Luke 9:1-6 - "He Sent Them to Preach..."

Remember Jesus is about 30 years old when He begins His earthly ministry (Luke 3:23). Jesus takes three and a half years to prepare the disciples for this great task. In the first year as He begins His ministry in the region of Galilee, He starts gathering the twelve, and they travel with him on His first preaching tour. In His second year, He takes the 12 with Him on His second tour of ministry, again in the region of Galilee. He continues to teach them by His example, to preach, teach to the multitudes, but at the same time to love the individual, and disciple the few. Now here in His third year of ministry, Jesus commissions the Twelve and sends them out by twos, on their own, to practice what they have been learning (Mark 6:7).   I believe that today, Jesus continues this ministry of sending believers. In John 15:16 Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” Jesus has called every believer to be a goer and a proclaimer of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around us. We can give, we can pray, and we can go. And by the grace of God, we should be doing all of these things all the time! Bringing precious souls into contact with Jesus Christ with the message, “Come and see” (John 1:39).   Jesus commissions and sends the Twelve to preach, and He also tells them while they are doing that, to heal the sick. They were given the gift and miraculous ability to physically heal people which would be evidence and give proof to the authenticity of their message. Today we have the complete Bible and do not need the miraculous signs the Holy Spirit gave the early believer in the church as they laid the foundation of the church. We might not have these gifts today, but we can still pray for the Lord to heal sick people and perform miracles as we minister to hurting people. We can be God’s instrument to heal broken hearts as we share Jesus with them through God’s Word.   Most of all, we pray for the healing of their soul, that they can experience by repenting and putting their faith and trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus on the cross and find forgiveness for their sins! We can be there for them when they are going through, sickness, pain, death, sorrow, tragedy and disaster in their lives. Praying for God’s grace to be there for them during these times, and for the Holy Spirit to be their comfort.   In verse 3, Jesus instructed the Twelve, to "Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.” Jesus is basically teaching and tell them not to depend on things they already have or for people to provide for them as they go forth to minister. A “bag” in those days would have been a beggar’s bag that would be used to collect money. Jesus wanted His disciples to learn to depend solely upon their Heavenly Father to provide for their every need (Matthew 6:25-34).   This doesn’t mean today that we can’t have money or nice things. Paul instructed Timothy about this in 1 Timothy 6:17-19: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” It’s ok to have “things”, as long as the “things” do not have us. And we use our “things” to do good for eternal purposes! We cannot make it in life or in our ministry without Jesus. He Himself said, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).   I trust today, and this year, that you are praying, giving, going, and serving Jesus, and will be depending totally upon Him!   God bless!