March 16, 2025, Message by P. Kevin Clancey
Transcribed by Beluga AI.
For your great salvation and great love, we give you thanks. Lord, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of men and women conceived what you have prepared for those who love you. And less than perfectly, for sure, but yet still we love you.
We are grateful, so deeply grateful, that you came to seek and save what was lost. You came to reverse the curse. Where death reigned, you have brought life. Where condemnation and judgment reigned, you have brought justification and righteousness and forgiveness and grace.
Thank you for your overwhelming grace, your overwhelming victory. On behalf of the people of Earth, we give you thanks, Lord Jesus, Father, for your great love demonstrated by the incarnation of your Son.
We give you thanks, Holy Spirit, for your great love demonstrated by the love in this room that binds us and knits us together. We give you thanks. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
All right, dear ones, we’re racing through Romans. We’re in chapter five. I figured it out. I’ve kind of figured it out. I think July or August we’ll finish this up.
It’s going to be less than a year. That’ll be good. I’m already thinking about the next sermon series. All right. Romans 5:12-21.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. 13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One. 15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. 17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:12-21, CSB)
May the words of my mouth, meditation of our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, our Lord, our Rock, our Strength, and our Redeemer. Amen.
All right, Adam and Jesus, two humanities. There’s an old. There are two humanities walking around the face of the earth right now. We look alike. Most of us have 10 fingers, 10 toes, two legs, two arms, two ears, one mouth, one nose.
We come as male and female. I’m thinking that’s it. Pretty sure there’s not 37 more. But we’re like, we eat the same foods, we have the same desires, we’re very much alike.
And yet the Bible says there are in fact two distinct humanities walking around on the planet. What makes that distinction is the new life that comes through Jesus Christ, which is eternal life, righteousness and justification, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit living in us. We’re different. And the old life, which is the Adamic life. Adam.
And that, that life is a life different, destined for death. It is separated from God; it is sinful. It’s got a moral and spiritual cancer in it that continues to grow, and it leads to death. The wages of sin is death. The consequence of sin is death.
Adam and Eve were told this. They were told, don’t eat from that tree. If you eat from that tree,
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12, CSB)
you will what? Surely die. They didn’t die immediately, but they died. They died all right. And so death entered into the world through one man.
Our Western individualistic society looks at that and well, that’s not fair. That’s not fair. We don’t realize that we are, in fact, connected. Lots of things aren’t fair in that sense.
You are not simply the product of your own choices. You are the product of many of your choices. you’re also the product of your parents’ choices and your grandparents’ choices. you’re the product of genetics. you’re the product of what other people have done to you. It’s happened to you. The human race is connected.
And we are all connected to our first human, our first parents, Adam and Eve. And when they sinned, a cancer, a cancer cell, a death cell entered into the human experience. And we’ve had it ever since.
All right, so just turn to somebody next to you, look at them, and with just love and kindness in your eyes, say, you’re a sinner, you’re a sinner. Just say you’re sunk, dude. you’re sunk. You can’t fix it. You can’t get rid of this cancer. There’s nothing you can do.
The doctor has, you know, the doctor has said there’s nothing more we can do.
Through one man, this enters into the human race and therefore all have sinned. Even before the law, it says that people weren’t held as accountable before the law. But then it also says they all died, so they were held accountable.
The law was given finally to Moses. And we think, well, that’ll solve the problem if we just know what God wants, right, Jamie? Just do what I want. That’s what God says on Mount Sinai. Hey, just do what I want.
Here’s what I want. I saved you from the land of Egypt. I saved you from slavery. Now I’m going to make you into a people like I promised Abraham. you’re going to live in covenant relationship with me. I’ll be your king, you be my people. Here’s what I want.
And Israel said, we’ll do it. They said it to Moses, they didn’t do it. Then after Joshua conquered the promised land, choose this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Get rid of your false gods, get rid of your idols. And they all said, we’ll do it. And then you read the book of Judges like, yeah, they didn’t do it. They really stunk at doing it.
Before I was a Christian, I thought the whole Bible was stories of these great super spiritual people who lived these super spiritual lives, lives that I could never achieve, and their lives were just full of miracles. And they were great and they were righteous and they were holy.
And then I read through the Bible and I said, these people are knuckleheads. The history of Israel is the history of knuckleheads. I’m being kind. It’s the history of idolaters. It’s the history of lawbreakers. It’s a history of people who, as the Book of Judges says, every man did what’s right in his own eyes.
Then I look at people living today and I go, we’re the same. We live amongst the. We live in a sea of knuckleheads. Or as a better one, Archie Bunker used to call his. All my references are old.
Used to call his son-in-law. Anybody remember Meathead? Meathead? My dad used to use that one. He used to call us meatheads. Alright, knuckleheads, meatheads, dear ones, other names are flooding the screen in my mind right now, and I just want to assure you that I am editing. you’re welcome.
All right. There was ignorance before the law, yet all died still because of sin. Adam then represents humanity until Jesus Christ. And this is why God. This is why we have the incarnation. This is why God becomes a man in Jesus Christ.
He needs to introduce a new kind of humanity into the world. Now, Adam’s death comes through us, just through birth. Just. You know, everyone gets it. Everyone gets it. You know, you. You know, how many of you. How many of you before you were parents, you had friends egging you on. Oh, it’s the greatest thing ever. Have children. It’s a miracle. It’s wonderful. It will fill your life. It’ll overflow your life. You will have so much joy having children. And then you have children and you realize those friends just wanted somebody to share the misery.
Sorry, Emmy. You looked at your mom like, is that true, Mom? It’s rough having kids. Why? Because you and your wife, or you and your husband, got together and you beget original sinners. your kids and my grandkids, as adorable as they are, are selfish. They want life their way, on their terms.
Have you ever seen two and three year olds? They’re testing it out. They’re saying, well, how can I run this world if I’m just defiant enough? They’ll give in.
And parents, you have to protect the rest of us from that little original sinner that you made. Don’t give in. Save us from that person.
And you love them, and they do cute and adorable things and they’re, you know, and they’re smart and they have gifts and they do some nice things. I get it. Sometimes. Rarely. But sometimes they’ll share with a brother or sister. Sometimes.
You know, people. People say this. Have you ever heard people say this? Kids are so innocent. They never. They always tell the truth. Shut up. Have you had children?
Did you eat that cookie? Cookie crumbs spilling out of their mouth. Kids aren’t innocent. They’re bad liars. And tragically, they learn to be good liars.
It’s there. It’s there until Christ comes, and then in one man, it’s not there. Born of a virgin, which I guess, you know, theologians then have stipulated that original sin comes through men. All the women like we knew that. I don’t know whether it comes through men or not women, but that’s one for you.
One for us is. This whole problem started when a man listened to his wife.
That’s all I’m saying. It’s one for us. Whoever it is. Jesus is born of a virgin. And the Bible tells us in Hebrews 4. Excuse me. He is like us in every way, but one, what is it? But without this cancer, without this sin, he is the first fruits of a new kind of humanity.
And he brings a new kind of humanity to planet Earth. And it is transferred differently than Adam’s. Adam’s is transferred through the natural biological process of making children, begetting children, and everybody who’s born has it.
Jesus, the new life is transferred by his amazing grace received by faith. And then, boom, new life and new humanity, a new person is born.
Just as by one man, by one man’s sin, many have died. But by one man’s life, grace now has been poured out. This medicine, this new life, is more powerful than the disease.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. Life triumphs over death. Light triumphs over darkness. Something has come into the world that overwhelms and defeats and destroys this life-destroying problem of human sinfulness.
Sin, Satan, and death, the three big enemies.
A new life has come into the world. And so in one man, many have died. And in one man, grace is poured out so that many will live.
Judgment and condemnation come from Adam. Justification came from Christ. It is for man to live once and face judgment, face God. You are rapidly approaching one second at a time. One minute every 60 seconds, one hour every 60 minutes, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 30 days in a month, 365 days in a year. You are rapidly. You can’t get off this train, right?
You can’t make time stop. You can’t slow it down. All right, I remember, I remember some of you when you were young. My wife and I, we look at each other, we go, where’d it go? Where’d it go?
I posted a picture on Facebook of my wife and I from 40 years ago. It seems like yesterday we were bringing little Megan home from the hospital. I looked at those two people. I looked at those two people. Look at those young kids, didn’t know what we were doing. Look at us now.
She goes, yep, look at us now. I said, old farts. We still don’t know what we’re doing. Can’t stop it, can’t slow it down. What’s it heading to? A face to face encounter with the creator of all things. A face to face encounter with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You can’t avoid that. You can avoid the IRS easier than you can avoid that.
Judgment and condemnation come from those who are living still as Adam. Justification, righteousness, forgiveness, mercy come to those who are in the new Humanity of Jesus Christ. Death reigned through Adam.
Grace, righteousness, and life reign through Jesus Christ. He wins. He’s more powerful. How do we know this? He rose from the dead. He is the victor.
Therefore, when we join him by faith, we become a part of this new humanity, and we join him in life. Death reigned universally through Adam. Everybody got it. And then it says justification. This is an amazing passage.
Romans 5:18, it says, justification reigns universally through Jesus Christ. We’re going to talk about that. This is. How many of you know what the doctrine of universalism is? Anybody know what universalism is?
Okay, that’s the doctrine that everybody makes it, everybody’s saved. Well, people say, well, where is that in the Bible? Well, people who argue that, this is their main proof text. People who argue for universalism, this is one of their main proof texts, that everybody is justified through what Jesus has done.
I would say this. I would say just as many are made sinners through Adam, many more or many are made righteous through Christ. And I would say that I’m not a universalist, in case you wondered.
We’ll talk about that in a minute. But I would say I’m not a Calvinist either. It seems to me that Romans 5:18 says that the availability of justification is for everyone. There’s no limit. And this may be theological terms you’re not familiar with, and that’s fine. But I don’t think there’s any limited atonement here. I think the atonement is universal here. Justification is made available to all through what Christ has done on the cross. Not all receive it, but it is made available to all.
Many were made sinners through Adam, but many will be made righteous through Christ.
When the law came again, you think, well, that’ll fix it, right? Our logical minds think, if we just knew what to do. Just give us the instructions. He gave us the instructions. We didn’t do it. He simplified the instructions. Right? 613 laws in the Old Testament, Jesus comes and says, all right, all right, do two. Do two say, yeah, we can’t do that either.
And here’s the law is good. And we’re going to get to this in Romans 7.
But the problem is the law in our sinful condition actually increases sin. All right, there’s three kinds of people in the world, those who can count and those who can’t. That’s good. Isaiah, come on. It’s an old joke, but it’s good.
There’s two kinds of people in the world. There are people who are rule followers. They like structure, they like order, they like rules. Steven Johnson. There are people who are rule followers. Rules are good. All right? Don’t break the law. Do what it says. There are other people who are rule breakers.
Rules are just suggestions for people who are less entitled than me. Ironically, in this fallen world, they tend to marry each other.
All right, so in my marriage, there’s a rule follower and a rule breaker. Just go ahead and guess. My wife shoulds on me all the time. You shouldn’t do that. You should do that. I tell her, stop. Shouldn’t on me.
All right, but here, here’s, here’s how sin. Here’s how the law increases sin for rule followers. It makes him self-righteous. It makes them judgmental. It makes them condemning of others.
It makes them holier than thou church people. And here’s how the law works against rule breakers. Don’t tell me what to do. You can’t tell me what to. Stay off the grass. Why? What’s hidden on the grass? All right. What are they keeping from me?
The law makes us both worse. Because why this disease is living in us. The law actually increases trespasses. But grace comes, bringing the overwhelming righteousness and eternal life of Christ.
What does grace do for the rule keepers? It softens them. It gives them understanding of other people’s weaknesses.
It also reveals to them their own sin. So they become much more humble tiggers.
What does the law do? Or what does grace do for rule breakers? We begin to see. Oh, I forgot. I was going to have you guess which one Jill and I were. We begin to see how much our rule breaking has hurt other people. How much our pride in taking matters into our own hands and our arrogance has actually made things worse for people, not better. And we need to tame ourselves down a bit. We’re not entitled.
The world wasn’t made for us. Grace comes and it brings overwhelming righteousness. What do I mean by overwhelming? What I said before. It’s bigger than sin. God’s grace is bigger than sin. It covers it, it destroys it, it defeats it. It brings where death reigns, it brings eternal life. And so grace is greater than sin. This new life, it works. This medicine works. It kills the disease and brings life, not only life, but life eternal. And it transforms us. It not only justifies us before God. So God says, you’re justified, you’re not guilty.
It transforms us. So we actually become better. We just become better people. We are transformed. That’s why I pray all the time, Lord, we want to leave. We don’t want Bible information. We want Bible transformation. We want to become more like Jesus.
One of the things that grace does for me, it actually makes me want to be good. It actually makes me want to love people. Actually makes me. It actually makes me want to be kind and encouraging and compassionate and give sacrificially for others. It’s a good thing.
This overwhelming grace that comes through this new life, this new humanity that is in Jesus Christ.
So what is the scope of Christ’s work? Well, how many of you are familiar with Matthew 7? It’s discouraging there. There’s a discouraging passage there about the scope of this salvation. And it basically goes like this: The road is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and only a few will take it. The road is broad and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and many will take that road. And that’s okay.
We got that. We got those words of Jesus and man, those are challenging words, right? Many will come on that day and say, lord, Lord, did I not cast out demons in your name and work, signs and wonders in your name? And he’ll say, depart from me, I never knew you. It’s like,
17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17, CSB)
oh boy, that’s a tough one.
But then Paul comes along in Romans 5:18 and says, Just as death reigned through sin through one man, now justification. And he says it, justification comes to everyone through this new life that Christ has.
And it seems like Paul is saying something that Jesus didn’t say. It seems like Paul is saying everybody gets saved, or at least in this passage, and there are a few other Pauline passages where you can make the case for universalism. Well, which is it?
I would like to present to you a third option. The road is narrow. The way is broad. That’s true. The road is very narrow. It’s Jesus the way that brought every other way. It’s hard following Jesus. I would say it’s a darn sight harder not following Jesus.
But it looks easier at the beginning, and it does. One leads to life, one leads to death. However, Jesus spoke that in a cultural context as the Messiah to the Jews. And he was speaking to the Jews of his generation when he said that.
And could it be possible, and I think it is possible, that Jesus is saying to that generation, and historically this proved to be true, that Jesus is saying to that generation of Jews in Israel, accepting me as your Messiah and following me as your Messiah based on your cultural expectations and where your hearts are right now is hard.
And few of you are going to make me your Messiah, are going to believe it. And historically that was true.
The early Christian church was started by Jews, but they were the minority in Jerusalem and in Israel at the time of Jesus. Many, most of that first generation, rejected him up until the destruction of Jerusalem. In fact, that’s still true of Jews in the world. Some accept him, most reject him.
However, there are other passages that are more hopeful. There are passages we’ll discover in Romans that are more hopeful for the Jews, where he talks about there will come a time where that will be, where there will.
That branch that has been cut off will be regrafted in, and there’ll be a massive ingathering of the Jews.
But is it possible that other verses, like Genesis 22, where God is talking to Abraham and he says this, he says, look at the stars. Count them, dare you? Count them if you can. He’s like, I can’t do it. Oh, that’s too hard for you? Well then go to the grains of sand on the beach, start counting those. I can’t do it. He says, so shall your descendants be.
Well, is he talking about biological descendants?
Could be. Certainly, that’s part of that. He could be talking about descendants spiritually of, you know, later, as in the 21st century. The three major theistic religions of the world all count Abraham to be their father.
But really, according to Romans 4, where Paul was just talking about Abraham, he said the truth. Sons and daughters of Abraham are the sons and daughters of faith who have put their faith in the seed that came from Abraham to bless all the nations of the earth, Jesus Christ.
And in that context, it sounds rather hopeful that a large number of people will be the eternal descendants of Abraham. Stars of the sky, sands of the sea.
Look at Rome or look at Revelation 9. Revelation 9. A picture is opened, and there is a multitude too great to count of every language, every nation, every people group, every ethnos in eternity.
And so dear ones, I would say that I will not take Romans 5:18 as a proof text for universalism, because there is an overwhelming amount of evidence in Revelation, the Lake of Fire, names that aren’t written in the book of life.
Jesus warning people of the judgment to come if they do not repent and believe. Even Paul warning people of the judgment to come if they do not repent and believe. And I say the overwhelming evidence of Scripture is that universalism is not true. Not all are saved.
However, many Christians have long believed that the vast majority of humanity through history will be lost and only a select few will be saved. And I question that.
I have a more hopeful outlook based on the overwhelming scope and victory that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, and based on those other Scriptures that all the nations of the earth will be blessed by Abraham stepping out and becoming the first Jew through which God is going to bring this new humanity.
And then the promise that those descendants.
And again, I don’t think it’s biological descendants there. I think it’s spiritual descendants. Genesis 22. I think Romans 4 establishes that the real children of Abraham aren’t ethnic Jews or ethnic Arabs. The real children of Abraham are the children of faith.
And it may be hyperbole that there’ll be more people in heaven than sands on the seashore or stars in the heavens. It certainly hyperbola is there for a purpose, the Bible saying a whole lot more than you can count according to the book of Revelation.
And so I have a hopeful anticipation of a great multitude who will be saved by this overwhelming victory and the scope of Christ’s victory over sin and death.
And therefore, we got a job to do. We got a job to do. We are new lifers. All right? There’s a prop to the big church in town. We carry new life in us. A new humanity is in us.
And this new humanity is not transferred biologically just because you and your wife are Christians. you’re not going to make a new humanity baby.
You’re going to make an old humanity baby. All right? And now your work begins. All right?
I’m going to do everything I can to take this old humanity baby that we made and make it into a new humanity baby. I’m going to expose this child to the gospel. I’m not going to raise this child neutral. I’m going to raise this child in church. I’m going to teach this child about Jesus. I’m going to pray for this child.
And then what else am I going to do?
Oh, I got a workplace, and it’s filled with old humanity. But guess what? I’m a carrier of new humanity in that workplace. And I’m going to show them what new humanity looks like. I’m going to be a witness by my life.
Saint Francis of Assisi said, always preach the gospel when necessary, use words. And the first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to live a life before them that demonstrates what new humanity looks like. I’m going to be full of integrity and honesty and full of love and mercy and compassion.
And I’m going to be full of loyalty and hard work, and I’m just going to be a great example.
And you know what? There’s thousands of Christians who do that show and tell. And most of us, most of us aren’t hypocrites, aren’t terrible hypocrites. Most of us do a pretty good job on the show. People do look at us and go, you know what? That guy’s different. He’s nicer. He doesn’t tell all the dirty jokes, but he’s not prudish about it. That woman is kind.
She always seems, you know, when the rest of us are complaining about how horrible this job is, she always seems to have some joy, and just the troubles of this office seem to run off her back. How is she different?
Listen, I tell you what, if you’re walking with Jesus, you might not know it, but people are asking those questions about you. Why are they different? They’re one of them churchy people.
I run into people all the time, you know, they say, oh, you Christians are a bunch of hypocrites.
And I say, well, you know me. They go, yeah, just tell me the truth. Am I one? Well, no, Kev, you’re a great guy.
Well, how many hypocrites do you know personally? Well, you know, on TV, you know, they all voted for Trump, you know, so they got to be evil. This isn’t about Trump. This is about the Christians.
You personally know how many of the Christians you personally know are wicked, vile, hypocrites, and how many of them are pretty decent people. So most of you, I gotta say, good job.
You’re doing a good job on the show. Here’s where you’re not doing a good job. Tell you ain’t talking Jesus up enough.
Listen, there’s some bad people who talk Jesus up too much. The real hypocrites who are talking up, it just seems to work that way. You know, it’s like we got these preachers who are talking about Jesus and they’re living these immoral lives. We got all these people in those churches who are living very moral lives and they’re not talking about Jesus.
So talk about Jesus. It’s not impossible.
You don’t have to, you know, give a big gospel presentation to everybody on the street corner. But when somebody shares a problem with you, ask Karen. She knows what to do.
Karen does this. Karen and Brian do this. They’re good about this. They’ll pray for that person and tell that person, I’m going to pray to my Jesus for you, and I want you to know, get to know this Jesus, right? You guys do that. You talk about Jesus.
One of the things I really like about you two, I like the fact that you made Isaiah, too. That’s a good one. But, you know, and Jacob, though, you know, it is interesting that you gave Isaiah the name of a biblical hero and you gave the other one the name of a biblical scoundrel. Yeah, but, you know. Yeah, I like Jacob, all right? It was his fault. He could call himself Daniel. Maybe he’ll repent one day and do it. I like both your sons. I like Jacob. All right?
And here’s what I’m gonna tell you again. I’m not gonna put the joke on the end of it. you’ve heard it way too many times.
If you have trouble telling them about Jesus, invite him to church. I’ll tell him. I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them up here. I’ll talk to him.
And then if you want more, say somebody says, I got a bunch of questions. Say, good, I’ll take you to this guy. This guy doesn’t have all the answers. He thinks he does, but he doesn’t. But he has a lot of answers.
And he’ll rant and he’ll go down rabbit trails, but he’ll talk to you for hours about Jesus. If you want to bring him to dinner Thursday night and then start asking me questions not related to the Bible study, you guys can avoid that. We completely avoided this. The, you know, OTs had some questions. OTs always has good questions. Iko, he’s got a good theological mind. He didn’t think he’s smart, but he’s pretty smart. Yeah, he’s a smart guy. And Stevin, he comes in and says, oh, my daughter’s got a boyfriend.
And he’s asking me father questions. Well, just let Sophia vet the boyfriend. I know, I know. Listen, if you don’t intimidate the guy, have at least one child in your family that intimidates him. That’s what we want. All right?
Really, it’s amazing to me that the number of people who come to faith in Christ, for years and years and years, people have done studies on this.
And like, okay, you know, in my day, it was like televangelism, you know, crusade evangelism organizations, you know, like outreach organizations, like young Life and things like that. How many people come to Christ that way?
And back in the day, back in the old days, you know, back in the 80s, before the Internet, back in those ancient days, people came to Christ because somebody invited them. A friend or family member invited them to church. A crusade, a young Life group. A friend or family member invited them to encounter Jesus someplace.
But now that we’ve got the Internet, we got bloggers, and we got, oh my gosh, so much content, so many books, so much out there. The number one way, and the statistics are almost exactly identical as they were in the dark ages when I was a young man. The number one way is people invite somebody to church.
A crusade, young Life, a youth group, a singles group. It hasn’t changed. It’s not that hard. Hey, would you like to come to church with me? I don’t know. What are they going to do there?
Well, we’re going to cut your veins and suck your blood and drink it. No, we’re going to meet a bunch of good people.
We’re going to talk about the Bible. We’ll do some things you might not understand. And any questions you have, you can ask me. And if I don’t have the answers, you can ask my pastor, and he probably won’t have all the answers anyway.
But we won’t condemn you, we won’t judge you, we won’t beat you over the head with a Bible. Just come spend some money on them.
I’ll take you out to dinner. Late dinner. Poulsbo. Late dinner, afterwards. Early dinner, before. I don’t care, just come. Just come.
And they come and they don’t come back. And they go, well, that didn’t work. And so you quit. Come on, anything worth doing is worth doing more than once. My gosh, don’t quit.
The justification of Jesus, the work of Jesus in his life, death, and resurrection has overwhelmingly defeated this terrible problem that entered the human race that most people are walking around with.
If you knew, you know, 2020 Covid and you just discovered, oh, one vitamin D tablet a day, you’ll never get Covid and you’ll live happily ever after. Would you keep that a secret?
I don’t know that one vitamin D tablet a day works. There is evidence that vitamin D was helpful. But you know, what if you discover what if, what if tomorrow you discovered that for all the bad rapid’s gotten, eating a Twinkie a day would cure cancer? Would that not be awesome? Would you keep that a secret?
Or if some friend came and said, I got inoperable cancer. You go, hostess baby, here comes the twinkie. I mean, if you absolutely knew that it was true, it wasn’t just a conspiracy theory. It wasn’t just something you read on the Internet. You knew that. You knew that. You knew you had the cure to cancer.
You knew you were in a situation where people were starving, and you knew where there was bread, bread abundant, that would never run out. Would you keep it a secret?
We know where new humanity, eternal life, conquering sin, bringing justification, righteousness, making us like the God of heaven and taking us there for eternity. We know his name is Jesus. We know he lived and died and rose again. We know he is real. We know he desires to bring that life to this person.
Well, you know, I don’t want to offend them. All right? Did I just shoot on you? You should tell people about Jesus. Just do it. Whether you should or shouldn’t, you rule followers out there, you should do this.
You rule breakers out there, bet you can’t. I think I’m done.
Lord, for the great salvation that you’ve given us in Jesus Christ, we give you thanks. This is. This is new food for new humanity. See, the rest of the world sees this and goes, bread and juice, big whoop. We say, no, no, no, no. This is. This is the food that nourishes this new life that we have in us. This is like. This is like health food for that new life.
Because Jesus infuses this with his New Covenant life, it strengthens us and helps make us more like him.
It’s very interesting to me that all we do in church, a lot of that isn’t specifically spelled out in the Bible. It doesn’t necessarily say, come and for 20 or 30 minutes, sing songs about me. It says to praise and worship him, but it doesn’t say how. It certainly doesn’t say, come and listen to some guy go on and on for a half an hour about the Bible until we feel like taking a nap.
But we still were like, that’s like the big thing. Oh, you got to get. Gotta hear the word and get fed. That’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it doesn’t say specifically to do that. It does say specifically to do this.
He says, when you get together, take bread and break it. And remember, this is my body, which is given for you. And then take the cup and give thanks and pour it out. And remember, this is my blood which is shed for you. It’s the blood of the New Covenant.
It’s the blood of forgiveness of sins. And he does say this. He says as often as you gather. Didn’t say once a month. I’m not condemning people who do it once a month, but I’m just saying he says we should probably do it Thursday night when we have Bible study.
Often as you gather, when you gather, do this. And so I invite you to obey Jesus and take communion tonight.
Father, fill this meal with your presence. Holy Spirit, as we take this, make us more like Jesus. We receive it by faith in his Name, Amen.
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