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" Reaching The Harvest One Person At A Time "
International Ministries of Last Call, Inc
8311 N E Zac Lentz Parkway Unit
Victoria, TX 77904
ph: 601 324 1240
John 12:12-19 (KJV)
On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is…When Jesus entered the city during his final week, he was greeted with a crowd going in front of him chanting Hosanna to him. The word Hosanna means Save.
Matthew 21:9 (KJV)
And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.
Why! How could this happen that the same people who hailed them as their king and messiah could turn from Him in such a betrayal, we might find the answer as we take a closer look at Judas and why his betrayal might give us insight on this question.
Why would Judas want to betray Jesus? (to force Him to act…because he’d become disillusioned with Jesus’ lack of action…he no longer thought Jesus was the true Messiah…in the previous passage, when Mary poured the expensive perfume on Jesus, Judas began to realize that the Kingdom He’d been preaching was spiritual, not political.
Behind Judas’ motivation, a divine purpose was being carried out. Q- Is Judas a pawn in the sovereign plan of God? It seems as though the betrayal was predestined; yet Judas acts not like a programmed robot, but a free agent. He acts like most of the people of Jerusalem, disappointed with the path Jesus had chosen. We also know that he was greedy.
You see what caused the people to come into error was the fact that they were looking only in the natural, they were seeking an earthly king and messiah that would be the salvation of the Jews in their earthly kingdom, it was their disappointment and disallusionment that was revealed by Jesus Himself in the revelation of the " Heavenly Kingdom "...
" The Crucifixion "
The account of Jesus' crucifixion and death. While it appeared that Christ had been utterly defeated, his true triumph would be apparent a few days later, when he rose from the grave.
Through Jesus' brutal suffering and death, we are freed from sin. The wounds he suffered paradoxically mean spiritual health and freedom for us, an idea memorably stated in this prophecy from the Old Testament.
Isaiah 53:5 (KJV)
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Look at what it took to pay for your sin. Look at what it took to forgive your sin. How can we think there's anything we could ever do that would pay for our sin or get us into heaven?
Only the One who died for your sin can remove your sin. That was your hell, your separation from God that He was taking on that cross. Now He's offering to you what He died for you to have
The greatest tragedy of all would be if somehow you missed all He died for and you ended up in the hell that He died to save you from.
But you have to take for yourself what He died to give you. You abandon all your faith in your religion, or your goodness, or anything else and you give yourself totally in total faith to Jesus Christ. The stakes of this choice are so high, they are so eternal, that it does not make sense to risk one more day without Jesus.
"THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
“To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convinc- ing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.” Acts 1:3 (NASB)
“For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.” 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Some years ago when a missionary to India had finished preaching in an open-air meeting, a Mohammedan fellow approached him confrontationally and said: “We Moslems have something you Christians don’t have and you will have to admit it. When we take our pilgrimage to Mecca, we can at least find a coffin, but when you Christians go to Jerusalem, you find nothing but an empty grave.”
The missionary responded: “You are absolutely correct! And that is exactly the difference between your religion and our faith. Your founder, Mohammed is dead and his body is in that coffin in Mecca. But our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven!”
Consider These Facts : Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus (37 A.D.-103 A.D.), wrote in his “Antiquities of the Jews” the following:
“Now about this time there was a certain Jesus, a wise man, if indeed he must be called a man. He was in fact the worker of extraordinary things, the teacher of men who accept the truth with pleasure. And he drew to himself many of the Jews and the Greeks also. This man was the Messiah. And when Pilate, because the principle men among us denounced him, had punished him on the cross, those who had loved him from the beginning did not cease. In fact, he appeared to them on the third day alive once more, the divine prophets having already spoken these and thousands of other wonderful things concerning him. And even today the tribe of those who from him are called Christians has grown no less.” (Antiquities of the Jews xviii.3.3)
Consider the opinion of Rabbi Pinchas Lapide as regarding the resurrection of Jesus:
"When this scared, frightened band of the apostles, which was just about to throw away everything in order to flee in despair to Galilee; when these peasants, shepherds, and fisherman, who betrayed and denied their master and then failed him miserably, suddenly could be changed overnight into a confident mission society, convinced of salvation and able to work with much more success after Easter than before Easter, then no vision or hallucination is sufficient to explain such a revolutionary transformation."
Pinchas Lapide. “The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective.” Pg125
Dr. Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853), Royal Professor of Law at Harvard University, one of two men responsible for the rise of the Harvard Law School to its eminent position wrote the following:
“According to the laws of legal evidence used in the courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.”
Jesus Christ got Victory over Death, Hell and The Grave.
Over all the power of sin,and darkness, over all the powers,of wickedness and evil.
Jesus Christ has trampled the head of Satan under His feet.
The devil is powerless now.
The devil is defeated by the king of kings, and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is THE ONLY super and mighty power.
His Resurection Day is Victory Day for us.We must call this Victory Day.
We are set free from the power of sin, the power of the curse, every power of Darkness and power of Sin and death.We now have freedom in Christ.
We are now blessed in Christ to be the sons and daughters of God, heirs to all our Father in heaven has given to us.
Jesus Christ has given us this authority so that we may over come the power of satanic forces and sickness and disease, and evil spirits.We are filled with the precious Holy Spirit power.
Praise the Lord!!!Let us celebrate the Victory Day Of The Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us tell all the nations of the world and tribes that we have freedom and victory in Christ Jesus.
Jesus Christ is alive forever.
" He's Alive "
" Victory Day excerpts written by:
Pastor Akram Masih
Pakistan
Other excerpts taken from
" Daily Bible Guide "
International Ministries of Last Call, Inc
8311 N E Zac Lentz Parkway Unit
Victoria, TX 77904
ph: 601 324 1240