What Was Jesus Doing On the Cross?

# 13 (He was) giving us the central message of our ministry

The central message of our ministry is the good news of the Gospel that Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, was buried and on the 3rd day He was raised from the dead

1 Corinthians 15: 1a, 3-4 ‘Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.’

Matthew 25: 46; John 14: 6; Romans 5: 12; Romans 3: 23; Romans 6: 23; John 11: 23-26; Colossians 1: 14; Revelation 20: 14-15

Please notice that the Apostle Paul said the Gospel is:

most important NLT

(is of) first importance ESV

(is of the) greatest importance GNT

Why? Because, Romans 1: 16b ‘it is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes’

The Apostle Paul considered the good news of the Gospel the central message of his ministry and said, 1 Corinthians 9: 16b ‘If I don’t tell people the Good News I am doomed’ ERV, CEV combo

Romans 2: 16; Romans 16: 25 ‘my gospel’ ESV

Throughout his 30 years of ministry the Apostle Paul had to relentlessly fight for the centrality of the Gospel and fight against those who wanted to make it secondary to something else

Early in beginning of the new Church of Antioch in Syria men came from Jerusalem and tried to deceive the Christians there into making the good news of the Gospel secondary to the Law of Moses

They said that to be properly saved it was necessary to observe the Old Testament law because, according to them, faith in Christ alone was insufficient to save them, Acts 15: 1 ‘While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.”’

But the Apostle Paul, some of the other Apostles including Peter and the Elders of the Church met together in Jerusalem and put out this Statement of Faith: Acts 15: 11 READ ‘We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.’

And when the Apostle Paul preached the good news of the Gospel in Thessalonica some of the Jews there falsely accused him of teaching that Jesus was just another political leader who wanted to overthrow the Roman Empire

Acts 17: 1-7

The Apostle Paul never went back to Thessalonica but later he wrote 2 letters to them and in parts of his letters he said:

1 Thessalonians 2: 2b ‘God gave us the courage to declare His Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.’

2 Thessalonians 2: 14-15 ‘He called you to salvation when we told you the Good News; now you can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. With all these things in mind, dear brothers and sisters, stand firm and keep a strong grip on the teaching we passed on to you both in person and by letter.’

After many years of faithful ministry throughout the Roman Empire, the Apostle Paul returned to Jerusalem and as he met with the Church leaders there, he found that in his absence the central message of gospel had become secondary to the Law of Moses

The Church leaders said to Paul, Acts 21: 20-22a ‘“You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they all follow the law of Moses very seriously. But the Jewish believers here in Jerusalem have been told that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn their backs on the laws of Moses. They’ve heard that you teach them not to circumcise their children or follow other Jewish customs.’’’

Does that surprise you?

I’m surprised and not in a good way; I would have expected the Church leaders in Jerusalem to say something like this, “all the Jews here in Jerusalem are following Jesus very seriously”

The leaders of the Jerusalem Church then told Paul to go to the temple and, Acts 21: 24b ‘observe the Jewish laws’. But instead of welcoming Paul to the temple the Jews attacked him and falsely accused him of speaking against the temple, the law of Moses and the people, and they also accused him of bringing Gentiles into the temple precinct, Acts 21: 30-32 ‘The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him. As they were trying to kill him, word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.’

Then the Apostle Paul was arrested by the Romans and put on trial several times and what is even more surprising to me is that the Church leaders in Jerusalem abandoned Paul and never once attended a trial to speak in his defense

Acts 23: 1-10; Acts 24: 1-21; Acts 25: 6-12; Acts 26: 1-32

And still under arrest, the Apostle Paul was taken to Rome to stand trial in front of the Roman Emperor and during that time he was allowed to have visitors to come and see him from the local Jewish community

Acts 28: 30-31a ‘For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ.'

It seems to me that the Church in Jerusalem had made the centrality of the Gospel secondary to the Law of Moses – now contrast that with the Apostle Paul’s home Church in Antioch of Syria which kept the good news of the Gospel the central message of its ministry

And because of that God made Antioch, NOT Jerusalem, the outstanding Church model of the New Testament

Here are some of the ministry blessings that the Church of Antioch in Syria enjoyed:

o Large numbers of people ‘believed and turned to the Lord’, Acts 11: 21b

o The believers were the first to be called ‘Christians’, Acts 11: 26

o The Church was full of the Holy Spirit and power, Acts 11: 21

o The Church had great leaders like Paul and Barnabas along with several prophets, teachers and skilled administrators, Acts 11: 23-30; Acts 13: 1

o The Church was very generous in their giving even sending financial support to the Jerusalem Church, Acts 11: 27-30

o The Church was multicultural, Acts 13: 1

o The Church became the Base for evangelism into the Roman Empire

Acts 13: 1-3; Acts 14: 26; Acts 15: 32-33, 36-40; Acts 18: 22-23

The Apostle Paul’s Church in Antioch of Syria is the kind of Church I want to be part of!

And like the Apostle Paul, we too must keep the good news of the Gospel the central message of our ministry and NOT allow it to become just a secondary message

Testimony: For 15 years between 1987 and 2002 I Pastored 2 Churches in a Denomination that had this as its Ministry Statement: ‘Our distinctive is the baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues’

Now don’t get me wrong, I fully believe in the Person and work of the Holy Spirit; (Jennifer and I were born again in the fires of Pentecost)

But after serving the Lord over those years I became more and more uncomfortable about the ‘distinctive’ of the Denomination - the Lord reminded me that Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, John 16: 14a ‘He will bring Me glory’

What does that mean?

That means that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Jesus NOT Himself!

In mid 2003 Jennifer and I left that Denomination and since then we had the most satisfying years of our ministry as we have made our ‘distinctive’ - Christ crucified, buried and risen from the dead!

So, tell your friends about Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, His burial and that on the 3rd day He was raised from the dead, Acts 4: 12 ‘There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.’