Matthew 10:26-33

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REMEMBER, this is a special time in history in which you have the long-awaited presence of Messiah Jesus, filled with the Spirit, approved by the Father, bearing direct witness to the people of Israel. The Messiah was being presented to the Jewish people as the One Who was promised. They only had a prophecy and a promise before (Sodom and Gomorrah), but now is the real deal.

The ancient Jewish writings about the time of the Messiah all included this thinking of difficult times-persecution, division of friends and family-all over a person's response to this powerful, personal witness. Jesus warns this first round of direct witnesses what they will face and what they must do. [I personally believe that this same context of trouble and therefore the same required response from His disciples will happen again just prior to the Messiah's return.]

16 ``Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 ``But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; 18 and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 ``But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. 20 ``For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

We are to be as "shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves". "Shrewd" has the idea of a wisdom that sees through all that might be deceptive. "Harmless" is a unique word meaning to be unmixed, pure as with metal or wine-no mixture of deviousness. This is the same term Paul uses in his letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 2:12-16 - Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.

I love the balance! We are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling"-work out into your behavior the salvation that is in your heart. But he doesn't leave you all on your own. "For it is God which is at work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." So, be "harmless", unmixed, pure and single-minded as you can be as you walk among the people who respond poorly or negatively to the presence of Messiah Jesus. "Shine as lights in the world" of darkness, "holding forth the word of life".

NOTE that Jesus says not to worry about what you will say when dragged into a difficult situation, but the Spirit of your Father will give you what you must say, when you need it. I am finding this to be a more useful principle than I had thought. I think I have prepared too much many times what I am going to say and not relied upon the Spirit of my Father to "speak in me." And as I have been practicing this principle, the words that I have been speaking are so powerful, appropriate, timely and pointed at the need of the moment!

21 ``Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 ``You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. 23 ``But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.

You may not have experienced a great physical persecution, but there will be a sorts of verbal persecution and false accusations against you. This will be found among those who are followers of the Messiah to discredit the witness of His existence and presence.

The intent here is that all of Israel will be faced with the witness of the longed-for Messiah by the time He would be clearly revealed to them. This is why Jesus sent these disciples only to the house of Israel in this opening mission. All others will come later, as we will see.

Salvation is not seen as a one-time, fix and you're in! Although I believe that your salvation is secure, I also know that there are situations where people turn away from God, never to return to Him. This is not a fear tactic, but a proof of genuineness. Salvation does not come to you so much because of your faith, but because of His grace-undeserved favor from God. No one will get into heaven except through the grace of God. Jesus wants us to be faithful in our response to this great grace.

Matthew 10:5-15

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Picture yourself sitting in a room with Jesus as He gives you the following instructions. NOTE what His instructions are:

5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: ``Do not go in the way of the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 1. Jesus gives His disciples clear direction as to their ministry target-the house of Israel.

7 ``And as you go, preach, saying, `The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 2. Jesus wants you to communicate the principles of the presence of the kingdom.

8 ``Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. 3. Jesus gives authority and power to make a supernatural difference in the lives of those who are hurting-the sick, the dead and dying, lepers and freeing those bound by evil spirits.

Freely you received, freely give. 9 ``Do not acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, 10 or a bag for your journey, or even two coats, or sandals, or a staff; for the worker is worthy of his support. 4. Jesus wants you to have no agenda whatsoever, but to give of yourself freely. Don't look to get rich by doing the ministry of the kingdom. You will be taken care of while freely giving of yourself in ministering to those hurting around you.

11 ``And whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it and stay at his house until you leave that city. 12 ``As you enter the house, give it your greeting. 13 ``If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. 14 ``Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 ``Truly 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. 5. Jesus wants His disciples to be channels of His peace.

6. Jesus only requires one thing-that people be interested!

You, as a disciple of Jesus, are to be empowered by Jesus Himself. Proclaim the presence of the kingdom. Bring a healing touch to the hurting. Freely serve everyone, everywhere with the peace of Jesus--only to those who are interested!

Matthew 10:1-4

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1 Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and 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, the one who betrayed Him.

Here they are, the motley crew Jesus called to be with Him. There are three sets of brothers, fishermen, a tax collector, two men who were called the "sons of thunder" and a radical zealot. All of these men had been rabbinical rejects, not selected by any rabbi to continue in religious education and therefore sent back home to take up the profession of their families. And now, these men have been personally selected to follow in the steps of Rabbi Jesus. These men give each of us hope!

This chapter gives us some terrific insight into the beginnings of the Jesus movement. This summoning triggers a line in my thinking. "Leaders are not made or born, but summoned." Jesus summoned these unlikely men into leadership that would change the world! Note what happened a few years later, when a couple of these leaders were on their own.

Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. 14 And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. Acts 4:13-14

NOTE 4 things. 1-These men were unlikely people-uneducated and untrained. 2-These men were unusually amazing and attractive to the people. 3-These men had been hanging out with Jesus and it was noticeable. 4-These men were instrumental (used by God) in bringing about supernatural healing.

The fact that the lame man was really healed shut the mouths of their potential critics. I call this the "lame man principle". I'm learning that the most important evidence that draws people to consider Jesus has to do with the "lame men" in my life. Who are the broken, hurting, addicted and damaged people in my life that I have been summoned by Jesus to touch with His healing? And where are they? How are they doing? Do others see their healing? In other words, the only really important thing in life is how I get out of the way and introduce others to Jesus.

But enough about me. Where are the "lame men" in your life? How is it going?

Matthew 9:36-38

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36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, ``The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. 38 ``Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.''

This is one of the most powerful and insightful statements Jesus ever made. It is challenging to me! Jesus wants us to allow Him to lead out, especially when it comes to fulfilling the primary mission of spreading the message of the kingdom.

Check out the words of Oswald Chambers on this matter as it relates to a "missionary": 'The key to the missionary's difficult task is in the hand of God, and that key is prayer, not work- that is, not work as the word is commonly used today, which often results in the shifting of our focus away from God. The key to the missionary's difficult task is also not the key of common sense, nor is it the key of medicine, civilization, education, or even evangelization. The key is in following the Master's orders- the key is prayer.

"Pray the Lord of the harvest." In the natural realm, prayer is not practical but absurd. We have to realize that prayer is foolish from the commonsense point of view.

From Jesus' perspective, there are no nations, but only the world. How many of us pray without regard to the persons, but with regard to only one Person- Jesus? He owns the harvest that is produced through distress and through conviction of sin. This is the harvest for which we have to pray that laborers be sent out to reap. We stay busy at work, while people all around us are ripe and ready to be harvested; we do not reap even one of them, but simply waste our Lord's time in over-energized activities and programs. Suppose a crisis were to come into your father's or your brother's life- are you there as a laborer to reap the harvest for Jesus Christ? Is your response, "Oh, but I have a special work to do!" No 'believer' has a special work to do. A 'believer' is called to be Jesus Christ's own, "a servant [who] is not greater than his master" ( John 13:16 ), and someone who does not dictate to Jesus Christ what he intends to do. Our Lord calls us to no special work- He calls us to Himself. "Pray the Lord of the harvest," and He will engineer your circumstances to send you out as His laborer.'

So our primary responsibility is to pray-to be fully aware and to follow the direction of Jesus-to get our orders from Him. This is what it means to trust Him.

Matthew 9:27-35

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27 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, ``Have mercy on us, Son of David!'' 28 When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said* to them, ``Do you believe that I am able to do this?'' They said* to Him, ``Yes, Lord.'' 29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, ``It shall be done to you according to your faith.'' 30 And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: ``See that no one knows about this!'' 31 But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land.

32 As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. 33 After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, ``Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.'' 34 But the Pharisees were saying, ``He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.''

35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.

Each incident offers an additional picture of faith, simple, yet real faith-personal trust in Jesus and what He can do.

TWO BLIND MEN. It's interesting to note that these blind men came to Jesus with an obvious request-to be able to see again! Jesus directly asks them if they really believe He is able to make them see. As soon as He got their answer, He immediately touched their eyes saying, "It shall be done to you according to your faith."

I wonder how much of our blindness has to do with our lack of belief-faith and trust. I must admit that I have not been one who ruthlessly trusts in Jesus. My spiritual stance has been to trust Jesus and do all I can do to make things happen. We are learning-slowly-to trust Jesus with everything. I want to be able to see again. How about you?

A MUTE MAN-DEMON-POSSESSED. Then a mute man (caused that way by demonic oppression) was brought to Jesus. Jesus immediately went to work and healed the man so that he could talk again.

There are two definite responses regarding this particular miracle. 1. Never seen anything like this before. They were amazed!

2. His power is from the ruler of the demons. They were annoyed!

This is one of the 3 miracles the Jewish people had always believed the Messiah would be able to perform when He showed up. The 3 miracles were: 1-The healing of a leper. 2-The healing of a man born blind. 3-The healing of a man who was not able to hear and speak.

To be amazed by this miracle was to be receptive to the possibility that Jesus might indeed be the Messiah. To be annoyed by this miracle was to be threatened by the possibility that this radical Jesus might indeed be the Messiah.

What if Jesus were to do something outside your box of expectations? How might you respond? Would you be threatened or would you simply trust Him.