Sermon: Kingdom Expectations

In last Sunday’s sermon, Jason taught us from Matthew 10:16-42. This marks a pivotal point in Jesus’ teaching of the disciples. They’ve been called. They’ve walked with Jesus. They’ve heard that the Kingdom is at hand and that the fields are white. But before he sends them out, Jesus gives them one of his hardest teachings: He tells them to expect conflict – even in their own homes.

Jason unpacked this teaching by looking at three truths about our labor and life for Christ…

1. Conflict accompanies our labor and life for Christ. There will be opposition to Jesus because the world is opposed to Jesus. The disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. They called the very son of God Beelzebub. How much will they revile us when we go out in his name?

The world doesn’t like the Jesus of this passage. He is too demanding, fixed, and inflexible. This Jesus makes complete and unqualified demands that must be accepted or rejected. He says that nothing – not even our children! – can rival him. Who says such things? The world hates him for it, and so we should not be surprised when it hates us too.

2. God works in the midst of conflict as we labor and live for Christ. The shepherd knows what the sheep are going into, and he sends them anyway. As we go, he goes with us, and as the Kingdom advances the enemy will push back. And though it may seem to us like confusion, God sees the end from the chaos, and he is working even in suffering and persecution.

3. But we need not seek persecution. In fact, Jesus tells his disciples to flee to the next town if they’re persecuted. We’re not to be stumbling blocks for people. Jesus will be that, not us. This calls for wisdom: we must be as innocent as doves and as shrewd as serpents.

We need not fear as we labor and live for Christ. This command – Do not fear – is the most common in scripture because the Christian lives in a hostile world. So why should we not fear? Because we will be vindicated. Because the threat is small. Because our Father in Heaven has always taken care of us and always will.

If we take up our cross and follow him, the world will hate us, but Jesus will be with us. Jim Elliot understood well this reality when he said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”