Let There Be Gospel (Luke 23:50-24:12, Jeff Kliewer)

Post tenebrous lux, out of darkness light. That was the call of the

Reformation. Post tenebrous lux. You'll see it inscribed in a wall in Geneva.

Of course, we know what happens in two days. Don't say Halloween. In two days, on October 31st, we have the 500th anniversary of the

Protestant Reformation. Some of you are wearing red. Perhaps it was in honor of that. That's a tradition in the Lutheran churches.

And it's well deserved that we celebrate now the 500th anniversary of when

Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. So, in England, a similar phenomenon happened that a man named

William Tyndale, right when Luther was translating the Bible out of Greek and Hebrew into German, in England, there was a man named

William Tyndale translating the Greek into a English New Testament.

Now, he went and sought permission from his bishop to do that, and do you think he got permission? No, it was actually illegal to do that, and he was denied.

So, before long, he left England. William Tyndale ended up in the northern parts of Europe and then down into Germany, where, of course, he hooked up with reformers.

And in 1526, they published the Bible in English.

Post -Tenebrous Lux, out of darkness, light. The word of God then began to be sent from Germany back to England.

They would take them in cotton bales and in all kinds of just smuggling, taking the Bible from Germany to England.

Now, it became the practice of the English hierarchy, the religious leaders, to buy up these

Bibles. Whenever they would find them on the market, they would buy them, thinking, you know what? If we get them, we can destroy them, we can control this thing, we can hold down this light.

But in God's providence, what happened with that? Well, all of their buying only fueled more printing.

And so, the money that they were gaining from the religious authorities in England became the seed for more

Bibles. And more and more Bibles were produced, and before long, all of England was a light with the word of God.

Because you can't hide the light for long. It will burst out, it will burst forth. And the Reformation, within years, even

King Henry VIII, instead of calling for William Tyndale's head, was now becoming a reformer himself, to a degree.

He was flip -floppy, back and forth. But the light was breaking forth in England, post -Tenebrous

Lux. Is it breaking forth in your home? Is it breaking forth in your neighborhood?

Is it breaking forth in the schools and the workplaces of America? The Reformation didn't just happen in 1517 and it's over.

No, we are semper reformando, always reforming. Being conformed by the scriptures to the kind of people he calls us to be.

But also taking these scriptures out, being the light of the world. The light is to break out continually until Christ comes.

So let's turn now to Luke 23, verse 50 and following, and here we are at the heart of the story, the gospel.

Last week, we talked about the death of Jesus. Today, we'll talk about his burial and his resurrection.

God speaks the gospel into existence by ordaining the real death, the real burial, the real resurrection of Jesus.

And it's given to us, to every believer, to openly, boldly speak this gospel.

But it's only God who can bring light into a soul. We're gonna find this in Luke 23, 50 and following.

Now, there was a man named Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man who had not consented to the decision in action.

And he was looking for the kingdom of God. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever yet been laid.

It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.

Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment.

It's Exodus 20, verse 10. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared.

And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the

Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the

Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified. And on the third day, rise.

And they remembered his words. And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11 and to all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles.

But these words seemed to them an idle tale. And they did not believe them.

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves.

And he went home marveling at what had happened. The gospel of the

Lord Jesus Christ. That he was crucified according to the scriptures.

That he was buried. That he rose from the dead according to the scriptures. This is the gospel.

Picking up in verse 50, I want us to first of all see the objectivity of the gospel.

Objectivity meaning it's not a subjective thing. Depending on the person who's beholding it or the person who holds this belief.

No, the objectivity of the gospel. That the gospel is real.

It's true history. It's not just what someone believes. It's something that actually happened.

Consider the details. And why is it that we have an account of the burial of Jesus?

He dies for our sins. He rises for our justification. What's the big deal about the burial of Jesus?

I think it grounds the historical narrative of the gospel in real, earthy history.

The truth of what we proclaim is not just something within us.

As if we're little gods that make up our own truth. No, truth is objective.

It's outside of us. And a real person named Jesus of Nazareth was crucified.

And a real guy named Joseph of Arimathea, who was rich, a member of the council, took his body and laid that body in a real tomb.

And on the third day, he rose from the dead. This is the gospel. It's grounded in history.

So look at verse 50. There was a man named Joseph. We're given his name. He's from the

Jewish town of Arimathea. A real place. You can find it on the map.

A geographical reality. He was a member of the council.

So he's known. And he even has a reputation as a good and righteous man.

We learn from Luke that he had not consented to their decision and action. He was looking for the kingdom of God.

Now, within Israel, there was a whole nation of people. They all descended from Abraham through Isaac.

This was a nationality, an ethnicity. But not all Israel was Israel indeed.

Not all Jewish people were truly Israelites in their hearts. Within Israel, there was a remnant who truly believed, who truly looked for Messiah, who truly looked to Yahweh.

For others, they were only part of a tradition. Part of an ethnicity.

It's possible for us to gather on a Sunday morning and be part of the assembly, the outward body, what can be seen, but a heart, any individual heart to be far from God, to not truly belong.

Joseph of Arimathea was a true Israelite. He was truly looking for Messiah.

And so, when he saw him, he recognized him. He did not consent to the killing of Messiah.

Look at verse 51. He had not consented to their decision and action. And he was looking for the kingdom of God.

Most of the Jewish ruling class at that time was not looking for the kingdom. They were against Messiah when he came.

Now in verse 52, this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Then he took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid it in a tomb cut in stone where no one had ever yet been laid.

How do you picture that? I know the image in my mind is a flannel graph.

Who remembers flannel graphs from early days growing up in Sunday school? Flannel graph was where you put the little pictures on the board and you move it along.

Doop -a -doop -a -doop. Jesus dies on the cross and then Joseph of Arimathea comes and he takes the body down.

Doop -a -doop. Puts it in the tomb. And in that flannel graph vision of what's happening here, it's rather clean.

It's just kind of a matter of fact. But I want you to think about this. Taking a body down from the cross is just as gruesome as nailing a body to the tree.

This is real. This is bloody. And Joseph is getting himself dirty.

This good and esteemed man of Israel, this religious authority in his robes now is getting bloody.

And he's physically pulling this body off of a cross and carrying that body and wrapping that body in linen and laying him in a tomb.

My point is this. The gospel that we have, brothers and sisters, is not just our opinion.

It's not just my truth, the truth of the preacher. It's not just your truth, your opinion.

No. Our gospel is from a transcendent God. If we believed as some

Eastern mystics did and do, and many Americans now today, that God is everything and everything is

God, the view called pantheism, it would make sense that every person creates their own truth.

That what you believe is true for you as what someone else believes is true for them.

Truth would come from within yourself because you're part of God and God is you and you are God and so what you decree, so it is.

Subjective truth. Everybody would be a little God. But the truth is, the message of the

Bible is that God is a transcendent being. By transcendent, I mean he is something bigger and outside of this world.

And he comes into this world and he's everywhere, but he himself is transcendent and distinct from.

He is holy. The word holy means set apart, distinct from, greater than.

He's outside of this world and he made this world. And so the gospel that we have is from a

God who is transcendent above this world and so now this is how it comes in to the gospel.

History is real. It either happened or it didn't. And the story of a gospel, a historical narrative of a man who dies, who is buried in a tomb and who physically rises from the dead is real history.

It either happened or it didn't and it fits with the Christian worldview, a view of truth.

That this message that we have is true ontologically, not just subjectively, not just according to me, but according to real history.

How do we know it? You see, if all we had was a transcendent

God who's out there in outer space, some far distance, and he never spoke, then we would be just like the pantheists.

We would have to come up with truth on our own and figure it out for ourselves. We would have no light to guide us.

And each opinion would be just as valid as anybody else's opinion because truth itself would be subjective.

We would have no way of knowing. But the God of the Bible reveals himself very early.

It's the God who says, let there be light. The same

God who spoke light, physical light into existence and lit up the world is the

God who speaks. This is so important in the culture in which we live.

We have a God who speaks. He is not silent.

He has spoken by breathing the word of God in 39 books of Old Testament literature, 27 books written by human authors, but carried along by the breath of God so that the very words of Scripture are the words of God.

Light into this dark world. Let there be light. He spoke the

Old Testament, these 39 books. He spoke the New Testament, these 27 books.

What we're reading here, what we read from Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, these gospel writers, are history recorded for us, but the

Old Testament foretold it. The Old Testament foretold the details of Jesus's death, but in Isaiah 53, we are also told in verse nine that Jesus, the

Messiah who dies, would be buried in a rich man's tomb. He was buried with the wicked and with the rich in his death.

Imagine that. And the Jewish tradition of Passover, we talked about it last week, how in the

Passover, there was a scapegoat, and there was a cloth hung around the scapegoat's head, and it was red cloth, and sometimes, miraculously, it would turn white to show that the sins of the people were taken off onto the scapegoat.

But the other animal, the sacrificial lamb, was killed. The Passover sacrifice was killed, and the blood of that animal's sacrifice was put on the mercy seat.

Another Jewish tradition at that time of the Passover was to eat a meal, the

Passover meal. We talked about how the third cup represents the cup of blessing, the cup of redemption, and Jesus says, take this cup, drink, this is my blood.

But in that tradition, there was something called the afikomen. Write that down, afikomen.

It was bread. It would be broken, and the larger piece would be wrapped in a linen cloth.

And the tradition developed that the children would go searching for this afikomen. The adult would hide it, and they would look all over to find the afikomen, and they would bring it back and celebrate and eat of that bread.

This tradition represents the burial of Jesus Christ. That unleavened bread was striped because of the way it was baked over a grill.

It was striped like the back of our Savior. It was pierced as they would poke and turn the bread.

It had dark splotches like the bruising of his body. Once killed and broken, it's wrapped in linen like the shroud we read about in Luke 23, verse 53.

Then they took it down and wrapped it in a linen shroud, and they laid him in a tomb cut in stone.

The burying of this afikomen, and the finding of it as it comes back, represents the burial of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead.

It's a hidden matzah. Jesus said in John chapter six that his body was the bread, that we were to eat of his body.

So as we move on to the next section, I want us to remember the gospel that we preach is objective.

It was revealed in the Old Testament in these types and figures. The Passover, buried in a rich man's tomb, that's

Joseph of Arimathea, fulfills that prophecy in real time. Read Isaiah 53.

The fifth verse talks about the striping, the bruising, the piercing for our transgressions.

The prophecies of old fulfilled in the new. The gospel that we have is not from us.

It's not just our subjective truth. We preach a gospel that is true for all people, for all time.

It's rooted in real history. A real man named Joseph of Arimathea took a real body and laid it in the tomb.

And I like the joke that Platt tells. He says, the most hilarious line in the

Bible is recorded at this point. Matthew records what Pontius Pilate says. Pilate says, you have a guard of soldiers.

Go make it as secure as you can. Pilate says, I mean, Platt says, that's the most hilarious line in the

Bible. That's like saying, go make the sun dark. He tells the soldiers, go secure the tomb.

Good luck with that. Right, you'll keep the Son of God in. It's impossible.

The burying of Jesus in a real tomb. He will be resurrected on the third day.

Let's turn to that now. Verse 54 and following. It was the day of preparation.

And the Sabbath was beginning. The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid.

Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment.

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

Now, look, do they see the resurrected Jesus? Is the gospel, first of all, something that they see with physical eyes?

Verse two, they found the stone rolled away, but when they went in, they did not find the body of the

Lord Jesus. Verse four, while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel.

My clothes are often described as dazzling. No, I've never heard that before. The dazzling apparel of these angels represents the glory of their having been in the presence of God.

This is an angel. Remember when an angel appeared to Zechariah and he doubted what the angel had to say?

And the angel said, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. And now you're gonna be mute, because you didn't believe.

An angel comes to them, dazzling apparel. But notice, they don't see the body of Jesus.

They don't see the risen Savior, because here's the point. The communication of the gospel is verbal.

We communicate the gospel with words. And before Jesus is even seen, risen from the dead, first the gospel is proclaimed.

It will even be proclaimed to the apostles themselves, the eyewitnesses that he will choose. They will hear the gospel before they see him.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of Christ. Faith is not a blind leap.

You guys know the story of Indiana Jones, right? Some of you have seen that movie. And Indiana Jones has to get across the giant chasm, but he has to have faith that there's really a bridge there, an invisible bridge.

He has to step out into the open space and just believe that the bridge will catch him.

And he does that, he has faith. But that's not the case for us. Our faith is not blind.

Correct, we don't see with physical eyes. We will not see the resurrected Jesus until we're face to face with him in glory, 1

Corinthians 13. But we have the promise of his word. And the faith that we have is based on revelation, the spoken word of God, the light that he's spoken into the world in 39 books of Old Testament prophecy, 27 books in the

New. We walk by faith, we step out believing what God himself has said, and we have it here before us to read.

Notice then, verse five. In verse four, they're just perplexed.

They don't know. They don't even know that he's alive. They're not seeing this. They're only seeing an empty tomb.

They're only seeing a stone rolled away, and their reaction, they're perplexed. They don't get it. Guys, our culture, your best friend, your enemy, your next door neighbor, your coworker, they don't get it, they're perplexed.

There's no light in their mind. Here is what they need, verse five. As they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said.

If you follow the action that's been unfolding back in chapter 23, verse 55, they see

Jesus laid in a tomb. Chapter 24, they see the stone rolled away.

They don't find the body. They're perplexed, but now, verse five, the angel says.

The gospel is communicated. It must be spoken. It must be said, and here's what they say.

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.

Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day, rise.

The gospel is communicated in language. It's the story of a person, and the person who gets saved comes to know the person,

Jesus Christ, but that gospel becomes a spoken word that must go out.

It must be said, and here, the angels say it. Mark that down, take notes on this.

He is not here. He has risen. Then he goes back to the

Old Testament, and here, Jesus actually speaking a new prophecy that he had said earlier in Luke that the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day, rise.

All right, say you wanna share the gospel with your friend this afternoon. That's my goal preaching today, that you're gonna go do it.

In fact, I'd like for you to, before this day is out, post that verse on Facebook. You'll share it with all your

Facebook friends. Be bold to do that, because they can't believe unless they hear.

Tell it to a friend, email it to a friend, but where would you go in the scripture to find the clearest, most succinct message of the gospel?

I'm gonna say 1 Corinthians 15, one to four. Turn with me real quick. We'll just jump over here for just a minute.

1 Corinthians 15, verses one to four.

The reason it's so clear and so succinct is because Paul is wanting to remind them of the gospel, and he does so in the words that follow.

He also calls it the most important thing. In other words, whatever's on your mind right now, this is more important, so let this be on your mind.

The gospel, we need to be reminded. 1 Corinthians 15, now

I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word

I preach to you, unless you believed in vain. So he wants to remind them of the gospel, the thing that's most important,

I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, here it is, 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 he goes on to ground that resurrection in a historical reality that Jesus began to appear to Cephas and the 12, and then to Paul as one abnormally born, actually to 500 people that saw him, so eyewitnesses saw the resurrected

Jesus. But this message is our gospel.

Our gospel is the story of Jesus, it's the story of him, his glory, who he is, the son of God, the

Christ, the Lord. And the real historical event of his dying for sins, for the sins of the world, the reason of the atonement that he would stand in for us in our place, die, as Isaiah 53 tells us over and over and over again, the righteous for the unrighteous, that they would bury him, and on the third day, he rises from the dead.

That, in a few words, is the gospel. My encouragement to you is to take 1

Corinthians 15 or Luke 24 with the angel's announcement, and you speak that gospel.

Post it on Facebook. Go next door and literally talk to your neighbor about it.

The gospel is communicated, and finally, though, we need to recognize one last thing.

The gospel must be unveiled. It's communicated, but it must also be unveiled, meaning there is a supernatural element to preaching the gospel.

There is a veil that covers the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, until God says, let light shine in darkness, and he gives the light of the gospel into the heart of the believer.

This will be instructive for us in two ways. One, we'll recognize it's not our power to save anybody, so we need to pray.

We need to pray that God will lift that veil, but secondly, it will affect our evangelism.

It's something that I have to learn, because I'll confess this to you. I keep thinking that I'm gonna lead my neighbors to Christ, that I'm gonna win them to Christ.

I look across the street at these houses, and I've talked to them several times about the Lord, and I keep thinking, that family should be saved.

I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna keep going. You know what I've been doing for the last couple years? I keep going to those families again, and again, and again, and guess what the same result is each time?

It's a stiff arm. You'll see it on Sunday afternoon with the running backs. They give me the stiff arm.

Here's what I need to do, and the Lord showed me this this week. I need to be next door to them, and if they stiff arm me,

I need to go to the door next to them, and before long, I need to work my way all the way down Cornwallis, and around Decatur, and Liberty, and all the different roads in my neighborhood, until I've taken the gospel and done my part, which is preaching

Christ, trusting God to lift the veil where he will. In other words, if you keep going back to the same person over and over again, do you think that you're the one that's gonna convince him?

Only the Holy Spirit lifts the veil. I want you to see this in the text. We left off after the angel speaks.

In verse eight, there's a lifting. There's something supernatural that happens here.

The women get it first, and the men don't. That's kind of true in my house sometimes, too, and they remembered his words.

You see, they hear the preaching, but something in their heart, in their mind, sparks to life.

Do you see that? They go back in time to when Jesus told them that he would die, and be buried, and rise from the dead.

This is so important. They remember. Something clicks in their heart and in their mind.

They remember, and all of a sudden, they're filled with joy, and they run, returning from the tomb.

They told. This is what disciples do. When that veil is lifted, and you see, your eyes get big.

Your heart is full. You're filled with joy. You wanna tell somebody what you've seen. John chapter four, that Samaritan woman, she told everybody.

The man who told her everything that she's ever done. Returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the 11, and to all the rest.

Now, it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles, but these words seem to them an idle tale.

They're not seeing it. They're hearing it, but there's something in their hearts that's blocking them.

Now, I think in the case of the apostles, they're a special case. They're the chosen ones that are to see the resurrection of Jesus, and maybe for a time, they're allowed not to see, so that seeing him face to face, they would be the eyewitnesses to all generations, and record the gospel story, because they're gonna see him face to face, but it's still instructive for us, unless the

Holy Spirit lifts the veil. They can't see.

They're blind, even though they're being told the truth, and even in verse 12, Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in.

He saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened.

He's marveling. It's a spectacle, as we saw earlier. The stones rolled away.

These women are telling us this idle tale. This is amazing, but they don't believe.

We're gonna look at one other passage today, just quickly. 2 Corinthians 3, verse seven and following.

Paul teaches in 2 Corinthians 3 about how he's led in triumphal procession from place to place, everywhere spreading the fragrance of Christ, and some receive it as the aroma of life, others will receive it as the aroma of death, and so he penetrates a little deeper in this teaching to show us what's happening when we preach the gospel.

Verse seven, chapter three, 2 Corinthians 3, verse seven and following. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the

Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the

Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory.

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpassed it.

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

Now that's a lot to digest there in a moment, so just real quick, just hear me out. There was an old covenant, and now we have a new covenant.

The old covenant had many laws. In fact, the 10 commandments carved in stone, and there were really 613 laws to obey.

Those laws were good. However, we were not good. We had sin natures, and so when we came to that law, we broke it, but we were actually broken by it because every law that we break was breaking us.

We were unable to keep the law, and so it was a ministry of death to us because we were not good enough to keep the law of Moses.

But that law, that old covenant, is called old for a reason, why? Because there's something new that would come, and that was temporary.

It's now old. A new covenant that would come in its place is permanent. It has no end.

It doesn't get replaced with anything else, and this new covenant is the gospel, the message of Jesus, that by believing in him, your sins are washed away, you are forgiven, you are given eternal life, and the spirit comes to live inside of you, transforming you from the inside out, and this transformation will go on through all eternity as we gaze on Christ and we appreciate his glory and value him more and more.

It's an inward thing that the spirit accomplishes. The ministry of the spirit is a lot better than the ministry of Moses, right?

Now, follow me for a second. Verse 12 and following, there's a veiling that takes place so that people cannot see the light of the gospel, so 12 and following.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Are we very bold, brothers and sisters?

Are we bold with the gospel? Not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the

Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end, but their minds were hardened, for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains, unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.

So you'll have to know the Old Testament context here. When Moses came out of the meeting place with God, his face was shining brilliantly with the glory of God.

He was radiant. However, that radiance was slowly fading away back to a normal human look.

And so he would put a veil over his face so people wouldn't see the disappearing -ness, if that's a word, of the glory that rested on his face.

That veil would cover him. And now Paul takes that imagery of a veil that would cover his face and applies it to people nowadays who don't believe in Jesus Christ.

Yes, to this day, verse 15. Whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the

Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Now just a few more verses is gonna nail this home. Therefore, having this ministry, by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

There is a supernatural aspect to bringing people to Christ. A veil remains over the hearts and minds of everyone.

And unless the spirit of God can lift that veil or will lift that veil, they remain blinded to the light.

So how do we apply these teachings? We learn about the physical burial of Jesus.

Recognize the gospel we preach is real history. Joseph of Arimathea laid the body of Jesus in a tomb.

He rose from the dead and he lives. It now comes to us to communicate that gospel.

It's a real message that we have to preach. But finally, there's a spiritual element to what's taking place around us.

And though we tell them the truth and objective real truth, it's only when the spirit of God circumcises the heart, so to speak, removes the veil that blinds them, will they come.

And so we must pray and pray and pray and ask because we cannot lead anybody to Christ.

The gospel is the power of God. It's not the power of Jeff or any other person.

We don't have the ability to do it. Our part is to go out and preach, we are very bold, openly, freely, from house to house, from person to person, broadly preaching the gospel, trusting that God has his own.

I have found this doctrine to light me up with evangelism. Follow me for a second.

I know that when I go out preaching, there will be sheep who hear his voice.

John 10 says that there are other sheep and they don't hear his voice because they're not his sheep. But when you go out preaching, knowing that it's

God who lifts the veil, you'll be very bold. You'll know that as you keep turning these stones, one after another, one of them will be living.

And the more you turn, the more living stones you'll find because God lifts the veil.

It's the spirit who lifts the veil. It's the spirit who gives life. And so this, this morning, is a call to you and a call to me to be very bold in preaching the gospel.

Not to just keep going back to that one neighbor across the street, but to make it your ambition to go to every neighbor on your street.

Let there be gospel. God created this gospel objectively in real time.

It's up to us now to take what he has done. He's done the work, right? It was

Jesus who died and bled. How easy is it for us? All we have to do is tell what he did.

And yet, because we don't understand this doctrine, we very often fall silent. The first time we get stiff -armed, we think, oh man,

I'm just not a good evangelist. The only reason that the Lord has used me to lead people to Christ is because I keep telling.

I keep telling. And most people reject what I have to say. You know that. Most people reject.

The veil is there. I can't remove it. All I can do is go preach. That's my part.

And that's your part. Are you willing to be rejected?

If you kept reading 2 Corinthians 4, where we left off, you'd see the apostles were willing to suffer a lot of persecution and affliction, but they kept going.

Have the worship team come on up. Let me close in prayer and just ask that the Lord now will give us boldness with the gospel.

Let's pray. God, you are the one who said, let there be light, and the world was filled with light.

And we recognize that it's only you, God, who can say, let there be light, and a soul will come to life.

Only you can lift that veil of darkness that blinds the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel, of the glory of God, in the face of Christ.

Jesus, we see you. We believe, though our physical eyes have never seen, we have heard the old, old story.

How you died on Calvary. How you were buried in Joseph's tomb.

How you rose from the dead. Hearing, we believe. And so now,

Lord, we pray, in Jesus' name, that you will fill this congregation with fire that has both heat and light, that we would go forth preaching the gospel, communicating.

God, I think back of William Tyndale, how he just kept preaching and kept printing those

Bibles so that the light of the gospel burst out in the English language, and Martin Luther in German.

But then they led Tyndale away and tied him to a stake and killed him. He died a martyr's death.

Forgive us, Lord, for our fear. Fill us with courage this

Reformation Day. As people come knocking on our doors to get candy, under the veil celebrating

Halloween, Lord, we preach Christ. We pray that light bursts forth from every home represented in this building.

Gospel witness going out with tracts and words and invitations.