”For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” —Romans 1:16
When the apostles and prophets spoke they gave voice to God’s Word. The message coming from the throne room mattered. The only thing that was important about them was the message they brought, and that message was of God. Today, it is hard to see what the message is because of all of the accoutrements or trappings around the message. It has come to the point of not being recognized from a biblical perspective. Sadly, many people are taking the message for granted. The gospel message has unfortunately lost its meaning over time.
The word power in Greek is dunamis: (δύναμις, εως, ἡ), miraculous power, might, strength. Christ told His disciples, “So it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed [c]in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:46-49). The Books of Acts reveals the beginning of the early church and the empowerment of Christ’s disciples to preach the gospel with power as His witnesses (Acts 1:8; 2:32; 4:33).
To become bored with the message is the tragedy the church is facing today.
A. W. Tozer
There is a passion today to be culturally relevant. Many will go to great lengths to prove that the message they preach fits in nicely with the culture around us. To them it is important to interpret the message in such a way as to fit present circumstances and culture. However, the gospel message is transformational and transcendent in nature. It not only contradicts our culture in every facet, it goes beyond the range of normal or merely physical human experience. It speaks of eternity and the everlasting Sovereign God and is ways. (Isa. 40:28; Ps. 90:2; Heb. 13:8; Jn. 1:1). God is not so far from His creation that we are not able to understand the revelation in the Scripture or relate to Him in any way. We are not to be conformed to the culture by imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around us. Instead, we are to be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how we think. —Romans 12:2
The gospel message is the power of God for salvation, faith, healing and deliverance. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.” —Romans 1:16-17
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.
C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
You will never be the same after you have encountered the power and presence of God.
In His Service,
Min. Dr. A. Francine Green
BEYOND CHURCH WALLS 