HIGHER POWER

HIGHER POWER

Studies show that almost everyone trusts in a higher power. Most people call themselves religious, spiritual, or persons of faith as if it were enough to just trust in something … anything. There are only two religions in the world. The Christianity of the Bible is the religion of divine accomplishment, which is salvation by grace and is based on what Christ accomplished on the cross. Every other religion on earth is the religion of human achievement, which is salvation by works where you assume that if you do fewer bad works and more good works, you'll earn favor with God. The people in this false religious system are known by many different names such as, Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Christian Scientists, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Salvation Army. Nobody says, “Join our religion and go to Hell.” That’s the deception. Many people are going to be with the big crowd on the broad way but only a few will squeeze through the narrow gate.

Matthew 7:13
13. "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
14. "Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

If you don’t choose to follow Jesus Christ through the narrow gate but choose to follow the many people on the broad way, any religion or no religion will get you to the same destination … Hell. Unlike today’s televangelists, when Jesus preached to the multitudes, many walked with Him no more.

John 6:66
66. From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

His disciples were concerned that so few were being saved. Jesus wasn’t able to build a mega-church because it was too difficult to enter His church … the gate was too narrow. Anyone who wanted to enter Christ’s Church was going to have to strip down and, with much difficulty, squeeze through the gate with just their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and leave all their self-righteous baggage behind.

Luke 13:22
22. And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.
23. Then one said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?'' And He said to them,
24. "Strive (Greek - agonizesthe - agonize, struggle, contend as with an adversary, labor fervently) to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Don’t be self-deluded … don’t kid yourself. Studies indicate that three out of four people who claim to be Christians are not Christians. To be almost saved is to be totally lost.

2 Corinthians 13:5
5. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.

Who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

Matthew 7:21
21. "Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22. "Many will say to Me in that day, `Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
23. "And then I will declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

In order to attract new members, many of today’s liberal churches hire rock bands and superstars to entertain the crowd. When they get around to preaching, they present a superficial gospel, a gospel that doesn’t mention true repentance from sin, and then they proclaim that thousands walked down the aisle and were saved. Beware of “easybelieveism.” People need to know what is required of them before making a lifetime commitment to the Lord. Jesus said that we shouldn’t start something before we know what it will cost.

Luke 14:28
28. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it
29. "lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him,
30. "saying, `This man began to build and was not able to finish.'

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that most people haven’t given much thought as to what they believe or why they believe what they believe. That’s why most people try to stay away from discussions about where they will spend eternity.

Most people who call themselves Christians are phony-baloney “Christmas and Easter” type believers who would rather celebrate the coming of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny than the birthday and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many people go to churches where the name of Jesus is barely mentioned. If they don’t want to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, why do they call themselves Christians? If they don’t want to learn what the Bible says about the Lord Jesus Christ, then why go to church at all?

Matthew 10:32
32. "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
33. "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Who is Jesus Christ? Is He the Lord, a liar, a lunatic, or a great moral teacher?

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he’s a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
-- C.S. Lewis

Most people are comfortable with calling Jesus a great moral teacher but, according to the laws of logic, that is not an option. If Jesus lied about what He did or who He was, why would you want to believe any of His teachings? Why would you want to have anything to do with Him? Jesus left no doubt about whom He claimed to be. Jesus clearly stated that He was God: “I and My Father are one,” “No one comes to the Father except through Me,” “Before Abraham was, I AM.'' Jesus said His name was I AM which is the name that Jehovah/God the Father said was His name. Jesus was executed for blasphemy because He claimed to be God.

Exodus 3:13
13. Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, `The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, `What is His name?' what shall I say to them?''
14. And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.'' And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, `I AM has sent me to you.' ''

By allowing Jesus to perform thousands of miracles such as walking on water, healing the sick, and raising the dead, God the Father was able to announce, verify, and authenticate that Jesus Christ is God the Son.

Acts 2:22
22. "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know

The strongest evidence attesting to the fact that Jesus is the Christ is the fulfillment of messianic prophesies that were written hundreds of years before His birth. At His first coming, Jesus fulfilled over 100 of the more than 300 Old Testament prophesies that were written concerning the Messiah. At His Second Coming, Jesus will fulfill the remaining 200. Just to name a few of the prophesies that He fulfilled, Jesus had to be:

1. From the seed of Abraham - Genesis 12:2, Genesis 22:18
2. From the son of Isaac - Genesis 22:12
3. From the son of Jacob - Numbers 24:17, Genesis 35:10
4. From the tribe of Judah - Genesis 49:10
5. From the family line of Jesse - Isaiah 11:1
6. From the House of David - Jeremiah 23:5
7. Born in Bethlehem - Micah 5:2
8. Born of a virgin - Isaiah 7:14

When faced with only three remaining options; Lord, liar, or lunatic, only a fool would call Jesus a liar or a lunatic because someone who lived as Jesus lived, taught as Jesus taught, and died as Jesus died could not have been a liar or a lunatic. Now here’s the problem! That only leaves one option … the Lord Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. If Jesus Christ is Lord, then you have only two options … you can accept Him or reject Him.

1 Kings 18:21
21. "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.''

The lives and deaths of His disciples are a testament to the fact that Jesus is the Christ and that He rose from the dead.

***** Before the resurrection:

Jesus’ disciples did not fully understand that Jesus was God in human flesh even though they lived with Him day and night and watched as He performed thousands of miracles for three years. Every day, hundreds of people came to Jesus to be cured of diseases and healed of deformities. Jesus healed all of them with just a word or a touch. If someone were missing an arm, leg, or eye, they were instantaneously restored, healed, and made completely whole. On two separate occasions, Jesus fed over 9,000 people with just a handful of fish and bread. The same Jesus who created the heavens and the earth out of nothing is the same Jesus who created body parts and extra food out of thin air.

Mark 8:18
18. "Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?
19. "When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?'' They said to Him, "Twelve.''
20. "And when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?'' And they said, "Seven.''
21. So He said to them, "How is it you do not understand?''

Jesus told His disciples that He was going to be killed and rise again.

Matthew 20:17
17. Then Jesus, going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them,
18. "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death,
19. "and deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise again.''

His disciples didn’t really think that Jesus would be executed. Peter promised that he would never forsake Jesus.

Matthew 26:33
33. Peter answered and said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.''
34. Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.''

Matthew 26:73
73. And after a while those who stood by came to him and said to Peter, "Surely you also are one of them,
74. Then he began to curse and swear, saying, "I do not know the Man!'' And immediately a rooster crowed.

Matthew 26:56
56. "But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.'' Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.

John 20:9
9. For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.

***** After the resurrection:

The disciples changed from being a band of cowards to boldly preaching about Christ’s resurrection.

Acts 4:13
13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

Persecution purifies and strengthens the church. If the cost of believing in Christ were as high in America as it is in some parts of the world, it would separate the wheat from the chaff … all the pretenders would leave His church. Throughout all of history, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

Acts 5:17
17. Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him …
18. and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.
27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them,
28. saying, "Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine …
29. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men.
40. and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41. So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
42. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Most of the early Apostles were tortured, flogged, and finally put to death just because they would not deny that Jesus is the Christ and that He rose from the dead. John the Baptist was the first to be beheaded. Peter requested to be executed upside down because he was not worthy to die as his Master.

1. Peter - Crucified upside down
2. Andrew - Crucified
3. Matthew - The sword
4. John - Exiled to an island
5. James, son of Alphaeus - Crucified
6. Philip - Crucified
7. Simon - Crucified
8. Thaddaeus - Killed by arrows
9. James, brother of Jesus - Stoned
10. Thomas - Spear thrust
11. Bartholomew - Crucified
12. James, son of Zebedee - The sword

The Apostle Paul was not in the original group of Apostles but in every city where he established a church there were people who were trying to kill him and finally he was beheaded.

Acts 9:29
29. And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him.

2 Corinthians 11:24
24. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
25. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26. in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27. in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness

Hebrews 11:36
36. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
37. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.

Who would die for a lie? Many people have died for a lie but they thought it was the truth. If the resurrection didn’t take place, the disciples knew it. Therefore, these Apostles not only died for a lie but they knew it was a lie. In all of recorded history, there never has been a group of people who died for a lie while knowing it was a lie. In order to keep from being whipped and killed, all they had to do was say that they lied, that Jesus Christ isn’t God, and that He didn’t really rise from the dead. Since they were killed, one by one, in separate places, no one would have known if one of them were to have taken the easy way out, turned against Jesus, and moved to a different part of the world to hide the fact that he denied the Lord. Only eyewitnesses of Christ’s resurrection would have been this brave.

2 Peter 1:16
16. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

1 John 1:1
1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life
2. the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us
3. that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Acts 1:1
1. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.
2. until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
3. to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 15:3
3. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4. and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
5. and that He was seen by Cephas (Peter), then by the twelve.
6. 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.
7. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles.

John 20:30
30. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;
31. but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

Twenty-two of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament were written between 40 and 70 A.D. The Apostle John wrote the remaining five books between 80 and 95 A.D. Josephus was not a Christian but he was a Jewish historian who wrote around 90 A.D. and, even then, thousands of people were still alive who had seen and had knowledge of the life of Jesus. If anyone tried to make up a story or change the facts, there were still plenty of people who could make sure that the facts were accurately stated. This is from The Complete Works of Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Antiquity Book 18, Chapter 3, and Paragraph 3:

3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.

Jesus has had a more lasting influence on the world than the three greatest philosophers of all antiquity. Socrates taught for 40 years. Plato taught for 50 years. Aristotle taught for 40 years. Jesus taught for less than three years, yet the influence of the three years of Jesus' ministry far outstrips the combined 130 years of these great men.

Jesus said that all Scripture must be fulfilled. In the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (the Old Testament), there are over 300 prophecies that were written concerning Christ. Over 100 prophecies were literally fulfilled at His first coming. According to the laws of probability, the chances of 100 prophecies being fulfilled in just one person is one chance out of
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
people (that’s a 1 followed by 900 zeros). Mathematicians say that anytime you have more than 15 zeros, you have proven your case. At His Second Coming, Jesus Christ will literally fulfill the remaining 200 prophecies. Only a fool would bet against odds like that.

Matthew 5:17
17. "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18. "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

Luke 24:44
44. Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.''

Jesus asked life’s most important question, “Who do you say that I am?” Everyone must answer this question for himself.

Matthew 16:15
15. He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?''
16. And Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.''
17. Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah (Peter), for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said that Peter’s answer was a revelation from God. In order to be saved, you will have to agree with God the Father and say that the Lord Jesus Christ is God in human flesh or you will die in your sins.

John 8:21
21. Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”
24. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

You must be willing to give up your sins and follow Him or turn your back on the Lord and walk away like a dog returning to his own vomit.

2 Peter 2:21
21. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit,'' and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.''








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