By Jim Mettenbrink

No one has had a worldwide impact, such as Jesus of Nazareth has had. And astonishingly, His phenomenal impact actually began after He left terra firma. The absent King of His kingdom still has this nearly unbelievable impact 2000 years later. Why?

Within a normal person is the desire to live and to live on to never die, even denying the possibility of death, even though it is ever present. When we have grandchildren, we see ourselves going into the future, even though observing the deaths of our parents and grandparents, we realize the grave is our destiny. However, unlike anything, literally, everything that has ever existed regarding our own destiny, there is nothing that even compares to the claim of the resurrection of Jesus and His profound promise to raise people from the dead and grant them eternal life with Him. No national or world leader, political movement, nor religion has proposed even a similar claim, especially setting forth concrete evidence to support the claim of an afterlife. Before we consider the evidence, let’s review Jesus’ claim.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

The apostle Paul declared that the “good news” (gospel) is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). The background to the gospel is that God commands every person to obey Him. Just one disobedience requires death (Genesis 2:16-17). The first sin brought this weakness to sin upon everyone. Such a dilemma! No escape…. except for God’s love for you – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son….” (John 3:16). That God commanded man to obey, meant that God would need to be a man in order to obey perfectly– sinless. The apostle John opens his record, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God….And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14).

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By Jim Mettenbrink

In the last article, we considered that God requires humans to obey His commandments and that just one little disobedience results in death. And because of God’s love for us, He (Jesus) put on human flesh to pay the penalty of death for our sins. Thereby, “…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ….” (Romans 5:1). Jesus paid the penalty and obtained our pardon in His death. The apostle Paul called His death, burial, and resurrection the gospel (good story). But why is the burial and resurrection part of the gospel? After all, the penalty is paid and the pardon secured. Before we consider Jesus’ burial, His death on the cross was a phenomenal worldwide event. How?

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By Jim Mettenbrink

The apostle Paul defined the gospel (good story) as Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and that we are saved by that gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Last week, we considered the dilemma that sin results in death and that there is no way we could pay the penalty to live again and restore the broken relationship with God. And we considered that Jesus paid the penalty for us in His own death on the cross. Why was it necessary for Jesus to die?

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Earlier, we considered that the apostle Peter opened Jesus’ kingdom to the gathering of Jews from 16 nations offering salvation from sin, i.e., forgiveness and the promise of eternal life with Jesus (Acts 2). The apostle Paul later opened this kingdom to the gentile world (Ac 13-28). He called his message the gospel – “good story.” And that is actually God’s “good story” calling mankind to come to the kingdom through Peter and Paul (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Earlier, Jesus said that the entrance into salvation in His kingdom was very restrictive (strait; difficult) (Matthew 6:32; 7:13-14). He went on to say that a lot of folks think they are saved when in fact they are not (Mat 7:21-23). Thus it is vital for us to know the exactness of what it means to enter the kingdom and live eternally in heaven. And Paul said he declared this gospel to the Corinthians by which they were saved (1 Cor 15:1-2). What was it?

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By Jim Mettenbrink

Jesus gave Peter the keys to Jesus’ kingdom (Matthew 16:18-19). The record of Peter opening the kingdom is in Acts 2 on Pentecost, the Jewish feast day, inviting Jews from 16 nations to enter. The apostle Paul later stated that it was actually God calling or inviting people to come into His kingdom – “…walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:12). Just what is this call? Is it a free lunch? A smorgasbord of pick and choose, entering according to your own desires? In His famous sermon on the Mount (Mat 5-7), Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Mat 7:13-14). So picking and choosing is nixed. The broader context tells us this narrow gate goes into God’s kingdom – “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness….” ( Mat 6:32). He was speaking about entering the kingdom. So, what is this narrow, but difficult gate by which God calls us into His kingdom?

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