If I Reject Jesus?

What happens "If I Reject Jesus?"  What does happen to someone who lives a seemingly good life... is a moral person...maybe he or she even goes to church occasionally... yet never buys into the "Jesus story?"

The Bible is clear that God does not want anyone to go to hell.  In fact 1 Timothy 2:3-4 seems to say this very thing:  ^"This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,  who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."  And, then there is the Apostle Peter writing: "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (1 Peter 3:9).

Universalist proponents simply state that God is a loving God and would not send anyone to hell.  However, if this is true (for the sake of argument) then God's condescension, as the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians 2:5-11, Christ Jesus (God the Son), was foolish and His sacrifice was completely unneeded since in the long-term of all things God will not send anyone to hell.

However, the facts of truth are this:  God's may not want (desire) that anyone would be judged to eternal punishment (John 3:16-17), but because He is a holy and just God, the Universalist teaching cannot be true. He is holy, meaning that in Him is complete perfection and He cannot tolerate anything or anyone in His presence that is unholy (is blighted by any sin).  And He is just, meaning that He has established a standard for any and all who would desire to have fellowship with Him in heaven, and to fail that exclusive standard makes an individual unqualified for eternal life.   In Matt. 25:46, Jesus said, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."  Therefore, God is just in condemning anyone who rejects Him and His plan through Jesus Christ.

When a person rejects Jesus, he or she rejects the one-and-only path to "eternal life" and thus holds onto, by that rejection of Jesus, the just condemnation of a righteous God. 

Does God desire this?  No!  Is rejection terminal?  Yes!  In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13-14).

Foolish is the "Broadway" when God has made "Eternal Life" so attainable!  The choice is set before all people: Reject Him, or Receive Him!  Make Him Lord of your life and you will never turn back.  "Heaven is for Real," as the book and movie state, and it is yours if you will.  Choose righteousness, please!  Choose Jesus!
........... https://www.gotquestions.org/narrow-path.html

More Than a Prophet

Sometimes referred to as "Jesus' Triumphal Entry" or as John MacArthur titled it, "The Humble Coronation of Christ," His entry into the city of the Kings, Jerusalem, began the last week of Jesus' pilgrimage to the Cross of Calvary.

From Caesarea Philippi, about 50 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus, with His disciples, began His final journey to Jerusalem.  After about three years of ministry, preceded by some thirty years of obscurity, Jesus was coming to the end about which He had taught the disciples "...that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." (Matthew 16:21)  He was about the reach the goal set for Him by His Father in heaven.

The date was 9 Nisan, A.D. 30, when Jesus told two of His disciples to go to the nearby village\ where they would find a colt of a donkey and bring it to Him.  Exactly as He saw it, this event shows that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the very Son of the living God, who possesses "omniscience," one of the all-knowing characteristics of God, and it is in fulfillment of the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9.

From Jericho, where Jesus gave sight to two blind men and called Zaccheus to Himself, they went to Bethany to visit with His close friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  Then on to Jerusalem where the crowds welcomed Him with open arms as their King.  They had no idea that He really was more than a Prophet, Priest or King, He was the "Passover Lamb" of God, to quote John the Baptist, "who takes away the sin of the world."  Rather, they only welcomed Him as their deliverer whom they thought, like David His father, would re-establish their glorious nation and rule over them from that promised throne.
 
What they did not know was that He was coming to pay the price for their sin on a cruel and excruciatingly painful cross, be resurrected from the grave victorious over death, add the Gentiles to the blessed of God ("for ALL who call  upon His NAME shall be saved"), and after great tribulation like has never been seen, He would defeat evil for the last time!  Then, He would reign over that Kingdom from a throne like David.  This Kingdom would last for 1,000 years upon which completion, the final judgment would take place for all who have rejected Him and "a new heaven and a new earth where all God's children would live "forever" with Him in complete fulfillment of God's creative plan from the very beginning.

"Triumphal Entry" - yes; but more than that, it is a "Triumphal Beginning!" This is a beginning that began in the compassionate heart of our great God who is worthy of all praise.  Knowing that we would sin, He provided the only sacrifice that would satisfy His holiness, so that, even Satan and his demonic forces and all those who have rejected Jesus...at His throne, "every knee will bow and confess that He is Lord."  Amen!  (re. Philippians 2:5-11)

... MacArthur, John, "The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 16-28", Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL, 1988.
...Wiersbe, Warren W, "Be Loyal", David C. Cook Publishers, Colorado Springs, CO, 1980.

What is Required?

Joy/Cornerstone Life Group:

Have you ever had a mountain top experience where your life was changed?  Last Sunday was one of those moments for me as we climbed to the mountain top  following Jesus, along with Peter, James and John. With these three friends, we came face-to-face with our Glorified Savior during His "awe-inspiring Transfiguration!"  

Now, Jesus has our attention as we come to some applicable lessons which further substantiate the reality that He is "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." 

We see, in Matthew 17:14ff, again how Jesus has power over the evil forces of this world as he casts out a demon from a boy; in vss. 22-23, He reiterates His coming Death and Resurrection. So contrary to the disciples understanding, Jesus finds that He must continually teach the necessity of this truth and drive it deep into their hearts, changing their thinking and direction for the rest of their lives.  It is for this purpose that He became the God-Man so that we all might be saved from a devil's hell.

Jesus goes on to teach that He even is Lord over the fish of the sea when the disciples find a coin for the Temple tax in the fish's mouth (Vss. 27ff).  Even though it is "tax-season" don't go fishing in order to find the money to pay your taxes. 😇

Matthew 18 takes us into the questioning minds of the disciples as Jesus defines who really is great in the Kingdom ... it is the one who trusts in God with the simplicity of child-like faith!

Temptation is a malady which everyone of us experiences.  Sometimes we fail as we fall into a troubling sin; but on the other hand, temptation is just that. As we grow and mature in our faith, we gradually become overcomers.  Still, temptation will come and woe to the one who tries to trip up the children of God.
Jesus shows us, in Matthew 18:10ff, that like a sheep which was lost and found, God loves us and will go to any measure to redeem us.  This example is seen in Romans 5:8 where Paul writes, "While we were still in our sin (lost sheep), God showed His love for us in this...that Christ died for us!

If we were redeemed while enemies with God, wouldn't it behoove us to act the same way toward our brothers and sisters in Christ.  Vss. 15-20 talk about doing all we can to restore one who is caught up in sin. When we gather to deal with an unrepentant soul, Jesus will be there to guide us in love.

The next lesson Jesus teaches the disciples is to have the mind and heart of God and always be forgiving and not selfish.  From the Lord's Model Prayer to the forgiving heart of the Master when one of His children confesses sin...He always forgives and we are to have that same attitude. Forgiveness is a central theme to the Word of God...Right??

Chapter 19 begins with a touchy subject.  We rarely hear any preaching or teaching on "divorce."  Why?  It is because Christians, in much part, have joined the world in the practice of "...till debt (or whatever reason) do we part." It is because of the personal nature of divorce.  One can become very sensitive to the subject saying, "You just don't understand my situation."  I may not, but Jesus does.  Ask Him to guide you.

Have you been divorced and remarried?  I have a friend who left his wife of 20+ years for another woman.  He had the attitude that he was under grace and God had to forgive him.  Wrong Attitude!!!  Sometimes divorce happens...this is sad, but do all you can to avoid it.  And, remember we are under "grace" ... if you are divorced and remarried, you are a child of God, confess you failure...your sin.  He forgives! Don't get hung up in the past. Move on from where you are and do all you can to be pleasing to God.  In this you will find release, a refreshing breeze as the Holy Spirit directs you from within.  Then move on...!!

One more lesson on "Children" ... He invites those with child-like faith to come to Him.  It is to them that the "kingdom of heaven" belongs. (19:13-15)

Join us Sunday as we push forward into the realm of "faith."  What is required of you to enter the kingdom?  Don't be too quick to answer ... stop and "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.  Test yourselves.  Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? -- unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Cor. 13:5)

Is Jesus Fully God?

In books and movies in today’s Hollywood culture as well as in Ancient Greek mythology we see imaginary half-and-half creatures—creatures such as the faun (half human, half goat), the centaur (half human, half horse), and the minotaur (half human, half bull). The ever popular movie "Star Wars" is filled with these imaginary creatures.

In stark contrast to these strange, half-and half beings, Christianity confesses that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully human.  In Systematic Theology this is called the “Hypostatic Union.”  When the 2^nd Person of the Triune God became a Man, the two genes became eternally changed.  There was the God-gene blended with the Man-gene.  He became the God-Man.  Not half-god and half-man, but eternally God-Man.  At His birth, He was given the name Jesus: God’s “μονογενὴς” (monogenès) ... His one-of-a-kind Son. (see John 1:18)

When Jesus asked His disciples the question “Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:15), Peter answered for all that Jesus was (and is) both the promised Messiah and God’s Son (16:16). Jesus in turn assured Peter that God the Father had revealed this amazing truth to him.  Though he may not have completely understood what he was saying, Peter in fact said, “You are the God-Man ... the μονογενὴς ... the One and only Son of God.”

For more commentary on this "Hypostatic Union," go to the following link:

https://www.gotquestions.org/hypostatic-union.html