Mark 6:6-13

Mark 6:6-13 Then Jesus went around teaching from village to village. Calling the Twelve to him, he sent them out two by two and gave them authority over evil spirits. These were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a staff — no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear sandals but not an extra tunic. Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave, as a testimony against them.” They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

John 6:48-51 I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

Jesus sent the disciples out without the worldly goods to sustain life. He didn't want them to take bread, a bag, or money. He asked them to go in faith, believing that He, the Bread of Heaven, would sustain them. If a town would not support the disciples' efforts of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to them, they were to shake the dust off their feet and to continue to the next town. They went in faith, performing many miracles. I believe on their journey they must have been concerned about their next meal or about who would give them lodging that night. I am sure the anxieties of the world pressed in upon them, but since Jesus sent them out with this order that they should not provide for themselves, they had to depend daily upon the goodwill of the people and God's supply. This sending out of the disciples is analogous with the children of Israel's wilderness experience. There, they had to depend on manna to sustain them. Manna materialized every morning except on the Sabbath. In the wilderness, they had to depend upon God's provision. While they were there, God provided for them in many miraculous ways; even the sandals on their feet did not wear out. He also gave them strength to overcome their enemies.

So it is with us: when we are in the desert place, a place without natural provisions, we need the Bread of Heaven to materialize in our world. We need his reality, his provisions, on a daily basis. In Christ, we abide in a place of miracles, a place where we can pray for others, where we can see the sick healed, and demons driven out, but as a people, we must also repent. We must repent of living exclusively on the provisions of the world, the security of the world. Sometimes we Christians have Jesus as a side dish. We have him as a supplement to the rest of our lives, an addition to the essential things. Everything else is more important: our jobs, our housing, our relationships, our children, our spouses, our recreation--everything else is more important than Christ and building his kingdom within us. If asked, we would say, no that is not true. But when we analyze our thoughts, our actions, how we spend our time and money, we know it is true. We spend almost all of our time thinking about the cares of this life. We might go days without thinking solely about him and his eternal purposes.

Oh yes, on Sundays we may perform our perfunctory duties to him by going to church or even teaching Sunday School or leading worship. But serving Jesus, the Bread of Heaven, is not just a perfunctory ritual, an add-on to life, HE IS LIFE. Without that awareness and reality, we need to repent. We need to repent with our whole hearts! Our lives cannot be ours, they must be Christ's. If they are ours, we will receive little from the Lord. For we are like the people in the wilderness who stored up manna for the next day; it rotted in their mouths. Our testimony cannot be, last week, or last month, or last year, this is what God did in my life. No, what is God doing in your life today? Where are you picking up manna today? We cannot have an experience with Christ one day and store it up for the days that are coming. It will not sustain us. It will not keep us from temptation. It will not deliver us from evil and bring us into victory that we can share with others. "They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them." UNDER JESUS' ORDERS, THE DISCIPLES LEFT ALL TO MINISTER. THEY LEFT ALL. . .