Matthew Stuckey here and I wanted to make a video addressing the question of
was Jesus Christ in ascetic? Was Jesus Christ in ascetic? A dictionary definition
of ascetic or asceticism is severe self-discipline and avoidance of all
forms of indulgence typically for religious reasons. And so many people
say that Jesus Christ practiced a life of self-denial and it was for religious
reasons where basically he went without any intentionally didn't have a place
to sleep and didn't eat and would pray through the night and he would harm his
body. And when you look at various religious people all over the world of
various religions they take this to extremes. For example the some of the
Jain monks in India will go without wearing clothing, without brushing your
teeth, without you know taking a bath and they go to extremes of this of basically
why can't give you know I've got to deny my flesh and I got to have no
attachments whatsoever. And you look at Martin Luther who was studying to be a
Catholic as he was a monk and he would you know it said sleep outside in the
freezing cold and harm his body to the point where he's almost dead. You look at
Magdrami in Pampanga with the self-flagellation of the Catholics as
they beat themselves and draw blood and sometimes even crucify themselves and
this is attached to asceticism or some of the extremist Buddhists or Hindus over
in India that would harm their body and they do it for spiritual reasons where
they think this is a godly thing. I will say this that Jesus Christ was not an
ascetic okay. Now let me just dig into this because many people are going to
claim that Jesus Christ was an ascetic. From the the book the ascetic teaching
of Jesus and the Apostles it says the whole of the ascetical doctrine of the
gospel is summed up in these words of Jesus Christ. If any man would come after
me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. And so they
say that Jesus Christ his whole life was about being an ascetic where you just deny
yourself, deny any pleasure or anything that you want because of the fact you're
doing it for spiritual reasons. And many people attach this to Jesus Christ they
say was over in India from the age of 12 to 30 or even that he died in India some
people would say. And they say that he was studying the teaching of Buddhism
and Hinduism and these Eastern religions. But let's see where that quote comes
from of denying himself and taking up his cross daily and follow me. Let's see
the context in the Bible. Matthew 16 verses 21 through 25. From that time
forth began Jesus to show on his disciples how that he must go into
Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and
be killed and be raised again the third day. So he's talking about his death and
how he's gonna rise again. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying
be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee. But he turned and said unto
Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savourest
not the things that be of God but those that be of men. Verse 24 then said Jesus
unto his disciples if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life shall lose it and
whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. So the context is Jesus
speaking about his death and his resurrection. And look in the flesh Jesus
Christ he did not want to die. He did not want to go through that torture. He did
not want to suffer. But here's the thing our lives are not about us it's about
other people. And Jesus Christ even said greater love hath no man than this that
a man lay down his life for his friends. Now here's the thing he says that we
ought to love in the same manner as him. Let this mind be in you which was also
in Christ Jesus. And so basically what he's saying is put other people before
yourself. That's the context in John 15 where he says lay down your life for
your friends. Most likely I will never have to die for my friends or my family
or people that I care about. Most likely I will not have to suffer a crucified
death for other people but I can still lay down my life symbolically speaking
on a daily basis. That's the context of Philippians chapter 2 with let this mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. So when he's saying deny yourself and
take up your cross and follow me what he's saying in the context of Matthew 16
is we should be willing to care about other people more than ourselves. With
him specifically he is speaking about his death and his resurrection and he's
saying my life is not about me it's about other people. But here's the thing
what does it have to do with not wearing clothing? What does it have to do with
not sleeping on a bed? What does it have to do with starving your body? That's not
a spiritual thing to starve your body. It's not a spiritual thing to beat
yourself. It's not a spiritual thing to intentionally crucify yourselves. Jesus
was crucified to die for the sins of the world. That's not something that I need
to do. And what's interesting is Jesus says this in Matthew 16 and Peter
basically tries to rebuke him. And then Jesus talks to Peter about how he's
going to deny him three times and Peter says all men might do that but not me.
And then all of a sudden Jesus rose again and then in John 21 as we compare
spiritual things with spiritual, here's what it says in verse 18.
This spake he's signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had
spoken this he saith unto him, follow me. And so we see the same wording of follow
me. And he's talking about the death that Peter is going to be martyred for the
cause of Christ. And that links back to what he said in Matthew chapter 16 about
how, you know, we need to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. And
the Bible says that if you are living godly, yea all that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. And what Peter lived during a time period when
being a Christian and being zealous it was actually a very dangerous thing. Now
this is true for certain parts of the world and people should be willing to
die for the cause of Christ if necessary. That has nothing to do though with
starving your body. That has nothing to do with causing pain in your body. That
has nothing to do with beating yourself. That has nothing to do with being an
ascetic. You say but Jesus Christ talked about how, you know, the Son of Man
hath nowhere to lay his head. You know, everyone else has a place to sleep but
not him. But see Jesus Christ was traveling all over the world and he was
preaching. He was traveling from place to place and preaching. So he's going from
town to town and when you go to a new town he didn't necessarily know where he
was going to sleep at night. He was preaching the gospel and for that cause
that's the reason why he was doing that, okay? But that doesn't mean that if
you're part of a local New Testament church and you have a job and you're
stationed in a location that God expects you not to have a house, not to have a
bed, not to have a place to sleep, not to eat any food but but starve yourself to
the point of death. How is that a spiritual thing? Jesus Christ was
traveling around preaching and it meant that, you know what, you didn't
necessarily have a McDonald's to order food as you're going into town. But that
doesn't mean that we should be starving our bodies and just going without a
place to sleep because the reality is if you're stationed in a location you need
to have a house and a home and a place to stay. I mean it's just common sense.
That doesn't make Jesus Christ an ascetic. It just means as he was going
preaching the gospel he didn't necessarily know what would happen. Paul
the Apostle the same way. As he's traveling around oftentimes he would
stay at other people's homes because of the fact, you know, he didn't necessarily
have a place to stay. He didn't know, you know, what he was was where he was going
to be staying. But you know I'm sure he stayed at people's houses, you know, you
see that in the Bible and I'm sure he also took showers and cleansed himself
because the Bible says that you're supposed to do that, not to starve
yourself. What's interesting is that Jesus Christ was actually accused of
living a luxurious life. And so people are now trying to say well Jesus was an
ascetic and yet when he was alive he was also accused of living a nice life, a
luxurious life. You say what are you talking about? Well Matthew 11 verses 18
and 19. For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he hath a devil. So
John the Baptist he was eating locusts and wild honey. He was like living off
the land and he was doing that to preach the gospel. Now I want you to realize a
few things. One, John the Baptist was not married with a family. If you're married
with a family, I mean expecting your family to live out in the wilderness
it's not a practical thing. It's one thing to be a single person like John
the Baptist or Paul the Apostle and you might, you know, basically have strong
faith that things are gonna work out as you're going and preaching the gospel.
But if you're located in an area, if you're married it's your job as a
husband to provide for your family. You're supposed to provide for your family. You know
they are relying on you for food. It would be an ungodly thing to not give
them a place to stay, not give them food and expect them to starve their bodies
and say this is a spiritual thing. So people said John the Baptist was crazy.
He hath the devil because he's basically just living off the land there. But then
in verse 19 the Bible says the Son of Man came eating and drinking and they
say behold a man gluttonous and a wine bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners
but wisdom is justified of her children. So in verse 19 they say the Son of Man,
Jesus Christ, came eating and drinking.
Okay then it says a man gluttonous and a wine bibber. Now wine bibber is someone
who drinks a lot of wine. If you drank a lot of water you'd be a water bibber.
It's not really a term that we use and it's most often associated with the word
wine but it just means someone who drinks a lot of wine.
Now I believe this is referring to grape juice because I believe you can link it
to gluttonous eating a lot of food and then drinking a lot of grape juice and
it says a friend of publicans and sinners.
So what it's saying is that Jesus Christ would sometimes go to people's
homes and they would feed him a nice meal.
They would give him nice food to eat. They would give him grape juice which was
very expensive and luxurious and people would criticize him for that and they
were saying he was living a life of luxury when he's supposed to be living a
simple life. So I want you to realize you know there's some extremes here.
I do believe as Christians in general living a simple life is a good model to
follow but it's not wrong to have nice things.
It's not wrong to go on vacation. It's not wrong to have a nice meal at a
restaurant and so Jesus Christ did that when he was invited and they said he was
a man gluttonous and a wine bibber. He did this for the cause of preaching the
gospel to the publicans and sinners.
What does it say? Wisdom is justified of her children and what that basically is
saying is that people can criticize you or say whatever but basically the proof's
in the pudding.
Okay, Jesus didn't do anything wrong. He was living a godly life and he was
trying to do what's right and they accused him of living a luxurious life.
They didn't accuse him of being an ascetic. They accused him of living a
luxurious life but at times he had to have a lot of faith as he's traveling
around preaching the gospel.
Some of the other things they say are, well the Bible says that we are
supposed to be a living sacrifice and once again that means laying down your
life for other people on a daily basis.
That doesn't mean literally harming your body and starving yourself.
Are there times of fasting and prayer? Of course but that doesn't mean you should
starve yourself to the point of death and just because Jesus fasted for long
periods of time, that doesn't mean he never says that you're expected to go
weeks and weeks without eating food.
That's not a godly practice. We are supposed to take care of our bodies.
They are the temple of the Holy Ghost. They'll say, well the Bible says that
we're strangers and pilgrims.
Yes, this world is not our home and we should live for spiritual things that
have eternal rewards and not for the things of the earth.
Okay, when we're talking about denying ourselves and denying fleshly lust, we
should deny listening to sinful music and watching sinful things and
committing sins.
That doesn't mean that we should deny ourselves from eating food and deny
ourselves from wearing clothes and taking a bath.
That's ridiculous.
Okay, and the Bible talks about bringing our body into subjection and what does
that mean?
Well, it means denying yourself from worldly and sinful pleasures. That
doesn't mean denying yourself from just basic necessities that are not
sinful and not wrong.
God asks us to deny ourselves from things that are sinful. He never asked us
to deny ourselves from basic necessities for the cause of Christ or that it's a
spiritual thing. And so this idea of being an ascetic, this was something
that's often attached to people having poverty, beating themselves, you know,
basically going without sleep and just harming their body. And look, this is not
a godly thing.
It's not a godly practice. And Jesus Christ, he went around preaching the
gospel and he had to take great faith that things would work out. And
oftentimes, you know what, it did mean to deny his flesh some basic things because
of the fact he was trying to preach the gospel. That doesn't mean that we're
supposed to intentionally harm our bodies. That doesn't mean that we're
supposed to deny ourselves from wearing clothing. And that doesn't mean that it's
a model for the normal person to just travel around with a family and not have
a place to stay.
The bottom line is it's not wrong to have some nice things.
It's not wrong to have a bed. It's not wrong to eat at a nice restaurant. It's
not wrong to have your basic necessities.
The bottom line is Jesus Christ was not an ascetic.
Thank you and God bless.