SPEAKER_00: Open your Bibles to First Corinthians chapter fifteen.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll notice in First Corinthians chapter fifteen and verse one, we read, Paul says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Paul ends this letter to Corinth with a reminder.
SPEAKER_00: Something they were already familiar with, but something he desired to remind them of once again.
SPEAKER_00: A reminder of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: For the Christian, the gospel is what refreshes and rejuvenates weary souls.
SPEAKER_00: It draws wandering hearts back to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It stirs our love and affections for God.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel produces an unending amount of praise and worship.
SPEAKER_00: John Newton, the writer of the famous hymn, Amazing Grace, tried to capture this response to the gospel in the fourth stanza when he wrote, When we've been there ten thousand years, bright, shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun.
SPEAKER_00: For these reasons, it is vitally important that the gospel never fades to the background in our minds, in our hearts, and in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: If you yourself this morning find that your heart is growing cold to the Lord, or it grows cold to the things of the Lord, go to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Go to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And it is to the gospel that we go this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for today.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for this opportunity now to open up your word.
SPEAKER_00: We acknowledge that what we're reading this morning, it is your word.
SPEAKER_00: Every syllable, every letter, every word is from you.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, this morning we come to the Word with respect.
SPEAKER_00: We come this morning with a desire to hear from you, knowing that you have something for us today, that you have something to say.
SPEAKER_00: I pray this morning that we would listen, that our hearts would be open, that we would be receptive.
SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray that in this message of the gospel, this gospel reminder this morning, you would refresh, rejuvenate.
SPEAKER_00: For any hearts this morning that have grown cold, warm them to you.
SPEAKER_00: And for those that don't know you, I pray that they this morning would hear how they can be made right with you and have the hope that the gospel brings.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 1, Paul tells us that he is going to give a remainder of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But before we can get into that, the very first question we need to ask this morning, what is the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: What is the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: In the Greek, the word is youangalion.
SPEAKER_00: It is literally translated good news.
SPEAKER_00: Good news.
SPEAKER_00: It was in fact used in secular Greek to refer to military victories.
SPEAKER_00: It referred to the messengers who brought the good news, the good report of the successful battle.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus and the New Testament authors later utilized this word to refer to the good news or the good report of what Jesus had come to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus had come to do.
SPEAKER_00: And what Jesus came to earth to do is very good mess, a very good message.
SPEAKER_00: It's very good news for you and for me this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Before Paul reminds us of what this good news is, he explains how one must respond to this message for it to become, what he says in verse 2, the means by which you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is good news because it explains how you can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And here Paul is going to use several different words, three different verbs, to explain how someone must respond to this gospel in order to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Several years ago, Liz and I had entered into a contest to win tickets to a Michigan basketball game.
SPEAKER_00: This is something I never do, but I was in the car and listening to sports radio, and they announced this drawing that was going to take place.
SPEAKER_00: And all you had to do was call into the radio, and you had to be the seventh caller, and you'd be entering into the drawing.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, I'd never do this, but I don't know why I kind of want to give it a try.
SPEAKER_00: So I called up on the on the radio, called, and lo and behold, they answered and said, You're the seventh caller.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, no way.
SPEAKER_00: This is incredible.
SPEAKER_00: So I so I uh asked they told me, okay, listen in at this time, on this date, on this Friday, and we will announce who the who the grand prize winner is.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll never forget because it was the very first year that Liz and I attended the winter retreat with the youth group here.
SPEAKER_00: And we were on our way to church.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jose, we were turning right next to your house.
SPEAKER_00: We were driving right by Jose's house, and all of a sudden and so on the radio we're listening, and the announcer says, It's time to announce the winner of the two tickets to the Michigan, Iowa basketball game on Valentine's Day.
SPEAKER_00: And I was sitting, I was driving, my hands were on the wheel, and I was like, Oh, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: And it's silence in the car, and Liz and I are just waiting, and they said, and the grand winner is dramatic pause.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Fuller.
SPEAKER_00: And Liz and I were like, Whoa! We're going crazy in the car, we're driving, we won the tickets.
SPEAKER_00: I never win anything.
SPEAKER_00: I won the tickets, but you know what they said?
SPEAKER_00: They said, if you want the prize, you must call back and claim it.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you have to receive the gifts.
SPEAKER_00: And we had to go in, Liz had to go, and she had to get the tickets along with the$100 gift card to Nothing Bunt Cakes.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, we enjoyed a lot of cakes as well.
SPEAKER_00: But you see what I'm saying here.
SPEAKER_00: We had to respond.
SPEAKER_00: It was good news, it was great news.
SPEAKER_00: We were excited, but we there was a response required on our part in order for the blessings, the benefits to be applied to our accounts.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, this is good news, this is great news, this is amazing news, but you must respond to it in a specific way to receive the benefits of what that good message is.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the three verbs he utilizes in the text in chapter 15, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I preached it to you, I told you, I shared with you the message, he says in verse 1, which you received, which you received, the first word here is received.
SPEAKER_00: This is a past tense verb.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, at a previous point in time, I came to you with this message of the gospel, this amazing news.
SPEAKER_00: And when you heard it, you received it.
SPEAKER_00: You acknowledged it, you believed it, and you trusted in it.
SPEAKER_00: You received it.
SPEAKER_00: There was a specific point in time in your life when you heard this message and you said, I believe that, and I receive it and accept it.
SPEAKER_00: But notice he goes on and he says, It's not only which you received in verse 1, but he says, in which you stand.
SPEAKER_00: This verb is present tense, current, meaning that Paul is saying, not only did you believe this message at a previous point in time, he's saying, you believe it now.
SPEAKER_00: You are currently standing in it, you are believing it right now, you're trusting in this message of the gospel currently, presently.
SPEAKER_00: But notice finally, he says in verse 2, he says, after by which you are being saved, he says, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, which means this is our third verb and it's future tense.
SPEAKER_00: You notice past, present, and future tense receptions of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: In which you are holding fast, meaning you will you will grasp onto, hold on to this gospel, not only in the past, not only in the present, but it's something that you will continue to do going into the future.
SPEAKER_00: As you continue to live, you will continually hold fast to the gospel, meaning that for the believer, these verbs indicate what genuine gospel reception looks like for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you want the benefits and blessings of what the message is, the good things the message proclaims, there must be a point in time in your life where you personally receive it, where you hear what the message is and you say, I believe that, I trust that, I receive that and accept it.
SPEAKER_00: It must be something that you still believe.
SPEAKER_00: It's not, in other words, it's not something where you just say a prayer to uh to get a get out of hell free card when you're seven years old and then forget it and live your life however you want the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's saying it's in which you stand now, you believe it now.
SPEAKER_00: And you will continue to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: You'll continue to hold fast to it.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we refer to as perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what this doesn't mean is that you can lose the benefits of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what Paul is trying to indicate here.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you can believe, and then if you stop believing, you lose it, and then you can rebelieve and get it back again, and then stop believing, and that's not Paul's point.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's point is genuine gospel reception is evidenced by a life that believes in the gospel and continues to believe the gospel into the future.
SPEAKER_00: This is what indicates, this is what shows that your belief is real, that your belief is genuine.
SPEAKER_00: It's through these through these three verbs that Paul describes how you are called to respond to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you are called to respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of false teachers and false gospels in the world today that teach a different means of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: They would seek to show you in verse one, or excuse me, in verse two, the means by which you can be saved.
SPEAKER_00: They teach means of salvation by personal righteousness, personal merit, doing good works, being a good person, saying a prayer, going to church, being a spiritual person, taking the Eucharist as the means by which you can be made right with God and saved.
SPEAKER_00: But let me be perfectly clear this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is belief in the content of the message of the gospel that is the only means of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It is by grace and it is through faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is by you personally trusting in Jesus and in the message of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is the only means by which you can be made right with God, saved from your sin, and know that you will have eternal life with God forever.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is it, people.
SPEAKER_00: This is the only way.
SPEAKER_00: So then, if that is true this morning, then we would all have to agree that it's pretty important to know what is the message of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: What am I confronted with?
SPEAKER_00: What truths am I confronted with that I must respond to in belief in order to be saved from my sin?
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, let me remind you, let me remind you of the message of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We see the message of the gospel in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're ever wondering, how do I explain the gospel in the most succinct way possible?
SPEAKER_00: If I could boil it all down and say it, maybe you're here saying, I know I need to share the gospel with people, but I stumble over my words, I have a hard time explaining it.
SPEAKER_00: Go to this verse.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the most simple way possible, Paul explains what the message of the gospel is.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what he says in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.
SPEAKER_00: That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says in verse 3 that he delivered this message of the gospel when he calls the gospel in verse 3 of first importance.
SPEAKER_00: He says the gospel is first in priority and in importance.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most famous coaches in football, one of the most famous coaches to have ever coached, and the most famous coach for the Green Bay Packers was a coach by the name of Vince Lombardi.
SPEAKER_00: And if you know anything about football, you know that the championship trophy is named after this very famous special coach of the Green Bay Packers.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a very famous, legendary story when Vince first came to the Packers, they were no good.
SPEAKER_00: They were a terrible football team.
SPEAKER_00: And Vince stood up in front of that room and he and he was prepared to give his opening remarks of how he was going to transform this historic team into a great team once again.
SPEAKER_00: And he stood up in front of the room and he held up a football and he said, Men, this is a football.
SPEAKER_00: And the story goes on that he then teaches the team and they become a great championship-winning team again.
SPEAKER_00: But notice where he started.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Men, this is a football.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be thinking, these are all football players.
SPEAKER_00: Surely they already know.
SPEAKER_00: They're familiar with what the shape of the ball is.
SPEAKER_00: They know that this is a football.
SPEAKER_00: So what was Vince Lombardi's point?
SPEAKER_00: What was he trying to communicate?
SPEAKER_00: His point was that it doesn't matter how complex the plays are, it doesn't matter how good the defensive or offensive system is, it doesn't matter how good of a coach he is, it doesn't matter how talented the players are.
SPEAKER_00: If they wanted to be successful in football, they had to nail down the fundamentals, the basics, the most fundamental things about football.
SPEAKER_00: Learning, this is a football, this is how you become better at football.
SPEAKER_00: He started with the basics, the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, nothing else would matter if they didn't get that part.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's point by saying the gospel is of first importance is to say, nothing else matters if you don't get the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is of first priority.
SPEAKER_00: It is of first importance.
SPEAKER_00: We could apply this to a church setting and say, it doesn't matter how knowledgeable we are of the scriptures, it doesn't matter how smart we are, it doesn't matter how doctrinally precise we are, what positions we take on these fringe interpretive challenges in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: None of that matters if you don't have clarity on the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know and are intimately familiar with the gospel, we could take that and broaden it out to all of life and to say it doesn't, nothing else matters.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter if you have a good family, it doesn't matter if you marry a good person, doesn't matter if you uh you raise good kids, doesn't matter if you have a good job, good money, good house, good car, good life, none of it matters if you don't have the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know this morning?
SPEAKER_00: You need the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Are you aware this morning of your desperate need of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you know it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, this is more important than anything else in life.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing else matters if you don't have this.
SPEAKER_00: And what is this?
SPEAKER_00: What is this?
SPEAKER_00: He breaks it down into two parts.
SPEAKER_00: He says, number one, Christ died for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Christ died for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He explains here to us this morning that Jesus' death on the cross was purposeful, it was significant, it was done for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: If you go all the way back to the book of Genesis, in Genesis chapter 3, we read that the curse of sin is death.
SPEAKER_00: That when Adam and Eve sinned and they turned away in rebellion to their creator, in their sin came death.
SPEAKER_00: And death is described in the Bible in a few different ways.
SPEAKER_00: Death is described in a physical way, in which there is a separation between what is material and immaterial.
SPEAKER_00: This is physical death.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we will all face dying one day.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible doesn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: It says there is also something called a spiritual death.
SPEAKER_00: This is a separation between man and God.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible, it's why in Ephesians chapter 2 we read, that you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
SPEAKER_00: You may say, I'm breathing, I'm living.
SPEAKER_00: There's breath going in my lungs.
SPEAKER_00: You may be alive physically, but you are born dead spiritually, meaning you are born separated from your Creator.
SPEAKER_00: You must be reconciled, you must be made right.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says, if that doesn't happen, then there is coming a day where you will participate in what the Bible says is the second death.
SPEAKER_00: This is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: This is eternal separation from God forever, to pay for the penalty for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: We also recognize that in Ezekiel chapter 18, the prophet Ezekiel says that the person who sins shall die, meaning there is personal accountability, meaning that you yourself are responsible for your creator.
SPEAKER_00: You will stand before your creator one day, know with nobody else.
SPEAKER_00: It'll be you before God.
SPEAKER_00: Can I ask you this morning, are you ready for that day?
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready to give an account that day?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible says, you, the person who sins, if you have sinned, if you've rebelled, if you've turned away from God, if you are living in sin, you're accountable.
SPEAKER_00: You're accountable.
SPEAKER_00: We recognize that all wickedness, all unrighteousness must be punished.
SPEAKER_00: And the punishment is death.
SPEAKER_00: Why is the gospel good news?
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ died for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning when Jesus died on the cross, this is what we refer to as a substitutionary sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning that when Jesus went to the cross, he did so on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: On your account.
SPEAKER_00: He was perfect, perfectly righteous, perfectly just.
SPEAKER_00: He was the perfect Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: He had no sin to pay for on his own account.
SPEAKER_00: Which means that when he went to the cross, he did so on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And it says he died for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Why was death required for Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Because death is the penalty of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus died.
SPEAKER_00: He died, therefore, fulfilling the payment, satisfying God's wrath on sin.
SPEAKER_00: He died for your sin.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is good news because it declares that God sent Jesus to come to earth to take your place, to receive his wrath instead of you.
SPEAKER_00: But notice this is only the first half of the gospel message.
SPEAKER_00: If you continue on in the text, we notice in verse 4 that Paul says that Jesus was buried and that he was raised on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: The second half of the gospel, and why this is such good news is because Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we celebrate next Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that Jesus not only died for sin, but he rose.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' sacrifice for sin was accepted by God.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus' sacrifice was insufficient or incomplete, or if it wasn't enough, Jesus would remain in the grave.
SPEAKER_00: But because his sacrifice was enough, it was therefore accepted by God, proven through the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' sacrifice was accepted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus made an incredible claim, an incredible promise while he was here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: He says, believe in me and you will have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in me and you will live forever with God.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in me.
SPEAKER_00: And notice, notice, Jesus, if Jesus was in the tomb today, how confident would you be in his claim to give you eternal life?
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus was in the grave today, how confident would you be to say, I'm gonna place all my faith in a guy who's dead and in the grave?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be confident?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, you wouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: But notice when Jesus rose from the grave, he validated his claims.
SPEAKER_00: Everything Jesus said was validated through the through his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus rose from the grave, it proved, it proved he has victory over death.
SPEAKER_00: He has life in himself.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we can know and be confident that if we place our faith and trust in him, we too can have that eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection is significant.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to spend more time talking about the resurrection next week.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most significant event in all of human history, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: So come back next week.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Paul tells us in verses 1 and 2, though.
SPEAKER_00: You must personally receive, stand in, and hold fast to this message this morning, not by simply acknowledging the facts, but by personally trusting in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, believe in me.
SPEAKER_00: That's the message.
SPEAKER_00: So, are you personally trusting, placing your faith in Jesus for his sacrifice to be applied to your accounts?
SPEAKER_00: It's by faith that this good news is applied to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's by faith that your sins are forgiven through Jesus, and you then have life in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's by faith this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This is good news.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me so far?
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: So then, Paul continues on.
SPEAKER_00: He gives us the proof of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The proof.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, these are parallel statements in the text.
SPEAKER_00: He says that Christ died for our sins, and then in verse 4 that he was buried.
SPEAKER_00: The burial is the validation of the death.
SPEAKER_00: There was popular Jewish belief at the time that the soul of a body hovered over the body for three days before it finally departed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there is no basis for this belief in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: However, what this was communicating, the three days in the grave, did communicate that Jesus was truly dead.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a simple fainting.
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't Jesus just growing weak on the cross and passing out and becoming unconscious for a period of time.
SPEAKER_00: This was genuine.
SPEAKER_00: This was real.
SPEAKER_00: He actually, physically, scientifically, biologically, really died.
SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He was dead as dead.
SPEAKER_00: And the three days in the grave validate this.
SPEAKER_00: This is significant to us today because death was the necessary payment to satisfy God's wrath on sin.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus didn't really die, then there was no payment offered up to God for sin.
SPEAKER_00: But he did.
SPEAKER_00: He was buried, put in a tomb for three days.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the second proof is what Paul spends much more time discussing.
SPEAKER_00: We'll notice later on in 1 Corinthians, Paul spends a lot more time talking about the resurrection because this is what was the challenge point in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: This is what they were struggling with understanding and believing.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul now moves on and says that not only do we read that he was raised on the third day in verse 4, but then what was the proof or the validation of the resurrection?
SPEAKER_00: We read in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
SPEAKER_00: Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_00: Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Last of all, as one, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
SPEAKER_00: We notice that the second validation, the second proof of the gospel was the eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_00: The eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_00: Paul names several here in the text, several eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_00: These include Peter, that's Cephas, the twelve disciples, the 500 followers at one time.
SPEAKER_00: We're not entirely sure what instance this is a reference to, or if it's even included elsewhere in the Gospel accounts.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible this may have been the gathering of the individuals that were there at the giving of the Great Commission at the end of Matthew chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: Some people believe that's a reference to this specific time.
SPEAKER_00: You have a reference to James.
SPEAKER_00: That wouldn't be the disciple James, that would be a reference to Jesus' half-brother.
SPEAKER_00: And that becomes significant later on as well.
SPEAKER_00: And then a reference to the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's point in labeling these witnesses is to prove the authenticity of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: According to Jewish law, the most significant cases could only be decided by witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: We're talking cases of trial, cases of murder, could only be decided by witnesses.
SPEAKER_00: You needed eyewitnesses to make a judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Cicero, which was one of the most well-respected Roman statesmen who would have lived just prior to the time of Jesus, summarized Greco-Roman philosophy when he said that the testimonies of witnesses were weighty when they are many and they are consistent.
SPEAKER_00: This was the philosophy of the time.
SPEAKER_00: Witnesses are weighty when they are many and they are consistent.
SPEAKER_00: Even today, eyewitness accounts are considered the strongest pieces of evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Caleb is still trying to catch me speeding around town, but he never will.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have an eyewitness.
SPEAKER_00: He tries to see, he tries to find me.
SPEAKER_00: It's because I always obey the speed limit laws, so good luck.
SPEAKER_00: You need an eyewitness to validate the truth of the claim.
SPEAKER_00: And there's hundreds here in the text that Paul that Paul says, and by the way, he says some have fallen asleep, meaning a lot of these folks, they're still alive.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's almost like the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, if you're kind of wondering, just go ask them yourself.
SPEAKER_00: They'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00: They'll testify, they'll tell you.
SPEAKER_00: For us today, it's like uh you know one of the kids comes and says, My room is clean.
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: That's questionable.
SPEAKER_00: But if I have multiple eyewitnesses, it gets if Liz comes and says, Yep, I checked the room, it's clean.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what does that say?
SPEAKER_00: That's that validates the claim.
SPEAKER_00: The claim is validated through the eyewitness, the person that was there.
SPEAKER_00: And this is this is recorded for us here.
SPEAKER_00: These historical documents are recorded for your benefit to say that the resurrection wasn't this isolated event that like one or two people claimed to have seen Jesus resurrected.
SPEAKER_00: No, tons of people, tons of people saw and testified to it.
SPEAKER_00: And their record is recorded for us here in the text as a historical verification of the reality of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Historically verified.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't fantasy.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't that one myth among many.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't one religious claim among many.
SPEAKER_00: This is unique to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: It's unique to the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an incredible, incredible witness that we have today to validate that this was seen.
SPEAKER_00: It's real.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is real.
SPEAKER_00: So then, we end this morning with the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Paul testifies to the power of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
SPEAKER_00: For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
SPEAKER_00: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
SPEAKER_00: Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
SPEAKER_00: The last person that Jesus appeared to in person was Paul.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul means when he says that he was untimely born.
SPEAKER_00: He was converted to Christianity after everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: And this, of course, is a reference to Saul's former life, which was known as Saul, Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, and a great persecutor of the early church.
SPEAKER_00: And it was in the midst of his efforts to wipe out Christianity that Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul converted at that point, repented of his sin and believed in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the great persecutor became the great evangelist, the great church planter Paul, who would go forward and carry this message of the gospel to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Paul testifies to his own testimony here.
SPEAKER_00: And he's truly testifying to the power of the gospel in his life.
SPEAKER_00: This is powerful stuff.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, this isn't just some kind of periphery little like component to my life.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot about me, there's a lot of things I do, and the gospel is just one tiny little component.
SPEAKER_00: No, what Paul is saying here is that the gospel grabbed a hold of him and completely transformed him.
SPEAKER_00: It completely changed him.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a little prayer that he prayed and then went on his merry way and lived his life however he wanted.
SPEAKER_00: No, the gospel had profound and significant effect on Paul's life to the point where he became a completely new person.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says it's all on account of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the grace of God that did this to me.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're challenged this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're reminded to say, is the gospel changing you?
SPEAKER_00: Is the gospel transforming you?
SPEAKER_00: Has the gospel grabbed a hold of your life this morning and completely made you into a new person?
SPEAKER_00: This is the intended effect of the gospel as it's genuinely believed, received, stood in, and held fast to is that it changes you.
SPEAKER_00: It changes you.
SPEAKER_00: And notice Paul says, not because of my good effort.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I did work hard, but what was the ultimate effect?
SPEAKER_00: How am I a new person today?
SPEAKER_00: God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: God's grace did this.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel transformed me.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel changed me.
SPEAKER_00: People, you should understand the resurrection changes everything, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The resurrection changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It's as we read in the book of Acts, they're complaining about it.
SPEAKER_00: They say this gospel message, it's turning the world upside down.
SPEAKER_00: We would say, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus died for my sin and I can be saved from my sin and made right with God forever and know that I have eternal life in Him, that changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: It should.
SPEAKER_00: Are you being transformed by the gospel this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Is it changing your heart?
SPEAKER_00: Is it changing your priorities?
SPEAKER_00: Is it changing your mission, your goal?
SPEAKER_00: Is it changing everything about you?
SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan Edwards, famous American Puritan, perhaps says it best when he says this.
SPEAKER_00: The work of redemption is not only a work of deliverance from punishment, but a work of restoration to holiness.
SPEAKER_00: When God saves a soul, he does not leave the nature unchanged.
SPEAKER_00: He implants a new principle of life, a new disposition of heart, whereby the believer begins to delight in God and to pursue conformity to his will.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that new nature this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Is your heart stirred with affection and love to God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you delight in him and pursue conformity to his will this morning?
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to offer two challenges this morning as we come to a close.
SPEAKER_00: The first is if you have never personally received the gospel, like it's explained here.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never received the gospel invitation and received and trusted in and believed in Jesus for your forgiveness, don't go to sleep today without doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here today without doing that.
SPEAKER_00: It's like we said at the beginning, nothing else matters.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing else that matters in this life if you don't have the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You need Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: You need his sacrifice to be applied to your account so you can be made alive and have the assurance of eternal life with God forever.
SPEAKER_00: You need that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Don't leave here if you haven't personally trusted in Jesus to save you.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, this morning, if that's you, if you have trusted in Jesus, could I ask you this morning, is the gospel changing you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you being transformed by the power of the gospel from one degree to the next degree of glory into the image of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Let the power of the gospel warm your heart to God, draw you back to Him if you've wandered away this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to Jesus today.
SPEAKER_00: Repent of sin and walk in the light with God as you have received his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Transferred, as the Bible says, transferred out of the domain of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: You're now in the domain of light.
SPEAKER_00: So walk in it.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for today, thankful for this opportunity we've had to open up your word, dig into the text, spend time being reminded of the gospel message.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for, on the one hand, the simplicity and clarity of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So simple a young child could understand these truths and believe it.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they are profound truths.
SPEAKER_00: Truths that we can go back to time and time and time again, like a well without a bottom, to be rejuvenated and refreshed and nourished in these wonderful truths.
SPEAKER_00: That you love us.
SPEAKER_00: You sent your son to die for us, that he rose from the dead and is alive today, as Peter writes in 1 Peter, he's our living hope.
SPEAKER_00: Every hope we have is in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we're thankful that that hope is an eternal hope.
SPEAKER_00: A hope that leads to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: We're thankful for the gift of Jesus this morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.