Commissioning the Twelve

Matthew 10:1-15

a. Heal and meet the physical needs of the people (10:1-6)

b. Preach and meet the spiritual needs of the people (10:7-15)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. Heal and meet the physical needs of the people (10:1-6)

i. 10:1 starts with Jesus summoning, calling His twelve disciples and giving them authority over unclean spirits, specifically to cast them out and heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. This is congruent to Jesus’s ministry where we see in 4:23, and 9:35. As we have said previously, Jesus’s ministry entailed healing and preaching. This pattern of ministry would be no different for the disciples as they have been called to heal and preach the Gospel.

ii. But before we move on, I want to focus on this idea of being called to the ministry. We want to focus on 9:37-38. Jesus said to His disciples, that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. This statement helps us to recognize that the Gospel ministry requires a lot of work and the work is great, but those who do the work, there aren’t a lot of people who do the work.

iii. Many churches struggle with this and certainly, our church in some fashion struggles with this. When you do ministry, you recognize that a lot of work needs to be done, and sometimes it seems overwhelming and discouraging. But it’s important to recognize what Jesus is saying here. He is helping us to understand that there is a lot of work to be done. Also, not only is there a lot of work to be done, but the workers are few. There won’t be a lot of help when you do this.

iv. So what should we do? What do we usually do? The tendency is to complain and look to the right and look to the left. We burn out and we don’t want to do anymore work because we see other people who don’t help. Well, that is not the conclusion that Jesus gives us. Jesus tells us that the workers are few, so, beseech, plead and pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest.

v. Notice that the harvest, the work is His work, and plead to Him to send out workers into His harvest. This teaches us a vital lesson for how we should serve. When we become discouraged while we serve, the solution is not to quit, but to plead with God to send more workers to help take on the load. We should ask Him to send out workers.

vi. So when you think about this, what Jesus is telling us is, when you do ministry, ask the Lord to help us serve. Then we transition into 10:1 where Jesus summons His twelve. How does this all connect? Jesus just stated that the harvest is great but the workers are few. So we have the tendency to think, yeah, let God call others to do the work. But what does He do? He summons us. God is asking us to do the work which is why He calls His disciples. What we see from this text is that the work of ministry is not done by others, it’s done by us. He is calling us, individually to do the work of the ministry.

vii. We don’t serve to please men. This is not for me, or the pastor or even for the church. The reason we serve is to serve unto Christ. This is why in verse 38, it’s critical that we understand it is for His harvest. We are aiming not to please men, but to please God when we serve. This is why we don’t look to other men for motivation. We must work and pray to Him to help us serve Him. Our service in the church is to ultimately bring glory to Him.

viii. This is why this section is so important because it helps us to understand who we work for, but also, what work we are called to do. The work of the ministry is not to call others and we watch others do the work. No, we are called to work, and when we feel overwhelmed, we are called to pray asking the Lord for help to do the work. I don’t know if you remember Pastor Cho’s message from last week, but he mentioned that inorder for us to see growth in our lives, we must serve and stay at one place for a long time. That’s how we see growth. The average church member doesn’t grow in the church because they hop around. But real growth happens when we serve and we stick to something. Again, if we are to rephrase this, growth happens through adversity.

ix. Now moving forward, 10:2-4 helps us to see the 12 disciples and their names. This is the only time in Matthew where the twelve are described more technically as apostles. In Matthew 4:18, Jesus calls for His first disciples, but now, they have been mentioned as the apostles due to the fact that in verse 1, they have been given authority over every kind of disease and the ability to cast them out.

x. This is a significant shift in Jesus’s ministry as now, these twelve have been replicated to do the ministry that Jesus has been doing at this point.

xi. So here in verse 5, Jesus tells the twelve and instructs them before sending them out. Jesus tells them to not go to the Gentiles and not to enter any city of the Samaritans but to go to the lost sheep of Israel. How are we to understand this? Does this mean that the lost sheep of Israel are all believers? Well, if we read it for what it says, Jesus was telling His disciples to prioritize Israel. Matthew 1 tells us and shows us that Jesus is the son of Abraham. Why is this significant? Because of Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:1-3. All the nations will be blessed through Israel. This does not mean that God merits Abraham because He is Jewish, but rather, Israel is the people of God in which He made His covenant. Jesus’s statement here tells us that the foundational mission of God starts with Israel and through Israel, all the nations will be blessed.

xii. This is not to say that the gentiles will not be blessed. Again, we understand from Jesus’s closing statement in Matthew 28:19-20, that we are to go and make disciples of all nations. This includes Gentiles but up to this point, Jesus’s focus was around the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

xiii. This phrase, the lost sheep of Israel must also be taken in consideration. This refers back to 9:36 where it tells us that Jesus had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus was going through all the cities and villages and teaching in their synagogues which helps us understand that His ministry was for the house of Israel. It helps us to see that Jesus understood the Abrahamic Covenant which was His focus.

b. Preach and meet the spiritual needs of the people (10:7-15)

i. 10:7 tells us that when you go to the lost sheep of Israel, you are to preach. The phrase, as you go helps us to understand that this will be itinerant preaching and not a settled ministry in one place, but rather, they will be travelling. So what is the content of their preaching? It is the kingdom. I have come to believe that the main theme throughout Matthew and even the whole Bible is centered on this topic. If we understand that the Bible is primarily about the kingdom and the King, then it helps us understand better what the purposes of God is.

ii. We see that the disciples preaching is exactly the same as John the Baptist (Matt 3:2), and also with Jesus (4:17). The kingdom is at hand because entrance to the kingdom, is through the king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the disciples and Jesus preached, repent for the kingdom of God is near. But not only preach, but again, verse 8, heal raise the dead. Jesus adds, freely you received, therefore freely give. This helps us understand that we are to give without cost because it is a gift. This helps us understand the idea that the gift of salvation is free, because it was given to us as a gift. In the same way, the disciples were called to heal for free to help others understand they did nothing to receive this gift, but that it is wholly a gift of God.

iii. This idea of freely giving and receiving lays the foundation for 10:9-12. Jesus tells His apostles that they are not to receive funds for their services. The instruction here is to travel light. The instruction outlines the fact that the disciples are not to seek the things of the world, but trust that God will provide exactly what they need. The apostles would learn an important lesson that they must place practical trust in God’s provision. Jesus is not telling them to receive no support. No, they are to receive support for what they will need, not what they want. Jesus is teaching His disciples that the message of the kingdom is not for sale, it is not something you could purchase, but it is to be received freely.

iv. Verse 11-13 help us to understand that the homes that are worthy are the homes that receive the word and desire to help the disciples. These homes would be the homes that God would use to support the disciples. They would therefore be called to preach to the people, and through this preaching, this would be the means in which they would receive support. Again, the purpose of this mission was for the disciples first hand to see God at work.

v. This is significant for us to understand because this lesson is exactly the same as us. Serving Christ is the means in which we see first hand how God is working in us. But more importantly, serving Christ helps us to change our viewpoint from seeking to glorify ourselves to glorifying Christ. This is how we see God changing us. God changes us by causing us to try to love others above ourselves.

vi. Sometimes, we serve and face hardship and are discouraged. But as we keep continuing to serve and do the work of the ministry, we see how God is working in our lives. Again, the work of the ministry is not easy. Serving at church is not easy. It was never meant to be easy. But adversity, is the means in which God works and reveals Himself to us. We should not think that serving in church is supposed to be easy. Jesus served us by dying on the cross. If Christ suffered, we should understand that service unto Christ will be the same. We must learn to die to self and learn to serve others because of our love for Christ.

vii. Jesus closes out this section by telling us that if there are those that don’t receive you or your words, let judgment fall on them. It’s easy to mistaken this verse because Jesus told us to be compassionate. But what Jesus is telling us here is, those who mock the Gospel, let judgment fall on them. It’s a totally different scenario if someone struggles to believe the kingdom message. But it’s another thing to mock the message. We must help people understand the severity of their rejection. This is not easy to do, but rejection helps us understand how precious it is when someone does receive it.

3. CONCLUSION