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The Most Important Mission
Greetings,
Sally. I enjoyed getting to meet you at your barber shop the other day.
I had hoped to share something very important to me, but there were too
many other people around. So I am writing you this letter instead.
I have been given an exceedingly important mission in life. That
mission is to share with as many as I can about the most important
person this world has ever known. That person is Jesus. He has a title.
He is "The Anointed One." In Greek terminology, that title is "Christ."
In Hebrew or Jewish terminology, that title is "Messiah."
I wish to give you a complete picture of him so you can make up your own mind about him.
We find out that He existed before the beginning of everything began.
He was with God in the beginning, and He was being God in the
beginning. He made everything that exists. Apart from Him nothing
came into being that has come into being (John 1:1-3).
He had a title. He was the Word of God. It is fair to say that He Was
the Message of God. Back then, He did not have a human body.
But God was committed to making His Message available to all humans in
the world. So He caused His Message to be born of a virgin named Mary.
He was born with a human body, just like yours and mine. After He had
been born, He had another descriptive name -- He was called "the
only-born Son of God."
Why did God go to all this trouble? It is a complicated history. But it is crucial history.
Back in the beginning, God created everything that exists in the space of six days (Genesis
1:1-2:4). Now, you need to know that you can't create anything without
having it look older than it really is. For example, on the sixth day,
God created man and woman in His own likeness and image. He commanded
them to rule over His creation, manage it, and help it look
well-groomed. A day or two after He had created them, they would have
looked to be about 25 years of age, in the prime of life. But they were
actually only two days old. They looked older than they really were.
When God created the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day, they
looked as if they had been there millions or perhaps billions of years.
But on the fifth day, they were only a day old.
Back to man, the crown of God's creation. God placed our first parents,
Adam and Eve, in a beautiful garden. It became known as the Garden of
Eden. He told them they could eat of any fruit of any tree in the
garden except one. That was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
He told them that in the day they ate it, they would most certainly
die.
Unfortunately, there was another being God had created as a powerful
angel. But this angel was filled with pride and revolted against God.
He wanted to subvert man in order to damage God and His program, and so he tempted Eve to eat from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She yielded and gave some of the fruit
to her husband, Adam. He also ate.
They did gain the experience of knowing good and evil as they had never
known it beforehand. But far worse, they instantly died. That death we
call "Spiritual Death." They were now separated from God. Instead of
running out to meet Him in the Garden, they now were embarrassed to be
naked, so they put on temporary clothes. What was worse, they hid from
God so He wouldn't find them and talk to them. Their bodies began to
age, and after many years, they and their children all died. Death
continues to be our long-standing enemy.
How was God going to rectify this tragic ruin? He had created mankind
to be His friends forever. Now they would be eternally separated from
Him. The answer to that question is where our fascinating history goes
next, and it will lead each of us to our Most Important Mission -- if
we decide to accept it.
Since the wages of sin was and is death, God's Message had to become
man. Because He was God, He could live a perfect life. Because He was
man, He could die a human death. So He became man in order to live a
perfect life and to die a death of infinite value.
While He was here, He proved His "Godness" by performing all kinds of
miracles. He gave sight to blind people. He healed crippled people so
they could walk. He healed every manner of disease. He was able to cast
out demons who were afflicting people. And He could resurrect dead
people.
He came to His own things -- the things He had created, but His own
people, the Jewish people, did not receive Him. A small fraction
believed in Him and became His disciples. He appointed twelve as His
Apostles ("Sent Ones"). But in the end, the Jewish people, led by their
hard-hearted leaders, rejected Him, and killed him, having the Roman
government crucify Him on a cross. When some followers placed His
lifeless body in a tomb, the leaders had Pilate, the Roman governor,
seal the tomb so it could not be broken into without facing the wrath
of the Roman Empire.
But on the third day, just as Jesus had predicted, a miracle
transformed that tomb. God, through the power of His Holy Spirit,
raised Jesus back to life. An angel came to announce His absence.
People entered the tomb and found His grave clothes, but could not
found Him.
Over the next 40 days, Jesus appeared numerous times to those who
believed in Him. On one occasion He appeared to over 500 at one time.
When Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, many of those 500 were
still alive, and could have been interviewed.
Jesus told His followers He was departing to heaven. While He was
seated at the right hand of God, He will one day be granted His Kingdom
on earth. He will come back to earth to set up His throne in Jerusalem
and establish His kingdom. He will put to death all His enemies, and
who trust Him and want to serve Him will participate in His reign here
upon earth.
There will be world-wide peace and prosperity. Nations will get rid of
their weapons of war and trade them in for tools and machines of
agriculture. Tanks will be turned into tractors, and there will be no
more defense budgets. People from nations all over the world will
travel to worship to give honor to the King and to learn His ways.
That is all in the future. Meanwhile, we have an Important Mission here
on earth. We who are Jesus' followers have been assigned the task of
recruiting as many people for His coming kingdom as we possibly can.
That is where you and I come in. I am a committed follower of Jesus,
the coming King of Israel, America, and the rest of the world. I am
giving you the opportunity to accept Jesus as your King. You need to
admit you are a sinner. That means you have violated God's laws, as
have I and everyone else. You need to believe that Jesus died to pay
for your sins, and that He arose to provide for your resurrection. The
big requirement to enter His Kingdom is to trust in Him. Trust in Who
He is and What He has done -- for you and everyone.
If you trust in Jesus you will be born again -- born into a spiritual
life -- eternal life. Though you will die physically, you will be alive
spiritually. You have eternal life. When you are resurrected, you will
be part of Jesus' kingdom here on earth.
Meanwhile it is our task to serve Jesus to the best of our abilities.
We need to ask Him to give us the power to stop lying, stop envying,
stop lusting, stop judging others, and start meeting with God's people
in a church that teaches God's Word.
And you can join me in recruiting other people to enter Jesus' kingdom through faith.
What do you say?
Your friend,
Jim Bartsch
(Scripture quotation taken
from
the NASB.)
Search
WordExplain.com here.
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