The Church has been Commissioned

Introduction: Benjamin Franklin was the 1st American Ambassador to go and secure the help of the nation to recognize and support America as a nation. he was backed by the authority of the colonies, dependent upon our future nation that sent him. He knew the task could go good or bad but stayed the course for 3 years and secured the assistance needed to defeat England and secure the nation which we call the united states.

1. Jesus summons His church to go out with His authority (7)

the word summon means to authoritatively communicate a demand for the presence or participation of another.

the disciples were not called apostles yet but were being commissioned to do the main work of an apostle, to be a sent out one. Apostello means to be dispatched with a designated purpose.

The verb translated “sent” is apostellein and carries with it the idea of official representation. (Wessel, Mark)

RT France said, the disciples have not yet been ‘sent out’ as fishers of men; they have been extras rather than actors in the proclamation of the kingdom of God. Just as Jesus was known as preacher, exorcist and healer, they would now be know in the same manner. (France, Gospel of Mark)

This very summoning and commissioning is just as real for you the church today as it was for the disciples all those years ago. They were headed on a short term mission trip, and some of our people have done that this year and I pray that only continues! But when you came to faith in Jesus, you were summoned to leave sin and come and follow Jesus. In that following, Jesus now sends you…

When Jesus summoned them and told them they were going out, Jesus gave them authority over the unclean spirits

this was not their authority they now owned. NO! this was God’s authority, power, over the powers of hell.

The imperfect tense ἐδιδου [edidou] means he kept on giving them all through the tour, a continuous power ( Robertson, A. T. Word Pictures in the New Testament.)

They had been empowered! From God!

Last week we saw as Jesus taught in the synagogue the people were offended by Jesus and wanted to know where He got His wisdom and His power!

The disciples were being given Jesus’ authority/power which all things are in submission to.

Matthew 28 Jesus tells his disciples that all authority/power has been given to him, therefore go…This we now know is the commission the church is called to. Go make disciples, baptize new converts, teach them to obey the commands of Jesus, and remember Jesus is with you until the end of the age…aka when you go Jesus is with you and so is His authority/power.

What does this power look like…He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come (Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2020, p. Eph 1:20–21.)

Therefore as you are going, it’s not going to be easy to fulfill the mission. Ephesians 6 shows us that…

Ephesians 6:12 CSB

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.

h. But check out this statement I jotted down from the Holy Spirit…If every issue is a spiritual issue then all of our habitual sins, desires, temptations, are spiritual issues. If these are spiritual issues then we need spiritual power to resist, defeat, walk in holiness. Correct? We have the authority of Jesus over the principalities of darkness, therefore there’s not a sin, or spiritual battle that can’t be won when we have the power/authority of Jesus.

i. SO to recap: just as the disciples were summoned and sent, you and I are His church and we are summoned and sent. WE now live out our lives, going in the power of Christ over the principalities of darkness. Therefore accept your mission, no longer be controlled by your habits, sins, desires, and walk in this power with the desire to spend every day as a sent ambassador of the kingdom of God.

Tozer said, Young man, the president of the United States could call you to Washington, commission you as an ambassador of your country and send you off on important missions to other nations—but how much greater for you to be owned and commissioned and empowered and sent from God on His business and for His glory.

No king and no president has authority and power enough to bestow that greatest of all honors—to be owned and honored and sent from God!

John 1:6–7; 2 Corinthians 5:19–21; 1 Timothy 1:12–15

Christ the Eternal Son, 120.

A. W. Tozer

Transition statement: If the church is summoned, commissioned and empowered how does she go? In total dependence…

2. Jesus expects total dependence upon Him. (8-10)

Before they disciples left for their short-term mission trip Jesus gave them some strict requirements.

They weren’t to carry much with them: staff and shoes

They weren’t to carry: bread, traveling bag, money, nor extra clothes.

The disciples were to be totally dependent upon the hospitality of others, inevitably the provision of God.

This was a mission of faith, like we saw in the last chapter with the woman with the sickness and the leader who’s daughter died. They acted in faith and God provided! the disciples would now go on mission in faith that God would provide.

Where God guides, He provides.

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e. The Lord sent them and expected that this mission was of upmost importance and would be one that they needed to learn total dependence upon Him!

f. to be committed to the mission of God is to show that nothing in this world, especially worldly possession are the reason to not be on the mission God has sent His church!

g. RT France said, “but to emphasise that loyalty to the kingdom of God leaves no room for a prior attachment to material security” (France, Mark)

h. the final command was to accept the hospitality and not bounce around looking for a better option. Wessel states, Jesus wanted his disciples to trust in the provisions of the Lord each night and to honor that by accepting what was provided!

What about us? Do we trust in the Lord’s provision?

What if the mission is hot, sticky, dirty, smelly?

What if there’s only a little food? What if we have to use an outhouse?

What if my neighbor is a grouch? What is my boss won’t talk?

What if my children are cold to the gospel, the church, etc.?

What if i haven’t been obedient to this commission in the past? What if i have complained about the small provisions?

What if I don’t have enough money to go on mission trip? What if God calls me to take a vacation week and serve the kingdom on a mission trip, at camp, in a shelter?

What if God calls me to not travel so much in retirement and find ways to serve the kingdom right here, and so much more than i have been doing. Maybe more than ever in my life?

Transition: When the church is summoned and sent in the power of God, she goes in total dependence on the Lord. She knows ahead of time that going to a lost world will get an acceptance of the message by some and the denial by others.

3. Jesus know some will receive grace while others will drink judgement on themselves (11)

The disciples’ message, like that of Jesus, brings judgment as well as salvation. This always happens when the gospel is preached. (Wessel, Mark)

This implies that there are two responses to the gospel (living it out or preaching it)…the acceptance of the gospel by some and the refusal to listen to the gospel or to accept the existence of Christians by others.

What Jesus prescribed was a symbolic action in the tradition of the ancient prophets to indicate first a warning and then judgment if rejection of the message and messengers persisted. The action may also symbolize that a town which rejected the message of the disciples was not a part of the true Israel (Brooks, James A. Mark.)

4. The Jews would stop outside their city and shake the dust out of their sandals that would be from pagan nations as a symbol not to defile God’s people and place.

5. Some people will reject even your existence as a Christian and thats ok b/c we remember what Christ told his disciples…before they rejected you they rejected me.

6. Notice what Paul does when Silas, Timothy arrive and the gospel is being preached to the Jews…

Acts 18:5–6 CSB

When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself to preaching the word and testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. When they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his clothes and told them, “Your blood is on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

7. When people reject the gospel you speak and believe in and this shouldn’t anger us but break us, b/c as John Butler once said the more the gospel is rejected, then the invitation is being withdrawn.

Apostasy, as we will see, is the sin of rejecting the gospel for which there is no forgiveness.

John F. MacArthur

If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.

Saint Augustine of Hippo

The preached gospel is offensive in all places of the world, rejected and condemned.

Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)

The disciples’ message, like that of Jesus, brings judgment as well as salvation. This always happens when the gospel is preached.(Wessel, Walter W. “Mark.”)

Knowing you are summoned and empowered to God, you and i must depend on the Lord while knowing that many will accept and many will reject the mission we are on. But we must go and fulfill this mission…lets look at how they did it.

4. Jesus expects the church to preach repentance, drive back the darkness, and care for the dying. (12-13)

The first thing I want you to see about this last point is they “went out.” They obeyed and went to do what they were told to do! Let me ask us this question…this last week did we obey the Lord and go where HE said to go with the mission of God?

The second thing i want you to see is they proclaimed that people must repent.

Back in Mark 1 Jesus said he came for this…to preach so he called the people to repent and believe the gospel b/c the time had come!

To preach means to herald. They were to make known what they had seen, heard, and believed.

Who’s the last person you or I have personally shared the good news of Jesus Christ with?

Who’s the last person you called to repentance?

The third thing they did was drive out demons.

what demons in your life need to be drove out? DO you have addictions, hidden sins, habitual sins, and so on?

Who’s the last person you laid down your life for to help drive the demons out of their lives?

Some of you should rethink the demons that try to disciple you and your family through music, video, and entertainment.

The church should pay closer attention to how these three seek to make your family a disciple to the belief system that is not of Christ.

Lastly the disciples healed folks.

Now you don’t have the ability to heal people. Even doctors are operating under the authority of God. Even medicine falls under the authority of God.

They were appointed to annoint and heal which olive oil baths were one way to perform medicnal actions to people.

i don’t recommend buying some Extra Virgin Olive Oil and start pouring it on all the sick folks they know.

But what do you do for the sick? How do you support, pray, give, be poured out like a drink offering for them?

Has the great saint of God would say…there’s a hymn for that…

Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

Refrain: Rescue the perishing, Care for the dying; Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.