One of the stranger phenomena in the church over the past few decades is the seeker movement. Whether it is the seeker sensitive style or the even more radical seeker driven movement, the press toward random acts of kindness or neighborhood block parties, Christians, for a season in the United States, used what cultural cachet they had to attempt to win people to Jesus. Often, the methodology included the simple plan to try to be the nicest, most encouraging, least offensive people we could possibly be in order to make people like us, want to be a part of our group, and then to visit our churches. There we believed we could share a gentle, life-affirming, socially helpful message with them that included giving Jesus a try.
But, a look at the genuine gospel message preached by the apostles in the book of Acts will show us that the disciples were not always the most seeker sensitive lot. Though these men were the men carrying out the original Great Commission, they did not pander to the culture. Neither did they mince words when calling out the sinful attitudes and practices of the lost who were opposing the things of God.
Note these two examples of things that Paul said in Acts 13.
Acts 13:8-10 – 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”
Acts 13:46-47 – 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”
Twice, in a pair of encounters in this chapter, Paul spoke some fairly hard words to people. Nothing about his words were seeker sensitive, and they certainly were not seeker driven. Nor did Paul, in these encounters, set up a neighborhood celebration or try to convince the community that the Christians were just the nicest folks on the planet. Instead, Paul preached a genuine gospel and spoke with biting honesty about those who opposed it.
Now, please do not get me wrong. I’m not here trying to say that all churches who do neighborhood outreaches are wrong. I’m not against us doing good to people in the name of Jesus. The Savior himself performed merciful miracles in his ministry. So, the point here is not to oppose kindness.
What I am noticing, however, and what I want to point out is that we are not called to be the nicest people on the planet. We are not actually going to win the world with niceness. Jesus made it plain in John 15:18-21 among other places that the world is going to oppose us because of him, and that is not going to be done away with simply because we are good people.
And, we need to grasp that, if we become so committed to being a positive social force in our communities, to being liked by everybody we come across, we will eventually stop being able to speak the hard truths of the gospel. We will, if we are not careful, spend so much energy building relational bridges in our community that we will not dare to walk across those bridges with the gospel lest we destroy the very bridges we have worked so hard to build.
So, friends, yes, do acts of kindness in the name of Jesus. Make genuine friends and share the gospel. But do not think that you are going to draw people to Jesus by your niceness to those who are opposed to God and who reject his salvation. Tell the truth. Do not fear. Know that God will do the work of saving people. Do not be unnecessarily harsh, but also do not hide from the offense of the cross.
Acts 13:48 – And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed
God appoints people to eternal life, and those people will believe. We tell the truth. We leave the results to God. And, as we speak that truth, we must understand that it will not be politically correct. It will not be seen as open-minded, inclusive, or socially acceptable. But we speak the gospel honestly and boldly knowing that, nice or not, the Lord will be glorified in those who believe.
Pastor Travis Peterson 