We are going to continue our study of the gospel of Matthew moving along in chapter 10. Over the last couple of weeks, with the end of chapter 9 and the commissioning of the 12 here at the beginning of chapter 10 we have been seeing the change of focus in the ministry of Jesus as He shifts from preaching to the crowds to spending more time in instruction for His 12 apostles. Over the last nine chapters we have seen how the credentials of Jesus as the Messiah have spread throughout the land. Miracle after miracle had drawn in the people and as they came to see this miracle worker, He preached to them the message of the kingdom. This message was of course controversial as He openly denounced the religious leaders who likewise pronounced His miraculous power as being fueled by the ruler of demons, as we saw back in 9:34.
As that fame grew, we saw the transition in 9:36 as Jesus was moved with compassion seeing that the crowds of people who were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. These people who looked to their religious leaders only for them to further their misery by imposing upon them a false, legalistic system of religion that denied the truth of God. Jesus saw just how lost the multitudes were and so He invested authority into His 12 apostles to go out into these crowds and begin the harvest of souls that God had made ready to hear and respond the message of the kingdom.
Last week we looked at this group of 12 ordinary men that Jesus selected from His larger crowd of disciples. Divinely chosen men who were picked not for their powerful personalities, not for their wisdom, not for their innate skill at reaching the masses but because they were ordinary. Fishermen and craftsmen, uneducated and unsophisticated; so that when they would eventually change the world as they did, only God who empowered them could receive the glory.
The only response of a watching world would be that of the religious officials in Acts chapter 4 who understood that they were uneducated and untrained men and yet were amazed that they stood with confidence and answered with wisdom and profundity, recognizing them as having been with Jesus.
We come to our text for today, versus 5-15 where Jesus instructs them to begin the work of ministry. These instructions are for a short-term mission and it is important that we understand the context of this mission as we look into the principles Jesus gives them to go by and how we are to understand them in our context. As we continue in chapter 10, we will see the instructions He gives them broadening out to encompass all believers. Chapter 10 is divided into three parts each and in with the statement “truly I say to you” as we will see in verse 15, then again in 23 and at the end of the chapter in verse 42.
But let us begin by reading our text, Matthew 10:5-15.
“These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them: ‘do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even to coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of His support. And whatever city or village you enter inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at His house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment then for that city.”
As we look at these instructions that Jesus gives to His apostles, we will see a number of principles that all ministers of the gospel are to have. Some of these principles will be widely applicable with some being more specific to those who make their living from the gospel. Though their context was different than ours, though the direct application may have been different, the principles remain the same, they are universal, and that is what we will see as we go through. The principles come from Christ’s commands having to do with the audience in verses 5 and 6, the message in 7, the credentials in 8, the finances in 9-10, and dealing with rejection in 11-15.
We will begin where Jesus does and that is with the audience. Jesus instructs His disciples “do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This command has raised some eyebrows over the years. Why would Jesus exclude the Gentiles and the Samaritans from the message? In fact, Jesus Himself never went to the Samaritans or the Gentiles in His ministry. Did He believe they were unworthy for some reason? Of course, the answer to that is “no.” This was a temporary command as seen not only from the clear call of the great commission to go into all the nations of the world but in the fact that Jesus had ministered to Gentiles and Samaritans over the course of His ministry. We saw Him heal the Gentile centurion’s servant in chapter 8 and Jesus first revealed himself publicly as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman at the well who believed in Him and led other Samaritans to saving faith in John chapter 4.
So what principle about audience do we understand from this command? We need to understand the context of the disciples as they are first going out on this short-term training mission to draw a broader conclusion from this command. First, the Israelites were God’s chosen people through whom He would bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Israel was not called simply to receive the Word of God but also to be a channel of God’s blessing. Salvation was to come through the nation of Israel as God’s kingdom of priests. They were to be the launching point for taking the gospel to the world. Even Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles always began His evangelism in a new city at the synagogues.
As God’s chosen people, the people of the covenants, the promises, and the law, they were, in theory, predisposed to the message of the Messiah. These were the easiest targets for the untrained disciples of Jesus. I think that Jesus did not want them going to the Gentiles and the Samaritans because the disciples did not understand the cultures of the Gentiles and there was a general animosity between the Israelites outsiders; especially the Samaritans. Jesus begins with the easiest group and with a very focused target audience.
There are two principles that we can glean for ourselves from this command. The first comes from the fact that the disciples, though untrained were still called to go. If you remember from our time last week, these 12 disciples were only beginning their time of training with Jesus. Up to this point they had only been listening to Him preach to the crowds for a year and a half at most. They had not received the dedicated one-on-one time with Jesus that He would be spending with them over the next year and a half of His ministry. They had essentially been sitting in church hearing Him preach and now they are being told to go. Jesus knew that it was enough. They understood the gospel message and so they were sent into their community and their people. They were sent to a culture and a people that they understood, they were given the easy targets in a sense, but they were told to go. The same is true for us.
Believers often assume, whether they verbalize it or not, that only trained ministers of the gospel, only those who have advanced educations, only mature Christians should be involved with evangelism. It is only those who are highly skilled or highly trained that will be effective or even be able to evangelize. But that is simply not the case. Jesus told them to go to the Israelites because the disciples understood them, they were their people and who would be more effective at reaching the farmers and the fishermen and the craftsman of Israel than a bunch of Israelite farmers and fishermen and craftsman. All they had were the basics of the Gospel message and if you understand the message of the gospel then you can begin to reach your people.
That being said, we must also recognize that it does take more training, more understanding to go to a culture that is not your own. We need to be careful not to bite off more than we can chew. We need to be sure not to send out untrained, unequipped and un-gifted missionaries into the difficulties of a foreign field. The gospel had little impact on the Gentile world until the Lord raised up Paul who, though he was a former Pharisee and a Hebrew of Hebrews as he calls himself in Philippians 3, Paul had grown up in a Gentile city and was educated in their literature and religion and culture.
It may take someone who is trained and equipped to go to a culture that is not their own and be effective for the gospel; but anyone can reach the people of their own community. You understand the mentality, you understand the culture, you can make an impact, and you will be there to continue the work of ministry after they have heard the message.
The second command from which we are able to glean principles evangelism concerns the message itself. In verse 7 Jesus tells them simply “as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In this there is no difference between the command given to the 12 apostles and the principal that we are to understand. To be effective ministers of the gospel we need to have a clear and simple message. Many people fail to understand and receive the gospel because they have not heard it clearly presented.
Not only the world but many believers are confused about Christianity because so many who claim to preach or teach the Gospel distort the truth by bringing in so many secondary causes and emphases. One of the best tactics the enemy utilizes to be sure the gospel has no effect is to keep it from being understood. To cloud the truth with all kinds of extra junk. To make the gospel something that is political, or cultural, or economic, or social. To tie it to other goals, other messages, often even good ones. The message that the apostles were to preach was simply that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now I do not think that is all they were to say in the same way that Jesus did not simply preach the same words over and over again. We saw back in chapter 4, in verse 17 “from that time Jesus began to preach and say, “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Was at all that He preached? No, we looked at the Sermon on the Mount; but what was it about? It was the explanation of what it means for the kingdom of heaven to be at hand and how you gain entrance.
We likewise are to make sure that our message is simple and clear. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, “for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The message of the kingdom is the same message that we are to give on this side of the cross. It is the message of the King. The message of the kingdom has many practical ramifications, personal as well as social. But the central message must always be the focus of God’s people as they go out into a world of darkness. Once the central message is understood, that is when transformation happens. But if we lose the focus of the gospel as we go out to preach the message, if we lose the simple and clear call of the king then we become an obstruction to the truth rather than servants of it.
The next one we see is the credentials of the ones doing evangelism. In this there is of course a very clear difference between the 12 apostles and our own credentials. The 12 had no formal training, they were not part of the Jewish religious elite, scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and priests, they did not have the New Testament to confirm their message as this was a time of progression in the revelation of God’s salvation plan. In order to confirm the truth of their message, Jesus gave them authority to perform these miracles. The signs and wonders are called “the signs of a true apostle” in 2 Corinthians 12:12, just as Jesus had used them to demonstrate His own authority in the message He preached.
We do not share in these abilities. We do not have authority to perform miracles. Our credentials look a bit different. We demonstrate the truth of our message, not through the power of miracles, but through our lives. Through demonstrating the qualities of the Beatitudes, we serve as the light in the world as Jesus called us to at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. In 5:16 we read, “let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We cannot prove the truth of the power of God with miracles and signs, merely demonstrate its effectiveness in ourselves. No matter how clear our message is, if our lives do not demonstrate the truth, we lose all credibility.
One of the most important credentials that we display comes in our compassion for others and that is something that we see here. Notice that Jesus did not give the apostles authority over nature. He did not tell them to calm storms or replicate bread and fish. He told them to heal the sick, to help those who are suffering. In John 13:35 Jesus said “by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” We demonstrate the power of God by living lives of compassion for people around us, both within the church and outside.
In this command we also see that among the apostles then and believers today there is to be no semblance of greed. “Freely you received, freely give.” We have received Christ freely, we have received the kingdom freely, we have received salvation freely; we did not buy it, we did not steal it, we did not earn it, we did not achieve it. It is a gift. In preaching the gospel we are giving away something that is not our own and not something we can ever seek to profit from. Just as we have received the kingdom and its benefits freely, so we should go out and give freely.
If anyone seeks to profit from the gospel they need to be rejected outright. False teachers will always put a price on their ministry because their motive is not to serve God or man but themselves. One of the qualifications for elders is that they are to shepherd the flock of God, not under compulsion but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sorid gain. They must be free of the love of money. John MacArthur put it simply, “the pastor who puts a price on his ministry, prices himself out of God’s blessing.” They are never to put their services out for higher or demand to be given an amount they feel they deserve to be paid. It is the responsibility of God’s people to support them.
Which brings us to the next principle, which is how ministers of the gospel should approach finances. This is a principle that applies to those who make their living from the work of ministry but one all of God’s people must understand. “Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even to coats, or sandals, or staff, for the worker is worthy of his support.” A minister of the gospel should not be weighed down with the burden of finances, worrying about where their next meal will come from or the clothing on their back, because the people of God are called to provide. Instead, they are to be supported by God’s people, because “the worker is worthy of his support.”
Throughout both the Old and New Testament, the principle of the people of God supporting and providing for the ministers of God comes through very clearly. Now, anyone who enters the ministry of the gospel to make money is not only an idiot, they have also disqualified themselves for that ministry. And before I go any further I also want to say very clearly that CJ and I feel very blessed, very blessed, by the way this church has taken care of us, you all have gone above and beyond what is normal for churches across this country and across the world in how you have provided for us. The members of this church give far more graciously than is typical of churches, by leaps and bounds.
That being said, it is a shame to see that ministers of the gospel are the lowest earning professional group in this country, followed closely by teachers. What does that tell you? People pay for services based on how they value it, doctors are paid very highly in our culture and they should be, their services are essential and require much in the way of training and intelligence. Ff ministers of the gospel are the lowest paid professionals in a culture, what does it say of how a culture values them? They are valued below everyone else.
Jesus is making it clear to the apostles how they should be going out, but in the same breath He is indicting all those who would benefit from those ministers of the gospel in the years to come. As the people of God, it is our responsibility to be sure that those who make their livelihood by the preaching and teaching of the gospel are well provided for. It is never our duty to ensure somebody else’s sacrifice. Scripture never supports the poverty mysticism that arose in church history as if there were some great spiritual virtue in being poor. Paul says in 1 Timothy 5:17 that, “the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard in preaching and teaching. For the Scriptures say, “you shall not muzzle the ox while He is threshing,” and “labor is worthy of his wages.” To the best of our ability, we should be sure that we are well compensating ministers of the gospel.
Jesus goes on and says, “and whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at his house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, giving your greeting. If the house is worthy, giving your blessing of peace.” That is to say that if you enter a house, if a minister of the gospel is to come under the care of someone who holds to the principles of the Word of God concerning hospitality then they are to bless that house, to call upon it the peace of God. The minister of the gospel does not have the right or the ability to bring peace, the blessing that they give is only a calling forth of the blessing of God. “But if the house is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace.” Jesus is telling the apostles not to speak His benediction on those who are unworthy. God’s gospel is offered to all the world, and it has power to save all the world, but it is powerless to save or to help even a single person who will not have Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The greatest blessing of God is worthless for a person who will not accept it.
This brings us to our last principle, dealing with rejection of the gospel message. How do we treat those who are unworthy, who want nothing to do with the message we have been called to preach? “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet.”
There was a Jewish custom during the time of Jesus that when an Israelite came back from a Gentile country they would literally shake as much of the dust off of their coat and their feet as possible in order not to bring pagan soil into their homeland. Gentiles were unclean, as were their homes, and their land. It was a symbolic gesture of repudiation of everything that was unclean. So Jesus here is saying that if you go into a town and proclaim the gospel, if you go to someone’s house and proclaim the gospel and the people there will not hear it; when you come out of their before you continue on your way, shake the dust off your feet.
It is not that we are to turn away from those who reject the gospel first hearing or even after repeated attempts. We are to be persistent in our preaching of the gospel. Very rarely does someone come to Christ after first hearing. That was one of the principles we saw in our study in Sunday school of the book Unlikely Converts. The first chapter in part one, how people come to faith was “gradually.” The gospel requires persistence in both prayer and in preaching the message over and over again.
Jesus was not talking about those who are slow to understand or believe but rather to the kind of people who after hearing a clear testimony of the gospel and seeing the dramatic and irrefutable signs of confirmation continue to resist and oppose it. When a person is firmly set against God and His truth then we should not waste our efforts upon them. It is a matter of investing resources where they will have the greatest return. Instead of continually bashing our head against a brick wall of someone who is viciously opposed to the truth, we are to treat them as the Israelites looked on the unclean Gentiles; shake the dust off our feet and move on. Paul demonstrated this in Acts 13:51. When the leaders of the synagogue of Antioch drove Paul and Barnabas out of their district, the two men “shook the dust off of their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.”
Jesus ends this hard statement with a warning in verse 15, “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment then for that city.” The towns of Sodom and Gomorrah represent the worst picture of corruption and sin. Over and over again they are held up throughout the Old Testament as the worst of the worst. And they met with the unbridled judgment of God, fire and brimstone falling from the sky to wipe them off the map. And Jesus makes the comparison here, for someone to hear the clear preaching of the word of God and reject it, it is going to be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment then for them.
There will be a gradation of punishments in hell. Scripture makes it clear that our eternal rewards will reflect our life on earth. Now is not the time to go into detail about that, how it will work itself out either in heaven or in hell; but we can see from this statement that it is true. Why? Why will it be more tolerable for the worst of sinners then for those who reject the truth of God? Because the worst of sinners in Sodom and Gomorrah were never presented with the truth of God’s saving grace. The general revelation of God, the truth of His creation and His grace poured out upon them in nature is enough to condemn them and they will suffer for eternity because as Paul says in Romans one “for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks… And exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image.” But those who hear the gospel, those who are presented with the saving grace of God by hearing the message of salvation and rejecting it will live for eternity feeling the added guilt of that decision.
That should terrify us all the more. Those of us who has spent a lifetime in the truth of the gospel. It should drive us to seek assurance of our salvation and where is the only place that we can have that? In the Messiah, in the gospel. It should drive us to the feet of Jesus day by day, moment by moment, “Lord be merciful to me a sinner.” And it should drive us to evangelize all the more, to preach His truth to those who are still in darkness so that no one around us or in our lives who ends up in hell will wonder why we never preached to them the message of the Gospel.