A treasure house within
It’s not easy following Jesus, yet we have been given all we need to do so
Time was when I was a half decent singer. Fifty years ago, I sang tenor and was fortunate to be part of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta Choir. This was a valuable source of relaxation for me because, as Curate of an Anglican Church in Poole, ministry life was pretty hectic!
On getting through a pretty rigorous audition I attended the first rehearsal of the new season, but was in for a terrible shock! I was in high spirits as I entered the rehearsal room and selected the first piece indicated by the chorus master. I’d never seen or heard the piece before. The chorus master got our attention … and we were away! At any rate, they were away: cantering along at a rate of knots while I was still at the starting gate! It was the same with each piece we did. I was left burbling like an idiot while the rest of them went for it with such gusto that I was convinced they had sung the pieces a dozen times before. They had not.
For them, as for me, it was fresh material. At the end of the rehearsal I slunk up to the chorus master and mumbled my apologies. “I simply cannot sight-read with this level of expertise, and so I think I should withdraw before I become an embarrassment!” He replied, “Well, do you think these choir members could sight-read with that level of brilliance when theyattended their first rehearsal? Give it two months and you’ll be up with the best of them.” As it turned out he was right. I’m so glad I stuck with it!
Wake-up call
In a Church Prayer Meeting I attended this week, my Bournemouth experience came back to me. The folks were moaning about the fact that discipleship programmes, evangelistic programmes and home groups never seem to last. I don’t know what the problem is”, said a member of the group, “but Christians in this village never stick at anything! We start something, it continues for a while, numbers start to dwindle and then we pack up and wait for the next thing to grab attention.”
The problem has nothing to do with the village, it is with us, the so-called disciples of Jesus! Many of us are bedevilled by procrastination and dilatoriness. We do not take our faith seriously. More to the point, we do not take our Saviour seriously and when He challenges us to change our ways and He makes demands of us, we run a mile.
No easy road
I’ve been doing a series of expositions on the Fourth Gospel. We’ve reached chapter six and have been immensely challenged to read about the response to our Lord’s provocative statements regarding the necessity of feeding on His flesh and blood. By any standard it is one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament and when Jesus voiced these truths it caused gross offence to the Jewish authorities and to many of those calling themselves “disciples” (John 6:60-69). There were many who followed Jesus as “disciples” on the strength of His miracle working and refreshingly forthright teaching of the Scriptures. They admired Him and wanted to be in His company. But His teaching suddenly took on a dimension that shook them rigid and they knew it was bound to cause huge upset among the Jewish authorities. If they continued to follow Jesus it could cost them dear. Best cut their losses and shuffle away. John says, “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.”(vs. 66)
These were not the Twelve but members of that much larger number that flocked to hear Jesus and see His miracles. However, subsequent verses indicate that even the Twelve had considered leaving the Lord! Jesus asked them straight out,“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter’s reply is sadly transparent! “Lord, to whom shall we go?” It was clearly a spontaneous response. They had considered their options! If they knew another Master to follow, they might well have gone with him! But then reality dawned and Peter continued,“You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God!”
This is revelation from heaven! Its parallel is Matthew 16:16, set in the environs of pagan Caesarea Philippi. Flesh and blood had not revealed the truth to Peter on that remarkable occasion: Jesus said it was pure revelation about Him provided directly by the Spirit from the throne of His Father. Here again, at Capernaum, when faced with extraordinary and tough statements by the Lord, Peter finds the Holy Spirit breaking in and speaking out of his very own voice box and once more declaring the uniqueness of Messiah Jesus.
Only Jesus has the words of eternal life! Only Jesus is the Messiah (the anointed King of kings and Great High Priest)! Only Jesus is the unique Son of the Living God!
Lesson from a martyr
There are those who say, “I find it hard to accept parts of the Bible I do not understand!” To be quite frank, I find it much harder to accept those parts of the Bible I do understand!” Having to live in the good of what I read and understand is pretty daunting because I am left with no excuse!
But I have discovered a wonderful truth. When confronted by tough biblical statements and with the temptation to run a mile, I can look to the Lord to provide revelation of the glory of Jesus to transform the situation.
My Heavenly Father often encourages me by reminding me of the death of Stephen. In Acts 7 Luke provides a detailed account of Stephen’s trial in front of the Sanhedrin. Stephen had been seized on the false witness of liars who said they had heard him speaking against both the Temple and the Law of Moses. This tissue of lies was sufficient to have Stephen arrested and he was brought in before the High Priest and his godless cronies in order to give his defence.
Stephen’s defence is nothing if not direct and to the point! The pace hots up with the preaching and under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Stephen’s voice rings out more and more clearly:
“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: you always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered Him! You who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.” (Acts 7:51).
Stephen was in a tight spot. With every word he uttered, the noose tightened around his throat. As he looked into the faces before him, venomous spite writ large on most. He must have known his fate was sealed. How could he go on protesting His utter trust in Jesus and his hope for the future? To know he had burned his boats and lost all hope of deliverance must surely result in him collapsing in front of the High Priest and begging for mercy. Far from it. At this moment heaven grabs his attention. The Holy Spirit pours revelation into him and it forces the darkness to recede and the glory of Jesus to triumph!
“But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” (Acts 7:55).
Treasure house of Scripture
Well this is all very inspirational, but how does it relate to difficult words of Jesus that make me recoil and want to run from Him? Surely it suggests at the very least that there is a divine strategy for me to adopt. When my defences are ripped apart and I am left exposed in the presence of those who hate Jesus, I am able to look to Him! Does that sound like a religious platitude? I truly hope not.
Through the years the Holy Spirit has brought into my memory a treasure house of Scripture. According to Jesus it’s what He does, see John 14:26, “… the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
This is truly wonderful. If I have been faithful to store Scripture in my memory, the Holy Spirit brings it forward into my conscious mind when required to do so and I am able to speak it out with tremendous authority and draw glorious comfort in doing so! In Luke 12:11, we find Jesus saying, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Notice that it is the Holy Spirit who is taking the initiative, but He is enabling us to utter the words that have come from Jesus as He has ministered His word to us. Let’s be clear: as I expose myself to the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit files it away deep in my memory. When the situation requires it, He brings it back into my conscious memory and I can confess it openly in the face of any odds, however great, and it will lift my vision heavenwards to reveal the glories of Jesus, my precious Saviour and Lord.
Small wonder that the writer of Hebrews (12:2) insists that in running the faith race and being tested to the limit, my focus must ever and always be upon Jesus – the pioneer and the perfecter of my faith! That’s where it needs to be. That’s where (please God) it will ever be.