6.26.23
Hey, Calvary Fremont –
“I WANT TO BE CLOSE TO JESUS.” That’s great! But there’s something better…
Peter was close to Jesus, but so was Judas – and we know how that worked out for him. In Acts 1, Matthias was chosen to replace Judas. One of the reasons Matthias was chosen is because he had followed Jesus from the time of the ministry of John the Baptist up through the resurrection of Jesus. Whenever I see a movie showing Jesus traveling around Israel with His disciples, it’s usually just Him and the 12 men He chose. But I don’t think it was like that at all. There was at least one other – Matthias. And I think that there must have been hundreds who followed Him wherever He went. I know I would have wanted to tag along even if He hadn’t chosen me to be one of the 12. Hundreds of people followed the rock band The Grateful Dead from concert to concert and were called Deadheads. Hundreds and hundreds followed Jesus from miracle to miracle and were called Lifeheads.
There were a lot of people that followed Jesus and were close to Him – but that’s not the point of following Jesus. I follow Jesus not to be close to Him, but to be like Him – to be transformed by Him and conformed to His image. The story of Judas should inform us that it is not enough to be close to Jesus – there’s more. How do some describe being close to Jesus? “I hear His voice. I feel His presence. I see the working of His hand.” That’s great – but Judas could say all that, too. You can’t become like Jesus unless you’re close to Him, but being close to Him doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be like Him.
Judas was physically close to Jesus – he was one of the 12. And, no doubt, there was a time when Judas felt emotionally close to Jesus – he had great affection for Him. But here’s the thing – Judas never submitted his will to Jesus. He never surrendered to Jesus. He was physically close to Jesus and had some measure of affection for Him – but he never surrendered his will. His affection didn’t keep Judas from defection. It doesn’t matter how close you are to God, what matters is how surrendered you are. Jesus isn’t your Lord because you are close to Him. Jesus is your Lord because you are submitted to Him.
I have very little criticism of contemporary Christian music except that intensity of emotion does not translate into depth of surrender. In fact, some may think that because they’ve been so deeply moved in their emotions that this must mean they are being spiritually transformed. Evidence doesn’t bear this out. Being emotionally moved is one thing; being spiritually transformed is another thing. Feeling close to Jesus is one thing; being conformed to His character is another. To confuse intensity of emotion for depth of surrender is a categorical error. I love puppies; I hate being a puppy owner. To think that because I love puppies will make me a good puppy owner is a categorical error. (Believe me – I know of what I speak!)
If you belong to Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in you. The Holy Spirit is God. God lives in you!! You can’t get any closer to God than that. You’re no closer to God if you read your Bible for 20 minutes a day or just 20 minutes a year. The issue isn’t how close you are, but how changed you are. And how changed you are depends on how submitted you are – how surrendered your will is to the word of God and work of the Holy Spirit. If your goal is to get close to God, you can’t get any closer than you are now. Getting close to God isn’t the goal of the Christian life, it’s the foundation of the Christian life. I’m no closer to the treadmill whether I’m standing still on it or running at five miles-per-hour. Getting close to the treadmill isn’t the goal, submitting to its discipline and demands is the process that leads to the goal of a fitter body.
I know, I know – to say that you want to be close to Christ sounds real spiritual – but there’s something even more substantive. The power and the blessing of God aren’t released to you because you are close, but because you have surrendered your will. Live the surrendered life.
Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim
Leave a Reply