What is Essential?

What is Essential?

Subtitle: What does a Christian believe? Day Four.

podcast: http://www.pastorwoman.com/podcasts/00c30bd7-da2f-47c6-acd7-3d011b4...


What is essential? When it comes to life and living, the 'essential' falls in the realm of doing whatever it takes for a healthy life and longevity. In the last week I did something extreme to ensure both for me ... radio-iodine therapy, post thyroid cancer. To call it a crazy experience would be a serious understatement! It was disturbing, distressing, anxiety-producing and lonely, but nonetheless, necessary. In my hospital stay, I was completely isolated from folks for more than 48 hours, seemingly having been relocated to Area 51, not just the end of an empty hall.

'Ha, that sounds like Heaven!' a young mom said. For me, it was hell. I thrive on people-their energy, their love, thoughts, words and yes, even their smell. There was none of the above, plus a whole lot of unpleasantness. Key word: essential.
When it comes to what we believe as Christians, what is essential? I'm not talking denominational stuff or religion, but the essential things we need to hold in common as believers? There are several, and in the last couple briefings, we identified that:

1. God is eternal ~ no beginning, no end. From Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22.13
2. God is triune ~ Father, Son, Holy Spirit three Persons, one God
3. God is the Creator ~ and he created us in his image
4. Sin separated us from God ~ because God loved us, he gave us free will
5. Grace ~ God's way of redemption.
6. God's instrument of grace was Jesus Christ, God Incarnate

You see, Jesus Christ came, the perfect lamb, the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the ransom we could not pay. Though we celebrate his birth on Christmas like it is the greatest day ever, it is not, [though if you lived at my house, you might think it is! I start playing and singing Christmas carols the day after Halloween, get a big Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, stringing it with white lights and decorating . . . I love the season.]
But, the fact is-Jesus came to die. His birth would mean nothing if Jesus did not do what he came to do-go to the cross, suffer and die. And then, that would have been the end of the story, dramatic though it would have been, there would be no Christianity, if he did not do what he said he would do ~

7. Jesus Christ did what he said he would do -- he rose from the grave1! All of Christianity hangs on the Resurrection. Check the historians of the day--not just the writers of Scripture2. The Resurrection was a recognized miraculous occurrence. We serve a risen Savior. Yes!

On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, Peter-[the same man who less than 2 months before had denied his friend and Savior three times, though he had been warned by Jesus that he would do it, and yet did it anyway!]--preached, "This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."3 Remember, Friends - Peter was speaking to a large crowd in Jerusalem, who would have shouted him down were these things not known and accepted. Jesus was crucified, and he rose from the grave; word was out; it was widely known.

And not long after Paul, [who we recently studied had been radically transformed4], wrote, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures."5
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples and others. Jesus assured his loved ones that he had indeed done what he told them he would do. John 16.6; 1 Corinthians 15.5-6; Acts 1.3

8. Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven to return to the right hand of the Father.
After he emerged from the tomb, Jesus stayed with the disciples and friends 40 more days, and then assumed his rightful place in glory. Acts 1.9 records "he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." What a glorious homecoming it must have been when God the Father welcomed home his beloved Son!

Next time, we finish out the essentials of the Christian faith ... such glorious truths!

Christine
PastorWoman.com

1 - Matthew 12.39-40
2 - Ancient Evidence for Jesus from non-Christian Sources, Michael Gleghorn, Bethinking.org
3 - Acts 2.23-24
4 - Acts9.1-19
5 - 1 Corinthians 15.3-4






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