The Good News

All Because God Loves You

We live in a broken world. Without God, we would have never made it this far, and without Jesus, we would have no hope. By ourselves, we are nothing. In fact, we are worse than nothing; we are spiritually dead. That might sound scary, but the good news is that we don’t have to have that fate. God didn't want us to, and didn't want to be eternally separated from His creation. We have a loving God who sent His one and only Son to pay our debt so that we could live in freedom.

In the book of Romans (a letter written to a small church in Rome), Paul (an apostle, or follower, of Jesus who wrote most of the books in the New Testament) wrote a hard truth: none of us are good; not one. None of us are good without God, that is. Humans are plagued with generations of internal and external evil. Because we live in a broken world, we are born with sinful desires. But because of Jesus, we get to experience the goodness of God and the Holy Spirit within our own hearts. He did this because He loves us.

Who is Jesus?

Jesus is the Son of God. His story takes place in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), which are four different eyewitness accounts of His life. He lived a perfect, sinless life. He came into the world as a helpless baby, yet fully God and fully man (I know this can be confusing, but don't worry. Because Jesus is God and we're not, this isn't going to 100% make sense. This is just how it was said in the Bible, so I believe it. Not because I fully understand it, but because I have faith that what God says is true.). He could have come on a flaming chariot, commanding authority, but He didn’t. He wanted to have a relationship with His people, even though we didn’t deserve it. The words He used to describe Himself were "gentle and lowly in heart (Matthew 6)."

His ministry really kicked off when He was around thirty years old. He became so well-known, that He had to be mindful about where He went in public because crowds of people would run to Him, wanting to hear Him preach and watch Him perform miracles. He also had a small circle of followers, known as the Twelve Disciples, who were also his closest friends. Although He preached from the Bible and spoke of good things and salvation, not everyone loved what He had to say.

Pharisees

Israel was ruled by the Romans back then, and there were religious leaders known as the Pharisees. They were known as the teachers of the Law, and were a very powerful and influential group. The Law, also known as the Mosaic Law (or the 10 Commandments/Old Testament), was what the people had to obey if they wanted to follow God. As imperfect people, this was practically impossible to do without fail. Following the Law included animal sacrifice to atone, or make up for, your sins.

The main reasons the Pharisees did not like Jesus were because He claimed authority over the Law (as the Son of God), and said a relationship with God is more important than your works. The Pharisees were used to being the highest level of religious authority at the time, so they did not appreciate this seemingly random guy from Nazareth telling them that they weren’t.

Even though Jesus was traveling from place to place in Israel and its neighboring land preaching and performing miracles, it wasn’t long before the Pharisees had enough. They went to Pilate (pronounced, "pilot"), the Roman governor of Judea, and made a plan. They wanted to seek out Jesus, arrest, and kill Him to take back their power. At the time, it was illegal to claim authority above the king (Roman Emperor Tiberius), so the Pharisees thought they saw a legal justification to stop Jesus' ministry. Eventually, one of Jesus’ disciples betrayed Him and told the Romans where He was.

Jesus' Death

Jesus was arrested. He was presented in front of a crowd of people along with another prisoner, named Barabbas, who was a convicted murderer. Pilate asked the crowd who they would rather send to be crucified (one of the most inhumane ways to kill someone, and a signature Roman execution method). The crowd was rallied by Roman troops and declared that Jesus should be the one to die. They tortured Jesus before He was put on the Cross, including putting a crown of thorns on His head, mocking Him, spitting on Him, giving Him 39 lashes on His back, and more.

As they put Him on the Cross, they hammered large nails into his wrists and ankles, stabbed His sides with spears, and put a sign above His head that said, “King of the Jews”. They mocked Him, telling Him to save Himself if He was truly the Son of God.

Pause- Jesus could have saved Himself. Being fully God, He easily could have done this. But if He saved Himself that day, you and I would not be here, and we would still be cursed with the burden of sin and death. Jesus chose to pay the ultimate price for you.

He died knowing that there was a possibility you wouldn’t accept His gift, but He did it anyway, because He loves you. He felt every lash, every thorn, every nail, and every day spent in hell. He didn’t just escape feeling that pain because He’s God. He endured all of that for you and me. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for us so that we could have a relationship with God and have the Holy Spirit dwell within us.

Back to the story- Jesus was crucified along with two other men. One of them turned to Him and said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you, you will be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:41-43)" Because the man had faith that Jesus is who He said He is, he was saved.

Jesus’ final words were “It is finished.” His body was wrapped in linen, laid in a tomb, sealed shut with a large boulder, and guarded by Roman soldiers. People were filled with confusion and sadness, wondering why the man they believed to be the Messiah had just died in front of them.

He is Risen

Three days later, Mary (his mother) and Mary Magdalene (her friend) walked to Jesus' tomb to put spices on His body to pay respect. But when they got there, they found the boulder rolled away, the tomb wide open, no body to be seen, the linens folded up neatly, and an angel sitting on top of the boulder. The angel told them to not be afraid because of the amazing thing that had just happened: Jesus had risen from the grave and conquered sin and death, proving His authority as the Son of God and true Messiah. The angel sent them to go tell Jesus’ disciples the good news, and they went.

Later, when Jesus met with His disciples, they thought He was a ghost. Jesus saw that they were confused and a little scared. He told them that it really was Him, but to help their unbelief, Jesus asked them to feel the holes in His wrists from the nails. After they did this, His disciples were in pure awe of Jesus and bowed down, knowing that He truly is the Son of God. Jesus commissioned them to tell the world the Good News, so that anyone who believes in His resurrection would be saved from eternal separation from God, and then ascended into Heaven.

Life

The beauty about that story for us, is that when we accept Jesus' gift, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives within us. Because Jesus conquered death, we can live, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and live eternally in Heaven with Him. No more sin, no more hurt, and every tear wiped from our eyes. He wants that for every single one of His children. He wants that for you.

Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are no longer without hope. Like I mentioned earlier about animal sacrifice being necessary to atone for sin in the Old Testament, Jesus fulfilled that with His ultimate sacrifice. By His Blood, we are atoned for and forgiven. We can live in freedom and have God as our refuge. Because He lives, you and I get to know Jesus personally, and we get to experience His divine joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We can leave our past self behind and look forward to a life as a new creation.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. -2 Corinthians 5:17

For God so loved the world, that He gave his one and only Son, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. -John 3:16