|
Part I
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” --- Phil 4:13.
“What do you do more than others?” --- Mt 5:47.
Jesus challenged His hearers: “What do you do more than others?” That question could be a general cue to switch off! Preachers are always telling us to do more. It makes you feel very tired. They present the steep and thorny way to heaven: witness more, attend more meetings, do more Bible study, give more, work more. Then comes more prayer – for more power, more healings, more conversions.
People hear the Gospel of the grace of God, escape the Egyptian bondage of sin, come into the Kingdom and are then pressed to work harder than ever before. Taskmasters in the pulpit complain of everybody’s shortcomings and (mistakenly) apply Christ’s “what do you do more than others?” People do their best, go to church … and go back home depressed, like Israel being ordered to make bricks without straw. It reminds me of the man who was in total despair after hearing a sermon on the Ten Commandments. He really needed something to lift his spirits. Then suddenly he brightened up; “Well, I’ve never made a graven image!” he said.
Let’s take sermons about revival. They are typical examples of how to put people under pressure. Mostly they can be summed up as a call to be like Martha, “worried and troubled about many things” --- Lk 10:41 – as if revival were a reward for good little boys and girls. Why did people in the past get revivals? Because they had - moral scruples and were more worthy than believers today? Did they generate revival by good works? Or was it sovereign act of God?
However, the challenge of our Lord Jesus has to be faced: “What do you do more than others?” These words come from His Sermon on the Mount, where the message is basically the same throughout, right from the first lines, the Beatitudes. Our righteousness must exceed that of the most religious people of our times.
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works” --- Mt 5:16.
Practice must follow precept.
“Be doers of the word, and not hearers only” --- Jas 1:22.
Truth brings tasks. Action! In His kingdom there are no onlookers, not even among the angels.
Humorous Examples of Excuses
Some do not even do the possible, never mind the impossible. It does not take much to put them off. They say, “I don’t feel like it” – and down tools. I don’t suppose Paul ever really “felt like it,” going on those arduous journeys and confronting opposition, danger, and uncertainty. God called Paul to brave ventures because he knew what Paul was like. God does not call the half-hearted to action. He gives up on those who give up and lets quitters quit. In fact, I am amazed at the explanations offered for doing nothing for God. They are like the motorist who telling the insurance company about a lamppost that suddenly appeared in front of him and he could not stop in time.
In Luke 14:18-20 Jesus gives some humorous examples of excuses that people give for not doing what He asks. One man had bought a field and had go and see it, another had bought some oxen and had go and try them out, while a third had just got married. Hilarious! We gospel preachers apply these excuses to those who reject Christ, but they really apply to disciples who shy away from doing anything for God. This is not to deny that many things do indeed come between people and the work of God. The devil engineers them when he knows who is easily put off. Resist the devil, honour God, give Him priority and the path is cleared before us. Give God His proper place, obey Him and you can “do all things through Christ who strengthens you.”
Few get the chance to prove themselves by doing great public deeds. Given the chance, who would not excel? Being faithful in secret is the hard bit. Most people in this world are in quite ordinary situations or tucked away in obscure corners. But Christ said that if we are faithful with a few things, He will put us in charge of many things --- Mt 25:21.
Jesus called a man to be His disciple – what a privilege! But the man wanted to go home until his father was buried – and he was not even dead at the time! Inconsequential matters should never keep people from the blessings of Christ’s service. I do not think that going to see relatives, entertaining visitors, cleaning the windows or tinkering with the car is on quite the same dynamic level as worship and service for Christ our Master.
Recently a woman in an American church won an award for never once missing Sunday School in 50 years, even when she was away on holiday. How could that be? Did she never have a cold, never not feel up to it, never feel too tired, never have visitors, never find herself too busy, never have a special job to do, never go on a Sunday outing, never have an emergency, or never have a birthday to celebrate, like other people? Such things did, of course, happen to her, but they did not stop her. She got her priorities right – the Lord and His house, His Word, His people, His worship. A priority like that is the pole star and the rock-solid foundation of a good lifestyle.
However, the work ethic is not the bottom line. Christianity is not all about toiling in the midday sun and burning the midnight oil. Human nature does not measure up to ceaseless grind. Servitude is not salvation. Jesus did not come to tie burdens to people’s backs, to stand in constant criticism, imposing stress and anxiety. Adam laboured by the sweat of His brow, but Christ expects no such thing of us. He said,
“Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me … and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”
--- Mt 11:28-30:
His call is an opportunity for service; His yoke is a high privilege that sits easily on our shoulders. But He always takes the heavy end of any weight. We are the sons of God, not the sons of toil.
Doing All Things Through Christ
I have already mentioned Martha. I wonder was she trying just to impress Jesus with her devotion to Him? Did she really think He liked people to keep their nose to the grindstone? In response to Martha’s complaints about her apparently idle sister, Jesus quietly said, “Only one thing is needed” (Lk 10:42, NIV). He accepts only labours of love. Jesus had the total responsibility of world redemption on His mind, yet He never seemed worried about whether He was doing enough serving. He had time to let Mary sit as His feet – He did not keep jumping up, fretting about all the “important” things that had to be done.
The message I share is that the blessings of God are not given in proportion to our hard work, rather like Rachel being the reward for Jacob’s seven years of hard work. It is easy for preachers to castigate people for what they do not do, because we are all human and show signs of it! So they are never short of material to criticise! But our imperfections are forgiven. When Jesus asked, “What do you do more?” He was not cracking the whip. We do not have to go through agonies for God to be with us, work ourselves up into a sweat for God to keep His promise or strain every muscle to pull down Holy Spirit power.
Just listen to this!
“This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? … Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? … He who … works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" --- Gal 3:2-5.
Christians are singing, “Let me burn out for thee, dear Lord;” and that is just how they end up – burnt out, martyrs to self-imposed demands. Even pastors are supposed to live. We do no need to sing for our supper.
When Paul said he could do all things through Christ, he did not mean that he did all things himself, running around in church work like a cat on hot bricks. Some pastors do everything, even turning the handle of the church duplicating machine. They want to be head cook and chief bottle-washer, pump the organ as well as play it. Jesus did not mean us to work all hours that come and take on a multitude of concerns and responsibilities.
The Heart of the Matter
We can be too busy, always rushing about on some business or other, with so many irons in the fire it almost puts the fire out; we do not have time for what Jesus says is necessary. “‘Whoever believes will not act hastily” (Is 28:16). Less can actually achieve more, when less time and energy is spent on the peripherals and more on effective work. Some plants are showy, prolific in leaves but barren of fruit, like the fig tree Jesus cursed. “Much cry but little wool,” as the man said who sheared a pig.
This is the heart of this matter. Jesus showed us the possibility of the impossible. He tells us to do more than others because we can. That is, not do more things, but do the things others cannot do, things that do not get done because nobody does them. Publicans greet their friends. Anybody can do that, but Christians can greet their enemies. Publicans cannot do that. As the apostle Paul said,
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” --- Phil 4:13.
|
HEARTLINES
