Sunday, 12 June 2022

The Message of the Cross (CW112)

  World War 3 is at Hand

Gospel of Christ
Luke 24:46-47  Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
   Before our Lord Jesus was crucified, He was a Jew in human flesh. To stay sinless, He must not break any of the Law and Prophet. He followed John the Baptist, the last prophet of the Old Covenant, and preached the message 'Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand'.
   After His death, which made the Old Covenant obsolete, our resurrected Lord commissioned His disciples to preach His gospel of grace that Jesus, the Son of God was made flesh, suffered, died and on the third day He rose from the dead.
   Whoever repents of his sins and believes the gospel of grace will be saved and the blood of Jesus cleanses all his sins. Our Lord will then give him the Holy Spirit as the seal of redemption thereby making him become a born again Christian.
   Our Lord Jesus taught Paul the same gospel of grace
I Cor 15:3-5  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.
 
New Covenant of His Blood
I Cor 11:25  In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
   When we partake of the cup (His blood), we are reminded to remember the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, where out of His great love for men, He became the propitiation of our sins.
    When we celebrate or fast during the period of Easter, we adore, appreciate, celebrate and most of all believe Jesus' love for us in His sufferings and death on the cross (Good Friday) and His resurrection from the dead (Easter Sunday).
John 19:33-34  But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

First Born Again Christians
John 20:21-22  So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
    After His disciples had believed His sufferings and death on the cross for the remission of their sins, and that He had risen from the dead on the third day, only then our Lord gave each of them the Holy Spirit, making them born again Christians.

Teachings of Risen Christ
Luke 24:44-45  Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
    Our Risen Lord was with His disciples for 40 days before he went back to heaven and He taught them how He had fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Covenant.
   He then opened up their understanding of the gospel, teachings, words, commands and parables in the New Covenant of His blood, which have replaced the obsolete Law and Prophets of the Old Covenant.

Easter and Good Friday
The Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D with 384 bishops and presided by Bishop Hosius of Cordova besides formulating the Nicene Creed, also established a unified date for Easter, which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. This separated Easter from the obsolete Jewish feasts which Christians are forbidden to observe.
  When we celebrate or fast during Good Friday, we believe Jesus suffered and died for the remission of our sins.
   When we celebrate Easter, we believe Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.