No Task Too Small – 2/9/25

When someone is nice to our kids, he is being nice to us. Correct, parents? I think about that a lot when I think about the privilege my wife and I have had of raising our kids here. Our oldest was about one and a half when our church started. It blows me away to think of how many of you all have invested (and if you’re visiting, all my kids are adults now), but how many of you all have invested in our kids over the years — volunteering in nursery, holding babies, teaching through (way back we didn’t have Kidstuff, which Sunday school then became Kidstuff), Treehouse, Alive, high school, college. There was a period of time where our senior adults adopted teenagers and prayed specifically every day for that one teenager they’ve adopted to pray for.

And I just can’t imagine, now that my kids are all pouring into other children and adults, just the fruit that abounds to your account as you love your church family in that way. Just think about it. Just to do our kids — not counting middle school, high school, college, all that — just to do our kids ministry, we have over 236 volunteers. And we could use some more. But you think about that, that’s 236 people who have better things, from a worldly perspective, they could do with their time. And yet they say out of love, I want to come and invest in the next generation. I want to love exhausted young parents so that they could worship undistractedly. What an act of love.

And by the way, it’s not always easy. Those of you have been around have heard this story. But way back at the beginning — I’ll leave the kid unnamed — but one of my sons had a practice of taking toys and bonking other kids with those toys. (Got it from his mother). And we didn’t know this because I was the only pastor at the time, you know, I was preaching. And so this wonderful volunteer came to my wife and said, “I hate to say this, but your kid is acting like a pastor’s kid.” Didn’t say it that way, but essentially said, “Just thought you would want to know.”

That is a hard conversation, right? So much love because what that did for my wife and I,  threw us on our face in prayer, and then we began meeting with older couples and saying, what did you do? And learning. And it transformed our parenting for him and all our other kids because someone loved us enough to say something out of love. Now, that’s crazy love. But when someone loves our kids, they are loving us.

Jesus is saying something similar. If you look at Matthew 10 — we’re journeying through the Gospel of Matthew — near the end of Matthew 10, in verse 40,

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

The word “receives” there means to welcome, or embrace warmly. It’s a hospitality word, and in this context it actually means to welcome in order to help on their way in the mission. That’s the context of Matthew 10. And Jesus is saying you cannot receive my followers without receiving me and my Father who sent me.

So think about it. This simple act of kindness, Jesus is saying, is linked to your receiving me, and you’re swept into this trinitarian love that Father, Son, and Spirit have been experiencing (read John 17) for all eternity. It’s stunning. When you welcome Jesus’s followers, you are welcoming Jesus.

Now this feels a bit surprising in light of what we’ve been learning in Matthew 10, because most of Matthew 10 has been focused on preparing the disciples for a less-than-friendly reception. The first time this verb “receives” that we see in verse 40 appears in the Gospel of Matthew, it’s in verse 14.

“And if anyone will not receive you or listen your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.”

Jesus is training us to engage in a culture that often will be less than receptive.

Verse 16, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, [doesn’t sound safe] so be wise as [snakes] serpents and innocent as doves.”

Jesus is preparing us for the sparks that will fly when the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Jesus, comes in direct conflict with the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of this world. Sparks will fly.

He’s teaching us. Over the last five weeks we’ve been learning that we’ve been sent out with his authority. And as we saw four weeks ago, God’s abundance, we experience God’s abundance, even in scarcity. He taught us there are times where we will travel quite light.

Three weeks ago, we will experience a multifaceted relationship with culture. What does that mean? Wise as snakes, innocent as doves. Christians must be ambidextrous. And we explored what that means with our relationship with culture.

And then two weeks ago, we learned that we will experience freedom from fear. Four reasons not to fear, Jesus gave us.

And then last week we learned to experience kingdom identity formation. In other words, when you see yourself in Jesus, that can be like a sword that pierces even the closest relationships, because our culture has a very different way of identifying you.

That leads us to today at the end of the chapter. And here Jesus is teaching us the opposite — not how to interact with a culture that is rejecting us, but how to think about being welcomed and being welcoming. When you welcome Jesus’s followers, you are welcoming Jesus. And then he gives three examples. Look in verse 41.

“The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, [next in that verse] and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.”

And then verse 42,

“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.”

Now, what does that mean? What are these examples saying? I want to walk through four options, four interpretive options. You’re going to notice they overlap, but hopefully they’ll lead us to a little more clarity.

One option is Jesus is merely repeating himself. By saying prophets, righteous men, little ones, he’s using different names, same people. They’re all followers of Jesus. So it’s just repetition.

1. Repeating

The second option is descending. Descending. That is, he’s descending in distinction and prominence. So he’s starting with the most prominent, the prophets, and then he ends with the little ones, the least prominent.

2. Descending

Another interpretive option is, rather than descending, is ascending, illustrating the upside down nature of the kingdom, that actually prophets, although public, are not the most prominent.

3. Ascending

As we see from verses like I Corinthians 13:2, you can have

“prophetic powers, understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all faith, so as to remove mountains,”

… but if you don’t have love, you’re nothing. Or Baalam, for example, just read through those stories where Baalam prophesied beautifully, but he was not a godly man.

The little ones are the big ones in the kingdom, if you see this as ascending. And we see that clearly stated in Matthew 18 when we get to verses 1-6, where child-like faith is better than brilliant giftedness.

But let me give you one more option that I think brings a lot of these together. And it’s the word including. Including.

4. Including

And we see this not just through the three people mentioned (prophets, righteous, little ones), but through the shift Jesus makes when he’s speaking directly to the disciples in verse 40, “receives you,” but then he might be, as Steve Kaminski observes, breaking the fourth wall.

What is breaking the fourth wall? In theater, it’s when a character comes out of character and addresses the audience directly. So you’re snapped out of the story, and you’re listening directly. And something like that may be happening. He’s speaking to the disciples, and then he turns to these little ones.

Now he could be referring to actual children, which happens in the Gospels. It doesn’t seem like that’s the context here. It seems like he’s, in a sense, turning to the audience. He’s speaking to the disciples, and now he’s speaking to the audience. And then he says to them, “Truly, I say to  you….”

And what is he doing? He’s including everyone making the point that in the kingdom of God, there are no spectators. Everyone is being addressed and included in what Christ is communicating, highlighting the importance of everyone. Kind of like when Horton the elephant, in “Horton Hears a Who,” says,

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Jesus is saying, you can’t welcome anyone, no matter how big, no matter how small, without welcoming me. Or we could summarize it this way.

The simplest kindness shown to the smallest disciple (or biggest)  will be rewarded as if done to Christ himself.  As if done to Christ himself.

What does this all mean? Let’s make three observations for what this means to us today.

1. Jesus identifies with his people.

Now we know he does this when we suffer. We’re going to see this later in Matthew, very clearly in Matthew 25 and other places. But we also see it in passages like Acts 9:4, when Jesus said to Paul (Saul),

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

And Saul’s like, I’m not persecuting you, I’m killing Christians. And Jesus is saying no, when you harm mine, you’re harming me. Or Hebrews 4:15,

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses…”

I love that. Our weaknesses. As Dane Ortlund says,

“Our tendency is to feel that the more difficult life gets, the more alone we are. As we sink further into pain, we sink further into isolation. The Bible corrects us. He is in us, and he bears our pain with us. We are never alone.”

He identifies with us when we suffer.

But in Matthew 10, he is saying something more. He doesn’t just “weep with those who weep,” he also “rejoices with those who rejoice.”

I Corinthians 12:26, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

Jesus is including himself in the “all.” When you welcome one of my own, when you honor them, when you help them along in a mission they’re undertaking, when you speak a kind word, when you give them a cup of cold water, Jesus is saying, you’re doing that for me. Jesus identifies with his people.

By the way, a little sidebar. When we harm his children, we are harming him. When we slander his children, we are slandering him. Jesus identifies with his people.

Second big idea here is,

2. Jesus’s followers are characterized by welcoming.

This kind of welcoming is a billboard announcing his kingdom.

Romans 15:7, “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

This is the gospel. Romans 5 makes so clear, all of us are born enemies of God. We want our own way, not his way. Christ died, buried, rose to welcome his enemies and forgive us all our guilt, wipe away all our shame, and welcome us into his own family. And then Christians, we’re called to simply go out and do what Christ did for us.

Welcoming becomes a distinctive of the kingdom of Christ. Now, this is super challenging in our particular culture at this time. And there are many reasons for that. I’d love to go through them all. Let me just mention one reason for that. And that is our culture is increasingly anti-institutional. Anti-institutional. Which means what? It means we crave community and are allergic to it at the same time. More and more as a culture, we’re saying come close, stay away. I need you, you’re my problem. Simultaneously. We’ve got a community autoimmune disease.

Yuval Levin, in one of his books, explains how vital healthy institutions are for the stability of our lives. He says,

“A crisis of institutions”

What does he mean, that word, I know it’s like cussing today. An institution is simply like a family, church, a civic group.

“A crisis of institutions would present itself perhaps most powerfully as a crisis of our inner lives — of despair and isolation, loneliness, and loss of purpose. Such social shapelessness is how we can be at once too confrontational and too lonely, in touch with everyone and yet untouched by anyone, alienated together. It is how everyone can claim the mantle of the outsider at the same time. It results from the lack of place, connection, and belonging that are functions not just of being alone but also of being adrift, denied roles that might help us fit as parts into a larger whole.”

Now, meditate on that last statement for a second.

“… denied roles that might help us fit as parts into a larger whole.”

We’re like a football player without a team. A culture of Colin Kaepernicks.

Ian Harbor was hurt by and walked away from the church as a young man. At one point he said,

“I want nothing to do with Jesus or the church.”

Eventually came to the place, and I’m skipping a lot, obviously, came to the place where he realized I need Jesus and I need his church. And in his book, where he walks through his deconstruction experience, he tells the story and, tells his story, and then quotes Jeremy Treat.

“The church is the community of the gospel, a place for sinners and sufferers who acknowledge their need for Jesus and each other.”

And then he adds this,

“You don’t have to be best friends with everyone in your church to experience this. Every relationship, every connection, no matter how strong or loose, forms a relational web that can help hold the weight of our sin, sorrow, and cynicism better than we can on our own. The church is an expression of God’s grace in the life of the believer because, through it, he does not leave us alone. He gives us more than a weekly event to attend; he gives us a family.”

A family with all the joys, and all the struggles, and all the failures that that brings along. A family. He goes on to talk about what he calls “radically ordinary hospitality.” Think “cup of cold water” that Jesus mentioned.

“Hospitality is how we welcome those both near and far from God to experience a foretaste of God’s feast in the new creation.

“Meals bring people together in ways that few other things can. In an age of atomized individualism and online outrage, it’s difficult to be invited over to someone’s home, eat the meal they have prepared for you, experience their gracious character, and walk away thinking they hate you because of your differences.”

It’s possible, but it’s difficult. Jesus is saying this kind of radically ordinary hospitality is an expression of the inbreaking of my kingdom and characterizes my followers.

3. Jesus’s mission is a team sport.

And I think this is what he’s referring to with all the reward language. Did you notice that?

“receives a prophet’s reward,”

“receives the righteous person’s reward,”

“will by no means lose his reward”

What is that talking about? I think we could summarize it this way. Whatever reward a prophet would receive, whatever reward a righteous person would receive, whatever reward a little one or a disciple would receive, the one who helps them will receive that reward as well.

Tonight when the Eagles win the Super Bowl — are there any Chiefs fans here? A couple. A couple. Now, I have no dog in the fight other than the concern the Chiefs are getting too good, and they need to go down. But whoever wins tonight, watch the water girl, the person who comes out with the Gatorade at timeouts. Watch the trainer. Watch the guys up in the booth plotting the plays. See how they respond at the end of the game when their team wins. See, because when a team wins, the team wins. And all of them, whether the quarterback, or the person transporting the luggage, is going to win.

And I think that’s what Jesus is getting at here. When David and his men defeated the Amalekites in I Samuel 30, some of the men argued that only those who went into battle should share in the spoils. And in I Samuel 30,

“David said, ‘You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the Lord has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.’”

In the US Army, I am told, and I’ve read so many different things over the years, it’s hard to know for sure, but for every one on the front line, for every one combat soldier on the front line, you have at least four behind the scenes keeping him there, doing things like logistics, maintenance, supply, medical.

And Jesus seems to be saying something similar here. In my kingdom, the support roles are as vital and as rewarded as the frontline roles. No one can say, I have no need of you, in I Corinthians 12 language. I’m a pastor. I don’t need nobody. No. I’m a missionary. I’m a worship leader. No one can say that. We’re all utterly dependent on the team if we’re going to move forward effectively.

I Corinthians 12:24, “But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”

Jesus is saying, on my team, the water boy matters. The laundry guy matters. The bus driver matters. The dietitian matters. You may or may not be playing a super visible role. But what you do, down to a cup of cold water given in Jesus’s name, matters.

Now, this is fun to talk about until it isn’t, because I’ve noticed over the years this is where some of the deepest hurts we will experience come from, what would be called today “church hurt,” and some deep resentments will follow.

• I’ve been faithfully serving behind the scenes and nobody seems to care.
• I really wanted to do this, but they needed me to do this.
• With the conversation my wife and I have been having for the last few years, we thought our lives were going in this direction, and then chronic illness. Suddenly we’re doing this. That’s not what we signed up for.
• Or I desperately longed for this gift, and the Lord of the harvest gave me this.

And by the way, this can be especially intense during seasons of growth. Because in seasons of growth, what happened organically has to be done intentionally.

Take, for example, the early church. Think about that tiny group in Acts 3 in the morning. Everybody knew each other. They’re hanging out in the upper room. And then the Spirit falls. Peter preaches. 3,000 people come to Christ. And that sounds so exciting. But just put yourself in that place. It’s like I don’t even see Andrew anymore. I never get face time with the apostles. All these people. I can’t even find a parking place, hypothetically. It changes everything. And the more growth they experienced — unimaginable, in a day — the more we as individuals start feeling invisible. I don’t really have a role. This new guy, he’s an extrovert, let him do it. And it’s easy to step back and just want to disappear or feel like what I do doesn’t matter anymore. Or just want to go back. You could imagine them saying, “Oh if we could go back to when we were like a family. Before this 3,000 people mobbed us.”

But what did the apostles do? Well, that’s Acts 3. By Acts 6 the wheels are coming off. Remember? The widows are being neglected. Who wants to take care of the poor if we’re experiencing revival? Let me at it! And the Spirit led the apostles to say, all you new people out! Is that what happened? We would not be here today if they did that.

They chose deacons to build teams to serve, to give cups of cold water in Jesus’s name. And you can imagine if those deacons said, “No, I didn’t sign up for this. I want to do miracles with the apostles, I don’t want to do dishes with the widows. That’s not for me.” It would have shut everything down. What Jesus is saying here in Matthew 10 is crucial for his kingdom to continue to advance. Everybody on the team has a role to play. And look what happened after deacons were ordained and began to build teams to care for the needy.

Acts 6:7, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”

The mission moves forward, as each of us see our role as vital, no matter how big, no matter how small. John gives us a beautiful example of this in 3 John 5. Listen to this.

“Beloved, [loved ones] it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.”

You’re meeting people, Christians who you don’t even know, and you’re providing for them and sending them out as they go to share the gospel.

“For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore, we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.”

Isn’t that beautiful? They’re not going, in this case, they’re helping the people who are going.

This past week, in my journey through the Bible, I’ve been in Numbers, and came to Numbers 16, the horrific story of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Korah and his comrades decided that they were not happy doing what they were commissioned to do. They were Levites, so they were serving in the tabernacle, but they weren’t sons of Aaron, so they weren’t allowed to go in the holy place or do other priestly activities. So they rose up and said, verse 3, Numbers 16,

“They assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said to them, ‘You have gone too far! For all in the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?’”

Essentially what they’re saying is, “I don’t want to do what I’m supposed to do. I want to do what you’re doing.” And Moses fell on his face and said, verse 11,

“Therefore it is against the Lord that you and all your company have gathered together. What is Aaron that you grumble against him?”

In other words, you’re not really mad at Aaron, you’re really ultimately mad at God. And so they all assembled. And in verse 19,

“the glory of the Lord appeared to all the congregation.”

And the Lord commanded that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their families, or anyone who is participating with them, separate themselves. Everyone else separate from them. And God opened up the ground and consumed them. That’s called serious church discipline.

Now, if you keep reading through the book of Numbers, unsurprisingly, you will encounter a lot of numbers, lists, census lists, which can be a tad dry. But embedded in some of those are gems. For example, when you get to Numbers 26:11, the judgment of Korah is summarized. And then there is this passing statement.

“But the sons of Korah did not die.”

What? How did they not die? The ground swallowed them. No, they didn’t die. What does that mean? When Moses called everyone to choose, they looked at their dad and they said, “Dad, we love you, but you’re wrong. We’re over here.” And the sons of Korah actually stepped aside and did not get executed with their father. The sons of Korah, that is Korah’s sons and descendants, ended up writing eleven psalms. You can find them, some of the most beautiful Psalms, Psalm 42, 44, 45. Most of them are in the 40s and the 80s.

But look at this,  Psalm 84. If you look at the top, you’ll see written by Sons of Korah. Verse 10 will take your breath away. They write,

“For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

Whoa. A little too close to home there. What are they saying? Korah had said the opposite. I don’t want to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. I want to do what Aaron’s doing. The sons of Korah said, “I would rather do something very mundane in God’s favor, then do something spectacular outside of his favor. I would rather serve in a little way in the presence of God and his people than reign in a big way in the tents of wickedness.” Why? Look at verse 11, the very next verse.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield;”

God shines and God shields.

“The Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

The sons of Korah are saying Yahweh, Elohim, shines and shields. He provides everything I need and he protects me so I don’t need to be frantic about the role I play, whether big or small. If he puts me on the sideline — don’t you love it when there are key players who are on the sideline just cheering their team with towels waving, even though they’re not on the field at the moment or the court?

And the sons of Korah are saying that. I want to see God be glorified, his kingdom advanced. Whether I’m in this role or that role, I just want to see him glorified. The simplest kindness shown to the smallest disciple will be rewarded as if done to Christ himself.

What is the Spirit saying to you? I think one question we could ask ourselves is simply, will I give thanks for what he’s calling me to do right now? No matter how magnificent or menial. Yeah, but I spend a lot of time changing diapers right now. What a high and holy calling! Yeah, but I’m not using all my giftedness. Okay, but will you give thanks for what you are doing? Because God does. He does see when we’re faithful in the little. And he does raise us up in his time. But if we’re grumbling, and resentful, and turning inward, we end up missing.

And by the way, it’s one of the reasons — I’m not a real journaler — but one of the reasons I journal is simply to not miss what we sang right at the beginning, “God in the ordinary.” Lord, thank you for what you did today, in giving me that opportunity to do something ridiculously mundane. I don’t want to be blind to those. Because I think if we give thanks in those, the Lord honors that. And I do believe this is particularly important for us as a church through this season of change and growth, to know that we need every person to use your gifts. Nobody’s a spectator. Nobody’s invisible. Nobody’s unnecessary. You say, but God is calling me to take care of my father, who’s sinking into dementia. What a high calling. What a hard calling, but what a high calling. Will you give thanks for what he’s calling you to now?

Let’s take a moment and talk to him quietly and then I will pray.

Father, you know, this is a hard message for many of us. Life is not going the way we hoped. We can feel overlooked, perhaps even useless. And Father, I pray that your Spirit would speak to each one of us in very personal ways. That you, the Lord God, Yahweh, Elohim, you’re a sun, you’re a shield, you bestow favor, you bestow honor, no good thing do you withhold.

If there’s a thing that we need, that’s good, you’re not going to hold it back. You’re a Father who delights to give good gifts, even when they’re hard gifts. Even when we can’t see right away why we need that gift. So please, first and foremost Lord, fill our hearts with gratefulness.

If our faith is not in Jesus, may this be the day when we believe. We need you to shine on us, to radiate into those places that are dark, simmering with resentment or discouragement.

We need you to be our shield, to protect us from the enemy who loves to catch us in those moments of weakness and cultivate bitterness in us. Father, you are the rewarder of all who seek you diligently. We your people seek you, your smile, through Jesus.

And thank you, thank you for the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that you’ve gathered here who love to serve one another as door keepers, greeting, singing, caring for kids, teaching young people in hundreds of ways. It’s beautiful to see.

And Lord, thank you that ultimately we know, Jesus, your kingdom wins. And we win with you. And we praise you in Jesus’s name, amen.