When the Bushel Comes Off

We're just saying about the coming of our Lord. When Jesus is finally manifested as the Messiah, the response of this world will be one of weeping. Uncontrollable weeping.

People who haven't shed a tear of repentance in all their lives will be on their faces shedding bitter tears. The weeping will start in the city of Jerusalem. And I will pour out in the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplications so that when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.

On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The weeping will become an epidemic and it will sweep over the face of the whole earth rapidly. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in the heaven and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, everyone who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so, amen. The cause of this weeping, apart from the believers who will be receiving him with unspeakable joy, the world will now acknowledge with bitterness that this is the very one whom we have pushed away, rejected, abused, slandered, hated.

He came to us. He appealed to us personally and we spurned him and the world will weep. Meanwhile, until that day of weeping, the attitude of this world to Jesus of Nazareth has been and will continue to be hatred.

The world is not indifferent to Jesus Christ. This world hates Jesus Christ, who has believed what we have heard and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or comeliness that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and equated with grief and is one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Jesus' purpose for coming, of course, was the same, to redeem, to heal, to set free, to bring life.

But notice how he did this. Jesus accomplished our salvation by exposing himself to the hatred of the world. He broke the curse by offering himself to the madness of an angry mob and allowed himself to be killed by wrath and bitterness and hatred.

And out of the death that he died comes our healing. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth on a cross, will draw all men to myself. Now surely any Christian who has her or his doctrines even half together will agree that salvation was accomplished and purchased for us by Jesus, at the price of Jesus, exposing himself to the worst that this world and the prince of this world could do.

Everybody agrees. But do we realize that if we become Jesus' followers, receive his salvation that he bought for us with his blood and his spirit, and commit our lives into his hands and faith, that the rest of our days in this world will be lived in such a way that we not only share in Jesus' redemptive power, but also we will share in Jesus' stigma. On the one side, we, in his name, will touch people with healing.

We will feed the hungry. We will set the captives free. We will lift up the fallen.

But on the other side, we will be taken, despised, rejected, for his name. In fact, the degree to which the redemptive power of Jesus flows out of our lives is in direct proportion to our willingness to expose ourselves to the hatred of this world. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth.

But if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.

Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Now when we try to live in the redemptive power of Jesus, while at the same time insulating ourselves from the hatred and the rejection of the world, we end up saltless salt, useless.

Our light is covered, and it doesn't get out, and we're useless. We sit around and sing songs about how wonderful God is and what mighty things he does, but our power is canceled. Our impact on the world is stunted and blunted by the fact that we pull the bushel down over ourselves to protect ourselves from persecution.

So somebody object. Wait a minute. Can we help it that we're living in a land where it's legal to be Christian? We can go around and witness.

Nobody's going to bother us. We can meet like this, and nobody gives us a hard time. There's no persecution in this land, we say.

True. We don't suffer and won't suffer at this time the kind of persecution brothers and sisters in the Lord are suffering in many parts of the earth right now, but the fact that we're not persecuted is not because we're living in a Christian country. There is no Christian country on this earth.

The fact that we are not experiencing persecution is simply because we're covering our light with a bushel. We're playing it safe. For instance, one way we cover our light with a bushel is to do good works, you know, and show compassion and run around doing good, but never, never, never mention the name of Jesus.

You know, you can knock yourself out showing compassion to people. And as long as you don't connect what you're doing with the name of Jesus, nobody's going to bother you. In fact, you'll be a hero.

But suppose one day somebody asks you, hey, how come you're so conscientious on your job and you're so generous with your money and you also seem to go the second mile and you boldly and frankly connect now what you're doing with the name of Jesus. See how quickly the atmosphere changes. All of a sudden, you're no longer a hero, God's man for the hour, a wonderful lady.

You're weird. But when? When it happens that we begin to do this, that we begin to connect what we're doing with our Lord and we start feeling some of the rejection of the world, then the bushels coming off the lamp, the light goes forth, the salt has taste, and people are drawn to the cross of Jesus. Another way we play it safe.

We can talk about Jesus all we like and nobody will bother us very much as long as we aren't seriously living the life. Say, Lord, Lord, all over the place, just don't do the things he commands and you'll be okay. I mean, we can grab people by the collar and ask them if they're safe and they might be slightly annoyed.

But they won't really become upset as long as they can look at us and see that our life isn't any different from theirs. It's when we not only are talking about Jesus but seriously attempting to be obedient to him in such a way that it now begins to affect the way we deal with people, the way we handle our money, how we behave in male-female relationships, whether we take risks for people. When they see serious attempts to follow Jesus in our living, then we become speckled birds and the other birds start picking on us.

We become the object of suspicion and resentment. But with rejection, willingly accepted and boldly received by us, comes the power of God in our lives. The redemptive power of God is connected with rejection, not with popularity.

The big thing in much of Christendom in the United States is you become more fruitful if you become more popular. That's not true. You become more fruitful to the extent that you're willing to be rejected.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Remember the word I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. Another way we play it safe is to endlessly speculate and talk about the coming great persecution while playing it totally safe now.

You know, we can read books about the great tribulation and we can speculate about what it's going to be like when wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines visit. But to do that and never in any real way come out into the real world where we are now, exposing ourselves to it, is an escape. And when the great persecution comes, and don't bet on being raptured, by the way, when it comes, we'll have everything we need to have from God at that time.

Meanwhile, even in good old USA, the world that spit on, scourged, hated, and crucified our Lord, killed the apostles, martyred countless saints, is right outside the door of our lives. All we have to do is walk out and start proclaiming and living the gospel of Jesus and we'll feel it. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Now if the salt doesn't seem to have much taste and if the light isn't getting out, it's because the salt is playing a stake and the light is under the bushel. What a change will come over our personal lives and our corporate lives when we make up our minds that we're willing to expose ourselves, take off the bushel, to the hatred of this world.

There was once a kingdom which was ruled by an invisible king. At least some people felt that. Others insisted that he was actually in the palace if he only chose to come out.

This kingdom was in a state of civil war and the palace up on the hill remained closed and silent. One day a man appeared in the central square of the capital city who announced that he was the prince, the son of the king, and that he had come to restore broken lives and to heal this civil war. But how could you tell by looking at this man? How could you be sure that this was not just another imposter but that he was really the prince? Now this man did nothing but good.

He healed the sick, fed the hungry, lifted up the fallen. But the more good this man did, the more he was hated. He went from town to town and everywhere it was the same story.

People got healed and he got thrown out bodily. Get out of here! We don't want you! But there were those who were convinced that he was indeed the prince and they joined their lives to his and the minute they did, they became the objects of hatred in that kingdom. The officials of the kingdom got together one day and decided this thing has gone far enough.

If we let this man go on, he and his rabble will take over the kingdom. By sundown of that day, the dead body of the prince was hanging from a rope in the central square. Some days later, his followers gathered in a valley east of the city to try to figure out what to do and into their midst comes the prince alive from the dead.

He gives them three promises. You, in my name, will now touch other lives with healing. You will be hated just as I am and you will see me again.

Now we like the first of these promises that we are going to touch other lives with healing if they will receive it. And we like the idea that we're going to see him again. But something in us finds it hard to accept, really accept, with our hearts, that we are going to bear his reproach and that we are going to share the rejection that's meted out to him.

And we resist that, deep down in our guts. But if we are, in fact, going to touch other people with healing and if we are going to have our lamp still burning when he returns, we're going to have to take off the bushel and expose ourselves to the rejection of this world. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteous mistakes, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.

You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill cannot be hid, nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.