Sermons

Cautioning the Twelve – vv. 16-23

Persevering through the promise of adversity

“How bad is it really going to get?”

• The answer is this bad.
  • Bad for the Apostles.
  • Bad for the early church.
  • Bad for believers still here when things get this bad.

This text uses telescopic fulfillment.

• Making its point with telescopic applications.
  • Christ specifically cautions his 12 Apostles.
    • Also, for the early church.
    • Also, for to all of us in our unprecedented culture.
    • Also, looking future to end times (cf. v. 23 “…before Son of Man comes).

During my lifetime promised persecution was more of a fantasy rather than reality.

• When at Christian college (post cold war), students from Russia who came from immediate persecution.
  • Church underground.
  • Pastors imprisoned.
  • Students fought glib attitudes.

 

• Seminary with a Filipino man who pastored underground with the threat of jail or death (family at risk).
  • Every ShepCon I am thankful to see him alive.
  • Pesrsecution in Islamic countries.
  • US, division where believers under a war of attrition.

Calling and Commission comes with Real Caution for the 12.

• Men pioneering a mission we are called to complete.
  • Every nation reached.
    • Our 21^st century version, what they began.

 

• Their mission models what we called to do.
  • God’s rescue and faithfulness, no matter how difficult it gets.
    • Observing the Apostles version makes visible what to us is invisible.
    • The spiritual realm.
    • Embracing the battle by faith.
      • We see the effects of the wind (cf. Jn. 3).
      • The Apostles show us precipitation.

 

• False teachers drum up fake versions of the Spirit.
  • Special effects.
  • The NT moves believers to see less and trust more!

 

• Our Bibles give us a lot to still see, for preparation.

 

Let’s go with them on their dangerous mission, to our benefit.

One of the best ways to learn is by doing an internship. On the job training and experience trumps just about all kinds of education. Learn what is coming by going on a ride along.

My oldest daughter, studying criminal justice, for on-the-job training has been going on “Ride-Alongs” with a police officer.

In a boarder city. She has been observing this office pull people over while she remains under clear instruction to stay in the car.

Heightened scenarios happen between the hours of 11:00-3:00, pulling over and arresting people with illegal drugs etc, booking at the station.

Thus far, my girl has not been in immediate danger, not permitted to leave the squad car.

Let’s enjoy the same benefit, going on a ride along with the 12, learning by observation. 

 

How bad will things get?

Three levels of persecution

1. Religious

Jesus builds a bridge between calling the 12 and their commission by calling the Israelites “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” to calling the 12 to act like “sheep.”

• The term “sheep” both times is an identification for being vulnerable.
  • The “lost sheep” are Israelites, vulnerable to self-deception.
  • The Apostles are likewise called “sheep” but vulnerable to ambush wolves.
    • Ravenous, dangerous, shedding animals.

^ESV  Matthew 7:15 ^a“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ^bravenous wolves.

^ESV  Acts 20:29 I ^aknow that after my departure ^cfierce wolves will come in among you, ^bnot sparing the flock

 

• Jews were “lost sheep” who turn on Messiah and his men, now as wolves.
  • Jesus’ warning.
    • This warning is unique – not warning to avoid the wolves.
      • To be prepared for what to face.
      • Jesus is “sending” them in to face an adversary.

 

• Facing this enemy is not a martyr’s mission.
  • Never right to desire death.
  • Morbid glory.
  • “Reckless Bravado.”

 

• Jesus calls them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (v. 16).
  • Sent by Jesus.
    • Never meant to be put yourself intentionally in harms way.
    • Craving pain as penance.

 

• To be cunning, facing difficult trials.
• Egyptians depicted serpents as cunning and wise.

^ESV  Genesis 3:1 Now ^athe serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You¹ shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

• Guarding against retaliation.
  • Loving enemies, praying for persecutors.
  • Represented as “innocence” – “innocent as doves” (v. 16).

^ESV  Acts 23:1-5 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, ^aI have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”² And the high priest ^aAnanias commanded those who stood by him ^bto strike him on the mouth.³ Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you ^awhitewashed ^bwall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet ^ccontrary to the law you ^corder me to be struck?”

⁴ Those who stood by said, “Would you revile ^aGod’s high priest?”⁵ And Paul said, ^a“I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ^b‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

 

The expectation is to be delivered over (v. 17).

• Technical term for prisoner handing over prisoner.
  • Less about avoiding persecution.
  • More about being ready to embrace it.

Jesus demands dangerous discipleship. The church gives a wide road message, lead there by false promises.

“Beware of men” meaning they are the one’s whom you will face.

• Lacking resources will not be your enemy but the “men” (v. 17).
  • Barclay: “Men are agents as demonic hosts.”
  • Though we love them; we assume the role of strategists.
  • Being warned “Beware of men!” (v. 17).

These 12 Jews are going to be “delivered over” just like Jesus would be “delivered over” by Judas Iscariot (one of the 12!).

• Jews delivering their own over to religious courts to be “flogged in their synagogues.”
• Fossilized Orthodoxy [Barclay].

Until AD 70, Rome allowed synagogues to adjudicate legal matters.

• Again, in the end times.
• Paul was flogged 5 times.

^ESV  2 Corinthians 11:24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the ^aforty lashes less one.

 

^ESV  Deuteronomy 25:3 ^aForty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

 

• They did degrade them.
• History records religions mockery – singing Psalms while delivering beatings.

^ESV  Revelation 11:3-8 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for ^a1,260 days, ^bclothed in sackcloth.” ⁴ These are ^athe two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.⁵ And if anyone would harm them, ^afire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, ^bthis is how he is doomed to be killed.⁶ They have the power ^ato shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and ^bto strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire.⁷ And when they have finished their testimony, ^athe beast that rises from ^bthe bottomless pit^{1 c}will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,⁸ and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically¹ is called ^aSodom and ^bEgypt, where their Lord was crucified.

 

^ESV  Revelation 17:5-6 And on her forehead was written a name of ^amystery: ^b“Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” ⁶ And I saw the woman, drunk ^awith the blood of the saints, the blood of ^bthe martyrs of Jesus.¹ When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

 2. Government

Verse 18 has you “dragged before governors and kings” just like Jesus was.

• From being beaten in religious centers to the Gentile/government courts.
  • Appealing for acquittal.
  • Second form of witness.

 

• Like Jesus facing Pharisees, then Herod then Pilate.

 

• Governors were Roman Procurators: Pilate, Felix, Festus.

 

• Kings were Agrippa’s and Herod’s.

 

• Paul before Felix and Paul before Agrippa and Paul brought to Rome to face Caesar.

[cff. Acts 18:12-17; 25:10-12]

What is Christ’s motivation for this kind of public display?

• The words “for my sake” give us a clue.
  • What the 12 would face multiplies Christ’s witness on earth.
  • “…for my sake” meant going into danger as an extension of Christ
    • What Jesus faced they will face.
    • Happening again to replicate.

The “witness” of the 12 moving from homes of “the lost sheep of Israel” to the religious centers to the secular Roman courts. From private witness to public witness. Through public suffering.

“Was the witness for the Gentiles or against the Gentiles?” “Is Jesus opening the door for the Gentiles?”- Yes and Both!

• Only way to know someone’s public witness is pure, is when someone loses everything while he or she gives it away.
  • Suffering for Christ is what answers someone’s motive for their witness.
  • Someone who is a witness for Christ, who loses nothing and while gaining everything will soon be exposed.

This moves us to the next verse which brings up a surprising question.

“When giving a public witness what is your chief concern?”

• Reputation? Physical suffering? Losing your life?

Verse 19 captures what I believe deep down most fear?

• The fear of failing in the moment of truth.
  • Denying the faith for the sake of yourself.
    • Your reputation, physical safety, family safety, losing your life, losing security.
    • Being beaten and worn down, where you flinch, you say you do not believe, reject the faith, deny the faith.
    • What Peter did and deny him three times.
      • Deeper than fear of public speaking.
      • Failing your theology exam.

 

• The moment you are stripped bare while on earth.
  • Where it is all on the line for what you believe.
  • What matters most.
  • The question you raise is, “Will I choke?”

 

The phrase used in the military for those being sent off to war comes to mind. “There are worse things that can happen to your than dying.” Going AWOL [absent without official leave].

Choking on the mission for self-protection. Being ignoble. Denying the faith. Remember that there are so many things that take place when suffering. Physical safety, physical harm, death, wealth and even your secular identity will be threatened.

[Appl] So many are bound and determined to guard their personal freedoms. This desire has become a common idol that God never promised to us.

God never promised a persecution free life and a government run be Christians. In fact, all Romans 13 promises is that governing authorities are instituted by God and that they bring the sword to exact justice.

Secular government run by unbelievers to police society. Some governments that hate God but still do that. Other times while it is peaceful, we enjoy policy we can stand behind and other times we cannot.

Often, as our passage indicates, government will unjustly persecute believers. We must face this reality and focus on what matters most. Guarding our witness to carry our Christ’s commission.   

The LORD promises these men will not falter and the New Testament bears this out.

• After Peter’s 3 denials, which were Satanically driven (“being sifted like wheat”) along with the
  • Apostles having scattered.
  • After Judas’ betrayal.
  • After Christ’s resurrection.
  • After the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
    • the Apostles were strong.
      • They stood the test under massive duress and this first commission was the test that prepared them for later tests.
      • The Holy Spirit made them strong to speak, testify, and preach and ultimately under the Spirit’s inspiration would give through them our record of Scripture (27 New Testament books), the complete canon.

I grew up asking this question in the 70’s when we watched the end times, “left behind” films and wondered what I would do or say in that moment. The resolution I came to, and I think anyone needs to come to is what Christ gives as comfort.

“…do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say” (v. 19).

Do not fret over what your state of mind will be – “your how” “your state of mind” “your manner” or “what you are to say” – “your content” “your recall” – why?

“…for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (v. 19).

God will give the grace you need in that very moment. This is the comfort. With the measure of public suffering you are bearing, their will always be commensurate grace.

 

Never an excuse for being lazy teachers. 

 

People who are on the outside looking in always wonder how people can endure levels of suffering that they would believe to otherwise be unbearable, and the answer is that God makes up the difference.

I asked a man I respect if he would deny the faith to save his wife. Surprisingly, he said he would at first and then reestablish his faith once his wife was safe. He did not then understand, grace.

“How did you raise that your special needs child?” Grace. How did you face your next day when that person was taken from you? Grace. It is always God’s grace.

The concern of v. 19 is to “not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say.”

• It has been said that someone’s greatest fear is public speaking.
  • It is curious to me that out of all the things to be anxious over – like physical punishment etc. that Jesus’ chief concern is you know you will have an answer.
  • Not knowing what to say.
  • Jesus’ comfort is that by his Spirit – Jesus will providentially give “what you are to say” – it “will be given to you in that hour.”

When the heat comes, Jesus promises, you will know what to say – you will not be left in the dark as to why you are there – why you are suffering – and how you should answer what is happening to you – you instead, you will have what you are supposed to say.

Verse 20 “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (v. 20).

• This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit – what has been compared to the Spirit’s work of inspiration as some of the 12 were the ones inspired to write Holy Scripture.
  • Obviously, we know from the record of Acts and the New Testament that “…the Spirit of your Father speaking through [them]”

 

• (v. 20) was not some other voice than the Apostles.

 

• “The apostles were not like demoniacs, having wills violated by a demon.”
• “His mind and heart operated freely.”

Like how the NT writers penned Scripture under the Spirit’s inspiration, their personalities and realities were intact. The Spirit superintended what they wrote but with exacting precision.

Same confidence they had going into hostile territory. Again, Christ’s warning was not to keep them from danger but to comfort them as they proceed forward. Into and through the storm, not around it. Still, what a comfort to know that no matter how the heat, they would not fail.

“How does this apply?”

• When we are going through life, the Holy Spirit will provide by his divine providence very specific passages that explain what is happening to us.
  • What you are going through and why at least in terms of how he is using trials to refine.
  • Hard circumstances to set the table to give the Gospel to a loved one.
  • Ways he is protecting you from making a wrong decision, and the list goes on.

 

• Remember that we are in the ride-along.

 

• When we see the Peter or Steven preaching, not to mention later, Paul defending the faith, we remember the Spirit’s ministry is divinely inspired.
• Even still, what they said, models what our mindset should also be.
  • They gave real life explanations for why things were happening to them and around them and did so in view of redemptive history.
  • We should do the same.    

 3. Family

Verse 21 offers what could be a far worse trial than religious and government persecution and that being the persecution that comes from family. Family betrayal is of the worst sort.

• Ones who are your own flesh and blood who have left you, who are dead to you.
  • This verse is so violent and vitriolic; perhaps one the Bible’s absolute nightmares for following Jesus.
  • The stakes do not rise higher than a blood “Brother” willingly “delivering over to death” his brother.
    • So severe and base that it is difficult to imagine.
    • When you think things could not go worse, the digression of heart worsens.
      • A father delivering is child?
      • Children who “…will rise against parents and have them put to death?”

 

• This is a bloody dystopian, apocalyptic scene.
  • Having said that, many of us know the testimonies of those in Muslim or Arab families who have fled for their own safety having found Christ. Not willing to deny Christ at risk of being permanently banished or murdered.
  • Jesus sugar-coats nothing!

Verse 22 brings things back to the core reality and this is the condition a believer will find himself in if he or she is faithful.

• “…and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake” (v. 22).
  • I want to say that to ‘be hated by all” cannot mean every single person as this is counterintuitive to everywhere the Bible says, we are loved and called to love others.
  • “…by all” must mean all kinds of people.

 

• The categories that make up the world.
• Think about this by way of review.
  • The Apostle’s kinsmen, the Jews deliver their own over.
  • Delivering the Messiah’s hand chosen missionaries to the religious leaders of the synagogue.
  • Then there are the Gentile rulers represented by the oppressive Roman Government and now finally, one’s own family members.

This of course is a ride along, remember? You are safe from this, in the car, behind the bulletproof glass.

So what does this mean for us? If they hate Christ, they will hate his body. What is sobering is to know that though we do not know the extent we will be called to face, we are always promised persecution. Like the Apostles, we go out, like the sent ones “who went out for the sake of the name” (3 John).

 “What is the goal of this level of promised adversity?”

• You can boil it all down with a word, perseverance.
  • Perseverance is the antonym for the word quitting.
  • In this context, this looks like betrayal or denial.
  • Denying the faith and denying your association with Christ.

 

• Taken all together the end this phrase at the end of verse 22 is summarily the goal of the mission.

 

• To start and not fold while undergoing severe fire.

What does the term “saved” mean?

• You know that salvation is never earned by what you do.
  • We are saved by grace, what we do not earn.
  • Saved by the opposite.

 

• You also know that salvation is always proven by what we do.
  • We do and keep doing because we are truly saved.
  • So how does this work in terms of enduring or persevering.
  • Simply, that “enduring” which is also not denying the faith.

“What about Peter’s denials?”

• “Did these denials disqualify his salvation?”
  • This is the beauty of knowing someone’s whole story.
    • Peter denied the Lord 3x and then repented and then when later tested he stood strong and did not deny the Lord.
    • His faith was tested, and he stumbled, but because his faith was real, he repented and his faith was strengthened.

 

• Often it is not how someone begins nor how they are fairing but how they will ends is what matters most.

If you are saved, you will endure, ultimately.

• “Endure” is upomovn – to bear up under.
  • Job was not perfect.
    • He doubted and despaired but the end of his story, some 42 chapters deep is one of enduring faith.

 

• David fell and suffered for it for over a year.
  • David repented and David persevered.

 

• Peter and all the 12 have windows or seasons of doubt but this is never looked at in isolation of someone’s life.
  • What matters is that someone has a pulse.
  • His heart is beating and when it is truly beating on its own, it will keep beating all the way to heaven.
  • When life-support is shut down, you’re still alive.

What is our response supposed to be when the Gospel is rejected?

• Keep moving.
• Never seek persecution

Andre Maurois in Why France Fell tells of a conversation he had with Mr. Winston Churchill, as he then was. There was a time at beginning of the Second World War when England seems strangely inactive and unwilling to action. Churchill said to Maurois: “Have you observed the habits of lobsters?” “No,” answered Maurois to this somewhat surprising question. Churchill went on: “Well, if you have the opportunity, study them. At certain periods in his life the lobster loses his protective shell. At his moment of moulting even the bravest crustacean retires into a crevice in the rock, and waits patiently until a new carapace has time to grow. As soon as the new armour has grown strong, he sallies out to the crevice, and becomes once more a fighter, lord of the seas…there is a time when inaction is wiser than action; and when to escape was wiser than to attack. 

• Being cautioned never means quit.

 

• We will persevere, enduring by the Spirit.