Commandment 43: Jesus Christ Is the Light of Life! Hallelujah!
“What I tell you in darkness speak ye in the light; and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye on the housetops.” Mt. 10:27
The proclamation of the Gospel brings light where darkness has prevailed. Though up until then Jesus had spoken privately unto his disciples when revealing the mysteries of the Kingdom, he now instructed them to take what he had given them in secret and proclaim it to the world from the rooftops. Jesus was sending his twelve apostles out for their first attempt at carrying the mission themselves without Him. Though we know little about the duration of their first journey, and less about the result, except to say they came back elated from seeing their own ministries flourish.
Luke chapter 9 records this sending out followed by their return and a brief retreat with Jesus into a desert place near Bethsaida. A multitude followed them there and a miracle took place in which the hungry crowd was fed with only five loaves and two fishes. Apparently, their recent mission trip paid off as Jesus sent them out into the crowd and the miracle took place at their hands.
It was during this time that they told Jesus how during their mission journey people were saying he was John Baptist, or Elias or one of the old prophets come back to life. It was also then that Peter declared his belief that Jesus was the Christ and he instructed them to tell no one else who he was. Afterwards he sent seventy other disciples out (Luke 10) and they returned likewise with a great report of their success in healing and in preaching the Good News of Christ.
I believe Matthew chapter ten primarily represents a prophetic vision of what was to come after Jesus' death, resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Before the victory at Calvary these things were to be hidden, but after Jesus hung on the cross, with his last breath he spoke these words: "It is finished." (Greek, teleō meaning completion). Having completed the work that God the Father had sent Him to accomplish, his disciples were sent to go forth and proclaim his great victory over the powers of darkness to a world bound in sin.
Yet the word of God which they proclaimed brought not only the message of Salvation but released the light of truth back into a world that had been smothered in darkness by Adam’s disobedience in the garden. Now, once again, that which could be known of God would be open and visible to those who wished to see. Isaiah had prophesied:
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined."
From the earliest writings of Scripture, Job's answer to Zophar the Naamathite reveals Job's prophetic understanding of the omniscient Lord:
"He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death." (Job 12:22)
The Apostle Paul would later write in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13; "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."
After the resurrection of Christ, the Comforter would come alongside of the disciples in their great task and bring to their remembrance all of those things which Jesus had taught them during their time together with him. So much so that when Peter and John were later brought before the rulers of the temple concerning an impotent man who had been healed by them, the council was astonished at their doctrine knowing they were not learned men, and they took note of the fact that "they had been with Jesus.”
The commission Jesus gave to the twelve disciples is still alive today for those called to serve God in the world. Our message of freedom in Christ from sin and death is no less powerful or profound now then it was in the days when Jesus walked the earth with his first disciples. Every time the word goes forth from God, it is the active force of truth and it never returns to Him void and empty. It always accomplishes what He desires wherever he sends it.
But how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent? (Rom. 10:14,15) Thus Jesus continues to call in every generation those who will boldly shout from the housetops that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
As followers of Christ, we must be always ready to give an account of why we believe what we believe. Whether the bright light is shining, or when the darkness closes in around us, it is the truth of God's Word that breaks the yoke of bondage from sin. And our testimonies are mighty to overcome the very powers of darkness themselves. Like the precious blood of God's Son, so are the words of our testimonies like water on the fiery darts of Satan. He cannot stand before a true believer who knows whom it is in whom he has believed.
Satan knows his days are numbered and as time closes in on him, he will do everything in his power to spread thick darkness upon the face of the earth. We must shout from the very housetops the mighty proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. We must shine like lights in the darkness and hold our banners high for all men to see.
Even the angels themselves stand in awe of God's Church and the wisdom of God, "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:" (Eph. 3: 10-11)
Yet our job is not to defend Christ. He needs no defense. We proclaim the powerful truth that He has overcome; that everything lost in the Garden of Eden was taken back on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus took the keys of death, hell and the grave and now He rules all things by the power of a sinless resurrected life. The grave could not contain Him and neither can it shut up those who are washed in the blood of the Lamb.
"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (1 Jn 5:4)
Craig Marlatt