Day 5! Matthew 10-12
Matthew 10.
The Commissioned! Jesus turns twelve disciples into Apostles. The Greek word here is different, it is the plural form of apostolos, it is only found here in Matthew. It marks these 12 as special representatives of God, that Greek root appears no where else. These were Jesus' core, they were His leadership team.
Jesus sets the bar for healthy leadership! He shows us how to be build successful churches, businesses, and lives! Want to know if leadership is healthy in any organization? Look for diversity! Look at the 12 Jesus choose, fishermen, tax collectors, zealots, a doctor. Jesus built a team of men from different backgrounds, different occupations, different perspectives, why?
As Jesus sends them He says have no fear, for not even a single sparrow falls to the ground apart from the Father. And are you not more valuable than a sparrow? God has an incredible love for us! And Jesus put this gem in the middle of verses talking about the great adversity that will come as a response to following Him. It will not be easy but we are not to worry.
Matthew 11.
Jesus still seems to have not discovered the teaching about the blessing of prosperity involved with being one of His followers. At the beginning of this chapter we see John the Baptist back on the scene. He finds himself in prison for not conforming to the ways of society (vs. 17) And from prison we see John now questioning Jesus. He says are you the one we were waiting for or should we expect another? Fair enough question, after all John was obedient. Jesus even said of John, of men born of women there is none greater. So why is he in prison and not out flourishing financially and in ministry?
Look at Jesus' response to John's question; the blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raise up, and the poor have good news preached to them. Jesus quotes prophesy from Isaiah to John, saying that He is the great I AM. Interesting enough though Jesus lets out one, the prophesy that He will proclaim freedom to the captives.
Could Jesus be saying, I am still the great I am, even though your current situation is not going to change? In fact it not only is not going to change it's going to get worse! God absolutely will bless us, and He says He gives good gifts. But the fear would be that we have isolated those verses of promise to provide comfort for ourselves. How do you think John the Baptist would feel about some of our self help and self promotion mentalities that we have cast onto the Word?
Matthew 12
In Jesus' teaching about how a house divided can not stand we see Him make an impressive statement that demonstrates His authority. In verse 29,Jesus says "how can someone enter a strong man' house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?" Jesus is saying I was able expel the demons because I bound the strong man(Satan)! This started with Jesus' victory over Satan during the temptation in the wilderness that we read about earlier. Jesus demonstrated that Satan was powerless to prevent Him from proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and demonstrating the reality of its presence.
Happy reading!
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