rom Matthew 10:40-42 – An Apostolic Primer Part 5

These last 3 verses close out Jesus’ preparation of His Apostles for their mission to the lost sheep of Israel, proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing lepers and casting out demons. (vss. 6-8) It is a profoundly singular mission. Later, when He sends out the 72, Jesus’ gives a nearly identical set of instruction in preparing them. In both cases, the mission is short term and localized. But they both serve to give us insight today in what is left to us in our places and age and what we can expect to experience as we carry His message to the World.

Note then that while Jesus has given us the authority to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom in His name, we do not see the same commission in terms of healing and miracles repeated for the greater Church. And it is not that God does not still graciously heal and defy demonic powers; He still can and still does. It is rather that bringing the change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, especially to the Jewish nation, required dramatic proof of epic and unprecedented proportions. Given their heritage of the Mosaic/Joshua, and the Elisha/Elijah eras of the miraculous, at the most pivotal points in Israel’s history – Jesus’ ministry had to arrive and be seen on the same level. Indeed, to supersede both. So in John 9 we’ll hear the people testify: “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.” Neither previous era had seen what Jesus had done.

God was visiting His people in a way that would not be as necessary to those of us without that heritage. God incarnate was among them. We were born under the age of the New Covenant, they were undergoing a cataclysmic change. So Jesus can say to Thomas in John 20 “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” We do not experience immediate manifestations of the risen Christ as they did after His resurrection. But we are called to believe their witness. In the proclamation of the Gospel without proofs (above the miracle of the new birth) we are brought back to the Garden to live by faith – by simply believing what God has said is true, and ordering our lives accordingly. Believers today participate in reversing Adam’s unbelief. What an amazing gift!

Note then in this closing text of Ch. 10, the repetition of the word “because.” It is most important.

Those who hear the and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached, as that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached – receive the blessing of the Gospel: forgiveness of sin, salvation from the wrath of God, the infilling of The Spirit, the fellowship of the saints, the open door to the Father’s throne in prayer, the promise of the resurrection, eternal life, and eternal union with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We’ll read an echo of this later in Paul’s letter to the Galatians when he says: you “received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.”

Whenever, wherever men and women receive the Gospel as sent from God, as cosmic, eternal truth, they will receive the rewards due faithful prophets, righteous God fearers and true disciples. Grace upon grace upon grace. Not just mercy – bounty and blessing and glory.

If you do not know Him today – hear the words of this Gospel: Jesus Christ, God incarnate in human flesh, died for OUR sins, and this, in accordance with what the Scriptures always taught by types, shadows and prophecies. He truly died and was buried. But He also rose from the dead on the 3rd day, as the Scriptures also testified would happen. He appeared to those who had been with Him during His earthly ministry, so that there could be no mistake it was really Him. And He appeared to masses of men, not just one or two, corroborating the Disciples’ testimony. Then He commissioned all who believe in Him as our substitute on the Cross bearing God’s wrath upon human sin – to preach this Gospel yo you, that you may believe, be baptized as His disciple too, and obey Him as Lord. Come.