Category: Matthew 10

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Matthew Matthew 10

The “great” and the “small”

Matthew

It’s interesting to me how Jesus finishes this discourse. He tells the disciples that if people receive them, they are receiving him.

The reverse is also true. When people reject us because of the gospel, they aren’t merely rejecting us, they are rejecting Christ who is in us.

Basically, this means, don’t take their rejection personally. It may hurt, especially if they are people we care for. But ultimately, they’re not rejecting you because of who you are. They’re rejecting you because of who you represent.

But Jesus goes off on this to lay down a principle for the disciples to remember.

He says in the same way, if a person receives a prophet, they will receive a prophet’s reward. And if a person receives a righteous person, he will receive a righteous person’s reward.

Here, I think Jesus is specifically referring to people who provide room and board for others doing ministry, as people would do for the disciples on their mission trip.

Why did Jesus say this? I think he was reminding them that though their work was important, they were not to look down on others who were given other tasks by God to do.

He was telling them that the people who would provide for them were as worthy of as much honor as the disciples themselves.

The disciples may have been doing the “spiritual” work, but these others were taking care of the “practical” work that was needed for the ministry to go forward.

Too often, we look to the pastors, teachers, and worship leaders as the “great people of the church.”

But we fail to look at the other people who work behind the scenes. The ones who run the audio equipment or the ones who set up the room, for example.

These too are worthy of praise, and will be honored by God just as much as the person who is up front speaking or singing.

Since God honors them, we need to remember to honor them too.

But Jesus goes beyond that, saying,

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward. (Matthew 10:42)

I wonder what Jesus is talking about here.

Did he happen to be holding a “little one,” that is a child, in his lap as he said this? Or was he referring to the disciples and prophets as “little ones?”

If he was talking about a little child, it’s a reminder to us that even caring for the needs of a child because he belongs to Christ is important to God.

If he’s talking about the prophets and disciples, it’s a reminder that they are “little ones” themselves. Certainly not people who should hold themselves over others because of the position they’d been given.

Are you in a “greater” position than others?

Remember that what others do for God’s kingdom, even if it’s “just” supporting your work, is just as important as what you do. So honor them as such.

Are you in a “lower” position? Remember that if you are faithful in what God calls you to do, he honors you just as much as the people in the “higher positions.”

Because when it’s all said and done, God considers us all valuable in his sight and will honor us if we are faithful.

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Matthew Matthew 10

Jesus: A sword that divides?

Matthew

Jesus concludes his discourse on persecution by saying something a bit disturbing.

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.” (Matthew 10:34-36)

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. How can he then say that he didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword that would turn even a person’s own family against him (or her)?

The thing to remember is that while Jesus is the Prince of Peace, that peace will ultimately come when he returns and he reigns over all. That time, however, is not now.

And so he reiterates his earlier warning, that people from your own family may turn against you for following Christ.

Sadly, I’ve seen this happen in Japan more than once. I knew of a girl whose father threatened to disown her and kick her out of the house if she continued with her Christian faith.

Following Christ can lead to discord in a family. The question is, how will we respond?

Do we hide our faith, though continuing to believe? I’ve known people who have done just that…and got into big trouble when they were found out.

But more than that, Jesus said,

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

Can you really say that you love and follow Christ if you deny him before the very people that you love?

Can you deny him throughout your life, and still call yourself a Christian?

I’m not saying there may not be moments of weakness. Peter certainly had them. He denied knowing Jesus three times. But in the end, he went to the cross for his faith in Jesus.

Jesus then said,

Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39)

In other words, Jesus needs to be more important to you than family, and you need to put him first, no matter what suffering you may go through.

Because if you try to hold on to your family at the expense of Christ, if you compromise your faith to keep family peace, you’ll eventually lose them all in hell.

But if you are willing to lose them, if you’re willing to break up family peace because of your faith in Christ, who knows if your family and those you love won’t turn around and come to follow Christ?

The words I’m saying are not easy. But know that even if you lose your all your blood relatives, you have another family to help you.

People that will love you. People that will support you. People that will help you through the hard times.

That’s what the church is all about. Not a building. But a family.

So let us not compromise our faith for the sake of “peace,” even among family. Rather let us always put Jesus first. Only in doing so will we ever find true peace.

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Matthew Matthew 10

When persecution comes

Matthew

Persecution.

Not a pleasant word. And not something that I really want to go through. But one thing that the Bible warns us is that it will come. Paul warns us in 2 Timothy 3:12,

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Not might be. Not possibly will be. Will.

Like I said in the last blog, if your goal is to be like your Teacher, some people will hate you for it. Persecution is just the next step beyond that.

Jesus knew that, so he warned his disciples about it. He called them (and us) sheep among wolves. (16)

What instructions does he give about facing persecution?

First, as I mentioned before, be on your guard. Watch out for the people that would hurt you because of your faith.

Jesus was talking about physical harm, of course, but we could extend it to emotional harm as well. There are some people with vile tongues that will try to hurt you because of your faith. Know who they are.

And if you’re in danger of getting hurt either physically or emotionally, Jesus says to flee. Don’t feel like you have to keep preaching to them once you’ve fulfilled your duty.

Rather, Jesus says that if they reject your message to,

Shake the dust off your feet when you leave [them]. (Matthew 10:14)

Jews used to do that when leaving foreign lands because they felt to take the dirt from those lands into Israel would be to make Israel unclean.

And so Jesus was telling his disciples, “Make it clear to these Jews who reject you that they are the ones who are unclean because they have rejected your message, and that their blood is now on their own heads, because you have warned them.”

In the same way, we should let people know, “I’ve done my duty, but you’ve rejected my message, and now you’re persecuting me because of it. I feel sorry for you and love you, but I can’t make you believe.

“You are now responsible before God for what you do with what I’ve told you.”

And then leave. Once you’ve fulfilled your duty, there is no need to expose yourself to further abuse.

It is easy, however, once we’ve been exposed to persecution to become afraid that it will happen again. And because of that, we become hesitant to speak again to others who have not heard the message.

But Jesus tells us,

Do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known.

What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. (Matthew 10:26-27)

In other words, “My words that I have told to you in private will eventually get out. Nothing can stop it, not even persecution. So don’t be afraid. Keep proclaiming boldly what I’ve told you.”

He then warns us not to fear those who can kill their body, but the one that can destroy body and soul in hell. (28).

That’s not Satan. Satan is a victim of hell, not the ruler.

But we are to remember that people are dying and going to hell every day because they have rejected God. God has no choice but to send them there, because no impure thing can enter heaven.

That fear for those we hold dear should be more than enough to keep us proclaiming boldly the message of the gospel no matter what persecution we may face.

But then he gives us words of comfort,

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.

And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (29-31)

Jesus tells us that though persecution will come, God will not forget you. He will see you though.

And if the time comes when you must die for his sake (Jesus never says that the sparrow won’t die, only that it never happens apart from God’s will), even in that God will be with you and you will see him shortly on the other side.

So let us not fear persecution. Rather let us proclaim boldly the Word of Life that he has given us.

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Matthew Matthew 10

Trying to be loved by all

Matthew

I was reading Matthew 10 with my wife last night, and I realized that I had meant to come back to this passage in a bit more detail and never did.

So before I move on, let’s go back a bit to the instructions Jesus gave to his disciples when they went out to minister to Israel.

There are many things that strike me here.

First, Jesus’ words in verses 7-8 where he instructs them to preach the kingdom, to heal, raise the dead, and drive out demons, after which he says,

Freely you have received, freely give. (Matthew 10:8b)

In other words, you have received the grace of God freely, so give freely of it. The kingdom of God is not for the purpose of making worldly profit.

This is not to say that people can’t be financially supported for their work, because he says in the next verse, that a worker is worth his keep.

But our goal in preaching the gospel should not be getting something from the other person. Rather, it is to pass on to them what we have received.

But the thing that strikes me most is that Jesus warns them that not everyone will accept them. Not everyone will love them for giving them God’s message and doing his work.

In fact, he specifically warns them that some people would reject them, and hate them for it. And so he warns them that they should be wary of the very people they minister to, even their own families.

Sounds paranoid? In this day and age, it probably is. But in that day and age it wasn’t.

Persecution became very great in the early part of the church, particularly in the time of Saul. And if you trusted everyone, you would be dead.

Even your own family members and friends would betray you, because like Saul, they thought they were doing God’s will.

So Jesus told them, be as wise as serpents. In short, think before you act. Think about who you’re dealing with. Can they be trusted?

But he also told them to be as innocent as doves. Don’t become so jaded to people because of betrayal that you become like them, hating and trying to hurt them back.

What can we get from this? Understand that if you follow Jesus, not everyone will love you for it. You may not have to worry about being killed because of your family and friends, but they may very well reject you.

Jesus told his disciples,

A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master.

If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! (24-25)

Jesus was perfect love. He was perfect in all his ways. And people still hated him. They called him the devil himself. And then they killed him.

If we follow Jesus, can we expect to be treated better than our teacher?

So don’t make it your goal to be loved by everyone. It won’t happen. Rather, simply make it your goal to be like your Teacher, the one who gave everything for you, even his own life.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 10

Discipleship: The spiritual and the practical

The gospels

Happy Resurrection Sunday people west of Japan! 🙂 I hope you enjoy yours as much as I did mine. I’m now back blogging after a short one-day break.

Anyway, as I look at how Jesus discipled his men, he versed them in both the spiritual and the practical.

For a long time, he versed them in the spiritual. He gave them the Sermon on the Mount and on the Plain. He gave them the parables and explained them. And he gave them many other teachings as well.

But now as he was sending them out into the ministry, he gave them practical instruction as well as spiritual.

Among the practical, he told them to go to the Jews, not the Gentiles or Samaritans. Why?

Because the gospel was for the Jews first, as Paul mentions in Romans. The time to preach to the others had not fully come yet, although Jesus did do some ministry to the non-Jews as well.

In addition, he told them what to bring and not to bring. (Matthew 10:9-10)

He gave them instructions on accommodations. (Matthew 10:11-13)

And what to do in face of rejection and persecution. (Matthew 10:14, 23)

He was also fiercely practical in warning them not to trust everyone, and that they needed to be shrewd in dealing with people, while maintaining their innocence. (Matthew 10:16-17)

Among the spiritual reminders were to trust in God to provide for them and protect them, and that God loved them more than the sparrows which God cares for daily. (Matthew 10:9-10; 29-31)

He also reminded them that they needed to love him above all else, and that they were to take up their cross daily and follow him. That if they would try to save their life they would lose it, but if they lost it for his sake, they would gain it. (Matthew 10:37-39)

So what am I trying to say?

When we disciple people to do ministry, we need to teach them both the spiritual and the practical.

We of course need to teach them the spiritual principles that apply not just to their ministry but to their lives. But we also need to teach them practically how to do ministry.

Jesus himself let his disciples watch how he did things and then after a while, after giving them further instructions, sent them out.

And when they came back, we see that they reported to Jesus all that they had done, at which point, I’m sure Jesus gave them feedback. That’s what we should do with people we disciple in ministry.

Now this is not to say that people we train are to do carbon copies of our ministry. But we do need to teach them the basics, and then once they have that foundation down, let them build their ministry as God leads them.

The problem with many people that disciple others in the ministry is that they do one kind of training but not the other.

They may give the person spiritual training but not the practical, and as a result the person falls on their face simply because they were not trained practically on what is needed to make a ministry run smoothly.

On the other hand, other people focus exclusively on the practical, only to find that the person they trained falls because of pride, sin, or many of the other spiritual pitfalls ministers encounter. As a result, the “smoothly running” ministry collapses.

Let us not make that mistake as we train others in ministry. Let us be sure to teach both the spiritual and the practical. And as we do, we will see God’s kingdom grow on earth as he uses them and us.

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Luke Luke 9 Mark Mark 6 Matthew Matthew 10

A tare in the wheatfield

The gospels

As I look at this passage, for some reason, Judas sticks out to me.

Jesus called his 12 disciples to go out and minister to the people of Israel. Look at what he did. He gave them the authority to drive out demons, he gave them the ability to cure diseases, and he sent them out preaching the kingdom of God.

And as Matthew lists all the disciples, he notes last of all, “Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” (Matthew 12:4)

Judas drove out demons. Judas healed sick people. Judas went out and preached the kingdom of God. And yet, he would later betray Jesus.

How could that happen? It’s hard to fathom. But I think he is the perfect example of the tare in the wheatfield that Jesus talked about in Matthew 13.

The thing about tares is that they look very similar to wheat. So if a farmer were to try to pull out the tares from the wheat, many times he would end up pulling out the wheat by accident.

That’s why the farmer in the story said to leave them until harvest time, and at that time, he would separate the wheat from the tares.

Judas, like the tare, looked like a believer. He learned with the other disciples. He cast out demons like the others. He healed the sick like the other disciples. And he preached the kingdom like the others. But in his heart, he never truly gave his life to Jesus.

My guess is that he looked only for what a relationship with Jesus could give him. And when he saw that Jesus’ vision was different from his own, and that he would not get from Jesus what he sought, he turned on him and betrayed him.

Many people are like that today. They look like Christians. They sound like Christians. They may even be involved in ministry. But they’ve never truly given their hearts to Jesus.

How about you? Have you given your life to Jesus? Is your life truly his? Or are you like Judas, simply the tare in the wheatfield.

Don’t pretend. You can fool others, your pastor and the people at church. But you can’t fool God. And the day will come when you will be seen for what you really are.

Don’t be that tare. Truly give your life to him. To merely play the Christian will only leave you empty, and result in judgment and death.

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Luke Luke 6 Mark Mark 3 Matthew Matthew 10

Called to be with him, called to go out

The gospels

In these passages, we see the increasing popularity of Jesus, and perhaps it was because of these increasingly great crowds and their needs that Jesus decided to choose 12 people as his trained disciples.

As a man, Jesus was limited to one place at one time. As a result, to minister more effectively, he needed people around him to share in his work.

It truly was a motley crew he chose.

You had fishermen, a former tax collector and collaborator of the Roman government, and a former zealot who was highly nationalistic.

You also had a variety of personalities. You had the brash and bold (Peter), the skeptical (Thomas and Nathanael), and the short-tempered (James and John).

They were all quite different people. But there were three things that Jesus wanted of them. It says in Mark 3:14-15,

He appointed twelve–designating them apostles–that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

First and foremost, Jesus wanted people that would be with him. People who would spend time with him, and to learn from him.

Jesus still desires that today. He desires that we share in his life. That we might know him. And that we might grow to be more like him.

Second, Jesus wanted people that would go out and share the message he had given them.

So often, people read their Bibles, and they grow in their relationship with God. But it’s not enough to just know the Word. God wants us to share that message with others so that they can share in what you have.

Third, Jesus wanted people who would fight spiritual warfare. You may or may not drive out demons from people as the disciples did, but you will have to fight the spiritual forces that are out there.

As Paul wrote,

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Ephesians 6:12)

Jesus calls us to fight. Not against people, but against Satan and his spiritual forces that would blind people and doom them to eternal hell. He calls us to fight for the souls of men and women everywhere.

Every day, people are dying and going to hell. But God doesn’t want that. He wants us to go and fight that they may be saved.

That’s what it means to be a disciple of Christ. To be with Jesus. To go out and share the good news with others. And to engage in spiritual warfare.

How about you? As Christ’s disciple, are you doing these things?