Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date November 3, 2024
Text Matthew 10:1-16
Pastor Paul Lehmann
Last week we used Matthew 7 :13-14 as one of the scriptures about hell. Before that, we looked at Jesus confronting unclean elements of society by invoking the power of the new kingdom he was introducing. He cleansed a leper in 8:3, expelled many unclean spirits in verse 16, expelled some exceedingly violent demons in 32, and healed a paralytic in 9:6. Chapter 9 ended with Jesus calling His disciples to work in the harvest field that he said was already ripe and needing many workers. Before the ascension at the end of chapter 28, verse 19 we find Jesus commissioning them to make disciples of all nations.
JESUS GIVES HIS DISCIPLES THE SAME AUTORITY THAT HE EXERCISED
Today chapter 10 begins with Jesus summoning his twelve disciples and giving them the same authority that he exercised to heal people of their diseases and to cast out unclean spirits. These men were ordinary men and seem to have been relatively unknown and normal men. What set them apart from others was that Jesus specifically chose them (called them) for this apostolic ministry. They were to be his agents to introduce the message and power of the kingdom.
In verse 5 we read a rather curious command that Jesus gives them, “do not go among the gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans, go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message: “The kingdom of heaven is near, Heal the sick raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. “Freely you have received, freely give.”
OUR GIVING IN SERVICE IS TO BE LIKE GOD’S GIVING TO US.
Salvation is a free gift. Healing is a free gift. Deliverance is a free gift.Jesus probably said this because he knew the temptation of man to want to profit from supernatural power. Simon the magician in Acts 8:18-19 thought he could profit from the power of God. He offered money for the supernatural power that he saw, and Peter said to him, “may you die along with your money.”
Our service for the Kingdom is only to be for the sake of those we serve, expecting nothing in return. It also of course then, is serving and glorifying the Lord too, because even giving a cup of cold water in His name, is like we are giving it to Him. The world’s way is; don’t do anything for anyone unless you are paid for it. Unions particularly brought this idea into our lives. Unions were important when they first began at the beginning of the industrial revolution because owners took advantage of workers. But all during the 20th century they kept pushing for more money and less work. When I worked at the Orrville Body Co., I remember that if you needed a part or tool at the tool shop, you couldn’t just have someone handy to pick it up. Only the people who used it had to pick it up. If you weren’t assigned a particular job, you weren’t allowed to do it. You may get paid to stand around and do nothing, rather than do a job that you weren’t specifically hired to do. The Kingdom way is to do whatever the master tells you to do. We are to serve and glorify Him at all times. Doing whatever he gives us to do.
So Jesus’ concern is that the Jews be given the first opportunity to hear the gospel. His last instruction to them in Acts 1:8 gave an order of priority. Jerusalem first, then Judea, Samaria, and then the remotest parts of the earth.
There were basically:
THREE REASONS WHY THEY WERE TOLD NOT TO GO TO ANYONE BUT THE JEWS
1 . First, several Old Testament passages indicate that God raised up Israel to be a priest to the other nations who would also become part of God’s kingdom. Gen 12:3says, I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. Exodus 19:6. In Psalm 2:8 we read; “Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. Isaish 9:1-2…there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future, he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the sea, along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death. A light has dawned in Isaiah 49:6…he says; It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. It will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Jonah 4:11. Nineveh has more than 20,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?
By taking the message of the kingdom first to the Jews, Jesus was deliberately preparing the nation of priests so that their ministry to the Gentiles could be full.
2 Secondly up to this point the disciples had no experience in cross-cultural ministry. As typical Jews of their day, their cultural experience was homogeneous. Not only did their religious scruples separate them from the Gentiles, but their understanding of the Gentile mind was also quite limited. That cross-cultural ministry would be left to a man like Paul, who would come along later, a man with the life and background who could communicate to the Gentiles.
3 Also a further reason for this limited ministry was simply that with such a small force of workers, it was eminently practical to concentrate the ministry on a rather small area.
Only when Galilee was successfully evangelized with the gospel would Jesus have an adequate foundation for pursuing other areas. ‘
We know that the gospel did spread into Samaria and Judea to the south of Galilee. Decapolis on the east and Syria on the northeast. And then after the earthly life of Jesus, the apostles continued to take the gospel further to the south in North Africa, to the far east all the way to India and perhaps China, and to the north and west into Asia Minor, Greece, and all of Europe.
A practical word in limitation of ministry given by Jesus is that if we can’t do it at home we have no business trying to export it. This is why many mission boards require a period of effective home service as an internship before allowing missionary candidates to go overseas. I remember when I was teaching Church Growth at Nyack College (NY) in 1994, there was a young seminary student who felt called to work with Jewish people in Israel when he graduated, but wouldn’t do anything to minister to the Jewish people in New York City, (Where there is a higher concentration of Jews than anywhere else, outside of Israel) He said that while he was in school, he just didn’t have time. Perhaps it wasn’t his fault. His professors didn’t see the value of involving students in ministry while they were learning. This sometimes is the problem with “academia”.: schools of higher learning in other fields, outside of medicine, seem to expect you to get the theory and then try to put it into practice. Jesus gave the best training. For three years the disciples got his teaching, and every day they saw him put it into practice, and they helped him do it, and then he sent them out.
Today there are those who accept the complete authority that was given to the disciples, and others who believe that authority was given only for that time, when the gospel of the kingdom was first being preached. Now we have the written word of God. They believe that we have the authority to proclaim the gospel of salvation, but not to do the things that Jesus sent the 12 out to do—He told them to heal the sick raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons.
It does seem that we do not have the same frequency of seeing the signs and wonders that the apostles did, but we certainly still do see them today, especially in other parts of the world. It is astonishing for me to hear a “cessationist”: (a theological position that states that all miracles ceased at the end of the first century) make the statement that he or she has never seen a legitimate healing or miracle take place today. They just haven’t been in the right place at the right time, and of course, because of their lack of faith, they haven’t seen God work in this way. The truth of the matter is, that there are millions of people all over the world who see little miracles happening all the time, but also there are unexplainable Biblical proportions miracles happening too. Smith Wigglesworth in England at the beginning of the last century saw people raised from the dead, including his wife. My grandmother was pronounced dead for a few minutes as my family was praying (I hadn’t been born yet) and she came back to life. The most astounding account happened in Nigeria when Pastor Daniel Ekechukwa was raised from the dead after an accident near the town of Onitsha on November 30, 2001. He was dead for 3 days. His body was embalmed and was in a casket. His wife had heard about the ministry of a German Evangelist named Reinhart Bohnke who held massive meetings of over 100,000 people where miracles were taking place. She had the body of her husband taken there because God had told her that He would raise him back to life. and after Bohnke laid his hands on the casket and prayed the man sat up climbed out of the casket and sat on the platform. You can imagine the reaction of the crowd. He testifies and preaches about God’s power today. You never hear about this kind of thing in the Western Media, because they don’t know what to do with it.
There is an actual video though of this event. The fact that people still don’t believe, testifies to the words in Luke 16:31, before Jesus was crucified and rose again, we read about the rich man and Lazarus that we talked about last week. Where Abraham told the rich man in hell, that “people have Moses and the Prophets, and if they won’t listen to them, even if someone comes back from the dead they won’t listen.”
The occurrence of a miracle was considered by the Jews to be a sign that God was sanctioning the activity of the agent of the miracles. Thus, Jesus used miracles in the promotion of his spiritual kingdom. When he left Earth only a small body of Jews believed that he still lived and that the Kingdom would proceed. The best proof of his resurrection, the best apologetic to convince the Jews of Jesus’ Messiahship had to be the continuation of the miracles in his name; but this was not to be a substitute for saving faith but a catalyst for it. If there is an infrequency today of the kind of signs and miracles we see in the New Testament it is mostly because of our lack of faith, in certain segments of the Church. Nevertheless, it is true that they are done more discriminately today as sheer grace on God’s part The individual, (Jesus’; love and compassion for individuals), not the kingdom as such, is the focus of today’s miracles. And don’t forget that the ultimate healing takes place when we go to meet Jesus and receive our spiritually perfect bodies.
In the next section, beginning with verse 9 we see that they should not seek to profit financially by their ministry, but were told to accept the support and hospitality of the people to whom they ministered. They were told to travel lightly and to seek to bring, and be a blessing wherever they went. On the other hand, when they were not welcomed, they were not to remain in those places that withheld hospitality but were merely to “shake the dust off their feet” in protest against that house or city.
Jesus is instructing them not to try to argue anyone into the kingdom. Instead, he wanted them just to announce the presence of the kingdom and keep moving on with the message. Those cities that refused the message about the kingdom, unfortunately, would suffer more than the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah throughout scripture represent exceeding wickedness because they were cities that were decisively judged by God not only for their exceeding immorality and wickedness but also for their lack of hospitality to the people and message of God. Similarly, cities that blatantly rejected the announcement of the coming kingdom would experience harsh judgment too.
There is also the idea in this idiom, something important fo the disciples themselves. This ancient Eastern expression means to shake off the animosity and bitter feelings which arose between another and you as you leave, so that you may go on your way with your heart full of peace and joy, as a godly person should. You must never take with you the “dust of hatred and resentment”, shake it off and leave it behind so you may continue with a pure heart.
Look now at verse 16. Why would anyone send sheep into a pack of wolves? Jesus sent them out knowing that some people would act like wolves if sheep were present. They would be attacked. He did this to rescue the other sheep (9:36). They were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. But he also told them not to be like typical sheep. They were to be “shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” We know that sheep could be described as innocent, but certainly not shrewd. In the next section verses 17-20, we see the description of the shrewdness that Jesus had in mind. The disciples were to be aware of the tactics of their enemies. They would be persecuted.
No matter how we are received our task is to share the gospel of the kingdom with others. Jesus is pressing us into this kind of service, just as much as he did the disciples. What is so wonderful is, we have the same power and authority that they had.
When Jesus ate the “last supper’ with his disciples, he told them that when they took the meal they should do it in remembrance of him. Remember all that he taught them. Remember the authority he gave them. Remember all the miracles that they saw take place. Oh how much we should remember about who Jesus is. He is our Savior, Our Sanctifier, Our Healer, and our Coming King!