Friend:

This study will help you explore your relationship with Jesus and the Spirit He sent to us as a promise. In John 14:15-17 Jesus explains:

"¹⁵If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."

You see, Jesus came to deliver us the Gospel, which means the Good News. This Gospel, which is His death, burial and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), is our call to dwell with Him and receive His eternal promise. Like Paul reminds the Corinthians, we must receive it and take our stand in it so that we may be saved by it.

(1 Corinthians 15:1-4 NIV) ¹Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…

How does one receive the Gospel, take a stand in the Gospel, and be saved by the Gospel? Of course we have to believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior (John 3:16), lest we perish:

(John 3:16 NIV) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Do you see why it is called the Good News? In order for us to understand how "good" this Good News is, we must first understand that there is terrible, bad news. The bad news is that you have let sin separate you from God, as it is described in Isaiah 59:1-3:

The Good News, the Gospel, is what we need in order to be restored back to God. That is why God gave up His one and only Son, to become that Gospel for us, so we may be rescued from perishing if we believe in Him. Only Jesus can take away that sin.

Is just believing enough though? Don't the demons believe also and yet they tremble (James 2:19)? Is intellectual belief enough to wash our sins away by the power of the Gospel? Is just believing, enough to grant us the promised Holy Spirit to guide us and teach us? How can we receive these promises and take a stand in them?

(Romans 6:3,4 NIV) Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

We see this promise of everlasting life fulfilled 2000 years ago when Peter preached the first Gospel sermon in Acts 2:14-36, on that day of Pentecost. In verses 14-21 Peter validates what is happening at the moment. In verses 22-36 He tells them the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) brought by the Messiah of God, and how we rejected Him (also in John 1:10, 11 and Isaiah 53:3).

He then brings the hope of the new promise with verse 38 of Acts 2:

(Ephesians 1:7, 8 NIV) ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

(Acts 2:41 NIV) "Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."

(Mark 16:16 NIV) "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

(2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 NIV) ⁸He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power ¹⁰on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

(John 12:48-50 NIV) "⁴⁸There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. ⁴⁹For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. ⁵⁰I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."

In order to receive the Gospel and get into the Gospel (obedience of it) you must believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and receive His forgiveness and seal of ownership (2 Corinthians 1:21) by being immersed in water in His name.

You need to believe who Jesus IS:

1. Jesus came down from Heaven - from the Father (John 6:32-33)

2. He was born of a virgin (Matthew 1:20-25)

3. He came in the flesh - He is God in the flesh (Phil 2:7-8)

4. He lived a sinless life, perfectly obeying the Father on our behalf (Heb 4:15)

5. He was crucified for our sins, buried and rose from the dead according to the scripture (1Co. 15:1-4), and ascended to the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33) and now intercedes for the saints (Heb 7:25)

(Acts 2:41 NIV) Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

(Acts 2:42 NIV) They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

(Acts 22:16 NIV) "And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name."