Matt 10:1–15 — The Mission To Israel

Matthew 10:1–15 describes a mission directed specifically to Israel. Jesus tells the apostles not to go among the Gentiles or enter Samaritan towns, but to seek the lost sheep of Israel. He commands them to perform signs, take no money or extra provisions, and depend entirely upon the hospitality of those who receive them. These instructions are so historically particular that they immediately raise a question: What does this passage have to do with Christians today?

God revealed himself in history. He called Abraham, delivered Israel from Egypt, gave the law at Sinai, sent prophets to warn his people, and eventually drove them into exile for their apostasy. Much of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel addresses that exile. Yet the prophets also promised that the Messiah would redeem Israel, restore God’s people, and establish a new covenant.

Many biblical commands likewise reflect their historical setting. The prohibition against coveting a neighbor’s donkey may sound remote from modern life, yet it expresses an abiding moral principle. In the same way, the mission to Israel contains unique redemptive-historical features alongside enduring gospel truths.

Matthew 9:36–38 provided the transition. Jesus saw the crowds as downcast and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. His public ministry now enters a new stage as he sends the Twelve to extend his work throughout Israel.

Some features of this mission are unrepeatable: performing signs and wonders, restricting the mission to Israel, and traveling without money, a bag, extra clothing, sandals, or a staff. These commands belonged to this particular mission at this particular point in redemptive history.

Other features continue in the Great Commission. After his resurrection, Jesus sends the church to make disciples of all nations. The geographical restriction and travel instructions disappear, but the gospel remains the same. The expectation of opposition and the duty to confess Christ also remain throughout the church age. This passage therefore unfolds under three headings: the authority of the mission, its focus, and the response it demands.

The Authority of the Mission

Verse 1 says, “He called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction.” Matthew then calls these men “apostles,” a term that identifies them as authorized representatives sent by Christ.

Authority Derived From Christ

The word “authority” is important throughout Matthew. At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds marvel because Jesus teaches as one having authority (Matt. 7:29). When he heals the paralytic, he declares that “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matt. 9:6). Jesus possesses authority as the Messiah, authoritative Teacher, and Savior who dispenses forgiveness.

He now grants authority to the apostles so that they may represent him and continue his ministry. Their authority is not independent or inherent. They function as delegates—the authorized legal agents of the one who sends them. They possess only the authority Christ gives.

Their mission exactly reflects his twofold ministry. Matthew 9:35 says that Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom and healed every disease and affliction. The apostles receive the same commission. Verse 7 commands them to announce, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand,” while verse 1 authorizes them to cast out demons and heal the sick.

Their miraculous authority is subordinate to the gospel proclamation. The signs accompany and confirm the message that God’s kingdom has come in Jesus. As Christ later says, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” The apostolic signs likewise testify that the kingdom has arrived in Christ’s person and work.

The apostles therefore extend and amplify the real presence of Jesus. Like Atlas bearing the world in ancient mythology, Jesus is the kingdom-bearer. Because the King is present, the kingdom is present. The apostles do not draw attention to their own power; they bear witness to Christ’s reign.

The Focus of the Mission

Verses 5–6 say, “These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’” The restriction sounds startling because the church has long included Gentiles. Matthew’s original readers would also have felt its force. By the time he wrote, the Jerusalem church had welcomed Gentiles for decades and had determined that they did not need circumcision to belong to God’s people.

A Temporary Restriction

The prohibition was clearly temporary. Matthew 8 already anticipates Gentile inclusion. Jesus praises the Roman centurion’s faith and says that many will come from east and west to recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 24:14 declares that the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. The risen Christ finally commands, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19).

Why, then, did the first mission exclude Gentiles and Samaritans? The gospel had to be preached first to Israel to demonstrate that it fulfilled God’s covenant promises. The prophets had promised the restoration of Israel under a new covenant, and this mission announced that fulfillment.

Israel’s exile dominates much of the prophetic literature. The people broke God’s law and pursued idolatry. Jerusalem fell, the temple burned, many died, and the survivors were carried to Babylon. At that darkest moment, God promised through the prophets that the Messiah would come, restore Israel, gather God’s people, and establish the new covenant.

Israel later returned to the land and rebuilt the temple, but the people knew that the prophetic hope had not reached its fullness. The promised restoration had to be greater than rebuilding a stone temple or returning to a piece of earthly territory. By sending the apostles to Israel, Jesus announces that the promises are now being fulfilled in a deeper and unexpected way.

The healings and exorcisms display the spiritual character of this restoration. Israel’s deepest problem was not merely geographical displacement or a ruined building. It was captivity to sin and Satan. Jesus came to deliver his people from that bondage and bring them into his kingdom of salvation. His name means that the Lord saves, “for he will save his people from their sins.”

To the Jew First and Also to the Gentile

Gentile Christians should rejoice in this original mission to Israel because it demonstrates God’s faithfulness. Paul says in Romans 15:8, “Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs.” Christ’s ministry to Israel proves that when God makes a promise, he does not lie.

The next part of Paul’s argument adds that the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. The gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” God’s faithfulness to Israel’s covenant promises establishes the foundation of Gentile hope. If he were unfaithful to Israel, there would be no basis for trusting his gospel promises to anyone else.

The church is therefore not a replacement for Israel. It is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel, with Gentiles grafted by effectual calling into the covenant people. Christ first confirms the promises to the patriarchs and then extends their blessings to the nations.

The Kingdom Message

Verses 7–8 command, “Proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.” The apostles preach the same message as Jesus and imitate his word-and-deed ministry. Yet their miracles do not attest their own greatness. They attest Christ’s authority.

To announce that the kingdom is at hand is to announce that Jesus is the Messiah. The kingdom has drawn near because its King is present. The apostles are sent to bear witness to his person and saving work.

The Response to the Mission

Jesus gives highly specific travel instructions in verses 9–10: “Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food.” The final clause explains the arrangement. The disciples must travel empty-handed so that they depend upon the hospitality of Israel.

Their helpless condition compels each town and household to respond. Some will open their doors, provide food and lodging, and welcome the messengers. Others will close their doors and send them away. Receiving the apostles demonstrates receptivity to their message and ultimately to Christ; rejecting them demonstrates unbelief.

Worthy Households and a Free Gospel

Verses 11–13 say:

Whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

“Worthy” does not refer to moral merit. A worthy household is believing and receptive toward Christ’s apostles and therefore toward Christ himself. “House” refers not merely to the building but to the family within it. A receptive household receives Christ’s peace and becomes part of the scattered flock being gathered around him.

The mission’s gracious character appears in verse 8: “You received without paying; give without pay,” or, “Freely you received; freely give.” The gospel is free. The blessings of the kingdom are not wages earned by works but gifts received through faith.

Rejection and Judgment

Verses 14–15 warn:

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. 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.

Eternal destiny hangs upon the response to Christ’s authorized witnesses. Rejecting their words and refusing them hospitality amounts to rejecting Christ and his gospel.

The principle resembles the treatment of a royal envoy. If a king sends an ambassador and another nation imprisons, abuses, or shamefully rejects that representative, the offense is directed against the king himself. The apostles bear Christ’s delegated authority, so receiving or rejecting them is receiving or rejecting the one who sent them.

The Kingdom Was Not Postponed

This passage refutes the dispensational claim that Jesus offered Israel an earthly millennial kingdom, that Israel rejected the offer, and that the kingdom was consequently postponed until after the church age. According to that scheme, God will resume a separate earthly program with Israel after the church is removed.

The text, however, presents a dual response. Some Jews believe, while others do not. Many lost sheep are gathered, and Jesus says that the harvest is plentiful. Israel did not respond with universal rejection.

The rest of the New Testament confirms this. Jesus’ followers included not only the Twelve but many women and other disciples. Acts 1 describes approximately 120 believers gathered in Jerusalem, including men who had accompanied Jesus’ ministry and were eligible to replace Judas. First Corinthians 15:6 records that the risen Christ appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once.

The first church was the Jewish church in Jerusalem. From that covenant remnant, the gospel went to the nations. Jesus says in Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The temporary prohibition concerning Samaria was removed, and Gentiles joined the Jewish church rather than replacing it.

The kingdom was not withdrawn or postponed. Jesus commanded the apostles to preach that it had drawn near because he, its King, was present. Those who believed their message received the kingdom. It is fundamentally a spiritual reality: salvation, forgiveness, and the hope of resurrection life. The kingdom will indeed receive a visible and physical consummation when Christ destroys sin and death and renews creation, but it was inaugurated through his first coming, death, and resurrection.

The Apostolic Foundation Is Unrepeatable

This passage also refutes the teaching often associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, including Bethel Church, that apostolic authority, continuing prophecy, and attesting signs and wonders should continue today. Such movements appeal to Matthew 10:1 as though believers today possess the same commission and miraculous authority as the Twelve.

The miracle-working apostolate belonged to the once-for-all foundation of the church. It began with the mission to Israel and continued through the initial gathering of the Gentiles. Jesus personally “gave them authority.” No one living today can claim the same direct commissioning to serve as an apostle with authority over unclean spirits and every disease.

The apostolic office is an unrepeatable redemptive-historical reality, just as Christ’s cross, resurrection, and ascension are unrepeatable. The canon of Scripture is closed, so the church no longer needs signs and wonders to attest new prophets or additional revelation.

This does not mean that God cannot answer prayer by healing someone with cancer or performing another extraordinary act of providence. He can. The point concerns miracles in the biblical sense of attesting “signs and wonders”—works that certify a prophet or apostle as divinely sent and authenticate new revelation. With the apostolic witness complete and preserved in Scripture, such attestation is no longer needed.

Paul says in Ephesians 2:20 that the household of God is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” The apostles laid the church’s doctrinal foundation, and their writings have been gathered in the New Testament. The Old Testament provides the prophetic witness anticipating Christ, and the New Testament gives the authoritative apostolic witness interpreting his person and work.

God may use deeply flawed teachers to bring someone to faith when they happen to speak truly about Christ’s death for sinners. God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick. Nevertheless, those who claim present-day prophetic or apostolic authority apart from the once-for-all scriptural foundation must be rejected as false prophets.

First Corinthians 3:10–11 provides the governing principle: “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Some build with materials that will perish in judgment; others build faithfully with teaching that accords with apostolic doctrine.

The church must therefore build carefully upon the foundation already laid. Christ authorized the apostles for their unique place in redemptive history, and through their completed witness the church possesses everything necessary to proclaim the same gospel of the kingdom to all nations.