“Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute.”
(Luke 11:49)
The Pharisees in Jesus’ day openly bragged about honoring dead prophets while plotting to destroy the living ones. And now in this passage the Son of God Himself is standing in front of them and saying, in effect, “I will keep sending, and you will keep killing.”
Because when the wisdom of God speaks in Luke 11:49, the eternal God is announcing His unchanging purpose: I will send prophets and apostles to My people, and My people will hate them, beat them, and murder them.
But why send men you already know will be rejected? Because God is wise, and His wisdom is not like ours. He sends to leave the guilty without excuse. He sends to fill up the measure of iniquity. He sends so that the blood of all the righteous, from Abel to the last martyr, will be required of that generation.
He sent Isaiah, and they sawed him in two. He sent Jeremiah, and they threw him in a pit. He sent John the Baptist, and Herod took his head. He sent the apostles, and almost every one died a martyr’s death. He sent the Reformers, and Rome burned them. He sent missionaries to cannibal islands, and some were eaten the first week. Yet He still sends.[1]
He sends because He has an elect remnant hidden among the haters. Out of Israel, “as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.” Out of the millions who heard the prophets, a few believed. Out of the crowds that screamed “Crucify Him,” a thief on a cross cried, “Remember me.” God’s election stands sure. He chooses some to salvation out of those who sit under the same preaching that hardens the rest.
And still today He sends. He raises up faithful pastors, teachers, evangelists—ordinary men with ordinary voices, but commissioned by the same God who sent Isaiah and Paul. Their work does not typically include miraculous signs (though God can still give those). Their work is to preach Christ crucified, to call sinners to repent, to warn the comfortable, to comfort the broken. Some churches receive them with joy. Many more mock them, cancel them, silence them, or worse.
Yet the promise stands: “I will send.” Because the church will never be without witnesses until the last trumpet. And when the world rages hardest, that is when the elect are often gathered in, for persecution scatters the chaff and gathers the wheat.
The world calls evil good and good evil. Faithful preaching is labeled hate. Pastors are mocked or muzzled. And still the risen Christ walks among the lampstands and says, “I will send them prophets and apostles.” Some will be slain. Some will be persecuted. But none will be wasted. Every rejected sermon, every closed door, every canceled minister is another drop in the cup that will one day overflow on the heads of the guilty. And every trembling soul brought to faith through that rejected word is another jewel in the Savior’s crown.
So Lord, keep sending. And make us ready … either to speak or to suffer.
Contemplations:
- He still sends. I watch faithful men stand up today and speak plain truth from Scripture, and I see the hatred rise up on social media, threats, sometimes prison and even death. It shakes me, but it shouldn’t surprise me. Jesus said it would happen. He never promised the world would applaud His messengers. In fact, He promised the opposite. Lord, forgive me for expecting ease, and forgive Your church for loving comfort more than courage.
- I might be the next target. If I really speak all of God’s counsel, I can expect to be hated for it. Maybe a friend will walk away. Maybe a family member will cut me off. Maybe one day it will cost more than I can imagine right now. And though that thought scares me, I’d rather be hated for telling the truth than loved for keeping silent. So Lord, give me grace to count the cost and still open my mouth.
- The remnant is real. While the crowd rages, God is quietly opening blind eyes. I’ve seen hardened people suddenly broken by a single verse, proud hearts melted by the preaching they came to scoff at. The Lord knows those who are His, and He will never lose one of them. So my job is to scatter the seed, not to decide where it lands.
- Blood is still seed. Every martyr’s grave has been a cradle for new believers. When Rome burned Christians, the church exploded. When China expelled missionaries, the church multiplied underground. When voices are silenced today, God raises up new ones tomorrow. I don’t want suffering, but if my blood or my reputation becomes fertilizer for the gospel, so be it. Only let Christ be preached.
Prayer (Supplication)
O eternal God, the God who spoke in times past by the prophets and has in these last days spoken to us by Your Son, we come before You trembling and yet bold, because we come in the name of the One whom You sent and the world crucified.
Father, we plead with You to keep sending. Do not leave this guilty generation without witnesses. The darkness grows bolder, the lies grow louder, the hearts of men grow harder by the day. Yet You are the same God who said, “I will send them prophets and apostles.” Send them still, Lord. Raise up men full of the Holy Spirit and of faith—men who fear You more than they fear the crowd, men who love Christ more than they love their lives. Put Your word in their mouths like fire and make their bones burn if they keep silent.
Lord, we ask for pastors who will not trim the truth to fit the spirit of the age. Give us teachers who tremble at Your word. Give us evangelists who will walk into hard places—college campuses, hostile cities, closed nations—and preach Christ anyway. Protect them, provide for them, embolden them. When doors slam, open others. When voices are silenced, raise up louder ones. When one falls, send two more.
And make us ready to receive them. Forgive us for honoring dead prophets while ignoring living ones. Forgive us for building bigger platforms for celebrities and smaller welcomes for the faithful nobody who simply opens the Bible and speaks. Open our ears. Soften our hearts. And teach us to love the message even when the messenger is awkward, unknown, or offensive to our tastes.
We plead for those already suffering for the gospel tonight—brothers in prison cells, sisters hiding from mobs, pastors slandered and deserted, families torn apart because someone dared to speak Your truth. Strengthen them. Visit them with Your presence. Let them feel the arms of Christ around them in the darkness. Turn their chains into pulpits and their scars into sermons. And if it pleases You, deliver them. But if not, let them die well, rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer shame for Your Name.
And when the last messenger has been sent, when the full number of Your elect has come in, then come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. Until then, keep sending.
We ask all this in the name of the greatest Messenger ever rejected, the Prophet greater than Moses, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, Your Son, our only Savior and coming Judge.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Further Scripture References for Luke 11:49:
Matthew 23:34; 1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:3; Rev. 18:20
[1] George Gillespie, A Treatise of Miscellany Questions Wherein Many Useful Questions and Cases of Conscience Are Discussed and Resolved (Edinburgh: Gedeon Lithgovv … for George Svvintoun, and are to be sold at his shop .., 1649), 94–95.
