Exposition of the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 10:1-4)

December 29, 2020

(Jesus begins to teach His disciple for their ministry)

Questions to be answered in this study

1. What are the two parts of the ministry of Jesus?
2. When did the final part of the ministry of Christ take place?
3. What is the one thing that makes the resurrection of Jesus so believable?
4. When did Jesus declare the 12 as His primary disciples?
5. What were the three levels of disciples?
6. Why did Jesus choose Judas, knowing he would betray Him?
7. What disciples made up Jesus’ inner circle?
8. What does Apostle mean?
9. Who were the Apostles not included among the 12?
10. What is the canonization of Scripture?
11. How many books of the Bible did John write?
12. How many books of the Bible did Paul write?
13. How were the true apostles distinguished from the false apostles?
14. What were the three names of Peter, and what does the name Peter mean?
15. When was the church born, and when was it established?

Introduction

Today we enter what is called Jesus’ redirected ministry as Jesus in chapters 10 and 11 of Matthew gospel, begins to prepare His disciples for their ministry. The larger part of Jesus’ ministry was His public ministry, which included His instructions to His disciples. The latter part is His private ministry, which would occupy the last week of His life, called the week of passion. Up until now, Jesus has spent quite a bit of time preaching and healing in Galilee. He informed the people that He was their Messiah, foretold in the Old Testament, and proved it by the miracles he performed, which could only have been a result of the supernatural power of God. Jesus offered His kingdom to Israel, but they rejected it because of the deception of the scribes and Pharisees. It had a determining effect on Israel’s future. After the rejection of the kingdom, Jesus redirected His ministry. He now begins to teach His disciples the ministry assigned them until His death and beyond. We will consider that more in-depth in chapter 12.

In today’s study, Jesus is teaching His disciples to become leaders in the church, which will be consummated 50 days after his ascension into heaven on the day of Pentecost. I believe the foundation of the church had already been laid with Jesus the cornerstone and the Apostles the foundation. On the day of Pentecost, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was added, and the church was consummated or fully established. At this point, the disciples were still unsteady as to what the future held even though they had been with Jesus for some time now. They had not yet realized that the Jews would reject Jesus, and His kingdom would not be presently set up, which the Lord already knew. The kingdom was a future event that would take place after His second coming. The fact that the kingdom was not intended to be set up at that time might make us wonder if the offer of the kingdom to the Jews was genuine. The answer is, it was even though the Lord knew it would be rejected.

Jesus had His job cut out for Him to get these disciples on course with His program, which included His death and resurrection, which the disciples would find challenging to accept until after the resurrection. From being discouraged, scattered, and fearful, the disciples became excited and brave, ready to lay down their lives to share the good news of Christ. Would they have done that for a dead, un-resurrected Christ? Obviously, of course not! They were ready to give up after the crucifixion thinking all had failed; this is what makes the resurrection so believable. His teaching was fundamental, but it would be until the day of Pentecost until they fully began to understand, when the Holy Spirit indwelled them. Jesus is still in charge of preparing people today for service in His kingdom’s work. He calls them out through the Holy Spirit and instructs them through the Word of God with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. It is a two-way street in which we are obligated to become involved and committed to his calling and marching orders. Most of all, we must make our service to Him the #1 priority in our life.

In Matthew 10:1, we see Jesus starting with the first step:

Matthew 10:1 “And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”

Jesus begins preparing His disciples by giving them an exceptional power to cast out unclean spirits and to heal all manner of illness and diseases. That was what distinguished the Apostles of Jesus from false apostles; this is the first time we have heard Jesus center in on twelve disciples. By this time, He undoubtedly had thousands who were following Him, but it would be the “elite” group of twelve that He taught to be leaders in the church and evangelism.

There were three levels among the disciples. First, there were all those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and followed Him. Second, twelve were chosen to be leaders in the church. Third, of the twelve, four would later be singled out as His inner circle. Included in the inner circle were Peter, Andrew, James and John, Peter being the executive leader of the group. Andrew was included in the inner circle of Jesus but not so much as one of the primary leaders. All of the disciples had the authority to preach and teach concerning the kingdom, but the twelve were given extraordinary power to perform miracles of healing as seen in verse 1.

Mathew now lists those in the central division, the twelve:

Matthew 10:2-4, 2 “Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; 3Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; 4Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.”

According to Luke’s gospel, Jesus prayed all night, seeking the Father’s will in the selection of His main disciples, the twelve. We know very little about some of these twelve, and a few others we know quite a lot. They all were to be leaders and did much that is not recorded in Scripture. They did not realize in the beginning that they would be elevated in this manner; they just wanted to follow Jesus and be His disciples. Jesus didn’t ask them if they wished to this position; he just promoted them. You might wonder if He made a mistake by choosing Judas, who would betray Him in the end. The answer is no. Jesus knew all along that Judas was the enemy who would betray Him. Judas would do that which Satan appointed him to do. At the last supper, the Scripture says that Satan entered the heart of Judas. It was Judas’ decision, but God allowed him to fulfill the role he played in the death of Jesus because God knew this would happen in eternity past. He also allowed Satan to play a part, Satan little knowing he participated in his defeat.

God’s call to ministry is not an invitation but a command, which is hard to ignore; to decline the call is rebellion and sin against God. Mark 3:14 explains the reason these twelve were elevated. They were to be with Jesus throughout His ministry for the cause of being in support of Jesus and being prepared to carry on the ministry when Jesus was gone. Jesus was a first-hand example of what these men were expected to become. He gave them a first-hand glimpse into how He lived and how He treated others; this allowed them to see how they were to live and serve from an intimate perspective.

Today we have the record of the life of Jesus in the study of Matthew that should also inspire us to be like Jesus and to serve as He served. The disciples observed how Jesus treated others, how He prayed and gave thanks to the Father in all things. Although the disciples had already left everything to follow Jesus, it was now, after a night of prayer, that Jesus appointed the twelve as Matthew records to be His top twelve disciples and to be the leaders of His church. The rest of the large crowd of disciples recognized the twelve as those Jesus had given unique authority and a prominent position as leaders. They were to be leaders among equals. Church leaders are people just as the rest of us, but the difference is they have been called to a particular service of leadership. They serve with humility and reverence to God, live a godly life, and are an example for the flock. We are to show them respect and submit to those in leadership, honoring the will of the Lord. Don’t be guilty of criticizing and running your leaders down behind their backs. Hebrews 13:17 tells us, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” Many pastors today are under tremendous stress because church members are not obeying this verse. Therefore, pastors serve with grief sometimes, void of the joy that they deserve.

The order of the list of disciples differs some in the other three places found in the New Testament. First, on the list, Peter is the leader of the twelve, while Judas, last on the list, is the traitor. Still, the higher the index the name appears, the greater authority – Peter, Andrew, James, and John always lead the list, while Judas is always at the bottom.

Matthew refers to these twelve as Apostles. Definition of Apostle: Apostle means to be sent. Those sent on a mission, such as the twelve disciples of authority, were sent to preach the gospel, later including Paul. Other apostles were not of the twelve also sent out on a mission, including Paul, Barnabas, and James, the brother of Jesus.

All apostles received their commission from Jesus Himself, and all of them saw Jesus in person. Though today some are called apostles, they are not since they did not see Jesus and are not directly appointed by Him, which were the two qualifications for apostles. Apostleship was always marked by special powers not assigned to other disciples. The primary source to determine the canonizing of 27 books of the New Testament was they were sourced from the apostles; the other two were written by Mark and Luke, who were closely associated with the apostles (“Canonization describes the process by which the community of God’s people accepted certain scriptures as divinely inspired and authoritative”). 14 of the New Testament books were written by the Apostle Paul, and John wrote four.

Much effort is made today in the printing of money to keep it from being counterfeited. God protected His church from fraudulent prophets by distinguishing the true prophets with power from heaven that could not be matched. Likewise, God gave the Apostles special powers that could not be duplicated to keep out false prophets, of which there were many in those days, as is the case today.

Even in the first church in the New Testament, there were false teachers who claimed to be apostles and were not misleading the people. Jesus backed His claim to be the Messiah by power from heaven. He also gave his 12 disciples that power so the people could distinguish them from the false prophets. The age of apostles ended when the church was fully established, and the Scripture was canonized. By this time, the Apostle had been martyred or had died.

Let’s take a few minutes to describe the main disciples, those that were the leaders. Peter was the leader of the Apostles and the first leader of the New Testament church. He had three names, Simon, Cephas, his Aramaic name, which was one of the spoken languages when the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity; Peter, which comes from the Greek word “Petros,” which is where we get the word Petro or petroleum meaning a rock. Today petroleum is produced from shale, a form of rock.

When Jesus spoke to Peter about the establishment of the church, He referred to Peter as a rock: 18 “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church;” Peter was not intended to be the rock upon which the church was built. Jesus Christ is the only True Shepherd, the cornerstone and the rock upon which the church was built. Peter was the Christ-appointed Vicarious Rock, the primary Vicarious Shepherd to lead and unify the church after Jesus ascended into heaven. Peter was commissioned with this ministry of coaching and teaching the church as we see in Matt 16:18-19 and then reaffirmed in Luke 22:31-32 and John 21:15-19.

The Catholics confused the meaning of the Scripture by insisting that the church was built on Peter. They call Peter the first pope and conclude that all former popes leading up to the present succeeded Peter, nowhere in Scripture. Peter was a rock in the church, a strong leader, but it was Jesus, according to Scripture, that was the church’s cornerstone, and the apostles made up the foundation of the church. According to tradition, Peter was crucified by Nero, emperor of Rome. At Peter’s request, he was crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to be crucified in the same fashion as Jesus.

Andrew, the brother of Peter, was the second mentioned in Jesus’ lists of apostles. It was he who introduced Peter to Jesus and he was distinguished as the first disciple. He and his brother Peter operated a fishing business together on the Sea of Galilee, as did James and John. Both Peter and Andrew lived in Capernaum by the sea. The ruins of Peter’s house are still standing today and are located underneath a modern church built above them, elevated to reveal the ancient ruins. Not much is said about Andrew other than he was mentioned as suggesting to Jesus that there was a lad who had five loaves of bread and two fish to feed the multitude. He thought that would help is a mystery, but it did work because Jesus performed a great miracle. According to tradition, Andrew conducted an evangelism ministry in Asia Minor and traveled as far as Russia, Hungry, and Poland. He also became a Martyr according to tradition.

Next among the leadership of the Apostles was James, who is to be distinguished from the other Apostle called James the less, the less because of his lower position than James of the inner circle. Neither is he to be confused with James, the brother of Jesus, also an Apostle but not of the twelve who wrote the epistle of James. James, of the twelve, was included in the inner circle of Apostles and was present with Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration. James is the only Apostle whose death is recorded in Scripture when Herod Agrippa killed him to please the Jews. The fourth Apostle, included in the top leadership, was John, the brother of James, who together were referred to, by Jesus, as “the sons of thunder.” John wrote the fourth gospel, three epistles, and the book of Revelation. We know John was exiled to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revelation and later was released. He probably died a natural death, though Scripture does not say. The only other Apostle we know much about is Matthew, who wrote the gospel we are studying, and of course, Judas, who betrayed Jesus. There is little said about the rest of the list, though they probably had a significant role in the early church.

It is interesting to note that Jesus selected ordinary people, fishers, tax collectors, and regular people with little education and no formal training in leadership or religious matters to carry on His ministry after He was gone. He still uses ordinary people today like myself and others to carry on the ministry. That should be a great encouragement. We don’t have to be trained preachers or leaders to serve the Lord. Jesus would train these men considered to be nobodies in their day to be the heroes of the faith. The Lord wants to prepare you and me today to be workers in His kingdom. We need to be willing and committed to letting Him use us in whatever it is we can find to do in His service. There is no greater calling on this earth, and nothing compares to its eternal importance. You may never be recognized as someone important by the world, but in the eyes of the Lord, you are among the greatest who ever lived, that is, if you are truly committed to Him and to His calling to perform His purpose for your life.