Jesus demands a reaction. When people encounter Him, whether during His physical ministry or today, we can’t face Him without some sort of response.
In Matthew 8, just after Jesus heals two demon-possessed men and sends the demons into a herd of pigs, which then run into the water and drown (v. 28-33), we see this interesting reaction:
Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region. (v. 34)Inevitably, as so many passages of Scripture do these days, this verse draws my thoughts to today’s American Church. I just can’t help it! Almost daily, I see how different the Jesus of the Bible – and even the Jesus we preach – is from the Jesus we live.
When was the last time your church purposefully did something that they knew had the potential to drive people away? In my experience, most churches will do everything in their power to steer clear of such a situation, but we see over and over in Scripture that this is not how Jesus operates. He never avoids anything that might drive people away.
Now, it is true that He often found Himself in situations where people clamored for Him. In fact, He sometimes had to sneak away in the early morning hours to spend time alone with His Father because so many people were seeking His attention, but we see plenty of stories like the one in Matthew 8.
Jesus drove the demons into a herd of pigs. Maybe the pigs were important to the town’s economy. Maybe Jesus' antics scared the townspeople. I don’t know. But I’m confident that Jesus knew He was going to drive people away with this stunt.
I’ve blogged on this before, but Jesus spoke in parables so people would not understand. (Matt. 13:13)
Rather than fight a revolution and rip the nation of Israel from the imperious claws of the Romans, Jesus died a criminal’s death for our sins. Not exactly the way to draw people in, is it?
The truth alienates people.
Jesus said, “…the truth will set you free,” (John 8:32), but He also said that people would hate us for following the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He also said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14)
My sincere hope is that we’ll stop focusing on what will draw people in, and start focusing on the Truth – Jesus.
10 comments:
I like the idea of looking at the real Jesus and seeing what he did and said. So many times I hear and read about "Christian Character" attached to legalistic do's and don'ts. Jesus was authentic - and didn't get caught up in drama or petty politics. He also got himself framed, arrested, and killed. Jesus was a righteous dude.
Success in many churches is determined primarily by numerical growth. The logic is that the more you have coming, the more salvations and disciples you will have. So churches create positive, laid back atmospheres that will attract their "target" audience. They offer them cool music, coffee, and a "relevant" message series. So goodbye to the old, boring Bible teaching church of yesterday and hello to the non offensive, non committal church of today.
Yes, Jud we should be changed by an encounter with Christ. Our time with other believers worshiping at the feet of our Lord and diving into His Word should leave us forever changed. We must remember churches should not be built to attract the curious seeker. Churches (no matter the size) should exist to give glory to our holy God - We were created and saved for that purpose.
"It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.) 1 Timothy 1:15-17
Russell Franklin
I think I agree with what you're saying, but just a couple of things to add:
1. Although I don't think you meant it this way, I wouldn't want someone to think that the church should plan or do anything with the intent or purpose of driving people away. If the TRUTH does the driving, great! But I do fear that there are some people and/or churches out there who set out with the thought, “Okay, what can we do that will really get people’s blood boiling”. Again, if the TRUTH does that (as I believe you are indicating in your post) then that’s good, but if the PURPOSE of what you or your church does is to cause commotion and drive peeps away for the sake of causing a scene, I would say that’s unbiblical.
2. There is no doubt that there are many things that are troublesome about the churches we see around the world. I’m sure I’ve written many blog postings and preached many sermons that highlight the “best of the worst” list. But that said, the Holy Spirit is moving and doing what He does best in the lives of many people and in the community of many churches, including America. Yes, we need to be aware of what is happening and be cautious of false teachers proclaiming a false gospel. BUT, we also need to practice identifying evidences of grace in people and in the church and learn to communicate those evidences even more so than the faults we identify. It’s easy to be critical of what’s going on out there, after all, there’s a lot of junk happening. But God is also at work in a mighty, God-sized way in the lives of His people and His church. I think we would do well to communicate those evidences of grace that we see Him pouring out on us.
Again, I totally agree that we need to preach the Truth of Jesus Christ, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His physical return! If that offends and drives peeps away, then so be it!! I would just encourage us; however, to recognize that the Holy Spirit is proclaiming the Truth of the Gospel in many churches and that we should communicate that evidence of grace as well.
As far as your first point, Dustin, you are absolutely right! And that is what I hoped to convey. If I was unclear, sorry about that.
There is absolutely no reason for us to go out of our way to drive people away from our churches. My point (and you obviously agree) is that we should avoid some truths out of a fear of driving people away. If they leave because they don't like the Truth, that changes nothing about what we're called to do.
You are also right that God is moving in many churches in America, but I would argue that - in general - American Christianity is much too comfortable. Far from just criticizing, my hope here is put a critical eye on the how we do church and compare it to what the Bible says. And this is, of course, based on my experiences in the church, which have revealed to me a lot of issues.
I think it’s evident that we agree on both points, but perhaps differ a bit on what is to be recognized and communicated. Are there a lot of churches and people that might be too “comfortable” in the churches of America? Yes, and we would both agree on that. We would also both give a resounding “amen” if we were together and, if within a sermon, the preacher said, “We need to look at what Scripture says the church IS first and THEN follow that blueprint”.
I would say; however, that being too “comfortable” or “lazy” have been problems since the beginning. We just see it more than we used to because of the technological and communication age that we live in. I think most true followers of Jesus know that there is a problem in the way many view the church and what it is, but again, I think it’s crucial that we are intentional about communicating specific evidences of grace that God IS pouring out among many churches! Again, I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with bringing up the concern for the local church (and not just in America) but I would also say that if we fail to point out specific evidences of grace that God is pouring out on His church, then we are focusing only where God is not moving rather than where He is moving; where He is not pouring out His grace in a people rather than where He is; where people are not responding properly to His gospel rather than where His elect are responding to His gospel.
Trust me when I say that I feel there is much that needs to change as it comes to the way we think about the Authority of Scripture, the way we read the Scripture, the value we put on the Scripture, and the way we follow the Scripture. But even those can not be done apart from God’s grace. If we just continue to talk about, and point out, where people are not living up to their responsibility of carrying out that which Scripture commands, and not those places where people are responding appropriately to the grace that God has poured out, then we are talking more about what God is not doing than what He is doing. And, as I know we would both agree, our God is doing much! My hope is that, again, we don’t just diagnose the problems without pointing out what God is actively doing. The problems that are being publicized today without the evidences of grace being communicated is leading people to write books like “The Shack”, “Revolution”, and “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore?” which promote and encourage the abandonment of the church as an institution and rather just focus on this new “cure”. They write these things because they only see what is not "working" that God commands in His Scripture rather than what is. We must encourage and comfort people by communicating not only what God’s Word says the church is to be, but also those specific evidences of grace that God is pouring out! We do this in hopes that people will see God is continuing to bless those that respond appropriately to His idea, which we find in Scripture, what the church is to be (both the Body and the institution!).
And just to clarify to both Jud and everybody that is reading this, this is not a slam on Jud’s post or Jud himself. I love my brother and agree with his observations, assessment and the content of his original post, as I too have witnessed these things in my travels. However, in the past year, God has continued to have much grace on me and has taught me through the conviction and teaching of His Word that we need not JUST talk about the problems and failures of people (after all, there are just too many), but learn how to both recognize and communicate the grace that He IS currently pouring out on His church, the way in which His people are responding appropriately to that grace, and the blessings that follow.
May God continue to pour out the grace on His people that we do not deserve!
A typo just came to my attention in my previous comment:
There is absolutely no reason for us to go out of our way to drive people away from our churches. My point (and you obviously agree) is that we should NOT avoid some truths out of a fear of driving people away.
Wow, that really changes things.
And in response again to Dustin:
I wholeheartedly agree. We need to remember God's grace, which is one of the reasons that I wrote "Don't Let Me Forget." And I think - on the other end of the spectrum - there are a lot of people and churches that are "throwing the baby out with the bath water" by leaving the Truth of God behind because they see all the ways in which the church misses the mark. I definitely don't want to promote this kind of thing.
I am a member now of a loving, gracious congregation, that I truly believe wants to see God's will and work. We're struggling together to find what that is.
However, I really feel we need both. If we focus only on the good things we see God doing in our churches, we are in danger of getting even more comfortable. We need to remember God's grace but also remember that we need to be always striving for holiness. And sometimes in the struggle for holiness, we need to be shown our shortcomings.
Yes, we must have both! It occurred to me after I posted that last “sermon”, that although I was describing that we need to communicate evidences of grace COUPLED with our concerns of our not following what the Bible says the church is called to be, I forgot to end that long drawn out sermon with summing that up in one sentence. I think I might have had a “bit” too much caffeine as I was writing that…
One of the things that my pastor and I continuously talk about, and hold one another accountable to, is as we identify areas that don’t match up with Scripture, that we don’t go to another extreme to compensate. Our culture is very good at reacting in an extreme way when needing to change something, which most of the time just ends up causing more problems (ie. the post-modern movement). The pendulum is to be in the middle, and it’s when that pendulum is in the middle that we find the pendulum pointing to Scripture.
BTW, what church are you going to these days? When the heck are we going to lunch or coffee?
Enjoying the conversation and praying that God’s grace in our lives is evident as people read this,
-Dustin
I am leading worship at Magnolia Creek Baptist Church in League City.
And I'm ready when you are!
I agree with you wholeheartedly. It seems the bigger the church, the more worldly conscious it seems to be. A situation at a large church nearly destroyed one young man's faith in christians. A somewhat similiar situation at a smaller church actually drew everyone more together in faith and fellowship.
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