A Warning from the Master (2)

Intro:

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

My plan was to focus on just verses 16-25 but because these verses are a part of a sermon of Jesus, I thought it would be beneficial to read this sermon in it’s entirety.

And the reason I want to do that is simply I think the Words of Jesus are way more important than my own. These words are sacred. We, as followers of Jesus are sent as missionaries into the world.

This is the sermon that Jesus gave to his literal twelve disciples and they are being sent out on a literal mission trip so share the gospel of the Kingdom. In the same way, we are called out into the world to preach the gospel of the Kingdom and to make disciples.

In this chapter, there is so much to learn about living on mission and being a disciple of Jesus in a world that is not friendly to the gospel. Because here’s the thing, we cannot be friends with the world and disciples of Jesus.

James 4:4 says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

So much of Christianity has turned into changing the world to look more like the church. Truthfully, we’ve politicized the gospel. Even phrases like “Christ is King” has become a political statement. Now, Christ is King but his kingdom is not of this world. His Kingdom will come to the earth and he will physically and literally reign from a real throne in Jerusalem. Obviously, this has not happened yet.

So let’s read starting in verse 5,

Matthew 10 (ESV)

Matthew 10 (ESV)

These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

“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.

“So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

What we are seeing here is Jesus sending his 12 disciples on a specific mission to reach the towns of Israel. But around verse 16, Jesus kind of expands the focus of his teaching. In other words, at verse 16, we are seeing things that are not just relevant to the specific mission that his disciples are going on. We are seeing instructions and principles for missionaries down through the lifespan of the church.

What I think Jesus is demonstrating here ultimately is this, if you are a disciple, you are a missionary. And if you are not a missionary, you are not a disciple.

Our cultural religion has, for some reason, made the distinction between being a Christian and being a Disciple when the Lord Jesus never made this distinction.

Being a disciple is being a learner of Jesus. Being an apprentice.

Dallas Willard said, “The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.”

When we are disciples of Jesus, and not just Christians that just come to church on Sundays, we will begin to look more and more like him. We will do the things that he did. All these things that he just mentioned in Matthew chapter 10.

Jesus has been dragged before governors and kings and he has faced persecution. He was hated by the world but he endured to the end. In the same way, we are called into a fellowship of suffering with Jesus for the purpose of bringing the lost into the Kingdom of God.

One thing that I have really been grateful for lately is Mike’s emphasis on discipleship. How on Sundays, we are learning what it means to be a disciple of Jesus through the gospel of Luke. And now with this new adventure of Discovery Bible Studies happening soon.

Discipleship is so important to our faith. It is my prayer that each of us are discipled and discipling others into closer walk with Jesus and that we are taking risks for the purpose of Kingdom expansion.

So, this morning, I want to discuss three promises of Jesus from this passage. If you are desiring to live fully for the Lord Jesus as a real disciple, these promises are for you.

This is the first promise.

Point I: The 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.

On Wednesday nights, we have been going through the book of Acts where we are going through the missional movement of the early church. 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 the others, experienced intense persecution because of their faithful witness to the gospel.

After the events of the book of 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. Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle John who was the Bishop in the church of Smyrna. This is one of the churches that Jesus wrote 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 response when he is given the choice of giving up Jesus or being murdered in front of a cheering crowd. He says,

“For eighty-six years I’ve served Jesus, and he has never wronged me in any way. How, then, can I possibly curse my very King and Savior?”

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 the importance of enduring suffering for the sake of the gospel.

We need Endurance, why? Because suffering exists and we are called to it just like Jesus, our master. This is exactly what Jesus says to us, his disciples, in Matthew 10.

Jesus says that Persecution will come. That he is sending us out as sheep among wolves. What do wolves do to sheep? They eat them.

2 Timothy 3:12 says, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” To live a godly life is to live a life that is obedient to the Master. And to live in obedience is to live on mission. And if you are living on mission, you will face persecution.

I have friends whose beliefs are that if we can just convert our nation through getting more Christian Magistrates in power, we would be able to set rules and laws that are inspired by God’s law and we will essentially have a Christian nation safe from persecution.

The issue with this is that we have had times where Christendom was a thing and there were Christian rulers over nations. What happened during these times? Well, the Christians in power began to persecute the Christians that had minor theological differences then what was officially accepted by the government.

What this means is that no amount of political Christianity can protect us from the reality that persecution and tribulation and suffering go with living a godly life as a true disciple of Jesus.

One of my favorite groups to study in history are the early Anabaptist. Guys like Balthasar Hubmaier and Dirk Willems. The Anabaptists were persecuted by both Protestants and Catholics.

There’s this story about Dirk Willems where he was in prison because he rejected the infant baptism of the national Protestant church in the Netherlands. Dirk escaped through the window of his cell by climbing down a rope made out of knotted rags. He had no issues running across the frozen mote of the castle simply because he was so light from only eating prison rations.

The guard that was pursuing him, however, was not so light and he fell through. Dirk Willems, being a true disciple of Jesus and not wanting the guard to perish, turned back to help him. And because he did, he was recaptured, tortured and executed.

I say this because I do not want you to choose the life of discipleship because you think it will make your life easier because the opposite is true. It is better to be a disciple of Jesus but just know that your life will be hard in the short term but in the long term, if you endure to the end, it will be worth it.

So the Lord Jesus makes us this promise that we will face persecution as his disciples. But here is the good news, and this is the second promise from the Master,

Point II: The Promise of Help

The paraclet

Point III: The Promise of Vindication

Maranatha