MEEK IS NOT WEAK
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and
lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30 For my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 KJV
Religious
history has portrayed Jesus Christ as a skinny, pale-faced shepherd
with a lamb under His arm and Elizabethan English coming out of His
mouth. The connotation is that He is weak, but that could not be
further from the truth. The Bible says that people marveled at the
authority with which He spoke. Luke 4:32 AMP says that, “they were
amazed at His teaching, for His word was with authority and ability and
weight and power.” People were healed as He spoke the word to them. He
also commanded demons to come out and they did. He was powerfully
anointed, commanding respect wherever He went. They tried to kill Him
before His time and could not. Jesus was not weak. He was meek –
humble, lowly, and gentle. Meek means: enduring injury with patience
and without resentment. Jesus did exactly that – He endured the shame,
humiliation, agony, and indignity of the cross for every one of us!
Who
has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been
revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a
root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see
Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and
rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not
esteem Him.
4
Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed
Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for
our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement
for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we
like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers
is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and
from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off
from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was
stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked --But with the rich
at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in
His mouth.
10
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When
You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His
hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His
knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear
their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the
great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured
out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the
transgressors. Isaiah 53:1-12 NKJV
Jesus
went meekly to the cross. He endured the injury and shame with patience
and without resentment. He could have called ten thousand angels to His
aid, but He chose to die alone - for you and me. That takes a man of
powerful character. He did it because, by faith, He saw the final
outcome! He saw you and me. He saw us in Him as He died and was
resurrected. He saw the joy of our resurrection - our redemption and
restoration into the family and kingdom of God! You and I are His joy
and His prize!
Therefore
then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who
have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside
every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily
(deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with
patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed
course of the race that is set before us, 2 Looking away [from all that
will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith
[giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher
[bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining
the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and
ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne
of God. 3 Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous
opposition and bitter hostility against Himself [reckon up and consider
it all in comparison with your trials], so that you may not grow weary
or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds.
Hebrews 12:1-3 AMP
Recent:
Righteous Now
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP
“Therefore if any man be in Christ…” What does it mean to be “in Christ”? Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You are baptized into Christ when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” And Romans 10:13 says, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The moment
Defeating Strife
These six things the Lord hates, indeed, seven are an abomination to Him: 17 A proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others], a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that manufactures wicked thoughts and plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, 19 A false witness who breathes out lies [even under oath], and he who sows discord among his brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19 AMP
Faith Facts
Faith is persistent
Luke 11:9-10 AMP
So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.
John 16:24 AMP
Up to this time you have not asked a [single] thing in My Name [as presenting all that I AM]; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete.
Faith is single-minded
James 1:5-8 AMP
If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. 6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the