No Eyes To See Nor Ears To Hear

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

January 7, 2018

No Eyes To See Nor Ears To Hear

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Today we begin the Book of the Prophet Habakkuk, a prophet who lived around 625 B.C. Habakkuk is considered one of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament, that is not because the book is unimportant, but because of the length of the book. It is a powerful teaching about the faithfulness of God and how when we live before a faithful God, our faith can withstand any disaster that may strike us. This book is a great opportunity for us to learn and grow in the Word of God at the beginning of a new year.

Habakkuk is living in an unfaithful country (Judah), and the northern part of Israel had been taken into captivity years before, now, Habakkuk sees the same pain and captivity coming to Judah. Habakkuk is crying out to God, he is frustrated by what he sees in his country, nothing is as it should be; God is not being worshipped, and he says, God is not hearing, God is not seeing and finally God is not caring. It seems to Habakkuk that God has left the building, closed the doors and won’t be returning.

Habakkuk is not so different from us, even though we are removed from where he is by over twenty-six hundred years. The world is self-destructing around us; Christianity is under assault in most of the world. More Christians have been martyred in the past hundred years than in all of Christianity. Unimaginable things in marriage and sexuality have now become commonplace and accepted, even our churches have become places that have given in to the demands of this new society, a society beyond post-modernism, a society that has turned their unbelief into doing whatever “works for you”. What do we see as we look out onto this bleak landscape? Do we sometimes think that maybe God has left the building? Left us on our own?

Our answer to this question should be rooted in what Christ has done for us, our answers are focused clearly upon the Cross, two thousand years ago, where a terrible thing was done, the Lamb of God was put to death on a Roman Cross.

In all the evil that was done that day, God used it for our good and His glory. He planned the Cross, He made a way for the filthy to become clean, for the dead to become alive and the rebel to become righteous. So, here we are listening to Habakkuk, are we hearing hope, or despair? Are we hearing life or death? It depends on who your King is.

The Good News Of The Son Of God

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

November 19, 2017

The Good News of The Son Of God

Mark 16:1-8

Our final message in Mark this morning doesn’t have any of the despair that was found in all the disciples and people who left Jesus during his crucifixion. This message in Mark’s short ending stands as our bedrock hope in life eternal. Jesus has risen! He is Alive! There is no doubt about this great news, Jesus who was crucified, dead and buried has been raised from the dead. An Angel speaks to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, he tells them the wonderful news, the tomb is empty.

Nothing in the history of the world carries more hope and love than this message of resurrection. Death has always been the ultimate scare, the one thing that we all must go through by ourselves, but here Jesus has gone before us, He has taken all the pain and suffered all the mistreatment, and has gone to the cross for us, He has defeated death, there is no more fear for those of us who call Christ King!

We have all been given this great gift because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have died with Christ and now we are also raised with Him. Since we are together with Christ then we must seek the same things that Christ seeks, keeping our minds upon things that are above and not on things here on this earth.

“Keep your mind on things that are above, not on those things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2)

Because of Christ our fear of death has been swallowed up in victory.

“O death, where is your victory; O death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and what gives sin it’s power is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

Our faith in Christ is forever linked to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because of Jesus our sins have been forgiven and we live in the light of that freedom. The Apostle Paul talks about this:

(1 Corinthians 15:17)

“ And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” The church in Paul’s day had denied the resurrection and the same denial is happening today. The Angel tells the women that Jesus has risen, He is alive, what wonderful news for those women and what wonderful news for us this morning!

The message of Mark’s gospel started out with Good News, (Mark 1:1) and now we finish Mark’s gospel with great news, HE IS RISEN, THE SON OF GOD IS ALIVE! Believe and repent of your sins and eternal life is yours.

Don’t Look Away From the Son of God Part 4

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

November 12, 2017

Don’t Look Away From the Son Of God Part 4

Mark 15:42-27

This is the final part of the series “Don’t look away from the Son of God”, we are ending chapter15 and are seeing the lifeless bloody body of our Lord being taken down from the cross and placed into a newly built tomb. All of the messages in our series have asked us not to look away from what has been happening in the gospel of Mark, every message has been filled with the unbelievable love of Jesus Christ from the initial arrest in the garden to the interrogation of the High Priests; from Pilate’s questions, to the soldier’s whips, from the actions of Simon of Cyrene to the final nails into flesh, love has flowed above and beyond the torrent of blood that ran from our Lord’s side. Love has been the constant current that has never wavered or lessened. Love is what has held our eyes transfixed upon that glorious message that has told us, not to look away but to absorb this amazing gift of life, the wonderful undeserved redemption from eternal blackness and despair. Now our Lord is laid in a tomb that has been carved out from the rock that surrounds Jerusalem, the Lord of lords is laid in a borrowed tomb, just as when he came into this world there was no room for him, and a space was donated. Don’t look away from this fact today, that Jesus had nothing of his own, even his clothes were ripped from him and gambled away.

My prayer as we end this series of messages is that we all see the life, death and burial of Jesus Christ in a way that we have never seen before. Every one of these messages has been a place where we have seen the sacrifice of Jesus anew, like we have never seen it before, that’s the reason for the title, “Don’t look away”. The burial of our Lord today in the text doesn’t signal the end for us, it is only the beginning. Don’t look away from this burial today, don’t look away from the surprise of Pilate as he is told that Jesus is dead. Don’t look away from Joseph of Arimathea or the women who saw where Jesus was laid. Don’t look away from this great truth this morning: truth and hope is not dead, but lives forever! Friday is just about over, but Sunday is coming, Sunday is coming for the disciples, and also for us our hope has not been extinguished by the grave, as a matter of fact we have been given victory over the grave because of Christ!

Don’t Look Away From the Son Of God Part 3

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

November 5, 2017

Don’t Look Away From the Son of God Part 3

Mark 15:33-41

This is the unbelievable act of salvation in the Lord Jesus, here is the moment where He takes the entire sin of the world upon himself. Everything is now poured out upon Jesus, every wicked thought, every wicked deed put upon Jesus Christ, and we are in front row seats this morning to observe this act of love that we don’t have any words for. Don’t look away this morning don’t look away from this divine gift that has been given to us.

Don’t look away from the way that God brings everything to pass, Don’t look away from the way that God has planned this salvation from the beginning of the world.

Don’t look away from God today, look towards Him as you hear these Words of Scripture. See the mocking, and hear Jesus cry out to God, asking why He has been forsaken. The sin of the world has been placed upon the Son, the judgement of the world has been put upon Jesus, and the ridicule of the world has landed on the Lord.

Don’t look away today from the freedom that Jesus’ pain and suffering gives to us when our hearts are changed.

Don’t look away today from the Words of the Old Testament that prophecy about Jesus on the cross. Today these words resonate loudly with us as they give us the ultimate picture of love. Listen to the words of God, speaking to us today from the Psalms:

Hide not your face from me.

Turn not your servant away in anger,

O you who have been my help.

Cast me not off; forsake me not,

O God of my salvation! (Ps. 27:9)

The earth trembles as Jesus breathes His last breath, the curtain of the Temple is torn in two from top to bottom, now the separation between us and God has been removed because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Now the darkness spreads throughout Israel, darkness has always meant separation from God and now the people of Israel experience this up close and personal. At 3 in the afternoon the priests in the Temple begin to slaughter the lambs that have been made ready for sacrifice, to atone for the sins of the nation on Passover, but the better spotless lamb has already sacrificed His life on a hill outside Jerusalem, crucified between two thieves! Jesus the Lamb of God has given his life for you, don’t look away from that fact this morning, keep staring at this wonderful gift of love and mercy!

Don’t Look Away From the Son of God Part 2

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

October 29, 2017

Don’t Look Away From the Son of God Part 2

Mark 15:21-32

We are in the middle of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in our messages in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus’ “passion” is the Bible’s story of how he was arrested, tried and then crucified, this is the “Passion of the Christ”. Last week we started this series in Mark only because we need to be focused upon what Jesus is doing and why He is doing this. When we are aware of the sacrifice of Christ for us, then we are more acutely aware of our own sin. We talked about that last week, how when we are focused upon Jesus our own sin is magnified in our consciousness, we are convicted because of Christ.

I wanted to make clear something this week that I didn’t say last week, and that is that knowing the sacrifice of Christ, really seeing it is central to your sanctification (how Christians go through life after being converted); but it is not the entire makeup of how we walk through life honoring Christ and knowing our sins. Understanding the suffering of Jesus, knowing the pain, being fully aware of the separation that Jesus had from the Father is important to know, but it is not everything to know. We begin our journey of faith from the knowledge of the passion of the Christ, but we continue to walk with Christ as we learn more and more about who Jesus is, and who is Christ in me.

The Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are our schoolwork, that is where we hear the parables of Jesus, that is where we listen to the words of Jesus explaining what the Kingdom of God is like, that is where we continue to see Christ and that is where our sanctification continues to grow.

If you haven’t started on the road to sanctification yet, if the passion of the Christ has not jump started your faith, then today is the day you should start your journey. Allow Jesus to show you the way forward even as He stumbles under the weight of the heavy piece of wood that He will die on. Allow Jesus to introduce you to Simon of Cyrene, the Jew who was radically changed by The Son of God. Allow Jesus to put you on Golgotha (skull hill) as He drags his bloody beaten body to His place of death and His place of Victory!

Don’t look away this morning, keep your focus on The King! Don’t look away today, stay on Jesus and then walk in His light!

Don’t Look Away From the Son of God Part 1

/ Cliff Walling / 1 Comment

October 22, 2017

Don’t Look Away From the Son of God Part 1

Mark 15:16-20

Don’t look away is a strange title for this message but it’s something that must be talked about. We are in the midst of Jesus’ passion (His suffering, death and crucifixion) and we are reading about the details of everything that He went through for us. This is difficult, and painful to hear, especially when we know the details of the scourging (whipping) and the mocking that our Lord went through for us. We are inclined to look away from something that is so painful, we don’t want to look at scenes like these; there is something so terrible, so frightening that we don’t want to look at Jesus during this time, it is the price, the high price paid for our own sins that really disturbs us.

Mark’s gospel gives us a “matter of fact” reading of the passion of Jesus, there are no gory details, there is no visuals like the “Passion” movie by Mel Gibson, there is just a narrative of Jesus going through what had to be horrific to watch. What is more important here is the way that Jesus goes through each stage of suffering, each stage of his suffering becomes more and more intense, and each stage has to deal with a different people group. There are the Jewish leaders who spit and condemn him in a mock trial at night, there is the Roman Governor Pilate, who doesn’t quite understand Jesus, but understands fully how his needs are to survive long enough to get out of this horrible country; and finally, there are the Roman soldiers executing what is for them just another Jew who is to be killed. The Roman soldiers have all been through this before, they are used to death on a daily, often hourly basis, life is cheap here in ancient Palestine and these soldiers won’t look away today, they will see this execution through to its logical end, but in the end, they will know that this was no ordinary Jew, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54c).

We cannot look away from this God-man Jesus Christ. We must see the streams of blood we have to feel the agony and we must see and feel something much more important this morning, we have to see ourselves saved through this amazing sacrificial act which has never been done before for us and never will be done again. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is going to pay the debt of sin this morning, He will be separated from His Father, communication will cease with God for you. For you, For me, For us. Don’t look away this morning, look deeper than you ever have before, see the awesome grace of God given to you because of nothing you have done, unmerited grace because of an undying love for you, for me, for us.

The World vs the Son of God

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

October 8, 2017

The World vs. The Son of God

Mark 15:1-5

In our text last week, we saw Peter denying Jesus at the same time that Jesus was being beaten by the Jewish leaders. Peter was denying the Lord after getting questioned by a “servant girl”. Jesus was being mocked and beaten by Jewish Men who led the illegal trial of Jesus in the dark of the night. In today’s reading, Jesus has been brought to the Roman rulers by the Jewish leaders who previously were spitting and beating him. When we look at the three weeks where we have been in Chapter fourteen and today Chapter fifteen; we see something incredible! We see the leaders of God’s chosen people (the Jews) refusing to acknowledge Jesus as God’s Son, we see next common people (servant girl) refusing to acknowledge Jesus and seek to have Peter arrested, and finally today we see the Conquerors of Israel (the Romans) unable to see Jesus as God. The Roman, Pilate, actually says he is amazed at Jesus’ answer to him.

So, the entire world, the Jews, the Jewish poor (Peter and the rest of the disciples) slaves and servants, and the Romans (world conquerors) all reject Jesus. The Lord Jesus is rejected by all different types of people in the entire world. The Psalmist speaks of this-Psalm 2:2-3

“ The kings of the earth set themselves,

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,

“Let us burst their bonds apart

and cast away their cords from us.”

The world is against Jesus in the first century A.D.; the world is against Jesus in 2017. Nothing has changed, there are people who say they are in Christ today but reject God’s Word, billions of poor people around the world cry out for righteousness but reject the Lord of righteousness, the powerful of the world reject Jesus but love their money and power. This week evil came through a Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. The world is stunned by the terrible deaths of so many people, the world seems surprised about this evil, but we know that this world has been, and will be, against God until our Lord Jesus comes again. We await that day, and we say Maranatha Lord Jesus! Come quickly!

“Bad Motives, Good Motives, Glory Theft and an Eclipse of the Sun”

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

Image.pngBlog Post 8/21/17
Mark 14:1-11
“Bad Motives, Good Motives, Glory theft and an Eclipse of the Sun”

Today , I looked at the Sun, or at least part of it. I made the same viewer I had made some forty years ago from an old shoe box and saw the Moon gradually obscure the Sun up to about eighty percent, as much as we could here in New Jersey. about twenty-five hundred years ago a Solar Eclipse was recorded on Cuneiform tablets in ancient Babylon what did **they** think was doing this to the Sun? We know that a myth was made up that a hungry animal was devouring the Sun, and so ultimately this animal was made into a god. It seems that when we cannot come up with a explanation for something strange, then it becomes something supernatural, and that takes care of the explanation. From the Christian Worldview there is always a different explanation, a logical cause and effect that takes place and a God that rules over any natural phenomena.

Natural phenomena have no reasons or motives for doing what they do, all of it’s actions and reactions are controlled ultimately by God. Our motives control how we think, how we interact with others and how we see ourselves in the light of Jesus Christ. The motives that impacted ancient civilizations into thinking a hungry animal was eating the Sun, were the same motives that caused them to think that a god they created with their imagination and their hands is the same one that controlled giant celestial bodies millions of miles away from Earth in Space. Our God speaks to the wonder of His creation, and He speaks to the foolishness of a world that clings to their idols that do not speak or hear or feel: Psalm 115:2-7 ESV

“Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.”

The motives of modern man and the motives of man from thousands of years ago are still the same today; the both have the motive to live in a world without God, without a Creator. In Verse Eight from Psalm 115, we can learn what happens to these motivated people who worship gods with no hands and feet,

“Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them”

So the motives that caused ancient societies to put one of their man-made gods at the center of any natural phenomena were brought about mainly by fear.
The familiar sounds of wonder and awe are mixed with dread and fear, how can this be? How can the Sun be eaten away? Fear and dread that their lives can be so interrupted would drive men to create gods that give these events some meaning; because if there is no meaning to it, no purpose in it, then it becomes more frightening to them. Purpose and meaning without God leaves us with no purpose or meaning at all.

Today modern man thinks that he is far above ancient man, he believes he knows his purpose and tries to inject his meaning into life, everything is wrapped up in personal truth, ultimate truth is not found anywhere in secular man. The idols of self worship and pleasure propel postmodern man, they look at ancient man and point to her far they have come through innovation and science. But, modern man fixates on the same idols, the same discussions that ancient man had, only now there is the god of science that controls every natural event. Science is the god that has a mouth but cannot speak, science is the god that has ears but cannot hear, and science is the god that has been made with man’s hands to support anything that can’t be explained. God is the God of all creation, and He is the God of Science and the unexplainable. Science has it’s place in the world that God created, but it is subservient to God always looking towards the Creator in everything it does, giving glory to the one true God. God, who set the world in motion most certainly knows about a Solar Eclipse. It came as no surprise to God one day when the Moon blocked the Sun’s rays, it was all Divinely prepared and set in order eons before Science described it. God uses Science to show His glory. The motive of God in all Creation is to receive glory from His creation, the Solar Eclipse is no exception.

Glory is what God deserves, it is what He is due, glory from the creation, and glory from the created, us. The glory of the Solar Eclipse is something that must be ascribed to God, but sadly during this time of intense participation in this event, there has been little glory given to the one who set this beautiful natural phenomena in motion. The glory of the Sun being exposed for all to see belongs to God and to no on else.

In our messages from Mark’s gospel we heard about a “glory thief” this Lord’s Day, we heard about the priests and the scribes seeking glory for themselves and wanting to kill Jesus. Judas in Mark 14 is finally introduced as part of Mark’s literary sandwich, with the priests and scribes at the start of Chapter 14, and Judas in verse 11. In between we have the beautiful account of the woman anointing Jesus. Judas is intent on stealing Jesus’ glory, and like Satan, his desires and his motives are to have what he cannot have, to be what he cannot be. The motives of the priests and scribes are concealed in their false love for God and for the people of God. The motives of the woman are clear and distinct, there is no mistaking them, she understands who God is. This woman gives everything she had, like the widow in Chapter 12, to God. This woman gives to Jesus all the glory she can give, she gives him the glory he is due in this anointing of his body before burial.
The two accounts that make part of this “sandwich” in Mark 14 (1-2; 10-11) are part of the glory thieves, they all plan on stealing glory from the Son of God, but Jesus will not allow his glory to be given to another (Is. 42:8). He is quite aware of the looming cross and His death upon it. All the glory that has been stolen will be returned to the Son, His sacrifice will shut the mouths of the glory thieves, all the unjust motives will be exposed in the light of this amazing love (Rev. 21:23-27). The Son will not be eclipsed as the creation was, no, the Son’s light will continue to burn brighter and brighter as more and more motives are made right and more and more glory is returned to it’s rightful owner.

It’s Not About How Wealthy You Are…

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

Christianholdingears

 

05/08/2017

It’s not all about how wealthy the young ruler was…

In Mark 10:17-31, we come across a man who has everything he wants. This young man as we are told in other gospel accounts, (Matt. 19; Luke 18) is running up to Jesus, kneeling down in front of him and asking the most important question; “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (v.18). Now on the face of this we can say that this man had everything that he wanted, but what he needed was an answer to the question that had been burning inside of him, the question that everyone on this planet wants to know, how do I get eternal life?

Christians in our culture today must know the answer to this question, there shouldn’t be an equivocation when they are asked this question, the answer of course is Jesus Christ, but our culture demands not a singular response, but a response where all answers to this question are considered valid. If the Christian answers the question in a single truthful response with Christ alone, then the Christian is considered arrogant and hateful. The Rich Young Ruler that we see in Mark is a mirror of our society today. This young man has everything that the world says he should have, but he is still searching for an answer to his deepest desire. Nothing is more important to him that fleshing out this question about eternal life, he runs to Jesus and kneels before him, showing due respect and honor. Jesus is the only one to whom this man can go to for eternal life. Jesus has the answer and this man knows it. John Bunyan places this quest for eternal life squarely in the hands of Christian in Pilgrims Progress; Christian runs away from the unbelieving world shouting “Eternal Life! Eternal Life!”, he plugs his ears not hearing the call of the world for him to come back, but nothing could cause Christian to look back on all the worldly goods he was leaving, his desire for eternal life had become the desire of his soul. The Rich Young Ruler’s desire was also for eternal life but something blocked his attaining it.

The stumbling block for most of us is the things of this world, we look at these things and have no idea that they might one day take over our lives and our worship of God. Quietly they persist in the background, only asking for recognition here and there. These things attract our attention, and like moths to a flame, and dogs to squirrels, we succumb and everything is upside down; nothing makes sense anymore and we can’t wait to get back to the things, instead of loving God, we are now loving things. The Rich Young Ruler had things on his mind that day when he ran up to Jesus. The things in his mind were occupying the same space where God was, but yet these things surpassed God, and the things became god. Jesus surprises the young man, as he usually does and as he does with us, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”(v.18) Jesus embraces his deity, and informs everyone that he is the only Good one here. Keeping the Commandments isn’t going to help this young man get his desired outcome, Jesus reasserts that in verse 18. Jesus can see what is blocking this man’s view of God, he knows it is the condition of sin in a corrupted world. Just as Jesus weeps over his beloved friend Lazarus (John 11:35 ), this young man is also loved.

Jesus requires the young man to “…sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”(v.21) This mention of a treasure in heaven doesn’t move the man to relinquish his things, but it acts by placing a tighter hold on those things. It is as if the things know they are going to be replaced and are holding on to their position of worship for the Rich Young Ruler. Nothing seems to shake the cemented position of the man’s things to his worship, he loves things more than he could love God. The things seem to have a great hold on this Rich Young Ruler he sees life without them as not worth living and he is saddened because he cannot have both, God will not allow it, “You cannot serve God and money.” (Luke 16:13c) The point here is not that Jesus is saying that we need to be impoverished, no, but sometimes it’s only when we are in the midst of poverty (physical and spiritual), when we truly rely upon God. Our sufferings and trials in this world help us grow closer to God. When our next meal is uncertain, when we are unaware of where we will be living, then there is recognition of our priorities, and a true understanding of who God is. His love is laser-focused upon this young man and his misplaced worship.

Jesus love and grace comes through loud and clear for the Rich Young Ruler. The man refuses to place his worship in the proper order, and yet Jesus “loved him” this is a great act of love in Mark’s gospel, even in the midst of loving things more than God, Jesus has compassion, Jesus has mercy, Jesus “loved him”. In the middle of our worship of things, Jesus loves us, the Holy Spirit convicts us of this elevation of the world over God. In our sanctification we, unlike the Rich Young Ruler, cannot turn away from Christ, we have been justified, made new through the atoning work of Jesus alone and we are new creations (2 Cor. 5:17) declared to be righteous by God because of Christ alone. Nothing that we have done ever comes within a million miles of changing our hearts. This realization of the Rich Young Ruler causes him severe distress, he sees his chains, and he recognizes his own prison. Like a man who has been sentenced to life in prison, he is acutely aware of his turning down eternity with God.

As a Pastor and Biblical Counselor I see many people who are convicted of their addictions, of their sins and yet fail to give up these things. The addictions started out as something casual with a rationalization that there would be forgiveness. Their tears flood the floor and they speak about leaving the things behind and coming fully to Christ, they swear they will be clean; and yet some go away saddened realizing that their love of things is more than their love of God. But this is not the end for those who think there is no help, those who think the darkness is something that they must get used to. This account from Mark has important considerations for those who are embroiled in addictions, for those whose love of things have eclipsed their love of God, Jesus loves you! In the midst of the pain and in the midst of the suffering, Jesus, the picture of perfect love declares that he loves you. The Cross of Christ is the ultimate picture of love, and that love doesn’t end when you are beset by addiction, or your worship of God is corrupted. If the things of life have left you saddened and you feel helpless, know that the love of Christ awaits you. It’s time to see these things for what they are, worship thieves, and put them in their place before it is too late.

Read this Scripture over again and again and allow God to take you through the account of a desperate young man who needed to divest himself from worldly things so that he could put all of his worship towards the one true God. Let your worship be directed towards the Creator and the Perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ Almighty.

The Truth and Obstacles to hearing it

/ Cliff Walling / Leave a comment

Redeemer Presbyterian Church South River NJ

The Truth and Obstacles to hearing it.

kierkegaard quote.jpeg

February 11, 2017

So many times we have gone through life hearing things from different people. We have heard things about how to make your ketchup last longer, how to make beef jerky, how to behave when you are pulled over by a policeman. We take all these things as truth without any hesitation, but when we hear God speak in His Word, there is a disconnect, there is a moment of hesitation where we think this can’t be the truth, there has to be another truth. Another truth? Can this be possible? Logic demands that we see the fallacy of this argument; there cannot be two truths, there can only be one truth. The truth of God has been the truth before this world existed, before the universe came into being, before, well, my brain can’t think of a time before there was time. The truth of God is knowing that He has no end, that God is always and forever will be. We readily accept truth from sources that don’t mean very much, but accepting truth from the most important source, we have an issue with that. Today, maybe we can go through the Truth of God in His Word and see how Jesus asked for the truth, and how the disciples responded.

In Mark 8:27-30 we have an interesting moment that occurs also in Matthew 16:13-17 and in Luke 9:18-20; Jesus asks the disciples for the truth, basically asking them, Who does the world say I am? and Who do you say I am? Jesus knows the answer to the questions because truth rests in him, he is the God man there is no deceit, no sin within him. The truth comes through as Peter resoundingly tells Jesus, “You are the Christ.” (v.29). Peter seems to know the mystery that has been “kept secret for long ages” (Rom. 16:25), but does he really see the truth or just a small tiny piece of truth? Peter certainly cannot see the entire spectrum of who Jesus really is, just as Martha doesn’t really believe that Jesus can bring her brother Lazarus back from the dead (John 11:25-27), they both hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest.1 There is a rejection of the truth here from both of these people, but there is also a realization of a partial truth, a truth that brings them to a place where the real truth can be found, but in the end the truth they are speaking never can bring them to the truth of God. The truth these two speak should bring a reminder to how we hear the truth of the gospel today. Are we hearing the entire truth? Can we see Jesus as he really is? Or do we settle for just knowing a part, a small tiny piece of God’s truth, an aspect of the truth that doesn’t resolve any of our nagging desires for a Savior?

The truth must be seen in the wholeness of it, if we see the truth just partially then we can miss the greatness of it. The gospel truth cannot be separated from Jesus Christ, just as the gospel truth cannot be separated from the crucifixion and the resurrection. The gospel truth can not be just repentance and Godly sorrow for our sins, it must be clothed together with all the richness and finery of all the other essential parts. Peter and Martha knew just pieces of the truth, they would certainly see the truth in full bloom when our Lord rose from the dead, and of course as they sat with the other saints in the Upper Room and experienced the Holy Spirit. But here in context with the Scriptures there is an important lesson here for all of us, do we see the truth in gospel completeness? Or are we just seeing pieces of the truth?

The truth experienced in whole is the truth in Christ and three aspects of that are important for us to look at. The first is, the truth of God against the fiction of the world, or the truth spoken to the world. The second is, the truth of who Jesus is, or the truth spoken about Jesus. The third is, the truth of Christ in us, or the truth we speak to ourselves . The third aspect always hits me right between the eyes, that is because we (ourselves) are the biggest talkers to us, we constantly talk to ourselves hopefully not in public. Paul Tripp2 uses this analogy as he relates how we need to preach the gospel to ourselves everyday. This gospel has to be preached to us in the fullness of what it is intended to be, truth, total and without equal. The truth that we speak against the world’s lies must have the entire gospel in it, without it there is no hope for the unrepentant. The truth we speak about who Jesus is has to be said in relation to a sinless God man, dying on a cross, giving his life for many, without this the truth has no bite, the truth is toothless. The truth we speak to ourselves must be focused on who Christ is in me, how he constantly convicts me of sin and how he has promised eternity to all who believe in him.

The truth comes at us in many different forms. Knowing how to discern the truth requires us to be faithful believers, always going back to God’s Word to see the truth. The revelation of truth in the pages of Scripture is our bedrock, our foundation for the hope of a new life, an eternity with God; a moment here on earth.

  1. Simon and Garfunkel The Boxer 1969 ↩
  2. http://www.paultripp.com ↩