26 “Therefore do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
The world we live in daily sees so many unspeakable, terrible things happening. Crime rates are rising. Just take our own area where we stay: young people’s precious lives are getting corrupted, becoming rowdies, and are involved in rapes, robbery, suicide, killing, drinking, and drugs. Small children are being addicted to video games, mobiles, and pornography, becoming enslaved, and getting admitted to mental hospitals with nervous problems. Many, many deaths are taking place. There are millions going on the path to hell. As a church, over the last ten years, thousands have perished, living in guilt and terrible sins. Many do not know there is forgiveness of sins and what God has done for them in Christ Jesus. If they knew and rejected it, that would be one thing, but many of them do not even have that clear knowledge.
Why are we unable to do anything? Why are we not able to accomplish anything? Forget about big things—at least with the people we meet, the people we know closely, have we been able to give them clear knowledge of the gospel? Why don’t we open our mouths and tell them about the forgiveness of sins and what Jesus has done for them? Why don’t we sit and talk for some time, or give a tract, or give a book?
One of the primary reasons, if you examine your hearts, is the fear of men. The fear of men is one of the terrible reasons for the hindrance of the gospel. The effects of the fear of man on evangelism are devastating. We all struggle with that fear. If we don’t come out of it, we won’t be able to do anything for God’s kingdom and will feel terrible in the later end of life.
One of the reformers in England, Thomas Cranmer, was burned at the stake by Bloody Mary, the Queen. When they brought him to burn, he put his hand into the fire first. This was because when they arrested him and tortured him for two years in jail, he had recanted all Bible teaching and supported the Roman Catholic Church. But later, they decided to burn him anyhow. He wanted to burn that hand first, the one that feared men and recanted the truth, saying, “May my hand burn first, which renounced truth in the fear of men.” In the fire, he held his right hand in the flames for some time before the fire came to any other part of the body. He stood for some time, never stirring, but stood in one place and died. His execution tomb is still there; people go and put their right hand on it and take pictures. That is how we will feel for all the fear of men we had in the past.
Why this fear of men? Most professing Christians love themselves more than they love God and souls. Self-love leads to self-preservation as the main goal in life, and that expresses itself as the fear of men. This leads to indifference to the millions of people perishing and going to hell, without the least burden or care to even lift a finger to do something. Such Christians are the biggest hindrance to the gospel. For them, the fear of men is so great—they are so filled with the fear of men—that putting themselves in any difficult situation for the gospel is inconceivable, repugnant, and foolishness. Going house to house and talking about God is foolishness to them; they never will do it or even imagine doing that. Giving a gospel tract and talking to someone about Christ is foolishness to them. Personal efforts for soul-winning are foolishness. This is not because they are not mature or sophisticated; they are filled with self-love, and that makes them filled with the fear of men.
This fear of men makes any Christian or church impotent to do anything for the gospel and allows millions to go to hell without even a warning. They have no care for that. The terrible effects of the sin of fearing man on the gospel cannot be gauged. Simply put, the reason many Christians don’t evangelize is that we don’t fear God; we fear men too much.
Do I identify myself in this description? I can see myself. If we don’t come out of that, throughout our lifespan, we won’t be a means to save even one soul, and we won’t be able to do anything for Christ and the gospel in our lifetime. Like that song, we will be terribly ashamed of the life we lived, full of the fear of men, in the end.
In today’s passage, our Lord talks about how to overcome the fear of men, and it is so relevant to all of us who call ourselves disciples but are filled with the fear of men. May the Holy Spirit use this to transform our minds, to remove all fear of men from our hearts, and to fill us with the fear of God. Let us prayerfully meditate.
We know in Matthew 10, the Lord is preparing His disciples while sending them out. He gave instructions, and now, broadly from verse 24 to the end of the chapter, He seems to be saying that if they are really to have any impact on the world, they need to be fully committed disciples. Who is a truly committed disciple of Christ (verses 24–25)? We saw last week that a disciple is one who is saved from the world, has brought his mind submissive to the teaching of Christ, his will to the commands of Christ, whose life goal is to become like Christ, and who is ready to go through any suffering for Christ. That is a basic definition of a disciple. Having told who a disciple is, He gives a few true hallmarks of a disciple. Only His true disciples will have this. The work of His true disciples is to go out and make other disciples for Christ. If he has to make other disciples and win souls, the first mark of a true disciple is that He should not have the fear of men. That is the hallmark of a true disciple.
Notice that command: Verse 26: “Fear them not.” Verse 28: “Fear not them.” Verse 31: “Fear not therefore.” From verse 28 to 32, He says three times, “Don’t be afraid of the men.”
Naturally, having heard verses 18 to 28, the response is going to be that they’ll be afraid. In verse 16, He says, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Verse 17, He says, “Beware of men, they’ll deliver you up to the councils, and scourge you in the synagogues.” Verse 18, He says, “You’ll be brought before kings and governors.” Verse 20, “They’ll deliver you up.” Verse 21, “Your own family will put you to death.” Verse 22, “You’ll be hated by everybody.” Now, with all of that, He says, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”
If you have to have any impact on the world as My disciple, you shouldn’t fear the world. The fear of man strangles evangelism and will never allow us to be useful witnesses. We don’t want to get into something we fear might become psychologically difficult for us. We don’t want to create a problem. We don’t want to be thought little of. We want to preserve ourselves.
So, first of all, as disciples, if we’re going to be like Christ—and being like Christ means we’re going to be treated like Christ (they called Him Beelzebub)—and as we’re treated like Christ, there’s going to be a temptation to be afraid, to pull back your testimony, to shut your mouth, and not be confrontive, and not say what ought to be said. And so He says, “Don’t be afraid.” Fear has absolutely strangled evangelism. People are afraid to say the truth; they’re afraid to be confrontive. And all of us have had experiences, shamefully. Have you had a time when you felt the gentle prompting of the Holy Spirit to tell someone about Jesus’ love, and yet failed to speak because of fear? More often than not, we fail to share the message of Christ because we’re afraid of what kind of reaction we’ll get from people. Sometimes we just couldn’t get it out of our mouths for fear we’d be thought to be silly or rude or obtrusive, or uneducated, or stupid/mental, or whatever. They might be offended or angry by the message. Or we didn’t want to get into a fight with somebody.
The Lord says, “Don’t be afraid.” We need to learn this so much. We’re not afraid to talk to a group of Christians in a Bible study; that’s why, I think, Christians just love Bible studies. “Us four and no more, shut the door.” This is glory. We all agree. We sit there and affirm each other. But send them out into the world and they get paralyzed with fear; their mouths are as if stuck with glue.
Now the Lord gives a command: “Do not fear; do not fear” now and continue never to fear. This is not a suggestion or advice; it is a command—a very strong command. Not once or twice, but three times within six verses. Not just the three commands, but He gives three solid reasons for not fearing men. He is not just giving that command bluntly, but negating every “but,” every excuse, every reason, and every objection, so forcefully driving this point that He leaves no room for fear. No objection can stand. No matter what circumstances, whatever reasons, what persecution comes your way, these reasons are adequate for you not to fear. Under no circumstance should you be afraid. “I am ordering this as God Almighty, God who has all authority in heaven and earth.” He is commanding you three times not to fear men and giving three undeniable reasons. Don’t be afraid! If we rightly grasp these reasons and deeply meditate on them, the Holy Spirit should remove all fear of men from our hearts, because this is what removed the fear of men from the cowardly apostles and all the men who stood boldly for the gospel in all church history.
It is our great privilege to bear the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people that God has put in our lives. The big hindrance for that is the fear of men. This passage is a call for us—as followers of Jesus—to exercise “gospel courage.” How can we not have fear but live with gospel courage? It’s if we understand the three solid reasons. He gives them three “fear nots,” and three reasons not to be afraid. Let us see them one by one.
First Reason for Not Being Afraid: Only God’s Truth Will Be Proved and Triumph Openly
26 “Therefore do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.”
That’s an interesting statement. And by the way, it’s a very common statement. Our Lord uses it several times. I told you this is some of His favorite teaching because the little parts of this whole passage here that He gave are all over the place in the gospels. He used these principles again and again in different contexts. So He says, “Look, don’t be afraid because what is covered will be revealed and what is hidden will be made known.”
Now, just a couple of notes on the grammar. The word “therefore” looks back. The word “for” looks forward. In the word “therefore,” there is an implied reason not to be afraid; if you add this, there are four reasons not to fear. “Don’t be afraid therefore” looks back to the statement in verse 25: “master of house Beelzebub…” If they treated the Lord this way, they’re going to treat you this way, so you’re not going to get any treatment that’s any different or any more than your Master received. If they treated Me like that… We might expect Him to say, “Nevertheless have no fear of them.” But He doesn’t. He says “therefore.” The argument seems to be something like this: as a disciple, you live your life with the goal to be like Christ. You are met with ill will. People scold you, think you are mad, rude, or obtrusive, and they call you horrible names. Do not jump to the fearful conclusion that you have failed and God is punishing you. On the contrary, if Christ met with ill will and these names, it is to be fully expected that His disciples will too. So be encouraged; your trouble in getting such names is a mark of true Christ-likeness. It is a great help in overcoming fear when the Master of your life tells you ahead of time that trouble is coming, and that it’s not necessarily your fault.
This helps us meet opposition as a matter of normal Christian ministry. One of the elements of fear is the encountering of something unexpected. It takes us off guard, pushes us off balance, and creates the sensation that things are out of control and that aimless absurdity reigns. Jesus sweeps all this away by telling us ahead of time very matter-of-factly that if we try to be like our teacher and like our master, we will be mistreated. Not because we are wrong, but because that is how the world treated Him. We need not be taken off guard or lose our emotional balance; things are not absurd; they are quite under control—all foreseen and predicted by the Lord. Therefore, we should not fear. He endured it; He went through it; so don’t be afraid.
The “for” then looks forward. Don’t be afraid either because there’s nothing covered that shall not be revealed and there’s nothing hidden that shall not be known. Now you say, “What in the world does that phrase mean?” It’s a kind of a proverbial statement. What does it mean? It simply means this: that someday God’s truth will not always be hidden but proved and will triumph openly and powerfully. Only truth will win. When you share God’s truth of the gospel, men blinded by Satan may not listen to you now; they may think you are a fool, you have evil motives, your head is spoiled, or that you are doing wrong, and that the gospel is all lies. They may seem like wise and successful men, very happy, no problem, and that they don’t need the gospel.
The day will come when the truth will be openly proved and vindicated. Truth will win openly. Most of the time, either by God’s providential working in the circumstances of life or, finally, at the Day of Judgment, the truth about Jesus Christ and the gospel will be openly vindicated. Men may do everything to suppress the gospel, but the message of the gospel cannot and will not be covered over or hidden.
All gospel truth will be proved. We preach that if you reject Jesus Christ, you will perish, and sin will destroy your life. We’ve seen this happen in providence itself. The truth will triumph. Whether in providence or on the Day of Judgment, it will be vindicated.
Some people reject the gospel in blindness, but in some instance of life—an accident, sickness, or even in the quiet of the night—their conscience will speak the truth to them. Everything we teach in the Bible will triumph one day. We teach about the depravity of men; initially, people were upset, asking, “How can you call man so badly?” Now, the truth is vindicated daily in the newspapers. World history is nothing but the vindication of God’s Word. The unchanging truths of Scripture continue to be regularly and openly vindicated. Romans 1 says that if you do not retain the truth of God and take time to learn His Word, God will give you over to a depraved mind and all kinds of lusts. This happens regularly and openly in people’s lives.
So, just because men in their blindness do not want to hear the truth today, that shouldn’t stop us. Today they may think we are fools; soon, they will know how right we were and how wrong the whole world and they were. The truth we preach will be vindicated openly. God is going to show who the real wise, real good men, and great men were—if not in providence, then in judgment. Therefore, do not be afraid to speak.
The Eternal Perspective and Reward
We need to have a long-term perspective. If you’re stuck on worrying about what the world is going to say, you’re looking at the wrong thing. What you want to be looking at is what God’s going to prove, right? This truth will ultimately win, and the children of truth who faithfully preached will be eternally rewarded and vindicated. That’s why the Bible repeatedly talks about rewards. “Behold, I come quickly, My reward is with Me to give to every man according to as his work shall be” (Revelation 22). Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we do not lose heart because we serve a living God; He will reward us. Soon, God reveals the secrets of the heart, and then shall every man have praise of God.
Why does He promise a crown of life and eternal reward? To give us the eternal perspective so that we’re not looking at being popular or being vindicated in this life as the wise, the noble, and the heroes of society. Instead, we’re willing to confront an evil society and let God reward us in eternity. You’ve got to live, not for the moment when all the values are backwards, but for the future when God unveils the reality and reveals the hypocrites and shows who the real heroes were, and rewards them forever.
Look at Luke 12:1-2, where Jesus used this same little statement: “In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people… Jesus began to say to His disciples, first of all, ‘Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees,’ which is hypocrisy.” They are phonies; the truth is covered. Then He uses the same statement: “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hidden that shall not be known.” This means someday the truth is going to be told. The hypocrites will be unmasked, and the truly righteous ones will be rewarded. They may look good and righteous now before men’s eyes, but one day God will reveal their real colors.
You can seek your reputation here and lose your reward there. That’s your choice. But someday the values are going to be reversed. So the Lord is saying, don’t be afraid to speak My truth; this is what is going to win, and everything else will fail. Whatever they may say about you, whatever they may do in reaction to you, someday God is going to vindicate you. Revelation 22:12 says, “Behold, I come quickly and My reward is with Me to give to every man according as his work shall be.” Where you sow now is what you will reap when the truth is revealed.
Someday God is going to look at the record of our life. God’s going to expose everything. And those who have looked like they were the winners will turn out to be the eternal losers. And the losers who have been persecuted for their faith are going to be the winners forever. That’s the plan. This is how all true people of God preached the truth.
John Calvin, after being banished from ungrateful Geneva, said, “Most assuredly if I had merely served man, this would have been a poor recompense: but it is my happiness that I have served Him who never fails to reward His servants to the full extent of His promise.” He was saying he never served man anyway, but always served God, and God will keep all His promises and bring all His rewards.
This is the meaning of the proverb: “all hidden will be revealed.” It helps us overcome fear and be courageous in the cause of truth by assuring us that the truth we are speaking will triumph. It will be vindicated in the end. No power on earth can ever cover up or hide the message of the gospel. No amount of persecution or opposition will ever successfully silence it.
The Command: Proclaim the Message Publicly (Matthew 10:27)
If you realize that this is the ultimate truth that will overcome and win finally, and that its preachers will be eternally rewarded, then Jesus commands you: publish it as much as possible! We are commanded to speak forth with boldness and confidence.
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops” (v. 27). The whole idea is that the Lord has been telling you the secrets privately in your ear, and He wants you to tell the whole world. This was the practice of a Rabbi who would teach disciples privately, and they were to go out and reach everyone. The housetop was a typical Jewish way to do this. Housetops were flat roofs and acted like a stage or platform from which to announce things to the whole town. This public declaration today means we must utilize every public platform: our streets, offices, homes, social media, YouTube, all TV channels, and newspapers. This is the message you are to yell and tell everyone, not all the political lies and angry opposition and news we read daily.
He tells you, as My disciples, to have gospel “megaphones” on this earth! What He whispers in your ear, you are to broadcast loudly from the public places.
Two Things to Note Carefully in Verse 27:
- Hold Nothing Back: “Whatever I tell you, whatever you hear, you say.” We are to hold back nothing; there are no secrets. Some say you shouldn’t talk about sin and hell initially, but only about joy and peace. Jesus says, “Hold nothing back.” That kind of “happy” presentation is not the gospel at all and will not do anything to the soul of that man. It is a lie.
- Say Only What You Hear from Me: The sum of the verse is: tell them what I told you—nothing less, and nothing more. Our message is limited. This makes it serious when Christians eliminate part of the message or get another message in addition to the one from God, confusing everyone about our message.
You must go to that secret place, alone with God and His Word, pour over the Word, and out of that secret place the truth is born in your heart, and then you come out and speak it. We need to get the message out; we need to shout it where it needs to be heard. We need to hold nothing back. Say nothing less and nothing more than what the Word says.
Fear God Alone: The Second Reason Not to Fear Men (Matthew 10:28)
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (v. 28).
This is the answer to the fear of men. He is saying: Don’t fear men, fear God. If you fear and honor God enough, you will not be concerned about men. The reason you fear men is because of the sin of not fearing God as you should.
Two Kinds of Fear
- Fear of Man (Forbidden Fear): This is a self-love, self-preserving, cowardly kind of fear of someone who can ultimately cause us no eternal harm whatsoever. The worst they can do is kill the body. But all of our bodies are destined to die (“it is appointed for man to die once,” Hebrews 9:27). For the believer, to die is gain (Philippians 1:21), sending them to a greater, more glorious situation.
- Fear of God (Commanded Fear): This is a healthy, reverential, realistic response of awe and obedience to the majesty and authority of God. God is able to do more than man: He can destroy both body and soul in the place of eternal judgment (hell). God’s authority is always infinitely greater than human authority.
A proper fear of God liberates us from the bondage of fearing men. We all have a choice: “Fear God or fear everything!” All neurotic and soul-damaging fears come from a failure to fear God first. Put simply: Fear God; and you’ll never have a reason to fear anything or anyone else.
The Revolution of Values
Jesus is calling for an utter revolution of what you count as most valuable. Fear is what you feel when your greatest values are threatened. By saying, “Don’t be afraid; they can only kill your body,” He meant: Don’t count this earthly life as most valuable. Your soul in eternity is more valuable. What will a man gain if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? The soul in hell is more fearful than suffering for Christ on earth. The worst men can do is kill your body and send you to your desired heaven—the best thing that can happen to you. “Don’t fear. You can only be killed.”
The Danger of Denying Christ
The fear of men leads to denying Jesus before men, which shows you don’t have genuine faith. Verse 33 says, “Whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” You will be denied, losing your soul eternally; that is what you ought to fear. If we deny Jesus, He will deny us, and God will destroy soul and body in hell. That ought to embolden disciples and take away their fear of men.
If you opt out of an opportunity to witness because you’re afraid of being attacked or kicked out of your house, you have said, “I fear men more than God.” That is silly, because the worst men can do is to your body, while God is the One who determines the destiny of souls.
The Reality of Hell
The fear is directed toward God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Hell is a place of agony, distress, and woe; eternal misery without alleviation; outer darkness, a bottomless pit, and burning fire and brimstone. The fire there will be completely different—it has no light, but it can torment the damned. People there will cry and weep and gnash their teeth.
The suffering in hell will be for both body and soul. Unbelievers will be resurrected and given a new, more powerful body (different from the one laid in the dust) to endure eternally the divine wrath, because they sinned in the body. The suffering of the soul includes conscience terrors and memory.
There are degrees of sin, and punishment will be according to the degree of their sins and the light they had. Those who had the gospel and all truth and then reject it will receive the worst punishments. Differing degrees of divine judgment will be so awful that a sinner in hell would be willing to give the whole world just to reduce the number of his sins by one. It is endless; whatever pain we have in this world will be suffered forever.
Conclusion: Fear God and Speak Boldly
Get your fear right. Fear the One who is really powerful. Don’t fear the ones who can only “fool with the body.”
The great English martyr Latimer, preaching before King Henry, reminded himself: “Latimer! Latimer! Remember that the King of kings is here, be careful what you don’t say!” He was later burned at the stake for not remaining silent. During the Roman Empire, millions of Christians were buried in the catacombs, standing firm, with some tombs bearing the inscription: “The Word of God is not bound. We fear God too much to fear men. And so we speak.” It’s estimated that more than 50 million Christians have died for their faith throughout history.
Lord Laurence’s grave in Westminster Abbey says of him: “He feared man so little because he feared God so much.“
This is how we can be bold, courageous disciples of Jesus Christ—the kind that does not flinch to speak concerning Him in any setting. We must know the gospel will ultimately win, both in the lives of people we see and on the Day of Judgment, so proclaim it boldly. And even if they attack, do not fear men, but fear God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 