Facing The New Year

FACING THE NEW YEAR

Warsaw Christian Church, Richard M. Bowman, Pastor Emeritus

Text: John 12:42-43; Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. And Luke 6:26: Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

We are at the threshold of a new year. We have no idea what lies ahead. One of the issues we need to address concerns our goals for the New Year. One of our goals should be to grow in faithfulness to our Savior and Lord. A key question for each of us as we face the future is this: are we more concerned with what men think of us or what God thinks of us?

While our Lord spoke very plainly, there were statements He made that sound strange to us when we first hear them. They are the kind of statements that cause us to scratch our heads and exclaim, "I wonder what He meant by that." For instance, He said, "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you" (Luke 6:26). This is an odd statement at first glance. It goes against what we might expect. Why is it woeful when others speak well of us? We rather like it when others approve of us, and indeed, we often go out of our way to do those things which will cause others to speak well of us. Should I be concerned if every member of this church speaks well of me? Should you be worried if everyone in Warsaw who knows you speaks well of you? Are we not more likely to be concerned if others do not speak well of us? Did it ever occur to you to be worried when, no matter where you go, people say, "There is a highly respected person; everyone likes him." Would that upset you? What on earth is going on here? Why did Jesus say, "Woe unto you when all men speak well of you?"

The answer is grasped when we understand the relationship between popularity and another vital word, faithfulness. We, as Christians, enjoy it when we attain some popularity, when others do indeed speak well of us. But we also want to be faithful to God as we know and understand Him in Jesus Christ. The problem is that popularity and faithfulness often come into conflict. There is nothing essentially wrong with wanting to be popular. It is a healthy desire. We would think it strange if someone said he wanted to be unpopular. We all need to be liked, and it feels good to have others' approval. I must confess that when people tell me they enjoyed my sermon, it makes me feel good. You don’t even have to be sincere! I like approval, partly because this job carries many insecurities, and I often think I am accomplishing very little for the kingdom of God. So, when you contradict my often-hidden fears and speak well of me, I feel better about myself. I say to myself, “See, Richard. Three people liked your sermon. You are not such a bad pastor after all!” We can certainly understand the drive within us to be popular. There is nothing wrong with that desire.

However, if you are a genuine Christian, you also desire to serve the Lord Jesus faithfully. We want to give our best to the Master. I doubt that any of you want to be known as a "lukewarm Christian." We know the Bible speaks of such persons, of Christians who are more worldly than spiritual, but we hope such designations are meant for others and not ourselves. We know that Jesus spoke of a group of believers in Him who were ashamed to be openly faithful for fear of offending the Pharisees and being put out of the synagogue. They believed in Jesus but kept their faith secret because popularity with men was more important to them than faithfulness to God (see John 12:42-43). Such compromising is despicable to us; surely, we would never be guilty of such duplicity. We want to be faithful at any cost, don't we? We want to hear Jesus say on judgment day, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." We certainly do not want Him to say, "Your entire life was a disaster, and you did very little that can qualify as faithful service." We don’t want to enter heaven by the skin of our teeth. No, we want to be declared faithful by our Lord. We want both popularity with men and to God faithfulness.

Thus, we have these two legitimate desires. The problem is that it is often impossible to satisfy both desires. They sometimes clash with each other, forcing us to choose one or the other. Many teens struggle with this issue. “Shall I take drugs with the other kids to maintain popularity, or shall I be faithful to Jesus and risk losing my popularity?” Adults face the same conflict. “Shall I apply Christian ethics in my secular job when everyone else is living by different rules, or shall I go along with the crowd, relaxing my standards and improving my popularity?” Pastors are not immune to this problem. What will I do as a pastor when I know that certain truths must be preached, but I also know that certain indispensable members of the church who are also big givers will be upset and offended if those truths are proclaimed? Shall I preach only those things that I know the congregation likes to hear and improve my popularity at the expense of my faithfulness? One TV preacher refuses to talk about sin and judgment because they are unpopular topics. He is very popular.