I was blessed to have some really good coaches who taught us how to be the best players we could be. Our practices ran on the principle of back-to-basics. We were told to be a good player you had to hit, catch and throw over and over.
When it was a part of who we were as a team, we regularly won our games.
Sometimes as Christians I wonder if we complicate things.
At New Life we have been going through the book of Acts. We’ve just finished going through Acts 1 to 3. If you read these chapters you might find that the church looks like everything is perfect. There is success and the early church can do no wrong. Jesus teaches and gives the church its mission. The Holy Spirit equips the church and it grows from 120 people to 3120 people because of Peter’s sermon. The people love being together and amazing things happen; then you come to chapter 4.
Peter and John go to the temple to pray and heal a crippled lame man and all the people run to see what’s going on, at the end of chapter 3.
In chapter 4 we are introduced to the men who had Jesus killed. They were the religious and civil leaders of Israel.
The bible says they were called the Sanhedrin which consisted of 71 leaders who ruled Israel by the permission of Rome.
After killing Jesus, the last thing they wanted was to have his disciples running around bringing the Kingdom of God to people. This group were not happy with Peter and John and their ministry.
You might ask how could anyone be upset with the healing of a man who from birth had been crippled?
Jesus had been a threat to their power and now his disciples were doing the same thing. The other thing that offended them was Jesus and his disciples were backwater uneducated men who were bringing revival.
The Sanhedrin killed Jesus and told the disciples to stop what they were doing or they would be imprisoned, tortured and killed. The response of Peter and John was to say we will do what God wants and not what man commands. This is the back-to-basics of the disciples and of the church today.
The disciples went back to the basics. They preached in the name of Jesus. They did not preach in their own strength and power but in the name of Jesus. They also preached that Jesus had been resurrected and that power gave the disciples their power.
You don’t get more simple back-to-basics then doing ministry in the name of Jesus and his resurrection power.
Our churches and the world today need a back-to-basics principle. Let’s minister in the name of Jesus and show His resurrection power in our lives.
Ps Rob Tanner
New Life Baptist Church
3°C