Jesus Sends Out the 12
Tom Shrader walks through Matthew 9:35–10:5, tracing Jesus' compassion for crowds who were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, and His call to pray for laborers in the harvest. Shrader introduces the Twelve apostles, noting their diverse and often opposite backgrounds, and examines the marching orders Jesus gave them as He sent them out to proclaim repentance and the kingdom of God. Drawing on a personal story about his wife's cancer and a family who lost a newborn, Shrader presses the congregation to see the gospel not as a social risk but as the only cure that cannot fail, urging every believer to communicate it faithfully in their own sphere of influence.
“You have in your back pocket the truth that solves a greater problem, that absolutely works for certain and for all of eternity — the entrance fee to the kingdom of heaven is nothing, but the annual dues are everything.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2005)
Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 54 min
Themes: evangelism, compassion, mission, harvest, repentance, gospel, sending, obedience, feeling afraid to share faith, new believer, struggling with doubt, caregiver, parent facing loss, young adult, feeling unworthy to serve, layperson wanting to evangelize
Scripture: Matthew 9:35, Matthew 9:36, Matthew 10:1, Matthew 10:5, Matthew 10:7, Matthew 10:9, Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 28, Luke 8:22-25, Luke 8:26-39, Romans 12, Ezekiel 34:2, Acts 1:8, Isaiah 6, James 2
Theological Themes: apostleship, kingdom of god, missiology, gospel proclamation, soteriology, divine compassion, discipleship, the great commission
Full Transcript
Jesus at the Apex of His Ministry
Matthew chapter 9 verse 35 is where we want to be. We continue to look at snapshots of the life of Christ, working our way through the life of Jesus, taking the four Gospels, harmonizing them, doing the best we can to put them in chronological order. There are certain times where we'll pass maybe one scene and come back to it another time, but this is a really important time in the ministry of Christ.
Here in Matthew chapter 9 verse 35, Jesus is at the apex of His ministry in terms of popularity. He is never going to draw crowds any larger than the crowds He is drawing now. The reason is that He is about to unfold to them what really needs to happen — first of all to Him, that He must go and die, and that His followers must pursue Him, deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. There is a huge cost associated with it.
As long as He is preaching, and as long as there is healing, as long as there are miracles, everyone is attracted — and that is true in every age. As long as that is going on and being talked about, there is that excitement level and people tend to be drawn to it. But all of a sudden He says, no, this is what the Christian faith is all about, and the crowds begin to thin. So let's see if we can unpack this, because I do think we will be able to apply it to our own time and life today.
Teaching and Proclaiming Throughout Galilee
"Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction."
Galilee is an area about 40 miles wide and about 70 miles long. At the time of Christ, there were probably somewhere around 3 million people living in this region, and there were over 200 cities and villages. The only difference between a city and a village is that a city typically had walls for protection. Jesus is going from city to city, preaching the good news, going into the synagogues.
The synagogue was really the center — the hub — for the Jew in that area. It was their place of worship. The word means literally "place of assembly," but it served as their place of worship, their town hall, and their courthouse. The Jews at this time were allowed by the Romans to deal not just with religious matters but with most civil matters as well. It took at least 10 men in an area or region to establish a synagogue, so there were dozens and dozens of synagogues at that time.
Jesus is moving through the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues. We have seen that already. He has also been teaching the multitudes — we saw a couple of weeks ago that Jesus delivered a message to thousands and thousands of people at one time. But here He is proclaiming the gospel.
Preaching Versus Teaching
The word "proclaiming" means literally to preach. There is a distinction made between preaching and teaching. The teaching is the delivering of content; the preaching is driving toward a conclusion. It would seem that we would want to do a little bit of both.
I was teaching a class this week at the seminary, and the question came up — are you a theologian, or are you something else? I said it doesn't even matter what the "or" is, because I know I am not a theologian. The seminary students were genuinely puzzled by this. They asked, how does this get trained? Do you just read books and study and pour yourself into it? And I said yes. Then they asked what school I went to, and I said that school wasn't there for me. My mission really isn't to teach in that sense anyway — it is to preach, to proclaim.
The Good News Jesus Proclaimed
Look at what He is proclaiming: the gospel. Let's talk about the gospel for a moment, just to make sure we understand it. Jesus is proclaiming literally the good news. What is the good news? The good news is that Jesus has come.
The Good News and the Bad News
The good news that we preach is still our responsibility to carry to the world in which we live. The good news is that Jesus has come. But the good news is preceded by the bad news, really, isn't it?
The bad news is that you need to examine your life — not as you compare it to others. We love that game. We love to get around and compare ourselves to three or four or five different people and say, "Well, I'm better than him, better than her. I may not be perfect, but I'm better than them." That is not the measurement at all. God says that you and I need to be perfect, without sin.
Sin, though we may not look at it as any big deal, according to God one sin — if I break a law, I break the law — separates me from God, and the wage of sin is death. That is the message we have to communicate: that apart from Christ, we are helpless and hopeless, and there is nothing we can do. We will unpack that a little more in a moment.
The good news is Jesus is here. Jesus died. And if we repent — that simply means turn — if we turn to Him, if we turn from our own worship and our own proclamation of our own gospel and turn to Him and accept His gospel, we will be saved.
The Entrance Fee Is Nothing
Henry Durhaman, the Scottish author and evangelist, writes this sentence. It is a little dated, but the idea carries through. He said, "The entrance fee to the kingdom of heaven is nothing, but the annual subscription is everything." Here is how we would say it today: what does it cost you and me to go to heaven? What do we have to do? That is the question, and that is how I was raised. I was raised with religion. I was raised with do this, don't do this, do this, do this.
And then you come to Scripture, and Scripture is absolutely clear — it could not be more clear. There is not one thing that you can do. There is no church that you can join. There is no act you can perform. There is no money that you can give. There is nothing that you can do.
I remember one time as a young man listening to John Kennedy speak. He was talking about the world situation, and he said, "We've got ourselves into this, and we'll get ourselves out of this." Well, here is the deal: we have got ourselves into this sin, and we cannot get ourselves out of it.
The entrance fee is nothing. Christ died, and if we come in repentance and faith — if we believe Jesus is who He said He was, and we plan for our life and death accordingly, if we acknowledge our sin and trust Him alone as the solution for that sin — we have salvation. That was so foreign to me as I was being raised as a young boy. I never thought that you could know you were going to heaven.
But isn't that what Scripture says as we study it over and over again? You can know. You can be certain. "He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Christ Jesus." "My sheep know my voice, and I know them, and nothing will snatch them out of my hands." Those of you who took communion — if you are truly converted, you are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there, because you were not saved by your merit. You were saved by His grace.
Present Your Bodies as a Living Sacrifice
The entrance fee is nothing, but the annual dues are everything. In other words, present your body as a living sacrifice. We think God may want our money or He may want our time. No. God wants you. He wants your heart, your soul. That is what He says. Romans chapter 12: present your bodies as a living sacrifice. It is the picture of presenting all that you have and all that you are to Him.
Gary was saying this to you in the words you sang. We sing these words, and they are a beautiful melody. We love to hear them, and it is a beautiful environment. But here is what we are saying: stop short and understand what you are singing. Understand the power of those words. Understand what you are saying.
Jesus: Healing, Preaching, and Teaching
Jesus is proclaiming this message and going about His ministry through three activities that represented that ministry: healing, preaching, and teaching. He is healing every disease and every affliction — look at that in verse 35. Consequently, there is a crowd.
Verse 36: "When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." I want to really camp on this for a moment. Jesus feels compassion — there is His humanity. If we are to think like Christ and act like Christ, then we begin to feel like Christ. We begin to see things as He sees them. So there should be compassion in our lives.
When we talk about that compassion, consider the scene around Jesus. There are the blind, the deaf, and the lame. It may be — though I would doubt it — that there were even lepers there, those who had to stay apart from the people, who would have to cry out "Unclean, unclean" if anyone came near them. Doesn't that scene move you? Doesn't it touch your heart?
A Baby Named Baxter and Gia's Little Girl
I received a call on Monday or Tuesday — the days all run together — that one of the couples from our church had a baby. There was absolutely no warning, nothing that would have raised any alarm. It was a scheduled C-section delivery, and it went exactly as it was supposed to. But the minute the baby left her mother's body, she could not sustain her own life.
The doctors were around, and God was good and allowed me to get to the hospital while Baxter and Gia were there with their family, to pray and to see and to hope. It was this beautiful little girl — there is absolutely no way to explain it other than that she was magnificently beautiful — and she died the next day.
Yesterday was the memorial service. It was a truly moving time. There were many people there, and my suspicion —
The Compassion That Drives Jesus
When we think of Jesus' compassion, I don't want you to miss what is driving it. Jesus has great compassion for those who are hurting. The Scripture is clear: He is moved and swept by that emotion. He is moved by the hurt and the pain, and He is able to come alongside and heal them.
But look at the text, look at the verse. Jesus is moved with compassion — why? Not because of the hurt and pain, not in this situation. If you say you want to have compassion like Jesus, then here is what moved Him: it is because the crowd was harassed and helpless. One of your translations will say they were distressed and downcast. Distressed carries the literal idea of being harassed or troubled, battered, bruised, mangled, ripped apart. Downcast means they were thrown down, utterly helpless. What touches Jesus' heart as He looks at these people is that they are sheep without a shepherd.
Even as He comes alongside and begins to heal them, we need to stay here for a moment. Even as He heals them, He understands that that healing is temporary. No matter how many of these people Jesus healed at this point in time — and they were genuinely healed — they are all dead now. Jesus understood that they had a deeper problem than just the fact that they could not see, or could not hear, or could not walk. That was a symptom. It certainly got their attention, and He would heal them, but that physical reality is a picture of a spiritual truth.
The Demonized Man: Luke Chapter 8
Keep your finger there and we will come back. Look at Luke chapter 8, please. This is one of the parallel passages — both Mark and Luke, along with Matthew, record these events. Chuck Holmes stopped by my office this week and said, "Are you going to talk about Luke chapter 8?" I said yes, I am not going to start there, but I do want to stop there and make a beautiful point. This is a magnificent story about a man who has been demonized.
Look at verse 26: "Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, opposite Galilee." They are on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. "And when Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes and had not lived in a house but lived among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said, 'What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?'"
It is striking that the demon immediately recognizes Jesus and who He is. That is what James tells us — the demons believe, meaning the demons understand who Jesus is. Every time we see these demons in Scripture, they are not wondering who this is. They understand exactly that this is Jesus. They have this figured out. They are way ahead of the multitudes and the crowds at this point.
Believing Is Not Enough
They understand who He is, but they have not trusted Him for salvation. They have not put their faith and trust in Him. You can believe Jesus is who He said He was, but if you have not repented, and if you have not expressed that belief in faith, then you are no more qualified, if you will, than a demon. A demon gets that. Belief alone is not saving faith.
Legion and the Herd of Pigs
There is this man, and the demons have overtaken him. Verse 29: "For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds." That is what we see typically in the demonized man or woman — extraordinary human strength.
"Jesus then asked him, 'What is your name?' And he said, 'Legion,' for many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and the demons begged him to let them enter these. And he gave them permission." The demons are pleading: do not throw us into the abyss. They fear the abyss. Put us into these pigs — we need to exist here. So He did. The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country, and the people went out to see what had happened.
The Man Sitting at Jesus' Feet
I want to make sure we grasp this. Here is a man everyone knows and everyone recognizes. He has literally been running around with no clothes, not living among people but living among the dead. By every estimate, he is out of his mind. They have done everything humanly possible to restrain him, and they cannot do it.
The people came out to see what had happened. Verse 35: "And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid." And they asked Jesus to leave. It is a magnificent scene.
A Transformed Life
This is a picture of you and me — not that we were running around naked and living in the tombs, but we ran around with whatever had us under control. We thought that was our problem: perhaps it was booze, or maybe it was lust, or maybe it was pride, maybe it was greed. But that was nothing more than a symptom of a heart problem. And all of a sudden, when we come to Christ in repentance and faith, where should they find us? Sitting at the feet of Jesus, and in his right mind.
And they are afraid. You would think that if you were there and saw this, you would say, "Obviously there's something extraordinary about this man — why don't you tell me more?" But they are not curious. They are afraid. They are threatened by this. It is interesting to study the commentaries, and they make a couple of observations here. One is that the herdsmen and the townspeople are mad and angry because they have seen their entire flock destroyed — it hit them right in the wallet. Then some commentaries ask, what are these Jewish boys raising pigs for anyway? Jesus is dealing with two problems at once.
Look at what Jesus does with the man. The man says he wants to go with Jesus. Jesus gets into the boat to leave, and the man says, "I want to go with you." And Jesus says, in verse 39, "Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you." And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. That is the application of your life and mine — declaring how much Jesus has done for you.
The Cure You Already Carry
Let me drive this home. Since Susan was diagnosed at Thanksgiving, I have received dozens and dozens of packages, phone calls, and emails from people recommending this doctor, this treatment, this approach, these pills, this juice. From people I know a little, from people I don't know at all. I remember lying in bed at a quarter to ten at night when the phone rang, and a man said, "You don't know me, we've never met, I've heard about your wife — you need to try this."
Now here is my point, and please don't misunderstand: I am grateful for all of those things. I take everything that comes in, I give it to Susan, and I say, "It's your life, your body, your cancer — you figure out what you want to do." I know that people love and care, I understand all of that. But even if your remedy heals her — and I don't mean to be crass — something else is going to get her. Statistically she has another twenty or twenty-five years, maybe thirty or thirty-five if we get generous. But something is going to get her. Whatever the pill is, or the vitamin, or the machine, or the chemotherapy, or whatever the treatment is — it is temporary at best. Even if it works, it is temporary, because ultimately she dies.
It baffles me. At first I just noticed it, but I didn't really start connecting the dots until the last few months. Here are people who barely know us, or don't know us at all, saying, "I've heard that you're sick — this is what helped me, it helped my brother, it has helped others, it will help you." And again, if you hear any bitterness or malice in what I am saying, the problem is with the listener. I am genuinely grateful. But even if these things work, they are a temporary fix.
Here is what strikes me. All around us are people who are critically ill with sin in their lives, and if they don't come to Christ in repentance and faith in this life, they spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell. And you have the cure — the cure that cannot fail. It is the only cure, the singular cure. Yet I hear people say all the time, "I have a great relationship with this friend and I don't want to risk it." Here is a tip: then you don't love him very much. I am not asking you to agree with the conclusion — I just want to make sure I made the point.
It is amazing to me that we will run out and say, "This will fix your cancer," but we have in our back pocket the truth that solves a greater problem, that absolutely works with certainty for all of eternity — and we never bring it out. That doesn't make sense. That is what this man is proclaiming: a profound message, a transformed life. That is the healing. That is the message.
The Evidence of a Changed Life
It is so moving to see some of you — you look like you have everything together, your family together, your 2.2 children, moving around in some big vehicle, families getting bigger and bigger with four, five, six, seven kids. Everyone looks at you and thinks you have it all figured out. And then you sit and talk with someone, and you discover: I was a drug addict. God got hold of their life and changed them. He changed you, didn't He? They didn't just mature, they didn't just grow up. God got hold of their life and changed them. And where do we find them? Sitting at the feet of Jesus.
The Human Touch of Jesus
Jesus reached out His hand and touched the eyes of the blind, the skin of the person with leprosy, and the legs of the cripple. Dr. Paul Brand, who worked for many years with lepers, writes this: "I've sometimes wondered why Jesus so frequently touched the people He healed, many of whom must have been unattractive and obviously diseased and unsanitary and smelly. With His power, He could have easily healed them from a distance, but He chose not to." Jesus' mission was not chiefly a crusade against disease — and that is really important — but rather a ministry to individuals, some of whom happened to be diseased. He wanted those people, one by one, to feel His love and warmth and His full identification with them.
Dr. Brand continues: "Jesus knew He could not readily demonstrate love to a crowd, for love usually involves touching." You are the hands and the feet of God as you reach out and touch those around you. I watched it yesterday at the memorial service, as Baxter and his family sat right there. Every person without exception came through and hugged them — not just a brief embrace, but a deep hug — because there is something about that touch.
That is what you and I need so desperately. I observed it at the memorial service. I see it at weddings. It is as though in those moments when we want to celebrate or express real emotion or real compassion, there is that physical touch. We desperately need that one-on-one contact.
The Need for Small Community
That need for individual connection is part of what is driving so much of the new philosophy behind the church — the desire to take a large church and make it feel small. We love the ability to gather as a large body. We can take 750 students to summer camp, and there are real benefits to that kind of size. But we also need the individual, one-on-one relationship.
That is why you need to be plugged into a small group — a small part of this church where not only can you minister to people, but people can minister to you. It is central to what the Christian faith really is as it begins to live out among its people.
False Shepherds and the Burden of Religion
The people had no true shepherd. Their shepherds were supposed to be the scribes and the Pharisees, but those leaders were not caring for them. In Ezekiel's time there were false shepherds just like these, and about them Ezekiel writes in Ezekiel 34:2: "Woe shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding themselves! Should not the sheep be fed? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with wool. You slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flocks. Those who are sickly you haven't strengthened. The diseased you haven't healed. The broken you haven't bound up. The scattered you haven't brought back. You haven't sought out the lost. And with force and severity you have dominated them."
That is exactly what the Jewish leaders had done to their people. They had simply stacked religion upon them. Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees: "Woe to you! You've shut off the kingdom of heaven from men. You tie them up. You throw burdens on them." This is really important: God hates religion — this meaningless ritual. You were not designed for meaningless ritual. You were designed for worship, for vibrant communion with the Creator God of the universe.
The scribes and the Pharisees had taken the Ten Commandments and added something like 350 things people must not do and another 350 things they must do — rule upon rule upon rule. They had not freed the people up. They had not brought them any closer to God. They had steeped them in legalism. The people were following rule after rule with a broken heart, a bad heart, a heart set on the external rather than the internal. And Jesus is broken as He sees the people in this condition.
The Harvest Is Plentiful
Then He said to the disciples: "The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest." He changes metaphors here from shepherding to the harvest — to farming. The harvest speaks of the recruitment of the lost, of those elect who are not yet in salvation. The harvest also speaks of judgment, as that word is frequently associated with judgment in Scripture.
In either case, what Jesus is doing is looking out and seeing that judgment is coming, that salvation needs to be proclaimed, that there are those out here who are His children and need to be harvested. And He says the workers are few. John MacArthur writes: "The primary problem that hindered Jesus' ministry as He taught and preached and healed in Palestine is the primary problem that hinders ministry today — the workers are few. In His own day on earth, Christ's workers were few, and they're still few today. The first need in ministry is for workers, and one of the most important things is that those workers must understand that their number is few and can be increased only by God's provision and power."
So what does Jesus say to do? He says to pray. We are to be people of prayer and people of action.
The Right Kind of Workers
We must have a correct view. Prayer and submission are inseparable. We pray and say, "God, here's what we need, here are our wants, here are our desires, but God, it's all submitted to Your will. God, we want to be Your people." You sang a song: "Here am I, send me." That's part of Isaiah 6, isn't it? When Isaiah sees God as He really is, he says, "Woe to me, for I am undone," and all of a sudden he experiences forgiveness, and God says there is work to do, and Isaiah says, "Here I am, send me." Those are qualified workers.
We have to be very careful on campus. As those of you who are involved in church and want to work begin to step forward, we must make sure that your people have been truly converted. We could easily fill these spots with people who are willing but who haven't been touched by the risen Christ. That's what He is saying. It isn't important just to have workers — it's important to have the right kind of workers, those whose lives have been transformed.
Jesus Introduces the Twelve
Then He introduces us to His twelve. Look at chapter 10, verse 1: "Then he called to him the twelve disciples and he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal every disease and every affliction." And then Matthew gives us the names of the twelve apostles.
As you look at Matthew's accounting of the apostles, even at a cursory glance, here is what you see: they are grouped in twos. There are six groups of twos — Peter and, James and, Philip and, Thomas and. You can see the grouping. The other thing you notice is the word that precedes Simon's name: "first." This is not really an order of their recruitment — remember, Andrew preceded Peter. What Jesus is telling us, and what we learn from Scripture, is that these men were all equals. They were equal in power, equal in authority, and equal in commissioning. But Peter is the first among equals. You cannot put twelve men in a room and not have a leader, and that is what Jesus is designating here.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John
"First is Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother." These two were fishermen. We meet them early on, and Scripture tells us a great deal about Peter. We know a lot about him — not as much about Andrew. When we typically see Andrew, we see him bringing someone who has a question or is seeking to find Christ. By the way, John MacArthur wrote a book called *Twelve Ordinary Men* that would be a great one to pick up and read. It fills in many of the blanks about these men's lives.
Then there were James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. Zebedee was the father; James and John were his sons. They also had a mother who was involved. Remember what their mother did? She came to Jesus and said, "I have these two boys — it would be great if you could put one on Your left hand and one on Your right hand." Jesus said, "You don't have a clue what you are asking." We will study that when we get to Luke chapter 20. They were also fishermen, though somewhat wealthier — we get the sense that they at least employed others in the family business. James was probably the older of the two, and John is the most prominent. John wrote five books that we have here in the New Testament.
God's Ways Are Not Our Ways
James Boyce writes this: "Since James was the first of the apostles to be martyred, and John seems to have lived longer than any of the others, dying on the island of Patmos at an advanced age, we are reminded that we cannot predict or explain God's ways. God does one thing with one of His disciples and something quite different with the other, all for His own good."
That drives us a little crazy, doesn't it? We think that if He treats one person a certain way, He is obligated to treat everyone the same way. We confuse those terms all the time. Are we equal? Absolutely. The last thing we want to do is discriminate on the basis of race, gender, creed, wealth — none of those things. We are absolutely all equal before the law. But are we all identical? Not even close. You think Michael Jordan and I started out with the same opportunity to play in the NBA? Are we equal? Yes. Are we identical? No. Does God treat us all the same? No, He doesn't. James is killed early in church history. John lives, we believe, well into his mid-nineties. But each of us, as we yield to Christ, is used for His purpose.
Baby Sable
I want to show you something, because when we think about having an impact on people, we think of all the things we need to do and accomplish. Let me tell you something about Sable. Sable lived two days. She never spoke a word. She never walked or ran or went to school or wrote a paper. She never graduated from anywhere. She never made a deal, never solved a great mathematical problem, never healed a disease — all the things we think are so important. She never did any of those things. And yet she had a profound influence on the people in her life. She accomplished more in a day and a half, as God used her, than many people accomplish in their whole lives.
She broke down walls between families. She brought relationship where there had been broken relationship before. And so there is that side — that very human side — that tries to figure this out and says, "God, why would You..."
The Twelve Apostles
Bartholomew is probably also identified as Nathaniel, though we don't know much about him. Thomas we know as Doubting Thomas, but we see him earlier in the ministry. He said to the others, "Come on, boys, Jesus is going to die. Let us go die with Him." He was a man of courage as well. Matthew is a tax collector. James is the son of Alphaeus, which distinguishes him from James the son of Zebedee. Interestingly, Matthew's father's name is also Alphaeus, though we have no certainty that they are related. Thaddeus is also known as Jude. There is Simon the Zealot, a political nationalist, which distinguishes him from Simon Peter.
And then there is Judas — Judas Iscariot, with "Iscariot" probably identifying the region in which he was born or lived. Something about Judas is particularly striking. Here are twelve men who don't have a lot of resources, and when they need to find the most trustworthy person to handle the money, the man they make treasurer of the group is Judas. That is amazing. On the night Jesus was betrayed, He sat at the table with the twelve and said, "One of you will betray me." It is baffling that all eyes didn't go immediately to Judas. These men had spent three years in intimate association with him, and yet they could not see what was in his heart.
That should be a warning to you and me. You can stand up and teach, or lead music, or teach a Sunday school class, and it is possible to do it with a totally unconverted heart. That is why we constantly say: look at your heart. Scripture is a mirror — hold it up, and it allows you to see yourself as you really are, as God sees you.
Of these men, William Hendrickson writes: "We cannot fail to be impressed with the majesty of the Savior, whose drawing power, incomparable wisdom, and matchless love were so astounding that He was able to gather around Himself and to unite into one family men of entirely different, and at times opposite, backgrounds and temperaments. Included in this band were Peter the Optimist and Thomas the Pessimist, Simon the one-time zealot, hating taxes and eager to overthrow the Roman government, but also Matthew, who had voluntarily offered his tax-collecting services to that same Roman government. Peter, John, Matthew, destined to be renowned through their writings, and James the less, who remains obscure, but must have fulfilled his mission." So there is the group.
Jesus Gives His Marching Orders
Jesus gives them instruction in verse 5. The word "instruction" here carries the sense of marching orders — it is a term used in a military context, from a commanding officer to a subordinate. Jesus is about to send them out, and here is what He says: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He restricts them geographically.
We know that later, as we see in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, He will say, "When the power comes upon you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the whole world." But not now. There are many different opinions about why He restricts them to this area. My own preference is simply this: because we cannot go everywhere, and this is where we are — so let's start here.
You can go back to the man who had been demonized — Jesus told him, "You aren't coming with me. I want you to go home. That is where you begin." If someone comes and says they want to be sent as a missionary to Zimbabwe, that is fine. We have three young ladies right now in Morocco, a team in Uzbekistan, people in Mexico, people around the world. But the first question we have to ask is: before you go to Morocco, what are you doing in Mesa? If you are not communicating the gospel in Mesa, then going to Morocco may not be the right next step. We start right here, and sometimes that is the hardest and most difficult place to start.
The Message: Repent, for the Kingdom Is at Hand
Then Jesus gives them their message. Look at verse 7: "Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand." It is essentially the same message John the Baptist carried in Matthew chapter 3 verse 2, and the same message Jesus Himself proclaimed in chapter 4 verse 17. The kingdom of God is at hand, and the response to that is to repent. The kingdom of God is here — that is our message, and it is the only message of hope.
Susan and I were talking this week, and she said that whether you look at the national scene or the international scene, it just seems right now like everything is careening out of control. Then she quickly added, "Now I know it's not out of control, is it? It's out of our control — but it is not out of God's control." I was listening to a man who has written a book, has done work with the FBI, and teaches a doctoral program on the East Coast. He claimed — and I have no idea whether this is true — that Osama bin Laden has twenty suitcase nuclear weapons in the country right now, all coordinated to go off on one day at one time in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Boston, and New York. I don't know if that is true. But when the attack in London happened, nobody was surprised by it. Nobody had to say, "I would never have expected that." We have a sense that these things are happening around us.
The Only Hope of Mankind
In a sense, I am a leader in this environment, and I really do want to be the optimist and say our greatest days are yet ahead. But I cannot say that with certainty on a human or national level. What I can say is that the greatest hope of mankind is not this country. God bless America, and we are all for it, but our hope is not the United States of America. It is not the Republicans or the Democrats or the politicians.
It is not education either. Some of the most educated people in the history of mankind were the Nazis as they led the Jews into the inferno. They were drinking the best wines and listening to Beethoven at night. It is not the fine arts. Those are all fine, but the greatest hope of mankind — the only hope of mankind — is Christ. Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand.
Sent Out in Dependence
Then Jesus says to His disciples, as you go out, here is what I want you to do. Verse 9: "Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, and no bag for your journeys, or two tunics, or sandals." What He is doing is sending them out in a way that demonstrates total dependence upon God to meet their needs.
Interestingly, later in Luke's gospel, Jesus quizzes them and says, "Listen, when I sent you out the first time without any of these things, you had nothing, but God took care of you. Now when you go, take gold, take silver." He is teaching these men an important lesson, and I think it is a lesson for us as well: the gospel is free. We should not be charging for it. Be careful of that. God's people should support God's work, and we should trust God to take care of these things.
Worthy Homes and Honest Realism
As they go out, Jesus tells them about the hospitality culture of that day. In a different culture than the one we live in, hospitality was simply part of life. You would come to a town, hear that there was a need, and move into somebody's house. Jesus tells them to go to those homes that are worthy — and worthy here is not in terms of influence or wealth, but in terms of character. If those homes welcome you, go there and stay.
He says, if you enter that house, stay there until you leave. He does not say go in until you get a better deal. He does not say go in, network your way through, find the guy who has the pool, and move in with him. He does not say that. And then He says that some will reject you, and when they do, dust your feet off and head to the next town. Be realistic.
The Only Answer for Mankind
I absolutely believe — and just because I absolutely believe this does not make it true, but I believe the Scripture makes it true — that the only hope for mankind is Jesus Christ. If you do not know Christ as Lord and Savior, no matter what kind of life you live, you will spend eternity separated from Him in hell. I believe that with all my heart.
I also believe that the greatest privilege you can have is to share that truth with another person, and the greatest moment in your life is when God touches that person's heart and you see it happen. And here you are, running out with the only answer for mankind. Do not fall into the trap of thinking everybody is going to say, "Oh, that's great." Is that not what Jesus said? "Father, as You are sending Me into the world, I send them into the world" — and then He says, understand, you will be persecuted.
Four Things That Compel Our Mission
Let us bring this together. James Boyce talks about a missionary church, and when we use that term, I want to make certain we understand that a missionary is not somebody who leaves the geographic United States and heads overseas. If you are a Christian, you are a missionary. It will be manifested in totally different ways for some of you, but you are a missionary.
Boyce says there are four things that should compel our mission work. Number one is the lost condition of the world. Number two is the Great Commission. Matthew chapter 28: go and make disciples. I say this every time, and I hope it is important, and I hope you get it. The main verb in the Greek in that sentence is "make disciples." It is not "go." Literally, it is "as you go." As you go to the market, as you go to the golf course, as you get your hair done — as you are working with people, as you go to school, as you go to work, as you are living your life, be communicating this truth.
The third thing that should compel us is the love that God has as He works in us. And the fourth are the opportunities that God brings around us.
A Closing Prayer
As we close, I want to lead you in prayer — that is, I want to prompt you to be praying. The first thing I want you to pray for is yourself. Not for some great thing you think you need, but that God would conform you to His image, that Jesus would be manifest in you, and that you would begin to see yourself and then see the world around you as God sees it. Pray for that first.
Then I want you to pray for others you know who do not know Christ. It may be a spouse or a family member. But I also want to add to that those with whom you do not share a chain of DNA but who are part of your sphere of influence. Pray right now that God would give you the courage to share the truth with them, and that God might open their eyes to see the truth.
And then I want you to pray for East Valley Bible Church — that we collectively would never lose our passion for the gospel. Not like that man who was demonized. We would sit at the feet of Jesus in our right mind, and then go to our home, to our neighborhood, and to the world around us.
The Empty Tomb
God, we ask You this week to open doors and opportunities, to make us super sensitive to the opportunities You bring into our lives to talk with men and women and students who don't know Your Son Jesus. And with all the love and grace that we can gather, as You open the door, we would share the truth.
We thank You for Your Son. We thank You for His life. We thank You for His death. We thank You for the resurrection, the empty tomb. The whole world can look — all the bodies of all the great leaders, we can go and identify them — but not Jesus. It is an empty tomb.
And that empty tomb screams. It actually terrifies the world, because it speaks in indisputable terms that Jesus is who He said He was. God, thank You for loving us — loving us enough to show us our sin, and loving us enough to save us from the consequence of that sin.
Sent Into the World
We pray that as we leave this place, we would deliver in word and deed a message of a transformed life to our world. God, we pray that in Christ's name, amen.