Luke 9:1-6

Luke chapter 9, I want to read the first six verses for our text and study this morning. Then he called his 12 disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, take nothing for your journey, neither stays nor script. neither bread, either money, neither having two coats apiece, and whatsoever how she enter into there abide and fenced apart. And whosoever will not receive you when you go out of the city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them. And they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, in healing. everywhere. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this morning. Prior to the Civil War, we know that slavery dominated in the South. Many of the slaves tried to flee from underneath that slavery, the plantations on which they found themselves, and they would lie on the North Star, them direction as far as which way was north. Stars are often used for guidance, and so it’s only appropriate that God’s ministers in Scripture are referred to as stars, as they are in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 1, and verse 16. Blessed are those men who shine with the light of the gospel, and have guided people out of spiritual slavery. Our text records for us the sending out of the apostles. The method that Jesus chose to use to spread the gospel was to call preachers to diffuse the light of it. Now, Jesus himself, traveled far and wide, preaching and healing. But in his human nature, we know he had a limited capacity as where he could be. At one time. He had previously, as we’ve already studied, chosen 12 men to be apostles, but only now do we see him sending these men out to actually preach. talk about why in a moment. These, the word apostle, means sent ones. So they are sent out. And he sends them out to do exactly what he has been doing, only now it’s multiplied by 12. There are some important principles here that I think would be good for us to consider with regard to the preachers we have today of the preachers. the gospel of Christ. So I want to talk about the work of the ministry from this passage of scripture. Let me begin by saying this. You must be a disciple before you can be a minister. You’ll notice here in the first two verses, he called his 12 disciples together, gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases, and he sent them to preach. the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. The disciples, as we’ve already seen in the book of Luke, have been called by Christ and by the grace of God, and they’ve been brought to salvation by faith in the Savior. This was prior to this event. And as a disciple implies, it means someone is a learner who sits under someone’s feet to gain knowledge. And so we see that they have been sitting under Christ’s teaching for a period of time. Even though he said that these special 12 are going to be apostles, I’m going to send them out. He first has him sit under his teaching for a while. And only now is he going to send them out. They had heard his doctrines. They had heard his doctrines. They had learned from his examples, they had seen his miracles. So all this was for the purpose of training them so that they could preach the word of God himself. And now he deems them ready. He’s going to send them out. The lesson here, though, is that no one should be employed as a public teacher or preacher until he is qualified by some kind of previous instruction. this is a disciple. I think it’s important for you to be a student of the word. To learn, to be taught of God by the work of the work of the Holy Spirit prior to you attempting to teach others. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a seminary education, but certainly you need to be taught to be taught. into doctrines and teachings of the Word of God. You need a spiritual education and understanding of the basic doctrines of Scripture. Sufficient time to grasp and to have acquired a biblical knowledge of the true doctrines of the Word of God. Also to prove yourself as one who is character, and knowledge is such that you would be fit to do this work. The scripture tells us with regard to elders, who are the main teachers, that’s the office of teaching in the church. It must not be entrusted to a novice. There’s several reasons for this. One is that they may be lifted up with pride as a 1 Timothy 3 indicates to us, but another certainly has to be that they would have knowledge and understanding. You don’t just grab someone who just came to know Christ, who has no background into scriptures or anything of this nature, and thrust them into the role of preaching. When I was attending seminary, I worked full-time, and I also worked with the role of preaching. someone who was also attending seminary and we would be sitting at the lunch table eating our lunch and he was always complaining that he needed to get out there and preach instead of attending all these seminary classes like they were like a waste of time now I have to admit some of them were probably a waste of time but my thought at the time was what’s this mean going to preach I mean he he just wasn’t that knowledgeable for my conversations with him about the scriptures. He’s very much a novice and I’m thinking, you’re not ready to preach at this point. Here I am. I’m trying to learn all I could learn. And private study as well as classes, and in fact, to be truthful with you, I think I learned more privately than I did in my classes. But I was feeling how inadequate I would be to get out. and you know regularly preach the word of God. Who really is sufficient for such things? So there is an awesome responsibility to being God’s spokesman. You remember what Paul told Timothy, study the show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. now Timothy was someone who had some training under Paul but Paul is saying keep studying keep learning keep growing in your knowledge of the Word of God and Paul tells Timothy those things which you have heard of me among many witnesses the same commit the faithful men who shall be able to teach others of also. The doctrine that Christ learned from Jesus Christ, he taught to his disciples. and of course it is to be committed to those men who would be faithful and to each other. When we talk about faithful, we mean people who can be counted upon that preach the same gospel that Paul taught. Not some deviation of it, not some deviation of it, not some compromise version of it, those who will declare the whole counsel of God, just like Paul would do. Not holding any of God’s truth back. They would be good stewards of the Word of God. So you must be a disciple before you can become a minister. I think that comes out in this text. Notice something else last morning. Secondly, you discover the two great duties of a minister. here in verse one. And the first great duty is this. You must resist the devil and all his works. Gave power, gave them power and authority over all devils, we read here. Now obviously, the Christian minister today does not have the miraculous power of an apostle. I’m not saying that it’s, impossible for us to cast out demons through prayer. But I am saying that we don’t have the power and the authority to cast them out like the apostles could. Remember one point they come back to Jesus and they say to him, and they were all thrilled because boy, that we have power over the demons and the devils and so forth. He said, well, that’s not what you should be rejoicing over. You rejoice that you have your name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. But they did have that power by this special authority that was given to them. You recall that Paul, when he was at Philippi, was grieved because there was this demon-possessed woman. She appears to be a slave because we read about her owners in the passage in Acts 16. And she made money for them by prophesying, or soothsaying, if you would. And she started following Paul and his companions around, crying out, these men are servants of the Most High God, which will show unto us the way of salvation. Well, Paul didn’t need, nor did he want, satanic endorsement. So he gets aggravated by this, and he turns around, and he says to this woman, actually the demon possessing this woman, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her and out comes the demon. Same hour the demon came out. No demon could resist Paul’s command in this regard. Of course, it ended up Paul getting thrown in jail. You remember in Silas, they got upset to the owners because they lost money. It’s all about money. No minister has that authority, that apostolic authority. However, Our duty as ministers involves us resisting the devil and all his works. To be in constant warfare against the Prince of Darkness. We have to realize that when we’re preaching, we’re invading satanic territory, if you would. He has, in his kingdom, those under his thumb, under his authority, his power. And when the gospel was preached, all of a sudden, they are snatched away from his kingdom. And they’re made the citizens of God’s kingdom. We’re translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear son, as Colossians tells us in 113. The minister gets up. and he opposes all sorts of sins. He causes people to repent, to break off their sins, to live godly lives by the power of the Spirit’s work. We talk about drunkenness. We talk about sexual sin. We talk about the violation of the Sabbath. Theft. We talk about lying and drugs and abortion and a bunch of other things. So when the gospel flourishes, Satan and his agents get restricted. And he loses influence. And prayer is one of the great weapons that we have against Satan. Because the power of God is activated by prayer, and there is nothing that can stop God’s power from working when the gospel was preached. And that Satan can’t keep his people when God’s people pray. and the spirit of God works. There’s no way that Satan can hold on to them. So the minister is to give himself to what? The study the word of God and to prayer. Acts chapter 6. These two areas are very important that we would preach the right thing and that God’s power and rest upon us as we deal with Satan’s kingdom here and preach the gospel. Christ the Savior has foiled Satan’s power and he has given us the ability to foil Satan’s power too. So we must resist the devil in all his works. That’s the one thing we’re supposed to do. The second thing we’d have to do is this. You’re to take a special interest in the sick, to heal the sick. Again, we see that the apostles had miraculous power to heal the sick, which we don’t have today. Even those diseases that would be considered incurable have been cured, have been cured. have been cured by the apostles. They’ve been granted this power to heal. I’m reminded when Paul was on that ship on the way to Rome, and I mentioned it last week with your Clyden come up the big storm and the ship gets wrecked. But they’re wrecked right off of this island that they see and they were able to even swim to shore or hang on to some of the wood of the boat and all of them got to shore. And when they got aboard shore there, the island, the islanders were showing them hospitality and taking care of them. And Paul, while he’s on the island, he heals the father of Publius, who was the chief man of the island. This man, his father had a, he had a fever and a bloody flux, evidently some type of dysentery, where you have blood and bowel coming out. And it was very painful. Interesting, the Greek word here, Ducentaria, where we think get the word dysentery comes from this word in the Greek. Now, when the natives on the island saw that Publius’ father was healed by Paul. Well, we read here others which had diseases came and were healed. Evidently, all of them who came were healed by Paul. He didn’t turn any away. Now, obvious, we don’t have that kind of power. I wish I could. We could clean out hospitals or something of that nature. But we don’t have that power. But we don’t have that miraculous power. Still, there is a special duty that seems to fall to the elderly. with regard to the six. James 5 says, is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church and let them, or let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if you have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. James 5, 14, 15. So we as ministers, in a sense, have a duty to healed the sick, but we do so by the prayer of faith. We don’t have the miraculous power to it. It’s our duty as elders, as ministers, to pray for the sick. Matthew 25 speaks of the duty to visit the sicker. I was sick and you visited me, and Jesus said, in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brother, and you’ve done it unto me. The word visit in that passage of scripture means to inspect the look upon, to care for, exercise, oversight with regard to. So it’s more than just like show up and say hi to them. There is some kind of concern for their spiritual well-being and their physical well-being and their physical well-being. It implies sympathy, comfort, weeping with those who weep. It involves the ministering of the word of God. to these people. You know, when you have someone who is sick, one of the things you may want to do is read a psalm of David that has to do with perhaps his comfort that he found in the Lord so that you can encourage them spiritually. Maybe talk about their relationship with God, their spiritual health. Any besetting sins, they could have brought on this. sickness. And certainly pray for them. That God would be pleased to forgive any sin and heal their bodies and would be glorified in some way through this sickness. And that God would grant them the grace, like he did Paul, to endure the sickness if he does not relieve it altogether. And of course, we should also be concerned if they’re sick, perhaps they have physical needs. Maybe they’re earthly needs that need to be met as well. So you have two great duties. We’re to resist the devil in all’s works. We ought to care for the sick. The third thing here, as you’re told, the main means, the minister is to employ to advance the kingdom of God here in verse two. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God. The word preacher is the herald or proclaim here. Now, when we talk about the kingdom of God, think about that in a minute. the word kingdom implies to us the need to submit to the reign of Christ. Kingdom here denotes sovereignty, royal power, dominion. What is this dominion of God? Well, we’re going to find out it’s over the heart. It’s over the heart. It’s especially used here to be used here. refer, I think, to the reign of Christ as kingdom. The kingdom of God was promised to the messianic, the kingdom of God was promised, was the promised, messianic kingdom, I should say. In Daniel chapter 2. During the days of the fourth kingdom, the Roman Empire, God was going to raise up a kingdom, an everlasting kingdom that would never perish. Well, here it is. And it was now, at hand, as Matthew’s gospel tells us. It was being established on the earth. This was a spiritual kingdom, which is described in this manner in Luke 17, 20, and 21. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say, lo here or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. You are to submit to Christ as king, and he is to be the one who. who rules over your life. Your allegiance is given to Christ. You are obedient to His commands. You’re a loyal subject to him as king. We serve the Lord with fear, as Psalm 211 tells us, when God puts his king on his holy hill, Zion. So you need to submit to the reign of Christ. A second thing connected with the kingdom here is this. You need to be a good. to repent. Matthew 417 for the time, from that time, Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of God is in hand. There’s repentance connected with his kingdom. This is a common theme associated with preaching the kingdom of God. John the Baptist does it. Christ himself does it. In here we see the apostles also that themselves doing. There is, in a sense, a sense, a universal rebellion against Christ as king. People will not have this man rule over them. Christ’s kingdom then is opposed and his servants are persecuted. And thus there’s a need to repent of this rebelliousness and this sinfulness. Men are called to repent of their rebellion and place their trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. To kiss the son. blessed he be angry. And you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. Jesus went about all Galilee. We’re told preaching the gospel of the kingdom. So when you read here that he preached the kingdom of God, it involves preaching the gospel associated with the kingdom of God. Man’s sinful rebellion must be addressed. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. And his sacrificial death on the cross in the place of sinners provides the means by which God grants forgiveness and reconciliation as possible. We submit to the son. We trust in him. And we find mercy. You need to repent. You also need to repent. You also need regenerative. the Bible tells us in connection with the kingdom of God. Entrance into the kingdom is by a new birth. Verily, verily, verily, I say, and you accept a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God, John 3.3. If all the man is in such a state that when we preach the gospel to him, the only way that he can be converted is by the power of the Holy Spirit, regenerating his heart. He’s under the thumb of Satan. He can’t change his rebellious nature. And thus it takes the powerful work of the Spirit to make you alive spiritually, enabling you to repent and to believe. Who have delivered us, the Bible says, from the power of darkness and had translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Now, have ever thought about this? That verse tells us that you can’t translate yourself from being under the power of darkness into the kingdom. kingdom of God’s son. You must be translated from one place to the other. You know, scripture talks about Enoch, who was translated, taken up directly to heaven. Remember that? He goes directly to heaven. He didn’t even die, according to Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11. How did this occur? Did Enoch transplored himself? Was he enabled to somehow or other move from earth to heaven on his own power? No, he didn’t have the power to do that. But what does the scripture tell us? Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. God took him from earth to heaven. And my friend, God is the one that has to take you from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear son. You have no power to do that. No more than that. and Enoch did to go from earth to heaven. So you’re told here the main means of the minister is to employ in the advancement of the kingdom of God. That’s to preach. Fourthly, you find the minister must avoid a mercenary spirit. Now, Lord of Spears is three and four with me here. And he said under them, take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor script, nor neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece, and whatsoever how she enter into there abide and thence depart. Now, it seems to me that there are directions that he gives here indicate this was going to be a short mission for it, just a brief period of time, so that he says, don’t take any extra things with you, as there are going to be unnecessary. this does not mean when a missionary goes out that he shouldn’t take any of these things with them. I think the mission year was short. A long term. Later on in Luke chapter 22, he’s going to say, if you have two things, take it with you. But for now, no. And you’ll notice that the apostles were not to appear fickled or hard to please from verse four. There to stay in the house of one who offers hospitality, in any city or any village they come to. And they were not to jump from one house to another, another place. He says, don’t go from house to house. In other words, don’t go from maybe somebody’s, a humble person’s houses, invited you to stay with them because somebody who is more influential, who has more money, invites you to stay with them. Don’t go jumping around. You stay at the first house. The minister, must learn that to be content with what God has provided for him. The spirit of these verses should be to be remembered, I think, by all ministers. We are to look at what God provides providentially for us. Study living simply and humbly. And avoid having a greedy, I need much more attitude. You know, the world is keen to pick up a spirit that’s like their own, that’s covetous. A mercenary spirit. That would damage the reputation of a minister. Christ says, don’t do that. Don’t be like that. The minister doesn’t need to live in the lap of luxury and have excess. He’s not to be greedy for filthy loker. That’s not what is to characterize an elder, the Bible says, in 1 Timothy, chapter 3.3. It would be sad to see a minister who loves ease and money and the world’s goods rather than souls. I think there’s a great danger if one runs greedily after the error of Balaim for reward, as the book of Jude warns. Baylam proved himself to be a third. false profit because really he wanted the circumscent circumvent God’s word in order to make financial gain and God it is a donkey to rebuke the madness of the prophet as the Bible tells us the desire of gain can carry you into all sorts of wickedness and Scripture would have us Christ would have us stay out of this circumstance Don’t place yourself in those circumstances. Again, look what Judas did for 30 pieces of silver. That’s all you need right there. So you find that the minister must not have a mercenary spirit. Where to avoid that? And lastly, he says here, you learn how the minister is to deal with the unbelief and hostility toward the gospel. In verses 5 and 6. And whosoever will not receive you when you, go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them, and they departed and went through the towns preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Having received instructions, the disciples depart, and they go through the various towns and villages of Galilee and they’re preaching the gospel. Notice here very carefully, verse 2 and verse 6. Verse 2 says, he’s sending them out to preach the kingdom of God, which is interpreted as preaching the gospel. And verse 6. You can’t get in the kingdom without the gospel. Wisely, Jesus, upon sending them out, prepares them for the rejection of the gospel. There are those who will not receive them. I’m telling you now, when you go out, and you preach, some are going to be opposed to you. Matthew’s account that we read, Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words when you depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I send you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Now, this shaking of the dust off their garments and their feet, was a custom of the Jews whenever they traveled into a foreign country, they went to Egypt, they went into Moab or one of the other nations, maybe Damascus, Syria, or something like that. Or Philistine Territory. When they got back to the land of Israel, they would shake the dust off their feet, lest they contaminated the Holy Land when they came. into it. That was their custom. In other words, the very dust of the holy land was considered, would be considered unclean if they contaminated with the heathen lands dust. You know, so get that all off before you can come to the land. And this was an indication, of course, I think, that they had nothing to do with these unholy territories, even though they might visit them for business purposes or whatever. They have nothing to do with it. By this symbolic actions, I think the inhabitants of any house, village, or city, among those who claim to be the people of God would be declared as heathen and as unclean. I think that’s the idea behind the shaking off of the dust here. It is a testimony against them. about their state before God. Those rejectors of the gospel among the Israelites are declared to be not my people, and I will not be your God. So is A.1.9 indicates. Now, it’s interesting that in the book of Acts, twice, Paul actually does this. I want you to look with me at Acts 13 a minute. Acts chapter 13. verses 44 through 51. And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy. And they spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming. And Paul and Barnabas wax bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. Seeing you have put it from you, judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, low, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation under the ends of the earth. and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed, and the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnas and expelled them out of their coast, but they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came to Iqqqqq. one other passage look at a couple of chapters ahead to 18 verses five and six of acts here paul is at corinth and he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath and persuaded the jews and greeks when silas and timotheus were come from macedonia paul was pressed in spirit and testified that Jesus was Christ. And when they opposed themselves and blasphying, he shook his raiment, said under them, your blood be upon your own heads. I am clean from henceforth, I go unto the Gentiles. Only once in my entire life have I ever seen this concept actually being used. When I was about 16 years of age, the pastor took me out on visitation calls, with him at times. I was already committed to going to seminary at that point. And so he took me out. And we visited one evening, a young couple with a new baby, and we talked him about coming to the church. The husband seemed reluctant to come and to commit to coming. And the pastor said something about, well, God could take that baby from you. If you don’t, you don’t come to church. church, something like that. This infuriated the man. I kicked this out of the hot, I told us to leave, don’t come back. And we got to the car, Pastor Jones told me to stomp my feet along with him, shake off the dust of our feet, evidently in connection with this passage of scripture. At the time, I, you know, I didn’t know anything about this. Is this symbolic gesture still valid today? With the apostles, in our text and with Paul in the book of Acts, you’ll notice that it was performed against Jews who rejected and opposed the gospel, not Gentiles. In other words, it was used as a testimony against those who claim to be God’s people, but who rejected the very gospel of Jesus Christ. This symbolic gesture then was a testimony, against those who claim to be God’s people or evidently were not, and thus you are saying, I’m sorry, but you’re heathen. If it is used today, I would say it has to be used in its same light. That it’s not to be used against an ignorant unbeliever that we may witness to, but against those claiming to be God’s people, but who don’t accept or will not accept, the truths of the gospel of Christ. This being the case, I would say this about Pastor Jones, that he was wrong. He was wrong because, first, these people were really ignorant unbelievers. Secondly, the rejection of us, I think, had more to do with Pastor Jones saying something that I think was wrong. He shouldn’t have threatened their baby. God’s going to take your baby from you if you don’t do. this or that or the other unless we may ourselves obnoxious in what we’re doing what we should have been doing is taking the opportunity to give them the gospel and that’s what we failed to do in you know we’re going to invite them the church and they don’t want to come okay but you’re there talk to them about Christ but at 16 years of age I didn’t grasp I didn’t put all those pieces together at the time my point is this. When we proclaim the gospel, we can expect that there are going to be people who are going to oppose it. And the minister must not be discouraged when his labors are opposed and his work meets with opposition. Remember, Christ warned his own apostles that they were going to have people oppose them and told them what to do, you know, when they do oppose them. Especially those who ought to be, who believe. the truth because they claim to be the people of God. So we sow the seed, we let God determine the outcome of this situation. Well, let me close by saying this. The stars are often used for guidance. And so it’s only appropriate that God’s ministers are classified as stars in Scripture. And as the North Guard, Star guided the runaway slaves. So ministers are to guide people out of space. spiritual slavery. And here are some key factors. You have to be a disciple before you can possibly be a minister. There’s two great duties. We have to resist the devil. We have to have a concern for the sick. The main means to advance the kingdom of God is by preaching. And we see here we are to avoid a mercenary spirit and we learn how to deal with unbelief and opposition. That’s what I think the text is telling us this morning. Let us close.