Gospel
Hard To Accept Statements - That Jesus Said
Matthew 16: 15 – 28:
Peter obviously had no problem accepting the proclamation made by Jesus that He would establish His Church on the truth of Peter’s confession of the revelation that Jesus was the Son of the Living God.
Peter also did not disagree with the statement made by Jesus that He would give to the Church “the keys of the Kingdom so that whatever the Church binds on earth is bound in Heaven; and whatever the Church looses on earth is loosed in Heaven.” Peter was fine with those statements, but when Jesus began to instruct His disciples that He would be going to Jerusalem and would suffer many things, and be killed and would rise from the dead on the third day, Peter sharply corrected Jesus and instructed Him that it was not to happen and that Jesus was wrong.
Before we confine this incident of Peters nonacceptance of truth to one single experience that happened long ago, let us consider ourselves in our present day.
What are the instructions and prophesies given to us by Jesus, and the Apostles, and the Prophets, that we really don’t like and therefore we ignore or reject?
There are some Scriptures that we either neglect to obey or we out-rightly disobey, what then have we done differently than what Peter did?
In truth we, the Church at large, have flatly refused some of the Scripture's primary teachings and have interjected our own strong feelings as Doctrine.
Just as Peter could accept the beautiful promises of Jesus but refused the uncomfortable revelation of the death and resurrection of Jesus, so do we with the issues of man's original sin, and that salvation is through Jesus and His Blood alone and that there is not another way to God.
We do not refuse the teachings about Heaven, but we grow irritable with those who repeat the message of Jesus’ warning regarding the reality of Hell.
We tend to argue the Scriptures, which we have not really studied. We build our own God based on those things we think He should be and our strong “feelings” about it. I have heard many people say. “I like the God of the New Testament but the God of the Old Testament is too harsh!” How can it be? Have they never read the First Testament? The God of the New and the First are the same and altogether ONE. We are instructed that the First Testament shows us HOW God forever deals with people. We need to learn Who our God says He is; not what we think He should be.
When we fail to hear what God says about any subject, we open ourselves to deception and because of that we become as the Pharisees and the Sadducees by teaching the doctrines of man as truth from God. This is what Jesus warned His disciples about and called it, “The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. It is the act of mixing our own doctrines with God’s Word.
The urgency of correcting this problem is that the doctrines of man and of devils will take us to Hell, the place to which none of us want to go and the place we prefer to believe is not real.
Consider it, Jesus warned about Hell more often in the Scripture accounts than He promised of Heaven. Jesus would know! Is that correct? But we have been warned; if we reject the words of Jesus, the Word of God, then we are on thin ice and the temperature is getting warmer.
There is a Risen Jesus. There is sin and we do need a Savior. Jesus did die and resurrected and IS the acceptable sacrifice to God in our behalf. We must say yes to the invitation of Jesus to receive Him into our hearts. If we do, and then we follow Jesus as Lord, we will arrive in the eternal Heaven of God. If we do not, we will arrive to the eternal Hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said that!
Receive Jesus at this very minute: just tell Him, “I know that I am a sinner. I believe that You are the Son of God and that You have risen from the dead and that You died to give me eternal life and liberty from the sin of which I cannot rid myself; “Come into my heart Lord Jesus, right NOW!”
When you have done this then be certain to read the Instruction Book that contain the words and instructions of Jesus, and by all means believe every word.
Agree with God!
Ramona 07/24/2012
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