Crumbs 100

 

Crumbs 100

Comission

Scripture Mark 6;7-13 NIV 7 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

8 These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. 9 Wear sandals but not an extra shirt. 10 Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. 11 And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”

12 They went out and preached that people should repent. 13 They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

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This passage tells about a missionary enterprise, their equipping, their instruction and what happened.

Before their sending our Lord empowers them in two ways. He gives them each other. They are not to tackle the mission alone. Secondly He gives them authority. They are not to tackle the mission in their own strength.

In a time when planning and assessment are the practices in any project this passage makes strange reading. Drop in for a bed for an indefinie period is not way we do things in the UK. Commentators may well explain such practices in terms of the then culture, but our quest must be to determine what the Holy Spirit is saying to us in our circumstances. I note that these men were witnessing in a culture that was their own. We do know how long they were on mission. They came back to the Lord.

In verses 12 and 13 we discover the shape of the Christian mission that underlies much of that of our Lord ; the preaching addressing peoples’ spiritual needs and healing addressing their bodily needs but our quest must be. The disciples preached repentance , threw out demons and healed. In healing they anointed with oil, a method prescribed for today in James

Questions

1. What guidance about modern missionary work may be gained from this; this passage?

2. What should be the essential core of our Christian witness today ?.

3. How should we adapt our evangelistic methods to the culture of society?

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