 | Binding and loosing the Hands of Jesus |
Tue, 3 Dec 1996
Clergy/Leaders' Mail-list No. 318
[We apologise that the above number is out of sequence due to the
original posting being lost somewhere in cyberspace.]
Binding and loosing the Hands of Jesus
by Dr Marilyn S Murphree
on September 22, 1996 at Valley Grove Assembly of God
(Dr Murphree is a certified candidate for ordained ministry with
the (US) United Methodist Church and is licensed to preach.)
Mark 15:1
"and straightway in the morning the chief priests held a
consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council,
and bound Jesus, and carried him away and delivered him to
Pilate."
In Mark 15:1 we read about how the enemies of Jesus bound Him in
preparation for sending Him to Pilate. They bound Jesus and took Him
to Pilate. The song says, "He could have called 10,000 angels," or he
could have called his disciples, or he could have broken their bands.
But if you look at it another way, He couldn't do anything if He were
to carry out God's plan because He would have been defeating the
purpose of God. He had a task to do for the salvation of human
kind--He needed to go through the steps. Being bound was a part of the
process, and He completed His work on Calvary. How do we know this?
He said, "It is finished!" (John 19:30).
As we read this, it is easy for us to be quick in saying, "that's
terrible for them to do that to Jesus. Did they think he would try to
get away? (The Message Bible reads, "after tying Jesus
securely...") What did He do to deserve that?" Have you ever thought
of it this way, that people today are still doing the very same thing.
You might say, "Well, yes, the sinner is binding the hands of Jesus
by refusing to obey the gospel."
This is true. In His great love He stretched out His hands and died
for the sins of the world. But when people refuse to listen to and
obey the gospel, the hands of Jesus are bound by that refusal. There
is no way that a person can then receive the benefits of Jesus' death
on the Cross. For that person the death of Jesus was in vain. Jesus
did not want anyone to suffer for the guilt of their sins. II Peter
3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men
count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance." In Matthew
11:28 His invitation is still being extended to people today. "Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest."
There is no reason for His hands to be bound today, but we bind his
hands today every bit as much or more so than the people who bound him
and led him to Pilate. AND THIS INCLUDES CHRISTIANS.
I want to point out some ways that we, as Christians, are guilty of
binding His hands. We may not even be aware that we are doing it.
How do you and I bind the hands of Jesus?
1. Not Making Him Top Priority--We bind His hands in our lives when
we don't make Him top priority. You have heard people say, "Make
Jesus a part of your life?" What part? A little sliver, a 1/4 , half,
75%, 99%??? He is our life. Scripture says that "in Him we live and
move and have our being." (Acts 17:28). If He is not at the center of
our lives, we Bind His Hands because He is exclude d from areas He
should be involved in. Other things are taking the place He should be
filling. We may need the Lord in the part He is not a priority. For
example, if He is not included in your finances, you are missing His
help.
Illustration:
Chart 1 is a pie chart.
Chart 2 is a wheel.
How do we make Him top priority so that He is at the very center of our
life? There are several scriptures I want to give you.
Scripture tells us in Psalm 78:1 to "Give ear, O my people to my law;
INCLINE (or lean) your ears to the words of my mouth."
How do we do that? If you were trying to overhear some gossip about
someone, you lean toward the person, you strain your ear to hear--your
fullest intent is on hearing every word. If someone interrupts you,
you say, "Shush! I'm trying to hear this!"
Proverbs 2:2 "...Incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thy heart to
understanding."
Psalm 119:112, "I have inclined mine heart to perform (to hear and do)
thy statutes (laws) always even unto the end. (I have made it a point
to do this)
Joshua 24:23, "Now therefore put away the strange gods which are among
you and incline your heart unto the Lord God of Israel."
We make the decision in our hearts to go God's way--WE MUST SETTLE
THIS. Joshua exemplifies this when he said to the people, "Choose you
this day whom ye will serve..." (Joshua 24:15.
Paul says in Romans 12:2, "Be not conformed to this world--Don't let
the world squeeze you into its mold.
NOTE: When you have a choice to make--it's already settled in your
heart--I'll go God's way. No matter what the question is, you already
know the answer--"I'll go God's way."
When I was working on a doctorate at Nova University we had to take
the written comprehensive exam over everything we had studied for the
entire program. We were to write for 8 hours. On one part o f the
test, they said know this material. No matter what the question is,
this is the answer. And, sure enough, it was, and I got it right.
Putting Jesus at the center of your life--a top priority--is an act of
your will. It's a decision, a choice you make. No matter what the
questions are, you already have the answer--"I'm going God' s way.
You are inclining your heart toward God--leaning toward what God says.
The sunflower--turns toward the sun. That's the only way to go.
When you have made this decision, you are loosing the hands of Jesus
for your life and He can steer you around the pitfalls that the devil
puts in your way.
2. Fear and Unbelief--Fear and unbelief in His ability to do for us
is another way that we bind the hands of Jesus. We usually agree that
He can do things but much of the time we think He is more likely to
answer "other people's" prayers rather than our own. We may think
they are more "spiritual" or "more deserving" or are "closer to God"
than we are. We bind His hands by holding this unbelief within us and
by speaking about it to others. We bind His hands when we don't
believe He has enough resources to meet our needs or that He won't do
it for us.
We continue to bind His hands when we lack confidence in the
abilities He has given us. When we hesitate to step out in faith to
do the things the Lord has called us to do, His hands are bound and
can't work. When we fear that we will fail, we cannot do His work.
We bind His hands even more.
Are you binding His hands through fear and unbelief? Listen to
yourself talking. Is your self talk revealing fear? What are you
afraid of? It could be many things--health, finances, fear of
accidents, fear of people and what they think, fear of failure, fear
of rejection. What do you fear? How does your speech reveal an
attitude of unbelief in the Lord's willingness to help you through th
e various areas of fear?
Scripture gives a directive as to how to loose the hands of Jesus in
the area of fear and unbelief. When fear or unbelief begin to tighten
and paralyze people emotionally, Jesus made the following statement to
people. He said in Mark 5:36, "Be Not Afraid; Only Believe." There
are many scriptures that begin, "Fear not" in both Old and New
Testaments. Why does He say, "Fear not" before He says , "Only
believe"? Before a person is in the position to believe, the fear
must be taken care of. Preparation must be made for the "believing."
For example, getting yourself calmed down, getting th e hold of
paralyzing fear broken. LOOSE the Hands of JESUS! Then--ONLY
BELIEVE>
A mountain climber started to fall off a cliff. Suddenly he grasped
on to a branch. Holding on to the branch by his fingernails he yelled
out, "Oh, God help me!"
A voice came back and said, "Let go."
The man looked up and said, "Is there anybody else up there I can talk
to?"
At that point, the man had not worked through his initial fear--he
wasn't ready to let go.
3. We bind His hands by our failure to grow spiritually--Many people
say, "I don't know anything about the Bible, "yet go on year after
year without acquiring any more knowledge." We are instructed to,
"Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman..." (II Timothy
2:15). Also "Grow (increase) in grace and in the knowledge..." (II
Peter 3:18)
People say, "I don't understand the Bible," but have they read one of
the newer translations? Do you bind His hands in this way? There are
Bible studies we can learn from, there are books we can re ad. The
scriptures tell us that it is god's will for us to be transformed--it
involves a renewing of our mind. Romans 12:1-2, "...be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind..." Ephesians 4:20-2 44 says, "and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind. This renewal occurs as we read,
study, and think about what we read. I Peter 2:2, "As newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the Word, that y e may grow thereby."
Do we neglect the very way by which we can grow and be renewed?
Scripture says we do not "receive with meekness the engrafted or
implanted word, which is able to save your souls." (James 1:21).
Neglect the transforming power of the Word of God and we are just as
guilty of "binding the hands of Jesus as were those who delivered Him
to Pilate. Studying the Bible on our own and with others is a step
toward loosing His hands.
When we know the Word of God, we can then ask ourselves, "How can I
apply this to my situation. Back in the Old Testament Ezra was called
a "ready scribe" (Ezra 7:6). He had a working knowledge of scripture.
He understood it himself and he knew how to explain it to others. By
being familiar with the Scripture, he could be a person who was
"instant in season" to give it out when needed and to apply it to his
own situation.
The study of the Word is a continuous process. Let us loose the hands
of Jesus.
4. Accepting Mediocrity--We bind the hands of Jesus by our
willingness to accept mediocrity, by accepting less than God's best
for our lives. We bind His hands by our apathy toward His work in
the world. John Wesley said, "Our only job is to save souls." We bind
His hands when we don't seek God for a vision for our personal lives,
a vision for the church, and for the world.
I hear many people say, "I'm just waiting for Jesus to come. I don't
have anything else I want to do." And they don't do anything--but
just exist. In the story of the servants and the pounds in Luke
19:13, the nobleman said, "Occupy until I come back." They were to
go about their work. We, too, need to see the vision God has for us
and for the church that much can be accomplished and souls saved while
there is still time.
Noah was such a man in the Old Testament who was seeking God. He had
his ear to the ground and his heart in tune to the vision God had. He
heard what God was trying to say to him. He received this vision and
built the ark. No one else was listening. We bind the hands of Jesus
when we are unwilling to do what He has called us to do. Noah stepped
out in faith even thought it had not rained in the past. He didn't
even know what rain looked like or what a flood was.
Anthony Robbins, a motivational speaker, said "if a person can just
improve in some area of his/her life 6%, what a difference it would
make in 6 months time." If your vision for God improved just s lightly
in the next 6 months, you would be loosing the hands of Jesus to work
through you in your community, your church, and anywhere in the world.
There are all kinds of ways He can work through u s. Will you loose
His hands by refusing to accept mediocrity?
Conclusion: In conclusion, you may not have thought about the ways
that you might be binding the hands of Jesus in your life. But the
good news is that you can loose His hands so that He is free t o bring
about the good He wants to do in your life right now. Won't you let
Him accomplish His purpose in your life?
Let us pray:
Lord show us how we are binding Your hands,
Show us what You want to do in our lives today.
Help us to make You a priority in our life
and to let go of our fears and unbelief.
Help us not to be content with mediocrity.
Help us to study and to grow spiritually.
In Jesus name to pray.
Amen
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