Transcript
Amen. Amen. Can you stand and greet the people that are around you? Say hi to those that are around you. We're going to dismiss our kids over to their class. They can go hang out over there. Alright, good morning, good morning, good morning. Okay, you may be seated all you extroverts and no, you'll have some more time later on to say hi to each other. We may have, did we give away all of our Bibles? All right, welcome, welcome. Go ahead and find a seat
If you happen to be new with us. And you want kind of like the inside track, a couple of things like the list of songs that we sing at church and you're like, I don't know any of those songs, but I want to learn them. Well, you can listen to 'em for free on YouTube. There's like a YouTube playlist. You just scan this link here. It'll take you to a page where you can sign up to get emails. You can join our Slack group messaging platform. We were doing that before church. I know some people are like, what is that? It's like a new, it's new for me. And so we are trying to mix both people who are technical and know how to download an app with people who don't know how to find the app store. We will help you, but if you want to message one another, if you want to get ahold of me throughout the week, I'm on Slack. If you want to get emails from the church, you can get that. So all of that, basically this little paper here, you scan this QR code, it takes you to a bunch of helpful links and it explains a little bit more about the church.
As a church we've been gathering for about six and a half years here in this space. We feel like God's called us to be a church that embodies Jesus's Kingdom king, Jesus's kingdom here in Fells Point. So we believe that each of our lives each are called into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but not so that we can be fat and happy and hide from the world, but that God's blessing can come through us to the people around us so that the kingdom of God is erupting from our life out into the place where God has put us. And so it's not about necessarily working in the church or even working in our relief center off Eastern Avenue. It's really about that being joined and reconciled back to God through Jesus Christ and then receiving from him just a sense of purpose and direction and what you're supposed, what does it look like for the kingdom of God to be made real through your life.
Some of you grew up in a Catholic context and the Lord's prayer very well, but let me preach from it for just a second. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, which was our Father who heart in heaven, hallowed be your name. That word hollowed is this idea of famous. It's a prayer that God's name would be famous when I was growing up. One of the most famous names was Michael Jordan, right? Famous name. And yet the prayer is that the name of God would be more famous. It would be the name that is set apart and then the next part of that prayer, what is it? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yeah, that is what Jesus told is disciples to pray. The greatest way for that prayer to be answered is in your life because this is the secret.
You have a willfulness, a will, and you can surrender your will to God and say, God, I'm ready for your kingdom to come in my life and for your will to be done in my life in the same way as it is in heaven. And so as a church, we've been trying to live that out and God knows that we're just kind of stumbling our way along, trying to figure it out. In the middle of planting the church, covid hit cut us down, and yet we have the relief center. So we've doubled down on food and we've been given away a million dollars of food every month out of the relief center. And many of you kind of serve in there or fed or both and it's awesome. And then we gather on Sundays, it's kind of simple. We're kind of a simple church where we give away free food and then we come together and worship on Sunday.
It's not too fancy, but it's good. It's good what's going on Sundays, and many of you know this, on Sundays we just pick a book of the Bible and we study through it. So what book of the Bible are we in now, Matthew? We're in Matthew and this week we're in Matthew chapter 10. We're going to try to finish Matthew 10 all the way up to verse 42. We're in the middle. This is a lengthy section where Jesus is teaching. Remember back in chapter five, six and seven, Jesus taught this. We have this long recording of Jesus teaching what we call the Sermon on the Mount. And really the Sermon on the Mount really deals with ethics of how we treat one another. What does it look like for followers of Jesus to live out socially, this spiritual reality? How does it manifest itself? And he's talking about anger going away.
He puts anger. Jesus literally puts anger on par with murder. He puts lust on par with adultery. So Jesus raises the ethical bar, but he says it's all together different from many of the customs you learned from the religious leaders. You've got to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. And then we spent a couple of chapters in Matthew seeing Jesus doing these miracles where he is healing people. He's casting out demons, he's raising the dead and he's proclaiming, he's going from town to town all around this region called Galilee. It's still there to this day going from town to town, and he's proclaiming the kingdom of heaven. His message was this, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, it's close enough to reach out and touch it. You see, he's speaking to a Jewish audience that has been primed like a pump for years to think in terms of kingdom.
There was the kingdom of Israel, there was royalty and priesthood for generation after generation. And Jesus comes on the scene as the king and as the priest, and he's proclaiming the kingdom of heaven is at hand and he finds opposition pretty quickly from the religious leaders of the day, from the Jewish religious leaders of the day. And so he's contrasting the kingdom of heaven with the Jewish customs that existed. So we're in chapter 10 and we're in the middle of this lengthy teaching by Jesus to his disciples. And Jesus is teaching these disciples as they're heading out the door. These 12 apostles of Jesus are being sent out to do the very, they're being commissioned, they're sent out for just a short period of time to go across this Galilee region across Israel and to do exactly what they've been watching Jesus do for the last few months, maybe a year.
And he tells them, he empowers them. It says in the beginning of chapter 10, Jesus empowers his disciples to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to heal the lepers and to cast out demons. And he says, your message is to go and proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is near. So Jesus sends them out specifically to the Jews and he instructs them to go without provisions. Last week we saw, he says, don't take a money belt. Don't take an extra cloak. Just go and proclaim this message and find the house that's welcoming to you, whatever house it is that's welcoming to you, and stay there while you do this work, this kingdom work, and they'll provide for you. And then he gives them a scenario that it's kind of scary. He says, there's going to be some times where you're going to come into a town.
There's not going to be any worthy house. They're going to reject you. And what I want you to do in that setting is I want you to take the shoes off and I want you to shake the dust off your shoes on the way out of town. Now, that was a Jewish custom that was used as a rebuke to Gentiles. And so Jesus is kind of blowing the minds of Jewish people because he's saying, listen, I want you to do this to Jewish towns. I want you to go and preach to these Jewish people the fulfillment of their own religious system, that Jesus, the Messiah and his kingdom has come. And if they reject you, I want you to do what you do with Gentiles. Shake the dust off your sandals. So today we're going to explore how the mission, this mission applies to us as modern disciples facing our own set of opportunities, our own set of opportunities.
So one of the things that we have been talking about as a church is that we are born disconnected from God's design. We long for the beauty of the world, the love that we are desperate for. There's a sense in us, an innate sense in us that we are designed for something more. And the Bible says that it is only our sin that separates us from God's design and that no matter how good we are, it's not enough to balance the scales of justice and in God's courtroom if we have sinned once, we are not perfect and our imperfection separates us from the presence of God. And yet God in his love for us, sent his son Jesus into the world 2000 years ago to pay for our guilt on the cross. He took on his own body, our guilt so that we could be forgiven by the just judge of the whole earth.
God the Father, God the Father looks at what Jesus did and he attributes the work of Jesus's cross to our account so that we can be innocent. Are you tracking with me? I know that's complex, but I'm putting it in the language of a judicial system because some of y'all have been there before and you know what I'm talking about, right? Thank you. I know you can laugh along. God rescues us all from different places. Okay? So Jesus takes away our guilt. He's washed us of our guilt. He's cleansed us by his blood so that we can be reconciled back with God. And that is not the end of the story. That's only the beginning. And some of you, I've had the privilege of watching you step into that reality and say, I believe it. I believe that what Jesus did is for me and I'm willing to accept that work on my behalf.
And that begins the funnest thing to watch. And you guys are on your jury, you're wrestling with God and you're trying to figure out what does it mean to be a disciple? What does it mean to follow Jesus in my context, in my neighborhood with this crazy group of friends that I've had and this family that I was born into? What does that mean? What does it look like? And so this morning what we're going to see is Jesus is just saying, Hey, as you're going, here's some of the things that you need to observe. I believe that there's five things that we're going to see this morning and they are somewhat related, but what we're going to do is I'm going to read the text to you and then I'm going to explain it. I'm going to read the text and explain it. Let's look first at this idea of an endurance amidst persecution.
Now remember, this is Jesus teaching his disciples. And so what we are going to find as we read it is we're going to see that there are principles embedded in Jesus's conversation with his disciples. He says, brother will betray brother to death and to father his child. Children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You'll be hated by everyone because of my name, but the one who endures to the end will be saved when they persecute you in one town, flee to another. For truly, I tell you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the son of man comes. Let's just stop there for a second. Do you see some of the ways that Jesus is telling his disciples? He's saying, here's the reality that you're going into in my kingdom as I'm sending out people who are rescued.
So imagine when you go to school, let's say that you're in third grade and you go to school and you're stepping into, you're still you. I would be me, Josh. I'm stepping in there, but I'm taking on the role of a student. When I go to third grade, I go to the elementary school and the same is the case for a follower of Jesus. They don't stop being themselves, but they take on a new role, a new reality in their context. And so here he is talking about family relationships and he says there are going to be instances where a brother betrays a brother to death and a father, his children, his child, children are going to rise up against parents and have them put to death. Why is that happening? It's because the message of God's kingdom invades and intersects with lives right in the middle of their life.
So some of you are in your fifties, some of you are in your sixties, and you just found out about Jesus and God came like crashing in like a wrecking ball. I heard that song once, right? He came crashing in and it interrupted your life and you have existing relationships with people around you. And the reality is some of you have lost your family relationships because you identify with Jesus. You have the betrayal of a brother, you have a father betrayed by his children, children rising up against their parents. There's these internal conflicts that are occurring and Jesus is doing what a good leader does. He's saying, you're going into this. Well, Jesus isn't saying, I'm inviting you to be followers of me and it's going to be pie in the sky, peaches and cream. That's not Jesus's message at all. He's saying, I'm telling you about a kingdom.
I've reconciled you back to your creator and there's going to be fallout. There's going to be fallout. He goes on in verse 22, you will be hated by everyone. There's probably more like all kinds of people is probably a better translation of that. And why are these people going to hate you? It's because of the name of Jesus, because now you're identifying with Jesus, but there's a contrast. So you're hated, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Here's the principle, here's the principle that I want you to see. Followers of Christ can expect persecution even from those who are closest to them. And endurance in faith is crucial. Endurance in faith, and I have the privilege, I have the privilege of knowing many of you, and I cannot tell you how much of an honor it is to hear your endurance.
I was reminded of this morning, I'm listening to stories of this week and things and your own personal stories, and many of you are in this position where you are facing great opposition. Your physical body is breaking down. It's your worst enemy at this point, right? You are going through hardship, looking for housing, looking for work, struggling in the workplace, and this is the word that characterizes so many of you. You are enduring and Jesus says that your endurance, that is what is critical. Your endurance, your endurance in faith is crucial. Endurance doesn't mean that all the answers, right? Endurance is this stubbornness to keep going, there's a story about King David. Before he was king, he was running away from the current king who is Saul? So David's running all around Israel being chased because Saul was jealous of him and Saul's going through and just killing people.
And there's one point where David is camped out in this place called Ziklag, and while David is out fighting this battle with his troop of like 700 guys and their families and all their possessions are back in Ziklag gets pillaged by a foreign nation. It was some pagan, it was maybe the Philistines or something like that, right? They came through and they basically burned ziklag down. They stole everything, took all the women, took all the servants and ran away. David comes back with his men, they see what's happened. The men are distraught, they're upset, and David prays and God says, go and chase them. It says there in the passage there's one verse where it says that David set his heart, he determined in his heart to go on to endure. Do you know the crazy thing about that word? That's the same word about Pharaoh in the story of Exodus three through eight where it talks about Pharaoh hardening his heart.
It's this internal resolve. It can be good or bad, but listen, if it's an internal resolve that's saying, Jesus, you're stuck with me. I'm placing my faith in you. I don't understand all the pieces. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I am going to endure and I'm going to beat my head against this wall over and over again because I am in this. I trust in you and I don't know how it's going to work out. I don't know what the future holds, but I'm going to endure. Have any of you been watching the Olympics, gotten a chance to watch a little bit of the Olympics? A little bit, yeah, not much. Okay, but in the Olympics, it's this thing where there's a bunch of people that compete together in sports and some of them are endurance sports. And the idea behind endurance sports is that it's a long way.
Yesterday I turned on one and it was s Skulling rowing, right? One guy rowing and we started watching and I was watching these guys, I was watching it with one of my sons and we're watching it and a minute passes and the guy's still rowing. All five guys are rowing, and then another minute passes and he's still rowing, and then three minutes passes and they're still rowing. And my son says to me, he goes, this is boring. And I know at about three and a half minutes in it was only the half mark, I was like, yeah, this is kind of boring. It's just rowing in a straight line for a long time going, and I didn't want to give seven minutes of my life to watch how that race ended, but that's called an endurance sport. You just keep going. And Jesus tells his disciples that you can expect persecution even from those that are closest to you.
Endurance in faith is crucial. In the Book of Acts, in the book of Acts, there is this section where we read of a persecution that happens to the early church. Do you know that Paul, the apostle who wrote part of the Bible before he was a Christian, he was beating up Christians. Did you know that his name was Saul? He was persecuting Christians. His name was Saul, and he agreed with putting Stephen to death. You got to go read chapter seven if you want to hear that story on that day. So this is all in Jerusalem. This is after Jesus has ascended and gone back up to heaven. It says on that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all of those disciples had been prepared because Jesus had told them persecution is going to happen even from those who are close to you.
Persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and all except the apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. Okay, so here's all these followers of Jesus getting beat up, getting kicked out of Jerusalem, running away from Jerusalem. Let's jump over to verse four. It says, so those who were scattered, they went on their way preaching the word. They weren't hiding in holes. They were like, okay, well, Jesus warned us about this. We're got to go, but we're going to keep preaching the message. This is exactly what Jesus talked about. And then it says, Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. You got to go read the rest of the story in chapter eight if you want to see what happened, but this is the thing, lemme close with this on just this first point. We need to remain steadfast in our faith despite opposition, knowing that enduring to the end is a mark of true discipleship.
Endurance is a mark of true discipleship. Keep going, keep going. Not on your own strength, but keep going in relationship with God. You've been reconciled back to God. The Bible gives you all these promises about your future, about getting a new body, about reigning and ruling with Christ. Some of you are in the latter season of your life and you need to just keep going with the Lord and be ready to receive all that God has promised for you. The inheritance, it's laid up. He says, this is just the shadow. This is the shadow of a future reality that is going to be so good. Keep going, keep going. Let's go to this next section. Emulating Christ, emulating Christ. There's two verses here on this. He says, A disciple is not above his teacher or a slave above his master. It is enough for a disciple to become like his teacher and a slave like his master.
If they called the head of the house Alba, how much more the members of his household. So remember Jesus is sending his disciples out and the language, literally the words that are used to tell these disciples what to do is the exact words that describe what Jesus had been doing. It's a copycat mission. Jesus sends these guys out to imitate him. The principle here is the disciples are called to emulate their teacher Jesus and to share in his sufferings. There's this verse in Romans again, this is Paul wrote this. He says, for those God, for new it's God here. If you go and read it in context for the ones God for knew he gave them a future destination or predestined in them. Think of a train that has a destination for those He for knew. He predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.
When you stepped into this new reality of the kingdom and following Jesus, you already had a destination of where you're heading. Did you know that you don't determine your destination? Now there's things that you're doing along the way that the Holy Spirit's leading you into. It says literally in Ephesians that there's good works. You're called to walk in that are prepared before the foundation of the earth, but there's a future. There's an ultimate destination and this is it. You are destined to be shaped or conformed into the image of his son. It's literally the idea of pressing a coin. You can think of how a coin the hot metal is poured into a mold and then it's pressed into the image of something you are designed. You're predestined to be be that poured into that mold, but the mold is Jesus to look like Jesus.
And here Jesus is telling his disciples, you're going out and you just need to be like me, right? He says, A disciple's not above his teacher or a slave above his master, it's enough for a disciple to become his teacher. So when you're trying to sit there tomorrow morning, you're like, what does it mean to be a Christian? It means being like Jesus. That's why we're reading Matthew. That's why when we're done reading Matthew, we're going to read something else about Jesus from the Bible. Whatever book it is, we're going to keep learning about Jesus because that's your destination and my destination. And the cool thing is we're all different and weird, and somehow we all get to look like Jesus in our weirdness, which is a lot of fun. And I get to, it says in John, do you know this? Listen, listen. In one John, it says, no one has seen God, but it's kind of like this idea of, but we see each other as we're walking in love.
There is this refraction, these glimpses of God through us right now, your friends and your family, the closest they're going to get to seeing God is seeing you love them. When we took those four pallets and felicia's like dumping that food over there on the street over there, that was crazy, right? I right doing that too. Yeah. That's the closest people got on. Was that Tuesday? That was Tuesday, yeah. No, that might've been Monday. I think it was Monday. It was Monday. That was the closest people around you that don't know God yet, haven't read the Bible. That was the closest they came to seeing God that day. I seen people I knew where the building come out. Wasn't that crazy? You got to give content because there's like 300 coming out like cockroaches, cock.
Just don't call him cockroaches, but yes, that's right. I love it. But that's the reality is that God is making himself known. God is making himself known through your life and through my life. We looked at that. Before we get to this is the application. Just really quickly, let me challenge you to embrace the lifestyle and teaching of Jesus, understanding that suffering and opposition are part of following him. Okay, let me help you get this. Okay, so many people, people become followers of Jesus and think, I'm in crisis just if God would just rescue me from my crisis, right? That's the prayer. If God would just rescue me from my crisis, and it's like maybe if God would just give me this money or God would just give me this marriage or God would just give me this job or God would just give me this housing or God would just give me this vehicle, then, then I'd be happy.
But you need to understand that that's not what you're predestined for. Those things happen on the way there. What you are predestined to is this idea of living a lifestyle like God has so much more for you. He's like, look, I can take care of that stuff. I want the people around you to know about Jesus, and I want you to be formed into the image of Jesus and what does he say in Matthew six? Seek first the kingdom of heaven and all those other things, they're going to be added to you. Seek his kingdom. Seek his kingdom. Know that the kingdom, how did you see that clip this week? There was was it? Where's that? Is it Yellowstone that had the geyser that exploded more than normal? Was it Yellowstone? Did you see that? It was like this eruption where it blew up more than normal.
Go and look it up. It was crazy. It broke the boardwalk there. It was scary how big it was. When I say the word eruption, that's what we're talking about. The kingdom of God wants to erupt out of your life in these acts of love and generosity and forgiveness and patience and joy and kindness and radical eruptions of peace. That's the work of God's spirit inside of you. Okay, I'm starting to preach. You better keep going here. This is the next section. This is the next section. So a little bit longer. I see that verse 26 through 33, overcoming fear. Now, I know nobody in this church struggles with fear, so we just skip this over this section. No, just kidding. Verse 26. Verse 26. Therefore, don't be afraid of them since there is nothing covered that won't be uncovered and nothing hidden that won't be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, what you hear in a whisper, proclaim in the housetop. Don't fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Rather fear him who's able to destroy both the soul and body in hell.
Aren't two sparrows sold for a penny yet? Not one of them. Not one of them falls to the ground without your father's consent, but even the hairs of your head have all been numbered. So don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows. Therefore, everyone who will acknowledge me before others, I will also acknowledge him before my father in heaven. So in this section we have the word fear mentioned at least four times, four times. He's saying, don't be afraid. Fear, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. And he gives three reasons, three reasons why you do not need to be afraid. The first is this disclosure is inevitable.
If you are operating off of your fear and you're not sharing the message of the kingdom, Jesus says, listen, what has been hidden? And he's like, imagine him there sitting with his disciples. Maybe they're around a fire and he's been telling them about the kingdom, right? He's like, these things that have been hidden and have been our conversation, these things are going to be disclosed. It's inevitable that these things are going to be known. The kingdom of heaven is breaking out. The hidden and whispered nature of the kingdom is not the natural state of things. The kingdom of heaven is breaking out. It is inevitable. So there's going to be fallout from that. Don't think that operating off of your fear of the Jesus reality is really going to be like what protects you. Don't be afraid. The second reason not to be afraid is man's destructive.
Power is limited at the body. They cannot kill the soul, right? Man's destructive power is limited. So this is the section where he says, don't fear the one who can kill the body. Fear the one who can destroy the soul. What's he saying? He's talking about God, who's the one to be feared? Right? In the book of Proverbs, it says, the beginning of wisdom is to fear God, right? Because God is the one who is the ultimate decision. If you're going to fear anything, it's to fear God, and yet who is the one who loves us? God. Yeah. So there is not a place. So the calculation I enjoy, there's a bunch of podcasts that I enjoy listening to, but they happen to be people who aren't followers of Jesus. And so one of the conversations where we kind of veer in our philosophy of life is that you have some people who are, they're looking at the end of their life, their existence in this body as kind of their time horizon, and so they make a plan about their life that will end when they physically die.
And yet the Christian is called to understand that the death of your body is equivalent to taking a nap because God has created you to live eternally in a body. And so the Bible teaches that the body you're living in right now is affected by the fall of Adam and Eve, that you are living in a sinful environment with your sin and the sins of others, and everything is broken, and death is the payment, is the punishment for sin, and yet Jesus has taken away the ultimate punishment of sin, which is eternal death. Are you tracking with me? So there's two deaths. There is the physical death of this body, and there is the death of your soul, and yet, if you are a follower of Jesus, you have been preserved and protected from an eternal state of death. You are going to live eternally, and so you do not have to fear you die.
If I die right now, if I die today, the Bible says to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord, and so we have this hope laid up for us in heaven, that we will live eternally and be in the presence of God, that we will realize our inheritance, that we will step into a greater reality than the reality we are experiencing now, but we hold onto that by faith and we do not give into fear. The third thing is you're operating in an economy where God cares for sparrows and you are more worth more than sparrows. We're able to see that sparrows are cared for, that God has made systems, ecological systems where sparrows are able to grow up and live and do life, and sparrows are beautiful. They're amazing little birds that fly around, and yet Jesus says, your life is worth more than the sparrows and so saints, here's the application.
Well, there is no application to put up there on the screen. I'll give you the application. It is this, let the facts build your faith and shrink your fears. Did you hear that? Let the facts of your Bible, let the facts build your faith and shrink your fears, build your faith and shrink your fears. In other words, we do life not based on fear, but based on faith in the facts of the Bible. There's a lot, we're going through a political cycle. Yesterday I was listening to one of the political candidates in our area and what the strategy of this political candidate was. They were trying to get my vote by stoking my fear and political candidates do that. Here's what the world's going to look like if this other person becomes X, Y, or Z, but listen, we follow Jesus. We don't give into our fears.
We're trusting in God. Our fears do not determine the way that we vote. Instead our fears, we can check those at the door. We say, listen, we trust in the Lord. Okay? We've got one more section or two more sections here that we can quickly cover radical loyalty to Christ. Let's look at these verses. Don't assume that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword for I came to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. The one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. The one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Anyone who finds his life will lose it. Anyone who loses his life because of me will find it. Okay? We could preach a whole thing on this section here. Oh, here's what I want you to know. Jesus, when he says this, he's having a conversation with the prophet Micah. Go back to Micah seven and read what Micah is saying. Micah, the prophet is lamenting the state of his contemporaries. He's saying, look, what's going on in my Jewish society? We're at this state where father hates child and child hates father brothers turned against brother and Jesus. As he's speaking here, he's saying, these are realities. This is a reality of living in a fallen world, but you need to know that you are called to make me first and preeminent. Jesus isn't saying that you're to turn away from your family or hate your family. He's saying, I have to be the primary value in your life.
Everything's downstream from this relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything and the amazing thing, it's kind of like going to a chiropractor. You get lined up with Jesus and everything else gets lined up after that, but it's got to be Jesus first. He's got to be the one that is a priority. I'm going to leave it at that, but I would say if you really want to go look it up, go to Micah seven and you'll see some fascinating material. True discipleship may cause division even with families, but loyalty to Christ must take precedence. Must take precedence. Okay, let's go to the last section. Let's go to the last section number five. This is just three verses, okay? You've stuck with me this far. Let's just pay attention to these last three verses, receiving and rewarding, receiving and rewarding. Verse 40, the one who welcomes you welcomes me.
The one who welcomes me, welcomes him, who sent me? Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet, will receive a prophet's reward and anyone who welcomes a righteous person because he's righteous will receive a righteous person's reward. Last verse, and whoever gives a person a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is this disciple truly, I tell you, he will never lose his reward. The idea is this, supporting God's messengers and fellow believers is equivalent to receiving Christ himself and it carries a promise of reward. This is a biblical reality. You ever play with those Russian dolls where one nests inside of another? That concept is all the way throughout the Bible. I've used the term of something maps onto something else. If you look at, you're like a cartographer, and you look at a map, it used to be on Google maps that you could kind of turn it to satellite view and turn the roads on and off, so on Google Maps, it would take and lay actual outlines of the roads on top of a satellite image of the road, right?
It maps it on there. The same is the case with biblical principles and relationships. Jesus is saying, when you receive me, you're at the same time receiving the one who sent me, which is God the Father. When you deal lovingly to a brother or sister, spiritual brother or sister, you are being loving. To me, there's this interconnected mapping on It's all connected. It's kind of like the crazy guy with the pins in the signs in his room, right? It's kind of like that. It's all connected, but in a beautiful, holy Spirit inspired way, Jesus is saying, again, supporting God's messengers and fellow believers is equivalent to receiving Christ himself and it carries a promise of reward, so participate in hospitality, participate in hospitality support for one another. There is an eternal significance tied to these things. In fact, in Hebrews, it says, sometimes you've been showing hospitality and you have hosted an angel and you've been unaware of it. The Bible calls us to be those who are hospitable.
Let's close there. I do want to just read to you this last passage out of the book of Romans, because Paul takes this and we read verse 29, but I just want you to hear this in closing, given all that we've studied, listen to Paul's words, we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes. For those God for knew. He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters and those that he predestined, he gave that destination to. He also called, and those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also glorified. What? Then? What are we to say about all these things? If God is for us, who's here going to be against us? Who's going to be against us?
He did not even spare his own son, but he gave him up for us all. How will he not with his son? Jesus, grant us everything who can bring an accusation against you? God's elect. God is the one who justifies, who is the one that can condemn? The only person that could condemn you are me, is Jesus, but Jesus is the one who died, but even more He's been raised, he's also at the right hand of God, interceding for you and me who can separate us from the love of Christ. Can your affliction or your distress or your persecution or your famine or your nakedness or danger, distress or sword as it is written because of you, we're being put to death all day long we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. No. In all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am persuaded. This is Paul writing. He says, I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. There is nothing. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. You may feel like you're a sheep that is being slaughtered, and Jesus said, persecution, hardship is to be anticipated, and here's why. He's still loving giving that explanation because he is the God of resurrection. God is able to raise you from the dead. He's got a story bigger than your pain. He invites you into a story bigger than your suffering. That is who your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is.