A life worthy of Christ
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Introduction
Introduction
The passage we have before us is a stunning wake up call for many Christians, probably even for some of you in this call right now.
You see, beloved, the problem in our time, as I have mentioned again and again, is that much of what we know about God comes from snippets of information we’ve gathered from sermons we’ve heard or movies we’ve watched or bible studies we’ve attended, and not from Scripture directly.
Therefore, much of the image of who Jesus is that we’ve built up in our minds is a concoction of some truth and many false assumptions. You can see this all around especially amongst professing Christians many of whom believe that Jesus is just the nicest guy in the whole world who could never get angry.
Therefore, you find them cherry picking bible verses (as is their nature toward such things) to justify their stance regardless of what other parts of scripture might say. It’s a very narrow field of view and it comes from a passive kind of easy-believism.
They uses passages like Matthew 7:1 completely out of context in order to support their position that Christians ought not to judge others because that is what, they claim, Jesus taught.
They would take John 14 and 1 Corinthians 13 in order to emphasise that Love is most important and by doing so, they categorically deny any confrontation of sin because they claim that to be unloving.
The list goes on and on but you get the point.
You don’t get to binge Jesus from sermons and podcasts and call yourself a Christian. If you do that what you end up with is not the true and living God of the Bible, but a figment of your own twisted imagination.
Therefore, it is crucial that when we come to passages as the one that is before us today, it would do us much good to pause and ponder deeply over the implications of such a text and what it reveals about the nature and character of our God.
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Before we move into the passages, let me remind all of you that the context of this chapter is the preparation of the saints (specifically the 12 apostles) for the cause of Christian Missions. Jesus is instructing them and preparing them to face the persecution that would come against those who carry the Gospel to this fallen world.
In fact, all of them would give up their lives to the cause of Chrisitian missions. Historically, only the Apostle John is believed to have died of old age.
And we concluded last Sunday with,
“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
“But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.
That in the face of all persecution or all peace, in all comfort and conflict, in whatever situation life may bring, we must boldly confess Christ before men.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
“For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.
As I mentioned in the beginning, for many Christians, their worlview is a muddled sludge at best. For them, such passages are simply forgotten or avoided altogether.
But I want us to see just how profoundly insightful this text is.
Exegesis
Exegesis
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
Now, those are not the words one would expect to hear from the mouth of the Prince of Peace, as He is called in Isaiah 9:6.
Jesus told Peter in,
Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.
Or,
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
Or,
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
I could go on and on about the emphasis of peace in the New Testament. Then what on earth could Jesus possible have meant in Matthew 10:34
The point of the matter is that if you believe in a jesus according to the culture, you have to forsake or bury such verses. But if you know Jesus from the pages of Scripture, you are forced to harmonise all the different parts, to bring the whole counsel of God’s word to bear the truth.
Therefore, what we see here in this verse is not a contradiction, but a great and profound reality of the ministry of the Prince of Peace.
That the peace that Christ ushers in is uncompromising and unapologetic in its allegiance to the righteousness of God. It is not the kind of peace that the world today calls for where one has to let go of Scripture in the name of love.
“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
This peace that Jesus gives is not like the world gives.
This is not a difficult corelation for us to make considering that most if not all of the Jews believed that the Messiah would usher in His heavenly kindom in political power and military strength.
But the Son of God was born in a manger and became a carpenter by trade and the Kingdom of God was suddenly upon the world in a manner that no one expected.
Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed;
nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
The Peace that Jesus brings therefore, is in fact a sword. Not the worldly kind of a peace devoid of the sword. What does that mean? Let us read on.
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“For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
Let me remind you again brothers and sisters, that many who call themselves Christian have not understood that the God they claim to worship is a god often fashioned in the manner of their own wisdom and heresay, and not the living God who reveals Himself in the pages of His book.
Notice the repeated use of the word ‘come’. Do not think I have come for this, I have not come for this. Instead I have come for this.
There has always been a human expectation of the function of the divine, that God would come for this and that. But apart from Scripture, we would all go astray. And so the expectation of the Jews surrounding Jesus was misplaced.
You think I have come for this and to do this in this manner. But I haven’t.
We know from the larger context of God’s word that Jesus did usher in His peace, the peace that surpaseth all understanding. Peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in Galatians 5:22
Peace is to be desired.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
The overwhelming array of verses on God’s peace must be harmonised against what Jesus is saying here. Since clearly Jesus did come to bring peace, the only way we can understand this text is to see that the peace that Jesus brings is not the kind of peace that the 12 thought He came to bring.
We see that in v35,
For - Whenever we see this word, we must recognise that connection is being made, an explanation is being given (because). I have not come to bring peace like you think, because,
“For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
Because the one who came to bring peace also came to bring the sword. This sword would turn a man’s family into his enemies, setting a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
Sword is a metaphor for divide. You cut with a sword and separate. And in the context of this chapter we see that this sword that divides is the Gospel message that we carry to the ends of the earth.
“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.
“You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.
I have heard so many people say things like, “Jesus taught us to love, not hate. So you can’t judge or oppose other people’s beliefs”. Or, “Jesus wouldn’t want you to take your faith so seriously that it would mess up your family”.
Again, the reason that people make such remarks is because they know something about Jesus, but they do not see much of who He is as He has revealed Himself in the Bible.
Beloved, every time you’re tempted to say the Jesus would this or Jesus would rather us do it that way, do you have a robust understanding of who Jesus is as revealed in the Bible. Or are you spitting out your opinions on half baked truths?
The Gospel message that we carry to the ends of the earth starting from our own neighbourhood, will divide families. For when the Father in the house is saved, the members of his own household will object to his repentance.
a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.
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“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.
Observe beloved, that your Saviour is not apologising for this sword. In fact, He states that if your sympathy or love for family shakes your Christian standing, you are not worthy of Christ.
The righteous King of Heaven commands and deserves your love and allegiance.
Are you worthy of Christ? Is that even a question we ask these days? So much of grace is propogated by Christian media today that the negative effect it has had is that it has reduced the spiritual standard of Christian living.
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love,
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
It is true that none of us are saved or persevered in Christ by our merit. But in saving us, God has called us to walk in a manner worthy of Christ.
Let that sink in. When Jesus saves you, and you set your father, mother, sister, brother, children or wife above Him, you are not worthy of Him. You see, the evidence of genuine Christian transformation is a love for Jesus that does not cease to grow till it prevails over everthing and everyone else.
Therefore, asking the question, “Are you and I walking in a manner worthy of Christ?” is not work based salvation, and it does not take away from the grace of Christ.
So, when you face persecution and divide within your home, do not compromise on the Gospel. Compromise on your own selfish and peculiar attitudes if you must, but not in standing for and speaking out the truth that you’ve given your life to.
It is so helpful that Jesus used the word ‘love’ rather than ‘fear’ in this context. Because many a times, when it comes to such conflict in families, the thing that gets to most people are emotion and sentiment.
I know of several brothers who prepared themselves to bear the wrath of their parents, but not so much their tears.
We cannot compromise on the Gospel!
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“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
This jarring and sudden sayings of Christ now peaks at this statement. Remember now, that for those of us who know how things played out, the mention of the cross might seem obvious. But at that time, when Jesus makes this statement, I wonder how much it would have shocked the 12 apostles.
The cross was considered a curse. The worst death that one could endure
If you consider now the context of this chapter and the persecution that Jesus refers to, it seems pretty obvious that God has apportioned a measure of suffering for all who follow Him. Because if the Master is maligned, how much more the members of His household.
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“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.