Chapter 24 - The Suffering of the Messengers
Mat 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Mat 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Mat 10:24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
Bonhoeffer- 'The Word of God will also give the messengers an unerring insight into human nature. "Beware of men." The disciples are not expected to show fear of men, nor malice, nor mistrust still less a sour misanthropy, nor that gullible credulity which believes that there is good in every man: they are expected rather to display an unerring insight into the mutual relation of the Word and man. If they are content not to pitch their hopes too high, they will not be perturbed when Jesus warns them that their way among men will be one of suffering. But there is a miraculous power latent in this suffering. Whereas the criminal has to suffer his punishment in secret, the disciples will have to stand before governors and kings "for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles." This suffering will help forward their testimony. It is all part of God's plan and the will of Jesus, and that is why they will be given power to make a good confession and deliver a fearless testimony even in the hour when they make answer before thrones and judgment seats. The Holy Ghost Himself will stand by their side and make them invincible. He will give them " a mouth and a wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to gainsay" (Luke 21:15). Because the disciples remain true to the Word in their sufferings, the Word will remain true to them. To self-sought martyrdom this promise would not apply, but there is no doubt whatever that it does apply to suffering with the Word.'
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Sheep in the midst of wolves.
Can you picture that scene. Sheep set in the midst of wolves? What a horrific sight, yes? You have to know what wolves do to sheep. I'm reminded, strangely enough, of the movie - 'Jurassic Park'. In that movie there is a scene where the park owners are trying to entice a tyrannosaurus rex to come into the view of passing tourist vehicles. The park owners stake a goat to a pole and raise it up into the T-rex enclosure. A young girl in one of the vehicles is very disturbed by the thought of what is going to happen to that goat. She knew that the goat was being sacrificed to the T-rex, and she knew what that meant- blood and carnage, the end of the goat's life and imaginably great suffering, and terror over what was to come. A tragic life for that goat to be sure. I think that part of the movie comes to mind because I've never tended sheep and certainly haven't seen them as wolves attacked. I can use my imagination though and my imagination tells me what has to happen to those sheep is pure carnage. I can vividly picture their terror as they realize the wolves are among them. They know they are in great danger, not a tiny bit of danger, but very GRAVE danger, life threatening danger! Their lives are at stake! At any moment they could be taken down by a wolf.
Sheep in the midst of wolves.
Jesus said-
Mat 10:16,17 'Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men…'
Not a very pretty picture is it? You're going to be like a SHEEP in the MIDST of WOLVES. You're going to be vulnerable, attacked, stalked, terror-filled, among vicious killers. No, definitely NOT a very pretty picture at all whatsoever! We truly have to comprehend this because we so often moan and groan when we are made to feel the least bit uncomfortable in our beliefs. Is it any wonder? We who live in America very seldom have to fear any attack, why if we're attacked we have our lawyers on speed dial and like an instant enclosure of safety that lawyer will erect a lawsuit of one sort or another to keep anyone from attacking us based on our discipleship. Yet take a giant leap over to other countries and you know what you'll find in many of them? Stones hurling at your head, jail bars wrapping you in a tiny cell, vicious verbal attacks, assaults so brutal they leave you barely alive and guess what? If you even try to go to the authorities you are truly risking your own life and there are no lawyers lined up ready to defend you. Yet, Jesus told His disciples this is something they would face. He was actually telling them He was SENDING them into this sort of confrontation. Was He only sending a limited few? Or were all of His disciples going to face the wolves?
Let's read the passage again-
Mat 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Mat 10:17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Mat 10:21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Mat 10:23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
This is something that will continue right up until our Savior returns.
This is something all disciples of Jesus should comprehend. Yes, even those of us who live in a democracy and claim freedom from persecution. Maybe we need to understand even more so than those who have grown up being persecuted because if we are caught unaware there is a great chance Satan will use that opportunity to snatch us up as we are reeling from the idea of suffering, truly suffering persecution and rebelling from such a thing. Satan wants us to shrivel and shrink at the mere thought of suffering, and he'll gladly whisper in our ears that in no way does God want us to suffer, we must do anything and everything to keep ourselves from suffering. That's a LIE, a HUGE LIE! Do I mean that God wants us to suffer? NO. I mean that we MUST NOT DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING to keep ourselves from suffering. We MUST NOT disobey God so that we do not suffer. No where does God tell us to disobey Him if we might face suffering. Not a single place does He condone disobeying Him so that we don't suffer. In fact we are told we might be put to death! Did Jesus take that opportunity to say that we should stop obeying Him, stop loving Him, stop living the truth so that we don't suffer? NO! Yet we have been practically programmed to abhor suffering at all costs and believe that it's what God wants too.
Now before this gets all misconstrued, I have to say, as Bonhoeffer mentioned above - 'To self-sought martyrdom this promise would not apply…'
Self-sought martyrdom is NOT what the suffering is, it is NOT being sent by Jesus, but sending yourself, following your own path, not the one Christ has laid out for those who truly follow Him.
Suffering abuse such as described by our Savior is a reality, not something anyone should ever deliberately seek to create. It is what is DONE to Christ's followers, not what manufactured by Christ's followers. It is by following the WILL of God that the suffering comes. It is not by following your own will. Any suffering that comes by your own devising in hopes of being considered a good disciple will not be truth, and you will be lumped among those Jesus will tell He never knew them.
Mat 7:23 'And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.'
The Holy Spirit will NOT speak through those who are not surrendered to Christ, it's impossible!
The suffering that comes is endured and the Holy Spirit will use us to bring the Word of God to others. The words that we speak will NOT be ours!
Mat 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Imagine! Just imagine for a single moment the Holy Spirit speaking in you!
It isn't surprising some might try to manufacture a situation they can manipulate and try to say the Holy Spirit was speaking through them just so they can mouth the words. It will be possible that another sort of spirit will speak through some if their hearts aren't Jesus', if they aren't truly His disciples.
Sheep among wolves.
Harmless as doves.
Wise as serpents.
Living surrendered to Christ so completely the Holy Spirit speaks for a testimony.
Endure to the end.
All in CHRIST!
Will we face suffering?
Will we be brought before judges, put on trial?
Will we be hated?
Us, democracy raise people, find it hard to imagine, but honestly let's consider this a very real possibility so we aren't among those who would rather give up our faith than endure any sort of very, real hardship.
May the Holy Spirit guide us in all things! May the will of God be done in our lives!
Please LORD, bless us, keep us IN YOU, wholly in YOU, in all things!
We would be YOURS, by YOUR GRACE and LOVE!
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