Jesus did not once say:<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go to church.
\n2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have a Bible study.
\n3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go learn more about me.
\n4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go to Sunday School.
\n5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u0092t give abstract lectures on morals or theology.<\/p>\n
But the NT lists some forty references where Jesus says, \u0093Follow me.\u0094<\/strong>\u00a0 Jesus called people to himself from their sin.\u00a0 He met them in their everyday, run-of-the-mill, mundane lives.\u00a0 And simply said, \u0093Follow me.\u0094<\/p>\n (Matthew 11:28-30)\u00a0 “Come to Me, all you 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”<\/p>\n The Bible scholars probably would have been willing to have a Bible study with Jesus as they were intense in their study of the Scriptures.\u00a0 I don\u0092t believe it is a stretch to say that they loved to study the Bible.\u00a0 Look at what Albert Barnes says about the word \u0093search\u0094 in John 5.39 in his Barnes Notes.<\/p>\n Search the scriptures – The word translated \u0093search\u0094 here means to \u0093search diligently\u0094 or \u0093search anxiously.\u0094 It was applied to miners, who search for precious metals – who look anxiously for the \u0093bed\u0094 of the ore with an intensity or anxiety proportionate to \u0093their sense\u0094 of the value of the metal.\u00a0 It is applied by Homer to a lioness robbed of her whelps, and who \u0093searches\u0094 the plain to \u0093trace out\u0094 the footsteps of the man who has robbed her. It is also applied by him to dogs tracing their game by searching them out by the scent of the foot. It means a diligent, faithful, anxious investigation.<\/p>\n (John 5:39 NKJV)\u00a0 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.\u00a0 (John 5:40 NKJV)\u00a0 “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”<\/p>\n They intensely studied the Scriptures and intensely refused to come to the Savior.<\/p>\n Luke 9:23-25 ESV\u00a0 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.<\/strong>\u00a0 (24)\u00a0 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.\u00a0 (25)\u00a0 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?<\/p>\n Should we go to church, SS, study the Bible, etc.?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 But should those things be our goal?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 To many in the professing Church today, the profit is in the stuff of religion and not in devotion to Christ.\u00a0 We have exalted Bible study to an end and not the means to an end.\u00a0 We are to live by the words of God, not the after glow of our abstract exercises in spirituality.<\/p>\n powered by performancing firefox<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jesus did not once say: 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go to church. 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Have a Bible study. 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go learn more about me. 4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Go to Sunday School. 5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u0092t give abstract lectures on morals or theology. But the NT lists some … Continue reading