DISCIPLES WHO MAKE DISCIPLES

1. PRAY. Don’t try doing this stuff in your own strength or based on your own resources – that simply won’t work. Pray: ‘Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field’ (2) and rely on God for everything you need.
   
2. GO! Do something, commit to a plan, be intentional, make a difference. But don’t just go randomly: go with others, go where you see Jesus going, look for what he’s doing and get on board.
   
3. ...WITH YOUR EYES OPEN. There will be push back if you follow Jesus with any degree of seriousness. ‘I am sending you out,’ says Jesus, ‘like lambs among wolves’ (3). But there are some encouragements here as well: ‘I have given you authority … to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you’ (19), he later reminds them.
   
4. ...WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY. ‘Don’t even greet people you meet on the road’ says Jesus. That’s not an encouragement to be rude, by the way, but simply to avoid being distracted. We have limited time available to us, limited opportunities. Don’t put your energies into the wrong things.
   
5. LOOK FOR PEOPLE OF PEACE. ‘When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a person of peace lives there, your peace will rest on them’ (5–6). We should be looking for people who are open and receptive.
   
6. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. Stay in one house, eat and drink with the people there, pray for them. Don’t shop around for the best accommodation – remember you’re workers, not consumers!
   
7. WORDS & WORKS: spread the word and heal people. In other words, don’t separate the words of the kingdom from the works of the kingdom, but always keep them together.
   
8. WARN PEOPLE. Perhaps the most challenging part of the instructions. ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida!’ says Jesus. This isn’t Jesus threatening people or calling down curses on them: he is simply lamenting their indifference to his message and ministry and grieving the negative consequences it will have for them.
   
9. AMBASSADORS. Always remember that you are Jesus’ ambassadors, with his authority. ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me’ (16). We have a powerful and important job to do. Go and spread the word: make disciples who make disciples.