The example was that of a person who wore a shirt to church that said the following: “Abortion Kills”.  My intent with the illustration was to advance the point that people must stumble over the Gospel and not over spurious methods which smack of self-righteous judgment and condemnation.

I have been a staunch proponent of pointing people to Jesus at every opportunity.  Tragically, some evangelicals in the past 30 years have focused more on sticking a poker in people’s eyes rather than share the Gospel which gives sight to the blind.  Consider the following:

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).

Because the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, we must be intentional about sharing the Gospel rather than have non-Christians call Christians foolish because of non-core matters such as methods including songs, t-shirts, trite road-side signage, fish on our cars, etc.  The Christian sub-culture has effectually alienated non-Christians from faith in Christ.  We’ve made the wrong thing the main thing.  We must rather keep the main thing at the core: Jesus saves.

People don’t need our rip-off Christian sub-culture, they need Jesus.  People don’t need three crosses decorating our Church lawns, they need Jesus.  People don’t need a fish on my car, they need Jesus who fishes for men.  People don’t need my t-shirt telling them how sinful they are, they need Jesus whose shirt was stripped from Him and gambled away.  People don’t need a cutesy worded church sign, they need the Word made flesh.  People don’t need to see the preacher’s name on the Church sign, they need Jesus by whose name they can be saved!

What people need, is for Christians who misrepresent Jesus to get out of the way because they’re slowing others down and distracting them on their way to Christ.

At its core, the Gospel is not about behavior modification first, but rather belief and faith upon Jesus Christ as the Redeemer and Reconciler of mankind to God.  My modified behavior then becomes the outflow of my love for Christ and desire to live for Him.  It’s the contrast of faith and works.  Behavior modification then is seen as faith that works.  It’s the notion of cause and effect.  Jesus’ love for me evidenced in His death, burial and resurrection and then releasing me from the prison of my sinful life causes me to fall on my face in love and adoration and worship as a response.  The effect is that I now want to live for Him and love Him with all that I am.

Loving people where they are at is tough.  And Christ-followers have, for too long, placed conditions on our willingness to love others, namely if they change their ways first.  We’ve historically been about wrath first, and then grace conditioned on their changed behavior.

The striking beauty of the Gospel is that Christ loved us first and died for us while we were still sinners!  He entered into our broken humanity to demonstrate unconditional love by meeting us where we are at and offering us grace, mercy and forgiveness in spite of who we are rather than because of who we are.  The difference between religion and being a Christ-follower is this: religion is man reaching up to God (works), Christianity is God reaching down to man (grace).

Shoving sins in people’s faces with billboards, t-shirts and bumper stickers misses the point and emphasizes behavior modification in order to become a better person.  It has the dual affect of exalting the Christian as better than and the non-Christian as less than.  Exalting an icon such as the cross, a fish, a steeple/spire, a pulpit, a communion table, or an edifice misses the point and emphasizes that rituals and iconography make me better than and others less than.  Both approaches convey judgment and condemnation of others as well as self-exaltation and self-righteousness.  Neither approach exalts Christ and therefore misses the point.  The point is Jesus and people need to be pointed to Him rather than be distracted from Him by Christians who haven’t got the memo on what grace and mercy is.  The ground is level at the foot of the cross and Christ-followers must be about showing Jesus to others rather than how good they are and how bad they’re not.

The question for Christ-followers must ask themselves is this: what methods am I using to point people to Christ and what methods am I using that alienate people from Christ?

Anything that distracts or places a barrier between a lost world and the Savior of the world, must be re-examined, re-evaluated, re-tooled, re-modeled, re-deployed or be completely re-moved!

Surely, compromising truth and soft-selling Jesus is just as bad.  This falls in the false-gospel category.  In this scenario, by adding to or taking away from the Gospel we’ve adulterated and perverted it.  Compromising the message must never happen.  At the same time, modifying our methods to meet the context of the surrounding culture is essential.  This is what Jesus did by entering into humanity and dwelling among us.  He encountered them on their terms while calling them to Himself on His own terms.

This brings us back to the contrast and tension of the message of the Gospel and the methods of sharing the Gospel.  The message of the Gospel will offend.  My methods should not.  If I alienate people with my hosed up method, I’ve missed the opportunity to point people to Jesus and I am held responsible.

“So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way” Romans 14:12-13.

If I alienate people with the Gospel of Jesus, and they reject me as a result, than they have rejected Christ and I am not held responsible.  “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who reject me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10: 16).

One listener of this past Sunday’s sermon retold the account of their participation in ministering to women several years back in conducting “sidewalk counseling” at an abortion clinic.  They shared that they chose to convey the following sign: "Abortion: Jesus Heals and Forgives."

I believe their method is right on the mark.  It meets people at their point of greatest need and points them to Jesus while conveying grace, mercy, restoration and reconciliation. 

Contrast that with the signage I referenced earlier on a person at XYZ Church: “Abortion Kills”.  That person or group conveyed judgment and condemnation whereby the wearer is judge, jury and executioner and the reader is alienated from God without hope.  That was a method that simply missed the point at best and alienated anyone who was living with the guilt, shame and trauma of that tragic choice at worst.

Jesus said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:10b-11).

Jesus offered grace and mercy first (with no condemnation) and then directs her to renounce her sin and leave it.

Christ-followers must do the same.  We must graciously love on people where they are at and point them to Jesus.  Any method that doesn’t enable this, is missing the point.

It’s all about Jesus.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:10-31