Following at a Distance

When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane most of His disciples scattered.  They fled in fear for their lives.  After having vowed allegiance to Him, they showed the great value that they placed on their earthly lives.  However, Luke tells us that Peter "followed at a distance (22:54)."  He had made the bold claim that he was willing to follow Jesus to the death, but after seeing Him arrested was only will to look on from afar.  Doesn't this seem like a familiar scene?

We have people in the church today who just can't understand why they don't experience the power of God in their lives.  They follow all the popular speakers and preachers, they read the most promising books, they go to the most up to date conferences and worship seminars, yet God just doesn't move.  Why?  I wonder if it's because so many are following at a distance.

There are thousands of professing Christians today who want to see the miraculous and the exciting, but they are not committed enough to their Savior to see it up close.  They follow those who are doing God's work and hope to see God move from a distance.  They're just close enough to see the fireworks, but not close enough to be scared of the bang.  We function within a church today that largely embodies this mentality that was displayed by the Apostle Peter so many years ago.  They want the benefits of following Jesus, but they don't want to make the sacrifice necessary to walk with Him.  So they think that if they follow far enough behind they can see the exciting work of God and simply be dragged into heaven along with the wake of those who are following God.  They want to see the results of a holy life without actually living one.  They want to see the results of an uncompromising biblical life, but they don't want to take the ridicule that may come with it.  They want to spend eternity in heaven, but they don't want to have to prepare for it during their time on earth.

As I was meditating on this scripture a couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that this is the case with many more "Christians" than we would like to admit.  They'll come to church and participate in some of the activities, but it's always from a distance.  They'll only come so close.  Can it be that one of the reasons that we don't see God move in a mighty way in our day is because we're afraid to get to close to His work?

Proactive Faith

I keep hearing about Christians who are "turning people away" by "ramming Scripture down their throats." I'm told that they are overwhelming people with their zeal and passion about spreading the gospel, and many people take it the wrong way. There's just one thing that bothers me about these discussions, and the accusations about Christians that result. WHERE ARE THESE CHRISTIANS??? I read about them in books, I hear about them on tv, and people talk about them in small groups. Be honest, have you ever really met someone whose witness was just overpowering? I'm 28 years old, and in my lifetime I have only ever seen one person standing on a street corner yelling at people to repent (and I do admire his zeal and determination). I'm beginning to think that these people are nothing more than a figment of someone's imagination. The "seeker-sensitive" movement, and the emergent church want nothing more than for us to take away the offense of the gospel, so they made up a scapegoat to get us to change. They tell us about the masses of people that are "turned off" when we tell them that they need to get saved.

Let's consider some facts. 1) We have become so weak in our stand for the truth that most people are never "turned on" in the first place. We'd hate to make someone think that we're "too radical." I think our problem is that there AREN'T ENOUGH radical Christians. I am in no way promoting violence. That is not what it is to be a Christian. I mean that we need people who will live the word of God and the love of Christ with reckless abandon.

2) We have become very reactive rather than proactive in our faith. I was sitting in a conference a couple of weeks ago (it was a great conference) listening to people discuss the beliefs of the emergent church. I thought to myself, "here we are reacting to their false teachings. If we had been proactive with the truth for the last 30 years people would know that this stuff is wrong, and we wouldn't be in this position." People are being taken by false doctrine with each passing day. People cease to recognize the authority of Scripture, or the substitutionary death of Christ. They explain away the miraculous. We hear false teachings and then we respond with the truth. Why don't we simply teach the truth in the first place? As long as we're not hearing false teaching in the public arena we're content with our pop-psychology lessons in place of sermons. It's time that we become proactive with the truth that God has revealed to us.

I say all this to point out the possibility that we need Christians who are willing to preach and teach the truth. Even if it makes sinners uncomfortable. We have sacrificed truth in the name of "love" for far too long. Love is not to keep the truth of God from people. It is to obey the commands of Christ, and live our lives as servants of God, like He was. I don't care if we're in a post-modern/post-Christian culture, or any other type. The truth will still set us free.