Well, good morning. How's everybody?
Do you have a good Thanksgiving? Your tryptophan in you and
you're going to be falling asleep during my message today,
I'm sure. Well, it's good to see
everybody. I trust you had a good holiday,
so let's pray. We're in the book of First
Corinthians today, chapter 15 on the resurrection, death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus. Thank you worship team for
praying about where the message is heading.
They Gene always text me what are you teaching on this Sunday?
And I give her the chapter and I know that you guys pray about
what it is you're going to play and what you're going to use for
the worship. And it's all about the cross
this morning. Wasn't it all about the shed
blood of our Savior and His love for us?
Just so powerful to really prepare our hearts for the Word
today. So let's pray and then we'll get
started. Father, we thank You today for
the privilege we have to worship You in spirit and truth.
We're thankful, Lord, for the power of Your Word that You
promised never returns void. It accomplishes the purposes for
which You intended. So Lord, we pray for this Word
today to go straight to all of our hearts that we might have a
deeper appreciation and understanding of what you went
through for us on that cross. And then we'll eventually have
the Lord's Supper today because that gives us the ability to
remember you. That's what You want us to do.
Remember what it is You've done for us every day and yield and
surrender to You that our lives might be more like you.
Lord, every day You would change our hearts and our minds, renew
us. So Lord, please bless this word
today as it goes forth to your people, build them up and
strengthen them. Thank you for those who are
listening online on YouTube and also on the radio and Grace FM,
bless them as well. Thank you for the privilege you
give us to get this word out to the community and we pray and
ask all these things in Jesus name, Amen.
Well, it tells us, excuse me, in the book of Romans, the the 1st
chapter, the 18th verse. I want to look at that real
quick before I get started here this morning.
Just so we're reminded of some things it tells us in the 16th
verse of Romans, chapter one, This is the apostle Paul who
also wrote the book of First Corinthians.
He says For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is
the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for
the Jew 1st and also for the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. So what's so awesome about the
gospel? If we understand it and if we've
heard it and we believe on it, that changes our lives.
It changes the way we live. It causes us to be completely
different and transformed as people.
Cindy and I were praying this morning about this process of
sanctification, how God uses the Word to change us little by
little, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year
by year. And when you look back on your
Christian life from the day that you first believed in the
gospel, you see there's changes you you become different people,
you're becoming more Christ like.
And that is so awesome. And then Paul also spoke in the
book of First Thessalonians about this impact of the gospel.
In chapter 1 he says to the Church of the Thessalonians and
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be to you
and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you
in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith, labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ, in the sight of our God and Father, knowing,
beloved Brother, in your election by God.
For our gospel did not come to you in Word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance, as you
know what kind of men we were among you for your sake.
And you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received
the word and much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, So
that you became examples to all in Macedonia Archaea who
believe. For from you the word of the
Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Archaea, but
also in every place your faith toward God has gone out, so that
we do not need to say anything. For they themselves declare
concerning us what manner eventually we had to you and how
you turn 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.
So Paul's commending this church in Thessalonians, Thessalonica
for the gospel's power and how it worked in their lives and how
they were able to proclaim it to other people.
So the purpose of the church is to train and educate us and how
we can share the good, good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ
with with other people. And they need to know that
because what's happening in these days that we live is, is
frightening in some ways, because there's so many people
that have no clue about what it is that we believe, let alone
the importance of the of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so today we want to focus on this truth of the gospel so that
first of all, if you aren't a Christian today, you might
become a believer because you're going to hear the gospel.
But if you are a Christian and you have known the gospel for
many years, it's going to go deeper in your heart today.
I pray it did for me. As I studied and prepared for
this message, I had to step back and think, God, you've been so
good and so forgiving and so patient, so merciful.
I review my life at times and I say, well, I did this and I'm
ashamed of that or I did that and I shouldn't have done this
or acted this. You know, we all have that past
memory of our lives before Christ and even after Christ
when we made mistakes and do make mistakes.
And it humbles us to reflect on that.
Because when you focus on what Jesus went through for you and,
and the, and the blood that he shed and the punishment he took
upon him saith in behalf of you and me, it can't do anything but
cause you to love him more and to want to follow him more and
to surrender and yield to him more.
You have this relationship that's living because he's a
living Savior. And Paul was so concerned about
this gospel that we're going to study today in First Corinthians
15 that he told the church in Galatia that he was concerned
about many people turning away so soon from him.
Who called you in the grace of Christ?
This is Galatians chapter 1 to a different gospel which is not
another. But there are some who trouble
you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an Angel from heaven preach any other gospel
to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be
accursed as we have said before. And so we say again, if anyone
preaches any other gospel to you, then what you've received,
let him be accursed. So this is a big deal.
What we're studying about today in First Corinthians chapter 15,
you might not be aware of it, but most churches don't teach
this anymore. You can go to probably 90% of
the churches in Greensburg today and you will not hear anything
about this gospel of Jesus Christ.
It's, it's concerning back in the 50s, just about every
spiritual building in the community and the church would
teach the things that we're teaching.
But we're living in the days where there is a famine for the
word of God. And many are denying the gospel.
Many are denying the fact that Jesus was a real person.
And if they did believe he was a real person, many deny the fact
that he rose again from the dead.
I mean, it's, it's incredible. What's what's being taught out
there today? So I'm going to read some of the
verses here. We're not going to go through
the whole chapter today, but we'll go through some of it and
then we'll continue in the in the days ahead.
Moreover, brethren, this is First Corinthians chapter 15,
verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare to
you the gospel which I preached you, which also you received,
and in which you stand, by which you are also saved, if you hold
fast that word which I preached to you, unless you've believed
in vain. For I delivered to you first of
all that which I also received. That Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He
rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and
that He was seen by Cephas. Then by the 12 after that He was
seen by over 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part
remained to the present, but some have fallen asleep.
After that he was seen by James and by all the apostles.
Then last of all, he was seen by me also by one born out of due
time. And so Paul is describing here
what happened and what they believe in regard to the truth
of the gospel. And what's, what's concerning
here is that as he was thinking about these things and, and the
church in Corinth, you know, the church in Corinth, as we've been
studying was full of all kind of crazy teaching and sexual
immorality. And this sin believers were
sinning. And Paul had to go back to that
church and, and deal with them and teach them about the
importance of, of what it is that they say they believed and
how their lives should be completely different than the
way they're living. He, he wrote this particular
chapter to really drill down on the fact of what this gospel
declares and what it means to people that believe it.
Now the first 2 verses he says, I declare to you this gospel
which I preached to you and which also you received and
which you stand by, which also you are saved if you if and
underline that if you hold fast that word which I preached to
you, unless you believed in vain.
So this gospel has power to change lives.
Many of you here have had your lives changed by the gospel.
That's why you worship the Lord, that's why you love Him, that's
why you're here today. There's some people that hear
the gospel and they say they believe it, but it hasn't
changed their lives for various reasons.
And we'll talk about that a little bit.
But this gospel was defined back in the day that it was first
preached as good news. That's the definition of gospel,
good news. And it wasn't just the gospel of
Jesus Christ. It was any kind of message that
would bring to people a sense of positive thinking or good news
or something that would make them joyful.
But there's only one gospel in regard to salvation that saves
us from the punishment we deserve from God because of what
Jesus did for us. This church in Corinth received
this gospel, and Paul said it has to believe.
You have to believe this gospel, and you have to embrace it and
make it personal to yourself that this isn't the fact that
Jesus died for the sins of the world, as John 316 tells us.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. But this gospel has to be lived
out. And so Paul again, as he said in
the book of Thessalonians, they were.
He was thanking God all the time because the people that he
preached to received the Word of God, which they heard from him,
and they didn't receive it as a word of men, but as it is in
truth the word of God, which also effectively works in you
who believe. So when you're here today and
you're listening to this message, think about this
subject, this question, is this gospel effectively working in my
life? Is it continually convicting me
of things that I need to have changed in my life?
Is this gospel something that causes me to want to let other
people know what it's done for me and what it's done for you?
That is the effective work of the gospel in the heart of
someone who believes. So the Corinthians, the these
believers in Corinth, they, they stood on the truth of this
gospel, but for whatever reason, it wasn't deeply embedded in
their hearts. I'm not saying they weren't
saved, but when the gospels deeply embedded in your heart,
it's going to change your life. It's going to change the way you
think and the way you act. It's going to cause you to be
convicted about certain things that are in your life presently
that have to go. It's going to cause you to be
more humble and more yielded and more obedient to the Lord
because of the power of this word in this gospel.
If this isn't something, well, yeah, I believed I'm saved.
I remember I prayed A sinner's prayer 10 years ago, 20 years
ago, whatever. And I know because of what Jesus
did, I'm going to heaven. Well, that's just the beginning
of the of the gospel. That's not the end point.
There's so much that God wants to do by us studying this gospel
and reflecting on this gospel. And he talks about the
importance of this gospel and holding fast to it.
And the word hold fast implies that the enemy wants to snatch
the true gospel away from your heart as he did wanting to
snatch it away from the Corinthian Christians.
And that's why they have to hold on and in in studies of of the
Bible and commentators, there's this word called the
perseverance of the Saints. And if you're really saved, no
matter what kind of temptation comes your way or what's going
to try to move you away from having the Gospels, being
sensual in your life isn't going to twist your mind or or pull
you away. In the book of Hebrews, it tells
us regarding this truth of, of perseverance and, and the
importance of perseverance is critical because if you don't
persevere, you will fall away. And the, the one that gives you
the power to persevere is the Holy Spirit who lives in you.
He's not going to let you go beyond the point of, of denying
Jesus or just saying you don't want to do this stuff anymore.
It tells us in the book of Hebrews verse 38.
Now the just shall live by faith.
But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
So there is this capacity or potential for people to fall
away. It tells us in the last days
there'll be a great falling away.
And when you read that or you hear that, you think, boy, I
pray that isn't me. I don't want to fall away.
What would you fall away to? What would you depend on?
What would you believe on if you fell away from this truth of the
gospel? But we are not of those who draw
back to perdition or hell, but of those who believe to the
saving of the soul. And that's called persevering,
not giving up, not turning back, not turning away, not getting
depressed and discouraged and stopping to trust Jesus.
You just keep on keeping on. God bless you.
So the content of the gospel is seen in verses 3 and four.
And sometimes you might have asked yourself this question or
someone's asked you, what exactly is the gospel?
If I give the gospel to someone, what is it that I'm telling
them? And this is the fullness of the
gospel. And this when you share your
your testimony, your faith, the gospel of people you want to
follow this direction that Paul gives in these couple verses
here for I delivered to you First of all, that which I also
received that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. Most of us know that you tell
someone about what happened to you.
Jesus died for my sins according to what the Bible teaches the
Scriptures, Historical documentation, historical facts.
This isn't made-up, this isn't folklore, this isn't fairy
tales. These are historical events that
happened in a point of time in human history.
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
Number one, that he was buried. It's important you tell people
that he was buried because that means he died.
If he wasn't buried and he just had a swoon like some people
say, or he was a phantom or someone stole the body away or
whatever, it brings heresies in. But no, he was buried.
And the Third Point is that he rose again the third day,
according to the Scriptures. It's very, very important to
discuss those things when you're sharing the gospel.
Paul received this gospel supernaturally by the Holy
Spirit. This isn't something he made-up
or thought would be cool to talk about.
He was impacted personally by the death, burial, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just like all of us here today
who were born again and are saved.
We were impacted by this gospel when it was proclaimed to us,
maybe not the first time and the second time, but eventually it
made sense by the Spirit of God to our conscience and our minds
and our hearts, and we believed and trusted in Jesus Christ.
And so it's important to understand that this death of
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, is the center of the
gospel. This is important, this chapter
15, one of the most powerful chapters in the whole Bible.
If we didn't have this chapter in here, none of us would really
comprehend the basics of the points of Paul's making here in
regard to what makes the gospel the gospel.
So we all know and we, we take the Lord's Supper every Sunday
to remember what he's done for us, OK.
And he loves that, that we remember him in the Lord's
Supper. That's the main sacrament he
gave the church to keep their eyes on him and to never forget
what he's done for us, for you and me personally.
The Roman government, excuse me, executed him by one of the most
cruel and excruciating forms of capital punishment ever devised.
What I'm going to read to you right now is quite graphic and
but it it's what we need to understand in regard to what he
went through for us. Although the Romans did not
invent crucifixion, they perfected it as a form of
torture and capital punishment that was designed to produce a
slow death with maximum pain and suffering.
What exactly was it like to be crucified in days?
A New Testament was first written?
The practice needed no explanation, but we do well to
appreciate what happened in that crucifixion.
The victim's back was torn open by scourging, and the clotting
blood was ripped open again when the clothes were torn off the
victim. When he was thrown on the ground
to nail his hands to the cross beam.
The wounds were again torn open and contaminated with dirt.
Then as he hung on the cross, with each breath, the painful
wounds on the back scraped against the rough wood of the
upright beam and were further aggravated.
When the nail was driven through the wrist, it severed the large
medium nerve. This simulated stimulated nerve
produced excruciating bolts of fiery pain in both arms and
resulted in a claw like grip in the victim's hands.
Beyond the excruciating pain, the major effect of crucifixion
was inhibit inhibiting normal breathing.
The weight of the body pulling down on the arms and shoulders
tended to fix the respiratory muscles in an inhalation state
and hindered exhaled exhaling the breath.
The lack of adequate respiration resulted in severe muscle
cramps, which hindered breathing even further.
To get a good breath, one had to push against the feet and flex
the elbows, pulling from the shoulders, putting the weight of
the body on the feet, producing searing pain and flexing the
elbows twisted the hands hanging on the nails.
Lifting the body for a breath also painfully scraped the back
against the rough wooden post. Each effort to get a proper
breath was agonizing, exhausting and LED to sooner death.
Not uncommonly, insects would light upon or Burrow into the
open wounds or the eyes, ears and nose of the dying and
helpless victim, and birds of prey would tear at these sights.
Moreover, it was customary to leave the corpse on the cross to
be devoured by predatory animals.
Death from crucifixion could not could come from many sources.
Acute shock from blood loss, being too exhausted to breathe
any longer, dehydration, stress induced heart attack or
congestive heart failure leading to cardiac rupture.
If the victim did not die quickly enough, the legs were
broken and the victim was soon unable to breathe.
The English word word crucifixion comes from this word
meaning excruciating out of the cross.
Consider this, How horrible did our sins have to be in the sight
of God when he required such a great sacrifice for us?
So as I was studying that, reflecting on that, I mean, I've
been a pastor for 30 years and it just like hit me at a level
that it's never hit me like this before.
Personally, I believed. I know what he's done, but I
think sometimes my belief was superficial because I, like
Cindy said, we just can't grasp the depth of the gospel.
There's so many layers to all this, isn't there?
And it hits US at different times, at different levels, all
of us, and God knows what we can handle and what we can't handle.
But for me personally, this representation of what he
suffered for me couldn't help me to to review my life and think
about all the times I committed sin or I was disobedient or not
caring and thinking like I was OK.
You know, I was good, good to go, so to speak.
And then thinking about this and what he went through for me, it
broke me down. I mean, it just caused me to,
when I weep not in feeling bad for what Jesus did, He knew He
needed to do that for us. But thinking about why He had to
do it for us and that He loved us as much, that He would
actually go through this for us, He asked the Father in
Gethsemane if it's possible let this cup pass from me.
It wasn't the the pain and the suffering and the anguish of
what He had to go through. It was a fact that for a
momentary time He would be separated.
And this is hard to comprehend from the oneness that He had
with His Father and the Spirit. He was in all points tempted as
we are, yet without sin, and He never in His eternal existence
ever knew what it was like to be separated from God the Father.
And when He went through that, He realized, you and me, what
life is like for the human race to be totally disconnected from
the One who made them. This moment that he died on that
cross, they didn't have to break his legs.
He gave up his life willingly and he said it's finished.
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
God laid upon Jesus all the guilt and wrath of the sin that
you and I have committed. I deserve to be on that cross.
You deserve to be on that cross. Every one of us did.
But He went for us. He took the punishment that we
all deserve and He bore it in Himself perfectly, totally
satisfying the wrath of God in our place.
Isn't that glorious? If that doesn't make you want to
shout Hallelujah, I don't know what will.
I mean when you grasp the fact that that should have been me,
and because of Him, it wasn't me, it was him.
Wow, that is good news, isn't it?
Why would anybody want to reject this message and have to endure
a punishment and suffering that Jesus went and took for them so
that they wouldn't have to? Jesus took that act of being
judged for sin in our place and this cup of God's wrath that he
drank willingly. Jesus became, as it were, an
enemy of God, which we all are before we come to Christ, who
was judged and forced to drink the cup of the Father's fury, so
we would not have to drink that cup.
Isaiah 53 puts it powerfully. He is despised and rejected by
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we
had, as it were, our faces from Him.
He was despised and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we
esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our peace is upon Him, and by His stripes
we are healed. I think about the worship song
that the team was singing. One drop of this cup would bear
down the soul to endless ruin, and his agonies would annihilate
the universe. He suffered alone for the
people. There was none with him because
his sufferings were to make atonement for the sins of the
world and then the work of redemption.
He had no helper. He did this for our sins.
Our sins were responsible for the death of Jesus.
Do you guys get that our sins were responsible for the death
of Jesus? And then it tells us in this
chapter, the second part, he was buried.
We don't think much at times about the burial and it's
important for several reason. It's positive proof that he
really died. You don't bury someone unless
they're really dead. And it also fulfilled the
Scriptures which declared, and this is from Matthew chapter 27,
they made his grave with the wicked, but with the rich of his
death. Jesus was buried in the tomb of
a rich man. And then the Third Point he rose
again. Although Jesus bore the full
wrath on the cross, as if He were a guilty Sinner, guilty of
all our sin, even being made sin for us, as it tells us in 2nd
Corinthians 521, He made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Christ.
He never became a Sinner, but the act of taking on our sin was
an act of holy giving love for us, so that Jesus himself did
not become a Sinner even though He bore the full guilt of our
sin. This is the gospel message that
Jesus took our punishment for the sin of you and me on the
cross, and yet remained a perfect Savior throughout the
whole ordeal proved by His resurrection.
If the cross is a payment for our sins, the empty tomb is the
receipt showing that the perfect Son of God made perfect payment
for our sins. The cross was a time of
Victoria's death. Sin was defeated, but nothing
positive was put in His place until the resurrection.
The resurrection showed that Jesus did not succumb to the
inevitable result of sin. The resurrection is proof of
this victory. And He rose again the third day,
as the Scripture said, and were prophesized throughout the Old
Testament. And Jesus himself said he would
go into Jerusalem and be crucified, but raised again on
the third day. This demonstrates the
credibility of God's Word because Jesus himself proclaimed
he would rise three days after his death.
Some people get confused about 3 days because he died on the
cross on Friday and rose Sunday. This was an interesting truth I
uncovered. According to Jewish reckonings,
3 days would include parts of Friday afternoon, all of
Saturday and Sunday morning. So he's right on target.
There was the three days according to the scriptures.
That's important in your Bible. Everything you believe is
according to the Scriptures. The Word of God is given by
inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, instruction of righteousness,
that the man of God, the person who God may be thoroughly
furnished unto all good works according to the Scriptures.
It was planned from all eternity and described prophetically in
the Scriptures that this would occur.
The plan for his resurrection is described in places in the Old
Testament, the book of Hosea, Jonah, Psalms, and it it just
continued on. It continued on 1st Corinthians
15. Five through 8 is concrete
evidence of Jesus resurrection. He was seen by Cephas.
That's Peter, the one who denied him.
Why did Jesus want to show up personally, this alone with
Peter? Peter had denied him just a few
days before that turned his back on his Savior.
He probably felt like the biggest loser that was ever
born. He had such shame, such guilt,
such despair, such depression, probably saying, I can't believe
I did that. How could I do that?
Be where you stand, lest you fall.
How many times have we unintentionally denied our
Savior by the way we live are the things we've said.
But the Lord Jesus is not a condemning Savior.
He's a loving Savior. He understands our weaknesses.
And he hung out with Peter, I'm sure to say, Hey, my brother, my
son, I love you. I got plans for you.
Peter didn't quite understand and I'm sure at the time, but
Jesus made it a point to show up and reveal his resurrected life
to Peter. No one actually saw this event
of Jesus coming from death to life.
Someone described it as like this old Star Trek thing where
the people could, like, dissipate their human energy and
turn into molecules and then go into another dimension, then
come alive again. It's much deeper than that.
What happened with Jesus? All we know is that he was
physically dead and then he appeared first to the
eyewitnesses, the women who saw him there at the resurrection,
and then his appearance to Peter.
And then it says he appeared to the 12, the 12, referring to the
apostles initial meeting. Thomas wasn't there.
He showed up later donning Thomas.
He couldn't believe. He couldn't believe it when he
heard these guys, his brothers saying, yeah, we, we saw the
resurrected Christ. There's no way I'm going to
believe this unless I can put my hand into the side and feel, you
know, all that. You guys know the story and
Jesus shows up and he knows everything.
Our thoughts from afar. Hey, Thomas, I I heard you say
you wouldn't believe. We'll go ahead and touch and
feel. And all of a sudden, Thomas does
that, and what's he say, my Lord and my God?
That meeting, that first meeting was probably in that room.
The doors and the windows were all shut when He breathed on the
disciples and gave to them the Holy Spirit.
And then over 500 brethren at once, it says He revealed
Himself to. And that was suggested in
Matthew 28 when He was on the hill before His ascension and
many people showed up and saw him and heard what He had to
say. The last thing He told him was
to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
living creature, teaching them all things whatsoever I've
commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. And lo, I'm with you always,
even to the end of the age that gospel presentation is
continuing to this day, that us as His witnesses, we go forth
and share this gospel with other people.
That the old hymn, the Old Rugged Cross is powerful this
morning. I haven't sang that in a long
time. And it really had special
meaning to me because we're in this chapter today singing that.
Then when there was that other song, I server as a Savior, He's
in the world today. I know that he is living.
Whatever men may say. I feel his hand of mercy.
I know that's the time I need him.
He's always near. He lives, He lives.
Christ Jesus lives in me. He walks with me and talks with
me a long life's narrow way. He lives.
He lives salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives,
and I want to say he lives within my heart.
And we have a great witness because Christ has given us His
grace to believe His mercy. What a awesome, awesome truth.
Not any what we read in the Scriptures is true, but we are
living witnesses. The Bible says we're epistles
known and read of men. When you're out and about in
your life and people see you in your workplace, your
neighborhood, your community, your, your family on, they see
Jesus in you. You might not think they can see
anything in you, but you're messed up, whatever.
But they see something different in you and they marvel and they
wonder why do they act this way? Why do they talk this way?
Why do they have such love for Jesus?
Beautiful. And then it says he was seen by
James. This is the last verses the
worship team can come forward. James is interesting.
He's the brother of Jesus. Can you imagine growing up in a
house with Jesus being your brother?
You're getting in trouble all the time.
He never gets in trouble. They call him Goody 2 sandals.
He never doing anything wrong. And they were probably jealous
of his, his example, his life, all that.
But it's interesting. They didn't believe there was
anything special about him at the time.
A matter of fact, in the gospels it showed that Jesus brothers
were hostile toward him at times in his mission.
Yet in the 1st chapter of Acts, Jesus brothers are among the
followers of Jesus. Certainly when they saw heroes
again from the dead, they finally got it that truly this
is the Son of God. So we think about these verses
the day that we've read and we've studied and I I wanted to
put a we'll get into it next time I teach when Paul says he
was least last of all seen in me and Paul will tell his own
story. But I have this like little
Gideon's Bible here that Fred gave me.
And by the way, if any of you guys want to get involved in
Gideon's, see Fred because they always have outreaches and you
can get involved just giving Bibles out to people and it
doesn't take a lot of time and you don't have to do it every
day. It's just like they have these
events and they need more younger guys to be involved in
the Gideons. So Fred Waver, stand up Ecker
for a second. Say know who you are.
See Fred if you want to get involved in Gideon's.
I was involved in it as a young believer, and I was very
impacted by these older guys that loved Jesus so much.
But it says in this little book, this little Bible, New
Testament, the Bible contains the mind of God, the state of
man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the
happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its
precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its
decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it
to be safe, and practice it to be holy.
It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort
to cheer you. It's a traveller's map.
The pilgrim's staff, the pilots compass, the soldiers sword, and
the Christians charter. Here Paradise is restored,
heavens open, and the gates of hell disclose.
Christ is its grand subject, our good, the design and the glory
of God. It's end.
It should fill the memory, roll the heart, guide the feet, Read
it slowly, frequently and prayerfully.
It's a mind of wealth, a paradise of glory, a river of
pleasure. It's given you it.
Life will be opened at the judgement and be remembered
forever. It involves the highest
responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn
all who trifle with its sacred contents.
It's really well, well said, isn't it?
That's why we're here today. That's why we worship the Lord.
That's why we read the Scriptures.
That's why we have our personal times of prayer.
So on Tuesday at 7:00 at the Fellowship Hall, we're training
people how to share the Gospel. Turning Points US one point of
why we're involved with Turning Point.
We're concerned about where our country's going, obviously, but
the hearts of people need to be changed before the country goes
in the right direction. You can't legislate morality.
It comes by the Spirit of God. So a lot of people feel
inadequate in regard to sharing their faith.
Tuesday night, 7:00, There'll be more training on how to give the
gospel, how to get people involved in conversations, how
to use our Connect card to invite people to Calvary to hear
the gospel. Maybe you're, you don't feel
equipped yet. Bring them here.
Louis and me or whoever's preaching.
We're always going to give the gospel and that's that's
important. And then there's a Connect card
for the Gideon's Bible app that we give out with the connect
card where people can download it with the QR code in their
Bible to get the Bible on, on their phone.
And when they're going through tough times, they can pull up a
subject and they'll have verses how to address those issues in
their lives. So Tuesday night, learning to be
a witness. So as we prepare now for the
Lord's Supper, probably the first time in a long time we're
taking this, remembering his death and what he went through,
right? We all heard the pain, the
suffering, the anguish he went through for us today.
So maybe the supper will take on even a little deeper meaning for
us today because Jesus said as often as we eat this bread and
drink this cup, we show forth his death, what he did for us
until he comes again, Amen. So let's pray, Father, we're
thankful, Lord, for your word. You give us light, You give us
understanding. You help us to see.
We pray today. Lord, if there's anyone blind
here today and they can't see, open their hearts to believe the
gospel today that they would say, Jesus, I understand today
what you did for me. I'm a Sinner and I need your
forgiveness. I'm so sorry for rejecting you
and not believing in you. But I heard the gospel and the
power of the historical fact that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures, that he was buried.
He rose again the third day. This is why you came, Lord, and
that night before you were crucified, you told the apostles
why you were doing what you were going to do.
And you said these words. On the night that Jesus is
betrayed, He took the bread in his hands and he gave thanks,
and he said, take, eat, this is my body which is given for you.
Eat this in remembrance to me in the same manner.
And that evening he took the cup.
He said This cup is a new covenant.
My blood, which is shed for the forgiveness of sins of many,
drink this in remembrance of me. For as often as we eat this
spread and we drink this cup, we show forth the Lord's death till
he comes again. Amen.
It took a little different meaning today, a little bit
deeper than maybe the past. So may that word today that
we've heard go deep in our heart and stay there so that we might
love Jesus more than ever. Amen.
God bless you guys.