This week I have been reworking posts from previous years on the subject of Easter.  Here is a post on the power of God for us to ponder on this Easter Saturday:

Let us be sure to preach the truth this Easter as preachers committed to preaching the crucified and risen Christ.  We won’t tickle ears. We won’t manipulate responses.  We won’t generate numbers.  We won’t entertain.  We won’t preach to please people who are not passionate about pleasing God.  We won’t preach in the power of our own gifting, or enthusiasm, or natural abilities.  We won’t preach to impress.  We won’t preach to earn money.  We won’t preach to fill time.  We won’t preach because we feel we should, we will preach because we know we must.

We won’t preach to affirm people in their independence from God, nor to give hints for successful living, nor to recite historical fact alone.  We won’t preach myth, or helpful tales with gentle morals, or strongly worded messages of morality.  We won’t preach watered down niceties, nor implore people to try harder, nor settle for human level transformation.

We will preach the Word of God, we will preach fact.  We will preach as those who know how little we bring to the salvation question, as those who know what an honour it is to represent God’s Word inspired and incarnate, as those who live in the shadow of the cross, and as those who live transformed by the Risen Christ.

We are not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for everyone who believes.  So we bow before a God who would give everything on a horrifying Roman cross, and rise empowered by the Risen Christ to preach Him: Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ alone.