Jesus’
invitation of, “Come to me all you who
labor and are heavy laden,”[1] is
surrounded by his rebuke to the cities of Israel that rejected his message,[2]
and his later conclusion that the people he had come to were under God’s
judgment because they, “did not know the
time of your visitation.”[3]
This is an apt parallel to what Hebrews describes as, “but the message they heard did not benefit them.”[4]
Throughout Jesus’
ministry, there is a very sad characteristic of people missing out on what he
was doing. Whether it was the religious leaders who rejected God’s gift because
they did not want to lose their “place”
in the cultural establishment of the nation,[5] or
the general populace that would not believe in him even though, “he had done so many signs before them,”[6]there
were many of whom it is true that “the
message they heard did not benefit them.”
The church is
given the parable of the four soils,[7]to
help us accept this reality, that Jesus still comes to the world he made and
the world does not know him.[8] He
comes to those who are “his own,” and
“his own people” still do not receive
him.[9] In
both the world, and in Israel, people have hard hearts that cannot receive the
words he proclaims through his church. People have rocky hearts that get
excited about what they hear, but never experience the gospel taking root in
their souls. Others hear the words of the gospel, but their lives are so choked
by the weeds of worry and worldliness that they cannot experience the
transforming power of the gospel.
The point is
that we will always face this characteristic of the growing kingdom of heaven,
that the message does not benefit everyone who hears it. Which brings us to the
question of, what is God’s will when the message given to us through the
Scriptures exposes the differences in the ways people respond to God’s word?
The phrase
that stood out to me this morning was this, “they
were not united by faith with those who listened.”[10]This
is the reason that the message the people heard did not benefit them. It is the
reason that ten spies turned a nation of people away from faith in God. Joshua
and Caleb listened to God, but the million-or-so others would not unite by
faith with them. The same message heard by all did not benefit the majority.
When we take
this negative assessment of Scripture and turn it into a positive application
to God’s children, we have to conclude that our Father in heaven wants us to “unite by faith with those who listen.” If
God declares that the people did not benefit from the good news of his covenant
promises to Abraham because they did not unite by faith with those who
listened, then we take this negative warning as a positive exhortation. They
did not benefit from the good news they heard because they would not unite by
faith with the ones who did listen, so let us be those who benefit from the
whole counsel of God because we do unite by faith with those who listen.
I wonder what
the church would look like if people united by faith with those who were
listening to God, rather than uniting in the flesh with those who share
comfortable associations. Sadly, I have seen many promising opportunities for “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace,”[11]
that were sabotaged by other kinds of unity, and other forms of bonds.
I have seen
the kingdom lose many who would pursue “the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” because they will not let go of
their family ties. Jesus confronted this when he gave orders to get into the
boat, and a man came and said, “Lord, let
me first go and bury my father.” Jesus’ reply of, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead,” was another
way of telling us never to let an earthly relationship prevent us from uniting
with those who listen. [12]
We also lose
people from Spirit-led unity because they cannot imagine God doing anything
that would create conflict with their denominational organization. They will
unite with churches of the same denominational allegiance from other
communities, while neglecting the one-body-of-Christ experience waiting for all
the believers in their community. While I would never expect to see anything in
a city unite all those who identify themselves as church-going people, I still
look for ways that God unites those who are listening to him even when it means
accepting disconnect from a particular religious grouping. I have seen brief
glimpses of wonderful fellowship that superseded whatever denominational
limitations were in place at the time. I would love to see such things again.
The same holds
true for those who are tied to a specific expression of what is affectionately
(and wrongly) called, “the local church”. They do not benefit from the message
of God’s word to the one body of Christ in a community (the true local church
according to all the letters given to us in the New Testament) because they
have already told God that they will only think of the local church as what has
been boxed into a particular building, confined by the rules of the Society’s
Act, and determined by the limited group of people referred to as “the membership.”
When we tell God we will unite with those who listen, we must then watch for
such people outside the confines of any group we are part of.
This morning,
before I could finish my blog post, I was confronted with some chest pain that
felt weird enough to go up to emergency for diagnosis. While the conclusion was
that it was “a-typical” chest pain, not involving the heart (likely acid
reflux), it gave me an extended period of quiet to continue reading my Bible
(ESV on my cell phone).
In the course
of reading more of the context of Matthew 11’s record of Jesus calling us to
himself for rest, I noticed these other scriptures that spoke to the theme of
today’s post. At the end of chapter 12, Jesus was busy with a group of people
when his mother and brothers insisted that he come out to see them. He turned
to his disciples and said, “Here are my
mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my
brother and sister and mother.”[13] Jesus’
view of family was quite different than even his family expected.
At the end of
Matthew 13, Jesus was preaching in his hometown, among people who knew him. However,
because they thought they already knew everything about him there was to know,
they took offense at his claims that defied his position in life. Jesus’
responded to their offense by testifying, “A prophet is not without honor
except in his hometown and in his own household.”[14]
This speaks to the fact that people who think they know everything there is to
know about Jesus are sometimes unable to accept that he is different from their
opinions about him.
I also found
it interesting the way Jesus rebuked his good friend Peter when Peter tried to
protect Jesus from going to Calvary. When Peter said to Jesus, “Far be it from
you, Lord! This shall never happen to you,” Jesus responded by saying to Peter,
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your
mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”[15]
It simply reminded me that Jesus would not let any relationship restrict him in
his assessment of either God’s will, or Satan’s work.
The point is
that, when Hebrews speaks of “those who
listened,” it is in reference to those who hear the words of God and do
them. When Jesus said, “He who has ears
to hear, let him hear,”[16]
and wrote to the seven churches, “He who
has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,”[17]he
was looking for “those who listened.”
Those who heard what the Spirit was
saying to the churches were those who would do what Jesus instructed in his
letters.
I’m not saying
that uniting with those who listen always means losing local church,
denominational, or family relationships. I just know that Jesus said “Whoever loves father or mother more than me
is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”[18]If
we are willing to unite by faith with those who listen, he will bless us with
whoever that involves, as long as we are willing to accept whoever that does not
involve.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
PS: Another example of this uniting with those who listen is
the way Achan and his family lost their place amongst the people who went into
the Promised Land because of their shared idolatry and rebellion (they didn’t
listen to God), while Rahab, who was destined for judgment in the city of
Jericho, became a true Israelite by faith, joining with those who listened and
entered the land.[19]
[1]
Matthew 11:25-30
[2]
Matthew 11:20-24
[3]
Luke 19:41-44
[4]
Hebrews 4:2
[5]
John 11:48
[6]
John 12:37
[7]
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
[8]
John 1:10
[9]
John 1:11 (referring to the nation of Israel that had received all the promises
and the covenants with Abraham and Moses and would not receive the promised
Messiah, the promised offspring of Abraham)
[10]
Hebrews 4:2
[11]
Ephesians 4:3
[12]
Matthew 8:18-22
[13]
Matthew 12:49-50
[14]
Matthew 13:57
[15]
Matthew 16:22-23
[16]
Matthew 11:15 (and others)
[17]
Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22
[18]
Matthew 10:37-38
[19]
Joshua 2-7; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25
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