Verse For Today

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Mt 10:2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

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Observe here, Of the twelve apostles Peter is named first, and Judas last.  Peter is named first, because first called, Mt 4:18 or because probably elder than the rest; or because, for order-sake, he might speak before the rest: from whence may be inferred a primacy, but no supremacy; a priority of order, but no superiority of degree.  As the foreman of a grand inquest has a precidency, but no re-eminency. Judas is named last, with a brand of infamy set upon him, that he was the traitor the person that betrayed his Lord and Master.
 
Learn hence, That though the truth of grace be absolutely necessary to a minister's salvation, yet the want of it doth not disannul his office, nor hinder the lawfulness of his ministry: Judas, though a traitor, was yet a lawful minister.  Inward holiness is not necessary to render the offices belonging to the ministerial function valid and effectual: Judas preaches Christ as well as the rest, and was not excepted when Christ said, He that receiveth you, receiveth me.

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Mt 10:5 ¶ These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

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This was only a temporary prohiition whilst Christ was here upon earth, the Jews being Christ's own people, of whom he came, and to whom he was promised; the gospel is first preached to them; but afterwards the apostles had a command to teach all nations; and after Christ ascension, Samaria received the gospel by the preaching of Philip.
 
From the character which Christ gives of the Jews, calling them  lost sheep, we learn, 1.  That the condition of  a people, before brought home to Christ by the ministers of the gospel, is a lost condition; sinners are as lost sheep, wandering and going astray from God, till the ministry of the word finds them.
 
2.  That the great work and office of the ministers of the gospel is to call home, and to bring in, lost sheep unto Jesus Christ the great Shepherd.  Go, says he, to the lost sheep, &c.
 
Mark, Christ calls the Israelites sheep, though they were not obedient to the voice of their Shepherd, because they were God's chosen people; and he calls them the lost sheep, because they were both lost in themselves, and also in great danger of being eventually and finally lost, by the ignorance and wickedness of their spiritual guides.

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Mt 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

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Here our Saviour empowers his apostles to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine; but gives them a charge to work them freely, without making any private advantage to themselves.
 
Where observe, 1.  How beneficial the miracles were (which Christ and his apostles wrought) to mankind.  Moses' miracles were as great judgments as wonders; but these were beneficent, they delivered men from miseries, from bodily diseases, from the power and malice of evil spirits; they healed the sick, and cast out devils.
 
Observe, 2.  That Jesus Christ, to show himself a free Saviour, and that whatever came from him was the effect of free grace, gave his apostles a charge to dispense their power in working miracles freely, without money, and without price.

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Mt 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

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Our Saviour goes on in a farther discovery of the world's hatred and enmity against the gospel, and the preachers of it; and gives all Christians in general, and his ministers in particular, to understand, that such is the enmity of the world against holiness, and the professors of it, that it will overcome and extinguish even the natural affections of the mearest and dearest relations towards each other. Grace teaches us  to lay down our lives for the brethren, but corruption teaches a brother to take away the life of a brother; The brother shall deliver the brother to death.
 
Yet observe, Our Saviour comforts his disciples that there will be an end of these sufferings; and assures them, that if their faith and patience did hold out unto the end, they should be saved.  This is our comfort, that if our sufferings for Christ end not in our lifetime, they will end with our lives.

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Mt 10:23 "When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

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Our Saviour here directs his apostles to a prudent care for their own preservation, and allows them to flee in time of persecution; assuring them, that before they had gone through all the cities of the Jews, preaching the gospel, he would certainly come in judgment against Jerusalem, and with severity destroy his own murderers and their persecutors.
 
Learn, That Christ allows his ministers the liberty of flight in time of persecution, that they may preserve their lives for future service. Surely it is no shame to fly, when our Captain commands it, and also practises it, Mt 2:1-23. Christ by his own example has sanctified that state of life unto us, and by his command made it lawful for us.

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Mt 10:24 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

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Our Saviour here teaches all Christians but especially ministers, how unreasonable and absurd it is for them to expect kinder usage from an unkind world than he himself met with.  Are we greater, holier, or wiser then he?  Why then should we expect better usage than he?  Was he hated, persecuted, reviled, murdered, for the holiness of his doctrine and the usefulness of his life?  Why then should any of us  think strange of the fiery trial, as if some strange thing had befallen them? 1Pe 4:12; Isa 1:1-66:24Is it not enough that the disciple be as his master and the servant as his Lord, but must he hope to be above him?

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Mt 10:26 "Therefore do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.


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Christ here exhorts his disciples to a free profession and open publication of the doctrine of the gospel, from this consideration, that whatever they say or do shall be brought to light, proclaimed and published to the world.  I will make the excellency of your doctrine and the innocency of your lives shine as the light; your integrity in dispensing of it, and patience in suffering for it, shall redound to God's glory and your commendation, at the revelation of your Lord from heaven.  As wicked men have cause to fear because their evil deeds shall be made evident, so good men have cause to rejoice because their goodness and good deeds shall be made manifest.  Let it be our care to do good, and it shall be Christ's care to discover the goodness which we do, to vindicate it from misconstruction, and set it in its clearest light.

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Mt 10:28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

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Observe here the following particulars,1.  An unwarrantable fear condemned; and that is, the sinful, servile, slavish fear of impotent man:  Fear not him that can kill the body.
 
2.  A holy, awful, and prudential fear of the omnipotent God commended: Fear him that is able to kill both body and soul.
 
3.  The persons that this duty of fear is recommended to and bound upon-Christ's own disciples, yea, his ministers and ambassadors; they both may and ought to fear him; not only for his greatness and goodness, but upon the account of his punitive justice; as being able to cast both soul and body into hell, such a fear is not only lawful, but laudable, not only commendable, but commanded, and well becomes the servants of God themselves.
 
This text contains a certain evidence that the soul doth not perish wih the body; none are able to kill the soul, but it continues after death in a state of sensiblilty; it is granted that men can kill the body, but it is denied that they can kill the soul: it is spoken of temporal death; consequently then the soul doth not perish with the body, nor is the soul reduced int an insensible state by the death of the cody; nor can the soul be supposed to sleep as the body doth till the resurrection; for an intelligible, thinking, and perceivin being, as the soul is, connot be deprived of sensation, thought, and perception, any more than it can lose its being: the soul, after the death of the body, being capable of bliss or misery, must continue in a state of sensation.

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Mt 10:29 "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will.

Mt 10:30 "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

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Observe here, 1.  The doctrine which our Saviour preaches to his disciples: and that is the doctrine of divine providence; which concerns itself for the meanest creatures: even the birds of the air, and the hairs of our head, do fall within the compass of God's protecting care.
 
2.  Here is the use which our Saviour makes of this doctrine; namely, to fortify the spirits of his disciples against all distrustful fears and distraction cares.
 
Learn, That the condsideration of the divine care and gracious providence of God over us and ours, ought to antidote our spirits against all distrustful fears whatsoever.  If a hair from the head falls not to the ground without a providence much less shall the head itself; it the very excretions of the body, (such are the hairs,) be taken care of by God, surely the more noble parts of the body, and especially the noblest part of ourselves, our souls, shall fall under his particular regard.

MY OWN OBSERVATION

Note: verse 30 says our hairs are numbered, I like to think that this doesn't just mean how many hairs are on our head, but when our Lord says they are numbered they have each been given a number (name), it is normal for humans to lose some hair everyday, therefore the amount of hairs on our head can change from one second to the next, yet God knows exactly which hairs have fallen and how many are still on our head. This also brings to mind Ps 56:8

 Ps 56:8 ¶ Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

If He puts our tears in a bottle and records them in His book, can He not also tell which tear was shed, when, where, and why?

Something to meditate upon while we are reflecting on God's love for us.

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Mt 10:32 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.

Mt 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

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Observe here, 1.  That not to confess Christ, in his account, is to deny him: and to deny him, is to be ashamed of him.
 
2.  That whosoever shall deny, disown, or be ashamed of Christ, either in his person in his gospel, or in his members, for any fear of favour of man, shall with shame be disowned, and eternally rejected by him at the dreadful judgment of the great day.
 
Christ may be denied three ways;
 
doctrinally, by an erroneous and heretical judgment; verbally, by oral expressions; vitally, by a wicked and unholy life.
 
But woe to that soul that denies Christ any of these ways!

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Mt 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Mt 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

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Note here, That by  worthiness we are not to understand the meritoriousness of the action, but the qualification of the person.  He that cometh to Chtist, (that is, will be his disciple,) must, by a deliberate act of the understanding, and well-advised choice of the will, prefer him before all the world, and his dearest relations whatsoever; not that our Saviour by these expressions doth condemn natural love and affection, either to our relations or our own lives, but only regulates and directs it; and shows that our first and chief love must be bestowed upon himself.  We may have tender and relenting affections towards our dear relations; but them the consideration of Christ's truth and religion must take place of these; yea, of life itself; nay, when these come in competition, we are to regard them no more than if they were the objects of our hatred.  Lu 14:26 If any man hate not his father.
 
Learn hence, That all the disciples of Christ should be ready and willing, whenever God calls them to it, to quit all their temporal interests and enjoyments, even life itself, and to submit to any temporal inconvenience, even death itself; and all this willingly, cheerfully, and patiently, rather than disown their relation to Christ, and quit the profession of his truth and religion.
 
2.  That such as for secular interest, and the preservation of temporal life, do renounce their profession of Christ and his religion, they do not only greatly hazard their temporal life, but expose their eternal life to the greatest danger. He that findeth his life shall lose it.

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Mt 10:40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

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Here in the close of the chapter, our blessed Saviour encourages his apostles to faithfulness in their office, by assuring them that he should reckon and esteem all the kindness shown to them as done unto himself:  and to encourage the world to be kind to his disciples and ministers, he assures them that even a cup of cold water should meet with a liberal reward.  How cold is their charity who deny a cup of cold water to the ministers and disciples of Christ!
 
Learn, 1. That there is some special and eminent reward due to the faithful prophets of God above other men.
 
2. That he that shall entertain a prophet and do any good office for him, under that name, that is, for his office sake, shall be partaker of that reward.
 
3. That the least office of love and respect, of kindness and charity, which we show to any of the ministers or members of Jesus Christ for his sake, Christ accounts it as done unto himself, and it shall be rewarded by himself.

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Mt 11:1 ¶ And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.

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Our blessed Saviour having sent forth his twelve apostles in the foregoing chapter, to plant and progagate the gospel, we find him, in this chapter, following them himself in that great and necessary work;  He departed to teach and to preach in their cities.  Christ, the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls, sent not forth the apostles as his curates, to labour and sweat in the vineyard, whilst he took his ease at home; but he followed them himself:  his word of command to them was, Praite sequar; Go ye before, I will follow after.
 
Note, 1. That preaching of the gospel is a great and necessary work, incumbent upon all the ministers of Christ, let their dignity and pre-eminence in the church be what it will.  None of the servants are above their Lord.
 
2. That if there be a distinction betwixt teaching and preaching, as some apprehend, they are both the work of Christ's ministers, who are obliged from their master's example to perform both: teaching is in order to the conversion of sinners, and preaching in order to the edification of saints.

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Mt 11:2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,

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It was not for John's information that he sent his disciples to Jesus, but for their satisfaction; that he was the true and promised Messiah; John was assured of it himself by a sign from heaven at our Saviour's baptism, Mt 3:17.  But John's disciples out of great zeal to him their master, envied Christ himself, and were unwilling to believe any person greater than their master, (Archbishop Tillotson, vol.5) therefore John, out of a pious design to confirm his disciples in the belief of Jesus being the true Messias, sends them to our Saviour, to hear the doctrine which he taught, and to see the miracles which he wrought.
 
Learn hence, What a pious desire there is in such as know Christ experimentally themselves, to bring all that belong to them to a saving acquaintance with him. Archbp. Tillotson, Vol. V.

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Mt 11:3 And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

Mt 11:4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:

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Observe here, 1. The way and means which our Saviour takes for the conviction and satisfaction of John's disciples, that he was the true Messias; he appeals to the miracles wrought by himself, and submits the miracles wrought by him to the judgment of their senses;  Go and shew John the miracles which you hear and see.
 
Observe, 2. The miracles themselves.  The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, &c.  Christ was all this in a literal sense, and in a mystical sense also; he was an eye of understanding to the ignorant, a foot of power to the weak:  he opened an ear in deaf hearts, to receive the word of life:  and the poor are evangelized, that is, turned into the spirit and temper of it; the gospel; the rich hear the gospel, but the poor receives, that is, they feel the powerful impressions of it:  as we say, such an one is Italianized, when his carriage is such as if he were a natural Italian. The passive verb enagzelizonrai denotes, non actum predicationis, sed effectum evangelii pradicati; the good effect which the gospel had upon the hearts and lives of the poor, transforming them into the likeness of itself.
 
Learn, It is a blessed thing, when the preaching of the gospel has such a powerful influence upon the minds of men, that the temper of their minds and the actions of their lives are a willing transcript of the spirit and temper of the holy Jesus.
 
Note, That as it was prophesied of the Messias, that he should preach the gospel to the poor, Isa 61:1. accordingly they were the poor whom Christ preached unto; for the Pharisees and Rabbies neglected them as the people of the earth, Joh 7:49.  And Grotius says, that they had a proverb, That the Spirit of God never rests but upon a rich man. Besides the Pharisees and Rabbies doctrines, which they preached, were vain traditions, allegorical interpretations, and cabalistical deductions, which transcended the capacities of the vulgar, so that they could profit very little by repairing to their schools, and by hearing their interpretations of the law; and therefore our Saviour, in the close of this chapter, calls the people off from them to learn of him, Come unto me, &c. Mt 11:28