Sunday – April 20, 2014 – Read the Word on Worship
Easter 2014 from Sunrise Community Church on Vimeo.
Word On Worship – Sunday – April 20, 2014 Download / Print
Luke 24:45-49
“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
If there is one thing I despise, it is those phone calls that come from toll free numbers, which begin with the assurance that the caller is not “selling” anything. The Bible could not be more open and direct about the purpose of the Scripture. Through it God has one goal for the unbeliever: He wants to demonstrate as clearly and as forcefully as he can that Jesus not only claimed to be the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God, but that by many miraculous signs He proved it! The last and greatest of these signs was His resurrection from the dead.
While the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was prophesied in the Old Testament, and by our Lord Himself, the Bible makes it very clear that the disciples – just as many people today – were not predisposed to believe it. Only after the most forceful and compelling evidence that they could see and touch, would the disciples believe Jesus really was alive. And having become convinced of this great truth, the disciples never ceased to proclaim it, first in Jerusalem, then in Judea and finally to the ends of the earth. The resurrection of Jesus is the final and compelling proof that He is the Son of God and the Savior of the world.
Believing in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is the only way God has provided for the forgiveness of your sins and for the gift of eternal life. By believing in Him, you will be saved: John 1:11-13 “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. But to all who have received him – those who believe in his name – he has given the right to become God’s children – children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband’s decision, but by God.”
In many ways, the Bible is not a simple book. But its message to the unsaved is incredibly simple: Jesus Christ saves from sin, death and hell. If you have never come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the promised Messiah, the Son of God, then this book is addressed to you, and for you, to give you all the evidence you need to believe in Him. Have you believed? This is the most important decision you will ever make. It determines your eternal destiny.