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[0:00] I still hear pages.

[0:17] Oh, that's just Justin getting out some paper. Alright, we're ready to go then. Alright, Matthew chapter 10, verse number 1. The Bible says, And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, I made comment there about that being the number of Israel and the purpose for them, that there's going to be twelve thrones that they sit on, judging the twelve tribes of Israel in the future kingdom.

[0:38] He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. And we ran a few references last week about the power and the purpose for Christ giving power to men to minister and to cast out devils and diseases and things of that nature, and that it was a preview of the kingdom.

[0:57] How Isaiah prophesied that there's going to be, that the blind will be made to see and the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. And this is a sign, these signs that are going around the country here.

[1:09] Remember Jesus, we saw it in 935 that he went about teaching our synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing. And then we also ran some references about how they can see and hear, see and hear.

[1:20] There's not just the message that they're preaching about the kingdom of heaven at hand, but there's signs that accompany that message. And in Hebrews, some of the verses we saw describe that these were the powers of the world to come, as it says.

[1:34] And so that's a reference to the future, and these men are going around with evidence that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Nobody goes around today, or they surely should not be going around today, telling folks that Christ died for their sins, and that he's buried and rose again the third day, they can be born again, have eternal life, and then here's the proof, and works a miracle to prove that.

[1:56] Those signs have been rescinded, and it's not the way God works. This is strictly for the kingdom, and something promised to Israel, so it makes sense. It's fulfilling prophecies. All right, we got into the names of the disciples in verses 2, 3, and 4, and just broke off there for a moment to learn who that fellow in verse 3 is, where it says Labaius, whose surname was Thaddeus, and elsewhere he's called Judas, the brother of James, who's mentioned previous in that verse, James the son of Alphaeus, and then he even identifies himself later as he writes an epistle, back at the back of this book, Jude, the brother of James.

[2:34] So he's got a few names, and that's something that we ended with, showing you that that's not to be confusing. It may be to a degree, but it's something that was common to a degree as well in the scripture.

[2:47] So it's the same guy, Thaddeus, Labaius, Judas. And now we'll pick it up in verse number 5 and continue forward. The Bible says, These twelve Jesus sent forth and commanded them.

[3:01] So earlier in Matthew 9, verse 38, Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And if they prayed that prayer, it's only a few verses, five verses later, that they're being sent forth.

[3:18] And to just get a little spiritual thought or application out of that, is if you have a heart for Jesus Christ and a desire to serve God, and you pray, God, please use me, I can tell you one thing that he'll be interested in doing is using you.

[3:33] You don't have to be sent forth across the ocean for God to use you. You don't have to be commissioned and raise support. You don't have to have this big degree or anything like that. If you have a heart and a prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ to be used, now it may not be as big as you want it to be or as big as he uses others, and those degrees are up to God.

[3:53] But if you have a heart to pray to the Lord to use you and want to be pleasing to him and realize that this life is but a vapor and that only what's done for Christ will last, I guarantee he'll have something for you to do.

[4:05] And so these 12, 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 and as ye go, preach saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

[4:23] Now if I had just five minutes to try to show somebody the difference between what goes on today and what was going on in Christ's earthly ministry, this passage would be the first one I go to.

[4:39] This one is overlooked. It is even twisted to try to fit to today's narrative. Come to Matthew chapter 28 and just a few years later, he tells the same guys something different.

[5:00] Matthew 28 all the way to the end and verse 19. There's 11 of them there in verse 16 with Judas Iscariot not being present.

[5:15] In verse 19 he says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations. Wait a minute. You just told us a little bit ago that we're only supposed to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

[5:26] Why now is it okay to go to all nations? Well, it's obvious to us that the ministry of Christ has been accomplished, the death, burial, resurrection, and so forth.

[5:41] At the very least, it gets a little more complicated than that even, but still, he's commissioning them and allowing them to go for it. In Mark it says, Go ye therefore and preach, or go ye therefore in all the world and preach the gospel.

[5:54] Now that's not the commission of Matthew chapter 10, which ought to tell you something that what's taking place throughout his ministry and the commission that he's sending his disciples on and the power that he's giving them and all of the things that surround it is all focused exclusively to the nation of Israel.

[6:12] And all of his teaching that we just covered in 5, 6, and 7 has its place with the kingdom of heaven and the nation of Israel. And when somebody tries to mingle the teachings of Christ and the gospels with the gospel of the apostle Paul and the teachings to the Gentiles, you're making a big mistake.

[6:30] And you can't reconcile it. And the only way to reconcile it is to change it. Or is to say, well this is literal but this is spiritual. Well this sort of means it this way.

[6:41] The Greek word there is this so that you can alter what the text teaches. You leave the text the way it is, you come out understanding there's a different commission going on here in Matthew chapter 10 than what shows up later on at the end of the gospels.

[6:56] I think by now it should be pretty apparent after all this teaching through the first nine chapters where we're at and what's happening here. And it shouldn't even be a glaring thought that Christ makes that statement to go to the Jews.

[7:09] But he didn't just say go to the Jews. He said do not go to the Gentiles. Why would he talk like that? Look at Ephesians chapter number 2.

[7:22] Ephesians 2. You see a verse here in Ephesians. The message that these men have is the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then the signs follow the message.

[7:37] And so in this first commission of Matthew 10 he's empowering these men and instructing and sending them to Israel only. And there's a reason for that. It's because I could say it like this.

[7:49] The wall that God put up is still up between Jew and Gentile. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. And I'll back all the way up to verse 11 to start here.

[8:01] And of course he's writing to believers, Gentile believers that are in the body of Christ. Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands.

[8:14] So the Jews called the Gentiles uncircumcision that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope without God in the world.

[8:29] So all those covenants that God made in the Old Testament with those men whether it be Abraham and with Moses with David they were of no value to any Gentile to you and I.

[8:41] We were apart from that. We were separated from that. We were aliens outsiders from that commonwealth and strangers from those promises. Now in verse 13 but now in Christ Jesus which is key ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

[8:58] Look at verse 14 for he is our peace for he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.

[9:09] But in Matthew chapter 10 it is obvious that that wall is up. Christ says enter or go go not into the way of the Gentiles.

[9:21] Why? Because the message isn't for them. But fast forward a few years some things change. Now the message is for them and we'll see that well maybe we'll see that later actually in the next hour where God just kind of shuts the door on Israel in the book of Acts and walks away and opens it up to the Gentiles and Paul said they will hear it.

[9:44] So we're dealing with some things we need to understand and when we do understand this then we can easily filter all the noise and just take the scripture as it says and place it where it belongs and not get confused crossing over doctrinal lines or lines of the ages that God has established.

[10:04] So God says Christ teaches and sends them forth in verse 5 go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. So Samaria sits kind of in the middle if you could geographically of Israel of the nation to the north is Galilee and to the south is Judea and in the middle there is Samaria.

[10:23] And in Samaria which would be the capital of the northern ten tribes in that area back when the kings came and they took away and they led captive the northern ten tribes first and there was three major captivities or movements of people during those times they removed them out of the land and then even placed some of their own back into the land you can read that back in the book of Kings and they over time intermingled with the Jewish seed that remained in that land and they became what they call a half breed or a Samaritan and so a Samaritan is its own I don't want to say indigenous necessarily but it's its own people that were rejected by the Jews you see that throughout the script you see it in John 4 when he talks to the woman at the well it was in Samaria and she couldn't believe that he was talking to her you see elsewhere that they have no dealings with the Samaritans and so Christ even explicitly tells them enter into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not so if you're going to go north to preach to the Jews in Galilee then you're going to go around or you go through but you're not going to preach in their cities even if you stayed the night you're not going to teach them about the kingdom of heaven that message isn't for them this is exclusive stuff and it's obvious in the text so there's no reason to get mixed up about it verse number 6 he says but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel look at chapter 15 of Matthew

[11:50] Matthew 15 verse 24 this is when a Gentile woman comes to him and we saw this the other week in verse 23 he answered her not a word so she wants her daughter to be healed who's grievously vexed with the devil and he answered her not a word in verse 23 his disciples came and we saw him send her away she crieth after us but he answered and said so now he's speaking to his disciples actually saying I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel so you can tell that Gentile to hit it hit the road and get lost because I'm not here for her now how's that for Jesus Christ the lovely savior the one whose arms are wide open receiving everybody not at that time now he ended up healing that woman because of her faith and he was impressed and she got him with the crumbs fall from the master's table talk but his intentions were nope now that's the truth of the ministry of Jesus Christ from the text of the Bible and it's not to be mean or nasty and say he was just hating everybody but he sure would have been crucified for that right there in our society for rejecting somebody based on their what their race he was only sent to Israel and it proves it and he sent his disciples to Israel and this is exclusive stuff so we have to understand that as we study this book what the theme of this is the kingdom the kingdom of heaven the king of the Jews alright so he goes to the lost sheep of the house of Israel

[13:35] I'm not going to turn but it's all over the Old Testament I have two references down Psalm 78 if you ever want to write that or look it up Psalm 78 51 and 2 references Israel being his flock that he led forth out of Egypt also Psalm 95 verse 7 is another one and it just there's tons of them references to Israel being God's flock we even saw that a few I think it was last Sunday as a matter of fact in Ezekiel 34 I believe it was where he had that prophecy regarding the they were scattered as sheep not having no shepherd from 936 so that's a common theme that continues a running analogy maybe you call it through the Old Testament all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and so Israel is sheep now come to verse 7 as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand we already read this in chapter 4 verse 23 we already read this in chapter 9 and verse 35 that he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom this is good news about a kingdom about fulfillment of the Old Testament promises to the nation of Israel that's the theme that's the purpose that's the message it is not

[14:52] I'm here to die for your sins if you're not sure about that look at Luke chapter 18 Luke chapter 18 and we'll just hit this and hit this every time we come through it or every other time so that we get it and that nobody's confused or misled about the specific material we're studying Luke 18 and as far as the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ come to verse 31 this is later on in his ministry getting closer to Calvary he begins to clue his disciples in on something that they were ignorant of verse 31 this is after they had already been commissioned and healed the sick and preached the kingdom of heaven verse 31 and he took unto him the twelve and said unto them behold we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the son of man shall be accomplished what do you think they're thinking kingdom thrown probably going to be some battle going on now verse 32 for he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles that means like tied up and locked up whatever and shall be mocked and spitefully entreated and spit it on and they shall scourge him and put him to death and the third day he shall rise again and what's their reaction verse 34 you need to mark this verse you need to understand this verse they understood none of these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things which were spoken and was that the gospel that we preach today how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures he preached to them or at least he clued them in on his future death which is all it took for payment for my sins and for theirs and they had no idea so you have to have to have to acknowledge they certainly weren't preaching that earlier in this gospel

[17:12] Matthew 10 when they're going out across Israel they're not telling anybody that the savior that's going to die for your sins is here the lamb of God is here they didn't preach that message they said the king is here and it's time for us to rise up God's going to put us up above these Romans alright so they were clueless to it so anybody that teaches this thought of the Old Testament saints looking forward to their Messiah dying for their sins or as they say looking forward to the cross they're deluded about that thing the script it's that obvious right there nobody's looking forward to a cross they're looking forward to a crown and to a kingdom and the cross was kind of a hidden thing from them alright back in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 7 they're preaching the kingdom kingdom kingdom of heaven we've studied that out it's a earthly kingdom it's a

[18:13] Jewish kingdom it's a physical visible kingdom with a king with a throne and with a people all right now verse number 8 here's this commission as they preach they also heal and do signs verse 8 heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils freely have you received freely give now I have to pause here and say I don't know one faith healer in the world who would ever submit to verse number 8 or who could even try they claim to heal the sick but have they ever touched lepers have you ever heard of them touch cleansing lepers you ever see a leper come down the aisle in one of their meetings and they say no no forbid them not the power of God is on me you don't ever hear that stuff it's a farce raise the dead these fellows today claim to have the apostolic powers you ever see them raise the dead what happens when their parents die or their loved ones or children ever see them go do something about that they don't touch it cast out devils notice the last part

[19:28] I love this freely have you received freely give why are they charging so much money for their powers why are they so overcome with greed and lust for money well it's obvious 2 Peter chapter 2 if you're not sure read the first couple verses freely have you received freely give their message doesn't line up too well with the commission that Christ gave his apostles verse number 9 provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses ooh there's a man purse if you need one guys there's scriptural authority you can carry a purse that's what it says hey now you want to be your bible believer are you so there's no problem with the word purse there by the way the purse is it's just it's more like you might call it a change purse or just what you carry in a wallet now you have a leather something constructed to carry your bills back then they didn't have paper matter of fact they had true currency as you can see it in the verse gold silver and brass not paper worthless paper what a joke oh it's backed by gold yeah right they had purses and there's no problem with that

[20:57] I know it sounds a little awkward to our culture when we think of some big bag that a woman carries with half of her belongings in it with a little bit of you know oh I have one in my purse like I don't know how many times I've heard that and thought really how much do you have in there a purse is associated with money you know what you say when there's a boxing match and somebody wins they won the purse that just means the prize the money and so it's associated with just something to carry the coinage in it's not a big strapped on bag that has some be careful what I say some man's name on designer verse number 10 nor script for your journey what's a script oh that's an archaic word in the King James Bible and we better change it because we don't know what it is and I can't go to Walmart and buy a script that I know of so if I don't know what it is then what should we do with the word change it update it

[21:58] I'll give you a better one look at 1st Samuel chapter 17 if the word of God's going to tell us what the word is then we can just leave it the way it is and just read our Bible and study our Bible and learn from our Bible I'm convinced this book is fully capable of teaching itself to the believing heart 1st 7 1st Samuel 17 and where's the verse at yep so David's getting ready to go on take the giant and 1st Samuel 17 verse 40 it says he took his staff in his hand and he chose him five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had even in a script and his sling so what's a script it's a little bag that's carried by the shepherds it's something that slings probably over their shoulder but they keep whatever they need in it and in this case he put his five smooth stones in there something that was easily accessible so back in

[23:14] Matthew 10 you're not supposed to take gold silver or brass in your purses nor script for your journey so they're going with what you have you're not loading and packing up a travel bag neither two coats neither shoes nor yet staves for the workman's worthy of his meat now what he's telling them is you're going to be taken care of as you're in the ministry as you're out working serving me I'm going to make sure God's going to make sure that you get taken care of I have to bring this out Schofield I have a Schofield study Bible that I've had forever and in his note that he says here he says the central theme is urgency that must be kept in mind that is you don't take anything you don't pack a bag because it's urgent it's his thinking on this and the emphasis is on provide he says time is not to be taken to search for additional stays or shoes and I don't buy that at all what I think this is and I think plainly look back at chapter number five no chapter six of

[24:19] Matthew what this is is Christ training them to live it by faith and he's putting to use the teachings that he just gave them in Matthew chapter six and it's really the from verse twenty five to the end and we don't need to read that entire thing but we'll pick it up verse number thirty one therefore take no thought saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall we be clothed for after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly father knoweth that you have need of these things but seek ye first the kingdom of God his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you take therefore no thought for the morrow so what's he teaching them here what's he telling them you're going to live by faith and I already taught you how to do this and so what I taught you it's time to put into practice and you're not going to go with enough money to plan for your trip and every stop of the way now if you're going to go on vacation you better plan but this was not a vacation this was ministry and he told them in conclusion of this statement the workman is worthy of his meat which is plainly saying you're going to be provided for because the work that you're doing for the

[25:30] Lord he'll take care of you and you're worthy of that so you deserve that you don't have to work on the side now that's a biblical principle and let's just learn it and cover it in case we don't know it in 2 Timothy 2.15 Paul tells Timothy the preacher that he's a workman he's to study to show himself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth in the Bible the man of God is told to labor in the word and in doctrine in Acts chapter 6 those men were to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word come to 1 Corinthians let's look at this for a moment 1 Corinthians chapter 9 it's about supporting the minister is what this is and I don't flinch at all in saying these things even though it's a little bit awkward it is a little degree of awkwardness to be saying it and I don't flinch at it at all because it's the word of God and it's my duty to as we come across it to teach it and so it's not me saying

[26:35] I need more money or I'm not satisfied it's none of that at all it's just this is the book and so no matter who you are where you are you need to know what the word of God says on these topics as they come up 1 Corinthians 9 and verse number 6 or I only in Barnabas have not we power to forbear working it's obvious yeah we could stop working now they chose not to for a different reason but now he's going to give illustration after illustration of soldiers of farmers of husbandmen or of shepherds rather and even animals that work and then even finish up here with the Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament and show all these illustrations of someone who forbeard working a secular job to provide so that they could minister in the thing that they were called to do for instance verse 7 who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges no soldier does that who plant at the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof none or who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock say I these things as a man or say not the law the same also for it is written in the law

[27:40] Moses thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn does God take care for oxen or say it altogether for our sakes for our sakes no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope and that he that thresheth in hope should be a partaker of his hope if we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things if others be partakers of this power over you like the government are not we rather nevertheless we have not used this power but suffer all things lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ do you not know that they which minister about holy things that's Levites live of the things of the temple and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar meaning they eat that flesh that's sacrificed that's their meal verse 14 even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel turn to let's catch on the way Galatians 6 but we're going to get to 1 Timothy 5 as well

[28:42] Galatians 6 verse 6 and then 1 Timothy Galatians 6 verse 6 let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things him that is taught in the word communicate means give unto him that teacheth in all good things 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 17 and 18 let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor especially they who labor in the word and doctrine for the scripture saith Old Testament thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn and New Testament Christ in the gospels the labor is worthy of his reward and that's that's a direct quote from Luke this time Luke chapter 10 but the same place we're at in Matthew so it's a biblical principle for the workmen that worketh matter of fact if you went and studied the Levites and what they did in ministering about the holy they ministered unto God in his temple about the holy things and they were set apart to the ministries the terminology used it uses the word work it says for their work and I know you don't think of that as work necessarily but it's a job it's not just a punch in punch out for them anyway this is something

[30:08] God ordained and that's the right set up and praise the Lord that you're doing it right here and you're able to Matthew chapter 10 and verse number 11 we'll get a little bit further here Matthew 10 verse 11 and into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter inquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence and when ye come into a 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 this is interesting the word worthy showing up and we like to think of it as somebody that's deserving oftentimes the word worthy I looked it up throughout all the places in the bible and it shows most of the time it has to do with death somebody who's done something worthy of death worthy of death as in deserving of death but there's elsewhere where the word worthy is used saying walk worthy of your vocation or with your called and that's not deserving of your vocation but it's meat or it's suitable to or a match to that and this is what the word

[31:18] I believe is used for in this case it's not saying somebody that deserves your presence or the message but rather somebody who's living of that Old Testament righteous way ready prepared to receive the word of God look at Luke chapter 1 quickly here and I'll show you what I mean Luke chapter 1 somebody who is ready to receive God's message of his apostles Luke 1 verse 17 speaking of John the Baptist he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord and the Lord is sending now his 12 out to preach a message there are people that are supposed to be prepared for that already and they're made ready by the preaching of John come to

[32:19] Hebrews chapter 11 I'll just give you one it's kind of a similar situation maybe from the Old Testament but it's in one verse in Hebrews 11 before Joshua came in and destroyed Jericho there was Rahab in verse 31 of Hebrews 11 by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies with peace and so she in a sense was worthy she was prepared and ready and you wouldn't think it by her lifestyle but God used her similar situations all I'm saying is that these men are going into the town there's people and even it says you inquire who in it is worthy and there abide and somebody there can obviously take care of these men because they're not bringing their items with them or their money with them and things so somebody who's of substance that can help and take care and provide for these men it even says in this passage and the other gospels it tells them not to move from house to house not hop around but just to stay put while you're in that town and while you're ministering there so the word worthy throws you off a little bit or could look at acts 13 one last reference and we'll just quit a few minutes early acts 13 and the opposite of this person being prepared to receive the message is someone who's rejecting the message and so notice acts 13 and verse 46 then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken unto you but seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the gentiles and to make a connection go down to verse 51 and see how they react when they take off they're expelled out of their coast verse 51 says they shook off the dust of their feet against them and that's exactly what they're doing in these gospels and back in Matthew chapter 10 verse 14 the verse ends by

[34:36]  Christ telling him shake off the dust of your feet so that's somebody who's rejected that unworthy somebody worthy is somebody receiving it prepared for it and is a match or suitable for what that message and for those disciples and can house them and take care of them we'll quit there we'll pick it up next week and continue a little bit further and give you some time to fellowship a little bit and hopefully be able to start on time you to you