Mission of the Twelve

GOLDEN TEXT: “Then saith He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest.” —Matthew 9:37,38

MATTHEW 9:35 – 10:8,24,25

THE first verse of our lesson reads, “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” His commission to the twelve apostles was to do the same—“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.”—ch. 10:7,8

The “Gospel of the kingdom” is the good news that through the kingdom of Christ all the sick will be healed, and all the dead restored to life. It was appropriate, therefore, that in the beginning of the new age the oral message of good news should be supplemented with practical demonstrations of what the kingdom would accomplish for the people when fully established in power and great glory. This aspect of the Christian ministry was not to continue throughout the age, and has not done so. Some now claim ability to heal the sick, but no one today is raising the dead which proves that the authority and power conferred upon the apostles is not resting upon anyone at the present time.

“When he [Jesus] saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.” All who have the spirit of Christ will likewise be moved with compassion and love toward the sin-cursed and dying world of mankind, and, like Jesus, this love will move them to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom, that as many as possible may be comforted by it. Jesus knew that in the kingdom age all would be healed and made to rejoice, but this did not deter him from doing all he could to bless the people prior to that time of kingdom joys.

As our Golden Text declares “the harvest” was “plenteous,” and he asked his apostles to pray for more laborers. Then Jesus acted in harmony with his prayer, and commissioned the Twelve to go to work in the “harvest field.” There is a good lesson in this for us, which is that we should always be ready to co-operate with our Heavenly Father in connection with his answering of our prayers.

Jesus came to be the Redeemer and Savior of all mankind—Jew and Gentile. The blessings of his kingdom will be extended to “all the families of the earth.” There can be no question about the Master’s love and compassion far all. Yet, when he sent his disciples into the ministry, he said to them, “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.”—vss. 5,6

There was a reason for this limitation. God had entered into a special covenant with Israel, a covenant which offered them the exclusive opportunity to be the kingdom nation under Christ. (Exod. 19:5,6) But this special privilege was conditional upon obedience to divine law. Time and again the nation had turned from their God to worship idols, and time and again they had been punished, the last major punishment being their seventy years’ captivity in Babylon.

While in Babylon the Prophet Daniel was given a vision in which it was revealed that a special period of grace, continuing the special covenant arrangement with the nation, would be extended for seventy symbolic “weeks” from the issuing of a decree authorizing the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem which had been destroyed when the nation was taken into captivity. At the end of the sixty-ninth week Messiah was to came, and the “covenant” would be “confirmed” with “many” for one more week—a period of seven symbolic “days,” or years.—Dan. 9:24-27

The “commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem” was given by King Artaxerxes. (Neh. 2:6-8) Sixty-nine symbolic weeks are 483 years, which reached to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, his ministry consuming the first half of the seventieth week, or three and one-half years. Jesus knew, therefore, that the special opportunity of becoming associated with him in the work of the kingdom was to be limited to Israel until the end of this last “week.” This is why he instructed his disciples not to go to the Gentiles.

This final seven years of special favor ended three and one-haft years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It was then that the Gospel went to the Gentiles, Cornelius being the first convert. But in preparation for this, Jesus, after his resurrection, commissioned his disciples to preach the Gospel in all the world.—Acts 1:8

Those who “witness for Jesus and for the Word of God” must expect the frown of the world, even as the Master himself experienced it, for “the disciple is not above his master.” (Rev. 20:4) We are not to seek persecution, but if we receive it because of our faithfulness to the Lord, we should rejoice.

QUESTIONS

What is the Gospel of the kingdom, and what should move us to proclaim it?

Are we now commissioned to heal the sick?

Why did Jesus limit the ministry of his disciples to the Israelites?

When was this changed?

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