Opus 2025-546: What Did the Disciples Preach?

I think this may be one of those TL:DR posts.

I get asked this question at least once a discussion with my King James Only friend.  He does not really want an answer because he will immediately follow it up with, “Did they preach the death, burial and resurrection?”  He has an agenda and follows it religiously, if you will excuse the expression.  Usually I just say, “We don’t know.”  This time I decided that was not a good answer.

If you are not a Bible student, Jesus sends His twelve disciples out to preach in Matthew chapter 10.   Matthew has 28 chapters so this is early in His ministry and the Disciples still have a lot to learn.  Since Jesus has not mentioned His death at this point they obviously could not preach on that.  What did He tell them,

(Mat 10:7 KJV)  And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

That is about all He says in regard to the preaching.  That would make for a short sermon.  I had this brilliant insight:  There are nine chapters before this.  Could it be that Jesus taught them some things that they could preach about?

So I did some Bible study.  That is not a bad idea when you have a question.

Chapter 1

Did the disciples know about the birth of Jesus?  Did they know what the Angel told Moses about Him saving His people from his sins?  Were they aware of the quote from Isaiah?  We don’t know.  It’s possible this might’ve been part of their message.

Chapter 2.

Nothing.

Chapter 3

You have the preaching of John the Baptist.  That would include his announcement that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  It would include his prophecy that the Messiah is coming.  It would include his interaction with Jesus.  It also could include the voice of God coming from heaven, and declaring that Jesus was his beloved son.  Who knows what else John touched on.  He had the entire Old Testament to work with.  Good material for a sermon.

Chapter 4

You have the temptation of Jesus by Satan.  He might’ve shared this with the disciples. It doesn’t have him talking about it in the chapter, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t come up somewhere along the line.

You also have Jesus declaring the need to repent because the kingdom of heaven was at hand.  So we have repentance, similar to what John the Baptist was talking about.  If you go to Paul in front of Agrippa, you’ll find him also talking about repentance,

(Act 26:20 KJV)  But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

So this is not just some Old Testament reference.

Chapters 5 - 7

The Sermon on the Mount.  This is loaded with teaching.  This would give the disciples all kinds of things to talk about.  These are practical matters, dealing with every day living and how to live an upright life.  Tie these lessons with the concept of repentance and you have plenty of sermons to last you for your first journey.

Chapter 8

Jesus told the leper to follow the law and go to the priest.  This was more than teaching the law.  Lepers were required to see a priest to be declared cured.

Then we have the centurion coming to Jesus, and we see first of all that Jesus was going to go to his house, and that violated the law or at least the law as taught by the Rabbis.  Then He equated the faith of the centurion as being superior to that of the Jews, and you have the final passage where He basically says that the children of the kingdom will be replaced by people coming from the east and west.

Then you have some statements about what it means to follow Jesus, the cost of discipleship.

Then you have Him quitting the storm and making them wonder about Him..

You have the demons calling Him the Son of God.  And you have Him casting out demons.  Good sermon illustrations here

Chapter 9

You have Him forgiving sins.

You have a statement about how He wants compassion rather than sacrifice.

You have that interesting passage about new wine skins.

You have a woman healed and He tells her that it’s her faith that healed her.

He healed some other men based on their faith.

Do you have enough material yet to preach?

Chapter 10,

And now He sends out the 12 disciples.  His recorded directions are rather brief:  Cast out demons and heal diseases.  At this time they’re told to stay in the Jewish area and not go to the Gentiles or Samaritans.

His teaching goes on through chapter 10 and He doesn’t actually send them out until chapter 11.  There’s a lot in here.  What I’m not seeing up to this point is any lesson upon the fact that He’s going to die and rise again.  That will come later, but at this point there is no death, burial or resurrection to be taught because He hasn’t taught them that yet.

I feel like that answers the basic question of what did they preach.  It doesn’t seem to be a secret.

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