#1 - Overcoming Individualism

In one of my bible college courses that I took this past year, we were discussing the
current state of our North-American culture. Specifically, we were discussing some of
the common “ism’s” (as my professor called it) that are found within our culture - things
like consumerism, individualism, post-modernism, nihilism, nationalism, and so on. We
took some time to learn about each one, and after we had gone through all of them, my
prof asked us which of these “ism’s” was most threatening to the North American church
in our opinion. Now, I think you could definitely make a case for a few of these things,
but the one that seemed to grab my attention then, and has continued to do so since,
was individualism.

We find ourselves living within a society that promotes and even urges us to focus on
ourselves above all else. The self is number one, the self must be considered and
pampered before others, the happiness of the self is first and foremost, the success of
the self is of utmost importance. I’m sure the way this plays out looks different in
different people’s lives, and to be honest there are just so many examples that I don’t
have time to come up with an exhaustive list, but I’m sure you’ve experienced this in
one capacity or another.

I think in all of this, we would be foolish as the body of Christ to not stop every once in a
while to not only consider the culture around us and the things going on within it, but to
also consider how the culture has influenced us within the church. Unfortunately, we are
not always immune to the culture around us like we may hope to be, and if we aren’t
careful, these unwanted and un-biblical things can creep in the back door of the church
and of our lives without us noticing. And so, as a result, throughout my teaching time in
the summer, I am hoping to shine a bit of light on some of the ways that individualism
can creep into the church, into our lives, and hopefully point us to some passages that
may help in this battle. And this evening, I thought I would start by discussing the
relationship between individualism and our outward witness as Christians.

I wanted to ground this teaching for tonight in Matthew 9, but before we get there, I
thought I would start with a reminder about what our purpose is in this world as
Christians. I’m sure many of you are familiar with what we know as the Great
Commission, which are Jesus’ very last words in the book of Matthew. Matthew
28:18-20 says “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth
has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of
the age.”

There is so much to unpack in these verses. But for tonight’s sake, I want to point out
two clear things in these verses about our mission as Christians. First, Jesus’ command
(not suggestion, command) for us as Christians begins in verse 19 with the word “GO.”
It’s an action word, not a passive one. We must first go, and then the “making disciples”
part comes once we have gone. Disciples will not be made unless Christians first obey
this command to “go.” A lot hinges on this small word.

Now, we need to be careful in our mental approach to this word, about how we interpret
this word “go.” Some people when they read these verses tend to lean towards the idea
that it's the “making disciples” which is the real important part of the verse, so therefore
they assume we can then ignore the going and instead just share our faith wherever we
are in whatever situations we happen to stumble upon. Other people tend to make too
much of this word “go” in their own heads when they wrongly assume that this verse is
only addressing those who are called to overseas missions. These people tend to
wrongly assume that overseas missions are of greater value than the call to make
disciples within the context that they live in. True, making disciples of ALL nations
requires some people to leave and go overseas, but Jesus’ focus in the Great
Commission is mainly fixed on the task of all believers to do so wherever they are.

So this going involves more than merely waiting for an opportunity to fall in our laps to
share the gospel, but it doesn’t necessarily involve going overseas. It means that we
actively pursue opportunities to share the gospel with those in our lives. It involves
intentional action, a focused mission, and a heart geared towards others. It means that
we don’t just passively sit back and hope that someone eventually asks us to tell them
about Jesus - it means that when we go about our lives within the world we look with
our eyes and observe and ask for the Holy Spirit to show us opportunities to do so.

I said there were two things I wanted to pull out from the Great Commission - the
second one is that Jesus reassures us of His presence. It’s found in the very last
sentence in this passage where Jesus says in verse 20 “And behold, I am with you
always, to the end of the age.” This is a comforting sentence for sure, but it’s not only
supposed to be a warm, fuzzy sentence that makes us feel good. The reassurance of
Jesus' presence with us comes with a purpose here given the context. The promise of
His presence is not a feel good thing, but rather His equipping for our mission. Jesus
promises to be with us here for the purpose of spreading the gospel. He promises to
play an active role as we seek the lost and bring the message of life. I think it’s a
common experience for Christians to hesitate sharing the gospel with those around
them because they feel they don’t have the skill, or the gifting, or the adequate words,
or the abilities to do so in an impactful way. Jesus addresses that here - He says “no no
no don’t worry about what you’ve got, I promise to be with you.” Relying on the
presence of our Lord and His guidance and His strength is in of itself a call to step out of
individualistic thinking. It’s saying “I can’t do this on my own, I can’t do it without the
leading and equipping of the Holy Spirit. I need you.”

The Great Commission is not a suggestion, it’s not an “if you have time, do this” type
thing, it is the command of our Lord before he ascended to heaven. This command
attacks any sort of individualism within our hearts. It forces us to think about others, to
step outside our comfort zones, and to rely on Jesus rather than ourselves. Our purpose
is rooted in this anti-individualistic worldview and mission. But my question tonight is
how? This is a lot easier said from up here on the stage than done out in the real world.
How do we as Christians come to a place where individualism has no hold on us when it
comes to spreading the gospel?

I think the answer can be found in Matthew 9:35-38 where Jesus exemplifies what it
means to live a life that is FOR others. It says “And Jesus went throughout all the cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a
shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are
few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his
harvest.”

I have three thoughts to share with you regarding these verses, and I am going to jump
around within these verses a bit. First, I would like to start with the final two verses in
this passage, and in particular I am drawn to Jesus’ command here to pray. Matthew
9:37-38 - “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are
few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his
harvest.” Immediately we see the reason for the Great Commission in our world. The
harvest is plentiful. There are so many unreached people in our world, so many people
who need someone to come alongside them with the love of Jesus and walk with them,
so many people who need healing (physically, mentally, emotionally), and we serve a
God who doesn’t wish that any should perish. The harvest was plentiful back then and it
is plentiful right now.

And although the harvest is plentiful, Jesus says the labourers are few. Notice first that
when Jesus says “labourers,” He is suggesting that other beings are to carry out this
mission of spreading the gospel (it goes beyond his own ministry time here on earth),
and specifically, he is referring to people, to Christians, here as the labourers. We are
the ones who are to carry this out in our world.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few.” Because of this we as Christians are
supposed to pray about it. We are to pray for God to raise up more believers to go into
the world and boldly show and proclaim the love of Jesus to the world. We are to pray
for the salvation of those that have been placed into our lives. We are to pray for God to
open up our eyes to opportunities in our own lives where we could be discipling others.
Our prayers should reflect hearts that long for the world around us to find the same
light and hope and love and grace that we have found.

One of the ways individualism can show itself in our lives is actually in our prayer time
with God. It should cause us to pause for a bit when our prayer time never reaches
beyond the borders of our own lives. Obviously we all go through different seasons, and
there will be times, especially through trials, where our prayers will reflect that. But there
should be regular time in our prayer life that is dedicated towards others, dedicated
towards the spread of the gospel, dedicated to the harvest. Being used as a labourer in
that harvest starts in our times of prayer, and as a result, it addresses those
individualistic tendencies that may arise in our hearts.

Second, we are to follow the example of Jesus’ “going.” Matthew 9:35 says “And Jesus
went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming
the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” Although
verse 35 may be the first sentence under a new heading in your Bible, it is actually a
summary statement of the things that have just happened earlier in chapter 9. Jesus
has just answered a question that the disciples asked about fasting, He brought a girl
back from the dead, He healed two blind men, and then He healed a man that was
unable to speak. He does all of this (1) because he cares about these individual people
(we’ll talk about that in a minute), but (2) Jesus is just about to send out the disciples on
a mission of their own, and so he is modelling what it means to go into the world.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry here on earth, he is constantly on the move. Verse 35 says
that he “went throughout all the cities and villages.” He didn’t stay in one place. He
intentionally went to where the people were. He placed himself among people who
needed Him. He didn’t wait for them to all come and flock to Him - they did that as word
got around - but we first see Jesus stepping into these different places. He met them
where they were at: in their towns, in their villages, in their synagogues. Verse 36 starts
off by saying “When he saw the crowds…” and then it goes on to tell us Jesus' beautiful
response to the crowds, but before he can respond to the crowd and perform these
miracles and bring healing, he first makes the choice to go.

An individualistic mindset tells us to worry about our schedules and comfort first. It tells
us that we should spend all of our time with people who are like-minded (who are just
like us), and who we know and enjoy being around. Jesus demonstrates something very
different. He intentionally steps into new places, into unfamiliar territory. He makes time
to put himself in places where His love can shine through the darkness.

So what does it look like to go in your life right now? What does it look like to follow after
the example of Jesus and to seek out those in your life who need to hear the truth?
What does it look like to step outside of your comfort zone? What does it look like to be
intentional with the people that you rub shoulders with Monday through Friday? I
suspect that for many, this call to go is simply that - to ask God to open our eyes to the
opportunities that we have right now to bring the gospel to people who are already there
in our lives.

Lastly, I wanted to end by taking a look at Jesus’ compassionate heart towards others in
verse 36. It says “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they
were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” I am constantly moved by
the compassionate heart of Jesus throughout his time here on earth. He cared for the
needs of individual people amongst crowds, he had a heart for people who were
considered outcasts in society, his heart was moved when he saw people who were
upset and weeping, he took time to teach his disciples and he was patient with them -
Jesus had an undeniable heart for people.

He saw that they were “harrassed and helpless,” which literally means “torn and thrown
down,” and he had compassion for them. We are given an image of sheep without a
shepherd. Maybe we don’t think of sheep and shepherds very much these days, but it
means Jesus saw them as vulnerable, with no protection, subject to how others treated
them, unable to rescue themselves. Jesus draws on a familiar image of sheep without a
shepherd that is used in several other places in the Bible.

In Numbers 27:16-17, Moses is speaking to the Lord and requesting that God appoints
a new leader for Israel once his time is up. He says “Let the LORD, the God of the spirits
of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation 17 who shall go out before them and
come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation
of the LORD may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.” In 1 Kings 22:17, Micaiah the
prophet sees a vision: “And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as
sheep that have no shepherd.”

People without the hope of the gospel and without a relationship with Jesus are pictured
as sheep without a shepherd. Before accepting Jesus into our lives, that was all of us
too. But there is hope for these lost sheep. John 10:7-11 “So Jesus again said to them,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are
thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone
enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief
comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it
abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the
sheep.”

The lens that we look at the world through matters. How we see other people who are
different from us matters. The type of heart that we approach others with matters. Jesus
approached people from the lens of seeing sheep without a shepherd - not in a
condescending way, but in a compassionate way. The Merriam-Webster dictionary
defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a
desire to alleviate it.” The Cambridge dictionary describes it as “a strong feeling of
sympathy and sadness for the suffering or bad luck of others and a wish to help them.”
A compassionate person notices the needs and hurts and pain of others, and is moved
to step in and help.

How do you see other people in our world? What sort of feelings and emotions and
thoughts build up inside of you when you observe different groups of people? Do you
look at the outside world with the same compassion that Jesus did? After all, it was that
compassion that actually moved him to step in and help.

Do you look with compassion on those who may struggle with a different type of sin
than you do, or are you too busy comparing yourself to them? Do you look with
compassion on people from other religions, or are you only focused on trying to win an
argument? Are you moved with compassion on those who are homeless and in poverty,
or do you just think “eh, they must have done it to themselves”? Do you look with
compassion on people of different ethnic backgrounds, or do you let cultural divisions
harden your heart? Do you look with compassion on the needs of those who align
differently politically than you do, or do you write them off as soon as you find out they’re
on the other side? Let’s be honest, it’s June, do you look compassionately on those
celebrating Pride month, or does your hate for the sin taint your view of the person in a
way it wasn’t meant to?

Church, compassion and conviction are not mutually exclusive - they can (and should)
co-exist. You can be 100% rock solid in your beliefs and still have compassion towards
people who are different. You can be firm in the Bible and still engage with those who
have never read a word of it. We are called to be both: we are called to be rooted in the
Word and firm in our convictions, while also deeply compassionate and caring for the
needs and state of others.

Individualism - that self focused lifestyle that our culture promotes - is a danger to the
North American church. If we aren’t careful, it can impact our ability to be effective lights
for Christ in our culture because it prohibits us from being intentional about our love and
care for those outside of the church. If we are to combat this in our lives, we need to be
praying that the Lord would equip and send labourers, we need to be actively going and
seeking those opportunities to pour into others ourselves, and we need to approach
others with a deep sense of compassion and love.