LOST AND FOUND
Rev. Bernt P. Tweit
Epistle Lesson; Romans 6:1-11
Old Testament Lesson; Jeremiah 28:5-9
Sermon Text; Matthew 10:34-42
Our text for today contains the concluding instructions Jesus gave His disciples about witnessing to the world. Jesus himself displayed a compassion for the lost and then urged his followers also to have such compassion and go "find" the lost.
Today we will be looking almost exclusively at Matthew 10, verse 39, which says,
"Whoever finds his life
will lose it, and
whoever loses his life for My sake
will find it."
We will be talking about "lost and found". We will be talking about what we need to lose, and what needs to be found, in us.
Usually when we hear the phrase "lost and found", we think of a box that contains items that are lost. If you know you have lost something, you can go to that box with the hope that you will find what you lost. But today when we talk about this phrase "lost and found", our goal is not to find what we have lost. Rather it is to lose something on purpose, our life, and to be found in Jesus.
Again that portion of our text says, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Jesus reminds us of this over and over again so that we don’t forget. When we try to hang onto this life, when we focus on serving ourselves, we will lose everything. But, when we are willing to give up our lives, and we make serving Jesus and other people our focus, then we will find the joy for which we have always longed. That is eternal life in heaven!
Find temporal life and lose eternal life.
Let’s look at just the first half of that verse.
"Whoever finds his life
will lose it."
Jesus first of all tells us what happens, when we don’t look to him first. He simply says, "You are not worthy of me".
Suppose, as we were to train our children to be egotistical, self-centered and arrogant either through our example or by the way that we taught them.
By training a child that way, we would be teaching them to try to find enjoyment in this life, but they would lose eternal life, because they weren’t shown Jesus.
A father who trains his son to seek pleasure in this life and teaches his son to live a life of total ambition for the things of this life, is only teaching his son to find temporal life.
A mother who trains her daughter to seek only the desires of her own heart, to assert herself as one who is totally self-centered is also teaching that daughter to find temporal life.
If this were the case, our children would not be trained and taught in the ways of the Lord and because of this, our children would seek to find pleasure in this life, without looking to eternal life. They may succeed in having a fun, successful, or rich temporal life, but have lost heaven.
If we love the ways of this world, as taught by our friends, family, teachers at school, or even parents, we do not live for Jesus. We would have found temporal life, but lose out on eternal life. The Bibles says, " What good is it, if a man gain the whole world and yet forfeit his own soul?"
Judas is an example for us all. He chose to find pleasure in this life by "finding" or accepting the 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. He may have found some pleasure in this life, but lost eternal life.
The account of the Rich Man and Lazarus should also make an impression on us. The Bible says, "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table…"
"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
"But Abraham replied, ‘Son remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.’" Luke 16:19-25
Our text from Matthew reminds us of
The 1st Commandment,
"You shall have no other gods."
It reminds us of how often we put our family, others, and ourselves before God. And, if we love our family, others, or ourselves more than God, we are losing eternal life.
Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
The second half of the verse we are looking at says, "Whoever loses his life
for my sake
will find it."
This truth is explained very clearly in Luke 18:28, "Peter said to him, ‘We have left all we had to follow you!’"
Here is Jesus’ response to Peter and to all of us. "I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come, eternal life." Luke 18:29-30
Jesus tells us that in this life, right now, we are going to begin to realize that it is worth it to follow Jesus! The encouragement we receive from other Christians, the comfort we find in the Holy Spirit, and the satisfaction that comes from knowing our life, has a purpose.
Abraham here is an example for us, as well. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. Abraham was 100 years old before he even had a son, Issac! And, some time later, God said, "Take your son, your only son, Issac…and sacrifice him as a burnt offering." Abraham did as God said. He lost himself and put his trust in, and found God. He put God’s Word ahead of his own thought and through his faith in the Messiah, received eternal life.’
We find eternal life, when we admit that we are sinners. We find eternal life, when we recognize that Jesus came for us and that Jesus died on the cross for us to forgive us of our sins. We find eternal life, when we lean on the promises of God.
"Believe in Jesus and
you
will be saved."
As believers in Christ, there is so much more ahead, than this world can offer. In eternity, we will experience a joy, which we can’t even imagine, right now. As Paul says in I Corinthians 2:9,
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived what
God has prepared for those who love him…"
What is it worth to have lots of stuff? You can’t take it with you. When multi-millionaire, Lee Iacoca died, his lawyer was approached by a friend who asked, "How much did he leave in his will?"
The lawyer replied, "All of it."
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
We pray. Thank you God for sending your son Jesus, to die for us on the cross that our sins might be forgiven. Thank you for promising to take us to Heaven by losing ourselves from sin and through faith finding and believing in Jesus. We pray in the name of Jesus, who made all of this possible.
Amen.
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