Acknowledge and Receive
Matthew 10:32 – 33, 40 – 42
Friends once again this week we continue to hear the words of Jesus through the Apostle Matthew, words that tell Christians that they are a “sent” people, sent from the church to do the continuing work started by Jesus Christ while he was among us.
Three weeks ago Jesus was telling the Disciples that He was using his authority to send the believers out into the world to continue the transformation of mankind. “Therefore Go” Jesus said to his Disciples, go into the world and make disciples, to make learners, to make students of the whole world was the message that day.
Two weeks ago Matthew told us that Jesus had spent His ministry doing for the lost and broken by teaching, proclaiming and healing these souls while the disciples watched and hopefully learned. They were Called to the Harvest to gather in the lost souls just as Jesus had taught them.
Then last week once again Jesus was preparing the Disciples for what they would face as they were sent into the Harvest fields on their own. Three times in our lesson, Jesus issued the repeated command; don’t be afraid of those who oppose your work. Be Courageous he told us in the face of opposition and trials. We have been reminded over the past three weeks that Christians are a sent and working people.
I think that whether most of us would admit it or not, we really do like and appreciate acknowledgement from other people for who we are and what we do. We appreciated it when a teacher put a star on our work at school. A grade was just a number, the star represented acknowledgment the effort and the work that we had done.
Maybe it was a smiley face that we received from a piano teacher on our perfecting a tough piece that we had worked on so diligently. The acknowledgement that we received in the moment was great, but the star on the page that we received was a lasting remembrance that we had overcome an obstacle that at one point had seemed insurmountable.
Maybe it was acknowledgement from a coach that proved to you that your perseverance in practice had finally paid off. Hearing “Get in the game” sounded so sweet at the time but receiving a pat on the back in front of the other players for what you accomplished was a lasting motivation.
Maybe it was the words of a Mother or Father when you graduated, or when you got married or maybe when you brought that first grandchild over to meet them. They looked at you in the eyes and said “I am proud of you and the person that you have become”. The event was memorable but the acknowledgement that you received changed the whole way that you looked at your relationship with them. Acknowledgement and Receiving by others has revealed who God has created us to be.
In our lesson today, Jesus is continuing the preparation of the disciples for the challenges that lay ahead when it is their time to change the world around them. They have been working so hard on “finishing that paper” or “perfecting that music” or “graduating from school” that now it is the time for them to “get in the game”. But game is going to be difficult, harder than you might even imagine and Jesus senses that they need to receive more encouragement for the task ahead. How will this benefit us? How will this make us better they might wonder?
A quick detour into chapter 18 of Luke’s Gospel, where we hear the story of the young rich man that comes up to Jesus and asks the question “what must I do to inherit eternal life”? Jesus as you know tells the young ruler that he should “sell everything that you have and give it to the poor and you will have a different treasure in heaven, you will have what you are desire. Come and follow me” he says. The rich man went away sad because of what Jesus had told him. You know the whole camel through the eye of a needle thing.
But the part of that story that we probably don’t remember is the response to that story the Apostle Peter gives. It is a curious response, not because the disciples had anything of value to give up, most were laborers living hand to mouth but they had given up much to follow Christ.
Peter says “we left everything and everybody to follow you, what then will there be for us?” In part the answer that Jesus gave to the disciples was “everyone who has sacrificed to follow me, everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” In this instance Jesus tell them that the reward for Acknowledging and Receiving Jesus as the Savior and Messiah is Eternal Life.
So back to the lesson for today, the Disciples are asking a very similar question. They say you are sending us out into the world that despises us and seeks through the efforts of the Great Deceiver to thwart and oppose our efforts, sometimes violently. We are called to cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. The disciples are to act as envoys of Jesus, extending his ministry, proclaiming the same good news and performing the same works that he is doing.
The word used in the scripture is shaliah. In Jewish law, the term shaliaḥ, literally meant “emissary” or “messenger”. A shaliaḥ performs an act of legal significance for the benefit of the sender, as opposed to him or herself being there. In this case a disciple is performing the same work as Christ.
This Hebrew word is translated into the Greek word apostolos which gives us the English word “apostle”. This duly authorized messenger “is as the man himself.” The one sent out represents the one who sent him. So to Acknowledge and Receive Christ is to Acknowledge and Receive God.
In our lesson today Jesus says “Whoever Acknowledges and Receives me before God and others, I will also Acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever finds their life in the world will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will Receive their Eternal Life.” As disciples, by Acknowledging and Receiving Christ for who he is makes us Him in the eyes of God’s Law when taking the Gospel into the world and we will receive the same rewards.
“Whoever welcomes a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous”
What are the “prophet’s reward” of which Jesus speaks? Despite the challenges and obstacles that lay ahead the Bible says if you Acknowledge and Receive the Prophet you can “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven”
What is the “reward of the righteous person”? Scriptures tell us that if you Acknowledge and Receive the Righteous person you “will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father“. Dear ones, all of that is yours when you Acknowledge and Receive Jesus Christ into your life.
Hear the Good News my Friends……….
You are not the end of this process, this divine continuum. As I told you last week all you need to do to make a difference in the world in to tell your story, tell someone else how you came to Acknowledge and Receive Jesus Christ into your life after you heard the Gospel Truth from another disciple, a pastor, a parent, a grandparent, a friend, a Sunday School teacher, or simply a stranger and how it has changed your life.
A woman told of an interaction with a bagger at her local grocery store. She had been talking with this woman off and on for a year telling her how she had come to Acknowledge and Receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. One day upon learning that she no longer worked on Sundays, invited her to come to her church and see what it was like. Much to her surprise, the woman responded by giving her a hug! She had heard what she had needed to hear to that moment in response to her need.
We are a sent people. Sent by God, Jesus sends his disciples to participate in his mission of proclaiming in word and deed the good news of God’s kingdom drawing near. There is simply no other way to be the church! We are a sent people but individually we are not required to be a great prophet to receive a prophet’s reward, but only to show hospitality and concern to others that might be seeking a new truth in their life.
The smallest gift to those in need or in search can bring the greatest reward for both the giver and the receiver. Just as God knows and cares about every hair of our heads, so also God knows every generous act on behalf of the Harvest. Such gifts are Acknowledged and Received as gifts from Jesus, and gifts of Jesus are Acknowledged and Received as gifts from the Father to those that are seeking and to those are giving. Amen.