We often make matters more complicated than they ought to
be. In particular, I am speaking of the identity of people who claim that they
know Jesus. Also, the other issue at hand is how we should engage those who
perhaps do not know Him. Believing in God is directly tied to the initiative of
the Father to bring believers to Jesus. What is key to this belief is the
believers’ ability to gain knowledge from the Father to recognize the Word of
Life that has come down from heaven.
Simply put, we know that children in both private and public
settings respond distinctively to the voice of a parent. As a father, my
children know my voice, and when they were young both their ears and their eyes
were indicators of their recognition of who I was; they were keyed in to my
voice. At times, they would come running to me when I got home from work and
they would draw near to me in times of uncertainty and fear. Of all the voices
of other men that may have been around, my voice was the one that they could
pick up in an instant.
So it is with the word of God and Jesus. The Father is at
work drawing His children to Him so that He may gift them with the right to
become children of God (John 1:12). This is the reason that we must give people the
word of God as clearly as possible. It is foolish to think - or worse, to say -
that the exposition of God’s Word is unnecessary or ineffective in any society
or at any time. We know even more about our Father as we understand Scripture.
It is also the method by which the Father gains the attention of those who are
to be His own (John 6:45). The same word that God uses to draw His children
enables them to see, understand, and know. They are taught about the Savior,
His Son. All who are drawn to Jesus are at the behest of the Father’s love.
Let God’s children hear God’s voice, His word. If they are
His already, they will recognize the teaching and grow accordingly. If they are
lost and need to find their way to Jesus, there is no better way than to make
known God’s word. Expose people to the truth of Scripture. Other anecdotal
methods of reaching people today are never to be compared with obedience to the
mission of God to speak His words. After all, His children will pay attention
to the familiar words of the Father and they will be drawn to His Son. If they
do not hear, it is because the Father’s voice is unfamiliar and Jesus will ever
be unrecognizable to them.
