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The Mastership of Christ In the Realm of Christian Thinking Stenographic report of an address delivered before the student body of the Bible Institute of Bos Angeles by Dr. William Evans ■ AM to speak to you this morning on the subject of the Mastership of Christ in the realm of Chris tian thinking. . Let me read to you a few verses from Matthew’s Gospel, 23d chapter: “Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his disci ples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat; that when He was here upon earth. “Call no man your teacher. One is your teacher, even Christ.”
Now then, that claim was protested, of course. It was challenged. First of all, by the scribes. They were the duly appointed teachers in Christ’s day. Ever since Ezra’s time the nation had recognized the scribe as being the ap pointed teacher. They looked upon them as the last, final, ultimate word in matters of faith and practice. And so, when Christ came and differed with the scribes, He came into conflict with the appointed teachers of the day, with the result that when the scribes saw that the multitudes hung upon His words, they said, “What shall we do? for the multitude goeth after him,” and determined they would kill him, and finally kill him they did. The Pharisees, who built their whole doctrine of life upon the teaching of the scribes, also came into conflict with Christ when He claimed supremacy in the realm of thought. Then came the Sadducees. They were the elite, the highbrows,” the intellectuals, the higher critics of the day. They never went to the synagogue, they went to the temple. And you can readily understand that when Christ’s teaching came into conflict with theirs and the people said, “This man speaketh with authority,” that they also deter mined to put Christ out of the way. And so, in our Lord’s day, the claim of scribes and Phari see and Sadducee to mastership was challenged, and that challenge was carried on through the days of Paul, for when Paul stood on Mars Hill and preached to the great scholars the simplicity of the Gospel, they said, “This man is a babbler.” (By the word “babbler” they referred to the birds that swooped down on the Areopagus and picked up seeds here and there.) They said in effect, “This man has a mere smattering of knowledge. He has picked up a seed of knowledge here and there,” and they cast that sar casm into his face— a sarcasm before which many a mod ern preacher has been unable to stand, for there are lots of men who will deny the fundamentals of the Gospel rather than to be accounted not up to date. But you never can depend much upon this kind of critic. They said of Jesus that He did not know letters, that He did not have enough learning. They said of Paul that he did not have any learning and>then when he stood before Agrippa they said he had too much and that it had made him mad. The supremacy of Christ in the realm of the mind has always been challenged, down through the cen turies, and there come times when a man must recognize the fact as Paul did. And yet Paul was a scholar. You remember after they had arrested him he began to speak to the people in Hebrew. On another occasion, when he desired to speak to the people near the tower of An tonia, they said, “Canst thou speak Greek?” “Speak Greek!” said Paul, “I was born in Tarsus, no mean city of Cilicia.” And you remember when they were about to scourge him, he said, “Is It lawful for you to scourge a Roman?” It was a mighty day when Saul the Pharisee (with a passion for religion; the Greek, with a passion for scholar ship and the classics; the Roman, with Vxis missionary power for world evangelization) bowed his neck and took (Continued on Page 186)
All things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works; for they say and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. But all their works they do to be seen of men: for they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the chief seats at the feasts and the chief places in the synagogue, and the salutations in the market-places, and to be called by men, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi; for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ.” Matt. 17:4. “And Peter answered and said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us build.” 1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify in your hearts Christ as master.” I have chosen these three passages of Scripture because they represent the different spheres in life in which Christ is Master of the Christian. Now, if you take the word “Master,” in the standard version, you will find that it is the translation of seven different Greek words, and that they fall into three groups. The first group contains three Greek words translated by the one English word “master.” The second group contains two Greek words translated into the one English word “master.” The third group contains two Greek words translated into the one English word “master.” So Christ is Master in three groups of passages and it is remarkable to note that these three groups of Scripture (and I have given you one of each) represent Christ’s mastership over the whole of the Christian’s life. The first group, containing three words, centers around the intellect, the mind, the brain, the thinking. Christ is “master,” the Greek word for teacher. Christ is “Rabbi,” “my teacher.” Christ is “Rabonni,” “my very dear teach er.” In the second group of passages, they refer to Christ’s supremacy in the realm of my heart, my affections, my love, my desire. He is “master,” 1. e. “despot,” standing at thé door of my heart, determining what love, what affection, what desire, shall enter. The third group has reference to my hands and my feet, i. e. my activities. He is one "set over” me. “We have toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, Master, at thy word, we will let down the net.” He is “superin tendent,” one who has power to command and superin tend the building. “Master, let us build three taber nacles.” So the word “master” concerns the Christian’s intellect, his heart, his hands, his thought, his brain, his affection, his activities. Christ is Master of his whole being. We have time this morning to look only at one group and that is the first group. I am not surprised that Christ should demand the su premacy in the realm of Christian thinking. He claimed
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