Matthew 10:37-39
"The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; the one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever doesn’t take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Anyone who finds his life will lose it, and anyone who loses his life because of me will find it."
How you love is how you receive. Everything you love you are loving unto the Lord. Be as the Lord in everything you do. If you welcome, you are welcoming in Christ. If you give you are giving in Christ. Acknowledge Christ in everything you do.
"...everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven." (Matthew 10:32)
Don't be afraid to share your love for Christ. His Spirit is in you and will speak and work through you. Don't be afraid of those who will persecute you.
"What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper, proclaim on the housetops." (Matthew 10:27)
You are his disciples, therefore be like the teacher. You'll be given what you should say in your hour of need. It's not you who will be speaking it will be Christ's Spirit. And do not be dismayed when the world rejects the message of truth. Only give and leave it at that. Let the word of God do its work.
Matthew 11:15
"Let anyone who has ears listen."
The world is like children mocking the people of God. They'll hold you to the highest of standards and expectations that they refuse to accept for themselves. For them there is no hope in Christ. They see his message as weakness. And they'll deride and abuse that message.
Jesus rebukes this generation of mocking children who reject his teachings. He illustrates his point by pointing out the cities that rejected his message and comparing them to many of the ancient Middle Eastern cities that have long ago been completely destroyed by God's wrath for their adulterous idolatry and rejection of God's prophetic warnings to repent. They failed to receive him, and they failed to repent. And now, their great cities are ruin.
The sins of the world has blinded them to the true significance of Jesus. You see from them today this sort of wicked propaganda and prideful rhetoric. It's bad enough that they malign, misrepresent and deride the Christian faith, but what truly makes God angry is when they play at being Christian and attempt to present themselves as children of God, telling their adherents that God approves of their wicked character.
Jesus explains how this rejection of the truth comes about. He says, it is due to the will of God, who has hidden his revelation from the wise and learned, and instead has given his message to those who are like little children. Not like those mocking children, but like children listening to their teacher with attention and great expectation. Not listening with an ear for disputes and looking for opportunities to speak out against point for point. God has decided that those who would choose to put their trust in the ways of the world will be blinded to the reality of his gospel truth. And likewise, those who will reject the ways of the world and instead rely upon Him, depending upon His wisdom, will receive understanding. For them the word of God will open up and become like a great light in the darkness. And it is to them he says "come"..."rest in me".
"All things have been entrusted to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son desires to reveal him." (Matthew 11:27)
Listen,
Today we live in a world where no one "knows" anything, and everyone thinks they know everything. We live in the age of information and technology. And the world believes that all this mechanization and imagination is "truth". They speak as if this mechanized truth has authority by virtue of its immense importance and influence. Jesus called these things "learned men". They are thought to be the most wise, the most intelligent, the most capable of knowing the truth. And yet, behind all their great strengths and philosophical truths is their own wicked human motivations guiding those truths. They have great teaching skills and great machines to spread that word, and wicked hearts.
Jesus' message today is that we need to teach and preach with patience and with right doctrine.
2 Timothy 4:2
"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching."
It's not all about our human intellect. It's not all about our human wisdom. It's not all about our human machines and their vast wealth of knowledge and abilities. Instead, it's all about God's grace; and a simple faith in what Jesus said and did in his earthly ministry and on the cross.
Teaching and preaching are foundational principles of the church. Not music, not religious rituals, not sentiment. No one is saved by style, artistic forms, and self-serving programs. The Spirit of God saves by means of the truth. This is why Jesus drills down into this time after time. You never see Jesus teaching about those other things except to say that too many are too focused upon those strained gnats and whitewashed tombs, and not enough attention is being given to the truth.
Let's be honest with ourselves and with everyone else. If Jesus represents the mind, heart, and attitude of God, then we should want to know and acknowledge how he feels about everything...EVERYTHING!
You know that thing you do.
I want you to think about, and to take deadly seriously, something from all of this. Jesus is sitting down here, under a tree, in a very close and intimate moment. And he is telling his disciples that they are to be like little children. He's talking about the relationship He has with His Father, their relationship with him. And he is inviting them into this inner circle. That's serious business. This isn't some Kumbaya camp out, this is serious stuff.
We had just heard about those who will reject God's word, and their destiny. Now, Jesus takes it down a little bit. He takes the bittersweet to a different path. He sits down with his children and he tells them they're going to discover three aspects of God the Father and Jesus the Son.
I. The pleasure of the Father
Jesus praises the Father for hiding the deep truths of the Christian faith from the wise and intelligent of the world, and for revealing the deep truths of the faith to infants.
II. The knowledge of the Father and the Son
Jesus goes on to tell them, no one truly knows the Father except the Son. He tells them the good news, but more than just about being saved. He tells them they can know God. He tells them that God's love teaches them about God.
1 John 4:7
"for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God."
Through Jesus, we might know God the Father, by his love.
And that brings us to our final point...
III. The yoke of the Son
Jesus said, for those who do not repent there is condemnation. They receive the prophets reward, which means they receive the reward due their actions and words. If what they teach is true their reward is truth. If what they teach is false their reward is false. You get what you give. Condemnation is of your own making. God doesn't condemn, Jesus didn't come to condemn. We condemn or commend ourselves. The yoke we choose to carry determines our destiny. When we choose to misrepresent the word of God we are taking upon ourselves a millstone yoke that will drown us for eternity.
Jesus offers rest:
“Take up my yoke and learn from me.”
Let him carry your burden. Learn from him. Let him bless you. He wants to remove the curse from you. We all need his rest. We need rest from our broken homes, broken hearts, broken lives, broken minds, broken relationships, broken churches, and broken governments.
Let's face it...we're a mess.
We need Him now more than ever.
We need to know his Father.
He's revealed himself to us through his Son Jesus. Now...if only we could humble ourselves enough to sit and learn from him.
And KNOW THIS!
The yoke of Jesus is not lighter because it is less important or because He demands less from us.
Jesus wants all of us!
His yoke is lighter because He helps us to carry the burden.
Make a decision today to know him.
Call upon his name.
Surrender your life and take up your cross.
You get to call all the shots. Surrender or condemnation. It's your choice.
#Cross #Christ #Jesus #Salvation