Do We Embrace The Hard Things?(Part 1)

Much of Christian preaching today is about embracing God because he will bless us with peace, happiness and fullness.  I fear we have lost our basic Christian values that God has always communicated to humanity for thousands of years. At the core of Christianity, as it was for Israel, is the challenge to “GET RIGHT” with God and become a child of God by being adopted by him.

John 1:12

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

Let me use an illustration that might make this concern and topic clearer. When I turned 16 years old I could get a license to drive a car. For a 16 year old, why do we want a driver’s license? 16 year old want to have fun with friends and feel like we have arrived at some level of maturity and independence. The question is what “SHOULD BE” the main reason for us to get a license?  The answer is to become a more responsible person and to provide personal “Transportation”.   Anything else is just side benefits. When we lose sight of the main reason to become a Christian we fail to be a genuine follower of Christ.

When we make getting a license mostly about fun we are heading for a car crash because we will not be driving for the main reason but a side benefit. Christian faith is the same thing. Do we walk as Christian because it makes us happy primarily or because we were living wrong and against God who was right about how we should live? We should walk as believers mainly because it honors our creator.

At the core of Christianity is the challenge by Jesus to take up our own cross, which was not a small challenge. The idea is that to be a true follower of Christ is to give up a life of “self-centerdness” and make Christ’s priorities first in our lives, which is why he taught for his followers to seek “First” the kingdom of God.  It is interesting that the cross of Christ does not negate our own need to have a cross of our own, so that like Jesus we live for the purpose of God, not primarily for forgiveness but for yielding to the will of God regarding the selfish tendencies we struggle with.  The apostle Paul proclaimed he died daily because he struggled with keeping his priorities in life, just like all the rest of do, except he admitted and dealt with self-centeredness daily so that it would not reclaim ground in his life.

Believers in Jesus’ time had no illusions about what Jesus meant by saying we need to take up a cross because it was part of the Christian life. The Romans were very efficient at motivating Jews not to be disruptive to civil society so the Romans set up crosses publicly to motivate the Jews not to think about trying to overturn Roman rule. Rebels were nailed or tied to a cross to show what happens to people that step out of line. Historians said that people crucified could survive from hours to overnight to several days as they slowly suffocated. These crosses were not put on some back road but the main road coming into a town or city for all to see and hear the groans and wailing. This was called high motivation and Jesus used this illustration.

Matthew 10:38

If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are are not worthy of being mine.

Don’t get me wrong about the benefits of becoming a Christian because there are many and they are amazing but never embrace a false Christianity for the real deal. Benefits of the Christian life are real but they are benefits, not the “Core Reason” for what we believe nor the life we are  called to live.

A young man who wanted to know he had the benefit of eternal life came to Jesus one day looking for “More Benefits” to an already comfortable life. What he learned about following Jesus is both costly as well as beneficial. The problem he discovered was he wasn’t willing to embrace the hard things as well as the good things and left Jesus very sad and empty.

Matthew 19:21-22

Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

If a person is coming to Jesus to be saved they have to embrace the hard things along with the benefits otherwise they will walk away empty without Jesus and enter eternity without a savior.

As you read the gospels, you see Jesus started out easy for people to understand and embrace his theology of life. It was plainly “Follow Me” with no strings attached but as you read the full account of each of the four gospel you see a different pattern emerge. By the time you get to the end of each gospel, Jesus presents an all or nothing proposition. If you love me and want a relationship with me you will keep my commandments. In other words, real love of God means having action follow our words.

John 14:15

If you love me you will keep my commandments.

He didn’t teach if you want to have a comfortable life or if you want to be healed or any number of benefits. Jesus set the standard very high so no one would be confused as to what a real follower of Jesus looked like. Why? For the simple reason that talk is cheap. It is so easy to say words that sound good but have no evidence, to like a politician does.  They promise great benefits if we vote for them and then never follow through with their promises. God is not like that! What God promises he fulfills but he also expects the same from his children who call themselves followers of Jesus.

The natural tendency in most Christian churches today is to promise healing and benefits above the cost of being a follower of Jesus. I remember when I first came to Christ.  I put a bumper sticker on my car declaring my love for Jesus. Never mind that I used to race cars and motorcycles so the car I had was a race car with the back end jacked up real high so my wide tires would fit. My engine sounded tough and people always wanted to race at stop signs and so did I. One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me and asked this question: Do you think your bumper stick reflects your relationship with Jesus to the world around you? I was stunned and convicted so I immediately cut the bumper sticker off my car. Then the Holy Spirit asked me: Is that the best you can do or should you stop racing? It was hard to change but I knew if I wanted to claim I was a follower of Jesus I had to change my love for racing.  So, I sold the car because I just couldn’t drive it and keep to the speed limit.

Following Jesus has changed my life. Not everything I have changed has been easy but I can say it was worth it because I have discovered the love of God is the most valuable thing in my life. So, I ask you this simple yet hard question: Have you embraced the “Hard Sayings” or just the benefits?

Questions:

1) Have you avoided the hard saying of Jesus or are you looking at them to change your life accordingly? You know what Jesus said about if we love him. ( John 14:15)

2) Have you asked the Holy Spirit to help you make the changes necessary to be a Christ follower in good standing? Remember Jesus said the Holy Spirit would give us power we don’t have. (Acts 1:8)

May the Holy Spirit empower us to be the kind of followers Jesus wants,

Pastor Dale