PreChristian Missionaries for Jesus

Scripture Reading

Luke 9:1–11 NKJV

Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece. “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And whoever will not receive you, when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Now Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him; and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had risen from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the old prophets had risen again. Herod said, “John I have beheaded, but who is this of whom I hear such things?” So he sought to see Him. And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.

I. Why send the twelve?

Since Jesus was right there on earth, why send out twelve imperfect men, when surely Jesus can already do it better? I mean, the disciples are good men (except for Judas), but they can never be as good as Jesus.

Because of the urgency of Jesus’ mission. He had to get the word out more quickly. Matt 9:35-38 is often used for an appeal for modern evangelism or missions, and it is certainly an appropriate application. But I want you to realize that Jesus appeal for more laborers is given at a particular time and place. We already saw in the last passage that Jesus’ popularity is growing exponentially. That popularity is putting Jesus on an inevitable collision course with the Jewish religious leaders, the Scribes/Pharisees who taught in every town, and the chief priests/Sadducees who led the temple worship. Jesus knows that this opposition will only grow, and that eventually that will mean the end of his ministry. However, Jesus’ mission is to offer himself as the Annointed King of Israel. The majority of the people of Israel have to hear about this offer, if they are to be in a position to accept or reject it. Thus, Jesus’ time is growing short to get this message out. Because he has become incarnated as a man, he can only minister in one place at a time. There isn’t enough time for him to personally visit every town before the growing opposition forces Israel to make a choice. So Jesus delegates - he appoints his disciples to do the same job he is doing, with the same power that he has, so that every town and village in Israel will know about Jesus as Messiah in time for them to accept or reject the message.

Matthew 9:35–38 NKJV

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

II. Why give them power?

Now it is obvious Jesus granted them the authority to perform miracles at will. And these are the exact same miracles that Jesus himself was doing. They could cast out demons, and heal absolutely any sickness with a word or a touch. There’s no trick to it; they just needed to be specially empowered by Jesus himself. But why grant this power? It wasn’t to look cool; it wasn’t even just to help people. It was for the same purpose that Jesus himself had that power.

It’s because the disciples carried the same message that Jesus preached - the good news of the Kingdom of God. Now here the disciples’ message was directly from Jesus. They weren’t at this stage functioning as prophets, even though technically they heard it direct from God. But rather they were indirectly preaching the message of Jesus. However, because Jesus’ message was direct revelation, Jesus had to do miracles to prove he was who he claimed to be. Since the whole point of sending out the twelve was to go into towns and villages that Jesus’ hadn’t gone to yet, these people haven’t heard the message. So while theoretically people could compare their preaching with Jesus, practically they can’t do that; if they had already heard Jesus there wasn’t a point to be going there. So they need the same proof Jesus had - miracles. They are ambassadors of Jesus, they preach the same message, so they need the same proof.

III. What did they preach?

Jesus has two statements about what they are to preach. They preached the gospel (v.6) and the kingdom of God (v.2). Now we know what the gospel is - Jesus died for your sins and rose again, so that you do not have to pay the penalty and spend eternity in hell. If you ask him to forgive you, he will - every last sin you’ve ever committed; every last sin you ever will commit; every action; every attitude; every thought.

But if you think about it, the good news the disciples preached was slightly different - Jesus was still alive, so they didn’t go around proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus. Instead, they proclaimed that the Kingdom was near because the King is here; They proclaimed that Jesus only allows righteous people into his kingdom, and that you aren’t righteous, but can be forgiven. It’s good news because its a way for sinful people to be part of a perfectly righteous world, the perfect world Jesus was offering.

The other way the message is explained is that it was preaching about the Kingdom of God. What’s the Kingdom of God - it is a kingdom just as real and as earthly as the kingdoms of this world, but it will completely replace all of them. Dan 2:44. All the kingdoms of this world are doomed to certain destruction - all of them. God will replace them with his own Kingdom, one where true righteousness is required. One that is necessarily far better than anything this world has ever seen, because righteousness dwells there.

Daniel 2:44 NKJV

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.

IV. Why take nothing?

Not a vow of poverty, but a recognition of the value of the labor of preaching Matt 10:9-10.

The church doesn’t exist yet, so they aren’t supported by the voluntary giving of the church members; rather, they are supported by the hospitality of redeemed members of the nation of Israel in every town. It was God’s direction that they be supported by the nation to which they offered the Kingdom.

The standard by which each town would be judged is whether there was just one family that would accept their message enough to give them a place to stay and food to eat while they were there. That’s a pretty minimal standard.

If a town didn’t receive them, they were to shake the dust off of their feet, symbolically to get rid of everything possible from that town because that town was now under God’s judgment.

Because they were Jesus’ ambassadors, to fail to receive them was to fail to receive Jesus; and failure to receive Jesus was going to be severely judged.

This rule was retracted after the resurrection Luke 22:35-38, because Israel had rejected her Messiah so their support could no longer come from a whole town, but was eventually transferred to the church. Thus, modern preachers don’t and shouldn’t take a vow of poverty.

V. How did it go?

1. The Spread of the Message produced Conviction

The point of the disciples’ mission was the spread of Jesus message of the good news of the Kingdom of God. It clearly worked as the message spread all the way to Herod. Furthermore, people were convicted - Herod was not and did not receive Jesus’ message, but he felt his guilt for beheading John the Baptist, so he listened to those who speculated that Jesus was John come to life. But if an evil man like Herod was convicted, then what of the rest of the people? I think many people were convicted. That doesn’t mean they followed through and repented. You can choose to respond to conviction of sin by repentance, or by turning away from the message of the gospel. Herod chose the latter.

Herod, incidentally, eventually did get to meet Jesus, but at Jesus’ trial Luke 23:8-12. Pilate had sent Jesus to Herod, because Pilate didn’t want to render a judgment on a man he knew was innocent. It didn’t work, as Herod couldn’t get anything out of Jesus, and didn’t see the miracle he was hoping for. However, he did get reconciled to Pilate.

Luke 23:8–12 NKJV

Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him. Then he questioned Him with many words, but He answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused Him. Then Herod, with his men of war, treated Him with contempt and mocked Him, arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe, and sent Him back to Pilate. That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.

2. The Spread of the Message produced Confusion

With the spread of the message accelerating, people needed to choose what they would do with Jesus. Everyone agreed that he was some kind of prophet; no one could agree on which one. This was inadequate, as Jesus was presenting himself as more than a prophet, but the Messiah. People were confused because they weren’t actually buying into the whole message, even though they liked the messengers and they liked Jesus very much.

3. The Labor of the Messengers requires rest and reflection

When the “apostles” (send ones, i.e. ambassadors for somebody) returned Jesus had them go aside privately. Why? After all, there’s a big job to do, big enough that Jesus delegated responsibility to them so they could get the message out in time. So why rest? Because they need it. Traveling is exhausting, and ministry is exhausting. Worn out ministers don’t minister as effectively as ones that get adequate rest.

But they also need to reflect on their ministry, with Jesus to help them reflect. Time to just reflect is also important, as it allows the ministers to evaluate how they did and put things in perspective so they can improve. If Jesus and his disciples took time to rest and reflect when they had an urgent task, how much more should we?

4. The Labor of Ministry is not always convenient

However, Jesus’ popularity hits again, so even though Jesus and his disciples need time to rest and reflect, they aren’t going to get much. That’s because the crowds follow Jesus; so instead of getting the rest that they planned on, Jesus ends up jumping right back into ministry.

Jesus appointed others to do ministry on his behalf - and looks for servants still.

Jesus granted the disciples the ability to authenticate their ministry - and still does.

Jesus ordained that his servants should be supported by those who receive his message - and still does.

The Message created confusion and conviction from the beginning.

The Labor of ministry still demands adequate rest and time to reflect, but sometimes service is necessary when not convenient.