Sent out by Jesus (Matthew 10)

​In this chapter, Matthew describes the initial preaching tour that the apostles of Jesus engaged in. Much of the details were limited to that tour, such as the clothes they could take with them, and the places to where they could go within the land of Israel. It was obviously a stage in the process of eleven of them becoming leading persons in the church of Christ. 

Surprises in the list of names 

How would you describe the disciples? Peter was impulsive, Andrew was quiet, James was fiery (a son of thunder) as was John; Philip was slow to understand (as John 14:9 suggests); Bartholomew was contemplative (sitting under a fig tree in John 1); Thomas was sceptical; Matthew was diligent in keeping records; Simon the Zealot was nationalistic; Judas was deceitful. Nothing is said about the other James or Thaddeus. Yet they were the ones that Jesus chose as apostles.  

The obvious surprise in the list of names is that Jesus chose any of them to serve him. After all, each of them was a sinner and did not deserve to receive any grace from him. It is important to remember that without the grace of God this group of men would have achieved nothing for the kingdom of God.  

Another surprise that we can see is that one of them was the betrayer. On the assumption that the list is arranged according to how the pairs of disciples travelled, it looks as if Simon the Zealot was accompanied by Judas. I wonder what Simon would have thought in after years as he recalled this preaching trip. There is no suggestion that Judas did not practice what was instructed here or that his presence hindered a successful campaign. Yet Judas tells us what can happen at times.  

A third surprise is the way that Jesus could bring diverse people together. We need only select two of them to illustrate this point and they are Matthew and Simon the Zealot. Matthew had worked for the Roman authorities whereas Simon, as a Zealot, would have wanted to kill as many of the Roman occupiers as possible. Among his targets would be people like Matthew whom Simon would have regarded as a traitor. Yet here they are, now serving the Lord. It is amazing how he can bring such different, indeed hostile people together. 

Fourth, it is interesting how Matthew records his list. He mentions what two of them did: he says that Judas betrayed Jesus and he says that he himself had been a tax collector. When Mark and Luke record their list of names of the apostles they don’t mention what Matthew had been. The fact that he records himself what he was is surely an expression of gratitude to Jesus for saving him and an expression of humility as he served the one who had rescued him from the penalty due to sinners. 

Fifth, although eleven of those men were to make many more preaching trips for Jesus we are not told very much about them later on. Most of them are not mentioned individually in the Book of Acts apart from Peter and John. James, the brother of John, gets mentioned when Herod put him to death. Of course, they all worked very hard for the Saviour and church history has its own traditions about where they went. Yet, in the main, we are told very little about what they did, even with regard to more prominent ones like Peter. The lesson is obvious – it is the activities of the King that we need to know about, not the activities of the servants. 

Sixth, the eleven genuine disciples would pay a big price for following Jesus. Each of them apart from John would die as a martyr and he himself would find himself in exile as a prisoner in Patmos as an old man because of his faith in Jesus. Yet if we could ask them if they regretted the initial trip that sent them down the roads to their individual destiny they would all have said that they had been engaged in the most amazing of activities, that of serving Jesus as he commenced his church. 

Strong requirements 

They were given the role of showing to the nation as a whole that the Messiah had arrived and was sending out his agents. This is the point of them limiting their travels to places where Israelites then lived in the land. Their role had three features: they announced the kingdom of the Messiah was shortly to arrive, they had authority over demons to cast them out and they had the ability to heal the sick of whatever illnesses they had. The tour on which they went was an amazing display of divine power through a group of individuals that normally people would not notice. They would be noticed only for what Jesus said and did through them, and that is all that a preacher is meant to be. 

Jesus instructed them not to receive money from people – this may have been to prevent his disciples being regarded as being in it for personal gain. Moreover, they had to learn to trust in God to meet their needs through his people in a variety of ways. This may have been difficult for some like James and John who had a fishing business and Matthew who had a prosperous form of employment. 

They were to be conveyors of peace to those who accepted their message. He told them that they would be persecuted and brought to court, but they were not to worry about what to say because the Spirit would enable them to speak appropriately. They should not be surprised to be regarded as messengers of the devil. Even although they would receive such opposition, they were not to be afraid. Instead they were to fear God. Nevertheless, following Jesus would not be easy. 

The message of Jesus that they were to preach was that he would have priority over all other relationships. Giving such priority to Jesus was the same as a person taking up a cross and walking to the place of death. There was to be no turning back, even when families opposed Jesus and his kingdom. This must have been a surprise to the disciples to hear such a strong insistence from Jesus that he must have priority in the lives of his disciples. Yet the proof that we understand who he is will be that we conclude he is worthy of the position of Lord. 

Having said that, we must observe what Jesus says about taking up the cross in verse 38. He says that instead of being the way of death it is actually the way to life. Taking the cross is not a reference to a difficulty we might face or an indisposition that we might have. Instead, taking the cross is a reference to identification, a determination to follow Jesus. Those who heard the apostles could avoid that choice and remain on the road to eternal death whereas those who took up the way of discipleship would discover that it led to eternal glory.  

Solemnity of the second coming 

As he sends out his disciples, it is striking to observe how Jesus focuses on his second coming rather than his first coming. One consequence for us is that this causes us to take a long term view of things. 

The first item we can note is that Jesus says there will be degrees of retribution on the Day of Judgement (v. 15). I suppose it would have been the case that if people in that area had been asked the names of the worst cities in history they would have included Sodom and Gomorrah in the list. In divine providence, they had received special judgement from God at the time of Abraham. Ezekiel 16:49-50 describes the sins of Sodom: ‘Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.’ Now Jesus says to his apostles that if a city rejects their message about him it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah. There is another implication here which is that the inhabitants of those towns which had already undergone divine judgement are waiting for the future judgement of the great day. And we are not to assume that lesser judgement will somehow be tolerable in experience. Whoever receives the least retribution will find it terrible.   

The second surprising saying connected to the second coming is that on the Day of Judgement Jesus the Judge will speak to his Father about individuals. ‘So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven’ (vv. 32-33). The context is one in which Jesus speaks of fear. We can understand why he would mention the possibility of fear to those men who were about to go on their first mission, especially when he had just mentioned the likelihood of opposition and persecution.  

As we reflect on this statement, there has not been a Christian yet who used correctly every possible occasion he had for witnessing for Jesus. We have all sat beside people on a train or a bus and not spoken to them about the Saviour. Is that what Jesus has in mind here by acknowledging him or denying him? If that scenario is the case, then Jesus will have to deny all of his people. The actual situation is more definite. I suspect that what is in view here is when a professing Christian gets asked about his relationship to Jesus, perhaps in a courtroom or maybe in any public situation. Will he then affirm that Jesus is his Saviour? Hopefully he will. Many have bravely testified to their faith in Jesus. Yet sometimes, the devoutest of Christians have had their weak moments and denied their Saviour, only to regret deeply their fall and repent of their denial, usually with the result that they later were penalised for their faith. The question we face is what would we normally say when we are asked whether or not we depend on Jesus and aim to follow him.  

The third saying connected to the Day of Judgement is that of rewards. Jesus mentions three options connected to this brief ministry of the disciples, and in the process indicates who the apostles were. The three options are prophet, righteous person and disciple. We should observe the greatness of the rewards – if we receive a prophet appropriately we will receive a prophet’s reward. Imagine the reward that a famous prophet will get and then realise that the one who helped him gets the same reward. Something similar is said about the response to the righteous person or to a disciple. What is the reward? The reward is glory. 

Another aspect of reward is mentioned by Jesus and that is its certainty. It was a bigger thing in the Middle East to give a cup of cold water to someone than it is for us. To give such water implies some effort to fetch and share what was needed by the person himself. There was a degree of sacrifice in the process. Yet even such a basic act of kindness will get a special, personal reward from Jesus.