1 Corinthians 15 - What Is The Gospel?

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

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

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,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

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,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

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,

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

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.