Found this blog a few weeks ago and it has some very interesting and well written posts. The first one that caught my eye was this one about Nicodemus Leaders. It is very true that we should compare everything we hear from our leaders to Scripture and if the leader is teaching anything that is not part of Scripture, then you should leave that place and find a place that is Scriptural in it’s teaching.
Of course it would be fine to discuss the matter with the leaders first and see if they take correction, but if not leave.
My Rabbi gave a similar message last week. Actually it was only a small part of the message as the message had multiple teaching that I found so deep and penetrating. There were teachings about dealing with temptation to the words we use, as well as the Spiritual leaders teaching from Scripture and “thus saith the LORD” and not “thus saith the Rabbi.”
So learn from the lessons of faith, of trust and of boldness from Balaam and Nicodemus.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
B”H
Loading ...
1 response so far ↓
1 Tom Albrecht // Jun 9, 2008 at 11:22 am
With all due respect to the author, based on what we actually know from the Bible it’s not at all clear when in time Nicodemus actually expressed faith in Christ. So its not entirely appropriate IMO to label Nicodemus as a secret believer prior to the events of John 19
. The objection of Nicodemus in John 7:50
to the course of the proceedings could have been expressed by any just man, not necessarily a follower of Jesus Christ. We also have no specific record of Jesus having confronted Nicodemus to follow Me (to give up his position) at any point, as He did with His other disciples. In fact, from their first encounter it seems pretty clear that Nicodemus was not ready to follow Christ (cf. John 3:11
:12).
We just do not where he stood in his faith at that time.
One of the most disconcerting things I find about preachers is how often they wish to go beyond the actual text of the Bible to try and make a point. Its especially easy for preachers to weave involved tales based on rather simple stories from the gospels, and then draw their own moralizing examples from those involved tales.
Leave a Comment