Sword and Reward

Introduction

I

One time in college I had a friend over. . . .

N

It’s not easy to be willing to accept discomfort.

T

How can we have the courage to accept discomfort when it comes to being on mission for Christ?

R

So turn to Matthew 10:34 as we look at this this morning.

O

We will see how placing Christ first changes how we relate to our family, our selves, and complete strangers.

FAMILY (34-37)

Matthew 10:34–37 ESV

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Revelation

Jesus intended this to be shocking as soon as he said it. It was assumed that the Messiah would bring peace on earth. And certainly Jesus will bring peace! His second coming will bring ultimate peace, there will be no war, no conflict, no strife.

And I think it may be important to differentiate between different types of peace. There can be what we would call, “world peace,” - a world free from war “interpersonal peace,” - a life free from conflict, “theological peace” - no longer under God’s judgement and “internal peace” - a conscience free from conflict And the language used here is purposeful.

In Jesus’s first coming, he bring theological peace in an ultimate sense. Romans 5:1 “1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Our internal peace, though never perfected in this life, gradually increases over time (Heb. 9:14).

In v. 34, the word for “bring” is the word Greek students memorize as “throw” or “cast.” The image would be striking. Jesus saying “I have not come to throw peace upon the earth, but a sword.” The word “about” I think would help our translation a good deal. Jesus is saying, “I have not come to bring about peace on earth, but to bring about a sword.”

Jesus is not saying that we should take up arms against others. In fact, Jesus condemns living life by the sword. Rather the sword is an image for division as can be seen in the rest of the passage. Jesus constantly divides people. The sheep from the goats. Jesus is carving out a new dividing line: those people who are wholly devoted to him, and those who are not.

The obvious question then is: which side of the line are we on? What makes us “worthy” to be on the side of Christ?

Jesus begins by describing close family members rising against each other.

The point of this division is clear from v. 37 Matthew 10:37 “37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

In other words, our closest relationships will test our loyalty to Jesus.

This is not to say that it should be a normal Christian experience to have strife in the home life. Nor does this mean that a Christian should attempt to cause problems with family. Rather, Jesus anticipates that even close family members will try to persuade his disciples to leave the faith.

The call to love Jesus more than immediate family members is a radical call. Could you imagine anyone else making such a claim? No ordinary Rabbi would do such a thing. Either Jesus is truly God or he would have to be a lunatic.

Relevance

Story Rob Love Wins Bell in 2012

Quote Rob Bell

“And then there are those whose lessons about heaven consist primarily of who will be there and who won’t be there. And so there’s a woman sitting in a churhc service with tears streaming down her face, as she imagines beign reunited with ehr sister who was killed in a car accident seventeen years ago. The woman sitting next to her, however, is realizing that if what the pastor is saying about heaven is true, she will be separated from her mother and father, brother and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends forever, with no chance of any reunion, ever. She in that very same moment has tears streaming down her face too, but they are tears of a different kind.”

When the woman questions the pastor tells her, “She’ll be having so much fun worshiping God that it won’t matter to her. Which is quite troubling and confusing, because the people she loves the most in the world do matter to her.” (pg. 25 Love Wins)

Of course, after reading this passage for the first time, this passage in Matt. 10 immediately came to mind. I am quite disgusted in how Bell tries to take Christ off his thrown and drag him through the mud.

Some things to consider:

Bell implies that loyalty to Jesus will not require any sacrifice. This directly contradicts what Jesus says here.

Bell implies that Christian can ignore pain by just having fun with God. That may be the Christian radio technique, but that is not the Christ who says, “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”

Our loyalties will be tested sometimes by our closest family members and friends.

How do we respond to those closest to us? I think there’s two extremes to avoid:

Reckless: We get a thrill from the argument and so we go out of our way to start things with those we know disagree with us.

Story I bought Bibles

Tactics of reckless:

provoking words, pit people against each other, escalating minor issues (you always. . .), refuse reconciliation, justifying harsh behavior with standing on the right thing, and enjoying what happens as the result.

2. Cowardice: We avoid conflict at any cost.

Story - I was asked to read Luke 2 at one Chirstmas

Though I ended up doing it my thoughts were: why do I have to? Why can’t my brother do it?

Tactics of the coward:

Disguising it as niceness, smiling and nodding while secretly disagreeing breeds distrust and superficiality, avoiding calls, going silent when tension rises. Saying “Whatever you think” even when their consience says otherwise - seeks to be liked more than true., Delayed truth telling but right moment never comes, tells one person what they want to hear then another person the opposite and it sows division.

Where is the middle? Courage. We don’t have to be jerks, we have to be faithful. We look for opportunities to share Christ with compassion and are sensitive to meet other needs as well. We are constant in prayer. We speak the truth in love, seeking other’s good, not personal victory. We enter conflict with humility, wiling to be wrong about things. We are willing to endure loss of the closeness of a relationship in order to stay faithful to Christ (not always required, but the willingness is there). We chose the right time and tone, wanting redemption of the other person, not just personal relief that we were heard. Always willing to stand up for the vulnerable.

Transition

Not only does our loyalty to Christ affect our relationship to those close to us, but also with ourselves.

SELF (38-39)

Matthew 10:38–39 ESV

38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Take his cross and follow me.” Brings a whole new definition to what it means to follow Christ. Bearing a cross was a form of ultimate shame in Jesus’s society. A person who bears the cross is paraded in the city and spit upon and derided by the crowds on the way to die.

The person bearing the cross beam cannot hide it, it is open for all to see.

This is the Christian life. The crossbeam is the truth of our faith that the culture derides as shameful. We do not nor could not hide it away. We bear it, knowing it to bring us shame, yet we are even willing to die for it.

During the Japanese persecution in the 17th century, the persecutors would remark, “We do not understand these Christians. Others die screaming and begging for their lives. These Christians die singing”

Chinese communist interrogators in the 19th century would remark, “these Christians are unlike anyone else. We can silence their leaders, imprison their bodies, but they will not stop speaking of this Jesus.”

A Soviet Interrogator said, “We are not afraid of the Christians who worship on Sunday. We are afraid of the Christians who would die any day of the week.”

A mark of a true faith in Christ is a willingness to die for Christ.

Relevance

What are those truths that we bear and bring shame to us? There are many more today than there were a century ago. We believe in absolute truth. We believe in a synthesis of faith and reason. We believe in the supernatural. We believe in God. We believe in his Son who died a propitiatory death.

We face a similar problem when we come to the prospect of our own death for Christ. Coward, courage, or careless. The coward will never do things to stand up for Christ. He avoids all tension, motivated by fear of man and love of comfort. He backs down and denies truth. He tries to hide the cross away so no one cans see. He only obeys selectively.

The careless seeks out martyrdom unnecessarily. It is a common thing today to have a martyr complex. He is often motivated by a need to prove worth and a love of attention. He wears the cross not as an object of shame but a badge of honor, a way to glorify himself. He provokes persecution and then gloats in it. He is unwise and confrontational by default.

Suffering should always be seen as a consequence, not a goal.

The courageous engages when necesary or under a sens of obedience with grace and truth. The courageous is motivated by a fear of God and love for people. The courageous pick up the cross daily. The courageous are bold and yet discerning.

Notice again the text at the end of verse 39 says whoever looses his life for my sake will find it. This is not a martyr for any cause in the culture wars nowadays, but specifically for the sake of Christ.

STRANGER (40-42)

Matthew 10:40–42 ESV

40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

Story in 1 Kings 17 about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath - widow gives him a little water to drink. In the end, she has oil that never runs out.

The text moves from personal - to the disciples in v. 40, to proverbial in v. 41 to a promise in v. 42.

Notice the identity of the disciple is wrapped up in Christ in v. 40. The ordinary Christian sharing the gospel goes on the authority of Christ.

V. 41, speaks proverbially and in a generic sense. The obvious question in this text is what exactly is the reward?

I believe there are natural consequences in view of the reward. There are natural consequences when you associate yourself with the honest rather than the dishonest: you will not be lied or cheated.

But there is also something much deeper here in mention of a prophet’s reward: And certainly that is hearing the truth of God, for the sole purpose of the prophet is to speak on behalf of God.

And notice in v. 42, the reference to “these little ones” is a reference to all of Jesus’s followers. Notice the reason the stranger gives the water: “Because he is a disciple”

The only way the person cannot lose the reward is if it is not merely natural, but supernatural. We can lose what is in our hands, but what is in the hands of Christ can never be lost. So for this promise to be true, the reward has to be something eternal.

The courage that we have to continue the mission does not come from the delight in rejection and division nor in the anticipation of a warm welcome. The courage and reward come from Christ.

Relevance

So why does Jesus give this to his disciples right before they go on mission? There is a lot about rejection throughought chapter 10, and how to deal with rejection. But here, even in acceptance, the ultimate good for the believer is not in being accepted by the other person. Rather, it is that person accepting Christ and thereby receiving the reward of eternal life.

Application

In this life, we have to be wiling to accept division and death for the sake of Christ in order to be worthy of Christ. Accepting division and death on other matters is an issue of conscience.

This takes specific form in bold and courageous acts of kingdom-building discomfort.

In Somalia, Amina came to Christ through a secret Bible study. When her brother found out, he beat her. Her father tried to force her into marriage with a Muslim man. When she refused, they locked her in the house for weeks.

Eventually, she escaped to a Christian safe house. Years later, she said:

“I lost my family. But I found Christ, and He has never left me.”

She doesn’t hate her family. She prays for them daily. She would go back if they welcomed her. But she will not deny the One who gave her eternal life.

This was out and our persecution. But just as Amina found her courage in Christ, we must do the same.

We must be willing to accept the discomfort of division and death for the sake of building the Kingdom. We find that willingness to accept discomfort in the person and work of Christ. All of this is centered on Jesus. This is why he says that those not wiling to accept division and death are “not worthy of him” in vv. 37 and 38. This is why he says the reception of one of his disciples is like a reception of him. This is why he says, “Because he is a disciple” in v. 42. All of this confidence and courage to accept discomfort is found in Christ.

All of chapter 10 is about being on mission, and I would encourage us to do the same.

Pray for opportunities to share the gospel.

If you pray, God will provide them

Open up that conversation with a family member again

Use discernment

Share the gospel with a complete stranger

Dad, “weasling God” into the conversation