Have No Fear of Them
Matthew 10:5a, 21-33
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7)
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost is the Gospel reading Matthew 10. In today’s reading Jesus sends His disciples out to preach the Gospel. The apostles are sent out into the world to proclaim the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord. This message of God’s grace is the greatest message of all time. Yet Jesus warns His disciples that there will be people who will oppose the Gospel. Remember what he said. “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake”. The disciples were sent out to proclaim God’s grace through Jesus Christ and because of that they would face persecution. Why? The message of Jesus brings life and salvation and so why would anyone oppose it? Such a negative response to the Gospel seems so wrong.
Imagine a tornado striking a community and causing all sorts of destruction. A team shows up with trucks carrying food, shelter, water, and clothing. What would the reaction be of those who were affected by the storm? The victims of the storm would have nothing but thanks for those kind people. News media would broadcast from the site of the destruction and praise the work of the rescuers. That is what we would expect.
We can come up with many examples of people helping others and those being helped responding with gratitude. Now consider why Jesus came into the world and the great problems that He alone would solve. The Rite of Baptism in our hymnal says these words. “The Word of God also teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own. We would be lost forever unless delivered from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation”. Did you hear the problems that we face in those words? We are talking about being under the power of the devil. We are talking about being enslaved to sin. We are talking about death. We are talking about everlasting condemnation. We are talking about being separated from God and suffering in hell forever. These are the most serious problems of humanity. You can’t get any more serious than sin, death and dwelling in hell forever.
Jesus is the solution to all of those problems. Let us return to what is said in the Rite of Baptism. “But the Father of all mercy and grace has sent His Son Jesus Christ, who atoned for the sin of the whole world, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Jesus is the Savior of all mankind. He is the Son of God who became a man and lived a perfect because we could not. He is our Savior who took our place and earned our salvation. He suffered the eternal judgment that we deserved as he hung on the cross for us. It is Jesus who freed us from the slavery of sin by forgiving our sins. It is Jesus who defeated death for us by His glorious resurrection. It is Jesus who rescued us from hell by given to us the crown of everlasting life. It is Jesus who ascended into heaven to give the gift of salvation to all people by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
When you hear this, you realize that Jesus makes us aware of our greatest problems, sin, death and hell, and He rescues us from those things through His death and resurrection. You would think that the entire world would honor Him above all others. That is what you would think, but the reality is just the opposite. When Jesus sent His disciples out to preach the Gospel He told them that they would face persecution. The words of Jesus still apply to the church today. Our Lord sends His church out into the world to proclaim the Gospel and as they do they will face opposition. It is hard to imagine why. The opposition that the Christian church faces does not make any sense. We are telling people that God is giving to them the gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are telling them about God’s gift of grace, far more important than the wealth of the entire world. Yet, the proclamation of this gift makes some people angry.
Why would anyone oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The answer is this. There is a spiritual war going on all around us. While the church is proclaiming the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, Satan is fighting a war of lies against that proclamation. Satan wants all people to be enslaved in their sins. He wants all people to die without hope. He wants people to dwell in hell forever. That is where he is going and so he wants to drag everyone else with him. Satan attacks the Christian church because he hates God. He does not want the message of Jesus to go out into the world. He attacks the church because he wants those who do believe in Jesus to turn away from the Lord. He wants people to be offended by the Christian message.
Jesus tells us that opposition to the church should not surprise us at all. It should not surprise us because of the spiritual war going on. But even as we hear the words of Jesus we will have the temptation to compromise what God says in His Word. If people get offended because the Bible says that all are sinners, we might be tempted to water down the message of sin. We might even be tempted to affirm sin. If the world is offended by the cross, we may want to downplay the death of Jesus and put it in the background. If the world gets offended by the fact that Christ will visibly return and judge all people, we will be tempted to water down the message of God’s judgment. We will be tempted to put our head down so that we can get along with the world.
Jesus says that this attitude of compromise is very dangerous. Remember what he said. “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell”. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. The worst thing that the world can do to us is end our physical life. But the world is not all there is. There is a judge who has the authority and power to send both soul and body to hell. That judge is the Lord and so we do indeed fear God.
We fear God and we also know that He is gracious to us. We once again go back to the words of Jesus. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from my Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” You are so precious to God that He sent His Son to save you from sin and death.
Jesus tells us not to fear the world because He has overcome the world. Jesus is the one who reigns over heaven and earth. It is the Lord Jesus who will preserve us and He is the one who stands with us. Jesus also tells us that we can stand before the Father in Heaven because He has cleansed our sins and made us righteous. Know that we are in a state of grace we can with the help of God stand before the world and confess the name of Jesus in our words and actions. We can confess the Name of Jesus without fear because the Lord has given to us the gift of grace, faith, hope, love and the crown of everlasting life. Amen.