What is the Good News?

This is where our journey begins. To know about Jesus and what his death and resurrection mean for you. 

After all how could events that happened so long ago mean anything to you today?

The Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens, the earth and everything in it, including man and woman. He spoke the Word and it was so.  He gave man dominion over all that was created. He said for all but man, it is good, but for man, it is very good.

So here we are, man on a beautiful created earth, with dominion over it, no sickness, no death, no pain, just daily walks in the garden in complete fellowship with the God that created it all.

God had one rule.  Adam and Eve could eat from every tree in the garden with one exception.  They could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Genesis 1 & 2

The Separation

Adam and Eve listened to the voice of the enemy, the snake, and ate from the fruit of the tree that God had told them not to.  This was in direct disobedience to God.  There were many consequences to this disobedience.

1. There eyes were opened and they saw they were naked and they felt shame for the first time.  They hid from God.

2. The snake was cursed.

3. Enmity between the snake and the woman and her offspring.

4. Pain in childbearing. Desire for our husbands who would rule over us.

5. The ground was cursed so that thorns and thistles would grow and man would have to labor for food.

6. Death and a return to the ground and back to dust from which we were created.

7. Knowledge of good and evil.

8. Exile from the garden so that they could not eat from the tree of life and live forever in our fallen condition.

Genesis 3

The Redemption

A Messiah was promised to the people to redeem them back to God.  Many prophets in the bible testified to the coming Messiah.  The One who would save us from sin and death.  The One who would reconcile man back to God.

You are very precious to God.  And He desires for you to receive His love and for you also to love Him. He desires you to have new Life and to live with him forever as he had planned from the beginning.  But disobedience to God separates all of us from Him.  And we are in a position that we ourselves cannot save ourselves from.

So the bible says, He sent His Son.  Born of a virgin, One who had no sin, who is fully God and fully man.  He defeated sin and death for you.  He gave His life, so that you could have new life.  He rose from the dead so that you could be raised with Him.  He took your sin, diseases, shame, penalties due so that you could live free.  Jesus is the only way to God.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not recognize him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...

The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

John 1

The Good News

The Good News is that you have a Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  He came to set you free.

So what must you do to be saved?  And who can be saved?

Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again." and

"Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit."

Further down in John 3...

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.  This is the verdict; Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."

There are 2 kingdoms.  The Kingdom of God which is a Kingdom of Light, and the kingdom of darkness, Satan's kingdom.  When you step out of darkness into the light, all things are made new.  You are a new creation.  The old has gone the new has come.

So how do you go from one to the other?

"If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

John 10:9 & 10

It is a decision of your heart to follow Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

The Journey

And what about what Jesus said about being born with water and with the Spirit.

There are 2 baptisms.  Baptism in water and baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Once you have turned our eyes on Jesus and chosen to follow Him, and repented for going your own way and your disobedience to God.  You now walk a very different road.  You are not the same person you once were.  You are running on a very different operating system.  One of freedom.

1.  Be baptized in water.  Find a body of believers in Jesus and have someone baptize you.  This could be a church or a bible study group.  My hope for you is that others don't overcomplicate it for you as it was never meant to be complicated.

2.  Ask Jesus in prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  He will either send someone to pray with you or you will have a Holy Spirit encounter.  It may not be immediate, but you will know when it happens.  It cannot be missed.  The Holy Spirit will dwell in you to teach you things.  You will read the bible and be able to understand it.  You will know God's purpose for your life.  You will know who you are in Christ.  You will be guided in a way that leads you closer and closer to the Father, God.

The journey of following Jesus comes with amazing blessing and challenges.  After all, we have an enemy.  The kingdom of darkness wages war on the kingdom of light.  But you can walk in freedom if you believe the truth.  And you have someone who carries you through the hard times, who has already won the victory for you, Jesus.  He is the one who gets you to the other side.  You can live in a chaotic world and still experience peace.

There is so much more about this journey to share with you and I'm so excited for you to walk it.  Let us encourage you.  Please start by contacting us and allowing us on the journey right along with you.  You are not alone.