Latest / Reformed Thinking / The King’s Mission: Proclaiming the Near Kingdom with Grace, Peace, and Judgment (Matthew 10:5–15)

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The King’s Mission: Proclaiming the Near Kingdom with Grace, Peace, and Judgment (Matthew 10:5–15) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. This is the deep dive.
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  And today we're taking on a piece of scripture that is,
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  well, just packed with authority and, let's be honest, some
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  pretty challenging commands. That's right, we're looking at
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  Matthew chapter 10, the section from verse 5 to 15.
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  It's the king commissioning his 12 apostles.
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  And when we say deep dive, we mean we're going into the source
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  material to pull out the essential truths.
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  Our goal today is pretty clear. We want you to recognize the
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  supreme authority of Christ's Commission here.
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  And that means understanding two things.
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  First, the very restricted and specific nature of this initial
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  mission, and 2nd, the absolute non negotiable urgency of the
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  gospel that still applies to us today.
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  The sources we looked at really drive this home.
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  This isn't a manager briefing his sales team.
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  No, not at all. This is the Lord of Glory, the
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  King of Kings, organizing his diplomatic corps.
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  He's delegating his own authority to them, and that
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  means our first response before we even get into the details has
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  to be 1 of submission. OK, let's unpack this.
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  So just to set the stage right before this, in Chapter 9, Jesus
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  sees the crowds and has this deep compassion for them.
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  He says they're like sheep without a shepherd.
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  Harassed and helpless, it's a powerful image.
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  It really is. And he tells his disciples pray
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  for laborers for the harvest. So chapter 10 is the answer to
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  that prayer, but it's not what you might expect.
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  It's not an army of Angel. No, it's these 12 guys,
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  fisherman, a tax collector, very ordinary men.
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  He names them apostles, which literally means scent ones, and
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  gives them this incredible specific authority over sickness
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  and demons. This is the start of a very
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  targeted plan. It is, which brings us right to
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  our first section and maybe the first big hurdle for a lot of
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  people reading this the. Scope of the Commission.
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  Exactly why was it for Israel only?
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  Well, let's look at the text. Verse 5 is where Jesus lays it
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  out and it can sound pretty jarring to us.
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  It can, he says, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no
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  town of the Samaritans. It sounds, I mean, almost
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  scandalously exclusive, doesn't it?
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  Especially when we're so used to thinking about the Great
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  Commission to all nations. It does, but we have to
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  understand the force of the language he's using.
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  He's not just making a suggestion.
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  Here, this isn't. Maybe wait on that for now.
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  Not at all. The Greek construction here uses
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  a negative particle may with what's called an A orist
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  subjunctive verb a peltate, and in Greek that specific
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  combination is a strong prohibition against even
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  starting an action. So it's like he's saying, don't
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  even think about beginning to go in that direction.
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  Precisely. It's a sharp, intentional and
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  temporary boundary line. He's drawing a clear distinction
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  for this specific mission. The terms are crystal clear.
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  Efnia refers to the Pagan nations, everyone who isn't a
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  Jew. And the Samaritans.
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  And the Amaritans, who are, you know, historical enemies of the
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  Jews, they practice this hybrid religion, a mix of the Law of
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  Moses and paganism. O For a Jew to go there would
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  have been a huge compromise, but the prohibition here shows they
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  are at this moment outside the immediate covenant will offer.
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  So if we just take this command and try to apply it one for one
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  to the church today, we're already making a huge mistake.
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  A catastrophic mistake. You'd be ignoring this critical
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  boundary and completely misunderstanding the nature of
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  what's being offered at this point in redemptive history.
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  OK, so that's the what? It's a clear prohibition, but
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  the big question is why? Why this restriction?
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  If God it's plan has always been for the salvation of the
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  nations, why start by shutting the door?
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  That's the key question, and the answer is all about redemptive
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  history and God's covenantal faithfulness.
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  This restriction is not, and we have to be clear on this, a
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  denial of God's love for the Gentiles.
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  The promise to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed
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  through him. That's been there from the
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  beginning. That's right.
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  So this isn't a contradiction. It's an affirmation of God's
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  truthfulness to his promises to Israel.
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  The Messiah had to come to Israel first.
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  It was a divine necessity. You see Paul talk about this,
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  right? You do.
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  In Romans 15.8 Paul says that Christ became a servant to the
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  circumcised. That's the Jews in order to
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  confirm the promises given to the Patriarchs.
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  And those promises were central to Israel's identity.
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  The land, the seed, the blessing, all culminating in the
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  King from David's line. Exactly.
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  So imagine if Jesus had just shown up and, you know, bypassed
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  Jerusalem to go set up shop in Rome or Athens.
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  It would have completely undermined the entire Old
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  Testament framework. It would have looked like God
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  had abandoned his own covenants and his chosen people.
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  It would have made God look unfaithful.
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  Which is impossible. So the offer of the Messianic
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  Kingdom had to be made first and clearly to the covenant people.
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  This is the bonafide offer of their long-awaited hope.
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  It validated God's promises and made sure that when Israel as a
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  nation later rejected the king, their rejection was without
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  excuse. God's justice is vindicated in
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  the process. He is faithful to his
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  established order, which was always to the Jew first.
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  Always. Now, when Jesus describes the
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  target audience, he doesn't use flattering language.
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  He doesn't say go to the the privileged children of the
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  covenant. He calls them the lost sheep of
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  the House of Israel. And that phrase, Oikos Israel,
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  House of Israel, is deeply covenantal language.
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  It connects them directly to the patriarchs, to the whole history
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  of God's dealings with them. But the description lost sheep
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  is just, it's devastating. It is.
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  It completely demolishes. Any idea that because they had
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  the law and the prophets of the temple, they were somehow
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  spiritually safe or morally superior?
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  They were chosen, yes, but they're also utterly,
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  desperately lost. It's an echo from the Old
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  Testament prophets, isn't it? Oh.
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  Absolutely. You hear it in Jeremiah 50,
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  where God says my people have been lost, sheep, their
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  shepherds have fled them astray, and even more powerfully in
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  Ezekiel 34, which is this scathing indictment of the false
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  shepherds, the leaders of Israel, who fed themselves
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  instead of the flock. So Jesus is stepping into that
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  context, saying the shepherds have failed and the sheep are
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  perishing. They are, and the grammar in the
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  Greek gives us even more insight.
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  The word for lost is a polyzota. It's a perfect active
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  participle. Now that might sound technical,
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  but what it means is critical. OK, break that down for us.
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  If Jesus had used a simpler tense, it might just mean they
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  got lost at some point. But the perfect tense indicates
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  a past action with ongoing results.
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  They wandered away in the past, and as a result, they remain in
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  a state of being lost, in a state of spiritual peril and
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  helplessness. So it's not a past problem, it's
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  a present ongoing crisis. It's a.
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  Spiritual emergency. And it's a profound warning
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  that, you know, being near the covenant, being part of the
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  House of Israel, does not at all guarantee that you possess the
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  life of the covenant. They were wandering and they
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  were still wandering. This is why the sources insist
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  we have to make what they call a dispensational distinction.
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  We can't confuse this mission in Matthew 10 with the Great
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  Commission in Matthew 28. What's the danger if we mix
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  those two up? The danger is you end up
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  confusing the mission of the church with the historical
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  situation of national Israel. Matthew 10 is what we could call
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  the gospel of the Kingdom being presented to Israel before the
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  cross. The King is physically present,
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  and he's offering them the literal national messianic reign
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  that the prophets promised. An offer that was contingent on
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  their repentance as a nation. Right.
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  And for that specific offer, the door to the Gentiles is
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  temporarily shut. Now Fast forward to Matthew 28.
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  That's after the king has been rejected, crucified and
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  resurrected. The nation is officially said
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  no. So the whole situation has
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  changed. Completely.
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  And so the Commission changes. The door is thrown wide open to
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  pantoteca ethne all nations. The focus shifts from a national
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  Kingdom to building a spiritual body, the church, made-up of
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  individuals from every tribe and tongue.
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  And if you confuse them. If you confuse them, you get all
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  sorts of theological problems. You might start thinking the
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  church today should be pursuing political power in the same way
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  Israel was offered a physical Kingdom.
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  You miss, apply the instructions.
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  The restriction in Matthew 10 was temporary and strategic.
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  It ensure that Israel's rejection was clear, which in
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  turn vindicated God's justice when he officially turned to the
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  Gentiles, which is what Paul announces in Acts 13.
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  So the take away for you listening is really twofold.
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  First, this passage proves Jesus is the lawful Messiah,
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  fulfilling God's covenant plan exactly as prophesied.
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  But second, it's a sobering warning.
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  Having spiritual privilege, maybe being born in a Christian
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  home or a Christian nation means nothing if you personally are
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  still one of those lost sheep. That's the heart of it.
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  Proximity doesn't equal possession.
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  OK, so once the king sets the boundaries, he then dictates the
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  message, verse 7 and as you go preach saying the Kingdom of
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  heaven is at hand, this is it. This is the core mandate.
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  It is. And the command to preach there,
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  Curaca Terry, is a present imperative.
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  That's a command for continuous, ongoing action.
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  They are to be heralds, corrects.
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  So not debaters or philosophers. They're town criers.
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  Exactly. Announcing a royal decree.
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  Their job is to proclaim the King's arrival and the King's
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  claim. And the message is the exact
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  same one we heard from John the Baptist and from Jesus himself.
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  The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
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  What does that phrase is at hand actually mean?
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  The verb is ungjikin. Right.
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  And it's another one of those perfect tense verbs.
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  It means the Kingdom has drawn near in the past, and it's
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  nearness is a present, continuing reality.
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  It's not a vague hope for the future.
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  Because the king was right there.
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  Because the king was physically standing on their soil, the
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  kingdom's authority was right at the threshold, ready to come in.
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  This is a real legitimate offer as a messianic reign, and it
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  demanded an immediate decision. But the word isn't the only tool
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  they're given, and this is, I think, one of the most stunning
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  parts of the Commission. Jesus gives them supernatural
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  credentials to back up this incredible claim.
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  He does in the first part of verse 8.
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  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.
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  I mean, that's an incredible list of abilities.
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  It is, and we have to be very precise in how we understand the
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  purpose of these works. They weren't just random acts of
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  compassion, though of course Jesus is compassionate.
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  Their primary function was, for lack of a better word,
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  juridical. They were authenticating
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  credentials. They were proof.
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  They were proof. Paul later calls them the signs
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  of an apostle in 2nd Corinthians 12.
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  These miraculous signs were absolutely essential for that
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  specific moment in history. Why then, in particular, why was
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  it so vital at that moment? Well, think about the situation.
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  The New Testament hadn't been written yet.
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  The people have the Old Testament, but that's it.
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  Now here come these 12 men claiming that a Carpenter from
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  Nazareth is the long-awaited king.
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  It's an extraordinary claim. You'd need extraordinary
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  evidence. Exactly how could anyone know
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  they weren't just making it all up?
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  The signs, these undeniable supernatural displays of power
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  that bent the laws of nature, served as God's own stamp of
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  approval on them and their message.
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  The writer of Hebrews talks about this in chapter 2, saying
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  God bore witness to their message with signs and wonders
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  and various miracles. So the signs were God's seal of
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  approval while the foundation of the church was being laid.
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  That's a perfect way to put it. And the sources also point out
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  that the signs themselves were a kind of enacted sermon.
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  They weren't random. They actually dramatized the
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  message of the Kingdom. How so?
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  Well, what is the Kingdom? It's God's righteous reign
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  breaking into a world to reverse the curse of sin.
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  So what do the signs do? Healing the sick reverses the
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  curse of disease. Cleansing lepers reverses the
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  curse of uncleanness and social exclusion.
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  Casting out demons overthrow Satan's power.
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  And raising the dead. Raising the dead is the ultimate
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  demonstration. It's a literal, tangible preview
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  of the final victory over death that the Messianic Kingdom will
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  bring. The deeds were a visible
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  commentary in the words. They showed that the Kingdom
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  wasn't just a political idea, it was an active spiritual rescue
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  mission. OK, this brings us to a really
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  critical point and one where, you know, there's a lot of
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  debate and confusion today. If Jesus commanded them to do
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  these things, what does that mean for the church?
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  Now this is where we have to touch on the Reformed view of
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  these signs, what's often called cessationism.
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  Right. And this requires a great deal
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  of theological care. But common air today,
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  particularly in some charismatic circles, is to take verse 8 as a
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  standing order for the entire church age.
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  The idea that any believer today should be able, on command to
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  raise the dead or cleanse lepers, yes.
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  And from a Reformed perspective, that interpretation misses the
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  unique redemptive historical role of the apostles.
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  In Ephesians 2.20, Paul calls the apostles and prophets the
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  foundation of the church, with Christ as the cornerstone.
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  You only lay a foundation once, right?
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  Exactly. The foundation is laid.
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  It's done. It was a unique, unrepeatable
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  work. Alongside that, we believe the
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  Canon of Scripture is closed. The Westminster Confession in
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  his first chapter speaks of the sufficiency of Scripture.
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  So if you say we still need miraculous signs today to
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  validate the gospel. You're implicitly saying that
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  the Bible isn't enough. You're suggesting that God's
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  written word needs some extra help, some performance, to be
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  convincing. It actually undermines the
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  authority and sufficiency of Scripture itself.
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  So the commands in Matthew 10 are descriptive of that unique
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  foundational era, not prescriptive for the church in
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  every age. That's the distinction.
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  They describe the Apostolic Age, a unique period when new
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  revelation was being given and authenticated.
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  That's not the normative, ongoing experience of the Church
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  now that we have the completed New Testament.
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  Now, we should probably clarify, just so there's no
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  misunderstanding, this doesn't mean we believe God no longer
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  does miracles, does it? Not at all.
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  We affirm along with a confession that God is sovereign
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  and can and does intervene and heal and work miracles according
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  to His own will. But the key difference is this.
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  No pastor or individual today possesses the on demand
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  authoritative gift to wield that power like an apostle did.
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  That specific authority was tied to their unique foundational
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  office. The moment someone claims to
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  have that Apostolic level authority today, they're
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  essentially claiming to be an apostle, which is a very
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  dangerous claim. It's.
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  A claim to be adding to the foundation, and it often frankly
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  opens the door to all kinds of abuse.
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  But here's what's so interesting.
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  And it gets missed a lot. Look at the order in the text.
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  The message comes first in verse 7.
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  Proclaim the miracles come second in verse 8 as
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  confirmation. The mission is word centered.
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  It's word centered, not spectacle driven.
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  The greatest miracle the apostles performed wasn't
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  healing a lame man, it was preaching the gospel that can
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  raise a spiritually dead soul to eternal life.
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  When the church gets that backwards, when the spectacle
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  becomes the main event and the gospel is the footnote, it's a
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  betrayal of the King's design. That priority has huge
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  implications for how we think about ministry today, doesn't
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  it? If we truly believe the word is
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  sufficient, then our ministry must be built around the clear
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  teaching of that word, not on trying to manufacture some kind
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  of sensational experience. That's that exact.
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  OK, so the king sets the message, he gives the confirming
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  authority, and then he immediately attaches this really
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  radical economic ethic to it all.
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  The second-half of verse 8. Freely received, freely give.
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  And that phrase is not temporary.
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  That is a permanent, binding principle for anyone who claims
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  to minister the Gospel in any era.
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  The Greek word is durian. It means gratuitously as a gift
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  without cost. This is a direct shot across the
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  bow of any attempt to sell God's grace.
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  It's a pre emptive strike against what the church later
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  called simony, the buying or selling of spiritual office or
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  power. Right.
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  And in our day, you know what? The rise of the prosperity
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  gospel and ministries that demand seed faith donations in
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  exchange for a promised blessing.
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  This verse is a scathing indictment.
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  Logic is just so simple, isn't? It it's undeniable the apostles
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  received their authority by grace.
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  They didn't pay tuition for it. They didn't earn it.
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  Therefore they must minister out of that same gracious
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  generosity. The motive has to be gratitude,
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  not gain. The minister is a conduit of
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  grace, not a vendor. And to make absolutely sure they
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  learn this lesson, Jesus then gives them these logistical
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  commands that are just that completely counterintuitive.
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  They go against every pragmatic bone in our bodies.
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  They really do. Versus 9 and 10.
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  He just starts stripping everything away.
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  Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag
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  for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff.
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  No reserves, no supply chain, nothing.
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  And we should look at the specific verb he uses, ketose.
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  It doesn't mean they couldn't possess any money at all.
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  It means they were forbidden from the act of acquiring or
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  stockpiling for the journey. He lists every form of currency
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  they would know. And then he takes away the
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  Perrin, the traveler's bag. I mean, that was the ancient
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  equivalent of a backpack. It held your food, your water,
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  your tools to go without. That was to be utterly
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  vulnerable. He commands them to walk out the
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  door with only the clothes on their backs.
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  It's a deliberate, systematic dismantling of self-reliance.
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  And the theological purpose behind this is profound.
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  It is. It's a forced lesson in divine
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  Providence. This lines up perfectly with
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  what we believe. As articulated in chapter 5 of
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  the Westminster Confession, God upholds and governs everything
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  by stripping away all the secondary causes of their
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  security, the money, the food, the extra clothes.
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  Jesus forces them to depend completely on the primary cause.
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  On God himself. On God himself, every single
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  meal they eat, every roof over their head at night will be a
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  direct, tangible testimony to God's faithfulness.
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  It's living out of the Lord's Prayer.
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  Give us this day Our Daily Bread.
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  They can't plan for next Tuesday.
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  They have to trust God for the next hour.
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  It makes their testimony so much more powerful because they
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  themselves are living proof that the king they proclaim is able
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  to provide. Right.
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  And we should be careful not to misinterpret this as some
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  command for, you know, asceticism for its own sake.
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  The the point isn't that poverty is inherently holy.
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  The poverty here is a tool. It's a pedagogical device to
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  teach them radical faith for this specific mission.
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  And Jesus provides a balancing principle so we don't think
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  they're just meant to be destitute beggars.
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  The end of verse 10. For the laborer deserves his
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  food. And that's critical.
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  This sets up the economic structure for the kingdom's
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  mission. They weren't supposed to be like
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  the Cynic philosophers who just begged.
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  They were official laborers. They were workers who had a
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  divine right to be supported by the people they were serving.
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  It's the King's law. God's work is to be supported by
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  God's people. Yes, the burden of their support
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  is shifted away from their own foresight and on to the
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  hospitality of the worthy house within Israel.
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  Now the source material is very clear that we have to recognize
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  that this specific financial prohibition, no bag, no staff
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  was temporary. This is another one of those
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  critical dispensational points. You see it so clearly in Luke
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  22. On the night he's betrayed,
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  Jesus looks at the disciples and asks them about this very
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  mission. He says When I sent you out with
• 19:07
  no money bag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?
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  And they say nothing. So the provision was real.
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  It was, but then Jesus completely changes the
• 19:16
  instruction, he says. But now let the one who has a
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  money bag take it, and likewise a bag.
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  The rules changed. The radical restrictions of
• 19:24
  Matthew 10 were for a specific training mission within the
• 19:28
  relatively hospitable context of Israel.
• 19:31
  For the long term worldwide mission into hostile Gentile
• 19:33
  territory, those restrictions were lifted.
• 19:36
  So the specific rule about not carrying a bag changes, but the
• 19:39
  underlying principle of radical dependence on God's Providence
• 19:43
  that remains. That is eternal, and that's the
• 19:46
  application for us today. It's a direct challenge to the
• 19:49
  pragmatism that so often drives ministry.
• 19:52
  We may use budgets and bank accounts, and that's fine now,
• 19:54
  but we have to constantly ask ourselves, where is our
• 19:56
  confidence really resting? Is it in the gold in our belts
• 19:59
  or endowments or strategic plans?
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  Or is it in the living God who sends us this passage forces
• 20:04
  that gut check. Absolutely.
• 20:05
  So we've covered the scope, the message and the economic model.
• 20:09
  The Commission then turns to the practical reality of what
• 20:12
  happens when they arrive in a town.
• 20:14
  The king lays out the protocol for engagement and it's a stark,
• 20:17
  binary reality. The message brings either peace
• 20:21
  or judgement. That's right, the first step in
• 20:24
  verse 11 is to find out who was worthy in it and stay there
• 20:27
  until you depart. OK, that word worthy Axios.
• 20:31
  From a reformed perspective, that immediately raises a flag.
• 20:34
  We believe no one is worthy. Romans 3.9 None is righteous.
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  Exactly. So worthy here cannot possibly
• 20:41
  mean morally perfect or someone who has earned God's favor
• 20:45
  through their good deeds. That would contradict the very
• 20:48
  gospel they're preaching. So it has to mean something
• 20:50
  else, someone who is receptive. It has to.
• 20:53
  It refers to someone whom God, in his sovereign grace, has
• 20:56
  prepared to receive the message. In Luke's account, he calls this
• 20:59
  person a son of peace. It's a house that God has made
• 21:02
  ready, not one that has made itself righteous.
• 21:04
  The heralds are to invest their time where God has already been
• 21:07
  at work. And the command to stay there is
• 21:09
  also interesting. It keeps them focused.
• 21:12
  No house hopping for better food or more comfortable lodging.
• 21:15
  It prevents social climbing and distraction.
• 21:18
  The mission is the priority, not their personal.
• 21:20
  Comfort. Then we get to the actual
• 21:22
  interaction in verse 13, the pronouncement of peace.
• 21:25
  IRNO. And this isn't just hello, this
• 21:28
  is Shalom. It's the comprehensive
• 21:30
  well-being and blessing that comes from being reconciled to
• 21:33
  God through his King. It's the very substance of the
• 21:36
  Kingdom they're announcing. And the text describes this
• 21:39
  dynamic. If the house is worthy or
• 21:41
  receptive, the peace comes upon it.
• 21:44
  They receive the blessing, but if not, the peace returns to
• 21:48
  you. This is such a critical
• 21:50
  principle for anyone involved in ministry or evangelism.
• 21:53
  The Gospel is never neutral. It never has no effect.
• 21:56
  It either saves or it hardens. It either brings life to the
• 21:59
  hearer, or it vindicates the faithfulness of the messenger
• 22:02
  and leaves the rejector under condemnation.
• 22:05
  Your faithfulness isn't measured by their response.
• 22:07
  If they reject the message, the peace returns to you.
• 22:10
  Your duty is discharged. That's a liberating thought, but
• 22:14
  it leads directly into the most shocking instruction in the
• 22:16
  entire passage. Verse 14, the sign of judgement.
• 22:21
  And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words,
• 22:24
  shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house
• 22:27
  or town. This is, as the sources call it,
• 22:30
  a staggering judicial pronouncement, and we can't feel
• 22:34
  the full weight of it without understanding the cultural
• 22:36
  context. What was the practice at the
• 22:38
  time? Pious Jews, when they had to
• 22:41
  travel through a gentile land, would literally stop at the
• 22:43
  border of Israel on their way back and shake the gentile dust
• 22:47
  from their sandals and their clothes.
• 22:48
  It was a ceremonial act. To avoid defiling the Holy Land
• 22:51
  with unclean Pagan dust. Precisely.
• 22:54
  Now think about what Jesus is commanding them to do.
• 22:57
  He's telling them to perform this very ceremony, but to do it
• 23:00
  against Jewish town. It is unbelievable.
• 23:03
  It's an enacted parable of the most severe kind.
• 23:06
  He's declaring that these covenant people, by rejecting
• 23:09
  the King's ambassadors, have judicially made themselves as
• 23:12
  unclean as Gentiles in the eyes of God.
• 23:15
  It's a visible sign of excommunication.
• 23:17
  It's a pronouncement of spiritual hardening.
• 23:20
  The relationship is severed. The ambassador is free from
• 23:23
  responsibility for their blood, so to speak.
• 23:25
  Yes. The transaction is over, the
• 23:27
  judgement is sealed, and that leads to the terrifying
• 23:31
  conclusion of the section in verse 15.
• 23:34
  Jesus makes this a fortiori argument, an argument from the
• 23:37
  lesser to the greater. He says, truly, I say to you, it
• 23:40
  will be more bearable on the day of judgement for the land of
• 23:43
  Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
• 23:45
  And this brings the doctrine of hell in the Last Judgement, as
• 23:48
  we understand it from the confession, into sharp,
• 23:50
  terrifying focus. The obvious question is how
• 23:53
  could anywhere be more guilty than Sodom, the very symbol of
• 23:57
  depravity and wickedness? The judgement has to be
• 23:59
  proportional. So the sin of this Galilean town
• 24:02
  with somehow be greater than the sin of Sodom.
• 24:04
  And it is. The principle is that judgement
• 24:07
  is proportional to the light that has been received and
• 24:09
  rejected. Sodom sin was horrific, yes, but
• 24:13
  they were sinning against the light of natural law and general
• 24:16
  revelation. This town in Galilee, however,
• 24:19
  is sinning against the greatest possible light.
• 24:21
  Special revelation, the Son of God in the flesh, standing in
• 24:24
  their streets. Exactly.
• 24:26
  They rejected the King himself present among them.
• 24:30
  To sin against greater light is to accrue greater guilt and
• 24:33
  therefore a greater punishment. So this verse then completely
• 24:37
  refutes any idea that hell is the same for everyone.
• 24:40
  It absolutely does. It teaches explicitly that there
• 24:44
  are degrees of punishment in hell corresponding to the
• 24:47
  degrees of light that were rejected in this life.
• 24:49
  And that's a chilling thought. This functions is what the old
• 24:52
  writers called a law work, doesn't it?
• 24:54
  It crushes any self righteousness.
• 24:56
  It does. The polite, outwardly moral
• 24:59
  person in Capernaum who heard Jesus preach and just decided no
• 25:02
  thank you is in a more dangerous eternal position than the
• 25:06
  ancient sodomite because they were offered the King's peace
• 25:09
  directly and they walked away. Rejecting the King's messenger
• 25:13
  is a sin of almost unimaginable weight.
• 25:15
  OK, so after walking through all of that, the restriction, the
• 25:19
  authority, the radical economics, the judgment, what
• 25:22
  does this all mean for us today? Let's try to bring this home.
• 25:24
  The source material helps us apply this text to four
• 25:27
  different groups of people. Let's start with the office
• 25:29
  bearer, the pastor, the elder, the missionary.
• 25:32
  For you, this passage defines your authority, and it's a
• 25:37
  humbling definition. Your authority comes only from
• 25:40
  your faithfulness to the King's words.
• 25:42
  It doesn't come from your personality, your leadership
• 25:44
  skills, your marketing plan. It's a powerful warning against
• 25:47
  pragmatism, against trusting in the gold in the belt.
• 25:50
  It is you are a steward of delegated authority and that
• 25:54
  should give you confidence to be bold, but also the humility to
• 25:57
  know that the results are not up to you.
• 25:59
  You are accountable to the Chief Shepherd.
• 26:01
  OK, second, what about for the Worthy House, the faithful
• 26:05
  Church member? For you, this text teaches that
• 26:08
  supporting the ministry of the Word with your finances, with
• 26:11
  your hospitality, is not just charity.
• 26:13
  It's not an optional extra. It is obedience to a divine
• 26:17
  command. You are part of God's plan for
• 26:19
  provision. You become the means of God's
• 26:21
  Providence. The King designed his kingdom's
• 26:24
  economy to run on the generosity of his people.
• 26:28
  When you support the laborer, you are participating directly
• 26:31
  in the mission. All right, third, for the weary
• 26:34
  St. the person who has shared the gospel and faced rejection
• 26:38
  or feels like a failure in ministry, this text has to be a
• 26:41
  source of incredible comfort. It's a source of liberation.
• 26:44
  Jesus built rejection right into the Commission.
• 26:46
  The command to shake off the dust frees you from the burden
• 26:49
  of results. Success is faithfulness.
• 26:52
  That's it. You're not responsible for the
• 26:53
  response. You're not.
• 26:55
  When they reject the word you bring, they aren't rejecting
• 26:57
  you, they're rejecting the King who sent you.
• 26:59
  So don't carry that guilt. Let the peace return to you.
• 27:02
  Do your duty and trust the sovereign God with the outcome.
• 27:05
  And finally, and this is the most serious application for the
• 27:08
  unbeliever who might be listening, the person who sits
• 27:10
  under the preaching of the Word, who has access to the Bible.
• 27:13
  For you, verse 15 is a terrifying alarm bell based on
• 27:17
  Christ's own words. If you hear the gospel and
• 27:20
  remain indifferent or hostile, you are in greater danger than
• 27:24
  the citizens of Sodom. Because you've been given a
• 27:26
  greater light. Infinitely greater to hear the
• 27:29
  King's offer of peace, to be told the way of reconciliation,
• 27:33
  and to turn away from it is a sin of infinite magnitude.
• 27:37
  The warning of this text is clear.
• 27:39
  The King's patience is not endless.
• 27:41
  You are commanded to flee from the wrath to come.
• 27:43
  That's a sobering note to end on, but a necessary one.
• 27:47
  This leads us to our final thought for reflection.
• 27:50
  I think it's this. The Commission was given to men
• 27:52
  with empty pockets. They were completely stripped of
• 27:54
  all earthly security and power, and yet they were vested with
• 27:58
  the full authority of the King, even temporary authority over
• 28:02
  death itself. When we in the Church today find
• 28:05
  ourselves paralyzed by fear, fear of rejection, fear of
• 28:08
  financial insecurity, we've forgotten the key truth.
• 28:11
  The King who demanded their absolute dependence on the road
• 28:14
  is the very same judge who will one day sit in judgement over
• 28:18
  every person in every town that refused them.
• 28:21
  The confidence of the ambassador should rest entirely and only on
• 28:24
  the authority of the sender. Knowing the severity of the
• 28:27
  judgement that awaits those who reject the King should compel
• 28:30
  our faithfulness and proclaiming his offer of peace.
• 28:33
  A powerful reminder. Thank you for joining us for
• 28:36
  this deep dive into reformed thinking.