Jesus is the Rock of Offense
By: David McFadden
“You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” —Matthew 7:13-14 NLT
Jesus’ name offends many people. Just start talking about Jesus at the grocery store or hair salon. You will create a stir and most likely experience a lot of push back. I had a person scream at me when I merely mentioned Jesus in what I thought was a normal conversation. When this happens, it seems surreal. So, what in this world is behind the angry response (pun intended)? The spirit of antichrist rules this present world, and the spirit of antichrist is violently opposed to Jesus.
Moreover, people instinctively know that they are responsible to Jesus, and they don’t want to be. It makes people angry to have inferred accountability to God. They want a meddling God to leave them alone. Just as Frank Sinatra gloated in his famous song, “I Did it My Way,” people do not want to be told that they can’t do it their way.
Jesus offended people in His day, too. The Jewish people were very religious and were intensely devoted to the Old Testament scriptures written by Moses. The youngest of children were raised to know about God. The religious leaders held great power and refused to acknowledge that Jesus was indeed the expected Jewish Messiah. In the oddest way, the religious elect felt threatened by their Messiah when He came. Hundreds of years earlier, the Prophet Isaiah gives more insight when he foretold that Jesus would be a stumbling block and a Rock of Offense to the Jewish nation. Romans 9:33 says it this way, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” NKJV
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” John 14:6 The Apostle Peter, speaking of Jesus, wrote by the unction of the Holy Spirit, “There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved.” These powerful statements about Jesus do not leave room for maybes. There are no shades of gray, or “I’ll try Jesus to see if I like what He can do for me.” These attitudes represent disingenuous antics to sneak past the Rock of Offense that God places in a person’s path.
Romans Chapter 1 tells us that every person has the predisposition to deify something, and then to worship that person or thing they have chosen to deify. This truth explains why so many people seek spirituality, often in the strangest ways. Jesus is the narrow gate, the stumbling stone of offense on the path to know God. Sidestepping Jesus can only mean an alternate side road becomes the broad path to destruction.
Most people want assurance of heaven, but often feel confident that they can make it there without Jesus. The truth is that a genuine seeker must experience Jesus as the “stumbling stone and the Rock of Offense.”
If a person somehow thinks that he or she can be eternally saved without this confrontation with Jesus, as the Rock of Offense, this sidestep will leave the seeker with a false hope of salvation and cannot experience God’s wholeness. A false hope is no hope at all.
You must recognize that God gives you the opportunity to either resolutely accept, or resolutely reject Jesus as your Lord and Savior. This is the reason Jesus is put in your path as the Rock of Offense. Trying to sneak past Jesus puts you on the broad way to destruction that will miss the narrow gate.
A Prayer for Transformation
Heavenly Father, thank You for looking ahead in time and seeing my need for a Savior. You sent Your Son, Jesus, to die for me on a cruel cross to pay the penalty for my sin. I am forever grateful! I lift up Jesus as the name above every other name, no matter what the world says about Him. Your Word says that as I delight in Your law and meditate on it day and night, I shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. LORD, help me grow my roots deep into the water of Your Word so that I will bring forth fruit in its season. When I do, I have Your promise that I will not wither, but I will prosper in whatever I do. Therefore, I declare by faith that I purpose to live my life Your way, which is living by your statutes and principles.
LORD, thank You for Jesus who is the stumbling stone and the Rock of Offense. What wisdom You have to divide the sheep from the goats! And how wonderful for those who are broken before You in humility, for the stumbling stone destroys the pride of self-righteousness, enabling “whosoever will” to enter by the narrow gate.
LORD, thank You for wiring me with the desire to pursue You as my God, and then pairing it with the bent to worship You. Thank You for the assurance of heaven because I have surrendered my life to Jesus. It is in Jesus that I live and move and have my being. I confess that I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I declare Your Word that brings Your overcoming life to me. I receive Your love for me that overflows, giving me joy, peace and the hope of eternal glory with You. I proclaim these promises and praise You, LORD of host in Jesus precious name. Amen.
From his Deeper Life Series - Let’s Make Disciples Together
Get David’s book on Prayer - Available on Amazon.com by clicking here: Prayer by the Book: How to Pray Effectively: McFadden, David E: 9798366677516: Amazon.com: Books
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