Matthew-034

Today, we continue our study in the Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:30. We will only want to see what the Lord Jesus has to teach us in this one verse.

This is a very short verse, but what exactly does it say to us? To bring out its meaning, we will look at another verse, Mark 9:40, that seems to say something similar to it. Let us read the passage beginning from Mark 9:38-40:

To refresh our minds, let us look again at Matthew 12:30 and compare it with Mark 9:40.

In Matthew 12:30 the Lord Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me.” Are you with him or are you against him? I am sure you will say, “I’m with him!” Whether this is so or not, we shall see in a moment when we come to understand what it means to be with him, and I will ask you that question again to see whether you can answer with that same confidence.

No neutrality in warfare

The Lord Jesus says, “Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Are you gathering with him? If you don’t gather with him then you are scattering. So we see from this statement that there is no neutral ground between being with Christ or against Christ. In spiritual warfare, there is no neutrality. In a sense, there is no such thing as neutrality at all in the world.

There are some countries in this world that claim to be neutral, like Switzerland. In reality, of course, the politics of Switzerland is very far from neutral. Today, for example, they are very much sympathetic to the Western Alliance, and very much opposed to the Eastern block. However, it feels obliged to remain neutral because of its small size. It doesn’t wish to be involved in a war because of the cost to itself. Whether any nation will respect this neutrality in future is another matter. In the WWII, Belgium was neutral, Holland was neutral, but the Germans took no notice of that. One day, when the Dutch woke up, they found the German paratroopers coming out of the sky! Switzerland was also neutral, but the Germans did not attack because it would have been too costly to attack that mountainous country.

The point of all this is, although you may proclaim yourself to be neutral, neither of the warring parties consider you to be so. If you are not a Christian you may say, “I’m neither against nor for Christ. I am neutral.” That doesn’t work because God doesn’t consider you to be neutral, and Satan doesn’t consider you to be neutral either. So you will be in trouble with both sides. The Lord Jesus is saying exactly this to us: Whether in military warfare or in spiritual war­fare, there is no neutrality, no middle ground.

But you will say, “What about Mark 9:40? Doesn’t it say that “The one who is not against us is for us”? Here we need to consider what exactly the Lord Jesus means, and then we will begin to see that these are not two sides of the same coin. They appear to be similar but actually, they are very different.

“For Christ”: Have sympathy for Christ

This “for” that the Lord Jesus is speaking about here is sympathy. There are many people like the Pharisees and Sadducees who were bitterly opposed to Jesus, but a person who is willing to cast out demons in Jesus’ name, like this man in Mark 9:38, certainly has at least a sympathy for Jesus. But notice, he is not following Jesus, so this is the disciples’ complaint to Jesus. The disciples said to the man, “We don’t allow you to use Jesus’ name because you are not following him.” Yet the Lord Jesus says, “Don’t stop him because whoever is not against us has sympathy for us.”

We have to notice some of the differences as we compare these two passages, Matthew 12:30 and Mark 9:40. There is a world of difference between those two expressions “with me” in Matthew and “for us” in Mark. The “us” in “for us” is not just Jesus; it includes his followers, that is, the church, the new community as a whole. There are many people who are very much “for” the church, “for” the Christian organization, “for” the Christian religion in some way or other, but they can do so out of very selfish interest.

It pains me to see for example, the denominational attitude that we have in the churches today, which is exactly illustrating this point. “I’m for ‘my’ denomination, ‘my’ church.” They can argue until their faces and their ears get red, as in the Chinese idiom, 臉紅耳赤(lian hong er chi), for “their” denomination, for “their” church or “their” teaching. I probably have never been as disgusted as when I was in theological college where the mentality was, you can be “for” your particular church, your denomination to the extent that you will hate even the other people.

I was once listening to an interview over the radio, where a person of a very strict Brethren sect was being interviewed, and it really sickened me in my heart. This sect is known as “Extreme Brethren” or “Closed Brethren” in England. They think that they are the only ones who will be saved while all the other Christians are going to hell. This man was saying, “I have great pity on you people.” Dear me! He felt so superior that he had only pity for all the other Christians. Where is the love of Christ to be seen in such people? But are they “for” the church? They are surely “for” the church! Just look at their red tomato faces. They will say, “We are for Christ and the church!” anytime. Exactly how do you deny that the Extreme Brethren are “for” Christ and “for” the church?

Let us think back again to the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. They went to Palestine to kill the Arabs, to redeem Palestine for God. They went, they fought, and they died in the name of Jesus. As they went forth, they took their oath upon the wooden cross. Even their flags carried the red Crusader cross on them. They went forth to fight “for” Christ and the church. Who will deny that they were “for” Christ and “for” the church?

Likewise, who can say that members of the Closed Brethren Church are not helping Christ and the church? We see today, a loyalty for “my” church, be it Alliance, Pentecostal, Baptist, or whatever the denomination. “I will fight for ‘my’ church! Don’t you dare say a bad word about ‘my’ church or you’ll get a black eye!” And when we do this, we are sure that we are doing this “for” Christ. After all, our church is Christ’s body. I think by now, you can see what “for” Christ and “for” the church means. The tragedy of the church is that we have too many people who are “for Christ,” “for” the church, and very few who are “with” Christ. Today, I would like you to ask that question clearly in your own mind: “Are you “for” Christ, or are you “with” Christ?” There is a world of difference between these two.

“For Christ”: Get advantage out of Christ

How well Paul understood the Lord Jesus’ teachings, and he illustrated this point so well in Philippians 1:15-18:

This passage is a great pain to my heart. The strange thing is that there are two kinds of preachers, two kinds of Christians: one preaches the gospel because of his love for Christ and for God; another actually preaches the gospel out of “rivalry” (meaning self­ish ambition), to get something for his personal gain. Are not those who preach the gospel out of selfish ambition “for Christ”? Surely, they are “for Christ”; they get advantage out of Christ. You are always “for” this person or “for” that person from whom you can get some advantage for yourself. And so in Philippians 1:18, these people actually proclaim Christ out of “pretense,” that is, from the wrong motives.

So watch very carefully, what is your motive for preaching the gospel? If a pastor preaches the gospel because that is his bread and butter, or his rice bowl, then of course, he is “for” Christ. If he doesn’t preach the gospel, he will end up washing dishes, so he has to preach the gospel. What is your motive for preaching the gospel? That will tell us why you are “for” Christ.

When you first read these two verses in Matthew12:30 and Mark 9:40 side by side, they seemed to say the same thing. Now you can see that they say very different things. When we read in Matthew 7:21-23 for example, these people who cast out demons in Jesus’ name, who did mighty works in Jesus’ name, who said to Jesus, “Lord, Lord!” and Jesus said to them, “Depart from me you evildoers,” were these people not for Christ? Surely, they were “for” Christ. Or else why would they be saying “Lord, Lord”? Why would they be using his name to do this and that? They were “for” Christ in a very definite sense, but they were not “with” Christ. Since they were not with Christ, Jesus said, “Depart from me, you evildoers. Don’t come here saying, “Lord, Lord!” You have been “for” me in some sense, but you have not been “with” me.”

This means, don’t think you are a Christian just because you are “for” Christ. To be a Christian is to be with Christ. So many people have not clearly distinguished between these two, and they confuse the meaning of being “for Christ” with that of being “with Christ.” They imagine that because they are for Christ, they are saved. I would like you to notice that anyone would be for Christ if he believes in Christ in some way. The people in Matthew 7:21 who said, “Lord, Lord!” surely believed in Jesus, otherwise they would never have cast out demons in Jesus’ name. This man in Mark 9:38-40 certainly believed in the power of Jesus’ name, otherwise he would not be casting out demons in that name. Therefore, we see at once that there is a world of difference between “for Christ” and “with Christ”. I urge you again, to make sure whether you are only “for Christ”, or whether you are also “with Christ.”

Jesus teaches his disciple: Be patient with the “for Christ”

What the Lord is teaching his disciples in Mark 9:38-40 is an attitude of patience, of tolerance. We are always impatient with people who are not 100% committed Christians, when we ourselves are. We can become very intolerant, very hard on them, and we will repudiate this kind of people in front of non-Christians. As a result, the non-Christians cannot distinguish between the two kinds of Christians: those who are “for Christ” and those who are “with Christ.” They think, “These are Christians, and those are Christians. Look at the Christians fighting each other!” Therefore we must not be like the exclusive Brethren Church. We must have patience and love for those who are not following us.

For this reason, I am willing to preach the gospel at whatever church, and I get invitations from all kinds of churches because they know that I am willing to accept them in the Lord, and I’m willing to serve them, even though I preach the gospel uncompromisingly. I don’t say, therefore, “Your church is no good. Your denomination is useless. You are all going to hell.” My job is simply to tell them what is a true Christian, and for them to decide where they stand. I preach exactly the same gospel to you as I preach to them. I preach severely if I should preach severely to whoever it is. In the same way, I preach lovingly if I should preach lovingly. I preach the same combination of God’s love and severity wherever I go.

But someone will say, “Isn’t it dangerous if you are that tolerant?” Let us recall that the Lord Jesus gives us a whole parable about the wheat and the darnel (inaccurately translated as “weeds” or “tares”) in Matthew 13:24-30, and we are told that these darnel were sown by Satan among the wheat growing in the field. The darnel is something that looks like wheat but is not wheat. That is how this kind of look-alike wheat grew among the true wheat without being discovered. But when the servants saw the poisonous fruit they bore, they immediately wanted to pull out the darnel, because they take the nourishment in the soil from the wheat and damage them. Even then, the Lord Jesus says, “Don’t pull them out because their roots tend to mix with the roots of the wheat, so if you pull out the darnel, you’ll pull out the wheat around as well. The darnel may weaken the wheat by taking the nourishment, but it is still better that the wheat around the darnel bear little fruit than be destroyed completely.”

Often, we look at Christians and say, “If only they had the right teaching, what potential they would have! What great things they could do for God!” But you cannot help them very much. They don’t bear too much fruit because they have been affected by the roots of the darnel. This is exactly what the Lord is teaching us in Mark 9:38-40: Be patient with those who are “for Christ.” You can be “for Christ” and still be darnel. Now we begin to realize the great danger.

We saw from Philippians 1:15-18 that Paul was saying there are some people who preach Christ out of rivalry. Doesn’t it mean that these people who are “for Christ” are also “against Christ” in a certain sense? Certainly, they are also against Christ in another sense, because they are not preaching the gospel out of love as it ought to be preached. These people who preach the gospel do so out of an impure motive. They are not true disciples, because only the pure in heart shall see God. These people are like the Israelites who worshipped God with their lips, but their hearts were far away from him. So we have this paradoxical situation, in which these people who are “for Christ” are in another sense “against Christ,” but they are not consciously against Christ. We should say, they are “for Christ” with their minds, but deny Christ with their lives.

“With Christ”: One with Christ in heart and spirit

People who preach the gospel out of rivalry are certainly not with Christ. They are “for Christ” to get advantage out of Christ for themselves, but they are not “with Christ.” But when we come to Matthew 12:30 we will see that the question is not being for Christ; the words “with me” are used twice, for those who are against Christ and who scatter his work.

Mark 3:14 says, the Lord Jesus chose the 12 disciples “to be with him.” “To be with him” does not mean that he chose them in order that they can walk around with him. He did not choose us to be with him simply in some kind of physical sense. Matthew 12:30 would never apply to any of us, because none of us can be with the Lord Jesus physically, since he has risen again, and ascended on high. No, the “with me” that the Lord Jesus is speaking about is to be with him in heart and in spirit. This was in fact, his prayer in John 17:23, “that they may be one with us,” one with him, and one with his God and Father.

“With Christ”: Take up your cross

To be “with Christ” is to “take his yoke upon you,” as we saw in Matthew 11:29. When we are yoked to him, we are really with him. And to take his yoke means to take up your cross. All this simply means that anyone who does not take up his cross cannot be with Christ. It is the cross that unites us to be “with Christ.”

Have you taken up your cross as a disciple of Christ? Are you yoked to Christ? If you are yoked to Christ, if you are united with Christ, then you are truly with Christ, you are one with him in heart, mind, soul and strength. Where he goes, you go. Your whole desire is to please him and love him. Then, your attitude will be very different. You could never preach the gospel out of rivalry to crush someone else. You would never dream of thinking, “I preach better than you!”

Being “with Christ” is the biggest decision you must make in your life

You must realize that to be with Christ and become one with him, is a matter of the will. The question of being for or against is a question of decision. You are forced to make a decision for or against him, and by not making a decision, you have already made a decision. This is so important for you to understand. If you are a non-Christian, and you don’t make a decision to follow Christ, you have already decided not to follow Christ. You have already made a decision by making no decision. It shows you that in life, it’s simply not possible to be neu­tral, and it isn’t possible not to make a decision. But when we speak of making a decision, we immediately involve our will.

Man often doesn’t like to make a decision, because every time you make a decision, you feel a weight of responsibility crushing down on your shoulders. So man always likes to escape the need for deci­sion. When you first became an adult, when you first had to make decisions for yourself, do you remember how hard it was? You said, “What will happen if I make a decision this way? What will happen if I make a decision that way?” You suddenly felt a great weight resting on your shoulders.

I always like to remember that on my 16th birthday, I was served a big bowl of “longevity” noodles, and my father sat down opposite me. And while I was trying to swallow the noodles, he said to me, “Now at 16, you’ve become a man, as the Chinese say, 十六成人 (shi liu cheng ren). From now on, you make all decisions concerning your own life. From now on, I’ll only be your advisor. I will give you no commands.” I thought, “Oh! This 16th birthday is a very heavy day! It’s crushing me under the chair!” Up to that time, it was easy because my father told me what to do, and I just did it. I didn’t have to think too hard. Although sometimes, I didn’t like my father’s instructions when he told me what to do, so I argued and mumbled. But up to that time, I didn’t have the responsibility; I could grumble. But it is heavy-going when I am the person in the hot seat who has to make the decision!

For example, when you were under training as a medical student, you didn’t worry when there was a big decision to make since the doctor-in-charge made the decision. If an operation had to be done, you didn’t worry about the decision; the chief surgeon would decide and tell you what to do, and you just carried it out. But when you became a doctor, your supervisor said, “Okay, you make the deci­sion.” Then you started mopping your brow. If you did the wrong thing, you would get into hot water. One of our brothers, who is a doctor, was telling me that when he had to perform an operation on his own, it was quite an experience!

In the same way, when you are a soldier, you don’t worry; the officer says “Fire!” and you fire. When it comes to your turn to give the order to fire, you will take out your handkerchief to mop your brow, and you’ll wonder whether or not you should fire now.

But there is no decision more important than this decision whether you are with Christ or against Christ. Think well on it. Compare this decision of being with Christ or against Christ to whether you fire or don’t fire, what decisions you make in an operation, what business decisions you have to make that involve large sums of money; all these decisions can in no way be as vital as this one. If up to now you have been used to passing the buck to someone else to make the decisions, this is one decision you will have to make, and no one else can make it for you. Are you going to be with Christ or not with him?

And don’t make that tragic compromise of saying, “I will not be ‘with Christ,’ but I will go so far as to be ‘for’ him”! You might as well not have bothered with that decision, because in terms of eternity, that decision is still not with Christ, and that still does not lead you into the gates of the kingdom. Why? Many people did not have the determination to be “with Christ,” to say, “I decide to be united with Christ by God’s grace and power.” Therefore they settled for the second choice of being “for Christ” to sooth their conscience. They feel that at least they have gone some distance towards the right direction. But that is not good enough. Many people make the decision to be “for Christ” thinking that it will be enough to substitute for being “with Christ”, but that will just not do!

“With Christ” is: A major decision to involve your whole life

Today, many people who say, “I will get baptized,” are not “with Christ.” What they call “the step of faith” is really nothing more than a step “for Christ.” I hope this distinction is really impressed deeply into your mind.

If two groups of people are fighting on the street, and you see some of your friends in one group fighting another group, and you stand on the sidelines to cheer them, “Come on guys! Beat them up! Give them a hard time!” That is surely being for them. The only trouble is, that doesn’t help them much to win. Don’t you think your friends who are fighting the other group will say, “Stop shouting for us, just get in here with us”? But we think that so long as we stand on the sidelines and clap them on, saying, “Come on! You are doing fine! Punch the other guy!”, and we never get involved is good enough. That’s the difference between being “for” and being “with.”

Therefore when we see the spiritual battle going on, we stand on the sidelines, cheering the church on and say, “Come on! Hooray for Jesus! Hallelujah! Let’s get going!” That doesn’t help the church; it doesn’t help Christ. You are not with them; you are not involved in it. That is what I hope to show you. The fact is, to cheer on involves no major decision. The reason you stay on the sidelines to cheer is because you don’t want to get punched up. You feel that it’s good enough to stand at a distance. But to be “with Christ” means I go into the battle and stand beside him, and so I stand a good chance to get hurt. When life begins to get tough for the Christians, you will see whether they are “for Christ” or “with Christ.”

When I was in China in those days, I saw so many Christians going to church. There were beautiful churches! They sang in choirs putting on beautiful choir robes of purple, gold, red, white! The Christians were “for Christ” any time. They would cheer on the sidelines any day. Then the Communists came, and the cheering team disap­peared. When the Communists put their desk in front of our church, and anyone who wanted to go to church had to sign their names in the book, all the church leaders disappeared, because now the warfare was going to start. They had no more time to be the cheering team. When the warfare started, the only people who stood up to be counted were those who are “with Christ.” I hope you will begin to realize that to be “with Christ” involves a major decision, because it is going to involve your whole life.

Are you prepared to be involved with Christ, or are you just pre­pared to stand on the sidelines and give him a good cheer? We can see it very well in the life of the church. There are many people who say, “Disciples Church, come on! Let’s go! Let’s go!” But when there are financial problems in the church, you will see who are “for” and who are “with.” Do you say, “I am with the church, so the problems of the church are my problems”? But if you hear the problems of the church and you say, “Oh! Poor people! They’re really having a hard time. I will cheer them on, I will encourage them, but I will stand on the sidelines and do nothing,” then you are “for Christ.”

When you have financial trouble, what kind of friend do you like? The person who comforts you, pats you on the back, lends you a handkerchief to wipe your face, is very much “for” you. And when you have finished wiping your face he says, “Don’t forget to give me back my handkerchief.” Is that a sincere friend to have? Or would it not rather be that friend who says, “If you’re in difficulty, you can count on me, I’ll be with you all the way.” When you need the help, he will dig into his pocket and bring up his last cent. That is to be “with you,” not just “for you.” To do that, he has to make a decision to be “with you.” It’s going to cost him money. So many Christians fail because it’s precisely the decision to be totally involved “with Christ.”

God will work through you if you’re determined to be involved

The secret of growing in the Christian life depends on one thing: a total commitment of your will to it. Growth in the spiritual life is an unending series of decisions, of complete commitment of the will to it. God will work through you, provided that you are determined to be “with Christ.” In all my time in serving God, I have seen only one kind of Christian that ever comes forward in the Christian life, grow­ing mightily in the Lord: The determined Christian. It’s not the kind of Christian who has endless good resolutions, “Oh, I would like to do this! I’d really like to do that!” These Christians get nowhere.

When you look at the apostle Paul, you will immediately find that he is a very determined man. You only need to look up in the Word of God how many times he uses the word “determine.” For example, he says in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “I determine to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” He doesn’t say, “I think it’s a good idea.” He is determined.

What athlete ever won a race without the determination to press to the end? He cannot win a race by just having some nice, vague de­sires. He has to have the determination to face the cost, to discipline himself day and night. These are the people who get somewhere in the Christian life.

I have no power in myself. I am a very weak person, but there is one thing I can do: I can have the determination, that is, a complete commitment of my will. That is something I can do and must do if God is going to use me. I cannot pass the buck to someone else. I can say, “God, I’m weak, I’m useless, I have no power, but by your grace, I am determined to follow you to the end. I am determined to draw upon the grace that you have made available to me. I am determined that I shall turn neither to the left nor to the right, but I will follow you on the path of life. I am determined to fight this battle. If I become crippled or lame, or dead in the battlefield, you must give me the grace to see me through to the end.”

In Romans 15:20, the attitude of Paul was: “I am determined to preach the gospel where the gospel has never been preached before.” He doesn’t say to himself like so many Christians, “I guess there is a great need on the mission field”; “I guess there’s some truth in the Lord Jesus’ saying we should preach the gospel”; “I’m going to cheer for those good people who are going to go forth, ‘Come on! Go forward!’”. These are the “for Christ” Christians, not the “with Christ” Christians. So the church suffers as a result of the majority not wanting to be involved. “Let the missionaries go. Let the pastors go. We will be “for them.” We will be “for them” even to the extent of putting some money in the offering box. So long as I don’t get involved, that’s okay.”

May Yahweh God show you where you really stand, and give you the grace to be determined to follow the Lord Jesus, to say, “God, I am nothing, I am weak, but through your Holy Spirit I can accomplish all things.” Today, in the churches, there are many who are “for Christ,” but very few who are “with him.” Where do you stand? I pray that God makes clear to each one, and gives you the grace.