Biblestudy: Matthew (Part Fifteen)

Matthew 10:1-34
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John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 06-Jan-82; 80 minutes

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I was thinking while I was driving down to Augusta yesterday that I have been awfully easy on you. I have not given you any tests for a long time. I thought I would give you another period of grace here.

But when I do give you one, I have already got it planned out. It is going to have 28 questions on it, because I am going to have you tell me what the main subject is in each one of the chapters as we go through the book of Matthew. Now you can do that with Matthew. He is very methodical, and he has put things together in a well-organized systematized way. So I will give you the first 10 chapters just to help you recollect some ideas. Maybe you better keep some notes handy, because unless I forget you are going to get a test on this.

First of all, remember chapter 1 had the genealogy of Jesus Christ, plus some of the events surrounding the circumstances prior to His birth. Remember Joseph and the angel and Mary and the angel.

Then in chapter 2, we had the birth of Jesus Christ, and the events surrounding it.

In chapter 3, we had the introduction of John the Baptist. And then in turn John the Baptist’s introduction of Jesus Christ.

Then in chapter 4, we had the testing of Jesus Christ, and Jesus’ presentation to the local congregation or the local people. We also met a couple of the disciples there, Peter, James, John, and Philip were mentioned in that chapter.

Then in chapters 5, 6, and 7, we have the Sermon on the Mount, which is a distillation, or the essence of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Those three are very easy to remember. Then in chapter 8, we have a show of the power of Jesus Christ as He healed quite a number of people.

Then in chapter 9, there were some more healings, but that is really not the main subject. The main subject is the rising of the opposition, or the presentation of the opposition. The Pharisees and Sadducees are shown to be resistant to the teachings and miracles that Jesus presented. And so, the opposition is shown.

You can see how well organized he is. And if you will just follow this outline, you will see that that is exactly what He spoke on in each chapter.

In chapter 10, we have the introduction of Jesus’ staff—those who are closest to Him, as well as warnings regarding persecution.

Now let us begin.

Matthew 10:1-4 And when He called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.

It is interesting to look at other accounts, which we will do. We will look at Mark's account and also Luke's account of the same thing, because they introduce a couple of factors I think are interesting to note. But from Matthew's account, from the things that we have already seen, beginning in Matthew 4, and Matthew 9 where we met Matthew himself, there is at least two things I think are noteworthy of the apostles.

The first is that they were ordinary men. There is nothing about them that would indicate in any way a great deal of success. As I mentioned in chapter 9, it is very likely that Matthew was quite wealthy, being a publican, he was in a position to garner a great deal of money. So he was probably very wealthy. Maybe that distinguished him from the others—the fact that he was a publican; he was probably wealthy. There is no indication of the wealth of any of the others.

We do know that Peter, James, John, and Andrew were small businessmen in that they were fishermen. I do not know what the occupation was of any other person there. It is quite possible that they had similar type occupations. Maybe they were small businessmen, maybe there was a farmer or two scattered within them. I do not know; the Bible just does not tell us. They were just ordinary people like you and me.

That certainly agrees with what Paul said in I Corinthians 1 that God has not called the great of the world, but rather He has called the weak of the world in order to confound the wise. And so, He does not intend that we just stay ordinary. He certainly calls people not for what they are, but rather for what they are capable of becoming.

Now, we have not reached any kind of greatness. However, that does not mean that we do not have the capabilities of greatness. We do. Perhaps you will recall something that Mr. Armstrong said in a recent taped sermon. He said that these men he meets, whether they be kings, or prime ministers, presidents of nations; whether it be Sadat, or some leader over in China, they are really no different than we are. They have a great deal of power, but otherwise they are ordinary people. They have no great, awesome intelligence or genius that sets them apart from others. They may work harder to get where they are. They may take advantage of conditions to get into a position of power.

But our ability to a large extent remains untapped. The ability is there, it needs to be drawn out. And we can see with the apostles that He certainly did not call men who were extraordinary in terms of prosperity or achievement at the time that He called them.

Now, the second thing that we can note is that they were an extraordinary mixture. Though they were ordinary men, they were drawn from many different classes or walks of life.

Maybe the most extraordinary individuals were Matthew and this Simon called the Canaanite here in the book of Matthew. He is called in other places, Simon Zelotes, or Simon the zealot.

Now, Simon was a political radical. He belonged to a group that was probably far to the right of the John Birch Society. There are records that these men [zealots] were sworn to do anything in their power, on any occasion, under any circumstances, to do anything to create chaos and confusion against the Roman government.

Remember last week, I spent a great deal of time on Matthew because I wanted you to try to get a feel for the kind of man that he was. When you are dealing with a publican, you know that from the Bible you are dealing with somebody who was generally despised, maybe even hated, because he was in a position to be bribed. He was in a position to cheat the Roman government. He was always in a position to make it difficult for his fellow Israelites.

Not only that, he could certainly be considered to be somebody who was a traitor, because he was working for the other side. He was actually in the employ of the Romans, and actively in their employ.

Now, here we have Simon Zelotes who was doing everything in his power to overthrow the Romans. And you would have to think that he was a roughneck of the first order—somebody who was a revolutionary, somebody who is always conspiring to pull down the government and to create chaos; a super patriot.

How are you going to blend a super patriot on the one hand, and a quisling—a traitor—on the other hand, and put them in the same group, and keep the peace between them?

Then we have Peter. Presumptuous comes to my mind; although that really is not the word that I am looking for. But he was the fools-rush-in-where-angels-fear-to-tread kind of person.

Then we have James and John, that Jesus Himself nicknamed the Sons of Thunder. There was a reason for that. I do not think that they pussy-footed around. They were probably two men who had hot tempers and were apt to fly off the handle and get angry very quickly.

Well, what are we talking about here? We are talking about ordinary people, really, are we not? They were an extraordinary mixture of people put together, and somehow Jesus was able to keep peace between them.

Now, other than being able to read between the lines from their reactions from time to time as the Bible gives us those indications, the Bible really does not spend a great deal of time telling us much about them. It concentrates, instead, on the work that they did. And so what we have in the Bible is not a story about the workers so much, as we have a story about the works that they did.

There is no doubt that God considered them to be great men. At the end of their lives, they had accomplished a great deal. They had sacrificed their lives; had been martyrs to their cause; had given their all. And I think that their greatness is attested to in Revelation 21 where we have a preview of the holy city—the New Jerusalem and the 12 foundations. There is a foundation for each one of the apostles. Nobody else is named in that city but the 12 apostles.

Now the 12 gates have the names of each of the 12 tribes. But they are hardly the names that acknowledge the greatness of an individual, but rather the greatness of a tribe. But we do have the 12 apostles named. And of course, as Paul said in Ephesians 2, they are the foundation of the church. And I think that God acknowledges that in Revelation 21.

You will recall in several different places that it says that Jesus called His disciples. And as we said, last week, that word means to invite; He invited them to be a part of His group.

Turn with me back to Luke 6 where we will pick up one verse because Luke adds another word that is interesting; he gives a little bit different picture.

Luke 6:13 And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles.

Here we see that whenever Jesus named the Twelve, He did it by calling the group, the whole group, not just the Twelve, but the whole group of disciples that He had gathered around Him at that time, and from that larger group, He chose 12. In other words, He evaluated what He knew of the whole group He had gathered around Him and chose the Twelve He deemed most likely to be the most yielded, and the most productive of the group. And so He chose them. He called many, many others who potentially had the opportunity to be apostles, but then out of the larger group, He chose the Twelve to be the apostles.

Mark 3:13-14 And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those He Himself wanted. And they came to Him. Then He appointed [ordained] twelve.

Ordain, when it is used in this sense, has the force or the meaning of appointed, that He appointed 12. It is very similar to the chosen that Luke used, but He appointed them.

Now, whether He laid hands on them at this time, I do not know. It is highly likely that He did—that He actually went through the ritual, and set them apart by an ordination to this office.

Notice what He ordained them to. I think it is very interesting.

Mark 3:14 Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him.

You see, these 12 were appointed to be an inner circle; that they would be not only a part of the greater group of disciples, but they were chosen—appointed—to be a part of His inner circle.

Now, the greater group of disciples did not always travel with Jesus everywhere that He went. But the Twelve, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, did. And so they got the benefit of three and a half years of solid instruction from Him, because they were appointed to be with Him.

And, it says:

Mark 3:14 That He might send them out to preach.

Now, here we have what the word apostle means. The word apostle means, one sent forth. We found last week that in Matthew 9 it says that Jesus went through all Galilee preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God; preaching means heralding. The Greek word for heralding means to proclaim certainties, or to proclaim a message from a king. So, the apostles were sent forth with a message, they were sent forth heralding or proclaiming the certainty of the Kingdom of God (and all of the other things that went with it). So they were then sent forth from Christ not to give their own opinions, but to proclaim the divine certainties—the very ones that Jesus Himself had proclaimed.

Back in Matthew 10. There is one interesting side light. I do not know whether it means a thing, but maybe it does mean something: Everywhere you look that the apostles are listed, they are in a different order. Why? Things like that make me wonder. They are listed four different times, and they are always listed in a different order except for one thing, Peter's name always appears first, then Philip's name always appears fifth, and James the son of Alpheus always appears ninth.

Now, why? It is a strange little thing. All the others will be jumbled up.

There is one other interesting thing here: Names number 1, 2, 3, and 4 will always appear headed by Peter's name, but then 2, 3, and 4 will be the same names, but not be in the same order. Then will come Phillip's name listed 5^th, and then Numbers 6, 7, and 8 will always be the same names, but they will not be in the same order. And then the 9^th will always be James the son of Alpheus, and then the next three, 10, 11, and 12 will always be the same name, but they will never be in the same order.

Why is that? I do not know. Maybe it is just one of those things God puts in to see whether or not we are checking up very closely; digging out, God says we have to dig at His Word.

Now, it may mean something, it could very well mean that Peter, Philip, and James were the leader of that group. I do not know; maybe sort of like a captain over three or something. But there does not seem to be any indication why. But there is that peculiarity.

Let us go on to verse 5.

Matthew 10:5-8 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

In verse 5, there are a couple of noteworthy things: First of all, the word ‘commanded’ here is very strong. It is a military word. It is a kind of word that is used of a commander giving his men the order to charge. It is also used in the sense of a teacher setting down rules for her class. And it is also used of a king dispatching orders to his envoys, or ambassadors. So it is a very strong word. He commanded them.

Now He told them to not go into the way of the Gentiles, nor into any city of the Samaritans. This raises questions in the minds of those people who write the commentaries, because to them it seems at first to be a matter of respect of persons. Was Jesus trying to keep these Samaritans or Gentiles from hearing the good news? It seems to them not Christ-like at all.

So they go to great lengths to try to explain away why He made such an order. Actually, the answers are quite simple, and there are several different answers as to why He said that.

First, there is a principle established very early in the Bible all the way back beginning with Abraham's progeny, his children; that God chose Abraham out of all the peoples of the earth. And He has continued very faithfully to first always give the descendants of Abraham first crack at hearing any news of His Kingdom. And so it is always to the Israelite first that God sends His prophets and His messages. After all, these are the people that He is working through. These are the people that He chose to be the model nation. And so Jesus was not at this time lifting that. And He has not lifted it yet. It is still in force and effect.

We can see this principle where in Romans 2 where Paul even quoted the principle; the principle works two ways. The first crack at blessings goes to the Israelite. The first crack at punishment also goes to the Israelite. We are breaking into a very long sentence that began all the way back at the beginning of verse 5, he says:

Romans 2:9 Tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

So punishment will first come on the Israelite people. Then verse 10,

Romans 2:10-11 But glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

And so at the time that Jesus gave this command back in Matthew 10:5 this principle was still in force and effect and it is still in force and effect. However, we are able to look back in history and we know that it was not an all-time command.

The second reason is that at this time, these men were not equipped to teach the Gentiles anything. They were not equipped to teach the Gentiles. By this I mean by attitude, by background, by training, by the philosophy that was running through their minds. You know very well from things that you have read (maybe I can jog your memory) the clearest example of this is in Acts 10 where Peter had to be commanded by God to go to the Gentiles.

The attitude of the Jew toward the Gentile was one that they were unclean—they were not to have any kind of a relationship with them, other than what business dictated that they should have; they had no social intercourse; they had no religious fellowship with them at all. They were considered to be interlopers; they were considered to be unclean pariahs of society; they would have nothing to do with them. And so these men had been reared in that kind of an environment; their attitude toward Gentiles was still one of hatred. It needed to be changed.

The third reason (I think very wise): Remember this occurred very early in the training of these men. Jesus was limiting His objectives at this time. It was not yet the time to go to all the world. It was not yet the time to expand His operations even beyond the borders of Palestine; that time would come. But until that time, He simply wanted to hedge them in, and put a limit on how far they would go. So when His work would grow, it would then be equipped to handle a larger responsibility; then it would expand beyond the borders of Palestine.

Now, you know in this era that it was 19 years before Mr. Armstrong was able to preach outside of the United States. And when the work grew to the place where it was able to, or it was equipped to handle the extra burden, then God permitted it to jump over to into Europe with Radio Luxembourg. And from there, we have expanded beyond to all the way around the world.

So there are three very good reasons. First of all, the gospel goes to the Israelite first. Second, they were not equipped mentally and attitudinally to handle that responsibility yet. And third, Jesus was simply limiting His objectives until His work was equipped to handle the larger responsibility.

They were to go preaching that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

This is a phrase that is used many, many times in the New Testament. Jesus used it. It is recorded in Mark 1 where He told the people, “Repent and believe the gospel,” for the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is a Hebraism. It does not necessarily mean that it is right there. What it means by biblical definition is that the opportunity is opened up for you to enter it.

Now, we can see in Colossians 1 and around verse 13 where Paul said that through Christ, we have been given entrance into His Kingdom. If we are begotten of God by His Spirit, we are already considered by God to be a part of His Kingdom. So for us, it very definitely is at hand. All we have to do is die in the faith, and we are in it. Our next conscious thought will be one that occurs at the resurrection of the dead. For us, it is at hand at all times. It is as close at hand as our death.

Matthew 10:8 “Freely you have received, freely give.”

He said, “Look, I gave you this gospel, this good news without charge, and I don’t want you to charge others for it.” So, He is saying here, “I want you to share it. I want you to give it. I want you to take no money for your preaching. Don’t set out to become rich.”

In verse 8 (I do not want to dwell on this a long time), I will tell you, He gave them a lot of power, did He not? They were to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. They were not even converted yet. They did not have His Spirit. They were not begotten, which is a very good indicator that God is the one who is in the control of His Spirit. And He can give the power to do something to whomsoever He will. And He can also withhold the power until He wills. A man can be very righteous and never do a miracle.

I will give you one good example—John the Baptist, whom Jesus said was the greatest among all men born of women. And yet there is no record of him ever resurrecting anybody, ever healing anybody; ever doing anything extraordinary except preaching. So whether a person heals is no indicator of their righteousness. They might be very righteous, but God has withheld the power. He is the one who determines who gets healed, and who does not; who does miracles and who does not. It is His responsibility. I do believe that the day is coming when we are going to be doing them, but we will not do them until He wills; when He does, we will.

Matthew 10:9-15 “Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food. Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

Verse 9 continues the thought from the end of verse 8, that they were to take no money for their preaching. They were to rely in faith on God to supply their need; that they were to get their daily sustenance by God through other human beings. But at least at this time, they were not to take a job, and they were not to pass the hat. They were not to take any collections under any circumstances. They were simply to go out and preach.

Now, I think it was a good faith building lesson for them to learn that God would supply their needs under all circumstances. That He would provide them housing; that He would provide them clothing; that He would provide them money to spend; that they would have food to eat; that they would be taken care of very well. I am sure that they were, too. I do not mean that they never ran into any difficulty. They must have run into difficulties from time to time. Otherwise, why would He tell them to be careful about where they stayed? And if the place was unworthy to leave it, even to leave an entire city that might reject them. But under all circumstances, God would take care of them. There is implied here that those who heard the good news were to respond, and there was an obligation on their part to provide for the apostles.

Turn with me back to I Corinthians the ninth chapter where Paul addresses this much more directly. There (above), in that circumstance it is only implied that those who responded would supply the need, because certainly the apostles had to be taken care of by somebody, and they were. They were taken care of by the ones who responded to the message.

I Corinthians 9:9 For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain."

Is it oxen God is concerned about? Is He not concerned about human beings? Is He only concerned about animals? Why was that law written? Well, in verse 10, he answers it.

I Corinthians 9:10 Or does He say it altogether for our sakes?

Well, certainly it is.

Who is “our”? The “our sakes” regards the ministry, and specifically the apostles. So he says,

I Corinthians 9:10 For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, . . .

Now, a farmer does that, and when he plows he hopes to reap of the seed that he has planted.

I Corinthians 9:10 . . . and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.

Certainly the person who works in the field and who picks the harvest—reaps the harvest—he ought to be one who gets paid from the harvest.

I Corinthians 9:11-12 If we have sown spiritual things for you [the church], is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more?

The “others” were ministers in the local congregation. And the “we” are the apostles, because after all, Paul was the one who first preached to these Corinthians.

I Corinthians 9:12 Are we not even more?

Then he says, “Ought not I be able to receive of your tithes and offerings?” That is what he is saying.

I Corinthians 9:12 Nevertheless we have not used this right [it was his right by law], but endure all things [that is, he went out and got a job, rather than take these people's money] lest we hinder the gospel of Christ.

What he is letting them know is that was not fair. He should not have to work as a tent maker. He should be able to give his time in preaching the gospel and those who responded should have given him the money to do it.

I Corinthians 9:13-15 Do you not know that those who minister [serve or are employed about] the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so [in like manner] the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. But I have used none of these things [rights].

Now back to Matthew 10. Here Jesus is giving the other side of it. In His instructions to His apostles, He said, “Look, I want you to expect that the people who respond will take care of you,” actually God will do it through those people.

Matthew 10:11 "Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out.”

I feel that this indicates that when they went into a town, it is highly likely that the first place that they would go looking for a place to stay would either be the synagogue or maybe to the local marketplace where they would begin to ask questions about who in the town of good reputation would be willing to put them up for the time being. I can hardly think of that being done in Columbia, South Carolina, today. Their social ways are a lot different than ours are.

I want you to notice that Jesus told them to be careful with whom it was that they identified themselves; that they were not to go and stay at just anybody's house, but rather somebody who was worthy. And I take this to indicate that they were to seek out somebody who was of good reputation, because after all, if it got around town that they were staying with publicans, or with whores, or with the local gambler, who might have been wealthy enough to take care of them but was not of good reputation, then it would hinder the effect of their message. And so they were to seek out somebody who was a good reputation. It did not mean that the person had to be wealthy, only that they had a good reputation, because the reputation of where they were staying would go with them. I am sure that Christ wanted to glorify everything about the message that He was giving through those men.

This does not mean that the apostles would not preach to the whores, the publicans, the gamblers, or whatever. It does not mean that they would not give them the good news, because they would, but they would not identify themselves with them.

Now, you will notice that in the accounts of Jesus—that He met with, that He ate with, that He apparently partied with publicans and sinners, but it does not say that He lived with them, does it? Nowhere does it say that He lived with them. But He certainly did company with them, and there is a difference there. It is highly likely that in Capernaum, which was the base of His operations, He had His own home there. I feel strong enough indication that we can say that He had His own home there. He keeps talking about the house, and in one case, it even says His house. But there is a difficulty in understanding whose house is being talked about. In fact, we even read that back there in Matthew 9 where it says “his house.” Was it Jesus’ house or Matthew's house? It is hard to tell.

So they would preach to these people, but they were not intimate friends, and they did not stay at their homes.

Matthew 10:11 “And stay there till you go out.”

That is, until you leave the city; I want you to stay at that house. He is saying, “Don’t be tempted to move from one place to another.” I am sure that this was really a matter of courtesy more than anything, because it could be very offensive to somebody if you stayed at their house, and then, let us say, that you had a bit of success in preaching the gospel, and people began to respond to it, and maybe they even began contributing money because they recognized that it was a work of God, and maybe they would get so close to you that they would begin to invite you to their home. And maybe their home was a lot nicer than the one that you are currently living in. There would be a strong temptation to leave the very humble surroundings that you were in and go over to this much nicer house of this other person who was responding.

But Jesus said, do not do that. Once you go to a person's house, as long as they are hospitable to you, and supplying your need, that as a matter of courtesy, you should remain there.

And I think that really the reason over and beyond the hospitality thing and the courtesy thing, was to not give any kind of an impression at all that they were in the business of making money, or of courting luxury in any way, or had ambitions for becoming rich, or moving up in society.

Now, that does not mean that God was against giving these men a certain amount of prosperity and wealth, but they were not to take advantage of the situation.

There is, to me here something that is a little bit puzzling, and I think it is because in the English language, we have nothing that I can think of that is anywhere similar to it.

Matthew 10:12-13 "And when you go into a household [house (KJV)], greet it. If the household [or house (KJV)] is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you."

What does it mean to greet a house? And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, and if not withdraw it, “let your peace return to you.”

I have not seen any adequate explanation in any commentary that I have as to what that really means. They only say that it is a Hebraism, which means that it was something peculiar to their language, which gave words the force as though they were alive and as though they could go forth and be withdrawn (returned). We know that that literally is not true; that once a word goes forth, you cannot withdraw it. You see, that is the difficulty here. He says, “withdraw it, call it back to yourself.” How do you do that? I do not know. It is a puzzle to me.

Can you really take back what you say? You know, literally? If you call somebody a very foul word, and then after you say it, say, “Oh, I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean that!” You really cannot take it back, can you? It is already out. It has done its damage.

You see, because the apostle, a representative of God, would be staying there that God would bless the household. That is a well-established principle. Elijah and the widow, for example, or the time the ark was in somebody's barn there and boy, they were blessed because of that.

Then, if they would leave, the blessing would leave with them. Whether He means that or not, I do not know. It is certainly a possibility.

I think what we are dealing with here was the way the language worked.

[This is in response to a question from a person in the audience.]:

(A leper was considered to be unclean, so unclean that they had to be separated, quarantined away from everybody. And in fact, I think I might have mentioned this to you before, that a leper, if he was moving along the street, actually had to yell out, “Unclean! Unclean!” Now he was definitely sick with the disease. And so it had more to do with their language than it had to do with anything specifically different about healing. See, they were just unclean. A person could be a person could have a cold, and he would not be unclean. You see, in the same way that a leper would.)

Matthew 10:14-15 “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

So there is both a temporary and an eternal truth here, that I think that maybe we understand better than any other group. We understand that to most people, the gospel is being preached as a witness. To most of the great body of nominal Christianity, if a person hears the gospel, and decides to reject it for whatever the reason that they are lost. But to us, we know that is not true; God is not trying to convert everybody.

And so what Jesus is implying here, that because it is just being preached to them as a witness, do not be burdened with trying to ram it down their throat. Just leave, shake the dust off your feet, and go somewhere else.

There is also, though, the eternal truth that there is a time of judgment; there is a time when a person has gone too far, and his opportunity has slipped away from him; it is gone out of his grasp. So there is a time of reckoning coming. But what we have to understand is that we do the best job we can in preaching the gospel and we let God determine whether or not a person has had their opportunity or not. And so, we do not have to worry about cramming it down people's throats at all; trying to argue them into some kind of a belief in agreeing with us in any way.

So what we have here is, do not be burdened with the idea that you have to ram it down their throat. But remember that there is a time of reckoning coming, a time of judgment. And that will be their opportunity.

I think that it is interesting that he mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah, because Sodom and Gomorrah did reject the witness that was made to them. You remember at the very last moment, the last day or so that Lot went all through the city, and telling them to flee, to escape, and he could not get anybody to go with him. And so they failed to heed the warning. You see, that is an eternal witness. There is a time when God's patience runs out.

Matthew 10:16-22 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

In verse 16, there is the first indication that Jesus is expanding this instruction beyond the immediate concerns that the apostles would have in preaching to the people around Judea. And He begins to expand it out into the Gentile areas. You notice that, “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony against them and to the Gentiles.”

Now, the Gentiles lived outside of Palestine, or outside of Israelitish lands. So there are two things that we notice here: First of all, we are seeing the expansion of the message, or the instruction regarding the message beyond Palestine. And secondly, it gives us an indication that all that we see here in Matthew 10 was not given at the same time.

It is very possible that what we are reading here in verses 16-22, and we will see in 23 and further, was actually said after His resurrection.

Remember in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 that all of those things that were there in the Sermon on the Mount were not said in one sermon at one time and at one place. But rather it is a collection of the sayings of Jesus Christ that were collected over a period of three and a half years as Matthew heard Him speak.

Well, likewise, here in Matthew 10, all of this instruction to the apostles was not given at one time and at one place, but rather was given at different times at different places. But Matthew, as his manner is, arranges it all very orderly, systematically, in one place. He gives you the impression it was all given at one time in one place, but it was not.

There are three areas that He mentions that persecution would come from. The first one He mentions is from the church. See, “They will deliver you up to the councils and scourge you in their synagogues.” The second one is from the governments: “You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake.” And then the third area would be from the family, “Now brother will deliver up brother to death and a father his child; and children will rise against their parents.”

Now, this is very logical when you begin to think about it. First of all, the church: Why would the church persecute? Actually, the answer is given in the gospels as to why the church persecutes. Because they looked upon Jesus and His message as a threat, that is why. Because Jesus began drawing disciples after Him, they were losing their adherents. People were turning away from the synagogues and beginning to follow Jesus; they were rejecting the tradition of the elders, that is, of the rabbis; and they were following the advice and counsel that was contained within the gospel.

Same principle holds true today. People do not like us, and for the very same reasons.

Now, why would the state persecute? Again, we can turn to the Bible and find the reasons. The first reason was slander. Can you recall what happened in the trial of Jesus? Can you recall what happened throughout much of His ministry? People would lie in order to get Him into trouble. They gave false testimony regarding things that Jesus said, and that slander resulted in His death.

The same thing happened to the early New Testament church. They lied to the government about what was being taught. Stephen lost his life because people lied about what he said. You can read it in Acts 7. The very first martyr died because of false witnesses, and they brought down the wrath, first of all the Jewish government, and then eventually the Roman government.

There were lies made to the Romans about Paul. There were lies about what was going on in the church meetings. But because we adhere to a different form of government (that is, the government of God in the Kingdom of God), then the church began to be looked upon as being seditious; as being something that breaks up a society, when that is not the purpose of the preaching at all—not to break up society, but actually to create better citizens.

But you see, the people would carry the message to government officials and lie. Things are no different. What happened in 1979? Somebody went and lied to the attorney general. And then without even checking it out, he rushed in with his troops, and caused us a great deal of difficulty.

Now, in the 1st and 2nd century, without a doubt, the element that caused the biggest problem of all was the slavery issue. Now to you and me, that is kind of far removed. But to Rome, it was not far removed. I think I have told you in the past that there were some 60 million slaves in Rome.

In the church, slavery counted for nothing. And within the church, there was liberty that a slave did not know out in the world. And so it was entirely possible there are many Roman records of slaves who rose to be bishops in the church, high officials. While in the meantime, out in society, they were something else entirely.

Now, can you imagine what this would do to the thinking of people as the church began to grow and gain adherents? Well, I will tell you, it did not cause a great deal of trouble until the great false church began to use the slavery issue to foment trouble within Rome; actually encouraging the slaves to rebel. It caused all kinds of trouble for the true church, for the Jews, and the false church.

Let us go on. The family persecution resulted from two areas that I can see. One was religious in that oftentimes the family would kind of split up even because the one would become a Christian, and he would become kind of anathema within his own family simply because he was different. As a result, it caused persecution to come right from the very people who are most concerned about you. And it was probably because of their concern that they caused the persecution to come.

Matthew 10:23 “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

What He is saying here is this: He gives very prudent counsel: That if persecution arises, do not try to be a martyr, flee for your life. I know that for most of most of us, we will not need much encouragement to flee. But there are some who want to resist. Otherwise, why would He give the instruction? There are always people who want to fight for their rights. They want to resist in some way.

Jesus is giving very prudent counsel here. He says, if you are being persecuted, get out of there. Flee! Do not resist. Do not fight back. Do not do tit-for-tat, kind for kind, just get; do not try to be a martyr. He says if the persecution comes in the course of duty, fine. But He is also saying here, for you to invite it is counterproductive. That is the last way in the world to win people over. And so the wisdom is: retreat.

Now you can apply this principle to other things as well. For example, there are some of us who may have a weakness in a certain area. Let us just say that a person has a weakness for alcohol, that they are addicted to it. Just using the principle here, what is the wise thing to do? You flee from it! You do not go near any place where alcohol is served. That is part of the same principle. You get out of the area of temptation to do what maybe by nature you would like to do.

There are some people who just love to talk about religion, and they will even step into areas where their knowledge or understanding of the truth of the Bible is very weak, but because they love to talk about religion, they will step in, and get themselves into an argument. Well, that is the kind of thing where you are inviting temptation. You are inviting trouble, you are inviting argument, and it is all part of this principle.

So go back to the principle there in verses 14 and 15 and remember that it is not our responsibility to argue with people, or to ram this down their throat. The gospel is being preached as a witness. They are going to have their opportunity. It is hard enough to try to live the truth. Why get into extra difficulty?

Matthew 10:24-25 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household!”

Very simple to understand: What happened to Him will happen to us. He is the Head; we are the body. We are a part of the same body, and whatever affects the head is also going to affect the body. And so if they persecuted Him, they will persecute us. So, even as we share in the glory, because it does say that we are going to be like Him, we also share in the agony as well. It is tit-for-tat, just expect it. It will occur.

Matthew 10:26-31 “Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Three different times there Jesus said to not fear. Yet, we do fear. We are very much afraid of pain. We are very much afraid of the disruption of our life. We are not only afraid of maybe the loss of our life, but even the loss of things that we have accumulated. And there is a very good chance, being a part of this outfit, that these things that He said are going to come true with us. You see, that as they have done to Him, they will also do to us.

We have the opportunity to fear, but He said, do not fear. Why do we fear? Well, really, it comes down to one major thing: We simply lack faith. When it comes down to the nitty gritty, when the pressure is on, whatever the circumstance might be, we really do not think that our life is in His hands, and the world becomes more real than God is. And we get our realities all mixed up.

Now, what is real? That is hard for us to get through our minds because of our physicalness. But what we do not see is more real than what we see. That is the story of the Bible. God, who is spirit, is more real than we are.

We seem to be very real, but the difference is that He is spirit and eternal. We are physical and mortal. We are going to decompose, and there is going to be nothing left. And so our reality is only going to last for 70 or 80 years. When compared to eternity, that is a very short time.

I will tell you, we need to really spend our time thinking about the reality of God. We really need to get ourselves geared up. I do not mean psyched up in the sense of becoming all hyped up about it. I mean, that God really needs to be a reality.

Now, what does He need to do to make Himself more real? Well, I do not know. But what do we need to do to make God more real? See, that is what is really necessary.

Well, there are a lot of things that we can do, and we are telling you about them every Sabbath. I will tell you one thing, that if you do not take God at His Word and put what you already know to work in your life every day, God will never be a reality to you. If you are just playing church, and that the church is really nothing more than a social institution; that you attend on the Sabbath because it is the thing to do; but the other six days of the week, God is not real enough to really be a part of your life, He will never be a reality to you. He will always seem to be far off somewhere.

Three times, He says not to fear, and we need to understand that the reason we do fear, is because our faith is lacking. Well, Jesus was not afraid to walk on water in the middle of a storm.

He mentioned several things to comfort us.

Number one is (I am paraphrasing) truth will triumph. That is what He means when He says that there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known; that the truth will out. That is a promise from God.

This is why Jesus was able, as it says in I Peter 2:21 or 22 that Jesus was able to commit Himself to Him who judges righteously; that He knew that the truth will out; that God will show what truth is.

Do we believe that? So often we get kind of hyper because we are afraid that the truth will not come out, but it will come out. Of course, God's Word is truth. And if we obey it, things are going to work out right.

Now, maybe in this circumstance, or in this context, we need to ask the question: Do you really believe in the truth of the resurrection of the dead? The day is coming when that truth will out, and we are going to know that there indeed is a resurrection of the dead. If there really is a resurrection of the dead, and there had better be because that is the hope of a Christian. Without that hope, there is nothing. Jesus has already shown it can be done, and that is evidence to you and me. If you really believe in the resurrection of the dead, if you understand this rightly, you are not going to care whether you die, except that you die in the faith.

The next thing He says is that we should fear God. Do we really believe that nothing that men can do to us can compare to the fate that awaits someone who is disloyal to God? Well, that is what verse 28 means: Man is able to kill us, and he is able to inflict a great deal of pain in doing it. If we really believe in the resurrection of the dead—in that truth—and we really believe that only God is able to destroy the potential for eternal life, who then should we fear? Well, obviously, God! That ought to be a comfort.

We need to ask ourselves questions from time to time: Is God somehow pleased by weakness? When we fail to stand up to our weaknesses, and we give in to them, does He kind of pat us on the head, and say, “Poor fella, isn’t that too bad? Tsk, tsk. Well, I’ll just have to put him in My Kingdom anyway. He’s a nice guy.” No, I do not think so. I do not think God is pleased by weakness at all.

What glorifies Him, of course, is strength. If we think that God is just going to forgive us and accept us as we are, that is totally unrealistic. The whole force of His message is, “Hey! Change! Repent! Change! That’s what that is. Change from what you are. I want you to believe in Me,” God says, “and believe that your life is in My hands, and I’m going to back you up. I’m going to give you the strength, and you are going to build the character, and you are going to be in My Kingdom.” No, I do not think that He is pleased by weakness at all.

Now, is He pleased by traitorous behavior? Mr. Register gave a sermon on loyalty his last sermon here. Is God pleased when He sees somebody on His side being disloyal to Him? I do not think so; not at all.

So you see these things that Jesus gives you—these admonishments—are given for encouragement to motivate us in the other direction; to be loyal to Him under all circumstances regardless of the pain, regardless of the discomfort.

When you go back to Hebrews 11 and you read about all of those people who were faithful to God, and then he gets to the end of the chapter in verses 34 and 35, he starts naming a whole bunch of other people, and he says there was a far greater crowd than he could name. And one thing that he mentioned about every one of these people is that they never accepted deliverance. They never gave in to the weakness, whether it be the fear that might have encompassed them; whether it be bodily pain of some kind; they did not accept the relief that the world could give them. The world can give relief to a limited extent; it can give relief.

All the people that I have conversed with who have left the church, they always experience a lifting of the burden. There is always a period of relief that follows after they leave, after they make the break, and they feel great.

But I know what this Book says, and I believe what it says, and I believe that anybody who is disloyal to God and leaves His work, is in the end going to find that life is intolerable for them; that they cannot stand it.

You have a fine example, right in the book of Matthew: Judas. You know, all of the other apostles also betrayed Christ, but they all repented. But apparently Judas did not. They forsook Christ. They showed their weakness. They repented. Judas did not. What did he do to himself? Why, life was so “enjoyable” he hanged himself, committed suicide!

Is there any fun to eat vomit? Is that not the way Peter describes it? Somebody going back, like a dog going back to its own vomit. That does not sound like it is very enjoyable to me. And people who leave, their lives eventually turn sour. There is a tremendous gap in it that they cannot fill. So you see what Christ is aiming at here is to encourage us to be faithful.

In verse 29 there is a word there that I feel mistranslated. You see the word “falls”? “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.”

Now “falls” seems to give the indication that it dies, and plunges to the ground, a dead bird. But really all the word means is that it lights on the ground, you know, like it is flying along, and it lights on the ground.

What it means is God is interested in life. Death is not something that He is trying to lead His people in to. There is nothing exciting about death. Death is called in the Bible the last enemy to be destroyed.

Excitement, enjoyment, and pleasure is in living. God is seeking ways to extend that enjoyment, to sustain it. He is not seeking ways to kill us. He is seeking ways to give us pleasure; to give us prosperity and peace; to give us happiness of every kind.

But He never forgets that His first responsibility is to build character within us. But if we will be faithful to Him, He will do both. He will build character in us, if we yield to Him in the midst of these difficulties. Trust Him, and He will also provide for us in every way to extend our lives, and make them more enjoyable. That is what eternal life is all about: to extend the enjoyment of living; of creativity; of prosperity; of peace; of joy; of productivity; everything good; all kinds of beauty; all those things are what He wants to extend. And the pain of death is something that He wants to deny. The building of character comes first.

It is through these difficulties that character is built. And the foundation of the whole thing is whether or not we really believe that our life is in His hands. He is an ever-present reality. So Jesus says He is so aware of what is going on in His creation, that He takes notice of a sparrow that lights on the ground. Why does the sparrow light on the ground—to get something to eat, or drink, or to rest?

The lesson that is there for you and me is that God is going to provide; He will take care of you, and He wants you to know that he is so aware of you that He has every hair numbered. (For some of us, that is no job at all. But for most of us, as I look around there, we have got pretty good heads of hair.)

He is really involved. Do we believe it? That is the key.

JWR/rwu/drm