The Sending
Notes
Transcript
This is our 8th week in the book of Matthew. Let me encourage you. If you have missed any of these messages, be sure and go back and listen to these messages. They will help you as you are reading through Matthew.
Last week we looked at one of the points Jesus made in the sermon on the mount. In chapters 8 and 9 we read about different miracles that Jesus performed. We also read about Matthew’s becoming a disciple in chapter 9. My text today takes us to the end of chapter 9 and the beginning of chapter 10.
If you have your Bibles go with me to the book of Matthew and let’s go to the end of chapter 9, beginning at verse 35.
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Verse 36 says, “When He, meaning Jesus, saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Jesus looked at the people and He had pity on them. That word compassion means pity. Pity describes the deep mercy of God. Jesus sees that these people who are following Him did not know where to go for help. He saw a group of people that needed a shepherd.
In John 10:14
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—
What does a shepherd do? They watch over the sheep. They protect the sheep. When they are walking away from the group, the shepherd sticks out his staff and pulls them back in.
One of the main occupations of the jewish people was that of a shepherd. The jewish people would know what Jesus was talking about when He told them that He was the good shepherd.
But He had compassion on them.
Then after He sees the crowd and He see that they are very much in need of help, He then turns to His disciples and says this...
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Now for me, I can imagine Jesus saying this and then the disciples joining hands and they begin to pray for this harvest. They knew there were many people that needed what Jesus was teaching and the only problem was they needed more workers.
Then look at what Jesus does in chapter 10.
1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
Anytime you see a listing of the disciples you will always see something like this. Peter will always be first. James and John will always be mentioned together and Judas is always mentioned last.
I want to take a moment and examine the character of each one of these. Some we know very little about. Some we know quite a bit about. 3 of them wrote books in the New Testament.
Also, anytime you see a list of disciples, you always seem to see 3 groups of 4. Each group beginning with Peter, Philip, and James, Son of Alphaeus.
Peter is always mentioned first. Here, Matthew uses Peters given name of Simon. Peter’s name Simon means, one who listens. Can you see why Jesus changed his name to Peter? Peter was a doer. He was impulsive. He was the one that when they came to arrest Jesus, Peter grabbed a sword and swung it trying to cut something and he made contact with Malchus’ ear. He was also the one that confess that Jesus was the Messiah. Of course, right before Jesus crucifixion, Peter was the one that denied that he knew Jesus, not once, not twice, but three times.
Then there is Andrew, Peter’s little brother. Andrew had been a disciple of John the Baptist and had accepted John the Baptist’s testimony that Jesus was “the Lamb of God.” He left John to follow Jesus. Andrew would bring his brother Peter to Jesus. He was also reluctant to trust God. When Jesus was feeding the 5000. He was the one that spoke up and said, “We have this boys lunch of five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Lots of faith in that one.
Then he names James and John. They are brothers and they are usually listed together and the title sons of Zebedee. Because of their fighting spirit, Jesus would later give them the name sons of Thunder. But each one is unique in their own right. John wrote the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and Revelation. John also gave himself a title. In his Gospel he calls himself, the disciple Jesus loved. James was the first apostle to be martyred. That concludes the first grouping.
Philip begins the next group. He is not to be confused with the Philip that is mentioned in the book of Acts. He was the mathematical one in the bunch. When feeding the 5,000, he starts crunching numbers and comes up with the fact that 8 months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. You could say that he was slow to comprehend spiritual truth.
Bartholomew is next. In some places they call him Nathanael. In John, Philip invites him to come see Jesus of Nazareth and he makes the comment, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” So, he was the first to doubt Jesus as Messiah.
Thomas is next. Do you know what he is known for? Doubt. He is a pessimist, an axiomatic for skepticism. He says at one point, “I will have to see the scars of Jesus before I’ll believe it is him.” He was always seeing the dark side. But he was loyal. He made the statement to the other disciples, “Let us go, that we may die with with.”
Then there is the author of our text, Matthew. He describes himself here by his former profession, tax collector. Tax collectors were the lowest in the Jewish society. They were considered sale outs. They worked for Rome and collected taxes from their own people for the Roman Government.
This brings us to the last four.
James. We know he is the son of Alphaeus. Probably used to show that he was different from the other James mentioned. He is also called James the less. That probably means he was younger than the first James.
Thaddaeus or in other places called Judas son of James. We don’t know much.
Then Simon. He was a Zealot. He was a fanatical, a nationalist, a radical. He was a sworn assassin.
An interesting fact here is that Jesus had in his same circle of 12 a zealot and a tax collector. Tax collectors were hated amongst Jews and there might have been a hit put out on Matthew. That is something that would have been done back then. And Jesus has both of these men in His same group.
And the last one mentioned is Judas Iscariot. The name “Iscariot” is probably a compound word meaning “the man from Kerioth.” Thus, Judas’s hometown was Kerioth in southern Judea, making him the only one of the twelve who was not from Galilee. It was Judas, son of Simon Iscariot, who later betrayed Jesus to his enemies and then committed suicide.
My text ends here today. I went through each of these so that you would understand something. Jesus called this group of misfits to go. He gave them the authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
None of these guys were religious leaders. They didn’t know the prophets and the law like the scribes and pharisees did. They didn’t come from religious backgrounds. They weren’t perfect. At this point they were still new believers in who Jesus was. They had only been with Jesus for just over a year. Most of what Jesus said was new to them. And the truth is Jesus chose them.
He chose fishermen, tax collectors, and radical nationalists. He didn’t choose the well educated and the most sophisticated. So, if you think you are unworthy to be a worker for the Lord then just look at this group of misfits.
And after this list of names we see in scripture where Jesus gives them instructions. It’s a three part sermon if you will. Verses 5-42 of Matthew 10 is Jesus next sermon. The first sermon was the sermon on the mount. His next sermon listed here in Matthew is a sermon that He gives to His band of misfits.
Verses 5-15 He is telling them about their calling.
Verses 16-23 He is telling them about the consequences they could face. What could happen to them.
Verses 24-42 He is the sermon by giving them the courage they need to go and do what He is calling them to do.
I want to end today my reading one verse from this last part, verse 38.
38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
We hear this a lot don’t we? You must take up your cross and follow me. What does Jesus mean? Look at Mark 8:34
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
Jesus adds another step here. And He is talking to more than just His disciples. So it has now become a three step process. It was already that in Matthew. It just took Him more works to say deny yourself in Matthew. But in order to be Jesus’ disciple you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. Real quick let’s break that down.
1. Deny Yourself
1. Deny Yourself
To deny self means to put aside our own selfish desires in order to follow Jesus and serve His purposes, whatever the cost. Jesus is telling you you may have to forsake personal comforts. You may have to put aside social enjoyments. You may have the people of this world not like you. Whatever your grand plans and ambitions are, they may have to be placed on the back burner. Material wealth you may never see that. Even your life itself may end. That is denying yourself. You have to determine in your heart that you want what God wants. You want to live your life for Jesus and no one else.
2. Take Up Your Cross
2. Take Up Your Cross
When you take up your cross you are making a deliberate choice to deny your own selfish interests and way of life and you are boldly identifying with Christ.
Think about the cross for a moment. For us it’s this beautiful symbol of hope and sacrifice and love. We hang crosses on our walls in our homes. We wear necklaces with crosses on them. We put crosses on our buildings.
During Jesus’ day a cross was symbol of death. It was a brutal means of execution during Jesus’ time. For Him, it would represent shame and humiliation. You would never see a cross on the wall of a Jewish family during Jesus day. That would be like us putting the picture of an electric chair on our wall.
So what Jesus is asking us to do is be willing to follow him even to our death. We must be willing to identify with Christ and His sufferings, allowing our own reputations to become wrapped up in our devotion to him. The choice between living for ourselves or living for Christ must be made daily.
The sentence that follows this statement in many of the passages is Matthew 10:39
39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
All four Gospels use this statement in their writings. two of the Gospels use it more than once. And it is paired with the statement of carrying your cross or taking up your cross.
25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
No other statement from Jesus received as much attention by the gospel writers. It doesn’t mean that you have to physically lose your life. Sometimes the greater challenge is continuing to live faithfully for him during difficult situations.
Do you remember a few weeks ago when I said Jesus raise the standard for us to live at? The problem is we have brought the standard down to where it is comfortable for us. It’s time we get uncomfortable. It’s time we live by God’s standard and not the world’s standard and that means that we have to pick up and carry our own cross.
3. Follow Me
3. Follow Me
The word “Follow” figuratively, refers to the process of following someone as a disciple. This word literally refers to following after someone physically. It is used this way in the New Testament. However, in the New Testament it is also sometimes used as a term for becoming a disciple. These two concepts are not fully distinct; Jesus’ disciples did in fact literally follow Him around, but they also left behind their former lives to devote themselves fully to Him.
When you decide to follow Christ, you are deciding to be a disciple of Christ.
Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them.
Discipleship is the process of devoting oneself to a teacher to learn from and become more like them.
Jesus is our teacher. So discipleship fundamentally involves all of one’s being, not just the mind or intellect. All of the biblical terms used to convey the concept of discipleship involve more than just academic engagement.
Moses made it clear that the teaching of the law was meant to result in obedience to what it said rather than just intellectual acceptance.
To sum all of this up. It is a heart change.
To deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus requires a heart change. If you did not change your heart the day you said a prayer to make Jesus your Lord and Savior then that prayer was just lip service. There has to be a change take place in your heart. If you have not made a commitment with your heart then you need to reevaluate your life. Make a change today and let Jesus be the Lord of your life.
I promise you Jesus loves you and He only wants what is best for you. You don’t have to understand it all. All you have to know is that Jesus wants the best for you.
Let’s Pray.