Matthew 10:5a, 21–33

6^th Sunday after Pentecost

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them,

²¹Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,

²²and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

²³When 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.

²⁵It 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.

²⁶"So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

²⁷What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

²⁸And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.1

²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

³⁰But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

³¹Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

³²So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,

³³but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

Dare to be Christians! This is the challenge Our Lord sets before us this morning. It may seem rather obvious. After all, we are Christians and here we are sitting in a church. What is he telling us? Jesus is telling us to confess our faith boldly; dare to be Christians! But it is not at all obvious and it is not at all easy.

Here in our text our Lord is giving instructions to his church. As He was sending out his twelve apostles on their first missionary journey, these were his marching orders. Here he is instructing the church on what its duties are, its mission, and the dangers they would face throughout the life of the church from Pentecost to Parousia. (Let's stop a moment for a vocabulary lesson. The word "parousia" means the second coming of Christ; his return on the Last Day for judgment.)

So our Lord is spelling out what we are to be about in this period of time, from the creation of the church at Pentecost to the Second Coming of Christ at His Parousia.

He tells us, "Go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" That is our mission. That is what the church is about in this world. These are our marching orders. As he also said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." We are the church of Christ, and we have one purpose and one mission: to distribute the forgiveness of sins which he earned on the cross to all people through the proclamation of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments. After breathing on the disciples he said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven them."

Through us, Jesus Christ extends himself into the world. Through us, his church, he delivers the forgiveness of sins from his cross to all people. We are his ambassadors through whom God begs all men to be reconciled to him. We are the body of Christ, through whom God offers forgiveness, eternal life, love, and salvation to all peoples.

God has given us the mission and the orders. God has also supplied us with the tools and weapons for our mission: his Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. His Gospel which we proclaim in word and distribute in sacrament.

Therefore, Christ sends us out, as he sent out the twelve, with the command, "Confess my name before men." Dare to be Christians!

But why dare? Because the Lord of heaven and earth says that he is sending us as "sheep in the midst of wolves." He says, "Beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues; and you shall even be brought before governors and kings for my sake... And you will be hated by all on account of my name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved."

It is most obvious that this is happening in our time. And because of it many are afraid to confess the name of Christ today. We have lost our courage in a secularized world that has turned hostile to Christ. We live in a politically correct world that denies religious truth. A world where a new brand of atheists are now trying to eliminate religion from the world. Men like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens are saying that "religion poisons everything," and that American Christians are a danger to democracy just as Mussolini's fascists were. Sam Harris (a Stanford University philosopher) actually defends the use of torture against people of faith as "not only permissible but necessary," and suggests that people espousing certain religious ideas that he considers harmful to society ought simply to be put to death.

On account of this kind of thinking in our world today sometimes we Christians often run for cover and cower in fear. As we watch pastors in Europe and Canada being imprisoned for preaching the Bible; as we see laws being enacted in this country threatening to levy taxes on churches that remain faithful to certain biblical teachings; as we are called bigots and intolerant for calling sin, sin; as the so called "enlightened" call us "dims" and "a threat to society" we take our faith and hide it under a bushel in order to avoid their scorn and mockery. So we sing in our liturgy, "Oh Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise," but we thinkg that means only while we are inside the church. Once we go out through those big doors in the back into the world, those lips and mouths close and the praises cease.

All of this is exactly what Jesus was predicting when he said he was sending us out as sheep among wolves. That is what Jesus saw coming in the future to our lives today when he said that they would drag us into the courts and before kings. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said "brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child and children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death." Jesus tells us that we will be hated by all on account of his name, but that he who endures to the end will be saved. So Jesus dares us to be Christians in a pagan, secularized world. Go out and proclaim boldly the kingdom of God. Shout from the roof tops what I have whispered in your ears. And do not be afraid of those who can only harm your body but cannot touch your soul.

But do we think that today is any different than any other time in the world? Let me tell you a story about a church youth group some 2700 years ago. One night foreign armies invaded the city they lived in and four of the college age youth were captured and dragged away to be used as slaves in that foreign country. Now the foreign country was a pagan nation who worshiped pagan gods, but these four youth were firm in their faith. When they were forced to eat the politically correct diet of government approved foods they defied the king's orders and refused to eat, even though the penalty for such refusal was death. When a law was passed that all people must worship only the god of gold, they disobeyed and were thrown into a furnace of fire. Later, another law was passed that forbade them from praying to God and required them to look only to the government's socialist welfare programs to take care of them. So one of the youth, Daniel was his name, prayed to God in a public place just to defy the law, and he was thrown into a den of hungry lions to be eaten. These courageous young men knew that men could kill their bodies but could not destroy their souls. They would live forever under the protection of God himself. They dared to be Christians (or Jews as was their case) and were ready to suffer the consequences.

Likewise, men can kill our bodies, but they cannot destroy our soul in hell either. Only God can do that. Only God himself can condemn a man to eternal punishment. No man, not even Satan or his demons can do that. For that matter, no war, no terrorist, no dirty bomb, no car accident nor thieve of murderer can do that either. Neither can a storm, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake. When we stop to think about it, not even sickness, cancer, heart disease, stroke or old age can destroy our souls in hell. They can mame and kill the body, but they cannot take our life and salvation away from us. That is in the hands of God alone.

Jesus says, that if we confess him before men, he will confess us before his Father in heaven. But if we cower and fear and are afraid to confess him before man, then he will not confess us before the Father. In that case we would deserve to be thrown into hell by God and punished eternally. In that case we would become as St. Peter who denied Jesus three times on the night he was betrayed because he was afraid of the people around him. So there is reason to fear God; the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. That is what we deserve.

But, even though we are cowards and are willing, like St. Peter, to deny our Lord and Savior out of fear, Jesus himself dared to be a Christian. He dared to proclaim the kingdom of God before men and he was murdered for it. Men had the power to kill his body and they did. But man could not destroy his soul in hell. Only the Father had the power to cast him into the torment of eternal fires.

But our Lord, Jesus Christ, came to us out of love. Though we deserve to be cast into the fires of hell by the one who has the power to do so, Jesus offered himself in our place to be cast into the eternal fires instead of us. Although man could kill only his body, he offered his soul to his Father to be destroyed in hell as our substitute. When Jesus became man, he took our sin unto himself. He absorbed into his own body all our sin. Even the sin of being afraid to confess his name before men. He took all that sin upon himself and when man nailed him to the cross to kill his body, he offered his soul to his Father in exchange for our souls. His Father, who has the power to destroy the soul in hell, did just that. Jesus cried out from the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" At that moment God who has the power to destroy our souls in hell cast Jesus' soul into hell instead. He suffered the punishment of his Father. He suffered eternal condemnation and judgment in our place.

So although man can destroy our bodies, he cannot destroy our souls. While God has the power to destroy our soul, he will not destroy us in hell now because Jesus took our place. All those who fear God, that is have faith in his Son Jesus, shall not be destroyed in hell because Jesus has freed us from that punishment. Jesus took our sins to hell and they have already been punished.

Therefore, fear not! Dare to be a Christian! Dare to proclaim Jesus Christ boldly before men in all the world. They cannot harm us. The worst thing they can do is kill our body. But they cannot take away our life. We have eternal life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life, he who believes in him shall not die. Even though our body be destroyed, we shall live forever. In our baptism we died with Christ and were raised to new life in him. thus we have already died and dead men have no need to fear death. So as we were baptized into Christ we already have begun eternal life. We have already passed from death into life. Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. Neither man, nor bomb, nor sickness or disease nor natural disaster, nor old age, not even death itself can rob us or steal away eternal life which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And in the Holy Communion we eat that body of Christ which men killed on the cross and drink that blood which men poured out onto the ground as Christ comes to us and is physically present with us to strengthen that faith and give us that courage to love one another, to confess his name in the world, and to dare to be Christians in a secular world.

Therefore, fear not! Dare to be Christians! Dare to confess Christ before men! "Because God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea. Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride." (Psalm 46). "A mighty fortress is our God...Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill. They shall not overpower us. This world's prince may scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us none. He's judged, the deed is done. One little word can fell him."

Amen.