THIS EASTER SHARE THE GOSPEL

Posted on by

HOW TO SHARE THE GOSPEL IN 15 SECONDS, 30 SECONDS AND 60 SECONDS

15 Seconds: “My Train is here!!” “God made everything perfect, but we broke His moral law—lied, stolen, blasphemed. The punishment is hell, but Jesus took our punishment on the cross, died and rose again. Turn from your sin and trust Him to be saved.”

30 Seconds: “My rides about to arrive to pick me up!” “God created a perfect world and gave us a conscience to know right from wrong. But we’ve all sinned—lied, stolen, used His name in vain. Sin separates us from God, and the just punishment is eternity in hell. Yet, God loved us so much He sent Jesus to live the perfect life we couldn’t, take our punishment on the cross, and rise from the dead. If you turn from sin and trust Him, God forgives you, gives you a new heart, and offers eternal life instead of hell.”

60 Seconds: “I have an appointment I have to leave in a minute!” “God created the world perfect, but we’ve all broken His moral law—lied, stolen, blasphemed, hated in our hearts. Sin is not a minor thing; it’s rebellion against a holy God, and His justice demands that sin be punished. The Bible says the punishment is eternity in hell, completely separated from God’s goodness. But in His love, God sent Jesus Christ, who lived perfectly and willingly took our punishment by dying on the cross. He rose again, proving His victory over sin and death. If you turn from your sin and trust in Jesus, you’ll receive forgiveness, escape hell, and gain eternal life with God.”

HARD QUESTION: “CAN YOU GIVE ME EVIDENCE FOR GOD?” YES! Imagine you’re walking down the street, and you see a fully assembled, functioning car parked on the side of the road. It’s sleek, well-designed, with intricate engineering — from the engine to the electronics, everything works together perfectly. Would you ever assume that car just appeared out of nowhere, assembled by time and chance? Of course not. You’d immediately know it had a manufacturer — someone who designed it, engineered it, and built it.

Prepared by Answers in Genesis (AIG) http://www.answersingenesis.org

NO REASONABLE PERSON DISPUTES THAT JESUS HEALED HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE

Posted on by

During His earthly ministry, “Great crowds came to Jesus, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the dumb and many others, and laid them at His feet; and He healed them. The people were amazed when they saw people raised from the dead, dumb speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel” Matthew 15:30-31

Earlier in the previous century, even the New Testament skeptical scholar Rudolf Bultmann acknowledged that there could be no doubt that Jesus healed sick individuals and expelled demons. More recently, Jarl Fossum notes: “That Jesus was a miracle worker is central to the Christology of the New Testament Gospels and Acts.” Perhaps surprisingly, prominent Jesus Seminar member Marcus Borg attested quite strongly, “Despite the difficulty which miracles pose for the modern mind, on historical grounds it is virtually indisputable that Jesus was a healer and exorcist.” Further, Jesus’s healing cases cannot all be accounted for simply as “faith healings” alone, for we do not know how far Jesus’s powers actually extended. Prominent historical Jesus researcher John Meier states, “In sum, the statement that Jesus acted as and was viewed as an exorcist and healer during his public ministry has as much historical corroboration as almost any other statement we can make about the Jesus of history.”

Even Jesus’ opponents did not contest the proclamations that He did healings and exorcisms, but “they claimed that his powers came from the lord of the evil spirits,” thereby admitting the existence of the events themselves by their very criticism. In this way, Jesus’s disciples, the crowds of people who heard and saw Jesus, and even His adversaries all agreed to what happened and that at least these healings and exorcisms were due to Jesus’s skills and power.

What about you? Do you praise the Lord because of the mighty miracles Jesus performed? Or do you ignore Jesus and live life as your own god? It is easy to ignore the Lord while loving the world and loving your sin. None of us would ever turn to God apart from the power of the Holy Spirit who produces repentance and faith in a man’s heart.

So, are you resisting the Holy Spirit even as you read these words? Or are you open to the idea that you need Jesus and the forgiveness only He can give you? Do you realize why Jesus endured the agony of the cross? He did it to pay for your sins so that you do not suffer the consequences of your sins. You will face Jesus at the White Throne judgment and you will be thrown into the Lake of Fire for punishment and a second death.

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8 Also, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 20:6, and Revelation 20:14

Did you ignore the cross once again this Easter? When will you finally get serious about your sin and your need for the Savior?

Like everyone, a day will come when you experience tremendous storms in your life. Perhaps you are going through a terrible storm right now. Jesus has the power and authority to calm storms, just like He did when His disciples encountered a “furious squall” one day while out in a boat (see Mark 4:35-41. Jesus rebuked the wind, and it became completely calm, His disciples were “terrified and asked each other, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey Him!’”  

Who will you turn to during the personal storms ahead of you? The longer you ignore the Messiah, the harder your heart will become toward the Savior. On the other hand, the miracle-working Messiah will save your soul the moment you come to Christ in faith. The Apostle John explained it beautifully:

“Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life (eternal life) in His name.” John 20:30-31

One day “the Jews demanded of Jesus, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days’” (John 2:19). The miracle of miracles was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The Messiah who had raised Lazarus (see John 11:38-44) and others from the dead (see Matthew 9:23-25; Luke 7:11-17) would Himself come back to life after His crucifixion.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to many of His followers, including “more than 500 of the brothers at the same time” (1 Corinthians 15:6). Why else would the apostles have laid down their lives for the Gospel? If they had not seen and touched the risen Christ, Christianity would never have gotten off the ground (see John 20:24-31). Christ’s enemies couldn’t track down His body because Jesus did in fact rise from the dead.

So, are you spiritually dead, or spiritually alive? Have you risen from your tomb of unbelief? You can either ignore the miracle-working Messiah or trust Him to forgive your sins and perform the miracle of the new birth within your soul (see John 3:1-8; 1 Peter 1:3-5). You will never know what you have been missing until you give your life to Christ and become one of His followers. Whatever you do, please don’t ignore this soul-saving invitation: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Adapted from an article in Christian Post “Why Multitudes Ignore the miracle-working Messiah” by Dan Delzell and excerpts from On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences by Gary R. Habermas (B&H Academic, 2024).

EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF JESUS CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION

Posted on by

The EYE WITNESS Bible Series produced by Hatikvah Films is excellent and I would suggest you consider using the one titled EASTER at your Home Group. Ideally, it would have been a study prior to Easter but any time of year it is a powerful message.

The following 14-minute segment shows enough to determine if it is for you. It tells the story of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey. It is described in all four gospel accounts. Only Matthew and John were present at the event, and all four gospel writers had different purposes in choosing the details of their storyline. Although the Triumphal Entry is traditionally taken to have happened on the Sunday before the crucifixion of Jesus, experts vary on the exact day it happened. John wrote that Jesus arrived in Bethany six days before the Passover, and indicates the entry happened the next day. John says that people were going to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

What about the pharisees and the sadducees, the religious leaders of the day, what was their reaction to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead? There were many eye witnesses to that miraculous event.

“So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” John 10:11-12

Matthew indicates a donkey and its colt were to be brought to Jesus, while the other three gospels mention only a colt. Luke indicates the colt had more than one owner. Mark and Luke have Jesus saying the colt will be unridden. All of the writers have a common goal of relating the event and the crowd’s reactions to at least two scriptures:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9
https://youtu.be/8ijCwrJVR4A

IRAQ’S CHRISTIANS DON’T LOSE HOPE

Posted on by

For the first time since ISIS drove all the Christians from Iraq’s Nineveh Plain in 2014, the Christian town of Qaraqosh celebrates Palm Sunday after many of its families have returned. During this week leading up to Easter, Open Doors team on the ground visits Qaraqosh to meet with Christians there.

 

Today, the world can see and hear the powerful truth—Christians have returned to the Nineveh Plain. Thousands of Iraqi Christians walked through the streets of the ancient town, waving palm and olive branches; praying, singing and remembering the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ. Their chorus: “King of kings and Lord of Lords. Glory! Hallelujah!”

We spoke with a 25-year-old teacher named Andraws. His message to Christians around the world was clear: “Please do not lose hope. Two and a half years we were displaced and we almost lost hope to ever return here. But today, we are here again, because of Jesus; because we had hope in Him,” he said.

Standing amidst the thousands of Christians, Andraws adds: “As you can see: the Christians have returned to Qaraqosh!”

Andraws and his family joined the march that ended with an open air service on the square of Qaraqosh’ St. John’s Church. The roof of the church served as a pulpit for the Church leaders, proclaiming the gospel, reading the Bible and leading the crowd gathered in the square into worship and singing Hosanna.

Andraws, an English teacher in Qaraqosh’s recently reopened school, says: “Today is the start of the week of Easter. And we are very excited about it. I’m glad that we can celebrate Palm Sunday again in our city. Thank God for that. Because three years ago, something like that would never happened, when we were displaced.”

Faith strengthened because of ISIS 

The young teacher tells us how his faith changed after ISIS forced him and his family out of their town, leaving almost everything they owned behind because they refused to renounce their faith in Christ. “During the first days we were displaced, I felt like there was no God or Jesus; because of the things that happened to us. But after that, I realised that Jesus does exist and we have to believe in Him.” “And because of Him, we are here today.”

Do Christians in your city celebrate Palm Sunday like these Iraqi Christians?

Report from Open Doors March 25, 2018 by Brian O. in Middle East

 

 

 

 

Easter Message from PM of UK Unashamedly Christian

Posted on by

David Cameron and the Queen have given strong and encouraging Christian Easter messages this year. It’s a reminder of Australia’s Christian heritage which has blessed this country considerably.