Equipped and Empowered[1]
Jesus ministers through each of us by equipping and empowering us, just as He did the Twelve.
Text: Mark 6:1-13
(1) And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. (2) And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? (3) Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. (4) But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. (5) And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. (6) And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching. (7) And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits; (8) And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: (9) But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats. (10) And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place. (11) And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city. (12) And they went out, and preached that men should repent. (13) And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.
And they were offended in him – That is, they took offence at his humble birth, and at the indigent circumstances of his family. They were too proud to be taught by one who, in family connections, they took to be their equal or inferior. People always look with envy on those of their own rank who advance pretensions to uncommon wisdom or superior power.[2]
It is somewhat telling that just as His familiars were offended in Jesus, you will also find those who are offended in you when you begin to flow in the Equipping and Empowerment Jesus has given you.
But just as the LORD told Jeremiah of old: “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.”[3]
John 14:12-14, “(12) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (13) And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”
- “…because I go unto my Father…”
- Hebrews 7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
- “…that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
- The Father has chosen to reveal Himself to this world by the name of Jesus, which literally means “Jehovah Savior” or “Jehovah Is Salvation.” The Father glorified the man Jesus by investing His name (character, power, authority, presence) in Him, by leading Him to the cross to die for the sins of the world, and by raising Him from the dead. Far from manifesting to us a second person of the Godhead unknown to Old Testament saints, the Son manifested [revealed] to us the one, indivisible God for the purpose of our salvation.”[4]
COMING HOME
Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC, and the majority of survivors in Jerusalem had been marched to Babylon to live out their lives in captivity.
Israel could no longer celebrate feast days at the Temple. Sabbath observances were not the same. Possessions were few and the Jews relied on memory to recite Scripture and pass on their traditions to their families.
We do not have an exact date of when synagogues began to be part of the Jewish identity, but the centrality of the synagogue as a community-meeting place where prayers were prayed and the Torah read aloud developed sometime around the third century BC.
After years of captivity in Babylon, the exiles returned to Israel with a longing to rebuild their community and their disrupted traditions. Seventy years after the first deportation, the exiles began returning under Persian King Cyrus. Without a Temple for their traditional feasts and sacrificial worship, the people started meeting in their communities for Sabbath where the practice of reading from the scrolls started.
The word “synagogues” simply means “meeting or gathering together,” and they became an important part of the religious, social, communal and educational life of the Jewish community as they gathered for prayer, Scripture reading, and instruction in the Law.
When I was on an educational trip to Krakow, Poland (sponsored by Christians United for Israel – CUFI.org), we visited the beautifully restored Tempel Synagogue there in the Jewish Quarter. Our guide, Eli Tur-paz, told us that because of the decimation of the Jewish population in Krakow by the Nazis during World War II, There were not enough people to hold a quorum for meeting, and he said something that I do not think will ever leave my mind: “There are no prayers prayed here anymore.”
Jesus Taught in the Synagogue in Nazareth
In the synagogues, Jesus interacted with the people and began His teaching ministry and performing numerous miracles, often on the Sabbath Day.
Not only did Jesus demonstrate He was Lord of the Sabbath, but in a practical sense, this would be the day most people gathered together in the community, giving Jesus the greatest opportunity to teach them and heal those who needed healing.
The stories circulated about the miracles and teaching of Jesus, so when He returned home after spending time in surrounding communities, He attended the synagogue in Nazareth as somewhat of a local hero—or at least a curiosity.
During that homecoming Sabbath, Jesus volunteered to read, and the scroll of Isaiah was brought to Him and began reading from the already scheduled Scripture reading for that week from Isaiah:
“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:17–19).
He then stopped reading, closed the scroll, and boldly announced: “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). He had everyone’s attention. The room grew quiet. What was Jesus saying? He was identifying Himself to them as the Messiah.
Jesus’ Family and Hometown Friends Rejected Him as Messiah
The crowd in the synagogue in Nazareth was in awe of Jesus’ words, but they were stuck on His lineage: “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Luke 4:22). They could not regard Him as a prophet or anything more because they had seen Him grow up as the carpenter’s son. When they said that Jesus was “Joseph’s son,” they were reminding one another that Mary had been pregnant before they were married. How many believed Mary’s story that Jesus was born of a virgin? Would you believe your teenage daughter if she came to you with such a story?
Other questions were asked: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3).
The connection to family was made to humanize Jesus. They were making the point: He was just one of them. They knew His family. They knew His siblings from their birth, and they knew Jesus was conceived before marriage.
It was all there boiling beneath the surface of their questions. Mark’s last statement sums up their questioning: “And they were offended at him” (Mark 6:3).
Jesus’ own family members may have been embarrassed by His bold claim to be the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, because if it were not true then He had just committed blasphemy.
Have you ever had people close to you who underestimated you, or who did not see you for who you are? How did that make you feel?
Most of the members of Jesus’ own family did not believe He was the Christ until after His death, burial and resurrection.
What did Jesus do on that day in Nazareth? He modestly responded: “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, among his own kin, and in his own house” (Mark 6:4). He may have looked at some of His brothers when He said that last line. Then He referenced two examples from the Scripture where the outsiders (Gentiles), not the people of Israel, received miracles and the favor of God. Those gathered in the synagogue understood Jesus’ implication that they would be passed over and replaced by the Gentiles. This instantly turned their astonishment into anger.
They all rose up, forced Him out of the city and to the edge of the hill, intending to throw Him over the cliff. They had to put the blasphemer to death because they understood Jesus was claiming to be their Messiah. Luke recorded how Jesus escaped the angry crowd: “Passing through the midst of them went his way” (Luke 4:30).
What? How? Did He freeze time? Did He make Himself invisible? Did He just blend in with the crowd? How did He just “pass through their midst?” Luke did not record it so we do not know, but it must have been a miracle. Like the Hebrews of old inexplicably crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, Jesus slipped through the angry crowd, intent on killing Him, and got away.
Nazareth Missed Out on Miracles because of Their Unbelief
Unbelief always stops the miraculous. Mark wrote that in Nazareth Jesus could “do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief” (Mark 6:5–6). His lack of miracles was laid at the feet of their lack of faith.
Everywhere else He had been He taught the people and then He healed the sick.
You know there were people in Nazareth who had the same afflictions and maladies as their neighboring communities. If only they could have embraced the Gospel of the Savior and believed that the same wonders could happen for them as well, but Unbelief left them with just a few miracles occurred there. What would happen today if you responded by accepting and believing that Jesus will heal you right now?
Believe Jesus Is Who He Said He Is
Do you believe that Jesus is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him?[5] There are many skeptics in the world today who have trouble believing the miraculous healings and deliverance from addictions that come by prayer and faith in the name of Jesus. Many people only have enough faith to believe that Jesus was just a man who lived a long time ago, but is no longer relevant to their lives.
BUT – there are some here today who believe in Jesus and have confidence that He lives and He is ever present in our lives. Jesus is more than an ancient teacher, a wise prophet, or a spiritual leader; He is the Lord of Glory, the one holy God who came in flesh and lived among us.
JESUS SENT HIS TWELVE DISCIPLES
Nazareth’s rejection did not stop Jesus. He just continued on His purpose, went to another town and continued His ministry.
The angry mob’s intent to push Jesus over the cliff to the rocks below was just the first attempt on His life. There would be other attempts, but Jesus understood His mission and His purpose would not be thwarted.
Without missing a beat, Mark 6:6 transitions from “he marvelled because of their unbelief” to “he went round about the villages, teaching.”
Although Rejected in Nazareth, Jesus Sent His Disciples to Minister
Many believe that Jesus can heal, but they are not convinced that He can heal through them. In just a few short verses, Jesus calls His closest disciples, the Twelve, and empowers them to spread the message of the Kingdom. He sent six teams of two into the surrounding communites, villages and hamlets and increased the spread of His influence
Because He equipped and empowered the Twelve, many more learned of Jesus and became His followers as His fame spread through the disciples’ travels and the powerful results of their ministry. They preached that people must repent and through them, Jesus healed the sick and cast out demons. (See Mark 6:12–13.)
Jesus Ministered THROUGH the Twelve
Jesus taught the disciples to go out in faith. He instructed them to travel light, to leave behind extra clothing, money, and food provisions. They would learn to depend on God to provide for them, relying on the kind hospitality of those to whom they ministered. The teams of disciples went out in obedience to Jesus and began to see miraculous results of their obedience and faith. They anointed the sick and saw miracles of healing. When demons manifested themselves, the disciples spoke with authority and God delivered the oppressed. They learned Jesus could also work through them to accomplish great signs and miracles they saw Jesus work.
If You Will Surrender to Jesus, He Will Minister through You
Learn what the disciples learned: Jesus can work through any obedient follower and He is still calling and commissioning disciples (you and I) to go in the power of His Spirit. He has empowered and equipped you to fulfill the commission and continue the purpose for which He came.
While Jesus was still with His disciples, He declared: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
After giving the commission, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,”[6] Jesus assured His followers, “these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”[7] Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth.”[8] As much as the promise of the gift of the Spirit is to “you, and to your children,” so also is the calling of God to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ.[9]
Jesus is working in you to fulfill His purpose by equipping and empowering you.
[1] SOURCE: God’s Word for Life Adult Lesson Guide Summer 2025. Pentecostal Publishing House. Lesson 1.1 – Equipped and Empowered.
[2] Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible. Matthew 13:57.
[3] Jeremiah 1:8-10
[4] David K. Bernard. The Oneness View of Jesus Christ. p. 118.
[5] Hebrews 11:6
[6] Mark 16:15
[7] Mark 16:17–18
[8] Acts 1:8
[9] Acts 2:39
The Pillar and Ground of Truth 