Special Delivery
From Rejection to Reception
Throughout this chapter, Jesus has been preparing his disciples to go out and gather in the harvest. He has told them how to go, what they are to do, what they will run into along the road, and what they ought to expect when they get there. He has been honest with them about the hard part — that they are being sent out as sheep among wolves, that some will turn them away, and that some will even rise up to persecute them. But now, here at the end, he flips the script. He turns from those who will reject his messengers to those who will receive them. He stops talking about the door that gets slammed shut and starts talking about the door that swings open. And he tells them exactly what comes through that open door when his people are received.
Those who are sent move with a special delivery for those who will receive it. Those who receive this special delivery receive a package filled with great rewards.
Who and What We Receive
Jesus lays out a kind of reception line. When the disciples are received, the welcome does not stop with them. Receive the apostle, and you have received Jesus; receive Jesus, and you have received the Father who sent him. The handshake at the door reaches all the way up to heaven. So whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet receives a prophet’s reward. Whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man receives a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives even a cup of cold water in the name of the One they have received from will never lose their reward. Hold on to that chain, because every link of it matters: disciple to Jesus, Jesus to the Father, and the reward flowing all the way back down to the one who simply opened the door.
I. How to Receive
To receive someone is to open yourself up to who they are and to what they are offering. Remember what these men were sent out to do back in verses seven and eight: to preach the kingdom, to heal the sick, to cleanse the leper, to raise the dead — freely they had received, and freely they were to give. So receiving them is not a small, polite nod at the doorway. It is a whole-life opening. I see at least four doors that swing open in a true welcome.
Open the Ear
They were sent to preach. To receive a preacher is to hear him — really hear him — to listen, to take it in, and then to live out what he proclaims. An open ear is not just an ear that hears sound; it is an ear that bends the whole life toward obedience. You have not received the Word until the Word has gone to work in you. Let those who have ears, hear.
Open the Hand
They were sent out without a purse, carrying no money of their own. To receive them, then, is to open your hand and provide clothing for their back, a staff for the road, food for the day, and a place to lay their head. The kingdom moves forward by the open hands of ordinary people who decide that what is theirs will be made available to God’s work. God sends disciples with nothing in hand so that those who open their hands also supply the needs for the kingdom. The Kingdom is funded by those who receive it.
Open the Home
These men had no hotels booked ahead of them, no reservations waiting in the next town. To receive them is to become the house of peace — the home where they can stay, the table where they can rest, the base from which their whole ministry can run. Sometimes, the most important thing a believer ever does for the kingdom is simply to keep a door unlocked and a room ready. The Kingdom grows by those who receive it with hospitality.
Open Your Life
Finally, they were sent to call people out of one life and into another. So to receive them is to receive the very life they are offering — to let their message reorder your days, your loyalties, your future. This is the deepest door of all. You can open your ear and your hand and your home and still hold your life back. Jesus is asking for all four.
II. What Is Received: The Reward of Receiving
Now here is the part that ought to make our hearts beat a little faster. Jesus does not send his people empty-handed, and he does not let them be received for nothing. A reward comes through the open door. He names two of them.
A Prophet’s Reward
Look back at what these messengers carried — preaching, cleansing, healing, even resurrection (Matthew 10:8). That is the prophet’s freight. Think of what Israel received simply because they received Moses: a sea split open, bread from the sky, water from a rock, the very presence of God going before them. Think of the widow at Zarephath, who received Elijah with the last little bit of flour and oil she had. Because she opened her hand and her home to a prophet, the Lord promised her that the flour in the jar would not run out and the oil in the jug would not fail until the day the rains returned. That is a prophet’s reward — the very provision and power of God arriving with the one God sent.
A Righteous Man’s Reward
And there is a righteous man’s reward as well — the blessings God pours out on those who walk uprightly before him. Scripture stacks them up for us. There is satisfaction, for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied (Matthew 5:6). There are answered prayers, for the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working (James 5:16), and the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry (1 Peter 3:12; Psalm 34:15). There is the blessing and favor of God, for you bless the righteous, O Lord, and cover them with favor as with a shield (Psalm 5:12; Proverbs 10:6). And there is deliverance, for the righteous is delivered from trouble (Proverbs 11:8). All of that comes walking through the door when you receive a righteous man because he is a righteous man.
III. From Receiving to Giving—Paying it Forward.
But Jesus does not let the matter rest with what we get. Look at the second half of verse eight and the cup of cold water in verse forty-two: “freely you have received, freely give.” When we receive what the disciples offer, the next move is to live it out toward others — to hand a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of the One we have received from. And Jesus promises that the reward given that way is never lost. Your treasure is not taken away from you; it is kept for you, safe, for all eternity.
Hear me on this, because it is the heart of it. When you give from what you have received — when you spend the rewards God has handed you to bless somebody else — you do not empty your account. You secure it. You solidify it in heaven. I stand up here every Sunday and pronounce a benediction over you, a blessing to carry out the door. But to keep that blessing, to go on being blessed, to pile up blessings in your life that will be spent in glory — give from what you have been given. The blessing held tight in a closed fist begins to slip away; the blessing poured out in Jesus’ name comes back to you, multiplied and made eternal. To receive more, you will have to give away. To accumulate treasure, you will have to spend it.
So Jesus finishes his pep talk to the men he is sending out as sheep among wolves, and he finishes it with a word about the special deliveries they are taking to anyone who will receive them. This excites them with joy. They are sent out to go and deliver blessings and rewards to those who will receive them. This makes our work in the church a delight to do, because what we have been handed to offer is something truly great — and all we have to do is give it to those who will receive us. When they receive us, they are given something they cannot find anywhere else. What we carry comes right to their door. We are in the business of special deliveries.
This isn’t carry-out. This is special delivery!
The favor, the blessing, and God himself get delivered through his own people — and both the sender and the receiver are blessed in the very same moment. What a God! A God who shares his own joy with us! So take what you have received, and go give it away. Go to those who open the ear, open the hand, open the home, open the life — and watch what arrives at their door and in their lives.
Peace be with you,
Pastor Bruce
