Show Notes
Matthew 10:39
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Let's seek the Lord once more in prayer.
[00:00:05] O Lord, our God.
[00:00:08] However it is that we estimate our lives and all of our own accomplishments, we confess as we come before youe Word and are judged by youy Word, that all that we have done and all we have to offer, like Paul says, needs to be accounted as rubbish.
[00:00:30] For everything we have done is tainted by our sin.
[00:00:34] We've done it either out of selfishness or pride, done it out of sinful motives of various sorts. And even the best things we do, therefore, we confess, amount to nothing before you. In fact, not only do they not earn your pleasure, earn your satisfaction, but ultimately, even the best things that we have to offer, we confess with Paul. They are a loss, they sink us, they find guilt before you.
[00:01:12] But we thank you, O God, that you have offered a way of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus, your Son, that should we let go of all of those things and draw near to you in Christ, that you will receive us for his sake, forgiving us and accepting us as righteous. O God, what thanks we bring you.
[00:01:39] We ask, O God, now, as we come near to you in your Word, in the reading and preaching of your Word, that you would press these truths home to us, that you would find those places in our hearts where we yet have pride and we hold on to this life, and that you would set us free where we are weak and stumbling, that you would lift our eyes once more to Christ, and that we might find strength to persevere in Him.
[00:02:09] O God, where we are hurting and anxious, where we are worried and doubtful, we ask that you would bind up our hearts, calm them, grant us peace and assurance in Jesus, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.
[00:02:27] Now we're going to read God's Word From Matthew, chapter 10. This will be our sermon text. Matthew 10:39.
[00:02:44] Hear God's word. Matthew 10:39.
[00:02:47] Whoever finds his life will lose it.
[00:02:50] And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
[00:02:55] Please be seated.
[00:03:11] Did you ever lose something that mattered to you? Maybe it was a coat or a hat.
[00:03:16] Maybe it was your favorite toy.
[00:03:18] Maybe it was something a little more valuable, like the keys to the car in your house, or a phone, maybe your wallet. You lost something and you had to go looking for it.
[00:03:31] Maybe it was in a public place and you went to a desk and you asked if they had it lost and found.
[00:03:39] And what do you know as the person sifting through the basket of stuff, there was your precious toy or wallet or whatever it happened to be.
[00:03:49] You lost something. You went looking for it and you found it.
[00:03:53] But when you found it, there was a sense not just that there was something missing, like a puzzle piece, and you had found it and it fit right in and completed the puzzle that you'd placed. You'd misplaced something and you'd found it. But when you found that thing that mattered to you, you had kept it preserved.
[00:04:19] Wasn't just like finding something lost, scattered, putting it back in its place, but something that mattered to you, that you needed, that you depended on. You found it and preserved it and kept it so you could continue to use it. That's kind of the idea that we have here. When Jesus says that whoever finds his life will lose it, whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. That you've not just found this thing, but now you've preserved it, kept it for your own using. And he says that the thing that you're finding or losing is your very life.
[00:05:01] There's probably nothing more precious to you than your life. Toys might be valuable, wallets, keys, phones, other things, jewelry.
[00:05:11] But the thing that's most precious to you, most valuable to you, is probably your life.
[00:05:17] And that's what we're going to talk about this evening.
[00:05:20] Jesus says that if you find your life, you will lose it.
[00:05:26] We'll look at that under three points.
[00:05:30] First, finding a life.
[00:05:33] Second, losing a life.
[00:05:35] And thirdly, being found.
[00:05:39] So finding a life, losing a life, and being found, finding a life. Jesus says whoever finds his life will lose it. He's been talking to his disciples about the troubles that they will experience and that those who hear the gospel because he's sending his disciples out on a mission to preach the Gospel. Whoever hears the gospel and believes it and becomes a part of Jesus kingdom, those converts, those new disciples, will also experience the troubles. And he's getting near the end of his preparing everyone for those troubles.
[00:06:14] And the last verse that we looked at a few weeks ago there, Jesus says whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy for me. He says that his disciples are going to have to take up a cross and put it on their shoulders and carry it through life. But the imagery there is of carrying a cross like a convict, like Jesus did, down the road to where you're going to be executed. In other words, if you become my disciple, you're going to carry all kinds of troubles, suffering, persecutions in this life, with an end destination of potentially dying for me.
[00:07:01] Having assured us all that troubles in this life are what Christians are called to pick out, he then warns us that if we seek to find or preserve our life in the face of those troubles, we're going to lose it.
[00:07:20] Pretty simple truth.
[00:07:23] If you, in the face of these troubles that you're going to experience for Jesus sake, seek to avoid those troubles and seek to ultimately avoid death for his sake, to preserve your life for your sake, Jesus says it's certain you're going to lose your life.
[00:07:41] So finding your life here pretty clearly at the root has the idea of preserving your life from physical death.
[00:07:52] It's a little broader though, not just preserving your life. I think it includes, even as the cross includes, all of the troubles you might experience in life for Christ.
[00:08:01] Preserving your life here. Finding your life here seems to have a broader sense than just physical death that you might experience for Christ's sake.
[00:08:12] Think of Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus says, do not be anxious for your life, which you will eat, which you will drink, which you will what you will put on.
[00:08:22] In other words, don't be anxious for your life with regard to the things that preserve and protect life in your the troubles you experience for life for Christ's sake, the persecution you experience might threaten your ability to eat, drink or have clothing. And Jesus says, you're not to avoid trouble for my sake in order to preserve food, clothing, shelter.
[00:08:53] I think if it includes what sustains life as well as life versus death, physical life, what sustains physical life, then it includes also everything that makes up life, the whys and what's of life. We don't just eat so that we can breathe. We don't just breathe so that we can sit here.
[00:09:15] We have jobs that we enjoy working, we have families that we take care of and enjoy living with and sharing life together with our relationships, our careers. All of these things are what makes up the what's and whys of life. And those may be threatened, we may lose those for Christ's sake.
[00:09:36] So finding life here, preserving life, has to do with physical life and death, but also I think really everything that makes up life.
[00:09:47] Jesus call to his disciples, to you and me, is that we need to be willing to give up life and everything that life means to you for Jesus sake.
[00:09:59] And that if we don't, if we aren't willing to do that, we will surely lose all of it.
[00:10:10] That's what he's talking about when he says finding your life. Now that's about the most serious topic I can take up with you.
[00:10:20] Not just physical life, but sustaining that physical life. And then everything that life means to you, your relationships, your career, all of it.
[00:10:30] And Jesus says, you need to be willing to give that up for my sake.
[00:10:36] It's hard for us to give that up.
[00:10:39] We're wired in a way to want to find life, to preserve life.
[00:10:45] We're wired for it, with an innate natural desire. Everyone's born with a will to live.
[00:10:51] Sometimes, tragically, people give up that will to live in despair. But even there, the despair shows you just how valuable life is.
[00:11:01] It's become so difficult, so terrible, that they give up on it.
[00:11:05] But we have an innate will to live, a desire to live related to that. We all have an innate understanding of the very preciousness of human life.
[00:11:18] Children are precious to us. New lives.
[00:11:21] We praise God for the birth of J's nephew.
[00:11:25] There's a whole life ahead of that child. Childhood, being raised, spending time with his family, his parents, delighting over him, and then a whole life ahead of him as an adult.
[00:11:37] Life is truly precious, and we don't want to lose it.
[00:11:43] That's normal, and it's good to have those desires.
[00:11:48] Furthermore, it's not just that we have this sort of inbred will to live and understand the preciousness of life, but as we engage life, as you go through day to day, the ordinary pursuits of life, as you live day to day, week after week, year after year, with your family, in your job, in your career, most of us, these pursuits cause us to want to preserve or find life. Think about it this way. You spend your whole life working, building a career and a reputation, providing for your wife and children.
[00:12:29] You spend all of your time with your family and with your friends, building up, nurturing those relationships. These things matter to you. You pour yourself into them, and you don't want to give them up.
[00:12:44] It's natural. That's normal, and to a certain degree, it's healthy. It's a good thing.
[00:12:52] We do everything we can to preserve these things all day long. And we don't want to give them up.
[00:12:59] We want to find life.
[00:13:04] You think of losing your favorite toy, your favorite wedding ring, something valuable to it, valuable to you. You'll go around and spend quite a bit of time looking for it.
[00:13:16] You might spend hours looking for it, asking people to help you look for it.
[00:13:22] But Jesus says the most precious thing to you in your life, when you're faced with the cross that may take that away from you. He says, you need to be willing to lose it for my sake, not find it.
[00:13:40] Jesus says, not only are we going to want to find that life, but we need to be willing to lose it. So he addresses that desire to want to find the life. And he calls us to be willing to lose it. And that's our second point here. Jesus is pressing on, you might say the most sensitive area of our soul, our being.
[00:14:06] He's putting us to the most extreme test.
[00:14:11] I can't think of a more extreme question, a sharper question than will you give up everything for me, or will you persist in finding your life?
[00:14:25] Remember, we've been working through Matthew, chapter 10.
[00:14:29] Your family's going to turn on you. They're going to turn you into the authorities, right?
[00:14:34] You're your fellow countrymen, the Jews. They're going to beat you, put you in prison.
[00:14:43] Your own family members will turn. Jesus says this is going to happen.
[00:14:48] Are you willing to give up all of that for my sake?
[00:14:55] Will you persist in finding your life?
[00:14:59] What do you value the most?
[00:15:02] Comforts?
[00:15:04] Careers?
[00:15:05] Family?
[00:15:08] Your own physical life?
[00:15:12] Or do you value King Jesus?
[00:15:16] That's the question he's asking us here.
[00:15:19] Do you prize me above all else? That you would be willing to give up your very life for me?
[00:15:27] It's a question of what's valuable to you.
[00:15:31] We could ask it another way. Where do your loyalties lie?
[00:15:36] King and country?
[00:15:37] Family and company? Career, friends?
[00:15:42] Or do they lie with Jesus?
[00:15:47] When Jesus is not first in our lives, when anything else comes first, when anything else is your greatest treasure, when anything else is your chief loyalty, then you will not be willing to give those things up for Christ.
[00:16:10] When anything else is first. To put it another way, when anything else is first in your life, then Jesus is not your king and you are not his disciple.
[00:16:22] When anything else is first and Jesus is not your king, then you are outside of his kingdom and you are outside of Christ.
[00:16:37] Let's put it another way. Jesus uses paradoxical language here. When Jesus is not first for you, then you cannot lose your life for him and you must find it.
[00:16:54] You will do everything you can to find it, because he's not first in this case. If this is you, Jesus promises you will lose your life.
[00:17:08] If you pursue anything else above me, seeking to preserve it, you will lose it.
[00:17:19] Now, I'm going to flip around here.
[00:17:22] That's what Jesus is pressing us with. And we need to ask those questions. We need to examine our hearts and say, is Jesus truly first?
[00:17:32] Now, I want to give you a bunch of reasons why you can and should give up your life and lose your life and place Jesus first.
[00:17:42] First you need to be willing to lose your life, because loss of life is certain.
[00:17:50] In your pursuit of life in Your pursuit of preserving and keeping what you treasure the most.
[00:17:56] You may find it, you may keep it.
[00:18:00] You may avoid persecution, you may avoid trouble, sorrow. You may avoid death for a time.
[00:18:08] But in the end, Jesus says, what you worked so hard to find, you will surely lose.
[00:18:15] You will one day die. Death comes to all because all have sinned.
[00:18:21] You will die. And when you die, you will go to hell. You will be separated from me and from my kingdom forever.
[00:18:31] Be willing to give up life, because loss is certain.
[00:18:35] No matter how hard you try to find it and hang on to it, you're going to lose it.
[00:18:41] Give it up.
[00:18:43] Secondly, and this will sound similar.
[00:18:47] Be willing to lose your life because it's a lost cause already.
[00:18:52] Be willing to lose your life because it is a lost cause already.
[00:18:56] Your life outside of Christ. If Christ is not first for you, he is not your king.
[00:19:02] Your life outside of Jesus is already a sure loss.
[00:19:07] Everything you do, everything you pour yourself into, your work, your family, your relationships, your reputation, the very best things you do, you build all of your accomplishments like Paul.
[00:19:21] They're sunk. They're like a boat that's sunk.
[00:19:26] It's a lost cause.
[00:19:28] You're a sinner and your life up to this point is full of sin.
[00:19:34] It's not acceptable to God. It's fallen short of his glory.
[00:19:39] We read of how Paul reflected on his life outside of Christ before he came to know and receive Christ.
[00:19:46] He said, I did all of these wonderful things. If anyone had anything to boast about, I do.
[00:19:54] But he says, it's all worthless.
[00:19:58] And I had to let it go. I had to count it as a loss so I could gain Christ.
[00:20:03] You need to be willing to lose your life because it's a lost cause.
[00:20:10] Thirdly, you need to be willing to lose your life because that life that you lose is the life that Jesus came to save you from. From.
[00:20:21] He came to deliver you from a life marred and broken in sin.
[00:20:28] If you try to find it, you're hanging onto it.
[00:20:32] And Jesus came to deliver you from it.
[00:20:38] Why would you go back to it? He's the light of the world that came and found you in darkness. He brought you out of that darkness and you're into his kingdom.
[00:20:47] He bathed you in light, the light of the gospel. He gave you new life.
[00:20:52] To find your life is to go back to what he came to save you from.
[00:20:57] You were called to repent of that life, not go back to it.
[00:21:02] Don't go back to the very thing Jesus came to save you from. Be willing to lose it.
[00:21:10] Fourth, be willing to lose your life for Christ.
[00:21:15] Because as a Christian, you have already died.
[00:21:19] That life is gone. It's dead to you. You can't get it back. You don't want it back.
[00:21:27] Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.
[00:21:31] When I was united to Christ by faith, my old man died.
[00:21:36] Everything that was before Christ is gone.
[00:21:39] I have been crucified with Christ. And he says, guess what?
[00:21:43] I have a new life.
[00:21:45] It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
[00:21:50] The life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
[00:21:57] Your old life is gone.
[00:22:00] It's nailed to the cross. Now you have life. Only in Jesus. Be willing to lose this earthly life for him.
[00:22:07] It's dead to you.
[00:22:12] Fourthly, this flows from the last couple points. Jesus came to save you from that old life to a new life. You're dead to the old man, you're alive in Christ to the new.
[00:22:25] Your life now is not your own.
[00:22:31] You don't belong to you. And if you don't belong to you, your life doesn't belong to you.
[00:22:37] It's not yours to find or to keep. It's not yours to lose.
[00:22:42] It belongs to Jesus.
[00:22:46] Be willing to lose the life, because the life you now have isn't yours, it's His.
[00:22:53] Paul says, you are not your own.
[00:22:56] You were bought with a price.
[00:22:59] Therefore, glorify God with your body.
[00:23:03] Be willing to lose your life because it belongs to Him.
[00:23:07] Your life belongs to the King. And if he wishes for you to lose it, then do so.
[00:23:12] Give it up for him.
[00:23:19] As you begin to ponder the truths of what it means to have been delivered by Jesus, your King, and be brought into his kingdom and be given this new life, a new view of your life should set in.
[00:23:32] King Jesus is first. Everything else is second. Does my life matter? Yes. Should I take care of my body? Yes. Should I love my family? Yes. Should I enjoy my career? Yes.
[00:23:44] But all of those things are second, third, last when compared to Jesus, my King. And if he asks me to give something up for Him, I will do so willingly because he gave Himself up for me.
[00:23:59] Life is precious. Jesus says, I am more precious than life to you.
[00:24:07] Paul says in Acts 20, I do not account my own life of any value, nor as precious to myself.
[00:24:17] If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus.
[00:24:23] You see the change.
[00:24:26] What's precious to the Christian now is Jesus.
[00:24:30] And therefore, if I can have Him I can lose my life.
[00:24:37] Paul says, again, whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
[00:24:44] I'm willing to lose my life for Him.
[00:24:48] Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and counted all as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.
[00:25:04] Our values as Christians need to change completely.
[00:25:09] Jesus first, everything else lasts.
[00:25:14] Put Christ first and be willing to lose your life.
[00:25:20] Thirdly, and finally, I want to talk about being found.
[00:25:26] Jesus addresses our concerns as human beings.
[00:25:32] We're concerned about finding our life, preserving our life. And so he's addressing this.
[00:25:38] He wants us to shift our values, shift how we view things, shift how we view the value of our very life.
[00:25:46] We're worried about finding our life.
[00:25:49] Jesus calls us to lose it.
[00:25:52] This implies, as we've been arguing, that we tend to be concerned about the wrong thing.
[00:25:58] We're concerned about our life. When Jesus should be first, he should be our primary concern.
[00:26:05] But I think there's something else implied here.
[00:26:10] We might put it this way. There's something far more urgent for the Christian than finding his life or preserving his life.
[00:26:21] There's something far more needful and necessary than finding and preserving our lives.
[00:26:27] That's counterintuitive.
[00:26:29] This whole verse is paradoxical, isn't it? Reads like a contradiction.
[00:26:35] There's something more important to us than preserving our lives. Something more urgent.
[00:26:42] What is it?
[00:26:44] Something more important than finding your life?
[00:26:49] It's that you be found.
[00:26:52] He says, give up looking for your life.
[00:26:56] Why?
[00:26:57] Because he came to find you.
[00:27:01] King Jesus came to seek and to save what was lost.
[00:27:06] He came looking for you.
[00:27:08] Stop searching, stop looking, stop finding and seeking to preserve.
[00:27:14] Jesus came to find you.
[00:27:18] What matters is not whether you find your life or not, whether you preserve something in this life or not.
[00:27:24] What matters is whether Jesus finds you or not.
[00:27:28] The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.
[00:27:33] That was his mission.
[00:27:35] You were lost, and he came to find you.
[00:27:40] The Father said, go and save a people for me. And Jesus said, I will go.
[00:27:49] His mission was to go to the cross.
[00:27:52] You were dead in your sins, and he took that death on the cross for you.
[00:27:57] He was willing to give up his own life that he would find you.
[00:28:04] He says, I'm the good shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep, the lost sheep.
[00:28:11] And that's what this whole chapter is about.
[00:28:13] You remember the beginning. He tells the 12 disciples, I'm sending you out to find the lost Sheep of the house of Israel.
[00:28:24] That's Jesus whole mission to find what was lost, to find what? You couldn't find your life. He came to find life for you.
[00:28:34] He says that in the Gospel of John, I came that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.
[00:28:42] And he did.
[00:28:44] When he died on the cross and he rose from the dead, he secured eternal life for his sheep.
[00:28:50] And right now he's on a mission. He secured salvation. Heaven belongs to him. Eternal life belongs to him. And right now he's preaching the gospel, sending out his preachers, his missionaries, all of his disciples to go and find his lost sheep.
[00:29:05] Jesus is. He's on a search and rescue mission like the Coast Guard. It's the dark night and he has his searchlight and he's shining that bright searchlight of the Word of God, and he's searching for lost sinners.
[00:29:21] What matters is not whether you find your life or not. What matters is whether Jesus finds you or not.
[00:29:28] And if he's found you, then you are safe.
[00:29:33] Your life is safe because he's found you.
[00:29:39] Jesus purchased eternal life for you.
[00:29:44] He says if you give up your life for me, you will find it. Why?
[00:29:50] Because he has life.
[00:29:52] He has all authority. Heaven belongs to him, eternal life belongs to him, and he gives it to you. If he has found you, then you are safe and you have nothing to fear.
[00:30:06] Will man come and destroy your body? Jesus says, don't worry, fear me. I have the power over body and soul.
[00:30:14] Trust me.
[00:30:16] I've purchased you, body and soul, and I have eternal life for you.
[00:30:24] Think of Paul's words in Colossians 3, verse 3.
[00:30:29] You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
[00:30:36] You don't need to go seeking your life, seeking to find and preserve your life. Jesus has preserved it for you.
[00:30:44] It's hidden with Christ in God.
[00:30:47] That's Paul's way of saying what Jesus says in John 10.
[00:30:52] I have my sheep. They're in my hand, and no one can snatch them out of my hand.
[00:30:57] And the Father, who is greater than I, the sheep are in his hand and no one can snatch them from him either.
[00:31:05] You don't need to go finding your life.
[00:31:08] Christ has found you.
[00:31:10] And your life is hidden in him, in God. And nothing, nothing can touch that or take that away from you.
[00:31:21] But you're going to be found.
[00:31:23] You've been found. Now Paul says one day we will be found.
[00:31:31] And that's what he's talking about in Philippians 3. 9.
[00:31:35] Remember, he counted everything as loss. He Threw away his old life so that he would gain Christ.
[00:31:42] He counted it all as rubbish, valuing only Christ.
[00:31:47] Why?
[00:31:49] Verse 9.
[00:31:50] So that I might be found in him.
[00:31:55] What he's talking about there is being found on the Judgment Day, when God comes to judge the world.
[00:32:03] If I am found in Christ, if I have Christ and He has me, then God will find me righteous in Christ, and I will be safe and secure. If Christ has found you now, let's put it this way. If he's found you now, if he's holding you now, he has your life now and. And he has your life through judgment and into eternity.
[00:32:27] If that's true, then you can lose your life because you will find it when Jesus comes and finds you on the Judgment Day. Let's pray.
[00:32:39] O Lord our God, how we thank you for Christ our Savior.
[00:32:45] We thank you that not only has he delivered us from our sin and misery in this life, from the wrath and judgment of God which is to come, we thank you that he deals with our hearts right now for God. We confess that as we think about life, we think about all the things that matter to us.
[00:33:11] And we consider Christ's question to us what is precious.
[00:33:18] We must confess that we have doubts. There are things that would be very hard for us to give up were persecution to come.
[00:33:27] So, Lord our God, we ask that you would have mercy on us.
[00:33:31] We are your children.
[00:33:33] We ask that you would deal with us as a father deals with his children.
[00:33:37] Correct us gently, lovingly. Lead us to Christ. Show us his glory, his beauty, his love. Show us that he is truly enough for us and that if we have him, that we can let everything else go.
[00:33:53] Oh, God, by your spirit, grant us this faith that we might overcome everything in Him.
[00:34:02] Comfort us, for we know that there will be loss as you do this work in us, as you pry our hands and hearts away from worldly things, but comfort us with Christ, with His preciousness, and with knowing what we have gained in Him.
[00:34:23] Hear our prayers for Jesus sake. Amen.
