july 2 2023
July 2nd 2023
Old Testament: Jeremiah 28:5-9 (15-17)
Psalm: Psalm 119:153-160
Epistle: Romans 7:1-13
Gospel: Matthew 10:34-42
Sermon Text: Matthew 10
Sermon Title: “Not Peace, but a Sword”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth! I have not come to being peace, but a sword”. (Matthew 10:34) “A person’s enemies will be those of his own household”. (Matthew 10:36) “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me”. (Matthew 10:38) “Whoever receives you, receives Me”. (Matthew 10:40a) All of these are the words of Jesus from the Gospel text this morning.
Again today, we have another difficult text, with hard words from our Lord Jesus Christ about the cost of following Him. John the Baptist is already in prison for proclaiming Jesus as the Christ and he will soon be beheaded for his testimony. After Jesus’ resurrection, all but one of the twelve disciples will be martyred for their faith in Christ. And we heard Jesus’ warning last Sunday that “you will be hated by all for My name’s sake”. (Matthew 10:22a) (Jesus didn’t come to make us comfortable in this world)
So, Jesus teaches us again this morning, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth, I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”. (Matthew 10:34) And this will manifest itself in such a way as to split families in two; “for I have come 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 person’s enemies (adversaries) will be those of his own household”. (Matthew 10:35-36) Are any of you experiencing these kinds of things?
We heard this last Sunday as well; Jesus said, “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for My name’s sake”. (Matthew 10:21-22a) This was true in Jesus’ day and it is still true in ours; Christ’s coming brings division/conflict/sword.
Exposing the lies of the devil, world and our own flesh; inevitably causes conflict. It is not loving, nor is it the Gospel to say, “live and let live” to those who want to literally mutilate our children in the name of transgenderism; this is just one of many examples. Jesus pronounces woes upon “those who cause one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin”. (Luke 17:2b)
Love for Christ and for one another, including our families, compels us to speak the truth in love, even knowing it often causes divisions. The truth is that honest division is better than false; worldly peace. Taking a stand on anything will bring the sword of which Jesus speaks. The prophet declares, “Woe to those who say, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace”. (Jeremiah 6:14)
God’s Law offends the unrepentant sinner, who wants to continue in their wicked ways. God’s Gospel offends in that Jesus claims to be and in fact is the only means of salvation. Peter preached, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”. (Acts 4:12) Jesus said of Himself, “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me”. (John 14:6)
God’s Word is such that it even offends the “religious” people. Jesus was teaching about Himself in John chapter 6 saying, “I am the bread of life; I am the bread that came down from heaven”. (John 6:35a, 41b) At this point, the people in the synagogue walked out on Jesus saying; “this is a hard saying; who can listen to it … many turned back and no longer walked with Him”. (John 6:60b, 66)
We live in a world described by the prophet Micah; (where) “the godly have perished from the earth and there is no one upright among mankind”. (Micah 7:2a) There will always be some (a few) who will hear the Gospel message; repent and believe it; but many others “will hear the same call, but due to their own ingrained sin and stubbornness, will reject the Christ who summons them to salvation”. (Gibbs commentary, page 539)
The fact that Jesus’ coming into this world brings division causes some to doubt. (in other words, in offends; Why?) This cannot be right they say; since they believe that families are the most important thing. God wouldn’t want us to have conflict in our family would He? So, in the name of peace, some demand that we must keep silent about the truth; lest we offend family. But, this is idolatry.
Listen closely to what Jesus says next, “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me”. (Matthew 10:37) The great danger/temptation here is that we will let family affections rule over God’s Word. Sadly, we have come to a place in the church, where many expect the pastors and congregations to overlook those who are openly sinning against God’s Word. This is quite different from the Old Testament law; where for example parents were expected to publicly condemn the sins of their children, which had gotten out of hand and bring them before the authorities for punishment.
In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is even more direct than here in Matthew; “if anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters; yes even his own life; he cannot be My disciple … any of you who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be My disciple”. (Luke 14:26, 33b)
Of course, Jesus also practiced what He preached in this regard. His own family did not believe in Him and even thought He was insane, but Jesus did not cater to them, in order to please them or quiet their doubts. He continued in the work He had come to this earth to do. Once, when His family interrupted His teaching, He ignored them and said to the crowd; You are My family. “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, sister, and mother”. (Matthew 12:50)
It is quite common that Satan uses even the good gifts of God; like family, to tempt us to idolatry and other great sin and shame. That is why the Apostle Peter warns against him saying; “Be sober minded, be watchful; your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith”. (1st Peter 5:8-9a)
A few years ago, I shared with you the story of Perpetua, a second century Christian woman. At age 22, she was a young wife and mother, still nursing her only child. She came from a very wealthy family in Carthage. Even though conversion to Christianity was illegal in Rome, she still enrolled in a catechism class with her brother. A short time after this, as she was leaving church, she was arrested and thrown into a dungeon. While there, she was sorely tempted by her family to renounce her faith in Christ.
Her first visitor was her father, who was weeping and begging her to renounce her faith and save her life. He said, “Have pity on us … think of your family”. She said, God’s will be done. She was told that she would be released if she gave up her faith and as she stood before the judge, her father again came, bringing her infant child, and said; “Perform the sacrifice (to Caesar) Have mercy on your child … spare your father’s gray hair. She replied, I am a Christian. Perpetua and all the others with her were sentenced to be torn by wild beasts. She was gorged by a mad bull. Her clothes were bloodied and torn. Before she died, she urged her fellow believers suffering with her not be offended by the way they died.
Next, Jesus declares that this is all part of taking up our cross and that “whoever does not take up his cross (daily) and follow Me is not worthy of Me”. (Matthew 10:38) In our day, where wickedness is promoted everywhere, it is even more likely that we who confess our faith in Christ publicly, will lose cherished relationships with friends and loved ones; even children or parents. This is part of the cross we bear; not letting our feelings for others get in the way of our faith life; for “You shall have no other gods before Me”. (Exodus 20:3) (1st Commandment)
When these conflicts happen, it is a great loss and a cross to bear, but if we cave to the pressures to reject Christ, we will have an even greater cross to bear; the loss of faith and eternal life with Christ. “For whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for My sake, will find it”. (Matthew 10:39) So, do you love your family members enough to correct them, when they contradict the Word of God? Will you repent of making an idol out of your loved ones and hear God’s Word of correction for yourselves? This is what God is calling you to today. As we heard last week, “Do not fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul”. (Matthew 10:28a)
Next Jesus restates what He said earlier about the connection between hearing what Jesus said and hearing what those He sent out said; “Whoever receives you receives Me; whoever receives Me, receives Him who sent Me”. (Matthew 10:40) These words do not apply only to the twelve that Jesus sent out, but to all Christian pastors and missionaries throughout the history of the Church. In fact, they are for all believers in Christ as we bear witness to Jesus in our lives.
Earlier in this chapter, we heard Jesus tell His disciples, “if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that town (Matthew 10:14) as a sign of judgment against them. Today, we hear the other side of this. “The one who receives a prophet, because he is a prophet, will receive a prophet’s reward. And the one who receives a righteous person, because he is a righteous person, will receive a righteous person’s reward”. (Matthew 10:41)
A prophet here simply means one who proclaims the Word of God rightly, and a righteous person is one who has been made righteous through faith in the shed blood of Christ. The reward Jesus speaks of are the heavenly blessings that He gives us freely out of His grace, divine mercy, and steadfast love; even offering certain material blessings as well. In other words, those who honor God’s servants, God’s blessing will rest upon them.
“And whoever gives one of these little ones (who believe in Me) even a cup of cold water because he is My disciple; (a Christian) truly I say to you; he will by no means lose his reward”. (Matthew 10:42) No act of kindness towards other believers, no matter how small it appears, will fail to be recognized by our Father in heaven. All of this He does out of His Fatherly divine goodness and mercy; through no worthiness in us. So, we support the work of pastors and the church in speaking the truth about God’s Word/Gospel, no matter the cost to us personally; even in our families.
In the Old Testament reading, we see a conflict; not between blood family, but the family of faith; the true prophet Jeremiah and the false prophet Hananiah. The Jewish people were in exile in Babylon and looking for some hopeful news. Hananiah told them what they wanted to hear; that their exile would be short, about two years, and then they would return home. Hananiah, the false prophet, lied about God’s Word causing people to sin.
In contrast, Jeremiah spoke the truth that God had revealed to him; that the worst was yet to come, that they would not return home for seventy years. He confronted Hananiah saying, “The Lord has not sent you and you have made the people trust in a lie … thus says the Lord … this year you shall die because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord”. (Jeremiah 28:15b-16)
Again, Jesus did not “come to bring peace, but a sword”. (Matthew 10:34b) His coming always brings division and consequences for rebelling against or lying about God are severe, because they lead people away from the truth of the Gospel and into rebellion against God. (In addition to the sword of division, Jesus also gives us another sword; “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”. (Ephesians 6:17b))
Instead, we are to speak the truth to all; to “fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called”. (1st Timothy 6:12a) “Preach the Word … All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness”. (2nd Timothy 4:2a, 3:16) This we will do, by the grace of and with the help of God. Amen.
The peace of God ….