Are We Over It? Are We Over Him?

As you read the narrative in the Book of Acts you notice something quite arresting. These disciples never got over it. Got over what? They never got over their salvation and serving their Redeemer. Why didn’t they settle down and become satisfied with existing within the walls of an ecclesiastical society that is consumed with serving itself? Why did their fire continue to burn? Why did their passion lead them to give their own lives for a cause that had begun decades ago?

It begs this question: Have we gotten over it? And have we replaced a dangerous and self sacrificing discipleship with a mundane and terrestrial exhibition that goes through the predictable motions with powerless smiles and commonplace chit-chat? We know doctrinally that we have eternal life, but as you watch the pew lemmings arrive and depart with less emotion than two old men sharing war stories, then we again must question the depth and reality of our beliefs. What in God’s dear Name is wrong with us?

Have we gotten over it? Is the thrill already gone? It seems as if eternal life is an ethereal concept that dwells in the doctrinal abstract and usually ventures no further than a light church house reference. Are you kidding me?! We have been granted eternal life and we are going to live forever? And armed with that truth this is the extent to which it moves us and changes our entire lives? We give up smoking and cursing and with that the world is supposed to take notice of our remarkable transformation? Lost people give up those things as well.

Have we gotten over it? The drone of everyday life trudges on and on, only interrupted by a bit of uplifting on Sunday mornings affected mostly by fellowship and some well crafted music. Were those early disciples some kind of extremists? Why was their experience so much more dynamic than ours that it left a residual that lasted until they breathed their first breath of celestial air? They asked God to forgive those who stoned them. They sang praises within the dark walls of a Philipian prison. They praised God for being counted worthy of a severe beating. They took the ministry of the Word with uncommon seriousness. They prayed as if God would actually answer them.

Have we gotten over it? Have we forgotten how we were first illuminated? Has the contrast between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light become so unremarkable that we only measure it by some moral stands? Do we look at the sky to assess today’s weather but never to look for His coming? Are we so filled with gratefulness that alongside our praise we are consumed with telling others? Or have we settled nicely within a hedonist culture with the two hour Sunday morning trek being the most formidable indication that perhaps we might be different? What kind of faith have we constructed? Earthly.

Have we gotten over Him? Rarely if ever do we speak of Jesus in other than the third person and within an abstract reference. Three prominent preachers flew to see Corrie Ten Boom as she recovered in the hospital. If I mentioned their names some of you would recognize them. She appeared as some old wash woman. But as they stood around her bed and spoke to her, they became aware of something. As she conversed with them, she would, without fanfare, interrupt her conversation with them and speak directly to Jesus. It happened repeatedly, and as one preacher admitted that as they left that room they repented for not knowing Jesus as deeply as this old woman knew Him.

Have we gotten over Him? Does your soul not thirst for a greater revelation and relationship with Him, or has your conscience been seared by a convenient comparison with others and what has come to be accepted as the norm? When have you thought of Him in a non church setting in such a way that it brought tears to your eyes? Have you ever had to pull your car over and worship Him? He has eternally redeemed our souls and destined them for his very throne room - forever!

Have we gotten over Him? In so many circles Jesus is paraded around as an impersonal doctrine and the Biblical truth about Him is used to confront the tidal wave of falsehoods and apostasy. But where is the brokenness that speaks His name with such sacred gratefulness and love that our voice cracks in awe? The Lord Jesus has become a moral cop, a servant for us, a doctrinal talisman, and a ecclesiastical moniker. But we have lost the astonishment and wonder that always accompanies a true vision of the Risen Christ. The predictable, habitual, and unremarkable gatherings that claim to meet and worship the Lamb of God are in and of themselves a challenge to the veracity of that stated purpose.

Have we gotten over Him? We have compartmentalized Christ and placed Him in an ecclesiastical trophy case to be admired in church settings but rarely to be taken down and held up among unbelievers in settings not designed for such displays. The salvation experience of the average “sinner’s prayer” conversions are so unremarkable and so dispassionate that the words “born again” are an affront to the authenticity of that experience. And to disciple a new convert is more about convincing him that he is saved than it is about guiding and molding his spiritual exuberance or instructing his obvious hunger for God‘s Word.

Have we gotten over Him? The apostle “who Jesus loved“, the Apostle John, had laid his head upon the bosom of the Incarnate Christ many, many times. John loved Jesus and walked with Him for three years. He knew Him as intimately as any human. But when John came in contact with the glory of the Risen Christ he “fell at His feet as though dead”. And yet we can claim to enter into that same presence without batting an eyelash or having our being moved? Several years ago I sat behind a nice couple in church. We would shake hands during the greeting time and we got to know them as pew neighbors. The wife would worship during the service, but the husband never exhibited anything but standing when everyone else did. But on the 4th of July service he would weep when they honored America. That, my friends, is sacrilege and an affront to the Risen Christ.

Have we gotten over Him? Have we forgotten the cross? The whips and lashes? The punches to His face? Have we forgotten that they pulled out His beard? Have we forgotten the crown of thorns pressed down upon His brow? Have we forgotten how He suffered and bled and died? How can we claim to embrace the cross and His eternal sacrifice, but still live with a dispassionate and detached reality that gives more attention to the latest economic news than the continuing vision of the Crucified Lamb of God?

And so I ask us all: Is what we are exhibiting and practicing a true revelation of Christ and His church? If so, don’t change a thing. But I contend we have slowly but surely gotten over our redemption and our Redeemer. And now our offspring are being born into a religious construct that is a deeply inaccurate revelation of Christ and His church. Somehow we must resign our positions in Babylon, cut away the western grave clothes, and set a course back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and the gates, reopen the temple in our hearts, and seek a revival that will once again usher in His glorious presence among us.

Restore unto me the joy of my salvation...