My Daily Pause

Christ before Caiaphas – ca. 1630 – Matthias Stom (fl. 1615–1649)

The Jews needed something. Anything.

And they weren’t going to stop until they got it.

As Jesus was enduring his first trial in front of the council, every word he said would be twisted against him. Jesus would finally give them what they wanted when he was ready, but they would take any and every lie, any bit of hear-say, or snippets of his teachings and try to convict him. They weren’t being too choosy about it. (Mark 14:53-72)

People aren’t much different now.

If someone doesn’t want to believe in God, it is easy enough for them to come up with a way to get to that conclusion.

Want to deny Christ?

It’s easy, just scoff at one of the key parts of the gospel and a denial can be completely justified. (At least in that person’s mind)

Even in light of all the miracles that were witnessed during Jesus’ ministry, the Jews ultimately believed what they wanted to believe. They didn’t take the time to investigate what they heard about. They didn’t take the time listen to Jesus and compare it to their own teachings. At the end of the day, crucifying Jesus was about being able to maintain the life they knew.

It takes a lot of time accept the gospel.

It takes even longer to want to live a Christian life.

What we do and what we say will give others a reason to accept or reject Jesus. The challenge for us is life a godly life without getting in our own way as a teacher. To do that we have to be:

• Consistent – Sin is sin, we can’t be caught waving the Bible about one type of sin and letting another type slide
• Knowledgeable – We have to know what we are talking about and not say things that simple logic or trivial Bible knowledge can dispute. Basic errors can cause our whole case and the best of our intentions to be suspect
• Loving – Teaching is done best with a kind heart. Showing others a better way should be done with a gentle approach. Remember that we are asking them to change their life.

The key to making others interested is living a great life within the bounds of God’s word. We have an expectation of a generous reward – we should be wearing that on our sleeves!

We have the power of God supporting us.

We have a savior that told us not to worry.

Now go give them a reason to ask why we are so happy! (1 Peter 3:15)