“The Gospel Pioneers”
(Matthew 10:1-15)
Series: God’s Fulfilled Promise [on screen]
Rev. Matthew C. McCraw, EdD
First Baptist Church, Bartow, Florida
May 19, 2019
The Passage
Matthew 10:1-15
1 Summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
5 Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road that leads to the Gentiles, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. 6 Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 9 Don’t acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money-belts. 10 Don’t take a traveling bag for the road, or an extra shirt, sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his food. 11 When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 Greet a household when you enter it, 13 and if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it; but if it is unworthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Introductory Comments:
When I say the word pioneer what do you picture?
Many of us picture the pioneers in American history who moved out west to unexplored territory. Perhaps we picture folks who took the Oregon Trail.
You might picture a wagon train moving through the mountains, like this picture [show picture]
A pioneer is someone who is the first to explore something or the first to do something.
Today, we’re going to talk about the Gospel Pioneers.
We are continuing our series through the Gospel of Matthew. Today, Matthew will shift his attention to discussing Jesus and His disciples, specifically the twelve apostles.
Let’s pray together before we get started.
(prayer)
Jesus had many disciples. As we’ve heard many times, disciple simply means, “follower.”
However, today we’re going to learn about some special disciples. These disciples are different than the other disciples.
Let’s dive right in. Let’s learn first . . .
I. Who were the Gospel Pioneers? [on screen]
First of all, we need to point out, again, that we are speaking of the twelve disciples. These are the specific twelve whom Jesus chose to follow Him and do His work.
These are those whom we also refer to as the apostles. Apostle refers to someone who is sent as a representative of someone; sort of like an ambassador. Apostle can also refer to someone who is sent.
These twelve men were called, taught, equipped, and sent as representatives of Jesus.
It’s significant that there were twelve of them. “Why,” you ask? Well, there were twelve tribes of Israel, and Jesus came first for the people of Israel. So, He chose twelve men to first take the message to the people of Israel, and later to the world. We’ll learn more about that in just a minute.
This passage gives us the specific names of these twelve men.
Look at verses 1-4.
1 Summoning his twelve disciples, he gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness. 2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
So, we see the specific names of these men: Simon (also called Peter), Andrew, James (the son Zebedee), John, Philip, Bartholomew (perhaps known as Nathanael elsewhere), Thomas, Matthew, James (the son of Alphaeus), Thaddaeus (perhaps known as Judas son of James elsewhere), Simon (the Zealot), and Judas.
We see quite a variety in this make-up of the apostles. We see governmental employees, such as Matthew; and governmental haters, such as Simon the Zealot. We see sets of brothers as well as individuals. We see blue collar workers and white collar workers.
These were not Pharisees, Sadducees, rabbis, priests, or prophets. They were ordinary men.
Notice that all of these men have one thing in common: they were called and equipped by Jesus for a certain work.
These men had been with Jesus for quite some time and were developing more and more into the people Jesus wanted them to be. They had a long ways to go, for sure! We’ll see that they messed up time and again! Yet, they were set apart and sent by Jesus.
In fact, we see in verse 1 these four keywords, “ . . . he gave them authority . . .”
Jesus gave unique authority to these specific men to go out and do a specific work in order to advance the kingdom of God. What a miracle!
Well, what kind of work did they do? That’s our second question:
II. What was the work of the Gospel Pioneers? [on screen]
Well, verse 5 tells us very specifically that Jesus gave them instructions.
Let’s look at those instructions starting in the second part of verse 5.
“Don’t take the road that leads to the Gentiles, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. 6 Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
First, we see that Jesus sent the apostles especially to the people of Israel as the starting point.
The kingdom of God came first to the chosen people of God. However, thank God that He expanded His family to include more people, even among the Gentiles! Thank God that He also chose us!
The Gospel went first to the people of Israel and the people of Israel would take it to the world.
Next, Jesus says in verses 7 and 8,
7 As you go, proclaim: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
Jesus is telling the disciples to continue to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come and to continue to do the work that He has done, including healing, cleansing, raising the dead, and casting out demons.
This message that the kingdom has come near is evidenced by the fact that the King is in their midst! Jesus is Messiah, He is King, He is God!
The King has come! Praise God!
Jesus said that God has freely blessed the apostles, so they must also go and proclaim the kingdom of God freely.
Jesus then speaks of what kinds of provisions the apostles should take. He says in verses 9 and 10,
9 Don’t acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money-belts. 10 Don’t take a traveling bag for the road, or an extra shirt, sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his food.
Here’s basically what Jesus is saying: don’t take more supplies than what you need, don’t receive more pay or food than what you need, and don’t do this work to make money. God will provide for you, so travel lightly and live lightly.
The apostles were to pack light and be ready to move quickly, like Gospel ninjas!
Jesus also speaks of where the disciples are to lodge while traveling. He says in verses 11-13,
11 When you enter any town or village, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you leave. 12 Greet a household when you enter it, 13 and if the household is worthy, let your peace be on it; but if it is unworthy, let your peace return to you.
It was not uncommon in those days for people to lodge with other people, sometimes even strangers.
There were no Holiday Inn Expresses nearby. Some of the lodging places that were around were sort of sketchy, and not the place a man of God might want to stay.
Jesus said to find a household that would accept them in. This household seems to have been both a place to stay and a base of operation for the ministry that was happening.
Jesus says if they are worthy. That is, if they are receptive to the message and the work, then stay with them.
In fact, when working with missionaries in Thailand we would travel into different villages that had never had any Christians in their entire history. When the missionaries wanted to start a work in that village they would try to find a person of peace and a place of peace where they could host their Bible classes and prayer times. The disciples used this method 2,000 years ago, and many missionaries are still using this method today.
So, there’s talk to not take a lot of stuff, not receiving pay, and finding a place to sleep wherever you can.
Now, you might say, “Wait a minute, Pastor! We pay you! What’s up with that?”
Well, that’s a good question.
First of all, Jesus is talking about traveling missionaries here, not local church pastors. At this point in history, there are no local church pastors. I’ve been a traveling short-term missionary before, and I didn’t receive payment from the people to whom I ministered.
Second, there are practical realities that are different today. The apostles stayed with households while they were ministering, and those households provided food and lodging. If any of you want to take me, my wife, and my three boys into your home for a longterm stay, and take care of our necessities, just let me know. We might be able to work out a deal.
In all seriousness, this was a particular task with particular factors at play. This same principle does not apply to pastors. In fact, the Apostle Paul would later say that pastors are worthy of double honor. Look it up, it’s in 1 Timothy 5.
So, here we have the Gospel ninjas, moving light and fast until they find a good place to minister.
Finally, we see what Jesus says of those places which do not welcome the apostles. We pick this up near the end of verse 13 and following.
. . . if it is unworthy, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone does not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
We see that Jesus doesn’t play around with those who don’t accept the Gospel message.
There are so many people who need to hear the Gospel, that Jesus tells them to keep moving and spreading Gospel seeds to see who is receptive. Remember, the harvest is great!
This idea of shaking the dust off of their feet would have been familiar to the Jewish people.
The idea is that you want no trace of that town or household on you. This would have been significant because Jewish people would have been used to shaking the dust off of their feet when they left a Gentile town, so as not to bring any defilement back into Israel.
However, in this instance, the apostles would shake the dust off of their feet from Jewish towns and Jewish households. It’s as if Jesus and the disciples are saying that if you reject the Gospel message, you are being rejected by God.
This a powerful message on display!
Jesus says that God will indeed reject those who reject them. He says it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for those who reject the message of the kingdom of God.
By the way, in case you don’t remember, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire from God because of their intense sin. So, they’re pretty bad. Yet, Jesus says that it will be worse for those who reject His message.
The message of the kingdom of God is the most important message there is to hear! That why Jesus sent out His apostles.
Concluding Thoughts:
The harvest is great, but the workers are few!
The Gospel pioneers were some of the first to proclaim the message of Jesus, and Jesus is sending more!
That takes us to our bottom line:
Bottom Line: Jesus sent and is sending Gospel Pioneers. [on screen]
(repeat)
Don’t forget that in the previous passage Jesus was instructing His disciples to pray for more workers!
We are some of those workers. We are to also be Gospel pioneers!
Listen to our weekly challenges:
Weekly Challenge: [on screen]
- Commit to be a Gospel pioneer. [on screen]
Before Jesus left, He gave us these instructions:
Read Acts 1:8 [on screen]
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
He wants us to still be Gospel pioneers today.
Can you commit to do that this week and beyond?
There are people and places out there where the Gospel has not yet been proclaimed.
Of the world’s 7+ billion people, there are 17,010 people groups. Of those 17,010 people groups, 41.6% are considered unreached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you about two groups that I’ve met.
Issan people [show map]
The Issan people are located in northeast Thailand.
There are 18,097,000 people among the Issan. Only .27% are Evangelical Christian.
They need Gospel pioneers.
Persian people [show map]
The Persian people are mostly located in Iran.
There are 36,788,000 people among the Persian. Only 1.90% are Evangelical Christian.
They need Gospel pioneers.
Bartow [show picture]
There are over 11,000 people right here in our city.
Many of those people and many of those households have never heard a clear explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They need Gospel pioneers.
Will you commit to be a Gospel pioneer?
Build relationships, show the love of Christ, proclaim the Gospel.
- Commit to endure the work of the Gospel. [on screen]
We will continue to be Gospel pioneers until Jesus comes back to rescue us.
Keep loving, keep sharing, keep proclaiming.
This is not an easy task, but it is the most important task that we can do.
You will face rejection, you will grow tired, you may lose hope at times. Keep going! The job is not done until Jesus comes back.
Commit this week to endure the work of the Gospel.
Closing:
Some of you have not yet been changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel has not yet made its way into your heart.
Today is the day you can be made new.
(Gospel Presentation)
(Closing Prayer)
Invitation Song – I Surrender All
Benediction:
If you have any sort of spiritual decision that you would like to make, you can contact me or any of our staff and we would be glad to talk to you anytime.
Join us tonight at 5:30 PM as we continue our series, “Discovering Church History.” I hope you’ll join us!
Let’s dismiss by singing the Doxology.
(Sing Doxology)
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