One of the things I keep asking myself is, “Am I
reflecting Christ correctly to others around me?”
Doctrinally we may be right, and yet Christ may
not be reflected in our lives. Jesus said that when the Helper, the Holy
Spirit came, He would take all of His things and show them to us. One
mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit is that we will be constantly
seeing something more of the glory of Jesus from the Scriptures – as
shown us by the Spirit. In some passage that we have read for 25 years,
all of a sudden, we will see something of Jesus there that we’d never
seen there before. And in that light, we will see our own need.
I don’t believe that we should ever look inwards.
That is not God’s way. We don’t run the race, looking inwards at
ourselves. Yet this mistake is made by a lot of Christians who pursue
after holiness. But looking inward only brings depression, because
nothing good dwells in our flesh. A spiritual man always looks upwards
first and sees Jesus. And it is in the light of the glory of Jesus that
the Holy Spirit shows him his own need. It is in His light alone that we
are to get light on ourselves (Psa.36:9). That is God’s way. When we see
our need like that, we will never get discouraged.
Looking inwards is what the psychologists teach as
a technique for self- improvement. Non-Christian religions also have a
lot of teaching of such self- improvement. Unfortunately, holiness for
many Christians is nothing more than a self-improvement program. They
look at certain weaknesses in their life and seek to improve. But that
is not God’s way, for that brings heaviness, depression, and bondage -
and very often, a lot of pride as well, that says, “I’m better than
others.”
Genuine holiness is the kind spoken of in
Ephesians 4:24 - “holiness of truth” – or “a holiness that is no
illusion”. The holiness of many Christians is an illusion. They are holy
only in their own eyes. And if there’s one thing I fear, it is being
holy in my own eyes. If we discover only at the judgment seat of Christ,
that some of the holiness we thought we had was only an illusion, and
not genuine Christ-likeness, it will be too late to do anything about it.
We must know that now.
Paul said, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us
in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of
the knowledge of Him, in every place.”(2 Cor.2:14). There is an
aroma of Christ that comes forth wherever there is genuine holiness. It
may not be through anything we say or do. It’s just an aroma. An aroma
is like a perfume. When a lady uses a perfume, she doesn’t have to say
or do anything. Everyone smells the aroma. So too with the aroma of
Christ. There is something about the bearing and conduct of a Christ-like
man, the way he talks to you, the tone of voice and his approachability
etc., that gives you an aroma – and that is the aroma of Christ.
Whether we realize it or not, we are all exuding
some aroma or the other. And like body odor and bad breath, we may not
realize the bad aroma we are exuding. Other people however can
smell our bad breath. But out of courtesy, they may not tell us about
it. And most people won’t tell us when they see something un-Christ-like
in us either. How then shall we be saved from deluding ourselves with an
illusory holiness?
Only by humbling ourselves before God and allowing
the Holy Spirit to show us the truth about ourselves every day. If we
can acknowledge, that despite all our Bible-knowledge, and our service
for the Lord, we are still very unlike Christ, then there is hope for
us. If we have the hope of becoming like Christ when we see Him, then
the Bible says that we will not stop purifying ourselves, until we are
as pure as Christ is (1 Jn.3:2,3).
A Spirit-filled man is one who has a passion to be
Christ-like. His service for others comes out of his Christ-likeness. To
be Christ-like does not refer only to one’s character. It includes our
witness and our service for God too – for Jesus spent much of his time
serving others, often ignoring His own personal needs.
We read further in 2 Corinthians 2:15, “We are a
fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved, among those
who are perishing.” That teaches us not to try to be a fragrance to
other people. Some who hear this message may now try to be a fragrance
of Christ to others. That can be superficial and artificial.
It says here that we are a fragrance of Christ
unto God, first of all. God has to smell our fragrance first of all.
And if God smells it, then those who are being saved will smell it too.
But if we are eager for other people to smell our humility, our purity
and our goodness, we will only end up as Pharisees. We have preached
holiness in our church in Bangalore for 25 years now (1999), and it
would not be an exaggeration to say that we have preached holiness more
than any other church that I know of, in India. So I say to the brothers
and sisters in our church, “Therefore, we are more in danger of being
Pharisees than anyone else in our land.” Do you know how the Pharisees
became Pharisees? By pursuing holiness. But it was a holiness of the
letter. It was not a holiness that brought a fragrance to God.
In Isaiah 65:5 we read of certain people who said
to others, “Don’t come near me, for I’m holier than you.” I don’t think
anyone would actually say that in so many words today. It would be rude
and haughty to say such a thing. But it is an impression that we can
give to others that conveys this message: “I am holier than you.” And
when we give that impression to others, we make them feel small. That’s
not the aroma of Christ.
And this is what I am scared of more than anything
else - because this is what makes me a Pharisee. I’m even scared to tell
people what the Lord has done for me, or in me, lest I make them feel
small. We’ve got to be careful when we report to others what the Lord
has done through us. We must speak in fear. We need to fear when we
speak about dreams and visions and revelations that we have received –
lest we make others feel inferior to us. Jesus never made anyone feel
small. He made Himself like His brothers in all things and kept quiet
about things that would make others feel small. The question we need to
ask ourselves always is: “Am I giving others the impression that I’m
holier than them, or more used by God than them, or even more unworldly
than them?” That is not the aroma of Christ.
Do you see now why the sinners ran away from the
Pharisees and came running to Jesus? Jesus was holier than all those
Pharisees – yet sinners felt comfortable around Him. Now, logically
speaking, a sinner should feel more comfortable with other sinners, and
not with a holy man. If my clothes are dirty, I’d feel more comfortable
mingling with others whose clothes are also dirty, rather than with
someone whose clothes are sparkling white. Jesus’ clothes were sparkling
white! There was not a spot of sin in Him!
And yet the filthiest sinners in town felt
comfortable with Him. Why was that? Because He never made them feel
small. He never gave them the impression that He was greater than them
or even holier than them (even though He was). To me that is the
greatest mark of genuine holiness.
It is interesting to see the expression the Lord
uses here to describe those who have this attitude of spiritual
superiority. They are “a smoke in His nostril places - a fire that burns
all day” (Isa.65:5). We have all seen trucks on the road that belch out
smoke. When I travel on my scooter behind such trucks, I keep a big
distance from them. It’s a terrible feeling to have smoke going into our
nostrils. God says, “If you want to know what I think of people who give
others the impression that they are holier, the best example I can use
is getting smoke into your nose the whole day long”!! If that is how the
Lord feels, then I say, “Lord, I never want to be like that. I never
want to make another person feel small in my presence.”
Love never makes another person feel small. If our
ministry is anointed and powerful, it is easy to get power over people
through that. And with that power, we can make people do what we want
them to do. We can make people serve us. That scares me, because I serve
a Savior who never wanted anyone to serve Him. He came to serve others.
But it is so easy when people respect us, to make them serve us or our
family in some way. And when we do that, we have become big people. I
fear that. I want to go down, and become small, because I am called to
serve others, not to rule over them.
I remember a well-known preacher who came to stay
with us for a few days in our home, many years ago. He was gripped
by the message we were preaching in our church and he came to attend our
meetings. And he saw how my wife and I moved closely with the people in
our church, and he said, “Brother Zac, you shouldn’t move so closely
with the people. Keep a little distance. Let them have a little awe of
you. You and your wife mingle too freely with everyone.” All I can say
is that I felt sorry for him. What he was suggesting is the technique
adopted by kings and queens, and film actors and actresses. They never
get too close to people. They keep their distance, because that is how
they keep people in perpetual awe of them. And alas, many preachers have
made royalty their examples, rather than Jesus.
Jesus was never like that. He mingled freely with
all people - all the time. Romans 12:16 tells us “not to be haughty in
mind, but to associate with the lowly.” That means to mingle freely with
the ordinary people as an ordinary man yourself. I love the title that
Jesus used of Himself most frequently: “son of man.” What He meant by
that was that He was just an ordinary man. He was not an ordinary man
actually. He was God Almighty! But He lived on earth as an ordinary man.
And the more I become like Him, the more I will be an ordinary man. Only
thus will I be able to finish my earthly course with joy and fulfill all
of God’s will for my life.
You don’t have to preach well. That’s a gift that
God gives to very few people. But if you can be gripped by the glory of
Jesus and remain an ordinary brother, an ordinary sister – not royalty
or a star – until the end of your days, you’ll finish your course with
joy and be a blessing wherever you go. And even if you speak just a few
words, God will take those words like arrows into people’s hearts and
they’ll never ever forget you.
You can never forget a real saint. You may argue
with him, you may criticize him, but the memory of his life will go with
you wherever you go - because you saw something of Christ in him. That’s
how we are to live!
People may meet us and go away. But even 40 years
later, they won’t forget us, even if they never see us again – because
they saw something of Jesus in us once, which they cannot forget.
This is what Jesus meant when he said that we were to be “witnesses unto
Him”. That calling has been so devalued now. We have Bible schools and
plenty of Bible-knowledge. That’s good. But if we don’t reflect Christ,
if His aroma doesn’t come forth from us, all our knowledge and preaching
is worthless – it is only garbage, fit for the garbage-bin.
You may not be a preacher like me, but you may
have a strong personality and your soul may have a lot of power in it.
That doesn’t depend on how big you are physically, or how clever you
are. Human soul power is something in your personality. And if you have
a strong personality, it will be easy for you to dominate others in the
church who are weak personalities and make them feel small. A rich man
also can likewise make others who are poor, feel small.
In Luke 22:24, Jesus said to His disciples, “The
kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority
over them are called Benefactors.” A benefactor is one who does good to
people, a very rich man, who helps poor people. Yet the Lord said,
“Don’t be a benefactor.” What does that mean? It means that if we
help poor brothers, we must do it in such a way that they don’t feel
obligated to us in any way. We are not to make them feel small when we
help them. We must not rob them of their dignity as human beings. If we
help people and in the process rob them of their dignity as human
beings, then we have been their benefactors, not their brothers.
I have met many missionaries in India during the
last forty years and I don’t want to judge them. But my honest opinion
is that 90% of them were benefactors. I hope I’m wrong, but I am afraid
I’m right. They certainly did a lot of good for the people of India.
They sacrificed much, gave money, built hospitals, and did many other
good things. But most of them did not make themselves equal to the
brothers they came to serve. They were benefactors. It’s not easy to be
a brother. I can act like an equal and talk like an equal, but my aroma
gives me away. The aroma of humility is different from acts of humility
and talking in a humble way, etc., You cannot duplicate the humility of
Christ. You have to have it inside you. And that depends on what you
think of yourself in relation to those other people. It depends on
whether you believe that all human beings are equal before God,
irrespective of race, religion, color, intelligence, education, wealth
etc.,
The most important principle of Christian service
is that which is written in Hebrews 2:17: “He (Jesus) was made in all
things like His brothers.” It says about Ezekiel, “I sat where they
sat…” Jesus was made in all things like His brothers. He was no
benefactor. He was an ordinary man. It is not easy to be that always.
Don’t assume that you are like that. If you assume
that it is so with you, you will deceive yourself. It is far safer to
assume that you’re not like that. Start with the assumption that you are
a benefactor, and then say, “Lord, I don’t want to be a benefactor. Help
me, to be in all things like my brothers, so that the least and the
lowest among them will feel comfortable around me. Help me, that, even
when I reach the heights of holiness in my inner life, and the heights
of what I think is Christ-likeness, that the filthiest sinner in the
world will still feel comfortable around me; and that above all, You
will always smell the aroma of Christ in me, and not the aroma of a
self-made holiness.
”We need to take these matters seriously if we
want to go on with God. We can come up to a certain point in our walk
with God and then spend the rest of our life congratulating ourselves
and comparing ourselves with other believers around us. With so much
decay and corruption in Christendom in our day and with hardly any
distinction nowadays between the lifestyle of so-called, “Spirit-filled”
Christians, and that of the world, it’s not difficult to be better than
such third-rate Christians. Then we can begin to think, “Our church is
better…Our sisters are more modestly dressed…..We don’t do this and that
in our church……We don’t have this and that in our home... We are like
this…We are not like that…” etc., etc.,
We can put such a burden on our children by making
them behave like tin soldiers who have to always behave in a certain way before others. A lot of Christianity today is like that – “window-
dressing” – like a shop-window that displays something
attractive for passers-by to see and be impressed by. And if
one of our little tin soldiers does not behave in the
way he or she should, we are disturbed - not because a
sweet aroma is not going to God, but because of what
those visitors would think of our “shop-window”!!! This
is just seeking honor and glory from men for ourselves and for our
families - and it is a stench in God’s nostrils. He detests it.
If there’s anything we need to fear in the pursuit
of holiness and being separated from the spirit of
the world, it is seeking the honor of men - trying to
become a fragrance to men, instead of a fragrance to God. We must not make others feel small in any way. I
may be preaching holiness and doing a lot of good to people. But if I am on a pedestal and make others
feel that they are below me, then I have failed to be a witness for Christ. I certainly must not
compromise in any area. But I must sit where the others sit.
That is how Jesus was. He embraced the lepers whom the Pharisees wanted to keep outside the city. He sat where they sat and loved them and made them
realize that they were valuable to God.
I’ve said to the brothers and sisters in my
church, “If you see a brother in need in the church and you
want to help him financially, that’s a good desire. It’s
good to have a generous heart. But you need tremendous wisdom, if you are to be a brother to him and not
a benefactor. So don’t go and give him any money yourself. Because then he’ll feel obligated to
you. And you would have robbed him of his dignity as well, because you reminded him of his poverty. Instead,
put your money in an envelope, write his name on it
and drop it in the offering box. Then he won’t know
where the money came from. And if you want to help him
next month, an envelope of another color, use a pen
with a different color of ink, disguise your handwriting,
change the amount of the money you put inside, and drop
it in the offering box again. And if you want to help
him again, don’t do it at regular intervals, but at
irregular intervals. Then he wont even discover that all of that money
came from the same source”!! Love is inventive. If you want to hide
yourself, you’ll have to be inventive.
We all want to be like God. But one characteristic
of God is that He hides himself. It says in Isaiah
45:15, “You are a God Who hides Himself.” See how
perfectly God has hidden Himself in this universe that
atheists can say, “There is no God”!!! And when He answers prayer, He does it so well, that even believers
say, “We were healed because we used this new antibiotic
….,” or “because we went to such-and-such a hospital”,
or “because we went to such-and-such a doctor…” etc., etc., It was God Who healed them. But He hid
Himself so wonderfully that someone else got the credit
each time!! That was how Jesus lived too. He would heal
the sick and disappear from the scene.
The more I become like Jesus, the more I will want to hide
myself and disappear after having done good to others! Jesus would heal the sick, and then tell the
healed person, “Don’t tell anyone that I did it. Just go
home and glorify God.” Do you see that spirit in any of
today’s healing evangelists? No. I’ve never seen it. And that’s why I
say, they do not have the Spirit of Christ. It cannot be the Spirit of
Jesus, because Jesus hid Himself after healing people.
Have you observed the way servants work in our homes. A good maidservant does all her work in the background. She washes the clothes away from
sight. She cooks the food in the kitchen. She sweeps the floor when no- one is in the room. But the results
of her actions are seen by others - there’s a good meal on the table,
the clothes are neatly washed and ironed, the house is spick and span.
But you don’t see the person who did all that work. A visitor to that
home may never see the servant. He will only see the master, the
mistress and the sons and daughters of the house. I’ve meditated on that
because that is how I too am to be a servant of the Lord. I’ll be
successful servant of the Lord, when I am like that maidservant – doing
everything secretly just to please my Master. Where does that
maidservant get her reward from? Not from the visitors. No. She gets it
from her master. She’s not bothered what the visitors think about her.
And I too should be satisfied with the approval of my Master alone. Why
do I want anyone else on earth to know what I did for the Lord? Why
should anyone know that it was I who brought that person to the Lord?
Are you happy for your Master alone to be happy
with you? The devil is using both money-power and soul-power through Christian preachers nowadays. Just like a
rich man can make poor people feel small, an
intellectual can also make others feel small. Human soul power
is a tremendous force. Many intellectual Christians mingle only with those of the same intellectual
ability. I live in Bangalore where many people are
intellectual. But about 80% of our churches are in the poor
villages where most of the people have not even finished
high- school. I visit these churches often every year –
and those brothers have been my salvation. They have blessed me without their even knowing it – because they show me constantly that spirituality is not a
matter of the intellect at all. They bring me down to
earth.
I thought of the aroma of Christ when I was at a conference last weekend where I saw a number of
mentally-challenged (retarded) children. I believe that all of those
children are members of Christ’s body and will be in God’s kingdom.
Because they are saved just like I am – not by works, but by the
righteousness of Christ being put to our account freely. Now we know
that every member in Christ’s body has a function. So these little
children must be having a function too, by which they bless the body of
Christ! How do they do that? What do you feel when you see such a child?
A little compassion. And that makes you a little more Christ-like. But
that child did not even know that he had blessed you in that way? It was
blessedly ignorant of the fact that he made a hard person like you a
little more compassionate!! That’s how God does His work in Christ’s
body, so that no man gets the glory.
In the final day, no man will be
able to boast before God. We’ll see that God used so many people like
even these mentally challenged children and sick people to bless us
without their knowing it - to soften the hardness of our hearts, and to
make us more Christ-like. We may discover in the final day, that some of
these weak children blessed us much more than many of the sermons that
we heard.
God will never share His glory with another. No preacher will be able to stand before Him in the
final day and boast that he was the one who had blessed so many people. You’ll be surprised when you see
the type of people and children whom God used. It behooves us therefore to be humble, and to recognize that we are nothing. Make sure that you
don’t make other people feel small by your wealth or
your intellectual ability. The truly Christ-like person makes everyone
feel equal to him. When I am with little children, I talk to them at
their level. And when I am with young people, I talk to them at their
level, and try to use their language, so that they will feel comfortable
with me. This is Christ-likeness, and this is true holiness.
Elihu told Job “No fear of me should terrify you,
nor should my pressure weigh heavily on you” (Job
33:7). All of us need this verse – but especially
preachers. People can be afraid of us preachers – but they
should not be. Even if we are like lions in the pulpit,
we must be like lambs when we come down from there. No
fear of us should terrify anyone from coming near us – whether we are parents or older brothers and
sisters.
Our pressure should not weigh heavily on our
children or on brothers and sisters who are younger to us. Examine yourselves, dear brothers and sisters.
Does your pressure weigh heavily on anyone? Do you make people feel small? When they look at your life, do
they feel discouraged and say, “I can never be like
him.” Or do they feel encouraged and say, “He seems to be a person with weaknesses and struggles like me. So,
if he made it, I can make it too.”
Are you happy when others admire you? To tell you
the truth, I’m scared when people admire me. Because I know that they’ll be discouraged then. I’m scared
when other people admire my family life or my children.
That can easily discourage them. So I say, “Lord, I’m
not here to be admired by anyone. Even You did not
tell people to admire You. You only told people to
follow You. I want to be like You.”
Sinners like John the apostle could lean upon Jesus’ chest. What freedom Jesus gave John. Do we allow brothers to come
close to us like that? Or are we such “holy” people and
such “great men of God” that others cannot come near
us? Do you think that keeping a distance from people
is holiness? If so, may God have mercy on us. I can imagine Jesus even playing games with His disciples. Does such a thought horrify you? Do you say, “Oh, Jesus would never do that!” Wouldn’t He?
Perhaps you have a wrong picture of Jesus. Do you think that always being serious without any humor
at all, is the mark of true holiness? That is
counterfeit holiness – and there is a lot of that in the
world. No-one feels comfortable around such “serious, holy people”!! We can’t get close to them. We won’t
know whether we’re saying the right thing or doing the
right thing, around them. I have seen such people and I have prayed, “Lord, don’t let me ever be like
that.” I don’t want anyone to feel that he has to behave in
a certain way when he is near me, or in my home. Everyone is free to be just himself with me. He
does not have act in a special way or fear that he may
say or do something wrong around me. He cannot say or do anything wrong. I will accept him just as he is.
He is free to be himself.
An Arabian proverb says, “True friendship is one
where I can pour out everything that is in my heart to
my brother and know that he will sift the chaff from
the wheat and keep only the wheat.” Can we give others the freedom to talk to us like that? Or do they
have to be careful when speaking to us? I know that with certain people, I have to be very careful about
what I say, because they will analyze every word - and
that can cause problems. How good it is when you have a good relationship with your wife. You can speak to
her without carefully weighing your words – and you
know she understands you fully and will never misunderstand you. That is true fellowship. And
that is how it should be in the church.
Holiness without fellowship is a deception. If
there is genuine holiness in two brothers, they will have
deep fellowship with each other – and they will feel totally at ease
around each other. Jesus never tolerated sin, yet sinners felt
comfortable around Him. That was because He created such an atmosphere around Him that enabled sinners to be free with Him. Only the hypocrites were
uncomfortable around Him. That’s how it should be in the church
too.
Isaiah 33:14 says, “The hypocrites tremble in
Zion.” A hypocrite must never be able to sit comfortably in our church.
But repentant sinners (no matter how deeply they may have fallen) must
always feel comfortable in our midst as they did with Jesus.
Does your pressure weigh heavily on some people? I’ve met a number of believers like that. There’s
a weight about them. I don’t mean physically!! They
can be small-built. But as soon as you meet them, they make you aware of how big they are. There are many husbands like that who constantly make their wives feel small. Does your wife feel scared to make a mistake in your home? If you’re like that, there’s something you need to cleanse yourself from. We
are told to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of
the flesh and spirit” (2 Cor.7:1). It is fairly easy
to cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh – because that is
easily noticed. But filthiness of the spirit is more subtle.
In the same way there are fathers whose pressure weighs heavily on their children. Are your
children scared to make a mistake at home? Do you expect them all to be perfect tin soldiers? You can keep
up that pretense for a long time and fool others that
your children are all spiritual. But God sees through all that. And a
spiritual man will see through it too. But since 95% of the people in
the church are not spiritual, you can fool all of them – and get away
with it.
Soul power is a very subtle thing. You can have
all your doctrines right, and preach well, and do many other things
well. But your soul-power can make others feel small. Jesus was not like
that. People should not be afraid of us. They should fear God. 2
Corinthians 7:1 (the verse I just quoted) goes on to say that, “holiness
is perfected in the fear of God” - not in the fear of man. No-one can
perfect his holiness through fearing any man’s opinion. Every brother in
my church should be able to say concerning me, “I don’t fear brother Zac.
I can go freely to him at any time.” If however people live in awe of
us, we are a stench in God’s nostrils.
I knew a brother, a brilliant man, who was very
orderly in his thinking, and neat and tidy in all his
ways. His mind was programmed like that. And in God’s wonderful wisdom, he got a wife who was thoroughly disorderly. Such a marriage brings salvation to
both!! Such marriages are almost certainly ordained by
God. Because God is more interested in our
sanctification than in neat and tidy homes. I hope you know that.
A tidy home is good, but it is secondary to
sanctification, love and fellowship. This brother would help his
wife wash up the dishes in the kitchen every day – and
he had great wisdom. His wife would put back the
plates, forks, knives and glasses in a haphazard, disorganized way on the shelves. That was not the
way this brother would do it. But do you know what he
did? He would put away the plates, forks, knives etc.,
in the same haphazard way that his wife did. Why? So that his wife would never feel small by seeing a
neatly, perfectly arranged kitchen, that she could never
match!! So their kitchen did not look very neat, but they
had a very happy marriage! What a wise man he was.
Which do you want - a neat kitchen and tension at home, or an untidy kitchen and peace at home? Be wise, dear brothers and sisters. Don’t make
foolish demands on each other, and on your children. It is possible that you may not be realizing how heavily
your pressure weighs on your partner. But God can give you light, if you
seek Him.
“The time has come for judgment to begin the household of God. And it begins with us first…” (1Pet.4:17). How do we know that we are the household of God? Here is the mark. “Judgment begins with us first.” If we judge ourselves
constantly, we are the household of God. If we spend our time judging others, then we’re not the household of
God, but probably the household of the devil, the
accuser of the brothers.
Jesus Christ came to turn the world upside down –
or rather right side up, because the world has been upside down, ever since Adam sinned. Jesus came to straighten man up. People thought that Paul was turning the world upside down when he preached
(Acts 17:6-KJV). Actually, he was only turning the world
right side up.
The race of Adam, has one unique characteristic;
They put themselves first in everything, except in the
matter of judgment. In that, they always put the others
first!! When God asked Adam whether he had eaten of the fruit, he immediately blamed Eve and said, “This woman, whom You gave me…”, indirectly blaming God as well for his sin. In everything, the children
of Adam ask themselves, “How will this help ME?....What
can I get out of this?.... Will this enhance MY
reputation”, etc., etc., But in judgment, they all say, “Not me first,
but the others first.”
Jesus came and turned this upside-down world,
right side up. And He tells us now to live by His new principle: “Put others first in everything, except
in judgment. In judgment, put yourself first. ”Do you want to build the household of God? Then begin by judging yourself first. Cleanse yourself
from the filthiness of spirit that makes you judge
others, put pressure on them and make them feel small.
It must have been so pleasant for people to be
with Jesus. He never made anyone feel small. He never made anyone feel unimportant. He never made anyone feel that He was so busy, that He had no time for
them. Nicodemus went to see Jesus in the middle of the night, and Jesus
had time for him even at that time. He always gave people the
impression, “You can come and disturb me at any time.” And Nicodemus
just walked in, without making an appointment. Jesus made Himself a
nobody in order to serve us. I want to have the same attitude towards
people that Jesus had.
It says about Jesus that he was so busy serving people once, that He did not have time even to eat (Mark 3:20). People came to His house and wanted
to meet Him and to talk to Him. Somebody would want prayer for healing, someone else needed advice concerning some problem. And in helping all of
them, He had to miss his meals on many days. When His relatives saw this, they grabbed Him thinking He
had gone off His head (Mark 3:21). No-one would have considered Him mad, if he had missed just one
meal.
But this was becoming a habit! That’s why they considered Him insane. Has anyone ever considered you insane for allowing people to take so much of your time that you
didn’t even have time to eat? Are you serious about
wanting to be like Jesus? There’s a price to be paid to be
like Him. If you don’t want to be inconvenienced or disturbed by others, you might as well forget
about becoming like Him.
People were most important to Jesus. He did not come to earth to fulfill His own agenda. He came to bless people and He loved all of them. He was not engaged in a “ministry”!! What a lot goes under
the name of “ministry” these days that has nothing of Christ in it!! Jesus loved sinners, because He had come to save them. They had a right to make
demands on His time, His life, His convenience and even on
His meal-times Jesus was different from the run-of-the-mill
preachers that the Israelites had seen. He was sensitive to people’s needs.
Once, when Jesus and His disciples were walking from Judea to Galilee, He
deliberately chose to go through Samaria (Jn.4:3). He was prompted by the Holy Spirit to do so. He reached Samaria “weary from the journey” (Jn.4:5), but not
so weary that He could not listen to the Holy Spirit.
He was always alert to the voice of the Spirit. Jesus and his 12
disciples were all hungry. I have traveled with other brothers to
different places and I know what we do when we are hungry. We all go
together to a restaurant and eat. I never sit by the roadside and send
the other brothers to the restaurant to bring me food. Wasn’t it unusual
then that Jesus did that at Samaria? There was only one reason why He
did it. He sensed the Spirit saying, “Let them go by themselves this
time. You stay here.” He obeyed the Spirit’s prompting and sent His 12 disciples to the town, while He sat by the well.
Sure enough, the Holy Spirit had a reason for prompting Jesus to do that. Along came this woman at
noontime.
In all villages, the women normally go to draw
water from the village-well in the mornings, because
they need water for the whole day. But this woman
wouldn’t go in the morning because she was constantly mocked at the well, by the “religious women” of
the town – for her immoral lifestyle. “Holy” people
wouldn’t go near her, because she had been divorced five times, and was now living with a man whom she had not married. You don’t go near such people do you? “Holy” people keep clear of such women, right??
She had seen that attitude – and so came to the well
at a time when no-one else would be there. But today Jesus was waiting for her there.
I want to be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit
like that. That is the way to be a blessing to others in our brief
lifetime. If you are alert to the still, small voice of the Spirit, God
will use you to minister to needy people everywhere. Jesus didn’t preach
a message on “Divorce and remarriage” to that Samaritan woman. No. He
asked her for a glass of water. He went to her with compassion, and not
with a doctrine. And she was amazed that a “high caste, holy” Jew would
ask a Samaritan for water, for the Jews have no dealings with
Samaritans. We can be callous like those Jews too. Our attitude can be,
“Let these divorcees go to hell. We will have no dealings with them,
because we are holy.” But Jesus cares for divorcees. He died for them
and He wants to save them.
So Jesus began to talk to her, and probed her to
find out how honest she was. “Go and call your
husband,” Jesus said (Jn.4:16). The woman said she had no husband. She thought she could get away with that answer. But Jesus replied, “You’ve said well.
Because you’ve had five husbands and the one whom you now have is not your husband” ((Jn.4:18). Embarrassed, she immediately changed the subject. She said, “Lord, can you tell me something about worship? Our fathers worshipped at this mountain
but you Jews say that we must worship in Jerusalem.
Which is the right way to worship God?” It is so beautiful here to see that Jesus did not embarrass
her by probing her private history any further. He
changed the subject and spoke on worship. I love to see
that. Jesus never made anyone feel small. He never came back to the subject of her marriage again. He just ignored it. Let us learn from Him.
Jesus went on to explain to her what true worship
was. The most profound statement on worship in the
entire Bible was spoken by our Lord to a five-time
divorced woman. In our way of thinking, that would be the
last person on earth to whom we should be explaining worship. We would want to explain the seriousness
of divorce and remarriage to such a woman. But Jesus was so different from us! He was compassionate and
understanding. The Holy Spirit shows us the glory of Jesus here. And He
wants to make us like Jesus.
Amazingly, the woman got convicted - and got converted. And she became a witness. And there was a revival in this city. Just consider this : If
Jesus had continued to probe her marriage, she would have felt
uncomfortable and squirmed inside, and gone away. That’s how we drive
sinners away from us. We act “holier than them”. That is not the aroma
of Christ.
I used to read the gospels as stories at one time.
But now the Holy Spirit shows me the glory of Jesus in
the gospels, and I am challenged to be like Him - sensitive, thoughtful and considerate.
Let me turn you to another passage of Scripture, Luke22:24: “There arose a dispute among them as to which of them was regarded to be the greatest.”
Jesus knew what they were arguing about. And I see His gentleness in the way He dealt with them. We would imagine that He should have said something like
this to them: “For 3½ years I’ve talked to you about
humility. And I’m going to be crucified tomorrow morning.
Yet all that you can discuss among yourselves is who will
be the next leader. I’m sick and tired of all of
you.” But He didn’t say that. Instead He said, “Worldly rulers seek for
position. It should not be like that among you.” His approach was so
gentle. And then He encouraged them with these words: “You are those who
have stood by Me in My trials”(Lk.22:28). To whom did He say those
words? To those who He knew would run away and leave Him alone, in just
a couple of hours!! And He went on to tell them, “I’ve appointed a
kingdom for you, and you will all sit with Me on My throne one day.”
Such is the Lord’s way. Let us learn from Him.
People come to our church-meetings, beaten in
life’s battles, having financial difficulties, and facing
difficult situations in their homes with difficult husbands and wives,
and rebellious children. Many of them are struggling to make ends meet.
They come to church to get a word of encouragement. But what do they
get? Very often, a hammering!! May God have mercy on us for treating His
people like that.
Jesus was a great encourager. He was not afraid of praising people, publicly. He didn’t think as we
often do: “Oh, if I praise him, his head will get
swollen. So I better not do that. Let me keep him humble, by criticizing
him.” We are so unlike Jesus. When a Roman centurion came to Jesus, and
asked Him to heal his servant, Jesus replied that He would come to his
house. The centurion protested saying, “Lord I am not worthy that you
should come under my roof. But speak the word right here and my servant
will be healed. Because I too am a man under authority and when I say to
one of my servants “Go” he goes and when I say to another “Come” he
comes. Even so, Lord, I believe that You are under the authority of God
and if You say to a sickness “Go”, it will go immediately. I believe
that!” When Jesus heard this, “He marveled”. Isn’t is amazing that the
Son of God marveled at something? He immediately said about this
centurion, “I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.”
Jesus said that publicly in the centurion’s hearing. And He was not
afraid that the centurion’s head would get swollen with pride. No. He
wanted to encourage that man. The Jews looked at the centurion with a
“holier than you” attitude. And Jesus showed the Jews that that Roman
was better than every Jew in Israel. Jesus cared for divorced women and
prostitutes and Roman centurions who were not allowed to enter the
“holy” Jewish synagogues.
Can you imagine how that centurion must have felt when He heard these words from One whom he respected as the greatest Man on earth? He must
have been so encouraged. I am almost certain that he would have become a disciple of Jesus and lived
for the Lord thereafter. That is God’s way of making disciples.
What amazing things one word of encouragement can accomplish. And yet we are so unwilling to give
it, most of the time. We don’t speak words of encouragement to our children or to our wives – who struggle and
slog away for us in our homes. Instead, we are quick to point out their mistakes, some fault in the food
or something not put in its proper place, etc., etc,
How unlike Jesus we are.
What is the aroma coming forth from you, dear
brother, sister? How much effort does it take to speak a
word of encouragement to you wife or child? Why don’t we do it then?
I’ll never forget what an older brother once said
to me when I was a very young man. I was seeking to
serve the Lord, but I was often discouraged. This older brother did not even know me. But he put both his hands on my shoulders and said to me, “Brother,
God has a great purpose for your life.” I haven’t
forgotten his words in all these 35 years – and I don’t think I ever
will. I didn’t get puffed up with his words. I was greatly encouraged.
There’s enough in this world to discourage people. We don’t have to add
to that. We must sit on the other end of the see-saw, and encourage our
fellow-believers. People come to church to be encouraged, not to be
beaten up and hammered.
Let us turn now to Hebrews 3:13: I’ve read this
verse in two translations. In the King James Version it
says, “Exhort one another daily, as long as it is called
today, lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness
of sin.” But in the New American Standard Bible, it
says, “Encourage one another daily……” The translators of these versions
were great Greek scholars. So the original Greek word “parakaleo” must
have had these two possible meanings: “exhort” and “encourage”. This is
also the word from which we get the word “Comforter” or “Helper” that
Jesus used in John 14, to refer to the Holy Spirit.
Now, which of these two translations do you prefer
– “exhort” or “encourage”? I think we need both. How
can you save someone from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Perhaps you have exhorted
him plenty. It may be time now to start encouraging
him. You can save Him from being hardened by words of encouragement. Actually we should be balanced in both encouraging and exhorting. But if you find
yourself always leaning towards exhorting alone, then you
are not like Jesus. His aroma is missing in your life.
I find in my own church, that I’ve spent so many
years exhorting the people there, that I now feel the need to balance it
out by spending many years just encouraging them. Some of you may be in
the same boat as me. You’ve only exhorted people all these years. And
perhaps the people are still hardened. The fault is not theirs, but
yours. Try encouraging them for the next few years – and see the
difference.
Perhaps it is your children or the young people in
your church who need encouragement – so that they don’t get hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Those young people may have slipped up and fallen into
sin. But didn’t you slip up in your younger days too?
Have you forgotten what you were like at their age? Why
then are you so hard on them?
Christ is coming soon. Let me close with Paul’s
words to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you fulfill it”
(Col.4:17). And I say to you also in the Name of the Lord
Jesus,
“Take heed to the ministry that YOU have received
in the Lord. Fulfill it before you leave this earth.”
Go forth and speak words of encouragement to everyone around you. Fulfill that ministry faithfully – and
you will have a glorious entrance into Christ’s kingdom one day. Let us spread the aroma of Christ everywhere we
go.
He who has ears to hear let him hear.