Last time we began looking at the special commission that
Jesus gave to His twelve apostles before sending them out to all the towns of
Israel to preach the good news about the Kingdom of God being in reach and to
heal whoever needed it. He told them
that they were not to raise support before they left or even take supplies
because the people they went to would take care of them if they accepted their
message. But He closed the commission in
verses 14 and 15 of chapter 10 with dire warnings to anyone who rejected their
message. Sodom and Gomorrah would have a
lighter sentence than them in the day of Judgment. Those “cities of the plain” did not have as
much light as the Twelve would be bringing with them.
Several times Matthew has recorded Jesus mentioning a future
day of judgment and the awful sentence to be pronounced on those that enter the
divine docket that day. The sentences
will fit the crime. Sodom and Gomorrah
will have a lighter sentence than people who reject the message of the
apostles. (By the way, there are
different levels of reward in heaven also!)
But now Jesus moves on to more details about the obstacles
the Twelve will face. It will NOT be easy.
Jesus says in verse 16: Look out!
It’s going to be like sending sheep among the wolves. So what does Jesus tell them to do? Keep their mouth shut? No!
But watch your behavior in two ways:
1) Be wise, and 2) Be innocent. Their
thoughts and their behavior needed to be controlled. Yes, they have a message from the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords but they shouldn’t get cocky! God gave them wisdom for a reason! Later, in the context of persecution, James
says, ‘Ask God for wisdom.’
There is a figure of speech here which might be obscure to
us. Be
wise as serpents! We don’t generally
think of snakes as being all that smart, but remember that in the Garden of
Eden, the serpent was said to be the wisest (or perhaps, wiliest) of all the creatures. He engaged Eve and talked with her, leading
her but letting her come to her own conclusion – based on what he told
her. He was very convincing. He even used Scripture (wrongly) but it added
weight to his words.
Secondly, we are to be innocent. Don’t destroy your position
on higher moral ground by breaking laws—even the laws of men. I think we get the figure of speech – a dove
is seen as pure. People are more likely
to listen if we maintain our innocence.
BUT, Jesus says, look out for people! They are supposed to talk to people but look
out for them as well. Some of them will
denounce them before the local council and sentence them to be publicly whipped
in the synagogues. (Remember this is in
Israel that they were being sent out.) Then things will get nastier and their
case will be elevated to the civil government.
The Gentile Romans will even hear their message—a message they needn’t worry
about what they should say. The Holy
Spirit will speak through them at that time and give them the words. (This is not a copout for preachers and
teachers who procrastinate on preparing their lesson or their sermon!) This was Jesus’ promise to His twelve apostles
while on their mission to Israel if they should ever get hauled before a Gentile
judicial proceeding.
The most painful
obstacle for them as they preach throughout Israel will be that at some point
they will likely come face to face with family members with the gospel. Sometimes, their own siblings or children or
parents will become hostile to the message.
Jesus had this difficulty in His own home town. Most horrible of all—some of these confrontations
will ultimately result in death! The
townsfolk in Nazareth—Jesus’ hometown—tried to kill Him when he preached there!
As it turned out, none of the Twelve were killed while carrying out the ‘Israel
Commission’ but after Jesus’ death, all but John were martyred for their
witness in carrying out the ‘Great Commission.’
And most of these deaths were instigated by their own Israeli people.
Even if they didn’t meet death, they will certainly meet
hatred! And here Jesus adds a special
note concerning salvation of the ‘one who endures to the end.’ Firstly, what is this “endurance” and
secondly, what is this “salvation.” It
is common for those who use Christian language to quickly conclude that this
refers to “eternal life” or “entrance into the kingdom.” But
the word “salvation” and “saved” in the Bible is mostly used to mean simply
“deliverance” or “rescue.” It is the
context that tells us what kind of deliverance is in view. The next several verses tells us what kind of
predicament they are in that they need deliverance from.
Jesus tells His apostles to leave and run to another city in
Israel if the place they are in starts persecuting them. He already told them to shake off their dust
and leave. But now He says, “Flee.” Don’t worry, there won’t even be time to go
through all the cities in Israel before “the Son of Man comes.” They are to follow
Jesus’ instructions and flee from people who resist the message and persecute them. Run to another city before they jail them. They will be delivered—saved. Keep doing that—endure—put up with this
lifestyle and follow the instructions and they will be delivered. And all twelve of them were—even Judas.
Now there are also instructions Jesus gives later (in the ‘Great
Commission’ as the message goes out over the whole world that have some
similarity to these. While we can learn
from these instructions concerning the fact of persecution and the need for
wisdom and innocence even with family members and friends, we have no guarantee
of rescue as we carefully share the Good news and we do not limit our outreach
to Israel! We learn that God is
concerned for everyone in every place.
We learn that the world is resistant to the Good News—even possibly
hateful. Even those we expect to be most
receptive—our family—may reject us. We
must be careful to not let that disappointment deter us from our task—a description
of which we will get to eventually. And you
know that we have Good News to share with the whole world—not just Israel.
By the way, Jesus ends by talking about the “coming of the
Son of Man.” It almost sounds like a
prediction that He would appear as the “Son of Man” prophesied by Daniel (Daniel
7:13-14) before the apostles get done with their mission. A lot of people take it to mean that. But if that is so, then Jesus was wrong! Or perhaps His “coming” was just
“spiritual.” Some people say that. But nowhere in Matthew, do we hear that the
apostles have finished the job. In fact,
in the book of Acts, they are still hard at it.
And a whole new generation of Jewish people is born before Rome ever
destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. These
people have not heard the good news! And
in AD 70 they are scattered all over the Mediterranean world. It looks like the mission of reaching the
Jewish people with the good news is still unfinished. By the way, the book of Revelation describes
144,000 Jewish believers who are servants of the Lamb of God. Maybe they are the ones who will be working
on this mission when the Son of Man does come.
Back to the serious discussion of persecution—the apostles
would face it and we know that we, too will face it. Why?
Because, a disciple is not above his master. Jesus' followers can expect to be treated no
better that Jesus was. They called Jesus
“Beelzebub.” What worse things will they say about His followers? This was not only true of His apostles but
also of us as we learn elsewhere in the New Testament (1 Peter 4:12-19). We should not be surprised when we are
persecuted and hated for His name!
Today, ‘Christian’ is once again becoming a term of derision, hatred,
and ridicule.
Next time, we will look at how we should react in the face
of persecution.
©
2018 Eric Thimell
No comments:
Post a Comment