Matthew 10: v.
32-42 - Hallmarks of Discipleship part two.
Introduction
Henry Martyn spent a
life time as a missionary in India. Just before his retirement he announced
that God had laid a burden on his heart to go to Persia. (modern day Iran) and
translate the New Testament and Psalms.
Doctors had already told him that he would die of the heat if he stayed
in India. He went to Persia (Iran) and studied the language and eventually
finished the translation work in 1812.
He then discovered that he could not print and distribute the scriptures
without the Shah’s permission. He travelled 600 miles to Teheran but was
denied permission to see the Shah. He then had to travel 400 miles to visit the
British ambassador, who gave him the correct papers of introduction.
Riding a mule at
night and resting during the heat of the day, he came back to Teheran and
managed to obtain the needed permission.
Ten days later he
died. Shortly before his death he
had written in his diary, “ I sat and thought with sweet comfort and
peace of my God. In solitude He is my Companion, my Friend and my Comforter.
Bound up in the
spirit of Henry Martyn is the key to genuine discipleship. He was so utterly
consumed with what Jesus wanted him to do that he took no thought for his own
life.
What a challenge to
our commitment to follow Jesus. We may be called to a different ministry, but
with a heart like Henry Martyn, great blessing will flow from it.
So we come to the
second half of the “Hallmarks of Discipleship”
This section is very
challenging and it involves three things.
1. Confessing Jesus before people.
1. Confessing Jesus before people
In addition to being like Jesus
and not fearing the world, Matthew now challenges us with the words of Jesus
concerning openly confessing Jesus before the world.
In his book “ I love Idi
amin” (published in 1977) A leading evangelical minister tells the story
of 3 christian boys who openly confessed Jesus to the world.
In 1885 three Christian boys aged
from 11-15 were told by the King that unless they renounced their faith they
would be executed. The King was severely opposed to Christianity.
The boys continued to confess
their faith in Jesus. The boys were brought to the place of execution. The boys asked that the following
message be given to the King.
“ Tell his Majesty that he
has put our bodies in the fire , but we won’t be long in the fire. Soon
we will be with Jesus which is much better. But ask him to repent and change
his mind or he will land in the place of eternal fire.”
As they were bound and awaiting
death they sang a song that soon became a popular song in that country as the
“ Martyr’s Song”.
This is one verse: Oh that I had wings
like the angels
I would fly away and be with Jesus
Because of the boy’s
testimony that day, 40 adults trusted Jesus Christ for Salvation. Indirectly countless more converts were
won to Jesus.
By 1887 a large number of other
Christians were Martyred, many of them inspired by these young boys. None of the Martyrs knew much theology
or much about the Bible, because most of them couldn’t read or write and
were relatively new believers.
However they had one thing in
common, a deep love for Jesus which they refused to hide, no matter what the
cost.
(Quote Romans 1: 16)
If we have a testimony to the
saving GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we need to openly confess it to the
world at every opportunity that God gives us.
In the original Greek it uses the
word “everyone therefore who confesses.” So there is no get out
clause for introverts.
The word “confess”
means to affirm and agree with. It is not simply to recognise a truth but to
identify with it personally. In
James 2: 19 it says that even the demons recognise that God is one and also in
Acts 16 a demon who spoke through a slave girl acknowledged the message that
Paul was preaching. In both cases
the demons recognised a truth but they did not own it personally. (example
here)
Quote Romans 10 : v. 9-10. If we
are prepared to confess with our mouth, this usually reflects a firm belief in
our heart.
Application -
How about us, how are we doing on the Richter scale of confessing Jesus
Christ as our own personal saviour and Lord.?
Two weeks on Thursday a small
team of 7 fly to Hattiesburg to confess both their personal testimony and the
testimony of great saints down through the history of Britain. I worked it out
that over 1000 people in total will hear those testimonies and that does not
include the Church Services. Maybe next year you might be on a mission, giving
your testimony? However there
are plenty of opportunities to give your testimony, if you pray that God will
open up a door of opportunity for you, then I am sure He will give you that
opportunity.
However do come to and tell the
Friday morning prayer meeting where we concentrate on praying for lost souls.
However the negative side in v.
33 is even more challenging.
This challenge is directed
towards a person who makes an outward profession of faith, but when a time of
testing comes they deny Jesus before men.
Jesus uses the future tense here and is talking about a future judgement.
A repeated theme throughout
Matthew’s gospel is the challenge between true and false discipleship.
(Matthew 7: v. 21-23 we have already covered this)
Challenge here to know Jesus
personally!!! (Not lapses of
missed opportunity, these are outright denials) Peter denied Jesus before
men but he repented and was forgiven and God used Him mightily, you can repent
too of denial and God can use you in a wonderful way too.
Jesus here uses a prophecy from
Micah 7: v. 6. Why does Jesus use
this prophecy here and why does He make an issue here about putting Jesus
before family?
First of all we need to
understand the mind- set of the people of that day. The Jews expected their
Messiah to bring political deliverance to their nation. They were expecting
their Messiah to bring peace on the earth.
After all their prophet Isaiah called the Messiah the “Prince of
Peace” ( Isaiah 9:6) Solomon,
in Psalm 72, talked of a worldwide peace. He said in v. 3 “ The mountains
will bring peace to the people.” (NKJ)
Therefore the Jews were not
looking so much for an inner peace that Jesus was offering people but an outer
peace.
Yes in the second coming many of
the unfulfilled prophecies concerning these outward peace times are coming.
However in this context and in the context of our day, Jesus offers us an inner
peace. When we trust Jesus to be
our own personal saviour and Lord it brings us an inner peace and it makes us
different from people who don’t have it.
We see things a whole lot
different, we want to do different things, we want to mix with different
people, we want to be in Church on a Sunday whenever we can.
This automatically brings a
division between us and the people who are not like us.
It is not that Jesus wants us to
always be fighting with our families if they are not Christians it is that
because we are different, Jesus doesn’t want us to compromise our faith
and go along with what they want if it conflicts with our faith.
Our families are the strongest
ties that we have and therefore it is a great challenge for some to put Jesus
first before our families.
The Greek word that Jesus uses
here is a word ( dixazo ) which means to cut in two. This is the only time it
is used in the N/T. It implies
permanent separation.
There are people highlighted in
the N/T who didn’t want to forsake their family to follow Jesus. Two of these people are mentioned in
Luke 9: v. 57-62.
One would be disciple wanted to
wait until his father had died so he could get his inheritance, perhaps for
financial security, the other wanted to delay his obedience until he had spent
time with his family.
Jesus wasn’t interested in
this type of commitment, He wanted the people to put Him first before their
family. (Jesus concluded with Luke 9:
v. 62)
There is one question that might
come up here and that is what about unbelieving husbands? There are at least 9 in our fellowship.
That is quite high and we need to address that issue here.
Firstly I must say that if you
are a Christian and you marry somebody who is not a Christian, you must repent
against that act because it is contrary to scripture.
(see 2 Cor. 6: v. 14-15) (Joy Moore – Scotland)
However if you married someone
who professed faith and then back slid or denied their faith or you married as
a non Christian and then became a Christian, what do you do when your wife or
husband is opposed to your faith and makes your Christian life unbearable etc.
We need to go to Paul’s
teaching in 1 Cor. 7: v. 12-16.
The clear teaching of scripture
is that the believing partner husband or wife must not divorce their
partner. The Christian partner can
pray and witness.
However if the unbelieving
husband or wife wants out of the marriage then the believing partner should let
them go.
I suppose the idea here is that
he will never get saved. This is
one of only two occasions where Jesus permits divorce.
Yes there is a division between
you and your husband, if he is prepared to live with you, then your faith is a
constant reminder to him. One day maybe he will become a Christian.
3. The final challenge is in v. 38-39.
It
is the challenge to offer your own life to Jesus. This is often the last and hardest
piece in the discipleship challenge.
The disciples knew
exactly what Jesus meant when he spoke these verses. The cross to the disciples
was a symbol of pain and cruelty but it also was a symbol of death. They knew exactly that they were being
called to abandon their lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
So to be a true
follower of Jesus means to completely surrender your life to Him. This is the
normal Christian life. Don’t
model your life on special needs Christians who keep 90% of their life and give
God 10%. Jesus requires 100% but He does give back a new clife as He
points out in v. 39.
Jesus says, yes you
will lose your old life, but you will find a new one. Earthly life is temporary, if you
hold on to it, you can’t keep it. However if you lose your earthly life
for my sake you will find a better one. This is an eternal life.
Example/ Illustration
Finally Jesus says
that a disciple receives his reward.
I want to illustrate
this truth by telling a true story from long ago.
A young boy in a
country village in England struggled hard to study for the gospel ministry. An
old cobbler from his home town helped him in whatever way he could. The godly
cobbler helped the boy spiritually and financially. When the young man was
finally licensed to preach, the cobbler said to him, “I always had it in
my heart to be a minister of the gospel, but circumstances never made it
possible. You are doing what was always my dream, but never a reality. I want
you to let me make your shoes for nothing, and I want you to wear them in the
pulpit. When you preach I will always feel that you are preaching the gospel in
my shoes.
So Jesus says that
whenever we become the source of blessing to others we are blessed. In God’s economy the least
of all believers can share in the reward of the greatest.
No one’s work
for God will ever go unrewarded.
v. 32-33 - A Disciple must confess Jesus Christ
before people. Not just the dog or the cat, but you can practice on them if you
like.
There is a challenge
and a promise in a positive way in v. 32, however in v. 33 there is a challenge
and a promise in a negative
v. 34-36 –
Being a disciple brings division even in your own family.
v. 37-39 - A Disciple must put Jesus first before
anybody else even your own Father, Mother, Son or daughter. Jesus doesn’t
mention your wife because a husband and wife should be ONE.
v. 40-42 - The Reward of a disciple. People will
be rewarded for supporting as well as being etc.