John the Baptist preached this call for repentance

3. Jesus Christ preached this call for repentance

4. So the Twelve Apostles preached the same message; this was the very thing that enraged so many people, the bad news that they are sinners who will be condemned to hell if they don’t repent

5. But these Twelve did not go out to tickle people’s ears or flatter them with compliments… they went out to tell them to flee the wrath to come, to stop rebelling against God’s Kingdom by their sins

E. Paired Up

Mark 6:7  Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two

1. There is such wisdom to this…

2. It is hard to evangelize, especially if you are boldly telling people to repent

3. To have the fellowship of a partner who is sharing the hardships with you is essential; without it, we can easily be overwhelmed by discouragement

4. Also there is the matter of testimony and truthfulness

2 Corinthians 13:1  “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”

F. Power to Heal

Mark 6:7  he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.

Matthew gives the fuller account:

Matthew 10:1  He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

This is corroborated by our account here:

Mark 6:13  They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

1. Jesus is conferring on the Apostles supernatural power, similar to his own

2. These miraculous powers established the authority of the Apostles to preach the word… and it also established their authority over demons to rescue lost people from Satan’s kingdom

3. Evangelism is fundamentally a rescue effort from Satan’s kingdom of darkness and sin and death

4. The Apostles carried with them the authority of Jesus Christ over demons to set prisoners free

5. The healings also gave them a link to Jesus’ heart of compassion for suffering sinners

6. Though the present-day church cannot do apostolic healing ministry in the same way they did, Christians have been able to display amazing compassion for suffering people… in drought, famine, pandemics, war zones, earthquakes… the church is there ministering to sad and hurting people

7. Finally, the miraculous healings done by Jesus and the Apostles are a display of the general HEALING ministry that the gospel does… healing from SIN

Luke 5:31-32  “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

G. Purity from Possessions

Mark 6:8-10  These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff– no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.  9 Wear sandals but not an extra tunic.  10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town.

1. Jesus calls them to RADICAL TRUST… relying on God to meet their needs

a. We tend to be anxious about our bodies and our stomachs

b. These apostles were sent out in a radical display of trust in God to meet all their needs

c. No extra equipment, no backpacks of food, no extra clothing… just radical faith in God to take care of them

2. He also calls them to SIMPLICITY… freedom from materialism

a. It would have been very easy for them to make tons of money doing these healings

b. But Jesus commanded them plainly not to take money for these healings

Matthew 10:8  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.

c. In this simple lifestyle, they were modeling heavenly-mindedness, freedom from greed, simplicity

3. Unlike false teachers who are always in it for the money

2 Corinthians 2:17  Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God

4. The “one house” rule is so they don’t insult their first host by finding a better home for the second week they’re in a town

5. Any home that will feed you and put you up for the night is GOOD ENOUGH… and if they do, they will never lose their reward

6. QUESTION: Is Jesus calling on the messengers of the gospel to lives of permanent poverty? Many monastic orders in the middle ages took it that way, and those monks spent their whole lives begging for their bread

The IMB sends out teams to cities making commitments to care for their every need, including housing, automobiles, excellent medical coverage… the average annual cost of an IMB missionary is $60,000 for a single, $120,000 for a couple.

But what about all Christians? Are these permanent calls to radical poverty in reliance on God?

No… decidedly not! This was just a BOOT CAMP in radical faith

By the end of his life, Jesus gave very different instructions:

Luke 22:35-36  Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.  36 He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.

So, while the lasting principles of a simple lifestyle, and heavenly-mindedness, and Christian contentment, and not doing ministry to get rich… all of those are permanent, Jesus is not calling all evangelists and ministers of the gospel to radical poverty

H. Power to Warn

Mark 6:11  And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.

1. If the people reject the message, you don’t need to stay and take a beating

2. If they are becoming hostile, rejecting, insulting, getting aggressive… then LEAVE! But as you do, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony to them

3. This was a common gesture by pious and nationalistic Jews that had traveled to a pagan land; when they crossed the borders of the pagan land and returned back to the Promised Land, they would do this very thing—shake the dust from that pagan, godless land from their sandals and even from their garments as if to say “All the godlessness of that land does not cling to me… I am free from the judgments of God that they will ultimately receive for their sins!”

4. But here, Jesus was telling his Jewish apostles to do that very thing to other Jews who were rejecting their message of the gospel… they were saying “You are no better than pagans! God’s judgment is upon you for rejecting this gospel!”

5. More plainly:

Matthew 10:15  I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.

6. For us… we need to realize part of the ministry of the gospel is to warn people that rejection of this message will have dire and eternal consequences

7. Jesus will say it plainly:

Mark 16:15-16  He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Condemned = under God’s eternal wrath!!

I. Obedience Leading to Fruitfulness

1. The disciples obey and God blessed with amazing results

Mark 6:13  They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

2. We don’t have full records of their works here… but later in the Book of Acts, we will see more and more people repenting of their sins and trusting in the gospel for eternal life

J. Accountability

1. Jesus is the one who sends us

2. To him we will be finally accountable

Mark 6:30  The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught.

On Judgment Day, we will give to Christ an account of everything we have done with this gospel message!!

This passage teaches us how to be faithful: Ten timeless lessons on evangelism

Let’s translate them to ourselves

III. The Lessons Translated to Us
A. Prepared by Jesus

B. Sent Out by Jesus

C. Preaching the Gospel

D. Calling for Repentance

E. Paired Up

F. Power to Heal

G. Purity from Possessions

H. Power to Warn

I. Obedience Leading to Fruitfulness

J. Accountability

First, recognize that, if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, he is calling you first to himself… not to evangelism. You don’t have to evangelize to prove yourself or make yourself acceptable to him so you can earn heaven. Come to Christ in a faith relationship and feel his love for you. Abide in him, rest in him, love him, feel his power and presence in your life by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then, let him work on you, train you, prepare you to go out in his name.

Second, ask Christ to send you out in his name to win lost people. Understand that you must be active in gathering the scattered sinners of the world or you are scattering yourself. Ask him to use you; like Isaiah of old, say “Here am I… send me!”

Third, when you go to lost people, preach the timeless unchanging gospel—the good news of forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ’s name… through faith in the blood of the cross and the emptiness of his tomb. The clear proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation.

Fourth, be bold to call people to repent of their sins. Use the law of God… the Ten Commandments… to show them their sins; to convict them of their guilt before God. Do not fear man, but help people fear God.

Fifth, don’t be a Lone Ranger evangelist. Find a partner or a team of people to do evangelism with and hold each other accountable. Lean on each other. Pray for each other. Go with each other. Let’s do this together as a church!

Sixth, find ways to show compassion for suffering people. There will always be poor people, sick people, suffering people, dying people. People who are successful and healthy and wealthy and satisfied don’t think they need a Savior. Go to where people are hurting, suffering, weak, mourning… show the compassion of Christ.

Seventh, watch out for materialism and greed. It is not likely that you will be tempted to get rich doing ministry; but it is more likely that the pursuit of a comfortable materialistic life is the single greatest hindrance to the members of FBC doing outreach. Ask God to show you patterns of materialism and greed and lust for pleasure and comfort in your life that are hindering you from evangelizing as you should.

Eighth, tell people the truth about hell. Warn them not to reject this message. But if they do become abusive, move on. Mentally (if not literally) shake the dust from your feet. Understand they are abusive only because you made them feel guilty… their real problem is with God.

Ninth, obey… move out… trust God! ACT! And see God make you fruitful.

Tenth, realize someday you will give Christ an account for everything you have done in the body, good or bad. Part of that account will be telling Christ what you did with every gospel opportunity you ever had.

First Baptist Church… LET’S BE FAITHFUL!!!