Matthew chapter 10

Matthew chapter 10

Can’t you just picture Jesus, looking out at the crowd, looking at people in the marketplace … watching and knowing that they just simply did not ‘get it’…how his heart went to them!  Yet, who would go?  Who would tell them, right?  

Closing Matthew chapter nine, having just made the observation of the readiness of people to receive the gospel message, Jesus then goes into action, equipping his men and also warning them of what they would encounter as they ministered:  “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of sickness and disease.

Here are the names of his twelve disciples: Simon (also called Peter), Andrew (Peter’s brother), James (Zebedee’s son), John (James’s brother), Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew (the tax collector), James (Alphaeus’s son), Thaddaeus, Simon (a member of “The Zealots,” a subversive political party), Judas Iscariot (the one who betrayed him).

Jesus sent them out with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure the lepers, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!

“Don’t take any money with you; don’t even carry a duffle bag with extra clothes and shoes, or even a walking stick; for those you help should feed and care for you. Whenever you enter a city or village, search for a godly man and stay in his home until you leave for the next town. When you ask permission to stay, be friendly, and if it turns out to be a godly home, give it your blessing; if not, keep the blessing. Any city or home that doesn’t welcome you—shake off the dust of that place from your feet as you leave. Truly, the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah will be better off at Judgment Day than they.

“I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. Be as wary as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware! For you will be arrested and tried, and whipped in the synagogues. Yes, and you must stand trial before governors and kings for my sake. This will give you the opportunity to tell them about me, yes, to witness to the world.

“When you are arrested, don’t worry about what to say at your trial, for you will be given the right words at the right time. For it won’t be you doing the talking—it will be the Spirit of your heavenly Father speaking through you!

“Brother shall betray brother to death, and fathers shall betray their own children. And children shall rise against their parents and cause their deaths. Everyone shall hate you because you belong to me. But all of you who endure to the end shall be saved.

“When you are persecuted in one city, flee to the next! I will return before you have reached them all! A student is not greater than his teacher. A servant is not above his master. The student shares his teacher’s fate. The servant shares his master’s! And since I, the master of the household, have been called ‘Satan,’ how much more will you! But don’t be afraid of those who threaten you. For the time is coming when the truth will be revealed: their secret plots will become public information.

“What I tell you now in the gloom, shout abroad when daybreak comes. What I whisper in your ears, proclaim from the housetops!

“Don’t be afraid of those who can kill only your bodies—but can’t touch your souls! Fear only God who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Not one sparrow (What do they cost? Two for a penny?) can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t worry! You are more valuable to him than many sparrows.

“If anyone publicly acknowledges me as his friend, I will openly acknowledge him as my friend before my Father in heaven. But if anyone publicly denies me, I will openly deny him before my Father in heaven.

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, rather, a sword. I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s worst enemies will be right in his own home! If you love your father and mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.

“If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it.

“Those who welcome you are welcoming me. And when they welcome me they are welcoming God who sent me. If you welcome a prophet because he is a man of God, you will be given the same reward a prophet gets. And if you welcome good and godly men because of their godliness, you will be given a reward like theirs.

“And if, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded.””  Matthew 10, the Living Bible

Christine DiGiacomo