Joan Boney ... apostle/prophet
Recently in talking with Pam Padgett, she mentioned she had been reading John 16:1 ... 1These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.
She went on to say, "Jesus was never offended."
I was shocked. Jesus was often offended. I thought of Jesus casting those money changers out of the temple. I thought of the many times the Pharisees and Sadducees came to Him to question HIM. I thought of Jesus at home of Lazarus when HE saw their unbelief and wept over their sin of unbelief.
Basically "offend" means upset, annoyed, angry ...
Jn. 2 ... 12After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. 13And the Jews’ passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, 14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; 16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise. 17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
When Pam and I read this aloud, Pam agreed that Jesus was offended by what they were doing to the temple of God. It should have been for sacred things and they had turned it into some house of merchandise.
Pam had some kind of "image" of Jesus when she thought Jesus was not offended on this earth. It was only an "image" and not true. (Certainly Pam saw this as we talked.)
Often people set up an image of what they think God is like. I've heard them say, "Oh, my God would never do that." But they presume to describe God based on their own thinking. Often they have no idea of the examples given us in the Bible itself.
It is not at all unusual for church groups to set up a type of image of God this way and even try to follow God by their presumed image.
They often see Jesus as a kind, inoffensive type who wants good things for everyone.
They fail to see the wrath of God in the real description of the acts of Jesus such as the above when he literally drove money changers from the temple.
To follow an image rather than the Word of God is a serious mistake.
Several times God has taken "harsh" words from the Word of God to show me what HE wanted me to do.
Example of John the Baptist ... Luke 3 ... 7Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 9And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Paul is seen as a very caring person, but there is another form of care of the church which is also pictured concerning the actions of Paul. I Cor. 13 ... 20For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: 21And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. This is an account of Paul dealing strongly with evil doers in the churches.
Another account of severe dealings of the apostle Paul in the church ... I Cor. 5 ... 1It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump,
We must remove imagined images and be sure we have the Word of God on the matter at hand for that Word is what we must follow. We must not follow images of our own thinking. It is the Word from God by the Spirit of God that leads the NT Church in all cases. We can't try to be like Jesus by a preconceived notion of what we think Jesus would or would not do. Jesus always heard from God and did what God said to do. (We must do the same to follow God and to follow Jesus.) Unless we have the Spirit of God in us we cannot know what God wants us to do in specific situations of this life.
In Pam's case, she said the minute she made the statement that Jesus was never offended, she was troubled by what she had said. This troubling was the Holy Spirit calling a check on what she had said.
When we have this type of check, we must turn to God to find out what HE has to say about that which we said or that which we did. It is the Spirit of Truth trying to warn us and trying to lead us to correction.
Notice the following extremely harsh words spoken by Jesus directly to the Pharisees ... Jn. 8 ... Jesus said ... 44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Second by second God gives us HIS word to show us what to do.
What would Jesus do? Jesus would hear the word from God and do that instruction. That is what we also must do. The word from God is the key.
Jesus said ... I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear (from God), I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. Jn. 5