Sermon
for Reformation Sunday, October 29, 2023
Grace and peace to you
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Matthew
10:16-23 16“Look, I am sending you out
as sheep among wolves. So be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17Be on guard against people. They will hand you over to councils, and they
will whip you in their synagogues. 18You
will be brought into the presence of governors and kings for my sake, as a
testimony to them and to the Gentiles. 19Whenever
they hand you over, do not be worried about how you will respond or what you
will say, because what you say will be given to you in that hour. 20In fact you will not be the ones
speaking, but the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you. 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.” (EHV)
Sent
out as sheep among wolves to save.
Dear beloved lambs,
Years ago, one of my young neighbors, a military recruit,
was anxiously waiting to start his training when his recruitment officer told
him that boot camp would be “The most fun he’d never want to go through
again.” In a similar vein, Jesus’ words
to His disciples sound like something a whole lot different than fun. Life as a Christian disciple is often
difficult, even dangerous, but especially so for those twelve apostles. They were Sent out as sheep among wolves
to save.
Do Jesus’
words to His people put a shiver in your bones?
This time of year, many people like to go and be scared silly in a
Halloween Haunted House or hayride. Do
Jesus’ words scare you in the same way? To
be honest, sheep don’t ordinarily stand much chance when surrounded by a pack
of wolves, so what chance do we have to survive the attacks of our Shepherd’s
enemies?
Of
course, dear friends, our Good Shepherd promises He will never abandon His
precious lambs to be ripped apart by their enemies. He warns us about them, but then tells us how
we can deal with these dangerous conditions in which we are to live and
work. "Look, I am sending you
out as sheep among wolves. So be as
shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
Notice, first,
who is sending us. In the Greek it is
doubly emphasized that it is Jesus, our Savior and King who says: "Behold, I, I Myself, send you
out!” Therefore, we go out with the
full authority of the Son of God to carry out the mission He has prepared for
us. You already know what that mission
is because He told us before He left, "Go and gather disciples from all nations by
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you.” (Matthew 28:19-20) Thus, as members
of the Christian Church on earth, you and I can say with full confidence and
the authority of God Himself, “We are in this world to make disciples for
Jesus.”
Still, Jesus warns us about the dangers we will
face. Savage wolves surround us,
constantly seeking to rip and tear and consume us. They are not worried about whether we make it
home to our Shepherd. They want us dead
and in hell with them! You know who
their leader is: the same rebellious deceiver who wanted to destroy Jesus and
steal His glory, Satan himself.
What may surprise us about Jesus’ warning is that
those lurking enemies are often very close to home: among our family members,
friends, neighbors, and even ourselves. Does
that last one shock you? That we each
have a deceitful nature that wants to consume us? Our natural flesh doesn’t want us serving the
King of Creation—rather, it tries to draw us back into the devil’s lair. Did you ever hesitate to get up on a Sunday
morning to hear God’s Word? Neglect to
read the Bible regularly on your own?
Ever fail to share the Gospel with someone you know needs to hear about forgiveness
in Jesus? Ever spend your money, or
time, or energy in ways you knew Jesus wouldn’t approve? Or, am I the only one here guilty of these
things?
Jesus said, “Be as shrewd as snakes.” Be constantly on guard against those who
would stomp out your life, but recognize that we are all sinners who need a
Savior. Hold on to what we know is true:
our Savior and King, all His wonderful promises, His victory over sin and death
on our behalf, and His resurrection from the grave showing what He has in store
for us. We need to be on our guard
against those people and things that would tempt us to wander, and we need to
be armed for the battle, not with swords or weapons of mass destruction, but
with “The whole armor of God… with truth,
having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with
the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of
faith…the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God.” (Ephesians 6:13-17)
Jesus said, “Be
innocent as doves.” The idea is to
allow no evil thought or desire to possess us.
Nothing we do should give our enemies an edge or a reason to accuse or
slander us. We are to be innocent as
doves with no evil intent in anything. Naturally,
that sounds awful tough for us sinners to do, but remember, we are washed in
Jesus’ blood, cleansed from all sin, and strengthened by the Holy Spirit in
Word and Sacrament. If anyone can live in
repentance and humble submission to God’s will, it should be us, and when we
fail, or find ourselves struggling, we return to our Lord for the forgiveness
He freely offers to be refreshed and renewed again.
Jesus told His disciples, "Be on guard
against people. They will hand you over
to councils, and they will whip you in their synagogues. You will be brought into the presence of
governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.” Jesus’ apostles had an especially challenging
part in history because it is through their work that the Holy Spirit brought
the Gospel to the whole world.
Remember
what His disciples had to face in the years after Jesus ascended to
heaven. The Jewish councils brought the
apostles in and commanded them not to speak of Jesus. When that didn’t stop the apostles from
proclaiming Jesus’ name, the deceitful religious leaders whipped those first
believers, tearing their flesh to shreds.
When that still didn’t stop the preaching of forgiveness and salvation
in Jesus’ name, the savage wolves tried to catch and kill every Christian.
Later,
St. Paul (who himself had once been a savage wolf, but now converted by our
Lord) had a long list of abuses and injuries he had suffered at the hands of
those who hated Christ, and the list of martyrs for Jesus throughout the
centuries is very long and growing longer every day.
We might
remember how Martin Luther was attacked by the men in power: the pope
excommunicating him and putting a price on his head; the emperor commanding him
to change his mind or be subject to immediate death, but through all of this
strife against the various followers of Christ, what is Jesus accomplishing? The Good News of Jesus’ victory over sin and
death is being testified to those who hate Him, and the Gospel is shared among
His enemies despite their efforts to stomp it out, simply, because in His love
for the human race—even for those who hate Him, “God our Savior…wants all
people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy
2:3-4)
Remember
Paul telling Governor Festus and King Agrippa, "I pray God, that whether in a short time or a long time, not only
you, but also all those who are listening to me today would become what I am,
except for these chains."
(Acts 26:29) Even in his chains, Paul
preached Christ crucified for sinners, hoping that the Gospel would lead some
to believe and be saved. Later, he had
opportunities to witness even to Caesar, and you and I are believers because
the Good News of Jesus has been spread throughout the world.
Martin Luther, too, was able to declare the saving
Gospel to the emperor’s high officials and solemnly declare to even those
wolves that had invaded the church, “Unless I can be instructed and convinced
with evidence from the Holy Scriptures…—and my conscience is captive to the
Word of God—then I cannot and will not recant…here I stand. I can do no other. God help me!
Amen.” Sent out as sheep among
wolves to save, Jesus’
followers face similar enemies every day.
Jesus
told His men, "You will be brought into the presence of
governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them and to the
Gentiles. Whenever they hand you over,
do not be worried about how you will respond or what you will say, because what
you say will be given to you in that hour.
In fact you will not be the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father
will be speaking through you.”
Today, most of us likely won’t be called to testify before the leaders
of our state or country, yet there will be plenty of times when we will need to
give an answer for what we believe.
Now, some
would have us believe that Jesus meant we should rely on a special outpouring
of the Spirit in ourselves to give us knowledge in every situation. Those same unreliable teachers often then use
that myth to invent their own teachings, but Jesus was really assuring us that
what His disciples would be given to preach was truly His Father’s
message. Therefore, you and I must
understand that what they wrote, in what we know of as the Bible, is God’s
honest truth, and we should never teach or preach anything that goes against,
or away from, that reliable Word.
Jesus’
disciple, John, later wrote, “Dear
friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are
from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) ow do we do this testing? Simply by comparing every thought,
communication, or message of spiritual things with what God’s Word actually
says. Anything that doesn’t line up
exactly with the message of the Bible, with the promise that Jesus is our One
and only Savior from sin without any contribution on our part, is of the spirit
of the devil and can be from no other.
It is terrifying to be surrounded be evil forces
seeking our destruction, but Jesus also delivers the sad warning that even our
closest family members can be deadly wolves.
"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.
You will be hated by all people because of my name, but whoever endures
to the end will be saved.” Not
everyone will believe in Jesus. In fact,
in our natural, corrupted state, we all began as unbelievers hating Jesus and
His every follower. We see this
displayed in the news today, in the movies, TV shows, internet, and
papers. The more our society has moved
away from following Jesus as Lord and Savior, the more has evil gone on
attack. The godless and idol worshippers
have been attacking Christian believers, especially the newly converted, ever
since Jesus’ day, and unfortunately, the salvation and forgiveness that is such
a saving comfort to many, brings out murderous hatred in the rebellious ones.
At the
same time, we have Jesus’ enduring, unshakable promise, “But whoever endures to the end will be saved.” Every disciple who continues in Jesus’ Word
until the end of his or her days here on earth has absolutely nothing to fear
for eternity, because we who have been brought to faith in Jesus by the Holy
Spirit already have eternal life. St.
Paul wrote to the Roman Christians:
What will separate us
from the love of Christ? Will trouble or
distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Just as it is written: For your sake we are
being put to death all day long. We are
considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor
life, neither angels nor rulers, neither things present nor things to come, nor
powerful forces, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans
8:35-39)
In his great Reformation hymn, Luther wrote, “And take they our life,
goods, fame, child, and wife, let these all be gone, they yet have nothing won;
the Kingdom ours remaineth.”
“He who endures to the end will be saved.” What a wonderful promise Jesus gives!! That every Christian, who faithfully clings
to His Father’s promise of forgiveness of sins and life everlasting for Jesus’
sake, will be saved. That’s also why
Jesus sends out His precious sheep into a world of deadly attackers, so that
many more of those that hate Him will be turned from their wicked ways and be
transformed into sheep in our Good Shepherd’s eternal flock.
We know
from the Bible that God works all things for the good of those who love
Him. That includes even persecution and
hatred by those who despise Christ.
Jesus said, "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.” Commentators can’t quite agree on what Jesus
meant with the last part of this phrase, but we can be confident of the first
part. Jesus doesn’t abandon those in His
care to the wolves. Rather, when a place
is infested with those who want only to kill Jesus’ precious sheep, then it’s
time to move on to another place to share the saving message of Christ
crucified for sinners. We then shake the
dust off our feet against those who reject Jesus and carry the Gospel to
another area so that the Holy Spirit can work saving faith in other troubled,
hurting souls.
Dear
friends, what a message we have from Jesus this Reformation! Because
those first apostles were Sent out as sheep among wolves to save, we
have the sure and certain promises of the Gospel which give us forgiveness of
all sin, salvation, and eternal life. It
also gives us great confidence when Jesus sends us out so that more and more of
His lost sheep will be saved even though savage attackers often surround us, for
Jesus never leaves us alone to the mercy of the attackers. Instead, protecting us every step of our way,
our Good Shepherd has surely and solemnly promised, "I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5) “Whoever endures to the end
will be saved.” Amen.
Glory be to the Father
and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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