GrandmaPeg
New Member
Member # 6950
|
posted
The below is the text from a brochure I recently did for our church's evangelism team. It's geared towards those people who are maybe "on the fence" about what they know about Jesus, or maybe new untaught Christians. Any feedback, good or bad?
WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?
Greetings,
I would like to introduce to you Jesus Christ, the Lord of all creation. It’s unlikely that you’ve never heard of Him. Maybe a friend or family member has already tried to introduce you to Him. They explained to you from the Bible how everyone is a sinner according to God’s perfect standard. And how the penalty of sin is eternal death. And that God loved the world so much He gave Jesus Christ, His only Son, to pay for your sins on your behalf. Maybe you listened politely and then turned away. Maybe you reacted with hostility, saying you never want to hear about Him again. Or maybe you feel drawn by God, but you still have doubts. You want to know “exactly who is this Jesus, why is He so special, and what does it mean to believe in Him?” Are you ready to listen and believe? Because, He is the Truth.
Who was He? Every year, you hear the Christmas story about Jesus being born in the manger. Most people think that this was His beginning. But would it surprise you to know that He always existed, before His birth in Bethlehem? That’s right, there was never a time when He did not exist. Before He was born on earth as the Man, Jesus, He always existed in perfect communion with God the Father, and with God the Holy Spirit. He existed with God and as God. Both the Old and New Testaments speak of His deity and eternality. If you don’t understand Who He has always been, you cannot have a full appreci ation for Who He is. He is the theme of the entire Bible. He existed prior to the creation of the heavens and the earth. Furthermore, everything was created by Him and through Him.
The Bible says that “no one has seen God at any time.” Yet, in the Old Testament, are many accounts of people who “saw God.” What they saw was “The Angel of the Lord.” Do you know who that was? It was Jesus Christ! So not only did He exist, He was very active.
Throughout Old Testament times, God sent Jesus Christ, as The Angel, to help people, and to accomplish God’s purpose for them. They couldn’t see God, but they could see The Angel. Moses wrote about Jesus, because he knew Him. In the Old Testament, as The Angel, He pre pared people for what He would do in the New Testa ment. The Old Testament was the shadow of what was to come. The New Testament was the fulfillment.
Why did He come? God gave you His Ten Command ments. The purpose was to make your sin obvious to you. Everyone has broken every one of the Command ments. They were a “tutor” to lead you to Jesus. In the Old Testament, sacrificing animals was God’s temporary solution, but their blood only covered the sins. In the New Testament, because of the shed blood of Christ on the Cross, the sins were completely, permanently done away with.
God the Father is perfect, righteous, just, and holy. His glory is so intense that no sinful human being could ever live in His presence. That’s why He sent Jesus to this earth in human form. So that anyone who trusts in Him, alone, as their Savior can become a child of God and go to live with Him eternally in heaven. No other religious leader ever claimed to be deity. Jesus claimed it numerous times in the Bible. He was (and is) 100% human and 100% deity. He was sinless flesh united with eternal deity. Just as God the Father is all-knowing, all-wise, eternal, holy, just, unchangeable, and more, so is Jesus Christ also all these things. He is the image of the invisible God. And consider this:
Just as The Angel was sent by God in the Old Testament, so Jesus also was sent by God in the New Testament.
Just as The Angel accepted worship in the Old Testament, so Jesus also accepted worship in the New Testament.
Just as The Angel had authority in the Old Testament to forgive sins, so Jesus also had the same authority in the New Testament.
You may think that because He was on this earth 2,000 years ago, that He didn’t know what it feels like to have the problems you have today. Do you think He didn’t know what it feels like to have emotional pain, physical pain, or temptations? He experienced everything you have, because He had to be made like you, physically (yet with out sin), to take away your sins. This is why He came to give His life as a ransom for you; to bear your sins in His own body; to be crucified because of your offenses.
You may think that He was just a victim of circum stances, that His crucifixion really didn’t have to happen. But His death on the Cross was planned by God before time began. His birth, death on the cross, and resurrec tion were all prophesied in the Old Testament hundreds of years before His physical birth. The Scriptures had to be fulfilled. He could have called down hundreds of angels for His protection any time He wanted, but He willingly, joyfully went to the Cross. When He was hanging on that Cross, bearing your sins in His body, He was thinking of how much He loved you.
And despite what you may think, He did indeed resurrect from the dead. He appeared to hundreds of people. He then ascended to where He was before, to the right hand of God the Father, in His glorified body. He finished every thing He was sent to do. Your guilt and your sin were nailed to the Cross.
Jesus is the one and only Mediator between God and you. He is able to save you completely if you come to God through Him. If you deny Him, you deny God. If you do not honor Him, you do not honor God. If you persecute those who tell you about Him, you persecute Him, and you persecute God. And still, God loves you and does not wish for you to perish!
What is He doing today? For those who have trusted in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, He is still quite active on their behalf. He promised His disciples that He was going to prepare a place for them in heaven. And He is doing the same for all believers. He is constantly praying for those who are His. He is their Advocate. However, if you have not yet put your trust in Him as your Savior, He is not doing any of this for you. God the Father does not hear the prayers of those who have rejected Jesus Christ. You’re on your own.
What is in your future? If you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can rest assured that your eternal future is wonderful. Ever since His death and resurrection, all those who are His at their death are absent from their bodies, and present with Him in heaven. And at some point in the very near future, He will come back for every believer on earth. Everyone who has believed in Him since His resurrection, though now physically dead, will be bodily resurrected. And immediately after that, all those believers who are currently living on earth, will also be caught up by Him in the “twinkling of an eye” to meet Him in the air. (This is called the Rapture.) Everyone will have glorified bodies that will conform to His glorified body. That means that you can live in the presence of God in heaven. And the reason Jesus is taking you back with Him to heaven is so that you will not have to go through the 7 years of God’s wrath that will then come upon the earth. (This is called the Tribulation.) He will be pouring out His judgment on all the people who have spent their lives rejecting Him, and Jesus. If you have not yet put your trust in Jesus, one day you will find yourself left on this earth when your Christian friends and family have literally disappeared.
After the 7 years are finished, Jesus will come back bodily to this earth as sovereign King and Judge. He will also bring with Him all those whom He took up with Him at the Rapture. Every person on earth will see Him. During the Tribu lation, there will be some people who have become believers in Him. Those who still reject Him will be sent to Hades. Those who are His will go into a 1,000-year period of time (called the Millen nium) to live with Him as He rules on earth. After that comes the Judgment. All unbelievers through the ages will hear Christ’s voice calling them to His judgment seat, and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. But it will be too late for them to be saved. They died in their sins.
Christ has been despised and rejected for centuries. You may still have your own ideas about Him, you may still despise Him. You may think that He was a nice person, but that He’s dead now. You may think that all other religious founders are just the same as Jesus. But what if you’re wrong? Are you really willing to play Russian Roulette with your eternal future? How do you think that makes Him feel? Your hard ness of heart grieves His heart. Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship with Jesus! Everything here is in God’s Word, the Bible, and it is the truth, because Jesus IS the truth. Now that you know how much He loves you, that He always existed, that there is an eternal future … just as He asked His disciple Thomas, you are now asked “who do you say that I am?” If you were to die right now, would you meet Jesus as your Savior? Or will you meet Him as your Judge on the Judgment Day?
You might say you believe in God, or in Jesus, but that’s not the same as being born again. You don’t just believe in a parachute -- you put it on, or you die when you jump. Are you willing to put Jesus on? If you are willing to put your life into His hands, you will have peace with God, access to God, and eternal life with Him. And nothing can separate you from His love. If you want to know more about Jesus, start reading the Gospel of John. Contact your born-again family or friend. And begin attending a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church.
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore!”
Posts: 6 | From: Midwest | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged | 
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
