"Lose Your Life" Sermon: Matthew 10:34-39

“Lose Your Life”
[Matthew 10:34-39]
February 8, 2009 Second Reformed Church

The last three weeks, we have looked at how the Christian’s relationship with God through Jesus Christ must impact our relationship with one another – as fellow Christians. Today, let us take a look at what Christ says our relationship must be with Him – that relationship on which we were basing how we must deal with each other.

The Scripture that I read this morning from the Gospel of Matthew is part of the instructions that Jesus gave to His twelve chosen apostles as He first sent them out to minister in Israel. And my guess is that some of you did not like this Scripture – especially the first part of it. It’s not the way we like to think of Jesus – coming with a sword, setting out to divide families, giving us a cross, and calling us to death. Yet this is part of the reality of being a disciple, a friend, of Jesus Christ. We are not called to a life of “sugar and spice and everything nice.”

Still, we turn to our Bibles and think there’s something wrong: “Didn’t Isaiah prophecy of Jesus, ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ (Isaiah 9:6, ESV)? How does that fit in with what Jesus said? And didn’t Jesus say, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid’ (John 14:27, ESV)?”

The German Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, explained in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, that there is a difference between what he called “cheap grace” and real discipleship. “Cheap grace” is an “easy believism” that makes God, Santa Clause, and we good children desiring health and wealth, but no responsibility – no accountability. Yet the cost of being Jesus’ disciple, as Jesus explains in this morning’s text, is death.

Let us look at what Jesus told the twelve:

First, Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And some will object here: “If that is true, then why did Jesus rebuke Peter, after Peter took his sword and cut of the ear of the high priest’s servant when they came to arrest Jesus? Didn’t Jesus say, ‘Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?’ (Matthew 52b-54, ESV)?”

Then answer is found in understanding that there is more than one type of sword: Jesus is not saying that He came to bring the metal weapon that we call a sword. What Jesus is saying is that He did not come to make peace with the world and its wickedness, but, instead, brings the Sword of the Gospel.

Paul told the Ephesians to ready themselves for battle and take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17b, ESV). And the author of Hebrews describes the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, like this: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and of the spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV). And John, in his vision, described the glorified Jesus in this way: “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. He eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength” (Revelation 1:12-16, ESV).

Jesus did not come to make peace with the world and its wickedness, but, instead, brings the Sword of the Gospel. This is the Sword that I preach each Sunday – that there is Only Salvation in Jesus Alone. This is the Sword that disturbs the peace of the world that says, “As long as I am good enough – as long as I believe in God – God has to receive me into His Kingdom.” Believing that lie that we can be good enough or do enough good works to save us is a false peace. Believing that believing in God is enough is a false peace. James sarcastically wrote, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder ” (James 2:19, ESV). The Sword of the Gospel says that Jesus is the Only Answer, the Only Salvation, the Only Hope – everything else is a false peace that leads to eternal Hell.

We can understand from this how this can divide families: we are all born with a natural hostility towards the Gospel, and if someone in a non-believing family comes to faith in Christ, there is often discord and division. In some parts of the world, conversion means death. In Moslem countries, converts to Christianity are shunned and often put to death.

Again, as I have said these past weeks, we do not usually put people to death for converting to Christianity in this country. But there is still division, as polite as it may be. Most of my own relatives are non-Christians. They have told me that I’m wasting my life, my abilities. Some have kindly said that if I need this crutch, then that’s O.K. for me. But they don’t want to hear the message of the Gospel. They don’t want to hear that they hate God, and if they don’t repent and believe in Jesus they will spend eternity in Hell. But that’s what Jesus promises. I would not suggest that we bash our friends and family members who don’t believe over the head, but, if we believe the Gospel, if we believe that Jesus Alone is Salvation, we must tell them. If we love them, we must tell them. And that may well cause division in our families.

Jesus tells us in this morning’s Scripture that it is not loving to withhold the Gospel from our parents and children and others because we believe it may cause division among us. It’s like if you were talking with a deaf person, and he didn’t realize there was a truck careening out of control that was about to hit him, but you loved him so much that you didn’t want to interrupt what he was saying, so you let the truck hit him. It’s like meeting up with a friend and seeing the friend’s date put a drug in your friend’s drink so your friend could be taken advantage of, but you loved your friend so much that you don’t want to ruin the date, so you let your friend consume the drug and be violated, and, perhaps, killed. That’s not the loving thing to do. The loving thing to do is to warn the person, whether or not the person believes you or acts on the information. It is our duty to tell the world the Gospel, no matter how the world responds.

“But it’s embarrassing. I don’t know what to say.” Say, “I’d love it if you would come to my church sometime.” “Would you come to church with me? I’d like you to hear about what I believe.” “I’m concerned about you, would you come to church, I think there’s something there you need to hear.” Or, tell them what you believe about Jesus and ask what they believe. Ask them to read one of the Gospels and then talk with you about it. Just say something.

Jesus said that if we don’t love Him enough to tell others – to expose them to the Gospel – then we are not worthy of Him. Jesus said if we do not love Him enough to tell others, then we really don’t love Him. How can we love Jesus and believe that He offers the Only Way to be restored with God and not want anyone else to know?

Jesus continues, “And whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” In most cases, Jesus is not talking about our literally being crucified. What He is saying here is the same thing we have heard Him say the past few weeks – we are to love others like He loved us. Our response to what Jesus has done and promised is to be willing to endure anything for Him, even to enduring a death like His for His Sake.

Jesus tells us that if we believe in Jesus Alone we will find enduring anything for His Sake to be nothing compared with what He has given and promised. We are His disciples and friends if we willingly follow Him down the Calvary road. Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth being compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18, ESV) and “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort” (II Corinthians 1:3-7, ESV) – “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (II Corinthians 4:16-18, ESV). These are passages that I find of great hope as one who is chronically ill.

How might we take up our cross? How did the early church take up its cross? Listen to what the author of Hebrews records: “Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated – of whom the world was not worthy – wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:36-40, ESV).

I remember once explaining to someone that God gives us what we need and what He knows we can handle through Him for His Glory, and this person told me that she thought God must have a warped view of her ability, because she was suffering in a way that she didn’t think should could continue to endure.

I received an e-mail with a story on it that might help us to think about what God has given us, both in our blessings and in the cross we carry for Him. There was once a Christian who was despairing of the cross he carried – he thought it was just too much for him to endure. So he prayed that God would remove the cross from him. God came to him in the night and invited him to lay the cross aside and choose a cross he thought he could handle from a room full of crosses. The man thanked God and lay his cross down and began to look through the crosses in the room – there were light crosses and heavy crosses, gold crosses and wood crosses, tall crosses and fat crosses. The man looked and looked and finally came across the smallest and lightest cross in the room. The man lifted it up and told God that this was the cross he could bear. And God told him, “That’s the cross you came in with.”

Don’t misunderstand: I am not saying that our lives are really easy; I’m saying that God knows what we need and what He requires of each of us in bearing our cross for Him. The God Who gives us our burden to bear is the same Father Who loves us and gave us His Son for our salvation. This is the same Jesus who told us that the heavy yoke – the yoke we truly cannot bear – is the yoke of slavery to sin. Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, ESV).

Just as Ebenezer Scrooge did not realize the heavy chains he had earned through his sin, in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, until the ghosts revealed his true self to him, so we don’t realize the weight of the yoke of sin upon us until Jesus has made us His own and given us His yoke – His cross – to bear. We have gone from a life that only promises eternal suffering to a life that promises eternal life and joy with Jesus.

Jesus ends our reading by saying, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Jesus says that if we regard our life as worth more than Jesus – more than what He has done and promised us – then we are lost eternally. But, if God calls us even to lose our physical life for His Sake, we will have eternal life.

Paul wrote, “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we must make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one of us may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (II Corinthians 5:6-10, ESV) and “Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, this means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again” (Philippians 1:18-26, ESV).

Jesus calls us to lose our life – not to commit suicide or to put ourselves, necessarily, in harm’s way – but to recognize, as Paul wrote, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (I Corinthians 6:19b-20a, ESV). Jesus has chosen and bought us for Himself through His Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. We do not belong to ourselves; we belong to Jesus. And He calls us to go out and tell others the Gospel – that there is Only Salvation in Him. And He assures us that if we are obedient – if we don’t water down our message and try to make peace with the wickedness of the world – the message of the Gospel will divide our families; it will cause some of our friends to walk away. But, if we truly believe His Gospel, we cannot help but tell others – it is the Only Word of Life.

Jesus calls us to loose our life – to not be surprised that we may suffer in many and various ways for our belief in Him. But, because we have the sure promise of Jesus’ Return, our resurrection, and the restoration of all things, what we must suffer for Him is, comparatively, nothing. Even if we lose our physical life for Jesus, we know that we will be raised, like Jesus, on that final day and enter into His Eternal Kingdom.

The missionary martyr, Jim Elliot, wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Listen to that again: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Jesus has given all of us who believe “what we cannot lose” – salvation in Him and the promises He has made for our future. There’s nothing else we can keep when God takes this life from us. Are we, Christians, then, not wise to shun the wickedness of the world, to value the Gospel above a false peace with our family and friends, and to be willing to bear, for Christ, whatever He gives us, since we already have the Greatest Gift in Jesus?

Be willing to lose your life for Jesus’ Sake, because what we have in Him is greater than everything else in the world.

Let us pray:
God, we thank You for the Gift of Your Son. Help us to see that what we have received in Him makes living life for His Sake worth more than everything else we could receive. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.