SENT WITH A PURPOSE

Introduction

{Matthew 10}

The movie entitled The Inn of the Sixth Happiness tells the true story of Gladys Aylward—a British parlor maid in the early 20th century who felt a call from God to be a missionary in China. When she applied to the various missionary societies she was rejected because of her lack of formal education. Nevertheless, she knew she was sent, so with very little money she used her life savings to buy a one-way train ticket across Siberia into a war-torn region of China.

She arrived in China with little money and no missionary backing, yet God used her to reach countless people for Christ. She may not have known much else, but she knew she had been sent.

And if you are a disciple of Jesus, you too are sent. Maybe not to a foreign country, but as we learn today: you are sent with a ministry to perform and a message to proclaim. I want us to view ourselves in that light as we read:

Matthew 10:1–15 LSB

1 And summoning His twelve disciples, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. 2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them, saying, “Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 9 “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10 or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. 11 “And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay there until you leave. 12 “Now as you enter the house, give it your greeting. 13 “And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 “And whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you leave that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 “Truly 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.

{pray}

In the passage preceding this one, Jesus had been travelling through the villages preaching the Kingdom of God. He observed that the people were like sheep without a shepherd—their leaders were not guiding them to God or His Messiah. So, Jesus tells His disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, so they are to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out workers. But now came the time for them to be the answer to that prayer—Jesus sent them out with a ministry and a message, and He does the same to us. What do we learn about our being sent?

1) Jesus has prepared you for this time (vv. 1-4)

In vv. 1-4 Jesus sends the 12 apostles to go to various villages and cities to preach that the Kingdom of God has come through Jesus, calling people to believe in Him. It says that Jesus gave them authority—readying them to be sent. But this wasn’t some sudden decision that had been made. Up to this point, Jesus had been training them, teaching them—He was discipling them, preparing them to expand the ministry that He had begun.

By this point the disciples had spent months learning from Jesus. They had heard His teaching, watched His miracles, and observed His ministry. Before Jesus sent them, He prepared them. The apostles may have had a special calling to be the foundation of the coming church, but first and foremost they were disciples (followers who are committed to the life and teachings of Jesus). A disciple learns by being with the Master, and conforms themselves to what they learn. And all believers in Jesus are disciples.

Disciples learn so that they go out and do the same things as their Master. Jesus ministered to people so they would be open to the gospel (that Jesus came to save people and make them part of God’s Kingdom). Discipleship is preparation to go out and do what Jesus did. So, what you learn from your Bible reading, or at church, or your small groups, or your life experiences, are given to you by Jesus to prepare you to live a life as one sent.

Think of the roadmap that it takes to become an electrician (or any sort of trade). No one hands a person a set of electrical tools and says, "Go wire a house." First you go to a trade school to learn the foundational knowledge. Then you become an apprentice, following a licensed electrician to see how it actually works on the job. And the process continues from there. But it involves a period of learning at the feet of others so then you go out and do it yourself.

And Jesus has prepared you as a disciple. So, see your life and church and Bible reading as Jesus’ trade school, getting you ready for your sending. And in being sent, the next lesson is that:

2) Jesus has placed you in your assignment (vv. 5-6)

In vv. 5-6 Jesus started His instructions by telling them where to go (and not go). At this time they were not to go to the Gentiles nor to the Samaritans. They were to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus Himself said in Matthew 15:24 that He was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. This was not permanent exclusion, but strategic priority. It aligns with the Old Testament covenant pattern—God promised Abraham that through his seed “all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” making Israel the vehicle through which salvation would reach all of humanity; fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Here, in our passage, the apostles were being commissioned for a limited, preliminary task before the resurrection transformed the scope of their work—expanding it over the globe. Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that the Holy Spirit would empower them to be witnesses for Jesus, first to Jerusalem, and then Judea, and then to Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. And this is exactly how it played out.

But at the passage’s point of the mission, Jesus told the apostles that this is where He was placing them to fulfill their calling. And what we learn from this is that not only does Jesus prepare you to be sent, He places you where He wants to send you.

None of us can obviously go everywhere and reach everybody. It is physically impossible for me to reach people in Alabama and in Chili and in Japan and in Canada all at once. So, knowing that God is sovereign, I know that He will put me where He wants to send me. And that means that wherever God has me, that is where God wants me to minister and share the message. So, for example, God has placed us in Alabama for this season of our lives. Therefore Alabama is our mission field until God directs otherwise.

I want you to think about Queen Esther. When she found herself in the Persian palace, she probably never could have imagined that God had sent her there for a purpose—to save her own people from destruction. Yet Mordecai reminded her: Who knows whether you have attained royalty for such a time as this? Esther’s location wasn’t accidental, it was providential.

And like Esther, we may not know why we are where we are, but we often discover that God has placed us exactly where He wants us to accomplish His purposes. So, don’t think you can’t be used where you’re at or that there has to be something better. God has you in your place in this season of your life for a great work.

And I want that to be an encouragement for our older members and friends. There are some of our folks who because of health reasons are not able to get out like they used to. That doesn’t mean that your sending has been revoked. God has you in the place that He wants you for now. It might be so that you can call people or write letters to be an encouragement to those who need it. It might be so you can be a prayer warrior for God’s Kingdom. Even if stuck at home, you are sent.

But, not only does God determine our assignment, He defines our responsibility. He not only places us somewhere; He gives us something to say and something to do. So, in our third lesson, we see:

3) Jesus has presented your marching orders (vv. 7-8)

In vv. 7-8 Jesus gave His apostles their marching orders for what they were to do when they were sent. First, they were told to preach that THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. Jesus told them to share the message that signified God’s reign in human hearts. And when Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," He meant that God's promised King had arrived. The rule of God was breaking into history through the person of Jesus Christ.

And this fact demanded an immediate response while pointing toward its ultimate, future consummation. Jesus is God the Son (the King of the Kingdom) who became human in order to call people to faith in Himself. He died to forgive sins so that people could become a child of God and place themselves under His headship. Jesus rose again to prove He was who He said He was and what He did was acceptable. And all who believe in Jesus are ushered into His Kingdom, with God ruling and reigning in their hearts through the Holy Spirit.

But then in v. 8 they were told to do this ministry just as Jesus had done. This served several purposes. The apostles’ mission emphasized healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers, and exorcising demons—focusing on alleviating suffering. Their work served as a sign of what the kingdom would look like when it would be fully established: a world without suffering and death, where evil no longer dominates from outside.

But this ministry also gave them an inroads into the hearts and lives of people, opening them up to hearing the message. This was no bargaining chip where they would only minister if the people would first hear or accept the message. But ministering to the people opened doors for the message.

Now, we won’t minister in the same way as the apostles—healing people or casting out demons. But we can help people at their point of need. However, it doesn’t stop there. Any ministry that a Christian does is good, but it needs to be coupled with the message. If we minister to a body without also ministering to the soul, we leave people in the same spiritual shape that they have always been. We do what we do to help people so that they can hear the glorious good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ—that Jesus came to save them.

Helping someone with physical needs without sharing the gospel is like rescuing a drowning person from a stormy sea, pulling them safely onto your boat, but then you abandon the boat and leave them floating adrift in the middle of the sea to merely starve to death without food or water. If we meet physical needs but never point people to Christ, we may improve their circumstances while leaving them spiritually lost.

And so these are the marching orders: we help people, but we do so in order to really help them with the gospel message. And we are able to do this because of the fourth lesson from our passage, where we see that:

4) Jesus has provided for your every need (vv. 9-10)

In vv. 9-10 Jesus tells the apostles not to take various items for their care, because God would provide what they need when they need it—using the generosity of those to whom they minister. This was not a call to some sort of asceticism where they were to live like hermits in a cave—it was a call to trust God.

Jesus wasn’t stripping them of the fulfillment of earthly and bodily needs—Jesus was stripping them of their self-reliance, teaching them to rely on God for everything. They couldn’t fall back on personal resources—they couldn’t rely on self at all. They would trust that God would provide what they need, when they needed it, and they wouldn’t allow themselves to get in the way.

Our society is built on using our own power and ingenuity in order to accomplish our dreams and goals. We believe that we know best about what to do and how to do it because we’re supposedly smart, we have all these tools, and we end up getting in the way of what God wants to do.

There is a biblical principle that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and God’s ways are not our ways. He wants His mission done His way, and sometimes it doesn’t make sense according to human, earthly wisdom. So, instead of thinking we know better than God, it is just best from the beginning to trust and rely that God will lead, guide, and provide to accomplish what He sent for us to accomplish.

If we as individuals, or even as a church, depend on being flashy and think that we can pull people toward Christ through showmanship and worldly means, it quenches the Spirit and kills our witness. But if we rely on God’s provision to minister and share the message, we also have His power behind what we are doing.

It makes me think of a young child who is walking through a crowded place. He doesn’t know where he is going. He doesn’t understand the route or the destination. Yet he walks confidently because he is holding his father’s hand. The child’s confidence is not his own ability but in the one leading him.

So, even if you don’t know every detail about what God will do or give in your sending, trust His provision more than your own planning. And when you do, you leave the results to Him, as we learn in our final lesson that:

5) Jesus has planned your response to results (vv. 11-15)

In vv. 11-15 Jesus tells His disciples that when they go to a city, find a place to stay. It was normal hospitality in those days to bring a traveler to your home to spend the night. The apostles were to rely upon that and then to fulfill the mission to which God had sent them.

And Jesus tells them how to react depending on how people respond to their mission. There are those who would be worthy, not meaning personally righteous but the fact that they positively responded to the ministry and message of the apostles. These people were to have the apostle’s blessing of peace/shalom/well-being placed upon them.

But then there were those who would not receive the message. If that were the case, they were to shake the dust off of their feet, which Mark and Luke say is a testimony against them. This was a symbolic action that represented a formal severance of relationship and a declaration of judgment. Those who rejected Christ and His kingdom bore responsibility for that rejection, because they now were rejected by God.

And rejecting Jesus is so bad that He says it would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city and for those people. Sodom and Gomorrah were the epitome of vileness and depravity. The cities rejecting the apostles were given unprecedented revelation and they witnessed divine power firsthand, which makes their refusal a deliberate turning away from the fullest expression of God’s truth.

But notice that all the apostles were to do was to shake the dust off their feet. They weren’t supposed to argue with them. They weren’t supposed to curse them. They shook the dust off of their feet and moved on.

This is a reminder to us that we are not responsible for the reaction or reception to our ministry and message. We are responsible for going where we are sent and doing what God has equipped us to do. If we faithfully execute God’s calling, then the response of the hearer is completely on them. If they refuse the gracious gift of Christ, we merely shake the dust off our feet and move on.

Think of it this way. A farmer cannot make a seed germinate. He can prepare soil, plant at the right time, water, and remove weeds. But the life inside the seed is not his to command. Like the disciples we are responsible for delivering Christ's message—we can plant the seed and water it. But we can’t make it grow. We are not responsible for controlling people's reactions to it.

Success in God's kingdom is not measured by results but by faithfulness. Our job is to deliver the message. God's job is to change hearts.

Conclusion

That’s what Gladys Aylward did. She boarded a train for China with little money, no missionary society behind her, and no guarantee of success. What she did have was the conviction that God had sent her. And because she knew she was sent, she went.

Jesus prepared His disciples, placed them in their assignment, gave them their marching orders, promised His provision, and told them how to handle the results. In other words, He took care of everything they needed to fulfill their mission. The same is true for us.

You may never cross an ocean like Gladys Aylward. You may never preach to thousands. But if you belong to Jesus Christ, you have been sent. You have been sent into your family, your workplace, your neighborhood, your school, your circle of friends, and your community with a ministry to perform and a message to proclaim.

So stop waiting for a different assignment. Stop waiting until you feel more qualified. Stop waiting for the perfect opportunity. The question is not whether Jesus has sent you. The question is whether you will go. Christian, come to the altar and ask God for the courage to go where you’ve been sent.

I also want you to consider that in this passage we've seen that people respond to Jesus in different ways. Some receive Him; some reject Him. The same choice is before you today. Christ died for sinners and rose again. The kingdom message has come to you—in Christ it has drawn near. Don’t be like those cities that rejected the apostles and remained under judgment. Turn from your sin and trust in Christ today.