9 Apr 06 Mattew chapter 9 & 10...

9 Apr 06

Mattew chapter 9 & 10 talk about disciples and their purpose of lives.

Today뭩 words talk about the expenses we need to pay in order to become His disciples.

In today뭩 words we see Jusus?stric side. He requires His disciples extremely hard requests. He explain very clearly what they need to do if they want to be His disciples.

What have you paid to become His disciples?

Become His disciples is not just coming to church, get together with others and eat some Korean foods. It is much more than that. There is lots of obstacles we need to go through.

Let뭩 look at the Mattew Ch10-34.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

What did He mean by that? It means He came to the earth to spiritual battle.

He is saying that He would not live the earth as wrong as it is. It is easy but low level of understanding about Jesus if we think He came here to give us peace, and that is all.

However, He wants to give us something higher than just peace. That is a sword.

What does He meant by a sword? It means He would not accept our arrogance, obstinacy, and all the other sins we have. A sword means a battle and combat. He wants to have a big surgery to take out the darkness & all the sins from the earth.

He cannot give the peace to the earth where there is full of jealousy, selfishness, and fight. That is because He came to earth to fight against all those sins that are inside and outside of our bodies. Therefor, He wants us who is willing to walk with Him and fight spiritually for the righteousness. He wants us to fight with Him against the Satan and their disciples who are everywhere include church and within us.

Jesus tells us four stories in today뭩 words.

We will see three points in each of the four stories.

The first, what is the expenses we have to pay in order to become His disciples.

The second, what are the things that Jesus asks from His disciples.

And the third, what would we gain when we follow Him.

The first story is about family.

In the verse 35-37, it says, "For I have come to turn 멲 man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man뭩 enemies will be the member of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me"

Jesus said that He came here to make us to be in discord. In another words, what we have to pay to become His disciple is that we need to prepare ourselves for the disagreements.

It means we will be in disagreements with others because our belief in Jesus. He calls a person, separate the person from the world and use the person to walk with Him in fighting against the darkness. The believers should be separate themselves from the darkness of the world and should fight against it.

Let me tell you a story that my wife told me some time ago. She watched a comedy show and they had a words game. This is a game when one person describe the word and the other person find out what the word is. Well, there was an old couple. The word the husband was trying to describe was "a married couple by God". He said it is you and me; and the wife said, "Oh, enemy." The husband was embarrassed but tried again. He said, "Well, the word is longer than that." and the wife said, "Oh, O.K. then it is 멹orever enemy?

This is just a funny story but imagine that you are experiencing some kind of controversies in your family. I am very sure that there is nothing worse than having unhappy relationship with your family members. Imagine that you are living with your enemy under the same roof. How terrible it could be?

Who is the enemy it뭩 talking about? They are the people who are under the control of sins; who are living by the worldly measure. Jesus said that even if it following Jesus causes the trouble among family members we should sacrifice that in order to receive the salvation from God. He said that He did not come to the earth to give the peace to everyone, but only those who follow Him.

Now, what does Jesus requires from us?

Let뭩 look at the Mattew 10-37. "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Look at closely the words "more than". He wants the best from us. Christians, of course, must love their family; however, they must love God more than they love their family. Jesus said that "Love the Lord, our God with all your heart and life. That is the biggest and the first commandment."

Sometimes, we are in a situation where our loved ones are the people who could give us troubles when we follow Jesus. But, we should not allow them stand our ways when we follow Jesus. They could stand in our way with many different reasons, excuses and judgments. But, we are the ones who are or are not allow them to do it or not.

Love God the most means wining against all those obstacles.

Then what would we as His disciples would gain by listen to God and follow Jesus.

Jesus?standard of separating people is either they are worthy of Him or not. The people who love Him the most and follow Him and the people who follow the worldly measures.

He said that there is an award for people who are worthy of Him and the award is salvation. Mattew 10-32 says, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven."

The second story is about the disciples and their own crosses.

The verse 38 says, "and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me." What we have to do is taking our own crosses; it means that we have to deny ourselves everyday.

Mattew 16- 24 says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 멗f anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." We all have our own crosses. It could be ambition, lust, or many other different things. It is something comes before following after Jesus.

Luke 9-23 also says, "Then he said to them all: 멗f anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." We should take up our cross willingly and with all of our hearts. The "cross" does not mean disappointments, sicknesses, die, or being poor. It is not the general hardship or sadness. It is something that we have to endure in order to follow after Him.

The result of following Him with taking our own crosses is also salvation.

The third story is about life.

Mattew 10-39 says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

The expense we need to pay is losing our lives.

In here "finds his life" means following the things that fill their temporary lust or happiness. It is a selfish life and following the worldly pleasures. We are living in a world where is full of darkness. Only way we could live a valuable life and receive the salvation is losing our lives. What would it matter if someone who gain everything they want in this world and lose their souls?

Jesus asks us to lose our lives. It means giving up to try live our lives in our own and surrender to God. Refuse to surrendering our lives to God means losing the life from God. When we surrender all to God and follow Him, He gives us the valuable lives.

When we lose it, we gain it. The only way we can find the real life is in Him.

Everything exit in this world will be perished, even our bodies. We are here just temporarily. Only way we can experience the real life is giving it up to the Lord. We will then experience the joy, satisfaction, and accomplishment under any circumstances.

And also, we will receive the eternal life at the end.

The last story is about receiving and serving God and others.

The verse 40-42 says, "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet뭩 reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man뭩 reword. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

It says what we need to do is receiving Jesus and His disciples. As a result, we will receive the reward in the same way we did to Him and others.

We need to understand the purpose of Jesus came to the earth, follow after him in spiritual battles and win against the sins and darkness. Jesus said that it is nessary for His disciples to fight against sins while we are in this world. Become Jesus disciple means having spiritual battle with Him. He says that gaining peace by compromise with wrong things and people is not real peace.

He requires us to do four things in order to become His disciple.

We should love Jesus more than any other things or people:

Take our own crosses, means deny ourselves:

Lose our live to Him and will receive the salvation:

And receive and serve Him and others.