ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Onward Christian Soldiers

 

Like a mighty army moves the Church of God!

Brethren we are treading where the saints have trod.

Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise!

Christians lift your voices, loud your anthems raise!

Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war

With the Cross of Jesus going on before!

 

    1. Like gasoline on a fire.

    “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." Acts 1:8 (NKJV)

    “And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.  As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.”  Acts 8:2-3 (NKJV)

    “Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.”  Acts 8:4-8 (NKJV)

    “Went everywhere preaching the word. The rage of the persecutors only extended the reign of Christ. The scattered saints, long prepared at the feet of the apostles, went everywhere as preachers of Christ. The blood of Stephen was the seed of the church.” —People's New Testament, Johnson’s Notes

    a) The Kingdom of God.

    “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."  Mark 1:14-15 (NKJV)

    “But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.”  Acts 8:12 (NKJV)

    “The unmistakable reality of the miracles wrought by Philip convinced the people that he was attended by the power of God; and that was enough to make them acknowledge the authority of God in what he communicated to them. In order that men may believe the Gospel, it is only necessary that they believe it to be, in reality, the word of God. But the Holy Spirit convinced them that what they heard was the word of God, by attending it with a sensible demonstration of the power of God. That they believed was but the natural result of what they saw and heard.” McGarvey—Acts of the Apostles

    2. The Triumphant March of Life!

    “Christians have done just about everything to sterilize the Gospel.  The Church is no longer, as in the first centuries, the triumphal march of Life through the graveyards of the world”.  Evdokimov

    “But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.  But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.  Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king--Jesus."  Acts 17:5-7 (NKJV)

    “Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.  These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.  Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men” Acts 17:10-12 (NKJV)

    Where there was a Jewish synagogue, this is where Paul began. Here he found people, both Jew and Gentile, who believed in Jehovah God and the Old Testament Scriptures. He would show how the prophets predicted the death and resurrection of the Messiah, and that this proved Jesus to be the Messiah who was to come, Three Sabbath days. This is how long he argued in the synagogue. Many of them were converted. Some were Jews. A large group of Greeks - Gentiles who wanted to learn about the God of Israel, and who came to the synagogue regularly, but had not converted to Judaism and been circumcised.  And many of the leading women.  Wives of the leading citizens, who had much influence.

    “For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”  1 Thess 1:9-10 (NKJV)