Uncomfortable Comfort Zones

The first death this year that struck me hard was Pastor John MacArthur. Long time preacher and teacher of the Gospel at Grace Community Church and Grace to You Ministries. Then came the violent death of Charlie Kirk of Turning Point who, by all measures was a Christian evangelist long before being a conservative pundit. It was his politics they said they hated him for but we all know that the demonic in this world wanted his Christian testimony and teachings silenced. Voddie Baucham knew this, that is why one of his last sermons was a remembrance of Charlie as a Christian saint and essentially a Christian martyr. Voddie was theologically sound from top to bottom. John MacArthur only let the theologically sound preach from the pulpit at Grace Community Church and Voddie was one of them.

Yesterday, Voddie Baucham Jr., a respected pastor and author, died at 56 after an emergency medical incident. Among one of his final sermons was one on Charlie Kirk, he was emphasizing the Gospel’s truth and godliness. Baucham shared the message online, saying, “You might kill the messenger, but you can never kill the message.” In doing this Voddie tied together all the loose ends of these three men’s lives and point everyone to the one great commonality of all three of them.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Above all, all three of these men knew the truth that the world hated and it was central and paramount in the lives of all of them.

This presents those of us among the living with indelible and immutable statements from all these men that won’t just go away because they are based on the truth of Scripture. In their deaths, their voices resound even louder in their absence.…and it also presents those who know the same truth a challenge and responsibility.

We’ve learned something from all of the recent passings of great Christians that the world either hated, silence or tried to end. Voddie stated it out loud. It’s about the message, not the messenger. Voddie put the nice neat bowtie on the gift of the message for presentation to the world just like the bowties he was so fond of wearing when he preached and taught at times. 

The Bible taught us the same when Paul wrote to Timothy knowing his time here on this earth was waning and coming to an end. There is a circularity to the message of the Gospel and death. Inevitable but profound. 

…we have a responsibility to teach the truth of the Word of God even at risk to life or limb. The deaths of Voddie, John and Charlie are signposts for those following behind in their steps. The world has shown us that our message is not acceptable to them and they will be in resistance to us. In a desire to hear things more palatable, people will turn aside to lies and have you believe that John, Voddie and Charlie were bad people. This only reveals the world’s ignorance of these men and the truth they expounded on.

1 Timothy 4:1-I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom:  Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Our safe spaces are no longer safe. God is making our comfort zones uncomfortable for a reason. Silence, apathy or inaction are no longer an acceptable option when the saints are dying. Regardless of whether or not those deaths are from old age, premature health issues or murder. The message of the Gospel was never about being in a safe space or your comfort zone anyway. I mean the epicenter of our faith is a torture device. A crucifixion. It requires Christians to look outward. Speak the truth in love…outwardly. Project the love of Christ…outwardly. Manifest the fruits of the Spirit as an outward growth.

Like the analogy of a seed. His truth (God's Gospel) germinates in us, grows and like the seed in nature it pushes outward forcing everything else out that is in you (corruption, unrighteousness) until there is nothing but what the seed produced (holiness). You will also produce fruit (of the Spirit). Fruit that a plant produces is actually an overabundance of life in the plant or self. Fruit also carries within itself the very mechanism to produce more life also. The seed produced in the fruit produced by the teaching of these men needs to also be scattered to the winds on the field to continue the cycle. Life, fruit, death, rebirth. 

John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

That means you need to get out into the human fields. To sow and to reap. You cannot do this sitting in a comfort zone. We're not afforded that luxury. We are to be workers. Its no longer okay to just stay home or ‘play church’. Its no longer okay to just remain silent. If we continue this path the teaching and the death’s of these men are in vain. To continue to make these men’s legacies and teachings reverberate down through time we need to carry the Gospel message in their messages forward also.

The world is always going to be the world. In that instance we will need to endure hardships because the worldly hate the message we have. The world has turned aside to comfrtable lies and deceptions and the only way we will ever be able to try to pull them back from their own self-imposed destruction is to do what Voddie, John and Charlie tried to do. Reason with them from Scripture. That is what the Apostle Paul did two millennia ago. Reason with the non-believer from Scriptures.

Acts 17:2 ~ “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures”

When it comes to discussing our faith, Paul (and subsequently a million saints including Voddie, John and Charlie) reasoned with them from Scriptures. The word reason here means “through said” or talk through things. In Greek it is διαλέγομαι or dialegomai: dia meaning through + lego meaning to say, speak. In essence to speak/think something through; to dialogue, discuss, argue or debate. This is where we get the word dialectic from. This "talking through" is needed to compare views or opinions in an attempt to reach a correct conclusion. These men talked through logic and reasoned with people aloud in their comfort zones. He took the message to them. They spoke with people that disagreed with them or even hated them to reason them with truths of Scripture to bring them to a recognition of the truth in the Scripture.

The silencing of this dialogue, Biblically shows two things. The silencing of Charlie Kirk’s through murder is that the world lives in a darkenss and are comfortable there. They don’t want to hear it. They're deaf to it because their ears and minds have been turned aside to myths…lies and deceit formed and founded in evil corners and pockets of godlessness. They’re becoming the lies they’re listening to. The lies are becoming them. All the more reason to push the message out there. 

The second thing it shows is that the nation and our world is drifting ever closer to God’s judgment. When you start killing God’s messengers or God starts taking them to preserve them from tribulation, things are about to seriously turn south and go sour quickly. If you think its bad now, just wait.

Isaiah 57:1-2 The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.

These verses suggest that God, in his mercy, may remove individuals from the world to protect them from coming trials, tribulations, or judgments. For believers, this understanding offers comfort and peace during times of loss, providing a perspective that death is not always a punishment but can be an act of divine mercy. The death of righteous people is interpreted as God "clearing the deck" or gathering his faithful to safety. God often mercifully removes his people from a world that is about to experience severe correction. The unrighteous will face consequences. Once the saints are safe, God's full judgment can fall upon the ungodly who have disobeyed the Gospel.

Similar is stated in the context of 1 Peter 4:17. Peter is telling Christians—the house of God—which was facing persecution, needs to persevere. Peter reminds us that the wicked will face God’s judgment but that believers in Christ must hold themselves to a higher standard than they once did. This includes passing on the truth of Scripture during the trials and perseverance.

The correct response to all of these deaths is to take up our cross, the Cross of Christ and continue to walk. To go boldly as did Voddie, John and Charlie. If not us, then who? Christians’ focus from now on should be on living confidently and speaking for the Lord, like Voddie, John and Charlie did — even if it becomes the hill on which we die.

Matthew 16:24-25 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Ephesians 6:19 …and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel...