SPEAKER_00: Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: God bless.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 24, verses 1 through 21 is where we will be today.
SPEAKER_01: Today, as we look at this passage, we're going to look at the words we say, words that we say all the time.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I said this a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a huge proponent of the old saying, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think words can hurt us.
SPEAKER_01: Now, they may not hurt us physically, like sticks and stones do, but words can definitely sting emotionally, they can sting spiritually, yet at the same time, we we must recognize that words without validity mean nothing, and so often our actions, our life brings validity to our words.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_01: So my senior year in high school, our baseball team was supposed to be pretty good.
SPEAKER_01: Like we were we were ready, we were ready all year.
SPEAKER_01: We suffered through football season because most of the guys played both.
SPEAKER_01: We suffered through football season looking forward to baseball season.
SPEAKER_01: We were ready.
SPEAKER_01: Now the general public might not know, might not have known that we were going to be good, but we did.
SPEAKER_01: We were really excited about it.
SPEAKER_01: And to add to that, they reach redrew the division lines and things like that.
SPEAKER_01: And now North South Pontiop, South Pontiop.
SPEAKER_01: Say it with me, South Pontiac.
SPEAKER_01: All right, North Pontop is the rival.
SPEAKER_01: And while they had always had pretty good teams, they had never really played us.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't play us.
SPEAKER_01: But this year, they redrew the division lines, and they were going to have to play us this year.
SPEAKER_01: So we were, it just added bonus, and it was on.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember that year before baseball started, I went to the Christmas parade in Pontiac and ran into some guys from North Pontiac, and they began to talk, especially one, he began to talk about how badly they were going to beat us and how how bad it was going to be.
SPEAKER_01: And I just smiled and said, We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: We'll see.
SPEAKER_01: And then we played.
SPEAKER_01: Twice.
SPEAKER_01: We beat them.
SPEAKER_01: Twice.
SPEAKER_01: See, the words that he said really didn't mean anything, didn't have anything until the actions, to what happened on the field.
SPEAKER_01: It had to be lived out.
SPEAKER_01: Today, as we turn to our passage, what we're going to see is Paul is brought before the governor Felix, and the Jews begin to accuse him of things, and he's going to make a defense against those accusations.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty simple passage.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to talk, he's going to talk, and we're going to see that.
SPEAKER_01: And while we, what I hope that we see in this is while the words that we use are important, we must be careful of what we say and how we say, but at the same time, our lives and our actions provide validity to the words.
SPEAKER_01: They back up the words that we use.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we go through and and we listen, we've got to walk the walk and talk the talk.
SPEAKER_01: It requires both.
SPEAKER_01: And both of those things need to work together.
SPEAKER_01: And so the challenge for us is this: to believe in Jesus and to live in the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: To live in the fact that he is resurrected and gives life to us.
SPEAKER_01: And so today we're going to look at what was said, what Paul was accused of, and his defense as we study our passage today.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're able, I invite you to stand with me as we read God's word together in Acts chapter 24.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to start reading in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and spokesmen, one Tertullus.
SPEAKER_01: They laid before the governor their case against Paul, and when he had been summoned, Tertullus gave began to accuse him, saying, Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation.
SPEAKER_01: In every way and everywhere we accept this with gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly.
SPEAKER_01: We have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world, and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazaren.
SPEAKER_01: He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him.
SPEAKER_01: By examining him yourself, you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so.
SPEAKER_01: And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied, Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defence.
SPEAKER_01: You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city.
SPEAKER_01: Neither can they prove to you that they now bring bring that what they now bring up against me.
SPEAKER_01: But this I confess to you, that according to the way which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets, having a hope in God which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
SPEAKER_01: So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man.
SPEAKER_01: Now for several years I came to bring alms to my nation to present offerings.
SPEAKER_01: While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult.
SPEAKER_01: But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you to make an accusation, should they have any against me.
SPEAKER_01: Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them.
SPEAKER_01: It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for the opportunity to open your word.
SPEAKER_01: God, thank you that you have revealed yourself to us through your word.
SPEAKER_01: Now help us today to see you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, it's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So quickly, let's kind of remember kind of where we are and what's happening here in this passage.
SPEAKER_01: What we've seen going back is Paul came to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: When he came to Jerusalem, he met with the elders of the church there.
SPEAKER_01: They wanted him to go through a purification ceremony with some other guys who were going through.
SPEAKER_01: So he did.
SPEAKER_01: When it came close to the end of the week of purification, some Jews from Asia came to Paul and they accused him of taking Greeks into the temple, taking Romans into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And so what they did is they came out and there was a riot caused, and they began to beat Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And the tribune from Jerusalem, Lysias is his name, came and he saved Paul out of that, took Paul for questioning.
SPEAKER_01: And there was this huge riot.
SPEAKER_01: Paul addressed the crowd, another riot.
SPEAKER_01: The next day he took him before the Sanhedrin, a riot there.
SPEAKER_01: They're going after Paul.
SPEAKER_01: And then Lysias finds out that there is an attempt there.
SPEAKER_01: There are some people conspiring to murder Paul.
SPEAKER_01: So he sends Paul.
SPEAKER_01: He sent Paul to Caesarea to the governor of the province.
SPEAKER_01: His name is Felix.
SPEAKER_01: What we come to today is we find Paul and his accusers before this governor, Felix.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're going to see, we're going to look at what the Jews said, and then we're going to look at what Paul said.
SPEAKER_01: Let's start with the Jews, okay?
SPEAKER_01: The Jews began with flattery.
SPEAKER_01: You know the old saying, flattery will get you nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Tertullus did not believe that.
SPEAKER_01: Tertullus was the spokesperson for the Jews, and he believed flattery would get him somewhere because he started in very quickly there with Felix.
SPEAKER_01: Look back at what he said.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Since through you we enjoy much peace.
SPEAKER_01: Lie.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews had not enjoyed much peace through Felix.
SPEAKER_01: Not at all.
SPEAKER_01: During Felix's reign, there was more tumult and more tumultuous actions against the Jews and by the Jews during his service as governor than any other governor until the Jewish revolt at the end of the century.
SPEAKER_01: No other time.
SPEAKER_01: Jewish nationalism was on the rise, and he brutally, brutally put down any insurrection.
SPEAKER_01: There was not peace under Felix.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, let's use a little flattery, you've brought peace to us.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes on and says, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation in every way and everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: We accept this with gratitude.
SPEAKER_01: Wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Felix hadn't made any reforms for the Jews because basically he didn't care.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that he disliked Jews, he just didn't care.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't care if he was totally apathetic to them.
SPEAKER_01: He hadn't done anything to hurt them, but he sure hadn't done anything to help them.
SPEAKER_01: He hadn't had no reforms.
SPEAKER_01: And very few Jews would you actually meet on the street that would say, most excellent Felix.
SPEAKER_01: But they began just, I guess, trying to puff Felix up so he would rule in their favor, but they started with this flattery.
SPEAKER_01: And then moving on from there, they move into three accusations that are made against Paul.
SPEAKER_01: The first accusation is they call him a plague.
SPEAKER_01: Or your translation might say a pest.
SPEAKER_01: Well, for Paul, what they are trying to do, what they're not just insinuating, but what they are calling him is seditious.
SPEAKER_01: They are accusing him of sedition against Rome, saying that everywhere he has stirred up riots.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you go back to Acts chapter 21, when Paul was in the temple and this began, some men from some Jews from Asia cried out in Acts 21, 28, saying, Men of Israel help.
SPEAKER_01: This is the man who is teaching, hear this, everyone, everywhere, against the people and the law and this place.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, he even brings Greeks into the temple and has defiled this place.
SPEAKER_01: Again, hear that.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone, everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: He's in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: But the accusation is that he is going around and he is causing riots all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: He is bringing up heaval all over the place.
SPEAKER_01: And hear me, while the Romans may not have cared about the Jews, let me tell you something they did care about.
SPEAKER_01: Pax Romana.
SPEAKER_01: Roman peace.
SPEAKER_01: They cared about Roman peace.
SPEAKER_01: And so if these accusers, if they can put it on Paul that he is disrupting Roman peace, what it's going to do is it's going to cause now the Roman government to keep eyes on Paul, and they're going to bring it all upon Paul, and they're going to bring this down.
SPEAKER_01: So they are accusing him of sedition against Rome, that he is trying to upset Roman peace.
SPEAKER_01: The second accusation is that he is a sect leader.
SPEAKER_01: He is leader of the sect known as the Nazarenes.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is true.
SPEAKER_01: He is a leader of the Christians.
SPEAKER_01: He is a leader of the Christian church.
SPEAKER_01: Where they are failing is their attempt to define what this sect believes and what this sect is actually doing.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's going to address that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: But understand the craftiness behind this accusation.
SPEAKER_01: If they can get Felix to believe that Paul is a seditious person, in the first accusation.
SPEAKER_01: The second accusation that he is a leader of the Christians now would insinuate that not only is Paul seditious, so are Christians.
SPEAKER_01: And so now what he's trying to do, what they are trying to do is get Felix, get the Roman government not only to look at Paul, but to look at Christians and cause grief for Christians or more grief for Christians, more persecution for Christians, more upheaval for Christians all over not just Jerusalem, but the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_01: So this accusation, while there's really nothing behind it, other than he is a leader, is very crafty.
SPEAKER_01: They know what they're trying to do.
SPEAKER_01: Third accusation is that he violated the temple.
SPEAKER_01: You heard it when we read in Acts chapter 21 that he had brought Greeks into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what it says in verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: How they got to the place that he had brought Greeks into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 21, 29 says, For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Now understand the accusation.
SPEAKER_01: Jerusalem is big.
SPEAKER_01: They were walking around Jerusalem, they saw Paul, not in the temple, around the city.
SPEAKER_01: They saw Paul with this Ephesian, with this Roman, and they assumed that he brought him into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Or at least they made the accusation.
SPEAKER_01: Because they had seen him out in the city, he probably brought him into the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_01: A crazy accusation?
SPEAKER_01: And nothing behind it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how we know there's nothing behind it.
SPEAKER_01: These Asian Jews who made the accusation back in chapter 21, they're not there.
SPEAKER_01: Now that the accusation is being brought before Felix the governor, they're nowhere to be found.
SPEAKER_01: They're nowhere to be seen.
SPEAKER_01: If this were true, and if I were Ananias or Totollus, and I was bringing this accusation in order for anything to stand up in court, you would need an eyewitness there to see it.
SPEAKER_01: These guys don't even show up to make the accusation because it didn't happen.
SPEAKER_01: Yet here they are, and they had worked and they had moved and they had brought these false accusations before Felix the governor against Paul.
SPEAKER_01: So now we see what the Jews have said.
SPEAKER_01: Let's turn to Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Let's see what Paul does.
SPEAKER_01: When you go down to verse 10, you see Paul begin to respond.
SPEAKER_01: And as we turn there, as we see, Paul begins with an opening statement pointing to Felix, the governor, but there's really no flattery.
SPEAKER_01: All he says is, You have judged this area for many years, so now you have the right to judge this.
SPEAKER_01: And Paul really does believe that.
SPEAKER_01: In Romans chapter 13, Paul takes a moment in Romans chapter 13 telling believers to submit to civil authorities.
SPEAKER_01: He tells them to submit to civil authorities because what he his argument is that God has put those authorities in place.
SPEAKER_01: God put them there to serve and to help.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at Romans chapter 13, verse 5 specifically, here's what Paul writes.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Therefore, one must be in subjection.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the civil authorities, not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
SPEAKER_01: Now hear that.
SPEAKER_01: Not only to avoid whose wrath?
SPEAKER_01: God's.
SPEAKER_01: Not the civil authorities, God's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's argument is that God has put them in place to be judges and to work and protect and to do what they do.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as he stands before Felix, he is believing that same thing and says, listen, you've judged, you're the judge, hear the case.
SPEAKER_01: Here it goes.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul then he begins to make his case of his time in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: What he says is he says, if you go and you look it up, I hadn't been there more than 12 days.
SPEAKER_01: If you go back and you count up the days, it's true.
SPEAKER_01: The first time we see Paul coming into Jerusalem is chapter 21, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: It says, when he had come to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So he's in Jerusalem that day.
SPEAKER_01: He meets with the elders, he does all these things.
SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 26, that the elders, they wanted him to go through this ceremony.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 26, Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself.
SPEAKER_01: So he's there two days there.
SPEAKER_01: This purification ceremony is about seven days long.
SPEAKER_01: So here we're looking at nine days.
SPEAKER_01: It's at the end of that.
SPEAKER_01: It might not have gone the full seven days.
SPEAKER_01: It could have been six days because he says, coming towards the end.
SPEAKER_01: But right there at the end, what they do is they see Paul.
SPEAKER_01: At that point, they pull him out.
SPEAKER_01: They begin to beat him, take him.
SPEAKER_01: Felix arrests him, basically.
SPEAKER_01: It's taking him to the barracks.
SPEAKER_01: He addresses the crowd.
SPEAKER_01: They're about to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: He takes him into the barracks the next day.
SPEAKER_01: So here we're at about day nine or ten.
SPEAKER_01: At nine or ten, and the whole time, where has he been?
SPEAKER_01: He's been going through this purification ceremony.
SPEAKER_01: He's been meeting with the elders and spending the night in the barracks.
SPEAKER_01: He meets with them there.
SPEAKER_01: They try to kill him again.
SPEAKER_01: They take him back to the barracks.
SPEAKER_01: They try to kill him on the next day he is sent to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So we're at about day 10 or 11.
SPEAKER_01: So less than 12 days, he's actually in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, that is not enough time for him to build people up and build this huge riot that's going to overthrow the government.
SPEAKER_01: Makes no sense.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not enough time that he's been there.
SPEAKER_01: And in that time that he's been there, several of those days, he was under Roman arrest.
SPEAKER_01: When he wasn't under Roman arrest, he was going through this purification ceremony in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: There's not enough time for him to do any of the things that they are accusing him of.
SPEAKER_01: So we see him.
SPEAKER_01: They have no proof that he has caused this riot.
SPEAKER_01: But then Paul does something super incredible.
SPEAKER_01: It's really what Paul does anytime he is brought to make a case for himself.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't really focus on his time that he was in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: He begins to focus on his time when he walked in the way.
SPEAKER_01: When he walked in the way.
SPEAKER_01: If you go down and read in verse 14, but this I confess to you, that according to the way.
SPEAKER_01: So Paul is turning the attention off of himself and off of these false accusations.
SPEAKER_01: And he begins to point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He begins to point to Christ and the gospel message.
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 14 again, but this I confess to you that according to the way which they call a sect.
SPEAKER_01: That they call a sect.
SPEAKER_01: Now, now a sect is like it is a split off.
SPEAKER_01: They're calling the Christians that Paul that Paul is leading, this is a split off from Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to separate themselves from the Christians, the Jews are.
SPEAKER_01: They're trying to make them totally something else.
SPEAKER_01: Yet, Paul, he is adamant that it's not something else.
SPEAKER_01: John Pole Hill, one of the commentators that I read, here's what he said.
SPEAKER_01: About Paul's understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Said Paul would not deny his affiliation with the group, but he preferred another term.
SPEAKER_01: He preferred to be seen as a follower of the way, not a party, not a Jewish denomination, but the true, the only way of the Lord for his people.
SPEAKER_01: He was no offshoot transgender faith, but right at the center of Jewish religion.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said, listen, we are not an offshoot of Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: We are the true religion as followers of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
SPEAKER_01: We are not a sect.
SPEAKER_01: Because we worship the one, the true, the living God.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on in verse, and at the end of that, I worship the God of our forefathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul believed, this is the separation from Christians to Judaism.
SPEAKER_01: As Christians, we believe what the Jews believe in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: What separates us is we believe that Jesus was the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: He says so much in Romans chapter 3, verses 21 and 22.
SPEAKER_01: Paul writes to that church, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
SPEAKER_01: The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets pointed to it.
SPEAKER_01: What Paul is saying, Jesus was the fulfillment of the law.
SPEAKER_01: He fulfilled it.
SPEAKER_01: He kept it perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: He was the Israelite who kept the law perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: It was Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He fulfilled the law.
SPEAKER_01: And what all the prophets wrote, all the words that the prophets wrote talking about one who was going to come, who was going to save Israel, all of those prophecies, you look to Jesus and they point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He is the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: All of that pointed to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So they're not worshiping some off-far out God.
SPEAKER_01: They are worshiping the God of the Old Testament who sent his only begotten Son to save the world.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's who Paul is worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he is pointing to.
SPEAKER_01: Then he goes on and begins to talk about the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: A couple of weeks ago we talked about this when he cried out as he ended his speech here.
SPEAKER_01: It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial here today.
SPEAKER_01: It is respect to the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know how Paul knew that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament law?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know how Paul knew that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the prophecies?
SPEAKER_01: Because he arose.
SPEAKER_01: He is not dead any longer.
SPEAKER_01: He arose, and in the resurrection, he showed exactly who he was.
SPEAKER_01: And now, Paul, he points to the resurrection when he says, when he says, I myself was standing by a proof.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the wrong chapter.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Here he says in verse 15, having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
SPEAKER_01: He is talking about the resurrection, which we know that the Pharisees believed.
SPEAKER_01: They believed in the hope of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: They believed that Messiah was going to come and he was going to re was going to raise all those who were dead and was going to stand in judgment over them.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says the just and the unjust are going to be arrays because he is pointing to judgment that even the Jews believed was going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Paul is pointing to that, and he is saying that because Jesus arose, he is the one.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus arose, now they are going to arise, and he is going to stand in judgment over them.
SPEAKER_01: He said, and it is because of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: It is called because of the resurrection that now I strive to live my life in good conscience towards God and man.
SPEAKER_01: He is not trying to earn his salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of his salvation that now he is, as he talks about, taking alms, collecting alms as he travels the world and taking it back to a church in need in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of the resurrection that he went through that purification ceremony in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: It is because of what Jesus has done that he was living his life for God.
SPEAKER_01: So listen, now we have to deal with the question what are we doing with the resurrection?
SPEAKER_01: Listen, they're in a courtroom setting.
SPEAKER_01: They're in a courtroom setting.
SPEAKER_01: So imagine that we are in a courtroom setting.
SPEAKER_01: And imagine that he talks about resurrection and bringing witnesses to that.
SPEAKER_01: But Paul, according to the resurrection, now they are not at this trial, but in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 6, Paul writes to us this to the church at Corinth.
SPEAKER_01: Then he is talking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, go back up to verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 15, 3.
SPEAKER_01: For I delivered to you as a first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: He is the fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: He is the fulfillment of the law and prophets.
SPEAKER_01: According to the scriptures, Christ died.
SPEAKER_01: That he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance to scripture, in fulfillment of the law and prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
SPEAKER_01: You know why Paul would write that, most of whom are still alive?
SPEAKER_01: Because you can go talk to them.
SPEAKER_01: You can go find them.
SPEAKER_01: That is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: It is not just 12 men, although Chuck Colson wrote about the resurrection and those 12 men.
SPEAKER_01: Chuck Colson was one of the guys who was arrested for the Watergate scandal back under Richard Nixon.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he says: I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: Because 12 men testified that they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned, and put in prison.
SPEAKER_01: They would not have endured that if it weren't true.
SPEAKER_01: Watergate embroiled twelve of the most powerful men in the world, and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks.
SPEAKER_01: You're telling me twelve apostles could keep a lie for forty years.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me.
SPEAKER_01: Church, hear me today.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: And if you have never trusted in him, understand what that means.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to this earth fulfilling the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: What that means, when I say he fulfilled the law and the prophets, what I'm telling you is he kept the law perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: No one else has done it.
SPEAKER_01: You haven't done it.
SPEAKER_01: I haven't done it.
SPEAKER_01: No one else has done it.
SPEAKER_01: He kept the law perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: And then he went to the cross and died on the cross in my place, in your place, he died on the cross, taking the punishment of God, the wrath of God that we deserve for our sin.
SPEAKER_01: He took that upon himself on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Then he was buried, and three days later he arose.
SPEAKER_01: It was good enough.
SPEAKER_01: And there's no more debt that needs to be paid.
SPEAKER_01: Now he gives victory.
SPEAKER_01: And when we believe in him, he gives us life.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never trusted in him, let me tell you where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Paul tells us in Ephesians, you are dead in your trespasses and sins.
SPEAKER_01: But God has made you alive when you believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never trusted in him, I pray that today, in just a moment, we're going to have an invitation.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to stand up and we're going to sing.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've never trusted in Christ, we invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: We would love to share with you how you can do that.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have, if you've trusted in him for your salvation, I need you to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Now you need to live what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: You need to live what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has given you life, not death.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has given you victory, not defeat.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has given you hope, not despair.
SPEAKER_01: We need to live hopeful lives looking to our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I know that life can be crazy and chaotic, and it can come down on top of us, and it feels like it's weighing us down.
SPEAKER_01: It is so easy to get discouraged and find ourselves in the pits of despair.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus came so you can to pull you out of that so that you can live.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this morning, as we sing our invitation, what you need to do is you need to come and you need to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's a sin you need to repent of.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's just life is is falling down and you haven't turned to Him.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe this morning you need to come.
SPEAKER_01: We would love to pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: You can kneel at this altar and do business with God, but maybe this morning, as you maybe you are in the pits of despair and you need his life, not just for salvation, but for day-to-day living.
SPEAKER_01: He came to give you life.
SPEAKER_01: If you need to trust him for the first time, if you need to cry at him, if you're looking for a church home, however God's leading you, we invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: God, I thank you for today.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you for the opportunity that we have in this sacred moment to respond to your word.
SPEAKER_01: God, for those who have never trusted you, I pray that today they will find life.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray for those who have trusted you but aren't living.
SPEAKER_01: That today they will cry out to you and live.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray for those who are searching for a church home.
SPEAKER_01: So we can live together.
SPEAKER_01: God, I pray for those whom you are calling to something special in their lives.
SPEAKER_01: God, help them to respond.
SPEAKER_01: Give us the faith that we need today to respond to you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.