Gnosticsm & the Proclamation of Christianity with special reference to John's Gospel (Cont)
Failure
Isaiah 50: 10 (AV); Isaiah 51: 12,13 (AV and NIV); Ezekiel 11: 19,20 (NIV)
We all sometimes fail, but God does not close the door on us and reject us, because we have failed. The early disciples were upright sincere and eager men; they had given up everything to follow Jesus and yet they repeatedly failed Him and the last failure was the worst. Where did it all end, three years after their brave start? "They all forsook Him and fled" (Mark 14: 50 AV). They had come to the end of themselves and then that they found "their eyes were opened and they knew Him" (Luke 24: 31). They also knew themselves as they had never done before. They had come to the end of their self sufficiency.
The prodigal son, 'having wasted his wealth in wild living' also 'came to himself' and returned home. 'I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. ... 'But while he was a great way off, his father saw him, and was filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son threw his arms around him and kissed him.' That son, despite his rebellion and self inflicted destitution, was fully welcomed home and restored. (It was exceptional , in those times, for a Jewish father to run to meet his son.)
To return to the disciples, they were also made welcome after their failure. In their want, they were in turn willing to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. After the Resurrection, Jesus "breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20: 22). But they had to tarry a while before its power could work through them. Just before His Ascension, Jesus said to his disciples: "Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24: 49). Fifty days after the Jewish Passover (our Christian Pentecost), this is what happened and "they were all filled with the [power of the] Holy Ghost" (Acts2: 4).
When God's Spirit enters a life, something marvellous always takes place. All becomes different from before. These same disciples who had forsaken Jesus in His hour of need, who had hidden themselves in dark corners and attics quaking in terror of their persecutors, the Jewish leaders, were after Pentecost, transformed. They were to be found openly and boldly preaching the Good News of the Gospel and 'they continued steadfastly' in this way (Acts 2: 42 AV), even though James was beheaded, Stephen stoned to death and many others killed because of their bold proclamation of the Gospel.
Large crowds came to see and hear Peter and John after they had healed a cripple at the temple gate. They were arrested and brought before Annas, the high priest, and the elders and teachers of the law. They were asked, "By what power or what name did you do this?"
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, replied: "Rulers and elders of the people! It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. ... Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." ... When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled , ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. ... They commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking of what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4: 5-20 NIV.)
They continued preaching the Gospel and it was not long before the Good News spread to Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece and then the whole of the Roman Empire.
An example of repeated failure: You may be aware of the story of David, after he seduced Bathsheba. May I refresh your memory. David made Bathsheba pregnant [69] while her husband Uriah was away fighting in the wars. He thinks that he can tidy up his problems by getting Uriah back on leave from the front, when he would surely sleep with his wife. Then when the baby arrived, everything would be above board!
But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with his master's servants and did not go down to his house. David asked him why he didn't go home. Uriah replied, 'My master Joab and his men are camped in the open fields. How could I go home to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will do no such thing!' David tried again by getting Uriah drunk, but again in the evening, Uriah slept on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home.
In the morning David wrote to Joab ordering him to, 'Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die.' He sent the letter with Uriah. Joab did what he had been told to do and Uriah was killed.
After the time of mourning for Uriah was over, 'David had Bathsheba brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.'
The Lord was very angry and sent Nathan, the prophet, to David. Nathan told David about two men who lived in the same town, one a rich land owner and the other very poor. The rich man was famous for his sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had managed to buy. He raised it as if it were a member of his family with his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
When a friend came to visit him, the rich man, in order to keep his large flocks and herds intact, took the poor man's ewe lamb, had its throat cut and prepared it for their supper.
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, 'As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ... because he ... had no pity.'
Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man.'
"This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. ... I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in His eyes? You had Uriah the Hittite struck down by the sword of the enemy, and took his wife to be your own.
"Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you despised Me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own. ... Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you."
David, who possessed absolute power could have had Nathan killed for his daring public confrontation. But he knew that Nathan spoke for God, and in what may have been the greatest moment of his life, he admitted, 'I have sinned against the Lord.'
Calamities did come. The baby got sick and died. The sword never departed from his family. Among other disasters Absolom, one of David's spoilt sons, led a serious though eventually an abortive revolt against him, and was killed. David 'was so much moved' that, in his prolonged mourning, he neglected to maintain the morale of the people. He kept up a long keening, crying out repeatedly, "O my son Absalom, my son Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Samuel 18:33)
David's runs of 'mistakes' were desperate sins. But God, who saves the lost, did not reject him. David, came to himself and turned back to God. God was able to use his sins and mistakes to bring David to a deeper trust in Him and a closer walk with Him. [70] He was enabled by God in many ways. One of these was the writing of those wonderful Psalms, such as 32, 51, 37, 42 and 46, that have helped so many people from his day to this. He was closer to God at the end than at the beginning.
Jacob was renowned for his cheating habits but it was favouritism that would cause big problems in his family. Later he spoilt his son Joseph badly, making his other sons so jealous they wanted to kill Joseph (Genesis 29: 30; 30: 24 and 37: 4,17,18 NIV Student Bible).
Moses makes the mistake of trying to save his people by throwing his weight about, killing an Egyptian, insisting on sorting out the Israelites private problems for them - and finds himself banished for many decades to the backside of the desert. Only then was he brought to really know that, on his own, he was powerless. But God could and would work through him to deliver the Israelites from Egypt (Exodus 2: 11; 12: 42).
Overall Hezekiah was a good king, trusting in God. He was even likened to David in zeal for the Lord. But when representatives from Babylon came to Jerusalem, he boasted to them about the contents of the Temple and even showed them all his treasures. When the prophet Isaiah warned him that Babylon would come back to take those treasures and more, Hezekiah blithely contented himself with God's promise to him during his illness, that he would have peace in his lifetime.
Both David and Hezekiah had spoilt their sons, Absolom and Manasseh, who later brought evil and calamity on Israel. Was this a case of 'the sins of the fathers.'?
I could go on telling you of the sins and mistakes of a succession of Biblical characters, and how they were brought to God. Then I could tell you of my own failures, but I will not do this here. I have much more interesting ground to cover.
God can bring good out of the extremes of our own folly; God can "restore to you the years that the locusts have eaten." (Joel 2: 25) They say that those who never make mistakes never make anything. Certainly, these men sinned and made rotten mistakes, but when they turned back again to God, He did not reject them. They learned to cleave to him in a way that would never have happened otherwise and to know His mercy. With God's grace they went on to do great things for Him.
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