Matthew 10:1-4

of the scriptures, I encourage you to open them

to Matthew chapter 10. We're just going to look

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

at four verses. I told my wife last night, I

said, this is probably in the top three most

difficult studies. Not that this text is hard

to understand. But sometimes, I don't know if

other preachers go through this. I assume they

do. There are some times you're preparing a sermon

and you're praying and you feel like things just

come and it's effortless. It's almost like there

is something moving you. And there are other

times where I'm fighting for every word that

I write. I mean, it's like every single word.

I'm like, is that misplaced? This was one of

those. I'm like, Lord. I mean, even last night,

I'm like, ah, I was moving things around. So

we'll see. I'm just asking God for his mercy

this morning. But the text is Matthew 10, verses

Matthew 10:1–4

1 through 4. I didn't want to go further because

when we cover too much, I feel like I jam -packed

it in there and I don't do justice to it. But

I don't know that we actually had enough. So

let's see this morning. But it says, and when

he, that is Jesus, had called his 12 disciples

to him, He gave them power. If you have a newer

version, it says authority. That's the Greek

word, exousia. He gave them authority over unclean

spirits to cast them out, to heal all kinds of

sickness and all kinds of disease. Now, the names

of the 12 apostles are these. First, and he's

not just saying first, by the way, in the list.

That's obvious because he's saying foremost.

Peter became the leader of the apostolic man.

First, there's Simon, who's called Peter, and

Andrew, his brother. Then you have James, the

son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. Then you

have Philip and Bartholomew. Thomas and Matthew,

the tax collector, the one who wrote this gospel.

James, the son of Alphaeus and Labaius, whose

surname was Thaddeus. Simon, the Canaanite, and

you might have Simon the Zealot. And Judas Iscariot,

who also betrayed him. Let's ask the Lord to

help us this morning. Heavenly Father, Lord,

we humble ourselves before you, Lord God, and

it's right to do so. Lord, this is your word.

Lord God, you have given it to your church so

that we can be instructed and edified from it.

Lord, would you help me this morning, Lord? Father,

I desperately desire, Lord, to bring glory to

Christ. Lord, I pray that, Lord, your people

would be in awe of who he is, Lord. God, that

we would grow in our appreciation of Christ.

our risen Lord, our living head, all things,

Lord, to him and for him and by him. Lord, I

ask that now for your spirit. Would you graciously

give that? Lord, I believe that you will. And

I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord Jesus

promised to his people, he said, I will build

my church. And he said, hell itself will not

be able to stop me. The gates of hell. will not

be able to prevail. So how is the church going

to stand? Well, we all know that the structural

integrity of a building is only as good as its

foundation. Foundations and buildings are always

going to be critical because they are going to

determine not only the stability, but the longevity

of a building. For example, and we all know this,

you can have a very good building, but yet if

it is built on a weak foundation, it's not going

to last long. If it's going to have any structural

integrity that's going to have life to it, it

must have a solid foundation. And Jesus said

this as much when he was ending his great sermon

on the mount back in Matthew 7. He said this,

everyone who hears these sayings of mine and

does not do them, he's going to be like that

foolish man who built his house on the sand.

Well, what happened? A storm came. The rain descended.

The floods came. The winds blew. And it says

it beat on that house. And it fell, and Jesus

said, and great was its fall. Any structure that

is built upon shifting sand cannot survive the

storm. Now the Bible uses many different metaphors

to refer to the church. There are many of them.

You have the church as the body of Christ, the

bride of Christ, the family of God, the temple

of God, the flock of God. Peter calls it a holy

nation. But it's also referenced as a building.

In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 9, the Apostle Paul

1 Corinthians 3:9

says, The church is God's building. You see it

there. For we are God's fellow workers. You are

God's field. You are God's building. Now Paul,

also who wrote the book of Ephesians, he used

that same imagery in chapter 2. Now therefore,

you are no longer strangers and foreigners. Speaking

to Gentiles. but fellow citizens with the saints

and members of the household of God, having been

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone,

in whom the whole building, being joined together,

grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom

you are also being built together for a dwelling

place of God in the Spirit. So the church is

not just any type of building. We read here it

is a temple. It is a holy temple. It is a spiritual

temple, meaning it's not made of brick and mortar.

When we're talking about the church, we call

this the church, but that's not how the Bible

references it. Instead, what makes up this spiritual

temple are the people of God. When you read Peter

and when you read Paul, both of them alike, talk

about how the believer, whether he be Jewish

or Gentile, are living stones joined together,

coming together, fashioned together into one

holy temple in Christ. 1 Peter 2 .5 says, you

also as living stones. Now that doesn't make

sense unless the metaphor is of this temple hill,

temple. You are being built up a spiritual house.

I said we have a house, we have a building, we

have a temple, we have a structure. And this

structure is built upon a foundation. What is

the foundation? The Lord Jesus Christ himself.

1 Corinthians 3 .11. Paul in verse 9 says you're

God's building. Verse 11. For no other foundation

can anyone lay than that which is laid, which

is Jesus Christ. That's good news. Thankfully,

the church of Christ is not built upon the shifting

sands of time. It's not built upon the shifting

sands of culture. But rather, it is built upon

the solid foundation of Christ Jesus himself.

This is why the promise is made. Because the

church is built upon Christ, the gates of hell

cannot withstand it. Christ had come and he's

taking back all enemy territory. But we see a

little dilemma here. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul

said Christ is the foundation of the church.

Same author, the Apostle Paul, he says in Ephesians

2, the church is built upon the foundation of

the apostles and prophets. So what does he mean?

What is Paul referring to when he says the church

is built upon the foundation of the apostles

and prophets? He is referring to their teaching

and not to the people themselves. Now when he

talks about the prophets, some say he's talking

about New Testament prophets. I don't think so.

He's talking about the prophets of Old Testament

who preached and spoke of Christ beforehand.

Men like Isaiah, who wrote Isaiah 53, that great

Christological passage. So the Old Testament

prophets, they proclaimed Christ beforehand.

And then you have the apostles, the original

eyewitnesses, known as the Twelve, and later

on the Apostle Paul. These men had been specifically

chosen and commissioned by the Lord himself.

So you have the prophets and the apostles. Together

they received God's word, which they then delivered

to the people. And today we have their witness

in the holy, sacred scriptures that most of us

have in our laps this morning. So we'd say the

Old Testament prophets, they anticipated Christ.

The New Testament apostles proclaimed Christ.

And together, both of them laid the foundation

upon Christ, who is the chief cornerstone. Now

that's important. In ancient construction, the

cornerstone was the very first stone that was

laid, and it set and aligned the whole building.

So when you think about a cornerstone, it was

the most crucial stone to be laid because when

it was determining the building foundation, it

also not only would determine the alignment of

the building or the structure, whatever's being

built, but also the stability. And that's what

Paul is saying. The foundation, the cornerstone

is Christ. But we have the witness of the apostles

and the prophets. They laid this foundation,

the foundation of the church, that it is Christ

himself. It is Jesus Christ himself who is that

foundation. Then you have men like John Chrysostom.

He was a 4th century theologian. So think back

to the 300s. He said, it is not they, prophets

and apostles, who support the building, as though

they were the foundation apart from Christ. No.

It is that they laid Christ as the foundation,

for they themselves were built upon him. Now

why is this important? Because in today's passage,

what we have, Matthew 10, verses 1 through 4,

Matthew 10:1–4

we see our Lord starting or beginning to build

his church. And he did it by calling 12 men who

he would call apostles. Now remember, chapter

and verse divisions never existed in the original

manuscripts. Matthew would have been written

on a scroll. So last week, we saw where the Lord

had asked his disciples to pray. He's praying

that the Father, the Lord of the harvest, would

send out laborers into his harvest. Chapter 9,

verse 37 and 38. The harvest is plentiful. The

laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of

the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

That's where chapter 9 ends. Now, presumably,

the disciples prayed. Jesus asked them to. We're

assuming they did. And we're talking about disciples.

We're not talking about 12 men here. There's

a great crowd of people who are following Jesus.

But we also know that Jesus prayed as well. How

do we know that? Because Luke tells us that Jesus

actually prayed all night. You don't have to

turn there, but in Luke chapter 6. Now it came

Luke 6 · chapter mention

to pass in those days that he, Jesus, went out

to the mountain to pray. Notice he continued

all night in prayer to God. And when it was day,

he called his disciples to himself. And from

them, this group of disciples, He chose 12 men

whom he also named apostles. So what do we have

here? Jesus asked his disciples to pray. But

he too is going to pray. He prays all night.

God gives him the answer. And he gives him the

answer by giving him these 12 men whom he would

then send out as apostles. Verse 1 of our text.

And when he had called his 12 disciples to them,

he gave them power. over unclean spirits to cast

them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and

all kinds of disease. I want you to notice something

in Matthew 10. In verse 1, they're called disciples,

but verse 2, he calls them apostles. This is

the only time you're going to find that word

in Matthew. It's the only time the 12 apostles

are referred to as apostles. So the question

I want to ask you this morning is, what is the

difference between a disciple and an apostle?

I mean, do they mean the same thing? No, they

do not. When I talk about disciple, the word,

if you're just looking at etymology, it simply

means student, learner. But in the New Testament,

a disciple was one who followed the Lord. They

saw Christ as the rabbi, the teacher. They were

students of Christ, and they sought to live out

his teaching. Jesus had many disciples who followed

him. But that's not the same as an apostle. The

apostle, Greek word apostolos, Literally means

one who is sent. A sent one. But in the New Testament,

the way the apostle is used, it's an official

representative. If you can think of like an ambassador,

he is sent out by Christ and, here's the key,

empowered with his authority. Now there are 12.

Now later on, the apostle Paul, after he was

converted, he also referred to himself as an

apostle because he too had been officially commissioned

and sent out by the risen Christ. In fact, in

Romans 11, Paul refers to himself as the apostle

to the Gentiles. So you have a distinction here.

A disciple is any student, any follower of Jesus,

while an apostle is a messenger specifically

chosen and sent by Jesus. With divine authority.

Now let me just say this today. Regardless of

what you see on Christian TV, particularly in

charismatic circles, there are no apostles today.

Now, people will use that title. But there are

no apostles today. An apostle, if you were going

to serve as an apostle, you had to have personally

seen the risen Christ. You had to be personally

chosen and sent by him. Let me show you this.

First of all, they had to be chosen by Christ.

Matthew 10, 1, Jesus called them. But they also

had to have seen the risen Lord. Do you remember

in the book of Acts, after Judas had fallen,

and Judas is no longer an apostle, he had killed

himself, they're looking for someone to replace

him because they're like, someone has to replace

him because we need 12. And we'll get to that

in just a moment, by the way. But notice the

qualifications in Acts 1. Therefore, of these

men who have accompanied us all the time that

the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, so they

had to be hanging around Jesus, beginning from

John's baptism to the day when he was taken up

from us all the way to the ascension, one of

these men who fits the bill must become a witness

with us of his resurrection. They had to have

seen Christ alive. Do you remember when Paul

had to defend his apostleship to the church at

Corinth? He says in chapter 9, am I not an apostle?

Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our

Lord? He's defending his apostolic credentials

there. So you had to have been chosen by the

Lord. You had to have seen him personally alive

with your own eyes. And you had to be given authority.

Authority to teach, to preach, and to work signs

among the people. We see that in 2 Corinthians

12. Truly, the signs of an apostle were accompanied

among you with all perseverance, notice, in signs

and wonders and mighty deeds. These apostles

could prove their credibility. You say you're

sent by Christ and you're endued with his authority?

Well, prove it. And they could. And lastly, whatever

they said was authoritative. In Acts 2, this

is how you determine orthodoxy. This is how we

determine orthodoxy today. They continued steadfastly

in the apostles' doctrine. What the apostles

taught is the same thing we better teach. We

can't get off base from that. That's how you

determine what's right. So we have an apostolic

testimony in scripture, but no man today carries

with him any apostolic authority. Now, that's

important. Because there are people, there are

clergy members, there are pastors and missionaries

and elders and bishops and others who claim an

authority that is not theirs. Any authority that

any teacher, elder, pastor, whomever he may be,

has is only the authority as he rightly divides

and teaches the word of God. of God, which is

the apostolic testimony, is the authority, not

man. I have no authority over you whatsoever,

except as what we preach here correctly. That's

it. Now I want you to notice something. Jesus

called 12 apostles. Why? I mean, there were many

more disciples who were following than just these

12 men. So why did he only choose 12 to be his

apostles? Well, he's Jewish, right? You're a

Jewish man. Twelve is reminiscent of the twelve

tribes of Israel. So what we find here, and I'm

going to hope to prove this to you, Jesus is

symbolically reconstituting God's people. What

he was doing, he was demonstrating that his ministry

is the continuation and the fulfillment of God's

covenant with Israel. In other words, Jesus was

forming the new Israel. Now you may be thinking,

Pastor, I understand 12, but are you not over

-extrapolating a little bit from that one verse?

Yes, you'd be right. But we're going to look

at other scriptures, and this is what I think

gives the proof here. I want to first take you

to the Apostle Peter. The Apostle Peter, when

he refers to the church, pay close attention

to the language he uses. 1 Peter 2 .9 But you,

he's talking to the church, not talking to Jews.

He's talking to the church. He says, you are

a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood,

a holy nation, a peculiar people. Now that language

is very familiar. Where did Peter get that language

from? He got it from the book of Exodus. He lifted

it from the book of Exodus. Notice Exodus 19

written to Israel. Therefore, God says, if you

obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then

you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above

all people, for the earth is mine. And you shall

be unto me a kingdom of priests. Peter says royal

priesthood. A holy nation. Peter says holy nation.

These are the words which you shall speak unto

the children of Israel. Okay, look at the words.

We have peculiar treasure. We have a kingdom

of priests. We have a holy nation. All of that

originally referred to Israel in the book of

Exodus. But the apostle Peter deliberately lifted

that language and uses that same language, but

he's now using it to refer to the church of the

Lord Jesus. It's not by accident. The church

is the fulfillment and the continuation of the

covenant that God made with Israel. We see that

even in the way... That the Lord has described

in Luke chapter 1. At his birth. And behold,

Luke 1 · chapter mention

you will conceive in your womb and bring forth

a son and shall call his name Jesus. Yahweh saves.

He will be great and he will be called son of

the highest. But notice the language here, folks.

And the Lord will give him, that is Jesus, the

throne of his father David. He's the true seed

of David. We've talked about that many times.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob. Israel

forever. And of his kingdom, there's not going

to be any end. That's the second Samuel promise

when God made that promise to David. Hey David,

one of your descendants is going to come and

he's going to be the true king. His kingdom will

never end and he will reign forever over my people.

Jesus is that seed. And God the Father gave to

Jesus the throne of David from which he would

rule over the house of Israel forever. In Matthew

Matthew 19:28

19, verse 28, you don't have time to look there.

He talks to his 12 disciples, excuse me, apostles,

and he says, you will sit on 12 thrones, Matthew

19, 28, cross -reference me, judging the 12 tribes

of Israel. One final point, and I could go on.

There's a lot here. In Galatians chapter 6 verse

Galatians 6:16

16, as Paul is bringing that book to a close,

he refers to the church, Galatians 6 verse 16,

Galatians 6:16

and he says, peace be upon the Israel of God.

He's talking about the church. Look at it in

context. Why am I making a big deal about all

this? In Christ, the Old Testament prophecies

find their fulfillment as the kingdom of God

had come, as the king had been born. This is

important. Our Lord, when he chose 12 men, symbolizes

those promises that were given to Israel are

fulfilled in Christ. He's the true Israel. And

the blessings of Israel, the seed of Abraham

had come, and the blessings will be given to

his people. Who are his people? The church. For

these reasons, Jesus chose 12. Just as there

were 12 tribes, so he also called 12 apostles.

There were 12 sons of Jacob who became the 12

tribes of Israel. Jesus has his 12 apostles.

He's forming the renewed Israel, the new people

of God. But this Israel will not be based on

ethnicity. It will not be based on ancestry.

But it will be based upon God's calling. And

we see that even the way he called the apostles.

Now, it says he gave them authority over unclean

spirits. Notice, he gave them, if you're looking

at King James or New King James, he gave them

power. But the word is exousia in Greek, not

dunamis. Exousia means authority. So the Lord

gave these 12 men and these 12 men only, not

all the disciples, authority over demons and

over disease. Why? How did Jesus do that? Notice,

it says he gave them authority. Jesus gave them

authority because he alone possessed all authority

in himself. The ability that he had to give them

his authority shows his divine nature. Jesus

gives authority to whomever he wills. See, the

truth is, the only one in the entire cosmos,

the only one who has inherent, absolute authority

is God himself. That's it. Every other authority

figure from Trump and Putin and Zelensky and

Macron and whomever else you want to put in there,

they only have a delegated authority. Meaning

they have authority only as God has willed them

to have it. But God has inherent authority. It's

all his. And it's Jesus's. And he's giving these

12 men authority. What are they going to be able

to do? Cast out demons. Heal the sick. But why

those two things? They're showing this ministry

of restoration. The ability to cast out demons

and heal diseases demonstrates something. The

kingdom of God was breaking into the fallen world.

The king had come. His ambassadors are going

out with his authority and they're demonstrating,

yes, the kingdom is here and it's breaking in.

Because what did Jesus come to do? He's reclaiming

all the lost territory that had been usurped.

by Satan in the garden when Adam fell. So no

longer will this world be tied or lie in bondage

to Satan. Jesus said the strong arm comes and

binds him. Jesus, the strong man, has come. He

has bound Satan. He has bound the demonic hordes,

and his message of salvation is going out, and

the nations are no longer being deceived. His

church is growing. These 12 men, they get sent.

With authority. And their authority is to set

free the suffering ones and to preach salvation

to the masses. Praise God for that. Well, who

are these men? Look at verses 2 through 4. I'm

not going to read the list of names again. Now

these list of names, you're going to find 12

names. They're going to mention three other times

in the scriptures. There's going to be some slight

change of order. Some name change of sight. Name

changes like Simon the Canaanite versus Simon

the Zealot. But every single time, the Apostle

Peter will be mentioned first. He is the leader

of the apostolic band. He's the leader of the

early church. And Judas Iscariot will always

infamously be placed last as the one who betrayed

Christ. Now there's 12 of them, but we've already

met 5 of them in the Gospel of Matthew. Remember,

if you think back to chapter 4, we see Jesus

call Peter and Andrew, James and John, to himself.

In chapter 9, Matthew wrote of his own calling

to be a disciple of Jesus. In this list of 12,

we have two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew,

James and John, and those four men were all fishermen.

Now we know Matthew's occupation as well. He

was a tax collector. But we have no idea what

the other seven did. There is some speculation,

but we can't prove it, and the scripture doesn't

say it. But we do know these five. Four of them

are fishermen, one's a tax collector. And by

the way, the tax collector would have been hated

by any Jew. But as you examine the list, now

notice something. There's nothing particularly

outstanding or noteworthy about these men. There's

nothing that really stands out. There's nothing

that's striking here. The thing that is striking,

if you will, is that Jesus chooses 12 ordinary

men whom he would use to turn the world upside

down. I love this. Jesus did not call the power

brokers of Israel to be apostles. He did not

choose any men from the Sanhedrin, the ruling

body of Israel at that time. None of these men

were scholars. None of these men were priests.

They were common men. So common in Acts chapter

Acts 4 · chapter mention

4, notice how they referred to Peter and John.

It says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter

and John and perceived that they were uneducated

and untrained men, they marveled. How do you

have these uneducated, untrained men? They're

not scholars in any way. Oh, they realized that

they had been with Jesus. They had been trained

in the best rabbinical school at the feet of

Jesus. So Jesus chooses 12 ordinary men who will

do extraordinary things. And why ordinary men?

So that God alone gets the glory. This is the

way God always works. It is so very clear that

their power, the power of the apostles came from

God, not from any human ability, for they had

none. They weren't influencers, if you will.

And the lesson for us is that the kingdom of

God is not built on human prestige or human power.

We need to be careful in the church. I sometimes

see churches and they will have some really famous

person who had recently come to Christ and they'll

get an invitation to speak at a large event.

And they want to do that because they want to

platform them so that we get more people drawn.

I understand that. But the kingdom of God is

not built by human prestige. That's not how God

structured it. He uses basings and he uses the

foolishness of preaching. Zechariah said it correctly.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit,

says the Lord of hosts. It's not by human effort.

None of this is. The kingdom of God is built

by the spirit of God who uses ordinary men and

ordinary women to confound the world. Think about

God's kingdom. Everything about it is antithetical

to the world. God's king was born in a stable

to a poor peasant couple from a humble town.

When we talk about a humble town, we mean a nowhere

town. Poor Nazareth. They grew up, this king

grew up in obscurity. He wasn't famous. He did

not go to the most well -prestigious schools.

And he saved his people by dying for them. He

rises again. He sends out 12 exceedingly flawed

men to preach about his saving reign. And through

these men's preaching and teaching, the good

news of salvation would be spread around the

world. Now let's just think about this. The choosing

of these 12 men to start a worldwide movement

sounds like a fool's errand. I mean, how does

it ever even get off the ground? You're thinking,

if we're choosing 12 men, they've got to teach,

and they've got to reach the entire world. These

men aren't going to do it. It's not even going

to get off the ground. Yet today, here we are.

Some 2 ,000 years later and thousands of miles

removed from where they were, here we are. The

church continues to grow and spread across the

globe. Why? Because it's not by might. It's not

by power. It's God's spirit is building God's

church. And we see the Lord Jesus spent the entire

night in prayer and God said, hey, here's the

answer. Call these 12 common flawed men, one

of whom was a thief and a traitor. That's Matthew.

The other. denied the Lord, that's Peter, and

the other betrayed Christ, that's Judas, call

these twelve men to be your ambassadors. And

these men would spend their lives, apart from

Judas, preaching the good news of Christ's saving

reign to the world. And all of them but one would

die a martyr's death. The one who would not would

be John. But what do we see here? Once more,

our God uses foolish things to destroy the wisdom

of this age. So don't try to be wise in this

age. God uses foolish things. 1 Corinthians 1,

he says, But God hath chosen the foolish things

of the world, like these twelve men, to put to

shame the wise. And God hath chosen the weak

things of the world, like these men, to put to

shame the things which are mighty. Why? So that

not one person will ever glory in the presence

of God. Our salvation is owed entirely to him.

You and I don't contribute anything. God hates

human arrogance. He hates pride. So what does

he do? He chooses these 12 men to ensure that

he will get the glory for it. I love the fact

that today, here we are, the church has gone

and it is around the globe. You look at the success

of the church, look through the pages of church

history, and you cannot possibly conclude that

the church has been successful because of human

effort. It's not that Peter and John were so

winsome. All the credit of the triumph of the

church belongs to God alone. So what do we learn

as we close? Friends, the church's foundation

is unchanging. you are anchored to that which

is ancient. It cannot be relayed. There's no

other foundation, Paul said. The apostles and

prophets, they were unique, once for all witnesses,

and they were handpicked by Christ. And the church

today is built, here's how we build the church

today, by proclaiming Christ and living out that

same gospel. That same faith, that same message

has not changed. It's the same message that the

apostles preached. And the same message that

they handed down for us today. So this means

you and I can have confidence. We have confidence

because our faith is not based on the shifting

sands of human idea or philosophy. Praise God

for that. Our faith is solid. It rests on the

unchanging bedrock testimony of Jesus Christ

and him crucified, buried, and risen again. And

it has been passed down through human messengers.

From the earliest of time. But I would be remiss

if I stopped there. We, as we close this passage,

we must remember it's not about the greatness

of these men. It's not about the greatness of

the apostles. It's not about the greatness of

Peter. It's about the greatness of Christ. It

is the Lord who called them. It is the Lord who

equipped them. It is the Lord who sent these

men out. He, Jesus, possesses all authority.

In heaven and earth. That's why his church is

successful. He laid the foundation of the church

through weak men. Why? How does he show his strength?

Through the weakness of men. Our confidence,

church, can never, ever rest in who we are, but

in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who calls,

the one who equips, and the one who sends. I

want to close. I don't know. There's a song in

our hymnal, and we're not going to sing it because

I don't think we know it. I sing this at conferences.

A lot of conferences I go to, they'll sing this

song. It's called The Church is One Foundation.

How many of you all know that song? About seven

of us. Good. That's why we're not singing it.

It's hymn number 354. You don't have to turn

there, but if you want to. Let me just read the

lyrics. I love this because the songwriter just

really captured it well. The church is one foundation

is Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation

by spirit and the word. From heaven he came and

sought her to be his holy bride. With his own

blood he bought her, and for her life he died.

Verse 2. Elect from every nation, yet one over

all the earth, her charter of salvation, one

Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she

blesses, partakes one holy food, and two one

hope she presses. with every grace endued. Let

me go to the last verse here, last stanza. Yet

she on earth hath union with God the three in

one, praise the Lord, and mystic sweet communion

with those whose rest is one. O happy ones and

holy, Lord, give us grace that we, like them,

the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with thee.

The church is one foundation, folks, is Jesus

Christ her Lord. This is our boast. And this

is what Matthew is showing us. His church will

never fail because his spirit is there giving

the grace that it might continue to be proclaimed

throughout all the world. Praise God. Praise

God that it has reached us here in Southern Ohio

on this beautiful Lord's Day morning. Let's pray.

Father, Lord, we get to commune with you in sweet,

mystic communion in ways that we don't know.

with our risen Christ, with the living head.

We are his body and he is our head. Lord, thank

you for this. Thank you for this word. Thank

you for the table, Lord, that we now come to.

Lord, we anxiously, Lord God, desire to share

this meal with Jesus. Not just remembering, although

we do, we remember his suffering. We remember

that by his stripes we have been healed, but

also by participating in the body and blood of

Christ. Thank you, Father. for this sweet mystic

communion. We give you praise and glory for it

in Jesus' name. Amen.