Allen Jackson - Lessons From Matthew - Part 2
Some of you say, you know, «I work in a place where it’s difficult to be a Christian,» «I live in this neighborhood and it’s filled with godless people,» or «My kids go to a school and it’s not», yeah. «I’m sending you out like sheep amongst wolves. Therefore,» so now he’s gonna give us a response, «be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves». Be shrewd and innocent. That will take the leading of the Holy Spirit. 'Cause I typically, I can either be shrewd or innocent, but it’s hard to bundle that. «Be shrewd and innocent,» he said. Verse 17: «Be on your guard».
Be watchful. Listen, think. It’s like biblical. «Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and they’ll flog you in their synagogues. On my account you’ll be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to Gentiles». We know from the larger story of scripture that’s true, but they’re typically brought in chains. It’s not a speaking tour, they’re not collecting a fee. «But when they arrest you, don’t worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you’ll be given what to say, for it won’t be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children rebel against their parents and have them put to death».
This is Jesus speaking. Have you ever met anybody that said Jesus was all about love? That his message was happy? Well, much of it was, and Jesus did come to show us the love of God, but he did it with such integrity that he also talked about the difficulty of the journey and the reality of the world in which we live. He does more than give away participation trophies. He said there’ll be betrayal within families. Children will rebel against their parents. Gee, it’s hard to imagine that. Have them put to death. «All men,» verse 22. «All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another». I don’t like that sentence.
See, if I were writing it, I’m not saying it’s inspired. I’m just saying if my old carnal mean Allen self wrote it, I’d say, «When you’re persecuted in one place, hit 'em in the mouth, and God will break their neck. And all of your enemies will see it and they’ll be sorry and they’ll have a parade and they’ll give you cake». That’s Allen’s translation. It’s not inspired by the Holy Spirit, so I would point you back to what Jesus said. He said, «When you’re persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you’ll not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It’s enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub,» it’s a title for the devil.
«If the head of the house has been called the devil, how much more the members of the household»! That’s a pretty sober little paragraph. Jesus said, «I’m sending you out, but I’m telling you, I’m sending you out in a pretty vulnerable way. You’re going into a highly contested arena and you need to be shrewd and innocent and you need to be on your guard». And he said, «In spite of that, you’ll be handed over to councils, you’ll be persecuted by the religious, you’ll be brought before governors and kings, people of authority and great power». He said, «When they arrest you, don’t worry». Well, you know, usually the mug shot’s kind of a point of a little anxiety. We’ve seen a few exceptions lately, but typically it’s a point of… he said there’ll be betrayal and rebellion within families. It even escalates. He said there’ll be universal hatred. «You’ll be hated by all people because of me». Because of me.
See, there’s tremendous efforts to bring division amongst us and cause us to hate one another based upon how we look or the accent with which we speak. Or our height or our athletic ability or our IQ. Folks, those are all driven by a spirit other than the Spirit of God. Please don’t fall prey to that. He said, «You’ll be hated because of me and your affiliation with me,» and his instructions were to stand firm. He said our salvation is certain if we’re aligned with Jesus. And he goes on in the very next verse, it’s verse 26. He said, «So do not be afraid of them».
Well, hello. Arrested, hated everywhere, betrayals in our families. And so now he gives us our response. He said, «You don’t have to be afraid of them,» wow. Part of this is what you choose to focus on. You can focus on the hatred and the resentment and the bitterness and the rejection and say because of all of those things I’m going undercover. Or you can focus on this next paragraph where Jesus said you don’t have to be afraid. And you’ll have a boldness and a courage to walk in the midst of the lions or the fiery furnace or to confront Goliath. «Don’t be afraid of them. There’s nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known».
See, they’re keeping secrets, yeah, but not from God. And in God’s time, he lets the truth be told. We’ve been watching that. We started praying in 2020 that the truth would be told. And from that day until this, week after week after week, there have been things pushed in the public square that I’m quite certain very powerful people would have preferred to stay hidden. At one time when we would say that the COVID virus came from Wuhan, China, people would lose their minds. Because the people with authority over us wouldn’t say that. And now that the kids in school know that. The truth is being told. The scriptures being fulfilled in front of your eyes if you’ll watch.
«What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim to the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but can’t kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father». God goes to the funerals of the sparrows. I love it. «And even the very hairs of your head are numbered. So don’t be afraid». That’s the third time he’s told us. «You’re worth more than many sparrows,» thank you. «Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I’ll disown him before my Father in heaven».
I believe in those few verses, those six verses or seven, we have a formula for living free of fear. Not because we live in a world that isn’t frightening, you’ll be hated rather universally. You’ll from time to time be mistreated because of your faith. People will reject you. It will limit opportunities. If you own your faith in the public square, there are times it will present challenges. Own your faith anyway. Because Jesus’s instruction is don’t be afraid of them. All the things they’re trying to conceal and all the things they’re trying to hide are going to be shouted from the housetops. Be an early adopter of the truth. He tells us multiple times in verse 26, «Do not be afraid of them». In verse 28: «Do not be afraid». In verse 31: «So don’t be afraid». Freedom from fear.
I wanna take a moment with it because fear is a epidemic. Fear is a very real challenge. It comes in many packages. Sometimes it’s fear of our health and our wellbeing, sometimes it’s fear for our families or our children. It can be fear about events in our world. It can be fear about our resources and our ability to hold on to them. You can’t. Only God can secure your future. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be a good steward or be diligent or work hard. I’m not saying that. But I’m telling you, only God can secure your future, whether it’s your health, your family, your resources, and as long as you think you’re the one that’s securing those things, you are very vulnerable to fear because there are frightening things happening in the world, things beyond our control, beyond our ability.
But you can be free from fear, or else Jesus would not have said, we don’t have to be afraid. It’s very similar to when he said, «Do not worry». I believe we can lead lives that are not plagued by worry. And I believe we can lead lives that are not dominated by fear. It’s not that we won’t face frightening things, that we won’t walk through frightening places, but we do not have to be driven and make our life choices by fear. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 15, I put it in your notes. I know it’s not Matthew 10, but I wrote the outline. He talks about what Jesus did for us, and he says, «He freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death».
One of the great fears is the fear of death. Death is an enemy. I’m not saying it’s not significant, it’s not real. It’s a barrier that has to be crossed. It’s a transition from one realm of existence to another, from one dimension to another, and that’s frightening. If you haven’t traveled a lot, travel’s frightening. If you haven’t eaten food beyond what you ate at your mother’s kitchen table, new tastes are frightening. So there’s a logic for why death will bring some anxiety, but Jesus said it no longer holds the power to captivate you, to dominate you. In fact, he just told us not to be afraid of those that can just kill the body. He said that’s really not that big a deal. I’m like, «Well, that’s a pretty big deal to me».
The community fear will communicate with you. It’ll fill your thoughts. It’ll put ideas. Fear will affect your emotions. It can affect your physiological responses. Fear can elicit almost all the other things you would imagine that a person could elicit in a response from you. So I’m suggesting that you treat fear like a person without a body. You have to speak to it. And say, «In Jesus’s name, you will not dominate here. You may make a visit, you can make a presentation, you may have a proposal. But you’re not welcome here».
Now, if fear has been an established resident in your arena, it may take more than one visit to get all the clutter out, but it isn’t based upon, my force of intellect or positive thinking. When I’m speaking, when I have that authority over an unclean spirit, it’s because not of Allen’s authority, it’s because I come in the authority of Jesus of Nazareth. And if you understand that, then it isn’t about strength. It has nothing to do with that. Any more than a police officer who holds his hand up to stop an oncoming car, he doesn’t have the strength to do that. He has the authority to do that. And if you understand you have the authority to speak to fear it will change your future no matter how chaotic our world becomes.
So I brought you a prayer. I made a mistake when the first time I built the outline, I had the prayer and you didn’t. And I knew what would happen. Before I got to the office tomorrow morning, there’d be lots of requests going, «Could we get that prayer»? No. So I just put the prayer in your notes. Let’s just read it together. Have you found it? «I renounce the spirit of fear. Through the blood of Jesus I have been delivered out of the hand of the enemy. Satan has no place in me, no power over me, through the blood of Jesus. My mind and my emotions are at peace, God is my protection and my deliverer. When I’m afraid, I will trust in the Lord and I will see his deliverance, amen».
Now if I were walking through a frightening place, I would say that prayer five or six times every day, until it became second nature to me. Folks, we’re talking about a real struggle. Real enough that God sent his Son to demonstrate, to walk it out, to help us learn and understand. Jesus talked about what we don’t have to fear and what we should fear. And I think on this topic, it’s worth noting Jesus said we don’t have to be afraid of the one that can destroy just your body but be afraid of the One that can destroy your soul and your body. You wanna let healthy fear grow in you. If you ask me for a quick diagnosis on the current state of Christendom in America, we have a tremendous deficiency in the fear of God. We just don’t fear him. We think he’s like a benevolent uncle or Santa Claus or the tooth fairy, and that if… it don’t matter what we do or how we do it, he’ll still give us what we want, or we’ll say he’s not nice.
And the fear of God, not a dread of God, not a shrinking in terror from God. The fear of God is a respect for God, a reverence for God. It’s understanding there is a God and it’s not us, that he’s different than I am. That the collective ability of humanity does not equal God. We can’t fix all the problems that we face if we just work together. Because there’s nothing in human history to suggest first of all, we will work together. There are other forces at play. It’s called evil. There is a God and he should be treated with reverence and respect. I’ve used the example before. I grew up around horses. I have a tremendous respect for horses. I love them. They’re beautiful animals. Their strength amazes me.
And because I had some really good coaching and training when I was young, they don’t frighten me. Big ones, mean ones, they just don’t frighten me. And I don’t mean it when you’re in your car and they’re in the pasture. I mean, if you lock me in a 10 by 10 room with them, I’m okay. I mean, I prefer you didn’t do it, but they don’t frighten me. But because I have great respect for them, I would not walk up behind a horse I don’t know, grab its tail, and pull and go, «Hey»! Because there’s a very high degree of probability I would get to visit with the people in the emergency room. That’s a very predictable reaction from that horse. Not its fault; mine.
And folks, there are some things about God as you read your Bible that you’ll begin to understand. If you will watch and listen and think, it will change you. I want to cultivate a respect for God. Jesus is trying to tell us in the plainest of language. Look at the next verse, verse 34. He said, «Don’t suppose that I’ve come to bring peace on the earth. I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword». Jesus said that. Did you read it? «Don’t suppose I came to bring peace». How many, I mean, the most common mantra associated with the Christian faith: «It’s all about peace, unity, we just all have to get along. Christians are supposed to bring unity wherever they go». No matter what is said, no matter what value is pushed forward, no matter what idea is proposed, no matter.
If you’re a Christian, if you’re a good one, you should be a peacemaker. Well, just listen to the boss. «Don’t suppose that I’ve come to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against his mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. And anyone who loves his father or mother more than me isn’t worthy of me; and anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me; and anyone who doesn’t take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me».
See, we want people to go to positions of power and authority and fix the problems that we have, and we want to sit at our kitchen tables with the people that we love and ignore the fundamental principles of the Word of God. And we say, «Well, it’s my son or my daughter or my mother or my father or my brother or my sister. You don’t expect me to,» what? Honor the Lord? Tell them the truth? They would be offended. Perhaps, perhaps, but the greatest opportunity to be prepared to meet the King is that someone that loves them the most in the world would tell them the truth. Not in anger. Not in belligerence. To tell them the truth. Jesus is not a unifying presence except amongst his followers, but he does plead with us, those who are believers, those who are submitted to his Word, but even in that context, he said, «If someone amongst you isn’t obeying the truth, you gotta go talk to them and tell them».
Kindness, thou shalt be kind, is not the 11th commandment. It’s not license to be annoying. You’re annoying enough without trying. Don’t try. So am I. I have a gift. Unity with the world and with ungodliness is not our objective. I have no intention of being united with churches that reject the authority of scripture or the uniqueness of Jesus. I mean, I can show them compassion. I can look upon them with mercy, but I don’t intend to be united with ungodliness. We have misunderstood the mission. We have allowed the enemy to write our mission statement while they manipulate us and coerce us into cooperating with ungodliness. We’re gonna have to find a new response. And finally, this ends the chapter. Can you believe this is one chapter? Aren’t you glad?
«He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he’s a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he’s a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. If anyone gives you even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he’s my disciple, I tell you the truth,» which means, like, emphasis. «I tell you the truth, he’ll certainly not lose his reward». Did you know there’s a reward in eternity for how you live in time? Now, at this point, Christians get so dishonest. «Well, Pastor, I don’t care anything about rewards». Oh, stop it. You’ll trade your credit card for a half a percentage point and 12 free airline miles.
You, «Well, you know, if I can just go to heaven». No, you say that now, but if you get to heaven and you realize there was better opportunity, you’re gonna think, «Well, I want one of those». I can prove it to you. Somebody take your seat at church, you’ll get way torqued about rewards. There’s a reward. Jesus said there’s a difference in a reward for a prophet, there’s a difference in a reward for a righteous person, there’s a difference in a reward for a cup of cold water. I brought you some other passages, but I’m out of time. We’ll pick it up another session. Folks, how you live matters. I’m not suggesting you earn your way into the kingdom of God. I’m suggesting God is just.
See, there’s a lot of fear around judgment. Think of the terms of judgment that’s in your favor. Judgment is for you. If you believe God in his judgment will punish evil, why do you believe God would not reward righteousness? I’m not talking about the gift of righteousness that’s given to all of us and by faith, but if you choose to honor God with your life, he will bless you. There’s a reason to be godly. There is. It’s at the heart of the scripture. It’s the heart of Matthew’s Gospel. We’ll pick it up. I brought you a prayer, but I took it from Psalm 90. But I’ll tell you what I’d rather do. It’s hard for me to change my outline. I’d rather read the prayer about fear with you one more time.
Can we do that? Will you stand? Let’s make this proclamation over our lives. We read it kind of tentatively a moment ago, but now you’re familiar, so let’s speak to fear. I’m pretty sure if you left and you got home and there was somebody sitting on the front porch of your house, and they said, «I’m the local representative of that gang you’ve heard about from Venezuela. And we’ve chosen your home as our headquarters». I’m pretty comfortable thinking that you wouldn’t go, «Well, I wish you wouldn’t». I suspect you would find the authority to say, «Wait, it’s my house. And you don’t have any authority here». And if you didn’t have the physical ability to move them, you’d go find the help you needed. You wouldn’t relinquish. Well, some of us have tolerated some things that are ungodly that we don’t have to tolerate. It’s not about our strength, but it’s the authority in which we stand. So let’s read that prayer like we intend for fear to relinquish its hold. You ready?
I renounce the spirit of fear. Through the blood of Jesus I have been delivered out of the hand of the enemy. Satan has no place in me, no power over me, through the blood of Jesus. My mind and my emotions are at peace. God is my protection and my deliverer. When I am afraid, I will trust in the Lord and I will see his deliverance, amen.