Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:43 — 14.0MB)

4-4-2021 weekly message

Meditation of the week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Acts 1:1-11

Title: The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has opened the door widely to the kingdom of God in heaven

           About a thousand years before Jesus came to the world, King David prophesied of the Christ who will appear in the Holy Spirit, and his resurrection  from the dead:

” I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

9Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

10For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalm 16:8-10).

          Apostle Peter, who received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, testified of David’s prophecy when witnessing to the Jews about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And he said, David spoke of Jesus Christ not of himself when he said, “ For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell “:

” Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

30Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

31He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption..” (Acts 2:29-32)

         That’s right! Jesus Christ descended to hell where all of us sinners should go, and cast all our sins into hell as the deep sea, and was raised again. Prophet Micah prophesied about this:

” He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19).

        The Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins according to the scriptures for our sins, and was buried , and rose again the third day according to the scriptures stayed in the earth for forty days before ascending to his place in heaven to speak unto his disciples about the things pertaining the kingdom of God.

        He also spoke to his disciples and instructed them to wait for the promise of the Father. Apostle Paul testified that the  promise of the Father given unto  Abraham. Apostle Paul also testified that the promise refers to the promise of the Holy Spirit through Christ:

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. 3:13-14).

          The risen Lord Jesus Christ told them to wait not departing Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father given unto Abraham, come upon them. He also said that when they receive the Holy Ghost, they shall receive power, and at this time they shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, and they shall be witnesses upon Christ.

         Apostle John testified of Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, the Pharisee, that only those who are baptized by the Holy Ghost can see the kingdom of God and enter the kingdom of God:

” Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.… Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “(John 3:3,5).

           In the future, when Jesus sent the Holy Ghost in his name after his resurrection, he said in advance to Nicodemus, not regenerated yet Pharisee, that he cannot be saved to enter the kingdom of God unless he is baptized by the Holy Ghost to be born again.

         Apostle Paul testified of the baptism with the Holy Ghost when writing to the Saints of the Corinthian church:

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

         The word of Apostle Paul is the same as Jesus’ words that the spirit must be regenerated by being born of water and of the Spirit, and the same message as telling the disciples to wait until they are baptized by the Holy Ghost before Jesus went to heaven.

        When the disciples heard the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to wait for his Father’s promise, the disciples asked, ” Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” They remembered Jesus telling them to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” Since being taken to Babylon in captivity, they have been waiting for their kingdom to be restored. In other words, they were waiting for the Millennial Kingdom of Christ that the Father promised.

         The Lord Jesus Christ, upon listening to them, did not deny the kingdom that would come to Israel, but said unto them, it is not for them to know the times and the seasons. God had planned the Age of Grace for the next two thousand years before the foundation of the world  to adopt  his children in Christ whether the Jews and the Gentiles they are (Ephesians 1:4-5). But they were not able to understand his words at that time. But the time shall be fulfilled, he will establish his kingdom in Israel after He judges the sinful world.

        The Lord Jesus Christ has built his own church to make his own bride not only them, but also to many children of God who believe in him to be born again of the Holy Spirit, and to take the bride of the Church of God to heaven when He appears in the future. He planned to make them as witnesses unto Christ to preach the Gospel.

           In what Jesus said before raising Lazarus from the dead, he said a very mysterious words of the things when he appear in the air in the day of Christ:

” I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26)

         Apostle Paul realized the truth in what the Lord said to Martha and testified to the saints in Thessalonica and Corinth about the things to happen in the day of Christ:

” But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

………
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1 Corinthians 15:51-53).

        Jesus said that in the future, when the time comes when he die and rise again the third day to remove the sin of the world, the kingdom of God  shall be preached:

” The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” (Luke 16:16).

  Amen! Hallelujah!