May 8 Unlearned and Ignorant

May 8

Unlearned and Ignorant

Ac 4:13 …they were unlearned and ignorant men,

they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them,

that they had been with Jesus.

He was only fifteen but he had a disturbing problem. He was a wonderfully zealous young man in the church youth group my wife and I worked with. One day he asked for our help with his disturbing problem.  

“Where can I go to learn Greek and Hebrew, so I will be ready to serve the Lord when I get out of high school?” 

He had made the same mistake too many Christians still make today. God does not want our talents. He wants us. He does not need either your wonderful skills or your sin cleansed life. The old invitation hymn says it very well, “Just as I am..”

In the passage above Peter and John were going to the temple at the ninth hour when a lame man begged for some alms. This is the passage where Peter responds “silver and gold have I none…”  The lame man was healed and a crowd began to gather to see this life- long lame man walking and leaping and praising God.

The temple authorities were not amused and detained Peter and John until they could gather the temple big wigs in the morning. When they had gathered they brought Peter and John out to find out by who’s authority they had healed the lame man. Peter’s response was wonderfully bold.  “You want to know by what means the man was made whole?  OK, I want everyone to know that he was healed by the Name of Jesus of Nazareth, the man you executed, and whom God raised from the dead.” (acts 4:8-10)  Peter was very direct, did not try to soft peddle anything or make excuses. The Holy Spirit had given him great boldness.

The authorities were shocked that someone without an education could talk like he did. It was another evidence that he had been with Jesus. Peter had boldness before which got him in a lot of trouble, but God now used that same boldness to serve His purposes.

The other day as I was reading about the Apostles I suddenly saw a common verse in a new way.  Christ was walking along the sea of Galilee and called Andrew, Peter, James and John to be his apostles. He simply said

Mt 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me,

and I will make you fishers of men.

Why did Jesus call 11 of his Apostles from Galilee? Compared to Jerusalem 60-70 miles to the south, Galilee was a land of farmers, tradesmen, and generally unlearned and ignorant people. Jerusalem was filled with well educated, scribes (lawyers of the day). teachers, schools, Jewish authorities, and the who’s who of temple big wigs. It would compare to Boston with Harvard, a distinctive way of speaking and well educated people who had access to libraries, symphonies, colleges, and cultural amenities.

On the other hand Galilee would compare to our Appalachian regions where the language is not refined, and the people are generally less educated. In short Jerusalem was upper-crust and Galilee was “hill-billy”

Why would Christ choose eleven “hill-billys” to carry on the spread of Christianity after his crucifixion? Instead of people Jerusalem saw as ignorant and unlearned, why not get men with some education, scribes or priests? The simple answer is He did not need their talents, their education, their proper place in society, or anything else they had. He just needed a willing heart. Again the hymnal says it well.

“Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling.

That brings me back to the call of the first 4 apostles.  Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. We have all read this verse and/or heard it preached as a verse of obedience and yielding to Christ’s call. But the other day I saw another view of this verse.

“Follow me and I will make you…”  Follow and I will make you! It is not what we make of ourselves that is important. It is our obedience that permits Christ to make us into what He wants.

That is the meditation for today.  Christ does not need our wonderful skills, although He may use them.  Our glorious sounding resume is of no advantage to Him. We do not need to make long and arduous preparation before we can be accepted. Neither do we need to work hard at cleaning our life of sins before we are eligible. He will take us as we are, and if we have a willing heart to follow Him, he will make us what He knows we need to be.

Our meditation for today is simple. Let go and let God. That is the essence of faith; Trusting God more than we trust our own finite thinking. (Heb 11:1)

We can all discover more ways to just let go and let God, whether we are unlearned or a genius.  

May you have a great and blessed day.  

1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things

of the world to confound the wise;

and God hath chosen the weak things

of the world to confound the

things which are mighty;

 

 

May 7 Just One More Thing

May 7

Just One More Thing

Mr 10:21 ..One thing thou lackest:…

When I read this passage I was reminded of the TV character Colombo. If you recall he was the TV detective with the frumpy trench coat who smoked a cigar and drove people to exasperation. Just when they thought he was done with the questions he would turn back and say “…Oh, just one more thing…”

He came to mind as I was reading this passage in Mark chapter 10. Here we see Jesus on the east side of the Jordan River just outside of Judea. The Pharisees asked about divorce and Christ reminded them of what Moses required. (vrs 1-9) Later when he went into a house his desciples had more questions. (vrs 10-16). Then when he left the house and started down the road an enthusiastic fellow came running after Jesus and kneeled as he called Christ “Master”

Mr 10:17 ¶ And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. 19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. 21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

His request was to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life. The answer Christ gave him may be a little confusing unless you understand the context. It seems to contradict what we are told other places in the Bible.

Ac 16:30 …Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,

and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

In the Gospel of John we find Christ saying essentially the same thing.

Joh 3:14 … even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish,

but have eternal life.

But in Mark Christ answered that question by talking about the law of Moses. Does that passage teach that we need to keep the law for salvation? Of course not. That would be contrary to everything Paul worked so hard to teach in Galatians and Romans and what Christ taught in John Chapter 3 and elsewhere.

Christ also told him he had to sell everything and give it to the poor.  Is that a requirement meant for us? Do we need to become homeless to be faithful servants and merit eternal life?  No, of course not. So what was the reason for Christ telling this guy he had to keep the commandments and give everything away to gain eternal life?

There were at least three reasons. First the way the guy addressed Christ as “Good Master”. He saw Christ as a great teacher, which is why Christ said only God was good. He wanted to direct the fellows thoughts toward God and help him see he was talking with the Messiah, the Christ.

Christ knew what was in this man’s heart and wanted him to reveal himself. So when Christ mentioned the commandments the response was “Oh, I have kept all those commandments since I was a little kid” (from my youth).  He did not see himself as a sinner, but self- righteous. “Nope, I never did anything bad.”

In addition to knowing the man was prideful, self-righteous, and unaware of who Christ was, there was one more thing Christ wanted the man to know about himself. He was covetous.   

Mr 10:21 …One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor,

The man was wealthy and the thought of giving it up made him very sad.

Mr 10:22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

This brief conversation with Christ revealed the man did not recognize Christ as the Messiah, but only a good teacher. He had come with the idea he was a righteous man, and not as a sinner. And lastly he had wealth that he was not willing to part with.  

Evangelists know that before you can “save” anyone they must understand they are lost and without hope except for Christ. This man, in spite of his running to Christ, was not looking for salvation. I think he may have been looking for affirmation that he was a wonderful, law abiding, and successful Jew. Christ could sense that as well, and therefore said things to him that would reveal his defective thinking, self-righteous spirit, and failure to obey the command to not covet. He was anxious to ask his question, but grieved with the answer.   

“What must I do to inherit eternal life.”

“Keep the Commandments”

“Yep, never did anything wrong”  

“Great…….Oh there is just one more thing”

And that thing was the deal breaker for the man.

So I began to wonder what Christ would have told me if I had run up to Him? Convincing me that I was a sinner would have been pretty easy. I would have felt more like Peter after the draught of fishes.

Lu 5:8 ….Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, ...

What might Christ have seen in me that needed changing? What would be the "one thing thou lackest"? I don’t know. But having become sensitized to that idea I will be spending some time thinking about it. Our meditation for today is to try to answer that question for each of us. What would Christ know about each of us that needed to change? Perhaps this devotional does not apply to you at all.

     But before you decide your Christian character is in need of nothing, you may want to be quiet for a moment and listen for a voice that is saying;  

“One thing thou lackest..."

Or it could just be a flashback to an old rerun of Colombo saying “…just one more thing!”

1Co 11:28 But let a man examine himself,