You are currently browsing the daily archive for June 17, 2023.
The Second Sunday after Trinity is June 18, 2023.
Readings for Year A can be found here, updated for 2023, which features a new Gospel option.
This new Gospel option is as follows, emphases mine:
Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)
9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.
9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
9:37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
9:38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
10:4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,
10:6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
10:7 As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
10:8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
10:9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts,
10:10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.
10:11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave.
10:12 As you enter the house, greet it.
10:13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
10:14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.
10:15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
10:16 “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
10:17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;
10:18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.
10:19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time;
10:20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
10:21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;
10:22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
10:23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as indicated in the various parts of this series).
Last week’s reading explored much of Matthew 9, including Matthew’s calling to be one of our Lord’s disciples.
At this point in our Lord’s ministry, crowds surrounded Him everywhere he went, as we saw last week.
Matthew tells us that everywhere Jesus went, He went to cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom while curing every disease and sickness (verse 35).
Matthew Henry’s commentary says:
Here is, I. A conclusion of the foregoing account of Christ’s preaching and miracles (v. 35); He went about all the cities teaching and healing. This is the same we had before, ch. 4 23. There it ushers in the more particular record of Christ’s preaching (ch. 5., 6 and 7.) and of his cures (ch. 8 and 9.), and here it is elegantly repeated in the close of these instances, as the quod erat demonstrandum—the point to be proved; as if the evangelist should say, “Now I hope I have made it out, by an induction of particulars, that Christ preached and healed; for you have had the heads of his sermons, and some few instances of his cures, which were wrought to confirm his doctrine: and these were written that you might believe.“ Some think that this was a second perambulation in Galilee, like the former; he visited again those whom he had before preached to. Though the Pharisees cavilled at him and opposed him, he went on with his work; he preached the gospel of the kingdom. He told them of a kingdom of grace and glory, now to be set up under the government of a Mediator: this was gospel indeed, good news, glad tidings of great joy.
Observe how Christ in his preaching had respect,
1. To the private towns. He visited not only the great and wealthy cities, but the poor, obscure villages; there he preached, there he healed. The souls of those that are meanest in the world are as precious to Christ, and should be to us, as the souls of those that make the greatest figure …
2. To the public worship. He taught in their synagogues, (1.) That he might bear a testimony to solemn assemblies, even then when there were corruptions in them. We must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. (2.) That he might have an opportunity of preaching there, where people were gathered together, with an expectation to hear …
John MacArthur tells us of the huge task Jesus undertook:
… we remember from Josephus that, in Galilee, there were probably at least 3 million people living in about 204 cities and villages, and He moved about all of these places … Whether they were tucked in little obscure hamlets on the hillsides or whether they were down in the heat of the valley or whether they were in the large cities that ringed the sea itself, He went everywhere, and even in between, in the vineyards and the fields, and He met the people, and He met their needs.
MacArthur says that the synagogue was the heart of learning in these communities:
The synagogues were the place of teaching. The Yiddish word for synagogue is still the word schul, S-C-H-U-L, much like our word school. They saw the synagogue as the place where they met to be instructed in the Word of God. And when they came to the synagogue – and they came not only on the Sabbath, but at least two other times during the week, plus on every other festival day, feast day, and holy day – and every time they came, an officer would read from the Pentateuch, the Law; and then another one would read from the prophets; and the someone would translate that Hebrew into Aramaic, which was the common language of the day; and then someone else would stand up and give an expository sermon from one or both of those passages.
Philo, the historian, wrote that the main feature of a synagogue was the detailed reading and exposition of Scripture. They came there to hear the Scripture and to have it explained to them. That is why in Berea, when Paul spoke, they searched the Scriptures to see if in fact these things were really true. And there was a custom known as “the freedom of the synagogue.” And the freedom of the synagogue provided that any visiting rabbi or distinguished guest could be the one to give the exposition or the sermon. Consequently, our Lord took advantage of that all over Galilee. He would go into the synagogues, wherever they were meeting, and when it came time for the sermon, as a distinguished teacher, He would stand and He would interpret the Old Testament which had been read.
Now this was the way it had been for a long time. When the people came back into the land after the Babylonian captivity, of course by then, they had founded synagogues. They were founded in the captivity. And when they came back from there, they came back to the land, you remember they took the Word of God in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah and they read it. And then it says they gave the sense of it or, that is, they explained what it meant. Translating it and explaining it.
Jesus preached the kingdom of God, a model to be followed even — especially — today:
Secondly, it says He preached the gospel of the kingdom. The word here is kērussō, to herald or to proclaim or to announce, to make a public proclamation. Outside the synagogue, on the streets, the highways, the hillsides, by the sea, in a house, anywhere and everywhere He went, He was announcing the kingdom. He was proclaiming the kingdom. He was affirming that God was the King, and that God had a kingdom, and that God was offering that kingdom, and there was a standard for entry into that kingdom, and He was telling them what that was. And that entering into the kingdom brought about tremendous and eternal blessing, and so He was proclaiming the kingdom.
You might say that was the evangelism; whereas, the teaching in the synagogue was the edification. So the people gathered together to be taught; and they went out to proclaim. And we believe that that model still stands, even in the church. The church gathers to be instructed and scatters to proclaim. Our Lord having established the pattern. Everywhere He went, as summarized so marvelously in the Sermon on the Mount, He would announce that the kingdom was at hand. He would announce that, to be blessed, you must enter the kingdom. He would announce that the entry into the kingdom is narrow way, but it is a way of blessedness. He was proclaiming the kingdom. He was proclaiming salvation.
Then there were our Lord’s countless miracles, so many that the Gospel writers could not document them all:
… there was a third element of His ministry. It says in verse 35, He was healing every sickness and every disease among the people. As I’ve told you before, for all intents and purposes, in His lifetime, Jesus utterly banished disease from Palestine. In fact, John says in his gospel that, “All the books of the world couldn’t contain all of the things that He did.” The miracles of chapter 8 and 9 – and there are basically nine miracles – are only samples in various categories of expressions of power. By no means do they touch anywhere near the number of miracles that He did.
Now why did He do these miracles? Why did He heal every sickness and every disease among the people? For two reasons, number one, because it was a way to verify His message. You see, Jesus went into the synagogue and taught differently than all the other teachers. He went into the highways and byways and preached different than all the preachers. He was saying things that were diametrically opposite the things that the people were being taught by their leaders. He was in utter disagreement with the leading religious lights of His time. In most of His messages, He actually confronted and attacked them. Now why should the people believe such messages? Why should they listen to this gentleman from Nazareth who was not even trained in the proper schools? Well, frankly, the miracles were the thing that convinced them that He was of God. They were verifiers of His message. The blind man had it right when he said, “We know that this Man must be of God.” Nicodemus had it right when he said, “We know that no man can do the things that You do except God be with Him.” Jesus said, “If you can’t believe My Words, at least believe Me for the very works’ sake.” How else are you going to explain these supernatural miracles? So the first purpose was to verify the message.
But there was a second purpose, and I think this is most, most important. I believe Jesus did these miracles to demonstrate the loving tenderness of the heart of God. I believe that Jesus wanted those people to know that God was not like the Pharisees said He was but that God was compassionate. God was sympathetic. God was tender. God was loving. God was filled with kindness. God was merciful. I believe this is a part of Jesus’ ministry, and I believe that it is essential in ours, as well. You can teach the Word of God. You can proclaim the good news of the kingdom and how to enter it, but you must also know that Jesus touched people where they hurt and was sympathetic and kind and caring and loving; and that’s part of it too. It’s so important that people understand that.
This is the huge difference between Christianity and other world religions. True Christians show compassion to everyone:
In Hebrews it says that Jesus is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. That He learned suffering through His humanness. It’s a stupefying concept that God’s Son learned through His experiences on earth. Before taking on a body, God had no personal experience of physical pain of the effect of rubbing against needy people. But God dwelt among us and touched us and was touched by us and fully identified with our pain. And that is part and parcel of the uniqueness of Christianity, that we touch people.
Hinduism is the most cruelly neglectful of all religious systems in the world. Its castes forbid that anyone of a certain caste ever touch anyone of another caste. Mohammedanism, who’s history runs red with the blood of murdered slaves in a secular and religious bloodshed, cannot be expected to show much pity for those in need. They give gifts only to gain merit for the giver. The Buddhists do the same. Confucianism allows a man to drown in sight of a crowd without anybody lending a helping hand. But Christianity is not so. Jesus touched people. I think He was talking to us. We can’t do the miracles. But we can do the sympathizing love, and I believe we’re called to do that. What was the ministry of Jesus? It was teaching, expository teaching. It was preaching, proclaiming, and it was healing people by the affection and the tenderness of His care that manifested the heart of God.
When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them; they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (verse 36).
Henry explains:
He pities them, and was concerned for them (v. 36); He was moved with compassion on them; not upon a temporal account, as he pities the blind, and lame, and sick; but upon a spiritual account; he was concerned to see them ignorant and careless, and ready to perish for lack of vision … It was pity to souls that brought him from heaven to earth, and there to the cross. Misery is the object of mercy; and the miseries of sinful, self-destroying souls, are the greatest miseries: Christ pities those most that pity themselves least; so should we. The most Christian compassion is compassion to souls; it is most Christ-like.
See what moved this pity. (1.) They fainted; they were destitute, vexed, wearied. They strayed, so some; were loosed one from another; The staff of bands was broken, Zech 11 14. They wanted help for their souls, and had none at hand that was good for any thing. The scribes and Pharisees filled them with vain notions, burthened them with the traditions of the elders, deluded them into many mistakes, while they were not instructed in their duty, nor acquainted with the extent and spiritual nature of the divine law; therefore they fainted; for what spiritual health, and life, and vigour can there be in those souls, that are fed with husks and ashes, instead of the bread of life? Precious souls faint when duty is to be done, temptations to be resisted, afflictions to be borne, being not nourished up with the word of truth. (2.) They were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. That expression is borrowed from 1 Kings 22 17, and it sets forth the sad condition of those that are destitute of faithful guides to go before them in the things of God. No creature is more apt to go astray than a sheep, and when gone astray more helpless, shiftless, and exposed, or more unapt to find the way home again: sinful souls are as lost sheep; they need the care of shepherds to bring them back. The teachers the Jews then had pretended to be shepherds, yet Christ says they had not shepherds, for they were worse than none; idle shepherds that led them away, instead of leading them back, and fleeced the flock, instead of feeding it: such shepherds as were described, Jer 23 1, &c Ezek 34 2, etc. Note, The case of those people is very pitiable, who either have no ministers at all, or those that are as bad as none; that seek their own things, not the things of Christ and souls.
Compassion was a key feature of our Lord’s ministry. MacArthur tells us:
As Matthew says, “He was moved with compassion.” What does that mean? Well, our word compassion from the Latin compassio means to suffer with. Jesus suffered with them. He felt their pain. Now listen, this basically has nothing to do with us. This is the expression of an attribute of God. He cared because God is love and love cares. It is the nature of God …
In Matthew 14 verse 14, “Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion.” Chapter 15 verse 32, “Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, ‘I have compassion on the multitude.’” In Matthew chapter 18 verse 27, He gives a parable and says, “The lord of that servant was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the debt,” and He, of course, is the Lord in the parable. In chapter 20 verse 34, “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.” And it isn’t just Matthew. Mark 1:41, Jesus was moved with compassion, put forth His hand and touched a leper. Chapter 5 of Mark verse 19, again it says, “Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and hath had compassion on you.” He had compassion, because it was His nature to love.
Now the Greek term here is very, very interesting – very interesting. It literally means to feel something in the bowels. The word splagchnon is the noun form and it means bowels …
We would say ‘gut’ as in ‘gut instinct’. It is something felt to the core. Over the centuries, this feeling became one of the heart instead. However, in ancient times, ‘heart’ referred to the mind and ‘bowels’ referred to the emotions, whether good or bad.
MacArthur gives us some examples:
“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he;” or Proverbs 16:23, “The heart of the wise teaches his mouth;” or Hebrews 4:12, “The thoughts and intents of the heart;” or Romans 10:10, “With the heart man believes;” or Matthew 15, “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts;” or, “Out of the abundance of the mouth – out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” The heart, then, is the initiator in Hebrew thinking. There you find the root of thought and action and will. The bowels in the Hebrew thinking are the responder, the reactor. The Hebrew expressed attitudes and emotions in physiological symptoms, not in abstractions. And so when they wanted to express something they felt very deeply and were very pained about, they said, “I hurt in my midsection.” Now we understand that. Our midsection responds to pain. When we see a horrible accident or a disaster, we get sick in our stomach. Sexual feelings, fears, needs, we feel anxieties here. We have ulcers, colitis, upset stomachs, because here is where emotion grips us. Jesus literally said that He was wrenched in pain in His midsection when He saw these people.
Jesus said to His disciples that the harvest is plentiful but labourers were few (verse 37), therefore they should ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers out into His harvest (verse 38).
That was to prime the Twelve for doing what He was doing: preaching, teaching and healing.
Henry gives us this analysis:
(1.) How the case stood; The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few. People desired good preaching, but there were few good preachers. There was a great deal of work to be done, and a great deal of good likely to be done, but there wanted hands to do it. [1.] It was an encouragement, that the harvest was so plenteous. It was not strange, that there were multitudes that needed instruction, but it was what does not often happen, that they who needed it, desired it, and were forward to receive it. They that were ill taught were desirous to be better taught; people’s expectations were raised, and there was such a moving of affections, as promised well. Note, It is a blessed thing, to see people in love with good preaching. The valleys are then covered over with corn, and there are hopes it may be well gathered in. That is a gale of opportunity, that calls for a double care and diligence in the improvement of it; a harvest-day should be a busy day. [2.] It was a pity when it was so that the labourers should be so few; that the corn should shed and spoil, and rot upon the ground for want of reapers; loiterers many, but labourers very few. Note, It is ill with the church, when good work stands still, or goes slowly on, for want of good workmen; when it is so, the labourers that there are have need to be very busy.
(2.) What was their duty in this case (v. 38); Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest. Note, The melancholy aspect of the times and the deplorable state of precious souls, should much excite and quicken prayer. When things look discouraging, we should pray more, and then we should complain and fear less. And we should adapt our prayers to the present exigencies of the church; such an understanding we ought to have of the times, as to know, not only what Israel ought to do, but what Israel ought to pray for. Note, [1.] God is the Lord of the harvest; my Father is the Husbandman, John 15 1. It is the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, Isa 5 7. It is for him and to him, and to his service and honour, that the harvest is gathered in. Ye are God’s husbandry (1 Cor 3 9); his threshing, and the corn of his floor, Isa 21 10. He orders every thing concerning the harvest as he pleases; when and where the labourers shall work, and how long; and it is very comfortable to those who wish well to the harvest-work, that God himself presides in it, who will be sure to order all for the best. [2.] Ministers are and should be labourers in God’s harvest; the ministry is a work and must be attended to accordingly; it is harvest-work, which is needful work; work that requires every thing to be done in its season, and diligence to do it thoroughly; but it is pleasant work; they reap in joy, and the joy of the preachers of the gospel is likened to the joy of harvest (Isa 9 2, 3); and he that reapeth receiveth wages; the hire of the labourers that reap down God’s field, shall not be kept back, as theirs was, Jam 5 4. [3.] It is God’s work to send forth labourers; Christ makes ministers (Eph 4 11); the office is of his appointing, the qualifications of his working, the call of his giving. They will not be owned nor paid as labourers, that run without their errand, unqualified, uncalled. How shall they preach except they be sent? [4.] All that love Christ and souls, should show it by their earnest prayers to God, especially when the harvest is plenteous, that he would send forth more skillful, faithful, wise, and industrious labourers into his harvest; that he would raise up such as he will own in the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints; would give them a spirit for the work, call them to it, and succeed them in it; that he would give them wisdom to win souls; that he would thrust forth labourers, so some; intimating unwillingness to go forth, because of their own weakness and the people’s badness, and opposition from men, that endeavour to thrust them out of the harvest; but we should pray that all contradiction from within and from without, may be conquered and got over. Christ puts his friends upon praying this, just before he sends apostles forth to labour in the harvest. Note, It is a good sign God is about to bestow some special mercy upon a people, when he stirs up those that have an interest at the throne of grace, to pray for it, Ps 10 17. Further observe, that Christ said this to his disciples, who were to be employed as labourers. They must pray, First, That God would send them forth. Here am I, send me, Isa 6 8. Note, Commissions, given in answer to prayer, are most likely to be successful; Paul is a chosen vessel, for behold he prays, Acts 9 11, 15. Secondly, That he would send others forth. Note, Not the people only, but those who are themselves ministers, should pray for the increase of ministers. Though self-interest makes those that seek their own things desirous to be placed alone (the fewer ministers the more preferments), yet those that seek the things of Christ, desire more workmen, that more work may be done, though they be eclipsed by it.
MacArthur says that the meaning is more complex. In some parts of the Bible, ‘harvest’ means ‘judgement’, and MacArthur is certain that this is what Jesus meant — lost souls forever condemned because their shepherds did not take care of their spiritual needs for salvation:
What does He mean? Some people think the harvest here is the lost. Some people think it’s the elect. Some people think it’s the seekers after God. Some people think it’s the number to be saved. Let’s see if we can find out what the harvest is. First of all, it is not the field of John 4. That’s a different picture. What is the harvest? Listen as I read to you for a moment, and see if it doesn’t become abundantly clear. The words are Isaiah’s words in the seventeenth chapter and the tenth and eleventh verses. Just listen. “Because thou has forgotten the God of thy salvation and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants and shalt set it with a strange slip. In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish; but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Woe to the multitude of many people.”
The harvest in Isaiah 17 is judgment. Listen to Joel 3 verse 9. “Proclaim this among the nations; prepare war; wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ Assemble yourselves and come, all ye nations, and gather yourselves together round about. There cause the mighty ones to down, O LORD.” God calls the nations to judgment. “Let the nations be wakened and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. For there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get down; for the press is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” Then this – “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision.”
Now I believe that when the Lord saw the multitudes, He thought of Joel’s harvest, and it’s judgment that Joel spoke of. I believe our Lord saw consummation. He saw the eternity perspective. He didn’t see people just in their current problem. He saw them as doomed to hell. In Matthew 13, the Lord, giving a parable said this. “Let both grow together” – verse 30 – “until the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, ‘Gather together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into My barn.’” It is judgment, and it is judgment on the multitudes; and some will be barned and some will be burned, but it is judgment.
Verse 39 same chapter. Tells you right here, “The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are the angels.” The harvest that He sees is not just a mission field. That isn’t the perspective here. The harvest is the final judgment, the consummation, the end of the ages, the time of grief. That’s what He sees.
Hence why Jesus gave the Apostles all of His own gifts. This was the final and true moment of their calling, made complete when the remaining Eleven and Matthias, Judas’s replacement, received the fulness of the Holy Spirit at the first Pentecost. They began as His original disciples and, excluding Judas, became the great evangelists and eventual martyrs (with the exception of John and Matthias) labouring in His name:
For just a moment, as we close, may I speak to you of His method? And we’ll get into this more in our future study, so I won’t take time with it. But what was His method? Well at the end of verse 37, He says, “The laborers are few.” In other words, “I can’t do it alone. The laborers are few.” What is that? That’s the first part of His method. I call it insight. He has a threefold method – insight. First you have to understand the problem. What are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about a lost hell-bound world, a world of hurting people who need compassion? What are you going to do about the condition of men and women who are trapped under those false shepherds who feed them lies that damn their souls? What are you going to do?
First you have to have the insight to see that there’s a problem, and you don’t have enough people. That’s insight. How many times in the Bible do you read this? “Watch and pray.” Or this? “Be sober. Be vigilant.” Or, “Be alert” …
The insight moves to the second element of His method, which I call intercession. Verse 38 doesn’t say, “Now panic. Panic.” It doesn’t say, “Do it yourself, and do it as quick as you can.” Doesn’t say, “Come up with a great program.” It says pray. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest” – oh, what a term, the Lord of the harvest. Do you know what an amazing thing? The very God who is the Lord of the harvest, that’s a judgment term, the very God who is the judge, is the One we beseech to send the workers to prevent the people from getting to judgment. Marvelous. There’s a part of God that demands that judgment, and there’s an attribute of God that seeks that no one be there. “Pray,” He says, “that the Lord of the harvest will send forth workers” – is what it means – “into His harvest.” Before the final consummation, He sees the harvest as all this mass of people moving toward judgment. But before it gets there pray that God will send forth workers. Isn’t that amazing? Isn’t that amazing that, in such desperation, He doesn’t say, “Now, get out of here as fast as you can and do the job.” He says, “Stop and pray” …
There’s an interesting phrase in verse 38. It says, “He will send forth laborers.” Uses a very strong Greek term that means to throw them out, to shove them out, to thrust them forth. Let God do it. Let God send them. So when faced with a need, we don’t panic. We pray. And as we pray, we find that maybe we’re going to be the ones that are going to do it, as the disciples prayed and found themselves to be the ones who were involved.
Marvelous method. God’s people, insight, intercession, involvement. Listen, friends, God has called us to teach His Word, to proclaim His kingdom, to touch peoples’ lives, and to be moved to do that, because His love is in us, because we see their condition, and because we understand their consummation. And He’s asked us to analyze it, to have insight, to intercede on their behalf by asking God to send forth laborers; and then when the call comes, like Isaiah, “Here am I. Send me.”
MacArthur closes his sermon with the story of Dr Barnardo, a London physician who founded the eponymous charity for children in need, many of them orphans. It has since lost its Christian core but continues to this day:
One night in the East End of London, a young doctor was turning out the lights of a mission hall in which he was working. He found a ragged little boy hiding in a dark corner. The little boy asked him to please let him stay there, because it was warm in the corner and he could sleep, and it was a nicer place than he always slept. The doctor said no, and he took the homeless little boy to his own room. He fed him. He bathed him. Then he tried to get his story. He learned from the little boy that he was living in a coal bin, and he was living in a coal bin with a number of other little boys. So the doctor asked the little fellow if he’d take him to where the coal bin was so he could see. They went through the narrow alleys of London.
Finally, in the darkness of night, they came to a hole in the wall of an old factory. “Look in there,” the little boy said. The doctor struck a match, and he looked inside through the hole and crawled into a filthy coal bin cellar, and he found 13 little boys there, clothed with only bits of old burlap to protect them from the London cold. And one little fella had clinging to him tightly a four-year-old little brother. They were all orphans.
The doctor said that, then and there, he caught a vision of how he could serve the Lord. His name was Dr. Barnardo. The story is true. He cared for those little boys and for little girls. And at the time of his death, the newspapers of London reported that Dr. Barnardo had taken and surrounded with a Christian atmosphere over 80,000 homeless children, and hundreds of them became Christians, because he had the eyes of Christ to see into the darkness and the heart of Christ to draw people into the light. Oh, that we should so minister.
How true.
I did not know that story, but it is a shining example of what Christian service should be.
Tomorrow’s post tells us more about the Apostles, as we begin to look at Matthew 10.
Churchmouse Campanologist 