Commissioning Disciples
Read: Matthew 9:35-10:1-15
Jesus Second Discourse begins in Matthew 10 where He provides instruction to the Twelve Apostles
about how to travel from city to city on their missionary journeys. The harvest is plentiful and it is
ripe which refers to the readiness of people to respond to the gospel. The context shows that the
labourers here are people sent out to rescue people from judgment. For this task there are too few
workers therefore they are commanded to pray for more laborers. Chapter ten spells out the mission
God is sending His disciples on and what will be involved for those who are sent out. Jesus now
gives His authority to His disciples to prepare them for this mission. In verse five we see that the
apostles were given a restriction in their ministry. There were told not to go among the Gentiles and
not to enter any town of the Samaritans. They were told to go only to the lost sheep of Israel. God
knew what the immediate mission was and He knew His greater plan including the timing that was
needed to unfold it therefore He placed restrictions on the apostles. Before the resurrection, both
Jesus and His disciples were limited to Israel. The time for the Gentile mission was later. To call Israel
to repentance was the primary focus of Jesus earthly ministry. This call was urgent and needed to
be their focus. The apostle’s ministry consisted of both preaching and healing. The two go together
as complimentary aspects of the announcement of the Kingdom of Heaven. The healing activity of
Jesus and His disciples is part of the proclamation of God’s Kingdom. They are to preach the words
of Jesus and are given authority from Him. They needed no special equipment and no fund-raising
was required. They were to go as is and leave the provisions to God. This is a call to keep God
first and trust Him fully. We can see in verses 14-15 that Jesus fully expected His message and his
messengers to meet with rejection as well as acceptance. More on that topic tomorrow!
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Spend some time in prayer for workers in today’s harvest fields. Pray that God would send many
workers to bring in His harvest.
2. The apostles were given restrictions in their ministry areas based on God’s greater plan. Spend
some time asking the Lord to show you His greater plan for your life and what restrictions you
need to have in place in order to fulfill that plan. These restrictions could be things like media,
relationships, hobbies, or whatever He shows you.
3. Pray for the Lord to grant our church greater authority, especially in preaching the gospel and in
healing people. Pray that He would provide for us in the same way He provided for the apostles.
