Church of God(Ahnsahnghong's witness) - Sermon - The man Jesus Christ

People didn't realize Jesus' divine nature in the Apostolic Age

All the religious leaders such as the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who had ecclesiastical authority in those days, turned their faces from Jesus and rejected Him. However, the apostles believed and received Him, saying, "By him all things were created," "He is the image of the invisible God," "He is in very nature God," or "He is God over all, forever praised!"Those days' situation was totally different from today's; it was much harder to have faith in Jesus at that time. About 2,000 years ago, Jesus, like a tender shoot, had no beauty to attract people to Him, nothing in His appearance that they should desire Him; when He preached the gospel, it appeared to be a pseudo-religion in the eyes of religious leaders.Until that time, animals had been used in all ceremonies for sacrificing to God; people offered sacrifices to God with the blood of animals in worship. So when Jesus said, ‘There is no need of the blood of animals any more since I've come,' there was a great difference between Jesus' teaching and their ceremonies of sacrifice. That was why they regarded Jesus as a heretic. Since they didn't recognize that Jesus is the Christ, they blasphemed God and obstructed His work of salvation in this earth; they even cursed God, falsely saying all kinds of evil against Him.

Jn 10:30-33 『"I and the Father are one." Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."』

Those days' religious leaders opposed Christ, saying that He was a mere man but made Himself God. The apostles, however, recognized Christ: The Apostle Paul testified that He is in very nature God, and the Apostle John testified that He is God the Word who already existed in the beginning. Their thoughts were quite different from those of the religious leaders who already acquired ecclesiastical authority; they thought that God was to come in the radiance of His glory, not in the same manner as men's. Contrary to their expectation, however, God came as a human being; and He preached, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near," and warned against their wicked deeds. At this they became indignant, and rejected Him. They regarded Jesus only as a man, while the apostles recognized Him as the very God.It is the same now. Through the history of the Early Church, we can see it is prophetically described that Christ coming in the flesh is to arouse people's resistances in this age, too. Let's see how Jesus was unjustly accused, when He came into this earth in the flesh and preached the gospel and told people to believe in His name 2,000 years ago.

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