Matthew 10:1-20

Matthew 10:1

Jesus giving His Power to His Followers.

Note:

I. The work Christ's followers were to do. They were to do the mysterious work which the Master had done, and to preach as both He and John had preached. They were sent forth to do and to serve, but were done by and served as they went. Having been entrusted with the responsibility of a great message, and furnished with a power which was the envy and amazement of all, there ought to be an elevation of their consciousness into some correspondence with the dignity of their theme and the mystery of their power. They were called as servants, but were sent forth as friends in the communion of the mystery of the Master's power. He ought to have been more to them for ever after that.

II. The trials they were to endure. The brute forces of the world would be aroused against them as they preached the kingdom that cometh not by observation, and the savage in the man would be awakened by their cry for repentance. Law, as expounded by the scribe, and administered by the magistrate, would be made to appear against them. The force of religious prejudice and conviction was to be directed against them, and zeal for God to be turned to the detriment of God's servants. What were they against the mighty host coming up against them? Nothing, indeed, unless the eye rested on God.

III. The conduct they were to pursue. (1) Whatever should betide them, they were to remember Him by whom they had been sent. (2) They were to be wise as serpents. The apostle of any movement needs the by no means ordinary combination of zeal and wisdom. (3) They were to be harmless as doves; their wisdom was to be used neither to hurt nor to unnecessarily annoy. Their only concern was to be both harmless and wise, beyond that they had nothing and they had all, for they had God.

J. O. Davies, Sunrise on the Soul,p. 137.

References: Matthew 10:1 Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xix., No. 1127. Matthew 10:1; Matthew 10:2. Ibid.,vol. xii., No. 702.Matthew 10:1. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,p. 30; Parker, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 177; Ibid., Inner Life of Christ,vol. ii., p. 125.