Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

The Twelve Apostles

10 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. 2 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; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.

You received without paying; give without pay.

9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.

11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.

12 As you enter the house, greet it.

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 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.

15 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.

As we discussed last week Matthew is transitioning us, for a time at least, away from the ministry of Jesus, of what he taught and of what he did, to the commissioning of his twelve close disciples.

In fact, in Matthew’s gospel, this is the first time we’re introduced to a complete list of his inner circle.

In chapter 4 Matthew recorded for us how four of these twelve men had come to follow Jesus.

Those four men were Peter, Andrew, James and John.

And later in chapter 9 we saw Matthew, the tax collector, also heed Christ’s call to follow him.

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.

19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.

22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

And later in chapter 9 we read that,

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.”

And he rose and followed him.

So when we get to verse 1 of chapter 10 we’re introduced for the first time to the rest of Jesus’ close disciples.

Now, since most of us come to the book of Matthew with these disciples already in mind, we read all of these previous chapters assuming their presence all along.

In other words, we assume they’ve all been following Jesus up to this point in the story.

For instance, when we started Jesus’ sermon on the mount back in chapter 5 and we read that Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down with his disciples, we typically assume that these disciples were the same disciples we see listed here in chapter 10, and I suspect that we’re right to assume that at least some of them were, in fact, there.

But it’s important for us to remember that Matthew’s goal isn’t to write a strictly chronological narrative of Jesus’ life and ministry.

Instead Matthew’s point is to demonstrate to the Jewish people that through Jesus’ life and ministry, that Jesus is, without a shadow of a doubt, their promised Messiah.

So Matthew will often summarize events, and order events in a certain way so as to make his case to the reader.

Disciples and Apostles

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.”

And he rose and followed him.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

().

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Now let’s read again there starting in verse 1 together,

10 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.

10 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. 2 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; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

So up to this point these twelve men have been under the tutelage of Jesus.

They’ve tasted his teaching, they’ve observed his life, and they’ve witnessed his works, they’re learning what it looks like to follow Jesus as their rabbi (or teacher), but following Jesus will also mean that they’ll be his messengers - his apostles.

They’ll carry Jesus’ message of the kingdom, even after he’s gone, they’ll carry out his works, his entire ministry, they’ll be his witnesses.

And they’ll start by going to the lost sheep of Israel.

Delegated authority

The Greek word here in verse 2, translated ‘apostles’, is defined as those who carry with them not only a message, but as those who are authorized representatives of the sender, those whose words carry with them the authority of the sender.

That’s why Matthew says that when Jesus called to himself his twelve disciples that he gave them authority.

This is a recurring occurrence throughout the Gospels.

Mark says in chapter 6 of his gospel that “[Jesus] called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.”

And Luke says in chapter 9 of his gospel that [Jesus] called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.”

gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.

Therefore to reject Jesus’ apostles would be tantamount to rejecting Jesus himself.

It’s why Jesus can later say in verse 15,

15 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.

Therefore to reject Jesus’ apostles would be tantamount to rejecting Jesus himself.

It why later Jesus can say,

15 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.

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Twelve tribes of Israel

It’s also significant that Jesus has called to himself twelve close disciples.

There’s little doubt that Jesus’ selection of the twelve is symbolically related to the the twelve tribes of Israel, who, of course, came from Jacob’s twelve sons.

And some of Matthew’s readers may have even remembered that Moses also appointed twelve tribal leaders over Israel in the Book of Numbers.

Moreover, this symbolism is later affirmed in when Jesus says this to his disciples,

“Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Authority

So these twelve will carry with them the authority of Christ not only in this life but even, in some respects, into the next, into the age to come.

It’s Jesus’ divine authority that will back their proclamation of the gospel, and it’s Jesus’ divine authority that will give them power over unclean spirits and the power to heal the sick.

The same signs and wonders that accompany Jesus will also accompany his disciples.

The lost sheep of Israel

And so then he tells them to go to the lost sheep of Israel, we read there starting in verse 5,

5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.

Now, at first, it may seem strange to us as Gentile believers (that is believers who are not of Jewish descent) that Jesus explicitly tells his disciples not to go to the Gentiles, or to the Samaritans.

But as Gentile believers removed 2,000 years from Jesus’s life on earth, we have to understand that this a part of God’s overarching plan of salvation, that he would first come to his people, who are of the house of Israel, and that eventually, because of Israel’s large scale rejection of their Messiah, that God would later send his disciples to the Gentiles as well.

It’s why Paul says things like this in his letter to the church in Rome,’

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

And in the OT we see a frequent refrain that those who are not by nature God’s people will become his people.

In fact, Paul quotes from Hosea in Romans 9 and says,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’

and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’

”

26  “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

This is why Paul describes us Gentile believers as being grafted in.

We’re not some other group of people completely separate from the believing house of Israel, but rather Paul actually describes us as “the Israel of God.” () By faith we are grafted into the vine, who is Jesus himself.

So it should be of little to no surprise that, on the outset, Jesus is sending his disciples to the house of Israel, because Jesus is first and foremost Israel’s Messiah before he is ours.

Sent out

So Jesus sends his disciples out to to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom (or the good news of the kingdom) and for his mighty works to accompany them.

So their message is to be the good news of the kingdom and their works are to be the signs of that kingdom’s inauguration.

This is why Jesus says in to,

9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.

9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.

The miraculous works that would accompany the disciples would give immediate evidence to their hearers that the kingdom of heaven had come.

Give without pay

And at the end of verse 8 he tells them to do all of this without pay, for “you received without paying; give without pay.”

The disciples had received this good news of the kingdom freely, therefore they’re to give it to others freely.

They are not to peddle the gospel, they’re not to make money off the gospel, instead they’re to proclaim it freely and to rely upon God to feed them and to clothe them on their journey.

It’s why I think Jesus continues in verse 9 by saying,

9 Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.

11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.

We see this same idea played out in the early church when Paul refused to receive financial help from the church in Corinth, saying that he’d do whatever he had to do so as not put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.