The People Nobody Talks About

The People Nobody Talks About

John 13:36-37; John 19:1-16; Luke 9:18-20

            We like to put people into categories: Black-White; Republican-Democrat; Men-Women; Rich-Poor; Smart-Dumb. Sometimes we like to put ourselves into categories. “I’m Irish so I …” “I’m Catholic so I…” “I’m a Gators fan so I…”

            When we tell Bible stories, or talk about Jesus we tend to talk and think about two categories of people. We think about Jesus’s disciples and His followers.

John 13:36-37 “Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” ³⁷ Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

            And we also think about the religious leaders of the day, who were extremely focused on destroying Jesus, His ministry, and all of His followers.

John 19:1-16 “Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. ² And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. ³ They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. ⁴ Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” ⁵ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” ⁶ When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” ⁷ The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” ⁸ When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. ⁹ He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. ¹⁰ So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” ¹¹ Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

            ¹² From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” ¹³ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. ¹⁴ Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” ¹⁵ They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” ¹⁶ So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.”

            But there is a third group of people that nobody talks about. I don’t even have a scripture passage to reference, because nobody ever talks about them. There is a passage in Luke 9 where Jesus had just fed five thousand men plus women and children. As they were gathered together in groups eating, Jesus asked His disciples a quick poll question: “Who do these people say that I am?” There is a lot more unpacking we could do with this question, but the fact that Jesus had drawn together such a vast group of people who didn’t even really know who they were gathering around says something.

Luke 9:18-20 “Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” ¹⁹ And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” ²⁰ Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

            The general consensus was that Jesus was JBAP, Elijah, or one of the prophets.

            So let’s get on with it. Who do you think the third group is that nobody talks about? I’ll give you a hint: The three groups still exist today exactly as they did 2,000 years ago.

            Who can tell me what the Bell Curve is? In a scientific poll you will find about 10-15% of the population on one end of the spectrum, about 10-15% on the opposite side, and the remaining 70-80% in the middle somewhere. 10% of students at high school will get A’s. 10% will get F’s. And 80% will get something in between. If you go out into public and took a huge sample of people you will find about 10-15% of people are passionate about God, another 10-15% passionately hate God, and even pretend in their minds that He doesn’t exist. And then you’ll find the remaining 70-80% that are somewhere in between. They may know who Jesus was, or that He even died on the cross for their sins, but it really doesn’t make a difference in their lives.

            Let’s look at another example, how many of you know that the Tour de France is going on right now? How many of you are passionate bicycle race enthusiasts? How many of you passionately hate bicycle races, to the point where you want to stop all of them from even existing? How many of you all could not care less about bicycle races in general and the Tour de France specifically?

            That’s the same way with Jesus now and 2,000 years ago. Some are passionate followers willing to lay down their life. Others passionately hate him willing to stake their soul on it. And the majority of the people don’t care, or at least don’t care enough to make up their minds, or change the way they’re living.

            What happens to people when they die who passionately follow Christ? They go to Heaven, and that makes sense. What happens to people when they die who passionately do everything they can do to destroy Christ’s ministry? They go to hell, and that makes sense. What happens to people when they die who never really make up their minds one way or the other? They go to hell, too. And that confuses people.

            The problem is we view life like a trip to a nice restaurant. At the end of the meal we can choose to eat dessert if we want to, and in this analogy that would be like going to Heaven when we die. But others choose not to eat dessert, and we view that as “Okay, it was still a nice meal. Let’s go home and watch a movie.” But that’s not what it’s like. We can choose to go to Heaven and be assured of that, but if we choose not to go to Heaven we are choosing to go to hell, where God’s wrath will be poured out on us for all of eternity. The problem is that even when we choose not to decide we still have made a choice.

            A better analogy would be we are all at a fancy restaurant, but we have no idea when they close. Some will eat their meals first and decide to have dessert only after the waiter pushes the dessert cart around. Others will say, “I don’t wanna miss out on the good stuff. Bring me the ‘Death by Chocolate’ now and if I have time I’ll have the T-bone steak.” Some will order their food, tell the waiter they don’t believe in desserts, and make fun of the people who are eating them. And finally there are people who will eat their meals, but the restaurant will close before they have a chance to order dessert.

            None of us know how much time we have on this planet. Jesus could come back before the end of this sentence. Our hearts could explode. We could die in a car wreck on the way home. We don’t know. We need to make a decision to follow Christ while we still have time, because deciding against following, and deciding not to decide right now, could cost you everything.