A Polarizing Choice

As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that,
measured by His effect on history,
Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet."1
I might add, Jesus is one polarizing figure as well!

Love him or hate him, Jesus forces a choice upon all who hear of him.
"Either He was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman,
or something worse.
You can shut Him up as a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being
a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us.
He did not intend to."2

Jesus pulled no punches. Maybe the most pointed statement he made about himself was, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, but through me."3 Boom. Jesus bridges the great divide between us and God, and he gave his life to do it. We love to talk about the grace of God, but let us not forget that the reason we need grace is because we are a broken people. Paul wrote that 'everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.'4 True that.

Everyone hearing Paul and Barnabas heard the testimony of Jesus-all about his life and love and ministry, sacrificial death and resurrection. Some believed, some chose not to believe. Fact is, what someone decides to do with Jesus often divides.

But this is nothing new - from the moment of his birth, Jesus was a divisive figure. During his three years of ministry, even Jesus' brothers did not believe in him. Brothers? Yes, while Jesus was the firstborn of Mary and Joseph, he had half-brothers in James, Joseph, Simon and Jude, and sisters who are unnamed - and they did not believe in Jesus - that he was the Messiah, the Christ, until after he had died and rose from the grave. Then, after they saw him alive and well, then, and only then, they believed he was the Messiah.

Let's look in again at this first historic missions trip of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14) ~ Take note of my highlighted blue words--They "preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers.

"Some of the Jews, however, spurned God's message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas." Hey, have you ever noticed that those who choose not to believe often attack and criticize those who choose to follow Christ? Hmmm. Tolerance? Guess it does not go both ways.

"But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them. When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lycaonia-to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area. And there they preached the Good News.

. . . After preaching the Good News in Derbe and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, where they strengthened the believers. They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God." From Acts 14

The Gospel does not just divide, but it can also be costly, which is contrary to some of the teaching out there these days, friends. Jesus himself said, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world."5

There just might be hardships as a child of God, but you can take it, because you are not alone.

Paul and Barnabas were wholeheartedly committed to taking the good news of Jesus to those who did not know; they extended the kingdom to Jews and Gentiles alike. Grace makes real life available to us but...
it requires we place our faith in him and allow him to be Lord.
And by the way, others might not like that-- just might put a little space between you and them.
Yes, Jesus is oft a polarizing choice.

Christine
PastorWoman.com


1 - Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette
2 - C.S. Lewis, speaking in 1942 and published in Mere Christianity in 1952
3 - John 14.6 4 - Romans 3.23, NLT 5 - John 16.33