Jesus Sends out His Disciples

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Saturday July 20, 2024}

Matthew 10:1-42, Mark 6:6-13, Luke 9:1-6

Father, I love Your Word. For those who take the time to study and meditate on Your Word in detail, there are so many riches and treasures that can be uncovered. This passage is overflowing with wisdom and guidance for believers. Father, help me to be a faithful minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Help me to be a faithful servant, building Your Kingdom. Help me to model what a true minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ looks like by following the commands Jesus gave us in this passage. Amen.

Father, Jesus has encouraged His disciples to pray for workers to go out into the harvest field and bring people to faith in Him. Jesus has already called these men to bring in a harvest. He told them it was time for them to do the ministry work that He does. Students learn from a teacher so that students will go out and do what they’ve been taught. It is clear from this passage that Jesus never intended for believers to be perpetual students who never engage in ministry. Believers follow Jesus, learning from Him how to do ministry, so that they will do the work of ministry themselves.

What can believers learn from this text about the work of ministry?

• We have authority to minister in Jesus’ name.
• You have given the believer in Jesus Christ the authority to do the work of ministry. We have the license, and the diploma. We are hired. We are given the keys to the door of ministry. We are worthy to serve in any ministry that You call us into. No believer should be rejected from participating in ministry. Each believer has the metaphorical working papers to validate their right to work in the ministry You call them to.
• A believer in Jesus Christ has authority over Satan. A believer has the authority to undo what Satan has done in someone’s life or within a community of people. With the metaphor of an old Western movie in mind, the believer is the sheriff who comes into a town and arrests Satan and cleans up the mess he made.
• Our ministry job description includes five key tasks.
• We are to drive out impure spirits from people. In simple terms, the goal of our ministry is to transform someone who resists the gospel of Jesus Christ into a disciple of Jesus Christ who works for His Kingdom.
• We are to heal every disease and sickness. We are to work to bring about healing in a person’s life so that there is no obstacle that prevents them from serving Jesus Christ.
• We are to proclaim the Kingdom of God. We are called to be evangelists, sharing the gospel with each person we encounter in ministry. We are called to preach repentance and the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
• We are to raise the dead. There are billions of people across the globe who are spiritually dead. We are called to raise them from spiritual death into new life in Jesus Christ.
• We are to cleanse the lepers. Our ministry work is to clean up the messiness of people’s lives so that they will be welcomed and embraced by society. For example, we take a homeless person off the street. We feed them, give them a shower, a haircut, and new clothes. We teach them skills and help them find a job. We get them an apartment to live in. We get them Biblical counseling and a support system of believers to keep them from returning to the street. Such a person will no longer be a “leper”.
• We do the work of ministry for free from grateful hearts because we have received the priceless free gift of God’s grace ourselves. While there is nothing wrong with “professional” ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ receiving pay for their work, Christ is calling the majority of believers to volunteer their time to minister to others.
  
• We are to be sheep, snakes, and doves.
  
• Sheep. We are to be known for our gentleness and peacefulness. Believers are not permitted to be violent or threatening. This is to be true even though we will encounter “wolves”, violent people who threaten us.
• Snakes. Believers are not called to be gullible or naive. A believer is to be aware of what is going on in the world and how the ungodly operate. A believer is to be shrewd enough to lead the ungodly to the gospel without them knowing it.
• Doves. We are to be innocent and pure. We are to live godly and righteous lives that are above reproach. We are to live our lives in such a manner that we will never be caught in a moral failure.
  
• Be prepared for persecution and to flee from it.
  
• The human heart longs to be its own god. The last thing the rebellious heart wants is to surrender itself to Your authority. Therefore, it is certain that believers in ministry, in the name of Jesus Christ, will experience persecution, including physical abuse. The enemies of the gospel will lie about the believer in ministry, making false accusations. Jesus reminds us that He too was charged with working for Beelzebub. If they charged Him with such a thing, they would certainly charge believers as well. The believer may be called in to be interrogated about their beliefs. We are not to worry what we will say in such a situation. The Holy Spirit will fight the word battle for us, and we will say what is the appropriate thing to say to give honor to You and to Jesus Christ.
• However, we should attempt to escape from persecution whenever possible. You may have other lives for us to touch in other places. For the sake of continuing ministry to other needy people, we are to attempt to flee from persecution. Our escape will be determined by Your will.
• The believer should not be afraid of people. The worst thing a person can do to us is kill us. However, it is Jesus who will determine if we go to heaven or hell. We need to fear Him alone. We can be confident that You will make all things right, that those who persecute us will be punished one day.
  
• Christian ministry breaks up families.
  
• Father, You love families. It is arguably the most important institution that You created for the well-being of society. You love healthy families where godly parents teach and model the Word of God to their children. Why then would Jesus speak about families breaking up because of the gospel? It is not because the sharing of the gospel is purposed to break up families. The reason that the sharing of the gospel breaks up families is because one member of a household embraces the gospel, and the other does not. One member of the family believes the other member of the family needs to humble themselves and surrender their will to Jesus Christ. This creates division that can grow into hostility and hatred.
• A disciple of Jesus Christ must not shy away from ministry in hopes of preserving family peace. Our allegiance is to Jesus Christ and His gospel. If we compromise ourselves in order to prevent family discord, we are not worthy of ministry because our families will be more important than the building of the Kingdom of God.
  
• We are to live only to please Jesus. We are to give up our lives to the work of the gospel. We should first die to our own interests and desires and then live to please Jesus. We will only find the satisfaction in life that we long for when we joyfully serve Christ exclusively with all of our heart and soul.
  
• Ministry is a team activity (two-by-two). Jesus never intended for Christians to venture alone into ministry. There should always be at least two people in any ministry initiative.
  
• Accountability – Each person keeps the other person honest. They hold one another accountable for godly living.
• Encouragement – Each person in ministry will become discouraged from time to time. The second person is there to encourage the first person to reclaim their joy for ministry.
• Strength – Two people have more skills, talents, gifts, and ideas than one person. One person can carry the ministry when the other is tired and spent.
• Witnesses – The Bible makes it clear that two or more witnesses are required to make something credible. Therefore, two witnesses are required when believers are sharing the amazing things that Jesus Christ has done for others. (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6, 19:15; Matthew 18:16; 2 Corinthians 13:1; 1 Timothy 5:19.)
  
• Ministry requires faith and simplicity.
  
• Faith.
• The ideal ministry situation is one where, having left our possessions (bread, bag, money, shirt, etc.,.) and assets behind, we don’t know how You will provide for what we need even in the next hour. This “faith in God for deliverance of our next meal” perspective builds the kind of faith that accomplishes miracles and moves mountains.
• You will raise up other believers to financially support those hardworking men and women who He has called into ministry. “The worker is worth his keep.”
• Simplicity. Baggage slows down and complicates ministry. The more baggage you bring with you into ministry, including emotional baggage and unresolved hurts, the more cumbersome your journey will be in ministry. Leave it all behind and keep your ministry simple. Bring only what is essential:
• A staff – a means to protect yourself from evil attack and a means to stable yourself as you walk across the rocky ground of ministry.
• Sandals – a means to protect your feet from the hot and jagged road of ministry so that you can keep walking.
  
• A believer in ministry is bold.
  
• The believer is not called to be fearful of public speaking. The believer is called to be confident and courageous, shouting the truths that Jesus has taught them in private from the rooftops for all the public to hear.
• Jesus tells us that whoever acknowledges Him before others He will acknowledge before the Father. However, if a believer is too scared to confess their faith in Christ before others, which is an act of disowning Christ, Jesus will disown the believer before the Father.
  
• A believer in ministry is loved. You love those who labor to build the Kingdom of God. You will provide and care for them, even more than You care for the sparrows whom You feed each and every meal. You know everything about us and take care of every detail for us.
  
• A believer in ministry should experience warm hospitality from other believers. Believers in ministry are living lives of faith and simplicity. They need to be supported by other believers who provide their food and lodging. Those believers who support the work of ministry will receive the same reward as those who are doing the actual ministry. This reward includes both spiritual blessings in this life, such as peace and joy, and heavenly rewards in the next. However, those believers who do not support the work of ministry will not receive such blessings in this life or the next. Believers in ministry should separate themselves from believers who refuse to support ministry (shake their dust of your sandals) for the latter are behaving as if they are not believers at all. Those who claim to be believers but don’t support the building of the Kingdom of God should be concerned – their judgement may be more severe than the judgement that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

Father, Jesus told His disciples to prioritize ministry to the lost sheep of Israel. You still love Israel, and You want them to come to faith in Jesus Christ. However, Jesus warned that the time was short to accomplish the ministry to the lost sheep of Israel. Judgement will come to Jerusalem and Israel in 70 AD when the Roman armies will have total military victory. This reckoning of the rebellious Israelites by the Son of Man did occur long before every village in Israel had been evangelized. Amen.