Preaching Comfort, Omitting Christ

“Death is sudden. Death is uninvited. Death is certain. We don’t put ‘Death’ on our day planners, but one day it just shows up.” (Mark Cahill)

There are many daily reminders of the passing of time. In sports, fans fix their eyes on the clock at the end of a close game. In school or at work, many people watch the clock
in anticipation of the end of the day. 

Some churches today have even brought large clocks into the sanctuary to ensure a concise message, and a pastor may sadly apologize for the sermon length if he goes over the prescribed time. Often, I have asked myself, “What is the rush? Why are we rushed to get back into the world where God’s Word is often disdained?” 

Michael Horton, in his book “Christless Christianity” answers this question,
“man values time, efficiency, and prefers to minimize long-term commitments. The pulpit message must be light and affirming; the form in which it is presented must be
entertaining and inspirational.”

Being married to a gravedigger, I regularly have phone call reminders of the reality of death, and these calls are also great catalysts for evangelism. Most people avoid thinking
or talking about death, but the reality is all men die. The messages we share with the grieved should not avoid this reality but also need to be truthful. The Church is
supposed to be a proclamation center for the gospel. 

A pastor should not be afraid to stand up and declare the truth of the gospel that rescues men from final and eternal judgment.

Have We Forgotten: Faith Comes By Hearing The typical understanding of human beings is “I’m doing fine. I’m a good person.” I have witnessed so many funeral
services that were man-centered or left God out entirely, e.g., a “creative” pastor who shared a Winnie-The-Pooh theology message regarding life, a pastor who did not
know the person but unashamedly declared them to be in Heaven, or a preacher reciting formal liturgical passages about salvation but not explaining what Christ did to
secure the salvation of many or how one can be saved.

In his book Horton captures how we have compromised and/or abandoned the gospel message, “In a therapeutic paradigm, not only the parishioner but even God is put on
the couch as we empathetically interpret His feelings. God is never angry or judgmental toward people; in fact, He is more anguished than we are, since He knows how much
our actions can harm us. He is simply waiting for us to come to our senses, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son. We might even be inclined to feel sorry for
this deity.” I believe when we bypass the gospel to comfort others, this is not loving for those who are dying, who are literally running out of time, and is unloving for those who
are grieving. They both need the Truth.

Compromised Churches
Why are we going adrift? There is an abundance of books today on pragmatic marketing methods that offer church growth strategies. One of these methods utilizes the philosophy of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (MTD) to appeal to many people today. Horton describes MTD as, “A human-centered, easy-listening version of salvation by
self-help where God is not King, but rather the customer/consumer is King.” By examining a church’s website, you can detect an MTD message, e.g., “Why not
get a LIFT instead of a letdown this Sunday?” He continues, “Services are devoid of Christ and the gospel, songs sung almost exclusively about us, our feelings, and our intentions to worship, obey, and love, but it is not clear whom they were talking about or why. No longer ‘martyrs’—that is witnesses— to God’s unique intervention in history in Christ’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, we have become satisfied customers who
offer testimonials to how much a personal relationship with Jesus has improved our lives.”

Jesus’ Words: Do We Hear From Him At Funerals?

The world’s messages seem at times to be loud, unavoidable, confusing and fearful. In an evangelism encounter, I literally saw great fear in a grandmother and her grandson who insisted the greatest danger in the world is climate change. John MacArthur’s statement regarding this false narrative helped me transition to the gospel message, “Human history is not going to end in some kind of environmental disaster. Hairspray is not going to bring it down. Human history will end when the Judge says it’s time for the final court. We are living on borrowed time. Life is a terminal illness for all of us.” (Hebrews 9:27)

Jesus was not afraid to confront people. MacArthur paraphrases Jesus’ words to the large crowds, “you have certain earthly perceptions. You spend all your time analyzing what is mundane, superficial, earthly, temporal, what is passing, but you do not know what time it is in redemptive history.”

He also states that in Luke 12:1, “Jesus told the massive crowds with much clarity and with distress, to turn awayfrom the dominating false religious teachers that are
leading them to Hell. He told them to fear God and confess Him as Lord and Messiah and that their greatest need was to entrust their lives to the Holy Spirit of God.
(What must go) is the preoccupation with material things and the seduction of the world. And in Isaiah 61, Jesus preached that He was sent to preach the good news of salvation to those who realize they are spiritually bankrupt, who realize they are captives
to sin, who realize they are blind to spiritual reality and who are under the oppression of the devil.”

For many people, the only time they may step inside a church is for a funeral or a wedding. Voddie Baucham, in his 2023 sermon, “Two Funerals,” shared that funerals
are often designed solely for the people, and the goal is to create an emotional catharsis. “What we believe about worship is demonstrated in the way we conduct funerals.
True worship must begin with who God is, regardless of the circumstances, and what He has said about Himself, about worship, and about death.” Jesus is the keyholder of
Heaven and Hell. In Heaven Jesus sits at the right hand of God. It is a place of holiness, righteousness, and absolute purity. If a person wanted nothing to do with Jesus while
they lived, why would they look forward to Heaven with Jesus?

The problem is the gospel proclamation has been removed in favor of the therapeutic and minimized by time constraints. A life-changing quote by Cahill in his book
“One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven,” that really impacted me as an evangelist is, “We never see a U-Haul behind a hearse, because we take nothing with us when
we die. The only thing that will be important on the day you die will be whether or not you know the God who created you.” And the question that must be asked and
expounded at funerals, “How can I be right with God?” Sadly, Horton stated this question is avoided because “we have relabeled human beings as victims who are lost, and
not damned, but lack direction in life.”

Lies Abound

Lie #1- We Just Need A Life Coach
Karl Marx’s teachings are widely admired in Western societies today. According to Horton, a kinder, gentler version of Christianity has formed, inaugurated by Marx’s
words, “we are not helpless sinners- the ungodly- who need a one-sided divine rescue. Rather, we are good people who just need a little instruction and motivation.”

Lie #2- Rejection Of Sin And Hell
Barry Kosmin, a public policy professor who studies secularism, purported that, “People make mistakes and hurt each other. If people are held guilty, the punishment has to be in this world. Secular people do not burn in hell; they burn in the court of public opinion.”

Lie# 3- Confusion About What Truth Is
“To Hell With Sin: When Being A Good Person Excuses Everything” (Wall Street Journal)
“Is Sin Dead?” (USA Today) We have a problem when the secular world recognizes
that the biblical gospel message has been compromised. The two headlines above were printed after Easter services were observed.

Lie #4- Felt Needs Messages Win The Day

A false teacher’s response to Paul’s anti-felt needs message to Timothy, of what the last days will look like and the warning of the judgment to come, found in 2 Timothy 3:1-5:
“I hope you don’t preach that. It will hurt a lot of beautiful people.”

Lie #5- Why share the bad news?
In street evangelism, I have heard people say to me, “that is a downer message” when I have shared the bad news regarding our condition before a Holy God. False teachers do not want to teach bad news. However, when you remove the bad news, these teachers really do not have any good news either. A great question raised by Horton, for both pastors and evangelists: “Will we offer Jesus Christ as the key to fulfilling our narcissistic
preoccupation or as the Redeemer who liberates us from sin’s guilt and power?”

We Must Share Truly Good News

“When a woman has a baby, she tells everybody.” (#babygirl or #babyboy) Why? “Because she has good news! She has to tell someone.” (Cahill) Christians need to live for Christ as His Light, but are we? I am sure we have all sung that famous children’s song
“This Little Light Of Mine,” cute song, but we must continue to proclaim the gospel inside and outside of the church building. 

Every day, 165,000 people die, and all will live forever, either in Heaven or Hell. As MacArthur faithfully shares, “Folks, you are living in the day of salvation. The day of the vengeance of our God will come.

When Jesus came, the prophet Isaiah said there will be a favorable day. We’re still in the favorable day. Jesus’ death provided this favorable day of salvation. 

TIME TO REPENT AND BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST.

 Yes, we can share John 3:16 but do not stop there, share verses 17 and 18 too because this is the warning all men need. Unbelievers (for salvation) and believers (in sanctification) need to cry out to God in prayer, understanding that repentance is a gift from God. We must labor consistently in prayer for the salvation of all men and women, as Thomas Watson beautifully depicts, “Prayer is the arrow, and faith is the bow- by which our requests go up to Heaven.”

We can’t procrastinate or just resort to thinking someone else can speak to people about Jesus because His return is guaranteed. His return is written throughout the pages of the Bible, e.g., James 5:8-9, Matthew 24:42, Romans 13:11, 1 Peter 4:7, 2 Peter 3:8-10. No one is without excuse. Creation and the Scriptures do not conceal why Jesus came, why He died, why He rose from the dead, and why He will return as Judge.

Last Words Of Foolish And Wise Men

Salvador Dali foolishly declared, “I do not believe in my death.” Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), the founder of Buddhism, “All things pass away. STRIVE for your own liberation
with diligence.” His last message to students, “Doubt everything.”

Some of Jesus’ last words on the cross, “It’s FINISHED.” (John 19:30) Jesus’ death and resurrection abolished the lie that we must strive and do good works to earn salvation. His death alone accomplished salvation for those who believe and trust in Him.

Jonathan Edwards, pastor/evangelist, “Trust in God and you shall have nothing to fear.”
John Bunyan’s wise words, “Nothing more hinders a soul from coming to Christ, than a vain love of the world; and until a soul is freed from it, it can never have a true love for God.” John Knox, leader of the Scottish reformation, tombstone epitaph, “Here lies one who neither feared nor flattered any flesh.”