Today
we celebrate the greatest event in all of history. We celebrate the
resurrection of Jesus. The hope of the
world is the death and resurrection of Jesus.
A
man has just joined a church I was pastoring and at a Wednesday meal he made
the statement that our church was a Jesus church. I agreed that it was and told
him that every church was a Jesus church. He assured me that was not true of
all churches. My reply was that if it was not true, then it was not a church.
In
Acts 4:18 the Jewish ruling council tells Peter and John that they were not to
speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
Peter
and John reply in Acts 4:19-20 by saying, “Whether it is right in the sight of
God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak
of what we have seen and heard.”
That
must be our answer to the world when it tells us that we have to stay in “our
place” and not talk about Jesus. We simply respond by saying that we can only
speak of what we have experienced personally.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about speaking Jesus with our lives.
In
1 Corinthians 1:18 Paul writes, “For the word of the cross is folly to those
who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
We
must continue to proclaim the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins. It
seems foolish to the world that the death of a man could bring life to others.
In human kingdoms life leads to death, but in Jesus’ kingdom death leads to
life. We die to our old self, our sinful nature, and come alive to our new life
in Jesus. We are new creations through the blood of Jesus shed for our sin on
the cross.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about proclaiming that, through Jesus’ death
on the cross, God’s power was released to forgive us of our sin.
In
1 Peter 1:3, Peter writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of Lord Jesus Christ!
According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
We
must proclaim the resurrection of Jesus to the world. Good Friday is good
because Sunday happened. If Jesus had just died and not resurrected, then it
would have been heroic but it would not have given us victory over death and
sin and Satan. But because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus defeated
death because He rose from the dead; sin, because sin is what brought death
into the world; Satan, because he is the one who tempts us to sin.
Raise
the Roof and Remove the Walls is about proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus
from the dead.
The
world views our faith in Jesus as God and as the Savior through His death on
the cross and as Lord through His resurrection as stupid and foolish and, for
some, they are fearful of that truth. We don’t get angry. We don’t demand that they
believe. We don’t try to force them to believe. We show the reality of Jesus’
death and resurrection as we are filled with the Holy Spirit and manifest the
risen life of Jesus through our lives.
Christ
has risen! Christ has risen indeed!
Through
the Resurrected Jesus Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,
Joe
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