Mark 14:43-65 || The Book of Mark || Pastor Haron Kaisa

All right, let's go ahead and stand for the reading

of God's word. We are in the Book of Matthew,

chapter fourteen. We're gonna be covering twenty two verses, and

I'll be highlighting some verses. And so when Mark fourteen

forty three to sixty five, Mark fourteen forty three says this,

And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came one

of the twelve with him a crowd with swords and clubs,

from the chief priest and the scribes and the elders

verse forty four. Now the betrayer had given them a

sign saying the one I will kiss as a man,

seize him and lead him away under guard, jump to

forty seven. But one of those who stood by drew

his sword and struck the servant of the high priest

and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them,

have you come out as against a robber with swords

and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was

with you in the temple teaching, and you did not

seize me. But let the scriptures be fulfilled. And they

all left him and fled verse fifty one. And a

young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth

about his body, and they seize him. But he left

the linen cloth and ran away naked verse fifty three.

And they led Jesus to the high Priest, and all

the priests, chief priests, and the elders and scribes came

together jump down of sixty four. You have heard this blasphemy.

What is your decision? And they all condemned him as

deserving death sixty five. And some began to spin on

him and to cover his faith, to strike him, saying

to him prophesy, and the guards receive him with blows.

You may be seated. Let's pray a Father, God, we

come before you as a humble, humble servants. We asked

that you would bring clarity. We asked that you illuminate

our hearts and minds to receive. I pray you would

move any distractions, that the Holy Spirit would speak to

us in a way that not only just hears information,

but transforms our hearts. We give you all the glory

and honor in Jesus' name. Me pray in God's people

say Amen, we are in passionate week. And if you've

been been with us for the whole year, we've been

covering the Book of Mark, and we'll be looking at

accounts of specific events taking place during the week of

Jesus's crucifixion. This is the last week of Jesus being

alive and so before us is probably one of the

most captivating scenes in all of the Book of Mark.

It's a scene that describes the unjustification arrest of the

Son of God, Jesus. And this account appears in every gospel.

It appears in the Gospel of Matthew, in the Gospel

of Luke, and also in the Gospel of John. And

each of these gospels they kind of give us insight,

they give us specific details. And so tonight we're gonna

be looking at a lot of different perspectives when it

comes to this specific story in the Book of Mark

we've been We're gonna go verse by verse twenty two verses.

And if you're taking notes, I titled tonight's message be

et experience, you can tell them millennial and what it means,

what do you think it is? But what it is

is I wanted to break this this portion of Mark

fourteen into three section B E T The betrayal verse

forty three to fifty. Then example fifty one to fifty

two and the trial fifty three to sixty five. And

I want us to consider within these three sections that

we're gonna kind of dive deep and squeeze the scriptures,

pass it around. Would often say, there's six episodes that I

want us to kind of lock in and see through

the text. And number one it's the crowd. Number two

it's the kiss. Number three it's the sword. Number four

is the scripture, Number five is the cloth, and number

six is the trial notice forty three in Mark chapter fourteen.

I want us to look at what's being underlined here

the crowd. Immediately while he was still speaking, Judas came

one of the twelve, and with him a what a crowd.

This story, as I said before, is mentioned in all

of the gospels, and we're gonna look at these narratives

and give all the details of what is being said.

And according to Matthew's account Matthew twenty six, verse forty seven,

it wasn't just any crowd that surrounded him, It was

a great crowd. It was a great crowd. And if

you jump into John's account his perspective of the same story,

John eighteen three, he gives us further specifics of what

this crowd was made up of. It was made up

of a band of soldiers, and with them some officers

from the chief priests and the Pharisees. And if you

were to look up, the Greek word for band of

soldier is spherion and it denotes a military cohort. Get

this of five hundred to one thousand soldiers. Think about

it for a second. Right there, we're confronted with the

popular imagination that Jesus was with just a couple of people,

but rather Jesus was surrounded by five hundred soldiers. And

we know for certain that those soldiers on that night

says something about what Judas was thinking the betrayer. There

might be some reason why he was escorted by this

large group, Why this heavily armed assembly wanted to surround

Jesus not just a couple, but over five hundred. It

could be that Judas imagined that Jesus would run and flee,

And because he would imagine that Jesus would run and flee,

he wanted to bring enough people just in case he

needed to send a great team to search for Jesus,

and so he recruits a great amount of people. It's

also possible that he anticipated the disciples would try to

defend the rabbi, and by defending them, this big crowd

would intimidate them. And so at this moment, Judas shows

us that he did not understand who Jesus was at all.

He didn't understand who Jesus was in his power, He

didn't understand who Jesus was in his purpose. He didn't

understand who Jesus was in his person. It was his

spiritual blindness that led him to betray Jesus. He was

doing ministry with jess Jesus for three whole years, every

single day, healing the blind, healing the sick, preaching in

the synagogue, seeing the miracles. Jesus demonstrates that Judas didn't

know what he was doing, and at this point Judas

was going to learn very quickly with this great crowd

of people, who was in control of this event. Look

at John's account verse four, it says this, Then Jesus,

knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and

said to him, whom do you seek? He came forward,

He didn't turn back. He embraced it. He knew that

they were coming. He came forward with authority and calmness

and boldness encourage. He says, whom do you seek? Verse five,

They answered him Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus says to them,

I am he underlined that circle. It highlighted Judas, who

betrayed him, was standing with them. Verse six he says

it again. When Jesus said to him, I am he,

what happened? They drew back and fell to the ground.

It's interesting to see John's perspective of this particular section.

It can be lost if we don't consider the English

translations that limit us to really what is happening in

this story. You'll notice in the KJV the King James

version that he is italicized. And what the King James

translators often did is that when words didn't appear in

the original language, they would what I tell size it

so the reader would know that this word right here

in the King James version is not found in the

original text. And if you have your ESVAN, you'll notice

the word There is a footnote with a number here

that tells you that this word is not in the

original language. So when they approached Jesus, and Jesus asked

them whom do you seek, and they said, Jesus of Nazareth.

How he actually responded was I am? He said, I am.

It's a clear reference to the great I Am Yahweh,

who was given to Moses in Exodus three point fourteen.

It's interesting to see that John includes this very exclusively.

What is the gospel of John's steve. It's to display

and demonstrate the deity of Jesus. And how do we

know that because Jesus gives these what I am statement.

This is one of those moments where he says I

am John six thirty six. I am the Bread of life,

John a twelve. I Am the Light of the world.

John ten seven. I am the door the sheep John

ten eleven. I Am the good Shepherd John eleven twenty five.

I AM the Resurrection in life. John fourteen six. I

am the Way, the Truth in life. John fifteen one.

I am the True Vine.

We find Jesus before his death, before his enemies, he says,

I am the Great I Am.

This is a proclamation of power. In the moment he

said these words, Look what happened. There was this invisible

force that blew the soldiers back. And what happened? They

fell on their rear ends to the ground. Jesus's response

was one of power and fearless affirmation of his identity.

He wasn't trying to hide it. I am the one

you are looking for. But it's also a statement of

his divinity, that this is Yahweh in the flesh. Emanuel,

we see that when Jesus did this, it came with

power for a reason, to show them what who is

in control? Who is the master of this moment? I

am not you, not you judas, not you, chief priests,

not you soldiers, five hundred of them, And all he

had to do was to say the word, and he

could change the direction of this whole situation. He could

overcome them with just a little whisper. It's not the

crowd that's in control. It's Jesus. And he's still in control,

and he'll always be in control. And people who don't

believe that he's in control are going to find out

that he indeed is in control one day. Now we

move from the crowd to the kiss. Notice verse forty four.

The next verse, now, the betrayer had given them a sign.

What was the sign? It was a kiss? Verse forty five.

And he came he went up to him and once

said rabbi, teacher, and he kissed him and they laid

hands on him a season. In ancient Near Eastern culture,

it was a common gesture that when you would see someone,

you would walk to them and embrace them with a kiss.

And it wasn't something out of the ordinary for them

to do that, but it was a way for Judas

to decipher Jesus from the other disciples, because what was

the hour during that time? It was in the dark,

and so he says, I'm gonna kiss the one person,

and that's the person that you need to find and arrest.

That was his signal of choice that he made at

that moment, and it was a detestable one. It was

one that was hypocritical because to utilize a gesture of

affection and a dear man and one that's respect to

highlight that you're gonna see this man die at some point.

It was very deceitful. It was dripping with damning irony.

And that Judas is approaching him and embracing him in

a way reveals that there is a deeper significance to

what this man is doing, because what does he say here? First,

he says what rabbi before he kissed him? He says, rabbi.

And the word here is catiphilio. It's an embrace of friendship,

and it's to kiss someone fervently. It's a prolonged gesture

of affection, so that everybody would know exactly who Jesus

was and they could arrest him. Notice Luke's account in

twenty two, verse forty eight. Jesus said to them, Luke

tells us, Judas, this is Jesus. Are you portraying the

son of man with a kiss? The Lord knew everything,

He knew what that. Come on, Judas, you don't think

I know. But look at Matthew's account Matthew twenty six

fifty friend, Jesus said, do what you have come for?

He said friend. He didn't use felos, which is the

normal word for friend in John fifteen five. He use

a word that's that's distant. It's the word here in

the Greek hotir, and hatier means comrade or fellow. In

other words, it's knowing that there's nothing intimate there. Friend.

Look at Luke's account twenty two, verse forty eight. Jesus

asked him, Judas, would you portray the son of Man

with the kiss. If you do a word study, you

can go on biblehead dot com concordance put in a word,

look up the word kiss. You'll notice that kiss is

mentioned nineteen times. But I want us to focus on

one of those, and it's in Psalms chapter two. And

it's a hymn that they would often sing as remembrance

of God being sovereign and in control of those moments

about the nation plotting against the Lord and is anointed,

and he remember, and the psalmist remembers who God is

in this moment. He says this in two verse twelve,

Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish

in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed

are all who will take refuge in him. To kiss

in this context was a pledge of allegiance. It was

a strong embrace. It was a sign of love, honor, respect, affection, loyalty, friendship.

It's to say, I submit to you, I honor you,

I respect you. This was a well known psalms for

every Jew. This was a psalm of hope for the nation.

And this annoying to one. Now, I wonder if Judas

at this moment knew the song as he was getting

ready to embrace and kiss the man that he would betray.

I wondered, knowing in his conscious of it, depicting this victorious,

kingly Messiah that one day will come and rescue his

people from their sins. Matthew, one, Judas, would you portray

the son of Man with a kiss? You know what

else this psalm teaches us in connection with Judas kissing him,

you see kissing the sun. There's a wrong way to

kiss the son. The wrong way is exemplified in Judas example.

Here it's an insincere pledge of disloyalty. Right, and if

there's a wrong way to kiss the son, then there

must be a right way to kiss the son. You

know what's interesting in all of the gospels accounts that

there are only two places in the Gospels where we

read of human lips touching the Son of God. The

first is what we just read, Judas kissing the Son.

You want to know where the second place is. It's

when Jesus was invited to a dinner and a woman

unnamed and interrupts the feast. She comes in to his feet.

What's those feet with their tears, dries them with their tears,

kisses them, and annoints them with oil. And this so

moved the heart of Jesus that he looks to his

host and he says, in chapter seven of Luke, when

I came in, you did not kiss me, but she

has not ceased to kiss me. And then he turns

to this genuine woman from the overflow of his heart,

and he says, your sins have been forgiven. There are

two ways to kiss the sun, genuine sincere, saving way

like that woman, or a way that seems sincere, but

in fact it's super hollow. Have you kissed the sun?

You say you believe in him? Is it true belief?

You say you repent it? Is it true repentance? Speaking

about kissing, did you know that the Christians are commanded

to not just kiss the sun but kiss each other?

Just mentioned five times as a command, not as something

that you maybe should do. And we're told to greet

each other with this kind of affection right now. That

may seem strange to some of us, right like, I'm

not kissing you, bro, like there's some tiktak, But it

wasn't strange to Middle easterns. I have my friends here,

Jimmy and Indiana, and in their culture like embracing each

other right, and in my culture too, the Tonguing culture,

it was a sign of honor, respects. So when you

see someone, you'd come in and you'd give them a

hug and embrace them a sidekiss to the cheek as

a sign of honor and respect. And here's one example

of that in the New Testament. If you turn with

the Romans, chapter sixteen, verse sixteen, it's an easy reference.

It says, here, greet one another with a what a

holy kiss? All the churches of Christ greet you. So again,

remember this was normal for them, so it was weird.

This was normal in the culture of that church during

that time. But what's important about about this situation is

whether we should kiss or handshake or hug is the characteristics.

But the quality is what I want us to focus

on the quality of reception or the welcome of the address.

That Paul was saying here is this. He didn't just

say greet with the kiss. He said greet with the

holy kiss. What Mark is trying to say here is

but it has that you when you greet someone and

kiss someone, it has to be set against the backdrop

of the most infamous unholy kiss Judas. That's what he's

saying here. He's saying, greet one another with a holy kiss.

What it really means is, let your greeting be free

from deceit. Let your greeting be free from insincerity. Let

your greeting be free from hidden betrayal. Let your greeting

be free from limiting love. Let your greeting be free

from a corrupt love. That's what he's saying here. So

what does that look like? Looks like someone gossiping about

another person throughout the week and they come in on

Sunday and say, hey, brother, how you doing. I've been

praying for you all week. The same lips that you

say you've been praying with is the same lips that

you use Monday through Saturday to talk about. That's what

he's saying here. It looks like a brother greeting another

brother and developing a relationship with them purely to manipulate

them to use their gift, to use their connection, to

use their their influence. We are to look at each other,

embrace each other, wave to each other, sit with each other,

and that is a committed love. That's what he's saying.

Here are you going to greet each other with a

holy kiss? Embracing each other? Maybe it looks like being

real with one another transparent. So we go from the

crowd verse forty three, we go to the kiss, verse

forty four to forty six. Now we go to the

sword no Verse forty seven. But one of those who

stood by drew his sword instruct the servant of the

High Priest and cut off his ear. They laid hands

on him and seized him. But one of those who

stood by him drew his sword and struck thevant of

the High Priest. Look at John's John's account, he says,

Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew instruct the high

priest servant. So we get the name of the servants.

Malcus Luke adds later in verse fifty, he tells us

which ear was cut off. It wasn't just the lefty ear,

it was the right ear. And Luke adds a note

that makes the scene a heartbreaking betrayal, but there's beauty

in it. One of them struck the servant of the

High Priest, cut off his ear. So he says, exactly

which ear it was, And here's what we find in

Luke's account the last healing miracle Jesus performs was that

miracle before he died. I don't know about you, but

it's hard to pray for my enemies. It's hard to

pray for my haters. It's hard to love the unlovable.

It's hard to do what Jesus doing. But that's what

Jesus is doing. And this wasn't just a random person.

He wasn't just a bystander. This was a chief priest servant.

He's on the sidelines promoting anti Jesus. We don't rock

with him. And yet when his ear was removed, and

don't get a twisted Peter wasn't aiming for the ear.

Peter was a g He's on my team, like we're

going to war. Do you know what you have here?

You have a preview of the Gospel Romans five eight

in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

While we were yet the enemies of God, the rebels

of God, Christ still died for you. Christ still loved you.

Jesus here in this moment demonstrates also that many times

his disciples misrepresent him. And the best thing to do

if you've been disappointed by representation. Is just look to Jesus.

Just keep the looking, because when your eyes are on Jesus,

nothing else matters. Stay near to the feet of Jesus,

and I promise you what you're going through will get

better and better. So Peter took out the sword and

cut off his ear, and you will know another confrontation

that we see here. And it's a different kind of

bleeding that I love this picture because Peter cut off

the ear of Malchus. But there's another kind of bleeding

that we see in the Bible. It was a righteous one,

a praiseworthy one, one that is far more effective in

overcoming those who oppose Jesus. It's the day of Pentecost,

Acts two thirty seven. Now when they heard this, they

were cut to the heart. And Peter and the rest

of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do. We don't

implement meant the sword. We have the sword of the spirit.

So Peter cut Malcus's ear. But in this moment he's

cutting people's hearts. We don't attack people. We challenge him.

We seek their conviction through the sharpness of the truth.

And the truth is Jesus. And there always will be Jesus.

And so the same Peter who cut off the man's

ear stood before thousands. Acts two was a move God.

These twelve flipped the whole world upside down. Talk about

the crowd, the kiss, the sword. And now we cover

the scripture of verse four of verse forty eight and

move really fast. It says here Jesus said to them,

have you come out against the robber with swords and

clubs to capture me? A day after day I was

with you in the temple teaching, and you did not

seize me. But he says, let the sh scriptures be fulfilled.

What is Jesus getting at here in this specific moment.

He's exposing their cowardness. Y'all, you saw me in the temple.

You didn't want to arrest me. You saw me flip

the tables, You saw me heal the blind on Sabbath.

He is reinforcing his innocence. He sees himself not as

a victim. He's been there since Monday of Passion week.

It's not a surprise. Notice the last word he says,

let the scriptures be fulfilled. Earlier when we said I

am right, it manifested this power that we talked about

that he's the master, that he's in control. And isn't

it amazing that when they were knocked back, and though

Malcolm's ear was healed, they still didn't repent, Like they

didn't even reconsider, Like maybe maybe we're dealing with the

g ryot, like he blew us away and we fell

and his ears just got HLP. Maybe we're dealing with

the we're dealing with someone who's gracious and merciful and kind.

Didn't even cross their minds, This loving Jesus that we're

going to put to the cross. Let the scriptures be fulfilled.

I'll give you one example. There's so many examples of

the fulfillment of Jesus. Isaiah fifty five says, the Lord

has what opened my ear, and I was not rebellious,

I turned nor back back backward. The hot has so

many allusions to the future fulfilled predictive prophecy. Did you

know that thirty percent of the Bible is predictive prophecy?

In other words, is an event that will happen in

the future. We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of years

prior and now this event takes place, and it's the

fulfillment of that. That's one reason why I believe Christianity

is true. That's just one example. The prophets foretold this,

the scriptures were fulfilled. Let's go jump into the cloth.

I love this part right here, the cloth verse fifty

to fifty two. And they left him and fled verse

fifty one. And a young man followed him with nothing

but a linen cloth. Underlined that, remember that, And they

seized him verse fifty two, And he left the linen

cloth and ran away what naked? They all left him

even as disciples, they couldn't handle it. In the conclusion

to say, is so it's so fascinating when you look

into the details. Here's the main thing that people want

to know. Who is this young guy. Some theologians say

that it could be Lazarus or Joseph of Aramea or

the rich young ruler. But most people believe it's John

Mark because he's found in Mark and he's trying in

a modest way to admit and his confession. We can't

know for certain who it was, but I believe what

Mark wants us to look at is this what was

he wearing? Not who, but what? Verse fifty And they

all left him and fled. He's reflecting that because nakedness

in the Bible points to shame. It's a shameful thing

to be naked. And that's the truth that goes all

the way back to what Genesis the Garden of Eden

because of sin. And the impression we get here is

that we get this young man who has followed Christ

was unwilling to be associated with Jesus to the degree

that he was willing to be public naked. That's how

much he didn't want to pay the price to be

with Jesus. He was willing to run out of there

without any clothes on. And so he's left in the

state of shame, not just because of the obvious reason,

but because of the internal reason of not being faithful

to his master. And that was true of the disciples,

because every disciple in that moment left Jesus. Would you

have left Jesus? I don't think Marcus concerned with who

this man is. Look at fifty one and the young

man following him with nothing but a the linland cloth

in his body in his season, but he left the

linden cloth and ran away. If you do a word

study on the word linen, here's what's amazing. There's only

one other place that mentioned the word linen cloth, and

it's found in Mark fifteen forty six that says this

and Joseph what brought a linen shroud and taking him down,

wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in

the tomb that has been cut out of the rock,

and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the

tomb the only place. How many times did Mark bring

up this young man and it lenin? Two times? How

many times have we seen this linen shroud in Mark

fifteen forty six, two times. It's a coincidence that the

next and only mentioned of Jesus, rather this linen outfit

is placed on Ooh Jesus, and it was taken with

him into the tomb. Yes, check this out. What's the connection?

What's that? I don't care? Who's so? What? That's I

always ask that? So what? Okay? So well Mark sixteen

five look at this and entering the tomb, they saw

a what a young man sitting at the right side,

dressed in what a white robe? And they were alarmed.

This is when the women came to the temple and

tried to anoint Jesus. And let's begin in verse two,

Mark sixteen two. And very early on the first day

of the week, when the sun had risen, they went

to the tomb, and they were saying to one another,

who will roll the stone away from us? The answer

to the tomb, and looking up, they saw that the

stone had been thrown back. It's the only other place

that you're gonna find the young man in this gospel account.

And here's what's amazing by this, and we'll close, is

that when you read Matthew's account of the woman coming

to the tomb, and Luke and John and the other

gospel riders, you know what they tell us about what

they encounter, not a young man but an angel. Mark

used the word angel before in this gospel account, and

all the other gospel accounts agree that this is an

angel that gave us news. But Mark says, what, young man,

what's happening here? But what is he trying to show us?

What is he trying to convey? I believe that the

main point in this specific portion is this the young

man in Mark sixteen five, you were to recall that

young man in Mark fourteen that same young man was

fully clothed but ended up being naked and fleeing. Now

you come to this point, you read the same terminology

you use to describe this person who is sitting in

the tomb after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What's the

point here? I believe that this is symbolic. This young

man who's in the garden is to be bridged with

this young man who's in the tomb after the resurrection,

Mark sixteen five, and answering it to him, he saw

a young man seen he had the right hand dress

as a road. They were alarmed. Did you know the

word white is mentioned one other time? Mark nine to two.

We'll close with this mark nine two. Is reader real quick?

Mark nine to two. After six days you just took

herm with Peter and James. John let him up a

high mountain by themself, and he was transfigured before them.

Go to verse three and it says here and he

was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant as

the color what white. Here's a young man clothing Lenen.

He wants to follow Jesus fear of failure shortcoming runs.

They seize him, and his cloth is removed and he

runs naked. The only other time Lennon cloth is found

in the Gospel of Mark, and all the gospel Jesus

was wrapped with it before before he was buried. And

the only other time is that this word young man

in the Gospel of Mark is found identified with the

Angel in Mark sixteen. This is masterful. The clues are there.

What is Mark doing. He's providing a subplot to the

grandest story of the gospel. Jesus became your righteousness. You

were naked in sin, you were running rampant. Jesus put

on the cloth. Jesus put on the white linen and said,

you know what, you don't have to run around naked anymore.

You don't have to run in your sin anymore. I

have a way, and that way is me. This is

what he's saying. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the crowd

of the kiss, the sword, the scripture of the cloth,

the trial, there's so much to say about. The trial

will end. What's the point of all this is Matthew

twenty six sixty three. But he remained silent and made

no answer. Again, the high priest asked him, are you

the son of God, the son of the blessed. Jesus

made a way for us. Jesus became not just our righteousness,

but he became our priest. In the trial Jesus, Jesus

sets this picture of wrongful priest and rightful priest. And

I'll read this verse and will end, and it's found

in Hebrews seven twenty four. He says, but he holds

the priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Jesus' priesthood is forever.

It's not temporarily. It's not flawed. That's what the trial

was all about, a comparison of who is the rightful priest,

the high priest, or Jesus the eternal priest. You know

this This February, I lost my dad to stage four

bone cancer. And I remember getting the text, and uh,

you know, getting on a plane hopping over there to Hayward, California,

up north, and we were sitting there and my mom

was We're just talking and just speaking about just you know,

how good a dad he was, how good of a

life he lived, and not knowingly that that was our

last time, just sitting with him, and and and I

started thinking about death. The Bible says that it's the

point at once for man to die then comes judgment,

I don't know where you're at here tonight. I don't

know what brought you here, but I do know this

that one day you will die. And here's the question

that we had to ask ourselves. If you you die tonight,

where would you spend eternity. Bible says that there are

only two destinations, Heaven a hell. When you read the

Book of Matthew, chapter seven, it talks about two gates,

the narrow and the wide, two roads, the big and small,

two groups of people, those who know Jesus and those

who don't know Jesus, but ultimately two destinations, heaven and Hell.

We talked about it the great I Am statement in

John fourteen six, and Jesus said this, I Am the

way truth and life, not just a way, not just

the highway. There's a lot of ways out here. The

way not just a life, but d life. Not just

a truth, but the truth. You know, there's only one

way to heaven and there's a million ways to hell.

You picked. Bible says that Roman san verse nine to

ten that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus

is Lord, then you will be saved. And at that

moment when I heard my dad. I'm like, man, I

gotta tell everyone about Jesus seeing in his deathbed, Like man,

we need to tell more people about Jesus because I

know where my dad's going, but I don't know where

my cousin is going. I don't know where my uncle's going.

I don't know where my brother's going, my sister's going.

And that's the question that you got to wrestle with

tonight is if you were to die tonight, do you

know in your heart how sure of you that you

will spend eternity with Jesus Christ. If that's you tonight,

I want to come. If I want you to raise

your hands and sign of surrender. Let's say you're in

this room and you've heard the gospel presentation. You grew

up in church, you kind of lost the fire, you

lost his zeal, you lost the passion because of the world.

Do you want to rededicate yourself back to Jesus. That's

you tonight? When to raijia handle count of three, one, two, three,

raising hand? See some hands here, some hands here, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

I can't count as many, but let's give it up

for them. Praise God. Amen, hallelujah. Heaven is rejoicing at

this moment. If you made that decision, here's what I

want you to do. I want you to pull your

phone out, go to your web browser, type in grow

dot Faith and here's a PDF file Seven Steps Growing

your Christian Walk with our founding pastor. It's just a

it's just a tool that you can take with you

to continue your journey on this walk called Christianity.