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Sunday Morning 16th Sept 2007
Mat 10v 26-31 Do not be afraid!
Context:
Intro: v1-4, Jesus has called the 12 disciples and then sent them on
mission!
Mission summary:
V5-6 : who they were to go to target group
V7: what they were to preach SAY
V8: what service they were to offer DO
V9-10: what they were to take BRING
CONDUCT
V11-16 : how they were to conduct themselves on entering and
leaving a town.
EXPECTATIONS
V17-20: warning that trouble was to be expected but not to
worry!
V21-23 : things could get very nasty: persecution may come, but
stand firm.
INSIGHT / PERSPECTIVE:
V24-25 : bare in mind that the enemy behind the faces is the devil.
Don’t Fear:
V26-31 our text.
The Gospel impact:
V32-33: need to publicly confess Jesus
V34-36: in coming into the world, Jesus has come to divide, those
for and those against.
Final Encouragement:
V37-39 love for Jesus, thee most important thing.
V40-42 accepting Jesus will lead to reward.
Thrust:
The great thrust of our text is the call to fear not!
This would have been applicable to the disciples who must have been
terrified at the prospect of going out on their own for the first
time!
The principle is still the same for us today.
We need not be afraid in our work for the Lord. Instead of being
afraid we should witness, worship and remember our worth!
1) Don’t fear but witness : witness
Seems that after the reminder that the enemy is just the devil Jesus
says, “so there is nothing to worry about!” v24-25.
26 "So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that
will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.
27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is
whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.
V26 - fear not, nothing can be hidden from Jesus. Nothing is secret
from him. He knows.
V27 - preach the full continent of what you have learned about the
Kingdom
What stops us from witnessing? Fear! What will people think /
what will I say / what if they laugh at me or hate me / what
effect our witnessing will have on us /
What are we to tell in our witnessing? All that we know.
Everything. All we have experienced - not philosophy but our
personal experience of Jesus.
2) Don’t fear but worship : worship
28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the
soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and
body in hell.
V28 - don’t be afraid of people. All they can do is kill your body.
Rather fear the One who has power over your soul, who can cast you
into hell.
Our mission might be thwarted through fear over what might
happen to our skin!
Thus, we need to be worshipping missionaries! Ultimately man can do
nothing to harm us! Only God has the power to really destroy! Only
He can send us to hell!
When we worship we keep the focus on God!
Called to fear God! This is real fear - he can cast us into
hell.
Yet for the missionary this “real fear” is not to be personal.
We are not to fear our own souls destination, but those for whom
we are witnessing!
Believers don’t fear God. We love God. Why? Because although he
has the power to destroy, he chooses to Save!
3) Don’t fear you are of great worth : worth.
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will
fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
V29 - even sparrows that are of very little value to us humans are
watched over by God.
V30 - God cares for us so much that he even knows the number of
hairs on our head!
V31 - thus, don’t fear. In Gods sight you are much more valuable
than sparrows! If God cares for the sparrows, how much more will he
care for you!?
The third reason that we are not to fear as we go on mission is
that God thinks we are valuable!
You look after your valuable things! How much more God.
Sparrow - symbolic for the tiniest bird - hardly any monetary
value. Yet God still knows about them!
As for you! God know all about you. He has a massive file on
you, even down to the number of hairs on your head!
You are valuable to God, therefore “do not be afraid!”
Conclusion:
As you witness do not be afraid of the people. Instead be afraid for
them, they will go to hell if they reject Jesus!
You are valuable - they are valuable: fearless mission is called
for!
sunday evening service 16th Sept 2007
1 Corinthians 4:20 20 For the kingdom of God is not a
matter of talk but of power.
Book context:
Paul had visited Corinth and started the church there. Acts18v1-21
Then he learns of difficulties facing the church.
In chaps 1-4 he address the 1st of those difficulties
i.e. party politics / divisions / jealousy / in-fighting / pride in
‘a’ man / arrogance.
Chapter 5 then moves onto a different problem.
So in chapters 1-4 we are dealing with one basic problem - division.
Out of dealing with that problem comes our text.
Immediate Context:
People were talking arrogantly and thus stoking problems.
They were false teachers whose message was not the one Paul had
preached.
They thought Paul was not coming back thus they could say what they
wanted!
But was there any depth to their talk or was it just fancy words?!
At the end of the day, the Kingdom of God was not about “mere /
arrogant talk” but “powerful talk”
The difference between window-dressing and the real thing. Image and
substance.
Meaning
the rule of God is all about the Good News!
1) What is “talk” in this context?
“talk” is all that is wrong with the church in Corinth.
talk about who was the best Preacher / Apostle! Lead to
Divisions.
1 Corinthians 1:12 12 What I mean is this: One of you
says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I
follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."
Talk is the wisdom of he world
1 Corinthians 1:20-22 20 Where is the wise man? Where
is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God
made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the
wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was
pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those
who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks
look for wisdom,
Talk is “jealousy and quarrelling”
1 Corinthians 3:3 3 You are still worldly. For since
there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not worldly?
Are you not acting like mere men?
Talk is following “men”
1 Corinthians 3:4-5 4 For when one says, "I follow
Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? 5
What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants,
through whom you came to believe--as the Lord has assigned to each
his task.
Talk is pride in oneself as judged by the standard of this
world.
1 Corinthians 3:18 18 Do not deceive yourselves. If
any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he
should become a "fool" so that he may become wise.
1 Corinthians 4:7 7 For who makes you different from
anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you
did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
That is “talk” and that has nothing to do with the Rule of God!
Where are we with regard to “talk”?
Any division , in-fighting, denominationalism, arrogance,
concern over appearance, worried about how we look in the worlds
eyes?
2) What is power?
Power is “real talk”:
The Preached Message of, Jesus and the Salvation that he has won:
“1 Corinthians 1:17-18 17 For Christ did not send
me to baptise, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human
wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ”
“1 Corinthians 1:23-25 23 but we preach Christ
crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ”
True preaching -
“1 Corinthians 2:2 2 For I resolved to know
nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Real power is the Good News.
Power here does not refers to anything other than the Good News.
Paul is not talking about miracles or healings or great shows!
Real power is Jesus, and the preaching of Jesus to a lost world.
So thus far:
Talk is anything that takes us away from real power which is Jesus
Christ.
3) What is the Kingdom?
The kingdom is the Reign of God which is brought into peoples lives
through the Gospel.
This brings us to the core meaning of our verse:
The reign of God is all about the Good News.
God’s sovereignty is defined by the Good News.
When we think of God’s rule we are to think of it in terms of Christ
Crucified for us.
In terms of our sins being forgiven.
In terms of restored relationships between God and Man.
We could say God rules to forgive! What is the kingdom all about?
Forgiveness.
Thus to get caught up in all kinds of other things has nothing to do
with the K of G.
Application:
Kingdom people are people with a message of power.
Not about how good we are. Or how good our church is.
But how good our Saviour is. How great our God is.
Not a message about healing or miracle.
But all about Jesus.
Anything that gets in the way of the message of Jesus is just
“talk”.
And has nothing to do with the Reign of God.
The message we bring to people is this :
God is the Sovereign King of the Universe and as such,
He wants to be in charge of your life, he wants to love you and do
you good,
that is what He lives for!
And he has made that possible through the death of His Son on the
Cross!
All you need to do is bow the knee and accept what God has done for
you!