The Personal Jesus - Pastor Greg Addison - April 5, 2026

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

When you said let the people dance, let the people sing, I was rated roll.

How about y'all?

That was great.

Thank you all very much.

Hey, listen, he is risen.

Okay, we can do it better than that.

He is risen.

Amen.

So let's pray.

Lord, we thank you today and we come to celebrate that you are our risen Savior.

I thank you that we can be here as a church family, all of us worshiping together, celebrating the fact that Jesus rose again, conquering death and sin.

And we pray that all that we do today will be honoring and pleasing to you and to lift up the name of Jesus, our risen Savior.

As we study your word this morning, Father, I pray that you will be our teacher, that you will teach us and guide us and do your work in and through us.

It is in the resurrected name of Jesus we pray, and all God's people said.

Turn with me, if you will, this morning in your Bibles to Judges chapter 6.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

That's probably the first time you've ever heard a pastor say that on Easter Sunday, right?

It was fun.

We were uh praying through kind of what to do this week, and you know, we've talked about in this journey of doing our chronological Bible.

If you're visiting with us today, we're glad you're here.

Uh and we are reading through the Bible chronologically as a church family.

And so, you know, you get to Easter and you got judges, and you're going, how does this work and what's going on?

But Matt and I were talking this week, and it's just amazing.

Every week you hit something and you just see how relevant, again, every part of Scripture is.

And so, in this story we're looking at today, I want you to see the person of Jesus, even here in the book of Judges.

In fact, wait a minute.

Bobby, I don't like that word, person right there.

That's a little too, I want to change that, Bobby.

If you'll scratch that out for me.

That's kind of awesome how that works right there, right?

The personal Jesus.

Because what he did, he did for the world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

That's awesome.

But let me tell you what, what he did for the world, he also did for you.

It was awesome to hear that testimony from Joshua this morning and from Chelsea this morning.

And they would tell you that God spoke to them personally, right?

He worked in their lives as individuals.

And that's what God does in our lives.

And you see here in this story, I could not get past this story.

I've read the story of Gideon a hundred times, at least, probably more.

But I'm telling you, it just struck me this moment right here.

And I want you to see how personal Jesus is.

And then I want us to look and see how he has always been this personal with us.

Here in the book of Judges, you we pick this up in chapter six, and the context of where we are, you can read here, verse 11.

The angel of the Lord came and he sat under the oak that was in Oprah, which belonged to Joash the Abizerite.

Now, I want you to get right here, the angel of the Lord is Jesus.

That's the Old Testament, Jesus showing up personally.

Now again, it's fun.

Pastor Dave preached last week, and he had another one of these Old Testament.

We call them a theophany, is the big word that Dave uses.

I'm not that smart, so I just said Jesus showed up in the Old Testament.

It's another one of those moments.

And he shows up personally here, and he goes to a specific spot to talk to a specific person.

His son Gideon was threshing wheat in the wine vat in order to hide it from the Midianites.

Now that gives us the context of the story right there.

What's happening is in the book of Judges, and as you've been reading through that, or if you know the book of Judges, you know what happens.

They walk with God, and He's their God, and things are going well, and then they begin to walk away from God.

They're tempted by other gods or whatever, and they begin to walk away from the Lord, and as the culture of the nation pushes everybody away from the Lord, then God pronounces judgment on them.

He raises up another nation, like the Midianites or someone, to come against them, to oppress them, to punish them for their sin.

And after a period of time, they will cry out to the Lord and they'll repent and they'll say, Lord, we're sorry, you're a God, we know we've sinned.

And then He will send someone the Bible refers to as a judge or a leader who will lead them back to the Lord.

He'll cast off the nation that's oppressing them, and uh, and then they'll walk with God for a period of time, and then they'll do that, and then they'll get bored or whatever or distracted, and they'll walk away from the Lord, do it all over again.

And that's what happens all throughout the book of Judges, and Gideon is one of those men.

So Jesus is coming to call Gideon to be that leader.

The angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and he said, The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.

Now, this is an incredibly ironic picture here.

As we read, Gideon is in the winepress area threshing wheat.

Now, that's not how that's supposed to work.

You have an area over here, and usually it's a big area, and you got oxen involved, and you're threshing all this wheat and all that, but the Bible says that because of the sin of the children of Israel, the Midianites have been raised up and they were oppressing them, and so for years now, they have been attacking the Israelites, they've been defeating the Israelites, and in particular, they show up at all the Israelite farms at harvest time, and they steal all their grain and all the stuff.

I mean, it's really awful.

And so, this picture of Gideon uh doing this threshing job in the wine vat area to hide it from the Midianites is this awful picture of an impressed guy and an impressed people, and he's sneaking around in the dark trying to get just enough wheat that he can fix to feed his family.

That's the picture here.

I mean, it's a terrible circumstance.

And Jesus steps into his life.

He tells him, Mighty warrior.

I mean, you can't help but laugh.

I mean, Gideon's like, really?

I'm over here hiding from all these people.

And you go, like, what's that mean?

And so Gideon says to him, he doesn't recognize him yet, please, sir, if the Lord is with us, he asks this rhetorical question, why has all this happened?

And where are all the wonders that our fathers told us about?

They said, hasn't the Lord brought us out of Egypt?

But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to Midian.

Now he's not complaining about God, he's recognizing we're in this awful spot and we've sinned and we had this God that did all this, and now he's just giving us over and we're just done.

I mean, it's just awful.

We're too rotten to, and he's just giving us up, and here we are.

Like, what are you talking about, mighty warrior?

The Lord turned to him and he said, if you underline, I want you to mark that phrase.

We're gonna come back to that in a moment.

The Lord turned to him and said, Go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the power of Midian, am I not sending you?

And now Gideon begins to understand.

He says to him, Please, Lord, how can I deliver Israel?

I mean, look, my family is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the youngest in the family.

I'm just this child and this family, and our family is the weakest one in Manasseh, and Manasseh's one of the smallest tribes, and like Midianites, like, are you kidding me?

What are we doing?

But I will be with you, the Lord said to him.

You will strike Midian down as if it were one man.

I mean, you're gonna defeat that whole nation, like if it's just one joker over there.

Then he said to him, If I have found favor in your sight, give me a sign that you are speaking with me.

I mean, here, this is Gideon now.

All of a sudden he's catching up with this, and he's really gonna like if this is really, then I'm just gonna like give me a sign.

Show me this is like really real.

Please do not leave this place until I return to you.

Let me bring my gift and set it before you.

And Jesus said to him, I will stay until you return.

So Gideon went, prepared a young goat, and unleavened bread from a half bushel of flour.

He placed the meat in a basket.

Now I want you to think about this for a minute.

A half bushel of flour.

This is a major offering he's creating.

I mean, this is a lot of flour when he's sneaking around just trying to get enough for a meal.

But Gideon is beginning to understand, and he is returning to worship the Lord now.

This Jesus.

And he says, he placed the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and he brought them out and offered them to Jesus under the oak tree.

The angel of the Lord said to him, Take the meat with the unleavened bread and put it on this stone and pour the broth on it.

And Gideon did that.

The angel of the Lord extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand, and he touched the meat and the unleavened bread.

Fire came out from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread, and then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.

Now at this point, Gideon is freaked out.

When Gideon realized that this was the angel of the Lord, like this is a person of God, he says, Oh Lord God, I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face, and he knows from his Jewish training you can't be in the presence of God because of sin.

But the Lord said to him, Peace to you.

Do not be afraid, for you will not die.

Why?

Because he's with him and he's called him to this mission.

Now here's the first picture I want you to see.

That Jesus reveals himself to us personally.

This is not the only time in Scripture Jesus revealed himself personally.

This is what Jesus does, and it's very cool to see in an Old Testament picture how Jesus steps in and reveals himself as much as he does in the New Testament, because this is always who Jesus has been and is and always will be.

Jesus speaks personally into lives.

In the Old Testament, it's a significant moment when Jesus presents himself as Pastor Dave taught us last week from Joshua and this week from Gideon.

These don't happen a lot in the Old Testament, but they happen, and when they happen, they usually happen for a purpose.

And here's what I want you to see.

In the beginning of Judges chapter 6, when God begins to deal with the fact that his children are crying out in repentance, the Bible says in verse 7, the Lord sent a prophet to them.

Judges 6 · chapter mention

And he said, Through the prophet, this is what the Lord God of Israel says, I brought you out of Egypt, the place of savory.

I rescued you from the power of Egypt.

The power also pressed you.

I drove them out of the land before you.

I said, I am your God.

Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, whose land you live in, but you did not obey me.

So he sends a prophet to call out their sin.

Now you see, God has all kinds of ways where he's pointed out that we're sinners and we need to be saved.

That's what the law does.

That's what studying God's word does.

That's what prophets in the Old Testament, preachers in the New Testament, and all of that, there's all these ways that that happens.

God has already called out our sin, but when it's time to discuss redemption, Jesus shows up personally.

And in your life, when it's time and he's calling you to salvation, Jesus is calling you personally in your life.

That's what Jesus does.

As I was studying this this week, I was reminded that in one of his devotional books, Charles Spurgeon, a famed preacher from yesteryear, wrote a devotion called One Look from Jesus.

One Look from Jesus.

This is an incredible moment.

I told you to mark this place in your Bible here.

The Bible says that the Lord turned to Gideon.

Go in strength, and you will deliver Israel from the grasp of the Midian.

I am sending you a look from Jesus that changed Gideon's life.

All throughout Scripture.

And all surrounding the resurrection moment is this picture of a personal Jesus who shows up with a look that changes a life.

First, I want you to remind you in John chapter 1, here's what the Bible says that Jesus was God and he was with God in creation and he was God and all creation was made through him, but he stepped out of heaven, and the Bible says in John chapter 1, verse 14, he dwelt among us.

John 1 · chapter mention John 1:14

That word could be translated tabernacle.

And it's this picture, like we've been studying from the Old Testament, of the tabernacle in the middle of the tribe of Israel and the children of Israel, so that they always knew that God was with them in the same way he uses that same picture.

And he said, Jesus stepped out of heaven and he lived with us, he tabernacled with us, he went through the whole life that we go through.

He did everything that we do, he did that personally.

He didn't send someone else.

He came personally.

And Jesus, as a man, would have never had to die because there was no judgment attached to his life.

But in John chapter 10, when he's preparing his disciples for what was going to happen, he's going to go to the cross, he's going to be crucified and all of that.

John 10 · chapter mention

He says, Listen, fellas, I do not want you to be confused.

I have authority over my life.

It's not a Roman soldier that killed me.

It's not Pilate that killed me.

It's not a Pharisee that killed me.

It's not a Sadducee that killed me.

It's not the people who are chanting in the streets.

He said, I lay down my life.

And Jesus' decision to die for us on the cross was a personal decision.

And he stepped out of heaven and personally went to the cross and died for us.

In the same way that he showed up in Gideon's life.

He showed up for us and he went to the cross and he died for us.

And then he rose again as we're celebrating today.

And then he starts and he starts meeting with people and revealing himself to them.

And it's not just crowds that he reveals himself to, he goes to individuals and he reveals himself to them.

Mary is at the empty tomb and Jesus reveals himself to her and says, It is I.

Thomas, we know the story of Thomas.

We refer to him as doubting Thomas.

And when they told him, Thomas, Thomas, Jesus is alive, he's risen from the dead.

And Thomas said, No, that doesn't happen.

And somebody said, What about Lazarus?

And he goes, Yeah, but Jesus did that.

Who's going to raise Jesus from the dead when he's not here?

And the Bible says that Jesus appeared in a meeting where Thomas was and personally appeared for Thomas.

Thomas, I know what you said, and I know what your doubts are.

Son, hear my wrist.

Put your finger in the hole like you asked.

Here is my side.

Thomas put your fist in just like you said you needed to do.

It's a personal conversation.

When Stephen was being stoned for preaching the gospel in the book of Acts, Jesus appeared to him in the sky and the heaven, and he knew that he was going up to see Jesus.

The apostle Paul started life as Saul, and he was one of the men who prosecuted Stephen so it'd be for heresy, so he would be stoned.

And the Bible says on the road to Damascus, Jesus showed up and he said, Paul or Saul, why are you persecuting me?

He knew why Paul was there and where he was going and what he was doing.

He called him personally.

In the book of the Revelation, in chapter one, John is beginning to write, and Jesus appears to him in all his resurrected glory.

And the Bible describes him in this incredible description.

We don't have time to go into it, but he's like gleaming with white in his holiness and righteousness.

His tongue is like a sword because he's speaking truth.

His voice is like thunder, his eyes are like fire, and all of this.

And he appears to John, and John falls over, falls on his face as if he's dead.

He's overwhelmed with a picture of Jesus.

And the Bible says that Jesus picked him up and looked at him.

The look from Jesus that changes a life.

And then when you give your life to Christ, when you trust him as your Savior, the Bible says that you will spend an eternity in his presence with him.

And in the book of Revelation 21, verse 3, he's describing how incredible that will be.

Revelation 21:3

And he says, in the midst of all this beauty, that God makes his tabernacle or dwelling with us.

Yes, Jesus died for the world.

The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

But he died for you.

And he loves you.

And he knows you.

And he has a plan for you.

When he spoke into Gideon's life, he said, Listen, mighty warrior, and Gideon is saying, Who me?

But Jesus is saying, I know what I put into you, and I know how you may, how I made you, and I am going to raise you to be all that I planned for and made you to be.

And then he calls us to the mission.

Go, therefore, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to serve whatever I've commanded you.

And then he says, What?

And I will be with you always.

Jesus has called us to himself.

In the same way that he is with Gideon, he's with you.

If you know him as your Savior.

And if you don't, this is why you get saved.

Because you realize not only am I a sinner and not only will my sin be punished, but Jesus loved me so much he died for me.

And not just wiping away my sin, but he's calling me into a personal relationship with him.

I want you to see how personal it is with Gideon.

It's one of the reasons I love this story.

He talks with Gideon.

He addresses every question.

He talks to him graciously.

Mighty warrior.

Like, really?

You're over here hiding?

His self-esteem is all my life is terrible, and I can't do anything, and I'm hiding from the enemy, and we've all sinned, and you're done with us because of our sin.

How many people think, because of my sin, God's done with me?

God's never done with you.

You cannot outsend God's grace.

And he shows up in the circumstances in Gideon's life with grace and says, I am more than all that, and with me, this is what we can do together.

He talks to him specifically.

Here's what I want you to do.

Gideon says, Well, I can't do that.

Yes, you can.

You can do this, and this is how we're going to do it.

Would you wait here and let me bring you an offering?

Yes, I will do that.

Later on is that famous story where Gideon, he's when God calls him to go take an army against the Midianite army, and he says, Really?

I don't know if I can do this.

And again he asks and he goes, Well, I'll tell you what, just to make sure I understand, I'm going to throw a doormat out here, and the ground is all wet around it, and the doormat's dry, then I'll know you call me.

Now, how many times do we do that?

Lord, I if you'll do this, then I'll do that.

Lord, if you'll make this happen, then I'll do that.

We all do that, right?

And Gideon does that.

And what God does is says, okay, let's do that.

There it is.

I want to show you that I'm speaking to you.

God's not trying to hide things from us.

He's not trying to make it hard.

Clarity is not a problem that God has.

Us listening is a problem.

Clarity is not.

And so he does that.

And then Gideon goes, yeah, okay, that might have happened.

Just in case, can we do it again, but like do it the other way?

And then he does it the other way.

God openly receives the conversation.

Gideon never disrespects God, he never rejects God.

You can always ask questions and God will answer your questions.

It's not a sin to have doubts and questions.

You bring those to Jesus and He will answer them.

That's the beauty of this story and the personal relationship that he calls us to.

He will communicate with you because he wants to walk with you.

And finally, in this personal sense of Jesus, Jesus' personal presence with us means his power is with us.

Well, I can't do it.

I can't do it.

I can't do it.

Gideon, shit.

I will be with you.

And you'll strike Midian down as if they were just one man.

To God, that's not an army, that's not an enemy.

That's a flick of his finger.

For a resurrected Jesus, there is no issue, enemy, question, road bump, wall in your life that Jesus can't remove.

And his resurrected power.

He has always had that power.

That's why it's a blessing to read in the Old Testament, the presence and the person of Jesus, because you see, he has always been the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

He has always been the author of life.

He has always been the one who was the greatest.

He has always been the one who would defeat death and sin.

And now as we celebrate Easter Sunday, we know he did.

And here's what that means.

When he tells Gideon, this is the power that you will have in your life after the resurrection, we learn an even greater way what that means.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, when we are reading in there about the effect of the resurrection and the fact of the resurrection and what the resurrection means in our lives as Christians, he ends that entire chapter this way.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our risen Lord Jesus Christ.

And in that chapter, that's what that verse means.

The entire chapter is about resurrection.

And when he says that we have victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, in just a few verses earlier, he said, in all things we are, we are we conquer everything.

We conquer death and sin.

It's all bigger than that.

And then he says, Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord's work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Why?

Because we are walking through life with the resurrected Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2.20 says it this way: No longer I live, but Christ, the resurrected Christ, lives in me.

He is personally with me.

The life that I now live in this body, I live by faith in the resurrected Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me, and then rose again, conquering death and sin.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

That's what it means when he tells Gideon, I will be with you, and you, when he tells you, I will be with you, that is what that means.

The power of Jesus is brought into our lives when we personally walk with him.

Have you had that moment where you looked into the eyes of Jesus and he changed your life?

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, in just a moment I'm going to sing.

We're going to have an invitation.

It's an opportunity for you to give your life to Christ.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, after we've prayed for you this morning, I want you to know that you can give your life to Christ.

We'll have an opportunity for you to come.

We'll have ministers at our aisles.

We'll have deacons to help us.

If you come, listen, you don't have to linger around.

We know it's Easter Sunday, but there's no way we're going to talk about Jesus defeating death and sin and not give you an opportunity to know the salvation that comes through the resurrected Jesus.

And if you never trusted Christ, you're saved.

If you're watching online or on television, give your life to Christ.

Listen, how do I do that, Pastor?

It's very simple.

Listen, you just realize we've talked about it already.

You do what Gideon did.

He brought this offering to Jesus and acknowledged him as God.

We saw that when he said, I've seen the face of God.

And you also saw God's grace.

Peace.

Mighty warrior, I have a plan for your life.

God has a plan for your life.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, you take your life, everything you've been, you are, and you ever will be, and you just give it all to Jesus because he gave his life for you.

And friend, when he loves you personally and you walk with him personally, his presence is in your life.

He'll do more with your life than you could ever dream of.

I'm going to pray, and then we're going to sing an invitation, and the choir will close us out after the invitation is over.

But listen, I just want to give you an opportunity.

If you don't have time, you feel like it's not important, but listen, I'm going to tell you, just come and tell us, hey, Pastor Greg, I want a meeting this week.

We'll drink coffee, we'll have a hamburger, we'll eat milkshakes, whatever you want to do.

I'll come to your house, I don't care.

Whatever I can do to help you walk in that journey, we'll do.

Let's pray.

Lord, we love you and we thank you.

I pray for those who never accepted Christ as their Savior this morning.

They'll see Jesus from the truth of Scripture and this incredible picture of him stepping into a man's life, into his circumstances that were difficult and down, and he elevated him and gave him his grace and walked with him.

And I pray, Father, you'll help folks to see that Jesus wants to walk with them.

If there's someone who's never been saved, give them the freedom to respond.

Lord, for my brothers and sisters this morning, praise the Lord that we've been in your presence and together we can come and worship you.

And I pray, Father, that the truth of Jesus walking in each person's life will touch them where they are.

Whatever circumstances they might find themselves in, I pray this personal picture of Jesus will speak to them and encourage them, cause them to trust in the personal Jesus.

Pray these things in the resurrected, gracious name of Jesus and all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to chapter and first, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith at First Baptist Church.