2428AFC071224 – Stop! It’s time to GO! ← 😊 PODCAST LINK
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Like a baby bird leaving the nest
Mark 6:7, 13 – 7 He called the twelve and began to send them out (↔ Music Link) two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 13 They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
Ephesians 1:13-14 – 13 In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; (↔ Music Link) 14 this [Holy Spirit] is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:17-18 – 17 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18 so that, with the eyes of your heart (↔ Music Link) enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. Today’s Gospel Key Verse comes in the next paragraph after last week’s message about Jesus’ visit to Nazareth. Jesus has gathered the Twelve and is sending them out in pairs. They are to go with no extra provisions – just a walking stick – but no food, no sack, no money in their belts, no second tunic, but it was OK to wear a pair of sandals. They went out and did as he told them. They went to various villages. They stayed with whomever would welcome them. They ate and drank what was offered. He told them to go, and they did. They “left the nest” so to speak, and learned to work together doing something no “ordinary Jew” would dare attempt. Here’s another account of this as found in the Gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 10:1-15 – 1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him. Now, this is only the first 4 verses of that passage cited in the link above, but it’s a good place to start.
We’re going to work with some of the details from this passage as it provides some additional information not available in the passage from Mark. First, we note that this is just the Twelve. We may recall another passage where Jesus sent out 70 or 72 Disciples, but this first-sending was just for the 12 Apostles. We’ve used this passage in the past to provide a list of the names of the Apostles, but there is more to it than that, isn’t there? The second thing to notice is that Jesus gave these twelve good men authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out. Until this time, only Jesus had that sort of authority – given him by his (& our) Heavenly Father – but he gave it to all twelve of them. The next thing we see is that he also gave the power and authority to cure every disease and every sickness. Now, I haven’t watched The Chosen, so I don’t know if this scene has been portrayed in that production. In my own little movie theater called imagination, I see these fellows sort of looking at each other with that classic “are-you-kidding-me?” expression. They were going to try something they had seen done only by Jesus, and even when he did it, it was hard to believe sometimes. Now they were going to do those same things!
And look who went out on the first “mission” for the disciples – everyone including Judas 
Iscariot. Judas was told to go perform miracles, and he obeyed … initially. I have often wondered with which of the others he travelled. James and John bar Zebedee were brothers. Simon-Peter and Andrew bar Jonah were brothers. Thaddaeus and James bar Alphaeus may have been brothers (though not specifically named brothers in Scripture it seems; some speculate Thaddaeus – who is also called Jude or Judas – might have been James’ son). We have no way of knowing who paired with Judas Iscariot, though. Could it have been Simon the Cananaean who is also called “The Zealot?” When all twelve went out from Jesus, I’m sure they discussed what he had told them to do.
It must have been a little scary at least, don’t you think, to go to strangers (or perhaps worse, to people they knew well) and tell them, “The Kingdom of God is at hand. The Messiah sent us to teach and to heal. Who’s going to be first?” Based on the terrific reports they brought back at the end of their mission, they enjoyed good success. They had to stop being afraid and embrace the authority Jesus granted them. But that’s not all they had to let go. To do what they did, they had to leave Jesus’ side, and the comfort of his presence. Like baby birds, they were taking off on their own to do what they had seen done. That required them to stop waiting, stop hanging around with Jesus, and to go out into the world with Jesus’ power and authority.
“Well, they had the Holy Spirit to help them out, didn’t they?” The Holy Spirit was not breathed into the Apostles until after Jesus had “given up the Spirit” on the cross. The account in John 7:37-39 confirms this: (GNT) [1] 37 On the last and most important day of the festival Jesus stood up and said in a loud voice, “Whoever is thirsty should come to me, and 38 whoever believes in me should drink. As the scripture says, ‘Streams of life-giving water will pour out from his side.’” 39 Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive. At that time the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not been raised to glory. They had to stop doubting, and go forward in F.A.I.T.H. Guess what? SO DO WE!
After the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (See Acts 2), The Apostle Paul assures us that we were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this [Holy Spirit] is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. You see, the Apostles went on to multiply the gifts of healing Jesus alone had been able to give. There was as yet no Gospel other than the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus was just beginning to shape his life around the events that would end his earthly life, and the Apostles had nothing else to offer; still, what they offered was more than the average earthling could fathom. The Apostles were taking healing as they went, not Prophecy, not Gospel, but healing. This is something we can remark on for the Psalm for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Psalm 85:9-11 –
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
and righteousness will look down from the sky.
How would this be done? From whence do we receive these Gifts of God’s Glory, Everlasting Love, Mercy, Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faithfulness, and Salvation? With Whom do they “come down from the sky?” How? Why? Thank the Lord that The Apostle Peter has the answer! Here is 1 Peter 2:24 – 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. Isn’t that just the most amazing thing??? But we already knew that, right? It’s part of the Absolutely Perfect Plan as in Isaiah 53:5. How do we, we as in even us, get into that flow? We stop, turn around, and go back to God by going out into the World with the Gospel and the Gifts of healing we have been given. (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 on how that works. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.)
All it takes is a miracle. (↔ Music Link) We see that everything in Scripture tells us God has little interest in punishing us. If we but love, trust, and obey him we receive the full benefit of Jesus’ sacrifice. It is called Grace. Unmerited favor, the fact of not receiving whatever punishment we deserve and instead receiving whatever blessing we don’t deserve. What an amazing plan! One of the Principal benefits of that Grace is the wide availability of healing, and as further benefits, we see that suffering, sickness, subjugation, and sin are attributable to the Devil and not to God. Love God. Serve God. Obey God. STOP any one of those things and – literally – all Hell breaks loose; but, not because God chooses that! WE choose that when we choose to stop following the Plan in God’s APP. The plan involves figuring out where to start and what to keep. There is a blueprint provided which directs us on how to change things, and the work is coordinated by a team of experienced and skilled workers who willingly GO and do the job at hand.
The Apostle Paul has a suggestion for those kinds of situations, great or small, and it is wonderfully simple. It is the plan, the blueprint, and the workforce all rolled into one: “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” The Plan? Rejoice always. The Blueprint? Pray without ceasing. The workforce: A thankful people – or person – using the blueprint to implement the plan. God has a plan, and even though a “certain obnoxious serpent” sullied it in The Beginning, the blueprint and the workforce were already prepared. The blueprint? The promise of Salvation. The workforce? The Son of God – “The Boss’s Kid.”
Here’s another way to stop ang get ready to go: Serve under when possible and contend against when necessary. There’s a lot of needless angst and excitement over the coming events in November. What are we forgetting? How does either one of those undesirables get into the White House? Take a gander at Lamentations 3:37-40 –
37 Who can command and have it done,
if the Lord has not ordained it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
39 Why should any who draw breath complain
about the punishment of their sins?
40 Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the Lord.
Yeppers! Repent and Believe the Gospel! Whoever wins, I’m with Joshua! – “As for me and my house ….” God, Country, Family. That’s the way it should be. Let’s face it, America, we have “done evil in the sight of the Lord.” We try to hide our sins, individually and as a nation, but they cannot be hidden from God. Love. Trust. Obey. Repent. Believe. And of course, as our Father, David, prophesied:
Psalm 146:3 – (GNT)
3 Don’t put your trust in human leaders;
no human being can save you.
Whadaya think about that, eh? I’ll tell you what I think. I think that sounds like a plan – THE Absolutely Perfect Plan – and it’s time for all of us to stop worrying about tomorrow and just be really good today with Faith, Hope, and Charity. That’s the way to go. Let’s stop whining about it and try living like 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 – 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Let the Holy Spirit enlighten all our hearts because, if we get lit up like that, we can live like we know that God absolutely knows what he’s doing – because he does!
See ya next week? Same Time, Same B.I.B.L.E.! & – 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Did I repeat that often enough to help all of us remember it?
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible
