How Are You Helping The Cause of Christ?
Good Morning Friends,
After many stern warnings and instructions to His disciple makers, Jesus closes a focused discourse on mission work with a simply amazing promise from today’s text. Jesus had instructed His disciples to stay in homes and towns where they were welcomed. Now He promises to give rewards to those who receive His missionaries. The rewards promised to those who help His righteous servants are most meaningful, as if to say this is all going to be worth it if you are strong enough to follow it through and open your doors and share a meal and a cool drink. The mystery is that having heard all this, apparently, the disciples did not go out and start preaching the Gospel right away. This, for the most part, would happen after the resurrection, but little of it is written down in the Bible. We really know very little about the evangelical work of most of the disciples. But that is not essential. The real issue is not about us and the world knowing what we do, it is about being part of the experience of the Body. How Are You Helping The Cause of Christ?
Scripture: “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”
Matthew 10:40-42 (NRSV)
Message: In today’s text, we have a very important promise.
Those who faithfully served the Lord and who faithfully support mission workers will be rewarded. Jesus is identifying Himself with those in the mission field. The idea is that of a commissioned or authorized mission or emissary. The mission was that of the Father who authorized it and sent His Son who brings it into being, and who in turn authorizes and sends His disciples on the Father’s mission. The promised blessing is that while the disciples are on mission for Christ those who receive them as Christ’s messengers and representative will be blessed by Jesus. It is hard to even imagine receiving a greater blessing. The motive here is the motive of the Christian faith. It is not just charity but more. Ponder the possibility that the very giving of a cup of cold water to a missionary in need is like an offering of the Holy Grail of Christ that in a transformed state is given back to us in the power of the Spirit. You see these acts of unselfish service are to build up the Body and be motivated by a love for Jesus. And perhaps most powerfully our love for Jesus can be seen not only in how we treat and minister to those who cannot return the favor, but in the residual reality of the Body of Believers who continue the journey and in the promise because of this love. Friends, if we recognize a person as a disciple of Christ and treat them with kindness and hospitality, it will be remembered and rewarded. The value of these relationships is real. The engagement in purpose fulfilling. The reward amazing when we do this for Jesus and in the name of Christ.
Pray we realize that when we help a missionary of the Messiah it amounts to providing support to Christ. Pray we recognize the assistance of others. Pray we render service. Pray we rejoice in the reward. Pray we are true to our assigned mission. Pray we realize we might give without loving but that we cannot love without giving. Pray we are focused on Kingdom business as servants and stewards… as those receiving and those giving for the cause of Christ.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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