Conspiracy in God’s church.

In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the four books of the Holy Bible that detailed the life of Jesus we see how far certain church leaders would go to have their own way. We must never forget that Jesus Christ the righteous Son of God was not betrayed by heathen; he was not denied by infidels; he was not conspired upon by members of the Gentiles community and his rejection did not come at the hands of members of an opposing nation with whom Israel was at war.  But Jesus’ suffering and final demised came at the hands of the leadership of the Church, his Church. Mathew 26:3-4, 27:1, then the chief priest, the Scribe, and the elders of the people got together at the palace of the high priest Caiaphas, and consulted how they can kidnap Jesus and secretly kill him. Here we have the leaders of the church who were to be the conscience of the community, plotting to spill innocence blood, plotting to murder Jesus.

 

These “religious leader” went into the community to solicit the paid service of the communities’ members; who were enticed to break God’s law (to bear false witness) to destroy the very God they loved and served daily; the very God they were responsible for teaching the nation to love also: Jesus Christ.

 

Eventually their conspiracy worked and the leaders of religion were successful in causing a miscarriage of Justice. With the use of fabricated evidence, they caused the eventual conviction and execution (crucifixion) of Jesus Christ; even though they knew they were wrong and Jesus was innocent of the charges. Even after all they did, instead of repenting and confessing their wrongs, they thicken the plot by offering bribes to the soldiers to lie about Jesus’ resurrection.

 

Because of rough “spiritual leaders”, who put their own selfish ambition above the spiritual needs of Yahweh’s people and the will of the almighty God, an entire nation was led to defiled their souls with the unjust spilling of Jesus’ holy blood. This was manifested when the “Religious Leaders” convinced and had the bulk of the population voted to pardon and spare the life of a convicted murderer: Barabbas and demanded the execution of Jesus Christ. Here we see the so-call men of God conspired to have Jesus arrested, they conspired to have Jesus killed, they conspired to keep Jesus dead, and they conspired to keep his resurrection a secret.

 

Unfortunately, today there still exist men and women among us, working in the ministry to save souls that have the mentality of the religious priest, the scribes and the elders of the people who conspired to secure the suffering and the death of our Lord and Savior: Jesus Christ. In Matthew 7:15, Jesus himself warned his people to “beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves”. (Wolf in sheep’s clothing) and in verse 16, of Matthew 7: Jesus further warns that you should know them by their fruits.

 

Paul also saw the danger and he said in his letter: Philippians 1:15, He said some preach Christ out of envy and strife. And verse 16 he went on to say, the former insincerely preach Christ from selfish ambitions. We must never forget that our leaders will lead us somewhere, they may lead us to the cross of Jesus Christ and eventually into heaven or they may lead us away from Christ’s cross and eventually into everlasting fire.

 

Thos cost of your soul is too high, for grown men and women who were blessed with the wisdom and intelligence of Jesus Christ to take their salvation for granted, to sit idly and blindly follow the dangerous direction of a leader who is  moved by personal ambition and not by the spirit of the Holy God.

Setting the wrong example

Cry aloud spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58:1.

All through earth’s history, the people of Yahweh, strayed from the principles the Creator give to live by; at times we make a conscious decision to satisfy the desires of the flesh; as a result we fell into open rebellion against our Creator. At other times, we become victims of the ease and conveniences; while others become busy with the work of the Lord that they neglect to maintain and develop their personal relationship with Jesus. When we neglect out relationship with our redeemer, our communication with him become blurred and our ability to make sound spiritual decision is severely hampered. Unfortunately; when such things happen, we are the last person to know.

In Matt. 21: 12 - 13, the local merchants crowded the courtyard of the temple with their tables of trade. Each table was strategically position to help worshipers with the daily temple sacrifices and offerings. The services these men of trade provided was an essential one, it took every excuse an individual may come up with, not to perform the appropriate sacrifice, present the appropriate offering at the appropriate time. The services provided by the men of trade were not bad or wrong, as a matter of fact; such services were essential to the community. Although such service helped Yahweh’s chosen people to comply with his command as it related to sacrifices and giving offerings; the location they choose to carry out their trade desecrated the temple of the Almighty God.

Like the moneychangers in Jesus' day, we must be careful that our good intention and the vital service we provide are not at the expense of desecrating God’s holy law. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; this is Yahweh’s command. The Sabbath day is an opportunity for us to pay tribute and recognized Yahweh as the awesome CREATOR that he is. But what is holiness as it relates to Sabbath keeping? Jesus in his quest to lend clarity to this subject asked: “which of you having a lamb that falls into a pit ‘on the Sabbath day’ will not retrieve it”, then he declared; “it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day:” Matt. 12: 10 - 12, Mark 3: 2 – 4. However, this principle is not applicable across the board. It is good to tackle those critical needs and perform those vital Christian services to our fellow men whose needs may have just arisen or those needs we have just learn of. It is a desecration of Yahweh God’s holy Sabbath, if we consciously neglect to perform those known act of Christian service, because it was not convenient to do so during the six days of work, wherein the Lord God have provide for us to do such.

We must learn from the mistakes of Israel and be careful that in our efforts and enthusiasm to be different that our actions do not misrepresent the King of kings. If we ought to be effective; our “witness” must be clear and free from contradictions. We cannot afford to become stumbling blocks in the way of the people we are attempting to serve but most of all, we must never risk compromising the standards and principle of Yahweh, by sending the wrong messages to our target community.

We must always keep in the forefront of our consciousness, the fact that we are not independent contractors in the salvation of lost humanity; therefore, we should not allow ourselves to become neglectful in our rush to do the work of the lord. We must always proceed carefully and prayerfully, never forgetting that we are co-laborer with Jesus Christ for the salvation of lost souls. We ought to always listen attentively, follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and the reveal will of Yahweh. We must never forget the Holy Spirit will never lead us against the will of Yahweh, or upon the gray or ambiguous areas of Yahweh’s words thus enticing us to betray our consciences.

In such cases, the Holy Spirit will find applicable and practical way of teaching willing heart, the spiritual lessons we need to learn. Although we do not know what tomorrow holds, there is one thing we can be sure of: if Yahweh leads us into the valley of uncertainty, there could be only one outcome: victory for his faithful children.

Some will have us to believe; faithfulness is demonstrated in how loud we can shout the word but true faithfulness is exhibited in how well we live the word. It is with living that we become effective witnesses for the cause of Christ. To the unbeliever, our words are like a gentle wind that cools the soul, but an unambiguous exhibition of a godly life lived, is like an invitation into the very presence of the Almighty God himself.

 Prepared, designed & © Allan H. Palmer