HOW CAN ANYONE TAKE JESUS SERIOUSLY?

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

JULY 26, 2009

Last week I created a group of fictional characters consisting of a dysfunctional family and an elderly bible teacher who were next door neighbors. The mother was a Christian woman who had a rather anxious and worrisome temperament, so much so that it has gotten to the point where she had developed a full blown ulcer. The father was a controlling, obnoxious, argumentative, judgmental, know-it-all who thought he was a Born-again Christian because he walked the aisle several years previously, said the sinners prayer and has been a regular churchgoer ever since. They had a teen age son who was a prankster who viewed himself as being a real cool dude. On the other hand, his father thought his son was a wise guy kid who’s been a walking mouth ever since he learned to talk.

As we saw last Sunday the boy was at his second Saturday morning bible study armed with notes he had previously made and a couple of recently acquired study bibles. One he had purchased at the Salvation Army Thrift Store for a quarter and after he used it a while claimed they “ripped him off.” The other was a brand new one his father had given him as a gift the previous week and which the boy said “stunk.” After the dust had settled over his father’s uproar, the teacher gave the boy an opportunity to explain himself which was exactly what the boy was obviously “chomping at the bit” to do, It all had to do with the “Second Coming” of Christ and what is known as the “Blessed Hope” or “The Rapture”. The boy attempted to make his case by quoting various passages of Scripture and concluded his argument by saying:

“You have to be an idiot not to see that the stuff I just read was written to guys who lived back in those days about all the suffering they were going through and The Apostle Paul told them to hang in there because it was all going to come to an end soon. Those bad guys who were persecuting the Christians were soon going to find out that what goes around comes around. You can’t possibly believe these suffering Christians would have understood the things the Apostle Paul wrote to them about any other way. If they weren’t murdered first they expected to receive the Blessed Hope and be snatched away to safety when Christ came back with a vengeance. Do you see what I’m getting at, teacher? Everybody knows Christ didn’t come back. Christians everywhere are still waiting for His Second Coming. And those guys who wrote my study bibles just brushed it all aside and said the end could happen in our day.”

I sometimes create fictional characters to use in my messages because I want to present spiritual truth in a down-to-earth easy to understand manner. Judging from the feedback I receive most folks prefer them and get a lot out of this particular style of preaching. Often they arrive at a particular conclusion I was hoping for so that I could use it in my follow up message. A case in point is the following quote from a friend named Ed down in New York State.“I’m starting to think that sometimes we don’t need the answer to some things and that we just need to believe and trust in his Word.” After considering the boys argument it appears as though my friend arrived at the same conclusion as the boy. However, unlike the boy, Ed isn’t willing to reject the truthfulness of the Bible, but rather has chosen to accept certain parts as being a mystery.

Now let’s imagine we’re back at the fictional bible study. After welcoming everyone the teacher asks how their week went. “Do you really want to know how my week went, teacher? I’ll tell you how it went. It was lousy. That’s how it went. Do you want to know why? I’ll tell you why. It was all because of that wise guy kid of mine that’s sitting next to you with that smirk on his face. That’s why!” “Please calm down, Charlie. And stop speaking about your son in that manner. I warned you numerous times to control your anger and loud outbursts or else I will have to ask you to leave.” “You did? I must have forgot. I have a hard time remembering things these days. But I’ll take your word for it. Anyway, I’m sorry, teacher. It’s just that this wise guy kid of mine makes my blood boil. He did it again last week at this study when he said the bible I shelled out my hard earned money for stunk. I even had to go to see my Doc. My blood pressure was going through the roof. Now he’s got me on new pills which cost me twice as much as the old ones, and all because of that kid. I’ve been reading my bible a lot ever since and I came up with some things that will set the kid straight. I wrote them down and put them in my Bible so I wouldn’t forget. “Thank you for sharing, Charlie.”

“And how was your week Martha?” “My stomach was bothering me again, but I was able to study my bible more than I ever have in my life. I’ve been looking forward to today’s study, teacher.” What Martha didn’t share was the fact she had been worrying herself sick thinking about the things her boy had said the previous week about Jesus and His disciples not knowing what they were talking about or else they were con artists. The more she read her bible throughout the week though, the more sense her son’s argument appeared to be. Compounding her problems, she had to listen to Charlie ranting and raving about their son all week long. His doctor told Martha her husband was a prime candidate to have a stroke. He also said Charlie’s increasing forgetfulness, wandering thoughts and confusion at times may be the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

All week long the poor woman tossed and turned in her bed at night worrying about her husband and the things her son had said at the study. What if Charlie had a stroke or lost his mind? And if Jesus and His disciples were wrong and didn’t know what they were talking about; she would lose her faith. Then she would have no more hope to cling to; hope which held her together during those difficult times in her life. Her faith in Jesus had been her life and now she would have nothing to live for. But Martha didn’t share her fears with the folks at the study. Instead, she kept them all bottled up inside herself.

The teacher thanked Martha and turned to the boy. “Well young man; how was your week?” “I had a really crummy week, teacher. My best friend Rick got the news that he’s never goanna walk again. There’s nothing the doctors can do. He’ll be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. And my favorite teacher got the test results; his cancers’ spread. It looks like it’s only a matter of time.” “I’m sorry to hear that, young man. Is there anything I can do?” “Yeah! A couple of things! You can show me how I can take Jesus seriously.” “I beg your pardon.” “I mean like; I want to believe in Him. I really do. If the Bible is true in what it says about Him loving people so much and that He is God and suffered so much agony on His cross so that my sins can be forgiven, and how I get to live happily forever in Heaven with Him after I check out of this world, and so can Rick and my teacher, all I can say is that’s what I want, teacher. All we got to do is believe in Him and tell Him we’re sorry. Right?” “That’s correct, young man.” But how can I believe in Him if I can’t believe Him? I’ve been studying my two bibles a lot all week long. And I read my pocket New Testament from cover to cover lots of times during the past year. Please help me to take Jesus seriously, teacher. He’s the only hope a messed up kid like me has. I want to believe in Him so much, but I’m having a real hard time. I can see why some kids do drugs. I really can.” What did you read this past week that you find so troubling, young man? Please tell us.” “OK!”

³¹ When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. ³² If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. ³³ Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ ³⁴ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” ³⁶ Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” ³⁷ Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” ³⁸ Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. John 13:31-38 (ESV)

¹ “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. ² In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. ⁴ And you know the way to where I am going.” ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” ⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:1-7 (ESV)

¹² “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. ¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, ¹⁷ even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹ Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰ In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. ²¹ Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” John 14:12-21 (ESV)

“What is the point you are trying to make, young man? Please explain yourself.” “OK I’ll try, teacher. Here goes. Jesus was speaking to those men a long time ago about some things He promised to do for them. There’s no way they would of thought He was speaking to them about stuff He would do for people living a couple of thousand years later. Then there was the time Jesus locked horns with those big shot Jews who were living back then and not guys living today. He sure was ticked off by them. Look at what Jesus said here:”

⁴² Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ” ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? ⁴³ Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. ⁴⁴ And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” ⁴⁵ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. Matthew 21:42-45 (ESV). You see! They even knew He was talking to them about them and not to and about some guys who would be born thousands of years later. No way!”

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ” Matthew 23:37-39 (ESV)

“Jesus sure ain’t expecting the city to say ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ He has to mean those bad guys, teacher. Do you want to know something else? Listen to this:”

²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. ²⁸ Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 16:27-28 (ESV) also Mark 9:1

“Do you see what I’m getting at, teacher? Jesus is really ticked off by those guys and He tells them about the punishment that’s in store for them. If they don’t kick the bucket first; those guys will still be around when He comes back. Now look at the stuff Jesus told His disciples they were going to see, and what He was going to do for them.”

²⁹ “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ³⁰ Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. ³¹ And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matthew 24:29-31 (ESV)

³⁴ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Matthew 24:34 (ESV)

“I can’t believe that back then Jesus wasn’t talking to those people about a lot of bad things that would happen to them, but don’t give up because He’s coming back to settle the score before all of them died?” The others at the study were intently following along in their own Bibles and listening to the boy make his case when they were suddenly startled by a loud “got ya!” Charlie had just swatted a mosquito that was on his arm. A piece of paper fell out of his bible and both items landed on the ground. Charlie picked them up and looked at the paper. “I got the answer for you, kid. I forget I wrote this down when I was studying my bible last week. It’s going to tell you how you can believe Jesus. It has to do with the word “generation.” You want me to read it, teacher?” “Please do, Charlie.” “You got it. Here goes!”

“-Generation: No one living when Jesus spoke these words lived to see “all these things” come to pass. However, the Greek word can mean “race” or “family,” which makes good sense here; i.e., the Jewish race will be preserved, in spite of terrible persecution, until the Lord comes.”—Ryrie Study Notes.” “I read the exact same thing in the bible you gave me. Plus I read it in the used one I got at the Thrift Store. Listen to this:”

“Gr. genea, the primary definition of which is, “race, kind, family, stock, breed.” (So all lexicons.) That the word is used in this sense because none of “these things,” i.e. the world-wide preaching of the kingdom, the great tribulation, the return of the Lord in visible glory, and the regathering of the elect, occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70. The promise is, therefore, that the generation–nation, or family of Israel–will be preserved unto “these things”; a promise wonderfully fulfilled to this day.” —Scofield’s Study Notes.” “Did you hear what these guys said? They pulled the old switcheroo and gave a bunch of double talk. Listen to this:”

Matthew 11:16 (ESV) ¹⁶ “But to what shall I compare this generation?

Matthew 12:41 (ESV) ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Matthew 12:42 (ESV) ⁴² The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 23:36 (ESV) ³⁶ Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Matthew 24:34 (ESV) ³⁴ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Mark 8:12 (ESV) ¹² And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.”

Mark 13:30 (ESV) ³⁰ Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

Luke 7:31 (ESV) ³¹ “To what then shall I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?

Luke 11:29 (ESV) ²⁹ When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.

Luke 11:30 (ESV) ³⁰ For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.

Luke 11:31 (ESV) ³¹ The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Luke 11:32 (ESV) ³² The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

Luke 11:49-51 (ESV) ⁴⁹ Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ ⁵⁰ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

Luke 17:25 (ESV) ²⁵ But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

Luke 21:32 (ESV) ³² Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place.

“I think there was about 37 different times Jesus said the word generation. Those study bible guys changed the obvious meaning of the word generation just this one time so they could make their case. But they didn’t fool me. We would have to throw all the other times Jesus said the word generation out the window. I can show you a lot more stuff they changed.” “I’m sorry but we’ve run out of time, young man.” “Is it ok if I come back next week, teacher?” “Of course you may. You’re always welcome.” “Great! I told you before that I read my pocket New Testament from cover to cover lots of times during the past year. I like what Jesus said about messed up guys like me, and how if I believe in Him and tell Him I’m sorry the slate will be wiped clean and I’ll have a fresh start in life. I want to believe in Him teacher. I really do, but these study bibles got me all mixed up. I don’t know who to trust. I can’t get Rick and my teacher off my mind. I really want to believe in Jesus and all the promises He made. He’s my only hope! But everybody knows He didn’t come back like He promised. How can anyone take Jesus seriously, teacher?” “Lord willing we’ll revisit this issue next week.” And, as the family was walking across the teacher’s yard headed towards their home the teacher silently prayed: “Thank you Lord for strongly inclining each of them to take my suggestion to search the Bible for themselves to see if what was being taught by me or anyone else was actually Your Word.”

As I mentioned last week; you and I have an obligation to do our utmost to search the Bible for all spiritual truth so that we will be able to convincingly offer straight-forward answers to people who are sincerely searching for it. The Bibles’ divine Author has put it in there. In total dependence upon Him for His help, we must diligently seek it and then we will find it (Matt.7:7).

Lord willing, soon…