SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/11/2021 12:29 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
Intro to Matthew 10:5-15
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 10:5-15
Message of the verses: “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. 7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The
kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. 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. 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.”
Well
after sixty days looking at the first four verses of Matthew chapter ten, which
I must say was well worth it, we now move on to begin to look at verses
5-15. John MacArthur entitles this
chapter in his commentary “Principles for Effective Ministry.”
Now
after Matthew mentions the twelve apostles in this tenth chapter we now can
divide up the rest of the chapter in the following manner. The first section of verses 5-15 deals with
the basic task of ministry as Jesus sends the twelve out on their own. The next section, verses 16-23 we will see
the reaction to ministry and then the last section 24-42 deals with the cost of
ministry.
Any
missionary that goes out to spread the good news can be comforted by the fact
that the apostles were the original missionaries, trained and sent forth to
preach the gospel to a world under God’s judgment, into a harvest that was
plentiful but for which the workers were few as seen in Matthew 9:37; and then
compare 2 Corinthians 5:11. It seems
that the workers have always been few ever since these first missionaries went
out to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This first missionary trip for these twelve
was a short term missions trip work in their own country, but the basic concepts
apply to every believer the Lord sends out into ministry. Some of the specifics were restricted to a
given time and a given situation, whereas the principles are broad and
universal.
We
will see that Jesus’ purpose for this first apostolic mission was twofold as
first, it was for the sake of the lost, to give them opportunity to hear and
accept the gospel. Second, it was for
the benefit of the Twelve themselves, to give them training in the enterprise
of winning souls. Jesus was instructing
His disciples how to reproduce disciples, and that was so very important as
without that teaching then nothing would be able to move forward after the last
apostle was gone.
MacArthur
writes in conclusion to this introduction:
“In Matthew 10:5-15 Jesus articulates eight principles, each of which is
a general requirement for effective ministry:=; a divine commission, a central
objective, a clear message, confirming credentials, confident trust, settled
commitment, concentration on those who are receptive, and rejection of those
who are contemptuous.” Lord willing we
will begin to look at “A Divine Commission” from Matthew 10:5a in our next SD.
9/11/2021 12:50 PM
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