Sheep In the Midst of Wolves (9/10/2023)

Matthew 10 and the Mission of the Twelve

So let's open to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, two weeks ago, we covered verses 1 through 4, how Jesus ordained his 12 disciples to be apostles. So they are often referred to as the 12, you know, they're chosen, they are now ordained, they are now given this mission to go out and preach the gospel to the nation of Israel.

But of course, not everyone would see the gospel for the good news that it is. So Jesus instructs them, if people refuse to listen, do what? Shake the dust off your feet. That's what he says. So in the ministry and sharing the gospel, the apostles and us as well, we need to be smart.

They needed to be prepared. Sometimes people would receive them gladly. Other times they would be like sheep in the midst of wolves. So that's the title of this message, sheep in the midst of wolves. That's what Jesus says to them.

Look at verse 16, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. So let's just read this section starting in Matthew 10, starting verse five.

The Lost Sheep of Israel and the Priority of the Jews

These 12, we talked about two weeks ago, these Jesus sent out and commanded them saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And as you go, preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons freely. You have received freely give, provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs for a worker is worthy of his food.

Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy and stay there till you go out. And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you and whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.

Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

And may the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word. So believers in Christ are described as what sheep and this is what we are, right? We're sheep. We call the church, the flock and the word pastor means shepherd.

And of course, Jesus is the good shepherd. He is their shepherd. They are his sheep. Christians are the Lord's sheep. So they're sheep in the midst of wolves and what do wolves like to do with sheep? Devour them, right?

So this is a dangerous mission and it's not just the physical danger. Although there was that, they could face beatings and arrests and all sorts of things that he gets into later in the chapter. But there's also spiritual attacks that are going to come as well.

So what did they have to do? They needed to rely on the shepherd. Jesus gave them a very specific mission. As long as they obey Jesus, it's going to be okay, right? And that's true for us. As long as we obey Christ, things will be all right.

We learned several things in this passage. In a world that is often hostile to the Christian message, we should not respond in like manner. When somebody treats you poorly, what are you tempted to do?

You're tempted to respond in like manner. But Jesus tells them they are to be harmless like doves. So sheep are not known, obviously, as a violent creature and the dove is used as a symbol of peace. Now one thing people say about sheep is that they're not the smartest animal.

I actually looked this up and they said that's actually kind of a myth. Sheep are not as dumb as people like to claim. But sheep are not exactly free thinkers. They stay in the herd and goats are known as, maybe free thinker probably is not the right word to use for a goat, but they're more independent and they're more likely to get into trouble, I think is the point.

So we are to be like sheep, stay in the herd. There's safety in the flock. If you're out on your own and you separate yourself from the flock, you're open to more danger. But Jesus is telling them all sorts of things, giving them all sorts of lessons here.

Be kind to people. When somebody lashes out, don't do that back. And as long as they focus on Jesus and do what he says, everything is going to be okay. So this is kind of the general advice and many of the things that Jesus will say in this chapter, some of it is very applicable for us today and other parts are not as applicable and we'll cover that.

The Gospel to the Jew First

So let's go through these verses. Verse five, it says, these 12 Jesus sent out and commanded them saying, do not go into the way of the Gentiles and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. So the 12 apostles are sent and this is actually what the word apostle means, one who is sent.

So the apostles were chosen directly by Jesus and they are sent directly by Jesus. They are apostles of Jesus Christ and they are told specific instructions not to go and preach to these people. See, this is one of those things that's not really applicable to us or we would think that.

Uh, we're told to preach the gospel to what all men or preach the gospel to every creature, but they're told by Jesus, do not go and preach to these people. Do not go and preach to that town. Why is that?

Yeah, there's a lot of things we could say. Verse six, he tells them go specifically to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is what the apostle Paul meant in Romans chapter one when he said that the gospel is to what the Jew first, okay, to the Jew first and then to the Greek.

So the Gentiles and the Samaritans were to hear the gospel, but not yet because it's to the Jew first Israel. Why is that? Because Israel was a chosen nation. They had the old Testament scriptures. They were the ones looking for the coming of the Messiah.

The Gentiles, many of them never even heard of such a thing. So priority was given to God's people, the nation of Israel. And really, if you think about it, they should have been the most receptive group, right?

I mean, you would assume this, did that end up being the case? Not so much. So two points on this, as far as Israel goes, notice they needed the gospel. They needed to hear the gospel. Jesus calls them lost.

Now that doesn't mean that every person in the nation was lost, but as a whole, they were the lost sheep, the lost sheep. So just because, number one, just because they're Jewish didn't mean they're automatically right with God.

And this is applicable for us. Just because somebody calls themselves a Christian doesn't necessarily mean they're right with God. You know, some people call themselves a Christian because, well, I was brought up in a Christian home, or I was baptized as a baby, or just, you know, we're not Jewish, and we're not some other religion.

I'm an American. I must be a Christian. Of course, people don't think like that anymore, but they used to. What about your faith? It's personal. These people needed to hear the gospel. Besides, over time, even though Israel had the truth, you know what happens.

The truth gets corrupted. It gets obscured through tradition and other things, and people kind of lose sight of what's really important. So Jesus tells them, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

They need to hear the gospel. That's the first thing. The second thing, these instructions given to the apostles, this is the idea that the gospel is to the Jew first. This is not applicable today. Why is that?

Because this already happened 2 ,000 years ago. It was for the Jew first then. This is a very important thing when reading the Bible. No letter was written directly to you, right? It's for us, but it wasn't directly to you, and you have to consider the context.

The point being that they were told to preach to the Jews first, but that doesn't mean you have to talk to your Jewish neighbor before you talk to your Gentile neighbor, right? That wouldn't apply today.

When we send out, there's a board on the side wall where we have sent out or helped to send out many missionaries. You say, well, we can't do that until we have a missionary to Israel first. Like that's for then, not now.

Okay, so you see the difference. To the Jew first, then. Now, should we preach the gospel to Jews? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Unlike some modern televangelists who say, no, no, no, do not preach the gospel to the Jews.

They have their own covenant, or they say that's offensive. Don't do that. Wrong. Now we're preaching the gospel to every creature. So some of this, my point is only applied to them for this time period.

The Kingdom of Heaven, Miracles, and the Apostolic Mission

Look at verses seven through 10. As you go preach, what's the message they were given? Jesus Christ crucified and risen. Well, no, because that hadn't happened yet. So the message is preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

And then he says, do these things, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead. So the most basic part of the context is Jesus speaking to the 12 and obviously, and maybe it's not as obvious, there are no apostles today.

Okay, so this is for them. There are no apostles today because Jesus is not here. He's not calling men directly like he did with these men. So totally different situation. That's why, because there are no apostles.

That's why I can't go out and heal the sick and raise the dead. I don't have the ability. You knew this, right? Or is this a new revelation? And by the way, neither can the Pentecostal ministers. I just want to point that out.

I wish, and I think you as a believer, you wish you could go to the hospital and pray for someone and immediately have that person healed. That's just not the way it is today. I do believe that God heals.

I believe that God answers prayer. God may do that, but it's not the type of thing where you have ministers who can go and do these specific things. You've never seen anyone risen from the dead, have you?

You know, and resuscitation isn't the same thing. So this is directly to the 12 for this specific time period. Why were they to perform the miracles? This is something I bring up a lot. It's important we understand this.

They performed miracles as a way to authenticate their message. So they're going around preaching, the kingdom is at hand. Why should I believe you? Why should anyone believe these fishermen saying that the kingdom of God is at hand?

Well, when you see them perform miracles and raise the dead, guess what? You're inclined to listen to what they have to say. So miracles authenticate the miracle worker. And this phrase, the kingdom is at hand.

The gospel, this is the gospel of the kingdom. If you've ever read the Bible, studied the Bible, you notice that the gospel is described in many different ways. There's the everlasting gospel, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of God, the gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Are these all different types of gospels? No, it's all the same good news, but maybe different aspects of it. So they are told to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Why was the kingdom at hand? Because the king was at hand.

Jesus was present and he, at least in theory, was offering the kingdom. Now this was never the plan. It wasn't going to happen in the providence of God. He knew that, but at least in theory, if the Jews had accepted Jesus, they would have accepted what?

They would have had the kingdom. Okay. So that's why they're preaching the kingdom is at hand. It's near and it, in theory, could have been. So this instruction does apply. The church and her ministers and members are still tasked with this mission to preach the gospel.

Amen. This is why the church exists, to preach the gospel and help support missions and to spread the faith all around the world. Preach the good news about, in this case, the kingdom of God. Matthew uses the term, the kingdom of heaven, and the reason for that, probably Matthew's writing to a more Jewish audience and the Jews, there's a letter to the newspaper, one of these faith matters articles, and I don't know if he was a rabbi.

Did you see this? The Jewish guy who wrote in and he wrote a capital G dash D, like he didn't want to spell out the name of God. That's the way the Jews were. They wouldn't say the name of God or write the name of God.

They tried to avoid that. So that's why Matthew writing to a Jewish audience says kingdom of heaven to avoid using the name God, but kingdom of God point is kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven. It's the same exact thing.

So we are still in a sense preaching the good news of the kingdom. So some help to spread this message overseas by becoming missionaries, pastors, preach in local churches, minister in their community, the deacons assist the pastors.

So we preach, we serve, we give, we pray together and all collectively as a group, we are in a sense, carrying out the same mission of preaching the gospel to the Jew first and then to the whole world.

But again, some of these things don't apply like heal people, raise the dead, et cetera. Okay. So we got that straight. The kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? Do you know what the case? Somebody asked you, I want you to think about this.

What is the kingdom of God? What would you say? Yeah, it's, it's up there. Okay. That's one answer. Another answer. It's in here at the kingdom of God today is spiritual in nature. It includes all those who truly are born again and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But we start out the service every Sunday by praying the Lord's prayer. And what do we pray? You notice we pray for the kingdom, don't we? We pray, Lord, thy kingdom, what come, thy will be done where on earth as it is in heaven.

So really the kingdom of God is coming to this earth. The difference is they thought it was going to happen at the first advent of Christ. That was not the purpose. Jesus came to die for sin. Guess what?

The kingdom will come when Jesus comes the second time. So when Jesus comes at the second advent, he will usher in the kingdom of God. And then the whole world will worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Every nation on earth, the government will be upon his shoulder.

I don't know about you, but I get excited about you say, well, I don't see how that could happen. Well, he's going to have to change a few things. You know, at the, you heard of the battle of Armageddon.

So Jesus is coming back and he's going to destroy this world system. And here's the thing. If you're part of the world system, when he comes back, guess what? You're destroyed along with the world system.

So we want to make sure we are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. When he comes back, then we shall be partakers of and inherit the kingdom of God. But make no mistake about it. It will be established on this earth.

You know what? That's good news. I hope you're excited to hear about that. That is good news worth preaching. The things that we see today, how things are just in decline and the craziness and the absurdity in the world, it's not going to be like that forever.

That is good news. The kingdom of heaven, I can say this because it's in the Bible. The kingdom is what? At hand. Kingdom is at hand. Jesus could return in any generation. All right. So the shepherd is Jesus.

The sheep are his disciples. They are given this mission. They are to follow Jesus's instructions to a tee. And notice he said, you know, don't bring a staff. Don't bring two coats. So it's like, what's the big deal?

Why can't I bring two? No, you're not listening. Do what I say, right? This is some lessons we need to learn as Christians. You know, we're inclined to question things, right? Your kids do that. They question you and your authority.

Hey, I'm the parent. Mom and dad is in charge. And what do the kids do? Well, I don't see why it has to be like that. Well, see, you recognize that's not great. You want them to be obedient. Well, we're like that too.

God says this in his word. And we're like, why? Why, why, why? Well, let's grow up and not, we can ask questions, but let's move into maturity and just trust the Lord. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him in what?

He shall direct your paths. He shall direct your paths. Some people, their paths are just getting way off course. Why? Because they're not acknowledging Christ in all their ways. Too many people leaning on their own understanding.

It's one thing to know that verse, it's another to believe it, still another to apply it. Look at verses 9 through 10, provide neither gold nor silver. This is what Jesus tells them. Don't bring these things, copper in your money belts nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals or staffs for a worker is worthy of his food.

So don't bring all this extra stuff, you're gonna do a little work on the way. So at least during this mission, the apostles were preaching half the time and they were doing some work to support themselves, right?

So they were bivocational, at least at this moment. Was that the way there was always supposed to be like that? No, they went into full-time ministry later, but Jesus is giving them instructions, partially I think just as a test.

Okay, are you guys gonna listen and do it my way? Because that's what they needed to learn. And that's, again, what we need to learn. Because in another instance, when he sends them out, he gives them totally different instructions.

Are you passing the test? Verse 11, Jesus tells them, now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy and stay there till you go out. So in any town, especially back then when everybody knew each other, people knew who in the town had a good reputation and maybe who didn't have such a great reputation.

So the disciples of Jesus would seek out those people with an upright character who would show hospitality and the disciples would stay there with them. And once they found lodging, Jesus is careful to tell them stay in that house, stay put.

You know, if they didn't, if they said, well, I'm here, but that place over there is much nicer. I'm gonna leave and go to this, I'm gonna upgrade my accommodations. Well, then they could risk offending people and, you know, don't do that.

Just be happy that you have a roof over your head. So this is part of being wise. You know, we should not unnecessarily offend people if we don't have to. So verse 12, when you go into a household, greet it.

I'm sure this was probably a formal greeting where they're telling the people who they represent. Jesus of Nazareth, who people say is the Messiah. He is the Christ. Verse 13, if the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it.

But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. So along with the other names of the gospel, do you know that the gospel is also called the gospel of peace? Point being, if a person accepted them into the house, no doubt the apostles would preach to them, right?

They'd probably be the first to hear it. And if they were to receive the apostles in their message, God's peace would be upon that house. Is God's peace on your house today? You know, we live in a world where, let's face it, most institutions, most places you go, you know, sometimes they let you know by what they put in the window.

But clearly most places are not really under the lordship of Christ. But is your house under the lordship of Christ? Well, if it is, God's peace is upon it. But on the other hand, there will be people who will take you in, Peter, James, John, some will take you in.

But verse 14, whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in that day, in the day of judgment for that city.

You remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah? I'm sure 99 of you do. God rained down fire and brimstone and destroyed those two cities. Think about what he's saying. You know, Sodom and Gomorrah, it's gonna be more tolerable in the day of judgment than on that one house or city that rejected Christ.

Wow, how is that even possible? And then shaking the dust off your feet. This is interesting. I did some reading on this. This apparently was a Jewish custom. As one commentator put it, he said, the Jews thought the land of Israel was so holy that when they came home from any foreign land, they stopped at the borders and shook off the heathen dust from their feet, that the holy land might not be polluted with it.

Who knew that? Yeah. Therefore, this action, when they're gonna do it here in these cities of Israel, this action was a statement that those Jews who had rejected the gospel were no longer holy, but were on the same level as pagans and idolaters.

Wow, if that's what was understood by shaking the dust off your feet, that was a statement. And of course, that's not even completely in line with what Jesus said, because he said it's gonna be more tolerable for the pagans and the idolaters than for the Jews who rejected Jesus.

And bring that into the modern day. We're living in a land where Christianity has been established here for what? Hundreds and hundreds of years. And now what are we doing as a group, as a nation? Wholesale rejection of the scripture, wholesale rejection.

Apply this principle to this nation. I hope you're praying for this nation. More tolerable, wow. So they are given this mission, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and preach the gospel that the kingdom of God is at hand.

So it's to the Jew first, because along with that privilege of being God's covenant people, along with privilege comes what? Responsibility. I know that the gospel is presented as a choice. In the Bible, it's not really presented as a choice.

Did you know this? Preachers, and maybe I'm at fault for doing this, where I present it like, you know, believe, you know? And what you're hearing is, you know, believe if you want to. Do you realize that the gospel, it's a command?

Like believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's not really a recommendation. It's a command by God. Why? We're reading why. So today we live in a unique time in history. We live in a land where nearly everyone, here's the application, everyone or nearly everyone, the more, you know, older you are, the more true this is.

We live in a land where almost everyone grew up with some sort of knowledge about the Lord. I remember when I was a kid, almost everybody in my elementary school went to church, you know, at least on occasion, at some point.

Not weekly attenders, but it was almost common for everyone in my generation back when they were young. Today, you look at the elementary school, how many kids, what percentage are being brought to church?

Like just over zero. Okay, it's getting that bad. So we live in a land where most people know about the Lord. Everyone listening to me right now knows something about Jesus. There are churches in every community.

The cross is the most recognizable symbol on the face of the earth. The majority of American homes, that is home, not houses, but homes still have a Bible in them. Might be on the shelf collecting dust, but it's there.

So just about every American adult knows something about the Lord. So like in Israel, it's not as if people don't have the information. What are people doing with the information? They are rejecting the information.

Did God know that when the apostles went out to the cities of Israel that the people were gonna reject it? Did God know that? Yes, he did. Did he send them anyways? Yes, he did. Why? Because there were some who were gonna say yes.

That's kind of the same situation with us. Yeah, America has rejected God. Europe has rejected God. Massachusetts definitely has rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. But God has still sent us out. We still have a mission.

We're still here. And we're still gonna carry out that mission. I hope you're all on board. And I want more people to get on board. You say, yeah, but I don't think most people are gonna listen. You're right.

That's true. Most people will not listen. Does that change anything? Why? Because some will. So what are you gonna do about it? What is this church gonna do about it? We need to be faithful. Remember, Jesus gave them all these specific instructions and it doesn't really seem like what's the big deal if we do it like this or like that or bring this or like that.

All we have to do is remain faithful to what the word of God says. We all know what it says. Remain faithful. Take the gospel out into the community. And the majority will reject it. But some will be saved.

So that's your mission today. Same mission they were on, in a sense. So preach the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom. That major change is coming to this world. And it might be a lot sooner than most people think.

The Coming Kingdom of God and the End of the World System

How long do you think until Jesus, I'm almost done here. How long do you think until Jesus returns? We don't set dates. You know that. No man knows the day or the hour. Jesus said that in Matthew 24. But just your opinion.

How long? Too long. Yeah, too long. A day, a week is too long. Or to be ready. The point is, it could happen very, very soon. And I think just the way things are shaping up in the world just in the past few years, there is a coming together of a one world system.

You know, during COVID, all the governments fell in line. All over the world, immediately fell in line. What does that tell you? There's some sort of world system behind the scenes. You could say that's a conspiracy all you want.

They all fell in line. And you know what? They're gonna fall in line again under the Antichrist. So that's number one. It's all shaping up right in front of us. Number two, there's the one world government, one world religion.

That's practically already here. You realize that? Do you realize that the Pope of Rome is bringing nearly all religions under his umbrella? All the meetings they have and prayer meetings, ecumenical interfaith talks, they all get together and they have fellowship and they're all under his authority because he's clearly the one who stands out.

Just saying, okay? Keep an eye on that. But that one world ecumenical interfaith religion where all religions are now treated equally, my friends, that's already here. It's already here. And then the one world economic system, well, we're still waiting on that.

But you know, you can look at the American dollar and I'm not gonna bore you with all that. But the point is it could very easily happen like next year, this year, soon. So the world is going to change.

And the message that I want to communicate is, hey, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is at hand. This is no time to straddle the fence. Okay, let's close. Heavenly Father, and I thank you for the great hope that we have, that Jesus is not only coming back, he will deliver his flock.

And Lord, we pray that many would be saved. In this area, in this state, in this country, we understand that the world is rejecting the gospel. We understand that the whole world, as the Bible says, is under the sway of the wicked one.

But we still are on mission, not looking to save everyone, that's not gonna happen, but we are looking to save some. And Lord, if there's someone sitting here today, the conviction of God has come upon them.

They realize the world is headed in a very dangerous direction. Lord, help them to understand there is salvation. There is salvation in Christ. We pray it in his name, amen.