Feed Sheep or Amuse Goats?

Read: Ephesians 4:7-16

An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most shortsighted can hardly fail to notice it during the past few years. It has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them.

From speaking out as the Puritans did, the church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church.  If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it? He didn’t but nevertheless gave us the Great Commission – in Mark 16:15 "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."   That is clear enough.  So it would have been if He had added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel." No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to him.

Then again, in our focal verses first of all Ephesians 4:11-12 we see: "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some pastors and teachers ... for the work of the ministry”. Where does entertainer come in? The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? The concert has no martyr roll.

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all his apostles. Don’t you think? What was the attitude of the church to the world? Ye are the salt" (Matt. 5:13), not the sugar candy---something the world will spit out not swallow. He was in awful earnestness. 

Listen: Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into his mission, he would have been more popular when they went back, because of the searching nature of His teaching. But I do not hear Him say, "Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick Peter, we must get the people somehow." Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them.

In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of this gospel of amusement! Their message is, "Come out, keep out...!" Anything approaching fooling is conspicuous by its absence. They had boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.

After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the church had a prayer meeting but they did not pray, "Lord grant unto thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are."

If they ceased not from preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. They turned the world upside down Acts 17:6  “And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain Brethren unto the Rulers of the city, crying, These who have turned the world upside down are come hither also”. That is the only difference! Lord, clear the church of all the rot and rubbish the devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to the Word of God.

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to affect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the church met them halfway, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment has been God's link in the chain of the conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine (The Gospel), so understood and felt that it sets men on fire.

 

Preaching Repentance

A Message to Preachers for the Need of Preaching Repentance from Sin: 

Why? Because of Many Unfaithful Professing Christians in Our Churches!

Read: Romans 6:1-18

My Authority to make the below assertions in this Commentary – I used to be one years ago.

 

        The title of the message identifies the problem. To some degree in all our churches     
there are a number of people who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior who are clearly
not faithful to Him. Their lives pretty much remain the same after their profession of faith;
with the exception that now they are identified as Christians because they now have their
names on a church roll.

        They are frustrating to the God fearing pastor who loves his flock, and longs with heartfelt love to see those to whom God has entrusted him with, living victorious lives in Christ, being a ready and willing tool of God to bring Glory to our Lord and Savior, and reaping the benefit of the full blessing of God.

         These "Christians" in name only, are frustrating and a source of discouragement to any child of God who longs to see Christ lifted up and magnified and to receive the honor and worship our God and Savior should receive.

        They are frustrating because they are a liability to any local congregation of believers. These folks contribute little if anything unto the local church. Their unfaithfulness is actually a stumbling block to others in the church and the lost the church is trying to reach. They do not present a example of what God desires His children to be. They present a distorted picture of what a Christian is suppose to be.

         We all have heard someone say, "Well if so-in-so is a member of that church I do not want to have anything to do with it." What they are really saying is that if that person is a Christian, a child of God the whole thing is a sham.

         I am not only talking about those who do not come to church or tithe or take a part in the ministry of the church. I am also talking about the outwardly piteous hypocrite, who sits on the front pew and has a part in everything....a negative part!

        I agonize over the matter, trying to come to grips with it, and explain it....so as God's preacher, his pastor, His messenger I can help the poor souls whose lives are marked by being unfaithful to God.

The Divine Commandment of Life

      “… be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48

    
     Our Lord’s exhortation to us in verses 38–48 is to be generous in our behavior toward everyone. Beware of living according to your natural affections in your spiritual life. Everyone has natural affections—some people we like and others we don’t like. Yet we must never let those likes and dislikes rule our Christian life. “If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another” (1 John 1:7), even those toward whom we have no affection.

     The example our Lord gave us here is not that of a good person, or even of a good Christian, but of God Himself. “… be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” In other words, simply show to the other person what God has shown to you. And God will give you plenty of real life opportunities to prove whether or not you are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Being a disciple means deliberately identifying yourself with God’s interests in other people. Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).

     The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God’s life in us expresses itself as God’s life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian’s life is that the supernatural becomes natural in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all.

    

A Life of Pure and Holy Sacrifice

“He who believes in Me as the scripture has said; out of his belly will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).

Jesus did not say, “He who believes in Me will realize all the blessings of the fullness of God,” but, in essence, “He who believes in Me will have everything he receives escape out of him.” Our Lord’s teaching was always anti-self-realization. His purpose is not the development of a person—His purpose is to make a person exactly like Himself, and the Son of God is characterized by self-expenditure. If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that He may squeeze the sweetness out of us. Our spiritual life cannot be measured by success as the world measures it, but only by what God pours through us—and we cannot measure that at all.

When Mary of Bethany “broke the flask … of very costly oil … and poured it on [Jesus’] head,” it was an act for which no one else saw any special occasion; in fact, “… there were some who … said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil wasted?’ ” (Mark 14:3–4). But Jesus commended Mary for her extravagant act of devotion, and said, “… wherever this gospel is preached … what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her” (Mark 14:9). Our Lord is filled with overflowing joy whenever He sees any of us doing what Mary did—not being bound by a particular set of rules, but being totally surrendered to Him. God poured out the life of His Son “that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). Are we prepared to pour out our lives for Him?
“He who believes in Me … out of his belly will flow rivers of living water”—and hundreds of other lives will be continually refreshed. Now is the time for us to break “the flask” of our lives, to stop seeking our own satisfaction, and to pour out our lives before Him. Our Lord is asking who of us will do it for Him?