The phrase is much older than that, however. London preacher
Charles Spurgeon probably first used it publically in a sermon he preached on
June 28, 1891. But the phrase is older still. In his sermon, Spurgeon cites as
source of the phrase, a book written in Latin by Thomas à Kempis
between 1418 and 1427, Imitatio Christi (The Imitation of Christ).
Novelist/preacher Charles Sheldon's 1896 book, In His Steps was subtitled "What
Would Jesus Do?" Sheldon's novel grew out of a series of sermons he
delivered in his Congregationalist church in Topeka, Kansas. Unlike Spurgeon’s
more evangelistic approach and use of the phrase, Sheldon's theology was shaped
by a commitment to Christian Socialism.
Which brings us back to the present and the place where I
can tell you to throw your notes away unless you’re a history buff. There won’t
be a test on the first portion of this missive. I make no such promises for
what follows, however, because, not to put too fine a point on it, it actually
does follow the last thrilling episode where our dedicated writing staff, me,
actually, left you hanging on the edge of your seat, questioning your attention
span, ability to listen, and what exactly did Jesus mean by “GO”?
Or, to put it another way, when faced with the single,
albeit multi-layered command: “GO, WWJD?
Let’s see, shall we?
Of the face of it, it would seem the answer’s really
straight forward. I mean, come on – what part of GO is confusing you? Or have
you forgotten last week’s lesson already and need a refresher? Parenthetically,
did you know that researchers say that the average American adult in the 21st
century has roughly the attention span of a gnat? Unless you’re trying to write
a thesis of some sort, or read the research material: then the little buggers
can’t seem to get enough of you. They’re like, well, Baptists at a barbeque!
You just can’t get rid of them. Oh, but bring out an offering plate and then
the pesky little fellas vanish in the twinkling of an eye. There’s a nice Religious
sounding reference to hold your attention until I get to the point.
Attention spans. Any preachers in the audience? I’m about to
break your heart. The research says if you can’t say it in 20 minutes, you’ve
lost them. Using a lot of cool PowerPoint stuff in your messages? Down to about
12 minutes. Your technology is working against you because the odds are whoever
taught you how to use all the flashy cool stuff never taught you about
restraint – that too much is way too much and for your audience, less is more. Start
looking up at them at about the 10 minute mark and pay attention to the
reactions you see around the room. Of course, if Sunday Morning your people are
watching you from last night because of all your cool tech, you have no idea,
do you.
Here’s the problem: we humans have two kind of attention
spans. Transient Attention, or short
term response to stimulus, which thanks to all the tech, is down to about 8
seconds in adult humans. Less than a
goldfish, by the way. The other kind is Selective sustained attention,
also known as focused attention, the level of attention that produces the
consistent results on a task over time. Like keeping an audience interested to
your sermon for 20 minutes. It, too is the victim of tech. To put this into perspective,
when my grandparents were my age, the average adult attention spans were 2
minutes and 30-45 minutes.
Admit it. You get antsy if your preacher goes more than
15-20 minutes. Yet, somehow you made it all the way through all two hours, four
minutes of Jurassic World last Friday with nary a twinge! Why is that? Because it
was 124 minutes of nibbles. Action packed bite sized sound and visual slices of
brain stimulant your preacher can’t possibly begin to compete against, nor
should he!
His job is to answer the question, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? To
quote John Hammond from the first Jurassic Park movie, “Let me show you.”
WWJD? To begin with, Paul answers this question in Romans
12:1-2.
“I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which
is your reasonable service. 2 And
do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that you may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Just what is Paul saying here? I won’t weigh you down with
all the first century Greek. Most of us are struggling with 21st century
English, so I’ll make this as basic as I can. Beseech is Paul’s humble way if
combining “I beg you”, “I strongly urge you”, and “I hope you’ve been paying
attention because I’m lovingly warning you on behalf of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ”. To do what? Present your bodies, which he has already revealed
to us in 1 Corinthians 6:19, are the Church Age Temple of God and as such are
the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit on earth, as living sacrifice. Many
translate the rest of verse 1 to mean “this is your first service of worship”.
It’s the rest - verse 2 – that is the meat of WWJD, and
there are two parts to it. A DON’T and a DO. First, the DON’T: don’t behave
like the carnal, unsaved world around you. That’s less than 8 seconds. You can
get that. Stop acting like the world! It wasn’t a suggestion!
Now the “DO” part. Hang on to this. It’s more than 8
seconds. In fact, it’s a lifelong adventure. Think caterpillar to Butterfly.
Think tadpole to frog. It’s the same word, but the verb tense Paul uses means
keep on doing it over and over from the moment you become born again until the
day you die. It really reads “but be being transformed”. How? By the re-renewing
of your mind through work of the Holy Spirit in you.
So you look at your life, you look at your church, you ask WWJD?
STOP IMMITATING THE WORLD! That’s the first thing. What else? You. Personally. Be
changed! Paul also wrote “Therefore, if anyone is
in Christ, he is a new
creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Pay attention to this, because Paul is saying,
at the behest of Jesus Himself Who inspired ALL Scripture, if you haven’t
changed, you are not IN CHRIST! If you are completely content with the things
of the world, the ways of the world, the behavior of the world, the clothing
and music of the world, the entertainment of the world (and no, it isn’t all
bad), but if nothing about any of it has changed in you, and you ask yourself
WWJD, I think perhaps He would say
“Not everyone who says to Me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My
Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord,
Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and
done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to
them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
The other lesson to learn from Jesus in reference to “GO and
WWJD? Is best seen by reading the Gospels. I recommend John. Then the Book of
Acts to see the Apostles interpretation of GO. You see, you didn’t see Jesus or
the Apostles pitching tents, passing out flyers and saying “YA’LL COME”. By
example, Jesus and the Apostles went to wherever there were people to be found
and preached the Gospel to them there! They reserved “church” as we have previously
defined it, namely, the body of Christ; the fellowship of believers; the coming
together of believers for worship, edification, meeting the social needs of the
fellowship, communion, baptism, teaching, training their own replacement
leadership and missionaries. Evangelism was primarily outside the gathered
fellowship. Evangelism was GO! As far as I can tell, my friends, That’s What Jesus Would Do.
And another thing Jesus would do – DID DO! Jesus would
invite you to become a part of this church He gave His life for! In John 3:16
Jesus said “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life” and
in John 14:6 Jesus said “I am the way I am the truth, I am the life. No man
can come to the father but by me.” And in 1st John 1:9, John wrote “If we
confess our sin he meaning Jesus he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
In other places the Bible tells us that it is not God’s will
that anyone should perish. You see, Jesus came to this earth to live a sinless
life, to die on the cross. To be raised from the dead on the third day as proof
the Father accepted His sacrifice to be the substitutionary sacrificial of
atonement – the final payment for our sins - so we wouldn’t have to spend
eternity in hell.
If you want to take part in the discussion about the church,
doesn’t it make sense to you to be a part of the church? I hope you noticed
that I haven’t been singling out denominations in this discussion. They don’t
really matter. While the church is made up of members of different religious
denominations, the church isn’t any particular religious denomination. In fact
Christianity is not even a religion at all!
To be a Christian means to be a Christ follower! Not a
member of man-made religion.
We’re going to be talking about the church over the course
of the next several blogs. I’d like to invite you to be a part of that
discussion, by being a part of His church. You might ask, “How do I do that?”
It’s simple. Invite Jesus into your heart. You see the Scripture that I posted
a few paragraphs above? You do it by first confessing your sins to Jesus. Then
by repenting of your sins. That word repenting means turning completely
around and going in the opposite direction from the one you’re headed now.
Changing your mind about sin is another way to put it. Then ask Jesus Christ to
come and live in your heart and forgive you of your sins and be your Savior and
Lord
You can do that by saying a simple prayer like this one. In
your own words, say something like this: Dear Jesus, I know I’m a sinner.
I confess my sins before you today. I repent of my sins and I ask you to come
into my heart and forgive me of my sins. Be my Lord and my Savior and I claim
your promise that you will forgive my sins; you will live in my life and I will
live with you in Heaven forever! In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.
That’s all there is to it. It really is that simple. But
it’s life-changing. And It’s What Jesus
Wants You To Do!
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