Equipped and Empowered Luke 9:1-9

Most of you know that I spent a large majority of my adult life waiting tables for a living.

I was pretty good at my job. Part of that was b/c I did it for so long, the other part was b/c I had good trainers.

In every restaurant I worked in I would eventually become a trainer.

Meaning that when we hired new servers it would by my Job to teach them the ropes.

Depending on the restaurant the training days would be between 4-7 shifts.

My favorite shifts to train were the last couple.

On those last couple of shifts, the trainees had been taught what they needed to know and would run the section for me.

I would simply be there for support and observation.

During this time I would be able to tell the managers if they needed more time or if they were ready to hit the floor solo.

Every good teacher and trainer knows that knowledge is only great if it is applied.

We’ve talked about this in other settings, but if you want to know something, truly know something you have to use it and teach it.

Well Jesus is the best teacher and trainer that has ever existed.

And at this point in Luke, his disciples have been with him for a little while.

They have watched him heal the sick.

Cast out demons.

Calm the winds and the waves.

And a few of them have even seen him raise a girl from the dead.

Jesus knows that his time on earth isn’t long.

So he needs to test the disciples.

In the section we are going to look at this morning, we are going to read about Jesus sending out the 12 to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God.

After all, that’s what they are being trained to do.

Jesus chose them to be the ones to carry on his message after he’s gone.

They don’t fully understand or comprehend what’s ahead of them, but Jesus is going to let them loose into the world.

Jesus knows that his time on this earth isn’t much longer.

He’s going to go back to the Father and sit enthroned till he comes back.

So he needs to prepare his followers to continue on the work he’s set out for them.

What they are going to do during this time is what they will continue to do when Jesus dies, resurrects, and ascends to the Father.

That’s going to be verses 1-6

Then in 7-9 we will see another person’s response to Jesus.

Let’s pray.

Luke 9:1–6 CSB

1 Summoning the Twelve, he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. 2 Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 “Take nothing for the road,” he told them, “no staff, no traveling bag, no bread, no money; and don’t take an extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. 5 If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they went out and traveled from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere.

Luke 9:1–2 CSB

1 Summoning the Twelve, he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. 2 Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Sending in Power

This sending of the 12 is an important foreshadowing of their calling after Jesus departs from them.

Remember Luke is the author of both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts.

So knowing that keeps us in anticipation of what he’s going to cover in Acts.

Like stated earlier, this a test run, so to speak for the 12.

But Jesus isn’t sending them blindly.

He’s trained them.

He’s taught them.

He’s shown them what his ministry is going to look like.

And here we see that he equips and empowers them.

How exactly does he do that?

Well v. 1 says that he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.

What exactly are power and authority?

Power is the capacity and energy to do something.

While authority is the right to use it.

The use and capacity to perform these miracles are solely based upon the mandate of Jesus.

The disciples can’t go about willy-nilly.

They can’t do anything outside of the gift that Jesus has given them.

The power and authority aren’t given to rouge agents bent on glorifying their own name.

No, they submit to Jesus’ power and authority, and he grants them his to do what he sent them to do.

I love this about Jesus.

Typical humans want to hoard power.

They want to accumulate more and more power.

Keeping it all to themselves, but Jesus, in the building of his community.

In the equipping of his ambassadors gives them power and authority.

He gives these 12 what they need to accomplish the mission they are being set on.

Notice that they can’t do anything apart from his power and authority.

The power they are given is derived and bestowed upon them by Jesus.

He is the source of the power.

He wields the authority.

And he shares it with them.

This is the same power and authority that has been shown on display from Jesus’ ministry.

Power to cast out demons and heal the sick.

Again these are the things that we see play out in Acts.

We don’t get to witness the disciples cast out demons or heal the sick in Luke, but it will be revealed in the sequel.

Notice, the sequence of how Luke communicates this truth.

Luke 9:1–2 CSB

1 Summoning the Twelve, he gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. 2 Then he sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

They were empowered, then they were sent.

But what were they sent to do?

Proclaim the kingdom of God.

As we will continue to go back to, the miracles always serve the message.

The miracles are always the handmaidens of something greater.

The message is the center of the gospel.

The miracles demonstrate the message, but without the message there is no hope.

there is no truth.

There is no good news.

The reason they were sent out was not to heal the sick and cast out demons.

They were sent to proclaim the kingdom of God.

And supplemental to that was the ability to heal and cast out demons.

I want to stress this b/c like many things in life, people like to polarize.

There are ministries out there that focus on deliverance and healing and miss the gospel.

May it not be so.

As we have seen, though the body might be healed, if the soul perishes there is great loss.

At the same time, we also have to be aware that there are physical needs of people.

There are ministry that solely focus on preaching the gospel while ignoring the needs of the people.

William Booth, “You cannot warm the hearts of people with God’s love if they have an empty stomach and cold feet.”

This is the balance that we see even in Jesus’ ministry and the ministry he’s sending the 12 out on.

Proclaim the good news and meet the needs of those who hurt.

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of either or, but we need to recognize that the gospel of Jesus isn’t either or…it’s both and.

Primarily we want to tell people to repent of their sins.

Turn from their wickedness and embrace the Love of God.

But also if they can’t afford food, if their electricity got turned off, if they need a hug, or prayer, we can’t neglect those things either.

This type of ministry mirrors and reflects Jesus’ ministry of word and deed.

Hope proclaimed in the gospel of the kingdom of God.

And a demonstration of the kingdom through the actions of those who have been saved by him.

I read this as I was studying for this morning:

“Telling unbelievers that God cares should be reinforced by evidences of such caring.”

Have you ever wondered why there are so many people out in the world that hate the church?

Obviously the primary reason is that darkness hates the light.

But what if instead of blaming the hatred all on a world versus the church mentality, we started taking some personal responsibility for the hatred.

Maybe the church is hated b/c we have abandoned what the church is called to do.

Instead of preaching the good news of salvation and forgiveness of sins, we go around condemning people, judging them unrighteously.

Making our self-righteousness a mark of our superiority.

We don’t mind calling out the sin and wickedness, but we stop just shy of calling them to repentance.

Not only that, but while we steep in the cesspool of our own self-righteousness, we look at people who are hurting who are struggling.

and instead of lending a helping hand we tell them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

We call them lazy and unmotivated without showing them the love and compassion of God.

This is not doing what the Lord has called us to do as his ambassadors.

We need to tell those who don’t believe about the God who came to save, and demonstrate his love for them through our actions.

This is what the disciples that were sent out were going to do.

I think part of the reason that the church has fallen into disarray is b/c we’ve taken cues from culture.

Rather than stand on the word of God we want to cater to the whims of the world.

Much of the most popular preaching today is man-centered rather than God-centered.

People are concerned with what makes them happy and feel good.

So to draw crowds and keep the money flowing, we cater to them.

Now, I’m not saying all the churches do that, but I’ve known several who have.

But if we take our cues from Jesus and the Scripture, we see that Jesus tells us to preach about the kingdom of God.

And yes, there is healing.

Yes, there is restoration.

Yes, there is wholeness.

But the primary concern with the Kingdom and the gospel is us making much of God.

Even if we stay sick.

Even if our bodies remain broken.

Even if our spirits aren’t restored.

The Lord is still worth of all glory honor and praise.

Not just b/c of what he does, but primarily b/c of who he is.

Having the proper view of his kingdom and character fixes our man centered gospel and places the good news where it belongs.

If we just look at what the disciples left behind in their writings in the new testament, we will see that their view of God is much grander than many of the self-proclaiming Christians today.

This is what they learned from Jesus.

And now they get to go and tell others.

Now it would be pretty cool to be in the disciples footsteps here.

Jesus gives them power and authority.

He gives them the opportunity to go where he isn’t, to preach the gospel.

The excitement had to palatable.

I mean this is the beginnings of the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to Peter in Luke 5:10 “...“Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.””

That is until he gives them further instructions.

Luke 9:3–6 CSB

3 “Take nothing for the road,” he told them, “no staff, no traveling bag, no bread, no money; and don’t take an extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there. 5 If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they went out and traveled from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere.

Provision and Rejection

Jesus here in his instructions to his disciples gives some instructions on what they can take, where they, stay, and when they leave.

The first instruction that Jesus gives is for the disciples to not take anything with them.

They are not allowed to take any luggage or baggage with them.

Essentially they can only take the shirts off their backs.

I don’t know about you, but when we travel as a family, we are busting at the seems with luggage.

And usually we are going to stay with family or friends who have things that we may need.

the Disciples are going into places blind.

They don’t know who will be there.

They don’t know what provisions they may need.

They don’t even know if they will have a place to stay.

And even still, Jesus says, don’t take anything.

Why would the Lord command this of his disciples?

One of the reasons that Jesus tells them to take nothing on the road with them is for them to stand in contrast to the peddlers of religion and philosophy of their day.

In their time, those who went around teaching and proclaiming their message usually came in their own glory.

These charlatans were in the business of making money, so they traveled in extravagance to at least show the importance of their message and get people to buy in.

I guess it’s was kind of like today’s adage, “Dress for success.”

But Jesus wanted his disciples to be viewed differently.

Not only did they have a better message, but they weren’t interested in profiting off the message.

The message of the kingdom of God isn’t for worldly profit.

It can’t be bought and sold.

The message is about the free gift of God’s grace to those who believe.

In addition to not looking like their contemporaries, taking nothing on their journey demonstrated a full and total reliance on God providing for them.

How much of an act of faith is it that these men are going to travel without money.

Rely on the generosity of others.

Trusting in the providence of God with simply the shirts on their backs.

Let’s not forget that all this is an out working of Jesus’ parable of the Sower from Chap. 8.

The disciples have an opportunity to demonstrate authentic faith.

They will not be choked out by the riches of this world b/c they will have no riches.

They will have the opportunity to shun the comforts of the life they lead and lean on the grace of the Lord.

This exercise of faith in God to sustain them will help them tremendously when Jesus’ ascends into heaven.

This is a grace of the Lord to provide them with the chance to grow now so in the future they can look back on it as not just their faith, but His Faithfulness.

I think that this is instructive for modern Christians.

I don’t know what it is, but for many Christians we equate comfort with God’s provision.

We can so easily fall into the trap that if we are uncomfortable then God isn’t blessing us.

Where what we see here with the disciples is that their discomfort was obedience and God’s Blessing.

We can all look around and see that the church is declining in attendance.

That the generations coming up are less interested in the things of God.

And one of the contributing factors to that is comfort and complacency.

We don’t have to rely on God if we have the comfort of this world.

What’s worse than that, is that not only do those outside the church fall into the trap of comfort and complacency, but so do we inside the church.

We don’t want things to change.

We don’t want things to be hard.

We don’t want to sacrifice for the kingdom.

We would rather have our kingdom here and now if His kingdom means being uncomfortable.

But what we must recognize is that “Comfort-seekers have never done anything for the Christ and his kingdom.”

To be committed to Jesus is to be committed to being uncomfortable.

Later on in chapter 9 Jesus says Luke 9:58 “58 Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.””

This is in response to someone asking to follow after him.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: To follow after Jesus will cost us something.

Stepping out in faith and obedience will cost us something.

To do what the Lord expects us to do will cost us something.

It may be time, energy, money, it may even be our comfort, but we should gladly step out in obedience b/c of who he is and the gift of salvation that he offers.

That’s what these disciples are going to do.

Though it makes no sense.

Though it goes against their every inclination.

They have faith that they will be provided for.

In addition to not taking anything with them, Jesus also tells them to be content with the Lord’s provision.

That’s what he means when he tells them to stay in the same house.

This again will keep them from getting distracted by worldly goods.

God is going to provide them with a place to stay.

and they shouldn’t be looking for somewhere nicer or better.

Rather they should find contentment in the provision.

That’s an act of faith too.

Not looking for somewhere else to stay, but being grateful for the hospitality they receive.

All of this takes a tremendous act of faith and reliance on God.

And yet, Jesus also prepares them for the reality that they will be rejected.

That there will be some who don’t welcome them.

There will be some who reject the message of the kingdom.

This is a reality whenever the kingdom of god is proclaimed.

Some will be hospitable.

Others will be hostile.

And Jesus gives them an out when they reach hostility.

Luke 9:5 “5 If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.””

This was a Jewish practice when they would travel throughout towns that may have been unclean.

It was seen as a way to purify and cleanse the traveler from the uncleanliness of the area.

However, it served a different purpose for the disciples.

Remember the Disciples are going to travel to Jewish towns and provinces.

These towns that don’t accept the message are now seen as outside of God’s family.

The shaking off of the dust is an act of judgment and a warning that they need to repent and follow Jesus.

Judgment is coming and the people in these towns need to repent.

Notice that the disciples don’t have to stick around and endure hostility.

They simply can preach the kingdom and walk away.

This is instructive for us.

As long as we have proclaimed the truth of the gospel.

As long as we have done our job we don’t have to worry about how people respond.

Some will reject the message, so we dust off our feet and continue off.

We don’t have to seek out martyrdom.

This doesn’t mean that we avoid persecution seeking comfort.

But rather that sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes leaving people to stew in the coming judgment is right.

And then in v. 6 we read that the disciples went out and did what Jesus commanded them.

They went to proclaim the good news.

Even though they knew the road would be hard.

Even though they had to leave everything behind.

Even though they knew that they would face hostility.

They went anyway.

Why did they go?

First, b/c Jesus commanded them to go.

Second, b/c they had and knew the good news of the kingdom of God.

They couldn’t help but share it.

I want us to see the totality of the reliance on God that they had.

From the empowering and equipping given to them from Jesus.

To the instruction to leave everything behind and travel throughout the region.

They completely relied on God to do the work.

Preparing the places they would travel.

Giving them to words to speak.

Providing the opportunity to be a blessing.

It was all an act of God.

And I wish that we, I wish that I, was more like them.

It’s easy to get into the mindset that we have to have everything just right.

That all the “t’s” need to be crossed, and all the “i’s” need to be dotted.

That we forget who really is in charge.

We forget that the only thing that we are in control of is our obedience.

This leaves us ultimately powerless in the outcomes and in the provisions.

But isn’t that where our faith has a chance to grow and florish.

I pray that we as a church would look at the actions of these 12 and beg God for a faith like that.

A faith that goes out to proclaim the good news to the lost and hopeless.

We have the best message in the world .

We have the greatest hope in the universe.

We know the God who died and came back.

we know the God who restores the broken.

Who heals hearts.

Who restores.

Who raises people from the dead.

The power that was given to these disciples is still alive and well today.

And it primarily shows itself in the changed lives of those who follow Jesus through faith in him.

Sinners transformed into lovers of God and his word.

Miracles still happen.

and that’s something to be excited about.

======

The last 3 verses of this section we will look at quickly.

Luke shifts our focus off of the disciples and Jesus for just a moment.

The question that been asked over the last several weeks is the question “Who is Jesus?”

And Luke let’s us in on another person who is asking this question.

Luke 9:7–9 CSB

7 Herod the tetrarch heard about everything that was going on. He was perplexed, because some said that John had been raised from the dead, 8 some that Elijah had appeared, and others that one of the ancient prophets had risen. 9 “I beheaded John,” Herod said, “but who is this I hear such things about?” And he wanted to see him.

Who is This?

Luke introduces us briefly to Herod.

He’s the son of the Herod that tried to have Jesus killed.

He’s getting reports of this Jesus guy, but he has no idea what to think about him.

He’s heard that Jesus is a prophet.

Or maybe he’s John raised from the dead.

And obviously we know who Jesus is, but there are 2 things that I want us to see.

Jesus’ ministry and message have raised in the ranks.

He’s growing in popularity and Herod is interested in him.

That people in power are now hearing about him.

That they need to do something with the information about Jesus too.

And tucked away in this little vignette we get a sense of danger for the disciples and Jesus.

We are let in on the information that Herod has beheaded John.

We haven’t heard from or about John since he was imprisoned.

So Luke, is using this opportunity to begin warning us about whats to come for the disciples and Jesus.

This is a type of foreshadowing that Herod isn’t opposed to destroying those who oppose him. That those who align themselves with John (Jesus) may endure the same fate. Preparation for the disciples. The cost of discipleship. The cost of following Jesus.

But regardless of the cost, even if it’s our life, we need to be willing to lay it down for the sake of the greatest good which is God’s Glory and the message of the kingdom of God.

Let’s Pray.