Matthew 10

CHAPTER 10THEME: Jesus commissions the twelve apostles to go to the nation Israel and preach the gospel of the KingdomThis chapter continues the movement we have seen in the Gospel of Matthew. The Lord Jesus, having given the ethic, came down from the mountain, demonstrated His power in the twelve miracles which have been enumerated. Now He commissions the twelve apostles to go to the nation Israel and preach the gospel of the Kingdom. These men are to go, not as forerunners but as after-runners. Our Lord gave them power to perform miraclesthis was their credential. (Have you ever noticed that John the Baptist never performed a miracle?) Note that their title is changed from disciple (learner) to apostle (delegate). As we enter this chapter, keep in mind the number of cults which come to this chapter for their authority for some peculiar ministry or conduct. You see, the instructions for the Christian are not found in this chapter. We need to consider the instruction here in light of the circumstances and conditions under which they were given, and we should be able to interpret them accurately.

Matthew 10:1

THE TWELVE COMMISSIONED AND NAMEDThe power He gave to them was their credential as they went to the nation Israel. The prophets of the Old Testament had said that this would be the credentials of the Messiah. Having given them this power, they are no longer disciples but apostles.

Matthew 10:5

THE METHOD AND MESSAGE OF THE TWELVENow if you are going to take your instructions from this chapter for your personal ministry, you will have to limit yourself to the nation Israel, because this is to be given to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Obviously, these verses do not contain our commission. Contrast it with our commission in Act_1:8: “…and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Notice that we are to include Samaria and the uttermost part of the earth, while Jesus instructed the twelve in this chapter to stay out of Samaria and not to go into the way of the Gentiles but only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” And the message of the twelve was to be this:

Matthew 10:7

How could it be “at hand”? It was at hand in the person of the KingHe was in their midst. At the turn of the century and at the conclusion of the Victorian era, there was a feeling of optimism throughout the so-called Christian world. All of the major denominations at that time took on the herculean task of “building the Kingdom of Heaven” here on this earth. Each group thought that they had a contract from God to accomplish this purpose. Of course, the church was never called to build the Kingdom. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself will establish the Kingdom when He returns to the earth. The church is a called-out body from the world to manifest Christ and to preach His gospel throughout the world. Kingdom business is none of our business. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us when we receive Christ. Now notice that our Lord sends out the twelve with the same credentials that He Himself has

Matthew 10:8

Now I insist that if you are going to do one of the above things, you ought to be able to do all four of them. Note that raising the dead is included! Obviously, this was applicable to the time and circumstances under which it was given. It is interesting to note that folk in our day who use verse Mat_10:8 as their commission ignore the next verseat least, I have never heard them use ityet it all goes together in one package.

Matthew 10:9

Some time ago I suggested to a so-called faith healer that he go to the hospitals where they really needed him. But it is interesting to see that these folk have to be in a place where an offering can be taken. Obviously, we need to place this verse in its correct context. These were temporary instructions during our Lord’s three-year ministry. There came a day at the end of His ministry when He gave different instructions to His apostles: “And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one” (Luk_22:35-36). And the apostle Paul wrote, “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1Co_9:14), and he deals at length with the matter of the preacher in 1 Corinthians 9. In our day, certainly God expects us to support Christian ministries. My only suggestion is that if you are going to appropriate to yourself Mat_10:8, be sure to take the next verse that goes along with it. I don’t mean to be harsh, but it is important to interpret a verse in its context. Now notice the further instructions our Lord gave to the twelve before He sent them out at this time

Matthew 10:11

This certainly is not for our day. The best place for a visiting speaker to go is to a motel or hotel instead of causing an extra burden on folk when they are so busy. Some people still have a “prophet’s chamber,” and I know where many of them are in this country; they are delightful places. But in our day, I don’t think our Lord would have us go into a town and ask, “Who is worthy in this town; who is your outstanding Christian?” then go and knock on his door and say, “Look, I’m here.” Again let’s note that the Lord Jesus is giving His men temporary instructions under local circumstances for a three-year period. Let’s interpret it in its correct context.

Matthew 10:12

The word house refers, of course, not to the building but to the people who live in it, the household.

Matthew 10:14

This is not our commission today. This is not the attitude of modern missionaries. Certainly, when I have gone to other places to hold meetings, I have never gone outside the towns and shaken the dust off my feet. I won’t say that I haven’t felt like it in some places, but I have never done it. I feel that this instruction was given to these men for that particular time.

Matthew 10:15

In the next chapter of Matthew we will find out what happened to some of these cities that fell under judgment.

Matthew 10:16

WHAT THE TWELVE MUST EXPECTHaving spoken about the local situation, the Lord now gives these men certain great principles by which they are to go as His witnesses. These principles are good for time and eternity, and they certainly are good for our day. The child of God should be wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. It is dangerous to be one and not the other. I have met some who are wise as serpentsthey are cleverbut they are not helpless as doves. To use a common expression, they will take you. I know others who are quite gullible; they are harmless as doves, but they are not wise as serpents. A serpent is dangerous, and a dove is in danger, so that we need to combine both qualities.

Matthew 10:17

I have never been scourged in a synagogue, but I have been verbally scourged in some of our good churches.

Matthew 10:18

In that day this certainly happened to those who were His. Also, it has happened subsequently to many in the church.

Matthew 10:19

I believe these verses apply to those men who had no opportunity to prepare answers when they were arrested for doing the job Jesus sent them to do. These men sent out by the Lord made no preparation, and if we place these verses in the local situation, we will have no problem with them at all. Unfortunately, there are many folk who apply these verses to themselves and make no preparation for their sermons! When I was in seminary, a fellow student, who was a little odd in more ways than one, believed that he should preach without any preparation. A friend and I decided one night that we would go and hear him preach. Well, it was painfully obvious that he had not prepared his message. On the way back to the seminary, my friend, who had even more nerve than l had, asked him, “Did you prepare that message tonight?” “Of course, I didn’t!” “Well, how did you get it?” “The Spirit of God gave it to me.” My friend said to him, “I don’t think you ought to blame that message on the Holy Spirit!” Another friend of mine was at Temple, Texas, years ago when the trains were running through there, and he had to change trains there on a Sunday morning. As he waited for his connection, he was walking up and down with his notes in his hand because he was to preach that morning. He was wearing a long frock coat, and another man approached him who also was wearing a frock coat. The man asked him, “Are you a preacher?” “Yes.” “What are you doing there?” “I’m going over my notes for my sermon this morning.” “Do you mean to tell me that you prepare your sermons?” “Yes, don’t you?” “No. I just get up and let the Holy Spirit speak through me.” “Well, suppose when you get up, the Holy Spirit doesn’t give you the message immediately. Then what do you do?” “Oh,” he said. “I just mess around until He does!” Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of preachers just messing around in our day and using as their excuse this instruction which our Lord gave to His apostles. That is really a misinterpretation of Scripture. If we put these verses back in their context and see them in their local situation, their meaning is crystal clear. Jesus continues:

Matthew 10:21

The coming of Christ into the world divided man; it did not bring unity. When one person in a family accepts Christ and another family member does not, you have a division. Paul said it well in 1Co_1:18, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

Matthew 10:22

This refers to the fact that the Lord will be able to keep His own for the three-year period of His ministry. Similarly, Mat_24:13 means that the Lord will be able to keep His own during the Great Tribulation period, as we shall see when we come to chapter 24.

Matthew 10:23

Notice that He says, “Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel"not the world, but Israel"till the Son of man be come,” meaning until He is manifested before the nation. It is difficult for us to conceive of the fact that our Lord covered the nation of Israel. And there was a real division in the nation concerning Him. When He asked His disciples, “…Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” (Mat_16:13), they gave Him several answers. Everybody had his own opinion about Him. In our day He is still the most controversial Person who has ever been in the world.

Matthew 10:24

PRINCIPLES THAT ARE TO GOVERN THE LIVES OF ALL DISCIPLESNow the Lord Jesus gives His men general instructions. Again, these are great principles which you and I can certainly apply to ourselves, although the direct interpretation is to the twelve apostles. We need to keep in mind that we are representing the Lord Jesus Christ, and He must come first. If we do not put Him first, we will have troubleI mean trouble with Him!

Matthew 10:25

Don’t worry about what people say about you if you are being faithful to Him. They did not say nice things about the Lord. If Jesus Himself received ill-treatment, His disciples could hardly expect to fare better.

Matthew 10:26

Friend, your life is going to be turned wrong side out someday and so is mine. God’s ultimate judgment will someday vindicate believers and deal with persecutors; so you had better have the inside of your life looking as attractive as the outside.

Matthew 10:27

I always think of a radio as being the best way of preaching from the housetops. Put an aerial on your rooftop and you can pick up even the most difficult radio stations. This is the way we preach from the housetops today, and I think it is an effective way.

Matthew 10:28

In other words, fear God. Someone asked Cromwell why he was such a brave man. Cromwell replied, “I’ve learned that when you fear God, you do not have any man to fear.”

Matthew 10:29

What a marvelous verse! The Lord takes care of the little sparrows. Have you ever watched a sparrow? I was in a hotel back East, in a downtown area, and there were hundreds of sparrows around a fountain on the grounds. I thought to myself, “There is not one of those birds that the Lord does not know about.” How wonderful this is to remember.

Matthew 10:30

God loves you! The Lord Jesus loves you more than your mother loved you. Did your mother ever count the hairs on your head? But God knows the number!

Matthew 10:31

Think of thatif God knows where the sparrow is, my friend, He knows where you are. You will never get to the place where He doesn’t know where you are.

Matthew 10:32

It stands to reason that if we have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior from sin, we will acknowledge it publicly or whenever it is deemed necessary to give a testimony. Therefore, the statement of verse Mat_10:33 follows as day follows night. This verse alerts me to want to confess Him and never to deny Him. However, I don’t want to make a fool of myself because there are times when I am not to cast my pearls before swine; that is, there are times when we do not honor Him by the use of His name in certain circles. Assuredly, we never want to deny Himneither will we deny Him.

Matthew 10:34

This is a verse with which the pacifist has had difficulty. However, until all unrighteousness is put down and suppressed, the Person of Christ will cause the enmity of Satan, and a battle will ensue. I wish a little of this verse would get into the United Nations today and into the thinking of some liberal preachers. Christ did not come to bring peace at His first coming. Sin is still in the world; and, as long as it stays upon the earth, God says that there will be no peace for the wicked.

Matthew 10:35

Paul amplified the truth of this verse when he said,“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1Co_1:18). Actually, families have been divided by the preaching of the gospel. Also, brothers have been separated. There is a unity of believers, and that very unity makes a division with the unsaved world.

Matthew 10:37

Unless you have really committed your life to Christ and paid a price, you cannot talk much about commitment. Personally, I do not brag about being a committed Christian because I find that I am in Simon Peter’s class. But, thank God, He is faithful. That’s the wonder of it all!

Matthew 10:38

I wish that I could have heard Him use that expression, “not worthy of me.” Many of us are not, and it means that He is not going to use us unless we are really committed to Him. But, thank God, He will not throw us overboard!

Matthew 10:39

He is putting in contrast the life which we have here in the flesh with the gift of eternal life which comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is possible that when a person comes to Christ, he may be put to death because of his faith. This is not true in the United States yet, but it is true in other parts of the world even in our day. A man who loses his physical life for Christ shall find eternal life which takes him into the presence of Christ. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2Co_5:8).

Matthew 10:40

In John 15 the Lord Jesus clarifies this section when He says that the world has hated Him and is going to hate His own. We ought not to be any more popular with the world than Jesus Christ is popular. The measure of our loyalty and faithfulness to Him is given in the prophet’s reward and the righteous man’s reward. If you defend the Lord Jesus as a prophet, you will receive a prophet’s reward. If you receive Him as only a righteous man, you will receive a righteous man’s reward. But if you acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior, you will receive a full reward. Our Lord makes it very clear that rewards are given on the basis of faithfulness.