Some of you may recall this commercial from years ago:
taken from Youtube.com
Where is the beef? Nowadays. this is the condition of some churches when it comes to the word of God. I have been listening and speaking to many people who complain about the lack of meat in preaching that goes on in their churches. I’m not sure why the trend is moving in the direction of “feel good Christianity” and worldly strategies. It could be that some think this is how we remain relevant to our culture. Others may be afraid of losing members to more “exciting” churches. Some may think that this is how we are supposed to catch those who fled the churches decades ago due to church being boring and dogmatic. However, none of these were the concerns of the early church.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Acts 2:42-43
The above scripture describes the growth of the early church following Jesus’ Resurrection and the Day of Pentecost. The disciples preached to people who were Jewish, and they knew their message could have easily been offensive. However, Peter and others did not shy away from preaching the whole gospel and telling them about what Jesus did for them.
Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. Acts 2:23-24
In the same chapter, the scripture show us that Peter did not dilute the Word or water down the gospel to see individuals saved. As a matter of fact, the scripture clearly shows that Peter accused them of killing Jesus but told them that God had a different plan which included them. Peter’s style of preaching might horrify some preachers these days, and it certainly would not make it into any books or workshops about church growth! The point is not to offend people with the gospel. The issue is that if we don’t tell people the whole Truth, we have taken away the power of the gospel to transform people’s lives.
I will continue with this subject in the next devotional.