Is Your Religion Hearsay - Or Heartfelt?

During His trial before Pilate, our Lord posed a searching question that echoes through the ages and goes right to the roots of our religion today: “Sayest thou this thing OF THYSELF, or did OTHERS tell it thee of Me?” (John 18:34).

Many people today are trying to get by with a second-hand religion!

It's all very well to sing our hymns and recite our catechisms. But the key issue is: do the words we find in them accurately reflect our own state of heart before the Lord – or are we just dully repeating what other people have told us?

In an age when false conversion is rife, it is vital to ensure we are not building for heaven on some second-hand experience, but on a personal, saving encounter with Christ.

That is the hub of this message: is our knowledge of Jesus first-hand experience or second-hand tradition?

It is a sobering, searching question – “Sayest thou this thing OF THYSELF, or did OTHERS tell it thee of Me?”