“The Case for Christ: - K/G: Effect of Divine Word”

What effect did Christ’s communication of Divine Truth concerning Himself have on His disciples?

What effect did it have on others?

What effect does it have on us?

There were many who had been under His teaching during His earthly ministry yet, for some, it had no saving effect.

But it was the disciples who were actually brought into the knowledge of His truth.

Christ specifically showed them at the Lake of Galilee that the difference between them and these many others was because of the supernatural girding they would inherit.

It was one of the ‘keys’ to the furtherance of the kingdom of God that Christ disclosed to Peter.

Christ was opening up Peter’s understanding of what service and living in His kingdom would mean.

Peter would no longer run about on his own - do as he pleased - be the same ‘old man’ as he was!

But a spiritual enlightenment of Christ would be grasped in a way as never before: it would act upon the conscience and capture the heart forever.

Peter would be girded about by Another [Christ] and be carried about by Him.

And, as Peter yielded to that spiritual insight given him, he would grow and develop in spiritual life.

So, then, where was the emphasis going to lie in Peter’s life - and in the lives of all who are Christ’s?

It certainly would not be in any self-exaltation! 

No - the emphasis is only in the glorification of the Savior Who came to save Peter and all others!

The very sum and substance of the risen Christ was going to uproot and throw out Peter’s self life! 

‘You will no longer gird yourself, Peter. You will no longer walk where you want to walk, Peter!’

A progression in the development of good, sound, spiritual health was about to start in Peter’s life.

For - you notice - Peter did not get the message just yet. He whimpered about John immediately!

But Christ put the ‘gird’ about Peter and let Peter know that he was taking his first step in the wrong direction!

If John’s time was prolonged, then - so be it!

In other words, salvation begins now! ‘Start now to follow Me, Peter, and you will see the proper end of glorifying God!’
  
Every step taken in faith, every step taken in love, and every step taken in hope - towards the direction of Christ and in service for Him - would kill off the self-girding and the self-walking so strong in Peter!

I ask you - is it any different with any of us? 

Have you felt the tenacity of those ‘self-roots’ deep within your own soul many times?

Oh, yes - it is there in all of us!

Yet, Christ firmly declared to Peter the end of that would be realized in Peter, right down to the last day of his life when he would be glorifying God in death.

It would go down to the place where he did not even know he was still glorifying God! (Jn 21:19)

Yes - it would go on flourishing! That is how much it would grow and develop in Peter - as it would in the others - with Christ’s girding them about and carrying them as the evidence of God’s love and His election of them.

So - yes - the spiritual development did happen in Peter and to the other apostles and disciples.

A kingdom would knowingly be inherited in which the only standard allowable is the holiness of Christ, His peace, and His joy in the Holy Spirit.

And, yes, it is true - they would meet up with many, many problems along the way.

How do we know that?

The preaching of the Gospel and the feeding of the lambs and sheep would guarantee that!

But - they need not worry about these problems! 

Even though these trials would pound at their doors, it did not mean they were forsaken or forgotten by God nor that He was not working mightily in them.

Oh, no! It just meant that these things were being used for their good - to develop their faith, love, and perseverance - to shape them for His kingdom and the work of the kingdom.

God’s transforming grace would fit them for this heavenly inheritance.

It would also happen to all of Christ’s own.

His Church was going to be built on this basis of spiritual ‘girding’ and ‘carrying’ by Christ.

The outward communication of Christ Himself would be transferred to the inward teaching of Himself.

You see - salvation, and stewardship in it, is not something that passes, that comes and goes at our will, that is determined by the length of time we think is enough.

Oh, no! It is something fixed, habitual, permanent - something that extends over every instant of life and regulates everything about us.

A great work of sanctification must take place - a work that shapes and molds - a work that takes a lifetime to complete!   

Why? 

It is so that the characteristics of His kingdom are so established within that nothing else is allowed to ever take over again!

Why did Jesus make a point of the peril of empty hearts where a spiritual void is housed?

He taught about that in Lu 11:24-26 - Lu 11:24-26.

For the person who has received the light of Christ, the house may be swept clean and put into order and it may look very beautiful and lovely to the eye, but if its occupant is foreign to that environment, what then is its state? 

You see - the person who has received the light of Christ must also walk in the light of Christ in its saving effect.

There must be a restraining and equipping, or a ‘girding about’.

There must be a sustaining and guiding, or a ‘carrying about’.

And it all must be according to divine prescription that is the only way the void is filled! 

The Holy Spirit, the Occupant of the ‘house’, in the power of the Kingdom of God, is given to accomplish that work!

This is where Christ told Peter the emphasis must lie: ‘Another shall gird thee and carry thee about’.

So, as the apostles started the spread of the Good News throughout the world, they also must obey the word of Christ.

And, thank God, they did obey His Word - for we are benefiting today from the effects of Christ’s communication of Himself upon these men.

We dare not minimize their tremendous service to the Lord and His Church in the giving of themselves to Christ as He instructed them to do!

Remember - it was their historical role as eye-witnesses of the risen Christ that this very encounter was faithfully preserved for this teaching to become our instruction for the continuing of His Church and living in His kingdom!

I thank God with all my heart for their submission to the work of Christ in yielding to His girding them about and carrying them.

And, equally so, the spiritual development and health of others depended upon this very self-same yieldedness to the Lord and to the free course of His Word to them.

Let us look for a moment on the effect the communication of Divine Truth concerning Christ by these disciples had on others in the New Testament.

First, of course, we see much of the effect in the book of Acts but we will not pursue that tonight.

But - let us go on a few years hence, over to the church in Thessalonica.

It was sometime later, as Paul looked upon the Thessalonians, after they received and embraced the Gospel, that Paul said to those people: 

‘We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing. Therefore, ...we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.’ 

That is found in 1 Thess 1:3-4: 1 Thess 1: verses 3 & 4.

You see - Paul, by this time, realized that, in those people, their spiritual growth in faith, their growth in love, and their growth in hope - all through God’s grace in Christ - were evidences of the Kingdom of God flourishing in them.

The spiritual work came because of the faith they placed in Christ’s work.

And that faith in Him had prompted love for one another.

And their endurance - through all their persecutions, trials, and problems - was met victoriously because of the hope they placed in Christ.

So, Paul was thanking God because their faith was ‘growing more and more’.

That internal ’girding and carrying’ about by Christ in them was producing more and more faith.

And, to add to that, their love for one another was increasing.

And why was all that ‘growing’ and all that ‘increasing’ taking place?

They were enduring great persecutions and many trials that were expanding their hope in Christ.

And why was their hope expanding in Christ during these terrible and trying times?

It was because of the dynamic, growing faith in association and fellowship with Christ as He girded and carried them about.

And, so we have come full circle.

Yes - it can be said of them, ‘I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.’ (Ps 119:32)

The Word of God, having been given free course, embraced that wondrous work of the sanctification by the Holy Spirit that continued to the end of glorifying God.

You see - the ‘house’ had the right ‘Occupant’ in charge! ‘Self’ was no longer in charge!

He kept them from going in the wrong direction - He kept them from evil.

What was the further proof of that?

Paul wrote a little more about this later in his second letter to the church at Thessalonica. 

He said there: ‘Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you...the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil. 

And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, that you both do and will do the things which we command you.

And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.’ (2 Thess 3:1-5)  

Yes - the ‘house’ had the right Occupant in charge!

It was not only cleaned and swept out but it also showed the effect of Christ’s communication upon the Thessalonians.

For these hearers, as well as with the disciples, Christ’s communication of His Divine Truth concerning Himself had its intended effect! 

Now - what about its effect on us? 

And - I will approach this in the form of questions that we each must settle in our hearts before the Lord.

First - do we realize that every step we take - in a ‘faith dependence’ upon the ‘girding’ and the ‘carrying about’ by Christ, in every step we take in His letting His love increase to others within us, in every step we take in placing our hope in Him during our trials - kills something within us that is other than Christ and makes room for more of His work to go on unrestricted?

Do we realize that each thought, word, and deed done in and through Christ carries us away from the ‘girding’ of ourselves and the ‘walking’ by ourselves - thereby, glorifying Christ in us!

Is this the framework of life we are intent to follow?

Is this the Truth in which each one of us is clothed and rounded out?

Do we live by the grace of a holy life girded and guided in Christ?

I will close here with this one last Scripture found in Ps 119:165: ‘Great peace have they which love Thy law and nothing shall offend them - nothing shall offend them.’

I pray the Lord will bless this meditation to our hearts tonight for His intended effect in all of us!

Amen. 

Let us pray!