The Relevance of Christ – by Pastor Tony
Posted on May 2, 2017 by No comments
In today’s culture, it is common to hear the complaint “The church is just not relevant anymore.” The meaning of this complaint varies depending upon who is lodging it. In some minds (though I would guess you, dear reader, are not in this first category) the complaint is more like a revelation. Their sentiment goes like this: “At one point in history, church (or religion) was very helpful in making a humane civilization, but now, the church is just not relevant – we don’t need those antiquated church myths shaping our behavior. In the proverbial and literal evolution of the mind of man, we have arrived at a higher level of thinking.”
On the other hand, others who utter that statement above, are lovingly (I hope) complaining about a perceived broken condition of the church. It becomes the framework from which many ministries take shape. That sentiment goes like this: ‘We must clothe our message (the message that we know is good) in garb that make it easy for our audience to hear. We must make the message relevant and trendy…after all, the church is just not relevant to people anymore.’ This is often accompanied by the very accurate statement that the church has, for too long, expected people to ascend the church steps in order to be ministered to.
We see this sentiment in various forms throughout Christendom. If you are reading this article, there is a good chance that you have graced the shelves of a Christian bookstore (other than the New Life Resource Center). On perusal, you will have certainly found many books (and movies) with hip titles and relevant subjects. We find ourselves longing for ‘cool’ sermons and sermon series that seek to really meet us where we are (i.e. Give us a message about a topic that really affects us in our daily life – something that we care about! – which sounds a lot like the sentiment found in 1 Samuel 8:19-20).
This latter sentiment (to the primary complaint at the start of this article) is a good sentiment. We want people to not have to look far to see the message of the Gospel.
The problem is subtle, however. A good desire can quickly fall off course when we substitute other “things” for the primary way in which Christianity is relevant to every human being. There is just ONE subject that truly makes Christianity relevant: Jesus Christ. He is the relevance of Christianity. He does not need to be dressed up to better suit a particular audience. Just as gravity pulls at each of us, so too, The Man, Jesus Christ does. To put it another way: to say ‘plain old Jesus’ is not relevant anymore would be akin to saying, gravity is just not relevant anymore!
How did the early church make Christianity “hip”? They preached Christ and Him crucified. That’s it. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul did not dress up the gospel to make it more easily understandable or relevant. No, in fact, the opposite was true. For Paul, the message was considered “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23).
Moreover, think of how God chose to present Himself to the world – as a seemingly illegitimate baby who would grow up to be murdered at the hands of men. This paradigm only slightly made sense to a very tiny percentage of the world’s population (actually, not one person understood it until God opened the eyes of that tiny percentage – and not until the feast of Pentecost). Yet this was the relevant Gospel as given to us by God Himself.
You may think, ‘but we are such a different world. Things are totally different today. No one will be persuaded to follow Jesus if we simply preach Him crucified!?’ Yet, the folly of the message of the Gospel is absolutely no different today. It is our honor and joy to preach Christ.
A church that meets in a bar is not “hip” because it meets in a bar. Neither is a church that meets in a cathedral more “relevant.” What determines our relevance is our attitude towards Jesus Christ. He is what makes us relevant. Let our passion be Jesus. Let the rest fade away.
God wants us to be of one mind – set upon Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ.
As such, I say to you, have you met, Jesus Christ? If you entrust yourself unto Him – He has indeed taken the punishment for your sin upon the cross and has risen again offering you a new life in Him. Take heart, the crucified Christ is alive today.
Come, set your hope only upon Him. Tony Minell
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