And having called together the twelve, he gave them power and authority over all demons, and to heal diseases,
Jesus calls together the twelve — the men He had chosen as His apostles — and hands them power over demons and disease. The verse raises two questions at once: what exactly did He give, and what does the giving tell us about the Giver?
Luke's account adds a term that Matthew's does not, and the wording repays a close look.
It is worth noticing the extra word Luke adds when he describes the mission of the twelve... Matthew says that the Lord gave His disciples power (exousian) against unclean spirits. Luke says that He gave them power and authority (dynamin kai exousian)... So from Matthew we learn that the Lord gave His disciples authority over unclean spirits, and "the right to exercise it." From Luke we learn that He also gave them the "ability" to use that authority over all demons and to cure diseases.
Other passages set the two words side by side in the same way.
This word "authority" does not mean simply power and might (which is dynamis in Greek). It means power together with the right to use it. We can see this in passages where the two Greek words for "power" and "authority" stand side by side (Acts 1:7-8; Luke 9:1; 1 Pet. 3:22).
What He gave carried real force. It also had limits, and both the gift and the limits show who He is.
He gave them both power and authority — a power that demons could not overcome, an authority that they could not resist... He gave men power over all demons, and to cure diseases as well... The powers now given to them were vast, for in those fields no limit was set. Yet they were limited. One area lay outside the apostles' commission, though that area too was completely under their Master's control. He could turn water into wine. He could bring fish to Peter's net. He could rebuke both wind and waves. No disciple could do such things. So He showed His deity both in what He gave and in what He held back. He gave them power over all demons: no one but God could do that.
Compare His miracles with theirs and the difference stands out. The disciples would later do great works, but the power was never their own.
The disciples would later work miracles, and even do "greater works" (John 14:12). But they received the power for it from their Lord and Master. Scripture tells us this more than once (Matthew 10:6, Luke 9:1, and elsewhere). Jesus, on the other hand... was only using His own power, whether He healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, or raised the dead.
The power was handed to them, so it said nothing good about the men who carried it.
This handed-over authority means a great deal. Because it was handed over, no one could think it came from the character of the men themselves. They were only the delegates of Another, yet as His delegates they were clothed with power from God.
One member of the twelve puts this beyond argument.
Did Judas have this power too? Certainly, because he was an apostle. The Lord gave them the authority and the power. He did not give it for any faith, virtue or merit on the apostle's side.
The mission is not their idea, and the message is not their own.
This chapter gives us the twelve entrusted with the same testimony. They were to go out everywhere as representatives of Christ, carrying the power of the kingdom, with a mission to proclaim the kingdom of God. The Lord gave them their authority.
The miracles are not the errand. They serve the preaching.
Yet He sent them out with one first aim: to preach the kingdom of God. That kingdom is above all a matter of God's authority. Only there can the miserable condition of the world find a right answer.
Later in this same chapter, the men holding all this power stood helpless before one afflicted boy.
Having power in your hands is not everything. The disciples with the Lord had received from Him "power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases" (Luke 9:1). Yet when a boy possessed by a demon needed healing, they could not heal him. That power depended on their personal communion with Him.
- Given. He gave them the ability to act (dynamis) and the right to act (exousia). Luke names both words; Matthew names one.
- Giver. Anyone can use power once someone hands it over; only God can hand this power over. His deity showed in what He gave and in what He kept back.
- Grant, not reward. The authority rested on the Sender, not on the character of the sent. Judas carried it too, with no faith, virtue or merit behind it.
- Goal. He sent them first to preach the kingdom of God, where the world's misery finds its only real answer. The healing served that message.
- Guard. Power in the hand is not power in use. Later in the chapter they could not free one boy, because that depended on their communion with Him.
and sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
The twelve had watched the Lord preach and heal. Now He sends them out with the same errand: a message to announce, power that is not their own, and a claim every town must answer.
Older translations render "proclaim" as "preach." Luke's word is the word for a herald.
To "preach" (kerussein, to herald) "implies a solemn announcement" (Darby-Smith). Compare Luke 9:2 and Acts 28:31. When Luke speaks of the simple gospel of grace, he uses another word, euangelizein: Luke 4:18, Luke 7:22, Luke 9:6, Luke 20:1.
The kingdom of God means God stepping in Himself, instead of leaving man to run the world.
The word here is, "Preach the kingdom of God." The central thought of God's kingdom is that divine power steps in, rather than man being left to himself. Man is not left to his own resources and wisdom to win and keep the upper hand in the world under God's providence, as if he held some settled right over nature. God will Himself take up this scene, to bring His own power and goodness into it in the person of Christ.
Verse 1 gave them power over demons and disease; verse 2 tells them what to say. The order is deliberate.
The Lord gave His disciples power and authority over demons and diseases (v.1). His own power and authority had already shown itself in these very things, so He told them to do what He had done. Yet His first purpose in sending them was to preach the kingdom of God, which is above all a matter of God's authority. Only there can the miserable condition of the world find a right answer.
The cures were tied to the message. They showed in advance what the kingdom does to a broken world.
The Lord now sends out the twelve as messengers of His mercy in a needy world. They have authority over the power of Satan and over disease, and they are to preach the kingdom of God. The miracles are signs and previews of that kingdom. This authority was handed to them, and that fact matters: since someone else gave it, no one could trace it to the character of the men themselves. They were only the delegates of Another, yet God clothed them with power.
One name among the twelve shows where this power came from.
In the foreground here stands the power and authority the Lord gave the apostles over all demons and to cure all diseases. Did Judas have this power too? Certainly, for he was an apostle. The Lord granted them this authority and power. It was not for any faith, virtue or merit on the apostles' side. They went out preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. They are the messengers of the compassionate friend of sinners.
The twelve carried the same mission the Lord Himself was carrying out. That gave their visit a weight no town could shrug off.
In Luke 9 the Lord gives the disciples the same mission in Israel that He Himself carried out. They preach the kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons. But something more is added: their work takes on the character of a final mission. Not that the Lord had stopped working, for He also sent out the seventy. It is final in this sense: if the people rejected it, it became a clear testimony against them.
The verse says He sent them. That right, one writer notes, has never changed hands.
The Lord Himself "sent" the Twelve and the Seventy (Luke 9:2; Luke 10:1) when He was here. Now that He is above — alive again for evermore — He, by the Spirit of God, gives and sends out those He has qualified for His work, whatever that work may be. He has not given up His rights or handed them over to the church, or to any people in it.
- Sent — the twelve go on the Lord's errand, not their own; He kept the right to send then, and He keeps it now.
- Given — the Lord handed them power over demons and disease. They did not earn it; even Judas held it, which shows the source.
- Said — their first business was to herald the kingdom of God. That means God Himself stepping into the world in Christ, instead of leaving man to manage it.
- Shown — the healings were signs and previews of that kingdom. They backed the message; they did not replace it.
- Settled — the message carried the Lord's own authority. Every town had to decide, and refusal became a testimony against them.
And he said to them, Take nothing for the way, neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money; nor to have two body-coats apiece.
The Lord gives the twelve the power of the Kingdom, then strips them of everything else they might lean on. That raises two questions: why send messengers out empty-handed, and does the rule still bind His servants today?
The command comes with a commission. The twelve go into Israel as the King's representatives, and their empty hands are part of the message.
This chapter gives us the twelve entrusted with the same testimony. They were to go out everywhere as representatives of Christ, given the power of the Kingdom... They were to depend on the King, and everyone was to see it... But the word is, "Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money." What carried them had to be plainly the resources of God, however He might work through men. They were not to look after themselves, not even to have two coats each.
The list names ordinary travel supplies. The ban also had a matching duty on the other side: the people were to care for the men their Messiah had sent.
He told them not to take supplies for their journey. They were to have no walking stick for support, no shoulder bag for carrying food, no money and no extra clothing (v.3). The Messiah of Israel was sending His servants to His own people, Israel, who were responsible to care for His messengers completely. Those who received them as genuine servants of Jehovah would supply their needs for that reason.
The word for "money" points to the readers Luke had in view:
"Money" here means silver, because Luke is writing for Greeks. Mark has "copper," because he writes for Romans.
Mark's account allows a staff; Luke's list forbids one. Commentators answer the tension by looking at what the command covers: not gear in general, but gear gathered up for this trip.
At first sight Luke's wording raises a difficulty. It appears to say, Do not take a staff at all, which contradicts Mark. But the "discrepancy" is only apparent. Notice that the ban covers only what they were to prepare for this journey, and the staff stands in the same list as the bag and bread and money... The twelve were not to get even the most ordinary item for their mission. They could use an ordinary walking staff, but they could not provide one specially for their new task.
Going out with nothing taught them one thing by experience: the One who sent them controls more than storms and demons. They said so themselves later.
These directions prepared the apostles to learn by experience the basic but vitally important lesson of spiritual service: dependence on God for the things the Gentiles are always chasing. During their mission they would find that their Master controlled providence as well as winds and waves and demons. And their own words tell us that the Lord did care for them without fail. On the night of His betrayal He said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" And they said, "Nothing."
Commentators differ here. Some point out that the Lord Himself later cancelled these arrangements, and that this mission ended at His death.
In Luke 22:35 the Lord looks back on this very mission and asks, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" And they said, "Nothing." Then He tells them to provide themselves now with moneybag, knapsack, and sword. The very things they were not to do before, they were to do from that time on. The Lord cancels what He had commanded before, as far as the special circumstances went. His goodness and love to them would remain, and so would their walking in wisdom and harmlessness. But the special character of this mission ended at the death of Christ.
Others draw out the principle underneath the packing list and carry it forward:
They were to go out with nothing provided for them. That made them completely dependent on the Lord who had sent them. Trust in the Lord, who sends out the labourer, is another principle, which belongs to this age as well. All disappointment and discouragement for the servant of Christ comes in when he looks not to the Lord but to man. The Lord never disappoints... The Lord who calls His servants and sends them forth always keeps them when they walk in simple dependence upon Himself.
- Sent. The empty hands follow a commission. The twelve go as the King's representatives, and their poverty is part of the testimony.
- Stripped. Staff, bag, bread, money, spare coat — the Lord withheld every ordinary traveller's item, so that what carried them would plainly be the resources of God.
- Staff. Mark allows a staff and Luke forbids one. They agree once you see the ban as covering what was packed for the trip, not an ordinary walking stick.
- Sustained. They learned by experience. On the night of His betrayal they confessed they had lacked nothing — their Master governs providence as well as winds and waves and demons.
- Since then. Commentators differ. The Lord Himself cancelled this particular arrangement, yet others hold that the trust it trained belongs to this age as well.
And into whatsoever house ye enter, there abide and thence go forth.
Jesus sends the twelve apostles out to preach with no moneybag, no knapsack and no sandals. This verse settles where they will sleep, and the answer teaches dependence, contentment and care for the message.
The order takes one worry off their hands. One writer notes that the host's welcome decided the matter:
How wise His directions were here! Where should they lodge? Was that even a question? As the need arose, the answer was simple: whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. Their welcome by the host would show them where they were to stay. On the other hand, if anyone rejected them, they were to accept it. They were to shake the dust off their feet against such people. The servant was not to argue. But God would not forget it, because these were His messengers, and men treated them this way.
Staying put meant refusing to trade up. The first open door was enough:
When a home received them, they were to stay there until they left the city. They were not to look around for more comfortable circumstances. They were to be content with the hospitality their host offered.
Moving from house to house could look like self-seeking. Writing on the same command in Mark's Gospel, one writer sees the Lord guarding two things at once:
How wise this was! How careful of the dignity of His messengers! And how watchful, so that the self-seeking of those who carried the message would not spoil it!
Another writer sees plain simplicity in the same command, and applies it to us too:
They — and we too — are to show the utmost simplicity: no running from house to house looking for something better. They represented Him. He acted through them as His representatives, and so to refuse them was to refuse Him... Those who serve Him today are not apostles; still, in a lesser degree the same thing doubtless holds good. God's message is not any less His message because it comes through weak lips.
Men who carry no supplies sleep under a roof only if someone opens a door. One writer traces that open door back to the King who sent them:
They were to go out as representatives of Christ everywhere, clothed with the power of the kingdom... They were to be plainly dependent on the King. In a remarkable way the King's power would open a door that no one could shut. It would shut a door that no one could open. Yet the King held sovereign power over the hearts of His people Israel. That power did not cancel their responsibility. Whoever rejected Him had to bear his own burden.
Another writer draws out what such an arrangement demanded of the messengers themselves:
They were to go out taking nothing for their journey. They were to rest in the providing care and protection of the Lord who was present on earth, who would so arrange the hearts of men, and govern circumstances, that they would lack nothing.
These travel rules did not stand for ever. The Lord Himself cancelled them later, and one writer ties the change to His death:
In Luke 22:35 the Lord looks back on this very mission. He asks, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." Then the Lord tells them to provide themselves now with a moneybag, a knapsack, and a sword. The very things they were not to do before, they were to do from that time on. The Lord cancels what He had commanded before, as far as those special circumstances went. His goodness and love toward them would remain, and so would their walking in wisdom and innocence. But the particular character of this mission ended at the death of Christ.
- Sent — the twelve went out as representatives of Christ, plainly dependent on the King. His power could open a door no one could shut.
- Settled — where to lodge was never a question. A host's welcome answered it as the need arose.
- Satisfied — they stayed in that home until they left the city. They took the hospitality on offer instead of hunting for something better.
- Shielded — staying in one house guarded the dignity of the messengers. It kept self-seeking from spoiling the message. To refuse them was to refuse Him.
- Superseded — the Lord later cancelled these orders. He told them to take moneybag and knapsack, because the special character of this mission ended at His death.
And as many as may not receive you, going forth from that city, shake off even the dust from your feet for a witness against them.
In Luke 9 the Lord sends out the twelve men He had chosen, giving them power to heal and a message to preach. He warns them that a town will answer in one of two ways: welcome or refusal. Verse 5 tells them what to do when a town shuts its door, and the small gesture He commands carries more weight than it looks.
This is not a fit of temper. It is a formal act. Shaking the dust off the feet declares that the servants are done with that place and want nothing of it clinging to them.
If the King's subjects refused such a message from Him, the servants were to leave and wipe the very dust of the city off their feet, as a testimony against the city. It was to be a solemn act of separation, refusing to be linked in any way with the city that rejected their Lord.
Why dust? Dust is what a place leaves clinging to you.
It was as if the dust of the place where they lived was defiling, and had to be shaken off as a testimony against them.
The twelve went out carrying the King's power, not their own. That is what makes a town's refusal so grave. Their King can open any heart, yet the people who shut Him out still answer for their choice.
They were to depend on the King in a way everyone could see. In a remarkable way the King's power would open, and no one could shut; and shut, and no one could open. Yet this sovereign power of the King over the hearts of His people Israel still left their responsibility in place. Whoever rejected Him had to bear his own burden.
The gesture is a testimony against them — a sign of judgment ahead. Yet it still belongs to grace. It is the last thing grace can do.
Here we have just the reach of their authority, the claim it makes on people, and the testimony against those who reject that claim. Preaching the good news comes first. But what hope is there for those who reject the precious grace of God? Yet the warning of judgment is part of that grace. It is grace making its last effort to stir people's consciences to respond.
For the people as a whole, this was a final knock at the door.
This was to be a last appeal to the conscience and heart of the people. It came so that they might receive the Saviour, repent, turn to God, and escape the terrible judgment waiting for them.
Notice what the Lord leaves out. He does not tell them to stay and press the case, or to hit back. They accept the refusal, mark it, and move on. God Himself keeps the account, because the town was rejecting His messengers.
On the other hand, if anyone rejected them, they were to accept that and shake the dust off their feet against such people. The servant was not to quarrel, but God would remember it, for they were His messengers who were treated this way.
Should a preacher shake off dust today? One commentator says no. He explains what changed, and weighs those cities against Sodom, a city God had already judged.
The preaching of the gospel today does not call for any such action, because the gospel goes to people in an evil world, not to cities. The gospel has saved people out of many wicked cities and given them a heavenly inheritance. But cities are earthly, and these cities were tied to God's earthly people Israel. As cities, then, they would suffer for refusing their Messiah. Sodom's judgment would be easier to bear than God's judgment on a city that rejected them. The reason is that Sodom had never known the witness of the Lord Jesus present in person, and so was not as responsible as these.
What has not changed is the seriousness of turning the message away.
It is still worse now when people refuse the gospel. Its message reveals not only the kingdom, but the grace of God that brings salvation. To push it away from your soul is to insult God in the depth of His love, and to reject His mercy for eternity with your eyes open.
- Sent — the twelve carried the King's power, not their own, so everything about them pointed back to Him.
- Refused — when a town shut its door, the messengers shook off its dust. It was a solemn act of separation from a place that had rejected their Lord.
- Warned — the gesture was a testimony against the city. It was grace making its last effort to wake the conscience before judgment fell.
- Released — the servants were not to quarrel or defend themselves. God Himself would remember how the town treated His messengers.
- Answerable — a town could dismiss the men, but not their claim. Whoever rejected Him had to bear his own burden, and refusing the gospel today is more serious still.
And going forth they passed through the villages, announcing the glad tidings and healing everywhere.
Jesus had just given His twelve apostles authority over demons and disease, and a message to carry. Verse 6 turns those orders into miles walked, so what did they announce, and what kept them going with nothing in their hands?
The chapter opens with a shift: what Jesus had been doing, He now entrusts to twelve men who go out in His name. One writer links their going out to the testimony Christ Himself had been giving:
The last chapter showed Christ's testimony to the change that was coming. This chapter gives us the twelve entrusted with the same testimony. They were to go out everywhere as representatives of Christ, carrying the power of the kingdom... The Lord gave them their authority. They were to depend on the King in plain sight. In a remarkable way, the King's power would open, and no one could shut; it would shut, and no one could open.
Two different Greek words sit behind "preach" here. Verse 2 uses the word for heralding. Verse 6 uses another one:
To "preach" (kerussein, to herald) "implies a solemn announcement." Compare Luke 9:2 and Acts 28:31. When Luke speaks of the simple gospel of grace, he especially uses euangelizein: Luke 4:18, Luke 7:22, Luke 9:6, Luke 20:1.
Luke does not say the twelve healed some, or in certain towns. He says everywhere — and the point of that word is not the size of their reputation:
This mission also belonged to the Jewish sphere of our Lord's service. It was power coming in with mercy... "Everywhere" (pantachou). It was general. It was a testimony — not a witness to them as the objects, but to their mission, that is, to the Lord. Is it not, "They went through from village to village"? Preaching and healing, as we have seen, belong to the blessing proper to the Jews, because the blessing was here. No disease of Egypt was to be on them. And "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases" was the promised blessing.
Luke tells this mission briefly. One question hangs over it, because the twelve included a man who would betray Jesus:
The power and authority the Lord gave the apostles — over all demons, and to cure all diseases — stands in the foreground here. Did Judas also have this power? Certainly, for he was an apostle. He gave them that authority and power. It was not for any faith, virtue or merit on the apostles' side. They went out preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. They are the messengers of the compassionate friend of sinners.
They set out with nothing of their own. The reason lies in who was still with them:
He is sending out His disciples, and in doing so He arranges all their circumstances. While He was with them, He supplied them with everything — they lacked nothing. The power of the Lord was there to take care of them, wherever they were. Afterwards, when He was about to leave them, He tells them to take a sword... The disciples go out, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
Another writer points to the moment the Lord reversed these instructions:
Later, in Luke 22:35-37, the Lord cancelled this commission and told them virtually the opposite. Why? Because Israel had then rejected their Messiah. The cross of Christ has radically changed these things today.
This mission had an edge to it. Turning the messengers away was not a neutral act:
In Luke 9 the Lord charges the disciples with the same mission in Israel that He Himself carried out. They preach the kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons. But this is added, that their work takes the character of a final mission... final in this sense, that it became a definite testimony against the people if they rejected it. The twelve were to shake the dust off their feet as they left the cities that refused them.
- Given — the Lord handed them power over demons and disease; they did not earn it. Even Judas held it, so it proved nothing about their merit and everything about their Sender.
- Emptied — they travelled with nothing because the Lord was there to supply them. When He was about to leave, He changed those very orders.
- Announced — Luke's word for their message is the one he keeps for the simple gospel of grace, not just a solemn herald's cry.
- Everywhere — they went from village to village, and the witness pointed away from the messengers to the One who sent them.
- Decisive — the same errand brought healing to every village and left every village answerable for how it received the message.