September 19, 2024
Something jumped off the page as I reread Acts 5 and I am excited to share it with you today.
17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They went out 18 and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out, saying, 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
21At daybreak the apostles entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people.
I find what that delivering angel said very fascinating and revealing. Instead of releasing the Apostles from jail and saying something like; “Now go and preach the gospel,” he told them to tell the people the “full message of this new life.”
The Gospel is a message of life. And the fact that the angel said to tell the “full message” gets me thinking. What is the full message of “this life” for Christians? Here’s some things that came to my mind.
Christianity is a lifestyle and not just a belief system
Our relationship with Jesus has to consist of more than adherence to a certain set of beliefs. It has to be more than just having said the “sinner’s prayer” at one time in our lives. There must be more than just giving mental assent to a doctrinal statement or enjoying the literature in the Bible. To say that “Jesus is Lord” meant something for the early apostles, and it should mean something of eternal importance to us as well.
2. Jesus is the only Way, Truth and Life
Jesus is the only one who could legitimately say “I have come that you might have life and life in all its fullness.” The Scriptures also say that “in Him was life and that life was the light of humanity.” There is no other god, guru, medicine, therapy, drug, experience or religion that can impart life. Only Jesus can do that, and that is a part of the “full message of life.”
3. Jesus was dead but now is alive forevermore
The Gospel at its core is that Christ suffered, died and was buried according to the Scriptures but that is not where it ends. Paul said “if Christ did not rise from the dead, we are of all men most foolish.” If Christ did not rise, what else is there but to “eat, drink and be merry…for tomorrow, we die.” The full message of life must include a bold declaration that Jesus was dead, but now is alive. Indeed, a person cannot even be saved, according to the book of Romans, chapter ten, unless they believe and confess that “Jesus is Lord” and that God, the Father, “raised Him from the dead.”
4. Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life
The full message of life must include the hope of our own resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the “first-fruits”, the Bible declares. But there is a much greater harvest on the horizon. Some day, even those of us that sleep in the grave will “hear the voice of the Son of God” and in the “twinkling of an eye” will be “changed”. The dead in Christ will “rise first, and then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
The full message of life is so rich and limitless that it will require our entire lives to try to share it with others. Valley Christian Church is committed to share the full message of this life with others. We call this; “knowing Jesus and making Him known.”
PRN: Father, Great Author of life, and the One who created and sustains us, You are the source of all Life. Your Word is life. Your Spirit is life. Jesus, You are the Way, the Truth and the Life. You are eternal life itself. Today, we invite you to release us from our own prisons of fear, worry, temptation and worldly distractions and put us in the middle of situations where we can faithfully share the full message of this LIFE with others. In the name of Jesus, amen.
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