What Would Jesus Say And How Would He Say It?

"Christians today sometimes seem more concerned about the tone of what they say than the truth of it. Many a twenty-first century church leader apparently thinks he is obliged to yield quietly to majority opinion on moral issues - while carefully observing all the rules of postmodern propriety.

 

Jesus was not like that. We was no domesticated clergyman with a starched collar and genteel manners; He was a bold prophet who regularly challenged the canons of political correctness.

 

The first word of Jesus' first sermon was repent - a term that was no more welcome then than it is today. Those without any sense of personal guilt - including the vast majority of religious leaders - were of course immediately offended. They were convinced that they were good enough to merit God's favor. Who was this man to summon them to repentance? They turned away from Jesus in angry unbelief.

 

The first act of Jesus' public ministry touched off a small riot. He made a whip of cords and chased money-changers and merchants out of the temple. That initiated a three-year-long conflict with the religious leader. They ultimately handed Him over for crucifixion while crowds of lay people cheered them on.

Would He receive a warmer welcome today from religious leaders, the media elite, or the political gentry? Anyone who has seriously considered the New Testament knows the answer. Postmodern culture is devoted to relativism. The average person is contemptuous of all absolute exclusive truth-claims, convinced that self-love is the greatest love of all; satisfied that people are fundamentally good; and desperately wanting to believe that each of us is endowed with a spark of divinity.

 

To such people's ears, Jesus' message strikes a discordant note. He said: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?" (Luke 9:23-25) and, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple" (14:26).

 

How would Jesus contextualize that message for a pluralistic, tolerant, self-indulgent society like ours? I'm convinced His approach today would be the very same that we see in the Bible. To smug, self-satisfied, arrogant sinners (including multitudes on church rolls), His words would sound harsh, shocking, provocative. But to "the poor in spirit" (Matt. 5:3) - those who are exhausted and spent by the ravages of sin, desperate for forgiveness, and without any hope of atoning for their own sin - Jesus' call to repentant faith remains the very gateway to eternal life."

 

Dr. John MacArthur is pastor of Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., and president of The Master's College and Seminary. He is author of Twelve Ordinary Men and One Perfect Life.

This article taken from Tabletalk Magazine, July, 2014

Appearance is Everything?

    

"An advertising agency wrote seeking our ministry's business: "Let's face it: appearance is everything. Let us help you enhance your image."

     My first thought was that this agency doesn't realize they are dealing with a Christian organization. Then it occurred to me that this is precisely the impression many unbelievers get from the state of evangelical Christianity today: appearance is everything. Truth and reality often take a back seat to image.

     That mentality has long been a plague on the church, but in recent years it has reached epidemic proportions. Sadly enough, Christian leaders are often the most image-conscious of all. Whole churches are built on the philosophy that image is everything, while truth must be downplayed so that the church can appear in more appealing dress.

     For example, in order to appear as genial and nonthreatening as possible, many churches forgo the practice of church discipline altogether, lest the all-important image be tarnished. Sin in the body is tolerable as long as the carefully polished veneer remains in place.

     Worst of all, this attitude is pervasive at the individual level. Far too many Christians live as if a pretense of righteousness were as good as the real thing.

     That is precisely the error committed by most of the Pharisees of Jesus' day. They lived as though external compliance with the law fulfilled all the demands of divine righteousness while they harbored iniquity in their hearts or indulged in gross sin secretly.

     Again and again, Christ rebuked the Pharisees for their fastidious observance of the external, ceremonial law-married with a wanton neglect of the law's fundamental moral requirements. The Pharisees' teaching placed so much emphasis on external appearance that it was commonly believed that evil thoughts were not really sinful as long as they did not become acts. The Pharisees and their followers became utterly preoccupied with appearing righteous. Jesus likened them to white-washed tombs - spotless on the outside but filled with corruption and defilement on the inside.

     The notion that morality is merely external underlies all forms of hypocrisy. It is the very error Jesus decried in His exposition of the moral law in the Sermon on the Mount. The central lesson He underscored was this: external appearance is not what matters most.

     Jesus' exposition of the law is a devastating blow against the lie that image is everything. Our Lord taught repeatedly that sin bottled up on the inside, concealed from everyone else's view, is no less damning than sin that manifests itself in the worst forms of ungodly behavior (Matt. 5:21-30). As Christians, we must never think of secret sins as somehow less wicked or more respectable than the sins everyone sees."

Article written by Dr. John MacArthur and taken from Tabletalk Magazine, Feb., 2014

Dances With Wolves

"Any literal shepherd tasked with feeding and leading a flock of lambs would be thought deranged if he regarded wolves as potential pets to be domesticated and amalgamated into the fold. Suppose he actively sought and tried to befriend young wolves, presuming he could teach them to mingle with his sheep—insisting against all wise counsel that his experiment might succeed, and if it does, that the wolves will acquire the sheep’s gentleness and the sheep will learn beneficial things from the wolves. Such a shepherd would be worse than useless; he himself would pose an extreme danger to the flock.
Nearly as bad would be a shepherd whose vision is myopic. He has never seen a wolf clearly with his own eyes. He therefore believes the threat of wolves is grossly exaggerated. Even though his sheep keep disappearing or getting torn to shreds by something, he refuses to believe that wolves are the ones harming his flock. He declares he is tired of hearing shrill wolf warnings from others. Finally concluding that people’s “negativity” toward wolves poses a greater danger to his flock than the wolves themselves, he takes out his reed and plays a gentle tune to lull the lambs to sleep.
Then, of course, there is the “hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep” (John 10:12). He “sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep” (John 10:12–13, NKJV).

Self-seeking hirelings, myopic shepherds, and wannabe wolf tamers are all too prevalent in the church today. So are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Frankly, some of the postmodern lamb’s-wool costumes aren’t even the least bit convincing. But some pastors seem to have no hesitancy about unleashing these eager, disguised wolves among their flocks. Many are like the near sighted shepherd in my parable—convinced that warnings about the threat of wolves are potentially more dangerous than actual wolves.

That attitude exposes a cavalier disregard for the repeated warnings of Christ (Matthew 7:15-20) and His apostles (Acts 20:29-31; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Peter 2:1-3:7; 1 John 2:18-19; 4:1-3). By ignoring Jude’s exhortation to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3), many negligent shepherds have opened wide the door of the church to the dangerous influence of false teachers.

In fact Jude’s entire letter is devoted to warning his readers about the presence of apostate false teachers and the severe spiritual danger they represent. He wanted his readers to stand strong against the spiritual deceptions that threatened to wreak havoc in their fellowship. And he also wanted all who propagated such errors in the church to be exposed and expelled.

Like any true shepherd, Jude had a deep love for his readers—meaning that he was dedicated to their spiritual well-being. His appeal stressed the need to defend the truth continually and vigorously.
“The faith” Jude urges his readers to defend is not some nebulous body of religious doctrines. Rather, it constitutes the Christian faith, the faith of the gospel, God’s objective truth—basically everything that relates to “our common salvation” (Jude 3). It is what Luke wrote about in Acts 2:42, noting that the early believers “were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). In the same way, Paul admonished Timothy to protect the faith.

Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1:13-14)

In life and in ministry, God’s truth is paramount (cf. Psalm 25:10; 119:160; John 8:32; 2 Corinthians 13:8; 2 Timothy 2:15). To manipulate and distort that truth, or to mix it with error, is to invite God’s eternal wrath. That’s why Paul told the Galatians, “If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!” (Galatians 1:9). And the apostle John told his readers:

Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. (2 John 9-11)

Far from engaging or accommodating false teachers, the clear duty of every church leader is to guard the truth from the deadly, corrupting influence of heretics, liars, and charlatans. A godly shepherd faithfully protects the sheep; he doesn’t dance with the wolves."


(Adapted from The Jesus You Can’t Ignore and The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 2 Peter & Jude.)