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What Happened To Jesus’ Message?
By William R. Cunningham
February 18, 2007
Introduction
I thought that the message of salvation was simple. I thought that being a Christian was a simple thing and that all it took was faith in Jesus Christ. However, it appears that Christianity is not so simple. There are so many messages that are preached from the pulpits and there are so many doctrines that are taught in Bible studies that one wonders what Christianity really is.
People are inundated with teachings of prosperity, healing, wealth, and principalities that they don’t really know the message of Jesus Christ. However, what is more striking is that it appears that people really don’t care about Jesus’ message, but would rather be entertained by so called praise and worship groups and hype preaching.
I’ve taken notice of things over the years and one thing strikes me more than everything else about the religious community. The message of Jesus Christ is not the primary topic of the religious scene. The message of salvation is not the primary topic of mainstream evangelists, bishops, pastors, and teachers. This in no way implies that there are no good churches, pastors, bishops, or the like. My point is that accurate teaching based on the scriptures and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the minority in regards to preaching time at least in the United States of America and based on my experiences.
In this sermon we are going to discuss the message of Jesus Christ and its absence from the religious community. We are going to discuss an observation that I have made about the message of Jesus Christ as it pertains to the religious community so that we would be on guard to defend ourselves against false teachings and find ourselves as part of the problem instead of the solution to the lack of truth.
The Message
The first thing that we need to establish is what exactly the message of Jesus Christ is. This could be many things depending on what church you belong to, what denomination you subscribe to, or what movement you are a member of. However, it is important that we discover what the true message of Jesus Christ is from the Bible because the Bible is the revelation of God to us. Without the Bible then we could have no standard for the Christian faith and there could be no truth, but merely dogma at best.
I believe that the message of Jesus Christ could be summarized by something that the angel told Joseph in a dream. Consider the following scripture.
Matthew 1:21
{21} And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
The primary purpose of Jesus Christ is to save God’s people from their sins. Everything that Jesus did is conducive to that one objective, namely salvation. Jesus did many things during his ministry, but the primary objective was to save.
So now what is the message of Jesus Christ? Well I think that can best be seen by something that he told Nicodemus one evening. Consider the following scripture.
John 3:16
{16} For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Again you can see that the message is focused on salvation. God wants his people to be saved from the oppression of sin. God wants his people to be free. So the message of Jesus Christ could also be seen as a message of liberty. The liberation is from the bondage and subsequent penalty of sin.
Salvation is not the end in itself. Believing this could very well lead to a lascivious lifestyle as one could come to believe that what we do in life does not matter once we are saved. The new spirit that we have is evident by the way we are. In other words, our salvation will show in our lifestyle. I recall something that John the Baptist said to the religious leaders that gathered at his baptism. He told the Pharisees to bear fruit worthy of repentance, which is to say, “Show me that you have truly repented.”
Of course repentance has a great part in the process of salvation because one wouldn’t move towards salvation unless she realizes that her life is pointless and that she cannot save herself. In other words, we need Jesus! My point here is that it will be evident in the attitude and lifestyle of a born again person that she is indeed born again.
The Kingdom of God
One thing that we realize when we read the teachings and activities of Jesus Christ is that he did not merely talk about salvation. Jesus dealt with many issues of basic human life. He dealt with hunger, sickness and diseases, taxes, religious oppression, fairness, and many other things. Jesus dealt with the very things that any normal human being would have to deal with. These may not directly deal with salvation, but they do deal with something very important and inclusive to salvation.
Jesus taught us about the Kingdom of God. He told us what it was like, how it operated, and that it is very important to us. Jesus made what I think is an astounding statement to his disciples.
Matthew 6:33
{33} But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Now at first glance this may appear to be merely a way for us to live or a primary objective of life. However, it has a whole lot to do with the primary objective that we stated previously. Salvation is how we get to the Kingdom of God. Now we may think of salvation as merely a ticket to heaven in the hereafter. However, there is a lot more to salvation than that. Consider again something that Jesus told Nicodemus.
John 3:3
{3} Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
What did Jesus mean by this statement? A couple of questions that we can ask ourselves are the following.
- What is meant by being born again?
- What is meant by seeing the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God
For that matter we can also ask ourselves what is meant by the Kingdom of God as well. First let’s define the Kingdom of God just so that we are on the same page. The term “Kingdom of God” (Matthew used the term, “Kingdom of Heaven”) means the sovereignty, reign, or rule of God. It denotes the realm over which God rules and therefore implies a Way that this kingdom operates. Jesus gave us many teachings on what the Kingdom of God is like and how important it is to us.
Okay. With that said, let’s move on to the other questions of being born again and seeing that kingdom.
In regards to being born again, Nicodemus asked the same question. Consider his conversation with Jesus Christ.
John 3:4-8
{4} Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” {5} Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. {6} That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. {7} Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ {8} The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus was speaking of something spiritual that Nicodemus just didn’t seem to get. He was a religious teacher, but didn’t understand the things that Jesus said to him and it appears that Jesus thought that he should have understood those things. The rebirth that Jesus was talking about involved the human spirit not the human body. All humans are born separated from God in spirit because of the sin nature. Our spirit could be renewed or regenerated by the process of salvation.
When we put our faith in Jesus Christ and are saved then we also become reborn in spirit. That means that we are again connected to God, if you will, in spirit. We have been reconciled to God as Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
{17} Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. {18} Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, {19} that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. {20} Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. {21} For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
We become at peace with God when we are born again. All of our sins have been forgiven. That means that our sins will not be held against us and that they no longer separate us from God. Since our sins are not counted against us we will also not experience the penalty of sin, which is death (or eternal separation from God).
Romans 6:23
{23} For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So Jesus is taking us to eternal life with the Father and this eternal life is in Jesus Christ our Lord. That is very important because it puts the source of this eternal life in Christ and not in us. This is very important because it is easy to think that we can somehow earn our salvation.
Let’s move to the second question that we previously asked. What does it mean to see the kingdom of heaven? The word “see” is used in the same way as when we would say something like, “Do you see what I mean?” It means to understand or comprehend something. So Jesus was telling Nicodemus that unless he was born again he would not be able to comprehend the kingdom of God.
It was evident that Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus meant by being born again. He seems to have taken Jesus’ statement literally when in fact Jesus was talking about being born of God as we discussed previously. In any case I think that this is a significant case that Jesus makes. Those who are not born again will not understand the kingdom of God. They won’t understand the things that people do who operate within the principles of the kingdom of God. Therefore, some of the things that a true Christian does would be considered foolishness or otherwise misunderstood by those who are not Christians.
Summary
The message of Jesus Christ is that of salvation, namely being reconciled to God. Jesus came to save us from sin and that is the primary objective of God pertaining to Jesus Christ. Of course being born again implies other things since it is a newness of spirit. When we are born again then we become new and the old things have passed away. Therefore, the things we do, the way we think, the objectives and dreams that we have will all be affected by this new spirit that we have in Christ.
The message of Jesus Christ is peace with God. It is the message of reconciliation as we are joined to God in spirit and learn to live according to God’s kingdom. This is why seeking God’s kingdom is so important because it helps us to live according to that kingdom as God guides us in the way of truth.
The Counterfeit Message
The problem now is that there are other messages that sound good, but are not true. We said earlier that the primary focus of Jesus was to save us and to reconcile us to God. However, there are other messages that seem to relate to salvation and our relationship with God, but they are actually messages that take us away from God and from an eternal relationship with him.
These messages include such things as the following.
- God wants you to be rich
- God wants to bless you abundantly in your finances
- God wants to bless you abundantly in your health
- Performing certain activities will get us blessed by God
Now I can’t say that God does not want us to be in good health, because I am confident that he does want that. However, that doesn’t mean that we can go to a healing service and get healed or that we can do certain things that would prompt God to heal us.
I am confident that God does not want us to be rich since the Bible admonishes us about seeking to be rich (See Proverbs 23:4). Actually the book of Proverbs has a lot to say about riches.
The point that I am making is that the above types of messages supersedes the true message of Jesus Christ. People begin to believe in the riches of God’s kingdom in regards to material wealth instead of salvation. People begin to believe that the purpose of Jesus Christ is to appease them, that is to give them a comfortable life and they know very little about salvation and the relationship that God wants to have with them.
What has happened to the message of Jesus Christ? The message of Jesus Christ is superseded by more profitable messages dealing with riches and glory. A man’s kingdom cannot be built with the message of Jesus Christ. In order for a person to build his own kingdom he needs to teach those things that would be conducive to that growth.
You will find many types of gimmicks, tricks, and systems that have one objective, namely to get you to give up your resources in order to build someone else’s kingdom. You should therefore be critical of what you hear from people whether that person is a minister, deacon, bishop, or whatever. Jesus gave us the following instruction that I believe is critical for knowing the difference between true and false teaching.
Matthew 7:15-20
{15} “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. {16} You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? {17} Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. {18} A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. {19} Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. {20} Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
We need to take the time to think about what we hear from ministers. We need to consider that there are other messages out there besides the message of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people that only want to use you for their own profit. There are many people claiming to be ministers when all they want is to build a profitable business.
Many ministers have been exposed to be crooks, but there are many ministers who are crooks that have not been exposed. The problem here is that people are so gullible that they will believe anything. The interesting thing here is that they have what they need to know the truth. We have the Holy Bible available to us to discern whether someone is preaching the truth or not. For those who may bring up an area that does not have the Bible available then that is why there is a need for those who would preach the true word of God to all people.
In any case, we should be aware of the false gospels and the contrary messages. The message of Jesus Christ has been abandoned for the sake of profit and prestige. The message of Jesus Christ has no place when the objective is riches in material possessions instead of spiritual things.
The message is conducive to the objective. If the objective is reconciliation to God then you will find the message of Jesus Christ. If the objective is material wealth or power and authority then the message will correspond to riches and glory. Ministers will preach money and wealth over and above riches in the kingdom of God. Let’s take one quick look at this in practice from the scriptures.
Matthew 6:19-21
{19} “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; {20} but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. {21} For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where is your treasure? What has great value and importance to you? What’s also important to consider is what is most important to the man or woman preaching to you? What is your pastor’s treasure? That treasure will determine the type of message that you get from him or her. This is the thing that we need to weigh when we listen to someone whether it is the pastor, bishop, or television evangelist. We need to ask ourselves what the person is about and we can determine that by determining the underlying objective of his message.
Conclusion
The message of Jesus Christ is in many places and by many people abandoned for the sake of riches and glory. The objective of Christ was reconciliation to God for us and his message was conducive to that. However, the objective of many so called preachers and pastors is monetary wealth and their message corresponds to that objective. You will hear how you can be rich by giving to the minister and his kingdom. You will find that his message will be to get from you so that he could have more. The message of Jesus Christ is thrown away because it will not bring materialistic wealth only spiritual abundance. Amen.