In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the passage in Mark where Jesus sends out his disciples two by two. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the context and filling in the gaps in the narrative. Jesus saw the multitude as sheep without a shepherd and felt compassion for them. He commanded his disciples to pray for more laborers to be sent into the harvest field. The preacher highlights the significance of Jesus' compassion and challenges the listeners to catch this same compassion and heed his command.

Now, will you kindly turn with me to Mark's gospel in chapter 6. And we are going to begin this morning with the second part of verse 6, and the passage that proceeds as far as verse 11. Mark, we read from Matthew, but we are now turning back to Mark, chapter 6, the second half of verse 6 to verse 11. And he went about, went round about the villages teaching. And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits, and commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only. No script, no bread, no money in their purse, but be shod with sandals, and not put on two coats. And he said to them, In what placesoever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart, then shake off the dust under your feet, for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Now you remember last time, two weeks ago, we were considering our Lord's second rejection by his kinsfolk in Nazareth. He had returned a second time into Nazareth out of sheer grace, because he wanted his own people to know something of who he was and what God had brought into the world in himself. They rejected him the second time. Such is the meekness and humility of our Lord. What he does is to go around the villages. Around the villages and primarily the villages of Galilee, the humblest area, preaching good news of the kingdom of God. Now there is much there that I would like to talk about if time permitted. I can only refer to it. It's this sheer humility and meekness of Jesus. We think of cities and city churches as being a little bit more important and significant than the country towns and especially the country villages. If someone is referred to as a village preacher, we generally cock up our noses and we say, he wouldn't get on very well with a sophisticated upper class. Do we not? Our blessed Lord Jesus became a village preacher. He who stood at Sychar's well and preached to a befouled, many times wedded woman, the marks of whose sin were evident upon her life, now moves from village to village into the hinterland of Galilee. And though he has been rejected twice by his own community of Nazareth, as he was rejected in Decapolis just a little time ago, nevertheless I want you to see the clarity of his vision. He sees that the hour has come for him gathering. There is hostility. And you and I may be more impressed by the hostility than by anything else. In fact, we may be put off and see nothing but opposition. Isn't it wonderful to have a Savior who can see behind the glossy surface, into the hearts of men. Because he could see that there was a harvest that was ripening and needed almost immediate gathering, he turns to his disciples and he says, forget about the opposition, forget what they did to me in Decapolis and in Nazareth, forget all about that, let's get on with the job. The harvest is white and ripening. And he sends them out two by two and gives them instructions. What we have here then is a mobilizing for mission. Opposition is brewing, but he sees something else. And he prepares his servants for it. Now, one word of explanation. Mark simply provides us with the bare bones here. Isn't it wonderful that we have four Gospels? And so I'm going to turn this morning to Matthew, even though my good friend Greg Schaaf took it last Sunday night also. I wondered whether he'd stolen all my thunder. Well now, perhaps you weren't all here on Sunday night, so I'll be cross with him if he's stolen all my thunder this morning. I don't think so. But I've got to take this passage in Mark against the background, the larger, fuller background of what is said in Matthew. And we start there with Matthew 9, verses 35 and 36. Because we start here. We want to see the scene, the picture, as Jesus saw it. What did he see? Before he sent out the twelve on this initial evangelistic enterprise, what did he see? Well, Matthew tells us. Mark simply hints at it. Let me read. And Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease. Now mark that. That is the correct way. King James is rather different. Healing every disease and every infirmity. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. The things that particularly caught his attention so generated his reaction as to leave us in no doubt whatsoever concerning the things that impressed him. Now what was it he saw? First of all, he saw a scene of ignorance. That was the reason, you see, he had gone back a second time to Nazareth because Nazareth, his beloved Nazareth, did not know that God had acted in history and sent him forth to be the Savior. Nazareth was ignorant. Nazareth knew a lot of things. The leaders of the synagogue knew this, knew that, and the other. But they didn't know the most important things. It was a scene of ignorance. So too the surrounding area. Ignorance of the most important things prevailed. I ask you to suggest to you that you pursue this thought in your studies. The synagogue was meant to be the teaching place in the Jewish religion, and it had at some periods in Jewish history been very important as a teaching institution. But the teaching institution had become decadent and dead. And a scene of ignorance concerning spiritual matters, so that it was hardly different from the outside pagan world. And Jesus saw it, and so out of sheer compassion, he moved into the synagogues in the villages. Then there is a scene of hopelessness here. They come together, do they not, so often? Jesus saw men, we're told in Matthew 9.36, he saw men as harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. I'm sure Greg Schaaf dwelt on this, so I can only refer to it. Harassed and helpless. The language is the strongest possible. At this stage. You know, the word for harassed refers to someone who has been lashed and scourged. And they're so helpless they can do nothing whatsoever about it. It's a scene of sheer hopelessness. It's like the man who had fallen among thieves, and he was so torn and so bruised and so battered, the poor man was lying there. He could do nothing. Somebody must come to him and lift him up and help him. He can do nothing himself. The sheer hopelessness of the situation. Jesus saw men like that, like men who were just faintly breathing. The pulse of life was there but nothing more. And into that situation of hopelessness he brought good news. He proclaimed good news of the kingdom, good news of the reign of God. And what it meant, you see, is this. He was preaching that God has landed on Palestinian soil in the person of a man with a capital M. And in the person of that man with a capital M, all the mighty power and the grace of God is incarnate to do anything and everything needed to change the situation of ignorance and hopelessness. You know, this is something that should stir us. All the arsenal of divine omnipotence is at the disposal of the man with a capital M to do anything and everything that God wants done to change the situation of ignorance and hopelessness. And Jesus said he was that person. God has come, the king is here, and all the kingly rule manifests itself in him, in me, he says. And then, being very realistic, Matthew adds that it was a scene of sickness, tragic sickness. Of course you have sickness at all times. But Matthew's feet are on earth and he doesn't want us to miss this. We simply note that sickness of a kind multiplies with the advent of hopelessness and despair. Don't we all know that? All our aches and pains are worse when we are hopeless, when our spirit sags. But Matthew insists, and please notice this, Jesus healed every disease, every infirmity, Matthew 9.35. Now, this is important. We'll come back to it in a moment. Jesus did not come as a specialist in cardiology, or a neurologist, or whatever. He wasn't a specialist in one segment of human need, one part of human need, or one part of the need of the body, or one aspect. Jesus came, and this is what Matthew says, he healed every disease and every infirmity. By that he meant this, no one ever came to Jesus with his disease or infirmity, but that Jesus met it. You see, this is indicating the sheer sovereignty and power and authority personified in him. He's preaching about the rule of God here upon earth. And he is exhibiting that rule, not by dealing with a few diseases, but with every one concerning which request was made to him. Now, I believe that Matthew is here stressing the unqualified authority of Jesus over every kind of disease, and that for very good reason. Because, you see, the gospel is about Jesus. Not first about men. The gospels are written about Jesus. And he wants us to see that however great the needs in the towns, in the cities, anywhere, our Lord Jesus Christ is capable of dealing with it. No one ever came to him in vain. Oh, that we might catch this, and that it might grip us. Our Lord Jesus Christ is such, you cannot go to him in vain. You may say that you're coming to him when you're not, but if you're coming to him and you're trusting in him, there is in him exactly what you need. The scene as he saw it. Now, the second thing, again basing it largely on Matthew, the sympathy that he felt. This is beautiful. Oh, it's great to see our Lord again through the gospel narratives, isn't it? How did he react? Well, Matthew tells us, verse 36 of chapter 9, when he saw the crowds he had compassion for them. Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Now, look at the compassion he felt. Now, compassion of the kind here mentioned is a very disturbing thing. I don't think I am doing anybody any harm by saying that we know very little about compassion. You see, at the heart of the word compassion is the word for bowels. And compassion is a concern that you feel in your bowels. It's a gut feeling. It's something that makes you sick and tremble. And you almost lose control of yourself because of this bowel, this gut feeling. And the thing that you do, of course, is it results in sympathy. In sympathy, of course, sympathos means you go alongside the person that elicits your concern. You see, this is really what compassion does. It takes me alongside the person in need. Well, what's the need? Well, it can be one of many needs. But if I've got compassion, I have this gut feeling and I go right alongside of him or her. It doesn't matter how dirty he is. It doesn't matter the color of his or her skin. It doesn't matter whether he's on my segment of the social stratum. It doesn't matter at all. I go alongside that person if I've got compassion. It's a gut feeling and it takes me there. Do you know anything of that? Oh, my mind was thinking of Elizabeth Fry and Florence Nightingale and a whole host. Don't let me go into the history of these mighty, massive souls who've been prepared to get their hands dirty and their names even defiled because people misunderstood them. They had a whole host of accusations to make against them. But you see, their compassion as Jesus going to sit with publicans and sinners. What a story. What a sinister thing. Oh, what we can make of that kind of thing. But compassion takes you into circumstances alongside the needy. Compassion spells the end of a grandstand isolationism and of the purely spectatorial stance that looks at men, you know, from sheer isolation. I'm in the grandstand. There's life over there. I can see them all and I'm judging them all. And here am I, the great judge. You can't do that if you've got compassion. You come out of the grandstand and you go into the action and you make for the person with a burden and a broken heart and a wounded spirit and you get right alongside of him or her. That's what Jesus saw. Can I come back to that where Harris describing, as it were, the corpse of a victim who had been flayed and mangled by rapacious men and Jesus goes alongside the mangled, bleeding, dying souls and bodies of men. That's what he did. They were, he says, like sheep without a shepherd. And you know, sheep without a shepherd can do nothing. What can a sheep do when it's fallen over the cliff? It can do nothing if it hasn't got a shepherd. What can the sheep do when it's lost the way? If it hasn't got a shepherd, it doesn't know which way to turn. It's the most senseless creature on earth. What can a sheep do? And he saw the people as sheep without a shepherd. There was no one to help. There was no one to guide. There was no one to do anything significant. And he himself, the Lord of glory. Now here's our Savior. He went alongside with a feeling and a compassion that matched his power and authority. And then he turned to the disciples. It's a dangerous thing to be a disciple of Jesus Christ because he'll say something to you sooner or later. He may be silent for a long time, but look, he turned to these people around him and he said, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest field. Having shared with his disciples the realities of the situation as seen by his own eyes, Jesus expected them to share in his own compassion and thus heed his command. That is, he expected them to do something to meet the need. Compassion is one of those things you can't build a wall around it. It's as strong as that. You know you can build a wall around a city so that people can't get out or get in. You can become, as it were, entrenched within a wall. It's a refuge. But if you've got real compassion in your heart, you can't build a hedge around it nor a fence around it. It's got to get out. And now Jesus turns to these people and notice how that the first thing he expects them to do, if they've really caught on what he's been telling them about his own attitude and how he sees things through his eyes, the first thing he asks them to do is to pray. The harvest is plenteous, he says, and the laborers are few. So what, you go and do it quickly. No, no, no, no. He doesn't say that. He doesn't stop, of course, by just telling them to pray. That's not the only thing. But first of all, says Jesus, pray that the Lord of the harvest, the harvest is not in your hands. We are not lords of the harvest. I don't know whom the Lord wants to gather into his harvest field. Neither do you, my friends, nor anybody else. He is the Lord of the harvest. And when we have seen the field, the world, through the eyes of Jesus and begin to feel for the world with the heart of Jesus, the thing is not to run around and try and do all things as if everything depended on us in the first place. The thing is to pray the Lord of the harvest. He's got his people marked up to go where he wants them to go, to be what he wants them to be, to do what he wants them to do. He's got a plan. Our God's working to a plan. And the first thing for us to do when we're overwhelmed with a sense of need is ask him, Lord, send your people out. There are abiding principles there. Can I mention them? You see, it is only our Lord who really knows the heart of men and the need of men. You and I are so easily, so easily led astray. We look at people nicely dressed, hear them nicely spoken, we have this accent and that accent, you know, oh, nice face, charming person, lovely personality, you know. Those are the things that take us in. And we're led up the garden path. You know, there is only one person who knows the heart of man. It's our Lord. Now, when he shows us the hearts of men and we begin to take it in and we believe him, the first thing to do is to pray. Now that brings me to the other, the sequel to the challenge, and here I'm back in Mark. And I'll summarize what I have. He called to him the twelve and he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. Now, I think we've got to take certain things for granted here now. We've got to fill in a picture. These disciples have heard Jesus' view of things, what he saw. He saw the multitude in a certain condition. They didn't see what he saw. Oh, they saw the same people. They went with him probably to all the synagogues. They saw the physical people, the people physically. But they didn't see. They didn't see the hearts of men as Jesus saw the hearts of men. They didn't sense that they were in this condition because they had no shepherds. Or if they did, they certainly didn't with the clarity and understanding of Jesus. But now he has told them. He has shared his vision with them. And he has told them to pray. And I believe that in the meantime they must have been praying. Now that's filling in the blank between Matthew's record and Mark's record. Right. They've got the message from Jesus, the revelation of the need. They've had the instruction to pray. And we believe they have been praying. Now says Jesus, right. Have you been praying? Do you believe me? Do you believe what I say about men and about men's needs and about men's condition? Right. Come along. There's something for you to do. And he began to send them out. Two by two. Now again, this kind of thing often happens. It's a dangerous thing to see things through the eyes of our Lord. I'm not at all surprised that people don't like to walk too close to Jesus Christ. It's dangerous. If you walk closely with Jesus and in fellowship with him, you are going to see the heart of men. And you're going to feel for men in their needs. And you're going to have a burden. I know that the gospel says, Come unto me all ye that weary and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. But it also says, Take my yoke upon you. Share my burden. And I've got a burden to put on your heart, believer. I've got a burden to put on your soul. And if you're coming into partnership with me, you're going to feel that too. But my yoke is easy and my burden is light, especially in comparison with your burden of sin and of death and of lostness. But I've got a burden for you. Now look at the commission, very simply. He called to him the twelve and he began to send them out two by two. Having already personally announced the presence of the kingdom or kingly rule of God in his own person and expressed that divine power in healing every disease and every infirmity. Jesus now as king of that heavenly realm chooses his ambassadors and commissions them to move out to their appointed spheres of service in his name. He says, I want you now who prayed, you who've seen the vision and got it, you who feel something of my compassion, I want you to go out. Can I simply add to that point this? You see our Lord is working to plan. There's nothing accidental about this. A way back in Mark 3, 14 we were studying these words in their context. He appointed twelve, that was the appointment. He appointed twelve to be with him and to send them out to preach. See? He called them to be with him, with him, with him, with him. And at the moment of their appointment, he had in mind the moment when having been with him long enough and caught his vision and sensed his compassion and shared it in their own souls so that his life is flowing into them and they become his servants. Indeed, he could send them out. Got the point? Jesus always calls men to be with him in order that he can send them out. So much about the commission. Now look at the authority he gave them. Mark 6, the second part of verse 7, and he gave them authority over unclean spirits. Now that's a summary statement from Mark, but I want you to go back to Matthew 10 and verse 1 and you will see that Matthew fills in the blank. And says Matthew, to heal every disease and every infirmity. And this is something that pulled me up with a jolt. I don't know whether it does you. Earlier on we read that Jesus healed every disease and every infirmity. We read now that Jesus gave authority to the disciples at this particular moment to heal in exactly the same way. To show that they had an authority that was equal to his. Given, of course, by him. It wasn't original to them, but it was mediated to them by him to whom all authority was given. Now this is not a hit or miss. This is not they're going out and they're going to try to heal the sickness or try to do this, that, or the other. They have been given authority to do it. I believe that the main thought here goes beyond that of a simple endowment of authority, therefore. Jesus endows his delegated ambassadors with his own authority that means that it is equal to the totality of human need. There is nothing that they, at this point in time, cannot do to alleviate the human situation and to manifest that the kingdom of God is among men. There's nothing they can't do. They've got authority to heal every kind of sickness and every kind of infirmity. In other words, you see, what we have here is this. Jesus is proving that it isn't simply that he's got authority in himself. That was wonderful. There was no one else like him. But he can communicate the authority that he's got. He can impart the power that is his. And this is still more wonderful. He might have come into this world and done something exceedingly wonderful and people sing his praises for all ages. And well might we. But I tell you, my friend, this is more wonderful. Jesus can come to a Simon, Peter, or an Andrew, or a James, or a John, or somebody else and impart authority to them and say, You do what I do. And in one place, you remember in John, he says, Shall ye do because I go to my Father. Now, I don't want anybody to misunderstand this. This was temporary. This was temporary. This was withdrawn later on. And there was at least one incident, and we shall come to it in Mark, when they were not able to use the power they had. Do you remember following the transfiguration of our Lord? They came down to the valley. There was a boy there in dire physical trouble. And they were unable to heal him. They couldn't do it. Now, they'd been given the authority, but they couldn't use it. Because they lacked the faith and the grace to do it. But here at this particular point, Jesus wants us to get a lesson. And we need to see this. The lesson is this. He does not simply have all authority in himself. The kingdom is come in his person. But when it is his will, he can communicate that authority to the feeblest of men to do exactly as he did, when it is his will. Again, my friends, it's the principle that is important. If our Lord Jesus Christ wants something done in this city this morning, he has the power to enable you and enable me to do what he bids us. Or in any other city, or in any other jungle in this world, be it a concrete jungle or another kind of jungle, it doesn't really matter. If God wants something done by his Son, he is able to communicate the power we need. Of course, it was exceedingly important here. Because, you see, our Lord is going. These very people who are given authority and are ultimately to be given the power of the Holy Spirit in all its glory on the day of Pentecost are the links between the historical Jesus and the unborn Church. They are going to teach as he taught. We want to know that they're doing it rightly. They're going to preach what he preached. They're going to write the Gospels that declare where he went, what he did, what he taught. And you see, it is very necessary for us to know that they have power, they have authority to do that. They're not just Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in writing their Gospels. They're not just people that had a little time to spare and so they thought they'd write something. You know, just to pass the time away. Or they'd like a book published in their names. No, no, no, no. They were given authority. They were authorized to write. They were authorized to preach. They were authorized to teach. And because of that, our Lord is now teaching them the lesson. Look, all authority is mine. He's telling them that already in fact, if not in word. And I can give you my authority. I can share it with you to do what I want you to do. And then he's charged to them. Thank you, I shan't be long. Jesus charged them, first of all, as to the simplicity of the life they should now lead as his ambassadors. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. Mark 6 verses 8 and 9. They were charged to go, in other words, just as they were. They needed no extras. He is sending them and he will care for them because he says the workman is worthy of his fare. Now that's the significance of these words. But I must add something. This is not the last word in the New Testament about something of this kind. And I know many potential missionaries or Christian servants who have been worried by this, who have thought that it's been wrong to put an extra suit in the case and go away with a couple of suits of clothes to another country or a couple of pair of shoes. And we said the New Testament says you only go just as you are. Now I know people in that bondage. My friends, you read on into the New Testament and you will see that Jesus changed the whole thing later on. This was a trial moment. This was not meant to be the regular and constant and consistent practice at all. When Jesus came to send out the ten, this is what he told them. When I sent you out with no purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything? They said nothing. He said to them, but now, but now, notice, but now, that means things have changed. But now, let him who has a purse, take it. And likewise a bag. And let him who has no sword, sell his mantle and buy one. For I tell you that this scripture must be fulfilled in me. And he was reckoned with transgressions. For what is written about me has its fulfillment. And they said, look Lord, here are two swords. And he said, now that's enough. Can you see the point? They went out here in the context that we are considering this morning without anything extra, just as they were. And Jesus himself undertook for them. He had all authority. He had all power. They lacked absolutely nothing. When it comes to send the seventy out, he says, well now, all right, if you've got two suits of clothes, take them. If you've got a bag with a number of necessary things tucked away, take the whole bag and whatever you've got of your own provision. But now let me ask you a question, he says. You remember when I sent you out without nothing? Did you lack anything? Not a thing. All right, he says. Take what you've got, but trust me just the same, even though you've got a few extra things in your bags. I think C.S. Lewis sums it up beautifully, though not in this context. He who has God and many things has no more than he who has God alone. Hallelujah. I think that's great. You have God and a couple of bags full of stuff to go with you wherever you're going, I tell you. You have no more than he who has God alone, because God is the one who fills the bags when the need arises. Why the change? I answer you in the words of another. In this journey they were to learn to trust him without means, so that afterwards they might learn to trust him in the means. But the spirit remains unabrogated, and the minimum of outward provision is likeliest to call out the maximum of faith. We are more in danger from having too much baggage than too little. And the one indispensable requirement is that whatever the quantity, it should hinder neither our march nor our trust in him who alone is both wealth and food. And I close with this. And he charged them as to the matter of their hospitality and as to the eventuality of their being not received. Simply, what we have here is this. In verse 10 he said to them, where you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. I believe the point is this. The reputation of their place of lodging was as important as their work. They must not stay in a place whose character would be inconsistent with their work. But if the place where they stay and are welcomed has a character consistent with their work, neither must they leave it without very good reason. In other words, be gentlemen, be ladies and gentlemen, be courteous. And then he finally charged them how to act in the eventuality of their not being received. If any place will not receive you and they refuse to hear you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet for a testimony against them. And remember, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for them. What's he saying? He's saying this. Just leave all the eventualities with me. You may symbolically shake off the dust against them, but leave the judgment in my hand. I called you and all authority is mine. I sent you and you go forward as my servants. Therefore, the way in which the servant is received reflects the way in which the master is received. And if they despise you, however feeble and frail you are physically, they despise me. And it will be more tolerable for that city in the day of judgment than for Sodom and Gomorrah. Less tolerable, I should say, than for Sodom and Gomorrah. You got the picture? How do we look at the world? How do we look at our own city and our own country with all its complex needs and problems? Are we put off by the superficialities that men talk about? Or do we learn to see the needs of our fellow countrymen and of other men and women as described by the word of our Savior and His diagnosis of the situation? More, have we got near enough to the Lord Jesus Christ to feel as He feels? More, have we begun to pray that the Lord would send out His chosen servants into their appointed fields? And lastly, if we've got there, are we at His disposal to be sent out ourselves? It's a very challenging moment when the Lord turns to us and says, Look, there's a man there with a real burden, or a woman there with a real burden, or a family, or whatever it is. You've got the answer to those people's needs. You've got it in your hand. You've got it in your bank balance. You've got it in your pocket. Put your hand in, man. Time has come to cease praying. Go and do it. Or you're praying for the salvation of the lost. Stop praying. There's a time for doing it, and I want you to do it. O may it please Almighty God, in these great days through which we are passing, may it please Almighty God to come upon this whole congregation once again, so that in every corner of this edifice the mighty power of the Spirit of God is felt, sharing with us the vision that Jesus has from the throne, and the compassion He has in His heart, and sending us out to His glory, and to His praise, and to His honor, and to the ultimate in-gathering of His elect from the four vast corners of the earth. Let us pray. O Lord, write Your word so indelibly and so deeply into our hearts and minds that we shall never be able to shrug off the impact, or to rationalize the issues, or to escape the challenge of Your call. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me and on all of us, and lead us in Your way, that however humble the task given to us, we may nonetheless be Your servants in Your place of appointment, able there to be entrusted with the authority given, and the ability to do the work entrusted to us. Hear us and forgive our sins, in Jesus' name. Amen.