Sunday, June 24, 2018 pm
SOME THINGS JESUS DID
NOT DO
In Acts 1:1 we read, The
former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do
and teach.
In Acts 10:38, we read as Peter
was teaching Cornelius, how God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for
God was with Him. John 21:25
concludes by saying, And there are
also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by
one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books
that would be written. Amen.
Typically, when we talk about Jesus, we address the things that He did.
Truly He is the ultimate example of what we ought to be doing.
But there were also things that Jesus did NOT do.
In this lesson I want to address a few of these.
Jesus did not:
a.
While in reality this is
simply stating the opposite of what Jesus DID do, it is worthy of
consideration as we begin.
b.
Jesus was adamant that
He would obey the Father – John 4:34 He stated, My food is to do the
will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.
Philippians 2:8 notes that He became obedient to the point of death
Matthew 26:39, in the Garden of Gethsemane He prayed, “Not as I will,
but as You will.”
c.
Far too many DO reject
the will of the Father. Even
as Jesus taught, many rejected God – by rejecting Him – Luke 10:16,
where He noted He who hears you
hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects
Him who sent Me.
Mark 7:9 Jesus noted, All too well
you reject the commandments of God, that you may keep your traditions.
John 5:39-40 – you refuse to
come to Me that you may have life
AND in so doing, they judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (cf.
Acts 13:46)
a.
Jesus never compromised
the truth. In fact, He knew
it better than any other. He
knew not only the teachings, but the intent behind them and faithfully
applied the truth.
b.
He exposed error and
those teaching it. Matthew
15:7-9, at the conclusion of exposing their corruption concerning the
command for children to honor their parents.
Matthew 23 is filled with examples of the corruption of the hypocritical
Pharisees and scribes.
Matthew 7:15-16 He warned us to beware of false prophets who come in
sheep’s clothing.
c.
If we are to follow His
example, we must never tolerate error – 2 John 9-11, Ephesians 5:11,
etc.
a.
There were occasions
where Jesus offended people – Matthew 13:57 – in Nazareth Jesus was
rejected and they were offended because of Him.
Matthew 15:12 – His teachings offended the Pharisees. Jesus noted it was
because they rejected God. John 6:61 – He was teaching hard sayings
concerning consuming His body and blood.
Some were offended and left Him to follow Him no more.
The truth is, Jesus dealt with many who simply did not want to follow
Him.
In Matthew 11:16-19
Jesus noted that there were some who nothing could be done to please
them. No matter what Jesus
did, they would find fault with it.
b.
The mantra of far too
many today is to avoid offending anyone.
But this is an impossible task.
No matter what you believe, you will offend someone somewhere.
Let us learn from Jesus, that while we ought to be “wise as
serpents and harmless as doves”, and that our speech ought to be
“seasoned with salt”, we cannot compromise the truth, nor can we expect
to please everybody.
AND the more you seek to be ecumenical and accepting, the more open to
compromise you will be.
c.
Let us never forget that our goal is to please the Father
– John 8:29 – that is what Jesus did.
2 Corinthians 5:9, we make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him.
Colossians 1:10 calls for us to walk worthy of the Lord, “Fully pleasing Him”
a.
Similar to the last
point, Jesus was not able to convict everyone.
This is evident not only by His critical enemies, but there were
others simply not willing to believe and obey.
b.
An example is the rich,
young ruler of Matthew 19:21-22.
He went away sorrowful because he did not want to give up his
wealth.
John 1:11 tells us that He came to His own, and they did not receive
Him.
John 6:66 says that from that time, many of His disciples went back and
walked with Him no more. We
can even see some discouragement in this.
Evan among the 12, Judas Iscariot betrayed Him.
Others believed, but did not obey – John 12:42
c.
We must remind
ourselves, that Jesus, even with His miracles, full knowledge and divine
nature could not convict everyone.
Neither can we! But
that is NO excuse to quit trying!
a.
John 17:4 – He prayed
that He had finished the work He was given.
b.
As Jesus was being
arrested, Peter tried to defend him with his sword.
Jesus refused the help noting that he could ask the Father and He
would supply 12 legions of angels – that is 72,000 angels to deliver
Him. But He need to die,
because we needed Him to die.
John 10:17-18 – He had power to quit, but He didn’t
c.
We must endure to the
end to be saved. Matthew
10:21-22. In Luke 9:62 – we
cannot look back and be fit for the kingdom of God.
John 15:5-6 – if a branch in Him does not bear fruit, it is cut off and
cast into the fire.
Hebrews 10:38-39 – the just shall live by faith.
To draw back, “My soul has no pleasure in him.”
1 Corinthians 9:27 – even Paul realized he need to remain faithful or he
would be disqualified.
a.
Matthew 11:28-30 – Jesus
offered the invitation to everyone.
He noted, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
If anything, this declares that we CAN do what is expected of us.
1 Peter 2:21 – Jesus leaves us an example.
He committed Himself to God and so can we.
b.
Consider the plan of
salvation - Acts 2:38 – anyone
can do that and be in a saved state.
c.
We even have assurances
– 1 Corinthians 10:13, Philippians 4:13, etc.
d.
Just because we can do
what we need to do, doesn’t mean it is easy.
There is definite sacrifice involved, but you CAN do what you
need to do, IF you are willing to seek first His kingdom – Matthew 6:33.
a.
Far too many today want
to place their salvation exclusively on Jesus (or grace).
They want to dismiss their responsibility.
We sometimes describe this as “once saved, always saved” or “the
impossibility of apostasy”.
We have already seen above that we cannot quit and there are
consequences if we do.
b.
Others peach a universal salvation or unconditional election (God randomly
chooses who will be saved) – both of these remove our personal
responsibility, AND both are unscriptural.
Every passage that calls for us to do something or makes our salvation
conditional contradicts these doctrines:
Consider John 1:11-13, He
came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God,
to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Concerning universal
salvation –
we consider Matthew 7:21-23, 22:14 – many are called, but few are
chosen; Matthew 7:13-14 – the broad and narrow gates, etc.
Concerning unconditional election – we consider John 3:16 –
whoever believes on Him, Titus 2:11 – the grace of God that brings
salvation has appeared to all men teaching us…; 1 Timothy 2:4 God
desires that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; 2
Peter 3:9 – God is not willing that any should perish, but all should
come to repentance.
c.
Even with these
passages, we must understand that Jesus does NOT remove our personal
accountability. Consider the
following:
Galatians 6:5 – each one shall bear his own load.
Romans 14:10-12 – we must all appear before the judgment seat to give an
account for ourselves.
1 Corinthians 3:8 speaks of each one receiving reward according to his
own labor.
When we stand before God in judgment, we will be judged by what have
done and not done.
Revelation 20:12 looking to the final judgment we read,
And I saw the dead, small and
great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was
opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to
their works, by the things which were written in the books.
Vs. 15,
anyone not found written in the
Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Jesus did many things while on earth.
In fact, He did everything he needed to and did it right.
And He did it for us.
But, as we have seen, there are things Jesus did not do.
Let us learn from His example and respond as we have need so that
we can receive the blessings associated with what He did.
Think about it.