THE
GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
By Pastor Max
Solbrekken, D.D.
“Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you…how 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.” (1 Cor.15: 1-4)
In this treatise I seek to declare the Gospel of Christ in its fullness with
its rich promises of blessing and fellowship with God if received, and the
peril of great loss if rejected and spurned!
It is my full intention in this study to honour the Word of God above
all other words, and the Name of Jesus Christ above all names, as I endeavour
to delineate the unadulterated, unvarnished and unedited Good News, even the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Since the Gospel is anchored in the Scriptures of the Old Testament and
confirmed in the New Testament and our Lord stated that, “salvation is of the Jews”
(John 4: 22), here are some O.T. Scriptures that declare the trustworthiness of
God’s Word:
“For ask now of the days that are past,
which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth, and
ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any
such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it?” (Deut.4: 31-39)
THE END FROM THE BEGINNING!
“Remember the former things of old: for I
am God. I will do all My pleasure and there is NONE ELSE. I am God and there is
NONE like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall stand and I will do all
My pleasure.
“I have even from the beginning
declared it to thee; before it came to pass I showed it thee: lest thou
shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them; and my graven image, and my molten
idol hath commanded them.” (Isaiah 46: 9, 10; 48: 5)
JESUS said: “Do not think that I
will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in
whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he
wrote of Me.” (John 5:45, 46);
After His resurrection our Lord appeared a total of seven times to His
followers during the 40 days before His ascension to Heaven. The Bible records
His conversation with the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus thusly: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all
that the prophets have spoken: “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things
and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He
expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
(Luke 24: 25-27)
LAW OF MOSES, PROPHETS, PSALMS!
He appeared to His disciples again, saying: “These are the words which I spake unto while I was yet with you, that
all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in
the Prophets and in the Psalms, concerning Me.
“Then opened He their understanding, that
they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them thus it is written,
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third
day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” (Luke 24: 44-47)
Jesus Christ fulfilled 332 Old Testaments Scriptures. He was God
incarnate (God in human flesh); True God from eternity and True Man, begotten
of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. What a Wonderful Saviour!
He was born be crucified, to die
and rise again in great power and glory so that He could emancipate the human
race through His vicarious death for us and the shedding of His pure, holy and
righteous BLOOD!
Before His substitutionary death on the
CROSS, He conveyed to His disciples that He was the Messiah of Israel. He would
NOT, however, restore Israel’s greatness as a nation but atone for the sins of
the world through His Redemptive death as God’s Pascal Lamb, in fulfillment of
Isaiah’s prophecy! (Isa. 53: 1-10)
“And it came to pass, when Jesus had
finished all these sayings, He said unto His disciples, Ye know that after two
days is the Feast of the Passover and the Son of Man is betrayed to be
crucified.” (Matt.26:
1, 2)
“Then saith Jesus unto them all: All
ye shall be offended because of Me this night: for it is written, I will smite
the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I
am risen again I will go before you into Galilee.” (Matt. 26: 31, 32)
THEY REMEMBERED HIS WORDS!
After He had risen from the dead, they remembered His Words and were
strengthened in their faith and resolve to face the demonic onslaughts of Satan
and his emissaries!
“Jesus answered and said unto them,
Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But He spoke of the
temple of His body. When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto
them; and they believed the Scripture, and the Word which Jesus had said.” (John 2:19,
21,22)
“These things understood not His
disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then REMEMBERED they that these things were written of Him, and they had done these
things unto Him.” (John 12: 16; Luke 24:1-8)
The MASTER had spent three years teaching His disciples through His unblemished,
holy and righteous lifestyle, teaching and preaching and healing. They had seen
Him answer the critics with the Holy Scriptures and compassionately forgive the
fallen and heal the incurables.
He taught
them about the power of God that comes through prayer and fasting and He
demonstrated His teachings through concrete miracles! He told them that they
could do those miracles as well because they believed that He was the Christ of
God who had come to this world to reveal God to them! He said, Take My Word, My
Power and My Name. Heal the sick and cast out devils!
They returned to Him joyfully saying: “Lord, even the devils are subject to us through THY NAME.” Jesus
answered: “I beheld Satan as lightning
fall from Heaven. Behold I give unto you power to tread on serpents and
scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and NOTHING shall by any means
hurt you.” (Luke 10: 17-19).
Jesus had witnessed Lucifer’s FALL from Heaven. He and his renegade co-conspirators
had been ejected from heaven by the Michael and Gabriel at God’s command and therefore
were powerless against Jesus Christ and His disciples. (Rev.12: 1-13)
Continuing, Jesus stated victoriously: “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not;
but rather rejoice, because your names written in Heaven.” (Luke 10: 20)
WHAT
DID JESUS MEAN?
It is a natural phenomenon that demons must obey a man of God who speaks
in the all - powerful name of Jesus Christ, in full faith of Calvary’s Victory.
Demons are obligated to respect and obey the commands of God’s servants when
spoken in faith! That which was even greater was that their names were written
down in the Lamb’s book of life. Eternal life is the greatest gift of all!
Before ascending to Heaven, Jesus gave them their ‘work order’ called the ‘Great
Commission’ which empowered God’s true disciples to continue using His
name and power to work signs, wonders and miracles in their great work of
Kingdom building!
“And He said unto them, Go ye into all the
world, and preach the GOSPEL to every creature. He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these
signs shall follow them that believe; in My name shall they cast our devils;
they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink
any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and
they shall recover.”
(Mark 16: 15-18)
How well did they do? What was the outcome? Did they affect the society
around them? Did Jesus keep His Word? The answer is: “YES, Jesus kept His Word.
YES, it went VERY WELL, indeed! Here is the Holy Record to prove that: “So then
after the Lord had spoken unto them, He was received up into Heaven, and sat on
the right hand of God.
“And they went forth, and
preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with
SIGNS following. Amen.”
Before He left them, He breathed on them
saying, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost!”
(John 20: 22). “And being assembled
together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me.
For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy
Ghost not many days hence.
“But ye shall receive power after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth. And when He had spoken these things while they beheld, He was taken
up and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” (Acts 1: 8, 9)
THE HOLY SPIRIT FELL UPON THEM!
Is Jesus trustworthy? “YES, He is!”
Did Jesus keep His Word? “YES, He did!” What really happened
in that upper room where about one hundred and twenty obedient, hungry souls
had waited in prayer for ten days? “They received the Promise of the Father and
were baptized with the Holy Spirit and Fire!”
Here is the Holy Record of that great
event: “And when the Day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all in one accord, in one place. And suddenly there
came a sound from Heaven as of a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the
house where they were sitting.
“And there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance.” (Act
2: 1- 4)
What was the outcome of this great
supernatural experience in their lives? This supernatural happening of God the Holy
Spirit filling them, the wind, cloven tongues like as of fire, speaking with other
tongues, made such an impact upon Jews from many nations assembled in Jerusalem.
Hearing about God’s wondrous outpouring of the Holy Spirit brought a multitude
together, asking: “What meaneth this?”
Peter preached that great Pentecostal message about Jesus Christ whom
they had crucified was alive and had poured out the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He
admonished them to repent and about three souls received Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Saviour.
A short while later, Peter and John prayed for a paralytic who was instantly
healed by the Lord. When the multitude saw that miracle another five thousand
souls were saved! So great was the revival that followed that they brought the
sick onto the street that even the shadow of Peter falling upon the sick and
diseased and the Holy Spirit healed as he prayed and ministered in Jesus Name. No
wonder, their religious enemies said: “Did
we not straitly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold,
ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s
blood upon us.” (Acts 5: 28)
And when Paul and Silas were preaching in Thessalonica they were accused
thusly: “These men who have turned the
world upside down have come hither also… saying there is another King, one
Jesus.” (Acts 17: 6, 7)
All glory, honour and praise to God the Father
through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the power of the Blessed Holy Spirit. One God
in three persons, world without end! Amen.
NOTE: To be continued!
