Jesus gives his shepherds instruction in the Gospel of Mark. When Jesus is speaking to the disciples, he doesn’t call them disciples. He calls them apostles. The word apostle just means someone who is sent – the “sent ones” are the apostles. Normally we see this after the Great Commission when Jesus tells his disciples to go into all the world with the gospel. The Apostle John refers to the one and only John who wrote a gospel account, three letters recorded in the Bible and his Revelation.
You might be thinking – that’s great, but I’m not going to be writing a new book of the Bible anytime soon. This is true, but that doesn’t mean you have nothing to offer God. In fact, Ephesians tells us God makes sure that you have things to do for the kingdom by preparing them in advance.
These instructions also might seem a little odd because they involve sleep. Sleep might seem like a passive activity, but your body is very active in sleep. Recent studies show that proper amounts of sleep can contribute to disease resistance.
The fact that we need rest wasn’t lost on Jesus. On more than one occasion Jesus takes time for himself to find rest. He doesn’t just get rest for himself. He models that rest for his disciples and for us. In these verses from Mark 6 we find that Jesus and his disciples didn’t have time to eat! God wants us to be good stewards of our bodies, so that means it’s time for Jesus and the Twelve to wind down. That doesn’t go exactly according to plan. But when the going gets tough, that’s when our Good Shepherd gets going.
Want to hear more? Watch this Sunday’s sermon from Mark 6.
Topic(s): Ministry
Book(s): Mark
Tag(s): Good Shepherd
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg