Reading Matthew with Missional Eyes

John wrote this to the reader of His epistle, “This is how we know we are in   him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” It is another way of saying that a disciple of Jesus must live as Jesus lived, and do as Jesus did, and be (in character) what Jesus was (a true Son of the living God). We’ve all heard many sermons on discipleship and obedience, so there is usually little resistance to that idea in our heads. The challenge comes when we are faced with difficulty, and the idea must move from our heads to our hearts. It is one thing to agree to good doctrine, another thing to repeat it, and still a far different thing altogether to live it. 

In the context of speaking about the persecution His disciples will face, Jesus said, “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!”  

Jesus’ point is not so much that students are on the path to becoming like their Master – although that is a true point. Nor is the main point that a servant is never greater than the one who employs them – although that too is true. As the student, no matter how sharp they are, cannot replace the teacher while they are under them, so likewise the servant cannot replace the master while they are under the master’s employ. These things, Jesus says, are obvious. 

Why then would one object to particular treatment if their teacher – by the very nature of being their teacher – is subject to the same particular treatment? An apprentice bomb-maker cannot complain of being surprised when they are hauled off to prison when they’ve seen their teacher get hauled off to prison for bomb-making. Likewise, a disciple who sees Jesus mistreated and called a partner with Satan cannot complain when people likewise mistreat them. 

As Warren Wiersbe put it, “Men persecuted Jesus Christ when He was ministering on earth, so why should we expect anything different? We are His disciples, and the disciple does not “outrank” the Master. They said that Jesus was in league with Satan (Beelzebub: lord of the dung; lord of the house); so they will say the same thing about His followers. However, we should count it a privilege to suffer for Him and with Him.” 

Wiersbe’s point is more than valid. Disciples witness of their master. It is a mark of honor – an attainment of sorts – to be treated the same as your master. Surly then we can understand it to be a very high privilege when we find ourselves being treated as Jesus was. It means there is enough of Jesus in us to convict us of being like Him. It means wee have fully discharged our obligation to be a witness. After all, we must remember that in God’s court, not every witness results in the justification of those who are being charged. Sometimes our faithful witness actually results in their condemnation, and all the more so for having so poorly treated God’s faithful child! 

As believers share persecutions, as Jesus did, they also share God’s comfort, as Jesus did.

Bob Utley

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

Let us be thankful for hardships, for by them we participate in the Christ-life. 

Jesus has simple instructions for His followers when they are persecuted for   preaching the Gospel, “When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” 

Or as one commentator put it, “When a disciple met with persecution in one city, he was to flee to another city, both for his own safety and to avoid wasting effort on a rejecting audience.” This much we can all understand. But Jesus adds, “you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” That statement initially seems hard to reconcile with our present reality.  While Israel is a country with many cities, it is not a country that seems so large or having so many cities that in all the past 2000 years this work is still not completed. To that point some have argued that the coming of the Son of Man that Jesus speaks about here is the judgment that befell Israel in AD70. Certainly that may be a foreshadow of the end, but it is clearly and obviously not the second coming that Jesus later clarifies (in chapter 24). 

These facts belie our own prejudice. For when we think of Israel we typically think of that narrow and pointed band of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Our worldview limits our understanding of “Israel” to the modern country, and the existing nation of Israel has only 76 municipalities granted the title, ‘city’ status by the Ministry of the Interior. Even if you count all the villages and settlements, Israel only has 1100 ‘places of settlement’. But Israel from God’s viewpoint (which one must recognize was on Jesus’ mind) was always was a much larger territory than the country we recognize on our modern political maps. 

In Genesis 15 we read, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”  This is the land that Joshua was sent to conquer, and that the twelve tribes of Israel were to take possession of. This is the geographic territory known as Israel. 

Unfortunately Joshua and company did not completely take it. The river of Egypt is the Nile, significantly to the west and south of the land that Israel eventually ruled over. The Euphrates cuts halfway through Iraq, far to the east of the land that Israel ruled. The land between would be all of Jordan, most of Syria, the best part of Egypt and a very large chunk of Saudi Arabia. So even if we were to limit the ‘cities of Israel’ to the geographic inheritance of the Hebrews, we would find that not all are yet permeated with the Gospel. 

Yet a greater consideration is what Jesus meant by “the cities of Israel”. Romans 4 and Galatians 3 make it exceedingly clear that Abraham is not just the father of physical Israel, but the father of all who are counted righteous by faith, “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” And, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Therefore, “the cities of Israel” are all the places where Christ is or will be proclaimed Lord. That’s the whole world, which means that ultimately the Gospel must be proclaimed in the whole world before Christ returns.  

This much Jesus will make even clearer later on, when He says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Amen.

God’s plans for mankind always included his desire to reach the whole world.

Gary V. Smith

APPLICATION: Intentionality

What is your part in reaching the whole world? What part of God’s call on your life have you left unfinished?

Jesus gave us a frightening prophesy of the last days. After telling us that persecution will   happen with the government and religious institutions complicit in persecuting individuals on His account, Jesus notes that we should not expect immediate relief. Rather, intensification. Betrayal within families, a reversal of the 5th commandment and finally worldwide hatred of those who represent Him;  “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” 

Surely those will be (and for some already are) terrible days. Days that call for prayer and intercession. But all the prayer and intercession one can raise cannot stop the ultimate will of God to punish a nation for their wickedness, nor cause God to choose a righteous instrument as the tool for such punishment. 

The late David Wilkerson once wrote how the prophet Habakkuk saw the people of God about to experience that exact thing in the coming invasion of Judah. Habakkuk cried out to God for mercy and relief; 

“Habakkuk was saying, in short: “How can this be, O God? I have interceded endlessly, beseeching you to bring revival to your people. I have prayed with such faith, such hope, but revival never came. Why have you ignored my prayers?”… To Habakkuk, it appeared that God stood by passively, not acting at all. It seemed that as wicked men grew stronger, God’s people grew weaker. And it continued with no judgment being visited on the wicked.

God never did explain to this prophet why the wicked gain power and force their will upon the righteous. He never answered Habakkuk as to why he seemed silent to his cries. This had to baffle the faithful prophet. Habakkuk certainly expected God to provide him with explanations. He surely must have thought the Lord, in his mercy, would reveal why he seemed silent and why his promises seemed to fail. Maybe God would explain to him the calendar of future events concerning Judah and Jerusalem. But no such explanations were forthcoming.”  

Instead, all God said to Habakkuk was, “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” 

Similarly, all Jesus says to those who experience the terror of the wicked on His account is, “he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” 

That has to be enough. 

As Habakkuk said, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”  

May we have the same outlook, should we live through such a time. 

Habakkuk looked through the fog and mist and wondered at God’s program, but in Christ we know God’s plans for this age.

Warren Wiersbe

APPLICATION: Worship

Our God is God Most High, sovereign over all the earth and all who live upon it. Let us ever praise His Name. 

In Matthew 10:17, Jesus solemnly warned us that we would be handed over to human institutions (“they will hand you over to the local councils.”  He told us we would be publicly and physically abused by religious groups (“they will … flog you in their synagogues.”  He warned us that we would be “brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.”  He told us that such would happen “on His account.” Then He gave us a word of encouragement for that time, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” 

Every preacher can tell you that most of the time they do concern themselves with what they will say, and also how they will say it. Good preparation of a testimony and careful consideration of how your message will be received is always prudent. The preacher speaks for God, so they should and must take care to ensure the words are what God would have for that group of people, at that point in time. Preaching His Word is a sacred and high responsibility. It cannot be taken so lightly as to not bother preparing! 

Of course there are times when you cannot prepare, on account of an unexpected opportunity. In such cases, the Word of God exhorts us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  In other words, it is required of the Christian that you are prepared, even when you haven’t had the time to properly prepare! Like a seasoned outdoorsman caught in a sudden storm, your prior training and character come to bear. You will be ok because of who you are as a person, even though you don’t have all the external tools you’d normally bring to such an occasion. 

For this reason, while not everyone is a learned preacher, every child of God knows that God uses them to speak to others from time to time. Occasionally, one’s words will be very literally the words of God to someone else, who will know that God has just spoken to them. That is why we share our testimonies, and a good part of the value of participating in small group Bible study. From each member of His body, we can hear God speaking to us. 

While that is occasionally true, Jesus tells us it is always true when the circumstance is one of forced testimony to someone in authority. If you squeeze a sponge, what it has absorbed comes out. Crisis always reveals character, and the more urgent the crisis the more raw the revelation of character is.

We can therefore know that the suffering God may call us into is never wasted. It is a testimony against those who dare to try to sit in judgment of the body of Christ. Moreover, we can know that every torturer, every ungodly judge, every dictator who persecutes the people of God – they have all heard from God and been given opportunity to repent. 

Even if what they heard, they heard through the duress of others.

You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.

C.S. Lewis

APPLICATION: Thankfulness

Let us be thankful that as long as we pursue God wholeheartedly, we need not worry about how we will react in the day of duress. In that moment He will give us exactly the right words to say that carry eternal impact.  

In Jesus’ day, “The Roman justice system and the local Jewish justice system sat side by side. Submission to the Jewish authority was a choice (but a necessary concomitant of membership in the Jewish community); submission to the Roman authority was mandatory.” 

To this day, Christians world over make a very deliberate decision to abide by the laws of at least two governments. The laws of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the laws of the country they abide in. Many of us live according to multiple governments, adding civic government, territory/state/provincial government and local church government to the mix. These mixes usually result in the Christians of the community being very literally the most law-abiding citizens of the land. 

But sometimes the laws of our physical land – be it country or territory – and the laws of our God and King collide. In those cases it is required that the Christian adhere to the higher authority. For the laws of a province cannot trump the laws of the country, and the laws of the country cannot trump the laws set by God Most High. When that happens we are inevitably brought before a human ‘justice’ system on charges of lawbreaking. Jesus told us as much would happen, “On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.”

Jesus will later tell us again that we will be witnesses in Acts 1:8. Most times that means we’ll have opportunity to witness to those in our circles. But sometimes we have opportunity to witness beyond our normal circles. To police officers, to judges, to jailed inmates, to lawyers and court officials. Sometimes even to governors and kings!

That’s not always a pleasant witness experience. Not for us, and not for those we are witnessing to. For while most of us in our present western society can witness without fear, and to the effect of leading others to Jesus, some will witness in fear, and as a testimony during the final judgment which will be used against those we witness to. 

In such cases, our witness is of the presence of Christ (in speaking His words), the character of Christ (in courage and boldness), the wisdom of Christ (in purposing to exalt the humble and humble the proud) and the power of Christ (in view of His ultimate triumph). In such cases, it is also our testimony of the presence of evil (that they would judge God’s own), the error of human ways (that the powerful persecute the vulnerable), the foolishness of those who sit in ‘judgment’ (for they will be judged), and the weakness of demonic systems (which cannot even stop the testimony of an innocent and vulnerable person).  

All of that is on Christ’s account. It is to His glory and happens because Jesus wants us to be witnesses. So much so that we really don’t even have a choice in the matter. We will be witnesses. Even to those over us on the earth, and even to all the earth. 

Amen.

No redeemed man must be in any degree an unwilling witness for his Lord.

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

To be called upon to witness for Christ is an honor, for it does not fail to carry a reward. Let us then be all the more eager to witness for Him, both in season of grace and in season of difficulty. 

That Jesus is our savior is good news! That Jesus is our Lord and God is welcome news. That Jesus modeled a sinless life is great news. Yet that Jesus’ life was itself a prophetic act – a model for all who come after Him – is actual new information to most. Often, hardly welcome news at all. But so it is; we are to live our lives as He lived His. A life of putting God the Father’s will and purpose far before our own. A life of complete and total daily submission to God. A life of full obedience to His Word, and that in the fullest expression of the term (far from legalism). A life of daily dependence upon Him. A life of daily listening to His Voice. A life of prayer, and a life prepared for suffering for the sake of the other, even at the greatest of costs. 1John puts it this way, “The one who says he remains in Him should walk just as He walked.”

In living like that, Jesus also modeled and taught internal keys to doing so successfully. Some of those are (like the beatitudes) are well known. Others are less so:

“Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.”

Jesus’ point here is that we should be προσέχω (prosechō), meaning ‘paying attention’, ‘be concerned about’, ‘to be alert for’. He is not saying that paranoia is a godly trait. Paranoia is an unhealthy suspicion that others are out to hurt us. It is true that some are, and the rest of the verse plainly tells us so. But those who constantly suspect others are planning their hurt find themselves living a stunted life devoid of joy. Jesus is not telling us to live like that. Rather, He is saying we must keep space for thought before responding to those we encounter. We simply do not know the motives of others, the spiritual forces behind their words or actions, or where those words and actions will take us.

A modest level of internal guardedness is therefore actually most wise. It gives us room to think about what God is doing in the midst of our encounters with others. No doubt that everyone He sends us to or sends to us is someone who needs to see Christ in us. But some need to see Christ in us as an affirmation, and some need to see Christ in us as a testimony. How best to respond is not something we should do without thought. It is that space for thought that Jesus is speaking about. It is the or internal guard that allows us to ask Him for guidance before we respond, and to hear His Voice in so responding.

Taken in the context of what Jesus just said about being as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves, we hear Him telling us to be alert SO THAT we can be shrewd in our dealings with the called, and innocent in our dealings with the wicked. Being on guard will not avoid persecution. But it will ensure that in all our dealings, we accurately represent Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

The very worst side of the world will be turned towards you when you have been nearest to the eternal throne. Pirates look out for loaded vessels.

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Only the Lord can recognize the intentions of others with accuracy all the time. We must therefore lean into the Spirit’s guidance.

The Church and the individual Christian are faced with much opposition. Some of that   opposition is overt and blatant right from the get go. Their voices are loud and boisterous, their movements obvious and threatening. Some of that opposition is quiet and some of it is quite sly, its movements hidden in plain sight within the church itself.   

Beyond the ever-present temptations and trials, there are those outside of the church that seek the destruction of the church and the people of God. They will campaign to limit Christian activity, seeing prayer at a flagpole, or a Bible study at the workplace, as an assault on their sensibility and way of life. They will shout you down, throw rocks through your windows and spray paint the church’s walls in efforts to intimidate God’s people. They will threaten physical harm and then carry out that threat in efforts to shut down the Gospel and stamp out the move of God. 

But even worse, there are also those who seek to destroy the fabric of the church and God’s people from within. Those who pretend to be believers, but have not actually been changed by a personal encounter with the Spirit of Christ, or they’ve so grieved the Spirit of God that they can no longer hear His appeals for surrender. These are the sleeper cells of the enemy. They do not contribute in meaningful ways, but they are loaded with criticism of those who do. 

Both groups are dangerous to the unity of the church, the life of the immature believer and the nascent seeker of God. Both groups are also inevitable. They will be encountered by every believer at some point, and by every church at some point. All the more so when the believer goes out into the world to spread the Gospel! Fortunately, Jesus has some words of wisdom for us in this regard, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

Some might think that the Lord means for us to be shrewd among the wolves, and innocent among the doves. Certainly from a human standard that makes sense. But He is actually encouraging us the opposite, and for good reason. The apostle Paul put it this way, “I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” 

To the wicked we must be blameless and pure. This is a testimony to them of God’s perfection, and a judgment on them for not acting likewise in the presence of those who reflect His character. One commentator put it, “The innocence called for will involve a consistent integrity that is prepared to suffer rather than compromise and which is careful to give no grounds for legitimate legal objection.” When we act so, the Spirit of God convicts those who persecute us of the evil they are doing. And they cannot shout down His conviction, for it is a conviction in their hearts, not their ears.

It is among the good that we must be shrewd and wise. Constantly seeking for their betterment, intentional about their discipleship and pure in our use of the Word of God. By this the people of God are encouraged toward Him in praise, and by our silence the people of our enemy the devil are encouraged toward God in repentance. Let everything we do draw people to God.

Amen.

Christians need hard heads as well as soft hearts.

Pete Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Pray for and practice wisdom among the pure, and grace among the wicked. 

Jesus’ instructions to His disciples for pioneer missionary work is to go with the goers,   and to leave those who reject the Gospel preached to God’s wrath, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”

That sounds harsh. But in the book of Romans, Paul declares that people have no excuse to reject the arrival of the Gospel, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” 

The preaching of the Gospel and the accompanying evidence of His Kingdom provided to those who have never heard or seen it before is the first glimmer of the coming Kingdom of God. It is a ray of hope. A light in the darkness that must not be ignored. Those who do ignore it are like those who shut their eyes when the first light of dawn breaks across the horizon. They do not want to wake up. They think themselves better off without the light. They desire to keep dreaming. It is to them a harsh and unwelcome reality to which they react poorly. Reacting physically to its presence, they do their level best to suppress the light.

God’s view is that the Gospel is so precious, and so many are perishing without it, that the limited time of those who have been prompted to carry it to new places must not be wasted. There are other fields that do not put up so much resistance. Resistance and suppression of the Gospel are legitimate gauges of one’s call to preach. Only those who know they have heard the voice of God telling them to stay, can stay. The rest must move on, but not before participating in God’s intention to pour out His wrath in judgment on those who refuse the free offer of His grace and forgiveness. 

That participation consists not of violence, but prophetic act. The plain, ordinary and  small act of shaking off dust from one’s feet. It is a silent signal, perhaps physically noted by no one except God alone. It is a sign to those who see it, and to Him a flare. For to them it signals the withdrawal of the Gospel, while to God, it signals where to pour forth His wrath. Not the wrath of his fiery anger, but the wrath of His withdrawal and silence. 

That is a far worse judgment than calamity, because calamity brings grief, and grief might bring about repentance. 

Silence and abandonment brings about only greater anguish of soul, as the wicked forsake repentance and instead work themselves into ever deeper pits of hopelessness and despair. Until the day they stand before His throne, and repentance is no longer an option.

When God is silent, and speaks not by His judgments, men think He is like themselves and are emboldened to sin; but when God thunders by His judgments, they have other apprehensions of Him.

William Greenhill

APPLICATION: Intentionality

When God is silent in prayer, He nevertheless speaks through His Word – so whatever you do, do not stop seeking His face. 

To this day, it is appropriate when visiting a friend’s place for the first time to say   something along the lines of, “What a nice place you have here!” It’s just a kind and appropriate thing to say. Sometimes we wholeheartedly mean it, and sometimes we say that out of courtesy. It is not always a comment on how much we enjoy their taste in home décor or their selection of furniture, or even the location and style of their home. But its origin is not in politeness or vanity. Its origin is part of the revealed character of God, who both provides shelter for His creation and first seeks to bless. So the idea of hospitality and seeking to bless others upon greeting them is all through the Scripture.

This in mind, it is hardly surprising to hear Christ’s instructions to the traveling Gospel minister, “As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you.” Luke puts it this way, “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.” 

Blessing a house might seem strange, but the blessing is not for the house itself. It is in recognition that the visitor brings the presence of God with them, and ultimately meant for the people who dwell there. Commentator John Nolland says, “Though only a standard Jewish greeting, in the present context it has become an anticipatory bestowal of the blessings of the coming kingdom of heaven. With this precious new significance it seems improper to mis-bestow it. The disciples are, however, told not to worry about that possibility. Their bestowal of peace will function like the benefit bestowed by the baptism of John: the significance of the act will be determined by the manner in which it is received.”  

Read that again, “The significance of the act will be determined by the manner in which it is received.” Isn’t it so with so much of the Kingdom of God in the here and now (before God’s physical return to earth)? Recall how John baptized people and then warned them, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” John wanted them to know that the blessing of baptism for repentance is only as sure as the obedience of the one who repents. Those who went through John’s baptism and didn’t repent (or even intend to) cannot escape God’s judgment. God cannot be fooled by behaviour that doesn’t fool us. 

Jesus told us to ‘baptize’ (in a manner of speaking) a residence when the presence of God’s Spirit in us enters said residence as we walk into it. Then, whether that blessing gets attached to the person who occupies the home or not becomes entirely dependent on whether that person co-operates with the Spirit of God or offends (grieves) the Spirit of God. If there is a foothold for the holiness of God’s blessing there, God’s blessing stays there. If not, then not. It is for this reason that showing hospitality to the people of God is so helpful, because they always leave a blessing wherever they stay. For as the Spirit of the Lord goes, so goes the blessing!

Throughout the saga of history, God consistently initiates relationship. He is a gracious host, constantly welcoming in wayward sinners who deserve His wrath—a people whose only hope is that He would show them underserved hospitality

Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements

APPLICATION: Intentionality

The next time you are welcomed into a home, remember to bless those who live there!