WWUTT 1993 Not Peace but a Sword (Matthew 10:26-42)

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Jesus sent out his disciples and he said to them, you will be hated by all for my name's sake.

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Though we may lose much in this life, we gain much more in Christ forever when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the word of Christ. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

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Tell your friends about our ministry at www .wutt .com. And once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Matthew, we're still in chapter 10 in this discourse where Jesus is sending out the 12 disciples.

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I'm gonna pick up reading where we left off yesterday. So verse 28 through verse 42 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

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Are not two sparrows sold for an Assyrian? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.

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But the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So do not fear, you are more valuable than many sparrows.

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Therefore, everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my

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Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my

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Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth.

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I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 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.

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And a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

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And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

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He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will find it.

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He who receives you receives me. And he who receives me receives him who sent me.

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He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward.

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And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward.

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And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly

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I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. Now, the things that we're reading about here are not just Jesus sending them out, sending the disciples out to the towns in Israel, which is what we read earlier in the chapter.

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Don't go to the Samaritans, don't go to the Gentiles, but you're just going to the lost sheep of Israel. That's the direct commission.

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That's the direct context, exactly why Jesus is saying these things and where he is sending them to.

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But more broadly, you can see how these things also pertain to the discipleship that they would do after Jesus had died, risen again, and ascended back to heaven.

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So where he says in verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul, rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

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Now, none of the disciples would die, which of course, except for Judas, but he would kill himself.

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None of the disciples would die before Christ's death. So this is something that he's saying to them that they would continue to carry on in the work that they would do after he left them.

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So don't fear those who kill the body. Don't fear those who are threatening you and telling you, we're going to kill you, we're going to beat you, do whatever else, if you continue to proclaim what it is that you are preaching.

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Instead, our fear is to be of him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

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In Isaiah chapter eight is where God tells Isaiah, do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy.

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Do not be in fear of them, nor be in dread, but the Lord, your God, him you shall fear and him you shall regard as holy.

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Let him be your fear and your dread. So we are not to fear man, but we are to fear

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God above man. As Charles Spurgeon said, fear God and nothing else. So that's what

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Jesus is giving to his disciples here. Don't fear what man can do to you, fear him who is in heaven, who is judge of all the universe and do what

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God has said for you to do. And may that be something that governs over our lives in everything, not just when it comes to going out with evangelism, but in everything, when you are by yourself and you are tempted to sin, know that God is there and he is watching you.

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He is the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Let that reverent fear of God stir in you a desire for holiness.

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Even though no one else may find out about this sin that you want to partake in, remember that God knows and fear him and desire to be holy.

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In your heart set apart, Christ is holy as said in first Peter 3 15. So we go on here in verse 29, are not two sparrows sold for an

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Assyrian, which is a Roman copper coin worth just a portion of a day's wage.

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I think it's something like one 16th. So it would be 16 of these copper coins would be one day's wage and are not two sparrows sold for an

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Assyrian. Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. So this is the kind of value that man puts on these little birds and yet God knows them.

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The very hairs on your head are numbered. It says in verse 30, so do not fear for you are more valuable than many sparrows.

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This goes back to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. Like he's bringing back to their attention things they've heard him say already.

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God feeds the birds, he cares for them. How much more will he care for you?

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Oh, you of little faith. So just as God cares for birds, he cares for you also.

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Don't be in fear of what man can do to you. Know that God is with you.

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Going on into verse 32, therefore, everyone who confesses me before men,

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I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men,

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I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven.

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Now, keep in mind that a little bit later on in the Gospel of Matthew, who is going to end up denying

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Jesus? Peter denies Jesus, denies Jesus three times and denies

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Jesus on a level that is probably, it's deeper than the way that you or I have ever denied

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Jesus. If anybody's ever asked you, are you a Christian and you have said no or you've tried to like dance around it without having to admit to them directly?

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Maybe somebody has said something to you that is something that's stated from the

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Bible. Like they've said something about God and you know how harsh that would sound to an unbeliever. So you try to soften it a little bit or maybe walk it back to shape it into something that's a little more appealing to somebody who's an unbeliever.

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So it's not quite what the Bible says anymore. It's something that an unbeliever would be okay with. Maybe you think they would be more okay with it.

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Or perhaps somebody is making fun of you. They're ridiculing you because of what you believe.

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And so to soften the blow, you try to shape what the Bible says or redefine it somehow so that this persecution will not feel as harsh.

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All of those things are denying Christ. And yet the way that we may have done this in our immaturity, in our timidness, still pales in comparison to what

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Peter actually did. This is the same Peter who just hours before said to Jesus, even if they all deny you, talking about the rest of the disciples, even if they all deny you,

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I never will deny you. And Jesus saying, Peter, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

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And I tell you that before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times. And Peter even denied that.

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Never Lord, I never will do this. But we know that at the moment Jesus was arrested,

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Peter was real brave there for a moment, pulled out his sword and was ready to fight for him, ready to go to death for him.

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Jesus told him to put his sword away. A little bit later, he's being led into trial.

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And there's somebody there who says, hey, we know you, you're one of his disciples.

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Peter denies it three times. He does exactly what Jesus said that he would do. He denies that he even knows the man.

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And he goes out, when he realizes what has happened, when the rooster crows, the scripture says, he went out and wept bitterly.

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At the very moment of Jesus' crucifixion, at the very time that Jesus was doing the thing that he told his disciples was going to happen.

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And yet even being told all of these things, Peter still denied him. That is a level of denial that either, that neither you or I have committed.

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And yet did Jesus completely write off Peter and say, Peter, well, now you're a failure.

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I mean, you were gonna be my rock, dude. You were gonna help lead this thing. And now what is it that you've done?

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I can't use you anymore. Is that the way that Jesus responded to Peter? Now we have that reinstatement of Peter.

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It doesn't happen in Matthew's gospel. I mean, Peter is still one of the disciples, even by the end of Matthew's gospel.

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But we have that reinstatement that Jesus does with Peter at the end of John's gospel, where though Peter had denied

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Jesus three times, Jesus asks him three times, Peter, do you love me?

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So even though Peter had denied Christ in this way, yet Jesus forgave him.

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So we should fear, we should tremble when we read this passage. If you deny me before men,

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I will also deny you before my father who is in heaven. That should cause us to tremble.

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It should cause us to draw all the more near to Christ and cling to him and realize our spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak.

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But know that even if we have done this, you haven't automatically lost your faith. It's not now a thing where if you appear before God, he's gonna deny you and you're gonna go to hell.

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But you need to come to Christ and you need to confess and you need to ask his forgiveness. As Peter went out and wept bitterly, if there's ever been a time that you have denied

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Christ before men, may it grieve your heart and you ask for his forgiveness and he will restore you.

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So Jesus goes on to say, and this is something we've actually read in this discourse earlier, it's just put before them again and in a slightly different way.

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Verse 34, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

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Now we read in the announcement of the angels, this wasn't in Matthew's gospel, but it's in Luke's in Luke chapter two, when the angels announced to the shepherds that Jesus has been born in Bethlehem.

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You know that announcement from the angels, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men.

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And you're like, well, wait a minute, the angels pronounced peace, that Christ was bringing peace.

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And then yet here he says, I did not come to bring peace on the earth, but I came to bring a sword.

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So what is it with this announcement of Jesus bringing peace or as it says in Isaiah, that he's going to be the

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Prince of peace. And yet here it says that there's gonna be division. He isn't coming to bring peace on the earth, he's bringing a sword.

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What could this mean? Well, the peace that Jesus brings between men, we certainly have in the body of Christ.

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There should be peace in the church among those who are truly followers of Jesus. But the real peace that's being pronounced about Christ that makes him the

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Prince of peace, that is the peace on earth and goodwill towards men. And really the phrase is literally peace on earth, goodwill on whom his favor rests.

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That's really more the literal meaning. So it's not that Jesus has come to earth and now automatically there's gonna be peace on the earth, because what happened right after that, which we read in the gospel of Matthew, Herod tried to kill

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Jesus and slayed the baby boys in Bethlehem and in their surrounding region who were under the age of two.

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That's certainly not bringing peace on the earth. But the peace that Jesus brings is very specifically peace between God and man.

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All who are following Jesus Christ have peace with God. And that's the greatest peace that we could ever know.

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For all of us are under the judgment of God until we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

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And it's by faith in Jesus that God's wrath is satisfied. And we now have fellowship with God, no longer an enemy of God, but we've been made sons and daughters of God through the adoption that we've received in Jesus Christ our

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Lord. So this is what is meant by Jesus bringing peace. What Jesus is talking about here is those very things that we read earlier in this particular discourse that he goes on to explain.

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He will 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 own household.

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For following Christ, people will hate you for this. You will not be at peace with all men.

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You will be at peace with God and with his people, but in the earth, there will be a constant struggle.

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And this is something, these words, in fact, in verses 35 and 36 are being quoted from the prophet Micah. I came to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother.

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Jesus giving examples here of exactly what he means when he says, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

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And a sword in the sense that we're not supposed to be taking up swords and fighting for Jesus. Like trying to convert people with the sword as the

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Muslims do, but rather bringing a sword in the figurative sense or in the spiritual sense that we'll be divided from even the people who are closest to us.

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Do we love Christ more than we even love our own mother or father or brother or sister, or even our own children?

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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.

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And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. You know, one of the most common things

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I see as a pastor that leads an older person to apostasy is when their children become apostate.

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Like say, for example, you've got a mother and a father who raise up children and while they're in the home, they're godly, they go to church together, but then when their child leaves the home, perhaps they go to college and they learn things at the university about the

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Bible that they never heard from their mom and dad or from their church because they weren't properly catechized perhaps.

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It could be any number of things. This is not to put blame on anybody in particular, but maybe they weren't properly catechized.

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Maybe they're just tempted by the things of this world and they start going after the temptations of their flesh.

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Whatever it might happen to be that leads them astray, but they've left home, they've gone out into the world, and now they've fallen away.

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It is revealed that their faith in Christ was never really genuine. And they start to believe things that are worldly and they come back and they tell their mom and dad, well,

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I think I'm actually this way. I don't actually believe this, I believe this now. And maybe they even change their identity or their orientation and they confess that to their parents.

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And I have seen more parents led astray by that from their children. When I'm talking about a person getting older and even they end up apostatizing or denying the

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Christ of the Bible, they do it because their children who have grown and gone away and have learned these things and have come back home and have said, maybe

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I'm not a Christian after all. That has led more parents into apostasy than anything else that I've witnessed.

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I understand, I understand the struggle. You don't want to think that your child is going to hell.

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And so instead of facing that reality, just like I said earlier, you soften the things that are said in scripture, you'll change it a little bit.

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So it's a little bit easier for you to handle. And that has led so many parents into denying real serious

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Christian truth and doctrine, even denying Christ himself. Do you love

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Jesus more than you love your own children? Jesus says in verse 38, he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

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He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will find it.

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He who thinks this is the life, this is what it is that I need. This will get me by and sustain me for the rest of the days that I am alive.

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He's going to lose everything because even that thing that he has found that he thinks will sustain him is not going to last just like he's not going to last.

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The only thing that lasts is Christ whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

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And finally, we have this closing in verses 40 to 42. Jesus says, he who receives you receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

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This is talking about Jesus' disciples. John will actually come back to this later on in 1

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John. The reason why they don't listen to us is because we're of Christ and they're of the world.

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If they were of Christ, they would receive us but because they're of the world, they reject us. They deny us.

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And so how is that for you as well? If you are of Christ, you're going to receive the word of Christ.

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You're going to be a disciple of Christ. You'll receive other disciples of Christ. But if you are not of Christ, not only will you deny

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Christ, maybe you will say that you're a Christian but it's just not a Christian. It's not the Christ of the

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Bible. And so the people that you will deny, the people that you'll reject, those that you'll hate will be the true disciples of Jesus Christ if you're not really in Christ.

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Jesus says, he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.

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Now here on earth, that could mean persecution. But in heaven, that will mean everlasting life with God.

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Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied. Blessed are they who are persecuted for my name's sake.

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For they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Things Jesus said earlier in the Sermon on the Mount.

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Whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly

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I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. Now hold on to that statement there in verse 42 because that's something that comes up again in Matthew's gospel, something that we'll talk about a little bit later on.

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How challenged are you by these words? These are not soft, fluffy words that Jesus is giving to his disciples as he is sending them out.

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Even saying to themselves that they must examine their own hearts to see that they are genuine in pursuing or fulfilling this calling that Jesus has placed upon them.

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That they must profess Christ before men even if it causes them to lose their lives.

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Jesus says, don't fear him who is able to destroy the body but then after that can't do anything to you.

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Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. And so we must, as we go before men, love

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Christ even more than our own flesh and blood brothers and sisters.

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For we have gained much more than this in Christ, brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

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Let's finish with prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here and I pray that it is a conviction on our hearts.

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And I pray that we understand what it means and how to put it into practice. And we know in the midst of all of this, you are with us, do not fear for you are more valuable than many sparrows,

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Jesus said in verse 31. So we continue to cling to Christ though the world will hate us, though even our own mother and father will hate us, our own brothers and sisters.

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As David prayed in the Psalms, though my mother and father forsake me, my

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Lord will receive me. So receive us now God, draw us near to you.

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Let us know that you are close and that you love us and take care of us and provide for us and give us the courage to continue to stand on difficult biblical truth, no matter what it may cost us.

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For though we may lose much in this life, we gain much more in Christ and in his kingdom forevermore.

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It's in Jesus name we pray, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an

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Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an