Jesus Preached the Gospel
Jesus died, He was buried, He went to hell and He rose again. That is the gospel and Jesus preached His own death, burial and resurrection. The Father had told Him this was going to take place in His life and He believed what the Father told Him. He only spoke and did what the Father told Him to do. John 8:28 says that Jesus did nothing of Himself; but as the Father taught Him, He spoke those things.
We are going to look at a couple of examples in scripture of Jesus preaching the gospel of the kingdom (and there are many more). And that kingdom is not in word, but in power. So let us go to Matthew 4:23. Jesus had just said in verse 17, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Remember, the kingdom is power. And He then called Peter and Andrew to follow Him. And they immediately left their ship and father and followed Him. Now in verse 23, "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching (proclaiming or shewing forth) the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." Verse 24 continues on, "And His fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them." That is the power of God - that is the gospel that Jesus preached and that is the gospel that we are to preach.
Let us now look at Matthew 11:4-6, "Jesus answered and said unto them (his disciples), "Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." You hear the gospel and then you see what the preaching of the gospel produces - results!
I want to tell you now, that if you do not see the results of what you are after, you keep believing this gospel until you do. This is where patience will be worked out in your heart, and that patience is continuance. It is through faith and patience you inherit the promises of God. You never stop relying on and adhering to this power until you see the results of what you are believing for. Most people stop believing the gospel if they do not see the results when they think they should. They say, "Well, this just does not work. God's word does not mean what it says." And that is where they are wrong. The problem is they quit believing. A person who believes the gospel, will stick with it until they see the manifestations of what they are after. There are things that God has spoken to me over the years, and I have stuck with, and will continue to stick with this gospel until I see the gospel perform every single one of them. The gospel is what performs every promise that God makes to you. You do not look to the promise - which I used to do, but you look to the One who was raised from the dead to perform them.
Jesus believed the gospel. And you better know He had His faith tested and tried having to go through all that He went through before He was raised from the dead. But He kept His heart on what the Father had told Him, and He did not let His soul rule Him. And I can honestly say, I have learned to do this. Jesus looked to the joy that was set before Him (which was being raised from the dead), enduring the cross - walking through it. And it says He despised the shame - He looked down on it, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He walked by faith and worshipped and praised God until He saw the victory of being raised from the dead - just as the Father had told Him. He was tempted in all points, just as we are, but He was without sin. He also learned obedience by the things which He suffered (or experienced). And He is our example. We have to look to Jesus - the author and finisher of our faith!
The things that God has led me through, I have experienced some suffering by going through them. And if you have ever heard that "Jesus did all the suffering we will ever have to", know one thing, that is a lie. In Philippians 3 it says that we will have to count everything dung, that we may win Christ. And then be found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness of God which is through faith; so that we may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. II Timothy 2:12 says that if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. I Peter 4:13 says that we are to rejoice, inasmuch as we are partakers of Christ's sufferings. And if we suffer with Him, we may be also glorified together. Because the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And I do like that.
Through those sufferings is where I learned obedience to the will of God. And the only suffering that counts is when you are tempted to quit believing the gospel while going through them and doing the will of the Father - not your own will. You will have an opportunity every day to want to 'give up' and quit believing, but that is where you take possession of your soul. You don't give in to those temptations of wanting to quit - you pray in other tongues until you overcome the temptation.
You will have to worship and praise the Father, even when you don't feel like it, and not let your soul rule you. You will have to take possession of your soul and overcome your soul by purifying it by faith in obeying the truth through the Spirit. You will have to pray without ceasing, so that you will not enter into temptation. Jesus told us that the flesh is weak, but our spirit is willing. And I am not going to lie to you by telling you how easy this is, because it is not. Overcoming your soul will be the hardest thing you will ever do in this walk. The reason being is that the soul does not want to obey God, it does not want to walk upright in this gospel. You will have to put to death the deeds (or works) of the flesh through the Spirit - praying in other tongues. You may be saying, "I do not even speak in other tongues." Well, if you believe the gospel, you will speak in other tongues. So just open your mouth and start praying right now, and out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Amen. Mark 16 tells us that signs follow those that believe the preaching of the gospel. They will cast out devils, speak in other tongues, lay hands on the sick and they will recover. This is totally scriptural. You will need to take the Psalms and read them out loud daily. Why? Because the Psalms are filled with the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Read the new testament out loud also. Remember that faith comes by hearing the gospel.
In Matthew 16 and 17, Jesus told His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests, scribes and elders, and be killed and be raised again the third day. He was always telling them how the Son of man must suffer many things, and be mocked, scourged and be betrayed and killed and then be raised from the dead. But they did not understand His sayings, and they were afraid to ask Him. But the day came where what He had been preaching to them came to pass. And even then they did not believe. It says He spoiled principalities and powers, and made an open shew of them, triumphing over them in Himself. He made an example of all of those wicked spirits in those wicked people that didn't believe Him and that had reviled, mocked and accused Him. And He did it when He was raised from the dead. You know, it will be no different with us. God will make an example of every person who has accused and mocked and resisted us for doing the will of the Father. He will confound them.
Jesus was always on the disciples case and religious peoples case because of their unbelief. In Mark 3, Jesus had entered into the synagogue and a man was there who had a withered hand. And they all watched Him to see if He would heal this man on the sabbath day so that they might accuse Him. Jesus told the man to stand forth and then He said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?" But it says they held their peace. And then in verse 5 - "And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, (and a hard heart is a blind heart, is an unbelieving heart), He saith unto the man, "Stretch forth thine hand." And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other." And because of that, they took counsel how they might destroy Jesus. Wicked people will want to destroy you when the power of God manifests. But they will not be able to - you will just walk right through them.
It was the Father working in Jesus when He told the man to stretch forth his hand. And the words that Jesus spoke were spirit and they were life. So whatever the Father told Him to speak, He spoke and those words were made alive. And that is exactly how it will work in us. When the Spirit of God tells us to speak, those words we speak will be made alive - just as if it were God Himself speaking them. And He will confirm the words of His servants and perform the counsel of His messengers every time. That is the power of God. Praise God.
But Jesus was angered at them because of their hard, blind, unbelieving hearts. And He still is to this day. Unbelief does not want to see the power of God. Why? Because when that power manifest, it will expose your wicked, unbelieving heart. And either your wickedness will go, or you will go out with your wickedness. The church that Jesus is coming back after is not going to have any spots, wrinkles or blemishes in it. And God's glory is going to fill this earth, and we are going to see the fulness of the blessing of this gospel manifest in the earth as it has not been seen since the days of Jesus. That is why I press forward in the Spirit daily, obeying this doctrine from the heart and overcoming things in my own soul, as well as the powers of darkness that are set against me. This will be the fight of your life. After all it does say to fight the good fight of faith and that we will wrestle with powers, principalities, wicked spirits, etc. And you fight in prayer believing the death, burial and resurrection power. God's word will be performed in this earth, because what has gone forth out of His mouth will not return to Him void. It will be accomplished as He pleases and prosper where He sends it.
You know, no man can stay the hand of God, and you are one foolish person if you think you can or even try to. Jesus will make a fool out of you, just as He did those religious people when He was raised from the dead. Every single thing that God has ordained from the foundation of the world will be performed in this earth and He does not need one person's approval of what He does. He will run right over you and your unbelief, and I include myself. Romans 3:3-4 says, "For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid..." Thank God.
I John 2:6 says that "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." If you say that you abide in Him, then you will walk as He walked. Jesus walked perfect before the Father. He only said and did what the Father told Him to say and do. He could do nothing of Himself. He pleased the Father perfectly. And that is what we are to do. Jesus healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead and cast out devils. He said even greater works than these will we do because He has gone to the Father. This is the gospel being demonstrated.
I would just encourage to believe this gospel, because we are going to see the fulness of the power of God demonstrated in this earth with mighty signs, wonders, miracles and healings. It is an exciting time to be alive and to see that exceeding great power that raised Jesus from the dead manifest in our presence. Remember, it was finished 2000 years ago!
