How It's Done

So they began their circuit of the villages, preaching the Good News and healing the sick. [Luke 9.6]

Why did Jesus' disciples do this? Because Jesus told them to. How Jesus told them to do it is how it is to be done!

For the record, Jesus was specific about healing the sick as much as He was about the preaching the Good News because healing is very much part of the Good News!

Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. [Luke 9.2]

Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. [Matthew 10.1]

And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil spirits. [Mark 6.7]

It was not at all unusual for Jesus to make this demand of His followers because it was what He Himself did too.

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. [Matthew 9.35]

Jesus did not leave it for His disciples to assume that preaching and healing were their marching orders just like Him, John 17.18 and John 20.21 stand as a couple of the most profound records of what a disciple of Jesus would look like.

In His prayer to God, Jesus prayed the following:

Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.  [John 17.18]

And then as Jesus was leaving the earth, John records His instructions like this:

Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  [John 20.21]

Any ministry that claims to be Christ-centered will be a ministry of preaching the Good News and healing the sick because that is what Christ Jesus did!

The Church today needs to return to Jesus. For whatever it has become today, it needs a serious adjustment to come back to Christ - to come back to Jesus' model and example.

Father, help me to make the daily adjustment in my life to look like Jesus and Jesus alone. Forgive me for promoting "my version" of Jesus instead of following His pure example. May Your Word AND Your power rise up in Your true disciples today!