Welcome to Wednesday’s podcast. I hope you are enjoying your week. As I sit writing this the weather forecast suggests that today we will all be enjoying a mini heat wave of 21 degrees!

REFLECTION:

Today our Bible passage is Matthew 12 v22-37, and we are going to focus on v30 from The Message translation:

“This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping you’re making things worse.”

Sometimes I would love to have the option of using an image or a picture in these podcasts. Today I would use the famous World War One recruitment poster designed in 1914 by Alfred Leete, in which Lord Kitchener stares out with pointed finger, alongside the slogan “Your country needs YOU!”

The poster was highly effective, and continues to be used as inspiration for advertising to this day. Ironically it was also copied by both Germany and Russia in their own recruitment campaigns! Art historians have commented on the strength of the capitalised word “YOU” which grabs the attention. The focus on the word “You” engages the reader with the question of what they are doing or how they are participating with the war.

The same could be said of Jesus’ words in v30: “This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping you’re making things worse.”

This verse forces us to confront the fact that we are in a battle. It is not a physical war of flesh and blood, but a spiritual war between the kingdom of Jesus and the enemy of God – the devil. The devil knows his time is short and so, as we read in verse 29, his intention is to plunder while he can. His aim is to tie us up, to distract us, to carry us away from God, by whatever means he can. Therefore, whether we like it or not, we are recruited, called to be, soldiers for Christ.

Within our passage today there are 4 things Jesus says that we can do in order to ensure we serve well as soldiers in God’s army.

Firstly, we need to Commit to Discipleship.

A good soldier listens to and learns from the instructions given by his commanding officer. In the NIV translation of verse 30, Jesus uses the words ‘with me’ twice….. “Whoever is not with me……whoever does not gather with me….”

A commitment to discipleship is a commitment to be with Jesus, to communicate with him through prayer and to learn from him through reading the Bible. In Ephesians 6 we read all about the armour of God. It is specifically designed to help us stand against the schemes of the devil. In that passage we read that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God, and the chapter ends with a reminder to be alert and always keep on praying. If you are part of STC Sheffield, the mention of the armour of God may have left you humming the tune to the family worship song ‘God Suit’. The words go “This way, this way, I know you’re with me. Every step I take.” Because a commitment to discipleship means that not only do we focus on being with Jesus, but we can also face our enemy without fear, because we know Jesus is with us.

Secondly, we need to Commit to One Another.

To be successful in battle, an army needs to be united, not only in terms of their strategy, but also in their relationships with one another. We see this in the military pledge to ‘leave no man behind’. We cannot even imagine an army where half the soldiers are just sat on the sidelines as the enemy approaches because they don’t really get along with others in their battalion. From verse 25 we know that we are not called to be a house divided, as this will never withstand an attack from the enemy. Instead we are to be a united household or family, and we will look at this more in tomorrow’s podcast.

This commitment to one another links closely to the third truth in this verse: that we need to Commit to Serve.