Following Judah's Lion

Jesus Stands Outside the Church

Rev.3:20 - Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice, and open the door I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.

No longer is the church consumed with Jesus, in today’s fast paced and modernistic genre the emphasis is on man and his desires, not on pleasing God. The church throughout history was as flawed as its people, but there seemed to be a common desire, to serve the living God who had called and saved them. Paul himself preached Christ and Him crucified and yet today the preaching of Jesus and His cross is negligible compared with the panoramic topics that center on man. Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

Some churches now resemble a community club complete with dancing and drinks and every activity that seeks to satisfy the insatiable desire of the western hedonistic heart. Jesus is a by product who is used not worshiped by an eclectic group whose pleasure seeking spirit binds them together. Let us call it as it is, these type of relevant churches are a disgusting display of the flesh and reject the holiness of God. Everything is geared to meet man’s needs and desires and not to provide a forum to seek God and His will. These in essence have strayed from being New Testament churches, they are now community gatherings with a pinch of Christian residue that has been twisted to minister to man and not to Christ. Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

There is little fragrance wafting from the lives of the church goers that would draw a sinner to ask of the hope within them, no, today the advertising budget in the church must be substantial enough so as to draw the fleshly appetites of sinners. Sinners are no longer drawn to a Jesus lifted up, they are now attracted to the multi-faceted activities of the church and a Jesus who is the activities director. And when these sinners are drawn to these churches, they fall in love with the church and their organized programs and not Jesus Himself. There can hardly be a more shallow call to believe and follow Christ as exists in many local assemblies today. Some repeated prayer with a subsequent church membership and you are in, but that is not and never has been New Testament Christianity. Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

And so the believers leave the gathering and go back to their lives within the community. And where is the difference that should be so evident in the life of those who follow Christ? The commitment to God’s Word by the average professor is not only shameful, most do not even crack the Word - ever. And if some pray before a meal that serves as the totality of their prayer life. Smoking, drinking, cursing, carousing, and greed are just a few of the outward behaviors that belie the claim that they serve the risen Christ. Sacrifice? That is a lost word within most Christian circles and moderation now means we can partake of everything in moderation, not a life that forsakes questionable activities. Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

How can it be that those who wear the name of the One and Only God of Redemption can live so carelessly and be comforted and exhorted to do so by their very pastors? It is because the Jesus they claim to serve is not the Risen Monarch who sits and reigns upon His heavenly throne, this Jesus is another Jesus, a part of our group, a buddy who goes with you in approval no matter where you go or what you do. That is another Jesus and upon that caricature the evangelical world is constructing its theology and practice. Our Dear Lord suffered unimaginably for sin and yet we now take sin so lightly and even redefine its parameters so as to accommodate our lifestyles. Where is our desire to please our Heavenly Father, and where is our determination to come out from among them and be separate? Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

But how are we held accountable who see such happenings within the evangelical church? Are we just supposed to speak words that delineate such Scriptural departures and with that God is pleased? One of the greatest and most subtle deceptions within the church is the feeling that those who have some discernment about the purpose/seeker/emergent venues of evangelicalism have little discernment about our own sin, shortcomings, pride, and powerlessness. We can write books and oversee blogs and write great and swelling words of correction and reproof, but can we turn the light of God’s Spirit upon our own lives and churches and be driven to repentance ourselves? We have been deceived into believing since we are doctrinally orthodox we stand filled with God’s Spirit upon the earth and that our witness is as powerful as the former preachers we love to quote so often. Just a surface perusal of the lives of Whitefield and Wesley should bring us humbly to our knees and almost embarrassed to quote them. Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

No one can bring the entire church to repentance but the Holy Spirit, but we are responsible for our own spiritual walk before Christ. Are we sacrificially surrendered? Are we consumed with Christ and dedicated to the prayer closet? Do we reject the spirit of this world and embrace the fellowship of the Spirit? Are we content with being persecuted and sometimes lonely, or is our appetite toward the things of this world? Who or what do we love more than Christ and how does our lifestyle reflect the fact that we seek a city whose builder and maker is God? Does Jesus have the pre-eminence in every aspect of our lives? Is He Lord of all? In order for Christ to come into the church and rightly take up His throne He must enter through the hearts of His people. Is your heart wide open to Him totally? Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

And now the glorified Lion and Lamb is shut out from His own blood bought church, and inside where His people should dwell is a mixed multitude. Many if not most today have no perspective as to what a committed Christian used to look like, and indeed most reject it as a time captured culture from which we have moved. Which preacher spends two hours a day in prayer and which pastor wrestles passionately over his messages, realizing he will face Christ one day and give an account? Which preacher ascends the pulpit with avenues of tears etched upon his face and looking haggard because of the late night watches? How many congregations are worried because their pastor seems to be losing weight without realizing that he has been called by God to powerful and secret fastings to seek God and His power? Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

Maybe Jesus desires smiling politicians as pastors whose online joke book provides some entertainment for his listeners. Maybe the Lord loves a pastor who can organize but not agonize, one who can deliver a polished message about finances or marriage or some antiseptic topic du jour that satisfies but never challenges much less convicts. Maybe Christ is pleased with churches that have thousands of parishioners and maybe one small and insignificant prayer gathering. Perhaps God desires more time spent in music preparation than his people falling upon their faces before the Father Almighty. Maybe God smiles when people leave the gathering feeling good about their spiritual situation even though they will return to their careless lifestyle that reflects no more of the Lord Jesus than their unbelieving neighbors. Jesus stands outside the church doors and knocks.

Ok, my words are wind that blow through and mess up my own spiritual hair and I find many, many mirrors as I write. But I am not the standard, I am a voice who by God's grace cannot help but speak that which I believe the Spirit allows some insignificant believer like me to see.

Lord Jesus, Your church is in a mess. We have built idols in our high places, we have sought the world and not You, we have not walked in Your love, and we have held services without the fullness of Your presence. Come in Lord Jesus and take Your rightful place of majesty and authority. Revive us, Lord Jesus, revive us.