Sent by Jesus

Well, good morning.

It's great to be with all of you again as we open up God's Word together.

And if you're a guest, my name is Stefan. I am the pastor of preaching here at Harvest Bible Church.

And last week, we finished up Matthew 9.

And I mentioned last week, the end of chapter 9 marks a major turning point in the Gospel.

For the first 9 chapters, Matthew has been showing us who Jesus is and what Jesus’ mission is all about.

But then at the end of Matthew 9, Jesus moves from showing us who he is to inviting us to participate in his mission with him.

And the first step in participating in that mission, Jesus tells us, is to pray for the mission

Because the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

And once we have taken the first step to pray for the mission, the second step is to go, being sent by Jesus on his mission.

And Matthew 10 is a long explanation of what it looks like to be sent by Jesus on his mission

So would you turn to Matthew 10

I think that for a lot of us, when we talk about the mission of Jesus…

Seeing people come to saving faith

Making disciples

Reaching the lost…

Our first reaction is something like, “I'm not equipped for that” or “I don’t have the skills for that…”

And so then we push back on the idea of being sent by Jesus because we think, “I can’t do that!”

But over the next few weeks, Matthew is going to show us that being equipped for Jesus' mission isn't about having the right skill set.

It's about depending on what Jesus will provide

And if we are going to be a church that is faithful to the mission of Jesus as his people, we don’t need the right skills, we need to depend on the one who sends us

And Jesus is going to tell us exactly what that looks like in v. 1-15

So let's give these words our full attention

Matthew 10:1–15 “And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. 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 Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”

These are God’s words for us as his people - May we have ears to hear them and hearts to obey them.

Big Idea: Jesus sends us with all that we need for the mission. [5:00]

Now if you've been around harvest for any length of time, you've heard me define what God's mission is in the world.

And as a quick review for those who have been around and to catch you up if you haven't heard this definition before, God's mission has been the same since the very beginning:

God's mission is to assemble a people in his presence who reflect Him to the ends of the earth for His glory. [REPEAT]

That has been God’s singular mission throughout all time… It has take multiple forms, but the function has always been the same.

He wasn’t doing one thing in the Old Testament and then changed course with Jesus in the New Testament…

All of the Old Testament was pointing ahead to when Jesus would come… so now that Jesus has come

what he is doing is fulfilling and continuing what God was always doing.

So we need to see Jesus' words here in Matthew 10 as a continuation God’s singular mission, from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

So… it shouldn't be lost on us, that when Jesus begins to send his followers into the mission, he sends 12.

That is not random.

It is on purpose

Just as there were 12 Tribes of Israel assembled in God's presence to represent him to the nations, now there are 12 disciples who are assembled in the presence of Jesus to represent him to the nations.

That continuity shows us that God’s mission has not changed… It is being continued by Christ

And so as the church, those who are assembled in the name of Christ, our mission today is the same:

To be sent out by Jesus as his representatives into the world

As God continues to assemble a people in his presence who reflect him to the ends of the earth for his glory.

And the encouraging truth from this text is that when Jesus sends us as His representatives, he sends us with everything that we need for that mission.

[Bridge Question] What do we need?

And so we're going to see four specific things that we need for Jesus’ mission - And they are four things he provides…

So we'll say “Jesus sends us”, and then we'll see these four things that he provides… so first…

Jesus sends us…

With His authority… (1-7) [9:00]

Notice first in v. 1

Matthew 10:1 “And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority…”

I want you to notice that it says that Jesus gave them authority, so they did not have authority in and of themselves.

It's something Jesus gave them.

This is what we call delegated authority.

The authority belongs to Jesus and to Jesus alone, but he extends his authority to those who will represent Him as they go out.

This is a key point that we cannot miss.

Those who belong to Jesus don't get their own mission according to their own desires and their own ideas.

If we do that, we will have mission drift: Drifting away from the mission of Christ toward other pursuits that have nothing to do with God’s mission in the world.

Instead, when we recognize that Jesus sends us with his authority, we are constrained by his authority to only pursue the mission that he gave us.

And because Jesus provides the authority that we need, we can do our part in his mission…

Jesus sends us with his authority… 

… so we can continue his mission

It is all too common today to go to a church and to have something that you’re passionate about and so you go to that church and you ask “is this church about my thing?”

“Are they passionate about the same thing that I’m passionate about? If they are, then I’ll be here because they’re passionate about what I’m passionate about.”

“And I’ll stay here as long as they’re about my thing but as soon as they’re not about my thing, I’m gone…”

Well, at Harvest Bible Church we’re passionate about one thing: What Jesus is passionate about

Harvest Bible Church's purpose statement is not something we came up with.

It's something that Jesus himself said in Matthew 28 and in Acts 1:

“We exist as a church to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission.”

Because that’s Jesus mission

So the question now is, “How can we know we haven’t drifted to another mission?”

And in v. 1-7, Jesus gives us four marks of a church is continuing his mission:

Four “Mission markers” if you will, so if you are taking notes, write these down…

First…

We submit to what he wants

In v. 2-4, Matthew lists out the names of all the disciples… But I want to just point something out that would be very easy to miss.

These men are very different from one another.

You have people with different preferences and opinions.

But the most obvious thing in this list of names is you have Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot.

A tax collector was someone who turned on his own people, collecting taxes for the Roman government and profiting from the oppression of the Jewish people.

A zealot, on the other hand, was a militant rebel who despised Rome.

So one served the empire as a traitor and the other sought to destroy it as an anarchist.

You thought Thanksgiving was going to be awkward because you have Republicans and Democrats in your family?

You think that’s awkward?

This was awkward…

Yet Jesus calls them both to follow Him together on his mission.

And we should be asking, “How could that even work?”

It's because the mission begins with submission to Jesus.

Too many Christians today think that agreement on everything is required before we can work together on the mission

And if we disagree on anything, then we can’t be unified.

But when we submit together with what Jesus wants, his desires become ours, and then we can be unified in continuing his mission.

The second marker that we are continuing his mission…

We do what he did

Matthew 10:1 “…gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.”

Those are things that Jesus has already been doing in ch. 1-9.

And so he's not calling his disciples to do something wildly different from him. 

He is calling them to follow his example.

As a church, we should be asking, “What did Jesus’ ministry look like?”

Therefore, what does Jesus call us to do as we continue his mission?

Did he preach the truth? Yes, therefore so must we

Did he care for those in need? Yes, therefore so must we

Did he look after those who were neglected? Yes, therefore so must we

When we are doing things that Jesus never did, we are likely off mission.

But we can know we are continuing his mission when our church is a reflection of Jesus’ ministry

Third, we can know we are continuing his mission when…

We go where he directs

Matthew 10:5–6 “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Jesus is prioritizing the people of Israel in the mission he's giving his disciples.

And there are two reasons why:

First, God promised that the savior of the world would come first to the people of Israel

Therefore, the mission begins where the savior arrives

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, and now ministers in Israel as a fulfillment of all of the promises that the Savior would first come to Israel

The second reason why Jesus instructs his disciples to start with Israel is because the biblical pattern is that the mission starts where God has placed you

So Jesus is telling his disciples, “the mission begins here and so you ought to be faithful here”

But it won’t end there

Though Jesus is telling his disciples to begin where he has them, they will ultimately go out from there as the mission spreads

At the end of Matthew, Jesus will tell them to go to all the nations

And when he sends them out and acts chapter 1, he says that they will go to “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth”

And so for us as a church in 2025, we need to ask the question: Where has God placed us? And what does it look like to be faithful here first?

God has placed us in this time, with these people, in this place

God has placed you in that home with that family, so the mission begins there

When you are discipling your family toward following Jesus, you are participating in the mission of Jesus

And faithfulness in your home will then lead to faithfulness in your neighborhood

God has placed you in that neighborhood with those neighbors

When you are an example of the gospel of Jesus and when you are a voice of the truth of Jesus in your neighborhood, you are participating in the mission of Jesus

And we go out from there to our community, our city, and our world.

Continuing his mission means that we go where he tells us, and that starts with us being faithful where he has put us

So church: What does it look like to be faithful to the mission of Jesus where he has placed you today?

And the last way that we can know that we're continuing Jesus’ mission

We say what he said

Look at v. 7

Matthew 10:7 “And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

That is the same message that Jesus himself preached.

We don't have a new message.

We don't need to clean up Jesus' words.

We don't need to change what God's Word says

Jesus has already spoken - And what he has said is the message we proclaim.

Our job is to point people to how to be made right with God through Jesus Christ so that they can live for God’s kingdom, rather than their own.

If we proclaim a message that does not point people toward God’s kingdom, we are off mission

But we can know we are continuing his mission when we simply proclaim the same message that Jesus himself proclaimed.

Jesus sends us with His authority… so we continue his mission.

Next thing Jesus sends us with…

Jesus sends us with…

With His grace… (8) [21:00]

Now, when we talk about grace, we often define it with synonyms.

Grace is a gift

Grace is favor

Okay, yes, those are synonyms for the word “Grace”, but, but that's not quite enough to have a definition of what that grace looks like.

What is the grace of God?

What is the gift that God gives us?

What does the favor God show us actually look like?

And when we look in Scripture, the image that we're given is that the grace of God is God giving of himself to us.

Grace is the self-giving of God

The grace of God is that He bestows His presence and his blessing and His goodness on people who don't deserve it.

And when we're sent on the mission of Jesus, we are sent with that same grace:

Jesus gives himself to us so that we can carry on the mission that he's placed before us.

Look at verse 8.

“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.”

I have already mentioned that these are all things that Jesus has already been doing,

but the emphasis here is that the disciples ability to do them is because Jesus gave it to them

So the fact that they can do it is not because of something special in them, but because Jesus willingly, freely, favorably gifted to them his authority and power.

Paul gives us the same idea in 1 Corinthians 12:11 “All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

So in other words, the Spirit of God decides how it is that his people in the church are going to be gifted for the mission of God

and He gives them those gifts accordingly, and he gives them of himself

That means that every spiritual gift, every ability, every opportunity we have, is a gift of grace.

It is God saying “I'm giving of myself to you… so that you have what you need… to do what I've called you to do.”

Now, notice what Jesus says: “you received without paying”

You didn't earn this.

You didn't work for it.

You didn't deserve it.

“Everything you've received is because I've given of myself to you.”

Jesus sends us with his grace…

… So we can give freely

“You received without paying… give without pay.”

If you follow Jesus by faith, you are a walking demonstration of God's grace, that when you and I were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive together in Christ Jesus

We didn’t earn it

It is by his grace that we are saved, through faith…

And so if I have been shown that grace, I can then look around as ask, “Who in my life needs that same grace like I did?”

I want us to just pause for a moment and think about something…

We live in a world that says “I will only give to you if you deserve it”

Our society is constantly saying who is valuable and who isn’t…

And if you are on the wrong side, you are not worthy or deserving of anything.

But the message that we have as a people who have been shown grace is:

“There is a God who freely gives of himself, even though we don’t deserve it.”

And because we are a people to whom God has given without paying, we should absolutely be a people who extend that same grace to the world around us.

When the message of the world is crushing and the grace of God is life-giving, and I see the world crushing that person who God has placed in my life… what do they need?

The grace of God… and you are just the person to point them to his grace.

Jesus sends us with his grace, so we can give it freely.

The third thing we need that Jesus provides

Jesus sends us…

With His provision… (9-11) [27:00]

Something that’s true for most of us is that we like to be in control.

We don’t like to not know things

Uncertainty brings anxiety, and knowing brings the feeling of control

I don’t know if you’re like me, but when I go to the airport, I have to make sure my gate actually exists before I do anything else.

I’ll walk all the way there, find “C7,” nod to myself — “yep, it’s real” — and then I can go get coffee. Why? Because not knowing where it is makes me uneasy when I travel.

Knowing where my gate is just gives me a sense that I am in control of this trip.

And listen… we all have ways we try to make sure the details are handled so that we can feel like we are in control.

But in verses 9–11, Jesus gives instructions that would leave the disciples completely out of control

Matthew 10:9–11 “Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.”

Let’s just pause and picture this.

No money. No supplies. No idea where they’ll stay.

Imagine someone saying, “Hey, let’s take a trip. I haven’t picked the city, we’re not bringing food, clothes, or money, and we’ll figure out lodging when we get there.”

Now, maybe a few of you are thinking, “That sounds amazing!” — and if that’s you, I’d like to talk to you about global missions…

But for the rest of us, we want the details before we commit to the plan because knowing feels safer.

But I want you to notice, by instructing them in this way, Jesus is teaching two very important truths…

1. God provides for our needs when we live on His mission.

God doesn’t call us to live for His mission and then leave us to figure out how to make it work.

He provides what is needed for what He commands.

He gives His Spirit to lead us, His gifting to equip us, and His resources to sustain us.

This is why Hudson Tylor, the first missionary to inland China wrote: “God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.”

When we are sent by Jesus, focused on His mission and not our own, He will provide what is needed to sustain us in that mission

… even when we don’t know how

But the second thing that Jesus is teaching the disciples is that

2. God provides for His people through His people.

The disciples will get their lodging, food, and other things from the people they encounter.

Listen to me: The way God provides is most often through the generosity and obedience of His people.

There are some of you in this room who you will obey God to be on his mission by getting on a plane and flying to the other side of the world, or by doing work in the inner city, where there is so much great need…

And you don't have a lot of money, but you have the call and you have the desire, and you have the zeal, and you are ready to go.

And there are others of you in here who say, “Listen, I don't feel called, but God has given me financial and material means.”

I just want you to see how these two things come together:

The one who's going to get on the plane is praying that God would provide

and the one who has the money is God's answer to that prayer

and you're both sitting in this room right now.

Because God uses his people to provide for his people on the mission.

Jesus sends us with his provision…

… So we can depend on him

Too often we obsess over the logistics to the point where we lose sight of the mission itself.

We give in to something called “The tyranny of the how.”

How are we going to do that?

How are we going to afford that?

How are we going to make that happen?

How are we going to get all these people?

The endless questions of how cause us to stay put.

But when you and I recognize that Jesus sends us with His provision, we do not have to succumb to the tyranny of the how.

We can instead go headlong into the hope of the mission knowing that God will take care of the how.

So here's my question for us as a church: Are we willing to pursue the mission of God depending on him to provide? Or are we going to let the questions of “how” keep us from moving forward on mission?

Harvest, I believe that God is calling us in the very near future to be far more active in our community than we currently are.

I believe that God is calling us in the very near future to send people out to start new churches and to bring new life to dying churches.

I believe that God wants us as a church to participate more in reaching the lost across our city and across our world

I believe that God will use us to be a part of seeing unreached people groups be reached with the gospel.

And you know what will stop us from doing any of that?

Asking the question, "How will we ever do that?”

No, we need to say: “God is calling us to do it, and though we have no idea how he's going to provide for that, we trust that he will, and it will be through his people that he will provide what we need

So may our prayer be

“God lead us where you want us to go, to do what you've called us to do, to say what you've called us to say and help us to trust that because you're sending us, you'll provide… and so we'll depend on you.”

So, those are the first three things we need that Jesus provides…

Finally, Jesus sends us…

With His peace… (12-15) [35:00]

Jesus now tells the disciples what kinds of responses they should anticipate as they go out…

Matthew 10:12–13 “As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.”

That word “worthy” doesn’t mean deserving—it means receptive.

Jesus is saying, “Offer the gospel freely, but focus your energy where people are open to it.”

When He says, “Let your peace rest upon it,” He isn’t talking about casual greetings.

He’s saying, “As My representatives, you carry the message of the peace of God’s kingdom.”

In Hebrew thought, peace—shalom—means “things are the way they’re supposed to be.”

And things are only the way they’re supposed to be when we are right with God.

So Jesus is telling His disciples

“As you go, offer the message of peace with God.

Stay where it’s received. Move on when it’s rejected.”

You have the message of peace, so be at peace with God, regardless of how others respond.

If someone embraces the message of the kingdom, it isn’t because you did such a great job

When someone rejects the message of the kingdom, it isn’t because you failed and sharing the gospel

It’s the message of God’s kingdom, you are simply a steward of it

So focus when people are open

Move on when people reject it

And since he sends us with his peace

… we can trust him (regardless of how people respond)

Look at v. 14-15

Matthew 10:14–15 “And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”

Why will it be worse for those towns than for Sodom and Gomorrah, those towns in Genesis that were destroyed because of their sin?

Because Sodom and Gomorrah never heard the gospel—these towns did.

And Jesus is saying, there is judgment for all who love their sin,

but there is greater judgment for those who hear the truth of the kingdom of God and still choose their sin.

So what’s His point?

You bring the message—let God handle the response.

Some will believe it.

Some will reject it.

But we can have peace knowing that their response is not our responsibility.

Our responsibility is to make sure we don’t resemble those who reject the message.

That’s why Jesus says, “Shake the dust off your feet.”

To “shake off the dust” means to say, “I won’t let any part of this place cling to me, because it rejected the truth of the Gospel.”

There’s no biblical command or expectation to stay where the gospel is unwanted.

We are called to go where it’s needed and stay where it’s received.

So may we be a church that looks for people eager to hear the gospel.

May we put down roots where the gospel is embraced.

And may we trust God with the outcomes—because saving and judging are His work, not ours.

It isn’t up to you and me to save.

It isn’t up to you and me to judge.

It’s up to you and me to go.

We go with the message of peace with God,

and we trust Him with both the acceptance and the rejection of that message—

because judgment belongs to God alone, and salvation belongs to Him too.

[CONCLUSION]

These disciples were sent on the mission by Jesus

We are a part of the same mission, and so we must see ourselves as his people, sent by him for his mission.

But we will have what we need

When Jesus sends us with His authority, we continue His mission.

When He sends us with His grace, we give freely.

When He sends us with His provision, we learn to depend on Him.

And when He sends us with His peace, we learn to trust Him with the results.

Because Jesus sends us with all that we need for the mission.

May we be a church that is always pursuing his mission.

Amen.

[41:00]