As You Go

Matthew 10:1-8

February 15, 2026 • Mount Pleasant UMC

One of my favorite classes when I was in seminary was called the “worship practicum.” That’s a fancy seminary name for “you get to practice doing stuff.” Professor Don Boyd would tell us to meet him somewhere for that week’s class and we would practice communion, weddings, even a funeral. Now, he didn’t do it for our class, but I’m told he occasionally would be in the casket laying there when the class arrived. But the day I remember the most was when we practiced baptism. Because most Methodist churches don’t have a baptismal for immersions, we went to a Baptist church. Professor Boyd gave us instruction and then paired us up, and I don’t remember the name of the student I was paired with but I do remember that he was over 6 feet tall. A lot taller than me. Now, to do a successful immersion baptism when you’re standing up means the person who is being baptized needs to bend their knees; then they can help you by pushing back up. My friend, my partner, forgot that part and when I put him under the water he just stayed and waited for me to pull him up. Not as easy as it sounds! I nearly drowned him before I finished. I also can’t remember what grade I got in that class but I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t gotten him out of the water, I would have failed. Drowning someone during baptism is not a good thing.

For the last couple of weeks we have been talking about what it means to follow our rabbi, our teacher, Jesus. When he calls us and invites us to be his disciples, his followers, we want to be with him and become like him. But following implies going somewhere, doesn’t it? As we are with him and become like him, the next natural progression is that we live out what we are leaning. In other words, according to the Scriptures, we do as he did. Just like in my class, the professor showed us and taught us how to do certain things but if we had just stayed in class, what was the point? As we left seminary to serve in churches and ministries, the expectation was that we would live out what we had learned. I still feel like Professor Boyd is looking over my shoulder from heaven when I do those things.

Two weeks ago we read Mark’s account of Jesus calling the disciples. Today we have a similar passage in Matthew’s Gospel, though it is much later in the story. In Matthew’s account, Jesus specifically called Peter, Andrew, James and John in chapter 4, and Matthew in chapter 9. He has been with them and training them. And along the way, he has also been performing miracles all across Galilee, the northern part of Israel, stirring up a lot of opposition and anger among the religious leaders (Davis, Come Alive: Matthew, pg. 77). Then, at the end of chapter 9, Jesus tells his followers, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field” (9:37-38). So chapter 10 seems to be Jesus answering his own prayer. He is now ready to multiply his mission. He calls twelve out of a much larger group of followers, and while in verse 1 they are called “disciples,” learners, in verse 2 for the first time they are called “apostles,” “sent ones.” That is not an accidental use of words. Jesus is in fact sending these twelve out to do what he has been doing. He is “apostling” them.

All of chapter 10 contains Jesus’ instructions to these apostles, but we read just the very first part this morning, sort of the overview. One of the things we notice right off the bat is that Jesus sends them only to “the lost sheep of Israel.” He explicitly tells them, “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans” (10:5-6). That command is only in Matthew (Card, Matthew: The Gospel of Identity, pg. 102) and it might be a bit upsetting to us who are Gentiles, which is all of us, because it sounds like Jesus is excluding certain people—us! Why are they supposed to ignore the Gentiles? Why is Jesus leaving us out? Well, for one thing, this command is obviously not for all time. It’s just for right then; Jesus will reverse these instructions after the resurrection when he sends them to all nations (Matthew 28:19; Wright, Matthew for Everyone—Part One, pg. 112). But here’s why he tells them to avoid the Gentiles for now: if they had started focusing on Gentiles at this point in their ministry, no self-respecting Jew would have listened to them another moment. As Jesus himself said (and Paul later confirmed), he was sent first to the “lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24; Romans 1:16; Wright 112). He was their savior first.

So Jesus gathers these twelve and sends them out. It’s interesting that Matthew gives us all this detail on Jesus’ instructions but he tells us nothing about what actually happens when they go out. And Matthew was one of the twelve, so he would have known at least what happened when he went out. Why didn’t he write it down? Maybe it’s because the gospel is never about what disciples say and do. It’s about what Jesus does. We don’t need to do as they did; we need to do as he did. So Jesus gives them two things to be doing “as they go” (10:7), and the first is this: “Proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’” (10:7). Now, that sounds familiar. Where have they heard that message before? Of course, this is the exact same message Matthew says Jesus preached. Way back in chapter 4, right after Jesus had been baptized by John and then tempted by Satan in the wilderness, he preaches this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near” (4:17). So Jesus sends them out to preach the exact same message he has been preaching. None of their interpretation, none of their additions, none of their commentary on the current Roman political system. No, their preaching was to consist of a singular message focusing on a different kingdom. “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Those first century Jews would have grasped this message a lot more quickly than we do. When we hear about a “kingdom of heaven,” we think there must be a literal kingdom somewhere, probably with castles and knights and stuff. And so people who believe in that kingdom tend to do one of two things. Some sit back and focus on “preparing their hearts” to go someday to a cloudy, shiny, heavenly place (where the castles are) one day when they die. Others get busy working trying to literally build the kingdom here and now, trying to force this world to be more Christian either through legislation or social programs. But Jesus wasn’t talking about a literal kingdom; it would be better if we would translate that as “reign of God” because that’s really what he means. God is coming to reign as king over the world, over your life and mine, over everything that is—to be the king he always has been. Dutch pastor and politician Abraham Kuyper expressed it this way: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” Kuyper knew the limits of earthly power; he served as prime minister in the Netherlands but recognized that every earthly power passes away. Only the reign of God will last and every heart that gives itself over to Christ extends the reign of God. One day, we are told, every (not just some, but every) knee will bow and acknowledge God’s reign forever (cf. Romans 14:11; Philippians 2:10-11).

But this reign, this kingdom, is not something far off, either in distance or in time. Jesus says it has come near. Certainly that reign was present in the physical presence of Jesus, but every place Jesus sent these disciples was also establishing an outpost of the reign of God. And still today, every place you and I go is extending that reign of God. This message that Jesus gave these apostles on that Galilean hillside is the same message he gives to you and me to proclaim. Once we have been with him and begun to become like him, he sends us to do as he did, just as he sent these first twelve. Proclaim this message: “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” The reign of God is available. It’s ready to invade your life. In fact, it’s closer than your very breath for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. Every time a heart is softened and welcomes Jesus, the reign of God comes nearer.

In a recent poll by the Barna Group, 96% of Christians asked said, “Part of my faith means being a witness about Jesus.” Ninety-six percent. That’s a good number. And 94% agreed that “the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus.” That’s a good number, too. I’m not sure why it’s not 100%, but it’s still good. It gives me hope. Until I come to the rest of the study, because out of that same group, 47% of them said, “It is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith” (Comer, Practicing the Way, pg. 135). Almost all of us believe people need Jesus, but half of us don’t believe we should proclaim the message Jesus told us to proclaim. I can guarantee you that people of other faiths don’t share the same perspective. They are actively working to bring people into their faith, their belief system, their god’s kingdom. We have talked ourselves out of it. We’ve come to believe that faith is a private matter, best kept to ourselves, not imposed on anyone else. I agree that forcing someone to believe in Jesus never works. It doesn’t last. But Jesus didn’t say to impose the kingdom of God on people. Jesus told us to proclaim that kingdom is near, open, and available to anyone who wants to come in. You see, your life has a message. The way you live, the words you speak, the things you post online—you are proclaiming a message. The question is what message are you proclaiming? We should preach his Gospel, not our own, not that of our political party or the latest social cause or the newest fad diet. We are more likely to talk about the newest show on Netflix than we are the kingdom of God, but if we want to follow the rabbi, we do as he did and proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God the way he did.

If you’re not already uncomfortable, let’s move to the second part of Jesus’ instructions: “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons” (10:8). John Wimber, who eventually went on to establish the Vineyard Church, found Jesus in his early twenties and started reading the Gospels and Acts. He was astounded at the stories of healings and cleansings and all the rest, but when he went to church, nothing like that was happening. So he went to the church leadership and asked, “When do we get to do the stuff?” (cf. Comer 140). Their response was, “What stuff?” Now, I get it, there have been abuses and fakes and TV preachers who are fleecing and tricking people so much that we all get a bit skeptical about healing and all the rest. The stuff, the supernatural. But if we believe in a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever (cf. Hebrews 13:8), and if we believe that God healed in the past, why do we think he would stop doing that? Jesus sent his apostles to do as he did, not just then, but now.

All of these things could really be summed up in the word “healing.” In the book of Acts, Luke says that part of the early church’s preaching told how Jesus “went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil” (Acts 10:38). Jesus did all the things he tells these apostles to do, but the healings of whatever kind were never the point. Jesus healed people so that barriers were removed from hearing the good news about the reign of God. And the kind of healing Jesus offered wasn’t just physical; it was deeper than that. I think of the famous story of the woman caught in the act of adultery in John 8. The healing that came to her that day was being forgiven, not being condemned for maybe the first time in her life. Yes, we believe that God can bring physical healing, but we believe God wants to heal people on a much deeper level. Sometimes he provides a physical healing so that that person can experience an even deeper, more needed healing.

And so by doing as he did, we commit to being agents of healing. Not division. Not harm. Healing. We pray for healing, physical healing, yes, but more than that, we work to bring healing into situations where hatred and prejudice and anger and brokenness exist. We bring peace where discord exists; Paul put it this way: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends…Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:17-21). The world has no hope for healing today or any day except the church, Jesus’ followers. Saint Teresa of Avila said it this way: “Christ has no body on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours” (qtd. in Comer 151).

When I think about all the challenges and problems and brokenness filling the world today, I get overwhelmed. Even praying about things, I feel like I can’t keep up with all the needs and the hurts and the places and people that need healing. I have to come back to this truth: we can’t all do everything. But we can all do something. Even though we may not be able to conquer world-sized problems, we can be people of healingxw in the place where we are. Too many Christians are not doing anything to be agents of healing. In fact, many today are actively bringing division. That’s not the way of Jesus, no matter how much Biblical language is used to disguise it. Jesus called us to be righteous, yes, but not self-righteous. Jesus called us to be holy, but not holier-than-thou. He didn’t come to divide; he prayed that we would be one (cf. John 17). Together we are the body of Christ, meant to bring healing to a lost and broken world. “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into the harvest field” to proclaim and heal. Jesus is still saying and praying this.

So let me ask some questions. How are you being an agent of healing? How are you helping people find their way out of sin, addiction, destructive lifestyles, hatred and prejudice? In other words, how are you actively pointing people toward the reign of God? Do you remember the WWJD craze? There were bumper stickers and sermons and bracelets and books and all the things centered on getting people to ask the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” It was a great marketing ploy, blasted everywhere, but Pastor John Mark Comer believes there is actually a better question. There’s nothing wrong with WWJD, but maybe better than that is WWJDIHWM—what would Jesus do if he were me? Here’s how Pastor Comer puts it: “Odds are that you’re not a first-century, celibate Jewish rabbi; you’re a twenty-first-century” ordinary person who is trying to follow Jesus in the places you live (cf. Comer 123). What would Jesus do in your particular situation? How would he proclaim the message and bring the healing in your work, in your home, in your community? My dream is that when anyone in Terre Haute or Vigo County or anywhere for that matter thinks of Mount Pleasant, the first thing they think of is that this is a place of healing, of peace, of life. Let it be so!

There’s one more piece here that we need to touch on. Jesus ends this beginning passage with these words of advice: “Freely you have received; freely give” (10:8). I don’t think that’s a lesson on economics because later in these instructions he tells the apostles to find a worthy person in each town they go to and receive that person’s hospitality (10:11). So there was an expectation that they would be taken care of by the people who lived in each place. No, this is not about economics. This is about being generous with what they have been given. The grace, the mercy, the salvation that they have been given is to be shared with anyone and everyone along the way. What Jesus has given them is for everyone, not just for these twelve. And maybe that’s a bit of a criticism at where the Jewish faith was in Jesus’ day. Those in leadership were so concerned with doing things right, with remaining “pure” and holy, with staying away from sin that they had become people who separated themselves off from the rest of the world. Their ancestor, Abraham, the first one to follow this God, had been “blessed to be a blessing” to the world. All peoples on earth were supposed to be blessed through these people, Abraham’s descendants (cf. Genesis 12:1-3). But they had become selfish with their faith, keeping it to themselves and counting others, like Gentiles and Samaritans, as unworthy of knowing this God. Jesus came for all, and even though at that moment he was restricting who was to receive the message, that would not be forever. And it is not now. To “do as he did” means that we freely share the grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness of Jesus with all people. It’s for everyone.

Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did. What would the world be like if we truly dedicated ourselves to these three things, to following our rabbi fully and without hesitation? Let’s pray.