Jesus, Teach Us How to Witness #1. Lessons from Matthew Ten

Jesus, teach us how to witness. Let's work through Matthew, chapter 10 today in a little Bible study. Let's see what comes out. There is much insight here for us. Let's begin with the first four verses...

10:1-4. Jesus Calls His disciples

And when he had called unto [him] his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

The next three verses go on to name off the twelve apostles; one's who are sent. But notice that the first thing that Matthew calls them is what? Disciples. Now you and I may not be, and we aren't, apostles in the same sense as Luke and John and Peter and so forth. In the sense that we too are sent, we could say that we are apostles too. But in any case, we are disciples. These people were both disciples and apostles. A disciple is one who follows, a learner, and we are supposed to be learners. And so it says, "and when He had called unto Him His 12 learners, His 12 followers, it next says "He gave them power."

I don't believe that when God called us, He didn't give us power, He didn't give us authority. I believe that when He calls anyone to be His disciple, that God gives power to serve Him; that God gives power for whatever the need is. And if there is a need that we would heal disease or sicknesses, or even the need to cast out unclean spirits, to have power against unclean spirits, I hope that we don't think that that's just something of the past. God's gifts are current today, just as they were back then. He didn't give them the first-class gospel and give us the second-class gospel. He didn't give them the metal one and give us the plastic one. He gives authority to those who follow Him.

He gives power—authority—of astonishing proportion to those whom He calls. For example, raising the dead (Matthew 10:8). There's a potent one. As we go forth, the gospel breathes through you and me; it respirates. Commenting on this, Ellen White says, "Through His human agencies He [Jesus] desires to be a comforter such as the world knows not" (Desire of Ages, p. 351). Have you ever thought of yourself in this way? "But that's the Holy Spirit's work," you say. Yes.

Ours too.

Don't forget, there is a fascinating hierarchy within the mission of the godhead. The Son points to the Father. The Holy Spirit points to the Son. That's just the way heaven has arranged that things be. How interesting then, our extensive need of the Holy Spirit, and the fact that our mission parallels that of the Holy Spirit very strongly.

10:5-6 Jesus Assigns Them a Focused, Purposeful Mission

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Now I'm going to give you another line from Desire of Ages that revolutionized my understanding of this chapter. Again from page 351:

"On this first tour the disciples were to go only where Jesus had been before them, and had made friends" (Desire of Ages, p. 351). This was a training mission. Jesus had already been there first. This was the first time that He had sent the twelve out alone. Before this He had been following Him and working with Him. He'd been teaching them. But now, for the first time, he sends the 12 out, and then later the 70 out, but here's the first time He sends the twelve out alone. This includes Judas too. Don't forget. Judas was given power against unclean spirits just like everyone else.

Jesus sends them out. Where? Not to Samaria. First He said, go to the lost sheep of Israel. But on this first tour the disciples were to go only where Jesus had been before them and had made friends. The first time Jesus sends them out they went where He had already been; where there were already friends that had been made.

Now maybe we might think, wait a minute; here we are down here at the end of time, and we've just go to go ahead and go and give the truth and just tell it. And if they accept it that's good, and if they refuse it we've just got to go on to the next one; there's just not enough time. Not enough time to develop a friendship. But that's interesting, because when you go to Daniel nine (remember we were there maybe a month ago?), Israel was standing on the verge of her 490 year deadline (see Daniel 9:24-27). Right? The last remaining years and months were ticking-past at breakneck speed. Her time of opportunity and probation was almost entirely over. And yet... Jesus sent them to go over the ground that He had already begun the sowing process in. No matter how critical the limited time before the end may seem to us as we work, we need to slow down and work with friendships. Even though time was running down to the nub, Jesus said to go and make friends. And here He modeled it for us. And if they had time to be friendly, at the closing edge of Israel's 490 years, then maybe we do too.

Not that the Samaritans were unworthy. But that heaven sent the disciples to arouse Israel first. Today, God wants us to go to all, but perhaps our energies ought to be spent especially among those claiming to be Christians. They will call this proselytizing: sheep-stealing. But these are our Father's sheep, not theirs or yours or mine. Besides, Jesus sent His disciples "first to the lost sheep of Israel."

10:7 A Time-aware, content-centric Message

"As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus is speaking this yes, to the 12 apostles. But He is also speaking this to the 12 disciples, the same people. They were both, disciples and apostles. All of us here are disciples of Jesus. If you've given your heart to the Lord, you are a disciple of Jesus Christ. So this verse says, "as ye go," my disciples, "preach."

Now you might say, "Well, now he's going to hit us and tell us to go and preach." Well no, I'm not going to say that; not in the sense that everyone has to stand up in the pulpit and hold forth like this. Doesn't have to necessarily be like that. But we all have a message to share because we all know Jesus. And so we need to be willing to share that. It might be with 5000 or 50,000, or it might be with one. No matter the number of hearers, we need to share what God has done for us, is doing for us, and will do for us. So preaching isn't just for pastors, or preachers so-called; preaching is for every Christian. It might be simply in a face-to-face conversation. Friends, when Jesus talked to Nicodemus in John chapter three, was He preaching? It depends on how you look at it. He was giving the good news, wasn't He? And so maybe we would say even there, that's one we to think about preaching. In Patriarchs and Prophets, Ellen White calls that single sentence the devil speaks ("Ye shall not surely die") the first "sermon" ever preached on the immortality of the soul. One sentence. If one sentence can be a sermon, can be preaching, then perhaps one Spirit-led sentence on almost any occasion could be considered preaching.

Let's take these two verses together: "As ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." There's a difference here, in these two verses, between preaching, and these other things, right? "As ye go, preach," and then in verse eight says "heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, etc." But the preeminent thing, the first thing, the top thing, that Jesus says, is "as ye go preach." They call it felt-needs ministry when you meet those immediate needs that people have, and it's good. And here we see Scriptural support for that in verse eight. Jesus said "heal the sick." That's a felt-needs ministry. Jesus healed people all over Judea as we read in the gospels. But He didn't just heal. What I'm saying, is this (and remember how we've defined preaching): remember, preaching is up here, and all these other things are down here. They're a notch lower. Do you see that? They're important. They're critical. But preaching is one notch above that. Preaching is for everyone all the way through. Not everyone needs to be healed of leprosy. But everyone needs to hear the Word of God.

Notice another thing in verse seven at the beginning. When are you supposed to peach? "As you go." Remember the 10 lepers? Jesus promises to heal them and sends them to the priests. Do you remember how they were healed? "As they went" they were healed. "As they were going." So our preaching is not just Sabbath morning or Wednesday night or whenever. It is as you go. God can bring people across our path that we can share His goodness with.

Here's another aspect on verse eight. Did this pass you by? "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers," then what? "Raise the dead." Raise the dead? Can anyone here think of an incident in the four gospels where anyone besides Jesus raised the dead? There isn't one, is there? Afterwards yes, but not during the gospels. Now that's interesting to me. Jesus sent them out and that's what He told them to do. Now either there was some raising of the dead that the disciples did that we don't read about anywhere in the Bible or Spirit of Prophecy, or perhaps there simply wasn't a case like that that happened and Jesus did the only such raising during that time.

Now there is the spiritual sense too. And I think we could say the disciples raised the dead in that sense. And we need to do that too. God sends us to raise the dead. Raising the dead, casting out devils. And then this interesting spot at the end of verse eight. What does it say? "Freely ye have received, freely give." Well, what are we supposed to give from? We can give from our wealth or our materials goods. But what did Jesus give at the beginning of this chapter? He didn't give them materials wealth. He gave them power, He gave them authority. Could it be friends, that although we don't have wealth to give, we do have just the same thing that Jesus gave the disciples in verse one. Jesus gave power against unclean spirits and all these things. And so we have that same authority and power as Christians, and what we can give is what we've been given. And that is that freely we've been given the authority to do works for God. "Freely ye have received, freely give." Not simply of our wealth, but give through the power—the authority—that Christ has invested you with. You are heaven's authorized representatives here in Price, or wherever you go.

If He wants you to raise the dead, you will. I'm not going tell you its not there. We're stuck with the Scriptures. It's what the Word of God says, and it must be so.

You know, one thing the LDS have is their priesthood. And they are sure that they have authority to go and do this and that. I'm reading from the Word of God that we have authority from heaven to, in the name of Jesus, go, and do this and that.

It's the priesthood of all believers. You've heard of that. Martin Luther talked about that. It's a true teaching we find especially in First Peter, we read it in Exodus 20. It's a true Protestant teaching, its a biblical teaching—the priesthood of all believers. And "all" believers doesn't just mean all the "male" believers. All believers means that we have priests here, male and female, all who believe, even young people, old people, everybody. And I believe that each one who believes and each one who is a priest has the authority to go and even raise the dead. That's what the Scripture saith.

"Freely you have received," but how recently have we given and spent that power and authority that we've been given to heal people out in our community? We can probably do more.

10:9-10 God's Provision

"Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat," his food. God makes provision for our needs. He is going to give us what we need to learn about Him. Is there anybody here that doesn't have a Bible? We have them, don't we? If we need books containing the Spirit of Prophecy, we can get them. Those instructions are readily available. We have people. Before I came and after I leave there have been are and will be leaders here to build this church up; to give guidance and instruction. The church is capable of edifying itself through the gifts God has given it. We don't have to do evangelism by going our and scraping the garbage-can for the latest methods used by the fallen churches that might not always be the best methods. We have the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, and from there we can gather it in. Gods gives us what we need. Don't take silver or gold he says. I'll make provision for you.

God will supply our needs. We can't just stop and wait until we have everything that we need. We just need to go and do the work.

10:11 Association

"And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide until ye go thence." When you go into a place to do the work of the Lord, stop and see what you can find out about who is considered to be morally sound in that place. There's an association issue here. The presence that we have as we dwell in that house should be a blessing there. The blessing that follows us should be a testimony for the gospel. In fact, the Bible says that the presence, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27-29), would be a blessing to others. If you have Christ in you, and you enter their house, then Christ in you is entering their house. And do you think that having Christ in your house would be a blessing?

Now how would we apply this ourselves today? We're probably not going to walk over to our neighbor's door and say hey, I live for houses down the road. Can I stay in your house for a week? But you know what? We live in our community. And because we live in our community, there can be a blessing from our presence. If Jesus Christ is in me, then in my community Jesus Christ will be, and that presence will be there as a blessing in that community to testify to the goodness of God.

10:12-13 House-to-House Labor

"And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you."

Now there's verses 12 and 13. This seems to be talking about house-to-house labor. It is different than verse 11. Eleven is talking about finding a place, putting your stuff down, and using that as your base to go out and do evangelism. But these verses say that whenever you come into a house, you salute it. "God bless you" is good. "Peace be unto this house." Try to be a blessing everywhere. When we go into a public place, we may feel ourselves rightfully within a private- place. But instead, let us ask God to open the doors of the hearts of others there, so that we may initiate friendships even there.

You go into the Mall, and how do you feel? Often when we would go into a mall, we fill perfectly private about being in a public place. We don't desire or expect to be disturbed. If people came to me and just started chattering, I might feel like, "hey, let me be." But if we have that, perhaps we ought to shift our thinking. Because God can open the doors and we can meet people in those places. A hundred years ago you knew your neighbors. And today here in Price many of us may still know our neighbors. But in most communities, very few people know their neighbors any more. We are missing opportunities, aren't we? If we just start by getting to know our neighbors, we can be a blessing.

10:14-15 Judgment

"And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city."

Shake the dust off your feet—isn't that something we could leave out? It sounds kind of anti-productive, doesn't it? We need to leave people approachable. But here it says when you leave, shake the dust off your feet. You know what's happening there. That is a testimony against the people who have rejected Jesus. When you did that, 2000 years ago, that was a testimony that you had shown them the word about Jesus and they had rejected it. And again, I don' t think this was just something that happened in a flash; that they went to the door, talked for a minute and a half, and then left in a livid rage, walked out into the street and made a big production of shaking off their feet. What did we find at the beginning of this message today? Jesus had already gone to these places beforehand and made friends.

So when the dust gets shaken off the feet here, that is people who have, over a period of time, rejected the truth about Jesus. Its not an instant rejection. This is a decided rejection. So that testifies against the people who've rejected truth.

Now here's another thing it might mean too. Have you ever been depressed or saddened when someone you've worked with, prayed for, made friends with, and you've so desired would give their heart to the Lord, receive His message, receive Him for salvation, and they didn't receive—have you ever been saddened by that? Could this also be saying is not just let there be judgment upon these rejecters, but also, don't let the disappointment cling to you and make you depressed. Go on, move on, perhaps the Lord will send another person who can reap where you've sown. Don't lose hope about your children, don't lose hope about your friends who have not said yes to the Word of God. Shake the dust off your feet. It doesn't have to be done in anger. But don't go walking away burdened, because the devil will walk right in behind you and go, "heh, heh, he, he. Got this guy. He's depressed. Come on over here you demons; check this one out. Look at those tears. Chalk one up." No. Shake the dust off your feet. Move on. This thing isn't over yet. God might not be done with them. Don't let it bear you down.

Conclusion

So how can we close our discussion today. Let's remember these points:

When you became a disciple, each one of you was given authority. May we no longer forget that. We have authority as disciples from God. We have authority as His priests; men and women, young people and adult people. And when He had called His disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits. And God gives us power to share with others the life-changing good news. Notice that these people are sent out with a message. There is content in their message. Preach, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He didn't just send them out with smiley-face stickers. There was a definite, specific message. That is a time-centered message. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." It is a present-truth message. God gives His people a present-truth message, one that's vitally important for this time. This world is getting down to the nub. And do you notice that he gives what we need to give His message? "As ye go preach." God gives power to do these different things that support the preaching, helping the sick, and so on. Remember these things my brothers and sisters. God help us to absorb the lessons when Jesus teaches us how to witness.