Two Minute Gospel — Jim Cymbala

The Whole Counsel of God and the Essentials of Christianity

So here's my question for you today. This is all important. The Apostle Paul in the book of Acts, when talking to a bunch of pastors, elders, says, remember when I was with you for three years in Ephesus, always remember that I didn't hold anything back, but I preached the whole counsel of God to you.

I didn't cherry pick some verses and made a hobby horse of one truth, right? But I preached the whole counsel of God, all the truths that God has in the Bible. Now, all the truths are not equally as important.

Some things are only mentioned once or twice. Other things are mentioned hundreds of times, like God is faithful. That's mentioned how many times, or that we ought to praise the Lord. That's mentioned so many times.

How to ordain people or how often to take communion, that's not mentioned as much. So there's all truth, but then there's the vital truths, and then there's other truths, which are important to study, but not vital, and which sometimes Christians disagree on.

Thessalonians, which we're studying, is gonna get us into eschatology coming up soon. We're gonna touch on it today. Eschatology is the study of last times, the last day, the final consummation of history.

Christians don't agree how that's all gonna work out. But here's my question for you. So you're in a class, and someone says, you got two minutes, stand up and tell the class what Christianity is about.

You got two minutes, only two minutes. Or someone's had an accident, someone's on a deathbed. You go to visit them. The doctors, the nurses say, it won't be long. Hospice is involved, let's say. You got two minutes.

You got two minutes, 120 seconds. What would you tell them? You can't be beating around the bush. Their life is leaving them. You know, you can't be talking about how, you might not wanna go into Noah's Ark.

You might not wanna talk about how David slew Goliath. Is that in the Bible? Is there truth connected to that? I wouldn't go there if you only got two minutes, though. How many follow what I'm saying now?

So at the end of the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, Paul, and this is why it's so interesting, it's his first letter that he ever wrote, the first time the gospel is being put in writing. And he's reminding the Thessalonians about his time there and what he preached.

And what's interesting is, let's say I was talking to my brother here, and we had had a dinner together last week and had a lot of conversation. So then I would email him and refer to things that we had discussed.

Just touch on them, but we had discussed them at length. And then you'd know, oh, why Pastor Simba's mentioning that in the email is because he talked about that with his Christian brother. This is what happens when you read the New Testament.

Paul, because he's writing to churches, he's referring to things that happened many times when he was there, or problems that are going on in the church. And let me go further as we go on. Sometimes when you read, like especially in the Corinthian letters, he's referring to problems that we're not clear about.

He's correcting things and referring to things we're not in that church. We don't know exactly what the problem was, but now he's giving a remedy for it. So you have to do kind of deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and say, what can we deduce from that?

But what's interesting here, what I'm gonna give you in just these few little sentences, is Paul is referring to things that if you had two minutes, I would say these are the essentials. These you can't leave out.

Christianity is not about give your seed offering and God will provide a tenfold, a hundredfold. That's not the main truth of Christianity. The main truth of Christianity is about Jesus and what he did when he came.

Christ’s Death for Sin and the Call to Turn to God

So let's look at this. He's already referred to the fact that when he came and he preached, he told them that Christ died for their sins on a cross so that they wouldn't have to be punished and they could have forgiveness and inherit eternal life.

That's the message every time you see someone preaching in the book of Acts. That's what they're touching on. He came, he died, he died for our sins so that we can have pardon and when we die or he returns, we can spend eternity with him.

And now watch three huge truths after the cross that you need to remember. Therefore, he's talking about the fact that their faith has become famous, their church has become famous, they're a model church.

As he's traveling, he doesn't need to tell anybody about it because people are telling him, do you hear about those Thessalonians, how strong they are in Christ? Therefore, we do not need to say anything about it for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us.

They tell how you turn to God. We covered that last Sunday. Turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead, what's the son's name?

Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath. Let's go back to verse nine, pick it up. They tell how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Notice what Christianity meant back then had nothing to do with, you started going to church.

That's what you hear a lot of Americans say. Like, oh yeah, now I'm a Christian, why? I'm going to church now on Sunday. Notice he didn't even mention that. He said that Christianity was turning from that old way of life, serving idols, serving yourself, turning to God, turning away from that, to serve the living and true God.

That a Christian is a servant now. Since Christ died for them, they now become servants. He died for us, now we live to serve him. He's become Lord. When you have a Lord, you serve that Lord. That's what Lord means.

So he's not just savior, he's Lord. To serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son. So what was their life? They were serving and they were waiting. Waiting for his son from heaven, that refers to his return.

Whom he raised from the dead, that's his resurrection. Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. Well, there's a term you won't hear a whole lot of in church today, the coming wrath. So let's cover it.

The Resurrection Proves Jesus Is the Son of God

If you have two minutes to tell people about Jesus and try to win them to the Lord, you want to tell them that he not only died on the cross, but he rose from the dead. On the third day, we don't have to wait till Easter to celebrate it.

Every Sunday is Easter for a Christian. Jesus is not dead, he is alive. What's the importance of the resurrection? You will find, as you see the sermons in the book of Acts, when they preach the gospel, you will find that while we almost only emphasize the cross and what he did on the cross, they emphasize much more, yes, he died, but he's alive.

He rose from the dead. We're witnesses of that. We saw him, he's alive. We saw nail prints in his hand. We ate with him in his glorified, resurrected body. He's alive, he's not dead. This is very important for a couple of reasons.

Number one, you could preach 10 sermons just on the importance of the resurrection. What I want to bring to you is this. It's important because it proves that he's the son of the living God. He's not a preacher or a teacher only.

No one else claims to have risen from the dead. Muhammad died, he died. Buddha died, he died. Everybody claims to be all that. When they die, they stay died. That's not right. All right, all right. Be merciful, the Bible says.

Wow, they stay dead. The resurrection proves, and this is referred to in the rest of the New Testament, that Jesus was and is the son of God. The grave could not hold him. He was human, but he was God.

He was man, but he was divine. And the grave could not hold him, so his resurrection proves that he's the son of the living God. We don't have a teacher or a preacher that we follow. We have the son of the living God.

The grave could not hold him. Number two, it proves that God accepted his sacrifice for our sins. The soul that sinneth shall surely die. He died for our sins, he bore our sins. But because God accepted that sacrifice, he could raise him from the dead.

Thirdly, it tells us, among many other things, there's something stronger than death. God's power is greater than death. Death is called the great enemy of humanity. That's why Paul says, oh grave, where is your victory?

Through Jesus Christ, we don't have to be afraid of death. See, sin and guilt makes for fear of death, why? Because I'm gonna have to face God after I die, and I haven't been living the way I should. So everyone's afraid of death.

You don't bring up death in polite company. No one wants to talk about, let's chat about how we'll die. No one wants to bring that up at lunch. But we all will die. But now we have been freed from the fear of death, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Christ rising from the dead proves that God has power over death, and we're gonna follow in his footsteps. The same power that raised him from the dead is gonna raise us to eternal life. Can we put our hands together and thank God that Jesus rose from the dead?

Eternal Life and Hope Beyond Death

It also tells us, since there's life after death, that Jesus promised that what happens during our 70, 80, 90, 100 year sojourn here is not the end of everything. They cut off the heads of those Christians, ISIS did last year, whenever it was.

That wasn't the end for them. I've heard reports that when they were putting the knives to them, some of them were praying and praising God and saying, Lord, we're coming home. So to die is not like, oh, he died.

No, he went home. She went home. Come on, let's thank God for that. There's power over death. Bible says we're not like others who sorrow and have no peace about death. For the Christian, there's hope.

That's our main hope, that there's life after death. Paul says in another place, if only in this life we have hope for what God will do, then of all people, we're the most to be pitied. We're the most miserable.

If it's all about this life, because we're persecuted back then and today in places, we're mocked, we're ridiculed, we can lose our jobs because we're Christians. So if only on earth is the blessing come from God, then forget about it.

We're denying our flesh. We don't want to live in sin. We fight the devil. We have all kinds of battles. Sometimes it takes a mountain. Sometimes a troubled sea. But there's a day coming where there'll be no more mountains, no more troubled sea, no more devil, no more temptation, no more spiritual warfare.

We're gonna go home. And how do we know that? Because Christ resurrected from the dead. That's why we can encourage each other. Come on, you can make it. You can make it. There's an end to this, even when it's tough.

The second thing, and that's certainly gonna be in a two-minute gospel. He died, but he rose again from the dead. And there's the promise of eternal life, which was foreshadowed by his resurrection. But number two, Paul writes, because he must have referred to this, he said, everyone's talking about you, how you turn to God from idols to serve the true and the living God, and to wait, wait for what?

And to wait for his son from heaven. What does that bring up now? A cardinal truth of the gospel. You don't know this. You're obliterating dozens and dozens of verses. In fact, one out of every 25 verses in the New Testament has some reference, direct or indirect, to the second coming of the Lord.

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ

The early Christians did two things. They were serving him, but with one eye they were waiting for him. So let's look at that. There's more promises in the Bible about his second coming than about his first coming when he was born of a virgin named Mary.

Jesus is coming again. And it's an odd thing because they were waiting for him then, he never came during their lifetime, but we're taught to keep waiting and watching. And that by waiting and watching, it has a great blessed effect on our lives today.

Never take your eye off the fact, the Bible says, that Jesus is coming again. They were waiting for his return from heaven. Now in the Bible, there's three heavens that are mentioned. There's the heaven around us, the birds of the air that fly in the heavens.

Then there's the heavens of, there will be the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the heavens will be shaken. There's that world. And then there's what Paul said, I was lifted up into the third heaven and saw things and heard things I'm not allowed to speak about.

He was brought up in some vision or trance. That's where God dwells, in heaven. Our father, which, where? Heaven, not this sky above us. Not where the moon and the stars are. Way, way, way out there. In a place we can't imagine yet.

He sits on a throne. That's where God lives and that's where Christ is. So now let's put our theology together. This is the two minute gospel. He came, he died, he was resurrected. 40 days later, he ascended, supernatural.

Supernatural death, supernatural resurrection, supernatural ascension. They saw him being lifted up into heaven. And now he's coming back again. So notice, he came, he died, he was resurrected. Then he ascended and now he's in heaven and we await his return, which he promised.

He said, I will come back to you. The when, the why of the delay, we'll get to in a second here. But the Bible teaches that Jesus is coming again. What it also teaches is that it's a literal return. It's not like, I think he came in 1985.

I felt something different in the air then. No, it will be a literal return, a physical return. The end of Acts chapter one, the angel said, this same Jesus will come back just like you saw him go up.

They saw him go up in the clouds. He's coming back in the clouds. I'm adding other verses, which I don't wanna refer to now, but you can look them all up. He's coming with the angels of heaven. He's gonna return to take his people home.

We're gonna go home. You don't live, your main home is not in Brooklyn. Your main home is in heaven. How many are happy you have a home in heaven? It's gonna be a place of perfect peace. It's called paradise.

It's called a lot of things. It has no end. You know, now we rush now. I was thinking of that when I saw the choir singing. I wish I knew these altos better. I wish I knew these tenors. We've never sat and just one-on-one talked.

I'd love to know how they found Christ and what God has done in their life. In heaven, we're gonna have billions and billions of years, but I can't even say years because there's no time in heaven. We're gonna enter into eternity where there's no time, no end to it.

Can you imagine? None of us can get our arms around that thought. No end. You know, everything has an end. Sunday has an end. A song has an end. A sermon has an end. Everything has an end. Life has an end.

But when we're with Christ in heaven, there will be no end. Perfect peace. Perfect joy. He'll wipe away every tear. I don't care what you're going through. When you're there a millisecond, you won't even remember what you went through.

Paul says that the joy that's awaiting us and the glory, it's not even right to compare whatever we go through now with what's waiting for us. That's how overwhelming it is. But because this is supernatural and spiritual, unless God illumines our mind and our hearts, it's very hard for us to appreciate and rejoice in that.

How many Christians do you hear rejoicing about, oh, one day he could come and we're gonna go to heaven? You don't hear that much. How many songs, praise and worship songs, are being written about he's coming again, we're gonna go to heaven?

When Christianity and preaching all becomes about this life, you're not preaching it right. It's not about this life. Oh, no, but God gave me that raise. God did that. Thank God for all of that, but you can't compare that to heaven.

Oh, no, but God healed my knee. Your knee's gonna die anyway, even after it was healed. I'm saying weird things this morning. Knees don't die. Wow, I gotta recalibrate everything here. Your body's gonna die, right?

No matter what God does, right? Probably none of us can live as long as my mom. I was there to see her the day before yesterday, a Friday night. She's 101, gonna be 102 in November. But guess what? She's gonna come to her end.

It could be this year. I can see her starting to, she's moving away from me. She's moving away from us. But in heaven, there's no moving away. So if you just make it all about here, materialistic, physical, Christianity, you're cheating people of the main truth.

Our reward waits for us in heaven. That's when we'll be changed into his likeness and we'll spend eternity with him. Now, when is he coming? We don't know. The Bible seems to indicate without refutation that it's an any moment coming.

They were looking for his coming then so that any theology that says he can't come today is a false theology. Because if we don't, Jesus warned. Said, I'm coming like a thief in the night. He said, at an hour that you think not, that's when I'll come.

No thief sends a text and I'm coming by tomorrow about eight, leave some cookies and milk out for me, I'm gonna rob you. No, he comes when you don't think, right? So it's literal, it's at any moment, it's physical, and it will sum up history.

The coming of Jesus will be God's period to what we call time. Time will end. These are heavy concepts. But this is part of the basic gospel that he taught them there in Thessalonica, that Jesus resurrected and ascended, assumed, and now we're waiting for his coming.

No matter what we're doing, we're serving, we're witnessing, let's do story of love. The video we put on is being shown now on television around the country, the rescue. Let's do everything we can, but one eye is any moment, Lord.

Even so, the last sentence in the Bible, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. He could come while we're having a service. Wouldn't it be something? You know, I've only had like three significant dreams from God in my life, and one of them was that.

I just happened to see a face in the audience that I saw in that dream all those years ago in that vision or whatever it was. It was the coming of the Lord. It'll be all over. And as we were ascending up to meet him in the air, as the Bible says, the earth was disappearing from me.

It had gone from this earth that I was standing on into this now minuscule little being. And we were rushing up, the screaming, the happiness, the joy, gonna go home. Jesus has come. We're gonna go home.

It's over. Now, even Jesus who saves us from the coming wrath. Now, the resurrection's a hard term to understand because we weren't there when he resurrected. No one saw him resurrected. He just appeared to them.

All we know is living and dying. So resurrection, it's received by faith. His coming again, we'd never experienced that. So that's something we receive by faith. We can't imagine it, but it's gonna be glorious.

And people who were never healed, they'll be healed in a second. People who are blind will see for all eternity. I mean, God is ultimately gonna make everything right. But he saves us from the coming wrath.

God’s Holy Wrath Against Sin

Now, there's a term that CNN and the intelligentsia and the Ivy League school establishment and your media moguls, they are gonna go sideways on you quickly if you start talking about the coming wrath.

There's no such a God who would have wrath. What can I do but read to you the Bible? There's gonna be, this is referring to God's judgment, final judgment against sin because God hates sin. And it's in his holy nature that he will ultimately punish all those that cling to sin rather than accept his son as their savior.

Read Romans 1 about the fact that God refers to people know about God. They see creation. They know that somebody made this happen. How could this all happen by accident? Are you kidding me? No intelligence behind all of this.

Our bodies, the enzymes, Ravi Zacharias was telling me now they're doing studies about enzymes that are in us that are so complex. How in the world did we get these enzymes inside of us? Just enzymes, forget our brains, just enzymes.

No, and they have a conscience. They know between right or wrong. Who put that in them? No, they suppress all of that because they wanna live for themselves and practice their sin. Romans 1 says very solemn things.

So then God, since they choose not to worship God, not to thank God, God gives them over to their sin even to unnatural sin, women burning in passion for other women and men turning their bodies into unnatural acts with other men.

It's in the Bible. I'm not being judgmental, I'm just reading the Bible. And all kinds of other things, God will punish them. Why? For two main reasons. First of all, he's holy so he must. Just like you and I have certain instincts like how could you not be moved if you see a nine-year-old girl being sold into sex trade?

Tell me that you could look at that and not be moved. Or people that get children for child pornography. You're not moved by that? That doesn't bother you? Well, of course it does. So imagine how God is, holy God is moved against certain things that are against his nature.

It's not that he chooses it, it's who he is. He is against sin. He has to be because he's holy just the way he is. Secondly, it's against his love for people. If he would condone sin, he would let his own creation be endorsing the pain that goes into hurting children and hurting other adults.

When you love someone, you hate certain things. You know what? Somebody comes around, my granddaughter Claire, who's a teenager, somebody comes around her selling drugs. Guess what? You're gonna get a reaction from me.

You're gonna get a reaction. Someone shoves her, someone pushes her, you're gonna get a reaction from me. You didn't do it to me, but I love her so much. I'm gonna fight what you're doing. Not because you're doing it to me, because you're doing it to her.

And I love her. And God loves us, so anything that would hurt any of us, even if we do it to ourselves, he hates it. He hates it. So there's a wrath coming. It's not arbitrary, it's not an outburst like a temper tantrum when somebody goes off.

No, no, it's a built up, the Greek word means it's a building up of this anger where I will punish people for doing those things. I've warned them. John the Baptist's first message was to the Pharisees who were hypocrites, who warned you about the wrath to come?

Who warned you about that? The whole New Testament is about a coming wrath. So in our I'm okay, you're okay, sloppy agape, everything is fine, you live any way you want, nobody can judge. We've taken that element out of God's character, but you can't.

God is love, but God is also holy. God sent his son to die for us, but God will punish sin. There is a place called hell, unless Jesus is a fraud. If Jesus is a fraud, then I admit, we could discuss that there's no hell, but Jesus spoke about it, warned about it.

What would a prophet amend if he came to the whole world? Guy, are you into like ladies, you're a ladies man? What if you could date all the ladies? And what would a prophet do if you bed them all down and at the end of your life spend eternity away from God?

Bible warns about these things. Am I right or wrong? Now, American preachers who want to draw crowds and keep their numbers up and keep the money coming, they know that people don't want to hear about that.

It might convict them. It might jam up against their lifestyle, so they leave it by God loves everybody, doesn't really matter. Don't be judgmental. I don't want to be judgmental. I have enough problems with my own life.

I'm not judging anyone here, but I got to tell you the word of God. He saves us from the wrath. Did you know that that word wrath is never used in connection with Christians? We will never face the wrath of God.

All God's wrath toward us was poured out on his own son, Jesus Christ. Can we say amen to that? Listen, does he correct us? Does he correct us? Whom the Lord loves? Does he chasten us? Do we go through trials and tribulations?

I heard a girl out in the lobby not so long ago, I heard her talking with a member of the church. She said, lately I've been tribulated so much. I've been just tribulated. How many have ever been tribulated?

To go with the rest of my wrong words today, tribulated. That we go through. Wrath? No. He has saved us from the wrath to come. Last word, listen. So there's three heavens, there's three salvations that are referred to in the Bible.

Salvation Past, Present, and Future

First tense of salvation is past tense. He saved us. When did you get saved? How long ago? 10 years ago. She was saved 10 years ago. She passed from death to life. Her sins were washed away. She was saved.

In another sense, God is saving her today. He saves us. He keeps us. He's saving us today. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He's working in us now. How many say amen to that? So it's past, it's present, but it's also future.

We do not have full salvation yet because we're still in this body. We still have to face all kinds of messes and temptations. So we were saved in a sense, praise God, we are saved. He's saving us now, but who will deliver us from the wrath to come?

When that wrath comes on the world, I don't wanna go into it. You can make a study of it. It's enough to make you sit up and pay attention. But Jesus delivers us. We're never gonna face that punishment.

Don't you love him today for what he's done? See, brothers and sisters, how can you love your savior if you don't know what he saved you from? When we downplay sin, when we downplay judgment and the wrath to come, we're not helping anyone.

Does a doctor lie to a patient who's in trouble? What doctor does that? Doctor tells the truth. Join hands with the person next to you. Every eye closed. Lord, for those who are sitting here who have not fully committed their lives to you, not put their trust in you, just they go to church, they read a little bit, try to live a good life.

The Gospel Invitation and Prayer

Oh God, open their eyes today. Open their hearts to how much you love them. Let them see Jesus on the cross dying for them. Let them see him resurrecting from the dead. Let them see him ascending to the right hand of the father in heaven.

And let them imagine his coming again one day, we don't know when. Thank you for saving us from the wrath to come. That we will never know that punishment. We will never know it because Jesus paid it all.

Jesus bore it all. Now we know better why he cried on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You poured out your wrath on him so that we could receive blessing. Oh Jesus, let everyone in the balcony and downstairs know you as their Lord and savior.

Why do we have this church? Why do you let me come up here every Sunday? It's just that more people would love you and trust you and know the peace that passes all understanding, the joy unspeakable and full of glory.

And whatever we're going through today, who cares what we're going through today? You're coming back soon. It'll be over in a little while. And what's waiting for us, we can't even imagine. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard.

No one can imagine what God has prepared for us. Thank you for loving us so much. As we dismiss now, listen, if there's anybody here that would say, I don't wanna leave the building unless someone prays over me.

I just, I don't wanna go out. I don't wanna go out unless someone prays for me. I'm gonna have some pastors and deacons, deaconesses here in the front. You come right to the front. Everyone else, you're gonna greet one another.

The band's gonna play for a while. Stand, hug one another, love one another. Anybody wanna talk to someone?