Monday, January 3, 2022

The Many and Course-Charting

I started preaching through the Gospel of Matthew three years and two months ago. I’ve taken numerous pauses along the way to preach other, shorter expositional series. This latest pause was the longest: six months and a week. We returned to Matthew this last Lord’s Day. This meant giving a little bit of the introduction time reminding everyone how we got where we are. This is especially important, since we resumed Matthew in chapter 24, the Olivet Discourse. Jesus has been in Jerusalem and in the Temple since chapter 21. He has been engaged by the religious leadership with numerous tests, and has bested His antagonists every time. The Lord has pronounced woe and judgment over the religious leaders and Jerusalem itself. And now, in the last of the five great discourses of Matthew, Jesus teaches concerning the coming desolation of Jerusalem in chapters 24-25.

 

Part of me wishes I would have stayed in Matthew without pause. There’s an idealistic part of me that imagines a congregation living together in a text unbroken for several years. Believing, as I do, in Scripture as the chief means of grace to the covenant people, it seems such constant, patient immersion in a text could be an especially fertile ground for the Spirit in a congregation’s life. But that’s not why I’m writing.

 

One of the main tools I use in Bible reading is looking for repetition or pattern. This repetition doesn’t usually revolve around “big words” (theologically speaking), but often it’s the “flyover words” that we need to make sure we are purposeful in noticing.

 

As Jesus begins to answer the disciples’ threefold question (24:3), we notice a word or idea that shows up several times.

 

“And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come’” (Matthew 24:4-14).

 

Though I believe Jesus is speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple (marking the end of the old covenant age), there are definite opportunities for application in His warnings that can be seen for any generation until He returns. In this case, maybe it doesn’t pay to follow the trends or the crowd.

 

There was a hint at this theme earlier, during Jesus’ engagement with those religious leaders who challenged Him. At the end of the wedding feast parable, He said, “many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14).

 

The primary link in my mind, however, goes back to the first of the five great discourses in Matthew, the “Sermon on the Mount.” Toward the end of that sermon, the idea of the “many” as a category to which we do not want to belong, is used as warning: “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it…not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:13-14,21-23).

 

My pastor used to make much of John 6:66, “as a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” The “this” was Jesus first feeding the people and then chastising them for only wanting physical food instead of desiring the Spirit-food (which was Him). Again, being part of the “many” was not a good thing.

 

Following Christ is never described as a leisurely stroll or a five-lane highway. There is a constant temptation to the path of least resistance, to maintaining fellowship with the “many,” be that in conformity to the shifting tides of cultural opinion or even the established habits of a religious tradition. I have found that charting a course as faithfully to the Bible as possible quickly means a divergence from the “many.” Sometimes the “many” becomes a smaller group as you return to the Word to make further course corrections for faithfulness’ sake. Regardless, following the Christ of the whole Bible necessarily means that our valuing the movements of the “many” must always weigh far less than the infinite tonnage of the Lordship of our only Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

May we carefully and faithfully follow Him, no matter what the “many” are doing. If they are following Him as He and His will are revealed in the Word, then we will find ourselves on the same track. If not, may our path serve as witness so that some may, perhaps initially only out of curiosity, join us and find Him along the Way.



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