Don’t fear those who kill the body
Matthew 10:5a, 21-33 5Jesus sent these twelve out and commanded them, 21“Brother will hand over his brother to death, and a father will do the same with his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 22You will be hated by all people because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. 23And when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. Amen I tell you: You will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
24“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a servant above his master. 25It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If the master of the house was called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!
26“So do not be afraid of them, because there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known. 27What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops. 28Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
29“Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father. 30And even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
32“Everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. 33But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.
St. Paul charges both Pastor Timothy and us with these instructions: “Preach the word. Be ready whether it is convenient or not. Correct, rebuke, and encourage, with all patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). Amen.
This week I was getting my yard ready for today’s get-together with our church’s Christian Friends group. I was using what my wife calls my “redneck burn barrel.” I was burning some brush in the barrel when I received a nasty burn on my arm from one of the branches. My daughter, Belle saw the burn and said, “Dad, that’s going to leave a scar.” I assured her, “Go ask your Mom. Ladies dig scars.”
The burn on my arm and the heat from the barrel reminded me of the story of Polycarp. Polycarp was an 86-year-old Bishop of Smyrna. In A.D. 156, Polycarp was taken custody for refusing to bow and call Caesar “lord.” City officials asked him to recant, reasoning, “What harm could it do to say Caesar is lord and save your life?” It was simple – all Polycarp had to do was say “kaiser kurios” that is, “Caesar is Lord,” and his life would have been spared. But according to early church writings, Polycarp proclaimed, “For eighty-six years I have been Christ’s slave, and He has done me no wrong; how can I blaspheme my King who saved me.” And so, Polycarp bravely went to his death in the Coliseum – he was a slave of Christ but more free than any Roman citizen watching him burn at the stake.
During times of persecution, Polycarp and other early Christians took seriously Jesus’ words: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said in his first inaugural speech in March of 1933: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is … fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” FDR was speaking the truth. Fear is one of the great tools of the devil. Fear leads to instability, unhappiness, and a lack of contentment. It saps spiritual vitality, and it paralyzes the soul. Fear is the great enemy of faith.
As Jesus is sending his disciples out into the mission field, he addresses several of their fears – the fear of persecution, the fear of death, and the fear of poverty. He taught, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without the knowledge and consent of your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.”
Jesus knows that fear can lead us to pray timidly where others can see us and make us too terrified to talk about Jesus publicly. We worry way too much about what other people say or think and far too little about what God says and what God thinks of us. We are afraid of rejection, afraid of failure, afraid of being made fun of, afraid of offending someone. All fears freeze us into inaction, into silence, and into feeling all alone. Fear is one of the strongest of human emotions.
Fear comes from a lack of faith. Fear comes from worry and doubts. It is a failure to trust that God is in control. It is a failure to see that God has a plan. Basically, it is a failure to see that God is standing right beside you, walking with you through this worlds’ dark valley of the shadow of death.
Three times in his instructions to his disciples, Jesus tells them not to be afraid. Do not be afraid to speak his Word. Do not be afraid to live his Word before those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. And do not be afraid, because as difficult as it may seem, your heavenly Father promises that you are not forgotten, but that you are very important to him. He values you even more than he values sparrows and hairs. He knows if a single sparrow falls. He knows how many hairs you have on your head (although some of you make it easier on him than others). If he knows and cares about those little things, he cares and knows even more about the crown of creation whom he sent the King of creation to save.
“Stop being afraid” is the force of Jesus’ verbs in the Greek. Stop being afraid – not just once, but always.
Jesus says, “Don’t be afraid.” Yet, the forces we face are terrifying! We are going against Beelzebul and the members of his household. Beelzebul is Satan, the ruler of demons. Satan is also called in Scripture a roaring lion, the Ancient Serpent, and the seven-headed dragon. These are all terrifying images! The devil and his demonic forces desire to terrify us into submission and surrender. They want us to look at all the evil they have fostered in our world and all the wickedness they have cultivated into our culture and give up.
We may not fear being burned at the stake, thrown to the lions, or beheaded like Christians in centuries past or Christians suffering presently around the world. We don’t fear a den of lions like Daniel or a fiery furnace like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, or being thrown into a well like Jeremiah, but persecution abounds when we’re faithful to the Word. We lose relationships because of a biblical belief that honors the sanctity of marriage. We lose promotions because of worship priorities. We lose friendships because we won’t join in sinful behavior.
We are called “old-fashioned” for our insistence marriage being a lifetime commitment of love between one man and one woman. We are ridiculed as “backward” for our persistence that the Bible is our rule and norm for life. We are criticized as “unenlightened” for our insistence that salvation is in Christ alone. Whether it is in the college classroom or the business boardroom, the high school hallways or network news, we know we will face criticism, corruption, ridicule, and resistance.
Jesus predicts that our love for our heavenly Father and our brotherly Savior may even cause conflicts with our family. “Brother will hand over his brother to death, and a father will do the same with his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death.”
Satan will use these emotional familial attachments to silence our confessions. He slows the spread of the gospel as we cower in fear. Our sinful nature doesn’t want ridicule but craves acceptance. We mistakenly imagine the world is filled with cute kitties and darling dogs, whereas, in reality, they are really ravenous wolves, red dragons, and terrifying beasts.
So, we cower, give up, and give in. We join the crowd. We don’t stand up and stand out, but sit down and blend in. We shut our mouths, keep our money in our homes instead of using it to expand God’s kingdom, and focus on ourselves instead of doing God’s mission work.
Who could blame us if we renounce our faith, ignore our commitments, compromise our loyalties, shirk our responsibilities, and take the easy way out? ... God could blame us. And he does blame us. “Whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
Fellow saints, don’t be fooled into faintheartedness. Don’t be coerced into cowardice. Don’t be intimidated into isolation.
Do not be afraid because as a student and servant of Christ you are like your Teacher and Master, Jesus Christ. Jesus has given you what you need to face the opposition of Beelzebul and the members of his household. He has given you his strength to support you, his promises to sustain you, and his Word which will not return to him empty. Jesus instructed, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”
Persecution of Christians in America is coming. But we don’t have to feel like ill-fated redshirts in a Star Trek episode. Don’t be afraid of persecution. Welcome it. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will give us the right words to say. He promises that the gospel will be preached to all the nations before he comes. If the government or culture or Big Tech shut down one avenue of sharing the gospel, we just find another avenue. Jesus promises that his gospel cannot be stopped.
Don’t be afraid of the Ancient Serpent. Christ has crushed the Serpent’s head under his divine foot. Don’t be afraid of the roaring lion. Christ has shut the lion’s mouth with his redemptive victory on the cross. Don’t be afraid of Satan. Christ has silenced Satan’s accusations with his blood-bought release for his followers. Don’t be afraid of the seven-headed red dragon. Christ has conquered the dragon and chained him to the pits of hell.
Rather, only “fear the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Only fear God, the Judge of all creation. But, when you believe in God’s Son as your Savior from hell, then you don’t even need to fear God anymore.
Throughout history we see that when Christians are persecuted … the Christian Church grows. Christians stop cowering. They proudly stand up to persecution. The pagans witness their neighbors being persecuted and feel the need to check out Christianity. The Holy Spirit creates more converts. The Church grows through persecution.
It's funny how tyrannical leaders never seem to understand – the more the Church is harassed, the more the Church grows.
As we see persecution coming upon our nation, we pray that God is using this coming persecution to wake us, move us, grow us, and revive the dying Christian Church in America.
This needs to be the confession of the Christian: “You can take away my home, my stuff, my family, my freedom, my health … but you can’t take away my faith.” Once you make that clear to yourself and to those whom are persecuting you, you and they know you are truly free. Nothing they do to you can really harm you. Like the apostle Paul, if you live, you live to the Lord, but if you die, you die to the Lord. Either way, you’ll be with the Lord.
I don’t know if it’s true or not that ladies really do dig scars. I do know, though, that Christ digs bold confessions of faith in the face of persecution. “Everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven.”
In the face of oncoming persecution, we need to be reminded of the worst that can be done to us. Imprisonment? Jesus is there. Suffering? We desire to be counted worthy to suffer in Jesus’ name. Hatred? We need only the love of God. Loss of property? Our treasures are in heaven. Death? We die in Christ so that we are with Christ for eternity! What a comfort it is when Jesus promises, “You will be hated by all people because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved”. Amen.
May St. Paul’s confession be our own: “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on, there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness.” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8). Amen.