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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By Jim Mettenbrink

At the beginning of His three year walk performing miracles proving His divinity, Jesus announced that His kingdom was “at hand” (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15). “Where is His kingdom? The territory? His palace? His throne? His royal attendants? His army? His subjects? What is His royal jurisprudence (bench law and common law)? The answer is in His declaration that ‘My kingdom is not of this world,’ (John 18:36) indicating an entirely different nature of kingship and kingdom.” So what is Jesus’ kingdom?

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By Jim Mettenbrink

That Jesus’ disciples misunderstood the nature of God’s kingdom is evident when they asked, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). To convince Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea to prosecute Jesus, the Jews hierarchy accused Jesus of “…perverting the nation, and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, saying that He Himself is Christ, a King” (Luke 23:2). Answering Pilate’s question, Jesus said He was a king Pilate found Jesus not guilty (Lk 23:3-4; John 18:37-38). Currying favor with the Jews, Pilate allowed Jesus to be crucified.

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By Jim Mettenbrink

When the foundation of a building crumbles or rots away, the building will collapse. The Psalmist under God’s direct revelation wrote, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps 11:3). Of course, this can be applied to the foundation of anything. Without a rock-solid foundation, literally, nothing can be built – building, organization, family, society, nation. What causes a nation’s foundation to be destroyed?

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By Jim Mettenbrink

The rise and fall of a nation should concern every person. The reason is that God controls nations’ existence – “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it” (Jeremiah 18:7-10). What this passage does not reveal is the precise redline when God decides to destroy a nation. However, the security and prosperity of the nation, i.e., its continued stable existence is clear – Obey God and the nation stands.

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