We hear of it too frequently.
“He used to be a pastor. But the people in the churches were so
mean—undercutting him, criticizing, backbiting, slandering and then
kicking him out—that it ruined him forever. He vows he’ll never enter a
church again.”
The variations on that sad theme are endless.
But the result, while tragic, is needless: Some of these “wounded warriors” have given up on the Lord and His church.
No one should ever quit Jesus when God’s people mistreat him.
The Lord told us to expect this. “The servant is not above his
master. The pupil is not above his teacher. If they called the Master a
devil, how much more should His disciples expect it.” (See Matthew 10.)
The Lord was crucified by the religious people, convinced they were doing God’s work.
OK, perhaps not all were convinced they were doing the Lord’s work. But many were.
So what would it take, we ask the Christian workers in the audience,
for you to walk away from the Lord’s work and cause you to turn your
back on Him?
That is not theoretical nor is the question rhetorical. It’s a real issue, one each of us should face and answer.
I have heard of people who were mistreated by a sibling and who, as a
result, wrote off the entire family. One man told me, “He won’t even
call our parents. They long to hear from this son of theirs, but he acts
as if they don’t exist.”
My parents had six children. While our parents were living, I would make this point:
So, how is it that someone mistreated by a church can walk away from the Lord Jesus?
Same difference, my friend.
Show me anyone in Scripture who managed to separate Jesus from His Body.
He said numerous times, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (See John 14 and 15.)
To love Jesus does not mean getting all goose-bumpy about Him, but obeying Him.
In the book of Job, God and Satan were
discussing this very issue, what it would take for a champion of the
Lord to desert Him. “Job is faithful to you because you take such good
care of him,” the devil said to the Almighty.
The loss of everything dear to Job would do the trick, said
Satan. “Take it all away and he will curse you to your face.” When that
was proven not to be the case, Satan said, “Let him think he’s losing
his life.” Nothing dearer to people than their lives, right? (See
chapters 1-2 of Job. But don’t miss chapter 42.)
In all this, Job did not sin, we read.
Job was a keeper. “Even though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” he said.
That’s the kind of faithfulness that honors God, blesses people and will shine like diamonds for eternity.
What would it take for you to stop going to church, quit reading your Bible and put a stop to your prayers?
It doesn’t take much for some of us.
It didn’t take much for some people.
A little opposition, a little harassment, some betrayals, and one
would think we were going through the holocaust. “Why me, Lord?”
God’s people need to grow up and quit their belly-aching.
God’s preachers need to lose their Pollyanna expectation that serving
Jesus was meant to be easy, churches are always going to do the right
thing, denominations are the great security blanket, and if God loved
you, He would give you what you pray for every time.
At the end of their first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas
decided to retrace their steps and return to the Christians they’d
birthed and the churches they had started. “Let’s encourage them in the
Lord,” they said. “And let’s tell them that it is through much
tribulation that we enter the kingdom.” (See Acts 14.)
“Much tribulation.” Expect it.
The problem for most is that we expect it from the world, but not from within the house of God.
The crowd that welcomed Jesus into the city on Sunday with cries of
“Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” must have
been largely the same bunch calling out “Crucify Him!” by the end of the
week.
In Paul’s first missionary journey, the citizens of a town were so
impressed by the miracle of healing he performed, they were ready to
worship him and Barnabas as gods. Shortly thereafter, when troublemakers
arrived to slander the apostle, the crowd turned to stone him.
We would do well to keep our faith in Jesus but not in the Lord’s
people. They are His flock and our assignment. They are His children and
our field of service. We must not look to them for affirmation,
validation or a proof of our authenticity. When they show appreciation
and respond well to our ministry, well and good. But when they do not,
we must not conclude the Lord has betrayed us.
And so, to the victim of mistreatment at the hands of the Lord’s people, we offer this small counsel:
—If you are as human as the rest of us, you were not entirely
blameless in the work which ended so badly. The person who blames
everyone else for his woes without taking any of the responsibility for
any portion of it himself is probably into denial. Don’t let that happen
to you.
—Keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus. He is both the Author and Finisher
of your salvation. Which is to say, He started it and He will end it—in
His own time and way. So, keep trusting Him.
—If no church will consider you now after the way the last
congregation dismissed you, start a ministry. Perhaps the Lord wants you
to birth a church in your living room, or to minister at the jail or in
hospitals as a chaplain. No one on earth can keep you from ministering
in the name of Jesus, even if they are able to prevent you from getting a
paid position with an established church.
—Many a pastor has found freedom in being bi-vocational—that is,
having a full-time job during the week that pays the bills while
pastoring a church at night and on weekends. In most cases, these
churches are smaller than the larger, more impressive congregations. But
not always. Even so, you would do well to get over having to have a
full-time, paid position. Look for ways to carry out the calling God has
given you.
Paul told Timothy to “fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5).
—Pray God will help you to get past the mistreatment at the hands of
His people. No church is going to want an angry pastor. No search
committee wants a preacher who is still licking his wounds from the last
place he served. They’re looking for a healthy, loving pastor, and
rightly so.
—Ask the Lord to use this suffering in your life to bring about good things. He specializes in that very thing.
—You are finally learning what it means to share the sufferings of
Jesus. Do not miss this privilege, one not given to everyone. Let your
sufferings be an offering of love to the One who redeemed you from sin
and called you into His service. (See Philippians 3:10.)
We must not quit. We have been given an incredible promise. “Be thou
faithful unto death,” Jesus said, “and I will give you a crown of life”
(Revelation 2:10).
Two reasons not to quit
Here’s how Paul put it. “Therefore, since we have received this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart” (or quit).
God has shown us mercy. God has called us into His ministry (2
Corinthians 4:1).
Mercy and ministry. He’s been so good to you, not dealing with you
according to your sins and not rewarding you according to your
iniquities (Psalm 103:10). That’s His mercy. And having called you into
His service, He gave you spiritual gifts to enable you to do the work.
That’s your ministry.
You will stand before Him some day and give account. You want to go
with confidence and not shame. So, claim this promise from 2 Corinthians
4:16-17: “Therefore we do not lose heart (and quit). For even though
our outer man is decaying, yet the inner man is being renewed day by
day. For our momentary light affliction is working for us an exceeding
weight of glory, far beyond all comparison.”
It will be worth it all, friend. As Paul said, “I consider that the
sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory
that is to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
So many reasons not to become a statistic, preacher. But the best one is simply: You love Jesus.
You. Love. Jesus.
