DRINKING POISION Part 4: What to do if the Truth Offends

Matthew 24:10, 12-13 (NKJV)
Then many will take offense, betray one another and hate one another. 12 Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be delivered.

Mark 16:15
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

John 13:35
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Love is the vehicle by which God’s truth is effectively proclaimed.

We must use love to protect unity from both sides.

What if the Gospel offends?

Matthew 18:7 (NKJV)
Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!

Matthew 15:12-14
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

Matthew 15:12-14
He replied, “… Leave them; they are blind guides.”

Jesus told us to not offend, but he himself offended.

John 3:1–8
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.

John 3:1–8
He came to Jesus at night…

John 3:1–8
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.

John 3:1–8
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

John 3:1–8
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:17
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Jesus’ Mission Was to Reach People, Not to Offend Them

Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,”

Is the truth that might offend in direct opposition to the Gospel itself?

Matthew 17:24-27
… the collectors …came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”

Matthew 17:24-27
“What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?” “From others,” Peter answered. “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him.

Matthew 17:24-27
“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.””

1 Corinthians 8:9
“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

1  Corinthians 8:12-13
When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”

Galatians 5:12
“As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!”

Acts 16:3
“Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.”

Does your need to be right overshadow your mandate to reach people?

If it isn’t a direct stumbling block to faith it isn’t worth the offense.

Jesus’ Mission Was to Reach People, Not to Offend Them

Never compromise the Truth of the Gospel

Why are you delivering the truth you are delivering?

Jesus’ Mission Was to Reach People, Not to Offend Them

Psalm 139:23–24
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”