by Scott Bayles
Following Jesus part 3
Following Jesus Alone
Have you ever stopped to count all the churches in your town? Take a leisurely drive through Any Town, U.S.A. and try counting all the church buildings you see—you’ll probably run out of fingers and toes. Let your fingers walk through the Yellow Pages and you’re liable to find hundreds, maybe even thousands, of churches in you area. Some of these churches are very similar to one another, others are a little different. Have you ever wondered how it got this way? Why are there so many different churches? After all, didn’t Jesus pray that all of his people would be one?
In Frank Mead’s Handbook of Denominations in the United States, he lists and describes over 200 different religious groups—or denominations—in America today. The word denomination comes from a Latin term that means to name. These days when someone talks about a denomination, they are referring to a specific type or branch of Christianity that is distinct from most others—Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, etc.
The old cliché seems appropriate—can’t we all just get along? As Christians, our goal is to follow Jesus alone. But following Jesus only, doesn’t mean following Jesus lonely. It’s important to belong to a good church and to deepen our relationships with other believers so that we can help each other in our walk with Christ. But why, if we are all followers of Jesus, are there so many dividing lines? And what can we do to tear down those borders and boundaries?
Perhaps a seemingly minor event in the life of our Lord will help us to better understand how things got the way they are—and what we can do to fix them. Here’s the story:
John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”
But Jesus said, “Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us. For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.” (Mark 9:38-41 ESV)
Not long after Jesus had revealed his glory upon the Mountain, John comes running up to Jesus to tattle on some anonymous believer who was apparently casting out demons without John’s permission. Why do you think would John do such a thing? It seems absurd to stop someone from doing such a good deed in Jesus’ name. Yet, many times Christ-followers do the very same thing today, and often for precisely the same reasons.
I. ROOT OF DIVION:
Apparently, the green eyed monster had gotten a hold of some of the disciples. Just a few versus earlier, some of the Apostles tried casting a demon out of a young boy. Unfortunately, they failed. Jesus, of course, commanded the demon to come out, but not without expressing his disappointment in the disciples (vs. 14-29). I imagine this little episode must have been somewhat embarrassing for the Apostles—after all, they were hand picked by Jesus and given authority to cast out demons, yet they failed miserably and quite publicly.
Then, a little while latter, they see a man who was not one of them doing the very thing that they were unable to do—apparently with some success. Oh, how envious they must have been. We haven’t changed much over the centuries either. Like the Apostles, when we see someone succeeding where we have failed our first response is not to be happy for them, but to be jealous of them—especially in religious circles.
Wayne Brouwer tells the story of three churches struggling to survive. One of the churches hired a new pastor who was extremely gifted. His sermons were relevant and gripping, while his personality combined loving compassion with dynamic charisma. He taught in ways that made people hungry for more, and people were drawn to his ministry week after week.
That’s where the problems began; the other two pastors met together and decided that a ministry so successful must be teaching error—people, after all, were not drawn to their ministries and they were teaching the truth. Obviously, they thought, he must preach a false gospel.
Then they remembered a rumor they heard. Was there some kind of sexual indiscretion? Who knows? The rumor spread. People began to wonder. The pastor’s family was shamed, and in a short while they left town. Envy found its mark, and it turned two preachers of “truth” into liars.
Envy wasn’t the Apostles’ only problem, though. Nor is it ours. Remember that they were given specific authority by Jesus himself to cast out demons. They were the chosen twelve. They had Jesus’ authority. They were the ones who were suppose to cast out demons; not this other Johnny-come-lately. Do you detect a hint of superiority? Maybe a little self-righteousness?
Once again, Christ-followers of today aren’t altogether different.
I’m thankful for my heritage. I grew up in a small Church of Christ in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago. I was baptized in that Church of Christ. I took my first communion in a Church of Christ. I preached my first sermon in a Church of Christ. I performed my first wedding and my first funeral in Churches of Christ. I’m thankful for my heritage. I’m not always proud of it though.
Around the time that I was in high-school, another church was the talk of our growing community. The Willow Creek Community Church had recently become a mega-church, due in large part to the vision of it’s founding pastor—Bill Hybels.
At the age of sixteen I took it upon myself to investigate this suspiciously successful congregation. I attended a Thursday night meeting and spent the entire evening with pad and pencil, jotting down every “unscriptural” practice or teaching I noticed throughout the service—it was a long list. Bill Hybels was giving the talk that night, and after the sermon I ran down front to meet him. Standing face to face with one of this generations greatest pastors and authors, what do I do? I scold him for preaching such an “unbiblical” sermon and pester him to cite his sources. He politely dismissed himself, saying that he had a meeting to attend.
Later that night, I typed out the list I had made and posted it on our church bulletin board. The next Sunday the Elders of my congregation, believe it or not, commended me for doing such a fine job of “defending the faith.”
Why would I do such a thing? Well, they weren’t a part of my group. I grew up being taught that unless someone was following us, they weren’t really following Jesus. Do you detect a hint of superiority? Maybe a little self-righteousness?
Like I said, I’m not always proud of my heritage—but that’s what happens when we allow envy and superiority into our churches. We become separatists and exclusive, allowing only people who agree to follow us—rather than follow Jesus—into our group. The end result is the breaking of the body of Christ.
II. RESULTS OF DIVISON:
John and the other disciples actually tried to stop someone from doing a good work in Jesus’ name. Instead of furthering God’s kingdom, they were working against it. Some of the early Christians in the city of Corinth did the same thing. Listen to what Paul said to them:
Brothers and sisters, I encourage all of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to agree with each other and not to split into opposing groups. I want you to be united in your understanding and opinions. Brothers and sisters, some people from Chloe’s family have made it clear to me that you are quarreling among yourselves. This is what I mean: Each of you is saying, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in Paul’s name? (1 Corinthians 1:10-13 GWT)
Paul helped establish the first church in Corinth just three years earlier, and now the Christians there were splitting up, probably meeting in separate homes, and taking the names of their chosen leaders. Perhaps the older members liked Paul because he was the one who planted the church there in Corinth. Maybe some people followed Apollos because he was such an eloquent speaker. Possibly the younger Christians admired Peter (Cephas is Hebrew for Peter) because he was bold and brazen. Or perhaps they built denominational borders based on who had baptized them. That would explain Paul’s question, “Were you baptized in Paul’s name?” Whatever their reasons, these early Christians formed ever-shrinking circles of fellowship, effectively tearing the body of Christ limb from limb.
We have, unfortunately, continued to follow the Corinthian’s example to this very day. We aren’t claiming to follow Paul, Apollos, or Peter anymore—instead, we’re saying, “I follow Luther,” or “I follow Wesley,” or “I follow Campbell.” We are still breaking the body of Christ.
Did you notice that even those who claimed to only follow Christ were still included in Paul’s reprimand? Why do you suppose that is? Could it be that even though they weren’t claiming to follow another leader, they we still guilty of tearing apart the body of Christ by not sharing fellowship and acceptance with the other Christians in Corinth?
When a church that claims to follow Jesus alone closes the doors of fellowship and acceptance to other Christ-followers—even if those followers hold to some false beliefs or man-made traditions—they become just as guilty of breaking the body of Jesus as anybody else. The words of Jesus and the words of Paul, though, teach us how to handle our issues of division.
III. RESPONDING TO DIVISION:
Jesus told John and the other disciples, “Don’t stop him, because anyone who uses my name to do powerful things will not easily say evil things about me. Whoever is not against us is with us.” (Mark 9:39-40). Another translations says, “If he’s not an enemy, he’s an ally.” (MSG). Jesus wanted his followers to understand that no one can be neutral when it comes to following him. If we were to glimpse the world through the eyes of Jesus we would no longer see a rainbow of monochromatic hues. To Jesus, everything is clear—the world is drawn in black and white. The Bible says, “To all who did accept him and believe in him [Jesus] gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
Even though the groups in Corinth were all following their various leaders or traditions, Paul still called them “brothers and sisters” (1 Cor. 1:10). At the beginning of his letter he addresses it “to the church of God in Corinth” (1 Cor. 1:2). They were wrong for breaking and dividing the body of Christ—it was a sin—but they were still a part of that body. Just because the hand says, “I want nothing to do with the foot,” doesn’t change the fact that they are part of the same body. We must never assume that just because someone doesn’t believe everything we believe, or go to our church, or belong to our group, that they are not following Jesus. Our unity in Christ is not based on perfect agreement of all that the Bible teaches—our unity in Christ is based on faith in Christ.
Paul gives us the key to fellowship and acceptance in his letter to the Romans: “Therefore, accept each other in the same way that Christ accepted you” (Romans 15:7 GWT). Jesus didn’t demand that you have perfect knowledge of New Testament eschatology when he accepted you. He didn’t ask you to confess your faith in any particular doctrine or creed. Jesus accepted you, with all your faults and failing, based on faith in him. Warren Wiersbe comments on this verse, “It is not our responsibility to decide the requirements for Christian fellowship in a church; only the Lord can do this. To set up man-made restrictions on the basis of personal prejudices (or even convictions) is to go beyond the Word of God. Because God has received us, we must receive one another.”
In the words of St. Augustine, “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, love.” We are commanded to accept each other the same way that Jesus has accepted us. As author and pastor, Max Lucado, has said, “God rewards those who seek him. Not those who seek doctrine or religion or systems or creeds. Many settle for these lesser passions, but the reward goes to those who settle for nothing less than Jesus himself.”
Is it okay then to have our separate denominations? No. It’s still wrong to divide the body of Christ. Even Martian Luther, himself, once said, “I ask that men make no reference to my name, and call themselves not Lutherans, but Christians. What is Luther? My doctrine, I am sure, is not mine, nor have I been crucified for anyone.... No, no, my dear friends; let us abolish all party names, and call ourselves Christians after Him whose doctrine we have.”
John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, agreed, “Would to God that all party names, and unscriptural phrases and forms which have divided the Christian world, were forgot and that the very name [Methodist] might never be mentioned more, but be buried in eternal oblivion.”
Charles H. Spurgeon, know as the Great Orator and regarded as one of the greatest Baptist preachers of all time, similarly has said, “I look forward with pleasure to the day when there will not be a Baptist living! I hope that the Baptist name will soon perish, but let Christ’s name last forever.”
I agree wholeheartedly. I still attend a Church of Christ. Many of our churches are starting to return to the heart non-denominational Christianity and are opening the doors of fellowship and acceptance to other Christ-followers. But I pray for the day when there will not be a single Church of Christ left standing, nor will there be any other denominational names or labels—but we will all be known as nothing less and nothing more than followers of Jesus alone—covered in the dust of his fellowship and acceptance.
