Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 211th episode. In this episode we’re going to continue our study of Matthew’s gospel. We are in chapter 10. In this chapter, Jesus has given a briefing to His disciples as He ordained them apostles. In the previous chapter He showed them the lost sheep of the house of Israel and instructed them to pray that the Lord of the harvest might raise up workers for His harvest. In this chapter we see a response to that prayer as Christ Himself raises up His own disciples to be those workers. His disciples were to travel to certain cities and stay in certain houses within those cities, preaching the good news of Jesus as they went. As Christians we can expect an affirmative response from God when we pray for things which are according to His own will.
In the previous episode we explored the list of names of those who made up Christ’s twelve disciples. We noticed that included among the twelve was Judas Iscariot — who went on to betray Jesus. We reviewed the general commission He had given His disciples as well as detailed instruction for how they were to go about the work. Jesus told them who they should speak to, what they should preach about, and how they should conduct their miracles. They were also given some instructions about their general behavior towards others. In this episode we’re going to explore Christ’s warning to His disciples about the suffering they should expect to endure. He also gives them an idea about the kind of people they should expect persecution from. This chapter is a monologue of guidance for the twelve apostles of Christ, but it’s similarly useful for all Christians today and especially those who do the work of the ministry. So we’re actually going to read the entire remaining portion of this chapter and we will take our time unpacking each verse from there. Join me in reading verses 16-42:
Mat 10:16-42
16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.
17 “But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues;
18 and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.
19 “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say.
20 “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.
22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.
23 “But whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next; for truly I say to you, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.
24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.
25 “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!
26 “Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
27 “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 “So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
33 “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;
36 and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.
37 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
41 “He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
42 “And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”
This may be the longest passage of scripture I’ve ever read at one time on this podcast. It’s not a coincidence that nearly all of these verses relate to the sufferings of Christ’s ministers in their work. These are some of the persecutions one should expect when he embarks on a mission to glorify God and preach the gospel. Jesus taught us to expect these things and to prepare for them. He taught us how we should bear up under them and how we might continue the work of the ministry even in the midst of them.
The warnings Christ gives in this passage are not specifically associated with the short missionary trip His disciples were about to go on. We understand the disciples did not meet with a great deal of torment while their Master was still with them. If anything these cautions are pointing towards the gospel work which awaited the apostles after the Resurrection when Christ enlarged their mission to the entire world. These cautions are also meant for us as, in the church age, we continue God’s Great Commission today.
There may have been a painful adjustment period for the disciples because at the time of this passage they didn’t realize what was ahead of them. They expected to be at the right hand of their King as He took His throne — perhaps in political revolution if that’s what it took. They expected stately honor and maybe even wealth, but Jesus corrected them and told them they would be made prisoners for His sake. Preaching the gospel would invite more suffering than any of them could have imagined. Undoubtedly they would have fled had they been given a glimpse of it — especially considering this moment was before they had been given the Holy Spirit.
When someone is showing positive indications of converting to Christ, it’s important that we warn them such conversion will not make life easy. There are challenges exclusive to the Christian walk as well as universal challenges which are not much alleviated by it. You’re still going to lose your loved ones to death, you’re still going to be maligned by evil people, you’re still going to have to face the injustices of a broken world. And in some cases you may even be targeted because of your faith and your efforts to advance God’s kingdom. Mature Christians must resist the temptation of overselling a life in Christ by deceiving new converts about the difficulty of it. I do believe a life in Christ is the best possible life on offer — but the best possible life in a broken world is still frequently tragic, unfair, and challenging. It’s better for hopeful converts to be educated and prepared for the difficulties of this world than to be made blind by the deceptive, sweet words of well-meaning Christians.
As Christ presents an array of troubles which await His disciples, He also intermixes this presentation with offered solutions. He gives them the counsel and comfort they’ll need to face the trials. Christ spent time predicting in detail the sufferings which awaited His disciples so that when such suffering arrived, the suffering itself would be a confirmation of their faith. Here’s what I mean: we already discussed how misleading a new convert is a bad idea. If the convert believes his Christian life will be free of difficulties, then he will feel shocked and betrayed when tragedy strikes. Well the opposite pattern is also true. If you adequately educate this new convert about the challenges of sin and living in a fallen world, just as Christ did here with His disciples, then the convert actually encountering trouble will serve to authenticate your teachings as true. They’ll see that scripture accurately described or predicted what has now come to pass, and this will prove their faith is vested in good doctrine.
Christ preparing His disciples for their future troubles would allow them to be reminded of their Master when those troubles arose. Jesus told them He was sending them out as sheep in the midst of wolves. A flock of sheep have very little defense against a pack of wolves, and so they should expect to be afraid and in many cases to be attacked. Wolves are used to illustrate evil people in this passage because it’s in the nature of evil people to devour and destroy. God’s people, in contradistinction, are like sheep among them. We are exposed to them and too often we become easy prey for them. And indeed, all of Christ’s apostles (except for John) were murdered for their faith.
So why would Jesus send His sheep out in the midst of wolves? It seems such a cruel thing to do, especially for apostles who had left everything in their lives behind in order to follow Him. The reason is because He knew the glory reserved for them in the great day of the Lord when they shall sit at His right hand. Such glory was recompense enough for their suffering, their service, and their eventual martyrdom.
When Jesus considers your life He doesn’t stop at considering your mortal existence. He includes your eternity in Heaven as part of that consideration. Indeed many people have lived and died lives of absolute torment and injustice. Some of them have faced tragedy from the moment they were born and went on to suffer without relief until they died. But even in these cases Jesus is looking at the full picture, while we are limited to what we experience now. In instances where critics of the faith point to the suffering of this world as evidence which proves God either doesn’t exist or is not good, they never include an eternity in Heaven as part of their analysis.
It’s also important to remember His apostles were not cannon fodder either. Jesus Himself intended to protect them and bear them out of devastating circumstances until their purposes on earth were complete. Being aware of this doesn’t always help your feelings of fear in each moment, but that’s why Jesus told them what to expect ahead of time. He told them they would be hated for His name’s sake. Those who hate Christ will also hate those who speak in His name. Scripture says the world hates Jesus without a cause. If they can hate Jesus Christ Himself without cause, how much more can they hate you without cause should you bear His image and serve His interests? The world hates those whom Christ loves.
Unrepentant sinners considered the apostle Paul and his associates to be the scum of the earth. It wasn’t just that the world hated them, it’s also that the world was disgusted with them. Disgust is likely the final form of hatred. You can hate or resent a person without rejecting their dignity as being made in the divine image. But if your hatred runs so deep that you’re disgusted or revolted by a person — this is an indication you no longer see them as being human at all.
This process of dehumanization is the same process which causes them to reject the divinity of Christ as well. Hatred and ill-will distorts your perception such that you’re no longer able to see the truth of what’s standing right in front of you. This would be difficult to quantify, but I’m convinced there are more avowed atheists who became such out of their hatred for God rather than their lack of belief in Him. The disciples would be hated, but they could take heart because they were hated for a good cause. Jesus Christ shared with them in this hate and He took it upon Himself.
Jesus warned His disciples that they should expect to be arrested and arraigned as criminals. Those who opposed the gospel were tireless in their resistance against it. The disciples must be prepared to be delivered up to the councils. They would be taken before the bench of justices who preside over the public peace. In a pathological society the justice system is often weaponized against the righteous. This can happen either by wrongful prosecution of those who are doing good, or lack of prosecution of those who are doing evil. Failing to prosecute the wicked is a crime against the righteous. When evil prevails at the level of the culture, it’s not long before the evil is instantiated in and endorsed by the state. The judges persecuting the disciples of Christ were an example of this.
In their case being brought before lower courts and magistrates wasn’t the only danger. The corruption ran all the way to the top so they should expect to stand before kings and supreme leaders. Those instances would be exceptionally dangerous because a monarch could have you executed on a whim. Scripture says the wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion. Even when these leaders didn’t know anything about the disciples or about Christ’s message, both were normally misrepresented when they were brought forward. The classic misrepresentation was that Jesus was a political revolutionary who sought to overturn Roman rule.
Something to remember about those individuals who use the state to persecute the church is that their depravity actually has no limit. These people, whether knowingly or not, are operating as instruments of Satan. They sometimes restrain their cruelty if they think popular opinion won’t serve persecution beyond a certain point. For instance they may stop short of actually arresting pastors and instead impose tax disadvantages on churches. But this restraint is not an act of moral virtue, it’s a contrived manipulation of public opinion. The moment they become convinced of public endorsement, they will call for the death of ministers. The malice of God’s enemies rages so hot that they thirst after the blood of the saints.
Jesus was not interested in political revolution so He prohibited His followers from making war against their persecutors. The same is true for His followers today. We can be shrewd and take proactive steps to avoid appointing evil people to positions of power, but we are not to use self-preservation as an excuse to depart from the greater work of the gospel. The disciples were called to have faith and patience in the face of persecution. They should not count their own lives as precious, and they should trust that God is able to use their martyrdom to advance His kingdom.
So the wicked thirst after the blood of the saints and the blood of the saints becomes a seal of the truth. It nourishes the seed of the Church. The apostles’ martyrdom has testified to the power and veracity of the gospel across millennia. Satan seeks to spill the blood of the saints, but the blood of the saints is the most potent substance for advancing the Church. This is why God used the martyrdom of the two witnesses in Revelation to testify of His power over death when He resurrected them. This is also why the Church seems to flourish most rapidly in places where it is persecuted. The enemies of God seek to murder the saints as criminals, but their deaths end up becoming sacrifices which honor and glorify God. Paul spoke of his own execution this way as he said he was being poured out as drink offering, and that the time of his departure has come.
A common step in the process of persecuting Christians is first dehumanizing them. As we mentioned earlier, even persecutors of the Church tend to care about their own public image. Those who attack Christians must first demonize them in order to make cruelty against them more palatable. In our modern context we might see this demonization come in the form of falsely accusing Christians of violence or genocide against cultural out-groups. For instance, the public is much more likely to excuse the arrest of Christians if they believe the preaching of Christians is putting homosexuals in danger. Those who opposed Christ called Him Beelzebub, a name given to the prince of demons. If they could be so warped as to see their Savior this way, how much more will they malign His followers?
In a corrupt culture, the wicked call good evil and evil good. In such a society we can expect Christians to be labeled as servants of evil. We can expect the ungodly to implement struggle sessions and pressure campaigns designed to force the Church into altering its doctrine to justify unrepentant sinners. So much of wrongful persecution is not caused by people who love Satan. Many of these persecutors, as well as their mobs, would agree that they are opposed to Satan (or opposed to evil in more secular language). The problem is one of definitions. They’ve been deceived by the spirit which grips them into defining evil as the character of Christ and His Christians. They believe they are doing virtuous — even heroic — work by attacking followers of Christ. This deception imbues their persecution with a sense of urgency, purpose, and sometimes divine mandate the likes of which have fueled genocides throughout history.
Apart from God there are no greater enemies of Satan than God’s apostles. These were men sent out to literally dismantle the kingdom of Satan in this world. Yet the unfaithful observers were so badly confused they thought the apostles themselves were devils. That’s what it looks like to successfully demonize a person or a group of people. It leads you to crucify your Savior while He prays for you, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they’re doing.”
One clue you can look for which indicates the process of demonization is when accusers suggest a claim that is not just false, but is the opposite of true. For example, in 2020 Leftist activists suggested white police officers were a danger to black men during arrests. The real truth, as born out by the publicly available data, was that black men were a danger to white police officers during arrests. The claim made by the activists was the opposite of true, and it was made in an effort to demonize white police officers. This same kind of anti-truth was imposed upon Christ and His disciples when He was accused of being the prince of demons.
Servants of Satan are most effective when they are pretending to be righteous. Such was the case with the scribes and Pharisees, whom Jesus condemned more than many others. In addition to masking their evil deeds in supposed righteousness, they also look for opportunities to raise up others in their ways. Those who are quick to make accusations against others often have Satan ruling in their own hearts. Especially when these accusations are unfounded. One of Satan’s titles is “the accuser of the saints” for a reason. Despite this confusion and deception, there is a day coming when all which hides in darkness will be exposed by the light.
Jesus illustrates the suffering His followers would face by saying, “”Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” This is a sword of division as opposed to temporal peace and outward prosperity. Many people thought Jesus came to give His followers wealth and power in this world. He flatly denies that here. Followers of Christ may be certain they have reconciliation with God and therefore peace in heaven — but Jesus did not come to give them peace on earth. Jesus said in this world we shall face trouble, but that we can take heart because He has overcome the world. Despite these difficulties, it’s not like we have to wait for heaven to experience any kind of peace at all. In the present moment we’re able to have peace in our consciences, peace with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and most importantly peace with God. The Spirit of God gives us a sense of peace which goes beyond comprehension.
A common misapprehension in some Protestant doctrine is that all people are children of God. This is simply not biblical. Those who reject Christ and embrace evil are children of Satan. The fact of their existence guarantees our preaching the gospel will expose us to tribulation in this world. If every person on earth would accept Jesus as Lord, then perhaps we would experience a universal peace in the present moment. But this has never happened and will never happen until the return of Christ and the installment of His direct, eternal kingdom. Until that glorious season the children of God, who are called by God out of this world, should expect to feel the fruit of enmity with Satan.
The first coming of Christ, His divine Incarnation, brought with Him the sword of the word of God made flesh. Scripture describes itself as a sword. Hebrews says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” When Jesus defeats the enemies of God in Revelation He does it with the sword that comes from His mouth. He does it with the spoken word of God. The swords of God’s enemies are simply incomparable to that kind of power. Yet for the present moment the Church and God’s followers are thrust into a state of humble suffering at the edge of evil swords. This is so that His people might demonstrate God’s grace towards His enemies. God patiently defers His wrath until His enemies fill up the measure of their sins.
Although you should expect the preaching of the gospel to cause division, it’s not a fault in the gospel itself which causes it. It’s a fault in those who refuse to receive it. The faith of those who believe condemns the lack of faith in those who do not believe. This judgment against the godless occurs whether you intend for it or not. The unfaithful feel judged by the very existence of the faithful in the same way an alcoholic feels judged by the existence of the sober and well-adjusted. This sense of being judged often results in enmity between the unfaithful and the faithful. This division is so intransgressible at the level of beliefs that differences in religion have toppled entire empires and have been the cause of some of the most vicious conflicts in history. There are few who operate with such rage as those condemned persecutors, and few who operate with such resolve as those persecuted for righteousness sake. It is the kind of conflict reminiscent of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.
Jesus was honest with His disciples about the suffering they would face. He didn’t sugar-coat it. He gave them these hard sayings plainly and if they could bear these things — they could bear anything. Jesus deals faithfully and fairly with us. He makes it clear to us the worst we will face in service to His kingdom. Our job is to sit down and count the cost. Are we willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do what is right? Are we willing to give up the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life in order that we way walk in the Spirit of God?
Jesus warned His disciples from whom and by whom they should suffer these things. The world and its inhabitants are opposed to Christ and His great salvation. The evil ones have been corrupted by the powers of Hell and it must be so, for how else could they oppose a doctrine of good will toward men and reconciliation with God? The disciples would face backlash from some of the very people to whom they came to preach salvation. The unjust persecution they faced testifies of the truth that the blood-thirsty hate the upright. They hate righteousness because righteousness reminds them of God — and they hate God. They hate God because they’re indwelled by the spirit of Satan who works in the sons of perdition. Satan is called the prince of the power of the air, and this means he is the architect of the idolatrous world-system which is at enmity with God. Creation itself knows God and loves God, but the framework developed and inhabited by the sons of disobedience is opposed to God.
The disciples would need to be cautious of other human beings. It didn’t matter that these individuals were of the same nature as them — humans interacting with humans. They harbored no empathy for the disciples. They were crafty and sinister in their politics while also being cruel and barbarous as beasts. Their depravity was such that they could be fully divested of their humanity. Once a person is spun-up into a rage of persecution, it’s a mistake to think you can reason them out of it. This is especially true when the people are gathered into a mob. Paul compared the men he fought at Ephesus to wild beasts.
It was a poor commentary on the condition of humanity that the disciples’ enemies would be bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Even beasts seem to understand they shouldn’t eat each other. It is a Satanic expression of grievous evil when people persecute other human beings whom they should be sympathizing with or protecting. The men who persecuted the disciples would be those scripture refers to as natural men. They are men who belong to this world and are uninterested in spiritual appraisal of the things of God.
The doctrine of total depravity teaches that the natural man, when he is unsanctified, has the worst character in all creation besides devils themselves. Contrast this character with that of the saints, who are men and women redeemed from their fallen nature. By the power of the Holy Spirit they have become more than natural men. And this is why natural men hate them. Those who have rejected God and have nothing but their humanity are subordinate, dependent, dying creatures — made like grass. Here today and gone tomorrow.
But it wasn’t just worldly men who persecuted the disciples, indeed it was false zealots as well. These were professing men who have a form of godliness while denying the power thereof. They didn’t have the Spirit of God although they practiced false doctrines of religion. These are the ones whom Christ said would scourge the disciples in their synagogues and inside their places of worship. They would view mistreatment of Christ’s ministers as an expression of their religion.
The apostle Paul was scourged five times at the hands of religious Jews. Part of the reason the Jews were the most vicious persecutors of the Christians is because they used their own religion to justify the actions. Not only did they justify the persecution, they made the act of it into a divine mandate. They were doing God’s work and honoring Moses by persecuting Christians. Jesus told His disciples an hour is coming when those who kill them will think they are doing a good service to God. This is what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain. It’s using the authority of God’s name to achieve your own ends even if your ends are divergent from what’s good and true. The religious leaders thought their persecution was consecrated by the synagogue, but as with other Satanic misapprehensions the opposite was true. Their synagogues were desecrated by their persecution of the saints.
In addition to facing persecution from the religious leaders, the disciples would also face it from men in governmental authority. In many instances the Jews couldn’t legally exceed scourging, so once they could go no further they handed the disciples over to Roman officials. This is exactly what they did with Jesus Himself. The Romans had more power than the Jews to exact various forms of torture and punishment — even executions. Those who occupy seats of power within governmental authority would do well to remember God is the one who put them there.
These people are given authority which should be used to protect and foster the Church, but too often they abuse their power to oppress it instead. It has been the fate of many good ministers to die at the hands of powerful enemies. Scripture acknowledges the reality that some rulers of this world gather together in defiance of God and His Christ. While this creates a dangerous circumstance for ministers of God, and results in the martyrdom of many, the best laid plans of God’s enemies are ultimately futile.
Jesus goes so far as to tell His disciples that they will be hated by all men. This doesn’t mean every single person would hate them, rather it means the generality of people would. There are more people who discount the cause of Christ than who embrace it. Even though this hatred was not universal, the evil of men is universal apart from God’s Spirit. Without the Spirit of God the entire world lies in wickedness. Independent of the Spirit of God no person is able to do good or be good. All have gone astray, all have fallen short of God’s glory. Apostasy from God is inextricably linked to enmity with those who follow Him. The poison which lurks inside the hearts of the children of disobedience turns them into liars — and liars hate the truth.
You’ve heard me say on this podcast before that loving God is a necessary prerequisite for properly loving people — and this includes your own family. This is a hard idea for secular people to understand, but I think all of us have witnessed enough evidence in the past decade to prove its veracity. Belief systems run deeper than bonds of love. Bonds of love are subservient to the influence of faith. This is why families have broken up over political differences. It’s not that politics had the power to turn husband against wife, father against son, and so on. It’s that we shaped idolatrous religions on the basis of our politics — and our faith-based presuppositions altered our perceptions so much that loved ones became unrecognizable. You all have a close friend or loved one who was transformed by the corrupting influence of Leftism, or perhaps the cult of personality generated around President Trump. This happened because belief-systems shape everything about us, including who and how we love.
Jesus knew the power of belief, and so he warned His disciples that the gospel would cause brother to turn against brother and children against their parents. It’s not that the gospel was corrupting one against the other, rather the gospel was transforming one into the likeness of Christ while the other remained enslaved to sin. It was creating a division at the level of axiomatic belief, and these beliefs determine everything else an individual perceives. A dreadful feature of religious persecution is how it escalates in the presence of someone who remains faithful while facing it. Your family and loved ones may be willing to look the other way so long as your faith isn’t costing them anything. But once they begin facing danger or inconvenience because of your faith, they too will pressure you to forsake it.
The primacy of belief is such that idolaters throughout history willingly sacrificed their own children to appease their gods. Scripture recounts idolaters sacrificing their own children to the fire in order to please Moloch — an action which God considered detestable and blasphemous. Persecution is most painful when it comes from your own loved ones. I’m fortunate to have never experienced this, but it’s not lost on me how many Christians do. Fallouts with family members, especially in regard to belief-systems, can quickly become irreconcilable. Scripture says a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city. History is replete with examples of societies whose shared beliefs became so corrupt that the enemy was in your own household. After the Russian Revolution, during the reign of Stalin’s dictatorial regime, approximately 1 in 3 individuals became government informers. This meant the people who would turn you over to imprisonment lived in your own house. That’s how bad ideological capture can become.
In His preparatory remarks Jesus gave His disciples much more than warnings of future trials. He also gave them prescriptions for how to find comfort and perseverance as they walked through them. He knew He was sending them out to be exposed to danger and they knew it as well. So they would need encouragement sufficient to bear them up and lift them out. The first thing He tells them is to be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. Wisdom of the prudent is important in all seasons of life but especially so during times of suffering. Few things tempt us to justify transgression against God more than pain and suffering.
For the purpose of this passage I want you to separate what you know about serpents from the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The metaphor of the serpent is used naturalistically in this passage and not spiritually. Note how the natural wisdom of the serpent is different from the wisdom of the fox. The wisdom of the fox is oriented around deceiving others, whereas the serpent’s first policy is to defend itself. No one likes serpents, so that means serpents are under constant threat of being killed or injured. The wisdom of the serpent speaks to the ability to shift and navigate in the world without taking on unnecessary vulnerabilities. Jesus wasn’t giving His disciples permission to sin or deceive others, rather He was encouraging their self-preservation and commanding them to steward their own safety.
Jesus Himself took action to preserve His own safety throughout His ministry. He spoke in ways to prevent His enemies from trapping Him in false doctrine or in some kind of needless offense. In many instances He escaped the hands of those who sought to hurt Him before His time had come. It’s amendable to Christian teaching that we resist making idols out of comfort or luxurious living. But this doesn’t mean we actively flee from life itself. Chastisement for its own sake does not bear the wisdom of God. Christian self-preservation means we do what it takes to secure our own lives when doing so doesn’t encroach on God’s purpose for us. The wisdom of the serpent means we take shelter from the evils of this world whenever we can, and we live quiet lives separate from those who seek to provoke others and pull trouble down upon themselves.
The second part of this instruction was for them to be harmless as doves. This meant they should practice meekness and do no harm to anyone. In fact they shouldn’t even have ill-will towards anyone. The disciples were sent forth as sheep among wolves. Sheep are harmless but they’re also not very smart. The wisdom of the serpent would help keep them safe from harm, and the harmlessness of doves would prohibit them from using their subtlety to harm others. Having a dove-like spirit essentially means practicing Christlike meekness. Christians should take great care, no matter where they are, to practice congeniality and grace. So much as it depends on us we must remain blameless in word and deed — especially when in the presence of our enemies. After His baptism, the Spirit of God descended on Christ like a dove, and this symbolism was intentional. Although wrath is a real part of God’s character, grace and love are more fundamental to who He is.
Part of the wariness the disciples were instructed in was to avoid dangerous company. In addition to being careful with what they say or do, they should also refrain from trusting any one person too much. This same advice applies to Christians today. There is no person in your life who is worthy of the same trust you invest in God. Not even your wife, not even your child, not even your best friend. This doesn’t mean you can’t trust them, it just means you should not put them on God’s throne in your heart. The moment you begin seeing a human person as a representation of God, you’re setting yourself up for heartbreaking disappointment. The disappointment can be so wrenching that it feels like betrayal. This is because, by simple infirmity, no person is able to exist free of mistakes or stupid decisions. No person, on their own merits, is even able to exist free of sin. Omniscience and sinlessness are expectations which only God can satisfy without disappointment. And as for betrayal, Jesus Himself was betrayed with a kiss by one of His own disciples — so we should keep in mind that we ourselves could be betrayed by anyone.
Next Jesus tells His disciples not to worry about how they should speak or what they should say when handed over to the courts. Yes they should still conduct themselves with decency and decorum, but they should not worry whether they might say the right thing at the right moment. This was no excuse to forsake prudence, but it was a reprieve from anxiety and disquietness. “What they shall say” in the presence of the judges would be taken into account by God just the same as He takes into account what they shall eat and what they shall drink. He would provide the words for them.
Really what Jesus is getting across to His disciples is that they need not use flowery language to persuade the courts to hear an empty argument. The disciples were preaching the gospel, the value of which didn’t depend on eloquent turns of phrase or quaint expressions. You see this kind of manipulative language all throughout the writings of postmodern neo-Marxists today. Their arguments are loaded with so much jargon that it simply exhausts the reader who seeks to understand them. They depend so heavily on jargon because their actual arguments are vacuous and make no sense. The gospel is the opposite of this: its value is in the substance itself. It doesn’t need dressed up, and to dress it up runs a real risk of misrepresenting it. The word of God is sufficient to speak for itself.
The disciples could trust that since they spoke with God’s word, their speeches before the courts would be the finest ever given. Instead of coming up with what to say, they should focus on conducting their actions in a way that honors God. It’s better to keep your integrity than it is to win it back through eloquent speech. Words and precision of speech are critically important — you’ve heard me say it dozens of times — but a life well-lived is what creates the best defense of your faith. As Christians we don’t search for new and clever ways to preach the gospel, we simply preach it faithfully as it has been given to us — and we support this preaching with God-honoring lives.
If the disciples were persecuted in one city, Jesus told them to leave that city and move on to the next one. They were to reject those who rejected the gospel. There were several reasons for this. One was simply a matter of practicality: there’s only so much time available that we might do God’s work. We should endeavor to bring the gospel to those who will accept it, rather than use that time on those who reject it. It was also a matter of their own safety. Moving on to the next city represented a shift for self-preservation. It is Christian duty to secure ourselves by flight if God, in His providence, opens up a door of escape. We flee in these instances so that we may live to do God’s work another day.
As a Christian there’s nothing shameful about escaping danger so long as we aren’t surrendering duty in the process. We don’t need to die on every hill in order to preserve the cause of Christ. We should view avenues of escape as the providence of God. These spaces are tools He has given us to assist in the work He’s called us to. If the persecution in a given city became too hot for the disciples, it was their Christian duty to move on to more stable ground. Refusing to retreat in some ill-advised act of heroism would be to dishonor God and His gift of escape. Throughout our lives we will find places God has given us as sanctuaries. We should use these places and not take them for granted. These places are part of God’s care for us. With that said, not all forms of escape are God-given and some should be refused. The easiest way to tell is whether or not your escape requires you to sin. If it does, then the escape was not part of God’s gracious providence.
Fleeing danger does not imply fear, it implies wisdom. There’s nothing courageous about casually sacrificing your own life for a stupid reason. Jesus told His disciples they shouldn’t fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell. Disciples of Christ need not fear even their greatest of adversaries. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom and those who fear God need not fear man. Those who fear the most trivial sins need not fear the most devastating ones. You don’t need to be afraid of blaspheming the Holy Spirit if you’re already afraid of much less significant sins.
Fearing people more than God creates a snare in your life which can draw you into sin. A good example of this is peer pressure. Many people, especially young people, enter new frontiers of sin entirely because of peer pressure. Other instances where we see this happen include mobs. The power of the mob is so terrifying that otherwise morally well-calibrated people will follow it into heinous acts of evil. But the fear of man is not only dangerous when it comes to the pressures to join sinners — it’s also dangerous in terms of justifying sin. The fear of people groups who are different from you has fueled all kinds of injustice across history. Heinrich Himmler (a leading member of the Nazi party) was able to convince Germans to justify the slaughter of Jewish children under 14 years old by telling them these children would grow up to one day threaten German children. Had the German Holocaust observer feared God more than he feared man, such propaganda wouldn’t have worked.
It’s easy to proclaim you don’t fear man, but when torture and persecution are in clear view these bold proclamations are harder to stand by. Especially when this evil is targeted at your loved ones. I would argue it’s really not possible to cease fearing man until you have a proper understanding of eternity. Viewing men in light of eternity reveals the limitation of their power. The final limitation for any of your enemies is their ability to kill the body. Once they’ve killed the body, they can do no more to harm you. Their rage and their malevolence cannot extend to the eternal soul. And the eternal soul is the truest substance of who you are.
Some people think of death as a final falling asleep from which one never reawakens. This is not biblical. The biblical description of a soul holds that perception, thoughts, and consciousness proceed uninterrupted by physical death. If it were otherwise, then man’s power would not be limited to killing the body because killing the body would also mean killing the soul. Jesus said only God can kill the soul. The soul is destroyed when it is separated from God and His love, which is the source of its life. In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes it abundantly clear that nothing (other than God Himself) can separate us from God’s love or make us stop loving Him.
Persecutors may lock us into the dark recesses of solitary confinement, separated from all the world, but they can do nothing to separate us from God. Paul said, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.” Understanding this biblical precept is the key to preventing the fear of man from corrupting your heart. Without embracing the truth of your eternal life in the presence of Christ Jesus, I’m not sure such courage is even possible. Living a life covered by the abundant righteousness of Jesus, and keeping a clear conscience before God, leads you to an acceptance of death which is simply not available to those who don’t believe.
Fearing God is different from fearing man because God truly does have power over your soul. Scripture says God is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell. Many Christians have varying opinions as to the literal nature of this destruction. Some believe in what is called annihilationism where God destroys these people in a way that they cease to exist at all. I think the destruction referred to in scripture more likely means a destruction of one’s well-being rather than their being itself. The eternal soul lives on forever in a state of lost damnation. I think we see precursors to this destruction in unrepentant sinners today. It’s why when a person has allowed their soul to become corrupt by sin, their body suffers maladies as a consequence. Diseases, addictions, and traumas can all be the effects of unrepentant sin. These are disorders in the body which began as disorders in the soul. So too with a person’s passage into Hell — both their body and their soul remain one intact being to suffer together.
It’s important to remember the final destruction of the body and soul happens because of God’s glorious power — not because of sin’s power over you. Jesus is the One who has power over life and death. In the destruction of evil God makes His power known. He has both the authority to sentence sinners and the authority to execute the sentence. Even the best of saints should maintain reverential fear of God. None of us are too good to fear Him. We stand in awe of His wrath because no one knows the boundaries of His power. Holy fear acts as a kind of restraint which keeps us from becoming irreverent with God. Part of fearing God is accepting His sovereign power over our souls. And part of accepting His sovereignty is denying it to those who are mere mortals. It’s better to live under the angry countenance of the entire world than to fall under the wrathful gaze of the Lord our God. Fearing mortal men may indicate we’ve forgotten the Lord who created them.
Part of not fearing man meant bold proclamation of the gospel despite the hazards of doing so. Jesus told His disciples, “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.” Satan is not only interested in destroying your body, but he’s also aimed at suppressing the gospel. He is directly opposed to the work God has given you. Gospel preachers speak that which was originally spoken by Jesus. Understand that when you hear the word of God faithfully preached, you’re hearing a retelling of what God Himself originally said. The good news Jesus gave to His apostles has passed through the epochs of time and has been given to us so that we might give it to others. When scripture is preached faithfully, the full counsel of God is delivered — nothing more and nothing less.
When Jesus says He told them these things in the darkness, He’s not saying He speaks different things in private than He speaks in public. But throughout His ministry leading up to the apostolic age, He didn’t publicize some things as much as others. He spoke in parables so that those who followed Him would understand deeper truths. After His Resurrection, when the work of redemption was complete, His apostles were tasked with preaching these hidden things from the roof-tops. Scripture says, “Wisdom shouts in the street, she lifts her voice in the square; At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings.” It’s also interesting to note that Peter’s first vision that the Gentiles would be grafted into the gospel church occurred on a roof-top. Regardless of where you are and who your audience is, the full counsel of God must be revealed and none of it should be concealed or held back. The wisdom of the scriptures should be plainly and fully delivered.
Despite all of the suffering and persecution laid in front of them, Christ shows His disciples why they should be of good cheer. He told them they would not finish preaching to all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. It was comforting knowing the substance of their preaching would be confirmed by Christ Himself in short order. They preached that the Messiah was at hand and that God’s kingdom would come, and indeed it would come in the exaltation of Christ and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. This meant their work and their labor for the kingdom during this interim period would be temporary. God’s promises for how our time on earth will end should bring us comfort. It means that if we suffer under persecution or tragedy during our lives, we can be assured that this suffering is temporary.
In the case of the disciples this interim period was temporary because they would be advanced to a higher station when Christ gave them the Great Commission. Changing from disciples to spirit-filled apostles meant they would be granted the freedom to evangelize all the world. Scripture says, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” The evangelistic journeys of Christ’s disciples started out small and local, but in due course they were expanded into His Great Commission. A wise leader will subject new ministers to this same kind of progression today.
Jesus reminded His disciples that their persecution for righteousness’ sake would serve as a mechanism for advancing the gospel. Jewish leaders would hand them off to Roman governors, and thus they’d be publicly hurried from court to court. This kind of controversy would serve to make their testimonies more public. It would also give them an opportunity to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. The persecution of the disciples would also function as a testimony against the Jews.
When Christians are martyred for their faith, this kind of sacrifice becomes a powerful witness. If the person is willing to die for their faith, that must mean either he’s crazy or there’s something real in what he believes. When righteous people are persecuted for their faith, in any morally well-calibrated society this makes the tormentor look evil — and thus helps the cause of the persecuted. This issue of public perception is what motivates propagandists to generate false flag attacks so that they can justify waging war on a nation unprovoked.
Ministers are witnesses for God in both their active work as well as in their suffering. In all things they glorify God. Jesus said the way you treat the least of His people is the way you treat Him. So those who persecute the faithful supply evidence in support of their own condemnation. To be persecuted for righteousness sake turns you into an effective testimony for the gospel — and this is something to rejoice in. Most comforting of all is the truth that a person who suffers for his faith is never alone in it. He always has God’s special presence with him. Jesus told His disciples the Holy Spirit would give them the words to say when they stood before governors and kings.
This ability from God’s Holy Spirit would have been especially comforting to them because they were uneducated men. They very likely lacked eloquence in their speech — especially when they stood in the presence of great men. This lack of speaking ability was the same complaint Moses made before God sent him to Pharaoh. Moses said to God, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” The prophet Jeremiah was concerned about this same issue when he was set over the kingdoms. He said, “Alas, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, Because I am a youth.”
So God’s Spirit, in His sovereign power, is evidently able to make successful ministers out of those who lack eloquence. This doesn’t mean incompetence is a virtue — which believe it or not I’ve heard this doctrine used in an attempt to prove such madness. It just means God is powerful enough to accomplish His purposes through unlikely vessels. This idea of God’s Spirit speaking through the disciples during times of judicial duress also does not mean sermons should be delivered extemporaneously and without preparation.
We need to understand God’s Spirit giving the disciples words to say was nothing short of a miracle. This means they were able to speak in congruence with God’s will, without notes, in a way that sounded as if the topic had been exhaustively studied. And these words were given to them while they stood in the courts — not the night before nor ahead of time. There was no opportunity to practice. As ministers we should not expect the same degree of miracle to happen for us simply because we choose not to prepare.
Jesus said to His disciples, “It is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” This is true of us today when we labor to prepare a gospel message. We are building a sermon on the basis of God’s word, therefore His word is instructing us in what we shall say. It is God speaking in us rather than us speaking for ourselves. The Spirit of wisdom indwelled the disciples such that they were able to speak to the consciences of even their own persecutors. Not only were they empowered to speak the truth, but it was also given to them to speak with holy zeal. Just like Jesus, they were able to teach as one who had authority. If we’re willing to make the sacrifice and put in the work, we too can speak with such power. God said to Moses, “Go, and I will be with thy mouth, and with thy heart.”
In verse 22 Jesus said, “”You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.” We spoke earlier about how suffering, no matter how bad it is, will always be temporary in this life. Speaking on this issue of temporal suffering, Job said, “There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary are at rest.” He’s commenting on how all persecution and suffering in this life eventually comes to an end. Pain and suffering are a lot easier to endure when you know they have a definitive end. It also makes a universe of difference when you’re aware that God is with you in the suffering. He bears you up in the suffering in the same way He provides support against temptation.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” I want to be careful to point out this verse is not saying God won’t give you more pain and suffering than you can endure. Indeed some people experience intolerable pain and then they just die. This verse is specifically referencing temptations to sin. It just means you’ll never face a temptation too great for you to endure and God will always provide a means of escape. But it does illustrate the compassionate, merciful character of our God. He’s working all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them — and all things includes your pain and suffering.
When it comes to endurance through suffering, an important part of your theology should be faith in God’s promise that the end will make sense of the means. This life can be stormy, turbulent, and full of treacherous missteps. But in the final analysis, when you enter into eternity in Heaven, God’s promise is that the pleasure of home will make amends for everything you’ve experienced along the way. Wise Christians are always careful to emphasize that Jesus in no way promised we would have good, easy lives on Earth. But He does in fact promise this about Heaven. Heaven is eternal paradise, the goodness of which goes beyond our ability to describe with mortal language.
Paul describes how eternity outweighs the present moment in 2 Corinthians 4 when he says, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” This is part of an encouragement for us to endure not only temporary suffering, but to endure all the seasons of life right up to the very end of it. Jesus said, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Another reason we should be encouraged in our suffering is that no matter how difficult our afflictions become, it is no more than Jesus Himself experienced. The suffering of His crucifixion and the hours leading up to it are archetypal in their significance. It’s difficult to imagine experiencing something worse than that. In this way the disciple is not greater than his master. Christ’s disciples should not be ashamed to wash one another’s feet, because Jesus Himself did it and He is their Lord. Jesus told His disciples that since they are no greater than Him, if He was persecuted they should expect persecution also. But by the same token, when His word was kept they should expect their word to be kept also. The proverbial idea of a slave not being greater than his master simply means disciples of Christ should not expect better treatment than Christ Himself received.
The Lordship of Christ has several key facets to it. He is our teaching Master which means we are His disciples and should aspire to learn from Him. He is our ruling Master which means we should recognize ourselves as His servants and obey Him. He is also Master of the house, which means He extends authoritarian sovereignty over the Church itself. Despite such comprehensive lordship, Jesus met with abuse and hardship from the world. On Earth His enemies called Him Beelzebub, who is chief of the demons, and they accused Jesus of being in league with him.
Their rejection and abuse of Christ is astonishing. Even more astonishing is His patience to endure them. Jesus is the God of glory and they accused Him of being god of the flies (which was another title for Beelzebub). He is the King of Israel and they mocked His lordship. Jesus is the Prince of light and life, yet His enemies attempted to stigmatize Him as the prince of the powers of death and darkness. Jesus singularly represents victory over Satan and His enemies accused Him of being on Satan’s side.
But if Jesus could be smeared and misunderstood, we ourselves should expect no better treatment. We should prepare for persecution and beat it patiently. Enemies of God hating Christians should not strike us as unusual. We should expect it. Even when persecution develops into torture and death, we should remember those martyrs will shortly be made like Jesus in glory. The cup which Jesus Christ had to drink was bitter, but the fact that He did it brings relief to our own journey and opens the narrow path which leads to life more abundantly.
Defamation and character assassination can be difficult things to endure. But another reason Christ gives us to be encouraged is that there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. While lies from the enemy may be able to turn others against you now, we can trust on the authority of Jesus that in the final analysis the truth will stand. We know this is also true about the revealing of the gospel. Jesus instructed His disciples, “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.” Across time, the mighty deeds of God will be revealed to the children of men and shall be made known to all nations in their own language.
By God’s own authority He will see to it that His gospel be preached to the ends of the earth. This brings great encouragement to those who labor on behalf of the kingdom of God — to be able to trust this work will ultimately result in completion. The reputations of the slandered faithful will be restored and their true excellency will be revealed by the light of God’s judgment. Enemies of God may accuse you of being hateful, bigoted, or unreasoning — and they may even turn others against you because of these accusations. But the faithful will be vindicated by God and by the unvarnished revelation of truth.
Many great Christian leaders labor unnoticed doing thankless work with faithful hearts across the span of their lives. When God reveals all things, this work will be recognized as the noble sacrifice which it was. The righteousness of the saints will shine forth as the light and their glory shall be manifested to both angels and men. It brings us great comfort knowing we will be bodily resurrected after death into eternal life. This comfort is complimented by the truth that our names shall be resurrected as well. Those saints who were shamed in death as public pariahs will be expunged of these false convictions. As a Christian and especially as a minister, it’s more important to defend God’s truth than it is to defend your own integrity. We must faithfully preach and teach the word of God, and then trust Him that He will reveal the truth about our character.
Scripture teaches us that God is emphatic about providing for His saints in their suffering. Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” We can rest on the principle of God’s universal providence extending itself to all creatures, and all their actions, even the most minute. Even secularists trust in the constant of nature being able to provide food, water, and good seasons. How much more should good men of Christ trust in God — who is their Father — knowing that He has such special concern for them.
I think in all of scripture one of the statements which best illuminates God’s compassion is this idea of Him caring for the sparrows. A sparrow was a little bird which was so insignificant that you needed multiple of them to create any financial value at all. Luke 12:6 says, “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.” Even a creature which by worldly standards is considered valueless is not shut out of God’s divine care. God does not forget about any of them and He feeds all of them, and if even a single sparrow dies God Himself takes notice of it. Jesus used this truth about God’s care for the sparrows to illustrate His even greater care for the saints.
If God cares about the death of even the smallest sparrow, He certainly cares about those who die for their faith. The deaths of all God’s creation, human beings and creatures alike, are predetermined by God Himself. Even a sparrow is not taken by a fowler unless God permits it. So as a minister of the gospel, you can be assured your enemies will not be able to strike you down unless it is the moment God has ordained for you to die. Another reason we shouldn’t be afraid of death is because God Himself is the one who is in control of it. You will not die against God’s will. Our enemies have no power to take our lives unless the power is given to them by God. God is able to nullify their weapons and their traps, allowing our souls to escape as birds in flight.
We’re not afraid of death and disaster because we know God’s hand is in these just as much as it’s in His providence. God loves His creation, and we should respect His creation as such things which are loved by God. The creatures of the earth were made for man and put under his feet, but this was done because of God’s love for us. Our dominion over the created order doesn’t subtract from God’s care for it or His love for it. Those who are disciples of Christ are accounted in the sight of God as excellent among humanity. So one of the Satanic ironies which came from those who opposed Christ and His disciples is that they treated the disciples as if they weren’t even worth one sparrow.
It’s difficult to wrap our minds around such special attention reflected in the idea that God has each of our hairs numbered. He takes account of all our movements, even those which seem trivial or unimportant. How much more does He consider our suffering for the sake of righteousness? How much more does He care for the well-being of your soul? These were questions which encouraged the disciples to live in continual dependence on God and His providence. I read somewhere once that most people spend 80% of their time thinking about themselves. This is not all selfishness — you’re piloting a delicate, mortal frame through a dangerous world. You have to pay attention to yourself and to your movements if you want to remain safe. But as much as we care about ourselves, the staggering truth of this biblical doctrine is that God cares more about us, and knows more about us, than even we do about ourselves.
We might demonstrate careful stewardship of our money and of those creatures who depend on us — but your attention is limited so the more you care for others the less you’ll notice yourself. You won’t notice the hair of your head falling to the ground and you won’t miss them when they do. But God notices it. God sees it. God accounts for it. Not a single injury and not a single hurt is done to you without the careful consideration of God. That is how much He values the lives of the saints. Their lives and their deaths are precious to Him.
Jesus goes on to say that everyone who confesses Him before men He will also confess before His Father who is in heaven. He says whoever denies Him before men, those also He will deny before His father who is in heaven. As Christians it is our duty to confess Christ before men. If we do that now in this life we will meet with unspeakable honor and happiness in eternity. We must believe in Jesus, but we must also profess that faith by serving Him and suffering for Him. We should never be ashamed of who Jesus is to us, of our careful attendance on Him, and of our miraculous expectations from Him. Maintaining a stalwart conviction in these things supplies evidence of our faith for others to witness and glorifies the name of God.
Declaring Jesus in this life may expose us to vulnerability and persecution at the hands of the wicked, but we will be abundantly recompensed for that in heaven. Being able to hear Christ confess us before the Father as one of His own is an honor which far exceeds any slander we might endure during our lives. We will be able to stand in heaven as the workmanship of the Spirit of God — fully redeemed and glorified. The goodness of God will always sufficiently recompense us for whatever goodness we’re able to do in this life. We confess Jesus before men, who are lowly creatures, but Jesus confesses us before His Father who is greater than all.
If we deny Jesus before humanity He will also deny us before His Father. On the great day of judgment, when we need His intercession more than ever, Jesus will declare to us, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” Christians throughout history have read that passage of scripture and felt great fear because of it. How can I know if I’m really saved? How can I know if, when I stand before God, Jesus will accept me? If you’re afraid of this happening, almost certainly it’s not going to happen. Jesus doesn’t juke the faithful into damnation. If you’re on track to lose your salvation it’s because you never had it and you know the truth about yourself. You know you neither trust in Jesus nor are submitted to Him.
In the early days of the Church, confessing Jesus brought danger onto yourself and caused you to be maligned by secularists and idolaters. In this respect the confession of faith was a more reliable indicator that a person authentically followed Jesus. Why else would you confess faith in Him and bring all that trouble down upon yourself? In our modern context it’s harder to tell who is who because pretending to be part of the church-going faithful often improves your status in society. So there may be some people who are Christians only because of the social currency awarded to them by professing faith. In the final analysis I think faith is most fundamentally expressed in actions. So if you live each day in submission to the Spirit of God and this submission is reflected in your actions — you have nothing to worry about.
Jesus also communicates to His disciples that the foundation of their training was sufficient to prepare them for handling persecution well. There would still be suffering, but they’d be strong enough to endure it. Their God-given purpose was more durable than any tribulation they might encounter. This reminds me of Viktor Frankl’s famous quote, “A man with a why can overcome almost any how.”
Part of the reason their discipleship was sufficient was because Jesus told them from the beginning they would need to give up all things to follow Him. He said they are not worthy of Him if they aren’t willing to sacrifice these things. He made the acceptance of suffering a condition for being able to follow Him. People tend to handle suffering more easily if they’re given an opportunity to agree to it from the start. Jesus knew this, and that’s why He didn’t paint them a pollyannish picture of what following Him would be like.
Following Jesus means prioritizing Him above all other things. In fact doing this is the only way to perceive your other interests accurately — even your loved ones. If I hold one of my loved ones in higher regard than I hold Jesus, that means I worship them and idolize them. Treating your loved one this way puts an inappropriate pressure on them, and it sharpens the pain you feel when he or she makes a mistake. It’s not possible to lead your family well if you yourself are not being led by Christ.
If Jesus is worth anything, He is worth everything. Allowing the truth of God’s word to color the way you see all of your other interests will ensure that you’re viewing the world accurately. Accuracy in perspective is critical to being able to navigate life well. When you first read these passages where Christ is asking you to give up your life for His sake, they can seem kind of harsh or overbearing. But once you understand the truth of how the mind of Christ allows you to see what’s real, you’ll happily rise to the occasion and pay the price for that. You’ll accept the exchange readily because you’ll see it’s not a hard bargain for yourself. It’s worth it. It’s more than worth it. It’s worth it in the same way Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac was worth it to both have his son back and also have approval from the Lord.
Jesus uses family as an example of love which must be subordinated to Him because family often has the greatest power over our worldview. Many people are deterred from coming to faith in Jesus because they know their family with hate them for it. In many cases the relationships are severed and in some extreme examples the family issues orders to murder the newly converted Christian. This is certainly true of Muslim apostates who repent and begin following Christ.
You can also be deterred from your God-given purpose if you subordinate Jesus to your love for family. Loving your family is both godly and admirable, but if you value this love too much you’ll be unwilling to take the steps necessary to steward it well. Couples who value their love too much often become so afraid of losing it that they refuse to fight. Refusing to fight causes important issues to fester unaddressed until the issues turn into monsters which devour the relationship. That’s the principle behind Christ saying, “If you cling to your life you will lose it.”
Part of being willing to give up your life means being ready to sacrifice your ease and safety if that’s what it takes to pick up your cross and follow Jesus. This means voluntarily shouldering the weight of your suffering and carrying it in a manner that honors the example given to us by Christ. A principal comfort which keeps us going in the midst of suffering is knowing we follow a cross-bearing God. Because Jesus bore the cross into glory, we know that if we faithfully follow Him through the darkness of our suffering we also will enter into glory.
Jesus warned His disciples that if they cling to their mortal lives they will lose them. This meant if they denied Christ in an effort to save their own lives, they’d lose the life which matters most and this would be reflected in eternity. Similarly if they should be willing to give up their mortal lives for Christ’s sake, then they shall find life in eternity. Part of being ready for eternity means holding loosely to this life in the present moment.
Jesus told His disciples that anyone who receives them receives Him. The purpose of the gospel is inextricably linked to Jesus Christ Himself. Therefore when someone receives gospel workers warmly, they also receive Jesus warmly. God takes into account those who treat His ministers with kindness. It’s true the general public would reject them, but they would meet with some who received them with hospitality and welcomed the message into their hearts. This is something to keep in mind which should give you hope even in the darkest places. Regardless of how collectively evil a population becomes, Jesus always has a remnant of faithful followers embedded in that population. This is true according to the election of grace. Even in the most horrifying of places there are those who hear the voice of the Lord. This is one of the reasons why Christ’s ministers can be confident they do not labor in vain.
You can be encouraged in your persecution because Jesus said whatever is done to you is also done to Him. This is useful to keep in mind when it comes to temptations for revenge. If you’re slandered or attacked for your faith, Jesus is also slandered and attacked by that person. If you know this, you’re much less tempted to exact justice yourself. You know your attacker will face Christ in the end, and he will face Him as one who has attacked Him — reaping the consequences thereof. Honor or contempt put upon an ambassador reflects honor or contempt upon the Lord who sent him. Ministers are ambassadors for King Jesus.
The honor extended to Jesus through His ministers also extends to God the Father through Jesus. So as a Christian you must conduct yourself well, because your words and actions (both honorable and dishonorable) extend to the heights of heaven. Scripture indicates this idea of “treatment by-proxy” takes place without us even being aware of it. The righteous, who treated the least of people with great care and kindness, were unaware that they were doing the same to Jesus by-proxy. It’s similar to when a parent says, “When my child is hurting it’s like I’m hurting as well.”
The acts of kindness done to Christ’s ministers aren’t measured by grandeur either. Scripture says even something as small as giving a cup of cold water to a little orphan is accepted by God Himself. Sometimes a person’s circumstances are so desperate that even a cup of cold water is received as a great favor. God measures the value of such gifts not based on monetary cost, but based on the love and affection of the person who gives it. That’s why Jesus says the widow’s mite was a greater gift than all who had given alongside her. In this way even the destitute can be wealthy in grace. You don’t need a lot of money to be rich in good works according to God’s evaluation.
As Christians we endeavor to be kind to widows, orphans, ministers, and all else who make up the least of people — not because we want something back from them — but solely because they are image-bearers of the great and glorious God. This generosity is not predicated on the recipient’s righteousness as if they’ve earned our kindness. It’s predicated on a love for God and love for neighbor. We recognize that they belong to Jesus and are therefore part of His divine errand on the earth. We support the advancement of the kingdom, and so we support those who advance it.
And that’s maybe a good place to end this long study. A reminder that while persecution and suffering are all too real in this world, so is the grace and love of God and Jesus Christ has overcome the world. We’re able to look to Heaven with hope and joy because we know that if we do our best to support the cause of Christ and His ministers, we may be surprised that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. We can endure evil and suffering with a kind of grace that befits the cross of Christ, because by faith we know that we are not alone. By faith we know that God is good and God always prevails.
If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to it. You can follow The MHB Podcast on Facebook or Twitter @mhbpodcast. Tell your friends about it and share it on social media. If you’d like email notifications of new episodes or if you’d like to support my work directly, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on my website at mhbpodcast.com. This work is made possible by listener support so your generosity is greatly appreciated. Thank you all for joining me, and I will see you in the next episode.
The MHB Podcast 