For Others in Our Neighborhood
Let’s open our Bible together to Mark chapter 6, and we’ll be in verses 7-12. Today is the first day of the next three weeks that were learning our third part of our vision statement, For Others. Holiness, and discipleship will always lead a Christian to be on mission For Others. For everyone who is a follower of Jesus, this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. When you chose to follow Jesus, you signed up—not just to support others for mission trips, but to live a missional life.
And so, for the next three weeks counting today, I want to invite you to consider what it means for your life, to Carry the presences of Jesus, together ,with others. Let’s dive into our Scripture this morning. Mark 6, verses 7-13, 7 And called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 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.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
Jesus sent out his disciples out. Now, we don’t know exactly how long they were gone but we do know it was for a brief time because they returned to him. If we would keep on reading , we would actually see that after word reaches Jesus of John the Baptist’s death, and then, right before the feeding of the 5,000 in verse 30, we wittiness them returning. Just a side note, when they return in verse 30, I do want you to noice the importance of rest.
Just a promo, here in the new year I'm working on a series of messaged about Sabbath and Simplicity. But right now, I want to focus on verse 7, it says, 7 And called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. There’s so much we can unpack here together, but lets just think about what we’re seeing here. First, think about who Jesus sent, The twelve.
Ordinary men. If you recall a couple weeks ago we said that Jesus doesn’t necessarily call the mature as much as he calls those who’s willing to make themselves available. But lets just think about this for a moment… this wasn’t Jesus’s all star team. Up to this point, this wasn’t a Moses, or an Abraham, or a king David. No.. just a bunch of outcasts like a, tax collector, a zealot, a doubter, a betrayer, and blue color fishermen who all had personal issues.
If you need even more proof, just flip over two chapters and if you recall, Jesus told the parable of the soils and these guys were clueless. In chapter five you find these men frustrated. Now, here’s the part in verse 7 that I want to focus on, look with me. It says, he sent them out. You can circle that if you want. But then, go further in verse seven and also circle gave them authority.
To be sent out, the greek work here is apostello, which is where we get the word apostle. It means to be sent out but also to be sent out with another persons authority. That is the picture of what’s happening here. Jesus is authorizing this group of disciples to go out in His name with His authority to do His work in His power. And so, here’s a point… If your walk with Jesus is always about your comforts, you’ll never call yourself out of your own comfort zone to seek the lost.
Never. People will never see the importance of missions when it’s about personal comfort, and our own authority. These kinds of people will always see “the mission” as someone else’s job, or someone else’s call…. Or someone else’s problem…. But Not thier own. Because This is so important to grasp. Listen, These guys weren’t going out to start their own work; they were extending Jesus’ work. They were not going out on their own; they were going out in Jesus’ name, as Jesus’ representatives, with Jesus’ message, Jesus’ power and Jesus’ authority to do Jesus’ work.
The whole point is that they would be going out in Jesus’ name, under his authority, and under his leadership. The same is true for us. I am around people every week. I think about our demographic in our area, our county a lot. Lycoming county is roughly 45% Christian. That’s what the statistics say… If that is true, that means 55% of the people we’re around everyday do no know Jesus.
If that is true, 55% of our neighbors, and 55% of our co workers, and 55% of our friends and family. There are 62,000+ people by statistics alone, eternally lost. And I’m not confident that 45% of the people who claim christianity are saved either. All kinds of people call themselves Christians and go to church who are not followers of Jesus. But imagine, though, if those numbers were true, if those 55% of people living around us were to die right now, they would go to everlasting, never-ending judgment and suffering.
I’m thinking about our church family, right here, right now in this city, and the opportunity we have to make disciples and multiply churches. I’m thinking about the opportunity we have as we sign a 50 year partnership with Montoursville little league. I think of all the parents and grandparent and more importantly the children who we can touch with the gospel. Just Friday of this week a little girl at Loyalsock valley elementary took my hand and said, I know you.
And I looked at her and said, oh… how is that? And she goes, you’re Abbagail’s father, and I was at your baseball field. This was a little girl… I have no clue what Abby and I did to make her and I such an impressible person to that little girl remembered us from 4 months ago, but she remembered our ball field. We’ve got to decide in our life right now, who’s calling us out into this mission field.
The second word of encouragement I have for you is this.. look with me in verses 8-9… 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts— 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. He charged them to go, but to go and take nothing. When I pack, I put the suitcase on the bed, and I begin to place all the clothes I need, the charging cords, the books, the shoes and don’t forget the toiletry bag just filled to the zipper with stuff.
Can you imagine going into your bedroom and laying everything out for a mission trip on your bed, and Jesus walks in and says put on one set of clothes and grab your toothbrush and let’s get out of here. The picture we see is this, Mission people are people trusting in Jesus’s provisions. This faith in Jesus wasn’t just a one nighter of kindness, but a journey of faith. Remember a month or two ago I asked this question, is faith really faith if we never step out into the unknown?
Where in the Bible does it say that the more comfortable we are, the more faith we receive? Where I the Bible does it say, your faith will offer you a country club experience? I’ve been saturating in hebrews for a few weeks. One day I was reading chapter 11 and in my CSB Bible I began to get focused on this phrase, by faith… over 23 times there is these phrases, by faith.
Chapter 11 says, that although he did not know where he was going, speaking of Abraham, he still went by faith. Listen church… This is so important. Don’t miss this. You don’t need faith, you don’t need to trust in God, to live out a quiet, casual, comfortable Christianity over the next three weeks. You can do nothing. You don't need faith to come to church. You don’t need the power of God to live out cultural Christianity, where you’re silent with the gospel.
Millions upon millions of professing Christians are doing that on their own every week. But Jesus is calling us to something greater, something higher. He’s calling us to step out in faith, putting our lives and reputations on the line. For the next three weeks, I’m going to challenge you in this. I’m gonna challenge us to say, “God, I don’t want to sit back and settle for self-centered, self-saturated, casual, comfortable cultural Christianity.
That’s not what I was made for. I was made for so much more. Listen, you’re heart was changed from death to life to do more than find comfort. You’re heart wasn’t designed to hoard the grace and the gospel of God for yourself. Because I believe… if you desire joy… right.. the joy of the Lord. Joy is found in pleasing the father. Joy is created through being satisfied in Christ alone, who cries out, Abba Father, and Jesus says, his mission was to seek the lost.
God is waiting for His people to step out and trust Him to do what only He can do through us. Our faith, His provision. Say that with me.. Our faith, His provision. The third encouragement we learn in this Scripture is where the rubber meets the road.. and it’s the one thing that I think is the greatest deterrent for many to step away from missions. Look with me in verse 12, would someone read that for us?
12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. The primary thing we do with being on mission is calling people to repent. Lets dig into this deeper… What are you going to do, as you’re out there with nothing but your outfit and toothbrush? Well, pastor, I’m going to go to work, or to my neighbors house, or out in public and I’m gonna smile all the time and be happy, and I’m gonna be nice to others.
Okay, that’s good, but really? Don’t you think…. aren’t we called to be more than just nice to others? I mean, yes we’re to be good to others, but isn’t our faith meant for more? How can one, by faith, through grace have the authority of Christ, and Christ in them, and forming them, and changing them, to only hope that our kindness will proclaim to a person to repent? Let me just say, it’s scary to ask another person to repent.
It’s got to be the right time. We can’t just walk up to total strangers and go, repent, you evil sinful person. We might get clocked in the nose. Right? The beauty of leaning on Jesus and His provision, and God’s timing… and sensing the Spirits moving in our hearts, and seeing God’s hand move through the lives of those around us. I remember at the fair where I volunteered to share the gospel with hundreds of people.
From 10am, to 9pm I preached the gospel, and with my paper, drew out the gospel of God’s love and then every person I interacted with all said they were almost saved. Every single person. I’m here.. pointing to the point right before going to Jesus. And I would ask them.. what’s stopping you form reaching Jesus into your heart right now? What’s stopping you from saying, Jesus I have sinned.
I’ve turned aside from God and His ways to myself and my own ways, so my sin has separated me from God. And although I deserve eternal separation, GOd sent his son, Jesus Who has paid the price for our sin by dying on a cross. And Jesus raised from the dead in three days, and so In victory over death, so that anyone, anywhere who repents—turns from their sin, their selves and every attempt to save themselves, who believes and trusts in the good news of God’s love for us in Jesus—will be forgiven of all their sin and restored to a right a good relationship with God for all of eternity.
Thats not my message. That’s gods message and I am inviting you today, to believe in it. This is why you hear, repent and believe in the gospel. But the truth is, not everyone will listen. Even that day when I was open evangelizing. Not every person I gave the gospel to received Jesus. And I cried. And cried, and I kept praying.. honestly, I didn’t witness one person from my conversation come to Christ till the evening.
But what do we do when they reject it? That’s what verse 11 shows us, This picture of shaking the dust off our feet if people don’t listen to you is basically a symbolic gesture to indicate that somebody, or a group of people, or even a town, had rejected Jesus’ call to repent. Listen, it is not our responsibility to force repentance. If people rejected the gospel, Jesus said, “You’ve done your responsibility.
How they respond is their responsibility.” We learn this in Ezekiel chapter 33. God says, imagine you’re on the watch tower and your looking for enemies. You’re looking for danger, as long as you sound the horn and the people inside the walls hear it, they will have a choice to respond. If they don’t respond and they’re harmed or killed, you warned them, so their blood is on their hands.” But if you’re the watchman on the tower, and you see danger, but yet you do not blow the horn, you don’t sound the warning, and the people are hurt, then God says, “The blood of those people is on your hands.” So I want us to see this picture.
There are 112,000 people in this county. And many of them we will interact with at work, or school, or at the grocery store, for whom eternal danger is coming at any moment. So think of this… we can’t control how people will respond to the gospel, but do you know what we can control? Whether or not people hear this gospel. So the question is: will they hear this good news or warning from us, or are we going to be silent over the next two weeks, with everlasting danger heading their way, but we’re saying nothing?
I didn’t always have a heart for the lost. If I’m honest with you, I didn’t have a heart for the lost until December of 2019. I’ve been evangelizing the amazing people of Timberend for almost a year by then and I got a message that this woman, and she was in the hospital and many in the Timberend group chat was asking for prayer for this lady. So, I made a cold call to her hospital room on that Wednesday.
She didn’t know me, I didn’t know her, but I went to her room, and immediately was kept at the door because staff was in her room cleaning, and she was getting her food, and the nurses were giving medication and caring for her. She was alert and sober in mind, she saw me. I was young, and inexperienced. I felt that I was more of a bother for her with all the other things going on, so I introduced myself, and I said, Nancy it seems its a bit busy..
can I come back in a couple days and visit you? And she nodded and responded back to me, yes… Two days later her son writes on our group chat that his mother had passed. God sent me to preach the gospel to her and I was turned away by not wanting to inconveniencing her more. Because I know I could have waited, but I didn’t. So do you know what God did…
he made sure I never forgot that moment and that woman. Her son called me over the weekend after she had passed and said, you were the last person to see my mom… would you consider to officiate her funeral. My first funeral as a senior pastor was for a woman that I was led by the Spirit to preach the gospel to in the hospital, and she died before I got to ask her if she knew Jesus.
God help us not to be silent in this church when so many people out there are going to eternal judgment. God help us to stop sitting here a building playing roulette with the lives of those we claim to love. My testimony is a reminder of this… and it’s our final word of encouragement… look with me in verses 12 and 13: 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. We can take days talking about casting out demons and such.. but what I want to show you is this… Jesus was clearly calling His followers to go to people in need and care for them. He wanted his disciples to know that compassion is a part of the mission. We can’t come up with some sort of open door policy and go, come if you want, the doors are unlocked and opened.
And if you dont come, that’s you’re fault. No, that’s not Christ like.. Jesus says, you go to them, and you proclaim the gospel, call for repentance and anoint them. Do you know why anointing is important? In James 5 the oil was a symbol of the presence and grace of God. It is a beautiful picture. Jesus is saying, “Go to people in need and care for them in such a way that they see My presence is with them and My grace is for them.” What a picture!
What an amazing picture that is given to us today. What if, we became a church that actually looked below the surface of everyday life and everyday lives, and into the deeper lives of the people around us and we had compassion for them? Let’s intentionally ask, “Who is hurting around me? How can I help them in such a way that they see in me that God is with them and God is for them?” Wouldn’t that be amazing?
To be on mission, to rely on his provision, to share His message, and to show his love. This is a calling for all of us. And right now, you and I get to choose whether we’ll be watchmen to sound the alarm, or not. You and I get to choose whether or not we’ll show compassion or not. My prayer is that we will be men and woman who seek the lost at all cost.
And we have some amazing opportunities already, Jesus says, the harvest is ready, but the workers are few. I want to end our time together with communion. As we share communion I want to say something. We are a body. You and I, we are a family in a way…in a way that supersedes blood ties. We have such a hard time grasping that, but this is the beauty of the New Testament church.
Today, is a special day because we’ve been taking communion every single Sunday for a couple months now, of course, minus last Sunday. My desire for us today is this… why not renew our commitment to Christ and to each other and our commitment to His mission. Would you be willing to do that? 1 Corinthians 11:26 says, “Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” The lords supper is a proclamation.
It’s not just eating and drinking, it’s proclaiming. When we take the Lord’s Supper, we proclaim we are a body, who comes from every tribe and nation and tongue, united together by the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. Secondly, communion is a moment of rejoicing. why do we rejoice in the Lord’s Supper? Because He has set us free. We’re not enslaved to sin, the things of this world, or to ourselves, we are sons and daughters of God.
And because of this relationship… we rejoice. My Brothers and sisters, when we take this bread together, and we eat of it together, we are looking back and remembering the body of Christ, but we are also anticipating the day when we are before the eternal glory of God, with new bodies. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
My Brothers and sisters, when we take this cup together, and we drink this cup together, we are looking back and remembering the blood of Christ, but we are also anticipating the day when we will share the cup with our risen Savior. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.
Let’s sing one last time as our benediction, verse 4 of power in the blood. *