Jesus is training His disciple to become the leaders of His
church, that they will have the responsibility for after His death, burial, resurrection
and His ascension into heaven. When you read all three of the Gospel accounts (Matthew,
Mark and Luke), of His three and half years of ministry, you will find that He
spends most of it with the disciples in the region of Galilee. When we come to
Luke 9, we believe that He now is in His third year of ministry and on this occasion,
Jesus sends the twelve in pairs of two on their own to preach and to heal (Mark
6:7).
Jesus told the disciples what to take on their journey,
with an emphasis on urgency and simplicity. They were not to take a
"begging bag" along but were to trust God to open up homes for their
hospitality. Matthew 10:11-15 tells how they were to select these homes. If
they were refused, they should shake off the dust from their feet, a familiar
act performed by orthodox Jews whenever they left Gentile territory (see Luke
10:10-11; Acts 13:51).
If there was ever a time that we need to understand the
urgency in our going and sharing the Gospel with the world, it should be today!
I just finished out last year on December 31, New Years Eve, preaching the home
going celebration of a dear friend and wonderful saint, Elaine Brugh. Her
mother lived to be 110 years old and just passed away a few years ago. We all
thought that Elaine had her mother’s genes and would be around for a long time
to come. But she got sick and suddenly passed away. It shocked all of us. This reminds
us of the daily urgency to tell others of Jesus, because we are told in
Scripture that “today is the day of salvation, today is the accepted time”
(2 Corinthians 6:2).
Then yesterday on January 2, I preached the home going celebration
of another wonderful man of God, and a man of prayer, Mike Griffin, who suddenly
passed away after a three-year battle with cancer. Thankfully, both of these dear
people were prepared for eternity! But there are so many who are not! The harvest
fields are ripe now and we must share the Gospel with people today!
That is why I am going to a Southeast Asian country this
next week! We currently have a partnership ministry with over 600 pastors who lead
over 1300 churches. I will be connecting with the leaders to encourage them in
this great outreach to their nation. I will be gathering specific information
about each of them. It is my goal to connect each one of them with a prayer
partner here in the states who will take them into their heart for faithful prayer
support on a consistent basis. If you would like to be a prayer partner here in
the states for one of these dear men of God, please email me at pastormike@pmiministries.org.
Also, if you would like to financially support this trip
and ministry to these pastors, you can do so by going to my website and
clicking on the “donate” button. https://www.pmiministries.org/
Or you can send me an email at the above address, I will be
glad to respond to give you other ways you can send any support.
Jesus sent His disciples telling them to go in simplicity depending
upon Him for everything. Not to worry about opposition but to go on to the next
person, town or village that would receive them and their message!
May the Lord give us strength and grace to be obedient to
His calling to continue to fulfill the Great Commission today!
God bless!
