The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

July 14, 2024

Mark 6:7-13

Meaningful Ministry —

Sent With God’s Own Authority!

7Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.

8These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. 10Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”

12They went out and preached that people should repent. 13They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Authority. “The power or right to give commands, enforce obedience, take action, or make final decisions.” That is how the dictionary defines the word “authority.” There are times and there are situations when we have authority. There are times and there are situations where we do not have authority. For example, parents have the authority to decide what their children will and will not do, what their children will and will not wear, and what their children will and will not eat. Those same parents, however, do not have the authority to make those same decisions for anyone else’s children.

A child might go to a sibling and tell them to do something or to stop doing something, but that does not mean that their sibling will listen to them. The sibling might respond by saying something like, “You’re not the boss of me!” However, if the first sibling responds by saying, “Dad said so!” or, “Mom said so!” that makes a difference, doesn’t it! Now the parent’s authority is behind that child’s request!

As we continue our sermon series entitled Meaningful Ministry our goal is to see how this portion of Mark’s Gospel reveals to us that our ministry is a meaningful ministry because we are: Sent With God’s Own Authority!

Jesus had just finished teaching in the synagogue of His hometown of Nazareth. As we noted last week even though Jesus’ ministry was a perfect ministry and even though Jesus’ ministry was a meaningful ministry— because as the Son of God He taught God’s Word in its truth and purity— the people of His hometown “took offense at him” (Mark 6:3) and as a result Jesus was “amazed at their lack of faith” (Mark 6:6). That, however, did not stop Jesus, did it! Even after the negative reception He received in His hometown, Mark tells us, “Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village.” In Matthew’s Gospel he adds some detail to these words by telling us, “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (Matthew 9:35-38).

After giving His disciples the perfect real-life example of a meaningful ministry— a ministry that is devoted to “preaching the good news of the kingdom,” a ministry that is overflowing with helping others— after giving His disciples the perfect real-life example of a meaningful ministry, Mark tells us in the opening verse of our text, “Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits.”

There are three very important points I want us to recognize here. First, “the Twelve” did not take it upon themselves to go out in Jesus’ Name. Jesus is the One who “called” them to Himself. Jesus is the One who sent them out in His Name. Second, since Jesus knew that carrying out His ministry in His Name could be both difficult and lonely, He sent them out “two by two.” Finally, in and of themselves the disciples did not have the “authority” to go out in Jesus’ Name, much less have “authority over evil spirits.” That’s why Jesus gave them “authority.” As the One who has all “authority” and all “power” Jesus was the only One who could give them “authority,” the only One who could give them “power over evil spirits.” He gave the disciples what they needed to carry out their ministry in a meaningful way!

Is there any application of this to us and to our lives today? There most certainly is! The most obvious application is to pastors. To this very day Jesus “calls” men to His side, uses His holy Word to instruct them in the Truth and to show them the perfect example of a meaningful ministry. Then Jesus sends them out in His Name to represent Him as they carry His message to others. And while He doesn’t always send pastors out “two by two” pastors regularly turn to fellow pastors for guidance, for insight and for support. But most importantly, as the One who has all “power” and all “authority” Jesus gives to His pastors the “power” and the “authority” they need to carry out the ministry He has given to them— in a meaningful way!

That “power” and that “authority” is encapsulated in the words that Jesus spoke when He sent out seventy-two disciples to “every town and place where he was about to go” (Luke 10:1). He said to them, “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). While a pastor knows that in and of himself he does not have any “authority,” the pastor knows that when he is faithfully proclaiming God’s Word to God’s people he is speaking with the “power” and the “authority” of God Himself!

What about you? Do these words of Scripture have any application to your heart and to your life? They most certainly do! When you were baptized in the Name of the Triune God, God “called” you. God said to you what He said to His children through Isaiah so many years ago, “I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). Through His holy Word and through His holy Supper God has strengthened and nourished the gift of saving faith that He has created in your heart. And through that same powerful Word the One who has all “power” and all “authority” has given to you a meaningful ministry! He says to you: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20). “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15). “And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). That’s the ministry— the meaningful ministry!— that God has given you the “power” and the “authority” to carry out!

Does this mean that Jesus has given to us— pastors and laypersons alike— “authority over evil spirits”? Think about that for a moment. Do I, do you, have “authority, power over evil spirits”? Yes we do! But not on our own! Our “power” and our “authority” over “evil spirits” comes to us from Him (Pointing to the cross) through His holy inspired Word! Every time we baptize a tiny little baby we are using the “power” of God’s holy Word together with plain ordinary water to “wash” that child clean of all their sins and rescue them from the clutches of Satan. Every time a pastor uses the words of institution in the celebration of the Sacrament of Holy Communion the “power” of His Word (Pointing to the cross) gives the pastor the “authority” to assure you that in, with and under the wafer is His true body, and in, with and under the wine is His true blood given and shed for you for the complete forgiveness of all of your sins. You know from personal experience how this holy Supper gives you the “power” and the “authority” to “resist the devil” and make him “flee” from you. (See James 4:7) Every time you or I comfort a repentant sinner with His (Pointing to the cross) promise of forgiveness we rescue that sinner from the jaws of that “roaring lion.” That’s the “power,” that’s the “authority” that makes our ministry a meaningful ministry!

To help His disciples understand that Jesus and Jesus alone is the Source of their “power” and “authority” our Lord goes on to give His disciples some instructions for their ministry. Look at verses eight to eleven of our text. Mark writes, “Take nothing for the journey except a staff— no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.”

While these instructions may sound rather strange to our ears, they were very relevant for Jesus’ disciples. In verses eight and nine Jesus was teaching His disciples to trust their God to provide them with their “daily bread.” There was no need for them to load themselves down with extra food, extra money and extra clothes. That would simply slow them down on their journey. They were, however, to take the things that would help them on their journey— such as a walking stick and some good sandals. The disciples were also told not to move around from house to house. That could give the impression that they were trying to “upgrade” their accommodations. And finally, Jesus warned them. He warned them that not everyone would receive their ministry and their message positively. If and when they ran into opposition— like Jesus had in Nazareth— they were to “shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” Since it was common practice for the Jews to “shake the dust off their feet” when they left a Gentile city, this part of Jesus’ instructions was a very powerful proclamation of God’s Law. The implication here was that if someone refused to hear the message that Jesus’ disciples were bringing to them— they were no better off than the Gentiles.

While these instructions may sound a little strange to our ears, the application is clear. For Called workers such as pastors and teachers we need to make sure that our ministry is not focused on material things such as money and a comfortable living. We need to trust in the Lord to provide us with our “daily bread” as we strive to carry out the ministry He has given to us. For a congregation these words serve as a reminder of what the Lord says in passages such as Luke 10:7, “the worker deserves his wages,” and 1 Corinthains 9:14, “The Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.” God uses His people to provide for the earthly needs of His workers.

A parallel truth applies to you, God’s people. Since we have all been “sent out” by Jesus to be His “witnesses” to this world, we all need to trust that our God will provide us with our “daily bread,” even as we generously support His (Pointing to the cross) Kingdom work with the material blessings He has given to us.

That leaves just one major point that we need to emphasize from this text. Look at the closing verse, “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” Last week we noted the distinction between “compassion ministry”— helping someone with their physical needs, and “Gospel ministry”— helping someone with their spiritual needs. This week we see a beautiful example of how “compassion ministry” and “Gospel ministry” come together to make our ministry meaningful.

Sometimes people can react very negatively to what they perceive as “hit-and-run” evangelism. We “hit” the with a message of Law and Gospel and then we “run” off to find the next person. That’s not what Jesus instructed His disciples to do. That’s not what God’s people did in the early days of the New Testament Christian church. (See Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37; 5:12-16) And that’s not what Jesus wants us to do.

Sometimes the best way to show someone that you care about their spiritual needs is to show them that you care about their physical needs. Without losing sight of the fact that people need to hear the message of Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them (Pointing to the cross) our deeds of genuine kindness and compassion can create an opportunity to share with them the Good News about the God who loves them so very much that He came into this world to live and to die and to rise again for them! Keeping that combination of “compassion ministry” and “Gospel ministry” clearly before your eyes will go a long way in making your ministry a meaningful ministry— to Him, to you and to others!

Many years ago twelve nervous disciples were sent out two-by-two on a meaningful ministry. They were sent out with God’s own “authority”! They had the “authority” to preach that people need to repent of their sins. They had the “authority” to back up the message they were proclaiming by driving out demons and healing the sick. Down through the ages Jesus continued to send out His disciples— with God’s own “authority”! Today the Christian church continues to march forward like a mighty army. God Himself has called us to be a part of this mighty army. God Himself gives us His own “authority”! This means that God Himself has given to all of us a meaningful ministry to carry out in His Name! (Pointing to the cross)

To God be the glory!

Amen