Today is Easter Sunday. Its the day of Jesus resurrection. The eternal gospel is the good news about the Lord of resurrection. Lets see what the eternal gospel is about in detail.
1. Its the gospel of judgment. The message of the eternal gospel brought by an angel of God is about Gods judgment. Why is the gospel, good news is about judgment? Its like both sides of a coin one referring to the good news while the other is about judgment. To the church, the good news is not about power or money but about the withdrawal of evil. Chasing only the God of love or God of blessing misleads us by looking at the gospel as worldly prosperity. Thats why we take the gospel for granted when we are well off and lose our exhilaration when we are worse off. So God prepared his prescription for the immature Christian choked by lifes worries letting them encounter His judgment before meeting the Lamb of Mt. Zion. God chose us sinners and offered his son as a sacrifice. By understanding Gods wrath for us, we can also understand his love, which makes us someone who comforts, ready to risk our life for his glory.
2. The city without God will fall. Babylon the Great refers to human power that stands against God. Yet an angel of God said, 'Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!' Its the message that all human power against God falls in the past or present or future. The wine of Gods wrath offered by the false prophets, the Antichrists pawns is nothing but a tool of Gods judgment. Therefore, our prayer request needs to be 'Save us from Gods wrath!' instead of 'Save us from our Babylon.' This will lead us to see our evil nature. So it was with me. I used to think that I was a good, faithful, and polite girl without great sins. However, experiencing Gods judgment though my married life, I discovered that I was merely an ambitious, greedy, prideful, patronizing and discriminating woman without any sense of calling. Save-me-from-this-suffering prayer is like asking Satan to save us. We should pray that God will save us from his wrath.
3. Its about the fall of our worldly values. Its about the matter of true rest or no rest. Theres no rest for those who worship the beast and his image or receive his mark because of their worldly values. The smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. They are already under Gods judgment here on earth without true rest. My husband was a hard working doctor people respected. We were a beautiful couple. However, he never enjoyed his rest because of his worldly values, which in itself was a judgment on him. He drank every night as if to dispel something. His mouth dripped with Im pissed off!' Then he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. However, even though his body began to fall, his soul was saved. It was a sort of resurrection. The most dreadful thing is the Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes within me. God constantly lets us experience his wrath in order to makes us repent of our sins. This is the blessing of his judgment.
4, Its the gospel of patience. Patience is to keep our faith in Jesus according to Gods command. We need it because we often face non-Christians prosperity on earth. Patience refers to our faith and our obedience to Gods command. Faith is not merely avoiding trials. Patience is one of the representative features of holy God, which overflows to us through the Holy Spirit. It is to watch the work of God, laying down our own effort. I think Im quite patient. Yet I ask myself whether its from faith or my nature. I accept that its partly from my human desire, which causes fear and anxiety. My perfectionism often drives me to revise my sermon script to the very last moment of Sunday morning, and then hurry to church, and finally go over the speed limit. On the pulpit, however, I hide all this quite successfully. In the rut of my weekly routine, I find myself exhausted, hypocritical, and even disowning God. What about you? Is your patience from your effort or your hope in the Lord?
I came to understand Gods judgment through my meditation on the book of Ezekiel. God told me in chapter 18 that my husband went to the Heavenly kingdom, in 24 that I should live as his sign and reach out to the world. In 33, God told me that he would hold me accountable for the blood of the unsaved one unless I spread the gospel to that person, which made me a guard of the gospel. I led some pastor seminars as a deaconess, instructed by chapter 34. Many crushed people were refreshed, reviving as in chapter 37. Later our church was founded at Whimoon High school with Gods glory coming upon us through its east gate as in chapter 42. Then strengthened by the grace of water flowing from the sanctuary as in chapter 47, we began to share our trials as healing leaves with others. From that time on, weve walked together in faith, believing that our church will be the temple of Jehova-Shamma. This is how the eternal gospel enables us to stand patient through the Word of God. Only the Word enables us to win the race. May God bless us to wage a good fight with the gospel of patience!
