Straight Talk for Shepherds – part 2 (Matthew 10:24-31)
Straight Talk for Shepherds – part 2
Matthew 10:24-31
June 19, 2011
When last we met, we studied a very difficult truth.
Jesus revealed what sort of value
A shepherd in search of His sheep has in the world.
And the answer is that they have no value.
Paul himself said:
Romans 8:36 “Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
1 Corinthians 4:9 “For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.”
1 Corinthians 4:11-13 “To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.”
And of course if those passages are not enough,
We only need to listen to Paul as he recounts his hardships.
2 Corinthians 11:24-29 “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?”
It is obvious that what Jesus spoke was true, especially for the apostles.
Indeed it has also rang true for countless thousands
Of His followers around the world.
Those who follow Him suffer with Him.
Matthew 16:24-25 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
TURN TO: LUKE 14:25-35
One could almost get the idea from the gospels
That half of the time Jesus was calling sinners to Himself,
The other half of the time He was discouraging them from coming.
Both are true, for Jesus wanted the follower who would count the cost,
Understand the value, and follow anyway.
Remember it was the rocky soil who followed without counting the cost
And who didn’t make it to the end.
Jesus is looking for someone who will endure through the adversity.
So Jesus is telling them what they can expect.
Again, He does not tell them this
So they can decide whether or not to follow, that is not an option,
He tells them this so they won’t be shocked when it happens.
And so Jesus is answering some misconceptions about following.
We have seen the first 5.
#1 DON’T BE DUMB (16)
• Understand that wolves are present, be wise in your behavior.
#2 DON’T BE DECEIVED (17-18)
• Don’t think men will love you, they won’t.
• They will hand you over.
• Arrest, scourging, and imprisonment will occur.
#3 DON’T BE DISTRESSED (19-20)
• God will give you what to say.
• He will help you be successful in your mission.
#4 DON’T BE DISCOURAGED (21-22)
• I know it will be hard, but eternal life is found on the other side.
#5 DON’T BE DISTRACTED (23)
• Don’t ever quit, regardless of how many times you get run out of a city.
These were the first five misconceptions or responses
That Jesus dealt with.
Let’s look at the next 4 here.
#6 DON’T BE DELUDED
Matthew 10:24-25
By deluded I mean self-deceived.
James 1:22 “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.”
Thus far Jesus has talked about several types of deception.
He has told us not to be deceived about men.
“they will hand you over”
In some regard He has told us not to be deceived about God.
God will let them – for a testimony
God won’t abandon you
He has told us not to be deceived about family.
Brother will betray brother
Children their parents and a father his child
He has told us not to be deceived about the severity of hardship.
Some will be put to death
There are all sorts of deception that He has warned us about.
But perhaps the greatest deception we face is self-deception.
We have the propensity to delude ourselves.
And without a doubt one of the main ways we do that
Is by convincing ourselves that we are more important
Than we really are.
WE ARE AN EGOTISTICAL SOCIETY
Tom Pennington recently preached a sermon on pride in which he quoted from a book called “The Narcissism Epidemic”. Here is what he said:
“Our culture’s focus on self admiration has caused a flight from reality to the land of grandiose fantasy. We have phony rich people with interest only mortgages and piles of debt, phony beauty with plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures, phony athletes with performance enhancing drugs, phony celebrities via reality TV and youtube, phony genius students with grade inflation, a phony national economy with eleven trillion dollars of government debt, phony feelings of being special among children with parenting focused on self-esteem, and even phony friends with the social networking explosion. But perhaps nowhere in human history has human pride run freer, and we all see it to our shame, than on the internet with the “me” generation. It began with blogs and my-space, then came facebook, which now has 5 hundred million users worldwide. And of course there is youtube which blatantly invites us all to “broadcast ourselves”. And twitter has given everyone the chance to broadcast a running commentary on their lives. It gives the illusion that there are dozens perhaps even hundreds of people who really care what you’re doing right now.”
I don’t think there is really any arguing that we are a generation of people
Who is enamored with ourselves.
The problems to such views of self are obvious throughout Scripture.
And here Jesus reveals it as a problem,
Because a lofty view of self-importance
Leads us to be shocked when we are actually allowed to suffer.
Now, I certainly do not want to undo what we have already said,
That God has tremendous value on you.
We have already seen Jesus speak of our worth.
In a moment we will hear how God values us more than many sparrows.
It is not about value.
We are valuable in the sight of God,
For He spent the precious unblemished blood of His Son on us.
But don’t get worth and importance mixed up.
We are valuable to God, as based upon the price He paid for us,
But don’t assume that means God has placed you in a trophy case
Where no one will ever dent or ding you.
We are valuable, but we are not collectables.
So don’t assume that somehow God is too enamored with you
To allow you to suffer.
Don’t assume that somehow you are too important to the kingdom
To be martyred.
Don’t assume that you are not expendable.
And that is what Jesus tells the 12 here.
(24) “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.”
Here Jesus gives a short illustration about the natural order of all things.
Who is more important, the disciple or the teacher?
Who is more important, the slave or the master?
(I used to tell the guys in my dad’s shop “The Law of the Totem Pole”)
And obviously we understand the point.
Jesus is the teacher, He is the Master, we are but a disciple and a slave.
WHO IS MORE IMPORTANT TO GOD’S PLAN, JESUS OR US?
Obviously it is Christ.
So first we learn our place.
Jesus is more important than us.
In fact say that, “Jesus is more important than me.”
Whose reputation is more important?
Whose happiness is more important?
Whose glory is more important?
Whose will is more important?
Whose time is more important?
Good, we all know our place.
Now, let’s move on.
(25) “It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master.”
Please notice the “It is enough”
God isn’t asking any more from you than this.
You aren’t asked to be better than Jesus at anything (that’s good)
You aren’t asked to be less expendable than Jesus ever.
All God wants is what?
For you to be like Him.
Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”
That is why Paul prayed:
Philippians 3:10-11 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
So we know that the only objective is for us to be like Christ.
And then comes the fact of the matter.
“If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!”
• In other words, if they would do this to Jesus, and He is far more important than us, what makes you think they won’t do it to us?
• Even more, if God would allow them to do it to His Son, what makes you think God won’t allow it in our lives?
You see, we live this life sometimes with this self-deluded notion
That God never intended to let anything bad or hard into our lives.
We certainly don’t think we deserve it,
And the problem is that we spend our lives trying to avoid it
Actually believing that God would never want anything like that
To happen in our lives.
But that just isn’t true.
If God would allow it for Jesus, He certainly will allow it for us.
We are not too important for bad things to happen in our lives.
LET ME GIVE YOU SOME EXAMPLES
1 Kings 19:10 “He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Do you know who those prophets were?
Me neither.
They were men of God, who faithfully preached the truth,
And who were martyred because of it,
And their names aren’t even recorded in the Bible.
They were great men, but they were not untouchable.
Hebrews 11:36-38 “and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.”
There again, great men and women of God
Who suffered as much as one can, and we don’t even know who they are.
The point is that this whole thing is not about us.
• It is all about God.
• It is all about Christ.
• It is all about His kingdom.
It has never been about our comfort or our prosperity.
Don’t delude yourself into thinking otherwise.
Don’t be Dumb, Deceived, Distressed, Discouraged, Distracted, Deluded
#7 DON’T BE DEFEATED
Matthew 10:26-27
Now this is an interesting statement.
After being promised that these people will arrest us and scourge us
And betray us and kill us and call us Beelzebul,
Now we get a strange command.
“do not fear them”
We know what they will do, and we know they will be successful,
Yet we are told not to fear them.
WHY?
“for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.”
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
It means that someday the truth will come out,
And God will make everything right.
We call it vindication.
We actually talked about it a couple of weeks ago on Sunday night,
That God will vindicate His people.
Colossians 3:1-4 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Right now the world doesn’t see who we are,
But some day it will be revealed.
Remember the church at Philadelphia?
Revelation 3:9 “Behold, I will cause those of the synagogue of Satan, who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie — I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and make them know that I have loved you.”
Jesus is promising that we will be slandered and arrested,
And scourged, and tried, and killed.
But rest assured we don’t lose in the end.
Some day all will be made known and all will be revealed.
And those who are God’s will be revealed as God’s.
Matthew 13:41-43 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”
We all know that.
But since we know that we are victorious then,
We are called to live like it now.
(27) “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.”
If we are winners in the end, then don’t act defeated in this life.
If we really believe that the faithful of God win in the end,
Then go out and be the faithful of God.
It is a hypocritical notion to claim victory in the end,
And yet to live in defeat during this life.
2 Timothy 1:7-12 “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
• There is no excuse for a Christian too afraid to speak the truth.
• There is no excuse for a Christian walking in timidity.
• There is no excuse for a Christian concealing the message of the gospel.
We win in the end, so live like it now.
Don’t be defeated.
#8 DON’T BE DESTROYED
Matthew 10:28
And just by the title, I would think we are all in agreement with this one.
But what we get here is some very unique perspective.
For up until now, we have been told some pretty difficult truths
And then Jesus has told us not to fear them.
I don’t know about you, but that is a difficult concept.
How do I keep from letting the fear of persecution silence me?
Maybe I want to speak from the housetops.
Maybe I want to proclaim it in the light.
But how do I overcome my fear?
FIGHT FEAR WITH FEAR
“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.”
We call it perspective.
We have to look at things eternally not just temporally
We have to look at things spiritually not just physically
And the fact remains that there is
More than one death that can occur in a person’s life.
There is the first death that we all experience.
Then there is the second death that is for the lost.
Revelation 20:11-15 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which isthe book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Now we spend a lot of time and effort and resources
Trying to post-pone the first death today.
We eat right…
We exercise…
We get checkups…
We take medication…
We endure treatment…
And some even determine to keep silent about their faith
To try and postpone the first death.
But Scripture is clear that the first death
Is not the one you ought to be trying to avoid.
It is the second death that we must seek to avoid.
HOW DO WE AVOID IT?
Jesus already told us.
(Verse 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.”
Now this is clear.
If you do not endure to the end…
If you fall away…
Then you won’t be saved.
DID THAT MEAN THEY LOST THEIR SALVATION?
No, it means they never had it.
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”
Those who fall away reveal that their faith was never genuine,
For genuine faith endures to the end.
And that is the same point Jesus is making here.
You could choose to avoid conflict and to avoid persecution and to avoid hardship, and that might help you postpone that first death.
But if you do, rest assured there is a second death
That is coming which is far worse.
On the other hand, you could live faithfully on this earth
And that might very well cause the first death to come prematurely,
But you will be safe from the second one.
BE MORE AFRAID OF THE SECOND ONE.
Don’t be destroyed
#9 DON’T BE DISHEARTENED
Matthew 10:29-31
Now at this point Jesus gives us some much needed comfort.
Because by this point in the game we all could be feeling
A little bit like pawns in the game.
When we read that God is sending us out like sheep to be slaughtered,
It doesn’t make us feel all that valuable.
And that is why Jesus offers this final truth.
(29) “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
Jesus points out a seemingly worthless bird.
Worth less than a penny.
In fact you can get two for a penny.
“And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
God even watches those insignificant birds.
And God cares for you more than that.
(30-31) “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
• God cares for you so much that He has numbered every hair of your head.
• God cares for you so much that He watches you continually.
• God cares for you so much that He will never abandon you.
Yes the mission is hard.
Yes the mission is dangerous.
Yes the mission can lead to death.
But that does not mean that you are not valuable to God.
Psalms 116:15 “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones.”
I know we don’t have time to go through it,
But it is interesting when you read the book of the Revelation.
The judgment begins with the opening of 7 seals.
The first four are difficult, but nothing in comparison to the end.
DO YOU KNOW WHEN THE JUDGMENT REALLY CRANKS UP AND GETS SEVERE?
After the 5th seal.
WHAT IS THE FIFTH SEAL?
Revelation 6:9-11 “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ” How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”
DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
God rips the veil away that hides Himself from the earth,
And men go running begging the mountains to fall on them
And to hid them from the presence of the One sitting on the throne.
In other words, God gets enraged,
Motivated by the blood of His martyred church.
Those who serve Christ are valuable to Him.
And so Christ comes back to where He started.
He begins by telling them they are worthy,
And now He reminds them that they are valuable.
The world may not value you.
In fact the world will hate you.
But rest assured you are valuable to My Father and worth much to Me.
So look past the difficulty and focus on eternity
And rise up and be My witnesses.
The call is the same for us.
• Don’t live in fear and defeat,
• Rise up and confess Christ
• And go look for His lost sheep,
• Knowing that your work is valuable to God!
Matthew 9:36-38 “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
