Now What?

Then Jesus said, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ Mark 4:9 NIV

Imagine you are in a discussion and the argument is going back and forth with no progress. Out of the blue your friend says something to stop the conversation in its tracks. You hear your friend say, “Now that I have your attention….” and proceeds to finish his sentence. Normally, the discussion is over at this point because instead of thinking what to say next while your friend is still speaking, he has your full attention. You are no longer speaking over him/her.

On more than one occasion, Jesus used the expression: ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ He is saying, now that I have your attention, stop your arguing and listen. Right then, all that is left for us to say is “now what?” because we recognise that Jesus, and only Jesus, has the answer we need to the questions we face.

What is it that has your attention, while Jesus is trying to get through to you? Money worries? Family troubles? Marriage problems? Health? Pain? Sometimes God can use times like these to catch our heart’s attention. We need to use our ears because Jesus knows we don’t always hear properly (if at all). We all know of times when God has only been able to really get through to us, and get our attention, when we are in a place where we can’t try anything else. There is only one person to go to, and that is our loving God.

It is so much better to listen up in the first place, than wait until problems and pain are the only way for God to get our attention. We can almost hear Jesus say to us, “Now that I have your attention”, and the only response we can make is surely, “Now what Lord”?

Tell Them

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? Romans 10:14 NLT

The true story is told of an executive at a critical meeting, when faced with a dilemma, said: “Somebody, somewhere should do something about this, and it’s not me.” We can take that attitude right into church, can’t we? So, who is going to be the Gospel to the unchurched, unsaved, and don’t care generation?

There are two ways to be faced with the Gospel. In church, and in our lives outside church. We take it for granted that the gospel is preached by our pastor, minister, leader, but is this always true? There is a clear and present danger that some churches are fudging the gospel message to make it pleasing to our ears, so that we don’t unnecessarily upset or alarm anyone. After all, the last thing we would want is to annoy folks so that they won’t come back.

As we read the Gospels and the exploits of the early church, most, if not all conversions were made outside the church buildings. Whether singly, or in great groups of people, the gospel message was given clearly, and in an unmistakable way. Did the early church leaders worry about offending the sensitive ears of their listeners? No, because they already knew that the gospel WAS an offence to them. It didn’t stop the message going out, and guess what? The church grew massively, and quickly. After 2,000+ years, we are the result, so why should we entertain anything less in our witness and preaching today?

The pure, life changing gospel is not for the faint hearted, and our churches are not growing because we have deserted it and opted for a ‘soft gospel’ version of our own making. I suggest if the Church of Jesus Christ is to grow in the hearts and minds of people today, it may not be as a result of being in church. It will be because we, that’s you and me individually, will ‘walk the walk’ so that Jesus is seen clearly to those who don’t know Him, or want Him. Then maybe church would be an option.