Mat 10:16-23; The Hated and Happy Messenger.Thursday January 9, 2025
Main idea: Because the name of Christ is hated in the world, His messengers will be persecuted.
Intro: Experience of the apostles in Acts.
Act 4:3-4 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
The success of the gospel and the miracles of the apostles cause the jealousy of the leadership: Act 5:17-18 But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy. 18 They laid hands on the apostles and put them in a public jail.
Act 5:27-33 When they had brought them, they stood them before the Council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, "We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." 29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. 30 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. 31 "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. 32 "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." 33 But when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and intended to kill them.
Gamaliel counsels them not to kill them. God will protect by His own will. Protection does not mean that we will not suffer nor that the road will always be easy.
Act 5:40-42 They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. 41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. 42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Act 12:1-3 [Herod Antipas I, grandson of Herod the Great] Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to mistreat them. 2 And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. 3 When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.
Paul before Roman governors: [Felix succeeded by Festus] Act 24:10 When the governor [Felix] had nodded for him to speak, Paul responded:
Act 24:24 But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus
Act 25:1 Festus [successor governor to Felix] then, having arrived in the province
Act 25:6 and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought
Act 25:13-14 [King Agrippa II, son of Agrippa I, great-grandson of Herod the Great] Now when several days had elapsed, King Agrippa [Agrippa II]and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus. 14 While they were spending many days there, Festus laid Paul's case before the king,
Act 25:15 Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself."
Act 26:27-28 “King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you do." 28 Agrippa replied to Paul, "In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.”
Paul appeals to Caesar and ends up imprisoned in Rome.
Pliny (a governor ~ 100 AD) and Tacitus (historian ~ 100 AD):
[click in] Tacitus in Annals: Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called "Chrestians" by the populace.
Pliny’s letter to Trajan, 112 CE “Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished.”
Mat 10:16-23 "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.
Matthew takes us beyond the initial commission of the 12 (mission of the church age).
This section has a wider perspective than their mission to the towns of Israel only. The types of persecution performed in this section did not occur until after Christ’s resurrection and ascension.
The world will hate the name of Jesus Christ.
From the angle of the persecutors: their antagonism and hatred are not because of sociological or economic or ethnic factors, but because of Christ.
Mat 10:18 you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake
Mat 10:22 "You will be hated by all because of My name
Mat 10:25 If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!
Mat 10:35 "For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER
Mat 10:40 "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
Gen 4:7-8 [because of God’s regard for Abel’s and not Cain’s] "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it." 8 Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Gen 13:13 Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord.
The name of Jesus opposition and violent response from the world at large. Jesus did not want us to be surprised by this, nor to take it as anything else other than their opposition to Him, not us.
Power of the Holy Spirit
Mat 10:19-20 "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.
Holy Spirit guidance: The ability to speak a clear and correct gospel with absolute conviction. It is just as necessary as the food and clothing they need, which God supplies.
Not an excuse for lazy preachers or evangelists or any believer. We should all be thoroughly prepared through our consistent inculcation of the Scripture.
The Father gives the Spirit to empower the disciples’ witness to His Son.
Act 4:8, 13 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them … Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed …
You must keep going.
Mat 10:21-23 "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.
Mic 7:6 For son treats father contemptuously, Daughter rises up against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man's enemies are the men of his own household.
Conflict in the church age: Sheep / serpents / doves. Wolves
Sheep: those who follow the Lord. (Joh 10:7-13)
Joh 10:7-13 So Jesus said to them again, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.
Serpents: cunning (Eph 5:15-16; 2Ti 1:7).
Doves: Innocent (pure, holy, divine love).
Cunning but pure, loving, holy. We are not like the serpent in the garden.
Example: Priscilla and Aquila
Act 18:1-4 After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth. 2 And he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, 3 and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working, for by trade they were tent-makers. 4 And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
Rom 16:3-4 Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles;
Rom 16:19-20 I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Phi 2:14-16 Do all things without grumbling or disputing; 15 so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life,
Picture the high ground of the spiritual life.
Psa 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Like Christ as a mission to the world around Him.
Priority of the souls of others.
Human predators fear His name.
You fear Him, but in a different way.
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