Matthew 10: 16 - 25
Suffering Persecution

I. CONSIDER THE FACT OF PERSECUTION. 

1. It should be a very sobering truth to us comfortable middle-class Americans. Persecution is said to be a normative fact of life for the Christian. In verse 16 here the Lord said so to his disciples and Paul echoes the truth for later followers of Jesus. Of these 12 disciples only one -- John -- is said by tradition to have died a natural death. And Paul became a martyr shortly after writing 2 Timothy following many years of persecutions. 

2. History bears this out as a general rule for followers of Jesus. Fox's Book of Martyrs was from the mid 1500's for hundreds of years afterwards essential reading for every Christian. (After John Fox died toward the end of the century, others in successive generations continued the story down to 1800's.) There are thousands of them whose stories are told. It list martyrs' gruesome deaths from burning alive; crucifixion; drowning; branding with red hot irons; hacking to pieces; strangulation; mutilation by slow, deliberate, painstaking, torture; mutilation by wild animals. 

These were the martyrs -- but were only token accounts of hundreds of thousands of anonymous martyrs down to the present time. And it would have been impossible to chronicle the tens of thousands of lesser forms of persecution where dear Christian saints were driven out of their homes, who lost everything they owned except their souls, who were beaten mercilessly, wandering with broken bodies from city to city; country to country for the sake of Jesus. Anyone who does not believe in total depravity ought to read Fox's Book of Martyrs or any good church history, for that matter. The facts fly in the face of the oft-heard cliche, that "man is basically good." Only the foolish or the naive could believe that it is so. 

And in this very day there are legions of the Lord's people who are being cruelly persecuted and there are many martyrs being made. Probably some place on the earth there are right this very hour martyrs dying for the sake of Jesus. 

3. But how unusual, and even astounding, that most of us have not experienced this kind of persecution. Most of us have not been "delivered up to councils" or "flogged in synagogues" (or the modern cultural equivalent hostile, heretical churches) or have not been dragged before governors and kings." 

What shall we say to this? First of all, let us recognize the underlying evil and barbarianism of the species. You who are young may well see the day in your lifetimes in our society where this comes to pass. Don't rule it out! Remember the viciousness of those people who turned on black protesters and their supporters only a few decades ago right here in our supposedly gentle, civilized society and realize that the depravity is still here, however thick a veneer of civilization covers it up most of the time. 

And have you ever -- in the face of some moral or cultural outrage -- heard (personally or reportedly) someone say "People like that ought to be beaten within an inch of their life" or, "People like that ought to be killed!" And don't you dare ever take the side of those kind of people, for your are a Christian, "wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove."

And how often do you reiterate your baptismal and communion promise to follow the Lord wherever he is pleased to allow your circumstances to bring you? Are you preparing yourself in the little applications of this passage -- recognizing and enduring little acts of persecution -- so that its larger applications will not seem like such a radical change to you if they come to pass? Overt persecution is a possibility. It has been the general rule of history. And you should not rule it out! 

4. Furthermore we must not forget that persecution is often muted and disguised. Let me give you some examples: A Christian who is not taken seriously in his profession because of his stand for Christ or the truth of the Bible or the morality taught in the Bible; A business man who will not work on the Lord's day and suffers discrimination against him by other businesses and customers and he pays for this financially; A Christian lawyer or politician is determined to be honest and is punished by his peers; A Christian who is marginalized socially because of his faith in Christ; Christian teenagers who are snubbed and disliked because they obey the Lord sexually or socially or are penalized for in their honesty in their academic career.

II. WHAT ARE WE TO DO IN THE FACE OF PERSECUTION IN ANY FORM? 

1. "Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves" -- v.16 for one thing. We do not lay all of our cards on the community table. We do not presume that society is utterly benign and that the goodwill we experience is not reversible. We remember this warning of the Lord and the one of Paul and determine to be as "wise as serpents and harmless as doves." 

And as I said two weeks ago, in all of adversity and especially in persecution we are to flee persecution insofar as we can do so. We seek to mitigate it and avoid it by any other means than disobeying or dishonoring God. This is what the N.T. Christians did. So must we. 

Unfortunately, there have been those who have had a deep, subconscious wish to be persecuted and there are those who by their unwise actions, presumptuous uncaution, bizarre theology, or haughty spirit call down persecution upon themselves. Let us all pray that we will not be among them and let us take the Lord's words into our hearts to "be wise as serpents and harmless as doves." 

2. Then, in the event we are persecuted, we should take consolation and comfort in being a follower of Jesus not only by our faith in his atoning salvation and obedience to his commandments but also in his life style as we imitate the experience of the Savior we love realizing the truth of "v.24".

1. In Matthew 5: 10 we have in the beatitudes 2 basic lessons. The second of them is "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake." "Blessed"! The word is similar to our word "lucky" or "fortunate" except without the pagan origin and associations. But "blessed" goes way beyond either of them in its being filled with theistic meaning and connection. The word means "rich", "happy," "fulfilled." Really there is no substitute for it. "Blessed" are you if you are "persecuted for righteousness sake." 

2. This blessedness is both present and future. Presently, you will know when you are persecuted, as our passage here in v.24 suggests, -- that you have been called to walk in the footsteps of the dear Savior and Lord whom you love. "v.24f". You are to consider that you are blessed to walk in the footsteps of the Savior who died for you and probably throughout all of eternity it will be a matter of satisfaction and blessedness that you were called to do so.

And the blessedness has a future locus also. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And the passage builds up to a crescendo when it says "Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven!" That reward is intangible and hard for us to understand in our present earthboundedness but it is so frequently emphasized in the N.T. that we cannot help but see it as a presently inexpressible blessedness that dwarfs even the greatest sacrifice that we could possibly make in response to him who "sends (us) out in the midst of wolves" to be his disciples.