The King chooses apostles, gives them work to do and teaches them how to behave
10
📚And when he had called his twelve disciples 📖 to him, he gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out, and to heal every kind of sickness and disease.2 📚Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, his brother Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, his brother John, 3 📚Philip, Bartholomew 📖, Thomas, Matthew 📖 the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus, Lebbaeus, who was named Thaddaeus 📖,
10:2-4 “Apostles” – the Greek word translated “apostle” means “a delegate”, “messenger”, “one sent forth with orders”. Here for the first time the twelve original apostles of Jesus are listed. Observe that they were first disciples (learners) before they were apostles. What is the use of going to teach others if one has not been taught by Christ? Observe too that they received their authority directly from Christ and in His presence. He gave them authority to do just what He had been doing. He was preparing them to be the future leaders of the Church of the New Testament.
Christ chose His apostles to be His special representatives on earth, and to be able (along with all the writers of the New Testament) to give infallible teaching. In that sense of the word, there have not been any other true apostles after they passed away, and there are none now. They had a unique work to do and they completely finished it. See notes also at Matt 16:19; Acts 8:15-17; 2 Cor 12:12.⚜
4 📚Simon the Canaanite 📖, and Judas Iscariot 📖, who also betrayed him.
5 📚These twelve Jesus sent out, and commanded them, saying, “Do not go on any road of the Gentiles, and do not enter any Samaritan city.
10:5 The Gentiles were non-Jewish peoples. The Samaritans were people of mixed blood whose origins are seen in 2 Kings chapter 17. They lived in Samaria, an area between Galilee on the north and Judea on the south. The Jews for the most part hated the Samaritans and avoided them (John 4:9). But this is not the reason why Jesus forbade His disciples to preach to them. The time for preaching the gospel to them had not yet come (it did come later – John 4:1-42; Acts 8:5-25). The Jews were the people of God from the days of Abraham (Genesis chapter 12), and God made special covenants with them (compare Rom 9:4-5). So it was fitting at that time that the good news of God's kingdom should first be preached to them.⚜
6 📚Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 📚And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 📚Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
10:8 These miracles were to be evidence that the kingdom of God was near. They were not to try to make money from the authority and power freely given them, but to freely use them for the good of others. Compare Acts 20:33-35; 1 Cor 10:33; 2 Cor 12:14-15. A simple life-style and self-denial were to be the marks of Christ's disciples. Notes at Matt 3:4; Luke 9:23.⚜
9 📚“Provide no gold or silver or copper for your money belts, 10 📚or a bag for your journey, or two coats or sandals or staffs. For the workman is worthy of his food.
10:9-10 They were to give freely and accept what was freely given to them. Kindness would receive the reward of kindness. God's workers are worthy of the support of people who receive God's blessings through them (1 Cor 9:7-14; 1 Tim 5:17-18). If their shirt or sandals wore out they were to trust God to provide them with others.⚜
11 📚“And whatever city or town you enter, enquire who is worthy in it, and stay there with them until you go away.
10:11 They were to be careful where they lodged and not accept every offer of hospitality which came to them. They were to seek out the worthy, not the wealthy. They were to have no money for inns and hotels. See also Luke 22:36.⚜
12 📚And when you go into a household, greet it. 13 📚And if the household is worthy, let your peace come on it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
10:12-13 The customary greeting among Jews was “peace be to you”. Peace would be the result in any home that received them and their message. Peace could not be with those who rejected their message, and the apostles were not to create the impression that it could.⚜
14 📚And whoever does not receive you or listen to your words, when you leave that house or city, shake the dust off your feet.
10:14 This was to indicate that there was no fellowship, no common ground between them and those who rejected Christ's message. It was a warning that the rejecters would be utterly left to themselves. Compare Matt 23:38.⚜
15 📚Truly I say to you, in the day of judgment 📖 it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah 📖 than for that city.
16 📚“Look, I send you forth like sheep among wolves. 📖 So be as wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. 17 📚But beware of men! For they will hand you over to the Councils, and they will beat you with whips in their synagogues,
10:17 Christ's disciples must realize that there will always be opposition to His message, and that haters of the true God will hate them too – vs 21,23.⚜
18 📚and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, to give testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19 📚But when they hand you over, do not worry about how you will speak, or what. For at that very hour what you should say will be given to you.
10:19 This refers only to these special occasions and does not mean that in the ordinary course of their ministry they were not to think and prepare what they should say. In these days preachers who have time to properly prepare their sermons and do not do so, are usually not much worth hearing.⚜
20 📚For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
21 📚“And brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rebel against parents, and cause them to be put to death. 22 📚And you will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
10:21-22 Such is the nature of man. The preaching of the truth will arouse bitter hatred and persecution, even of blood relatives. The most natural ties of love will be snapped by religious intolerance and bigotry – v 36; John 15:18-21. God's servants must endure much opposition. They will not be saved because they endure, but enduring to the end will be a proof that their faith is real, and so they are saved (Matt 24:13; Heb 10:39; 1 Pet 1:5).⚜
23 📚But when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For truly I say to you, you will not have gone over the cities of Israel before the Son of man comes.
10:23 Disciples must not try to force their message on others. If they are rejected let them go to other places where they might be received.⚜
24 📚“The disciple is not above his teacher, or the servant above his master.
25 📚“It is enough for the disciple that he is like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the owner of the house Beelzebub 📖, how much more those in his household.
26 📚“Therefore, do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
10:26 The reason disciples should not fear is that their Guru is the Lord of heaven and earth who will eventually bring the truth of everything to light. Compare Ps 37:6. See Luke 12:2-3.⚜
27 📚What I tell you in darkness speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear preach on the housetops. 28 📚And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Instead be afraid of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
10:28 Heb 13:6. For believers in Christ the only proper object of fear is God Himself. They have eternal life with God, and nothing that men can do to them can have an eternal result. See notes on the fear of God at Gen 20:11; Ps 34:11-14; 111:10; Prov 1:7.⚜
29 📚Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 📚But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
10:29-30 Since God observes the smallest details of His Creation, disciples should trust Him to look after everything that concerns them. Believers in Christ are to live a life free of worry, anxiety and fear – Matt 6:25-34; 8:26; John 14:1; Phil 4:6-7; 1 Pet 5:7.⚜
31 📚So do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
32 📚“Therefore whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. 33 📚But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
10:32-33 Believers in Christ must openly stand for Him and confess Him as their Lord and Saviour (compare Rom 10:9-10). Not doing so is like disowning and denying Him. Silence indicates that faith is not real. Those who wish to be secret believers, and never speak of their faith in Jesus, are running a terrible risk. How can they be sure their faith is genuine? Far better to confess Him openly, even if it means suffering and death, than to go on in silence and at last stand before God disowned by Jesus.⚜
34 📚“Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:34 Jesus came to bring peace to those who receive and believe Him, and to make peace between them and God. But He did not come to bring peace to all on earth. For there can be no peace to those who reject Him (Isa 48:22), and there will be conflict between them and those who receive Him.⚜
35 📚For I have come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 📚And a man's foes will be those of his own household.
10:35-36 See v 21. Truth divides those who believe it from those who do not. The fact they may be members of the same family has nothing to do with it.⚜
37 📚“Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and anyone who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
10:37 Compare Luke 14:26 where this is put even more strongly. If Jesus were not God He would have no right to speak so. Christ demands first place in our hearts, and we must be willing to choose Him instead of relatives (Matt 8:21-22). Truth is more important than family ties. Those who put family first, or self, or sin, or money, or anything else, cannot be His true follower (Luke 14:33). On Christ's deity see Phil 2:6.⚜
38 📚And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
10:38 See notes at Matt 16:24; Luke 9:23. The cross is a symbol of death. It was the Roman means of execution. Figuratively, to take up one's cross means to willingly go forward to the place of death to self and its desires, aims, and plans (compare 2 Cor 4:10-12; Gal 5:24). It means a mind to undergo whatever is painful or humiliating or mortifying to follow Christ. It is an attitude toward Christ and one's self which is the basis of the true Christian life.
The believer is told to maintain this attitude daily (Luke 9:23). To try to carry one's cross without following Jesus is a hard and bitter thing. And renunciation of desire and the world, austerities, penance, etc, come to nothing good if we do not follow Him. But to carry our cross and follow Jesus because we trust and love Him is freedom and joy, for those who do so will find that Jesus is with them all the way.⚜
39 📚Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
10:39 This means that those who live for self and their place in this world will lose eternal life, and those who choose Christ instead and die to self will find eternal life with God. We see what a powerful thing faith is – it can enable us to choose Christ over ourselves and others and everything in the world. See also Mark 11:24; Heb 10:39; 11:1, 4, 6.⚜
40 📚“Anyone who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. 41 📚Anyone who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. 42 📚And if anyone gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward”.
10:40-42 They who receive Christ receive God the Father Who sent Him, because He was one with the Father (John 10:30). They who receive Christ's disciples receive Christ because they are representatives of Christ, and He is one with them (Acts 9:1-5). His disciples are “little ones” – v 42; Matt 18:2-3; John 13:33; 1 John 2:1. The world looks down on them. They are often lacking in wealth or learning or position or worldly qualification (1 Cor 1:26-29). To show kindness to them is to show kindness to Christ, and there will be a reward for even the smallest act of kindness. See also Matt 5:12. If we really believe this we will not be reluctant to help others who are Christ's disciples.⚜