Matthew 10: 27 – 31
Final Destinations
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.
If you have the opportunity to review all four Gospels you will find that Luke also recorded this teaching of our Lord. Let’s see if Luke gives us any more information.
Luke 12: 3 – 7, “3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. 4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! 6 “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
You might be thinking to yourselves that they are both the same. Take another look at both again. I want to list theses two verses from each Gospel and see what you think?
Matthew 10: “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.”
Luke 12: 4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!
And you say, ‘So?’ Look at Matthew’s version which says that someone’s soul and body can be destroyed in hell by God. In Luke’s version it reports less information of a person being cast into hell. Some of you might also now being thinking so what? They both are saying the same thing even though Luke doesn’t mention a body or a soul? I hope to explain this difference in a little while.
27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.
Here we see our Master and Teacher, our Lord Jesus Christ telling His disciples and us ‘in the darkness’ that we all must speak out in places where all can see, and what He as it were whispers in their ear they are to yell out from the housetops - For that indeed is the purpose for which He has called them and us. No believer in our Lord Jesus Christ gets a free pass to ignore this order from our Holy Ruler. It is in order that they might be His witnesses. News was regularly literally shouted from high housetops so that it could reach as many as possible.
The reference to darkness and light looks back to chapter 4 verse 16. ‘The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death life has sprung up.’ Our Wonderful Holy Lord Jesus here confirms that Matthew has taken that idea from His own teaching (as well as from Isaiah chapter 9 verse 2). His disciples had been in darkness, but He has come as a light to speak to them in the darkness so that they might become a light to others. As the light of the world He has spoken to them in the darkness, so that they might be filled with light.
The inner rooms when there are no lights were the most private parts of people’s homes. Similarly, what evil thoughts, words or actions we think are covered up are not secret from the one who sees and knows all. If our Holy Master and Ruler will not allow a man whom He loved to get away with sinful actions, do you think He will allow anyone else? The man as you know whom our Great God loved was David. David took his best friends wife and committed adultery with her. She wound up pregnant by David. To cover up this shame, David ultimately order his best friend, Uriah, to be killed. We find this information in the book of 2 Samuel chapter 11,
“It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.” 6 Then David sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah had come to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war prospered. 8 And David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. 10 So when they told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Did you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house?” 11 And Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.” 12 Then David said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Now when David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house. 14 In the morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.” 16 So it was, while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 Then the men of the city came out and fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, 19 and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, 20 if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth?[a] Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’” 22 So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him. 23 And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. 24 The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.” 26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. 27 And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
So, David thought that he had taken care of everything. We all know that he forgot One Great Holy God. Look at what happened next in chapter 12.
“Then the LORD sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the LORD lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’” 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” 15 Then Nathan departed to his house.”
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.
Let me ask you all a question to think about and it is this. Are you looking forward to Heaven? Do you think other believers are looking forward to Heaven? Then why are we all fighting and worrying so hard to what people think about us or what they can do to us. Hey, take me out and shoot me. Get it over with. Drop a nuclear bomb right on my house. It will be over is less than a second. Do you understand my point? Our Great Holy Majestic Ruler is pointing out to all of us to face up to final consequences, and therefore not be afraid. What does it matter if the body is killed off? What they should remember is that anyone who touches them cannot touch their inner life within them. Thus if they are martyred they will simply go on to be with Him. So they need not fear those who have the authority of life and death, because that is all that they can do.
The One Whom they therefore need to be in awe of is the One Who has the power of eternal life and eternal death. Let them therefore be in awe of Him, the One Who can destroy both body and inner being in hell.
Now, here is something that I feel we need to take a look at and it is this, what happens when people die?
Well, many people are taught that if they are a believer they go to be with the Lord and if they are not, then they are held in a temporary prison until being resurrected to face final judgment. The verse that teachers use to say that a believer goes immediately to heaven and are with the Lord is 2 Corinthians 5 , “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
Where does it say that a believer who dies is transported by the angels into Heaven where a believer is instantly with our Master Lord Jesus? This is what I believe this verse from the apostle Paul is saying. He is taking what we read about here and is looking forward to Heaven. He is not afraid of what may happen here because he knows that the reward someday will be with the Lord.
I want you to look up the word sleep throughout your bibles. What I read is like the reference we read in the Gospel of John chapter 11, “ Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 4 When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. 7 Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11 These things He said, and after that He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.” 12 Then His disciples said, “Lord, if he sleeps he will get well.” 13 However, Jesus spoke of his death, but they thought that He was speaking about taking rest in sleep. 14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.”
Like the disciples we are also confused over death. Our Lord Jesus was describing what happens to all people they die. Believers in our Lord Jesus Christ are asleep awaiting the first resurrection. Non-believers will have to wait an additional 1000 years for the second resurrection as we read in the book of Revelation chapter 20, “4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a[a] thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
I want to share with you something very important. I do not believe I have ever heard this significant daily blessing from our Great God ever taught. It is not a mystery, but has been in the bible from the beginning. To display His Amazing Grace each day our Jehovah Elyon = The Lord Most High – gives us proof of our resurrection. You see this is one of the reasons our Holy Creator causes us to need to sleep. During the hours when we are asleep He provides entertainment for in in the form of dreams. Some of these movies are scary and some are very pleasant. As you know even sometimes He speaks to us during our dreaming. After a certain amount of hours something miraculous occurs. Do you know what this awesome event is? Our Loving God allows us to wake up. For all those individuals who have died or as I have mentioned are ‘asleep’ they will hear God’s alarm clock – a trumpet blast and they will wake up. We refer to this as our Resurrection. For us who are alive then we will be transformed as fast as the twinkling of an eye and then ‘so shall we be with our Holy Lord forever.
Next the question arises that I am not totally sold on is what we see in our Scripture verse – “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.”
The question that I seek answered through the word of God and no place else is whether as this verse indicates people will be totally destroyed in hell which includes both the body and soul. It will be as though that person never existed. Or is this verse merely indicating that our Creator can if He wants destroy the person totally? I lean presently in one direction.
There are only two places in the Old Testament where the fate of the wicked after resurrection is described and those are Isaiah 66 chapter 24 and Daniel 12.2.
Isaiah 66:24, “24 “And they shall go forth and look upon the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
Daniel 12:2”2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
In Isaiah the wicked are cast bodily into the valley of Hinnom where they are consumed by eternal maggots and eternal fire. But it is the maggots and the fire that are eternal, not the consciousness of the dead. In the case of the dead it is their carcasses which will be abhorred by all flesh. And it is their carcasses that the righteous will come to look on as a reminder of God’s judgment. The valley of Hinnom was the place where the dead bodies of criminals were thrown to be burned and eaten by maggots, and where the fires were continually burning in order to dispose of the rubbish of Jerusalem, so the point here is that the unrighteous dead are classed with the criminals and have become so much rubbish. But the everlastingness depends on the everlastingness of the lives of the righteous. While there is clearly the intention of indicating something rather more than the old Valley of Hinnom, it has not become what we think of as Ge-henna, ‘the ‘Valley (ge) of Hinnom’.
The same is true in Daniel. It is the shame and everlasting contempt which is everlasting, as in Isaiah. But it is only the righteous who are seen as having a conscious future.
Interestingly when we come to the New Testament Paul actually says nothing clear about the destiny of the wicked apart from to call it ‘death’ as he does in the book of Romans chapter 6 verse 23. He does speak of their being ‘eternally destroyed from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power’ in the book of 2 Thessalonians chapter `1 verse 9.
The Son of God, our Lord Jesus, on the other hand certainly speaks of conscious punishment beyond the grave, but He nowhere says that the consciousness will be everlasting. In the Gospel of Mark chapter 9 verses 43, 48 He merely applies the concepts of Isaiah 66.24 to Gehenna. It says nothing about the consciousness of those who are being punished. Indeed some argue that the whole point of ‘destruction’ is that after their punishment all the unrighteous are destroyed.
The only place where more detail is given in is Revelation. There we read of the Lake of Fire. But we must beware of reading this too literally, for Satan is thrown in there and Satan is a spirit being. Real fire would not worry him at all. The point of it for Satan, and for the wild beast and the false prophet, is that they are thrown alive into it. Thus they are punished for ever and ever. But that is apparently in contrast with the unrighteous who are thrown into it dead and are not said to be punished forever and ever. They are not in the book of the living. And it should be noted in this regard that Death and Hades are thrown in with them at the same time, and the only point behind that must be that they might be destroyed as Isaiah prophesied in chapter 25 verse 8 of his book. Death and Hades have no consciousness so they cannot be consciously punished.
Some have pointed to Revelation chapter 14 verses 9-11 to support their position. But that in fact supports Isaiah 66.24 as indicating that it is the means of punishment that are eternal. It is the smoke of their torment that arises forever and ever, a reminder of the trial by torture that they have faced. ‘And they have no rest day or night’ (or more strictly ‘they are unceasing ones day and night’) is a translation that assumes what it wants to prove. Exactly the same Greek words are used in Revelation 4.8 where they cannot possibly indicate anything but continuing joy. So the real point is the comparison between the two. Both those who worship God and those who worship the Wild Beast do so continually. But clearly the worship of the Wild Beast ceases after the events in Revelation chapter 19 verses 20-21.
This all suggests that we must be very careful before we claim that Scripture teaches eternal conscious punishment. While the fate of the unrighteous is clearly intended to be seen as horrific, it is nowhere spelled out that it is a matter of eternal consciousness. Many would feel that ‘destruction’ must be given its obvious meaning as in the end resulting in the removal from God’s fullness, when God will be all in all, of all that offends.
Perhaps we should consider that the wisest course is to teach what the Scriptures positively say and leave such matters to Him. For in the future we will all know the final outcomes, will we not?
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.
What does ‘copper coins’ remind you of in today’s descriptions? If you said, ‘pennies’ you are correct. You win a cookie.
Our Lord Is in total control of all things. He knows even the most insignificant minute details. Can you imagine that He knows the total amount of hair on each individual? Look again at verse 7 – “7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
If the message of the cross is ‘Good News’ then why are the Lord’s children keeping it so quiet? In many cases we in the United States are spoiled. We have not had it too difficult. You can practically walk into any store and purchase a bible? You can freely read it, talk about it to others, and gather to worship God and hear teachings on the Holy Scriptures. Are you aware that more Christians around the world are dying for their faith in our Lord Jesus Christ then in any time in history? Then what has happened to us? The answer is that we want to fit in with the world and at the same time be very content in knowing that our ticket to heaven is punched. Let other people do the work and proclaim the Gospel, is the principal thought that American Christians have fallen into.
Ask yourselves this question, ‘Have you ever led a person to Christ Jesus our Lord? If not then tell me why not? Are you any different from all the other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does it say that you are not responsible to go and tell others the Good News about our Great and Holy King Adoni Yeshua.
Probably the most scariest verses in the bible come from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 7, “21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
The apostle Paul wants everyone to take a hard look at yourself to make sure that you truly are saved. We read in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
Are you afraid to tell others that you love Jesus Christ? If you are blessed and know it then go out and tell others.
