You’re Worth More Than A Bird – Matthew 10:16-33 (Sermon Notes)
If Jesus is the “Good Shepherd” (John 10:11) why does he send out his sheep in the midst of wolves? Why especially is he sending them out completely unarmed? (Matthew 10:9-10) Doves are meant for beauty, sheep are meant for peace (not war animals). So the tragedy and the profoundness is increased when they willingly walk into harm.
1. Our defense is our innocence. (Matthew 10:16-18, 29-31)
- Our innocence and love is a better defense than any violence or hatred.
- Serving in the church in So. Cal when the LA Archdiocese sex scandal erupted our insurance asked us to go to a reducing the risk seminar. I learned something there that I’ve had reinforced as true constantly. The greatest defense for children is a secure and open relationship with their parents. If they know they are loved, accepted and can tell their mom and dad anything then they have the greatest defense from predators.
- My prayer over Bailey & Caleb is not too make them strong, but fill them with light and love. I know that’s the greatest defense! Children who are disconnected from family are the ones vulnerable to the predators of society. Christ has filled us with love and light, he watches over us and protects us.
- Maintaining our innocence increases our powerful witness (Matthew 10:17-18). Think of the Apostles (Acts 4:13)
- Paul echoes these sentiments in Romans 16:19 where he says, “I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.”
- 1 Peter 2:12, “Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.”
- We are valued and loved, let us not sell ourselves to sin but be used by the Father. (Matthew 10:29-31)
- Ancient commentators on this passage felt that there were two choices. The first was to sell yourself to sin, the second be used by the Father in your redemption.
- Selling yourself gets you nothing, but remaining faithful to the end gives you everything.
2. Our allegiance is to God alone. (Matthew 10:21-23, 26-28)
- He is the one who loves us! (Matthew 10:22-23)
- We see in the 23rd Psalm that David tells us the shepherd leads us in “right paths, for his name sake.” Then the very next verse he tells us that we might walk through the darkest valley of evil. Is it possible that the “right paths” would take us through the dark valley of death and sin? Would right paths take us into the midst of wolves?
- What brings us comfort as we travel these dark paths? The shepherd, not our own cunning or strength. Even if our shepherd prepares a table in the presence of our enemies we will not fear!
- He is the one we fear. (Matthew 10:26-28)
- We don’t serve the world, we don’t serve ourselves, we don’t exist for self-preservation, here we see we don’t exist for our families. We exist by the grace of God to be faithful to his call in our lives.
- There is nothing the world can do, people can do that would persuade us to abandon God. The only thing to fear is not being on Jesus’ side.
- Haddon Robinson in his devotional TRUSTING THE SHEPHERD
on the 23rd Psalm tells us that the sheep’s job isn’t to have faith to conquer their enemies. It’s simply to have faith in the shepherd.
3. Our example is Christ. (Matthew 10:24-25)
- In his persecution Christ was not belligerent or evil, he was above all still, silent, he spoke as a testimony to the Sanhedrin. He testified to them, not for himself. This is the tradition of the martyrs of the early church.
- Think of Stephen the very first martyr who testified of Jesus to the end, but did not defend himself.
- Anytime an apostle or martyr is brought to trial in Acts they don’t tell their story but Christ’s.
- When we think of modern persecution in America we think of schools. Many of our students have just had their first week of school, and it’s in school that there has been a battle for prayer, religious education, etc. We expect our kids to be faithful, and they should be. But, I’ve heard less of a battle for prayer in the office or faith in the workplace. You say, “Well that’s different…” but it’s not. We are all called to faithfulness.
- And yet we send our children out and we go out to the world. Is it a necessary evil? Or is it our compelling call?
- Are we called to be like Christ? Are we called to go into the world as sheep to the slaughter? Is our mission to go out and lose, like sheep among the wolves.
4. Our mission is faithfulness. (Matthew 10: 19-20, 32-33)
- Why would any shepherd in his right mind send sheep out among wolves? One explanation is because he wants to show the world where the real power lies.
- Why would you send clay pots into a world with rocks? Because when they’re broken they leak out the power of God. (2 Corinthians 4:7)
- Why would you send lambs to the slaughter? Because when they are broken, their innocent blood testifies to the lamb whose blood was shed for all.
- Jesus hints at this in Matthew 10:19-20“Confession” indicates a profession of allegiance, a faithfulness to our call.
- But perhaps the better explanation is that Christ isn’t sending us out at all, rather he is leading us down the same path that he himself has tread
- Colossians 1:24, “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” What does Paul mean by this?
- What does this mean? Was it that Christ’s sacrifice wasn’t enough? No, it means that we are called to present the gospel in real life to people as they are.
- John Piper says it best, “What’s missing is the in-person presentation of Christ’s sufferings to the people for whom he died. The afflictions are lacking in the sense that they are not seen and known among the nations. They must be carried by ministers of the gospel. And those ministers of the gospel fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ by extending them to others. Paul sees his own suffering as the visible reenactment of the sufferings of Christ so that they will see Christ’s love for them.
- Many shepherds in ancient times were found dead with their own sheep. We know what happened, the wolves attacked.
- We know what happened, the shepherd died first and saved the sheep. The sheep died to save the wolves.
- Why would the shepherd send the sheep out among wolves? Because he gave his life for the wolves and expects us to do the same.
John Piper finished with this story by J. Oswald Sanders:
“An indigenous missionary walked barefoot from village to village preaching the gospel in India. His hardships were many. After a long day of many miles and much discouragement, he came to a certain village and tried to speak the gospel but was driven out of town and rejected. So he went to the edge of the village dejected and lay down under a tree and slept from exhaustion. When he awoke, people were hovering over him, and the whole town was gathered around to hear him speak. The head man of the village explained that they came to look him over while he was sleeping. When they saw his blistered feet, they concluded that he must be a holy man, and that they had been evil to reject him. They were sorry and wanted to hear the message that he was willing to suffer so much to bring them. So the evangelist filled up the afflictions of Jesus with his beautiful blistered feet.”
The entirety of John Piper’s material can be found on his website by clicking here.
