The Integrity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ

April 1, 2012

Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around him were shouting, "Praise God for the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord ! Praise God in highest heaven!" The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar as he entered. "Who is this?" they asked. And the crowds replied, "It's Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." -- Matthew 21: 8-11 (NLT)

Today is Palm Sunday. The week before the single most defining act of our lives as Christians -- when Jesus Christ conquered death and reunited us with God. As Jesus enters the town the people adore Him and hail Him shouting Hosanna! This means "save us" and in Jewish tradition and is a prayer reserved only for God Himself. Yet just one week later the very same people would shout -- "Crucify Him!" Such a fleeting thing is the integrity of man.

The problem in the verses today is that when asked who Jesus was, He was merely a prophet from Nazareth. Some today even think they can get by with having Jesus only as a prophet. But a prophet cannot save you from your sins and that is what this is all about folks. It is not about fancy churches and pretty steeples. It is not about who has the best services and sparkly Kids Churches. It is about the weight of our sin becoming so obvious in our eyes that we finally realize that we need a savior. Not a prophet, but a savior.

What then is the secret to maintaining the integrity of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ? The answer also lies within the verses from today. Jesus must be at the center of the procession. He must be at the core of everything we do as Christians and as the church. And I do not mean that we merely SAY He is at the center because there is far too much lip service paid to serving Jesus and not enough heart service. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is all Paul said he needed to know when preaching. If you do not believe in the sufficiency of Christ and His atoning work on the cross then you may as well throw the Bible out now starting with the Book of Galatians which details His sufficiency.

Keeping Jesus as the center is not a matter of words but a matter of deeds. That is how integrity is kept. Integrity dies however one small compromise at a time. One little "looking the other way" here and one carnal excuse there. People can call me a legalist all day long because it only shows they do not understand the meaning of the word. I will not "lighten up" on the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the only thing that can break yokes and set the captives free. This isn't a game. I want to wake up every day shouting -- Hosanna to Jesus. Heaven forbid I allow the leaven of compromise into what the Gospel represents and I wake up one day shouting -- "crucify Him!"

Rev. Anthony