Jesus is our key to understanding who God is, what God is
like and how we should read the Old Testament scriptures.
This is how the New Testament authors, and even Jesus
Himself, defines what it means when we refer to Christ as the “Word of God.”
Jesus begins His ministry by teaching His disciples from
the Sermon on the Mount where He quite boldly contrasted His teachings with the
teachings of Moses.
“You
have heard that it was said…but I say to you….”
Try to understand how radical it would be if someone came
to your church and said, “You have heard
someone say ‘Love one another as I have loved you’, but I say to you ‘Just love
people who love you in return.’”
Hopefully there would be a huge gasp from the
congregation at the audacity of this person to stand up in front of everyone
and contradict the words of Jesus. Who
does he think he is? What authority does he have to correct the teachings of
Christ?
But this is exactly the same kind of statement that Jesus
makes when He quotes Moses and then corrects that teaching with His own
teaching.
This is also why the people are astonished and whisper to
one another at the end of His Sermon about the way He taught.
“And when Jesus finished these sayings, the
crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not
as their scribes.” (Matt. 7:28-29)
Indeed, the authority that Jesus taught with
was impressive. He corrected the words of Moses and gave new and more stringent
conditions for entering the Kingdom of God, even suggesting that his disciples
needed to have a righteousness that surpassed the Pharisees.
This is the significance of pointing out that,
at one time God spoke to us through prophets, but now He has spoken to us
through His own Son, as the author of Hebrews claims.
“In
the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in
various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he
appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The
Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word.” (Hebrews 1:1–3, NIV)
So, today God speaks to us – not merely through the
Bible – but through His own Son.
Jesus is what God is saying to us in these last
days.
In the past He spoke to us through the Old
Testament, but now, God’s message to us is found in Christ.
Remember, Jesus promised us that He would speak
to us and that we could hear His voice.
Remember that Jesus promised to send us the
Holy Spirit who would live within us and would lead us into all truth.
He even said that it was better for us that He
went away so that He could send us the Spirit who could abide within us and
teach us the Words of God which He would write on our hearts.
Remember also that we have one mediator between
God and us and that this mediator is Christ.
"For there is one God and one mediator between
God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus...” (1 Tim. 2:5)
Our mediator is Christ.
Not your pastor.
Not your church.
Not your denomination.
Not your bishops, or
elders, or deacons.
Only Jesus is our
mediator.
Only Jesus stands
between you and God.
Only Jesus connects
you to God.
Only Jesus reveals who
the Father is, and what the Father is like.
So, no one – and
nothing – else is stands between you and God.
Not even the Bible.
This is what the Bible teaches us: That Jesus
is our mediator and Jesus is alive within us and we can hear His voice.
We are also told by Jesus Himself that we have
one instructor. Who is it?
“For you have one instructor – the Messiah.” (Matt. 23:10)
Jesus is our instructor. He teaches us. He
leads us into all Truth by His indwelling Holy Spirit.
Jesus tells us that He is the Way, and the
Truth and the Life. [John 14:6]
This means that any scriptures that do not
align with what has been revealed to us in Christ is not the Truth.
Moses even foresaw the coming of one like
Christ who would come in the last days to speak the words of God and he said we
should listen to him. (See Deut. 18:15-22)
On the mount of transfiguration, Moses and
Elijah appeared with Jesus and when Peter mistakenly assumed that the three of
them should be honored equally, God removed Moses (who stood for the Law) and
Elijah (who stood for the Prophets) and He left Jesus alone on the mountain
saying, “This is my Son. Listen to Him!”
This is our mandate now, from Moses, from Jesus
and even from God the Father Himself – “Listen to Jesus!”
This means we need to read the Bible through
the lens of Christ if we ever hope to know who God is and what God is really
like.
Why else would Paul tell us that “to this day a
veil covers [our] eyes whenever the Old Testament scriptures are read and only
in Christ is it taken away”? (See 2. Cor. 3:14)
Because, without Christ as our lens or our
filter, we cannot properly understand what is truth and what is error.
But now that we have seen and known Jesus, we
truly “see the Father” and we recognize the “Truth” when we see it because
Jesus has shown us the “Way” to see the Father clearly.
Therefore, nothing is true unless it lines up
with the revelation of Christ. Nothing points the way to God unless it aligns
with the teachings of Jesus. Nothing contains the words of life unless those
words correspond to the words spoken by Jesus.
As Peter exclaimed:
“Where else can we go, Lord? You have the words of life” [John
6:68]
And as Jesus reminded
us:
“You
search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and
yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” [John 4:39-40]
And as John tells us:
“He who
has the Son has life, but he who does not have the Son of God does not have
life.” [1 Jn. 5:12]
In
the same way that without Christ we have no life, it could be said that without
Christ we have no truth about God either. His unique access to the Father was
one of the central claims of His Messianic ministry, as we have already
referenced here.
Jesus
is the Father’s preferred method of speaking to us in these last days. Not
through prophets or teachers, not even through apostles or pastors, but through
His Son.
Does
this mean we should ignore those prophets, teachers, apostles and pastors? Of
course not. But what it does mean is that if those prophets, teachers, apostles
and pastors say something about God that disagrees with what Jesus has already
told us or revealed to us, we must hold tight to the teachings of Christ.
For
many, this is where they warn us about being deceived or remind us how easy it
is to fall into error. As if our best and only safeguard against error or
deception is to be found in the security of holy men rather than in the
absolute authority of Christ and His Holy Spirit that lives within us.
Let
us not fool ourselves. These fear-based warnings are more about a desire to
maintain control over people in the Church – to ensure they don’t question the
doctrines of the denomination or challenge the teaching of the pastor in the
pulpit.
This
is why you will never hear sermons about the priesthood of all believers, or
the passages about how the average Christian is capable of hearing the voice of
God apart from the approved mediators. Because to empower the people of God in
this way is to effectively dismantle the clergy class and calls into question
the entire status quo of traditional Christianity which is built upon coercion
and control.
So,
we are told to question our ability to hear God’s voice. We are told to doubt
that still small voice. We’re warned not to trust our own discernment. All of
this keeps the Holy Spirit of God at a safe distance from the people, only to
be handled by the trained professionals in the seminaries.
How
do you know if your own church community has bought into this fear of the Holy
Spirit? It’s simple enough to determine. Just try to start a Bible study in
your own home and invite some of your friends. See how long it takes for
someone to question your ability to lead such a study by yourself. See if
anyone demands to see your notes or expects you to ask permission from the
leadership first.
I
experienced something like this at a church I was serving at over a decade ago.
A few college students wanted to start a Bible study in their dorm room with
some friends. They were told they could not host this study without one of the
pastors leading the study, and so they ended up cancelling it.
This
astounded me. How could we refuse to allow these twenty-something students to
gather and read the words of Jesus together? It was their decision. It was
their dorm room. What right did anyone have to tell them they were not
qualified to handle the words of Jesus without a professional clergy in the
room with them?
We
often act as if the Gospel and the Scriptures are too dangerous to be handled
by mere mortals. As if the most likely outcome of allowing everyday people to
read the Bible would result in confusion and false doctrine, not wisdom,
insight and freedom.
Let’s
look, once again, at what the New Testament says about all of this:
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on
all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see
visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and
women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” (Acts
2:17-18)
“As for you,
the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to
teach you; but as His anointing
teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.” (1 John 2:27)
“But
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will
not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you
what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and
making it known to you.” (John 16:13-14)
"I myself am convinced, my brethren, that you yourselves
are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another."
(Romans 15:14)
"For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone
may be instructed and encouraged.” (1 Corinthians 14:31)
What
I find fascinating is that, according to Jesus and the Apostles, every believer
is capable of hearing the voice of God, and yet, in today’s modern church we
typically find that only one, or perhaps a few, are expected to hear God’s
voice and communicate His will to the Body.
Why
is that?
Partly
because we have embraced a false Clergy-Laity divide which suggests that only
those who have attended seminary or graduated from Bible College are capable of
hearing God’s voice or instructing the Body.
As
one New Testament scholar, Howard Snyder, put it:
"The clergy-laity dichotomy is…a throwback to the
Old Testament priesthood. It is one of the principal obstacles to the church
effectively being God’s agent of the kingdom today because it creates a false
idea that only ‘holy men,’ namely, ordained ministers, are really qualified and
responsible for leadership and significant ministry. In the New Testament there
are functional distinctions between various kinds of ministries but no
hierarchical division between clergy and laity. The New Testament teaches us
that the church is a community in which all are gifted and all have ministry.”
Essentially,
in spite of the fact that the veil in the temple was torn in two when Christ
said “it is finished,” we have virtually re-sewn the veil and re-instituted our
own system of professional priesthood.
I
would like to suggest that it is time for another reformation within the Body
of Christ. One where we demolish the clergy-laity distinctions and empower
every member to listen for the still, small voice of God.
It’s
also very important for us to spend time reading the words of Jesus ourselves.
This process isn’t accomplished in a vacuum. We need to know what Jesus says
and we need to become familiar with what He taught. How else can we call
ourselves His followers? How can we possibly do what He says if we don’t know
what He said?
This
doesn’t mean that everyone has the gift of teaching. We still need to rely on
one another and trust the Spirit of Christ that is alive in our community of
faith to lead us. We need to pray for, and start to develop our gift of
discernment. We need to test the Spirits and hold tightly to the words of
Jesus, trusting in His Spirit to guide us.
Everyone
who is under the care of the Great Shepherd can hear Him speak. We need to
learn to trust Him to do that, and we need to learn to trust ourselves – and especially
His Spirit within us – to discern His voice.
Like
any skill, this may take time to develop. But if we never step outside our
comfort zones and move deeper into an intimate relationship with Jesus, we’ll
never learn to recognize when He speaks.
What
we often forget is that learning and teaching in the Body of Christ isn’t
merely an academic process. It’s not the same as taking a class on Trigonometry
or how to speak Chinese. In those cases it is necessary to have a teacher – an expert
in the field – who fully understands the material and has an ability to
communicate the necessary information.
But
in the Church, we are not only gathering to understand information about God,
are we? Hopefully not.
Instead,
when we gather together the Author of the Book is always in the room with us.
The main character is close at hand to answer any questions and explain Himself
to us.
“For where two or three come together in my name, there
am I with them." (Matthew 18:20)
“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” (James
1:5)
So,
even if the people who have the gift of teaching are not present for one of our
gatherings, it's still possible for everyone else in the room to read the
Scriptures, and pray, and ask God for wisdom and insight. If they do this they
should expect to receive revelation from God Himself through the Holy Spirit.
In
this way, the Church is never without a teacher. The expert we require is
always present.
Again,
this doesn't make everyone in the room a teacher, but everyone in the room does
have access to hear the Teacher and share what they learn from Him.
Therefore,
it’s still possible for everyone in the Body to come together under the
Headship of Christ and share the gifts they’ve received from the Holy Spirit
and participate in the life of Jesus together.
We
have the living God within us. He is our instructor.
Don’t
you think it’s time we got busy listening to Him?
-kg
