I invite you to turn with me this morning to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, we will read together verses 5 through verse 40, considering verses 34 through 36. As we consider the purpose of Christ's advent, what we find here in verse 34 may have seemed to be a purpose a little bit out of the ordinary from what the rest of Scripture seems to say. The first few verses, of course, we have a recording of the twelve disciples and then their following, Christ's commissioning of those disciples, beginning at verse 5, as we hear now the Word of God. These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions. Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, preach this message, the kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts. Take no bag for the journey or extra tunic or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it. If it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men. They will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. On my account, you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time, you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household? So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight. What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, after the angel announced to the shepherds the birth of the Savior who is Christ the Lord, we know that then the whole company of angels sang glory to God in the highest on earth, Peace, goodwill toward men. How wonderful. Because that's the news for which the people had been waiting. They were craving peace and goodwill. But then now, this very One Himself, who is Christ the Lord, the One of whom the angel announced, in His ministry as He sends out His twelve with all kinds of instructions and all kinds of teaching, He warns of anything but peace. And he says in verse 34, Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. So what's going on? Was the angel mistaken? Did the angels, as they sang, did they have it wrong? Well, we know, don't we, that the peace and the good will that the angels sang of was the purpose of Christ's advent for those who would believe. He came to bring salvation to them, but there is another side. There is the very reason that He needed to come, and that is because of the enemy, Satan, and because of our sin. And against these, Jesus came to bring His sword. His sword causing division. His sword drawing persecution. But also His sword gaining salvation. His sword, beloved, is the sword of truth, the sword of righteousness, the very Word of God revealed to the church. We call it the sword of the Spirit. That's what the Bible calls it, which is, as Hebrews 4 says, living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The sword of Jesus, on the one hand, is a sword of peace and protection for those who believe, bringing them salvation and hope. But it's also an instrument of destruction, bringing warning, bringing judgment, and is hated by those who reject it. Jesus Christ came to bring His sword of truth to that war that Satan declared in the garden when he led man into sin. that war about which God predicted and promised Satan's defeat. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to bring His sword against those who do not put Christ first, as He teaches in this passage. And therefore, His sword is a sword causing division in the first place, causing division in opposition to peace. But the peace that I'm talking about now is a wrong understanding of peace. It's a false peace. His sword causing division in opposition to that peace that was anticipated of the Messiah. The Israelites, His disciples of that day, they knew what they expected. And therefore, Jesus says, do not suppose. Do not imagine. Do not expect as I know you are, as the disciples were. you see they knew the scriptures they knew that isaiah called him the prince of peace and that he said of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end he will reign on david's throne and over his kingdom they knew isaiah 32 verse 18 which says my people will live in peaceful dwelling places in secure homes in undisturbed places of peace they knew micah 5 verse 5, which says He, speaking of that ruler who was to come from Bethlehem, that He will be their peace. That all sounded good. It sounded great for this life. In their expectation, He was indeed the Prince of Peace. His church would be the haven of peace. His greeting, after all, was peace be with you. And His apostles were to be bearers of peace. After all, they were called in verse 8, to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and to drive out demons. You put all of that together, you see. His rule, His government, peaceful dwelling places, freedom from sicknesses. You put all of that together and certainly that could only mean release from Roman rule and it could only mean earthly peace and prosperity and well-being and that they would be unbeatable now. And there are still many today, beloved, who believe that faith is rewarded here in this life with being healthy, wealthy, and wise. And, well, if you're not experiencing those things, the simple problem is that you lack faith. You don't have enough. But if that is it, if that is how it's supposed to be, then we are all to be disappointed because this life is filled with opposition. It's filled with difficulty and troubles and many, many disappointments as the apostles would learn as Jesus clearly tells them and as we experience in our daily life. But that's not the peace that we needed. That's not the peace that He came to bring. And as long as sin remains, that kind of peace will not be found here because the world embraces sin and therefore His sword of division is also in opposition to that peace that is enjoyed by the world. A false peace. A temporary peace that they might enjoy because of their wickedness. A peace of ignorance, we might say. The world is ignorant. So many of them try to talk the talk. Well, God is love, they say. But when the world says that, they mean by that that God is tolerant of all things. That he is permissive of everything. That he will judge nothing. And the peace that the world talks about means living like I want, with everything being accepted and tolerated, well, just as long as it goes my way. It means everyone gets along letting me be me. And the world's standard is me, myself, and I. But the sword of Jesus comes and it divides because it attacks the world's belief system of the God of me. And it attacks it with the highest standard, the word of God, as the sword of truth divides as well from the deadliness of sin. Again, as Hebrews 4 makes clear, it's a double-edged sword of truth that digs down deep into the heart and soul and mind of mankind. That sword penetrates. It reveals the truth. It exposes all that is false. It indicts the sinful desires of the heart. It digs down deep, showing sin for what it is, deadly and destructive as well, revealing its end. Eternal punishment in hell. Because it separates one from God. And therefore Jesus came with the sword, as John says in 1 John chapter 3, to take away sin and to destroy the devil. The sword of truth divides mankind into believers and unbelievers. And this division, as interestingly Jesus makes clear, is down to the most intimate of relationships, into the family. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household. Does that mean that Jesus came to destroy the family? Not at all. But it shows that the sin runs deep even into the midst of the most intimate of relationships. These words are an allusion to almost a direct quote from Micah 7, verse 6. And there, Micah was addressing the rebellion and the strife that existed in the days of King Ahaz, even in causing corruption and division in the family. And that points then to the strife that the Messiah would cause with his sword of truth. Of course, we all have our familial expectations, don't we? And those expectations include the fact that we expect the closest of friendships with intimate family ties in the family. But Jesus says a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. That's not what we expect, you see, because the family, we say, is the church in miniature where there ought to be one mind and where there ought to be indestructible peace and unity because, as we say, blood is thicker than water. And if you cannot get along with your family, If you do not stick up for each other there, you won't do it anywhere. But Christ's expectation, you see, beloved, is not about getting along. He demands allegiance. He demands sticking up for Him. And the allegiance that He demands from you and me takes priority over the natural family ties of life, those ties that are the strongest. Sometimes brothers and sisters can fight the worst. But yet when it comes down to it, they stand up for each other the best. But yet we are called to choose for Christ, even before the members of our family. Now the idea of the text is somewhat interesting. In that day, the families shared homes together. A son, for example, would bring his new wife to live in a parent's home. We would never think of that today, would we? that could be somewhat difficult. Our experience, you see, is that when there is disagreement in the household, that disagreement can cause constant tension. It is terrible. But here, too, the first member listed in these couplets, the first member listed is the one we are to understand that opposes the faith in Christ of the second member. And ironically, the younger is listed first, as if to point to the fact that often children reject the teaching and the faith that they have been taught of their parents. Yet not always it works both ways, as verse 37 shows. But Christ's point is, there is to be allegiance to Him. Sin digs deep and His sword of truth cuts even into the most intimate of family ties. And it is not Christ with His sword of truth that destroys families, but it is those who reject him who destroy, no matter who they are. He divides mankind into only two kinds of people. And the sword of division also then proves to be, in the second place, a sword drawing persecution. Because of those two sides, because of that spiritual warfare, the sword of truth comes and says that we need something, that man, because of the blindness of sin, doesn't think he needs and doesn't even want. It says we need something that we cannot accomplish on our own, namely that reconciliation with God that we talked about last Sunday evening. And again, the purpose of Jesus here is to remove from the disciples' minds wrong ideas of what peace on earth and goodwill toward men means. As they will experience the very opposite from the men of the earth. As they are called to go out and preach the gospel of the kingdom. That sword of truth will draw persecution, the persecution of hatred. Verse 22 says, all men will hate you because of me. Because Jesus testifies to the truth, as he said to Pilate, that truth contradicts the relativism of the world today that says, it's all up to me. I can decide for myself, I know what's best. And for someone or something then to come along and say, no, you're wrong. Well, we don't like to hear that, do we? Not one of us. But especially the world doesn't like to hear that. And they hate that truth. They hate those who bring that message. We see that illustrated in Scripture with Stephen. As his murderers gnashed their teeth at him in hatred. And maybe you've noticed that it kind of strikes me once in a while as I listen to some of the more conservative radio talk show hosts or when you read articles or see clips on the TV news by those who oppose the truth. They never seem to have anything intelligent to say. All they can do is curse, call names, and spew forth hatred. And that hatred then also leads to rejection. As He was despised, as Jesus was despised and rejected by men, the world rejects the truth of His Word today. And again, we see that so vividly as the society around us not only endorses, but pushes, promotes homosexuality and abortion and adultery and so many things that we know to be completely godless. But the wicked world doesn't let it rest there. Not only do they hate and not only do they reject, but there is a lack of toleration. In verse 17, Jesus says, Be on your guard against men. They will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. You see, on the one hand, the world of wickedness wants us, as Christians, to be tolerant of them, to let them be them. but they are not content to let us be us. And therefore, there's persecution. Jesus says in Matthew 24, Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me. And Paul says in 1 Timothy 3, Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted. And the persecution that comes upon the church of Jesus Christ is an attempt then to destroy that truth and to destroy those who embrace that truth. And that attempt at destruction comes from those who embrace, for example, Islam. We know that Satan works through false religions to destroy the infidels as they teach. Those who disagree with them. Beloved, our society around us is trying harder and harder to push their agenda on Christians, on the church. They are working ever harder to attack the true church, trying to cause believers to question the truth of the Word of God and trying to intimidate us that we would be too afraid to stand up for the truth. I have a copy of a recent Newsweek article on my desk where the author of that article tries to, in a lengthy article, set forth what she believes to be the truth, that you and I as Christians, we have the Bible all wrong. That if you really examine Scripture from beginning to end, it does not promote marriage and family the way we believe that it promotes it and commands it. But the author is saying that no, the Bible actually supports the gay agenda. It supports gay marriage if you read it closely. It supports the homosexual movement. And in a sense, she does a pretty good job for those who are not well-grounded in the truth of the Word of God could be easily led astray and begin to question the truth of the Word of God. At the very least, cause you and I to be scared again, to intimidate us, to be scared to stand up for the truth. You see, it is not separation of church and state that that society is after, but the separation of the Christian church from all of life. And maybe I'm a bit naive, but I consider it to be a blessing of God's grace, but I find it to be unbelievable that anyone could reject and fight against the demonstration of peace, for example, that the disciples would perform healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing leprosy, driving out demons, which of course pointed to that spiritual restoration and healing that you can only have in Christ in which each one of us so desperately need. Yet the disciples back then and believers today are not to become weary and lose heart. And as verse 28 says, to be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Boys and girls, it may only get worse persecution upon you and me as believers, but we don't have to be afraid. Because even though Christ's sword of truth that divides, even though it draws persecution, it is unfailing. It is unfailing for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God because it is a sword of freedom. Jesus said the truth will set you free. And it is unfailing because ours is comfort in the third place that it is a sword gaining salvation. Verse 40 says, He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. To receive him means to receive the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, beloved, if Christ had not come, the world would have gone on throughout the history, however long God intended it to. The world would have gone on ignorantly and undisturbed in its sin and guilt, in its false peace, until the day of doom. And then, of course, there would be no hope for you and me, because we were lost in sin and guilt before God. We deserve to be cut off from Him. But Christ came. Christ came. And when He came, He interrupted the world's journey toward eternal death. He cut away all that is unholy and untrue to save some, to save His people, to save those whom the Father had given Him, of whom He says, I will not lose one of them. He came to bring true peace to you and me by the grace of God, true peace with God. He came to bind up the brokenhearted. He came to set the captive to sin free. He came to seek and save the lost, to save sinners. He came that we might have life and have it abundantly. All of that is the testimony of the truth of the Word of God. All of that is the purpose, the Bible says, for the advent. How did He do that? By taking away sin, by destroying the work of the devil, as John says, through the sword called the cross. And one day all of that will be made perfectly clear for every eye to see when He separates the sheep from the goats without mistake. Again, it seems like a bit of a contradiction that such a great truth of Jesus Christ and His saving love of this One of whom He's saying that the hope of all the earth in Him is found. It seems like a contradiction that He would meet with such opposition and such hatred. It seems like a contradiction that all who would hear the good news, the gospel of salvation, that they would not want it. But we know that Satan's grasp is powerful. We know, beloved, that he is the father of lies, that he will continue to fight for the world's destruction. But praise God, we also know that Jesus Christ and his sword of truth is more powerful, it is all-powerful, and even though you and I were helpless against Satan's lie, by Christ's death and resurrection, he destroyed that power of the devil and sin over those who would believe. He saved his people from the depths of hell. And by his Holy Spirit, he uses his sword of truth to cut away from your heart and mine all that is unholy and all that is untrue. And He opens our eyes by faith to see and believe the truth of Him and our only hope in Him. And beloved, that is the message that you and I are called to proclaim indeed every day, every Lord's Day from this pulpit. But especially as we interact with the world during this season. Again, we're reminded as we are year after year year after year, that the world has no clue or at the very least is trying to redirect the attention of what we call the true reason for the season. And indeed, we are called as a people of God to preach that word faithfully for the reason that Jesus Christ came, all of those positive things for you and me. But as well as they came to bring His sword, to destroy the work of sin and the devil, His cross divides believers from unbelievers. His cross is proof of His saving work. It is proof that no evil can stand or survive against His sword of truth. It is proof that He is victorious. And that truth is before us this morning in the Lord's table. A table is a table of victory. A table is a table of celebration. We don't come to that table with sorrow. We are to come to this table rejoicing because Christ has come. This table is a reminder of the sword that he came to bring that divides truth from lies. The sword that draws persecution from those who reject it upon those who embrace it. That sword yet that saves. As those who embrace Jesus Christ by faith enjoy peace with God and protection as jesus christ and his sword of truth will never let anything separate us from the love of god that is in christ jesus and instead by his sword we are more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us so beloved indeed jesus christ is the prince of peace as through him we have peace with God, the kind of peace that we needed, that is eternal. It will never end. No one can ever take it away from us. And therefore, beloved, let us now dine in peace with our Lord and with each other. Amen.