rd | Not Peace but a Sword?

Today is Monday, July the 3rd.

My name is Jon Galantis. I'm here with Dr. Abbadon Shah, and you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodaysShow.com, or if you have a question for Dr. Shah, anything you'd like to write in and suggest we talk about here on the show, send us a text, 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at Clearview TodayShow.com. You can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, leaving us a good five-star review on iTunes or Spotify. Those really help us boost our ratings and keep the show visible.

We're going to leave a link in the description of this podcast so you can do just that. And Dr. Shah, today's verse of the day is coming to us from Micah chapter five and verse four. It says, And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall abide, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. You know, that passage is one of the earliest prophecies regarding the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Wow. You know, it says in verse two, But you, Bethlehem Ephrata, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel. So the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem was not an accident.

Right. He was up in Nazareth. That's where his mother Mary conceived him through the Holy Spirit.

But then through the whole census, he had to move inside his mother's belly, had to move to the south to Bethlehem to be registered. Now the world is doing all kinds of crazy things. Rulers are making decisions just to tax people, but in the process they were fulfilling the prophecy of God. I think it's so cool to see these prophecies come to life. I think we've talked about this before, because I'm actually taking a class on prophecy now, and you and I have been kind of talking back and forth. As we get closer and closer to Christ's birth, we start zeroing in on the specifics of who he is. They start in a very general way, and then you start seeing more and more. I think you said in one of your sermons, and I know you said it in a book that's upcoming, it hasn't been published yet, but every woman had to act as if her son would be the one. As we get closer and closer, the details start getting more and more specific.

That's right. Everyone coming from the line of Eve, coming down the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and down through Judah and King David, coming all the way down to Mary. I think we need to address the tall, bespeckled, bearded elephant in the room. He's not here. Is he here? He's not here.

Hang on, I'm going to cut over to his camera. It's completely empty. Empty. Why did we kick Ryan off the show? What? Why did we kick him off the show?

That's what people want to know. He's been stealing grape juice. He's been stealing grape juice out of the fridge. I think the guy might be a criminal. Do you want to let him know where Ryan is this week?

I do miss him. Ryan, right now, is leading about 75 young people in chaperones on a mission trip. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of people.

I think it's close to 80. I don't think I could manage three. 80-some people, he and his wife, along with the chaperones, wonderful people. If I mention names, I'll forget.

I know I'm going to forget one of them, so I'm not going to mention any of the names. Then so many youth students are on this mission trip. They're doing fantastic. They're having a great time. They're serving the Lord. They're sharing the gospel. They're growing in disciples.

I mean, this is an amazing thing. That's where Mr. Ryan is. He'll be traveling next week as well. Our prayers are with him. We know he's doing great. Elizabeth is doing great. All the volunteers are doing great. I think we've said this on the show, it's really refreshing to see competent people lead in such an amazing way.

We have you to thank for setting that example. We're seeing it come to life in front of our eyes, not only this summer, but just going forward. Even what's happening next door, we are seeing God's blessings happening. Yeah, the slab is down. I cannot believe the slab is down. That's two slabs we have not been able to film.

Yes. For those who are wondering what we're talking about, we're building a new sanctuary. This is going to seat many more people. We had it in our minds that we were going to get out there early in the morning, because they do this at three or four o'clock in the morning. When it's still dark, they start pouring.

They have these floodlights, and then these big cement trucks come, and they pour the concrete and all that stuff. Today, we had to travel. We were doing a radio show.

I was also speaking to a group of men. What a wonderful day today, by the way. It was a great day. It was really fun. Thank you for going with me, driving. You were at my house at five o'clock.

Thank you for inviting me. It's an amazing thing to be part of an opportunity like that. Slab is down. Yeah, it's all nice and smooth. They have that machine that spins around on the thing and goes back and forth. That's pretty crazy. Five guys stand there and watch as two guys spin around. Then all seven of them go home and be like, yeah, they're the thing today. Even have the lines laid out.

The grid. It's all done. I couldn't believe it. But I'm happy. Me too. God is really good.

That's right. God is really good. We've got a great show for you guys today. Make sure you stick around. If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, make sure you text us at that number 252-582-5028, or visit us online at cleerviewtodayshow.com.

We'll be right back after this. Good morning, afternoon, evening, Clearview Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David. And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shah's work.

And that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shah, PhD. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, hop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shah is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God honoring lives. Well, one of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the word of God spoken into your life. And God's word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement. But know that every time you listen to God's word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abaddon Shah, PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at Clearviewbc.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shah's website, AbaddonShah.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at Clearviewtodayshow.com or if you have a suggestion or a question that you want to ask Dr. Shah or suggestion for any topics that we can talk about, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also email us at contact at Clearviewtodayshow.com. And listen, if today's your first time ever tuning into the Clearview Today Show, welcome. I want to let you know exactly who's talking to you today. Dr. Abaddon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show.

You can find all of his work at his website, and that's AbaddonShah.com. And I do want to say this past, so like you said, we went to a speaking engagement this morning, early in the morning, but this past Saturday, you were on another show talking about what you're going to be talking about today. Yes. You were on Truth Talk with Sue Epperson over at the Truth Network. That's right. And I got to say what you said in that show, I was privileged enough to be there.

And what you said on that show was not jarring, but it's not something that people typically say. It was a new way of looking at some of the words of Jesus. That's right.

That's right. And I was focusing on Matthew chapter 10. So let's read that passage first, and then we'll break it down.

And the passage is this. Matthew 10, 34, Jesus said, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

Wow. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake will find it. Powerful words.

Yeah. And you don't think about Jesus in that way. You think of him as the Prince of Peace, and he is. But the Prince of Peace in this context, he's not saying, I just came to get along with everybody. I came to make everybody feel good.

Just let you know, hey, guys, I'm here. Your worries are all over. Right, right. It's quite the opposite. Let's put it aside, okay? We do have the gospel of reconciliation. We bring people together.

We bring communities together. Having said that, let's talk about a different subject, which is following Christ. You know, when Jesus spoke those words, he wasn't offering another option on how to come to God. That's right. He was not saying, okay, if you want to come to God, then you have to disown your family, and be ready to walk away from your loved ones and the things you love in life. That's what it means.

No, no, no. Salvation has always been through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Cross happened 2000 years ago. But even before that event, 2000 years ago, people were waiting for God's Son to come and give his life for us.

And they understood what it was going to be. Yes. And I know this is kind of off the beaten path, but do you find people try to make it out to where they didn't really understand?

Oh, yeah. All the time. All the pastors do it. Theologians do it. Of course, secular historians constantly say this was just a shock to the world that this man was saying this. Like Albert Schweitzer, you know, Jesus sort of was crushed under the wheels of history kind of thing.

So it's a random event that Christians, and especially the apostle Paul, has sort of, you know, manipulated Old Testament data into making this Christ into who we believe him to be today. Right. Not true.

Not true. Go back to Genesis 3.15. When we talk about the proto-evangelium, it is so clear the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, while the serpent will strike his heel.

Someone should write a book on that. Yeah, which, by the way, is coming. Which, by the way, is coming. A little foreshadowing for you.

But you're right, though. Jesus is saying here, he's not saying, listen, in order to follow me, this is what you have to do to be saved. He's not saying that. He's simply telling them, count the cost, because this is what's coming.

What is coming? There are two sets of data in that scripture. First is, I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Now, this is one kind of, I would say, persecution. Where, because you're following Jesus Christ, your father now hates you. Your mother-in-law now hates you. Your son now hates you, because you're following this Jesus Christ.

That's one, count the cost. The second one is, he who loves father. Did you notice the difference between those two things?

That's true, that's true. One is hate, the other is love. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. We're talking about two different things here. They are.

I didn't catch that. I thought it was all sort of this one poetic idea, but it's two different things. Two different things happening. One is outsiders hating us. The other is we loving the outsiders, or our own. Our own hating us, and we loving our own. Yeah, yeah.

It's going two different ways, but both are unacceptable. Right. So the first one usually happens when, especially in non-Christian cultures, when they accept Jesus as their savior, their family ends up hating them. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Right? Over here, when somebody gets saved, you have the whole family there on the front row.

They are sitting there with tears in their eyes and cameras and phones out taking videos. But overseas, in certain parts of the world, when people become Christians, their family turns on them. I mean, your dad experienced that firsthand. Yes, he did. The story I've given many times, here it is again.

That night when he told his father. His father was a Muslim. In fact, my dad's family was a Muslim family of many generations. Our family tree goes back close to 1,500 some years. Wow.

If not more. Wow. And so when he told his father, who was an educated man, who was an affluent man, he was a commissioner of police, he told him that, Dad, I'm going to follow this Jesus Christ. And his father, in a very somber tone, told him, if you do that, leave my home.

Wow. Because tomorrow morning, if I get up and I see you here, it's because you have renounced this faith, renounced this Jesus stuff. But if you are here, when I wake up and you haven't renounced it, it would not be good. I mean, you're talking about honor killing. I don't know what else you can say about that.

Yeah, there's not really any other ways to interpret a warning like that. And my dad was shocked in a way because he was thinking that there would be a radical change in his father's life and that he would say, Son, you opened my eyes. I'm going to follow Jesus too. But to the contrary, he lost his parents. He lost his siblings. He lost his wealth. He lost all the things that had been planned for him. I mean, his whole life was just laying there for him to just take hold of.

Everything was there. And he had to walk away from that. I mean, he went out, as you know the story, he went out under the open sky and simply said, God, I'm following you.

And the first thing that happens is I lose my family. How can this be? And a voice came to him, you know, out loud, but it was in his heart. And the voice was this, do you trust me in the life to come? And his answer was, yes, this is the reason why I'm giving up everything.

And then the voice came back. Then why can't you trust me in this life, the life you can see? You're trusting me for a life you cannot see.

You cannot see, but you have doubts in the life you can see. And so with that simple logic, he stepped out and walked away from everything. Now, later on, his family sort of made up with him and he went back and all that, but it was never the same. We were taken out of the will. We have an inheritance that is no longer ours.

And my dad was the oldest son, which means we would have gotten the big share of everything. Nothing. Nothing.

Yeah. There's something really pure in that testimony because he was so new. Like he wasn't a wise, mature Christian. He was just now seeing the truth and yet at the same time still willing to walk away.

Like it's one thing I think for us who've been raised in the church and to know that it's true and to be tempted to walk away, but be like, nah, I can't do that. For someone who's just new to it, it would have been very easy, very easy to be like, you know what? That was a fluke. That might've been gas.

That might've been something I ate. You know, he didn't. He was like, I understand the consequence.

I understand exactly what's going to happen, but this is the truth. And someone like me, I can't chalk that up to delusion or to naivety. Like that's just a work of God. What else could it possibly be?

Someone who wasn't raised Christian, but who gets this understanding and then still makes that choice, even being so new to it. What else could it possibly be but God? It's it.

I can't think of anything else. That's right. But I want to clarify something over here because we're talking about giving up. He gave up. And I would say he gave up the evil for Jesus.

Okay. So counting the cost does not mean that unless you deny all the good things in life, you cannot be saved. If that were the case, many of us would never get saved. Children come to Jesus. What do they know about denying mom and dad?

They don't know any of that. What we're saying here is you should be willing to submit everything. And when it comes to submitting, it's easier to submit the evil things. Yep.

Yep. That's what you were saying this morning that I thought was so revolutionary, was that, you know, it's pretty easy to give up the evil. Easier. Easier.

That's true. It's easier to give up the evil for God. It's really difficult to give up the good things in your life that you love.

Yeah. I can give up a false religion. I can give up lying. I can give up cheating. I can give up adultery.

I can give up addiction. But now the question is, how do you give up the good? Because if we go back to that verse, what does it say? He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Loving father and mother is a good thing.

In fact, right in the middle of those 10 commandments is honor your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land. That's right. God put that there for a reason. That's a good thing.

Yeah. Children are a gift from the Lord. That is a good thing. Having good health is a good thing. Having money, security in the bank is a good thing. Having a church that's growing is a good thing. Having friends in your life is a good thing. Having people that you can look up to, mentors that you have that you can lean on and bounce things off of is a good thing.

But here's what I'm talking about. And here's what I believe this passage is about, that it is much harder to give up the good for Jesus. It's not wrong to love the good. It's not wrong to love your parents.

It's not wrong to love your children or job or church or godly people in your life. But if we find our meaning and satisfaction in that good, God will not hold back from using his sword of separation. And I think that's what's so hard for us to hear because we're really eager to hear how Jesus is going to bless us because we're going to love our enemies. We're going to forgive the tax collectors, forgive the prostitutes, heal the leopards, feed the hungry.

And yes, all that stuff is going to happen. But Jesus, this is a side of Jesus we don't want to face. We don't want to know this because he may ask us to give up some of those blessings for him. Right. He may require that to follow him and to truly have true blessings in life, the things that we love, but maybe holding us back in our Christian walk, or maybe just distracting us from him.

Yeah. He may ask us to give him love. When you begin to, loving your spouse is a beautiful thing. Mm-hmm. Serving your spouse is beautiful.

But when you begin to put them on a pedestal, a place that only belongs to God, God is a jealous God, and he will not tolerate that. Mm-hmm. And he will do whatever needs to be done to bring that sort of separation between you and your spouse. Mm-hmm. Now, that seems very odd.

It's like, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, hold your horses. Are you telling me that God's going to separate me from my wife? Absolutely not. Are you telling me that God's going to separate me from my husband?

Absolutely not. But if you start worshiping that person in your life, depending on that person in your life, when you should be depending on God, men and women, I'm talking to both of you, if you're putting your spouse at a place that only belongs to God, and you have more value for them and love for them than for Christ, the sort of separation is coming. And it's not, don't think, oh, am I going to get divorced?

Am I going to get separated? Like, where are we going to go? No, no, no. God's going to put you through a series of trials when you will be disappointed.

That's right. You'll be disappointed in that person. You'll be discouraged in that person. Your feelings are going to be hurt. Your feelings are going to be hurt. Your trust may be betrayed.

And in those moments, you're going to go, wow, just like yesterday, I had this person on a pedestal. Just like yesterday, I had my kids wrapped around my heart, and today they're not. And what we think is, man, Satan is really attacking my family.

Could it be that God is a jealous God and he's bringing a sort of separation because you have put your kids in the place of God? That's what he said he's going to do. He said he's going to come with a sword. Do you think when he says, I didn't come to bring peace on earth, do you think we as Christians strive for peace on earth? And what I mean by that is, I just want to get along with, I understand that people sin, but we're just going to love everybody. And we're going to have harmony here on earth.

I think those are two different things. We're not talking about world peace or family harmony. We're talking about, he says, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. Means if you think peace is, oh, my kids are satisfied and they're all doing well. And this is my bliss. This is my happiness. Nothing. Oh, what?

Yeah. They said, what about me? My health, I go to the gym, man.

I walk like four miles on the elliptical and then I work out and have my friends. This is living. I'm just a blessed man. Yeah. Are you telling me I've got to come back in because they found something in my, in my test? Oh, no. Are you getting what I'm saying?

Yeah. This is not, this is not a wide world peace. This is about, you're finding peace in your health. You're finding peace in your children. When that place is reserved for God and God alone. But too often I follow Jesus to get the blessings. The blessings are the end goal. So I'm going to listen to Jesus.

I'll do is go and tell him what you need to tell me because I want to enjoy this. Right. Right. Right.

I want, I want a good life and a good marriage and good kids. So tell me what I need to do. All right.

That's my checklist. Got it. Now get out of the way. Let me enjoy my family. Right. Right.

Let me enjoy my kids. Jesus. Yeah. We'll come to that. That's so we have to rethink the way we think about discouragements, disappointments, hurts, betrayals, dashed hopes, dashed dreams.

What is really happening? That's true. God is getting you to a place where you begin to go, there's got to be more than this.

Yeah. I go back to your dad, like the, the example that you told in the story of your father, I think it's one of the most powerful stories I've ever heard. And it kind of puts me in check because I think very few of us here in the West, especially in America in 21st century America are ever going to be in danger because of our belief in Christ. At the same time, God still calls us to sacrifice for the sake of, of, of him and for the gospel and for who he is.

And it's not easy, no matter what age you grow up in, it's never easy. And it's going to make us uncomfortable, but this is what being a disciple is about. And it like, like we said at the beginning, it's hard to hear. It's hard to hear Jesus say, Hey, I'm going to cause division here. I'm going to cause separation. I'm going to cause a war. If you love your, how did he say it?

He said, if you love your father and mother more than me, you're not worthy of me. Yeah. I'm not coming up. I'm not super imposing my ideas on this.

He must be going through difficult times. Whatever. Okay. I'm just going by the text.

He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. That's what it says. You helped me understand that. He who does not take his cross. Let's talk about health a little bit.

Yeah. You know, your cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. So going through these difficult times as God's way of saying, okay, if you're going to put them in the place that belongs to me, then I'm going to have to correct that problem.

That's true. And I'm going to bring whatever fire that needs to come into your life, into your relationship, into your health, into your bank account, into this crazy world. You had this perfect ideal world. All of a sudden it's crashing to help you realize it's me and me alone that deserves that place. So what we have to do is this, we don't stop living our parents. Right. We don't stop living our children and grandchildren and our friends and our church and our, and our workout regimen. We don't stop loving and taking care of ourselves. No, we love them in moderation.

Okay. We love them, but we love them unto God. And so they find their proper place. They find their proper place and what's left is nothing but a heart that is truly given up to the only one who deserves it. And that is Jesus Christ.

Yeah. And you're not going to hear this on other podcasts. You're not going to hear this on other radio shows. You're not going to hear this from most pulpits in America because it's tough to hear.

I don't want to think about like, even now at the end of the show, I don't want to think about Jesus that way, but this is who he is. He's not here to make me comfortable. He's not here to give, like, just like it says, who he, who finds his life will lose it. That's what we're all trying to do.

I'm just trying to find this perfect life and finish. That's not what he wants out of me. And that's not what he's promised me. Now think about Paul. You know, Paul ends Philippians 3, 7. He says, but what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Now he's talking about his rabbinic Judaism or not rabbinic Judaism that sort of came later, but does, does his, you know, all his, his pedigree. Uh, he is talking about his Pharisaism, his education, his, his Roman citizenship and his Jewish ancestry. He says, all these things are lost. But then he says in verse 8, yet indeed, I also count what things? All things. All things.

Wow. You see, his true love was ultimately reserved for God. His prime love, I would say. But for everything else, it was love in moderation. It was loving them unto Christ. And I think that is a hard lesson in America, but it's, it's, it's, it's a lesson that applies because many people are going through disappointments, discouragements, broken dreams, crashed visions, hurts, and, and, and pains. And they think God is against them. They want to go back to the place of reconciliation and healing and hope and all.

And that will happen. But what they don't understand is God is allowing them to go through that so that he can get you to understand it's him. You are to love him. He has made you for himself.

As Augustine would say, you know, he, he has made you, made us for himself and our hearts are restless until they find our, our rest in him. Yeah. I got, I got no follow-up for that. That, that, I mean, that's the most perfect.

If that's not the most perfect ending, you send me something in and tell me what it is. Listen, if you guys enjoyed today's topic or you have any suggestions for future topics, make sure to let us know. Send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. And don't forget, you can support us financially on that same website.

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