Faithful Leadership, by Scott Lunde

This quiet time is for having faithful leadership when facing persecution from religious people on campus or from religious family members.

Jesus was a Faithful Leader

‭‭Mark‬ ‭2:15-17‬
“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.””

Jesus is making disciples here and he invites Levi to follow him. Levi quickly decides to follow Jesus and this is astonishing to the religious leaders because, to them, he seems like the worst of sinners. The religious leaders are jealous because Jesus is actually making a difference in people’s lives. But they want to be at the center of attention.

Why did they look at Levi this way? Because he was actually collecting their money and giving it to their enemies the Romans. The Jews hated tax collectors. And here we have Jesus, not only calling a tax collector to come follow him, but now he’s eating and drinking with him along with all the other tax collectors and sinners all those people that the religious leaders hated.

• Religious people get critical when you are actually making disciples.
• They get critical because they know they should be doing the same thing and they aren’t.

Struggles in being Faithful Leaders

Our tendency is to pull back when we receive questions about what we believe in. We can get insecure if we don’t have answers or if we are actually called to tell people the truth. We can get hurt in our hearts when people persecute us and say that we aren’t teaching the right things from the Bible. The tendency for us is to pull back and not give our hearts when we feel rejected or when we feel hurt by other people, especially family members during the holiday season. 

Practical:

First, listen carefully to what the religious leaders say as Jesus did. This helps you to understand what you need to refute from the Scriptures, Jesus’ words.

• Evaluate: Are you a good listener before you speak? Ask someone who is close to you if you are.

The next thing you need to do is not give in to fear, but instead, preach the words of Jesus. This means you need to be ready and prepared.

• Evaluate: Are you ready to explain from the Scriptures the conversion process to someone who teaches false doctrine?

And finally, don’t miss quiet times over the holiday break. Dig deep into the Scriptures so that you can be prepared to give an answer as Jesus did. Be bold and bring up what the religious people don’t want to hear. So we can be faithful examples. 

• Evaluate: Do you have a quiet time plan in place for the holiday season? Possible examples would be reading some books to prepare your heart to answer. Or reading your Bible in a year with accountability.

Authors:
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
Josh McDowell – Evidence That Demands a Verdict.
Douglas Jacoby – The Powerful Delusion
Gordon Furguson – Prepare To Answer

Scott Lunde

This “Holiday Quiet Times” series was written for the month of December 2020. Brothers and sisters from the Phoenix and Tucson churches contributed these various daily devotionals. You can download the PDF packet here: “2020 Holiday Quiet Times.“