Friday, June 16, 2006

LEARN OF ME


“Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear; things I would ask Him to tell me if He were here: scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea, stories of Jesus, tell them to me.”

Jesus told many stories as He sought to convey His message in terms that could be understood. Unheard of concepts and ideas, so cosmic and profound we still find them impossible to fully grasp, Jesus brought down to the simplest of terms in word pictures we could comprehend.

Following a series of parables about the Kingdom of God, Mark adds this note: “With many stories like these, he presented his message to them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. He was never without a story when he spoke.” (Mark 4:33-34, The Message)

For instance, Jesus not only declared that the Kingdom of God had drawn near; He also told simple stories that gave insight into what that Kingdom was like. One such story compared the Kingdom to a crop that grows to maturity even though the farmer who sows the seeds has no further part to play, nor even understands what makes it grow. (Mark 4:6-29) Another compared the Kingdom to the smallest of seeds, the mustard seed, that when planted in the soil grows into a large plant with such large branches birds can perch in its shade. (Mark 4:30-32)

These are wonderful stories and accomplished what Jesus intended. People were attracted to them and could grasp, at least at that simple level, what Jesus wanted them to know. If His story got their attention and they wanted to know more there was something deeper for those who became His disciples. The last part of Mark 4:34 says, “When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, sorting out the tangles, untying the knots.” (The Message)

Some justify shallow preaching and teaching by citing that Jesus told simple stories, but that misrepresents Jesus. Jesus calls His disciples to a deeper knowledge of Him and His Kingdom than He reveals in His stories. He invites us to “learn of Me” (Matthew 11:29) and to get to know as much of Him as we are capable of knowing. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.” (John 16:12)

Too many Christians stop at the stories and miss out on the spiritual nourishment that is freely available to them. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.
I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly.” (I Corinthians 3:1-3a) The writer of Hebrews wrote, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)

As we sit together here on “The Teaching Steps” the Holy Spirit will join us and will lay before us a rich banquet of “manna from heaven” as He teaches us the things of Jesus. Your contribution is important. As many of you have heard me say before, if you keep to yourself what the Spirit says to you, you rob the rest of us of a blessing. Your insights are from a perspective the rest of us cannot have unless you share it. Thus we learn from each other.

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