Paraphrase: (8/4/06)
Mt 10:19-20, Mk 13:11, Lk 12:11-12 When they arrest you and hand you over to the authorities, don’t be troubled over how you shall defend yourself. Don’t even start to provide for it in your thinking, for the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father, will instruct you as to what you are to say in the very moment of your need. Indeed, it shall not be you who speaks in your defense, but the Holy Spirit Himself! Mt 10:21-22, Mk 13:12-13 Understand that brothers will deliver their own brothers to death, and fathers their children. Children will attack their own parents and kill them over these things. Everybody is going to hate you because of Me. They will harass you incessantly because of that hatred they have towards Me, but those who endure, who bear up under all of this with constancy and composure will be saved. Mt 10:23 If you find yourself being persecuted in one city, flee to the next. I’m telling you, you will not have gone through every city in Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Key Verse: (8/4/06)
Mt 10:20 – It is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit of the Father speaking in you.
You Were There (8/4/06)
Well, if He had not said enough yet to put us off the mission, this ought to do it. Not only will we suffer the ire of our countrymen, but even of our own families! He takes away every possible hope of feeling safe. Who can endure the things He says will come? And yet, has it not always been thus with those whom God chooses? The prophets of old were rarely popular with those they spoke to. So many of them were put to death for their steadfast faith. Can I really measure up to these men? Well, He tells me that I shall have the same aid as they, the Holy Spirit teaching me, informing me in the moment of trial, that I might know how to speak. Look! He says it won’t even be me speaking, that the Spirit shall speak. It shall be His words that are my defense! Whom, then, shall I fear? Surely, there is strength to endure in this.
New Thoughts (9/5/06)
Once again, Jesus speaks to them not of possible outcomes, but of definite situations. There is no question. You will be taken before councils and courts. When it happens, for it surely will, understand that I shall be your Advocate, your Defender.
These are words of ultimate provision. The Apostles had heard Him speak before, when He taught upon the hillside, not so very long ago. He had told them to be unconcerned about matters like food and clothing (Lk 12:22). God will provide. The message is as old as the faith. God will provide. He had taught them to understand this in regard to those things that are necessary to the sustaining of life. Now, as He points them toward certain danger, He builds on that message. Not only will God provide for your material necessities. He will even provide your wisdom and the very words you speak!
In our oh, so enlightened age the idea that somebody could put words in our mouth and ideas in our heads strikes us as absurd. Yet, we have entire industries devoted to just that. We have an educational system designed to do just that. They will gladly give us ideas and words to espouse. What they lack is the ability to impart wisdom. God has them outstripped. The Holy Spirit will teach you on the spot and in the moment.
The earlier message had taught them not to worry so much about the typical cares that plague us. How much time do we spend, after all, sweating out how we shall cover the bills, when we shall have time to get the groceries, whether the roof or the car will last long enough for us to afford their replacements, and every other such care? These are the thoughts that drive us. These are the thoughts that leave us bound to our jobs. These are the thoughts that leave us looking upon our employment in the wrong light. Because of all our cares and worries, we see our jobs as a sadly necessary evil. God, however, says that they are our vocation, as divinely appointed to provide for our needs as is any ministry. This, of course, assumes we have followed His will in our employments, and not rebelled against our Lord. Our various employments are part of that declaration that God will provide. To keep this understanding in the forefront of our thoughts is to make our workplace a far more rewarding experience. It is not a thing to be enslaved to. It is not a thing to be given more weight with us than is right. It is a means of providing, and a means of providing so that we can be a means of providing for others in the household of God.
Here, Jesus is just taking it a step further. When we are laboring more directly in His purposes, when our vocation is, at least for the moment, more immediately concerned with ministry, we will doubtless find many more reasons to worry. That is simple fact. Whether we can accept the adage that higher levels attract bigger devils I cannot say, but I can say this: The world will hate you because it hates Him who sent you (Jn 15:18). When the rebels storm the capitol, no member of the government is safe. That should be plain. Well, to go forth as the Lord’s ambassador is to walk into rebel-held territory. To go out and proclaim to the rebel camp that they should repent because the King is coming is to invite attack.
We tend to lose sight of that, knowing that we are talking about the Prince of Peace. But, the rebels cannot welcome the Prince, even though He be the Prince of Peace. He is only welcomed by the peaceable, who have hated their bonds, who have longed for a restoration of the land to its rightful ruler. We, who have endured rebel rule because we were powerless to oppose it have now been given power and authority by the rightful Lord of the land. We have been authorized, even commissioned, to go forth and remind the rest of the population that it is indeed His land, that He is indeed Lord. Can we really suppose that those with their hands on the reins of power will be pleased to hear the command to let go those reins? There will be a fight. There will be opposition.
That is what Jesus is addressing here. He sends them to declare the return of the King, but the majority have gone over to the camp of the usurper. They will try you in their courts, where you cannot really expect to find justice. They will have you flogged and worse for daring to speak Truth to them. So, what is the ambassador to do? Don’t be anxious. In the midst of all this trouble and strife, don’t be anxious. Though it seems to you that it’s all falling apart around you, don’t be anxious. Though you have reason to fear for your life, don’t be anxious. The Holy Spirit will teach you. He will give you exactly the right things to say right then and there. Don’t get all worked up trying to figure out what you can say to get off safely. It’s not about getting off safely anyway. You have but to listen as the Spirit speaks and then allow those words to be upon your lips.
Elsewhere, Luke covers another occasion on which Jesus gave very similar instructions to His disciples. There, the point is made that all this comes as an opportunity (Lk 21:13). My! There’s a comforting word. All this danger to ourselves has been but an opportunity! All the trouble and aggravation that has been crowding in on us is but an opportunity. Let me come back to that. At present, I want to consider what follows: “Make up your minds not to prepare your defense ahead of time” (Lk 21:14). Make up your mind – be determined that you will not put yourself in the place of anxiety. You serve the Prince of Peace, so be at peace. The Lord is my Light and my Salvation, whom shall I fear (Ps 21:1)? Yes, it’s time for the confidence of David! Look at that psalm! “Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear. Though war arise against me, I shall be confident” (Ps 27:3). What fear, then, in this present bit of a trial. The Lord is my strong tower. In the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tent (Ps 27:5).
This is the confidence Jesus speaks of. Make up your minds not to fret over your defense. I’ve got it covered. I am your Defense. Yet, look at how that message continues. It is the same dark picture Jesus paints here of families torn apart by the coming of the kingdom. “Some of you,” He says, “they will put do death” (Lk 21:16). Yet, He follows up with this: “Yet not a hair of your head will perish” (Lk 21:18). How can that be? Well, we serve the One who conquered death! And, therein lies the answer to our fears. If even in death we in no wise perish, what remains to be feared? This is the strength of the martyrs. If even my death will serve the King of kings and even in my death I live, then gladly can I lay down my life in His name.
Can I make the claim that I have found this place of strength? I don’t know. I rather doubt it, really, but I know that strength is there. I know that I desire a confidence as strong as David’s. I know times when I understand that He will be my strong tower. The Lord is my Rock. I also know there are far too many times when I am so caught up in worries that I don’t even want to hear His answering confidence. Do you know we get like that? We actually enjoy our worrying somehow. It’s as though worrying somehow makes us feel more important. It’s the sign of great responsibility that we suffer great worrying. But, it’s not supposed to be like that. We are called to know our Provider, our Savior, our loving Father, who is pleased to give us every good and necessary gift.
We are called to change our perspective. Hear this which Jesus declares. “All these things they will do to you for My name’s sake” (Jn 15:21). I really think we need to understand this in a twofold fashion. First, it must be understood that the hatred which the world displays towards us is displayed not so much because of us but because of Him in whose authority we come. It is for His name’s sake. It is because we bear His authority, because we represent His rule and His rules that we arouse such a response. After all, we are nothing in ourselves, powerless to enforce our strongest opinions and beliefs. If what I have to say is no more than my own opinion, then who will be bothered to revile me and drag me to court over it? They will merely consider me a fool or a lout and move on. But, when the opinion is not my own, but the opinion of the Creator of all things, well that’s a different matter altogether. These are words with weight. These are words with authority behind them, and they can only be accepted or struck down. They cannot be ignored. It is the crisis of the cross being brought to a people that want to avoid that crisis. But, when the crisis is brought to them, there is no more avoiding it. They must choose that very moment whether they shall repent or rebel.
There is, though, that second meaning to what Jesus has said. All that they do is for My name’s sake. It is done to serve My purposes, to glorify My name. That’s often harder to see and accept. How is my suffering going to glorify His name. Well, that largely depends on how I bear up under my suffering. If all I do is mutter and complain, that is not likely to glorify my God. If, however, under the worst privations I continue to express nothing but trust in my God, my Provider, my Strong Tower; well, now my persecutors cannot but know they have come upon something greater than themselves. Yes, their blindness may continue, it’s true. The evidence is in. There are those that will continue slaying the martyrs year in and year out and never understand. Yet, though they don’t understand others do. Others see what is happening and recognize that the one who died yet held the high ground. They will come to learn that they also held the promise: you may die, but you won’t perish.
That is the promise of the Prince of Peace. That is the promise that has held the faithful in every generation. That is the promise that Abraham clung to as he lay his son on the altar in obedience to God. That is the promise that held Job through years of the most evil news and the worst of friendly counsel. That is the promise that gave the Apostles the strength to face scourgings and worse repeatedly as they spread the Good News of the kingdom. That is the promise that kept the Christians devoted to God during the worst of Roman persecutions. Indeed, by that promise, there were those who actively sought out the opportunity to suffer, that His name might be glorified the more.
That continues to be the promise today. You will suffer if you represent Him truly. You will be ridiculed, reviled and rebuked for daring to speak the Truth in this day and age. Yet the promise remains: You may die, but you won’t perish. You have come to the source of Life. You are His, and He has conquered death. What possible cause remains for fear?
Lord, I know one thing I am hearing from this today. I have been anxious. I have been worried about holding together the finances of this family. All those concerns I have written of today are concerns that have been weighing on me. Yes, and as You well know there are many more besides. I must come to You in repentance for that this morning. I must ask Your forgiveness for my lack of trust. How often must You prove to me that You are my Provider before I hold fast to that simple truth? God, You are well aware of the things that have been happening of late. You are well aware of the things that have yet to happen. I ask only that You would work upon my heart and mind such that through it all, I shall not lose sight of my Provider, shall not be shaken from my confidence. In those moments when my own mind would put me on trial, Holy Father, I ask on Jesus’ authority that Your Holy Spirit would teach me how to answer. Somehow, Lord, be Thou glorified in me.
