Jesus Came to Save People.
Jesus came to save sinners. How? By showing the love His Father has
for people and His willingness to finish the work of redemption that
His Father had planned from the foundation of the world.
Jesus' passion was fellowshipping with sinners
and demonstrating to them the love His Father has for them. He didn't
look at sinners has dirty low-down scum of the earth interruptions to
His spirituality or people to be avoided because of their sinning. He
didn't wait for sinners to come through the doors of a building called
Church or make appointments for a pastoral counseling. No. He found them
in His daily living as they were daily living their lives. He invited
Himself over to their home to eat, and He wasn't in a hurry to leave. Why? Because He just wasn't looking for a meal, He was looking to fellowship with them
Not only did He desire to be with sinners...the
amazing thing is...sinners desired to be with Him. That is a far cry
from the "christian's" desire today. Today christians are taught to
distance themselves away from sinners so as not to be corrupted by them. Religionists are like birds of a feather flocking together not wanting to mix
with the dirty vultures of sinners. No wonder sinners shun the high and
mighty and the better than thou christian elite. In Jesus' earth days people avoided the
Pharisees because of their spiritual elitism and their nose snubbing of sinners. The Pharisee Gospel is
the Law Keepers Gospel of today, nothing as changed. The Pharisees
insisted that people meet a strict code of conduct before they could
belong to the "in crowd" of being true Jews. They preached down at people
from their pulpit of spiritual elitism, imposing standers to measure up
to, rules to obey and regulations to follow that they themselves could
not even live up to. They alienated people who needed help the most.
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Jesus was different, as so are believers to be today.
Jesus did not condone sin, neither did he condemn the sinner either. He
offered forgiveness, compassion, hope and love. That is why sinners
loved to be around Jesus. They were captivated by His compassion, amazed
at His practical explanations of how to live life. Unlike the
religionists of today, Jesus let them belong before they repented or
behaved.
Listen, it is not the believers responsibility to
convince people they are wrong, it is not their Job to change them into
better people. Pointing out their wrongness because of their goodness is a relationship barrier. Befriending
sinners rather than judging and condemning them is a relationship
builder and a witness to the love of the Father.
Christians have left a legacy that is not conducive
to relationship building. They support supposed "christian causes" by
stuffing their faces with chicken, while condemning gays to hell fire
because they are living together. They think they have the right to tell
them what God thinks of their sexuality as if it was the first thing on
God's agenda.
It's NOT! Compassion, forgiveness, understanding, mercy, love and grace is.
Does
that mean that sin doesn't matter, of course not. But when sin becomes
more important than the sinner our priorities are wrong and we are
thinking with our heads and not our hearts.
Love faking just to get people out to a denominated building is manipulation and hypocrisy. Placard waving and name calling at some "christian cause" and saying we are standing for truth and the gospel is alienating the very people whom God desires us to build a relationship with so has to lead to where they see the destructive way they are living and the because of our pointing them to Christ instead of sending them to hell.
Authentic
love is the love found in John 3:16.If we were to love as that verse
shows us we would love people and give ourselves to people no matter who they
are.
Let's love as God loves.
There are some churches where they just set idly by and tell the people all you need to do is just be like Jesus and do good so that people will see what Jesus is like.
ReplyDeleteThen there are others that have a vision for lost and they cannot be content with just sitting idly by while souls are lost and going to hell.
They are those who believe and obey the words of Christ in Mark 16:15. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. There are two important words that this command hangs on. They are GO and PREACH. Unlike many churches today the early church was a PREACHING church.
Stephen preached so hard that they stoned him after his sermon.(Acts7:54)
Paul preached so long once it lasted pass midnight and a man fell asleep and fell out window and broke his neck and died. (Acts 20:9)
Philip a deacon in early church went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them. (Acts8:5)
Others who were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Acts.8:4)
If you would examine the messages of early church you will find they usually focused on Jesus Christ, especially his death and resurrection, and on repentance, forgiveness and salvation through him.
Here`s how Paul summed up the Gospel in 1Cor. 15:1-4.
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Notice the condition for salvation. We must not believe in vain.
Lets get back to pattern of early church. My prayer today is God raise up more preaching churches. I am sick of this modern day presentation of Gospel.
Hubert,
DeleteRegarding the “Great Commission” much emphases is put on the going but little on the making of disciples while they are gone. Making disciples does not mean to make converts. The “Great Commission” is more than the going it is about making disciples of Christ. It is not about evangelizing to make converts of religious institutions! Religion has done a lot of going in an effort to evangelize, but has done little to make disciples of Christ who in turn make disciples of Christ, who in turn make disciples of Christ...etc.
Many of us have a fuddled understanding of what the “Great Commission” of Jesus Christ is because of the intoxication of religious persuasion. We are coerced to believe by just proclaiming the gospel to the masses, using tools like radio, television, internet, witnessing, publications and going to the mission field, and support that endeavor with finances, because we are not able to go, we will have obeyed the “Great Commission”.
The “Great Commission” is not fulfilled by just a verbalization of the gospel, it includes making disciples so the gospel can be effectively demonstrated to everyone by disciples of Christ living the gospel reality.
How is the “Great Commission” to be accomplished? We have to look at the ministry of Jesus: He is the our example. We are instructed to follow His example. That is how He taught His disciples...by His example...and we are to teach everything to each generation of disciples He taught His original disciples.
Jesus believes in the principle of multiplication as the only effective strategy to reach the world. God does not want us to stop at making converts; He wants disciples.
The only way the Great Commission of Mark 16 can be done is by using the method of Matthew 28.
Matthew 28 details the procedure we must follow on how to successfully proclaim the Gospel to every one.
Was Jesus of Nazareth in a hurry to reach the world? It certainly did not seem like it. Many times Jesus shunned crowds to spend time with His few disciples. Why? Jesus was interested in quality, not quantity, because if we take the time to make disciples of Him they will in turn make disciples of Him!
Are you supposed to go into all the world? Of course not. The first disciples did not, and you probably will not either. However, you can do it through those you reach if you train them to make disciples and they also to make disciples and as these disciples go about their business they will make disciples, eventually there will be disciples across the world making disciples.
Looking at the Great Commission primarily as "going to preach" has caused most people to ignore it because they think they cannot go to all the world, so they have fulfilled it by giving of their money.
Actually the passage in Mark correctly translated is, "As you go..." It does not tell you to go somewhere else, just to tell the Good News as you go.
As you go about your life, allow Jesus to work His works through you. And concentrate on making other disciples by allowing Him to do the same.
That is Jesus' Commission to us!
There are many great preachers in our institutional church churches who are fulfilling the great commission and making disciples. Sure there are some churches that have just become a social club but I am not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I am not going to link everybody into the same boat. I am not going to sit high up on my religious horse and snob my nose at everybody in the institutional church because of what some have done. I have all I can do to make sure I am doing what Christ commissioned me to do. I need to ask myself how many sick have I laid my hands on and seen healed, or how many demons have I cast out or how many have I brought into kingdom of God before and make sure I have measured up to what they did in early church before I criticize others.
ReplyDelete