Marks of a True Christian

I previously posted that I was going to ask others to contribute to my Blog. Here is the next contributions from someone that I truly respect and dearly miss. I hope you guys will enjoy this article from Pastor Steve Gaines

“Marks of a True Christian”
Matthew 25:34-40

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40 "The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'"

Not long ago while I was reading my Bible, I came across this familiar passage in Matthew 25. As I read Jesus’ words that day, an alarm went off in my heart. It was as though Jesus was speaking directly to me saying, “Steve, how many hungry people do you personally feed? Son, how many thirsty people do you offer something to drink? And Steve, when was the last time you literally invited a stranger to stay in your home? Son, how many naked people have you clothed, and how many sick people do you visit? And when is the last time you went to a prison to visit someone there?”

I was speechless. I literally felt as if I had been “weighed in the balance and found wanting.” I sat holding my Bible in a state of semi-shock. At that moment it dawned on me that I rarely did any of those things mentioned by Jesus. Yes, I preached sermons, and I even verbally witnessed to people, sometimes total strangers. But I did not do the things that Jesus mentioned in that text.

It also dawned on me that Jesus was saying that people who go to heaven do these kinds of things, but people who go to hell do not do these kinds of things! Doing these works won’t save you, but if someone is saved he will do these kinds of works. And if a person never does these kinds of things, and never has a desire to do these kinds of things mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 25, he has every reason to ask himself if he is a genuine follower of Jesus Christ!

I immediately called one of our missions’ pastors at my church and within a few weeks I was preaching in a penitentiary in Arkansas. That night when I walked in and saw those 200+ prisoners, I literally sensed the unmistakable manifest presence of God. I also sensed Jesus’ tremendous love for those men! It was as though He was saying to me, “Steve, now you are here where I am, doing what I do.” I walked out into the middle of those men – rapists, murderers, thieves, etc., and sat on the front row. And believe it or not, they were very nice to me! There I was, feeling God’s love for people who were societal outcasts. It’s what Jesus felt when He associated with those whom the religious hypocrites of His day referred to as societal “scum.” It made me unexplainably joyful, but embarrassingly sad because of how hard my heart had been.

Since God spoke to me through Matthew 25 and similar texts, I have visited the penitentiary several more times. Also, our church (Bellevue Baptist Church) has launched a local missions program called Bellevue Loves Memphis. We regularly engage in service projects of all sorts aimed at helping hurting people in our community. We seek to “find a need and meet it; find a hurt and heal it.” I call it “service evangelism,” ministering to the physical needs of people in order to “earn the opportunity” to share the Gospel of Jesus with them to lead them to faith in Christ.

Every three months on a Saturday we participate in a Bellevue Loves Memphis workday, sending out 800-900 people on 20-25 short-term, local mission projects throughout Memphis and Shelby County. We repair houses for poor and elderly people, restore dilapidated athletic fields for public schools, assist the City of Memphis in cleaning up “urban blight,” and engage in community enhancement projects such as cleaning vacant lots with chainsaw teams and picking up trash on roadsides. We help paint and repair inner city church buildings and distribute food and clothing to the needy. We’ve “adopted” struggling inner-city public schools, providing them with tutors. Many of these students have significantly improved their achievement test scores.

Again, each of these service projects has enabled us to verbally share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people across the Memphis area that we never would have encountered otherwise. In fact, we do these things ultimately to gain the privilege and opportunity to share the Gospel with them so they will be saved. After all, what does it matter if they have a full stomach, better clothes, a warmer bed, and a nicer house, but they die without Christ and spend eternity in hell?

Giving money to missions is not enough. Even supporting organizations that assist poor people, visit people in prison, etc., is not enough. Neither is going on an overseas mission trip enough. Some Christians participate in overseas mission trips but rarely if ever witness for Christ in their own town. That is inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst.

You must personally feed the hungry, quench the thirst of the thirsty, cloth the naked, house the homeless, and visit those who are imprisoned or who are sick, so you can verbally share the Gospel, beginning in the city where you live.

In recent years, many conservative, Bible-believing churches have abdicated these kinds of “social ministries” to the more theologically liberal churches. Liberal churches do “social ministry,” but rarely if ever share the Gospel so that someone can be saved. On the other hand, conservative churches have tended to focus on a form of evangelism that simply tells of God’s love, but rarely shows it in tangible acts of service. I am suggesting that we do both – social ministry and verbal evangelism.

Please ask yourself, “Am I doing any of these things that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 25? Do I have a desire to do them?” And, “Is my church doing these things?”

Think about it – helping hurting people who are hungry, thirsty, homeless, naked, sick, and in prison, and then sharing the Gospel with them. That sounds a lot like what Jesus did, doesn’t it? People that go to heaven do these things; people that go to hell don’t. These acts of service evangelism are what I refer to as the authentic “Marks of a True Christian.”

Pastor Steve Gaines