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Christ’s words are Sincere, Simple and Straightforward

October 7, 2013 cm-admin Inspire 0

6 Oct 2013 by Tony Dibble-

Christ never played around with His words. His teaching was straight-forward. He sometimes made His point through stories called parables. These were based on common situations so that the average person could readily understand His serious message. The parables were also drawn from nature and were about seeds, plants, fruits and trees.

Christ’s crowd of listeners included the total social structure of his time: fishermen, farmers, servants, invading soldiers, tax collectors working for a conquering government, and prostitutes and as well as the religious leaders. Even the wife of King Herod’s treasurer was one of his supporters (Luke 8:3). All were welcome to hear him (and still are).

His twelve apostles were perhaps from the lowest social strata as pointed out by Philip Yancey (The Jesus I Never Knew, pp 60, 98 & 99). In Mark 7:18, Christ seemed to point out the lack of understanding of his disciples, asking them at one stage, if they were so “dull” (NIV).

One of the first records of Christ’s teachings was that the pure in heart would “see” GOD. There was nothing new or special about this. Six centuries before, God reminded his people that they would find Him if they searched for him whole-heartedly, amidst their captivity (Jeremiah 29:13). Today, as before, we live in captivity of our environment (though a virtual one) and if we seek Him whole-heartedly, we would find GOD. Only half-hearted efforts would of course, result in failing to find GOD.

Seeking GOD was seeking a relationship: not seeking a concept or how to find an idea, acceptable academically. If we say that it is hard to know GOD, it means one or possibly two things: we have been misinformed about getting to know Him; secondly, something in our hearts is holding us back from doing so, very heavily.

Similarly, seeking God does not merely involve doing things for GOD on a routine basis. GOD and His kingdom exist without our efforts. Instead, seeking GOD amounts to cultivating a relationship with Christ, where we know each other personally (Matthew 7:22 & 23).

There is nothing complex about the things Christ said. Max Lucado pointed out that there is a brief record of the important things that Christ said. They were neither long-winded statements nor confusing directions. Christ’s greatest and complete Sermon can be read in 8 minutes and is mainly found in Matthew’s gospel, chapters 5 to 7.This was the Sermon on the Mount(ain), recorded after his baptism and temptation in the wilderness.

Christ’s best known story can be read in 90 seconds and is in Luke 15:11 to 32. This is the story of the lost son who took his inheritance from his father, and wasted it away, only to return home after he was totally broke. This shows GOD’s forgiveness to a stubborn sinner and also warns us against spiritual jealousy.

Christ’s teaching on how to pray was summarised in five phrases in Matthew 6:9-13.This is commonly termed “The LORD’s Prayer”, or “The Our Father”.

Christ silenced His accusers with one challenge when they tried to test him, having brought a woman to Him, and she was reported to be caught in adultery. His reply to their arguments was found in one sentence, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her,” as recorded in John 8:7.

When his enemies sought to trap him into a political argument about paying taxes to a foreign government, who controlled His people, He put the question back to them. He asked them to show Him a coin. He told them clearly, to comply with their separate obligations to the authorities and to those duties that they had to do towards GOD.

Christ made it known openly, that admission into the Kingdom of God was not based on one’s monopoly of spiritual authority nor position. Instead, it was based on whether one believed in the gospel and repented (Matthew 21:23, 31 & 32; Luke 3:12-14).This was irrespective of whether one was from the most despised professions in Christ’s day: prostitutes; or tax collectors and soldiers who were serving a conquering regime.

Even at His death whilst on the cross, Christ continued his work of saving souls. In one sentence, He told a dying thief that he would be in paradise with Him, that day (Luke 23: 43).

Christ summarised the law of GOD in three verses, in Mark 12:29 to 31. He responded to a scholar who asked Him what the most important commandment was. Christ flatly told him that GOD is one and that he should love GOD completely and that he should love his neighbour totally, as he did himself. This happened in the presence of other scholars. Mark reports then, that after the event, no one dared to “question” Christ.

Christ reduced his teachings to one command, as in John 15:12 when He told the disciples to love one another as He had done.

We should never conclude that Christ and His gospel are difficult to understand, nor to pass on. Much depends on our spiritual “spectacles” and whether we wish to be retaining our own spiritual sin to block our clean hearts. Our spiritual “spectacles” and those of the world’s are given by the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-15).The question always is, do we want to put them on, and relate to GOD through them?