When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases,
and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.
Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town.
If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.”
So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead,
others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life.
But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.
When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida,
but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.”
(About five thousand men were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”
The disciples did so, and everyone sat down.
Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people.
They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.
And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?
Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.
As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus.
They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.
Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.
A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him.
A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.
A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him.
I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”
“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father.
And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples,
“Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.
Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him.
Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”
“Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;
but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”
But Jesus turned and rebuked them.
Then he and his disciples went to another village.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
He said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
THANK YOU FOR JOINING US!!
Content source: New International Version (NIV) of the Holy Bible
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This chapter refers to:
The authority that Jesus gives to his disciples to use the power that has transferred them, instructs them about the scope of their mission, the substance of their message, the works they will perform, what they have to carry, and the procedures to use, the mission of the twelve is a prelude to the future mission of the church, which would extend beyond the house of Israel, to reach a universal dimension.
Herod's attempt was evil, he would finally have to see Jesus on the day of the Lord's death.
Jesus retired to rest, to instruct his disciples and avoid a confrontation with Herod,
In verse 10, we see the disciples, deprived of goods, should trust in the provision of God through the hospitality of others, because as always Jesus shows that He is the one who sustains his people and feeds the multitude.
Peter confessed Jesus as the promised messiah and as God, as revealed to him by the deity of God, the holy spirit through divine revelation
The rock is not Peter as an individual, because Christ substituted the word petra-a rock placed on the foundation of a building-for petros, a fragment of petra, Christ could have meant that He Himself was the stone (petra) on which the church rested ...
Once again the Lord tells us that we must deny ourselves, so that He lives in us ... that we no longer live by our will, but that He lives in us and His will is done. Many are dedicated to their jobs and earn money but do not attend to the things of the Lord, belittle the word of God ... so your money is worthless if in the end your soul will be lost!
Jesus Christ gave authority to the disciples, to heal and cast out demons and commanded them to preach the news of salvation. He told them not to carry luggage, or to arrange themselves very much, simply that they were. This is our life, we have all the authority that God has given us, we should only apply it, without being aware of luggage. Wherever we are we must preach, we must heal, we must cast out devils, on the street, at home, in hospitals, wherever we may be!
Jesus has given His disciples the authority over all manners of sickness and it is their duty to go about the work of their master.
This chapter is quite revealing, the one who wants to follow Jesus must deny himself, this means that he must deny his human nature, and accept his celestial citizenship and understand that we are foreigners on this earth, we are here with a mission and it is to know the world that they must repent and be reconciled with the father through Jesus Christ, bring the good news of Salvation and eternal life.
"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it".God is the only being that can give life as well as take it, He has promised to give our life to us when we loose it for His sake but anyone who reserves his own for being afraid to propagate the kingdom of God will loose that life.
I love this chapter very much. God has given us authority and power. He sent his disciples to heal and liberate the people, after doing all that Jesus sent them to do, they told Jesus that the crowd was hungry, that he would fire them, Jesus told the disciples, feed the people, I think Jesus was encouraging them to multiply the fish and the loaves, but they did not understand.
Belove We saw in the passage that Jesus knew the importance of Thanksgiving, he first of all thanked God before sharing the food. We all know that the five loaves of bread and two fishes would not have been enough for the mamod crowd, remember only the men were mentioned,children and women were not mentioned, so imagine the number of people. It was enough to scare the disciples. The power of Thanksgiving multiplied the bread and fish,the people ate to their satisfaction and it still remained surplus.
When it remained, Jesus never throw the remaining away,but rather he asked his disciples to gather the fragments . That shows us that even God hate waste.
If you have enough food, clothes ,shoes etc please don't throw them away but rather give to the less privileged.
Jesus has set two good examples for us so please we should follow suite.
vs 35 says..
The world hearing you is directly proportional to how much your life in its entirety pleases God.
Choose to please God