Discipleship: Promises for the Ministry
a sermon by Teaching Elder, Dr. Robert E. Griffin Jr
BASIS for Effective Ministry (10:5-15);
REACTION to an Effective Ministry (10:16-23),
COST of such an Effective Ministry (10:24-31);
PROMISES for an Effective Ministry (in this message; 10:32-42).
I. PROMISED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, 10:32-33
A. CONFESSION
Matthew 10:32-33 “Therefore everyone who acknowledges Me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven”.
1. Our Public Allegiance to Jesus
2. Jesus’ Public Allegiance to Us
I Samuel 2:30 “Those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with
contempt.”
Rom 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that
God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in
righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
B. CRISIS
Matthew 10:33 “But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.”
1. Confession v Denial
2. Future Tense
3. Real Life
II. PROMISED ABANDONMENT
A. CONFLICT
Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to put peace on the earth. I did not come to put peace, but a sword.”
1. Sword, not Peace – The message of Jesus is indeed a message of peace, reflected in the Sermon on the Mount. It brings a way for sinful man to have peace with a holy God and shows the only way for men to live at peace with each other. Yet since it calls the individual to a radical commitment to Jesus Himself, it is a message of peace that divides between those who choose it and those who reject it.
2. Implied “hatred”, animosity – an ENEMY
B. CONFRONTATION
Matthew 10:35-36 “For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies will be his own family.”
1. The dividing line between those who accept Jesus and those who reject Him would even run through families
2. What issues Divide a Family/Friends?
3. Examples of Change and subsequent Rejection/Sword
C. CONTINUATION
Matthew 10:37 “The one loving father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and the one loving a son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me”
1. Love Contrasted
2. Love Lost
3. Love Replaced
III. PROMISED ADVERSITY
A. CROSS-ROAD
Matthew 10:38 “And the one who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”
1. Taking cross = death
a. The disciple must follow Jesus even to the place of taking his cross.
b. Crucified with Christ, yet still alive – alive to live for Him with Him living in you
2. Cost My Life?
B. COST
Matthew 10:39 “The one finding his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.”
1. Giving up your life for the Lord
2. Investing your life in the Ministry for the Lord
IV. PROMISED ADVANTAGES
A. CONSEQUENCES
Matthew 10:40 “The one receiving you receives Me, and the one who is receiving Me receives Him Who sent me.”
1. Reward due to those who, in, receive the disciples of Jesus
2. Progression
B. CONDITIONS
Matthew 10:41-42 “The one receiving a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one receiving a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives to drink one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
1. Illustrations:
2. We are in Christ’ Stead