Sermon Tone Analysis

Bible Reading

Introduction

When I was much younger in primary school, there was a time in my life that I attended the local boy scout group (although it was called cubs, because of the age).

I was never the best of boy scouts, but one of the key things that I remember from those days is the boy scout motto: “Always prepared”

It was repeatedly stated, and you were repeatedly encouraged to be prepared under each and every circumstance to survive, and to help those who needed help.

And since those days, I’ve always remembered, when asking if I should take something along with me on a journey, “always be prepared”.

Go prepared for every eventuality, and make sure you’re ready for it.

I’ve heard that the girl guides / scouts use a similar motto, although I think for them it takes less training to do it, but comes more naturally.

It’s in the makeup of women to be prepared and to ensure that things are prepared for most eventualities, particularly when it comes to children.

In our years of having children, probably the most critical task prior to heading out of the house to go and do something was to ensure that the baby bag was packed and ready for any eventuality.

Extra nappies, extra baby grows, shorts, shirts, long sleeve tops, short sleeve tops, at least 2 or 3 changes of everything, because being children, they’ll mess just about as many pairs of clothes as you pack for them…food, snacks, water bottles…wipes…you name it, it’s got to go into the bag.

As you can imagine it’s a large bag.

The point is that when we would go out, it would always be in such a way that you are prepared for every eventuality.

The point is that when we would go out, it would always be in such a way that you are prepared for every eventuality.

Being prepared is not a bad thing.

In fact, the Scriptures themselves speak about being in a state of readiness…For example...

But as we come to our text this morning, we come to a passage in which Christ instructs His disciples to make a remarkable break from normal human wisdom and instinct.

He is about to thrust them out into the ministry and proclamation of the Gospel, and in conjunction with that, they are going to be told to go out with next to nothing.

We find ourselves this morning in a very important time in the ministry of Christ.

Up until this point, we’ve had our attention focused on the fact that Jesus Christ is out ministering and proclaiming the Gospel, and the disciples are following Him around.

He is their teacher, and they are His students.

But the one that has been doing the ministering is Jesus Christ.

Up until this point, we’ve had our attention focused on the fact that Jesus Christ is out ministering and proclaiming the Gospel, and the disciples are following Him around.

He is their teacher, and they are His students.

But the one that has been doing the ministering is Jesus Christ.

As we arrive at this passage this morning, there is a shift that takes place.

Christ here conveys authority onto His disciples, and tasks them with the taking out and conveying of the Gospel message.

The expansion of the church is about to take on new dimensions here.

As we look at this text, recall that Christ has just been rejected by His home town.

He was there proclaiming the Gospel, teaching in the synagogue, but the people knew him, and they knew that he was a carpenter, and so they dispised Him, and ultimately they drove him out of their town (even tried to kill him).

Christ has just been rejected by His home town.

He was there proclaiming the Gospel, teaching in the synagogue, but the people knew him, and they knew that he was a carpenter, and so they dispised Him, and ultimately they drove him out of their town (even tried to kill him).

And so Jesus has been rejected, but this doesn’t stop His ministry.

According to verse 6b, Jesus went around teaching from village to village.

He simply carries on His ministry.

And that brings us this morning to verse 7, where we’re going to be pick up this story.

1.

The Call (v.6b-7)

He begins by calling the 12 disciples to Himself (v.7a).

He begins by calling the 12 disciples to Himself (v.7a) and then sending them out.

The 12 were those who had been called previously by Christ to follow Him.

They had walked alongside Him.

They had been eye witnesses of the miracles that He performed.

They had been alongside Him as He taught.

For all of that time as they had been doing this, living life alongside the Saviour, it was the time that they were gaining exposure and being prepared to go out themselves in order to be Christ’s ambassadors.

And so when the right time comes, He gathers them around Him, and sends them out.

They did not determine the time that they would go.

They did not even decide or establish what it was that they were to do when they went.

Now as we consider this, I’d like us to just consider for a moment that at this point that these disciples are being sent out as ambassadors for Jesus Christ.

Everything was established by Christ.

But what was their state of preparedness?

He was the determiner of them going.

He was the One who sent them.

He was the one giving the instructions.

And the reason that I ask this question is that so often we perhaps think that we are never suitably equipped or qualified to be going out and proclaiming the Gospel message ourselves.

As the church, we always need to keep in mind that God has set forth His ways and His means of things being done within His kingdom work, and we would do well to follow the instructions that He sets down.

But if there’s one thing we learn from this is that the disciples were by no means perfect theologians.

They had only been trained for a short period of time by Christ, and they had much to learn, and they would continue to learn much, and even be corrected much by Christ.

He has not only given us His word in order to determine these instructions, but He has established His church - the body - with Christ as the head.

But Christ nonetheless sends them out 2 by 2.

The Spirit of God dwells within the hearts and lives of His people, who then gather together as the body, and it is this body through which Christ has chosen to work in terms of the extension of the kingdom in our own day.

If you are concerned that you are ill-equipped to go out and proclaim the basic Gospel message, be encouraged by the example that Christ gives through His disciples.

It is within

And so as in the case where it was Christ who called specific disciples, trained them, equipped them, and then sent them out at the appropriate time, so it is that within our day, Christ issues the call through the church and its proclmation of the Gospel, and Christ equips and trains disciples through the church as the saints exercise their spiritual gifts, and then Christ even so chooses to send out select believers from within that context, through the confirmation that is given by the church.

As a Christian, you too have been given the Holy Spirit to dwell within you and to empower you, and it is through the working of the Spirit that will be enabled, if you will but trust in Him to work.

No individual should on his own determine that Christ is calling him to a ministry or to a task in Christian service if the church has not first recognised this and confirmed it.

But lest us consider further…I mentioned that the disciples were being sent out as ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

Indeed, disciples are the very representatives of Jesus Christ.

They are His ambassadors.

They were being sent out as co-workers of Jesus.

This is the wording of , where Paul talks about the message of reconciliation.

That, dear friends, is a powerful truth.

That Christ was here sending out ambassadors!!

And so any person who would claim to act as a representative of Christ must ensure that they are only acting in accordance with the revelation of Christ, and that is the revelation of His word, the Scriptures.

Ambassadors for Christ, and ambassadors for the creator God Himself.

And what a humbling thought that this is what you and I are, if we are in Jesus Christ.

As Christ sends out the disciples, however, He does so giving them authority.

In particular, they would have authority over all the evil spirits and demons, and the power to heal.

They did not simply go out and have no authority or power to demonstrate that the work that they were doing was indeed from Christ.

They did not simply go out and have no authority or power to demonstrate that the work that they were doing was indeed from Christ.

They went out as those sent by Christ, and as those who had been given authority to perform certain miracles in order to confirm their appointment.

Jesus gave them authority over evil spirits.

You will recall that as Christ has been teaching and preaching around Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee, He has not been merely teaching and preaching, but He has been healing.

In other words, His message was being authenticated by the miraculous works that He performed.

Why was this so important?

Well because the people didn’t know who it was that would be sent as the redeemer, and who to look for in order to ensure that they were trusting in the correct Messiah.

That’s why John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him: “Are you the one to come, or should we wait for another?”

And the response of Jesus was to point to the miracles that He was performing as a proof that He was indeed the one to come.

And so it is that Christ at this point not only has been performing miracles, but He conveys this authority onto His disciples as they take out the kingdom message.

So they too will have the ability to perform these signs and wonders, which will then authenticate the ministry and message that they are proclaiming.

When they went out into the streets, calling on people to repent of their sin, and to follow the man Jesus Christ, claiming to the people that this man was indeed the Messiah, the people would be able to ask them: “but why should we listen to you?

What will demonstrate to us that you’re telling the truth, and that this is in fact the man that we are to follow?”

And the disciples could then say: Look at the signs that we perform.

Here is the demonstration that our message is authentic.

Here is the confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah, and that you need not look for another.

Now we need to understand that in our day and age, it is senseless for us to think that these words apply directly to us.

The ability to cast out demons and have this demonstration of authority was given particularly to the disciples as an authenticating sign that the man they proclaimed, Jesus Christ, was indeed the Messiah.

In our day and age, with the full revelation of God, from Genesis, all the way to the end of the prophets, and then the Gospel message of Christ in the Gospels, and the subsequent writings of the Apostles, we have established for us, and know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Messiah of the world has come, and His name was Jesus.

He lived growing up in Nazareth, lived a perfect life of obedience to His Father, and then was crucified at Calvary.

And this is the Christ that is to be served.

And so those who would claim to be performing miraculous signs in just the same way that the Apostles did, well I’d have to ask what for?