Some of this is easy enough to understand. The Lord was winning nominal followers all over Galilee. There were more and more people earnestly wondering about their souls, and seeking the truth. There were more and more who were beginning to understand that Jesus could be the Messiah. And out from among them were these disciples – these the Apostles of Christ. As they came to their appointed cities, they were to seek for like-minded residents, with whom to stay. They were not to be bouncing around from house to house, draining the hospitality of each – “there abide till ye go thence.” Then as representatives of the High Priest of God, they were to bless their hosts and their host cities. However, if they were not welcomed, then just the opposite might be given to them. “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.”
The business of “shaking off the dust” is mysterious but intriguing. To the best of my knowledge this is to be found in only one other scripture and not in the Old Testament. So what does it mean? Was there some extra-Biblical social context to which it refers? The Pharisaic Jews believed that even the dust of the Heathen was contaminated, so they washed constantly and dusted themselves of any foreign uncleanness. It seems unlikely that was our Lord’s opinion, but even if it wasn’t, the Jews probably would have understood the symbolism in that sort of way. Perhaps a more plausible idea is that by shaking off the dust of their feet, they were symbolically declaring that there was absolutely nothing tying them together, not even the ground upon which they had stood. If the Apostles had water with which to bathe or wash their hands they might have used that to illustrate the same sort of thing, but ordinarily that wouldn’t have been available.
We find this kind of behaviour described only once, not by one of these twelve, but by one of their successors. In Acts 13 Paul did what the Lord told these men to do, and the circumstances were almost identical to what Christ describes. Acts 13:44-52 – “And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.”
Since there isn’t very much to analyze in Matthew 10, and since Paul apparently was doing what the Lord told him to do, I thought that we’d compare the command with Acts 13 for our Bible study this evening. Paul had a commission and obligation to sow the seed over every inch of the city of Antioch. But when the Jews hardened their hearts against it, like a wise farmer, Paul knew that it was time to make sure the seed reached better soil. “Lo we turn to the Gentiles.” “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”
This evening I’d like you to think about what the Jews did to deserve this symbolic treatment. Paul said that they “judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life.” Isn’t that a rather odd statement? Clearly, Paul was saying that they didn’t want what he had to offer them as an ambassador of the Lord. But how could anyone in reasonable mind and health not want everlasting life? Possibly, they didn’t understand the meaning of “eternal life.”
So let’s consider THE LIFE.
The Gospel of John may not be the only place in the Bible where we can study the subject of everlasting life, but it is the book that reveals it most thoroughly. And in John 5:39 the Lord Jesus made a significant statement: “The Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” The Jews, like so many church-going Christians in these last days, thought that their possession of the Word of God either somehow proved, or earned, God’s eternal love and blessings. “We have a King James Bible on our coffee table at home; that means that we are Christians.” “We go to church several times a year, so that means we must be going to heaven too.” “We had our children christened and so they became recipients of God’s covenant blessings just as we did when our parents christened us.” It wasn’t that the Jews believed that the scriptures contained the doctrine of eternal life, or the promises, or the way to eternal life. They believed that by having these writings in their hands, and by their reading them, and by hearing them expounded every sabbath day, these things obtained for them life-everlasting. This is what the Galileans believed when Jesus sent out His disciples. But the Lord Jesus contradicted the thought by saying that the scriptures only revealed eternal life by testifying of Him. And to reject Christ is to reject salvation from sin and thus to reject eternal life
It amazes me that otherwise sane men argue about the definition of the words “eternal” and “everlasting.” There are theologians, quoting Greek, who say that the word means only “age-long.” I won’t waste your time this evening, except to say that the Greek word used to describe the eternal God is used to describe eternal life – after all the second is derived from the first. I Timothy 1:17 – “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” Romans 16 – “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. “
Suffice it to say that eternal life – everlasting life – is talking about never-ending life beyond this earthly existence, which will be spent with the eternal God. Eternal life doesn’t necessarily begin after death, but it certainly extends beyond death. It stands in contrast to damnation, condemnation and eternal judgment: It required the sacrifice of the eternal Son of God. There can be eternal life for the elect because Christ sacrifice His eternal life for them. Only those whose faith is in Christ possess eternal life.
So as the Lord’s disciples went into those Galilean cities, and as Paul went throughout Asia, they carried with them the message of eternal life – in Christ. And what if the residents of those cities rejected that gospel message? As Paul put it….
They Judged themselves UNWORTHY of that everlasting life.
It wasn’t that they didn’t think that they were good enough. Like the average person in any age or culture, those Galileans imagined they were good enough for God. If their personal character wasn’t good enough, then they imagine that their religion was sufficient. If they aren’t as consistent in religion as they ought to be, then they think that their deficiency is overcome by their generosity and their hospitality. If this doesn’t do it, then they compare themselves with other sinners and unilaterally decide that God must certainly grade on a sliding scale and that they will squeeze through the door of Heaven. We have more ways of getting into Heaven than little boys have to get into trouble. Unfortunately it is all imaginary.
When Paul said that those Jews judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, he was obviously saying that this was a negative thing. But if the circumstances were changed so that a person truly judged HIMSELF unworthy – that would be a very good thing. And this may have been the difference between the Jews in Antioch and their Gentile counterparts. The Lord Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Paul said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”
The Holy Spirit had made the non-Jews in Antioch to realize that they didn’t have any righteousness. They couldn’t search the scriptures, because to Israel “pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” They had nothing but the vanity of their heathen religions. They did judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, and so when the evangelist told them that salvation was in Christ Jesus, they rejoiced to hear that the Lord might accept them anyway through Christ. But when they rejected the ambassadors of God, they condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life, and those servants of the Lord were to dust off their feet as a testimony against them.
Obviously, those unbelievers were telling the Lord’s twelve Apostles to take gospel of eternal life elsewhere. They were proving that they were not worthy to have the Gospel preached to them any more. They were fulfilling Old Testament scriptures, which said that the Good News should be taken to the Gentiles.
In the case of Acts 13, a great gift was given to the Heathen population of Antioch.
“Lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” A people which were not a people – not the people of God – were presented with the gospel. And we – you and I – have received it. Not all of us Gentiles, but many of us, have humbled ourselves before this gracious God. We have been grafted into the Lord’s olive tree and been permitted to produce fruit for the glory of God.
If the people of Galilee were not worthy of eternal life, then we who are children of Japheth are even less worthy. But the gospel is all about grace – the unmerited favour of the Lord. Not only is eternal life through the grace of God, so is even the divine revelation of that life. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
And as many as were ORDAINED to that eternal life BELIEVED.
The word “ordained” is the Greek “tasso,” and it simply means to “put in order” or “set apart.” It’s the word that we might use the word when speaking about ordaining a man to the ministry. I am told that “tasso” is a military word, as when a general orders his men into a certain formation in order to defend a position or to attack another position. This is not the word “elect” or “predestinate,” but it is obviously related.
Notice that the people who were ordained in this verse were passive in that ordination. They didn’t cause themselves to be ordained. Someone else set them in order; someone put them in line for eternal life. And Who was it that did that? Was it Paul or Barnabas? Was it any of the twelve back in Galilee? No. Was it the sinner himself? Again, no, they were all passive in that ordination. The One Who ordained these people to eternal life was the One to Whom eternal life belongs.
God sovereignly arranged that certain people in Antioch would receive eternal life. And those people who were set apart for eternal life believed the gospel. It wasn’t their faith which set them in order to receive the grace of God. It was the grace of God which set them in order to receive and even to believe. “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
When Christ sent out His Apostles, He knew exactly who would hear and receive their message, and He knew who would refuse. When the disciples dusted their feet before those unbelievers they were declaring that there wasn’t any real connection between them – certainly nothing really important. The Christian is a different kind of man than the lost; He is the citizen of a different and distinct kingdom. “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And if they will not hear or receive you, dust off your feet as a sign symbolizing the great difference between you. And then move on to another audience.