Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to church today. For those who don't know me, I think most people know me, but my name is Megan, and it's wonderful to be here with you all today.
[00:00:10] So today we are continuing on our series through Matthew. We've spent the last two weeks in chapter 10, and today we're at the end of chapter 10, verses 34 to 42.
[00:00:27] And that follows on directly from what Phil spoke on last week and Dan the week previous.
[00:00:34] So this passage, as with every passage in the Bible, can be read on two levels.
[00:00:41] Firstly, we read from a historical viewpoint, the what, where, and how of actual historical events.
[00:00:49] And then on another level, we read and we study the text to determine, you know, what this passage tells us about God, what it tells us about ourselves and the implications for us as a church today.
[00:01:06] So in this passage, Jesus doesn't hold back in his conversation with his disciples.
[00:01:12] He makes some very radical, controversial statements, even a paradoxical statement.
[00:01:19] But to fully grasp the passage, we need to look at the context.
[00:01:24] And I'll keep this short because I know Phil and Dan have also shared about the context.
[00:01:30] So Jesus and his 12 disciples, they are currently in the region of Galilee, and Jesus is sending out his 12 disciples on what can be described as their first mission journey. They're going out on their own without Jesus.
[00:01:50] And Jesus, you know, he gives them his authority.
[00:01:54] He gives them specific instructions. He says, you know, don't go to Samaria. Don't go to, you know, outside of the country, to the Gentiles. Just stay within this region of Galilee.
[00:02:08] And Jesus also instructs them how to act, that they should be wise and shrewd and act carefully.
[00:02:17] And he warns them about persecution. Sorry. He warns them about persecution, and he gives them encouragement. He says, do not be afraid.
[00:02:26] So the section that we are looking at today is Jesus's last words before his young disciples go out.
[00:02:35] And we see that Jesus will build on some of the topics that he's already mentioned in the aim to prepare his disciples for what they are going to face.
[00:02:46] So I've split these verses into kind of three different sections, and I've named them the sword, the cross, and the cup of cold water.
[00:02:57] So starting at number one, the sword, I'm going to read out this short section again.
[00:03:03] Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
[00:03:10] For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
[00:03:22] So Jesus starts us off with quite a confusing statement, you know, both to us and to the disciples.
[00:03:30] The phrase do not suppose suggests, suggests to us that this would be the natural inclination for the disciples to be proposing to supposing, rather supposing that Jesus had come to bring peace.
[00:03:46] After all, one of Jesus's names is Prince of Peace. And we find that in Isaiah and it's foretold in the Scriptures that the Messiah would bring everlasting peace. And the disciples, they would have grown up with this problem, promise that the Messiah was going to bring peace.
[00:04:07] And we do know that Jesus does bring peace. He brings peace firstly between man and God.
[00:04:15] It says here in Romans 5, verse 1, therefore, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:04:26] And Jesus also aims to bring peace between mankind.
[00:04:31] We know that when we are in heaven with him, there will be everlasting peace.
[00:04:36] But currently, as we live our lives and as the disciples live their lives, the gospel of Jesus and Jesus himself, it brought division and separation.
[00:04:50] And the image that Jesus uses is the sword.
[00:04:55] And the sword as we know, is sharp and it causes damage, it causes pain, it cuts through things.
[00:05:07] So when we hear the gospel of Jesus, it demands a reaction. Either we believe it or we don't believe it. And that decision divides people and sometimes it breaks apart families and friends and it separates us from, from the closest people, our closest people, and the most precious people to us.
[00:05:32] But Jesus in his life, he made some really non negotiable assertions.
[00:05:42] For example, he says, no one comes to the Father except through me.
[00:05:47] I'm the way, the truth and the life. That is a beautiful statement to those who believe it, but it's quite offensive I suppose, to those who don't.
[00:05:59] So belief in Jesus and belief in his words divide people. And that division can be very painful.
[00:06:09] Now remember that Jesus is preparing his disciples to go out to Galilee.
[00:06:15] And this is important because we know for certain that at least half of Jesus disciples were from Galilee.
[00:06:24] Peter and Andrew were from Bethsaida. And you can see that right at the top of the Sea of Galilee.
[00:06:31] Philip was also from Bethsaida. James and John, also Galilean fishermen, they were either from Bethsaida or Capernaum. And then there's Nathaniel as well, and he was from Cana, which is right underneath the eye in Galilee.
[00:06:47] So most of the disciples would have grown up in this area. They would have had family and friends.
[00:06:54] So Jesus is preparing them to go out with the likelihood that Division will happen not just between them and ordinary people, but between them and their families.
[00:07:11] When I was a young girl, I grew up in a country called Gambia, the Gambia in Africa. And Gambia is a Muslim country.
[00:07:22] And my dad, you can see him there, he had a ministry where he discipled young Gambian men.
[00:07:31] And he also taught them a trade, mechanics and gave them a livelihood.
[00:07:35] And I want to tell you a story about Lamin, who is the man in the red, which is very helpful.
[00:07:44] So Laman was born into a Muslim family.
[00:07:48] His entire community was Muslim.
[00:07:53] And so one day when he was a very young boy, he actually had a dream about a man named Jesus. And Jesus told him in this dream, come and find me.
[00:08:05] And so Lahman, he asked his father, actually, who is Jesus? Who is the sky? He who I'm dreaming about. And his father, being a very strict Muslim, just said, you know, ignore the dream, it'll go away. Just keep on going with your life and forget about Jesus.
[00:08:23] But Lahman kept having dreams about Jesus. And Jesus would tell him, come find me.
[00:08:30] And so Lahman kept asking questions.
[00:08:35] And so his father actually sent him to Quranic school, kind of to study the Koran so that he could be set on the right path, you know, the right Islamic path.
[00:08:47] But every now and then, Lahman would continue to have a dream about Jesus.
[00:08:53] So when he got a bit older, he secretly and with determination he went out to the biggest market marketplace in Gambia called Serekunda, and he started asking questions about Jesus.
[00:09:06] Could there be anyone that could tell him about who this Jesus was?
[00:09:11] And eventually he got directed, eventually he got directed to one of the Gambian pastors in the area.
[00:09:19] And this pastor was able to meet with him and answer all his questions about Jesus.
[00:09:25] And eventually Lamed became a Christian and he decided that he would follow Jesus.
[00:09:33] So the next step for Lahman was to tell his family.
[00:09:38] So Lahman and the pastor went together to tell his family to tell his father and his father his reaction. His father beat him up, his father spat on him and disowned him.
[00:09:58] And from that moment, Lahman has been ostracized from his community.
[00:10:04] They excluded him completely and they viewed his conversion as such a shameful thing that every single one of his family and friends cut ties and they refused to see him and refused to stand in his presence.
[00:10:26] So Lahman had nowhere to go. So he stayed with this pastor for a few years and then he joined the discipleship program that my dad ran.
[00:10:37] But from this day, Lahman has never had any contact with his family.
[00:10:44] Which is just mind blowing to us, you know, but choosing Jesus cost Laman his entire family and his entire community.
[00:10:57] And we know that following Jesus and choosing Jesus comes at a cost.
[00:11:03] You know, we cannot follow Jesus without having to make difficult decisions and difficult choices. And perhaps those choices aren't as big as the ones that Lahman had to make. But we still, in our everyday life, have to make choices.
[00:11:21] Jesus takes precedence even over the closest and the most precious people in our lives.
[00:11:31] One of the commentaries I read put it this way.
[00:11:35] The message of God's kingship is one which always has and always will lead to violent response from those who are threatened by it.
[00:11:45] To accept Jesus is to accept our share in the way he is treated by a hostile world.
[00:11:52] So our context in Australia is different.
[00:11:55] We still face being misunderstood, looked upon with derision, mocked and even hated by society, by our colleagues, by people that just don't understand, and even conflict within our own families.
[00:12:15] Recently I read a book called Surprise the World.
[00:12:20] And one of the things it encourages is to live a questionable life, meaning that we should live our lives in a way that makes people question it.
[00:12:34] And unfortunately for maybe most of us, I know for myself, that means stepping out of our comfort zone, because I would love to live my life kind of below the radar.
[00:12:46] But it means living in a way that makes people react.
[00:12:52] And some of those reactions will be positive and some of those reactions will be negative.
[00:12:58] But hiding our faith and making compromises, trying to fit in and trying to seem normal, perhaps focusing on our fear of men over our fear of God, that is not what a disciple and a follower of Jesus does.
[00:13:17] And that's a challenge and a good reminder to me as well.
[00:13:23] So moving on to the next symbol, which is the cross.
[00:13:27] And this is what Jesus.
[00:13:31] Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
[00:13:36] Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
[00:13:41] Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
[00:13:46] Whoever finds their life will lose it. And whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
[00:13:52] So here are three not worthy of me statements that seem to me to kind of increase in severity as they go along.
[00:14:01] Jesus takes precedence in our lives above our parents and above our children. Jesus comes first.
[00:14:10] And Jesus uses the image of the cross to emphasize this.
[00:14:15] And as Christians today, we are very familiar with the symbol of the cross.
[00:14:22] It reminds us of, you know, Jesus bearing our sins. It reminds us of Jesus conquering death.
[00:14:30] And it's actually quite a positive Symbol, like, we wear it, you know, on, you know, on our necklaces. And we use it as an encouraging thing.
[00:14:40] But to the men of Galilee, the symbol of the cross would have made them, like, shudder in disgust or horror.
[00:14:49] In 7 AD, when Jesus would have been a young boy, the Romans kind of crushed an uprising in Galilee. And they did this by crucifying 2000 Jews. And they lined them up outside, you know, the cities, on the roads, so that whoever would walk by would see these 2,000 people all crucified one after each other.
[00:15:17] And so, you know, the disciples would have been too young to see this. They would have been babies.
[00:15:23] But I say this to make the point that the Romans used crucifixion publicly, and they used it frequently.
[00:15:33] And it was horrific, really horrific.
[00:15:37] So when the disciples hear Jesus saying, using the symbol of the cross, pick up your cross, they would have thought of it in one way, in one way only, that to pick up your cross meant shameful and brutal death.
[00:15:55] Because it wasn't just a, you know, horrible way to die. It was also a thing that brought stigma and shame to that person and also their entire family.
[00:16:08] So when Jesus says, whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me, then the disciples would have understood Jesus to be saying, if you're not ready to die a horrific death, to be humiliated and shamed and despised for me, then you're not truly my disciple.
[00:16:31] And on one level, that is what Jesus is saying.
[00:16:34] The cost of being a disciple may be physical death. And we know that the disciples, all of them, pretty much died horrible deaths because of Jesus.
[00:16:47] But on another level, because we live after Jesus's crucifixion, after his death and resurrection, and after the giving of the Holy Spirit, we understand theologically that there is more going on in this statement because verses 38 and 39 are union with Christ language.
[00:17:10] So when Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow him, he is saying, live out the cross and resurrection. You share with me. Let your old life go, so that my life in you can be found.
[00:17:26] So it's an invitation to share in his death and gain the freedom from that.
[00:17:33] But it's also an invitation to share in his life, literally by being in union with him.
[00:17:41] But in doing so, that means that we need to put to death our own life, our own old selves, our previous identities, our will, our plans and our priorities.
[00:17:55] We put them to death, which is painful, very painful, and it can be humiliating as well, just like the cross.
[00:18:03] But we choose Jesus way And we choose to live a spirit led life.
[00:18:09] And we choose obedience to Jesus no matter the consequences to our old self.
[00:18:17] Because there are parts of us, each of us, including myself, that need to die. And that's the refining process of union with Christ.
[00:18:27] We call it sanctification, the process.
[00:18:30] This process is done with Jesus.
[00:18:34] Jesus says, take up your cross and follow me like he's right there with us.
[00:18:40] And it is him that reveals to us those areas in our life that we need to die, die to self.
[00:18:49] And we don't do this with sheer determination. It is Christ in us that gives us the way forward and the strength to do these things.
[00:19:00] Because that is the nature of being a true disciple of Jesus. Radical union with Christ, and that is at the cost of our own lives, at the cost of our own choices, and at the cost of our preferences.
[00:19:16] Moving on to the final section, which is called the cup of cold water.
[00:19:21] Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me. And anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
[00:19:27] Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.
[00:19:32] And whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.
[00:19:39] And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who was my disciple, truly, I tell you that that person will certainly not lose their reward.
[00:19:52] So a cup of cold water is the image that Jesus uses in this section.
[00:19:58] In Jewish and Middle Eastern culture, hospitality is very widely valued.
[00:20:06] It's a valued virtue. And to give someone a cup of cold water is the most basic, most basic practice of hospitality.
[00:20:17] And Jesus says that even this most basic act will be rewarded beyond what it deserves.
[00:20:26] So in verse 40, we see the union with Christ theme again.
[00:20:35] Jesus so identifies with his disciples that whoever receives them, receives him.
[00:20:44] So that means that Jesus is not merely represented by his disciples.
[00:20:49] He is present with them and in them. And how people treat his disciples is how they treat him.
[00:20:58] So another way to view this is that there is a union with Christ chain. You know, there is a way that our union with Christ actually connects other people to the Father.
[00:21:14] The Father and the Son are in union, and the Son and his disciples are in union.
[00:21:21] Those who receive the disciples and accept the disciples for who they are are also drawn into relationship with the Son, not quite union with him, but into a relationship with him.
[00:21:38] So when we witness to people, we don't just bring a message to them, we actually bring God's presence and the opportunity for them to interact with God.
[00:21:51] It's very Interesting.
[00:21:53] And I wonder if it changes the way that we view ourselves because we are actual vessels for the presence of God.
[00:22:04] And I find the image of the small cup very encouraging because as I look at the lives of the disciples, as I look at the, you know, their lives and their deaths, you know, people that have been martyred for the faith, I often feel like my own life is, is very insignificant.
[00:22:26] But this small cup of water reminds me that Jesus sees each small act of obedience done in love for Jesus. They are precious to him and he sees them and in my opinion, doing something big, big for Christ.
[00:22:47] That begins by being radically obedient in the small, boring everyday things.
[00:22:56] So as we carry out our week, in what ways can we be serving Jesus? By serving others.
[00:23:05] What little cup of water can we be giving out to someone this week?
[00:23:10] So just in recap, these are the three symbols God uses.
[00:23:16] Jesus uses rather.
[00:23:18] The sword warns that following Jesus will cost you.
[00:23:24] The cross tells us follow anyway, even through death to self.
[00:23:29] And the cup of water comforts us.
[00:23:33] God sees every small act of faithfulness and rewards it.
[00:23:38] So let's pray.
[00:23:44] Lord Jesus, we are your people here, Lord. We are your church and we are your followers, Lord. We are your hands and your feet to the world.
[00:23:56] So Lord, I pray that you will help us live in union with you, Lord, that you will help us seek your will in every corner of our life.
[00:24:05] And Lord, that you will be guiding us in which areas of our life need to die to self love, Lord, so that we can live more fully in your life.
[00:24:15] So Lord, I pray that as we go out this week, you will help us be encouraging and spurring each other on to do your good works, Lord, and to live a life that is questionable.
[00:24:29] That makes people question, Lord, and makes people react.
[00:24:32] In Jesus name, amen.
