A CHANGE IS REQUIRED

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

"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.”

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 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 household.' “

"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 who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

Matthew 10:32-42

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we have examined in an earlier scripture from Matthew Chapter 10, life with Jesus in it is far from business as usual. Indeed, even today we find different parts of society and our world at odds over the very mention of Jesus’ name…such is the conviction of those who love Him…and such is the conviction of those who hate Him.

Through all this conflict, one thing is certain. In order to follow Jesus and do it properly, change is required.

If you doubt that, then you only need to go to 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5, verse 17. It simply says:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Christ is synonymous with change…for he requires us to turn from the world and its ways and instead give ourselves over to Him…sacrificing fully as He sacrificed for us.

So what if we decide to not fully turn ourselves over to Him? It’s not advisable.

For hear these words of Jesus from our scripture today:

"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.”

Deciding we wish to belong to the world more than our Savior is simply akin to disowning Him…deciding that we desire something more than Him. Our Lord will not settle for that. So in exchange for our disowning, He does some disowning of His own…and His is far more damaging.

Can you picture this scene?

You pass away and as you come before the Father, Jesus tells Him, I don’t know him or her. And with that, you are rejected from eternal life…having lost the justification that comes in Jesus. For being justified can be thought of as being “just as if I had never sinned”…and we only get there through the cleansing, reconciling blood of Christ shed on Calvary’s cross. His blood, just as the blood of the lamb spread on the door posts in Egypt spared the children of Israel from death, spares us from death from sin and spurs us on to eternity…atoned and forgiven.

How could we possibly choose to disown Jesus with so much at stake?

Well, sometimes we are pressured by others. For standing up for the cause of Jesus is not going to be accepted by everyone…even by those in your own family. For at times, the name of Jesus doesn’t bring peace but rather conflict. Again, look at these words from our passage:

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 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 household.' “

I think I have shared my testimony about my own father who disowned me for a year and a half after learning that my fiancee was African-American. But the root of his problem wasn’t embedded in bias or prejudice. No…the root of his problem was that he didn’t have Jesus in his life. And so as Grace and I continued to respond to my father in love and mercy and grace and forgiveness, something miraculous happened. My father was overcome by Jesus himself and has been a changed man for 17 years now.

What started as conflict, ended in peace…because my father accepted and received the Prince of Peace into his heart, mind and soul.

I hate to imagine what might have happened had we decided to disown Christ to try and make amends with my father. Actually, I don’t need to imagine. Scripture tells me that Grace and I would have been disowned by Jesus.

This is why we need to know our bible and the wisdom within. So we can make the right and proper decisions when faced with life’s circumstances.

But Jesus doesn’t just want our loyalty. For just adhering to loyalty can simply be done through a sense of duty…like I am loyal because I have to be.

Jesus desires more than that. He desires our love and our life…all of it.

For again, look at the scripture

"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 who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

I often tell people that I would never put anyone or anybody ahead of Jesus…not my wife…not my parents…not my two daughters…not any of my four siblings. No one gets my first love but Him.

When I do share this with others, I often hear people say, “I’m not quite ready to do that yet. I love my (fill in the blank with the object of their desire) too much.” Still others look at me like I’m crazy. And that’s just what the worldly view would be.

For the world has us placing all our love on the perishable…so much so that when we lose the one we love so much…we are left with a void. I can’t count how many people I have ministered to who were simply laid to waste because they had lost a father, mother, husband, wife or child. They ended up that way because they had their love invested in all the wrong places.

We shouldn’t make this hard. We give Jesus all our love and in return He sends His love through us to others. This allows us to not love off of our own desires but rather the desires of the Perfect Son of God…the One who loved sacrificially first so we would know how to do it ourselves.

How do we get there?

We retrace the steps of Jesus in our own lives. We take up our cross and walk with Him to the place where He gave up everything, willing to lose our life as well. Anyone who is not willing to do this is not worthy of Jesus or what He brings. And they can keep the ways of the world, losing an eternal life that was right at their fingertips.

Loyalty…love…and life. Jesus expects us to give all of them to Him. In opposition to this, the world would have us save some of any or all these for ourselves.

Friends, this is why we need to remember above all things that a change is required when one chooses to accept Jesus.

How well have you done in surrendering all to Him as He surrendered all for you?

It’s a question you would be well advised to answer soon.

Your very ticket to eternity is at stake.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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