Matthew 10:16-23: His Name's Sake

If you have your Bibles turn to Matthew chapter 10.

At the end of the 200s AD there was a great controversy that split the young church in Northern Africa.

Plagues and pestilences were sweeping throughout the Roman empire and the emperor, Diocletian, was looking for someone to blame. Surely the gods were angry with Rome for allowing something they should never had tolerated.

Well, who better to blame, but the relatively new religion that had grown rapidly? The religion that rejected the Roman gods and worshipped one God alone? If anyone was to blame for the anger of the Roman gods it must be them.

So, the Christians were given an ultimatum: renounce Christianity, sacrifice to the Roman gods, and burn your Bibles, or die.

They implemented a system where you had to get a voucher verifying you sacrificed in the Roman temples that week. If you did not have one you could be arrested, tortured for information for more Christians, and pressured to recant your faith.

The Christians of that time had seriously ask themselves in ways that we never have, “Is Jesus worth it?”

“Am I willing to face persecution and death for the sake of Christ?”

Though these Christians were early in the life of the church, they were not the first to face this question.

It was a question that Jesus’ disciples had to ask as they listened to his teachings for them.

Is the name of Jesus worth facing all sorts of persecution?

Is he worth everything?

Matthew 10:16–23 ESV

16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 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. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 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.

What a passage, right?

This is the next second of Jesus’ second main teaching in Matthew, where he is preparing his disciples to be sent out to different towns to carry on his mission and this is the message he gives them. What a pep talk!

Can you imagine being in that situation? You’ve been following this great teacher for a little while, you’ve seen his great deeds and he just promised you that you would be doing those same things in these towns as you go!

I imagine the disciples were grinning like excited boys, anticipating the awesome encounters that they were about to have!

Man, so often it is communicated and believed that we should only be having positive experiences in our lives if we’re Christians. I mean, just listen to so many of our songs! And isn’t something we say at funerals, “Don’t cry because they’re now with Jesus”?

And if we listen to our culture we’re hearing things like “we have the right to get angry at the other side because they’re our enemy! We should seek to destroy them in any way possible. We should seek to win!”

But what is it that Jesus is communicating here in this passage?

Jesus tells His followers to

Expect Persecution

In fact, Jesus promises it to his followers

He offers them two warnings

Be Wise (shrewd NASB95)

Be Innocent (harmless KJV)

What kind of persecution does Jesus tell his disciples they will face?

People will turn on them

They will whip them in their synagogues (churches)

Dragged before governors and kings

Brother will deliver brother unto death

Parents will do the same to their children

Children will turn on their parents

They will be hated by all

How many of these things have we personally faced?

Most of us, not many, if any at all

We have had some significant favor in our nation for a significant amount of time

And in one way, that is a blessing

We have the freedom to worship and gather together

We have not faced scowls and loss of jobs for our faith

We have never had our families ripped apart because of our faith

We have never faced beatings or threats of death

But in another, it has actually been a negative factor to our genuine Christianity

We have grown complacent and comfortable, expecting freedom to grow and exert influence instead of being creatively faithful in our evangelism

We have sold out to the world, so long as it pretends to look like Christianity, in order to keep influence and power

We have grown to expect favor and the slightest conflict causes us to move into a fight, flight, or freeze mindset, instead of being prepared to give a measured reason for our faith and position

What may be worst is that we have learned to put on smiling masks, even at church, shaking hands and lying to each others faces every time that we ask one another, “how are you doing?”

We think we have to always be “okay” so we don’t share our struggles in our physical or spiritual lives and we just put on a smile and say “I’m doing pretty well!”

Though a time is coming and is in some ways is already here

Where the cultural love we have enjoyed for a long time is going to be gone.

We finally will experience what it is like to be reviled by all of our peers, all of society.

And if we are not preparing for persecution, we are preparing for compromise

Whether that is by renouncing Christ and our faith

Or by losing sight of our calling, to continue the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost

Instead, seeking to win in the physical realm, looking to destroy those we think are our enemies, forgetting the message of Ephesians 6:12, that our battle is not against people, but against spiritual forces!

You can hate the way that people treat you for your faith, crying to our compassionate Lord to relieve you, but that does not give you the right to seek their destruction.

In fact, Jesus calls his followers to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecute them

Matthew 5:43–44 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

If they choose to persecute you, then it is not your place to seek their destruction.

Christ will handle that when he returns!

Your place is to stand firm when that persecution comes and allow the Spirit to speak through you! Matt 10:19-20

Matthew 10:19–20 ESV

19 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. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Remember that when persecution comes! Remind yourself of it now so that you are prepared for persecution and you do not compromise your testimony of Christ!

Let’s look again at the church in North African church all those centuries ago.

MANY compromised. They sacrificed to the pagan gods. They recanted their faith. They turned away from Jesus.

And when the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Toleration (which made Christianity legal) about 25 years after the persecution had begun, many of those who compromised wanted to come back to the church.

There then was a great debate that split the church in that region.

Do we accept those who renounced Christ back into his body?

OR do we say they have already made their decision?

This debate raged on all the way until the Muslim Conquest in the 700s

But the majority decision was that there was forgiveness, even for betraying Christ.

There are Christian brothers and sisters around the world who have had to face these things that Jesus has listed even if we do not.

We have heard from our friends and missionaries in the middle east of the fear of new Christians to tell their families of their newfound faith

We have other friends who were missionaries in France who told us of of the lower social status of Christians there

Looked down upon as backwards and a detriment to society

And when they joined together in church, they rarely smiled (which is a bit of a cultural thing), but they knew they were all united in the simple fact that they all faced the same societal pressures

When they came back to the States?

They grew depressed coming back to their home churches

Why should we be willing to face persecution?

Are we just gluttons for punishment?

Do we have a martyr complex, thinking that we have to be persecuted for us to be “real Christians?”

NO! We suffer persecution for the reason Jesus himself states twice in this passage in verses 18 and 22

We willingly face persecution for:

His Name’s Sake

What does that mean?

It means that I am willing to set aside everything that I think are my rights for the sake of representing my KING faithfully!

It means that the name of Jesus Christ is a name so glorious, so worthy, that it is worth laying down my reputation, my family, even my life for the sake of honoring that name with all my being!

Why am I willing to set aside my pride when someone insults my intelligence because of my faith?

Why am I willing to set aside my anger and desire for restitution when someone seeks to destroy me because I’m a Christian?

Why am I willing to lose my family, whether because they are seeking my life or because they refuse to support me in my choice of Jesus over all?

Why am I willing to set aside my preferences for the people I talk to, the politics I hold, and the way I spend my time, my talents, and my treasures?

And it’s not the name that we worship, it’s not the name that has power, it is the person behind the name, Jesus the Christ!

He is the one who came to rescue his people!

Humbling himself

Setting aside his glory as God in order to take on the flesh of his creation and all the grime that means!

Forever standing strong against temptation!

Defeating the Serpent and winning our freedom from the bondage of sin!

He is the one who bore the great wrath of God against our sin on the cross

And he is the one who was resurrected on the third day because death had no right to Him!

All things were created through him and all things that are renewed are renewed in him alone!

He is the one who will one day destroy the three great enemies of humanity: Sin, Satan, and Death!

He is the one who will unite people from every tribe, nation, and language!

And he is the one who will lead his people home, to the great City of God!

So we must ask ourselves:

Is Christ worth it all?

Time

Talents

Treasures

Is he worth the potential of losing my family?

Of losing my life?!

When we look to Jesus and recognize who he is and what he has done for us we realize something becomes abundantly clear: to be persecuted for his name’s sake is a privilege

Persecution is a privilege.

This has been the view of the church throughout the millennia. It is only when we forget our place as joyful servants of Christ that we forget this.

Christ faced the wrath of God on our behalf, why should we be so afraid to face the wrath of man on his behalf?

Jesus makes something abundantly clear: when we face persecution because of Christ, we can rest in the knowledge that though you are facing their wrath, it really is because they hate Jesus. Jesus is the one bearing their hate, we can set off our shoulders.

Two Promises from Jesus as we face Persecution

You can stand confident in the fact that

You are not alone

The Spirit Will Speak Through You (19-20)

You will not stand alone!

You will be saved! (22)

Brought to glorious life in Jesus’ coming Kingdom!

Brothers and sisters, think on the majesty and glory of Christ, think of his great love for us. Be encouraged as you face hard things for His Name’s Sake because Jesus is worth it.

Let’s Pray