Which Jesus do You Follow?
If you’ve been among church people long enough, you will definitely have encountered many who outwardly declare themselves to be followers of Jesus yet live in disobedience to Him.
When he was nineteen years old, back in 1983, David Hampton unsuccessfully attempted to enter a Manhattan nightclub. When he returned later and lied to the security staff that he was Sidney Poitier’s son, they allowed him entry (The real Sidney Poitier was a famous American actor who lived from 1927 to 2022. Sidney Poitier has six daughters and no sons). They led him right to the VIP area. From then on, Hammond developed the habit of appearing at upscale dining establishments for fake meetings with his “father.” He would eat, sign the check under Poitier’s name, and appear upset that his “father” hadn’t shown up. He eventually began going after Manhattan’s affluent residents, including Calvin Klein and Gary Sinise. After introducing himself as David Poitier, Sidney Poitier’s son, Hampton would make up a narrative about being robbed and needing a place to stay until his “father” came for him the following day. “David Poitier” engaged in this fraud up until his death from AIDS in 1993.
A false Jesus
Like Sidney Poitier, the person of Jesus Christ has suffered from impersonators. Truth seekers, like David Hampton’s victims, have fallen victim to a false Jesus preached from pulpits over the centuries. As far back as the first century, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church: “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough” – 2 Corinthians 11:4 (English Standard Version).
A false Jesus cannot deliver the genuine character transformation that the true Jesus promised His followers. The Apostle Paul, who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament, wrote of this true Jesus in 2 Timothy 2:19: “Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” The sad state of affairs today is that the majority of those who profess to follow Christ embrace wickedness instead of turning away from it. Hence the question: Which Jesus Do You Follow?
False believers
If you’ve been among church people long enough, you will definitely have encountered many who outwardly declare themselves to be followers of Jesus yet live in disobedience to Him. I once joined a Christian organization and was immediately assigned to field ministry work in remote areas of the country with a pastor. I came to discover that this pastor, who is still a full-time employee of this Christian organization to date, had deserted his wife and kids and was living in an adulterous relationship with another woman. I lodged my concerns with the organization’s director, and I was shocked to find out that she was fully aware of this wrong but, wishing to keep the donor funding flowing, chose to condone the behaviour. I was also a member of a church where I discovered that one of the elders, who was all spiritual within the church compound, had a vicious temper at work. I met a young lady who quit his employment for fear of her safety after an incident where, in a fit of rage, this elder hurled a computer screen at her. Again, when I reported this and other similar incidents to the senior pastor, I was shocked to discover that he was well aware of this elder’s behaviour. Appallingly, he took no action against the elder, seeing that he was a heavy and faithful tither in the church.
The Bible says that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature and old things have passed away” (2 Corinthians 5:17). There are a lot of churchgoers who identify themselves as Christians but continue to live in sin without repentance, guilt, or remorse. The church has evolved into a sanctuary for sinners that covers up for their sinful lifestyles and assuages their consciences whenever guilt dares to penetrate their consciousness.
A false gospel
The church achieves this by replacing the authentic gospel of the Kingdom with a heretical prosperity gospel. Jesus’ job description is found in the Gospels: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” – Matthew 1:21 (NIV). A Jesus who does not address the problem of sin in an individual’s life cannot be the true Jesus. And this is the Jesus who is preached rampantly across our church pulpits: a Jesus who is more interested in your bank account than in your moral character; a Jesus who is more concerned with your temporal earthly comfort than in your eternal destiny; a Jesus who only generates testimonies of the acquisition of material blessings and promotions and never of moral conversion and repentance from sin.
Friend, you don’t come to Christ for Him to make you wealthy and healthy. You come to Christ because you recognize that you are a sinner deserving of God’s righteous eternal punishment and that Christ is your only way out of God’s holy wrath.
So, which Jesus do you follow?