SPEAKER_00: Well, grace and peace to you.
SPEAKER_00: We do study through books of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd like a paper copy, just lift up your hand and someone will bring one to you.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be great for you to look at the text as we're studying today.
SPEAKER_00: We're continuing our study of the Gospel of Matthew, and we've called our study the King and His Kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: And I run across this quote.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, Pastor Jim tweeted it this week, and I just thought, wow, this is a great summation in some ways of the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: It's not on the screen, so just listen carefully to Leslie Nubigan.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the real government of the universe, the final reality which in the end confronts every human being, is the crucified and risen Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The King and his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: King Jesus and his kingdom is the real and true government.
SPEAKER_00: So good, so well said.
SPEAKER_00: What a sturdy truth that is to build our life upon.
SPEAKER_00: Something we just sang about.
SPEAKER_00: The King of kings, the good teacher and master, we'll study today from our brother Matthew, our Redeemer and Savior, whose work on our behalf allows us to come to the table and give thanks a little bit later.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the Lord has been kind to us today.
SPEAKER_00: He's been kind to us this week to bring you and me here today to do what we were meant to do, to worship him, to hear from his word, and to listen to him, and to go out on mission when we leave this place later this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So glad you're here.
SPEAKER_00: Several weeks ago in our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we heard King Jesus describe for us in his Sermon on the Mount what his kingdom is like, and what people of the kingdom, those who follow Jesus, can and should look like.
SPEAKER_00: Following Jesus in all of life.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like meekness, it looks like a hunger and a thirst for righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like purity of heart.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like poverty of spirit, recognizing our need or our neediness, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: This kind of life, it sets us free from the harsh taskmaster of the world and its systems and its values, survival of the fittest, bigger, faster, stronger, better at all costs.
SPEAKER_00: That's the value system of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus steps in and says, No, there's a new way to be human.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it's an old way.
SPEAKER_00: In a few weeks we'll study the words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's culminated here in this come all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest when you take my yoke upon you.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that we have a yoke, the yoke of the world on us, many of us, and he offers us something else.
SPEAKER_00: A new way of flourishing where we can find rest.
SPEAKER_00: In the past few weeks, we've been taking a closer look at the ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So he preaches about his kingdom and he goes out and does ministry and he shows, he demonstrates what this kingdom is like.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes out and he preaches and teaches the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: The words of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And in his kindness and his mercy, he demonstrates his power and authority through healing the sick, through cleansing lepers, through raising the dead, casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: Things only that only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: And last week, Scotty Smith, so grateful for his teaching last week, began our study of what we call Matthew chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we're going to be today.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to finish up chapter 10, where Jesus sends out his apostles on mission.
SPEAKER_00: He had lots of disciples, but he chooses this unlikely group of twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Apostles means sent ones.
SPEAKER_00: He sends them out on a mission.
SPEAKER_00: And this unlikely group of men, here's their names on the screen, I won't read them all.
SPEAKER_00: But we can see these are real men, real space and time.
SPEAKER_00: And as Scotty told us last week, for example, Scott Simon the Zealot, Matthew the tax collector, different ends of the spectrum, culturally, perhaps politically.
SPEAKER_00: A whole group of people with different backgrounds, all have come together saying that Jesus is the king.
SPEAKER_00: They've seen Jesus as he is as the great treasure that he is.
SPEAKER_00: And at the beginning of Matthew 10, Jesus commissions these twelve apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And here's a rough outline of how Matthew 10 flows.
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, he does start off with commissioning those 12 men, 12 real men who leave their family, their home, their vocation, at least for a season, to go out on this mission that he's sending them on.
SPEAKER_00: And then he clarifies their mission.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is so helpful.
SPEAKER_00: He clarifies their mission in a couple different ways.
SPEAKER_00: One, he tells them in this particular mission that he's sending them on, they're going out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And when they go out to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, we'll see that expand later on.
SPEAKER_00: We'll see, especially at the end of Matthew, which we'll study in several months, about the Great Commission, when all of us who are his followers and disciples will go into all the world, preaching and teaching, making disciples, baptizing.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the promise associated at the end, and I will be with you until the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: But here in Matthew 10, he sends out these apostles on a particular mission to the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember last week, he describes for them exactly what he wants them to do on this particular mission: proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: Heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he sends them out on mission to do exactly as he had been doing.
SPEAKER_00: So he commissions these men, he clarifies them, and then he begins to caution them.
SPEAKER_00: Caution them about the opposition that will come because of him, his message, his gospel, his kingdom values, that will be at odds to the value systems, the kingdoms of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be, in our study this morning, we'll be a little bit in the caution section.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus, knowing their frailty, knowing that these men have left home and family, at least for a season, he knows their fears and he comforts them in their fears.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read about that today.
SPEAKER_00: And all along, he's contrasting two responses to the kingdom and to the king: reception and rejection.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll see that most pointedly at the end of our text.
SPEAKER_00: So I invite you, if you would, to turn to Matthew 10, verse 24, if you haven't already.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we're going to start.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to pray for us and we'll get going.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, uh, you were here before we even got here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: You were already working in our hearts, and we pray you would continue to open our hearts, soften them that we might hear your word.
SPEAKER_00: And like the song that we just sung, that you might speak and that we might listen.
SPEAKER_00: And in listening we might understand, and we might be thrilled, delighted more in who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Be with us today as we continue to worship by learning from you in Jesus' name, we all said.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew chapter 24, or Matthew chapter 10, rather, verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.
SPEAKER_00: It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant to be like his master.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's an understatement of the year.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, to be like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To be like the teacher, master.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: If they called the master of the house Beelzebuble, how much more will they malign those of his household?
SPEAKER_00: Essentially, Jesus is beginning, uh, or he's continuing really his caution here.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying that those who are like, who are going to be more and more like me in preaching and teaching and healing, they're going to be mocked, they're going to be scorned, they're going to be maligned, as he says here, just like I am.
SPEAKER_00: Beelzebol was kind of a mishmash of an old Philistine god, a Baal, and it means Lord of the flies or Lord of Dung.
SPEAKER_00: But it really became associated in this time with Satan, who was synonymous with the prince of demons.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying they're going to call me Satan, or at least align me with Satan, and they're going to do the same to you.
SPEAKER_00: And I find it interesting, I don't want to push too far into this, but it's interesting that he uses two different images here.
SPEAKER_00: He uses the image of a disciple and a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: A disciple essentially a student.
SPEAKER_00: A student and a teacher.
SPEAKER_00: And he also uses master and servant, servant and master.
SPEAKER_00: In some way, I think I think what he's doing here is a disciple in those days, a student, is a little bit different than today.
SPEAKER_00: A student today might go to school, they might wake up at 7:30 a.m., get a pop-tart, go to school, take a test, come home around 3 p.m., or more likely these days, log on to Zoom.
SPEAKER_00: These days, a disciple, and we have extra biblical sources that tell us about, for example, Rabbi Hillel, or in the Bible we'll see John the Baptist, have their own disciples.
SPEAKER_00: And a disciple would, for a time, many of these kinds of disciples that he's talking about, would live with their master, with their teacher, at least for a season.
SPEAKER_00: They would live with them and learn the warp and the woof, the fabric of their day, learn how they view the world.
SPEAKER_00: And then this idea of a servant and his master, someone who submits, even gives their body to.
SPEAKER_00: In essence, I think what Jesus is saying here is a disciple something in the mind, a servant, something of the body and volition, the whole thing, body, soul, and mind, given to the king and to his kingdom, bowing in submission.
SPEAKER_00: As you become more and more like me, you will be maligned, you'll be mocked, you'll be ridiculed, as I am.
SPEAKER_00: But, verse 26, so have no fear of them.
SPEAKER_00: So who's the them?
SPEAKER_00: If you remember last week in our study of chapter 10, he articulates a few different what them is.
SPEAKER_00: It's all, really, all that is opposed to the king and his kingdom, all the world's value systems that are opposed to the good creator God and the ways that he created us for flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: And he described courts.
SPEAKER_00: So the the governments of the world, synagogues, the religious institutions, education institutions, even families that would be divided because of this message.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear them.
SPEAKER_00: For nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a there's a forward motion here in what Jesus is saying, an eschatological look to the end of the age, when the Lord will wrap up history and all will be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: So with that in mind, what I tell you in the dark, Jesus is saying to them, what I tell you in the dark, say in the light, be bold.
SPEAKER_00: What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
SPEAKER_00: When you go out and preach, apostles, disciples here in this room today as well, when you go out and preach, proclaim it with boldness and without fear.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 28, and do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
SPEAKER_00: And here we see one of the contrasts that Jesus is using, two different kinds of fear.
SPEAKER_00: One is a servile fear, the first fear he's talking about, fear of man, where I'm cowering, I'm trying to protect myself so that I'm not hurt by their words or perhaps by their weapons.
SPEAKER_00: But here, this fear of God, and there's a familial part of this that we'll get to in just a minute, uh, this filial fear.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a servile fear, but there's this filial fear, almost like a child looking at his father in awe and respect and wonder, but a deep trust, knowing that he loves him.
SPEAKER_00: Two different kinds of fear here.
SPEAKER_00: And really, Jesus at the root of this is talking about the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_00: God commands every molecule, every square inch of the universe is under his command, including judgment against all that opposes him.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
SPEAKER_00: And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you to underline that in your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
SPEAKER_00: Fear not, therefore, or some translations will say simply, so do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: I love that simplicity.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: You are of more value than many sparrows.
SPEAKER_00: So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Again, some contrast here of those who receive and those who reject Christ and his gospel, Christ and His kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It's important, and I'm going to say this all along in our study of this test, to look at the context.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you read something like this, but whoever denies me before men, I will deny before my father is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: That might put fear in you.
SPEAKER_00: But remember who he's talking about, or talking to, rather, here.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to the apostles, the ones who have been called, the ones who have started following him.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying to them, there's actually comfort here.
SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge you before the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, here in this room, we can claim the same thing, and it's why we can even come to the table a little bit later today.
SPEAKER_00: We have a mediator between us and a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's actually quite good news.
SPEAKER_00: But there are those who will reject his gospel, his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: There's great comfort in this passage, and many of us have heard this passage read before.
SPEAKER_00: We've read it ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And I like to remember that, again, these men are real men in the first century in a real place, who are on this mission, and he is cautioning them, saying, You will be hated.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he said earlier in 10.
SPEAKER_00: You will be hated because of me, not because of your obnoxiousness, but because of me and because of my message.
SPEAKER_00: And it might look like divided families, and it might look like being dragged before a court.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Of course they're fearing.
SPEAKER_00: They've left home for a time at least to follow him, and he's telling them this is what they can expect.
SPEAKER_00: Of course they fear.
SPEAKER_00: I was listening to a Christian counselor this week, and I just found this really helpful.
SPEAKER_00: He said the human soul, you could really think of three basic levels of the human soul.
SPEAKER_00: We have the shallows up here at the top, important but kind of trivial things.
SPEAKER_00: We have the midlands, and we have the depths.
SPEAKER_00: In the shallows, we might talk about the uh the weather outside is beautiful, can't wait for tomorrow to maybe open up the barbecue, have some hot dogs.
SPEAKER_00: My Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds last night, that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's the Midlands, important stuff, but a little bit deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm I'm retired.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the value of my life now?
SPEAKER_00: Where am I supposed to go?
SPEAKER_00: Where am I going in my career?
SPEAKER_00: Is my family safe?
SPEAKER_00: Those kinds of questions.
SPEAKER_00: But then we also have the depths.
SPEAKER_00: And we see we see this in the Bible as well in Psalm 130, it's translated, From the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then those depths are our deepest trusts, our deepest loves, love of spouse, love of children, our deepest wounds, our deepest fears.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus here with these apostles meets them, provides for them in their deepest need.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you hear these words.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the great comforter.
SPEAKER_00: I love that we sang that earlier today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's continue reading at verse uh 34.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, before we do that, on this, I think sproll has this beautiful quote, we've used it before.
SPEAKER_00: If there's not, or if there's one molecule in the universe running around loose, totally free of God's sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: So good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He's in control of every sparrow.
SPEAKER_00: He understands the destiny of every sparrow that falls.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the number of every one of you, all the hairs on your head.
SPEAKER_00: And it might be different for some of us.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you.
SPEAKER_00: The sovereignty of God, I think it was Spursion that said it is a pillow that we can rest our head on at night.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is cutting at the root of this kind of servile fear, fear of what man can do with this word of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34.
SPEAKER_00: Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I have not come to bring peace but a sword.
SPEAKER_00: For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever finds his life will lose it.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
SPEAKER_00: These are hard words.
SPEAKER_00: I think the honesty of Jesus is refreshing.
SPEAKER_00: But I think we can be honest when we're doing Bible study as well.
SPEAKER_00: These are hard words.
SPEAKER_00: I come, do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth.
SPEAKER_00: I've not come to bring peace but a sword.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I thought Jesus was the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_00: I thought at the end of the age, Jesus would come and the new heavens and the new earth, and we'd have shalom, peace.
SPEAKER_00: That's true, but again, remember the context of this.
SPEAKER_00: He is saying, you are going to be going out as sheep among wolves.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sending you out into a world that is opposed.
SPEAKER_00: Many of them are institutions and people that you'll meet who are opposed to the king, his kingdom, his values.
SPEAKER_00: Do we want justice in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Do we want justice for human trafficking?
SPEAKER_00: Do we want it for extreme poverty, for racism that's running wild?
SPEAKER_00: Of course we do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here, there is a word of comfort.
SPEAKER_00: What is the sword that he's talking about?
SPEAKER_00: This is a symbol of him, his message.
SPEAKER_00: Later on we'll hear that the gospel, or the cross, rather, what Christ accomplishes on the cross will seem like folly to the world.
SPEAKER_00: The sword that he's coming with is his message.
SPEAKER_00: And it's also an invitation.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm glad he's coming to eradicate those things.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: This is a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes it will look like, and I hope and pray that it's not like this in your family.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you have been acquainted with this, but it might look like a broken family.
SPEAKER_00: We know many friends who are overseas serving in places where in some countries, culturally, if you come to the Lord, you are ostracized from your community, sometimes your family, economic ruin, and worse.
SPEAKER_00: We may not be acquainted with this, but what Jesus is saying, you can expect opposition, and it will be hard.
SPEAKER_00: But he is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: The love of Christ, the kingdom of Christ must be preeminent, must have preference over all others.
SPEAKER_00: Augustine would talk about loves.
SPEAKER_00: You could use that same language.
SPEAKER_00: Our loves have to be properly ordered.
SPEAKER_00: And in that, there's actually some beautiful hope there.
SPEAKER_00: When the king and his kingdom is number one, all the other ones underneath, our marriage relationships, our family, our children's relationships, our institutions, they all flourish when his kingdom is number one.
SPEAKER_00: So opposition will come.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of Christ, though, is that he offers us comfort.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear, he says.
SPEAKER_00: It may look like this opposition may look like a family divided against itself, an institution against you.
SPEAKER_00: You might have resources cut off from you, body, mind, and soul in your allegiance to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The world, the flesh, and the evil one have pledged allegiance to another kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And anything that attempts to usurp their pretend throne, we should expect that they would want to oppose.
SPEAKER_00: So to get a bit closer to where we are today, though, for many in this room, like I've been saying, we're in the Bible belt.
SPEAKER_00: This explicit persecution because of our faith is not something, at least that I'm acquainted with.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps some of you are.
SPEAKER_00: I actually talked to some folks in the last service in between who do work in many countries where this is.
SPEAKER_00: It's very much like this, like Jesus describes.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not quite like that today, at least not here right now.
SPEAKER_00: There's an organization, though, too, actually, that I'd commend to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love for you to check out their website.
SPEAKER_00: A great place to find resources to what to pray for for our brothers and sisters in other places in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Open Doors International, a great resource and Voice of the Martyrs.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of stats here, and stats aren't always helpful, but I think these are particularly helpful from Open Doors International.
SPEAKER_00: In their top 50, they do a yearly top 50 world watch list.
SPEAKER_00: The countries with the worst records of extreme persecution.
SPEAKER_00: So just in those top 50 countries, every month, 105 churches are attacked, burned, or vandalized.
SPEAKER_00: Every month.
SPEAKER_00: In those top 50, the World Watch list, every day, 11 Christians are killed for their faith.
SPEAKER_00: The voice of the martyrs in their magazine that we actually just got in the mail yesterday I was reading in Pakistan, towards the top of the list.
SPEAKER_00: Afghanistan, by the way, is number one.
SPEAKER_00: Worst place for Christians to live right now.
SPEAKER_00: But in Pakistan, there are nearly 4 million Christians, 2% of the population.
SPEAKER_00: 98% Muslim, 2% Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Christians, by default, have limited educational opportunities and face extreme poverty.
SPEAKER_00: They're given the most menial tasks, like brick kiln workers, sewer cleaners, street sweepers.
SPEAKER_00: And there was one story that just really caught my eye: the COVID in the COVID-19 pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: The government of Pakistan led a campaign that tied food aid to conversion to Islam, and Christian hospital workers were sent to the COVID-19 ward without any protection because they were viewed as expendable.
SPEAKER_00: In a recent course that I was taking at Covenant Theological Seminary, we were, I was talking with a friend that I'd met at this class, and he's a pastor in Canada, had been a pastor for many years, a little bit older than me, actually.
SPEAKER_00: And he had just preached, as he had for many years, he preached on a passage of scripture that talks about a Christian sexual ethic.
SPEAKER_00: And as he came home, he kept the windows open because he had a genuine concern that he might have authorities come to his home, question him, or perhaps even bring charges against him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't tell you these things so that we might fear.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's just the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: There's some great courage there that gentle, ordinary, faithful believers around the world and in this room, who point to the treasure of who Jesus Christ is and his kingdom, some do that while under threat of bodily harm, economic harm, or even death.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told us to expect it, yet these faithful ones that we're talking about here in these stats, and again, I think some in this room as well, these faithful ones move forward in their mission in their particular square inch of the world that the Lord has put them in.
SPEAKER_00: And we are called to do the same.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, wherever your square inch of the world might be, that square inch imagery comes from a great Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper.
SPEAKER_00: We are called to the same.
SPEAKER_00: And this shouldn't lead us to fear, but should bolster our courage.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the work of the kingdom is not done in isolation.
SPEAKER_00: We do not labor in the fields alone.
SPEAKER_00: That should give us courage, but also because God our Father is caring for us even now as we speak.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: I love what Pastor Warren Wearsby says.
SPEAKER_00: The fear of God is the fear that cancels fear.
SPEAKER_00: So good.
SPEAKER_00: I love Warren.
SPEAKER_00: Let's continue reading here.
SPEAKER_00: We'll finish out chapter 10, at verse 40, if you would uh look with me here.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: So we've come in here, really important contrasts.
SPEAKER_00: We just read about families that are divided because they have not received, some of them have not received his gospel, his kingdom, his message.
SPEAKER_00: And now we're entering into a contrast here where Jesus shows us what it's like when there is reception to his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, when they go out to these cities, when they are received, they are receiving the Christ Himself.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reward.
SPEAKER_00: The one who receives a prophet because he's a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
SPEAKER_00: And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water, so the smallest, the person doing the most menial tasks in God's kingdom, when you give him or her a cup of cold water, truly I say to you, you will by no means lose his reward.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows us here this great contrast between the rejection of Christ, which can bring division to families, communities, relationships, and the receiving of his Christ, the receiving of Christ and his message and his messengers.
SPEAKER_00: And the great blessing and reward that will come when Christ is treasured above all else.
SPEAKER_00: So if we looked, as we've looked at this text and listened to the words of Christ, the apostles, and to us this morning, are there a few handles that we can grab on to?
SPEAKER_00: I think there are.
SPEAKER_00: So number one, the king, his kingdom, and his people will face opposition.
SPEAKER_00: And number one, the call of Jesus moves us to mission in our square inch of his world.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great hymn that many of you might be familiar with by Robert Lowry titled, How Can I Keep from Singing?
SPEAKER_00: Anybody in here know this one?
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful tune.
SPEAKER_00: Here are just a few lines of it.
SPEAKER_00: Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
SPEAKER_00: The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing, all things are mine.
SPEAKER_00: Since I am his, I belong to him, how can I keep from singing?
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul in 1 Peter talks about our calling into the kingdom of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says it like this But you, and that includes us in this room, are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
SPEAKER_00: We belong to him, God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives the why?
SPEAKER_00: That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of the darkness and into his marvelous light.
SPEAKER_00: For those who have been awakened from the darkness, the darkness of the kingdoms of this world, to the light of the face of Christ, how can we keep from singing?
SPEAKER_00: How can we keep from proclaiming the kingdom of heaven is at hand in our square inch, wherever the Lord has you?
SPEAKER_00: Once you've tasted and seen that the Lord is good, once you've been awakened from the darkness, and once you've realized that he has addressed your greatest need at the cross, defeating the greatest enemy, death itself, and has provided a new way for us to live, a flourishing life in his kingdom, how can we do anything else but proclaim his excellencies?
SPEAKER_00: I love that it's plural.
SPEAKER_00: All of his excellencies.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you might say, Well, I'm retired, I'm a stay-at-home mom, I'm a real estate agent, I'm an accountant.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Wherever you are planted, whatever part of culture making the Lord has put you in, and all those things are included in that, you lean into that in joy, as if unto the Lord, as it says in Colossians 3.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that sounds simple, but I think that's so important for us to that that takes a big burden off of our shoulders.
SPEAKER_00: We're not all gifted to be John Wesley or Charles Spurgeon or Tim Keller.
SPEAKER_00: Our first step is to follow Jesus in faithfulness wherever we're planted in our square inch of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I love how John Stopp puts it.
SPEAKER_00: How are Christians to react when faced with the opposition of the world?
SPEAKER_00: They're certainly not to retaliate, nor are they to lick their wounds in self-pity, nor are they to withdraw into a safe place where they are sheltered from the enmity of the world.
SPEAKER_00: No, they are bravely to bear witness to Jesus Christ before the world in the power of his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember last week, as Pastor Scotty Smith took us through the first half of ten, Jesus says this explicitly: it is the Holy Spirit that will give you the words to say.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, the care of the Father sets us free from fear of anything opposed to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: I can make that even simpler.
SPEAKER_00: The care of the Father sets us free from fear.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just get really personal here for a second.
SPEAKER_00: At least personal for me, fear is in the air in our current cultural moment.
SPEAKER_00: Would we all agree?
SPEAKER_00: It's in the air.
SPEAKER_00: But it always has been since the fall.
SPEAKER_00: We see it even in Genesis 3.
SPEAKER_00: But our awareness of fear in ourselves and in others is perhaps being magnified and broadcast in ways even unimaginable a few years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Fear is in the air.
SPEAKER_00: At least three of the top ten New York Times bestsellers, I just looked through the list yesterday, included books related to fear.
SPEAKER_00: Fear of others, fear of failure, fear of death, fear of being an inauthentic person.
SPEAKER_00: It's in large part why our Twitter and our Facebook feeds are so loud and caustic, why our rhetoric can be so full of contempt.
SPEAKER_00: Contempt is that idea of anger and disgust bound together against another person.
SPEAKER_00: Fear is at the root of so much of our emotional fragility.
SPEAKER_00: I think we all see that.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus speaks to us even there in those depths.
SPEAKER_00: So do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Three times Jesus offers these words of encouragement to his disciples, his apostles here and to us today.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a great gravity to those words, to those men who had left home and family, rightly recognizing him as king.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord knew their frailty and knows your frailty, knows my frailty in the depths, my greatest wounds, my greatest fears.
SPEAKER_00: Another man, nearly a thousand years before Jesus, faced similar fears, King David.
SPEAKER_00: And he records for us in Psalm 31.
SPEAKER_00: We've studied this before.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 31, a line-by-line account of real opposition to the people of God and to him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it even says, terror on every side.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you if you want, just flip to your Bible right in the middle, Psalm 31.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be good for you to set your eyes on it.
SPEAKER_00: It'd be a great study for anybody who wants to study more on this trust of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Terror on every side, Psalm 31, 14.
SPEAKER_00: King David gets a little bit of what Jesus was encouraging these apostles with.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 31, 14.
SPEAKER_00: But I trust in you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I say, You are my God.
SPEAKER_00: My times are in your hands.
SPEAKER_00: The way Jesus put it, I know the destiny that your father knows the destiny of every sparrow that falls, and he knows the number of every hair on your head.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: King David knew to whom he belonged.
SPEAKER_00: Your father is sovereign creator and sustainer over all things, rules over every molecule, every seemingly insignificant animal, every government, over all of history.
SPEAKER_00: But your father knows you.
SPEAKER_00: Just to be called father, just to be called child, is so bundled with so much meaning and comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Your father cares for you, and Jesus says, so do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: J.R.
SPEAKER_00: Packer puts it so beautifully.
SPEAKER_00: Adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper, and given the family name.
SPEAKER_00: To be right with God, the judge, is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of truth there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, so do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Uh by Pastor Matt, so thankful for this, a prayer written by John Wesley.
SPEAKER_00: He's an 18th-century Anglican and the founder of the Methodist Church.
SPEAKER_00: It's a prayer that Wesley wrote for his church to read and recommission themselves every single year as an annual tradition, apparently towards the beginning of the year.
SPEAKER_00: And I invite you to pray this with me.
SPEAKER_00: We'll put it up on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray this together.
SPEAKER_00: I am no longer my own, but yours.
SPEAKER_00: Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will, put me to doing, put me to suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, praised for you or criticized for you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.
SPEAKER_00: And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, you are mine and I am yours.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I am yours.
SPEAKER_00: We know to whom we belong.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, some of us in this room, from the depths, we do cry to you, like other psalmists have said.
SPEAKER_00: And there is there are fears there, there's wounds there that can only be met by your provision.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that as we've studied your word today, your spirit might remind us anew that we belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: That as Father, you look upon us as children under your watchful eye.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to rest in that.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to rest in the comfort that you bring when you told us, when you told your apostles and through them us, so do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may it be so.
SPEAKER_00: Thrill us with your love.
SPEAKER_00: May we delight in you.
SPEAKER_00: May we delight as we go out on mission telling others about the good news of who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name, we all said.