Expository sermon on Mathew 10:1 to 4

1. The Master’s men - Part 2
Introduction 2nd part
Mathew 10:1 to 4

2. INTRODUCTION to the topic and contextual background
Our world requires certain standards to be
met if a certain position is to be occupied.
However when we look at the 12 that
.
Jesus chose to be those that would help
him spread the Gospel, we can see that
they are just ordinary men who are
imperfect just like you and me and they
are but a few. Yet by God’s grace we can
see these committed men accomplish
great things for Christ. This has always
been God’s way when he choose to
accomplish things through the
undeserving and the few in order that his
name might be glorified. Mathew Chapter
10 is all about the 3rd phase of Jesus
training of these twelve men, their
internship.

3. A number of things can be learned from this list of names:
1.) Peter mentioned first - In the four New Testament lists of the apostles (Matt.
10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; and Acts) Peter is always named first. First
does not refer to the .first one called but refers his being “foremost in rank.”
They were all equal in terms of divine commissioning, authority and power, but
they had a leader.
2.) All four lists of the apostles are divided into the same three subgroups –
- The first group includes Peter, Andrew, James, and John;
- The second includes Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew; and
- The third includes James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the
Zealot, and Judas Iscariot.

4. - The names are in different orders within the groups, but they always include
the same four names and the first name in each group is always the same,
suggesting that each group had its own identity and leader.
- The first group includes those Jesus called first (though not in the individual
.
order), the second includes those He called next, and the third group those He
called last.
- We know a great deal about the men in the first group, much less about those
in the second, and almost nothing about those in the third except for Judas
- There is also decreasing intimacy with Jesus. The first four constituted
Jesus’ inner circle of disciples; Little is said about His direct instruction or work
with the second group, and almost nothing about close contact with the third.
- The first group included two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James
and John, all of whom were fishermen. Matthew was a tax collector, but we
know nothing of the occupations of any of the other seven.

5. 3.) They had different temperaments
Peter, for example, was impulsive, a
natural leader, and a. man of action.
John, on the other hand, appears to
have become quiet. In the first
twelve chapters of Acts we read of
Peter and John working closely
together during the early days of the
church. It must have been a helpful
learning experience for both of them,
with Peter anxious to charge ahead
and John wanting to think things
over first. Peter did all the
preaching.Thomas was skeptical
and Simon the Zealot was a radical