Jesus sends out the twelve - Suffering for the Gospel
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Intro
Intro
Good morning, everyone. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me to Matthew chapter 10.
Mike has been saying the past few Sundays, there is a massive disconnect between what the culture says a Christian is versus what Jesus says a Disciple is. Our culture has gotten the idea that being a Christian is simply a part of their heritage or it is some decision that is made when you are young so that when you die, you don’t go to hell.
But when we look at the teaching of Jesus, we see that he had a completely different idea of what it means to be his disciple. The Apostle Paul mentioned that as time went on, people would forsake the teachings of Jesus for things that make them feel good.
He said in 2 Timothy 4,
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
This is where we get things like the prosperity gospel and beliefs that come out of the easy believism teachings. People don’t like to hear what Jesus actually says. Because he doesn’t say that if you follow him, things will go well for you. In fact, he says just the opposite. He says that those who want to be his disciples will live lives marked by hardship and suffering.
Again, Paul says in 2 Timothy,
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,
Being a disciple of Jesus is costly. The life that he calls us to is the way of the cross. Just like the life of Jesus. We, being his disciples, should not expect any better treatment than our master received.
This is what Jesus says over and over in the gospels. He says that the world will hate you for my name’s sake. And this is what he says in Matthew chapter 10.
Probably my favorite parts of the gospels are the sermons of Jesus. We all know about the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 but there are other sermons like the Olivet Discourse when Jesus teaches on the End Times or the Upperroom Discourse where he is teaching his disciples how he wanted them to treat each other.
Here, beginning in Matthew 9:35, we have a sermon given by Jesus about Suffering for Mission’s sake. This sermon begins with Jesus saying to his twelve disciples in chapter 9 verse 38,
therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
What Jesus does next is he demonstrates that even though the harvest is plentiful and even though the laborers are few, they are still expected to go out into the harvest. Because the very next thing he does is he sends them out onto a mission trip.
And just like Jesus, missiology should begin out of a compassion for the lost around us. This is so much more than theology, this is how we impact the world in which we live.
At the beginning of chapter 10, he calls over the 12 and he names them,
The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
There were only twelve of these guys and Jesus uses them to reach the entire world. I just think that this is incredibly encouraging especially for our little church. There is so much that we can do as a small church if we are just faithful to Jesus and are obedient to do what the Spirit has called us to do.
So, Jesus sends these 12 men out to the towns of Israel and before they go, he gives them instructions for living a life on mission. So, I want us to begin reading beginning in verse 16,
“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.
This sermon is specifically addressed to the twelve disciples as they are going to the towns of first century Judea but there are many truths that we can glean from this text as we live as 21st century followers of Jesus. Especially if it is our desire to live missional lives.
In this instance in Matthew’s Gospel, the 12 are sent to a specific group of Jews while we are Gentile who are sent to the nations, but we have the same gospel message, namely, “the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
So this morning, I want to leave you with four principles from this sermon of Jesus if you want to live the missional life of a disciple.
The first principle is this,
A disciple’s mission is dangerous
A disciple’s mission is dangerous
If you remember those evangelism trainings that we did a few months back, we talked about the different responses that people will have when we share the gospel. They can respond with a Green, Yellow, or Red light. You know, they will either believe the gospel, be open to the gospel, or be completely shut off to the gospel.
What Jesus is addressing here is the most extreme instances of when the response is a Red Light. Jesus had a lot to say in his ministry about suffering and hardship but persecution is a more specific type of suffering.
Ulrich Luz said that, “persecution is suffering that derives from the world’s no to Jesus.”
There are places in the world where followers of Jesus are facing real persecution for their faith in Jesus. Places like Iran where the church is probably growing the fastest in the world right now. You know, in Iran, it is literally illegal for a muslim person to convert to Christianity.
I read a story about a young woman, Sara, and her husband, who were muslims turned disciples of Jesus, being arrested and imprisoned for 2 years and 11 months for being a part of a house church.
When Jesus says, “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, I think about contexts like Iran.
Right now, we do not face this kind of hardship for being followers of Jesus but we should be preparing for it. Just like a soldier does not stop training and preparing during times of peace, so we should not become disillusioned into thinking that we are exempt from persecution.
How do we prepare for persecution during times of peace?
1. We take our discipleship seriously - What this means is that we live by the spiritual disciplines of things like Bible reading/study, prayer and fasting, scripture memory, even things like contemplation, solitude, journaling.
We were put here to do one thing and that is to get to know Jesus as his apprentices. And the only way to do that is to spend time with him in any way that we can. When we know Jesus intimately, we will be more than willing to suffer as his witnesses.
The second way that we can prepare is by,
2. Taking risks to spread the gospel - I bet most of us in here can think of one person in their mind that needs the gospel really bad. And we feel burdened for them. But we don’t say anything because we are either afraid of what they will say or we are not confident that we will do a good job.
One thing that we can do to prepare for persecution is we can be obedient with the harvest that God has put in front of us here and now.
That’s it, two things. Get to know Jesus and do what he says.
I do believe that the church in America will face persecution. We have all seen just how quickly our culture can shift. It is important that we learn to live as disciples now before it gets really hard to be a follower of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:6
So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.
Why? Because Jesus is returning soon and we who persevere to the end will be rewarded at his appearing.
And even today in our culture, we can face hardship for our faith. We can be made fun of, lose jobs, family, all kinds of things. The laws are increasingly beginning to look anti Christian. Churches all around us are beginning to accept things that the Bible calls sin. These are the kinds of churches that the world loves but Jesus hates. And these are the kinds of churches that will never face the kinds of persecutions that Jesus is describing here.
We cannot be friends with the world if we are going to be followers of Jesus. This is exactly what James says in James 4:4
You adulterous people! 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.
If you are not facing any kind of opposition in your life for your faith then you must ask yourself if there is something that you need to be doing differently.
Samuel Rutherford said,
If you were not strangers here the hounds of the world would not bark at you.
Samuel Rutherford
So we don’t need to be seeking out persecution but we should be preparing for and expecting it.
This is the second principle in your notes,
A disciple’s message is divisive.
A disciple’s message is divisive.
Look down at verse 34,
“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.
Yes, our message, the gospel, is a dangerous message and is costing Christians around the world their freedoms and even their lives. It causes this chasm between us and the society in which we live. But it can also divide families.
I’m sure there are some disciples here that love Jesus and want nothing more but to spend their lives pursuing Jesus and his mission. But you come from a family with different beliefs than you. This can be incredibly hard because the gospel is divisive.
Division isn’t something that we should be seeking after. In fact, Paul says in Romans 12,
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
We should want peace with our neighbors and we should do everything that is within our power to live at peace with everyone but the gospel will cause division. In other words, if there is going to be division, let the gospel be the cause of it, not you.
Jesus was divisive back in the first century. I mean, most of the Jews had a different idea of what the Jewish Messiah would do when he came. Most of them assumed that he would wage war with the Roman occupiers and reestablish the Davidic throne.
Of course, Jesus will rule from David’s throne in Jerusalem and he will the wage war against his enemies. But not at his first coming. When he first came, he came to pay the penalty for our sin through his death and resurrection. This is what causes division between the followers of Jesus and those who do not believe.
It’s like with the three circles, the circle of brokenness. This is where humanity is. We are desperately looking for a way out of our brokenness. Whether it is productivity, or a degree, or a certain job, or an addiction of some sort. All of us know that we are living in brokenness and we are looking for a way out of our brokenness. The problem is that nothing we try ever works.
It’s like we say when we are sharing the gospel with the three circles illustrations, they just pull right back into brokenness like a bungee cord.
When we come to the end of ourselves and recognize that there is nothing that we can do to get out of brokenness, we can look to the Lord Jesus because he is the way out of brokenness.
And the world hates the idea of not being able to fix it themselves. This message will be divisive until the end.
In the parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus talks about the two Kingdoms, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world. Both the Wheat and the Tares will grow together and in the end, God will separate the two.
So yes, being a Disciple can be dangerous and our message is divisive, but here are some good things.
And this is the third principle,
A disciple has divine help.
A disciple has divine help.
In verse 19, Jesus says,
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.
In the Great Commission, Jesus said,
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
As we are living on mission and taking risks with the gospel, we can rest in the fact that we are not alone. And there are many ways that the Holy Spirit helps us when we are living on mission.
The primary way that he helps us is he gives each of us unique giftings for the purpose of serving the body and spreading the gospel.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
Each of us are gifted by the Spirit for the purpose of mission. If you do not know how you are gifting, the way that you find out what it is is you just start serving. You will quickly learn how God has gifted you.
A second way that the Holy Spirit helps us, and this is what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 10, is that he is present with us and he gives us words to speak when we need it. To me, this is incredibly encouraging.
What Jesus is saying is that when you are arrested, when you experience hardship and persecution for preaching the gospel, Do not worry about what to say. You are to be led by His Holy Spirit in what to say when you are being a witness for him.
And even you were arrested for preaching the gospel or for standing up for what is right, you are to lean on the Holy Spirit to guide you and give you the words to speak. Because as you speak, you will continue to be His witness in places that you could not witness, unless you were arrested. Maybe, like Joseph, you need to be in prison to touch someone’s life there.
Do not be surprised at the trouble that is coming against Christians. Allow God to use you to be His witness. The point of Jesus’ words is “not be afraid, but trust God.” Jesus has been there and done that, He knows what to say and do in every situation.
Hebrews 4:15 says,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus understands how we feel. He understands the insecurities that we face when we consider the mission that he’s called us to. It can be so overwhelming to think about simply because there are a lot of lost people out there and there is not that many of us.
But do we trust the Holy Spirit? Do we listen to the Holy Spirit? Can we hear him when he is trying to give us the words to speak? The only way to do this is to walk closely with him as his disciple.
So whatever we may go through for the gospels sake, whatever opposition we face, we can trust that God the Holy Spirit will be with us every step of the way. And he is not just a passenger along for the ride. Instead, we is actively helping you as you walk out in obedience.
So we can expect to have help from the very Spirit of Jesus, but here’s what else…
And this is the fourth and final principle this morning,
The disciple’s life is worth it
The disciple’s life is worth it
Yes, being a disciple of Jesus is hard. Following Jesus means living a life of possible persecution and trials and tribulations. It means that we will experience opposition in our lives and division in our relationships.
But living as a disciple of Jesus is incredibly worth it. The life of a disciple is costly and demands our lives being completely devoted, but it is worth giving our very lives.
Jesus gives many reason for this. He says,
When we suffer, we are walking the same path of Jesus and thereby we identify with him
Suffering for the gospel will only advance the kingdom. This has been the pattern since the early church. The more the church is persecuted, the more it grows. Like the church in Iran.
God is with us every step of the way. He has promised us his presence and the help of his Holy Spirit. He said in verse 29, Matthew 10:29–30 “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.” Even through trials and suffering, his love is with us every second of it.
This is exactly what Jesus says in verse 39, Matthew 10:38–39 “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.”
You see, as disciples of Jesus, we can easily live with hardship because we know that in the Age to Come, when Jesus returns, we will be rewarded for our endurance. He will say to us, “well done, my good and faithful servant.”
What is important is that we endure to the end. Just like the writer of Hebrews writes of the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
The secret to endurance is looking to the future joys that we will partake of after the resurrection when we will be with him bodily. We will be able to look upon his face. Look to this joy and you will be able to endure anything for the sake of the Master.
One of my favorite things to study and read about is Church History. Persecution is a major part of our history. One early church leader, who’s story I find particularly inspirational is that of Polycarp.
Polycarp was born in AD 69 and from an early age, he 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 as Bishop and the church went through a time of persecution intense 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 for his faith.
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 Christians in America would capitulate and walk away from the faith to save their 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 willfully stood at the stake without even being tied down and was set on fire. All for Jesus. Polycarp knew that relief from suffering in this life was not the point. He knew that suffering and dying as a disciple is so much better than living an easy life here on earth. Polycarp did not lose his life. He found it.
And you and I can face anything knowing that the spirit of Jesus himself is with us the entire time. We can even face death with life in our eyes because that is exactly what our death would mean to us. Life.
Let’s pray.