Green Baggins

Matthew 11:13-15

4/27/2008

Audio Version

Here are Edgar Fiedler’s Forecasting Rules. (1) It is very difficult to forecast, especially about the future. (2) He who lives by the crystal ball soon learns to eat ground glass. (3) The moment you forecast, you know you’re going to be wrong — you just don’t know when and in which direction. (4) If you’re ever right, never let them forget it. This is true of all human attempts at telling the future. We just do not know what is going to happen, and even if we think we do, we are just as often wrong as right. Even if forecasting the weather, the weatherman is just as often wrong as right. In fact, if you predicted that tomorrow was going to be just like today, you would have just as good a chance of being right as the weatherman. However, there were right all the time. Their prophecies never failed. They were the biblical prophets. The reason they never failed was that they were inspired by God. God does know the future. That is why Isaiah was able to tell us about Cyrus hundreds of years before Cyrus was even born. However, the most important prophecies of the Old Testament had to do with Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the One who would take away the sin of His people. That is Whom this passage is really about. The passage looks like it is telling us about John. However, as we have seen in the previous passages, the only reason that John is important is that he is the one who points his finger and says, “There is the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

Last week we saw that the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. It makes perfect sense, then, to go to talk about prophets, since the prophets were persecuted just like the Kingdom of God is persecuted. And John, of course, was the perfect example of this persecution, since he was sitting in prison as Jesus spoke these words.

Jesus says that all the prophets and the law prophesied. Now, isn’t that interesting? Normally, we think of prophets when we use the term “prophesying.” What sense does it make to say that the Law prophesied? Well, the law tells us about Jesus as well. In John, chapter 5, Jesus Himself tells us that Moses wrote about Jesus. So, the entire Bible is about Jesus. That is what Jesus means when He says that the Law and the Prophets prophesied. They were all about Jesus. Of course, the Word had a significant meaning for the people at the time they were written. The significance of the Old Testament is not limited to Christ. But Jesus Christ is still the main subject of the Old Testament. Every passage does show us Jesus Christ in one way or another.

However, these Old Testament prophets came to an end with John the Baptist. John was the last of them. And he came after a long time when there was no prophecy. There was four hundred years between Malachi and John the Baptist. Interestingly, that prophecy Malachi ends with these words: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” Elijah was prophesied in the very last part of the Old Testament. The New Testament opens with John the Baptist paving the way for the Messenger of the Covenant, Jesus Christ.

Why does Malachi talk about Elijah? Was Elijah himself going to come back down from heaven? Remember that Elijah is one of two people who never died. He was taken up to heaven. So the Jews thought he would come back from heaven, when he was needed. Of course, John the Baptist is not literally Elijah, as he himself tells us in the Gospel of John, when the Jews were asking him who he was. John said that he was not Elijah (John 1). However, Jesus is telling us here that John the Baptist is Elijah in another sense.

You see, Elijah in the Old Testament could in one very important sense be called the forerunner of Elisha. Elisha had a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. Elijah did twice as many miracles as Elijah did. Elisha was therefore a greater prophet than Elijah. So also is Jesus greater than John the Baptist. Everything that John did was to make himself lower compared to Jesus. He said that he was not even worthy of untying the sandal from the feet of Jesus. Jesus is, then, the one to whom Elisha points. Elijah was seen in the prophecy of Malachi to be that forerunner of the one that everyone wanted to come, the Messenger of the Covenant, as Malachi says in chapter 3.

This is what Jesus wants us to hear, and it is important enough for Jesus to add this comment: “He who has ears, let him hear.” What does Jesus mean there? He means that if you are really listening to your Old Testament, and these references to Malachi and the books of Kings, which tell us of Elijah and Elisha, you will recognize that the Kingdom of God has come in the person and work of Jesus Christ. You will recognize that John the Baptist was the forerunner promised by Malachi, and you will also recognize that Jesus is the Messenger of the Covenant. This verse about having ears and hearing is always used by Jesus when something especially important is being said that is difficult to understand. Not everyone can hear. This is a common theme in the prophets of the OT. The prophets often castigated the people for not hearing properly what the Lord said. It reminds me of the placard you can buy that says, “What part of ‘Thou Shalt Not’ didn’t you understand?” But people’s hearts are hard. They cannot hear and understand and believe. Why is that? It is because people are stubbornly trying to suppress the truth in unrighteousness, as the apostle Paul would tell us. People’s hearts are hard. They cannot hear. The only way they can hear is if God opens their ears and hearts to understand. In other words, hearing, understanding, and believing what Jesus has to say here is really nothing less than the Gospel itself. After all, if you hear what Jesus is saying here, then you understand what Jesus came to do. You will understand that Jesus is the one True and Great Prophet, in whom is all wisdom and knowledge. You will know that God has definitively spoken to us in His Son, Jesus, as Hebrews 1 tells us. You will know that what Jesus has told us is that we must believe that He is our Elisha, come to raise the dead to life, come to raise us from our spiritual death to spiritual life.

How does this help us? Well, the Gospel is laid out for us, and so we must believe what Scripture tells us about itself. This is an aspect of Scripture’s authority. It tells us what we are to believe about itself. This is what is called the self-attesting nature of Scripture. Scripture attests that the prophecies of the Old Testament find their yes and amen in Christ. They all came true, and not a single one fell to the ground unfulfilled. This is because God is faithful, and knows the future. That is a wonderful thing about God to remember. Not only does He know the future, but has planned it as well. That is something no one on earth can do, or has ever done. Which would you rather trust? The spiritual equivalent of weathermen, true one day, but horribly wrong the next? Or would you rather trust the God of the universe, who does what He says He will do?

Secondly, this understanding of what Jesus said helps us to understand out Bibles better. Surely it is obvious that this Scripture helps us to understand what in the world Malachi was talking about when he uses the term “Messenger of the Covenant.” It also helps us to understand what Malachi was talking about when he said that Elijah would come. It helps us understand what Kings is really talking about when it gives us the life stories of Elijah and Elisha.

Thirdly, it helps us to understand that we must strive to listen in order to understand. It is one thing to hear a sound or a word or a sentence. It is quite another actually to hear and understand. Sometimes we call this the difference between hearing and listening. When Jesus says “let him hear,” Jesus means that we must be listening and hearing in order to understand. The meaning of what Jesus says is not always obvious. My wife has frequently told me that much of what Jesus says is puzzling to her. I heartily agree with her. Jesus is not always the easiest prophet to understand. But taking the time to hear, listen, and understand is important if we are going to be good Christians. Jesus commands us to hear. It is not a suggestion. We must not be like small children, who must be admonished because they are not listening. Instead, we must place our undivided attention upon hearing, listening, and understanding Christ.

Matthew 11:12

4/20/2008

Audio Version

Polycarp of Smyrna was one of the very earliest Church Fathers. He was a bishop of Smyrna, which is in Asia Minor, now called Turkey. He was a disciple of the Apostle John. So he was only one generation younger than the apostles. Polycarp lived into his 80’s. However, at the very end of his life, he was taken by the Romans. They asked him not only to bow down to the emperor, but also to renounce Jesus. Polycarp said that he had served His Lord for 86 years, and His Lord had never done him any harm. Why would he renounce his Lord now? So, at the age of 86, he was martyred for his faith.

Violence against the kingdom of God has been part of human history since the very beginning. As Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote, in his book the City of God, all of humanity is divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. This conflict started with Satan tempting Eve. The conflict was given verbal form when the Lord said that He would put enmity (or strife) between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Cain, the seed of the serpent, killed Abel, the seed of the woman. The conflict continued in Egypt when the kingdom of man started killing the little boys of the kingdom of God. Then, when the Israelites went to the land that was promised to them, they had to fight with the people of the land. The wickedness of the people of the land had risen to such a height that the Lord judged them by having the kingdom of God fight against the kingdom of man, and wipe out the inhabitants of the land.

The problem, of course, is that even within the people of Israel, there were always members of the kingdom of man. That is why the people of Israel persecuted all the prophets who came to tell them that they were misbehaving. So, even within the so-called people of God, there have been members of the kingdom of man. The relationship of the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God has always been an adversarial relationship. They are adversaries. But that relationship came to head, a climax, when Jesus Christ was born. When Christ was born, John the Baptist was also alive, a few months older than Jesus. John was a forerunner. We have seen that in the last couple of weeks. He was one who came before Jesus in order to pave the way for Jesus. But that way is not an easy way, as we will see from this verse.

This verse is probably the most difficult verse in all of Matthew to understand. There are several ways it could be translated. One is the NIV, which reads, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” This translation implies that it is the kingdom of God that is exercising force. However, other translations say it this way: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” This translation means that kingdom of heaven has been suffering violence, rather than forcefully advancing. I believe that the second translation is more accurate. In other words, people have been attacking the kingdom of heaven ever since John the Baptist started his ministry. The reasons why I believe this are several: firstly, Jesus is talking about John the Baptist, who is currently in prison, having been persecuted for speaking the truth. Jesus knows that John is just about to pay the final price for his devotion to God. Secondly, Jesus hasn’t really been talking about the kingdom of God expanding. He has been talking about how great the kingdom of God is. But not really about how the kingdom is expanding. Thirdly, the last part of the verse makes much better sense as explaining the first half of the verse. And the last part of the verse is plainly saying that the violent are trying to take the kingdom of God by force. So, Jesus is saying here that the battle between the two kingdoms has escalated since John began his ministry.

Of course, Jesus does not mean that the OT battle is meaningless. But the battle has escalated since John the Baptist started his ministry. The reason, of course, is that Satan did not want Jesus to enter into the kingdom. That’s why Satan tempted Jesus three times. Satan knew that if he could only get Jesus to disobey God just once, then Jesus would not have been able to bring the kingdom in its fullness, because that kingdom was to be a kingdom of righteousness, perfect righteousness.

So what does this phrase mean, “violent men take it by force?” It refers to the fact that the kingdom of men is always trying to reduce the number of people that belong to the kingdom of God. Any way they can do that, they will. Satan has many ways of luring people, but there are two broad categories that encompass all of his ways. The first category is that of temptation. This is the soft way. If he can get people to sin, and keep them buried in sin, then that is more people for his kingdom. The other way is persecution. This is the hard way. If he can scare people enough, then they will not want to be part of a kingdom where the going is so rough. People often want to have a comfortable life. In fact, they will often make that an idol in their lives. They want comfort so much that they are willing to sacrifice anything and everything else to get it. This is a major problem today in a culture that is comfort-crazed. We are too comfortable. Was John the Baptist praised for being comfortable? No, he lived very simply in order to have his message be clear, and so that his message would not be compromised. We need to be wary of making an idol out of comfort. There is nothing inherently wrong with comfort. However, we must never let comfort get in the way of sharing the truth. And by comfort, I am including both physical and emotional comfort. After all, it is much more comfortable simply to stay at home, never bothering anyone else, and never letting anyone else bother us. Live and let live, we like to say. The difficulty with thinking that way is that we will fail to be prophetic voices in our culture today. We will fail to speak out against injustice and oppression. Furthermore, and more seriously, we will fail to share the Gospel with people. I think comfort often gets in our way. We need to pray to the Lord that He would remove this idol from our lives, so that we would be willing to take risks in order to love people and share the words of life.

So, we need both to resist temptation, and stand firm in the time of persecution. Persecution is coming, you know. There are many groups of people out there who would like nothing better than to beat up on Christians. Certainly this is true in government. However, it is rapidly becoming true in the private sector as well. Even here in North Dakota, there are people who cannot stand “those religious people.” The would just as soon shut up those religious people so that there could be no more evangelism. Persecution is coming. Will we stand fast, holding to our confession? People have now been martyred for the Christian faith even in America. Think of Columbine High School. If someone were to come up to you with a gun and ask if you were a Christian, and he told you that if you are a Christian, he will kill you, what would you say? I have often asked myself this question. What I always have to do is to pray to the Lord that the Lord would keep me steadfast, and that He would strengthen me to seal my testimony with my own blood. You never know when something might come to that, as unlikely as it looks sitting here in a country that still has religious freedom. Those freedoms are eroding as surely as North Dakota wind erodes the land.

Furthermore, we need to be in prayer for the persecuted church. How often do we remember those Christians around the world who are being persecuted? And do we pray that the persecution would end? That is not necessarily what they need, even though that is usually the first thing that comes to our minds. A Chinese Christian once told fellow Christians in the US to stop praying that the persecution would cease, and instead pray that the persecuted Christians would stand fast, and hold on to their confession. Persecution is one of the best things that can happen to a church, because it purifies the church. Hypocrites will not stand up in the time of persecution. They will fall away, leaving those who truly are Christians. In fact, church discipline is hardly even needed in churches that are being persecuted. They love each other with an undying love, and help each other as much as they possibly can. As the early church father Tertullian put it, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” This is the main reason why God allows persecution of the church. Some estimates say that China will be 40% Christian in under 20 years, if the present rate is any indication. The Gospel is exploding over there, precisely because of the persecution that is happening. The same thing is happening in the Middle East. So, although violent men seek to take the kingdom by force, we know that the very gates of hell itself wil not prevail against the church.
 

Matthew 11:7-11

4/13/2008

Audio Version

In music, one of the most exciting things a composer can do is to have a long drawn-out crescendo. A crescendo is what happens when you get gradually louder and louder until finally you reach a mountain peak of sound that stuns everyone with its beauty and power. That’s a little bit like what Jesus does here in our passage. The crescendo hits a high note when Jesus tells us about the greatness of the kingdom of God. We might think that Jesus is really talking about John the Baptist. However, as I hope to show, Jesus merely uses the subject of John to prove how great the kingdom of God is.

It is important to set the context. John had sent his disciples to Jesus in order to ask the question that had been nagging in John’s mind as he sat languishing in Herod’s prison. Jesus had told John that the new age of the kingdom had begun. It had arrived. Judgment had not come yet, but grace had. Jesus ended that answer to John with a gentle encouragement to John, pronouncing a blessing on the one who did not turn away from Jesus because of the unexpected character of Jesus’ ministry. That is the setting.

Now, the people might have begun to think that Jesus just blasted John the Baptist. That is why Jesus now addresses the crowd to talk about the kingdom, and simultaneously tell them how great John was.

The first question has to with reeds. Did the people really go out to see a reed shaken in the wind? The question implies a negative answer: of course they did not go out to see a reed shaken by the wind. Now, there is a lot here for us to see. First of all, reeds were extremely ordinary plants. The people therefore did not go out to see something ordinary. They went out to see someone who was weird. Secondly, reeds were not the most stable plant on the face of the earth. A shaking reed is therefore symbolic of a man whose opinion shifts around all the time. It reminds me of politicians. They hold up their wet finger to see which way the wind is blowing, or where the people are headed, and then get in front of the crowd and call themselves “leaders.” Obviously, John was anything but a shaking reed. Thirdly, there was a man especially known for reeds. Herod Antipas! That’s right, the very Herod who currently has John the Baptist imprisoned in his fortress/palace. This is the same Herod who will feature prominently in the passion of the Christ. It is not the same Herod who killed all the children in Bethlehem. Well, this Herod Antipas smelted some coins for money. Guess what he put on those coins? Reeds! Not exactly the symbol I would have put on there. So, what Jesus is really doing here is setting up a contrast between John the Baptist and Herod Antipas. This becomes clearer in the next verse.

The second question regards soft clothing. Again, the answer to the rhetorical question is “No, of course you didn’t come out to see someone in soft clothes.” And again, Herod Antipas is clearly the one in the palace with soft clothing. Soft clothing is another sort of jab at Antipas, since the implication is that Antipas is a real wimp. Soft clothing is only what wimps wear. Again, contrast Herod’s soft clothing with John the Baptist’s rough and tough clothing. John’s garment was made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. There is some fairly intense irony here, since John was actually in the house of the king. In fact, they both were! However, John was the prisoner, though he was a real man, and Herod Antipas was living it up in luxury in the palace. But John is the greater of the two men.

The third question is different, because the answer is given for us, and it is yes. John is a prophet. Prophets did two things in ancient Israel: they foretold the future, and they spoke the word of the Lord. Of course, those two things were often the same thing. Certainly the prophet told the Word of the Lord. Everything they said was the Word of the Lord. But not everything they said was a prophecy about the future. In fact, sometimes it was a prophecy that was conditional. If Israel did not repent, or if a person did not repent, then such and such would happen.

However, John the Baptist was more than a prophet. Not only did he proclaim the Word of the Lord. He was also the Elijah who was to come. He was the forerunner of Jesus Christ. The text that Jesus quotes is from Malachi, chapter 3, where the messenger is sent by the Lord in order to prepare the way for the Lord who is coming to His temple. By the way, this is a clear indication that Jesus is the Lord Who was promised. For Jesus is the one to Whom John pointed and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John had the very great honor of being the person who would point out to people the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ. Indeed, no greater honor before the coming of the Kingdom could be imagined. That is why Jesus says that among those born of women, none is greater than John the Baptist.

And then comes the climax of the great crescendo. Jesus tells us that the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist! Now, let us be clear. Jesus is NOT saying that John the Baptist was not part of the people of God. In fact, Jesus is not talking so much about people, as He is talking about a change, a shift in era. We saw that clearly last week, when Jesus quoted from Isaiah, indicating that the new age had indeed begun with Christ’s Person and Work. Now, we see that the Kingdom of God has come in its fullness. And what a privilege it is to be a part of that Kingdom!

The privileges are great. For one thing, we can now see what was shadowy and unclear in the Old Testament. If all we had was the Old Testament, we would not necessarily have said, “Oh, yes, it points to Jesus Christ, who will bring grace, and put off judgment of humans until the Final Day.” There were many who believed in God’s plan, and believed in God, such that their faith was truly in Jesus Christ even before Christ came. Let me repeat: Jesus is not saying that the Old Testament saints are worse off, in terms of salvation. What Jesus is saying is that since Christ has come, we have greater clarity, more light, more of God’s revelation. It is not as if God was unclear. The problem is that we don’t understand what God is saying. So if God tells us more, then we will understand better. This change happened when Jesus Christ Himself, who is the true Word, came into the world, and fulfilled the plan that the Father had made from before the foundations of the earth.

So, do you belong to this Kingdom? There is no more important question that you can ask yourself than that. Belonging to the Kingdom means that you are a subject of the King. He is your Lord, and not just your Savior. In other words, you cannot simply believe in Jesus as someone who died on the cross for your sins, and then leave everything at that. Unfortunately, that is precisely what a lot of people do nowadays. They think that after they convert to Christianity, there is nothing more to it. What we are saying here is that when a person becomes a believer in Jesus, he is transferred from the Satanic kingdom of darkness into the glorious light of the Kingdom of God. A change in citizenship occurs. This new Kingdom has different laws, different codes of conduct than the Satanic kingdom. We need to learn what those rules are, and follow them out of gratitude for what God has done in transferring our citizenship.

A second application comes by way of seeing Jesus’ priorities. What impressed Jesus? It wasn’t likability, and it wasn’t wealth and social standing. If Jesus wasn’t impressed by those things, then neither should we be. Now, we are still to respect authority. However, we should not play favorites with people who are more likely to get us somewhere socially. Jesus was impressed with John the Baptist. John dressed horribly, lived in the desert, was always offending someone. He had no tact whatsoever, and yet Jesus called him the greatest man born of woman before the coming of the Kingdom. John the Baptist was greater than Solomon, greater than David, greater than Abraham, greater than Noah, greater even than Adam! So, again I ask: what impresses you? What should impress us in life is holiness of character in someone else. It should be their faithfulness to what God has called them to be.

A third application follows from the second one. For what ought we to strive? Should we strive to be liked by people? Should we wave our reeds in the air, and see what comes? Or should we seek to have a good standard of living? Is that our ultimate goal? Or is our ultimate goal to be faithful to what God has called us to be? Our priorities need to be those priorities of the Kingdom of God, not Satan’s kingdom, or an imaginary kingdom of our own construction. For only Christ’s Kingdom is truly great. And that is because God values it so. So let us make our priorities line up with God’s priorities.

Matthew 11:1-6

4/6/2008

Audio Version

 A Christian was witnessing to a Jewish rabbi in New York City. The Christian was telling the Jewish rabbi that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, the one that the Jews were expecting. The Jewish rabbi shook his head, went to the window, looked out, and pointed to the city, and said, “No, when the Messiah comes there will be justice.” I have a hunch that many of us occasionally look out at the world and wonder if Jesus really came and did what He did. What difference has it really made? Where is justice against wickedness? These are key questions that our text answers for us very clearly, if we have the eyes to see.

Chapter 11 marks a break from Jesus’ second sermon in chapter 10. This chapter was full of commands that Jesus gave to His disciples. When He had finished commanding them, He went on about His business in the rest of the countryside teaching and preaching. But this raises a significant problem for Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist.

You might remember that John the Baptist had prophesied that Jesus was the lamb who takes away the sin of the world. That is in the beginning of John’s Gospel. John’s message was very clear: repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The baptism by fire and Spirit of which John spoke was a reference to judgment. John the Baptist was a preacher of judgment as all the great OT prophets were. In fact, that is what finally got him into trouble (again, like all the great OT prophets!). John preached to Herod that Herod could not have his sister as his wife. Herod threw him into prison as a result. However, John could still hear news about Jesus. John would have been put in the prison at Machaerus, which was connected to the rest of the country by a very well-constructed access road. So, John was hearing about all the things that Jesus was doing and saying. After all, John still had his faithful disciples. They were telling John what Jesus was doing (I’m sure at John’s request). The problem that I mentioned, however, was that Jesus’ words and actions were not measuring up to what John was expecting. John is a lot like us in this regard. We expect God to do and to be certain things, and then when God doesn’t do those things, we doubt whether God is really God.

In any case, although John still believed that Jesus was the lamb of God, he was getting impatient. After all, John was a man of the desert, and here he was, cooped up in this prison. Wasn’t justice supposed to happen? What about the tyrants who had put John in prison? What about freeing John from prison? Why wasn’t Jesus doing these things?

So, John does what we all should do when we have doubts about our Lord. He asked Jesus about them. John sent his disciples with an important question.

Now, there are different interpretations of why John asked this question. There are those who think that John didn’t have any doubts about Jesus at all, and that he is only asking for the sake of his disciples. Some important names have held to this opinion, including John Calvin. However, Jesus tells the disciples to tell John what the answer is. Furthermore, it is still John who is said to ask the question. It is quite natural for human beings to doubt. Remember that Jesus said that John the Baptist is Elijah, who was expected to come before the Messiah. Well, Elijah had his doubts, even immediately after his greatest success on Mount Carmel. It was immediately after the Mount Carmel incident that Elijah fled for his life from Jezebel, and wondered if he was the only one left in Israel who still worshiped God. Elijah was the forerunner of Elisha, who was said to have done twice the number of miracles that Elijah did. So also, John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, who did many more miracles than John.

But what is the answer to John’s question? John’s question has the same point as the rabbi’s objection referred to at the beginning of this sermon. There doesn’t seem to be any justice in the world. So, how can Jesus be the Messiah? Should we look for another? That word “another” means “one of a different kind.” John was expecting Jesus to be something else. So, what is the answer? Jesus gives us the answer. I am going to phrase it in somewhat unusual terms, but I hope the point will be clear. The answer lies in the realm of eschatology. Eschatology is a long word that means the study of the end times. Now, Jews expected a very sharp break from the old age to the new age. That is clear from the rabbi’s statement mentioned at the beginning of the sermon. When the Messiah comes, there will be justice and judgment of the wicked. However, when Jesus came, this justice and judgment did not come upon the whole world right away. It did come upon Satan, who is now said to be bound by the Strong Man, Jesus. Judgment did come upon death in a preliminary, though decisive, way with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, there is a delay in the final judgment. Judgment Day is still future. That creates a window of grace. Jesus came and brought grace. That is what He says here when he talks about the blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, the lepers cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead raised, and the poor evangelized.

There are some very fascinating details here in Jesus’ answer that I do not want us to miss. First of all, notice that Jesus is referring to Isaiah 61:1-2, which was our call to worship. Notice that in Isaiah, it is God who does these things. Now, here in Matthew, it is Jesus who does these things. This plainly says that Jesus is God, and was sent by the Father to do these things. Secondly, notice that only a prophet can do these things. Curing leprosy, for instance, was something that was as difficult as raising the dead, according to the Jewish rabbis, and only a prophet who had the Spirit of the Lord upon him, could do that. Elisha did this with Naaman, and now Jesus, the anti-type of Elisha, cures leprosy. Thirdly, notice that preaching to the poor is last in line, and is therefore emphatic. It is the most important of all of them. The good news is now, says Jesus, but the judgment is put off, so that many can come to Christ. The end times have started now, but they have not yet come to fulfillment. John the Baptist preached that there was grace and there was judgment. There was grace for those who believed, and there was judgment for those who do not believe. Jesus is saying that the grace comes now, and the judgment will come later. What John has preached as the same event, Jesus separates into two parts. This is what was confusing for John. But Jesus’ answer is that the grace has truly come. All of these things are, in fact, happening, and that means that the judgment will infallibly come. Jesus merely tells John to be patient. That is hard for John to bear, since he is languishing in prison, thinking to himself, “You know, in Isaiah, the text says that those in prison will be set free. You’d think that the Messiah would at least have freed His own forerunner, and judged those tyrants who were over him. So why doesn’t Jesus do that?” John was left in prison so that we would know that judgment upon the wicked, although it is delayed, will still surely come. And it doesn’t have to come in our lifetimes. Many things will not be made right until the final Day of Judgment.

So it is in our own lives as well. Many of us want judgment to come upon the wicked. We cry out to God, “How long? Why do you wait? How come our lives have to be difficult? How come we are treated so unjustly?” Jesus tells us to come always back to Him. He will tell you, after your HONEST prayer to Him, that your blind eyes have received their sight, your lame legs now walk, your spiritual leprosy has been healed, your spiritual deafness healed, and your spiritually dead soul has been made alive. Most importantly, you have had the Gospel preached to your poor soul. Wait patiently to be made right. After all, you don’t want justice to be done on you yet, do you? It reminds me of the story of the lady who walked into a beauty salon, wanting her hair cut. She told the barber that she wanted him to take his time, so that he could do her hair justice. The barber said, “Lady, your hair doesn’t need justice, it needs mercy.” That’s exactly what we need in life. We desire mercy from God, not justice. Otherwise, we would all be lost forever. But thanks be to God, who has not only created such a window of salvation in time, but has filled that window with grace, so that we might be saved, and therefore might not need to fear Judgment Day. For there is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Will there be justice? Yes, there will. Justice has gone forth, although cloaked, all the time from Christ’s first to His second coming. Justice will spring forth in all its glory, as the glory of the Lord Jesus is revealed, when He comes back, to judge the living and the dead. Amen.

Matthew 10:40-42

10/28/2007

No Audio Available

During World War II, England needed to increase its production of coal. Winston Churchill called together labor leaders to enlist their support. At the end of his presentation he asked them to picture in their minds a parade which he knew would be held in Picadilly Circus after the war. First, he said, would come the sailors who had kept the vital sea lanes open. Then would come the soldiers who had come home from Dunkirk and then gone on to defeat Rommel in Africa. Then would come the pilots who had driven the Luftwaffe from the sky. Last of all, he said, would come a long line of sweat-stained, soot-streaked men in miner’s caps. Someone would cry from the crowd, ‘And where were you during the critical days of our struggle?’ And from ten thousand throats would come the answer, ‘We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal.’” Not all the jobs in a church are prominent and glamorous. But it is often the people with their “faces to the coal” who help the church accomplish its mission. As we saw in our call to worship, we are not to despise the day of small things. Jesus echoes that thought here with a simple illustration of a cup of cold water. We should never despise the small things that we can do for the kingdom of God. We should not despise the day of small things. For receiving even the least of Christ’s disciples because he is a disciple, is to receive Christ Himself. And, as Christ says, to receive Christ is to receive the Father also.

Verse 40 is very important for us to consider closely. Receiving the disciples means receiving Christ, which means receiving the Father. Ultimately, of course, that means that receiving the disciple means receiving the Father. This bestows enormous importance on the disciple. It was a Jewish custom to regard an ambassador as having the full dignityand rights of the person who sent the ambassador. If a man is sent to do something for someone else, the man sent has the full power of the sender. So, what Jesus is saying here is that the disciple, who will most definitely be sent out by Jesus, has the same importance (in terms of the message that the disciple delivers: obviously the disciple is not greater than the Master) as Jesus. The person who receives the disciple receives Jesus. This is an amazing statement on Jesus’ part. It begs for us to ask this question: how are we receiving the disciples of Christ? This doesn’t just refer to pastors, of course. It refers to how we receive any Christian. What Jesus is talking about is hospitality both to the person and to the message that that person has to bring.

This hospitality has to be intentional. In other words, we receive such a person and that person’s message precisely because that person is a disciple of Christ. That is what Jesus goes on to tell us in verse 41. The NIV translates this very well. The Greek says literally, “the one receiving a prophet in the name of the prophet will receive the reward of the prophet.” And the same with the righteous man. Receiving someone in the name of that person is to receive that person because he is that person. So, the NIV translates it, “Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.” Anything you’ve done for another believer in Christ because that person is a believer; anything you’ve done for a missionary because that person is a missionary; anything you’ve done for a pastor because that person is the pastor; all these things are things that God reckons as having been done for Him.

And not only that, the reward that such people will receive is the same reward that the prophet receives! This is also amazing to us. However, when you think about it, it becomes reasonable. Think of every great and famous Christian you’ve ever known about. Then think of all the other people who supported that famous person. You will quickly realize that the person would never have become famous if the other supporting people had not done all the “behind-the-scenes” kind of work necessary for the famous person to do his work. The same thing is true of missionaries. They cannot go on to the mission field without financial support, prayer support, language support, all kinds of support. The point here is that even if we do not all feel called to be foreign missionaries, we can do the same work, and receive the same reward. Of course, we have to be very careful when we say that, because some people might be called to do the actual work of missions, but say that since they can get the same reward without going to all the bother of going out in the mission field, that therefore they aren’t going to do it. They’ll just “support.” Friend, if you are called to the mission field, you need to go. But for the rest of us, we should not feel bad if we are not called. As Winston Churchill pointed out, the soldiers have to be supported by an entire army of civilians making clothes, getting food packed, praying for them, sacrificing their own comfort for the morale of the troops, and providing the necessary raw material, such as coal, so that the army can do its job. As Paul said in Corinthians, just because the hand is not an eye doesn’t mean that the hand ceases to be part of the body. Look at your own body. Think about it. What good would your eyes be without your brain? What good would your brain be without your heart? What good would your heart be without all the arteries? How would the arteries and your blood function without food and oxygen? So your arteries are dependent on your lungs and on the entire digestive system. None of this would be in its right place without your bone structure. Your bones don’t work right without the muscles. The muscles don’t work right without the nervous system to tell them what to do. And on and on it goes. The Church is the Body of Christ. We are all one of those body parts in the kingdom of God. And not one of us is dispensable. Maybe you do dishes, or babysit, or change the trash, or say one encouraging word, or pray. These seem like small things to you. They are not small to God. Do not despise the day of small things.

Jesus Himself uses the example of a cup of cold water. Water is rather inexpensive. In the desert, of course, a cup of cold water can be very important. However, the emphasis here is on the smallness of the act. It may be small in our eyes, and yet God does not ignore it. There is a reward even for that. This passage, along with others, indicates that there are two ways to regard rewards in heaven. On the one hand, there is the parable of the master of the vineyard who gave everyone the same pay, no matter how long they had worked in the vineyard. That is plainly an illustration that with regard to eternal life, everyone gets the same. That is, all who believe in Christ have eternal life. However, there are rewards in heaven on top of eternal life. Paul talks about these in 1 Corinthians 3, when he says that some people build with hay, straw, and stubble. Their works will burn up on Judgment Day. But others build with gold, silver, and costly stones. Such people’s work will not burn up on Judgment Day. And our passage here also says that there is a reward even for the smallest act of kindness for one of God’s people. The reason is that we do it unto God, if we do it unto one of His people. So, if you are changing a diaper, do it as unto the Lord. If you are correcting homework, do it as unto the Lord. If you are doing dishes, taking out the garbage, helping someone else lift something, inviting someone over for dinner, no matter how small it is, do it as unto the Lord. Do it because the person you are helping is one of God’s children.

Of course, this raises the question: should we help unbelievers? Is there any reward in heaven for doing that? Well, of course there is. Doing these kinds of things builds a relationship with that person. You can build a Gospel witness upon that relationship, and, by God’s grace, lead that person home to Christ.

This raises one final question, however. There are people out there who say that we should not do anything expecting a reward from God. We should just do it because God told us to do it. Of course, we should do these things because God tells us to do it. However, why would Jesus bring up the idea of reward if it is wrong to desire it? The point is rather which reward do we desire? In chapter 6, Jesus warns us against desiring the wrong kind of reward. Do we give donations so that people can see it? Do we pray impressive prayers so that people will think about how holy we are? Those are the wrong kind of rewards. We should rather desire the heavenly rewards. Jesus repeats Himself there in chapter 6. Do the good deed in such a way that the Father sees what is done in secret, and will so reward you. This is treasure in heaven. By all means, we should desire such reward. However, we should remember that God does not owe us anything. If God gives us a reward, it is because of His grace, and not because of our merit. Keeping all these things in perspective is necessary for us to understand how it is that we can receive Christ by receiving those sent in His name. Receive Christ. Receive the Father. Receive the disciple.

Matthew 10:34-39

10/14/2007

No Audio Available

The picture many people have of Jesus is of a gentle Jesus, meek and mild, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, and who wants world peace. Of course, there are a few passages that are difficult for them to explain, such as the cleansing of the temple. And then there’s this passage, in which Jesus tells us that His purpose was not to bring peace on the earth, but rather a sword. At first glance, this statement seems to belong in the Koran more than the Bible. What does Jesus mean by it?

Well, He certainly did not mean that we are supposed to go out with our swords and kill people who are not Christians. If that is what Jesus meant, then it would have contradicted what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, where He told us to turn the other cheek, expect persecution, and count ourselves blessed when we face such persecution. Jesus is not saying anything different here, actually. Remember, the context is talking about persecution. There will be people who will be scandalized because of the cross. Even close family members can sometimes be very much offended when their family member becomes a Christian. So, the sword that Jesus is talking about is a metaphorical sword. The Word of God divides people. It divides those who listen, hear, and obey, from those whose hearts are hard, and who will never listen. It is not Jesus’ intention to bring war. It is Jesus’ intention to bring about a separation of the people of God from the people of the world. The Word of God is what does that.

Notice the closeness of the people who are divided. The closest family ties are divided. Notice that Jesus does NOT say a man from his wife. The marriage bond is deeper even than religious differences. As Paul says, if a Christian’s spouse will still live with the Christian, then that’s great. If the non-believer does not want to live with the Christian, then the Christian is free. This does not give us license to marry a non-believer. Paul tells us to marry only in the Lord. The situation that Paul had in mind was where two married people started out as non-believers, both of them, and then one of them became a believer. But, in any case, the marriage bond goes deeper even than religious differences.

Undoubtedly, that is why the marriage bond is also omitted in verses 37-39, where Jesus is talking about being worthy of Him. He who loves his wife loves himself, as we learn from the rest of Scripture. He is one flesh with her. Now, it is still possible for a person to make an idol out of their spouse. It is rather rare in these days, when the culture’s fascination is with being discontent, rather than being content with one’s spouse. That being said, Jesus’ point here is that no relationship is more important than the one we have with Jesus. Jesus commands us to give Him our ultimate allegiance.

Of course, relationships are only one thing that Jesus mentions here. But everything else is understood to be included. Just because Jesus didn’t mention pickup trucks doesn’t mean that you have the freedom to love your pickup truck more than you love Jesus. Jesus uses the word “worthy” here. That is an interesting word. Jesus is not saying that if you love Jesus more than all these other people, that therefore you are worthy. He is talking about a necessary, but not a sufficient condition. What is the difference? Well, if you want to start a fire, you need fuel. Fuel is necessary for a fire. However, if all you have is fuel, you do not have sufficient tools to start a fire. You also need heat and oxygen. If you have all three of those things, then you have sufficient conditions to start a fire. Any one of those things is necessary, but none of them is sufficient in and of itself. Loving Jesus more than all these other people is necessary. However, what is even more important is that Jesus loves you. Obviously, Jesus is here talking about our relationship to Him. Relationship with Christ is the cutting off of our relationship with the world. We must remember that.

Verse 38 is a very shocking verse. Unfortunately, it is no longer shocking to us, because the cross has become almost a romantic symbol. Everyone wears a cross, as one wears a piece of jewelry. As I’ve said before, the shock value that the cross had in the first century is what the guillotine or the electric chair have for us today. This is not a romantic picture that we should have in our minds. The cross was shameful and degrading. We cannot ever forget that. I don’t particularly wish to wear a golden picture or carving of an electric chair or a guillotine around my neck. Let us not forget how shameful it was. In fact, it was a curse. Jesus bore a curse for us. The curse of the law is upon Christ for hanging upon a tree. He needed to bear that curse if we were ever to be free of the curse of the law.

But of course, Jesus is talking about more than His crucifixion. He is talking about our everday lives. In those lives, we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus. These modern “preachers,” such as Joel Osteen, who preach that if you only believe in yourself, and achieve self-actualization, whatever that is, then you will realize your full potential, and you will become rich, and experience life to the fullest. I think Jesus would beg to differ. Taking up a cross, taking up shame, degredation, persecution, and daily toil is not exactly what Joel Osteen is talking about. We all have our various crosses to bear. It is nothing that Jesus has not born before. And He will help you bear this burden, as long as it is yours to bear.

The last verse is something of a puzzle. What Jesus is saying is that we are not to be overly concerned about saving our physical life. Our very lives are to be lived in service to Jesus. We are to pour out our lives, yes, even our very blood, if necessary, for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. Loyalty to Jesus is what matters here. Even if you lose your life here on earth, Jesus tells us that you will find it again. The verse implies the resurrection. It has to. And in that is our ultimate hope. Death is a defeated enemy, because Christ has conquered it through His death and resurrection.

Matthew 10:32-33

Audio Version

During the time of the English Civil War in the 1600’s, the Presbyterian Scots published a document entitled briefly “An Apologetic Declaration.” In this declaration, the Scots continued their renunciation of Charles II. The reason they renounced Charles II was because Charles II had been killing all Protestants who disagreed with him. So Charles II struck back with the abjuration oath, which was instituted in 1684. This oath made everyone liable to death unless they swore it. The oath was quite broad in scope. In addition to rejecting the “Apologetic Declaration,” it also renounced the Westminster Assembly’s documents (which are very close to the Three Forms of Unity that you have in the hymnals in your seats). Obviously, then, this was a license to kill. Any registered magistrate plus two witnesses (never mind how honest) could condemn and execute any person who would not take this oath. Anyone who did swear this abjuration oath was denying the Gospel. This is the background for this martyr story I wish to tell you. Margaret Wilson, a Scottish girl of eighteen, was tied to a stake where the tide was due to come in. The water covered her while she was engaged in prayer; but before life was gone, they pulled her up till she recovered the power of speech, when she was asked by Major Windram, who commanded, if she would pray for the king. She replied that “She wished the salvation of all men, and the damnation of none.” “Dear Margaret,” said one of the by- standers, deeply affected, “say God save the king.” She answered with great steadiness, “God save him, if he will, for it is his salvation I desire.” “Sir, they cried to the major, “she has said it; she has said it!” The major, approaching her on hearing this, offered her the abjuration oath, charging her instantly to swear it, otherwise to return to the water. The poor young woman…firmly replied, “I will not; I am one of Christ’s children! let me go.” Upon which she was again thrust into the water, and drowned. Here was a girl who was ready and willing to confess Christ before men. She will receive her confession by Christ on the Final Judgment Day, as Jesus Himself here promises.

This story may be very touching and all, but we might ask what is the relevance for us today? To understand that, let’s dig a little bit into Christ’s meaning here.

Acknowledging Christ means confessing Christ in the face of persecution. We are still in that context of persecution that started in verse verse 14 with people not listening to our words of evangelism. It can start with that, but it may not end with that. Jesus just told us in the immediately preceding verses that we should fear only the One who can kill both body and soul. And that is a fear of reverence and awe. It is a fear that gives all glory to God, taking none for ourselves. Then, having comforted us with the words about the sparrows and the hairs on our head, letting us know that the Father cares for us, Jesus gives us a solemn warning which is simultaneously an encouragement. Jesus’ statement here is all or nothing, leaving no middle ground. It is impossible to be neutral, or silent. We are either confessing Christ or we are disowning Christ. So, if we are not confessing Christ, that means that we are disowning Him. And the phrase “before my Father in heaven” refers to the Judgment Day. So that is what Jesus means.

However, some of you might be thinking to yourselves, “What about Peter? Didn’t he deny his Lord three times?” Yes, he did. But denying Jesus is not the unforgivable sin. Repentance is possible for this sin just like any other. And, at the end of John’s Gospel, when Jesus asks Peter three times “Peter, do you love me,” I believe that is a threefold reaffirmation of Peter, a reinstatement of Peter. And Peter confesses his Lord for the rest of his life. In fact, tradition has it that Peter was martyred by crucifixion. Only, Peter did not feel that he was worthy of being crucified in the same way as his Master was, and so he asked to be crucified upside down. So, we can say this: is your life a confession of Christ? That is, do you acknowledge Him as Lord and Master of your life? Remember from the context here that we are to fear God rather than man. There is no need to deny Jesus. We should be ready, and pray that we may have the courage to acknowledge and confess Jesus when the time comes.

The way this applies to our everyday lives goes like this: do you sit and do nothing when the Lord’s name is taken in vain? Do you sit and do nothing when nearly 50,000,000 babies have been aborted since Roe vs. Wade? Do you sit and do nothing when the opposite group of vulnerable people, the aged, are being told that their lives are worthless, and that it is much better for them to commit doctor-assisted suicide, or, worse yet, in Terry Schiavo’s case, the decision is made for her? Do you sit and do nothing when a golden opportunity of evangelism presents itself? Do you sit and do nothing when an opportunity to give someone a cup of cold water in the name of Jesus presents itself? These are all ways in which we are either confessing or denying our Lord.

Obviously, from this it follows that none of us are sufficient. We are all sinners. We all of us deny Christ at some point or other. Two things then: don’t sin. Period. Just don’t do it. And rely on God’s strength in you not to sin. I don’t think we hear “do not sin” often enough. We think that it is okay to go on sinning since we have our security blanket underneath us ready to catch us. “Of course, Jesus will forgive me.” My friends, that is no license to keep on sinning. In fact, it is spitting on the sacrifice of Christ. So don’t sin. But secondly, if you have sinned, there is forgiveness. It involves repentance, which is NOT merely being sorry for your sin. It means turning away from that sin, and embracing Christ and the holy life He will give you. He has born the sin of many denials of Christ on the cross, Peter’s included.

So, while our witnessing for Christ may never be as dramatic as Margaret Wilson’s, she was only an extreme example. There are many ways to acknowledge and confess Christ. I said earlier that this statement of Christ’s was both a warning and an encouragement. It is a warning because we sure do not want to be those to whom Jesus the great Witness will say, “Depart from me, you evildoer, I never knew you.” This warning is real. We should all tremble at this warning. But the other side of the coin is Jesus saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” May we all be good and faithful servants.

Matthew 10:26-31

Audio Version

One summer night during a severe thunderstorm a mother was tucking her small son into bed. She was about to turn the light off when he asked in a trembling voice, “Mommy, will you stay with me all night?” Smiling, the mother gave him a warm, reassuring hug and said tenderly, “I can’t dear. I have to sleep in Daddy’s room.” A long silence followed. At last it was broken by a shaky voice saying, “The big sissy!” 5-year old Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn’t want to go in alone. “It’s dark in there and I’m scared.” She asked again, and he persisted. Finally she said, “It’s OK–Jesus will be in there with you.” Johnny walked hesitantly to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when all at once an idea came, and he said: “Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?” We fear many things, do we not? We fear unemployment. We fear bad weather. We fear the lack of money. We fear other people. We fear what they might say about us. We fear what they might do to us. Jesus tells us that these fears are needless. Only one fear is necessary, and that is the fear of God. Proverbs tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Jesus tells us here that we are to fear God and not man.

In the context, Jesus has been telling us about persecution. A disciple is not greater than his Master, and so we can expect to be persecuted in our lifetimes. Persecution, however, is a scary word for most of us who have lived in comparative comfort all our lives. So, when we hear that persecution is normal and to be expected, we can easily become afraid. I have often thought about how I would respond if someone held me at gunpoint and asked me, “Do you believe in God? If you do, I will shoot you.” That has happened to many people, even here in America. It happened at Columbine High School when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold asked Rachel Craig if she believed in God. When she said yes, they said, “Then go be with Him,” and shot her in the head, killing her instantly. She feared God rather than man.

Jesus tells us here that everything will be made known. He is not referring to the Final Judgment, however. At this point in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus did not want His ministry to be generally known. The reason for that was that He did not want people crowning Him king over the land of Israel, when He wanted His kingdom to be a spiritual kingdom. That is why He often told people not to tell anyone about their miraculous healings. So, right now, Jesus is telling people in secret. However, after Jesus’ death and resurrection, when His kingdom is established as a spiritual kingdom, and there is no possibility left for Him to be made a physical king, then the apostles are to tell in broad daylight what was hidden before. There is a time, Jesus says, for things to be whispered. But then, there is a time for the truth of Christ to be emblazoned in front of the whole world.

But we fear the consequences of that, do we not? Now is the time for the truth of Christ to be proclaimed, and yet we hold back out of fear oftentimes. Christ tells us that we need not fear. After all, the very worst thing they could possibly do to you is kill your body. Jesus tells us that we are not to be overly concerned about when we die. God is sovereign. We will not die one day earlier than God has decreed. Actually believing this is what enabled General Stonewall Jackson to be completely calm even in the midst of unbelievable horror and devastation around him. He knew that he was just as safe in the middle of battle as he was when he was asleep, since his God would ensure that he did not die one day earlier than God had decreed.

Instead of fearing man, we should fear God. God can destroy both body and soul in hell. Literally, the Greek says “the Valley of Hinnom.” Hinnom was a valley just outside of Jerusalem where all the trash and refuse was burned. It became a metaphor for the eternal punishment of hell itself. We have a choice, in other words. We can either fear man, in which case we will wind up serving an eternity of punishment in hell, or we can fear God, in which case we may or may not experience intense persecution in this life, but none whatsoever in the life to come. And we cannot fear both. Jesus offers us here a stark choice.

However, Jesus does give us some help in making the choice. Verse 29 tells us about sparrows. Two sparrows were sold for a penny. The penny here is a coin worth about 1/16 of a denarius, which was minimum wage for most employees at the time. They were the least expensive bird that you could buy on the market. They didn’t provide much meat, and yet for many people that was all they could afford. We might say that two sparrows would sell for $5. Jesus says that even they cannot fall to the ground unless the Father wills it. Literally, the text says, “without your Father.” The Father is with the sparrow as it falls to the ground. In other words, Jesus is saying that even sparrows are important to the Father. And if they are important, how much are you important. After all, you are made in the image of God, and sparrows are not.

Jesus uses another illustration to drive home the point. The hairs on our head are all numbered. Most people have about 140,000 hairs on their head. That sounds like a lot of hair! It would take you quite a while to count them all, if you even could. Hairs often fall out of our head without our even knowing it. But God knows and has decreed even that smallest of events! So, if God is sovereign over even the smallest things, then He is certainly sovereign over our lives! How often we think that He is not sovereign. We think that man can somehow thwart God. We think that man can hold up his little finger to God and say, “Thus far shall you go, and no further.” That is whistling in the dark. The Scripture teaches the exact opposite. God is in control, and He will certainly stay in control. God controls the smallest details of our lives, even down to the very hairs on our head. Not one of them falls to the ground without our heavenly Father having decreed it.

You can then imagine Jesus smiling as He says that we are worth more than many sparrows. He is not saying that sparrows are worthless. Rather, Jesus is saying that if the Father values even the smallest sparrow, even the smallest hair on your head, then how much more does He value your person. The application of that truth is that the sovereignty of God should be the basis for why we can bear up under persecution. Because God is sovereign over the sparrow, over the hairs of our head, and most importantly, over our entire person, both body and soul, therefore we should fear God, and not man.

A great illustration of this can be found in Acts 5, where these very disciples whom Jesus was teaching here, put into practice the principles taught them by their Lord. They had been arrested several times by the Jewish authorities already. This time, the high priest unloaded on them. He yelled at them that they had been still preaching these ideas, when the high priests had strictly charged them not to do so. Peter and the other apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.” The reason Peter gives is that even though the high priests put Christ to death (and Jesus tells us that men will sometimes put us to death), God is the God of resurrection. Men may kill the body. But that is a paltry power indeed when placed side by side with the sovereign power over death that God has in resurrecting Jesus Christ from the dead. Ultimately, that is our hope. We need not fear death, because Christ has gone through it and has come out the other side. You see, in our passage, there is absolutely nothing that Jesus tells us that He hasn’t already done Himself. He feared God rather than men. He feared the One who can destroy body and soul in hell more than He feared the men who were putting Him to death on the cross. And so, Jesus leads us by example. All those who have confessed the name of Jesus Christ before men will have their names confessed by Jesus before the world, as Jesus Himself tells us. That implies that the resurrection will happen. So, Rachel Craig feared God rather than man. Polycarp, the early church father, feared God, when the Romans asked him to deny his God, and he replied that he had served His God for 87 years, and His God had done only good to him all his life. How could he deny his Lord now? Has not God done good to you all your life? Do not measure your life by the hard things that have happened, for we deserve far worse than we get. Rather look at all that God has done in your life. I think if you do that, you will agree that you are worth more than many sparrows, and that God has numbered the very hairs on your head, and has given you the way of salvation. Walk in it.

Matthew 10:24-25

Audio Version

I have a poem to start us off today. It is by John Rice, from his book Poems That Preach.

I had walked life’s path with an easy tread, I had followed where comfort and pleasure led; And then by chance in a quiet place- I met my Master face to face. With station and rank and wealth for goal, Much thought for body but none for soul, I had entered to win this life’s mad race- When I met my Master face to face. I met Him and knew Him, and blushed to see That His eyes full of sorrow were fixed on me; And I faltered, and fell at His feet that day While my castles vanished and melted away. Melted and vanished; and in their place I saw naught else but my master’s face; And I cried alout: “Oh, make me meet To follow the marks of Thy wounded feet.” My though is now for the souls of men; I have lost my life to find it again, Ever since alone in that holy place My Master and I stood face to face.

What is so sad is that this poem’s beginning is often true of Christians. We sit in our comfortable armchairs and watch the news while Christ’s disciples are being persecuted all over the world. Am I trying to make us feel guilty about having comfortable armchairs to sit in and watch the news? No, it’s a tremendous blessing to have peace in this life, lack of persecution. However, there is a difference between recognizing that our freedom from persecution is a blessing on the one hand, and thinking or saying that such blessings are our rights.

Christ says here that it is sufficient if the disciple or student is like the teacher, or the master. The word “sufficient” implies contentment. In other words, it is sufficient for the disciple if he be like his master. It ought to be enough if we walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus is drawing on the common knowledge of the day as to how disciples followed their rabbi. A student usually chose the rabbi he wanted to be like. Then he would follow that rabbi around and learn from him. Of course, Jesus is a rabbi, although He is a little different, since He was the one who chose His disciples. His disciples did not choose Him. But they did follow Him around wherever He went. What Jesus is getting at here is that disciples want to be like their Master. Furthermore, they generally do look like their Master. I know, for instance, that I teach piano a great deal like my teacher used to teach me. I saw so much that was good to imitate, and so I do imitate him quite a bit. Imitation is one of the main ways we learn. For instance, if you see someone doing some mechanical thing on a tractor that you don’t know how to do, and you want to learn how to do it, you watch that other person do it, and then you try to do it. It is a very hands on learning kind of thing. And that is what is happening here. The disciples follow their Master around and try to imitate Him.

This is true for us as well. We are to be like our Rabbi Jesus. We are to follow in His footsteps. We are also to follow Him into suffering when the need arises. Remember that Jesus is giving us these instructions in the context of talking about suffering and persecution. Jesus has been persecuted, and He knows that His disciples are also going to be persecuted. Fortunately for us, the principle of imitation does not stop with the suffering. We also become like Him in His death, so that we will also be like Him in His glorious resurrection. This becomes gloriously true of us when we come to faith in Christ. Faith means that we follow in Christ’s footsteps. We enter with Him into the pain of Golgotha. We enter with Him into the pain of the cross and death in the tomb. But then our soul comes through the other side into glorious resurrection light. Jesus is always one step ahead of us. For now, Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father. We will one day sit there, too. But Christ has gone there to prepare that place for us.

If the rabbi is misunderstood, then the disciples of the rabbi will be misunderstood as well. Jesus tells us this principle as encouragement: we are not going to experience anything which Jesus hasn’t gotten in a much worse way. You will remember in chapter 9 that after Jesus had finished casting out demons, the Pharisaic miracle inspector came by to pronounce that Jesus had done this deed by the power of the prince of demons. They said, “It is by the power of the prince of demons that he casts out demons.” Apart from being an absurd answer (which Jesus will demonstrate in chapter 12 by noting that if a demon casts out a demon, then the demon has shot himself in the foot. Or at least the kingdom divided against itself will not stand), it is also blasphemy. They blasphemed the Son of Man by saying, in effect, that Jesus was in cahoots with the devil. Satan is the demon that Jesus is talking about when He uses the term “Beelzebul.” The term literally means “ruler over the air.” Satan is called that in Paul’s epistles, too. So, if Jesus is being called Satanic, then we can expect to be called Satanic as well. It is interesting to note what the ancient Roman authors thought of Christians. They called them atheists, since, if they only believed in one God, they must reject all the other gods, and so they must be atheists. They also called Christians cannibals, since they ate the body and blood of the Lord Jesus. There were also rumors of incest, since Christians called each other brothers and sisters, and had “love feasts,” (which were actually only like our potluck dinners).

The fundamental misunderstanding, though, was about the nature of Christ’s kingdom. No one understood at the time that Christ’s kingdom was not of this world. It was a spiritual kingdom. Christ the Messiah did not come to free the Jews from the power of Rome. That was not His intent. His intent was to free humanity from the power of sin and death. But the way He went about doing that meant that He would be misunderstood. To this day, the Jews reject Him because He was crucified on a tree, which means that Jesus was cursed. But Paul already has answered that by saying, “Amen. He became a curse for us. The crucifixion of Jesus was in our place, and was what we deserved.” Paul turns the very point that was a problem for Jews into the greatest selling point of Christianity: Jesus became a curse so that the blessing of eternal life might be ours. That involved persecution and misunderstanding for Jesus. But the end of that process is glorification, the new body, being out of reach of persecution forever. That is true of Jesus, and it is true for us. What we too often want is to have the life of comfort followed by an eternity of comfort. That is not the life that Christ envisions for us.

When Christ says, “how much more,” He is referring to the fact that even our best efforts will be tainted with sin. So, if Jesus the sinless one could be called Beelzebul, then how much more will we, whose efforts are never perfect in this life, be called Satanic. Richard Dawkins calls Christianity Satanic, since it supposedly blinds people to the truth that we are mere animals and that there is no God. It is the same thing that has always happened to Christians. The world is not worthy of true Christians. Fortunately, there is a new heavens and a new earth that is worthy of Christians. Understand that we are only worthy in Christ, not in and of ourselves. But the truth is that the new heavens and the new earth are the answer for us. That is why we can endure hard times now. We have a better land awaiting us. Then, we will indeed meet our Master face to face, as the poem said. Only there will be no shame then. Instead, it will be the greatest joy imaginable. In fact, it will be as beyond our imagination as we will be beyond the reach of persecution.

Matthew 10:17-23

Audio Version

When the emperor Valens threatened Eusebuis with confiscation of all his goods, torture, banishment, or even death, the courageous Christian replied, “He needs not fear confiscation, who has nothing to lose; nor banishment, to whom heaven is his country; nor torments, when his body can be destroyed at one blow; nor death, which is the only way to set him at liberty from sin and sorrow.” And hear this poem by Amy Carmichael, a bit overstated, but with important truth nevertheless: “Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land, I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star, Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet I was wounded by the archers, spend, Leaned Me against a tree to die; and rent By ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned: Hast thou no wound? No wound, no scar? Yet, as the Master shall the servant be, And, pierced are the feet that follow Me; But thine are whole: can he have followed far Who has no wounds nor scar?” What Jesus says to His disciples is true of us as well. True followers of Jesus will be persecuted in some fashion in their lifetime. It was probably worse for Jesus’ twelve disciples than it will ever be for us, although there are no guarantees. The point of what Jesus is saying here is that Jesus is with them in the midst of persecution, and therefore they should take courage, and be wise.

Jesus says that the disciples are to be on their guard. This implies that the disciples should flee persecution if they can do so. Persecution and the so-called martyr complex are not good things. They are evil things. Jesus implies that when He says that it is on His account. The same kind of people who would kill Jesus and hand Him over are the same kind of people who will persecute the disciples. There will be corporal punishment: flogging was an immensely painful punishment that involved a whip of several strands of leather, or sometimes even bits of metal attached to the ends of the leather. Jewish law required that 40 lashes be the maximum penalty. Being good Pharisees, they didn’t want to run the risk of going beyond that, so they usually made it 39 lashes. Paul received the “40 minus 1” five times in his life.

It is important for us in our day and age to be aware of the persecuted church, and to be praying for those who are being persecuted. Ray Vander Laan, who does the video series that we saw for family night last year, said that when the persecuted church suffers, we all suffer, even if the suffering does not directly affect us. We are all part of the same body of Christ. Even if we may be a leg, and it is the arm that suffers, the leg feels it too. I’m sure you know well that if one part of you hurts, then that’s just about all that the body can think about at the time.

Jesus tells us not to worry about what we might have to say if we are arrested for being a Christian. The Lord will give us what to say. This verse has sometimes been twisted to mean that the preacher never needs to prepare what he is going to say. He should just rest on the Lord that the Lord will give him what he needs to say, and that he should’nt prepare at all. Well, that is not what this passage is teaching. This teaching is talking about being arrested for the Christian faith. What is happening is that the people who are being arrested are worrying about what to say. They wonder if they will have the words that will be honoring to God when crunch time comes. Jesus assures such people that they will have the words to say. It will be at that time that the Spirit will work in that person’s life so that they will have the words to say. Don’t worry about that. Only be concerned with being faithful to God in the times of persecution.

The persecution can often be fierce. Brother betrays brother, even to death, and family relationships are torn apart. Christianity divides people. It is also true that Christians are united together. However, Christianity also divides. How many families since the beginning of the New Testament era have been torn apart by a non-Christian rejecting the Christian! This is the best illustration of the fact that all men will hate Christians because of Jesus. All men, including family. But Jesus states that those who stand firm to the end will be saved. Briefly, how are we to understand this verse? Scripture uses the word “salvation” to mean two basic things: the moment of conversion, and the whole of the Christian life. Jesus plainly means the latter here.

Verse 23 has been described by many people as the most difficult verse in the entire New Testament, as to its meaning. If Jesus is talking about the Second Coming, then we have the problem that He was talking to His disciples. If we say that Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., then we have the problem that Jesus hasn’t mentioned anything about such a judgment anywhere in the context. I think that Boice says something very reasonable when he says that we ought to understand it as a general principle that we will always have work to do, and that we will never finish all that could be accomplished before Christ comes. I agree, and I think the passage has three main applications. Christ “came” at His resurrection. In that sense the disciples did not finish going through the cities of Israel before Christ was resurrected. Secondly, it could also apply to the destruction of Jerusalem. This would be Christ coming in judgment. Thirdly, it can also apply to Christ’s Second Coming. We will not finish our work before Christ comes again. That should not discourage us. It should rather encourage us, since we know that times are urgent, and therefore we should work hard. But also, Christ is not going to delay His coming if we do not get absolutely everything done that we might have gotten done.

So, the principles that we can glean from this are these: persecution will come. We can count on that. We should not pursue persecution, nor should we be afraid of persecution. Jesus is going to say just a little bit later that we are to fear God rather than men, since men cannot kill our souls. No matter how badly the persecution gets, we can be assured that it will never take our soul. Our soul is safely in the hands of Almighty God. Secondly, do not worry about what you will say if you are arrested. It might very well happen one day, you know. America is becoming less and less a Christian nation, and more and more pagan and atheistic. The Spirit gives special help to those who are persecuted. You need not worry about that. Only be faithful. Thirdly, pray for the persecuted church that they will hold fast and seal with their blood what they teach with their lips, as John Hus said of himself. Fourthly, and lastly, our work is to share the good news of Christ crucified to every last tongue and nation. We should be encouraged to that work by the idea of Christ’s Second Coming, not discouraged by it.