WEBVTT 00:00:08.560 --> 00:00:12.240 Matthew 10 verses 34 through 39. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:14.480 Actually, before I read it, one more thing. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:16.960 Tonight at 5.15, and we'll be back. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:22.719 I'm gonna be preaching on the uh triumphal entry, where Jesus enters Jerusalem. 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:31.760 You know, in Christmas we often do like a month or so of sermons leading to Christmas, so this year I thought I'd throw in a like an intro to Easter sermon tonight with the triumphal entry. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:35.200 So please join us back at 5.15 uh tonight. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:39.520 Matthew 10, verse 34 through 39. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:44.560 Jesus says, Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:47.039 I haven't come to bring peace but a sword. 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:57.520 I've 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 will be those of his own household. 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:00.719 Whoever loves father or mother more than me isn't worthy of me. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:03.359 Whoever loves son or daughter more than me isn't worthy of me. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.680 Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:10.159 Whoever finds his life will lose it. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:14.400 Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:16.400 This is the word of God. 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:26.959 When Moses was called by God out of the desert to go lead Israel to deliverance and freedom, his first response was that they won't listen to me. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:30.799 Moses argued with God and said, I don't want to do it, nobody will follow, they won't listen. 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:32.079 God told him to go anyway. 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:34.879 Moses went in faithfulness with his brother Aaron. 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:39.680 They asked Pharaoh to let the people go, and Pharaoh responded by saying, You guys are idle. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:41.280 That's why you're asking for this. 00:01:41.439 --> 00:01:48.799 He withdrew straw from them, told them to keep making the same amount of bricks, and then had them all whipped for not working hard enough. 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:54.640 At the end of Exodus chapter 5, Moses goes back to God and says, What gives? 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:59.519 I told you I didn't want to do this, I told you they wouldn't listen, and I've only been obedient to you. 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:04.159 I did what you said, exactly what you said, and now we're being whipped for it. 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:08.639 If we're being honest, we respond worse than Moses. 00:02:09.039 --> 00:02:23.599 When anything difficult happens to us for our faithfulness, if we're faithful to God at work or at home or in our neighborhood or whatever, and it produces opposition or conflict or hostility, somebody calls us names or we lose a promotion or we lose a job or anything like that. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:28.080 A family divides over it, we respond as if we had been physically whipped. 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:29.120 God, are you? 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:30.080 You got to be kidding. 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.520 I only did what you told me to do, and now this person won't talk to me anymore. 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:35.599 I knew I shouldn't have stood for you. 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:37.919 I knew I shouldn't have been faithful in this instance. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.080 I knew I shouldn't have honored you in this way. 00:02:40.159 --> 00:02:41.439 I knew I should have compromised. 00:02:41.599 --> 00:02:44.639 Now I've done what you told me to do, and now look what's happened. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:46.800 They won't even talk to me anymore. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:57.280 Moses, it's not just that people wouldn't talk to him, it's that he was physically whipped, along with so many of the other Jews who, of course, blamed Moses and Aaron. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:58.719 We weren't being whipped yesterday. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:00.240 Today Moses and Aaron show up. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:01.840 Now we're being whipped. 00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:08.080 Moses complained to the Lord, and the Lord's response to Moses is really a paradigm shifting. 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:18.000 It's a penetrating statement where God tells Moses, Who do you think did this to you, Moses? 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:20.800 Who do you think hardened Pharaoh's heart? 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:25.280 God didn't respond to Moses and say, Oh, because you're being faithful tomorrow, your problems will go away. 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:29.520 God responded to Moses and said, Because you're being faithful, yeah, you got ten plagues in the horizon. 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:30.719 Let me tell you something else, Moses. 00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:34.639 After every one of those plagues, I'm gonna harden Pharaoh's heart even more. 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:39.439 It's gonna clarify where you stand in the world. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:43.039 That reminds me of Jesus' introduction here in verse 34. 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:45.759 Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth. 00:03:45.919 --> 00:03:54.080 Jesus is sending his disciples out into the world where they're gonna be doing miracles, they're gonna be preaching the gospel, and they're going to run into opposition. 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:58.159 The disciples don't have a grid for this in this conversation, remember? 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:01.280 In fact, even after this first mission, they're gonna come back celebrating. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:05.759 But their second mission will be harder, and their third mission, they're gonna die as martyrs. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:08.639 And Jesus is setting them up for that. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.520 So they won't be able to say, hey, why do people hate us? 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:13.039 We are only being faithful. 00:04:13.199 --> 00:04:13.919 Oh no. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:20.720 Jesus says, You're gonna go out there and people are going to hate you because I didn't come to bring peace to the earth. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:25.439 Now we understand there's a uh dichotomy here. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:30.079 When Jesus was born, we have the song, peace on earth, goodwill among men. 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.600 Every year at the Christmas concert, we sing peace, peace, peace. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:38.959 But we have a good enough eschatology to understand that peace on earth doesn't come until the second coming of Christ. 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:47.519 We sing about it at his first coming because he is, in that sense, representing peace, but he won't establish peace on the earth until he returns a second time. 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.639 As a result of his first coming, he makes peace between God and man, certainly. 00:04:52.879 --> 00:04:56.639 You're at enmity with God because of your sin, you deserve God's judgment. 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.360 There's hostility between you and the Lord because of sin. 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:05.759 But Jesus, through his death on the cross, makes a way for your sins to be forgiven and for you to be reconciled to God. 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:09.439 And through your faith in Christ, you can have peace with God. 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:14.240 But that does not translate into a horizontal peace at all. 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:16.160 In fact, the opposite is often true. 00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.079 Sometimes it produces conflict through opposition. 00:05:20.959 --> 00:05:23.279 And we're tempted to go, why, Lord? 00:05:23.439 --> 00:05:25.040 Why do I have this conflict? 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:27.279 Why do I have this division in my family? 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:30.639 I've only been faithful, and that's our outline this morning. 00:05:30.879 --> 00:05:35.759 Jesus responds to that implicit question by saying that he designed the world that way. 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:41.040 There's three God-designed effects of persecution in the home. 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:44.560 The circles here have been telescoping smaller. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:47.759 Jesus starts by saying people will hate you generically. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:49.680 Religious leaders will oppose you. 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.399 Governments in particular will put you on trial. 00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:55.360 You'll have to give an account for your testimony before them. 00:05:55.600 --> 00:05:59.439 But now we've gone all the way even more narrow than that. 00:05:59.920 --> 00:06:01.279 Now we're to the family. 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:04.240 We're not talking about persecution by false religious leaders. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:10.480 We're not talking about persecution by governors and governments and mayors and lesser magistrates, although that was in view earlier. 00:06:10.639 --> 00:06:19.040 Now we're down to the level of, well, what he says here, a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 00:06:19.680 --> 00:06:25.759 These little circles where you would expect the family relationship to be the strongest. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:29.040 You'd expect a son to respect his father. 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:35.920 You would expect a mother to respect, uh, you would expect a daughter to respect her mother, maybe after the teenage years. 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:37.519 It gets there eventually. 00:06:38.639 --> 00:06:43.519 But you would expect those those relationships to be strong and vibrant. 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:49.199 You would expect a a daughter-in-law to respect her mother-in-law. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:53.759 Just out of for no other reason, you know, help me help me understand my husband. 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:57.360 You would respect there to be a warm relationship there. 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:04.480 And instead, those are the those are the close relationships inside the home, inside the family, that Jesus says he's coming to divide. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:07.040 He's coming to divide. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:08.959 Why? 00:07:09.439 --> 00:07:11.199 Why is he going to do that? 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:13.519 Well, there's three reasons the text gives. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:16.879 The first is that it clarifies the gospel family. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:19.439 It clarifies who the gospel family is. 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:27.439 Verse 35, I've told, I'm telling you, I've come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:34.720 We enter into this relationship with this estimation or this expectation about how, you know, all we want is a happy, healthy family. 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:36.000 It's our closest relationship. 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:37.360 That's really all we want, God. 00:07:37.519 --> 00:07:38.959 Is that too much to ask? 00:07:39.199 --> 00:07:44.319 That's because the family is supposed to be the most secure place on the earth. 00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:47.680 But instead, the sword divides it. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:50.240 The sword is the word Jesus uses in verse 34. 00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:51.680 It's not a literal sword here. 00:07:51.759 --> 00:07:56.079 It's, you know, this idea of division in the home, division in the family over Christ. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:02.319 Where you would least expect it to find it, to find that kind of division, Christ divides even those relationships. 00:08:02.480 --> 00:08:07.279 And that's because the love we're expected to have for Christ is greater than that of family. 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:14.240 So the gospel comes to a family, and people in the family don't receive the gospel. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:19.199 And it's not that they don't like their mom or their dad or their brother or their sister, it's that they don't like Jesus. 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:21.120 They live for themselves. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:24.160 They have their own sense of their identity that's different than Christ. 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:31.439 They have their own sense of ethics that's different than what the Bible says, they have their own sense of life that is independent of who Jesus is. 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:37.840 And so a family member comes to faith in Christ and things get reoriented around Christ. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:43.279 The family that doesn't come to Christ sees their worldview confronted. 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:49.279 They love their sin, they love their self, they love the way their life is going. 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:53.360 And here comes a Christian who says, I can't love the things that you love. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:54.559 You're living in sin. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.600 I can't love that sin because I have an allegiance to Christ. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:03.360 And so the line, the way the family always gets placed then is the line: if you loved me, you would love me like this. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:06.399 If you'd love me, you'd love me as I am, living for myself. 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:09.360 If you love me, you'd love me in what you call sin. 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:13.759 Which is actually very well said. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:21.279 The believer responds to that with, No, I love, I do love you, and the most loving thing to do is to speak the truth to you. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:23.519 I do love you, but I love the Lord more than you. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:27.360 That's how the believer responds, but the unbeliever doesn't have the grid for that. 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:29.600 They don't have the category distinctions of that. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:38.080 In their mind, if you don't love me, how I'm living my life, if you don't love me in my sin and in my own sense of self, then you don't love me at all. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:43.200 And so the believer is put at a fork there. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.519 Like, what am I supposed to do? 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:52.000 Am I supposed to honor the Lord and follow the Lord and risk losing my family? 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:54.559 And you think that's too much to ask, Lord. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:55.759 That's too much. 00:09:57.519 --> 00:09:59.360 What's going on in the non-believer's mind? 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:02.559 It's not like it's not like they stop loving their mom or their dad. 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:07.200 In their minds, they, you know, they have hostility towards the Lord. 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:15.840 Hostility against Christians results not from Christians themselves being obnoxious, although I'm sure in many cases that's true. 00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:34.399 But the kind of hostility Jesus is talking about in Matthew 10 is not hostility because the believer is obnoxious, but the sad fact that despite the peacemaking teaching that was from the Sermon on the Mount, sometimes the gospel so alienates unbelievers that they lash out against those who love them for Christ's sake. 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:37.279 Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers. 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:43.679 And you remember from the Sermon on the Mount that you help people make peace with God by reconciling them to God through Christ. 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:46.159 You have peacemaking tendencies in you. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:56.720 You have the desire to have serpent-like wisdom, but eventually the fork is in the road, and eventually the family member says, You either love me in my sin or you don't love me at all, and then what? 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:02.240 And you have to remember that at that moment they're not lashing out against you because they don't like you. 00:11:03.440 --> 00:11:09.279 They're lashing at, they're giving you the ultimatum, they're lashing out at you in that sense because they don't like the Lord. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:12.240 This is Psalm 2, verse what, seven? 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:15.440 And even at the beginning of Psalm 2, why do the nations rage? 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:17.919 Why do the people plot a vain thing? 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:21.440 Why do the nation, I mean, answer the question from Psalm 2. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:23.600 Why do the nations rage? 00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:28.639 Because they don't want the king, the son of God, to reign over them. 00:11:29.120 --> 00:11:30.639 And what does God say? 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.120 I've set my son on his holy hill. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:34.639 I put my son in Zion. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:38.000 You're gonna kiss the son, or you're gonna get hit with the wrath of God. 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:41.440 People don't want to kiss the son, they don't want to bow before his scepter. 00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:49.039 They reject the kingship of Christ over them, they reject the authority of Jesus Christ, and so they rage against his authority. 00:11:49.679 --> 00:11:52.639 And Christians in that sense are caught in the middle. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:57.200 Now, this varies in every cultural circumstance. 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:01.440 Every culture is going to see division in the family differently, for sure. 00:12:01.679 --> 00:12:08.399 I think in the current American scene, the most common kind of persecution you're likely to face is probably in the family. 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:21.919 At least that's the kind I hear about the most from people at Emmanuel, where they have family members that say, if you, you know, if you love me, you'd receive me in my ungodly relationships, you'd see me, you'd receive me in my sin, you would join me in celebrating my sexually immoral lifestyle. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:26.159 Shouldn't you have celebrated that and affirmed that if you loved me, you would, kind of language. 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:32.799 I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that's arguably the most common form of persecution that American believers face. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:35.360 But it does look different in every culture. 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:48.799 I read a book by Christopher Yuan, who's a professor at Moody, Chinese American, and he says the way this plays out in most many Chinese cultures is that in the Chinese world, you show your love and affection for your parents by giving them money. 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:58.399 And that in a in a if you have a couple brothers or sisters and they're in married relationships, you show which family member you love more by which one you give money. 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:01.600 Do you give your dad more money than your father-in-law? 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:03.919 Imagine how that's going to play out at home. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:05.919 Imagine the pressure on the wife in that scenario. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:12.960 And so a lot of Christian families respond by not doing that, by not giving money up the flow chart, so to speak. 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:16.000 And that creates huge division in the family. 00:13:16.320 --> 00:13:24.240 Because if you love, I raised you, if you loved me, you would be honoring me the way all of my non-Christian family is honoring me. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:30.240 Again, that we don't have an equivalence to that in the American culture that I'm aware of. 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:34.399 My dad might be sending me a text message right now letting me know something different. 00:13:36.879 --> 00:13:38.320 It looks different in every culture. 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:39.679 Of course it does. 00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:44.080 The bottom line, though, is that there is going to be division at home. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:46.960 And you even, frankly, see this in some Christian families. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:52.960 I've seen Christian families where you know parents say to their kid who's going to go be a missionary somewhere. 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:54.559 Why would you do that? 00:13:54.879 --> 00:14:05.840 You know, we paid for you to go to a private school, we paid for you to go to a good university, and you're going to go be, you know, a minister of the gospel with people that are barely literate? 00:14:06.240 --> 00:14:07.279 That's not what we paid. 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:09.120 Or you how about this? 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:21.200 Parents who say say to their daughter, you know, we paid for you to go to a private school, we paid for you to go to a good university, so you can go marry someone who's going to go minister to the gospel in some barely literate place of the world? 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:25.440 Where exactly do you think you're taking my future grandkids? 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:27.360 And how dare you? 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:31.039 Very common language I've heard. 00:14:31.519 --> 00:14:35.919 Or people who, you know, are in the ministry, they're going to move somewhere to follow Christ. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:39.039 And there's this attitude of what are you doing? 00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:41.919 Don't you see what you're doing to your family? 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:44.559 I'm sure military families run into that. 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:46.080 For the cause of country. 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:49.120 Jesus here is talking about for the cause of Christ. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:58.879 Jesus here is talking about those like the apostles who will follow their call into the world. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:01.919 And that will bring division in the family. 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:04.480 And he he drills this home. 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:12.159 He drills this home by saying, If you love father and mother more than me, you are not worthy of me. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.320 That's verse 37, which leads to our second point. 00:15:14.399 --> 00:15:16.240 It confirms true discipleship. 00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:18.080 It confirms true discipleship. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.399 Many times in the ministry, the Lord compares true disciples to false ones. 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.000 This is all through Matthew's gospel. 00:15:24.240 --> 00:15:29.600 You remember this in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:32.080 Not everyone who calls Jesus Lord will see him. 00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:35.919 In this, you're dealing with people who say they love the Lord. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:40.159 In fact, they might even have some kind of superficial love to the Lord in their life. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.080 That's the way verse 37 reads to me. 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:45.919 Whoever loves father and mother more than me, it's the greater than sign. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:49.759 You love your own family, greater than sign, the Lord. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.720 So that it's the way I read that is the love for the Lord is a non-zero value here. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:57.200 There's some kind of superficial love for the Lord going on. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:02.720 The problem is this person who would say they love the Lord, they would call him Lord, to use the language of Matthew 7. 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:05.440 They would say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this in your name? 00:16:05.600 --> 00:16:07.039 Didn't we do this that in your name? 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:11.679 And Jesus will say, You love this world more than you love me. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:12.639 Depart from me. 00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:14.399 I don't even know who you are. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:16.720 Or the language of Matthew 10 right here. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:22.399 If you love the world or you love your family more than me, you are not worthy of me. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:23.759 This hits right at the heart. 00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:25.279 I talked about cultural differences. 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:28.960 This hits right at the heart of the American idolatry of family. 00:16:29.200 --> 00:16:34.879 Well, we have in our culture, you know, the most important thing is having a strong family life at home and just loving one another at home. 00:16:35.039 --> 00:16:45.919 There's some, you know, some sense that that's true, but Jesus here insists on ordering that to where you can legitimately look at your family and say, I love Jesus more than you. 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:50.960 I've mentioned this before through Matthew 10, our sermons, but I'll repeat it again today. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:17:01.200 Whenever I do a Christian wedding, I will say, what makes this such an unusual wedding is that the two people standing here both confess to loving someone else more than each other. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:08.559 And you can hear the non-Christians in the crowd that go, they look to the back door to see who's gonna burst through. 00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:11.039 No, they love the Lord more than each other. 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:12.720 I tell my kids that all the time. 00:17:13.039 --> 00:17:16.160 I love them, but I love the Lord more than them. 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:19.839 And in God's kindness, that's what strengthens a family. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.319 A Christian family gets strengthened by that. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:26.400 You know, when kids see how they fit in the hierarchy here. 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:35.440 The mom and dad love Jesus more than me, that causes the kids to love Jesus because the kids love Jesus, they love their parents out of obedience to the Lord. 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:36.160 So it all grows. 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:37.519 It all just amplifies love. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:41.759 When you love, when love is in the right order, it amplifies every category of love. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:45.279 But idolatry of family tears that down. 00:17:45.599 --> 00:17:49.200 It pushes down the love of Christ to subservient to love of family. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:52.319 It says what's most important is I love my family well. 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:54.400 That pushes the Lord down. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:58.000 That has a sense of deflating love in the family. 00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:01.119 And so how clarifying is it? 00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:02.640 How clarifying is it? 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:10.079 When you have somebody who is just on the fence, they don't know if they're a believer or not, the kind of person that's always doubting their salvation. 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:14.480 I don't know if I love the Lord enough, I don't know if I pray enough, I don't know if I'm enough, enough, enough. 00:18:14.640 --> 00:18:17.200 I hate the word enough, but that's the word they always use. 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:27.279 And then they're in a situation where there's a fork in the road and they have to choose to honor the Lord or honor their family, and they choose to honor the Lord and their family bites them for it. 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:31.519 That should be so clarifying and confirming to that person. 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:34.000 They should draw so much encouragement from that. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:39.119 You know, yesterday they were like, I don't know if I'm a Christian, and today they're being bit by non-Christians for their Christianity. 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:40.720 They're like, well, okay then. 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:43.519 Thank you, Lord, for answering that prayer. 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:46.240 You should draw encouragement from that. 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:50.319 I really do believe that's why Jesus puts it here in Matthew 10. 00:18:50.559 --> 00:18:58.000 To let you know that when you love him more than family, you are in fact, in that sense, worthy of him. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:05.599 Which means he knows you and he recognizes you and he has redeemed you, and he's in a relationship with you. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:09.519 This has the effect here of forming, in that sense, a new family. 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:22.000 Not that your family in the church replaces your earthly family, or not, you know, you know, my your kids don't speak to you anymore because of your Christianity, or your parents don't speak to you, or your brother doesn't speak to you anymore because of the stands you've taken for the gospel. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:29.759 Having friends in the church doesn't atone for that or doesn't fill that hole in your heart, but in a sense, it does supplement it. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:31.920 You do have brothers and sisters in the Lord. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:42.960 You do have adopted grandparents and adopted parents and adopted kids in the church, and you do have a family unit in the church with people that love each other because they love the Lord more than each other. 00:19:43.119 --> 00:19:47.200 It has a way of knitting your hearts together, confirming that you are in the family of God. 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:54.960 This is why a very common New Testament description of believers is brothers and sisters with one another. 00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:01.839 You don't call anyone father because the Lord's your father, but there is a sense in which you are brothers and sisters with other believers. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:04.960 You have that kind of family dynamic in the church. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:10.400 You have adopted grandparents in the church, and some of the church grandparents are adorable and lovely. 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:18.480 And it's a healthy dynamic in the church and it confirms your presence in the family of God. 00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:22.000 Thirdly, it calls you to follow Christ. 00:20:22.319 --> 00:20:23.440 It calls you to follow Christ. 00:20:23.599 --> 00:20:27.200 Verse 38 Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:31.599 This is the first mention of the word cross in the New Testament. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:36.480 At this point, if you're reading the New Testament for the first time, you don't know how Jesus dies yet. 00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:40.400 I mean, you can deduce from the Old Testament that maybe the Savior is going to die. 00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:42.799 You'd like to think you could deduce that. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:47.279 But then you look at the disciples and they didn't really land the plane on there yet. 00:20:47.519 --> 00:20:52.799 But you would like to think there's enough prophetic material in the Old Testament that the Savior would die and be resurrected. 00:20:52.880 --> 00:20:57.119 You looking back on it, you see it, but at the time, I don't know how much they saw of that. 00:20:57.279 --> 00:21:05.279 And maybe you could even deduce some kind of crucifixion from Isaiah 53 that he'll be wounded, and that word can be rendered pierced for our transgressions. 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:09.440 Zechariah 12 is the word for impaled, the Savior will be impaled. 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:15.119 So maybe you could deduce from that that he would have some kind of death involving impalement or something. 00:21:15.279 --> 00:21:19.359 But they don't have a grid for Jesus dying on the cross. 00:21:20.240 --> 00:21:24.640 And here's the first use of the word cross in the New Testament. 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:29.599 And it is not about how Jesus is going to die, it's about how disciples are supposed to live. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:34.079 You're supposed to pick up your cross and follow Jesus. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:37.279 The cross is something the Greeks and Jews would know. 00:21:37.440 --> 00:21:45.680 A hundred years before Jesus, uh before his death, 70 years before he was born or so, there was a Greek revolt led by Spartacus, if you remember. 00:21:46.079 --> 00:22:01.839 And the general, the Roman general Crassus, put down the revolt, took 6,000 of the rebels, lined the highway back to Rome with crosses, and had all 6,000 of them crucified along the Highway back to Rome. 00:22:02.400 --> 00:22:07.039 This is steered in the mind of every part of the Roman Empire. 00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:08.319 They all know the story. 00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:11.119 They all know what happens to rebels as you get crucified. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:15.759 The cross then takes on this image of a means of death, of putting down rebels. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:18.720 That's the context in which Jesus is using it here. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:21.119 That your family is going to divide. 00:22:21.599 --> 00:22:23.359 It's going to bring a sword to the family. 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:28.160 You, meanwhile, pick up your cross and follow him in obedience. 00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:31.200 That's the image Jesus uses for salvation. 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:34.720 And as a side note, the cross kills, you know, nails and the hands and the feet. 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:35.839 It kills people. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:37.920 You know, some of them die by suffocation. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:41.920 Of course, their lungs fill with fluid and they, you know, they they suffocate that way. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.400 They can't physically bring themselves up to breathe. 00:22:44.559 --> 00:22:48.079 But that is not the way majority of people die on the cross. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:52.240 Majority of the people who are crucified die from exposure. 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:54.240 They die from hunger. 00:22:54.400 --> 00:22:56.559 They die from birds or animals attacking them. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:22:58.480 I mean, it's a horrible way to die. 00:22:59.839 --> 00:23:02.559 That's the image Jesus uses. 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:10.880 When you love him more than family, you are picking up your cross, denying your own life and following him. 00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:16.720 The phrase denying your own life or losing your life in verse 39. 00:23:17.039 --> 00:23:20.960 That word lose, it can mean to deny, it can mean to renounce. 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:25.359 That's another word in the kind of the umbrella of meanings of that word. 00:23:25.599 --> 00:23:26.880 You renounce your own life. 00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:34.720 It's a statement of repentance, that you are turning your back on the way you were living and what you were loving and picking up your cross and following Christ. 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:39.599 It's saying I love Jesus more than this world to the point that I'm willing to die for him. 00:23:40.319 --> 00:23:47.279 Here the cross is obviously metaphorical, although it won't remain that way, just like the sword is obviously metaphorical, it won't remain that way either. 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:54.160 Jesus will be crucified, Peter will be crucified, the sword will come, some disciples will be put to death by the sword. 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:55.440 That's all gonna happen. 00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:59.200 But Jesus says at the outset, he's talking about conversion kind of language. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:08.640 When you're signing up to follow Jesus, you are taking all that into consideration and saying, I'm gonna pick up my cross and be faithful to Jesus and follow him, even though it's heavy. 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:13.680 I mean, holding a cross doesn't help you in any way, shape, or form doing anything else in life. 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:18.799 You can't garden holding a cross, you can't take out the trash holding a cross, you can't cook dinner holding a cross. 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:24.160 The point is you're gonna do your whole life now with the cross of Christ on your back. 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:26.960 Everything you do is following him. 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.880 You're giving up your life and hoisting your own cross. 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:36.640 You're surrendering your future, disavowing your past, and following Jesus. 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:39.359 Jesus uses this present tense of it. 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:41.599 You're gonna take, you're gonna be taking the cross. 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:43.680 This is what you're doing all the time now. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:48.400 Lugging it wherever you go, and you're following him in verse 38. 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:59.039 You're not following phantoms, you're not following materialism, you're not following success in this world, you're not following your family or following yourself, you're following Jesus. 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:04.000 And when you follow him, verse 39, you will, you're gonna find your true life. 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:06.720 You're gonna lose your life in this world, but find it in the next. 00:25:06.799 --> 00:25:09.759 And if you hold on to your life in this world, you're gonna lose your life in the next. 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:14.480 This is as simple as saying if you live for this life, you lose your next life. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:19.759 But if you lose this life, you find true eternal life. 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:21.599 That's the promise. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.000 You wanna live for the success of this world? 00:25:24.240 --> 00:25:34.000 You want to live for your house or your family, and you have the perfect American family, the you know, the happy wife and the two and a half kids and the labrador and all that. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:41.200 You know, you could get those things, you could get the second car, you could get the vacation house, you can get the promotion at work, and you lose your soul. 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:43.200 It's not a good trade. 00:25:43.440 --> 00:25:44.960 Not a good trade. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:48.079 You don't want to lose your soul, you don't want to lose your life. 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:52.559 In Mark's telling of the story, Jesus uses the Greek word psyche, which means soul. 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:55.920 So Jesus used both the word life and soul. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:58.319 I'm sure he said this multiple different ways. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:02.079 Your soul stands for all of who you are. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:04.400 Losing your soul means you're cast into hell. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:08.960 That's the phrase Jesus used in Matthew's uh the Sermon on the Mount. 00:26:09.279 --> 00:26:13.599 Better to lose your hand or your eye than have your soul cast into hell. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:15.759 And there's lots of ways to kill your soul. 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:16.799 You can kill your soul. 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:19.519 If you live for this life, you murder your soul. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:23.680 If you invest yourself in this world too much, you you drown your soul. 00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:25.680 You can murder your soul by loving the world. 00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:38.079 You can poison your soul by following false religions, you can starve your soul by neglecting the means of grace at church, you can slay your soul outright by rejecting the gospel, but the most deluded thing you can do to your soul is to lose it with a lie. 00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:41.759 To tell yourself you're a Christian or you're following Christ when you're not. 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:51.119 To tell yourself in the faith that you're in the faith while never repenting of your sin, never abandoning your life, never picking up your cross and never following Christ. 00:26:52.240 --> 00:27:03.440 There's so many different ways to lose your soul, but only one way to save it: by renouncing yourself and picking up your cross and giving your life to Christ. 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:10.720 By recognizing there's a higher love for your own life, an eternal love for Christ, which leads to eternal life. 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:14.240 Think of people in the Bible who sold their life. 00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:17.519 Esau sold his life for a bowl of stew. 00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:21.279 Saul sold his life for public praise. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:24.880 Ahab sold his life for a vineyard. 00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:28.160 Judas sold his life for 30 pieces of silver. 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:34.160 What strikes me about Judas is that he was willing to follow Jesus when Jesus was meeting his demands. 00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:39.359 But once they got in Jerusalem and Judas realized, no, he's actually going to die. 00:27:39.680 --> 00:27:40.960 Judas said, I'm out. 00:27:41.200 --> 00:27:44.480 Remember the lady broke the perfume and the anointment on his feet? 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:47.599 And Judas said that money should have been sold and given to the poor. 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:51.119 Judas had named his own wallet, the poor. 00:27:51.759 --> 00:27:54.240 That money should have been sold and given to the poor. 00:27:54.799 --> 00:27:57.519 And then Jesus said, No, it's she's anointing me for burial. 00:27:57.599 --> 00:27:59.119 And Judas said, I'm out. 00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:01.839 Sold him for 30 pieces of silver. 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:05.200 He loved$30 more than Jesus. 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:10.079 What do you love more than Jesus? 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:12.960 And be aware of that. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:14.559 I mean, that's your price tag. 00:28:15.839 --> 00:28:19.680 You live for fame if the if the devil offers it, would you take it? 00:28:20.160 --> 00:28:24.240 You can gain the whole world and it can be meaningless without your soul being purchased by Jesus. 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:29.920 You can get the promotion, you can buy the house, you can get the second house, you can have the two and a half kids and the dog and all that. 00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:39.680 You can win the next election, you can win the election after that, you can become the expert they put on TV, all of that, and without loving Christ more than those things, it is all worthless. 00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:47.119 You can be the most famous and successful person in the world, and if you love that more than Jesus, you will just be an anonymous person in hell. 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:48.880 That's the reality. 00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:55.279 But you die to yourself and you say, I'd rather have Jesus in silver and gold. 00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:57.920 I'd rather have Jesus than riches untold. 00:28:58.799 --> 00:29:03.839 I'd rather have Jesus than men's acclaim, men's applause. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:07.519 I'd rather be true to his holy name. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:20.160 When you turn your life to Christ and you pick up your cross and you say, I love Jesus more than this world, then you remember that great riches await those in glory who treasure Christ. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:25.119 The devil's temptation is to rob you of eternal riches by letting you cash out now. 00:29:25.599 --> 00:29:33.119