Contributor:
Chad Roberts
Luke tells us that after Peter and John were beaten and released from prison, they left the council of authorities (the High Priests and Sadducees), and immediately went to a prayer gathering. The Bible says that the entire church lifted their voices to the Lord and after they had prayed, “The place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” Acts 4:31. Would you not have loved an opportunity to be part of an early church prayer meeting?
Acts 4:33 tells us the outcome of the prayer service, “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” This one verse brings the message of my life (as well as my church) into perspective.
Your Life Communicates
Did you know your life communicates a message to everyone around you? Everything we do communicates…as well as everything we do not do. For example, if I never pray in front of my family what am I communicating? I am telling my wife and children that prayer is not that important. But if I lead in praying over our meals or praying over my children at night or when they are sick, then I am communicating to them that prayer matters in life.
In a similar way, people know what is important to you. They know what you like, what you find joy in and what you spend money on. Most people can tell by our social media accounts what matters to us. So my question is this, do people really understand how central Jesus is to your life? Do they see or hear the gospel message by what your life presents?
Weakening the Message
What intrigues me about Peter’s sermons throughout Acts is that they were all about the gospel (the death, burial & resurrection of Christ). He did not add anything to the message for it to be more appealing to his audience. It was simply the gospel. At the beginning of this year, I felt the Lord wanted me to preach systematically through the Book of Acts. It will take approximately 18 months to accomplish this what I feel the Lord wants me to do. At the time of this writing we are 6 months into the Book of Acts.
This Summer I attended a pastor’s conference at the Cove in Asheville where Jim Cymbala, pastor of Brooklyn Tabernacle, was the guest speaker. He challenged the pastor’s there to carefully read Peter’s Sermons. He asked us to examine ourselves to see if we are adding to the gospel. This has caused me to re-evaluate how I preach and what my life portrays.
The Message
Note again Acts 4:33 tells us what the message of our lives should be. “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” Their message was not relevance, casualness or being comfortable. That is the message you will hear from the majority of churches today. Think about it, we have entire companies built on helping churches “market their message” to the community. Yet has this technique changed our communities? No! If anything our culture is getting worse, not better. This tells me we are doing it wrong! The message of the early church was the resurrection and that is what brought power to the Church.
Does my church have the power of God to change lives? That all depends on the message we are presenting. If we are going to please the Lord and see the Holy Spirit move in power over people’s lives to break sin and transform heart then we must do it according to the Biblical pattern given us. Our new ways or better methods are not doing the job!
Experience Church or Experience Christ?
Several years ago I thought of a creative website domain for my church. Rather than using preachingchristchurch.com, we began using experiencepcc.com. Doesn’t that sound good? Isn’t Church suppose to be an experience, like an event? Not according to the New Testament. After a while, the Lord began to convict me of saying, “Experience PCC.” He showed me how shallow that is, because the truth of the matter is that my church n nor your church can change anyone.
Only the gospel, empowered by the Holy Spirit, can change hearts. It is foolish to try to proclaim anything other than the gospel. When we read the sermons in Acts, we do not find the early church trying to sell their experiences. No! What we find is the early church powerfully preaching the gospel.
A Personal Story
You would be mistaken to read this article and think I am only talking about Sunday morning gatherings we call Church. Actually, the resurrection should be the personal message of our individual lives. Do you remember Paul’s heartfelt statement in Philippians 3:10? Paul says, “That I might know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”
Do you long to know Christ in the power of His resurrection…in the fellowship of His sufferings? What a risky, but God-glorifying prayer! How foreign this type of praying is to most of us. What if we began to pray Biblical prayers like Philippians 3:10 and asked the Lord to do a new work, a deeper work, in our hearts. I wonder if we would begin to walk in the power of His resurrection? I wonder if the message of our lives would become far less “me centered” and far more Christ centered?
Let those of us who are serious about the preciousness of the gospel of Jesus Christ ensure that we are not weakening the power of its message by adding to it. Let us ensure that our own lives reflect the power of this message so that like Paul, we may say as well, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16.
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