Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats
"Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over
them, but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the
epistles be searched to find any trace of the gospel of
amusement."
An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its
impudence, that the most short-sighted can hardly fail to notice
it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal
rate, even for the evil. It has worked like leaven until the
whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing
than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to
provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning
them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has
gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused
the frivolities of the day. Then she had adopted them under the
plea of reaching the masses.
My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is
nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church.
If it is a Christian work, why did not Christ speak of it.
"Go ye..." into all the world and speak the gospel to
every creature. That is clear enough. So it would have been if he
had added, "and provide amusement for those who do not
relish the gospel." No such words however, are to be found.
It did not seem to occur to Him. Then again, "He gave some,
apostles; some, prophets; and some, pastors and teachers;...for
the work of the ministry." Where do entertainers come in?
The Holy Spirit is silent concerning them. Were the prophets
persecuted because they amused the people or because they
refused?
The concert has no honor roll.
Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the
teaching and life of Christ and all His
apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world?
"Ye are the salt," not the sugar candy -
something the world will spit out, not swallow. Short and sharp
was the utterance: "Let the dead bury their dead." He
was in awful earnestness!
Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements
into His mission, He would have been more popular when He and His
disciples went back, because of the searching nature of His
teaching. I do not her Him say, "Run after these people,
Peter, and tell them we will have a new, kind of service
tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching.
We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they
will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people
somehow!" Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them,
but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the epistles be
searched to find any trace of the gospel of amusement. Their
message is "Come out, keep clean out!" Anything
approaching fooling is conspicuous of its absence. They had
boundless confidence in the gospel and employed no other weapon.
After Peter and John were locked up for preaching, the Church had
a prayer meeting, but they did not pray, "Lord, grant unto
thy servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent
recreation we may
show these people how happy we are." If they had ceased not
for preaching Christ, they had not time for arranging
entertainments. Scattered by persecution, they went everywhere
preaching the gospel.
They "turned the world upside down." This is the only
difference! Lord, clear the church of all the rot and rubbish the
devil has imposed on her, and bring us back to apostolic methods.
Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired.
It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and
scoffers, who thank God because the Church met them half-way,
speak and testify. Let the heavy-laden who found peace through
the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the
dramatic entertainment had been God's link in the chain of their
conversation, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of
amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today's
ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest
spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the
root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt that
it sets men on fire.
by C. H. Spurgeon