Being a Christian and actually understanding how it is to operate truly requires a complete reset of the mind. Jesus spent three years with His disciples to train them and teach them to be in a position to start the church, but this motley bunch had some pride issues. They knew they were going to be a key part of a new kingdom, but they thought they were going to rule Judah and finally drive out Rome. They often battled with each other as to who was the greatest, and they wanted to have positions of power and influence. But Jesus had another plan for it all.
The greatest in God’s Kingdom is the one who serves and takes the lowest seat. The ones who get God’s approval and recognition are the ones who take a position to serve, not to rule. The Christian leader is the one who leads by serving. I was involved with missions for 22 years growing up, and one of the common threads I saw in engaging with different church groups and ministries we connected with was this: when someone came and said they wanted to preach and lead, the first thing they were handed was a toilet brush. Because if they refused the toilet brush, they were not fit for any platform or spotlight position.
We have a severe problem in the church today, and it is an addiction to “celebrityism.” We put preachers who can preach well in the spotlight. We give platforms to people who can articulate things well and refute atheism. Some are legitimate and have paid their dues. Others truly have no business representing the faith on the stage because they have not learned the basics correctly. And some have gotten such an ego from being on the stage that they think that they are above those in the audience. That is one thing I am so grateful to my church for; I was heading that direction, and they, without knowing they were doing it because it was the Lord through them, put a leash on me and pulled me back. My pastor is a very humble man, and he has been through the ringer to get there. While I am viewed as a church leader and I have played roles in leadership without a title, I can see the wisdom in their being patient and taking their time to not be too eager to give someone authority. One reason is that they had seen, and I have seen, those who have the doctrinal knowledge but not the maturity of what it means to be “great” in the Kingdom, seeking positions so they can run their own kingdoms and platforms. What happened to true service in the church when the ones who have the positions of authority don’t actually want them?
To be a Christian, and especially to be a Christian leader, properly has a cost. Jesus warned those who said they wanted to give up everything to follow Him what it really means to give up everything. It means your home is not your own. It means your family may turn on you. It means you may lose your job and friends. He said to count the cost. A builder wants to make sure he has the budget and resources for the project because if he is short and the building is incomplete, it makes him a failure as an architect. If a king is facing a war with an army twice the size of his, he’ll assess if he can win with his resources; if not, he’ll seek to make terms of peace. This is missing in our evangelism today. We give this message of, “Give your life to Jesus, He’ll make everything better, and you get to go to heaven.” It’s heresy. It’s not the Gospel. A simple version of the Gospel is: “You are on your way to Hell. Turn away from your sin, give up your current lifestyle, turn back, and come to God, and you will be saved.”
There is a cost to being a Christian. You can’t live your life the way you want anymore. You can’t seek the pleasure of sin anymore. You are not to think or operate as the rest of the world operates anymore. As Christians, we belong to a new kingdom, a new ruler, and a new culture. Yes, it will take time to adapt, and yes, it will take time to realize that the old living style really was not doing us any good. And yes, God will replace the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh, and He will exchange our desires from the old sinful life to a new life that seeks after Christ, but we have to walk in that way, too. We must exercise our faith and work out our salvation with fear and trembling. It will be hard; Jesus never said it would be easy. We will be hated by this world and its culture, because our message is that its deeds are evil.
Now understand this: our worldly culture, especially now in the U.S., is more than morally evil. It has a new “god” that Martyn-Llyod Jones aptly named “the man of knowledge” (at the 6-minute mark of this sermon). Our culture worships academia and head knowledge. If the “consensus” teaches it, that is the ultimate authority. But God stands up and says, “No, I am the authority, and I always have been the authority and always will be the authority.” We have a choice: who are we going to follow? Most of the church today has chosen to submit to modern academics, no matter how ludicrous their theories are, and they will change the message of the church to accommodate those academics instead of staying true to Scripture. There are pastors out there who make Christianity just an intellectual study and not a pursuit of Jesus. There are apologists who seek to “lower the bar” so as many people can “get in” as possible, but they refuse to speak of the cost and refuse to warn them that being a Christian means you will not be popular with those in the world. You may be respected due to your quality character, but when you actually give the message that says “repent,” that is when they will turn on you.
Have you counted the cost? Are you prepared to have your name slandered, mocked, and lied about, especially by professing Christians who are jealous of your unwavering faith because they quit a long time ago? You can’t do that in the flesh, and it takes the supernatural power of God to love those who do that to you. And there is a cost to get it. That cost is self. For some, it took years of torture in prison to learn it. If we call ourselves Christians, have we counted the cost? Or do we just want this title to make ourselves look good? If you just want to make yourself look good, do yourself a favor and don’t call yourself a Christian. To be a Christian requires you to deny self, and that includes no longer caring about your reputation among the heathen. Have you counted the cost? Have I?
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