Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Do you ever feel like the parties and presents get in the way of really experiencing Christmas? On today's Telling the Truth, Stuart Briscoe helps to strip away those distractions. We'll hear from Stuart in just a moment.

Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth. As we approach December 31st, generous friends have stepped forward with a special matching grant that will double your gift to help more people experience life in Christ. That means your support will go twice as far to help share God's word around the world through Stuart and Jill's biblical teaching, digital broadcasts, and global partnerships.

Every day, lives are being transformed as people discover the peace and purpose that only Jesus gives, and your year-end gift makes that possible. So don't miss this powerful opportunity to make an even greater impact before midnight, December 31st, while your gift will be doubled through the special matching grant. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now let's hear from Stuart with his message, To Bring a Sword.

Stuart Briscoe: This is the situation. Jesus gathers his volunteers together. There's a shortage, but he gathers the volunteers together that he has, and he begins to brief them on his mission, the thing that they will be involved in. Why? Because he has told them that he needs more people, and he asked them to pray to the Lord who is harvesting.

Notice this, the Lord who is harvesting. It isn't a case of God sitting up there saying, "Come on, you guys, do something." It is the Lord actively harvesting and saying, "Come and join me. Come and join me. I'm doing it. It's not you doing it for me. It is you being caught up in what I am doing. Come and join the Lord who is harvesting."

Now he says, "Let me brief you on what you can expect, and let me brief you on what I expect of you." So he gives commissioning details to them. You'll notice first of all, from verse five through 16, for the sake of time, we won't read it. I'll simply summarize it for you. You'll notice that he gives them specific details about their focus.

He tells them what they should do, and he tells them the general area in which they should do it. In this case, he says, "Make a priority of the lost sheep of Israel." That does not mean that Jesus was uninterested in the Gentiles. In fact, just a few verses later, he says that one day you will be brought before kings and all kinds of authorities. And he is referring, of course, to the Gentile nations to whom they will eventually go.

Notice, however, his strategy is to mobilize a core of people who mean business, to give them a focus, and give them the tools to do what needs to be done. Then he actually goes into details about accommodation and remuneration, and then he tells them precisely that it's not going to be easy.

In fact, he says in these classic words, verse 16, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves." I did mention one of the criticisms of the contemporary church in America is that it has become feminized. In other words, it has become very much touchy-feely.

Many of the songs that we sing, if you take Jesus and Lord out of them, they could be love songs. Now, obviously, we love Jesus, and we sing of our love for him, but many men, particularly, are saying that the Church of Jesus Christ has become feminized. It's become sort of a glorified chick flick that people come and enjoy.

Well, I don't know what they've been reading, and I don't know what they've been listening to, because you see what they say is, "Men need a challenge." Well, here's a challenge for you, men. If you really want a challenge and you really want to address the people out there, this is what Jesus said: "Guys, out there, there are a lot of ravening wolves. Boy, are they ready to rip on people. They will tear you apart. And guess what? That's where you're going. And I'm going to send you right out there, and between you and me, you don't stand a chance. You don't stand a chance. You are going to be like a little, white, wooly, bleating lamb among those wolves, all right? Are there any volunteers? Do you want a challenge? Do you want a challenge? There it is."

This is how Jesus mobilizes his disciples. This is how Jesus goes about building his church. This is the kind of person whom Jesus uses to take the message of the kingdom. Just ordinary people who've responded to his call, empowered uniquely for that to which he's called them. And even though they're scared to death and feel desperately inadequate, when they're sent, they go. That's his strategy.

He goes on further, and he warns them specifically about the difficulties that they will have, verse 17 through 31. He said, "Be on your guard against men. They'll hand you over to the councils. They will flog you in the synagogues. On my account, you'll be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles."

And then he goes on, and it seems that what he's really saying is this: "Please, please, please understand. I did not invite you to join in a party in a rose garden. I called you to be part of my challenge of the forces of hell that are governing my Father's world. That's why I'm here. That's why I came. I didn't come to bring peace. I came to bring a sword."

He keeps going, and he not only tells them about difficulties that they will have, he then gives them some words of encouragement. Verse 19, this is what he said: "When they arrest you, don't worry." He said what? That's what he said. This is all in quotes, folks. Don't get upset with me. You see? All in quotes. "When they arrest you, don't 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. Don't worry."

All right, have you got that? Verse 22, "All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Don't quit. Don't quit." Verse 24, "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."

So what's he saying there? He's saying, in actual fact, "They will reject me. Don't be surprised if they reject you. In fact, be surprised if everybody who has rejected me suddenly thinks you are the bee's knees and the cat's whiskers all rolled into one and stand in line to hug you and thank you." He said, "No, no, no. Don't be surprised if they treat you the way they treated me." Are you getting the picture here? Don't worry. Don't quit. Don't be surprised.

Verse 26, "So don't be afraid." What's this one? Don't be afraid. Verse 29, this is what he said: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered." Not much of a job now for some of us, but that's what he says. "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid. You're worth more than many sparrows."

So don't forget. Don't forget that your heavenly Father is keeping inventory of sparrows. He's keeping inventory of sparrows. He knows the hair of your head, so you're not forgotten. You are not overlooked. You're out there in the midst of the fight, and that's where you belong, and your Father is not forgetful. Never, never forget that. So don't worry, don't quit, don't be surprised, don't be afraid, and don't forget.

And all that leads quite beautifully into our text. You say, "Oh, you finally got back to it." That's right. We're looking at a text in this context. And what's the context? The context is the huge need of our world and the strategy of Jesus to address it. That's why he came. And the invitation and summons to disciples of Jesus to be part of what he is doing in addressing this world in which we live.

That's the context, and this is what he says about it. "It will not be easy. I did not come to bring peace. I came to present myself to people, and there will be response, and there will be reaction. There will be those who embrace me, and there will be those who loathe and detest me. There will be those who take all that I say, and it becomes the very core of their being, and there will be those who will reject it as nonsense. And the line may even go through a marriage. And the line may even go through a family. And the line may even go through a culture and a society. And you know what? It has, and it did, and it does."

People betrayed people during the Communist era for the name of Christ. Rather than stand firm in their Christian commitment, many people who professed the name of Jesus betrayed their brothers and sisters to the authorities. We are in a huge cosmic struggle. We're not in a tea party. And that's why he came, because he has a vision for our world. He has a strategy for reaching it. He is calling us to be part of it, and he is warning us in advance, "This is what it will be like."

I have a friend called Satyam in India. Satyam was brought up in a Hindu home. The thing he enjoyed doing more than anything else was in the little village where he grew up, there was a little group of disciples of Jesus, and they met in a crummy little building, and his favorite thing to do was to short out their electricity as soon as they met. That was it. And play the drums in the Hindu festivals. That was life for my friend Satyam.

And then one day, Satyam's friend got converted, and Satyam's response to his witness to him was to hire a bunch of thugs, and they beat up on his friend. But the friend persisted, and Satyam eventually came to Christ. He was thrown out of his home after he'd been made to sit outside his family home over one weekend in the blazing sun without food or water. The villagers came one by one and harangued him, and abused him, and attacked him, and challenged him to repudiate his Christian profession.

He refused. He left home, and he lived on the platforms of railroad stations. He ate rotting bananas that people had thrown away. He had only the clothes he stood up in, and at night he found an old piece of sacking which he wrapped around his body whilst he washed his only clothes.

It's a long story. I'd love to tell you the story of Satyam. Satyam is now in charge of 500 pastors overseeing 500 church plants among the Dalits of India, the untouchables. And I have worshipped with Satyam, and he knows Jesus didn't come to bring peace. He came to bring a sword. But he didn't worry, and he wasn't afraid, and he didn't quit, and he wasn't surprised, and he didn't forget, and he kept on keeping on.

And this is what he took seriously: that if I am going to be a follower of Jesus, my commitment to him may go even deeper than the commitment in my family. That's what Jesus said. This is the kind of calling that he extends to us today.

What does this mean to us? Very quickly, it means this: that they are probably not going to throw you out of your home so that you have to subsist on rotten bananas that people have thrown away. It's unlikely that you'll have to live on railroad stations and wrap yourself in a piece of sacking while you wash your only clothes.

But what I tell you you can anticipate is this: you can anticipate that if you begin to make definitive statements about Jesus, you will be called a bigot. You will. You'll be called a bigot because people will be saying, "Well, you are making an absolute statement. An absolute statement breeds people like you, and people like you develop religion that's the cause of all the war and trouble in our world." That's what they'll tell you. That's what they'll call you.

And some, of course, will be more sophisticated. They'll simply say, "Well, that of course is your truth, but that's not my truth. So you have your truth, and I'll have my truth." And what they're doing, and you need to be aware of it, they are redefining tolerance. They are redefining tolerance.

This is how tolerance used to be defined. Tolerance used to be a virtue that permits or encourages those with whom we disagree to speak up and defend their point of view. All right? In other words, it meant that you had the capability to recognize that people would say things with which you disagreed, but you'd give them every opportunity and every encouragement to speak up and defend their point of view.

That's how it used to be. Voltaire, the French philosopher, put it this way: "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it." That's what tolerance used to be. It is a Christian virtue.

This is what tolerance has become. Tolerance is now the virtue that refuses to think that any opinion is bad, or evil, or stupid. They are all of equal value, which means they are of very little value at all. So you have your point of view and I'll have my point of view, unless—unless your point of view is that there is absolute truth.

And there is the absurdity of the postmodern situation. But be aware of this. Be aware of the fact that if you make absolute statements as you quote Jesus, you'll be branded a bigot. Be aware of the fact that tolerance has been totally redefined.

Remember that your message will inevitably be obnoxious to many people, but that is no excuse for you to be obnoxious in the way you present it to people. And don't ever forget you and I are in a monumental cosmic struggle for the eternal well-being of men and women. He didn't come to bring peace. He came to bring a sword. That's the reason for the season.

Jill Briscoe: Stuart, you know, Jesus never promised us peace. So when someone shares some with others and doesn't necessarily get a gracious reaction, perhaps it's even hostile, what should their response be?

Stuart Briscoe: If I find myself talking to somebody about my experience of Christ or I begin to explain to them what I believe and their reaction is hostile, then clearly I'm not in the business of making an enemy. So I will seek to be gracious. I'll seek to be understanding.

And I will be, hopefully, honest enough to examine my own heart and my own attitude and the ways in which I am communicating. And I'll ask myself, was there anything offensive about me? Was there anything offensive about the way I'm communicating or reacting to this person? That's where I'd begin.

Now, on the other hand, I fully recognize that the Christian gospel is offensive to many people. And therefore, we cannot expect people to respond positively if we just hit them cold turkey. There's got to be some reason why they should take seriously what is something that contradicts their position, why they should take seriously something that really says they've been living their lives wrongly. And the reason that they would start to listen to me then, without getting hostile, has to be because I have credibility with them and have taken the trouble to build a relationship with them.

Jill Briscoe: Stuart, how can a Christian stand up for absolute truth today in our "tolerance is everything" society?

Stuart Briscoe: Well, many people are highly critical of religion because they say that religion has engendered a lot of controversy, and this controversy at times has spilled over into mutual antagonisms and even into war itself. And they're right. They're right. And it is something that we have to face up to, and I don't need to give illustrations of this.

Now, it is therefore understandable that many people would even take a step further and say therefore religion is the problem behind the world's problems, and we've got to stop being dogmatic. And we've got to recognize that, in actual fact, nobody has all the truth. Therefore, nobody should be insisting that anybody else is wrong, and we should just be tolerant.

Well, we certainly have to admit that not everybody has the truth, nor do we know everything perfectly that we do know. But what we have to accept the fact is this: that God has said you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Therefore, we need to stand firm on the fact that while I may not know something perfectly, the Holy Spirit can help me know something thoroughly to be true. That being the case, I must be gracious and allow other people to think differently. And I always bear this in mind: that God gives everybody the absolute right to be perfectly wrong, and who am I to deny that right to them?

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today. We hope today's message has encouraged you to know Christ more deeply and live in the joy of his truth. Listen to these words from Gabrielle, who shares how God uses this broadcast to help her walk with the Lord.

Guest (Female): I listen to every broadcast and have since I started following the Lord five years ago. I cannot count the times when God has spoken directly into my circumstances or when he's been teaching me through Stuart and Jill. I pray for you all at Telling the Truth and praise God for you regularly. Thank you.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Gabrielle, and keep listening. Right now is one of the most important times of the year for Telling the Truth. As we approach December 31st, generous friends have stepped forward with a special matching grant that will double your gift to help more people experience life in Christ. That means your support will go twice as far to help share God's word around the world through Stuart and Jill's biblical teaching, digital broadcasts, and global partnerships.

So don't miss this powerful opportunity to make an even greater impact before midnight, December 31st, while your gift will be doubled through the special matching grant. Call 262-788-4648. That's 262-788-4648. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Thanks again for listening and for helping share the timeless truth of Jesus with people everywhere. Next time on Telling the Truth, Stuart wraps up his series, Why Christ Came, with the fourth and final reason, that they might have life. We hope you'll join us then and experience life with Telling the Truth. And from all of us at Telling the Truth, have a very Merry Christmas.