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Open association with the teaching of Jesus and of his followers will always be costly. Jesus states clearly that there are risks involved–reputational, relational and even physical. Given the price of membership, why would anyone welcome and receive Jesus and his people? The answer is simple–the benefits are out of this world!
40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
This transcript has been automatically generated
Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. The one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he’s a disciple Truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. So, what is the upside of associating openly and unashamedly with the publicly proclaimed message of the rule of King Jesus?
What reason might a man or woman give for being proud and out with regard to Jesus and his followers? Why might I have no qualms whatsoever about speaking boldly, living overtly, making the most on every occasion of bearing witness to Jesus Christ.
We’ve spent quite a number of weeks considering what some might call the downside of public following of Jesus. I’ve tried to put it in a positive light, but there is no denying the fact that there is a costly expense highlighted by Jesus in what is one of the most famous chapters in Matthew’s Gospel for his disciples.
Speaking of Jesus openly, it’s not an optional extra that some eccentric Christians engage in. Speaking of Jesus openly is what all Christians do. But in this day of risk registers and accident books and cost and benefit analysis, it’s so refreshing that Jesus gives a very clearly in the small print— sorry, it has no small print and gives it very clearly in bold letters what it means to follow him.
And so if you just turn back a page, verse 16, behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Men will deliver you over to the courts. They will deliver you over, possibly even to death.
There is potentially a physical risk. Verse 25, there is certainly a reputational risk. It’s enough for the disciples to be like his teacher, the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, the devil, how much more will they malign those of his household? And then we were looking last week at the relational risk.
I have not come to bring peace on the earth, I come not to bring peace but a sword. So, on my bookshelf, I have a copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. It’s very sobering reading. It charts a history of all the martyrs that are known in the Christian faith right the way down from the 1st century. And it begins with a visit to the catacombs of Rome and to the graves of Christian martyrs.
It speaks of charred remains and of severed limbs and of crushed bones.
A number of years ago, I was sitting in a church listening to a lecture and I have to confess the lecture hadn’t entirely gripped my attention. I hope that’s not you today. And the church had in it, it was St. James’s there in Clerkenwell, it had within it a memorial to the 66 martyrs 1400 to 1558, with every one of the names.
Last week, into my newsfeed came notice of the closure of around 50,000 mosques in Iran. And the news piece announced that around 50,000 of Iran’s mosques are closed, highlighting the growth of Christianity in that country.
But anybody who knows anything about the growth of Christian faith in Iran will know that much of the growth has taken place in the prisons, as Christians have borne the cost of bearing witness publicly their faith in Jesus.
So now, in the light of all of that, which Jesus puts very clearly for us in this chapter, you know, why would anybody, if you like, speak openly and associate openly with Christians. And as I say, we are now in one of the most famous of these chapters that has to do with the mission of Jesus. And Jesus has commissioned his apostles and he sent them out and he has seen the harvest and seen people helplessly lost without Jesus, without any moorings in life, harassed and helpless, at the mercy of whatever passing philosophy might be going their way. And he’s had compassion on them and he’s commissioned his disciples and sent them out.
But with the sending out and the going out comes a cost. Physical— sheep amongst wolves.
Reputational— they called the master devilish, they’ll certainly malign us. Relational.
In the first instance, the chapter has to do with the original 12 apostles. 11 of whom were martyred. But as the chapter moves on, so, if you like, the sphere of reference broadens. And so, this chapter is programmatic for all Christians, and you see the language move from language about the 12 to, in our passage, whoever, whoever, anyone, anyone, whoever. So, it is programmatic.
And our verses speak to us of the upside.
I think we are to envisage a village or a small town, the kind of place where everybody knows everybody’s business. I guess a bit like the insurance market in Lloyd’s. It is one of the things that makes the insurance market so attractive, I think. Everybody seems to know everybody. There is that sense.
Or perhaps an office where one’s calendar is there for everybody to view.
And so, when a person receives one who is speaking openly about the Lord Jesus, an open Christian, or as a person extends hospitality or gives aid to somebody who is making the name of Jesus publicly known, immediately the word is out, oh, Jimmy has gone across to the God squad. There is a reputational risk. What’s the upside?
Jesus speaks in terms of relationship and reward and recognition. And I hope you are going to find this really does cheer your soul as it has cheered mine.
Relationship.
The picture in verse 40 is very powerful. Jesus has sent his apostles, they are the sent ones, but Jesus sees himself as one who is sent. As one receives the one who is sent by Jesus, so one receives Jesus himself. And as one receives Jesus, so one receives the one who sent Jesus.
Verse 40, whoever receives you, that is the one sent out, receives me, that is Jesus. And whoever receives Jesus receives him who sent me.
Now, if this were a teenage talk, I might use the image of a chequebook perhaps. And actually, the teenagers wouldn’t know what on earth I’m talking about. But let’s put that to one side. I’ve just seen one of our younger members shaking their head at me. I don’t know anything about teenagers.
I do know they don’t know what chequebooks are. But I guess some of us can remember these things. And, you know, I have here, let’s imagine, a cheque. And the cheque has been written by the church council of St Helen’s Church and it’s been given to the church manager who gave it to me and I’m now handing it over to Tim here for £1 million from the— actually, we haven’t got £1 million. Oh, maybe we have.
But you see, if Tim receives it, as he receives me, so he receives what the church— and as he receives what the church, so he receives.
This verse, I think, says something about the self-identity of Jesus before we get into the meat of it. Clearly, he sees himself as having been sent, and the rest of the gospel makes it absolutely clear that he sees himself as sent from the Father in heaven.
If you look at the verse, it’s in the present continuous, which again is striking. Jesus is geographically static. He remains in the same place. He sends out the apostles even as a person receives the apostle teaching the truth of Jesus, So, though Jesus is somewhere else, they receive Jesus.
And as we receive Jesus, so we receive the one who sent him. And as we consider the one who sent Jesus, the claim is magnified all the more. The one who sent him is the Eternal Father, the everlasting God. The Creator by whom and for whom and through whom all things were made.
The one who sent him is the all-powerful, supreme sovereign who orders and directs all things in his creation and in all eternity.
And the one who sent him is the first and last, the author of our existence and the final judge of the universe. Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
And to receive someone into one’s home in the first century was to receive someone into the most intimate relationship of acceptance and union. Think of your own home and those who you might have to stay.
So I don’t know this for a fact, but I bet most of us haven’t been received into the family circle of the CEO or chairperson of the company for which we work. We may have shaken hands with her or been in a lift with him. She may even recognise us. We may have been a silent attendee on a Zoom call. But have we sat at the family table in the holiday villa enjoying the intimate friendship on a long summer’s evening?
Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
Because of my military background way, way in the past, there were a very, very small number of occasions where I got to meet the late Queen Elizabeth. I actually have a photograph. You can sort of just about make me out. I’m sort of so far back, so junior and insignificant, you actually need a magnifying glass if you’re actually going to see that I was there. But, you know, I did shake her hand, or should I say, her She shook my hand.
But if you’d said to her, oh, do you remember Second Lieutenant Taylor? The answer is no.
Most people I know who live in London have a kind of tour on which, you know, they take people, you know, you’re usually a sort of a hotel if you have a house in central London, people, this wonderful thing actually, people come and visit. Ours is to St. Paul’s Cathedral largely because we have free tickets to get in. And so we go into St. Paul’s Cathedral and normally take them right up to the very top and you can see Right, saves going on the London Eye. It’s a great little trip. I haven’t done it for a while.
I’m not sure if I’d make it to the top now, but I used to be able to do it very nicely. In the back left-hand corner of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the northeast corner I think, there’s that image from that wonderful famous picture by Holman Hunt of the Lord Jesus standing at the door. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any person hears my voice, I will come into them and eat with them, and they will eat with me.
Whoever receives you, the one speaking the gospel of Jesus, receives Jesus, and whoever receives Jesus receives the eternal Father and Creator of the universe. Now that’s quite an upside, isn’t it? I don’t think there’s anything else like it. Can you better it?
How great is the love that God has lavished upon us that we should be called children of God.
Jesus doesn’t leave it there. He moves from the relationship to the reward, verse 41. And the prophet here is the person who brings God’s message concerning the Lord Jesus. That’s the case all the way through the Bible.
And so, the one who receives a prophet, someone speaking of the Lord Jesus, because he is a prophet, will receive a prophet’s reward. And the one who receives a righteous person, because he is a righteous person, will receive a righteous person’s reward.
All the way through the Bible, the prophets from Moses to Malachi are those who spoke of Jesus. And as the apostles are sent out then speaking of Jesus, so they, as spokesmen of the Lord Jesus, they too are prophets.
And by extension, as any other speaks in line with the words that are spoken by the prophetic apostles speaking forth truth of Jesus, they are prophets.
And in Acts 2, the believers are described in terms of prophets.
Any maidservant or manservant or old man or young man or child or mother who speaks of the Lord Jesus in line with the revelation of the prophetic word given by the apostles is a prophet. You’re a prophet. If you know Jesus and speak of him with a little p, you are a prophet. And as the prophetic word is about being made right with God, so the one who embraces the prophetic word is a man who’s been made right with God. And so anybody who receives a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward, which leaves us asking, well, what then is this reward And Jesus has already made that very clear back in chapter 5, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And so, insofar as a believer, aligns themselves in the present day with anyone who speaks openly and clearly of the Lord Jesus, so far will they receive the reward of the prophet in heaven.
It will be unpopular. Oh, he’s part of the God Squad.
There will be reputational risk. Relational fallout even, possibly even physical risk. But what a reward.
Flick forward, if you would, to page 51.
And the last verse is in chapter 19.
Chapter 19, verse 29.
Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
I haven’t seen Doug Olson here, whether he’s here or not. I didn’t see him come in today. He used to work here and I remember as a very young staff member I remember decades ago here at St. Helen’s, us going through those verses and Doug just chipping up. He’d left America, he’d come over here to spend a lifetime in Christian ministry, and he said, I left all of my family in America. I’ve come here and I now have family, brothers and sisters, homes in which I’m welcomed all over the world.
God is no man’s debtor.
And eternal life.
The Apostle Peter, who himself was martyred, puts it like this: According to his great mercy, God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you. That’s the reward, the eternal kingdom. Relationship, reward.
I remember visiting a man who had had some form of a stroke. He’d been hugely successful in business. He was one of the most intelligent, active men I’ve ever known, extraordinarily gifted in the arts, a sportsman in his day of exceptional ability. Now rendered almost immobile but able to speak. What encourages you?
Do you know my favourite hymn? Glorious things of thee are spoken, Saviour, Prince of Zion City, I through grace a member am. Let the world deride or pity, I will glory in thy name.
We downloaded it and listen to it together. You’ll know how it finishes.
Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show. Solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion’s children know.
Insofar as I receive the apostolic word and the one speaking the apostolic word, so far do I receive the Creator of the universe into my life as my friend.
Insofar as I receive the apostolic word, the word of Jesus, and line up with it and with his people, so far do I receive this extraordinary eternal reward What an upside! Can you better it?
One of the great encouragements here at the moment is the 70 14 to 18-year-olds who turn up on a Wednesday evening to study the Bible together. It’s quite a glorious thing. Many of them are seeking to start Christian unions in their schools, frequently in face of intense opposition. Sometimes from the headteacher. They’re doing it.
You can imagine what their friends are going to say about them and the kind of stick they’ll get.
The one who receives a prophet because he’s a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward.
Relationship, reward. And recognition. Now I love verse 42 because as you look at it, the deed done for the little one at first sight appears so insignificant. And I guess in 99.9% of instances, instances, it might go completely unnoticed. A cup of cold water.
Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. The little one is a favourite way of Jesus speaking about his disciples. In the context of chapter 10, the little one must be a disciple who is speaking openly about Jesus. So that’s what the whole commission has been about. So whoever gets alongside one of these little ones who is speaking about the Lord Jesus in an office, in a neighbourhood, in a family, in a social group, and aids them will never lose their reward.
I asked a group of people yesterday, how much would it cost to give a cup of cold water? 3 or 4 people said nothing.
One sharp individual said, possibly everything.
You’re one of them?
J.C. Ryle has this wonderful statement about this passage. There is something very beautiful in this promise. It teaches us that the eyes of the great Master are ever upon those who labour for him and try to do good.
They seem perhaps to work on unnoticed and unregarded.
The proceedings of teachers, visitors of the poor, open disciples may appear very trifling and insignificant compared to the movements of kings, parliaments, armies, and statesmen. They are not insignificant in the eyes of God.
Nothing goes unnoticed. Nothing is neglected. Nothing is unregarding— unregarded. Everything is witnessed. Everything is rewarded.
God sees. God knows. God cares.
And on the great day when the heavenly bonus is awarded, One by one, everything will be recognised.
I was thinking of our cooks here at St. Helen’s. I believe they cook 1,500 meals a week. It’s rather wonderful to think that every single one is noticed by the Lord.
I was thinking of the associates who put out the chairs and tables for us to sit on. I have no idea whether I’ve quite got this right, but I reckon they must move about 100,000 or 200,000 chairs a year. Everyone is noticed. It’s rather wonderful, isn’t it?
The invitation offered, the encouragement extended, the hospitality given, the meal provided, the text sent, the prayer.
And so I suppose as we round off and close out this chapter in this short series, you sometimes hear people talk about the cost of being a Christian.
And I even began like that.
I wonder if that’s even appropriate as the kind of— like, there’s actually a cost to everything. You watch these rugby players, I mean, there’s a cost. There’s a cost to having a job in the city. There’s a cost to absolutely everything. Everything costs something in terms of energy and effort.
Ah, says Jesus, yes, reputational for sure, possibly physical. Oh yeah, relational.
But what a reward— intimate fellowship with the Father, Eternal reward in heaven.
Everything recognised.
Let’s pray together.
As you commanded us, Father, we do pray that in your mighty power you would thrust out labourers into the harvest field of the city. For your name’s sake. Amen.
