The Way Backward Is The Way Forward.

The way backward is the way forward. What does this mean?

If we are to have something worth saying to today's world, we must go back to the Bible, back to God's Word.

Some people keep on telling us, "You need to move with the times." What are we to say about this? Moving with the times is a very dangerous thing to do. We may find ourselves moving into greater unbelief and deeper uncertainty. We may find ourselves moving away from the foundation of our faith, which is Jesus Christ. Our faith needs to be rooted in Jesus Christ. If we move away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, we have nothing to offer to anyone.

We must build on the apostolic doctrine, as it is set out for us in the Scriptures. The apostolic preaching of the gospel must be allowed to guide the faith and practice of the modern church. If the connection between hearing the Word of God and being the church of God is broken, this will lead to spiritual suicide. the church which refuses to take Jesus Christ seriously shows that it has a death wish.

Learning from the apostles, we, like them, must say, "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). We must learn from them that faithfulness to God is the absolute priority in the Lord's work. We need to return to the biblical foundations of our faith. This is absolutely essential if the life and work of today's church is to avoiding descending into irrelevance. Our first question is not "How can we be relevant?" It's "Will we be faithful?"

When the question is asked, "Is there a Word from the Lord?", we must sure that we give this emphatic answer, "Yes. There is a Word from the Lord: Jesus Christ and him crucified - this is God's Word to us.

How are we to respond to the Word of the Lord? - We must allow the Word of God to reach into the depths of our souls, and we must reach out with the Word of God to other needy souls.

The way backward is the way forward. We look at the apostles. We learn from them. In Acts 5:42, we read about when the apostles worked for Jesus, where they worked for Jesus, how the apostles worked for Jesus and what they said for Jesus.

(a) when - "Every day ... they did not cease" to work for Jesus. This is more than Sunday religion. It's every day service.

(b) where - "in the temple and at home": The sermon that is preached from the pulpit does not reach those who don't come to church - unless its message is taken to them by those who sit in the pews.

(c) how - "teaching and preaching": Don't say, "That's the minister's job." Here, in the New Testament, we see this happening every day, in the homes. If we say, "That's the minister's job", it shows how far we are from the practice of the New Testament church.

(d) what - "Jesus as the Christ": This is the heart of the Christian message Before you can do anything for Jesus, you must receive him as your Saviour and you must submit to him as your Lord.