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“Jesus Spoke Faithfully”
Jesus Spoke Faithfully
Wade Webster
In last Sunday’s lesson, we examined how Jesus spoke that we might learn to speak like Him. We noticed that He spoke graciously (Lk. 4:22), boldly (John 7:26), plainly (John 10:24), authoritatively (Mt. 7:28-29), and wisely (Mt. 13:53-54). I intended to notice that Jesus spoke faithfully, but time and memory failed me. To complete the study, I am including it here.
Many verses in the gospel narratives reveal that Jesus faithfully delivered God’s word. Consider a few of them with me:
- “Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things”:(John 8:28).
- “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:49).
- “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
- “For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me” (John 17:8).
- “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
This specific characteristic - faithfully speaking God’s word - had been prophesied concerning Him. Through Moses, God declared, “I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him” (Deuteronomy 18:18).
If we are going to speak like Christ, we must also speak faithfully. Jeremiah declared, “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD” (Jeremiah 23:28). In like manner, through Ezekiel, God declared, “When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul” (Ezekiel 3:18-21). Paul is a good example of one who spoke faithfully just like Jesus. To the Ephesian elders, He declared, “How I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house…Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:20, 26-27). Paul would encourage Timothy, his young son in the faith, to do the same. He wrote, “If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed” (1 Timothy 4:6). Timothy was not to be like those who changed the message to fit the crowd. We read, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:2-5).
Jesus spoke faithfully. He delivered the message that God gave to Him. If we are going to speak like Him, then we must do the same.
