ကိုဗစ်-၁၉ကပ်ရောဂါနှင့်အပြည်ပြည်ဆိုင်ရာစာပို့လုပ်ငန်းဝန်ဆောင်မှုများပျက်ပြားခြင်းကြောင့်ကျွန်ုပ်တို့၏ 'အခမဲ့ပုံနှိပ်စာအုပ်ဝန်ဆောင်မှု' ကိုယာယီရပ်ဆိုင်းလိုက်သည်။
ဤအခြေအနေ၏အခြေအနေအရကျွန်ုပ်တို့သည်ယခုအချိန်တွင်သင့်အားစာအုပ်များမပို့နိုင်သေးပေ။
ဤကပ်ရောဂါသည်မကြာမီကုန်ဆုံးပြီးစာတိုက်လုပ်ငန်းပြန်လည်စတင်ရန်ဆုတောင်းပါ။
Subject 21 : The Gospel According to MARK
[Chapter 15-2] Do You Believe That Jesus Christ Is the True God? (Mark 15:16-41)
(Mark 15:16-41)
“Then the soldiers led Him away into the hall called Praetorium, and they called together the whole garrison. And they clothed Him with purple; and they twisted a crown of thorns, put it on His head, and began to salute Him, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. And when they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, put His own clothes on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him. Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear His cross. And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull. Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it. And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take. Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. And the inscription of His accusation was written above: With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!’ Likewise the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe.’ Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him. Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’ which is translated, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, ‘Look, He is calling for Elijah!’ Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, ‘Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down.’ And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’ There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome, who also followed Him and ministered to Him when He was in Galilee, and many other women who came up with Him to Jerusalem.”
Do You Believe Jesus Christ Is God?
Greetings to you all! I would like to share some good news with you before my sermon. I heard that the number of souls receiving salvation through our spiritual books is increasing overseas. God made this promise with Abraham saying, “By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies” (Genesis 22:16-17). I believe this promise is coming true within us.
I am not sure what the world population was at the time of Abraham, but it is certain that it was far less than today’s world population. Before the flood of Noah, people used to live very long, but as time went by, there were more and more people dying at a young age from diseases rather than dying from old age. For an example, the great kings such as the Pharaohs and the war heroes like Alexander the Great with extraordinary body conditions died at a young age. Those days there was not enough people to fulfill the promise even if they all received the remission of sins; nowadays we can see God’s promise with Abraham, that his descendants would be as many as the starts in heaven becoming true.
In the Book of Revelation it is also prophesied that a great multitude that no one could number will come forth clothed in white robes to praise the Lamb (Revelation 7:9). They symbolize those who received salvation by believing in the Lord-given gospel of the water and the Spirit. As a matter of fact such a large number of people are now receiving the remission of their sins in this era. I thank God that so many people are receiving the remission of sins, and the work of salvation is going so well with us. I believe that this will keep happening all over the world. I also believe that this great work of God will be carried out as it did in the Early Church.
We Are Receiving Good News from Every Corner of the World
As of today the number of visitors to our homepage is over five thousand and it seems that the number will increase up to ten thousand, fifty thousand and even to a hundred thousand a day. Does it sound like something impossible? It will come true by faith. I wonder if you know about Hitler. He was a megalomaniac. There are a lot of people with these psychopathological conditions. Do you happen to think spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world is megalomania? No, it is not. What we do is something of faith rather than megalomania. We work for the gospel of the water and the Spirit by faith and obey the Word by believing that the promises of God will come true. The Lord said that countless people would receive the remission of their sins at the end of days. If we who work for the will if God are considered to be megalomaniacs, then He would be the worst megalomaniac, for He commanded us to spread His gospel. No matter what, we will continue to do our best in preaching the gospel, believing in His Word from our hearts. I believe that God will be with us in this ministry.
Now let’s look at today’s Scripture passage. In this passage Roman soldiers led Jesus into the hall called Praetorium, clothed Him with purple clothing, and twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. As the soldiers were preparing to crucify Jesus, they mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” Then they struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him. And when they had finished mocking Him, they took the purple cloak off Him, put His own clothes back on Him, and led Him out to crucify Him (Mark 15:18-20).
We Actually Think of Jesus’ Pain Whenever We Hear the Story of the Cross
We are apt to think, “How much pain was He in when He was crucified?” Sometimes we feel uncomfortable about eating when we consider the crucified Jesus even to the degree that we cannot digest our food. Other times we feel comforted by the Cross when we are in pain. These two feelings of sympathy and gratefulness take up our hearts in turns.
However, let’s think about it. Do you think Jesus would appreciate how we feel? Do you believe that Jesus would be pleased with the fact we sympathize with His pain and feel depressed by meditating on His pain? Would Jesus thank us for comforting ourselves in times of our own sufferings thinking, “Is my pain comparable to that of the pain Jesus had suffered on the Cross?”? Of course, whenever we read about His Passion, many kinds of joy and sadness come and go in our hearts. I want you to lay down such feelings for a while in order for me to share today’s Scripture passage with you.
Jesus was handed over to the Roman soldiers, He was striped naked and they then clothed Him in a purple garment. God the Father prepared Jesus for this crucifixion. They shouted at Him, “Did you claim you were the King of the Jews? Then you are a rebel against the Roman Emperor Caesar.” They were falsely accusing Jesus of rebellion and sentenced Him to death. To sentence Jesus to death, they had to come up with an appropriate charge; they could do so since people called Jesus the King of the Jews, which was in rebellion to the Roman Empire from the Roman soldiers’ points of view.
Dear fellow believers, here is something very important. As we observe what kind of sufferings Jesus went through before His crucifixion, we need to speculate on what we must think and know. Then what sufferings as these? Before Jesus was crucified, He was mocked, despised, clothed with a purple garment, slapped on the head, spat on, a crown of thorns was jabbed onto His head, and then they hit Him on His head with a reed staff. Purple is the color of kings. The soldiers mocked Him as they put this crown of thorns on His head and called Him “the King of the Jews.” It is written, “They struck Him on the head with a reed and spat on Him; and bowing the knee, they worshiped Him.” “Are you really the King of the Jews? Are you a real king of your people? Why don’t you have any power if you are a king?” People despised and mocked Jesus as much as they could. After they mocked the Lord to their hearts’ content, they took Him to the Cross.
As we listen to this message about the Passion, it is good to have an appreciative heart, but there is something we need to know above all this. We should know that Jesus, who was being mocked, is the Son of God and the King of all kings, who created the universe. Even though He was the true God, He bore all kinds of insults like this to save His people. We must keep it in our mind that Jesus is the true God and meditate on the suffering of Jesus on the Cross.
Jesus proved through many of His Words that He is actually the Son of God and God Himself at the same time. In John 8, He said to the woman who was caught in the act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you.” He also said to the crowd who were about to stone her to death, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7). He also said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12).
When the Pharisees said to Him, “You bear witness of Yourself. Your witness is not true,” Jesus answered them, “Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going” (John 8:14). “If I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me” (John 8:16). What else did He say conclusively? “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “As My father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:28-29). He also witnessed, “I was born from above, but you are born from below. You are slaves of sin, but I am the Son of God. I created the universe. Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58).
Yes, Jesus Declared Himself as God
In John 9, Jesus healed a blind man to see on a Sabbath day. Then the Pharisees insulted Him saying, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath,” the Lord said He is the Master of the Sabbath and God, who gave us the Sabbath. And in John 10, He called Himself the door of the sheep and the Shepherd. He said, He is God, our Shepherd and the Savior to us all. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He testified with these Words that He is the true God who created us, and came to this earth to save us from all our sins.
The Lord teaches us how to pray. Whom did Jesus say we should pray to? He told us to pray to Him. He said, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14). We were good at praying to God the Father, but we did not know how to pray to Jesus. The Lord promised that if we pray in His name, He would do it. If someone says the same thing to you, you will consider him a megalomaniac. However, Jesus is originally God Himself, who came to this world in human flesh for a short period of time to save you and me from all our sins, so praying to Jesus is equal to praying to God. Our Lord Jesus is the almighty God who hears and answers our prayers.
We Call Jesus Our Master
Jesus is our Master. He is our Master, who created us and saved us from all our sins. He became our Shepherd, saved us by the gospel of the water and the Spirit and gave us eternal life. The Lord gives us rewards when we do good; we were born by this Lord; we have received the remission of sins by Him; and we have received the perfect salvation through Him.
As our Lord who is God took the sins of all mankind upon Himself, He had to die on the Cross. Dying and rising from the dead to save us all was what He had to do. Unfortunately, we do not pay much attention to this truth, but have sympathy on Jesus based on the crucifixion only. It is more important to know who Jesus is and how we trust in Him. What the Lord wants from us is not sympathy, but exact answers to the following questions and faith: “For you, I received the baptism, bore the sins of the world, died on the Cross and rose from the dead. Who then do you think I am? Do you believe that I am God? Do you recognize Me as the Creator of the universe and the King of all kings?”
As our Lord was being crucified, He did not ask for any recognition of what He was doing. Nevertheless, He said a lot of things before He was crucified. The Lord said to you and me, “I am with the Father. Even though I bear witness to Myself, my witness is true. My father is with Me, and I do what My father does. I also have the power to judge. I came to judge this world. Of course, I didn’t come to judge the world but in essence to save the world. But I cannot help judging those who claim they can see with their carnal eyes, but to save those who know they are spiritually blind. I came to give salvation to those who know and believe in Me, and I came to judge those who do not know or acknowledge Me as the Savior and God.”
What the Lord really wants from us is for us to believe that Jesus is our Savior and our God. He wants us to believe in Him and thank Him as our Master, who always loves us, protects us and guides us. He did not mean to get sympathy from His crucifixion. He meant for us to realize that He took on these sufferings, died and rose from the dead just to save us. He is God, who wants us to know and acknowledge Him correctly since He bore all our sins through His baptism.
The Lord was on the Cross, shedding all the blood in His heart. He said, “I thirst!” (John 19:28) As we look at this scene, we cannot help having humane sympathy, thinking, “What awful pain Jesus must have been in!” But please pay attention to what He said right after this: “It is finished!” He said He had completed our salvation. Our Lord took all our sins through His baptism, so He had to pay for the wages of all those sins. That is why He carried the Cross and died on it for us like this. It was a part of His plan to save us completely through His death and resurrection. He never wanted a temporal sympathy from us. He wanted us to realize this through the crucifixion.
The Lord Wants Us to Understand This Truth
The Truth is that the Lord is God and our Savior who received the baptism and took the punishment to save us, and that He gave Himself on the Cross for this very reason. Because He is our God, He took on this awful pain and humiliation, and liberated us from our sins. It is written, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace upon him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). The Lord truly did this for you and me. We should know this fact that Jesus Christ came to this earth, received baptism, gave Himself as a sacrifice on the Cross, and through all this He delivered us from pain and condemnation; and we should thus thank Jesus for what He has done for us.
I am telling you again that the Lord does not seek any sympathy from us. What He wants from us is for us to know that He is the Son of God and the Creator God who made the universe and everything in it. We need to acknowledge that this great God did such things to save us from all our sins. He would feel disappointed if we just focused on the pain of the crucifixion and not to recognizing Him as our Savior. If a beggar goes to a wealthy man and says, “You must be broken-hearted after paying so much tax this year,” then the wealthy man might feel offended. Not long ago, the US Justice Department imposed an anti-trust fine of $300 million on Samsung Electronics Company of Korea. It was the second largest criminal anti-trust fine in history. We were worried when we heard about this, but can you guess what the company said? “Is it just $300 million dollars? It is ready. We knew it would happen so we already have prepared for it.” If you visit the president of the Samsung Cooperation to show your concern, he will probably feel insulted and say to you, “Mind your own business.”
Brothers and sisters, if we only talk about His crucifixion with sympathy, the Lord will rebuke us: “I had to do this to save you. I ask you to know who I really am and believe in Me. And I want you to receive the remission of your sins and receive eternal life.” The crucified Jesus is actually God, who came down to this earth temporarily to bear all our sins, receive baptism from John the Baptist, take on all kinds of humiliations and mockery before being crucified, and died on the Cross. This is the Truth through all of which we were saved. If we do not understand this Truth or believe what really happened here, the Lord will say, “You have read the Bible in vain and believed in Me in vain.”
We are not the ones who are to sympathize with Him. We are the ones who have to receive favor from Him. Who do you think Jesus is and how do you trust in Him? Do you know that Jesus is the Creator of this entire universe and even the unseen spiritual world? Do you believe this? If you don’t have this faith, you are no different from those who just sympathize with Him for His crucifixion. Jesus, even though He is the Creator God, came down to this earth and went through horrible contempt and suffering from His very own people just so that He could save them from their sins. Our job is not to take pity on Him, but to know and believe who He really is.
What Does Our Lord Hate the Most?
It is a mistaken faith that does not believe that Jesus is the Savior, the Son of God who is the true God Himself equal with God the Father. When He sees any disbelieving people, He becomes broken-hearted. There were so many of these kinds of people even when Jesus was still on earth. When Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” people questioned Him back saying, “Are you kidding? How could you be before Abraham, who lived on this earth thousands of years ago?” They persecuted Jesus saying that He was demon-possessed.
Our Lord also tells us and today’s Christians hundreds and thousands of times over that He is God. If we don’t acknowledge Him as God, we are no better than those who persecuted Jesus at that time. Such faith is not a genuine faith. If we don’t think Jesus is God and if we don’t know the fact that He came down to earth in human flesh, received the baptism, took over all our sins and died on the Cross, then we believe in Jesus in vain. Only by knowing and believing in His origin, can we come to have real understanding of what He did for you and me. Our Lord truly did such things to deliver us from the eternal judgment of sin and condemnation, and to give us everlasting life and blessings. We should know these facts correctly and believe them.
If you don’t have such knowledge, you need to learn it anew from the very beginning. How many times have I told you that Jesus is God? If we could say without any deception, “Ask anything in my name, and I will do it,” we would in fact be God. However, can you really stand up and say, “Ask me for anything, and I will solve all of your problems”? We cannot say such things because we don’t have the ability to do so. Anybody can lie about their abilities, but nobody can say such things out loud. Even if they do, they will soon turn out to be liars once they are proven to be incapable of such things.
It is written, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). Nothing was made without Jesus. Jesus is the true God (1 John 5:20). He is not only God, but also our Savior and our Shepherd. He is the true God who gives us eternal life, and the mighty Counselor who can solve our problems of sin and condemnation. Jesus is such a true God to you and me. I hope you believe in this deeply from your heart.
With this knowledge, we need to read the Bible, trust in Jesus and pray to Him. This is the true life of faith. Faith is complete trust in Him as we look up to Him for what He did for us. On the other hand, religion is what people have made up in their own minds to depend on. It is actually a fantasy created in there own minds. The difference between true faith and religion is so huge.
What does Buddha say? “Attain Buddahood. Be delivered from worldly obsessions by yourself. Become a god. Give up your desires. Take eternal life for yourself. Do whatever you can do.” The main point of every religion is “Do it yourself.” “Are you troubled because of your greed? Discard your greed. Are you buried in your thoughts? Discard your thoughts. Do you have much agony? Let go of your agony. Do you want to leave your physical body? Do so. Do you want to go to a better place and do you want to be born in a good place? Then always do good.” Everything they say is what people need to do on their own.
On the contrary, what did Jesus say? “Ask anything in My name, and I will do it. Trust Me. I will save you from your sins. I am your Savior and Shepherd.” This is what separates true faith and religion. We need to be aware of this. Brothers and sister, do you believe in the Lord with genuine faith?
Jesus is God and the Creator. ‘Jesus’ means ‘Savior’ and ‘Christ’ means ‘the anointed King,’ that is, ‘God the Creator.’ Jesus is not only our Savior, but also God by origin. Jesus created you and me. Do you know that Jesus made everything in this world? Do you believe in this? We should know and believe in this no matter when and where we are.
Let’s look at today’s passage again.
People crucified Jesus. There were two robbers on either sides of Jesus. One of them ridiculed Jesus.
“I heard you saved others. Then save yourself this time.”
But the other rebuked him and said, “We indeed received the due reward of our deeds, but this Man has done nothing wrong. He is the Son of God.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).
And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Brothers and sisters, why do you think Jesus was not crucified alone but with the two criminals? This is to show us that there are people who cannot recognize Him but only ridicule Him instead, while there still are some people who are able to recognize Him. We need to be aware that Jesus the true God came down to this earth, bore our sins through His baptism, went through all kinds of scorn and jeers on the way to His crucifixion so that He could save us from the eternal judgment, destruction and curses, and lead us to receive everlasting life and infinite blessings from Heaven through the remission of our sins. We should believe this.
What we need to emphasize is to have faith in Jesus Christ and to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and to recognize who Jesus really is. We should know His fundamental Being, the reason why He came to this earth, and the reason why He received the baptism before dying on the Cross and rising from the dead. In other words, we should understand His thoughts, plans and purposes. After that, we should believe what we found out about Him. This is the most important point in our faith.
The baptism and crucifixion are important to know, but what is more important is the truth that Jesus is actually God Himself who came down to this earth to save His people and to give them eternal life. The Lord visits such sinners like us and knocks on the door of our hearts. “I am your Lord, who came to save you in such a way. I came in to you in human flesh, received baptism, bore all your sins, died on the Cross, and rose up from the dead. I am your Shepherd. I am your God.” Jesus knocked on our hearts’ doors like this.
Now we must open the door of our hearts wide, and recognize Him as God, who came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit to save His own people. We have to believe like this. This is related to our life. Easter is just around the corner. “Since Jesus was resurrected, let’s help out some people in need in our neighborhood,” people will start to make a hustle and bustle over it.
However, that is not all. Jesus came to save us. Jesus is pleased whenever a soul is saved. Helping others in need is not a bad job, but the purpose Jesus had for us is not in doing good deeds and helping others out. His intention was to save us from all our sins and lead us to everlasting life. Therefore we should set our goals of faith in this as well.
According to the Bible, many people wept as they followed Jesus who was carrying the Cross to Golgotha. Some felt terrible pain seeing Jesus moaning out of severe pain; others tried to carry the Cross for Him, or brought Him some water. But the Lord said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28).
The Lord came to do His mission. And He completed His mission. Jesus was mocked, striped naked, clothed in purple and hit on the head with a reed. People spat on His face, mocked Him, flogged Him and bowed down to Him saying, “King of the Jews, King of the Jews, save Yourself first!” The Lord did not as much open His mouth but let them take Him to the Cross and crucify Him where He shed His blood. Jesus was in so much pain and cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which when translated means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34) Then soon after this, He breathed His last saying, “It is finished!”
Dear fellow believers, even though Jesus was this great God who created the universe and everything in it, He still obeyed God the Father’s will, clothed Himself in human flesh and worked for the salvation of His people. After He was finished with His mission, He rose from the dead by the power of God Himself. The Lord here has shown us everything about His righteous work through the written Word.
You and I must believe that Jesus is God, our Creator, our Savior and our Shepherd. The Lord tells us to know and believe that He is the Lord of all eternal blessings. He asks us and all human races to believe that He came to this earth as God and became our Savior: He saved us through His baptism and the Passion. To those who already believe this, He asks us to have a deeper and a stronger faith. He asks us to believe what He did on earth was all meaningful, gratifying and precious. He was truly God by origin, came down to this earth in human flesh to save us from sin and to bear all our sins, received baptism by John the Baptist and died on the Cross. The Lord God saved you and me from sin and delivered us from the eternal judgment and destruction. He blessed us in such way. The precious purpose of what He did on this earth was based on the fact that He is God. If He was not God, then He would be just one of many people who do such and such virtuous things.
A few years ago, a Korean male student studying in Tokyo was crushed to death by a train trying to save a Japanese lady who was about to be hit by the train. We call such a man ‘a courageous person.’ However, even such a righteous act cannot be compared to what Jesus did. What people do for others can be so good and precious, but what God did for everyone is more precious and righteous. It is more precious than anything else because the almighty God came for His creatures, mankind, was baptized, took on scorns and hard suffering, gave Himself up to be crucified and rose from the dead to save us. That is why we believe in Him. How precious is the Highest God, the Creator who became like one of His own creation, died for man and rose from the dead to remove all the sins of the human race? Could there be a more precious thing in this whole world?
What the Lord has done became the symbol of love. Cross necklace is a symbol of love. It is the symbol of God’s love for us. I hope people in this whole world will come to know and believe this so that they can please God, become recognized for their faith, receive His favor and remission of their sins and salvation, and enjoy all the good and beautiful blessings from their Creator. This is the purpose for which God came to you and me. I am sure you will accept all this by faith.
If Jesus who is actually God had not done this for us, I would not be able to stand here and preach to you. If I were an evangelist for General Sunshin Lee, a legendary Korean admiral who defeated the entire Japanese fleet during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, I could probably preach about him for a year or so. I would be enthusiastic about his body, value system, dutiful heart, wisdom and etc. But I can guarantee you that I could preach about any specific human for longer than a year because a life of man is limited. On the other hand, we can never run out of things to boast about what Jesus the true God did for us when He came to this world. Even ten thousand or trillion things can’t be all, just like it is written, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen” (John 21:25).
Thank God by faith. The Lord gave up His soul to God saying, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) Let’s find out what happened next through verses 38 and 39. “And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last he said, ‘Truly this Man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:37-39).
As the above passage says, the thick veil of the Temple, which was far away from where He was crucified, was torn in two from top to bottom. The veil was so thick that it could not be torn by four healthy horses pulling in opposite directions. This thick veil was torn the moment Jesus cried out His last Words with His last breath.
What does this mean? It means what Jesus meant to do on earth to save the human race was thus completed. He made a way for everyone to receive the remission of sins, and He opened the door to Heaven for those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who believe in Jesus Christ, those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and those who believe in Jesus Christ as the Savior can now enter Heaven. It is because they have received the remission of their sins. I believe this.
Even the centurion who stood opposite Jesus and saw Him breathe His last breath put his faith in Him and said, “Truly this Man was the Son of God.” Usually people scream and curse at the last moment before dying. But Jesus did not. There were some people, who watched these last moments of Jesus, and among them were His mother Mary, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene; all of them said, “This Man was truly the Son of God.”
This is an historical event. The highest God came down to earth to save you and me. Jesus died on the Cross and rose again in three days, through which He completed our salvation. Sundays we come to worship Him and it is the day when Jesus was resurrected. “♪He arose. He arose, ♬Hallelujah, Christ arose♩” Just as the lyrics of this popular Easter hymn say, Jesus could rise from the dead after He completed this salvation work, because He is the Master of life. That is how He became the perfect Savior for you and me. I thank the highest God our Lord. So we are going to spread this gospel of the water and the Spirit all over the world. Halleluiah!
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