Leading a Rebellion: Jesus Came to Bring Division

Leading a Rebellion:

Jesus Came to Bring Division

Matthew 10:5-39

Rebel: Anyone who goes against authority, control, or tradition.

Introduction: When I was in college a few friends of mine were planning to put on a New Year’s Eve worship service. I had been going through a lot of difficult things in my life—a bunch of little things that were beginning to add up. My friend’s mom just shook her head, smiled at me and said, “If only you gave your life to Christ all of your problems would go away.” That saying is still one of the funniest responses anyone has ever said to me. I knew she was joking, but there are people who will tell you that accepting Christ will make all of your problems go away. In my opinion, it cheapens the gospel by having to add to the product to make it more palatable, like being made right with God and spending eternity in heaven instead of hell wasn’t enough. One of my pastors said, “If God doesn’t do another thing for me He’s already done more than I deserve.” In other words, life on this earth could be terrible for the rest of my life and I will still praise Him because of what He did for me. Some people will try to tell you that if you’re saved, and have enough faith God will give you money, health, and everything else your heart desires. It’s simply not true. There are believers in Haiti today that do not have electricity or clean drinking water. Are they not believers? Do they lack faith?

            We talked a couple of weeks ago about how Jesus was a rebel because He didn’t meet people’s expectations of what the Messiah would do. He not only didn’t meet 1^st century expectations, He isn’t meeting 21^st century expectations either. Many people today are breaking the 1^st commandment by making God into the type of God they want Him to be. They say things like, “My God is a God of love and He would never do that;” “My God is accepting of all people no matter what their sexual orientation;” “My God would want me to be happy.” They cannot imagine a God that takes sin seriously. My God takes sin so seriously that He refused to ignore it, and sent His only son to deal with it.

            Two thousand years ago the Jews expected the Messiah to come and be hailed as a conquering hero that everyone would love. What they got was a man so hated and divisive that they had to conjure up a way to kill Him. We expect that if we are in the center of God’s will for our lives, then everything will work out just fine for us. And who is in the center of God’s will more than pastors, missionaries, and church staff members? I can assure you that everything in my life is not perfectly wonderful. Two thousand years ago who was in the center of God’s will more than the Apostles? Well let’s look at how Jesus prepared His 12 apostles before sending them out on a missionary journey. What did He tell them to expect?     

Scripture: Matt 10:5-39

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, ⁶ but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷ And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. ⁹ Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, ¹⁰ no bag for your journey, or two tunic, or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. ¹¹ And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. ¹² As you enter the house, greet it. ¹³ And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. ¹⁴ And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

¹⁶ “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. ¹⁹ When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. ²⁰ For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹ Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²² and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household.

²⁶ “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. ²⁸ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. ³² So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, ³³ but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ 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. ³⁶ And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

The Rebellion: Christ did not come to make us feel better about ourselves. He did not come to give us all a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. He did not come to ignore the sin in our lives. He came specifically to deal with it.

            Our job as Christians is not to be “sin sniffers” pointing out the faults in other people, but we are called to lead people to saving relationship with Jesus Christ, and this cannot be done without a recognition of the sin in their lives. We need to help people realize that they are imperfect and need a savior, which leads to repentance and ultimately forgiveness. But the train can get de-railed along the way if we’re condescending, overly judgmental, or arrogant in our approach. It also can get de-railed if the other person is defensive of their sin. “It’s the way that I am.” “God would want me to be happy, and this makes me happy.” “Who are you to judge me?” and that is where the division, anger, strife, resentment, feuding, and every other bad thing that could happen in a relationship starts. Jesus said that families will be divided because of Him. Does anyone have relatives, close friends, or family members that are unbelievers? Does the conversation ever get tense when the topic of God gets brought up?

            The topic of Gay Marriage is a hot button issue in America today. Personally I am against it, not because I hate gay people but because the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin and I am against the normalization of any sin. We have a Christian young man in this youth group that changed his Facebook profile picture to a picture of a stick man and a stick woman. Never has so much controversy been stirred up because of stick people. Why is that? Because the truth of Christ brings division.

            Abby Johnson, now pro-life advocate, then Planned Parenthood employee said she hated it when the founding members of the “Coalition for Life” group in its infancy would stand outside their gates and pray for them. She recounts now how she wondered why she hated it so much that people were praying for her to the God she believed in. Shouldn’t she be thankful that they’re praying for her? Her goal was to make abortions rare, and the Coalition for Life’s goal was to make abortions obsolete. Why did she get upset? Because the truth of Christ brings division.

Application: I don’t want you to go stir up division in the name of Christ. Sometimes we as Christians aren’t suffering for Christ, we’re suffering because we’re stupid. There’s not a real good application for this week, other than to just realize that if you are facing hardships, or if relationships are being strained because of your faith, then you are not alone, that it is to be expected, and even Christ suffered for His stances. If you are on the frontlines in the war, don’t compromise your beliefs in order to fit in with your peers. If you’re not on the frontlines in the war, what are you waiting on? I don’t want to be a bench warmer on Christ’s team. And finally, maybe there are some of you that don’t even know if you’re on God’s team at all. A quick test to tell: Do you know that if you died tonight that you would go to heaven?     

Leading a Rebellion: Jesus Rebelled Against Social Norms

Leading a Rebellion: Jesus

Rebelled Social Norms

Rebel:

-A rebel is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.

The Rebellion:

            Throughout Jesus’ ministry He went against what society felt was normal. He challenged what they believed in almost every aspect of life. Some of these things we have already discussed in detail previously, and others we will discuss in greater detail later.

-Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

-Jesus Welcomed the Children (Matt 19:13-15)

In today’s western culture, children play a much more public role. Children were always “to be seen but not heard.” They were under very strict rules, and held to a high standard. They were allowed to play up until the point where they could work and then they were expected to be working to help the family. Children were never allowed to run the family like Honey Boo Boo does today. Obviously, that’s an extreme example, but children today run more of the family than ever would have been normal in Biblical times with ball games, practices, p/t jobs to earn money for themselves and not the family. We can see how children were viewed by seeing how the disciples reprimanded the parents for letting the children be around Jesus.

 Then the people brought their little children to Jesus so he could put his hands on them and pray for them. His followers told them to stop, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like these children.” ¹⁵ After Jesus put his hands on the children, he left there.

-Greatness Through Serving (Mark 10:35-45)

Do you remember when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet? Whenever someone entered a home for the night, the lowest person on the proverbial totem pole washed everyone else’s feet. At this particular time nobody felt like they were the lowest person so Jesus took it upon Himself to grab a towel, and a basin of water and started washing feet.

Saying that “Greatness comes through serving” back then would be like saying “winning comes by losing.” If that’s the case I’m the best Chess player there is. He also said in Matthew 20:16 “The first will be last and the last will be first.” In other words, “it may seem like your winning according to the world’s standards (Big house, nice car, hot wife, nice family picture for the annual Christmas card), but in reality you are really losing. And those who seem to be losing are really winning.”

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” ³⁶ And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” ³⁷ And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” ³⁸ Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” ³⁹ And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, ⁴⁰ but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” ⁴¹ And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. ⁴² And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³ But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,^{[a] 44} and whoever would be first among you must be slave^[b] of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

-Murder and Adultery (Matt 5:21-22; 27-28)

Jesus turned the tables on the people who thought they were keeping the laws. Jesus actually intensified the laws making everyone guilty.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

-Divorce (Matt 19:9)

The Old Testament says in Deut. 24:1 says that a man can give his wife a certificate of divorce if he finds a defect in her. When Jesus was questioned about divorce He said that Moses allowed that because of the hardness of the Jews’ hearts, but it was never God’s intention. At Jesus’ time according to the laws and traditions of the Jews, they could divorce their wife if:

-she had a bodily defect that was previously unknown before the wedding. (This would be like a warranty on a car. There was even a suggestion that a woman should be inspected by a female relative prior to the wedding.)

-she had any defects that would prevent a priest from serving at the temple. i.e. a hunchback, she became blind, deaf, lame, disfigured, deformed, had a crippled hand or foot, an eye defect, or damaged sexual organs.

-she had bad breath, a mole, or if she was an excessive sweater.

-a dog bit her, and if that dog bite left a scar, it would be a bodily defect and a cause for divorce.

-she had a harsh voice.

-she spoke too loudly. If while talking in her house the neighbors next door could hear her it was a cause for divorce.

-she feeds her husband the wrong food or commits another offense according to the Jewish dietary restriction. If she used too much or not enough salt, it was a cause for divorce.

-she went outside with her head uncovered.

-she cursed her in-laws with her husband present.

-she talked with other men.

-she made a vow and didn’t keep it.

But Jesus gave His grounds for divorce.

And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.

Application:

Christianity in America is at its all-time lowest point of popularity, and its only getting worse. If you’re going to be a Bible believing Christian in America you better be prepared to swim against the stream. All you have to do to prove my point is go online, or if you don’t have facebook, go to a public place and pass out fliers announcing that: 1) You believe Jesus is the ONLY way to go to Heaven; 2) You believe homosexuality is a sin; 3) you believe abortion is murder. Then wait to see how popular you are.

Right is right and wrong is wrong. God doesn’t work off of popular opinion, and if you’re going to be a Christian you better be willing to stand out. Jesus disagreed with popular opinion and if it isn’t Biblical so should you.

My challenge for the week: Find three popular opinions that differ from the Bible. And don’t pick the easy ones. It could be about sex, social media, child rearing, marriage, divorce, work, welfare, drugs….

Leading a Rebellion: Jesus--Rebelled Against Expectations

Leading a Rebellion: Jesus

Rebelled Against Expectations

Rebel:

-A rebel is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.

Scripture: Zechariah 9:9

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
    Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
    righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The Story So Far:

            The Jews had certain expectations for what the Messiah would look like. They even had scripture with which to back it up. It isn’t that the Jews were Biblically illiterate as to why they missed the promised Messiah, it’s because they expected a different type of Messiah, and were too stubborn and bullheaded to admit that they might have been wrong.

            The Jews had expected to be able to recognize the Messiah, but prophecies in Isa 53 say that, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Or in other words He looked like everybody else. We see pictures of Him and He is always wearing a white robe, with a blue sash, and His hair and beard are amazing. You can just look at Him and say, “Well, obviously, that’s the Messiah!” The other major expectation was that He would be an earthly, conquering king. Ever since Moses’ time God had provided major victories over Israel’s enemies which made their God look awesome. Every nation and every country had their own god or gods, and if one country beat another in war it meant that their god was better than the other nation’s god. It was a “my dad can beat up your dad” mentality. By the time Jesus had shown up Israel had been under someone else’s rule for several hundred years. They expected the Messiah, who was to be a descendant of David (a mighty warrior leader of Israel) to lead a rebellion against the Romans, gain sovereignty, and expand its boundaries to include the entire world until there were no other gods to be worshiped anywhere. Unfortunately, many of them weren’t true worshipers of God themselves. They were worshipers of a religious system and traditions. They loved the attention from men, loved being important, and loved wearing fancy costumes.

            There are a lot of passages that describe the Messiah as a conquering king, but the idea that their Messiah would come, die, and come back a second time as Christians understand it was unfathomable to them. Even JBAP came preaching about a conquering Messiah in Luke 3 saying the Messiah would chop down trees that didn’t bear fruit and burn the useless parts in an unquenchable fire. His understanding that the Messiah would come as a conquering hero may have led him to question if Jesus was actually the Messiah after all. He sent his messengers to ask Jesus if He was the Messiah or should they be expecting another. Jesus answered him by telling the messengers to report back what they saw, the blind see, the lame walk, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

The Rebellion:

            So what did Jesus coming looking like that everyone missed Him? Just as there are passages that prophecy that the Messiah will come as a conquering hero, there are other passages that prophecy that He will come as a suffering servant, and as a shepherd, a very lowly position.

Isaiah 53

 Who has believed what he has heard from us?^[a]
    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.

³ He was despised and rejected^[b] by men;
    a man of sorrows,^[c] and acquainted with^[d] grief;^[e]
and as one from whom men hide their faces^[f]
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
⁹ And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;^[g]
when his soul makes^[h] an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see^[i] and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,^[j]
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,^[k]
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

            They were expecting a Messiah to come in on a war horse—Jesus rode the foal of a donkey into Jerusalem for His triumphal entry. They expected Him to wipe out every pagan, and those that were not true believers—Jesus offered peace and acceptance to Gentiles and sinners alike. They expected Him to raise up a powerful rebellion against the Romans—Jesus often retreated when the crowds grew really large, and intentionally drove many of them away. They expected Him to deal with their physical captors—Jesus dealt with their spiritual captors of sin.

            Jesus fulfilled, and is fulfilling every prophecy concerning the Messiah. He just did it, and is doing it, in a way that the Jews did not expect. Here’s an interesting bit of information

            The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner in Science Speaks (Moody Press, 1963) to show that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to eight prophecies, 'we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 10 to the the 17th power." That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that "we take 10 to the 17th power silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep.

            "Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man."
            Stoner considers 48 prophecies and says, "we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10 to the the 157th power, or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0.
            The estimated number of electrons in the universe is around 1079. It should be quite evident that Jesus did not fulfill the prophecies by accident."
            This information was taken from the book Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell.

   Application:

            Maybe God has dealt with you in a way that you expected. Maybe your parents got divorced. Maybe your parents don’t even like you or want you around. Maybe you have lost loved ones. Or someone we love may have a terrible disease. God may not deal with us in the way we expect Him too. He is not a vending machine where we tell Him what we want and He gets it for us. He knows what’s best for us, and will give us what we need. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

            My challenge for this week is to look back at your life and think about three things that you thought were just the worst thing that could have happened to you, but can see now that God had a special plan.

            I remember sending a note to a girl I liked in the fourth grade asking her if she would “go out” with me. Where we were to go, I have no idea. I taped a tootsie pop to it and stuck it in her desk. She wrote that she didn’t want to on my original note, couldn’t even write a new note, and kept the tootsie pop. I thought that was the worst. It was embarrassing and she kept my tootsie pop. But looking back, clearly I wasn’t supposed to be with her anyways.  

            I tried out for the basketball two times in school and didn’t make the cut either time. Basketball was a huge deal at our school, and I couldn’t understand why it happened. I then progressed in other sports until I eventually became an All-American and also got 2^nd place in the 1500 at the Division III National Championship.

            What about you? What has God done in your life?

            What does Jesus being the Messiah mean to you? He came to conquer. He conquered sin and death, setting everyone who trusts in Him free. Have you accepted Him as your Lord and Saviour?