FOUR MISTAKES IN APPROACHING A DANGEROUS WORLD:
1. IF THE WORLD IS MESSY AND DANGEROUS, IS THE WISE OPTION TO JUST WITHDRAW? No, Jesus is sending us out.
- Matthew 10:16a.
- Matthew 5:13-16; Matthew 16:18.
- Our tendency is to withdraw from the world because it’s a scary place.
- Over time, churches find that everything they’re doing is inwardly focused. Preachers can speak on what a horrible world is out there and so you need to stay safe inside church culture. We don’t push for being out and about. We don’t push for interaction with the world.
- Yes, the world can be scary, but go out anyway.
- We should remember the “gates of hell” passage. In Matthew 16:18 we are promised that the gates of hell will not be able to withstand the assault of the church of Jesus Christ.
- We are called in the Sermon on the Mount to be salt and light. Matthew 5:13-16 indicates that we have those roles to play in the larger society we are a part of.
2. DO YOU HAVE TO BECOME THE DRAGON TO DEFEAT THE DRAGON? No, don’t change the nature of who you are.
- Matthew 10:16b.
- If we’re not going to retreat from the world, we sometimes will go to the opposite danger: if you’re going to fight the dragon, you have to become a dragon. By that I mean that we sometimes believe that we need to become like the world if we’re going to make progress in this world.
- We have to become wolves if we’re going to make it. Instead, Jesus points us toward remembering who we are.
- We must maintain our core identity – we are His sheep. We belong to Jesus.
- Let’s look at our core identity and use a few keys words. We’ll also look at the “wolf” temptation with each.
a. A sheep.
- The wolf temptation: believe that you’ve got to take care of yourself rather than knowing that you have a Good Shepherd watching over you.
b. A disciple of Christ.
- The wolf temptation: going to church occasionally and saying you’re a Christian are sufficient rather than knowing that we are called to obedience.
c. A new creation.
- The wolf temptation: believe the core of who you are is still that you’re a sinner rather than the Biblical truth that you have been made into a new creation in Christ.
d. A Spirit-filled vessel.
- The wolf temptation: listen to the advice of the world instead of to the Spirit’s guidance.
3. CAN WE ACCOMPLISH OUR MISSION BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY? No, maintaining a pure heart opens up God’s power.
- Matthew 10:16d.
- He doesn’t call us to “do what it takes to get it done.” Going back to point 2, we must remember who we are.
- That manifests itself in how we live. There is often a desire to accomplish Kingdom ends by non-Kingdom means, but that is something we must resist.
- What are examples of this?
a. Someone does me wrong and I’m going to get revenge, not forgive.
b. When there’s a church fight, using gossip to make your case.
c. Refusing to love someone with whom you disagree politically.
d. At work, sabotaging someone who stole some of the credit for my work.
- Sections like Matthew 5:1-47 present a challenging vision of the Kingdom. It’s not just radical – it’s also superior! We are to actually live out what He has called us to.
- The idea of being “innocent as doves” brings to mind the classic Dostoevsky novel The Idiot. In it, one character returns amid high society conniving, backstabbing, and ambition. In the midst of that, he lives a life of goodness, open-hearted simplicity, and guilelessness. These actions mystify those around him. What’s his game? What is he up to? They simply cannot understand what he is doing because they don’t have anyone else around them that are trying to live a good life. All of this lead them to consider him “the idiot.” And yet at the same time he has an unexpectedly powerful impact on several of those lives.
- That story is a powerful one for the point that this final phrase makes. It’s so easy for us to pursue actions that are in line with how everyone else does business. Yes, we are to be shrewd, but we are also to be innocent as doves.
- Earlier, under point 2, we talked about who we are. Now we’re talking about what we do. Our actions.
- We do what is right, what God has called us to do. It may not be what everyone else is doing. It may not even be what we consider the best thing to do. But we do it to obey Christ.
- As we do that, it opens the door to God working in powerful and unexpected ways that we cannot envision ahead of time. We take on a trusting approach to all this. The approach is this: you do what’s right and trust God to work it out. We believe that His power will move on our behalf.
- This is a world away from the approach where we fight like they fight. This is a world away from the approach where we act like doing whatever it takes to win is acceptable.
- This speaks to the innocence that the passage mentions. We aren’t responsible for bring justice and judgment. We aren’t responsible for destroying people. We aren’t responsible for making sure right wins. We are responsible for doing right, innocently trusting that as we do that God will handle the rest.
- Let’s go back to the earlier examples and play them out in a different way:
- What are examples of this?
a. Someone does me wrong and I’m going to get revenge, not forgive.
- Someone does me wrong and I tell them I forgive them. That relatively small sacrifice on my part opens up their heart to hearing about having God in their life.
b. When there’s a church fight, using gossip to make your case.
- We refuse to stoop to malice over the phone lines. We lose that business meeting vote because God is intent on judging that church and He is leading them into a time of fruitlessness and frustration. He opens the door up out of that, though, for us to serve in a new church that is healthy and we are abundantly fruitful because we grew during that time by doing what was right.
c. Refusing to love someone with whom you disagree politically.
- We love someone who disagrees with us politically and God uses it to point us toward knowing what’s truly important and what’s secondary. It’s a major growth moment for us.
d. At work, sabotaging someone who stole some of the credit for my work.
- We handle someone’s nefarious actions with integrity rather than anger. In one sense, we lose that round, but our actions do not go unnoticed by the senior manager looking for people of character to put in key positions and we end up with a quicker promotion than expected.
- One worthwhile illustration here is the difference between Martin Luther King’s approach compared with Malcolm X. The latter made his doctrine “by any means necessary” while Dr. King believed that peaceful resistance was the right approach. Malcolm X’s approach made more sense by the standards of this world (you may have to be violent to accomplish your goal), but it was Dr. King who won the day. Why? Because in this sense he stood for what he believed was right and trusted that God’s power would do the rest.
- For those who think that this approach doesn’t take the meanness of this world seriously enough, it’s worth noting that this verse is followed by a discussion of the persecution the disciples of Jesus will undergo in His name. Jesus does not have a Pollyanna naiveté here. He just believes that a different approach is needed.
4. SO ARE WE JUST MEANT TO BE VICTIMS? No, don’t be dumb – instead be shrewd.
- Matthew 10:16c.
- I think this is an immediate answer to our most likely misinterpretation of His previous statement. He tells us that we are “sheep among wolves.” It would be easy to presume then that our role is that of victim. “We’re going to get wiped out regularly, so just get used to it.” This makes the next statement important.
- He calls us to be “shrewd as snakes.”
- The word “shrewd” turns my thoughts to the parable of the shrewd manager. It’s an interesting story (share it) and the moral of the story is that the manager uses what he controls to accomplish his goal. In that story, his goal is to find employment after he’s fired, so he uses the resources he still controls to make friends. He was on point. He knew the best way to accomplish what he was after and diligently pursued it.
- Also, “shrewd” pushes against one of the first things we think about sheep – that they’re dumb. I think that Jesus calling us “sheep among wolves” is not intended for us to take as a statement of “alright, just stand there and get wiped out,” but rather the sheep aspect concerns our identity. We follow our shepherd, but don’t think that your job is just to stand there and look dumb.
- “Shrewd” means “having sharp powers of judgment.” In this case, we don’t mean being judgmental. Rather, we mean having great decision-making skills and insightful thoughts on a situation. Seeing what someone’s real motive is. Knowing what the most important piece of the puzzle is. Being able to see a person for what they really are.
- This is easier for us as Christians than for most because we have been given life-changing wisdom in the Word. It’s gives us the ability to see things that others are blind to.
