Rev. David Holwick ZA Matthew 10 series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
September 3, 2006
Matthew 10:1-10
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I. Problem solving.
A. Will Rogers and U-boats.
How many of you were at the shore this summer?
[As anticipated, many hands go up.]
This summer our family spent a few days on the Jersey shore.
Celeste lay on a towel and read a book.
The kids body-surfed.
I meditated on submarine warfare.
Believe it or not, the Jersey shore was a prime area for U-boat
attacks during World War II.
All the ships waiting to enter New York Harbor were silhouetted
against the bright lights of the Jersey boardwalks.
There was no way they were going to black out their lights
during prime tourist season!
Scores of ships were sunk.
The American military couldn't figure out how to deal with them.
But humorist Will Rogers came up with a solution years earlier.
He said, "What we need to do is to boil the ocean.
This will create such a pressure that it will force the
submarines to the top.
Then it will be as easy to destroy them as shooting ducks on a
pond."
A reporter replied him, "That's a good idea, Will, but how are
we going to boil the ocean?"
Will answered, "I'm just telling you what to do.
It's up to you to work out the details."
#5566
The devil is always in the details, isn't he?
B. Jesus had solutions to the needs of the world.
1) Jesus recognized the world's problems.
2) What is better, he had a detailed plan on solving them.
a) Get others to help.
b) Extend God's power.
c) Tell the Good News.
3) It's the story of how Jesus prepared the way for the church.
II. Selecting a few good people.
A. Jesus chooses twelve disciples.
1) The wider group of disciples numbered in the hundreds.
2) These twelve were special, and have the additional label
of apostle - "one who is sent."
B. Twelve represents one for each tribe of Israel.
1) They are the core of a New Israel, God's chosen people.
2) In Acts, the criteria for apostles are given:
a) They were with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry.
b) They were witnesses of his resurrection.
3) For this reason, most Christians limit them to the 1st cent.
a) Though some storefront churches in Newark beg to differ!
C. What is known of the twelve.
1) Each apostle list is a little different.
a) Simon Peter is always mentioned first.
b) Judas Iscariot is always mentioned last.
2) Two sets of brothers come first.
3) Bartholomew is probably the same as Nathanael in John.
4) Only Matthew lists himself as a tax collector.
a) It makes quite a contrast with Simon the Zealot,
who was probably a political radical.
b) It was also a humbling admission.
In the minds of the Pharisees, Matthew's name is linked
with the worst of sinners.
Matthew does not tell us that he left everything he had
to follow Jesus -- Luke tells us this.
The last place Matthew's name appears is as one of the
foundations in God's Holy City that descends from
heaven in the book of Revelation.
Ironically, that city would be tax-exempt!
#30538
5) We actually know very little about the others, except
for some late legends about them.
III. Unleashing God's supernatural power.
A. The first thing Jesus does is give them divine authority. 10:1
1) Whatever they can do, they must do with his power.
2) Their power is not an innate human ability.
3) It is an unlimited ability.
a) Jesus later says they can do more than he did.
B. They are to heal the physical and the spiritual. 10:1
1) Heal diseases and sickness.
2) Cast out evil spirits.
a) Both can be rather controversial!
Theologian Walter Wink writes:
If you want to bring all talk to a halt in shocked
embarrassment, every eye riveted on you, try
mentioning angels, or demons or the devil.
You will quickly be appraised for signs of pathological
violence and then quietly shunned.
Angels, spirits, principalities, gods, Satan - these along
with other supernatural realities, are the
unmentionables of our culture.
#30033
a) The Ernest Anglys and Elmer Gantrys certainly cause
us to pause.
b) But Christianity insists there is supernatural ability
available to us - the ability to perform even great
miracles, if God wills it.
1> Verse 8 even includes raising the dead, which
is as supernatural as it gets.
c) The overall principle: we have received much from God,
so we can give much.
C. The gospel is more than spirituality.
1) Jesus wants us to have an impact on our world.
2) He cares about our hurts and knows about our dreams.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn is the famous Russian author who
defected to America at the height of the Cold War.
In his book "The First Circle" he makes an interesting
observation about how the Russian authorities handled
the church.
He writes:
"No one stops them from ringing their bells; they can
break communion bread anyway they please.
They can have their processions with the cross.
But they will in no way allow them to have any
connection with social or civic affairs."
The church was allowed to go through the motions; it could
have a presence, but it dare not have an influence.
What bothered the religious leaders was not that Jesus
prayed and preached.
It was the fact that his prayers and his sermons were
moving the people to action.
I wonder if the church still has that concept of authority.
So often our problem is not that we do not have authority,
it is that we do not use the authority that we have.
#5185
IV. Sharing Jesus' succinct message.
A. The Kingdom is near. 10:7
1) God is going to break through at any time.
2) In a sense, the Kingdom is already here.
a) God's Kingdom is wherever Jesus rules.
b) If you are a believer, you are in the Kingdom now.
3) We also look forward to a future time when God's Kingdom
will be absolute and control all the earth.
B. The time is short. 10:9
1) Jesus demands a rapid mission.
a) No heavy support, just go.
b) In effect, they would live off the land.
Being a military brat, I often heard stories about the
war in Vietnam.
One of my neighbors had been a military advisor to the
South Vietnamese.
As they hiked through the jungle, the soldiers would grab
a handful of tea leaves and boil them for lunch.
Their meal was a cupful of rice.
A few tons of supplies could keep his division of thousands
of men functioning.
American Army divisions, however, needed hundreds, even
thousands of tons of supplies each day.
Ammo, fuel, C-rations, vehicles, toilet paper...
Jesus says his disciples would be more like the South
Vietnamese.
Travel light, travel fast.
There was a whole nation to reach!
1> Note that the mission was limited to Israel. 10:5
2> It had a very specific focus.
2) Jesus later changed the agenda.
a) At the Last Supper he tells them they will need
bags and staffs - even swords.
b) The mission had a wider scope then, and would be
more dangerous.
c) We ourselves live in those dangerous times.
V. Jesus wants to send you, too.
A. What do you think he wants you to do?
Email I received from an Army sergeant this week.
He says he finally surrendered to God.
God then sent him on a mission trip to Uganda, Africa.
That is always our fear, isn't it?
B. The world still needs his power and his message.
Shortly after the Second World War, a devastated city in
England began its wearying work of restoration.
In the old city square had stood a large statue of Jesus Christ,
with his hands outstretched in an attitude of invitation.
On the pedestal were carved the words, "Come unto me."
The statue was shattered by a German bomb blast.
In the process of the restoring the statue, the figure
eventually was put back together except for the hands.
No fragments of them could be discovered anywhere in the
surrounding rubble.
Someone made the, suggestion that, since the former hands
could not be found, the artists would have to fashion
new hands.
The local citizens objected, saying, "Leave Him without hands."
So, today, in the public square of that English City, the
restored statue of Christ stands without hands.
And on its base are carved the words,
"Christ has no hands but our own."
#24863
C. What are you doing for the Lord?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 5185 "Limiting The Church," by Rev. Brett Blair, Rev. Brett Blair's
Illustrations by Email, www.sermonillustrations.com,
January 25, 2000.
# 5566 "Called To Witness," unknown author, received as an email on
July 4, 2000.
#24863 "No Hands But Our Own" adapted from sermon "God's Gophers" by
Rev. Dave Wilkinson, October 4, 1998. Kerux sermon #723.
#30033 "Don't Mention It," by Francis MacNutt, from his book "Deliverance
from Evil Spirits."
#30538 "His Name Is Written," anonymous author, taken from a devotional
calendar from the 1960's. Garth Hutchinson Illustration
Collection.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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