At the very beginning of the tenth chapter of Matthew, Jesus calls his disciples together and gives them authority to do some rather remarkable work. He allows them to drive out evil spirits and to heal all sorts of diseases.

We saw this same authority at work in the previous chapters. But there, it was Jesus who healed and who cast out demons. Every time he raised up someone who was sick or lame, or ordered a demon to depart, Jesus proved that he had the authority that only God possessed.

I can understand when Jesus heals. But now in chapter ten, when he gives some of that authority to the disciples, I have to stop for a moment, because the thought of these disciples healing people raises some questions.

For a lot of Bible students, especially those just getting used to the idea of studying scripture for ourselves, the thought of questions may be a little uncomfortable.

We aren’t supposed to be asking questions. We’re supposed to know the answers.

But questions are the way we find those answers. They point your brain in the right direction, where you can find the information that you need.

Not every question is brilliant, and not every question will lead to an interesting observation. But something happens when you let your brain slow down and look more closely at a passage.

There is another way to approach Bible study. You can read a book or listen to someone else teach you. Jeff takes that approach when he provides a background study. He looks in the notes of his Bible, checks in commentaries, looks to see what other writers have said.

It’s a great way to learn scripture. But these few lessons on studying the Bible for yourself are aimed at helping you see scripture for yourself. When you are just sitting with your open Bible in your lap, you want to be able to hear what scripture has to say, without needing to have someone else explain it to you.

You can still go on to consult the experts when you get stuck. But the first step is to look at scripture for yourself.

Enough talk. Let’s ask questions.

So in the beginning of chapter ten, Jesus hands some of his authority to his disciples. They will heal and cast out demons, just as he has.

So my brain wonders why he did that. That’s my question. Why?

There are two clues here, right in the first ten verses or so. One is authority. Remember the Roman officer who believed that Jesus could heal with a word? That was chapter eight.

Jesus didn’t have to come to the officer’s house. Jesus would give the order, and it would be carried out. The servant would be healed, because Jesus had the authority to command the sickness to go.

In a way, this is the same. The disciples are just one more proof of Jesus’ authority to command from a distance. The disciples can’t do anything like this on their own. They can only heal through the power of Jesus that reaches through a bunch of fishermen, tax accountants, and other assorted ordinary people.

That will be good news for the disciples of later generations, when Jesus is no longer on earth to heal the sick. When he grants his authority to his disciples, he doesn’t have to be nearby.

The other clue stands out in verse eight. The disciples have received from Jesus, and now they must give back. So the effects that fall on this small group of believers must be passed on to anyone else who will follow Jesus.

The alternative is to huddle in a small group and think how lucky we are to be Christians. But apparently discipleship carries a responsibility to give this same gift on to someone else, whether in kindness, mercy, healing, or preaching.

So let’s see how our experiment worked. We asked why Jesus did what he did, and we found two very simple truths that we can now apply to our own lives, that Jesus has the authority to work in our lives and that we have to give back in the same way that we have received.

That’s what a simple question can do.

Let’s try again.

Verses twenty-six and twenty-seven say that nothing hidden will remain hidden, and that we are to speak openly what we hear in secret.

What does this mean?

That’s kind of a general question, too. First we asked why, and now we ask what.

Let’s do a little analysis, and see what we come up with.

We can find some verses before this passage that talk about opposition to the message of the kingdom. Apparently some people don’t care for the gospel, and they will do some ugly things to silence it.

The disciples will be arrested, dragged off to court, beaten, and accused of all sorts of evil motives. Jesus tells them that the Holy Spirit will speak through them, and if the danger becomes too great, they must simply run to the next audience and begin again.

But what about the effect of the gospel? Will it do any good? What if the opposition becomes too great? What if the message is silenced?

For this, we come to the first of our verses in question. They sound like a proverb. Nothing will be hidden. Everything will come out. Every secret, perhaps. Every hidden sin.

That would be one possibility, and in fact, you hear it quoted this way. Every hidden sin will be found out.

But in this case, what is being hidden? People are trying to bury the gospel. The message of Christ is the topic here. Jesus says that it won’t work to try to hide the gospel.

Let’s say that verse in another way. No testimony will be buried. The smallest voice of the smallest disciple, when it is raised up, will be heard.

So if a school board tries to avoid the issue of faith in schools, the gospel will still be preached. If a church is forced to close its doors, the message will travel by other means until people hear the gospel of Christ.

This is not a warning. Well, it is. But this is also a promise for anyone who wants to speak up for Christ. Raise your voice. Even if it seems to be drowned out in the noise around you, every word of the gospel will still be lifted up, in some way.

So what about the word whispered in secret?

To answer this question, we’ll depend upon our abnormally great powers to sit and think for a moment. Jesus is talking about the words he tells us. I know that because the verse says exactly that, in words that even I can understand.

Those words come to us in quiet moments, when we sit alone with God and read or pray. They come at night, in the dark. They come in a very quiet voice, as if God whispers them to us.

Those things that he tells us, they ought to be passed on to the world around us. Maybe some things are just for us. Maybe some things might not make sense to the rest of the world. But some of what we know, or most of what we know, ought to be told to the world.

Even if they don’t want to know. Even if it is difficult, or dangerous, or foolish.

So be quick to tell people what God tells you in secret.

That raises another question. How much of this responsibility falls on me? Was this job of telling the world about Jesus just something that God reserved for the best and brightest of the disciples? Or do I get caught up in the same command?

Not everyone is called to be a preacher, but this chapter says something about the responsibility of disciples. This group wasn’t ready to be sent out, but out they went. Even Judas went out with the authority of Jesus on his shoulders.

And he definitely wasn’t ready.

Well, that’s enough for now. But there is one question that might deserve some thought. Check out verses 32 through 39. And the verse in question is this:

            Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

What brought that on? Aren’t we supposed to love our father and mother? What point was Jesus trying to make?

The answer is easy. It isn’t dangerous, and it isn’t cruel. It’s simple.

You can figure it out. Look at the entire passage.

And if a question comes to mind, ask it.