Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Hanging On His Every Word

LUKE 19:47-48 – And Jesus was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy Him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on His words.”

THEME OF THE DAY:  HANGING ON HIS EVERY WORD. I guess the appropriate way to approach today’s scripture would be to ask the question, “Do we?” Now to get the thrust of that question, look at the ending of today’s scripture.  What do we observe?  A people who just couldn’t get enough of Jesus’ teaching. Here were a spiritually hungry bunch of folks who were mesmerized, captivated, and hanging on every Word our Lord spoke.  So, “Do we?” Well, the way to determine if we fit into this crowd is by evaluating our approach toward the Word of God, our Bibles, in our private and public lives.

First, the people who hang on the Words of Jesus are committed, daily, to being in their Bibles, not as a dull routine or sense of habit, but out of thirst, hunger, and desire to know the One whom the scriptures reveal.  Jesus said, “Search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and they testify of Me” (John 5:39). They long for Christ. They long to be in His Presence.  They, like Job, treasure the Word of God more than necessary food (Job 23:12).  When it comes to pleasures in life, hands down, the people hanging on the Words of Jesus choose time in the Bible over movies, time in the Word over entertainment, and time in scripture over hobbies.  Don’t misunderstand me.  Nothing wrong with watching a wholesome movie, enjoying entertainment and cultivating hobbies, but if these things are getting more time than the Word, then our hunger for Christ is low.  We are not hanging on His Words.

Another indicator we are hanging on the Word of Jesus is our response and attendance toward the public preaching of the Word of God. God ordains His preached Word is the chief means of discipleship and reaching the lost (Romans 1:15; 1 Corinthians 1:21). What is our attitude toward preaching? Are we eager each week to be in our churches hearing it?  Do we refuse to compromise the Lord’s Day so we won’t miss hearing the Word publicly proclaimed? How we view and what we think about preaching says a lot about our understanding of spiritual growth and the importance preaching plays in such growth.  It is true that healthy Christians long to sit under preaching and where this thirst is present, no clock watching occurs.  The Word preached is food for the soul, a drink to a parched heart, and the means of renewing the mind to more Christ-centeredness.

So, hanging on the Words of Jesus.  Do we?  I hope so.  May God help us to do so with more and more passion and zeal.

 

PRAYER: “Father, help me never to lose the wonder of Your Scripture and its Words of life in my life.”
QUOTE: “Lose the wonder of the Bible and we lose the wonder of Christ, then our Christianity is just morality.”

Because of Him,

Pastor Jim