Office Devotions: An Inconvenient Gospel

John 16:31 "You believe at last!" Jesus answered.

Years ago, when I ministered to the Scottish fishing village of Dunure, some people stopped coming to church. Eventually, they were asked by a couple of elders of why they had become non-attenders. They replied, “He’s too evangelical for me.”

I was sorry to see them go, but I also took their criticism as a compliment. I am, first and foremost, a preacher of the Gospel and I see that my work is to express the need for everyone to be saved by Christ. In some areas of the world, it’s not popular, but if ever I was to start preaching according to what’s popular, I would have sold my soul to the world.

Even Jesus had difficulty in getting His disciples to understand how crucially and eternally important His Gospel message was. He laid everything on the line, including His life, to offer the world the glorious opportunity of being forgiven and being restored to God’s love. He was, and still is, an all or nothing kind of preacher. The Gospel is not just a collection of stories that we can joyfully meander through at our leisure. The Gospel takes us to a crucial crossroads in each of our lives, where we either commit our ways to the Lord, or we head down our own dead end.

When I heard the criticism that I was ‘far too evangelical’ all those years ago, I wanted to say, “If you think I’m evangelical, you should really listen to Jesus!” When He speaks the truth about God, or talks about commitment, discipleship, or even money, Christ never compromises. One day, after we each die, we’ll learn that for the last time. The dilemma that faces us on Earth is this: will I learn and accept it now, while there is still time, or will I wait until it’s too late?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to overcome our unbelief about You and settle this Gospel question in our hearts for all time. Enable us to get over our discomfort and fears, our mental and spiritual opposition to Your Message. Give us the courage to accept Your Gospel and stop us from creating a convenient truth for ourselves. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Office Devotions: Handling the Truth

1 Samuel 3:17 "What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you."

Did you ever see the movie ‘A Few Good Men?’ it stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. It’s a courtroom drama and its gripping climax comes when Tom Cruise is cross examining Nicholson near the end. In a battle of words, Cruise passionately insists that he wants to hear the truth, to which Nicholson aggressively replies: “You can’t handle the truth!”

When old Eli insists that the boy Samuel tells him what God has spoken to him, he wants to hear the truth, no matter what it is. Samuel is reluctant to tell him because it is a prophetic curse upon Eli and his sons. But Eli persists and even curses Samuel with the same fate if he does not tell him what God has said.

I wonder if moments later Eli had wished he hadn’t been given the message. The truth was ruthless and full of judgment upon Eli and his family. Would he have been better off being ignorant of God’s wrathful message?

I try to preach the Gospel from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. Sometimes when I’m looking over a chosen passage, I wish that Jesus hadn’t said what He did. I know that when I start preaching the truth, it is sometimes too much for people in the pews to handle. So I’m left with a dilemma, do I please the people by diluting the Gospel, or do I please Jesus by not mincing His words?

The truth about the Gospel is this: some people can’t handle it, so they shape it into something that makes them comfortable and spiritually cozy. But they ignore this truth – how cozy is the Cross? How comfortable are the calls that Christ makes to us to repent, challenge our ways, and change our lives? A Gospel that is comfortable makes us all spiritual couch potatoes; Christ’s Gospel, which is awkward and challenging, makes us who God calls us to be.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we’ve let society become our Savior and allowed the world to become the Word. We’ve surrendered our souls to coziness and peacefulness, instead of aligning our spirits to the Gospel and You. We honestly can’t handle the Truth and so we make up our own Way, which leads us to no Life. Forgive us and rebuke us; direct us and renew us. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Office Devotions - Peer Pressure

(It's getting harder to preach the Gospel these days - even in the Church, of all places!)

Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by whom we must be saved.”

Podcast version here

I’m having a tough time relating to my peers. It’s always been hard because I didn’t go to an American seminary, so I’ve no class fellowship to identify or connect with. I also was brought up in old-school Presbyterianism, so my Scottish Calvinist background doesn’t help me get close to my progressive Presbyterian associates.

At times, I feel like a fish out of water and I wonder if my family and I would have been better staying in Scotland. And then I remember that I am called by God to be here, so there must be a reason that I am constantly crying in the wilderness and feeling out of place.

I’m a Gospel preacher by trade. I owe everything to Jesus and because of that I’m not willing to give up on His ways, His teaching, or His Lordship. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect by any means, but I believe that Christ is. And I fervently believe that everything which the Old & New Testament reveal about Christ is completely true, unchangeable, and unarguable.

There’s a lot of pressure put on Christian people to give up part of their beliefs by equating Christ with Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, or even Krishna. Religious people are all part of one theological soup that tastes of God. The Gospels are just another batch of sacred documents which tell us tales about a great teacher called Jesus. Other religious documents from all over the world are supposed to be just as insightful, instructive, and important about showing us how to find God.

I’ve even got peers, who are Presbyterian pastors, who don’t believe in the Resurrection, nor do they think the Gospels are trustworthy. They follow their own path and sadly they take other people with them down a dead end.

When Peter the fisherman stands up fearlessly in front of the Sanhedrin and boldly declares that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by whom we must be saved,” I believe him. He’s just a fisherman from Galilee, putting his life on the line, and courageously preaching the Gospel. He’s out of place in Jerusalem. He’s crying out for Christ in a theological wilderness. He’s declaring the divine truth and does not care what his peers, elders, and leaders believe. Peter has given his life, heart, and soul to Christ. He can do nothing else but preach the Gospel.

I choose to be like Peter because I want to serve the Lord. I will always preach the Gospel because I truly love Jesus. And whether my pastoral peers like it or not, I will keep the New Testament Christ in my heart because I know of no other Name through whom humanity can be saved.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we live in troubled times and the Church is causing a lot of trouble for herself by mincing Your words and devaluing Your truth. Help us to get back on the right track. Grant us the courage to remain loyal to You and to the Gospels that reveal Your ways, Your words, and Your holy works. In Your sacred Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment upon today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org. Please feel free to forward this message to your friends.