John 9:18-23,
But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had
been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him who had
received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son, who you say
was born blind? How then does he now see?”
His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but by what means he now sees we do not know, or who opened his eyes we do not know. He is of age; ask him. He will speak for himself.” His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”
Are you fearful to speak to the truth about Jesus with whomever asks you like the parents of the blind man? Here are some possibilities as we enter into a brand new year of discipleship:
1) Is the Bible so boring to you? I'll bet you will be surprised of my answer. Your right. There are parts of the bible that are dull, technical and hard to read. In fact you may fall asleep reading some sections of the bible. I admit I have.
2 Timothy 3:16-17,
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
Does the bible promise to be entertaining? Is it just a story written by storytellers? Well, the bible promises to be enthralling and life changing as it was written by Jesus Prophets and Apostles who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. No other book in the whole of mankind has this power and revelation directly from heaven.
Do most people believe they have "life and godliness" all figured out and its not necessary to read the bible? Unfortunately this is the case. If your reading a great novel or fictional entertaining stories, pick up a novelists piece of literature. But if you are wanting to read about how to go to heaven, read the bible that has a kind of urgency of godliness and life before the Lord and His nature. He put all of it in there for a reason in light of eternity.
2 Peter 1:3,
“…as His divine power has given to us all things that
pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by
glory and virtue,”
2) Another common thought among people is "all we have to do is focus on and love Jesus." That's all fine and dandy, but if this is so, there are a few notable scriptures that do focus on Jesus that require more than just loving Him.
John 14:15, keep His commandments
“If you love Me, keep My commandments."
John 14:21, love Jesus
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who
loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him
and manifest Myself to him.”
John 8:31, abide in His word
Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you
abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.”
John 13:20, to the apostles that he sent
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I
send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”
For those who want to just love Jesus and cut out all the letters of the apostles and live by the four gospels only, guess what? Jesus isn't very happy about that. He sent the apostles to teach the word of the Lord. They were commissioned by the Christ! They were inspired by the Holy Spirit and their words in the New Testament are of equal value and power as the four gospels. All the doctrines and details in the epistles that seem so boring, suddenly become just as important.
John 17:20-21, we can have unity
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who
will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You,
Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the
world may believe that You sent Me."
Here is a question for you. If Jesus sent the 12 out to preach the wearing of a red hat and purple sandals all the time, don't you want to know that? And if you really love Jesus doesn't that mean you want to get a red hat and sandals? Where's your red hat, where are your sandals? I know this isn't a realistic commandment but, when are we going to do what Jesus tells us, because if you love Him, you will keep His commandments.
About Unity,
Many churches that call themselves Christians don't emphasize hardly anything at all, and they are still not united are they? When we start to talk about Jesus some may say, "was he really born of a virgin?" Are you going to accept that? How about Jesus doing miracles, "did he really do miracles?" Some churches say yes, some say no. What about the big issue. Did Jesus rise from the dead? "Really, a dead man rose from the dead?" Again, some churches say yes, some say no. So, when people say all that we are going to be talking about is Jesus, there are still matters that need to be resolved, have to be studied, thought and prayed about. And there is still going to be what? There is going to be some divisions of what is supposed to be so amazingly uniting, it turns out to be much less. And more importantly, it does not honor and love Jesus as He told us to do.
Ephesians 1:22-23,
“And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be
head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who
fills all in all.”
Jesus is the head of the church, and we honor and love Him when we do what He commands and directs. Whether that comes from Jesus direct or from His messengers the apostles, we love Jesus when we do what Jesus says. And we can't fool ourselves and say, "Oh I love Jesus, i'm just not focusing on the details." That's not how Jesus said to love Him.
3) Sometimes we can be in conversation trading ideas and whatnot back and forth, and invariably someone says, "Wow, you church of Christ folks, man you just got an answer for everything."
Well, that's not something that makes me happy, I don't want to hear them say that for a couple of reasons.
a - Nobody likes a mister know-it-all. We all know someone who answers a question with an open mouth. That gets old in a hurry.
b - More importantly. I don't even know close to everything. In fact the more I actually study the bible, the more I don't know.
But, Jesus told us we need to have some answers. Lets read 1 Peter 3:15,
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always
be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that
is in you, with gentleness and respect."
We need to be ready to give answers about our faith. For example, look at Acts 17:1-4. Apostle Paul is very comfortable dialoging with people and talking with them about religious differences in Thessalonica.
"Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and
Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths
reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the
Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom
I preach to you is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded; and a great
multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul
and Silas."
This is what Christians do, that's our job. But secondly, shouldn't everybody have an answer? It's baffling at the number of people that don't want to talk about the very things that Christians want to talk about the most - Death, Eternity, Judgment, Heaven, Hell. All this stuff that happens to you when you die. Have people not noticed? Everybody dies! It doesn't happen to just one segment of society, it happens to everybody (Hebrews 9:27).
Why is there not much interest and conversation about - What happens next? Is it because nothing happens next? Maybe if something happens next. What? How do you know if? I want to know about the biggest question of life - What happens when you die? Don't you want to know? Everybody ought to have some conclusions shouldn't they instead of saying - "Nope, I don't know, I haven't really thought about it."
It ought to be front and center in everybody's life, So yes, it is true that Christians have some things that they believe in fervently and passionately and have some convictions about because we think these things are vitally important! And we do believe and have evidence this is a book from God that has led us to make some very direct conclusions on how we ought to live so that we can learn how to get to Heaven, for that is the goal of our faith (Phil 3:12-14).
Lets talk about whats going to happen next instead of "Oh, you got answers to everything." Lets find out what those answers are even if one comes to their personal conclusion, there is no answer. At least we are attempting to converse and have an intelligent discussion.
Is the Bible boring and will you speak up when the opportunity arises? Is it really just about loving Jesus? Is there answers to everything? Hopefully this short lesson will help you in your studies of the bible, and relationship with the Father, the Holy Spirit, and with Jesus the Christ.
Blessings
