Missionary Sparrows
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? ~ Matthew 6:26
Why did Jesus point His disciples to the sparrows for comfort in the face of persecution?
Matthew chapter 10 recounts how Jesus instructed, warned, and comforted His disciples before sending them out on a disciple-making mission. He did not hide or soften the reality. He told them plainly what things they could expect on mission.
He told them to be careful with rulers and those in power. They were to expect trouble with the worldly authorities, including persecution and imprisonment. He warned them about the treachery and disloyalty they would encounter, even among family members. He prepared them to expect to be hated by those whom they tried to reach. They were to expect persecution and even being run out of town. He warned them about the slander they would face. He also told them that some would be killed for the testimony of Christ and His Gospel.
Jesus was always very open about the costs for following Him. It caused many to rethink and depart. This is quite a contrast from the message from so many corners today: “God loves you just the way you are and has a wonderful plan for your life, if you will only just accept Him.” That was not Jesus’ message. It is not the message of the Bible, and it should not be our message today. But I digress. Now to the sparrows.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
~ Matthew 10:29-31
In the midst of these plain and terrifying warnings, Jesus directed the disciples to consider the sparrows. In fact, He did this immediately after raising the prospect of martyrdom. Why? How were the sparrows to help and comfort them in the face of such persecutions? I believe there are two primary reasons.
God’s Fatherhood
Jesus pointed out the sparrows relatively little worth: “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?” He also pointed out the care “your Father” has for them. This is an argument from the lesser to the greater as Jesus concluded, “Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”
The lesson is plain. We go on mission in Jesus’ name and we have the care of our heavenly Father. He cares intimately about the insignificant creatures of creation. He is our Father and we are more valuable to Him than many such creatures. We should not then presume we have lost His care because we come into persecution for His name.
This is both comforting and encouraging. But Jesus had another reason for pointing His disciples to the sparrows.
God’s Sovereignty
Jesus said, “And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.” Some would understand this to say that not a sparrow dies without the notice and care of God. That doesn’t quite capture the full picture.
The Bible is clear that God is sovereign over His creation. He ordains life and death. He appoints the times, seasons, and bounds of habitation. This is true of the sparrow and the worm and the king on his throne. The Psalmist paints the manifest wisdom of God’s sovereignty over His creation this way:
These wait all upon thee;
That thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
That thou givest them they gather:
Thou openest thine hand,
They are filled with good.
Thou hidest thy face,
They are troubled:
Thou takest away their breath,
They die,
And return to their dust.
~ Psalm 104:27-29
What is the lesson? When a sparrow falls to the ground, it is ordained of God. Likewise, when we come into persecution, it is ordained of God. He has permitted it and He has purpose in it. Even Jesus said as much to Pilate when facing His own death, “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” (John 19:11)
Take comfort and find courage in the mission of the Gospel in the world. Nothing will befall us that is beyond God’s control. Whatever may come will be for our good and ultimately for God’s glory.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
~ Romans 8:28
The Gospel in the Hole
They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly. ~ Acts 18:26
Have you ever noticed a hole in personal testimonies?
A personal testimony is a relating of our own experience of salvation. It is an account of the powerful work of God in our own life. Some berth must be given for the “personal” aspect, though certain things are always, or should be, the same. Some allowance must be made that not everyone is a theologian or preacher on the order of Paul, yet all testimonies should have some things in common with Paul.
Paul had a dramatic experience on the Damascus road, but he didn’t consider himself to be in a different class of conversion from others. He wrote:
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
~ 1 Timothy 1:16
If I were to combine and summarize many testimonies I have heard, it would go something like this:
- Personal crisis. This could be a financial loss, medical issue, death of a loved one, etc. In this part, words like “strayed” and “disconnected” are common.
- Help. This could come from a friend, family member, or through a church. In this part, words like “reconnected,” “community,” and “serving” are common.
- Solution. This is where the crisis is resolved or worked out in some way. Words like “peace,” “victory,” and “blessing” are common.
My comments are not intended to be negatively critical of those elements. It’s not so much what is said, but what is not said that is concerning. Such testimonies rarely refer to sin or repentance and you seldom hear much about God or Jesus Christ. There is a gaping hole in these testimonies and primarily the Gospel is missing.
Paul gave his testimony before Agrippa in Acts 26:2-23. There are some marked differences between Paul and what we hear prevalently today. It’s not that Paul did not relate personal experiences, he did. But he also told the truth of the Gospel that gave meaning to his experience.
Consider some of what Paul included.
- The hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers (v. 6)
- That God should raise the dead [resurrection] (v. 8)
- The name of Jesus Nazareth (v. 9)
- I was not disobedient [I obeyed] (v. 19)
- They should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance (v. 20)
- Saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come (v. 22)
- The suffering of Christ, His resurrection, and light to the people (v. 23)
I don’t suggest we have to be theologians or preachers to give our testimonies. I don’t suggest we should embellish our testimonies to sound like we are saved. I do suggest there is a hole in our testimonies and we should put the Gospel in the hole.
Cheesy Fingers
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. ~ 2 Timothy 4:4
You have probably heard the humorous observation of how Christians sometimes pray to ask God to make up for our bad choices. We’ll grab a bag of cheese puffs and a high-sugar, high-caffeine soda and then pray to ask God to bless it to the nourishment of our bodies. If we truly want our bodies to be nourished, apart from a transformative miracle from God, then we must dramatically increase the quality of food we are feeding our bodies.
While that is humorous and hits closer to home than we would like, I wonder how often this is true of our spiritual lives. How often are we snacking on spiritually equivalent cheese coated puffs of air while praying and hoping that our souls will be nourished somehow? One place this is very apparent is our approach to church.
God has designed the church to facilitate the spiritual growth and maturation of its members. This is not the only purpose of the church, but it is a very important purpose. Paul taught this in his letter to the church at Ephesus:
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
~ Ephesians 4:11-16
One of the consequences of “the edifying of the body” is “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.” The apostle has spiritual maturity in mind. He wants to see the Christians grow up and become men and women of the Word.
So the church is one of the means of sanctification in our lives, yet so few people think of it this way. Many want a church just like they want their snacks—sweet and light and causing a momentary good feeling. A person cannot live on snack food, at least not very long or well.
Paul put this craving this way:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
~ 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Paul warned Timothy that people would not endure sound teaching, but would seek out snacks for their cravings. He described these people as having “itching ears.” You would think he was talking about America, because we certainly have itching ears. Apparently, we are scratching those ears with cheesy fingers.
Gut Check
Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. ~ Proverbs 32:24
How do we make decisions? How do we judge? How do we choose between two or more alternatives? How do we figure out if something is or should be one way or another?
Much of the time we just go with the gut. We all have sensibilities that have been shaped by our family, upbringing, education, and culture. We almost immediately know how we feel about something, but what we think about something, or should think about it, is another matter.
First, let me give you two reasons why I say that we more often make decisions intuitively rather than thoughtfully. One is the typical way we use our time. The 2009 American Time Use Survey studied how the average American spends an average day. Regardless of our class, religion, gender, etc. everyone has 24 hours in a day. The average American spends about 8 hours sleeping, 8 hours working, 2 hours on work around their home, and 6 hours on leisure. The time spent on leisure includes an average of about 3 hours watching television and the rest is divided among sports, recreation, internet, reading for pleasure, etc. The sad reality is that the numbers for the average professing Christian in America are not much different, except that we have to squeeze in the 3-7 minutes on average they spend in prayer daily.
Based on the way we use our time, we are not regularly taking any significant amount of time to read, study, pray, think, and consider. These are activities that cannot be done properly in multitasking. Now, the time spent on weekend days does look a little different, but the main difference is the time spent working goes down and the time spent on leisure goes up.
If we are not taking time regularly to think and consider, how are we making choices and determinations? We are going with our gut most of the time. Granted, some decisions can be made intuitively because they are relatively unimportant, but can we say the same for eternal truths and the spiritual state of our souls and the judgment to come?
The second reason is anecdotal, based on my own experience, though I think it will resonate with many. I grew up a pastor’s kid, so I have been around church people my whole life. Whenever there are discussions about the Bible, one of the most common phrases to come up is, “I feel.” I have been shocked to hear this phrase spoken in direct contradiction to even plain Scripture. “Yeah, but I feel . . .” “Well, I feel . . .” People don’t want to think through the real meaning of God’s Word and they end up with their feelings. “I feel God is this.” “I feel God is that.” I feel God would never do that.” “I feel God is actually saying this.” It should come as no surprise that our feelings are often wrong.
Is this how we understand what is really true?
Let’s turn to the Scripture and find an answer to this question. Here is what Paul wrote to Timothy in a letter:
Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.
- 2 Timothy 2:7
The first word would seem to answer our question. Paul said, “Consider.” The word means to perceive with the mind, think about, ponder. Paul is telling Timothy to think about the things he has written to him to the end of understanding them.
There is a certain profile of person who is dying to object at this point. “Read the rest of the verse,” they would say. Paul said, “The Lord give thee understanding in all things.” Their logic runs thus: The Lord is the one who gives us understanding. Therefore, it is not our mental exertion that brings understanding. We see this premise incarnated whenever someone refuses to read and heed the Word of God, opting rather for the subjective, “I just have to live my life and, if I’m wrong, God will have to show me.”
So, which is it? Does the Lord through His Spirit give us understanding, or do we think and consider our way to understanding?
When we go back to the text to think about the two statements, we notice the conjunction joining them. This means that Paul did not view Timothy’s considering and the Lord giving him understanding as mutually exclusive. Paul affirms both as operative in our coming to understanding.
An objector might now point to particular verses. Such as:
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
- 1 Corinthians 2:14
The objection would be that man cannot know spiritual truths unless they are revealed to him. On the surface, this is true enough. But the unspoken premise of this objection is that the working of the Spirit and the working of our minds are mutually exclusive. Paul rejects this premise, and so does Peter but we’ll get to that in a moment.
How do we reconcile Paul in 1 Corinthians and Paul in 2 Timothy? We begin by taking both verses as true. Paul affirms the necessity of the Spirit in giving us understanding and he affirms our mental process in coming to understanding. The problem with the objector is that he is overstating Paul’s case to preclude any thought on the part of man. That is not Paul’s point. He asserts that man’s thinking is not ultimately decisive in understanding truth, but that does not mean it is wholly excluded. He asserts the absolute necessity of Spirit revelation in understanding truth, but that does not mean thought is not required.
Think about what Peter said relevant to this subject. He wrote of Paul in his second epistle:
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
- 2 Peter 3:14
Peter affirms there were some things Paul wrote that were hard to be understood. The question then is: Where does the difficulty in understanding lie? Is it difficult for the Spirit to give understanding in these things? Or, is it difficult for man to comprehend what he wrote? If we think that man’s mental process is excluded from understanding truth, then we must say the Spirit has difficulty in communicating certain truths. If, on the other hand, we think that human thinking is operative, though not ultimately decisive, in understanding truth, then the difficulty lies with man in understanding hard things.
The writer of Hebrews affirms this when he writes:
Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
- Hebrews 5:11
Those things were hard to be understood because the people were dull of hearing, not because the Spirit was struggling to reveal the truth to them.
The fact that our minds are involved in understanding truth is one reason why we are told our minds need to be renewed and we are commanded to renew them.
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
- Romans 12:2And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
- Ephesians 4:23And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
- Colossians 3:10
We are supposed to think and renew our minds continually with the Word of God. We need to check our gut and be willing to think hard about the ultimate realities of life. And this we do in utter reliance and dependence upon the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.
