Matthew 10:5-15

Matthew chapter 10 will begin reading at verse

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

5 and will take us our text today and end at

verse 15. Matthew writing, he said, These twelve,

the apostles, Jesus sent out and He commanded

them saying, Do not go into the way of the Gentiles,

and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but

go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of

heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the

lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely

you have received, freely give. Provide neither

gold nor silver, nor copper in your money belts,

nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor

sandals, nor staffs, for a worker is worthy of

his food. Now whatever city or town you enter,

inquire who in it is worthy and stay there until

you go out. And when you go into a household,

greet it. And if the household is worthy, let

your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy,

let your peace return to you. And whoever will

not receive you nor hear your words when you

depart from that house or city, shake off the

dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you,

it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom

and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for

that city. Let's pray. Father these are very

sobering words when we consider what Jesus had

just said about the final judgment Those to whom

much is given Lord you require much at their

hand We who have been given the gospel and given

great revelation Father our duty is to receive

it and act upon it Lord would you help me this

morning to preach Lord exactly what this text

says And Father, I pray that as it's being preached,

Lord, your spirit will work in the lives of the

saints and the lives of sinners. Awaken the sinners

to their own peril, Lord. Awaken them to their

own just condemnation. And Father, Lord, I pray

that they would flee to Christ. But to the saints

who have been brought into this covenant family,

Lord, would you help us to see a little bit better,

a little bit more deeply? little bit more richly

what Christ has done for us. Lord, we need your

help. We confess that we can do nothing apart

from you said Lord this morning would you use

the preaching of your word to mature us in our

faith we pray in Jesus name amen. I believe that

probably many maybe most but certainly not all

of you might be familiar with the popular Lord

liar or lunatic argument that was put forth by

CS Lewis. It's often called Lewis's trilemma

So here's what CS Lewis said when it comes to

the claim of Christ of being the divine son the

Messiah He said you really only have three options.

That's it. He said here are the three first of

all Jesus would be a liar Okay, that means he

intentionally deceived people He wanted them

to believe something about himself that he knew

was not true. He was trying to he was a con artist

trying to pass himself off as the Messiah, yet

wasn't. That's one option. Secondly, you can

believe he was a lunatic. That means Jesus truly

believed he was divine. He believed he was the

divine son, the Messiah, but yet he wasn't. So

he was just a deluded man. Or thirdly, you can

believe that Jesus is Lord. You believe he was

telling the truth that he really is the divine

one. Now there are some today, if you read this,

there are some who try to thread that needle

just a little bit. So there are so many people

today, they will reject the claim of deity. They

will say Jesus is not God, but they do espouse

that he was a good moral teacher. He was a great

philosopher, or perhaps they might even say he

was an enlightened rabbi, but he was not God.

But think about Lewis, what he's saying here.

If Jesus claimed to be God, and yet knew that

he wasn't, well you could not call him a good

moral teacher. He would be a liar. Or if you

say, well he truly believed he was God, but he

wasn't, well we wouldn't call someone like that

a wise, noble teacher. That's a crazy man. He's

a lunatic. And Lewis said the best evidence after

studying the life and teachings of Jesus, and

after you weigh all the evidence, you must conclude,

he says the best argument is that Jesus was telling

the truth and he indeed is Lord. Now there's

really only one choice. There's really just one

decision that you must make when it comes to

Christ. And this is the decision. You either

reject him or you bow down before him. remaining

neutral is never an option given to us in the

scriptures and we're going to see that in our

text today. That neutrality is not an option.

So when the gospel is proclaimed, when the claims

of Christ are preached, someone has to make a

decision about these claims. Is Jesus who he

said he is? Is he Lord or is he not? Now last

week we looked at our Lord. He was beginning

to build his church and he called out 12 men.

whom he commissioned, whom he sent. They became

the apostles. And we looked at that in depth

last week. Now remember, apostle simply means

sent one. It's a Greek word, apostolos, one who

is sent. But today we're gonna see their commission.

We will see where they were sent, to whom they

were sent, and what was the message they were

to preach while being sent. So let's pick up

our text in verse five. These 12, the 12 he picked,

we saw last week. Jesus sent out and he commanded

them saying, don't, do not go into the way of

the Gentiles and do not enter the city of the

Samaritans. Here's what you're to do. Go rather

only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

So what you find here, Jesus is sending these

men out on an itinerant preaching mission, but

it's going to be restricted. It's restricted

to the bounds of Israel, particularly though,

in this case, to Galilee. Remember, Jesus primarily

in his earthly ministry was located in Galilee.

That's north Israel. And if you've been to Israel

or you know anything about Galilee, on the north

is Gentiles, on the east is Gentiles, on the

west is Gentiles, and to the south is Samaritan

territory. So it's surrounded by foreigners all

about. And the Lord told these 12 men, because

they're there in Capernaum, Galilee. He said,

you do not go anywhere outside of Israel. stay

in Israel. And this is very fitting because we

have to consider Israel's priority in salvation

history. The apostles went only to Israel because

God's saving plan was to bring the message of

the kingdom to His chosen people first, to this

chosen nation. That would fulfill promises and

it would also fulfill prophecy. Jesus sent them,

notice the text here, to the lost sheep. of the

house of Israel. Why? Their mission was actually

an extension of his mission. That meant their

audience was the same as his audience. In chapter

15, Jesus said about his own mission, I was not

sent except to the lost sheep of the house of

Israel. Whom are the twelve sent to? To whom?

The lost sheep of the house of Israel. So Christ

sends these 12 men out to preach, but we've already

seen there's glimpses. We start to get a little

bit of an inkling that the Gentiles will be included.

We can go back to the beginning. In chapter 2,

we see it was the Magi, what we call the wise

men. These were probably Persian people. These

were Gentiles. So you have these Gentile Magi.

They came in when Jesus was born, bringing gifts

and bowing down before him. Somehow they got

it. probably from Daniel. Earlier in Matthew,

though, we also saw Jesus, he performed healings,

and one of the healings is he healed a Roman

soldier's servant. Later on, we see him heal

a Gentile who had been demon -possessed. We also

know that Jesus spoke explicitly about Gentiles

being brought in in chapter 8. Notice the text

in chapter 8. I say to you that many will come

from east and west, that's Gentiles, sit down

with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom

of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom, that's

the Jews, they will be cast out into outer darkness,

there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

But what we see right now, Israel is going to

be the focus until Jesus finishes his own ministry,

which will culminate in his death and resurrection.

And after that is accomplished, after Jesus dies,

after he is resurrected, you're going to find

the gospel will begin to expand beyond the borders

of Israel. In fact, by the time we get to the

end of Matthew's gospel in chapter 28 at verse

19, Jesus commands these same men. He then says,

go into all the nations preaching the gospel.

But first, salvation had to be offered to Israel.

Salvation first goes to the Jews. and then later

to the Gentiles. But isn't that what Paul said

about his own ministry in Romans 1 -16? For I

am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power

of God to everyone who believes, to the Jew first,

and also to the Greek. Now, so that's to whom

they were sent, just to Israel right now. But

what were they commissioned to preach? What was

their message? Look at verse 7. As you go, preach

saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Ah,

we've been studying Matthew. We know that sounds

eerily familiar. That's the same message that

John the Baptist preached in chapter three, repent

for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's

the same message that Jesus himself preached

in chapter four, repent for the kingdom of heaven

is at hand. Do you start to see what's going

on here? The apostles have the same audience

and the same message because their mission is

an extension of his mission. They are his ambassadors

sent out with his authority. So their message

will be the same as his. Now there are some who

say, well you have to understand at this time

an earthly messianic kingdom was offered to Israel

first and only after they rejected it did that

gospel, the kingdom, they say changed to the

gospel of salvation and then it was preached

and offered to the nations. I have a great problem

with that. Matthew knows nothing of two different

gospels because there are not two different gospels.

There's only one gospel of God's saving reign,

one gospel of the kingdom, and it is located,

it is found in Jesus Christ. Now here's how I

can show this. In chapter 24 of this same book,

the Lord tells us in chapter 24 verse 14, this

same gospel of the kingdom will be preached,

the same gospel. that the apostles preached,

that John the Baptist preached, that Jesus preached,

it's going to be the same gospel 24 -14. It'll

be preached in all the world as a witness to

the nations and then the end will come. So the

same message, the same gospel that we're preaching

today, this gospel of the kingdom, you may have

heard it as the gospel of Christ. There is no

difference. It is being preached on in the nations

even today. Now, There is a slight nuance here,

a slight difference. The apostles went out and

they were preaching, the kingdom of heaven is

at hand. It is near. Why were they preaching

that? Because at that time the king, Jesus, was

still on the earth. He had yet not died, risen

again, and ascended to his father. Today we preach

the kingdom of God has come in Christ. It is

inaugurated. Now listen carefully, I've said

this so many times that I don't know that we

get it. The kingdom is here in seed form, but

it's not yet here in its full fruition. The kingdom

on earth today is in the church. Why do I say

that? Because he's building his kingdom. That's

what he's doing. In the church, Christ is confessed

as king. What is our confession as Christians?

Christ is the Lord. And he is ruling over his

people today by word and sacrament. The kingdom

of God has come, yes. But we're still praying,

your kingdom come. Why? Because it's not yet

come in its consummation form. It's not yet come

in its fullness. That awaits when Christ comes

again. But the kingdom is here. And right now

we're still proclaiming, and this is what people

have to understand, we go out preaching Christ

is king. He is the crucified risen and returning

king. So if the gospel is the good news about

the kingly rule of Christ, then the question

we must answer is, how do you get into that kingdom?

If the kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom's good

news, you want to be in that kingdom, how do

you get in there? Repent of your sins and believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 20, the apostles

were preaching. Notice what they said, testifying

to the Jews and also to the Greeks, that's Gentiles.

What were they preaching? Repentance toward God

and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Acts

2 38, the day of Pentecost. Peter said, repent

and let every one of you be baptized in the name

of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and

you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Mark 16, verses 15 to 16. He says, go into all

Mark 16:15–16

the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He who believes and is baptized will be saved

and he who does not believe will be condemned.

And finally in Acts 16, this is the Philippian

jailer. Do you remember he said, sirs, what must

I do to be saved? And what did Paul and Silas

tell him? They said, sir, believe on the Lord

Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your

entire household. So when we're preaching this

gospel, it calls for a response, repentance of

your sin, turning from your sin and faith turning

to and placing your trust in Jesus Christ. Now

as we go back to our text in Matthew, we're going

to see that the Lord sent these men out with

miraculous authority. Look at verse 8. He told

him, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise

the dead, cast out demons. That's amazing stuff

right there. So Jesus gave these men authority

to do what? Exactly what he had been doing. They

are his, they're doing everything he did. They're

preaching like he did, they're going to the same

people he did, and they're performing the same

signs and wonders that he did. There would have

been an expectation if these men truly were Jesus'

ambassadors, and everyone in Galilee knew about

Jesus by this time. If you're going to go into

town and you're saying, I represent Jesus, then

there would have been some expectation. Well,

where's the evidence? I mean, we know about Jesus,

and if you're sent by Him, prove it. Give some

evidence. But even more importantly than that,

their message was that the kingdom of heaven

was at hand. I mean, if I come in and I'm preaching,

the kingdom of heaven is here. It's near. What

proof, what evidence is there to my claim? Well,

this is evidence. The sick are healed. Lepers

are now cleansed. Dead people are being raised

to life, and all those who are bound by demons

and have been troubled and afflicted by demons

are being set free. I mean, those are miraculous

signs, and they all point to what life in the

kingdom of God will be like. So what they're

going out saying, what they're going out preaching,

here's what they're saying. The kingdom you've

been waiting for, to the Jews, it's here, it's

here right now, if you will receive Jesus as

your king. Do you recognize him? Do you remember

what John said about Jesus? He had come to destroy

the works of the devil. Well, if Jesus had come

to destroy the works of the devil, John clearly

tells us that, then that means when the kingdom

comes in its fullness, in its consummate form,

you'll not find disease there. There will be

no death there, and certainly there'll be no

demons there. So these apostles, not only did

they confirm their message, but these were signs.

They were signs, they were hints, if you will,

showing what life in the kingdom of God will

truly be like. In the kingdom, everything that

was messed up is now restored. It's restoration.

There is life where there was once death. There's

wholeness where there was once sickness. In fact,

there is what we would call shalom, peace. And

I've told you many times, shalom doesn't simply

mean absence of conflict. Shalom means life as

God intended. It's human flourishing. It's life

before sin entered. This is what they were to

do. Then Jesus gave another thing though. He

said, hey, by the way, don't charge for your

services. Look at the latter part of verse eight.

Freely you have received, now you give freely.

Don't take money with you and don't take more

than what you need. It's basically verses eight

through 10. Now, notice here, the apostles were

forbidden from charging a fee. They couldn't

do it. Their ministry was to be characterized

by generosity, not by profiteering. The authority

had been given to them freely. It was a gift

to them, and Jesus said, you're not going to

profit off the use of that gift. I've given to

you freely, now you go out and give to people

freely. So now they come, they're preaching about

the kingdom and life in the kingdom, not about

enriching oneself, but about service. That's

what life in the kingdom is about. Who sent these

guys? Jesus. Do you remember what was written

of Jesus? Though he were rich, yet he made himself

poor for your sake, that you and I, by his poverty,

might be enriched. So Jesus comes and he made

himself poor so that we his people might be enriched

by him and he tells his apostles, you're going

to go out and do the very same thing. You will

not profit off of this ability. You go out and

teach the people and you perform these mighty

acts of healing and you don't take a dime from

anyone. Now that's important as well because

that's going to safeguard the gospel message.

Because if you start charging or people start

paying you, There's going to be accusations of

greed. Think about this. Had these guys come

and they had these big money bags with them,

which is what they would have received offerings

in, or had they taken honorariums for speaking

fees, for preaching or performing miracles, there

would have been an accusation, no doubt there

would have been an accusation, made by others,

that these men were simply getting rich off the

backs of poor, gullible Jews. So Jesus said,

don't do it. You don't charge anyone. But he

did say it is okay to receive food and lodging.

Why? A worker is worthy of his hire, or his food,

as it says in our text. And that's an important

point as well. If you go back to ancient Israeli

culture, or really ancient Mediterranean culture,

you see that hospitality was highly valued. Highly

valued. It was a godly responsibility, and it

was commonly practiced. So you would have people

traveling. They didn't have a lot of hotels.

They didn't have a lot of places of lodging.

So people just took strangers into their home.

It was very common. It was well respected. It

was well practiced. This is how these men, even

though they're strangers, they could depend upon

the gracious hospitality of others to give them

food and to put them up for the night. So not

only can you not charge a fee, guys, Jesus said

you're going to travel light. Notice the text.

He doesn't want them to be hindered by possessions.

Instead, he wants them to trust him for their

provision. So don't take two tunics. You got

the one. Don't take two pairs of sandals. Don't

take with you two staffs in your hand. So this

is a bare bones ministry, right? So our Lord

is sending out these men with almost nothing,

and they're gonna have to trust God to supply

for their needs. This would be a great test of

faith for these men. It's a great test of faith.

Now, sometimes you're looking at this and you're

like, well, why don't you guys do that today?

Why don't people do that anymore? Notice this

is not a command to us today. This passage is

descriptive. It's not prescriptive. So what I

mean by that, it describes the first apostolic

mission. This is not a recipe, it's not a prescription

for all future missionary endeavors or how missions

must work today. In fact, Jesus later, after

he dies and rises again, he changes this provision.

If you look in Luke 22, I think I put up there,

yeah. When I sent you without money bag, knapsack,

and sandals, did you lack anything? No, their

mission was a success. No, Lord we didn't lack

anything. Now he said to them, but now things

are different. If you have a money bag, take

it. And likewise a knapsack. And if you don't

have a sword, well sell your clothes and go buy

a sword. The conditions after the crucifixion.

We're different from those in the early ministry.

See, in Matthew 10, we're in his early ministry.

And so now with the changing conditions, you

have a change in ministry. Now they are to take

money. Now they are to provide. Back here, they

aren't. But I want us to focus on these last

few minutes, verses 11 through 15. This is what

I think is the crux of the passage here. Whatever

city or town you enter, find out who's the worthy

one and go in. And once you go into house, you

stay there. I'm paraphrasing. And by the way,

when you go into this house, I want you to greet

it. Give a blessing, all right? And if it's worthy,

let your blessing stay. But if the household

is not worthy, take your blessing back. And whoever

doesn't hear you and whoever doesn't receive

your message, he said basically, once you preach,

I want you to get up, shake the dust from off

your clothing, shake the dust from off your feet,

and it's gonna be worse for those people than

it will be for Sodom and Gomorrah in the final

judgment. Now that's a paraphrase there. Now

the Apostles, they went out by pairs. You can

see that in the beginning part of chapter 10.

They were all teared up. All right. So you have

12 men, each going out with two. So there are

six teams sent out to preach in the various towns

and villages throughout Galilee. Why would they

divide and conquer like that? Well, there are

six teams. They're going to quickly cover more

area. Galilee's not very big. And they're also

going to reach more people that way. So you have,

let's say, two men walk into a town or a village.

They were to find out who was worthy. and we're

going to stay there. Now what does it mean for

someone to be worthy? We think worthy means noble

or morally perfect. That's not what the word

is here at all. Keep in mind the context. The

worthy person was the one who was willing to

receive them and show them hospitality. That's

who was worthy in the town. And Jesus said, now,

once you enter a house, stay there. You don't

leave. Don't leave that house until you leave

that area. Now, why was that important? Why can't

they change homes? Don't upgrade. Don't look

for better or more comfortable accommodations.

That's going to compromise your message. He said,

stay where you are. You don't want to look like

you're showing favoritism. You don't want to

have to look like anything's inappropriate because

you might go into this one house and you stay

there that night, but this other brother, man,

he's really got an opulent place. Let's move

over there. Jesus said, no. Wherever you go,

you stay. until you leave that area. Verse 12.

And when you go into household, you need to greet

it. In Jewish culture, the greeting, many of

you have been to Israel, you know, the greeting

is the word shalom, peace. But again, peace is

not the right word, it's wholeness. It's God's

favor. Now this greeting is more than just saying

hi like we would to today. If I say greet someone,

you'll say, hi, what's your name? That's not

what we're talking about. This greeting was an

actual blessing from God. The apostles carried

with them the authority to bless others in the

name of God. And he says if it's worthy, verse

13, if the household is worthy, will you let

your shalom come upon it? But if it's not, Take

your shalom back. Now, what's going on here?

How were the apostles to determine if that household

was worthy or not? They were worthy if and only

if they received the message that they were preaching

about Christ and his kingdom. That's it. See,

Jewish people, just by nature being Jews, they

would have naturally practiced hospitality. They

would have welcomed Jewish men into their homes

simply because they were fellow Jews traveling,

not because they believed the Apostles' message.

But the Apostles' blessing, God's favor, was

tied to something. It was tied to how this household

received that message. If the home in which they

were staying received the gospel, then the blessing

that the apostles brought with them was to stay

up on that house. But if, let's say, that household

heard the apostles preach and they rejected the

message, then the shalom, the blessing they brought

is to be rescinded. Take it back. God's favor,

His blessing will never... rest upon a home,

a town, or a person who rejects his son. Never.

Not a nation, by the way, either. If the people

were to receive the Apostle's message, they received

Christ himself. And if they receive Christ, then

they receive the peace or the shalom of the kingdom

of Christ. God's favorite, still true today,

His blessing, His salvation is directly tied

to how you or anyone receives the good news,

the gospel of His Son. That's what determines

the blessing of God. But there are going to be

people who reject it. We see that in the last

two verses, verses 14 and 15. Whoever will not

hear you, if they don't, shake off the dust from

your feet. So we see here, obviously, Jesus knows

they're going to go preaching throughout Galilee,

but not everyone's going to listen to them. Not

everyone's going to welcome their message. Many

will hear that message and reject it. And I think

it's instructive for us today as well. Friends,

so many of us, we want to make sure that people

enter into the kingdom. But I want you to understand,

look at the apostles. They were only responsible

to preach. They were never responsible for how

others responded to their preaching. We today,

we preach Christ crucified and risen for the

salvation of sinners. But whether people receive

that gospel message, whether they reject that

gospel message, is not dependent upon me or you.

It can never be. And that's the same with the

apostles. They didn't try to twist or strong

-arm anyone. They preached Christ and the people

either rejected it or they received Him. But

if they rejected this message, to reject what

the apostles were preaching is to reject Christ.

And if you reject Christ, you rejected God. Luke

10 -16, Jesus said to the apostles, he who hears

you hears me. And he who rejects you rejects

me. And the one who rejects me rejects him who

sent me. Do you see the importance of this? To

reject the apostolic message. This gospel is

to invite judgment. When anyone rejected the

message, the apostles were to do something, shake

off the dust from their feet. Now, this would

have been a very obvious sign to any Jew of that

day, because many Jews, when they would travel,

especially in Galilee, they would travel outside

of Israel into Gentile territory, sometimes having

to do business or just walking through Samaria

even. But anytime they would come back into the

land of Israel, they would leave Gentile land

or Samaritan land, they came back into Israel.

they would shake the dust from their clothes

and shake the dust off their feet. Why? They

were showing separation from those unclean Gentiles.

They're making the distinction there. The apostles

shaking the dust off their sandals from a Jew

who rejected the message was essentially saying

to that Jew, you are no different than a pagan

Gentile. The Jew who rejected Christ was just

as outside the covenant as Gentiles were and

are, regardless of what John Hagee preaches today.

There is no two covenants, friends. This is an

astounding claim. If you reject Christ, if you

were a Jew, it placed you outside of God's covenant

as if you were a pagan. That's what they're saying

here. how one responded to the Apostles' message,

determined whether one received God's blessing

or received God's judgment. Look at the final

verse. This ought to make us fear. This verse

here. We ought to ponder it, meditate upon it.

Jesus said, assuredly, mark it down. I say to

you, it will be more tolerable, it will be more

bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah. in the final

day of judgment than for those who reject what

the apostles were preaching. And you all know

Sodom and Gomorrah, right? They're the two most

infamous cities that God overthrew because of

their extreme wickedness. They were the two most

wicked cities in biblical history. And we know

both of those cities, they incurred God's severe

judgment. And Jesus invokes the name of these

two cities to make a comparison. He said, it

will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah in judgment,

although through their extreme wickedness, than

it will be for those who rejected the gospel

of Christ and his kingdom. Now listen, when Sodom

and Gomorrah were guilty of great sin, tremendous

wickedness, but they did not have Israel's privilege.

They did not have all of that revelation. Israel

was tremendously gifted. They had, the folks

of this, they had the opportunity to witness

not only the apostles preaching, but performing

extraordinary miracles. Remember, they're doing

cleansing lepers and raising the dead and healing

the sick, casting out demons. There is no excuse

or there was no excuse for unbelief. So their

rejection of that revelation brought a greater

responsibility and it brings a greater judgment

as well. Now some people don't believe this,

but the Bible teaches us there will be degrees

of punishment. Not all judgment is uniform, if

you want to say it that way. Jesus said on various

occasions it's going to be more tolerable for

some than others. Now that doesn't mean that

he's getting like a 70 degree hell, I'm not saying

that. But he's saying it's going to be more tolerable

for others depending on the light that was either

received or rejected. It will be. Great revelation

brings great responsibility. To whom much is

given, much will be required. If you've heard

the truth, and think about these people, they

heard the truth, they saw the miracles, they

had access to that great revelation, they looked

at it, and they rejected it. They're like, no,

Jesus is not king. That's not him. God says that

will bring a severe judgment. Paul, in the book

of Romans, he said, look at how Israel was gifted.

They had the covenants. They had the scriptures.

They had the prophecies. They had all the prophets.

They also had the direct preaching of the kingdom.

They had Jesus. And they rejected it. And to

reject all that is fundamentally worse than all

of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's

what it says. The more clearly one has heard

the message of Christ, the greater the accountability

one has before God. It's a terrible thing for

you today. What that means is if you heard Christ

and you heard it clearly and you continue to

reject it and you die in your sins, there will

be an unbearable judgment. You don't get to reject

Christ and have God's blessing. To reject Christ

with the full revelation knowing that Christ

died, He rose again, He ascended, it is to bring

God's severe judgment down upon your own head.

That's what the Lord's saying. R .T. France in

his commentary speaking of the Jews, he said

their fate will be worse because the fuller light

of the dawning of kingdom is now being rejected.

To reject Jesus' messengers, that is the apostles,

is to reject God, and it is to incur his final

judgment. It's terrible if we think about that.

There is nothing worse than the prospect of hell.

To stand before God and to have him say, depart

from me, I never knew you, and to cast you into

the abyss. Modern people mock it. They mock the

idea of a final judgment. They say there's no

way that's going to happen. That's just left

over from an ancient religion in a crude time.

But if you look clearly, you can see that Jesus

took the idea of final judgment very seriously.

There's nothing ambiguous about this. Jesus says

the matter of final judgment is a settled truth.

We will all stand before the judgment seat of

Christ. Everyone's going to stand before God

one day. You're like, well, now what, then? There

is one Savior, one Lord, one King. And that is

Christ Himself. So you've got to decide. Is He

a Lord? Is He Lord? Or is He a liar? Is He a

lunatic? You're saying, well, He's Lord. Well,

is He? If He's Lord, then you receive Him by

repenting of your sin and placing your faith

in Christ. And if He is your Lord, if He's your

Lord, you must bow before Him. recognizing His

sovereign authority over all of us. See, friends,

to be a Christian is to no longer be our own

master. We have been bought with a price, and

we are to glorify God in our bodies. So many

people think, well, Jesus is standing there.

He's inviting. God is just inviting sinners to

come to Jesus. That's not what the Bible declares

at all. God's not inviting anyone. He's commanding

you. The Bible commands you to come to Christ.

Look at Acts 17. Truly, these times of ignorance

God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere

to repent. Why? Why must they repent? Because

He has appointed a day on which He will judge

the world in righteousness by the man, that's

Christ, whom He has ordained, and He has given

assurance of this. He's given you proof to all.

What's the proof that He's really going to judge

the world? By raising Him from the dead. If you

disobey this command to repent, then in great

horror, you will find yourself on the receiving

end one day of God's unbridled judgment for all

eternity. It's a dreadful thing, it's a fearful

thing, it's a terrible thing to fall into the

hands of the living God. Can you imagine anything

worse? Is there anything truly, anything more

dreadful than the prospect of hell? Have you

ever thought about it and just gripped your heart

and panic set in? I mean, it has me. There's

before like, Lord, do I truly know you? I've

thought about that. I'm like, it's just gripped

me because you think about time and we think

time will end. There is no time. It's eternity.

To reject God's King is to do the unthinkable.

So I tell you today, flee to Christ and be saved.

All those who come to him, he says, I won't reject

anyone. I receive every single sinner who comes

to me. All those who bow before him, he receives.

Today, friend, it is not a laughing matter. It

is not a small prospect. It is the most important

business transaction of the soul. What will you

do with Jesus called Christ? Let's pray. Father,

I pray that, Lord, you would use feeble words

from a very feeble man to do what only you can

through the foolishness of what I just did save

those who believe. Lord, may you open eyes, may

they believe that, that yes, there's the final

judgment, and yes, they indeed are great sinners

and they need to repent and trust Christ. Oh,

Father, by your Spirit, awaken them to that truth.

God, bring sinners into your kingdom. Save church

members, Lord, who perhaps are just nominal,

Lord, just cold and dead inside, and yet their

name is on a roll. God, awaken them to righteousness,

awaken them to judgment, and awaken them to salvation,

Lord. The true gift, the true gift is Christ.

Lord, this is what we celebrate, Lord, in this

meal. God, that Lord, we truly commune with him.

We share with him. We participate in his body

and his blood because there is no other means

of salvation than the body and blood of Christ.

What is our only hope? It is that Christ has

died for us and risen again. Lord, everything.

Lord, we put all our eggs in that one basket

named Jesus. Lord, for the saints today, Lord,

who are struggling, Lord, God, would you help

them see anew, get a glimpse, Lord, of the glory

of Christ, encourage them, mature them, grow

them up into Christ, Lord, we pray. Help us now,

Lord, as we come to the table in a very serious

way, Lord, but also in a very joyful way, knowing

that we have been brought in because Christ has

died for us. And we thank you for that truth.

In Jesus' blessed name we pray. Amen. Deacons,

if you'd come, prepare the table.