Matthew 10 Part 2: Don't Be Afraid

Introduction

This is part two of the Lord’s “sending” sermon to the twelve disciples. The first half of the sermon was establishing their message, their location, and overall plan. The second half of the sermon is largely focused on warnings for the disciples and ultimately all Christians when it comes to evangelism. That last part ended with a haunting prophecy: everything Jesus experienced, we should expect to experience, too.

26-33: Have No Fear

Despite His cryptic warning of persecution, the Lord encourages us not to be afraid. But I think that the Lord knew one of the greatest of temptations of man: justice.

Persecution is often the result of injustice. Lies and misunderstandings give birth to persecution. It is normal for humans to cry out, “That’s not fair!” or to try and plead their case.

Here Jesus assures us that no matter what is said about us, the truth ultimately will come out. This echoes the Lord’s own experience at his trial - unjust as it was, the truth eventually was made it known.

I think this should also be seen as double-meaning for us. Not only will the truth of our situation become known, but the truth of our own hearts will be made known as well. Were the persecutors correct in their allegations? Was our faith genuine?

With this fear put to rest, along with the Lord’s previous admonishment not to worry about “what to say”, he makes tells us plainly: tell everyone!

Jesus had, up tot his point, largely kept his ministry “quiet”, and spoken in parables. To his illustration: he spoke in “darkness” and “whispers” - but now the time had come for the disciples (and us), to take what had been veiled, and make it clear to the world.

Again Jesus tells us not fear, but he puts the persecution into very vivid terms. Yes, our faith could put us at risk of death - and that’s okay. While the body is important, it’s not as important as our soul.

The body without the soul is dead, and the soul without God is also dead. So better to lose our body (which will be resurrected anyway) than to lose our soul to hell.

The larger point Jesus is making here is that our Father in heaven sees and knows all. He uses an illustration of sparrows - relatively useless and “cheap” birds, but nonetheless God pays attention even to them when they die.

How much greater will the Lord pay attention to our persecution and deaths? We’re more valuable than sparrows!

This is very similar to what he taught on the Sermon the Mount, where he told us that God even provides for the flowers - how much more will He provide for us.

So what does this all mean? That we have no excuse for denying the Lord Jesus, and that we must be willing to confess in words that He is Lord.

We can’t say that our persecutors’ false accusations weren’t ‘fair’ or ‘right’.

We can’t say that we were scared of “losing” our body - or dying.

We can’t even say that we didn’t think God cared about us or that He abandoned us in our time of suffering.

This is a good reminder that Jesus is talking about legitimately acknowledging or denying Him in our lives, tongues - and more importantly, in our hearts. This doesn’t mean sharing (or not sharing) silly Facebook posts!

34-39: An Inconvenient Truth

Since following Jesus is quite literally a life or death issue, a question that might have naturally been asked by the disciples is, “Wasn’t the Messiah suppose to bring peace?”

To this Jesus makes a shocking statement: No.

He says that he has instead brought a sword. Now this isn’t suppose to be taken in a literal sense - Jesus was not arguing for physical violence. But he was pronouncing a reality.

The Gospel brings peace, but it is a peace that often starts war. As Paul says, it is a beautiful aroma to those of us who are being saved, but to those who are perishing it smells like death.

And that’s because it is - it is death to sin. In this sense, the “sword” of Jesus can be seen as a surgeon’s scalpel. To cure a gangrenous limb, it has to be completely severed. Just as sin must be completely severed from us.

But people don’t like going under the knife, hence why Christians encounter resistance to our message.

But here’s the kicker: Jesus won’t just drive a wedge between strangers. He will drive a wedge between the people we love the most - our families.

The early Church, and still many Christians facing persecution today, often faced it from their families more than anyone else.

In many cultures to this day, to embrace Christ is seen as a rejection of the family and it’s values and religion.

Jesus is actually quoting Micah 7:5–6 “Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.”

So we see that Micah’s prophecy finds its fulfilment in Christian persecution. Thankfully, we can cling to Micah 7:7 “But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

Even in societies like ours where we are blessed to have no faced persecution, being a Christian in a largely non-Christian family can be difficult and awkward sometimes (I would know!)

The Lord makes it clear that our allegiance and love for him must be greater than everything else - including that of our family.

That doesn’t mean we don’t love our families. We just don’t love them more than Jesus. And that’s ultimately where the friction can start to come in. In fact we ought to love them all the more in Christ.

I was heard it said that phrase, “Blood is thicker than water” was created by non-Christians to guilt their Christian family members. The ‘water’ referred to baptism, hence the Christians were accused of trusting and being closer to their “water relatives” than their “blood relatives”

This can be really difficult for many people. And in the reverse it can be just as difficult for non-Christians to overcome their love of family to pursue Christ. C.S. Lewis provides a powerful example of this in his book The Great Divorce (the woman who loved her son too much).

“Let us answer our father and mother when they justly say “love us.” Let us answer, “I will love you in Christ, not instead of Christ. You will be with me in him, but I will not be with you without him.” “But we don’t care for Christ,” they say. “And I care for Christ more than I care for you. Should I obey the ones who raised me and lose the One who created me?” - St. Augustine

The cost of following Jesus is high, because he demands everything from us. Which is why he sums it up like this: be ready to bear your cross daily, otherwise you will not be worthy.

Prepare to give up everything you hold dear in life for the sake of Christ. Even if it means your own life.

But the good news is, if we even lose that, we will truly find it, because Christ is The Life.

You and I may not be at risk of physically dying for our faith in our current culture, but nonetheless we must be willing to “carry our cross” daily. What are the vices and things that perhaps we love “too much” that need to be crucified in order to draw us closer to Jesus?

I often wonder what will be in heaven. I am increasingly convinced that everything that I ‘love’ now, and want to be in heaven, probably won’t be there. Family, sports, pets, friends, ect.. But if I truly love Jesus more than those, then I will have all that I need and want, and perhaps those things will be there, but if not I’ll still be content.

40-42: Rewards

1. The Lord doesn’t lose track of the original purpose of this sermon: going and preaching the Gospel. He tells us to essentially “hope for the best, prepare for the worst”, which is why I think the majority of this sermon has been dedicated to preparing us for persecution.

2. But what if the ‘best’ happens? What if the world actually accepts us and our message?

3. First, hopefully it means that they believe the message themselves! Jesus says that if they receive us, they receive Him, and if they have received Jesus then they have also received the Father.

a. This in and of itself should be “reward” alone. But nonetheless, I think Jesus is telling us that people who accept us in because of our being ‘prophets’ and ‘righteous persons’ will receive a prophet/righteous reward.

b. What does that reward look like? Jesus isn’t totally clear here, but I do think salvation is in sight. But even beyond salvation, the Lord never overlooks those who care for his children (Christians), and I do think that he blesses people physically for how they treat us (and punish them as well).

4. To further this point, Jesus adds that anyone who gives even a “cup of cold water” to a Christian (little ones/disciples) will “by no means lose his reward”.

a. As the Children of God, Christians have more power and prestige than any other people group on Earth. And God cares about how his children are treated. So if someone treats us well, they are blessed. If they treat us poorly, they are punished (Think of Genesis 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”” )

b. The author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” and someone once asked, “If there is great reward in helping angels unknowingly, how much greater is it to help the Children of God unknowingly?”

c. This is why I always make it a point to let people help me, especially non-Christians. I do not know what their ‘reward’ will be for doing so, but I do know that they will not lose it - even if it’s something as insignificant as buying me a cup of coffee. At the very least I thank them, and if I cannot physically reward them, I try to say a prayer for them asking God to bless them.

i. This doesn’t mean we should just expect, or demand, people to help us for merely being Christians. It’s simply good to remember that when people inadvertently care for us, we ought to remember and bless them for it because our Father is watching us.

d. Later in Matthew’s Gospel (Chapter 25), Jesus will address this again when using the illustration of those who helped/didn’t help these “little ones” and the respective responses they will receive from Jesus.

i. He also has a similar conversation in Luke 16:9–10 “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

ii. Does this mean that simply treating a Christian well can actually save a person, even if they don’t actually confess Jesus as Lord? Maybe, but I wouldn’t put all my stock in it.

Conclusion

After the Lord Jesus finished “instructing his twelve disciples” he sent them off (11:1), while he himself continued to preach and teach as well. The mission was set, and these words to the disciples would ultimately be passed onto us as disciples of Christ. The mission is still there, only it has grown. We are being sent into the whole world, as sheep among wolves, to tell people about Jesus. It’s a dangerous mission and message that might get us mocked, separated from our families, abused, bullied, physically injured, and maybe even killed. But Jesus is worth it. So keep persevering and keep bearing your cross.