Be Ready For Persecution

I would like to open with an illustration from the book Jesus Freaks: Jaun and his wife Maria felt God calling them to become missionaries in Columbia. Once, while travelling between villages, Jaun met about fifty armed guerillas. He took the opportunity to share the gospel with them, and twenty received Christ. As he says, they exchanged “pistols for epistles.” But with the threat, at least twenty churches were closed with the pastors fleeing the area, concerned for their lives and the lives of their families. Jaun and Maria chose to stay, yet they do not look down on those who left. Jaun says, “If I am to die because I preach the Word of God, then I would rather die than leave the church.”(1)

The book continues to explain, “Faith in God frees us to talk about Him; fear of man keeps our mouths shut, worrying about what others will think. Faith liberates. Fear incapacitates. However, there is one type of fear that does free us: the fear of God . . . [The fear of the Lord] is a revelation of who God really is in all His power as the creator of the universe. It is a revelation of the God to whom the devil and all his forces are an insignificant bother. It is the fear that Jesus talked about in Matthew 10:28 when He told us not to fear those who can kill the body and not the soul.”(2) If we have the fear of God, we will be ready to face persecution. And with this in mind, I want to invite you to stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word in Matthew 10:21-31:

21 Now brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. 22 And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. 24 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household! 26 Therefore, do not fear them. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 27 Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. 30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Have Endurance and Wisdom (vv. 21-23)

So, let us get started by looking at verses 21-23, where Jesus encouraged His disciples to have both endurance and wisdom when facing persecution. We first read about family members betraying one another to death (v. 21). Commentator Adam Clarke says, “That men should think they did God service, in putting to death those who differ from them in their political or religious creed, is a thing that cannot be accounted for, but on the principle of an indescribable depravity.”(3) So, could such a thing ever occur? Yes, and history is replete with examples. In Nazi Germany, neighbors informed on Jews, and on others who were considered undesirable by the regime. And during the Covid lockdowns, when state and local governments outlawed church gatherings, people called and snitched on their friends and family who attended church.

Jesus said, “You will be hated by all for My name’s sake” (v. 22). This flies in the face of the modern prosperity gospel that speaks of having favor with men. When you meet a Christian who is spoken about highly by everyone, that might not be a good thing. To please men is to be loved by men; to please Christ is to be hated by men. According to Jesus, those who endure hatred and persecution to the end will be saved (v. 22); not that they are saved through works, as in the work of endurance, but those who endure are the ones who have truly accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. It is evident that they are true believers, as they are faithful “to the end” (v. 22) – to the end of their life here on earth.