Disciples, Apostles, Ambassadors

INTRO

I love the painting for the Gospel of Luke. When I look at it, all I really see are the hands of the Son of Man. In a real sense in Luke 9, the ministry is being handed off to His followers, who in turn become the body of Christ and the hands and feet of Jesus. How do we as sons of men become the sons of God?

TEACHING

Luke 9:1-5: Jesus called the disciples to Him, gave the power and authority over all demons and the power to heal diseases, and sent them to preach the kingdom of God and heal the sick (vv. 1-2). Then He told them to take nothing with them on the journey––no food, money, a walking stick, not even an extra coat (v. 3). If they entered a house, they were to stay there. If they were not welcomed, they were to leave the town, shaking off the dust of the town from their feet as they left as a testimony against the people there (vv. 4-5).

In Luke 8, not only did Jesus have an encounter with the man possessed by demons called Legion (vv. 26-39), He healed Jairus’ 12 year old daughter (vv. 40-42, 49-56), and He felt healing power leave Him when a woman touched the tassel of His robe (vv. 42b-48). These encounters or interactions are the backdrop for chapter 9. The disciples had to have looked on these events, witnessed the power Jesus had to heal and cast out demons, and wondered how it all worked.

Jesus called His disciples (from the Greek word mathetes or students) together and He gave them power, possibly by explaining to them what had happened the day before so that they would understand the power and authority they were receiving from Him. The Greek word Jesus used for power is dynamis, which means “ability” or to have the ability to do something beyond yourself, and the Greek word Jesus used for authority is exousia, which means “the right to exercise power” and was something the disciples had to believe they had.¹Jesus told them not to take anything with them so that they would have to depend upon Jesus’ hands to do what they were told to do. Jesus had been showing them the kingdom so they would know how it operated, and they could see how it all worked. That allowed them to see amazing miracles and events (like Peter at the transfiguration), as well as the times when people criticized Jesus, laughed at Him, and even mocked Him.

Disciples (followers) of Jesus have citizenship in the kingdom that has yet to be seen but is hoped for. The disciple has to understand who he is. Many people in the church today have been so far outside discipleship that they don’t even know what it means. Yet, Jesus was doing it in Luke 9. A disciple recognizes that he/she doesn’t know or understand something so he/she must take it in.

Jesus was saying the disciples already operate in a way that is natural to them, but He wanted to give them something that was supernatural and was of another kingdom. Jesus is the Son of Man and the Son of God. Therefore, Jesus, the Son of God, had to invade the kingdom of man so He could be the Son of Man and show them the kingdom of God. Jesus wanted the disciples to see the unseen kingdom and the unseen face, because what really matters is the touch. When these two kingdoms come into conflict, so to speak, even the angel coming down to the atmosphere of the earth caused an earthquake in the earth. I believe there is cataclysm when the kingdom of God invades the kingdom of earth and there is such a movement between the supernatural power of God and the natural power of man that there are things that happen on the earth because of that.

In Luke 8, Jesus just walked into the scene and Legion spoke, asking why the Son of God had come. The intimidation that always works in the enemy happens when it encounters the true power and authority of God. Jesus told His disciples to go out in this authority and to preach what they had seen––the kingdom of God (Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.) And He told them not to take any crutches along . . . anything that would take their minds off what they had been sent to do. He wanted them to take nothing from their own lives with them so they could depend on the supernatural power and authority of God.

You’ve been in Revive School now for a while. You’ve been reading and studying, and many of you have had revelations. Some of you have walked into places and recognized immediately the presence of God in that place or known there is an absence of God there. What you are doing is learning to walk in the Spirit at a deeper level, and you’re not having to walk in the natural understanding of where you’re living.

In Scripture, there are disciples and then apostles, there is the citizenship and then there is the ambassadorship (ambassador is a delegate who is sent), there is teach-ability and then there is responsibility. For example, when Moses delivered the Israelites out of the wilderness, they were promised a land of milk and honey. But the spies returned and told the people how big the enemy was in the Promised Land. Because they didn’t have enough faith, but instead had a captive mentality, the people said they couldn’t do what they had been given to do. Instead, they spent another 40 years of discipleship in the wilderness. They didn’t learn discipleship on the short journey, so they had to go through the long-term school. The people who could have gone in, died in the wilderness having never personally experienced God’s promise.

Sadly, part of the church is dying today. We haven’t walked in the power and authority of the Lord, but have made it a long-term discipleship program. We haven’t entered into the ambassadorship or learned to walk in a more responsible manner instead of a teachable manner, and we deny the power of God to work in us. We want to see Jesus’ face in the picture, so we are the ones always ministered to. Jesus never came to do that. He came as the Son of God in the clothes of the Son of Man so He could teach us how to be sons of God as we are sons of man. That is the concept of kingdom understanding. He came to give us authority––the idea of taking citizens of a kingdom and making them ambassadors of that kingdom in another kingdom. Therefore, when we become the children of light, we now are ambassadors of the kingdom of God into the kingdom of darkness. That means we can set up embassies, safe havens in the world, and that’s what the church has been ordained to be . . . places of refuge and refreshment, not places where we live. We live in the kingdom, not the embassies. We are able to operate in another nation, but still be under the authority of our country.

Jesus sent the disciples out with the power and authority over all the demons and to cure diseases. Does that mean they got it? In Matthew 17:14-21 (Mark 9:17-27), a man asked the disciples to heal his son who had seizures, but they couldn’t. The man told Jesus, who rebuked the disciples for their lack of understanding, and then cast the demon out of the boy and the boy was healed. Afterwards, the disciples asked Jesus why they couldn’t drive out the demon themselves, and Jesus responded that they had little faith. Verse 21 concludes, “However this kind does not come out except by prayer and fasting.” If we are disciples of the kingdom, we will be ambassadors who want to bring in, to a place of freedom and safety, those looking for asylum from the conflict of the kingdom they’re living in.

There is a key principle here––there is an authority given and an authority understood in this kingdom experience that comes from prayer and fasting. If Jesus gave them authority over all demons, but they were unsuccessful, other keys were needed. When Jesus asked the disciples who people said that He was and who they believed that He was, Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus responded that Peter was divinely given that understanding and said he would give him the keys of the kingdom. I believe those keys include what Jesus told the disciples when they returned––that the power to cast out demons only happened through prayer and fasting (two keys of the kingdom).

CLOSING

Matthew 13:58 states Jesus was in His home country and He did not do many works there because of their unbelief. There was no cooperation with who Jesus was as the Son of God, who had come as the Son of Man, to operate in that area. He didn’t minister to them, because they couldn’t be ministered to.

In Luke 9:10, Jesus called the disciples (notice that He did not use the title “apostles” as He did in Luke 9:1) together, as their Teacher. He showed them they had the authority and experience to walk in the Spirit. We, too, have the responsibility, the power, and the authority to be the hands of Jesus.