Good News for All Nations

The Thessalonians received the Gospel of Christ in tribulation yet remained faithful while eagerly anticipating the return of Jesus – 1 Thessalonians 1:1-7. In the first chapter of First Thessalonians , Paul anticipates the Letter’s main subjects - the tribulation of believers, Christian hope, and “ the arrival ” of Jesus, when he will rescue his people from wrath, resurrect the righteous dead, and “ meet ” his assembled saints as he descends from Heaven. On that day, we will “ obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ .”

Jesus submitted to a shameful death on the Cross, and he summons us to follow his example and path . Jesus tells us that if we wish to be his disciple, we must “ d eny ourselves, take up his cross, and follow him .” This was more than metaphorical language when he made this pronouncement on his final journey to Jerusalem. In the City of David,  he would demonstrate just what it means “ to take up the cross .”

Jesus is the key that unlocks the Hebrew Scriptures and reveals the nature and redemptive purposes of the God of Israel . Jesus unveils the knowledge and plans of God, and he is the center of his Father’s purposes for the redemption of humanity. He is  the key  that opens our understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures, and only Christ is qualified to explain and demonstrate the Divine Nature. In Jesus of Nazareth, all the promises of God find their “Y ea and Amen! ”

The previously hidden mysteries of God are revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, and especially in his Death and Resurrection . The Bible speaks of the “ mysteries ” of God, His ways that are hidden from human wisdom and defy our expectations. As Jesus declared, not everyone can understand the “ mysteries of the Kingdom .” It is God who reveals the deep and obscure things to whomever He pleases, and in His Son, He has done so for all men to see.

Jesus is the Greater Tabernacle in which the presence and glory of God dwell and manifest for all men to behold – John 1:14. The  Gospel of John  presents Jesus as the ‘ Logos ’ (λογος), the “ Word made flesh ,” where the glory of God is manifested before all men. The Son of God is the Greater and True Tabernacle in which God’s presence dwells, not the portable tent carried by Israel in the Wilderness or the later Jerusalem Temple “ made with hands .”