Basic Discipleship (II): Risking All for Christ

Matthew 10:34-42

June 22, 2003

 

Jesus anticipated the disciples' expectations in kingdom work. They looked for a Messianic reign of peace where swords would be beaten into plowshares and the lamb and the lion would like down together. Peace, in their thinking, meant that the hostilities with Rome and the nations surrounding Israel would be over. Life would be lovely and rosy. So with this expectation they prepared to embark on their mission into Galilee and then the realms beyond. But Jesus warns them about their thinking.

 

Just because one thinks something to be true or thinks that certain things will happen does not mean that it is so. Our thoughts are often far short of reality. In the 1930s, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain thought that Herr Hitler had no intention of invading Poland or any other country. He blew off the warnings of Churchill and a few others. He insisted that Hitler was peaceable. But his thinking fell short of reality.

 

The disciples had similar illusions. Contemplating the mission before them, they thought that this was it! What they had been waiting for as Jews for centuries had arrived, and now they were going to usher in a new age. Images of the Jews gladly bowing to Christ and the Roman Empire surrendering before Him danced in their heads. They had grand visions of thrones and parades and kingly rituals. But Jesus brought these images to a grinding halt. The kingdom He secured by His death values much more than political supremacy and royal pageantry. He told them how not to think since they had been thinking inaccurately about His kingdom. Wrong thinking that faces a few doses of reality can lead to disillusionment and discouragement. So our Lord sets the record straight for His disciples, then and now.

 

Far too many suffer from a cocooned version of Christianity - the kind that is comfortably packaged and hidden from reality. Everything is nice and wonderful and easy; everyone will like me and appreciate me and warmly receive me! Yet that is far from the picture given by Christ and illustrated throughout the Scripture. To follow Jesus Christ - to be His disciple - demands your all. Discipleship is not an appendage to an otherwise normal life safely tucked away in a Christian cocoon. It is the radical, risky, and all-consuming following of Jesus Christ. Are you serious about the demands of being Christ's disciple? Consider what one learns as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

 

I. A disciple learns to accept solitary living

 

Disciple simply means "learner." The term suggests a beginning point but no ending - with the disciple starting the venture of the Christian life through faith in Christ, and ever learning, growing, and maturing as a follower of Christ. It also suggests that biblical discipleship cannot be satisfied with spiritual stagnation or an unteachable spirit. Because he is a disciple, the believer does not think that he has arrived or reached a point where he has nothing else to learn or no new vistas to gaze upon or no additional truths to apply to his life. He is a learner. And what better place does he have to learn than by contemplating the instruction of the Master?

 

Jesus spent a lot of time correcting wrong thinking. The disciples had their ideas of how everything would pan out for the Kingdom of God. But most of it was wrong; so Christ patiently instructs them, tearing down long-held ideas and laying the foundation for right understanding. This is one of the primary reasons that we are committed to expounding the Scriptures book by book. All of us - including this pastor - have thinking that must be corrected and honed by the Word of God. Maybe one of the most important things that we must learn along with the Apostles is that being a Christian does not account for popularity. Instead, it can mean a solitary way of living that the world finds objectionable.

 

1. By recognizing Christianity's contrary nature

 

The nature of Christianity and the gospel message is so contrary to the world that the very truth that alone can bring peace might instead produce hostility. "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." This is one of those difficult statements in the Bible. He that is the "Prince of Peace" "did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Our Lord uses a Hebrew figure of speech known as mashal. It is a paradox that is intended to arrest our thinking, and even change the way we think. It is true that Christ is the Prince of Peace, as Isaiah prophesied, and that He would establish peace (Isa 9:6; 26:12). The heavenly host announced global peace at the birth of Christ for all in whom God is pleased (Luke 2:14). But it is equally true that we must not confine our understanding of peace to the notions of men's comforts. Jesus Christ died the violent death of crucifixion so that we might have peace with God (Rom 5:1). He faced hostility from the world so that we might know peace in the face of a hostile world. Shortly before His death, Jesus told the disciples, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you" (John 14:27). In other words, the kind of peace that Christ gives has no resemblance to the peace that men can produce. The Christian might be in the midst of conflict and war, but the peace that Christ gives sustains his heart. That is a paradox in the world's mind as well!

 

Our translation is somewhat softened. The text literally reads, "Do not think that I have come to throw peace upon the earth; I have not come to throw peace but a sword." The kingdom of God is ever in conflict with the kingdom of this world. The need for the rule of Christ in our lives rubs the world's fur the wrong way. It bristles at the thought of divine authority and judgment against sin and the call to repentance. So what Christ wants us to understand is that people about us will not always warmly receive the gospel. Some people will treat you with great kindness and respect until they find out that you are a Christian. Then you are cut off and looked upon with scorn. You might have to live a lonely life on the job or in the dorm or in the neighborhood or on the sports team because you are a Christian. That never means we are to cower in our cocoon or complain that we feel opposed - no, indeed, but rather glory in the effectiveness of the gospel and the penetrating power of Christ's kingdom. The only way that the gospel fits into the world is by transforming it. Realize this and press on.

 

2. By affecting one's deepest relationships

 

We can think of the "world" as the realm outside of our normal circle. It is what is happening in Calcutta and Johannesburg and Geneva, but not at home. But that is mistaken thinking. Christ's words penetrate even more deeply about the solitary life of following Christ. Even one's family ties might be severed because of Christ and the gospel. The "world" can be in our own home. "For I came 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 man's enemies will be the members of his household." Can anything cause us to feel the pain that often accompanies the gospel and eternity more than this? The Lord already warned of this family conflict over the gospel (8:21-22; 10:21-22). He reinforces it so that no disciple will think that he has committed some great evil against his family by following Christ. The most natural, normal relations in the world, the circle of deepest security, might be affected by the gospel. Jesus warns ahead of time so that we realize this to be strangely normal for His followers.

 

Some of you know what it is to be ostracized by your family because of your faith in Christ. John MacArthur told of a young lady from a pagan family that he met at a conference. She became a believer, and immediately her atheistic father rejected her. She told MacArthur: "I can understand why he objects to my decision, because he knows nothing of the gospel and believes all religion is superstition. But you would think he would at least be happy that I am not an alcoholic, drug addict, prostitute, criminal, or a cripple. I have never had such joy in my life, and I have never loved my father so much; yet he has cut me out of his life" [MacArthur's NT Commentaries: Matthew, vol. II, 231].

 

It is the joy before us and the present reality of the pleasure of Christ that keeps us pressing on when we face the loneliness of following Christ. I think that this is why Christian fellowship is so precious and refreshing - being shunned by the world the believer finds relational refuge among his brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

II. A disciple learns to practice matchless love

 

Luke also uses the mashal figure of speech in his similar statement of Christ: "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple" (Luke 14:26). The paradox in this, of course, is that husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Eph 5:25), and that we will be known to be Christians by the love we have for one another (John 13:35). The arresting language is put in a more positive way in our text. "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me." The disciple of Christ discovers an ever growing, matchless love of Christ in his spiritual journey. How is this displayed in our growth? It is one thing for someone to come up to us and ask, "Do you love Christ?" But it is quite a different thing to see the reality of that love displayed. Few would deny loving Christ, even in the world about us, but few display the reality of practicing matchless love for Christ. How is it displayed?

 

1. By supreme affections for Christ

 

The bond of love within individual families has no comparison in our society. Many of our youth will discover that school friends that they love so dearly today will fall off the radar screen of their lives five and ten years down the road. But not family. Family love sticks through thick and thin. We value such love, and rightly so. But what our Lord reminds us is that loving Him surpasses even that of family love. To love and be loved by the Creator and Redeemer who existed before the world began, and knows no end of days or lack of might - to be loved by Him and to love him exceeds the love of family. To love Him that bore the eternal judgment of God against you, to love Him that felt the pains of Hell for you, to love Him that accounted you as a sinner to be righteous in view of His merits, to love Him that secured your relationship to God - exceeds even the preciousness of family love.

 

Why does Christ tell us, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me?" He actually presses upon us the practical nature of being a disciple of Christ by this statement. The gospel is no invitation to mere knowledge of Christ. It is a change in the affections toward Christ, and toward every spiritual discipline and grace. "Love is the fountain and chief of all other affections," wrote Jonathan Edwards in his classic work, Religious Affections [14]. When we love Christ above all else then we will also hate that which Christ hates and glory in that which Christ glories. To love Him less than "father or mother... son or daughter" implies that the chief of our affections abides outside of Christ, and that He is not the center and focus or our affections. When that is the case, then we will not value obedience to Him above our own pleasure nor will we find worshiping Him to be our supreme delight. Christ's words make an assessment of the status of our Christianity. If we do not love Him supremely then we lack the grace and faith to follow Him and to persevere through opposition.

 

2. By Christ's call to death

 

The disciples were familiar with the Roman practice of crucifixion. A few years earlier the government had crucified 200 rebels along the roads in Galilee. It was a scene that few would have forgotten. So before He embraced the rough wood of His own cross, Jesus told the disciples, "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." They understood that a cross is an instrument of death, and a humiliating and painful one at that. Only the worst criminals in the empire were crucified, and yet Jesus used this metaphor to press upon His followers the necessity of dying to our own desires, ambitions, will, and pursuits so that we might follow Christ.

 

What keeps anyone of us from following Christ faithfully? Is it not our own ambitions and desires and pursuits that we find more valuable than obeying Christ? Do the words of Christ not melt our hearts like the flame melts wax, as He tells us to take up our cross and follow after Him? We must understand that the believer's "cross" is not some affliction or illness or physical disability or family crisis. The cross calls us to die to our own desires. But notice that this is a call for action: to die and to follow after Christ. We leave behind one purpose, aim, ambition, and life to wholly follow after Jesus Christ as Lord. All of life, every facet of our existence, is weighed by whether or not we are doing what we do to the glory of our Lord.

 

How do we practically take up our cross so that we might truly follow after Christ?

3. By risking all for Christ

 

But the immediate thought of dying to our desires and ambitions is that it is costly, risky business we are expected to do. You are exactly right about this. The standard for followers of Christ is risking all for Him. "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it." To find one's life implies that we value and cherish those things that we think will bring us pleasure, comfort, security, and enjoyment. In other words, it is centering what we do and what we enjoy in ourselves. We are the center of the universe, as far as we're concerned. Any thought or relationship that I might have with God exists for the purpose of furthering my agenda and satisfying my desires. I will follow Him only as far as my own pleasures are fed; but I draw the line beyond this. Most of us would not make statements like this at all. But could it be that some of us are living and thinking this way? My friend, that is not the life of a Christian disciple. To find your life is to "lose it." The verb "lose" "points to the total loss of the only life that is worth living in the empty pursuit of that which has no permanence; it cannot last beyond the fleeting hour" [Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, 269].

 

John Piper addresses this idea in his latest book, Don't Waste Your Life. In a chapter entitled, "Risk is Right - Better to Lose Your Life Than to Waste it," he writes, "If our single, all-embracing passion is to make much of Christ in life and death, and if the life that magnifies him most is the life of costly love, then life is risk, and risk is right. To run from it is to waste your life" [79]. But the problem is that some of us will not risk our reputation to follow Christ or risk the pleasure of certain sins to follow Christ. To be a follower of Christ in the first century often meant a journey to death. The same is true for tens of thousands in our day. To follow Christ means that we gladly lay down everything for Him. To play it safe or to build our lives on our own pleasures is to waste our lives.

 

None of us know what lies before us as Christians. For that matter, even if we are not Christians, we do not know what lies before us. We plan our lives with the hope that everything will go according to plan with no wrinkles to disturb us. But people on the routine of life get killed in car wrecks and drop dead from heart attacks and contract deadly diseases and get robbed or murdered. The people making the news headlines are for the most part, normal folks going about normal lives - all risky. So why do we consider it so objectionable to risk all for Christ. We do not know if He will rescue us from the lion's den, but we must risk all to stand for Him regardless. It is worth the risk. We do not know if He will insulate us from the flames of the fiery furnace, but if we are His disciples, we must risk all in refusing to bow to the idols of this world in attempt to avoid risk. When we stand before Him, it is worth the risk. "He who has lost his life FOR MY SAKE will find it." Let those words sink in, "for My sake." That's the call of discipleship, to so live for the sake of Christ that we are willing to risk all to glorify His name. What does risking all for Christ look like?

The risky life is not a call to foolishness or carelessness. It is casting all of your hope and every venture of life upon the Lord, trusting Him to bring you through to the end that you might stand before Him in honor and not shame. It is the commitment to live each day for Christ, whatever the cost or demand, and trust the Lord with the consequences of living as a Christian in a fallen world. Will you risk all for Christ?

 

III. A disciple learns to receive encouragement

 

By now in Christ's discourse, the disciples were likely wide-eyed and maybe even fearful. So He encourages them by helping them to see that even in the little things there is the evidence of the Lord's presence and work among His people.

 

1. By contemplating his union with Christ

 

Though some would reject these disciples, others would not. Here the believers were to find incomparable joy and thanksgiving. "He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me." To "receive" means to receive as a welcomed guest. Because of the contrary nature between Christianity and the world, to receive the disciple would be tantamount to receiving Christ. In other words, when the believers were welcomed into the homes and lives of others, it was a sure sign that these same people were welcoming Christ into their lives. You remember how Rahab the harlot welcomed the two spies from Israel into her home, gave them refuge, and ensured their escape. When she welcomed the spies she also embraced the Lord God of the spies. Rahab became a follower of the Lord and became the great, great grandmother of King David. That is the principle involved, and the reason is because of the union found between Christ and His followers. To receive the disciple is to receive Christ because we are so united with Him through His death and resurrection, and the work of the Spirit, that He does not separate us in the work of mission. Leon Morris explains, "The thought is that of the outworking of one great divine purpose in which the Father, Jesus who had been sent by the Father, and the disciples who were being sent by Jesus all had their part. They were so closely connected that any honor paid to the disciples had to be regarded as something that overflowed to Jesus and to the Father" [269]. What encouragement for the disciple under fire! Can you really completely unravel that mystery that ties us to Christ so much so that as Christians we represent Christ to the world? Along the way, some embrace the disciple but only because they either are embracing Christ or will soon embrace Him as Lord.

 

2. By rejoicing in the gospel's effects

 

The last two verses of our text continue this same thought but show that it is not just for the Apostles that this encouragement is given. Whether prophet or righteous man or the least of disciples, Jesus promises that reward is given for those that receive the disciples. He begins with the most notable, "prophet," and goes all the way to the seemingly insignificant believer. "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward." In other words, the ones receiving them are not simply speaking or being nice, but they receive them "in the name of a prophet... and... a righteous man." It is because of their relationship to Christ that they receive them. The same is true with the "little ones" - which is a tender way to refer to believers. "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." Those receiving the believer also get in on the benefits of their relationship to Christ. "Jesus' point," writes John MacArthur, "is that any service done to any of His people in His name amounts to service to Him and will be rewarded" [MacArthur 235]. And that is encouragement for the disciple in his pilgrimage; for the blessing of Christ follows him and generously rewards those that receive his ministry.

 

Conclusion

 

The call of Christ in the gospel is the call to discipleship. He calls us to death so that in Him we might know fullness of life. Is it risky? Yes, but in the end, the greater risk is following your own brand of Christianity and making up your own gospel - that will not carry you into eternity. Risk is right. Let us live the risky lives of Christ's disciples to His glory.

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