Commitment and the Cross
September 9th, 2008
(By Rich Gregory)
* Rich serves at Grace Church as a ministerial resident. He also works in the admissions department of The Master’s Seminary.
Although there are many people in the modern age who are committed to going to church, very few of them are as committed to sacrificing everything for Jesus Christ. Shocking though this may sound, it is true that while many churches within modern evangelicalism are typically full, their impact upon the world around them is minimal. The modern church has excelled at filling its pews with bodies, but to a large degree has failed at producing warriors fit to do battle for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many churches today are filled with “pew potatoes” who come on Sunday morning, soak up the message, but become overweight spiritually by failing to exercise their faith. Successful Christian living, and truly successful Christian churches are not measured through the size of their worship center, or the number of bodies gathered on a Sunday morning. Rather, a successful church is to be judged through the spiritual health of the members that constitute a “church.”
When reading through the book of Acts, it is nearly impossible to miss the initial numeric explosion of the church. What was it that allowed the gospel to be unleashed upon that society with such power and force? The answer is simple, and is revealed in the opening chapters of the book. The were focused upon the sacrifice that Christ had made for them, and they weren’t afraid to spread that message to all that were around them.
The culmination of Peter’s great sermon on the day of Pentecost that sparked the detonation is recorded in Acts 2:36, “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” The tension that must have been in the air can be sensed in the text. He forced them to come to grips with the fact that they had crucified the very Son of God! Peter did not know how the crowd would respond. When confronted with those words would the people become penitent revivalists, or would they be transformed into a surging mob? Peter not only knew the truth, but he went further and confronted his world with the words of truth and life regardless of the personal cost of what such an action might mean. The point is not the results of what happened that day, but rather the Peter’s willingness to the proclamation of truth.
Peter, and thousands like him in the early church, did not allow their faith to be active solely at a worship service. They lived their faith, and they were willing to sacrifice everything on behalf of the idea and the resulting reality of the gospel that was at work within their lives. As Christ had commanded them in Luke 14:28, many of them had counted the cost and found that all other things were worthless when compared to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8).
Because of that fact, many of the early believers were focused upon the gospel and sacrificed everything for its advancement. They saw the value of knowing Christ, and were willing to give up everything else in its place. Worldly wealth, wisdom, and worries were counted as rubbish, if only the name of Christ could be made known and glorified. Those early believers made a mark upon their world that history can never forget or erase. They were not just committed to a church; they were committed, sold out, and on fire for the name of the One who had redeemed them through an incomparable sacrifice upon a rough wooden cross!
Where is that same commitment within the church of modern America? It may be seen in individual lives, but on a large scale, people come, the church grows, and an addition is added to the building while the all-consuming passion for the gospel lies largely in dormant silence. The church is consumed with seeking programs, donors, and philanthropic projects, while lost people stream around Christianity on their way to an eternity apart from God. God has graciously placed every believer into his or her world where he or she alone is able to have a unique ability to witness to those who are lost and dying around them.
It is an incumbent responsibility upon Christians of our day to not only strive after this goal within their own lives, but also to be actively cultivating this mindset within their local flock. Pastors and laymen alike must be challenged to awaken from their spiritual lethargy, and to become fully committed to their commission and reason for existence. Every believer ought to be viewing himself as a minister of the gospel. It is not just the pastor’s job to be an ambassador for the faith, but rather it is the job of every person who claims the name of Christ to live heart, soul, and mind in passionate pursuit of becoming a premier ambassador for Christ, actively begging men to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20).
The pursuit is too crucial, the outcome too critical, to simply allow ourselves the luxury of a Sunday Christianity. It is imperative that we as Christian leaders challenge ourselves and those within our pews to rise up and exercise their faith in a dynamic way by allowing the power of the gospel to flow forth from their lives and impact the world in which God has placed.
But how is this done? We will consider the answer to that question tomorrow.
Lord, help us to be humbled, convicted, obedient!
In the Holy Name of Jesus, Amen!
How true.
Here are some of the causes of this that I see.
1. The seeker sensitive group and it’s milk fed congregations.
2. Way to many internal ministries that keep people in the church. People come to committed to a building.
3.Missions, they can be done wrong. It is ok to go to other places in the world but it’s wrong when you come back to your home church and do nothing in your community.
4. Due to weak teaching or false conversions a complete lack of trust in the sufficiency in Christ.
Having had the misfortune of witnessing a “downgrade” toward ecumenical social friendship “evangelism” in a Church we where before, it has become very apparent to us that the Gospel is foolishness and a stumbling block; and Christ a Rock of Offence, unfrtunately even in the Church!!!
Missionaries are falling prey to a culture instead of standing up confronting it and people are DYING in their SINS eternally as we speak…
(I hope these statements shock you; as they do me…for it is true here in the United Kingdom)
The Church seems to forget in its lethargy that it is to stand out from it’s surrounding culture of comfort and to “preach Christ crusified” simply and plainly, speaking the truth in love…As Pastors have rightly said in the past and present: “Speaking as DYING MEN to a DYING PEOPLE!”
Indeed where is our love for the spiritually dead if we shut up our mouths for “COMFORTABLE FRIENDSHIP” “evangelism opportunities, which they await the spiritually dead to bring up in coversation!?
To the point, can you really love a spiritually dead person by WITHOLDING the Gospel of Merciful Grace? I pereceive this a vile evil and a spirit of hate and selfish comfort…. If we TRULY LOVE the LORD Jesus and those who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins; as we once where; WE WILL SHOW OUR FAITH by our SPIRIT filled WORKS (James, the works of the Gospel of grace which is alone in Christ Jesus as the Way, Truth and Life.
I like the current spiritual death of the Church to a form of Hyper-”calvinism” which is full of pride and seeks to withold the Truth which can and will set the captives free, if a preacher would be found faithful in life, word and deed. May we along with our Reformer brothers of old seek to share the Gospel in the “tongue of the people”; never seeking to deminish or distrust the LORD in His work of Salvation by our preaching thereof. (1 Corithians 1 & 2 and Ezekiel 3 & 18)
Be watchemen approved of the LORD seeking to speak the truth in love never forsaking one for the other and NEVER waiting for an opportunity, but seeking to make the opportunity to share Christ crusified for our sins, that we may receive the righteousness of Him who gave it freely as a gift to such vile sinners us we once where andby nature are.
Sola Scriptura. Sola Christus. Sola Gratia. Sola Fide. Soli Deo Gloria!
For the love of our LORD and Redeemer; the lost and the brotherhood.
Too true. Too true! Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Created to do, not just to be.
Thanks, Rich for a great article!
Hi Rich,
I can’t wait for the next blog post. Lately, I have been convicted by the definition of what it means to be a Christian? Do I have conviction and the passion to the share the Gospel and willing to give up everything I got?
I’m so ashamed of myself. I am one of the pew potatoes, brothers and sisters please pray for me, I desire not just to talk the talk of faith but rather, to really walk the walk of it.
In Christ
Dean
Dean,
Thanks for being so honest. Here’s what to do: Get some LivingWaters.com Gospel tracts (or chick.com or onemilliontracts.com), walk down the street, and offer them to people that walk by. Eventually, learn to engage such people in conversation and give them the Gospel. Jesus promises to be with you in this endeavor — Matthew 28:18-20. If you start doing this, email me and I’ll add you to my prayer list.
P.S. I just had the pleasure of doing this today hundreds of times. What a blessing to share God’s good news!
Dr. Dave,
Thank you brother, actually i have done some of this things a bit, I’ve distributed tracts, done some witnessing as the opportunity arises (not really that active), my pastor allows me to preach on a regular schedule, its just that there are inconsistencies in my life that made me believe that I am at variance with what little ministries God has entrusted in me (ill temper, prejudicial attitude towards people, too distant from people). All these things convinced me that I am not, as the article put it, a warrior for Christ. And I want to be one, I want to give God the service that He deserves, its just that I’m having a hard time breaking free from these inhibitions which leads me to inaction. I know from observations that if I have to be effective in bringing souls to Christ, I have to be close to people (I’m not a people person). I am also aware of the fact that it is the Holy Spirit that will convert a person to Christ but on the other hand my involvement is also needed for how can they believe in a God that they have not heard? And how can they hear if I don’t preach? How can I preach if I am aloof? May God the Holy Spirit give me that strength.