What Price Peace

GOD IS GOOD! GOD LOVES YOU!

June 23, 2002 - Community Chapel, Nashua, New Hampshire

Background lesson: Genesis 21 (story of Hagar, etc.)

(Galatians 4:6-9;22-24;28-31)

Text: Matthew 10:34-39 (38-39 Paraphrased:) If you do not take up your cross and follow after me you are not worthy of me. If you grasp selfishly after life you will lose it; if you lose your life for my sake you will find it.

The words of Jesus here in Matthew 10 seem somehow different from what we expect to hear from him. They do not seem to be the mission of his life; isn't he the prince of peace? Here he is saying, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword! The members of one's own household will be divided!"

What can this mean?

Certainly it does NOT mean that Jesus does not bring peace to those who seek him as Lord and Savior. What Jesus is saying is that following him will not be easy. When we start out to follow Jesus and do God's will, count on it, we will be opposed.

THERE ARE MANY EXTERNAL CHALLENGES

Surely many people will say right off: the devil will oppose those who seek to follow Jesus. It is true, there is evil in this world that hates God and seeks to fight God through discouraging his people.

There are people in this world that hate religion, who ridicule and oppose and would persecute where they can. More people have been martyred in the last hundred years for their faith than any other century in history!

There are (even) Christians who let us down, who may betray our confidence— who may turn back. All these external challenges are serious, and real, and can cause pain. But they are to be expected— and by God's grace they can be overcome.

MUCH HARDER TO FACE ARE THE CHALLENGES CLOSER TO HOME

A divided home is always a challenge to faith. When people we love and are bound to by ties of blood and ties of covenant do not share our faith, we have challenges that are harder to face than external challenges. People who love us and whom we love have the power to hurt us the most! Jesus never asks us to "hate" loved ones. That is not what this language means.

A divided home may cause us to have to change course— but we can still seek to follow Jesus, and we can show those closest to us His Spirit of love.

Sometimes that may have to be very tough love. Only the Spirit can give us wisdom to know how to carry forward. Still, the hardest challenge of all is not a divided HOME— but

A DIVIDED HEART IS THE HARDEST CHALLENGE OF ALL!

There is something inside every human being- until it is dealt with scripturally- something that is not willing to trust God and simply obey Him.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE VICTORY OVER A DIVIDED HEART?

Here is where the ancient story of Abraham 'connects' with us where we are, even in the dawning of the 21st century! I love Abraham because his story is your story and my story— the story of everyone who has ever tried to leave old ways and start following God's will. The New Testament writers used Abraham over and over as a living allegory of the Pilgrim's Progress. It FITS!

Abraham on his pilgrimage of faith faced this opposition Jesus was talking about. He faced external opposition. He struggled in Egypt with enemies of faith— and finally overcame. He struggled with his nephew Lot and was generous and prayerful and he overcame. But the very hardest thing Abraham ever had to do was settling the division in his own heart and mind.

The heart of Abraham's struggle was his love; love for his God, for his sons, for his own ambition.

Maybe you know the story of Abraham and Isaac. That is the famous story. But Abraham had TWO sons. Ishmael was the son of Abraham's own self-assertion. Ishmael represented Abraham's own answer to God's promises. When God finally gave Abraham and Sarah the son of His own promise, Isaac, the other son, the older son— Ishmael began to bully and struggle and compete with Isaac. The conflict really began— Ishmael was strong and older— he bullied Isaac.

This becomes a painful story. Abraham and Sarah sent Hagar and Ishmael away— a cruel thing to do in our 21st century perspective. A very hard thing to do back then. This hard thing represents to us that whatever it costs us, we need to make sure that we do not tolerate a divided heart! We need God's help to help us put away our precious efforts to be righteous on our own— and to simply obey and trust Him. In Galatians 4 the Apostle Paul tells us clearly that our life in Christ is like the gift of a son of promise to Abraham:

(Listen to these verses:)

(Galatians 4:6-9) Because you are God's children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out "Abba, father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has also made you an heir. Formerly when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God— or rather are known by God— how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable things of the world? Do you want to be enslaved by them again? (21-24)Tell me, you that want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was the result of a promise. These things are an allegory, for the women represent two covenants. (28-31) Now brothers, you, like Isaac, are children of promise; at that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son. Therefore brothers (and sisters) we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Jesus said the opposition will come. But Jesus also tells us how to find victory and peace. In Abraham's story we know what he had to do. He sent Hagar and Ishmael off into the desert so Isaac could grow up as the child of promise. "Cast out the bond woman and her son!" But in our day and age, what in the world does this mean? How can we end the conflict of a divided heart?

Jesus calls this ending of INNER conflict "taking up our cross." It is a decision to follow Jesus, and make him master over even our own will and desires. Then it is a carrying through with His help, day by day. It is the sincere decision of our heart in covenant to Him: NOT MY WILL, BUT YOURS BE DONE! (Remember #484 in our hymnal! Wesley's Covenant)

Jesus is NOT telling us to be hateful to our parents, or to those in our households that oppose. He IS saying, "Follow ME, whatever it costs!"

Whatever it takes to make an end of our own division— to end that thing within that says, "I will not let anyone, even GOD, tell me what do!"— whatever it takes, we can and must do it! Our own will can be submitted forever to God's will, and we can know peace and freedom on the inside. The external challenges will be with us until we die.

This surrender— this "casting out our own self-assertion"- does not have to be dramatic and emotional. Whatever it may take, by a deliberate surrender, saying to God that AT ANY COST He can have us for time and eternity— our hearts will be opened to the Spirit in a new and fresh way that can and will set us free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1,2)

There is an eternal "YES!" that can be said to God's will that changes forever how we approach the future. We have many little "yeses" that will follow. But the great decision can and must be made!

Does it mean an end to temptation? No— of course not. Does it mean we can never fall into sin? No— I wish it did mean that.. but we are still free moral agents. But if with all your heart you ask God for the grace to cast out the self-seeking, self-righteous way— God will meet you in a new fresh way with His Spirit.

When we get to heaven surely we will be free from the tyranny of sin. But to be free here and now-is that possible?

English pastor Spurgeon used an illustration of a wealthy American woman who brought her "servant" aboard a British ship anchored off the port in which she lived. (Servant = slave!) The rich lady made the observation that if she sailed to Britain, and the servant went ashore on British soil, she would be "free." But the captain said, "She was a free woman the moment she walked on this deck!" And the black woman refused to go ashore with the woman that had been her mistress. She sailed to England a free woman!

When we step aboard with Jesus, under HIS flag- the cross- we are free to live for HIM! The struggle is not for us to try to be free- to be holy. No, the struggle is to BELONG, wholly, without reservation to Jesus. What belongs to HIM is holy! He will see to it that we are free!

This is what we call "Sanctification! Entire sanctification" — entire— because it holds nothing back!

But it is not finished, ever! it is a total surrender of self—

PLUS asking for all God's fullness! Have YOU surrendered your SELF for time and eternity?

Prayer

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