How can we overcome discouragement?
Text: Matthew 13:53-14:35
Hosts:
J. Kent Edwards
Vicki Hitzges
Nathan Norman
Narrator: Brian French
The CrossTalk Podcast is a production of CrossTalk Global, equipping biblical communicators, so every culture hears God’s voice. To find out more, or to support the work of this ministry please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org
Produced by Nathan James Norman/Untold Podcast Production
© 2024 CrossTalk Global
Brian: What is discouragement? The origin of the word discouraged is courage that is taken away. Discouragement is fed by disappointment, a feeling of sadness when our hopes and dreams are delayed, changed, or crushed. Discouragement occurs when our expectations are unmet and we struggle with the reality of an unwelcomed outcome. And discouragement overshadows our souls and can lead to fear, anxiety, confusion, sadness, lack of motivation, and even paralysis. Discouragement is universal. Everyone feels it, even the disciples of Jesus. Thats why youll want to join Kent Edwards, Nathan Norman, and Vicky Hitzges today as they learn from Matthew, chapters 14 and 15. How to defeat discouragement welcome to Crosstalk, a christian podcast whose goal is for us to encourage each other to not only increase our knowledge of the Bible, but to take the next step beyond information into transformation. Our goal is to bring the Bible to life, into all our lives. Hello, I'm Brian French. Today, Doctor Kent Edwards, Vicky Hitzkis, and Nathan Norman continue their discussion through the gospel of Matthew. And if you have a Bible handy, turn to Matthew, chapter 13, verse 53 to chapter 14, verse 35 as we join their discussion.
Kent: Nathan, Vicki, can you remember times when you were discouraged or knew others who were discouraged? If so, what was that like? How did it manifest itself? What were the consequences of that discouragement?
Vicki: Well, I remember maybe more depressed than discouraged, but it's a fine line between the two. When I was in college, I lived in a dark apartment and boy, does light make a difference. And I'm going to age myself here. But it was when Janice ian was out and she was singing that song. I learned the truth. At 17, love was meant for beauty queens. And I played that sad song over and over, over in the dark. And all of that was just a bad thing to do. So I was just feeding it and feeding it and feeding it and man alive and eating ice cream, and you just put all those things together. And I should have gotten up and run and opened the curtains and listened to happy, bouncy music. But no, I did not do that. And the consequences were that I didn't want to do anything but just have a huge pity party. And I did. And I just stayed stuck there for a long time.
Nathan: Yeah, I can remember a time where I was young in ministry, and my boss essentially said to all of my coworkers that the reason the church was floundering was because of my ministry and my presence in the ministry. Oh, and it wasn't even like directly, was obvious by implication who he was talking about. So I went and I talked to him afterwards and he said, you're just not cut out for ministry. You should not be doing this. And it was, I can remember I came home, I went for a walk in a park. I walked on top of a hill and I just broke down and cried. It was just, you know what? I don't even know what happened for the rest of the day. I had plenty to do, but I just could not do anything.
Kent: Wow.
Nathan: Just so discouraging. Wow. This whole thing that I've spent time and even worse money investing in my education.
Vicki: Oh, I think you're so perfect for ministry. I'm so glad you didn't listen to him.
Nathan: Me, too. I appreciate that. But it was hard. And, you know, it's interesting because the way you formed the question, I have an older cousin and he was per, he was the poster child of discouragement. He perpetually was discouraged and very negative about everything. Like, you think about the worst thing that could happen, and he could think of a few more things on top of that, right? Just, oh, man, we're probably going to go on this trip and something will go wrong with the car and the tow place won't be open. Our AAA, we'll be out of the air zone. Like, just so negative. And so he was discouraged, even in his own business. Well, this is going to happen and finances are going to be destroyed by inflation. And the end result of that is he just couldn't do anything. Like, he could never do anything. He had a hard time going on vacation. He had a hard time making decisions for his business and for his family. He just kind of became stagnant. And my snapshot of me crying on top of a hill, that kind of turned into his whole life.
Kent: Recently I was giving a seminar on preaching, and one gentleman at the back of the room put up his hand and said, what do you do if you just don't have the charisma or the ability of these famous online preachers? What do you do if you just don't have it? My comment was, you don't know whether you have that ability or not. We need to be able to explore and teach you what is involved and see if you have that gift. Because if you've never learned the mechanics, how do you know you don't have it? How do you know you can't run? If no one showed you how to run, how do you know you're no good at math? Unless someone began to show you some of the principles, you began to put those things into practice. He was discouraged, and his discouragement had been preventing him from taking apart, taking hold of opportunities that could have moved him and his ministry and his search forward in dramatic ways. We are all discouraged at some times in our life, and I find it fascinating to see how Jesus disciples coped with discouragement early in their ministry. For the last two weeks of our podcasts, we have been learning through the lens of Jesus parable of the soil. We saw how Jesus disciples needed to focus their ministry on people who took God's word seriously. If you're going to sow your seed, make sure it lands on good soil. We also saw that those who receive God's word, who are those good soils, well, they're going to enjoy eternity with God in his glorious kingdom, which means that God's word is powerful. It changes lives. It guides our ministry and determines people's destinies.
Vicki: Wow.
Kent: That's why I'm not surprised to read in Matthew chapter 13, as Matthew continues with his gospel, starting in verse 53, as he describes Jesus next step in ministry.
Vicki: Here's what it says in 53. It says, when Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue. And they were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? They asked.
Kent: So tell me, are you surprised that Jesus ministry here was amazing?
Vicki: No. I mean, if God can't do it, that's kind of a funny question.
Kent: No, it is. I mean, certainly, what in particular would lead you to believe that this should be a time of particularly fruitful ministry for Jesus?
Nathan: Oh, it's his hometown. He knows the culture, he knows the people. He knows their ins and outs, what makes them happy, what makes them angry.
Vicki: Sure, that's exactly right. I'm taking a course right now on how to write. And the main thing you've got to do is grab their attention. And what you do is you have to find out what they want. What are their desires? Well, he can read their mind. He knows everything about them. He just goes bam, right for it, you know, and he gets em.
Kent: But growing up in that community gives him a huge advantage. Right?
Vicki: Even a bigger advantage. Yeah.
Kent: Vicky, I remember your father hadn Robinson telling me one time that one of the places he found most difficult to preach to were small farming communities. He grew up in New York City. He knows what crowds he knows.
Vicki: He knows concrete.
Kent: Yeah, but not farmland so much. And he would go to the local cafe and meet with people in advance a day or two before he had to speak and just talk to them, get to know them so that he could have a more effective ministry, because knowing the culture is really effective for ministry. I mean, Nathan, you and I have ministered overseas. There's a big difference between you're a ministry in Tarrytown and Hanoi. Wouldn't you agree?
Nathan: Oh, by far. By far. I mean, we have language barriers, right when we go overseas, so we have to use a translator in order to understand things. And if we don't have a translator, we're using Google Translate, which is not always the best or available. If you have bad Wi Fi, well.
Vicki: You have to know the people. I spoke in a muslim country, and the people were wonderful to me. But I had this big closing illustration, and I was gonna tell about how my dog died. And it always grabs people.
Kent: Uh huh.
Vicki: Well, it turns out they think dogs steal your soul.
Kent: They're like, yeah, all right.
Vicki: I was like, no, no, no. You don't just get a closing illustration out of the air. I was like, no.
Kent: Oh, yeah.
Nathan: Well, I can remember I had sat down with a sermon I was going to do. I met with the translator so that he could understand all the things that I was going to talk about. And I said, I'm thinking about closing with this. And he said, don't close with that. No, that. That won't fly here. And I said, well, why? And he told me why. So I kind of had to work out beforehand, like, okay, what about that? Yeah, because. Because the metaphor, the illustration just absolutely would not work in vietnamese culture.
Kent: So I'm not surprised that people were amazed at his ministry. I mean, you would expect, I mean, it's Jesus and he's in his hometown. If you can't hit a home run there, where are you going to hit? But look at what happened. The mood shifts dramatically. Starting in verse 55, it says, isn't.
Vicki: This the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary? And aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things? And they took offense at him.
Kent: Huh? They took offense. The word, not surprisingly, literally means they were offended by him. They were a stumbling block to him. This is opposition. It's interesting that rather than being amazed, as they were in verse 54, when we come to verse 56, they took offense at him. They were offended by him. They were upset by what he said. And why? Why? What's this deal about? Isn't this a carpenter, son? Isn't it this mother's name Mary? What are they saying there in those words, Nathan?
Nathan: Saying a few things, like, dude, we know this guy. Like, didn't we change his diaper? Isn't this just one of our own people? There's nothing special about him. There's also implication of his parentage. Right? Mary was found pregnant before she was married to Joseph. So is he a legitimate child? Come on, don't we know he's a carpenter? Like, he knows about spiritual things, right? Yeah, we all know Bob. Does Bob know things about spiritual things? Hey, Bob, you the messiah, too? No, he's not the messiah.
Brian: Right?
Nathan: It's all of that.
Kent: They're insulting him over and over and over again, and Jesus responds. He's deeply offended. I mean, in verse 57 and 58, look at how he was, what he.
Vicki: Says, he said to them, a prophet is not without honor, except in his own town and in his own home. And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Kent: Wow. Again, that phrase without honor literally means to dishonor. They were saying that he had a low character, a bad reputation. This was an insult in Jesus of the highest order. And so he begins to withdraw his ministry from them, doesn't he?
Vicki: That's interesting. It's interesting that he got off. You would think he'd think, well, this makes sense. They know me. They don't know me as lord, but.
Kent: I think it was the opposite, because you do know me. You should know better than that. I'm one of you. I'm part of the family. Why are you turning against me when I come like this? Imagine you're Jesus disciples. How would the disciples have felt? They're witnesses of this, right? They're with him. They see this ministry in his hometown, and they see it goes upside down.
Nathan: It's kind of like if you've ever been with a friend and then their relationship or their conversation with their family, their mom, their dad, something goes nuts, or their kid, and there's huge argument happens, and you're over here. Like, I don't know the context. I don't know what's going on. I'm very uncomfortable right now. Aren't you family? Shouldn't you love each other? I'm sure the disciples were feeling discouraged.
Kent: I mean, here's Jesus. If he can't hit a home run in his hometown, where is he going to hit one? If you're his disciples are like, man, what's going to happen to us?
Nathan: Yeah. Even your own people won't acknowledge you as the messiah.
Kent: I know. And they're publicly coming against you. What's it going to be like for us if this is the trouble you have and you're the savior. How are we supposed to thrive down the road? I mean, it was discouraging for Jesus. I think it must have been particularly discouraging for the disciples who were witnessing this. And as if that's not bad enough, look at the next scene.
Vicki: Well, the next scene is chapter 14, and it's talking about John the Baptist. And it said, now, Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of his brother's wife. For John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her. On Herod's birthday, the daughter of his brother's wife danced for the guest and pleased Herod so much that he promised to give her whatever she asked. And she said, give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Her request was granted, and John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. And then they went and told Jesus.
Kent: Well, that's just a gruesome account, isn't it?
Vicki: Yeah.
Kent: Sin personified. But would the execution of John the Baptist have discouraged or encouraged Jesus disciples?
Vicki: I would say discouraged.
Kent: Well, in a sense, you know, there's a bit of encouragement, perhaps because he was faithful John the Baptist to his ministry, right?
Vicki: Yeah.
Kent: I mean, he was called to preach repentance and he was courageous in the middle of that.
Nathan: He was. But this is the death, this isn't the death of Billy Graham, though, who died at a ripe old age after faithful ministry. This is like the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who dies at the hands of monsters after serving faithfully but not long enough.
Vicki: Yeah. How do you figure? This is encouraging.
Kent: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nathan: It's absolutely discouraging.
Kent: Well, it's discouraging because he was doing what he was supposed to do and did it well and fearlessly. The discouraging part is that in the midst of him doing exactly what he was supposed to do, look at the gruesome end he faced.
Vicki: Right.
Kent: And if you're the disciples, if I was a disciple, I'm thinking, man, what's going to happen to me if I'm faithful to the calling that God gives me? Is that going to be my end? This natural unit begins with two scenes. Jesus, rejected by his hometown and his best prophet, gruesomely murdered for doing his job. There's no question that that would have discouraged his disciples and their future would look bleak. I think they'd be asking themselves, what have we gotten ourselves into? And I think there are times when we ask the same question in ministry, don't we?
Nathan: Yeah. Often if you don't ask that question in ministry, I don't think you're doing it right.
Kent: What do you mean?
Nathan: The very nature of ministry itself. You are going into human lives. You're shepherding people sometimes in their worst states, whether it's because of sin or it's because of the stress of the loss of a loved one. And those things come all at once. There's not enough time in the day. There's a billion things to do. And it's very easy to become overwhelmed. And there's emotions and so someone's not happy with what you said or what you preached or that you went at this certain time to the hospital or didn't go at that certain time to this funeral home. And it can become very overwhelming, very discouraging quickly, because I think the nature of ministry is it is more than anyone can handle, whether you're talking about a pastor or the personal ministries people have on the street. What Jesus has called us to do is far beyond my abilities.
Kent: And Jesus calls us to be salt and light in a dark and decaying world. Yeah, every person we meet is a sinner. There's always opposition, and that can become discouraging, which is why the following two scenes are so important. Immediately after John the Baptist demise, Jesus takes his disciples to a solitary place, presumably to rest. But the crowds come, we're told some 5000 men plus their families, 15, 20,000 people, maybe. And as the day grew long, the disciples have an idea. Look at their idea. 15 following.
Vicki: It says, as evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, this is a remote place and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food. And Jesus replied, they don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. That's the way he said it. Something that even sounded hick to me. You give them something to eat, how.
Kent: Would you feel if you were the disciples?
Nathan: Yeah, I quit. I'm done. I've had enough of this.
Kent: I think every one of us at one time feels overwhelmed by the demands of ministry. And when Jesus says to them, you give them something to eat, they respond in verse 17.
Vicki: Well, they were overwhelmed the way Nathan said it, because they only had five loaves of bread and two fish. That's what they said. We only have five loaves of bread and two fish here.
Kent: They answered, that sounds like how I feel almost every Monday morning when I'm a pastor. When I was a pastor, I feel overwhelmed with the opportunities and obligations and have so few resources to apply. How in the world am I going to accomplish the mission that God has given? But look at what Jesus says next. Look what happens next.
Nathan: Bring them here to me, he said, taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven. He gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied. And the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Kent: What did Jesus ask his disciples to do? Not solve all the problems themselves, not meet all those people's needs. But he wanted them to bring the little they had to him so that he could do what they could not do. I think that's a powerful lesson, an encouraging lesson, because none of us can accomplish God's ministry in our own strengthen. But when we bring the little we have, he loves to bless, use, and multiply what we have in the midst of discouragement. This is encouraging. And look at the final scene.
Vicki: It says, immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side. While he dismissed the crowd, Jesus went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. And later that night, the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
Kent: What a strange scene. Whose idea was it to get in the boat?
Vicki: Jesus, right.
Kent: He tells them to go, and by the way, I'm not going to go with you where you go. And, you know, not a good idea. Maybe take a boat ride at night. I mean, I wouldn't. That wouldn't be my first choice. But while they're out there, what happens?
Vicki: The storm comes up, and Jesus is not with them.
Kent: So here you've got these guys in a boat at night about to sink, wondering, what in the world are we doing here? Jesus has called us and sent us. We're in the center of his will, and we're all going to drown. But look what happens next.
Vicki: This is a cool story. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. And when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said, and cried out in fear.
Kent: In the middle of this, Jesus just wanders out to them, just walks out, literally walking on water. What's the significance of Jesus walking out to meet them?
Vicki: He could, right?
Kent: Like, it's no problem for him.
Nathan: Just, he can do Peter, just out for a stroll.
Kent: And Jesus has not abandoned them, even though when they're in the middle of his will. They're in the midst of difficulties. He has not abandoned them. He even invites Peter to join them.
Nathan: In verse 27 it says, but immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, take heart. It is I, do not be afraid. And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, o you of little faith, why did you doubt? And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.
Kent: So why did jesus tell him to go in the boat? So that they could see he was a resource for them in the midst of their difficulties. He wasn't going to abandon them. He was coming to them. And not only that, but they with faith could take advantage of the resources that he was giving them in order to succeed in ministry. And it worked. In verse 32 and 33, look at their response.
Nathan: And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly you are the son of God.
Kent: This passage applies to everyone. Jesus has called every one of us to ministry. In the sermon on the mount, he says, we are all to be salt and light in our dark and decaying part of the world. And he never says it will be easy. There will be times of discouragement. His disciples faced it. We face it, along with Moses, David, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter. Virtually everyone in the Bible faced discouraging times. If you are an elder, a Sunday school teacher, youth worker, or missionary, I guarantee discouraging times will come. There will be times when the kingdom of God seems to be faltering, under attack from all sides. We will be discouraged, just as the disciples were in Matthew, chapter 13 and 14. But in the same way that Jesus will not let his kingdom fail, he is our resource. He can take a few loaves and fish and feed the world. He can literally walk on water to come to our rescue when things become dark. We can take heart from Jesus words. In John 16, he says, I have.
Vicki: Told you all this so that you may have peace in me here on earth. You will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world.
Kent: Yes, ministry comes with discouragement, but God's kingdom will come. No one can stop it. Jesus guarantees it. How can we persevere when the challenges of ministry seem insurmountable? With the knowledge that Jesus can provide what we need when we need him the most.
Brian: In ministry you will have challenges and sometimes theyll seem insurmountable. However, you can be confident that Jesus will provide what you need, when you need it and when you need him the most. I trust that todays discussion of gods word has been helpful and served as an encouragement to not just be hearers of the word, but doers together. Lets bring gods word to life, to our lives this week. The Crosstalk podcast is a production of crosstalk global equipping biblical communicators so every culture hears gods voice. To find out more or to support the work of this ministry, please visit www.crosstalkglobal.org. we just graduated a group of biblical communicators in Panama and in a few weeks we're headed to Moldova, located right next to Ukraine. Help us train the next generation of biblical communicators. All you have to do is click donate in the show notes and make a donation of any size. You can also support this show by sharing it on social media and telling your friends. Tune in next Friday as we continue our discussion through the Gospel of Matthew. Be sure to join us.