Calling, Sending, and Suffering (Matthew 10:1-20)
Matthew - Junior Youth • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Opening prayer
Opening prayer
Scirpture Reading
Scirpture Reading
And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.
“Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Introduction:
Introduction:
Today we will be looking at how God calls people into the work of the ministry, and how God equips to faithfully serve Him.
We are going to be looking at how God works through ordinary people to accomplish His plan of saving the world.
We’re going to be looking at how God is faithful to provide for His workers,
And lastly how we as his God’s workers, are to deal with people’s different responses to Jesus.
Calling the disciples:
Calling the disciples:
And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.
In verse 1, we see Jesus calling his disciples to himself.
Question: What is a disciple?
John MacAurthur defines the word “disciple” as a “student”, meaning these disciples were people taught by Jesus.
Up until this point, the disciples had been following Jesus, sat under his teachings (Matthew 5-7), they had counted the cost of following Jesus (Matthew 8:18-22), witnessed Jesus heal the sick, drive out demons and even raise people from the dead (Matthew 8-9).
Now, however, Jesus both calls the disciples to himself and appoints them as apostles, giving them the opportunity to join Him in the work of the Kingdom.
Its important to also see, that as Jesus not only calls the disciples, but also equips them for the call.
Jesus now gives them the authority, to do what He had been doing, namely:
He gives them authority over unclean spirits.
He gives them the authority to cast them out of people.
He also gives them the power to heal sickness and disease.
Appointing the Apostles:
Appointing the Apostles:
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Cananite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
In verse 2, we see Jesus now appointing the disciples to the role of apostles:
Question: What is an apostle?
An apostle is defined as “one sent on a mission”.
These apostles were about to sent on a short missionary journey, and on it they serve two primary functions:
Firstly, they represented the sender (Jesus)
Secondly, they carried the authority of the person who sent them.
In verse 2, Jesus now appoints twelve of his disciples to the position of apostleship.
In the Bible we find four lists of these apostles:
Matthew 10:2-4
Mark 3:16–19
Luke 6:14–16
Acts 1:13
In these lists, the apostles are listed in a similar order.
Peter is always listed first, and Judas is listed last.
Each list contains three groups of four.
David Guzik is of the opinion that this represents one group leader, and three counterparts.
Meaning each group would have looked as follows:
Peter - Andrew, James and John.
Philip - Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew.
James son of Alphaeus - Thaddaues (Also referred to as Judas brother of James), Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot (The one who would betray Jesus).
Interestingly, among the twelve disciples, there were two sets of brothers:
Peter and Andrew
James and John (Also known as their the brothers of Thunder, because of their hot tempers).
Among the twelve disciples, Peter, James and John formed part of his inner circle, they were his closest friends. They were the ones Jesus invited to witness his transfiguration, where they saw Jesus in His glory speaking to both Moses and Elijah in Matthew 16.
Each of the twelve disciples were very different from one another, but they had one thing in common: none of them came from a privilige or high status.
The world didn’t see them as valuable or important, but they were the men that God wanted and called to His Kingdom purpose.
Mark 3:13 (NKJV)
And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him.
I find that so encouraging, did you know Jesus wants you today?
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Instructions for the journey:
Instructions for the journey:
These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
In verse 5, we read that Jesus “commanded them”.
Question: What does this mean?
Jesus is giving them spesific instructions for the mission He was sending them on.
Why? Because Jesus was following a divine plan.
In Matthew 9:35-38,
We read how Jesus went about the cities and villages, teaching in synagogues and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom.
As he was doing so He had compassion on the people, because they were weary and scattered, recognizing that the Jewish people were like lost sheep with no sheperd.
Therefore, He prayed that God would raise up laborers to send out into the surrounding regions.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
Therefore, Jesus and the disciples prayed that God would raise up laborers for the work of the Kingdom, and God answered them.
However, God suprised the.
God would use them to be the answer to their own prayers.
God appointed apostles from the very disciples that prayed for laborers to be sent out.
Jesus knew that the Father had plan to redeem the world.
He knew that He was instrumental to that plan, but He wanted to involve others in what God was busy doing.
Therefore, the apostles were appointed and invited to partake in God’s plan of redemption.
Once called and appointed, they needed instructions.
Jesus was follwoing the Father’s Will and schedule, and the order of events was just as important as the plan.
So Jesus gave them very spesific instructions.
Verse 5, tells us that the apostles were not to go to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans.
Verse 6, tells us that they were to go spesifically to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Verse 7, tells us the spesific message they were to preach, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”.
Verse 8, tells them to perform the miracle signs Jesus had given them the power to do.
Question: So why these spesific instructions?
Because Jesus knew that He had come both to redeem the world and to fulfill Old Testament prophecy.
He knew that in order for the Jews to identify Him as the Messiah, and not to mistake the Messiah for another person, spesific Messianic prophecies had to be fulfilled.
Isaiah 53, the predicted what would happen when the Messiah would come.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Here we see that when the Messiah came, He would come to the Jewish people at a time when they had gone astray, each one of them going his own way.
And that is exactly what happened here.
Jesus came to save His own people first, the Jews.
But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
Therefore, upon sending out the disciples, the disciples were instructed to preach the same message that Jesus did.
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The Jews needed to know that their Messiah had arrived.
And in order to affirm the message, that the Kingdom of God is at hand, and that the Messiah has arrived - God would confirm the message by signs and wonders.
However, Jesus knew that the Jewish people would reject Him.
Question: Why would God allow Jesus to be rejected by His own people?
God in His wisdom allowed the rejection of Jesus, because by their rejection of Jesus, it opened the door for God to invite the Gentiles, the Samaritans, and the rest of the world into to receive salvation in Christ.
Paul writes in Romans 1:16.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Acts 13:46 (NKJV)
Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first (the Jews); but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
Personal application:
The World might reject you, especially as a follower of Jesus.
But guess what? You are accepted in Christ. And that is the only acceptance you need.
Ephesians 1:6 (NKJV)
to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
And when you are rejected by the world, remember - those are exactly the type of people God chooses for the work of His Kingdom (1 Cor 1:26-29).
Provision for the journey:
Provision for the journey:
Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food.
Here we see Jesus providing spesific instructions for this spesific missionary journey.
Because this missionary journey would be relatively short, there would be no need to make provisions for a long trip.
Else where, in Luke 22:36, we see Jesus giving different instructions to his apostles.
Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.
However, for this particular mission trip - Jesus is inviting his disciples to be completely dependent on God to provide for their every need.
Question: Does this mean that people who do the work of the ministry should not get paid?
No.
Jesus makes it clear, that though they had freely received the gospel of the kingdom, they should never try make money off sharing the gospel.
However, as we see in verse 10-11, those who give themselves completely to the spreading of the gospel can expect to have their needs met through the charity of others in the body of Christ.
Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:4-14
1 Corinthians 9:4–14 (NKJV)
Do we have no right to eat and drink? Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?
Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?
Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel.
Dealing with responses:
Dealing with responses:
And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!
In verse 12, we see Jesus instructing the apostles to greet the household.
Question: Who here can tell me what the word “Shalom” means?
Shalom is a Hebrew Word, which means “Peace”.
Jewish people use the word “Shalom” as a way of greeting each other, especially in Israel.
This would have been the “greeting” that the apostles would have used to greet the Jewish people they were trying to reach with the message of the Kingdom.
Verse 13, tells us that the Jews would respond in one of two ways to their greeting and message:
The first group would respond positively:
They would invite them into their homes and accepted their message.
Those Jews, the apostles were to bless with their peace.
The second group would respond negatively:
They would reject the apostles and their message.
With those Jews, the apostles were instructed to let their peace return to them.
They were to depart from that house, and shake off the dust from their feet.
Question: Who can tell me what dusting off their feet symbolized?
Jews would dust off their feet when they returned to Israel from pagan countries.
By doing this it was a sign of contempt, meaning it was an expression of disliking or having a lack of respect for somone.
However, by the apostles dusting off their feet, it was an expression of coming judgement.
By the Jews rejecting this message of the Kingdom and their Messiah, the apostles marked them as not truly belonging to God’s people Israel.
Those who rejected the apostles, were utlimately rejecting Jesus and the judgement coming upon them would be worse that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? Because they had rejected the very person who was sent to save them, as Isaiah 53 tells us.
Conduct for the mission:
Conduct for the mission:
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Because some of the Jews would reject this message, it would invite persecution and hostility towards them.
Therefore, Jesus gives them spesific instructions on how to conduct themselves when that persecution comes.
They were expected to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Question: What does it mean to wise as a serpent, and gentle as a dove?
Wise as serpents:
Serpents are wise because they flee from danger.
Similiarly, Jesus disciples were expected to take action when this persecution comes.
The disciples were to act wisely, in avoiding attracting unnecessary attention and trouble to themselves.
Matthew 10:23 “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
This would also allow them to reach more people.
Innocent as doves:
The disciples were to remain gentle and innocent under persecution, meaning they had to avoid the temptation of retaliating with voilence, and taking revenge on those who hurt were persecuting them.
Jesus also made it clear from who they could expect persecution:
City councils
Synagogues.
The religious Jews would initiate the first anti-Christian persecution.
The Jews would complain to governors and kings about the Christians, because only Roman officials had to authority to order Christians to be executed/killed.
But what the Jews did not know, was that by bringing these Christians before the hightest levels of government they were given them the disciples to bear witness of Jesus to the Gentiles. Indirectly, advancing the gospel.
God was able to use what they meant for evil, for good.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Next week we will look more into the persecution of Christians. But today, lets close with this verse:
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer