What did you learn in church last Sunday, or would it be more appropriate for me to say what did you hear. Did you discuss the sermon on the way back to your house, or the context of the conversation you or your spouse had with someone either before or after the service? Was the subject matter brought up that afternoon, that evening, how about a day or two later, could you even recall what it was about by Thursday?
Many I fear will answer in the negative to most of these questions, it is difficult enough to find someone who says they follow Jesus that will engage in a five-minute conversation about the Lord, much less an individual that will expound on what the pastor said last Sunday. I have found over the years that these individuals are well versed on what is going on in the world around them, they are most generally a walking news station, or at least an expounder of things that are only temporal and almost always materialistic, but attempt to speak to them about eternal things, about the Spiritual, much less Spiritual matters and they become dumbfounded.
These people do not read the Word of God, much less study it, their entire repertoire of matters that are of the eternal are based on what they hear on Sunday morning, and have entirely forgotten by Monday. I do not know if it is a lack of faith, a lack of love for Christ, the inability to truly place before them the truth that one day they will indeed die, perhaps it is this life, it consumes them, they are concerned with their job, their family, or as I stated, the world in general around them.
Tell me something here, can you personally discern a brother or sister in Christ from a good person, can you tell who is saved and who is lost, or do you believe that that is none of your business, that is between God and them. Does that sound like a Christian attitude, can you imagine Paul, Silas, Peter, John, or any other man of God, past or present simply assuming that because a person seems nice and polite, is a good, all-around person, that they are saved. Take the other road if you like, can you see Paul in your mind’s eye coming up to an individual, asking them if they know Christ as Lord, receiving an answer in the affirmative, a simple, to the point “Yes, I do,” and then just saying “Hey that’s great, take care, see you later.” I do not think so.
Those of us that continue the conversation, those of us that ask the pertinent questions are today seen as obtrusive, we are seen as individuals who are prying into others very personal affairs. The next time, if you are so inclined and have the opportunity to meet one of these “quick answer” people, as I call them at times, ask them this question, “Who, then, do you say Jesus is.”
A simple enough question, one that many God-fearing, born-again believers would be more than happy to give an answer to, and in much detail, but I have found, and perhaps you have also, that many who attend church, those who are not Studying to shew themselves approved, (2 Tim. 2:15) will not just stumble at this question, but will actually take offense at your asking of it. The most simple, basic question, and not only will many of them not give you an answer, not only will they become defensive, but my friends, they cannot answer it, for they do not know Jesus Christ as Lord.
Once they are finished berating you, politely of course, before they leave your presence, ask them one more question, “Are we not to be ready to give an answer of our faith,” quote 1 Peter 3:15 to them as best you can. If you thought they were defensive before, hold onto your hat. This is one of the most basic and simplest ways I know to find out if this person standing in front of me serves Christ as Lord or not, not by asking them what church they attend, not what they have been reading or studying in their Bible as of late, not even how the Lord has been using them, simply this, “Who do you say Jesus Christ is.”
If you believe this question to be too rude or perhaps a little too forward, maybe you should ask yourself the same question.
“But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 10:33)
