The essential and foundational elements of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God
A teaching by George E Markakis, Sept. 6, 2023
It is available in pdf which includes all of the Scriptures – link to Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1knAXRoZ_2vo7VTiXV6wS45P3ua97ZwZf/view?usp=sharing

It is not just good; it is not just useful; it is in fact necessary to know:
– what are the essential foundations on which the House of God is being built within us,
– so that our faith may be firmly grounded on the work of God,
– which starts with God’s gift of redemption that He offers to us
– when we believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

With most of the concept of modern “Church” being associated with a program from a platform that aims at keeping the audience entertained, the headlights on the pulpit for words of encouragement, exhortation and empowerment for success and self-improvement; with the attention to the attraction of the Church which is the music; with little, occasional and restricted reference to a very limited portion of the written Word of God which leaves out any and all perceived offense, most of those who profess to be Christian have been building palaces on sand that cannot withstand either the assault of the forces of Darkness or a holy visitation of the Lord who regularly visits His vineyard looking for the fruit of the branches.

In the midst of this current condition of much of the “Church”, most believers simply do not know what we believe in; what the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is really all about. If you ask, probably 98% of the responses would be… “Of course I know what the Gospel is; God loves me so much that Jesus died for me. He did it all on the cross for me, so now I am saved. Now I must become a better person while I live a blessed life”.

Sometimes it is so challenging to find the right way to say the right words to a person who says the right thing, and yet is totally wrong about it.

A while back I was talking with some friends. A girl in her early teens asked her mother to explain to her what it means to be a preacher, when she found out that I was one. Her mother did her best to explain that preachers are people who speak nice words to those who go to Church on Sunday morning.

As I said… it can get ever so challenging, when you are totally out of words, and you cannot find the right way to say the right words to a person who just said the right thing, and yet was totally wrong about it.

Christians need to know the essentials and the foundations of the Gospel; we need to know what the Bible teaches so that our faith may be built on solid foundations.

Christians also need to be reminded that half-truth can often lead to deception; people who do not know, they know that they do not know, so they may perhaps be eager to learn. However, it gets challenging when people think they already know, yet remain in total ignorance of the complete story that is necessary to be able to withstand the onslaught of the spirit of the world, to which many Christians become easy prey, for lack of knowledge.

In this teaching we shall look at the first and most essential five, and another five, premises that describe the work of God, which is the foundation of the Gospel of His Kingdom.

Jesus -the Christ (Hebr. Messiah) of God
The Cross -of the sacrifice on Calvary/Golgotha
The Blood -of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God
Resurrected from the dead -on the third day
Resurrection of the dead -at the Second Coming of Jesus

Jesus is the firstborn Son and the Christ of God
Born as a human by the Holy Spirit through a virgin
High Priest on behalf of the people
Mediator between man and God
Coming to judge the world

If you are wondering why I did not say that Jesus is the WORD of God, or, the LIGHT of the world, it is because that is His nature. That is who He is, that is not the work that He did.

Same for Jesus as God; I said that Jesus is a man in the sense of being human, but I did not say that He is also God. That is because His nature as God is not a part of the essential foundations of the Gospel. Indeed Jesus is 100% God, but His work for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God was the work of a 100% man. God does not die, but Jesus died as a mortal man, so that He could take upon Himself the sins of the world.

God cannot be a High Priest on behalf of mankind; Jesus became the High Priest before God on behalf of mankind. That is why for this teaching we are only looking at Jesus as 100% mortal man, born in the flesh, who died, yet now lives forever by God’s power that raised Him from the dead. Let’s review the five plus five basic essentials:

Jesus
Cross
Blood
Resurrected
Resurrection of the dead

Son and the Christ
Human (but not Adam’s seed)
High Priest (order of Melchizedek, not Aaron)
Mediator (the only one between God and man)
Coming (awaiting Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead)