WHY CHRIST'S GOSPEL IS SO POWERFUL!

By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.

“For I not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also unto the Greek.” (Rom.1: 16); “For concerning this sect (Christians) we know that it is spoken against everywhere.” (Acts 28: 22)

Why would a fanatical Jewish extremist like Saul of Tarsus who was responsible for the imprisonment, torturing and death of Jesus’ followers suddenly begin to preach His Gospel? 
 

Why would he be so consumed by the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been condemned to death by the Jewish Sanhedrin and crucified by the Roman Empire as common criminal? 
 

What made this rabid religious Pharisee and Jewish enforcer suddenly convert from hatred and terrorism to truth and love, even changing his exalted name of Saul to Paul “the little one”?
 

What caused this highly esteemed persecutor who made ‘Jewish believers in Jesus’ renounce their faith under duress, arbitrarily confess his evil ways and dedicate his life to spreading the glorious gospel of the resurrected Son of God? And to suffer “the loss of all things”, be hunted like a “fugitive from justice”, persecuted and die as a martyr for the name of the Holy One Whom he had formerly despised and hated?

                            HERE’S THE REASON!

He was arrested on the ‘Road to Damascus’ by an encounter with Jesus Christ Himself. He met the Master in a blinding light that threw him onto the dirt road outside the ancient city of Damascus. He was confronted by the risen Christ and given his orders to report for duty, and he surrendered immediately to voice of God! That is what made the difference! 
 

St. Paul declared: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yeah, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him…” (Phil.3: 7, 8)

SADHU SUNDAR SINGH of India was also converted by the appearance of Jesus Christ on the very eve of his planned suicide. As a young boy in India he was taught to hate Christians. He believed that the Bible was a gigantic lie and burned one that had been given to him. Although he felt vindicated in doing so, a terrible unrest came upon him. 
 

Three days later, he could stand it no longer and rising early, he prayed that if God existed He must reveal Himself. He wanted to know if there was existence after death and if Heaven existed in reality! He deduced that the only way to know for sure was to die, so he decided he would lie down on the railway track near his home, so that the Early Express train would take his life!

SUNDAR SINGH writes: “Then suddenly something out of the ordinary happened. The room was filled with a beautiful glowing radiance and I saw a man. I thought that possibly it was Buddha or some other holy man. Then I heard a voice. “How long will you deny Me? I died for you. I gave my life for you.”

“Then, I saw His hands; the nail-scarred hands of Jesus! This was the Christ whom I considered as a great man who lived in Palestine once, but died and disappeared. But, now He stood before me…ALIVE! I saw His face that looked upon me with love.

“Three days earlier, I had burned the Bible, yet He wasn’t angry at me. Suddenly, I was changed and I saw Him as Christ, the Living One, the world’s Saviour. I fell upon my knees and felt a wonderful peace such as I had never before found anywhere. It was joy that I had sought for such a long time.”

Corrie Ten Boom writes about hearing Sundar Singh at a retreat in Holland when she was a teenager, “A boy dared to ask him the question we all wanted an answer to: ‘Please, Sir, what did Jesus look like?’ He laid his hands upon his eyes and said, ‘Oh, His eyes, His eyes …they are so beautiful.’ Corrie Ten Boom wrote: “Since that day, I have longed to look into the eyes of Jesus.”

For the SAME REASON that thousands of MUSLIMS across the world are receiving Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and being born again! Many are facing terrible persecution from Muslim dominated governments for their testimony while many others meet secretly to worship the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus Christ! 
 

The truth is that while many are saved through Christian T.V. or Internet programs, most of them are being reached through visions or dreams given them by the Lord or through a personal visit from Jesus Christ or the archangel Gabriel!

IT REVOLVES AROUND JESUS CHRIST!

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is so powerful because it involves more than ideology or philosophy. It revolves entirely around the person of Jesus Christ! He is the centerpiece of the Gospel. It is not just His Words, love and power. It is Him. It is His Person! 
 

The GOSPEL IS CHRIST! He is the Good News. He is the world's only Saviour, Redeemer, Deliverer, Healer and Coming King! If you remove Jesus Christ, His vicarious death, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascension to Heaven and the outpouring of the Blessed Holy Spirit on the Church, there would be no Gospel. 

Without Christ dying for our sins and rising from the dead and living within every born again believer, there would be no Church, no hope and no everlasting life! Amen.!!!

SINCLAIR PATTERSON stated: “The close kinship of Christ with Christianity is one of the distinctive features of the Christian Religion. If you take away the name of Buddha from Buddhism, and remove the personal revealer from his system; if you take away the personality of Mohammed from Mohammedanism, or the personality of Zoroaster from the religion of the Parsees, the entire doctrine of these religions would still be left intact. Their practical value, such as it is, would not be imperilled or lessened But take away from Christianity the Name and Person of Jesus Christ and what have you left? NOTHING! The whole substance and strength of the Christian Faith centers in Jesus Christ. Without Him there is absolutely Nothing!”

The word GOSPEL is recorded more than 75 times in the New Testament meaning Good News. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology states: "The gospel is the joyous proclamation of God's redemptive activity in Christ Jesus on behalf of man enslaved by sin."

That is good news! Jesus Christ stated: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:16,17)

The Bible states, “He came unto His own and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name..” (John 1: 11,12)

GREATEST COMMENTARY EVER!

What a Commentary: “God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, Whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High.” (Heb. 1:2,3)

1. Jesus Christ is HEIR of all things.
2. The Father created the worlds by Jesus Christ
3. The Son is the brightness of His Glory.
4. Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father.
5. By the commands of Jesus Christ the cosmos consists
6. Through Jesus' shed BLOOD our sins are purged.
7. Jesus Christ is presently seated on the Father's right hand.

THE BIBLE SAYS: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 
 

“And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. 
“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil.2: 5-11)

                              A GREATER QUESTION!

The greatest question that mortal man could ask is:“Why would the Eternal Son of God be incarnated (God in human flesh), and come down to this sin-cursed earth to be mocked, blasphemed, scourged, crucified and die upon a cruel cross on the garbage dump on the Hill called Golgatha?” 
 

No human mind could even try to understand that great question. No human tongue could articulate or form words that would even come close to answering that superb question. Only the LOVE of our MERCIFUL and COMPASSIONATE God would do that! Although we cannot understand it all, it is nevertheless TRUE!

 

JOHN WESLEY, the founder of the Methodist Church was asked, “How can I believe in God when I can't understand Him?” Wesley relied: “Can a worm understand a man?” Amen.

Note: This the first installment of the message, 'Why the Gospel is so Powerful' ms