BEING SENSITIVE TO SEEKERS

Introduction

-The topic of seeker-sensitive churches within evangelical circles has been a source of controversy for several decades now. No doubt, all churches are aware that people seeking truth or enlightenment will come to their churches, but how to get the message across to them so they will understand has been a sore subject.

-Not wanting to come across as judgmental and hateful as some legalistic churches no doubt have done to people, the seeker-sensitive churches have been criticized for going to the opposite extreme where they water down the message to the point that it is unrecognizable, and they rely on entertainment and gimmicks, all so that they do not OFFEND the seeker. What it really becomes is a marketing scheme, rather than helping the seeker to find the truth they are seeking after in the first place.

-As one person described these churches:

We are told that they only want to make the gospel more attractive to the public consumer so they will come inside. … They do not believe the people will respond unless they have their personal needs met, so their pain, loneliness, hurts, and self-fulfillment are concentrated on. If we can make them comfortable and happy they will stay in the church. These new church services create a non-challenging, comfortable environment for the “seeker” (the unsaved visitor). … The main focus of this … is entertainment. Find the interest of the person and use this as a means to present the gospel (which has missing elements) to what is relevant to them personally. This is accomplished by preaching only positive messages! Anything on the sinfulness of man and his fallen condition is toned down or eliminated.

-The funny thing is, that this methodology is in no way actually being sensitive to the seeker because it does not even begin to introduce them to the truth that they are seeking.

-A thirsty person who has just travelled a long distance through a desert does not need someone to tell them how special they are and give them a pep talk about having better self-esteem. They need water in order to live.

-A person who is seeking the truth about life and death and eternity doesn’t need to hear that they are good enough, smart enough, and people like them. They need to hear the truth about who God is, who man is, what God did to redeem man to Himself, and how they need to respond to it.

-Only when you tell people the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth are you actually being sensitive to the seeker.

-So if you are a seeker today, you need to be sensitive to accepting the truth even if it hurts, offends, or you might not like it. And for those of us with the answer to what people are seeking, we need to be sensitive enough to present the truth without changing it or watering it down.

-We find in our gospel passage today that some seekers come to John the Baptist to find some truth, and John’s response gives us some principles for being sensitive seekers and being sensitive to seekers.

John 1:19–34 ESV

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” 24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

I) Begin with an honest self-assessment

-The Jewish leadership sent some of their folks to find out what was going on. When asked about his person, John the Baptist didn’t make himself out to be more than who he was.

-He wasn’t the Messiah. He wasn’t the real, literal Elijah who was taken up in the whirlwind. He came in the spirit of Elijah and was the prophetic fulfillment of Elijah’s work, but he definitely was not Elijah. And he wasn’t the Prophet that Moses said would eventually come.

-John saw himself as the precursor and the servant of the one that they really needed to be looking for. John was the one to prepare the way, but he was not the one they ought to be seeking for. John had an honest self-assessment of who he was and what his role was.

-There are seekers who are looking for answers in life. They know that something is wrong in the world, they know things are not the way they are supposed to be, and maybe their seeking for the One that can fix things.

-But if you are a seeker, before you are going to be able to see the truth and find the truth in the answer you seek, you need to have an honest self-assessment of yourself as well.

-You are a sinner who can do nothing about your condition. You are part of the problem with the world. You are needy and helpless and are in need of someone to reach out to you.

-Yes, there is a God who made the universe and everything in it, including you. But this God does not need you. It is not like if you decide to follow this God that you have improved Him or His condition in any way. You are not God’s gift to Himself.

-And yet this God loves you enough to have made a way for you to seek and find the truth and come to Him, but you have to come to Him on His terms. There is no negotiation. There is no vote. There is no compromise.

-The seeker needs to assess himself or herself as a lost soul in need of what God Himself has provided.

-But it is not only the seeker who needs an honest self-assessment. Those who have the answers need to have an honest self-assessment as well. The church needs to have a good hard look at itself to know its place.

-You notice John did not point to himself as the answer. He points to another. Well, the church does not point to itself, it points to another. When seekers come seeking, the church is not the answer to what they are seeking for.

-For so long the American church has lifted itself up as what it is people need. It tells people that they should just come to church, go to worship services, come to various ministries. Just get involved in the church and you’ll be alright.

-But let me tell you, there is a big difference between “church-ianity” and “Christianity.” Greg Frizzle warned against this in one of his books. He said:

It is all too common for people to be quite dedicated to the “church organization” yet never experience a personal saving relationship with Christ….For these souls, church is more like a club for social comradery than a deeply personal relationship to Jesus….These dear souls unknowingly mistake a social relationship with people at church for a relationship with God! They mistake some form of religiosity, legalism or works system for new birth conversion by grace through faith. Tragically, many people are wholly unaware of the difference and do not realize their terrible danger.

-As a church, we are merely the messenger, we are not the answer that people are seeking. We need to be very careful not to make the church the great ALL IN ALL. There is only One who is the ALL IN ALL, and it ain’t us.

II) Seeking is a personal endeavor

-To give you a bit of a paraphrase of what is being said in v. 22, these religious leaders tell John: LOOK, JUST GIVE US A STRAIGHT ANSWER! WE’VE GOT TO GET BACK TO JERUSALEM TO GIVE OUR BOSSES AN ANSWER ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON!

-I found it interesting that the religious leaders were the one’s seeking, but they sent other to try to find the answers for them. I find many in our nation to be like that. Instead of looking for the answers themselves, they’ll allow someone else to do all the legwork for them and just follow them along like a lemming without seeing if it is really true or not.

-So many think that knowing the truth and personalizing the truth is an inherited family trait. My grandparents believed this or that, and my parents believed this or that, so I believed this or that as well. But what if your grandparent’s belief and your parent’s belief were wrong? How would you know if you don’t check it out yourself? I’m not saying to assume it’s wrong—I’m saying you have to seek this out yourself.

-Other people cannot do the seeking for you, and they cannot respond on your behalf to the answer that is given. This is completely and utterly a personal decision.

-Just because your friend is going to heaven or your mama is going heaven doesn’t mean that you automatically are going to heaven.

-After you know who you are and where you stand with God as a sinner who has offended the Almighty, you have to seek the answer yourself about how you can be in right relationship with a God that holds you in judgment. And only you can respond to the answer.

-If you commit a crime that is worthy of death, you’re mama can’t go to the chair for you. Your daddy can’t go to the chair for you. But what if the judge Himself made a way to satisfy His justice and yet you are able to live. That’s something you have to seek and accept yourself. And that is something that God did for everyone.

-But I also need to say something to those of us who have the answers the seekers are looking for. When we point them in the right direction, we need to press them for a personal decision.

-9 times out of 10 in the Bible-belt South when you press someone about how to be right with God, they will give you some sort of works-related answer, usually stating they grew up in a Christian home or they have gone to church. Both of those are blessings, but they are not the answer.

-We need to lovingly point out their error, and bring them to the One who is the answer, and then make it clear that it is completely their decision on whether or not to accept the truth. No one can choose for them. We have to make it clear: you are seeking something, here is the answer to what you are seeking, but you have to personally accept it, otherwise you are still lost.

-I keep talking about the answer, but haven’t given it yet. The answer is to:

III) Receive Jesus as He is revealed

-Where did John the Baptist tell people to look for the answer. He says in v. 29 when Jesus was coming toward him: BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!

-John points all seekers to Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God in that He is God’s provision of a sacrifice for sin. The Old Testament sacrifices were pictures of the ultimate sacrifice to come. Quite often, lambs were the ones offered to God. And as the writer of Hebrews points out, these animal sacrifices could do nothing to pay for the sin of even one person.

-But now God Himself provided the Lamb to pay atonement for sin for the entire world. This took more than a mere lamb and it took more than a mere man to make it happen. So he testifies in v. 34 that this Lamb is actually the Son of God.

-When someone is seeking the answers to life, death and eternity, Jesus Christ is the answer that we have to give.

-But John mentions in v. 26 that Jesus was already among the people, but they did not know Him. They did not know Him because their idea of who the Messiah should be and what the Messiah should do was skewed. Jesus didn’t fit any of their preconceived notions, so they ignored Him and then later rejected Him.

-And the problem is that even if we give people the answer to what it is they are seeking, they still don’t “see” Jesus and they still don’t “know” Jesus because He is not what they expected or wanted. Even with the answer within their grasp, they do not like the demands He places on them, so they go looking for answers that they like or want.

-They want a God who demands nothing, who hold people accountable for nothing, but yet wants to give them everything they desire----they want a cosmic grandfather. But that’s not the answer.

-Jesus as He has revealed Himself in Scripture says repent, take up your cross, and follow Him. Believe in Him by grace through faith, but if your faith does not lead to fruitful works, then your faith is dead. Mere head belief and intellectual knowledge is not enough. You are saved by grace through faith without works, but it is always a faith that leads to works.

-Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, and now He calls us to sacrifice ourselves for Him by forsaking all other notions of how to get to heaven and all other notions about how to get right with God, giving it all up to follow Him. It is dying to self and living for Christ.

-He warns that the gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life, and only a few find it. But if you are seeking for the truth, that is the only answer that there is. There is no other answer.

-And if we as a church give any other answer than that, then we no longer need to be a church. Seekers don’t need to hear psychological pep talks, they need to hear the gospel. And we either give them the truthful answer, or we close up shop.

Conclusion

-People will ask me: Do you want your church to be a seeker-sensitive church? I’ll reply, let me explain to you what a real seeker-sensitive church is.

-I want a church that is sensitive enough to tell seekers the truth about themselves and about Christ whether they want to hear it or not, and whether they like it or not, but always in a loving manner.

-I want a church that is sensitive to what its part is and what its message is so that the one true answer of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, rising from the dead, enthroned in heaven, returning again, is given every time.

-If someone has an illness that will kill them, and there is one cure, tell me which of these scenarios is more loving? Is it more loving to not tell them the extent of their illness, but (so as not to offend them) you just tell them that they have something worse than a cold and they need to kick back and take it easy. Or is it more loving to tell them they have this one particular disease. And then tell them there is only one way to cure it. Here is the problem, here is the solution, but it is your choice of whether or not you’re going to accept it.

-Which one is more loving? Which one is being more sensitive?

-Being sensitive to the seeker doesn’t mean to water things down so that you don’t offend; it means telling them the whole truth in love whether they get offended or not. That’s the biblical version of seeker-sensitive.

-During the invitation, as a church would you come and pray that we would be that version of seeker sensitive.

-But maybe you came as someone seeking answers today. The answer is you are a sinner, Jesus is the answer, but you have to personally receive Him as Lord and Savior. No one can choose for you. Choose you this day whom you will serve. I invite you to come down and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today.