Jesus the Radical Revolutionary

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

And the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NLT

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

But if this is actually true, and I believe it is, why is the church in the western world struggling?

Why do so many not continue in the faith?

Especially when all that we have is built upon the foundation of Christianity.

Slavery was abolished in the western world because Christians held and advocated that all people are made in the image of God and are therefore of equal worth, no person should be reduced to being a commodity to be brought and sold.

It is widely held that modern democracy would not have been possible without the teachings of Christ.

Many of the basic principles of modern science were established by people who believed in the existance of God and that the study of his creation was a noble pursuit that must lead to advancement in understanding how it works.

Name almost any of the great names in early scientific endevour and I will show you a person of faith.

The fight for the equality of women and the right to vote was led by Christians.

Modern industrial safety and fair working conditions were established by the same people who abolished slavery.

Humanitarian aid and charitable instirutions are all built upon the pioneering work of Christians.

Indigenous peoples across the world would have suffered far more dispossession and loss of language and culture if it wasn’t for the work of Christian missionaries who saw them as valuable human beings and translated the Bible, Christian hymns and teaching materials into their languages and saw cultures worth being redemmned instead of destroyed.

We have such a rich legacy and an ongoing work, so why do so many give up on faith?

Many believe it is because what the church in the west has tried to sell is a sanitised version of what the secular world offers instead of the radical revolutionary life that Christ really offers us.

All of the great acheivements I have just listed took enormous radical action.

People dedicated their lives to the cause and for many it actually cost them their life.

The results were revolutionary, society has been utterly changed

Believers didn’t just sit there and somehow all of these good things just came to be.

In every case people had to fight and fight hard to acheive that which was right and honouring to Christ.

Western Christianity isn’t Radical

It is a sanitised version of what everyone else is doing and that is frankly boring.

No wonder so many give up, espcially our youth.

After all why dedicate your life to something which offers you, at best, what everyone else has but without a lot of the fun.

Be a good Christian and work hard and you to might be able to have a nice house in the suburbs or an appartment in the city, a big mortgage, a couple of kids and go on the occassional holiday to Bali.

But unlike the secualr world you aren’t suppost to have sex until you marry, but we will turn a blind eye if you marry the person.

You can’t get drunk and go out partying.

And you have to give up your Sundays and on top of that feel pressured to give the church 10% of your income!

Why give your life to a cause that makes so little difference.

The western church isn’t offering anything different.

Instead it blames society.

At some point the western evangelical church identified itself so strongly with the culture of the day that it missed the radical changes.

Instead of grabbing hold of the Jesus people of the 60s the church kept suits and ties and respectability.

Jesus is Prophet, Priest and King

These are not sanitized roles but the roles of a radical revolutionary

If we are to truly be a church that brings the whole Gospel to the whole person locally, regionally and globally then we need a faith that sees our role as radical revolutionaries.

Because that was what Jesus lived and taught us to be.

We always quote the Great Commandment in Matthew 22 and Mark 12 but how often do we ask the hard questions that Luke 10:30-37 the parable of the Good Samaritian asks of us.

After all we just assume that we are like the Good Samaritian, but perhaps if we truly asked the hard questions that this parable raises we might find that we are the Priest, or the Levite, the Robbers or even the man who sought to justify himself by asking in Luke 10:29, “Who is my neighbour” thinking that Jesus will respond by answering those like you.

Why is it that we always quote Matthew 28:18-20 when we talk about the Great Commission but never quote Mark 16:15-18

Mark 16:15–18 NLT

15 And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. 17 These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. 18 They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”

The Apostle Paul certainly lived what Mark 16 says, including the bit about snakes, as recounted in Acts 28.

These are hard questions.

And in case your response is, “well that is easy for you to say Stephen, you and Toni are Pastors and church planters. Being Radical is easy for you.”

No it isn’t.

As I talked with my Professional Supervisor and later with our Counsellor this past week I shared how things have improved and how thigns are still hard.

There is this constant issue of how come we got called to this sort of work.

I see my peers taking holidays to the Arctic and Antarctic, to Canada and New Zealand.

They have nice established churches with facilities and only one role to worry about.

They have time for hobbies and financial security and I work harder than they do.

It isn’t fair!

Now facebook has a lot to answer for when it comes to envy.

The reality is that they have just as many challenges and heartbreak as we do.

But let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good pity party.

The truth is simply this, we choose to follow Christ in this way.

The complexity and challenges of this role are significant and I in particular just need to accept that and have a circuit breaker in place to step back when I am overwhelmed, especially at this stage of life when things are naturally going to be difficult.

But Christ has called us to be radical revolutionaries.

He has in fact called all of us to be radical revolutionaries.

That is what being a Christian is meant to be all about.

The simple question is this.

What is your cause?

Will you spend your life for him in order that the whole gospel will come to the whole person, locally, regionally and globally?

Or is nice plain and rather boring westernized Christianity what you are willing to settle for.

That my friends is a waste!

Mark 8:34–37 NLT

34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul?

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