Comfortable Christianity — E.A. Johnston

I want you to know that when you come and visit the American Church, we will do everything we can to make your visit comfortable. There will be plenty of parking spaces near the front, and if it's raining outside, we will whisk you away in a shuttle bus and drop you off at the front door because, after all, we don't want you to ruin your new shoes.

And when you come inside the lobby, be sure to visit the coffee bar and get yourself a macchiato or a latte while you wait for the service to begin. Then come into our new sanctuary. We just spent $2 million remodeling it so you could be more comfortable.

Come take a seat in one of our comfortable cushioned back chairs and the temperature will be just right, not too cold and not too hot, just lukewarm like you like it. And the praise team will rock your world with their vibrating sounds and make you jump to your feet and clap your hands as the strobe lights flash while you have a good time.

The Comfortable American Church

Then our pastor will come out with a message that I promise won't upset you or disturb you, rather it will be an encouraging word and it will help you to have a more enjoyable life as a Christian. Our promise to you is that it will be a comfortable experience because Christianity is supposed to be comfortable here in the West.

After all, isn't that what Jesus said? He said, foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests and the Son of Man has a sealy posture to lay his head on. Isn't that what he said? He also said, if anyone will come after me, let them take along his lounge chair and relax while you listen to my message.

Isn't that what he said? That's what we think he said because we in America have a comfortable life and we want our Christianity to mirror our comfortable lives. We don't mind calling ourselves Christians as long as Jesus doesn't get in our way.

We don't mind calling ourselves Christians as long as Jesus doesn't put any claims on us or any demands on us. Listen friends, is that not so? Does not the American church, for the most part, proclaim a comfortable Christianity?

The Crossless Gospel and the Call to Repentance

We preachers have gotten out our mop buckets and have cleaned up all the blood around the cross and many pulpits preach a religion that doesn't have a cross in the middle of it and an eternal hell at the end of it.

There's no need to repent because we're nice people who have joined the church and our lifestyle is not that bad. After all, we haven't killed anybody. We'll hear a lot of sermons saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace for the wicked.

And most of the messages emanating from our Sunday morning pulpits are comfortable little sermons that don't upset anybody. But is the Christian life supposed to revolve around me and my needs like the man-centered message I hear from most pulpits?

The pulpits of our day preach a man-centered gospel that revolves around man and his needs and this feeds right in with our comfortable brand of Christianity today. Listen, friends, when we stand at the Bema seat and our life is reviewed, is it going to matter how low our golf handicap was or how much gold we have accumulated?

What is important to us now won't have any importance then. What's important to us now in this world will be our biggest regret at the judgment seat of Christ, at the judgment seat of Christ. We will agree with C .T. Studd's poem, which says, only one life will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. But many of us live our lives for this world. We don't live in light of eternity and our eyes fixed on that eternity. We are spiritually nearsighted. All we can see is the big screen TV in front of us and focus on what we're having for dinner later on.

The Gospel Without the Scandal of the Cross

Many of our pulpits today will tell you that Jesus came to earth to make you happy. The gospel they will feed you will be soothing and relaxing and easy to swallow because all the teeth has been taken out of it.

The scandal of the cross has been omitted from it. But there's no need to preach about a bloody cross because very few are preaching on the sinfulness of sin. The modern gospel will help you ease into retirement a little better and smooth out your bumps along the way because our brand of American Christianity is a comfortable Christianity and the only time it gets a little frustrating is when the line at Starbucks is too long.

And a persecution of Christians began to happen in America. It wouldn't affect us because we'd be raptured out of here before we had to suffer for a testimony of Christ. Isn't that so? That's what we've been told.

Jesus' Teaching on Self-Denial and Suffering

What did Jesus have to say about following him? Here are his words. He said, Foxes have holes and birds of the air nest. But the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Listen, friends, a crucified Lord will have crucified followers who have counted the cost to follow him.

But many of our popes today will proclaim a comfortable Christianity and a brand of Christianity that has no hardships attached to it. It will promise you happiness, satisfaction, even wealth and health.

The Witness of Christian Martyrs

But go and read a copy of Fox's book Martyrs and you will see a different side of Christianity. Go and get a copy of Fair Sunshine about the Scottish Covenanters and you will see how those young persons who took a stand for Christ ended up.

Their skulls were put on poles in the grass market until the sun bleached them dry. Or read about the Wigtown Martyrs, the two women who for their testimony for Christ were tied to stakes and drowned when the tide came in.

Go and get a copy of the Martyrs' Mirror for it does not mirror our brand of Christianity here in the West, but rather it mirrors New Testament Christianity. I want to read you out of Martyrs' Mirror right now how the followers of Christ ended up.

Did they end up in a comfortable retirement in a sunny locale where they could play their favorite sport? Did the Apostle Peter work on his golf handicap? Did the Apostle Paul join a tennis league? Let's look and see how comfortable their lives were as they followed their Christ.

The Cost Paid by the Early Christian Martyrs

James, the son of Zebedee, was put to death with the sword. James, the brother of Christ, was beaten to death with a club. Stephen was stoned to death outside the gates of the city. Philip was bound with his head to a pillar and stoned to death.

Barnabas was burned alive. Mark, the evangelist, was dragged to death. Andrew was crucified. Bartholomew was laid alive and then beheaded. Thomas was tortured and tormented with red-hot plates and cast into a furnace and burned alive.

Matthew was beheaded. Matthias was stoned and beheaded. Peter was crucified with his head downward. Paul was beheaded for Christ. Paul's friends, Epiphras, Priscilla, Aquila, Adronicus, and Junia were each martyred.

Paul's friend Silas was scorched and martyred. Luke, the evangelist, was hanged until dead. Timothy was stoned to death. Listen, friends. The next time you hear a sermon about carpal Christianity, run for the doors and shut yourself up with God.

Preparing for Persecution and Coming Trials

And pray that He will undergird you with His presence and prepare you to suffer for Him if necessary in the days to come. For we live in a day when good is called evil and evil good. Persecution is coming to the American church.

And those who are unprepared will be caught off guard and undone. For it won't be long in this country that a true preacher of the gospel will be in prison for his faith. And it won't be long in this country before Christians are viewed as enemies of the state.

And if you don't preach a politically correct message, you will be arrested and locked up for preaching the true word of God. Listen, friends. Things may get so bad in America in the days to come that anyone who stands up and says Jesus is Lord may be imprisoned, may be beaten, may be hanged, may be burned, may be beheaded for their testimony in Christ Jesus.

Biblical Examples of Suffering for Righteousness

Comfortable Christianity is not found in my Bible. When I read my Bible, I see there is suffering for righteousness sake. Those who follow Christ suffer reproach. Some suffer in prison. Saints are despised and persecuted in the book of Acts we read.

And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. In Romans it declares, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together.

In Hebrews it states that choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And what's the pathway of those who follow God in Old Testament times any easier?

Faithful Endurance in Hebrews 11

Let's look at Hebrews chapter 11 and read. And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword.

They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Like I said, comfortable Christianity is not found in my Bible. I would like to read us the laundry list of the Apostle Paul's comfortable life in Christ.

Paul's Catalogue of Suffering for Christ

Here it is. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned.

Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.

In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

The Apostle Paul never preached a comfortable Christianity that spoke of living for yourself. Rather, he said, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.

Christ's Suffering in Isaiah 53

And speaking of the one who died and rose again, the Lord Jesus Christ, allow me to end this message with a portrait of Christ taken from the book of Isaiah in chapter 53. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?

For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief.

Like I said, Conquered Christianity is not found in my Bible, is it in yours?