Your first solo trip to the shop for your mother, the pride, the banknote in your fist, the feeling of being let into the adult world. That image opens a reflection on twelve ordinary people whom Jesus called the sent ones (Matthew 10): provincials, a tax collector, a zealot, a sceptic, people no chronicler would have mentioned. The sermon shows that their identity rested not on competence but on who sent them, and that the same identity belongs to every disciple of Jesus, along with the price it carries. Listen, and ask who around you knows why you live the way you do.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- Jesus chooses fishermen, Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot to be among the Twelve. What does this choice say about whom God sends and what the success of the mission depends on?
- Why, according to Matthew 10, does Jesus forbid the disciples to take gold, silver, a bag or a second tunic? What was this meant to teach them about depending on Him?
- Only in chapter 10 does Matthew call the disciples apostles, meaning those who are sent. How does it change the way you see yourself to know that being sent is part of the identity of every follower of Jesus?
- The sermon says that today a glimpse of God's Kingdom is often a transformed life, for example someone who stops drinking after many years. Where do you see that kind of transformation in your life or in the lives of people close to you?
- Jesus warns that the good news will bring conflict, even within families. How do you understand the claim that a complete lack of tension around you may mean that few people know about your relationship with Jesus?
- Who around you could you tell this week, in person over a meal rather than online, what Jesus has changed in your life?
