How Christianity Can Make a Comeback

The following blog post is the manuscript from week one of Everyday Jesus taught by Kyle Davies on Sunday, September 5.

Let's begin with a little association game. I’m going to give you the first one and hopefully, you’ll catch on.

If you squeeze some lemons you’ll make lemonade.

If you squeeze some grapes you’ll make grape juice.

If you squeeze some oranges…orange juice.

If you squeeze some apples….apple juice.

If you plant a pine cone you’ll get…

If you plant a kernel of corn…

A Christian will produce a __________.

 

In playing the game we are able to see that like makes like. For some reason when it comes to following Jesus, for those of you who may want to create some distance between yourself and the word Christian, we get this confused. We suddenly do not follow the pattern anymore. We substitute Christians with “Sunday attenders.” Christians make “moral people.” Or, even Christians make hypocrites. Or, Christians make a political party affiliate. It’s no wonder that John Stott in his work, Basic Christianity writes, “Hostile to the church, friendly to Jesus Christ.” These words describe large numbers of people, especially young people, today. They are opposed to anything which savors of institutionalism. They detest the establishment and its entrenched privileges. And they reject the church—not without some justification—because they regard it as impossible corrupted by such evils. Yet what they have rejected is the contemporary church, not Jesus Christ himself. It is precisely because they see a contradiction between the founder of Christianity and the current state of the church he founded that they are so critical and aloof. The person and teaching of Jesus have not lost their appeal, however. For one thing, he was himself an anti-establishment figure, and some of his words had revolutionary overtones. His ideals appear to have been incorruptible. He breathed love and peace wherever he went. And, for another thing, he invariably practiced what he preached.”

This book was written in 1958 and revised in 1971. We stand 50 years later, I believe the same thing, or at very least, a similar statement can be said today.

Researcher Barna said that 1/3 of non-Christians have said they would be interested in the Christian faith…if Christianity had a better reputation. This is explained a little bit in the research. What the researchers found was that it wasn’t more facts, not better convincing, not superior programming. Instead, it was seeing the faith of a person impact their life in tangible ways outside of a Sunday. This research is similar to the popular saying, “I Like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I cannot help but wonder if it's because we haven’t lived out what 1 John 2:6 describes and instead of living what 1 John 2:15-17 warns us against. In looking at this passage, we see something that communicates the reality of Jesus. The passage reads, “The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.”

Now for those of you who are very literal people, let me communicate what this doesn’t mean. As a mentor of mine has written…these are his words…”As much as I hate to admit it, 1 John 2:6 does not means that we are to move to Israel and walk where Jesus literally walked. I love Israel and have often longed to walk the famous “Jesus Path,” the path mapped out for tourists there. The Jesus Path lets you walk where Jesus walked. But it doesn’t help you walk as Jesus walked.

Walking as Jesus walked also does not mean that we are to buy a robe and some good leather sandals, grow our hair long, and walk from town to town. While this might make a good movie or provide some entertainment for the neighbors, it does not fulfill the command of 1 John 2:6.”

If that’s what it doesn’t mean, now we can get a better picture of what it does mean. The word translated as walk is used throughout the New Testament to mean “following, making progress, regulating one’s life, or conducting oneself” after the pattern of another person. To walk like Jesus, then, means that we are to emulate the pattern of living that Jesus modeled for us. Jesus was sent by the Father to show us how full humanity was supposed to live. I have asked this question before. If Jesus were to live a day in your shoes, how would he live? This question should not be dismissed lightly. Often times our picture of Jesus is a superhuman picture of Jesus, rather than a fully human picture of Jesus.

Jesus never wrote a book, never went to college, never traveled far from his hometown, never held political office, and never made much money. Yet, this middle eastern Jewish carpenter has altered the course of human history with literally billions of people devoting their lives to him spanning different countries, centuries, and cultures. He flipped the world upside down from doing ministry primarily in an area the site of Clark County with a fraction of the people. He lived in obscurity for 30 years before his public four-year ministry in a time before mass media.

People encountered Jesus in their everyday lives. They were changed by him. Their exposure to Jesus’ identity and mission over time and proximity came to understand how it affected their lives and the world. The life, death, and coming back to life of Jesus was shared with people. This is the heart of Christianity—the gospel. Good news about what God has done in Jesus, and how because of Jesus, we have the same access to God. In verse two of chapter two, John writes, “He himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for those of the whole world.” Meaning, who Jesus is and what he has done is the cure for the brokenness of our world. After Jesus’ return to the Father and the sending of the Spirit these people returned and retold the stories of his life and teachings again and again.

John’s argument that he’s making to a people who are caught up in disembodied discussions about faith and life is that when we take the reality of Jesus’ life death and coming back to life seriously, it cannot help but change the way we live.

When the good news of Jesus is evident in your life then others will see Jesus. This is why our vision for Generations Church explicitly says “because of Jesus.” It’s not our programs or strategy that helps people see Jesus. It is through people who walk as Jesus walked in their everyday life.

People will not see Jesus when those who claim to be his followers love the things of the world. John describes in verse sixteen “the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride in one’s possessions.” Worldliness or “being of the world” is often misunderstood. Often it is identified with cultural issues that are of a particular concern to us. John is not telling us to reject any and all aspects of culture, much of which reflects the glory, goodness, and gifts of God. What he is telling us is we are not to love and idolize thoughts, values, and behaviors that are contrary to God’s Word (v. 14) and His will (v. 17). Things that appeal to our sinful flesh and are fleeting and passing are not to be the things that we live for.

When the church exchanges that we need certain cultural realities in order to practice our faith then we will increasingly behave in ways that look less like Jesus and more like the world. The command that John is alluding to in the passage is one of LOVE.

Right now, we face a great temptation to blame shift for why the brokenness of our world is perpetuated. To choose not to love because we are not loved. Rather than look out there (gesture out), I believe it’s time to look in here (gesture to heart). This is what it means when John says that “the love of God is made complete.” Becoming like Jesus starts with being with Him.

Christ loves you, the person that you are. He doesn’t just love the saved you. No, he loves you are your putrid worst. Jesus doesn’t clean you up in over to love you; he loves you and so cleanses you. 

We have received the good news. Every great external renewal is preceded by internal renewal. I can encourage you to be WITH Jesus. I can give you a list of tasks. I could give you a checklist. I could do that but that’s not what I’m going to do.

Mark Sayers writes in his book Reappearing Church, “In the face of this cultural challenge, our programs, our smarts, our resources, our money, our communication, our skills, our education are not going to cut it anymore. Much of the Western Church is operating on the kinetic forward motion of previous moved of God, lounging on a platform built by the service and ministry of passed and passing generations. However, the fuel tank is approaching empty.”

I like how John Stott ends his preface. “Then is basic Christianity the belief that Jesus is the Son of God who came to be the Savior of the world? No, it is not even that. To assent to his divine person, to acknowledge man’s need of salvation, and to believe in Christ’s saving work are not enough. Christianity is not just a creed; it involves action. Our intellect belief may beyond criticism, but we have to translate our beliefs into deeds. What must we do then? We must commit ourselves, heart and mind, soul and will, home and life, personally and unreservedly to Jesus Christ. We must humble ourselves before him. We must trust in him as our Savior and submit to Him as our Lord, and then go on to take our place as loyal members of the church and responsible citizens in the community.”

You may be nervous about such self-sacrificial love. However, the posture of love by Christians has always helped Christianity not just become a popular religion, but demonstrate the actual life change Christ brings. Consider Michael Frost's reflections from his book Suprise the World.

In the brutality of life under Roman rule, ordinary believers were the most stunningly different people anyone had ever seen. Indeed, their influence was so surprising that the fourth center emperor Julian feared the might take over the empire. Referring to Christians as “Galilean” and Christianity as “atheism” because of their denial of the existence of pagan gods. He believed their religion to be a sickness, he penned this directive to his officials: We must pay special attention to this point, and by this means effect a cure. For when it came about that the poor were neglected and overlooked by the priests, then I think the impious Galileans observed this fact and devoted themselves to philanthropy. And they have gained ascendancy in the worst of their deeds through the credit they win for such practices. For just as those who entice children with a cake, and by throwing it to them two or three times induce them to follow them…by the same method, I say, the Galileans also begin with their so-called love feast, or hospitality, or service of tables—-for they have many ways of carrying it out and hence call it by many names—and the result is that they have led very many people into atheism.

Julian was concerned the Christians’ acts of hospitality and philanthropy were winning too many of his subjects. He decided to launch an offensive against them by mobilizing his officials and the pagan priests to out-love the Christians. He decreed that a system of food distribution be started and that hostels be built for poor travelers. Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Julians new social program utterly failed. He couldn’t motivate pagan priests or Roman officials to care that much for the poor. He failed to realize the Christians were filled with the Holy Spirit of love and motivated by his grace. The message they shared—that God loved the world—was patently absurd to the average Roman; the pagan gods cared nothing for humankind. And yet in the miserable world of the Roman Empire, the Christians not only proclaimed the mercy of God but also demonstrated it. They not only fed the poor; they welcomes all comers, regardless of socioeconomic status. they were literally the most surprising alternative society, and their conduct raised and insatiable curiosity among the average Roman.

It’s from a place of weakness and dependence that His power thunders forth. People will seek Jesus. So do they see Jesus in you? I’m going to give you three areas in the coming weeks where I believe we must be formed in order to embody the love and purpose and power of Jesus in our everyday lives.

People are skeptical of the church, but open to the spiritual. This challenge is not new. Followers of Jesus who look like Jesus are always good news to a culture that has no substantive answers to the hearts longings. We must begin to think and act more like Jesus in proximity to others in their spaces.

We want them to see Jesus in our lives. They may even walk away disappointed because Jesus challenges our nature and priorities, but we would rather people walk away because of Jesus than because of our refusal to see the love of God made complete in us.

Over the next three weeks, we will focus on the outcomes. How do we chase down those outcomes? How do those eternal outcomes become our reality?

Jesus makes you a new person with a new family on a new mission. So, because of Jesus, we want you to have an everyday faith. It’s a way of life, not an event or a scheduled meeting. Everyday faith is the process of learning to follow God in all of life so that you experience everyday family, and enjoy everyday mission. Every day. Everywhere for everyone with others. Everyday Jesus leads to an everyday faith.

If we do this, it will be scary, but it will be worth it.

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1. Stott, John. Basic Christianity
2. Spader, Dann. Walking As Jesus Walked.
3. Sayers, Mark. Reappearing Church.
4. Frost, Michael. Surprise The World.