Week 30 ———  Jesus Sends Out the Twelve
Matthew 10:1 – 11:1 — Mark 6:7-13 — Luke 9:1-6

Mark 6:7-13   And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.   He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—    but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.   And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.  And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.”  So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.  And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Jesus is busy. There are crowds all around him, and he can’t minister to them all. A few weeks ago, Jesus stayed up all night praying. The next day, he appointed these 12 guys to be his core group. Mark tells us, “And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach” (Mark 3:14). Apostles, from the Greek ‘Apostolos,’ which means one who is set apart and sent out.

Jesus realizes he has limited time left with these men.  The religious leaders are already plotting to kill him.  He will be leaving these disciples in about seven months, and they will be the ones to continue the ministry he started.  He has to get them ready to move from students to teachers, from the ones who watch and learn to the ones who do the work and teach.   These young men (all but Peter are less than 21) will need to become the core of his movement, the missionaries of his gospel.  And again, this will all happen in just seven months.   

Are they ready to be sent?   If you asked them, I’m sure they would say, “No way!” There is still so much they don’t understand.  As we saw last week, they still don’t understand that Jesus is God in the flesh, though he began to make that evident last week.  But Jesus sends them out on a mission.

When I say the word ‘missions,’ what do you think about? We think of sending missionaries or someone going to Africa or Asia.  The word ‘mission’ is from the Latin ‘missionem’ which is from the Greek ‘apostolos’ so it is also defined as the act of sending or being sent.   Isn’t it interesting that we immediately focus on sending others and supporting missionaries overseas rather than seeing ourselves as being sent?  Our default way of thinking is to consider missions someone else’s job. 

Jesus is asking them to fulfill the role of disciple. Being sent out is the next step in being a disciple.  Remember that we talked about a disciple as an apprentice.  An apprentice watches everything his mentor does; he listens to every word, and when he is ready, he begins to imitate his mentor.  Under the mentor’s close supervision, he begins to do what the master does: act like the master acts.  Then, one day, the training is over.  The master determines that the apprentice is ready to go out on his own and one day have his own apprentices.  So it is with discipleship.

We all know of someone or have heard of someone who seems to be a perpetual or career student.  They are always in school, degree after degree, but they never do much with them.  One of the most famous I’ve read about is Michael Nicholson.  As of 2016, he was 75 years old and held one bachelor’s degree, two associate degrees, three specialist degrees, 23 Masters degrees, and one doctorate.  At that time, he was still in school and took a part-time parking attendant job to get a tuition discount.  Or there is Benjamin Bolger, who is 49 years old and as of 2024 has degrees from Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, Boston College, Dartmouth, the University of Georgia, William and Mary, George Washington University,  Ithaca, Cornell, Georgetown, Oxford, University of Tampa, Ashland University, Brandeis, Columbia, Skidmore College, University of Michigan, West Virginia Wesleyan College, University of Pennsylvania, University of Cambridge, and Muskegon Community College.  That is a lot of degrees— but Mr. Bolger, what are you doing with them?

A professional student becomes full of knowledge but is empty of wisdom.  What are we after, knowledge or wisdom?  There is a big difference between those two things.  Knowledge is the facts and information you have accumulated.  Wisdom is an action.  It is the ability to put knowledge into action in a practical way.  Knowledge is what you know.   Wisdom is what you do based on that knowledge.  Charles Spurgeon once wrote:  “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”¹

Biblical knowledge is obtained over time through the study of the Scriptures. Through this study, I hope to increase your Biblical knowledge.  But that is only the beginning.  What I really want is for you is not just to increase your knowledge but to increase your wisdom.  I want you to take this knowledge and do something with it. This is why I often end my teaching with some action step you can take or a challenge. Knowledge understands that the red light means stop; wisdom applies the brakes. Knowledge sees the patch of ice on the walkway; wisdom walks around it. Knowledge memorizes the Ten Commandments; wisdom obeys them. Knowledge learns of God; wisdom loves Him.  But there is this great disconnect we see in the church. Listening to someone teach about the scriptures is good—it increases knowledge. But if we don’t ever make a decision to change something in how we live because of what we have learned, then we fail to obtain wisdom.

Proverbs 2:6  ‘For Yehovah gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.’

The four years of medical school are a great demonstration of the difference between knowledge and wisdom.   The first two years of medical school are all in the classrooms and labs.  It is hard, and there is a lot of material thrown at you at a rapid pace.  Those two years are all about gaining knowledge.  But then the third year comes.  And suddenly, you aren’t just a student sitting and learning.  You are expected to apply the knowledge gained during the first two years to practical use in treating actual patients.

 As a medical student or resident, someone is usually looking over your shoulder, making sure you do the right thing, but you are doing the work.  The mantra in that part of med school is “See one, do one, teach one.”²  This phase originates with William Stewart Halsted, one of the four founding doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Halsted firmly believed that you don’t understand something until you have experienced it and then done it yourself.  This is the core of the Hebrew meaning of knowing.  You don’t know something until you have experienced and participated in it. 

The first few years in the classroom in medical school are filled with anxiety.  There is a lot of pressure to do well, and examinations are often brutal.  But when you enter the hospital, the hands-on portion of medical school, the anxiety level dramatically increases.  You are assigned a number of patients.  You are the first to talk to them, examine them, and try to find out what is going on to make a diagnosis. You must order the proper tests and labs to confirm your diagnosis.  You report to your resident, the more experienced doctor overseeing you, and they either agree with you or tell you that you are missing something important and ask you why you are trying to kill this patient.

It was my first night in the surgery rotation at Grady Hospital in Atlanta.  We finished all the work and did our evening rounds on patients, where each student and resident on your small team would discuss each patient and how they were doing, what the plans were for them, and what to watch for during the night (so no one would die on your watch.)  It was about seven pm, and everyone would go home and be back at four or five the following morning to check on their patients and be ready to present them for morning rounds.  Everyone went home except the designated students and residents to stay overnight on-call.  And I had the first night on call.  Usually, there would be some surgeries to do overnight, emergency appendectomies, or some major trauma.  But on my first night in the hospital, there were no surgeries.  So, after we ate a quick dinner in the cafeteria, we went to the ER to learn how to sew up wounds.  In those first two years of medical school, we studied all the processes involved in wound healing.  I had the knowledge.   I have heard about some medical training programs where you learn to suture wounds by practicing on pigs’ feet, which you get from the grocery store.   Later, you practice more delicate work by skinning grapes and sewing the skin back on.  But no pig’s feet or grapes for us that night. 

 My supervising resident introduced me to Frank, a man who had gotten into a drunken brawl at a bar the night before and had been waiting in the ER for about 20 hours to be sewn up.  He had been beaten all about the head with a pipe but had been cleared of any other injuries, so he was put in the row of people waiting for stitches.  So, the resident set me up with the tools I needed and taught me about sterile procedures.  Then he put in a couple of stitches while I watched.  He then stood up and said, “You finish.”  He stayed and watched me struggle through the first two sutures, and then he was off to teach someone else.  182 sutures later (and 4 hours later), I was done.  Let me tell you, the last ten went in much better than the first ten (and looked better, too.)   There was much trial and error as I moved from knowledge to wisdom.  And that was the theme for the next five years through residency.

So, let’s bring this home.  Months ago, we talked about discipleship.  We are all called to be disciples, and we discussed the idea of discipleship like an apprenticeship.  Somehow, in the modern church, many people have gotten the idea that some people are called to be ministers, and some are called to be ministered to.  But God never intended anyone to sit in the pew and learn their whole life.   There are no professional students at the University of Jesus.  We should always be learning, but practical application begins quickly.  We are called for a purpose. 

Ephesians 2:10   For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are his workmanship; we are his creation.  And what did he create us for?  Not to sit, but to do good works.  Now, you don’t have to go out and find your purpose.  God already decided it.  He has prepared some works for you to do ahead of time.  Like the resident who found the patient, and laid out all the tools and sterile equipment that I would need, God has put you in the place where you have works to do.   It is all ready for us to begin.

God made us do these works and set them up for us.  It may be uncomfortable to leave the classroom and begin to apply what you have learned, but that is what you were created to do.  We can’t just sit here learning. We need to step out of the classroom into the world and begin the work. We already know what God wants us to do.

What is the first great commandment, Jesus?
“Love the lord with all your heart, soul, and strength.   Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Let me remind you that love is an action word.  Sorry, Hallmark, it is primarily something you do, not something you feel.  Our mission begins with loving our neighbor.  Jesus insisted on this mission they stay with their own people, their immediate neighbors.  So, I want to challenge you to go on mission to your neighbors.  Now, I will leave you to decide who your neighbors are, but Jesus said it is anyone you happen to encounter.  And the mission is to love them.  The small church I attend is very good at loving each other.  That is so important.  Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”  (John 13:35).   The next step is to take that into our greater community.  And it must be a personal ministry.  As important as it is to donate money, supplies, clothes, or coffee, that can’t be the extent of our mission work.

Shane Claiborne, in his book The Irresistible Revolution, said:

“When we get to heaven, we will be separated into those sheep and goats Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 based on how we cared for the least among us. I’m just not convinced that Jesus is going to say, “When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me,” or, “When I was naked, you donated clothes to the Salvation Army and they clothed me.” Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity. He seeks concrete acts of love: “you fed me…you visited me in prison…you welcomed me into your home…you clothed me.”

We think of the church as a ministry, but often it is just “a distribution center, a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump stuff. Both go away satisfied (the rich feel good, the poor get clothed and fed), but no one leaves transformed. No radical new community is formed. And Jesus did not set up a program but modeled a way of living that incarnated the reign of God, a community in which people are reconciled and our debts are forgiven just as we forgive our debtors”³

It is essential to support missionaries financially and with prayer. It is very important to support our local ministries, like the Salvation Army, that reach people we don’t know. But Jesus is a very personal savior. He didn’t just send a donation of grace and mercy from heaven; he left his throne in heaven and came here to interact with his people personally.  

I will give you two steps:

The first step is to reach out to your neighbors.   Invite neighbors over for a meal. Now, if you don’t cook, you can go out to eat with them. You could spend time with these neighbors in other ways, but sharing a meal is easy because everyone eats. And there is something special Biblically about sharing a meal with others.  You could call them random acts of kindness; while they might seem random to others, they should be intentional to you. The object is to show your neighbors love by showing hospitality. 

If you trace the theme of hospitality through the Bible, you will see how important it is. God commends Abraham for his hospitality to strangers.  One of the main reasons the Bible says God allowed Babylon to conquer Judah was that they didn’t care for the widows and orphans and didn’t show hospitality to strangers in the land.  

In 1 Peter 4:7, Peter says, “The end of all things is at hand…”  If you thought the world was about to end, what would be at the top of your ‘to do list’?

1 Peter 4:7-10  “The end of all things is at hand, therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.   Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins.  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

The world is about to end so “above all” (most importantly) love one another and show hospitality.  Hospitality builds friendships and relations.   It is a demonstration of the gospel.

The next step:   Invite neighbors or friends to discuss the Bible together.  Now, you may feel like you are not ready to do this.  You may not feel like you are equipped to do this.  Congratulations! Jesus’ disciples felt the same way.  You may not feel you know enough about scripture.  Remember that the disciples didn’t even realize exactly who Jesus was at this point.  You know more now than they did then.  But he equipped them, and he will equip you.

.Why do you think Jesus told them to take no money, extra tunic, or food?  He didn’t want them to depend on their own resources but learn to depend on him.  If they went out totally prepared, they wouldn’t learn the lesson that He would provide for them.  Similarly, if you feel like you aren’t fully prepared to do what God is asking you to do, then perfect.  Now, you will have an opportunity to see God work.  There are many excellent books and materials for group Bible studies. You don’t have to be the expert teacher. The group will study together, and everyone will teach each other.

We all have visions of what our life would be like.  These disciples did. And we make decisions every day in ways to make life the best we think it can be for us.  But God has a different vision of what life is, of what the good life is.  Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  Your creator has a bigger dream for your life than you do.

The Bible has a story of a very religious man who thought he was living life to its fullest.  But then God came and challenged his vision for his life.  God asked Jonah to preach to his people’s enemies in Nineveh.  But Jonah takes off in the opposite direction on a boat. And Jonah thinks he is running for his life, but he is running from the abundant life God wanted for him.  God wanted Jonah to be part of the greatest outpouring of grace in the largest city in the world, the biggest revival ever.  But Jonah doesn’t want to give up on his own vision of his life.  Some disciples were fishermen and dreamed of big fish catches and better boats.  But Jesus had a bigger dream for them: to change the world.  

You may think a great evening this week would be to sit in your recliner with some snacks and watch a good football game or sit on the sofa with some popcorn and watch a good movie.  But God has a bigger vision for you.  He wants you to be an influencer for him with your neighbors.  If you have ever thought your life was boring or stuck in a rut, I have good news for you: God wants abundance in your life.  He wants you to have a hand in bringing people into His kingdom, bringing joy to someone who needs it, and living your life like you are the very image of God, demonstrating His love and grace as you live day to day. 

Jesus says, “Follow Me.”  He is asking these young men to take the next step.  Jesus is asking us today to take the next step.  Begin by showing hospitality to those around you.  Find a neighbor you don’t know well, or that person you always run into somewhere, or that person you used to be close to but haven’t talked to in a while, or the neighbor you don’t know, or the grumpy old guy you know who has no friends because, well, he is a cranky old guy.  Then, consider if God is calling you to begin a group of people who can look at the Bible together.  

Jesus is sending us out into the world.  It is time to take our knowledge and turn it into wisdom.  I challenge you to take that step this week.

1. Spurgeon, C. H.  From the sermon “Christ and the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  Delivered 5/17/1857 at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
2. Cameron, J. L.  “William Stewart Halsted, Our surgical heritage.”  Annals of Surgery, 1997;225:445-8.
3. Claiborne, Shane.  The Irresistible Revolution.  Kindle Edition. Location 1320.