Sheep Among Wolves | Matthew 10:16-23

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues.

And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake,

to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.

When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say.

For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Brother will deliver brother over to death and the father his child.

And children will rise against parents and have them put to death.

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake.

But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.

For truly I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Morning everyone.

It's great to be together this morning and to come around the Lord's Word,

sing together and pray together.

But before we get into our Lord's Words this morning,

would you please join me in asking for his help.

Our Lord Jesus, we are so thankful for the Eternal Word

that you have come to dwell, that you have given your Word to us.

We ask this morning that as we peer into words of eternal life,

that by your Spirit you will lead us to yourself.

Give us ears to hear, minds to understand.

Lord Jesus, we ask that you would change us this morning to be zealous,

to be wise, to be innocent people.

We ask for this in your name. Amen.

We're currently in the book of Matthew,

where we've seen Jesus come to his people

and travel around preaching on the kingdom of heaven

and confirming the message with signs, wonders and various miracles.

And we've seen that as he traveled, he saw his people like sheep without a shepherd.

And it grieved him so much so that he told those following him, his disciples,

that they should pray to the Lord of the harvest, ask the Lord of the harvest

to send out workers because the harvest is plentiful and the workers few.

And that's exactly what Jesus planned to do with those he was speaking to.

In fact, we're part way through chapter 10, where we've been studying Jesus' marching orders

to his chosen disciples. And what have we seen so far?

Well, out of the masses of people, Jesus chose 12 Jewish men to send them to the lost sheep of Israel

and preach about the long-awaited kingdom that was promised to them through the prophets.

And they were to go about this mission showing signs of its breaking in by curing diseases,

raising the dead and casting out demons as a testimony of God's power really coming to them.

Which we've seen Jesus being, he's been doing that himself.

And he gave his authority to these 12 to do the same thing.

To put it simply, they were commissioned by the king of the kingdom to go and proclaim

and show that the kingdom of heaven was breaking into the present by and through their Messiah Jesus,

who had arrived as promised.

Then last week in chapter 10 verses 5 through to 15, we saw Jesus get incredibly practical

in the way that he wanted his apostles to rely on God.

We saw that they were to be wise and discerning in their preaching.

For those in Israel that accepted their message, the apostles were able to say that God's peace was in that place,

but if they were rejected, they were to declare to those people in no uncertain terms

that they were under the judgment of God to come.

This was serious business, this was a serious commission to these 12.

This morning we're still looking at the same marching orders given to these 12 men.

And like last week, we have to keep in mind the context of the things that we're looking at,

which were specific for these guys, but might I say, we will also see this morning,

Jesus speak into the future ministry that these men will do,

which won't just apply to them, but to all the church throughout all time, including you and me.

So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, it's going to be very handy

because we'll be in our text quite a bit.

Look with me at verse 16. Jesus says, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves.

So the first thing that I want you to see here is the language that Jesus employs.

I'm sending you out.

Now, we've already had a look at this a couple of weeks ago,

where we noticed that the title Apostle means sent one.

It's what Apostle means.

And that's what Jesus is reiterating here.

These 12 men were being sent like a king would send ambassadors to a nation.

In other words, these guys were representing the Messiah to Israel.

This is interesting.

They were ambassadors being sent, but they were like sheep among wolves.

Last week, you might remember it. Not everyone would accept the message of the kingdom,

even with the signs of the kingdom being present among them.

That was the reality that Jesus wanted to make his disciples aware of in this commission.

They would go out and some people would accept what they had to say, yet others would reject it.

But Jesus isn't talking about those accepting or rejecting the message here.

No, he's saying that as they go out, there's going to be some people who will be actively out to get them.

They would be like sheep among wolves.

And think about it. Wolves don't just bite. They devour the flock.

A few years ago, I stayed with a friend of mine on his farm,

and it was an interesting experience because he would take his shotgun to bed with him,

so that if he heard foxes around the paddock, he would run out and try and blow their heads off.

I'll never forget that these feral animals, these foxes, would go after the lambs.

Not so much to eat them, but to make sport of them.

It's a total understatement to say that foxes and sheep don't mix.

How much more wolves? How much more wolves?

And that's what Jesus is warning here.

The natural enemy to the sheep is the wolf.

It's in and around the flock, and he's sending them among people who will be naturally vicious towards them.

So as they go, as they proclaim, as they show the signs of the kingdom,

Jesus warns them, be as shrewd as snakes, as innocent as doves.

We see that there in verse 16.

Now I don't want you to miss the comparison here.

In the ancient world, the snake was the sign, the symbol of great wisdom.

But what of the dove?

Well granted, he's not a dove, but our beloved budgie, Mr. Flicky, might help with a good comparison here.

You see, he's the most gentle little creature on God's green earth, a real delight.

And most importantly, Mr. Flicky wouldn't hurt a fly.

And that's what I think Jesus is getting at here.

We must be wise and gentle, both shrewd and innocent in the way that,

as he's speaking to his apostles here, as they conduct themselves on this mission.

And I think this makes greater sense to us when we think about the context here.

You see, the Jews, they expected a messiah to come and physically rid them of their enemies.

It must have been the most bizarre thing to see.

Jesus declared the Son of God at his baptism and then walk out into the desert.

The total opposite direction to Jerusalem.

I mean, if you were expecting Jesus to overthrow Rome,

that would have been the most strange sight to behold indeed.

But now these guys, they'd seen the power, they'd seen the crowds following Jesus,

and now they were being commissioned to preach just like John the Baptist and Jesus.

But Jesus warned them, as you go, as you go and proclaim the kingdom,

don't go without your heads on or go and start fights with all those that don't agree with you in my name.

You know, they weren't being sent into Israel to start an uprising against the wolves.

These ambassadors of the kingdom weren't to go and start a war with people.

They were to go and proclaim a message of good news and hope in the grace and wisdom of God.

They had to be aware of their environment.

They had to go about this ministry in a certain way.

New Testament scholar William Hendrickson, he's really quite helpful here.

He says this mission involved sanctified common sense,

wisdom to do the right things at the right time in the right place in the right manner.

It involved a serious attempt to always discover the best means to achieve the highest goal.

An earnest and honest search for answers to such questions as

how will this word or action of mine affect the future of my neighbour and the glory of God?

Is this the best way to handle this problem or is there a better way?

All this to say Jesus is directing his men here to go.

But as they went in power and authority, in passion and zeal for the kingdom,

they weren't exempt from personal responsibility.

This mission involved sanctified common sense.

They were to be both wise and innocent.

Let me just say church, zeal and passion is important in the proclamation of the gospel.

We as the people of God want to see people hear the gospel,

people repent and souls come into the kingdom.

The power and truth of God in gospel proclamation is vital, no doubt.

But so is wisdom and innocence in our own conduct.

And there's a great deal of truth in this for us.

There are people out there who are incredibly passionate about the gospel

and wanting to win souls for the Lord and we praise God for them.

In fact, I used to love listening to a certain preacher when we were living in Oxford.

He sat behind a table which said, ask me anything about Jesus.

And he would walk around and answer questions, give out tracks and he would preach.

And I still remember to this day his demeanor.

He was firm but gentle, articulate but loving.

But I've also seen people out there just as zealous and passionate for the gospel

with signs that say turn or burn and screaming into a megaphone about the judgment of God.

Both passionate and zealous, both out there with truth.

But only one understanding the environment that they were in using a sanctified common sense to reach their audience.

And granted, not everybody might want to go and stand on a soapbox in the middle of the city and preach.

But all of us are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those around us.

And every single one of us is going to have a different context in which we do that.

We all look different but this is the tension in the Christian life.

On the one hand we want everyone to know about Jesus, hear good news that sin can be forgiven.

That if they repent they come into the kingdom of heaven.

But on the other hand we know that we live in a nation that if we were to stand on our desk at work

and shout at our colleagues about the judgment of God, well you would never get that opportunity again.

Most likely anywhere. That's the tension.

We have a harvest. We are the workers in the harvest and we want to work for our Lord in His business.

We don't want to back away from that but we need to go about it with a good amount of sanctified common sense.

Church, please hear me loud and clear this morning.

Let us be people that never compromise on the truth.

And let us not be dispassionate in telling others about the good news of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Let us not compromise on hard doctrines when challenged.

But let's also use wisdom in the way that we go about this business.

Let's be innocent in it. We're people of truth. We're not people of compromise.

We're people of good news to tell the world. We are not people that bully others.

Maybe this week you could take some time and ask the Lord of the harvest about how you might be used in your context for His glory.

But ask Him for wisdom. Ask Him in your zealousness how you might wisely go about His work.

But hear this. Though we should use sanctified common sense in our evangelism, though we must be shrewd and innocent in our conduct,

that doesn't mean that the world will all of a sudden love us and then accept everything that we have to say.

We too are sheep among wolves. And that's the second thing we see here.

We have to be prepared to cop opposition. We have to be prepared for it.

Look with me at verses 17 and 18. Be on guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues.

On my account you'll be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.

Church, as I said before, Jesus was speaking to His apostles about an immediate mission, an immediate commission that they were to go on to Israel.

But notice it. He starts to speak about what they are to expect in the future.

And we see that because of the dynamic change in our text here this morning.

He's commissioned them to go to the lost sheep, verse 6. But now He takes this opportunity to tell them what it's going to be like as the Gospel spreads from Israel to the Gentiles.

Think about it. Again, it must have been an utter shock to these twelve guys because in their minds they were expecting the Messiah to come

and set up a physical kingdom which would totally destroy their enemies.

But Jesus is giving them a realistic expectation here.

He's saying as you go about kingdom business, as you go about proclaiming good news, as you go about seeking lost sheep, you're going to be persecuted.

Your own people from your own towns, your own churches, even strangers are going to want you thrown out and beaten.

I don't know about you, but this would have been incredibly, incredibly hard to hear.

And church, it just goes to show that we should never be surprised that as kingdom proclamation, as the Word of God goes out, that it will be met with resilience by both religious and civil authorities.

Indeed, Gospel proclamation, brothers and sisters, won't be just met with hardline resistance out there in the world, but potentially from even our own flesh and blood, our own families, as Jesus goes on to say there in verse 21.

In fact, he said you'll be hated by everyone because of me, every tribe, nation, tongue and people, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved, verse 22.

This would have been so, so hard to hear.

I mean, so far they've seen Jesus gather crowds, kill people, and yes, granted there was some resistance from the Pharisees, but Jesus is telling them what to expect.

It was a reality they had to embrace.

As you go, as the Word travels, as the Gospels proclaimed, even your own families are going to hate you for what you stand for.

We'll see this next week.

The Gospel divides.

It's a reality.

Maybe you're here this morning and you felt that kind of pain personally.

You've embraced the Gospel, you've bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, but found out the hard way that not everyone has celebrated your decision to follow Jesus.

Maybe you're here this morning and as you went to tell your friends and family about the hope that you have in Christ and that you've shared it with them, that this hope is for them as well,

that you found yourself being rejected, ostracized, mocked by those that you love the most.

Well, my brother, my sister, this isn't foreign to those who have chosen Christ above all.

Maybe this morning you're in pain and feeling lonely because you've taken your faith seriously.

Well, I want to say to you this morning, you're not alone.

Our Lord and Saviour, He knows rejection personally.

He was despised and rejected of men, hated, mocked and eventually handed over by His own people that He came to proclaim good news to.

He was handed over to the Gentiles and humiliated on a Roman cross.

Our Lord knows rejection personally in church.

That might be the cost.

We might have to face angry governments and those in power as a result of following Jesus Christ.

We might have to.

We might be rejected and despised by those closest to us because of what we stand for.

It's a reality.

There's good news in all of this.

Even though we may cop opposition in this world, God will never leave nor forsake us.

Look with me at verses 19 and 20.

When they arrest you, don't worry about what to say or how to say it.

At the time you'll be given what to say.

It won't be you speaking but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

See, as Jesus had spoken to the twelve and He'd given them the lay of the land,

He told them about the playing field and what was going to come down the pipeline,

He then assures them that they won't be doing any of it alone.

God will never leave nor forsake them, just the opposite.

In fact, He's going to use these opportunities with being arrested and then being put on trial

for the Lord God to use it as an opportunity for Him to speak through them and witness about Jesus.

Church, that's certainly the case.

You see, after Christ's resurrection, He commissioned His apostles to take the Gospel from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria

and then to the ends of the world.

And as we read through Acts, that's exactly what they did and others among them did also.

But this is the amazing thing, when we read those accounts in Acts,

as they stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin, which is the Jewish courts in places like Acts 4, 5, 7 and 8,

and when the early church were brought before Gentiles and Governors and Kings to witness

in places like Acts 14, 16, 23, 26 to name a few, each time they weren't stuck for words.

Just the opposite, we read that those who witnessed for Christ were bold in their testimony.

That was Christ's assurance to these guys.

To His church, God would never leave nor forsake them.

No, as they went, as they faced opposition, as they relied on the Holy Spirit of God,

He would use their situations, no matter what they were in, to witness through them and advance the Gospel.

Church, I wouldn't say that this is a command throughout all time to not prepare for public speaking.

If you're a preacher, you would say, Amen.

Rather, this is a promise that God would be there for those who couldn't prepare for the defence that they had.

This was our Lord promising His apostles that God would empower them to witness in the trials and tribulations that they were going to face.

The Holy Spirit of God would give them the words to testify, which would allow them to witness powerfully.

In other words, they would never be on mission, never be on trial in their own strength.

But I don't think we should leave that wonderful truth just in the context of the ancient church this morning.

Because the church, throughout all time and history, never goes on mission without God being with us.

That's our Lord's promise to all His disciples in Matthew 28.

Therefore, go make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

teaching them everything that I've commanded you.

Surely, I'm with you always. I'm with you always to the end of the age.

See, church, we're all called and commissioned to share the good news.

But we are not called and commissioned to share the good news in our own strength.

No, all the church throughout all history has to rely on the Holy Spirit of God working in and through us as we testify to those around us.

We may never be put on trial here in Australia in a court of law for our faith.

I don't know.

But let me say this. It's amazing what the Holy Spirit of God brings to mind when we witness to others.

It's amazing what comes to mind from the Word of God as people ask questions about the hope that we have.

That's because we don't witness in our own strength.

The Gospel isn't just information that we put out there, but an eternal message that God calls the power unto salvation.

The Gospel is the power unto salvation for all who believe.

And you and me don't go about God's business by ourselves. We pray to the Lord of the harvest.

We ask for him to send his workers out, that might include us, but he never leaves nor forsakes us no matter what comes.

We rely on him and he uses our situations to advance his Gospel.

And church, though things might get tough, though they might look grim,

the good news is it won't be like this forever.

And that's the last thing I just want to comment on our passage here this morning.

It's found there in verse 23.

When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.

Truly I tell you, you won't finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

I want you to notice something here. Jesus says to his apostles, when?

Not if, when.

When you're persecuted, flee.

Now this ties into what we saw before, right, with these 12 not called to bring a physical kingdom into the world,

but commissioned to go and preach a message so that people would enter the kingdom of God for eternity.

Now Jesus told them they would be like sheep among wolves and the wolves will attack.

We will be persecuted no matter how innocent we come across.

But when that happens, because we never deny our Lord, because we are to stand firm to the end,

it's better to flee than to be killed.

To put it simply, Jesus is saying flight isn't to be a coward.

No, it's to be shrewd, to be wise, as it's better to withdraw and preach another day than to fight and be slaughtered.

In other words, when persecution comes, change our geography, not our theology.

Now we're going to end on a bit of a difficult note here, because there have been many, many, many things put forward about what Jesus is talking about here.

But I just want to say two things. Jesus, he is the Word made flesh. He is God among us. He doesn't make mistakes.

But as we know, he hasn't come in his glory just yet.

So I think we do well on ending on a big picture here this morning.

You see, it was always God's promise to come to his people and set up a kingdom that would be eternal and never fail.

And that he would put that which is wrong right and that his people would dwell with him for all eternity.

That was his promise made through the prophets to his people.

And no more clearly do we start to see those promises fulfilled than in the life and the person and the ministry of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And these chosen twelve were to go and proclaim that good news to their people.

But because many in Israel would reject that message,

in some sense Jesus was saying that they would experience the judgment of rejecting the kingdom that was really being held out to them.

And the apostles wouldn't have even finished going through all their towns before Israel was in some sense handed over to this judgment.

Like many of the Old Testament prophets, Jesus was doing something similar here.

There was an immediate scenario, an immediate sense on view for these original hearers.

A sense of impending doom that was very, very, very real to them.

With a more final, larger event that it represented.

That speaks to all people throughout all generations.

But the message is the same.

The kingdom is at hand.

Repent and believe the good news because to reject the Son of Man, which is a messianic title that Jesus took for himself,

to reject Jesus is to reject God and his promises that have been held out.

It's to reject salvation.

And like these twelve, the church has a duty, a calling, a prerogative to go and share the good news of our Lord's kingdom.

And as we've seen this morning, like with these twelve, he will never leave nor forsake us no matter what hits us in our commission to the world.

And though at times through the history of the church, it's been grim beyond belief,

the church has never been overcome.

The gates of hell have never prevailed against the church.

And that's still our Lord's promise to his people today.

And we go, church.

We go because God's flock are still out there waiting to hear the good news.

At times it will be tough to get to them.

At times there will be wolves and it will be dangerous.

At times it will seem so bleak and that everything is failing.

But this is the thing.

Our Lord is with us in the mission to reach his people.

And most of all, it won't be like this way forever.

Now there will come a day when the Son of Man will come fully in his kingdom in both judgment and for his people.

Where we will be with our Lord forever, where there will be no pain, tears, tribulation.

God said he would do this and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

proves to the world that the Son of Man will indeed come again in his power and glory

to judge the living and the dead, to take his people to where he is.

And so brothers and sisters, things may get hard.

Things may get harder in Australia than we've ever known before.

But let's not forget something here this morning.

We're not alone.

We're not alone. We're not in a hopeless situation.

We've got eternity to look forward to when our Lord and Saviour will come and get us.

But for now we have the immense privilege of going into his harvest

and sharing good news and seeing people be rescued and coming into the kingdom of God.

And hear this, he has chosen, he has chosen you and me for this task.

I just want to say one last thing.

If you're here this morning and you've experienced hard times for your faith,

you've felt the weight of being rejected, slandered, ostracised,

then I want you to hear these words of our Lord that were addressed to his beloved apostles

and his people this morning in the 19th chapter of Matthew's Gospel.

He says, truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne,

you who have followed me will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

And everyone who's left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake

will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we ask, we pray, we've sung to you this morning

that we would be a people that you use for your glory and the advancement of your kingdom.

Lord Jesus, we're in a very, very different context to being in Israel 2000 years ago,

but you have still commissioned your church in 21st century Perth, Western Australia to go about your business.

And so we ask that you would show us that you would give us grace,

that you would help us, that we would be people that would be wise,

that we would be people that would work for your glory,

that we would be disciples making disciples, that you would lead us,

that you would give us the right things to do and say.

We ask this in your name and for your glory. Amen.