The Gospel Facts
Tom Shrader walks through 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, explaining that the gospel is not primarily about behavior but about doctrine — specifically that Christ died for sin, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures. He argues that belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus is not optional but essential to salvation, citing Romans 10:9 and warning against cultural voices that reduce the resurrection to a symbol. Drawing on 2 Corinthians 5:21, he unpacks the substitutionary nature of the cross and closes with a pastoral call to respond to the gospel in repentance and faith, using Peter's restoration as a picture of what God does with those who have failed.
“If Christ died and was buried and is still in that tomb, then your faith and my faith is useless. But the good news is, He's alive.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Corinthians
Recorded: 2002 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 19 min
Themes: resurrection, gospel, salvation, faith, repentance, hope, forgiveness, belief, new believer, doubting faith, questioning Christianity, searching for truth, feeling unworthy, fallen and restored, young adult, skeptic
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-5, 1 Corinthians 15:12, 1 Corinthians 15:58, 1 Corinthians 1:10, 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Romans 1:16, Romans 8:35-39, Romans 10:9, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Galatians 1:12, James 2:19, Matthew 7, Acts 2, Acts 4:12-13, Job 4:4
Theological Themes: substitutionary atonement, bodily resurrection, soteriology, saved by faith, doctrine of christ, justification, biblical authority, propitiation
Full Transcript
The Foundation of Christian Faith
Open your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. If 1 Corinthians 13 is the love chapter, then 1 Corinthians 15 is what we would identify as the resurrection chapter. You could not have picked a more important Sunday to be here, because the topic we look at today is absolutely critical to us as Christians.
If you want to talk about the Christian faith — what is the Christian faith? It is a system of beliefs that result in changed behavior. Christianity at its core is not action. Christianity at its core is doctrine. Obviously that doctrine changes our lives, but what makes you a Christian is not what you do — it is what you believe.
Frequently somebody will say, "Well, I know so-and-so — he's a good Christian man." And I'll say, "Well, tell me about him." They'll say, "He's a great dad, he's a great husband, he's a good business guy, he's an honest guy." Well, that has nothing to do with your Christianity in the sense of making you a Christian. You may be a good father and a good husband, but you may be a pagan. What makes you a Christian is accepting and responding to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is what we are going to look at today — the gospel, the facts of the gospel.
Why the Resurrection Is Everything
Paul is writing here in 1 Corinthians 15 and dealing with the resurrection. John Locke, the eighteenth-century British philosopher, wrote this: "Our Savior's resurrection is truly of great importance in Christianity, so great that His being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it." That is why the enemy attacks the Christian faith so vigorously at this point of resurrection. If you can disprove the resurrection, all of Christianity falls apart. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then what we are engaged in right now is a waste of time.
Here is what Ray Stedman says, and he says it concisely: the fundamental question upon which Christianity ultimately rests is this — did Jesus Christ actually, literally, physically rise from the dead? Everything hangs on that question. If Christ died and was buried and is still in that tomb, then your faith and my faith is useless. But the good news is, He is alive.
This is so central to the Christian faith that if you do not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, you are not a Christian. That is what Paul says in Romans 10:9: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." It is not just a simple acknowledgment that He is God and Lord of everything — the demons believe that. Remember, that is what James says: even the demons believe those things.
It is a deep personal conviction, an understanding that Jesus is your Lord and your Master. It is not just intellectual assent, although there is certainly an intellectual component. There is an emotional understanding that this is true, and there is a trusting — a putting of your faith in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation. "Believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead."
A Warning as Easter Approaches
I give you this warning as you head into the next few weeks toward Easter. You will hear what we hear every year. You will hear Christians, or people who say they are Christians, on the radio, on television, writing in the newspaper, and they will say that whether Christ rose from the dead or not really does not matter — that it is just a picture, a picture of spring and life and things coming together again. Listen, it is not just a picture. It is part of your salvation. If you believe that Jesus Christ did not physically rise from the dead, if you deny the resurrection of Christ, then based on Paul's teaching in Romans 10:9, you are not a Christian at all.
Paul said this in Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." And Paul says in Romans 10:9 that if you believe this, you will be saved. The idea of being saved means deliverance — being rescued. You are rescued from the consequence of sin. No longer is hell in your future. You are delivered from the bondage of sin, from lostness, from hopelessness. All of a sudden, your life has purpose and meaning.
It is easy for us to look at God rescuing us from hell and simply say, "I am glad we avoided that" — and indeed we are; how grateful we should be for that. But it is far greater than that. It is the ability to see this life as it really is, to enjoy life, to love, to have peace and patience, and to be able to live life as God wants you to live.
The Problem in the Corinthian Church
Now, as we have studied 1 Corinthians, Paul is continually addressing a church that is in disorder. They have doctrine backwards. They do communion wrong — they have turned it into a drunken banquet. They are not dealing with sin. They are dealing with all sorts of problems and misunderstanding. And that disorder is also at the core of what Paul is addressing when he comes to the resurrection.
Before we look at verse 1, take a quick look at verse 12. Paul writes: "Now if Christ is preached that He is raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?" We will unpack this more when we get there, but here is what is going on. The Corinthians did believe that Christ had risen from the dead — otherwise they would not be Christians at all. Their confusion lay in what happens to their own lives, what happens to their bodies. The pagan influences of their culture and the pagan philosophies and belief systems had crept into this church and were distorting their understanding of resurrection.
Introduction: Paul's Letter to a Confused Church
Paul is writing to correct this church because they are confused. As he does throughout this entire letter, he addresses their error directly. We will look at the first five or six verses today.
1 Corinthians 15, verse 1 opens with Paul saying, "Now I make known to you." The NIV renders it, "I remind you." In other words, Paul is saying this is not new material. This is what we talked about before. This is what I taught, what I preached, what you have already heard.
Paul opens by addressing them as "brethren." This may seem like overkill, since this will be the fifth time we have discussed it, but it is worth making sure we get it. As troubled as this church was, Paul still regarded them as Christians. In chapter 1 verse 10, chapter 2 verse 1, chapter 3 verse 1, and chapter 10 verse 1, he identifies them as fellow Christians — and he does so again here.
At the end of this same chapter, verse 58, he goes even further, calling them "my beloved brethren." Not only does he identify with them, he expresses deep affection and love for them. Paul is writing to instruct and correct these people, but his underlying conviction is that they are Christians.
The Gospel: What It Does Before What It Is
Paul now says, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel." We know that word means literally "good news." What Paul does next seems backward, but since God inspired this text, we understand it must be correct. He tells them first what the gospel *does*, and only then what the gospel *is*.
If most of us were writing this, we would naturally say, "Here is what the gospel is — now let me tell you what it does." But that is not Paul's approach. Instead, he lays out these actions: the gospel was preached to them, they received it, they stand in it, and by it they were saved. Those words deserve our attention.
The Power and Foolishness of the Cross
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. A constant theme of this book is the gospel, the cross of Christ. Look at chapter 1, verse 18: "The word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."
When Paul uses the word "perishing," he does not mean those who are physically dying. He means those who are spiritually dead, those who have no ears to hear. Some who have been Christians for a long time can forget how absurd this message sounds to a nonbeliever.
Here is how the story sounds to the outside world: There was an Adam and an Eve who lived thousands of years ago, and when they sinned, you sinned with them. Sin entered the world through them, and then God had to establish some system by which you could be saved. So the Creator God of the universe, the invisible God, became visible. He came to this earth as Christ — fully God and fully man, like us in every way. He laughed, He cried, He wept, He hungered, He thirsted, but He did not sin. Then He died on the cross, and when He did, our sin was thrust upon Him and He paid the price. Now, if you believe that, you can have heaven.
To an unbeliever, that sounds absurd. What makes more sense, humanly speaking, is this: be as good as you can be and God will work out the rest. That is intuitive. The gospel sounds like foolishness — but it is the power of God.
Paul's Preaching: Power Over Persuasion
Look at chapter 2, verse 1: "Now when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of the power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God."
Paul returns to this point again and again. He says he came in weakness and trembling — partly out of fear, but perhaps even more out of a fear of inadequacy. He was not an especially persuasive speaker, perhaps not as articulate as he would have liked to be, but that was never his focus. His focus was on power, and the power resided in the testimony of God, in the cross itself. It is not in a presentation.
So when Paul says in chapter 15 verse 1, "the gospel which I preached to you," this is what he means. He was determined to know nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified. He discusses other matters throughout the letter, but he is clear: of preeminent importance, above all else, is the gospel.
Standing on the Gospel
Paul says, "I preached it to you, which you also received." The idea behind "received" is something passed on, typically in oral tradition — in this context, specifically as eyewitness testimony of the gospel, and especially of the resurrection. Paul passed this on to them, and in this gospel, he says, they stand.
One translation of Job chapter 4 verse 4 puts it simply: "Your words have kept men on their feet." In a world that is seducing us, pulling us away, and constantly changing — where value systems shift and the physical world itself is transformed — the gospel is what keeps us standing.
Standing Firm in a Changing World
I go out to Northwest Phoenix, and there is what was a vacant field a year ago, and now there is a power center, Walmarts, and 50,000 cars. The physical world is changing, but so is our own moral direction. Haven't you had heart-to-heart conversations with non-believers where you said, "Listen, I know you're shacking up with this girl, but God says that's wrong," and they responded, "Hey, it's 2002"? There was a time when a guy would sit down with his buddy and say the same thing, and they said, "Hey, it's 157," or "it's 895." This goes on for years. A timeless God does not produce dated material. This is God's Word, and it does not change.
In a world that is shaky and wobbly, where it feels like everything around you is moving, how do you find stability? It is in the gospel. It is in the gospel of Christ. All of a sudden we can stand firm because God saved us, God spared us, God rescued us, God delivered us. That is the whole message.
Saved, Being Saved, Will Be Saved
Paul says, "I preached it to you, you received it, you stood in it, and by it you were saved." It is the idea we discussed at the beginning of the service: I have been rescued from my lostness. And it is in the present tense. This is something that continues. As you read through Scripture, you will see the Apostle tell us we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. The idea is not that we are only saved at the single point of salvation, but that this is a continuous process. We live continually in this reality.
Paul says, "You have been saved if you hold fast the word which I preached, unless you believed in vain." What Paul is not teaching here is that you could savingly believe — that is, put your faith and trust in Christ and become a Christian — and then one day conclude it was useless. That cannot happen. If you are a Christian now, you are as certain of heaven as the saints who are already there.
Romans 8:35 — Paul writes: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword." And verse 37: "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor heights nor depths nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is not a picture of our unshakable love for Him. It is a picture of His unshakable love for us.
True Faith Versus Vain Belief
What Paul is saying in verse 2 is that if you have true saving faith, you will never walk away. But there are some who play at this. There are some who do not have genuine faith, and so they believe in vain — their faith is useless. Jesus speaks to this in Matthew 7, where He says there will be many on that day who said to Him, "Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things?" And He is going to say, "Get out of here, I never knew you."
We see this often around the church. A saved junior high or high school student and a morally compliant junior high or high school student look very much the same. One who is truly saved and one who simply wants to please mom and dad will do all the same things on the outside. The last statistic I saw said that ninety percent of students in high school and church, once they go to college, walk away from their faith. That is a staggering number — nine out of ten — and many of them continue in that.
You have been here when we do baptisms where someone says, "At summer camp I came to Christ, but nothing really happened, and then I went to Campus Crusade in college, and I was a Christian then, but nothing really changed for twenty years." I am not the Holy Spirit, so I can be wrong, but my take on that is you were never saved at all. Are things going to sit dormant for twenty years? I do not think so. And that is what Paul is addressing. If he preached to you, and you received it, and you stand firm in it, you were saved and you will persevere until the very end. That is what the gospel does.
The Gospel in a Nutshell
Now, here is what the gospel is, in verses three and four. Paul writes: "For I delivered to you, as of first importance" — in other words, this is preeminent, this supersedes all other things, it is foundational to the faith, and if you do not get this right the rest of it is not going to work — "what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." There is the gospel.
Larry Wright used to call verses three and four of 1 Corinthians 15 the gospel in a nutshell. Paul says, "I delivered this which I received." This was not something Paul thought up. This was not something he dreamt and conjured up on his own. This was something he received. In Galatians 1:12, Paul writes: "For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation from Jesus Christ." It was Christ Himself — not other human beings, not the apostles — who gave this truth to Paul.
We saw this a chapter back, in 1 Corinthians 14:37, where Paul says: "These things I write to you are commandments of the Lord." He is saying, "Thus saith the Lord." These are not Paul's own words — God gave him this. And then he gives us what Larry calls the gospel in a nutshell. These, to me, are the gospel facts. I think of Dragnet when I think of this: give me the facts, just the facts.
Christ Died for Our Sin
Here is the first gospel fact: Christ died for our sin. If we simply say Christ died, that is not stopping the presses. Every person who thinks at all — pagan, secular, humanist, religious, irreligious — it does not matter. Every person who acknowledged that Jesus lived acknowledged that Jesus died. That is not a difficult thing. We know historically He was here, and then He died.
What Paul does here is something very important. He connects Christ's death with our sin. He says there is a connection between Christ's death on the cross and our sin. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 — if you leave your finger in the passage and flip just to the next book, it is an easy turn — Paul says this: "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
Paul summarizes the gospel in that one verse. John MacArthur writes that in these fifteen Greek words are expressed the doctrines of imputation and substitution like no other single verse. It is a powerful verse. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin. Jesus did not sin on the cross, but He was treated like a sinner.
The True Agony of the Cross
That truth gets into the whole idea of the agony of the cross. Is that phrase familiar to you — the agony of the cross? Without some explanation, we can quickly assume the agony of the cross refers to the physical torture Christ suffered. And while He suffered very real pain — they beat Him, whipped Him, put a crown of thorns on Him, humiliated Him, mocked Him, led Him through town carrying a crossbar, took Him to the place of the skull, and nailed Him to that cross — that is not the agony of it. They did that with thousands of people. Thousands of people died an agonizing death on crosses.
Perhaps you are not familiar with what crucifixion actually looked like. If you walk into a Catholic church, virtually every one I have ever been in, you will see a cross with Christ hanging on it — feet together, body simply hanging there. That may be great artwork, but it is not an accurate depiction. He would likely have been naked. His body would have been more twisted, with a small platform or peg for His feet to rest on, and He would press up against that peg whenever He needed to breathe, pushing up so His lungs could expand.
A person could go through that exercise for days. The Romans were experts at this. They could literally keep people on the cross four, five, or six days. By controlling how much food and liquid they provided, they could extend the suffering. It was not at all uncommon for birds of prey to begin picking at the eyes and body while the person was still alive. That is also why, when they broke the legs of the two thieves, the men did not die from the broken bones themselves — with their legs broken, they could no longer push up, their lungs collapsed, and they asphyxiated. That is how a person died on the cross.
So when we consider the physical aspect of crucifixion, I would suggest — though I do not know how one measures such things — that many people endured as much physical pain as Christ, perhaps even more. The agony of the cross is not the physical suffering. The agony of the cross is something else entirely.
Treated as a Sinner
The agony of the cross is this: as He hung there in the midst of excruciating pain, God made Him who knew no sin to become sin. At that moment, Jesus Christ was treated like a sinner — the very thing He hates most.
We cannot even begin to relate to this, because we are intrigued by sin. You are. Even if you know something is something you would never do, you are still intrigued by it. You think about it. You wonder what it would be like, whether you could arrange it, whether you would get away with it. We think about this constantly. We are enticed and seduced by sin and selfishness. Christ finds it sickening. At that moment, the very thing He hates most — He, the holy, righteous, pure God come in the flesh — is placed upon Him.
Is that not amazing? There is the agony of the cross. That is why I believe it was so excruciating the night before when He said, "Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me — but not My will, but Your will be done." He knows what is going to happen when He hangs on that cross.
There are very few words spoken from the cross, and all of them are important and riveting. But none grasps my attention more than this one: "My God, My God." Every other record we have in the New Testament of Jesus addressing God uses the word Father. But at that moment, He is separated from the Father by this sin, and He hangs there utterly alone. That is the agony of the cross.
He Was Buried
He died for our sin, and then they did with Him what is done with dead people — they buried Him. It is interesting, as I look at this passage, that Paul mentions nothing about Christ's life. He does not say one thing about it. He does not mention the virgin birth or anything else. He simply states that Christ died, and then he includes that they buried Him. The only reason I can think that the burial is important is that being buried was evidence He was truly dead — and the fact that the
The Empty Tomb
The empty tomb today gives evidence that He raised from the dead. He was buried, and then He was raised. The tomb is empty. That is what separates our Christian faith from any other faith in the world. A follower of Buddha writes, when Buddha died, it was with the utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains. Most of you in this room, myself included until study, would not know the significance of June 8th, 632, but it was then at age 61 that Muhammad died. Every year thousands of Muslims visit that tomb, and they mourn in sadness. Not our faith. Empty tomb.
When we look at the death of Christ, we never separate the death from the resurrection. The cross and the empty tomb go together. This is probably expressed poorly, but my favorite service here at the church is Good Friday. I love our Good Friday service. Every year the combination of the written word, the spoken word, the music, and the pictures just drives home to me the fact that Christ died.
There is one video that we use while they are singing "Mary, Did You Know," and Christ is coming down from the cross, and that body just lays there. There is one scene where the arm just falls, and for whatever reason, every year I look at that and I see how isolated He is. No one there, just His mother and a few of the ladies. No one there as God lays there.
When you walk out of here on Good Friday, it is a very serious time. I remember one Good Friday years ago, we were leaving the other church. It was just Haley and I, and Hayes next to me in the car, and she was crying, and she said, "Dad, he's got to get out of the tomb." That is exactly what we hope you feel when you leave on Good Friday.
When you come in on Easter Sunday — let's be accurate, when you come in at 1:15 on Easter Sunday afternoon — it is a very different feel. We try to pick up right where we left off on Good Friday. That is why we tell you, if you miss Good Friday, whatever Sunday it is, you miss what we intend there. When you come in, it is dark, and oftentimes there is somebody sitting at the synthesizer, and then all of a sudden — he is alive! There is something about this place on Easter Sunday that is different than other places.
Every Day Is Easter
I know every day is Easter for us here. But there is something different about Easter Sunday. There is a joy — I suppose because on that day in particular, it is so obviously real to us. If you are a follower of Buddha, Muhammad, or Joseph Smith, there are graves you can visit where they are. They are dead. Jesus is gone. Buried. But He comes blowing out of that tomb.
Paul says this was all done according to the Scriptures. One commentator writes this: Jesus, Peter, and Paul quoted and referred to such Old Testament passages — and they list a number of them — over and over again, either directly or indirectly, literally or in figures of speech. The Old Testament foretells Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. No Jew who believed and understood the Scriptures — referring to what we now call the Old Testament — should have been surprised that the Messiah was ordained to die, be buried, and then be resurrected. Twice Paul repeats the phrase "according to the Scriptures" to emphasize that this is no new thing, nor a contradiction of true Jewish belief.
That is the gospel right there. Christ died for our sins. He was raised according to the Scriptures.
Four Ways to Respond
Many of you have accepted that as truth, and I know this is repetitious to you. My hope is that, at least as with my own heart, when you hear this gospel you find yourself filled with joy. Many of you have heard this many times and may even be sermon-proof. Some of you are hearing this for the first time. So what do you do with it?
In terms of response, there are basically four ways you can respond. The first is simply to deny it. To think: that was interesting, nice music, air conditioning's working, message was pretty good. But who cares? It doesn't matter. I will tell you plainly — you are a fool if that is your response.
Almost everybody, once they hear this, says, "I am guilty. I am a sinner." Even little children, before you have really begun to train them, once you catch them doing something they are not supposed to do, they instinctively seem to know what is wrong. They instinctively hide. And isn't that what we do when we sin? We love to hide. That is what happens with internet pornography. There was a time when you had to go out to a store and make your way in. But now all you have to do is type it in, and you are off and running. This is exploding all around us. We like to hide. So at least you can admit it.
The second response is to try to clean your act up. I will admit, that is what I did for a while. I figured I was a sinner, and that what God required was simply to do more good than bad. I thought if I did more good than bad, I would go to heaven, and more bad than good, I would go to hell. Midway through my freshman year of college, I looked at the bad stack, and it was so high that I said, let us just go for a record, because there was no way I was going to get this right. I think some people do exactly that. And I am not sure that response two and response...
Despair Over Sin
When you look at these things together, you can be filled with despair. You say, "There's no way. God doesn't want anything to do with me. Do you know what I've done? Do you know what I've thought? Do you know what I've said? There's no way. I can't forgive myself. How is God going to forgive me? There's nothing I can do. This is overwhelming to me. I'm a derelict. God is holy and righteous. If I can't forgive myself, how is He ever going to forgive me?" And so you're filled with despair.
In Scripture, that is what Judas does. He sees his sin, and he goes and hangs himself. But there is another man who is an example of a different response. He sees his sin. He is broken over it. He admits it. He repents, and he comes in faith. You know his name — Peter.
Peter: A Different Kind of Response
I feel real sympathy for Peter. I say this every time, but every time we think of Peter, he is like a human piñata. We wheel him out and just beat the snot out of him. We do the same story every time — poor Peter, denying Christ three times. Peter never gets a chance. But I want you to see something more about Peter.
Look at verse 5. Christ rose according to the Scripture, and then He appeared. Paul talks about all these appearances, but the first one is to Cephas — that is Peter. We will talk next week about the significance of that. But consider what Peter had done. Peter had just declared, "Jesus, they can come and take You, but I'll tell you what, You'll never be separated from me. I'll die!" That is what he said. And then a little servant girl asked, "Weren't you with Him?" And Peter denied Him — not once, but three times.
If you stop there, you miss Peter's restoration. Christ appears to Peter. We will talk about that more next week. But look at the result.
Peter Transformed
You get to Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost, and Peter delivers this powerful sermon. Three thousand people are saved. Then in Acts chapter 4, the elders, the rulers, and the scribes bring them together and want to know, "How are you doing this? What is the power, Peter?" And Peter delivers this extraordinary response, ending in chapter 4, verse 12: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved."
We stop there, appropriately, when we talk about the exclusive nature of Christ. But look at verse 13: "Now, as they observed the confidence of Peter and of John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling. And they began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." They looked at him and said, "They are not trained. They are not skilled in this. They are not educated. And they have been with Jesus."
Here is what I think. I do not think the observers were recognizing that Peter had been there when Jesus fed the five thousand, or that he had walked with Him in His earthly ministry — that was not very dazzling. After all, the little servant girl had asked Peter if he was with Jesus, and he said no. I think they recognized that Peter had been with the risen Jesus, that he had seen the resurrected Christ, and his life could not stay the same.
How about you? Do the people around you see that in your life?
The God of Second Chances
I have to believe — and we will probably talk about this more next week — that I understand something of how those disciples felt on Good Friday with the information they had. When Christ was dead and buried, what must it have been like for them? What must it have been like for Peter? Have you ever said, "God, just give me a second chance"? He is the God of second chances. And did He ever give Peter a second chance. He saved him, and his life was transformed.
Maybe you are here today and you have given up. Everybody around you has given up on you, and you have even given up on yourself. I have felt that way in my life. There were people who were encouraging me and hanging around, but I had given up on myself. I did not think there was any way. And you know what? It was not up to me. It was up to Him. And He saved me. He will save you if you come in repentance and faith.
An Invitation
If you are here today and you did not take communion — by your own testimony, not by our judgment, but by your own testimony — you acknowledge that you are not a Christian. I would plead with you to talk to the person who invited you or brought you here today. Ask them what it means to know Christ.
I do not care how helpless and hopeless you think you are. In fact, you may not see it, but that feeling is actually a good thing. Because until you reach that point, until you understand that bad news, you will never come to the gospel — the good news. Talk to someone. Ask what it means to be a Christian. Call us here at the church. There is nothing we would have more pleasure in doing than sitting and talking with you about the gospel and about Christ.
I am going to pick up right there next week, talking about Peter and then the others.
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Father, help us see this truth. God, we pray that You would change our lives through an act of Your will. God, do that. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.