Hi all,
The core reason for a lack of respect of God is a lack of revelation of God.
Jesus the local boy
Mark 6: 1-6 tells us Jesus traveled back to His hometown with His disciples, and taught in the synagogue. When they heard Him they were ‘astonished’ the text says, asking what kind wisdom is this from the local boy.
“Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joses and Jude? Aren’t his sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him.”
The lower, natural truth was that He was in fact the local carpenter. The higher truth is that He was God’s Son being raised in the home of Joseph and Mary in preparation for His ultimate mission. All the people could see was the natural truth.
The phrase ‘they were offended’ is the Greek word ‘eskandalizonto’ which means ‘to put a snare in the way’, hence to stumble and become trapped in offense. The root word is ‘skandalon’ which is the trigger of a trap, so that we have a word picture that Jesus’ claims to be something more than the local carpenter served as a trigger for the local people, which trapped them in offense.
Luke chapter 4 goes into detail of His visit in Nazareth; His message in the synagogue included the revelation He was the anointed One sent to set the captives free. They rejected this revelation, choosing offense and holding to their natural knowledge of Him as carpenter. Their offense was so intense they tried to throw Jesus off a cliff.
The choice is always before us
In Isaiah 55: 7-9 the Lord invites a person to repent of, and leave his ways and thoughts and come up to God’s ways and thoughts which are much higher. It is an invitation.
Revelation always comes before such a change in thinking from high too low. Revelation, a personal revelation of God, leads to respect and honor for God and the things of God. A lack of revelation of God leads to offense. That is what happened with Jesus in Nazareth. He spoke of the things of God but He lacked credibility in their eyes because they rejected the revelation He was more than just the local boy. They rejected the invitation to come up to higher ways and thoughts. That rejection led to contempt for Him.
Jesus said in John 6: 40: “He who sees the Son, and believes on Him, will have everlasting life…”
Notice first we see the Son, then we believe. That initial ‘seeing the son’ is revelation or enlightenment, the point where we understand Jesus is more than just a man.
The Lord continued in v44 saying a person can’t come to Him unless the Father first draws them, then in v45 explains how this drawing happens: “It is written ‘they will be taught of God’. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned of the Father, comes to me.” Before you and I believed on the Lord, it was the Father giving us revelation about His Son.
Elsewhere this initial revelation is called ‘enlightenment’, and is a life-long process for the believer. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian believers and the prayer I personally pray for others and myself the most, is found in 1: 17-19: “…the the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, that the eyes of your understanding my be enlightened so that you may know the hope of your call…” Revelation from the Father, enlightenment, is life-long.
Do we walk in this?
I’m going to suggest one reason we see many so called believers who have raised their hands to ‘accept’ the Lord into their lives during a church service have no significant change to their lives, is because they raised their hand before receiving deep and personal revelation from the Father about Jesus.
Many a ‘believer’ who raised their hand does so out of mental agreement they need to ‘accept’ Jesus, or change their life, or find an answer to life – before they ever experience personal enlightenment/revelation from the Father, drawing them to Him. Thus they continue to live as they did before – though of course some do respond from revelation. But many, not.
Studies have shown that only 6% of those who come forward at an evangelistic crusade to ‘accept the Lord’ are still following Him 1 year later. Is this in part because they make the decision for Christ more on head knowledge than on personal revelation and enlightenment from the Father?
Do we push for a decision from them before the Father has drawn them and taught them, preparing their heart to come to the Lord? I think so. Church culture is so eager to record ‘a decision for Christ’ they neglect the very first step of the process – being taught of the Father.
Peter did not proclaim ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’ until after, Jesus told him, the Father had first revealed that to him. First comes the revelation, then comes the proclamation.
It is that revelation from the Father, being taught of Him, that causes us to leave our natural thinking of Jesus as the carpenter from Nazareth, to entertain the possibility His claims of being God’s Son might be true. But people will fight you for their right to stay in the lower truths of the earth. They will vehemently reject higher truth.
You can see the downward spiral…
In Romans 1: 20-28 Paul outlines the most basic form of revelation from God is to see Him in creation as Creator. He says even the invisible attributes of the godhead can be seen in nature, but some when ‘they knew about God, chose not to acknowledge Him as God nor were thankful, so their foolish heart became darkened…’
Turning away from revelation leads to a downward spiral in one’s thought processes. When a person rejects God they reject man who was created in His image. Therefore they lose the ability to discuss ideas and concepts without attacking the person offering a differing view. Having no respect for God, they have no respect for their fellow man.
As Christians we have revelation of the Father. We should be the most respectful of people therefore, no matter if another person is a fellow Christian or not – they were given life by the Father and deserve respect from that alone. Choose the higher ways and thoughts of the Father, seek Him and to have Him open the eyes of our understanding – but He only does that for those who know to walk in love with that revelation….respect for God leads automatically to respect for people and His creation…thoughts…
New subject next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
