Matthew 10:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Why are twelve sent forth? It’s a picture of the new Israel: twelve apostles; the twelve tribes and twelve apostles. Here is a new order. The Old Testament has given way to the New Testament. The old dispensation and the special relationship with the Jews is brought to a close, and now begins the era of the New Testament Church of Christ, the international Jewish and Gentile church of Jesus Christ. The old order came under the symbol of the twelve tribes, and now the new order comes under the twelve apostles. The disciples now have their first preaching mission. They are under the instruction of Christ; they’ve listened to his teaching; they've observed his miracles, but very early on in his ministry comes the first practical application in their training.Mark says that Christ ‘began to send them forth by two and two’ (Mark 6:7), and he uses the word ‘apostello’, ‘to send’ from which the word apostle comes, used by Matthew in the next verse. They are sent out, and so the name is attached to their office of apostles. They are a special class of person. The apostles were not to have successors. They were not to be replaced. Some people think they are apostles today, but when you read through the New Testament, and particularly when you get to the pastoral epistles, you have instructions for appointing pastors and teachers, and instructions for appointing elders and deacons; you have instructions about the ministry of evangelist; but you don't have any instructions about appointing apostles. It was not a continuing office. The apostles was somebody who was with the Lord, and he witnessed everything that he said and did, and he was appointed especially by the Lord. The one exception to that case was the person who is under inspiration allowed to describe himself as ‘one born out of due time’: the apostle Paul. But he too received the personal call of the Lord, when Christ appeared to him outside Damascus. They would be the ones who would to authenticate new Scripture, the New Testament. Some of them would be authors, but all of them together would be those who God used to recognise and approve the New Testament Scriptures, until the cannon was complete. They would be personal witnesses of the resurrected Lord, including Paul, and they would therefore need authentication betokenings. How would people know who the apostles were, the people who held the special office? How would they know that they were the ones who recognised revelation, the completion of the Scriptures, and that their witness to the resurrection was true? How would people know? They were authenticated by signs and wonders. They were sent forth and they were given power over unclean spirits, and later on the healing of the sick, generally. We are not apostles, and we do not have their special authentication. The Scripture tells us repeatedly that in New Testament times, signs and wonders were done ‘by the hands of the apostles’. They were exclusive to them. That’s a wonderful thing. Christ gave them his own powers for the purposes of this mission. They were to receive them again later for another mission. He conveyed to them his own powers. Only Christ could do that; it was unique to him. There are and have been in history some great athletes, who could do what no one else could do, and their performance was outstanding and remarkable. Well, as their powers faded, they could be coaches to others, but they couldn't impart their unique power or gift. The things that they could do, you couldn't pick up by being with them. They couldn't lay their hands on you and convey to you their exceptional prowess. It is the same with a musician. He or she can accomplish with their instrument something that no one else could accomplish, but they cannot convey that to another. This enables us to realise the unique power of Christ, who was divine. He had power to heal and to cast out spirits, and he could convey that entirely to those who would be his representatives, the apostles, for the purpose of this mission. They would go throughout the land and they preach of him, and they would preach his doctrine and preach repentance, and they would be authenticated by his own signs and wonders, but he gave them power. Continue pericope from Matthew 10:5.