Daily Devotional For Thursday, October 23, 2025
Good morning Southside. Thank you for taking the time to spend some time with the Lord today. We are making our way through Matthew’s Gospel. Today we pick up where we left off yesterday. Look at Matthew 10:28-31:
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (29) Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. (30) But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. (31) So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows” (NASB).
In most surveys the #1 fear of people is death – the great unknown. People fear that when their physical body dies their existence does as well. Some fear that they may not have enough good to get into heaven. Jesus makes it clear that for the disciple of Jesus Christ death is nothing to fear. Our only fear should be of God the Father, who has the power to destroy both our bodies and our souls. In other words the worst that people can do is kill a body; God can do worse than that. Jesus makes it clear that those who go to hell go to it in both body and soul. This is not annihilation, but eternal punishment for rejecting Jesus Christ.
Isn’t it amazing that the One we are to fear the most, God, cares about the smallest sparrow? In these words, Jesus is making a comparison of the smallest. In Jesus’ day a sparrow was considered the smallest and the cheapest type of food. A penny or “copper coin” was the smallest and cheapest currency. In Jesus’ day a penny, or copper coin could buy two sparrows. Sparrows were not a high item commodity. God is so concerned about each sparrow that not one of the dies and hits the ground without His knowledge and care.
The fact that God knows how many hairs are on our head shows His intentional love for us in details about us. In other words, sparrows will die and fall to the ground, even possibly by martyrdom. We will die and either go to heaven or hell, yet we are of value and worth to God. That is one point of John 3:16. Bad news comes to us every day. In war time, no one wants to see two uniformed soldiers coming to the house because they know the news is not good. It is a death announcement.
Today, while I was sitting in Smithfield’s BBQ drinking my half-and-half tea while writing this devotion, one of the workers came to me and asked if I would pray for a family. It seems the retention pond behind the library off of Patriot way had a dead body floating in it that authorities were having to retrieve from the pond. In all likelihood, it was a homeless person I learned but that person was someone’s family member. Some family member was going to get a notification about the death of this person.
Grief and bad news strike us all like an arrow to the heart, many times without warning. Death is no respecter of persons. So, in these passages Jesus tells His disciples there is really nothing to fear but God and here is why. So, let me give you some context to these words of Jesus:
- There is nothing that is covered that will not be unveiled and there is nothing hidden which will not be made known. Truth will triumph. When James the Sixth threatened to hang or exile Andrew Melville, Melville’s answer was: “You cannot hang or exile the truth.” Even though we will experience persecution and possibly martyrdom for our faith, there is coming a day when God is going to restore this planet and us to the way it was supposed to be – total perfection. Most people do not like the truth. To some it is like a light to sore eyes. They do not want to see it. New Testament scholar William Barclay writes this: “Once Latimer was preaching when Henry the king was present. He knew that he was about to say something which the king would not relish. So in the pulpit he soliloquized aloud with himself. “Latimer! Latimer! Latimer!” he said, “be careful what you say. Henry the king is here.” He paused, and then he said, “Latimer! Latimer! Latimer! Be careful what you say. The King of kings is here” (Source: William Barclay, The Daily Bible Series, “Matthew,” Vol. 1, p. 386).
- There is nothing worse or no punishment worse that people can do to one another than God can do to us in terms of punishment. When Christian pastor John Knox died, this was said at his funeral: The man with a message speaks to men, but he speaks in the presence of God. It was said of John Knox, as they buried him, “Here lies one who feared God so much that he never feared the face of any man.” What we need in the church today is what I call some “holy fear.” Many people do not fear God at all. They see His on the same plane as themselves. The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).
- We are of such worth to God that He paid the price for our sin debt. In these verses, Jesus talks about the value of a sparrow – one coin. The Greek New Testament word Jesus uses here is [ἀσσάριον, assarion]. What was the value of this? In Luke 12:6, Jesus said this, “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God” (NASB). The point according to New Testament scholar William Barclay is this—two sparrows were sold for one penny. (The coin is the assarion, which was one-sixteenth of a denarius; a denarius was approximately four new pence; therefore the assarion was about one quarter of one new penny). But if the purchaser was prepared to spent two pennies, he got, not four sparrows, but five. The extra one was thrown into the bargain, and which on man’s counting has no value at all. Even the forgotten sparrow is dear to God” (Source: William Barclay, The Daily Bible Series, “Matthew,” Vol. 1, p. 389).
Assignment: Would the Lord say you are truly grateful for the length He has gone to save you or that for many or most days you take your salvation for granted? Why? Would the Lord say you have a “holy, reverential fear” of Him or do you tend to relate to Him as you people? Why or why not? You can’t count the hairs on your head, but the Lord knows how many hairs you have. What difference does this make in your life and why?
Scripture To Meditate On: Luke 12:4-5, “Dear friends, don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot do any more to you after that. (5) But I’ll tell you whom to fear. Fear God, who has the power to kill you and then throw you into hell. Yes, He’s the One to fear” (NLT).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I really do not have a healthy fear of You. I at times relate to You and treat You as if we are on the same level. I need to have such a fear of You that it gives me wisdom to stay reminded that You are God and I am not. I do not want to let fear of what others think of me stop me from sharing my faith with others. Hell is real and people go there every second of every day. Please give me a heart for the lost like You. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name. Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly