150th Anniversary Of The Cathedral Church Of Saint Jude, Diocese Of Lagos Mainland On 29/10/2017

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REMARKS BY HIS EXCELLENCY, PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO, SAN, GCON, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, AT THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF SAINT JUDE, DIOCESE OF LAGOS MAINLAND’S 150TH ANNIVERSARY AND THANKSGIVING SERVICE ON THE 29TH OF OCTOBER, 2017

PROTOCOLS

Praise the Lord!

Greetings to the Bishops, Priests who are present and to all of our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers of the great St. Jude’s Church. I’m deeply honoured to be here to join in this glorious celebration of the 150th Anniversary of our church. This is the day of thanksgiving, and we must be thankful to the Almighty God for His goodness, for His grace and for His mercies.

For some of us, we have even greater reasons to be thankful to God because we were fortunate to have been brought up in this house of prayer. As has been described, my own parents, Chief Isaac Opeolu Osinbajo and Mrs Olubisi Osinbajo, who is here, brought us up in this church, and we attended church, Sunday School, and we learnt catechism, and we learnt so many other things here in this church.

Too many of my brothers and sisters with whom we spent time here are with us today. But one of those important things about those days was that it was not just our parents who brought us up; we were brought up by all of the parents in the church. By all of those who were older than our parents, younger and they who were even much younger than our parents — all of them.

I do not want to recount the number of times that we were caned in the Sunday School for not remembering the memory verses, many times, and you could not dare go back and complain. People go back and complain, and you’re most likely to be caned again. (Congregation laughs)

But times were such that values were important, the gospel was not preached in isolation, and one of the reasons why we must be thankful to God for those who brought the gospel to this land is that they brought the gospel and preached the principles of the gospel and the values of the gospel as well. When we remember today and give thanks to the Almighty God, we thank God for those missionaries who first brought the gospel to this land and for what it was that they brought along with it, because it is the writings of the gospels of Jesus Christ that led to all of what we see as development to the modern man, whether it is the rule of law, fundamental rights of citizens, the right to liberty, the right to life, the right to privacy, the right to freedom of worship, all of this was scriptural principles brought by this missionaries.

I think we must thank God for those who took up the missionary work, men and women who have the right as described, men and women who came here from various places, from Egba and brought the gospel to them. For those who were Reverends, those who were missionaries of various classes, we must thank God for them. The likes of Rev. Asekun and Banwo, so many others that I cannot remember. So many of them laid their lives, sacrificed everything that they had so that the gospel of Jesus Christ may be established in this land. I think on a day like this, we must be truly thankful to God for them.

It is so important that we know that persecution is almost inherent for the gospel of Jesus Christ; there is no period in the history of the gospel during which there was no persecution. As a matter of fact, Christ Himself told us that we must expect persecution, and throughout the church history and till this moment persecuted and has grown in persecution which explains just like the Reverend said, because after the persecution in Acts chapter 6, that the Christian church began to grow outside of Jerusalem, to Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It was also as a result of persecution that this church was established, and so many other missionary churches.

Everywhere that we’ve seen persecution, we have seen the growth and the prosperity of the church. The reason is, no one can kill the gospel of Jesus Christ; there’s no human being, there’s no spirit, there’s no principality, there’s no power that can destroy the gospel of Jesus Christ —that is the simple reason. The scripture says in Hebrews 4 verse 12, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. 

The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a story; the bible is not just a holy book, it is a living and powerful word, it is that word that transforms, and God is not unable to fight His own battles. That’s why He said vengeance is not ours, He said vengeance is mine. And that is why God, when He saw a Boko Haram leader like Paul, who was then Saul, going to Damascus to capture Christians and kill more Christians, arrested him, and when He arrested him, he confessed to the greatest preacher of the gospel that ever lived, even until this date, and he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. God is not unable to fight your battles; He’s not, as a matter of fact, His hands are not shortened, He’s completely able.

What we must do, and I believe that on the anniversary, the 150th anniversary, shows us that the gospel continues and it’s waxing stronger. But what we must do is that we must be boldly vigilant, we must preach the gospel, and the gospel is a contrarian gospel. It is not an easy gospel. The gospel that says when you’re slapped on one side of the cheek, turn the other. The gospel that says love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. The gospel that says you can’t be great or exalted unless you humble yourself. The gospel that says you can’t seek things, seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be added.

It is the gospel of values that says ‘let your yes be yes’, the gospel that says we must stand up against corruption, whether that corruption be found in government or in church, whether that corruption be found anywhere, we must stand up against it. That’s what the gospel says; it’s not an easy gospel. It is a gospel of truth, and truth must always prevail over evil or falsehood.

So I want to say that God Almighty has brought us together as Christians. The gospel of salvation is a powerful one; it cannot be killed by anyone, no matter who the person may be. The duty of government is always to ensure that there is justice, to ensure that there is fairness for all people, whether they belong to our religion or not; that is the duty that government has. The law enforcement is ensuring that people obey the government and that when they disobey the law, they are tried and convicted. The country has had challenges, many challenges, but we must address those challenges line by line, precept by precept, day by day. It’s not an easy task, but it’s a task we must address, and all of us must join in addressing it and speaking up when religion is involved.

I’m so blessed to belong to this church, to belong to the Anglican Communion, a communion where men and women have received the gospel of Jesus Christ. I just want to thank the Almighty God for all of us who have remained in the church; some of us have gone to other churches, but the important thing is that wherever we are, we are preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, my brothers, our brothers who are also pastors in other churches, but you know that our roots come from here. In any event, because Paul said you must be careful not to be too particular about denominations, he says you cannot say, I’m of Paul, you cannot say I’m of Apollos. The church of God, where the gospel of Jesus Christ is being preached, is one, as they say, so long as the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached with integrity and is preached with boldness and is preached correctly, the denominations do not matter. At the end of the day, we’re not going to be asked where we came from; we’re going to ask if we accepted Christ as our Lord and Saviour or did not.

I want to just bless the Almighty God for every one of us who takes our roots from here. The word of God is that the seeds of the righteous will continue to prosper, and we are truly the seed of righteousness. I want to leave us with the words of Deuteronomy 7 verse 9, which says, “Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. We are the seeds of righteousness.”

The word of God to us is that because of our parents, because of all of those who were before us, and because of those on whose shoulders we stand today and we can stand tall, men and women of the faith. For that reason, God has said that He will keep His covenant with us and will have mercy on us for a thousand generations. I pray that every one of us will experience the mercy and covenant of God for a thousand generations in the mighty name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

I want to thank you again very much. I want to thank Bishop Akinpelu Johnson (Rtd) for the timeless and special privilege, enabling me and allowing me to speak here today.

Thank you very much, and God bless you.