November 12, 2023
Good morning Church!
Today in our continued exposition of the missionary discourse given by Christ, we steadily continue to march on, verse by verse, line by line, really sometimes word by word breaking down what Jesus is telling his apostles
And gleaning from the text how we too can aim, by the holy spirit, to implement such things in our own walks with the Lord
Matthew chapter 10 8b, and Matthew had spent the last few messages covering the first half of verse 8 and today we are going to finish out that verse
As a quick aside, I really have to say, I love the fact that we spend such time unpacking the word of God here at Vine
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
I really hope that one of the things that the Lord does through these messages, is show to you the vast greatness in depth and richness that come from the word and encourage you in your own studies.
Before we dive into anything of our study for today, let us turn our hearts to prayer
Matthew chapter 10 8b
You received without paying; give without pay.
The timing of this week’s message, really could not be better, as we are preparing to enter into this holiday season, with the thanksgiving get-togethers and all the Christmas parties. My hope for this message is that the word of God will illuminate what it looks like to live a life of faith filled generosity, following after the example of Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit that was given to us
Diving into the text, looking first at the remainder of verse 8
you received without paying; give without pay
Upon the first reading of the text we need to ask what exactly it was the apostles had received here.
For that answer, look briefly at the first half of verse 8 where Jesus gives the apostles the command to “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons”.
And while it would not be wrong to say that was what they had received, just to be clear,
But as we are seeking to be more accurate in our understanding, and to become greater students of God’s word, we would need to look at the reason why Jesus gave his apostles this same authority that they have now witnessed in action for sometime before this conversation had taken place. And for that we look to verse 7
proclaim as you go, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
So yes, they did receive the authority to do all of those things, but that authority was a tool given to serve the advancement of the gospel message, that had been revealed to them through the ministry of Jesus Christ.
In other words it was the gospel message that was to be given without charge,
It was ultimately the gospel which was freely given to the apostles, that would have these accompanying signs or miracles, that would serve to be a verification of the truth claims that the Kingdom of heaven is at hand, that they were to give to others without pay.
It should be mentioned that this was not just how they were to sometimes live their lives, but this command of give without pay was lived out by Jesus and His apostles throughout the whole new testament, and not once can we find a time when they broke from this command of Christ.
But let’s just pause for a second to imagine what that might have looked like if they did break from the command to give freely as they had freely received.
Imagine if Jesus and His apostles went village by village, town by town, and set up a stage in each of the town squares saying
bring all of those who are burdened and heavy laden, and I can set you free, for a small fee just whatever you have in your pockets will do just fine. Jesus’ apostles standing on the street corners drawing folks in, saying open 7 days a week come make a sabbath appointment
Church, That is not the gospel, and to charge people for the things that God has freely given for the purposes of proclaiming the message of the kingdom, opposes the very heart of the gospel message
you received without paying; give without pay
Don’t get me wrong, Jesus’ ministry would probably exploded, like many false teachers, faith healers and tv evangelists who are alive today who capitalize on half truths and hurting souls,
but it would not be the gospel message that would be preached,
The gospel is not something that can be given with a price assigning it a value by a man’s own estimation, because the gospel is priceless
If someone was to charge for the gospel, would be in fact charging for the potential to have every sin, past present and future, forgiven.
To put a price on the gospel would be to assign value to the price of the life lived by Jesus,
How much was it worth for Jesus, to have him leave his heavenly throne to be born to a teenage girl among the barn animals, to have His first bed be a feeding trough?
Putting a price on the gospel would be to put a price on Jesus living His life in a world cursed by sin, Jesus faced every temptation that we could possibly face, but remaining unstained from it,
Jesus always living in perfect obedience to the Father, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit,
Leading ultimately to a life that he would one day lay down, making a way for man to be reconciled to God where there was once no way.
That is the gospel Church, and how can one ever put a price on that?
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.
You see the gospel that comes so freely to us, is what came at such a cost to Christ. In order for us to be unified to the Father, He had to be separated.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
You see, we can not charge for the gospel because it came at no cost to us, but it was Christ who paid it all.
Just to be clear on what it means when I say the gospel was freely given to us is this church.
Anyone who believes that Jesus is who he claims to be as the Son of God, Anyone who trusts that his words are the truth, and anyone who, by faith, seeks to follow his teaching and teaches others to do the same
Are those who have been justified, made right before God. Not because of our works, but because we acknowledge our works will get us nowhere, but because of his good works
We are saved by God’s grace through faith. The gospel is Jesus. God came to this earth, did what no man could do, fulfilled all aspects of righteousness with his life, while teaching and proclaiming the message of the kingdom teaching who God is and that he desires to have a relationship with his creation, as signs to show his claims of who he is and who his father is he perform many signs of healing the sick, cleansing of lepers, casting out of demons and even raising the dead. At the appointed time Jesus’ earthly ministry would be complete and he would lay down His life. The bible says it was better for Jesus to go, so he can leave all those who follow him a helper, the very Spirit of truth that will allow them to do even greater works, and allow them to continue the work he had started,
preparing the rest of the world for when he would return, bringing with him justice to fall on the heads of all who did not accept the free gift of the gospel, to all who would not acknowledge the free gift that was made available through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Church, that is the gospel, the gospel is Jesus
Could you even imagine a dollar amount that God would accept to be of greater value than the price paid by His Son’s blood?
Think back to our text though,
They are to go throughout the land and proclaim the gospel, and to do this God gave them a free gift of His authority.
But, If the apostles were to go and use the gospel message and the authority that God had given to them to advance themselves, to build their own kingdoms up, versus God’s Kingdom, that would be effectively putting a price on the gospel message
As prevalent as it is in today’s time, with some peddlers of these half truths owning multiple private jets, or caught up in some sort of scandal, or just building up their own following to stroke their ego.
There is nothing new under the sun, it was just as pervasive now as it was during Jesus’ day.
Jesus condemns the heart attitude that is behind this, by saying in the sermon on the mount, that if you are looking to man for a reward, you will surely get it, but you will have no reward laid up in heaven for you.
When the Apostle Paul was under house arrest the Lord had showed him examples of those who were preaching to build up their own kingdoms, and here is what he said in the book of philippians 2 15-18
Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Remember this Church,
The goal of faith filled generosity is not to draw attention to the gift, it is to draw attention to the giver, pointing to our heavenly Father.
God, is certainly not limited to only working through people who have perfect theology and pure motivations to see his kingdom being built.
In fact, one of the biggest frustrations of our enemy has got to be the very things that the enemy plans for evil, God just flips the script and uses though very things to accomplish his good purposes
The goal of living faith filled generous lives is alway to have the attention not to be focused on us, not to have it focused on even the gift but to use the gift that God has given us to give freely and point others to direct their gaze upon the Lord.
If you were to reverse that and find your focus wrapped up in the gift rather than the giver then it becomes far too easy for our identity to be tied up in things that we have. Versus, the identity that came through the free gift of the gospel, that was purchased by the blood of Christ
When our identity comes from the gospel, that is when we realize our own wickedness in our flesh nature, we learn not to compare ourselves with others, but to God
and we begin to see the reality of how every interaction the Lord has with us is filled with His grace and His mercy. Giving us things we don’t deserve and sparing us from the things we really do deserve.
But when our attention is drawn to the gifts rather than the giver, it is too easy for us to believe God gives us good things because we have done good things to earn them, so we deserve them, rather than seeing it as an act of God’s grace towards us.
That kind of thinking can easily then lead one to the thinking salvation can be earned, or lost, for that matter.
It could lead someone to thinks they have done good things, lived a decent life, didn’t murder anyone or cheat on their spouse so they have secured
their spot in heaven, or that the amount of times they have messed up in life is just too much, and God wants nothing to do with them.
Church, the Christian worldview does believe in a works based salvation, but it is not based on our works at all. It is based on the works of our savior Jesus Christ, who had gone before us, and torn the veil made by sin, that had once separated God and man from having relationship, and now through his blood sacrifice,
his rightness is given as a free gift and made available to us so when God sees us, He sees Christ righteousness in us.
When our attention becomes fixated on the gifts, rather then the giver, being God the Father, Paul puts it this way
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. Phil 3:19
In saying their god is their belly, he is really saying they are led to whatever their flesh nature is hungry for, or looking to get their fill on the vain sparkling things that this world has to offer. There will never be any fulfillment that will come from those pursuits, they will lead only to death and destruction.
As we are seeking to live out a life marked by faith filled generosity, in continuing in the ministry of reconciliation that had been started by Christ, we must realize our success is not wrapped up in people’s responses.
Jesus’ own words in John 5
Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
Success for Christ ministry is simply following the will of the Father. And that is the same for us. Our success is based on faithful obedience to the will of God. God, is responsible for the results, not us
The command of Christ in our text, is not merely, do not make anyone pay for this, but it is highlighting that the apostles themselves had received this truth freely at no cost to them, and then command for them to do the same for others
You may recall in the book of acts,
Phillip had gone to Samaria and did just as we see being instructed by Jesus to his apostles here in chapter 10 of Matthew. He is performing by the Spirit of God many signs and garnishing the attention of everyone around him, and using that to proclaim the message of the kingdom in the name of Jesus Christ,
A spiritual revival breaks out as a result, and even a man who went by the name of Simon the Magician, believed and was baptized. When the Church in Jerusalem had heard this news of revival, they sent Peter and John to lay their hands and pray for those who had believed and had been baptized in the midst of this revival to receive the Holy Spirit.
Now reading from act 8 you can see on the screen here
Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
That was probably not how Simon thought that conversation was going to go, but before we jump to conclusions, let’s hold scripture as a mirror to our own hearts rather than a pair of binoculars focused on Simon the magician’s head.
Have you ever tried to buy something from the Lord? Maybe not as directly as Simon here with money, but then again maybe. Did you ever put a little on top of your offering a week where you really wanted something good to go your way? Or find yourself in a position where you are bartering with God saying if you do this for me then I will do this.
This is what is known as a half truth,
The part that is true is understanding that this result can only come from the Lord in the first place.
But Church, remember this, a half truth is a full lie, and the part that is a dead wrong lie from the pit of Hell, is that you have something to barter with the Lord that is not his in the first place.
The bible says, God doesn’t have favorites, God is the one who gives, and God is the one who takes away. Your creator doesn’t need your consent, does the clay have any right to ask the Potter “What are you doing” Church, God doesn’t need your adoration, your praise, your worship, your loyalty, God is completely self sufficient, and everything that is, is His to do with wants he wills in the first place.
This would be a scary thought, if it were not the fact that God is good. The beautiful, full truth is God gives freely, because he is good, and he gives good gifts as an act of His grace towards us. He is our good, good Father who is filled with love for you.
And it is not because he needs something from you, but there is something that God wants from you.
And that is a full unconditional surrender, to welcome you into his family
he who blessed you with so much wants you to trust Him with everything he has given to you, He wants you to place your faith in him, and surrender it all to him,
to allow him to lead you through his holy spirit on how to generously steward, not your life, but the new life he had given you pointing everyone to him through it.
Remember the women who for 12 years could not stop bleeding? She had gone the route of paying physicians to bring healing to her,
There is no doubt that she had suffered greatly under their care and false promises of healing, until she had nothing left to offer.
She had exhausted all of her own resources, spent everything she had, to be made clean again. But after she used all that was at her disposal and had nothing left to offer the men who had given false hopes of healing and wholeness, but she heard stories of the carpenter from Nazareth who claims to be the long awaited messiah, she had hope again, and she found herself saying, if I could only touch the hem of Jesus’ clothes then I would be healed.
While Jesus was walking through the crowds, on his way to perform a healing for a little girl and there were many people pressed up against him at this point, and all of a sudden he stops.
Daughter, your faith has made you well
That is the heart of a generous God, and as we seek to live out faith filled lives reflecting his generous heart, we have to first acknowledge what it is
that we have already received, before we can even enter the possibility of freely giving
The key that must be grasped before we seek to understand how to live lives marked by faith filled generosity is this:
You can only give something that you have acknowledged you have already received.
And as the apostles have now received this command that you have received without paying give without pay, this is the same truth principle we are called to live out in our own lives.
There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that is good in this world that did not first originate from God.
Do you believe me when I say the gospel is the greatest thing we could ever receive? Or that anyone could ever receive?
Is the message of the gospel, the life of Jesus Christ more important to you than your job, how about your house, your husband or wife, your kids?
Do you feel like that is how you live? If your life was under investigation where somehow there was technology that was able to accurately display the motivations behind your life, would there be enough evidence, or fruit, in your life to convict you of loving God?
We can’t give something that we never first acknowledge that we have been given and the bible says
We love because he first loved us.
You received without paying; give without pay.
As the apostles had freely received the gospel, and authority to advance the gospel
We have received freely the gospel and the Holy Spirit of God to advance the gospel.
Church, there is nothing more important than this in life.
Freely we were able to receive Jesus, freely we are able to give Jesus. What more do you need, Church? You have been given the keys to the kingdom.
The same Holy Spirit that empowered Christ to do all of these things during his earthly ministry,
is the same Holy Spirit that resides in you now, exclusive to those who follow Jesus as Lord.
If there is something that is holding you back, what is it? Does it boil down to fear or pride? What lies are you holding onto that is holding you back from living out the gospel truth, we are ambassadors of Christ, bought with the blood of Christ,
Do not let the feeling of not being good enough, or smart enough, or whatever it is that you believe is holding you back from sharing Jesus.
it is His righteousness that qualifies you to living out a life continuing the mission he had started, through the leading of the same Holy Spirit of God that lead him during his ministry will lead us
But, God will not take away your ability to make choices and decisions, so while on the one hand we have the Holy Spirit who will teach us and grow us in paths of righteousness in our walks with the Lord,
but on the other hand we have our flesh nature, the world systems and the devil and his demons who will do whatever it takes to have you drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Church, is not he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world?
In our flesh we are dead, but in Christ we have victory over death, but we need to live in that victory, and continue to crucify our flesh,
Working out our salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus
Church, as we walk out our faith obediently following all that Jesus had commanded of us, evangelism will happen. You will learn to see opportunities to share the gospel, you will have ears to listen for what is true and what is lies, and God will give you wisdom in how to help exchange those lies for truth.
And as you grow in obedience, or as you grow in your faith, you will see more and more opportunities,
So when it comes to this holiday season, really anytime, but the holidays do present a unique opportunity in themselves, it is important to realize that it will not be our own strength, or our own wit that will move the needle for our friends and family to get one step closer in their relationship with Jesus.
Our works hold no power to do that. Ephesians chapter 2
we are dead in our tresspasses, we are dead in our sins.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Through us freely receiving Christ, we are justified before God, given the free gift of the Holy Spirit, that will work out in us, good works that God has prepared beforehand,
So no one can run around saying look at me look at me, but live with the very aim to have everything in our lives point to the Father, and be able share that hope and the very desire that God has for a relationship with them as well
Church being born again is a blessing, no doubt, but it is a blessing that is only meant to point to our heavenly Father. Remember, it is not about the gift, It is all about the giver.
Jesus said, in John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
As we are having our focus on evangelism in this sermon series, this may be the most important concept to grasp.
The entire process of salvation is through and through a divine supernatural experience that starts and ends with the Father.
Jesus’ message to his apostles is the same message that he is giving to the Church.
The apostles have been given a great mission, we have been given the great commission
All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that it is I have commanded of you.
As we seek to close out this message, there are two questions that you might be asking and Questions are good, they stimulate thinking and will either strengthen resolve, or weaken already weak arguments.
One question that might have been coming up, not just for today but even perhaps through the whole series might loosely be along the lines of:
If God, the Father is the one who draws people to Jesus, and people can not save themselves because they are dead, and it is God who is doing the whole thing through the power of His Holy Spirit. Why do I need to get involved at all?
If that is a question you have, I would say that is a very fair and appropriate question.
First, before answering the question, I would like to know the process the Lord used in your life to bring you to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus?
The reason why I would start with that question is that I have never heard of a salvation testimony where someone came to a saving faith without God using one of his followers to accomplish that, in fact, many times it will be multiple points of intersection between someone who is dead in their
sins and saints who have the living spirit of God living in them, and as our text says, walking out the good works that God has prepared for them to walkout beforehand.
But anytime a question is asked why we are to do something as a christian, or a follower of Christ, it is always best, to look to the personal ministry of Jesus Christ.
And of the many examples one can choose from, for the context of this message I believe it best to choose,
You have received without paying; Give without pay
It was within this text Jesus was telling his followers to go and do as they have been witnessing him, going and doing. Living a life of faith filled generosity, that met people where they were,
freely walking out good works through God’s authority, freely proclaiming the message of the kingdom to the lost.
In life there is really no neutral ground. You will either be spending time building out your kingdom, which will all crumble, it will all burn to proving all efforts in this regard to be vanity,
Or, through a life that is surrendered to God,
He will give you the opportunity to be led by the Holy Spirit, to continue walking out the same ministry that we see Jesus walking out in the four
books of the gospel. Freely giving you an opportunity to allow God to work through you to build His kingdom, which will last for eternity.
Church, the more we recognize what we have freely been given by the Lord, naturally by his Spirit he will reveal more opportunities for us to freely give to others what he has freely given to us for the advancement of His kingdom.
the more this happens, the more he will shape us into the likeness of His Son Jesus Christ. Sanctifying our lives, to be used for good works that will last for eternity.
But after hearing all of this, you might relate to this second question
Where, if this is something I can not do on my own,
but it is something God wants to do through me, by the power of His Holy Spirit.
How does that happen, how exactly does that work?
Again, we need to look to Jesus for that answer, please open your bibles to John chapter 14 and while you’re turning there.
Again, I want to answer this question with another question. Do you love Jesus?
No seriously, Do you love Jesus?
Don’t just give a conditioned, christian, knee jerk answer to this question and say, Yes of course I do! I would die for Jesus!
But, look at your life, look at this past month or even week or heck even since you have woken up today and ask yourself the question, Do you love Jesus? If a jury was to look at your life, would there be enough evidence to convict you of loving Jesus?
Look in verse 15 of john 14 now
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Now look in verse 21
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Verse 23-24
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
Church, These are not my words, these are the words of God, these are the words of Jesus. More specifically, these were some of the final words that Jesus had spoken to his apostles during the last passover meal they had together before He would surrender his life,
Look to verse 26 now
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Now for that last verse, you, is not you, Jesus is not speaking to you there, He is speaking directly to his apostles, these teenage boys who had left everything to go and follow their rabbi, spend every subsequent night and day learning and watching the man, who is God, who was being led by the Spirit of God, who at this point they kind of believed he was the long awaited savior of the world.
Why do I say this? Because In order for the Holy Spirit to bring to remembrance the teachings of Christ, as the text said, the teaching would have to have been once known by you it in the first place.
God is notorious for accomplishing his supernatural works, through super ordinary means.
Quite simply, you want to live a life where the Holy Spirit of God, will be a helper and a teacher for you to learn more of who God is and build out his kingdom here on earth as it is on heaven.
Well Church, you got to show up to class then!
Get in his word, spend time in prayer, spend time with his people who are hungry in their relationship with the Lord, all of these things are things Jesus had modeled for us and by doing these things we are walking out the faith he has given us.
I promise you, Because the bible promises this to you, do these things with a sincere heart and you will see God move in your life.
Church, we have been spending all this time talking about the evangelism through this series, and of course the great commission is where our minds should go when it comes to us living out evangelism,
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded of you.
Stop here for a second, and tie this into our message today about living out a faith filled generous life.
You have received without paying; give without pay
Remember the two main principles we went over today on how we are to live out a faith filled life.
the goal of faith filled generosity is not to draw attention to the gift, it is to draw attention to the father who gives freely for the purposes of building his kingdom
And We can not give anything unless we first recognize what it is that we have already been given.
How can we ever have a hope to fulfill the great commission given by Christ, if we can not teach those who do not know the commands of Christ.
How can we follow the commands that he has freely given to us through his word, if you do not know them?
So in closing as we are just 12 days away from thanksgiving, Many of us, especially during this time of year will use this as an opportunity to reflect on the things we are grateful for,
my hope and prayer is that this message, not being delivered in my own strength, but prayerfully submitted to you, that you will leave here hungry.
Not hungry as the world and the flesh will produce in you that can be satisfied with amazon prime, black friday shopping turkey and pumpkin pie,
But a hunger to better understand the face of your creator, that will never be quenched
A hunger to understand the character of the God who breathes out stars, and who breathed the breath of life into your lungs, in whose image you were made in and whos hands knitted you together in your mothers wombs.
I pray for you to leave here with a hunger to know the God, who wants you to know him, which is why He sent His son, and has given us his Holy Spirit. And that hunger will drive you to eagerly go and prepare the way in the hearts of your co-workers, neighbors, family and friends before Christ comes again. Giving freely what has been given freely to you.
Church, I pray you will leave here with a hunger that when it is all said and done and you are standing face to face, the very thought of standing before
your maker, your heart is filled with the hope of hearing the words from God’s lips to your heart,
Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.
Oh and what joy, will that day be Church
The greatest gift we could ever receive is the gospel, and the only reason why the gospel is so great is because of who it it points to,
Jesus Christ.
For unto us, a child was born, unto us a Son was given.
And the gift of this Wonderful Counselor, this Prince of Peace. Was to point our attention and our gaze to our heavenly Father.
You have received without paying; Give without pay
Church as you go from here, Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect
Enjoy your time in his word, enjoy your time in prayer, enjoy your time with his people, and above all enjoy him.
Lets pray