The Conquest of Canaan and the Kingdom of God (10) Take off Your Shoes (6) Right to Life

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters - yes, even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:25-27)
 
We've been talking about giving up our rights as people of the kingdom of God. Last Sunday, we talked about giving up the right to love family.
 
Family is one of the most precious gifts given by God. There are many passages on family, including specific advice on how to treat members of one's family.
 
But, at the same time, we found some verses in the New Testament where we’re told to hate our families. Jesus said,
 
 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters… such a person cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:26)
 
At first glance it seems that Jesus is suggesting that hating one's family members is a condition for being His disciple. But Jesus doesn’t really require us to hate our families to be His disciples. Being a disciple of Jesus means keeping His commandments and following His example. This includes the command to love and honor our parents.
 
So, what Jesus is talking about here is not hating our families but having the right priorities. To be a disciple of Jesus means to make loving Him and following His will the top priority in our lives, no matter what sacrifices it requires of us, including our family.
 
Christians are those who love Jesus first and foremost. We're to love Him so much that our love for our family seems like hatred in comparison. Only those who are willing to love Him in this way can truly follow Him.
 
If our desire to be with our families gets in the way of carrying out the mission Jesus has given us, we must be able to give up our right to be with them so that we can go where the Lord sends us. Only such a person can live as a true disciple of Jesus.
 
One day, when a man came to Jesus and said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family” (Lk 9:61), He answered, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62)
 
Saying goodbye to his family before following Jesus was a reasonable request. But Jesus didn’t allow it because He knew that the man valued seeing his family one last time more than he valued following Him.
 
Before following Jesus, the man looked back at what was behind him. And Jesus said such a person is not fit for the work of the kingdom of God.
 
If we are to be disciples of Jesus and live out the mission of the kingdom of God on earth, we must keep that mission at the forefront of our minds and run forward. Someone who keeps looking back and regretting what they left behind cannot easily overcome hardships and difficulties. They will eventually drift away from the calling.
 
Therefore, in order to live as true people of God, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ and the mission He entrusted to us to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. We must not allow anything to distract us from this task. Even if it's family.
 
When God first called Abraham, He told him to leave his father’s house. If Abraham had chosen to be with his family rather than follow God's word, God would have called someone else to fulfill His will, but Abraham would not have had the blessing of being the father of faith.
 
The apostle Paul had the right to have and love a family, but he gave up that right to better fulfill his mission to preach the gospel. Jesus said, “There are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.” (Mt 19:12).
 
Paul was one of those who chose to live like a eunuch for the work of the kingdom of God. When Paul was talking about marriage in his letter to the church in Corinth, he even said, “I wish that all of you were as I am… An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs - how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world - how he can please his wife” (1Co 7:7, 32-33)
 
This is not to say, of course, that Christians should not marry. There are examples of married couples serving together in the Bible, such as Aquila and Priscilla. Peter also had a wife.
 
What Paul is talking about is priority. He gave up his right to have a family so that he could concentrate more on the Lord’s affairs—the ministry of the kingdom of God.
 
This gift is reserved for special people among Christians, such as the apostle Paul, but we should take to heart the spirit we find here. In order for us to truly live as people of the kingdom of God, we should also be able to give up our right to be with and prioritize our families for the sake of the kingdom.
 
Right to Life
Now, let’s talk about the last right we must be able to give up in order to live as people of the kingdom of God—our right to life.
 
Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate… even their own life - such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14:25-27)
 
The most precious thing we are given is our lives. No matter how much money we have or how much we love our families, if we lose our lives, we can't enjoy any of it. If a very wealthy man came to us and offered to trade all his vast wealth in exchange for the rest of our life, none of us would accept the offer.
 
Likewise, if there is one thing that is irreplaceable in the world, it is our lives. Jesus also said, “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?” (Mt 16:26)
 
The Lord knows how precious life is. Yet He asks us not to spare our lives in following Him. There is no hidden meaning here. Jesus literally requires us to hate even our lives in order to follow Him. If we don’t love Jesus more than our own lives, we cannot be His disciples.
 
In the Bible and in Christian history, we read about Christians who believed in Jesus and followed Him, even at the cost of their own lives.
 
After being raised from the dead and before ascending to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit and that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
 
As Jesus had said, the disciples received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and immediately began to go into the streets to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were met with a lot of opposition, threats, and persecution. But they were not discouraged and preached the gospel with joy in the midst of persecution.
 
According to historical records and church tradition, the majority of them were martyred.
 
In Acts 7, Stephen was stoned to death because of his proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus. James was the first of the 12 disciples to be put to death. King Herod had him killed by the sword in Jerusalem.
 
Peter was crucified around 66 AD in Rome under the persecution of Emperor Nero. It’s said that he was crucified upside down because he didn’t consider himself worthy to die the same way Jesus did.
 
Andrew traveled north, bringing the good news to what is now Russia. He later traveled through modern-day Turkey and Greece, where he was martyred.
 
Philip ministered in North Africa and then Asia Minor. Tradition says that a Roman Proconsul was so enraged that his wife had converted to Christianity because of Philip’s preaching that he had Philip brutally put to death.
 
Matthew traveled to modern-day Iran and then down to Ethiopia, preaching the gospel along the way. It is said that he was stabbed to death in Africa.
 
Thomas doubted the resurrection of Jesus at first, but his faith in the risen Jesus was strong enough to send him traveling east to Syria and Iraq to preach the gospel. He eventually ended up in India. He died by stabbing at the hands of four soldiers. 
 
After encountering Jesus on the way to Damascus, Paul became a proclaimer of the gospel and suffered throughout the rest of his life as a result. He was beheaded in Rome in 66 AD, possibly at the same time as Peter.
 
In addition to these, many early Christians were persecuted and killed by the Jews or Roman emperors because of their faith in Jesus Christ and their proclamation of the gospel. They didn’t deny Jesus Christ in order to prolong their own lives. By doing so, they testified to the resurrection of Jesus Christ through their sublime sacrifice and martyrdom.
 
This is still true today. There are many Christians around the world who are persecuted and killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. Many missionaries still travel to dangerous places and risk their lives to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because of them, the gospel is still being proclaimed to every corner of the world.
 
Two weeks ago, a pastor who works for missions in North Korea came and spoke to us about how the mission is going there and told us about a young man who pretended to be crazy for the gospel, but ended up being captured and martyred.
 
In Turkey, a German missionary named Tilmann Geske was brutally martyred in 2007. Tilmann Geske and two local Christians went to their office on April 18th, 2007, to study the Bible with a group of five young men, some of whom they had known for several months. The men were secretly religious extremists who had been deceiving the missionary by pretending to be Christians.
 
That day, the five men threatened the missionary and two local Christians with pre-prepared pistols, tied their hands and feet, and severely tortured them with knives for about three hours before killing them. The missionary's body was found with about 156 torture marks.
 
Upon hearing the news, Christians in Turkey who had been defending their faith in secret took to the streets in public, holding signs that read 'Kill us too'.
 
When I heard this news from a missionary in Turkey, my eyes welled up with tears because I felt so ashamed of my life compared to their faith.
 
There are many places in the world today that need the gospel. Some of them have religious freedom, but many do not. But if there are no Christians willing to go there, how can the gospel be delivered to them? That's why we should hate our life to truly follow Jesus’ way.
 
Of course, martyrdom doesn't happen often now - it's reserved for very special Christians. But still we need to have that spirit of martyrdom if we are to live as true Christians.
 
So, for the past couple of months, we’ve talked about the rights we should give up in order to live as people of the kingdom of God, such as the right to spend our money and time, the right to choose where to live, the right to love our families, and the right to life. And we know one person who gave up all these rights to follow God’s will—Jesus Christ.
 
Philippians 2:5-8 says, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!” (Php 2:5-8)
 
Jesus gave up His rights as the Son of God in heaven and made Himself nothing by taking on the form of a servant who had no rights.
 
He gave up the right to be God. He gave that up to come to earth as a man. We cannot understand what it was like for the Son of God to leave Heaven and come into our sinful world.
 
He gave up the right to money. He gave up the right to time. He didn’t use a single hour of the whole time given to Him for His own pleasure or entertainment, but used it all according to God’s will.
 
He surrendered His reputation. He was insulted by many people. He gave up the right to stay in a comfortable house. Even the birds of the air had their nests and the foxes had their dens, but He didn’t have a place to lay His head. He gave up the right to be with His earthly family. He gave up the right to get married.
 
What’s more, Jesus gave up the right to life itself and became obedient to death on a cross. It wasn’t a normal death, but a cruel death reserved for the worst criminals of His day.
 
Jesus laid down His life to give us life. He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:28)
 
He also said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… just as the Father knows me and I know the Father - and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (Jn 10:11,15)
 
These are the rights Jesus gave up to save us from our sins, reconcile us with God, and give us true life. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 8:9,
 
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2Co 8:9)
 
Jesus made Himself poor that we might be rich. He laid down His right to life so that He could give us life. Because He was punished by God and struck by Him, we were healed, forgiven, and able to have peace with God.
 
Now, it’s our turn. Jesus is calling us to the mission of the kingdom of God. He is sending us out into the world as witnesses of His death and resurrection. As those saved by God’s grace, we’re to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth. This can’t be done unless we willingly give up our rights as Jesus did.
 
Each of us is either a missionary or a mission field. Everyone with Christ in their heart is a missionary, and everyone without Christ in their heart is a mission field.
 
You may ask, "How can I be a missionary?" But you are already a missionary if you believe in Jesus, because the word "missionary" means "one who is sent," and He sends every believer out into the world.
 
So all of us are missionaries regardless of where we are now. If we are living in God’s will, we are missionaries on the job wherever we work. We have been sent to those around us as missionaries. That’s the identity we’re to have as people of the kingdom of God.
 
And, as missionaries sent by God into the world, we must learn to limit our rights and use them according to God’s will.
 
Before we conclude this series of sermons, I would like to share a poem with you. It’s called “My Choice.” Let me read it for you.
 
I want my breakfast served at “Eight,”
with ham and eggs upon the plate.
A well-broiled steak I’ll eat at “One,”
and dine again when day is done.
 
I want an ultra-modern home
and in each room, a telephone;
soft carpets, too, upon the floors,
and pretty drapes to grace the doors.
 
A cozy place of lovely things,
like easy chairs with innersprings,
and then I’ll get a small TV--
of course, “I’m careful what I see.”
 
I want my wardrobe, too, to be
of neatest, finest quality,
with latest style in suit and vest.
Why shouldn’t Christians have the best?
 
But then the Master I can hear,
in no uncertain voice, so clear,
“I bid you, come and follow me,
the lowly Man of Galilee.
 
“Birds of the air have made their nest,
and foxes in their holes find rest;
but I can offer you no bed,
no place have I to lay my head.”
 
In shame I hung my head and cried.
How could I spurn the Crucified?
Could I forget the way He went,
the sleepless nights in prayer He spent?
 
For forty days without a bite,
alone He fasted, day and night.
Despised, rejected—on He went,
and did not stop till veil was rent.
 
A Man of sorrows and of grief,
no earthly friend to bring relief--
“Smitten of God,” the prophet said--
mocked, beaten, bruised, His blood ran red.
 
If He be God and died for me,
no sacrifice too great can be
for me, a mortal man, to make;
I’ll do it all for Jesus’ sake.
 
Yes, I will tread the path He trod,
no other way will please my God;
so henceforth, this my choice shall be,
my choice for all eternity.
 
This poem was written by an American missionary named William McChesney. He went to the Congo in 1960 after writing this poem. A few years later, civil war broke out in the Congo. He was captured by rebels on November 24th, 1964, and taken to prison. The rebels beat him badly. The next morning he was martyred. He was 28 at the time.
 
He could have lived a normal, comfortable life in America. He could have raised a family and lived happily. But he left all those rights behind and went to a remote mission field where he was martyred at a young age.
 
What does that life look like to you? The Jesus that this missionary believed in is the same Jesus that we believe in. The Jesus Paul followed is the same Jesus we follow, and the Lord still calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.
 
Of course, not all Christians can live like Paul and William McChesney, but I hope we don't forget the spirit they embodied. I hope we don't forget the one who became poor so that we might become rich, and the mission He gave us.
 
May we look to Jesus Christ who accomplished our salvation by shedding His blood for us and decide to follow in His footsteps, humbly laying down our rights, boldly witnessing to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and living as His true disciples.
 
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, at this time we look to Your one and only Son who came to earth in human form, giving up every right and privilege, shedding His blood, and dying on the cross to save us from sin and death. We remember the sacrifice He made to atone for our sins.
 
We thank You for the salvation that You have freely given us through Jesus Christ. Now, we want to live lives worthy of Your grace.
 
Following the example of Jesus Christ, we want to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but help us share in His sufferings by boldly witnessing to it.
 
We ask that You open our eyes to the eternal values of Your kingdom so that we continue to fix our eyes on Jesus, the perfector of our faith. May we also willingly give up our rights and use them for Your kingdom and Your glory.
 
Thank You for creating us in Your image, saving us and adopting us to be Your children through Jesus Christ, and calling us to join in the mission to build Your kingdom on earth.
 
Continue to be with us and guide us until we finish our race and see You face to face.
 
All this we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) Why is it necessary to give up our rights in order to live as people of the kingdom of God? Of the rights we've talked about, which ones do you think you need to give up most in order to follow God's will?
 
2) Do you see yourself as a missionary or a mission field? Why? If you are a missionary, to whom and where do you think Jesus is sending you?