Invitations

 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, 'Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Me." Matthew 16:24

Here in the western church, we emphasize "inviting" people to come to Christ. This is a good thing, as Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," and that, "No one comes unto the Father" but through Him. Yet can we take a moment to answer a serious question? Just what is it that we are inviting people to? To what "kind" of Jesus do we invite them to believe in?

We love Christ's invitation to, "Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That's a true and powerful invite. We stress it a lot in our talks about the Lord. However, we're not so keen on His invitation spoken in Matthew 16:24. Carrying a cross where the ultimate destination will be our own Calvary holds little attraction to our flesh. Rest, blessings, health, healing, wholeness, abundance, prosperity. These are very attractive to us and we have no problems following a Christ who exists to give us all that and more. In that invitation is a kind of attitude that says, "Christ paid the cost so that I don't have to." It's true that only He could meet the cost of opening the door to God that original sin had put upon the human race, but a costless Christianity never had any place in His message. Not when He walked this world, and not as He walks it through His Holy Spirit today. Even so, we've grown very comfortable with proclaiming such a message. Jesus said directly to those who heard Him that they must "count the cost" of becoming His disciple. Little of our modern message speaks of any kind of cost at all. We proclaim a blessings based message far more than a cross centered one.

There is a Chinese evangelist who is known as Brother Yun. He has been imprisoned and tortured by the Communist Chinese government innumerable times for his faith. His suffering has been intense, but his witness and power in Christ have been immense. He said this; "The cross of Christ is soaked in blood. If we will carry it, it will be soaked in ours as well." Jesus promised His disciples an abundant life. He kept His promise. To them, and to all who have followed Him down through the ages. He also promised them a blood soaked life as well. That promise came to pass as well. Every one of the disciples except John suffered a bloody death. John was horribly tortured and then sent to die on a prison island. The history of the church is filled with those who have suffered for His cause and His name. The impact of those lives and the cost they paid continue to bear fruit years, centuries beyond their giving. Their witness will stretch into eternity. Will yours and mine?

So, let's be confronted with the question again; to what kind of Jesus, and what kind of life are we inviting the lost to? If it is anything else but a cross centered one, we invite them into a life that will not stand in the crucible of affliction. We invite them into a lie. Into a false gospel. Jesus was unafraid to issue an invitation that was blunt to the extreme. Indeed, He discouraged people from coming after Him until they had counted the cost of it. We can do no less. Such an invitation will not draw a crowd, but it will draw those whose hearts are being drawn to Him.

Former U.S. Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie told the story of a conversation he had with one of his seminary professors about discipleship. Ogilvie was stumbling over the true cost of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. His professor said to him, "Mr. Ogilvie, you cannot sneak around Golgotha." Golgotha was the place of Christ's crucifixion. Ogilvie was attempting to follow Christ while avoiding his own Golgotha. He couldn't. We can't either. We cannot sneak around Golgotha in our following. We must go to the place of the cross. It's the center of the invitation Christ gives. Do we come?

Blessings,

Pastor O