Jesus Died...but God - Part A

But let me tell you about two important words that can change your life.

They can change bad news into good news. These two words can be placed into any situation and alter any outcome. They are the words but God.

But God. Each word has only three letters. Each word is very simple to say.

Only one syllable per word. But when you put those two words together, they form a very powerful truth. The Renaissance, Reformation, and the World Wars were time periods and events that changed the world. But only one singular event changed history like nothing else ever has. Today on Connect with Skip Hyten, Skip begins a series called But God and looks at the message God has for you through the most monumental event in history. But before we begin, here's a great resource that will help you know God more intimately so you can experience a richer relationship with Him. The best biographies make you feel like you personally intimately know the person you've read about. From Mozart to Mother Teresa, Sojourner Truth to Steve Jobs. It's exciting to learn the details of influential people. But one biography stands out above the rest. The biography of God.

Here's the author, Skip Hytsig. There's nothing more elevating to mankind than the study of God Himself. Discover the omnipotence, paradoxes, and mystery central to God's being and remove the limits you may have placed on who God is. I've noticed that almost every problem that a person has in their life stems from an inadequate view of God. Skip's new book is our thanks when you give $35 or more today to help keep this ministry on the air.

Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Acts chapter 13 today as we get into the teaching with Skip Hyten. I want you to consider the two most important words in our vocabulary. Now if you were to ask different people they would tell you different things. Harvard Business Journal says the two most important words in the human language are recognition and praise. Recognition and praise. And this is what they said, when people do a good job they want to be told they did a good job. They want recognition and praise. One psychologist says the most important two words in the English language are the words act now.

Act now. Because according to this psychologist too many people dream and think and plan but never take any concrete steps to do anything about it. Many people will tell you, including marketing firms, the two most important words in our language are the words thank you. To show appreciation to another human being is so important. I love what one freelance writer said.

Here's a writer who gets checks if he gets published. He said the two most important, the two most beautiful words I've ever seen in English are on an envelope that says check enclosed. But let me tell you about two important words that can change your life.

They can change bad news into good news. These two words can be placed into any situation and alter any outcome. They are the words but God.

But God. Each word has only three letters. Each word is very simple to say.

Only one syllable per word. But when you put those two words together they form a very powerful truth. In fact there may not be two more hopeful words than these two words but God. Because they point us to the great interrupter.

The one who can powerfully and graciously interrupt our lives with his plans and change our lives forever. Did you know that phrase but God appears in the Bible forty-five times? And every time it appears what comes after those words is radical change. Situations are changed radically. According to Martin Lloyd Jones, a great Bible commentator, he said these two words in and of themselves contain the whole of the gospel of Christ.

Why? Because no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, no matter how you've lived, no matter what mistakes you may have made, no matter what failures you have been involved in, no matter what addictions you may find yourself in, there can be a but God moment that radically changes who you were and who you are. Now the first word, if you consider the phrase but God, the first word but is conjunction in English. That's a type of speech. And a conjunction is simply a word that connects two phrases together. The word but means on the contrary. We use it to make a difference or contrast what we previously said.

For example, he stumbled but he didn't fall. Or this is expensive but that isn't. Or you're pretty and I'm not.

Thank you. But when you add the word God to that little word but, when you add the word God to that little conjunction, now anything is possible. Anything is possible. With God the Bible says nothing shall be impossible. I have a little paper clip with me on my Bible and what if I were to tell you that I could trade this little paper clip, you can't even see it I venture, what if I could tell you I could trade this little paper clip for a house? You'd say well that's impossible but did you know it happened? You can google it.

I would say don't do it right now. But there was a, in 2005, a young Canadian named Kyle McDonald. He had a dead-end job. He wasn't making much money but he decided to go on a little adventure and trade up, trade up. So he got a paper clip and managed to trade the paper clip for a pen that you write with, a little fish-shaped pen. Then he took the pen and he traded that for a doorknob. Then he took the doorknob and he traded that for a Coleman stove, a camping stove. Then he took the Coleman stove and traded that for a Honda generator. Then he took the Honda generator and traded it up for a keg of beer and a Budweiser sign.

I don't know if you trade it up or down. Then he traded the keg of beer and Budweiser sign for a snowmobile and one year later and 14 trades later he then exchanged an acting part in a movie for a two-story farmhouse. It all started with a paper clip. Now that's not impossible, that's just resourceful. That's just very, very creative. But I want to talk to you today about a real impossibility, something that most people think could never happen. That's a resurrection. That's what we're here celebrating, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. You know, the resurrection of Christ is the ultimate but God moment in history.

If God can do that, then God can do anything. In Acts chapter 13, Paul the Apostle is preaching at a synagogue 2,000 years ago and he gives a long message. It's the first and full complete message that Paul ever preached recorded in the Bible. And in verse 26, as he speaks to the crowd, he says, Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent.

For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know him, nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause for death in him, they asked Pilate that he should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took him down from the tree and they laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead.

That's the great interruption. One single verse. But God raised him from the dead.

He was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people, and we declare to you glad tidings, that promise which was made to the fathers. Jesus died, but God. You see, difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work.

Once again, difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. There lies a dead corpse. You show up. You're not going to be able to help. But God can. Because for him, it's not difficult.

He's the agent doing the work. Now what I want to share with you today are, let's call them four truths for Easter Sunday. Four truths for Easter Sunday. First of all, God has a message for you.

That's right. He has a message for each one of us. Paul here, when he preaches his sermon in the synagogue, he says, Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, that is in the Jewish community, and those among you who fear God, non-Jews, Gentiles who are very interested. He says, To you, the word of this salvation has been sent. In other words, a message of salvation.

God has a message for you. Did you know that God has spoken throughout all of history? Generally speaking, he spoke. He spoke through creation. Psalm 19 says, The heavens declare the glory of God. When you see a beautiful sunrise or sunset, when you see something in nature that should grab your attention, that is God reminding you of his glory. The heavens declare the glory of God. God has spoken generally, but then God has also spoken specifically. He sent prophets, spokespeople to proclaim his messages. The writer of Hebrews put it this way, Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets.

You know what that means? That means that God, the Creator, is interested in his creation. He's so interested in his creation, he doesn't want to just leave them alone floundering. He wants to communicate to them.

He has something to say to them. Now we have a problem as human beings. We are inside a natural box and the walls of that box are time and space. We can't crawl out of that box. We're sort of stuck. Outside our box of humanity is the supernatural realm.

We all know it's true. All of us born suspect that there's something beyond us. But someone comes along and says, I got to get outside this box. We got to get we got to get into the supernatural world. And every time somebody comes along and makes an attempt to get out of this natural box and make contact with the supernatural world, a religion is born. That's what religion is. Man's attempt to reach God.

It's man's attempt to escape the natural and get to the supernatural. Here's the problem. We can't do it. We cannot transcend our own existence.

We can't reach outside the box. Someone outside the box must reach into our box and that's what God did. And he did it in many ways. He spoke in many ways. He spoke in a burning bush to Moses. He spoke in a lightning storm at Mount Sinai.

He spoke in a still small voice to the prophet Elijah. He sent prophets to his people. He spoke truth through those prophets.

Truth, his values, his desires, his longings for those people. Why did God speak? Why did God send his messages? Because God loves people. God loves the creation he created. He did not want people living on this earth without purpose, without meaning. He wanted us to have hope. Even when people messed up, God spoke. Listen carefully. Especially when people messed up, God spoke.

Especially when they messed up. Your life, you may feel, is a mess today. You say, my life is a mess. I say, God has a message that will speak to your mess. God wants to speak to you. He has a message for you.

And here it is in a nutshell. He cares for you. He loves you. He loves you passionately.

He has a message of love for you. There was a mother who went to a doctor. She had three children and the doctor asked her a question sort of off the cuff. The doctor said, hey, of your three children, which do you love the most? Well, that caught her off guard. She didn't expect that question. She goes, what do you mean? Which one of my children do I love most?

I love them all the same. And the doctor said, well, it's psychologically impossible to extend the same kind of a love to three different humans. He said, that's impossible. She started crying when he said that. She said, you're right.

You're right. When one is sick, I love that one more. When one is in pain, I love that one more. When one is doing something bad, I love that one more.

But apart from that, I love all three exactly the same. St. Augustine said, God loves each of us as if there was only one of us to love. God has that message for you today.

He has spoken, Paul said, His word of salvation throughout history. Has God been speaking to you lately? Has He been trying to get your attention?

Now, He doesn't have to do that dramatically. You say, well, I don't think God's getting my attention. I haven't had Him speak audibly to me. I haven't had a dream in the middle of the night or a vision.

That doesn't matter. Something deep in your heart God may be trying to get at. And you've been feeling that. You've been sensing that. He's been knocking at the door of your heart saying, I want you to make room for me. Maybe it's through a friend. Maybe a friend invited you today, invited you to church.

You're thinking, why should I get up early and go to a stadium and sit outside? But God could be trying to get a hold of you and speaking directly to you. You're not here by accident, friend.

You're here by appointment. So God has a message for us. Here's the second truth. Not only does God have a message for us, God sent a messenger to us. Paul continues, for those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. Now notice what Paul just did. Paul just moved from speaking about an it to speaking about a Him. He says, God has had a message for people for years, and they crucified Him, the messenger. So he goes from a message to a messenger.

And here's why. God's ultimate message to humanity is not a sermon. It's not a prophecy.

It's not a set of instructions or a law. It's a person. God's ultimate message to humanity is in the person of Jesus Christ. All those messages in the Old Testament, all those prophets that spoke, were all pointing forward to a messenger the Jews called Messiah. We call him Jesus. Messiah means somebody specifically prepared and selected by God to save the world, including you. So God spoke through the ages, but His final message before judgment is His hand of love extended to people saying, I love you.

Here's my son, my messenger. I'm sending to you to pay for your sins. The writer of Hebrews, I just quoted him. I didn't finish the verse though. It says, long ago God spoke at many times and in many ways. He spoke through the ages, but His final message in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. But now in these final days, He has spoken to us through His Son. If you think about it, the Old Testament was God's story.

It unfolded very gradually and progressively. Genesis gives some truth. Exodus gives more truth. The prophets give some truth.

The Psalms give a few more. And it just progressed a little bit more completely, but it was never totally completed. We never really get the whole picture until we open the pages of the New Testament. Then suddenly it's all clear. That's why Jesus said, do not think that I have come to destroy the prophets. I didn't come to destroy them. I came to complete them, to fulfill them.

The picture is now complete. All those messages in the Old Testament were still a bit fuzzy until the messenger showed up. Then it's like, ah, I see it clearly. Listen to how John introduces Jesus. In the beginning was the word. That's God's message. And the word was with God and the word was God.

And the word became flesh and He dwelled among us. So go back to that box analogy. Mankind is trapped in a natural box with walls of time and space. We cannot get out of our box. We can't reach out and connect with the supernatural. So God's plan was to send His Son to crawl inside the box.

Get in the box. For God to become a man and come to our earth and show us all the truths of God. This is the difference between Christianity and every other world religion. Many people say it doesn't matter what religion you belong to, as long as you're sincere. That's wrong. It does matter.

It makes all the difference. Religion is man's attempt to reach and discover God. Christianity is God bursting into our world, crawling inside our box. When Jesus came, He showed people what God is like. One of His disciples, Philip, said, Jesus, show us the Father. And that's enough.

Yeah, I guess it would be. Jesus said, Philip, if you've seen Me, you have seen the Father. If you see Jesus, you see God. You see the Father. When I was a kid, I remember looking up at my mom and she was so huge, tall, massive.

Now, here's the truth. She was five feet tall. That's how tall she was. She was a very little, thin lady, five feet. I'm 6'5", and when I grow up, it's like, really? I used to think you were like really a giant.

But you know, from a kid's perspective, somebody five feet, that's pretty tall. I have grandkids. They're sitting right up here in the front.

I can see them, Seth and Katie, yesterday we were playing out here on this field, just getting ready, or I was actually, we were watching everybody else get ready for this event, and we were playing out here. And so, you know, whenever I flex my arms that I come at them like I'm going to get them, they cower. But when I get down to their level, something changes. Now I'm approachable.

Now I'm gettable. I'm wrestleable. I'm jumpable, and they'll tackle me to the ground.

Why? Because I've come down to their level. And when you come down to their level, the relationship changes. And when God came down to our level, the relationship changes. He showed us what God is like. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish. And when you come down to their level, whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. So, God has a message for you.

And the message for you is His messenger for you. And that is Jesus Christ. Christianity is not a creed. Christianity is not a ritual. Christianity is not an institution. Christianity is Christ, personally. You say, well, I've received the rituals of Christianity.

Have you received Christ personally? That's Skip Heising with a message for you from the series, But God. Right now, here's Skip to tell you how your support helps keep these messages coming your way and connects more people to the good news of Jesus.

You know, we all have a past, a time when we tried to live life on our own terms. The good news is that when you hand your life over to Jesus, He redeems your past, gives you a future full of hope and joy. We want to share that great news with more friends like you all around the world. And you can be a part of that work to change lives. When you give a gift today to keep these messages from God's Word going out, you can help redirect someone's eternal future.

Here's how to give. Dead, but God raised him up. They put Jesus in a tomb, but God got him out.

They walked away and thought it was all over. But God made sure it was just the beginning. But God, those two little words of hope, they can be part of your story. Cast all burdens on His Word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.