Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you,
which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you
are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you
have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first
importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He
was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared
to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are
still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then
to all the apostles, and He finally presented himself alive to me. It was
fitting that I bring up the rear. I don't deserve to be included in that “inner
circle,” as you well know, having spent all those early years trying my best to
stamp God's church right out of existence. 1 Cor 15:1-9 (NIV and “The
Message”)
It had been a long three days. Sometimes they thought back
about the many good and amazing times that they had had with Jesus. But then,
reality would force its way back to the surface of their thoughts. "What
had gone wrong?!?"
Things had been so glorious in the beginning, the early
days, the days of sunshine...days of ministry! The voice of the first prophet
in 400 years had been thundering across the Jordan River
and into the hearts of sincere believers! A man sent from God whose name was
John had come to prepare Israel
for the coming of her Messiah, her Savior! "Get ready," John said,
"prepare your heart, repent of your sin, and be baptized, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!!!”
A great stirring was taking place among the ordinary people
of Israel--they
were coming out to listen to the message of John; they were responding! They
were turning from their sins, they were being baptized; they wanted to be ready
and prepared!
One day when John was preaching and challenging Israel
to turn to the Lord, he stopped... and he found himself looking straight into
the eyes of Jesus!!! "AT LAST YOU ARE HERE!"
John turned to those present and said, "BEHOLD, HERE IS
THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!
"Lamb of God? What does that mean? I know plenty about
all of the lambs I have sacrificed time after time, year after year, at the Temple. But what does John mean, "GOD'S
LAMB?"
Some of the people standing there were tuned in to the
Spirit of God that day, and they were drawn to Jesus! They left John and
followed Jesus from that moment. They must get to know Him, learn of Him,
follow Him, be His disciples! They became the first followers of Jesus. Not
content to just follow Him, they felt compelled to tell others about Him, to
invite them to come, see, listen..." Not too long after this, the
followers began to grow in number!
After instructing
them, Jesus sent them out 2 by 2 to proclaim His message. First there were 6
teams, then 35 teams! It wasn't long until there were thousands (!) of seekers!
Some came from spiritual hunger, others were curiosity seekers, but they came,
the saw the miracles, they heard the teachings!
The message of the Kingdom
of God began to explode in Judea, Samaria, Galilee, then to Tyre,
then to Decapolis... Jews and Gentiles,
seeking this One called Jesus!
¨
On His face was the SMILE of God.
¨
In His heart was the LOVE of God!
¨
From His lips proceeded the WORD of God.
¨
He spoke with the AUTHORITY of God.
¨
He healed in the POWER of God!
Everywhere He went He
drew the children to Himself and blessed them. Jesus was like a magnet to the
spiritually hungry, the neglected of society, those whose life had been ruined
by sin, by demonic oppression, and self-destructive lifestyles!
¨
A roman soldier comes and pleads for the health of
his servant! Jesus heals the servant!
¨
A gentile woman comes and asks Jesus to heal her
daughter. Jesus heals her daughter!
¨
A synagogue ruler comes to beg Jesus to come and
pray for his daughter. She is raised from death!
¨
Lepers come, the demonized, the blind, deaf,
paralyzed, poor, rich, religious, skeptic... all were drawn to Jesus!
Wherever He went...
¨
He touched the untouchable
¨
He healed the unhealable
¨
He gave hope to the hopleless.
¨
and help to the helpless!
¨
He enabled the blind to see, the deaf to hear,
¨
The crippled walked
¨
The mute spoke!
¨
The dead were raised!
¨
He turned the flavorless water of OT Law into the
delicious wine of NT grace!
¨
He fed 5000 people with a boy's sack lunch!
¨
When the waters of Lake Galilee
became so stormy that the boat was about to capsize, He spoke, and the waters
calmed!
Things were building to such a pitch that, everywhere He
went, the people brought their sick and afflicted, their demon-possessed, their
crippled and physically afflicted... and He healed them all!
The crowds were so large at the Lake of Galilee
that Jesus had to climb into a boat and row out a ways so that He could preach
to the people! Some wanted to make Him KING, by force, if necessary!
When He entered Jerusalem
for Passover week, crowds went ahead of Him laying palm branches and their own
cloaks before Him shouting: "Hosanna, Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in
the Name of the Lord!"
Where was all of this going to go?
Watching all of this---AND HATING EVERY MOMENT OF IT---were
the chief priests, elders, Pharisees and Sadducees... i.e. the
"professional religionists" of that day!
Jesus was drawing the people away from their control! Jesus
was troublesome to them because of His strong call to the people to GET REAL
with God! All the compromised leaders of Judaism cared about in that day was
keeping the people in line, making sure they paid their Temple tax, brought in their offerings. There
was, by and large, NO EMPHASIS ON THE HEART!
Satan does not mind if you want to play religion, even
FERVENT religion, as long as there is NO CHANGE OF HEART. Do this, do that,
don't do this, don't do that, eat this, don't eat that, observe this day, etc. Look
at our world today... 987 religions! Cults, isms, new age, blah, blah, blah...
Jesus had exposed the sham of religion, and the people were
coming to HIM for the Word of God; they were coming to HIM for their needs.
¨
Of all
things, they who should have led Israel to welcome their Messiah(!)
actually begin to conspire to kill Jesus! But they must be careful, for the
average person loved Him. So they conspire to take Him secretly, at night,
quickly before word could get out and put
Him to death!
¨
Judas(!)
one of the 12, now steps in and offers to lead them to the place where Jesus
stayed every night. Judas, poor Judas, he never "got it," leads
the mob to where Jesus is praying, steps up to Him and kisses Him on both
cheeks, and watches as Jesus is arrested!
The next
few hours are a blur of activity:
¨
a
hurried, mock trial is put together (at night, which was illegal in Israel.)J
¨
false
witnesses come, lie, but their lies don't match
¨
Pontius
Pilate, the week governor, tries to wash his hands of any responsibility...
eventually gives the crowd permission to crucify Jesus.
¨
All along,
the evil one, Satan, thinks he is in control of this situation! But Jesus said
much earlier: John 10:18
That night, Jesus Christ, eternal son of God, who became man
and lived a sinless life, gave His life on the cross for the sins of the world!
2 Cor 5:21 He who knew no sin became a sin-offering for us
that, in union with Him, we might become righteous in the eyes of God the
Father!
Now it had been three long, weary days since Jesus had died!
Taken down from the cross, already dead, laid in a borrowed tomb—borrowed
because He would not need it for long!!
Sunday morning, early: "I don't know why," said
one woman, "but I just feel compelled to go to that tomb! I mean, look, I
know He's dead, but, for some reason, I just need to go and be near Him! He
totally set me free from all the demons that had so controlled my life for
years!"
"I'll go with you," said another, and another!
"So, when we get there, how are we going to get in? There's a big stone in
front of the tomb, and a bunch of soldiers standing guard at the
entrance!" "I don't know," said another, but we've got to go.
I've got these spices and, well, He didn't even have a decent burial!"
But when they arrived at the tomb, the stone wasn't even in
front of the tomb entrance any more! And the guards all looked like they were
in a daze! A being in a dazzling white robe was sitting at the entrance to the
tomb!
"You're looking for Jesus, aren't you! I have wonderful
news! He is not here! He has risen from the dead! See, that's where he had been
placed; there's the wrapping for his head and there are the burial cloths. But
he has risen from the dead!"
They were soon reunited with Jesus and, for forty days, He
fellowshipped with them, ate with them, but, most important, He taught them how
the OT scriptures repeatedly spoke of Him! He showed them how He had conquered
sin on the cross, and defeated death by His own resurrection.
Now they were to go into ALL the world and tell everyone the
GOOD NEWS that the Savior has come to reconcile us to the Father! He paid our
debt, appeased the accumulated wrath of the Father toward all sin and
rebellion. Now, anyone can come to God and everyone is invited to come! We come
to God, not on the basis of what we DO for Him, but we receive salvation as a
gift of God on the basis of WHAT HE DID FOR US!!!
Three Results of the Resurrection:
1-Forgiveness for the past!
God made Him Who knew no sin to become a sin-offering for
the world, so that we—by
uniting ourselves to Him—could become forever righteous before the Father “in
Christ!” 2 Cor 5:21
2- Direction and power for the present—the every day issues
of life!
3-An Incredible future!
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