The problem, is, as I see it, that the church has become so like the world that it is stunned, indeed traumatised (shocked), when a message that is so unlike the world is preached. Our problem is our message - the world hates it. Our message has a traumatising effect on worldly church members; but it should also 'shock' believers into facing reality.
In today's spiritually aenemic church, bringing the Gospel into it is like pouring new wine into old wine skins. because the new wine is so full of vibrancy, it will burst the old wine skins. Similarly, when the Gospel of God is brought into a spiritually hardened and set church, the result is inevitable. And we ought to rejoice when we see the effects of God's Gospel upon the churches today. If we were preaching the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, and it was received well in the church, ought we not to be deeply alarmed? If a worldly church were to welcome the Gospel of God's Son, then there is something seriously wrong with the preaching and the message. Where we see spiritual turbulence which leads to ecclesiastical turbulence, we should rejoice that something new has definitely come into God's church.
But isn't it so sad that the Gospel is viewed as a 'new' thing within many churches today! It is seen as something foreign, something to resist, something that is to be opposed and got rid of.
Here's the big point! Nothing but a new message in a dead church can bring about new life in dead sinners, nothing! It takes something revolutionary to get people's attention - and the Gospel can do that exceedingly well. Why is this? because it is not of this world. If it were, people would accept it; but it is not of this world. It came from another world. And it takes people to another world!
But it is controversial. How could it be otherwise! And those who herald it are controversialists! Praise God for every controversial preacher who is this solely because of his biblical messages!
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