Tuesday, August 20, 2019

BROADENING OUR PERSPECTIVE


Mark 9:38-40
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”

                I had a great experience this past weekend. Every year for the past nine years, the people of our community have hosted a Christian music festival called Off the Charts. It opened on Friday evening and ran until noon on Sunday. The music was loud and the city park was packed. For three days the name of Jesus was proclaimed in a variety of ways. It culminated with a community worship service in the park. What impressed me the most was how the entire community came together for one weekend and celebrated Jesus.

                I have never been a concert goer. I had a negative experience when I was in seminary that soured me on “Christian” concerts. I have harbored some negative feelings about musicians who used their popularity to espouse their personal theology. I have struggled with how, in general, as a society, we allow musicians and actors to direct the course of our lives. I have been all too quick to chalk it up to 2 Timothy 4:3. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

                One of the things this past weekend reminded me of was that God uses many different approaches and a wide variety of people with very different personalities to get His message across to our incredibly diverse world. I don’t have to be a fan of loud music and smoke machines to see that God can use that as a way of reaching a particular group of people.

                I have been rereading Accidental Pharisees by Larry Osborne. The main point of his book is that we fall into the trap of being a Pharisee when we begin to judge others by our standards and not God’s. God has created each of us differently. Some of us like classical music, some like country music, some like rock and roll. Some of us prefer loud and boisterous, while others prefer quiet and subdued. Some of us respond better to the KJV, others to the NIV, and still others to the ESV. Not everyone shares the same preferences, yet God is pleased with all of us who claim the name of Jesus.

                This very issue came up one day as Jesus and His disciples were traveling around doing ministry. John came across a man who was casting our demons in the name of Jesus. John immediately tried to put a stop to that because “he was not one of us.” Jesus countered John’s exclusive approach to ministry by telling him not to stop the man, “for whoever is not against us is for us.”

                How often have I judged someone else’s ministry in a negative light because he was not one of us? Most of us are very quick to write off those who don’t worship like we do, or sing like we do, or use the same words as we do. Yet Jesus reminds us that He uses many different people with different approaches to reach this world with the Gospel.

                The Apostle Paul was probably the master at adapting his approach to his audience to gain the greatest impact. He constantly challenged the status quo in order to get the message out to as many people as possible. Paul was willing to adapt his method in order to better communicate the message.

                Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

                It is all too common for those of us in the church to waste our energy judging how other groups do ministry, instead of focusing on proclaiming the Gospel to the best of our ability. Instead of casting stones at those who do ministry differently from us, we need to link arms with them. I am not suggesting that we water down the Gospel. What I am suggesting is that there is more than one God-pleasing way to get the job done.

                This last weekend was good for me. It reminded me that I can celebrate what God did even if it was not my preferred style. I don’t have to be enthralled with the contemporary Christian music scene to appreciate that God is using it to reach the hearts of so many.

Luke 9:49-50
"Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us."
 "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."

  
 


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