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March 2016 Spare Change

The Tough Sayings of Jesus

People like to paint a mental picture of Jesus being all loving, inclusive, and accepting of everyone.  Of course Jesus is loving and accepting, but is that the whole picture of the personhood of Jesus?  What do we think when we hear the tough sayings of Jesus?  What do we do when he talks about commitment, about counting the cost, or about sacrifice?  Let me show you what I mean:

So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.   (John 6:53-54 ESV)

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple … So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.   (Luke 14:25-27; 33 ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.   (Matthew 16:24-25 ESV)

These are just a couple of examples that caused followers of Jesus to turn away.  Jesus seemed to have a lot of fair weather friends.  When the teaching got tough or the commitment too great, they were nowhere to be found.  Being a Christian or a follower of Jesus requires commitment.  Understand that salvation comes only from Jesus, it is a work he does in our heart.  Jesus redeems us by his sacrifice on the cross and the resurrection from the grave.  Salvation is only accomplished through faith.  Unfortunately, many people end there.  They think once they have their “fire insurance” they are good to go.  They are not seeking true life change; they just simply don’t want to go to hell.

There were many people in Jesus’ day that came to observe him or to see what they could get.  Only a few actually wanted to follow him.  That is the difference between true salvation and just an emotional response.  When the gospel is truly applied to our hearts, we begin to change.  It is then we gladly follow Jesus.  Being a Christian should not feel like a burden.  There are definitely hard days, but overall we are filled with peace, joy, and hope because of our faith in Christ.

We need to be fair to the whole person of Jesus.  He is loving and accepting, but He also calls us to obedience and commitment.  Even in that calling, He enables us by His spirit to change and grow to be like Him.  Our job, as it always has been, is simply to trust.  We must continually place our faith in Jesus, day by day. Growing in faith consistently is what Jesus wants.  Ultimately, the commitment is one of faith.  When we come to these tough sayings of Jesus we need to learn them, meditate on them, and be encouraged by them.  Don’t walk away like so many fair weather friends have before.  Seek to follow Jesus even in the tough stuff.

February 2016 Spare Change

The theme that I keep running into lately is Lordship.  It seems that whatever I read or study right now goes back to learning the meaning of the phrase “Jesus is Lord”.  This is a simple phrase that we may have uttered a thousand times, but do we really understand what it means?  This past week in Pastor Alan’s message he reminded us that God calls us servants, but really the word is translated from the Greek language as slave.  Understanding Jesus as Lord means understanding that we are His slave.

There is always a visceral reaction when we talk about slavery, for good reason.  The atrocities of slavery in our history are well known.  The mistreatment of African-Americans, forced to work against their will by often cruel and oppressive people, should be seen for what it is – sinful.  The reaction toward slavery today that causes us to wince, even when the subject is broached, is good, even for believers when we talk about being slaves to Christ.  We must understand that a slave lacks any rights or will of his own.  He doesn’t even own his possessions.  His day to day actions are not his own, he doesn’t have the right to overrule his master.  This is what it means to be a slave to Christ.

In the Bible, the word slave is often translated as servant.  I am unclear why the definition is softened, if nothing else, but to make it more palatable to us.  The point is a servant usually receives a wage for his work, whereas a slave does not.  A servant had hours and rights, whereas a slave did not.  While I can’t cover every type of slavery throughout history, one common practice in the Hebrew culture was voluntary slavery.  I believe this is the closest picture to our relationship with Christ.  A person driven by need, such as hunger or shelter, could sell themselves into slavery.  They would agree to work in exchange for their basic needs being met.  They would give up their life in order to receive these things.  The way it was supposed to work, according to the law, was the slave would work for six years then be free to go.  The master would supply him with a starter kit of sorts to get his life going— like some of the livestock, basic supplies, etc.  Here’s where it gets interesting.  If the slave wished to stay with the master because he loved the master then he would receive a pierced ear and be committed to that household forever.

The correlation for us is astounding.  We come to Christ as beggars, in need of salvation.  We can’t provide it, we can’t hope to earn it, we need Him to save us.  By His grace, through faith, we are saved.  This is made possible by His blood sacrifice on the cross.  In turning to Him we submit our lives to Him, we become slaves of Christ.  This is huge because, once again, we are submitting to His will.  We are giving up our rights, even our possessions to serve Him.  The great thing is we don’t have to worry about this master’s actions toward us, He will never be cruel.  He has a great love for us, which is His motivation.  He is the kindest master, seeking our best, according to His will.

This is what it means for Jesus to be our Lord.  He is the loving master that demands total control of our lives.  The question is, will we submit to this master or will we buck against Him, continuing to live for ourselves?  The sooner we realize that He has our best interest in mind, that His ways are better, His goals are higher, the sooner we can find fulfillment in life.  The statement is true -- HE IS LORD.  My prayer is that we can live that way so that people can see Him in us.

“But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Matthew 20:26-28