Expect the wolves to attack

Matthew 10:16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 "Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 21 "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23 When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.


Dale Rippy, a central Florida resident, was pulling trashcans back to his house on May 30, 2007 when he saw what he thought was a large cat. After realizing the animal was actually a bobcat, the 62-year-old Rippy set the trashcans down and prepared for an attack. A 25-pound bobcat may seem pretty small when compared with the lions Daniel faced in the den, but when the bobcat has rabies, it’s a pretty intimidating little beast.

Having grown up on a farm, Rippy said he knew the bobcat would attack when it didn’t run away after seeing him. “When it growled, I knew it was going to bite me,” he said.

What Rippy did next, I find amazing. When the bobcat attacked, it began to scratch, claw and bite him. He let it. Rippy waited until the cat clawed itself into a position where he was able to grab hold of its throat. It was a hold Rippy kept until the cat was dead. The County Animal Control Manager said, “If he let the cat go, we could have had more victims.”

Having grown up in this world and having heard Jesus’ realistic assessment of being Christians in this world, we know what to expect. The world may often seem cute, cuddly and friendly. Satan often masquerades as an angel of light to appear innocent and harmless (2 Corinthians 11:14). But Satan will quickly take off the mask and appear as he really is – a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). The world is like ravenous wolves. You can hear the growling. The enemies of the Gospel can attack at any time. They are prowling like a rabid bobcat looking for unsuspecting prey upon whom they can pounce.

The world has no love for the Gospel and no love for those who confess the Gospel. So our dear Savior warns, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” Snakes will usually quietly escape from danger, but they will stay and defend themselves if necessary. Doves are symbols of peace. We should not attack anyone and start trouble. But when trouble comes our way, people can be sure we didn’t start it. That’s what confessing Christ is all about. It’s about trouble and danger. It’s about standing firm against the assaults of Satan.

Jesus told the disciples that the Jews did not want to be reformed. He said, “Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.” The work of reforming the world with the Gospel was not going to be easy or pleasant for the disciples. They would not be honored by the masses. People are naturally resistant to spiritual change, because they are hostile to God by nature and do not want to hear what God has to say about their corrupt lives. The disciples were not to expect popularity; they ought to expect persecution. They would not receive unfailing adulation, but ardent flogging. They should not expect applause and gratitude, but should expect arrest and the grave.

In typical fashion, Jesus did not sugarcoat things for His disciples of all ages. Daniel faithfully knelt and prayed to the true God and he was thrown to the lions. Paul’s loyalty to the Word of God caused his Jewish brothers to abandon him and his enemies would not stop harassing him.

Martin Luther expected hatred from people – particularly when it became clear that he and the Roman Catholic Church were not only on a different page but in a different book. He expected to die a martyr’s death because he had taken on the church and its false teachers. That’s why he resisted getting married for so long. He didn’t want his wife to be made a widow or future children to be fatherless. Still, though, Luther knew he might die at any moment after being branded a heretic by the pope and an outlaw by the Emperor, he would not remain silent. In fact, on one occasion, Luther received a note from a man who urged him not to go to a meeting in Augsburg to which Luther’s enemies had invited him. Luther’s response? “Even in Augsburg, in the middle of his enemies, Christ reigns.” You see, Luther, as a reformer, had another expectation beyond hatred from men. He expected help from His gracious Lord.

Moses and the prophets, the apostles and early Christians, Luther and his fellow reformers knew that Jesus’ words would come true, “All men will hate you because of me.” We as twenty-first century Christians and modern-age reformers certainly do not go looking for trouble – enough trouble will find us. It has been said that where Christ builds a church, the devil builds a chapel. Wherever the Gospel is proclaimed, Satan must attack. Wherever we soldiers of Christ lift high the cross, Satan’s minions inflict pain and pressure. Wherever Christ reigns as King, this world’s prince still scowls.

We may not fear beheading, loss of property, imprisonment or death, like other Christians in centuries past or Christians suffering presently around the world. We don’t fear a den of lions, but persecution abounds when we’re faithful to the Word. We lose relationships because of moral purity. We lose promotions because of worship priorities. We lose friendships because we won’t join in sinful talking or walking.

We are called old-fashioned for our insistence on a 6-day creation and marriage being a lifetime commitment of love between one man and one woman. We are ridiculed as backward for our persistence that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God which is our rule and norm for life and criticized for our demand that salvation is in Christ alone. Whether it is in the college classroom or the business boardroom, the high school hallways or network news, we know we will face criticism, corruption, ridicule and resistance. We know this because Jesus has insisted on sending us out as sheep among wolves. We know there is enmity between those who follow Satan and those who follow the Savior. We know that our love for our heavenly Father and our brotherly Savior may conflict with our earthly relationships with our parents, siblings, spouse or children. “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.”

Satan will use these emotional attachments to silence our confessions. He slows the spread of the Gospel as we cower in fear. Our sinful nature doesn’t want ridicule, but craves acceptance. Instead of expecting resistance, we expect results and we soon become frustrated. We imagine the world is filled with cute kitties and darling dogs, whereas, in reality, they are really rabid bobcats and ravenous wolves.

So we cower, give up and give in. We join the crowd. We don’t stand up and stand out, but sit down and blend in. We shut our mouths, keep our money in our homes instead of using it to expand God’s kingdom and focus on ourselves instead of doing God’s mission work.

Fellow sheep, don’t be fooled into faintheartedness. Don’t be coerced into cowardice. Don’t be intimidated into silence. Don’t let the world lead you astray. Don’t let the devil tempt you and his demons trick you. Jesus says very clearly who you are up against – wolves, lions and enemies of the Gospel. Expect the wolves to attack. As you allow the Holy Spirit to reform your former sinful way of life, expect derision and insults. As you work with God’s Word to reform the world, expect hatred and persecution. But, like Daniel, Paul and Luther, expect help from your gracious Lord, the Shepherd of helpless and hapless sheep.

An infamous movie cliché is when the hero of a movie is being beaten and his girlfriend remains standing, oh-so-helplessly, along the sidelines. Apparently, the wife of Tambun Gediu hasn’t seen these movies. Gediu lives in a jungle region of northern Malaysia. A few months ago, he set out on a Saturday to hunt squirrels near his home. Gediu wasn’t the only one who was hunting.

Just as he made his way into the jungle, a tiger pounced on him. Gediu tried to climb a tree, but the tiger dragged him down. He hit the tiger in the face, but the tiger kept mauling him. Back in their home, Gediu’s 55-year-old wife, Han Besau, heard her husband’s screams of terror. Now, if this had been a movie, she would have confined her help to standing there and screaming. But this wasn’t a movie and Han Besau isn’t an actress. Not ready to see her husband become brunch for a tiger, she flew into action and clobbered that tiger.

And what do you think she used to clobber that beastie? Did she use a pitchfork? A large club? A machete? Nope, Han Besau attacked that tiger with a soup spoon. True, it was a large soup spoon, but it was still a soup spoon. She clobbered that cat on the head, and he beat a hasty retreat.

Now all of us must admit that going up against a tiger armed only with a large soup spoon is a pretty brave thing to do. Still, such bravery pales in comparison with the courage shown by Jesus Christ when He entered this world to save humanity. Consider the enemies He was confronting. There was sin which had been part of every human being since the fall; there was the devil whose seductive temptations had managed to lead all of humanity astray and, of course, there was death which had, except for those rare cases where God had directly intervened, managed to bring down the strongest and best of us.

One Man against sin, death and devil. It should have been a lopsided contest. It should have been, but Jesus  is the God/Man who emerged as the Conqueror. His perfect life stood successfully against sin. His determination to save us defeated the devil, and His dedication to following the Father’s will was more than a match for death. Now, because of what Jesus has done, as St. Paul says in Romans 8:37, “... we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

Jesus tells us to expect the attack of the wolves, but to also expect that we are never alone. Even as we stand on trial for our beliefs, we are witnesses to our enemies. Even as we are arrested and persecuted, the Holy Spirit is giving us the boldness to speak clearly. Luther concludes his Battle Hymn of the Reformation: “And do what they will – hate, steal, hurt or kill – though all may be gone, our victory is won; the kingdom’s ours forever!” Even as we face the hatred of men, we are comforted and encouraged with the knowledge that a life free from all suffering and pain awaits us.

Besides, what’s the worst that can be done to us? Imprisonment? Jesus is there. Suffering? We suffer in Jesus’ name. Hatred? We need only the love of God. Loss of property? Our treasures are in heaven. Death? We die in Christ and are with Christ for eternity! God shut the lions’ mouths to show His Church of all ages that God is able to guard and keep His own. What a comfort it is when Jesus promises, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

So we are encouraged to say what we couldn’t or didn’t say before. We have the confidence of Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

Luther had this confidence as he was expelled from his order, excommunicated from his church and outlawed from his empire. Before the kings and princes of Europe, Luther gave faithful witness at Worms. As sheep among wolves, in the face of persecution, standing before governors and politicians, neighbors and siblings, high school sweethearts and college professors, stand firm to the end, knowing that you will be saved. Stand firm and confess with brother Martin, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.” Amen.

Reformation at Epiphany on October 30, 2011

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