ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR TRUTH?

Have you ever sat and thought about the 3+ years the 12 Disciples walked the dusty road of Galilee with Jesus, and the many hours they must have sat at His feet, as He Discipled them, and then Mentored them to be the key leaders in what Paul calls a “mystery” the Church which was born on the Day of Pentecost. I would loved to have had that privilege, and receive all that teaching from Jesus. I wonder how often Jesus had to repeat himself, as initially what He shared may have simply been information until that moment of revelation, when the Holy Spirit opened their spiritual eyes, and the spoken word became a living Word. As we read in John 16:13 NKJV However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. We, I am sure have had this experience thousands of times, I can look back on my Christian life I can see how my understanding and comprehension has changed, as the Lord “has turned the Light on”.

I am sure glad we have the Word of God, and I thank God regularly that men of God right from Moses was led to record theses truths for us. I also thank God for the early Church Fathers, who I am sure under the leading of the Holy Spirit were led to compile what we call the New Testament Canon of 27 books.

I wish I had been there with the Disciples as there were so much more taught and done that I would have loved to have heard and seen, as John records in John 21:25 NKJV And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.

When the Church was born, the Apostles laid a strong foundation of truth, as we read in Acts 2:42 NKJV And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. This was the practice throughout the 1st century, we see this for example with Paul & Barnabas in Antioch Acts 11:26 NKJV So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Sadly, as the Church “matured” it began to get away from these essential principles, and the church slowly got into error. When the Bible was eventually translated into the languages of the day, the established church would not permit their members from reading it, as what the Bible taught and what was now practiced and taught sure did not line up.

So God raised up men we call “The Reformers” some of them said we must go right back to the Book of Acts and relay the foundations, and that a person MUST BE BORN AGAIN, and we build the Church as they Apostles did. Some Reformers embraced New Testament truth, but raised up churches with many of the old established church’s, foundations and within 80 years, these churches were accepting people into membership who were not born again. The influence and teaching of the other group continued to have a major effect for around 300 years. It is interesting though, that within about 20 years of these Reformers taking a stand for New Testament truth, the Holy Spirit restored the truth of water baptism by immersion, and this was rejected by the original Reformers. What do we learn from this? TRUTH WAS PROGRESSIVELY RESTORED TO THE CHURCH, and in our own personal experience this is the case too. I became a Christian in a church that DID NOT practice water Baptism or serve Holy Communion, and it was quite some years before I saw these truths. In Church History we have seen over the last say 400 hundred years God has continued to restore truth to His church. Following Justification by faith and Believer’s Baptism, there came the truths of Sanctification (Holiness), the Priesthood of all Believers, Divine Healing, and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Plus many other awesome truths that has blessed the Body of Christ.

I think there are at least three things we must work hard on.

1. That we hold the truths of the Word of God in BALANCE,
2. That we are CHRIST CENTRED not DOCTRINE CENTRED.
3. That we are totally committed to the ESSENTIALS, and not be caught with the non essentials

There are many Christians and groups that seem to be more concerned about “their doctrine or revelation” and everything they do and say revolves around this as it seems to totally dominate their life. We need to “rightly divide the Word of truth”, but our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, must always be the pre-eminent thing in our lives. Some people think there is only one true translation of the Bible, and will totally reject every other translation, so sad. I refuse to let another person’s view on a particular truth effect my fellowship and relationship with him, if I am sure he is truly born again. I look back and see how far the Lord has led me, and it sure seems the Lord is still progressively revealing truth from Hiss Word.

Friends, we NEVER graduate from God’s Bible School, we must continue to do as the Bereans did, Acts 17:11 NKJV They received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Let us pray regularly “Lord increase my hunger for your Word, and open my eyes, to see your truth AMEN