October 28, 2025 • 39 mins
A story about a jungle tribe falling in love with Jesus until the crucifixion shocked them sets the tone for a clear-eyed look at the good news. We walk through what the gospel actually claims—Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose on the third day—and why the first part, the death, demands both honesty and hope. With medical precision and pastoral care, we unpack the brutality of scourging and crucifixion, the signs of hypovolemic shock, and what the water and blood from Jesus’ side reveal. Then we lift our eyes to the deeper mystery: the Son absorbing righteous wrath, the cost of sin measured by the depth of love that paid it.
Legalism often sneaks in wearing religious clothes, promising progress while stealing joy. We contrast the Corinthians, who held the core while growing, with the Galatians, who drifted from grace into rules. The result is a practical map for everyday faith: keep your eyes on Jesus, not on yourself. The more you try to conquer sin by willpower, the tighter its grip; the more you trust the finished work, the more your desires shift. We also explore the torn temple veil—an 18-inch-thick barrier ripped from top to bottom—signaling full access to God without fear or delay. Burial matters, too, as historical confirmation and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.
If God left any part of salvation for us to finish, we would break it. That is why the call is simple and life-changing: receive and stand. Believe that Jesus died for your sins, that your shame was swallowed, and that you are welcomed without a veil between you and God. Come hear a love measured not by sentiment but by substitution, and walk away with solid ground under your feet. If this speaks to you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick rating so more people can find this message.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:26):
Today's sermon is called Have You Heard the Good
News?
Part one, The Death.
Next week will be part two.
Yay! Good job.
You guys name my sermon for me.
All right, so part one, thedeath.
There was this jungle tribe thathad never seen white people.
(00:50):
And this missionary discoveredthem and he went and he built a
relationship with them.
Once he had learned theirlanguage, he began to tell them
the gospel story.
So he's telling them all aboutwhat Jesus did.
He's telling them about themiracles and the words that he
said, and this tribe just fellin love with Jesus.
(01:13):
They were so excited.
They were like, man, thisdefinitely was God come to
earth.
This definitely was our hero.
And every night he would tell alittle bit more of the story.
Well, eventually he gets to thecrucifixion, the betrayal of
Jesus.
And this tribe was horrified.
(01:38):
This tribe recoiled in horror astheir new hero is brutally
murdered on the cross.
And they stood up and threatenedto kill the missionary.
And they're like, Why would yousay these terrible lies?
We don't believe we will notbelieve.
And he said, Hey, hey, Jesus diddie for you, but let me finish
(02:01):
the story, right?
It's all true though.
He absolutely did die.
And he was barely able to calmdown this tribe of natives to
finish the story.
After he finished the story, theentire tribe fell on their knees
to receive Jesus as theirsavior.
It's a really cool story.
(02:22):
And it reminds us that wesometimes look at this with
sanitized glasses.
The story of Jesus.
Today, we're not.
We're going to get in.
This is going to be brutal, allright?
I'm just warning you right atthe beginning.
We're going to talk bluntly andmedically about the death of
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Jesus, and it's going to rockyour world.
So if you're a crier, get ready.
It's going to be brutal.
Just let warning you.
He says in chapter 15, verse 1.
Moreover, brethren, I declare toyou the gospel that I preached
to you, which also you received,and in which you stand, by which
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you are also saved, if you holdfast that word which I preach to
you, unless you believed invain.
Okay, so we're just going tobreak this down of what he's
talking about.
So he says the gospel, andthat's the good news.
So in verse 3 and 4, which we'regoing to talk about in a minute,
he's going to talk about thecontent of the gospel.
But here he just describes howthe gospel can benefit a person.
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The gospel is only a benefit toyou if you if it's received and
if you stand in it.
So the gospel can benefit you,it can save you, but only if you
receive it and then stand firmin it.
So what does it mean to receiveit?
It means you got to believe itand embrace it.
(03:55):
Paul wrote to the church inThessalonica in his letter to
the Thessalonians, for thisreason we also um thank God
without ceasing, because whenyou received the word of God,
which you heard from us, youwelcomed it not as the word of
men, but as it is in truth theword of God, which also
(04:16):
effectively works in you whobelieve.
So the gospel is the word ofGod, the message that God has
for you.
As a person, as a human being,his message is Jesus died for
you, Jesus rose for you, it'sfor you.
But you have to believe it andreceive it.
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If you believe it, he says, youare believing the message of
God, you're believing the wordof God.
That's what this is all about.
So then you have to stand in it,he says.
So despite all their problemswith carnality, this church in 1
Corinthians, remember, we'vetalked about they had sexual
immorality, they had they weredrinking too much, they were
doing this, they were doingthat, they had a whole list of
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things that they were messing upon.
And despite all of that, theystood for the gospel.
They believed in Jesus, theybelieved he died for them, and
they were moving forward inthat, and they were standing
firm in that.
And got and Paul was able todeal with all their stuff.
He's like, just stop messingaround with this, stop messing
around with that.
You're just not seeing clearlyhow God has changed your life
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and transformed your heart.
And so he he wrote this wholeletter to them to just correct
them.
And because it's fine, it's easyto correct a believer who
believes.
It's easy to correct them.
You say, hey, this isn't who youare.
Once you become a believer, youdon't want to sin anymore.
That's your real true identity.
But it feels like I want to sin,I know, but your feelings are
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lying to you.
You don't really want to sin.
You're really pure, you'rereally holy.
That's who you are the momentyou believe you've been
transformed and born again.
Amen is right.
I love that.
But contrast this with the workhe had to do in Galatia.
So in the church in Galatians,they had fallen away to a
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different gospel.
They it says literally in 1 6 ofGalatians that they didn't stand
firm in the gospel that theyheard because they got tricked
into legalism.
So some people called theJudaizers came in and said, It's
great that you follow Jesus, butif you want to be a super
Christian, you're gonna followall of these rules too.
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You're gonna get circumcised,you're gonna do this, you're
gonna do that.
And they had a whole list ofrules, bringing back all the
Jewish rules and all the oldcovenant stuff to bring them
back under bondage.
And Paul said they did not standfirm, and so they were having a
much more difficult time.
And Paul said when he was doingministry with them, it was like
having to give birth again.
(06:46):
Moms, do you feel like givingbirth again for the same baby
twice?
Well, Paul said bringing them toJesus the first time was like
giving birth.
Well, he's having to like gothrough all of that again in his
work with them, and he said itis not fun.
So holding fast to grace, to thegospel was very important.
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You don't have to be perfect,but you do need to believe and
hold fast that it's what Jesusdid that matters, not what you
do that matters.
You are free from that way ofthinking.
You have to hold fast becausesomething is pulling you away.
Something's pulling you away.
The enemy is pulling you away.
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And the enemy simply wants you,he doesn't care if you go to
church.
He doesn't, I mean, he'll pullyou away from church if he can,
but he really doesn't care ifyou go to church.
He wants to pull you away tothink about yourself.
That's all he has to pull youto.
As long as your eyes are onJesus, you are unstoppable.
Jesus will live through you,Jesus will help you, you will be
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living in his grace.
The moment we get our eyes ontoourselves, the enemy has his
thing over us.
Okay, like it's weird, but themore you try to stop sinning,
guess what happens?
The more you sin.
The more you try to stopsinning, the more you're gonna
sin.
The more you lift your eyes upto Jesus and say, I believe that
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you have trans delivered me andforgiven me and made me new, the
more you will walk in thatidentity that Jesus has already
given you.
This is the beauty of thegospel.
And so we gotta hold fast thegospel, which says, It's not
about you, it's about Jesus.
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We come to church not to focuson ourselves, but to focus on
Jesus.
So today the gospel is gonna belike a bazooka to blow away our
self-trust life.
So get ready, he says in verse3.
For I delivered to you the firstof all that which I also
received, that Christ died forour sins according to the
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scriptures, and that he wasburied and rose again on the
third day according to thescriptures.
So this is very simple.
That is the gospel.
That's what people travel thewhole world to share to people
who don't know it that Jesus wasthe Christ, that means he was
the Messiah, he was God Himself,he became a man, and then Jesus
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died for our sins, meaning hewas a substitute, the sacrifice
for our sins.
We sang, we sang that he'scalled the Lamb, and that's why
we call him the Lamb, becausethe Lamb was the sacrifice that
would cover the sins.
Well, Jesus is a sacrifice thattakes away our sins, he doesn't
just cover them.
And then Jesus was buried, andthen Jesus rose again the third
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day, and all of this wasforetold in the Old Testament,
thousands of years before Jesuscame, so that when it happened,
we would all know this was it.
This was the plan of God, thiswas the salvation of God, this
was the redemption of God, thisis the only thing that matters.
This we call it the good news.
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Gospel in Greek is evangelion.
Evangelion means good news.
So gospel is simply good news.
And it's the best news in thewhole world.
People will live and die basedon this news.
Billions of eternities lie inthe balance based on if they
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have this information and chooseto receive it and stand firm in
it.
Receive it and stand firm in it.
What do I have to do with thisknowledge?
Receive it and stand firm in it.
He says, I delivered to you thatwhich I also received.
So Paul didn't make up thisgospel, but Jesus literally gave
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him this gospel.
He received it from Jesus.
According to Galatians chapter1, he went off in the desert and
Jesus taught him this gospel.
And when he met Jesus, Jesusappeared to him.
And these things really happen.
This isn't just a religiousfantasy or a man-made thing at
all.
We have historical proof.
We have evidence that demands averdict.
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If you want to read a reallygreat book that talks about all
that evidence, it's calledEvidence That Demands a Verdict.
And it's weird because peoplereally just don't want to look
at the evidence, to be honest.
They want to just repeat whatthe news tells them or what
their favorite skeptic talksabout.
Anyone who really willinvestigate the truth will, if
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they're honest, say, yeah, Jesusdefinitely lived, he definitely
was God, he definitely didmiracles, and he definitely
died, and then he definitely wasburied, and he definitely rose
again.
We're going to talk about all ofthat.
This is about truth.
Some say you can have your viewand I'll have mine, and that's
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called relativism.
It's a philosophy that's gaineda lot of popularity in the day
and age that we live in.
Oh, it's fine for you to believewhatever you want, that can be
your truth.
But my truth is going to bethis, but that destroys the
meaning of truth.
Truth is truth, and lies arelies.
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And this just happens to be thetruth.
It is reality.
There's one truth that holds forall men at all time, and Jesus
is that truth.
And these are the things we canstand on.
This is the confidence we canhave.
And then it says, and this isthe crux of what we're going to
talk about today, that Jesusdied.
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According to scriptures, thatJesus died.
So the death of Jesus isobviously a central message for
our eternal victory for thegospel.
And it's totallycounterintuitive that the death
of someone produces life for us.
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How did Jesus die?
Well, the Romans executed him byone of the most cruel and
excruciating forms of capitalpunishment ever devised.
It was called crucifixion, asyou guys know.
It said, although the Romans didnot invent crucifixion, they
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perfected it as a form oftorture and capital punishment
that was designed to produce aslow death with the maximum pain
and suffering that they couldthat you could possibly achieve.
So it was designed to be themost painful thing ever
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invented.
What exactly was it like to becrucified?
Well, first the victim's backwas torn open by scourging.
The clotting blood after theyhad finished the scourging was
ripped open again when theclothes were torn off the victim
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because they were crucifiednaked.
But that scourging was the oneof the worst parts because it
was done with this thing calleda flagrum, which was like a whip
that uh had braided leatherthongs with metal balls weaved
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into it, and pieces of bone orglass braided into it.
And the balls, the metal ballsadded weight to the whip,
causing deep bruising as thevictim's back was hit, and
pieces of the bone and glasswould cut into the flesh.
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As the beating continued, theresulting cuts would be so
severe that the skeletal musclesand the veins and the sinews and
the bowels of the victim wouldall be exposed as they continued
doing this.
And most times it was so severethat the victims, the weaker
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ones, would not even survive itin order to be crucified.
So they would just take themover to the grave at that point.
Then Jesus would have beenthrown on the ground to nail his
hands to the cross beam, wherehis wounds again would be torn
open and contaminated with dirt.
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And then as he hung on the crosswith each breath, the painful
wounds on his back would scrapeagainst the rough wood of the
upright beam, which wouldfurther aggravate his pain.
And when the nail was driventhrough his wrists, it would
sever the large median nerve.
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And this would uh produceexcruciating bolts of pain all
the way up his arm through botharms, and it would cause his
hands to make a claw-like grip.
Beyond the excruciating pain,the major effect of crucifixion
was that it inhibited normalbreathing.
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So the weight of the body wouldbe pulling down on the arms and
the shoulders, which were justwhipped, and the hands which
were just nailed.
And the it would push all asyour weight would pull you down,
it would push all the air out ofyour lungs.
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So then you'd feel like you haveto take a breath because you're
suffocating, and so you wouldhave to push up on your feet,
which had nails in them, and upon the hands, causing more pain
to get the little bit of breathyou could before you would
collapse again, and all thebreath would be pushed out of
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you again.
Each breath was agonizing andmore painful than the last.
Finally, death in normalcrucifixion would come by many
sources.
You could it could come fromacute shock and blood loss.
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It could be, you know, you'retoo exhausted to breathe any
longer, so you just suffocate.
It could be from dehydration,from stress-induced heart
attack, or congestive heartfailure leading to a cardiac
rupture.
And if the victim didn't diequickly enough, they would they
would break his legs with a bat,and they would just suffocate
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very, very quickly after thatbecause they couldn't push up
anymore.
We have a clue, we have moreclues as to what was actually
going on medically with Jesusduring this time.
See, he says those who floggedwould also often go into, and
doctors tell us, somethingcalled hypovolemic shock.
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Hypovolemic shock.
And that's a term that refers tolow blood volume.
So you've lost so much bloodthat your body is trying harder
and harder and harder to pump,your heart is trying to pump
that blood, but there's nothingto pump.
It's like the hose is is empty,right?
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In other words, you know, yourbody's going into shock.
And there would be four thingsthat would happen to a body in
this condition.
The heart would begin to race,trying to pump blood that wasn't
there.
Number two, the victim wouldcollapse and faint due to low
blood pressure.
Number three, their kidneyswould shut down to preserve the
fluids in the body, and then theperson would experience extreme
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thirst as the body desired toreplenish the lost fluids that
it had lost, right?
Because the body's still tryingto live.
And so in scripture, we see thatJesus experienced hypovolemic
shock as a result of beingflogged.
So Jesus carried his own crossfrom to Golgotha, from where he
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was beat, and and he collapsedon the way, showing that loss of
strength that he had.
And a man named Simon was eitherforced to help carry the cross
or he carried it all the way uhup the hill that he was going,
right?
And that showed that indicatesthat he had that low blood
pressure that we were talkingabout.
And then he when he was on thecross, he said, I'm thirsty.
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And that was a clue that he wasalso in this hypovolemic shock
because his body had this desireto replenish its fluids.
Now, prior to death, he sus uhthe sustained rapid heartbeat
caused by this hypovolemiccondition causes fluids to
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gather around the heart and theand the lung.
There's a sac that that gets uhfilled with fluids if you're in
this kind of condition.
And so it would start filling uparound the heart, which is
called pericardal effusion, andaround the lungs is called
pleural effusion.
So you have, and I like that yougot the we have like a medical
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guy that's like, yeah, yes, allthis is right.
I'm right, right?
And so what happened is as he'sdying on the cross, the all the
fluid that's left is is puttingpressure and pressure and
pressure on his heart and lungs.
So after he dies, the Romansoldier checks to see if he's
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dead by putting a spear in hisside, and it says specifically
that water and blood came out,and that is a very clear
indicator that this is exactlyhow Jesus died.
He died because his heart wascrushed.
By the pressure of the physicalpain and torture that he went
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through.
But I think it's so deep andimpactful that Jesus died from a
crushed heart.
Because we know the the realsuffering and pain that Jesus
went through on top of all thephysical that we've just talked
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about.
Was the abandonment of hisfather.
His father abandoned him so thathe could have the wrath of God
against all sin poured on him,and it crushed him spiritually,
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on top of the physical crushingthat he experienced.
How bad was crucifixion?
Well, we get the English wordexcruciating from the Roman word
meaning out of the cross,excruciating.
And I want you to just listen tothis quote and think about it.
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Consider how heinous sin must bein the sight of God, that it
requires such a sacrifice to beable to forgive it.
God's intention and desire wasto deliver us, to redeem us, to
save us.
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And this is what was required toaccomplish that.
Our text again says, I deliveredto you first that which I also
received, that Christ died forour sins according to the
scriptures.
Why did Jesus do all of this?
Why was this his mission?
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Because he loves you.
You have to know that you, yourname, your face, your life was
in his mind and in his heart,and he was thinking about you
while he was experiencing thissuffering.
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And he never had a secondthought about doing it for you.
He was absolutely willing to doit for you.
You had a severe problem calledsin, right?
And each and every human hassinned and fallen short of God's
perfect and holy standard forliving.
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And Jesus knew our sin, yet hechose to do something about it,
not just condemn us and say,Well, you get what you get, you
get what you deserve.
No, he became the only solutionfor us by becoming our
substitute.
He had to suffer and die thedeath that each one of us
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deserved.
And by his stripes we can behealed.
How does the death of Jesus doanything for our sins?
How can he how can he be oursubstitute?
How do we know that this didanything for us?
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I mean, couldn't this just besome random dude that died 2,000
years ago?
There's been a billion peoplethat have died.
What makes him different?
At some point before he died,the veil in the temple was torn
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in two pieces from top tobottom.
Now, this veil was like 30 feettall, like three stories tall.
I mean, it's big, big thing.
It was 18 inches thick of woven,woven fabric, and it was torn.
This had to be a supernaturalthing, torn from top to bottom.
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What was the temple?
What was this veil separating?
There was a veil separatingwhere the Ark of the Covenant
was, where God's presence wasfrom all the people.
It separated people.
And that was the best people hadback then of having a
relationship with God.
You had to go to the temple, youhad to make sacrifices, and one
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day a year, one dude, the highpriest, was able to go into the
holy presence of God and talk toGod one time a year.
It's called the Day ofAtonement.
And one time a year, we peoplehad connection with God.
Why?
Because God is holy and we werenot.
But as Jesus is hanging on thecross, there's an earthquake.
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The sun is blocked out.
And God, to be perfectly clearabout what this death
accomplished, He rips and tearsopen that veil and says, We no
longer need a veil.
My presence and people do nothave to be separated anymore.
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Because the only thingseparating them was sin.
And now all sin has been dealtwith.
All sin has been paid for.
There needs to be no moreseparation ever.
When Jesus said, it is finished,this happened.
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A price was paid.
And the veil was torn.
What happened is God the Fatherlaid on God the Son all the
guilt and wrath that our sindeserved.
Jesus bore it all, totallysatisfying the wrath of God.
So God will never be angry withsin.
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He doesn't have to just ignoresin because sin has literally
been paid for.
All our sin.
He's not just faking himselfout, saying, you can be holy,
you can be righteous, you can beforgiven, you can be a child of
God.
He does not have to fake himselfout.
He is can truly make you can beholy and righteous by just faith
in Jesus.
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You can become a child of God byfaith in Jesus.
As horrible as this physicalsuffering of Jesus was, the
spiritual suffering, the act ofbeing judged for sin in our
place is what Jesus reallydreaded when approaching the
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cross.
He wasn't scared of suffering.
Even though he would suffer morethan any man who'd ever lived,
he said that there was a cupthat he was afraid to drink.
And that cup was the cup ofGod's righteous wrath.
He trembled at drinking thatcup.
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On the cross, Jesus became, asit were, the enemy of God, the
God that he loved, the God thathe had been connected to,
himself.
He became God's enemy for us.
God the Father had to pour outthe wrath of God, the righteous
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wrath of God, and the only onewho could take it would be God
the Son.
He was the only one that coulddo this work.
The Father's fury was so intensethat no one can drink the cup
except Jesus.
He is the hero, he is theSavior.
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Isaiah 53 puts it powerfully.
Isaiah 53 says, He is despisedand rejected by men, a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief,and we hid, as it were, our
faces from him.
He was despised and we did notesteem him.
Surely he has borne our griefsand carried our sorrows, yet we
esteemed him stricken, smittenby God and afflicted.
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But he was wounded for ourtransgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities, thechastisement for our peace was
upon him, and by his stripes weare healed.
In our text it says, He waskilled for our sins.
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It was not the Jews that killedhim, it was not the Romans that
ultimately killed him, it wasme.
And it was you and our sins.
He died for our sins, not justas a martyr for a cause, but he
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paid the price for a debt thatyou and I owed.
Jesus swallowed our sins likesomeone swallowing a grenade.
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And he died.
How could we ever doubt the loveof God?
How could we ever doubt that youhave been freed from shame?
There is nothing you ever needto be ashamed about.
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You say, God, but what aboutwhen I did this?
Doesn't that mar your opinion ofme?
I think I'm a jerk.
I think I'm an idiot.
And God says, What are youtalking about?
Because the thing you're talkingabout was swallowed by Jesus on
the cross and he's taking careof it.
So live in that freedom.
What I think about you is thatyou are holy and righteous and
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just.
That's my opinion of you.
Rejoice in it.
Live in it.
You see, if we just believethis, the devil has no power in
our life.
He can't suggest anything to youbecause believing this truth
sets you free from all lies.
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Our struggle is only to believethis.
Alright, the next thing it saysis that he was buried.
And we don't often think of theburial as being part of the
gospel, but it is because it wasimportant for a couple reasons.
First, it's proof that he reallydid die.
Right?
You don't bury someone unlessthey're really dead, and Jesus'
death was confirmed in severalways.
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One of them being he wasstabbed, another one through the
heart, and another one being hewas buried.
Secondly, uh it's importantbecause it fulfilled the
scriptures because the Biblesaid he would be buried.
It says he would be buried in atomb close to where he was
crucified, in the tomb of a richman.
And literally, you can throw arock from where Jesus was
crucified to where he wasburied.
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I've been there.
It's not that far.
It's like maybe from here towhere the ice thing is right
there.
You could you could literallythrow a rock to where the tomb
is from the the hill that he wascrucified on.
All right.
I want to look back at verse oneand two real quick because
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you'll see something reallyinteresting.
Moreover, brethren, I declare toyou the gospel which I preached
to you, which you've received,and in which you now you stand,
in which you were also saved ifyou hold fast the word I
preached to you, unless youbelieved in vain.
So for everyone here today, andfor everyone watching online,
will you receive this death?
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Will you stand in this death?
And then what we'll talk aboutnext, which will be the
resurrection.
This death is God's love letterto you.
If someone hands you a loveletter, all you have to do is
receive it.
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Will we fix our eyes on hissacrifice?
Or are we gonna get distractedby all our other interests?
Are we gonna get distracted byall our self-centered
temptations?
This is life.
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This is the whole point of life.
This is the most important thingyou will ever hear and make a
decision about.
What are we gonna do?
Let his blood flow down thecross and cover you.
People are like, man, church isso weird.
I was talking about the blood ofJesus cleansing me of sin.
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And oh, but they don'tunderstand.
It's the blood of Jesus thatmakes us white, because Isaiah
chapter one says, Come now, letus reason together, says the
Lord.
Though your sins are likescarlet, red like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow.
Though they are like crimson,they shall be white as wool.
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God says, use your brain, useyour brain.
I don't, I tried not to do thissermon in an emotional way to
cause you to be like, oh, I wantto respond.
No, I want you to use yourbrain.
God says, use your brain, useyour logic.
You know that you're dying andguilty if you have not received
Jesus.
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And he offers grace.
And God says, here's the offer,take it.
You don't have to die.
I don't want you to die guilty.
I want you to be innocent andfreed and forgiven and as white
as snow.
Snow, by the way, is when waterrain freezes.
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We don't get that down here.
I know I don't know how many ofyou have never seen it.
Where I come from, you get snowa lot.
All right, our last verse isActs 16, verse 30.
It says, And he brought them outand said, Sirs, what was what
must we do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on theLord Jesus Christ, and you shall
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be saved, you and your wholehousehold.
So this is the gospel.
And God says, What do you haveto do to be saved?
All you have to do is believethe gospel.
Believe that Jesus died for you.
Receive it.
Well, do I have to get baptized?
You don't have to.
It's a really good idea, andit's it's gonna be something
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that you grow in, and it's gonnabe something that's really good
in your life and gonna encourageyou and help you grow.
Oh, it's gonna be wonderful.
But what do you have to do?
You have to believe.
That's all that's required.
How low could God put the bar?
He said, if I left anything upto you, you would mess it up.
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So I'm removing you from theentire equation.
Jesus will do everything foryou.
All you have to do is believeand receive it.
And he will come, he will invadeyour heart, he will chant,
transform who you are, and we'lltalk about that much more in the
following weeks as we talk aboutthe resurrection.
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Next week, like I said, we'regonna be diving into the life.
All right, so the team's gonnacome back up and we're gonna
sing to the Lord.
But before we do that, if youguys would all stand with me.
If you're able.
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That is God moving in your life,making you alive, causing you to
believe.
So just surrender to hislordship.
Believe in in Jesus and ask himto come in your heart, in your
life, and take over, and hewill.
It's so beautiful.
It is new life, and you can beforgiven of everything.
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There is no limit.
Jesus' death paid for absolutelyeverything.
This is why we sing.
This is why we worship him asGod, because he is God.
He is the Lamb of God who takesaway the sin of the world.
We worship him, we serve himwith our lives.
That's why we love difficultpeople.
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This is why we sacrificewhatever he calls us to
sacrifice for his kingdom'scause.
He is worth it.
Father, we worship you.
Jesus, we praise you.
We bow our whole lives downbefore you.
We could never do or be anythingapart from you, Jesus.
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And for anyone in here who todaywants to make it a day where
they have made a decision tobelieve in you, God, I pray that
you would give them strength.
Build their faith.
Give them the faith, Jesus, toboth receive you and then to
stand fast in believing thetruth in the power of your
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spirit.
And for us, all who alreadybelieve and were too, and we've
already chosen to uh uh beginthat relationship with you,
Father, hold us fast.
Give us the strength to holdfast to the truth of the gospel.
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You have done all the work, andwe stand in the completed,
finished sacrifice of Jesus.
You proclaimed on the cross itis finished.
The veil was torn, and now wehave perfect access to God, and
God, you have perfect access tous, and we have become one in
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the Spirit because of this greatgospel.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Today's sermon is called Have You Heard the Good
News?
Part one, The Death.
Next week will be part two.
Yay! Good job.
You guys name my sermon for me.
All right, so part one, thedeath.
There was this jungle tribe thathad never seen white people.
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And this missionary discoveredthem and he went and he built a
relationship with them.
Once he had learned theirlanguage, he began to tell them
the gospel story.
So he's telling them all aboutwhat Jesus did.
He's telling them about themiracles and the words that he
said, and this tribe just fellin love with Jesus.
(01:13):
They were so excited.
They were like, man, thisdefinitely was God come to
earth.
This definitely was our hero.
And every night he would tell alittle bit more of the story.
Well, eventually he gets to thecrucifixion, the betrayal of
Jesus.
And this tribe was horrified.
(01:38):
This tribe recoiled in horror astheir new hero is brutally
murdered on the cross.
And they stood up and threatenedto kill the missionary.
And they're like, Why would yousay these terrible lies?
We don't believe we will notbelieve.
And he said, Hey, hey, Jesus diddie for you, but let me finish
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the story, right?
It's all true though.
He absolutely did die.
And he was barely able to calmdown this tribe of natives to
finish the story.
After he finished the story, theentire tribe fell on their knees
to receive Jesus as theirsavior.
It's a really cool story.
(02:22):
And it reminds us that wesometimes look at this with
sanitized glasses.
The story of Jesus.
Today, we're not.
We're going to get in.
This is going to be brutal, allright?
I'm just warning you right atthe beginning.
We're going to talk bluntly andmedically about the death of
(02:44):
Jesus, and it's going to rockyour world.
So if you're a crier, get ready.
It's going to be brutal.
Just let warning you.
He says in chapter 15, verse 1.
Moreover, brethren, I declare toyou the gospel that I preached
to you, which also you received,and in which you stand, by which
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you are also saved, if you holdfast that word which I preach to
you, unless you believed invain.
Okay, so we're just going tobreak this down of what he's
talking about.
So he says the gospel, andthat's the good news.
So in verse 3 and 4, which we'regoing to talk about in a minute,
he's going to talk about thecontent of the gospel.
But here he just describes howthe gospel can benefit a person.
(03:32):
The gospel is only a benefit toyou if you if it's received and
if you stand in it.
So the gospel can benefit you,it can save you, but only if you
receive it and then stand firmin it.
So what does it mean to receiveit?
It means you got to believe itand embrace it.
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Paul wrote to the church inThessalonica in his letter to
the Thessalonians, for thisreason we also um thank God
without ceasing, because whenyou received the word of God,
which you heard from us, youwelcomed it not as the word of
men, but as it is in truth theword of God, which also
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effectively works in you whobelieve.
So the gospel is the word ofGod, the message that God has
for you.
As a person, as a human being,his message is Jesus died for
you, Jesus rose for you, it'sfor you.
But you have to believe it andreceive it.
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If you believe it, he says, youare believing the message of
God, you're believing the wordof God.
That's what this is all about.
So then you have to stand in it,he says.
So despite all their problemswith carnality, this church in 1
Corinthians, remember, we'vetalked about they had sexual
immorality, they had they weredrinking too much, they were
doing this, they were doingthat, they had a whole list of
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things that they were messing upon.
And despite all of that, theystood for the gospel.
They believed in Jesus, theybelieved he died for them, and
they were moving forward inthat, and they were standing
firm in that.
And got and Paul was able todeal with all their stuff.
He's like, just stop messingaround with this, stop messing
around with that.
You're just not seeing clearlyhow God has changed your life
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and transformed your heart.
And so he he wrote this wholeletter to them to just correct
them.
And because it's fine, it's easyto correct a believer who
believes.
It's easy to correct them.
You say, hey, this isn't who youare.
Once you become a believer, youdon't want to sin anymore.
That's your real true identity.
But it feels like I want to sin,I know, but your feelings are
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lying to you.
You don't really want to sin.
You're really pure, you'rereally holy.
That's who you are the momentyou believe you've been
transformed and born again.
Amen is right.
I love that.
But contrast this with the workhe had to do in Galatia.
So in the church in Galatians,they had fallen away to a
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different gospel.
They it says literally in 1 6 ofGalatians that they didn't stand
firm in the gospel that theyheard because they got tricked
into legalism.
So some people called theJudaizers came in and said, It's
great that you follow Jesus, butif you want to be a super
Christian, you're gonna followall of these rules too.
(06:26):
You're gonna get circumcised,you're gonna do this, you're
gonna do that.
And they had a whole list ofrules, bringing back all the
Jewish rules and all the oldcovenant stuff to bring them
back under bondage.
And Paul said they did not standfirm, and so they were having a
much more difficult time.
And Paul said when he was doingministry with them, it was like
having to give birth again.
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Moms, do you feel like givingbirth again for the same baby
twice?
Well, Paul said bringing them toJesus the first time was like
giving birth.
Well, he's having to like gothrough all of that again in his
work with them, and he said itis not fun.
So holding fast to grace, to thegospel was very important.
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You don't have to be perfect,but you do need to believe and
hold fast that it's what Jesusdid that matters, not what you
do that matters.
You are free from that way ofthinking.
You have to hold fast becausesomething is pulling you away.
Something's pulling you away.
The enemy is pulling you away.
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And the enemy simply wants you,he doesn't care if you go to
church.
He doesn't, I mean, he'll pullyou away from church if he can,
but he really doesn't care ifyou go to church.
He wants to pull you away tothink about yourself.
That's all he has to pull youto.
As long as your eyes are onJesus, you are unstoppable.
Jesus will live through you,Jesus will help you, you will be
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living in his grace.
The moment we get our eyes ontoourselves, the enemy has his
thing over us.
Okay, like it's weird, but themore you try to stop sinning,
guess what happens?
The more you sin.
The more you try to stopsinning, the more you're gonna
sin.
The more you lift your eyes upto Jesus and say, I believe that
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you have trans delivered me andforgiven me and made me new, the
more you will walk in thatidentity that Jesus has already
given you.
This is the beauty of thegospel.
And so we gotta hold fast thegospel, which says, It's not
about you, it's about Jesus.
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We come to church not to focuson ourselves, but to focus on
Jesus.
So today the gospel is gonna belike a bazooka to blow away our
self-trust life.
So get ready, he says in verse3.
For I delivered to you the firstof all that which I also
received, that Christ died forour sins according to the
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scriptures, and that he wasburied and rose again on the
third day according to thescriptures.
So this is very simple.
That is the gospel.
That's what people travel thewhole world to share to people
who don't know it that Jesus wasthe Christ, that means he was
the Messiah, he was God Himself,he became a man, and then Jesus
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died for our sins, meaning hewas a substitute, the sacrifice
for our sins.
We sang, we sang that he'scalled the Lamb, and that's why
we call him the Lamb, becausethe Lamb was the sacrifice that
would cover the sins.
Well, Jesus is a sacrifice thattakes away our sins, he doesn't
just cover them.
And then Jesus was buried, andthen Jesus rose again the third
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day, and all of this wasforetold in the Old Testament,
thousands of years before Jesuscame, so that when it happened,
we would all know this was it.
This was the plan of God, thiswas the salvation of God, this
was the redemption of God, thisis the only thing that matters.
This we call it the good news.
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Gospel in Greek is evangelion.
Evangelion means good news.
So gospel is simply good news.
And it's the best news in thewhole world.
People will live and die basedon this news.
Billions of eternities lie inthe balance based on if they
(10:27):
have this information and chooseto receive it and stand firm in
it.
Receive it and stand firm in it.
What do I have to do with thisknowledge?
Receive it and stand firm in it.
He says, I delivered to you thatwhich I also received.
So Paul didn't make up thisgospel, but Jesus literally gave
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him this gospel.
He received it from Jesus.
According to Galatians chapter1, he went off in the desert and
Jesus taught him this gospel.
And when he met Jesus, Jesusappeared to him.
And these things really happen.
This isn't just a religiousfantasy or a man-made thing at
all.
We have historical proof.
We have evidence that demands averdict.
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If you want to read a reallygreat book that talks about all
that evidence, it's calledEvidence That Demands a Verdict.
And it's weird because peoplereally just don't want to look
at the evidence, to be honest.
They want to just repeat whatthe news tells them or what
their favorite skeptic talksabout.
Anyone who really willinvestigate the truth will, if
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they're honest, say, yeah, Jesusdefinitely lived, he definitely
was God, he definitely didmiracles, and he definitely
died, and then he definitely wasburied, and he definitely rose
again.
We're going to talk about all ofthat.
This is about truth.
Some say you can have your viewand I'll have mine, and that's
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called relativism.
It's a philosophy that's gaineda lot of popularity in the day
and age that we live in.
Oh, it's fine for you to believewhatever you want, that can be
your truth.
But my truth is going to bethis, but that destroys the
meaning of truth.
Truth is truth, and lies arelies.
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And this just happens to be thetruth.
It is reality.
There's one truth that holds forall men at all time, and Jesus
is that truth.
And these are the things we canstand on.
This is the confidence we canhave.
And then it says, and this isthe crux of what we're going to
talk about today, that Jesusdied.
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According to scriptures, thatJesus died.
So the death of Jesus isobviously a central message for
our eternal victory for thegospel.
And it's totallycounterintuitive that the death
of someone produces life for us.
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How did Jesus die?
Well, the Romans executed him byone of the most cruel and
excruciating forms of capitalpunishment ever devised.
It was called crucifixion, asyou guys know.
It said, although the Romans didnot invent crucifixion, they
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perfected it as a form oftorture and capital punishment
that was designed to produce aslow death with the maximum pain
and suffering that they couldthat you could possibly achieve.
So it was designed to be themost painful thing ever
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invented.
What exactly was it like to becrucified?
Well, first the victim's backwas torn open by scourging.
The clotting blood after theyhad finished the scourging was
ripped open again when theclothes were torn off the victim
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because they were crucifiednaked.
But that scourging was the oneof the worst parts because it
was done with this thing calleda flagrum, which was like a whip
that uh had braided leatherthongs with metal balls weaved
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into it, and pieces of bone orglass braided into it.
And the balls, the metal ballsadded weight to the whip,
causing deep bruising as thevictim's back was hit, and
pieces of the bone and glasswould cut into the flesh.
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As the beating continued, theresulting cuts would be so
severe that the skeletal musclesand the veins and the sinews and
the bowels of the victim wouldall be exposed as they continued
doing this.
And most times it was so severethat the victims, the weaker
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ones, would not even survive itin order to be crucified.
So they would just take themover to the grave at that point.
Then Jesus would have beenthrown on the ground to nail his
hands to the cross beam, wherehis wounds again would be torn
open and contaminated with dirt.
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And then as he hung on the crosswith each breath, the painful
wounds on his back would scrapeagainst the rough wood of the
upright beam, which wouldfurther aggravate his pain.
And when the nail was driventhrough his wrists, it would
sever the large median nerve.
(15:53):
And this would uh produceexcruciating bolts of pain all
the way up his arm through botharms, and it would cause his
hands to make a claw-like grip.
Beyond the excruciating pain,the major effect of crucifixion
was that it inhibited normalbreathing.
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So the weight of the body wouldbe pulling down on the arms and
the shoulders, which were justwhipped, and the hands which
were just nailed.
And the it would push all asyour weight would pull you down,
it would push all the air out ofyour lungs.
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So then you'd feel like you haveto take a breath because you're
suffocating, and so you wouldhave to push up on your feet,
which had nails in them, and upon the hands, causing more pain
to get the little bit of breathyou could before you would
collapse again, and all thebreath would be pushed out of
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you again.
Each breath was agonizing andmore painful than the last.
Finally, death in normalcrucifixion would come by many
sources.
You could it could come fromacute shock and blood loss.
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It could be, you know, you'retoo exhausted to breathe any
longer, so you just suffocate.
It could be from dehydration,from stress-induced heart
attack, or congestive heartfailure leading to a cardiac
rupture.
And if the victim didn't diequickly enough, they would they
would break his legs with a bat,and they would just suffocate
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very, very quickly after thatbecause they couldn't push up
anymore.
We have a clue, we have moreclues as to what was actually
going on medically with Jesusduring this time.
See, he says those who floggedwould also often go into, and
doctors tell us, somethingcalled hypovolemic shock.
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Hypovolemic shock.
And that's a term that refers tolow blood volume.
So you've lost so much bloodthat your body is trying harder
and harder and harder to pump,your heart is trying to pump
that blood, but there's nothingto pump.
It's like the hose is is empty,right?
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In other words, you know, yourbody's going into shock.
And there would be four thingsthat would happen to a body in
this condition.
The heart would begin to race,trying to pump blood that wasn't
there.
Number two, the victim wouldcollapse and faint due to low
blood pressure.
Number three, their kidneyswould shut down to preserve the
fluids in the body, and then theperson would experience extreme
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thirst as the body desired toreplenish the lost fluids that
it had lost, right?
Because the body's still tryingto live.
And so in scripture, we see thatJesus experienced hypovolemic
shock as a result of beingflogged.
So Jesus carried his own crossfrom to Golgotha, from where he
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was beat, and and he collapsedon the way, showing that loss of
strength that he had.
And a man named Simon was eitherforced to help carry the cross
or he carried it all the way uhup the hill that he was going,
right?
And that showed that indicatesthat he had that low blood
pressure that we were talkingabout.
And then he when he was on thecross, he said, I'm thirsty.
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And that was a clue that he wasalso in this hypovolemic shock
because his body had this desireto replenish its fluids.
Now, prior to death, he sus uhthe sustained rapid heartbeat
caused by this hypovolemiccondition causes fluids to
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gather around the heart and theand the lung.
There's a sac that that gets uhfilled with fluids if you're in
this kind of condition.
And so it would start filling uparound the heart, which is
called pericardal effusion, andaround the lungs is called
pleural effusion.
So you have, and I like that yougot the we have like a medical
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guy that's like, yeah, yes, allthis is right.
I'm right, right?
And so what happened is as he'sdying on the cross, the all the
fluid that's left is is puttingpressure and pressure and
pressure on his heart and lungs.
So after he dies, the Romansoldier checks to see if he's
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dead by putting a spear in hisside, and it says specifically
that water and blood came out,and that is a very clear
indicator that this is exactlyhow Jesus died.
He died because his heart wascrushed.
By the pressure of the physicalpain and torture that he went
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through.
But I think it's so deep andimpactful that Jesus died from a
crushed heart.
Because we know the the realsuffering and pain that Jesus
went through on top of all thephysical that we've just talked
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about.
Was the abandonment of hisfather.
His father abandoned him so thathe could have the wrath of God
against all sin poured on him,and it crushed him spiritually,
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on top of the physical crushingthat he experienced.
How bad was crucifixion?
Well, we get the English wordexcruciating from the Roman word
meaning out of the cross,excruciating.
And I want you to just listen tothis quote and think about it.
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Consider how heinous sin must bein the sight of God, that it
requires such a sacrifice to beable to forgive it.
God's intention and desire wasto deliver us, to redeem us, to
save us.
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And this is what was required toaccomplish that.
Our text again says, I deliveredto you first that which I also
received, that Christ died forour sins according to the
scriptures.
Why did Jesus do all of this?
Why was this his mission?
(22:53):
Because he loves you.
You have to know that you, yourname, your face, your life was
in his mind and in his heart,and he was thinking about you
while he was experiencing thissuffering.
(23:17):
And he never had a secondthought about doing it for you.
He was absolutely willing to doit for you.
You had a severe problem calledsin, right?
And each and every human hassinned and fallen short of God's
perfect and holy standard forliving.
(23:38):
And Jesus knew our sin, yet hechose to do something about it,
not just condemn us and say,Well, you get what you get, you
get what you deserve.
No, he became the only solutionfor us by becoming our
substitute.
He had to suffer and die thedeath that each one of us
(24:04):
deserved.
And by his stripes we can behealed.
How does the death of Jesus doanything for our sins?
How can he how can he be oursubstitute?
How do we know that this didanything for us?
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I mean, couldn't this just besome random dude that died 2,000
years ago?
There's been a billion peoplethat have died.
What makes him different?
At some point before he died,the veil in the temple was torn
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in two pieces from top tobottom.
Now, this veil was like 30 feettall, like three stories tall.
I mean, it's big, big thing.
It was 18 inches thick of woven,woven fabric, and it was torn.
This had to be a supernaturalthing, torn from top to bottom.
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What was the temple?
What was this veil separating?
There was a veil separatingwhere the Ark of the Covenant
was, where God's presence wasfrom all the people.
It separated people.
And that was the best people hadback then of having a
relationship with God.
You had to go to the temple, youhad to make sacrifices, and one
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day a year, one dude, the highpriest, was able to go into the
holy presence of God and talk toGod one time a year.
It's called the Day ofAtonement.
And one time a year, we peoplehad connection with God.
Why?
Because God is holy and we werenot.
But as Jesus is hanging on thecross, there's an earthquake.
(25:56):
The sun is blocked out.
And God, to be perfectly clearabout what this death
accomplished, He rips and tearsopen that veil and says, We no
longer need a veil.
My presence and people do nothave to be separated anymore.
(26:16):
Because the only thingseparating them was sin.
And now all sin has been dealtwith.
All sin has been paid for.
There needs to be no moreseparation ever.
When Jesus said, it is finished,this happened.
(26:40):
A price was paid.
And the veil was torn.
What happened is God the Fatherlaid on God the Son all the
guilt and wrath that our sindeserved.
Jesus bore it all, totallysatisfying the wrath of God.
So God will never be angry withsin.
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He doesn't have to just ignoresin because sin has literally
been paid for.
All our sin.
He's not just faking himselfout, saying, you can be holy,
you can be righteous, you can beforgiven, you can be a child of
God.
He does not have to fake himselfout.
He is can truly make you can beholy and righteous by just faith
in Jesus.
(27:22):
You can become a child of God byfaith in Jesus.
As horrible as this physicalsuffering of Jesus was, the
spiritual suffering, the act ofbeing judged for sin in our
place is what Jesus reallydreaded when approaching the
(27:45):
cross.
He wasn't scared of suffering.
Even though he would suffer morethan any man who'd ever lived,
he said that there was a cupthat he was afraid to drink.
And that cup was the cup ofGod's righteous wrath.
He trembled at drinking thatcup.
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On the cross, Jesus became, asit were, the enemy of God, the
God that he loved, the God thathe had been connected to,
himself.
He became God's enemy for us.
God the Father had to pour outthe wrath of God, the righteous
(28:26):
wrath of God, and the only onewho could take it would be God
the Son.
He was the only one that coulddo this work.
The Father's fury was so intensethat no one can drink the cup
except Jesus.
He is the hero, he is theSavior.
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Isaiah 53 puts it powerfully.
Isaiah 53 says, He is despisedand rejected by men, a man of
sorrows, acquainted with grief,and we hid, as it were, our
faces from him.
He was despised and we did notesteem him.
Surely he has borne our griefsand carried our sorrows, yet we
esteemed him stricken, smittenby God and afflicted.
(29:14):
But he was wounded for ourtransgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities, thechastisement for our peace was
upon him, and by his stripes weare healed.
In our text it says, He waskilled for our sins.
(29:34):
It was not the Jews that killedhim, it was not the Romans that
ultimately killed him, it wasme.
And it was you and our sins.
He died for our sins, not justas a martyr for a cause, but he
(29:56):
paid the price for a debt thatyou and I owed.
Jesus swallowed our sins likesomeone swallowing a grenade.
(30:19):
And he died.
How could we ever doubt the loveof God?
How could we ever doubt that youhave been freed from shame?
There is nothing you ever needto be ashamed about.
(30:41):
You say, God, but what aboutwhen I did this?
Doesn't that mar your opinion ofme?
I think I'm a jerk.
I think I'm an idiot.
And God says, What are youtalking about?
Because the thing you're talkingabout was swallowed by Jesus on
the cross and he's taking careof it.
So live in that freedom.
What I think about you is thatyou are holy and righteous and
(31:02):
just.
That's my opinion of you.
Rejoice in it.
Live in it.
You see, if we just believethis, the devil has no power in
our life.
He can't suggest anything to youbecause believing this truth
sets you free from all lies.
(31:24):
Our struggle is only to believethis.
Alright, the next thing it saysis that he was buried.
And we don't often think of theburial as being part of the
gospel, but it is because it wasimportant for a couple reasons.
First, it's proof that he reallydid die.
Right?
You don't bury someone unlessthey're really dead, and Jesus'
death was confirmed in severalways.
(31:47):
One of them being he wasstabbed, another one through the
heart, and another one being hewas buried.
Secondly, uh it's importantbecause it fulfilled the
scriptures because the Biblesaid he would be buried.
It says he would be buried in atomb close to where he was
crucified, in the tomb of a richman.
And literally, you can throw arock from where Jesus was
crucified to where he wasburied.
(32:08):
I've been there.
It's not that far.
It's like maybe from here towhere the ice thing is right
there.
You could you could literallythrow a rock to where the tomb
is from the the hill that he wascrucified on.
All right.
I want to look back at verse oneand two real quick because
(32:29):
you'll see something reallyinteresting.
Moreover, brethren, I declare toyou the gospel which I preached
to you, which you've received,and in which you now you stand,
in which you were also saved ifyou hold fast the word I
preached to you, unless youbelieved in vain.
So for everyone here today, andfor everyone watching online,
will you receive this death?
(32:55):
Will you stand in this death?
And then what we'll talk aboutnext, which will be the
resurrection.
This death is God's love letterto you.
If someone hands you a loveletter, all you have to do is
receive it.
(33:16):
Will we fix our eyes on hissacrifice?
Or are we gonna get distractedby all our other interests?
Are we gonna get distracted byall our self-centered
temptations?
This is life.
(33:36):
This is the whole point of life.
This is the most important thingyou will ever hear and make a
decision about.
What are we gonna do?
Let his blood flow down thecross and cover you.
People are like, man, church isso weird.
I was talking about the blood ofJesus cleansing me of sin.
(34:00):
And oh, but they don'tunderstand.
It's the blood of Jesus thatmakes us white, because Isaiah
chapter one says, Come now, letus reason together, says the
Lord.
Though your sins are likescarlet, red like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow.
Though they are like crimson,they shall be white as wool.
(34:20):
God says, use your brain, useyour brain.
I don't, I tried not to do thissermon in an emotional way to
cause you to be like, oh, I wantto respond.
No, I want you to use yourbrain.
God says, use your brain, useyour logic.
You know that you're dying andguilty if you have not received
Jesus.
(34:41):
And he offers grace.
And God says, here's the offer,take it.
You don't have to die.
I don't want you to die guilty.
I want you to be innocent andfreed and forgiven and as white
as snow.
Snow, by the way, is when waterrain freezes.
(35:02):
We don't get that down here.
I know I don't know how many ofyou have never seen it.
Where I come from, you get snowa lot.
All right, our last verse isActs 16, verse 30.
It says, And he brought them outand said, Sirs, what was what
must we do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on theLord Jesus Christ, and you shall
(35:22):
be saved, you and your wholehousehold.
So this is the gospel.
And God says, What do you haveto do to be saved?
All you have to do is believethe gospel.
Believe that Jesus died for you.
Receive it.
Well, do I have to get baptized?
You don't have to.
It's a really good idea, andit's it's gonna be something
(35:45):
that you grow in, and it's gonnabe something that's really good
in your life and gonna encourageyou and help you grow.
Oh, it's gonna be wonderful.
But what do you have to do?
You have to believe.
That's all that's required.
How low could God put the bar?
He said, if I left anything upto you, you would mess it up.
(36:06):
So I'm removing you from theentire equation.
Jesus will do everything foryou.
All you have to do is believeand receive it.
And he will come, he will invadeyour heart, he will chant,
transform who you are, and we'lltalk about that much more in the
following weeks as we talk aboutthe resurrection.
(36:27):
Next week, like I said, we'regonna be diving into the life.
All right, so the team's gonnacome back up and we're gonna
sing to the Lord.
But before we do that, if youguys would all stand with me.
If you're able.
(37:15):
That is God moving in your life,making you alive, causing you to
believe.
So just surrender to hislordship.
Believe in in Jesus and ask himto come in your heart, in your
life, and take over, and hewill.
It's so beautiful.
It is new life, and you can beforgiven of everything.
(37:39):
There is no limit.
Jesus' death paid for absolutelyeverything.
This is why we sing.
This is why we worship him asGod, because he is God.
He is the Lamb of God who takesaway the sin of the world.
We worship him, we serve himwith our lives.
That's why we love difficultpeople.
(37:59):
This is why we sacrificewhatever he calls us to
sacrifice for his kingdom'scause.
He is worth it.
Father, we worship you.
Jesus, we praise you.
We bow our whole lives downbefore you.
We could never do or be anythingapart from you, Jesus.
(38:21):
And for anyone in here who todaywants to make it a day where
they have made a decision tobelieve in you, God, I pray that
you would give them strength.
Build their faith.
Give them the faith, Jesus, toboth receive you and then to
stand fast in believing thetruth in the power of your
(38:45):
spirit.
And for us, all who alreadybelieve and were too, and we've
already chosen to uh uh beginthat relationship with you,
Father, hold us fast.
Give us the strength to holdfast to the truth of the gospel.
(39:05):
You have done all the work, andwe stand in the completed,
finished sacrifice of Jesus.
You proclaimed on the cross itis finished.
The veil was torn, and now wehave perfect access to God, and
God, you have perfect access tous, and we have become one in
(39:27):
the Spirit because of this greatgospel.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
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