16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns 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 the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household. (Matthew 10:16–25)

Introduction

Potential friction and suffering for Christ are the habitat of discipleship.

• Example: The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine—It survives because its punishing, high-altitude environment forces it to grow slowly, producing incredibly dense wood that is impervious to rot and insects. Similarly, the friction and suffering we experience as disciples is the necessary habitat of discipleship, forging a strong and resilient church. While we naturally desire the soft soil of comfort, it is the cross-bearing adversity of following Jesus that actually builds our steadfastness and preserves our corporate faith.
• Overarching truth of this passage: The church should expect potential friction and suffering for Christ.
  • We see it advance throughout the passage:
    • Localized Courts (courts, 17) →
    • Regional Religion (synagogues, 17) →
    • Broader State (governors and kings, 18) →
    • Family (brother, father, children, 21) →
    • Universal (hated by all, 22)
  • Note: The kingdom is simultaneously righteousness, peace, and joy (Rom. 14).

The words of this passage work among us in diverse ways.

• To the one in a significant trial: a word of perspective—others have paid (and are paying) a steep price, choosing trials for the gospel.
• To the one angered at cultural decay: a methodological word—Jesus did not see us as a power-group on a conquering crusade, but as a group entering as vulnerable sheep among wolves.
• To the worn out servant: a comforting word—you have emulated your Master.
• To the military officer or public servant: a preparatory word—God can help you stand for Christ in wise ways.
• To the college student: a freeing word—it is impossible to be liked by all.
• For our faith at work: a hopeful word—operate with wisdom and innocence, expecting God’s Spirit to give you words to share when the moment comes.
• Regarding missions: a redefining word—success in the kingdom is not always found in lots of conversions or big churches.
• To the not-yet-believing: a evaluating word—there is something about Jesus that has made all this pain worth it to many believers.

Theme:

• Jesus’ Kingdom collides with darkness, and his people are meant to extend that collision, bringing his life and light into dead and dark places. But we must do so with intentional vulnerability, the Spirit’s power, a shocking and steadfast strategy, and the accurate expectation that we will share in the sufferings of our Master.

1. Embrace an Intentional Vulnerability (10:16)

16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Jesus sends his disciples out as sheep among wolves—this is intentional vulnerability.

• Jesus has just started to send his disciples in his name. He gives them his authority. It’s time to have courage and go!
  • This exciting moment is punctuated by him labeling them as sheep.
  • Example: Jesus picks an animal mascot for his team. Which would he choose? From Scripture, he could have gone with lions, eagles, rams, or bears. Or, to bring Job into things, he could have gone with Behemoth or Leviathan. But he went with sheep.
• Sheep amid a wolf pack are defenseless without the shepherd.
  • Lesson: disciples must be totally dependent on the Good Shepherd.
• Behold, I am sending you: This is not accidental, but the intentional strategy of our Lord—Jesus himself sends this way.
  • We could call this a strategy of intentional vulnerability.
• Note: this was his strategy, so why wouldn’t it be ours?
  • The cross is not the exception, it’s the rule.
  • Like Jesus, we lose battles and win the war.

In this situation—sheep among wolves—we are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

• Serpents appear in Scripture as wise and discerning, even cunning.
  • Characteristics: prudent, intellectually keen, aware of the traps and dangers in a world sometimes hostile to the gospel.
  • To be wise as serpents is to become strategic, discerning, and hard to fool in the discipleship mission.
• Doves are peaceful, harmless, and non-violent—unmixed and pure.
  • Characteristics: pure intentions, transparent honesty, with a gentle nature that does not retaliate or deceive.
  • To be innocent as doves is to be approachable, peaceful, and loving on the discipleship mission.
• There is a danger in leaning serpent or dove.
  • Serpent danger: hardened, angered, distrustful spirit.
    • People become threats to manage, not image-bearers to love.
    • Serpent Leaning Question: Am I shrewd in order to protect and bless, or to control and win?
  • Dove danger: easily deceived, naive, gullible, ignorant.
    • Conflict avoidance is mistaken for peacemaking, but some peace requires a struggle.
    • Dove Leaning Question: Is my gentleness courageous love, or is it fear of conflict dressed up as virtue?
• We require the balance of both to carry out our Jesus mission.

2. Rely on the Spirit’s Help (10:20)

17 Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, 18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. 19 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Jesus promised his disciples the Spirit’s help—he would give them the words in the hour of persecution.

• A foreshadowing of Acts (and beyond):
  • Peter as a Case Study—After Peter’s First Imprisonment: When the religious leadership asked him, “By what power or by what name did you do this?”—Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he responded by glorifying Jesus’ name, explaining Jesus as the rejected cornerstone, and proclaiming there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:8-12). Peter and John’s bold reply shook the religious leaders—they knew Peter and John to be uneducated, common men (Acts 4:13).
  • Others: Stephen (Acts 7:2-53); Paul (Jerusalem mob, Sanhedrin, Governor Felix, Governor Festus, King Agrippa—Acts 21-26).
    • These were all terrifying environments, but Jesus told us do not be anxious how you are to speak in those moments—the Spirit is with us!
    • Paul: At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. (2 Timothy 4:16–17)

Jesus made this promise to disciples (learners) who were filled with his word.

• Preparation?
  • But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)
  • Note: this is not a word about sermon preparation.
• Peter’s Pentecost Sermon: I doubt it was the first time he’d considered Joel 2. It was there, in his heart, for the Spirit to draw from.
  • Example: Endurance racing is an eating and drinking contest.
• Application: be filled with the word so the Spirit can fill you with his words.
  • Workplace
  • Family time

3. Deploy a Shocking Strategy (10:23)

21 Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, 22 and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

• Ultimate betrayal: family.
  • Note: in their shame-honor culture, this type of family separation would have been especially painful.
  • Pastoral care: this is a difficult part of the faith for many of us.
    • Prayerfully minister here.
• Hated by all: all without distinction—every kind of person.
• The one who endures to the end will be saved:
  • Not the spectacular person, but the steadfast person—salvation is theirs.
  • …of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. (Hebrews 11:38, ESV)

23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Jesus gave them a strategy that spans from his first coming all the way to his second.

• The strategy: when persecuted—if you can—move onto the next town.
  • This is not cowardice, but wisdom—the light expands!
• We do this until “the Son of Man comes.”
  • Option 1. The coming in judgment on Jerusalem (AD 70)—”the Son of Man comes” as the visitation of 24:30, vindicating the persecuted mission.
  • Option 2. Telescoped to the Second Coming—the verse spans the whole age.

4. Hold an Accurate Expectation (10:24-25)

24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

Accurate expectation: sometimes we’ll be treated as Christ was.

• Jesus expanded on the disciple/servant and the servant/master connection.
  • We aren’t above Jesus: A disciple/servant is not above his teacher/master.
  • It’s an honor to be like Jesus: It is enough for the disciple/servant to be like his teacher/master.
• And what was it like for Jesus?
  • They called him Beelzebul, a name derived from an old Canaanite deity, but by the time of Christ it was used as a synonym for Satan.
    • Some had already attributed Jesus’ power to Satanic power.
• Expecting Christ-like suffering for Christ-like reasons is healthy for modern believers.
  • The message induces a reaction: For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22–24, ESV)
  • We should not be surprised: Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:12–13)

Conclusion: Our expectations and attitudes are better shaped when we behold Christ in an ongoing way.

• Example: a friend of mine went on a multi-day golf trip with friends. At the end of one round, they took off their spikes for cleaning and went to lunch. The next day, his feet were killing him. Only after developing blisters and sores did he realize the previous day’s club had swapped his size 12s for his friend’s size 11s. He’d been golfing in the wrong shoe—and it pained him. When we expect widespread acceptance, cultural dominance, or family peace as a result of our devotion to Christ, it hurts. Those expectations simply don’t fit the reality of who Jesus is—the suffering, rejected, and crucified Lord. Trying to walk out our faith in the wrong expectations will only leave us spiritually blistered.
• Gospel/The Lord’s Table: However, for as much as we appreciate Jesus as our model of suffering, we are more grateful that he became our substitute in his suffering.
  • He is the Shepherd who suffered for the sheep.
  • He endured the rejection of the religious and governmental authorities.
  • He was ridiculed by his family.
  • He became hated by all types of people.
  • And he did this all for us.

 

Study Questions

Head (Knowledge, Facts, Understanding)

1. In Matthew 10:16, Jesus sends his disciples out “as sheep in the midst of wolves” and tells them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” What do the serpent and the dove each represent, and why does the mission require both held together rather than one alone?
2. Trace the way persecution expands across this passage—from local courts (10:17) to synagogues, to governors and kings (10:18), to family (10:21), to being “hated by all” (10:22). What does this progression reveal about the scope and inevitability of the church’s collision with darkness?

Heart (Feelings, Impressions, Desires)

1. Jesus promises that in the hour of persecution “it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (10:20). When you imagine being put on the spot for your faith, what anxieties surface—and how does this promise speak to them?
2. Consider the “Serpent Leaning” and “Dove Leaning” questions from the sermon: Am I shrewd in order to protect and bless, or to control and win? and Is my gentleness courageous love, or is it fear of conflict dressed up as virtue? Which leaning are you more prone to, and what does that reveal about your heart?

Hands (Actions, Commitments, Decisions, Beliefs)

1. Peter could draw on Joel 2 at Pentecost because it was already “there, in his heart, for the Spirit to draw from” (Acts 2; 1 Peter 3:15). What concrete practice will you adopt to be “filled with the word so the Spirit can fill you with his words”?
2. The sermon warns that wrong expectations—anticipating cultural dominance, family peace, or universal acceptance because of our devotion—leave us “spiritually blistered.” Where have you been walking in the wrong expectations, and what would it look like this week to instead behold Christ, the suffering and rejected Lord, as your model and substitute?