Our world wants peace. Ask any year 8 kid what gift they would like to be able to give to our world, or any beauty pageant contestant what their deepest desire is, and they would say ‘world peace’. A number of years ago, the Harbour Bridge was emblazoned with the words ‘Peace’ on New Years Eve. It expressed the yearning of the west after 9/11. Can’t we just have peace? Today, many community leaders are trying to pacify offended groups. Our Intelligence Agencies are rooting out terrorist cells. And we are in the midst of a culture war in our own society. We are told, just give us this concession, ‘Gay Marriage’ is the latest one, and after that we will have peace. But there is no guarantee of peace.
Where is peace to be found? We are Christian. So we believe there is peace found in Jesus Christ: peace with God, peace with others, peace with yourself, with your own conscience, peace in an uncertain world. There is in Jesus “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness” The peace Jesus offers is the only way for peace with God, and comes to us by his death and resurrection, and by submitting to him as Lord. Here is the gospel offer of peace with God and with each other by the death, resurrection, and continuing pleading of Jesus in heaven on our behalf. He himself is our peace (Eph 2:14).
And all this is true. The bible tells us all this and more. It was Jesus who after his death and resurrection said to his disciples “Peace be with you” (John 20:26).
But there is another side of the story, a side that many parts of the Bible speak of. Jesus came to bring peace, yes. But he also did not come to bring peace.
Our reading was from Matthew 10. Jesus said, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (v. 34).
Why is it that this isn’t a memory verse? There’s a song, ‘He is our peace’. But who has written the song ‘He brings no peace’? We never sing songs from chapter 10 verse 35:
For I [Jesus] have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household’. (NIV)
I hope you understand what I mean when I say this, for this statement I am about to make is radical. There is a sense where Jesus has come to bring no peace. There is a sense where Jesus has come to ruin homes, to cause family relationship difficulties. In fact, Jesus has come with the purpose of bringing us his followers no peace—at least, not yet.
Is this the Jesus that you follow, who came not to bring peace but a sword?
It is important that we are following the right Jesus. It is important that we have the right expectations about life and the consequences of following him. Otherwise, we are following the Jesus of our imagination, not the real Jesus. That is what I want to say today.
One of my friends from school became a Christian a little after I did. When he was growing up his dad took him to Sunday school. But after he became a Christian and became ‘religious’ his dad, who was Church of England, took another look at the Jesus of the Bible. And he didn’t like what he saw. He thought Jesus an objectionable person, with disgusting habits, egotistical, and making unsubstantiated claims. These are very sad conclusions to come to about Jesus, but at least he met the real Jesus.
Perhaps today you will be confronted with the real Jesus. And perhaps you might respond the same way, that Jesus is an objectionable, egotistical person who claims more than he should. I hope and pray you don’t come to that conclusion. But if you do, know this: at least you have appreciated in some way the real Jesus.
I was at the Chinese New Year Celebration at Hurstville. And we were giving out bibles and Christian books. And a man said to me, “Religion causes most of the trouble in the world”. What a common view! Now we could talk about the economic and political reasons for war in Northern Ireland and Palestine, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Sudan. And that is all true. And they are just the wars we hear about.
But we must also say this, that some people love the name of Jesus, and they suffer at the hands of those who hate the Jesus they worship, for in this world, Jesus polarizes. He doesn’t bring peace.
There is a sense where our world wants us Christians to have peace here and now. They want us to ‘Rest in peace’. They smooth our dying pillow, soothing us. “There, there, poor church. You poor old outdated institution. You irrelevent and pathetic oddity. You aged and decrepit dinosaur. Your time has come. Your extinction is near. In your old age we will turn you into a heritage organization or a historical society, and you can look after your buildings in your retirement. And then we will euthanaze you and put you out of your misery. It is the world that wishes the Church peace on this earth, meaning “Rest in Peace”.
But in this world we have no peace. Martin Lloyd Jones once said of the church, “The church is not a hospital, its a barracks.” I’m in the Lord’s Army. And though we do have a hospital wing, it’s an army hospital, getting the troops back on the front line. The church is more like the old TV show M*A*S*H than ‘All Saints’.
We are an army at war. Onward Christian Soldiers! Every Christian is a member of the ‘Salvation Army’! It is for this reason that our baptism service asks, “Will you fight bravely under Christ’s banner against the world, the flesh and the devil”. We are fighters, not with sword and spear, not with bombs and guns, but with the word of God and the despised gospel of peace for the salvation of the lost.
We ourselves in our weaker moments want peace. But Jesus wants the church to have no peace, not this side of heaven, for peace only comes after war. And now we live in the time of war.
The fact is that Jesus taught his disciples that in their mission they will have no peace. And he taught his disciples to go into all the world and teach us everything he commanded them (Matt 28:19-20). So, if we expect peace and prosperity in this life, we have not listened to what Jesus has said.
We see it in verse 34:
Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword (NIV)
And we see hostile parties in this warfare. The battle is with authorities, with family, and with everyone.
We see the battle with authorities in verses 17-20. Look at verse 18:
On my account you [the apostles] will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the gentiles. (NIV)
And through the book of Acts we see Peter, Paul, and others preaching Jesus Christ to their rulers. They do so in chains. They were brought before every conceivable court and ruler of their day for preaching the gospel. Paul even appeals to the emperor in Rome.
Now it is true that we have some freedoms of speech here in Australia. But it is not absolute. We must not be naive and listen to Jesus. We too have a gospel to present to our generation, some of whom will wish it would all just go away, because they want to keep their idols.
Family (vv. 21, 34-37)
Then Jesus speaks of enmity with family. Look with me at verse 35 to 37:
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. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own house.” (NIV)
Here is Jesus the home-wrecker, ruining family relationships which are not built on his lordship.
And I could multiply examples of this. I think of a Christian man I know whose conversion to faith in Christ enormous troubles at home, the opposition of his wife, and indeed the wider family coming over to talk him out of it. In the end, the priest said to them all in front of him, “He is stubborn, have nothing to do with him.” A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.
I have heard of a death notice being put in the paper when a son or daughter comes to know Jesus and rejects their family religion. The family says, “You reject my religion, you are dead to me”. Or worse, some receive death threats from their family. We’ve heard of people who have fled their countries and changed their names because they became Christians, and the family were going to execute them. We’ve met some of them. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household
Or it might just be the agony and grief of a Christian parent who sees their children rejecting the Lord Jesus again and again.
Or there is the slow drip, the continual nagging resentment caused in marriages and family where one person is a Christian and the other not. One person is always going to church, bible study, away from family gatherings at ‘church’. Is church more important than me?
In fact, this enmity occurs not just with authorities and family. It is to be expected in every relationship not built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 22:
All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (NIV)
You will be hated. Who by? You will be hated perhaps by the boss who resents you not working on Sunday, or not cutting corners, or the customer who wants you to not declare the GST, or the income tax, or the tradesman who always wants to be paid in cash, or the work mates who think it strange you do not join them in their character assassinations, innuendos, and after work activities. This is a normal part and parcel of Christian life. Malcolm Fraser said “life wasn’t meant to be easy”. Jesus would agree.
But it is not just that Jesus says we won’t have an easy life. He also says “we won’t have life”. Let’s read verses 38-9:
38Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
At least ten of the twelve apostles died martyrs deaths. But we do not as frequently hear of the many and varied martyrdoms of the twentieth century. Yet it has been said that the twentieth century has seen more people put to death for Christ than any other. We remember the Australians like Graham Staynes and his boys, who were set on fire by Hindu radicals in India as they sat in their car. But what of those who live under Islamic Shariah law, the hundreds and thousands in Sudan or Nigeria or the Middle East or the Horn of Africa who perish, or the revenge killings by families whose relatives confess faith in Christ, or the judicial execution of Christians who are labelled ‘subversive’ for preaching the gospel of Jesus.
Who is responsible for all this suffering? Who is the cause of this trouble? Who is making waves, upsetting people and the peace?
Well, we could talk about the responsibility of the persecutors, that’s true. We could talk about Satan and the demonic and these opponents of Jesus.
But here, it is Jesus. Jesus squarely owns responsibility. He is the troublemaker. It is all because of him.
We see it where Jesus gives reasons for the sufferings.
In part, Christians suffer because they are in a ‘hot spot’. We are a bit like those embedded reporters in modern wars. We report the Lord Jesus Christ and his battle and victory, but we do it from the battle lines in hostile territory. And it is no good saying “Don’t shoot the messenger”, because sometimes the messengers get shot. Being associated with Jesus is dangerous. We see that in verse 25:
If the head of the house is called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household (NIV)
But our sufferings are not simply co-lateral damage. It is not just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is more intentionality and purpose in them. They have to do with who Jesus says he is. Look with me at verses 37-38:
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. And anyone one who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (NIV)
If you love your parents or children more than Jesus, Jesus is saying, you don’t really love him. We regard people who say such things as having mental health issues. Doctors might call such statements by others evidence of a ‘Narcisstic Personality Disorder’—it is evidence of excessive love of self, and is all the worse for the demand that others do the same.
If Jesus is saying anything in these verses, he is saying his followers must be extreme, even fanatical in their devotion for him. For love of him over parents and children can only be described as fanaticism. He demands extreme love.
It seems to me, you cannot be a Christian without being a fanatic. You cannot simply be a Christian by name, make the right moves, turn up to church occasionally, observe a little morality, a little ritual, a little respectability and politeness, and then live your life the same.
You must be extreme. You must be dangerous. You must be prepared to let Jesus wreck your homelife, your marriage, your relationship with your children, because if love for Jesus is wrecking them, they were never built on him in the first place.
My friend’s dad saw a truth when he thought of Jesus as egotistical. But strictly, Jesus is not egotistical. He is egocentric. He is, at least here, self-centered. An egotistical person is conceited or boastful person. Whether Jesus is conceited in this matter depends on whether it is true. But an egocentric person regards himself as the centre of all things
Here is Jesus regarding himself as the center of all things with the passion of a jealous lover. You want to love me? Then love me properly, exclusively, fanatically, or not at all.
So the right question is not, ‘Is Jesus egocentric?’ He is that! But the right question is ‘does he have a right to be egocentric?’ And that begs the question, ‘Who is Jesus?’
Does Jesus have a right to claim such undivided love? Jesus says, yes! Look with me at verses 32-33:
Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my father in heaven. (NIV)
Jesus here is the one who holds our eternal life in his hand. He is the one who will stand at the final judgement to determine it for either our eternal joy or damnation. And now he demands our complete and undivided loyalty. He demands us to acknowledge him and confess him here before hateful men, so that he likewise will reciprocate before his father.
But more than this, he is indeed the center of all things. He is ‘Immanuel, God with us’, God in the flesh.
So what are our responses to this Jesus? If this is reality, that Jesus is the judge of the world who promises his followers no peace in this world, what must we do?
Jesus gives us five responses to him, that we make in the sight of both God and humans.
Paradoxically, Jesus tells his disciples not to worry. Watch out for humans, don’t trust them, but don’t worry. Verse 19:
But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it
We can become weighed down with cares. We know we will not have peace. But we don’t know the shape our lack of peace will take. Will it mean martyrdom? Or will it amount to the continual and grinding battle against my own sinful nature. We don’t know. But God is with us. Jesus has not left us alone but sent the Spirit to be with us. And God doesn’t test us more than we can bear. Each day has enough trouble of its own, so it is no good worrying about tomorrow. God enables what he commands. So we can trust him that whatever he asks us to go through, we will have the spiritual resources to get through it.
Jesus wants us to have right fear. For Jesus, fear of God drives out fear of men. It sounds bizzare to say that men can only torture and kill us. But God can do all this, and send to hell also. Yet Jesus also adds verse 29 to 31:
Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (NIV)
So again, paradoxically, if we fear God, we no longer need be afraid of him. For those who fear him call him ‘father’, and he calls them ‘sons’.
The third response is that we confess Jesus before men, and he will confess us before his father. Religion is not private and personal. It is not as if I keep what I believe to myself, between me and God, and I don’t let anyone know I follow Jesus.
No, Jesus promises mutual confession or mutual denial. The Christian confesses Christ, and only those who bear Jesus’ saving name on earth bear it in heaven. It is not too hard. Children can do it. Everyone who has a mouth and can pronounce his powerful name can confess him. Our barrier is fear and shame. But he will not accept that excuse.
The fourth response is that we love Jesus more than family. This will bring many difficult, hard decisions. That will take wisdom and prayer and the support of fellow believers. Our actions may seem harsh and unloving, but in the end they spring from a deeper love, being a love for Jesus and for the person.
The final paradox is that Jesus bids us to die for him, and live. For us, to live is Christ and to die is gain. We all must die. No matter how we die, it must be as martyrs, confessing Jesus’ name. Each of us must die. That’s not negotiable, unless Jesus comes back soon. But we can make our death mean nothing for Christ, or it can be a death that counts. We can die the sweet death of one who confesses his name, and his name can be the full stop at the end of a life lived for Jesus. This can be a final death which merely was the outworking of a daily death to self and taking up the cross, and a life and death that leaves unambiguous evidence for those left behind. We want those we leave behind say, “He really loved Jesus. He confessed Christ on earth.”
In closing, friends, what we offer is peace as Jesus offers it. And the peace that Jesus offers is himself. Jesus is egocentric. He is at the center of the world, and as that center, Jesus offers himself as peace. He is our peace.
Jesus brings peace with God, and an outflowing of peace with neighbour. But we want truth in advertising. In Christ we have peace, but in this world we have trouble, as Jesus himself said.
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. (John 16:33 NIV)
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are indeed at the center of the universe. You are God in the flesh. And we thank you that you yourself are our peace. Yet we recognize that in this world we have trouble and pain. Give us that fanatical, exclusive love for you that you bid us to. Enable us to confess your name before men. And please confess us in turn before your Father. Amen.