As disciples, you are called to Jesus’ mission, simplicity, and rejection

There’s something invigorating about being sent out on a mission. When you’ve been commissioned with a task and you have a very clear objective. Whether you’re in charge of a business or a crew or on a mission to improve your house or to hunt something. We’re willing to overcome obstacles and endure hardship for the mission. But the mission of Christ is different. We hope we don’t get sent. We are too simple and unqualified. We’re afraid of the difficulties and struggles. In Mark 6, we’ll see that we’ve already been sent out. And that we will be facing precisely each of those things.

Main Point – As disciples, you are called to Jesus’ mission, simplicity, and rejection

Text – Mark 6:1-13, which can be found in your pew Bible on page 800

Prayer

You’ll notice that Jesus has come to accomplish a specific ministry. And the things he’s been doing while accomplishing that ministry are the exact same things he calls his disciples to do. This is a real go and do likewise situation. Jesus didn’t call these twelve men to be his disciples because he wanted to have some friends. He didn’t call them so that they could feel better about themselves being close to Jesus. He called them so that he could send them out to do what he was doing. And what is Jesus doing? He is spreading the kingdom of God through the preaching of repentance.

If you want to turn back to chapter 3 when he first calls the 12 disciples to follow him it says this in verses 14-15:

“And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

And in chapter 1 when he first called the disciples.  He said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

Jesus’ intention all along has been to send these men out. And what are they going to do when he sends them? They are going to do precisely the same things that Jesus has been doing. They are called to his mission. He wants them to do it through the same strategy that he is employing.  They are called to his simplicity. And he warns them that they will experience the same opposition that he experienced. They are called to his rejection. So we’ll look at each of those in turn this morning.

Point #1 – Disciples are called to Jesus’ mission (vs 1-2a, 7, 12-13)

We’ve been in the book of Mark for some time now and I hope you’ve been getting a sense of what Jesus’ mission is. He has a very specific goal. Let me remind us of a few of the things we’ve learned up to this point.

1. Jesus preaches repentance to advance God’s kingdom (1:15, 38)

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

“Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”

2. Jesus casts out demons to defeat Satan’s kingdom (3:27)

“But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.”

3. Jesus heals to prove he has the power to save (2:10-11)

“That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins… rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

Preaching, casting out demons, and healing people. This is what Jesus is doing in just about every single verse up to this point in Mark. Mark is trying to be very clear with us that this is the mission Jesus is on. I’ve tried to demonstrate this regularly throughout Mark. He enters the kingdom of Satan. He frees people from Satan’s power. He calls them out of the kingdom through repentance. And he gives them a new life by bringing them into his kingdom. Do we see Jesus on this mission in our passage? Yes, we do.

READ VS 1-2a

Jesus has been traveling all over Galilee, in Capernaum, and by the Sea of Galilee preaching repentance. And now he brings that message to his hometown of Nazareth. Nazareth southwest of Capernaum. It’s halfway between the southern end of the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea. Why does he go there? So that he can preach. As we read, things don’t work out well there, so what does he do at the end of verse 6 “And he went about among the villages teaching.” He goes around preaching because that is why he came out.

But then what does he do with the disciples? Look at verse 7.

READ VS 7, he sends them out to do what he was doing, and what do they do? Look at vs 12-13.

READ VS 12-13.

They are doing precisely what Jesus has been doing. They’re preaching repentance. They’re casting out demons. They’re healing people. This is the whole purpose that Jesus called them earlier in the book. Right? He said, “You’re going to be my disciples, so that I can send you out to preach and defeat Satan’s kingdom.” Then here, he sends them out to preach and defeat Satan’s kingdom.

Can you imagine if one of them, let’s say Philip replied saying, “Um, no thank you. That all sounds kind of scary. We were really hoping that you would do that. After all Jesus, you’re kind of the professional here. I didn’t sign up for this kind of job”? I’m sure Jesus would be patient, but he’d probably give him a bit of a quizzical look. And he’d reply with, “Philip, why are you surprised right now? I literally told you when I called you to be my disciple, ‘I am calling you so that you can learn from me then go out and do what I’m doing.’ This has been the plan all along. This has been the expectation all along. In fact, the only reason I called disciples was so that I could send them out on the same mission that I am doing.

No, none of the disciples say that to Jesus. They all simply obey and they begin to work the same mission that Christ has been working.

You can see the parallel for us today pretty easily. When Jesus called you to be his disciple, it was always his intention to send you on his mission. He has called you to go and defeat the powers of darkness and to call others to repentance in the same way that you were once called to repentance. I want you to notice that this involves moving towards people. Jesus traveled to new towns and villages with his message. He sends his disciples out and they go to new towns and villages. Jesus and his disciples don’t simply sit and say, “Well, they know where to find me. If they’re interested they can just come ask.” No, he goes to them.

And in an act of great mercy, Christ doesn’t send us on this task alone. He sent his disciples out in pairs so that they would have someone to encourage them, give them strength, and keep them focused on the mission. He has sent us out on the mission as an entire church. We are to encourage one another, strengthen one another, and keep one another focused on the mission.

And the mission is to go. It’s not hard to find the people who need to hear. They live on our street. We work with them. God is likely bringing to your mind right now the people you know who need to hear. There are people across the United States that are very receptive to hearing the news of the gospel. There are young people in particular just searching for a meaning to life and wandering in hopelessness on college campuses just distracting themselves as often as possible to get by. Who will go to them? I’ve talked about this with our missions team. Nearly 40% of the world’s population lives in a place where they have no significant contact with anyone who knows the gospel. The reason Jesus calls us to be his disciples is for the purpose of imitating his mission.

I want our church to grow in its missions-mindedness. I’ve been praying regularly for this on Wednesday nights. And if you are someone who wants to grow in that too, then I want you to know that your options aren’t either stay here and do absolutely nothing or sell all that you have and move to the Congo. That’s not the only way for our church to grow in missions awareness. If you’re interested simply in learning about how you can pray or support those who are carrying the gospel across the US or across the globe, come talk to me. We just purchased a bunch of books this past week that help teach you about missions. There are several biographies of people whose hearts were captivated by it and who dedicated their lives to it. If nothing else, you can read and you can pray. Let’s become disciples who follow Jesus on his mission.

The response of many of us will be immediately, “well I’m not the right person for the job. I’m not educated enough. I’m too old. I have too many responsibilities” or whatever other excuse, but let me ask you - do you think the voice of the Holy Spirit would ever tell you, you’re not the right person for the mission of Christ? Or is that more likely the voice of Satan lying to you?

In fact, it’s unqualified people that Jesus is always sending. Look at our second point.

Point #2 – Disciples are called to Jesus’ simplicity (vs. 2b-3, 8-10)

READ VS 2b-3

Jesus was a bit too simple for people’s liking. He came preaching with power and with authority, but the people of Nazareth stepped back and said, “Wait a minute. This is not the guy we expected to be bringing this message.” This is Jesus’ hometown. It’s the town that Jesus grew up in. That means, he knows everybody here and they all know him. It has maybe 500 people at the most. So when Jesus comes preaching repentance, it means he’s preaching to people who changed his diapers. He’s preaching to his school teachers who taught him his A, B, C’s. He’s preaching to the neighbors he used to borrow tools from as a boy. They know all about Jesus and they know he’s a man, just like them. He doesn’t have any credentials. Why should we listen to Mary’s little boy? Where did he get the wisdom that we’re supposed to follow? He hasn’t gone to school anywhere. He doesn’t have any degrees. He’s just too simple. And they refuse to listen to him.

I sympathize with the plight Jesus goes through here. There’s perhaps no one harder to call to share the gospel with than people who knew you when you were young. I went to college in Northeast Pennsylvania and I remember candidating for a church position in Dayton, OH. On the Sunday I visited, a young couple came up to me and said, “Hi Shane, we went to college with you. Do you remember us?” And my immediate thought was shame and embarrassment. “Oh no. I was the biggest fool in the world in college. Nobody who knew me then could possibly have any respect for me now.” And I figured there was no way this job would work out. It did work out and end up being a great church to serve at. But serving people who knew me when I was young seemed like such a liability.

Because when you’re trying to convince someone they ought to listen to you and that they ought to do what you say, you feel like the more qualified you are or the more credentials you have then the more weight your words will carry. But without those things to rely on. We feel silly.

So you think that Jesus would learn from this incident that if people are going to listen to your message  then you better have lots of personal weight to put behind it. But Jesus doesn’t learn this lesson. Instead he calls out the twelve. The biggest bunch of bumbling nobodies we’ve encountered in Mark. They have misunderstood Jesus’ mission multiple times. They have been repeatedly afraid. They have been frustrated with Jesus and tried to redirect him. On top of that, they have no credentials. They are not scholars. They do not have any special skillsets unless you count fishing and auditing taxes. Not only are they not qualified for this mission, but Jesus says I’m going to send you out intentionally unprepared.

READ VS 8-10

You know all of that stuff you should get prepared in advance for a trip? Don’t do any of that. Just start walking. Take the clothes already on your back and the walking stick in your hand and just go. “But Jesus, shouldn’t we make some plans and strategize about how this is going to be most effective?” “Nah, just get out there.” It’s not that he’s against preparation, training, and resources, but rather he doesn’t want them to rely on their preparedness for this mission to work out. He’s sending them out in such a way that they absolutely have to depend on God to provide for them and they can in no way say that it was their own ingenuity that accomplished the mission.

Then he has this unusual command about staying in whatever house receives you. The temptation would be to try and climb to better and better accommodations. Maybe the only one who welcomed them at first was the poor widow in town. But then as they preach their message, the mayor invites them to come stay with him. Jesus says, “No. Don’t try to move up to a better position with more respect or access to more resources. Just stay where you are.”

Why is Jesus sabotaging their mission like this? He’s sending out guys with no credentials and with no resources to accomplish saving people from the jaws of Satan. It really seems like they don’t have what they need.

And yet. Jesus has actually given them the only thing that they need. In verse 7, he sent them out and gave them authority. That’s the only thing they need. What authority? The authority of having lots of degrees and lots of letters after their names? The authority of having a respectable position in town? The authority of having money and power? No. None of these. The authority they have is Jesus’ authority. That’s it. But it’s the authority that Jesus has been using all throughout Mark to accomplish his mission. He has been casting out demons. He’s been healing leprosy. He’s been stopping storms. He’s been raising people from the dead. He’s been calling people to repentance. And with what qualifications, credentials, and respect? NONE. All he has is his own authority. But that authority is more than enough.

If Jesus has called you to be his disciple, then he has called you to be on his mission. And if he calls you to be on his mission then he gives you his authority to do it. Friend, that is the only qualification necessary. It is more than enough to accomplish the job. In fact, God will often strip away other resources from you so that you will completely rely on him and his authority. If you feel unqualified to be on this mission, perfect. That means God has stripped everything away and placed you in a position to rely on him. It means you’re perfectly prepared for it. The more you are forced to rely on his authority, the more effective the mission will be because it’s his authority that is able to accomplish it, not your credentials.

Jesus calls his disciples and he calls us to a simple obedience. A simple unqualified obedience. We follow Jesus in his simplicity.

But just because we have his authority does not mean that we will be met with success at every turn. This wasn’t Jesus’ story and it won’t be ours.

Point #3 – Disciples are called to Jesus’ rejection (vs. 4-6, 11)

We see very clearly in our passage that Jesus was rejected in his hometown. They did not receive his message.

READ VS 4-6

They have no faith and so Jesus is able to do no work. Mark puts this in quite striking terms. “He could do no mighty work there.” It sounds like Jesus doesn’t have enough power to do anything here. Is Jesus weak? Is he a machine that is powered by faith and belief, but without that energy he’s weak? Kind of like Santa is portrayed in some television shows or movies. The more children who believe in him the more magical he becomes, but when less people believe he loses all of his power. No. I can tell you decidedly that that’s not how Jesus works. Faith doesn’t give Jesus power. But what we learned last week is that faith is what drives people to Jesus. So in a town without faith, it means no one is being driven to Jesus. Jesus will heal and save everyone who comes to him. But if no one comes to him, what work can he do?

He has been held in honor everywhere he goes, but now in the place filled with people who should love him the most, he is met with dishonor. Do you think maybe Jesus said the wrong things? Perhaps he was too aggressive with his teaching and he turned people off to it. Maybe he should have been a bit more loving in his presentation of the message. Or what Jesus should have done is lived a godly life near these people that invited them to come to him and ask what was different about him. I think you can tell that none of these are what Jesus “should have done differently”. The fault was not with Jesus. He perfectly presented the gospel and yet was rejected. The fault lies with the people. It was so much so that Jesus marveled at their unbelief.

And I get it. I understand why Jesus was flabbergasted. How can the king of the universe come down from heaven and tell you that he wants to rescue you from the power of Satan, he wants to deliver you from a path towards death, he wants to erase your sentence of death and clear the record of all your sins, he wants to give you new life, and if you’ll trust him he’ll do all the work, how can someone reject that? It’s because it requires people to let go of their sin. It requires people to no longer be the ruler of their own life. And when Jesus preached repentance in their synagogue, instead of turning to him, they were offended by him. The problem was not with Jesus’ presentation. The problem is deep in the human heart.

If Jesus himself is rejected when presenting the gospel, then it’s fair to assume that everyone will face rejection when presenting the gospel.

READ VS 11

Before they’re even sent out, Jesus warns his disciples. You’re going to enter places that will reject you, just like they rejected me. And helpfully Jesus even explains that when this happens, it’s not your fault you’re being rejected. It’s their fault for rejecting you. There was a tradition that had begun among rabbis and other Jews at this time that if they traveled to a foreign land, as they returned they would shake their robes to remove the dust before returning to Israel. They didn’t want to contaminate the Lord’s nation with foreign dirt. This was more symbolic than literal. It would be impossible to keep dirt out, but it was how they wanted to remind themselves and those watching that God has chosen our land and has rejected your land. So for Jesus to tell the disciples to shake the dust off when leaving a town that rejected them, he’s shifting the focus. No longer are the people of God simply whoever lives within the boundaries of Israel. Now the people of God are those who receive the gospel by faith. If they shake the dust off their feet in a Jewish city, they’re suggesting that God has rejected this town because they have rejected him.

That’s a strong message to send to a Jew. That’s an extremely offensive message to give to them. But Jesus’ concern is not with avoiding being offensive. In fact, in verse 3 it specifically says that the people were offended at Jesus’ message. Jesus was less concerned with how it would make people feel and he was more concerned with their need for the truth.

Jesus is a doctor who has the cure, but it requires a painful procedure for him to administer it. He doesn’t go out of his way to hurt the patient, but he knows that giving them the cure will hurt. He tells his disciples, give people the cure and it’s going to hurt them. But it’s the only thing that can heal them. It would be unloving to withhold the cure.

I recognize this fear in my own heart all the time. I want to be liked. I don’t want to make people angry. So I avoid saying difficult things at times. And I try to convince myself that by not confronting people when necessary, I’m being loving. But it’s not true. In those instances, I’m loving myself more than them. By not challenging people with the truths of the gospel, I’m protecting my own perceived honor and my own reputation rather than giving it up. We recognize that there’s always a certain cost to serving people and loving them. If I want to give someone a gift, it means that I have to lose some money to do so. If I want to clean up the house as a way of serving my family, it means that I have to lose some of my time and energy to do so. The act of serving means you give up something that is yours and that you treasure for the sake of someone else. I give up my money. I give up my time. I give up my energy. I give up my preferences. But when it comes to giving up the honor that others show you or giving up your respectability, for most of us we would say that is too far. I must guard my reputation among others at all costs. We will not give that up to serve anyone.

But don’t you recognize that’s the greatest thing that Christ gave up to serve us? The Bible doesn’t say that Jesus was great because he set aside some time from his busy schedule to serve us. Jesus wasn’t loving because he used some of his wealth on us. No. Jesus gave up all the honor that was due to him for our sake. Philippians 2:5-8 says this.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Jesus said aside all the glory and honor that he should be receiving as God and gave it up. And what did he receive in its place? Rejection. Dishonor. Why would he do this? Because there was nothing he wasn’t willing to give up for the sake of loving and saving his people. Christ gave up his honor and faced rejection for your sake, so that you could give up your honor and face rejection for his sake and for the sake of others. It’s the highest cost that love can require and it’s the greatest gift you can give.

When Jesus called you to be his disciple, it was a call for you to do what he does. He called you to go to the people and deliver the message. You’re called to go without any qualifications at all except the authority that he has given you. And he called you to face rejection for the sake of his kingdom. Praise God, Jesus Christ did every one of those things for us first.

Prayer