The Disciple and His Lord
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We thought it well to present seven names by which the children of God are known in the New Testament.
1. The first name we shall mention is "disciple." That is the word used in the first verse of our Scripture lesson. The word really means "learner." We are familiar with Mary and her sister Martha. Mary had this distinction that she sat at Jesus' feet and heard His Word. Martha, to the contrary, was cumbered about many things.
The Lord Jesus said of Mary, She "hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away." Can we truly call ourselves disciples "learners"? Do we sit at Jesus' feet as He opens up unto us the deep things of God?
2. The second name is "apostle." This word means "a sent one." Christ called unto Him His disciples, and from them He chose out twelve, whom He named "sent ones."
The name "apostle" has practically dropped out of use among the churches of today. We suppose that no one cares to assume so great a title as that accorded the Twelve. Yet Paul spoke of himself as Paul the Apostle. We also read of others who were Apostles of the Lord. We too, if we hold a special commission of God, and are ordained of God are apostles, whether we bear the name or not.
3. The third name is "servant." A servant is not only one who serves, but one who serves menially, under orders. This name also occurs in this study. The word servant, in the old use of the terra, means a slave, a bondslave. Should any of us hesitate to bear this name? Cannot we say what Christ said "Mine ears hast Thou digged." If the Lord could say, "Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God," should we not gladly say the same?
4. Another name is "workman." We read, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth." As a workman, we should know our tools, and the Book is the chief tool with which we serve.
A workman should shun every tool not approved, such as profane and vain babblings. That kind of word doth eat as a canker. When, however, we are wise workmen, wielding the Word of truth with efficiency, we shall prosper,
5. "A soldier," is another word which describes the children of God. A soldier is one given not to dress parade and regimentals, but to enduring hardness. Paul delighted to say, "So fight I, not as one that beateth the air." He also could say, "I have fought a good fight." As soldiers, let us wage a warfare of honor. As soldiers, let us gladly go and undergo in the most difficult and trying of circumstances.
If we would please God as a soldier, we must not entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life. We must stand ready to go at any moment to the front of the battle.
6. A sixth name is "vessel." This name carries with it the thought of being clean and made ready for use. In a great house there are not only vessels of wood, of iron, and of stone, but also of silver and of gold. Now, if a man is purged and clean, he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified and made fit for his Master's use. A vessel is not supposed to have a mind of its own, it is only to lie pliant in the master's hand.
7. A husbandman. Here is our seventh name. The husbandman is the gatherer of the fruit. This name bespeaks not alone our sowing of the seed, but our harvesting of the ripened grain. It tells us of the day when we shall enter into the blessings of our labors. Paul, in Spirit, wrote, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His Coming?"
I. A HAPPY RELATIONSHIP (Matthew 10:24)
1. The union of Christ with His people is one of closest intimacy. His all He gives to us, and our all we give to Him. We walk together along life's pathway. We sit together, we talk together. He sups with us, and we with Him. He tells us that we are His joy; and He is our Joy. "So shall we ever be with the Lord," is our promised destiny. He says, "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them." We are called into comradeship with Him. We shall one day be like Him, when we see Him as He is. We are His Body, His Bride, His co-heir. Could any relationship be closer than ours to Him?
2. The union of Christ and His people never speaks of the superiority of His people to Himself. We who by grace are lifted to so high and holy a position as union with Deity, must never seek to be more than we are.
(1) We should take the position of learners. Our place is not teaching Him, nor telling Him what to be or to do. We are not to give the Word to Him, but to hear it from Him. We are not to teach Him, but to be taught by Him. As the wife is subject to her husband, so should we be to Him in everything. If the woman is not to teach nor to exert authority over the man, neither are the men to exert authority over Him. We are one, and yet we are to learn submission and subservience to Him.
(2) We should take the position of servants. Have you not heard Him say, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me"? He never thought being God a thing to be grasped at, for He was God. Yet He learned obedience to the Father's will; He gladly humbled Himself and took upon Himself the form of a servant, even the form of man. If He, our Lord one with the Father, could truly say, "I am meek and lowly in heart," should we not also be meek and lowly? Yes, we will ever delight to serve Him, both now and in Heaven, for His servants shall see His face, and they shall serve Him.
3. The union of Christ with us does not mean that we are ABOVE our Lord. This could not be. We are what we are by grace, and we must not presume on His grace to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.
II. A UNION WITH CHRIST IN HIS SUFFERINGS (Matthew 10:25)
1. We who are to be one with Him in His glory, should gladly be one with Him in His suffering. We are not above our Lord and Master. It is given unto us not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
Our place is outside the camp with Him, bearing His reproach. If you say, How can One so altogether lovely be despised and rejected of men? this we cannot explain; however, we know that He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. We know that He came to Israel, came to His own; came with His hands and heart filled with love and blessing, yet His own received Him not.
What then? Shall we seek to be loved by them who loved Him not? Shall we, who are His, and who bear His image in our faces, seek to shun the shame and the spittle that befell Him? God forbid. We are not above our Lord and Master in His sufferings.
2. We who are His may expect to be a partaker of all that befell Him. Should we think it strange that we are called Beelzebub, if He was so called? Shall we wonder why we are hated, when He was hated? Nay, we should the rather be surprised if the world hated Him, and loved us; if the world despised Him, and accepted us.
God says, "Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." Is that some strange thing? Nay, it would be strange if we were not partakers with Him in His ignominy. Our verse says, "How much more shall they call them of His household?" So all this is to be expected by us.
3. The Lord Jesus never sought to hide away the fact that His saints would suffer. He never covered up the tragedy of our trials by the way. He never promised a smooth pathway, strewn with flowers, where soft zephyrs even blow.
To a "would-be follower" who had said, "I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest" Christ responded, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head."
To another, the rich young ruler, Christ said: "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and * * come and follow Me." To another, Christ said, "No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God."
If we would be followers of the Lord, we must take up our cross and follow Him.
III. A CALL TO FEARLESSNESS (Matthew 10:26; Matthew 10:28)
1. True bravery is God's call to saints. What if the foes are strong, and the trials are many let us hold up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. Let us not run from the foe. Nay, we are to stand, and having done all, to stand. We have no armor for our backs; however, God has panoplied us with abundant protection for facing the enemy.
The words of God to Joshua still ring out: "Only be thou strong and very courageous." And again, "Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage." Then Joshua answered, "All that Thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever Thou sendest us, we will go." Then once again, the Lord said, "Only be strong and of a good courage."
If you were in Korea today, what would you do? The government has passed orders that all children in the Mission School shall daily be taken down to heathen shrines and forced to worship their idols. What would you do? What would I do? What should they do?
2. Consummate bravery even unto death is the call. Hearken to the words of our Lord, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul"; that is, we are to be faithful even unto death, even unto martyrdom, if that is necessary. And how many have been faithful? It would do all our people good to read again Foxe's Book of Martyrs. It would strengthen our shaking knees if we were to go to some parts of this present world, at this present hour, and see men and women, even boys and girls, standing unwaveringly in the presence of threatened death.
3. We are to carry on for the Lord no matter what happens. He is still saying, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." This is the call to a faithful ministry of the Word. Of some it is written, "And they loved not their lives unto the death." Shall we lie low with our testimony and hide from our foes, or shall we speak His Word at all cost?
IV. THE ALL-SEEING EYE OF OUR LORD (Matthew 10:29-30)
1. The message of the sparrow. Christ, seeking to strengthen His saints to their call to suffer, said: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father."
Yes, the song is true, "His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He cares for me." The sparrow may be the most insignificant of birds, and the most despised by man; yet God says that not one of the little things falls without His seeing, and knowing, and caring.
What, then, about saints? They are most precious unto Him. For them He sold all He had, and bought them. We are His jewels, His pearls of great price. We are His own workmanship, created in His own image, and recreated in new birth into His likeness. Thus, if He cares for the sparrow, are we not of much more value than they?
2. The message of assurance. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." God, it seems to us, could not make His watching care more considerate and faithful than is expressed by these words. If no sparrow can fall without my Father, and if not a hair of my head can miss His watchful eye, surely I can trust in Him.
God is indeed teaching us to trust in His love and care. "He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
V. THE BLESSED CONFESSION OF OUR NAME (Matthew 10:32-33)
1. Those who confess Him now, He will confess by and by. These words are indissolubly linked with our present sufferings for His sake, and with the Father's watchful eye. He had been saying something like this:
(1) If they called Me Beelzebub, they will so call you.
(2) Pear them not, for I know it all, and I am watching from above.
(3) I observe you, for the hairs of your head are all numbered.
Now He says, in the light of His call to us to suffer for His sake, "Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, Him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven." In other words, God is saying, "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and hid that shall not be known." He is telling us that He is keeping tab on our service and preachments. He is watching our confession of His Name.
What does all this mean to us? It means this: if we confess Him, He will confess us. It means if we confess Him before men, He will confess us before the Father; if we confess Him here, on earth, He will confess us there, in Heaven.
In other words, it means, "Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me." God is not and cannot be unforgetful of our work and labor of love, which we have showed in His Name. If He could be unmindful, He would be unrighteous toward us. Nay, He is watching sympathetically and appreciatively, and He will, with great joy, confess us before the Father and the holy angels.
2. Those who deny Him now, He will deny them before the Father. If one side is true, the other side is necessarily true. This thirty-third verse tells us that God not only knows the witnessing of the faithful, but He knows the denials of the unfaithful, and of those who fear. Talking of sorrow in Heaven: what could be a greater sorrow than to hear Christ's denial of our service up there in the Glory?
It is only those who suffer for Him who will reign with Him; those who deny Him, He will deny. He will take the one group into His reign, the other group will be left out of the reign. Saved, so as by fire, they will enter into eternal life, yet they will not have places of honor and recognition in the Kingdom reign.
VI. THE INSIDE OF A TRUE CONFESSION (Matthew 10:34-37)
1. This is not the time of the Prince of peace. Christ said, in Matthew 10:34, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."
Here is a word that may adjust some false teaching. Some speak as though this was the hour of peace on earth, and of good will among men. Not so. There is a peace to those who know and obey the Lord. "Peace I give unto you." There is a peace of men of good will. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace." However, this is, generally speaking, an age of war and rumors of war. It is an age of conflict between the true and the untrue, between Christ and Belial, between the right and the wrong.
Instead of peace among men, Christ brings separation into the homes of the saved.
2. This is an age of contrasts and variances, one against another. That variance enters into the very home itself. Here are the statements of the Lord: "I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household."
What is the depth of all this? It suggests that there is an unavoidable chasm between the life of the saved and the unsaved. This chasm cannot be spanned even by family ties. In many homes the one is living for this life, and the other for the life to come; the one has Satan for his master, and the other has Christ; the one sets his affection on the things beneath, and the other on the things above.
3. A man's foes shall be they of his own household. The greatest obstacle to spiritual life often lies in the home. The strongest foes to Christian service are often in the home. The unregenerate will put every possible obstacle in the way and walk of the redeemed.
Satan has no greater delight than in dividing households. He will seek to keep the citadel of the home as the fulcrum of his strongest hindrances to prayer, and spiritual life.
What then? There can be but one conclusion, and Christ makes that plain: The Christian is called to forsake all, even his dearest loved ones, to follow Christ.
VII. WHERE TRUE VALUES ARE TO BE FOUND (Matthew 10:37-39)
1. True obedience, true worth, is dependent on leaving father, mother, son, or daughter. Here it is as the Lord Jesus said it: "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me."
When one said, "Suffer me first to go and bury my father," Christ said, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the Kingdom of God." In following Christ fully, He must take the pre-eminence over any and all loved ones at home. In all things He must be first. His call supersedes all other calls, His love all other loves.
2. True worth is dependent on the taking of the cross. "He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me." The cross is not a precious gold bar which we are to wear; it is the thing that runs directly over and against the will of the flesh, and the will of men. The cross is a rough and goading thing which men despise, and which bears us. The cross means our going with Him outside the camp, and bearing His reproach.
3. True worth is found in losing our life for His sake. "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it." Again, "He that findeth his life shall lose it." This suggests that when one sees his cross and spurns it, it will prove his loss; but when he sees his cross and bears it, he shall have gain. He that is willing to put his life; that is, his hours of being, his days, his years, into a full consecration unto God, shall find those hours, and days, and years, on the other shore, abundantly multiplied.
Once more we have the question of Heavenly rewards or loss in the light of full obedience to Christ down here.
4. True worth is in receiving Christ's own into one's heart and affection. "He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." When your life is being spent as a living sacrifice for Christ, when your all is on His altar, and someone receives you, such a one also receives your Lord; and, in receiving your Lord, he also receives the Father.
AN ILLUSTRATION
The question that all of us should ask ourselves, is this: Do we serve for love or pay?
A lad named Sydney, who had reached the age of ten, overheard a conversation about certain bills which had to be paid, and conceived the idea of making out a bill for what he himself had done. The next morning he quietly laid on his mother's plate at breakfast the following statement: 'Mother owes Sydney: For getting coal six times, 6d. For fetching wood lots of times, 6d. For going errands twice, 4d. For being a good boy, 2d. Total, Isaiah 6:1-13.' His mother read the bill, but said nothing. That evening Sydney found it lying on his own plate, with the is. 6d. as payment; but accompanying it was another bill, which read as follows: 'Sydney owes mother: For his happy home for ten years, nothing. For his food, nothing. For nursing him through illness, nothing. For being good to him. nothing. Total, nothing.' When the lad had looked at this, his eyes were dim and his lips quivering. Presently he took the Isaiah 6:1-13. out of his pocket, and rushed to his mother, flung his arms around her neck, and exclaimed: 'Mother, dear! I was a mean wretch! Please forgive me, and let me do lots of things for you still.' Jesus gave His all for us (Philippians 2:6-8). How do we answer His question. "Lovest thou Me?" (John 21:15).