Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness
It was almost a postcard perfect day, the blue skies, the gently sunshine and the children playing. The crowds had gathered around the young prophet from Galilee that they had heard so much about. The afternoon had begun with Jesus healing the sick who had been brought to him, and now the mob was content to sit and listen as he taught. It was then that the parents of the playing children herded their kids over to the feet of Jesus. This is a parent thing, what a great opportunity to have their children blessed by a man like Jesus, someone who obviously had a direct link to God. I’m not convinced that they knew that Jesus was God, but they must have been thinking, “What can it hurt?” And as they approached the master the apostles began running interference, sorry you can’t bring those kids up here it will disrupt the flow of Jesus’ teaching, this is important stuff don’t waste the master’s time.
But Jesus looked over and said “Whoa, hang on guys, don’t stop the kids coming to me, they are the ones who really know what’s going on. If you want to enter the kingdom of God you’re going to have to be just like this.” And then he stretched out his arms and the kids mobbed him. It says a little bit about the character of Jesus that children liked being around him, because kid’s are very astute judges of character. You ever notice the adults that children click with? Normally they aren’t dour grumpy people, “look there’s grumpy old man Smith, let’s go hang around with him.” We’ve all seen the pictures of Jesus with the little children, and for most of us that is how we are most comfortable with him. You ever notice how Jesus played with children and taught adults, but in the church today we teach children and play with adults? And so we enjoy knowing that we are in the hands of a kind gentle saviour.
(At this point we showed the clip of Jesus Clearning the temple from Jesus Christ Superstar. Starting with Jesus entering the temple)
It was almost as if he’d lost his mind. They were just going to the temple when everything seemed to fall apart. One minute he was talking to the guys, laughing over something that had happened on the way there and the next minute . . . chaos. He’s tipping over tables, trashing stalls and setting animals free. People didn’t know what to do or where to hide, before he was done the outer courts of the temple looked like a war zone. Cages were open, tables were broken, money was scattered across the ground and boy were people wild. He certainly knew how to push their buttons. He had come up the temple steps and when he saw the moneychangers and animal vendors in the outer court he lost it. He saw some rope on the ground and he picked it up and began braiding it into a whip, you could almost hear him counting under his breath. But he must not have counted long enough because when the whip was done so were the moneychangers and vendors. He went ballistic, absolutely ballistic.
Same Jesus, and yet there appears to be a contradiction in his behaviour. Especially if we try to put it into perspective using the scripture where Jesus described himself in Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. And we have no problem reconciling gentle with the Jesus who is balancing the toddler on his knee, but major problems with the Jesus running amok in the temple courtyard. And primarily that is because we don’t understand the word gentle, as used in the scriptures. Over the past two months we’ve been looking at the fruit of the spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22-23 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
We’ve looked at how these are referred to in the singular that is they were the fruit of the spirit, not the fruits of the spirit. And because of that it is an all or nothing proposition. If you are controlled by the spirit you will exhibit these characteristics. It’s not going to be a pick and choice, buffet kind of thing. You can’t say, “Well I’d like a little love, a lot of joy, a bit of gentleness, but I think I’ll pass on the self control and patience.” Nope doesn’t work that way, the bible, God’s word says “When the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit.” Not he might or he may, but he will, not some of this fruit or most of this fruit but all of this fruit.
So over the past two months I’ve spoken about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. Which brings us to gentleness. Now we all know what gentleness is right? Wrong. You see most of us want to define this word out of the dictionary, I mean that’s the way we understand it gen•tle (jĕnʹtl) adjective
gen•tler, gen•tlest 1. Considerate or kindly in disposition; amiable and tender. 2. Not harsh or severe; mild and soft: a gentle scolding; a gentle tapping at the window.
But that isn’t what was meant by the Greek word that has been translated here as Gentle. The word that was used was , khray-stot´-ace; and in the New Testament the word is used in several different ways in Matthew 5:5 God blesses those who are gentle and lowly, for the whole earth will belong to them. It means those who have submitted to God’s will.
James 1:21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. The same Greek word is translated here as humbly, and means being teachable, not too proud to learn. Most often though it simply means being considerate. To move it from the Bible into a secular Greek context the philosopher Aristotle defined it as “The mean between excessive anger and excessive angerlessnes.” Fleshed out a bit he said “Anyone can become angry -- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way -- this is not easy.”
To shed a little more light on it this word was also used to describe an animal that has been tamed and brought under control. We’ve not talking about being self-controlled here, that’s next week. This week we are talking about being under the control of the master. And that control should result in us exhibiting the types of Characteristics that the Master himself exhibited. Like master like follower, like follower like master. That’s probably why the word of God says in 1 John 4:17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world. And again in
Ephesians 4:15 Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. So it shouldn’t take much to figure this out, if Jesus was master controlled and because of the that he was considerate, and we are to be like Jesus then we ought to be master controlled and considerate. Is that fair? So how was Jesus considerate.
He Was Considerate Of People. You don’t have to read very far through the New Testament to discover that Jesus was what we would call today a “People Person.” Jesus liked people and people liked Jesus. Every where Jesus went people followed him, and it wasn’t just because of the miracles it was because people could sense that he really cared about them. We know that now, we read the gospels and know how much Jesus loved people. Thomas Watson was the founder of IBM and he could have been talking about Jesus when he said “Really big people are, above everything else, courteous, considerate and generous -- not just to some people in some circumstances -- but to everyone all the time.”
When you read through the New Testament and you see how Jesus interacts with people you really see the love that he has for them. At different times we’ve watched movies about Jesus in one of our small groups called “Lights, camera, Jesus” and I know that they are just movies and just actors but when Jesus smiles at one person and reaches out his hand to help another person and laughs and plays with children, I think yes, that’s the God who I serve.
We see it when the religious leaders bring out a woman who was caught in adultery and throw her at Jesus feet, using her humiliation to test Jesus and try to trip him up. “Teacher” they say “This woman was caught breaking Moses’ law and because of that deserves to die, what do you say?” And instead of satisfying their thirst for blood, he reaches down and wipes away her tears and says, “I’m not here to condemn you, go and sin no more.” Jesus, never made light of sin, but he loved the sinner and wanted them to be able to embrace him and receive forgiveness. How about it, is that how we react to sin? What if the woman had of been brought before you, what would you have done? What if she had of been gay? The homosexual community often says the church is homophobic, and you know what they are right. Because Homophobic is defined as “Having an aversion to gay or homosexual people or their lifestyle or culture.” And that unfortunately describes too many Christians. And that ain’t the way it’s supposed to be. We should have an aversion to their life style because the bible says it’s wrong, but your heart better be broken for them.
Because the reason that homosexuals are going to hell hasn’t got a lot to do with their sexual orientation, it has to do with the fact that they have never accepted the forgiveness of Christ, you say forgiveness for being a homosexual? No for being a sinner. Homosexuality is no more sinful then what your niece or nephew is doing by living with their heterosexual partner outside of marriage, or for that matter then any other person who has not accepted the claims of Christ.
And the bottom line is that Jesus heart is broke for sinners, because until they embrace Christ and repent of their sinful nature they are destined for a Godless eternity. And because Jesus was considerate of sinners I’m going to heaven. When he reached down and touched me 27 years ago I was a 19 year old fisherman who hadn’t done anything to deserve the forgiveness of Jesus, but because of his forgiveness he took me off the road leading to hell and put me on the road leading to heaven. And there isn’t anyone of you here today who is a Christian because you deserve to be.
Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his special favour when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
If we are going to be as gentle as the master then we need to have our hearts broken by the lost. Do you remember how when Jesus came into Jerusalem just days before his crucifixion listen to what the bible says about that event in Luke 19:41 But as they came closer to Jerusalem and Jesus saw the city ahead, he began to cry. Why was he crying? Because he knew that before the weekend was over he’d be dead? No the next verse says
Luke 19:42 “I wish that even today you would find the way of peace.” When was the last time you wept over someone who didn’t know Christ? When was the last time your pillow was wet because of the people of your community who don’t know Jesus, your friends, your neighbours, your family? We don’t shed nearly enough tears for the lost.
Someone told William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army, “If I believed what you say you believe about hell, I’d crawl across broken glass to warn people.” This isn’t about building a church, this is about depopulating hell.
You say that explains gentle Jesus with the little children but what about the Jesus with the whip? Jesus Was Considerate of God. And because of that he became angry when God was mocked. And how is God mocked? The Greeks had a word that described someone who wore a mask, who was an actor who wasn’t what they pretended to be and it was Hupokrites. We know it better as hypocrite. And on several occasions Jesus used that word to describe people, and then he compared them to a dead man’s tomb white washed outside but full of decay inside. He said that they were filthy and then he referred to them as vipers, hypocrites, liars and then he condemned them to hell. He was angry with them because they were taking the name of God on themselves and were in fact defiling the name of God through their actions. They were professing what they didn’t possess.
When people call themselves Christians, or followers of Christ, and then don’t live as he taught they are being hypocrites they are being liars and they defile the name of Jesus through their actions. And that makes Jesus angry, made him angry 2000 years ago and makes him angry today.
The day that he cleared the temple Jesus saw people use God to justify selfish behaviour. He wasn’t upset because money was being changed, or because animals were being sold for the sacrifices that had to be made. That was life, those things had to happen. What infuriated Jesus that day was when people who were coming to worship God were being defrauded by religious hucksters. The pilgrims who came for the Passover needed their money changed for the offerings, they needed to purchase animals for the sacrifices and these merchants knew they had the pilgrims over a barrel and so they charged exorbitant amounts. Do you remember the words that Jesus cried out that day? Luke 19:46 He told them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a place of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.”
If we are God controlled, then we will have be considerate to people, and we will also be considerate toward God. It’s not easy, but Jesus didn’t say it would be easy but he did say we wouldn’t have to do it alone. Acts 1:8 But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere. And what happens when we give the Holy Spirit control over our lives? Galatians 5:22-23 But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.
We can’t do it alone, but praise God we don’t have to. So where are you at?
Powerpoint is available for this message please email me at denn@cornerstonewesleyan.ca
