Introduction
As true followers of the Lord Jesus, we must love the entire Word of God, and especially, we must meditate on the Gospels, which tell us everything we need to know about our Lord Jesus and His mission on Earth. Also, as the Word of God encourages us, we must be involved in good Christian fellowship with other believers and be part of the Lord’s mission of spreading the good news to the world. We need godly teachers and leaders in our churches, and we must pray for the leaders of our churches. However, we encourage all followers of the Lord Jesus to do an independent study of the Bible; specifically, we believe that a person who calls themselves Christians must study the Holy Bible independently and systematically with the help of the Holy Spirit.
In today’s society, we see that we need people with Ph.D. studies to teach us what to believe and how to live, and many Christians in our churches borrowed this mentality, and in their Christian walk, they follow people with Ph.D. in religious studies; however, many of these so-called scholars of the Bible are today’s Pharisees and Scribes of the old times who write books and interpret the Bible and tell us that what the Bible says is not what it says, so they can support their own motives and make profits from their books. Yet, the Bible tells us clearly that the Lord Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Truth, the true Holy Teacher, to teach us His Word. Therefore, we encourage every follower of the Lord Jesus to read and study the Word of God on their own with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Read and Meditate on the Word of God with the Help of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is our Holy Teacher, and He is ready to teach us all things about His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. We only need to ask Him. In John 14:26, the Lord Jesus Himself tells us:
John 14:26 However, the Intercessor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Other Bible verses to check: Romans 8:9-10, Romans 8:34, Romans 8:26-27, John 17:9-11, John 17:20-21, Romans 8:36-39, Acts 16:6-7, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 3:19-21.
As the verse has told to all true believers, the Holy Spirit will be given to you under the name of the beloved Son of God; all that have asked of Him will be filled with the Holy Spirit in their soul because the Father loves the beloved Son, and He will do according to what the beloved Son of God is asking Him for that true believer.
“… He will teach you all things.” When you read and meditate on the Holy Bible, ask for the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to be your teacher and give you the understanding, and then you will get the right understanding of the Holy Word. Humans alone cannot understand all the Holy Word because the Holy Word does not tell us about the physical earth itself alone, but also tells us about spiritual things and life; the things humans cannot see and understand without the help of the Holy Spirit, and that is why everyone who reads the Holy Bible must ask the help.
“… and will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” The Holy Bible may be small, but the Holy Bible has compacted all knowledge about the unseen things and seen things. Humans will not be able to remember all that the Bible has told; for a human to be able to remember the Holy Word, it needs help from the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, and He will bring all the teachings to your remembrance to guide your life on this earth and lead the soul to the unseen world; the soul itself needs the guidance from the Holy Bible, and the Holy Spirit will help the soul to remember all the teachings.
The verse has told not only for the disciple in that time alone, but the Holy Word will guide the whole world after as well; the disciples have received the Holy Word and put it down, and what the disciples have put down is from the Father Himself, and that will be the true living word for the next generations to come.
Furthermore, 1 John 2:27 says:
1 John 2:27 And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you need not that any one teach you; but as His anointing teaches you; concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, you abide in Him.
And Acts 2:17 says:
Acts 2:17 And it shall be in the last days, says God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your elders shall dream dreams.
“And it shall be in the last days, says God.” These are the last days before they turn to believe in God when their hearts start to realize that God is real. Specifically, we mean that these last days refer to these days here in this place when the Holy Spirit was given to all humans.
“I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh.” The time will come when the Father will pour down the Holy Spirit to all true believers when the beloved Son has returned to heaven.
“And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy ... shall dream dreams.” This is part of the gifts the Father will give; no matter who you are or what you are, if your heart is true to the Lord and your faith is firm, the gift will be poured down on you.
For the topic of this blog, we want us compare the rich young man in Matthew 19:16-22 and Mark 10:17-27 to the rich man Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10, and ask ourselves the following question: “What is the difference between these two rich men?” One followed the traditions of the church but had strong attachments to the riches of the world he built in his life. The other, a sinner (Zacchaeus), heard about the Lord Jesus and was curious about who the Lord Jesus was; however, he was a sinner and built his own worldly riches. But, when the Lord told him to come down from the tree and host the Lord at his house, he joyfully followed.
Furthermore, let us comment on two verses from the story of Zacchaeus, specifically on Luke 19:5-6.
Luke 19:5 And as He came to the place, having looked up, Jesus said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for today it behooves Me to abide in your house.
This verse is one of the Bible verses that says that the beloved Son of God knows everything ahead. The beloved Son of God has already recognized this man on the tree waiting for Him, and the Lord has seen His heart: the wish in his heart to meet the Lord makes the Lord invite Himself to visit the man’s house.
“For today it behooves Me to abide in your house.” In this place, we can certainly see that the Lord has a purpose: the Lord wants to bless this man, and the Lord gives him no chance to say no. The God of love and mercy uses the order for someone to receive Him into their house; He uses the term “it behooves Me,” meaning you must take Me; we do not see this way of talking from the beloved Son of God.
6 And he made haste, and came down, and received Him rejoicing.
Pay attention to the portion that says, received Him rejoicing; when anyone in their heart accepts the Lord of life with gladness, the Lord is happy to be there as well, and here is the place to show the way this person is receiving the Lord of life; for the Lord Himself “rejoicing” here has more feeling than the word itself.
Although Zacchaeus was a short man of stature, he built a tall worldly tree of riches so he could climb and be important in the world of his time. He was also a child of Abraham, but he had strayed away from the way of the Lord, and he looked to the Lord from afar. However, a day came in his life when the Lord Jesus spoke to his heart, and he listened to the call of the Lord, climbed down from his worldly tree, and received the Lord Jesus in his heart joyfully. The same goes for us; we build worldly riches, not necessarily money riches, but sinful riches, and we climb our own sinful worldly trees and look to the Lord Jesus from afar. We are curious about the Lord Jesus but not close to Him. We live like the world, no difference, and slowly, we build our own sinful worldly tree; we follow all of the latest entertainment shows, are always up to date with the latest living standards, put our faith in human theories, follow some famous Bible teachers and scholars who lead us astray from the narrow path, etc.
Conclusions
The Lord Jesus passes daily by each one of us and calls us to come down from our worldly trees and come to meet Him in His Word, read His Word, ask the Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us, and meditate on His Word and follow His teachings and worship the Trinity of God (God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit). The Lord calls us to separate ourselves from the sins of the world and false teachings, choose Him as the way for our lives, and follow His way. The Lord Jesus in John 14:6 says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, if not by Me.” Following the Lord Jesus is following the narrow way, the only way, the Lord Jesus Christ, and being aware of false prophets and teachers. We conclude this blog with the warnings the Lord Jesus gives us in Matthew 7:13-15.
Matthew 7:13 Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way leading to destruction, and many are those entering through it.
14 For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, leading to life, and few are those finding it.
“For narrow ... leading to life.” Humans are selfish and believe in themselves, so it is hard for them to accept that a man can be God. They cannot accept that God walked on earth as a man. The dark mind covers the eyes of humans. The way is narrow, and there is only one way to heaven: through the Lord Jesus. There is no other way to heaven but to believe in the Lord Jesus. How many humans are there willing to give their life for another human?
“Few are ... finding it.” People try to find reasons to fight against the virgin birth. They limit God’s power to make a human baby without the action in a human manner. Only a few have clear minds and can accept that God has the power to do unbelievable things; those will find the way to heaven.
15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
It is hard to recognize a false prophet because they cover themselves with sheep’s skin. But you can recognize them by their stance on the following three points: 1) the Lord Jesus’ birth must be by the Holy Spirit through the Virgin Mary; 2) the Lord Jesus’ death must be death on the cross for atonement for our sins; 3) the Lord Jesus’ resurrection must be bodily (in the flesh) resurrection.
Meditation tasks:
- Meditate on your worldly tree and ask the Lord to help you overcome it and become close to Him.
- Meditate on Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.