Sermon Tone Analysis

As You Are Going, Preach

The title of the message.

Introduction - The Will of the Father

We will begin in Matthew 9:35-38

We begin with this phrase, “As Jesus was going ...”.

Jesus had a mission and he was fulfilling it.

Jesus has been teaching and preaching and healing.

He did these things to demonstrate the will of God the Father.

Crowds of people were following Jesus.

These crowds of people came to him with their needs.

And Jesus healed them all without any judgment of whether they were clean or unclean.

Jesus Had Compassion

As Jesus looked at the crowds, there were so many, he recognized the limitations of his own human flesh.

He couldn’t be everywhere at once.

He couldn’t reach all of the people that had needs.

And when he saw them, he had compassion for them in

His compassion motivated him.

His compassion caused him to speak to his disciples.

But he didn’t just give them a command and tell them to go and get to work.

Jesus Asks For Help

Jesus told them to “ask the Lord of the harvest that he send out workers” in

When we read these words, we may put our religious training to work and say Jesus was only talking about eternal salvation.

He was “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom”

And he was also “healing every disease and every sickness”

And what he saw when he looked at the crowds was that people were “weary and dejected” with no leader, shepherd, hope.

The harvest is to bring people into the kingdom

And, it is also to free them from disease

And it is to give them hope and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It is to renew their passion and desire for living and to kindle in them love for God and each other.

Jesus Commission His Disciples

Matthew 10:1–15

The twelve disciples have been following Jesus and now he calls them together and delegates authority to them in

Jesus commissioned his disciples and sent them out to do the same work He had been doing in

first to tell his disciples to pray

but prayer alone is not enough, Jesus also commissions them to go

Where to Go

They were not to go to those that had other gods or that had other ways of worship as the Samaritans did.

Jesus told them who to go to, “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” in

I want to pause here, because what we have read until now is simply history.

This is what Jesus commissioned his disciples to do.

The thing is, Jesus used this verse, a quote from the old testament, to commission them

Lets read what is says in

Jesus is using the words they would have found in their Septuagint in

“My people have become lost sheep.

Their shepherds have thrust them out.

They have led them astray upon the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill.

They have forgotten their bed.

LES

But this is about the time when Israel is taken captive to Babylon.

That happened 600 years before this.

The spiritual condition of the people now is the same as it had been then.

And, just as Jesus was moved by compassion for the lost sheep in his day, he is moved by compassion for the lost today.

What to Say

Jesus told them what message to carry: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ in

This was not just about repentance and water baptism as John the Baptist had prepared people.

What To Do

Jesus told them what to do for the people.

Jesus told his disciples in

Jesus sent his disciple with his anointing, with his message from

When Jesus read this passage, quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2, he left off the last line.

The original old testament quote is

The part he left off was “our God’s day of vengeance, to comfort all those in mourning”.

God’ day of vengeance is ahead, and until then, we face the tribulation of the world including the loss we love.

But there is “good news”, there is a future, a hope, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Their Reception

Jesus had an expectation, a requirement he imposed on those that he was sending them to in

Jesus knew that not every one would receive his disciples just as some had rejected him.

So, he also told them in

Here is our challenge, we have a message, we have a commission and Jesus is looking on to see how we fulfill his work.

In your natural mind, you may say, I don’t have the ability to preach this message or I don’t have the money to preach this message, and there are denominations that have worked hard to raise missionary support so someone else can go and preach.

Today though, now in our generation, Jesus is calling us to fulfill this work.

Just as he said to his disciples, I say to you, “Pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest”.

Just as Jesus said to his disciples, I say to you, “as you are going, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ Heal those who are sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, expel demons.

Freely you have received; freely give”.

Close

Set yourselves for the things that matter most to God.

His disciples were no different from us.

We want to speak when we should be listening.

We want God to do what he has given us the authority to do.

And, we often are looking for position, approval from people rather than pursuing the mission Jesus began in

Jesus has always been after one thing, those that will believe and act on this message

‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ Matthew 10:7.