This has the potential to get pastors fired for following Jesus’ example. It will confuse anyone who sees me as a Christian apologist, and apologetics as being in the business of giving answers. The fact is I believe we need more unanswered questions. Pastors in particular need to leave more questions unanswered.
There are (at least) five reasons this is true. Jesus set the example, as seen best in the book of John.
To Follow Jesus’ Example
Jesus’ first words in that gospel are a question: “What are you seeking?” This introductory statement to Nathaniel provokes sheer confusion. His mother asks him to help with the wine in Cana, and he asks her a most surprising question. He bewilders the Jews in Jerusalem by telling them he will raise up “this temple” in three days. Nicodemus offers him the honor of recognizing he came from God, and Jesus says, “You must be born again.” What?
He puzzles the woman at the well with an offer of living water. Asks Philip (a native of that region) where they can buy bread to feed thousands (again, What?). Drives off the multitude with truly incomprehensible teachings about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and then he questions his close followers, “Will you leave, too?” And confuses the Jews by telling them where he is going they cannot come.
And so it continues.
I could point to similar tactics of our Lord in the Synoptics. His Beatitudes leave at least as many questions open as they answer. He explains his parables only to a few (Matthew 13). When the Jews ask him where he gets his authority, he asks them whether John’s baptism is from heaven or from men.
To Prepare Ears To Hear
Of course I do not mean to say that Jesus never answered anyone’s questions, or never followed through to satisfy hearers concerning the questions he raised. It was always a matter of timing and and of sensitivity to the Spirit and his audience. The unifying principle is this: he gave answers to those who were ready to hear. (“Let him who has ears to hear…”)
The rest he goaded toward readiness by stimulating their curiosity, provoking dissatisfaction with where they were, and refusing to inoculate them with half-received truths.
When Jesus taught…
Even the Sermon on the Mount, for all its simple clarity, must have provoked considerable consternation when he gave it. It certainly does that for me. There are places in it where I have trouble understanding just what he meant, and I have to dig in hard to figure it out; and other places where I have more trouble yet understanding how I can live up to it. It is not a sermon meant to satisfy on the surface.
To Accomplish Your Real Purpose
Of course this is a problematical model to follow. I can’t remember the last sermon that left me wondering what?, the way Jesus’ messages so often did. Or how any pastor could keep his job doing what Jesus did, for it is the pastor’s job to provide answers, isn’t it?
No, it is the pastor’s job to lead the flock toward richness of life and service in Christ.
To Do the Questions Justice
Often this means turning us, their listeners, away from habits or beliefs that lead toward death. The difficulty there is that it means leading us to change, which few of us will do as long as our current ways seem to be working for us.
Answers soothe. Unanswered questions rankle. They throw us off balance. The right questions may just jostle us out of our conditions of comfort so that we can see what’s not really working for us after all. Some can help us see the distance between who we think we are (Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, for example) and who we really are (spiritually ignorant and confused, in his case).
Why open questions?
One reason to leave some questions open is because even a sermon-length answer may be too short to do them justice. Some questions are hard. Compressing answers into thirty minutes, intro and illustrations included, may well be misleading; and the more serious thinkers in the congregation will know it. They may even start to wonder whether all of Christianity is equally superficial. This applies equally to questions of intellect and of application, by the way.
To Answer the Questions They’re Really Asking
I am of course an apologist, one whose business it is to understand and to communicate answers. I could dream (if I dared) of the day when my wisdom was so manifest that every answer I gave was unquestioned. Alas, that won’t happen: it didn’t happen even to Jesus!
There is another sort of unquestioned answer, though, that happens in thousands of churches every Sunday: it is the answer given by preachers to un-questions. Teachers explain how to be more like Christ when congregations are not asking.
Pastors teach how to show God’s Kingdom love in their communities, when no one is wondering. And the people walk away with answers, never having felt any urgency to know, or any deep need to practice.
This may have happened to Jesus, too, but by his teaching technique he always strove to prevent it.
When To Answer After All
A leader’s questions can also encourage followers to ask questions, which is often the very best thing for us. How can we understand better without probing deeper?
Which leads to the point at which the pastor/teacher really must be prepared to supply answers: when the people are finally asking — when they desperately need to know.
Too often this happens only when life causes pain. “Why, oh God?” is the most frequently articulated question of them all, followed by, “How will I make it through this?” These are fine questions; the Psalms are replete with them. But they are not the only ones, and not always the most important. They do tend quite reliably to be expressed when they need to be.
Not all questions are. There are many that we should be asking but usually don’t. “How can I truly be more like Christ?” or “What would God have us do to show his Kingdom love in this community?”
More Unanswered Questions
I suspect — I hope! — this has raised a lot of questions for you. One of them, I’m sure, is how it would be received if you shifted to following Jesus’ pattern by leaving more questions unanswered.
But of course I must close with a question of my own: Can you imagine what it would be like to teach your answers to a congregation that was ready and eager for them?
About:
Tom Gilson is senior editor and columnist with The Stream. He’s published over 700 articles and several books including his most recent, Too Good to Be False.
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Christians are called to be great. Although, maybe you don’t think you’re one of the great ones. Maybe you do. Either way, this message is for you.
One of the most damaging, disastrous failings of the church in our age is that you and I, “ordinary Christians,” have not responded to God’s call to be great.
Discovering Our Sphere of Impact
How then can we know whether we’re called to be great in this sense? It’s not that difficult. First, we need to recall the other kind of greatness that we alluded to at the beginning. Greatness starts with a deep relationship with God. It starts in knowing his will as revealed in Scripture, seeking his face and his guidance daily, and knowing the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It certainly includes knowing what true humility is all about.
We each have a great sphere of influence
It may be narrow or broad. But it’s where we begin, by seeking to have maximum impact where we can already. We have our talents in hand from the master, and we can see what return we can bring him from them.
Third, we can explore the edges of that circle, to see how our influence can expand. We can risk going out on a limb, impacting a wider group of people, studying and learning to expand our capabilities, trying new things to multiply our influence. Christ taught us that the one who is faithful in a little will be entrusted with much. Starting where we are and walking by faith, there’s no telling how much God will lead us to do for him.
In seeking to expand our great impact…
It’s wise to seek depth before breadth: to do one thing well before attempting many, to influence one person deeply before trying to lead a crowd. Doing “one thing well”–or many things, for that matter–involves knowing how God has gifted us and putting our focus in those areas. Our gifts are a great clue to our calling.
Finding Great Encouragement
We can profit from the encouragement of a community of brothers and sisters who are committed to the same things. It’s hard to go it alone; together, though, we can burn brightly for God. Going for greatness often means hard word and risks, both of which are much easier when someone is standing at your side to encourage. It may be that the first step into the edge of your circle would be to gather a group like this. It’s not just a Bible study, not just an accountability group; it’s an action/encouragement group.
Recovering Greatness for God’s Glory
Can we revive a true understanding of greatness? In seeking God’s glory alone, can we seek it in the widest, deepest, most influential, most thrilling way? What can hold us back, if we just seek to know and to go and do what God has sent us to do? Let’s put aside weakness masquerading as humility. Lay aside fear and take up faith and courage instead. Choose to be as great as God has called us to be, for his glory to shine brightly and widely.
About:
Tom Gilson is senior editor and columnist with The Stream. He’s published over 700 articles and several books including his most recent, Too Good to Be False.
Join My E-mail List
And I’ll send you my article: Exaggerate to Make Your Presentations Funny. You’ll learn how to punch up your presentations with humor.
Christians are called to be great. Although, maybe you don’t think you’re one of the great ones. Maybe you do. Either way, this message is for you.
One of the most damaging, disastrous failings of the church in our age is that you and I, “ordinary Christians,” have not responded to God’s call to be great.
Called To Be Great Means Humble, Not Puny
God calls us to be humble, not to be puny. When Jesus rebuked the disciples for jockeying for position in his kingdom, he invited them at the same time to greatness, as long as it was greatness on the right terms: “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave” (Matthew 20:26b, 27).
What God Chooses
God chooses public greatness (church-wide, community-wide, or even broader in scope) for certain people and not for others. But I fear there are many that God has called who don’t listen, trust and obey. Some could be great for God, legitimately called by him, but turned their back on it.
This is a great loss to the kingdom of God. A burying of talents that God rebukes. To be great in following what God calls us to requires humility and obedience.
Called To Be Great Means Ready To Pay The Price
We can learn about greatness from John the Baptist from the account in Luke. It uncovers the second chief reason many fearfully approach the topic of greatness. I think it often explains the shrinking from the greatness God call us to:
Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I tell you that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?”
He answered
“He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by John concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison (Luke 3: 7-14, 18-20 NKJV).
John stirred things up a great deal. He paid a price for it in the end. (Jesus himself did the same, even more so.) But John knew what he was called to do, which included agitating for change in a corrupt culture. Some responded gladly. The king, however, threw him in prison, and later had him executed.
Greatness pays a price. Even “successful” greatness–such as the greatness of Daniel, of Joseph, of many others in our day who see great fruit. Like in churches, mission agencies, government, and military. There’s a price of long hours, much opposition, deep concerns, many pains.
Called To Be Great Means Trusting in God
I think I have too often refused to step toward greatness because of fear: fear of stirring people up, fear of being branded, fear of having to give up the easy way.
I lost the thrilling opportunity to see what God could do through me if I followed him wherever he led. And also, the glory of God, which I could have shared in the wider world, was hidden like a light under a bushel.
Following John’s great example
The desert example of John the Baptist is a hard one to follow. God does not call many to make a solitary stand for him in that way. But He does call us individually to follow him wherever he leads; that is a decision we each make for ourselves.
From there, though, most of us will find opportunities to follow God into greatness by doing it with teams of brothers and sisters in Christ. Oh, for communities of faith that are determined to change their cities, their world! To join a band of believers who charge the enemy’s ground and take it back for Jesus Christ!
About:
Tom Gilson is senior editor and columnist with The Stream. He’s published over 700 articles and several books including his most recent, Too Good to Be False.
Join My E-mail List
And I’ll send you my article: Exaggerate to Make Your Presentations Funny. You’ll learn how to punch up your presentations with humor.
Christians are called to be great. Although, maybe you don’t think you’re one of the great ones. Maybe you do. Either way, this message is for you.
One of the most damaging, disastrous failings of the church in our age is that you and I, “ordinary Christians,” have not responded to God’s call to be great.
John the Baptist: Great in Humility, Humble in Greatness
Consider the amazing humility, yet boldness, of John the Baptist, as seen in John 1. Here is humility personified. “I baptize with water,” he says, “but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose” (John 1:26b, 27).
This is the man who clothed himself in goatskins, who ate locusts and wild honey, who eagerly turned over all his followers to Christ when he arrived on the scene, one who gladly said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
How then could he say what he said about himself? You may not have noticed it; it’s easy to miss from our distance. Here’s the scene: The Jewish leaders had sent messengers to ask him who he was and how he claimed the authority to baptize, that is, to establish a prominent new religious movement outside of their authority.
They asked Him if he was the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet (the one predicted very early by Moses) and he denied them all. So they said, “then who are you?”
How John answered when called to be great
His answer: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said” (John 1:23). Let me paraphrase that to give you a clearer sense of what his listeners heard when he said that. John’s answer to their question was, “I am one of the three or four most important people in the history of this nation!”
This messenger was one of the most anxiously awaited people in all of prophecy, second only to the Messiah he would herald. When John claimed that identity, he took the title of one for whom Israel had been waiting for 700 years! John claimed greatness in high degree.
Called To Be Great And Sent From God
This is humility. It’s humility of a kind we seldom see, though. The explanation is in a simple statement in verse 6: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” John was sent by God; he was simply doing what he was told to do, and he was doing it for the glory of God, whom he constantly lifted up in the person of Jesus Christ. John was both humble and great at the same time.
There are many such examples in the Bible. Isaiah’s response when he saw the Lord was, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts” (Is. 6:5). Yet when God asked, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” he said, “Here am I! Send me” (v. 8). He humbly confessed his unworthiness, he accepted his call, and he went on to a career that changed kings and kingdoms.
Called To Be Great
God chooses who may have greatness of impact or leadership. Our part is to recognize what God has called us to, to trust in him to accomplish it through us, and to direct all glory to Jesus Christ. Indeed, this is the greatness of spirit that all of us are called to seek. In some people, however, it will produce more widely visible fruit than others. This is the choice of God.
God gives some of us more opportunity than others. In Matthew 25:14-30, one man received five talents, one received two, and another only one. The ones who received five and two brought a return to their master of five and two respectively.
Even though the second one brought back less than half than the first, he received the same commendation: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.” The exact same words are used in both Matthew 25:21 and 25:23.
Called to great is both leading and following
Those who are not asked to enter leadership of widespread impact are no less of value to God than those who are, and they are expected to be faithful with what they are given. The one who received just one talent brought nothing back with it; he was the one who was censured. His lack of understanding of his master, his lack of faith, and his fear caused him to end with disapproval.
God chooses leaders according to his own will. We see this throughout the Bible, beginning with Abraham, continuing through many others like Moses, David, Esther, Mary, the twelve, and Paul.
What these men and women shared in common was the calling of God and their response of humility, faith, and obedience; and also that their lives made a great deal of difference in the world.
About:
Tom Gilson is senior editor and columnist with The Stream. He’s published over 700 articles and several books including his most recent, Too Good to Be False.
Join My E-mail List
And I’ll send you my article: Exaggerate to Make Your Presentations Funny. You’ll learn how to punch up your presentations with humor.
Christians are called to be great. But maybe you don’t think you’re one of the great ones. Maybe you do. Either way, this message is for you.
One of the most damaging, disastrous failings of the church in our age is that you and I, “ordinary Christians,” have not responded to God’s call to be great.
Christians Are Called To Be Great By Having An Impact
Christians are called to be great people of influence. Yes, that. Not just great devotion to Christ, but powerful, wide-reaching impact in his name.
No one doubts we should seek greatness of soul: the true depth of worshipful yieldedness to God, and love for Him and for our neighbors, that mark the truly mature follower of Christ. Greatness in that sense is foundational to what I am focusing on here, but it is not my topic in this message. There is another meaning of “greatness,” which has to do with how large one’s influence is upon their community and world. It’s the greatness of leadership, of impact.
This kind of greatness seems to scare us away. Though not all may be called to it, I believe more of us have been called than have responded. We are at risk of missing a great opportunity to change our world and experience the incredible thrill of seeing God do mighty things through us. The world is poorer for it, and we’re missing out on the joy we could be living.
Christians Are Called To Be Great Through Powerful Christian Leadership
Christians are called to be great leaders. Not long ago I heard Admiral Richard Denton, USN (Ret.), himself a leader of considerable impact, speaking about his release from prison in Vietnam in 1973 following more than 7 1/2 years as a POW. He spoke of how Christ gave him peace and serenity in cramped cells and conditions of torture. I was intrigued by his comments on re-entering the world following years of isolation. They showed the returning POWs a newsreel review of U.S. and world events; things he had missed since 1965. His abrupt exposure to the country’s moral decline upset him so greatly that after half an hour of viewing, he was sick enough to vomit.
That was thirty years ago. Who could deny that our world is in worse shape morally now than it was then? Who would not want to see Christ and His Kingdom really change our world–for many to commit their lives to Him, and for His imprint to be pressed anew on the cultural landscape? There are still billions who need to hear the good news of Jesus Christ. This will only happen if men and women of God—ones who are great in their soul—stand up and have a great impact.
The body of Christ needs both kinds of greatness, greatness of soul and greatness of impact. Greatness of impact certainly includes the idea of being a “great leader,” one whose influence is felt by thousands. Though not all of us are called to that role, still I wonder: Is it possible that God is calling us to be greater than we are? Are we missing opportunities to expand our influence for Christ’s glory?
Aversion to Greatness: Why?
It’s rare to hear a pastor urging us to dare to be great. We seem to have an aversion to the whole idea. I believe there are two major reasons for this. The first is a mistaken understanding about what the Bible teaches regarding greatness and humility.
Humility is certainly among the chief virtues. Jesus said he “did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mark 10:45). Shortly before his crucifixion, his disciples argued over who would be greatest in his kingdom, and Jesus rebuked them for it. In the Beatitudes he tells us it is the meek who will inherit the earth. Many who would be great have stumbled badly over their own pride.
Still, there is greatness throughout the Scriptures, evidenced by godly men and women who were willing to step forward and lead. Consider Moses, Joshua, the great kings of Israel and Judah, Esther, the powerful prophets, the apostles.
About:
Tom Gilson is senior editor and columnist with The Stream. He’s published over 700 articles and several books including his most recent, Too Good to Be False.
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