Matthew 10:21-33
June 21, 2026
What are you afraid of in your life? Snakes? Spiders? Lightning? Heights? The stock market crashing? President Franklin Roosevelt said in his first inaugural address on March 4, 1933 that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He described that fear as a “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” Of course, the fact is there would have been no reason for President Roosevelt to assert his firm belief that there was “nothing to fear” unless there actually was something to fear. The country was in the midst of a staggering economic crisis known as the Great Depression, sparking fears that were not “nameless” or “unjustified.” Later in his speech, President Roosevelt himself admitted, “Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment,” dark realities that gave substance to people’s real and understandable fears.
In our Gospel lesson for today Jesus repeatedly tells His disciples to “have no fear,” as He sends them out for missionary work – the work of telling others about their sin and their Savior. Now they are well prepared for this effort, as Jesus had spent a lot of time working with them and He gave them the power to heal the sick and to drive out demons, which would demonstrate that Jesus’ authority was with them since people has seen Jesus perform such miracles. Still, their task would not be easy as Jesus acknowledges that He is sending them out “as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Therefore, His very words of encouragement to “have no fear,” show that He knows there is much to fear, at least from a human point of view.
As Jesus speaks these words as recorded in Matthew, He knows that those who follow Him in those days and even today have a lot to fear. First, Jesus says they will have to face rejection. No one likes to be rejected, and most of us have probably had experiences that may cause us to fear rejection. But Jesus warned His disciples that since He had been harassed and rejected, they could expect to be hassled as well. And I think that’s a good reminder for us. Although we would love it if news about Jesus was always welcomed like a free bowl of ice cream, telling others about Jesus does not always produce a joyful response – not even from those who grew up in the church. But we should not be discouraged, Jesus was often rejected and we will be as well, as His followers.
But maybe we should take a closer look at how we are following Jesus. Do we walk on the path He has laid out for us in His Word, which may not be easy, or do we try to go our own way? Jesus has called us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love our neighbors as ourselves. But sometimes we use our intellect to rationalize our refusal to love our neighbors. We justify our sin instead of trying to avoid it. The problem could be that we don’t always see Jesus as our leader, but instead as our servant, someone who is there to give us what we want, whenever we want it, and to follow behind us in order to clean things up after the messes we make. And when Jesus doesn’t clean up after us, when He lets us suffer the consequences of our sin, we complain that He isn’t there for us. While Jesus came to serve, He is not our servant, He is our leader and He gives us good reasons to let Him do the leading.
The second thing Jesus says His disciples will have to face is intimidation and persecution. In verse 28 He says, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Jesus knew that there were people who would hate the disciples and try to silence them by threatening to kill them, but they couldn’t touch their souls. Fortunately we do not face the threat of death for our faith in our country, but many times we may be intimidated to share our faith or what the Bible says on certain topics with others. How easy it is to get into a conversation about marriage with our friends and co-workers, but when God’s design for marriage is challenged do we speak up for what God says about marriage or do we remain silent out of fear of what others may think of us or do to us? When speaking about what we’re going to do on the weekend do we tell our friends and co-workers, “I’m going to church!” or do we leave that out, because we’re embarrassed of what they might think of us? Plus, if we remain silent in these situations out of fear are we actually denying Jesus before others?
If there is one thing we should be afraid of it’s turning away from Jesus. At the end of our text Jesus said, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” Satan is working hard to pull you away from Jesus, and He will fight until your death to claim you for himself. Just consider how close he came to claiming the disciple, Peter. Hours after Peter told Jesus that he would never deny Him, he did just that out of fear as Jesus was on trial. And like Peter, we can easily deny Jesus when we remain silent out of fear of what others may think of us because of our faith.
But the enemies of Jesus can persecute His people only within the limits that He establishes and we see this in the story of Job in the Old Testament. But since Jesus is in charge of our lives, we don’t ever have to be afraid of what others may think of us because of our faith. Jesus promises us that no one will ever be able to take us away from Him and He emphasizes this by then directing our attention to some common, ordinary birds to assure us of God’s care for us. In verses 29&31 Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. So fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows.” To this day sparrows are not highly valued compared to many other birds, and in Jesus’ day they certainly were not worth very much as Jesus says that two of them would be sold for a penny. And yet the God who created the sparrows watches over them, and not one of them falls to the ground unless God permits it.
Now I don’t think it is surprising to hear that we are worth more to God than sparrows. What is perhaps surprising to learn is that not one of the billions of sparrows that fly around this world falls to the ground apart from God’s will. The sparrow that lives among the cherry trees of Japan, and the sparrow that flies through the forests of Germany, as well as the sparrow that chirps outside your bedroom are all under God’s watchful care. And if God gives sparrows this much attention, won’t He also give you the care and attention you need?
This does not mean that you will never suffer or fall to the ground. Jesus did not say that the sparrows will never fall to the ground, because God watches over them. They just don’t fall to the ground apart from God’s will. Likewise, God hasn’t promised to keep sickness or even death from us, but He can use these difficulties for our good, because He knows exactly what we need. In fact, God is so concerned about our welfare that Jesus said in verse 30 that He even knows how many strands of hair we each have on our heads. And when one falls out this week, God will know exactly which one it is. Now not even your parents or your spouse knows those details about you and frankly they probably don’t care to, but God does. God’s knowledge is so vast that it says in Psalm 147:4 that “God determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” That is beyond our comprehension, but at the same time God’s knowledge is so specific and personal that it extends to knowing exactly how many hairs are on our heads.
If God cares that much about us, do we need to be afraid of anything if we follow Him? From a human standpoint, yes. We will certainly face rejection, intimidation, and ridicule in our lives. But from God’s point of view, we have nothing to fear. Why? Because Jesus has faced the source of every fear, He has overcome every enemy that causes us fear, and has promised to be with us and watch over us in every fearful situation, and to guide us safely to our heavenly home, where fear will be wiped out forever and ever.
