Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Zephaniah 1-3
Today's scripture focus is Matthew 10:24-31
24 “A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household!
26 “So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 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. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
In this gospel Matthew presents Jesus as King. And if we recognize Him as king, we need to submit to His Kingship. In MacArthur's words, we will be His subjects. He will be our King. We will be His servants. He will be our Master. We will be His students. He will be our Teacher.....Listen, beloved, when you became a Christian, if you said nothing else you said this ‑ I accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Master and King and I submit myself to His sovereignty. That's what you said, or you weren't saved.
In his sermon Christlikeness: the Goal of Discipleship, MacArthur says.....
The goal of the Christian life then is an ascending toward Christ likeness....If you and I move to be more like Christ then the world will treat us the way it treated Him....He's simply saying the disciple is not above his teacher, and the servant is not above his lord in the sense of persecution. The past passage. In other words, you don't expect to have it any different than I do ‑ do you? I mean, if they've treated Me the way they've treated Me, why should they treat you any different? Now listen to me, and the more like Me you are the more they'll treat you like they've treated Me.
You can kind of gauge your own Christian life that way, can't you? The more like Christ you are the more the world will treat you like they treated Christ. Maybe you don't get much persecution because there's not much similarity
The context is persecution, hostility and death. And we have to be ready to accept that. Now this is an amazing call to discipleship. I want you to come and be My disciples and be like Me and get ready to pay the supreme price. That's what He is saying. And if you aren't willing to come on those terms then you're not going to come....
It is sufficient for me to be like my Lord and to be treated like my Lord. That is sufficient for me...I don't ask to be loved by the world, I don't ask to be famous, I don't ask to be accepted, I don't ask to miss the persecution. I don't ask to be everybody's friend. I ask only to be like my Lord and to pursue to be like Him means to be treated like He was treated....
And you want to know how they were treated ‑ verse 25, the Lord gives an illustration....if they call Him the devil and you're under Him what do you expect they'll call you?...
There's something attractive; a joy, a peace, a freedom from guilt, a sense of forgiveness, the hope of eternal life, peace in the heart, and so while we're becoming more like Christ we will become more attractive. We will become more attractive to those whom God is calling to Himself.
But we will become more distasteful to the system that hated Christ.
A true disciple will make it their goal to become more like Christ, and in the process they will become attractive to those whom God is calling, but distasteful to the world around us. But even in that, Jesus tells us not to fear.
We are not to fear because the truth will be revealed, God will overturn evil and set all things right (v26, 28). A true disciple does not need to fear because he'll have an eternal perspective instead of an earthly one.
A true disciple will fear God not men. At the worst, men can only kill the body. God determines the eternal state of your soul.
A true disciple also need not fear because God values man more than anything. He cares about sparrows even though they're only worth a penny. He cares about the hairs on our head. If He cares that much about sparrows and hair, you know He values you.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 10:32-42
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Jeremiah 1-3
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