Jesus
continued exposing the hypocrisy and short-sighted thinking of the Pharisees
and those siding with them. Remember
when I said that I do not want to be on the other end of a statement that Jesus
begins with Woe unto you…
I also do
not want to be in the company of those he might call a brood of vipers. You bunch of snakes, you forked tongue
devils, you good-for-nothings--these are terms that I don’t want sent my way,
especially by Jesus.
Jesus went
on the explain the terrible thinking of the Pharisees. If you want to rob a strong man’s house, then
you had better have enough people to tie him up or you will be the one bound
and sent off to prison.
A good tree
gives good fruit and it can’t give bad fruit. A bad tree can’t produce good
fruit. These are not new concepts but
Jesus makes direct application to the Pharisees.
How can you
evil good-for-nothings think that anything you say is right or good or brings
glory to God in any way?
It’s time to
choose sides. You are for me or against
me. If you choose the wrong side you
will be scattered. You won’t prevail. It’s really your house divided against
itself.
As bad as it
seems to confront the Son of God, it is so much worse to reject the very Spirit
of God. You are in danger of coming out
on the wrong side in the judgment because you are rejecting more than the One
whom God sent. You are rejecting the
very Spirit of God.
For every
religious person who thinks they have it all figured out but have rejected the
heart of God in the process, the words of Jesus should hit home here.
For by
your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.
Here is the
short version. You are with Jesus or you
are against him. There is no middle
ground. There is no fence-sitting. It’s for or against, and no argument of man
will help you if you picked the wrong side.
What words
acquit us? Jesus
is Lord. We believe that Jesus is
the Son
of God, that he
died as a sacrifice for our sins, that God
raised him from
the dead, that he is with
the Father in heaven interceding
for us, but the coup de grâce is our profession that Jesus is Lord.
He is more
than the Son of God. He is more than
Savior. He is more than redeemer. He is Lord.
In those
words, we are acquitted.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment