When Christians Renounce Their Faith

Introduction

Pic of Paul Maxwell

Paul Maxwell received his Bachelors of Arts degree in Biblical Languages from Moody Bible Institute. He earned a Masters of Divinity from Westminister Theological Seminary, and his PhD from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2018. He's a theologian. He's written extensively on the issue of philosophy, pain, trauma, and discouragement. He recently posted a video on his story on Instagram where he said through tears, "It's important to say that I am just not a Christian any more. It feels really good and I'm really happy..."

Pic of Jon Steingard

Jon Steingard - Hawk Nelson - After growing up in a Christian home, being a pastor's kid, playing and singing in a Christian band, and having the word "Christian" in from of most of the things in my life - I am now finding that I no longer believe in God." (via Instagram on May 20, 2020)

Pic of Joshua Harris

Joshua Harris, former pastor of the mega-church Covenant Life Church, and author of the 90's Christian best-seller, "I Kissed Dating Goodbye", wrote via Instagram on July 26, 2019, "I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away.” By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian."

Pic of Marty Sampson

Marty Sampson, former singer and songwriter with Hillsong Worship, has taken a similar path when he wrote on August 23, 2019, in a since deleted post "To the CHURCH of Jesus Christ, I forgive you, and I LOVE you. I’ve got tears running down my face because it’s so true.... It was amazing being one of you, but I’m not any more. I love you all, and I always will." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/marty-sampson-hillsong-christianity-doubt_n_5d605421e4b02cc97c8d8724)

I know that each of the individuals spent months and years wrestling with their doubts before making these public statements. I am sure it has been a tough agonizing journey for them. I don't want to minimize that. On the contrary, I love them.

Have you ever struggled with the Christian faith? Or maybe you have problems with the church? You might feel like the church is irrelevant and out of touch.

There are many reasons to question faith, to reconsider your belief in God, to wonder if what we believe is what we should believe. It's tempting, at times, to give up and stop following Jesus. It seems like it might be easier to follow, like these four men I mentioned, the stream of the culture.

But faltering in your faith does not have to lead to denying your faith.

This church should be, and I hope, is a place where you can voice your doubts and we can have honest conversations about God and the bible, about you and what you are experiencing, and about the culture and it's message.

I’d like to talk about the subject of denial today by drawing out a few principals in the text.

Big Idea: Faltering in your faith does not have to lead to denying your faith.

God knows that some will deny the faith (v18-20).

John 13:18–20 (NLT)

18 “I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, ‘The one who eats my food has turned against me.’ 19 I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I Am the Messiah. 20 I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.”

Jesus quotes Psalm 41:9 when he says, “The one who eats my food has turned against me.”

In Middle Eastern culture it is extremely rude to accept hospitality and the intimacy of a shared meal and then to turn against your host.

Judas’ action did not surprise him.

By the way, let me say lest I be misunderstood, when we talk about people renouncing Christianity today, I am not calling them “Judas” in the sense that they have malicious intent like that of a betrayer. I am not suggesting that they are oppositional toward Jesus or toward Christians today. In fact, I am sure that they are kind people and have many Christian friends and family.

But if we are honest, there are parallels between the life of Judas and the life of people who walk away from Christianity today. To walk away from the church, which Jesus loves, to walk away from Christianity, to declare yourself no longer Christian is in some way to be like Judas. Psalm 41: 9 says it “the one who eats my food has turned against me.”

God knows that some will walk away and renounce the faith. Our understanding of this should serve to strengthen our faith and prevent us from following the same path.

The fact that Jesus said this should cause us to be on guard, to keep watch over our own hearts. There’s a number of ways to do this

We should prioritize staying in community with each other.

We should not be afraid to talk about our doubts

admit our faith is faltering

to wrestle with questions about evil in the world, about hell, about the exclusivity of Christ.

about gender, race, and other identity issues

The church is a good place to have robust conversations about these issues without having to abandon your faith.

No one is going to think any less of you if you have these wrestlings.

To have doubt is not to deny.

We should not base the truth about Christianity upon those who have fallen in sin or walked away from the faith.

People are going to abandon the faith. We have to remember that for every high profile person who walks away from the faith or is exposed as a sinner or fraud there are countless others who are the “real deal” who are finishing well, who are walking with Jesus and full of the Holy Spirit. Billy Graham, Chuck Smith, Chuck Swindoll, tons of missionaries, pastors, moms, dads, grandparents, and teens serving all over the world, living out their faith, and doing incredible things for the gospel.

Earlier I mentioned Joshua Harris who has disavowed the faith. His two younger twin brothers, Alex and Brett Harris, are loving Jesus, involved in changing the world for Christ.

Jesus knew who was going to betray him. He reveals it to his disciples, so that, when it happens, “you will believe that I am He.”

Jesus revealed the betrayer and in so doing communicated to his true disciples that he was the Messiah.

After saying this, Jesus moved their attention to the fact that they were engaged in a partnership with him. Look at v20:

“I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me.”

It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Yes, people will abandon me; people will betray me, people will walk away from the faith and deny me; but you—if anyone welcomes you, they welcome me, and not only that, they welcome the Father who sent me.”

Brother and sister, we bring God to people.

What a privilege, what an honor!

Faltering in your faith does not have to lead to denying your faith.

When Christians renounce the faith we need to remember that it doesn’t take God by surprise.

We also need to realize that...

It should trouble us (v21-25).

Look at v21.

John 13:21–30 (NLT)

21 Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!” 22 The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he could mean. 23 The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table. 24 Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s he talking about?” 25 So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

Jesus, being deeply troubled, makes the announcement that one of them is going to betray him. The disciples are mystified, which shows you that Judas was not the obvious choice. Judas did not stand out from the rest of the twelve. He did not where a black hooded cape, he did not have little red horns on his head, he did not look evil.

Matthew 26:22 (NLT) tells us that the disciples were...

Greatly distressed, each one asked in turn, “Am I the one, Lord?”

Peter tells John to ask Jesus which one it is.

When I say that the reality is that some Christians renouncing the faith should trouble us, it should not trouble us in the sense of worry, but in the sense of sadness.

When Jesus is deeply troubled (v21), it is not because he is freaking out like he’s losing control. He’s troubled because someone he loves is turning away from him.

Many of you know how this feels. Someone you love has turned away from you and maybe they’ve turned away from God.

Jesus is deeply troubled. He is disturbed, he is stressed.

Jesus loved Judas.

When someone leaves the Christian faith, we should still love them. It is not an opportunity to speak evil of them, to hate them. It is not an us against them.

It is an opportunity for love.

Folks, we don’t ever want to break off our relationship with someone because they denied the faith. In the contrary, we want to stay connected with them. You may be the best access they have to truth and God.

The only time we should severe ties with someone is if they are causing us or those close to us, to sin.

How do you know what God is going to do through you?

Continue to love in action and deed and see what God might do.

Pic of Woody Hayes

The late Woody Hayes, former coach of Ohio State football team lost his temper and struck one of the players of the opposing team on the sidelines. He lost his job over it and, as you could imagine, endured pretty bad treatment from the press. He lost his temper, he lost his job, he lost respect. Every sports fan in America at the time knew it. He must have felt pretty bad.

At the end of the season, a large prestigious banquet was given for professional athletes. The great coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry, or course was invited. Guess who he took with him as his guest? Woody Hayes, the man that everyone was encouraged to hate and criticize.

It’s important we show love to those who have left the faith.

When Christians denounce Christianity, we understand

that God knows

that we should show love, thirdly...

Satan is involved (v26-30).

After being asked by John who was going to betray him...

26 Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.”

Now I doubt Jesus said that loudly for everyone to hear.

And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. 27 When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.” 28 None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant. 29 Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor. 30 So Judas left at once, going out into the night.

I believe its really important for us to recognize that there is a devil and he is at work. He wants people to fall away from Christianity.

Clearly in our text, Satan is involved.

The devil, also known as Satan, or Lucifer, is a fallen angel, or demon. He is the enemy of God, opposing God’s plan and God’s people. He is powerful, but he is a created being, so he is not co-equal with God. Ultimately, he is subject to God.

The New Testament shows us that he is responsible for certain physical afflictions (Luke 13:16) and he often “incites humans to behave in ways contrary to God’s will” (LTW). His ultimate end, we know from Revelation 20, is to be thrown into an eternal lake of fire.

He is called in the Bible an accuser of the brethren in Rev. 12:10. That means that when you feel accused, it may be the Devil lying to you. In fact, Revelation 12:9 says that he deceives the whole world.

We know the devil tempted Jesus, he can tempt you and I, and we know that he tempted Judas. In fact, our test even says that Satan entered him.

Let me pause here and make an important distinction. Satan, as a created spirit-being, cannot be in more than one place at a time.

Did you ever think about that?

I do not believe that those who walk away from Christianity become indwelt by Satan. I definitely don’t believe the bible teaches that. Influence? Absolutely. Indwelling? Probably not.

Of course, Satan has demons at his disposal who do his bidding. He is certainly active in the world today, trying to lead many astray. So the point we need to make is that he is involved in some fashion when people turn away from God.

Campus minister Will Metzger said this about the devil, “Satan’s most effective work is done when he deceives people into thinking all is well.” (Will Metzger)

It’s interesting. When I read the stories of people abandoning Christianity they say things like, “I’m in a good place” “I’m happy now”

As someone once said, “The Devils boots don’t creak.”

We’re talking about Christians who walk away from the faith.

So far we’ve said that God knows this will happen; it should make empathetic towards them. We just acknowledged that there’s a spiritual battle in all of this.

I’ve got a couple more observations.

The church of Jesus should be the most loving community in the world (v31-35).

John 13:31–35 (NLT)

31 As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. 32 And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once. 33 Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going. 34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

This is such an important point. I wonder if those who walk away from the faith were part of a church that truly was living out John 13:34-35.

If there is one way for the church to be the church it is L.O.V.E.

I read the story of a pastor and his wife who returned from vacation and discovered a horrible stench in their house. It was unbearable. At first they thought it was spoiled food in the refrigerator. That wasn’t the case. They next checked the garbage, thinking that something might have died inside the garbage. That wasn’t it either.

They finally determined that the smell was strongest upstairs, so it must be coming from the attic. They slept downstairs that night and in the morning called their oldest son to come and crawl into the attic and see what he could find. He agreed.

And there it was: a very large and dead possum in the attic. It had burst and was crawling with maggots. They managed to drag it into a plastic bag, but it in a card board box and into a dumpster.

But they weren’t able to get rid of the smell, and they weren’t able to get rid of the maggots. The smell had soaked into the drywall and the wood of the attic which was right above the master bedroom.

A month later the stench was still there. They located a chemical called, this is not a joke, it was called, “AntI-Icky-Poo”. They poured a gallon of it inside the house, another gallon in the attick.

The maggots moved down through the wall, into the bedroom, into the kitchen, into the family room, into the carpet, probably thinking its the fur of an animal.

In case you don’t know, maggots turn into flies. So eventually this pastors house was filled with thousands of flies.

I fear that the church has become like that pastors house. There is a stench of compromise in the church. There’s a stench of abusive authority in the church, there’s a stench of comprised integrity in the church.

Check out this survey of church attendance.

Insert chart of church attendance.

Church attendance has been going down. I think this is good news because it’s an opportunity for revival

But what would happen if the church excelled in love? I pray that would be true of our church and of churches all over the land. We need more Biblical love.

The last thing I want to point out today is that...

There are degrees and timelines of denial (v36-38).

John 13:36–37 (NLT)

36 Simon Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?” And Jesus replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.” 37 “But why can’t I come now, Lord?” he asked. “I’m ready to die for you.” Jesus answered, “Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.

Obviously there was a massive difference between Judas and Peter. Judas renounced Jesus permanently, forever, the rest of his life. Peter came back.

Peter had a crisis of faith. He denied Jesus. We will see the rest of his story in the coming chapters. But dear brother, dear sister, don’t write the end of the story in your mind.

Each of these individuals that I mentioned at the beginning of this talk have the opportunity to come back to Jesus. The final chapter of their story has not yet been written. This is why, if there is someone you know struggling in their faith, stay in their life. Love them, help them, be Jesus to them.