And with me as we read our Scripture today, and as always,
once we finish reading, recite with me.
This is the word of the Lord. Amen.
We're going to begin in Matthew chapter 10, going through verses
one through 15. This is the word of the Lord
beginning in verse one. It says.
And he called to him his 12 disciples, and gave them
authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal
every disease and every affliction.
The names of the 12 apostles are these.
First, Simon who was called Peter, Andrew his brother James
the son of Zebedee, John his brother Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew the tax collector.
James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot and
Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. These 12 Jesus sent out
instructing them Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no
town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the
House of Israel, and proclaim as you go, saying, the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, cast out demons you received without paying,
give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or
copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics
or sandals, or a staff, for the labourer deserves his food.
In whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in
it and stay there until you depart.
As you enter the house, greet it, and if the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let
your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive
you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your
feet when you leave that house or town.
Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of
judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
This is the word of the Lord, Amen.
All right, you guys can have a seat.
And if you have not already, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to
Matthew chapter 10. And we're going to be continuing
on in our sermon series, the King and His Kingdom.
And the title of our sermon today is sent into the harvest
equipped for the Workman. What a fitting title for today
as we again celebrate the sending out of redemption Bear
River. And this passage, I think, is
very encouraging for us as we look at what that means.
And so this passage is kind of a continuation of what we studied
last week in Matthew Chapter 9, where we see that Jesus was
encouraging his 12 disciples to pray for laborers to enter into
the harvest or the field of ministry.
And so our passage today reveals the answer to that prayer where
Jesus has subsequently now called and commissioned these
same men as the laborers that he is going to send out for that
work. And you might be familiar with
the saying, be careful what you pray for, right?
But I like what Charles Spurgeon said about prayer.
He said where the Lord leads us to pray, He means to provide,
and that is exactly what Jesus does.
As we begin looking through this passage today, we see that Jesus
is granting his divine power and authority to these men so that
they can minister, so that they can take the gospel to an
unbelieving Israel. Jesus gives them strict
instructions regarding where they are to go, what they're to
do, and even how they are to prepare for this journey.
And finally, he encourages them in the face of certain
opposition as they shine the light of Christ into a sinful
world. And so as we unpack this text
today, a central theme kind of begins to emerge.
And that's our main point this morning.
It's that when Jesus calls us to serve him, he always equips us
for that work. So let's begin our study here.
In verse one it says he called to him his 12 disciples and gave
them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal
every disease and affliction. Now, historically, whenever
ancient kings would issue a decree throughout their Kingdom,
they would entrust emissaries to proclaim that decree to the
people who fell under the rule of this king.
And the words and the actions of those emissaries were to be
received just as though the king himself were speaking.
And so anyone who rejected the order that was taken out by
these emissaries, these ambassadors for the king, anyone
who rejected that, would face judicial consequences from the
king himself. And so in the same way, today in
this passage, we see that Jesus has issued a proclamation in
verse 7 that says the Kingdom of heaven has come near.
That's the proclamation, OK. And so these emissaries, these
apostles, the sent out ones, they have been given this decree
along with the warning for those who reject God's holy
proclamation. So let's look first here at
exactly how Jesus equipped these men for ministry.
What we see here is after summoning his 12 disciples
together, the text tells us that straight away Jesus gives them
authority and power over unclean spirits and over all, all manner
of physical affliction and ailment.
And this in itself, this action in itself is something that we
see throughout the Bible that is reserved specifically for God
because he alone is the source of all power and is the ultimate
authority. Like when Moses LED his God's
people out of Egypt. God demonstrated his power
through Moses by parting the sea, by bringing forth water
from a desert rock. We look at prophets like Elijah
and Elijah. We see again that God has
administered his power so that deaf ears and blind eyes might
be open to believe the prophetic words that come from the mouth
of the servants of the Lord and John the Baptist in the New
Testament, we see Jesus called him a burning lamp.
He was sent by God for this specific purpose, pointing
people to the true light of men and Jesus.
And so these are just a few examples for us in Scripture
where we see that the authority, this power and authority did not
originate from within these men themselves, but instead was
given by God so that they could accomplish God's redemptive
purpose that he had set them apart for.
And that's exactly what we see today in this passage.
Now, the Greek word that's used here when we look at authority
is the word exusia. And it does not simply mean that
Jesus is just giving them the right to do these things.
This is an authority that kind of implies a legal rule, as well
as the power and might that's required to carry it out.
Because without this divine power and this divine authority,
the ability to perform such works like healing the sick,
like raising the dead, those things fall short of being
miraculous, apart from the divine power that's given to
these apostles here. And so, as we've seen all
throughout our study of Matthew, whenever we see Jesus himself
exercising this kind of power, what was it to do when he cast
out demons, when he was healing the sick, when he was raising
the dead? It was to demonstrate his divine
authority and establish him as Lord and King for all those who
witnessed these miraculous events.
And so at this pivotal milestone we see here in Jesus earthly
ministry, he knows that his time is almost at hand.
He knows that, and he knows that others must be raised up to
continue on, to carry on the work of the ministry that he
began. And so this calling that we see
today, this commissioning that we see today of these 12 men
paired with this power, this authority from Jesus to carry it
out, it is essential. It's essential that they go in
this power. Why is that?
Because it overcomes human weakness and incapability while
glorifying the one to whom true power and authority belong.
Now, I would argue that God has never ceased in performing
miracles. Will we all agree with that?
I think God still does that today.
I think we can agree with that, but I think also the Bible
teaches us that these miraculous signed gifts that were
distributed almost exclusively among the early apostles, the
foundation of Christ Church to prove that they were operating
as direct emissaries of Christ for the gospel.
And so as as we look through the text, the text is describing
this authority as covering both the physical and the spiritual
realms. These men operating in the power
of Christ, they were given the ability to meet the physical
needs of those to whom they were to go and minister by healing
the sick and the afflicted, but also to tend to their spiritual
well-being by acting against any unclean or demonic spirits.
And so this highlights for us 2 corresponding themes that we see
throughout this passage, but that also echo Jesus himself,
right? Who was both fully God and fully
man, existing in both the human and the spiritual nature within
the person of Jesus. Because we think about mankind's
greatest need. What is the greatest need that
we as humanity have? It's our spiritual condition
before holy God that takes precedence over any physical
ailment that we might have, right?
Because while our bodies here are to be destroyed, we have an
eternal soul and eternal spirit that will live on, that will
exist far beyond our physical bodies.
And, and yes, Jesus healed the blind.
Yes, he raised the dead, he cleansed lepers.
But it was always to point to the greater need for spiritual
healing, because while man looks on outward appearances, God
judges the heart. And so by giving these men the
ability, the power, the authority to heal sickness and
disease and to cast out these demons, those who experienced
these physical healings, they were receptive when they were
confronted with the reality that spiritual renewal was what they
needed the most. And this is a renewal that's
made possible only through faith in Jesus, whose Kingdom and
authority these men were sent out to proclaim.
And that's going to bring us to our first take home point for
today is that only God's divine power carried out in Christ
Jesus can fulfill our greatest need of spiritual renewal.
Only God's divine power carried out in Christ Jesus can fulfill
our greatest need of spiritual renewal.
And I think this is vitally important to remember as we
study this passage. One of the core values of
Redemption Church, you'll see it right over here on one of these
banners, is that every member is a missionary.
We are mobilizers for the gospel wherever we live, wherever we
work, where we shop, where we play, we spend time with our
friends and our family. And we all know that when we
walk with other believers or that when we're seeking to lead
others to Jesus, we often times can rely too heavily on
ourselves to do that, which can quickly lead us to
discouragement and ultimately to fruitless ministry.
If we're depending on ourselves for that work, we have to
remember that the power of the Holy Spirit of God that He has
given to all who are in Christ, it is fully sufficient to
overcome our spiritual weaknesses and our inabilities.
And because of that, we can live boldly as emissaries, as
ambassadors for Christ, because we're trusting the work to the
one who actually holds the power, the true power and
authority, and who alone can affect real change within the
hearts of men. And so as we look into our next
section here in verses 2 to 4, we might ask the question, well,
who were these men? Who were these 12 guys that
Jesus has called apart here? And I think as we look briefly
at who these men are or were, we begin to see a snapshot of
ourselves and how Jesus really uses ordinary, unremarkable men
as laborers in this harvest. So let's read verses 2 to 4 as
we continue on. It says the names of the 12
apostles are these. First, Simon, who is called
Peter and Andrew, his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, John,
his brother Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew
the tax collector. James, the son of Alpheus and
Thaddeus. Simon the Zealot and Judas
Iscariot who betrayed him. Here's a fun fact for you.
Did you know that one of the one of the reasons, one of the
catalysts for John Wickliffe when he translated the Bible
from Latin to English, was that he took a survey of English
clergy at that time and he discovered that less than 1/3
were able to name these 12 apostles?
Can you believe that? Now, I don't know if that
number's gone up anymore today. I certainly hope so, Hope that
we all here could name the 12 if we were quiz.
But when we look in the Bible, really, other than Peter and
James and John, you know, there's very little that's given
in Scripture about the lives of these men.
I mean, we see, you know, bits and pieces here and there.
We see maybe their first encounter with Jesus described
in Scripture, maybe some brief details of when they were
following him along. But I think for the most part,
these men are just kind of seemingly anonymous throughout
Scripture. And I think we often look at
these 12 men more as a collective, as the 12, rather
than as individuals. But here's what we do know.
Here's what we do know about these men.
We know that some of them were fishermen, just common guys down
by the banks making a living catching fish.
We know that one was a tax collector, the most hated man
probably in all the village. We know that one was a political
rebel, a zealot. We know that two were called the
Sons of Thunder for their volatile personalities.
And we know that one would become the betrayer.
And though these men were were outcast, they were downtrodden,
they were despised. Their encounter with the living
God made person in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, that took
them from ordinary men who God used for an extraordinary
purpose. Now does that mean that they
always did everything right? Of course not.
But Jesus summoned them here as disciples.
Notice this change. He summons them as disciples,
those who have been following Him, those who've been learning
from Him, and now in his power, in his authority, in his
commissioning, He sent them out as apostles, the sent out ones
acting in the authority of the king to proclaim his Kingdom.
But before Jesus sets them on their way here, he gives them
strict instructions on where and how they are to go.
Let's look here in verses 5 through 8 it says these 12 Jesus
sent out instructing them go nowhere among the Gentiles and
enter no town of the Samaritans to go rather to the lost sheep
of the House of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, cast out demons you received without paying,
give without pay. Now think as we study this
section here, it's important for us to note that this directive
here that that Jesus has given them to to go out exclusively
first to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
This is only for this specific time in the ministry of these
apostles, because later we look in Scripture, what do we see
especially we look at the Great Commission.
We look in Acts, we see Jesus using language like make
disciples of all nations and you will be my witnesses to the ends
of the earth, indicating to us that the gospel was always meant
to reach, to go out and reach those far beyond Israel.
But for this specific moment, for this specific mission, it's
their instruction to go to the lost sheep of the House of
Israel first. Why is that?
Well, like a blue tick hound that's chasing a raccoon.
You might have already struck this trail of biblical symbolism
here. Jesus sent 12 apostles.
There's 12 tribes of Israel. There's got to be something
there, right? So let's let's bark up this tree
for just a minute. We look at Romans chapter one,
verse 16. It says I'm not ashamed of the
gospel. For the gospel is the power of
God unto salvation for all who believe what first to the Jew
and then also to the Greek, giving us this clear
chronological precedent here, that the gospel was meant to go
first to the people of Israel, to the nation of Israel, to
ethnic Israel. But Paul goes on in Romans 96 to
say this, that not all who are descended from Israel are
Israel, meaning that there's some different Israel.
Is there some true Israel and some untrue, indicating that the
true Israel here is made-up of a people outside of this ethnic
birthright that's promised through Abraham, through the
seed of Abraham and Jacob in the Abrahamic covenant.
We look back in the Old Testament in this Abrahamic
covenant that God made with Abraham and later with Jacob,
which was kind of the first stage in this yet to be fully
realized covenant of grace that we see proceeding down through
the Mosaic and through the Davidic covenants.
And we're not going to get super deep in the weeds there, but.
Just understand that that all these are only formally
completed and carried out in the new covenant through the
finished work of Christ. And so as we look back in the
Old Testament prophets, we're going to see exactly who this
true Israel is here. If we look in Isaiah chapter 49
verses 3 through 6, it says the word of the Lord says, and he
said to me, you are my servant Israel and whom I will be
glorified. But I said, I have labored in
vain. I've spent my strength for
nothing and vanity, yet surely my right is with the Lord, and
my recompense with God. And now the Lord says he who
formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring back Jacob
to him, that Israel might be gathered to him.
For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become
my strength. He says, And it's too light a
thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob, to bring back the preserved of Israel.
I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation
may reach to the end of the earth.
So there again we see again just exactly again what Jesus was
telling us in the Great Commission in Acts.
This was always for a greater people than just Israel.
And in verse 3 here God calls the servant Israel.
But by verse 5, we see that that servant, not this ethnic nation
of Israel, but rather the promised mediator who fulfills
the broken works of the Mosaic covenant and actively
establishes this new covenant for the elect that God has set
apart. So who is that servant?
Who is that mediator? I thought we fixed that gas leak
in here. Who is it?
Jesus. It's Jesus, right?
Yes. And so at the exact same time
here, what we see is we see that Christ Jesus is identified as
the true Israel here, but we see that this servant, this true
Israel has a specific mission to the people of the ethnic people
of Israel. So we're the ethnic nation of
people. That's those who were born in
this birthright of Jacob, descended from that lineage.
We see where that nation has failed under the covenant of
works. We see that Christ succeeds.
He renders the perfect obedience that the nation of Israel could
not, securing righteousness for his people.
Now looking at verse 5, it says formed me in the womb to be his
servant. This is Speaking of the
incarnation where Jesus took on flesh.
In this eternal decree, Christ was appointed that mediator of
the covenant of grace from eternity past, right?
This is something that God established within himself,
within the triune being of who he is from eternity past.
And so this physical incarnation where Jesus was born and took on
flesh and lived as a man, that was specifically designed for
this mediatorial role here that we see to bring back Jacob in
verse 6, to bring him back and gather Israel.
This is Christ's initial earthly ministry that was strictly to
the lost sheep of Israel that when we continue on in Matthew,
you'll see in verse or starting chapter 15 and verse 24, Jesus
says that very thing that his ministry is first to Israel.
But this gathering together that it talks about here, it's not
merely just an ethnic restoration of this ethnic
people, Christ is gathering within this group the the true
Israel, the elect, the true Israelites, the elect within
Israel, the true spiritual seed of Adam.
So you see the difference here again, back to that those
corresponding themes of the physical and the spiritual
operating here within this passage.
And as we mentioned in Romans 96, not all who are descended,
meaning physical descendants in this lineal bloodline, not all
who are descended from Israel are Israel.
And so while Jesus's work, his ministry, his death, his
resurrection have retroactively now secured salvation of the Old
Testament elect and this 1st century Jewish remnant, the
Bible calls it this small portion that would be saved.
The covenant promised to bring into this new covenant a
spiritual Israel had to take place before the Gentiles were
brought into that fold, right? Do we understand that is that is
that crystal clear? Maybe?
OK, that's again, covenant study is something you can you can
take into your own hands. And I encourage you to do that
because the more you study this, you see that God never fails to
uphold his promises in establishing these covenants.
Because Jesus, who is the true Israel, commands these 12, 11 of
whom, with the exception of of course, Judas, were true
spiritual Israelites by faith to act within his divine power.
They're to meet physical needs. They're to meet the, the, the
spiritual needs with the gospel. And they're to begin with the
lost sheep of Israel. Because here's the why.
Because it is in direct fulfilment with the law and the
prophets. And that's our take home point
#2 for today is that gospel ministry is firmly founded on
the eternal truth of who Jesus is.
Gospel ministry is firmly founded on the eternal truth of
who Jesus is found in the Word of God.
And like these apostles, when we take part in gospel ministry,
and when I say we, I don't just mean we as as pastors and
elders. I mean all Christians, friend.
It's not based on our opinion and it's not based on our
feelings because opinions can be swayed and feelings can deceive.
It has to be rooted in something else.
It has to be founded. It has to stand on some other
truth other than what we say that truth is, because that's
not truth. The truth is found in who Jesus
is and what he's already done. It's firmly set in the Word of
God because Christ Jesus is the fulfilment of that word.
And so the more time that we spend studying and treasuring
His Word, the more those beauties of Christ are revealed
to us. From Genesis all the way to
Revelation, this is the story that God wrote and it has its
glorious fulfilment in Christ as the cornerstone of his gospel.
Now that was a lot to take in there.
That was a lot of meat. Let me let me let you chew that
up for a minute. And I want you to think about
something here as we take a slow down.
You know, as school is kind of winding down this year, the
summer's getting ready to kick in to full swing here.
Memorial Day typically is kind of the ushering in the
inauguration of summer. I'm sure there's a lot of you
that are preparing for maybe summer trips, long summer
vacations. Now if you're anything like me,
you err on the side of being over prepared.
I often will pack multiples of the same item when in reality I
probably only need one. Or realistically maybe maybe
none. Usually it's none.
But I live by this mantra. 2 is 1 and 1 is none, all right?
Meaning if you got one of something, it's just like you
got nothing. So always bring 2.
Good rule to live by. But because of this, even when
we go on short family hikes or adventures, my pack often looks
like this. Can anybody relate to that?
You over pack, you bring too much, you don't use most of what
you need. And like anybody who's preparing
for a long journey, these 12 apostles here, they're likely
already mentally preparing, making a mental inventory here
of of all the physical provision that they would need for this
journey. But as we look through the next
couple verses in our text here, the next set of instructions
that Jesus gives to these 12 is not what they should take, but
what they should not take. So let's continue on in verses 9
and 10. Here in verse 9 it says acquire
no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your
journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff for the
laborer deserves his food. Now Jesus tells his apostles
here, don't take any gold, don't take silver, don't take don't
take copper. In other words, don't worry
about money. Don't pack a bag, don't take a
bunch of extra clothes, don't worry about what you're going to
wear. Don't take a staff.
He says you'll be protected, don't worry about food.
He says, I'll make sure that your belly's full.
I'll make sure you're fed. Now, Jesus is not saying these
things because they won't need these things.
Of course they're going to need all these things, right?
But his desire for them is to focus entirely on the work at
hand and to rest securely in the provision of their Savior.
That's Jesus's desire here. Because remember, when Jesus
calls us to serve him, he always equips us for that work.
And friends, this has been a challenging struggle for me
mentally, spiritually, going all the way back to when we moved to
Utah from South Carolina to help plant Redemption N Davis.
And even now as we look at Redemption Bear River and
planting up there, struggle with that sometimes.
And it's not because we haven't seen God's provision and God's
goodness for our church and for our family.
Trust me, we've seen it, we continue to see it, but there is
just a deep seated self dependence, this self-reliance
that is just ingrained in all of us and our fleshly nature.
It's there and it can paralyze us.
It can paralyze us. And maybe you felt like this
before. Maybe you felt like God is
leading you to do something. But we fear taking action
because, oh, what if everything's not just perfectly
in the right place and everything's not just as it
should be? And what if I don't have this?
And what if I don't have that and you're paralyzed and you
don't act? That is disobedience to what God
has called you to do. And this is precisely why Jesus
tells these men, forgo your fear and trust in the provision of
the Lord here. Now, when the Lord called me to
step away from the workforce and commit to full time ministry, I
wrestled with that. I wrestled with that a lot.
I had a good paying job with good benefits.
I felt like I was doing a a good job.
I was doing well in providing for my family and that's
important. That's important.
Hear me now that is important in our role as providers, as
protectors of our family. But if that self reliant need
for provision stands in the way of doing something that God has
called you to do, friend, it's imperative that you set that
aside. As hard as that may be, it is
imperative that you set that aside and step into a faith
filled, fully dependent relationship with Jesus.
That is what He wants for all of us to lay down our fears at His
feet to give Him our burdens. And Jesus previously taught this
to these same men. If we look back in Matthew
chapter 6, remember Matthew 6? That one's not in there.
Turn in your Bibles. You're already in Matthew right
there. Should take you just a couple
pages. Matthew 625 to 33.
What does He say? Therefore, I tell you what,
don't be anxious about your life, what you'll eat, what
you'll drink about your body, what you'll put on is life not
more than food in the body, more than clothing, right?
Then he goes on through the passage and what does he say at
the end? He says seek first the Kingdom
of God, and all these things will be added to you.
Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all of these things that
Jesus has told them to leave behind will be there.
He's simply saying, look, as you go, as my emissaries, as my
ambassadors, as my apostles, seek first the mission that
you've been sent for. Seek first the Kingdom of God,
not just taking it to those who are far from God, but in your
own relationship with me, in your own walk with me.
Those are the things that you should seek first.
Because what is Jesus doing here?
He's pointing out the greater spiritual need because listen,
when we enter territory that is hostile to the gospel, we need
far more than physical provision.
We need to be ready for spiritual warfare.
Amen. We have to be clothed in His
righteousness. We have to be protected by the
armor of God. We have to be fed by the bread
of life. And when we are, we can walk in
confidence knowing that whatever we might lack physically, we are
abundantly provided for in spirit as we go about His work.
And sometimes, friend, that spiritual provision, that faith
that has been strengthened by our good provider, that's all
we've got to fall back on sometimes.
That's all we've got sometimes because, listen, we're always
going to need more money. We're always going to need more
food. We're always going to need new
clothes. Our health may fail,
relationships may break. But the Kingdom that these men
were sent out to proclaim, it's not an earthly Kingdom.
It's going to be subject to age and to entropy.
This is an everlasting Kingdom where neither moth nor rust
destroys. It's an eternal rule where
Christ reigns supreme and brings the dead hearts to life.
And in our final section of text today, we see this sobering
warning for these who ignore this royal decree.
Let's look as we finish up here in verses 11 through 15.
Get us on, get us on. Verse 11 there.
Who's I got the slides? All right, Verse 11 through 15,
it says here. And whatever town or village you
enter, find out who is worthy in it.
Stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet
it. And if the house is worthy, let
your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let
your peace return to you. If anyone will not receive you
or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when
you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be
more bearable on the day of judgement for the land of Sodom
and Gomorrah than for that town. So finally, Jesus instructs them
here when they arrive in a town, go look for those people who are
going to be hospitable to you, who are going to receive you
well, not just physically, not just meeting your needs, but to
those people, they're going to hear what you have to say.
You're going to listen to this gospel message that you
proclaim. Go find those people.
Go hunker down there, is what he's saying, and certainly while
the comfort of a soft bed and a nice warm meal by the fire that
would've been greatly appreciated after a long journey
like this. But what have we seen throughout
this text? The mission here is far greater
than the than the ministers. The need of the mission is far
greater than those who are carrying it out.
And hopefully by now you've caught on that Jesus is not
simply talking here about welcoming homes, but willing
hearts. Willing hearts.
This demonstrates the vital importance of the Gospel.
It is the invitation. It is the invitation to enter by
faith the very Kingdom that these apostles were sent to
proclaim. And a worthy person.
In this context, it's not just someone who is offering
hospitality to the King's emissaries.
It's the person whose heart God has prepared to receive the
gospel. And this points us to God's
effectual calling where we see the power of the Holy Spirit
drawing people to himself, leading to regeneration, to
conversion, to fruitful gospel ministry.
The worthy house is, is the receptive house.
They're the ones that God has given ears to hear and believe
the gospel. And just as these apostles
pronounce their Shalom, their blessing of peace on those who
care for them, when the Spirit brings sinful men to Christ, he
bestows his eternal Shalom upon their hearts.
Now, as we conclude our text today, we see that there's
another kind of house that's mentioned here, one that's
inhospitable, one that's unreceptive.
This points to those who hear the gospel.
But despite the earnest efforts. Of the laborers here, they just
outright reject, and it's heartbreaking as that is.
We have to understand the mandate that Jesus gives here
when that happens, while we're called to bring the gospel to
those who are far from God, Jesus instructs here that when
that message falls on deaf ears, don't tarry long.
Don't tarry long. We have to continue out into the
harvest praying that the next house will be a receptive house.
And he encourages his 12 year. Don't internalize that
rejection. Don't hold that rejection, but
instead take that peace of Christ with you.
Take it with you and move on. To rest in the peace of the Lord
is to rest in Christ, knowing that once that decree has been
proclaimed, remember that decree.
The Kingdom of heaven is near. Once that message has been
proclaimed, the emissary's responsibility is fulfilled.
Meaning the job of the messenger is to deliver the message.
That's our job. That's their job.
The job of the messenger is to deliver the message.
And if it's rejected, justice for those who reject belongs
entirely to the king. And in verse 14, here we look at
verse 14 and we if we look on the surface, it's almost as
though Jesus is merely telling his apostles to just leave these
unreceptive places. Just get out of there so fast
that the dust falls off your feet.
But when we dig deeper, there is a deep cultural significance
here in this command to shake the dust off your feet.
In a 1st century Jewish context, this was a highly symbolic
gesture. Now, devout Jews, whenever they
would go and travel to these Gentile nations, they believed
that the very soil, the very grains of dirt in these Gentile
nations were ceremonially unclean.
So when they would travel, before they would cross back
into the border, they would literally shake off their
clothes and their sandals in a physical demonstration of
separation from that. Basically say, look, I'm leaving
the impurity of this idolatry, this Pagan idolatry, this Pagan
world. I'm leaving it behind.
And I don't even want to bring 1 speck of that uncleanliness back
in with me. That's what that gesture means.
And so by commanding his apostles to shake the dust off
their feet when they're leaving a Jewish Home or town who has
rejected the gospel, Jesus is telling them perform this
symbolic action against the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
It's a it's a severe declaration that any Israelite who rejects
the true Israel is no longer part of this covenant and will
not be welcomed into his Kingdom because to God, their rejection
has rendered them spiritually unclean, no different from the
Pagan Gentiles. And so for a 1st century Jew,
this would have been a shocking and severe indictment of their
spiritual condition, and they would have understood it to be
that as well. And so Jesus concludes here by
giving us the royal judgement for those who have rejected his
decree. He says their punishment will be
far worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, those ancient cities
that were destroyed in a fiery rain of sulfur for their
debauchery. That was a terrible fate for
those cities, but it was a singular earthly judgement.
Rejecting Jesus negates those covenant promises.
It leaves the person outside of the Kingdom, resulting in
spiritual death and eternal suffering.
Eternal suffering. That's why it's so much worse.
But that's the righteous and just judgement of the true King.
For those who scoff at his decree, at his gospel.
Now, this was undoubtedly difficult reality for these
apostles here, all of whom were Jews.
All 12 were Jews themselves. I think for us it has to be a
heavy and a sobering reminder for us to sit with today, to
hear that rejecting the gospel brings the judgement more severe
than the fire and brimstone of Sodom.
That's terrifying. It should be.
It should be terrifying. But church, this is exactly why
this mission is so intensely urgent.
And that is exactly why Jesus does not send his laborers out
to do it on their own. Because when Jesus calls us to
serve him, he always equips us for that work.
I like these apostles. Jesus doesn't just give us the
command to go. He gives us the authority, the
provision, the truth of the gospel that can bring dead
hearts to life. The very picture of which we
celebrated through the ordinance of baptism this morning.
Because we don't go into our neighborhoods and into our
workplaces and into our communities with a message that
says if you're good enough, you can make it.
That's not the message that we take.
We go bearing the royal decree of the king.
We carry the gospel that says the Kingdom of God is near and
to enter it you must be born again.
That's what God's Word says in John chapter 3.
And that's the hard truth of Scripture, that every single one
of us is born into that unworthy house.
By nature, we are enemies of God.
We are children of wrath. Sin has separated us from God.
It's it's made us spiritually unclean, and it has made us
entirely deserving of God's righteous and eternal judgement.
That's the bad news. That's the bad news.
But the good news is this, that just as Jesus prepared these
apostles for their calling, for their commissioning to serve
him, in today's text, Jesus prepares the hearts for his
redeeming work of those that he calls unto salvation.
God, being rich in mercy, sent the true Israel, the eternal
Son, the true King of kings, Jesus God, who took on the
weakness of flesh and stepped into our messy and broken world.
And He lived the perfect and sinless life that we could never
live any of us. Then He willingly went to the
cross to die in our place. He absorbed the fiery and
righteous wrath of God that you and I deserved.
He took on the judgement of the unreceptive house upon Himself
unto death. But three days later, He rose
victorious over the grave, proving that that debt was paid
in full so that our hearts could be transformed into a worthy
house where the Spirit can dwell.
The Kingdom of heaven has come near.
The invitation is open to all who will believe by faith that
Jesus is that fulfilment of the law and the prophets and all
those covenants, the true Israel, King of King and Lord of
Lords. And if you're sitting here this
morning and the Lord has stirred your heart to respond in faith,
I or one of the other pastors would love to talk with you to
answer any questions you might have about that, to pray with
you after our service. Because this Shalom, this
blessing of the peace of Christ, that's what the gospel preached
today, offers you peace with God.
He's calling you to believe his gospel, to repent of your sin,
trusting not in what you think you can do, but trusting in what
Jesus has already done. And to you, Christian, to those
that are being sent out with redemption, Bear River, just
look. Just look at the harvest around
us. The Lord has placed us here for
a reason. He has called us to step into
the harvest together. We are His appointed laborers.
Yes, there are going to be times where we feel inadequate.
Yes, there's going to be times where we face rejection.
But remember who is sending us and let us lay down our fears.
Trust in His divine provision and step boldly into the harvest
together. He's called us and He will equip
us for this work. Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for this passage today, as we have
seen that there is a a terrifying reality for those who
reject your gospel Lord. And I pray that if today you
have already begun a work in the heart of someone that's here as
they have heard this gospel, Lord Jesus, that you would
deliver unto them salvation and righteousness.
Lord Jesus, that you would do that today.
I thank you for this opportunity to stand together with my
brothers and my sisters with Redemption Bear River and be
sent out in this missional sending much in the way that you
sent out these 12. Lord Jesus, help us to be
faithful in this work. But most of all, help us to rely
entirely on you. It is in the name of our Savior
Jesus that I pray. Amen.