Jesus’s First Commission – 1/5/25

There is an intriguing story in 2 Kings 1 that illustrates a little bit of what it’s like to be commissioned. Ahaziah, the king of Israel, is in his home up on the second floor, catching a cool breeze from the window, and he leans a little too heavy on the lattice in the window and crashes through, falling to the ground below, and is seriously injured. Look at 2 Kings 1:2.

“Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria, and lay sick; so he sent messengers, telling them, ‘Go inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this sickness.’”

Meanwhile, the angel of the Lord sends Elijah the prophet to intercept the messengers and to ask them, verse 3,

“Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Akron?”

Elijah sends the messengers back to the king to rebuke him for looking to Baal-zebub rather than Yahweh, the God of Israel. Well, as you can imagine, the king is not happy.

He commissions a captain with 50 men to go arrest Elijah. They find him at the top of the hill. They demand he surrender to them. He calls forth a drone strike, and fire falls from heaven and consumes them all.

Well, the king hears about that and he repents, right? No. He sends another captain with another 50 who do the same thing — another drone strike and consumed. So the king decides, let’s do it again. And he commissions another captain with another 50.

Now, let’s pause for a moment and put ourselves in the place of this next captain. Captain number 3. Now captain number 1 — clueless. Didn’t know what was coming. Captain number 2 could have written it off as a fluke. You wear those pointed steel helmets in lightning storms, and you can get struck. Just a fluke.

But captain number 3 knows exactly what’s about to happen. And he’s, as we say, caught between a rock and a hard place. Because if he says no to the king, he’s fried. If he says yes to the king, he’s what? Fried. Either way, it doesn’t end well for him. So what does he do? Look at verse 13. I like this guy.

“Again the king sent the captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah and entreated him, ‘O man of God, please let my life, and the life of these fifty servants of yours, be precious in your sight.’”

What is he doing there? He is acknowledging that the one who commissioned me, the king, is under the authority of the One who commissioned you, God. And even though I have a commission I have to carry out,  I am placing myself under you because you have a commission you have to carry out from the God of heaven who has more authority than a king on earth.

And this time the angel of the Lord tells Elijah to go with the captain. And he goes with the captain, and he delivers his message to the king that he’s going to die, and the king dies.

There’s so much in this story. So much in this story about divine authority. About the need for humility. But there’s also a lot in this story about what it means to be commissioned.

To commission someone is to call or appoint to a task and authorize to carry out a mission. The captains and their soldiers were commissioned by the king. Elijah was commissioned by the Lord.

To be commissioned generally includes four things: to be called — calling, authorizing, instructing, and sending. And you’ll notice at the beginning of Matthew 10, the four key verbs in verses 1 and 5.

“and he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority….”

Verse 5, “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them….”

Has all the elements of commission. So let’s examine each one.

1. He called to him.

The actual calling had occurred earlier. For example, in Matthew 4:18-22, we saw Peter, Andrew, James, and John called by Jesus.

But here is the first complete list of the twelve. And the number twelve is significant, right? Twelve communicates a restored Israel. There were twelve sons of Israel, that formed Israel. Now there are twelve sons of true Israel. Jesus calls twelve.

Notice Jesus’s commission is extremely different from King Ahaziah’s. He doesn’t just send captains and their men to be disposable.

To be called by Jesus is to be called to Jesus.

He called to him. We’ll see next chapter, Matthew 11:28,

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

John 15:5, 9, 16, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing…. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love…. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide [remain], so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.”

This is what it means to be called to Jesus. Secondly, he called to, and then he gave them authority.

2. He gave them authority.

Last fall when we were beholding the King in Matthew 8 and 9, we saw the inbreaking of the kingdom. Three sets of miracles, three sets of three miracles and three calls. And then they climaxed at the end of Matthew 9:35.

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”

So Jesus is essentially saying I’m going to call you to be with me. And then I’m going to authorize you to do what I do. As he’s illustrated in chapters 8 and 9 his absolute authority over disease, disaster, demons, death. I am now authorizing you to go do in my name.

Now, some of his disciples, as we’ll see, get a bit intoxicated by this kind of authority. And so it’s important to remember, the authority is not to coerce but is fueled by compassion. Matthew 9:36,

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them”

And it’s energized by prayer.

“Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest”

Chapter 10 is an answer to the prayers for laborers of chapter 9. He called to him, he authorized them, and then

3. He sent them out, verse 5.

There’s an interesting shift in the titles between verse 1 and verse 2. They’re described as the twelve disciples in verse 1. A disciple is a learner, a pupil, an apprentice. But then they’re described in verse 2 as the twelve apostles. An apostle is one who is sent out, a messenger, an emissary.

And the word apostle can be used in a very narrow sense of the twelve apostles who had a unique role and a unique level of authority, or it can be used in a very broad sense, like in Philippians 2:25 when Epaphroditus is described as “your apostle,” it’s the word apostle, your messenger.

Verses 2-4 lists the twelve apostles. And I want to read through those. But if you would look at the screens, you’ll see the structure of that list is interesting. First of all,

Simon, who is called Peter, and
Andrew his brother

James the son of Zebedee, and
John his brother

Philip and
Bartholomew

Thomas and
Matthew the tax collector

James, the son of Alpheus and
Thaddeus

Simon the Zealot, and
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

A couple observations about the list.

1. They are listed in pairs and groups of four.

Now, throughout the New Testament, there are four different lists of the disciples. Each list begins with the same person at the head of the four: Peter, Philip, James.

However, the order within the group may vary depending on the list, implying there were ministry teams, but there was some flexibility as to who went out with whom perhaps. However, Peter is always listed first. Judas Iscariot is always listed last.

Second observation,  they are ordinary.

At least four of them are fishermen, most likely more. All, but Judas Iscariot, are Galilean. Now, that doesn’t mean much to us, but in Israel, the people from Galilee would be kind of viewed as from… you fill in the blank. I said Pickens this morning and I got in a lot of trouble, so I’m not going to say Pickens. You imagine where they’re from.

Implying these are not people with elite pedigree. They’re ordinary working class people, which is just so interesting. If you’re going to put together a dream team to change the world, are you going to look for just ordinary workers or elite people? Well, Jesus goes for the ordinary.

3. They’re controversial, at least some of them.

Let me give you a couple examples. One, Matthew is a tax collector. More properly, publican, which means the Romans use him, and the Jews hate him.

It’s hard for us to even imagine the kind of distrust. It would kind of be like walking on the University of Georgia campus today with a Notre Dame hat, but way beyond that. It would be controversial. Too early.

Simon, the Zealot. That word zealot is “kananaios” or “Cananaean.” Isn’t that interesting? It’s not the normal word for zealot. It’s Simon was a Cananaean.

What does that mean? Well, he was most likely a part of a radical nationalistic movement that wanted to overthrow Rome at any cost. And at this time, it hadn’t got fully rolling. But in a few decades, they would try to rise up against Rome. They would get crushed and Jerusalem would pay dearly.

And the last group of zealots, about 960 men, women and children, would flee to Masada, a desert fortress, (I think we have a picture of that) It’s stunning. According to Josephus, almost all 960 men, women, and children committed suicide or killed one another rather than submit to the Romans.

There are some other zealots that have climbed Masada. This was our group up on Masada a couple of years ago.

But it’s just so interesting that Jesus, when he’s gathering, is choosing these ordinary folks, some who come with a lot of baggage. Their lives are complicated. And Jesus isn’t afraid of that. Isn’t that encouraging? Come, follow me with all your luggage. Just come, come to me. Some of them were controversial.

And then one more, they were imperfect.

Peter denied Jesus three times. Judas obviously betrayed Jesus. Thomas, I think a bit unfairly, but became known as ___ Thomas. What? Doubting. Yeah. That’s not what you want to be known of as a follower of Jesus. James and John, prompted by their mom, asked for an elevated status in the kingdom. These are not squeaky-clean people. They’re imperfect. But Jesus called, authorized, sent, and then

4. Instructed.

Now the verb instructed appears last, not because it happened last, obviously he instructed before he sent, but instructed launches us into our whole study that we will be in over the next five weeks in Matthew 10. Matthew 10 is the second major sermon or discourse in the Gospel of Matthew.

What was the first? The Sermon on the Mount. This is the Sermon on the Mission, where he is describing this commission, this commission of the disciples. And so he puts the word instructed last, because as we’ll see over the next five weeks, he’s got a lot to teach us as to what it means to engage the world in a healthy way and be faithful in following Jesus on mission.

You’re going to notice as we work through this that Jesus is like a good football coach. A good football coach, especially this time of year, is both training for the immediate game before them, but they’re also keeping an eye on the prize, the national championship. You’ll see both of those happening throughout the chapter. Some of the instruction, as we’ll see next week, is very local, immediate, Jewish ministry. And then other is more global, gentile, long-term. Both are happening in Matthew 10. But there is one big idea that I believe keeps appearing throughout the chapter that I want to focus on. You’ll see my favorite expression of it is in verse 25.

“It is enough for the disciple to be like his master.”

You could say it this way. Christ’s commission highlights our union with him. And I want to whet our appetite for what’s coming, I want to show you four examples of this throughout the chapter.

1. What happens to me, Jesus says, happens to you.

What happens to me, happens to you. Here are a couple of examples.

Verse 18, “You will be dragged before governors … for my sake”

Verse 22, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake”

Verse 39, “Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”

So Jesus is showing there is this inseparable connection between who I am and who you are, and what I experience and what you experience. There is a union there.

2.  What I say, you say. What I say, you say.

Verse 20, “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you”

Or 27, “What I tell you in the dark, [you] say in the light”

What I say, you say.

3. The way you love others flows from the way you love me (as I have loved you!)

Verse 37 is a good example.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

Now, that’s very confusing to us. But what Jesus is saying is when you begin with your love for those most immediately around you you’re going to tend to either idolize or demonize. What Jesus is saying, you’re upside down. You don’t begin with human love. You begin, we just sang a little bit ago, the love above every other love. Is that it, Davy? Love above every other love in “Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus.” So beautiful.

There’s a love that is above every other love that enables you to love those in your family, marriage, friendship, in a healthy way without idolizing or demonizing. But you have to begin with Jesus.

Jesus is saying you start with me. You feed on my love. And then you can express that love appropriately. The way you love others flows from the way you love me, as I have loved you. And then one more.

4. When people receive you, they receive me.

Verse 40, “Whoever receives you receives me.”

There are more. But what do these communicate? Well, when we are commissioned by Jesus we, share life with him. What he experienced, we experience. When we are hurt, he is hurt. In Acts 9, when Jesus confronted Saul and Saul was killing Christians, persecuting Christians, and Jesus said to him,

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

Jesus is so inseparably linked with his people that you cannot hurt his people without harming him. The union is so tight.

As we work through Matthew 10, we’re going to see this theme repeatedly. I mentioned last week in passing that Matthew 10,  it was 33 years ago, not 34, 33 years ago this month was the first sermon I preached at North Hills before we had actually formed. We then went through Matthew 18, which I can’t wait to get to. And then we started Ephesians, our first major book study. Why Matthew 10? I want to give you a bit of a back story there.

A year or two earlier, when I was a youth pastor in Chicago, the ministry was outwardly flourishing. We were having hundreds and hundreds of teens come each week. We’re holding big events like skateboard contests, slam dunk contests, Bobby Jones with the Philadelphia 76ers had spoken, we were seeing teens come to Christ, so outwardly loving it, but I was keeping a very unhealthy pace.

And as I’ve shared in the past, when we had our first child, I didn’t slow down at all. I was neglecting my wife, not loving her well at all,  and our marriage was hanging by a thread. There were several passages — I Peter 2 and 3 was a big one — but at this time I was teaching a discipleship course. And when I was in Matthew 10, I came to verse 25, and the Spirit of God gripped me with that statement.

“It is enough for the disciple to be like his [master].”

It is enough. And he was asking me, is it? Is it enough for you? Or do you think you need something more or to accomplish something more? It is enough.

And it was about that time that he made it clear I needed to resign. And near that time I said to my wife, if I spend my whole life doing nothing but learning what it means to love you like Christ loves his church, I will die a happy man.

Now I had no idea what I was saying, but I meant it. And it meant nothing to my wife. Because any of you in unhealthy marriages, you know words are cheap, aren’t they? Like when you’ve said so many things you haven’t followed through on, words are cheap.

But what is not cheap is humility, because when we humble ourselves, God says he resists the proud, but he gives what to the humble? Gives grace to the humble. And as I humbled my heart and ran to Jesus, and he began to teach me and Karen what real love looks like.

Now I feel like I’m still in kindergarten — love kindergarten — still learning. Anybody who knows me knows I have a long way to go. But that statement I made many years ago, that I didn’t really understand, that the Spirit of God understood, and he understood the work he would do in my heart to teach me what it means to love as we have been loved.

John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another:”

Well, how do we do that?

“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So the Spirit of God made it clear to me, Peter, you can’t say you love all these people you’re ministering to if you’re not even loving those closest to you well. And it’s not a matter of priorities. Like some people will say, well, you got to make marriage first and then ministry second. No, that can become an idol.

It’s not a matter of priorities, it’s a matter of affections. Do we love Christ? And when we swim in his love, and he is transforming us, then he enables us to love the nearest and the farthest through his love. We are united with his love. The way he loves begins to take … The way we love begins to take the shape of the way he loves.

And you begin to learn that the call of Christ is not merely to do something- it is to do something- you can’t read Matthew 10 and say Christ doesn’t care about what you do. He does. But it’s primarily a call to be someone as we are transformed by his love and then ministering out of that transformation.

And this helps us understand that the commission of Christ is so different from, say, the commission of King Ahaziah. King Ahaziah did not want to die, so he sent his men to die for him. King Jesus came and died for us so that we could follow him to life. Completely different commission. He’s not viewing us as disposable. He is calling us to himself, authorizing us, instructing us, and then sending us.

This has massive implications as to what it means to be commissioned by Jesus. And in a few minutes, we’re going to pray over four new elders as we ordain, commission, them as shepherds of this flock. Listen to the words of Peter, the Apostle Peter, who sat under the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 10. He says, 1 Peter 5:1,

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed:”

Stop for a second. What does that mean? Peter is saying I was there. I saw him go down in suffering. I was there. I saw him go up into glory. And the shape of Christ, the shape of the gospel, is the shape of the ministry I am calling you to as shepherds, as elders. It’s not a straight path to glory. It is the shape of Christ. We are one with him. Our lives are his lives. What he experienced, we experience. We will go down in suffering. We will come up into glory. So in light of that,

“shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly,”

You’re not driven by some need that has never been fulfilled, that you’re expecting the flock to meet in you as if they’re there for you.

“not for shameful gain,”

You’re not in it for the money or the pat on the back or the applause.

“but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge,”

Like King Ahaziah just sending people off to do your bidding no matter how it affects them. No.

“But being examples to the flock.”

Why examples? Because as we ordain these men, you are not merely spectators, right? We’re ordaining people that we’re saying I want to emulate their lives. Their humility. Their worship. Their sacrifice. Their wisdom.

We’re not a bunch of spectators saying, you go do the ministry. We’re saying we’re commissioning some to set an example and provide oversight so that we all can follow Jesus like this. We all are commissioned by Christ. As we’ll hear, this is the first of Christ’s commission. Matthew ends with the what? The Great Commission that will sweep us up into this calling.

In a few minutes, we’re going to lay hands on four men. I’ll introduce them when they come. They have humbly walked through a rigorous preparation process, in some cases takes years. They have been presented to you, and you have prayed and confirmed them last November. And so today we will be laying hands on them, commissioning, ordaining them as shepherds of this flock.

Let’s have the elders being ordained and the elders ordaining come forward. And we’re going to have two people pray, Jim and then Ryan. And then right after we pray, Davy is going to have you stand up and we’re going to sing a blessing.

And as you sing that, think about that blessing over our elders, but then sing this blessing over all of us as we begin this new year and we fulfill his calling on our lives. And then when we’re done with that song, or even during the song, we’ll have people up front who would love to pray with you if something I’ve said is confusing or you have questions or just desire prayer. So, Jim, let’s pray together and feel free to hold your hands out as we lay hands on these men.

Precious Father, thank you for these four men who are committed to your gospel. Your enemy doesn’t like this, so, God, we’re praying over them for your strength, for your power, for your grace, for your love.

I pray, Lord, that their greatest joy will be to know you. Give them courage to stand on your Word, not the opinions of others or even their own opinions, and always stand with grace.

And, Lord, when they don’t know which way to go or what to do, give them the strength and grace to pray for your wisdom, to wait on your timing, to rest in your promises and humbly seek counsel from each other.

Remind them often that then when you call us, you always provide the resources. Lord, guard their hearts against any form of pride in any success that they do have, if they do have, please remind them it is by your grace alone.

I ask, too, that you would guard their marriages. I want to say yes, guard them, but even more than guard, Lord, I ask that they would fall more and more in love with you and each other.

Give their wives strength and grace to serve alongside of them. Lead them to both encourage each other, to seek you, and to draw deeply from your grace.

Paul said to the elders at Ephesus in Acts 20:32, the last time that he saw them, and I want to pray that Lord, now over these men.

“I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

We ask this, Lord, expectantly. I say it in the gentle and lowly name of our dear Savior Jesus, amen.

Jesus, you are the true Shepherd, and we are under-shepherds. Help us remember that order, in everything that we do, help us to remember that order.

Father, thank you for allowing us to serve. Thank you for these four men who are choosing to serve. We love this church because you love it. We do this with joy because you love your people with joy. So I pray those things upon my brothers as they become elders of your people, that they would love serving your people, that they would have joy doing it.

God, would you allow us all to have patience with each other, both as elders, and then would you allow these people in front of us, and at first service and third, to be patient with us because we’re sinners, too? Would you allow us to have grace for each other as we try to lead and people try to follow?

God, I pray that you would remind all of us that being an elder is not a hobby. It is not coffee and theology. It is loving people that you redeemed through the blood of Jesus Christ, your Son. It is a high, beautiful, wonderful calling. And we are thankful.

Thank you, Jesus, that you are not only the true Shepherd, you are the righteous Judge who will return and give us the unfading crown of glory. And not just us as elders, but to everyone who loves your appearing. And we pray this in the name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit to the Father of all. Amen?

Amen.

Amen.

I forgot to introduce them. Ben Sternick. Micah Shaw. Tim Hinds. Andy Henderson. Thank you for your willingness to serve here.

Let’s sing a blessing.