Have you ever been in a situation where something did not live up to expectations?Maybe you had the same situation with a job, or maybe you went on a date that did not go well, or maybe you tried a product that your friends told you was life changing or went to a concert that you were told was the most amazing thing ever, or maybe you have tried following Jesus and becoming a Christian because you were told God can change your life forever and tried it out and it did not live up to your expectations either. Many people describe their experience with Jesus just like a bad job experience or a bad date.
When people give their lives in allegiance to Jesus depending on what church they are at depends on the promises that they are told on how following Jesus effects their lives but overall they revolve around, peace, fulfillment, and not having to burn in Hell for eternity. At one time the way of Jesus was one of radical self sacrifice because of the belief of a risen king but now people look at the followers of Jesus as people who are so focused on the afterlife and idealism that they are no good to actually make a change in the world. What went wrong? If this is supposed to be a revolution that shocks the world the current reality looks like we will never achieve that status. People who “give Jesus a shot” walk away totally disappointed because, “it wasn’t what they thought” or it “wasn’t what they were promised”. Therefore, it’s not only people who are outside the Jesus movement but people within the movement communicating that this promised revolution of life did not happen.
I have some good news for you, Jesus did not design following Him to be a let down and there is hope that you can experience Jesus in the way God intended and get the life change you were looking for the whole time. As well as becoming a person who actually makes a difference in the world through living life the way Jesus intended. This will just take a new understanding of the weight of the gospel and we will have to take the full responsibility of the message of Jesus. To understand how Jesus has more to offer than you have experienced if you have been let down by the Church is understanding where we as the global church are missing it in leading people to a life with Jesus.
The main thing that turns people away from God is his followers not living up to the standard that the Bible sets. People do not expect perfection but they do expect if the Bible says love people you to actually be nice and have a genuine spirit, but the sad reality is that a ton of Christians are cold, hard, mean, greedy, prideful and I could keep on going. I used to think it was just a way to slander christians when people said that Christians were the worst tippers. Especially after Sunday morning church. Sadly I found that this bad stereotype was horrifyingly accurate when I began to work in the food industry. I was one of the waiters arguing to not have to serve Mr. Bob and Mrs. Suzy who were going to talk about their small little church the entire time to me but leave me a tip that was right under 5% of their entire meal.
Again everyone has issues but the lives we as Christians are living are not attractive to the rest of the world because it is not near as radical, audacious, adventurous, and fulfilling as Jesus himself says it to be. Is Jesus a liar then? Absolutely not, the church has tried to make the gospel more “accessible” and in doing so we have lightened the individual responsibility that each Christian has. Jesus calls us to live a life like His and that responsibility is a huge one.
1 Peter 2:21-25, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins' in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
What we have done by trying to make following Jesus more “accessible” is create followers of Jesus who look at Christianity as more of a behavior modification than a life of following a risen savior. Following Jesus has been lowered to the same power as self help. However, this could not be further from the truth Jesus calls us to a life of self sacrifice for the cause of making the world better. We have the honor in preparing the world for His return so that when we comes back there are as many people possible who get to experience all of the universe completely restored. Not only that but we get to offer people the opportunity to experience a deposit of the future reality of heaven and new creation today. Ephesians 1:13-14,
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
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