It's the power of God...
Illustration
Object:
"It's the power of God for salvation for everyone who has faith." It's the heart of Jesus'
message. It's what the apostles fearlessly and unflinchingly preached. Something bad has
happened to the gospel, though, the news that we have resurrection life through repenting
of our immorality and hearing by faith of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. What I
mean is we almost never hear it. The gospel has been muted.
Why? Many of us are clearly ashamed of it. We must be. We rarely tell it anymore. We're preoccupied with trying to make people feel good about themselves, designing popular ways to attract people, and attempting to build mega-churches. The Jerusalem church experienced rapid growth. But the sermons of Peter and John were good-news centered, not feel-good focused. I pray that we will repent of our success orientation and unabashedly tell Jesus' good news as we warn people of the judgment. Otherwise, neither the world nor we will know God's rescue force.
Why? Many of us are clearly ashamed of it. We must be. We rarely tell it anymore. We're preoccupied with trying to make people feel good about themselves, designing popular ways to attract people, and attempting to build mega-churches. The Jerusalem church experienced rapid growth. But the sermons of Peter and John were good-news centered, not feel-good focused. I pray that we will repent of our success orientation and unabashedly tell Jesus' good news as we warn people of the judgment. Otherwise, neither the world nor we will know God's rescue force.
