We Christians live in a dangerous world. Oh, it is not as physically dangerous as for Christians during Roman times or in the U.S.S.R. or today in China or many of the Arab countries where being a Christian is a death sentence. No, the danger for us today is complacency and the tendency to gradually accept what is thrown at us over and over by the liberal media.
Christians are admonished by God to live holy lives, patterned after the life on earth of Jesus, God’s Son. 1 John 2:6 states this very clearly: “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.” Thus, if we say we are Christians, and 82% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats claim that they are, we should be following the Word of God and the example of our Lord. Paul warns the Romans when he says, “ And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2).
The problem is that many of us have become conformed to this world, seduced by what we see over and over again on television and on social media. Many parents have children who are cohabiting with someone and perhaps even have a child without having first gotten married. It has become common among young adults and regrettably, even among young Christians, and virtually every family has a niece or nephew or child in such a relationship. They know what we believe. They know that the Bible says what they are doing is a sin. Yet they persist, because they have been seduced into believing that God doesn’t really mean what he says, and because, after all, everyone else is doing it so why shouldn’t they? What they have forgotten is that the mob chose Barabbas.
When Jesus was brought before Pilate with the Jewish religious leaders calling for his execution, Pilate spoke to Him and found nothing to charge Him with. He announced, “I find no fault in this man.” But the crowd had become agitated, stirred up by the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin, and he feared a riot. So he brought forth another prisoner, one who had committed theft and murder and participated in an insurrection against Roman rule, and he asked the mob which of the two men they wanted turned loose. This should have been an easy choice. Do you want the kind, patient, and loving teacher to walk among you, or do you want the thief and murderer? The mob chose the murderer Barabbas.
The mob chose foolishly. They were wrong, just as in the days of Noah, the entire country was convinced that Noah was a fool to build an ark. There wasn’t going to be a flood, they said. What did he think he was doing? But they were wrong. And they all drowned when the flood came. You see, just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it right. What makes it right is what God says about it. And Christians are becoming numb to sin because everyone is doing it. They have forgotten that the mob chose Barabbas.
There was a time when every church held two services on Sunday, one in the morning and one in the evening and you didn’t choose the one that best fit around your shopping or your sleeping in, you attended both. Many churches today have given up on an evening service. Most Christians seem to feel they have done their duty by attending one service, or one service every couple of weeks or so. To attend two in one day does not fit into their schedules. After all, Sunday is a day of rest! The Assemblies of God churches still for the most part hold evening services, but their evening attendance had dropped by 6% in 2010 and has probably dropped farther by now. In the same year, a Christian Reformed Church reported that only around a quarter of the people who came on a Sunday morning returned for the evening service. Wednesday night services are also a thing of the past in many churches. Most Christians just don’t go, so why should you? But then, the mob chose Barabbas.
On television and in movies, characters have casual sex after a date. Husbands cheat on wives and wives on husbands. Men are married to men and women to women. Transgenders also appear frequently until all of this seems as natural and “21st century” as the alcoholic drink that is always offered to a guest. We see it so often it seems as if it must be okay. But all of these things are clearly called sin in the Bible. What was sin in the time of King David was sin in the time of Jesus and is sin in 2021. God’s Word doesn’t change. So, just because everyone else seems to think it is okay doesn’t mean that we should. Remember that the mob chose Barabbas.
The Church is in danger of falling into apostacy. Indeed, some churches already have. Ministers must remind their congregations that God’s laws have not changed and that the wages of sin remain eternal, spiritual death in hell. Everyone is not going to heaven, no matter how “good” they are. They must accept Jesus as their personal Savior and then attempt daily to live according to the precepts He had set down for us in the Bible. Many people find it old fashioned to talk of sin and of hell, to condemn sex outside of traditional marriage, to talk of praying and of reading the Bible. But they are wrong. Don’t be wrong with them. Choose wisely. The mob chose Barabbas.
Note: The idea for this blog came from the words “Remember the mob chose Barabbas” on the marquee of our local Lutheran Church. Many thanks to the pastor for this wise and timely reminder!