Matthew 10:27- 42 – Surrender All. - by Jeff Byerley

Study on Matthew 10:27- 42 – Surrender All.

Outline of Passage
10:27-31 Jesus teaches the fear of God..
10:32-33 Confess Christ before all.
10:34-39 Christ brings Division.
10:40-42 A Cup of Water.

Our Reflections
1. Why we do not need to fear people.
2. The importance of confessing Christ before others.
3. Our highest allegiance must always be Christ.
4. What does Jesus mean by “prophet's reward”, righteous man's reward” etc?

Our Conclusions

In this passage Jesus warns that if we confess him before others, we are bound to find persecution in one form or another. Indeed, 1 Peter 4:12 states: “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.”

Why we do not need to fear people.
Jesus emphasised this a number of times and gave three reasons: (1) Opponents can kill the body but the soul is safe with Jesus awaiting the Day of Jesus' return when our bodies will be raised up to eternal life (v.28). (2) The judgment by the people of this world is nothing compared to God's eternal judgment (v.28). (3) Our lives are very valuable to God and he watches over everything that happens to us just as he even does with sparrows. We were encouraged by the fact that Jesus did not ask us to do something he himself had not experienced,

The importance of confessing Christ before others.
Jesus makes it clear that we must always confess Christ as denying him may have eternal consequences. But it is more than confessing Christ with our words. We must confess Christ with our lives, our deeds, our time and our priorities. If our lives show that we love the world and all it offers more than Christ, then we are actually denying Christ.

Our highest allegiance must always be to Christ.
The greatest temptations can be to deny Christ for the sake of keeping our close family relations. However, Jesus makes clear that even these relations can have no claim upon us compared to Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus himself had experienced trouble with members of his own family as he walked the path his Father had chosen for him (see John 7:1-9).

What does Jesus mean by “prophet's reward”, righteous man's reward” etc?
Not everyone is called to go on far away missions. But as members of Christ's church we are all called to play our part in making “disciples in every nation” (Math. 28:19). For every missionary there needs to be the support of many people using the gifts God has given them. We see this in many scriptures.

Michael Wilkins points to the great hospitality provided by Gaius to Christ's travelling prophets in 3
John. In our passage here, Jesus is saying that those who align themselves wholeheartedly with this
work, will also receive the same reward as those gospel workers. For many reason, not everyone can
go, but the Gospel worker going forth, not only represents Christ but all the church and perhaps
especially those who prepared them and gave support.

Indeed, William Barclay refers to a story by H.L.Gee2, that well illustrates this point. A country
lad believed he was being called into ministry. The lad was taught by a local cobbler, who
was a man of much reading and understanding. On the day that the lad was licenced to
preach the cobbler said to him. “It was always my desire to be a minister of the gospel, but
the circumstances of my life made it impossible. … I want you to let me make and cobble
your shoes for nothing and I want you to wear them in the pulpit. … Then you will preach
standing in my shoes.”