THE NEED OF THE MOMENT

 

 

This generation is witnessing not only the perilous times spoken of by the Bible – 2Timothy 3:1- but also times of terrible confusion arising from messages of different tunes and emphases as opposed to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel of Christ is simple and without ambiguity -.

 

Quite unfortunate that many of the messages today are rather sinking Christianity into unimaginable levels of ineptitude, ineffectiveness and contradiction. The reason for this is not far-fetched. It is because of inaccurate understanding of what the gospel message is. We therefore, tend to limit the gospel to bringing people to church and believe that what counts most is the size of our church organization and the number of branches we have. No wonder we boast too much of mega and super-mega churches, branches at home and abroad.

 

The result of the Great Commission is three folds – making disciples of all the nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded . Observing all that He has commanded means that believers, through our message, are not mere admirers but tested and proven disciplined followers of Christ. Many messages we hear today are for the praise of men. Men are celebrated while God is relegated. How much of today’s messages will stand out against the ills of the land and where are the preachers who will oppose the oppression of the poor and fight against the corruption of our time? The level of frivolity with which we hold the word of God and our living for Him suggests that we are yet to preach the message of Christ – the gospel. Should we not ask ourselves: What did Jesus preach? What did the apostles preach and what was handed down to us to preach?

 

After ordaining the twelve, Jesus sent them forth that they might preach (Mark 3:14) and they went out and preached that men should repent (Mark 6:12). Paul’s preaching was Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23) and his desire for anyone was to see Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Our message in quality and content should be centred on Christ not on any personality. Without any enticement we should declare the testimony of God. “And I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of men’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1, 2, 4 & 5).

 

The Holy Spirit was the source of their inspiration for their message “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13). It was the same Holy Ghost that moved Peter to give the apostolic message to the Jews after which they had no option but to repent. “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of Sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”. (Acts 2:37-38).

 

The message of Jesus is the message of Salvation after all, that is why He came – to save sinners (Matthew 1:21). The message we preach should elicit godly sorrow in the heart of people to produce genuine repentance from sins and transformation unto a new life patterned after Christ – life of a disciple. John the Baptist also preached the same message – “And he came unto all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Luke 3:3) urging the people to “Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance…”(Luke 3:8). How much do we depend on the Holy Spirit to give inspiration for our message and how much do we follow the pattern of the apostles’ message today?

 

Our message should address the sin-life of people and the way out of it. It is sad that today’s Church is already in for it. The church is falling further and further away from the Lord. She is extremely far from the Lord’s desires and intensions. Whereas, there are few bright spots in the church today; there are people who still love the Lord, who are faithfully doing His work but in general, the condition of most of today’s church is lamentable. The incidence of fornication (sex outside of marriage) among believers today is not different from the world. In other words, sex perversion is rampant among professed “believers” as it is among those who have no faith. Adultery is as common in today’s church as out of her. Divorce, to our shame, is more common among church goers than among those outside the church. The church is increasingly condoning activities which the Bible says are sin, for example, homosexuality is being accepted as normal and in-offensive and this is something which grieves the heart of God (Romans 1:24-28).

 

The number of preachers and other church leaders who are involved in adultery and other sexual sins with members of their congregations is alarming. Also increasingly common is for churches to over-look or even justify such actions on the part of leaders instead of condemning them. How often do we hear of fight and struggles for posts and positions in the church today?    

 

Why? The reason is that the church has been deceived and robbed. She has received false and deficient teaching. She has been misled by many who have perverted and misunderstood God’s word and will. They have watered down the gospel message to make it more palatable and easy. They have twisted it so much that it no longer has any power to change people into Christ’s image. It no longer produces holiness and other results that God is seeking. Much of this distortion of the gospel message has been propagated by today’s preachers and teachers who are seeking to produce “results”. Many went to fill their church with members. They wish to be seen as successful. So they tailor their message to be non-offensive and easy to take. They search for new techniques, doctrines, ideas and practices which will attract people to their church or ministry. The message of the true gospel has been further perverted to enhance their own ambitions, their own egos. Unpleasant subjects, such as conviction of sin and holiness, are put aside so that no one feels uncomfortable or offended.

 

The gospel of Christ remains the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes (Romans 1:16). Its nature produces the best in man to please God and releases power and grace upon believers even in times of difficulties and life adversities making them to be pure and strong. Many of today’s Christians fail to stand in difficult times simply because their foundation has been built more on man’s philosophy, traditions, ideas and practices that will not endure instead of on the doctrines of Christ. The gospel message should address the sin-life. It should produce godly sorrows (2 Corinthians 7:10) in sinners which bring true repentance. It should lead to assurance of salvation which is the Christian’s full conviction that he is saved, and that he is eternally kept as long as he remains doing the Lord’s will (1 John 3:2. 5:13). This is spiritual certainty of sins forgiven, of justification before God and of possession of eternal life.

 

Going by the unfolding events all over the world, one cannot be far from being correct to say the end is here with us. There seems to be no time in history of this world that man is in such a precarious time as we are today. “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day

that Noa entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” – Mt 24:37-39.

 

As things stand today, the challenge is not only of incorrect message but much more of incorrect lifestyle. And where there is correct message there is stunning incorrect lifestyle of the messenger which not only renders the message ineffective and unproductive but also portends a great danger to the future of the church.

 

In the present circumstance, the question every serious-minded believer should ask is “What type of Christian legacy are we leaving behind?” Our message should address the sin life of people and that the lifestyle of believers should match the gospel message.

 

This is the need of the moment!