Mark

By Joyce Webb 2022

Chapter 6 Verses 7-13

Verse 7 Jesus sent the disciples out to preach—-two men together.

Jesus gave them power over evil spirits.

Verse 8 He told them that they were not to take extra clothing, or extra food. They could take a staff (walking stick).

They were not to take any money. No written scripture.

Verse 9 They were to wear their sandals, and take one coat.

Verse 10 Jesus said, When someone invites you into their home to feed you and let you sleep—stay in that home until you leave that town.

Verse 11 When you go to a town, if the people there do not want to listen to what you preach——leave that place.

As you leave—shake the dust off your feet —it will be a way of showing the people that they made a choice not to hear about God’s Son and salvation.

It will be a testimony against them.

Jesus said—In the day of judgment to come—Sodom and Gomorrah will have a lighter judgment than that town.

Verse 12 The men went out and preached. They told the people they needed to repent (turn away) from their sins.

Verse 13 The disciples cast out (made to go out of) evil spirits out of people.

They prayed for them and many were healed of sicknesses.

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Note:
The men did not take any thing extra with them. They did not take any money.

Jesus said, A worker is worthy his hire. (See-Luke 10: 7, Matthew 10:10) Meaning a person who works should get paid and the worker should accept the pay.

These men are doing the work of a preacher. They would be praying for people and they would be healed. They would pray for evil spirits to leave them.

They should receive food and a place to stay for doing that.

They could also accept offerings of money—if someone offered to give it. They would not ask for money. They would ask for food and a place to stay. But I think, they hoped someone would offer and invite them —so they did not have to ask.

These disciples would be learning a lesson in faith.

They would have to trust God to take care of what they needed. They would have to trust God to have the people offer to feed them and give them a place to stay.

Jesus told them—stay in one place. Do not go from house to house. That could look like they were not happy with the food or the place to sleep and were looking for a nicer place. That would be an insult to the person who invited them to come. So, Jesus told them to stay at the first place who offered.

They were not to take a script–written words—they were to depend on God the Holy Spirit to help them remember what Jesus taught them.

If they went to a town and the people did not want to hear their preaching—-they were not to try to force them to hear. They were to leave the town.

As they left—they were to shake the dust off their feet—as a way of saying—”We shake off our responsibility to you. We tried to tell you about Jesus—but you did not want to hear it. So, we are done with you. You will be judged for your decision.”

That advice is for us, also. We, as Christians, are called to tell others about Jesus. It is not our job to “save” them.

We tell them. If they say they do not want to hear it—we respect their choice—and leave them alone. They will have to answer for their choice before God some day. We tried.
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Note:
There were many people in Jesus’ time who had evil spirits in them.

One of the reason was because many of the people worshipped idols. An idol shape —gold, wood, stone, etc.—is just a shape —-but evil spirits watch for people to come worship these shapes as god. The evil spirits see how the people believe in these shapes as a living god. The evil spirits sometimes go into that person’s body and begin controlling them.

The Jewish people were not to worship idols. Some did anyway.
Most Jewish people did not worship idols.

But the Gentile people around them would worship idols because they had not heard the scriptures that the Jewish people had.

Today, in countries that worship idols, or do witchcraft, —there will be people who have evil spirits in them.

Evil spirits make people do evil bad things. Sometimes the evil spirit is so strong the person can not help himself and has to do what the evil spirit makes him do.

People do not want to have an evil spirit in them—-they see what is happening to them—but they do not know how to get the evil spirit out.

That usually takes someone who knows how to pray to God and God gives the power to make the evil spirit leave.

Here in the United States, we have not had many people with evil spirits. That is because —most of the people—believed in the true God—and most were Christians believing in Jesus.

Our people did not worship idols or do witchcraft, etc.

Things are changing in our country. People have turned away from God and ignore Him. Many are taking up things that have to do with witchcraft—the word “occult” is sometimes used.

This means things like reading what the stars say about your life, reading tea leaves, fortune tellers, Quija boards (a game that tells answers to your questions), meditation exercises, going into a trance, Satan worship, video games of violence, pornography, and other such things)

When people start doing these things, they open themselves up to evil spirits. It makes it easy for an evil spirit to come into them.

Some of the young men who have gone into schools and places and started shooting people —-have given much time to playing video games of violent murders, and such.
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