The CROSSroads: Personal Lessons from Mark's Gospel by Rev. Mitch Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:34:17utc

Lesson Twenty Two: READY SET GO (Mark Mark 6:7-13)

"Calling the twelve to him he sent them out." (vs.7)

We do not gather around Jesus to become unused sponges. Jesus called the twelve to him in order that they might be sent out as his servants. Time spent with him was in preparation for a task of high privilege and responsibility. It is the nature of discipleship to be with Jesus, yes to know him, but also to be sent out to a world that does not know him.

It was my last week of Bible College and I asked a friend of mine what he planned to do know that this phase of his life was complete. His answer? He planned on being a professional student the rest of his life pursuing one degree after another. My friend had no plans of doing anything with the degrees he received.

It can often be that way with Christians. There comes a time though when we have to be sent out to do something with the equipment Jesus has given us. This was just such a moment that Mark speaks about here in our passage. Do you remember what Mark told us back in Mark 3:14 when the disciples were first called by Christ? Jesus calls the twelve to him "that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.". Christians spend time with the Lord Jesus, yes to know him, but then to take what they know and share it with a world that does not know. That is the task of discipleship.

Christ's instructions to his disciples provide some relevant principles for us today as we seek to serve him in our world. These principles can be of great help to missionary organizations and churches as they prepare workers for the harvest.

In our service to God we need accountability and support. Jesus sent out the twelve, not as lone rangers, but in twos. Why? So they would not be alone in the harvest field. In pairs, the workers would find support, encouragement and accountability from each other. The pressures would be great, the resistance strong. Two would offer the strength that would be necessary for the jobwhich would not be available in a solitary ministry. Likewise, no missionary, no pastor and no church worker should launch out without a strong network of support and accountability.
In our service to God we are to depend only on God for our financial and material support. "Take nothing with you accept a staff", Jesus instructs. The point here is not that we reject financial support but that material things and money should never consume us, for when they do we become ineffective in our ministry. Missionaries and pastors who complain about money, and lack of possessions, are distracted from their task and need to reorder their priorities. Christ's instruction would also encourage the host people to be generous and to care for the worker. Perceptions among those in the host country are a vital consideration in the work of missionaries, and a worker should never appear to be living above the average income level of the people he works with.
In our service to God we should work till the work is done. "Stay there until you leave the town." Christ's exhortation demanded that the worker should not leave until sufficient investment was made. The worker was to teach and instruct his converts until they had sufficient strength to continue without dependence on him or her. I remember in my ministry in England how important this principle of discipleship was in my involvement with new believers. I based my investment on the words of Paul from Colossians 2:6 which serves as a beacon for the task of discipling. Here is what we should want to see in the lives of new believers. "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and over flowing with thankfulness." It is only when the new convert is well on this path that we can move on.
In our service to God we are to be confronting those who need change. The goal of preaching and discipleship is to see people's lives change and that will always require the radical work of conviction and repentance. No one can turn to God and grow in God without first going through this process. This is why in verse twelve we find that "they went out and preached that people should repent." Jesus warned that there would be times when people would refuse that call and reject the disciple. If so, the disciple was to make a visual statement of their departure, "shake the dust off their feet", to serve as a "testimony against them." This was a common act of the Pharisees when they left the house of someone unclean. People who refuse the free gift of salvation need to know that what they do will have dire consequences. They remain unclean before God and can not be reconciled to him.

In verse 30 the disciples return and "reported to him (Jesus) all they had done and taught." Notice this time they are referred to by Mark as apostles and not disciples. As disciples they spent time learning from the Lord, as apostles they now served the Lord in the harvest field. And what joy it must have been for them to speak of the lives that were changed and exchanging stories of those who refused their message. A day will come when we too will gather round the Lord and joy will overflow as we speak to him about all he did for us and through us in our service for him. My exhortation? Don't remain a student. Go out and serve. The Lord has equipped you and he is with you. Speak boldly! Look for lives to be changed! Be strong and courageous for the Lord your God is with you.

Begin at once; before you venture away from this quiet moment, ask your King to take you wholly into his service, and place all the hours of this day quite simply at his disposal, and ask him to make and keep you ready to do just exactly what he appoints. Never mind about tomorrow; one day at a time is enough. Try it today, and see if it is not a day of strange, almost curious peace, so sweet that you will be only too thankful when tomorrow comes to ask him to take it also.

-Frances Ridley Havergal (1836–1879)