Matthew-017

Let us read together today’s passage, Matthew 9:36 - 10:16.

I would like you to notice especially Matthew 10:13,

In this connection, let us also read Matthew 10:37-39.

Compassion for the harassed and helpless

Notice how this passage, Matthew 9:36-10:16 began. First, we read that when the Lord Jesus saw the great crowd, he had compassionate love upon them, and his heart was going out to them. Today, when we see the crowds of people who wander aimlessly in the world, I wonder whether we have compassion for them. The reason why we don’t have compassion for them is because God’s love has not yet filled our hearts.

They are sheep without a shepherd, they are “harassed and helpless.” This word “harassed” in the original has the idea of a sheep who is caught in the thorns which has torn his skin, and it is in pain and suffering. This is describing the condition of suffering and helplessness of the people in the world. If you are observant, and if you preach the gospel, you will notice the great need of the people everywhere you go; and all these people are like a great harvest ready to be brought into the kingdom. Oh, what a desperate lack of workers there is in these days! I myself constantly cry out to God, “Lord God, send forth the workers! Where are they?”

When John Sung was barely 35, he said, “When I was young (in his late twenties), I was able to preach the gospel two or three times a day.” The truth was that by the time he was 35 and upwards, he had burned himself out for God’s work. He was weak and tired and could no longer preach more than once a day, and sometimes less than that. In his biographical notes he also said, “Where are the young people to take up the workload from us?” Where are the people who have been touched by the love of God, who have compassion for those who perish in the world, who do not spend all their time thinking about their own interests? If you are totally preoccupied with your own interests, you will not have any compassion for others. So let us make it our prayer, that God will send out workmen into the harvest in this age.

Time is running out for the Church!

As soon as he has said that, he sent out the disciples. He is not the kind of person who talks but doesn’t do anything. So in Matthew 10:5-6 he said to his disciples,

At the time the Lord Jesus was speaking to the Jews, Israel had only some 40 years to go, and “the time of the Gentiles” or the time of preaching to Gentiles would come in, then Israel or the Temple in Jerusalem would be trampled under the feet of the Gentiles. We know this from history, although the Jews did not know that. The time was short so the message was urgent. So the Lord Jesus said, “Don’t go to the Gentiles. Their time hasn’t come yet; it will come. For now, preach the gospel to the Jews because their time is short.”

For those of us who study the Word of God, we know the remaining time of “the time of the Gentiles” is very, very short. However, the Church is often asleep, unaware that time is short, like the foolish virgins. If you knew how little time you and I have left in this age before the Lord Jesus will come again, I think you would re-think the way you are living now. Perhaps you don’t believe it. The Jews didn’t believe it either when the Lord Jesus said to them Israel will soon be in destruction in Matthew 23:37-38:

Unfortunately for them, it was all too true. The time is near, brothers and sisters. Wake up from sleep! The Lord’s Coming is at hand, and are you ready to give an account of yourself to him? But if you didn’t believe that, you’d think that the preachers are always trying to frighten you into religion, so you are not alarmed by this talk. The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “Go to Israel. The time is short. Preach to them as the kingdom of God is now very near for them.”

God wants men who are worthy for his use

Then he said, “Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse the lepers. Cast out demons” (Mt. 10:8a) That is to say, God’s power will always be working with you to accomplish this work. You can’t do God’s work in your own strength.

And God’s power is also ready to work through us today, if we are prepared to be the kind of people he can use. We often say, “We don’t seem to see his mighty works today.” Do you know why we so rarely see these mighty works? It’s because there are very few men of God around. The Lord Jesus said, “The laborers are few.” (Mt. 9:37) Just look around. That is a statement of fact. My heart beats a little faster with rejoicing if I hear there is some man of God somewhere. I am willing to travel a long way to meet and have fellowship with him. Today, we have many preachers but not very many men of God. But where there are men of God, there will be the power. And where there is the power, things will happen.

Healing the sick, raising the dead is not our primary purpose, but it’s a sign to the people that God is working through us. In this age, when we speak about men of God, men who have this kind of power, we can only name a few names, and generally count them all on the fingers of one hand. When I have named John Sung and two or three others, I have run out of names to quote to you. May God raise up more people like this in this generation! Perhaps God will raise up some mighty men from this little church. God doesn’t judge a church—neither do I—by how many people are in it, but by how many men of God will come out of it. There are churches with hundreds of people, and I haven’t seen a man of God come out of it. Yet there are some tiny churches in which mighty men come forth out of all proportion. If I were given a choice between having a church with hundreds or a thousand people, which brings forth no mighty men, or having a church with 40 or 50 people that brings forth many mighty men of God, I would choose the small one any time! Oh, my prayer is that God will raise up many from our church!

The God who worked with power through the apostles is still the One who works today. But he must have servants. There is one fallacy I have often heard in the church, that God doesn’t need people: “When God works, He works apart from people if necessary. So we don’t have to think about people.” This kind of statement sounds very pious but there is not much truth in it because God chooses to work through people. When the last of the great prophets of the Old Testament, Malachi, passed away, there was no more prophecy in Israel. God needs his people to do his work.

It is well to say that God can work with anyone, but could he lead Israel out of Egypt without a Moses? Would just anyone do? If so, why did God spend 80 years to train one man Moses from his youth? With what patience God trained this man Moses until he became this mighty man that he was!

And notice the same thing here: The Lord Jesus trained his disciples. Why didn’t he preach the gospel himself? He didn’t need all these people. But no, his way of evangelism was based on one method—that of training his disciples to do the work. Think of the time he spent with these twelve men, patiently instructing them, molding their lives until they were ready to do the work. And having trained the 12, he also trained another 72. He needs his people through whom his power can work. Is there some person or people here who would say, “God, be pleased to work through me in this needy world”?

John Sung was mightily used by God

When John Sung saw the Niagara Falls, he said, “God, make me a spiritual Niagara Falls, and let your saving power flow through me!” And certainly, the power of God was manifested in preaching the gospel as well as in healing the sick and raising the dead through him!

Yesterday, I was reading John Sung’s biographical notes on how he handled the case of repentance of sin of an unworthy man, and in the process, he raised this man from the dead. Although raising the dead has a place, like every true servant of God, John Sung did not over-emphasize it. He said that when he was preaching in Fujian, a man came to him asking for healing. And people told him that this person was a very good man, an elder of a church. It was said that he was even building a church with his own money, opening a school and doing social work. During a meeting, this elder fell down and became disabled because his leg was not properly joined. So he came to John Sung to ask for healing. John Sung prayed for him but he was not healed. Then John Sung went to preach in Shantou (Swatow), and this man also went to Shantou to plead with John Sung to pray for him again. So John Sung prayed for him again. And when John Sung was praying for him, he just collapsed and died. John Sung expressed in his biographical notes a certain wry humor: “Not only was the elder not healed but he also dropped dead!”

His wife and his family were mourning with grief. And the whole church began to mutter and murmur and criticize what had been going on. They wondered if something was wrong with John Sung that such a thing should happen. Knowing that this man dropped dead because there was sin in his life, John Sung very peacefully said, “Let everyone be quiet. God has this whole matter under control.” Then he turned to this dead man lying on the ground and said, “In Jesus’ name, get up!” This man was raised from the dead but his leg was not healed, so he was very concerned, and still asked John Sung to pray for his leg to be healed. But John Sung said, “I’m not praying for you because there is sin in your life. You’d better tell me what’s going on in your life that you had dropped dead.”

Then the truth came out. This person who was supposed to be an elder of the church, had actually been embezzling God’s money in the church! He was covering it all up by saying that he was building some school and some church to get a reputation for himself while he was using all this money. I know that such people certainly do exist in the church. And John Sung said to him, “You are a person who deserves to die,” and he sent him off. Here we see the case of raising the dead combined with condemning sin by death. This elder did repent and his life was changed after that experience. He was unworthy previously, so he could not receive the blessing of God’s healing, and almost lost his life in the whole process.

A worker deserves his food

The Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “You received everything without paying, in the same way do your work without asking for payment” (cf. Mt. 10:8b). He also told them that they were not to take any money with them. Nor were they to take a travelling bag with their own supplies, nor extra clothes. (Mt. 10:9-10a) They were to go forth and preach the gospel with no extra supplies. If they were not to take necessities with them and were also not getting paid, exactly how were they going to live?

Actually, the Lord Jesus made it plain to them in verse 10b, that the workman deserves his food. That is to say, wherever they preached, accommodation and food should be provided for them, but they were not to get paid. Put simply, their basic needs should be fulfilled, but they weren’t supposed to acquire wealth. Consider this: every time they healed the sick, people would gratefully want to give them money, potentially making them very wealthy. However, money is very corrupting, especially to workers in God’s work.

You are not worthy of Jesus if you don’t see him as worthy

We must now look at this very important passage, verses 11-13, and seek to understand accurately about worthiness, by God’s grace. The Lord Jesus said in verses 11-12,

In those days, the greeting was “Shalom,” even as it is today among the Jews. The word “shalom,” which means peace, is intended to convey the whole of God’s blessing, especially salvation.

Then notice these words in verse 13,

What does “worthy” or “unworthy” mean? When we speak about worthiness, we come to a very important aspect of New Testament teaching. Yet, in all my life as a Christian, I have never once heard a message preached on worthiness. Here this word translated as “worthy” occurs 41 times in the New Testament, which should give us an indication of how important it is. Of these 41 times, a great part of it is used by the apostle Paul. Therefore, I am all the more curious that no one says anything about this word. I suspect that very few Christians could tell you what “worthy” or “unworthy” means. Today, it is once again common to say, “Well, we are all unworthy,” which may sound exceedingly pious. I have often asked you as Christians, to beware of statements that sound religious but are simply not true. There is certainly a sense in which we are always unworthy, but we want to look at the Scriptural meaning of this word. Since the Lord Jesus says here, “If the house is worthy,” there must be people who are “worthy.” We are very unaccustomed to think in this kind of way because we are brought up in the traditional Christian way.

What does this word “worthy” mean? The word basically means to compare the value of two things. If the value is comparable to the other, we say this thing is worthy. For example, in John 1:27, John the Baptist says, “I am not worthy even to untie the thongs of his sandals.” That is to say, “Jesus is so great and I am so insignificant that I can’t be worthy of him.” There is a disparity in value. In the same way, in Matthew 8:8, the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof.”

I wonder how many people could prove worthy of Jesus in our church today. Here we can see the connection between worth and worthy. That is to say, if you don’t recognize Jesus’ worth, you are not worthy of him. Jesus says in Mt. 10:37,

He is saying, “You haven't come to see who I am. It's understandable that all these people are important to you, but if you would choose them over me, then you lack the discernment to differentiate the relative value between us.” Today, I would like to ask you in all good conscience, can you say that Jesus is worth more to you than husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter? Can you honestly say that? Jesus says, “If any of these are worth more to you than me, you are not worthy of me. You don’t understand my worth.” These are not my words but his. I pray to God that you may have the eyes to see his value, his worth, to be able to say, “Lord Jesus, of course, you are worth more!”

When we are in love, our boyfriends or our girlfriends are all worth more than anyone else! When you go to bed at night, you dream of him or her. All day long, you can see nothing in your mind’s eye except that beautiful face. Which person can see that the beauty of Jesus is worth much more than a wonderful boyfriend or girlfriend? It’s hard to see, isn’t it? And then we hear the Lord Jesus quietly saying these words to us, “If that person is worth more to you than me, you are not worthy of me.” If we could only know how wonderful Jesus is, then the finest boyfriend or girlfriend in the world is not worthy to compare with him! No one can compare with Jesus Christ when it comes to the quality of loving. No one loves you more than he does in this world. I wish you could come to see that. One way you will come to experience it is when your boyfriend or girlfriend lets you down. Jesus never lets anyone down.

In this world, there is no one who will love you when not only do you not love them, but also consider them an enemy. The point is that Jesus loved us not when we loved him, but when we were his enemies because we were in the darkness of our sins. And everyone who does evil hates God and Jesus whom he sent, lest their evil deeds should be exposed (Jo. 3:19-20). Such love is not found among humanity.

I wish that every Christian will prove it for himself. Experience the love of God in Jesus so that you are fully convinced in your heart. This is not something that preaching can convince you of, because I cannot convey to you the experience of my own heart. That is why when I say to you that God and Jesus are more wonderful than your boyfriend or girlfriend, it’s just words to you when you haven’t experienced it. God’s love in Christ is deeper, stronger and purer. If you lack the vision to see it, you would never acknowledge it.

Jesus is worthy of our giving up all

Finally, in Matthew 10:38, the Lord Jesus says, “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” If you are not willing to take up your cross, that is, if you are not willing even to give up your own life for me, you are not worthy of me. What is most precious to us? It’s our own life. That is to say, you may love father and mother, but most people love themselves more than anyone else. And the Lord Jesus said, “If you love yourself more than me, then you don’t understand my worth.”

Can you meet this test? Can you honestly say, “I love Jesus more than my own life”? And he says, “If you do love yourself more than me, you are not worthy of me.” I wonder how many of us in this church today are still worthy of him after that. Just think, such is the total commitment that the Lord Jesus requires of us. I think by the time you have heard all this, you will wonder what kind of doctrine you have heard preached before, which tells you that you can be saved in a way that requires absolutely no cost from you.

Notice, he did not say a person is worthy if he is baptized, tries to be very religious, do a lot of good deeds, go to church every Sunday, or is very active in the church. This matter of worth depends only on one thing: understanding the worth of Jesus, recognizing who he is, so that you will say, “Lord Jesus, I recognize that you are the Christ sent by God (Jo. 17:3), the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20) and whose face fully reflects the glory of God (2 Cor. 4:6), who lives in God and God in him (Jo.10:38). You are worth everything that I’ve got!”

To offer him less than all is to insult him. Do you think that he is only worthy of spare time? Is Jesus worth only two hours of a Sunday? Or only the one or two dollars you put in the offering box? Or only the ten minutes that you spend in Bible reading every day? It is an insult to the Lord Jesus! And yet this is all that Jesus is worth to so many people who call themselves “Christians.” I beg of you to notice again that these words are Jesus’, not mine. Either you give him all, or don’t bother to give him anything, because he said if it is less than that, you are not worthy of him. He doesn’t want it. Those are strong words, but the truth is always strong.

Here again we see that the definition of saving faith in the Bible is always nothing less than total commitment to God and to Jesus who is his plenipotentiary. Don’t call yourself a Christian and insult them by giving him what has so little worth in your life. Remember that others are going to make an estimate of Jesus’ value based on what they see in your life. I wonder whether they will say, “Jesus is really worth everything to this person!” when they look at your life. Or will they say, “Jesus is not worth very much to him. He’s just trying to use him for self- benefit”? There are millions of people out there in the world today, who don’t want to become Christians because they have seen that Jesus is not worth much in the lives of so-called “Christians.” Therefore, I would like people in the churches today to make up their minds, whether Jesus is worth everything or nothing. Jesus said that if you estimate anything above him, and God who is in him (Jo. 10:30, 38), you are not worthy of him. And if you are not worthy of him then forget about being a Christian only in name.

So I pray that God will open your eyes as you study the Scriptures, as you meditate on who Jesus is, and see his worth. May you be willing to pray, “God, I am so sorry that I have insulted you for so many years in my life. By the working of your Holy Spirit in my heart, may I come to realize that I will never be worthy of you. However, by your grace, I can be worthy if my heart would be open to you, and my mind would be teachable by your Spirit to perceive the Lord Jesus’ value. Give me the strength to pay the cost – to offer up all of me as a living sacrifice, and everything I have to follow Jesus, to become worthy. I realize that Jesus’ worth is beyond all measure. Yet, so often, I foolishly think of the value of what I offer to you, and fail to think of the incalculable value of what you offer to me in giving me Jesus. Help me to understand just how much you love me. Help me to understand that Jesus requires so much in his teaching because you and Jesus love me and each person so much.”

Will Jesus see that you are worthy? Are you willing to take up the cross, to offer yourself and all you have, to follow in his steps?