Do Not Worry Among the Wolves | Matthew 10:24-33

We have two readings today. The first one is from Matthew 5 verses 11 to 12.

Matthew 5:11–12

The second reading is from Matthew chapter 10 verses 24 to 33.

Matthew 10:24–33

If the head of the house has been called bills above, how much more the members of his household?

So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.

In the dark, speak in the daylight, what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your father's care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.

Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

Good morning everyone. It's great to be together and sing and pray and hear the word of the Lord proclaim. So before we do indeed come before these words, would you please join me in praying.

Lord Jesus, we ask this morning that you would be held high among us, that your spirit would be at work, and that we would understand the words of eternal life, and that you would change us for your glory.

We ask for this in your name. Amen.

Fear is a powerful motivator. A powerful motivator to shrink back and do nothing, even in the face of necessity.

And so how will we overcome this terrible enemy of the mind? That's exactly what Jesus addresses with his apostles and by implication all his disciples here this morning.

Before we get into this, let's have a think about our context. If you've been with us for the past few weeks, you know that we're in the book of Matthew and in particular in a part of his book where Jesus is addressing 12 specific disciples who were chosen to preach on the kingdom of heaven and show its arrival by ministering to people with signs and wonders.

It was an incredibly important mission because Israel was about to hear about her long awaited Messiah and how he had come to set them free.

And so these 12 men were being prepared to be sent as apostles, as ambassadors to their nation to deliver this good news.

This morning, we're still continuing to look at these same marching orders and Jesus is still telling them what it will be like for those who will carry the good news of the kingdom out to all those among them.

And as you might remember from last week, as the gospel goes out, it will be met with opposition and persecution, which as you can imagine would have conjured up all sorts of fear in the hearts and minds of our Lord's apostles.

And so our Lord, knowing that, now addresses these fears by giving them and us three reasons as to why we shouldn't be afraid in our mission to take the good news of Jesus into the world.

First, he addresses why people will be opposed to us in the first place.

So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, we'll be in the text quite a bit.

So look with me at verses 24 and 25. Jesus says, the students not above their teacher, nor a servant above his master.

It is enough for students to be like their teachers and servants like their masters.

Okay, so the first thing that Jesus addresses for us here is that people won't so much be offended by us for anything in and of ourselves, but who and what we stand for.

Now you might remember it, these guys were commissioned to go throughout all Israel because our Lord had gone through parts of his country and he had seen many people in his country who were misled.

In fact, he described it like seeing sheep without a shepherd. And so out of the masses of people that followed him, he chose 12 guys to be close to him so as to teach them and then send them out into the great harvest to work for the Lord, to go in his name.

And he did this because before they could go, they had to know who Jesus was. They had to learn from him. They had to be his disciples.

Now admittedly, that's a word that we don't hear much in this day and age outside of the church, the word disciples.

But that's exactly what these guys were. They were under the tutelage of a rabbi. That's what it meant to be a disciple in this context.

And Jesus makes this relationship obvious in a couple of different ways. They were students with their teacher. They were servants with their master.

Now student here is easier to understand in our context if we approach it not so much in a classroom setting, but maybe more in a tutoring setting.

I was a drum teacher for years and people would hire me for their children because they wanted them to be able to play drums like a professional.

That was the goal. It was a mentor-student relationship, which was much more personal than a massive classroom setting where students would come and go from year to year.

The tutoring relationship was there until the student had become like their teacher.

The servant dynamic though is a little bit different and we can understand it by using the word slave.

That's the Greek that actually sits under our NIV translation here, doulos.

And that word is used because it's a word that doesn't suggest that a person gets a choice when the one above them gives an order.

That's certainly how the apostle Paul approached his ministry. He would call himself a slave numerous times.

In fact, he would open his letters much of the time by saying, Paul, a slave of King Jesus.

And so it's here that we get a good sense of what a disciple is in relationship to our Lord, where his students who were sat at his feet being tutored,

where servants, where slaves ready to do whatever he commands.

Let's think a little bit more about this dynamic this morning.

See, we're students of Jesus Christ because we know that what he has to say is good and true.

That's why we look to Jesus as our teacher, because we know that his authority comes from God.

That's why we've come to follow him. It's because we know that he is the way, the truth and the life.

Now don't miss this. We're actually all students and are discipled by something or someone.

In fact, many people much of the week are tutored by what the world has to say through their iPhones.

And they'll listen to what the world has to preach on with things like, let's say, for one example, what it is to be happy, what true happiness consists of.

And they'll listen to what the world will preach on as to what happiness really looks like.

And it will usually amount to having more and more things.

A disciple of Jesus knows where true happiness comes from.

It doesn't come from getting more things, but seeking first the kingdom of God.

Now that mindset is radically different to the world, but we know it's true because we're disciples of the one we have come to trust.

And we trust what he says is good and true.

And so as his students, we hear his words, we believe them, and we do what we can to practice them.

And this is the other dynamic that we see here this morning.

Jesus is our master.

Now being called a servant in 21st century Western Australia is incredibly countercultural, but that's the relationship that a disciple has.

Jesus is our teacher and master, and we obey him because we have come to know him personally as our savior.

Now this isn't to say that what he commands us will always make sense every step of the way,

but we know that because we were once lost, but now found, once dead, but now alive, that we should do as he says,

because he, while we were still his enemies, delivered us from the cruel master of sin.

He rescued us and purchased us with his own blood.

Church, to be a slave of sin is to receive the wages of death, but to be a slave of Christ is to receive life everlasting.

And he came to us.

He chose us. He delivered us from that cruel master, and so we trust and obey our Lord because we know he is good.

We know he is true and that he loves us, which means if we really think about it this morning,

which means that the goal of the Christian life isn't just to come to church,

have tea and bikis and then go about life like nothing's changed.

No, to be a disciple is to hear the words of our teacher and master,

so as to do them and we follow Jesus no matter the cost to ourselves,

because something has happened supernaturally in us, to our hearts, to the very core of us by the work of the Holy Spirit,

so that we deeply desire to be like Jesus.

So our Lord uses these words to help us understand our relationship with him, what a disciple is to our Lord.

And that's what these guys had signed up to. They'd signed up to a life to leave everything and follow Jesus as teacher and master.

And now Jesus was saying to his students, saying to his servants,

I'm sending you to go out like me, like I've gone, like I've preached, like I've shown the power of the kingdom,

I'm sending you into the great harvest to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, like I've been given power and authority,

I have given you my power and authority, so go and do like I have.

But this is the warning. If the head of the house has been called be asable, how much more the members of his household?

Now, you might remember at church, Jesus has already said that this isn't going to be some cakewalk.

No, his disciples would be like sheep among wolves.

Because that's what Jesus had experienced personally himself.

I mean, if we think back to where we've been in the book of Matthew, we've seen how those in authority have treated Jesus.

They saw him as a blasphemous rabbi in that he forgave sin on behalf of God.

They thought he was a law breaker for eating with sinners, but most grievously.

And what Jesus is speaking about right here in our text this morning was that they attributed his power and authority

that he had received from the Father as coming from be asable, the Palestinian Lord of the Flies, akin to Satan himself.

And so Jesus, he gives them the lay of the land. He says, if they treated me like this, they're going to treat you the same.

You're not above what I've come against.

No, you'll be like me in this. You'll receive like treatment.

Brothers and sisters, might I say that if you're united to Christ, then don't be surprised by hardship.

You see, when the Lord Jesus Christ came to us, when he united us to himself and he gave us the free gift of salvation,

he also called us to costly discipleship and our discipleship might cost us everything

because if they treated the head of the home like a rebel, how much more the members of his house.

That's the reality of every single one that the Lord has united to himself.

Wherever we are, wherever the spirit of the age is in operation, we must be prepared to receive opposition.

That's the reality of the Christian life. On the one hand, we've we heard it this morning.

We've all been made sons and daughters and citizens of the heavenly kingdom because of being united with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But on the other hand, as our Lord and master faced opposition because of our association with him,

we must be prepared to receive the same treatment in this life.

Again, people won't so much be offended by us in and of ourselves, but who and what we stand for.

And ministry, missions, evangelism and just being a disciple of Christ anywhere in this world will come with its challenges.

And so we see it in our text this morning. Our Lord shifts gears and he gives us three reasons why we mustn't fear.

Three, don't be afraid. We see the first one in verses 26 and 27.

Don't be afraid of them, for there's nothing concealed that won't be disclosed or hidden that won't be made known.

What I tell you in the dark speak in the daylight. What's whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.

As we've seen through the weeks as we've been in this series in the book of Matthew, Jesus teaches his disciples,

which is to say Jesus didn't just do signs and wonders among them, but he taught them God's truth, both in public and in private.

But as we've also seen as Jesus toured his own country, as he went around teaching, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, the scribes,

despite the truth they heard, they hated the doctrine of Jesus and they conspired against him.

So Jesus says to his apostles, go and preach what you've heard of me, because though the wolves will growl,

though they will bear their teeth at you like they have with me, it'll all be shown for what it is in the end.

It'll all be shown for what it is in the end. And I think we are encouraged in a couple of ways here.

First, God will vindicate the people of God in the end. What do I mean by that?

Well, it's as we've seen before, as the message would go out to the Jews, to the Gentiles, and even to their own families,

they would in many cases be rejected. But Jesus puts it all in perspective here.

They've been entrusted with the good news of the kingdom. They've been entrusted with the gospel, which is the power unto salvation.

And so no matter what they would face, they could know that they were on God's mission.

God would vindicate them as doing the right thing in the end.

They'd be shown for being his servants and loving others enough to go into the harvest.

Second, they could know that as they went out, that those who worked against God and his people would be shown for who they really are.

No matter how pious they might come across.

Church, isn't that the case today? Many in the public sphere are so harsh against the disciples of Christ,

calling us unloving, unsympathetic, and dangerous because we won't accept or compromise on their doctrine, on their ideology.

They will mock us and slander us for pointing to the Bible and confessing that God has spoken, that his word is final,

and that repentance and trust in Jesus is the only way. That's the reality that we have in our world.

And this is the thing, it's not a time for gospel faithful people to draw back in fear.

But take what we know is true and be open and faithful to what the Bible says.

Gospel faithful people, gospel faithful churches, must endeavor to share the whole council of scripture

and not hide anything for the simple fact that we know this, the truth of God sets people free.

We've experienced this ourselves, the truth of God sets people free.

So that's what we're to do. We proclaim what we've been taught.

We work hard to be clear with what our Lord has entrusted us with in our context, in our varying degrees of our knowledge.

Brothers and sisters, people will react so differently to this.

Some will absolutely love you.

You will be like 2 Corinthians says, like the perfume of life.

I adore the man who shared the gospel with me.

Yet others, to them, you'll be the stench of death.

That's the reality.

What we've received, we're to share.

Some people will hear the gospel, they'll repent, and they'll become our brothers and sisters in the Lord and will love them to death.

But others will hear the same message, the same person.

They'll hate it and they'll want to destroy your reputation, maybe your credibility.

And that can seem terrifying, though we would do well this morning to be reminded that there will be a day when everything is put on the table.

When the light will be switched on and everyone and everything in the room will be shown for who and what they are and God will vindicate his people in the beloved.

So first, let's not fear because it will all be shown for what it is in the end.

Second, verse 28, we see it here.

Don't be afraid of those who kill the body but can't kill the soul.

Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Again, in the verses preceding what we've looked at this morning, the passage that we went through last week, we were told about the reality of the gospel going out.

With Israel, disciples would be thrown out of their churches and flogged with Gentile nations.

They would be bought before rulers and put on trial with their own families.

They ran the risk of being handed over to be killed.

In fact, Jesus said that all people, every tribe, nation, tongue and people will hate us because of who and what we are.

If we look down the annuals of history, we certainly see that that's the case much of the time.

Death has always loomed close to the Christian.

Particularly on those who wouldn't compromise.

Death always has been a real and present danger.

Dierdrich Bonhoeffer was one of the few German pastors who had the courage to openly oppose the regime of Adolf Hitler.

For that, for helping the Jews, for opposing such wickedness, such demonic driven wickedness,

Dierdrich was jailed and then executed.

From prison, he wrote to his friend and he said, those who are still afraid of men have no fear of God.

And those who have fear of God, they've ceased to be afraid of men.

Dear church, we live in an amazing time and place.

We live in a great nation and we should be so thankful for this.

We live in a country where to be openly Christian might seem a bit weird, pretty old fashioned.

But with that, with that freedom comes opportunity.

Opportunity in that we're able to share faith without really facing the reality of death.

Why don't we?

Much of the time, it's because of fear.

We fear not so much being killed, but we fear rejection, looking silly, being slandered, ultimately ostracised.

Yes, no doubt we are to be wise and innocent in our conduct with the people around us.

But that's not a command to be passive and silent.

To be a disciple of Jesus is in some sense, in some way, to be active in participating in the mission of the harvest.

So Jesus says, don't fear people.

The worst they can do is kill you.

Fear the one who has power over all things, such as life and death, heaven and hell.

And I've got to say, church, I must confess to you this morning, that is a really interesting way that our Lord motivates us here.

But look at what he's doing because it's actually incredibly encouraging.

Because he's resetting our hearts and minds to the place where they should always be, on God, and where, as his children, we sit in the scheme of things.

You see, the disciples of Jesus, all of us, know that the gospel is wonderful and beautiful, and every disciple has the deep-seated desire from the very core to see others come to Christ.

So the great temptation is, when we go into the harvest, we actually end up compromising because we fear what people think of us more than what God thinks.

So Jesus says, as you go out, you have an audience of one.

God's your audience.

He's the one you're aiming to please because if you take your eyes off that reality, you won't be able to do any good because you'll always be worried about what others think.

Fear God rather than man because it's he, it's God, it's our Father, and he alone that will judge and set things right.

He and he alone who will bring all things to light in the end.

He has the power over death and hell.

Nineteenth-century hymnist Helen Lemel beautifully caught this when she wrote, Turn your eyes upon Jesus.

Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

So dear ones, don't fear. It will all be shown for what it is in the end.

Second, don't fear. They're only human. Verses 29 and 31, we see a third encouragement.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care.

And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered.

Don't be afraid. You're worth more than many sparrows.

I love what Jesus is doing in this context here because the cheapest meal a person could get was cooked sparrow.

Imagine it, eating your pet budgies. It would be horrible.

Two for a penny, which would be like getting chicken wings for 15 cents nowadays.

A total bargain, a cheap feed, and Jesus is saying if our Heavenly Father cares about little things that are sold at Maccas,

and not one of them dies without his go ahead, how much more do you think he cares about us?

I want you to notice the language here.

Father, which means we're children.

Those he knows intimately, we're his children.

Church, this is an incredibly huge statement that our Lord is making there.

Because he's basically saying that nothing can undercut our Father's providential care.

Nothing can ever sever us from his love.

In as many words, Jesus is saying your children of your Father, your loved, your cared for, your known,

and we can trust in our Father's care.

So how do we hold this care and suffering in tension?

Well, we look to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Think with me on the night in which he was betrayed and the fact how our Lord took absolute comfort in the providential care of our Father.

Think about how he knew none of it could happen without being appointed,

and how he answered those who had arrested them that they couldn't have done so unless it was appointed.

That is the most incredible example that every student of Jesus should sit up and pay attention to.

Our Lord and Master suffered and even in the midst of his greatest trial, he kept on teaching by example.

None of it could happen unless it had been appointed.

These are hard words that we've heard this morning.

But no matter what we're going through, no matter what rejection or threats the world will dish out, we've not been misplaced or forgotten.

We're in the beloved.

And because of our unity with him, our Father cares for us.

And we can know as our teacher and Master did that nothing in our lives happens outside of his providential care.

First question of the Heidelberg Catechism is a question that many of you might know.

It asks, what's your only comfort in life and death?

The answer, that I with my soul and body both in life and death am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ,

who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from the power of the devil

and so preserves so that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head.

Yes, and all things must be subservient to my salvation.

Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live for him.

That is our comfort.

Not a hair can fall from our head apart from the will of our heavenly Father.

Jesus offers us all this morning an encouragement because he knows that we will face opposition.

As we conclude our time in this very sobering part of Scripture,

we might indeed say that fear is a powerful motivator that tempts us to shrink back and do nothing, even in the face of necessity.

But as we've seen this morning, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we need not fear the world because as we go out

and as we face opposition for who and what we are, we must keep that in mind.

Who and what we are.

We are people who belong to the living God, who have been called, cleaned, commissioned,

and no matter what the world might say of us now, it will all be shown for what it is in the end.

And those who oppose the disciples of Jesus in the strongest possible way,

that doesn't even come close to facing God on that last day.

That's what we are.

Church, because we have come to Christ, because Christ has come to us, because we belong to him,

we are children of our heavenly Father, and our heavenly Father cares for his children more than we could possibly imagine.

And that's how Jesus ends on this powerfully motivating truth.

Right now in heaven, at this very moment, he confesses us before the living God, before our Father,

God the Son confessing us before God the Father, saying, whoever acknowledges me before others,

I'll also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.

Whoever disowns me before others, I'll disown before my Father in heaven, verses 32 and 33.

Brothers and sisters, I hope you've caught something here this morning.

The Christian life is a life that is given over to our teacher and master.

We have given our lives to him because he first loved us.

He rescued us, redeemed us, and restored us, and we know what he has to say is the truth.

And so we want to do everything that he has to say.

Like these 12, we have a better understanding of the gospel.

We have the gospel with Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension, his coming again,

which is the power unto salvation.

And so we're to go.

But like these 12, it will be hard.

But we have God's care in and through anything, anything we might face.

So be encouraged.

We're not alone by any stretch of the imagination.

Look around you.

We are more than a school of students.

We are brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We've been chosen, we've been put together to encourage one another in our most holy faith.

And so let us encourage each other in our faith.

To fear God and not man as we face the many trials and various temptations of this world.

We may lose things in this life as we confess Jesus.

But what we may lose in this life doesn't even compare to what we gain,

knowing, knowing that the Lord confesses us before our Father in heaven.

So hear these words of our teacher and master this morning.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven.

For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Let's pray.

Father, we come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning.

And we come before the throne boldly because we know that we are your children.

That you have snatched us out of the world.

That you have clothed us in righteousness.

That you have filled us full of the Holy Spirit.

And that in Christ we are accepted, we are forgiven.

But as we've heard this morning, Father, we do face various and many trials.

And sin is always lingering, always tempting.

Father God, would you by your grace, raise our eyes to the Lord Jesus in the gospel.

Might we keep our eyes on him by the supernatural work that you are doing in our lives.

That we would be people that would be wise, innocent, bold, truthful, but not clanging symbols.

But do everything out of love for you and those around us.

We ask for this in Jesus' name, Amen.