Monday, February 2, 2015 Remember me, Salvation part two
So, you approach a friend wanting to tell him or her about Jesus, and this friend, we are going to call him Sam, asks you why he needs this religion stuff. What do you tell him?
Are you going to tell him how Jesus can make his life better, how the Lord can make him healthy, happy, wise and solve his financial problems? Are you going to tell him how Jesus loves him and died for his sins so that he can get into heaven? Or are you going to tell him, "Sam you need Jesus because you are a rotten sinner deserving of eternal pain and suffering in the lake of fire and it is only through taking your life from satan and giving it to Jesus that you are going to escape that which you deserve."?
Let's start by looking at Matthew 10:24&25:
24 The disciple is not above his Master, nor the servant above his Lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household?
The disciple, is, in the Greek, mathetes, pronounced math-ay-tes' it means pupil, one who is learning. Is not above his Master, Master is didaskalos, pronounced did-as'-kal-os and means simply master. nor the servant above his Lord servant is doulos, pronounced doo'-los and means a slave literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary. While Lord is kurios, pronounced koo'-ree-os which means supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication, Master (as a respectful title):-- God, Lord, master, Sir.
So you see, when you are introducing your friend to Jesus, do not make the mistake of letting him think, for even a minute, that he is equal to Jesus, that he is Jesus' peer, or that he will be any more than a bond servant of the Lord. But let us go on, for in John 15:18 we read If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. Going back to Matthew 10:25 we see that " It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household?" We, who give our lives to the Lord are not going to be treated better than He was. We must expect to be treated as the Lord was treated.
When we read the second half of verse 25, "If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His household?", We can see that we can expect to be treated worse than Jesus was treated.
Scripture doesn't teach us that once we give our lives to Christ we can sit down, relax and have everything be hunky dory. After all, one of the greatest accusations against Christians is that of hypocrite. Think for a moment. After you tell Sam how great his life will be after becoming a Christian, he goes to church with you and hears prayer request after prayer request to heal this one of cancer and that one of heart disease, help this on find a job and that one not lose his or her house, give this family comfort after the loss of their youngest son. You tell Sam that "after he accepts Jesus into his heart, all his problems will disappear" and all he hears in the prayer request time is request after request for help from misery, probably more than he is currently suffering.
Be truthful with Sam. Tell him that once he gives his life to Christ, once he yanks it out of the control of the devil and gives it voluntarily to the Lord God of Creation, he can expect that things in his life may get even more difficult, that his family may abandon him, that his friends may ridicule him, and that he may find that his change in behavior may even cost him his job. It did mine. But that after this life, he will not go to the lake of fire, but instead will become a joint heir with Christ, an adopted son of God almighty, a prince in heaven. That while he may have even more tribulation here on earth, his eternity will be that of bliss.
Now before moving on, let us look at a verse, John 13:13: Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for I AM. And Luke 6:46 And why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
The word of God is very clear. When we leave satan and give our lives to Christ, we are not guaranteed a live of ease, of comfort, of wealth, health and happiness on this earth, we are guaranteed, instead, a life of difficulty of trials and tribulations, but eternal bliss the micro second we leave this life.
In closing part two, let us look at two more verses:
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." and Matthew 10:38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Notice the command is to take up our cross and follow in the footsteps of the Lord, not get a new car and fancy home, a big boat, better job and our neighbor's wife, it is "he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."
In part three we are going to look at the law and how it is it that causes us to know sin and our need of a Savior.
In part four we will look at the only man in the Bible that we absolutely know beyond a shadow of a doubt was Born Again, the only man God told that "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." We will look at what he did and what he suffered, for he received no health, no wealth, no lessening of his pain and suffering. What he did receive was forgiveness and life everlasting with the Lord.
