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 1st century
expectations, He isn’t meeting 21st century expectations either.
Many people today are breaking the 1st 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?
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