I was reading in John 6 the other day- this was a time where Jesus was getting very popular. He had many followers and was bringing them in by the truckload. He was so popular that the people were about to make Him the king by force.
Then He looked at the crowd and said, "Bite me."
Well, He actually said this- "“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man (literally, 'Bite me') and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53). The Bible then says that this statement caused many, if not most, of the crowd to desert Him.
Why would Jesus do such a terrible thing? Why would He turn what could have been thousands of potential believers away from the Kingdom of God? Didn't their souls matter to Him? Didn't He love them? I'll bet His disciples weren't very happy with this turn of events. There had been a large number of them and now there were only twelve left.
I imagine that if a pastor preached his church from thousands down to twelve, especially with just one statement, that he wouldn't be senior pastor very long.
The reason I write this is that Catalyst is going through a period of growth right now. We are seeing more people at church than we ever have at this time of year, something that church growth gurus refer to as "momentum." As a church, we constantly think about preaching the gospel to INCREASE the church.
But I've never thought of a strategy that would make 95% of the people LEAVE the church.
Jesus did. This was not a slip up or a gaffe. He knew exactly what He was doing when He said these words. He knew exactly what would happen when He said them, and He chose it anyway. There must have been a good reason for it, something that Jesus knew was necessary. It might even be necessary in American churches today.
Apparently, Jesus wasn't very impressed with people who followed Him but didn't want to know Him.
This is the meaning behind the, "You must eat my flesh and drink my blood," statement. Jesus is teaching that unless you allow Me to invade your life; unless you allow Me to come into your very being and live My life through you, you really are lost. Jesus was saying to His followers that there was a major difference between casual and committed. He also implied that He didn't even see the need for the casual to stick around. It was better if they just left and didn't maintain the illusion of being true committed believers.
Someone once asked me, "If Paul or Peter or even Jesus visited your town, would your church be the one they would choose to go and worship at? Would your church be the one where they would recognize the teachings and practices that they taught 2000 years ago? Or would they walk into your church and see something so different, so incongruent, and so worldly that they wouldn't even recognize it as Biblical Christianity?"
With Jesus, intimacy is the goal. With American Christianity, numbers are the goal. With one statement, Jesus destroyed the false idol of success that exists in modern American Christianity. It shows what Jesus values, and the reason we have a problem with it is that it exposes the fact that we value something completely different.
Then He looked at the crowd and said, "Bite me."
Well, He actually said this- "“I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man (literally, 'Bite me') and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (John 6:53). The Bible then says that this statement caused many, if not most, of the crowd to desert Him.
Why would Jesus do such a terrible thing? Why would He turn what could have been thousands of potential believers away from the Kingdom of God? Didn't their souls matter to Him? Didn't He love them? I'll bet His disciples weren't very happy with this turn of events. There had been a large number of them and now there were only twelve left.
I imagine that if a pastor preached his church from thousands down to twelve, especially with just one statement, that he wouldn't be senior pastor very long.
The reason I write this is that Catalyst is going through a period of growth right now. We are seeing more people at church than we ever have at this time of year, something that church growth gurus refer to as "momentum." As a church, we constantly think about preaching the gospel to INCREASE the church.
But I've never thought of a strategy that would make 95% of the people LEAVE the church.
Jesus did. This was not a slip up or a gaffe. He knew exactly what He was doing when He said these words. He knew exactly what would happen when He said them, and He chose it anyway. There must have been a good reason for it, something that Jesus knew was necessary. It might even be necessary in American churches today.
Apparently, Jesus wasn't very impressed with people who followed Him but didn't want to know Him.
This is the meaning behind the, "You must eat my flesh and drink my blood," statement. Jesus is teaching that unless you allow Me to invade your life; unless you allow Me to come into your very being and live My life through you, you really are lost. Jesus was saying to His followers that there was a major difference between casual and committed. He also implied that He didn't even see the need for the casual to stick around. It was better if they just left and didn't maintain the illusion of being true committed believers.
Someone once asked me, "If Paul or Peter or even Jesus visited your town, would your church be the one they would choose to go and worship at? Would your church be the one where they would recognize the teachings and practices that they taught 2000 years ago? Or would they walk into your church and see something so different, so incongruent, and so worldly that they wouldn't even recognize it as Biblical Christianity?"
With Jesus, intimacy is the goal. With American Christianity, numbers are the goal. With one statement, Jesus destroyed the false idol of success that exists in modern American Christianity. It shows what Jesus values, and the reason we have a problem with it is that it exposes the fact that we value something completely different.
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