Sermon on Offence

The word OFFENCE has 4 possible meanings:

1) A breach of a law or rule; an illegal act; sin

We see examples of this in the book of Romans 5 verses 12-20 where Paul speaks about the offence of one man, Adam. He summarises his point in verse 18 where he states:

‘Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgement came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life’.

Jesus said in Matthew 18: 7-9, that if our hand or our eye ‘offends us’ (would cause us to commit sin), they should be cut off or plucked out.

Also, James 2:10 where it states: ‘For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

Prisons for young people are called ‘Young Offenders Institutions’.

2) A thing that constitutes a violation of what is judged to be right or natural:

The word ‘offence’ is used in various contexts in scripture. Jesus is referred to as a ‘rock of offence‘ in Romans 9 verse 33:

‘Behold I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone and rock of offence; and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed’, and this thought is repeated by Peter in 1 Peter 2:8.

The idea that the path to God is exclusively through Jesus alone, and what he accomplished on the cross, through his sacrifice and his blood, is an offence to the natural, self-righteous mind. That’s why scripture, in 1 Corinthians 1:18a says: ‘for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness…..’.

In Galatians 5:11 Paul says; ‘And I brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offence of the cross has ceased’. The Jews were offended by grace, and people still are today. (Example of Kevin, my friend the Lifer, now out on the street, saved and evangelising).

(3) The action of attacking someone or something.

We see Jesus using the term offence as here when he speaks to Peter in Matthew 16:22:

‘Get thee behind me satan; thou art an offence unto me’; for thou savourest not the things of God, but those that be of men’. Peter thought that he was defending Jesus from harm, but in fact he was being used by satan to attack Jesus’ ministry and mission.

(4) Annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult or disregard for oneself.

It is this aspect of offence that I intend to deal with in greater detail.

Writing in 2 Corinthians 2:10-11, St Paul in dealing with the issue of forgiveness, states ‘lest satan should get advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices’

As Christians, and especially in these days, we should be aware of at least some of the enemy’s schemes used against us and ‘OFFENCE’ is definitely one such device he uses to great effect. Satan aims to prevent people being saved (story of my friend Nigel recently); but if he fails it that mission, he will use tribulation and persecution to cause the believer to get offended and to give up their faith.

We see this in Matthew 13:3-8, in the parable of the sower sowing the seed of the word of God in 4 types of the soil of the human heart. In verse 20-21, the ‘stony ground hearer’ is described who receives the word with joy, but he has no root in himself, and when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended’. Persecution and tribulation come to make us get offended at God.

This is one of the dangers of the shallow, modern presentation of the Gospel where people are told that God wants us to have ‘our best life now’, and why many who come in that way, will fall away quickly when trouble or persecution comes.

We can find many examples in scripture of individuals being offended, which fall under the 4th heading above. Here are a few:

The first example of this kind of offence is Cain in Genesis 4 verse 3-8 where Cain’s offering does not please the LORD as Abel’s does, and as a result Cain gets offended and kills his brother. It’s amazing when you think about it, that the judgement was made by God and objectively Abel had done Cain no wrong, yet his sense of grievance caused him to kill Abel.

In Genesis 19, we see the men of Sodom taking offence at Lot because he was blocking their evil plans with the 2 angels in Lot’s house.

Later on in Genesis 37, as in verses 3-11 we see the effects of offence in the lives of Joseph and his brothers. The brothers of Joseph saw that Jacob loved him more than they and it, and Joseph’s dreams, caused resentment and hatred.

In 1 Samuel 18:6-11, we see King Saul taking offence at the singing he heard from the women of Israel who said: “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands”. Again, we see that just hearing that comparison caused Saul to totally misjudge David and very soon afterwards to even attempt to kill him. It wasn’t David who had made that claim in a boastful way, yet it triggered Saul, because of his own insecure, peevish nature, to react in the way he did.

In 2 Samuel 6:1-23 we see the situation where David has decided to bring the Ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem, when the incident happened where Uzzah was killed by the Lord for touching the Ark, as he tried to steady it, after the oxen which were leading it on a cart stumbled. It seems that David was offended at this action by God, but about 3 months later, he did bring back the Ark, and in the course of the exuberant celebration that took place, Michal, David’s wife became very offended by him ‘shamelessly uncovering himself’. We see the result of her offence, in that she remained childless (unfruitful) for the rest of her life.

In Matthew 15:12, we see the Pharisees becoming offended at Jesus’ criticism of their hypocrisy and greed.

So we can see that Satan has a great tool which he uses very effectively among Christians and that is of people taking offence at real or imagined insults. We live in a time in society where people are very quick to take offence at almost anything. In fact it has been said that the only sin recognised today is that of offending someone, (particularly if they are of an LGBTQ persuasion!!). We have the term ‘snowflake’ to describe people who fall apart at any perceived slight against them. It should be different in the church, but the evidence suggest it is not. This is a huge cause of church members ignoring or not speaking to one another; of cliques developing within fellowships, and of church splits, yet Psalm 119:165 states:

‘Great peace have those who love thy law, and nothing shall offend them‘.

So we can see that is possible not to be offended. It is a choice. We can enjoy great peace when we choose not to be offended. The key is in the verse…..those who ‘love thy law’, in other words those who choose to put God’s word and what it says into practice ABOVE their own hurt feelings.

If offence is taken there are 3 stages which can follow: we can:

NURSE IT: Have a ‘pity party’ by choosing to accept it and nurture hurt feelings.

REHEARSE IT: Mull it over; replay it; magnify and exaggerate it and believe our version of events.

DISPERSE IT: Start telling others to involve them in our issues and so they can nurse, rehearse and disperse it too.

Hebrews 12:14-15a states: ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; looking diligently lest any fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled…..

REVERSE IT: Psalm 119:9 asks a question, and then answers it! ‘Wherewithal shall a young man cleans his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word’.

The key scripture for this is in 1 Peter 2 19-23:

‘For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye take it patiently?

But if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth; who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously’.

The New Living Translation renders verse 23 as: ‘He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly’

Two really good New Testament examples of this at work are:

Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail in Acts 16, where instead of being offended at God for sending them to Macedonia (Acts 16:10), and allowing them to be arrested, flogged (16:22) thrown into prison (16:23), with their feet in stocks (16:24), they turn the tables on the devil and cause the first prison revival to break out as they sing and praise God at midnight.
The attitude shown by Jesus towards Peter, in John 21 at the sea of Galilee, where he not only found them a great catch of fish, but also cooked breakfast for him, and then formally restored Peter and confirmed him in his ministry ‘Feed my lambs, etc’.

In the church, the biggest source of offence is imagined or at least exaggerated. People who are easily hurt are easily offended.

The next group of offence is unintentional-we are human and we quite often say things without thinking. No harm was intended.

The third group is deliberate offence which has a range from trivial to extreme. Words are powerful and we need to be careful how we use them (see Ephesians 4:29 below).

So, following on from the scripture in 1 Peter 2, here are a few keys to remember:

If you feel offended and can’t get over it, don’t jump to conclusions. If possible, go and speak privately to the person concerned, as per the instruction given in Matthew 18:15-17 and at least confirm that you heard things correctly.
Don’t ‘nurse it’. Refuse to allow yourself to be offended.
As per the 1 Peter 2 scripture quoted, commit yourself ‘to Him who judges righteously’.
Choose to forgive the offender, irrespective of your feelings. A great start is to pray for them. 2 Corinthians 10:5 reminds us to ‘take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ’. Our feelings follow our thoughts. We can’t change our feelings directly, but if we change our thinking, the emotions will follow.
Don’t ‘disperse it’ by going and telling someone else, and allowing them to be defiled.
Be careful with what you say and how you say it: Ephesians 4:29 says: ‘Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers’
Refuse to take satan’s bait.

In summary:

Offence is satan’s trap to make us unfruitful, and to spread a type of spiritual leprosy in the body. A case of ‘divide and conquer’. Balaam couldn’t curse the Israelites (Numbers 24:10), but what he told Balak was that if he got his Moabite women to seduce the Hebrew men, then God himself would curse His people for their idolatry. Satan knows Psalm 133 better than we do. (Robin Mark’s song ‘There is a place of Commanded Blessing’ applies here).

-Giving and taking offence robs us of our peace and causes us to walk in the flesh rather than the Spirit.

-It breaks our fellowship with God. Sowing discord among brethren is one of the 7 things scripture says is an abomination to God (Proverbs 6:19).

-Jesus warned very strongly about the consequences of being a stumbling block to others, particularly young believers (Luke 17:2).

-The first step is to recognise the trap immediately and to step away from the cheese!