Responsibility

Posted on April 19, 2019

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Responsibility

Mark 10:17-24 tells the story of the rich young fool. By this encounter, Jesus was telling the people around Him that He had stepped up the pass-mark for entry into the kingdom of God. There are dispensational truths, such as the laws in the Old Testament becoming not relevant for salvation when Jesus came. There was also a time that looking up at the brazen serpent saved one from death but that is no more. Jesus Christ came and stepped up the pass-mark for entry into God’s kingdom. The rich young man by virtue of obedience to all the laws was not a sinner, but by virtue of disobedience by not giving out all he had and following the Lord; he became a sinner. He was perfect because he obeyed all the laws, but by not moving forward with Jesus he became a sinner. He walked away from Jesus and when you do that, you are on a fast lane to hell. This young began to walk on the fast lane to hell, by simply sticking to one dispensational truth. I put it to you that Jesus Christ has upped the pass-mark beyond “I believe in you Lord, come into my heart and save me.”

He has gone beyond that level, and you better begin to readjust your mind, let it be pliable and malleable gold tried with fire, from which impurities have been removed. These are the things that Jesus needs, for you to be the instruments of honour that He is looking for.

When you come across the word sin in the Bible there are 3 definitions of sin in Greek: (1) Hamathea (2)  Hamathano  (3) Hamatholos

Hamathea means missing the mark of existence; missing the goal that God has set for you. That is the Adamic sin.  Adam missed the goal that God set for him (see Gen. 1:26-28), he turned over dominion to Satan because he forgot or didn’t know that you become a servant to whoever you obey (Rom. 6:16). God had to come forth by shedding the blood of His son Jesus to correct that.

Hamethano means missing the mark of your relationship with God. For example, you are born again, but if an okada man hits your car and you rain curses on him, at that point, you missed the mark of your relationship; what God expects from you in such a situation. Later, you come to your senses and apologize to God and ask Him to forgive you. That corrects the sin and restores your relationship with Him.

Hamotholos is a grievous sin, it is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and is also used to describe the habitual sinner. They are the ones described in Hebrews 6:7-8 as the land that drinks the rain but brings forth thorns, the land that is useless.

So when we say we are born again, we have only gotten rid of one sin, there are others which have to do with missing the mark of our relationship with God; and it is as we follow Him that we can understand this. Obedience, giving and following the Lord are three things the Lord mentioned in Mark 10 that are of note.

Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Matt. 19:21). Perfection comes with following the Lord. Perfection as used by Jesus in this Scripture and in the Beatitudes, talks about maturity, the opposite of being babes. When Jesus says “come, follow Me”, it is as you do that, that perfection will be yours, that you will be able to handle matters very well, that you will be like Christ. Perfection (thelios) talks about the progressive state of man, it is not static, it is something that you work on, on a daily basis. The thelios is one who has attained his moral end, meaning one that is no more confused, that fulfills the Scripture in Ephesians 4:7-11, one that is no longer tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. He can stand to do what God expects of him, irrespective of whatever others are doing. That is the state that God expects of anyone that says, “I am born again.” Enough of dancing around salvation, let’s move to another mountain.

Having reached this attainment (maturity, perfection), other and higher ends will now open up to you in order to have Christ formed in you more and more (Col. 3). Perfection, maturity is the goal of God in saving you, not just to bless you but to fulfill the Scripture that says, “greater works than these shall you do. Because I go to the father and I will send the comforter to give you the dunamis, the power to do it.”

The problem with the church is the problem of misplaced priority. Just like the rich young man who went away, felt that he could not cope with the new truth that Jesus was talking about. The Bible says that the disciples were astonished with the truth that Jesus was the only way to God, just like many of us just feel salvation is all that matters. There is more to this walk with God, than just “Lord, I believe” and coming to church on Sundays to sing, give offering and move on.

The problem with the church is that of misplaced priority, in the bid to draw crowds to the church, the men of God all around us present a false gospel. Though they preach salvation, but is incomplete or sometimes in a perverted way. And if something is not perfect in the spirit, it is still not the same thing. When presenting this incomplete gospel, they don’t put the danger in Christianity. When Jesus called the rich young man, He told him the danger attached to following Him. There is danger attached to Christianity, it is not rosy-rosy. The danger is what Jesus told the rich young man, “come, follow Me.” The danger in Christianity is the dying, or losing of our identity to learn from Christ, and then be yoked with Him. Many preachers don’t present this to the people.  “Come follow Me,”- they are two different things. You need to lose your identity. The rich young man was known as a rich man, that was his identity, going to sell all he had would automatically make him a poor man, a change of identity. Many of us don’t lose our identity, yet we come sit down in church. The rich young man physically did not follow Jesus, so everybody knew he had gone to where he chose. But for us in the spirit, we only come to church assuming that is “follow Jesus.” It is a Sunday-Sunday church routine. If I don’t go to church my neigbours might think I’m a witch or something more devious; so off to church, to keep up appearances. No one loses his identity, or come to learns of Christ, or be yoked with Him.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28-29). Come unto me all ye that labour and I will give you rest”… is the gospel as presented everywhere. But the “come learn of me and take my yoke upon you…” nobody talks about that. When Jesus says “take my yoke upon you,” He is saying “come and take on responsibility.” That word ‘responsibility is one we don’t like to hear. From the time we were born to our early teen years is known as the age of irresponsibility, but are we going to remain like that? Many are youths because they don’t take on responsibility, even though they may be 50 years old. An adult or a growing child takes responsibility. How many are years in the Lord, yet don’t know His standards?

Jesus came and told the people many parables outside in different places. But the disciples came to Him later in a private place, and asked Him to explain better to them, because those things were hard sayings. And He sat down and explained to them. What if they did not ask Him, would He have explained the parables? Proverbs 25:2 says “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Jesus still uses that principle till today. If you don’t seek out a matter, you will remain ignorant; you will remain a babe. How long will we remain babes?

Jesus performed His own tasks. It was tough; He cried in Gethsemane, blood came out of His sweat glands, but He took on the responsibility that was given to Him, so that you could live. Who is taking on His responsibilities? Peter already knew that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God, before the question came up. This was confirmed in Jesus’ response to him. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father which is in heaven (Matt. 16:13-19). Adam and Eve died a foolish death, how? God had spoken to them many times, but they never knew He would do what He had said.  Satan said, “did God really mean that you would die in the day you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” They never knew their God.  And when I see people who can’t behave like this God after years of knowing Him, behaving just like Adam and Eve, when the waters come, they will be flushed away. Let’s have understanding of the Lord and His word.

If Adam and Eve knew that the meaning of death is separation from God, they would have thought twice before eating the fruit.  But God did not tell them the meaning of death, He simply said “on the day you eat it, you will die.” You need to find out with the Lord.

“Learn of me and take my yoke upon you” as seen in Matthew 11:29-30 is simply saying “come take on responsibility.” That is something that is missing in the church.  When you talk of the yoke, Jesus is simply saying, “Come partner with Me.” A yoke in the days of the Bible, is a designed wooden lock harnessed to the necks of two mules. So when you partner with Jesus, it means that two of you are in the same boat. He is not saying you should get yoked to the church, but to Him! In other words, put your neck where His neck is, so you both can work together. But alas! Many are not doing it. We are good at casting our burdens on Him, but not partnering with Him or submitting to Him, because you are a lesser partner.

Yoke is also a symbol of submission to a higher authority. So when He says “take my yoke upon you,” He is saying “submit to Me, because I am higher and better than you, I know everything.” Jesus is saying take responsibility, and let Me direct the responsibilities that you will take in God’s kingdom. When He says “learn of me,” He is saying, “take My sense of responsibility,” not just any responsibility. You need to take a sense of responsibility first, before you can begin to do anything. If you don’t feel a sense of responsibility towards your children, then there’s no how you’d be able to meet their needs. That sense of responsibility is lacking among many Christians, all we care about is to go to church, sing, dance, praise God and ask from God, then go home. A sense of responsibility is missing, and Jesus is saying “come, take My sense of responsibility.”

There is nobody that will willingly put this neck under a yoke, unless you are willing to do that. So then, we need to take on a sense of responsibility because a disciple is one who studies his master so that he can be like him.

Paul called Christianity a vocation (Eph. 4:1.) By definition vocation is your trade or your talent which you are using to earn a living.  You don’t get skilled in one day, you are taught over time by a master to become proficient in anything that is called vocation. A vocation is a trade a profession, it means there is a master. Are you learning, and what are you learning? From the things we see in Christendom today, people are not learning Christ, because Christ had a sense of responsibility. He willingly laid down His life for us; He even called His disciple satan, because he was trying to disturb Him from the responsibility that God gave Him. What are you learning? In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul said, “imitate me as I imitate Christ.” And when he wrote to Timothy he said, “The things I have taught you, also teach faithful men, so that I can have children in many generations. So Timothy and all those he would birth will be imitating Paul, who was imitating Christ. So who are you imitating when you show a very high lack of a sense of responsibility?

You are born again into a family, a house a fellowship. The word ecclesia in the scriptures is the called out ones. It is also used for those “called out ones” in groups. When they get together, they have fellowship (Kornoina). He called them out from the world, and they gather in bunches. Have you ever seen a sheep without a fold? To every sheep, there is a fold, and a shepherd. They can eat anywhere, but only under the guidance of their master, the shepherd. So you can eat from the table of the other men of God, but under the guidance of your leaders, your pastor. 

2 Timothy 2:22-23 “So shun youthful passions and aim at righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid, senseless controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.” The word of God says we should flee fornication and follow after righteousness peace with a set of people like you. That is a church. Ask yourself: in the house, are you a leech or a provider? A leech sucks blood from its host, it sucks out life from that host. We are born again into a house, and in every house, everybody provides. The sons of Jacob contributed to their family – Esau was a hunter, Jacob a shepherd.

You are a son in your family house – your local assembly, what do you contribute? All you do is to eat from what others have provided? Adam himself was a son of God, but God gave him work to do so as to contribute to the family, so he tended the garden and God fed him. He was the king of the whole earth, he could have sat down but he still worked.  Paul told us, “If anybody does not work, let him not eat”. It is the same principle that operates in the church. If you don’t contribute to the economy of the church, then don’t partake in the feast. Ask yourself: what to do to provide for the nourishment of the body?

Ephesians 4:15-16 “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.” We are one body, Jesus the head.  And He says that every single part of the body is supplying something. Every part of a body is useful. Are you useful as a part of the body of Christ, or do you feel every work belongs to the head? What are you doing as part of your family? A sense of responsibility is so important for every member of a family.

In Nehemiah 4 the children of Israel were doing a major work and Nehemiah set them up in families to do the work. So at the end of it, not one person could take the credit, because Nehemiah did not give himself the credit, He kept on saying “we” in all statements that pertained to the work. Are we going to move on to the level that God is calling us to? The pass-mark has gone beyond the level of just being born again to the level of what you have done with being born again.

Mat. 25:  They started as virgins, as servants – all of them! But at the end of the day, He separated them to different lots – some to His kingdom and some to damnation. Remember, they were all saved, because they were all virgins and servants, but those that entered the kingdom of God got there because of the works the did.

Now that you know,  what will you do?

1 thoughts on “Responsibility

  • Sally Baptiste Bonyun

    I have been deeply moved by this word and as such my life is no longer as it was but this is a new beginning. I appreciate your candor in the word and thank God for the spiritual insight that He has given you.

    Reply

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