How to Get a Prophets Reward Pt 1 (Matthew 10:40-42)

Introduction – A Problem

It hasn’t happened to me for about 5 years, but very occasionally after I’ve preached every once in a while, somebody will hear the sermon and after the service say to me I have a problem with what you preached. But a more common occurrence for me is that after giving a message I’ve gone back and listened to it and thought I’ve missed something out in all this. If you’ve been following along with me on this journey through Matthew you will know that over these last couple of days, I’ve been working through chapter 10 of Matthew where Jesus gives instructions to the apostles as he sends them out to preach in Israel. The point I was making yesterday as I looked at towards the end of that Commission that Jesus talked about, warned them in fact, about the fact that there was that suffering involved in service if you’re going to serve the Lord. I talked about such things as being falsely accused and getting into all kinds of conflict and then I tried to offer some encouragement by reminded you that Jesus himself said, not to be afraid because God’s in control but the big thing is that God is going to reward us for our service. So I got all done teaching and uploaded yesterday’s message it immediately hit me right between the eyes,  So I said to myself, let me see if I got this ,

1.  I’ve got to serve the Lord.

2. I’m going to face opposition and attack.

3. However I am going to be rewarded.

But then I had a problem because afterward I thought maybe I should have said something about does that mean you have to suffer to be rewarded. I know none of us are going to hope that answer is yes, but there are rewards awaiting and we’ll get rewarded, but if you suffer you get a bigger reward right and maybe that’s my problem. Because frankly when I compare what I’ve gone through in life compared to what others have gone through for the cause of Christ I can’t say that I’ve suffered.

You only have to read a book like Foxes book of Martyrs to know that what most of us have faced in life is nothing compared to the torture and persecution some have faced throughout church history. Or what some people face today in some countries around the world. So, the question I’m asking today is do we have to suffer to get the big reward. Well thankfully I don’t have to go back over the same verses again because I remembered that this commission of his disciples by Jesus isn’t finished yet and my problem got resolved by just reading the rest of the chapter. I think there’s an incredibly important spiritual issue revealed here in the closing verses of Ch 10

A Cup of Cold Water

Today I want to talk about rewards, and I want to tell you about how to gain, what I call a prophets reward, without even having to being a prophet.Can I draw you attention to Matthew chapter 10 and we’re going to pick up where we left off yesterday at verse 40. Jesus is speaking and he says.

40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

(Matthew 10: 40-42)

Very clearly this whole chapter is about Jesus sending out the apostles initially to what is called the House of Israel. We’ve learned a whole lot as we walk through this passage, granted some of the finer point do not apply to u, in fact some of it didn’t even permanently apply to them because when you get to chapter 28 he recommissioned these same apostles and sends them out to the very ends of the earth. Nevertheless, there are some spiritual truths and principles in this passage which we can learn a lot from. However, at the point we have arrived at in verse forty, he basically tells them two things.

Number one he says, “that he who receives you”. So, first of all he's going to talk about not just them but about those people who receive them. 

The second thing he does in this passage is he says, “they receives me”. So, he’s not talking directly to the apostles.  Those who receive you they are going to be rewarded and if they do it right, they’re going to get the same reward you do because he says in verse 41.

He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

(Matthew 10: 41)

Part of the point of this passage is that those of us who have received the son through the subsequent witness of other can get something he calls “a prophets reward“, without being a prophet themselves. That sounds simple enough, but there’s a little more involved and it’s that that we need to talk about. So let me go back to verse 40 for a second. In it he said.

“He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

(Matthew 10: 40)

This is talking about the fact that there are people who will receive the message that the apostles preach about Jesus Christ. So, if they receive the apostles, they received the messengers as it were then they are receiving the message who Jesus Christ is. But notice what he says if they receive you, they receive me and if they received me they received him who sent me. I’ve been sent by God the father, Jesus has said, and if they received the message, you give them, they’re accepting my message and they’re ultimately believing what God has said.

I think another illustration of this type of thinking is seen in the book of Jonah. You may recall the story, in that that God sent Jonah to Nineveh and he promptly did the exact opposite of that. God then got his attention turned him around and in Jonah chapter 3 says that Jonah went into Nineveh, and he preached, and he warned them that if they didn’t repent God was going to bring down judgment upon that city. The following verses tell us that the people of Nineveh believe God, it has always struck me as interesting that although Jonah doubted, the people got the message.

The apostle Paul says something similar in First Thessalonians he said to the Thessalonians and I quote,

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

(I Thessalonians 2: 13)

Paul says I came to Thessalonica and I preached and thankfully you didn’t receive what I said just as coming from me you took what I said as it came from God himself. You got the point and you believed that it was a word from God. Here Jesus says, I’m sending you out to preach but remember some are going to receive the message they’re going to receive it and when they do they have received me and they’re also going to receive the one who sent me, i.e. God. As someone who tries to proclaim the word of God that’s comes as a great comfort. I get all kinds of interesting comments on my sermons, particularly online, sometimes encouraging sometimes definitely not encouraging. But what I love most and encourages me the most is when someone simply says I found that helpful I now see what God is saying in this passage. That’s the highest compliment you can pay a deliverer of the message of God for someone to say, I got it I now see what God is saying here.

Jesus is saying that’s what’s going to happen when you go preach my word. So, I think receiving the message is part of what’s involved in verse 40 but I think there’s more here than that. Look at verse 40 again, “and he who receives me receives him who sent me”. The first time the word receive occurs in that verse it’s not the normal word for receive in the New Testament. There are two Greek words for received one means received like I hand you something and you receive it, but it is the second one that appears in verse 40 at the beginning. It is a word that means to welcome it has with it the connotation of welcoming you into a home it has the undertone of hospitality. Many who come to this passage conclude that that is what Jesus is talking about, no doubt he’s talking about them receiving the message that’s to be preached but beyond that some are going to receive the messenger with open arms. But look back up in chapter 10 and look at verse 11 where he says,

“Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. 12 And when you go into a household, greet it. 13 If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.

(Matthew 10: 11-14)

A big portion of what he said at the beginning of the disciples commission had to do with where they’re going to stay what they’re going to eat, their physical needs if you will. Jesus talks specifically as I just read about hospitality, so many have come to this passage and they’ve concluded that what Jesus is really saying is those who receive you into their home which means those that are assisting you in your travels and ministry. They are helping you with what God calls you to do, and by doing that, that person is receiving the Lord and receiving the one that sent him.

One author put it like this to pay respect to an ambassador has the same as to pay respect to the king who sent him, to welcome with love the messenger of a friend was the same as to welcome the friend himself. The Jews always felt that to honor a person’s representative with the same as to honor that person whose representative he was. This was particularly so in regard to wise men and to those who taught God’s word. 

You may recall in the Old Testament they were to tithe, and they would have bring the first fruits, the first portion of the crop and give it to the Lord, which actually meant they gave it to the priest, and that’s how he made his living and sustained himself. So buried in this word received used here is hospitality and the Rabbis said that if you gave hospitality to a teacher, you were doing the same thing as giving the first fruits of your products to the Lord. Therefore, verse 40 is telling us more than you are just receiving the message you are actually assisting the messenger and that’s the person who’s receiving the Lord and who is receiving the one who sent him. But now that is clarified in the next few verses it says,

41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

(Matthew 10: 41-42)

Immediately will notice that there are three different groups talked about here under four different names. He talks about a prophet in verse 41 along with a righteous man verse 41, Then he talks about one of “these little ones”, is obviously a disciple. He talking about three different groups of people the last of which is given two different names. Little one and or disciple or are they talking about the same person.

As you can imagine those are the two possibilities and there are people that want to defend each position fervently. I personally think he’s only talking about one person the whole passage is about sending out the apostle, but I think at this point he is viewing those apostles in one sense they are prophets and in another sense they are righteous men. Some feel that that means they are preaching righteousness the kind of righteousness we looked at when we went through the Sermon on the Mount, in another sense there are little ones, but he calls them the disciple in the very same statement. These apostles in a sense the messengers of God. In one sense they are thundering God’s prophetic message, yet in another sense they are preaching righteousness. In one sense the disciple, and yet in another sense they are little ones that need help. 

The real point is that if you receive the prophet and you welcomed the prophet and you extend hospitality to the prophet, and if you help the prophet, you will receive a prophet’s reward. If you receive a man preaching righteousness, meaning you welcome him and you give him hospitality you give him financial aid and you support his ministry then you will receive his same reward. It says even if you just give a cup of cold water to this little one then you surely will not lose your reward.

My point is simply this the emphasis in these two verses is on rewards for welcoming messengers of God. Putting the whole passage together he’s saying first there are going to be some who are going to receive you meaning they’re going to help you. The second point is those are the ones who are going to receive the same reward that you receive. I believe means that we can receive a prophet’s reward without being a prophet ourselves.

So, finally what does all that mean for the disciple today, how do we apply these principals and gain these blessing as modern-day disciples, and followers of Jesus. I shall try and pick that up next time.