Jesus Isn't Decaf (By Naomi Meyers)

It is amazing they didn’t just hunker down for the long haul. Who would have blamed them? Their world was in chaos. Religious persecution was everywhere. They had been mocked and scorned. Falsely accused, they had been arrested, imprisoned, and forced to sit through kangaroo courts. Stephen had been stoned to death for preaching the Gospel. Men were going door to door arresting Jesus followers. Life for the early disciples of Christ was wildly difficult on a good day, nearly unbearable on a bad one. (Acts 4-8)

We wouldn’t blame them if they chose to pack up, move into a cave, and wait out the raging social storm. We wouldn’t fault them for shuttering their windows, blowing out the candles, and pretending to be away. We, in our dense humanity, might even encourage them to hide out, quiet down, be less conspicuous about their faith. Just reading those events shakes us to our core. Not those early followers. 

In the face of intense persecution and possible death, they don’t sit down and shut up. They spread out and keep talking. (Acts 8:4) Their message doesn’t change. They keep preaching what Jesus preached when He was on earth. Repentance. Forgiveness of sins. The indwelling presence of Jesus Christ. (Acts 3:19) They preach change. Change that lasts. Change that can only be found through salvation by faith in the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. Nothing altered that message. 

As they scattered and preached this unchanging message, they were often met with resistance. Over and over again they ran for their lives, only to stop in town after town to spread a message so stirring, so life-changing they couldn’t help but share it. The audience didn’t change the message. Jews and Gentiles. Governor Felix and cloth maker Lydia. King Agrippa and the paralyzed man. (Acts 3, 16, 24, 26) They all received the same message because the message is for everyone. Jesus Christ came to save sinners. (I Timothy 1:15) You are one. I am one. (Romans 3:23) The blood of Jesus is the only antidote. (Hebrews 9:22) At a time when no one would have faulted them for hiding in terrified silence, they ran and taught, too stirred by the potency of their message to keep it to themselves. 

It’s been a lot of years since those first brave Jesus followers took their stand, refusing to be shaken from the truth they knew. A lot has happened since they risked their lives to share a message that burned so brightly in their hearts it couldn’t be extinguished or altered by outside opinions, social pressures, or rocks launched at their heads, intent on death. So much has changed. Religious freedom came to the Western World. We became comfortable, cocksure, complacent. As time passed, we have preached more peace and prosperity than sin and salvation. We have forgotten the shed blood of Jesus. We have crushed the uncomfortable idea of sin. We call it progression. I’m not so sure. 

Regression is more accurate. What we hear today is nothing like what those original fearless followers preached.  Nothing that calls us to change and reformation. Nothing that sets our souls on fire. Nothing that stirs us to the point we have to share it with all and sundry. Today we are much more likely to hide from religious dissent. Capitulate to demands for watered-down beliefs. Alter our theology to fit mainstream ideals. Shaken by the fear of not being liked or accepted, we have quelled the stirring message of the Gospel and replaced it with something that makes everyone feel good but requires nothing of anyone. We have embraced a light version of Jesus. It shows.

Our apathy toward spreading the true gospel of Jesus Christ has brought us to a treacherous state. As people bow to earthly idols of prosperity and popularity, the world lies in wreckage from the rampant havoc of unrestrained evil. It appears to triumph on every side. Choking fear grips society, nurturing anger. Anger breeds hate, pitting people against one another. Violence breaks out in cities all around the world. As the swirling eddy of terrifying news intensifies, we find ourselves running into our homes, our friend circles, our churches, slamming the door and throwing sure the bolt. Feverishly looking for a way to protect ourselves and our loved ones from the alleged coming onslaught, we find ourselves shaken with fear, sick with worry, overcome with anxiety. It seems like a terrifying time to be a Christ-follower.

It is such an exciting time to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. There is so much joy in knowing the God who throughout the entire Bible has delivered His people from trouble over and over again. There is so much peace in resting in the promises of the God who has never failed to keep one word He said. (Numbers 23:19; Joshua 21:45) There is abundant jubilation in the knowledge of forgiven sins and reconciliation with the Father through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross. Unabashed rejoicing in the very same message that so stirred the disciples in Acts that they were willing to risk everything to share it with everyone, because anyone who will, may come. (Revelation 22:17) 

Anyone. Everyone. In Acts 11, Peter shares with his fellow disciples the vision he had of the net full of things deemed unclean. When God told Him to eat of the unclean animals, he, being a stalwart Jew, refused. Three times the net appeared. Three times Peter refused to eat. Three times the message was the same. God doesn’t play favorites. He loves everyone. He died for everyone. And anyone who repents and believes will receive forgiveness. (Acts 10:34-35,43) For Peter and his fellow disciples, it was a command to share the Gospel with the Gentiles. For you and me, it is a command to share the Gospel with everyone, everywhere, no exception. (Acts 10-11)

At a time when the whole world is crying out for something better than the current upheaval, we have the answer, the hope for which they are searching. We should be desperate to share it. We know that God is capable of rescuing people from some significantly noxious places. We know because many of us have been there. We were once those people deemed unworthy, unreachable, undeserving of grace, mercy, love, salvation. Yet someone was so stirred by the change in their own life, by the knowledge of salvation in their own heart, that they talked to us, prayed for us, walked with us until we, too, realized the message of the Gospel could and would change our lives. It excited us then. It should still stir us now. 

We should be excited, stirred to share His message, no matter what is going on in this old world. It’s the greatest message ever told. There is no other like it. No other name under heaven that can save us. (Acts 4:12) From our sins. From ourselves. From our fears and anxieties. Nothing else can do what the message of the Gospel can do. 

Yet we’ve lost sight of it. In the furor of news, politics, and social rage, we’ve forgotten the only news that matters. We’ve forgotten what happened when we knelt at the foot of the cross. We’ve forgotten the rejoicing in Heaven as our names were written in the Book of Life. (Luke 15:10) We’ve forgotten the freedom from burdening sin. We’ve allowed ourselves to be shaken by fear of current events and uncertainties and forgotten the absolute joy that flooded our hearts when we found salvation. We have forgotten the desperate necessity to share it with others. Not to our credit, we have been shaken and shell-shocked instead of stirred and sharing.

It is an amazing, exciting time to be a Jesus follower. It is an amazing, exciting message we have to share. Jesus Christ came to die on a cross so filthy, detestable sinners could inherit spotless, beautiful eternal life. (John 3:16) Me. You. The murderer, the rapist, the angry mob, the politician, the preacher, the philanthropist. Everyone is a sinner. Everyone needs salvation. Everyone can have it through repentance and faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. (Romans 10:13; Acts 2:21) Let that sink in. Let it stir you more than your fear shakes you. Let it stir you to action. There’s so much to do. So many people who clearly don’t know. The ripest harvest we have ever seen lies before us, but we can only reap it if we are stirred, not shaken. (John 4:35)