The Sword that is the Lord | Matthew 10:34-42

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

I did not come to bring peace but a sword, for I have come to turn.

A man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward,

and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of those little ones who is my disciple,

truly I tell you that person will certainly not lose their reward.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, you are the one who has the words of eternal life.

We ask this morning as your disciples, as blood-purchased children of our Father,

that you would work by your Spirit in our midst this morning,

and that you would be glorified. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Entering parenthood is both the most exciting and terrifying thing at the same time,

for the simple fact that the actual birthing process is incredibly painful.

That's why over the years specialists have worked hard at making the whole process as pain-free as possible.

In fact, one of the classes for expecting parents that my wife, Haley and myself, found ourselves going to,

a quote was said that has always stood out to me.

The avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure is explanatory of all human behaviour.

In other words, you only live once, so look for all the ways to avoid pain at all costs.

This morning, Jesus is telling us the exact opposite.

To enter real life isn't to avoid pain and pursue pleasure.

No, to enter real life is to embrace an instrument of torture and follow Him at all costs,

which will mean real pain and suffering in some cases.

But it will be totally worth it.

But before we have a look at this sobering truth this morning, let's get a bit of context to our passage.

If you've been with us for the past few weeks, you'll know that we're in a part of scripture

where Matthew has been describing the events around 12 chosen guys who Jesus chose to be sent out as He taught them.

So He taught them so as to be sent out into Israel to proclaim good news of the Kingdom of God.

They were commissioned by our Lord with a message and His power and authority to heal, to cast out demons.

But they were also commissioned to declare the peace of God on whoever accepted their message as gospel.

To put it simply, they were to go out as ambassadors into their nation

and announce to their people that the long-awaited Messiah had finally arrived and they were given signs by God to prove it.

But what's been incredibly interesting to note is the danger that our Lord has warned them about.

You might remember it, He said they would be like sheep among wolves.

But as we saw last week, though there was great danger in their mission,

they weren't to worry because God would vindicate His servants in the end.

Our Lord also said that the worst that our enemies can do is kill the body.

But I think most encouraging of all was our Lord's affirmation of His disciples,

that they had the status of children to our Heavenly Father

and that we are worth more to Him than we could possibly imagine.

All this to say that disciples were going into a dangerous harvest with much to worry about,

but they could know that as they went that our Lord would be faithful to them and confess them as His before our Heavenly Father.

Church, this entire discourse has been incredibly interesting because Jesus has been doing two things simultaneously.

On the one hand, He's been speaking to His immediate audience who were expecting the Kingdom of God

to come right there and then and bring ultimate peace to their nation.

And so we've seen our Lord giving His disciples a realistic expectation of what the Kingdom would look like

as it enters this world by and through the proclamation of the Gospel.

And on the other hand, Jesus has been speaking to us here and now,

what the Gospel will look like as we faithfully take it into our nation in 21st century Australia.

This morning's no different.

We're ending this part of the book of Matthew and these marching orders by looking at a great crescendo, if you will.

A great crescendo before these guys leave on their important mission.

And like the original hearers, we will be left with similar questions as to where our loyalty lies.

Are we going to be loyal to our King or to ourselves, to our own lives and agendas

or to the great one that we call our teacher and master?

Well, I hope you see three things in our passage this morning.

First, Jesus divides people.

Second, we have a choice, Jesus or this world.

And finally, we're more important to God than we could possibly hope to imagine.

So if you have your Bibles with you this morning, Jesus warns that he divides people.

Verse 34, Jesus says, don't suppose that I've come to bring peace to the earth.

I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword.

Okay, so right away, you'll notice that this sentence plays against the cultural Jesus of peace and love and all that hippie stuff.

But I also want you to notice that this sentence also played against what the Jews were expecting the Messiah to bring.

We only need to look at the great prophets that God sent Israel,

in which he said the Messiah would bring them a great time of peace and prosperity.

And as we've seen through the weeks, that's exactly what our Lord's disciples were expecting as well.

They were expecting political peace from their enemies.

They were expecting material prosperity under the reign of Jesus right there and then.

Now, I don't want you to miss this this morning.

As we've seen through the weeks, as we've been in the book of Matthew,

Jesus certainly is the fulfillment of the law and prophets.

We've seen that time and time and time again.

Jesus is the King of peace in his fullest sense.

You might remember it on the Sermon of the Mount.

He said blessed are the peacemakers.

He even gave authority and power to his own disciples to declare that the peace of God had come when people believed their message.

Let me just say there is real peace with God when people believe the good news of Jesus Christ and enter into the kingdom of God.

The gospel is the power unto salvation to all who believe.

And peace with God is really given when he rescues his people from the consequences of their sin.

We have peace with God when we hear the gospel, when we repent, when we believe the good news.

So what's Jesus talking about here?

He's talking about his very presence among his people.

He'd come, but his very presence was like a sort of judgment that cuts and divided his people.

His very presence in Israel was like a sword that had come and it was dividing people.

And that's certainly the case, right?

I mean, as we followed our Lord's ministry among his own people, they were divided over who he was.

We even read in the book of Luke that Mary was told that even her son's life would be like a sword to her own soul.

You might remember it when he preached in his own hometown.

They were offended at him.

When his family came and saw him, they thought he was out of his mind.

When teachers of the law heard him preach, they were divided.

Some called him a great blasphemer, but then others like Nicodemus would come to see him, to see what he was all about.

His presence was like a sword that had cut into a body and it was dividing people and causing them to think about exactly who Jesus was and what he had claimed to bring in.

And the question was incredibly important.

Was he the Messiah or not?

And so Jesus wanted his disciples to know that as they went, they shouldn't be surprised by the lack of peace that their ministry and their message would stir up among their own people.

Because there's no gray area with Jesus, no middle ground to the news of who and what he is.

In fact, later Jesus will proclaim to the masses, you're either for me or against me.

Which is to say, either you accept Jesus as God's fulfilled promise or you don't.

There's no middle ground with Jesus.

Lately, me and the kids have loved watching the footy.

Because we choose our team and then we barrack for the one who we're loyal to.

There's only two teams on the field at any given time.

And much in the same way, Jesus presents the same option.

There isn't three teams.

You're either on team Jesus or not.

Either in the kingdom or not, you either believe his words or you don't.

There's no fences to sit on.

There's no lukewarm water to dip your toes into over the question of Jesus.

And people were torn between the two.

Was he the long awaited king or not?

Was his message from God or not?

Were his signs and wonders of God or not?

Were his apostles servants of God or not?

Jesus warns us.

He hasn't come to bring friendly chats and placid thoughts.

No, he's like a sword that has come among them.

And might I say that this is still the case today.

People may or may not admit that Jesus was a historical character.

They may or may not confess that he was a good guy.

But let me tell you to really suck the piss out of a friendly conversation.

Ask people why they haven't accepted Jesus as their saviour yet.

You don't even need to be that abrasive.

Simply tell them about Jesus and what he has done and what he holds out to them.

I don't know if you've been in that context,

but it doesn't usually make everyone feel calm and at peace with one another.

There's something about the person of Jesus Christ that still divides people today.

And people still divide with those that take the side of our Lord.

That's what the disciples of Jesus needed to be aware of.

Jesus divides. In fact, his very name is like a sword that will cut people in two.

And how deep will this division go?

Jesus warns it won't just be in their cities or in their villages or in their synagogues

or like their churches or their towns.

It will divide right down into the family dynamic as well.

Verses 35 and 36.

For I've come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.

Now, to fully understand what Jesus is saying here,

we have to understand the context of the words that he's quoted.

You see, he's quoting Micah, a prophet who ministered in Israel at the time of a wicked king named Ahaz.

And Micah lamented over the fact that the righteous people, the prophets like himself,

had been ostracized and cast aside.

And everyone was turning on one another, even on their own families.

And so by Jesus quoting this, he was giving his disciples a heads up

that they were like the righteous who lived in a wicked nation.

And as they went, they could expect similar treatment to Micah

in that like the prophets, they too would be persecuted.

And that may come even from their own families.

We've heard something like this before, haven't we?

As the gospel goes out, family members will betray one another even to death.

We saw that in verse 21 of our chapter that we're in this morning.

Family strife was always on the table and to be expected.

Now, this isn't to say that Jesus came for the sole purpose to turn us against our families,

but it is to say that as the gospel goes out, some families will turn on their own loved ones

because of who and what they have come to stand for.

British theologian and pastor J.C. Ryle puts it well.

The object of Jesus's first coming wasn't to set up a millennial kingdom

in which all would be of one mind, but to bring in the gospel,

which would lead to strife and divisions.

We've no right to be surprised if we see this continually fulfilled.

We're not to think it's strange if the gospel rends asunder families

and even estrangement between the nearest of relations.

Jesus is warning us here to expect both individually and corporately

the gospel to bring about opposition when it's embraced truly.

And for some people, they will lose everyone.

Christian apologist and former Muslim Nabeel Queshi once said that

if you're going to evangelize people from the Islamic community,

you would better have a spare room.

Because they're going to need you when they turn to Christ.

Because to turn on Islam is to turn on national identity, on community, on family.

And that's pretty full on and something for us here to consider.

But what we know, that's not always the case with people we share the gospel with.

Maybe you're here and you've experienced rejection in more subtle ways.

I know of a woman who grew up in a pretty normal Aussie family,

yet later in life became a Christian.

Because she had come to know the knowledge of the truth

and she wanted her loved ones to hear the gospel,

she wrote them each a letter explaining how Jesus died for their sin,

for the sin of the world and that he forgives anyone of anything

if they would just come to him.

It was the best way that she knew how to communicate the gospel

to those who she loved the most in this world.

Not only did they reject the message,

but over time she's come to understand what rejection from family really feels like.

Whatever the case may be, all of us who have given our lives to Christ,

we know the gospel works.

And we know it works because we've seen it work in our own lives.

We know that Jesus rescues his people.

We know he's the most awesome gift that we could ever hope to receive,

and none of us want to keep that to ourselves.

It's the most natural thing in the world for the Christian to want to tell others about Jesus.

But beware of this, dear ones.

As we go and share the good news, we will see division.

And that division won't just be in society or our friendship groups.

That sword will cut into some family relationships.

There's many people that know that opposition.

Our Lord brings ultimate peace.

But that's not to say that that peace doesn't come through opposition.

Opposition to the gospel, opposition to us.

J.C. Ryle says it again,

so as long as one man believes and another man remains unbelieving,

so long as one is resolved to keep his sins and another is desirous to give them up,

the result of the preaching of the gospel will mean division.

Jesus, he brings peace.

That peace divides the world between those who have embraced and those who have rejected.

We have a choice.

Jesus or the world.

We have a choice, verse 37.

Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me isn't worthy of me.

Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me isn't worthy of me.

As we saw last week, Church,

the life of the disciple is comparable to a student with their master.

A slave, sorry, a student with their teacher, a slave with their master.

The role of the disciple is to leave all and embrace Jesus with all.

And if we think about the immediate context here, that's exactly what these guys had done.

Peter, Andrew, James and John had left their family business,

and Matthew had left his job to follow Jesus

because they trusted him more than the comforts of this world.

The disciples that didn't end up following Jesus

were guys that wanted to follow him on their own terms.

They wanted Jesus and the world simultaneously.

Obviously, this day and age, we can't physically drop all and follow Jesus around,

but the call to discipleship is the same.

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to count the cost

and follow Jesus above all.

Jesus makes it clear.

As the Gospel goes out, as the sword cuts through towns and churches and community synagogues,

there will be families that will reject their own flesh and blood

because their loved ones have become disciples.

And so the temptation will be to reject Jesus

for the sake of keeping peace in the home and comfort in this life.

Let's think about our context this morning.

To have no family in the ancient world was to really have no security at all.

And so Jesus, he's putting his finger on allegiance.

Where does the allegiance of the disciples sit with these matters?

Is it with King Jesus and his family,

or is it with those who reject Christ and his Gospel?

Brothers and sisters, this is incredibly sobering

because no matter where you sit in the history of things,

either in the ancient world or in the modern world, family matters.

And so I want you to understand something here this morning.

This isn't Jesus calling us to follow him and then automatically reject our families.

This isn't Jesus saying, be my disciple and then cast off your loved ones,

even if they're unbelievers.

No, by looking at the whole Council of Scripture,

we're called to honour parents and God loves the family dynamic.

He invented the family dynamic.

The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit,

even commands us to live peacefully with all those around us,

even with unbelieving spouses.

This isn't Jesus saying, follow me and just rebel against all your families,

but it is to say, if we hear the Gospel, if we believe the Gospel,

if we start to live the Gospel out in our lives,

we run the risk of being rejected by those closest to us.

And the temptation is to deny Jesus for the sake of our family and security in this life.

Jesus says, no, not even your own family comes between me and you.

If it comes to rejecting Jesus for the sake of family, that's no excuse not to follow.

This is where we get to the core of discipleship.

Verses 38-39.

Jesus says, whoever doesn't take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds their life will lose it.

Church, in context again, the cross was a brutal instrument of death

because whoever was condemned to hang on it,

before that happened, they were stripped of their civil rights

and then they had to carry the cross to the place of execution for the world to see.

And so by way of illustration, graphic illustration, our Lord is saying,

when you become my disciple, when you become my student,

when you become my slave, everything that you are belongs to me.

Jesus is essentially saying to his disciples, to be my disciple, you must die to yourself.

Die to your comfort.

Die to your wants, your desires, your choices, your way of doing things.

It's now all on the chopping block.

To be my disciple is to totally sign your life away over to him,

even at the expense of our own comforts and securities,

even at the expense of our own flesh and blood if it comes to it.

To put it simply, Jesus causes disciples to be dead men walking.

But this is the thing.

I didn't read the whole verse because you'll notice Jesus ends here.

Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Church, our call to discipleship isn't without pain, suffering, or loss,

but it's certainly not without its reward.

And that's a wonderful truth that we see here.

Think about everything that we have seen in this series.

It's filled with all these tough commands and bleak pictures of betrayal and hatred and persecution.

Jesus has said as the gospel goes out,

you have to be prepared dear ones to endure these things.

But our Lord ends here with a wonderful truth.

You see, in opposition to what the world believes,

the avoidance of pain and pursuit of pleasure isn't where we find life.

We don't find our lives indulging in the pleasures and pursuits and possessions of this world.

Because as our Lord says here, to live for those things is to waste your life.

Now you find life by letting go of the things of this world and clinging completely to Christ.

Because He has given us so much more to live for.

You see, Jesus didn't take a metaphorical cross to Calvary,

but a physical cross where He was crucified for the sin of His people.

He gave His life for the sake of His people,

but, and this is important to note, He also picked it up again for the sake of His people.

And because of our Lord's life given,

whoever comes to Him not only has peace with God everlasting,

but is adopted into God's family and given an inheritance beyond measure.

In other words, belonging to Jesus, following Him above all, is where we find life.

This isn't a call to misery.

This is a call for the disciples of Jesus to rejoice in all that our Lord was, is, and is to come.

So we mustn't hear our Lord saying any of these things this morning for our harm.

This is for our good.

Jesus is saying pursue Him above all else

because what we ultimately receive by belonging to Him doesn't even compare to the things of this world.

This leads us to the final thing that I want to show you here this morning.

We're more important to God than we could possibly hope to imagine.

Please read with me verses 40 and 42.

Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me. Anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.

Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet's reward.

Whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.

Church, these last few words, they embody our entire chapter.

These disciples were chosen, they were taught, and then sent out as ambassadors of King Jesus to their nation.

Whoever accepted them and their message accepted the God of Israel and His promise of peace.

In other words, the way they treated our Lord's disciples because of their union and association with Him

was in fact to treat Him the same.

And it's interesting that Jesus, you might notice it here, goes from the most important to the least among them.

Notice it here in the end of our verse.

If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who's my disciple,

truly I tell you that that person will certainly not lose their reward.

I want you to see what our Lord is doing here, Church.

He's saying that though His disciples have a mission in this world, though we have a message to proclaim,

and though it's important that people hear this wonderful good news,

it's not like God sees us like these tiny little worker ants that if we're squished under the weight of the world,

that it doesn't even matter to Him.

Now we're more important to God than we could possibly hope to imagine.

To the point that even if someone does the smallest act of kindness towards the smallest member of the kingdom,

it doesn't go without His notice.

It doesn't go without His blessing.

That's how important every single disciple of Jesus Christ is to our Heavenly Father.

So as we finish our time in this part of Scripture and in this part of Matthew,

we must never be fooled, my dear brothers and sisters, into thinking that as we grow closer to our Lord,

that the things, that things in this world will get easier.

The more we take our discipleship seriously, the more we believe our Lord's words,

and the more that we share them with others, the harder things can get.

But as we've also seen, our God will never leave nor forsake us,

and He loves His people more than we could possibly hope to imagine.

Remember when Paul was on the way to Damascus to go and persecute the church?

We see it there in Acts 9.

He's stopped by the Lord, and Jesus says to him,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

That's a huge statement, because to reject a disciple's message is to reject Jesus,

but to persecute a disciple is to persecute Jesus.

That's how closely you and I are united with our Lord.

In fact, in chapter 25, it's made clear that those who minister to the disciples of Jesus,

who are either poor, hungry, naked, or in prison, if people minister to them,

it's like they're ministering to Jesus Himself.

He takes note of it all.

Church, the point being, our God watches over His children,

and though discipleship is costly, you matter to Him.

What you're going through, what you've given up, what you've lost,

what hurt and rejection you've endured from people outside or inside of your family.

Because you've put your hope and trust in Jesus, it matters.

It's seen, it's known, everything that we've given up doesn't go unnoticed.

He is with us and rewards those who are faithful to Him.

So if you're here this morning and you have never put your trust in Jesus Christ,

then remember, there is no gray area with God.

You're either for Him or against Him, but let me say this to you.

You are not here by any chance this morning.

To come to Jesus is to come to peace with God everlasting.

If you would love to speak more about that, then please come and grab me after the service.

But church, I just want to end with this.

Life with Jesus won't always be easy.

Some of us will lose things in this life and people that we love,

but God's children belong to His family for all eternity.

And we have to remember that.

We have to remember that we are brothers and sisters in the Lord

and that we are called to bear one another's burdens.

We belong to one another.

We're all foreigners.

We're all exiles looking for a new home.

So let's spur one another up in our most holy faith to pick up our crosses.

But let's do that in the hope and the light of the gospel.

We are united with Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit is working in us.

Because of Jesus Christ, we are children of our heavenly Father.

He's looking after us.

So let's go.

But let's go knowing we're not alone.

We have each other and we have God Almighty looking after us.

Would you please join me in praying?

Lord Jesus, we began our time by asking that you would be honored among us.

These are your words that we want to understand.

So we ask that your Spirit would work your truth, your words, your gospel into our hearts

and that the overflow wouldn't be fear but of great love.

For you have given us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

We ask that as your gospel becomes more and more real to us,

that as we're presented with more and more people

that we know need to hear the gospel, that we would be bold, we would be courageous,

but Lord that we would also be wise, that we would also be innocent

and that everything we do is for your glory and for the sake of your kingdom.

We ask for this in Jesus' name, Amen.