Endure to the End (Matt 10:1-25)

“And you shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved” (vs22).

Salvation is for all who endure to the end, and us alone. Salvation is not for Judas’s, who start the race and never finish; it is for us who, like Peter and the eleven, finish. Salvation is for people who have grace to obey the gospel.

Judas was a thief (John 12:6). He never believed the gospel he preached, and he was motivated by his own lusts always. He never saw God’s glory in Christ, that He is worthy of praise for the forgiveness of sins and the accomplishments that He achieved. Judas never gave the Lamb the glory that’s due His name by obedience.

Here, in Matt 10, we have aspects of true Christianity. These are they who persevere.

1. He gives us order – “Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter” (Matt 10:2). Believers are not slaves to their leaders, but they recognize that men have been gifted to be followed and honored as God’s messengers. He’s given them more light, as evidenced by more zeal and love for His glory, more faithfulness and persecutions for His cause.

He makes us esteem those whom He honors, teaching us to obey. We learn God from them.
2. We’re motivated by the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that we serve in thankfulness to and in possession of the grace of God – “freely you have received, freely give” (Matt 10:8). It is HORRID unbelief to serve FOR the forgiveness of SINS, because you do your works to be seen of men, seen of God, and you are no better than Judas. We must RECEIVE the forgiveness of sins and actually believe that we are just before God, fully blessed, and partakers of the inheritance, or we cannot serve as we should (Heb 9:14). We must arise AFTER cleansing, for how can we do good works until we’ve been made good? This is not a feeling alone; it is RECOGNIZING my status with God and walking by faith alone.

I cannot walk upright, if I’m half forgiven, expecting curses and not help from God. I cannot PREACH with power, if I don’t believe God’s blessing because of my sins. I must be JUSTIFIED by faith, helped by God, and able to TRUST Him for the results of goodness, or I cannot expect goodness, and according to my unbelief, it will be (Matt 9:29).

Forgiveness is complete forgiveness. There is no partial: we are in Christ COMPLETELY or cursed COMPLETELY, but there is no middle ground with His children. We only honor Christ as we receive the fullness of what He gives, not because I deserve it, not because I live up to it, but “thus says the Lord”.
3. We are cared for by God as we do God’s bidding, “for the workman is worthy of his meat” (vs10). God doesn’t leave us to ourselves.

In Matt 10, they took nothing with them. In Luke 22:35-37, He tells us to take. Either way, He provides for us. As we serve God, He gives us work and income. As we live for the gospel, He makes sure that our needs are met. It isn’t as we care for ourselves, then we serve Christ out of the extra; it is serving Christ’s glory, He abounds to us what He sees fit, so that giving is how we receive and service is how we’re fed – “I have showed you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

Don’t look to providing for you; look to serving God and being thankful for Him.
4. We have a reward coming – “But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another: for truly I say unto you, You shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (vs23). Serving the Lord, though filled with trouble, is not in vain. The Son of Man shall come for us in due time, and then shall we have eternal peace, “And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him” (Mal 3:17). We have work to do here, but we will rest from our labors and our good deeds shall follow us. God is not unrighteous to forget your laboring for His great name, and it is not in vain (Matt 16:27; Rev 14:13).

Service to Christ, though mocked now, shall be envied when He returns to make up His jewels, “Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not” (Mal 3:18). Escaping the Judgment is one thing, but to be clean, pure, and mighty to judge the wicked, consigning them to hell, as we praise God’s salvation is the destiny of believers. He shall pay us eternally for the temporary struggles that we endure. With that in mind, nothing should cause us to shriek back and say, “I quit”. Being so close to the finish line and so blessed, we should never turn ourselves back to what profits not.

To leave Christ is to leave the only Hope there is.
5. If they’ve hated Christ, then they will hate us too, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord” (Matt 10:24). Many will not want to hear the gospel, they will not want the truth, and they will not learn. But, we KEEP preaching the gospel, even though persecutors deny its claims. Our mission continues, because we PERSEVERE, rather than roll up stakes because it is too hard, “But when they persecute you in this city, flee you into another” (Matt 10:23).

With yourself, repent. And, with sinners, repent of every false tactic and preach the gospel. Don’t ever stop living for people to see Christ.

He Gave Them Power (Matt 9:9-10:1)

“And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, & to heal all manner of sickness & all manner of disease” (Matt 10:1).

The Lord Jesus has power, and He gives that power to His people. Sinners have FAKE power that never causes them to believe, though they may preach the truth and lead conspicuously obedient lives (See Judas). Yet, the real power that Christ gives actually saves a man: He heals us first, and then by us, He uses His Spirit to help others.

The Lord Jesus gave apostolic power to the twelve representing the spiritual power He gives the church.

1. He has power to make us follow Him at His word – “And as Jesus passed forth from there, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him” (Matt 9:9). He doesn’t need us to like Him, call upon Him, or seek Him. He can, by His word, put all desire for Christ in us, so that He HUMBLES us by the word and EXALTS us in the forgiveness of sins, too.

He needs no help or permission from men. He’s a laborer that brings His tools with Him and causes His elect to bow.
2. He heals SICK people, saying, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick” (Matt 9:10-12). He is not a fraud who performs fake miracles or heals things that are minor. He is the Savior of sinners who are CORRUPTED, depraved, and lost. He turns a thief tax gatherer into a generous and honest person in response to God’s grace in Jesus. He lives to glorify God, being powered by acceptance with God, fear, and trembling. God teaches us with joy and pain to obey the word and benefit thereby.
3. He brings about repentance - “for I am not come to call the righteous, buts sinners to repentance” (Matt 9:13). Sinners actually turn to God through Him, having hope in forgiveness that is GREATER than my sin.

There’d be no repentance, except the harlot can return to her husband, and she that has done evil can return unto the GOODNESS of the Lord (Jer 3:1).
4. He has power to heal, save, and give life, by the laying on of His hands, His touch, and His connection to the sinner – “While he spoke these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshiped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay your hand upon her, and she shall live” (Matt 9:18).

He takes from me the evil, bearing it upon the cross, and He gives to me the things that He has earned, even salvation to the full. He, my connection with God, is joined unto me by the Spirit in faith: He makes us able to obey.

5. Faith is how He saves us, - “your faith has made you whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour” (Matt 9:20-22). He causes us to believe Him: not faith, not repentance, and not will power, but we believe that He is able to make us whole, and then He makes us whole, as we believed.
6. His power is mocked, but it is real – “they laughed him to scorn” (Matt 9:23-24). His power isn't subject to man's opinion of it, nor is it true because I can see it. Jesus is not flamboyant and unfaithful in His speech; what He says, He does. And, if it were not so, He'd have told us for sure (John 14:2).
7. It shall be as you have believed, “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matt 9:27-29). Find a verse of scripture that you BELIEVE, and the promise of the verse shall be fulfilled in you.

Where there is faith, there shall be salvation. We shall not trust in vain.
8. He saves imperfect sinners, “and Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country” (Matt 9:30-31). We are lost before He touched us, and then we are sinners after the touch, still.

Our imperfection glorifies the Lord’s dealings with us, continued love, and ability to train up His children in the way that we should go. Imperfection drives us to Christ for the growth that He gives. He bears with us, proving that salvation is never earned.

9. He heals EVERY disease imaginable, so you and I don’t have a particular weakness that He cannot touch, “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages… healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matt 9:35). He was not hampered by anyone’s ailment, no one’s evil was too much, and His blood availed with God for every temptation and lust. Christ is a Savior of sinners as His specialty, as doctoring us perfectly.
10. Pray that God would send men to preach this Christ who saves sinners and has authority from God, power over sins, and uses His power for good - “Then said he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest” (Matt 9:38). Pray that God will send men anointed by God, gifted by the Spirit, and empowered by Christ to preach salvation. They will labor in the forgiveness of sins, proclaiming a Christ with power over what ails them and benefiting you thereby.