The Fear of God

Let me ask you this question. Has anybody ever hated you because you're a Christian? And I'm not asking you if anybody's ever been hostile towards you.

I know the answer to that question. But I'm asking you whether you've ever experienced animosity because you're a Christian. If you haven't, you have to ask yourself, why not?

Am I distancing myself from my Master? When I'm traveling, occasionally I'll be skipping through the channels in my hotel room, trying to find something to watch. And there will appear a smiling preacher, promising health and prosperity to the congregation and his viewers. But is that the message of the New Testament? This is the Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind, as each week we feature the preaching ministry of R.C. Sproul. Far from a life of health and prosperity, Jesus warned his disciples that if they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household?

Opposition and persecution would be normal and not the exception. Today's sermon is from Matthew 10, and it's one of almost 130 that Dr. Sproul preached in this Gospel. These sermons became the foundation for his expositional commentary on Matthew. You can request a hardcover edition of that commentary when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tonight. Although this is a hard saying from the lips of Jesus, Matthew 10 also includes an incredible promise for the believer.

Here's Dr. Sproul. A disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master. It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master.

If they've called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household? Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be made known. Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. 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. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin and that one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will?

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. Therefore, whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."

How many of you have ever heard of Thomas Aquinas? Look around. Just about every hand in a room is up. All right. Now the next question is a little bit more difficult. If I were to call on you and ask you and ask you to tell me who was Albertus Magnus, how many of you would be able to raise your hand? There you go.

You know, I didn't know really what to expect from that little poll, except that I figured it would be about a hundred to one at least. Very few people have ever heard of Albertus Magnus or even by his anglicized name Albert the Great, but his place in church history was very important because he was the teacher of Thomas Aquinas. In the Middle Ages, Thomas came under the professorial mentorship of Albert the Great, and when he came to study under him, Thomas was mocked and teased by his fellow classmates because he was somewhat awkward and slow of movement, and they called him the dumb ox of Aquino.

And when Albert the Great heard that from the classmates of Saint Thomas, he said to him, young men, there will come a day where your dumb ox of Aquino will astonish the whole world with his learning. Notice that in later centuries, it was not Albert the Great who was elevated to the title of the Doctor Angelicus of the Roman Catholic Church. That epitheth belongs to the epitheth belonged to Thomas alone, who is arguably the most profound theologian in the history of the church. But here Jesus is saying in the text that a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. And yet almost nobody in this room had ever heard of Thomas Aquinas' teacher, but everybody had heard his disciple. So how can Jesus be speaking the truth here when He says a student is not above his teacher? Well, Jesus, of course, is not saying that a student cannot, as he matures and grows in his learning, exceed the accomplishments of his teacher. We have many examples of that throughout the history of the world where students have far exceeded the greatness of their teachers. But what Jesus is saying is while someone is a student, while he's in that relationship with his teacher, there is a kind of structure of authority there where the student does not have authority over his teacher.

Young people, listen to me. But rather the authority is given to the teacher, but no one exceeded their teacher who was teaching them this on this occasion. No disciple of Jesus Christ has ever or will ever exceed the master in terms of accomplishment. But Jesus is taking this simple illustration from the daily affairs of people, and the context in which He's telling this to them is the context of the mission that He is sending them on, telling them, as we looked at last week, that they will be brought before councils and before kings and before governors, and they will be persecuted, they will be beaten, they will be scourged, and many of them, of course, would be martyred.

And Jesus Himself fulfilled all of those prophecies in His own body, and He's explaining something to His disciples. Look, I'm your rabbi. I'm your teacher. I'm your master. You're My disciples. And you see how the Pharisees and those around me hate Me, and I'm sending you in the midst of those wolves. And do you think that you're going to be able to escape the same kind of hatred, the same kind of persecution?

Absolutely not. The disciple is not above the teacher. If they hate Me, He's telling them, He's telling them they're going to hate you.

Let me ask you this question. Has anybody ever hated you because you're a Christian? Has anyone ever been hostile to you because they know that you are a person of faith in Christ?

Now, be careful. I'm not asking you if anybody's hated you. I know the answer to that question. And I'm not asking you if anybody's ever been hostile towards you.

I know the answer to that question as well. Everybody experiences animosity from other people at one time or another. But I'm asking you whether you've ever experienced animosity because you're a Christian. If you haven't, you have to ask yourself, why not?

Am I distancing myself from my master? Now again, we have to be careful here because if I'm a Christian and somebody doesn't like me because I'm a Christian, it may be because I've been obnoxious in the way I communicate my Christianity and I've given people every reason to be antagonized towards me. But Jesus is talking about something fundamental to the Christian life, that there is a built-in animosity toward Christ among fallen human beings. Now let me ask you one other question.

This is the end of the test, and you're not going to pass or fail. How many of you in your lives, either as a child or as an adult, at any time in your lives, have ever been baptized? Look, the reason we've been baptized is that it is the outward sign of the New Covenant. But with that sign and promise of all the wonderful benefits that come, one of the most important ones that is almost never talked about in the church is that baptism is a sign of our identifying with Jesus' death and resurrection.

It is the sign of our identification with His humiliation and with His exaltation. Jesus promised His disciples and all who are His that they will participate fully in the glory that the Father is bestowing upon Him. Isn't that incredible that we will take part in the exaltation of Jesus? We have no claim to the exaltation of Christ.

We have no merit of which to boast that we deserve to participate in His glory. But at the same time, He says, we are called to participate in His death. We are called to participate in His death and in His humiliation. Wait, there's more.

It gets worse. Repeatedly in the New Testament, we are taught, dear ones, that if we refuse to participate in the humiliation of Christ, we will never participate in His exaltation. That is, Jesus reserves the sharing of His glory and exalted state with only those believers who will embrace in their faith His humiliation. Now we all want to participate in His glory, but we don't want to participate in His ignominy. And so it's natural even for regenerate people to try to distance themselves from their Savior at the point of humiliation.

It can be embarrassing at times to be a Christian. But Jesus says that a disciple is not above his master, or his teacher, a servant, is not above his master. Jesus is not saying that slaves are inferior to their masters.

God forbid. Jesus, more than anybody, understood that one's status in a given society is not the determining factor of their value or dignity as a human being. And why all of this is being said is, again, to prepare His disciples for encountering the hatred of this world. The rejection of this world. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. And if they've called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more do they call those of his household? Well, who's his Beelzebub? Well, there's some question about the Adam and Eve term. Well, there's some question about the etymology of that term. Many believe that the title Beelzebub is drawn from some titles that were used in ancient pagan religion for their gods and goddesses. One form of this word has been translated, Lord of the Flies.

You've perhaps heard of that. Also, another rendition of it is translated, Lord of the Dung Heap, not a very respectable title. And what people among the Jews did is they took these names drawn from pagan deities and sort of changed them a little bit to give the worst degrading insult to Satan that they could do. And so they called Satan Beelzebub. Well, Jesus said, if they've called the master, who's the master?

He is. He said, if they've called me, Beelzebub, how much will they call those of his household? So you can expect him to be known in the community as people who belong to the Lord of the dung hill, people who are covered with filth and with flies.

That's how much dignity you can expect if you are faithful to Christ. And then Jesus says, therefore, because of this, because you're identified with Me, because you're not above Me, because you can't be divorced from Me, then you don't have to be afraid of these people. Do not fear them. And then He goes on to say, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be made known.

Now that's a very scary statement. You've heard the story of the prankster who lived in a small town and sent a letter to twenty prominent businessmen and leaders in the community, and all the letters said was, all is known, flee at once, and twenty guys left the town the next day. The idea of the story is that everybody has skeletons in his closet and things that he'd rather not people know about, because we try to cover up the senior side of our lives, and it's a scary thing to think that everything that is concealed now will be made known. Well, Jesus does give us that scary thought that in the final judgment all the secrets that we have will be laid bare before God. But that's not what He's talking about here. He's not talking here about the final full disclosure of everything that we have sought to conceal about ourselves from other people.

That's not what He's talking about here. He's talking about the full disclosure of the plans, the plots, and the conspiracies of those who hate Christ and His people. All of the secret plans that the Pharisees have, they're going to come out. All of the false accusations against the people of God, they will come out.

As Jesus said, as recorded by Luke in His gospel in the parable of the unjust judge, will not God vindicate His elect who cry unto Him day and night? When Jonathan Edwards was the pastor for so many years at the Northampton Church, he took over from his grandfather, and there he was used of God to bring about the great awakening of the eighteenth century. And yet as committed as Edwards was to his congregation, he was thrown out of his congregation, kicked out of his office, publicly humiliated. And the only thing left for him to do was to go and minister among the Indians up there in western Massachusetts and in northern Connecticut. And of course, while he was there and time on his hands, he wrote Freedom of the Will, among other things that distinguished him.

And finally, he was called back from his labors among the Indians to be the president of Princeton University. But the reason why Edwards lost his job and was kicked out of his church in disgrace is because there was a man in Northampton who hated the gospel and therefore hated Edwards. And he started spreading rumors around the town of all kinds of awful things about Jonathan Edwards that simply were not true, no truth in it whatsoever.

And the leaders of the Northampton community came to Edwards. They said, Dr. Edwards, you've got to answer these charges that he brought about you. Why do you remain silent about this? And he said, because God has promised to vindicate His people.

And I look at it this way. If I rise up and try to vindicate myself, perhaps that's all the vindication I'll ever get. But if I just suffer in silence and wait for God to vindicate me, I'll be vindicated fully and finally.

Now I'm not sure that's the wisest course of action to take in every situation, but that was the course that Edwards took. Ten years later, the lying man in the town was brought to repentance and publicly confessed to everybody in the town that out of his own jealousy and enmity towards Edwards made up all of these false stories. Because God vindicates His people, and Jesus is saying to His disciples, look, don't be afraid of these people who are spreading lies about you. He said, there's nothing covered that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be known. Jesus said, instead, whatever I tell you in the dark, speak it in the light. What I whisper in your ear, preach from the housetops. Don't be afraid of those who kill the body but can't kill the soul, but rather fear Him who's able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

What Jesus is saying is be careful. What is the object of your fear? It's natural for you to be afraid of the Pharisees. It's natural for you to be afraid of the crowd. It's natural for you to be afraid of those people who are filled with hostility and anger against you and who want to destroy you.

It's natural for you to be afraid of people like that. But Jesus says, wait a minute. They're not the ones to be afraid of. The worst thing they can do to you is kill you, kill your body. But they can't touch your soul unless you let them. The final conclusion, whoever confesses Me before men, Him I will also confess before My Father in heaven. That's great news, isn't it? Can you imagine entering into the gates of heaven?

The books are open. The trial is ready to begin. And you're standing there in fear and trembling.

Everything you've ever done in secret is about to be made manifest. And all of a sudden the Lamb of God comes into the courtroom and said, Father, I have a confession to make. He's one of mine. He's one of mine.

She belongs to Me, and I'm standing here in His place or her place. Can you imagine Christ confessing you before the Father? But that's what He says. He says, in that day all who confessed Me before men, I will confess before My Father. Wait, there's more.

The downside. Those who are too embarrassed and ashamed of Me and they're ashamed of Me before men, I'll be ashamed of them before My Father. These are the people that He talked about earlier when He says, I will say before My Father, excuse me, I don't know who this is. Please leave. You have no part in My kingdom. But let's not dwell on that.

Let's dwell on the other side of it. That Jesus is trying to encourage His followers. He's trying to encourage His disciples. Look, the whole world is going to hate you. They're going to throw everything they have against you.

They're going to kill your bodies. But I will confess you before My Father does not get any better than that. What an incredible promise for the believer.

That was R.C. Sproul preaching from Matthew chapter 10 on this Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. We've almost finished this short series in Matthew, so if you would like R.C. Sproul to walk you through this Gospel chapter by chapter, line by line, you can request his hardcover commentary on Matthew when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. Your support helps keep Renewing Your Mind freely available to countless Christians and a growing Spanish-speaking audience who listen to the weekly Spanish edition. To thank you for your generosity, we'll send you this commentary on Matthew that can be an aid in your Bible study but also a book that can become part of your regular devotional reading. Respond before midnight tonight at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes. Thank you. Next time we'll come to the final sermon in this short series, so be sure to join us next Sunday here on Renewing Your Mind. you