A Warning from the Master

Intro:

Good morning, church! If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with my to Matthew chapter 10.

Polycarp and the church before Constantine

On Wednesday nights, we have been going through the book of Acts where we are going through the missional movement of the early church. These guys Peter and Paul have done some mighty works through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit but not without difficulty. Both Peter and Paul, as well as James and others, experienced intense persecution.

After Acts, the persecution and the trials continued with the disciples of the Apostles. We, in the church in the 21st century, seem to think that after the book of Acts, we went straight to the way that we see the church today.

The fact of the matter is that there is a whole two thousand years of church history and a lot of that history is bloodshed.

Have any of you heard of the early church father Polycarp? No he’s not a Pokemon. Instead, he was a disciple of the Apostle John who was the Bishop in the church of Smyrna. Yes, the church that Jesus wrote a letter to in the Book of Revelation.

Story of Polycarp

Polycarp was born in AD 69 and from an early age, we trusted Jesus and was a part of the church during the time of the Apostles. Many people think that Polycarp was a disciple of Paul because of the Pauline influences in his own letter to the Phillippian church but tradition tells us that he was in fact a disciple of the Apostle John.

By the time Polycarp is an old man, he is leading the church of Smyrna through a time of persecution. A time where what we are doing right now would get us all arrested or killed.

Polycarp is arrested and taken to the coliseum to either burn incense for the Emperor or be killed.

Just imagine this for a minute. Standing in the center of a coliseum with the stands filled with cheering people waiting to see a show. And your death is the main event. Many of us would capitulate and walk away from the faith to save our lives.

Not Polycarp. Listen to his when he is given the choice of giving up Jesus or being murdered in front of a cheering crowd:

“Eighty and six years have I now served Christ, and he has never done me the least wrong; how, then, can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

Polycarp

And with that, he was tied to a stake and set on fire. All for Jesus.

If we were honest, just knowing how comfort-centric American Christianity is today, how many Christians would walk away from Jesus to save their own skin.

What has happened to the church since the early days?

A lot has changed since the early centuries of Christianity. When Constantine legalized Christianity with the Edict of Milan, the church, in many ways, lost something that it had from the beginning. It lost it’s emphasis on Endurance. And this is what I want to focus on this morning. Endurance.

We need Endurance, why? Because suffering exists and we are called to it. This is exactly what Jesus says to us, his disciples, in Matthew 10. And we will be picking up in verse 16.

Matthew 10:16–25 (ESV)

Matthew 10:16–25 ESV

“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. “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Let’s pray

Matthew 10 is part of what is known as the Missionary Discourse. This is the sermon in which Jesus is sending his disciples out and he is giving them instructions, warnings, and encouragement. Why? because mission is hard.

Through Jesus’ sending out these missionaries, he gives instructions on where they are to go and what they are to do when they are being persecuted. He tells them that going out on mission is going to be hard but if we abide in Jesus… if we endure to the end, we will be rewarded with the kingdom.

Really the scope of this discourse is that if you are in the Son, then you will live on mission. And if you live on mission, you will be persecuted. And if you Endure through the persecution and remain faithful to him, you will be rewarded with eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

So from verses 16-24, there are three promises that Jesus makes that I think are really important for anyone who desires to live the Christian life.

This is the first promise.

Point I: Promise of Persecution

This is something that is really easy to forget in our context but I think any of us can easily imagine how much harder it will get to live as a Christian. Sin is becoming more and more normalized and consequences for speaking out for the truth are getting more and more severe.

If you were not strangers here the hounds of the world would not bark at you.

Samuel Rutherford

Point II: Promise of Help

The paraclet

Point III: Promise of Vindication

Maranatha