1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. ~ Luke 9:1-2
The Lord Jesus lived for thirty years in the city of Nazareth in virtual obscurity. He lived those thirty years living a perfectly sinless life in order that that life might be credited to the account of those who believe. He fulfilled all righteousness. At the age of thirty, His public ministry began. At that time, John the Baptist identified Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Luke 9 is half way through the three years. We're eighteen months into the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Only eighteen months or so are left until the cross. Up to this point the Lord Jesus did His ministry all by Himself. All the miracles were miracles He rendered. All the messages were messages He preached.
In Luke 9, it was time to commission the twelve and send them out to preach the gospel in Galilee. They've had eighteen months of being discipled by the Lord Jesus. With this first mission, the learners are now preachers. This is their first real ministry opportunity.
They went out two by two to preach the gospel, and to deliver miracles that attested to the validity of their message. They went out for a short period of time, then they came back, they gave a report, and the Lord Jesus used the experience to further instruct them. This is the model of Jesus' discipleship program.
The disciples were the most common of men, just like you and me. They were plain, ordinary people. And they are exactly the kind of people the Lord Jesus chooses to use. They were already half way through His ministry before their formal training even begins. To this point in time they've just been listening and observing. They've been getting their theological and biblical training. They've been sorting out their theology, but now it's time for formal training to be sent out. And there's only eighteen months left before the Lord Jesus will be gone and they will be on their own.
During the first half of the ministry of the Lord Jesus, He ministered all by Himself. John the Baptist's ministry had faded, and he became a prisoner. The Lord Jesus, at that time, was by Himself in the ministry. It was critical, at that point, to multiply. This is one of the goals of discipleship.
So, these twelve with boring backgrounds, are used of the Lord to further His work in this world. These men worked with their hands, not their brains. They were blue collared, involved in earthly vocations. And, yet they're given the most important task in the history of the world. It is a given that God will always accomplish His will. He is the key to this whole operation, yet He uses twelve ordinary men with the most extraordinary responsibility.
These twelve, minus Judas Iscariot plus the Apostle Paul, were used of God to write the New Testament. When the church was born in Acts 2:42 they met together and they studied the apostles' doctrine. They were used by God to reveal the doctrine. God revealed sound doctrine through them and eventually that doctrine was written down. We now know it as the New Testament.
In Ephesians 2:20, we learn the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles, with the Lord Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. In Revelation 21:14 we learn the names of the Apostles are eternally emblazoned upon the foundation stones of the New Jerusalem, the capital of eternity.
These messengers of Jesus Christ proclaimed salvation. In v.2 we read, "he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God." They preached the message that God has a kingdom and anyone who is willing to believe in that kingdom can be in it. Even though we're sinners, if we cry out for God's mercy and forgiveness and if we acknowledge Jesus Christ as His Son and Savior, we are included in His kingdom. His kingdom includes salvation from the penalty, the power and eventually, the presence of sin.
These men had listened for eighteen months, now they were ready to speak what they had heard. When they went out they preached about sin and repentance and grace and mercy from God, and the forgiveness of sin, that God gives to the broken-hearted. They preached the Lord Jesus was the promised Messiah. And it wouldn't be long before He would give His life for their sins and He would therefore ratify the covenant that provides salvation.
The Lord Jesus couldn't send them out with the right message unless there was a way to attest to its validity because there wasn't a New Testament against which you could measure the preacher. Today, we do not need miracles to validate our message. We can tell whether the message is true or not by simply measuring it against the New Testament. In those days there wasn't any Scripture of the New Testament, a standard that people could go to against which to test a man. And so in order to provide validation beyond question, they were given this power.
The Lord Jesus gave the twelve power and authority over all the demons. They had dominance over the supernatural realm of spiritual beings. This is the very same power and authority that the Lord Jesus Himself possessed. In Matthew 10:8 we learn they also had the power to raise the dead. In 2 Corinthians 12:12 we read, "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance by signs and wonders and miracles."
The jest of our text today is this: God demonstrated His compassion in the realm of people's sorrows, sufferings, anxieties, fears, and death. And, when He sent out His disciples, He sent them with two main weapons: the gospel and miracles which both demonstrated His compassion.
Finally, God’s word was never given to us to be a dead letter, it was given to transfer His heart to us. If this is not so, the word of God then becomes simply facts and information, stored memory disconnected from any life-giving power. At the end of it all is God's desire for us to be given His heart for others and we minister to them accordingly.
