Matthew-068

 

Today, we continue our study in the teaching of the Lord Jesus. We have looked at Luke 9:62 where Jesus said to this would-be disciple, “No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” We saw it means that only people who put their hand to the plough of God’s kingdom, who make their lives count for God by ploughing a deep furrow in the field (which is this world), who are committed to God’s work without looking back, are fit for the kingdom of God. Today, we shall attend to what does fitness for the kingdom of God mean.

 

Quality of life is required for being fit to enter the kingdom

What does it mean to be fit for the kingdom of God? To be fit means very basically, to have that kind of quality which is required for entering the kingdom of God. For example, being physically fit means that you are strong, you have that well being which is described as health. If you are not fit, it means you are not healthy, you are ill, you are below par. To be fit for a task means that you have the necessary qualifications to do that task. To be not fit means that you are not equipped to handle that job. So the basic meaning of “fit” is quite clear.

The Lord Jesus also teaches in Luke 14:34 (//Mt. 5:13),

Here the Greek word for “fit” euthetos, is the same as “fit” for God’s kingdom in Luke 9:62. The salt still looks like salt, but it has lost the taste, the effectiveness of salt. So what can you do with it? You can’t do anything with it but throw it out in the garbage heap. The garbage place in those days was the street, just as it still is in some places in this world. You fling what you don’t want out of the front door, the general garbage area, and every passer-by tramples over it (Mt. 5:13).

 

Ask God to give you that quality to enter his kingdom

The Lord Jesus was raising the question: “Are you fit for the kingdom of God?” Do you have the kind of quality? If you don’t have that quality, it doesn’t mean that you have to attach a handle to your side and crank it hoping that you can work up this quality in yourself. If you don’t have this quality, you turn to God for it. As James 1:5 says,

Ask God who gives generously. You don’t have because you didn’t ask. It’s no use saying, “Well, I don’t have this quality. I’m in a pitiful state! I should just bury my head in the sand. Or maybe I should just go to a corner and moan and weep.” God is there to supply it. The question is, do you desire to have it? Can you face the cost for having it? Once this quality comes into your life, certain things will happen to you as we shall see.

 

The whole gospel is: Only changed conduct can stand at the Judgment

Previously, I have mentioned the 3 vital principles of the Christian life in Matthew 18:21-45, in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. The first and fundamental principle is justification, a theological term which simply means God’s grace in forgiving us. The second principle is sanctification means the quality of life which must come from having received God’s forgiving grace, that we therefore deal with others in the same gracious manner God has dealt with us. The third is the principle of judgment: God will deal with us in the same way as we have been or are now dealing with others. You will be your own judge. The way you deal with others will be the way God deals with you. If you are unforgiving to others, God will be unforgiv­ing to you. If you are gracious and forgiving to others, God will therefore be gracious and forgiving to you. Why are we forgiving? Because God has forgiven us. Therefore the relationship of these three principles is very clear.

Now the church likes to concentrate on the first principle. They spend all their time talking about justification as though there were no other principles in the gospel except justification. Of course, justification is the most precious principle being the foundation of the Christian life. But if we concentrate only on the first and neglect the second and the third, we have neglected the fullness of the gospel. Paul said in Acts Chapter 20 to the Ephesian elders, I have preached to you the whole counsel of God, not just one aspect of it.

The church today, is in great danger of concentrating on only one aspect to the neglect of the other aspects. Therefore, not the whole gospel is preached but only some part of it. You cannot omit any part of the gospel without incurring the most serious consequences. By contrast, your conduct and the qualities that should be expressed in your life as a Christian, is something constantly stressed in the Lord Jesus’ teaching. When I am systematically expounding his teaching, I can do nothing else but follow his own emphasis.

 

“One thing”: Single-mindedness

Today, we shall look at Luke 10:38-42 to gain a clearer insight into what being fit for the kingdom means, and you can notice a certain sequence in the Lord Jesus’ teaching. He speaks of one point in Luke 9:62, and develops it in chapter 10 explaining it very clearly, so that we have no excuse that we did not understand what it means to be fit for the kingdom. If we say that to be fit for the kingdom is not to look back but to be totally committed, then what quality of life does “totally committed” describe? This is what he deals with here in Luke 10:38-42.

Here we have the Lord Jesus’ teaching to Martha and to all of us: “You are anxious and troubled about many things. Mary has got that one thing that is needful. She has got the good portion, and that won’t be taken away from her.” What is the one thing that is necessary that Mary has? Clearly, we must understand this. Martha was very busy preparing a meal for Christ and his disciples that she neglected to be with him. That happens to all of us, doesn’t it? You are so busy doing everything for God, and because it’s all for him, it’s justifiable that you have neglected to be with him. The consequence is you have lost this quality of life which is essential for being fit for the kingdom.

You will notice that throughout the Old and the New Testaments, there is the remarkable consistent stress on oneness in contrast to being diversified with so many things that it gets very distracting and confusing. Which are you? To use the Lord Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:22, “Is your eye single?” Or is your whole being scattered? “Diversified” may be a nice word for it, but in fact, you are just scattered, unable to focus and concentrate. Or putting it in another way, this is the reason you are falling apart at the seams, you can’t get yourself together.

 

“One thing”: Follow Christ

The Lord Jesus stresses “one thing” again in his teaching in Luke 18:18-22:

This rich, young ruler, a very religious man and a nice person said, “I go to the synagogue and the temple to worship. I keep the commandments as best as I know how.” He is a good and moral man, and notice what the Lord Jesus says to him in verse 22, “One thing you still lack.” There is still “one thing” that matters although he has everything else – money, religion and moral character. He keeps the commandments, so he is a decent person. We know the world has a lot of decent people who are so nice, and they keep the command­ments. What a tragedy it is that many people have all kinds of things, but the one thing they need! The person who has that one thing but doesn’t have everything else is the person who has everything that is necessary. But spiritually, he is truly rich.

How are you going to get the “one thing you still lack”? “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.” What then is the “one thing”? The “one thing” is to put your hand to the plough to follow Christ, cut away all the fat, all other things that give you spiritual arteriosclero­sis and move forward. The call to discipleship is the call to the unification of the entire person in this “one thing.”

The tragedy of the church today is that there are very few people who have the “one thing” that matters. Like this rich, young ruler, they don’t lack religion, they may even keep the commandments, and they have a nice house, nice car, nice education, nice family, nice everything except the “one thing”! It’s not to say it’s sinful to have these good things like wealth and education, but the good becomes the enemy of the best. It prevents us from that concentration.

 

“One thing”: Single-minded concentration on God

Let us also look at the same Scriptural teaching about the “one thing” in Philippians 3:13-14a. There Paul speaks of his singleness of purpose:

Paul is saying he does not consider that he already has this resur­rection life, this perfection. But having put his hand to the plough, he doesn’t look back, and does only one thing – strain forward to press on towards the goal. His total commitment is seen in his single concentration upon the kingdom of God.

He tells us in Philippians 3:5-6, “I have an elite family background and personal status. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee. I have had a wonderful education. I sat at the feet of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of my generation. As far as the law was concerned, I was perfect. I have kept the law meticulously from my youth.” He is just like the rich, young ruler in all these ways, but unlike the rich, young ruler, he forgot all about those things: “One thing I do, forgetting what’s behind, I concentrate to press towards the mark, the goal that is before me.”

Where do you find this kind of Christians today? All we find is Christians who are non-focused, who don’t have that powerful con­centration. When you talk to them, you get the impression that they are scattered, they don’t know where they are going, they don’t have clear direction, they appear confused, compromised. You don’t get the impression that they have become focused.

What do we mean when we say that a person is devoted? We mean that he is concentrated on God, like Christ. What else does devotion mean? It means that you have cut away all excess and you are a sharply focused person. His conversation, thinking and conduct are all focused towards the mark. He is like an arrow that has been strained in the bow and moving sharp to the mark. Or if you use the picture of the plough, he doesn’t turn left or right, he moves in a straight line to the objective.

The church is deeply lacking in such people. People’s hands are so busy grasping at what they want here, there and in all directions that they lack a central focus. You can detect what kind of Christian they are within a few moments of conversation with them, and whether they are fit for the kingdom.

The Lord Jesus is talking about those who have already committed themselves to put their hand to the plough, and whether they are fit to enter the kingdom of God. It is that having put their hand to the plough, they are not focused on the goal. They are still looking back, forward, up, in every direction. Where is their sight? They are not concentrated.

 

The meaning of “one”

There is an interesting verse in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 6:4 that I have often pondered and meditated upon. This is the verse the Jews were told never to forget but to meditate upon, and indeed to this day, the Orthodox Jews recite this which is called “the Schema” every day, as though God wanted to drive the point of oneness into their minds. The Jews must keep the commandments that God has given, and to love God with all their heart, soul and strength as the condition to his blessing.

 

Unique, incomparable, outstanding

“Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one.” What does that mean? Did they ever think of him as anything other than one? When did the Jews ever think of God as any other than one? What does “one” mean? Even as a young Christian, I often pondered what this might mean that he is one, not two or three.

The Jews never thought of “the Trinity.” God never ever suggested that he was anything other than the one and only God. So what is “Yahweh our God is one” supposed to mean? For one thing, oneness can indicate his uniqueness. He is the only one, unique in himself.

Moses relayed God’s message to his people saying, “Hear O Israel, remember that your God, Yahweh, is the one and only Yahweh. He is incomparable. He is the only true and living God who stands above all the gods of this world, and above all the things that would claim your devotion and attention.” This is certainly part of the meaning.

 

Fully focused, fully centered on target, fully controlled

What else does it mean? We find the verb form of “one” in the Hebrew (imperative verb: meaning to concentrate)

In Psalm 86:11, it is translated as “unite.”

The psalmist is implying in the Hebrew that his heart is not focused on Yahweh God to honor his name. It is scattered a bit here and dis­tracted a bit there. God is truly one, focused, centered, concentrated.

Furthermore, when a person who is emotionally falling apart, we say, “Pull yourself together.” So the expression “to be one” means to be in full control of his faculties. A person who is fully focused, fully centered on target is a person who has full control of his faculties. When we lose control of our faculties, we become disunited inward­ly, as do people who suffer from schizophrenia. A schizophrenic doesn’t know who he is anymore because he has fallen apart at the seams and lost control of his mind. Or when a person loses his temper to the point that he explodes, he quite literally disintegrates, at least for that moment. The focused, fully controlled person does not fly apart.

Therefore, this statement that God is “one” tells us his quality. If you can speak of God in this way, that he is in total command of himself, of his faculties and of all that is around. This gives us quite a picture about the holy God, so that we don’t speak about holiness as a vague, indefinable quality, but we can understand what God is like psycho­logically. He is in total possession of his faculties. How wonderful to meet a person who is not always falling apart under pressure or when things go wrong; who blows up every time he is provoked. There are so many Christians who fall apart like “Humpty Dumpty”, and a pastor has to try to put them back together all the time. A large part of the counseling that a pastor has to do is to try to put people back together when they fall apart, or when their relationships in marriage or with other people fall apart. Would to God we have Christians who are clearly focused because they cry to God, “Unite my heart, O God. Fix my heart upon you. Give me the clarity of direction”!

 

Ineffectual “Christians” are unfocused, distracted, have no goal

So many Christians are ineffectual at the best, but dishonoring to God at the worst, because they are not concentrated; they do not re­main on target. They are like missiles which can be easily distracted from their goal, and they blow up in the wrong places destroying the wrong people.

Let’s take an example to bring it down to concrete facts. You start the day by saying to God, “God, I’m going to glorify your name today. I’m going to spread the sweet fragrance of your name to all those I come into contact with.” What a beautiful idea! What a nice resolution! So you go out through the door with a spring in your step, a smile on your face. Then someone gives you a bang on the shoulder so that you nearly fall over, and your facial expression changes, or you say, “Don’t you look where you are going? If you feel like getting nasty, don’t take it out on me! Take it out on somebody else. What have I done to you?” What happened to your purpose of glorifying God? Immediately, you are off target. Immediately, you are dis­tracted. Satan only needs to give you one bump and you don’t know what your direction is anymore. After a while, you say to yourself, “Oh, what happened to my good intention this morning?” There is the difference between a focused person, and a person who just has some kind of good intention. He knows it’s nice to be glorifying to God but he can never do it. He cannot because he is not focused. You can get him off course so easily.

You hear a message about loving brothers and sisters and you say, “Yes! That’s what we’ve got to do! This is such a nice ideal! Imagine what the church would be like if we love one another!” Then, some brother or sister comes along and splashes his tea on your shoe – “Why are you so careless? Christians should be careful!” All your good intention about loving brothers and sisters goes down the drain. We cannot stay on target. The slightest distraction gets us off course.

You determine that as a Christian, you are going to have the peace of Christ in your heart because without this peace you cannot glorify God. When the bus conductor was rude to you, or someone slammed the door and hit you on the nose, you are all full of annoyance, and the pressure is building up inside. You are so angry that you are going to blow up. The peace was blown out long ago. There’s the difference between the concentrated person and the non-concentrated person, if I get it down to the brass tacks of daily living.

 

A true Christian has one thing: Focused on God, on entering his kingdom

The concentrated person allows nothing to get him off course. You may bang his nose with the door, throw tea at him, or be rude to him, but it’s awfully hard to get him off track. He is concentrated on course, determined to glorify God.

As for the Lord Jesus, you can spit in his face, slap him, cover his face and strike him on the head, mock him and flog him, but he will not change his course!

The true Christian doesn’t allow other people to govern his actions because his actions are governed only by God. He is so focused that he is like a missile that is fixed on target. The totally committed Christian is someone who moves in this way, and you can do what you like and you won’t cause him to swerve in any direction.

That is the quality of being fit for the kingdom. What is to be fit for the kingdom? Being “fit” means to have that “one thing”: to be concentrated on entering the kingdom of God; to be focused on God.

Now you can immediately ask yourself, are you focused upon this “one thing”? When you put your hand to the plough, are you still looking back? The non-focused person is the one who is always look­ing back. The past is governing his conduct, not the future. The goal of being fit to enter the kingdom of God is not drawing him forward. What is behind is dragging him back. Have you got this focused quality? I have met so many Christians who are sincere, good people in themselves, but they are so lacking in focus, which is the problem with the majority of Christians. Every time something goes wrong, they are immediately off target again.

 

Not governed by emotions or moods

It is characteristic of the unfocused Christian to be moody. Are you happy today, sad tomorrow, depending on the weather, people or circumstances? If that’s the case, you are a non-focused Christian. A Christian who has the “one thing” before him is not one who is going to allow his emotions to govern the day, going up and down like a yoyo. No, he is on target. He doesn’t care what his emotions are; he doesn’t care what anyone else has to say; he doesn’t care what the weather is like; he doesn’t care what the circumstances are like; he hones into the target; he is on course day after day after day. How we desperately need such Christians in the church!

 

A Christian who is not united in himself can do nothing

Let us say another thing. A Christian who is not united in himself can do nothing. These Christians never get anywhere. They don’t know where they are going, so how can they get anywhere? They haven’t got their target in sight, so they are not fixed onto their target.

This principle is so true even in secular life. I wonder if you have ever looked at the face of an athlete in competition. When the TV cameras close up on the face of an athlete in competition, have you ever noticed the concentration and the determination in that face of a winning athlete? Just look at the face of the athlete who loses and the face of the one who wins, and it will tell you the whole story. The concentration that is in that face is most expressive! Recently, I studied the picture of the face of a famous athlete who has won many gold medals. I could see that that person is entirely focused. All ex­cess weight, all excess thoughts, all excess purposes were discarded. That mark in front is all he has in his mind. The face of a winning athlete is a picture of concentration well worth studying. It’s a remarkable picture to look at. Why that person wins is told on that face. He is totally concentrated, focused like the point of an arrow flying to its mark. It’s beautiful to behold in its intensity! Now intensity doesn’t mean nervous stress. Every good athlete knows that stress and tension work against you like brakes slowing you down.

Concentration does not mean stress and tension, but a relaxed and focused concentration. By “relaxed” it means all unnecessary strain, all unrelated things are discarded. What kind of Christian are you?

 

“Limping between two opinions”, compromising to serve two masters

The church today reminds me of the words of Elijah as he spoke to the Israelites in 1 Kings 18:21,

There is a whole generation of Christians in the church today, who have not really made up their minds. They are all like the Jews who are God’s chosen people, but as Elijah said to them, they have been limping all along between two opinions.

In other words, they have always been trying to ride two horses. They have always tried to make a compromise: I will not become an all-out Christian, but I will be a Christian living for the world. They try to serve two masters. They want to love God but they also want to love the world. They want to hold on to this and they want to hold on to that. The majority of Christians are just like this. They go through life never deciding on yes or no. It’s always yes but, no but, yes but, no but. There is no clear decision on anything. They live in the twilight land of compromise through their whole lives.

Ask yourself whether you are sharply focused, or whether you have made so many compromises that you will be unfit for the kingdom. The most important point is that we are not just talking about spiritual qualities but about the kind of people that God will admit to his kingdom. God sent the Lord Jesus to tell us what kind of people will not be admitted into his kingdom. The person who is unfit to enter halts between two opinions; puts his hand to the plough and keeps looking back; cannot make up his mind whether he is going forward, backwards, or staying put; can never decide what is yes and what is no, so that his yes can never be yes and his no can never be no.

This kind of Christians is always wretched, always miserable. They can never have the fullness of joy because they are never focused. They are now torn this way, now torn that way; they are now blown in this direction, now in that direction. What’s the use of being a Christian like that? I say to people like that, “Just quit! Concentrate on the world because at least you concentrate on something. But when you are neither here nor there, you are concentrated on nothing.” In the same way, Elijah rebuked the Israelites saying, “How long will you go on never being able to make up your mind? If God is God, serve him. If these idols are “God”, then serve the idols. Just make up your mind and be clear cut.” I also say to you, “If you want to serve the world, go and serve the world. If you want to serve God, then make up your mind to serve God. But don’t try to serve God and mammon at the same time because you disgrace God, and live in spiritual wretchedness. You just don’t have that focus.”

 

The Lord Jesus is focused, determined to glorify God

What a different story is the life of the Lord Jesus! If you had met the Lord Jesus in the days of his earthly ministry, or if you will meet him on the Day of Judgment, you will notice immediately how powerfully concentrated he is on God who is one. Like his God and Father, Jesus’ whole being is united. He set his face towards Jerusalem even though he knew that this is the place where he would die. No one but no one could dissuade him from going in that direction. Luke 9:51 tells us he set his face steadfastly towards Jerusalem. His purpose was written on his face. He was entirely concentrated in fulfilling the task that the Father had entrusted to him, and no one could distract him. He moved on towards the target with consummate purpose, with absolute determination. His face was set in that direction to offer himself up as the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb for the sins of man­kind. It’s no easy goal, but what a beauty it is!

Notice again, Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” All these factors of heart and soul and might are completely concen­trated, united into one objective: to love God with your whole being. That is a concentrated person, a devoted person, a person who is on target, whose eye is single. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 6:22-23,

Is your eye single or not? Are you full of darkness or are you full of light? Which is it?

 

Do you say, “No problem!” or “So many problems”?

Then again it comes back to this question, are you fit for the kingdom of God? Do you have this quality of being united in your being, which finds expression in being a determined Christian? Or are you simply a distracted kind of person? Or are you the kind of person who says, “Oh, there are so many problems”? There are some people you are very sorry that you ever gave them a job with a problem to solve, because they bring you ten problems back! You may have thought to yourself, “If I had taken care of this myself, it would have been solved long ago. If I give it to him, I’ve got ten more problems to take care of.” There’s another kind of person who, if you give him ten problems says, “Just leave it with me” and he takes care of them all. That is the difference between the focused person and the non-focused person.

Recently, I had to take the car for repairs, so I talked to the manager who takes charge of all repairs as I always do. And there is something I like about this manager. When I tell him the things that need to be done, his reply is always, “No problem! No problem!” Now that is a very fine mark. There are people who always say, “Oh, it’s problem­atic!” and there are always people who say, “No problem!” It shows you a tremendous difference of character. The person who says, “It’s problematic” is a person who says there are problems even if there are no problems, because he can invent a few problems to think about. He lives in the anxiety of his own creation. He’s a nervous wreck even when there is nothing eating him. As the saying goes, “The wicked flees when no one is pursuing.” He is frightened by every shadow, and he is worried by every imaginary problem. The person who says, “No problem” is the person who is most conscious of the problems, like this manager who knows all the problems there are and can arise in a car. When he says, “No problem,” he simply means: “Whatever the problem is, I’ll take care of it.” Oh, that’s good!

The unfocused person is the person who sees problems everywhere and thinks, “I can’t make up my mind what to do! I give up!” Ask yourself whether you are this kind of person. The other kind of person is so on target that no matter what problem may arise, he will take care of it by the grace of God. He will overcome every obstacle that seeks to hinder him. Nothing will stop him.

You’ll notice that Paul is exactly that kind of decisive, purposeful person. He also set his face towards Jerusalem, and the tears and pleas of other people to divert him are futile. No one ever achieves anything spiritually without being that kind of person.

Why has God’s church accomplished nothing today? It is for this very reason: We don’t have people who have this kind of devotion, this kind of concentration. God is looking today for a person whose eye is single, who God can set on a target, and rain or shine, he moves in onto the target and accomplishes what needs to be done.

 

Ask God for one focus: Glorify him, be fit for his kingdom

Do we now understand what it means to be fit for the kingdom? Do we have this kind of quality in our lives? If you don’t have this kind of quality, it’s because you haven’t made up your mind. There are some people who will say, “Yes, I’ll serve God,” and then say, “No, I don’t think I’ll serve God right now. One day I’ll serve God.” They are going to serve God, and then they are not going to serve God. They cannot make up their minds. They waste all of their lives going around in circles!

Would that God will make you and me the kind of person whom it can be said his heart is united to glorify God, and he moves in on the target. He knows what is right and by the grace of God, he doesn’t allow any problem to distract him from accomplishing it. He says, “Today, I’m going to glorify God, and no one but no one will stop me because the grace of God is sufficient for me!”

Philippians 4:13 is the characteristic talk of Paul who is that concentrated:

There is no problem I cannot solve; there is no enemy I cannot overcome because God is sufficient for me.

Where are people like that today? Do you see them? Would to God that he will deal with each one of us to become this kind of person he is looking for to be fit to enter his kingdom, not those who are forever halting between two opinions. May God speak to our hearts!

Let us be quiet before him in prayer.

 

Prayer

O God, we just pray, that seeing that you have called us to your service and to your kingdom, help us such that our conduct befits our calling, that we may truly glorify your name. You have redeemed us with the Lord Jesus’ blood, a people for yourself, but alas, a people, who too often is ever halting between two opinions, who is prepared to serve you, but secretly also to serve the world; whose heart is here and there, who can never make up their minds what their “yes” and their “no” will be. Forgive us that we have been such a people that you have redeemed with Christ’s blood, but that dishonors your name; who want the benefits of salvation, but not the cost of salvation; who want the privileges of salvation without its responsi­bilities.

Forgive us, O God! We pray that you will raise for yourself, a people who like yourself, are one in heart, and are truly unique in this generation of indecisiveness, of compromise. God, help us by your grace therefore, to be fit for your kingdom, that we may truly plough a straight furrow for you in this world, and forget the things that are behind, to press towards the mark. Grant that we may have this one thing that truly matters, namely, to be focused on yourself and your kingdom, and never look back.

Hear our prayer and accept our thanks. We thank you, Father. Amen.