We Killed Him - But God Raised Him

"Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ."  - Acts 8: 4 - 5
Notice what Philip proclaimed -  the Christ. Jesus was the essence of his message. The entire apostolic body of preaching was, as Paul puts it, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). The preaching of the early church was essentially, "You killed him - but God raised him" (Acts 2:22-24, 32, 36; Acts 3:14-15; Acts 4:10-12; Acts 5:30-32; Acts 7:51-53) . . .
The church didn't grow because of strategic planning - God had done all the strategic planning in eternity past. The church didn't grow because of programs to reach all ages - the message was simple and compelling and reached all ages - You killed him, but God raised him...
In the complex world we live in with so many options, it is difficult to not cave in to giving people what the want rather than what they need. There is a big difference between what humanity thinks they need and what they truly need. We need Jesus. And we need Him in heavy doses. We think we want "7 Ways to Unlock the Door to Financial Success", "4 Steps Toward a Happy Marriage",          "3 Reasons Why Stress Must Be Managed", "How To Have a Better Behaved Child"... All these things could well be important - but not at the expense at what is truly needed.
The message of the Bible is clear -  and it's not about making your life happier. The message of the Bible is that the Holy Creator of the universe gave His only beloved Son to die in our place for our sins. Jesus Christ left heaven and became human and obeyed all God's laws like we were commanded to and failed at doing. He paid the price for our failure and succeeded on our behalf, by obeying His Father's perfect will for us. He endured every temptation and never sinned. And He died the death that we should have died. We (because of our sin) killed him - but God raised him...
Philip and the rest of the apostles proclaimed to their listeners the Christ. That's all....
A dying world needs to hear the good news that will outlast the latest craze and will outlive the temporary things in this world that we value far too much. We need Jesus.

Ecce Homo

"Ecce homo" - the Latin phrase used by Pontius Pilate is translated; "Behold the man." ... Without knowing it, Pilate is presenting Christ as the representative of sinful humanity. "The man" is term referring to Adam in the garden of Eden - Genesis 1:26 tells us that man was made imago dei - "in the image of God. Genesis 2 tells us that "the man" was formed from the dust of the ground that God had created and formed man from the dust and breathed the breath of life into him. Adam would become God's image bearer, and all who follow after him would as well. Adam would be the federal head of the human race, and as Adam goes, humanity goes. We know what happens from here. Adam disobeys God's Word and rebels against God. God would put a plan in action for a "New Man" to succeed where Adam (and the rest of us) failed.
Romans 5:12-20 lets us know that Adam's sin infected us all and Christ's obedience to God's law and His death in place of ours, places our life into Christ's life (Col.3:3). We become righteous because Jesus is righteous. We live eternally because Jesus lives eternally. Jesus is the federal head of God's new creation. If we are "in Christ" we are God's new creation (2 Cor. 5:17).
Behold THIS Man! - This man Jesus is the fulfillment of God's Law that we are called to obey, yet continually fall short of (Matt. 5:17). This man Jesus is the perfect sacrifice that God requires for us to enter His holy presence (Heb. 4:14-16). Behold the Man, Jesus - God in the flesh who has a perfect compassion and understanding of our every frailty and weakness - and He gives us the righteousness we need to approach God. Behold this Man who loves us this much - to live and die for the undeserving and give the eternal life and righteousness that only He deserves.