One of the greatest miracles of salvation
is the indwelling of God’s Spirit. He came to prepare a temple, and
that temple is you! The only way that the temple could be properly
prepared—regenerated, sanctified, dedicated to the purpose of God—was if
it was first washed in blood. When you came to Christ, that’s really
what happened. You weren’t only being forgiven of your sin. You were
being called out, and your life was being dedicated to Almighty God as
something holy, and now the way was prepared for Him to take up
residence in you. You have God on the inside of you! Wow! To me, that’s
the greatest miracle. Not just being forgiven of sin, but that God would
see something in us . . . and it wasn’t that we qualified on our own . .
. God chose us! He called us out of darkness and said, “Boom, I’m
setting you apart because I want to live in you.”
In the early verses of Matthew 11, John the Baptist was in prison. He sent his messengers to go and ask Jesus if He was “The One.” Was He the Messiah? I think Jesus’ reply was very interesting to those sent by John the Baptist. His response speaks volumes! Did you notice that He merely referred to the evidence? He didn’t say, “Go and tell John that I Am,” so that maybe they’d fall to the ground or something. He didn’t make any attempt to convince them of who He was or who had sent Him.
Jesus simply said to the messengers of John, “You go tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf are receiving their hearing, the dead are being raised. Now, who do you think I am?” This was evidence of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is not a powerless message that simply attempts to feed the hungry or clothe the naked. The Gospel of the Kingdom is filled with power, and the purpose of that power is to produce evidence that the Kingdom of God is here! It is the same power that is available to us as the Church. We are Christ’s representatives on the earth, so we must ask ourselves, “Are we accurately ‘re-presenting’ Christ?”
It’s good, honorable, and noble to feed the hungry; the Red Cross can do that. I’m not against it. I feed the hungry; I give money to the poor. It’s hard to believe, but I go jogging most mornings now. I know you all want to see evidence. I take a three-mile run and then go jump in the ocean. I meet people on the way, and I don’t mind giving food or money to the hungry or clothing to those who need it. I’ve been involved with that for a long time. Listen, if that’s all we do, then we are preaching a powerless Gospel, not the Gospel that Jesus preached or demonstrated while He was on the earth.
Society, the Church included, seems to think that Christ came simply so we can be made better. That’s contrary to the truth! Listen to these words by General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army (which used to be one of the most effective Gospel-preaching organizations in the world about one hundred years ago).
He said, “I consider that the chief dangers that confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.” That to me pretty well describes a powerless Gospel.
I’m going to stop there for today, but next week we’re going to wrap up this message. Christ is calling us to be His “re-presentation” on this earth. We’re going to talk more about doing what He did and being the Church for such a time as this. The world needs us to be everything that Christ has created us to be!
~ pg
In the early verses of Matthew 11, John the Baptist was in prison. He sent his messengers to go and ask Jesus if He was “The One.” Was He the Messiah? I think Jesus’ reply was very interesting to those sent by John the Baptist. His response speaks volumes! Did you notice that He merely referred to the evidence? He didn’t say, “Go and tell John that I Am,” so that maybe they’d fall to the ground or something. He didn’t make any attempt to convince them of who He was or who had sent Him.
Jesus simply said to the messengers of John, “You go tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf are receiving their hearing, the dead are being raised. Now, who do you think I am?” This was evidence of the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is not a powerless message that simply attempts to feed the hungry or clothe the naked. The Gospel of the Kingdom is filled with power, and the purpose of that power is to produce evidence that the Kingdom of God is here! It is the same power that is available to us as the Church. We are Christ’s representatives on the earth, so we must ask ourselves, “Are we accurately ‘re-presenting’ Christ?”
It’s good, honorable, and noble to feed the hungry; the Red Cross can do that. I’m not against it. I feed the hungry; I give money to the poor. It’s hard to believe, but I go jogging most mornings now. I know you all want to see evidence. I take a three-mile run and then go jump in the ocean. I meet people on the way, and I don’t mind giving food or money to the hungry or clothing to those who need it. I’ve been involved with that for a long time. Listen, if that’s all we do, then we are preaching a powerless Gospel, not the Gospel that Jesus preached or demonstrated while He was on the earth.
Society, the Church included, seems to think that Christ came simply so we can be made better. That’s contrary to the truth! Listen to these words by General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army (which used to be one of the most effective Gospel-preaching organizations in the world about one hundred years ago).
He said, “I consider that the chief dangers that confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.” That to me pretty well describes a powerless Gospel.
I’m going to stop there for today, but next week we’re going to wrap up this message. Christ is calling us to be His “re-presentation” on this earth. We’re going to talk more about doing what He did and being the Church for such a time as this. The world needs us to be everything that Christ has created us to be!
~ pg
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