MATTHEW 10:1-15

                                                (1 Samuel 8:1-22)

- I can remember seeing Hillary Clinton some years ago on television pleading with the Democratic voters of Texas to vote for her. She was reminding them that if she is elected, she would end up being Commander-in-Chief.

- The unspoken hint was that she could handle that role better than Barak Obama – she is experienced!

- The President of the United States, whoever that person might be, has considerable power and authority, but there are some checks on that power.

- However, if we think of Dictators like Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, even Fidel Castro, then we’re talking about people who had absolute power and authority. What they said is what happened – always.

- Some recent dictators, like Nicolae Ceauchescu of Roumania and Saddam Hussein of Iraq delegated some of their power to their sons.

  - In both cases, Nicu Ceauchescu in Roumania and Uday Hussein in Iraq could do what they liked in their home countries.

- I remind you of these recent examples because our Bible passage for today gives us an example of the delegation of power, but the end result was much better than in the 2 cases of the delegation of political power that I’ve mentioned.

- In Matthew’s Gospel ch. 10 we see firstly:

(1) Jesus has power and authority.

- We only have to think back to the passage which we looked at together last Sunday to realise that this is true.

- Jesus had the power to heal incurable diseases, to cast out demons – even to raise the dead.

- He certainly had power and authority.

- What we see then from ch. 10, our passage for today is that:

(2) He delegates that power & authority.

Matthew ch. 10 v. 1,

“He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.”