Test and Testimony
And when he
had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease. 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; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the
son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanite,
and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. 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: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the
sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have
received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your
purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet
staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. (Matthew 10:1-10)
The day was
different from the other days. For sometime now the disciples have been watching
the Master in the mission of mercy. They have been watching his spiritual
preparation for each day in terms of waking up early in the morning to commune
with Father in Heaven in prayer. They have been listening to His divine
utterances that always come forth with boldness and authority. They have
witnessed uncountable miracles. It was like the Master was telling the
disciples, “Enough of being spectators, it is your time now to become
spectacular.” “It is time to put in to practice what you have seen me doing in
your presence.” He did not just send them out without equipping them. He called
them and imparted a piece of Himself upon them and sent them out with specific
instruction to preach the good news. He gave them power and authority against
unclean spirits to cast them out, and divine ability to heal all manner of
sickness and diseases.
He charged them
to go out with nothing. Not even with food or excess raiment. We may be
tempted to wonder why? It was the mercy and wisdom of God at work. The presence
of God was with them therefore, for their needs to be met was entirely the
responsibility of Heavenly God. In as much as they remained in the path of
righteousness, goodness and mercy of God shall follow them. Secondly, God loaded
them with divine blessing because it is also the intention of God to use the
disciples as avenue of blessing to anybody that ministered to them. Anybody that
received them and blessed them, the divine blessing upon the disciples will be
upon the household.
He that
receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's
reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man
shall receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink unto
one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple,
verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” Matthew 10:40-42
He commanded to
preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He also empowered
them to ‘heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.’
The message was simple. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is a wake up call
to all generation to examine self and make necessary spiritual adjustment. It is
the intention of God to deliver the people that are in the bondage of Satan and
save as many as possible to his kingdom. God does not plan destruction for
anyone and that is why He made available opportunity of salvation to everyone in
order that they may make a righteous choice.
Good-news is
another name of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not surprising that people
coined the beautiful name for the gospel of Jesus Christ. When the commandment
is considered literarily it is a message of peace to the whole world. The divine
authority to heal various kinds of disease is a good news. The power to cleanse
leprosy, an infectious disease that isolates its victim afar off from the
society is a good news. The raising of the dead especially when the hope seemed
to have been dashed is a new order from heaven that there is hope for humanity
as long as the Ancient of Days remains on His Heavenly Throne. The divine
directive to overcome and overpower the wicked devices of devil is good news
that freedom from the entanglement and oppressiveness of enemy is obtainable in
the name of Jesus Christ. When the sum total of the commandment is considered,
it bring forth a powerful spiritual transformation to the life of humanity, the
effect of which reflects in the life of children of God and make them to come to
the realization of the mightiness of God and accept the message of the Gospel in
its entirety.
He charged them
to ‘go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' There must have been an
important understanding that God want His children to know for narrowing and
resisting the scope of preaching of the disciples. The following will shed light
to the reason. It began with Abraham. God called Abraham to leave his kindred in
the land Ur of Chaldes to the place He would point to him. The intention
of God was to carve out righteous generation from the crooked world in order to
establish a model of righteous generation. The obedience of Abraham established
a covenanted relationship with God and the generation of Abraham became the
people of God. The model of righteous people established by the covenant of God
began with Israelites. Whatever was the state of sinfulness of the Israelites,
the remnant righteous people of God remained the natural branch. A covenant
keeping God faithfully kept the covenant to save the remnant of the household of
Israel because the prophecy have it that through the seed of Abraham, the entire
nation of the world will be blessed. In addition, according to the prophecy, the
law of God (which is the gospel of Jesus Christ) was to proceed from Zion to the
whole world. “ . . . The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3)
This was the reason why the message was first of all designed to save the house
hold of Israel before it goes out to the entire nations of the world.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also
to the Greek [the Gentiles].(Romans 1:16)
He also reminded
of an important directive which may not be popular among the servants of God in
our own time today. He expressly told the disciples, ‘freely ye have
received, freely give.’ This statement could be interpreted thus: Freely you
have been delivered at a price of the only begotten son of God. Freely you have
been called to partake in the finished work of the Cross. Freely was salvation
presented to you through the amazing grace of God. Freely you have been called
to serve. Freely you were anointed by the gift of Holy Spirit to do exploit for
the glory of God. In effect, Jesus Christ was warning His disciples that the
demonstration of the power of God for healing the sick and raise the dead should
not be commercialized. He intended that the disciples should not develop a
swollen head when the devil subjected themselves to their command and flew out
of the oppressed in the name of Jesus Christ. Invariably, He was reminding them
that the disciples were the golden vessel of honor through which the power of
Heaven is working miracles and hence they should not boast of themselves.
Behold, I
send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as
serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up
to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be
brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and
the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall
speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it
is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. 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. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth
to the end shall be saved. But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye
into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities
of Israel, till the Son of man be come. (Matthew 10:16-23)
The last
preparation was scary; notwithstanding, it reflects the attribute truthfulness
of the Heavenly Father that never leaves His children in darkness. It is scary
to learn that the harmless sheep were sent to the midst of harmful wolves. It is
not strange in Christian life experience. Persecution always herald Christian’s
departure from worldliness to godliness. It had been manifesting in the past in
form of fierce attack against the Christian that declared his acceptance for
Christ. It is the evidence of the anger of Satan that he had lost another battle
over a precious soul that the power of the Cross wrestled out of its clutches.
Fighting back of Satan is not surprising because the government of this world is
still in his hand. Through the powers and principalities of this world, he
engineer persecution against the elects of God. The government agents of some
countries employ both covert and overt operations to persecute the church of
Jesus Christ and the disciples. In the past, the persecuted disciples were
killed, maimed or fed to the wild animals in order to stop evangelism. Today, in
some of the Communist nations and in some countries in the Middle East the
persecutors still employ fierce attack in form of imprisonment in the
underground dungeon to persecute the Christians that dare to carry out the great
commission of evangelism. Even in the civilized Western World persecution had
taken different form. Satan now employs the family of the new born into the
kingdom of God to persecute him or her. These members of the family start their
attack with name calling and unprecedented jesting. Some persecution in the
family leads to isolation of the Christian in his or her family. Some
persecutors are irritated by the Christian prayers or mere mentioning of the
name of the Lord in public places and they seek the redress in the court of law.
What ever may be the case, Satan is fighting a lost battle.
Glory be unto
God Almighty that the Master led by example. He paid the price of our salvation
by His precious blood. He called His disciples in love to the banquet of
sacrifice. We are saved to serve. He never promises us a rosy avenue to success.
In fact, He assured us that, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the
kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
(Matthew 11:12) If the disciples of the Lord are trained to defend
themselves in a physical combat or if the mission of mercy permits the servants
of God to carry weapons for self defense, it would have been described as a fair
deal. Our Lord Jesus Christ declared, “In this world ye shall have
tribulation,” but he also encouraged us by saying, “but be of good cheer;
I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Notwithstanding,
we are not defenseless after all, because we have more than what the physical
combat training could offer and possessed greater than worldly weapon. Ye are
of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is
in you, than he that is in the world. (I John 4:4) We have the divine
presence of God with us in our mission. The word of God assured us that, “the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds. Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ.” (II Corinthians 10:4-5) Prepare
for the worst scenario soldier of Christ but rest assured that Jesus Christ, our
captain never lost any battle.
After these
things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before
his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore
said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray
ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into
his harvest. (Luke 10:1-2)
At another time
our Lord Jesus Christ sent other seventy the disciples two by two into the
evangelism field to preach the good news. He also gave them the same preparation
as the first mission. No one knew the numbers of times that Jesus Christ sent
the disciples on evangelistic mission during His ministry on earth. It could be
more than the two that were recorded in the Bible. The evangelistic activities
of the disciples during the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth were not
elaborated in the four books of the gospel.
And they went
out, and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many devils, and
anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. (Mark 6:12-13)
And the
seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto
us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but
rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. In that hour Jesus
rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. (Luke
10:17-21)
Jesus Christ
sent the disciples into the field to preach the kingdom of God in order to test
run their effectiveness and to access how much of spiritual virtue they have
grasped. Without test there will be no testimony. The disciples went out
according to the bidding of the master and they came back rejoicing bringing in
their sheaves. Their reports were exciting and encouraging. Their reports were
not elaborate in the four books of gospel of Jesus Christ but as brief as their
report was it satisfied the fundamental purposes. With joy they reported back to
the Master that they preach the message of repentance, in addition the sick were
healed and through the name of Jesus Christ, the devils were subjected unto
them. Christ reaffirmed, ‘although I give you power to tread on serpents and
scorpions and over the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt
you,’ this alone should not be the basis of their joy. But rather they
should rejoice because their names were written, in the book of life in Heaven.
In that hour, with thanksgiving in the spirit, the Master rejoiced with them.
The joy of Jesus Christ over their successful mission was brilliant evidence
that Satan had been defeated. If your response to the bidding of the Master is
with the righteous motive, you will equally come back with a good report at the
end.
