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"Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which
look fine on the outside but are full of bones and corpses on the
inside. In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody,
but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins.
How terrible for you,
teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You make fine tombs
for the prophets and decorate the monuments of those who lived good
lives, and you claim that if you had lived during the time of your
ancestors, you would not have done what they did and killed the
prophets. So you actually admit that you are descendants of those who
murdered the prophets! Go on then and finish what your ancestors
started!
You snakes and children
of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell?"
(Matthew 23:27-33) TEV
The
first time you read these words, you think for sure these must be the
words from one of the Old Testament prophets, but this is not the
case. They are words in red in my Bible. They are from the mouth of "meek
and mild, gentle-Jesus". They, like all the words in the chapter
beginning with verse 2 rail in judgement against the excesses of the
religious system. In our generation we know nothing of this Jesus. Most of
us are biblically ignorant of this chapter and others like it.
In
John chapter 2 when Jesus went out to the Temple and found it full of
oxen, sheep, doves, and money changers, the Bible says He went out, made a
scourge of small cords, came back to the
Temple
and drove out all the animals and money changers, overturning their tables
and denouncing them for their despicable behavior. Do we know this Jesus,
or are we dismayed at His intolerance? Does this Jesus make you feel
uncomfortable? Do you feel like you need to apologize for Him or at least
explain such an outburst?
We
do not know this Jesus who upbraids the cities where most of His mighty
works were done because they "repented not" ( Matthew 11:20). We do not
know Him because He has been stolen from the Church! It was said of Him
"My devotion to Your House, Oh God, burns in me like a fire" (John2:17),
and yet we know little of this heart.
Today, we are given a different
Jesus. We are given a Jesus who never speaks out of turn.
We are given a Jesus who never gets angry. We are given a Jesus who never
challenges authority. We are only given "meek and mild, gentle Jesus".
Unfortunately- this is not
the Jesus of the Bible. Though Jesus came not to condemn the world, there
was nothing but condemnation to those dared not repent. Read it, " How
terrible it will be for you Chorazin! How terrible for you too,
Bethsaida!
If the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and
Sidon, the people there would have long ago put on sackcloth and sprinkled
ashes on themselves to show they had turned from their sins! I assure you
that on the Judgement Day God will show more mercy to the people of Tyre
and Sidon than to you! And as for you, Capernaum! Did you want to lift
yourself up to heaven? You will be thrown down to hell! If the miracles
which were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would still be
in existence today! You can be sure that on the Judgement Day God will
show more mercy unto Sodom than to you!
(Matthew
11:21-24) Is this not Jesus doing as he commanded in Matthew 10:14-
shaking off the dust the dust of a city as testimony against it? We don't
know this Jesus.
Has
anybody ever seen the men of God shake the dust off their feet against a
wicked and evil city? I've never seen it. You see Jesus intended us to
command men to repent, and then run to the next city or town with the Good
News. He certainly never intended for men to, "vex their righteous souls
daily" in the middle of some Sodom. It only led to compromise in Lot's
life and it has done the same in the life of the Church ever since.
We are forever building scoffers while millions die having never heard the
Good News even once!!!!!
Today, the churches long to hear more and more about the unconditional
love of Christ, yet on almost every page of His testimony-The Gospels- He
qualifies and conditions His love. Read it again "But
whoever shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father
who is in Heaven" (Matthew 10:33) or how about in Matthew
7:21? "Not every one that calls out to
me Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he that
does the will of my Father who is in Heaven" The condition is
doing the will of the Father, isn't it? The Jesus of the bible straight
out gives the conditions which must be met for salvation.
Remember in John 3:3 "Jesus answered
and said again I say to you that unless a man be born again, he will not
see the
Kingdom
of God" and
then in verse 7,"You must be born
again". Today we're given a Jesus who accepts all sincere
devotion- all faiths and simple good intentions. But this is not the Jesus
of the Bible! Folks, these requirements that Jesus demands cannot be
dismissed by the rhetoric of modern day liberal theology. Read Matthew 25
beginning at verse 31! Do we know this Jesus?
See
Luke 14:26-27 " Those who love me
cannot be my disciples unless they love me more than they love father, and
mother, wife, and children, sisters, and brothers, and themselves as well.
Those who do not carry their own cross and come after me cannot be my
disciples" Verse 33 "In
the same way, concluded Jesus, none of you can be my disciples unless you
give up everything you have"
Finally in John 15:14 "And you are my friends if you do what I command you". How
narrow can you get? But instead of a Jesus like this, we are told over and
over about a Jesus that "understands” our disobedience and our blatant
rebellion and is just so thankful that we've made it back to church on
Sunday.
Jesus is sick of the drivel that misrepresents Him. Yes, He so loved the
world that He laid down His life, but whether that love will be of any
benefit to a man depends on the man's response. Will he die to himself?
Will he abide in Jesus' Word? These are all conditions that must be met
for the love of Christ to affect a life!
Why
is the Church content to accept some other Jesus?
What’s wrong with the Jesus of the Bible?
Why have we allowed ourselves to be carried away into the excess of this
religious junk? Let us return to Christ. Let us accept His every word. If
we don't understand His words then let us pray for wisdom and search the
scriptures for the whole counsel of God. But God forbid that we should buy
this one dimensional cardboard cutout of Christ that is being pitched by
modern theologians. What did Jesus
say? Read His words! I suggest you get into the Gospels
and find out exactly what He said. Read it for yourself - I'm sure you
will be startled. I know I am!
Rev.
Joe Hildebrandt Sr.
Thanks to Kim Josephson for outtakes.
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