After a night spent in prayer, Jesus called his twelve disciples and constituted them into an apostolic college. With his commission he gave them his charge. Notice -

I. THE PERSONS COMMISSIONED AND CHARGED.

1. They were twelve in number.

(1) Perhaps in correspondence to the twelve tribes of Israel, to whom they are first to preach (cf. ver. 6; Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30).

(2) As the sons of Jacob were the fathers of Israel according to the flesh, so are the twelve apostles the fathers of Israel after the Spirit.

(3) Twelve is a remarkable number in relation to the things of Christ (see Revelation 7:4; Revelation 12:1; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 21:12, 14). It has, therefore, been distinguished from the "number of the beast" as the number of the Lamb.

(4) In this number the apostles of Christ ever remained. For Paul (not Matthias) filled the place forfeited by Judas. The election of Matthias took place before the outpouring of the Spirit, and of the apostleship of Matthias we read no more (see Introduction in Mosheim).

2. Their names are given in order.

(1) Peter stands first in the lists (ver. 2; Mark 3:16; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13). He was the first called to a constant attendance upon Christ, though Andrew had seen Jesus before Simon (cf. Luke 5:3-10; John 1:40, 41). But he had no authority over his brethren, or it had surely been mentioned; neither had he any authority over the Church in which his brethren did not share. James the son of Alphaeus presided in the council at Jerusalem (see Acts 15:19). The New Testament gives no countenance to the papal claims.

(2) In the groups we find brothers together. Peter and Andrew; James and John; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbeeus, or Jude. "God here unites by grace those who were before united by nature. Nature must not be deemed a hindrance to grace.

(3) Last in the lists is the name of Judas Iscariot. He has the unenviable distinction of the traitor." Unworthy persons may be found in the holiest societies on earth.

II. THE CHARGE.

1. As to the apostles preaching.

(1) To whom were they to go?

(a) Not to the Gentiles.

(b) Not to the Samaritans.

(c) They were to limit their preaching to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" (cf. Isaiah 53:6; Jeremiah 1.6; Matthew:12; Romans 9:1-4). The gospel must first be preached to the Jews (cf. Matthew 15:24; Romans 15:8). The restriction, however, was temporary (see Acts 1:8; Acts 3:26; Acts 13:46).

(2) What gospel were they to proclaim?

(a) The gospel of the "kingdom." Its spiritual nature. Spiritually, as well as literally, they were to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils."

(b) Its near approach. "At hand," viz. when the Spirit should be given on the Day of Pentecost.

(c) Therefore the need of preparation for it, viz. by repentance (cf. Mark 6:12).

2. As to its authentication.

(1) To this end miraculous powers were conferred upon the apostles. These were to continue with them. Unless in the spiritual sense, neither did they raise the dead nor cleanse the leper until after the resurrection of Christ.

(2) These they were to exercise freely, without restriction and without reward (see 2 Kings 5:15, 16, 26). Herein they differed from the exorcists mentioned by Josephus ('Ant.,' lib. 8. c, 11).

3. As to their maintenance.

(1) This they were to receive from those to whom they should minister (vers. 9-12; see also 1 Corinthians 9.; Galatians 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:17). They must be under no necessity otherwise to earn their living.

(2) Where hospitably entertained their peace was to come. "Peace be to this house" was their salutation (see Luke 10:5). "Great is peace," say the rabbins, "for all other blessings are comprehended in it" (cf. John 14:27; Philippians 4:7)..

(3) When inhospitably treated they were to "shake off the dust of their feet," viz. as a witness against them before God (see Nehemiah 5:13; Acts 13:51; Acts 18:6). See that you refuse not the gospel message, for the case of the rejecter is fearful.

1. This sin is worse than that of the men of Sodom (Ezekiel 16:48, 49). Who sin against the clear light of revelation are more guilty than those who offend against the dim light of tradition.

2. The full judgment upon sin is reserved to the last great day.

(1) The men of Sodom have yet to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. The severest temporal judgments upon sinful men do not satisfy the claims of the offended justice of God.

(2) Terrible as their case will be, it will be more tolerable than that reserved for the rejecters of the gospel, of Christ. - J.A.M.

I. THE POWER, AND GRACE OF THE DIVINE CALL. Power is measured by the amount or degree of resistance which it is able to overcome. There were three chief obstacles in the way of this man's conversion.

1. His business exposed hint constantly to temptations which were well nigh irresistible.

2. The standard of morality recognized by his associates was proverbially low.

3. He had no character to sustain.

II. A SINNER'S CONVERSION IS A CAUSE OF JOY.

III. CONVERTED SOULS DESIRE TO PROMOTE THE CONVERSION OTHERS.

IV. MATTHEW'S CHIEF CHARACTERISTIC WAS HUMILITY.

(W. F. Bishop.)

St. Matthew's example led to one of the holiest lives recorded in the annals of the early Church. One of the most able and useful men of the North African Church was the Bishop Nulgertius. He had originally been receiver of taxes, but it one day occurred to him: "May I not be like Matthew, become from a tax-gatherer a preacher of the gospel." He accordingly left his worldly employment, became an ecclesiastic, and was ultimately a most useful bishop.

We read the histories of such persons with vast interest and pleasure; and there is one circumstance which you generally meet with, and which always peculiarly engages our attention, and that is, the remembrance which these men had in their elevation of the poverty and obscurity from which they had been raised. You will commonly find that they had kept about them some memento of the insignificance of their origin, as though they felt a pride in reminding others and themselves how little they owed to the achievements of ancestors. In the splendid halls in which their latter days were spent, they have delighted to hang pictures of the hovels in which they were born: so that the stranger passing through the magnificent scene, after admiring a thousand gorgeous works of art, and confessing the grandeur and taste of their owner, might come suddenly on the representation of a lowly cottage, and learning that this cottage was the home of the parents of the man who had possessed himself of all this glory, might have a feeling of far higher reverence and wonder, than if there had been spread before him the evidences of a most illustrious pedigree. And it is very curious to observe how the biographers of such a man will labour to throw some "kind of lustre around his origin, as though they could not bear that their hero should be deficient in aught to which the world attaches worth.

(H. Melvill.)

Alphaeus, Andrew, Bartholomew, Beelzebub, James, Jesus, John, Judas, Lebbaeus, Matthew, Peter, Philip, Simon, Thaddaeus, Thomas, Zabdi, ZebedeeCapernaum, Gomorrah, SodomAlphaeus, Alpheus, Bartholomew, Collector, James, Lebbaeus, Lebbeus, Matthew, Philip, Publican, Surname, Surnamed, Tax, Tax-farmer, Tax-gatherer, Thaddaeus, Thaddeus, Thomas1. Jesus sends out his apostles, enabling them with power to do miracles;
5. giving them their charge, teaches them;
16. comforts them against persecutions;
40. and promises a blessing to those who receive them.

Matthew 10:1-4

     1654   numbers, 11-99
     7026   church, leadership
     7631   Twelve, calling of

Matthew 10:2-4

     8370   zeal

January 24. "Freely Ye have Received, Freely Give" (Matt. x. 8).
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J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Nor do they Attend to This, that if Another Should Say...
3. Nor do they attend to this, that if another should say, that the Lord indeed, speaking in parables and in similitudes concerning spiritual food and clothing, did warn that not on these accounts should His servants be solicitous; (as He saith, "When they shall drag you to judgment-seats, take no thought what ye shall speak. For it will be given you in that hour what ye shall speak: but it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." [2479] For the discourse of spiritual …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

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