Please be seated. And please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. I'm gonna read and preach verses 24 through 31 this evening, where Jesus continues to give instructions to his disciples, including us today, about the mission to the world that he sends us on, and in particular, he is preparing us for persecution, the persecution that we will experience in the world and from the world, so that we can respond to it with wisdom and grace. Last time we considered Jesus's instruction to be wise and innocent, to not be anxious, and to endure to the end. And this evening we'll consider three more things, he says, to prepare us for persecution. First of all, to expect persecution. At least some of our discontentment in life is rooted in having unbiblical expectations for our life. So we're to expect persecution. Secondly, he says, to fear God, not man. We are fearers by nature, but we sometimes fear man instead of God because we're sinners. Jesus tells us to reverse that. and he gives us good reason to do so, which we'll consider. And thirdly, he encourages us to trust God's providence, his plan for us, his care for us, even in the midst of persecution. So we'll consider those three things from these verses together this evening as Jesus continues to prepare us for the persecution we will face so we can respond to it with wisdom and grace. Let me pray for us and then we'll begin. Lord Jesus, we pray that you would prepare us for persecution through this portion of your word. Give us sharp minds and soft hearts as we listen to your word being read and preached. We pray for the children among us, that you would bless them as they are under this means of grace. Work in their minds and in their hearts to grant faith or grow faith as the case may be. and prepare all of us to respond to the persecution we face with wisdom and with grace for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Matthew chapter 10, reading verses 24 through 31. These are the words of the Word, the Son of God incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ. A disciple is not above his teacher. nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed. or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light. And what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. but even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. Again, as you can see in your sermon notes, we'll look first at the instruction to expect persecution in verses 24 and 25, then fear God, not man, verses 26 through 28, and finally, trust God's providence in verses 29 through 31. The sermon title is What Did You Expect? Borrowed from the title of Paul Tripp's excellent book on marriage, like I mentioned earlier. What do we expect our lives to be like? What do we expect the Christian life to be like in this fallen world? Jesus tells us here to expect persecution. And he does that by using two analogies. though the veil between analogy and reality is very thin. He says that a disciple is not above his teacher, but wants to be like his teacher. And a servant is not above his master, but wants to be like his master. And so if the teacher is persecuted, if the master is persecuted, so will the disciples, the servants be persecuted. If Jesus was persecuted, Shouldn't we, as disciples of Jesus, as servants of Jesus, expect to be persecuted? Remember the words of John 15 that I quoted last week, verses 18 through 20. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Specifically, he says in the second half of verse 25 here, If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, a name for Satan, how much more will they malign those of his household? Back in chapter nine, verse 34, we read, the Pharisees said, he casts out demons by the prince of demons. Later in chapter 12, verse 24, but when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons. The master of the house was maligned. How much more will those of his household be maligned? That's what we should expect as followers of Christ. Charles Spurgeon once said, God was slandered in paradise. Christ on Calvary. How can we hope to escape? Disciples of Christ. will experience the persecution of Christ that he endured. We should expect persecution as part of our experience in this world. Like I said at the beginning, at least some of our discontentment in life is rooted in the fact that we have sometimes unbiblical expectations for our life. Due to false teaching, we may have come to expect health and wealth and prosperity. We may have come to expect our best life now, as the Joel Osteen book puts it. Or even if we haven't been impacted very much by that prosperity gospel, we can still approach life with an expectation that things will generally go well for us. And when they inevitably don't, sometimes, we experience more disappointment than we need to. or sort of like a child who gets their hopes up for what they're gonna get for their birthday, and when they don't get what they were hoping for, they have farther to fall because their expectations were too high. I know for me, I struggle with this sometimes when it comes to how I think about my schedule. I plan out each week pretty carefully, of course leaving margin in the schedule for the unexpected, but then I forget to actually expect the unexpected. When things inevitably come up, I tend to forget the second half of Proverbs 16 verse nine. The first half says, the mind of man plans his way. Check, I'm good on that. But the second half, really the better half says, but the Lord directs his steps. When I lose sight of that, I don't respond to the unexpected with wisdom and grace. When I expect the unexpected, from the sovereign hand of the Lord, then I'm able to respond better with his help. As H.B. Charles wrote, we should write all of our plans in pencil. Then we should submit them to God to edit in what he wants in and out what he wants out. God uses his sovereign eraser at unexpected times and in strange ways. But we must learn to bow the knee of our intent to his will. Look for the hand of God in what seems to be an interruption and follow him. And as with a so-called interruption, so with persecution. If we expect persecution, we'll be prepared to respond to it with wisdom and grace. And that's what Jesus is teaching us to do here, to expect persecution from the world on our mission to the world. But let's not overlook two things here that I'll mention briefly that can encourage us in the midst of persecution. First, notice what it says here about our relation to Christ. We are his disciples, we are his servants, and we are members of his household. How do we become these things in relation to Christ? Well, it's not through our effort. It's not through committing ourselves to be more moral or more religious. It's not through anything we can do, actually. It's only through what He has already done. Jesus has lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death and risen again to save sinners. And when we repent of our sin and put our trust in him to save us, then we become his disciples, his servants. Then we are adopted into his household. And what a privilege it is to be these things in relation to Christ. What a privilege it is to be a disciple of Christ. Like Mary, to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His teaching. To take His yoke upon us and to learn from Him, who is gentle and lowly in heart, and to find rest for our souls. What a privilege it is to be a servant of Christ. No longer a servant of sin, but a servant of the Savior. to serve him with all we have and all we are. And what a privilege to be a member of his household, to be part of the best family there is, the family of God, the household of God. By grace, through faith, we are disciples of Christ, servants of Christ, members of the household of Christ, and we can always, always draw encouragement from our relation to Christ, no matter how bad the persecution we are facing. Secondly, in addition to what it says here about our relation to Christ, we can also draw encouragement, I think, from what it says about our likeness to Christ. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master, Jesus says. That is what God is doing in us, including through persecution. He is making us more like Jesus. He predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ, Romans 8, 29 we just heard. And every day we are being transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another, 2 Corinthians 3, 18. And when you pause and think about it, is there anything better than being like Christ? Is there anyone more wonderful Is there anyone more beautiful than him? Is there anyone else in the world it would be more satisfying and more fulfilling to be like? There's no one else like him. And we are being made like him. It is enough for us. It is more than enough to be like Jesus. First John three verse two, beloved we are God's children now. and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. For now, though, on our mission to the world, we should expect persecution, Jesus says. He also says that we should fear God, not man. Let's consider that now under our second main point. He says there in verse 26, so, that is because you should expect persecution as my disciples, have no fear of them when they persecute you for being my disciples. Because they persecuted me, have no fear of them when they persecute you, is the connection. And then he gives two additional reasons we shouldn't fear our persecutors. First, God's truth abideth still. And second, the body they may kill. We shouldn't fear our persecutors first because God's truth abideth still. Again, verse 26. So have no fear of them for, Nothing is covered, meaning currently, that will not be revealed subsequently. Or hidden, now, that will not be known then. What I tell you in the dark, that is what I've taught you privately, say in the light, publicly. And what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. Don't fear man. because God's truth abideth still. You can be bold to proclaim publicly in the face of persecution the truth of the gospel that I've explained to you privately. You don't need to worry about the opposition because you're on the side of the truth. Like a whistleblower might need to be encouraged to proclaim the truth publicly despite the opposition he may face, Jesus says, don't fear man because the truth wins in the end. So proclaim the truth in the fear of God. We sang earlier, and though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear. Why? For God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. Don't fear man. First, because God's truth abideth still. Second, because the body they may kill. Meaning the body only. Verse 28. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Persecutors killing our body is no small matter. Jesus isn't saying it's no big deal. Rather he's saying we shouldn't be afraid of them killing our body because that's all they can do. They can't do what God can do, which is to destroy both soul and body in hell. This reminds us soberingly that hell is real. that hell is physical as well as spiritual. And as the rest of scripture teaches, that hell is eternal and hell is avoidable if we turn from our sin and put our trust in the Savior. Don't fear man because God's truth abideth still and because the body they may kill. They can kill the outer man but they can't kill the inner man. If they kill your body, they're just sending you to heaven. So let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill, God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. Fear God, not man. As I said at the beginning, we are fearers by nature. David Powelson used to talk about how as human beings we are active verbs, not passive verbs. That is, we want and we fear, we love and we believe, we do and we say, we act and we react. So we fear by nature, that's how we're designed. But sometimes we fear man instead of fearing God because we're sinners. Proverbs 29 verse 25 says, the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe. Fear of man is not just being afraid of man, though it certainly includes that. Fear of man is about being controlled by man. It's allowing the opinion of others to control your words and actions. It's being oriented around man instead of God. It's tying your peace of mind to a person. Letting your sense of well-being and happiness orbit around people instead of God. Letting the words of man matter more to you than the words of God. Fear of man is the apostle Peter denying that he was one of Jesus' disciples when the servant girl at the door of the courtyard of the high priest asked him a simple question. You also are not one of this man's disciples, are you? Fear of man is laughing along with your teammates at an inappropriate joke because you don't want to stand out or look weird. Fear of man is spending more time than you need to at the office in order to gain the approval of your supervisor. Fear of man is talking too much around others to get them to like you or talking too little for fear that they won't like you. Fear of man is seeing a door of opportunity for evangelism open up and then reaching out and closing it rather than stepping through it by faith. Fear of man is ultimately about treating man as more important than God. What is the solution to the fear of man? It's the fear of God. If in your view people are too big and God is too small, the solution is to deflate your view of man and pump some air into your view of God. Spurgeon again said, there is no cure for the fear of man like the fear of God. If you fear God, you don't have to fear man. If you fear God, you don't have to fear anything. 1 Peter 3.15, have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. When people are big and God is small, the title of Ed Welch's excellent book on the fear of man. When people are big and God is small, our vision is distorted. It's like what's known as Alice in Wonderland syndrome, where you perceive certain objects to be bigger than they really are, and other objects appear smaller than they really are. Fear of man is the spiritual version of Alice in Wonderland syndrome. We perceive people and their opinions as far bigger than they really are, and we perceive God and his word as far smaller than it really is. but through the grace of Christ, our distorted vision can be corrected so that we see God as big as he really is and people as small as they really are, same size as us. So don't tie your peace of mind to a person, tie your peace of mind to the Lord. Don't let your sense of well-being and happiness orbit around people, make it orbit around God. Love people, but fear God first and foremost. Revere Him, live for Him, aim to please Him. Don't live your life primarily before the eyes of other people, live your life before the eyes of God. Don't live for the approval of others, live for the approval of God. And live from the approval of God that you already have in Christ. So Jesus tells us to expect persecution. He tells us to fear God, not man. Third and finally, he tells us to trust God's providence. His plan for us and his care for us, even in the midst of persecution. Verse 29. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. Sparrows were inexpensive. Kids, depending on your age here, I suppose, if something costs $20, we could say it's valuable. It would cost you a whole $20 bill to buy it. But if something cost only a dollar, it would be much less valuable, right? But how about if something only cost a penny? In fact, you could get two of them for a penny. That would be something very small, not very valuable. Well, Jesus says that two sparrows, two small birds, used to be sold for a penny, and yet God cares even for those sparrows. Not one of them will fall to the ground apart from him. He is sovereign over and cares for the life of even a little bird you could get two of for just a penny. And whether that bird lives or dies is part of his sovereign plan. And if that's the case, as Jesus says in verse 31, fear not therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. If God cares for the birds, we can count on him to care for us. And he says in verse 30, But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Easier to keep track of with some than for others, no doubt. But if our father knows how many hairs there are on our head, and he cares how many hairs there are on our head, then surely he knows how to care for us, even in the midst of persecution. And we can trust his providence, his plan for us, and his care for us. If God cares about the little things in our life, can't we trust him to care for us in the midst of the big things? We surely can. Whether those big things are big blessings or big sorrows, not one of them will come to pass apart from the will of our Heavenly Father. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. And He is our Father. I love that Jesus refers to God as our Father in this context. God is not just a giant supercomputer in the sky. He is our loving Heavenly Father. And He is lovingly working all things for our good. Persecution, suffering, blessing, all things. He uses every ounce of his wisdom and every ounce of his goodness to carry out his plans for us. And whether they are smiling providence or frowning providence, he is smiling upon us with his fatherly love and care, even as he weeps with us and puts our tears in his bottle. We can trust God's providence. The Heidelberg Catechism puts it well when it says that God's providence is His almighty and ever-present power, whereby as with His hand, He still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed all things, come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. Therefore, we don't have to be afraid. Fear not. Therefore, as Jesus says at the beginning of verse 31, As we go out into the world each day on the mission Jesus has sent us on, we should expect persecution, we should fear God and not man, and we should trust God's providence. One final thought as we draw to a close this evening. We should expect persecution and suffering and hardship in this fallen world. But as believers, we can also expect God's power and God's presence. We can expect his power. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, Ephesians 6.10. Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 Timothy 2.1. that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, Ephesians 3.16. Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, Colossians 1.11. We can expect God's power. When we are weak, he will be strong for us. And we can also expect God's presence. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Hebrews 13, five. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28, verse 20. In persecution, in suffering, in blessing, God himself is with us. And therefore, we don't have to be afraid. Isaiah 41.10 puts it all together. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Let's pray together. God, we thank you for these verses that teach us to expect persecution as we go through life in this fallen world, as we are sent out on a mission to the world. But we thank you that we can also expect your power and your presence with us. Help us not to be afraid, but to trust you to strengthen us and to uphold us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.