O is for One Message

“O” is for One Message. I think that one of the most confusing things for non-Christians are the apparent contradictions in the message that is presented by the church. This is not a new phenomenon. The apostle Paul encountered this in 1 Cor 1:12 where he wrote, “What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas[a]"; still another, "I follow Christ." Even back then there were the makings of the divisions that we see so evident today. When Jesus returns He is coming for His bride – not brides. We are all part of one body and we need to have one message – the same message that Jesus spoke when He was on the earth.

Our main passage this week has been Matthew 28:18-20. We can see in the latter part of this passage that Jesus commands the disciples to teach everything that He taught them. His command was simple – go and make disciples – yet we seem to complicate this simple statement so much.

Have you ever thought about what the fundamental things are to someone becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ? What does it really mean? Is saying a prayer of repentance enough? Is there more to the conversion process? What about all of the different denominations? Does it matter if you gave your heart to Jesus in a Methodist church, or in a Baptist church, or in a Pentecostal church or in a Catholic church?

Romans 10:9-10 states, “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” This almost seems too simple (remember the second ‘S’ from yesterday?) and we often want to make the salvation process so much more complicated. Jesus kept it simple – confession with your mouth, actually speaking it out, believing in your heart and the end result is that you will be saved.

The fundamental message is simple. Jesus is the Son of God who came to this earth to rescue a traitor race that rebelled against their creator. He is the way the truth and the life. You cannot connect with the Father, except through Jesus.

Just something to think about as you go about your day today.