- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE BLESSED ‘UN-OFFENDED’
Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me (Matthew llv6)
John the Baptist is in prison for righteousness sake. The lonely prisoner hears of the works of Christ, and he who had once borne witness to Him as the Anointed One of God, sends two of his disciples to Him with a question that reveals how the iron had entered his soul, as, apparently forsaken of God, he ponders over the past, and in a moment of overwhelming perplexity the terrible doubt enters his mind whether the One he had testified to as the Son of God was the Messiah after all. ‘Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?’ was the brief message to the Lord.
Could these words really come from him who had so boldly said: ‘I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God? (John 1v34)
Taught of the Spirit, John had also said, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’, He was the Forerunner of the Christ, and must of necessity pass out of sight as his work was done, so that all attention should be focussed upon Him whose herald he was. But the Holy Spirit withheld the knowledge as to how the ‘decreasing’ would come about, and he did not dream that his path of service would end in imprisonment, and a martyr’s death.
‘Was I mistaken after all’, we can think of John saying to himself one day in his prison. ‘Was it the Messiah, or only a great prophet, and has Israel yet to look for another as the promised One?’
The messengers are sent, and in answer to John’s brief question the Lord Jesus bids them return to him, and simply tell him what their eyes had seen. John was doubtless well acquainted with the writings of the prophet Isaiah, and his disciples could now tell him that the Spirit of God was manifestly upon the Prophet of Galilee. They saw the blind receiving their sight, the lame walking, the lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, and the poor needy souls having glad tidings preached to them.
‘Tell John the things which ye do hear and see’, said Jesus to John’s disciples; and this was all the answer He deemed necessary to send to the lonely prisoner, but He adds, in tender significant words, a brief personal message for his own heart’s need; a message that would serve as an anchor to John’s faith in the still deeper suffering that the Master knew lay yet before him. ‘Tell John, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me’ (Matthew lv6). As if the Christ would say to His sorely tried servant, ‘I am meeting the needs of others, but your need is not forgotten, John. I have reserved a special blessing for you. Something far higher than anything I am bestowing upon these around Me. An eternal blessedness far beyond any deliverance from present trial and present suffering; the special blessing reserved for those who will not be offended with Me, however strangely I may deal with them; even though, whilst delivering others, I leave them in prison, darkness, loneliness, suffering, death, that their faith may be found unto honour at My appearing.’
No word of rebuke did the Lord send to His tempted Forerunner. He knew that ‘all chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous, but grievous’, and so He sent the message to lift his faith to the ‘afterward’ of the peaceable fruit for eternity. Did John whisper ‘Not offended, Lord’, on that still darker day when the devil apparently triumphed, and God’s faithful servant was hurried to a martyr’s death? ‘Not having been given deliverance’; that he might ‘obtain a better resurrection’ even a martyr’s crown.
When the disciples of John had departed with their message, Jesus turns to the multitude, and bears witness to John, even as John had once borne witness to Him on the banks of Jordan. ‘This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger . . . There hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist’ (Matthew 11v10-11).
So ‘great’ was John that he could be trusted, not only with public ‘successful’ service, but with prison and suffering, without any explanation from the Lord, trusted to go to a humiliating death with only a brief message from the Christ to whom he had witnessed so well.
Jesus testified of John that he was a ‘burning and a shining light’ at the very time that he sends the message revealing what sore trial and perplexity he was in. Even in prison he was a ‘shining light’ to his God, a light burning all the more brightly for the darkness of his surroundings.
The Master knew the loyal heart, and knew that the brief message bidding him not be offended with the strange silence and dealings of his Lord, would be sufficient to draw out the faith that asks no deliverance from present suffering, but in the hour of trial cries: ‘What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. Father, glorify Thy Name’ (John 12v27-28).
The word ‘whosoever’ in the Master’s message to John, shows that the blessing promised to him, if he would not be offended with his Lord, for leaving him apparently undelivered, is a blessing open to every child of God who will follow in his steps. ‘Blessed is he’ not only John the Baptist, but, ‘whosoever shall not be offended in Me’.
That we may share in the special blessing promised to John, and opened to us by the word ‘whosoever’, let us turn to other passages of Scripture, and learn how to be ‘Unoffended’ to-day. Let us note first that Isaiah clearly prophesied that the Messiah when He came would be a ‘Rock of offence’. ‘He shall be for a Sanctuary . . . and for a Rock of offense . . . and many among them shall stumble’ (Isaiah 8v14-15).
Not offended IN ME, was the Master’s message to John, and His words interpret the passage in Isaiah. Christ is to every soul either a ‘Sanctuary’ or a ‘Rock of offence’. We either take refuge in Him, and learn to know His heart so as to be ‘un-offended’ with Him; or else we resent His claims, His way of salvation, His cross, His will, His dealings with us, and, in short, find Him continually a rock of offence in our path. He is a ‘stone of stumbling and a rock of offence’ to the disobedient (1 Peter 2v8), but to those who believe and hide in Him, He is precious. In the Gospels we find the description of some who found the Lord a rock of offense, and in them we may see depicted some points in our own lives where we may become offended, cast away our confidence, and lose our reward.
The Offended Converts.
He that heareth . . . with joy receiveth . . . when tribulation or persecution ariseth . . . offended (Matthew 13v20-21).
These souls received the word of life with joy, but when they were tested by tribulation (or, the threshing), and the Heavenly Husbandman began to separate the chaff from the wheat in their lives, they were ‘offended’. They had not counted the cost of following Christ. Joy; peace; prosperity; all this they had expected, but no cross. ‘Christ bore the cross, that we might be free from a cross’ - we hear again and again from those who bear His Name. Yes, He suffered for us that He might bring us to God and He alone was the propitiation for our sins, and the sins of the whole world - but there is a taking of His cross, a fellowship, partnership, with His sufferings clearly put before His children - a fellowship that is to conform us to His image, and be the necessary preparation for our sharing His throne. ‘If we suffer we shall also reign with Him’, and we are ‘heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together’ (Romans 8v17).
For this path of fellowship with Christ in His cross, many converts have not been prepared, and when the ‘tribulation’ begins they are ‘offended’.
The Offended People.
His own county . . . Is not this the carpenter . . . are not His sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him. (Mark 6v1-6).
Beholding the carpenter, the son of Mary, they missed the Christ, the Son of God; and ‘He could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief’. The Christ is often to-day a ‘rock of offence’ in the way He is pleased to approach men, and in the instruments He deigns to use for their salvation.
He draws near to souls in lowly guise that He may prove who are truly seeking Him, for when we are athirst for Him, we do not care what vessel He uses to satisfy our thirst. We do not quarrel with the ‘manner’ or ‘expression’ of His messengers sent to minister the word of life. ‘That which was temptation [trial] to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 4v14) wrote the Apostle Paul to the Galatians (Compare 2 Corinthians 10v1-10).
The Offended Formalists.
This people . . . honoureth Me with their lips but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me . . . the Pharisees were offended (Matthew 15v8-9 &12).
The Christ was a ‘rock of offense’ to the religious formalists of that day, because He told them the truth. They professed to worship His Father, but they were ‘offended’ because He told them that God wanted the worship of the heart, and not merely a profession of the lips. He was a still greater offense in saying that such exterior religion was in vain.
When the Faithful Witness deals thus with us, His own children, and strips all away that He sees to be artificial in our religious life, are we also ‘offended’ with Him? How few of the followers of Christ really crave to know the bare truth about themselves. Blessed is he who is not offended with his Lord as He slowly and tenderly unveils the hideoud life of self, and does not pause until He has brought him to the dust of death, crying, ‘In me dwelleth no good thing’. ‘I am a sinful man, O Lord’.
The Offended Disciples.
He that eateth Me, even He shall live by Me . . . His disciples murmured . . . Jesus said, ‘Doth this offend you? From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him (John 6v57,61,66).
The Lord Jesus was a ‘rock of offense’ even to some of His disciples. They murmured at the expression of the deep mysteries of God from His lips; were ‘offended’ and left Him because they could not understand His ‘teaching’. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life, said Christ about the strange language of eating His flesh, and drinking His blood. If His hearers had but hidden His words in their hearts and waited, the Holy Spirit would have guided them into all the truth, but they were ‘offended’, went back and walked no more with Him.
So do many of us to-day foolishly thrust from us heavenly blessings. We are so quickly ‘offended’ with any truth we do not readily grasp or understand. We measure all things by our present capacity and apprehension, instead of meekly receiving the Word of God, and counting upon the Holy Spirit to bear witness, and bring the seed of the Word into full fruition in His own time and way.
The Offended inner circle.
Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of Me. Peter answered . . . Though all shall be offended . . . yet will I never be offended. Likewise also said all the disciples (Mattllew 26v31-35).
As the Lord drew near the hour for which He had come into the world, He tells His little band that they too would now be offended because of Him. He knew them as they did not know themselves. His words aroused their vehement protestations, but it was written afterwards, ‘They all forsook Him and fled’. The offense of the cross has not yet ceased. We too may fail the Master where His inner circle failed Him long ago. We may have stood the test when the ‘threshing’ began, and held fast the confession of our faith without wavering; we may have had vision to see the Lord, and hear His voice through any instrument He has chosen to send to us: we may have welcomed the keen edge of His truth, and humbled ourselves under the mighty hand of God: we may have learnt to hide His Word in our hearts, and not been ‘offended’ as we have followed Him in the way. All this may be true, and yet, when the real fellowship of His cross is at hand, we may fail Him as Peter did that night in the judgment-hall.
Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me is a message for this present time. We are living in solemn days, and there is a deep sense upon many of the nearness of the Lord’s appearing. The living members of Christ are being proved by fire. All that will ‘abide the fire’ is being made to go through the fire (Numbers 31v23).
There is a silent power at work in the professing Church, separating unto God and thc Lamb, all who are truly joined to Him. The call to the cross is the touchstone, the path of the cross the test. Once more the Christ is saying, ‘He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me’.
Who among us will follow the Lamb and be ‘un-offended’ souls? The Lord Himself foretold that many who profess His Name would be ‘offended’ in the last days. ‘Many shall come in My Name, saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars . . . famines . . . pestilences . . . All these are the beginning of sorrows . . . and ye shall be hated . . . and then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another’ (Matthew 24v5-10).
The ‘offense of the cross’ must grow more acute as the days go by. The world must turn upon the living members of Christ. Those who reject the cross and its message of salvation through the death of Another, and its call to follow Him in His path of sacrifice, must reject and hate those who glory in the cross and know nothing among men but Jesus Christ crucified. Then ‘shall many be offended’. But ‘Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended’ with God or his brother in the days of the beginning of sorrows.
The Un-Offended Followers of the Lamb.
These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended (John 16v1).
The unveiling of ourselves, our weakness, failure and sin, is always accompanied with the message of the Divine provision to meet our need. At the supper table the Lord had said, ‘All ye shall be offended because of Me this night’, but before they parted, He to go to His cross and passion, and they to their shame and sorrow, He unfolded to them the Divine secret that would enable them to be ‘un-offended’ when He would be taken from them, and they would be left to bear His Name, and be hated of all men for His sake (John 15v18).
Briefly the Master promised them:
The gift of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. ‘I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter’ (John 14v16).
The manifestation of Himself as the Risen One. ‘I will manifest Myself to you’ (John 14v18-21).
The knowledge of God the Farher. ‘My Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him’ (John 14v20-23).
The Holy Spirit as the Comforter would make real to them the things of Christ, would communicate to them the mind of Christ; would impart to them the life of Christ, and fill them with the peace, and joy, of Christ. A soul comforted by the Indwelling Comforter will not be an ‘offended’ soul. Walking in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, the Risen Christ would reveal Himself to them, and they would rejoice in being made partakers of His sufferings, that they might be partakers of the glory.
A soul in close fellowship with the Risen Lord will not be an ‘offended’ soul. Walking in implicit obedience to the revealed will of Christ, He would tell them plainly of the Father, and they should know the Father as indwelling them, through the Son, by the Holy Ghost.
A soul that has learned to know the Father will not be an ‘offended’ soul. ‘Blessed’, with the blessing of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, is he ‘whosoever shall not be offended in Me’.
Before we close let us briefly notice the characteristics of un-offended souls in their life in this present evil world. Un-offended with God or man, they are ‘sincere and without offense’ (Philippians 1v9-10), for in deep humility and love they seek to give ‘no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed’ (2 Corinthians 6v3).
They walk in wisdom to them that are without, as the Master did, ‘lest we should offend’ (Matthew 17v27). They gladly sacrifice even lawful things for the sake of others, lest in any way they become ‘offended . . . or made weak’ (Romans 14v21). In dealing with their own lives they unflinchingly cast aside all that causes them to ‘offend’ (Matthew 18v8-9), for they know that the Master said: ‘Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh’ (Matthew 18v7).
Those who are offended with the claims of the cross of Christ, become ‘offenses’ or ‘stumbling-blocks’ in the way of others. What a sorrowful word for a needy world. ‘It must needs be that offenses come’. Woe to the world because of offenses, the poor world turning trom God because of His un-Godlike children. God grant us grace to be among the Un-offended, and save us from the woe of those through whom the offences come.
‘Great Peace have they which love Thy will, nothing shall offend them’ (Psalm 119v165).