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THE KING’S BUSINESS
Him after H e rose from the dead" (Acts 10:40, 41), and then he makes the practi cal application o f this great “ Good News” that God raised Jesus from the dead in these wordsj “And He charged us to preach unto the people, and to testify that this is He which is ordained o f God to be the Judge o f the quick and dead. To Him bear all the prophets witness, that through His name everyone that believeth on Him shall receive remission o f sins.” In a sim ilar way the Apostle Paul in his 'great sermon on Mars Hill, to the Stoic and Epi curean philosophers, after having prepared the way by quotations from the Greek poets and in other ways, comes to the heart of his message in these words, “God now com- mandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in rightoeusness, by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead." Study every' other sermon of Paul or o f Peter as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, and you will find that the heart o f every missionary message along with the doctrine o f the atoning blood, was the doctrine that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ should occupy the same cent ral and dominant place in the missionary’s message today that it did with the early missionaries o f the cross. It is an inte gral' part o f the Gospel and any missionary who is preaching the atoning blood but omits to preach and emphasize the resur rection o f Jesus Christ is untrue to his commission and is not preaching the full Gospel that God has commanded the mis sionary to preach. But the resurrection o f Jesus Christ involves .other things that grow out o f it as an essential part o f the missionary’s message. It involves the absolute. Deity o f our Lord; for the resurrection o f Jesus Christ from the dead was God Almighty’s stamp o f endorsement on Jesus Christ’s claim to equality with the Father. Jesus Christ had said while here on earth, “I and the Father are one” (John 1Q:30).
He had said, “All men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father” (John 5:23). He had even gone so far as to say that He was so absolutely one. with God that he that had seen Him had seen the Father (John 14:9). These were tre mendous claims to make. The ecclesiasti cal leaders o f the day disallowed these claims of Jesus Christ, they had Him cru cified for making these claims. Jesus Christ': had told them that God would set the stamp o f His endorsement upon these claims by raising Him from thé dead, and this God did. So the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ is an- essential part o f the missionary’s message and any missionary who is preaching any Saviour less than an absolutely Divine Saviour, is not preaching the true Gospel, the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ has commanded him to preach. The resurrection o f Jesus Christ also demands that we believe that Jesus Christ was a teacher sent from God, who spoke the very words o f God. This also was Jesus Christ’s claim. He said in John 7:16, “My teaching is not mine, but His that sent me.” He said, as recorded in John 12:49, “ The Father which hath sent me, He hath given me commandment, what I should say and what I should speak.” And He said in John 14:24, “The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.” God set the stamp o f His endorsement upon this claim by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. Therefore the missionary must declare, the Divine Origin and Absolute Inerrancy o f Every Utter ance o f Christ. This involves the accept ance o f the entire Old Testament as the Word o f God, for Jesus Christ endorses it as such, and this leaves the destructive critic without any standing as a missionary o f Jesus Christ, Any missionary who does not accept the entire Bible as the Word of God, or who does not proclaim it as the Word o f God, is untrue to his commission and is not a true missionary o f Jesus Christ, however excellent he may bè in his character and however kind he may be in his intentions. But the resurrection o f Jesus Christ involves another thing, that is
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