THE DIRTY DOZEN
Luke 9:1-9, Mark 6:7,8
INTRODUCTION
A. LEROY EIMS WAS TEACHING A BIBLE CLASS IN ENGLAND, IT OCCURRED TO HIM ONE DAY THE STUDENTS WERE SPENDING AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME AT THEIR DESKS AND IMMERSED IN STUDY.
1. He thought about the practicality that they were missing that went hand in hand with their studies.
2. So he checked with a church in a nearby city and asked if they students could come and gain some practical experience on the streets of the city.
3. When all the details were worked out he went to his students and shared the upcoming adventure with them. Immediately the class experienced a very strange epidemic – everyone got sick and couldn’t go.
4. One husky young man came to Eims and said, “I can’t go.”
5. “Why not?” Eims asked. “Because I’ve lost my voice,” the young man replied. “Why should that stop you from going?”
6. The young man said, “I can’t communicate.” But Eims countered, “You just communicated to me despite the fact that you’ve lost your voice, so you shouldn’t have any problems. Then Eims added, “Anyway, you haven’t lost your voice, you’re just chicken, you’re afraid.”
7. “No,” the young man insisted with even less of a voice, “No I’ve lost my voice.”
8. “Let me tell you something, You’re chicken, I’m chicken, everyone here is chicken, but we’re going!”
9. The young man looked stunned and then said with a fully recovered voice, “You’re scared!?”
10. Eims said he learned about two new spiritual gifts he had that day, discernment and healing!
B. LIFE IS A WONDERFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCE! THIS IS BECAUSE WE LEARN IN DIFFERENT WAYS AND AT DIFFERENT LEVELS.
1. It is one thing to sit in the bleachers and read a book about the study of sharks. It is completely different to get into a cage and be lowered down in the water to get up and personal with them.
a. The first approach is academic and somewhat superficial
b. The second is practical and effective – assuming the learner survives the experience.
2. Life puts us in all kinds of situations from which we learn great truths. BUT if the TRUTH were known, we would never have learned them at all; because if it were left up to us, we would have avoided the learning experience. How many people are willing to get into the cage, let alone be lowered down into the waters?
C. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT A MAJOR PART OF THE TWELVE’S DISCIPLING AND LEARNING PROCESS WAS EXPERIENCE RELATED.
1. Certainly there were times when they sat at Christ’s feet and learned the Word from Him, but it was in the hustle and bustle of working among the people that they GREW.
2. It was as they faced the challenge of applying what Jesus had told them to the harsh situations of life that they began to discover the TRUTH about their own abilities or lack of them.
3. They began to realize the superb resources available through their relationship to the Master.
4. Life was not be lived in a vacuum, and disciples aren’t made in a classroom.
D. WITH THIS IN MIND, THE LORD IN LUKE 9:1,2, “CALLED THE TWELVE TOGETHER...AND HE SENT THEM OUT TO PREACH THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND TO HEAL THE SICK.”
1. The Authority of our task, (vs 1)
2. Flying solo...where is our confidence? (vs 1)
3. Being reflected Light...(vs 2)
THE AUTHORITY OF OUR TASK
Vs 1
A. FOR THE CONFIRMING OF THEIR DOCTRINE – BECAUSE IT WAS NEW AND SURPRISING, AND VERY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THEY HAD BEEN TAUGHT BY THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, AND BECAUSE SO MUCH DEPENDED UPON MEN’S RECEIVING, OR NOT RECEIVING IT, HE EMPOWERED THEM TO WORK MIRACLES.
1. He gave them authority over all demons, to dispossess them, and cast them out, though ever so numerous, so subtle, so fierce, so obstinate.
2. Christ designed a total rout and ruin the to the kingdom of darkness, and therefore gave them power over all demons.
B. HE ALSO AUTHORIZED AND APPOINTED THEM LIKEWISE TO CURE DISEASE AND TO HEAL THE SICK.
1. This would make them welcome wherever they came and not only convince people’s judgments, but gain their affection.
2. This was their commission.
C. OUR GREATEST LIMITATION IS THAT WE DON’T RECOGNIZE THE SUPERB RESOURCES AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE MASTER.
1. Our dilemma is taking a superior message and sharing it in an inferior presentation
2. We are chicken
a. Paul says in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel for IT is the POWER of God for salvation to everyone who believes...”
b. Proverbs 3:26, “For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.”
II Corinthians 1:12, “For our proud confidence is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and godly sincerity, NOT in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you.”
c. Acts 4:31, “And when they had PRAYED, the place where they had gathered together was shaken and they were all FILLED with the HOLY SPIRIT and BEGAN to speak the word of God with BOLDNESS.”
3. If Moses could go before Pharoah, how much more should I be able to go before my neighbor.
FLYING SOLO
Vs 2
A. THE BUFFET RESTAURANT WHERE A COUPLE WENT TO DINE HAD LIGHTING HOODS ABOVE THE FOOD.
1. While the wife began serving herself, her husband went around to the other side. She was in a playful mood, so when she saw his arms appear under the hood and reach for the salad, she giggled and rapped his knuckles with a spoon.
2. As she moved down the buffet, every time his hands came into sight, she popped them with her spoon. At the end of the buffet, she saw to her horror that the arms had been those of a stranger. “You’re not my husband!” she cried.
3. “No, madam,” the annoyed man replied in a crisp British accent. “Thankfully, I am not.”
B. DISCIPLESHIP IS LEARNING TO MAKE MISTAKES...THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR IMPERFECTIONS THROUGH GOD’S GRACE
1. Up until this point, the apostles had played a minor role in Jesus’ ministry. He had been close at hand to help them out if they got into difficulties.
2. Now however, they were being, “Sent Out.” They were going to fly solo...without the instructor’s hands on the controls.
3. Would they make mistakes; sure. Were they human, absolutely. As they stepped into unchartered waters, do they sense some sort of uneasiness, probably.
C. OUT THERE...
1. Ministry itself provides ample opportunity for sharing one’s faith
2. So does the world...
a. How do we share our faith?
b. Two by two principle in Luke 10:1,2
C. BUT WHAT A THRILL!
1. God provides great experience!
2 They’re steps broadened, their confidence soared, their passion burned and their hearts swelled.
3. They had cast away demons, healed the sick, they were representing the kingdom of God!
THEY HAD BECOME REFLECTED LIGHT
Vs 2
A. THE MINISTRY THE DISCIPLES WERE GIVEN WAS TWOFOLD. THEY WERE TO PREACH THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND TO HEAL THE SICK.
1. Theirs was simply an extension of the ministry that Christ Himself had been engaged in (Matt 9:35). Now they were being called upon to be the means of His reaching out beyond the limitations of His own assumed humanity.
2. Like the rest of us Jesus only had one pair of hands and could only be in one place at a time. Twelve more pairs (and later 70) of hands would go a long way toward reaching out to the multitudes for whom He had such compassion.
B. WHO WE ARE DETERMINES WHAT PEOPLE SEE.
1. While healing a blind man, Jesus had asserted forcefully, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5). But during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had told the disciples, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14).
2. He was already letting them know that the day would come when He would no longer be present n the world in the way that He was at that particular time and that when that day came, their task would be to continue what He had started.
C. NOW THEY WERE ABOUT TO EMBARK ON THE FIRST SHAKEY STEPS TOWARDS ACHIEVING THAT END.
1. The significance of modern disciples is that we are the extension (the reflection) of all that Christ initiated and they perpetuated.
2. What a thrilling adventure to be part of...
3. The effectiveness of ministry today is often measured by sophisticated means, which rely heavily on statistics and all kinds of state-of-the-art anthropological and sociological measurements that may or may not be helpful.
4. BUT we can ALWAYS measure the effectiveness of how we are doing spiritually against the yardstick of our goal: To be what Christ was and do what He did, as illustrated for us by those early disciples.
D. THE CHALLENGE OF THE TWELVE IS THE CHALLENGE OF US ALL.
1. To be sent with authority
2. To have our complete confidence in Christ...HE IS THE POWER
3. To be characterized by being children of Light!
CONCLUSION
A. IN SEARCH OF A NEW PASTOR, ONE CONGREGATION ADVERTISED FOR SOMEONE:
1. Who was able to walk on water and move mountains.”
2. They knew they had the right person when a candidate arrived for the job interview sporting a life jacket and carrying a shovel.
B. THE HAPPY RESULTS, LUKE 10:17-20
And the seventy returned with JOY, saying, Lord EVEN the demons are subject to us in YOUR NAME. And Jesus said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. NEVERTHELESS, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your NAMES are recorded in heaven.
LET’S GET SOME NAMES IN THE BOOK! WHAT A MINISTRY
