With the new movie-documentary, "Jesus Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the gospel of love dividing America," in mind, I made the point in today's message that the Gospel of Jesus divides people for two reasons.
1) Because Christians do a lot of stupid things that misrepresent Jesus.
2) Because the message of Jesus is, by it's very nature, divisive.
What's an example you've seen of people claiming to be Christians but misrepresenting Jesus?
What's an example of a stand all Christians must take, regardless of how unpopular or "divisive" it is in the larger culture?
MM
3 comments:
After thinking about how I would answer these questions for a few days, I'm still unsure. First of all, there have been, and still are so many examples of those claiming to follow Jesus but not acting the part, that I wouldn't know where to start. History, media, and non-Christians are always quick to point these things out. From the Crusades to various philandering evangelists to churches protesting soldier's funerals it isn't hard to spot. Rather than point fingers however, we can all probably look at our own lives and actions and see just how often we ourselves misrepresent Jesus. Little things like crossing a street to avoid a homeless person doesn't make the news but it fits the question. Again, I feel the same about the next question. The easy answers are what is in the news. Hot topics like abortion and gay/lesbian marriage rights are quick responses but not the only ones. Things like greed, caring for the poor and our general attitudes towards others and how we treat people can be unpopular and divisive. For example, I would imagine more of us have been affected by gossip or bullying than have been affected by gay marriage, yet we deal with the gossip, etc and yell loudly about gay marriage. I don't know, maybe it's like the finding the speck in our eyes before going after the log in another. Yes, I'm rambling. It's a lot to think about and apparently not easy to summarize. Time to walk the dog.
Kelly,
Sorry for the delay in responding.
I think you're right in that the low-profile sins and misrepresentations are just as serious as the high-profile ones, and should be taken just as seriously.
As for philandering evangelists, (particularly TV evangelists) I've sometimes wondered if being a bona fide kook or charlatan is a necessary requirement for preachers being on TV? Do the TV stations have a kookiness meter that has to show a high reading before a preacher is allowed on the air?
Pastor Mike
Being from another branch of the body of Messiah I know exactly what you are saying. Theologically many branches of the church have made Yeshua's /Jesus's purpose to be different than he himself said it was.For the first half of my response I reference Matthew 5,
.... 17 "Don't think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete. 18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah -- not until everything that must happen has happened.
Many pastors are teaching that this passage means that Yeshua did away with the Torah and that everything is forgiven as long as you accept that He is the Messiah. re read the passage and it is clear that we are to still follow the Torah. the difference is that in the sacrifice of Yeshua and accepting him as our Messiah we should be following Torah not for salvation but to show our love for G-d so the misrepresentation is in that Yeshua did not come to just do a blanket of forgiveness that all recieve simply because we attend a church or synagogue.Instead when we actually accept Yeshua we through the ruach ha kodesh(Holy spirit) have the Torah written on our hearts and have the desire to Live and Teach according to what G-d desires.
part 2 to follow
ClaytonYoung
Messianic Minister
Kol Shalom Fellowship
Dallastown Pa
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