Luke 9:1-6 The Twelve Sent Out
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 9. Today we are going to look at verses 1-6, and that’s on page 866 in the pew Bibles.
So here we are, national let down Sunday. The week after all the pomp and pageantry of Easter, those who are brave enough to go back to church after their typical yearly visit experience the let down from the heights of the Easter production value to the mundane regularness of a typical Sunday service.
It’s also national let down day for pastors, who saw their congregations swell in number last weekend and now have to deal with the let down of going back to the regular size crowd of faithful family members.
I don’t know if that’s the case here this morning, I certainly don’t feel that way but if you think of it pray for the church and her pastors today that may be experiencing this annual phenomenon.
Our particular church family has another reason to feel let down today, as today marks my eleventh anniversary here as pastor!
I can say that it has been the great privilege of my life to serve the Lord Jesus here in this place and to serve you wonderful people who truly have become my family. I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing us here to you and sustaining us and empowering us to do the work that He has called us to.
And that’s really the topic of our text for this morning, the Lord Jesus sustaining and empowering His disciples to do the work to which He has called them. So let’s look at the text.
And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Let’s pray.
One of the great challenges of interpreting Scripture is identifying which parts are descriptive and which parts are prescriptive. That is to say, which parts are merely informational and which parts are instructional.
This idea will be extremely important for us to have a handle on as we continue to look into the works of Luke, especially when we get to the book of Acts.
There is a great deal of debate about what certain things meant to them then as opposed to what they mean to us now. But as I have said before, the Scriptures will never mean what they never meant. The meaning doesn’t change, only the application of the principles will change.
So as we examine this text before us today we have to consider which parts are descriptive and which parts are prescriptive, which parts are there for our information and which parts are there for our instruction. After all, we want to do what the Bibles tells us, right?
So there in verse one, Jesus calls together the Twelve and gives them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
Jesus gives the Apostles the might and the right to heal, the power over demons and disease, and the authority to remove both from people. And He gave the might and right to heal people as an authenticating sign for their preaching of the gospel.
This was Jesus’ seal of approval on their proclamation. Just as He had proclaimed the Good News of the kingdom of God and accompanied His Word with signs and wonders so would the Twelve Apostles on this trip around Galilee.
I wanted to think that this was like the disciples earning their wings. When I was learning to fly radio controlled airplanes years ago, our club required that each new pilot be able to take off and land three times in both directions, right to left and left to right regardless of the direction that the wind was blowing. After I was able to do that solo I got a little pin that represented my wings. I’m sure the other pilots in the room had similar experiences with much bigger and more expensive aircraft.
The problem with this idea is that it implies that Jesus sent the disciples out to prove themselves, to show that they had what it took to be preachers of the gospel. But nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the truth is that it was the exact opposite.
As we have seen over and over in the last few chapter of the book of Luke, the disciples were totally powerless and were utterly dependant on Jesus’ almightiness.
Jesus Himself gave them the power and authority to cast out demons and heal the sick, signs to accompany their preaching of the kingdom of God, it wasn’t up to them, the resources weren’t theirs.
All they had was trust in Jesus. And as it turned out, that was all Jesus wanted them to take with them.
3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”
Now here is where people have gotten hung up on the descriptive versus prescriptive argument.
Jesus instructed the disciples to not stop at the general store and grab a bunch of extra stuff for their trip. If they didn’t have a staff or a walking stick, don’t go get one, don’t pick up a new backpack and stuff it full of bread and clothes and money.
So the question is, is this prescriptive for all gospel preachers? Is this a rule for taking a vow of poverty?
I think we look at this today and say, obviously not, this is not a prescriptive pattern for ministers to follow, who would think that it was? Ever heard of a vow of poverty? Thousands of would be ministers of the gospel have renounced all earthly possessions based on these verses.
There’s nothing wrong with renouncing earthly possessions but it would be incorrect to base that philosophy on these words of Jesus.
This was particular to the disciples in this text for two reasons.
One, this was to be a short trip. Whether it was days or weeks we aren’t sure but we do know that the distance they traveled was not that long , they started in Galilee and ended in Galilee and were in the villages of Galilee the whole time, this is not a huge area.
Not only was this a short trip but it was a training exercise for the disciples. They were to take nothing with them so that they would learn to not only trust Jesus’ word but to rely on Him fully for their own provision as well as the hospitality of others.
Were these permanent commands for the disciples and therefore us to follow? No.
Later in Luke 22:35-36, [Jesus] said to them, “When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?” They said, “Nothing.” 36 He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.
So was this all just descriptive, are there any prescriptions for us to follow? I’m glad you asked!
Though this assignment from Jesus to the disciples was a temporary one it would later become a permanent one, not only for them but for the whole church, and not just a fixed area but to the ends of the earth.
After His resurrection Jesus said to them in Matthew 28:18-20:
18 …“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The assignment became permanent but so also did the power to perform it. Just before Jesus ascended back to the Father He said to the disciples:
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
So what did the disciples do on that first trip in Galilee that is prescriptive for us the whole church to follow?
Go and preach the Good News of the coming of the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus just like they did, have compassion, exercise mercy like they did, recognize our full dependence on the Father for everything like they did, trust Jesus and obey Him, just like they did.
People started doing that and it turned the world upside down, if we all did the same I bet it would happen again.
Amen.
