The Gospel We Preach

“They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading
the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were
afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen
to him. ‘We are going up to Jerusalem,’ he said, ‘and the Son of Man will be
betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to
death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on
him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise’” (Mark 10:32-34).

Jesus said this on his last walk to Jerusalem. This was near
Jericho where Blind Bartimaeus was healed and saved, where Zaccheus was saved,
and where the rich young man refused to be saved.

The prophecy was fulfilled one week later. The disciples
were not paying attention. They did not hear the clear gospel.

This is the same gospel that Peter preached a few weeks
after the resurrection where 3,000 were saved in Acts 2. It is the gospel
defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5:

“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By
this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you.
Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as
of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the
Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”

This is the gospel that we at Community Christian Ministries
are preaching personally in four states and by books and email in many other
states, including in many prisons. Please pray for us. If you would like to
support this ministry, you can do so at ccmbooks.org/donate.

This post coordinates with today’s reading in the Same
Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading
plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with
us.