Matthew 10:1-4 - Homiletics

The mission of the twelve.

I. THE CALL .

1 . The number , lie called unto him his twelve disciples. He had many more. He called these twelve. There seems to be a symbolical meaning in the number. We see plainly in the Book of the Revelation that twelve is the number of the Church. Three is the signature of God; four of the world; twelve, the product of three and four, points to God as entering into relations with the world, making a covenant with the Church which he hath called to himself out of the world. Twelve was the number of the Jewish Church, the Church of the twelve patriarchs; it is the number of the Christian Church, the Church of the twelve apostles. Then there is a meaning in the number; it seems to imply that God was entering into a new covenant with mankind—a covenant which was to find its consummation in the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, which hath twelve gates, twelve angel-guardians, twelve foundations; the length and breadth and height of which are each twelve thousand furlongs. Twelve implies a covenant; the chosen disciples were the ministers of that covenant, "able ministers of the New Testament." Thus the very number of the apostles reminds us that we are brought by the grace of Christ into very close relations with God, into a new covenant with God.

2 . The name. They had been disciples, now they became apostles. It is the first occurrence of that higher title in St. Matthew's Gospel. The Lord sent them forth; they became his ambassadors, his messengers, his missionaries. They had been disciples for some time; they had been called on various occasions; the calling of five out of the number has been already related by St. Matthew. They did not cease to be his disciples, his pupils. We learn of him all our life long; he hath the words of eternal life; we can never learn enough. But now they were to go forth to preach in his Same. It was a solemn mission. Before sending them (Luke tells us) "he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God." We should learn from his example to pray long and earnestly for those who are to be ordained to any holy function in his Church. But as yet this mission was preliminary only, and confined within narrow limits. The apostles did not receive their full commission till the Lord had risen from the dead; it was sealed by the descent of the Holy Ghost on the great Day of Pentecost. But from this time they were apostles, the messengers, the angels of Christ upon earth; as the holy angels are the messengers of our Father which is in heaven. His ministers must have the like credentials now. "How shall they preach, except they are sent?" It is from him that the mission comes; he gives the zeal, the energy, the love. His ministers must stir up the gift of God that is in them, remembering always the solemn responsibilities of 'their high and holy calling.

3 . The gift of Power. The Lord gave his apostles power over evil spirits, and power to cure diseases. The age of miracles has passed away, but still he giveth power. Christianity is not a mere republication of the moral law; it is a religion of power, because its living centre is not a theology, but a Person, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who gives the sacred gift of the Holy Ghost to his chosen. The gift of the Holy Ghost is a gift of power—power to overcome the wicked one in our own hearts, power to preach with energy and burning zeal, power to cast out evil spirits by word, by holy example, by earnest preaching, by the ministration of the holy sacraments.

II. THE LIST OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES .

1 . They were sent out two and two. Christ would have his servants work together; it is not good to be alone. Christian sympathy, communion with like-minded friends, help the Christian warrior in his daily strife against sin. Christians need that mutual help. Even St. Paul, who lived so very near to Christ, who could say, "To me to live is Christ," longed always for sympathy, and felt loneliness a great and bitter trial.

2 . The order of the twelve. They were equal, though we notice a certain gradation of order. St. Peter is first in all the lists; yet when St. Paul was admitted into the apostolic college, though he spoke of himself as the least of the apostles, one born out of due time, he claimed equality with the first chosen twelve; he was not, he said, a whir behind the very chiefest of them; he withstood even Peter to the face. Three of the twelve were very highly favoured—Peter, James, and John; they only witnessed the first miracle of raising the dead and the glory of the Transfiguration; they only attended Christ in the great agony of Gethsemane. Of the three, John was the most loved of the Lord, yet Peter was in some sense first; perhaps his character, perhaps the Lord's choice, brings him again and again to the front. There must, for the sake of order, be some subordination among the servants of Christ, but the truest distinction is that of holiness. "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;" "He that shall humble himself shall be exalted." The lowliest here shall stand nearest to the Lord in heaven. There is a true and noble ambition; it is the ambition to please God the best. to follow closest to Christ, to be first in humility, in self-sacrifice, in holy, self-denying love.

3 . Some of them are well known , some unknown. Some of them exhibit to us a clear, distinct personality; of some we know very little; one or two are names to us, and nothing more. All are known to God. He "knoweth them that are his;" "I know mine own, and mine own know me; even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the leather.'' God's saints, happy in that knowledge, sock not to be known of men. God's providence orders their circumstances. They may be as a city set on a hill, known of all men; they may be hidden from the sight of men in the quiet corners and byways of life. It matters little; whether their outward life is private or public, their soul liveth with God. For a time the Lord Jesus was the central figure in the Holy Land. "The world is gone after him," the Pharisees said. But he had lived during the far larger portion of his earthly life unseen and unknown to the world, a poor man in an obscure town. That obscure life was very beautiful and noble in the sight of God and the holy angels; for it was a life of perfect holiness and self-sacrifice. The hidden saints of God may be among his holiest, his best beloved; "unknown, and yet well known." They fill no space in the world's history; their very names are forgotten here. But they are not forgotten in heaven; they are written there in the Lamb's book of life. It is good to be unknown here. It must be very hard in the high places of life to preserve a clear, calm spirit; to walk humbly with God; in the world, but not of the world. Some can do it by the grace of God; with God all things are possible. Some men in high place are by his grace more lowly minded than those who rank far beneath them; the danger is great, but the grace of God is greater. Simon Peter had great faults; but he may have been more lowly in heart than the unknown Simon the Canaanite; he may have illustrated in his life his own lesson, "Be clothed with humility."

4 . One was a traitor. They were only twelve; the Lord had chosen them to be with him. They had the unspeakable privilege of his teaching, his example, his society, living always in familiar intercourse with him. One would think it almost impossible to cherish selfish thoughts and motives in the presence of that unearthly goodness. But in that little company there was a traitor. Outwardly, he was very near to Christ; inwardly, there was a great gulf between them. The heart of man is deceitful above all things; in the midst of spiritual privileges it may be wholly estranged from God. In the visible Church the evil are ever mingled with the good. There was one traitor among the chosen twelve; there will sometimes be worldly and wicked men in the ministry of the Church, sometimes in its highest places. We must not be offended; it is what we are taught to expect.

LESSONS .

1 . The Lord sends forth his servants; they must remember that their mission is from him, and look to him for wisdom and for power.

2 . They must not seek great things for themselves, but be lowly, like their Lord.

3 . The sacred office has its own temptations; sometimes they are very great. Spiritual fellowship with Christ is the one only safeguard.