Spectator Christianity

The modern example of Christianity that is taught in our churches is that of the spectator type. It's where the preacher does the preaching and we do the listening. It's a come and hear brand of Christianity rather than the biblical one of go and tell.

Jesus said to his disciples in regard to the Great Commission, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Notice the emphasis is on go. Go ye therefore.

The gospel's always been a go and tell gospel but somehow in our scatterbrained mentality we've turned the biblical mandate from a go and tell to a come and hear and we preach the same people every week. Meanwhile people that live in our communities that need to hear the gospel are not being reached because they're not visiting our churches. Many refuse to go out and compel them to come in so we just enter the pulpit each week and hope that some visitor will wander into our sanctuary.

But is this the Christianity of the New Testament found in the book of Acts? How did we arrive at a spectator brand of Christianity where the preacher does the preaching and we do the listening? Why did the church adopt the Catholic system of large cathedrals and a division between the clergy and the laypeople? If you read the book of Acts you'll find Stephen out doing some street preaching. You'll find Paul out atop Mars Hill preaching outdoors to the philosophers of Athens and you'll find Peter being led by the Holy Ghost to go and travel to a man's house by the name of Cornelius and share the gospel with him and his household. The Christianity of the New Testament was never meant to be a come and hear mentality where we build a big building and preach to the same crowd each week.

No, it's always been a go and tell gospel one that compels them to come in. But because of tradition and what we've all grown up with in our churches we believe that church is a come and hear brand of Christianity. We allow the majority of our church membership to sit on their brains while we preach or teach or entertain them until the hour is up and it's time to go and have lunch.

Listen friends, we need to restudy the book of Acts which is the training manual for methods and preaching. Every member of every church should be trained in how to share the gospel effectively and given an example from the top down on how to do it. I know a pastor who takes his people out to the mall every weekend to hand out tracts and share their faith.

They are compelling them to come in. They gather to pray for the lost before they leave the church. There's much agonizing over the lost in their community.

If the carpet in our sanctuaries isn't wet with the tears of our broken-hearted people as they intercede for the lost in our town, how can we call ourselves a church? We have to rid ourselves of this notion of a spectator type Christianity where we just sit and listen and observe. Our generation of TV-watching, ballgame attending bunch of Christians has grown up as spectators who sit and watch others act. But in the book of Acts it's every blood-bought believer who's actively busy out sharing their faith and gospel witness.

I'll never forget my seminary professor who got my blood boiling when I mentioned that our model today as believers should be the book of Acts. His comment was, we cannot expect to live like they did. That was for that time.

I wanted to jump up from my chair and start hollering, why not? Why can't we be just like them? We have the same God the same Holy Spirit, but I wanted to graduate so I kept my mouth shut. But that kind of mentality is what stagnates the Church of God on earth. We look at men like Spurgeon and Wesley and Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards and we marvel at what they accomplished for God, but we have the same Bible as they did.

They put their pants on the same way we do. We have the same Holy Spirit they did. Why should we hinder ourselves through our own unbelief and little faith? God used D.L. Moody because Moody believed God was a God who answered prayers and God was a great God who did great things.

Moody just stood on his Bible and trusted God. We should all be crying out for an ounce of Moody today. We've got to do what they did in the Bible, friends.

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Acts in chapter 30 and verses 30 through 44. I'm going to read us the passage where the Apostle Peter is obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading and he goes to preach the gospel to a man called Cornelius and every blood-bought member of a church should be equipped and trained in the knowledge of the gospel to be able to share their faith in people's home or in the street in just the same way. Listen to this model for us found in the book of Acts and contrast it with our spectator type of Christianity today.

And Cornelius said, four days ago I was fasting until this hour and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house and behold a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon whose surname is Peter. He is lodged in the house of one Simon of Tanner by the seaside who when he cometh shall speak unto thee.

Immediately therefore I said to thee thou art come. Now therefore we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That word I say ye know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem whom they slew and hanged on a tree, how God raised up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

And he commanded us to preach unto the people by building big buildings where we shut ourselves up there every Sunday with the come and hear gospel, preach to a bunch of pew potatoes who just sit and listen and do nothing but take notes. Now does it say that? No. It says, and he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that he is which was ordained to God to be the judge of the quick and the dead, to give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them all which heard the word. Now listen, friends, the heart and soul of the gospel was preached to old Cornelius and his household. The early Christians began the gospel message where Christ is now.

He's a risen Lord. Then they moved backwards to where what he accomplished on the cross for sinful man, but they start with a risen Lord of glory. Peter just preached the gospel to Cornelius and his household, and it was preached in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And when we read the book of Acts and see how the early Christians shared their faith and went out among the people, if we neglect to do the same, how can we fall in with their company and call ourselves Christians if we aren't sharing our faith on a regular basis and doing what they did? How in the world did the church adopt a division between the clergy and the laity, or the clergy is the one who does all the work of the gospel and the laity just sit and soak? In the New Testament, it was every man, every woman on the go for Christ as soon as they got saved. Look at the passage found in the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is fatigued from his journey, and he comes to Samaria and sits on Jacob's well to rest a while. Then here comes along a woman, a sinful woman, and Jesus begins to engage her in conversation about spiritual things, things like worshiping God in spirit and talking about living water, that whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

And then the woman says, give me this water. Before Jesus goes any further with the gospel presentation, he confronts her with her sins. He shows her the need for a remedy for sin in the person of Jesus Christ, and she gets saved and runs all over town stirring up her fellow citizens with their testimony of, is not this the Christ? And a revival breaks out there in that town of Samaria.

Revival breaks out to such a degree the whole town is shaken and asks Jesus to stay over for a couple of days to preach to them. And the text says, and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified, he told me all that I ever did. That born again woman, free from the grip of the devil, becomes on fire for God as a soul winner right away.

She can't wait to share with others what God did for her. And we should do the same. How can we keep what we know to ourselves so selfishly while others perish and drop into hell every minute? But we today have created a monster in the church.

And that Frankenstein is the spectator type of Christianity where the preacher preaches and the people sit and listen. And we preach to the exact same group every week. And fewer getting saved, fewer getting saved because we're not going out among the sinners in our respective communities and being obedient to the gospel by sharing our faith.

No, we just sit and soak Sunday after Sunday. We've all turned into pew potatoes who do little for God other than take a few notes from the pastor and go and eat lunch. But Jesus intended his church to be a model of a go and tell, not a come and hear mentality.

We need to reexamine what we call church today, friends. We need to adopt a one-on-one discipleship attitude and be obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to learn how to be skillful wielders of the Word of God.

We need to break out of this spectator brand of Christianity where the preacher does the preaching and we do the listening. And we need to be more like the Apostle Peter and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's prompting us to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. Peter went to the household of Cornelius and just preached the gospel to him.

He didn't ask Cornelius to accept Jesus or repeat the sinner's prayer. He just preached the good news to him and his household and God did the rest. While Peter spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the Word.

Isn't that how we should be conducting ourselves as witnesses for Jesus Christ? Shouldn't we be out knocking on doors and ringing doorbells and stopping people on the street and praying to God to give us divine appointments to share our faith and the gospel of the Son of God? But if we did that, we'd disrupt the status quo in many of our churches today. Why you can't have lay people going out and preaching? That's the preacher's job. You can't have anybody to preach unless they are ordained.

Is that so? What do you do with D.L. Moody? He was never ordained and God used his preaching to shake Great Britain. What do you do with our dear Baptist brother Charles Spurgeon? He was a minister of the gospel, but he was never ordained. He didn't even believe in ordination.

He said it was laying empty hands on empty heads. He said he didn't need to be ordained by man because Jesus Christ had ordained him to preach the gospel. Listen friends, Jesus Christ expects every one of us to share our faith and be witnesses for him as soon as we get saved.

Just like that woman from Samaria who went out and gave her testimony to the people in her community. Don't you know they knew her by reputation. She had been married five times before and was living in sin with a man.

Her reputation preceded her in that community. But when God got a hold of her and she got hold of Christ savingly and drank that living water, she turned into a fireball for God. She couldn't wait to tell others about this Jesus and they looked at her and marveled because she was a changed woman.

And they saw that and it got their attention and they went across town and found Jesus and begged him to stay with them for a couple of days to preach to them what he preached to her. And the passage in the Gospel of John relates the following. And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman which testified he told me all that I ever did.

So when the Samaritans would come unto him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Savior of the world. I'm telling you friends a revival broke out in that city.

A revival broke out because the obedience of a woman saved by grace who was obedient to what being a Christian was and she went on to go for Jesus and told others about him. She didn't rent a building and wait for people to come each Sunday to hear her testimony and gospel witness. She didn't believe in the come and hear spectator brand of Christianity that we do.

No, she was a go and tell kind of Christian who went out immediately and compelled others to come in and we should be doing the same. How can we call ourselves followers of Christ and selfishly keep from telling others about him? Why aren't we all gathering in prayer on a weekly basis and weeping over the lost in our community and begging God to enable us to go out and share our faith and the gospel of the son of God with the lost all around us. Listen friends at the end of the gospel of Mark Jesus has given his followers the great commission and mandate of what the responsibility is to all believers.

In chapter 16 and verse 15 of Mark it reads and he said unto them a go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Let me ask you, are we doing it? Are we being obedient to Christ commands or are we going to be only spectators and keep on playing church each Sunday and preach to the same crowd each week and try to teach them a little more Bible and hope that somebody new will walk in our doors? Or are we going to obey the mandate of the great commission and train up every one of our congregation to be effective soul winners for God and his glory? Heaven help us to have a touch of New Testament brand of Christianity today.