Reading Assignment: Matthew 10:32-42
Main Idea/Truth: Stand firm for Christ.
Four aspects of standing firm for Christ:
1. Confess Christ: We do this because we trust in the Father’s care for us. This is the import of the “Therefore” that begins verse 32.
2. Endure suffering for Christ: Jesus is the most polarizing person in all of history. He makes people to choose a side, either His side or the opposite. This results in suffering, and Jesus encourages us to be ready for this and to endure the conflicts that may come.
3. Love Christ supremely: Jesus is God, therefore, we love Him supremely, over all other relationships. We love Him more than even our own lives.
4. Represent Christ: We are Jesus’ representatives on earth. It is through us that people come to receive Jesus and ultimately the Father. This is how people come to receive the reward of the Kingdom of heaven.
Prayer Suggestions:
1. Jesus, just as You taught me, I believe in the Father’s care for me.
2. Jesus, I love my family, but I love You more. Help them to become Your disciples as they see in me the life of a true disciple who loves You supremely.
3. Jesus, help to be a good representative. I am not able on my own. I seek Your strength.
Transcript
Happy New Year. Let me pray for us and begin our time. Our God, thank You for another year. And thank You for giving us the wisdom to set You first. Even this morning, we want to devote to You our very first moment of the year. You are God. There is no one greater than You. There's no one more lovely than You. And we thank You that we have assurance in our hearts that the God who created us loves us, and that He is the righteous God, the God of wisdom, the God who abounds with lovingkindness and truth. And so it's such a joyful experience for us to set You first and to worship You and to learn at Your feet. We pray that this morning You will indeed teach us and grant to us growing wisdom, so that our lives would honor and glorify You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
The next reading assignment is Matthew 10:32-42. And the truth that I want to point out is to stand firm, to stand firm. The main idea, on the other hand, deals with how to endure suffering. Now, at the outset, the discussion of suffering does not sound like a pleasant topic, and on the surface it isn’t. But even as Jesus talks about this, He gives us the proper context for why a Christian is willing to suffer for Him. He begins this section with the word, “therefore.” Now, the word “therefore” means that what comes afterwards logically flows from what went before. Well, what went before? What went before was Jesus’ description of God's care for us. Here is what Jesus is saying: the reason why we stand firm and speak up for Him and confess Him before men (those are the words of verse 32), the reason is our confidence in God’s care for us. This is so vitally important. You know when our hearts are assured of God’s care for us, then we can endure much in life. I can endure much in life, because I know I have a heavenly Father who loves me, who is looking out for me, who is providing for me. And when I have that assurance, I can stand firm and I can stand up for God's truth, and for Jesus Christ. And this is what Jesus is teaching us in that verse. The full text of verse 32 reads, “Therefore,” that is, because of God's care for you, “everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” What Jesus means is this: If you know God cares for you, then you can stand up for Christ and talk about Him even before people, even if they may potentially harm you. Furthermore, Jesus is saying, “if you have a faith like that, then you belong to Me.” Therefore, on Judgment Day, “I will confess you before My Father who is in heaven.” He gives us the assurance that we will not stand alone when we face God on judgment day. Jesus will speak up for me and claim us His own. Jesus also speaks of the opposite: If someone does not trust in the Father's care for them, and therefore they recoil from standing up for Christ and speaking out for Him, then Jesus says, “If you deny Me before men, I will also deny you before My Father who is in heaven.” What Jesus means is this, “If you don't trust in the Father's care for you, then you don't belong to Me.” And so Jesus is saying, “Believe My words that the Father cares for you. This means you can courageously speak up for Me.” And so that's the first part of the passage. They are all together four parts in this passage. The first part is that we confess Christ before men, and the reason that we would do this is because we trust in God's care for us. This is verses 32 through 33.
The second part is to endure suffering for Christ. This comes up in verses 34 through 36. Jesus says that He came as a sword to bring division in relationships. Now when you just read those words, it seems like Jesus came to bring conflict, and in some ways, Jesus does mean that. But to properly understand this, here's what we need to think about. The whole world is split into two groups in the eyes of God. There are those who believe, and there are those who do not believe. So, when the Son of God comes to Earth, He is the most polarizing person on the planet. He makes people to decide what side they are on, either on this side or the other side of God. And so Jesus says that even within a family, there will be great divisions because it will be clear that some believe and others don’t. And Jesus speaks these words to prepare us for the conflict and even suffering that will arise from our commitment to Jesus, because He is the most polarizing person to ever step foot on the planet.
The next section is love. We have seen confess before men, we have seen endure suffering, and now we have love Christ supremely. Jesus teaches us that our greatest love, our foremost love, must be dedicated to Him. I should quickly add that to love Jesus supremely is simply to love God supremely, which has always been the command of God. Now, I should say a word about this. Some may read these words and think, “Well, God must be very selfish and Jesus must be so selfish that He wants us to love Him most.” But you know, there are two proper biblical responses to this. Number one, Jesus doesn't expect us to love Him supremely without having first loved us to the greatest extent possible. The fact is that He loved us to the greatest extent possible. He gave up that which was the most precious to Him as an expression of His love for us. It's not merely that He gave up His life, though that is the ultimate sacrifice from a human standpoint. But it’s more than that He gave up. He gave up the most cherished relationship He had for all eternity: the love, the warmth, and the acceptance of His Father. When He hung on the cross, He suffered rejection from the Father. This is something He had never experienced in His eternal existence. If you would, Jesus never saw His Father looking at Him with a scowl. He never once felt that the Father was displeased with Him. But on the cross, when He bore our sins, Jesus experienced the Father's disfavor, the Father's wrath. Why? So that we would not have to experience the same. This is the extent of Jesus’ love for us. And He is simply calling us to recognize that there's no one who has loved us more. There's a second dimension to this, which is that God is the supreme being in all the universe. We might think, well, I love my spouse or I love my children. And at a very human level, that's healthy and right. In fact, to not love spouse and children means that there is a malfunction in our hearts and in our thinking. But here is the thing, the most special person to love, the greatest object of our love, believe it or not, is the greatest being that exists. It is God. He's the one who made us. He's the one who knows us, better than anyone else, better than our spouse, better than our children, even better than ourselves. And yet He cares for us. He knows everything about us, even all those things that are the matter with us, and yet He loves us and cares for us. There's no one greater to love than this amazing God. And so when God commands that we love Him supremely, that is a rational response of creatures to their creator, especially when their creator is the Lord God of the Bible. And as I explained before, the other dimension of Jesus’ love toward us at the cross was the greatest love we would ever know in life. So when Jesus calls us to love Him supremely, this isn't some kind of selfish and childish demand. This is a godly demand. In fact, it is God's demand. Furthermore, Jesus even talks about how our love for Him will require that we even deny ourselves that we must love Him more than we love ourselves. This is the third section on supreme love. Jesus must be our supreme love.
As we move on to the final section, which is on representing Christ, what we are reminded of is the reason why Jesus began this discourse in the first place. The reason why He was teaching was His compassion toward lost sheep. Jesus wanted to recruit His disciples to join Him in reaching out to the lost sheep of Israel. He wanted to bless more people with the Kingdom of God. That's the context. As Jesus gets to this last section in verses 40 through 42, He brings this back into focus. People need God. He says this, “he who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” What He means is this: When you come to represent Jesus to someone and they receive you as a messenger of God, there's something more than meets the eye that takes place. They are actually receiving Jesus Christ because you represent Him. And when they receive Jesus Christ, they are actually receiving God Almighty. This is astonishing. When we represent Jesus to people, we are actually leading them to a reconciled relationship with God. Furthermore, Jesus talks about the reward people will receive as a result. Because we represent Christ, when we speak as the prophets spoke, or even as righteous men of the Old Testament spoke God's word, or more straightforwardly, as disciples of Jesus speak for Him, we give to our audience the opportunity to receive the reward of a prophet, the reward of a righteous man, or the reward of a disciple, which in short is the Kingdom of heaven. What Jesus is saying is this: If you really care about fellow man and your family members, you will confess Christ, you will proclaim and represent Him. Why? Because that's the only way they will come to receive God and receive the wonderful reward of the Kingdom of heaven.
What Jesus shows us is that what this whole section on suffering was about was to teach us that reaching people with the good news of Jesus will cost us. And Jesus is saying to us, “Join Me. Yes, it will cost you. You will suffer and you will face hatred. But if you love lost sheep, as I love them, then you will speak forth the truth to them anyway, because the only way they will turn to Me is if someone will represent Me to them.”
There's a lot that we can pray about here. First, we can pray about how God cares for us. We can say to Jesus, “I hear what You said. And I believe. I thank You that even as the Father cared for You, that He cares for me. This is truly amazing, and I believe it, that the Heavenly Father loves me. He even knows the number of hair on my head and He will not let me die before my time. In the same way He cares for the sparrows, so He cares for me. And because of this, I find the courage to stand up boldly for You. Because I have this giant safety net, that the Father cares for me, I can speak up without fear. I thank You for this wonderful truth.
Another thing to pray about is our love of family. I'm fairly certain that all of us love our families deeply. I certainly do. I love my family. But if you can find it in your heart to say to Jesus that He is more important than your family, then tell Him so. Moreover, admit to Him that the only way your family will come to have the blessing of God and of heaven is if I follow Jesus faithfully and love Him supremely, that I would speak to them as a true disciple of Jesus. So, with all this said, a prayer like this would be appropriate: “Jesus, I love my family. You gave them to me. But I understand that You are God and that You have loved me supremely and over and beyond how anyone has or can ever love me. And so I know it is moral, it is right, it is godly to love You supremely. And Lord, as I love You supremely, I pray that you would open the eyes of my family members, so that they would recognize who You are and that they would come to understand Your love for them and that they would come to believe and love You. So, Lord, save my family members. Show each member Your grace and truth.”
The last thing to pray about is to seek Jesus' help. We need His help to be good representatives of Him. That will be the final prayer suggestion here. “Jesus. Help me to be a good representative of Yours. Help me always to keep Your word and to be like You. Enable me to treat people with the patience and grace You have shown me and that I would help people to see who You are through my life. Train me to be like You, so that I would always speak words that give life to people, just as You did when You were on earth. May people come to know You through my life. And that in knowing You, they might come to know the Father, and they might also have the Kingdom of heaven. Lord bless me, that I might be a blessing of heaven to all those around me.”
Well, there's lots of wonderful truths to think upon and pray to the Lord about in this passage. I hope that you will do this as you read through this final section from Matthew 10. That's it for today. May the Lord bless you, and have a wonderful, happy New Year! I'll see you again later this week. Goodbye.