1 Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.

2 Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; and James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who also betrayed Him.

Matthew 10:1-4 (NASB)

Jesus’ command to send

A few posts ago, Jesus called Matthew the tax collector to follow Him and we saw how we need to respond to the call as Matthew did. We need to respond immediately and to count the cost. In the last post Jesus commanded His followers to pray God would send forth workers into the harvest field. Those workers are not just “the other guy or gal”, they are us!  Today He sends His twelve closest followers, His disciples, out to do the Kingdom work.

Kingdom work

What does He do before He sends them out? He empowers them with authority. He has the authority from the Father and He grants it to His disciples. Without this authority, they would be sails flapping in the wind with no power to drive the ship. They’d be a car stalled on the street with no gas to make it go. And this authority is indeed powerful. They had power over the unclean, evil spirits. This power still exists and is available to His disciples today. Are you a disciple? You and I have this power.

What is this work that Jesus sends His disciples out to do? Cast out demons and heal every disease and every sickness. Like we shared a few posts ago, Jesus healed every disease and sickness. Now He’s empowering and sending His disciples to go and do the same.

The Chosen 12

Here’s the official list of the 12 disciples of Jesus. It is intentional that there are 12 just as there are 12 tribes of Israel. Four stand out. Peter is mentioned as being first. Matthew identifies himself by clarifying he’s the tax collector. He mentions that the other Simon was called the Zealot. Then he singles out Judas who betrayed Jesus. 

“It is worthy of notice, that those who were Christ’s apostles were first his disciples; to intimate, that men must be first taught of God, before they be sent of God.” (Clarke’s commentary) We should also note that all those who call themselves Christians, who identify with Christ, should be followers of Christ (disciples). But not all disciples are apostles. In fact, there are no apostles as there were in the early church time. Check this link if you want more info. on this.

RЯeflection

• This passage is about the sending out of Jesus’ disciples.  We too are His disciples. As we discussed yesterday, we are sent into the world to do His work. Are you doing it?

• I’ve plugged the TV series, The Chosen, a few times before. Give it a look if you haven’t yet. Be sure to turn on subtitles to catch all the dialogue.