Please join us this week for special events as we celebrate our risen Savior.

MAUNDY THURSDAY: Events moved to Friday

GOOD FRIDAY:

7:00 p.m.

Fellowship Hall

A special Passover meal is planned for Good Friday, April 2.

Each year, the Jewish people celebrate God’s deliverance with a lively Passover meal called the Seder. It was this meal, already rich with symbolism, that Jesus transformed into the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Mike and Laura Purswell celebrated it many times with Jewish Christians at college and later. They’ll lead things during the evening. This is a great opportunity to invite friends and other folks interested in learning about the fulfillment of prophecy. We’ve moved this meal from Maundy Thursday to Friday to make things easier for families. So please join us at 7:00 on Good Friday for roast lamb and turkey, plus other Jewish favorites in this joyous meal. Children are warmly welcomed; it’s not Passover without them! Please note that wine will be served, but non-alcoholic options are available. After the meal, Pastor Jerry will lead us in a special Communion service.

SUNDAY:

Easter Breakfast

9:15 a.m.

Fellowship Hall

There will be no Sunday School as we begin our celebration with a festive breakfast during the Sunday school hour at 9:15 a.m. There will be a brief litany centered on the Resurrection, followed by baked goods, breakfast casseroles and fruit.

Worship Service

10:30 a.m.

Sanctuary

John 9:1-5 “Jesus: A Man of Compassion”
Introduction:
It was in the fall of 1968 and I was 13 years old. I had just come back from a friend’s house where we had just listened to the Detroit Tigers lose a game in the World Series and I was upset! When I walked into the house, my mom told me she had really bad news. She said that my little dog, Peppy, had been hit and killed by a car. As I started to cry, I simply said, “Why?” It is a question that has been echoing throughout the ages. Why this disease? Why a car accident? Why is this relationship falling apart? Why do we have to suffer? Why is there suffering at all?
That is the question that the disciples ask here in John 9 as well. But what we want to focus on is what Jesus says in response. Jesus’ response is one of compassion, not analysis. Jesus doesn’t answer the why question, but He teaches us instead to ask “how.” Let’s read John 9:1-34.

I. Disciples Ask “Why”
II. Jesus’ Compassionate Response
III. How Do We Handle Pain?

I. The Disciples first Ask “Why?” What was the cause for this man’s blindness?
Showing compassion was the last thing on the minds of the disciples. Imagine what it would be like to never have seen anything. This man never had seen the faces of his parents; their smiles when he laughed or their tears as they thought about his blindness. He never saw the sun rise or set, never able to read or write. This man suffered terribly and the disciples were more interested in a theological issue than the man himself.
The disciples asked Jesus to pin-point the cause of this man’s blindness. They asked, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The disciples knew that sin was the cause of the man’s blindness. The Bible clearly teaches that sin brings punishment such as blindness.
But the problem was whose sin had caused him to be blind from birth? If he had become blind after he was born, then there would be no doubt that it was his own sin. But what complicated matters was that this man was blind from birth.
The Jews believed there were two possible explanations for this. It could be the result of the parents’ sin before one was born. This follows what is said in the 10 Commandments where the sins of the parents are punished to the third and fourth generation. But some rabbis believed it was possible for a person to sin while still inside the womb. They pointed to the story of Esau and Jacob where the twin boys were fighting and struggling with each other before they were born.
The disciples now ask Jesus which of these two theories of suffering and punishment is correct. They want their theological curiosity satisfied. They didn’t really care about the man at all.
There is a story about a man who once fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out. A subjective person came along and said: “I feel for you, down there.” An objective person said: “It’s logical that someone would fall, down there.” A Pharisee said: “Only bad people fall into a pit.” A scientist calculated how he fell into the pit. A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on his pit. The county inspector asked if he had a permit to dig a pit. A self-pitying person said: “You should see my pit!!” Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.

II. Jesus’ Response is filled with Compassion.
Notice that Jesus does not answer the question that the disciples ask. The disciples asked for a cause; Jesus gives them a purpose. They look backward; Jesus urges them to look forward. The disciples ask: “Why did this happen?”; Jesus asks, “What are we going to do for him?”
Jesus says this man was born blind so the work of God might be displayed. God’s power and mercy would be displayed when Jesus healed the man. After Jesus restored the man’s sight to him, the people were amazed. Whether they knew it or not, they have seen God’s power and mercy.
That was in fact the purpose behind many of Jesus’ miracles. As Jesus went around Palestine healing the sick, raising the dead, God’s powerful work was being displayed. Even though people were hurting, when Jesus healed them they and many others were drawn to God through Jesus’ actions and miracles. Jesus’ miracles brought glory to God. But Jesus does not stop there.
Jesus then includes his disciples in showing God’s mercy to the hurting. In verse 4, He tells them, “As long as it is day, WE must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming when no one can work.” If you are working outside, you only have so much light before darkness comes and then you have to stop working. Jesus says that their lives are limited and it won’t be too long before their life will be over when the night of death comes.
Thus, during the lifetime they are to help others who are suffering so that God’s work may be seen; this is something that they must be doing NOW! This is not just something they should consider doing. Jesus says that doing this kind of work for others is something they must be doing now while they still have opportunity.
And so Jesus’ answer focuses the attention not on the blind man’s past actions but on the disciples’ present action. In effect Jesus responds, “Never mind his past! What are you going to do about it so that God’s works may be seen?” Part of the purpose of human suffering is for followers of Jesus to help those who are suffering.
Pastor Greg Wiens tells of his son, Jordon. One afternoon while playing on a wooden picnic table his 4½ year-old son got a splinter in his finger. Sobbing, he called his father at the office and said, “I want God to take the splinter out.” His father told him that his mother could easily remove it, but Jordon wanted God to do it because when Mom takes a splinter out, it hurts. He wanted God to remove it “by Himself.” When his father got home an hour later, the splinter was still there and so Wiens proceeded to remove it and tried to teach Jordon that many times God uses others to do His work. And sometimes it is painful. We are to try to help others even if we do so imperfectly.
Then Jesus says, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus’ statement points to the fact that He alone is the one who brings a complete end to suffering. While we still do experience pain in the world today, we know that if we believe in Christ, some day we will live with Jesus in heaven where there will be no more suffering and pain at all. That is what Revelation 7:16-17 states so beautifully: “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them of springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
This blind man may also be a symbol for John for the condition that all of mankind is in. We as human beings are all born blind in sin. Just as Jesus was the only cure for this man, Jesus is also the only hope for healing for our sins.
This is seen in the miracle itself. Jesus heals the man with mud and sends him to the pool of Siloam which means “Sent.” John highlights the name of the pool because he wants to underscore the fact that Jesus is the one “sent” to bring healing not only from blindness, but from all sin.
However, this ultimate solution can be ours only if we know that Jesus is truly our Savior and Lord. Only if this is true can we take comfort from this promise. If you don’t know Jesus, you are missing a great source of comfort. Believe in Jesus and He will indeed wipe away every tear.
That is beautiful for later, but what do we do with the pain and suffering now? There is so much of it around us. There is the ongoing fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are earthquakes, epidemics and famines in the world. There are loved ones who are seriously ill and suffering. There are pains of loneliness, inner struggles and depression.
Do we just shrug and say we will just endure until Jesus comes again? That is not the response of Christians to suffering today.

III. How Should We Handle Pain? There are four things we can learn in these verses to show the kind of compassion that Jesus shows.
First, we should not try to assign a cause for another person’s suffering. That is so easy for us to do. Think of someone who is involved in a fatal motorcycle accident. What is often the first thing we often ask? Was he wearing a helmet? If not, then we say he should have been and we may not feel as much sympathy.
That is true in many other things as well. “Was he drunk or driving recklessly?” “Did he smoke?” When something is wrong we want to know why it happened. We want to assign responsibility. “It is because of some sin that he or she is hurting.”
But what we learn from Jesus’ words is that such explanations are not really our business at all. Now a person’s suffering may well be the result of a past sin or a sinful actions. But that is between that person and God; it is not our business to prescribe a reason why. Our responsibility is to look forward at a purpose in a person’s suffering so that God’s work may be seen.
Second, we must be more concerned about our own actions than with the actions of the one who is suffering. We must concentrate on what we are going to do to help that person. We should not tell the other person what to do to handle their pain. “You are suffering so that others can see in you a marvelous demonstration of faith so be sure to bear it with a smile.” “You are suffering to bring you closer to God so spend a lot of time in prayer so you can grow spiritually.” Again there is a purpose for suffering; however, that purpose is between the one who suffers and God alone. We are clearly responsible for our own actions, not the actions of others.
The third lesson is that each one of us is called to help the suffering so that God’s works may be seen. This is the major part of God’s purpose for suffering. Others will see God’s love and mercy through our actions. How can we do this? We should continue to give physical help through meals, transportation and the like to those who are hurting physically.
But even more important is to offer emotional support and help. There are many more emotional hurts and pain than physical hurts. Most often the physical pain is accompanied by emotional hurts. Jim Kok, the pastoral care pastor at the Crystal Cathedral says that if a person says he is hurting, he has found that it really is 10 times worse.
How can we support hurting people in time of emotional pain. Because of his deafness, Beethoven he found conversation difficult and humiliating. When he heard of the death of a friend’s son, Beethoven hurried to the house, overcome with grief. He had no words of comfort to offer. But he saw a piano in the room. For the next half hour he played the piano, pouring out his emotions in the most eloquent way he could. When he finished playing, he left. The friend later remarked that no one else’s visit had meant so much. Simple actions often powerfully express our support to others.
And we must be willing to let others hurt which is hard for us to do. Many don’t like to be around suffering people because they remind us that there are problems and pain in our lives. Jim Kok gives the example of a couple who were living together who had a great relationship or so she thought. One day, the girl-friend got the flu and threw up; the boy-friend moved out because he didn’t like the way she looked when she was sick. We deny pain and so don’t allow others to hurt.
The key to becoming a caring person is to first of all realize that there are pain and hurts in this world; it is a fact that cannot be denied! Second, it is O.K. to hurt and feel miserable. We need to be able to express our hurts and pains and allow others to do the same if we are going to be a caring, loving body of Christ.
Finally, let’s remember that even though we have pain and we are free to hurt, there is an answer for our pain in Jesus. Jesus is the hope that we and all others have who are suffering. Jesus is the only one who can make some sense of the pain that we all experience in our lives. And Jesus promises us that someday our pain and suffering will end.
In the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, a Japanese gymnast, Shun Fujimoto, was competing in the team competition. Somehow, during the floor exercises, he broke his right knee. It was obvious to all reasonable observers that he would be forced to withdraw from competition. But they didn’t understand the determination of a true competitor. On the following day, Fujimoto competed in his strongest event, the rings. His routine was excellent, but the critical point lay ahead – the dismount. Without hesitation, Fujimoto ended with a twisting, triple somersault. There was a moment of intense quiet as he landed with tremendous impact on his wounded knee. Then came applause as he stood his ground. Later, reporters asked about that moment and he replied, “The pain shot through me like a knife. It brought tears to my eyes. But now I have a gold medal and the pain is gone.” If we follow Jesus, someday the pain of this world will all be removed and gone forever.
There is pain all around us today. There is likely pain in your own life or others here. There are people all around you who are hurting for various reasons.
Christians are the best equipped people to express their pain and help those who are in pain. We have the basis for making some sense of what otherwise would seem to be meaningless. We can point people to Jesus so they too can have hope amid despair. The world needs to see the hope we have as we struggle with pain. What can you do to help those in pain while it is still day?

Jesus: A Man of Tears and Anger – Luke 19:41-48

Introduction:
Three weeks ago, all kinds of Hollywood celebrities arrived at the Oscars in Los Angeles. I think it is safe to say that days, if not weeks, of preparations went into each and every arrival. Each person was painfully aware of what he or she was wearing and how they looked. Each arrival was carefully staged and likely each celebrity had a few remarks prepared for the crush of the media before they arrived. It was an entrance that was very, very carefully planned before a foot was set on that red carpet.
When Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, His entry was even more elaborately planned. This was something the prophets in the Old Testament said would happen hundreds of years before. Yet the way Jesus entered Jerusalem was anything but an entrance filled with glitz and glamour. Yet, He did enter as a king and was acclaimed as a king. The donkey and the palm branches symbolized the fact that Jesus arrived as a king.
However, what Jesus does after His arrival is quite remarkable. He does something that a celebrity nor a head of state would likely ever do. Jesus cries and then He gets really angry. These verses teach us something very important about who Jesus is and what He came to do. Jesus cries because He loves His people who are going to reject Him. He also becomes angry when God’s people are not treating His Father with the proper respect. Let’s read Luke 19:28-48.

I. Jesus’ Tears
II. Jesus’ Anger

I. First, let’s look at The King’s Tears.
Jesus was approaching the city of Jerusalem during the triumphal entry. Jesus had been riding on the donkey amid all the cheers from the crowd. Palm branches were waving, coats thrown on the road to make a suitable path for the people’s king. The road from Bethany to Jerusalem comes around a large bend and suddenly the city of Jerusalem comes into view.
Then amid the cheers, there is the unmistakable sound of Jesus Himself crying. Luke makes it clear that it was not just a few tears, but great sobbing and weeping aloud. This must have seemed so utterly odd. This is not what you expect after a grand entrance like this.
Imagine that it’s a presidential inauguration day. The President is walking in his inauguration parade amid all the celebration and excitement of a incoming president. Suddenly, you hear the sound of sobbing and it is coming from the president. It would seem completely out of place. “Jesus, here we are claiming you to be our king and you are crying?
Why? Verse 42 gives the reason: Jesus said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes.” Jesus is not weeping because the people of Israel had seen so much violence and oppression and bloodshed, which they certainly had. Jesus’ tears are not like those we might shed for those who are dying from hunger or AIDS in Africa or victims of the Haitian earthquake or those who are facing some other hardship. These are not tears for those who suffer innocently.
These are tears for people who had the opportunity for peace and had rejected it. You see, Jerusalem, the people of Israel, had heard the word peace. Indeed, they had heard God’s offer of peace repeatedly through the prophets, but they rejected it.
The depth of this is seen in two words in verse 42. The first is the word “known.” To “know” is not just an intellectual knowledge, but it reflects a relationship with God. The word peace refers to the peace with God that could only come when one accepts Jesus.
These people had seen Jesus’ miracles and heard His teaching. They had the opportunity for peace with God through Jesus, but had rejected it. God came to them and they turned their backs on Him. That is what breaks Jesus’ heart.
And so Jesus must then announce a word of judgment in verses 43-44: “The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”
The judgment Jesus describes is an ancient battle strategy: the siege. The enemy builds an embankment around the entire city out of earth and lumber. This embankment is for its own defense as well as a place to launch their attack. The result is that the entire city is completely cut off and becomes terribly weakened.
Eventually the enemy could enter the city and the destruction would be complete. All the inhabitants would be killed or taken captive. The city itself would often be burned to complete the destruction. What Jesus describes here did actually happen to Jerusalem less than 40 years later.
It is because of this terrible destruction and even more so because of the people’s refusal to accept God’s offer of peace in Jesus that Jesus cries. Jesus wished that they would believe in Him, but they would not. Jesus loves his people and weeps for His people because they have rejected Him.
Does Jesus still weep today? Certainly there are many things that deeply sadden our Lord. There are many people who have never heard of him. There are many people who have heard the gospel, but have rejected Jesus. And Jesus sees Christians sitting back, not caring and I believe He weeps.
But God continues to love these people even when He is rejected. In fact, God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son. 2 Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
For some here this morning, there is the clear invitation. Perhaps you have heard the invitation before and have said “no.” God offers His peace to you this morning and weeps if you refuse His call to you. God is not waiting for you to become “better”; He simply wants you to believe in Him.
But even more, we who follow Jesus are also called to weep for those who have rejected Him. We must be careful that we don’t just sit back while people are dying in judgment. Jesus calls us to have compassion on those who don’t know peace with God through Jesus.
R. Alan Streett tells of a young John Dillinger who came to the altar after a revival service. Dillinger, who already had a bad reputation and was known as a “problem child,” waited a few minutes at the altar for someone to come and pray with him. But no one did. He then walked out of that revival and said, “I’m never going to a church again,” and, until the gangster was shot dead on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, he never did. God weeps for those who are lost and not found. Do we weep for them?
A man worked as one of five hundred employees in a manufacturing plant. After lunch each day, several would discuss topics of general interest for the balance of their lunch period. One day their discussion centered on Christianity and hypocrisy. Some very harsh and cruel things were said about Christians. This Christian man could stand it no longer. He rose to his feet and said, “You have been saying some very hard things about Christians. Now I admit that there are hypocrites in the church, but I also want you to know that there are quite a lot of sincere Christians, and I myself very humbly claim to sincerely believe in Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior!”
He was about to sit down when a man said, “Just a minute, Bill. I would like you to answer some questions. I take it from what you have just said that you believe the Bible to be the word of God?” “I certainly do,” said Bill. “I believe it from cover to cover!” “Then do you believe that all men outside of Christ are lost and on their way to outer darkness?” “Yes, I do,” he said. “Do you think most of us here are outside of Christ and therefore lost?” “Yes, I am very sorry indeed to say I do believe that.” “Do you believe in the power and the effectiveness of prayer?” “Yes, I have had many answers to my prayers!”
“How long have you worked here with us?” “Four years.” Well, Bill, add together all the time you have spent in prayer for us during those four years; how much would it be all told?” “I’m sorry,” said Bill, “ But I cannot say that I have spent any time in prayer for you.” “Well, Bill, that is just the kind of hypocrisy we have been talking about!”
Jesus is calling us to pray that others may come to receive eternal life. I believe that Jesus is still weeping for those who are lost; are we weeping with Him?

II. Next, let’s look at The Kings Anger.
Again we see that Jesus’ anger, like His sadness, is very real and genuine. The next day, Jesus enters the city of Jerusalem and goes to the temple. What He sees there causes Him to fly into a rage. Luke doesn’t say specifically that Jesus was angry but His actions indicate that He was very angry.
Mark 11:15-16 describe the scene more fully. Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers. These people were in business to exchange foreign currency to the proper Jewish money acceptable in the temple offering. Jesus also drove out those who were selling things. Merchants were allowed to sell animals, wine, oil, spices for people to use as sacrifices.
But there are other sources that indicate that this was more than just a business of convenience. The priests could judge whether or not an animal was acceptable for sacrifice. If it wasn’t, as may have often been the case, then you can imagine them saying, “We have some over here that are acceptable.” There also may have been additional profits from this which went directly to the priests. People were evidently trapped into buying things at an exorbitant price.
Now why did all this make Jesus so angry? First, this was being done in the temple area. The selling occurred in an area just outside the temple sanctuary itself. Perhaps their selling animals would be like us selling bulletins and chairs in the foyer. You would have to walk past all this commotion and then buy stuff in order to worship. Jesus certainly disapproved of the crass commercialism and the dishonesty in a place where the worship of God should be primary. This whole business made a mockery of the worship of God.
Even more, the activity which the priests endorsed had led the people to miss the point of the temple. The temple was a place to worship, to pray and to hear God’s word. But the priests had made it to be a man-centered place. God had simply become a marketable commodity. Someplace very special had become desecrated by the leaders.
In 1990, the Associated Press reported that the top of the world has been littered with trash. Rags, flags, oxygen tanks and other garbage have been left near the summit of Mt. Everest — left there by mountain-climbing nature lovers. Well the temple, a special place of worshiping God, was cluttered with the stuff of man.
And so Jesus throws out everyone who is desecrating the temple. Then verse 47 says that after that every day Jesus was in the temple teaching. By his teaching and presence he showed how God desires to be worshiped.
What did the people do in response? The Jewish leaders began their plot to kill Jesus. Why? Jesus had ruined their business and replaced it with His teaching. He replaced the man-centered activities with God-centered.
However, Luke reports that many others “hung” on Jesus’ words. It’s like they were leaning forward to hear what Jesus will say next. Many people are with Jesus now, but He knows that it will not last. He must still be betrayed, convicted in a trial which was a mockery and then be brutally killed. Jesus must still die so that people would be freed from sin and live fully in the new life that Jesus offers.
Now does Jesus still get angry today? I believe that He is angry when we at times replace true love, devotion and commitment to Him with external acts of religious behavior. When we sing songs of praise to God without really thinking about what we are doing. He becomes angry when we think it is all up to us and we leave God out of our lives.
I believe God is also angry with Christian’s attitude toward money and the trappings of stuff. Mike Yaconelli once wrote, “Let’s — all of us — decide to stop trying to convince the world that Christianity is true because Jesus makes us prettier, happier, thinner, wealthier, bigger, more successful, more popular, healthier, more powerful, brighter, stronger, and more influential than everyone else. Do we actually believe that the world is impressed with our fancy new churches, 12,000 in Sunday School, five services each morning, the “millions” who are watching on television, converted beauty queens and professional athletes, our book sales, or our crusades? The world is not impressed. The world is laughing at us, mocking us and the Jesus we supposedly are serving.” Christians in this country are closer to the sin of the temple traders than what we want to admit.
What is God teaching us in these verses? Let’s not get all caught up in the externals. We should not be just going through the motions of our faith. We should not get caught up in the materialism rampant in our culture.
Rather, what we are to be doing is hanging on what God is saying to us and following God’s Word. God’s Word tells us of grace and that is what we must follow. If you talk with a scuba diver you will find something about having the right perspective. When you’re down deep you’re encircled by light, there’s no way you can tell which way is up because the water diffuses the light. You’re also totally weightless, so you have no sense of gravity. Surrounded in an aura of light and weightless, it’s very easy to lose all sense of direction and get disoriented. You may sense that this way is up and that your air bubbles are going sideways! You may be so convinced that your perception is true that you decide to ignore your bubbles and go the way you think is up. One of the first things someone is told when he was learning to scuba-dive was to always trust your bubbles, to always follow your bubbles. No matter how you feel, no matter what you think, your bubbles are always right.
Our culture is disoriented and many people are confused; they don’t know which way is up. They’re like disoriented scuba-divers, following their subjective whims and following the subjective whims of other disoriented people who say, “Live like this,” “Believe this,”
Like the scuba-diver’s bubbles, the Bible is always right, no matter how you feel or what you think. We must hear and hang on God’s Word as we follow Jesus, learning to know Him better. Then obey them and give yourselves entirely to Jesus and live in the joy and peace God wants us to have with Him.
Jesus as a man had a great depth of emotion. I believe that in His emotions we can see his intense love for us. Love so intense that it moved him to tears, to anger and to His death for us.

Matthew 10:34-39

“More Than a Personal Savior”

Pastor Jerry Hoek

Introduction:

When I was in seminary, I had a professor who, when I first met him, sounded like he could have been a drill sergeant.  He had a rough, growling kind of voice and he had a rather mean look the first time I saw him.  However, when I got to know him in a small group both he and I were a part of, I learned something about him.  I learned about his heart.  I learned that although he had a gruff exterior, he had a tender heart.  I learned that he had a love for his students and for what they were doing that far exceeded that of others.  That being said, he still had high demands for his classes.  He expected excellence and graded accordingly.  However, we never questioned the fact that the bottom line was that he loved his students and wanted them to do well.

What is a your picture of Jesus?  Many people today think of Jesus purely as a loving and tender-hearted teacher.  He is a friend who never gets angry or who simply smiles at everything we do.  Others view Jesus as a stern Lord who looks down from heaven with a very serious and stern expression demanding perfection and being very unhappy each and every time we don’t measure up.   Still others view Jesus as the one who simply gives them a “get out of hell” pass.  He is the one who saves them but nothing much more.  Who is Jesus to you?

Well the fact is that Jesus is all of those things and more.  Jesus did suffer and die to take away our sins.  Jesus does love us tenderly and passionately and loves to be with us.  But Jesus also has very high expectations for us.  In fact, the one who changed water into wine to show just how radically he will change things, demands that we follow Him and give ourselves to Him in radical obedience.  This means that our lives as Christians will have a different look than what we might be thinking.  Let’s read Matthew 10:1-10, 34-39.

I. Peace or a Sword?

II. Fighting in the Family

III. Priorities

IV. Losing Our Lives

I. Peace or a Sword?

In verse 34 Jesus says, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth…”  Jesus came to earth from heaven with a very specific purpose: to bring salvation to God’s people.

However, in this verse Jesus also makes it very clear that He did not come to bring peace.  Now that seems to fly in the face of what the angels sang when Jesus was born.  They sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

So what does Jesus mean when He says that we should not think that He came to bring peace?  The peace Jesus came to bring is not simply the absence of strife but a much deeper peace.  In John 14:27, Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  And in John 16:33, Jesus says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The peace Jesus is talking about is the peace we can have with God knowing that our sins are forgiven and removed because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Jesus says that in bringing salvation to us and also peace with God, He also comes to bring conflict with others who are aligned against God.

So Jesus adds, “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  Jesus says this in a way that clearly implies that His coming was to bring division and hostility.  Jesus knows that those who believe in Him are part of a minority movement and so He wants to make it very clear from the beginning that it will be mean conflict for His followers.  That is why He said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  As this minority movement of Christians moves into the majority who don’t believe in Christ, there is bound to be conflict, persecution and rejection.

So when we experience conflict because of our faith, Jesus says, “That is what I told you to expect.”  Dwight L Moody once said, “I thought when I became a Christian I had nothing to do but just to lay my oars in the bottom of the boat and float along. But I soon found that I would have to go against the current.”  Or as the late Ray Charles once said, “There’s nothing written in the Bible … that says if you believe in Me, you ain’t going to have no troubles.”  What Jesus says next, however, shows just how extensive this conflict can be.

II. Fighting in the Family

In verse 35, Jesus gives examples of just how deep the conflict may go when He says, “For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

The kind of conflict He has in mind may actually divide families.  The reference Jesus uses is from Micah 7:6 which describes the family unit in conflict because of Israel’s unfaithfulness.  “For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law– a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.”  Because Israel was unfaithful to God, they had tremendous conflict within the family.  Jesus, however, is saying that such conflict will now arise simply because some will believe in Him and some will not.

The reference to the man turning against his father points to the fundamental family loyalty.  Since the father was the head of his household, the loyalty owed to him was above all loyalties.  To bring division between father and son was to offend one of the most deep-seated values in that culture.

Moreover, just as the son is set over against the father, so a daughter is set over against her mother.  The mother was the important person in the female section of the household.  Division among the women was another serious split but it does not stop there.

The daughter-in-law became a member of a new household upon her marriage.  It would be expected that she would enter fully into her role as a member of her husband’s family and that she would look to her mother in-law for guidance and affection.  To have division here would leave the bride very much alone.  Jesus makes it clear that the fundamental unit, the family, could be divided.

Jesus says further in verse 36 that “a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.”  The last place a person would expect to find enemies would be in his or her own household.  Divisions may occur where we least expect them because it is impossible to predict how people will respond to the gospel.  Jesus will not always make families happier by a family member’s Christian decision.

Now let’s make sure we understand this clearly.  There is nothing more beautiful than a close family.  And in fact, many families owe their closeness to the love and presence of Christ in their midst.  We urge husbands and wives to be united in the Lord and such a union is truly a marvelous thing.  And it certainly is not wrong to love the family.

However, what Jesus is saying here is that our life should not be our family alone or above all.  As precious as our families are, Jesus expects our loyalty to Him to be even higher.

For example, my father in law served in the Navy during World War 2 and when he came back he had a very close buddy, Humphrey, who died about four years ago.  My father in law and Humphrey stayed in close contact and up until Humphrey’s death a few years ago, my in laws would still visit Humphrey in southern Indiana.  They had gone through a war together and had a very close and important bond.  However, if my father in law had chosen to spend all of his time with Humphrey rather than his young family, that would be misplaced loyalty.  His family had a higher place even though his bond with Humphrey was very dear.

If it comes to choosing between family and Christ, Jesus makes it clear that He must be the one we must follow even though family is so beautifully important.  That is what Jesus makes even more clear in the next two verses where He establishes clear priorities.

III. Priorities

In verse 37, Jesus says, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”  Now let’s be clear that Jesus is not saying that we shouldn’t love our parents and our children.  Jesus, in fact, assumes that there will be such powerful and deep love within families.  But Jesus wants to make sure that the love within the family is not so strong that it pushes love for Him to the background.

That says a lot about who Jesus is.  Only Jesus has the right and the authority to demand such a love.  This underscores that Jesus is not just a human teacher, but that He is indeed the Son of God to whom we owe all allegiance and love.  If a person cannot love Jesus more than his family, Jesus says they are not worthy of me.

In verse 38 Jesus continues, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”  Taking up a cross has become not much more than a metaphor for enduring some kind of suffering.  If we have a chronic illness or a persistent problem of any sort, it becomes a “cross we must bear.”

But there was no doubt that when Jesus’ disciples heard the phrase “take up his cross,” the picture that came to their mind was a man carrying a cross to his execution to his death; he was not coming back.  We might say that we have to pick up our hangman’s noose and follow Christ.

To use another phrase, we must be willing to go to the wall for Jesus.  This saying comes from sword fighting in which you may find yourself cornered against a wall in the course of the fight with no escape but you fight to your death.  Jesus is saying that we are to go to the wall for Him and give up your life for Him.

Even more starkly, Jesus is saying that to follow Jesus is for a person to die to himself.  We, and all our self-centeredness and selfish sins, must die so that Christ can live in us.  Following Christ means complete self-denial.  But it is not all for loss, as Jesus concludes this hard teaching.

IV. Losing One’s Life has eternal benefits, as we see in verse 39.

Jesus concludes, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  If we strive to get the very best for ourselves, according to the world’s values, we will lose everything.

A man decided to enter the ministry as a second career after a very successful, six-figure-income in corporate America.  He had climbed the ladder as high as he could and then came to a startling conclusion.  He wrote, “Once I reached the top of the ladder and looked around, I realized that all the struggle, all the costs to my family and friendships, all the sacrifices I had to make to reach the pinnacle were not worth what I found there and the lack of meaning I felt there.  Suddenly it hit me: I had propped my ladder up against the wrong building.”  If it is a person’s goal to “make it in this world, they will be sorely disappointed.

If, however, we lose our lives for the sake of Jesus, we will find our lives.  The word for “lose” here has the idea of something being totally destroyed.  We have to lose ourselves completely, put ourselves completely to the side.

And we must do this for the sake of Christ.  The life that matters is the life that is lived for Christ.  It is living the life that is not concerned with the benefits we will receive here or in eternity, but with living in the service of God and serving others.  If we lose ourselves in love and service to God, we will find ourselves and our life in the fullest sense.

So while Jesus is our friend, our beautiful Savior, He is also the one who calls us, requires us to follow Him and go to the wall for Him.  But what does that mean specifically and practically?  What is the battle that Jesus calls us to engage in?  It is not, as we often hear, to make this nation into more of a God-fearing nation.  Nor is it to make our American way of life stronger and better.

No, it is much, much bigger and far more sweeping than those things.  Listen to what Jesus said when He read the scroll in the temple in Luke 4:17-21.   The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,  because he has anointed me  to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus did not say that He came so that we can become rich or successful or secure.  Jesus says that we are to go to the wall and do the things that He did when He was on earth.  We are to bring healing to those whom we can help.  We are to help those who are in distress or victims of oppression.  In short the coming of Jesus is not about just getting us to heaven but to do the things of God while we are here on earth.

I think many times today we have this idea of Jesus being our tender Savior and precious friend.  And as a result of that, we think that following Jesus means a life of soft fuzzy blankets and, as the old hymn says, “flowery beds of ease.”   Jesus does love us without question and has also saved us, thoroughly, completely and absolutely so that we are free from the punishment and penalty of sin.

However, Jesus also does lay out high demands for those who follow him.  It has been said the way to make it through life is to keep the main thing the main thing.  However, what then is the “main thing”?

Timothy Merrill writes: The “main thing” is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.   The “main thing” is that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, beating death down forever.   The “main thing” is that the human struggle entails suffering. Period. Struggle for justice? You’ll suffer. Struggle for peace? You’ll suffer. Struggle for truth? You’ll suffer.  But the “main thing” is also that you’ll not suffer alone. God suffers along with you.  The “main thing” is that if God be for us, who can be against us?  The “main thing” is that we are never alone, for there is no place in the universe we can go, there is no sin that we can commit, that will put us out of reach of the grace of Christ’s sacrifice, the gift of God’s love.

So what does this mean as we consider knowing Jesus more?  God did not send His Son to die just so that we could get a free pass to eternal life in heaven.  That is what we can look forward to, make no mistake; however, it’s more than that.  God wants to be in a relationship with Him and He wants us to confront the things in this world that need to be confronted.  He brings us peace, but in bringing us this peace, He calls us to action as we serve Him.

If love for our lives is stronger than our love for God, then there is something seriously wrong.  There’s an old story about a farmer talking to the Lord: “If I had a million dollars, I’d give it to you, Lord. If I had a thousand acres, I’d turn them over to you, Lord.”  The Lord said: “”Well, how about a pig?”  “Take it easy there, Lord; I’ve got a pig.”

God has lovingly given us many blessings as wonderful gifts from Him.  Now Jesus calls us to focus on Him alone as we follow Him and let the things of this life not overwhelm or determine our lives.