His And Ours

Jesus’ burden should be our burden. His fight should be our fight. His passion should also be our passion. Jesus was focused on the mission of the eternality of souls. He was passionate for the obedience of the Father. He was burdened for people. He was in a fight for our eternal destiny. 

Jesus was passionate about truth. Makes sense, He is truth. All of His words are truth, and His revelation to us is truth (John 17.17). There is an incredible list of people who followed that truth and served faithfully against incredible odds. Their stories are the illustrations of the Scripture. We have a litny of examples for us to read from. Each and everyone of them were people of truth. Each and every one of them faced some form of pushback. From Moses’ insurrections, to Paul’s persecutors, we have so many examples to look to. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews has a list for us for reference. In that, we also find they were fallible, normal, humans. This makes it even worse, doesn’t it? When standing for God, they were faced off by people that only saw a normal person, wondering— ‘who do you think you are’? ‘you are no different than me’. 

This is true also for us. We stand for Jesus, quoting His truth. What happens is totally up to Him from that point forward. Some believers today try to prove they are speaking for God; others just acquiesce. If we use the examples given to us, including Jesus’ own passion, we should expect to get some push back as well. This is normal. In 2 Peter 2.1, Peter warned of the same thing happening to the churches he is writing— “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” Jesus also warned that, “if they hated me, they will hate you also” (John 15.18). There will be push back. It’s not if, but when. Tell the truth—get push back. Stand for Jesus—get push back. This is the real truth. This is what the scripture warns us. 

Anything not truth, is clarified as ‘false’. His attitude toward false doctrine should also be ours. Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, David— all had the same determination for truth and stand against falseness. Especially against those who do the leading and teaching of it. We cannot be men-pleasers and servants of Christ at the same time. Jesus exampled for us a consistent approach toward heretics and hypocrites. He never made the kind of gentle private appeals contemporary believers typically insist are necessary before warning others about the dangers of a false teacher’s error. Jesus took on the errors boldly and directly. He was not nice to them by any anti-christ culture standard. He was kind, but not necessarily nice. He did not extend any academic courtesy to them. In one instance in John 3.10, “Jesus answered”, “and said unto him”, “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” This looks like an academic extension to the Pharisee, Nicodemus. It wasn’t. It was rhetorical and designed to answer Nicodemus’ genuine request of Jesus’ take on salvation. In this case, He had decorum while pointing out the hypocrisy and heresy of the Pharisee’s Oral Law. Because Nicodemus wasn’t attacking the Word or the Gospel, but looking for answers, Jesus answered the way He did. Slightly different, Jesus seemed completely unmoved but the frustration of the other Pharisees while He was speaking out against the errors. He knew they were looking for a reason to be offended by Him. Sound familiar? They walked around with a chip on their shoulder. They defined their existence by what they thought they did right, but was actually what they did wrong. They believed with all their heart they were right, but couldn’t have been more wrong. This is pride. This is the pride of man. This is what plagues all those who push back to this very day. Isn’t it the same as all other agendas today? It doesn’t matter what the sin is, it’s in opposition of truth. Jesus often did and said the very things He knew would offend them the most. 

This isn’t the same way in which He dealt with the ‘seekers’ or the ‘followers’. It makes me sick to hear believers help the world in their observations of Jesus. They read blogs and excerpts of Scripture, then give an ‘informative’ decision on what Jesus did and didn’t do. No study has been engaged, just a high flyover of pieces of stories that fit their own ‘peace at all cost’ agenda. 

Jesus’ approach today is sharply different from the popular method’s and approach of church pastors, christian author’s, and bloggers today. In fact the writers today redefine Jesus as one who would work very hard at not causing controversy and offense. He does not fit the generically so-called ‘gentle’ stereotype that is placed upon Him today by theologically weak writers and speakers. I shy away from calling a speaker of this degree a ‘preacher’ due to the definition of the term. They do not herald truth. They do not stand unapologetically for clear lines of right and wrong. They are simply speakers desiring to be stroked by their listeners. This is a sure sign of the end-times and the coming apostasy that I believe is already upon us. 

The Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4.3 said— “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;” The lack of endurance of sound doctrine then, is a known paradigm in the life of the believer now. Over time, without consistent rehearsal and reaffirmation of Truth— unadulterated, unaltered, unfettered, unneutered Truth. His attitude toward ignorance was to teach; toward hypocrisy and heresy was to expose.  He hates that which is a false balance— “A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.” (Proverbs 11.1). His approach with His adversaries is a rebuke to church leaders today. His adversaries are ours. So to be careful not to offend one is an immediate surrender of offense to the other. As Jesus said in Matthew 12.30a— “He that is not with me is against me…” Was He mean? No. Was He seeking their soul? Yes. But was He willing to allow them to trash truth? No. 

Folks, there is a necessity to know How: How He spoke to individuals; How He responded to organized opposition; How He preached to multitudes; How He taught His own disciples; Last, what He taught His disciples about How to deal with the prevailing winds of an anti-christ culture. 

But, what do we do when its within our own ranks? Paul addressed this in 1 Corinthians 16.22— “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” Anathema is a (religious) ban (to a person); excommunicated; accursed; to bind under a curse. Interesting to note that the word “anathema” in English versions come from the 1611 the translators. They did not bother translating this word into English at all. Instead, they left it in its original Greek, transliterated. It hasn’t changed meaning then, at all. The word Maranatha is of Chaldian origin (meaning our Lord has come); i.e. an exclamation of the approaching divine judgment. It is transliterated from Aramaic: ‘O Lord, Come!’ There are two ways to divide the word and therefore changes meaning: maran—aha = ‘our Lord has come’;marana—tha = ‘our Lord come’. One greek text used a colon after Anathema and uses the break: Marana—atha which would be ‘our Lord has come’. It’s then, both: present action focusing on a future tense. Maybe a little history may help. Maybe you have heard of the ‘ichthus’, the sign of the fish. It was the sign of one believer to another believer under persecution. They would also use the watch word: ‘maranatha’ when one of the christians were being dragged away by the Roman soldiers. This is to say— ‘Everything is going to be alright.’Or literally— ‘The Lord comes!’  

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” (2 Peter 2.1)

That’s ok. Because our Lord Jesus comes! We will be avenged. The Truth will be found right and the false will be exposed by the brightness of His glory. Disciple of Jesus— stand, speak, love, talk, live and work in the name of Jesus, standing on His truth. His passion has got to be our passion. He that cannot lie, has given you precise expectations.