13 - Matthew 10:23

’Verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.’ -Matthew 10:23.

These words occur in the discourse which our Lord pronounced when he set apart the twelve, and sent them forth to preach the Gospel. He did not limit his attention to the brief itineraries which they were to make while his ministry yet lasted; his eye looked down the future, and saw clearly what should happen to them when, after his ascension and after Paul’s conversion, they should go into all lands and be brought before kings and governors for his sake. At the same time he used language that was specially appropriate to the circumstances in which they were. Until his own complete rejection by the Jews, he did not expressly commission them to preach to any other, though his language constantly implied that a time should come when the Gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all the world. Their deep rooted idea that the kingdom of the Messiah would come in great power and glory, and their tendency to postpone all other expectations and obligations till this supreme idea should be realised, he sought to dispose of by speaking to them of a future coming, another advent. He was to go and return; and there was to be a work for them to do against his return; and in the prosecution of this work they were to have constant reference to that future advent; looking for it and preparing for it just as the Jews had looked for the first coming of the Messiah. The bridegroom was now with them; but he should be taken away; and in due time he should return for his bride. They were to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; they would encounter opposition and persecution; instead of staying to battle with this opposition, they were to consider it an indication of Providence that they should go to other places and preach the Gospel to those who had not heard. For the work given them to do demanded all the time given for the doing of it. They were to act as men who are under a pressure; who have no time to spare. If they should have no time to spare in suffering avoidable persecution for Christ’s sake, no time to spare in preaching the Gospel where the people had fully manifested their opposition to it, much less had they any to spend in self indulgence. They were to give themselves with all their powers and resources and time, to the work of carrying everywhere the glad tidings of salvation. At first they would understand by the cities of Israel the cities of Palestine. Afterward they would perceive that Christ’s commission required them to go to all cities where the lost sheep of the house of Israel were to be found. The Spirit of truth, guiding them into the fuller understanding of Christ’s words, would cause them to seek after the other sheep not of this fold which were to be sought out and gathered, so that there might be one fold, as there is one Shepherd.

It may be remarked that the Jews by their successive deportations have been so wonderfully scattered, that a mission to the Jews is really a mission to all nations. Settlements of Jews have been discovered in our own day even in the heart of China; and it is quite possible that there are colonies of Jews in parts of the world yet unvisited by the Gospel. So that the disciples of Christ can hardly yet be said to have gone over the cities of Israel, the localities where the lost sheep of the house of Israel are to be found. But the principles which underlie these words of Christ are of importance to all whom he has ordained to be witnesses for him in this world, to all Christians. They are these: Christ is coming again in the glory of his Father with the angels; his Gospel is to be preached as widely as possible; his servants are to be incited and sustained in the proclamation of it by the expectation of his glorious return. The doctrine of the second advent is to stimulate to evangelistic work; this is the grand consideration which is to nerve Christians to the use of all diligence in conveying the Gospel to their fellowmen. Christ is detained in heaven by our neglect to diffuse the Gospel; all men are to be told of his humiliations and death, before they see his glory in the skies. Our wisdom is ready to substitute another scheme for this. It seems to many in these days that the wisest plan is to make one or two nations thoroughly Christian; and when they have been made so then the Gospel will diffuse itself almost naturally throughout the whole world. But. we have waited in vain to see even a small village in England or America made thoroughly Christian, even when the means of grace have been provided, with an unlimited prodigality. We find that even as the sanctification of the Christian advances most rapidly and happily, when he is giving himself most heartily to the communication of his blessings to others, so nations are most helped forward in righteousness as they are most mindful of the obligation to preach the Gospel to every creature. It is found more blessed to give than to receive. After so many ages of Bible teaching, what a fearful amount of practical heathenism and atheism still remains in England! Are we not warranted in believing that if one half of her 50,000 preachers were scattered over the world, in the sincere endeavour to make men acquainted with the Christ who once came and suffered, and who is to come again in the clouds of heaven to judge the world, there would be showers of blessings in England such as we have not seen? The brass of the pulpit would become silver, and the silver gold. The churches newly gathered among the heathen become vigorous and clothed with life and beauty just in the degree that they seek to be lights in the world, holding forth the word of life; in a word just in the degree in which they become mission churches. The light only illuminates ourselves as we share it with others. The word that comes to the Christian heart to bless it commissions that heart to communicate it to others; otherwise it soon ceases to bless. How imperfectly is this thing yet understood! How many imagine that all they have to do with the word is to be saved by it. Whereas it only saves by making us saving. A Christian is an anointed one. The Spirit of life is life diffusive. "He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The water that I will give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up to everlasting life." But a wellspring is for many. The favourite idea of missions is to find a people that will receive the word, and then give one’s self wholly to them; concentrate upon them all our attention, and congratulate ourselves solely upon the conquest of them. But it seems from Christ’s instructions that he that preaches a rejected word is accomplishing Christ’s will, hasting unto the day of the Lord, and hastening that day, as much as his more immediately successful fellow labourer. At all events, whether men hear or whether they forbear, there is a grand purpose of the Master accomplished by the worldwide proclamation of the word; and there is reason to believe that the more widely and fully it is proclaimed in the world, the nearer is that day for which the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain, for a baptism of the Spirit that all who hope for salvation may hope for it in efforts to make known to others the way of life! A time shall come when no man shall need to say to his brother, "Know the Lord," for all shall know him from the least unto the greatest; but before that, every Christian man shall feel that there is a need, an urgent need for him to tell his brothers of that Gospel by which alone they may know the Lord.