Would People Describe You As Radical?

If a person reads the four gospels at face value, they will quickly see Jesus was not trying to get big crowds by using some fancy teaching or preaching method, but rather by making the truth simple and accessible for the common person. He did share stories to illustrate biblical truth, but often he would explain God’s blessings were tied to a person’s obedience. If a person did decide to follow him he would explain that being a follower was more than just coming to hear a weekend message. Following Jesus meant that he expected his disciple would be 100% committed to him and not just acting like it was a part time job.  To follow Jesus meant you were becoming a “Radical Person”.

In most of todays churches, people are encouraged to “Accept” Jesus as if he is some nice guy you include as a friend on Facebook or Instagram. People are often encouraged to bow their head and close their eyes so no one can see if these people are indeed interested in accepting Jesus, but in the gospels Jesus is presented from a totally different perspective. In the four gospel accounts we see a pretty clear picture of what it means to embrace Jesus.  In most cases today the “Conditions” are far different. The Gospels state pretty clearly that he is either lord and savior of our lives or we can’t rightly claim to be his followers. This totally different perspective of Jesus as the Lord of all or nothing at all mandates total loyalty in order to have access to his saving grace and calling ourselves Christ followers.

In the first year of Jesus’ ministry he had to clarify what it meant to “Follow” him, and it wasn’t feeling some warm and fuzzy feelings of acceptance, but rather it was a radical change of life style. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus makes it clear that calling him “Lord” wasn’t calling him a nice teacher or rabbi, but rather accepting Jesus as the master over all things in our lives. Today the church generally preaches a simple accepting message with no one seeing and all heads bowed. This is a totally different gospel than what the Bible portrays and thus is a false gospel.

Matthew 7:21

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.

When I was exposed to the gospel I liked Jesus or at least the idea of Jesus which I had in my mind. That was not the gospel Jesus of today. I lived in California where being a hippy was a “Cool Thing” and Jesus seemed to be really cool. That is, until I read the gospels and discovered Jesus was not selling “Life Insurance” to get to heaven, but he was requiring us to be sold out to his Father’s will here on earth. I actually prayed a sinner’s prayer in a church service one day and then tried to live like a Christian, but I was an ultimate failure and I knew it. I discovered if I wasn’t 100% committed to Jesus he would not, and could not, be my savior.

When you read passages where Jesus says if we want to be his disciple we must deny ourselves it hits you pretty hard, or at least it did so to me. I realized that to be a Christian it was not for the faint of heart, or as some would say not being a “Weekend Warrior” for God. It means more than getting a bumper sticker for your car that says you love Jesus (which I did by the way), and it is far more than attending church service on Sunday. This became especially real when I read the following verse in the book of Luke.

Luke 9:23

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

Everything I did in my life up to that point was to promote “Self,” so I struggled greatly with what it meant to become a real Christian that followed the Biblical Jesus.

Consider the last portion of this verse where Jesus says that his disciple or follower “MUST” take up his cross and follow. The people following Jesus were all too familiar with what a cross meant. This was not a nice metaphor or some causal example. Jesus was using it was a stark example because the Romans would line the streets coming into town with people hanging on a cross because of some violation of Roman law. The cross meant death, not a slap on the wrist.

In the book of Luke Jesus again makes it very clear what the cost of following him meant, and it wasn’t about good feelings but about surrender to his Lordship. He talks about even putting Jesus first, ahead of jobs, family and even happiness. At the end of chapter nine Luke shares this profound statement that Jesus made:

Luke 9:62

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

I understood if I was to be a Christian it meant a radical shift in my priorities and values. It meant giving up what I wanted for what God wanted, even if that meant pain and suffering. Today’s Christianity looks more like a club where people join with little thought to cost or change because so much in churches across the land preach a gospel of accommodation, not surrender.

This shift in defining real and false Christianity has been a more modern shift since for nearly 2,000 years writers defined Christianity as total surrender. That changed in the 1900s. I think with all the modern conveniences and the teachings by authors like Charlies Darwin on evolution or Karl Max on communism, cultures around the world have been challenged to believe the lie that there is no God, or that God is made in our image and likeness rather than the other way around. Satan has been the driving force in culture, and culture has been the hammering force on the church and what it has taught. Remember, the apostle Paul told us clearly that we wrestle “NOT” against flesh and blood but against darkness. Satan is the instigator.

Ephesians 6:12

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

Satan has been about doing the same thing, trying to convince humanity that God doesn’t mean what his word says. This is what he did with Adam and Eve and what he is doing in the church now: convincing people that God is so desperate to bless us he will forgive our sin and corruption with “NO STRINGS ATTACHED.” This is what Satan has convinced most churches to teach as God’s unconditional love.

The real words of Jesus, in the four gospels is as true today as it was in the time of Christ. To embrace them means you are a radical follower, that is unless you accept a false notion of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

The apostle Paul told us long ago that in the end times many would fall away because of Satan’s deception. I think we are seeing it appear before our very eyes.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 

So the question for all of us is are we a “Radical for Jesus” or just a person who likes the idea of Jesus but not enough to follow him?

Questions:

1) Does the idea of being labeled a “Radical” scare you? Remember this: Jesus was considered a radical so we are in good company if we are considered radical.

2) Have you truly decided to follow the Jesus of the Bible or the Jesus of modern man? Only the real Jesus can truly forgive your sin and give you a new life – Don’t be fooled by slick advertisement.

Committed to being a radical for Jesus,

Pastor Dale