Sunday, July 22, 2018

Our Great Expectations!

Every Sunday we meet together to worship God, and part of that worship contains a ceremony designed to connect us emotionally and symbolically to what makes having a genuine relationship with God possible – we call it The Lord’s Supper. Instituted by Christ on the night He was arrested (Matthew 26:26-28), during the Feast of Passover, Jesus took time to make a connection for them about something that had been planned since the beginning of time. He said to them, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me… this cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24-25).

But just like the Jews of Jesus’ day didn’t instantly make the connection between what Jesus was doing and what they believed the Messiah would do, we too must try to understand how God wants us to ‘remember him’ as He was, not as how we want Him to be.

In the 5th century, there was an Egyptian desert-monk named Nilus of Sinai who was known for his wisdom and insight. He said, “Do not be always wanting everything to turn out as you think it should, but rather as God pleases, then you will be undisturbed and thankful in your prayer.”

Ultimately, it takes spending some time with God in prayer and in study to really get a clearer picture of His will and how He tends to work with us. The people of Jesus' day had to come to grips with the fact that the Messiah wasn’t coming as a royal king to overthrow the Romans, that salvation would be made possible to people other than Jews – even Samaritans, and that the gifts of the Spirit weren’t given to divide and give cause for arrogance but given for edification and blessings to the church as a whole.

Our challenge as followers of Christ is to be careful about how we approach those that haven’t understood who God is and what His will really is. In our effort to defend the truth of the Gospel, we can actually do more harm to the way people respond to it. 1 Peter 3:15-16, “But in your hearts revere
Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

There are disturbing beliefs and practices becoming increasingly mainstream in our culture that we, as Christians, have to know how to approach. Most folks recognize these issues as difficult to address, especially when they end up in the church. Things like: homosexuality, transgender, and even more common issues like sacrificial acts of obedience or issues of forgiveness. There have been a lot of twisted justifications and bad instructions given to many that negatively influence people’s perception of the Gospel.

One thing we don’t want to be guilty of is failing to address issues out of fear or failing to demonstrate godliness whenever we do address them. The Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20 is God’s primary way of helping a lost and wicked world understand what He is willing to do to redeem mankind. Sin is a serious problem, and all of us have fallen victim to it (Romans 3:23). Therefore, our aim should be to search out ways to draw people to Christ, and to model total surrender to his will so “that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

This week, several of us are going on a hike to Colorado, and we’ll be studying Titus while we’re up there. Titus was called to address a challenging group of people – the Cretans. Time after time Paul reminds him that “doing good” will be a powerful tool in influencing unbelievers and people that twist scripture to their own will. (Titus 1:8; 2:3, 7, 14; 3:1, 8, 14).

Let’s follow the same model Titus did – Jesus Christ.

No comments:

Post a Comment