Jesus is the hope of the world.
If you haven't yet noticed, we are all about Jesus here at Antioch. So, for those that have never been introduced to him, we thought that now is as good a time as any to give you the opportunity to get to know him.
Jesus is our hope. Our deliverer. Our love. Our king.
To understand the whole picture of who he is and what that means for us though, we have to start at the beginning. The very beginning.
God created the heavens and the earth. Jesus is God, and he was with God (which is the Bible's way of saying that God exists as a Trinity, a community of three individual persons, yet still One: Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Everything that was made was made through him and by him, and nothing that's been materially made was ever made without him. The pinnacle of God's creation was mankind, whom he blessed with his very image and likeness. He designed us to enjoy perfect relationship with him, an existence of pure bliss in unity with our Creator.
But man doubted God's goodness. Not only did Adam and Eve, the first humans, reject intimacy with God, but all of humanity has followed suit. We have this silly, yet universal and unyielding, notion that we can be the gods of our own life. Unfortunately for us, when we cut ourselves off from the Source and Giver of life Himself (aka God), we experience the consequences. Though we can still see plenty of the goodness of God's creation too, the curse of sin has infected our whole world, and it's affected everything about our own selves. It is plainly obvious that the world is in a broken state, and if we're honest with ourselves, we know that we personally and individually exist in a broken state too.
God never gave up on his people though. His love is unshakable, and he always had a plan. He always knew the cost of seeing his people walk in unity with him again.
Over 2000 years ago, Jesus came to earth, fully God and fully man. He traveled all over, healing many and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. By this he meant that God was doing something new on the earth, supernaturally bringing the light of his rule and reign into the places of darkness. More importantly, he was demonstrating that he himself was the King that would sit upon the throne over everything for all time.
But once again mankind rejected him.
Calling him a madman and a heretic despite countless miracles and acts of selfless love, the people had Jesus arrested and crucified. He experienced an unimaginably gruesome death. And while Jesus' enemies thought they had triumphed, little did they know that they had propelled God's plan forward.
We have made ourselves guilty due to the many ways we have rejected God. But Jesus was perfect, in fact the only person in all of history to live his life in complete and perfect unity with his heavenly Father. When Jesus was beaten, scorned, punished, mocked, and ultimately crucified, he took upon himself the punishment that you deserve for your sin. In the greatest act of love one could give, Jesus gave up his own life so that sinners like you and me could be washed clean from our sin. No matter your past, no matter your addictions, struggles, or vices, no matter who you were on your very worst day... Jesus paid the price for your forgiveness and freedom.
And that is the good news! There is hope for a fresh start, no matter who you are or where you're at. God has paved the way for us to restored in right relationship with him once again.
And it gets even better, because not only did Jesus pay the price for our sin, but he rose again from the dead on the third day, proving his victory over sin and death, proving that he is God, and proving that there is hope for a resurrection from the dead for all of us as well. He promised that when we give our allegiance to him as our Lord and Savior of our lives, that he would make us new, and that we would get to spend eternity with him in paradise.
Jesus is on the move today. He is able to deliver you from your anxiety, your fears and doubts, and your identity struggles that seem impossible to overcome. He can set you free from your addictions and habits. He wants to give you a new identity and new habits. He wants your life to be filled with the light of his glory, so that we would be fully satisfied in him, and so that we could shine his light out into the world.
If you would like to learn what it means to walk out this new life with Jesus, we would love to show you. Life in him is truly the way of abundant life. He has peace that surpasses understanding and endless springs of love waiting for you. You won't regret giving Jesus your life. He loves you more than you could imagine.
Jesus is our hope. Our deliverer. Our love. Our king.
To understand the whole picture of who he is and what that means for us though, we have to start at the beginning. The very beginning.
God created the heavens and the earth. Jesus is God, and he was with God (which is the Bible's way of saying that God exists as a Trinity, a community of three individual persons, yet still One: Father, Son, Holy Spirit). Everything that was made was made through him and by him, and nothing that's been materially made was ever made without him. The pinnacle of God's creation was mankind, whom he blessed with his very image and likeness. He designed us to enjoy perfect relationship with him, an existence of pure bliss in unity with our Creator.
But man doubted God's goodness. Not only did Adam and Eve, the first humans, reject intimacy with God, but all of humanity has followed suit. We have this silly, yet universal and unyielding, notion that we can be the gods of our own life. Unfortunately for us, when we cut ourselves off from the Source and Giver of life Himself (aka God), we experience the consequences. Though we can still see plenty of the goodness of God's creation too, the curse of sin has infected our whole world, and it's affected everything about our own selves. It is plainly obvious that the world is in a broken state, and if we're honest with ourselves, we know that we personally and individually exist in a broken state too.
God never gave up on his people though. His love is unshakable, and he always had a plan. He always knew the cost of seeing his people walk in unity with him again.
Over 2000 years ago, Jesus came to earth, fully God and fully man. He traveled all over, healing many and preaching the good news of the kingdom of God. By this he meant that God was doing something new on the earth, supernaturally bringing the light of his rule and reign into the places of darkness. More importantly, he was demonstrating that he himself was the King that would sit upon the throne over everything for all time.
But once again mankind rejected him.
Calling him a madman and a heretic despite countless miracles and acts of selfless love, the people had Jesus arrested and crucified. He experienced an unimaginably gruesome death. And while Jesus' enemies thought they had triumphed, little did they know that they had propelled God's plan forward.
We have made ourselves guilty due to the many ways we have rejected God. But Jesus was perfect, in fact the only person in all of history to live his life in complete and perfect unity with his heavenly Father. When Jesus was beaten, scorned, punished, mocked, and ultimately crucified, he took upon himself the punishment that you deserve for your sin. In the greatest act of love one could give, Jesus gave up his own life so that sinners like you and me could be washed clean from our sin. No matter your past, no matter your addictions, struggles, or vices, no matter who you were on your very worst day... Jesus paid the price for your forgiveness and freedom.
And that is the good news! There is hope for a fresh start, no matter who you are or where you're at. God has paved the way for us to restored in right relationship with him once again.
And it gets even better, because not only did Jesus pay the price for our sin, but he rose again from the dead on the third day, proving his victory over sin and death, proving that he is God, and proving that there is hope for a resurrection from the dead for all of us as well. He promised that when we give our allegiance to him as our Lord and Savior of our lives, that he would make us new, and that we would get to spend eternity with him in paradise.
Jesus is on the move today. He is able to deliver you from your anxiety, your fears and doubts, and your identity struggles that seem impossible to overcome. He can set you free from your addictions and habits. He wants to give you a new identity and new habits. He wants your life to be filled with the light of his glory, so that we would be fully satisfied in him, and so that we could shine his light out into the world.
If you would like to learn what it means to walk out this new life with Jesus, we would love to show you. Life in him is truly the way of abundant life. He has peace that surpasses understanding and endless springs of love waiting for you. You won't regret giving Jesus your life. He loves you more than you could imagine.