Show Notes
Matthew 10:26-31
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] O Lord, our God, you are truly wonderful, wonderful in all of the good ways in which we use that word.
[00:00:14] We wonder at you.
[00:00:17] You are wonderful in how you deal with us.
[00:00:21] And there is something wonderful to think about.
[00:00:26] Not just that we can know you now, but about what we sung about in several times, in several ways.
[00:00:32] That at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
[00:00:37] That one day we will behold you in all your wonderful glory face to face.
[00:00:44] And that everything that is good and wonderful in this world we will experience in a greater and in the most eminent degree in your presence.
[00:00:57] We thank you that you have made a way for us to come near to you.
[00:01:03] You have made a way for us to receive this eternal life.
[00:01:07] And that way is Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior.
[00:01:14] Lord Jesus, we thank you that we can know you. That you have spoken and revealed the words of God from eternity into time and space in a way that we can know them and thereby know you. And knowing you know the Father.
[00:01:32] We thank youk, Lord Jesus, that yout have given us not just yourself in the Word, but yout have given us the gift of youf, Holy Spirit.
[00:01:41] O Holy Spirit, we ask that you would work in our hearts that where there is doubt, you would dispel it. And in its place strengthen our faith where we are hurting. O Holy Spirit, heal us and bind up our wounds.
[00:01:59] Help us where we are hungry and thirsty to drink deeply of the water of life and feed upon Christ Himself, the bread of life, that we might be satisfied and all our needs met in Him.
[00:02:13] And in his name we pray. Amen.
[00:02:19] I'm going to ask you to be seated.
[00:02:23] I know it's a short scripture reading, but after we read our sermon text, Matthew 10, I'm actually going to ask you to turn to the back of your songbooks to the Heidelberg catechism.
[00:02:39] It's page 876. And we'll read together Lord's Day 10, which deals with the providence of God, which is a major theme in our sermon text this evening. It's kind of not something we do real often in Presbyterian churches, but you called me from a Dutch Reformed Church. And they read from the Heidelberg Catechism in the evening services. And I think these, you'll find that these are very fitting and appropriate to go along with our sermon text this evening. So if you'll turn there. 876 in the back of your songbook.
[00:03:12] And then in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 10, we'll read verses 26 through 31 together.
[00:03:25] This is God's Word written for you and for me. So listen accordingly, so have no fear of them. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden, that will not be known.
[00:03:43] What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
[00:03:51] And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
[00:03:57] Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
[00:04:04] 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 numbered.
[00:04:18] Fear not, therefore you are of more value than many sparrows thus far. God's word, may he add his blessing to it.
[00:04:29] And now this isn't God's word, but I think it's a very helpful summary of the doctrine of God's providence. How it is that he cares for us, how he oversees everything, and especially he cares for us, his people, giving us good things, but also caring for us through adversity.
[00:04:47] There's a helpful summary here, found in the Heidelberg Catechism. Question and answer number 27 and 28.
[00:04:54] I'm going to read the question. If you can read the answer together in response, I'll read question 27.
[00:05:04] What do you understand? By the providence of God.
[00:05:09] Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God, by which God upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them, that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty. All things in fact come to us not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. And then question 28. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?
[00:05:47] We can be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity and for the future. We can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father, that no creature will separate us from his love.
[00:06:03] For all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.
[00:06:14] Thank you.
[00:06:16] You have there a wonderful summary of the truths of how God cares for all things, and he uses it all for our good and his glory.
[00:06:33] Jesus says three times in this portion we read from Matthew 10 that we are not to fear. He says, have no fear of them. Do not fear. And then verse 31, fear not. Therefore, clearly that is the major idea that Jesus wants to press home to our hearts, that we are not to fear men.
[00:07:00] You all probably remember, even you children, little children back there probably know the story of Daniel's three friends.
[00:07:08] Remember they have those funny names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those, of course, were the names that were given to them. Those weren't their Jewish names. But Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been carried away into captivity by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar.
[00:07:25] And the story goes that Nebuchadnezzar built a big, tall idol, and he said, everyone has to bow down and worship this idol.
[00:07:33] And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, we won't do it.
[00:07:37] We will only worship the true God. We won't bow down to this idol. So Nebuchadnezzar has the three of them called before him. And he says, I have the power to do something terrible to you.
[00:07:50] If you don't worship this idol like I tell you, I have the power to throw you into the fiery furnace and you'll be burned up like. Like that.
[00:08:01] Do you remember what the three friends said?
[00:08:06] Their answer? Well, they first started by saying, look, we don't really owe you an answer.
[00:08:13] You should know, and everyone knows, that we should worship the true God only, not idols.
[00:08:18] But then they went on to say, we're not really afraid of you in your furnace.
[00:08:26] They said, our God can save us from your fiery furnace.
[00:08:31] We're going to fear him and remain faithful to him.
[00:08:35] And you know what? If he doesn't and we burn alive in that furnace and God allows it, that's okay, too.
[00:08:43] We will fear and trust the living and true God, not man.
[00:08:50] That's basically in a nutshell, what Jesus is calling us to in these verses. The same thing that those three friends expressed, that they would not fear the king Nebuchadnezzar, man. Instead, they would fear God no matter what happens.
[00:09:06] So that's our theme this evening.
[00:09:09] Don't fear men.
[00:09:12] Don't fear men.
[00:09:14] We'll look at that under three headings. First, Jesus says, don't fear men because the secret will be revealed. The secret will be revealed.
[00:09:25] Secondly, don't fear men, fear God.
[00:09:29] Thirdly, don't fear men because God cares. So first, the secret reveal. Secondly, fear God, not man. And thirdly, don't fear men because God cares for you.
[00:09:45] Don't fear men because the secret will be revealed. That's what you find in verse 26 and 27.
[00:09:53] Jesus says, don't fear them because nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.
[00:10:01] He says, this is the reason. The first reason.
[00:10:04] Three reasons here, but the first reason that you should not fear men.
[00:10:09] There is something secret hidden that will be revealed.
[00:10:15] That's a little mysterious. Maybe when you first read it, you haven't studied this passage before. Carefully.
[00:10:22] Why would a secret being revealed be a reason that we don't need to fear men?
[00:10:29] Think about the story here in Matthew 10. What's going on, What Jesus is doing? Been teaching the apostles, what he's been preparing them for. He's sending them on a mission to go preach the gospel, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, the King is here. Repent and follow after him and be saved.
[00:10:51] That was the message that they were to go preach.
[00:10:54] And we've seen over the last couple sermons that the disciples are going to face opposition. We the church, are going to continue to face opposition. Whenever we bring this message, we of the King to the world, people will hate us. They may hunt us and chase us from city to city.
[00:11:13] They may put us on trial, beat us, even execute us.
[00:11:20] The problem that Jesus is addressing, the fear that Jesus is addressing, is that when that opposition comes, when men try to squelch and suppress the truth of the gospel from getting out, we may not succeed. That's our fear as preachers or even as a church, that when the world opposes us with everything that it's got, the truth may not get out. We may fail in our mission.
[00:11:49] That's what's at stake here in the context Jesus answer to that very understandable fear that anyone listening to Jesus describing all of the terrors that men are going to face, Remember as you read through Matthew 10, it gets worse and worse.
[00:12:07] They're going to try you, they're going to beat you. Your family members are going to turn you over to try to have you put to death.
[00:12:14] You'll be hated by all men for my sake. It just gets worse and worse. What's the natural fear for anyone who truly cares about the gospel mission that he's been sent on?
[00:12:26] What if they succeed?
[00:12:29] What if the gospel is actually hidden, suppressed and covered up and it doesn't get out here? Jesus answers that with a promise.
[00:12:40] Men cannot cover up or hide the gospel.
[00:12:45] They will not be able to stop you from successfully preaching the gospel.
[00:12:52] They will persecute you. They will try to suppress and oppress and hide the truth, but they cannot and will not succeed the mission I send you on. Jesus says that mission will succeed.
[00:13:07] That's his promise. Here now I'm summarizing it. You're getting the result of the study. That's the doctrine that Jesus is giving us here.
[00:13:18] Let's draw it out.
[00:13:21] The world says it's going to hide and suppress but who's actually doing the hiding and the concealing Here in verse 26, nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known.
[00:13:36] Who's actually doing the hiding. Most of the time in the Bible, when Jesus is speaking or the apostles are speaking, or sometimes even when the prophets are speaking and they use the passive voice, the passive voice, which is what you find here, nothing is covered that will not be revealed. Someone is doing the covering and the revealing, but we're not immediately told who it is. Most of the time, the Bible uses the passive voice.
[00:14:05] The one who's active is God.
[00:14:13] Jesus Christ, the Messiah is the one who did the hiding, the concealing, and he's the one now doing the revealing and unveiling.
[00:14:25] Jesus concealed the gospel. He hid the gospel in the promises of the Old Testament.
[00:14:32] He hid a truth when he promised that the seed of the woman would one day crush the serpent's head.
[00:14:41] When he came and was born of the virgin Mary, Jesus revealed that the seed of the woman who had crushed the serpent's head was Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[00:14:52] There's all sorts of truths, marvelous truths, that are hidden in the Old Testament that Jesus came and revealed. Let's consider another truth or set of truths that we're thinking about pretty regularly. In our morning series through 1 Samuel, Jesus hid a series of truths in the 12 tribes of Israel.
[00:15:18] You think about those 12 tribes.
[00:15:21] What comes to mind?
[00:15:23] You think about 12 tribes full of weakness, division.
[00:15:28] A group of people that is perpetually and continually weak. Fornicating idol worshipers.
[00:15:36] And who are they? Led by yet weaker men, the sons of David.
[00:15:43] And as a result, as a people, they are invaded, they're enslaved, they're exiled.
[00:15:50] And yet what does Jesus reveal?
[00:15:53] The marvelous truth hidden in that weak nation ruled by weak men was that Jesus would come and set up a kingdom.
[00:16:01] A kingdom that looked weak in this world, but a kingdom that was eternal.
[00:16:07] A kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that Jesus brought to save sinners, fornicators and idol worshipers.
[00:16:20] One more, just so you get the pattern here really clearly, there was another truth hidden, concealed in plain sight, concealed daily in the morning and evening sacrifice at the tabernacle and then the temple.
[00:16:34] You remember the Lamb of sacrifice?
[00:16:37] Twice a day the lamb was offered up, its blood was poured out, and there, in plain sight, Jesus hid a truth that one day he would come.
[00:16:48] And as the Lamb of God suffer and die on the cross, not the blood of an animal, but the blood of the Son of God poured out from the cross would Take away the sins of of his people.
[00:17:02] Jesus had hidden a mystery, covered it up, concealed it, and now he had come to reveal it. And guess what? The King promises, nothing will stand in my way.
[00:17:12] No one will stop the truth of the gospel from coming out.
[00:17:17] You see what he's saying?
[00:17:19] I hid the gospel and I came from heaven to reveal it to the whole world.
[00:17:26] And now you go tell them all.
[00:17:30] Paul talks about this. He reflects on it several places in the Epistles.
[00:17:36] He says in First Corinthians, I'm sorry, Colossians 1:26. He's talking about his ministry as a gospel preacher. And he says that there is a mystery hidden for all ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints.
[00:17:52] And that mystery, he says, is Christ in you.
[00:17:55] That Jesus is in you through the preaching of the Gospel, and that you as Gentiles are now united to him and saved through him.
[00:18:06] That's Jesus promise to those who are fearful of men, what they may do to us, how they may stop us from accomplishing Jesus mission and his goal.
[00:18:17] I came to reveal this and nothing's going to get in my way.
[00:18:21] So he says, go and preach it.
[00:18:24] That's primarily to the apostles and their successors, the preachers of the gospel, but it's also to the whole church as her witness. As individuals and corporately, as we bear witness to Christ and his saving work.
[00:18:38] Jesus says, go. Proclaim it in the light that is clearly. Proclaim it in the light everywhere.
[00:18:46] Proclaim it from the housetops as loudly and as widely as you possibly can, to as many people as you can. Get that gospel. To let no one stop you. Let nothing stop you. Fear no man.
[00:19:04] Because no man can stop the gospel from going forth.
[00:19:10] So when you have a chance to speak about Jesus, to bear witness and testimony to the good that he did for you on the cross and in the resurrection and in your life today.
[00:19:21] And you see opposition coming.
[00:19:23] Don't be afraid as you speak. Christ will speak through you and his gospel will go forth. Don't fear man. They cannot stop the gospel.
[00:19:35] That's Jesus first reason why we shouldn't fear men.
[00:19:38] The second is that we should fear God immediately.
[00:19:45] We should fear God, not men, immediately. As we look at these verses, we see this matter of life and death, those who might kill the body or possibly the soul.
[00:19:57] As you're reading Matthew 10, there's a drama here. Yes, Jesus is teaching, but there's a drama that's unfolding as we are emboldened, unshackled from the fear of men. To go Proclaim the gospel widely, freely, to everyone and anyone.
[00:20:16] The more vigorous the preaching, the more we will be exposed.
[00:20:22] The louder and longer we preach, the more opportunity for men to become angry, to come and oppose.
[00:20:30] The story we read about the apostles illustrates that for us very clearly.
[00:20:34] They were preaching, they were arrested, told to stop preaching.
[00:20:39] They went on doing it anyway.
[00:20:41] They were arrested again.
[00:20:43] Then the angel comes and sets them free, and he says, now go and preach in the temple.
[00:20:50] He exposes them more and more. Jesus does. And the more they're exposed through the preaching of the gospel to the world and its threats.
[00:20:59] Yeah, the threat gets worse, greater this time. They arrest, they say, what do we do? We let them go free with nothing. Last time.
[00:21:07] Can we put them to death? What should we do?
[00:21:12] Well, at least we're going to beat them and send them away. We're going to try to knock some sense into them, to silence them.
[00:21:20] You get the idea. The more we preach the gospel freely, the more exposed and likely we are to face our opposition, the more likely we are to run up against people who may seek to kill the body.
[00:21:38] Jesus says, guess what?
[00:21:43] They can kill the body.
[00:21:49] It's a reality. As I send you out, don't fear those who can kill the body. I'm sending you to face men who may take your lives.
[00:21:59] Don't fear them.
[00:22:02] Of course, that also means they can do all sorts of things short of actually killing us, like beating people, imprisoning them, and all sorts of other opposition to the gospel.
[00:22:15] Now, there's a problem here. Let's call it the problem of fear.
[00:22:20] We don't usually like that feeling of fear.
[00:22:24] Think of you're out in the woods and you hear a big. What sounds like a big animal?
[00:22:29] You might be afraid, it's a bear. And you get a sense of terror in you. Right. You don't usually associate fear with a good thing. And in this context, it's really largely kind of negative fear of man.
[00:22:45] It's not just the threat of death. It's all sorts of other things that we can fear. Maybe we might lose our jobs. We might have neighbors or relatives who treat us poorly because of the gospel. And we might fear those negative reactions in opposition.
[00:23:04] As you seek to bear witness or preach the gospel, you may be afraid of these sorts of things. And so you can see immediately how the fear of man is in tension in our hearts and our minds with this gospel witness. People don't like what we're going to say about Jesus and the truths of sin and salvation and grace.
[00:23:27] They'll oppose us and we may have fear that may make us think twice about opening our mouths. We may shrink back. We may remain silent so that we don't get in trouble.
[00:23:41] There's a tension there. There's a problem there. But Jesus doesn't actually talk about that problem, the problem of fear of man. That leads us to perhaps silence.
[00:23:53] He talks about something deeper. There's a bigger problem. There's a deeper, you might say, incompatibility.
[00:24:01] There's two things here that are mutually exclusive. They can't both coexist in your heart and mind.
[00:24:09] And those two things are the fear of man and the fear of God.
[00:24:15] They can't both exist in your heart at the same time.
[00:24:21] They're incompatible.
[00:24:23] They fight one another, and so they can't be there at the same time. Think of how fear works. It motivates you. You're walking across the street and all of a sudden a car comes out of nowhere and you feel fear. It motivates you to run out of the street for fear of your life.
[00:24:41] Fear is a motivator.
[00:24:43] And Jesus is saying that these two fears are motivators in the exact opposite direction.
[00:24:51] They can't both motivate you, as it were, at the same time. Think of playing sports. It's kind of like this. There's two teams. You can't play on both sides.
[00:25:02] Or maybe think of it another way.
[00:25:05] When you're driving the car, you can either turn left or right, but you can't do both at the same time.
[00:25:12] You can either fear God or man, but you can't do both at the same time.
[00:25:17] The two are mutually exclusive. That's a problem for us.
[00:25:23] Who are we going to fear? Think of the apostles before the Jewish Sanhedrin. How do they respond?
[00:25:30] They've got the threat, the weight of the highest Jewish court against them. And they were Jews subject to that court.
[00:25:37] Their response?
[00:25:39] We must obey God, not you men.
[00:25:44] This fear of man, Jesus is saying, has no place in his kingdom.
[00:25:49] It has no place for those who he sends on his mission.
[00:25:54] Especially for preachers, but really for all Christians.
[00:25:57] We have a problem here, don't we? Because most of us struggle at some level with the fear of man.
[00:26:03] Especially if we think about people coming and taking our lives.
[00:26:07] It's innately frightening.
[00:26:11] Jesus here is trying to deal with that fear.
[00:26:16] Don't fear man, Jesus says. First of all, because man's power is limited, it's restricted.
[00:26:23] Man only has the power to kill your body.
[00:26:28] Now. Things just get kind of darker and deeper from here. For a little bit.
[00:26:34] Jesus says man only has the power to kill your body.
[00:26:40] In other words, there's something more frightening, there's something more terrible than the ability to kill your body.
[00:26:48] And man doesn't have that.
[00:26:50] So don't really fear him or worry about him.
[00:26:55] Jesus says, there's this other part of you that man doesn't have power over. Swords, spears, guns, bombs cannot touch your soul.
[00:27:05] When God made man, he made man, body and soul.
[00:27:10] The body part people can get at with their weapons, but not the soul.
[00:27:16] The body dies, but the soul lives on.
[00:27:20] So don't fear man because he cannot, we might say, he cannot get to your soul.
[00:27:26] Man's power is limited. Rather, Jesus says, fear God because his power is unlimited.
[00:27:33] He has the power to destroy both body and soul in hell forever.
[00:27:41] There is a greater thing than just your body suffering and dying.
[00:27:46] It's an eternity of suffering and separation from God and from his love forever in hell.
[00:27:56] What Jesus is doing here is warning us, giving us a very stern warning.
[00:28:04] It goes something like this.
[00:28:07] Should you come to fear man more than God, should you come to place a greater value on your earthly physical life and its comforts more than you value eternal life and a future with God forever, should you come to turn your back on the eternal life that Jesus secured for you because you've come to fear man and to treasure this life and its comforts, then you need to fear that God will come and judge you, body and soul.
[00:28:55] That's Jesus warning.
[00:28:59] Now there's the terrifying part.
[00:29:03] Should we deny Christ in the face of persecution? Should we turn our backs on him and walk away from him? We will face what the world faces when Christ comes again.
[00:29:14] That's the warning.
[00:29:15] There is a comfort hidden in here, though, when we come to terms with this, when Jesus, by his grace, through his Holy Spirit, helps our hearts and minds to be wrapped around this truth, that we should not fear men, but instead we should fear God.
[00:29:35] Jesus frees us from one of the most terrible dreads and fears that mankind has, the fear of death, Particularly the fear of death from those who might persecute us.
[00:29:51] In its place, Jesus gives us something truly wonderful, a security, a sense of peace, because our souls and our bodies are safe and secure in the hand of our Father.
[00:30:07] He's taking away the fear of man, the terror of death, and replacing it with the comfort and security that we're held by our Father in heaven.
[00:30:17] And this enables the Christian to despise death, to face what mankind fears the most, death and suffering, to face it and despise it.
[00:30:29] Remember Paul's words in Philippians 1. He's gotten it. He's there now. I don't know that I'm there. You may not be there yet, but Paul got it.
[00:30:38] He said, for me, to live is Christ, but to die is gain.
[00:30:44] To die means to depart and go be with the Lord. And that's better.
[00:30:50] There's a truly wonderful thing here when Christ removes and takes away the power that the fear of man has over us and replaces it with a true and godly fear and understanding of God and His power and love for us.
[00:31:06] So fear God, not men. And learn with Paul and with the Lord Jesus himself to despise death and everything that mankind can throw at us.
[00:31:19] Thirdly, finally, don't fear men, but trust God because God cares for you. Don't fear men, because God cares for you.
[00:31:32] Think about Stephen standing before the Sanhedrin and he preaches that beautiful sermon.
[00:31:40] And it's all about what God had promised in the Old Testament and that it all had come to fulfillment in the coming of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the righteous one.
[00:31:53] Stephen got it.
[00:31:55] Jesus had come to reveal what was hidden in the Old Testament, that salvation was here in the person of the Son of God.
[00:32:04] And he preached it without fear of man.
[00:32:09] And then what happened?
[00:32:12] Then they grabbed him and they hauled him outside the city and they began to cast stones at him.
[00:32:22] It's not just that men may stone us or that they can and have power to kill.
[00:32:29] They will.
[00:32:31] They will do things to us to cause us to be afraid for our jobs.
[00:32:37] Be faith for our security, for our families, for our lives. Perhaps even here, Jesus adds yet another comfort.
[00:32:45] Don't fear men because God cares for you.
[00:32:51] To put it another way, Jesus is saying, entrust yourselves to your heavenly Father.
[00:32:59] Fall into his hands.
[00:33:01] He's holding you. Let him carry you through suffering and everything else in life.
[00:33:08] What does he point to? He points to God's providence. His caring of the sparrows.
[00:33:16] Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
[00:33:24] God, in his providential care for his creation, cares for the sparrows, some of the least important, least valuable of the birds.
[00:33:33] But really, we know he cares for everything.
[00:33:35] He's watching over and governing everything going on all over the world.
[00:33:43] He knows where all of the ants are at every moment, any moment in time. God knows where every ant is. In the Sonoran Desert, that's probably a lot of ants. Where every termite is.
[00:33:57] Think of the happier creatures Maybe the javelina.
[00:34:01] He knows where all of them are, the fish in the seas. Psalm 104 says he knows where all of them are too, and all of the creatures in the world.
[00:34:11] Psalm 104 says God feeds them all.
[00:34:15] They look to him for food. When he opens his hand, they feed from his hand. That's how that psalm describes God's care over the living creatures in the world.
[00:34:27] And of course, it also says that when he withdraws their spirit, when he takes their life from them, they fall to the ground and die. Jesus says, not one of the sparrows falls unless your heavenly Father knows it and allows it.
[00:34:43] This is God's providential working in power over everything in creation.
[00:34:52] He says that for his people.
[00:34:55] He wants us to know that it extends to every minute detail of your existence in life.
[00:35:02] He's counted all of the hairs on your head at any moment in life. He knows how many hairs there are. It's impossible for us to do that. I can't do it. You can't do it. They're constantly falling out, coming and going. But he has them counted at all times.
[00:35:17] He knows what's going on at every cell in your body.
[00:35:20] Why is it sick? Why isn't it working? He knows. He's caring for you.
[00:35:26] God is perfectly capable. Jesus is saying in every way that you have need of. Of caring for you.
[00:35:33] And he does.
[00:35:35] So trust Him. Give yourself over to him in his perfect care.
[00:35:42] There's our doctrine of providence.
[00:35:44] Jesus is applying it to this situation of persecution and suffering for his name.
[00:35:52] But he says something here.
[00:35:55] He says that the sparrows fall to the ground.
[00:36:01] One of the sparrows may fall to the ground.
[00:36:05] In other words, God in His providence, allows the animals to die.
[00:36:10] Sometimes they starve to death. Sometimes they're eaten by another creature bigger than they.
[00:36:17] You might think of it this way, or Jesus saying it this way in terms of our suffering and persecution.
[00:36:24] God in his providence, the God who allows the sparrows to fall, God allows the suffering and death of his servants.
[00:36:33] Or we could say it even stronger in terms of providence.
[00:36:38] God governs and arranges the suffering and death of his servants.
[00:36:46] Think of Stephen.
[00:36:49] Remember what we said the previous section, last sermon. Jesus is the one King. Jesus is the one who sends his servants out to preach. He's the one who sends them to bear witness before courts and rulers.
[00:37:07] King Jesus in His providence, sent Stephen to bear witness to preach the gospel before the Sanhedrin. He put him there to preach the mystery that was now revealed in Christ.
[00:37:21] And he stood there and preached that God saves sinners through Jesus Christ, His Son.
[00:37:27] And God, the God who allows sparrows to fall, allowed the stones to fall on Stephen.
[00:37:35] One by one, the stones fell. As he slowly took a while, he slowly died.
[00:37:43] Sparrows fall to the ground.
[00:37:48] Jesus says that's a part of God's providential care for us and how it applies even to our suffering for his name.
[00:37:58] But he says you are of more value than sparrows, many sparrows.
[00:38:07] Whatever you suffer in Christ's name, whenever it happens, Jesus calls you to entrust yourself to your heavenly Father in His care.
[00:38:18] Notice how we aren't even talking about men and fear of men anymore.
[00:38:22] That's almost melted away.
[00:38:26] Entrust yourself to your Heavenly Father in His care for everything up to and including death.
[00:38:37] He's saying you can know for absolute certain that whatever happens, whatever you experience, however awful God is with you, he's caring for you and. And you need not fear men as you go through it, because you are precious to your Heavenly Father. Just how valuable you are so valuable to your Heavenly Father that He was willing to pay for you with the blood of His Son.
[00:39:04] Not gold or silver or copper coins. He purchased you with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish were spot.
[00:39:15] You're so precious to him that he sent his own Son to the cross to die for you.
[00:39:23] And he purchased you, body and soul.
[00:39:27] You belong to the Son and to the Father and no one can separate you from them.
[00:39:33] Nothing, nothing that man can do to you in this life. All of it's permitted, allowed by your Father in His providence. And all the while he's there caring for you.
[00:39:47] Jesus says, you belong to Me and you belong to my Father.
[00:39:50] And oh, how he cares for you wonderfully. Entrust yourself to Him.
[00:39:58] How small is the threat. How great is the threat.
[00:40:05] Do what Stephen did.
[00:40:08] He didn't fear men. He boldly bore witness.
[00:40:11] He preached that Jesus was the righteous one.
[00:40:15] And then as the stones fell, what did Stephen do?
[00:40:19] He entrusted himself to his Heavenly Father and to Jesus, his Son.
[00:40:25] As the stones slowly took his life, he cried out, lord Jesus, into your hands I commit my spirit.
[00:40:36] That's what Jesus is calling us to.
[00:40:39] Through whatever life brings and whatever the world brings. Commit ourselves, body and soul, and trust that they, the Father and the Son, will care for us.
[00:40:52] Remember Jesus words in Matthew? I'm sorry. John 10.
[00:40:56] He says, the Father has given the sheep to me and I laid my life down for them. And I give eternal life to my sheep that your souls will Never die, but will be with God forever.
[00:41:09] And then Jesus says, and no one can snatch you, my sheep, out of my hand.
[00:41:15] And the Father is greater than I, and no one can snatch them out of his hand.
[00:41:21] And there you are, wrapped in the hands of the Father and of the Son.
[00:41:26] Trust God as you go through trials.
[00:41:31] Well, Daniel's three friends, they didn't know Jesus by name, but that's what they did. They didn't fear Nebuchadnezzar and fear man. They trusted God and they said, king, whatever you do to us doesn't matter.
[00:41:48] We fear God. We trust Him. He will care for us. And what happened?
[00:41:53] Not a hair on their heads was singed.
[00:42:00] One last thought here.
[00:42:02] Jesus calls us not to fear men, but to proclaim the gospel.
[00:42:06] But he calls us to do something He Himself did.
[00:42:11] He's inviting us. Follow me. Come along with me.
[00:42:16] Yeah, it's scary, but you're going where I've gone.
[00:42:21] Jesus himself went and testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.
[00:42:27] And as he hung on the cross, he entrusted himself to his heavenly Father. You remember his dying words, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
[00:42:41] He's calling us to be like him, to go where he went. And he promises to come with us.
[00:42:48] And what happened? Because Jesus committed himself to the Father, the one who judges justly raised him from the dead.
[00:42:58] That's not just the hope that we preach to the world, but it's the hope that we have that if men take our lives, one day Jesus will come and raise us from the dead and we will be with him forever, body and soul. Let's pray.
[00:43:18] Lord Jesus, what comfort you offer us in every trial and difficulty of this life.
[00:43:27] Yes, we know that things are difficult when we face people who do not love you and who do not want to hear about sin and salvation and eternal life.
[00:43:40] But we thank you, too, that these promises are for us in every circumstance of life, that we belong to you and we do not need to be anxious or fear, but that we can serve you with confidence and with boldness.
[00:43:57] Lord Jesus, grant us this peace and help our anxiety and fear to melt away, whether it be fear of men or fear of want or fear of sickness.
[00:44:10] And help us to set our eyes upon you and upon the things above.
[00:44:16] Grant us a full assurance of your love for us and of your carrying us through everything in this life.
[00:44:23] Help us that we might bear faithful witness to you first in our homes, with one another and with our children and our loved ones, that we would testify to your love and your grace and help us further to testify to the world that in you is hope of salvation and deliverance from the miseries of this life and from sin and hope, sure hope of life eternal in glory.
[00:44:56] We pray these things in Jesus name, amen.
