Reliance on God

This morning, we are continuing through the book of Mark. Over the next few weeks, we are going to look at a mission trip that the apostles took and their return and in the middle of it, we will also look at the death of John the Baptist. Today, we will see the commissioning and sending of the Apostles.

Mark 6:7–13 ESV

7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Prayer

The other day, I read a story about a man named Charles Plumb. Charles graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was a fighter jet pilot in the Vietnam war. He had flown 74 successful combat missions before his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected out of his plane and parachuted to the ground where he was captured by the enemy. After his capture, he spent 6 years in a communist prison.

After gaining his freedom years later, he and his wife were sitting at a restaurant eating when a man from another table walked up to him. He asked him if his name was Plumb and if he was the man who flew jet fighters from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and was shot down in Vietnam. Charles told him it was and asked him how he knew him. The man told him that he was the one who packed his parachute. Charles Plumb told him that if it were not for him, he would not be alive today.

Maybe you have never flown a fighter jet and had to eject and rely on someone to pack your parachute, but we all know what it is like to rely on someone. As children, we rely on our parents to provide for us. As citizens of the US, we rely on our representatives to hear us and when we feel like this doesn’t happen, we need to speak up by voting. As employees, we rely on the boss to pay us on payday.

But, do we truly rely on God for everything in our lives?

We have no issue relying on others at times. As followers of Christ, we acknowledge that everything that we have is because it has been provided to us by God. So, when the rubber meets the road, do we rely on God? When our loved one is diagnosed with a terrible disease, do we rely on God to give us peace and comfort? When our marriage is failing, do we turn to God to experience true love so that we can show that to our spouse?

Sometimes, things do not go the way that we think they should. This is not when you have the thought that you should just do it yourself and do it in your own power.

Main Point - We must rely on God

When we go through this passage, we see that there is potential that things will not go in favor of the disciples. Yet, they must rely on God for what they are doing.

As we go through this passage, we see three specific ways that the disciples had to rely on God. We are going to take these three ways and translate them over to our lives as well.

Rely on God for Provision

In the verses leading up to this, Jesus and his disciples had visited Jesus’s hometown. Jesus was not welcomed there and found it hard to preform miracles as well because of their denial of him. At the end of verse 6, we see that Jesus left and he went to different villages teaching. That leads us into our passage today.

Mark 6:7 ESV

7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.

Being alone is not something that is desirable to have all of the time. And the disciples of Jesus did not need to go on their mission alone either. Jesus sent them out two by two. This is more than just practical. I am sure we can all see the practicality of traveling around in pairs. There is the aspect of protection. There is also an aspect of accountability. But it is more than that. Jesus is keeping with a cultural norm for their time. In this period, for anything to hold up in court, there must be two witnesses. We can find this in the book of Deuteronomy. So Jesus was doing this for legal protection too.

He also gave them authority over unclean spirits. In Mark 3, Jesus did the same thing. In essence, Jesus is making them extensions of himself. In our bible study on Wednesday, we mentioned that we are ambassadors of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 “20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” Jesus is making the disciples his ambassadors here. He is giving them the authority to cleanse people who have unclean spirits.

Today, we are extensions of Jesus in the world that we live in. Maybe we aren’t casting out demons. But we are speaking out against demonic behavior. We are sharing the gospel with others. We are providing for others needs. We are sent out, in the world that we live in, to be extensions of Jesus. We are missionaries right here in our community. And we have a message of hope. There are people who are suffering. We have seen such severe devastation happen here in our own state this week. These people may not be missionaries, but they are having to rely on God to supply the things that they need. We need to do the same.

Mark 6:8-9 (ESV)

Mark 6:8–9 ESV

8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

Jesus sends these men out, two by two, and tells them that they must rely on God to provide for them. He does tell them there are some things they can take. A staff, a belt, sandals, and a tunic(not two). You may think this is random and insignificant. But I assure you that there is nothing in scripture that is insignificant. For this to make sense, we must go backwards to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. God, as they were leaving Egypt, instructed them on what to take with them.

Exodus 12:11 ESV

11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

This is an instruction that God gave the Israelites for the passover right before their flee from Egypt. This passage is about judgment. Jesus did not give these instructions as a coincidence. Jesus knew what he was instructing. The verse in Exodus is referring to judgment and if they did not put blood on their house, they would be judged. But the judgment that the disciples are proclaiming here is an even greater judgment. This time, the judgment will not be for the Egyptians but it will be for the Israelites if they do not repent.

I think of all the stories of soldiers in war time being stranded with limited supplies. I think of people right this minute who are stranded and have no contact with the outside world. People who are wondering if anyone is even trying to help them.

This is why people need the hope of the gospel. (gospel pres.) To know that someone really does love them, and think about them, and care for them, and will provide for them. These disciples left out on their journey with minimal supplies with the confidence that God would provide for them.

Maybe the provision that you need today is not food or clothing or housing. Maybe the provision you need is love, hope, assurance, a family to be adopted into. God provides us with all of these things through the power of the gospel.

Rely on God for Placement

I have had several friends go through the process to become foster families with DSS. When you do this, you have to go through 10 weeks of classes, do interviews, have a home study and inspection, and then wait for what they call “a placement”. What this means is that you are opening up your house to someone who needs a safe environment and a loving family to take care of them. This is what the disciples are looking for in our passage.

Mark 6:10–11 ESV

10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”

I am not sure that I have been very clear on this or not, but this was not some vacation that the disciples were taking. I can remember a family member several years ago that took a “mission trip” to Honduras and they stayed in a resort while they were down there. This was not the mission trip that these disciples were taking. In fact, in verse 10, when Jesus tells them to stay at one house until they leave, he means leave the area. He is not saying that they need to stay until they find a better home to move into. Actually, he is saying the opposite. Even if you find better accommodations, stay in the house that opened up their doors to you.

Think about it like this. They are there because they have a message that everyone needs to hear. This message, it has urgency. If the people that are in the area see that these men are more concerned about their accommodations that the urgency of the message, then they will have no time for them. And we would be the same way. We would not want to give these men the time of day.

They had an important mission. The message of hope through Jesus. Just like us though, there is a sad reality that the message may not be welcomed. This doesn’t mean that we need to give up. In the world today, we have turned everything into being driven for success. You have to meet a goal at work or your job could be in jeopardy. You have to get a good grade or you will get punished. We live our lives in a manner that everything relies on our success. But gospel work is not like this. The success of the gospel does not rely on us. This is only a work of the Holy Spirit in someones life. Instead of success, we are measured by faithfulness.

By faithfulness I mean taking the opportunity that is in front of you to share the message of hope in Jesus with someone. I promise you that you will never regret sharing the gospel with someone. I have said it before, the gospel came to you while it was on its way to someone else. What I mean by that is that it is our job to share with others the hope that we have in Jesus. We have the greatest message that the world could ever hear. Why are people not busting at the gills trying to get into our churches? Why do we have empty pews each and every week? It isn’t because of the music that we play. People do not care what style of music we sing here. That is not going to stop them from coming. It isn’t because we don’t find ways to serve our community and love them, because we do that very well for a church our size. The reason is that we have a message of hope that we are keeping to ourselves. Church, we need to repent of this. When we leave here, we need to be finding people in our every day lives to share the message of hope with.

When God saves us, he sends us out. We have not been promised successful careers or that we will be healthy, wealthy, and wise. But we have been commissioned to take the gospel into our world. We do not have a choice often of where God takes us. It may be to the school house, and it may be to the big house. It may be next door, or it may be to the hospital door. We have to get out of our little boxes and comfort zones and be willing and ready to be used by God to draw other people in. Our church, every church should be full every single week.

God has placed each and every one of us uniquely where we are to be the hands and feet and mouthpieces of him. We need to rely on God for our placement.

Rely on God for Power in Proclamation

The word of God has power. If you are a child of God, it had the power to save you. This has not changed in the last 2,000 years.

Mark 6:12–13 ESV

12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

They proclaimed. There is a famous saying. Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words. This may have some good sentiment to it but this is one of the most ridiculous gospel statements ever made. Of course we have to use words. Romans 10:17 “17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Jesus used words. Jesus empowered his disciples to use words. Jesus instructs us to use words. If you come week in and week out, you hear me clearly say what the gospel is. The gospel is that God created man in his image. The first man Adam broke God’s law, which is sin, and in doing so, we have inherited this sin. We cannot pay for this sin ourselves because we are stained by this sin. We need someone to pay for it that is sinless. This is where Jesus comes in. Jesus is God. Jesus is sinless. And because Jesus was sinless, he went to the cross to die for our sins. After he died, he physically and literally rose from the grave. And when we put our faith and trust in him we are saved. This is the gospel. You hear me say this week in and week out for many reasons.

There may be someone here who is wondering what it takes to be saved. We do not arrange our service to cater to the world, but we do want them to know the truth of the gospel when they come through our doors.

We, as believers, need to be reminded of what Jesus did for us. How we need saved and he is the one who bought our salvation on the cross.

I want you to hear it to the point where you can almost say word for word the gospel as I present it. This gives you confidence when you are out there during the week and are sharing the gospel.

People are in great need of hope. They are looking for hope and we have the answer. The answer is the gospel. And the response to the gospel is to repent. This may not be a word that we use in everyday conversation. So what does it mean to repent. To repent means to turn to Jesus.

Repentance is a changed life. You are saying that the life you have always lived is over. That you now serve Jesus with everything that you have. Galatians 2:20 “20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It is Christ who lives in us and we live our life by faith in Jesus. The bible tells us that when we come to faith in Jesus, we are forever changed. Not changed for a week or a month or a year. We are forever changed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The old has passed away. That means the old you is dead. Gone. But you now have a new life in Christ.

They preached a message of repentance. If the word repentance was the first word out of the mouth of John the baptist, Jesus, and his apostles, then we need to understand how important it is.

Exalting Jesus in Mark Go Preaching the Word and Doing the Work of the Kingdom (Mark 6:12–13)

Thomas Watson, English Puritan (ca. 1620–1686), wrote a helpful treatise on repentance. He stated, “Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed”

Watson says that there are 6 ingredients for true repentance.

Sight of sin

You have to examine yourself. If you do not see your sin, you will not see a need of repentance.

Sorrow for sin

It should grieve us that we sin. We should see every single sin in our life as the reason that Jesus went to the cross.

Confession of sin

We should humble ourselves and admit specific sins. Call out to God and confess. Call a brother or sister in Christ and tell them what sins you are dealing with.

Shame for sin

Think to instances in scripture where sin was prevalent. It caused shame. When Adam and Eve first sinned, they hid because of their shame. The prodigal son did not think he deserved to be a son anymore because he was ashamed of his sin.

Hatred of sin

Repentance begins with a love of God and ends with a hatred of sin. True repentance means that you hate the thing that sent Jesus to the cross.

Turning from sin and returning to the Lord

Ezekiel 14:6 “6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations.” We are told to turn, leave behind all of the sins. Not just the public ones but also the private ones. The goal of repentance is to turn to God with everything that you have.

Here, in our passage, Jesus gave these men directives to go and preach repentance and gave them the ability to cast out demons. They were successful, not because they were talented or eloquent, but because of their reliance on God.

Do you truly rely on God for everything in your life?

Conclusion

I said that we are all missionaries. We are all called to share the hope of the gospel with others. Do not rely on your own power to do this. This is why we get discouraged and think that we are failing. Rely fully on God to give you the words and the power to share hope with others.

This is my charge to you. Be the hands and feet and mouth of Jesus. Don’t only help people with physical needs, share the gospel with them. We have what is missing in our world today. What are you going to do about it? The government is not going to fix our morality problem. Schools will not fix our problems. The only solution is Jesus. And we cannot expect our world to get better when we are sitting on the solution and not sharing it with others. Share the hope of the gospel with people this week. And do so while you are fully relying on God.

You may be here today and have never relied on God for anything. You have heard truth this morning. Now is the time to respond. Repent and believe the gospel. That Jesus died for you and now you will live for him.

Prayer.