30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 20 1-8 THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS 02 Luke 20 1 The gospel as a whole
📖 Luke 20:1-8
06Feb2021 - *The gospel as a whole* - _Luke 20:1-8_ - THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS 2 – Bible reading: _Hebrews 2:9-10_
It was a highly charged atmosphere in which Jesus taught. The leaders of the people had decided to destroy Him but Jesus did not back down nor was He nervous as to how things would turn out. He took a difficult situation by the scruff of the neck and converted it into an opportunity to bring the message of God and glorify Him.
This was the authority of Jesus and this is the authority that He gives us. We too need to take charge of our circumstances and convert the same into an opportunity for the Lord’s name to be glorified.
_Luke 20:1 Now it happened on one of those days, as He taught the people in the temple and preached the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes, together with the elders, confronted Him_
_Luke 19:47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him,_
The temple was the place for man to be reconciled with God and come into the habitat of God. It was in the temple that Jesus taught and preached the gospel. The good news was therefore presented in the right setting for the good news is for man to come back into the habitat of God and there be fulfilled.
Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom. _Luke 4:43 but He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent."_
The gospel was the gospel of His kingdom. At the same time, the gospel is also the work of Jesus on the cross. These are not two separate parts of the gospel message but they are built into each other.
To many of us, the gospel remains only as of the gospel of the cross of Jesus but as we receive the gospel of the cross of Jesus, we are also entering into the gospel of His kingdom.
What is the gospel of the cross of Jesus?
_I Corinthians 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you *the gospel which I preached to you*, which also you received and in which you stand, (2) by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. (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*,_
The gospel of the cross of Jesus has three steps. Jesus died for us on the cross, He was buried and He rose again. This is the good news of the cross of Jesus. This is what He did for us. This good news of the cross of Jesus becomes a reality for us when we receive what Jesus did for us, by faith through His grace.
We die with Him, we are buried with Him and we rise with Him, by faith through His grace. This is where many of us stop and we conclude that we are saved by grace through faith, which is true but the good news of the work of Jesus on the cross takes us into the good news of His kingdom.
How did Jesus connect the cross with His kingdom?
_Hebrews 2:9-10 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for *the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour*, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (10) For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, *in bringing many sons to glory*, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings._
The Father, in Christ, connected the cross with His kingdom. The suffering of Jesus, by His death, burial and resurrection resulted in Him being crowned with glory and honour. The cross led to His crown.
When we receive the gospel of the cross of Jesus, we are brought into the glorious reality and experience of His kingdom. We cannot stop at the good news of the cross of Jesus but we must come into the complete experience of the whole gospel, where we now live in the fullness of His kingdom.
We are here on earth as His kingdom representatives, bringing many others into the whole gospel.
*Thought to ponder*
```The church, displaying life in the kingdom of God, becomes that natural environment into which many who are outside can enter in and find rest.```