Matthew-019

Today, we continue in the study of God’s Word in Matthew 10:16-31.

You must prove worthy of God’s saving blessing

Last week, we saw what it means to be worthy; we saw that worthi­ness is a certain attitude which enables us to receive God’s saving blessing. Indeed, the Lord Jesus says to his disciples that even if they have already pronounced their blessing of peace on the people, “take back your blessing of peace if they are not worthy” (Mt. 10:11-13).

This is a great warning to us. God’s blessing is ready to be given to you, but if you prove unworthy of it, not only do you not receive it, but it will also be taken away from you. That means to say, God’s mercy, grace and love that he gives to us is free. We cannot earn it, but we must prove worthy of it. This is a principle relating to the whole of salvation. You cannot earn the salvation of God that God gives to you, but you must prove worthy of it. If you are not worthy, even that which was given to you will be taken from you. How important it is to understand this attitude of worthiness before God. Don’t think that God will throw his salvation at you no matter if you want it or not. Indeed, even if he has given it to you, and you have not proved worthy of it, it will be taken away.

I have said it before and I say it again, on that Day of Judgment, many Christians will find themselves on the wrong side of the judgment seat. So much of the Lord Jesus’ teaching is warning us that we must prove worthy, or God will take back his blessings. Read carefully the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. That unforgiving servant was forgiven an enormous sum of money to the tune of several million dollars, but because he refused to forgive a fellow servant of twenty, thirty dollars, the debt that was forgiven him was imposed on him again. In other words, the forgiveness was taken away from him. Consider this, he had already been forgiven that debt, but he was made to pay the whole debt because he proved unworthy of that forgiveness.

This is a hard word, not pleasant to our ears. You may not like to listen to it but this is the Lord’s teaching, not mine. I have no authority to change that picture. But some Christians today seem to think that they have the authority to change it. And when we speak the truth as the Lord taught it, it is we who come under fire. But we will not waver in speaking the truth. So I remind you again the teaching of the Lord Jesus: God’s peace and salvation will come to you but you must prove worthy of it. That is a fact of the spiritual life whether we like it or not. In the previous message, I have given you this true-life illustration from John Sung’s experience when he prayed for an elder in the church who was thought to be a very good man. The elder fell down and broke his leg and was crippled, and he came to John Sung to ask for prayer to be healed. The first time John Sung prayed for him, he was not healed. The second time he prayed for him, not only was he not healed, he even died right there! Then, John Sung restored him to life but his crippled leg was not restored. Is that not exactly the same thing? He was unworthy, so he could not receive the blessing that God’s power was ready to minister to him. Not only could he not receive the blessing, he nearly came out with a curse – he nearly lost his life in the process.

The warning is: God is the living God, be careful how you deal with him. Romans 11:22 tells us God’s great goodness as well as his great severity to those who continue in sin and try to get benefits as well.

Shake the dust off your feet

God’s severity is also expressed in Matthew 10:14-15 where the Lord Jesus says, if anyone does not receive you, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house. What does that mean? That is a symbol of total dissociation and rejection which says, I have nothing to do with you. I don’t even want the dust of your house or your city to remain on my feet. From now on, I have no responsibility whatso­ever for what is going to happen to you. I have called upon you to repent. I have called upon you to receive God’s salvation, to receive his love, but you reject the gospel, so I have no responsibility for anything that happens to you hereafter.

This shows us that God’s character is perfectly balanced, unlike human beings who tend to be lop-sided. God’s severity is always balanced with perfect love, because he is both love and holiness. You cannot find this kind of person in the world. You find that people who are severe don’t know how to love, because human beings don’t have the perfect balance of holiness and love in our lives. Therefore, God is so concerned for our salvation that his Christ has to warn us of the consequences if we don’t accept that salvation. He tells us that receiving his love is not a matter of take-it-or-leave-it. To turn away from God’s love is to perish in sin. One can see the greatness of God’s love on the one hand, and the fearfulness of sin on the other. Sin will destroy you as surely as any cancer will, and God, the great Physician is glad to heal out of compassionate love.

Today, a preacher is in a very responsible position. If I love you, how do I express myself to you? Wouldn’t I say to you what the Lord Jesus Christ says? I have to address both situations and say, “Come to God, this great Physician, and he will heal your cancer of sin, but if you don’t come to God, you are going to perish miserably. I beg of you to believe what I say.” And I am ready to do whatever is going to impress upon your mind the terrible consequences of your rejection, even if it means that I have to tear off my tie and shirt. But finally, if you insist on not turning to God, I’ll have to warn you that I have no further responsibility for what will happen to you. I care for you very much but I can’t be responsible for your sickness if you reject God, because your blood is on your hands.

The Lord Jesus taught his disciples to preach with this sense of responsibility. They are saying to the people, “Repent, and if you don’t, the consequences are terrible. I have no more responsibility. I have shaken the dust of your house off my feet.” This shaking off the dust does not mean that from now on, they don’t care about the people anymore, it means they have no responsibility. If only preachers today would preach like that!

Preach the gospel responsibly

This is the reason why I cannot make it any easier than it is when I preach the gospel. If I tell you anything untrue, the responsibility for your eternal welfare will be on me. So I have to preach it to you even if you don’t like to hear. A doctor may have to tell you, “You’ve got cancer” even though you don’t want to hear that. What joy does it give me to tell you that? I must simply tell you the truth.

I’m not going to get people into the church with all the gimmicks, telling them things that they want to hear, because on that Day, I’ll have to answer to the living God, not you. How am I going to answer when he says to me, “Why didn’t you tell them the truth as the Lord Jesus taught you?” We always have to preach in such a way as to fully discharge our responsibility.

Think of your responsibility to others. What if your schoolmates, or the person in your office says to you on the Day of Judgment, “Why didn’t you tell me how I could be healed when you knew the cure to my disease? You never told me that God could heal me if I had faith in him. How is it that you knew I was perishing in sin, but you never told me how to be saved? The very fact that you have my dust on your feet is proof that you know me, but you never told me the gospel. And I am perishing although I never rejected the gospel.” “His dust is on your feet” means he is going to have a claim on you. How would you feel on that Day when you cannot shake the dust off your feet, you cannot clear your responsibility?

I have spoken the truth to those people who say to themselves, “It doesn’t matter how I live, how I sin, I will be saved anyway.” Those Christians to whom the Lord will say, “Depart from me, I don’t know who you are,” have no claim on me on that Day. I have warned them that this would happen. I have preached the teaching of the Lord Jesus.

Be worthy of God’s saving grace

So I warn again, be worthy of God’s saving grace. The word, “worthy” occurs 41 times in the New Testament, and a great part of this comes in Paul’s letters. How many times did Paul say, “I exhort you to live worthy of the gospel, that you, Christians, don’t disgrace the gospel of Jesus Christ”? Do you think that when Paul warns them he means, “Well, if you don’t live worthy of the gospel, don’t worry about it”? Paul is warning if you don’t live worthy of the gospel, you are going to get into big trouble with God on the Day of Judgment!

But today, the Church is full of people who believe that they can sin as much as they like, and they are “once saved always saved.” They think I am the one who is saying something unusual. Just read your Bible, and let any one of them challenge me with the facts. Even if they didn’t read the Bible, I really cannot understand that they can honestly imagine that God would allow a Christian to live any kind of life he likes, to sin as much as he likes and he is still going to be saved. What kind of God have you put your faith in? Are you telling me that he will send non-Christians to hell because of their sins, but he will save Christians in spite of their sins? Little wonder the non-Christians say, “You Christians are talking nonsense! Such a God is not worth believing in!”

All my sympathy is with the non-Christians. Let me assure the non-Christians that God is the God of justice. If the Christian sins, he will deal with the Christian more severely than the non-Christian. The Christian does not receive the license to sin. The Lord Jesus has made it very plain to us, that we must be worthy of God’s blessing of salvation in Matthew 10:1-15, no matter what any preacher ever says.

Today, the way the gospel is preached is often so beguiling that no one understands what is the point of becoming a Christian. Then many non-Christians say, “I live a life as good as the Christians, why should I become a Christian?” Well said! And how do the Christians reply? They make weak excuses saying, “Well, it doesn’t matter what kind of life I live. It’s all the mercy and grace of God.” If this is the case, what does it mean to be born again? What does it mean to become a new creature if you are still in bondage to sin as you were before? How can you be a new creature when you are no better than the non-Christian, when you are just as selfish, just as self-centered and just as proud as you were before? Do you say you are a new creature? How does such a new creature bring glory to God?

What you see in the Scriptures is very different. The Lord Jesus teaches that people may look at a Christian and see the quality of his or her life and give glory to God. The grace of God doesn’t allow you to continue in sin. In fact, it changes you so that you are able to overcome sin. How else can the Church be a light in the world? Not only is it untrue that Christians are just much the same as they were before they were baptized, as many people seem to imagine, but we also want to see how utterly different the true Christian becomes in the Lord Jesus’ teaching in this passage, Matthew 10:16-31. And if you are a true Christian you should know.

Can sheep enter among wolves?

When I look at the Lord’s teaching here, I would like to tell you a story. Once, there was a man who had many pastures, but a pack of wolves came and took possession of these fields. The wolves decided that they liked this piece of land, so they settled down. Now the man thought about how he could rid his pastures of these wolves, and made a decision. He sent out a flock of sheep to be among the wolves, hoping to tame those wolves and drive them out of his pastures. What do you think happened to the sheep when they went out among the wolves? Well, the wolves set upon the sheep and began to tear them apart, and ate quite a few of them. And it seemed that as they ate these sheep, many of these wolves were transformed, and became very gentle.

How do you like this story? What a ridiculous story! I have never heard anything so ridiculous before! Does it not sound ridiculous that you deal with wolves by sending out sheep to be among them? That is exactly what Jesus said and did: “Behold! I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Mt. 10:16). What exactly is Jesus doing? We often get so used to listening to the words of Jesus, that the remarkable character of those words does not sink into our ears.

If you want to deal with wolves, the last thing you do is to send sheep into the midst of them. You might consider sending out some tigers, some lions into the midst of them but not sheep. Wolves are very fierce animals, and attack in packs, so even a tiger, a lion or a leopard would not like to come too near a pack of wolves. So if these powerful animals have trouble with wolves, what is the meaning of sending sheep into the midst of wolves? Surely, this is the most foolish thing that one could ever do, from the human point of view. Surely Jesus should have said, “I’m going to turn you all into lions.” It’s no problem to set a lion against a wolf. If we could change people into lions, I am sure you and I would say, “I’m going to make you all mighty lions, and you will go forth into the world and conquer the wolves.” But when has it ever crossed the mind of man to fight wolves with sheep? Surely, to send a sheep among the wolves is to send them to certain death! You will have no more sheep left, and the wolves will still be there.

How can we understand this teaching? Does it work? By human standards, you don’t have to be a genius to see that Jesus’ way of doing things is bound to fail! Oh, we are clever! We know how to handle the problem. Many times in church history, the church thought it was cleverer than the Lord Jesus. If you have not studied the history of the church, you should do it some time. Sometimes, it is enough to make you weep. In the church, there are always people who think they are cleverer than Jesus. I am sorry to be saying this about my brothers and sisters in the church. It is also a warning to myself not to think of myself as being too clever. We decide to coun­ter the world by the sword. We say, “Christian soldiers arise!” Consi­der this: If we gather all the Christians today, and issue them with sub-machine guns, we will probably have 100 million Christians marching forward, and we will wipe out every army. Even if we fought guerilla warfare in any country in the world, no army would be able to stand against us.

There are times in the history of the church when the church decided, “We will fight the enemy with the sword!” That was when so many Crusaders carried the flag flying the cross, and they went out fighting in the name of God and wiping out the enemy. Pardon these dear people. They were not taught the Word of God. How many bloody battles have been fought in the name of the cross because foolish people, not knowing the teaching of Jesus, went out and disgraced God’s name! They insisted it was impossible to fight wolves with sheep, therefore the sheep decided to be wolves as well, fighting tooth for tooth, sword for sword! You can see that whenever we don’t follow the teaching of Jesus, we get into trouble. But it’s so hard to follow the teaching of Jesus to send sheep to fight wolves, because it’s so impossible to man!

It is God’s glory when sheep conquer wolves

Why the Lord Jesus taught us to do it is because when the sheep conquer the wolves, it is the glory of God, not the glory of the sheep. The fact that a lion is capable of defeating a wolf is not particularly astounding, and the glory is to the lion. Similarly, it is expected that a champion wolf would be praised for overpowering another wolf. However, a sheep triumphing over a wolf has never been heard of in human history! It’s impossible! It can only be done by the power of God! Jesus teaches that this is exactly what God wants to do – to let the world see a miracle. It’s not surprising if we, the Church, could subdue the world wolf for wolf. What’s so surprising if the Crusaders could defeat the Muslim army?

It is nothing short of a miracle that sheep are able to overpower wolves! Then we can see that God has done it! Haven’t we yet come to understand that the battle is God’s, and he is going to conquer the world by his saving power and not by our strength? God has already shown another miracle: the more sheep the wolves ate, the more sheep there were.

The Roman Empire could not believe their eyes when they saw this! The Lord Jesus sent his disciples out into the Roman Empire, the mightiest empire in the world, whose army conquered everywhere they went. It is also very interesting that the wolf was the symbol of Rome. These wolves could not be defeated by anyone, and Jesus sent out these sheep among them. The Roman Empire killed many Christians by beheading, feeding the lions, gladiator fights, and other ways, but not only could it not destroy the sheep but also the more sheep they killed, the more there were. The world saw a miracle! The wolf submitted to the sheep when in the 4^th Century, the Roman Emperor, Emperor Constantine laid down his sword to the church and said the church had conquered. The wolves were defeated by the sheep! Have you heard of something as amazing as that? Many wolves were transformed by the power of God and became sheep. This is most astounding! The Church never once lifted a sword against the Roman Empire, and yet it conquered the Roman Empire in 300 years. No enemy power could achieve that. Isn’t that incredible?

Sheep are God-changed wolves

Do you think the teaching of Jesus is foolish? Then hear the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:25, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men.” God’s foolishness is greater than your cleverness. I glory in the gospel precisely because you can see that the gospel is from God. It has never ever crossed man’s mind to send sheep into the midst of wolves to overcome the wolves, because it’s impossible for man to do such a thing. Yet God does exactly what human beings regard as impossible.

The teaching of the Lord Jesus is this: The Christian and the non-Christian are as different as a sheep is from a wolf. Yet I hear some people say that being a Christian just means having the grace of God, that it is basically not different from being a non-Christian. That is a denial of the teaching of Jesus. He said, “Once you were wolves, but now I have changed you to become a new person: you have become a sheep.”

There is no better term to describe the system of this world than “the wolf pack.” If you read the encyclopedia about wolves, you will be astonished how much the human society is just like the wolf society. You will notice that wolves, like human beings, operate in groups. They are not individuals. They are gregarious. And in this group, you have one leader who stands out. He is more or less elected as the leader. How is he elected? He proves to be the most experienced, the most cunning, the strongest of the group. This is very revealing of the human character in society, where the forces put one in power and the other in subjection. Now wolves fight each other in packs too, like human beings, one nation fighting another nation. Their strength is in their group. In all these aspects, how human nature is like them!

However, when we become a Christian, God changes our character. From the selfish, aggressive character of the wolf, we are changed into that gentle, loving character of the sheep. We become like the Lamb of God. The Lord Jesus is always described as the Lamb of God because of his gentle, self-giving character. Note that this transfor­mation is wrought by God’s power. You cannot change a person’s character except by the power of God. That is the glory of the gospel too. It’s not just telling you to be good, but also that you are going to be changed by God’s power.

To tell you to be good and nice is very easy, but as soon as I try, I cannot be good and nice because it is not my nature to be good and nice. It is useless to give a lot of advice to a criminal sitting in jail after he has robbed and murdered. Only when that gangster is transformed can he become a different person. I know of David Wilkerson, a gangster from New York who was completely changed and became a new man. If you have heard that gangster giving his testimony, you would have said, “God, how amazing are your ways! The wolf is changed into sheep!”

Before you can be changed, you must have the desire to be changed. There are many people who love the wolf way of life. They enjoy going around biting people, except when they are bitten themselves. Many people are so wolf-like in their nature that they enjoy being a wolf. If you have sharp teeth, you will say, “If you bite me, I’ll show you how sharp my teeth are. They are two inches long! If you just touch me, I’ll show you my color.” But the poor sheep cannot do this! Who enjoys being a sheep? Everyone steps on your head. No, I don’t want to be a sheep. It’s so defenseless! At least in the world I have my teeth. If I become a Christian, I lose my teeth, and I don’t even have dentures to wear!

I wonder what would have to happen for us to want to be sheep? After all, we prefer being wolves. Why do we want to change? I find that until we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, we will never want to change. Before I saw the beauty of Jesus, I was very happy to be a wolf. But when I saw the Lamb of God in his beauty, and when I looked at my wolf-like face in the mirror, with great, long fangs sticking out, I really got embarrassed about my teeth. They looked so ugly. And I saw that the Lamb is so beautiful!

Sheep are equipped with God’s power

You may agree and say, “The Lamb of God is beautiful!” Yet, we are not talking about the beauty but the power. You have not understood the power of the Lamb. Let us consider the amazing words in Revelation 17:14, “the Lamb will overcome them” The Lamb has power! Do you know the power of the Lamb? Revelation chapter 17 is dealing with several very, very powerful beasts which represent powerful nations. Then there is also the Antichrist, the very power­ful being. These powerful enemies are overcome by none other than the Lamb.

The point you must understand is that being a sheep is not to be powerless. It is to have the greatest power, the power of God in your life. The wolf represents worldly power, the power of Rome, the power of the sword and the gun. But the sheep represents God’s power in the world. That is what the disciples did not realize. So the choice is between whether you want to have worldly power or God’s power. The lamb is very, very powerful.

Now you will begin to understand why the Lord Jesus said, “I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.” And you say, “This is absolutely impossible!” It is impossible from the human point of view. Did you notice in Matthew 10:1, the Lord Jesus “gave authority” to his disciples? He equipped them with great power to heal every kind of disease, every kind of sickness. He gave them power over the power of demons. He said, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you” (Mk. 16:17-18; Lk. 10:19). He even gave them the power to raise the dead (Mt. 10:8)! That is God’s power in him, not man’s power. You will only have the power when you are a sheep.

Let me tell you this: as long as you are a wolf, God will never give you his power. But when you are willing to become a sheep, he will equip you with his power. These are no wandering sheep that go out in the midst of wolves, these are God’s sheep. God’s power is upon them. And God watches over them, which is why Jesus says, “even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Mt. 10:30).

John Chrysostom, the great teacher in the Early Church said these words so beautifully:

If you are still a wolf, you don’t want to say, “The LORD (Yahweh) is my Shepherd.” He is not your Shepherd. Only if you are sheep is he your Shepherd.

Sheep go out into the midst of wolves

Now notice another point. Jesus said, “I send you out into the midst of wolves.” It isn’t just in the neighborhood of wolves, but right into the middle of them. Becoming a Christian is no escapism. If you think becoming a Christian is to run away from the problems of the world, you are wrong. Becoming a Christian is not to become a monk to close yourself up in a monastery to be away from the problems of the world. There is no place for monks among those who are going to be true disciples. I know there are some very fine monks and I offer them my apologies. They are very good in their own character, but they should look at the teaching of Jesus. The Lord Jesus did not say, “I send you away into a monastery to live for me.” No, he said, “You’re going out into the world into the midst of wolves.”

You are a Christian not just when you are sitting in church or in a Bible study, isolated from the world. You only function as a Christian when you are in your college or office, when you are in the midst of the heat, the enemies rather than in the midst of friends. It’s not easy to be a Christian.

Sheep must be ready to suffer

The next point I would like you to notice is: What is the function of the sheep apart from being used for food? The sheep were offered as sacrificial animals. Why was the Lord Jesus called the Lamb of God? Because he was going to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Why are we called sheep as he is? Listen to this: because you and I are going to be sacrificed if we are going to function as Christians. Are you ready for the sacrifice? Don’t be a sheep if you don’t want to be sacrificed.

Sheep are for sacrifice. Did anyone say it is easy to be a Christian? If I am not willing to be sacrificed, I don’t waste my time being a Christian, because all I am going to be is a church-goer. I am going to be one more religious person in one of the religions in the world. That is not what Jesus called us to be. Listen carefully to what the Lord Jesus calls us to be. He calls us to be sheep.

Ask yourself, what happens to sheep in the midst of wolves? Many of them will die. Some Christians, like Paul, are willing to be offered up as a sacrifice to live for God and Christ every day, and ultimately die as a martyr. However, not all who are willing to die as martyrs will be given the opportunity before the Lord Jesus comes again at the Judgment.

We shouldn’t think that dying is heroic. The point is to be willing not just to die for God physically—which is easier—but to die daily as a living sacrifice. Some of us will have the great privilege to suffer and be martyrs one day. However, that isn’t much if it’s a bullet or two, which is like a wolf biting into a sheep’s throat, severs its blood vessels, and the sheep’s life is over!

But living as a living sacrifice is harder than dying for God. Being a sheep in the midst of wolves can be a terrifying experience, with the constant threat of danger looming. Every glance around reveals another wolf fixated on you, and the feeling of sharp teeth piercing your skin can be overwhelming and traumatic. Many of us may succeed in becoming martyrs, but not too many succeed in living for God. And the Lord Jesus is calling us to the sacrificial life of a disciple, where we are willing to go forth into the world equipped with God’s power, ready to suffer.

God does not promise to deliver us from suffering and death

Some Christians moan and groan when they suffer. They are grum­bling, “Why does God deal with me? Why is my family not well? Why is my grandmother sick?” These people are a disgrace to the church of God!

Look at the Lord’s teaching in this passage. Nowhere does he promise to save his sheep from suffering or death. He says, “I’m sending you out to suffer, and some of you will die.” In fact, he said that more than once. In Luke 21:16 he tells them plainly, “and they will put some of you to death.” He says, “I’m not hiding the truth from you. I’m sending you out to suffer. If you don’t want to suffer, don’t be my disciple.” It is as plain as that. This is the reason he said so many times in his teaching, “He who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” That means, if you don’t want to suffer and die, you cannot be my disciple.”

He did not promise to remove you from suffering when it comes. When I am standing before the firing squad, the Lord Jesus did not say, “I’m suddenly going to allow an angel to avert the bullet from hitting you.” Surely, the bullets will go through me and I’m ready for that. I wouldn’t be a Christian if I weren’t. I need not waste my time being a 50% wishy-washy Christian, because God doesn’t accept such Christians. It’s either all or nothing. God does not promise to deliver me from death. As a Christian and a sheep, I go forth with the full consciousness that this is going to happen to me and I am willing to accept it.

The Lord Jesus says the same to the Twelve, to the Seventy-two, and to all his disciples: “Take up your cross and follow me.” So we need to go forth into this world as sheep.

Do not fear wolves, fear God

Then he said in Matthew 10:26, 28 and 31, “Do not fear,” three times. He knows that the sheep are afraid. Paul says, “Who is weak and I am not weak?” (2 Cor. 11:29). Surely, I am weak. Am I not afraid of the piercing pain of the wolves’ teeth tearing open my flesh? I feel pain like everyone else. Don’t I feel afraid when I look down the barrel of a gun? But the Lord Jesus says, “Fear not.” Not only does he not promise to deliver them from death but he also says to them in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul.” Don’t be afraid of the wolves. They can only destroy your body. But be afraid of God! He can destroy not just your body but also your soul in hell. This will happen to the wolves.

The Bible warns us that we are as sheep in the midst of wolves. In Acts 14:22, the apostle Paul warns the disciples that they must go through many tribulations before entering the kingdom of God. It isn’t that God wants us to suffer, or that he enjoys seeing us suffer, but that we are bound to suffer because of the nature of the world. Christ teaches, “The world is a world of wolves, and you have been changed from wolf to sheep, so you are going to suffer and die.”

In suffering, we have fellowship with Christ

What is the point of our suffering? We have a glorious mission to achieve a great work for God in the world, and the only way we can accomplish it is as sheep, because God conquers through sheep. Just as God overturned the Roman Empire—the mightiest empire then known to the world—through the Church, he is going to turn this world upside down through us. It is through suffering and death that the Church turns the world upside down. It is exactly as the Lord Jesus said, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jo. 12:24). So the Romans were torturing the Christians and killing them; and the more they killed and tortured them, the more Christians there were. They found that the power of God was being manifested through sheep.

Furthermore, Paul says in Philippians 1:29, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” He says again in Philippians 3:10-11, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” This means that we share Christ’s sufferings only when we suffer; and in the midst of suffering, we have deepest empathy for him in his sufferings. There we experience the power of the Lamb, the power of God in him.

There are so many powerless Christians today because they have not become sheep, so they have no fellowship with Christ the Lamb. Christ the Lamb only has fellowship with sheep, not with wolves; and only by having fellowship with Christ will we have fellowship with God. Little wonder these Christians have no power.

Are you willing to be a sacrifice? Are you willing to be sheep? Are you willing to take up your cross to die to self, the world and sin? Are you willing to become a Christian, a true disciple? If you are, then you will experience the amazing power of God whereby he subdues the wolves through the sheep. That is the great wonder!