Apostles Sent Out

“The Twelve Apostles Sent Out”

(Matthew 10, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, July 15, 2007)

Matthew 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 Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. 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 nor silver nor copper for your belts, ¹⁰ no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor 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. ¹⁶ "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. ¹⁹ When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. ²⁰ For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹ Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²² and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. ²⁴ "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. ²⁶ "So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. ²⁸ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. ³² So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, ³³ but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. ³⁴ "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ⁴⁰ "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. ⁴¹ The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. ⁴² And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."

Introduction

At the end of the ninth chapter of this gospel, Jesus instructed his disciples to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Jesus seemed acutely aware of the spiritual needs of the crowds who were coming to Him for physical healing. His intention was to address our greatest need through gospel laborers. This group of gospel laborers is what the disciples were instructed to pray for, and this tenth chapter shows us that they themselves would be an early answer to His and their prayers. The disciples would be “apostles.”

Apostles (1-4)

This word “apostle” is used here for the first time in the New Testament. It has to do with the idea of being sent out by someone who is your superior. An apostle is one sent forth with orders. Jesus is the superior officer in His Kingdom. He calls these twelve to himself by name. He will have a close connection with them that would difficult to have with fifty people. When the crowds were gone, the disciples would still be there, because Jesus chose to share His life especially with these twelve men. But these disciples were not being given this privilege for their own spiritual benefit alone. They were men whose destiny would be apostolic; men sent out with orders; men who would one day gather others and share their lives with new circles of disciples.

Jesus not only called these men; he also gave them gifts. The gifts that He gave them were special gifts with divine authority to overturn realms of evil, for they were messengers of the Kingdom of the Son of God as this new Kingdom was being established. An entire order of worship and ceremonial law was to be overturned. There would be powerful people who would be against this shift from what we call the Old Testament to the New Testament. For this special purpose He gave to this group of apostles sign-gifts that would be demonstrations that God Himself was the one who was ending one order of His dealings with His people Israel and establishing a new order with His church. In every era, we have the gifts that God gives us for the place and time that we live in. He is able to give gifts to men, and He gave these foundational New Testament men amazing gifts.

Who were these men? What is so striking about them is that they were ordinary people. They had no specialized theological training that many would have had, only the normal Scripture-based education that might have been received at the hands of a local Rabbi and through their parents. If we add up all that we know about these men it is surprisingly little. But one of them, Judas, was destined to be a traitor. Among the men that the Lord chose, according to the express plan and foreknowledge of God, was the very man who would fulfill the Scriptures as the betrayer of the Messiah. This close friend in whom they trusted, who ate bread with them, would at the appointed time lift up his heel against the Lord of Glory, turning Him over to those who would send Him to the cross (Psalm 41:9). Even this Judas was sent out on the mission described in this chapter.

The Mission (5-15)

Jesus sent them forth with orders. They were not to go to the Gentiles, not even to the Samaritans who were something of a mixed group between Jews and Gentiles. This establishes clearly that the mission described in this chapter was different from our mission today. We are told to go to the nations. They were told to go to those who were members of the covenant nation, who yet had wandered from the way of God.

Their mission was a preaching mission, and the One who sent them as apostles assigned to them the message: “The Kingdom of Heaven is near.” To accompany these great words, Jesus commanded them to do acts of Kingdom power. They were to do this for free, as those who knew that whatever they had been given had been given to them for free. This mission was to be a living sign of the grace of God; that God was showing forth His great deeds not to those who could have some claim upon him of deserving His favor, but to the undeserving who through the surrender of faith and repentance received the signs of God’s powerful mercy.

The way that the mission moved forward was to be appropriate to the message of grace. Not only were they given divine power, they would also receive divine provision for all that was necessary in order to accomplish what Christ commanded. They might look powerless or foolish to the world, but they would display the power of the kingdom of God.

Warnings and Encouragement (16-42)

As they went forth on this mission, they were given important advice and instruction. The mission was presented as dangerous, and they were to use due caution (wise as serpents), but at the same time they were not out to trap their enemies by their own strategy or cunning (pure as doves). In speaking of the danger of the mission, Jesus seems to go beyond what we know about the immediate context of this special time, and to speak important advice that would especially apply to the church after the ascension of Christ into heaven. The Lord tells them of the dangers that are beyond this mission, for we have no indication that they faced the specific challenges of court trials and beatings or that they would give witness to the Gentiles at this moment, though they certainly would face these things in later years. Here he seems to warn them of those later troubles well before they actually would come.

He tells them that suffering before powerful people would not be a sign that something had gone wrong. It would be part of the plan, according to God’s purpose. In those coming days, the power of God would be displayed in the Father’s own speech coming through these men and others when they were under fire. Their trust and plea at those moments must be in God. Even the natural bonds of families would not be their security because of division within households over this Kingdom that they would preach.

Most importantly they would need to endure. The truth would come to light in due course. As always, we are to do our duty, to remember God, to consider His power and His love, and to be engaged in His business. Remain true to the One who sent them, they were to fear God more than the prisons or death camps of men, knowing that the Lover of their souls watches over sparrows, and that He knows even the number of hairs on our heads. They would confess Jesus before men, and He would confess them in a higher court; but if they should deny Him before men, and he would deny such a false apostle before His father in heaven. Even giving a cup of cold water to a disciple would be remembered.

Like Rahab siding with the spies of Israel, we must always keep in mind that a victorious kingdom is coming. Though it might not seem like much compared with the very real walls of Jericho at the moment, those walls would come down. A day is coming when you will see nothing as more important than your association with this King, His cross, and his lowly band of apostles.

Lessons for Kingdom Work

There are important lessons from this mission for us to consider. 1) The church is an apostolic church, with Christ and His death and resurrection as the cornerstone, but the faithful apostolic witness as our foundation to which we return. The church is apostolic in both its message and its mission, more than in the antiquity of our traditions. We are still sent forth with orders as those who have an apostolic message of Jesus. 2) Our message is a kingdom message. Anything less than surrender is unworthy of this King and His cross. 3) The church goes where the Messiah tells us to go, even to the ends of the earth. 4) Our King still provides for those He sends out, though we may be called to suffer. It is not as if something has gone wrong, or as if our suffering is without a purpose. Endurance in His service is definitely the right pathway for each of us. 5) There is so very much that is waiting to be done. The cross and the resurrection bid us forward with love and confidence from and in God, lest we despair.

Questions for meditation and/or discussion:

1. What is the church’s mission in our day?

2. What aspects of this chapter are especially for the particular mission of the disciples in Jesus’ day?

3. Is suffering still part of God’s purposeful plan for the progress of His kingdom?

4. What promises in this chapter can kingdom disciples still claim when they find themselves in desperate need?