Give Them Jesus — Acts 17

0:01 It's probably probably in terms of telling people about Christ, the best time of the year. We used to sing on the subway trains. We used to... A whole bunch of guys, a whole bunch of us dressed like this. We'd have our ties on and that kind of thing, and we'd get on a subway train at Christmas time, and we would start to sing Christmas carols.

0:26 And then as we were concluding our Christmas carols, we're riding on the train, you know, all this kind of stuff, and we would pass out literature to the New Yorkers. Now if you know anything about New York, you know anything about New Yorkers, they're generally... They wall you off. You don't exist type of situation. And they were wide open.

0:49 Thank you. Oh, yeah. I said, we need to put Christ back into Christmas. And they go, yes. That's true.

0:55 I mean, a whole bunch of people. So it's the best time of the year. It's the most wonderful time of the year. And as we we look at this, you know, they they say that it's a... It's more blessed to give than to receive.

1:10 And I think that's true. It's a real... You get a real blessing by giving to people. Don't you think? That is.

1:17 It is. It's more blessed. Some of you might be going, no. I love to get. I love to get, so forget that one.

1:27 But when we look at... And you say to yourself, okay, so Friday is Christmas, today is Sunday, it's the Sunday before Christmas. What does this passage have to do with Christmas? A whole bunch. A whole bunch.

1:49 And we're gonna see that as it comes... As it unfolds for us. But when we look at this, I don't know if I ever shared with you. I took a philosophy class once at a college. Did I ever share that with you?

2:00 I don't know. I'm going to go ahead and do it anyway. Anyway, I took this philosophy class. My professor was mister Habib. And mister Habib was getting a doctorate in educational philosophy.

2:14 And so it was an interesting an interesting mix. Most of my classmates were, I have to say, bored. And we were we were sitting there, and I remember exchanging with... And I would talk to the professor, and he would ask questions, and I generally was the only one answering because everybody else was somewhere else mentally. But it was an interesting class because we were talking about Socrates.

2:45 And Socrates was a was a Greek and he had students. And what he did was he employed a method of teaching by asking questions. He would ask a question and elicit an answer, and then from that answer, he would ask another question and then, you know, so on and so forth. And so what he would do with that is that would be a a method of teaching. Now it's called, in teaching circles, called the Socratic method of teaching.

3:16 You ask questions, you get an answer, etcetera. So we were discussing this in our class and it was an interesting exchange. Said, it just dawned on me right there, right on the spot. I said, let me ask you a question, Mr. Habib.

3:32 He goes, sure, Chris, go ahead. I said, would you say that Socrates questioned his questioning? And Mr. Habib looked like some of you. Is it possible that Socrates questioned his questioning?

4:10 And he goes, yeah. Yeah. I said, well, if the aim of philosophy... And you told us this, mister Abib. If the aim of philosophy is to arrive at truth and Socrates questioned his questioning, how would you ever know that you've arrived at truth?

4:30 And then he looked at me again with his mouth agape. How would you ever know? Because if you thought you knew and you had it, you would question it. So I understood my brother. I understood my brother right there on the spot because Paul writes to Timothy.

4:55 He says, ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And so, Pete, this is this is the world we're in today. Isn't that true? This is a world that we're in where you cannot have something that is fixed. You can't have some fixed truth.

5:13 You can't do it because if you do, you're intolerant. You're a bigot. You're whatever. Is there such a thing as truth? And this is the this is the issue that Paul is about to go.

6:08 And that's not counting the private ones. So as he's walking through, he sees the public statues and he can't believe that. And there's this famous place called the Parthenon and the Acropolis, and this is where these guys got together. And they... You know, some of the philosophers, and they would discuss things.

6:29 They would do this. But notice in our passage today, we're gonna notice four aspects of Paul's ministry. I want us to look at Paul's ministry today, and I wanna look at the four aspects of his ministry because this is really telling for us. Because I look at this situation that we're facing in our... In These United States today.

6:54 And I don't know about you, but if you look at the situation today, politically, economically, all that kind of stuff, it's pretty bleak. It seems bleak, doesn't it? It seems like it's getting darker and darker. We've got shootings. We've got the LA Unified Schools completely.

7:16 Now, you know, that 630,000 students were sent home because of a threat. 630,000 students. That's the whole district shut down because of a bomb... A assassination attempt or whatever, you know, a threat. It didn't come to fruition.

7:36 Praise God. But it was not there nonetheless. And so people are living in intense fear. People are living in in not only intense fear for their lives, but economic fear, what's gonna take place in the future, all these kinds of things. And it seems like it's getting darker and darker.

7:56 I submit to you today, there are people who are not only living in quiet desperation. There are people who are living in vocal desperation. People are desperate. It's getting dark, and they're seeing no hope. They're seeing no hope.

8:21 All the gods, quote unquote, gods that they have placed their faith in are failing them. The god of money, the god of sports, the god of family relationships, All these different things are failing them, and they're seeing it right before them. And where do they turn? Where do they go? In Paul's time, the intellectual capital of the world was Athens.

8:51 The political capital of the world during Paul's time was Rome. And the religious time... The religious capital of the world at that time was Jerusalem. And just a few years earlier, this is around when Paul goes to Athens, it's around fifty AD. So just a few years earlier, not very long, you have a child born in a manger.

9:19 And Paul writes to the Galatians and says, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son. Now Roman domination was a nasty business, not for the Roman who was a freeborn Roman or a person who bought their citizenship of Rome, but for everybody else because they dominated. They were a world dominating entity. But what they did was they brought into that whole region of... As measure of peace, and thus they called it Pax Romana, which is in Latin peace of Rome.

9:58 And they did whole bunches of roads and aqueducts, and they were incredible incredible engineers in doing that. To this day, you can still see some aqueducts. They have it out near Caesarea Maritime. It's just beautiful. I mean, it's amazing what they did in terms of bringing water to a desert and and bringing it into...

10:19 And having an aqueduct system. And the Romans built that. The Aegean Way, the Romans built that. They bricks, and they made a whole road out of bricks and just wasn't dust. I'm sure they had dust on it, but it was a a firm road.

10:35 And the political system was incredible. And then you had the religious system and then the intellectual aspects of this. Paul goes to Athens. This is after the Jerusalem Council of fifth chapter 15. And he goes to Athens.

10:51 He goes by himself and he walks the area of this intellectual capital of the world. And the Bible says that he's stirred. He's provoked. More like grieved. So we look at these aspects and in verses 16 through 21, we see Paul's burden.

11:47 You just don't see things. You just go and be... Boom. That's what it is, and that's what it... You know, that kind of thing, and you just go on.

11:53 It's like a horse to the barn. Right? You got your little route. You know exactly where you're going, and that's what you do, but you don't see things. This is not what Paul's perspective was.

12:03 Paul's perspective was he looked around, and he saw things. And if it was true, and I think it really is true, archaeologically speaking, you have 30,000 public statues within and around a walled houses or walled areas for their houses, that kind of thing, statues within that because the whole area, these guys had a pantheon. In other words, a whole group of gods. Greek Greek philosophy, you have the Greek gods, Poseidon, Zeus, all these different gods that they sacrifice to. Because they don't, if they were a mariner, then the word you're on a boat and you were, you know, on a ship and you're made your living by fishing, that kind of thing, you would sacrifice to the god who is called Poseidon.

12:53 Because if if you didn't do that, Poseidon would get you and you would die in your boat or, you know, get capsized or something like that. Or you do the great god, Zeus, and you might sacrifice to him and then you'd sacrifice to all these different other gods depending on your situation. There were a whole host of gods of which these people did. And so he looks at this and his heart's broken actually. His heart is broken.

13:24 Because when you look at Paul, you look at a man who is... Well, he comes from Jerusalem area. I mean, he is... I mean, mean by Jerusalem, I know he's Tarsus for sure, but he's a Jew. He's a Jew's Jew.

13:41 Pharisee of the Pharisee. He knows salvation is of the Jews. And now he knows Messiah. He knows Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus, the Christ.

13:53 Same word, one Greek, one Hebrew. And he knows this person. And it was hard for him to kick against those goads because all of a sudden, when he trusted Christ as his personal savior, he was blinded for three days and he sat there and he wondered what was taking place. All the... I don't think that he slept.

14:15 I don't think that he had any kind of idea to that effect. I think he was reviewing in his mind all those faces of the people that he had in incarcerated or had incarcerated and put in prison and had killed. Plus, all the all the... Because he was a brilliant Jew. He knew the Old Testament cold.

14:35 He had it down. And so he probably sat there in this... For the three days and all of a sudden just went through and made connections with the Old Testament prophecies regarding Messiah and sowing this was fulfilled in Jesus. Over 300 of them. Who art thou, Lord?

14:56 I am Jesus. What? I've persecuted your church. I made havoc of your church. I wanted to destroy your church.

15:12 And now he has got some time under his belt, and he is walking through Athens. And he sees things differently now. He was schooled in the Greek philosophy, obviously. Obviously, he did that. He knew what he was talking about.

15:32 He was also schooled in in Jude... Judaism for sure, and he was a freeborn Roman. And as he walks, he sees things and he can't believe it. He sees the idolatry that people are going after other gods and knowing that... Of what the scripture says, faces have they, eyes have they, but they see not, ears have they, but they hear not, noses have they, but they breathe not.

16:07 All these things that are going through his mind as he looks at these these statues that people actually worship, and it crushes his heart. He's broken, stirred within him, provoked. And this is the thing that we look at when we talk about it's the most wonderful time of the year. This is, you know, it's not Santa Claus who died on the cross for us. It's Jesus Christ.

16:39 And when we look at when we look at the situations that we're looking around, our lives in terms of what we see, just driving is, you know, great northern going down the street here, going over to this new area here, down on Crocker Bassett, just looking at that, looking at all the merry... And you can't even say Merry Christmas anymore. You don't... I do. I just yell it out.

17:03 Sue me. You know? But I say to myself, okay. What are we what are we doing? And that, you know, with the old adage, Jesus is the reason for this season.

17:12 You know? I say that all the time this time of the year. It is the best time of the year. But what are people going? And by the way, as it gets darker as it gets darker, in terms of our culture and darker in terms of the spiritual temperature of this this world, it gets darker and darker.

17:30 Guess what? The light gets brighter. The light gets brighter and brighter. It's easier because people are noticing and really know that their gods don't work. They don't work.

17:51 They haven't worked. They haven't worked for years. I thought they might, but they're they're just not. So the emptiness and despair starts to set in. And when we come and tell him that Jesus loves him, his hope, his incredible hope.

18:26 Therefore, disputed he in the synagogues with the Jews and with the devout persons in the marketplace daily with them that met with him. And so he he disputes with them and notice what, you know, he he... It's really weird because this this is an interesting thing. The the word dispute there in the Greek means to argue. Isn't that a kicker?

18:52 Oh, you never should argue with people. No. Just tell... Never should argue. Well, this word means exactly that.

19:02 Arguing for the sake of argumentation is wrong. But arguing for the sake of the gospel is commanded. Would you look with turn, we're going to go, we're gonna come back to this passage, but I like us to look at Jude verse three. Jude verse three for a moment. And as you're in that neighborhood of the Bible, I'd like us to look also to first Peter.

19:30 But look at Jude verse three first. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you, of the common salvation. So, his main purpose initially, Jude's main purpose was to write of the common salvation, but then he... It's an interesting thing because most... A lot of commentaries say that he read second Peter and realized that he needed to really start to talk about about earnestly contending for the faith.

20:00 Now notice what it says. When I gave all diligence to write unto you with a common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly, notice the adverb there. It it gives the force to the verb, contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints. That word contend means to fight. That a kicker?

20:30 But how are we to fight? And how are we to contend for the faith which was once delivered? Peter writes it to us and says in verse 15 of chapter three of first Peter, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you of the reason or the hope that's in you with meekness and fear? How are we to carry ourselves? We are to give that...

20:57 Meekness is not weakness, folks. It's not weirdness. It's it's strength under control. That's meekness. And when we look at this kind of thing, he was impressed with their ignorance.

21:09 He disputed with them. He argued with them, with them in the synagogue. And daily, he did this. He daily did this. And then verse 18 of Acts chapter 17, then certain philosophers.

21:24 Now that that freaks out, doesn't it? Oh, a philosopher. You gotta speak with a British accent when you do this, and it's much... You're much more intelligent. You know?

21:34 Oh, yes. Thank you. I'm an Epicurean. And that just means you like your sensual stuff. That's what you like.

21:42 That's what you really like. And the stoics were there too, and they were like Spock of Star Trek, you know. You know, never... No emotion and discipline and pride in that, you know, and I've got that and how you doing? You know, and that that's the way it is.

21:58 I mean, in the Epicureans and Stoics and this is how you and get and get your life and have meaning, purpose, and life. And this... It's crazy. It's just really crazy, but this is what these guys did. And a certain philosophers of the Epicureans and then the Stoics encountered him, and some said, what will this babbler say?

22:20 Well, listen, understand one thing. The Christian's not gonna get a fair shake. The Christian's not gonna get a fair shake in the public forum. He's not gonna get it. Al, there's a Christian.

22:33 Let's listen to him. No. I'm sorry. Jesus said, if they hated me, this is what Jesus said, they will hate you. The servant is not greater than his Lord.

22:51 So why do we get offended when somebody doesn't like when we... What we say? This is the name of the game, to put it in a colloquial expression. I don't even know what colloquial means, but it sounded good. They were ignorant of what?

23:24 What did he give them? What did this babbler say? That's an interesting thing. Let's look at what he said. Let's look at this babbler.

23:34 And so they wanted to hear what he had to say. What... And and what would this... Others said this in the middle of verse 18, he seems to be a setter forth of strange gods. Really?

23:46 30,000 statues of your different gods and you're saying he's the setter forth of strange gods? Calling the kettle black, are we? I mean, are you kidding me? It's ridiculous. They got so many strange gods, it's unreal, you know, and you can't even prove it.

24:13 I mean, it's not even historically verifiable. Zeus is not historically verifiable, neither was Poseidon. But the strange God that Paul preaches is. And the thing I love about being a Christian, Christianity is wedded with history. It's verifiable.

24:39 Poseidon is not verifiable. Zeus not verifiable. All those other guys not verifiable. Nope. Jesus is.

24:51 I love this. Don't you like this? I love it. It's true and accurate. It's true and accurate.

25:00 But he's a setter for it. This is how they're looking at him. Right? This is how they're looking at him. And it's it's it's just amazing.

25:07 He says, well, you know, they... But what did he give them? Why did they think that? Because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. Well, that begs the question, did he preach the resurrection?

25:24 Why? Because he preached Jesus dying on the cross and rising again the third day. This is interesting. So what did he do? And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus saying, may we know of this new doctrine of which you speak, For you bring certain strange things to our ears.

25:52 Oh, man. They... And you have... This is like new to you. Well, it is new to them for the...

25:57 For sure. We know therefore that these... What these things mean. And for all the Athenians... Get this.

26:03 Get verse 21. This is like amazing to me. It must have been a welfare state in Athens. For all the Athenians and the strangers who were with who were there spent their time in nothing else. They didn't work at McDonald's or McDavid's or any place else.

26:23 Nothing else but to tell or to hear some new thing. Come on. Itching ears. Come on. Tell us something new.

26:36 And that's all they did. You know, in New York City, we call that Battery Park. All those all those guys go down there and just argue all day. All day, they... You go down to Battery Park and and rear Wall Street area in the old days anyway.

26:53 I don't know if it's true today, but you can go down there and you see a crowd of guys, and all they're doing is arguing stuff and talking about something just like this. Just like this. And they would they would commit back and forth. Hyde Park is the same way in London. And so you have this you have this really an interesting interesting thing.

27:15 All they did... And then so I I think when you look at when you look at Paul's burden, you see he's burdened because of the idolatry, he's burdened because of their ignorance, and he's burdened because of their idleness. He just cannot believe this, what's taking place. But what an opportunity. Now we could...

27:34 I... You know, Paul could have whined and complained about this and said, what kind of cult there's this? We need democracy. You know? Well, that's, you know, the...

27:44 Athens was the bed the bed of the democracy, if you please. And and so you you say, we need this. We need better whatever, like a political solution. What did he give them? Jesus.

27:58 I want to say something here that's really... Well, you know, people get really upset. Some can. Jesus is the only way. And I'll match Jesus against any of philosophies that the world brings or anybody else that they wanna bring up.

28:18 He's the only way. You're getting inundated and probably already are with a whole bunch of you need to do this, you need to believe this, you need to give this credence, you need to do... Hey, listen. There's only one Jesus. He's the only one who died on the cross.

28:36 He's the only one who shed his blood. He's the only one who rose again physically from the dead, and he beats everybody else because of that. And there is no other way. Islam's wrong. I was talking to a friend watching the debate, know, they talk about radical Islam.

28:59 Hey, folks, Islam is radical. It is. I was in Cleveland, Downtown Cleveland preaching in the open air and a guy in a row, a Muslim came up to me and went just like this. And that was 1980. I didn't feel real comforted.

29:21 And I I I kind of got a little upset with him, and I said to him, I said, is that what your religion teaches you? I said, where's the love? I said, where is the love? God is love. Allah is not love.

29:45 And as we said before, I've said this before, listen, Allah in Arabic means God. Right? But don't equate the God of the Bible to Allah of the... Of Islam. Don't do it.

29:59 It is a mistake. Why, you say? You say it's the same word. That's all it is in the Arabic Bible. It's Allah, you know, God.

30:07 Right? The God of the Bible is the Trinitarian God. The God of Islam is not. It's a different god. In fact, it's demonic.

30:18 And people get upset at that. Well, you're not politically correct. Well, I'm telling you right now, truth is not political correctness. I'm sorry. The Bible here, he's preaching to them stuff that they hear...

30:33 The Epicureans are having it this way and the Stoics are having in another way and all these, you know, proliferation of different belief systems. You've... What is the truth? What is the truth? And he gives them Jesus Christ because not only did he live in time and space and did die on the cross and shed his blood, Historical verification can prove it.

30:58 But he also rose again from the dead physically. And again, history can prove that. I love it. I love it. And that's why he's the only way.

31:14 In fact, that's what he said. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. No man. There's no other way.

31:33 Here's an assignment for you. I'd like you, if you can do this, to get some walking shoes. It's going to be warmer. It is. It's supposed to be, hopefully.

31:46 I'll take this El Nino thing. I'll take it hands down. Global warming, I love it. Let it be 75 degrees Christmas day. You know, I...

31:57 In in Armada, Michigan, you know, I love that. I'll go cut the grass or something, you know. I want you to walk your neighborhood. Okay? And go down here on Conker Detroit, Crocker, Bassett, Detroit, and walk through that.

32:23 Go Downtown Cleveland and walk down there. And ask the Lord to show you the way it really is. What is going on in my world? And to see it the way the lord sees it. Because when Paul looks at this, he's looking at from an eternal perspective.

32:52 He's not looking at from now. Things change all the time. I mean, you know, you have urban renewal, buildings go down, buildings go up, you've got all this kind of stuff. But look at it the way God wants you to look at it. Look at it from an eternal perspective.

33:11 Because understand this, if you have had intense desperation in your life, what do you think the unsaved person has had? What do you think they're going through? Incredible. Incredible desperation. And if Jesus is the only way, truly, he is the reason for this season.

33:47 And truly, it is better to give than to receive. And so give him Jesus. Isn't that what we're called to do, to be witnesses? And if it's an interesting word, the word witness in some cases, it's used... It's where we get the word martyr.

34:08 I'm not asking us to be martyrs in the sense of giving our lives up. But when... I mean, aren't we to give our lives up all the time in telling others about Christ? That's for sure. How does Paul do it?

34:25 Notice real quickly because he says he he he bring these bring these things to him. Right? In verse 22, Paul is no dope. So what does he do? He wants to give them the gospel.

34:39 He preached the gospel to them. And so what does he do? He takes them from what they know to what they don't know. What they know to what they don't know. What do they know?

34:55 They know these different gods all over the place in terms of their statues. Right? And he says, and Paul stood in the midst of Mars' Hill and said, you men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. He didn't slam them. He just gave the obvious.

35:11 And then he said to them, he said, for as I passed by, I beheld your devotions. I found an altar to the inscription to the unknown god. Why is that? Because they had altars to every god they could think of, and in case there was a god they couldn't think of, let's put it to the unknown god because we don't know him. And Paul wisely takes him from what they know to what they don't know and he says, I'm going to tell you about this unknown god.

35:40 I'm going to tell you about this unknown god. Oh, it's called apperception. You take them from what they know to what they don't know. It brings them along. Jesus did this very thing in John chapter four.

35:54 John chapter four. In John chapter three, he hit Nicodemus upside the head with a spiritual two by four. But he didn't do that to the woman at the well. He brought her to what he she knew, to what she didn't know. And this is exactly what Paul does.

36:13 It says, whom therefore you were ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. God... And then he goes on and he starts to preach. God who made the world and all things in it. Seeing that seeing that he is lord of heaven and earth dwell not with in temples.

36:30 Temples made with hands. That's all they had. Man, they had temples. In fact, the Parthenon... Somebody made a great illustration one time and I loved it.

36:40 He said, the man is like the Parthenon, a magnificent ruin. And I thought, wow, that is so true. Man is like the Parthenon, a magnificent ruin. And that's mankind without Jesus. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

37:16 He used what they did and he brought them from what they knew to what they didn't know. And I'm telling you right now, and this is maybe experience. And this is the tough part. This is the tough part about missions. Is that if you say that missions, right, I'm gonna be a missionary to The United States, not gonna get a lot of backing.

37:40 I'm telling you right now, but if you said, oh, I'm going to Iriangyah. Wow. What a missionary. Giving up this, giving up that. But I want to tell you something.

37:51 The great... One of the greatest missionary fields on the planet is right here because we've got just enough Christianity to inoculate us from the real thing. And so what we have to do, we have to show people how their perception of Christianity is wrong and then give them the truth. We have to do this. We have to do it skillfully and wisely under the under the power and inspiration and direction of the holy spirit.

38:28 But we want to do this because it's commanded of us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And all the world is right here. You move New York City out 11 miles into the Atlantic Ocean, you've got one of the greatest mission fields in the world. There's no more diverse city except maybe London than New York City. It isn't.

38:56 And so you look at this and you have it here. You have an incredible diversity in here, and it's really amazing to me. It's really amazing to me. You know, we say we really wanna minister to Islam... To those entrapped by Islam, and they are.

39:11 Well, they're coming to us. Radicalized. People are radicalized. How about if we give them Jesus and show the difference between Muslims, Islam, and Christianity. How about that?

39:31 How about we know what we're talking about and give them the truth? How about it? I mean, are they souls for whom Christ died? You betcha. You betcha.

39:54 And he gives them the message. He has a burden and he has his method and he gives them the message. It's a message about the universe. It's a message about mankind. It's a message about their future.

40:08 And we need to give it to him. We need to give them that message, folks. And I I praise God for Westlake. I really do. I praise God because you know, you like Boulevard Bible Chapel.

40:30 And Christian, you can verify this, Abram. You go to Boulevard Bible Chapel in my... Actually Hollywood, Florida, And you go to the back, and on the back, they have a map of all the neighborhoods they've gone to with pins in it. And they have it in the main meeting room, so that you would just wouldn't forget it. And they have systematically gone through, and you're like them.

41:03 We wear Christianity on our sleeve. You know, some people say, oh, you're wearing a muffin on your sleeve, you know. Fuck up, buddy. Suck it up, you know. Wait a second.

41:13 I want to wear Christianity on my sleeve. I wanna have Jesus all over. If they were... As... And you've heard this illustration before, Billy Graham gave it, you know.

41:25 If they were to con... If if Christianity was illegal, what... Could they convict you of being a Christian? Just asking. Just asking.

41:44 Would that be a... Could they could they... Yeah. We got the goods on him or her. She's a Christian.

42:08 They preached. What did what did Paul preach? What did the disciples preach? They preached to, first of all, that you're a sinner, that you can't save yourself. That Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.

42:24 That he died on that cross and shed his blood to wash away your sins and that three days later he rose again physically from the dead. And you need to have a changed mind about that and turn to him and trust him. There are people today that are trying to tell us you don't need to believe that Jesus rose again from the dead. Well, guess what? When I read the scriptures, every time I see these guys preach, they always preach that he died and rose again from the dead.

42:55 And what did Jesus tell us to preach? That he... Christ... It behooved Christ to die and then he rose again from the dead and to preach that. Paul reflects that in first Corinthians fifteen three and four.

43:11 Actually, the full thing of it is one through 11. I gotta preach that. Hey, Jesus loves you. Yeah. That's cool.

43:19 I like that. And I say it all the time to people because it's, you know, it's the... What else are gonna say? You really, you know? Go Browns?

43:27 I mean, what's worth saying? But is that the full gospel? No? I mean, I don't... We...

43:36 Sometimes we don't have time, but I sure do wanna give them the gospel as much as I can. Do it. It's more blessed to give than to receive because this is... When those people close their eyes in death, when when people close their eyes in death, what do they open them to? Because they do.

44:05 Will they see him, the Lord Jesus? Or will they be in hell that very next moment? Well, the reward for Paul was reproach. Notice verses 32 and following. And it said, when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked.

44:27 That's normal, folks. And others said, we will hear thee again on this matter. So Paul departed from among them. So they mocked and they... And some people wanted to hear it again.

44:38 But some people received it. Nevertheless, certain joined him and believed among whom and those are named, the Areopagite and the woman. They trusted Christ. What a tremendous blessing. I remember one time in preaching in the open air in Chicago.

44:55 And this was probably was wise. I mean, did it. I had... Did three meetings using the God you message. I thought, let's do the fourth one.

45:07 I got time. I'll get one in quick. I knew I was in trouble when I had no crowd and a guy standing near the light lamp post. So it's like from me to you, bro. You know, standing near the light bulb, and he starts going, don't listen to him.

45:24 Don't listen to him. He's an idiot. Well, that was true. Always... But I wanted people to listen.

45:31 Don't listen. But what he did for me was he got me a crowd. But this crowd was a little different. It wasn't like, tell us, tell us, oh, Chris, oh, Sage, Tell us, you know. No.

45:46 It wasn't that at all. These guys were very... And they... Two guys, two guys, I'll never forget this. Two guys and and I I got a little...

45:55 I was young and I was a little fiery. And I I, you know, I was loud, which is normal. And... You know, for the open air. And I was I was preaching and and these two drunks, they were businessmen.

46:13 I'm going to here's exactly what they look like. And I'm going, Christ died on the cross. He loved you. And this is comical. Chris, are you mad at us?

46:41 If you're doing Jesus, you're mocking god. They were. They were. There was rank us. I mean, rank or all over the place and and they're they're mocking god and all this and they and Chris And they kept moving in on me, you know?

46:55 A little personal space. They were moving in on me. Right? And they're like right here.

47:00 God, calm down.

47:04 Can you

47:05 can you just like talk to me? Talk to us? What's what's...

47:09 Crit, I am not kidding you. I am giving him verbatim.

47:12 What? What's wrong? Is something wrong?

47:17 And the Lord gave me wisdom just to back it off and volume. I... And I said to him, I said, look at... You know, in a little higher than that, I said, look at... I just wanna let you know, I'm here to tell you about Jesus Christ and you're late...

47:31 You're thinking this is the this is the only thing that's gonna save your life because you close your eyes and death, it's over.

47:39 Okay. I hear what you're saying.

47:45 Alright. Okay. It's too deep. Third deep is this guy, about this tall, manicured hands, perfect beard, really well dressed. He's going like this with his beard.

48:07 I think that's the same meeting the lady tried to kiss me too. And he's standing there. His name is Alfonso. And after the meeting was over, he came up to me and said, my name is Alfonso. I'm a businessman from Cuba.

48:24 Perfect English. Would you tell me about this Jesus? Would you tell me about and he came to Christ. Tell me about him. I want to know.

48:39 Because all his business, Acum, all his money, all the wealth that maybe he amassed wasn't doing it for him. I want to know. Tell me about him. And he trusted Christ as his personal Savior. Very similar situation.

48:55 People mocking, people jeering, and some believe. What a tremendous, you know, what a tremendous thing that God has given to us in terms of affording us an opportunity. Because, you know, folks, I pray I pray this for us. I do. That we would see the lost as they really are with all their pain and that we would enter into that and never get over it and give them Jesus.

50:06 It's more blessed to give than to receive, and that's hope. Father, we just pray that you would take us and use us not only now, but for the rest of our lives until we see you face to face. Help us, we pray. And give us a heart and burden our hearts and give us wisdom on how to tell them. And give us...

50:48 Help us to understand the message. We want the blessing for sure, but Lord God, we want them to be blessed more than even us to be blessed. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.