• Home
  • Author Bio
  • The Book
  • Excerpt
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Order Now

05 Nov

Jesus’ strongest words were reserved for . . .

Dr. Bill Rudd Blog 0 0

What does it mean to be a “grace-filled” church? That was my assignment to preach at Calvary Church today as part of a series on the church’s DNA. I hope to post some things about being “grace-filled” over the next day or two.

One of my assertions was that “a grace-filled church is filled with people who are outrageously good to others, especially those who don’t deserve it.”

As I prepared the sermon, one challenge I didn’t have time to deal with was that JESUS, the embodiment of being “grace-filled,” sometimes didn’t seem very gracious when He was very angry with, insulted, offended, and rebuked people using very strong language. How could Jesus respond that way and be “grace-filled”?

We know that Jesus was “full of grace and truth”(John 1:14). Grace and truth are not incompatible but rather are inseparable. Grace is willing to confront in order to help someone change and to expose someone who is dangerous and deceptive in order to protect others from them. Grace believes that the truth sets us free.

I didn’t have time to talk about the three categories of people  Jesus most often condemned in the strongest of terms in personal confrontations, in His sermons, and in the stories/parables He told. Those groups were:

(1) rich people who did not use their wealth to help the poor and needy,

(2) politicians who were corrupt and used their power to oppress others and enrich themselves, and

(3) religious leaders who aligned themselves with the greed-filled rich and the corrupt politicians in order to keep their own positions of power and enrich themselves.

As we approach election day, perhaps it would be helpful to remember that Jesus identified withthe poor, the needy, the marginalized, the oppressed, women, children, the sick, prisoners, and immigrants (“strangers” and “aliens”), and He condemnedthe three kinds of people mentioned above.


Facebook

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recent Posts

  • IN THIS TIME OF TRAGIC DIVISION AND DISAGREEMENT
  • Speaking truth to power
  • How to interpret “hard things” in the Old Testament
  • What did Jesus mean?
  • Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing

Recent Comments

  • Cheryl Coldiron on Has gender bias in Bible translation hidden the truth?
  • Dr. Bill Rudd on How to interpret “hard things” in the Old Testament
  • Mark Wiggin on How to interpret “hard things” in the Old Testament
  • Dr. Bill Rudd on How to pray in times of trouble
  • Lois on How to pray in times of trouble

Archives

  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018

Categories

  • Blog


  • Home
  • Author Bio
  • The Book
  • Excerpt
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Order Now

Copyright © 2018. Dr. Bill Rudd. All rights reserved.
 
Cleantalk Pixel