Living to Please

For every person on earth, we have to make decisions about how we are going to respond to the people who comes across our path. We all have values and depending on how much we really embrace them, they will either be followed or discarded. The decision we make can often be based on whether we want to please the people we are with or hold tightly to our values. The name we most often call this is people pleasing and it is not good when we live this way.

John 6 deals with this issue. The popularity of Jesus was greatly increasing as John 6:2 says "2 And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick."
Everyone in ministry would love to have a large crowd, but crowds are always fickle and the love from them can quickly fade.

Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the crowds grow in their respect of him: 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” 15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself." Ministry is going well for him as they are wanting to see his fame increase, but Jesus withdraws as he was not going to fall prey to doing only that which the crowd wanted. They do not have the best things in mind for him.

Later, as they find him across the Lake, Jesus says to them, "26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” They now are following him for another reason and it is not because they love him - He is a food provider now. In just a few minutes they turn on Jesus after they have difficulty embracing his teaching. Here is what they say,

• 41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
  
• 52 And then the crowd responds this way, "52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
• 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
• 66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

It is at this point, as people are leaving, that the temptation to change the message, tone it down, and make sure the crowd feels better about things could take over. It was not Jesus way.

Jesus though, did not have to have everyone happy with him. As they grumble and leave, he does not back off of the truth and tell them what they want to hear.

Do we want to please others so much that we will back down to keep them around? Pleasing others at the cost of our integrity and standards is not living.

Just a Voice

Ever since I was a kid, my whole environment in regard to all of my relationships, have been pushing me to be someone. You know, to make something of my life. For we men, we are defined on where we have been, what we have done or are currently doing, are we headed somewhere significant, etc. etc. to the place of utter ridiculousness. We get defined in these pursuits and it falls short of how we ought to be defined. For those of us in ministry, we get defined by where we have served, how many people come to our services, are we at a big church or a small or medium one. On and on it goes.

John the Baptizer had an incredible ministry. He set up shop not on a strategic street in Jerusalem where everyone could see the building, but he set up his ministry out of the city where people would really have to travel and go out of the way to be a part of his ministry. As his ministry started to really thrive, the curiosity of who he was, was really getting to those in the religious circles as to who John was, they came to him one day and this is what happened,

"And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you? He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of on crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said."

They come to him, wanting to define who he is. John does not and will not play their game and does not attach himself to any names other than the one that is really most important. He just says, "I am only a voice". He defines himself only as a voice. He speaks to what was going to define him more than anything. He does not put forward his credentials in regard to his ministry numbers, his fame, his on the edge clothing, etc. He is just a voice.

I wonder if our ministries might be different if we just wanted to be a voice and let that activity define who we are and what we do daily.

Who wants to be a Voice?

Convinced to a Point

For 2,ooo years things have really not changed much concerning Jesus. During his day and all of the generations since, we can find many convinced to a point concerning who Jesus is. In John 3:2 we find the Pharisee Nicodemus having a conversation with Jesus. Here are his words:
"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him".
Let's break this down:

• Rabbi - sign of respect to Jesus coming from a Pharisee, who were known as being very self-righteous. Jesus has broken through to him.
• You are a teacher - you words are persuasive, moving, fresh, inspiring, convicting, etc.
• No one can do these signs that you do - what you do is evidence that God is with you
• Unless God is with him

Four things moved Nicodemus to be convinced to a point, but not quite ready to step in and go all the way. Here are the four things:

1. What you are....Rabbi
2. What you say....your words are holy
   
3. What you do....works separate you from everyone, including the Pharisees
4. What empowers you....unless God is with Him.

Nicodemus is moved to a certain place close to trusting in Jesus, but not quite there. He still needs some of his questions answered and clarified. Like I said, nothing much has really changed in the last 2,000 years. This is where many are today. His curiosity and longing for real truth only brought him so far and he needed some help taking the next step. Jesus helped him take it. This is what we are to do now as well and that is why we should be both students of the heart of man and the Word, so that we can bring clarification to people's search.

It is knowing the word that will make all the difference in bridging the gap between what they are wondering about to actually seeing them making a decision for Christ and convinced for life.

Why We Open the Scriptures

Why do we teach the Bible and not some other things when we gather together? Sadly, some places do teach other things and it all falls short of what needs to be front and center when a body of believers come together. There is this great passage after the resurrection that shows why are to open the Scriptures.

Luke 24:32 "They said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?"

We all want to see people's hearts burn and come alive when we teach the Bible as it means that the Spirit is moving in them. Three thoughts stand out here about the Word:

1. It is the Scriptures that move the heart - Not us, our creativity, fame, etc. Only teaching the truth "burns the heart" and moves people into a deeper love with Christ. Self help stuff will only go so far as the Scriptures alone have the sustaining power for people. Preach to honor Christ and aim for the heart.
   
2. Where His Presence is, God Will Be Speaking - On the road, in a car, at school, over coffee or running, God is speaking. For these 2, it was on the Emmaus Road. It is only going to happen when we are going His way as it places us in the path where He is going.
3. Therefore, Open the Scriptures - Teach, teach, teach the Scriptures. Do so with passion, creativity and honesty and God will honor the work.

What We Can't Stray From

How do you know if you really love Jesus and it is not just words that you say? Jesus himself answers that in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments". Pretty straightforward from the one who alone gets to define what it means to be His follower. No one else gets to define this but Him. Not the traditionalists, emergents, the liberals, or those of the seeker persuasion - He did not give us any kind of authority to redefine what loving Him looks like. Why then does it seem that this is some kind of debate today? Have we become so enlightened in our day that we have discovered something new? If loving Him is truly seen by walking, talking, and living in obedience, then we should preach the word, hold out the commandments, and implore all Christ followers to be keepers of the truth.
If we in ministry are not pushing this with the people we are servant leaders of, then it is short of what the gospel teaches. It is actually not the gospel. Keeping commandments means embracing the rule and reign of God and it happens because we love God much. How we got away from this aim is in large part why we have such confusion in the church today about who God is and what he desires of our lives.
Leading people to walk in obedience is the great task of the minister of the gospel. Paul said it to Timothy in this manner, "If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed" (1 Timothy 4:6). If our aim is to be a good servant of Christ Jesus, then we will make sure all things from Jesus are taught.

We cannot stray from this aim.

The Content of our Message

JC Ryle was the first Aglican Bishop of Liverpool. He said there were seven characteristics of the preachers during the great awakening of the 1800's. They are listed below.

1. They taught the supremacy of the holy Scripture. 2. They preached the total corruption of human nature. 3. They taught that Christ's death upon the cross was the only satisfaction for man's sin. 4. They preached the doctrine of justification by faith. 5. They taught the universal necessity of heart conversion and new creation by the Holy Spirit. 6. They spoke of God's eternal hatred against sin and of God's love for sinners. 7. They preached that there was an inseparable connection between true faith and personal holiness. If one lived an ungodly life, then that was evident that there had been no true conversion as being converted means being changed.

What are we doing if we are not holding the supremacy of Scripture and the gospel as central to everything we do?

Even Paul, with his creativity in Athens and at the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-34) spoke of these things:

• vs 16 - Spirit was deeply bothered by idols
• vs 17-18 - Reasons with them about Jesus and the resurrection
  

Those 2 things show he watered down nothing. The gospel was his original message with them.

• vs 23-28 - Clearly portrays who Jesus is
• vs 30 - Tells them they have to repent
• vs 31 - a day of judgment is coming

This passage is championed by those who are calling for the church to communicate the gospel in new ways, but just look at the content of Paul's message and what happened during the 1800's. The content is really not that different.

What does that mean?

It means we should stay with the same message regardless of the disappointments with the church as an institution or postmodernism call for change. The content must not change. Do not change the content. There is something seriously wrong if we want to change or water the content down. It is this same Paul who said these words to his disciple in 2 Timothy 4:2-3 "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teaching to suit their own passions."

Preach the Word, in its entire content. We are deeper in a time of the gospel "being out of season" in our culture, I think that is clear. So, what do we do? Paul says preach the Word anyway and still reprove, rebuke, and exhort. Those 3 indicate that our job is not to make sure everyone always feels good about everything. A rebuke does not bring encouragement unless it lands on a spiritually wise person.

The content of the gospel must not be altered for any reason.

Shaping the Identity of Church

Every local church or ministry needs an identity and will naturally have one. The problem at times is that some choose to allow themselves to be shaped by the wrong things or they fail to know what they need to do to be shaped by the right things. I want to offer what could help in this process.

• Rules - For church to be church we have to follow what the Bible says about the both the bride and life. Let's face it, the word rules is not so popular today, but there are standards that have to be embraced and followed. Call them what you want, but they are rules. Rules are not bad, really they aren't. As parents we set standards for our kids to follow and we don't bend them. Culturally, people may not like to be told what to do, oh well! Rules are a part of all of life and they make things better. They also help define the expectations which aid in building identity. One thing about this, the rules have to only come from scripture, not culture. Scripture over culture.
  
• Responsibilities - As rules are settled, the next important thing for shaping of identity is for the members of the church to take on personal responsibility for the best of the church and the glory of God. Do we really love our church if we do not take responsibility for it? If we don't, we just an attender and like so many other people in the church. When the majority of the members take responsibility then you have a strong church. When they do not, then you have a weak church.
  
• Relationships - We are so shaped by those around us. Unhealthy relationships will produce dysfunction and this is true for the church. Relationships within the body shape who a church is and where they are going. Is gossip, envy, jealousy, or impartiality present in your ministry? or Does evidence of love, unity, forgiveness, and inclusiveness dominate the life of your body? How the relationships function will shape the body. The leadership must model this.
  
• Rituals - The church needs to be about certain things that they do in both private and public expressions of personal faith. Yes, rituals is not so popular and in some ways I get why, but it is really a good word. Every group has rituals whether it is a spiritual one or not. You see this in sports, music, or preparation for a test. They all have some sort of a ritural. Why should a church not have rituals that define who they are? Obviously, the rituals need to be embraced by the people, if they are not, then they need to be thrown out. Consistent rituals build identity and they need to be in line with scripture.
  

Hope these are helpful.