From our Sunday service on November 17, 2024, Acts 22, Galatians 1, Philippians 3, and 1 Corinthians 9. Watch the full message: A Fanatic Faith: What is a True Christian Fanatic? on YouTube.
This message originally came from an article I was working on for my website. I realized the topic is so powerful that you could write much more than an article about it. How many of you have heard a lot about Christian nationalism and religious fanatics? That got me thinking about people calling us fanatics, and I wondered what that word really means. In the Bible, the closest equivalent to Christian nationalism was a group called the Zealots. They were Jewish nationalists who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire, and they used terror to try to scare the Romans out of the land. Yet the same word that names that group is also the word God uses when He calls us to be zealous. When we hear “religious fanatic,” it normally conjures up a negative image: someone intense, perhaps overly zealous, who relentlessly pushes their beliefs on others. I Google searched “fanatic,” and this is what came up: “a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause.” Notice that single-minded zeal. A fanatic is not casual. The question is what that zeal is aimed at.
Zealous in the Bible
The word “zealous” is used in the Bible in a unique way. In Jesus’s day it referred to the Zealots, and the same Greek word is also translated as envy, jealousy, malice, and indignation. Yet despite its negative connotation, God uses this term to describe the passion a Christian should have. In Revelation 3:19, Jesus Himself says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.” When Jesus gives the letters to the seven churches, He tells them the church is missing one thing: be zealous. You need to be a fanatic about Me. Titus 2:14 says He purified unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Put those other terms in there and see what it reads: envious of good works, jealous of good works. They have so much passion for good works that it consumes them. Romans 12:11 says, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” That is the fanatic, the person who wants to serve the Lord in every step of life. Galatians 4:18 says it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. Paul is saying you need this fanatic lifestyle, a single-minded passion to do good.
A true Christian fanatic, as modeled by Christ Himself, is characterized by self-control, unity, humility, and love. This person doesn’t preach with a hammer but by example and love. They don’t shy away from society but dive in. There is a wrong kind of fanaticism that Christ calls out, and there is a right kind. Our job as the church is to change the picture, so that when the news talks about a Christian fanatic, people think of love. I tried to think of people in my life I would consider Christian fanatics. There aren’t a lot. I’ve told you about my roommate Terren and the miracle white glove. He prayed, and it seemed like everything he prayed for, God answered. I don’t want you to think I’m up here preaching about myself, because I haven’t achieved the role of a zealot yet. Paul himself says he never really attained this. He admits that he still struggled with the thorn in his flesh. I’m not going to give you a list of steps. I want you to see what the mindset looks like.
Paul the Wrong Kind of Fanatic
Paul himself uses that word zealous. Our modern word for it would be fanatic. He describes himself as a fanatic for God, but this was before he was saved. This fanatic is more like the Islamic fanatic who wants to enforce his religion by force. Paul was a perfect Jew. He was taught by a prestigious teacher, Gamaliel, and he had perfected following all the laws of the Pharisees. The application for us is that we can be fanatics for God and still be wrong. It’s easy for us to become judgmental and self-righteous like Paul and push condemnation after condemnation on other people.
In Galatians he says that beyond measure he persecuted the church of God and wasted it, and “profited in the Jews’ religion above many.” That word “conversation” means lifestyle, not a relationship with Jesus. Here Paul describes himself the way we’d describe Christian nationalism, but it was Jewish nationalism. By definition he was a Zionist. He “profited,” meaning he had an advantage. The Pharisees he was training to join were set for life financially, they were allowed recognition, and they were comfortable. Just because we’re successful in life, we shouldn’t assume our zeal for God is what’s causing it. We can be, quote unquote, blessed financially, with comfort and recognition, and at the same time completely lack the right kind of zeal.
Paul was “exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers,” but he found out that the traditions he grew up learning were actually opposed to what Christ taught. A Pharisee measured a believer’s success by a few things. The first was his ability to follow rules. The Pharisees had 613 commands, and if they followed all of them, they considered themselves perfect. The second was what they looked like to other people. Pharisees had a very outward, designed appearance. They wore phylacteries, a little box on the forehead holding little Torah scrolls, because God told them to keep His word on their frontlets. In the article I’m working on, I talk about how a Bible education can sometimes be a negative, because you can replace a little of your passion with intellectualism, and that can get in the way of the core message. Lastly, they measured success by the rituals, the observance of feasts and sacrifices, doing the outward acts more than the inward ones.
Paul the Right Kind of Fanatic
But this isn’t how Paul stayed. He had a false fanaticism, and then he changed.
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Philippians 3:7–8
What he counted as gain, he now considers loss. All those outward acts benefited him, yes. He had financial blessing and fame when he was a fake fanatic. A fanatic is often going to lose material good in his pursuit of Christ. I’ll define it again: a single-minded, passionate love for Christ. Notice it’s not God who takes it from us. It’s the believer who offers it up to God in service to Him. God will never force a Christian to be a fanatic.
To free ourselves to serve God, we have to free ourselves from our own self-interest.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
The person who is one hundred percent devoted to Christ kills himself. “I am crucified with Christ.” I have to put myself up on that cross if I’m going to be passionate about Christ. This is the hardest part.
Paul also demonstrates this in 1 Corinthians 9. Remember that Paul was a Roman citizen. Ancient Rome is a lot like America today, with its idea of citizenship and the rights that come with it.
For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
1 Corinthians 9:19–20
Though he was free, he made himself servant unto all, that he might gain the more for Christ. “All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient.” He had freedom to say what he wanted, go where he wanted, start a business, be rich. When he ministered to the Jews, he became more strict. The Pharisees said you had to wash your hands before your meal or you were a sinner. Was that true? No. But you can be sure that when Paul ministered to the Jews, he washed his hands before he ate, so that he could reach them. When he preached to those without the law, he asked where in the secular world he could find a truth they’d understand. In Acts 17 at Mars’ hill, he quotes the Stoic philosopher and Greek poet Aratus: “For we are also his offspring.” In 1 Corinthians 15:33 he quotes the Greek poet Menander: “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” In Titus 1:12 he quotes Epimenides: “The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.” I think sometimes we restrain ourselves too much. We think, “I need every verse memorized to be a fanatic for Christ.” That’s not what Paul models.
The last group Paul mentions is “the weak,” the weaker brother, a new Christian who doesn’t understand much. In 1 Corinthians 8 he uses the example of those who wouldn’t eat meat offered to idols. He says he does it for the gospel’s sake, that he might be a partaker thereof with them. In modern English, “partaker” would be “stakeholder.” That is the heart of the fanatic: a single-minded passion for Christ that says, “I want to do whatever it takes to have a little bit of investment in every single person I meet.”
Paul’s life teaches us that true zeal for Christ isn’t about rigid adherence to rules, external appearances, or imposing beliefs on others. It’s about a deep personal relationship with Jesus that transforms our hearts and compels us to love others. What kind of fanatic are we? Are we driven by a self-centered passion that may push others away, or are we consumed by the Christlike passion that draws others in to Christ? Will you choose to be a fanatic in the best sense of the word today?
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