December 31st, 2024
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of great joy and it’s for all people. As we celebrated Christmas last week, we talked about the joy of Jesus’ birth and life. However, this week, I’ve been thinking about the fact that while it is the good news, Jesus’ teaching was not received joyously by…. well… almost anyone. We probably don’t think of it often, but while the miracles of Jesus were received with great joy, the message of Jesus was rarely, if ever, readily received by the crowds of His day.
Jesus did absolutely nothing to make His message more palatable to His listeners. In fact, if we heard Jesus’ message for the first time, instead of reading it off the page, our jaws would probably drop. We might shift uncomfortably in our seat, looking down. Really think about it! On multiple occasions, He called the religious leaders names – hypocrites (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16), broods of vipers (Matthew 3:7), workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:23), blind guides (Matthew 23:24), and whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27).
He turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the temple.
He told whole towns they were worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
With all of that in mind, Luke 7:23 has a bit more weight. It says,
“Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Jesus was not just a babe in a manger and He’s not just the sweet images of a shepherd holding a lamb that we see hanging in church foyers.
How many of us would have told Jesus to tone it down if we were with Him? If we are completely honest, how many of us would have been so offended we would have stopped listening?
It’s easy to say, knowing what we know, that we would have stood with Jesus until the end, but even those closest to Jesus were scattered.
This is captured clearly in a story told in John 6:53-66:
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Jesus’ teaching in these verses is the Gospel. Jesus foretold His death on a cross for all of mankind, that we might taste of His life and be set free. However, when His disciples (not the crowds and not the pharisees), told Him that it was a hard teaching, He didn’t make it more palatable or explain it in a way that they would receive it. He said, basically, “If this offends you, wait until you hear the rest…” He told them their flesh counted for nothing, and life comes only from Him. His Word is still spirit and life for all who receive Him! See, the power of the Gospel is not natural and cannot be received with our natural mind. Paul referred to it as the “offense of the cross” (Galatians 5:11). The gospel is Spirit and Life, and it offends our flesh intentionally, because our flesh cannot give life. Our flesh must die to receive it!
At this point, many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and stopped following Him. They were offended enough to walk away from the King of kings. When that happened, Jesus didn’t chase them down. He didn’t make His message easier to accept. He asked the twelve in John 6:67, “Do you want to go away as well?” Peter answered Him,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Not only did He not go after the ones who walked away but He asked those closest to Him if they were going too. The twelve had tasted enough of truth to know there was life in nothing else!
We must understand that Jesus cared more about truth than anything. He didn’t care to be liked. He didn’t care to be surrounded by crowds shouting His praises. He didn’t spend time convincing people to receive His message. However, we must remember that He loved them more than anyone else. No one loved those who walked away more than Jesus did, but in love is truth, and there is no love without it.
I’m not advocating for Christians to be unkind, but the truth will always offend, and we must be willing to stand for the Gospel in a time when it’s not popular. There is no greater love than telling people the truth and giving them the opportunity to be made whole. The Gospel is healing for the nations. It’s hope for all people. It’s the good news of salvation, deliverance, and miraculous restoration. It’s the greatest gift that’s ever been given to humanity, but it often comes in a way we wouldn’t expect. As we enter this new year, I encourage you to remember that the Gospel—Jesus Himself—is the hope the world is looking for and truth is the only thing that will set people free! Let us boldly stand for His Word and see the gospel do what God said it would do! As it says in Romans 1:16,
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
Jesus did absolutely nothing to make His message more palatable to His listeners. In fact, if we heard Jesus’ message for the first time, instead of reading it off the page, our jaws would probably drop. We might shift uncomfortably in our seat, looking down. Really think about it! On multiple occasions, He called the religious leaders names – hypocrites (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16), broods of vipers (Matthew 3:7), workers of lawlessness (Matthew 7:23), blind guides (Matthew 23:24), and whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27).
He turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the temple.
He told whole towns they were worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
With all of that in mind, Luke 7:23 has a bit more weight. It says,
“Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”
Jesus was not just a babe in a manger and He’s not just the sweet images of a shepherd holding a lamb that we see hanging in church foyers.
How many of us would have told Jesus to tone it down if we were with Him? If we are completely honest, how many of us would have been so offended we would have stopped listening?
It’s easy to say, knowing what we know, that we would have stood with Jesus until the end, but even those closest to Jesus were scattered.
This is captured clearly in a story told in John 6:53-66:
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Jesus’ teaching in these verses is the Gospel. Jesus foretold His death on a cross for all of mankind, that we might taste of His life and be set free. However, when His disciples (not the crowds and not the pharisees), told Him that it was a hard teaching, He didn’t make it more palatable or explain it in a way that they would receive it. He said, basically, “If this offends you, wait until you hear the rest…” He told them their flesh counted for nothing, and life comes only from Him. His Word is still spirit and life for all who receive Him! See, the power of the Gospel is not natural and cannot be received with our natural mind. Paul referred to it as the “offense of the cross” (Galatians 5:11). The gospel is Spirit and Life, and it offends our flesh intentionally, because our flesh cannot give life. Our flesh must die to receive it!
At this point, many of Jesus’ disciples turned back and stopped following Him. They were offended enough to walk away from the King of kings. When that happened, Jesus didn’t chase them down. He didn’t make His message easier to accept. He asked the twelve in John 6:67, “Do you want to go away as well?” Peter answered Him,
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
Not only did He not go after the ones who walked away but He asked those closest to Him if they were going too. The twelve had tasted enough of truth to know there was life in nothing else!
We must understand that Jesus cared more about truth than anything. He didn’t care to be liked. He didn’t care to be surrounded by crowds shouting His praises. He didn’t spend time convincing people to receive His message. However, we must remember that He loved them more than anyone else. No one loved those who walked away more than Jesus did, but in love is truth, and there is no love without it.
I’m not advocating for Christians to be unkind, but the truth will always offend, and we must be willing to stand for the Gospel in a time when it’s not popular. There is no greater love than telling people the truth and giving them the opportunity to be made whole. The Gospel is healing for the nations. It’s hope for all people. It’s the good news of salvation, deliverance, and miraculous restoration. It’s the greatest gift that’s ever been given to humanity, but it often comes in a way we wouldn’t expect. As we enter this new year, I encourage you to remember that the Gospel—Jesus Himself—is the hope the world is looking for and truth is the only thing that will set people free! Let us boldly stand for His Word and see the gospel do what God said it would do! As it says in Romans 1:16,
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
No Comments