My exegesis on the Gospel for the Second Sunday after Trinity, Year A, Matthew 9:35-10:23 concludes with this post.

Part 1 has the full reading and exposition for Matthew 9:35-9:38. Part 2 discusses Matthew 10:1-2, especially the Apostles Peter and Andrew, who were brothers as well as James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Part 3 covers the lives of Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James of Alphaeus and Jude Thaddaeus. Part 4 provides the stories of Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot then goes into the focus of our Lord’s commission — command — to the Apostles in their first step of ministry. Part 5 is about our Lord’s specific instructions to the Apostles.

Today’s post covers Matthew 10:16-23 (emphases mine below):

10:16 “See, I am sending you out like Sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

10:17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;

10:18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.

10:19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time;

10:20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

10:21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;

10:22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

10:23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

In 2015, I wrote an exegesis based on Matthew Henry’s commentary for Matthew 10: parts 1 and 2, which may also be of interest.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur (as specified below).

We come now to our Lord’s message about the need for discernment, the probability of Persecution, the effect the word of God has on people and His Second Coming.

He was preparing them for the future, not necessarily this initial ministry.

Jesus told the Apostles that He was sending them out like sheep in the midst of wolves, therefore, they were to be as wise as serpents whilst being as gentle as doves (verse 16).

John MacArthur tells us what this verse means in terms of the helplessness of sheep in the natural world. Much of this came as news to me:

Now, this then is our Lord’s ordination of the Twelve. And sending them out on their first internship, if you will. And I want you to see this morning, and we’ll just really deal with this, this morning, the groundwork – I want you to see the opening statement in verse 16 and see what it means. “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.”

Now, that is a very interesting statement. In fact, I got so interested in that statement that I didn’t get much past it. I am not an expert on sheep, and I am less of an expert on wolves. But I did have occasion, when I was a high school student, to be out in the desert for a few days, herding a flock of sheep. And in just that brief experience, I was exposed to the helplessness, the stupidity, the dependency, and the timidity of sheep.

In fact, sheep are so easily scared and panicked, that if a jackrabbit jumps out from behind a piece of brush, it’s enough to stampede the whole flock. They’re just real edgy animals. And it’s a good thing, because when danger comes, they’re utterly helpless. The only thing they have to do is to run. They are totally defenseless. They have no weapons at all. All they can do is run, and if you ever looked at a sheep, they’re not built for speed. Great big fat bodies and four toothpicks for legs. And yet, all kinds of dangers face sheep.

Phillip Keller, in that special little book that he wrote called A Shepherd Looks at the Twenty-Third Psalm had a lot of experience as a shepherd and has tremendous insights. He says you have to protect the sheep from poisonous weeds. So, the shepherd has to go ahead of the flock and make sure there are no poisonous weeds. Sheep are also vulnerable to weather; to parasites, which attach themselves to the sheep’s body; to all kinds of diseases; and especially to insects.

In fact, there are certain flies that are so much a problem to sheep, that sheep have commonly been known to beat their heads against rocks or trees until they are dead because of the annoyance of flies buzzing around their ears and eyes.

Very often, flies will land in their eyes and plant their eggs there, and ultimately it’ll cause the sheep blindness. Sometimes sheep will panic and stampede just trying to elude the flies, and in the stampede, the ewes with lamb will lose their lambs, and they’ll become exhausted. They’ll lose weight; some will even die.

But beyond all of these, the most severe enemy of sheep is the predator, here indicated as a wolf, the flesh-eating, wild animal. There is record that 2 wild animals – wolves or wild dogs – have been known to kill as many as 292 sheep in a single night.

Phillip Keller writes this, “Ewes heavy with lamb, when chased by such predators, will slip the unborn lambs and lose them in abortions. A shepherd’s loss from such forays can be appalling.” He says, “One morning at dawn, I found nine of my choicest ewes, all soon to lamb, lying dead in the field. On several occasions, these cunning creatures came in among my sheep at night, making terrible havoc in the flock. Some ewes were killed outright their blood drained and livers eaten. Others were torn open and badly damaged. Some had huge patches of wool torn from their fleeces. In their frightened stampede, some had stumbled or broken bones or rushed over rough ground, injuring legs and bodies.”

Then he said this, “Yet despite the damage, despite the dead sheep, despite the injuries of fear instilled in the flock, I never once actually saw a predator on my range; so cunning and skillful were their raids, they defy description.” End quote.

Now, if you lived in the Lord’s time, in Palestine, you would have understood this. You would have understood the severity of the task of the shepherd who had to defend his sheep against all these things, and he didn’t even own the sheep. The shepherd worked for the sheep owner. In fact, if you came back and reported that a sheep had been killed, you had to have a piece of the flesh of that sheep to prove a wild animal had killed that sheep if it meant that you had to pull it out of the mouth of the wolf himself. Else you could lose your life because they feared people would steal the sheep if they didn’t have evidence that that they had actually been killed.

So, the idea of the sheep and the wolf was very common in the minds of these men. And the Lord says to them now, “Look, I’m going to send you out, and to give you a perspective of how it’ll be, it’ll be like sheep in the midst of wolves. Not sheep in fear of wolves arriving, but sheep among wolves that have already arrived. Now, that is not exactly the most thrilling call to the ministry I’ve ever heard.

St Paul’s letters are full of references to false teachers — wolves — in the churches that he established or helped to prosper. Some of these wolves came in from outside, others, such as in Ephesus, were promoted from within.

In older translations, the word at the beginning of verse 16, ‘See’, is translated as ‘Behold’, an emphatic word calling the listener to pay attention to the rest of the statement.

MacArthur points out that our Lord’s warning about wolves could explain today’s easy Christianity, which is about all the comforts and none of the pain:

You know, the honesty of Jesus is so refreshing to me. I don’t think Jesus would be at home in contemporary Christianity, frankly, because there’s not enough honesty in it. You know, we are so concerned about getting people saved that we pretty well water down the Gospel. And we don’t talk about repentance, and we don’t talk about confession of sin, and we don’t talk about humbling ourselves and hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and we don’t talk about the lordship of Christ. We don’t talk about obedience and a narrow way, and the cost, and the price. And then when somebody becomes a believer, we don’t talk about going out as sheep among wolves; we don’t talk like that. We say, “Let’s go share.” And we’ve got a real – nice little formulas that we use. We aren’t as honest as He is. We don’t recruit people for evangelism and say, “Look, there are some rapacious, wild wolves out there; are there any of you sheep who would like to volunteer?

It isn’t the world’s way to win adherence. The world talks about ease and comfort, and riches, and advancement, and ambition. Jesus offered hardship and death. Such honesty. Listen, people might as well tell the truth, because if you’re dishonest in your presentation of the Gospel, or dishonest in your presentation of what it means to serve Christ, the people are coming on a false pretense and not the truth anyway. What have you gained? You’ve just clouded the issue for them and everybody else. That’s why I think it’s so clear to me that we have so many on the broad road and so few on the narrow road. But the many on the broad road think they’re saved because we’ve so watered down the reality of it.

The Lord calls people into His ministry and initiates them by saying, “You’re going to go out and get ripped to pieces. It isn’t easy. They’re going to cut you up out there. They don’t agree with you; they don’t believe your message; they don’t want to hear your message.”

Matthew Henry’s commentary says that the warning was for the future, not for this initial ministry:

They are as sheep among wolves, that is frightful; but Christ sends them forth, that is comfortable; for he that sends them forth will protect them, and bear them out. But that they might know the worst, he tells them particularly what they must expect.

MacArthur says the same thing:

Now, the Twelve are told they’re going to get persecuted, in effect, and it didn’t happen till after the crucifixion, even when Peter cut off Malchus’ ear, they didn’t arrest him. The disciples didn’t experience any persecution till after the resurrection …

I cannot help but think of John 15:18-27:

The Hatred of the World

¹⁸ “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. ²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. ²¹ But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. ²² If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin,^[a] but now they have no excuse for their sin. ²³ Whoever hates me hates my Father also. ²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. ²⁵ But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

²⁶ “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. ²⁷ And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

Even Jesus was plagued and betrayed by one in His midst: Judas.

People who hate Christianity say that it is religion causing the problems with mankind around the world. That is incorrect. It is mankind causing egregious problems because we are sinful.

MacArthur says that people are the problem:

Throughout the years of God’s people, it has been men who slaughtered the saints. It has been men who crucified, burned at the stake, stoned the saints of God. It has been men who threw them in jail when they preached, men who snuffed their lives out and who still do it even to this day … It is men that are the enemy, men who talk about the milk of human kindness. It is men who are the dupes of Satan.

That is something to remember when speaking with atheists.

Jesus had more on the subject, beginning with another warning, ‘Beware of them’, telling the Apostles they would be handed over to councils and be flogged in the synagogues (verse 17).

In examining this verse, MacArthur begins with ‘Beware of them’, something of which we all should be aware. Go back to the preceding verses from John 15 and consider them when reading the following:

Keep your eye out for men. They’re not your friends in one sense. Now, this is not to jade you. I don’t want you to forget that we have to reach people, and we have to love all men, the Bible says, as God loves them. And do good to all, especially those of the household of faith.

We want to keep a balance, but realize that the enemy’s going to attack you through human agencies. Don’t be surprised, then, when you’re criticized. Don’t be surprised, then, when you’re fired for articulating your faith. Don’t be surprised when people won’t invite you to the parties or the activities. Don’t be surprised when some girl dumps you, or some guy dumps you because of your faith. Don’t be surprised, because human agents represent the kingdom of darkness.

The synagogues had their own form of internal discipline, which involved scourging someone with whips or a bundle of rods called fasces, a Latin word (pronounced ‘fass-kees’), most often used in the Roman empire and afterwards in artwork as a visible symbol of authority.

MacArthur has more, explaining that this was part of Mosaic law:

If someone violated their law, their standard, the law of Moses, or their rabbinical tradition, they would be brought before the local synagogue. There was a tribunal of 23 judges who would render a verdict. And when those judges had rendered a verdict, a sentence would be carried out, and very frequently the sentence amounted to scourging or smashing this band of sticks together into the back which flayed and flagellated the skin.

Now, the Old Testament law had required no more than 40 such stripes to be given in Deuteronomy. And so, they always gave 39 just to be sure they were within the letter of the law. One judge would call out the sentence. Another judge would call out the number to be given. Another judge would say, “One,” and then the person would be hit, and then a third judge would count. Another would say, “Two,” and he would be hit. And a third judge again would count. And so, they were really involved in the carrying out of this punishment.

We know from the reading of Maimonides that while it was going on, they would read appropriate Scripture, or they would even sing psalms. So, it was a part of the function of the synagogue to discipline. Now, if you think church discipline is tough nowadays, you really haven’t got any idea what it was like. They would actually beat the people in the front of the whole congregation.

And so, the Lord says, “You can expect this.” They will deliver you up to the council – and the council there has reference to these local courts in the synagogues which found their supreme court in the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem – and you can expect that you will be scourged in the synagogue.

St Paul not only ordered this punishment for Christians when he was Saul the Pharisee but also had to endure this once he became an Apostle:

We know, for example, in Acts 22:19 that the apostle Paul was actually engaged in doing that, going from synagogue to synagogue, dragging in the Christians and scourging them for heresy. And we also know, from 2 Corinthians 11:24 that he himself was scourged five times. Probably all five of those happened in synagogues someplace. So, it did happen in the early Church.

This scourging stopped with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70:

… the Jews persecuted the Christians up until 70 A.D. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., we have no record of Jewish persecution of Christians up until the present day even. Now, it is probably true that there have been times where a Jewish person has come to Christ in a family. We know this, and there’s been an individual rejection, an individual persecution there. There may have been some other isolated persecutions, but there’s been no wholesale persecution of Christianity by Judaism since 70 A.D.

And it would not only be in the synagogues that Christians would be persecuted. Jesus said that they would be dragged before governors and kings, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles (verse 18).

We know that has gone on. Some early examples of civil persecution are in the New Testament. Others are in early Church documents. Persecution has gone on since the Apostolic Age and will continue until the end of the world.

MacArthur says that this persecution will worsen, as foretold in Revelation:

you will find throughout all of human history that religion has killed true believers, because Satan is behind that false religious system, and he desires to wipe out the Church. And believe me; he’ll do it in our time if he can do it. And it may well be coming …

Religion is a persecutor, and it will be in the end – look at Revelation 17 – when all is summed up, in the ultimate and final persecution. It’ll happen in the tribulation, and the true saints will be being massacred all over the place.

Although much persecution is carried out by civil governments, churches can also become involved in it:

Satan disguises himself, 2 Corinthians 11 says, as an angel of – what? – of light. So, don’t be surprised if his ministers are disguised as angels of light. Watch out for religion. Religion masks itself as respectable, but it is a persecutor of the truth. It does everything to destroy the truth, even taking life, if it has the authority to do that, because it’s run by Satan who is a liar and a murderer.

MacArthur goes on to explore what Jesus meant by saying that the persecuted would serve as ‘a testimony’:

Now, that last phrase is kind of hard to interpret. Some think that in the persecution, you stand as a living rebuke against them, a living testimony against them. Others think that it means that you’ll be brought before them to give your testimony. I kind of tend to lean that way. “You’ll be brought before them for a testimony.” In other words, God has in mind that you will proclaim the truth.

On the other hand … it could mean that you’ll be a testimony against them and other such pagans who persecute Christianity. But when you’re brought before them to give that testimony, whether it’s a testimony of positive message to the Gospel, or whether it’s an indicting testimony to condemn them, just realize you’ll be brought before them – governs and kings. In other words, that’s government. That’s not religion; that’s the state. And the state will persecute.

And the Romans did that, apart from their religion. They really were scared to death – for one thing, about a slave rebellion. They had 60 million slaves in Rome, and they taught that slaves and – for example, slaves and free people could never marry because a slave wasn’t considered a person. Such a marriage was utterly and totally illegal in the Roman system. But when people became Christians, they were immediately confronted with truth that said there is neither bond nor free. Right? So, they saw Christianity as an imminently dangerous problem, because it gave slaves equality with everybody else, and they could see that there could become a slave rebellion. And if they could even imagine 60 million slaves revolting, it would be enough to scare them to death.

And so, they were threatened by Christianity. And so, they began to make up charges against the Christians such as they accused them of cannibalism. They misinterpreted the eating of the flesh and the blood of Christ in the communion. They accused them of immorality in their love feasts. They accused them of a revolution because their eschatology taught that the earth would be destroyed by fire. And, of course, they even blamed them for burning Rome. They accused them of disloyalty to the emperor because they wouldn’t bow down to him. They accused them of breaking up marriages and destroying the family. Anything they could do, they moved against them because they were so panicked by the liberation of slaves to an equality that it might destroy their empire.

And so, the Roman Empire did persecute the Christians. Most of these disciples who heard Jesus say this, died at the hands of some government – namely the Roman government or some ancillary government. And the government will attack the Church. It will; believe me. It has through all its history. Governments – little governments and big governments, weak ones and powerful ones, ones dominated by men in groups, ones dominated by individual men throughout history have persecuted the Church.

Jesus then had words of comfort for the Apostles for the future when they would be persecuted.

He told them they were not to worry about how to speak or what to say, because the words would be given to them at that time (verse 19), because they would not speak in their own words but in those of the Holy Spirit speaking through them (verse 20).

MacArthur explains:

… He says to the apostles – now listen very carefully to what I say – He says to them, “You just go about your business ministering. You don’t worry about what’s going to happen. You be wise and be harmless and beware and minister. And if it comes to the point where you’re hauled before the councils, I’ll take care of that. So, you’re free. You don’t have to have your hip pocket defense all ready. You just relax and be calm.”

Literally, drop all worry completely. Philippians 4, Paul says, “Be anxious for” – what? – “for nothing.” Now, here He says there’s a reason, “For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.” Now, I take that – and let’s take it in a broad sense. I believe that anybody, at any age, in any time, when they go before this kind of a thing for the name of Jesus Christ, the spirit of God will bring tot hi mind the right thing say. From their learning and their study of the Scripture, the Spirit of God will pull out things, and He’ll be our defender. I don’t believe the Lord would abandon us in that kind of situation.

I read a little bit in a book this morning, when I got here, testimonies of great martyrs before their death. And some of the most marvelous things imaginable were uttered by these men and women before they died. And the Lord obviously gave them the clarity of mind and the presence of thought to pull together those things which they knew and to speak in that crisis moment.

I never feared that. If I were to be cornered in a situation, on television, in front of the cameras, or in the midst of a hostile situation somewhere in another part of the world, I’ve never even given a second thought to what I would say, because I believe at that moment the Spirit of God would bring to my heart and my mind the things I know to be true. And he would help me to say the right things. If He can lead me anywhere else, He can lead me then. Right?

But there’s something far more than that in this text. There’s something specific for the apostles that is not even for us. Look again at verse 19. “It shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.” Now, listen to this. This is the real capper, verse 20, “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaketh in you.”

Now, beloved, that is a promise to the apostles of divine inspiration. Did you get that? “It isn’t even going to be you speaking, but God, in His Spirit, will speak in you.” And I believe, beyond the general ramifications of this concept, that the Lord will give us from our recall and so forth what we ought to say. I believe He gives these men the promise of divine inspiration. And it even stretched us so that when Stephen stood before the ones who took his life, he spoke the Word of God. And when Paul stood before the ones who brought him to trial, he spoke the Word of God. And I don’t know what else that phrase in verse 20 could possibly mean.

Now, listen to this statement. If God gave them the very words to speak, in the moment they were brought before the councils of men, and it was not their words, and it was not them speaking, but it was the Spirit of their Father speaking, if God promised them that in the moment they met a council, how much more can we know that when they sat down to pen the Word of God they could claim the same promise?

I think this, by implication, is one of the purest texts in all of the Bible on the matter of biblical inspiration and inerrancy. Verse 20 says it. “It is not ye that speak.” All you will do is laloun; you utter. God is the one really speaking.

Then Jesus said that those who profess and confess faith in Him could bring about family hatred, with a brother betraying another brother unto death, with children rising against parents and having them put to death (verse 21).

MacArthur says this has been true throughout history and will continue until the end of the world:

In other words, it’s going to come down, folks, to the family. I’ve known people who came to Jesus Christ, and their family had a funeral service for them. And there are some situations – I know one situation where one child is dead because of his Christian faith. That was really the issue. And only God knows how many people have killed their own kind. Only God knows how many Christians were betrayed in the persecutions in the second and third centuries in Rome, how many Christians turned their parents in, how many parents turned their children into the government.

Only God knows in how many countries, throughout the history of the world, people have revealed to the authorities that one or another of their family were Christians, and they had turned them over to be slaughtered. And only God knows how many people who were eaten by the lions were there because they had been turned in by members of their own family. Only the Lord knows that, but here the Lord says it’ll happen, so expect it. If you’re looking in your family for some solace, you might find the worst enemy right there in your own house. That’s the way it’s going to be …

It may be – there may come a day, says Zechariah, when actually parents will kill their false prophet children. Unbelievable conflict in the family. Jesus said He came not to bring peace, but a sword, to set a man against his father. Families become persecutors, and that maybe hurts the most deeply. But that’s the way it is …

And He says, “Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his son” – Mark 13:12 – “and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And you’ll be hated of all men for My name’s sake.”

Jesus told the Apostles that they would be hated by all because of His name, but the one who endures would be saved (verse 22).

MacArthur gives us this analysis:

Their viciousness comes because they are so against Christ. It is not that they really do not like us; it is that they do not like the one we represent.

Who are the wolves? They are men. Why are they vicious? Because of Jesus Christ who is so despised and hated by Satan and his demons. And thus men, as his dupes, will relate that hate toward us …

“You shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake. He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” What is that saying? He that endures to the end shall be saved. Endures to the end of what? What’s the context? Persecution. In other words, if you make it through persecution, you get saved. It simply really means this: if you survive the persecution, you’re the one being delivered. In other words, it is not saying that people who can make it through persecution can hold onto their salvation. It is saying that endurance through persecution is the hallmark of genuine salvation.

Jesus advised the Apostles to flee a town where people persecute them and go to the next; for ‘truly’ — added emphasis — ‘ you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes’ (verse 23).

Henry explains the first part of the verse:

Note, In case of imminent peril, the disciples of Christ may and must secure themselves by flight, when God, in his providence, opens to them a door of escape. He that flies may fight again. It is no inglorious thing for Christ’s soldiers to quit their ground, provided they do not quit their colours: they may go out of the way of danger, though they must not go out of the way of duty. Observe Christ’s care of his disciples, in providing places of retreat and shelter for them; ordering it so, that persecution rages not in all places at the same time; but when one city is made too hot for them, another is reserved for a cooler shade, and a little sanctuary; a favour to be used and not to be slighted; yet always with this proviso, that no sinful, unlawful means be used to make the escape; for then it is not a door of God’s opening. We have many examples to this rule in the history both of Christ and his apostles, in the application of all which to particular cases wisdom and integrity are profitable to direct.

MacArthur looks at the second half of the verse:

What that verse says is, “From now till the second coming, just keep moving till He gets here.” Just keep moving till He gets here. And “be gone” means don’t just stay in one place until they kill you. Leave. Go to another place, because you’ll never cover all the places before the Lord comes. Keep moving … There’s no sense in standing around, taking harassment, persistent persecution till you die …

Paul did that. He preached, started a riot, left town to another town. And when the riot caught him in the next town, he went to the next town. And the riot caught him there, he went to the next town. He just kept moving. He wasn’t going to stand there and die. Life is too precious. Too many towns to reach, too much to be done. And we got to keep moving; we’ll never cover it all before the Son of Man comes.

Of course, death — sometimes a martyr’s death, as in the case of all the good Apostles, except for John — catches up with all of us. Still, the Apostles preached until the end. John wrote Revelation while he was in exile. None of them stopped their respective ministries.

MacArthur has the following closing words for us:

Now, what is the sum of our Lord’s instruction to us? This: we have no right to provoke animosity. We have no right to provoke destruction. There’s too much work to be done, too many places to reach. Life is too precious. Every one of us matters to God’s kingdom. We’ve got to move to the receptive places and keep moving and know that all the while God is with us. And in the power of the Spirit, He’ll help us to say the right things and to have the effect that He wants us to have.

We are sheep among wolves, beloved, and we’re going to find that out more and more, I think. In Palestine it’s not uncommon, in the Lord’s time, to read about a shepherd who was found dead among the sheep he was trying to defend. May I add we have no such Shepherd? He ever lives and is able to defend us.

There is a certain invincibility about us. He controls everything …

Kind of reminds me of Zechariah 2:8, where it says, “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.” If you think it’s tough on the sheep, from God’s end, it’s tough on the wolves for what they’re doing to the sheep. And God will make it right in the end …

No matter what Satan does, even to death, he cannot win with God’s sheep …

We pray that what we have learned today might sink deeply into our hearts and prepare us for that inevitable time when we need to apply these things. Give us the boldness to confront this fast-fading society with the message of Christ, and to respond in the way that you’ve instructed us when they react.

Thank You for counting us worthy to bear the reproach and to carry the cross for Christ’s sake, amen.

The Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Trinity — this coming Sunday — concludes Matthew 10.

End of series