Hello again, 

I started a series on Who is the Son of God where I would like to address the deity, essence, and role of Jesus Christ starting with surface level and basics of what/who God is and break down Jesus explaination of concepts and parables that may be really difficult to understand or grasp. And that is coming up shortly after this post.

But, I also want you to get to know my drive and reasoning for wanting to start a brand and series centered around the topic to explain why spreading the Word is important and can even be impactful with this approach of Christian clothing.

There are a few scriptures on my mind that I want to discuss. We can talk about a scripture for spreading the Word and then in the next post about another scripture that Jesus said to His disciples about God. 

Spread the Word is the tagline for John 1:1 Co. and it would be good to understand why we should spread the word and WHO we are spreading the word to? Who should hear the word?

—

Matthew 10:5-7

5 Jesus sent these twelve out with the following instructions: “Don’t go among people who are not Jewish or into any Samaritan city. 6 Instead, go to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel. 7 As you go, spread this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

—

It’s really funny because Jesus instructs the 12 on where to go and where not to go, namely, not to go to any Samaritan city but instead to lost sheep of Israel. Interesting... However, in John 4, starting with the story of the Samaritan woman, it says that Jesus wanted to get to Galilee but needed to go through Samaria, where Israel's (Jacobs) well was located. And He ended up resting there- in the place He had charged the 12 not to go. This Samaritan woman, convinced she met “the Christ”, proclaimed to the people in the city of the encounter she had, and them believing her, then beseeched Jesus to remain and abide with them, which He did for two days (of course He would because Jesus receives sinners and eats with them- Luke 15:1-2).

Some could look at this connection between these two scriptures in Matthew 10 and John 4 and say that Jesus contradicted Himself but it is not possible based on a few reasons:

It is a fact that the woman at the well encounter (27 AD) happened two years before the sending out of the twelve (29 AD). 

You might be able to justify that maybe Jesus changed His manner of teaching or did something different after two years of ministry since the woman at the well encounter, but fortunately, Jesus continued to encounter Samaritans after this saying of His in Matthew 10:5 and He performed miracles for them even up until right before He went to Jerusalem to be crucified. 

• Jesus cleansing ten lepers in Luke 17:12-19 (30 AD) : 

"12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

• Parable of Good Samaritan in Luke 10 which reinforces the idea of how people can do good things for others without having the outward appearance or proper role/title as a Jew.

So what does Jesus want us to know or understand?

—

Romans 2:28-29: 

“28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.”

—

I encourage you to read this whole chapter and the two chapters after (3 and 4) to hear Paul's teaching. Jesus did not tell the disciples to do one thing and Himself acted the complete opposite. The meaning is deeper than surface level or physical appearance. 

So, going back to Matthew 10:5-7, Jesus charged them to go into the world to spread, or in other translations it says to preach (meaning to herald or proclaim publicly), a message that the kingdom of heaven is near. We are getting closer to what the gospel means but now it is established who we are spreading the word to- Jews who are inwardly circumcised and would be impossible to tell by outward appearance. 

The tricky thing about this is that your role as someone who is preaching (or spreading) does not mean that everyone who hears your message is a Jew, but 1 out of the 10 who hears just might be and so our hope is that the one who takes heed may come and fall at His feet giving thanks like the Samaritan and that the one may go and tell the whole city and ask the Lord to dwell with them.

I’m driven to spread the word much because of the command in Mark 16 saying, “15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”, and Im also insprired those who are in societies that struggle in a lot of different ways: are forbidden to believe in anything that threatens their governments power, forbidden from reading the bible, and are persecuted for such things. These are those who know they are in need of a savior and they risk their lives daily for the gospel.

I feel called to go find the one out of the ten and to encourage others to engage with Jesus' command the same way. Let's spread the word!

Thank you for listening and supporting and I'll see you in the next post!

Much love <3,

Mishelle