But this phenomenon is not just restricted to sports, or
boxing. It infects the church. It comes in a different package but with all
the same fundamentals elements in place.
In the time of Christ, doctrines were determined by Pharisees. Doctrines were thought to be unalterable, and
common truth. So Jesus should have just
accepted them as they were. If Jesus had
done that, He would have tacitly accepted the authority of the Pharisees over
His own church, and made them happy, happy enough to leave Jesus alone, perhaps
even hail Him as their Messiah as well.
But to challenge those doctrines, would not just challenge the
teachings, but challenge the pride behind them.
Now, inside the one true church itself, before the crucifixion, would
come the confrontation between the Truth, and what men believed, and the pride
they took in those beliefs. Pride that
would refuse to yield. Pride that would
rather kill our God, than yield. And we
look backwards and scold the Pharisees for what they did, but refuse to look in
our mirrors to see if that same behavior still exists within us today.
Consider for a moment what happens when the Truth of
scripture confronts the reality of where and when and how we live. Conservative Christians decry the acceptance
of homosexuality into the church, while at the same time never figuring out an
effective ministry to those who suffer from that particular condition. There is plenty of rejection in conservative
Christian circles based on Biblical teachings that are quite clear. But there is zero ministry to these people
who need our love every bit as much as those who suffer from other variants of
sexual expression that are equaling as disturbing to our God. Adultery is every bit as big a problem as
homosexuality will ever be. And adultery
happens quietly, not talked about, not admitted to, and completely infects that
same conservative Christian community that is so quick to condemn people whose
propensities they do not share. Easy to
condemn the gay person for being gay, when I have no desire to ever be
gay. But hard to condemn my own lusts,
that drive me to forever look away from marital bonds I should be bound to. Men who will not forsake the pursuit of
variety. Women who will not forsake the
pursuit of satisfaction or love from a source that is not their own husband,
having given up hope they will ever find it there. And this more quiet problem, is a much more
prevalent problem, that it seems nearly none of us are willing to confront, or
sadly forsake.
The cure for both of these sins remains Jesus. And both sins are a disease of the mind and
heart. Both are sins whether we would
prefer to hear that designation or not. The
answer is not to “accept” them as part of who we are. The answer is to submit ourselves fully to
Jesus, and let Him do with our sex life whatever and however He sees fit. And to love each other without condemnation
of each other in the meantime while Jesus does the work within us, only Jesus
could ever do. If I arrive at the Pearly
gates and my sin was never fully removed from me during my lifetime, it will be
removed before I enter those gates, by the grace and love of Jesus Christ. Many a believer has gone down to the grave,
still struggling against some sin they never found the victory against. Forgiveness was ever their watchword even if
reform was the one they always desired, but did not find enough submission to
Jesus, to ever experience. But
transformation will happen. Faith
guarantees it. Whether in this life
where relief comes early to the burdened soul, or at the start of the next one,
when it comes in the twinkling of an eye – transformation will come. And Jesus will make us then, what He always
desired for us to be. The truth however,
does not change, and confronts our pride in the here and now. Do we try to accept ourselves giving us
license to sin, or ever look to Jesus and have faith He can remove our sins
from us, and change who we are, and what we want.
Will we be like the Pharisees of old, and cling to our
pride, even to the point of denying the Truth, and rather seeking to kill God
Himself over it? Or will be react
another way. Consider what Luke tells us
of an incident regarding the confrontation of pride with the Truth in the
person of Jesus Christ. This story
begins not long after the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on a colt
that was never ridden by any other man.
The anthems of praise echoed through the city and refused to go away,
even days after Jesus had entered. Jesus
had cleansed the Temple, and thrown out the cheaters, breaking entirely the
worship based economy that emerged within it.
And now, Jesus was teaching in the Temple day after day. But Jesus did not teach in the manner of
previous priests or current Pharisees.
Jesus taught with power and authority.
Jesus did not explain a passage from scripture and talk about what it
might have meant, or all the possible meanings it might have contained. Jesus simple zoned in on the truth of what it
said, and what it meant, and what God the Father intended us to learn from
every given passage of scripture.
Scriptures were never thrown out by Jesus, but instead explained through
the lens of Jesus, and finally rightly interpreted. This was teaching with authority, authority
like none other in history. It was
clear. It was decisive. It was direct. It was Truth as it proceeded from the mouth
of the Truth. … and the Pharisees hated
it.
Eventually they reached a breaking point and could keep
silent no longer. Luke picks up with
this in the twentieth chapter of his gospel letter to his friend about what we
believe and why. In verse 1 it says … “And it came to
pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and
preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the
elders, [verse 2] And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority
doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?” The Pharisees demanded to know, who gave
Jesus the authority to teach what and how He did. They knew it was not the Sanhedrin. They were the Sanhedrin. They knew Rome would never insert itself into
these kinds of inherently Jewish teachings.
So that left only one choice.
Jesus must declare the His Father God granted Him this authority. Or better yet for the Pharisees, Jesus might
even declare that He gave Himself this authority, for that would be an
admission that He thought of Himself as God.
Either declaration of God granting Jesus this authority, might be enough
to convince the people that Jesus was a blasphemer. Saying you are God when you are not is indeed
blasphemy. But the Pharisees knew Jesus
was in fact God. So if Jesus had
declared Himself as such, it would have been true. The Pharisees must then convince the people
that truth spoken by Jesus was a lie, and they should stone Jesus for having
the nerve to speak it.
This was no simple question of curiosity launched by the
Pharisees. It was a calculated attack
designed to trap Jesus into giving them an excuse to discredit Him with the
people, and an occasion to stone Him for so doing. Think of the depth of hatred pride had
inspired in these men, to pervert truth in order to commit murder, of God
Himself and they knew it. Notice too,
they did not attack the Truth of the messages Jesus had been teaching. They engaged in no debate with Him about what
He had been saying. For there was no debate. What Jesus said was pure truth, and they
recognized it, and had no debate they could launch. So instead of debating scripture with Jesus,
which they knew they would lose, they challenged His authority to be able to
teach at all. This was after all,
“their” Temple. From their point of
view, Jesus did not own this place, it belonged to the people was managed by
them, not Jesus. So Jesus should not
have been teaching at all without their blessing. A blessing they would never give. So here was a trap disguised as a question to
challenge His authority.
Jesus however, saw right through the subterfuge into the
hearts of each of them present offering this challenge. Jesus knew immediately what they were doing,
and why. He saw the hate barely able to
contain itself. He saw the thirst for
blood, that pride confronted by truth, was ready to shed. And are we any different than those
Pharisees? When scripture tells us
clearly not to cheat, not to betray, and we do it anyway – don’t we tend to
just ignore scripture entirely? We kind
of have to, in order to keep doing what we are doing. We get mad at anyone who would dare confront
us with what scripture might say to us.
We attack them, attack their character, point out their sins, and less
than perfect lives. Who are they to tell
us anything? But the truth in scripture
does not change because its messenger is less than perfect. Yet we war against truth, in order for us to
remain in sin, and refuse to call sin by its right name. For if it is not sin, then we do not need
forgiveness, and do not need to change.
Our pride can remain in tact if we do not need to be saved from
ourselves. But that is not the truth of
it. We do need to be saved. Saved from who we are in the core of us.
Jesus responds in verse 3 saying … “And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: [verse 4] The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?” How would you answer? I put this same challenge to your pride to
you in a different way. The Bible; is it
of God or of men? If you answer it is of
God, then why do you not believe it, or do what it says. If you answer it is of men, then what hope is
left to you at all? This was the same
dilemma the Pharisees faced. But they,
like you, already knew the truth of the answer to this question. John’s baptism, and the Bible from Genesis to
Revelations, is of God, or of heaven. We
were created, we did not evolve. Jesus
is revealed in prophecy of things yet to be.
We can learn from those revelations or choose to ignore them at our
peril. John’s baptism was as relevant
then as it is now. We need a baptism of
repentance. Notice we do not need a
baptism to profess our faith in Jesus, we need a baptism of repentance of who
we are, of what we have made of ourselves by our own choices to embrace sin. We need to be washed clean by ceremonial
waters, with our eyes fixed on Jesus who washes us clean before the Father. This we need.
But so few churches offer it this way.
Instead baptism is made a ceremonial right of joining a particular
denomination of Jesus, and done only once.
I dare say our need for repentance exceeds a one-time event. I imagine even in the days of John, the same
believer might have showed up at the river Jordan more than once.
The Pharisees now began to see their own dilemma. Luke continues in verse 5 saying … “And they
reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say,
Why then believed ye him not? [verse 6] But and if we say, Of men; all the
people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.” Keep in mind, the Pharisees knew the truth,
but pride would not allow them to acknowledge it. For John had called them out on their
misdeeds and hypocrisy. And instead of
seeking repentance when those warning were offered, they rebelled further
still. No Pharisee had taken that
baptism (at least not in public).
Instead they thought themselves in no need of it. Are we any different? Do we cast a purposely blind eye to our own
sins, focusing only on the sins of others.
We think ourselves as “good people”, particular good if you compare us
to those people, and that guy over there.
So if we are good, we do not really need to repent at all, let alone
have a baptism to acknowledge publicly we needed repentance. Pride would have us refuse any opportunity to
be saved, for pride would tell us we do not need saving, especially from who we
have become.
Luke continues in verse 7 saying … “And they answered, that they could
not tell whence it was. [verse 8] And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.” Mexican standoff. The Pharisees will not admit they know the
truth, or need repentance, or need to be saved.
And Jesus will not stumble into the trap they have for Him. But Jesus never strayed from the truth, or
changed what He taught, or how, for Jesus is the Truth. The Pharisees however, allowed pride to keep
them from the Truth at all costs. And
determined themselves even more to kill this Truth as soon as they could find a
way. Are we any different? Are we willing to be broken upon the Rock of
Jesus Christ, having our pride shattered completely so that only humility, even
public humility, is all that remains? It
is not easy picking up from the aftermath of having embraced sin of any
kind. What you thought was private,
turns out to be not so private after all.
You hurt others. Your betrayal
shatters the hearts and minds of others, most chiefly of those you love the
most, or say you do. And even when
forgiven you bear the burden of what you have done, for the pain does not
quickly go out of their hearts and minds and lives. It will scar you. Perhaps it should scar you. But you cannot be rebuilt upon a foundation
of lies. You cannot find your way past
the pain while you seek no repentance.
You cannot be forgiven while you do not seek it.
Sin is devastating.
But to allow pride to tell you, you do not sin, is even worse. To allow pride to minimize what you do or how
or why you do it, is no better. The pain
you cause will be amplified instead of released. Jesus was and remains the Truth we all need,
we all require. It is Jesus alone who
can rebuild our shattered lives. It is
our pride that would lead us to destroy ourselves, and all those we claim to
love. But to be confronted by the Truth
of Jesus and seek repentance is the first step in a long journey back to living
a whole life Jesus intends for you. It
is only in your humility that you begin to understand just how large
forgiveness really is, and how expensive it was to purchase and give to you. It is when we acknowledge who we are, that we
begin to see, why we need to be remade from that old person into the creation
Jesus would have us to be. And while we
may ever see the pain of what we have done reflected in the eyes or life of
another, we can set our minds and hearts firm, to make amends. To serve our victims for the rest of our
lives, and show them what the love of Jesus can do to heal, and make well
again. Lives need not remain shattered
by Truth, but cannot be rebuilt until they are.
Then we begin to move from mere repentance, to real reform, and this is
how perfection begins in you.
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