Matthew 10:16-23 Sheep Among Wolves

The next portion for us is Matthew 10:16-23. The message that I have entitled "Sheep Among Wolves."

Matthew 10:16 says, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be shrewd as serpents, innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues. You will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 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. For it is not you who speak, but it is the spirit of your father who speaks in you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. And children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. 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. 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."

Let us ask for God's help. Lord, we pray that you would be here and meet us by your Spirit as your word is preached. Grant us attentive hearts to hear what you are saying through your words, that I would be forgotten and that your word would flourish and bear fruit in our minds, hearts, and hands for Christ's name and sake. Amen.

We have arrived this morning at a sobering portion of Scripture, obvious on first reading. A portion of Scripture in which Jesus foretells the coming strife for the apostles and by consequence the church as a whole in the world. You see, Jesus spoke much of his own sufferings, we understand that, but we often forget that he also spoke much of the sufferings of his followers as a consequence of bearing his name in the world.

John 15:18, for example, Jesus said, "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake because they do not know the one who sent me." So Christ forewarns his church of coming persecution. To be identified with Christ is to, by natural consequence, face hostility to varying degrees. The apostles were told in advance, and they lived it.

In fact, the Apostle Paul will say in 2 Timothy 3:12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Now, last week we saw how Jesus sends out the twelve disciples on this short-term mission trip. They have their training wheels on, so to speak, and Christ sends them out to their fellow Jewish countrymen to bear the news that the Messiah has come and his kingdom is here. Repent and believe the Gospel. That was their message, and their message was accompanied by supernatural signs that Christ empowered them to perform to confirm this fresh revelation from God.

And Jesus says here, essentially, this is where the persecutions will begin. It will begin closer to home than you could ever imagine. It will begin even with your fellow countrymen. I remember in my university years, as perhaps some of you do here, that every course and subject would have required reading that you had to read to be able to get through the course. Well, I believe more and more now that church history and especially the history of the persecuted church ought to be required for every Christian. It is our required reading in a way, the history of the persecuted church.

Take a look at your bookshelf at home and try to find a book on the persecuted church. And if you have not got one, go and get one and read it. You see, our heroes ought not to be the Hollywood stars or New Zealand's rugby prodigies. Our heroes ought to be Christ's martyrs who were fed to the lions, who were burnt upon stakes, who were locked in prisons, who were separated from their families for the cause of Christ. They ought to be our heroes. But do not think these things are confined to the past. This is a living history, the persecuted church. Our brothers and sisters around the world still endure for Christ's sake these things, fulfilling the prophetic promises testified to here in Matthew 10.

Take the story of Procopius, for example. He was born in Jerusalem, a young man zealous for the word of God as we read. In the early fourth century, he found himself living through one of the most cruel empire-wide persecutions the church had known. He was dragged with many Christians to Caesarea Philippi, called Little Rome. He was brought before the governor and told to sacrifice to the Roman gods. He answered, "There is only one God, the Almighty." They said to him that if he would not acknowledge the gods, then he must burn incense for the four emperors of Rome. He refused. He was condemned. He was beheaded.

So Tertullian has said that "the blood of the martyrs is the seedbed of the church." Every Christian slain for his confession of Christ fertilises the soil for rich bearing of fruit for the Gospel. Vanessa Powell, the Welsh Puritan, said this: "Much grace exercised brings persecution, for the sweeter and better the fruit is, the more slinging there will be at that tree." So persecution, our Lord forewarns us of here in Matthew 10.

I have three headings for you to consider as we examine this text. First of all, let us consider with me in Matthew 10:16 their hostile mission.

Matthew 10:16 says, "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." You might think this statement a little strange at first. Strange because it might seem irresponsible for Christ the Good Shepherd to send his sheep into a world of wolves. What shepherd would do this? Consider the parts here more carefully, then.

First, notice that it is Christ himself who says "I am sending you." The unsettled Christian should now be at peace with these words. "I am sending you." If Christ is sending his people, his sheep, into the world, he has very good reason to do so, and it is not without careful care and consideration. He does not consider his sheep as disposable, and he has their best interests at heart.

It is like Ernest Shackleton, the Arctic explorer, who after the shipwreck of his ship, the Endurance, left most of his men on a deserted island, Elephant Island, if I remember rightly. He left Frank Wilde in charge of his men and said, "I will return. Trust me." And so Ernest Shackleton headed off on his wee lifeboat some eight hundred miles to seek rescue so that all the men could be brought home safely. Frank trusted Shackleton, knowing that he knew what he was doing. Whenever the sea was clear of ice, Frank Wilde would say to his men, for much of that four months that they waited, "Roll up your sleeping bag, boys; the boss may come today." Such was his trust in his master, Ernest Shackleton. And what trust the disciples of Jesus ought to have, and what trust we ought to have in our Good Shepherd who sends us into the world for his mission. Though it may be as sheep among wolves, because he who sends is all wise, he does not send in vain.

Who does Christ have in mind here when he says "wolves"? I think Calvin gets this right. He says, "This designation is applied by Christ chiefly to the enraged enemies of the Gospel who are so far from being softened by hearing the voice of the pastor that they are inflamed to greater cruelty." And history bears this out.

See here also that a divine commissioning by Christ in no way exempts one from living carefully and deliberately in the world of wolves. So Christ says here, "Be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." We know what a serpent is like, a snake. It is weary; it is hesitant. They appear almost thoughtful and inquisitive. The meaning is simply this: Christians must be careful to show discernment in all things. In life and in ministry, we are to make careful, prayerful, and rational decisions. We are to make full use of both faith and reason. We are not to think of our mission to bear the Gospel to others as like a kamikaze Gospel bomb that has to go off every time we encounter someone. We are to be wise. We are to be discerning. We are to be wary at times as well.

Think of Matthew 7:6, which we considered last year: "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces." Be wise; be diligent; be careful. Jesus means that we must be innocent of sin, and we must not be hypocritical in any way, or else we will give our opponents opportunity to blaspheme the name of Christ. So our words must align with our actions at every point.

Calvin also says, "In this manner he enjoins believers to take care of their life so as not to rush heedlessly into danger or lay themselves open to any kind of injury." I think the Apostle Paul is a great example of these things. As we read in the book of Acts, we find him in all different contexts, being all things to all men as a way of saying whether his audience was Jews, as he is preaching to in Acts 13, or whether in Acts 17 he is preaching to Greeks. But in Acts 24:16, the Apostle Paul says this: "In view of this, I do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience before God and men." No matter who he was preaching to, Paul sought to live blamelessly before God so that he could be above reproach.

I think the great principle here, the application for us perhaps, is that every Christian, every follower of Jesus Christ must understand the nature of the world and the hostility that may come, will come, when we bear Christ's name faithfully. And so we are not to be naive about rejection. We are to expect it, premeditate rejection, but go forth for Christ all the same.

Consider secondly with me the next heading: their persecuted mission, verses 17-22.

In these verses, Christ graphically puts before us what may and will await many of his people as they conduct their mission for the Gospel and his name. Matthew 10:17 says, "But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues." Beware of men, he says. What does he mean here? What this means is not to avoid non-Christians. It does not mean go and start a new utopian village. What it means is do not naively trust people. It means do not make people angry without good cause. It means do not do anything that allows the unbeliever to make a valid charge against your character. This is the point that Peter essentially makes in 1 Peter 4. He says, in effect, there in 1 Peter 4, and I will read it in a moment, he says in effect: do not be persecuted for anything but being a Christian itself. A lot of us need to hear this because we can end up being the offence, and not the Gospel.

1 Peter 4:15 reads: "Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a troublesome meddler. Do not suffer for those things," he says. "Do not be persecuted for those things. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed but is to glorify God in this name." In other words, it is not right to think of yourself as persecuted for Christ when in essence it is just your belligerence, or it is your dishonesty, your arrogance, your lack of gentleness that is causing you to be persecuted. Let not our personalities or conduct offend; let Christ defend the man or the woman. Let the message of the Gospel bear the sword that cuts the heart into threads so that it might be made new. We have got to be careful about our disposition towards people.

Christ also warns his disciples about what the unbelieving Jews were going to do to them. He says here "scourging." This was a horrific form of punishment. It was essentially a lashing with whips. Forty lashings was usually prescribed, but they would minus one to make sure that they were within the realms and bounds of the law. So it was thirty-nine lashings that they would give out. Jesus says this is going to happen when you bear my name to the Jews. In fact, before the Apostle Paul was converted, this is exactly how he was persecuting Christians. You can read about that in Acts 26:11. He would even say that he bore in his flesh the marks of Christ in Galatians 6. In 2 Corinthians 11:24, he says, "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes." And so Christ was proclaimed by Paul, and Paul received lashings, whippings, beatings at the hand of the Jews.

So look at what Christ says next in Matthew 10:18: "And you will even be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles." In fact, what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 10:18, if you are familiar with the book of Acts, plays out in history, in reality. This is exactly what happens. Think of Pontius Pilate, before whom Christ himself was tried. Then there are Felix and Festus, who feature in the book of Acts as governors. As for kings, there is Herod Antipas, and Herod Agrippa the first and second. It was Herod Agrippa the first who killed James the son of Zebedee, the brother of the Apostle John. It was Paul who stood before King Agrippa the second and the proconsul Festus, testifying of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, just as Christ had said beforehand. All these things came to pass.

But notice also in Matthew 10:19 Christ's gracious promise of help. He says, "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." So they would not testify alone. And neither do we, as Christ's people, when we speak for him. It is Christ who is speaking his word ultimately through us. We are to consider ourselves as vessels for God's word to others, and he will use us and bring to mind what we are to say. This is not a licence to be unprepared, but it is a promise that he is with us when we testify of him before others. And we need his strength, do we not?

How many times have we gone into conversations unprepared to speak a word for Christ? And so we do not, because we never premeditated the need we have to share Christ with others. Certainly, there are many moments in church history where people have been on trial for Christ and they were given the words to speak for the Lord in that moment. I think of Martin Luther in the Reformation, where it seemed the whole world was on his shoulders, and he said, "Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me." We need this strength. We need Christ to use us in our moment of weakness.

Jesus said elsewhere in a similar light in John 14:26, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." This is a promise of Christ.

Next, look at Matthew 10:21. Christ goes even to the next level of the kind of persecution that will come. He says, "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death." This is perhaps one of the most sober warnings Christ has for his church about what will come. Many of you are living in this reality right now.

The word of Christ in the Gospel, dear friends, is like a sword. And when it cuts, it cuts deep, and it may even cause division in families, between husbands and wives even. The Gospel cuts deep. The word of Christ is like a sword, and it will save, yes. But the Gospel is an instrument of division in a sinful world as well. Make no mistake. Receiving Christ and receiving the Gospel can be the most un-peaceful thing that one can do in their life. Oh, they will have the peace of Christ in their heart, but it will cause great division in all aspects of their lives so often. Some of you are living this right now. You know what this is like. Your parents, perhaps, do not know Christ. Your children, perhaps, do not know Christ. Other close family do not know Christ, and it is like a wedge. It is like a thorn in the flesh even, a pain that will not go away, because the Gospel divides.

So Christ says here, "Even brother will betray brother to death." I think perhaps in Islamic families this is felt most keenly. When a Muslim becomes a follower of Christ, any faithful Muslim to the doctrines of Islam will put that person, that convert to Christ, to death unless they recant. I remember years ago hearing a story of a young Muslim man who was saved and came to know Christ, and he had to flee his family. In fact, he had to, I believe, even move country. He fled to this country seeking asylum, and his brother got on a plane to follow him to kill his own brother. This is true. Christ foretells it.

Matthew 10:22 says, finally, "You will be hated by all because of my name." He says, we are seeing a common theme here, have we not? It was Christ who sends his people for this; they will suffer. It is for his sake that they will. We will stand before governors and kings even to testify of him, Matthew 10:18, and here in Matthew 10:22, he says "you will be hated by all." And why? Because of my name. As one commentator said, "Thus from the earliest times Christians have been crucified, burned, impaled, drowned, starved, wracked for no other reason than they belong to him." It is the whipping and lashings of Satan, in effect. It is Satan bearing his teeth against the church; but only in these things does the church multiply and grow even more, as God blesses the testimony of martyrs who give their lives for him.

Then we see how he finishes here: "But it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved." This is not to say, obviously, that only the martyr can be saved. It means simply that even when death is required, death should be a willing cost that we will pay. We are not prepared at any given moment to do that, obviously. I believe that special grace is supplied by God in the martyr's hour of need, or else we would deny Christ every time; but he pours out special grace so that the ultimate cost can be paid without hesitation. This is an entrance into glory. This is the means by which the martyr can be saved. To die in this world is to depart to be with Jesus, which, as Paul says in Philippians, is so much better.

One little application here for us before we look at our final point briefly. We do not live in a country where we have to make the ultimate sacrifice. The only persecution we receive is opinions. Most other Christians historically have been at threat of being beheaded. Our persecution is of opinions. And is it not true that far too often we shrink back merely by the opinions of others? We do not want people not to like us, and so we do not tell them about Jesus. I am speaking to myself, but this message is urgent. This message is needed. Let us begin to fear the opinions of men much less and be bold for Christ, and not worry about what people say, because the message is more important than our own egos or our own desire to be liked. Consider that.

Finally, let us look at their urgent mission, from Matthew 10:23. "But whenever they persecute you in one city, he says, 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." The summary of Christ's message here so far is very simple. It is simply: be wise and careful with your lives and with your Gospel mission; expect and endure persecution when it comes, knowing your salvation through it. That is the message, very simply.

And here Christ gives us a glimpse of the urgency of this work, especially for the Apostolic Commission to the Jews in this context. How can we tell that the message is urgent? By what is here in Matthew 10:23. Well, he tells the disciples that if they face persistent rejection in one city, they should actually go to the next. That is the urgency of the message. Once man has heard it, once he has rejected it, go. Move on. Go to the next. Why? Because time is fleeting. The Son of Man is coming, he says, and they need to reach as many of the Jewish people as they can.

Now, with that, I have a duty here to shine some light, hopefully for a moment, on this saying: "until the Son of Man comes." What is Jesus saying here? Is this a reference to something past, as in behind us, or is this something general about the future? I probably spent most of my time reading just around this verse and this conundrum in preparation, and for good reason. Don Carson says here, "This verse is among the most difficult in the New Testament canon." It is because we are lacking in detail. We are not sure exactly what to make of it. The temptation to read this as futuristic is strong; however, it requires a big assumption to be something future. The assumption is that every mention of the Son of Man, put it this way: most of the other mentions of the Son of Man coming in the Gospels usually point to the second coming of Christ. That is true, not all of them. Matthew 16 would be one example. And so the assumption is that, given pretty much all the other examples, "Son of Man coming" refers to the second coming; this one must be as well. Assumption. I think it is a faulty assumption, and so it is made to be something about the second coming or end times. However, I do not think that assumption carries much weight when the context and when history itself can explain the sense of urgency here that Jesus gives his disciples.

See, the primary recipients here are the disciples themselves, the apostles. It is not written to us as primary recipients. We draw principles from it second-hand. So here is my view. I find it contextually most plausible that Christ uses "Son of Man coming" here to refer to the judgment upon unbelieving Israel, fulfilled historically in the year AD 70, when the Roman Caesar Titus marched across the deserts of Egypt and Syria to lay siege to the land of Israel forty years after these words were spoken, roughly.

In other words, Jesus is saying, if you will, for a short period of time the disciples will have about a generation to preach to every Jew they can about the coming of the Messiah, his death, burial, and resurrection. They will have a generation to do that, and he says the message is of such urgency that you must go to the next city if the message is rejected because I am coming in judgment, and you will not finish going through those cities before I come, and it will be too late for them. And this happened for forty years, a generation in biblical reckoning, the Jewish people heard the Gospel in the land, and the Christians, the converts, got a hard time. They were whipped; they were lashed; they were brought into the synagogues. All these things Christ is saying here came to fruition. And then Christ came in judgment and brought judgment to unrepentant Israel.

A clear proof text to what I am saying here is Matthew 24:1-2. And there Jesus speaks concerning the levelling of the temple, which was to come, which was a symbolic divorcing, so to speak, of unrepentant Israel. Jesus came out from the temple, it says in Matthew 24, and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple building to him. And he said to them, "Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down." So Christ prophesied that the temple was going to be levelled in Matthew 24, and this took place in AD 70, four years later. Rome came through and they completely levelled the temple. I believe this is what Christ is referring to here in Matthew 10.

And thus Don Carson says here on the destruction of Jerusalem: "With it the temple cultus disappears, and the new wine necessarily takes to new wineskins. The age of the kingdom comes into its own precisely because so many of the structured foreshadowings of the Old Testament bound up with the cultus and nation now disappear. The Son of Man comes."

But what is the application here, do you think, as we close? Well, if we are to say that, if I have correctly interpreted Matthew 10:23 here, the coming of the Son of Man means it was something temporal; it was to be realised quickly. But of course we know that Christ is still to come, the Son of Man is coming again, even if here it was a short-term foreshadowing prophetic word. And that means the urgency of the message still remains for the church. We are to live with this urgency. We are to remember that the souls of men hang, as it were, as Jonathan Edwards says, "by a thread over all eternity." And so your friends and family that are close to passing, perhaps on their hospital beds, perhaps you have people that you know do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can see that they might be in their final year of life. Is there not an urgency about what sort of questions we should be asking them before they have that fine thread hanging over eternity cut and they disappear from reach of the Gospel forever?

You see, there is an urgency, friend, and we do not understand as we ought these things. Man's souls will be condemned to hell with the justice of God, and only Christ can save them. And how will they believe unless they hear? And how will they hear unless one is sent? Maybe it is you that God will use to bring Christ to your unsaved family and friends. Live with this urgency that Christ puts before the apostles because judgment is coming. We will not finish our work of evangelism either. The nations will receive the Gospel, sure, but there will be people who have not yet heard when Christ returns. We must have a sense of urgency, and we must pray for those who have gone forward with the Gospel, especially to unreached peoples.

Let us pray that God would fill us with zeal for this mission as we close.