Our Faith Is Based on Facts
Tom Shrader opens Luke 1:1-4, examining how Luke's meticulous research and Spirit-inspired writing establish that Christianity is a religion built on verifiable historical facts, not behavioral religion. Drawing on J.C. Ryle and Peter's first three sermons in Acts, Shrader argues that the gospel is simply this: Christ died for sin, rose again, and calls sinners to repent and believe. He closes by challenging listeners to consider whether, like Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, the people around them can recognize that they have been with Jesus.
“Christianity at its core is not about a belief system in terms of behavior. It is doctrinal. It is belief. It is a fact. Christianity is built upon facts, and we ought not ever lose sight of that.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2003/2004)
Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 50 min
Themes: faith, evidence, gospel, repentance, resurrection, history, salvation, knowing jesus, skeptic questioning faith, new believer, seeking assurance, doubting christian, sharing faith with others, student of the bible, young adult, searching for truth
Scripture: Luke 1:1-4, Matthew 7:13-23, Acts 2:22, Acts 2:32, Acts 2:37, Acts 2:41, Acts 2:42, Acts 3:11-12, Acts 4:7, Acts 4:10-12, Acts 4:13, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 John 1:1, 2 Peter 1:21, Genesis 3:15, Genesis 39:3, Romans 10:9
Theological Themes: biblical inerrancy, historical reliability, atonement, christ died for sin, resurrection of christ, repentance and faith, inspiration of scripture, gospel proclamation
Full Transcript
Background on Luke's Gospel
We continue our study in the life of Christ. We are taking the Gospels and harmonizing them — bringing them together in chronological order, as best we can — drawing from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We spent the first few weeks looking at the first eighteen verses of John's Gospel, and then last week we looked at sections from Matthew's Gospel and Luke's Gospel as we brought together the genealogies of Christ. For those who want to work ahead and be prepared, we are going to look in its entirety at the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. We covered the first four verses today, so we did not exactly keep the pace I had hoped, but that is fine.
Let me give you some background on Luke's Gospel — some of this is simply a reminder. Luke is a Gentile, the only Gentile to author a book of the New Testament. He was a physician, and consequently, as you survey this Gospel, you will see that Luke puts a special emphasis on the healing ministry of Jesus.
Luke is the most prolific of the New Testament authors in terms of volume. If asked who the most voluminous writer of the New Testament is, most people would say Paul — thirteen books or so — but that is not correct. You might then guess John, given Revelation, the Gospel of John, and the three epistles bearing his name, but the answer is Luke. With just two books — the Gospel that bears his name and the Book of Acts — Luke wrote something like 2,100 to 2,200 verses.
The dating of this book is likely the early 60s, around 60 or 61 AD, after Mark and probably Matthew's Gospel were written. Luke was a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul. Remember that at the very end of his life, Paul writes to Timothy and says, "Come to me quickly — only Luke is with me," with Luke there beside him in prison. Luke's style is very scholarly. He is a physician, historian, and artist — clearly a profound thinker and a magnificent writer.
His Gospel contains the most complete account of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. The theme that runs throughout this Gospel is Jesus' compassion for the Gentiles, and again, that makes sense. When we looked at Matthew's writing, we saw that Matthew was writing to the Jews, so that Gospel is filled with Old Testament references — three times more than the other three Gospel writers combined — because Matthew is making the point again and again that Jesus is the Messiah. Luke is not concerned with that particular emphasis. Luke's focus is on the Gentiles and the compassion Jesus shows as He reaches beyond the nation of Israel to them.
Women and the Symbols of the Gospels
Women hold a high and prominent place in Luke's Gospel. Just a few of those women include Mary the mother of Jesus, Elizabeth, Anna, Martha, her sister Mary, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and others. Luke tends to select parables told by Jesus that feature women, so women play a central role throughout this Gospel.
In his introduction to his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, William Barclay writes this: "Every one of the four Gospels was written from a certain point of view. Very often on a stained glass window the writers of the Gospels are pictured, and usually to each there is attached a symbol. The symbols vary, but one of the commonest allocations is this: the emblem of Mark is a man, the emblem of Matthew is a lion, the emblem of John is an eagle, the emblem of Luke is a calf." A calf is the animal of sacrifice, and Luke saw Jesus as the sacrifice for the world. Luke, above all the other Gospel writers, saw that Jesus broke down the barriers between Jew and Gentile, between saint and sinner alike. He is the Savior of the world. Luke comes back to that same theme over and over again — it is the point he is determined to demonstrate throughout his Gospel.
Lessons from the Genealogies
Last week we looked at the two genealogies — two lists tracing the ancestry of Jesus. At the end of that study, I gave what we titled "Lessons from the Lists," and I want to use those as a springboard for today.
The first lesson was this: all Scripture is inspired by God. Do not look at those genealogies and say they do not matter or that we can simply set them aside. No — all Scripture is inspired by God, and God always keeps His promises. That is so important for us. As it relates to the genealogies specifically, it concerns the promise of the Messiah. The promise of the virgin birth goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 — there we see it, the promise of the virgin birth, the promise of the Redeemer, the promise of the Messiah.
But this truth has great practical application in our lives as well. This morning, with the order of service arranged the way it currently is — and several of you have asked whether we will keep it that way, and I am not sure yet — I had the opportunity to get in and speak with people across all the services before they began. This morning I was struck by how many times, when someone was asked how their holiday was, the answer was, "Pretty rugged. I really struggled — family stuff, business stuff, I just really struggled."
I thought how encouraging it is, and how good of the Lord, to remind us last week and again this week that He keeps His promises. Even when it does not feel that way, even when it feels as though you may have been forsaken or that He has left you, you know that is not true — that is simply your feelings lying to you. Especially as you draw closer to Him and you begin to understand His character more deeply, you can hold onto the certainty that He is faithful to every promise He has made.
God's Faithfulness to His People
Perhaps in the midst of your sin you feel like there is just a huge amount of guilt on you. You are saying, "I have been at this so long and yet I am blowing it again and again — can He forgive me?" And the answer is yes. Sometimes you are saying, "It is a long way to that finish line of life; I don't know if I am going to make it." But He who began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus. And in the midst of hurt and pain, when it comes and you think, "I don't know if I can take this" — wait. That is your feelings talking.
Remember what we looked at last week? There is what you feel, there is what you think, and there is what you know. What do you know? He will never test you beyond that which you can endure. You can list those promises of God one by one. Let me add one to that list: those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. There is a promise — you probably haven't claimed that one yet this week. All those promises come together, and He is faithful. He makes those promises, and they are good because He makes them.
The genealogy teaches us that God destroys the barrier between sinners and Himself, that God's grace overcomes our sinfulness, and that God has a very deep love for His people. There is much discussion around the question of whether God loves everybody, and it seems to me that since God tells us to love our enemies, He must. But I would suggest that He has a special affection for His children.
The human parallel is an excellent one. I am okay with kids — I like kids, I suppose, and I can deal with them. I am far better around them than I used to be. But there are two kids I love more than every other kid: Sarah and Haley, my own daughters. I have a special affection for them. I think that is the way it is with God. God may have a broad, general love for people, but He has a specific, special, deep, and unfailing love for His people.
Are you one of those? Do you know Christ as Lord and Savior? If so, God loves you — and this is an awesome thought — more than you love yourself. His love for you is a perfect love, whereas your love for yourself is filled with prejudice, misunderstanding, self-centeredness, and everything that goes with it. That is a great backdrop, but what I want to focus on is that God keeps His promises.
Turning to Luke's Account of the Birth of Christ
I did not plan it carefully enough to time it deliberately, but I find it fascinating that we arrive at Luke chapter 1 right at Christmastime. As we enter the season when we celebrate the birth of Christ, we begin looking at Luke's account of it. We will look at the first four verses.
Here is what Luke writes: *"Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as those who were from the beginning eyewitnesses and servants of the word handed them down to us."* Let me stop there. These first four verses in the Greek flow as one sentence. Scholars of classical Greek literature would suggest that this sentence ranks among the finest writing you will find anywhere in Greek literature. Luke is a scholar and a genius.
He says many have undertaken to write this account. Who the many are, we do not really know. Mark's gospel was certainly already written, and Matthew's gospel was probably written as well, in addition to others providing firsthand accounts. Notice what he says in verse 2 — they were eyewitnesses. That is exactly what John says in 1 John 1: *"The things that were from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we held with our hands."*
Luke does not try to pass himself off as an eyewitness. He does not claim to be a firsthand witness of the events of the life of Christ. What he does say is that he went out and investigated — he did his research and spoke with those eyewitnesses. My speculation is that he spent a good deal of time talking with the apostles, and my belief is that he also spent considerable time talking with Mary, the mother of Jesus. That would explain why in the first three chapters of Luke we get the most detailed account of the birth of Christ and the events surrounding it. He provides an eyewitness account for us and is meticulous in his writing.
Luke's Method: Careful, Orderly Investigation
Look at verses 3 and 4: *"It seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order."* Luke does not disappoint us. If you picture the personality profile of someone who is a physician, a historian, and an author — precise and meticulous — that person is going to be someone who carefully investigates everything from the very beginning.
The phrase in verse 3 tells us he writes it out in consecutive order. Some translations render this as "an orderly account." Ken Hughes offers helpful insight here. He says what Luke meant by an orderly account was a systematic arrangement grouped around the themes he wished to emphasize.
The Holy Spirit's Role in Scripture
Luke wants to emphasize certain points, and he is not going to hold himself to necessarily a chronological order. He wants to emphasize these points, and the main point of emphasis is that Jesus Christ is the salvation available to all men — Jew, Gentile, and obviously all sinners. He does this under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Go back to verse 3, where Luke is talking about his investigation. What Luke is saying is that he is pouring his blood and sweat into this project. Writing is so difficult and arduous. But here is what is interesting: there is a sense in which Luke didn't even write the book. If we say who wrote the Gospel of Luke, we want to say Luke did — but what we know is that he was moved by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is inspired by God. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 21 says that when these men wrote, it wasn't their writing — it wasn't a human will, but the will of God, the act of God, that gave us this. That is why this book is so much more important than any other book in all of literature.
Books, Barnes and Noble, and the Bible
I love books. My brother Dan is in town, and Dan and I are close friends. He came in Tuesday, and Wednesday was the day everyone was going to cook — which is not my task. A couple of years ago, we had a Thanksgiving where everyone made a dish, and I made green beans with mushroom soup. I like crunch, so I put some nuts in it, and then the recipe said something like four drops of Tabasco. I thought that was silly, so I put in about half a bottle. They took a bite and said it was the worst thing they had ever had. The upside is that they no longer want me to cook.
So Wednesday, we went to Barnes and Noble and then to the Borders, both down at Ray and the freeway. I just love to go to bookstores. Chris Matthews had been talking about a new book, saying it was the best book on history and politics he had ever read, and my brother had just finished it and agreed it was really good. But there is something about the Bible that is different from every other book — it is written by God, and for us as Christians, nothing replaces it.
How This Church Got Its Name
Did you ever wonder how we got the name of this church? When we gathered together, people started saying we needed to call this thing something. Names like Mount Zion and Elliott Road Baptist Church were being fired off, and this is how creative we are as an elder team — we asked ourselves some basic questions. Where are we? In the East Valley. What do we do? Teach the Bible. What are we? A fellowship. East Valley Bible Fellowship.
I really underestimated the importance of that name, because dozens of people — which means three, four, and five times as many people beyond those who said it — have told me that their original reason for coming to this church was because it said "Bible" in the title. They wanted to know if we indeed believed it was true and taught it. That is what we want to emphasize. That is what Luke is saying. Luke is saying he worked and worked and worked, but at the same time, it was God who wrote this book.
Christianity Is Built on Facts
Luke is writing to an audience — "the most excellent Theophilus." That term, "most excellent," designates someone who was a dignitary in the Roman culture and Roman hierarchy. We know nothing else about Theophilus. Luke says, "I am writing so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." The NIV says "the certainty of the things you have been taught." That is why I want to camp out for the next twenty minutes or so before we take communion.
J.C. Ryle — writing around 1860 or 1865 — wrote these words: "Christianity is a religion built upon fact. Let us never lose sight of this." I have made a vow four times this morning, between the 8, 9, 10, and 11 o'clock services, that this would be the last time for a while that I talk about this, because I know I have been talking about it a lot lately. But I really want to make sure we get this point. Christianity at its core is not about a belief system in terms of behavior. It is not behavioral — it is doctrinal. It is belief. It is fact. Christianity is built upon facts, and we ought never to lose sight of that. Religion is based on behavior, but Christianity is different.
Grace, Not Works
Every year on the second Friday of December at 1:15, a friend and I meet at Durant's for lunch. We eat, we talk, and we get out of there around 4:00. We have a lot of business to transact and a lot of conversation to catch up on. The only time we speak throughout the year is to call and arrange this luncheon — we drift in, pick up where we left off, and say we'll see each other the following year.
This year I had a scheduling conflict. Sarah and I are heading up to Sea Ranch for a long weekend since we didn't get up there this summer, so I called to ask if we could move the lunch from Friday to Thursday. He told me he was just about to call me because he has to go to Las Vegas for a physical on that Friday and asked the same thing. We agreed on Thursday at 1:30 since I had a prior commitment that needed a slightly later start.
After we sorted out the details, he asked, "How's everything going?" I said things were fine. He said, "How's the cult going?" — meaning East Valley Bible Church. I told him the cult was fine, that people are coming and things are happening.
Then he asked, "Are you still on that kick about Mother Teresa and Gandhi?" That goes back to a conversation we had years ago when I made the comment that Gandhi is the nicest man in hell. That statement is based on Gandhi's own testimony — Gandhi said he embraced the teaching of Jesus but rejected the fact that Jesus died for him or for anyone else. Based on his rejection of that, Gandhi is in hell.
Mother Teresa is a very important icon in my friend's religion, so I was trying to make the point that Jeffrey Dahmer and Mother Teresa both need a Savior. If Jeffrey Dahmer came to faith and Mother Teresa did not, Jeffrey Dahmer would be in heaven and Mother Teresa would be in hell. That drives him absolutely nuts.
Paris Hilton and the Logic of Grace
He announced new rules: we are not talking about Jeffrey Dahmer anymore — we are using Paris Hilton from now on. I told him I was fine with that. You can put any name you want in there; you could put your own name in and it wouldn't really change things. In that conversation, which ran about 45 minutes, he must have said "Paris Hilton" half a dozen times. He won't let it go.
Do you know why he won't let it go? Because for the first time, someone has actually explained salvation by grace to him. That is how you know when you have shared your faith and explained grace adequately — they will say something back like this: "Wait a minute, let me make sure I've got this straight. If I come to Christ in repentance and faith, if I believe Jesus is who He said He was, if I confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead, I am going to heaven — sure as the saints who are already there?" Yes. That is correct.
Now, apparently Jeffrey Dahmer did come to faith. That is the story, anyway — that he was baptized in prison. We do not know for certain whether it was genuine. But if it was, we have said this before: he is in heaven. He has a dwelling place right next to yours.
What grips your heart about that is that you begin to understand salvation has nothing to do with you and what you have done. That is grace. Finally, someone understands that this is grace and not works.
The Facts of the Christian Faith
Those are the facts of the Christian faith — that Jesus died for our sin. Even among Christians, I think there is sometimes a misunderstanding, especially when it comes to what happened at the cross and the atonement. Our faith is based in fact. What makes us Christians is the facts of what we believe. There are lots of counterfeits out there, lots of knockoffs.
You are in Luke's Gospel, so turn over to Matthew chapter seven. The moment I say that, some of you already know that Jesus is here concluding the greatest sermon ever preached — the Sermon on the Mount. These are very important words, and they are probably especially important for you and me as we come into the holiday season and find ourselves around people we love and care for, particularly family.
Two Roads
Matthew chapter seven, verse 13: *"Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are a few who find it."*
Jesus describes two different ways here — two paths to heaven, a highway to heaven if you will. One is a broad way, an easy way, heavily traveled. Although it is marked as the way to heaven, it leads to destruction. The other is a narrow way, a hard way, and few find it.
That runs almost contrary to our culture, doesn't it? You hear all sorts of things about 60, 70, or 80 percent of the American people being Christians. There is no way. I do not know if we could get 80 percent in this room, and I mean that seriously. Those numbers largely come from people filling out hospital intake forms — someone asks what religion you are, you ask what the choices are, and you rule out Hindu, Buddhist, and the rest until something fits.
The Broad and Narrow Way
Nobody wants to be listed as "other." Christian — yes, that's what most people check. And then we just check it with no definition or anything around it. There is that broad way and this narrow way. In verse 15, Jesus says, "Beware." Watch out for those who are in positions like the one I have right here, right now, who abuse that position. One of the ways they abuse it is by making the broad way the correct way — the easy way, the correct way.
God hates religion. God cannot stand religion. By that, we mean our own efforts to try to appease a holy God. Even as we come before God, our tendency is to say, "Look what I've done." Look down at verse 21: "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of the Father who sent me. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, and in your name perform miracles?"
In my Bible, I've circled the phrase "your name" three times. You can see it there in verse 22. We are doing all of this under the idea of some Christian abracadabra — I said "in Jesus' name," I said this, I said this, I said this. Verse 23: "Depart from me, I never knew you." Those are petrifying words. These are people saying, "Look what I've done."
Our faith — Christian faith — is not based at all on what we have done, but on what Jesus has done. Jesus died for our sin. He paid the price. He is the one who said, "It is finished." He is the one who accomplishes our salvation. We indeed exhibit faith, but only because He has gifted us that faith, placed it in our hearts, and we simply speak it — although we own it.
Christianity Is Built on Fact
Ryle says, "Christianity is a religion built on fact. Let's never lose sight of that." It came before mankind first in this shape. The first preachers did not go up and down the world proclaiming an elaborate, artificial system of abstruse doctrines and deep principles. They made it their first business to tell men great, plain facts. They went about telling a sin-laden world that the Son of God had come down to earth and lived for us and died for us and was risen again, and the gospel at its first publication was far more simple than many make it now.
Ryle was writing 140 years ago. If the gospel was already being made more complicated than it needed to be then, it is certainly more complicated than we tend to make it now. When I read this, my mind began to drift, and I thought it would be interesting to go back and look at the early church. If we want a history book of the early church, where would we go? We would go to the book of Acts.
I did that, and I discovered something that I find genuinely interesting. I looked at the first three times Peter had an opportunity to preach, and there is a very simple message running through all three of those presentations.
Peter's First Sermon: Acts 2
Turn with me to Acts chapter 2, verse 22. This is Peter preaching right after Pentecost. He says: "Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through you in your midst, just as you yourselves know — this man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death, and God raised Him up again and put an end to the agony of death, since it is impossible for Him to be held in its power."
There is the message: Christ died, and He rose again. It should certainly trigger in our minds what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 — "O death, where is your sting?" — because Jesus has overcome it. Look at verse 32: "This is Jesus whom God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses."
This powerful message generates a response. Verse 37 tells us it pierces them to the heart. They ask, "What must we do?" And Peter says, "Repent." Was that gospel message effective? Apparently so, because under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Luke tells us in verse 41 that those who received the word that day and were baptized numbered about 3,000 people who were saved.
Interestingly, what do you do when you are saved? The answer is in verse 42. They got into church. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Peter's Second Sermon: Acts 3
A little later in Acts chapter 3, Peter has a second opportunity to preach. There is the healing of the lame man. In verse 11, the man is clinging to Peter and John, and all the people come running to see what has happened. Peter sees this as an opportunity to preach. Verse 12: "Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we made this man walk?"
He continues: "The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus Christ — the one whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you" — that is Barabbas — "but you put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses."
Here is Peter, given his second chance to deliver this message, and what does he talk about? The crucifixion and the resurrection.
Peter's Third Sermon: Acts 4
Look at Acts chapter 4 — the third opportunity Peter has to preach. The Jewish leaders are concerned about Peter's influence, so they call Peter and John in. In verse 7 they ask, "By what power or in what name have you done this?" Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answers: "Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man — as to how this man has been made well — let it be known to all of you and to all the people
The Exclusivity of the Gospel
"In no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." That is Acts 4:12, and it is a very narrow, very exclusive statement from Peter. When J.C. Ryle writes about the gospel and its simplicity, and we go back and look at those first three sermons, it is stunning how complicated we have made it. The gospel is very simple. It is not about finding fulfillment. It is not about finding peace. It is not about people who have attained great levels of success and yet feel an emptiness in their lives.
The gospel is about you and me as sinners who are separated from God by our sin. Christ died for that sin, was buried, rose again, and now we can have eternal life if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. That is the gospel. That is the gospel we are to communicate, and it is narrow. It is very exclusive.
Not long ago the president was put in an awkward position and essentially had to say that Muslims and Hindus pray to the same God we do. He said yes, which is obviously completely wrong. But we hear this all the time: "You Christians are so narrow." Consider, though, that the Muslims do not think you are praying to the same God they are. Everyone who genuinely believes their religion should be narrow. What makes Christianity narrow is not that we enjoy being narrow — God made it narrow. Was it not Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me"?
Recognized as Having Been with Jesus
Look at verse 13. It says, "And they observed the confidence of Peter and John, and they understood that they were uneducated." They had not attended any rabbinic schools. They were not trained scholars. They were not ordained teachers. They were uneducated and untrained — and yet the observers marveled, and they began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.
That passage raises a question that ought to percolate in every one of our minds. The question is this: Do the people around you recognize you as having been with Jesus? We say our faith is a religion based on fact, and it is — but that fact, that belief, affects behavior. Our Christianity is visible. Those doctrines, those tenets, those beliefs are tangible. The people watching Peter and John said, "There is something extraordinary about these men." In the same way, the world should look at you and say there is something extraordinary, something different, something unique about you — and in recognizing that, they are recognizing that you have been with Jesus.
The first place I ever encountered anything like that was in Genesis 39, the story of Joseph. By chapter 39, Joseph is in the possession of Potiphar, and Genesis 39:3 says, "His master saw that the Lord was with Joseph." How did Potiphar know that? How did he see it? The application is the same: do people recognize that you have been with the Lord? Do they see Jesus all over you?
Enough Evidence to Convict You
The philosopher Kierkegaard was once being witnessed to by a Christian who was pleading with him to respond. Kierkegaard's answer was clever, though it certainly does not relieve him of responsibility. He said, "If you want me to believe in your Redeemer, you must look a little more redeemed." From the time we became Christians, we have all heard the old question that is easy to dismiss as corny, but it carries genuine punch: if you were dragged into court and accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
Those of us who are sophisticated tend to dismiss it as a childish thought — but would there be? Could testimony be gathered from those around you saying, "Yes, she really is converted. I have seen that belief in action. She passes the test. He passes the doctrinal test. He passes the ethical test. His life is transformed. Her life is transformed. It has been changed."
Peter delivers this same message three times — not complicated, very simple. Christ died, rose again, and if you believe it, repent. And those who watch say there is something remarkable here, because he has not been trained, he has not been educated — oh, but he has been with Jesus.
Preparing for Communion
Don't close those Bibles yet. We're not done. We're not done until Gary says amen. Use those times. Do you know Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you come to that point in your life where you understand this truth? If so, will you join us in communion?
Servants are going to come and present the elements to you. We're going to ask you to take those elements and then, as your heart is prepared and your mind is prepared, go ahead and take those elements on your own today.
Maybe you're here and you're not a Christian. Perhaps someone brought you to church today — we're glad you're here, and it's good to have you with us. Communion is for those of us who know Christ in a personal way, so our prayer is that God would touch your heart and that you would have a conversation with the person who invited you. For now, pass the elements by.
Servants will come and present the elements, and then Gary will come and we will close our time together by worshiping the Lord through song.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Father, thank You for Jesus — for His life, His death, His resurrection. Those of us who believe understand that we believe it because You opened our eyes to see that truth. You taught us that truth. Father, thank You for Jesus. Today we pray to You in His name. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Father, we have just come from a season where it is so right to give thanks, and to have so many phrases flowing across our minds and our lips. Before we know it, Lord, we can slip into a habit of cut-and-paste phrases and prayers. Lord, would You instill in our hearts a reality of what it is to know You — where we would be without You — so that we could ascribe to You all the praise and the glory that is due Your name. In Jesus' name.
Doxology
We are going to stand and sing those familiar phrases of praise:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
In heaven above and earth below.
Praise God, the Father and the Son,
Praise God, the Spirit, three in one.
From all that dwell beneath the skies,
Let the Creator's praise arise,
Let our Redeemer's name be sung
Through every land, by every tongue.
Praise God, the Father and the Son,
Praise God, the Spirit, three in one.