In our CFC churches, we do not preach on how to go to heaven when you die. Jesus told us to go and make disciples in every nation – and to teach them all that He had commanded – and not on how to escape hell and go to heaven!! But, unfortunately, a lot of the preaching of the gospel today majors on how to go to heaven when you die. I don't preach that Gospel because I'm not interested in taking people to heaven. That is God's business. I seek to make disciples for Jesus Christ here on earth and then I seek to teach them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded. That is the commission the Lord gave us very clearly in Matthew 28:18-20. And that is what we have been trying to do in our CFC churches in many parts of the world, for the last 50 years.
My gospel is how to be a disciple of Jesus Christ here on earth and how to follow Him every day. Jesus said there is a small gate and a narrow way that led to life (Matt.7:14). We can enter the narrow gate by repenting of our sins and trusting in Christ’s death and resurrection. Then we are called to walk the narrow way by taking up our cross and dying to Self each day, and putting Christ first in our lives, and following Him. That is the way of life and discipleship, that Jesus taught in the above verse – and that is the way of eternal life that we teach in all our churches.
In relation to discipleship, Jesus said in Luke 14:26, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and his own life, he CANNOT be my disciple”. How often have you heard anyone preach about hating your loved ones, as Jesus said in that verse? That is the Number One condition for being a disciple of the Lord Jesus. And Jesus commanded us to make disciples everywhere – and not converts. So, if we want to make disciples, we must first teach them this Number One condition of discipleship, before teaching them anything else.
When a child joins a school, the first thing he is taught is not physics or chemistry. No. The first thing he is taught is the alphabet – ABC. In the same way, those who join our church must FIRST OF ALL be taught the alphabet of discipleship – to love Jesus supremely. Those who don't want to fulfil that condition must be told clearly right at the beginning, that they cannot be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no second class of disciples. There is only one class of disciples – those who “hate father, mother, brother, sister, wife, children and their own life” (Luke 14:26).
How are we to reconcile this demand of Jesus with other commands in the Scriptures to “honor your father and mother” and to “love your wife as Christ loved the church” and to love our children and our brothers and sisters?
Jesus often used illustrations to make a point clear in His messages. So, I sought to find some illustration to understand these apparently opposite commands to love and hate my family members! And this is the illustration that has made it clear for me; I compare my love for my father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters to the light of the stars – bright and clear and without any darkness in them at all – a picture of the love we must have for our family members. But in the morning, when the sun comes up, the stars become invisible. They are still there, but we cannot see them. Even so, my love for Christ must be like the light of the sun, in which light, my love for my family members fades into insignificance. My love for my family members is still there (like the stars are still there in the morning). But my love for Christ is so great that all others are now loved only through my love for Christ. That means that my love for Christ is so great, that I will never allow my wife or my parents or anyone close to me to ever come between me and Christ. I will henceforth love everyone else only through my supreme love for Christ.
Jesus said, "I will build my church." Only He can build it. We are only members of His Body – one is like a tongue, another is like a hand and yet another is like a leg. And some believers who are not so prominent are like the hidden organs of the body. But Christ is the Head Who builds His Body. We can only offer ourselves to Him to be ruled, controlled and used by Him as members of His Body. The hands and legs cannot do anything on their own. The head tells the hand what to do and tells the legs where to go. That's how we are to be submitted to Christ. And that is how the Body of Christ works and is built. And that is what we have sought to emphasize.
But once God begins to use someone a little and he begins to see the miracle of the Body of Christ being built in a place, the great danger is of spiritual pride. When God blesses us, pride is lurking around the corner. We can begin to imagine that we were the ones who built that local church or that it was we who brought those people to Christ. And when a servant of God or a church becomes proud, God immediately begins to OPPOSE that person and that church.
May we all fear God and seek for the power of His Spirit every day so that we can glorify God in our lives and build His church in these last days.
Amen.
