Bible Lesson 232

What does meek look like?

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27 To be a Christian, requires courage, because we must go out into a world that hates us for whose we are. It takes courage to swim against the current, however, the Christian is charged to do that very thing. We are meek, but we are strong and unafraid. brobob

This month we will look at an area of the Christian life that has pretty much been neglected, as the visible church shrank back to a position that seems to be one where no one will speak the Truth of God, because it is not popular or is not politically correct. When was the last time you heard anyone mention the gospel outside the church?

Better yet when was the last time you did that? We have chosen to play it safe, to make our salvation something that we do not mention in our daily lives. It’s O.K. at church but not at work.

That’s a problem because Jesus calls us to bare-knuckle teaching of the world and further teaching that makes a difference in other lives.

We are told to Go, and make disciples, that we have taught to obey all that Christ commands us to do. What kind of lifestyle does that point to, is it church on Sunday and the world the rest of the week? You know better and so do I.

Christianity is not heralded, by a life of ease and girly men who are afraid to confront the sin in the lives of others. We have been taught by our leaders that what we do is, to be a friend of the world and maybe we can get some sinner to agree with us and perhaps join some church.

God did not come to encourage people to join churches, He came to build His church, that would be spotless and clean. Made up of people who are brave enough to stop and make witnessing a project, informing people that we are training of the truths concerning being a disciple of Christ.

What was the witnessing process that was employed by our Savior and Lord? It was not one that presented the life of one who follow Christ as one of ease and prestige, rather it was one that pointed out the need of the sinner and warned Him about the consequence of rejecting Christ.

It was one that always stressed that it was not easy to be a disciple, instead it was one where the Lord God Almighty warned people about. There were plenty of people that we willing to follow as long as it did not require suffering any hardships, or hunger, thirst or discomfort.

Following Christ is not easy; and He never failed to mention that to those who said they would follow. Our Lord found many who said that they wanted to be His disciple, and they said they would follow Him anywhere, but they often found that the way was narrow and difficult, and many fell away. We can point to a certain Scribe who said to Christ, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever you go.” Jesus did not shake his hand and tell him to just jump on board and have fun. Instead, Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man (Jesus) has nowhere to lay His head.”

Another disciple said to Jesus, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. But Jesus said, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury the dead”. It takes a real man to speak to those who are attempting in some way, to respect you, and Our Lord was a real man and was able to get His message across to those who did not know what following Him entailed. We are always too concerned that we might hurt some sinner’s feelings, and so we fail in our job from God, to warn men about the consequences of failing to obey Him. Several years ago, I was preaching at a church that was typical of the visible church of our day, all to often. This church was family owned and operated and when I preached about the love of Christ being only for those who obey Him as it is written in John14:21-24, It hurt the feeling of one of the family who thought the church belonged to them and she told me on the way out of the church, after the message that it hurt her feeling. I told her that she would get over hurt feelings but would never get over going to hell.

I’m sure by now that some of you are thinking, brobob is too hard; and to that thought I would say to you, no you are to weak! Someone may think well, we are to be meek, because Christ was meek. Meek may rhyme with weak, but that is not what the Bible means when it says meek. Meek speaks of power and I mean real power, not this milk toast power that too many of the Christians today have. Meek speaks of Power under control, and that means that when we go out to witness we must have the power of Our God, to speak what is necessary. Remember, one of the first words that Jesus Christ spoke when He began His Ministry here on the earth, was Repent. That may not sound very hard, if you say it fast; but it means a lot more that we think it does.

To call the religious leaders and the congregation as a whole to repentance was to say to them, that they had to give up their religion that had been the way that the leaders had controlled the Jews for a very long time. It was their way of life and to some their very lively hood. Jesus, when He spoke repent to the Pharisees and the Sadducees meant that they were wrong in the way that they had always worshipped. Jesus said to them that they must make an about face and go another way. Jesus knew that what He had told them would be an affront and that it would cause them to resist Him and His teachings, in some dangerous ways. We know that it led them to demand His crucifixion; and He knew that it would, but He never faltered; because He was right. We must be able to do that same kind of confrontation when we deal with the world and the worldly. That is not what we have been doing of late, but it what we are called to do.

We don’t dare do things like confront sin and lift up Jesus as the only solution to sin. That’s because we have elected to worship the way of the world; rather than to obey God. Like it or not you might as well accept the fact that overall, men in our day have become effeminate, and women (not all but many) have made Eunuchs out of husbands, boyfriends and men in general. God warned us it would happen in Genesis 3:16b. This feminism movement is as ungodly as it can be because it strikes at the very foundation of our families. When our Bible speaks of being meek, it does not mean that men are to act like women or that women should act like men. Christian men will be all that any woman should ever want to have as head over her. Christian men who are meek (power under control), will never mistreat their wives, or any other woman.

My Dad, and my granddad that I can remember, were meek men, meek not weak, and they were gentle and kind until you stepped on one of their principles, and then you would know for sure that you had made a mistake. Our Lord was that same way. Christ was a man’s man, and he had no fear of anything or anybody. Christ could get angry, and He even told us to “be angry, but sin not.” (Ephesians 4:26). Jesus Christ was not one to be politically correct, and He always spoke the truth to power.

Jesus Christ was weak and lowly, meek, but His meekness helps us understand that it is not weakness, when we read that He platted a whip and ran those who sold sheep, oxen, and doves, out of the temple. Read about it the first time because He did it more than once, in John 2:13-17.

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob