Don't Get Too Comfortable in Your Faith
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves, and he was changed into another form in front of them. His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Elijah and Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter answered Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” For he didn’t know what to say, for they were very afraid. A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly looking around, they saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only.
—Mark 9:2-8 WEB*
It is so wonderful when you find a church that you thoroughly enjoy. You like the music, you like the preaching, you even like your fellow members. You seem to like everything about that church, and that is fantastic. But be careful. There is a danger in being too comfortable for too long.
Keep in mind that the purpose of the church is to be the body of Christ on Earth, and that involves several things. There is certainly the worship of God and the fellowship of believers. But there are other things that are just as important. There is evangelism — the act of bringing people to Christ. There is discipleship — the teaching, training and equipping of believers with the hope that they will find their own ministry within the body of Christ. And there are other things the church should be about, but I think I've made my point. The danger comes when a church, either intentionally or unintentionally, focuses more on things like worship and fellowship, and focuses less on the other things. The result can be that the church becomes more of a social club, with more emphasis placed on what happens within the walls and less emphasis on what happens without.
A similar situation is told in the passage above. Jesus took Peter, James and John up onto a mountain where Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus and spoke with Him about His coming crucifixion and resurrection. But Peter was caught up in the excitement of the moment. You may have heard of a mountaintop experience. Well, this was one of the biggest. And Peter confessed to Jesus that the event was wonderful. He even suggested building shelters because it looked like they would be up there for a while. By saying these things, Peter revealed two things about what he felt at that moment — one was good and one was bad.
The good thing was that he really liked what he had. Who wouldn't? During his earthly ministry, Jesus had been constantly tested and ridiculed by the religious leaders of the day, the ones responsible for teaching to the people what they should know from the Law and Prophets. "The Law" was the nickname for those passages of Scripture with commands and instructions for living. These were summed up the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, which were written by Moses. "The Prophets" was the nickname for those passages in which God's messengers worked to keep His people on the right path and warned them of what was to come if they strayed. The most memorable of these prophets was Elijah, who at the end of his earthly ministry was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot. And who should be standing before Peter but the embodiments of the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah themselves. What an affirmation to everything Jesus had been teaching!
Then there was the bad thing. Peter apparently had gotten his priorities messed up in the euphoria of the moment. He had forgotten the events of the past few days, and his conversations with Jesus. By his statements, Peter suggested that considered Jesus equal to Moses and Elijah rather than Jesus being God's Son. But he didn't care. He liked things as the were, and he wanted to keep them going as long as he could. The rest of the world didn't matter to him. Just let the good times keep rolling on.
At that moment, a cloud settled over the group on the mountain top and the voice of God spoke to them, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him." To use a contemporary phrase, Peter got a wake-up call. Peter was being told that while it was really tempting to stay on the mountain top, the real work was waiting down in the valley, leading to Jesus' death, resurrection, Pentecost, and the spreading of the Gospel to the farthest parts of the world.
My church went through a similar wake-up call in 2008 regarding our Sunday morning schedule. At that time we had a contemporary worship service at 9 AM and a traditional worship service a 11 AM with a Sunday School hour sandwiched between them at 10 AM. An appointed committee did a lot of research and recommended that in order for our church to reach more people for Jesus Christ, and for our church to grow, we needed to flip the worship service formats and put the contemporary at 11 AM. Many in our congregation felt like Peter. They liked what the had and wanted to keep it, and they eventually realized their priorities needed reviewing. The actual details took some testing and tweaking, but that is basically what we as a church agreed to do. Now at 8:30 AM on Sunday mornings I find myself warming up and rehearsing in the choir room. Our contemporary service is growing and we are praying that our newest members will become more involved in the work of the Body of Christ — to help them understand their purpose, and to prepare them for the times when God calls them to leave their comfort zones. There is a great paragraph that appears in our Sunday worship bulletin. The last line says this: "We DO NOT go to church; we ARE the church."
* WEB - The World English Bible, a Public Domain, Modern English translation of the Holy Bible developed by Rainbow Missions, Inc. URL: ebible.org
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—Mark 9:2-8 WEB*
It is so wonderful when you find a church that you thoroughly enjoy. You like the music, you like the preaching, you even like your fellow members. You seem to like everything about that church, and that is fantastic. But be careful. There is a danger in being too comfortable for too long.
Keep in mind that the purpose of the church is to be the body of Christ on Earth, and that involves several things. There is certainly the worship of God and the fellowship of believers. But there are other things that are just as important. There is evangelism — the act of bringing people to Christ. There is discipleship — the teaching, training and equipping of believers with the hope that they will find their own ministry within the body of Christ. And there are other things the church should be about, but I think I've made my point. The danger comes when a church, either intentionally or unintentionally, focuses more on things like worship and fellowship, and focuses less on the other things. The result can be that the church becomes more of a social club, with more emphasis placed on what happens within the walls and less emphasis on what happens without.
A similar situation is told in the passage above. Jesus took Peter, James and John up onto a mountain where Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus and spoke with Him about His coming crucifixion and resurrection. But Peter was caught up in the excitement of the moment. You may have heard of a mountaintop experience. Well, this was one of the biggest. And Peter confessed to Jesus that the event was wonderful. He even suggested building shelters because it looked like they would be up there for a while. By saying these things, Peter revealed two things about what he felt at that moment — one was good and one was bad.
The good thing was that he really liked what he had. Who wouldn't? During his earthly ministry, Jesus had been constantly tested and ridiculed by the religious leaders of the day, the ones responsible for teaching to the people what they should know from the Law and Prophets. "The Law" was the nickname for those passages of Scripture with commands and instructions for living. These were summed up the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, which were written by Moses. "The Prophets" was the nickname for those passages in which God's messengers worked to keep His people on the right path and warned them of what was to come if they strayed. The most memorable of these prophets was Elijah, who at the end of his earthly ministry was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot. And who should be standing before Peter but the embodiments of the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah themselves. What an affirmation to everything Jesus had been teaching!
Then there was the bad thing. Peter apparently had gotten his priorities messed up in the euphoria of the moment. He had forgotten the events of the past few days, and his conversations with Jesus. By his statements, Peter suggested that considered Jesus equal to Moses and Elijah rather than Jesus being God's Son. But he didn't care. He liked things as the were, and he wanted to keep them going as long as he could. The rest of the world didn't matter to him. Just let the good times keep rolling on.
At that moment, a cloud settled over the group on the mountain top and the voice of God spoke to them, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him." To use a contemporary phrase, Peter got a wake-up call. Peter was being told that while it was really tempting to stay on the mountain top, the real work was waiting down in the valley, leading to Jesus' death, resurrection, Pentecost, and the spreading of the Gospel to the farthest parts of the world.
My church went through a similar wake-up call in 2008 regarding our Sunday morning schedule. At that time we had a contemporary worship service at 9 AM and a traditional worship service a 11 AM with a Sunday School hour sandwiched between them at 10 AM. An appointed committee did a lot of research and recommended that in order for our church to reach more people for Jesus Christ, and for our church to grow, we needed to flip the worship service formats and put the contemporary at 11 AM. Many in our congregation felt like Peter. They liked what the had and wanted to keep it, and they eventually realized their priorities needed reviewing. The actual details took some testing and tweaking, but that is basically what we as a church agreed to do. Now at 8:30 AM on Sunday mornings I find myself warming up and rehearsing in the choir room. Our contemporary service is growing and we are praying that our newest members will become more involved in the work of the Body of Christ — to help them understand their purpose, and to prepare them for the times when God calls them to leave their comfort zones. There is a great paragraph that appears in our Sunday worship bulletin. The last line says this: "We DO NOT go to church; we ARE the church."
* WEB - The World English Bible, a Public Domain, Modern English translation of the Holy Bible developed by Rainbow Missions, Inc. URL: ebible.org
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