Fifth Quarter, Pumpkins, Clowns, Fish Fry, Pizza And The Church Of Jesus Christ

(Kent Heaton)

The ground on top of thE hill was stained with the blood of the many people who had died a violent and terrible death. Like offerings of sacrifices by human hands, trees of wood lifted up mangled bodies suspended between heaven and earth to perish in the cruel hatred of man's wrath. It was common place of death and bore the name that fit the death commonly seen in this place. The place was called, "Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull." (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; John 19:17) The writer Luke describes the place as Calvary in the same Greek word as "skull."

The apostle Paul exhorts the elders from the city of Ephesus to "take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28) The blood that stained that old, rugged cross is the same blood that purchased the church of God. How precious is that blood and how important the connection between the blood of Jesus Christ and the church?

The church of Jesus Christ is the body of believers that are united in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. (Romans 6:1-11) The church is made up of the saved as seen in Acts 2:47 - "And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." The church is the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:23-32), the house of God (1 Timothy 3:15) and the body of saints (Ephesians 1:1).

Jesus bought the church with His blood in completion of the reason He came to mankind. Men were ungodly, enemies of God and sinners but Christ died for all that through His death man can be reconciled to God. (Romans 5) "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Matthew 18:11; Luke 19:10) Jesus came to heal those sick with sin (Luke 5:31,32), to find the lost sheep (Luke 15:4) and to save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

Homer Hailey writes concerning Jesus' relation to human needs: "When Jesus came into the world, its needs were spiritual and moral, not physical and material. Although there were thousands who had not the bare necessities of life and were in abject poverty under oppression and in bondage, yet there were in the world all things necessary to provide for the physical life of all people. The universal need was for spiritual help and moral character to distribute and to use properly that which was here. Jesus came to provide this help." ["That You May Believe, Studies In The Gospel Of John, page 67]

John records the power of Jesus when he fed over five thousand people with only five barley loaves and two small fishes. "So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, 'Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.' Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, 'This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.' Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone." (John 6:12-15) The people responded to the feeding as people who looked to Jesus for the material rewards of His power.

The next day the people came looking for Jesus and rebuked Him for not telling them where He had gone. Jesus sternly admonished them: "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." (John 6:26,27) The focus of the ministry of Jesus was not to feed the thousands, heal the multitudes of sick and raise all that had died. John tells us these were signs to prove that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (John 20:30,31) The church of Jesus Christ is not about the food that perishes but the food that is eternal in nature.

Many who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ try to bring people to the cross with the carnal nature of man. The death of Jesus Christ is explained with "Christian Country Clowns", youth night pizza suppers and lasagna dinners. The blood of Christ is exalted by "Bible Fright Night Hay - Rides" and concessions. Mullet and catfish dinners are sold to appease the hungry bodies of those who seek to glorify Christ. Following football games, the "5th Quarter" is a celebration to draw young people to the gospel of Christ. Pumpkins are sold, festivals are organized, pageants presented, gymnasiums built, family life centers established, contemporary music offered and a myriad of inducements to make religion fun and tasteful. All in the name of Jesus Christ and the blood He shed on the hill of Calvary - the place of a skull.

Did God so love the world that He gave His only begotten Son for a party? Jesus did not condemn the people that sought Him because they were hungry. Jesus rebuked them because they did not see the miracle to show Him to be the Son of God. They were more interested in being fed with the carnal food than to understand the power of who He was and what He came to do. There is nothing wrong with mullet and catfish dinners, basketball games, hay-rides, clowns and good music. When men begin to turn worship into carnal filling of fleshly appetites, Jesus reminds us: "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life." (John 6:26)

Many years ago, someone said: "If you bring people to Christ with fried chicken, iced tea and ice-cream, you wind up with people as dead as the chicken, weak as the tea and cold as the ice-cream." The church of Jesus Christ is not about those things that are carnal in nature. The church of Jesus Christ was bought with the precious blood of the Son of God to glorify and praise His name. Jesus could have removed all the hunger in the world but He came to take away the hunger for sin.

The early church did not busy itself with the carnal satisfaction of the body. "As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word." (Acts 8:3,4) The work of the church is the foundation of soul saving in teaching lost sinners the message of the gospel. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. ... So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 1:16; 10:17) Pizza and clowns will not make that message any more powerful than what God has given it. If people will not receive the gospel based upon the merits of God's word - food and frolic will not change the heart.

Jesus took the opportunity to preach to the people the importance of looking to Him for salvation and not to the seek after carnal food. The sixth chapter of John is the reply Jesus gives to those who sought Him for bread and not for the Bread of Life. He angered many because of His stern teaching and "from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?' But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'" (John 6:66-69)

Peter came to believe that Jesus was the Christ - not because he was fed with five barley loaves and two fishes - but because of what he beheld with his eyes and heard with his ears. Today, men must come to Jesus and believe that He is the Son of God - apart from the appeasement of carnality and pleasure - but only from the pure word of truth.

The wise man said, "All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not satisfied." (Ecclesiastes 6:7) The pizza will run out, the clowns will tire, the bands will cease to play and the gospel will remain unchanged. The heart must turn to God, not the stomach. As in the days of Ezekiel, "So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain." (Ezekiel 33:31)

The gain of men is to satisfy their carnal needs and wants. They seek to change the message of salvation to a message of fun and frolic. Jesus did not die on the cross for pizza. He died on the cross for the sins of mankind to offer a way of escape. Hope can only be found in obedience to the will of God in faith as hearts - hearts - turn to God.

"And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:15,16)