The Crowd Pleaser

Mark 15:15

And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.

Pilate was a very weak leader for one reason, he was more interested in pleasing the crowd than he was in doing what was right. His desire to please the crowd certainly put him on the right side at the moment, but it put him on the wrong side of history. Pilate will always be remembered as the guy who traded a criminal for the Son of God.

Sadly, many believers are more interested in pleasing the crowd than doing what is right. Certainly, doing right is not always the easiest thing to do, but doing right always puts you on the right side in the future. I would rather please the LORD and be on the wrong side of the crowd than to please the crowd and be on the wrong side of God. When we consider the crowd pleaser, you will see several poor qualities about this type of person that hurts the cause of Christ and their own character. Let us look at several of these poor qualities of the crowd pleaser.

First, the crowd pleaser will hurt those who do right to please the crowd. The crowd pleaser is not concerned with who they hurt along the way of pleasing the crowd as long as they accomplish their goal of being accepted by the crowd. You cannot be a good leader and only be interested in pleasing the crowd. Likewise, you cannot be a good Christian and live to please the crowd because you will hurt whoever is in your way just to make sure that you are popular with the crowd. Evil will become your constant companion when you live to please the crowd.

Second, the crowd pleaser has no principles by which they live other than to please the crowd. You will never know what the crowd pleaser believes because the only thing they believe in is to please the crowd. A person without principle is a dangerous person. If the only principle you live by is to please the crowd, you will often find yourself on the wrong side of truth.

Third, the crowd pleaser will sacrifice truth at the altar of pleasing the crowd. I have seen many people who once stood for truth change what they believed for the sake of being in the popular crowd. I have watched preachers and full-time servants of God who once seemed to be a pillar of truth completely change their beliefs only to be accepted by the crowd.

My friend, the only presence you should desire to have in your life is the presence of God. You will find that Christ had to go without the camp, which made Him unpopular to the religious crowd of His day. The three Hebrew children were in the minority in man’s eyes, but they found themselves in the majority as they were thrown into the fiery furnace, the place where they found the presence of Christ. Daniel was in the minority for praying, but he found the presence of God’s hand as he lay alone with the lions in their den. You may not be popular when you choose to do right above pleasing the crowd, but you will always find yourself in God’s presence when you do right.

Moreover, you must make doing right your first and only priority if you want to please God. Sacrificing the crowd to please God is not a real sacrifice at all. Doing right MUST be your focus for life, for when you make doing right your focus, it will never bother you to be alone with Christ.