Fear God Alone

Jesus never promised that following Him would be easy. In this sermon from Matthew 10, we discover why disciples should expect suffering, why the fear of God frees us from the fear of people, and why putting Christ first is the only way to find true courage, true love, and true life.

Transcript

The Gospel According to Matthew, chapter 10. The gospel according to Matthew, chapter 10. And when you found Matthew 10:24, go ahead and stand with me for the reading of God's word this morning.

Notice these words as found in Matthew 10. Jesus said to the disciples, to the twelve disciples, a disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master. It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household? So have no fear of them.

For nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light. And what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 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, yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows. Everyone therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.

But whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And one's foes will be members of one's own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it. And those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus, thank you for your holy word and thank you for your Holy Spirit, who you sent and told us that he will bring us into all truth. So, Lord, would you do that this morning through the preaching of your word? We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

Well, our lectionary readings have us in Matthew 10, really, for three weeks in a row. We barely were there last week we edged into that, and there was a larger reading we could have gone into that included all the way up to 23 here, verse 23. But then we've got this week, and then we've got another week with the rest of Matthew 10 here. And so Matthew 10 holds for us some of Jesus strongest words to his disciples. And are we not disciples?

We are disciples of Christ, if indeed we follow him and learn from him. Remember, disciple means learner. And Jesus, doesn't he here in this text begin just that same way. Jesus said to the 12, 12 learners, the 12 disciples, a learner, a disciple is not above his teacher and a slave not above the Master. What is Jesus doing here?

In this first little paragraph? He's saying this. If you follow me, the things that happen to me, don't be surprised when they happen to you.

Now, are we told that Jesus came into great wealth? No. So then can we preach a gospel of prosperity? No, of course not. He says, if you want to follow me.

Talking to someone who actually wanted to follow him. Remember they came up to him and said, hey, Jesus, I want to follow you. You know, I'm looking for those people all the time. By the way, as a pastor, you know, know, can I follow Jesus? And Jesus says, tell you what, I don't even have a place to lay my head tonight.

You in?

If we follow the Lord, as we've said in weeks previous, because of any other reason than he is good, him alone is what we want. Jesus, only then we've got our motives wrong. If we're following him for prosperity, if we're following him for some blessed life of material goods, well, dear brothers and sisters, look at our Lord's life. If we follow him, are we greater than He? No, of course not.

The disciple not greater than master. The slave not greater. Sorry, disciple not greater than his teacher and slave not greater than the Master. If you want to know what's coming for you, for me, as following him, then it's the same kinds of sufferings that Christ endured. This is why he even says, here, look, if they said that I did my miracles by Beelzebub, or Lord of the Flies, or Lord of the High Place.

Okay? It's a twisted way of saying, the prince of this world, the devil, you did your work by the devil. That's what he's saying. That's what they're saying here, Jesus. That's what they said of me.

Okay, so what do you think they're going to say of you? Nice things. Oh, I like those Christian folk, you know, they're wonderful.

No, no. In fact, they're going to have many names for us. And they will sometimes have suffering that awaits us in order to try to train us away from Christ. And this happens in all sorts of Ways. I mean, we can look back across 2,000 years, and at times, they taxed Christians, and that's how they got their way.

Right. The way of the world was won by taxing. If you want to be a Christian, then you're going to be taxed more than everybody. Or they took their stuff away, you know, and this is still going on today, by the way, in certain places around the world. Pastor Emily led the youth in a time of reflection kind of around the world of where Christians were being persecuted last.

Last semester. And it's surprising and shocking, and it seems so far away, but it's happening now to our brothers and sisters, like our household. You know that the church is this large household. It's not just located here locally. No.

As the Watsons are representatives of today, it's in the mountains, the rural mountains of Mexico. A forgotten people. Yes. The family of God is huge. And that family comes from the Master himself, the Father himself.

And if that father's son was persecuted for speaking the truth and doing what is right and loving others, and he was. We have a symbol before us that is the quintessential symbol of Christianity, and it is a cross that represents both his suffering, death, and victory for us.

So let's not think that we are above the sufferings of Christ.

The Hebrew writer deals with this, too, by the way. You remember suffering. Most of the epistles are written to people who are suffering. So it's curious to me that we've had this long stint where there's not a whole lot of suffering, and a lot of us get lazy and lackadaisical, asleep at the wheel, so to speak. And when the time comes for us to speak the truth, speak the truth in love, yes.

But speak the truth we must, at whatever the cost, whether it costs you your job. And I know that's a tough one. I get it. I understand. Many Christians before us face that same peril.

The truth is more important. We can trust the one who is the truth. And Jesus says it plainly. If you deny me, I will deny you before my Father. But if you acknowledge me, then I'll acknowledge you before the Father.

Okay. Notice that our Romans reading sort of echoes this same thing, doesn't it? Paul says this. You were baptized into his death. And we're all like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

What an image that it done. And I want to be like. I think if Paul was here, he'd say, you do understand what I'm saying? You were baptized into his death, which means you have to die in order to receive his New life. The thing about resurrection life is it's only received by those who have died.

You can't receive a life on top of life. No, that life must die. And then resurrection life is available, but not for those who aren't dead. And this is Paul's point with sin, isn't it? Should we continue to sin that grace may abound?

Of course not. That's impossible. And so Paul is echoing Jesus very words because he's a disciple too, and he suffered as well. And he was martyred. Many of our brothers and sisters before us have been.

The point is, we can't skip the cross. The point is to new life, the new life, the born again life. Life in the spirit is going to include suffering, going to include testing.

And our job in this is to follow the leader. Like, I love the way the scripture talks about him in Hebrews, being our pioneer who goes before us. He's not asking us, in other words, to do something that he hasn't done already. The path has already been worn that someone has trod here before. And not only that, here we are removed 2000 years.

That path is well worn to the scaffold, to the cross, well worn by other brothers and sisters. And it's time for us in the Spirit to find the courage to hold the truth. To hold the truth not in a nasty way, but in a way that speaks the truth in love. And we must, no matter the cost. We cannot deny him who is our truth.

Well, three times here in our text we have do not fear. It's funny because Jesus is like, yeah, yeah, you know, if you follow me, there's going to be suffering, this sort of thing. And he says, so have no fear. Then you're thinking, hold on, I must be missing something here. I always have to go back when he does that.

I feel like something was missed in between that little paragraph, you know? But nothing was missed. No. He says, so have no fear of them. And he gives three kinds of reasons why.

Number one, if you've ever been done wrong and you were doing what is right, but got painted as if you were doing wrong and perhaps fired or let go or whatever. Okay, anybody ever been there before in relationships or perhaps a job, whatever ministry? Yes. Okay, can I get an amen from someone willing to say it? Yes.

Here's what I have found to be the good news.

Sometimes you perhaps have to defend yourself. But most of the time, my rule is I'm gonna let God handle that. Now that's a hard. That's a hard rule, man. Because you're really, you know.

Now, I'm not saying in every circumstance you have to stay silent, but sometimes my rule is just, hey, you know what? God sees it, and that's enough for me. Now, sometimes you got to call it out and so on to protect others. Okay, I get that. But if it's about you, I just tend to, you know what?

I'm gonna let God speak for me. And if nobody else speaks up, then I'll just let you think whatever you want to about where I'm at or whatever. Okay? And I think that's what? Nothing.

Think about this. This is Jesus words. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered.

You ever had somebody cover up a situation? You know what happened, they know what happened, but they covered it up and nobody else does. And you look like the bad guy.

Nothing secret that will not become known. Now, listen, we might say good, can't wait till so and so, but hold the horses here. Nothing secret that will not become known. That means your secrets, too, dear brother and sister. Okay?

Now, thanks be to God, right? This is a good place to be. Thanks be to God that He forgives.

That he tells us. This is the God who knows everything. He tells us. I don't remember it. I cast it away as far as the east is from the West.

He doesn't. He chooses not to remember it. Thanks be to God for His forgiveness, for his reconciliation, for his great mercy.

But I'm going to tell you something. If you've not confessed it and it remains a secret, it will be exposed. It must be spoken. Named. Have you ever had to do that before?

Name what you did. It is egregious. It's painful. Here's what the scripture says. If you want to be healed, confess your sins one to another.

Now, that's not from here on the pulpit, please.

But part of our Methodist heritage is banded discipleship, what I call sometimes small batch discipleship, right? Where we get in there and we say, where have you sinned in the past week? And when you name these things, there's healing. Not to name it is to keep it secret. And for it to fester in the darkness.

And some things only grow in the dark. We need the light of Christ. I need the light of Christ. And we need to confess our sins. We must confess our sins.

Anything that we bury and try to justify ourselves will not be justified. In the end, the lid will come off and all will see, mainly God. That's a bad place to be. But if we confess our sins, what does the Bible say? He is faithful and just to forgive our sins.

Thanks be to God. But get this. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, there's two parts of that. Forgiveness and sanctification. Justification, Sanctification.

He does both. He's not willing to stop at just, oh, yeah, no, you're forgiven. Go do it again. No, no, no, no. Total transformation.

All unrighteousness. Glory to God. That's the good news, brothers and sisters. That's what we preach.

And even the sins of others, we are told not to keep them. Write them down. And.

That's a hard thing not to do for us. We like to have our little pocket. I knew it. I knew it. I'm just saying, let's be careful.

And I'm preaching myself today, by the way.

The second reason is not just because everything's going to be uncovered. Fear not. Everything will be found out in the end. So if you were right, it'll be found out. Don't worry.

Don't worry about that. He sees it, and that's all that matters. Second reason is this, though. Don't fear those who can kill the body because they can't kill the soul.

They cannot kill the soul. And Jesus says that's a reason for us to rejoice.

Now, that's a. That's a pretty strong one. But here's what he's doing. He's relocating fear. Not to be of people.

We are not to fear any man, but we are to fear God. And if our fear of God is the highest and the fear of man is just penultimate to the ultimate, then you got it. You got it. You won't fear any man. Because to fear God and not speak the truth is greater than what they can do to us.

All they can do is kill the body, torture the body. They cannot ever take your soul. We should fear the one who can put our soul and body in hell. Now, some have tried to say that's the devil, but I don't think so. The Bible says clearly to fear God.

God. So we know that that's who we have to fear as an ultimate. And when we fear him. And by the way, that's. That's the network.

If you want to be a wise person, how do you start. How do you start that process? Fear the Lord. Read Proverbs. There is no wisdom without first fearing God.

In an ultimate sense, we must.

And then the third one is the God that you fear is your Father.

And he's a good father. He's only good. Like, he can't even be bad. God cannot sin. Have you ever wondered, I wonder if God can't do something.

He can't sin.

He can't and he never will and he won't ever be evil. Now that's not a limitation on God. It's a limitation on our end that we can. It's a deprivation, just like evil is. It's a depriving of life, not a gaining of it.

He's only good. And that fear doesn't turn into paralysis, but instead courage to stand before anyone and speak the truth of Jesus Christ, speak the good news. We don't fear any man. And you know, in our family history we have some people who have done that, you know, because rulers inevitably turn to physical fear and fear tactics that deal with our body and death and all these things. They always have.

That's how despots rule. They always get their power through violence, violence, corporeal punishment and this sort of thing. They govern people by fear. I think of Thomas More in our own tradition of Anglicanism, right? You remember who he was.

Lord Chancellor under. Remember Henry viii? It was a very similar situation between him and John the Baptist. I want you to say that this marriage is good and he would not do it. I want you to say, I'm head of the church and he would not do it.

He was a very wealthy man, very popular, all that was stripped of him, but he still had his life. Do you think any of that swayed him? No, because he feared God above his wealth. He feared God above his honor. He feared God above his pleasure.

He feared God above any man. And it cost him his head. And as he stood on the scaffold, we have the recorded last words. He said this. I die the king's good servant, but God's first.

You see, the king to him was just penultimate, second to the highest or last or the end of all things. Who is the supreme one? God.

From another tradition, we have someone who didn't fear death in this way. Gandhi himself, you remember, with his revolution for India against Great Britain and. And they were going to kill him because of his position. And here's what he said. They may torture my body, break my bones and even kill me.

Then they will have my dead body, but not my obedience.

Jesus saying, they can only kill your body. You can still do the right thing all the way to the end. Think of John the Baptist. Think of a modern 1. The 21 Coptic Christians in Libya who were knelt down beside the Mediterranean Sea and beheaded for their faith.

And eyewitness accounts tell us that they were praying not Screaming, they were praying and calling out, ya' Rab Yeshua, which is my Lord Jesus. Jesus, as they died. That was just a few years back. You see, all they can do is kill the body. But the message goes on.

The witness stands and the blood of the martyrs cries out for justice. And God won't stand for it forever. He's very gracious, but he won't stand for it forever. And one of the early church fathers said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. We're here today because people stood when they were asked to kneel before a human power.

We will never bend the knee to just a human power unless that human is Jesus Christ himself.

Well, Jesus then says something troubling and hard to reconcile, quite frankly. He says, I didn't come for peace. I came to bring a sword. A sword to divide on Father's Day of all times. A son from this father.

How could you? Pastor Marshall, it wasn't me. Dear brother or sister, these are challenging words of Jesus himself. Because the reality is there is no peace before there is spiritual warfare. The flesh against the spirit.

And God's word divides right between the two. And we must at times choose God over job, or God over family or God over spouse. And it's got to be God. Now, I know that sounds wild, because if I were sitting here saying, you got to choose me over your spouse, you got to choose me over your children, which is exactly what Jesus says here. You got to love me more than your children or you're not worthy to follow me.

Now, he's either lost it or he's God. This is C. Lewis famous argument in Mere Christianity, isn't it? He's either lost his mind. You tell me I gotta love you more than anyone. Yes, I am.

And if you don't take up your cross too, you're not worthy either. These are hard words, but I want us to hear it again today. Because here's the good news. When we love God above our spouse, then our marriage is rightly ordered. I did a wedding yesterday.

Isley's and I spoke it over them. They're starting their marriage. And if God's love is not the well from which we draw love for each other, it'll never last. If we don't order him first and then each other next, and then our children, and so on and so forth, then everything is disordered in our life.

But when it's in its right order, when it's in alignment, let me just tell you, marriage has never been better. 22 years in never been better. When Christ is our true love. When Jessica, yes, she's my wife, but she's also my sister in Christ. And she's God's before she's mine.

My children are God's before they are mine. And when we have that order in place, it makes us treat our children very differently. I don't have to just get them to fear me like I'm big and bad and smart. No, no, no. I hope they see dad crying out for God's help.

I've had to come to my children and did recently over something. Will y' all pray for me? Ah, I can't do this. That's a good place to help dads, for your children to find you. And when you mess up as a dad, and we will with our children, you know what's good?

To not only ask their forgiveness, but God's and do it before them. Teach them how to repent.

So fear no one but our Heavenly Father, Our good, merciful, loving Heavenly Father, who sent his son to be our brother and who has sent His Holy Spirit to give us not a timid faith, but a courageous faith, one driven by love of others, not because they're lovely, but because God loves them. And he died for them. And he calls us to be his witnesses. What a gospel. What a message.

Let's put God first today. No matter where you are, no matter what you're facing, fear is the beginning of wisdom. And I would say it this way, the end of wisdom is love. We start in fear, we end in love.

It doesn't remain in fear. We eventually become like our Father, so that what we want is what he wants and what he wants is what we want. Not My will, but thine. He taught us, didn't he? Now it's time for us to walk that same path.

Many have gone before us. Let us follow in this household of God, no matter the cost. He's worth it. He's worthy. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Total Duration 00:30:13