Luke 14:25 tells that large crowds traveled with Jesus. And how did he respond? “....turning to them he said”: if we come to him wanting to be a disciple, all allegiances in life must be considered expendable.
Not what we would hear in a church running thousands a week-end; and not in many churches running far less each Sunday. Matthew 13 has the Long Day of parabolic teaching. After standing in the crowd listening to them, and perhaps hearing questions in the crowd about his methodology, his disciples asked Jesus, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” 13:10 But that didn’t bring a change in his method. The purpose of baptism is one of many Bible truths Christians have turned into a matter of opinion instead of immutable truth. However, and a point that demands attention, being influenced by what we think people want to hear is one reason we’re no longer impacting culture. When we began thinking people didn’t want to hear certain absolute or troubling truths; when we determined to stop saying them, or saying them in such non-offensive ways they couldn’t take umbrage, we lost our spiritual authority. When we make ourselves, or the lost, interpreters of Bible truth—after all, God knows what he meant—the Holy Spirit stops empowering us to convince and convert the lost to salvation and the saved to stronger discipleship. If we return to saying, “God says it, that settles it, no matter what we believe,” we’ll again be able to convict our unguided, misguided society. Which presently thinks, by not being challenged to listen whenever Jesus speaks, on whatever subject he addresses, it has the right to develop a satisfying personal theology and philosophy. –End Part V-
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