Focus On The Future. Matthew 10:29-42
We continue our study in Jesus'
instructions to His disciples. In the first part of this chapter we emphasized
that He gave a unique commission to these twelve to go out only to the house of
Israel. This is the initial plan during the first year and a half of His
ministry where He is focused on the presentation of the offer of the kingdom.
This is nothing less than the promised and prophesied kingdom that had been
revealed in the Old Testament that was the ultimate destiny for the Jewish
people: a kingdom that would be centered in Jerusalem, a kingdom that would be
led by a unique King, a King who was both God and a King who a descendant of
David who would sit on that throne.
Jesus warns the twelve that not all
will accept their message. In fact, man will not; they will reject Him and
because they reject Him who is their master they will reject them and they will
come under persecution. So Jesus warns them three times: "Do not be
afraid". This brings us into
a future orientation. Jesus is telling them not to be afraid now and that even
though now some things are done in secret everything will be exposed at a
future judgment. For believers that is what is called the judgment seat of
Christ, for unbelievers that will be what is called the great white throne
judgment.
Matthew 10:28 NASB "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
[Gehenna]."
The idiom that is used in Matthew
regarding the Valley of Hinnom (sometimes mistranslated hell) is an emphasis on
temporal divine judgment for disobedience. Every time this is mentioned in the
New Testament it is a reflection on how it was used in the Old Testament. The
Old Testament judgment wasn't focused on an eternal lake of fire judgment, it
was focused on the fact that because Israel had disobeyed God, violated the
covenant with Moses, and worshipped other gods, they would go through a
horrific judgment in time and would be removed from the land.
The third "Fear not" is
referred to in Matthew 10:31 NASB "So do not fear; you are more
valuable than many sparrows."
All of this emphasizes something to do
with the future and I want to add something to what I said last time related to
these last three verses, 29-31. In verse 29 Jesus introduces this illustration
from the sparrows. "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And {yet} not
one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father['s will]." In
the next verse, v. 30 NASB "But the very hairs of your head are
all numbered." Then in v. 31 NASB "So do not fear; you are
more valuable than many sparrows."
One of the things we should note is
that in vv. 29 & 31 the focus is on this illustration of the sparrows. Sandwiched
in between is the statement about the numbering of the hairs of our head. Often
when this verse is taught the emphasis is on the fact that God is omniscient,
He knows everything about us, and He pays attention. It goes beyond that. When
we look at this verse it tells us that the focal point in terms of the essence
of God is not simply upon His omniscience and His providential care of His
creatures, that He is aware of what is going on in His creation; but it has
something to do with His will. "Are not two sparrows sold for a
cent?" The point here is that they are not worth a whole lot; they are
perhaps one of the more insignificant aspects of God's creation. Then it says,
"not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father['s
will]." The focal point here is not on His omniscience. It doesn't say not
one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father's knowledge",
it says, "apart from your Father's will".
The will of God is often described in
different categories. We talk about God's sovereign will and sometimes God's
permissive will, and then we talk about God's decreed will. In God's sovereign
will or His permissive will we are talking about what God has allowed to happen
in human history. The term God's "decreed will" or His "revealed
will" is talking about what God has revealed should be done. In the Garden
of Eden we have an example of God's revealed will: "Thou shalt not eat
from the tree of the knowledge of God and evil". It was not God's revealed
will for Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of that tree. But God gave them
volition, individual responsibility, and they had the option to obey or
disobey; that was God's permissive will or sovereign will—He allowed for
them to disobey Him. He allowed for them to sin and to suffer the consequences
of that sin. And that consequence was what introduced evil into history; it
brought judgment upon all of God's creation and it brought judgment into human
history. We suffer because there is evil in the world, because ultimately
Adam's decision introduced sin into the human race.
So God allows the permissive will,
evil, to continue because of His omniscience. He knows that by allowing certain
things to take place, and as they take place they go far beyond our ability of
understanding. This is the issue that is raised in the book of Job. As Job
encountered massive undeserved suffering his friends all tried to tell him what
many people believe today, that suffering in your life is because of something
you did. But a number of times in the first two chapters of Job we are told
that God asks Satan: "Have you looked at my servant Job; he is righteous
before me". Again and again it is emphasized that Job was a righteous man,
he had done nothing wrong, and that the suffering in his life was not the result
of the decisions that he made. So Job is left with the question: how do you
explain undeserved suffering? How do you explain the existence of evil in the
world? This is a question that has plagued many down through the centuries.
The answer that God finally gives to
Job is: "I am not going to explain it to you. If I did you couldn't
understand it; your knowledge is so finite that it could not comprehend what my
omniscience can comprehend". God pointed that out by a series of
rhetorical questions to Job like, "Where were you when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Where were you when I created the stars and the
planets? Where were you when I created life? Where were you when the angels
shouted for joy when I laid the foundations of the earthy? These questions were
to make Job focus on the fact that if he could not comprehend the entirety of
God's creation how in the world would he be able to comprehend all of the
information that was fed by God's omniscience into His sovereign rule over
creation where He would allow certain things to take place, allow evil to take
place because He understood what the ultimate end would be.
What is brought out here is that God's
will is fully aware of whatever suffering the committed disciple would
encounter in life through persecution. God is not only not unaware of the
suffering that we will endure in life as we seek to grow and mature spiritually
but it is something that He allows for an ultimate purpose related to many
different factors, including our understanding of His grace and goodness, our
learning to trust in Him, and our spiritual growth. This reminds us of the
principle in Romans 8:28 NASB "And we know that God causes all
things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called
according to {His} purpose." God is the one overseeing these things.
So in Matthew 10:29 the illustration of
the sparrow is used to show that even the falling of the sparrow is
comprehended within the sovereign, permissive will of God. Then the illustration
is given that even the hairs of your head are all numbered, and that God
understands something that none of us can comprehend. None of us can count the
number of hairs that are in our head. It is beyond our comprehension. That was
the issue that was raised with Job: "If I give you an answer, you can't
comprehend it; it is beyond your knowledge". Jesus concludes: "Don't
fear, therefore, you are of more value than the sparrows". God is paying
much closer attention to whatever suffering you encounter and it has a greater
value and greater purpose.
Having warned them and having prepared
them for encountering persecution and teaching them not to fear, He then goes
back to the topic of encouraging them as they face and encounter this
opposition. What Jesus is doing is teaching them about what is involved in
being a disciple. The first thing we need to understand is that the term
disciple is not a synonym for being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
all believers are disciples, and the way Jesus is using the term disciple here
in these passages is of a believer who seeks to mature, seeks to grow, and
seeks to be obedient to the Lord. A couple of times the word disciple is used
when it refers to unbelievers. It refers to Judas as a disciple; he was an
unbeliever. But generally the word disciple refers to a category of believer,
the category of believer that seeks to press forward toward spiritual
maturity.
We have to come to these passages and
realize that Jesus isn't talking about how to get to heaven. He is not talking
about things that have to change in our lives in order for us to be acceptable
to God. He is not talking about how to become saved; He is talking about the
challenge for how a saved person should live who is walking with the Lord.
There are three ways in which the Bible uses the word saved; there are three
different phases or stages to the Christian life. The first phase is
justification. We use Ephesians 2:8, 9 as an example of salvation—we have
been saved by grace through faith, and it is not of ourselves, it is the gift
of God, not of works lest any man should boast. In those verses we are told
that we are saved by faith alone, that it is a free gift; it is not something
we earn, it is something that is freely given to us. This phase one salvation
takes place in an instant of time when we trust in Jesus Christ as our savior.
We refer to this as being saved from the penalty of sin. We are no longer
spiritually dead but we are made alive in Christ and we have a new life in Him.
What are we going to do with that new
life? Are we going to just let it be there or are we going to develop that new
life, and are we going to grow spiritually? This is the second phase, phase
two, referred to as spiritual life. The first phase is sometimes described as
positional sanctification—we are in Christ and we can never be taken from
that position. The second is described as progressive sanctification or our
ongoing spiritual growth. It is said here that we are saved from the power of
sin. We are working out our salvation in fear and trembling. It is spiritual
growth. Phase one is faith in Christ. That is becoming a believer. In phase two
the issue is in relation to discipleship: are you willing to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ?
What is involved in becoming a
disciple? It is not the same as becoming saved. Becoming saved is a free gift;
becoming a disciple involves effort, work, study, and application. It involves
handling the adversities of life with the provisions that God has given us in
His Word. It demands that we come to know God through His Word, and that we are
effective students of the Word of God. So phase one is a free gift—by
faith alone in Christ alone—but phase two has to do with applying the
Word and growing to spiritual maturity. And then phase three is our final
glorification when we are absent from the body and are face-to-face with the
Lord and are finally saved from the presence of sin. We have to keep these
categories distinct.
When Jesus is talking about getting
into heaven, that is phase one and it is a free gift. When Jesus is talking
about discipleship that is something where He is addressing those who are
already saved in relation to their spiritual life and their spiritual growth.
So when we come to this next section Jesus is talking about discipleship. He is
not talking about how to become a believer; He is talking about what is
incumbent upon a believer who wishes to become a disciple.
There are three sections here and I
want to overview those briefly before getting into the first one. The first one
involves vv. 32, and 33. There are certain things that connect these two verses
together. It begins with a conclusion. Matthew 10:32 NASB
"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him
before My Father who is in heaven." But, contrast. So He is offering two
antithetical points here. Matthew 10:33 NASB "But whoever
denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in
heaven." In the first verse we have two words that link it together:
confess and confess. And then we have the contrast in v. 33.
This confession and the denial take
place "before My Father who is in heaven". This is a phrase that is
repeated in both verses, so these observations tell us that these two verses
are connected. But they are not connected to the next set of verses where we
have six verses (34-39) that are connected. It may not seem that way at first,
it may seem like it is broken down into a couple of different statements but
actually they are all connected. And if we observe the text carefully we will
see certain things that tie them together.
Initially Jesus says, Matthew
10:34 NASB "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the
earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." We will cover this
next time and apply it directly to the announcement the angels made when the
Lord was born and they said, "Peace on earth, good will toward man."
We often think of Jesus as the one who will bring peace. That is touted at
Christmas but Jesus here says that He did not come to bring peace on the earth
but to bring a sword. What in the world does that mean, and is the Bible
contradicting itself? The Bible is not contradicting itself but we have to
understand the context here, and that is that the message of the kingdom is
going to produce different responses. Those who accept it will have peace with
God. Those who do not accept it will not have peace with God and they will
become antagonistic to the message to the point where they want to kill those
who proclaim that message. This is the summary of what Jesus is saying here.
Then He explains that. Matthew 10:35 NASB
"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; [36] and A MANÕS ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD." Those two verses clearly connect together but they
are also an explanation of verse 34.
The next verse continues to pick up on
this theme. Matthew 10:37 NASB "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." That introduces another key phrase here,
"not worthy of me", and He repeats that two more times. Matthew 10:38
NASB "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is
not worthy of Me." That means that vv. 37 & 38 are directly connected
by that phrase "are not worthy of me", and so v. 38 is not
introducing a new topic, it is continuing the same discussion.
Then Jesus concludes by says, Matthew
10:39 NASB "He who has found his life will lose it, and he who
has lost his life for My sake will find it." What is the criterion here?
The issue is that we need to put Jesus before anything else in life: before any
family members, before friends, before any details of life. The most
significant thing in the life of someone who wants to be a disciple is someone
who is one hundred per cent committed to learning from Jesus, learning the Word
of God and applying it in their life.
Then in conclusion: Matthew 10:40 NASB
"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who
sent Me. [41] He who receives a prophet in {the} name of a prophet shall
receive a prophetÕs reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of
a righteous man shall receive a righteous manÕs reward." We all look at
that and say, 'Oh, I notice that He is using the word receive a lot'. But what
we don't notice is that the second for receive in v. 41, the receiving of a
prophet's reward, and the receiving at the end, the receiving of a righteous
man's reward, is a different word in the Greek. They are all connected but it
is important to pay attention to those nuances because Jesus says,
"whoever receives", and even the two words that are used here are
ninety per cent synonymous when they are used in the same context they often
show a slightly different meaning. So he who receives or welcomes a prophet in
the name of a prophet—this has do with hospitality—shall receive,
i.e. to take or lay hold of a prophet's reward. And he who receives a righteous
man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man's reward. So we are talking about something
different. We are not talking about salvation. At salvation we are given a free
gift, but a reward is something we earn.
This helps us to get a grasp of this
section here. We are not talking about how we get into heaven or how we are
justified (that is a free gift), we are learning something about what is earned
in the Christian life and that has to do with rewards.
Matthew 10:42 NASB "And
whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup
of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."
So vv. 40-42 takes us to the topic of rewards, which connects to discipleship.
In discipleship the issue is walking
with the Lord in terms of our spiritual life and our spiritual growth, and it
is in relation to that that we will ultimately be rewarded. Those who do not
accept the challenge of discipleship will not be rewarded. They will be given
the free gift of eternal salvation but they will not be rewarded at the
judgment seat of Christ. This is the overview of this passage, so let's just
look at the first two verses.
Matthew 10:32 NASB
"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him
before My Father who is in heaven. [33] But whoever denies Me before men, I
will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven."
One of the first things we should note
here is the use of the word confess. It is a word we are familiar with, e.g. 1
John 1:9. The word HOMOLOGEO is a legal term and whenever we see that word we ought to
think first and foremost in terms of a legal setting. And so this is using and
bringing to bear a legal setting where Jesus is before the High Court, the
Supreme Court of heaven, and something is going on here in relationship to
evaluation. It is not talking about justification or getting into heaven but
we'll see something very different. Remember the principle: salvation is a free
gift but rewards are earned. So what Jesus is talking about here is going to
come under the second category, earning rewards or losing rewards, and He is
talking about phase two; He is talking about our Christian life, not how to
gain a Christian life.
So the Bible talks about differences
between salvation and rewards. Salvation is offered to all mankind. Jesus paid
the penalty for all sin, so the issue is no longer what sin you have committed;
the issue is trusting in Christ as savior. Do you have the right kind of righteousness
to get into heaven? Rewards are for believers. Rewards are for those who have
trusted in Christ with reference to their spiritual life. Salvation is given to
a few but rewards are also given to a few. Not all believers will press on in
terms of spiritual maturity. In salvation Christ complete the work—He
completed the work on the cross—but in terms of rewards the believer does
the work: he is obedient. This is what James is talking about when he says that
faith without works is dead. He is talking about faith without application.
That is what we are talking about when we talk about works. It is not going out
and doing good things, it is talking about doing what the Word of God says to
do. Sometimes that involves application in terms of overt activity but often it
involves focus on our thinking and our attitude.
Salvation is a free gift but rewards
are earned. Salvation is permanent; you can't lose it. But rewards may be lost.
This is taught in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. There are those whose works will be
completely burned up at the judgment seat of Christ, yet they will enter heaven
"as through fire". Their justification, their eternal life, is not
lost but their rewards are lost. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone,
but rewards are on the basis of our walk by faith, our walk by God the Holy
Spirit. Salvation provides us with an equal opportunity to grow to spiritual
maturity, and rewards depend upon our use of that opportunity. So the focal
point is on our rewards.
At the very end of Revelation Jesus
Christ is quoted by John with a motivational statement that echoes the
motivational statements He makes in Matthew chapter ten. This is why Revelation
was written: to motivate us to pursue spiritual growth, to pursue discipleship.
Revelation 22:12 NASB
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward {is} with Me, to render
to every man according to what he has done." This is a complex issue, and
so to cover this I need to put off until next time.
Let's just go back and look at our
passage again. What Jesus is saying is, Matthew 10:32 NASB
"Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him
before My Father who is in heaven." That language is picked up and used in
one of the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 3:5 where we come to the
end of the letter to Sardis. In Revelation 3:4 we have the motivation to do
better. NASB "But you have a few people in Sardis who have not
soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are
worthy." He is writing to a church composed of believers in Jesus Christ
whose destiny is heaven. But in terms of their spiritual life they have really
messed up: they have defiled their garments. But they are still saved. They
have been living in apostasy and they have been living in sin and carnality
without recovery and without spiritual growth or spiritual maturity. But there
are a few who have not defiled their garments and have grown to spiritual
maturity, and they are going to have as part of their reward a closer intimacy
with Christ in heaven; they will walk with Him in white. Jesus says, "They are
worthy." This is the same terminology that Jesus uses back in Matthew
chapter ten when He talks about the one who loves son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me. The one who does not take up his cross and follow me is
not worthy of me. He is not talking about salvation but of being worthy of that
salvation in terms of rewards.
NASB "He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments;
and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his
name before My Father and before His angels."
"I will not erase his name from
the book of life" does not mean that Jesus would have or could have or
that it is even possible to blot out a person's name from the book of life.
Once we are saved we are always saved, that is eternal security; but this is a
form of speech that is called technically litotes. We often use the concept of litotes in
the way we talk. If some friend of yours does well and receives a promotion or
receives praise for some activity, you slap him on the back and say, "Not
bad!" What you are really saying is just the opposite; you are saying,
"Well done!" But you are using understatement and stating it in the
opposite and saying, "That's not bad." And so when we see this phrase
in Revelation not having your name blotted out, that is simply reinforcing just
the opposite, that not only will your name be in the book of life and you will
be in justification, but I will confess your name before my Father and His
angels. Not only are you justified and are not going to have your name blotted
out because it is there, but something in addition is going to happen: "I
will confess your name, give praise to your name, for your obedience É"
What Jesus is emphasizing here is for
the disciples, the one who pushes forward. The positive is that he will have
special recognition at the judgment seat of Christ. That is what it means when
it says, "I will confess his name before my Father who is in heaven."
The contrast is that if that is not true, if you lose rewards, then you will be
denied—not salvation, but denied rewards—because of a life that was
spent in disobedience and a life that was spent in spiritual failure.
So the challenge before us is to
recognize that there is an eventual accountability for all believers at the
judgment seat of Christ. The issue there is not eternal life; the issue there
has to do with the quality, the extent, and the privileges of that eternal life
in heaven. Getting into heaven is free, but the rewards are earned. That is the
challenge before us.