Study from Matthew 10

What do you think when you think of Iran?

Terrorism?

Muslims?

Lost souls?

Death?

What do you think of when you think of America?

Founded upon Christian basics, morals, and ethics?

Betraying God?

Lust of the flesh?

Lust of the eyes?

Pride of life?

America was founded up Christian basics, we have multi-billion churches. There is not a city without a church. Most families own their very own dust collectors called a Bible, and even our own Christmas music is bathed in Christian tones. But what has happened to America?

I recently attended John Piper's CrossCon Missionary conference, and there was this woman from Iran who spoke. She said that if you were to ask the question “what do you think of when you think of America?” in her country, everybody would say “Anti-Christian”.

America has been so blinded by all the things that they can do without God, that they have forgotten that without him they are cold, blind, miserable, and naked.

A man spoke at that conference as well, he was a missionary to Iran. “Every Tuesday at noon” he says, “I teach a gospel discipleship class to Muslim students. I do not hide in my home, or underground in some cave. Instead we meet at the local college, in the cafeteria. And we invite all who pass by.” And he went on to say that they have seen so many college aged Muslims come just to hear the Bible publicly.

Yet the other week at work one of my co-workers sneezed. I said God bless you and was met with an interesting reply. Another employee said, I quote, “You know people take offense at that.”

Just for us to hear God's name spoken unless in a cuss word people in America everybody gets all up in arms and grabs their pitchforks and torches and want to hang whoever said it! You think Iran is a closed country, yet they seem to cherish the chance to hear the gospel, even unbelieving Muslim students. So what America? What happened?

I think I know.

I start in Matt. 9:35 and end at the end of Matt. 10. But here is an excerpt.

“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the LORD of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him...”

I want to stop there and discuss it. He isn't seeing men and women and children that have sickness and disease, but he sees into their spiritual state of being. He sees that their spiritual need is greater than their physical ailments. And he turns to his disciples and says “There are not enough workers. We need more laborers.”

And from this we get two words. We have three important words in the Christian life: called, called, and sent.

The first called: I am called to the LORD (salvation)

The second called: I am called for the LORD (work)

Sent: I am sent (I must go to Africa, I must go to Asia, I must go to Romania)

But it is so sad that of those who are “sent”, how many are sent to their neighbors, to their families, to their friends, to their co-workers? The answer is everybody, yet for some reason almost everybody forgets that. I heard a statistic at CrossCon that of every missionary called to go overseas, only 12% have witnessed at their home. What is wrong with that picture?

If I were to say that I am called to Mexico to be a missionary, I must first ask myself, “Have I ever witnessed to the Mexican's in town?” We can not forget about our neighbors. That is why America, because we have forgotten to preach in the apartment buildings down the street. We have failed to raise our youth confident and bold to tell their friends at school.

We go to Matt 10:5-7

“These twelve Jesus sent out and 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.'”

We hear of the great commission, but let me tell you of the first commission. Jesus says, “Don't go to the foreigners, go to your neighbors. Go to your friends. Start there. Listen, if you are not bold enough to go to your football team at school and say “Hey, listen, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Then don't even think about going overseas to Haiti or Africa! You will accomplish nothing other than an emotional high. And there will be a false fire in you like a fire cracker, it will shoot up and there will be a loud BANG and then it dies!

Jesus begins his disciples ministry to their people. And only after you have done that task can you follow the Matt 28 commission, the great commission, to then go overseas.

Now we have seen the call. The call for all men. Let me look at the word we use, “Sent”. In my Biblical Greek class my instructor gave us the root word for “Send”. And it is the same root as the word “Apostle”. So to say that I am a Christian is synonymous with saying that I am an apostle of Christ. And to say I am an apostle of Christ is synonymous with saying, “I have this duty, a job, I am sent, for Christ, to everyone around me.” And this is not sent overseas. Vs 5 of Matt 10 it begins by being sent down the street. To your school. To your work. And if you refuse then you break the very Matt 10 Commandment.

Now in that class my instructor wanted to add something, the very meaning behind “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Well we all know what it means, but how important is it to us?

In the Greek, he says that it is the picture of a dam, and it is breaking. And God's hand is holding it up. You are the tiny city at the base of the dam, and soon God will pull his hand back, and those billions of tons of water will come rushing down and in less than a second you will be gone. That is how important this is. The Jews understood. It is a Greek Aris text—which means life or death. You want the star player of the football team to die—cause he will. You want your best co-worker to die? He is going to. And when he dies where will he go? And don't take the blame off yourself saying the cliché phrase, “I witnessed through my actions.” with your smug attitude. John Piper says “you can not witness without words.” And for some reason every one says “People see how good you are and they ask you questions. So it opens doors.” Does it? I've never seen that and know nobody who that has happened to. Well mormons are more righteous than Christians. If it was all up to works the Mormons would be safe and most Christians would be damned. So why don't you act more like them if that is your attitude?

Every 1.5 seconds someone dies and goes to hell. It is that fast. And the day is soon approaching where God will release his hand and the great majority of “American Christians”, and church goers, and the surplus population will be in hell. Don't we care anymore, or are we going to continue to be like that Muslim lady said, “When you think of America, you think anti-Christian.”

We have been commanded what to do—go.

And we have been commanded what to say—the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

I encourage you to read Matthew 9:35-10:42, 1 Peter 1, and Exodus 3:4-14.

And to remember the lukewarm church in Revelation 3:14-22.

May the Lamp who was slain receive the full reward for his sufferings.