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Who Did Not Know the Lord

Influencing children for Christ in this morally decadent culture is much like it was in the time of Judges, but the church can’t make the same mistakes God’s people did then (Judges 2:10-12).

I. Deuteronomy 6:6-9.  The generation that had come out of Egypt was dead, and the generation that entered the Promised Land, the oldest 59 (Numbers 14:29-32), with Joshua failed to teach their kids about God or what He had done for them though they had been told to do so.  Their excuses were probably much like ours–too busy, not enough time, etc.  If we don’t teach them, they will abandon God.

II. Proverbs 22:6.  Demas did that (2 Timothy 4:10) and loved the world instead.  We must make the gospel relevant for a new generation (Matthew 9:17).  We do this by becoming aware of the challenges kids face today and meeting them how Lois and Eunice did (1 Timothy 1:5).  With proper preparation to live for God in a fast-paced and antagonistic culture, we can help our children break the cycle of sin.

III. Matthew 15:1-3.  Far too often we hand children the gospel packaged in our traditions that worked for previous generations but are inadequate to meet the challenges of today’s world that they must survive and serve in.  When we don’t give good gifts to our kids (Matthew 7:9-11) in the form of relevant teaching and preparation, we risk them going after other things and provoking God (Hebrews 10:26-27).

I saw this recently, “The gospel sounds strange to a generation that has been told they are perfect, loving themselves is virtuous, their heart is always right, and nothing is more important than being happy.”  How must we adapt our teaching of the gospel to a new generation that thinks differently than we do because it comes from a secular mindset rather than the sacred starting point that we have known?

 

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Not Against Us is For Us

The Titanic sank over a century ago.  The 20 lifeboats, capable of saving only 1178 of the 2208 on board pushed away half-full, saving only 705.  Why didn’t those on them save more?  Perhaps it was fear or lack of preparation in the panic of the survival situation?  Perhaps in their selfishness they judged those not on the lifeboats as either not worthy of saving or that their addition would swamp their vessel of salvation?

Like the ship, this world is sinking to its final destruction.  Each local body of the Lord’s church is a lifeboat that is only partially filled.  Rather than do the Lord’s job of judgment about who can climb in or is excluded, we need to be about ours of encouraging and teaching the way of God more accurately to those who don’t yet know it (Mark 9:38-41).

I.  Matthew 7:13-14.  A spokesman for the disciples posed the situation of a man doing good works in Jesus’ name as a problem because he was not following “us.”  After all, Jesus himself had earlier spoken of the few who were on the narrow path that led to eternal life while the many were heading to destruction.  That is not what Jesus understood was happening.  Where the followers saw this as a situation of division (1 Corinthians 1:10), God in the flesh saw one who was perhaps not yet His follower (2 Peter 3:9).

II.  Acts 19:1-7.  When we see people in other lifeboats or in areas where several local bodies of the Lord’s church meet, those who have gone from our lifeboat to another, we pray that their vessel is sound enough to save them.  But what about those treading the icy water or are just clinging to debris?  When Paul encountered “disciples” who hadn’t heard of the Holy Spirit and knew only John’s baptism, he sought to fill his lifeboat by preaching the gospel.  While maintaining the distinction between “us” and “him,” Jesus told his followers not to stop the man doing good works in His name “for the one who is not against us is for us.”

III.  Acts 18:24-26.  As a Jew, Apollos was not part of the new covenant in Christ, although God had given him many skills and he taught about Jesus as accurately as he knew.  He would be one today that many in their partially-filled lifeboat would uncaringly watch float by while he clung well to a piece of the wreckage.  Not Priscilla and Aquila.  They “took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.”  While we dismiss many Apollos-es as not doing the will of the Father, Jesus reminds us that judgment and the giving of rewards is His job (Matthew 7:21-23) while ours is to fill the lifeboat (Matthew 20:18-20).

The way of salvation is indeed narrow and few find it, but it is not up to us to designate who those few are.  Rather, understanding that those who are not against us are for us, are you filling your lifeboat?

 

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Teach Us What We Are To Do

As we brought our first child home from the hospital, we wished newborns came with instruction manuals.  To live our lives, we have one–it is written by God and is full of His perfect teaching!

I.  Judges 13:1-12.  When the angel explained the rules to govern Samson’s life as a Nazirite, his father was wise enough to ask God in prayer to teach them what they were to do.  Before the age of synagogues, what would a man of the fields know about the Lord’s instruction except that many years before, a covenant with God had been made on Mt. Sinai that God’s people had agreed to obey (Exodus 19:5-8)?  Yet, this father-to-be, faced with a great challenge, knew not to trust in his own understanding.

II. John 16:12-13.  Since Eden, we have understood the world through learning (Genesis 3:22), and so the first covenant God made with His people came by instruction (Exodus 24:12), and promises that God would teach us for a second covenant were made (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  God’s Son came as a master teacher (Mark 10:1) and just before the cross promised that God’s Spirit would lead his followers into all truth.  Indeed, the Thessalonians were told that they were taught by God to love one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9).

III.  Proverbs 3:5-7.  The big question is–will we submit to God’s teaching or lean on our own understanding?  Like the man who assembles something from a box without consulting the instructions, if we do this with our lives, we’ll end up with a pocketful of extra parts and a product that doesn’t work well or at all.  Instead, we need to delight in God’s teaching (Psalm 1:2) and not be a fool who despises it (Proverbs 1:2-7).  We must say with the Psalmist, “Teach me” (Psalm 25:4-10).

We are surrounded by sources of teaching that would have us living our lives in many different ways, some that even sound wise, but the only instruction for life and godliness comes from God.

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Teaching Them

The Christian Walk has been described as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food.  This illustrates wonderfully how one of our primary missions on this earth is to instruct others in the way of salvation.

I. Matthew 28:18-20.  Animals know how to live by instinct, but human beings need to be taught (Genesis 3:5-22).  God has given us the Bible to instruct us in the way of salvation (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and displayed His power in creation to know that He is God (Romans 1:18-22).  So, it is no wonder that Jesus seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10) today by equipping us to make disciples through teaching others the gospel.

II. Ephesians 4:11-16.  But, the teaching does not stop there.  After making disciples, we are to teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands.  To do that, Jesus established His church (Matthew 16:18) as a center of learning, where the lost can hear the gospel, yes, but where the church, speaking the truth in love, can build itself up in love.  Our teaching should not be confined within the walls of buildings, however, but the church, attaining unity and maturity in Jesus, should go forth and teach.

III. John 13:13-34.  We glimpse Jesus’ great love that motivated Him to live a number of years in the flesh to instruct us in the way of salvation before going to the cross for us in love.  In Matthew 23:37, He laments that Jerusalem persisted in sin while so many prophets had come to teach the city and the nation throughout the centuries.  That same love is our motivation as we take up Jesus’ mission to teach others by word and by deed, by our very lives, the way back to God.

By learning do we now understand our world, and so God, in His infinite wisdom, taught us who He is and how to return to Him.  Then, having come to know Him, we are, in turn, told to teach others.

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Let my teaching be incisive

  1. Help me, Father, to put people face to face with your Word.
  2. Make me a faithful proclaimer of the Good News.
  3. May I be an example, not a stumbling block, to others.
  4. Show through my life the blessed state of life in Christ.
  5. Keep me from speaking in generalities.
  6. Let my teaching be incisive, addressing directly people’s needs.
  7. Put people in my path to be reached by your grace.
  8. Prevent me from getting in the way of the working of your power.
  9. Give me a humble attitude, while showing certainty of my faith.
  10. Thank you for making me a part of your plan to save others.
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Give Me a Soul to Teach

Give me today, O Lord, a soul to teach,
A lost and wayward soul to lead to the light,
A helpless soul with eternal need to reach,
A soul to love, with the strength of Jesus’ might.

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Giving up on prayer?

John Gipson writes, “Isn’t Jesus to be trusted? If we cannot rely on His words, when it comes to prayer, can we trust Him in anything else?”

Read his article here.

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Let me listen

Lord, let me listen with all my faculties to your word, that I might practice it fully.

Let me also listen with focused attention to those around me.

By listening to both, help me to bring those I hear to listen to you. Amen.