The Gospel Comes With a Warning Label, Matthew 10:1-31

Matthew 10:1-31

Jesus Sends His Disciples to Deliver the Gospel

Matthew 10:1-15

1. Jesus gave them authority

Matthew 10:1-6

He summoned the 12, gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.

Jesus gives authority because there is no one who has a greater authority.

He has authority over sickness, unclean spirits, every disease, all of creation- including demons.

We cannot underscore the significance of Jesus giving them authority. It is a theme of the gospel.

2. Jesus told them to deliver and demonstrate the gospel as you go

10:7-8

They are told to deliver the gospel when Jesus says “As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom fo heaven has come near.”

They are told to demonstrate the gospel when Jesus says, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons.”

3. Jesus told them to depend on the Lord as you go

10:9-13

Jesus tells the disciples to depend on the Lord for everything as they go, because they depend on Him for their salvation.

The gospel of the kingdom came to them free of charge, therefore they are to deliver it free of charge.

Salvation must stay free from a connection to any form of work, including payment. You cannot purchase your salvation, and no one should make hearing the gospel dependent on payment.

What about the payment of pastors and ministers. (See our study of Galatians this past week on Facebook for a long treatment) Scripture plainly teaches that those who benefit from the weekly spiritual blessing of teaching the Word are called to a blessing back to the one who teaches.

Galatians 6:6, “6 Let the one who is taught the word share all his good things with the teacher.”

1 Corinthians 9:14, “14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.”

I’d like to take this moment and thank you as a church for your generosity to my family and for the rest of our staff. It’s a joy to serve you and the Lord in the ministry of the Word.

And, I want to make sure that we all understand that the task of shepherding the flock with the staff of the Word is not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is talking about taking the gospel to the lost sheep of Israel and eventually to the world.

Jesus is making sure that His disciples take the same gospel that they heard from Jesus and give it away. The fact that you can depend on God for your salvation means you can depend on Him for everything else.

Jesus gives them some instructions on how to travel, and I think it’s safe to believe that this is the manner in which Jesus traveled. He is simply telling them to do as they have seen Him do.

He does give them instructions on how to handle those who don’t accept Him. Even though we don’t have a ton of record before this in Jesus’ ministry of rejection, we know that it is coming, and so does He.

Jesus knows that the day is coming when they will need to depend on God in ways they cannot yet fathom. These men are following Jesus, and they believe that He is the one God promised would come and save His people. So, at this point it’s probably hard to imagine a world where the Messiah is rejected.

But, Jesus will be rejected, and He knows that they will also be rejected. In fact, one of the 12, Judas is the one who betrayed him.

4. Jesus told them to don’t take it personally and go

10:14-15

The disciples are delivering the message of Jesus and His kingdom. Any rejection of them is a rejection of Jesus. Jesus has already told us that He has come to bring the lost sheep home. Now Jesus is saying that those who reject Him and His kingdom are not of His fold or flock.

Jews shook the dust off their feet when they returned to Israel from pagan lands. By doing this when they are rejected, Jesus’ disciples marked those who rejected the gospel as pagans who did not truly belong to Israel.

The practice of shaking the dust off continued into the ministry of Paul and Barnabas.

As Jesus sends the disciples out to deliver the gospel, He gives them a warning that there will be some who will reject them because of their message and relationship with Him.

Then, Jesus takes it a step further and gives them a warning.

Jesus Gives Them a Warning: Delivering the Gospel is Dangerous Business

Warning: Delivering the Gospel is Dangerous Business

Many Americans have spent their lives seeing the lavish and famous lifestyles of men who preach the gospel. So, it can be hard to reconcile the popularity of some preachers with the word dangerous.

But, the disciples were told that the end result of their call to ministry would come with rejection and persecution. This doesn’t mean that every single person who follows Jesus will experience the same type of persecution or rejection as another. But, it does mean that we need to know it’s a part of what you sign on for when you choose to follow Christ. Because this is part of the deal, you need to be ready for it when it comes.

Jesus calls every one of His followers to make disciples by freely sharing the Gospel with others.

Persecution is possible because Jesus said in Matthew 10:24-25, “A disciple is not above his teacher, or a slave above his master. It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master.”

This means that if Jesus was persecuted and crucified, then it would be wrong to think that He would have it worse than you.

To our graduates who are moving on to the next step as a young adult. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 10:16, “Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.”

The American that you are growing up in has never been more hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The disciples of Jesus were instructed to take the gospel to the children of Israel who had rejected Jesus and had Him crucified. The disciples are also instructed to be wise and discerning. Practically speaking Jesus calls each one of us to make sure that our offense in the world is the gospel and worthy of the gospel.

Christians are not called to the ministry of offense, but the gospel is offensive and extreme to those who are not saved. 1 Corinthians 1:22–25 (CSB) says, “22 For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. 24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

Every person who chooses to follow Christ must also settle in his or her heart that persecution is possible and that criticism is a guaranteed minimum.

Jesus prophesied about the apostles in this passage. Everything that He told them would happen did happen. Even Matthew 10:22, which says, “You will be hated by everyone because of my name.”

Delivering the gospel is dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as rejecting the gospel.

Warning: Rejecting the Gospel is Dangerous Business

Matthew 10:14–15 (CSB) says, “14 If anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.”

The account of Sodom and Gomorrah can be found in Genesis 18-19. The summary of the account is that God told Abraham that He was going to destroy the towns of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to God they had become so wretched and deplorable that the only thing for God to do was to obliterate them from the earth. Abraham pleaded with God that he spare the righteous in the cities if there were any there. God agreed to spare the entire city if there were only 10 righteous men there. After two angels visited the towns and stayed with Lot, a relative of Abraham the determined the cities should be destroyed as the Lord declared. They sent Lot and his relatives running out of the city with the instructions not to look back, period. But, as they were running away and the destruction began Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Genesis 19:23–29 (CSB), “23 The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. 24 Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord. 25 He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. 27 Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.”

When Jesus said a lot when He said it would be better for Sodom and Gomorrah than for those families and towns that rejected the gospel and those who deliver it.

Rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the embrace of God’s judgment and the punishment of an eternal hell.

Rejecting the gospel means:

Rejecting the truth about God as creator and the designer of good

Rejecting the truth about God’s love

Rejecting the truth about your sin and the brokenness of our world

Rejecting the truth about Jesus as the solution to the problem of sin

Rejecting the truth of forgiveness for your sins

Rejecting the truth of surrender to Christ as Lord

Rejecting the truth of salvation for all who believe

Jesus is worthy of your trust and the risk

There is no risk when it comes to the certainty of your salvation and the truth of the Gospel.

But, if you follow Jesus you run the risk of being rejected and even persecuted by the unbelievers around you. And Jesus is worthy of your trust and the risk that comes with belonging to Him.

Jesus is worth being made fun of in High School

Jesus is worth losing a promotion over

Jesus is worth waiting for marriage over

Jesus is worth enduring the difficulties related to following Him and being faithful to Jesus.

Don’t fear those who can hurt you, fear the one who can condemn you to hell.

This puts it in great perspective doesn’t it? It might seem extreme, but its not. This statement is just plain truth. This is the perspective that we need to have as Christians.

Jesus is worthy of your trust and the risk inherent in following Him. And by following Him I mean being faithful to Him. You won’t every deal with persecution or really even criticism for your faith if you don’t exercise your faith in action.

You can trust that God knows what’s going in your life.

You can trust that God is sovereign over the events of your life.

You can trust that God is working in all things for your good.

Romans 8:28 (CSB) says, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”

Application:

Don’t be afraid, God is in Control

I know the times are uncertain- but don’t be afraid

I know that it’s getting harder to be a visible follower of Jesus- don’t be afraid and shrink into the shadows of privacy to practice your faith. A faith never in the light is no faith at all.

Depend on the Lord

Live out your faith

God is worthy, and you are valuable to God

Warning: Delivering the Gospel is Dangerous Business

Do it anyway

Warning: Rejecting the Gospel is Dangerous Business

Don’t reject Jesus… don’t let the fear of men push into the judgment of the one who can also kill the soul.