Commitment to the King

Oppening:

Good morning again Connection Church!

It is, as always, good to be with you this morning! I hope you have had a great week since we last met together. I love being able to gather together on the Lord’s Day. I believe it is vital to the Christian walk. We gather together and we get to worship God corporately through singing, giving, the learning of truths, the reading and preaching of God’s Word, and the administration of the sacraments.

All of these things are means by which we more fully understand and even experience the grace of God. They draw us together into deeper community and love, and they help equip us for the work of the ministry through the week. Coming together and worshipping God as one should be a fuel in the fire of our spiritual walk with God. It should spur us on in our sanctification. This is a beautiful thing.

Since we have already worshiped God through singing and the learning of truths, we are now transitioning into the time where we will open the Bible together and read and hear it preached.

Introduction of the Text:

With this in mind, please open with me to Matthew 10:34-42.

In our time together as a Church, we have been walking verse by verse through the book of Matthew. This style of preaching is known as expository preaching. As we have walked through this book, what are some things we have seen so far?

Who wrote the Gospel of Matthew? Who was Matthew?

Who is the Gospel of Matthew about? Who is Jesus?

Jesus’ disciples have just been commissioned to be Apostles. What did Jesus give them authority to do? What did He not give them authority to do?

What did Jesus tell the Apostles that they would face in their ministry?

Very good. Jesus is continuing His discourse and teaching of the Apostles. So with this in mind, stand with me for the reading of God’s Word.

Reading of the Text:

Matthew 10:34-42

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. 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.

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.”

Prayer:

Let’s pray together.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for today. Thank you for all you have done for us. Thank you for saving us. Thank you for allowing us to be able to meet together. Thank you for continuing to strengthen us together as Your Church. We ask that you continue to work in and through us. Give us boldness to speak the truth in this fallen world.

Lord I ask that you would work in this Church to be fully committed to You. Help us Lord, to have a heart that would be so committed to You that we would be willing to go through anything for Your sake. Make us so committed to You that we would boldly follow you despite the consequences. We ask that you would work in our hearts, to make us a people completely committed to you, regardless of what happens.

Lord, we ask that You would bring people in who need to hear the hope of the Gospel. Help us to have many opportunities to share the gospel with people in our lives. Help us to recognize the opportunities You give us. We long to see people get saved. We long to have a genuine impact on this community for Your Kingdom. Please continue to grow this, Your Church.

I ask finally for me Lord. Help me to be a man of Your Word. Please help me to be committed to being faithful to Your Word without concern of the consequences. Lord, do not let me speak against You or Your Word. Guard my mouth. If I were to speak against You, please silence me. I long to simply be faithful, Lord.

We ask these things in Jesus name, Amen.

Transition:

As we open this passage, we see Jesus make a statement that honestly is rather bizarre. Normally we think of Jesus as a bringer of peace. But that is not what Jesus says here. We see in this passage that Jesus did not come to bring peace.

Jesus did not come to bring peace.

Explanation:

But what does this mean? Didn’t Jesus come to reconcile? Didn’t He come to bring peace on earth? Yes He did. So how can He say very clearly that He did not come to bring peace?

Jesus came to reconcile sinners to God. He came to bring peace between the lost sheep and God. This was the primary purpose of why Jesus came. He came to die on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. This restored us into right relationship with God. This is the ultimate sense of peace. We can now be in right standing with God through the vicarious death of Jesus Christ on the cross. We can go from being enemies of God bound for hell to being children of God, adopted into right standing with Him.

But Jesus did not come to end human wars. This was not the type of peace that Jesus came to bring. He did not come in military might to overthrow the government of the Roman empire. He did not bring heaven to earth and end all strife and war.

Jesus also did not come to eliminate all opposition to the gospel. In fact, this is the sword that He is talking about here. In coming and establishing the Kingdom, He brought a whole new level of spiritual warfare. Then we take into account the fact that the Gospel message is to go to all the world and we see the impact. Jesus came to divide. He came to bring war. He came to split households. He did not come to bring peace.

Illustration:

Picture with me what would happen in the next century as the gospel went out. The Apostles, after Pentecost, would go and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jews.

Often we don’t view the gospel in this light, but let’s look at how offensive the Gospel message really is.

To the Jewish people the gospel message often starts like this, “The Messiah came. The great deliverer from God. God Himself walked among you, and you missed Him. You, His chosen people, descended from Abraham, missed the Messiah. But it is worse. You killed Him. You crucified the Messiah.” This is offensive to the highly religious Jew. They would not have taken this slap across the face well.

How would they have seen the Jews who did accept this message? “Do you think you’re better than we are? Do you have a better understanding of the prophets than we do?” This is why salvation by grace alone was and is so important. They who accepted the gospel were no better or smarter than anyone else. The Spirit of God called to their hearts. It was simply the grace of God that saved them.

But what of the Gentiles? As the gospel spread, it went to the Gentiles. The Greeks and Romans were highly religious people. They had many gods and participated in countless religious ceremonies. The gospel message often starts like this to these people, “Abandon your gods, they are false gods with no power to save. They are at best worthless idols and at worst demons deceiving you. Abandon them and turn to Jesus Christ who is the one true God! He alone has power to save. Abandon your systems of worship and come worship the only God!”

How offensive. This is not culturally sensitive. The gospel does not respect these people’s religious heritage. It calls out their false gods and false worship.

Not imagine this happening within a household. A daughter in the Jewish community telling her parents that she can no longer participate in the sacrificial system because Jesus has paid for all of her sins for all time. How might that conversation go? Or a wife in the Roman culture explaining to her husband how she can no longer pour out any libations to the household gods because Jesus, the Jewish man that was crucified on a Roman cross, is the only God. A son telling his parents that he cannot walk in the procession to the Greek temples because it is idol worship.

Argumentation:

Jesus did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Jesus came to divide. Jesus came to bring a new level to spiritual warfare. Up until this point, it had been the Jewish people against the world. Sure, there were Jews who did not believe the promise of deliverance, and there were Gentiles who were grafted in, but speaking broadly, it was the Israelites against the world. An entire people group that was one family, set apart as God’s people.

Truly the house of Israel was the ethnic saved. They were the people of the promise. They had faith in the promise. But now everything had changed. The promise had come and the corruption was exposed. Though it was not judgement day, darkness had been brought into the light. The darkness of the heart was laid bare. And the fulfilment of God’s covenant with Abraham had come. Salvation had come, and now was going out to all people. No longer was it just the Israelites, but salvation was sent to all people and tongues and nations.

And Jesus came to set family against one another.

Jesus Came to Set Family Against one Another.

Explanation:

Perhaps in our culture and age we do not understand the impact this would have had. However, in that age and world, the family was everything. Family was truly life. Without family you would die. The entire culture was built around family. They were a patriarchal society. They had been since God established them with Abraham.

The family unit was the strongest system of government. God had established this system, and of all things that He had established, perhaps this was the one that the Jewish people succeeded in most. They grasped the idea of family. They grasped the importance of family. And as with anything, they did not do this perfectly. But they saw the need for it. They loved it. They truly loved family.

Even in the pagan world, family was essential. The Greeks and the Romans also had incredible family ties. In our secular age, the family is under direct attack. In that world, the family was encouraged and vital.

But Jesus in this teaching says that He has come to set family against one another.

Illustration:

Jesus says that He has come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother. These are strong relationships. These are not miniscule relationships. Even today these are important relationships.

A man and his father. A son looks up to their father. The father is the primary teacher of his sons. He is to teach them how to become men. He is to teach them what it means to be a man. He is to teach them how to take care of a family. This is not to be a relationship that is easily broken.

A woman and her mother. A daughter looks up to her mother. The mother is the primary caregiver and teacher within the household. She nurtures. There is a special connection between mother and daughter. A mother is supposed to teach her daughters how to be women and mothers. She is their example and confidant. This is not to be a relationship easily broken.

Jesus then talks about a daughter in law being turned against her mother in law. When there is tension between in laws it complicates the entire household. It causes anger and stress within marriage. it can cause incredible hurt and damage. This is not an easy thing.

Argumentation:

But Jesus speaks freely of the tension and the difficulties to come. This is not an easy teaching but it is honest of what is to come. Christ is warning the Apostles and by proxy, the early church, that these days are coming. He is giving them warning of the war that is coming. They must be willing to sacrifice their bodies, their lives, and even their families for the sake of Christ.

This is not an easy thing, but it is necessary. These apostles must be willing to lay down all. And as they related this account to the early church, they would have encouraged them with these words. Likely Matthew would have looked out at the congregation, as he was recounting these events to them, and he would have seen daughters who had left their parents for the sake of Christ. He likely would have seen wives who had been thrown out by their husbands for following a different God.

He would have looked out at the crowd, and I cannot help but think that he would have cried. Tears would have left his eyes as he recounted what Jesus had said. “Truly this is fulfilled. These people have given everything for the sake of Christ.” He would have looked out and seen that the early church had understood Jesus’ teaching here. Do we?

The teaching here is that followers of Christ must have complete commitment to Him.

Followers of Christ Must Have Complete Commitment to Him.

Explanation:

Jesus continues in His teaching after saying that He has come to divide families by saying this:

Matthew 10:37-39

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. 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.

Again Jesus brings back this language of “Worthy.” He used this earlier when describing those who would accept or reject the gospel message of the apostles. He is using it the same here. He says that whoever does not love Him more than any other relationship is not worthy of Him. Salvation is a whole hearted commitment to Christ. It is not a commitment to Him if it is convenient. It is a full commitment, despite all consequences. The follower of Christ must be more committed to Him than to His own family.

Illustration:

But Jesus does not stop here. He instead continues on in stressing the commitment a follower must have by using the example of the cross. Remember, Jesus has not gone to the cross yet. The cross has not yet been redeemed to be a symbol of hope. It is still a visceral and visual representation of suffering and a brutal death. The cross is not the symbol of salvation but of damnation. Jesus says that to follow Him, you must be completely willing to suffer and be brutally killed for His sake.

Argumentation:

This is an incredibly hard teaching. As we have seen again and again in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus does not pull any punches. He is straight to the point and says it how it is. He does not water down the message of the gospel. He makes sure that His followers know the pain and struggle they are in for.

Even though this is a teaching that was aimed at the apostles, we can still draw application from it. We can see how this applies to us. We can learn how this applied not just to the apostles but to the early church, and then we can see this applies to us.

The early church faced rejection on all fronts. Their people rejected them. Their families rejected them. They were willing to be murdered for the gospel. They did not water down the gospel, they died for the gospel. We have no record of conversations or prayer meetings where they talked about how to make the gospel message more appealing to the lost. What we do have is record of them praying, asking God to give them boldness to proclaim the gospel in truth.

They begged God to give them courage again and again. They did this because the gospel message is hard. It is not easy. The gospel message is not attractive to the lost. “Sacrifice everything for Christ who sacrificed everything for you.” The gospel message is amazing and freeing and wonderful, but it is not easy.

An accurate presentation of the gospel should result in anger and hatred from those who reject it. But it will result in peace and love and incredible joy in those who reject it.

A watered down gospel produces watered down Christians, if it produces any Christians at all.

This is why Jesus elsewhere commends us to count the cost. We are to count to cost before following Him. It will cost you everything. It will cost you your comfort in this life. It will cost you some of your relationships in this life. It will cost you your status in this life. But in exchange, you become a child of God. Your sin is forgiven and you are adopted into the Family of God. You have heaven ahead of you and all this pain to leave behind.

I heard an old preacher say it this way, “All of you for all of Him. There is no other deal on the table. That’s it. All of you for all of Him.” It is a hard teaching, but it is true. Christ demands our full commitment. But in exchange, we receive grace and mercy beyond measure.

Transition:

This is a hard teaching. But thankfully Jesus does not stop here. There is pain and suffering but there is great joy in the Christian walk as well. We have the promise of eternal reward. We have the promise of a good reception.

The Promise of a Good Reception.

Explanation:

In verses 40-42 we see immense hope. Let’s read it together again.

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.”

Jesus starts this off by saying that those who receive the Apostles and their message receive Christ, and by doing so receive the Father. What an incredible message! By receiving the gospel people are truly receiving God Himself.

This is no light thing. It is a picture of salvation. By receiving the apostles and their message one received Christ. Jesus is saying that the apostles are His emissaries. By proxy, all Christians are equated to ambassadors of Christ.

Illustration:

Jesus uses the illustration of receiving a prophet and a righteous person. When one received a prophet because he was a prophet of God, they received “a prophets reward.” This meant blessing from the prophet of God, and from God Himself.

When one would receive a righteous person because they were a righteous person, one would receive “a righteous persons reward.” This meant the blessing of a righteous person.

But Jesus says that whoever gives one of these little ones (referring to His followers) a cup of water only because they are His disciple, then they will not lose their reward.

Argumentation:

The other rewards fade, but this one will stand. Why? Because Jesus is identifying with His followers. That is an amazing thing. We often speak of how we must identify with Christ, and this is true, but I fear that sometimes we forget that Christ has identified with us. He has identified with us!

He has said that whoever receives one of His followers receives Him. This is an incredible statement. We know that this life will be hard. Followers of Christ will face much trial and persecution in this life for following Jesus. But in it all we have Christ who has promised us that He identifies with us.

He has accepted us. He has chosen us, His sheep. We have been received by the Lord of Hosts. And in doing so we are His and we are His ambassadors. What is done to us is as if it were done to Him.

But beyond this there is another hope in this passage. We have recieved a good reception from Christ in our salvation, but we also see here the hope of a good reception from some people. It will not all be rejection. In these verse we see a hope of people coming to faith in Christ. We see a hope of being received by some.

Not all will spurn us and reject. Some will be kind. Some will accept the message of the cross. As Matthew Henry said on this passage, “In the worst of times there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Christ’s ministers shall not labour in vain.”

This gives us hope as we carry on the mission of the gospel as I am convinced it gave the apostles hope as they carried on the mission of the gospel. Yes, they would be hated, spurned, maligned, rejected, murdered, but some would be drawn by the Holy Spirit and receive the message of the gospel.

I am sure that as Matthew and the other apostles related this account to the crowds, he looked out and saw the ones who had left family to be there. He saw the ones who were cast out and beaten. He looked out at the church as I look out at you now and think, “Yes, these will not lose their reward.”

Application:

But where do we go from here? How can we take this teaching of Jesus to the apostles to heart and grow from it? We must not shy away from the hard teachings. We must not ignore the difficult sayings of Christ, for they are vital. And even though this was specifically addressed to the Apostles, we must be ready for rejection.

Be Ready for Rejection.

We are presenting the same gospel message that the Apostles presented. Likely we will face the same rejection they faced. We must be prepared to be rejected as Jesus was, as the apostles were, as the early church was, and as we likely will be. We must be willing to be rejected, abused and even murdered for Christ. This has not changed from the first century.

We have the incredible blessing of living in a nation where we are free to practice our faith. But our world is increasingly growing more secular and more hostile to the gospel. The gospel message that was once encouraged and taught nearly everywhere is being rejected as hate speech. We must pray for boldness to declare the gospel despite rejection.

We must also be willing to take up our cross and die to self.

Take Up Our Cross and Die to Self.

As we think and ponder on how we should apply this passage, we must not neglect Jesus’ words in verse 37-38.

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. 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.

We must not love family more than Christ. We must not love acceptance more than Christ. We must not love our lives more than Christ. We must be willing to be rejected by all people for the sake of Christ. We must not hold the opinions of others in higher regard than the approval that we have in Christ. We have been commissioned to share the gospel. And that will mean the loss of some relationships. Christ has not left us in the dark about this. He has warned us that this would happen. We must carry on in boldly declaring the gospel.

We must take up our cross and be willing to die. It has been said that in that culture, the idea of carrying a cross evoked the literal depiction of a “dead man walking.” The person carrying a cross was already dead, their body had simply not followed through yet. This is how we are to be. Dead to self. We must be dead to ourselves. We must be willing to be killed, for we have already died.

No physical hard can sway us, for we have already died for Christ. Our lives are forfeit. We have been crucified with Christ, as the Apostle Paul puts it. But we have hope in this, for Christ was crucified for us! As Calvin states it, “Christ subjects all his disciples to the cross. Yet let us also bear in mind this consolation, that, in bearing the cross, we are the companions of Christ”

This should give us great peace. We may be bearing the cross and dying to self, but we are not doing something that our beloved savior did not do for us. We are simply walking beside Him in carrying the cross, and it is to be sure that our cross is much lighter than His. He carried all our sin, we simply carry our commitment to Him. Let us walk with heads held high as we carry out commitment to Christ!

But most of all we must Accept and Proclaim the Gospel.

Accept and Proclaim the Gospel.

Are you here and unsaved? Have you never surrendered your life to Christ? If this is you, then I beg you to surrender your life to Christ. The gospel message is this;

You are a sinner. You have violated God’s perfect law. In doing this, you deserve to be punished. Violating God’s law means you will spend eternity in Hell. This is the just punishment for your sins. But God has provided a way of salvation. Jesus Christ, God the Son, came to earth and lived a perfect life. He never sinned. He did not deserve death, but in the place of sinners He died. He died the death you and I deserve so that we can be free of sin and the punishment of sin. By believing in Him and His death in your place, you will be saved. You will be adopted into the family of God. You will spend eternity in heaven.

Yes the Christian life is hard and full of trials and the death of self. But it is the only way to find hope and salvation. I beg of you, count the cost. You can either die to self and live forever with Christ in perfect love and joy and bliss in heaven, or you can live for self here and die for eternity in unquenchable fire.

What will you do? Will you trust in the Lord or not?

If you do trust in the Lord, or if you are here trusting in Him, you must proclaim the gospel. We are commissioned by Christ to proclaim the good news of salvation to all people. They need to hear the hope of the Gospel! They are dying and need hope.

If you are here and are a follower of Jesus Christ, I implore you to share the good news with all those you can. Be bold, and share the gospel.

Be ready for rejection; take up your cross and die to self; accept and proclaim the gospel.

Let’s pray for boldness.

Closing Prayer for Boldness:

Closing Hymn:

Closing Benediction:

I pray that you are filled with boldness and that you live lives worthy of the calling of Jesus Christ upon your life. Love Christ, hate sin, share the gospel, amen.