Saturday, March 14, 2009
Read Like 9:51-56 “Seek and Destroy or Seek and Save?”
It’s hard to hear from God when you lose sight of his redeeming love. Jesus and his disciples came to a village in Samaria but the people would not allow them to come. Like so many today they rejected God’s offer of redeeming love. The disciples were angry at this and asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down fire from heaven and destroy them. The scripture says he rebuked them. In the King James Version we hear these words; “You don’t’ know what spirit you are of, for the son of man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” I’m not sure what disturbs the Lord more, when the lost reject his redeeming love or when the saved forget it. I guess we can imagine which is worse by the simple fact that Jesus rebuked the disciples, not the Samaritans. It seems like the twelve just weren’t getting it.
Jesus had told them he was going to the cross, but they had blinders on that kept him from hearing what he was saying. First there was the blinder of selfish ambition. “Who is the greatest?” (Vss. 46-48), second was the blinder of narrow vision (vss. 49-50), and now we see the blinder of mission confusion. Let’s not be too hard on the disciples though. They were feeling what we all feel. We get frustrated when the world doesn’t embrace our Lord. When they turn away the savior it hurts us because we know what they are throwing away. Haven’t there been days for all of us believers when we have wanted to call down fire on the godlessness around us? But we have to remember why Jesus came. He came to save a hostile world from itself. We must always resist the urge to condemn those who don’t know what they are rejecting. Perhaps it will help us if we remember that we were all once lost. It also helps to remember the old adage; lost people act like lost people because they are lost people. Jesus could have called down fire on all of us, but he chose to intercede on our behalf. As Christians we must not just be thankful for that. We must follow the example.
As the days of distress draw closer upon us, we will see even more ungodliness than we see now, if you can imagine that. It will be even more important for us to have made up our minds in advance that we will not condemn, but we will intercede. We will lay our lives down. We will love, heal, and forgive, so that the lost can know him. Remember that your work is not in vain.
In acts 9 we see Phillip going through out Samaria preaching the good news, after Jesus had risen from the dead, and many coming to Christ. I wonder how many new Samaritan believers came from the Samaritan Village that had earlier rejected him. So the next time you feel the righteous anger welling up and you have the urge to call down fire, remind yourself of why you are here. You aren’t here to seek and destroy, but to seek and save.
Read Like 9:51-56 “Seek and Destroy or Seek and Save?”
It’s hard to hear from God when you lose sight of his redeeming love. Jesus and his disciples came to a village in Samaria but the people would not allow them to come. Like so many today they rejected God’s offer of redeeming love. The disciples were angry at this and asked Jesus if he wanted them to call down fire from heaven and destroy them. The scripture says he rebuked them. In the King James Version we hear these words; “You don’t’ know what spirit you are of, for the son of man has not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” I’m not sure what disturbs the Lord more, when the lost reject his redeeming love or when the saved forget it. I guess we can imagine which is worse by the simple fact that Jesus rebuked the disciples, not the Samaritans. It seems like the twelve just weren’t getting it.
Jesus had told them he was going to the cross, but they had blinders on that kept him from hearing what he was saying. First there was the blinder of selfish ambition. “Who is the greatest?” (Vss. 46-48), second was the blinder of narrow vision (vss. 49-50), and now we see the blinder of mission confusion. Let’s not be too hard on the disciples though. They were feeling what we all feel. We get frustrated when the world doesn’t embrace our Lord. When they turn away the savior it hurts us because we know what they are throwing away. Haven’t there been days for all of us believers when we have wanted to call down fire on the godlessness around us? But we have to remember why Jesus came. He came to save a hostile world from itself. We must always resist the urge to condemn those who don’t know what they are rejecting. Perhaps it will help us if we remember that we were all once lost. It also helps to remember the old adage; lost people act like lost people because they are lost people. Jesus could have called down fire on all of us, but he chose to intercede on our behalf. As Christians we must not just be thankful for that. We must follow the example.
As the days of distress draw closer upon us, we will see even more ungodliness than we see now, if you can imagine that. It will be even more important for us to have made up our minds in advance that we will not condemn, but we will intercede. We will lay our lives down. We will love, heal, and forgive, so that the lost can know him. Remember that your work is not in vain.
In acts 9 we see Phillip going through out Samaria preaching the good news, after Jesus had risen from the dead, and many coming to Christ. I wonder how many new Samaritan believers came from the Samaritan Village that had earlier rejected him. So the next time you feel the righteous anger welling up and you have the urge to call down fire, remind yourself of why you are here. You aren’t here to seek and destroy, but to seek and save.
