Bold Witness
Matthew 10: 11 – 23.
Introduction.
Since today is Super Bowl Sunday, I think it is
appropriate that I make a confession of sorts. I confess that I have conflicted
feelings about the NFL quarterback Tim Tebow.
On one hand, I have been very surprised at his success this year with
the Denver Broncos. I thought he was
another example of an excellent college quarterback whose skills would not
translate to the professional level. On
the other hand, I can’t help but pull for him.
He is the son of Baptist missionaries, and he lives out his faith by
continuing to invest himself in annual mission trips.
Some people think Tim Tebow is trying to “push his
faith down people’s throats” by bowing to pray after touchdowns. I don’t think that is what he is doing. I think that is just the way he is. I think he probably has a radical faith in
Jesus that exposes him to criticism.
Ultimately that is what happens to any Christian who
has a public faith. We open ourselves to
criticism from many different kinds of people.
We live in a world that believes it is acceptable to
believe anything you want to believe…as long as you keep your beliefs to
yourself. Faith is supposed to be
private—between you and your god. Faith
is supposed to be something you reserve for Sunday mornings in church. It is not supposed to affect the way you live
the rest of your life. It should not
affect the way you conduct yourself at work—as a teacher, a student, a doctor,
a nurse, a lawyer, a businessman, a businesswoman, or whatever you do Monday
through Saturday.
Of course, this is what the world believes about
faith. It is not what the Bible teaches
us about faith. And, it does not fit
with what Jesus told his disciples.
Jesus called all sorts of people to be his
disciples. There were fishermen, a tax
collector, a Zealot, and even a traitor.
Jesus took this diverse group of disciples and sent them out to extend
and continue his own ministry. Jesus
gave his disciples the authority to cast out evil (or unclean) spirits, to heal
all sorts of diseases, and to preach the same message Jesus preached—the
Kingdom of God is near.
Jesus does the same thing with us. He calls us as from many different walks of
life and sends us out to continue his work and the work of the original
disciples.
Read
Matthew 10: 11 – 23.
This is a continuation of the Scripture we read last
week. Jesus called together his twelve
disciples and sent them out as his apostles.
Jesus gave them specific instructions to cast out evil spirits, to heal
the sick and to preach the short sermon, “The Kingdom of God is near.” Jesus also gave them specific instructions
about where they were to go. He told
them not to go into Gentile or Samaritan territories, but to go exclusively to
the “lost sheep of Israel.”
There are a couple of important things taking place
in Jesus’ instructions about Israel.
First, it demonstrates how the Gospel moved in salvation history. God fulfilled all his promises to Israel by
sending Jesus to Israel. Through Jesus,
God was restoring Israel as his people and calling Israel to reclaim her
God-given mission to be a Light to all Nations.
In order for the Gospel to go out to the Gentiles, Israel first had to
be restored. Therefore, Jesus sent his
apostles to the people of Israel before the crucifixion and resurrection. Then, after the resurrection, Jesus sent his
apostles to make disciples of all nations.
The other thing we see in Jesus’ sending his
apostles to Israel has something to do with their message about the Kingdom of
God. In the Old Testament, we read that
the nation of Israel was God’s chosen people.
This did not mean they were God’s only people. It meant they were the people God had chosen
to spread his message around the world—they were to be Light to all
Nations. Israel did not fulfill this
God-given mission. Instead, they
preferred to think of themselves as the Kingdom of God.
Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God was something
else. The nation of Israel was not the Kingdom
of God. The Kingdom of God was coming,
and it was near. I think this is why
Jesus selected twelve disciples and sent them out as twelve apostles.
Twelve was an important number in the Bible. Jacob had twelve sons. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and his
twelve sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. When Jesus selected twelve disciples, he was
drawing comparisons between himself and the nation of Israel. When Jesus sent his twelve apostles to
witness to the nation of Israel, he was professing that his disciples had
something Israel did not have. Jesus’
disciples had a relationship with God through Jesus. They had the authority to do what neither the
Temple nor the Law could do—make people clean by casting out unclean spirits and
healing their sicknesses. They had the
message of the Gospel—The Kingdom of God is coming.
God was fulfilling his promises to Israel in the
Person of Jesus. Jesus is the faithful
Israel. The True Israel is made up of
people who recognize Jesus as the fulfillment of prophecy. Now, the followers of Jesus are becoming the
True Israel by fulfilling Israel’s God-given mission.
Hospitality
vs. Hostility.
When Jesus sent out his apostles, he told them to
live a simple lifestyle. They were not
to take extra clothes or shoes. They
were not even to take money on their mission.
Instead, they were to live totally reliant on God through the
hospitality of others.
It’s possible this reflects how important
hospitality was among ancient Jews. The
Jewish people took care of each other.
Since Jesus’ twelve disciples were Jews, they could depend on other Jews
welcoming them and helping them meet their needs. Of course, this would only be true within the
borders of Israel. It would not be true
among the Gentiles or the Samaritans.
This strategy would work for the first part of their mission inside
Israel.
It is also possible that Jesus was teaching his
apostles to live their lives free from the excesses of materialism. While they were on their Gospel mission,
materialism would be a heavy baggage for the disciples and an obstacle to the
spread of the Gospel. They were to
preach about the Kingdom of God. They were
to encourage people to live with God as their King and the One who provides for
their needs. It would be difficult to
preach that God is all you need while living a materialistic lifestyle.
The same thing is true for us. Materialism is a heavy burden for us as we
try to preach about dependence on God.
Materialism is an obstacle in spreading the Gospel in our culture. We cannot tell people that God is all they
need, as long as we are living materialistic lives. We cannot preach that God will supply all
your needs, when we are unwilling to live the same message we preach.
Jesus told his apostles that not everyone would be
hospitable to them. Some people would
outright reject them and refuse to welcome them. This is because the message of the Gospel always
demands a decision. Everyone who hears
the message of the Gospel must do something with it. The Gospel must be accepted or rejected. The people who showed hospitality were the
ones who accepted the Gospel. The people
who were unwelcoming to the apostles were the ones who rejected the Gospel.
Rejection is an expected consequence of preaching
the Gospel. But, rejection is not the
only thing Jesus’ disciples can expect.
Jesus’ words of warning show us that some people will be unwelcoming to
our message, and others will be overtly hostile.
Why Hostility?
Notice that Jesus tells his disciples that he is
sending them out as sheep among wolves.
This is a clear description of danger.
When wolves attack a herd of sheep, there is nothing the sheep can do to
defend themselves. Sheep have no way of
defending themselves. In other words,
Jesus told his disciples, “I am sending you on a very dangerous mission. If you survive, it will be a miracle.”
Doesn’t that sound like a fun assignment? It will be a miracle if you survive.
Of course, we know from church history this is
exactly what eventually happened to the original twelve disciples. They survived for a while—long enough to
begin to spread the Gospel around the world.
However, they eventually lost their lives because of the message they
preached.
One example is the life of Peter. When Jesus was arrested, Peter ran away. He was confronted by a young slave girl who
recognized Peter as one of Jesus’ disciples.
He cursed and denied that he even knew who Jesus was. That all changed after the resurrection. After the resurrection, Peter became a bold
witness. He preached a message on the
Day of Pentecost where over three thousand people were saved. In Acts 10, he received a vision from God to
begin preaching the Gospel to Gentiles.
Peter obeyed and the Gospel began moving outside the boundaries of
Israel. Peter was arrested several times
to prevent the Gospel from spreading. On
one occasion, God miraculously opened the prison doors so Peter could
escape. But that didn’t happen every
time. Eventually, Peter was arrested and
executed for his faith and preaching the Gospel.
Peter’s life shows us a couple of important things
about the Gospel. It shows us he truly
believed what he was preaching. I doubt
very seriously that Peter would have been willing to die over a lie. If the disciples made up the resurrection and
spread it as a lie, they would have quickly recanted their lies in the face of
arrest, persecution and death. But Peter
actually saw the resurrected Jesus. He
couldn’t deny the resurrection, because he had experienced it with his own
life. The resurrection was such an
important experience for Peter, he felt an obligation to tell everyone he could
tell that Jesus is alive.
Peter’s life also shows us that Jesus’ words of
warning came true for the disciples.
Jesus did not tell them their mission would be easy. In fact, he told them survival would be a
miracle. They knew what they were
getting into. And they believed it was
worth the risk.
The message of the Kingdom of God is offensive. It offends every sector of human life. Jesus promised us that religion would be
offended—the disciples faced opposition from the Jewish synagogues. Jesus promised us that government would be
offended—the disciples faced opposition from the Jewish councils (literally
Sanhedrin) and from Gentile kings and governors. Jesus promised us that even families would be
offended—some of the disciples faced rejection from their own mothers and
fathers.
Disciples of Jesus have always faced rejection,
opposition and persecution. This is not
because of who we are. It is because of
who we serve. For some reason, Jesus is
offensive. I think it is because Jesus
challenges the status quo. Because of
what Jesus has done for us, we cannot continue to live as we have always lived.
Jesus gives us direct access to God. Therefore, religion is offended that it no
longer has control over us as it once did.
Jesus promises us a new Kingdom of God. Therefore, government is offended that
Someone is more important to us than our political leaders.
Jesus promises us a new family—through Jesus, God is
our Father and all believers are our brothers and sisters. Therefore, family is offended that it is no
longer our primary social entity.
God
Will Provide.
Jesus promised us that God will provide, regardless
of the opposition we face.
God will provide the words to say. We are not to worry about what we will say
when we are opposed by the world. The
“Spirit of our Father” will provide the words we need. This is a great message of comfort for people
like us who often feel like we are inadequate to preach the Gospel or even to
witness to our friends and family members.
However, this is not an excuse for us to neglect study and
preparation.
As disciples of Jesus, we are students of Jesus. We are not supposed to stop learning and
growing in our faith. We are to read our
Bibles, spend time with God in prayer, and we are to memorize Scripture to
prepare ourselves for God’s mission. God
uses what we have stored away in our hearts and minds.
There is someone in your life that God wants you to
witness to. God wants you to invite them
to church. God wants you to share your
testimony of how you became a Christian or how you have learned to depend on
God through adversity in your life. God
wants you to sit down with them over lunch or coffee and discuss who Jesus is
and what Jesus has done for you. Some
of you already know who this person is.
If you don’t know who this is, you need to pray about it. You need to ask God to place that person on
your heart and to give you opportunities to engage them in spiritual
conversations.
Then, your next step is to be prepared. Through your Bible readings, Sunday School
lessons, Sunday morning sermons and daily experiences, God is preparing you to
be a bold witness. But, if you are not
paying attention to God, you will find yourself unprepared to witness. Imagine that God leads you into an
opportunity to witness tomorrow. You are
talking with a friend, and they share with you how they are struggling with
faith and believing in Jesus. It would
be a tragedy if you have that opportunity and all you can say is, “Did you know
the shortest verse in the Bible is John 6:35, ‘Jesus wept?’” Or, “The first verse in the Bible is Genesis
1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’”
God will provide you with the words to say, but we need
to pay attention to what God is saying to us right now.
Conclusion.
This past week the national news reported about just
how dangerous it is to be a witness for Christ.
Two Baptist missionaries from Amarillo (John and Wanda Casias) were
killed in Mexico on Wednesday. They knew
they were living in a dangerous part of the world. They had even talked to their church and
family about what to do if anything bad ever happened to them. But, they felt called to do mission work in
Mexico. And, they were willing to take
the risks or face the consequences.[1]
Jesus never promised that our mission to spread the
Gospel would be easy or without suffering.
But he did promise that God will provide.
When we hear stories of modern-day missionaries
being killed for the Gospel, it really makes us stop and think about our own
witnessing. These people knew they were
in a dangerous country. They knew they
faced the risk of being kidnapped or murdered.
Yet, they continued to be bold witnesses.
We don’t live in a dangerous country. We don’t face the risk of being kidnapped or
murdered. The biggest problem we have is
our own fear of embarrassment or rejection.
The fear of death was not enough to stop Peter from
being a bold witness, and it wasn’t enough to stop John and Wanda Casias. What fear is stopping us?
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