PART FIVE OF POST
WOULD JESUS BE WELCOME IN YOUR CHURCH TODAY--- PART FIVEI am working on my second point of my five point message. So, to begin at the beginning of this point, please read parts three and four before reading this portion. Also, I only have a few minutes to work on this before leaving for work. So, I will be adding to this page later this evening when I get in.
July 3, 12:24 p.m.
At the end of part four I was writing about the evangelist who wasted a lot of money on dry-cleaning bills... and he didn't need to do that.
Think about this: next to Christ, who was the greatest preacher ever? In the Scriptures, the Lord told us who it was. In order that I don't have to copiously type just to save you looking up something... I am going to ask you to look up and read Matthew 11:7-15 and I am only going to type a couple of small portions of those passages. Matthew 11:11a "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist:" So, that answers the question about the greatest person of all next to Christ, now I want you to see how Christ described him. Matthew 11:8 "But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses."
Think about this: The greatest person who ever walked the Earth as man, ...the man Christ Jesus... wore the clothes of a common working man. Of man born of women... no one was ever greater than John the Baptist... and let's see how he dressed. Matthew 3:4 "And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey."
To be fair I probably wouldn't have wanted to share a snack with John: however, are you beginning to see a pattern here. God's people were not the ones wearing the "soft" (nice) clothing. Those things were worn by many unregenerate and worldly people who lived in king's courts.
Jesus was born in a manger... and wrapped in swaddling clothes... those rags which first adorned His body was later changed to a working man's clothes... but always and forever more... it has to be understood that He never once played "dress up" in His magnificent life!
I trust everyone is keenly aware that from pastor's to the sinners who sit in the pews that the idea of "dressing up" to preach or to attend a service is a fairly recent idea. I am only speaking about what we would call fundamentalists, Baptist, etc. Of course, even in the time of Christ there has always been (and still are prevalent in cold, dead, orthodoxy churches such as the Roman Catholic Church) men who want only to be seen of other men and they play "dress up" all the time. Remember this the next time you see the pope in his pretentious robe while wearing a fish-god hat, then you will understand what I mean.
11:16 p.m.
Just in from work. I will type for a little this evening and hopefully I will be able to finish this point by late tomorrow evening: again after work.
Charles Spurgeon is considered a "prince" of preachers. He had a tremendous intellect and he was an unbelievable preacher and writer. I read his work and I marvel that I don't even have thoughts like he had, let alone the ability to express those thoughts in a manner that is easy to be understood.
In his day he started to see the encroachment of the "lowly" servants of God, i.e., "preachers" beginning to dress to be seen of men, rather than to only preach to be pleasing to God. Read carefully his words: "The preacher who measures himself by his mirror may please a few silly girls, but neither God nor man will long put up with him."
Because there are not verses in the New Testament, nor are there records in church history that show God's men dressing in nice clothes to perform their duties before Him, that is, in pulpits and communities: people have to resort to an appeal for logic. Some do this with trite platitudes. Usually there are at least four: perhaps there are more but I think these four are probably most often used and I have heard them dozens of times. Tell me if you have heard them yourself?
There is no particular order of importance: but for the sake of my writing I am going to list them in order. First: "If you are doing an important work, such as preaching... you ought to dress like it is important work." Have you heard that one?
Let me also hastily say that I too believe that preaching is not only an important work, I firmly believe it is "the most important" work!
Secondly: "You ought to always give your best for God...and that means how you dress also."
Thirdly: "I bet if you were eating at a fancy restaurant you would wear a tie if they told you to."
Fourth: "If the president of the United States wanted to see you, wouldn't you put on a tie for him if he asked you to?"
Tomorrow evening when I get in from work I will take these one at a time and with sound logic I hope to be able to show that none of these four thoughts in any way work well for a preacher trying to use them so he can justify wearing a $500.00 suit into the pulpit. And for some of the charlatan preachers on television... $500.00 wouldn't pay for their tie, let alone the complete suit.
Yet, even before I expose those thoughts and show they actually do not hold up when logic is applied to them... I want to say that if they are read as they are written... exactly and with no hidden meanings... I endorse every one of them wholeheartedly. In other words, I agree and say yes to numbers one, two, three, and four.
Hopefully that will give you something to think about, and tomorrow evening I will start a new blog and answer each one of these in more detail.
Happy Fourth of July to everyone!!!
posted by Robin Johnson @ 12:25 PM
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