Sunday Sermon: Eye-Witnesses of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3-11)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

First Corinthians 15, starting in verse 1. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel

I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless you believed it in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.

On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me.

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.

Let us come before the Lord in prayer. Our great God, we thank you for this faith that we have been given through Jesus Christ our

Lord, the author and the perfecter of our faith, who came to this world as a baby in a manger, a lowly place, though he deserved to be born in a palace and receive all the triumphant praise as king, it was yet in this lowly place where animals ate, and it was shepherds who became the first audience to see the birth of this king.

Later magi, wise men from another land came and saw this one who was born the king of the

Jews, and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What greater treasures you deserve.

What great treasures we could not even afford to give, and yet you gave yourself the greatest gift,

Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, and rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

You have asked of us that we would present ourselves as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the

Lord. It is the least that we can do. And so convict us in our faith to serve you with all of our heart, all of our soul, all our mind, and all our strength.

Reassure our spirits again this morning in the message of this blessed hope that we have in Jesus Christ, our risen savior, in whose name we pray, and all

God's people said, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Fifty years ago, on November 9th, 1967, the

United States launched one of the most incredible and complicated machines ever built by man, the

Saturn V rocket. The reason for the rocket was to send a man to the moon and return him again safely.

During the space race of the 1960s, it became clear that accomplishing such a journey was going to take more than a single -stage rocket.

That's what we had been using to get into space for men to make orbits around the earth. But in order to get out of Earth's gravitational pull and get as far away as the moon, it was going to take more than a single -stage rocket.

It was going to take a three -stage rocket, which is like having three rockets stacked up on top of one another, each with its own engines and propellants.

When one rocket would run out of fuel, it would disengage from the launching vehicle, and then the next rocket would ignite and continue to propel the vehicle into space.

In its first stage, the Saturn V rocket had five different F -1 engines.

To this day, it is the most powerful single -combustion -chamber liquid propellant rocket engine ever developed.

Each one of those five engines by themselves could produce 7 .5 million pounds of thrust.

It is said that in less than a second, by some estimates one -tenth of a second, the

Saturn V used more fuel than Charles Lindbergh used in his entire cross -Atlantic flight 40 years earlier.

The massive structure stood 363 feet tall. It's taller than the

Statue of Liberty. It weighed 6 .2 million pounds when fully fueled.

In order to build it, NASA also had to construct the largest single -story building ever built and remains the largest single -story building to this day.

It's the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center. Another rocket is being worked on there now, by the way, and will debut in 2019.

Not only was the Saturn V rocket a revolutionary marvel of its time, it still is.

Fifty years later, no nation has ever built another machine like it. Since the last one was launched in 1973, it remains the most complicated machine ever created by man.

The Saturn V debuted just a little over six years after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Grigoryan became the first human being to travel into space, and just two years after,

Alexei Leonov became the first to leave his spacecraft and float in the vacuum of space. The Soviets were winning the space race.

Until the Saturn V. It was such an unprecedented piece of technology that in all 13 of its launches, it never failed.

As of the end of 2017, as of the end of this year, a total of 536 people from 38 countries have traveled into space.

Five hundred and thirty -six people have been to space, which has been defined by NASA as a flight over 62 miles above the surface of the

Earth, or about 100 kilometers. Just a little over 500 people have been to space and have observed with their own eyes the sphere of the

Earth on which we live. They can see that the Earth is round. It is indeed a globe.

They have gone around it. Of those 536 space travelers, only 12 men have ever walked on the moon.

Again, thanks to the accomplishment of the Saturn V rocket technology. If you were to believe that the moon landings were staged and mankind never actually made it to the moon, you might call such a person a lunatic, which is an insult not without a hint of irony, since that word literally means of the moon.

A lunatic was a fool whose madness was said to have been influenced by the lunar cycles.

Equally as absurd are those people who insist that the Earth is flat. Not only can we observe it even in nature, knowing that the

Earth is round, but we have over 500 witnesses that have been to space and have looked down on the sphere of the

Earth and have said, no, the Earth is indeed a globe suspended in space. At the start of the year in February, Kyrie Irving, the all -star basketball player who was then with the

Cleveland Cavaliers, made news headlines when he broadcast to the world that he thought the

Earth was flat. And he was sure of it. The Earth is flat. The Earth is flat,

Irving said in a recorded interview. It's right in front of our faces. I'm telling you, it's right in front of our faces.

They lie to us, right? They lie to us. In later interviews,

Irving commented how baffled he was that his beliefs about the shape of the Earth could actually be news.

But we know why it's news, because it's absurd that somebody is still proclaiming that the

Earth is flat. When scientists knew it even before men went into space, and then we had eyewitness testimony coming back from space, oh, by the way, the

Earth isn't flat. It's round. And I don't know that I ever saw a single interview with any astronaut who said that.

You know why? Because he didn't have to. We all knew that the Earth was round.

All of NASA knew that the Earth was round. That was exactly the way that they made their calculations, was to compensate for a round Earth.

They were traveling to a round moon. All of this eyewitness testimony that we have that verifies to us that the

Earth is round, the moon is there, and man has walked on it. Now consider this. What we're reading here in 1

Corinthians 15, we're reading about over 500 brothers who observed Christ alive between His resurrection and His ascension into heaven, and 12 disciples who witnessed this also.

Yet in this world today, if you were to proclaim that you believe in a man who died on a cross, was buried in a tomb, and rose again from the grave, you might be called a lunatic.

Because you believe a man could rise from the dead. Because you believe in a fairy tale, it might be said of you.

The Apostle Paul preached this very thing at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17.

And when he preached and proclaimed what it was that he believed to all the

Greeks, they listened to what he had to say, until he got to the end of his message, when he said, and this man who rose again from the grave, and then everybody went, oh, resurrection of the dead.

Who is this guy? What is he talking about? People rising from the dead, are you serious? But there were a few of the

Greeks who were listening to him there who said, you know what, we want to listen to you some more about this.

And there were men there at Athens who got saved, because the Apostle Paul proclaimed the resurrection of the dead, and the proof of this resurrection of the

God -man, Jesus Christ, who came to this earth, died on a cross, rose from the grave, and there were hundreds of people who witnessed it.

Here to the Corinthians he says, there were over 500 brothers at one time, some of whom have fallen asleep.

This is Paul saying, there are still eyewitnesses. You can still go find them, you can still talk to them, and they will tell you,

I saw his hands, I saw his feet, he was crucified, he was buried in a tomb, and he was walking around, eating with us, and teaching us for 40 days before his death and ascension into heaven.

It was incredible. We have all this eyewitness testimony, but you're more of a lunatic for believing this than you would be regarding space, or the shape of the earth, or man who has walked on the moon.

I just find it fascinating that we've had exactly 536 people that have traveled in space, and exactly 12 men that have walked on the moon, just as there were 12 apostles and over 500 brothers that witnessed our risen

Lord. The evidence, the eyewitness testimony is there. My friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we do not believe in blind faith.

We do not believe in blind faith. You are not just accepting something that has no evidence behind it.

When a person is being tried in a court of law for having committed a crime, it takes only one eyewitness to convict that person, and we have over 500 eyewitnesses, 12 apostles who verified this

Jesus was put to death, and he rose again.

By the verification of this testimony, the gospel spread throughout the world, and all who believed in this message were saved, forgiven their sins, and guaranteed eternal life in Jesus Christ.

This is the gospel. It's the gospel message that Jesus died and rose again so that your sins would be forgiven and that in Christ you have nothing to fear of the grave, but have eternal life and right standing with God.

Paul says that this is of first importance. First Corinthians 15 .3, I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received, this gospel message. So once again, we look at our outline that I presented to you last week, but only got through point one, because we centered that around the

Lord's Supper last week. And this week we'll rehash that one again, point number one, and then also look at points two and three.

What were those points again? Well, point number one, the three evidences that Paul presents concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The first evidence is in the scriptures. I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

The scriptures testify and verify that Jesus Christ was who he said he was, that he would die and he would rise again.

The evidence, the first evidence of first importance is not just that Jesus died and was resurrected.

It was that the scriptures said that it was going to happen. Paul appeals to the scriptures as the first authoritative evidence before he even gets to eyewitness testimony.

Because this not only verifies that Jesus was who he said he was, it verifies that the word of God is true.

Because what the word of God said was going to happen, happened. Therefore, we know that Jesus was from God and the words that he spoke were

God's words. So that's the first evidence that we have. The second one is eyewitness testimony that starts in verse five.

And then lastly, the third evidence is Paul's own personal testimony, what he himself witnessed and then delivered to the

Corinthians. Let's consider once again the testimony of the scriptures.

Last week we looked at how Jesus showed himself to his disciples and then verified the things that had happened before their very eyes by quoting to them the scriptures.

So they knew and understood everything that happened because the scriptures said it was going to happen.

It wasn't Jesus standing in front of the disciples saying, look at me, look, here I am right here. First he gave them the scriptures and then their eyes were opened and they believed.

So we looked at incidences of that in Luke chapter 24. But let's consider something that I left out last week, what the scriptures have actually said about Jesus Christ.

All I considered last week was what Jesus said to his disciples concerning the scriptures. But what does the

Bible, the word of God actually say about Christ? We went through some of these back in October when we were doing our five solos series and the 500th anniversary of the

Protestant Reformation. But I'll go through some of these again, always good to be reminded of these, the prophecies concerning Christ and their fulfillment.

In the book of Matthew, right at the start of the Gospels, at the start of the New Testament, we have the genealogy of Christ that begins with Abraham and goes to David, goes from David to the deportation to Babylon, and then from the deportation to Babylon to Mary and Joseph, showing that Jesus was the

Messiah who was promised to be descended from the line of Abraham. So that Matthew could show the

Jews, his primary audience when he wrote his Gospel, that Jesus Christ was indeed that promised

Messiah. So with my kids in our family devotionals right now, that's what we're doing.

We're going through the book of Matthew and I'm showing my kids. Here's how the Old Testament prophesied that Jesus was going to be born, where he was going to be born, who he was going to be born to, what was going to happen to him in his lifetime, that he was going to die, that he was going to be risen again.

All of these things from the very start of the Gospels, from the very Christmas story,

Matthew was talking about the scriptures that would be fulfilled. He begins with the genealogy of Christ. Matthew then goes to talk about how

Jesus would be born of a virgin and would be called Immanuel, meaning God with us. That was prophesied back in Isaiah 7 .14.

It was prophesied by the prophet Micah, Micah 5 .2. He would be born in Bethlehem of Judah, a prophecy that was made 700 years before he was born.

When I talked about this with my kids, I said to them, do you think that you could predict right now somebody is going to be born 700 years from now and exactly where they will be born?

And even my young children are going, no, that's silly. How could we even know that?

God knew that because it was all part of his plan. Isaiah prophesied that great persons would come and adore

Jesus at his birth, and among the gifts they would bring him were gold and frankincense.

That's in Isaiah 60 .6. And we read the story of the

Magi who came from afar. We three kings of Orient are, who came to adore

Jesus at the age of two. And that story is in Matthew 2. The wise men would be led by a star to the one who was born king of the

Jews. That was prophesied in Numbers 24 .17. Jeremiah even said that children in Bethlehem would be killed,

Jeremiah 31 .15. And indeed when Herod had found out of this child born king of the

Jews, he sought to kill him and didn't know exactly where he was, so he had all of the boys two and under murdered in Bethlehem and all the surrounding region.

That was prophesied to happen by the prophet Jeremiah. Hosea 11 .1 says that Jesus would be called out of Egypt where Joseph and Mary fled to escape the wrath of Herod.

And then when they came out of Egypt and settled in Nazareth, it was the fulfillment of that prophecy made in Hosea 11.

And in fact, it was also said that Jesus would be called a Nazarene in Isaiah 11 .1.

So he would even settle in a town called Nazareth. All of these things were prophesied concerning Christ.

Other prophecies that were made about him was that he would teach the people in parables, Psalm 78 .2.

He would do great miracles. The blind would see, the deaf would hear, the lame would be healed, Isaiah 35 .5

-6. His kingship would be announced entering Jerusalem on a donkey's colt to shouts of joy.

That's Zechariah 9 .9. Someone who broke bread with Jesus at his own table would betray him.

That's Psalm 41 .9. His own disciples would forsake him, Zechariah 13 .7.

Jesus would be turned over to the authorities for 30 pieces of silver, Zechariah 11 .12.

Those same pieces of silver would be thrown in the house of the Lord, which Judas did, and those pieces of silver would then purchase the potter's field.

That was prophesied in Zechariah 11 .13. Jesus would experience intense suffering, yet would not make a sound against his accusers.

That's in Isaiah 53 .7. He would be struck on the cheek, his beard would be pulled out, and he'd be spat upon, as prophesied in Isaiah 50 .6.

He would be forsaken by God, Psalm 22 .1. His hands and feet would be pierced, Psalm 22 .16.

His garments would be divided and lots would be cast for them, Psalm 22 .18. He would be mocked and reviled,

Isaiah 37 .23. He would be counted among other criminals as Christ was hung between two thieves,

Isaiah 53 .12. Though he would die, not a bone in his body would be broken, as was prophesied in Psalm 34 .20.

Everything we read prophesied concerning Christ in the Psalms was a thousand years before he was born. Isaiah 53 .9

prophesied that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb, the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.

Jonah 1 .17 is a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ's burial, that he would be in the heart of the earth for three days and nights.

While in the tomb his flesh would not see corruption, that's Psalm 16 .10. He would rise again from the grave,

Isaiah 53 .11. And he would ascend back to God the Father, according to Psalm 68 .18.

These are just a few of over 300 prophecies that were made concerning Jesus Christ in the

Old Testament. All of these things happened according to the scriptures. That's the first authority that the

Apostle Paul appeals to in his apologetic concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

That he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

It's in Isaiah 53 where we read that he was pierced for our transgressions.

Jesus Christ died for our sins so that all who believe in him would be forgiven.

I shared the gospel with somebody, I believe it was this past week, and somebody questioned me about the way that I shared the gospel with them.

I only made a very minor appeal to Christ dying on the cross for our sins.

And at the very end of our conversation I said that you must repent and believe in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will also be saved.

And this person who overheard the conversation said to me, you spent more time talking about that person's sins than you did talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ or his death on the cross.

Why did you spend more time talking about their sins than you did talking about Jesus? And I said because the individual had told me that they already believed in Jesus.

So if I told them that Jesus died for their sins they would go, yeah, that's right, I believe that already.

What they did not believe was that they were sinful and they needed a Savior. And so I needed to show them their sinfulness and their rebellion against God so that their heart would be convicted.

If you don't know you've sinned, you can't call Christ Savior for you don't know what he has saved you from.

And if you can't call him Savior, then your faith is in vain.

That's exactly what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15. Hold fast to the word I preach to you unless you believed it in vain.

Do you believe it to the glory of God that it was for his glory that he saved you from your sins by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross?

Or is it that you believe in Jesus because it's somehow serving of you?

It's like a spiritual drug that you get, some sort of assurance of something, but it's not really the worship of God.

If it's just to serve you, if it's just to appeal some sort of interest in your own heart, then it isn't true belief.

It isn't true faith if it's not that all things are being done to the glory of God.

We praise God for this salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. It's in accordance with the scriptures that we would be worshipers of God.

And we have been brought into the very presence of God through the blood of Jesus Christ, our

Lord, our great high priest. Talk about in Hebrews 6, one of those verses that I read this morning with the kids, that Jesus is a sure anchor for our soul.

And that next verse goes on to say that he is our great high priest. It is in Jesus Christ that we are able to enter into the holy of holies, and we have communion with God because of what

Christ has done for us. And all of this according to what the Bible says. I'm not saying anything that is the theory of Gabe Hughes.

I have nothing interesting or fascinating to say to you at all. My job, my role as a pastor is to simply deliver to you what

God delivered to his prophets and apostles. The message of Jesus Christ.

And Paul says, I delivered to you what I also received. The word of Christ himself according to the scriptures.

So that is the first appeal to authority that Paul makes. He makes an appeal to the scriptures. His second evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the eyewitness testimony.

So the scriptures are first, but that's not the only evidence that we have. There are even 500 brothers around you now that you could go and talk to and find out from themselves what they witnessed concerning the resurrection of Christ.

Verse 5, he appeared to Cephas. Cephas is Peter. Peter, Simon, Cephas, all the same name.

Cephas is his Greek name. Peter is the name that Jesus gave him. Simon was the name that his father gave him.

He appeared to Cephas, Peter. Then to the 12, all of the apostles together, including

Matthias, who was added in to replace Judas because Judas had hung himself, had taken his own life after he betrayed

Christ. One of Matthias' qualifications in order to fill that role that Judas had left absent was he had to have been at the river

Jordan when Jesus was baptized and heard from heaven the voice of the father who said, this is my beloved son with whom

I am well pleased. And Matthias also had to have witnessed the risen

Christ. His witness in those 40 days between his resurrection and his ascension into heaven.

How do we know that was 40 days? It mentions that in Acts chapter 1. And so from the time that he rose from the grave to the time that he ascended back to the father,

Matthias was one of those who had witnessed the resurrection of Christ. It really came down to two men. Two men who qualified, who were there at the baptism and were also there at the resurrection of Christ.

Matthias was one of them. He filled in the 12th spot. So there was that time that Jesus appeared to the 12.

All 12 could testify of the resurrection of Christ on the very day that he rose from the grave.

Verse 6, In other words,

Paul's saying, I'm going to be real with you. Some of them have already died. But there are still many of those men and women who are alive, who could testify, who could verify of the resurrection of Christ.

Paul mentions here only 500 brothers. There were probably even more than that if you include also the women and children who would have witnessed that Jesus Christ had risen again from the grave.

He appeared to more than 500 of them at one time, most of whom still alive, though some had fallen asleep.

I happen to catch that Ray Comfort, a popular evangelist, you can find his evangelism videos on YouTube.

Ray Comfort is going to be debating soon a man by the name of Dr. Richard Carrier.

I haven't heard that name in a long time, but I remember when I was doing my apologetic studies back in my twenties, my younger twenties,

I remember coming across that name, Dr. Richard Carrier. Carrier believed that in this particular passage here, where Paul talks about that Jesus appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time,

Carrier believed that they were all experiencing a mass hallucination. So the five of them together were probably having some really good

Israel mushrooms. And they all had this vision of this hallucination together of, oh, look, it's

Jesus. Have you ever heard of even two people having the same hallucination at the same time, let alone more than 500 people?

A hallucination is not something that happens outside your body. It's something that is happening in your body. It's your own neurons going crazy because you're on some sort of a hallucinogenic drug.

But two people who are on the same hallucinogen cannot have the same hallucination. Yet Richard Carrier's explanation for how more than 500 brothers could testify to the risen

Christ is because they all had one big mass hallucination of this. Dare I say to you that Ray Comfort has a pretty easy debate on his hands.

I don't know. I don't even remember what the topic is that they're going to be debating. I hope it's the resurrection of Christ because Carrier will lose.

But anyway, so Christ appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom still alive.

You could still go to them. You could still hear their own testimony of the risen Christ, though some had fallen asleep.

And once again, I put before you that we do not believe in blind faith. The evidences of these things are extensive and substantial that we know and can know confidently, not as fools, but as the faithful children of God, that our

Christ indeed really walked this earth, really died, really rose again from the grave.

There is a man who's a skeptic. He's wrote several bestselling books criticizing the

Christian faith, and his name is Bart Ehrman. One of his most popular books is a book called

Misquoting Jesus in which he tries to talk about how the Bible has been misquoted from the original manuscripts, which we don't have anymore.

What we read in the Bible today is not what was originally written, but he kind of talks out of both sides of his face because you can actually find interviews in which

Ehrman will say that what we have is almost exactly what was originally written.

So which is it? Do we have a forgery or do we actually have the words that were written down by the prophets and the apostles?

So even Ehrman is not clear himself on those points. But Bart Ehrman, who is a skeptic and a critic of the

Christian faith, nonetheless he has said that any of those atheists out there who try to say that Jesus Christ was not even a real person and never walked this earth, and that the

Bible was just made up, but Jesus wasn't even really real, Ehrman says that those men are completely discredited as legitimate scholars.

Even a person who is an atheist cannot deny that Jesus was a real person. The evidence is there, not only according to what we read in Scripture, but there were also extra -biblical sources that verify the authenticity, the legitimacy, the reality of Jesus Christ.

They may not have believed that he was the Son of God, but they knew he was a real person. So all of this evidence has been verified.

We do not believe blindly. We don't believe in something that's just written down in one source, the

Bible, and we don't have anything else to go off of. This book has been verified by all other manner of sorts of books.

It is the one book of history that has stood the test of time. We have nothing to doubt concerning what is said in these pages, which is why

Paul's first appeal to the evidence of the resurrection of Christ is to the Scriptures before it's even to eyewitness testimony.

But here in the Scriptures we have recorded for us those eyewitnesses, the 12 apostles.

Then Jesus appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Then he appeared to James, the half -brother of Jesus.

Now that's a significant appeal, because James, the half -brother of Christ, didn't believe he was the

Son of God until Jesus appeared to him after his resurrection, and then he repented and believed.

We have it recorded in the Gospels themselves that Jesus' own brothers and sisters did not believe him.

But James believed him when he saw the risen Lord. He became the leader of the

Jerusalem church. He wrote one of the most prominent books of the New Testament. And one of Jesus' other half -brothers,

Jude, wrote another book in the New Testament. James is one of those eyewitnesses.

Then to all of the apostles, last of all is to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Now here's Paul's third evidence appeal to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that is his own personal testimony.

Now you yourself cannot testify to having seen the risen Christ with your own eyes.

You can testify to the risen Christ. You absolutely can do that. And you can talk about what Christ has done in you having raised a dead man or woman to life.

I was once dead in my sins and my transgressions. Paul says we were all that way,

Ephesians 2, Titus 3. But God, who is rich in mercy, raised us alive together with Christ.

We were once dead in our sins and our trespasses in which we once walked. We have been raised with Christ Jesus.

And now we are alive. We are walking with the living God. And that can be your testimony.

Though you cannot say yourself that you have seen the risen Christ with your own eyes. Paul says,

Why as one untimely born? Because all the apostles were the apostles appointed by Christ himself, even during the time of his earthly ministry.

Paul received a vision of Christ on the road to Damascus when he was going there to arrest

Christians for being Christians. And that was when Jesus appeared to him and said,

Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? In Paul's testimony before King Agrippa, he said that Jesus spoke to him in the

Hebrew language. And even the witnesses, the men that he was traveling with, they didn't see

Jesus, but they heard the voice. Paul saw him and was knocked to the ground.

He was blinded by the appearance of Christ. And three days later, by the blessing of Ananias, the scales fell from his eyes.

Paul was baptized and became Christ's apostle to the Gentiles. As to one untimely born,

Paul says, he didn't chum around with Christ like the other apostles did. He was made an apostle at a later time.

I am the least of the apostles, Paul says. Why does he call himself the least of the apostles? Why does he say he's unworthy to be called an apostle?

He goes on to say, because I persecuted the church of God. None of the other apostles did that.

I did that. I was a persecutor of the church. Turn with me quickly over to 1

Timothy 1. 1

Timothy 1, beginning in verse 12. This was the section that I just taught through on the podcast this past week.

1 Timothy 1 .12, Paul says to Timothy, his beloved servant, I thank

Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He judged me faithful, appointing me to His service.

Verse 13, though formerly I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor and an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our

Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom

I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost,

Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. Paul sharing his testimony again there. And when he says that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom

I am the foremost, but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost.

There are probably people in this world that you could point to that were guilty of more atrocious sins than the

Apostle Paul was, but why does Paul refer to himself as the foremost? He is the only apostle and the first person who ever persecuted the church of God and was then convicted of that sin and repented and believed.

The first. So there may be others to this day who will persecute the church of God, and they do so in ignorance, as Paul did.

They don't know the truth, and that's why it is that they're persecuting the church of God. But Paul was the first one, and he even witnessed the death of some of the apostles themselves, which nobody else would persecute the church and do, and then turn from that sin.

Paul remembers when Stephen was stoned. He was there. Stephen, who was a deacon in the church, was stoned to death because he proclaimed the gospel to the

Jews. We don't have an account that Paul witnessed James being skewered with the sword.

James, the apostle, not the half -brother of Jesus, but nonetheless the apostle Paul would have known about that and rejoiced in it that a man who was preaching the gospel of Christ was killed.

And so Paul knows what it is that he is guilty of, the sins that he had committed against the church of Christ, but God showed him mercy.

Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and an insolent opponent, I received mercy.

And that part of his testimony is a part of all of our testimonies as well.

We were ignorant of God. We blasphemed

God. We were an insolent opponent of God, but he showed us mercy and turned us from sin to righteousness in belief in Jesus Christ, his

Son. Back again to 1 Corinthians 15. As Paul says in verse 8,

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me. I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, verse 10, I am what I am.

My friends, you could say the same thing. By the grace of God, you are what you are. Let's say that together.

Verse 10, that first part of the sentence before the comma. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Let's say it together.

One, two, three. But by the grace of God, I am what I am.

Yes. You are what you are by the grace of God. You are a believer in Jesus Christ and a follower of his word by the grace of God.

You are saved, transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light by the grace of God.

You are sealed for eternity and guaranteed as a fellow heir of his kingdom, heaven forever in the presence of God by the grace of God.

My friends, you can sit where you sit. You can walk where you walk.

You can go into this world proclaiming the gospel, doing your job, loving your family, doing the tasks that are set before you to do, knowing that you have been forgiven your sins.

And if God is for us, what can man do to us? For there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

By the grace of God. It is by God's grace that you are forgiven.

You are declared righteous in the very presence of God by his grace. By the grace of God, I am what

I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. Paul didn't do this in vanity.

This isn't Paul's testimony. Paul's testimony is not, I was on this road to Damascus and I was going to go arrest these

Christians and then Jesus appeared to me and said, I forgive you of your sins. And I'm like, okay, great.

My sins are forgiven. And then I went home and I never persecuted Christians again. That's not Paul's testimony. Paul's testimony is that he was transferred into the glorious kingdom of God by his grace and then became a missionary for Christ Jesus to take the gospel to the world.

That's what he goes on to say. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them. Paul's not boasting in himself.

He's appealing to this testimony that is in himself. Once a persecutor of Christians and now one who traveled even farther than the other apostles did to take the message of the gospel of Christ to the world.

I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I. Again, Paul not boasting in himself.

It wasn't me. It was the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was

I or they, myself or the other apostles or the other witnesses of the resurrection of Christ.

So we preach. And because of this testimony, you have believed.

Because somebody shared with you the gospel of Jesus Christ, you turned from sin and pursued the righteousness of Christ and you believe in Christ because of the gospel.

This gospel message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, I mentioned to you last week, should be free.

There is no price to pay to hear the gospel, which is why with the podcast that I do and the videos that I produce,

I put those out there for free. All I want, all I desire, is that the gospel of Christ would be proclaimed.

That's what I want. In my heart, I just desire that other people would hear what the

Bible says about Christ and so they would turn from their sin and believe. And that's not to take anything away from anyone else who in their ministry puts that forward for profit and they make something off of that.

Paul even said to Timothy that a worker is worth his wages.

So I'm not trying to take anything from anybody there. This church takes good care of me and my family and provides for my living and our way of life so that I can preach the gospel for free and not have to charge anybody wherever I go proclaiming this message.

It should be free. That was a point that I made last week. And this week, adding to that point,

I say to you that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not for white people. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not for black people.

The gospel of Christ is not for brown, yellow, red, plaid, whatever color you might be.

The gospel is not for rich people or for poor people. The gospel is not for the educated or the uneducated.

The gospel is not for the old or for the young or for the foolish or for the wise.

The gospel is for everyone. In 1

Timothy 2, Paul said that God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

And so we as Christians, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, we must take the gospel to everyone.

You have neighbors that need to hear it. You have family members that need to hear it. Some of you will see those family members here during the holiday season.

Might I encourage you that between now and then you pray to the Lord every day, every night.

Ask God to give you words of wisdom that you can share with your family, share with your friends, that they might hear the message of the gospel and turn from sin and worship

Jesus Christ and they will be saved. They will be guaranteed an inheritance in Christ. They have nothing to fear of death for they will be resurrected from the grave just as Christ was.

All those who believe in Him. That's the message of the gospel. And one of the things

I love about Christmas is it kind of gives you an open door to share that. You know, who doesn't know or who hasn't seen a nativity scene and what that represents and whose name is even in the very name of Christmas?

Christ. We could share about Him and somebody may even hear the gospel for the very first time.

They've never heard this message of all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3, 23 and 24. You are a carrier of that testimony of the gospel of Christ to someone who needs to hear it.

Pray and ask God that He would give you the words to say. ♪ ♪

Come behold the wondrous history ♪ ♪ In the dawning of the

King of graces ♪ ♪

Look in glory now all ye hear ♪

Come ye see the true and better Adam ♪ ♪

Come to save the hell bound man ♪ ♪

Christ the great and sure fulfillment we stand ♪ ♪

Come behold the Christ the

Lord upon the tree ♪ ♪ In the stead of ruined sinners ♪ ♪

See the price of our redemption ♪ ♪

See the Father's plan unfold ♪ ♪

Behold the wondrous history ♪ ♪ Slain by death the

God of life ♪ ♪ But no grave could ever restrain

Him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord He is a place of deliverance ♪ ♪

How unwavering our hope, a place of deliverance ♪ ♪

How unwavering our hope, Christ in power resurrected ♪ ♪

As we will be when He comes.

♪ Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.