The story of Jesus sending out his disciples to do what he did is more than just a history lesson.

I think this is exactly how Jesus still works with us today. I think this is a model for the church today

Have you heard the phrase, “pass the baton”?

What does it mean? [ASK] It comes from track, from the relays. I can run 100 meters at a much quicker pace than I can run 400 meters. I can run 400 meters at a much quicker pace than I can run a mile. So in a relay, when I have the baton, I give it everything I’ve got for my leg of the race, and then I pass it along to my teammate. Four of us together, giving it our all for a part of it, can get the baton to the finish line quicker than one of us could if we took it the whole way.

Many things in life work in a similar way, but it isn’t always so obvious. It’s sometimes very difficult to pass the baton to someone else, to trust that they’ll do the job right, do it as well as I could do it. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of our position or task and let someone else give it a go.

It’s not always so easy being the one to take the baton, either. It’s a big responsibility, and many times we would rather leave it in the hands of the one who’s trying to give it to us…because they have more experience, because we’re untested, because we’re not really sure what we can do.

The time is coming, very soon, when I’ll hand over the keys to the car to my daughter, so that she can learn to drive.

That’s a planned baton-passing, one that many high schoolers look forward to for a very long time. Now of course, I’m an excellent driver, so passing the baton to a new generation holds a lot of risk. It’s safer to keep the keys in these experienced, well-qualified hands. But somebody’s gonna have to take me to doctor’s appointments in a few decades, so we better start building experience in the new generation now. J

In this journey we’re taking through the book of Mark, as we’re reading about Jesus each day during this season of Lent, I’ve noticed how intentional and risky Jesus is in his desire to be a baton-passer, not a baton-hogger.

If anyone deserved to be a baton-hog, it’s Jesus, the Son of God, whose power does things no one had ever seen before. But from the very beginning, Jesus has a plan to pass the baton. And he speaks that plan and acts on that plan several times in the book of Mark.

When he calls his first disciples, when he asks them to come follow him, he tells them what he’s going to do.

He’s going to send them out to fish for people. Then in chapter 3, he pulls aside 12 followers, calling them to preach and giving them authority to drive out demons, giving them the power to do what he has been doing, the same things that have been turning Galilee upside down in the first three chapters of Mark.

From the very beginning, Jesus intends to pass the baton. And he does it much, much faster than almost any of us would be comfortable with.

Open your bibles, if you would, to Mark 6.

Mark doesn’t give us any sense of how much time has passed since Jesus first asked Peter and Andrew and James and John to follow him. At the most, it’s been a year or two, but more likely it’s just been a couple of months.

People still don’t even get Jesus. At the beginning of Mark 6, he’s back in his hometown, and news of his teaching and miracles are already running through town, but it’s causing skepticism. How can he do this? He can’t be that big a deal. We know him, we know his family, and we never saw him do this stuff. Must be a bunch of stories that just aren’t true.

If Jesus’ miracles, if God’s power working through him were supposed to prove to the people he was from God, it hasn’t done its work yet. Jesus should probably hold the baton for a while longer and show people his stuff.

As for these disciples following him around, they can’t even understand his teaching without special tutoring sessions. They question him. They don’t trust him to keep them safe, and then when he DOES, when he calms the storm, they’re terrified.

Logic says Jesus ought to keep the baton himself. He still needs to prove himself, and the disciples certainly aren’t trained or ready or experienced enough to take on what he’s doing.

But this is the exact moment that Jesus chooses to pass the baton to the twelve disciples.

Why? Because there are huge needs out there. Crowds of hurting, sick, misguided and oppressed people are gathering. From the beginning, Jesus knew the needs were huge, and he would have to pass the baton.

He calls the twelve to himself; that’s always the key first step. We are always called to Jesus first, so that we get our specific mission and calling, and so that we get what we need in order to do what he’s asked us to do.

He calls them to himself, sends them out in pairs to specific places, and he gives them authority. I’ll come back to that word authority in a minute.

Then, he specifically tells them what NOT to take. Don’t prepare, don’t bring food, don’t bring money, don’t pack a suitcase. Don’t take anything that would make you self-reliant, anything that would make you think you can do this on your own. It’s my authority and my calling that will get you through this, and nothing else.

And it works!

They go out and do just what he did. These questioning, dense, feeble followers shock the world by doing exactly what Jesus has been doing. They preach repentance. They drive out demons. They pray for sick people, and they get well!

These 12 sent-out ones…that’s literally what “apostle” means, the sent-out ones…these 12 are so successful in doing what Jesus did, so successful in their fishing for people, that they bring in the five thousand people that Jesus has to miraculously feed.

All 12 get sent out, not just Peter and John and James. Jesus sends out Thaddeus and doubting Thomas, too. Jesus even sends out Judas to do his work!

The baton has been passed! And instead of being a limited resource, instead of being just one little baton that can only work a little at a time, it’s more like a virus spreading an epidemic!

This is the power and authority of God spreading like wildfire!

This is the breath of God blowing wherever it wants to blow, like Becky spoke about last week.

It’s all centered in Jesus, but it is not hoarded by Jesus. This word “authority” is a double-edged word. It means both the right to do something, and the power to do it. It’s what separated Jesus from all the other teachers of his time. “A new teaching…and with authority!”

Jesus has authority from God in a unique way, but he demonstrates from the beginning that he’s going to give it away. He’s going to give it to those who follow him; he’s going to pass the baton.

Just by the very nature of what “church” looks like in America today, we sometimes send out a very different message.

Rather then sending out disciples to do Jesus’ work in the world, churches sometimes want to draw people into our services and our events.

The normal pattern is to come in, listen to lots of teaching, study the bible, learn ourselves, and maybe, possibly, one day, after some seminars and discipleship classes, lead a bible study or teach a Sunday School class.

It’s hard for us to pass the baton quickly to new people. And because of that, only the most experienced tend to speak up and be in leadership. And because of that, a standard is set that makes it hard for most to want to take the baton themselves. A “catch 22” if there ever was one.

Not only that, but our thinking gets warped so that most of our expressions of “ministry” are things in the church, instead of out there. Sometimes we have a hard time seeing an activity as “ministry” unless it is done in the church. When we do that, we’ve turned Jesus’ teaching and example exactly on its head.

My hope for Newberg Friends is to keep passing the baton, to do what Jesus did!

The needs are great! There are hurting and wounded and oppressed and deceived people everywhere, more than would ever want to come to us. We need to go to them!

But not as a bunch of do-gooders, under our own strength, with all of our preparations well in hand.

No, it’s repentance, discipleship, and God’s power. Change the course of our lives, recognize our own selfish control, and turn away from it and to God. Follow Jesus…come to him, listen to him, with a relentless focus on doing only what he sends you to do. And then trusting: but NOT our own strength or our own power or our own training. We trust Jesus to give us authority and God’s power to go where he asks us to go.

This focus is in our vision statement: we want to be a growing community LISTENING to Christ, CHANGING in the Spirit, LIVING OUT love. It’s a loop, a cycle. We don’t change without repentance, we don’t serve without being sent.

It’s in our people, right in front of our eyes, day after day.

People like Kara and Chris from earlier in the service, giving out hugs, looking specifically for the people the Jesus leads them to. People like Dave Woolsey, praying for specific cars to meet the needs of people, opening his office to anyone who needs a listening ear.

It’s in 88 people leaving for Mexico to build houses and tell children the good news of Jesus. It’s Charles Hanson serving at FISH for years, distributing food. It’s Sylvia Halse, visiting prisons and telling people the good news of Jesus.

It’s trying alternative worship gatherings, before we have it all figured out or perfectly planned. It’s Young Lives, figuring out how to walk alongside teen moms and dads.

The needs are huge! And the baton is being held out to you.

Maybe you don’t have to wait any longer, or be more prepared, to talk to your family member or neighbor or co—worker about what their hurts and struggles are, to point them to Jesus and his power for healing.

Have you asked Jesus who you are sent to? Whom does Jesus want you to be an “apostle” to, a “sent one”?

I’ve watched my wife Elaine, in her new job at the alternative high school here in Newberg, be a sent one. Many of the kids at that school have huge needs: substance abuse problems, dysfunctional parents, anger, you name it. I watched her on Thursday, in the simple act of proof reading a paper, speak hope and encouragement into a young man’s life.

She and the principal have a vision that one day soon, each of the 70+ students there will have an adult mentor from a church here in town. The need is there, the baton is waiting to be picked up…and I wonder if some of us at NFC will be the ones to do it?

There is no end to the needs in our community.

And I think Jesus is still in the business of calling people to himself, so that he can send us out, each one of us, sometimes woefully unprepared…he wants to send us out with his authority and power to do what he did.

These are the kinds of followers we are called to be and make. Not perfect ones who have all the answers and can do it on our own. No, human ones, flawed ones, who have to rely on his power.

This is the kind of church we are called to be. Not one that waits for people to come to us and have lots of teaching and beliefs put into their heads, but people who go out as Christ sends us.

Jesus is passing the baton to us. What does it look like for you to take it?