Introduction

1. Principles for Evangelism. Christ's instructions to His apostles provide us with principles for carrying out the church's evangelistic mission. These principles are not comprehensive, nor are they all of equally universal application, but they are foundational. They don't cover every part of evangelism, but they do matter for every form of evangelism. Whether you are evangelizing an individual or household, church planting in a new city, or denomination-planting in another country, Christ's teaching in this passage is foundational for carrying out that task. In this passage Christ taught His disciples how to go on an evangelistic expedition, and we need this teaching in our evangelism today.

2. Outline. Christ's instructions focus on five main issues in evangelism:

   1. The People vv. 5-6

   2. The Preaching v. 7

   3. The Power v. 8

   4. The Provision vv. 9-10

   5. The Procedures vv. 11-15

Body

1. The People vv. 5-6. First, know the people to whom you are sent. Which people are they?

   1. Text

      1. 5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, 6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

   2. Who are the people to whom God has sent you? God has sent you to the lost sheep throughout the world.

   3. Initially a limited scope. In this passage Christ sent his disciples on a temporary mission, limited in scope, so as to draw more attention to His own earthly ministry among the Jews in Palestine. After His resurrection He would send the gospel throughout the whole world, to the Gentiles and not only the Jews. But for a time Christ limited the scope of His apostles' mission to the boundaries of God's covenant people established in His covenant with Abraham. Christ continued to honor the Abrahamic covenant. After His resurrection, when Christ sent His apostles to the Gentiles as well, He still commanded them to honor the Abrahamic covenant, as Paul made it his practice to preach the gospel to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile.

   4. Now a full breadth of scope. Who are the people to whom God has sent you? God has sent you to unbelievers, both inside and outside the church. There were unbelievers among those outwardly identified as God's covenant people; among Israel as there are also in the church today. In Acts 1:8 Christ sent His church to "Jerusalem...Judea...Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

   5. Lost sheep. Jesus calls these unbelievers "lost sheep" to indicate that—although they were "sheep" of a sort in that outwardly they were members of the covenant community and so should have received salvation by faith—they had not been saved so were in fact "lost." And if some of the Jews were "lost," how much more are the Gentiles lost to whom the church has been sent today? Like a little boy who refused to follow his parents in Wal-Mart and ran away through the clothes section only to discover he was left without friends or familiar faces in a vast sea of people and things, unbelievers are "lost sheep." You were sent to them.

2. The Preaching v. 7. Second, you need to know the preaching work; the message with which Christ sends you.

   1. Text

      1. 7 And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

   2. "The kingdom of the Messiah, who is the Lord from heaven, is now to be set up according to the scriptures,"¹ therefore men must repent of their sins in order to be received into the privileges of that kingdom. Christ can and will reign in men's lives and has power to save them from their sins, and so calls those who hear this good news to believe in Him as their Savior. This message is the gospel of salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. This is how the apostles preached this message, according to Mark 6:12. When Christ the King came in His earthly ministry He established His spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men, bringing salvation near. The major lines of God's plan of salvation run through this one theme of "the kingdom of heaven," and for that reason our VBS program this year is titled "The King Is Coming!" Know the preaching work Christ has sent you to do.

3. The Power v. 8. Third, know the power Christ gives for this work.

   1. Text

      1. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.

   2. Christ gave them power to work miracles for the confirmation of their doctrine. "This is not necessary now the kingdom of God is come; to call for miracles now is to lay again the foundation when the building is reared."² While the extraordinary, miraculous gifts have ceased, God still works powerfully by His word and Spirit and through the ordinary gifts He has given to the church. Christ's instructions regarding this power's purpose and pay remain applicable today.

      1. Purpose. The purpose of the power Christ gave to His apostles, and which He has given to the church today, is to do good. Fire from heaven would evoke shock and awe, fear of judgment came from the water turned to blood, and actual judgment through the death of Pharaoh's firstborn son, but the power of Christ's kingdom which we must exercise today is first and foremost to bless, and not to curse, to overcome evil with good, to do good to all, especially to those of the household of faith. To give our food to the hungry, to clothe the naked, house the homeless. Then your light shall go forth like the dawn, and healing shall quickly arise.

      2. Pay. The "pay" involved with this power is that there is no pay! Do good freely, without pay.

         • This will prevent you from becoming the servants of people's selfish desires; it prevents you from taking bribes.

         • What is more, the apostles and we show God's free grace when we bring the gospel free of charge, and give diaconal aid without asking anything in return. Just as the apostles freely received the power to heal, so we received the gospel without having to pay for it. Following Paul's example, when we send a missionary we fully fund his work so it is plain his purpose is to give, not to take. But in the process of establishing a church in a location, eventually that missionary will teach God's people to give to the work of ministry.

4. The Provision vv. 9-10. Fourth, know the provision the Lord has ordained. While the needy should never have to pay for works of mercy we do for them, the Lord will provide for those who do His work of ministry. Christ sent His apostles out for their short evangelistic expedition saying,

   1. Text

      1. 9 Acquire no gold nor silver nor copper for your belts, 10 no bag for your journey, nor two tunics nor sandals nor a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.

   2. The apostles were to make no provision for it themselves. In this way they would incur neither profit nor loss, for they were neither businessmen nor welfare agents; instead they were fishing for men. Christ guaranteed they would make it a short trip this time—probably 2-3 days—and learn to depend on God's providence.

   3. They were to expect to receive what they needed from those to whom they were sent. At this point in time, this provision amounted to merely a meal and a place to stay. Some people would be willing to share a meal with them; some would recognize they were doing good and were worthy of support. Here we find the seed and root of Paul's later teaching that "The laborer deserves his wages" (1 Tim. 5:18); that a pastor should be paid by his congregation. There is no contradiction between these two commands Christ gives: "Give without pay" and "the laborer deserves his food." We the church give the ministry of the gospel free of charge. When you give an offering, you are not paying the pastor; your check is not made out to me. You are giving to the Lord for His work of ministry, and you give it in the name and into the hands of His church. The church should pay the pastor, because he deserves pay for his work. But your offerings and the church's finances are for the work of ministry, and the pastor's salary must serve that higher purpose. And to honor Christ's command to "Give without pay" I believe a congregation must never remove missions from its budget, for that is where we most fully keep Christ's command to "Give without pay."

   4. Know the provision God has ordained, and trust the Lord will provide.

5. The Procedures vv. 11-15. Last, know the procedures Christ calls you to follow.

   1. Text

      1. 11 And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. 12 As you enter the house, greet it. 13 And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. 15 Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

   2. All unbelievers in general. First, the procedures we must follow toward all unbelievers in general.

      1. Inquire who is worthy. In strange towns & cities, inquire who is worthy. "And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart." We are sent to lost sheep, but among the lost we make a distinction. Some are better disposed to receive the gospel. This word "worthy" means someone who "fits" the gospel message. It implies that the apostles should ask who the upright and generally God-fearing people were in the place. They were sent to the lost sheep, but should seek first those sheep who were more willing to be found. The people who were willing to listen to the message and consider it, to search the scriptures to see if these things are true as the Bereans did, to humbly confess their sins, and trust in Christ as their Savior. Inquire for these people, not for the best place to live, to eat, etc. Stay in their house. That's what Christ told His disciples to do. But how do you find these people? Not merely by their reputation, but by their conversation.

      2. Greet the household. Go to the unbeliever's house, and greet them.

         • This begins the conversation well & opens the door for turning the conversation to spiritual things. It demonstrates your good intent. It helps you determine whether ministry can be done by how the greeting is received.

         • The typical greeting of the time was "Peace be unto you." This gospel prayer should be offered for all, just as the gospel is freely offered to all. But not all will truly receive peace with God. God causes some to receive the blessing of peace, and others to reject it. When you bring the gospel to a person, to a house, or a city, you should look for whether God works that initial friendly reception to your friendly greeting, and if He does, then use the door God has opened for you. If the people reject your greeting or the gospel, remember that you are still at peace with God, and a heated theological argument is rarely worth your time when you make your first contact with an unbeliever. Hold your peace and find a greener pasture. "Bless and do not curse!" (Rom. 12:14) I went door to door with a friend of mine in California. He was like a bulldog, browbeating those who were opposed to the gospel. He needed to present God's wrath in a sincere, winsome, and gripping way that results in conviction, but that's not what happened, and I tell you, if you lose the tenor of your greeting's "peace to you," they aren't offended by the gospel; they're offended by you. "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness!" (Is. 52:7) One of our neighbors is a Christian, but the principle still holds true—they greeted us, we greeted them, we showed them our house, they showed us theirs, I helped cut up their tree that fell down, they gave me a key to their house to check on it when they're out of town. Greet people with peace and see if they open the door a little wider.

   3. Toward refusers. But some will refuse you, your greeting, your message, and the Lord. How should you respond? In the course of a long-term ministry in a town, you should never give up hope that the Lord has yet more people in this city. But in the short term, at times you must decide it's time to give up on one person and move on. To give up on this town and go to the next one. Christ said "shake off the dust from your feet when you leave." Don't linger long enough to approve of or take part in their wickedness. But also know you can wash your hands of their guilt; you aren't guilty for their sins. And know God will certainly punish those who reject Him out of their wickedness. "Our God shall surely come, and silence shall not keep;" and will judge the sins of men on the final judgment day. There will be different degrees of punishment in that day, for the condemnation of those who reject the gospel will be greater and more unbearable than that of Sodom and Gomorrah, who rejected the Lord in an age of ignorance, while we live in the gospel's full light of day.

   4. Tracing Grace. When we present the gospel in evangelism we must do what Dr. Henry Krabbendam calls "tracing grace." Seek out those who have a measure of common grace. When you greet them, notice whether they respond positively. When you tell them of God's good creation do they see its goodness? When you tell them of man's fall into sin, are they convicted? When you tell them of redemption through Christ, do they recognize His sufficiency to save? Do they recognize their need for Him? When you call them to repent and believe, to call on the name of the Lord, will they do it? Trace the work of God's grace in them to receive the gospel. If they answer "yes," then full speed ahead! If they answer a hostile "no," you have permission and it may even be best to leave in peace.

   5. Examples. This is what we do in practice, whether you recognize it or not.

      1. In our church planting and foreign mission work, the OPC identifies a group of people who want to start a Reformed church, and seeks to work with them first.

      2. In our hut-to-hut evangelism in Uganda we greeted people at length as is their custom, and found out whether they had time to talk.

      3. On the Lummi Indian reservation in Washington State, through honesty, kindness, and the gospel itself, the PCA has slowly gained the trust of the tribal council, Veterans Affairs administrator, the school principal, and this has opened an incredible opportunity for long-term ministry among their people.

      4. In Caney simply in the course of life and ministry I've sought out the city administrator, school superintendent and principal, and begun to learn what leaders, businesses and neighbors are interested in interacting in general, and facilitating or even joining in Christian ministry in particular.

      5. When I asked two bartenders in Independence whether I could post a flier about the concert we just had, one said "sure;" the other said "I don't think so." So I posted a flier in the one place, and to the other bartender I said "No problem; have a good day!"

      6. As Bob and I visit new residents we need to go back and follow up with the ones who need the Lord or need the church and were willing to talk and are interested in learning more. Those are the live prospects—ripe fruit in the Lord's harvest—and we need to pursue them for God's glory and their good.