Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. We live in a culture of plurality. Every idea is the same, every religion is the same, none of them matter at all. Everyone gets to go where they're going. Jesus said, no they don't.
They don't. He said, let me be clear. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one goes to the Father but through me. If that offends you, I'm sorry, but it's supposed to. You see, his words can be offensive.
See, this is not some skinny emaciated guy that's just always loving and caring. This is the Son of God. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.
Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Jesus is explaining a parable, and watch what he says. He said, the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world. And he says, and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom, and the tares are the sons of the evil one.
And the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age the Son of Man will send forth his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom all stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire. And in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous, he said, will shine forth as a son in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear you listen to this. He's talking about hell, just straight up. He said that that's exactly what's going to happen. They'll send forth his angels and they'll gather out of his kingdom all the stumbling blocks and those who commit lawlessness and will throw them into the furnace of fire. Who can speak like that?
You see, who talks this way? Jesus. His words just constantly reveal his incredible power that he has. Chapter 14. Verse 22. Immediately, he made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side and and he sent the crowds away. And after he sent the crowds away, he went up to the mountain by himself to pray.
And when it was evening, he was there alone. But the boat was already a long distance from land, battered by waves, for the wind was contrary. Again, they're on a storm on the Sea of Galilee. And in the fourth watch, the middle of the night, he came to them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified and they said, it's a ghost. And they cried out in fear. And he immediately spoke to them, take courage, his eye.
Don't be afraid. Now, why did Jesus do this? He's showing off, right? He just wants to show off. How many of you can walk on water?
None of us. Now he's not showing off. He's trying to teach them and us something. They're in a terrible storm. And they're afraid. So Jesus walks right on top of the storm on the water. Now notice they don't even recognize him because all they're concerned about is the storm.
They think he might be a ghost. But notice what he said, take courage, it is I, do not be afraid. I can't tell you how many times in the Gospels Jesus tells all of us, fear not, take courage, fear not, take courage.
And you know why? Because living on a cursed planet as sinful people, we go through a lot of stuff. And we see the circumstances. And when the circumstances are bad enough, when the storm is difficult enough, you and I have this tendency to punt away our faith. And we panic. And we're afraid.
And we're anxious. And Jesus says, look, I've got to teach you a lesson. Whenever there's storms raging about you, don't look at the storm. Look at me.
I'm standing right here on the water. You see, don't let the circumstances change your life. He's trying to teach a lesson. When you relate to me in a right way, he's telling us there's no reason to fear anything. He already told us, don't fear those who could kill you. Fear me. See, do not fear. I've overcome everything. That's what he keeps trying to tell us, that lesson.
Fear not. And you know how hard this is, because if the news is bad enough, somebody abandons you and leaves you alone, either with kids or by yourself, or the stock market fails, or you lose your job, or you get that stage four diagnosis. All you do is become preoccupied with whatever those circumstances are. And Jesus says, don't look at those. Look at me. I've overcome this.
I've overcome all of this. Chapter 15, verse 12. Very insightful, 12, 13, and 14 says this. When the disciples came and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?
Jesus said, every plant which my Heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone. They're blind guides of the blind.
And if they're blind guides, a blind man both will end up in the pit. You know what really caught my attention? They were offended. They were offended. The words of Jesus Christ are offensive. They're offensive. They're offensive. The sinful man, they're offensive. The religious man, they're offensive. They were offended. And he said, leave him alone. They're just a blind guide of the blind. His words were intended to be offensive to sinful people.
That's the point. He says that unless you relate to him, you're lost. And we say, I don't really think so. I think God will grate on the curve. And as long as I'm better than those people beside me, as long as I'm above that line, I think I'll be in.
You won't. Or in our culture, how exclusive. We live in a culture of plurality. Every idea is the same. Every religion is the same.
None of them matter at all. Everyone gets to go where they're going. Jesus said, no, they don't.
They don't. He said, let me be clear. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one goes to the Father but through me. If that offends you, I'm sorry, but it's supposed to. You see, his words can be offensive.
See, this is not some skinny, emaciated guy that's just always loving and caring. This is the Son of God. You see, and he speaks like the Son of God.
He doesn't offer you and I all the wiggle room that we would often want. Chapter 16, verse 13. Now, when Jesus came to the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples. He said, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, well, some think you're John the Baptist.
Others, Elijah. Others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Messiah. You are the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father is in heaven.
And then he says this. He says, I also say that you are Petros. You are Petros, masculine noun. That's his name he gave him. It means chip off the old block, in a sense, Petros. And he says, and upon this, notice this is neuter.
It's not masculine. It can't be describing Peter impossible. It's describing the statement that Peter made. The description is, upon this, I am the Messiah.
I am the Son of God. Upon that, I'm going to build my church. He said, upon this rock, Petra, which means bedrock. He said, upon that, I will build my church. How do you know he's going to be able to build it? Because of who he is.
You and I are sitting here today, and there are believers all over the world sitting here today. You know why? Because Jesus said, I'll build my church. Gates of Hades will not prevail against it. That's his power. That's the power of Jesus Christ that he has. Chapter 17, verse 22, the first time Jesus says this.
But everything in his ministry pointed to this. Verse 22, and while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day. Notice, they were deeply grieved. They were deeply grieved.
Why? Because dead people stay dead. If you've ever lost anybody, you wish it weren't true, but once they're dead, they're dead. Jesus says, they will kill me, but I will rise. Who speaks like that?
Who can say that? He can, because of who he is. He says that's not a problem at all, because if you look at what he says here about himself, go to chapter 20 with me for a moment, verse 18, similar account, chapter 20, verse 17. It says, as Jesus was about to go to Jerusalem, he took the 12 aside, and he said to them, behold, we're going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered, and the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death. And we'll hand him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify him. On the third day, he'll be raised up.
Now he tells them everything. I'm going to go there. I'm going to be arrested. I'm going to stand before the scribe, the leaders of Israel. They'll turn me over to the Romans, and the Romans will crucify. He uses that word. They will crucify me, and oh, by the way, I will raise on the third day. No one says that. No one can say that but him. Wow.
What an amazing thing. Look at verse 28, the reason for it all. He says, just as the Son of Man cannot come to be served but to serve and to give his life ransom for many. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. You see, I'm not here so the lame will walk, the blind will see. I'm not here to walk on water or feed 5,000.
That's all great stuff. That's not why I'm here. I'm here to save man. That's why I'm here. You see, in that little manger in Bethlehem, Mary had a little lamb, and that's why he was born.
That's why John the Baptist's psalmist said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's why he came. He said, this is why I'm here. This is the fruition of it all. And the way I know that it's going to work is because I will be raised. I will raise.
Wow. One last verse, Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. Now starting in verse 12, by the way, John sees the glorified, resurrected, ascended Christ. He sees him for who he really is. And he has no words to describe it.
He's so overwhelmed. Now remember, John was the one who said he called himself the one disciple who Jesus loved. He was always close to Jesus. But now he sees him ascended.
Notice the imagery. He says in verse 12, he said, I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and having, he said, turned, I saw seven golden lamb stands. In the middle of the lamb stands, I saw one like the Son of Man, but he was clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like white wool. He said, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like burnished, he says, bronze, when it has been made to glow from the furnace. And his voice was like the sound of a waterfall or many waters. In his right hand he held the several stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun. Wow. He goes, I don't know how to describe this.
Here's what he did, though. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. I was so overwhelmed.
When I saw him for who he is, it was like, I don't know how to respond. Be very careful with that idea, by the way. I hear people all the time, you know, when I get to heaven, I'm going to walk up to Jesus and say, hey, I have a couple questions for you. No, you won't.
That is not the way it's going to work at all. He's not who he is. Notice then what Jesus says. He put his right hand on me to calm me, and he said, do not be afraid.
Same thing. Don't fear, John. I'm the first and the last and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death in Hades.
What a statement. I was dead, but I'm alive, and I'm alive forevermore, and I have the keys to Hades. It's all me. No wonder he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me. That's my Jesus. That's who I put my faith in. That's who I follow.
Not some emaciated character. He doesn't need marshmallow peeps or a chocolate bunny to make me worship him. He's the Son of Man, the Son of God. He is God incarnate. He is Jesus Christ my Lord.
That's who he is. You don't even have to believe that, but I wish you would. But if you don't believe it, I beg you, investigate it on your own. I'm not talking about all the things he said and taught.
None of that. Just investigate the bedrock of our faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Put in your work.
Do the time. Great Roman historian said this. I've been used for many years to study the histories of other times and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who I've written about. And I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which has proved better or fuller evidence of every sort to the understanding of a fair inquirer than the great sign which God has given us that Jesus Christ died and rose again from the dead. Professor of ancient history, Paul Mayer, he says this.
If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable according to the canons of historical research to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has ever been discovered by any literary sources or archaeology to disprove that statement. The great lawyer, Simon Greenleaf, he was one of the two most basic men who founded the law school at Harvard University. He actually wrote a book called The Treatise of Law and Evidence. It's a three-volume work.
It's still a standard in law. Simon Greenleaf is the one who gets all the credit, they say, for making Harvard what it had become. He examined the value of historical evidence and the resurrection of Jesus Christ to ascertain its truth. He applied the principles contained in his three-volume work. And his findings are recorded in his book, an examination of the testimony of the four evangelists by the rules of evidence administered by the Court of Justice. Greenleaf came to the conclusion that according to the laws of legal evidence used in courts and law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than almost any single event in history. An Englishman, John Singleton Copley, better known as Lord Lindhurst, recognized as one of the great minds in British history, he concluded in his personal papers, he said, I know pretty well what evidence is, and I tell you such evidence as that for the resurrection has never broken down yet. Chief Justice of England, Lord Darling, said this, no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true. And the last one, a rational lawyer, Frank Morrison, he decided I'll write a book on discovering it and I'll write a book about the myth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to disprove Christianity.
I'll write that book. And so upon studying the facts, he came to a different conclusion. The sheer weight of evidence compelled him to conclude that Jesus actually did rise in the dead. Morrison wrote a book, but not the one he planned. His book entitled Who Moved the Stone, a very famous book. His first chapter of the book is the book that refused to be written. All these men investigated it.
I invite you to do the same thing. If you say you don't believe it, investigate it. See it for yourself. All of the unimaginable power of Jesus Christ pointed to one thing, his resurrection in the dead. That's why it's Happy Easter. That's why it's Happy Resurrection Day. Everything about he said and everything he did was culminated with his resurrection in the dead. The apostle Paul said to us, the basis of our faith is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said, if Christ hasn't been raised in the dead, you and I should be the most pitied people on the planet. There is no Christianity, no matter what any religious or moral person will tell you, apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he said, destroy this temple.
I will raise it in three days. How could you say such a thing? Unless you are who you claim you are.
That's the power of Jesus Christ. Christianity is based on an historical fact, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Islam is nothing more than the vision and teachings of Muhammad.
That's all. Buddhism is just the teachings of Buddha. Confucianism is the teachings of Confucius.
Marxism is his own theory of how man should relate. Darwinism is a theory of these men. And you know what all these men have in common? They're all dead. Every one of them is dead, but not Jesus Christ. He's alive. See, our faith is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his power.
We really don't need any help to celebrate that. You know what's so neat? When you become a Christian, the apostle Paul said to the Ephesians that when God put his Holy Spirit in you, he gave you and me resurrection power to be able to cope with life. How powerful is that?
We've just seen how powerful he was. Tap into that. You can have a peace beyond all understanding. That's why Jesus said, my peace I give to you. You can have joy in the middle of terrible circumstances. You can have hope no matter what's going on out there. You can have hope.
Not because you muster it up, because Jesus Christ told you you could have it. And he has the power to bring it about. Let's close in prayer. Father, we're here to celebrate Easter, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everything about our faith is based on his resurrection from the dead.
We are grateful and thankful for that. But it is just one of the ways that he continued to demonstrate his power, not just in his miracles and in his acts, but his words. He spoke words like no other man.
Many were offended. But Jesus Christ still spoke the truth to them. I pray this morning, Father, someone in this room has not come to a conclusion of how they feel about Jesus Christ. They investigate the resurrection.
They look at his words. And I invite them to put their faith, their trust in him and his finished work on the cross. The promise of scripture is that their sins are forgiven and they're born again into the family of God. That would make it truly a happy Easter. Father, we celebrate all this for your glory and our good.
In Jesus' name, amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.
At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.
That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.
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