Sticking To the Basics

114 - 1Ti 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. This is the creed of the early church and it is our creed as well. This is what we profess to believe as followers of Jesus Christ. It has a beautiful flow to it, much like the creeds we use in the church today. We believe that Jesus was and is God in the flesh. We believe that He is the sinless Son of God, justified in the Spirit, by His resurrection from the dead. We believe He was seen in a resurrected body by His angels, (personally selected and appointed Apostles) Who then were commanded to preach Him to the Gentiles, where many in the world would come to faith, and then this Jesus ascended into heaven, where HE was received up in glory. This part of the early church Creed should serve as a wake up call for the church of all ages. This is a reiteration of Jesus' last words to His angels as recorded in Mt 28:19,20, and in the Book of Acts. He said in Matthew: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. And in the Book of Acts we read: Ac 1:2,3, “ until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And then in v8,9, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." 9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.” This is what the early church believed about Jesus. Do we believe the same? Do we remind ourselves often of who Jesus is and the importance of the great Commission He has given His church? Never hurts to revisit these truths, does it? Never hurts to stick to the basics.