Recently I listened to parts of a sermon by mega church pastor Steven Furtick where he was arguing that Jesus was "nice. The application of what he was saying was that Christians need to be matured in our character by being more apologetic, more self-aware and less confrontational. In other words, we need to be "nicer." And while I can understand the application of his argument from a basic Christian growth and maturity perspective, however by using our Lord's "niceness" as his foundational premise in order to make his point was completely out of context.
And to add to that, as I attempted to point out in part one of this study, when you closely examine the actual overall context of Christ's preaching and teaching during the course of His earthly ministry, you will discover a stark difference between the message that Christ prioritized and what is emphasized in today's contemporary gospel preaching and teaching that places the majority When you examine the total life of Christ during His three-and one-half years of His earthly ministry including many of His interactions with his disciples, as well as His many provocative engagements with the religious leaders of the day, the word "nice," or non-confrontational would generally not be the first words that would come to mind of their emphasis on the love or "nice Jesus" who came to deliver us so that we can live prosperously and abundantly in THIS LIFE.
In today's contemporary Christianity, it has become popular for many writers, pastors and other ministers often stress the blessings, the love and the kindness of Christ, while giving little to no attention to His condemnation of sin, warning of judgment, and His prioritizing of the coming Kingdom. Their perception of Jesus, contrary to the One found in Scripture, is a view that is concocted from their own imaginations and natural human predilections. In essence, their opinion of our Lord often effectively portrays Christ as an ideological appeaser who was all about His love, who never rocked the boat and who never offended anyone.
I even have heard preachers go as far as to attempt to make the argument that if He were around today, Jesus would be a political progressive simply because he ate with sinners. But this is a gross misrepresentation of the biblical text. Because while He did indeed eat with sinners, He gave a clear and concise explanation why He ate with them when He heard that His disciples had been questioned by the Scribes and Pharisees. "When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole have no need for a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mark 2:17). There is no indication here whatsoever, that Christ compromised or indulged them in their sins in any way, shape or form. Instead, He used the opportunity to witness, and to call them to repentance. Not to make any sort of political statement.
Now, before I continue to unpack this idea further, I need to pause to make something perfectly clear in order to avoid any misunderstanding or misrepresentation of the points that I am attempting to convey. In no way shape or form am I suggesting that Christ was not a loving savior. To the contrary, His purpose for coming in the first place was His love for us that led Him to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the world. For example, He made that truth abundantly clear when He said, "No greater has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him shall have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
Moreover, Christ sinless character, and the example He set for all of us to follow will never be in dispute. The Apostle Paul pointed this out perfectly when he said, "For He has made Him to be sin for us, WHO KNEW NO SIN; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21). So, for an absolute certainty, God's love and the love of Christ can not only be seen throughout the Gospels, but God's love, grace and mercy can be seen throughout all of scripture.
In fact, after the fall of Adam, God could have made the decision to simply wipe out humanity and start all over from scratch. But instead, because of His love that passes all human understanding, He made the decision to embark upon a process of redemption and restoration that would eventually bring the world back into right fellowship with Himself. This redemptive process involved the virgin birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and eventual return of His only Begotten Son.
Nevertheless, according to most contemporary preaching, Christ only preached love, self-sacrifice, and living the good life, but never judged, and was never dogmatic about the truth, judgement, or the need for repentance from sin. In effect, that perspective reveals a deep and dangerous ignorance of the truth about the Christ of the bible, the exclusivity of the gospel He preached, and how He confronted hypocrisy, the traditions of men, and all types of religious error.
The truth is that the "nice" and all loving, all the time Jesus, was never far from open confrontations with the most prominent religious leaders of the day. Almost every chapter of the gospels makes some reference to His running confrontations with the chief religious' leaders of His day. Leaders who, by the way, should have been the first to recognize that He was indeed their true messiah whom their prophets had been predicting for centuries. However, in spite of the clear evidence that He not only was their prophesied Messiah, but He was literally standing there in the flesh, they were completely oblivious to who they had standing physically in their midst.
Furthermore, during His numerous confrontations those same religious leaders, He made no effort whatsoever to be charming or conciliatory in His encounters with them. He also never asked them to engage in friendly dialog, debate, or any type of open exchange of viewpoints. To the contrary, He was always stern, blunt, direct and to the point. In fact, Jesus’ public ministry was barely underway when He invaded the temple grounds in Jerusalem and went on a rampage against the greedy and corrupt practices of Israel’s temple monetary exchange operatives. In fact, He did the same thing again during the final week immediately after His triumphal entry into the city and prior to His crucifixion.
Moreover, during one of His final major public discourses was the solemn pronunciation of seven woes against the scribes and Pharisees. These were formal curses against them. That sermon was the furthest thing from a friendly dialogue. Matthew’s record of it fills an entire chapter (Matthew 23), and it is entirely devoid of any positive or encouraging word for the Pharisees and their followers.
Now we can be certain that as Jesus delivered this verbal attack on the religious leaders, His heart was indeed full of love and compassion. However, that compassion was directed towards the victims of those false teachers and their corrupt leadership, and not the corrupt leaders themselves. There is no hint of compassion for those leaders, no indication of empathy, there was no offer of clemency, no trace of kindness, and no attempt on Jesus’ part to be “nice” toward the Pharisees. Indeed, with those words Jesus formally and resoundingly not only proclaimed their fate, but He also held them up as a public warning to others.
The Coming Kingdom: The Core Message of Christ
Ultimately, at the core of Jesus’ teaching, the message that He emphasized above all else, is the good news of the coming of the Kingdom of God. In fact, the "Kingdom" is mentioned over fifty times in the Gospels. Many of Jesus’ parables were about the Kingdom, for instance Matthew 13:3-33. As a matter of fact, Jesus said He was sent for the purpose of preaching the coming of the Kingdom (Luke 4:43). Jesus also taught that the Kingdom of God had begun on earth with His ministry. The proof was evident: in fulfillment of prophecy, the blind was made to see, the dead were raised, and sins were forgiven. But Jesus also taught that there is an aspect of the Kingdom that is yet to come (Luke 9:27).
Moreover, His Kingdom is growing and someday will be visibly present (Luke 13:18-21). In what is famously referred to as, “The Lord’s Prayer,” Christ taught His disciples to pray for "God’s Kingdom to come on Earth as it is in Heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Jesus also taught His followers to remember their calling, which was that they are instruments of God’s grace as they share the good news of Christ’s coming. The more people become subjects of King Jesus, the more His Kingdom would be visible to the world.
Regrettably however, in spite of the fact that the world is experiencing unparalleled levels of prophetic fulfillments that clearly indicate that we could very well be living in the last days and that the rapture of the church could literally happen at any moment, because of the watered-down nature of much of contemporary preaching, most Christians are completely oblivious to the seriousness of the times. Just for example, the world experienced an unprecedented worldwide pandemic that not only crippled economies around the world, but churches were mandated to close. And arguably the saddest aspect of all, was the fact that thousands of pastors and churches simply complied without any pushback and without so much as anyone asking any questions about the constitutional validity of the mandates.
But what made the impact of how world governments mitigated the pandemic so prophetic, is the fact that the PRECEDENT of how the antichrist will be able to establish a one world government has now been clearly established. The enemy now knows that all it will take is another "world crises," and the citizens of the world out of fear, will willingly capitulate to a charismatic world leader who will come on the scene and offer the world a "GLOBAL SOLUTION," that will ease all of the world's fears. And if you can just imagine the fear and trepidation that will consume the citizens of the world after another major worldwide catastrophic crises event like say for example, THE RAPTURE, because of the precedent that has been set, it is now easy to imagine just how the antichrist will rise to power overnight by simply calming the worlds fears with his GLOBAL SOLOTUIONS.
In addition, there's a rapidly increasing move towards globalism (aka a one world system) that is being promoted by world leaders including the President of the United States, as well as, by many of the world's leading corporate executives. And because of the incredible advancements in technology over the past twenty or so years, we know have the technological ability to fulfill every single aspect of the revelation received by John on the Isle of Patmos including a digital or "one world economic system," and the ability to destroy entire civilizations with the world's nuclear capabilities.
But what should be equally as alarming, is the fact that even though churches have returned to public services as "normal," there is yet an unprecedented and unrelenting level of moral and social decay that is running rampant throughout the west. A level of moral decay that that is coinciding with an unrelenting, satanic assault on Christianity, and traditional biblical values. A satanic assault that more often than not, is either ignored or barely mentioned from many pulpits. An assault in which not only are young adolescent children being taught by the government, in the media, in pop culture, in Hollywood and in PUBLIC SCHOOLS that it is perfectly normal if they "feel" like they identify with the opposite gender, but this idea is being advocated from the highest levels of government.
And what is even worse is that because of the predominance of contemporary preaching from many pulpits which lacks the emphasis on in-depth biblical exegesis and expository preaching and teaching, it has left many church members so utterly ignorant of the times that we are now living in, that many after going to church and worshiping Sunday after Sunday, will then turn around in election cycle after election cycle and unwittingly vote for the very candidates and policies that openly advocate for the very cultural decline that we are experiencing.
Moreover, in another of the many confrontations that our Lord had with the religious leaders of the day, Jesus made a similar point by rebuking the Scribes and Pharisees when He said, "And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times" (Matthew 16:3). Again, these leaders who absolutely should have been the ones who discerned the fact that that were literally standing face to face with their promised Messiah. Yet, they not only did they not have any clue who it was that they were challenging, but they would eventually yell to have Him crucified on a Roman cross.
Furthermore, unlike most of the contemporary messaging from many of today's pulpits, in addition to His constant emphasis on the Gospel of the Kingdom, Christ also placed a great deal of emphasis on the topic of biblical prophecy. Most notably in fact, was that HIS VERY LAST SERMON PRIOR TO HIS CRUCIFIXTION was the Olivet Discourse which was all about the prophetic signs that would lead to His second coming (Matthew 24 & 25). Then after His resurrection, HIS VERY FIRST SERMON on that third day, was all about what the Old Testament Scriptures said about Himself.
Notice what Luke records about that lesson, "And he said unto them, these are the words which I spoke unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things" (Luke 24:44-48).
Just imagine how awesome that must have been for those disciples. They were taught by the Lord Himself everything that the Old Testament Scriptures said about Him. In fact, because this was a lesson that was taught about what the Old Testament Scriptures said about the Lord, by the Lor Himself, I often refer to this passage as the greatest bible study of all time. And considering the times that we are living in, how much more critical is now, for Pastors to begin to teach their congregations EVERYTHING that the word of God teaches especially an emphasis on the Kingdom and on bible prophecy.
Finally, while this has not been an exhaustive exposition of the life of Christ and His earthly ministry, it has been my goal to get more people to become hungrier to learn the many riches that God has given us in His word. To develop a hunger to become biblical exegetes and not eisegetes. So that you can discover the many riches that will not only help us to discern the signs of the times, but will help you to recognize false teachers and false teaching, and will also help us to live a life that will be pleasing to God, and that will allow us to be able to hear those words that should be the goal of every believer, "WELL DONE THOU GOOD A FAITHFUL SERVANT, YOU HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL OVER A FEW THINGS, NOW I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU RULER OVER MANY THINGS, ENTER INTO THE JOY OF THY LORD."
Excellent & timely!