From watching to doing
| Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were his instructions: "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." They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them. (Mark6:6-13) |
Now He asks them to go and do...
There are a couple of key points.
Firstly, He gives them authority over evil spirits. It's His authority, not their own and we should never face evil by ourselves or in our own strength or name.
In the second place, they are to go out in faith, taking no provisions, but simply trusting God to provide for them as they go and trusting that God opens hearts along the way.
In the third place, they must stay where God opens a door for them and not become celebrities. (In those days people competed to have popular preachers/teachers to stay with them.) The first person who took a risk on being hospitable should be the person they stayed with.
Finally, they should not stay where hearts were hard, but simply move on.
The disciples went as Jesus sent them, and the gospel was preached and lives were changed...
When it comes to applying this passage to our lives, I have to admit that it is hard to understand how to do that and it is a little intimidating. Our time and context don't make it simple to go out without supplies and preach in towns and villages and it is not like the gospel isn't known. But we can't just dismiss this passage, saying "That was then and this is now..."
If we apply the principles, then remembering that we go in His authority is important. Learning to go in faith and trust that God will provide is also important and we may need to learn more about venturing out in faith. These days we need to look for hospitable hearts and not hospitable homes and recognise that some people are the doorways to certain communities and reaching them will help us reach others. Finally, when people aren't ready for the message, we should not "hammer away" at them, but rather leave that work to the Holy Spirit.
