Hear now the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter ten, verses 34 through 42.

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law. And the person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever 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. 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, and 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 is a disciple. Truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."

The grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our God endures forever. These days, it's very common to hear people advocating for particular positions in the world and particular positions in society, particular moral ethical positions, and arguing that we must adopt these particular positions, uh, because to do so would put us on the right side of history.

The implication, of course, being that if we don't go in these particular directions, that we will be on the wrong side of history. Now, it's important, especially in the light of the passage we're looking at today, that we ask, what is this all about? What are we talking about? When people are talking about trying to be on the right side of history, rather than the wrong side of history? Well, in part there's a true observation to this, namely that every generation judges history. We we all judge those who have come before us. And frankly, the judgment of history is often very harsh, very strict. Where hindsight is 2020, it's not quite so easy always to be living in the fog of war, in whatever battles people happen to be facing at the time. So as we judge history, some people are valorized, others are villainized. By this historical judgment, we want to be on the right side of history, not the wrong side of history. But when people use this phrase, they are saying much more than just that. It's much more than just saying we want history to judge us well. It's actually getting at a very old idea that was originally articulated by an early 19th century German philosopher, a man named George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Um, it's an idea called the Hegelian dialectic. Now, if you didn't take much philosophy in high school or college, don't worry. This is a very simple idea. We're not going to do a whole bunch of proofs and things. A very simple concept, but it's very much behind this idea of being on the right side of history and very important to what we're going to be talking about today. The Hegelian dialectic is this idea that every age has its own ideas, its own beliefs, its own values, its own fundamental assumptions. And you might call that the thesis of the age. Did you ever have to write a paper and summarize what your paper was all about by writing a thesis statement? Well, if you summarized everything that our society is about, you might call that the thesis of our age. Well, Hegel said, well, every age has their own thesis, but then comes along some kind of competing idea. We'll call this the antithesis. And the antithesis brings its own ideas, its own beliefs, its own arguments, and tries to challenge the thesis. And so the thesis and the antithesis are locked in this dialectic, this dialogue, this debate where the antithesis is doing something to try to change that original thesis, to modify the original assumptions of our age into some other form, which then, as the antithesis changes the thesis, it becomes the synthesis, the new idea that shapes then history moving forward, and that synthesis then becomes the thesis for the next age, and the process starts all over again.

And thesis antithesis moving into an antithesis. Now the problem with what Hegel argued was for Hegel, everything was moving to some sort of ultimate ideal. He would say, this is a good process. The process of history is a good process because we're getting rid of those old, outdated, outmoded ideas and we're regularly progressing towards something that is better, towards something that is ideal. In fact, his old philosophy was called German Idealism. And what Hegel didn't understand. And when people continue to use this idea of being on the right side of history, they're they're channeling this idea from Hegel that what we are doing is always inevitably moving toward progress. Progress is very much in the idea of this phrase. But they misunderstand is that in every age. The enduring Word of God continues to speak the voice of Jesus to bear witness about the sins of that age. We keep thinking we're making real progress here. We keep thinking we're putting that sin behind us. We're putting that societal sin behind us and that issue behind us. And we're making real progress toward toward some great ideal off in the future whenever we can get there. But every age, Jesus convicts us by His Holy Spirit, speaking through His Word to tell us that every age still gets it wrong. Every age still is bound up in sin.

In fact, many ages aren't moving forward in any real sense. They're very much moving backward. So our big idea today as we study the passage of Jesus speaking here today. Is that Jesus defines the right side of history. Jesus defines the right side of history. We're not just going along and letting societal historical forces move us toward some great ideal someday. Jesus is the one who judges history. Jesus is the one who defines the right side of history now and in the past and forevermore. As we study our past today, the first thing we are going to see is that reality is not what Hegel told us it was. The reality is rather about the division that Jesus brings. The first point is about a sword dividing the earth. A sword dividing the earth in verses 34 to 36. But the next we see the two sides we can be on either. The right side of history is Jesus defines it or the wrong side of history. The first we can be on the wrong side of history, the side of the world in verses 37 to 39. Side of the world. Or in the third point, we can also be on the side of Jesus. There are only two choices to be on the side of the world or the side of Jesus. Let's look at what our Savior says as he instructs us in this countercultural point. Sword dividing the Earth, verses 34 through 36.

1. The Sword Dividing the Earth (Matt. 10:34–36)
2. The Side of the World (Matt. 10:37–39)
3. The Side of Jesus (Matt. 10:40–42)

The Sword Dividing the Earth (Matt. 10:34–36)

Now, as we begin to study this passage, it's once again very important to remember where we are in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus isn't all of a sudden just telling us about the sword he has come to cast upon the earth. This is in the context of Matthew chapter ten, which tells us something important about the mission that Jesus is giving to his disciples. This battle happens in the course of Jesus sending his disciples out into the world to begin to preach about who Jesus is, and Jesus warned his disciples in verses six through 25 that as they do this persecution is going to come. Now he is telling them why persecution will come. But in the course of this, Jesus in the previous section told us something very surprising. In verse 26 he says, in light of the persecution that's going to come, here's how you ought to respond. Have no fear of them. Even though you are going to be brought to great suffering because of this persecution, have no fear of them. Instead, you need to preach the gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ from the housetop. As much as you are going to be opposed, as much as this world is going to try to bring its own antithesis, to try to conform or change or modify your gospel, you must remain faithful and continue preaching the timeless Word of Jesus Christ, the gospel of what Jesus entered into history to accomplish through his life, death, and resurrection.

Proclaim this from the housetop. But now Jesus is bringing us into a second kind of surprise. The surprise of where this persecution is coming from again is going to explain where this comes from, but it's a very surprising thing, he says in verse 34. Is here. He tells us that Jesus intended for this persecution to happen. Our city. For Jesus says, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. Why came. Jesus did not come to bring peace on the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. But Jesus is telling us is that if we are here with a hope for an easy care free, trouble free, problem free life, if that is the case, then we are going to be appointed. Because following Jesus means willingly entering into the conflict of those who, first of all, hate Jesus and then secondarily hate all those who are associated with Jesus. It's important to look at what Jesus says. There are a couple of really interesting implications of the way Jesus phrased this. He says, first of all, notice that he says that he has come to do something. He is not come to bring peace, but he has come to bring a sword. The I, Jesus. The idea that Jesus has come to do something implies that Jesus existed, that he existed before he came. You cannot come somewhere unless you were someplace in the past and then came somewhere.

Secondarily, Jesus was not born so that that was the beginning of his existence. The way that we are. Jesus rather eternally existed as the Son of God in eternity past. And then he came into this world by taking upon himself the human nature. He incarnated and born to live this life where his words are recorded for us here in the scriptures. That's the first important implication that Jesus preexisted all of this as the eternal Son of God. But the second thing that is very important for us to recognize here is that Jesus is saying that he that he will be the line dividing all of human history. It won't be an endless string of theses and antitheses and new syntheses like Hegel thought. Rather, Jesus is the one line that cuts directly down the middle of history, where Jesus is always defining what is the right side of history and what is the wrong side of history, no matter what the current culture may demand. Jesus stands perpetually as the antithesis against whatever the world is selling us today. Well, in verses 35 through 36, Jesus tells us, don't be confused. Don't be surprised, because in fact, this is going to bring great suffering by actually entering into your most intimate personal family relationship. In verse 35 he says, for I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in law against her mother in law, and a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Jesus come not just to cast a sword that will divide the earth into abstract, nameless categories. He's saying this sword is actually going to divide households, in fact. And when we hear this, the sword is going to actually divide households, swords and households. This should remind us of this phrase from the Old Testament. After David sinned with Bathsheba, a prophecy that was told to him by the prophet Nathan as a curse against him because of his sin. And second Samuel 12 verse ten is this now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. Now, if we know the story of David, we know what pain that entailed for David. And the story of David's life. One of his sons, named Amnon, raped one of his daughters, a woman named Tamar. And then another son, Absalom murdered the first son, Amnon, for what he had done. Later, that same son, Absalom, grew up, and he began to raise up a coup to try to overthrow his father David for the throne, to try to kill his own father. Eventually, he was killed in battle. And even still, David's life was not settled. The end of his life, when David was weak and frail and trying to pass along the kingdom to his son Solomon, whom God has chosen, still another son pops up Adonijah, who sought to take the throne for himself.

David was constantly navigating conflict, violence, turmoil, and threats, and Jesus says, so will we. The sword will not depart from our households, but with one very important difference. Because for David, sword did not depart from his house, because of his sin, because of his moral failure, because of his faithlessness. The sword will not depart from our households only if we are instead faithful. Jesus. We're facing this incredible suffering, and we're going to be wondering how to deal with this. And Jesus is trying to tell us what's going on. Imagine you had a life threatening disease, and there was one drug that could cure it, and your doctor prescribed you this drug, and you began to take this drug to cure your life threatening disease. And all of a sudden, you become wracked with more pain than you could possibly imagine. You call your doctor and you tell them about this and say we're the prescriptions missed out mixed up? Was I somehow given poison instead of the solution? And your doctor says to you, no. In fact, that's exactly, unfortunately, how it has to work. Those are the side effects because of the way that drug is interacting with a part of your body, it's actually killing the disease, even though you must suffer much more through it. Now, that doesn't necessarily make the suffering more pleasant. But it does give you concepts, categories to understand what's happening as you are suffering.

It reframes the nature of your suffering. It shows you that the pain is awful. Yes. The pain is a necessary part. The cure. Jesus, our Great Physician is telling us that these will be the side effects of following him. We experience the hatred of the world. Jesus then came not to bring peace. As surprising as that is. Even though he is called the Prince of Peace, he did not come to bring peace. He came to cast a sword into the world that will divide the earth, drawing a line directly down the middle of our household that all people hereafter will be defined primarily, not by wherever, wherever they stand on the topic of the day, by where they stand in their relationship with him. He is the dividing line of history. Well, how then should we respond? Well, in the next two sections, Jesus is going to contrast the two responses that we can make. Again, think of all the societal questions that we are faced. None of them are as relevant as this one. All of them are perhaps indirectly answered by that question, but this is the question that defines and answers everything else. The first thing that Jesus does is to reject the idea that whatever antithesis the world is offering to your faith, that you should somehow modify it. Remember, the antithesis is always trying to modify the thesis. Jesus says, don't let that happen.

The Side of the World (Matt. 10:37–39)

Your face should not be modified by the world. And so he begins by giving us a warning about what it would mean to be on the side of the world. That's the second point, the side of the world in verses 37 to 39. Jesus says in verse 37, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Reprise anyone more than Jesus, including your most intimate family members. Lisa says you're not worthy of. What does he mean by that? He's not talking about some kind of unforgivable sin that if you feel an affection for a family member that rises above that of Jesus, that somehow you're forever disqualified for the kingdom of heaven. He's not saying that. He's not talking about an unforgivable sin. There is always forgiveness. We repent of it. He is rather talking instead that incompatible priorities. This is an unforgivable sin. This is simply an incompatible priority. You cannot continue to prioritize anyone or anything in your life above Jesus. One of the things that we regularly tell our children is that there is. They are thinking about future spouses. The one thing they need to consider is, does this person love Jesus more than they love me? That is the one thing they need to be asking about. But notice Jesus isn't even here talking about romantic relationships. He's talking about relationships of children, parents and parents children.

This is shocking. Today we think of sentimental sentimentally about our own children. But in those days, the height of piety was the way that people treated their parents. To say that you were even to be severed from your mother and father was a shocking claim. And yet it is one that many of you have had to face choosing. Should I follow Jesus or should I be loyal to my parents when they asked me to stop following Jesus? But Jesus is saying is talking. What Jesus says in verse 38 is all the more shocking. He says. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. We must take up a cross to follow Jesus. Now we cheapen this idea. Very often we talk about some kind of minor annoyance or inconvenience in our life. Oh, I have to park far away. I guess that's my cross to bear. Understand that absolutely cheapens what Jesus is talking about. We have so tamed and. Keeping the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. We have lost sight of the horror of crucifixion. Its absolute, not just the physical torture that someone was put through when they drowned in the fluids of their own lungs because they couldn't no longer pull themselves up long enough to breathe. Not so much. Even the physical. It was the societal shame that they would face. Imagine being brought out by everyone you had known throughout your entire life as they jeered at you and mocked you as you were carrying the cross beam because you were going to your death and everyone had turned against you.

You're not surrounded by loved ones on your way to your death. You are surrounded by loved ones who now hate you as you carry the cross. Be crucified. Jesus is saying, we must bear this worldly dishonor of being associated. The crucified Savior because it wasn't just the shame was limited to that person. The worst thing that you could live with is the shame of having a loved one, a relative who was crucified. At least they got to die. You had to continue living with that shame of being associated with that person. Get a picture of this cross bearing, of course, with a man named Simon of Cyrene. Was drafted out of the crowd at random. According to a worldly perspective and the providence of God, he was selected specifically to show what it would mean to bear the weightiness of worldly shame and the glory of heavenly honor, of bearing the cross of our Lord. So Jesus says in verse 39 that there's a great paradox. You can't have it both ways. You must have one or the other. Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. If you seek after and cling to your life by avoiding the shame of association with Jesus Christ, you will ultimately lose it.

It will ultimately slip through your fingers. But on the other hand, if you willingly lose your life through association. The shame Jesus Christ crucified. You will through that find life our Savior. Recently read the story of Aron Ralston. Aron Ralston, who was a 27 year old backpacker in 2003. And as he was backpacking alone, he found his arm pinned by a £500 boulder in a remote Utah canyon. He waited five days for someone to come to rescue him to help him, tried to wiggle his arm out from under that, and ultimately he realized he was faced with a choice. He could either cut off his arm, lose his life as he had known it up to that point, or he could die. He could cling to a life as someone with two arms, or he could die. Those were his two choices. And on May 1st, 2003, he made the choice. Five days of being dehydrated, of of not having food. He cut off his arm below the elbow and was able to go free. He found his life by being willing to give up his life. And Jesus says that's what it's like. You cannot cling to your life as you, as you know it, as you find it convenient, as you find it comfortable and easy. If you side with the world, ultimately you will lose the life that you are hoping to preserve and have it both ways.

Well, Jesus not only warns us against siding with the world. What's fascinating in the final section is that Jesus promises us lavish blessings of siding with him. This is not sort of an even choice. It is not just, well, there's some bad consequences over here and some good consequences over here. Jesus is saying that to follow him is is is lavishly filled with blessing.

The Side of Jesus (Matt. 10:40–42)

Look at the third section, the side of Jesus in verses 40 through 42. Note his generous grace. In verse 40 he says, first of all, there will be disproportionate credit. But whoever receives you receives me. Who would receive a disciple will be counted as receiving Jesus. And then Jesus says, whoever receives me receives him who sent you. Jesus is saying, if you simply receive someone sent by Jesus, that will be counted as receiving Jesus, which in turn will be counted as receiving the one who is sent Jesus, namely God the Father. There is a disproportionate credit that will be extended to you, even for the smallest acts of kindness that you do for the people of God. Moreover these kindnesses this credit will be rewarded. Verse 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. Well, notice these aren't prophets receiving prophet's rewards.

These aren't righteous people receiving righteous rewards. People who simply receive these people. Again, there's a disproportionate amount of credit that's received and a disproportionate reward that's being received for these things that are disproportionately credited. Jesus is reminding us is that following him is entirely about grace. It is about God's mercy. None of this is something that you have thrust yourself for and demanded due wages from God. For all the good work that you have done. No, no, we are unprofitable, unworthy servants. We have only, even if we've done everything required of us, only done our duty. Jesus says, even if you do the smallest thing, not everything, the smallest thing, you will receive a reward. Its grace upon grace upon grace. We aren't going from one taskmaster into the bondage of another taskmaster. We are running from slavery to sin in this world. Jesus Christ, who welcomes back sinners with the open arm of a father who loves us even though we do not deserve it. And in verse 42, Jesus goes on and puts this in the starkest way he can. He says. 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 the Lord. In not the greatest things you could do. The smallest kindness. A cup of cold water for one of the least of these disciples. That certainly could include children like Peter, who was baptized this morning.

It could also include even the most inconsequential from a worldly perspective disciple. This is just to do that, you will by no means lose your award. I think one of the most interesting, most powerful illustrations of the way that God's economy of grace works is what we see in the story of Rahab in Joshua chapter two. You see, when the Israelites were coming into the Promised Land, this is in the Old Testament, and they were coming into the Promised Land. God had given them a mission to drive the Canaanites out of the land, and particularly to drive the Canaanites out of the land because of their sin, and particularly because of their sexual sin. So here you have a Canaanite, but also a Canaanite prostitute. You have the poster woman of everything that the Israelites had come to drive out of the land. And yet. What happens. This woman, Rahab, there was a great kindness to those who were sent on behalf of Israel, to the spies, to hide them from the people of the city. And what happened? Well, God didn't dismiss her. God saved her and her family from the judgment because they associated with her. But why did she associate with the spies? Why did she risk her life to side with the spies? It was because of her. Joshua two, verse 11. She tells the spies, the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

The kindness she showed was because of her faith in the God of these people. But Jesus is telling us is that every individual exists on one of two sides in this great conflict that Jesus draws all the way through history. Either you are for Jesus or you are against Jesus. There's no two sides, so that anyone who shows even the least kindness to those on the side of Jesus will only do it for one reason and one reason only. It is because they are disciples. And as disciples. Jesus will graciously and lavishly bless them. If you, like Rahab, are showing real, risky, sacrificial kindness to those on Jesus's side. The Bible tells us is that is a sign that you have been brought to Jesus's side, not by what you have done by the cup of cold water, but rather by your faith, like the faith of Rahab prompted her to help the spies. The Apostle John writes this in first John chapter three, verse 14. He says, we know that we have passed out of death into life. Why? Because we love the brothers. Because we love other believers. You wouldn't love other believers, John says, unless you have passed out of death into life by faith in Jesus Christ. By contrast, he says, the rest of the world acts like Cain. Cain, who murdered his brother Abel. Why did he murder his brother Abel? Because his Cain's deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous.

The world hates the righteousness of the people of God. From the beginning, the instinct of the world has been to murder the people of God because their deeds were righteous, while while the righteous people are, while the righteous deeds are righteous while the world deeds are evil. And so Jesus here says, I have not come to bring peace. I have come to make that division all the more wicked. What's your application to this text today? The application that Jesus is telling us is to stop trying to have peace on earth. I'm trying to have peace on earth. Now, I don't mean by that that we shouldn't pursue peace. Jesus himself says that blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. We should pursue peace. I also don't mean that we should be unnecessarily divisive. Paul writes in Romans 12, verse 18, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. I'm pointing here to the words of Jesus, who teaches us to brace for a bitter truth, for a harsh reality that is coming at us, that there will be no peace on earth for now. You see all of us as we're trying to navigate this world, want some kind of common good? We want to kind of live in a world without conflict, a way to find unity and harmony in which Christians can exist and live peacefully with all others.

Sometimes we imagine that we can be the antithesis to the world, that if we just showed the world where it went wrong, they would thank us. Oh thank you. Now we will change the way that we live in accordance with your God. We can have a better synthesis in the world, can make progress toward that ultimate Hegelian ideal. Jesus explains. It's just not possible. And not only is it not possible, it is not desirable, maybe desirable for us, but not desirable to the one who is us. Wisdom from God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because what Jesus is explaining here is this hatred is necessary. Is ultimately against Jesus Christ himself. I then must have been necessary. But Jesus is telling us that he came to cast this sword on the earth, and I think what he's explaining here or saying here is well explained by a commentator, R.C. Lenski. He says this. He says the idea is this If Christ had not come. The earth would have gone on undisturbed in its sin and its guilt until the day of its doom. But now Christ has come. And he came to take away that sin and that guilt. The once war resulted or in their perversion, men clung to their sin, fought Christ in the gospel, and thus produced two hostile camps. Christ or saw this effect and willed it. Emphatically he declared that he came to throw a sword on the earth.

Better the war and the division, saving as many as possible. And to let all perish in their sin. Valencia is summarizing from what Jesus is telling us here is that peace on this earth can only come by suppressing the gospel. It can only come when the antithesis of this world forces us to modify something of our confession in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every culture throughout history has always been trying to do this. The church in the early church in the first century. You can read about their simple confession that Jesus is Lord. Why did they say that? Because Caesar claimed to be Lord. It was a direct contradiction. You are not Lord. Jesus is Lord. And so the world hunted down and persecuted and put Christians to death, because they would not confess with the rest of the world that Caesar was Lord. Later on in the fourth century, there was a church father named Athanasius. Athanasius, where you may know the phrase about him, Athanasius contra mundum. That's Latin for Athanasius against the world. The whole world was against him. Why? Because he confessed that Jesus came. That the sun eternally existed before all worlds, that there was never a time when the sun was not. In the rest of the world. Hated him. Accepted Jesus to some degree, but they wanted him to be a creature. And so Athanasius, over the course of his lifetime, was exiled five times.

He was always under threat because of the faithfulness of confessing that Jesus is Lord and that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who became flesh for us and for our salvation. Later on in the 16th century, as Protestants were preaching a doctrine of justification by faith alone, they were murdered in their beds at night next to their families, and they were burned at the stake because they preached. The gospel of Jesus comes as a result of grace and not of good works. Over the last centuries. If you know, this inevitable human progress that we've been promised has not yet come over the last 100 years, an era that there's actually a magazine called The Christian Century. This was supposed to be the age when the gospel of the kingdom would permeate all places, and that everyone would come to their senses and there would be peace on earth. And there was never been more bloodshed. Christians and over this last century, especially for opposing communism. In the in the east and then in Islamic countries all the way to today, Christians are killed because they worship Jesus as God's only son. But of course, today in the West, the issue of the culture, the antithesis of the culture, is a little bit different. We are facing increasing persecution, increasing pressure at least even if it has not always expanded to full blown persecution because of what our society calls the sexual revolution. Our culture worships ever expanding sexual perversions.

The more transgressive the better. Why? Because ultimate freedom of sexual expression, our world believes, is something of of liberation from the creator. The creator who created man as male and female only after his own image. There aren't multiple categories. There is only male and female. And our creator, who also created marriage as an institution at creation to be between one man and one woman for life. The world looks at these restraints and says in the word of words of Psalms two verse three, they say, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. This has always been the attitude in any culture, no matter what we are facing, it's always we don't want to be constrained by what God says. But Jesus warns. Can be no peace between the church and these demands. In every age, there can be no peace between the church and whatever the society wants us to modify our gospel to proclaim. Doesn't mean that we have to go out and pick fights. It means that the war is coming for us, whether we would have it or not. How then should we prepare? That brings us to the larger section here. What does Jesus tell us? Remember, he says, have no fear of them. Instead continue preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Proclaim it from the Housetops. Why is this a solution that seems so weak? It seems so foolish.

Jesus promises that in the fray of this war. Jesus's gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, will continue to call sinners to himself, as some of Jesus's fiercest enemies will lay down their weapons and surrender and bend the knee to Jesus as Lord. Because the Holy Spirit will be at work removing hard and stony, violent hearts and replacing them with soft and tender hearts of flesh that respond to the gospel. Removing the veil from their eyes so that they can freely see the beauty of the glory of Christ. Jesus says, has no fear. You may suffer. You may be put to death for your faith. But Jesus has. Ultimately, the right side of history is defined not by whatever societal pressure we face today, but by Jesus Christ and Him alone. Jesus finds the right side of history. You then be on the side of the world, or on the side of the Savior who died, that you might have life. Three. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us Jesus, that we would not be tempted to stray from our confession, from our hope in the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. But we pray rather, that Jesus Christ be lifted up in our hearts so that we look to him by faith. You would use your word to confirm the promises to your word and your sacraments. We would know and love Jesus all the days of our lives. Jesus Christ name, Amen.