Not Peace But a Sword

August 25, 2013

Not Peace, But a Sword

Matthew 10:32-39                    NOTES NOT EDITED. . . AT LEAST NOT YET!

SIS—The future is going to get harder for Christians and we must be prepared for the battle.

I read the news headlines and wonder if it is possible for things to get much worse in America—especially in regard to morality.  Homosexuality is not only tolerated, but promoted.  Violent crime is so common as to barely raise an eyebrow by the public.  The people of California voted in a law, the governor refused to enforce it, and the Supreme Court refused to make them.  The governor just signed legislation that allows boys or girls in public schools to use whatever bathroom they wish.

Many of my FaceBook friends that do not live in California think we are crazy.  But here’s what is crazy:  what is law in California will become the law in the rest of the nation eventually.  Take the California law that prevents parents of a child who is struggling with sexual identity issues from taking them to a psychologist who might try to change their perspective.  In other words, it is against the law for a psychologist to suggest that homosexuality might be wrong for a child.  Now, New Jersey. Governor, Chris Christie—a Republican—has signed a similar bill into law.

We have gone nuts in California—and America in general.  In America Muslims can build a mosque near Ground Zero of 9-11, but when a Christian coach prays with his, or her, team before a football game they will be fired.

Dr. Jeff Iorg, the President of GGBTS, recently warned that "Ground we lose here will soon be lost everywhere."   California’s moral foundations have crumbled and are sinking into the sea of godlessness. The nation’s foundations are seriously in disrepair and will soon follow California into the sea.

The moral ground given up in California has been almost unfathomable, defying explanation.  Consider that a Porn Expert from San Francisco is teaming up with a porn star and the China Sexology Association to “liberate” China from the chains of traditional views of sex, marriage and pornography.  The man from San Francisco is considered by the courts to be an “expert in pornography.”  Ted McIlvenna is 80 years old and owns one of the largest collections of vintage pornography from the 1970’s and 1980’s.  His collection fills his headquarters in San Francisco, as well as 28 storage facilities across California.  He often testifies in California courts on behalf of the porn industry.  Oh, and he’s also a United Methodist church minister!

I point these situations out not to bemoan the state of the affairs or to harken back to some perceived better times morally.  I say this to give context for the message of our text.  In our text where Jesus declares “I bring not peace but a sword” Jesus lays out for the disciples the challenge they/we will face as we serve the Lord—and increasingly so as the Second Coming draws near.  The context of the Lord’s statement is “persecution.”  Jesus warned, “Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves” (10:16).

The church has had it relatively easy in America for the last two centuries, since the Christian Founders secured a “more perfect Union.”  Those days are gone—even the memory of which continues to fade like an old pair of well-worn Levi’s.

No, the word from the Lord for us today is:  “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (10:34).  This is a sobering word which we need to hear clearly, today.  Let’s read that text, together:

READ MATTHEW 10:32-41

There are four components to the idea of “the sword.”  These four components encompass the whole of what the Bible calls, the gospel—the True gospel.

1.  There is first and foremost a “Call to Duty” (32-34)

³² “Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven.  ³³ But whoever denies Me before men,  I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. ³⁴ Don’t assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

As I mentioned above, this pericope (section of Scripture) completes a larger section teaching in regard to the persecution those “commissioned by Christ” (10:1ff) will inevitably face.  Then we come to verse 32 with the typical bridge word, “therefore,” that signals an application of truth is coming.  What does it really mean to be “commissioned by Christ” as an ambassador of heaven on earth?  Verse 32: says,

³² “Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge Me before men, I will also acknowledge him before My Father in heaven.  ³³ But whoever denies Me before men,  I will also deny him before My Father in heaven.

The word translated in the HCSB, “acknowledge,” has the range of meaning of “to assure, to promise, to admit, to concede”; and in a  judicial sense it means, “to make a statement as a witness in a trial.” (TDNT).  Confessing Christ is a solemn oath at the deepest level.  It is like “giving God your life as a blank check,” and God can write whatever amount in He wants, even to the point of “everything.” Confessing, or acknowledging Christ, in this life is to answer to the “call of duty.”

Last March, Shari and I watched as our son, Jonathan, raised his right hand and took a solemn oath to serve his country as a sailor for the next six years.  I cannot tell you  the amount of pride that erupted in my heart as I watched him recite the military oath.  I was also a little anxious because I knew that Jonathan did not really know the depth and breath of this oath.  I did know because I took that same oath 38 years ago.  It is literally giving the United States a blank check of your life.  Whatever they ask you to do, or where ever they ask you to go—your life is not your own.  You have answered the “call to duty” and that call is “all-inclusive.”  It’s all about the “fine print” and the military changes the “fine print” anytime it suits their needs.

So few people have answered the “call to duty” in regard to military service, but those of us who have understand the depth and breadth of that call.  Nothing can be held back—even to the point of giving one’s life for “the mission.”  The Navy creed states:  ship first, shipmate second, you last.”  It is all about the Commander in Chief and “the mission.”

These verses shatter the allusion that Christianity is a “walk in the park.”  You won’t hear prosperity preachers like Joel Olsteen preaching on this text.  This is too hard.  This saying will drive people away from church—and rightly so—for some sit on pews each Sunday as if it is a comfortable ride in the country. No, a seat in the pew is more akin to a ride in a troop carrier like the ones carrying the soldiers who would storm the beach at Normandy.  Almost 1500 Americans would lie dead by the end of the day of the invasion (June 6, 1944).  Many would be killed as they stepped off the troop carrier and float on the beach’s edge.  No, the pew is not a comfortable seat for a cruise in the country.  The pew is a spot on a troop carrier for those who have answered the “call to duty.”  A call that often cost the ultimate price.

The “sword” is often used as a metaphor for “war, or military action.”  The call to duty is a “call to war”—a spiritual war of a magnitude much greater than any conflict the world has ever seen or ever will see.  I’m afraid that too many who call themselves, “Christian,” practice a “soft, comfortable, prosperity-seeking” Christianity.  Jesus never ever alluded to such a “call to ease,” but a “call to duty.”

It is indeed a great paradox, that the Prince of Peace comes bringing a “sword.” But, peace is always wrested from the hands of conflict.

Another component to the Christian life is:

2.  A CHOICE  to Make (35-37)

³⁵ For I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; ³⁶ and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.  ³⁷ The person who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; the person who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Does it sound odd to hear Jesus, God the Son, say “I’ve come to divide families?”  One commentator underscores the essence of this passage in regard to relationships:

“Though the point is made only indirectly, it now becomes clear how Jesus can say that he is responsible for the coming of the sword and of division in families: he insists on such a fierceness of loyalty to himself that the significance of normal bonds and commitments, and specifically family ones, is undercut. The ties that bind are relativized in favour [sic] of a newly found, more fundamental tie”(NIGTC).

This sounds hard to us because we do not understand the “holiness” of God.  We do not fully comprehend exactly all that is encased in the little title, “God.”  We as humans do often “make God in our image.”  We make him a “Super Man,”—an exalted version of ourselves.  We err greatly when we “make God in man’s image,” even if we do so to the highest degree intellectually possible.  God infinitely exceeds even our best imagination in regard to His Being, and especially His holiness.

So, we give God a place in our lives as we do any other relationships—and we even give Him the very highest place of all.  But, here’s where we err:  God will not be satisfied with simply the top place in a list of other priorities.  God will not be satisfied with “most of our love, or most of our devotion, or most of our attention, or most of our service.”  God is holy and He wants ALL of our love, all of our devotion, all of our attention and all of our service.”

So, in regard to all other relationships, our relationship with God should so overshadow them so as those other relationships almost seem to be non-existent.  A relationship with Jesus will not survive on “left-over love.”

When the choice is between God and our father—God wins!  When the choice is between God and our mother—God wins!  When the choice is between God and anyone else—God wins!  When the choice involves, “God,” there really is no choice whatsoever.

Thirty-seven years ago, I made a phone call from Hawaii to West Virginia to give my Mom and Dad the news—I was going to devote my life to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The sound of the silence on the other end of the line was “ear-splitting.”  That was the last thing my Mom and Dad wanted to hear—especially my Mom.  My Mom and Dad had packaged their hopes in the suitcase of my life.  Of all their children, they had hoped I’d be the one to become, “a professional,” as in “doctor, lawyer, or scientist,” as in, lots of fame and fortune.  Not a preacher.

I have to tell you I was a bit deflated at the initial response by my family.  Thank the Lord, by the end of the phone call, I had my Mom and Dad’s blessing, however reluctantly they might have given it.

This was a choice I had to make, and not the toughest choice in the world to be sure.  Christians in other countries have to make much tougher choices.  In many Muslim countries a person is “kicked out of the family” for becoming a Christian.  The father might even carry out an “honor killing” by cutting off the head of a son or daughter that converts to Christianity.  Or, the government pronounces a death sentence.  I know I feel totally “rejected” when someone does not accept my evangelistic efforts—but that is a far cry from them wanting to stone me for being a Christian.

A major component of the Christian life is “a choice to make,” and sometimes that choice even divides families.

A third component of Christian discipleship is:

3.  a Cross to Carry (38-39)

Jesus continues to set forth the “cost of following Him” in vv. 38-39:

³⁸ And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow  Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁹ Anyone finding  his life will lose it,  and anyone losing  his life because of Me will find it.

This certainly is not the first time you have heard me preach on “carrying the cross of Christ,” and it won’t be the last.  Jesus spoke much about “the cross.”  If He spoke much about it, I as a preacher of His gospel should certainly speak much about it.  The “cross” really stands for the whole of the ministry of Jesus, not just the wooden instrument of His death.  The cross represents the absolute, all-encompassing, once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.  The cross is not what happens at the end of His ministry, but the “cross” WAS the ministry of Jesus from His birth in manger—indeed from “the foundations of the world!”  Self-giving sacrifice is not an activity in the life of Jesus, but the “sum total of His being.”

Luke, chapter 12, describes what it means to “carry the cross” in a passage parallel to this one in Matthew:

⁴⁹ “I came  to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze! ⁵⁰ But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how it consumes Me until it is finished!  ⁵¹ Do you think that I came here to give peace to the earth?  No, I tell you, but rather division!

Here is the “heavenly standard for cross bearing.”  Jesus said He was “fully immersed (baptized)” in His mission.  He did not have his feet dangling in the water from the comfort of poolside.  No! He plunged all in!  He refers to being “set ablaze by the fire of full-hearted devotion to God’s plan.”  Oh, that we would be set ablaze with such passion for God’s work!  Jesus said that the “fire of obedience burned so hot in His heart that it was consuming Him.”  That’s what fire does—it consumes until that which is ablaze is no more.

Peace.  The Bible talks much about peace with God, and the peace of God—but here in this text the topic is service and devotion as we go out into the world as fully-devoted followers of Jesus Christ.  We have peace with God in our hearts to be sure, and the peace of God amid the many storms, but may God deliver us from seeking “peace IN the world!”  Following Christ promises no such peace—but a sword—a life of continuing conflict against the rulers, against the authorities,  against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil  in the heavens (Eph 6:12).

I think this passage is so troubling to us because it runs counter to what we have come to expect Christian living to be—“a Polyannish, naïve notion that Christ came to make our lives comfortable, not to make our lives effective.”

I wonder if we are really up for a “call to duty that causes us to choose the hardship and sacrifice of bearing a cross for Christ?”  Or, have we grown too complacent, too comfortable with status quo?  Or, have we grown too accustomed to a life of ease, so much so that we are like a frog boiling in a kettle—as the heat of compromise slowly raises the temperature of judgment until one day we find we’ve been boiled in the kettle of worldliness?

We have no problem with a shiny cross on a silver chain, but we want nothing to do with a wooden cross on a lonely hill.

There is a story of an ancient monk.  It is said he prayed often that he might have the marks of the Lord upon his hands and feet.  He wanted more than anything to “bear in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus” as Paul, the Apostle had done so before him (Gal. 6:17).  One night a vision was given to him in which he was shown a mark on the Lord’s body that the world had forgotten.  It was the mark upon the shoulder, and the monk learned that he could only have the marks on the hands and feet as he first had the mark upon the shoulder.

How many of us bear a holy bruise upon our shoulder from carrying the cross of obedient devotion to Almighty God?

This is a hard saying.  I know it is.  It is hard for me.  I do not wish to lay upon you any burden or challenge I am not first willing to meet myself. 

Yet, I do not apologize for this hard message.  I cannot, for I did not write it, and the Lord, Himself, first preached it. Truth is truth.  The components for being a commissioned disciple on mission in a world that hates Christ are hard:  1. answering a call to duty, 2. making difficult choices, and 3.  carrying the cross.  That’s just how it is, folks—hard as it is.

But, thank God, that’s not all that it is.  There is a final component that makes all the previous components more than worth it:

4.  there is a CROWN to Throw Down. (41)

Anyone who welcomes a prophet  because he is a prophet  will receive a prophet’s reward. And anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he’s righteous  will receive a righteous person’s reward.

Now, originally I had written, a “crown to WEAR.”  But I realized that the Scripture says something very different about our crown.  In fact, the Scripture talks about at least five different types of crowns.  The word, “crown” refers to the reward that awaits those who love and serve Jesus in this life.  It never refers to salvation, which is a gift not a reward, but to those eternal blessings that follow upon our decision to love and serve Jesus—our rewards, our pay so to speak.

The Five Crowns that represent the rewards faithful followers will receive in heaven are:

1 - CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS—for those who have loved and looked forward to the Lord’s appearing (2 Tim 4:8).

2 - INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN— for those who have lived disciplined, holy lives (1Cor 9:25-27)

3 - CROWN OF LIFE—for those who have endured faithfully through trials (James 1:12, Rev 2:10)

4 - CROWN OF GLORY—for Godly leaders who were holy examples to the flock (1Pet 5:2-4)

5 - CROWN OF REJOICING—Soul winners crown for those who have boldly shared the gospel with others (1Thess 2:19, Dan 12:3)

Now, there is all kinds of debate about “crowns and rewards” for those who are faithful in this life.  What are they?  Who gets them?  What difference do they make in eternity?  The questions are seemingly endless.  But, I don’t really worry much about that because of what Revelation 4:10 says,

¹⁰ the 24 elders fall down before the One seated on the throne,  worship the One who lives forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne.

However wonderful these “crowns” or rewards are that we can earn through devoted, sacrificial service to God in this life, they hold absolutely no value for us when we get to heaven—“we cast them at the nail-scarred feet of Jesus!”

The “Twenty-four elders” represent all the saints of God, Old and New Testaments, Jew and Gentile—12 O.T. Patriarchs, 12 N.T. Apostles.  They represent the redeemed of God, and they could care less about anything but being in the very presence of God.  As shiny as gold is and with as great a hold on our lives in this world, nothing in heaven is shinier than Jesus Christ and nothing will hold us like His Presence.

This will be a time of “peace.”  This is the “peace” Isaiah speaks of:

^2:4 He will settle disputes among the nations and provide arbitration for many peoples. They will turn their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will never again train for war.

and,

11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb.

Yes, there is certainly coming a time of peace from struggles.  For now we have peace WITH God through salvation, and the peace OF in our struggles, but one day we will have perfect peace from all suffering.

But, not now.  The future is going to get harder for Christians and we must be prepared for the battle.  We must answer the call to duty, make the difficult choices necessary, bear the burden of the cross and one day we will receive crowns, or rewards, that will seem meaningless in the presence of God.

Today, the sword.  One day, peace.

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