Information or Transformation?
Well howdy, howdy everybody! I pray all is well with you.
Our Church's Outreach Minister has been teaching a Bible class series with the aim of transformation instead of just information. Which got me thinking (I try not to think so much, because thinking too much gives me headaches!) about some things. In John chapter five we read about Jesus healing a man at the pool at Bethesda. The Jews chastised Him for doing it, because it was on the Sabbath day. In the middle of the chapter through the remainder of it, Jesus tells them He does what His Father has been doing and He will continue to while it is still light. In verses 31 through 47 Jesus talks about John the Baptist and the Old Testament scriptures as testimonies about Himself. In verses 36 and following He tells them that the Old Testament scriptures are a weightier testimony than John the Baptist is. I want to focus on verses 39 through 40, which read, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life".
It's amazing and scary to me that these men put their whole lives into studying the Old Testament scriptures and looking for the Messiah. They all must have had an errant view of what the Messiah was going to be, because He was right there under their noses and they all missed Him. Jesus tells them in the two verses in John listed above that they studied their Bibles very diligently, but they missed the Messiah they had been looking for. They thought they knew what He was supposed to be like, but they were wrong. Jesus didn't fit their view of what the Messiah was. They thought the Messiah was going to be a military leader, but Jesus promoted peace and love. They thought he would keep all of their preconceived traditions, but Jesus broke quite a few of them (ie. healing on the Sabbath day, and calling God His Father, and many others). No, oh no, the true Messiah wasn't what they thought He would be at all.
Obviously, the Jews had all the information one would want, but they weren't transformed by what they knew. The Old Testament said He would be a Suffering Servant (in Isaiah somewhere I believe), and that He would be nailed to a cross and mistreated by man (Psalm 22). It was all right there, but they didn't see it for what it was. I pray we will diligently study the scriptures as well, but may we also be eternally transformed by what we read!
May God bless us all to that end!
Be blessed!
Zack
Our Church's Outreach Minister has been teaching a Bible class series with the aim of transformation instead of just information. Which got me thinking (I try not to think so much, because thinking too much gives me headaches!) about some things. In John chapter five we read about Jesus healing a man at the pool at Bethesda. The Jews chastised Him for doing it, because it was on the Sabbath day. In the middle of the chapter through the remainder of it, Jesus tells them He does what His Father has been doing and He will continue to while it is still light. In verses 31 through 47 Jesus talks about John the Baptist and the Old Testament scriptures as testimonies about Himself. In verses 36 and following He tells them that the Old Testament scriptures are a weightier testimony than John the Baptist is. I want to focus on verses 39 through 40, which read, "You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life".
It's amazing and scary to me that these men put their whole lives into studying the Old Testament scriptures and looking for the Messiah. They all must have had an errant view of what the Messiah was going to be, because He was right there under their noses and they all missed Him. Jesus tells them in the two verses in John listed above that they studied their Bibles very diligently, but they missed the Messiah they had been looking for. They thought they knew what He was supposed to be like, but they were wrong. Jesus didn't fit their view of what the Messiah was. They thought the Messiah was going to be a military leader, but Jesus promoted peace and love. They thought he would keep all of their preconceived traditions, but Jesus broke quite a few of them (ie. healing on the Sabbath day, and calling God His Father, and many others). No, oh no, the true Messiah wasn't what they thought He would be at all.
Obviously, the Jews had all the information one would want, but they weren't transformed by what they knew. The Old Testament said He would be a Suffering Servant (in Isaiah somewhere I believe), and that He would be nailed to a cross and mistreated by man (Psalm 22). It was all right there, but they didn't see it for what it was. I pray we will diligently study the scriptures as well, but may we also be eternally transformed by what we read!
May God bless us all to that end!
Be blessed!
Zack
posted by Zack | 6:11 PM
2 Comments:
It really is sobering to see how diligently the Pharisees studied the scriptures, and just how wrong they were in so many things.
It's even more sobering to compare yourself to them and think, "What am I wrong about?"
Yeah Zack... good thoughts. You know, I have tried to ask myself over and over again, "If Jesus came today to Dallas in 21st century America and not to Judea 2000 years ago, would I recognize him? Would I know that he is the messiah and drop everything to follow him? That's a scary thought.
I often wonder about some of the write-offs we make: "Oh well, we need to be careful of that guy and his church because it's all personality driven there. They all have preacheritis." Would I say the same of Jesus and his following if he started a church?
See, it's one thing to study about Jesus and about the things he taught. It is quite another to sit at his feet and study Jesus himself. His teachings are important, for sure, but to miss the person of Jesus in the process, I think, is to miss the forest for the trees. Anyway, good blog. Keep it up.
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