A Discriminating Ear

"And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures."

Luke 24:45

Until Jesus opened the understanding of His disciples, they could not comprehend the spiritual and practical truth of God's word--despite their familiarity of passages, rote memorisation, obedience to the Law of Moses and teaching by Jesus.  This opening of understanding correlated with the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit when Jesus breathed upon them (John 20:22).  We must be spiritually regenerated before we can understand scriptures that are spiritually discerned.

This morning I spent an hour metal detecting and it provided an illustration of the importance of having our understanding opened by Jesus.  By waving a calibrated detector over sand, metal objects can be sensed which cannot be seen.  After a bit of practice the user can determine what sort of target lies under the sand by the volume, duration and clarity of the tone.  Unless the metal detector is turned on, it is of no value whatsoever.  On the flip side if it picks up all ferrous content in the sand or soil it is constant noise and cannot alert the user to dig a potentially valuable target.  Once the worthless iron and aluminium foil is tuned out (using discrimination), then a metal detector can be used effectively.

For the first 20 minutes of detecting, I did not notice my settings had been changed from the "pro" to the "coin" setting.  This meant I was not hearing everything I am accustomed to and likely missed many good targets.  Once this setting was adjusted I was able to better determine what objects were buried in the sand.  This prompted me to think about how reading a Bible without the aid of Jesus opening our understanding leaves us missing out why we read the Bible in the first place:  to know God, hear His voice, to receive correction, instruction and wisdom.  Reading the scriptures without having the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our understanding is like waving a metal detector without batteries over the sand:  no signals and thus no spiritual benefit.  Whilst there is great truth littering God's word in plain sight, there remain priceless nuggets of wisdom discovered under the surface.

How wondrous is the grace of God who opens the understanding of unlearned, ordinary people to receive divine truth faithful Old Testament prophets and angels are ignorant of!  Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit enabled fisherman and tax collectors to walk in wisdom the learned chief priests and religious Pharisees could not comprehend.  Jesus grants His followers the ability to hear His still, small voice and strength to walk wisely.  A faint signal of a metal detector can indicate a great find, while a loud beep could be an empty soda can.  Let us be those who dig into God's word to discover what He is saying to us, valuing His wisdom over the worldly clamour all around us.  The sheep of the Good Shepherd hear His voice, and thus we learn to tune out the deceptions and distractions that are not of God, taking to heart His good word.

Christ the LORD is Risen

Resurrection Sunday is a glorious reminder of Jesus conquering sin and death.  During visits to Israel I have gone to the Garden Tomb as well as the Tomb of the Holy Sepulchre, purported by some to be the place where Jesus Christ was crucified and buried.  It is difficult to prove whether this or another site is the actual place where Jesus was buried because He is not there; He is risen!  Even if the place of Jesus' death and resurrection could be authenticated, it is not a place to be venerated:  the only One worthy of worship is Jesus Who was received up into heaven and sits enthroned.

Many people witnessed the death of Jesus on Calvary, and hundreds of people affirmed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  For 40 days after His resurrection Jesus walked, talked and ate with His disciples.  During this period the empty tomb and corpse-free graveclothes could have been inspected by locals and travelers to Jerusalem.  The best evidence of the resurrection was by the person of Jesus Christ Himself as He appeared to His followers many times.  After He ascended to heaven, however, strong evidence for His existence, resurrection and power to save remains in full force.

Better than an empty tomb and silent linen as evidence of the resurrection are the born-again children of God by the power of Jesus Christ who proclaim Him daily.  Even as Jesus opened the eyes of those born blind, healed the lame and delivered countless from demonic possession, those who receive Him by faith are made new creations by the Holy Spirit who indwells us.  Jesus said in John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  Jesus passing from death to life was observed in His physical body, and the spiritual reality of rebirth through the Gospel causes people to fundamentally change.  People who are mean-spirited begin to exhibit the love of Jesus; people embittered by life are made sweet.  Those who stole previously become generous, and they choose to spend time with other Christians to worship God with hunger for His word.

The love of Jesus in Christians is evidence we are His disciples, and disciples are followers.  The psalmist said in Psalm 100 refers to believers as sheep of His pasture, and Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lay down His life for His sheep and took it up again.  It is impossible to follow someone who is lying in a grave and motionless.  Having been made alive by the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9), we are led by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and guides us into all truth.  Every Christian is a living, breathing testimony of our risen LORD Jesus Christ who reigns on high, and thus the evidence for the resurrection is everywhere we go.  Christ is risen, and may our love for one another cause people to say, "He is risen indeed!" all to the glory of our awesome God and Saviour.

Compassion in Action

While it costs us little to say "Nobody's perfect," our pride takes a hit to say "I am a sinner."  Many people have grown up hearing and believing they are basically a good person, yet the Bible makes the case in the view of the holy God the exact opposite is true.  Psalm 14:2-3 says, "The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. ³ They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one."  Though mankind has been created in God's image, we have been irrevocably corrupted with sin.  Spiritually speaking, we are only fit for the fire.

By itself this would be incredibly terrible news, yet this is only part of the story.  The Bible also teaches God loves all people and thus was not content for mankind to be doomed without hope or help.  God's compassion moved Him to action, even as the father in the parable Jesus told of the prodigal son.  The father in the tale had two sons, and they were both deeply flawed.  Because of their sin they were both estranged from their father at different times:  one went to a distant country and wasted his inheritance, and the other refused to attend the feast held in his restored brother's honour.

The father was on the lookout for his estranged son in Luke 15:20:  "And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him."  While the wayward son was a great way off, his father saw him, had compassion and ran to embrace him.  When the older son heard his father had received his brother and killed the fatted calf Luke 15:28 reads, "But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him."  The father went out to plead with his angry and embittered son who refused to celebrate the return of his brother.  Whether a son was a great way off or out of sight for a moment at a feast, the father noticed and lovingly went to them to draw them to himself.

It is common vernacular to refer to people as "spoiled" or "rotten," and this is spiritually the case for every person.  Like spoiled fruit and rotten eggs have permanently gone bad, so humanity is ruined by pride, deceit, selfishness and greed.  We would not pay a dollar for a dozen rotten eggs or a bushel of spoiled apples, yet God has paid the price for our forgiveness, redemption and salvation with His own blood (Hebrews 9:12; Acts 20:28).  We come to Jesus as we are but He does not leave us as we are, for by faith in Him lost sinners are found, spiritually born again, pardoned of all sin and made righteous.  By the power of the Gospel people are transformed from within and indwelt by the Holy Spirit to love from a pure heart as Jesus does.  The death of Jesus on Calvary was compassion in action to draw all people to Himself for salvation.  Praise the LORD for all He has done by His grace!

Feelings and Self-Control

In his book Renovation of the Heart, Dallas Willard made astute observations of humans concerning our reliance upon feelings to direct and govern our actions:

"Often they cannot distinguish between their feelings and their will, and in their confusion they also quite commonly take feelings to be reasons.  And they will in general lack any significant degree of self-control.  This will turn their lives into a mere drift through the days and years, which addictive behavior promises to allow them to endure.

Self-control is the steady capacity to direct yourself to accomplish what you have chosen or decided to do and be, even though you "don't feel like it."  Self-control means that you, with steady hand, do what you don't want to do (or what you want not to) when that is needed and do not do what you want to do (what you "feel like" doing) when that is needed.  In people without rock-solid character, feeling is a deadly enemy of self-control and will always subvert it.  The mongoose of a disciplined will under God and good is the only match for the cobra of feeling." (Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ. Form, 2021. page 130)

During His lifetime and in the days as His crucifixion approached, Jesus remains the perfect example of self-control, yielded entirely in submission to the will of His Father in heaven.  No human being ever voluntarily looked forward to being cruelly tortured and crucified, but Jesus for the joy set before Him embraced and endured the cross.  In Gethsemane Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42 "...saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."  If Jesus had been led by His feelings, He would have run from the cross.  He did not "feel" like being crucified on that particular day.  By knowledge of God, His rock-solid character and total obedience, Jesus was able to overcome the draw of doing what He felt like doing--avoiding crucifixion.

Consider the impact of Jesus not confusing feelings to be reasons to do what He wanted:  in becoming a sacrifice for sin Jesus provided eternal life to all who trust in Him, having provided through crucifixion necessary atonement.  In was in laying down His life in obedience to the Father we have pardon and eternal life.  For those born again by faith in Jesus, we are given the Holy Spirit who provides knowledge of God's will and produces spiritual fruit--which includes self-control.  It is the power of our risen Saviour Who provides the strength and ability to remain in submission to God rather than being mired as a slave to feelings that prompt us to go our own foolish, disobedient way.