Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 10-12.

When Jesus sent the Apostles out to preach that the kingdom of God was near while healing the sick and bringing comfort to the emotionally scarred (many of those we see today as suffering mental illness would have been considered demon possessed in First Century Judea, and I am not convinced that they did not have a better understanding than we do), He told them that they had been freely given, so they should freely give.  Interestingly, right after telling them that He also told them not to take any money or supplies with them, but to live off of the generosity of those whom they met on their travels.  He also told them, and thus us, that He was sending them out as sheep among wolves.  So, they, and we, should be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  A little later, when Jesus was preaching to the crowds, He declared that God had hidden His message from the wise and learned while revealing it to little children.  He did not mean that the wise and learned could not learn God’s message.  Rather He meant that the desire of the wise and learned to appear sophisticated caused them to miss what was obvious to those who were willing to be considered simple.  Along the same lines, Jesus told His disciples not to worry about what they would say when put on trial because the Holy Spirit would speak through us.  We get a further insight into what Jesus means by that when He tells us that a good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in him.  The results of our actions will reveal our true intentions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 10-12.

Today’s passage once again contains so many important points I struggle with where to start and what to write.  However, I saw the similarity between the first part of Jesus’ commission to the Twelve when He sent them out and His answer to the question John the Baptist’s disciples asked him.  Jesus told the Twelve to go out and proclaim that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.  Further, He told them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the unclean, and to drive out demons.  When John’s disciples asked Him if He was the “one who is to come” or if they should look for someone else, He told them to report what they had seen: the sick are healed, the unclean are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached.  So, how did the people know that Jesus was the Messiah?  He healed the sick, He cleansed the unclean, He raised the dead, and He preached good news.  How can people know that we follow Him?  We can preach the good news, cleanse the unclean (at some point I am going to need to write a detailed blog on what that means), and raise the dead.  While I don’t believe that every follower of Jesus will do all of these things, I do think that every follower of Jesus should be prepared to do any of these when circumstances warrant.  I also believe that every follower of Jesus should be doing the first two in some way.

As for how we are to preach the good news, I think that we can look to what Jesus told the Twelve about what to do when they were arrested for the answer.  He told them not to worry about what to say, or how to say it.  When the time is right, God’s Spirit will speak through us.  We need to make sure that we open our mouths to say those words.  However, Jesus does tell us to take care about the “empty” words we speak, the words which were not given to us by God’s Spirit.  On the day of judgement we will need to account for each one of them.  So, we need not worry about what we should say.  Rather, we should think about the words we should not say.  I am not talking about specific words, but rather thoughts we should keep to ourselves, and consider whether perhaps we should stop entertaining those thoughts.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 10-12.

There are three things in this passage which I want to focus on today.  The first of those comes when Jesus commissions the Twelve to preach throughout Israel.  He tells them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the unclean, and drive out demons .  They have freely received from God, so they should freely give to others.  A little later during His commissioning of the Twelve He tells them not to worry about what to say, or how to say it, because it will not be them speaking, but the Holy Spirit speaking through them.  The third thing comes when Jesus responds to the question from John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask about whether He is the One.  Jesus tells them to report what they see–the blind can see, the lame walk, the unclean are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead raised, and the gospel preached.

When I started to write this I had no idea how these three things fit together, mostly because in my mind the first thing was “Freely you have received; freely give.”  As I wrote it, I felt like I needed to include what came just before that about healing, etc.. So, I did.  Which made me realize that the first “thing” is almost identical to the third “thing”.  Which brings me to what brings this all together.  Jesus did not directly answer the question John’s disciples asked Him.  Instead, He told them to look at what He was doing.  And most of what He was doing was the same as what He told the Twelve to do when He sent them out.  So, we too should be doing more than speaking, and when we do speak, don’t spend time worrying about what to say; God’s Spirit will talk through us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 10-12.

Matthew recounts some very important, and basic, points of what Jesus taught in today’s passage.  I believe that many of them are linked together, but am not sure I will be able to express that link.  I am going to go through these various points and pray that the Holy Spirit guides my words to make it all come together.

When Jesus sent the Twelve Apostles to preach His message, He gave them the power to cast out impure spirits and cure disease and sickness.  Then He told them to be shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  My father always said that meant that we should not be naïve, we should be fully aware of the ways in which people will try to trick, mislead, and cheat us, but we should act as if we did not.  That does not mean that we let them take advantage of us, but we should do what we can to help them.  Jesus goes on to tell the Apostles (and I believe us) that they will be arrested and hauled into court, but that they should not worry about what to say, or how to say it, that the Holy Spirit will speak through them (and us) in those situations.  I believe that applies to more than just situations when we are in front of the authorities.  In fact, I am convinced that there are days in which the Holy Spirit manages what I write here more than I do (I pray that the Holy Spirit do so every day, but I know that there are days my pride takes over).

Actually, Jesus tells us not to worry at all, a message which permeates much of the Gospels.  He tells us that God cares even for sparrows, which are of limited value.  We need not fear because God values us more than He values sparrows.  Jesus goes on to warn us that if we chose to follow Him, the world will treat us no better than they treated Him, and they accused Him of being a servant of Beelzebul.  If we acknowledge His lordship over us, people will think the same of us, but if we do not acknowledge His lordship, He will not acknowledge us.  Which brings me to the last point I wanted to touch on today.  When John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the One for which they were waiting, Jesus replied, “The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”  Let us strive to live so that a similar defense can be made of us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 10-12

Jesus makes many points in this passage which we need to give deep thought.  I am only going to touch on a few of them.  The first one I am going to look at is the contrast between the approach Jesus and John the Baptist took to preaching their message.  John the Baptist took an austere, ascetic approach.  He preached in the desert and expected people to come to him.  Jesus, on the other hand, went to where people were.  He joined them at their feasts and at their parties.  He ate and drank with them.  Despite their different styles, they both preached much the same message; repent of your sins and do what is good.  They also respected each other.  Jesus spoke highly of John, and John sent his disciples to Jesus.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 10-12

I cannot cover all of the things Jesus says in today’s passage that I think we should take to heart. So, I will focus on just a few things.  One of the things which I often hear from those who do not want to impose discipline in the Church is, “We need unity in the Church. We need peace.”  There is truth to that, and we should strive for unity and peace with those who also seek to follow and serve Christ.  However, Jesus tells us that He did not come to bring peace.  If we do not love Him more than we love peace, we are not worthy of being His.  On the one hand there are those who lack humility and bring about conflict because they will not accept that others may follow Christ and see things differently.  On the other hand, there are those who will do anything to avoid conflict.  We need to be willing to draw others’ attention to the acts they commit which harm themselves and others even if this leads to confrontation.

I would like to make a nice neat segue between the previous paragraph and this one, but I am not really sure how to do that.  When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, Jesus did not give them a direct answer.  Instead He told them to go back to John and tell him what they had seen and heard.  In the same way, we should not have to tell people that we serve and follow Christ.  They should know by looking at what we do and by what others say about us.   Yes, we need to spend time telling people what Jesus expects of those who follow Him, but if they wander about our faith they should be able to see it by our actions.