One of our solid pastors has been criticized for making this public statement, "We want to make Jesus famous in our city."
Should we attempt to make Jesus famous? My response would be, "Can you imagine doing the opposite? Hiding Jesus from a lost world?" Of course we are to make Jesus famous. We are to publish His name in all the earth. The Bible expects this to be our number one job. We are to proclaim from the rooftops, "Jesus is the Lord, the Savior of humankind." We are to lift Him up so that all will know his wonderful grace and love.
Habakkuk prayed, "Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord." (3:2).
Paul, in his incarnational hymn of praise writes, "Therefore God exalted Jesus to the highest place...that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." (Phil 2:9-11) That's just a little bit famous.
Our culture is obsessed with worshipping the "famous ones" of Hollywood and pop music stardom. Many, at this very moment, are grieving the death of one who proclaimed himself the "King of Pop."
In the midst of this misdirected obsession is it not right and proper to lift up the name of the True King? And, make Him more widely known than any of the pretenders who display only a fading glory. His is the glory that will shine for ever. Why not get a head start on worshipping the One who has everlasting glory? Why not make Him the truly "Famous One" in all the earth?
Of course, we want people to move beyond knowing about Jesus to personally encountering Him as God, and as Savior, and as Lord. That goes without saying. But for some people you have to fill in the lines so they can see the full picture, which is impossible to do when the real issue is not the presenting issue.
Perhaps the objection is rooted in a misunderstanding, that we are to avoid recasting Scriptural principles in the vernacular of our culture. No doubt there is always a danger of miscommunication when we attempt to employ contemporary cultural idioms. Yet, there is a greater danger if we do not. And that is to fail to communicate to this generation at all. It seems to me it's well worth the risk to employ popular language and concepts to convey biblical truth, which is exactly what the pastor was attempting to do. The beloved paraphrase of the Scriptures, The Message by Eugene Peterson, attempts this very thing, and in spades! And, I would add, with great success.
This is a lengthy way to say that I agree with the pastor. Let's make Jesus famous! In all the Northwest! In all the world! I can't think of a greater calling than this one thing!
I'll close this long posting with words from a "famous" modern hymn:
You are the Lord
The famous one, famous one
Great is Your name in all the earth
The heavens declare
You're glorious, glorious
Great is Your fame beyond the earth
For all You've done and yet to do
With every breath I'm praising You
Desire of the nations and every heart
You alone are God
(Chris Thomlin)
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8 comments:
I agree with you 100%. In fact it seems to me that there is a camp that would love to see the "fame" of Jesus hidden, and I don't think we want to be in that camp! The Habakuk verse is great, thanks for showing that.
Right on!!!
Sometimes we get persecuted for proclaiming the truth.
If I remember right that Jesus promises reward for those who are afflicted for representing Him.
So dear anonymous pastor- keep preaching the truth with boldness and humility! You will be rewarded.
Hey, I randomly found your blog today and I'm glad that I did. Very interesting stuff. I'm a conservative blogger and seminary student in Chicago (rjmoeller.com). Keep up the good work!
The issue with this topic is the arrogance of the statement "We are here to make Jesus famous." We have become so full of ourselves that we don't even see how messed up our perspective is. Jesus doen't need us to make him famous. He gives us the opportunity to participate in his plan, to let us be a part of what he is already doing. But for us to say "we are making him famous" that is arrogant, prideful and distorted. Then to make the exaggerated either-or statement of if you don't want to make Jesus famous you must want to be hiding him is just a ludicrous as saying your going to make him famous. We need a serious dose of humility in the American church! All of the versus that were sighted - they are God proclaiming himself and humble people recogonizing it was God's doing not theirs. Christians, stop with YOUR adgendas, stop with your "but I'm right", ask God to give you a humble spirit and then watch how he will use you as He proclaims His fame!
There is always room in all our lives and the church for humility. Humility is a genuine mark of serious followers of Jesus. I will grant that. Equal to the need for humility is the passion to share Christ through word and deed in a lost world. Generally speaking, most churches have replaced the priority of evangelism and disciple-making with serving themselves expending little effort in obeying the Great Commission. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit, when given, would bring with Himself power and in turn we would become His "witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) It is our proclamation that will make His name known in all the earth. The phrase "making Him famous" is another way of saying we are to "proclaim His name to the ends of the earth." This can be done egocentricly, and it can be done humbly. Obviously, God prefers we witness in humility. Yet, He is more than capable of using our witness regardless of the mixtures of motives that may drive us. Once the disciples confronted Jesus with the news that a man, not of their band, was driving out demons in His name. Should we stop him, they asked? Implication: after all, he may be doing this for selfish purposes. His teaching may be incomplete. He may be on an ego trip. Jesus said not to stop him. He did not send out the motive police to quiz the man. Jesus went on to say, "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:38-41)
(I meant to add this in to the last comment). Furthermore, the apostle Paul wasn't terribly interested in sifting each person's motives who did ministry in the name of Jesus. He wrote: It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. (Phil 1:15-18) The proclamation of Jesus is the main thing, and should be the main focus of every church.
Those were some interersting points, however I see one large issue with the logic you used. That is: in both examples, the man that was casting out demons and the people preaching while Paul was in prison, the people in question were not directly under Jesus or Paul. They were not disciples or followers of their's. Had they been, they would have been disciplined for their motives. So to say that because Jesus and Paul said that it was ok for these people (not under their direct authority) to preach the Gospel with wrong motives, then it is just fine for us to preach the Gospel reqardless of our motives, attitudes or means. There is much more throughout the Gospels and the letters in the New Testament that tell us to correct the attitudes of our hearts or all we do is in vain. Arrogance has no room for love. As 1 Corinthians 13 tells us, you can do all things wonderful things 'in Jesus name' but if you don't have love, you are nothing, you gain nothing, "you are a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
Let's not let arrogance and the lack of humility make us nothing.
I do appreciate you engaging in this dialogue. In our day, this is how we "test" what we are told so we don't blindly follow false teaching. Dialogue makes us dig in and see what God's word really says. Thank you.
I appreciate the dialogue, too. The assertion, "They were not disciples or followers of their's. Had they been, they would have been disciplined for their motives" is pure eisegesis. You are reading something into the text that is not there. There is not one scholar or commentary who draws that conclusion from Paul's comments in Philippians 1. The application point from Paul's handling of the fellow-Christians preaching with wrong motives was that he was careful not to criticize them. Paul pulls his punches because he does not want to divide the body over their attitude towards himself. (See comments made by Alec Motyer in the "The Bible Speaks Today" commentary series.) Again, it is a dangerous practice to judge others motives, because only God knows the heart. We can evaluate actions, yes. But judging motives is tantamount to skating on thin ice.
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