Grand Parkway Baptist Church
Grand Parkway Baptist Church
The Power of Connection
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Effective witness isn't just about knowing what to say, it's about knowing who and what to connect people to.
In this sermon on Acts 17:1–9, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon examines Paul’s ministry in the synagogue at Thessalonica to explore the true power of gospel connection. Pastor Neil outlines four key aspects of connecting with others: building intentional relationships outside our Christian bubbles, tethering people to the big-picture story of God, grounding our faith in intellectual integrity, and pointing everyone directly to King Jesus. Discover how understanding why Christ had to suffer and rise equips you to engage the secular world with reason, clarity, and confidence.
In this episode, we cover:
- Connecting with People: Moving beyond church walls and building genuine relationships with non-believers.
- The Story of God: Helping others step out of their small narratives into God’s overarching plan of redemption.
- The Intellectual Integrity of the Faith: Using reason, explanation, and evidence to share the gospel without relying on force or manipulation.
- Why Christ Had to Suffer and Rise: Understanding how Jesus' death addresses our sin and how His resurrection proves His deity and secures our forgiveness.
- Jesus as King: Living out a life that proclaims the ultimate victory and authority of King Jesus over every area of life.
Be sure to follow us:
This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church. Helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01Amen. Amen. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we believe. Help our unbelief today. Lord, we believe you're coming back for a spotless bride. That means your people, your church. And so uh wash off of us all of the unnecessary that spots and stains our lives today. We believe that you're coming back for that spotless bride. We believe that the Spirit of God is still here on the earth, that the Holy Spirit lives in the Christian, and you left your spirit here on earth to continue the ministry of Jesus and the establishment of your kingdom. In the beginning, the Bible says that the earth was void and formless, but the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And so all of us have areas in our life today that are void and formless. We don't know, we don't understand. Am I going to college? Am I going to be able to afford college? Should I take that promotion? What if I have to move? All this kind of stuff. And we just declare over everything unknown and unformed in our life that the Spirit of God is hovering over that. You already have a plan for it. And so we just say, Lord, we believe you. We don't know what's coming next week, but we believe you. And when that gets here, we're going to keep on believing you. Lord, there's a lot in the passage this morning. Holy Spirit, be in me like Antifreeze. Don't let me overheat and boil dry as I'm trying to talk about this today. Uh, because Lord, we believe that you want us to connect to some realities that connect people to God. And so, Holy Spirit, illuminate the scripture today, cause it to get find a resting place in us and then express itself through us. We pray. We pray all this in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. You can have a seat. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. If you don't have a Bible, don't sweat it. It'll come up on the screen behind me. If you're a guest today, we're preaching through the book of Acts. It's called the Book of Acts because it was basically the Acts of the Apostles. It's a it's the earliest first followers of Jesus Christ, uh, what they did, how they lived, and how Christianity kind of got started. And today I'm in Acts chapter 17. I'm gonna read verses one to nine on talk to you about the power of connection. The power of connection, because you we've all had conversations with people that don't start off as spiritual conversations. You're just kind of talking, and then all of a sudden your friend or coworker, total stranger, says something and something pings in you, and you're like, ooh, I should probably like interject some spiritual thought right here, but I'm not sure what to say or how to say it. And you just walk away and like, hey, I'll pray for you, Bill. And Bill's like, hey, hey, thanks. All right. If I that's meaningful to you, great. And as you're walking away, you're just kicking yourself the whole time, kind of going, ah, and about 10 seconds after the conversation ends, you think of 20 things that you could have, would have, and should have said. You see, I just want to suggest to you that in that moment, the task is not thinking of what to say. In that moment, the task is really thinking of what I should have connected that person to. Because what you're gonna see in this text this morning is that the apostle Paul is just a dude, man. He's just a guy that it radically comes to faith. Um, and and that's what he does. He works hard to connect people. Uh, he connects with people, first of all, and then he wants to connect people to three realities. All right. I want you to get your ears ready to hear these in the text. Acts chapter 17, starting in verse 1. He says, now when they had passed through Amphipolis and uh Apollonium, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews who were jealous and and and uh and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. They attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, These men have turned who have turned the world upside down, have come here also. And Jason has received them. And they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying, There's another king, Jesus. And the people in the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things, and when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. They let them go. The power of connection. What do I mean by the power of connection? There's four things in the text I want you to see. Number one, is you have to connect with people. You have to connect with people. In verse one, it says this it says they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul went in, and then this little phrase, as was his custom, that is the Bible word for habit. Now, here's just a question I want to start with. Why would you go to the one place you know you're gonna encounter the most resistance? I mean, why go to the one place? I mean, you make a special trip, you go there, and it says, for three Sabbath days. That does not mean three days in a row, that means the day of the week of Sabbath for Jews back then, it was Saturday. And so he would go. So when three Sabbath days, basically he's saying for three weeks, he went to the Jewish synagogue where he knew the people that do not think like him or believe like him, but he goes there. And why does he do this? Here's why. Because he knows that there'd be people there who were very religious, but they did not have a relationship with God. Do you understand today that you can be super religious and not have a relationship with God? If you understand that, say amen. Now, Paul would go to the synagogue of the Jews, and that that was, he'd make a beeline for that. He'd visit two places every city he got to. He would first go check out the jail, and then he would go to the synagogue where he's going to teach and preach about Christianity. Why go to the jail? Because after he preached, that's where he was going to go. Because people disagreed with him and hate him that much, and yet he came, as was his custom. We talked last week about how these people didn't seek experiences. They had habits that caused him to have these gospel experiences. Now, the reason he was drawn to these places and these people, listen to me, is because he used to be one. You shouldn't escape, you shouldn't want to get away from everybody you used to raise hell with. Because those are the people that need to hear about the reality of heaven. Now, I'm not saying sin with them and do things you used to do, but the reason he was drawn to these people is he used to be one. He was religious, he prided himself on being right and winning religious discussions. But here was the problem Paul experienced. He had no love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control. Matter of fact, in the book of Romans, chapter seven, he says this. How about self-control? He says, Hey, the good that I want to do, I can't seem to do it, okay? And the bad stuff that I don't want to do, that's what I do. Then he makes a statement. He says, Oh, wretched man that I am. Now, this is the way he felt. He was religious, he was conflicted, he was tormented emotionally until he became a Christian. He began to understand who Jesus Christ was and how God works in our lives once we come to faith. Let me demonstrate. Now, what do we call that list of things I just rattled off? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. What do we call that? Say it out loud. The fruit of the spirit. Now, if you're sitting here today and you're like, well, I didn't know that. I got that one wrong on the pop quiz. Uh no, no, that's not a big deal. What would he mean? We talk about, matter of fact, if you don't know what that is, you're probably ahead of all the people, the Sunday school superstars who just chirped out. Fruit of the Spirit. Because here's what the church in America has done. We see the list, we go, oh, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then look at me. The church takes upon itself the responsibility of teaching you how to be all these things. That is terrible. That's just behavior modification. Thank you, B. F. Skinner. No, thank you. It's called the fruit of the spirit because when you become a Christian, God comes to live inside of you by his spirit, and the spirit of God inside of you produces these realities on the outside of you. Matter of fact, because the church has taken on the responsibility of teaching people how to be more loving and more gentle and more faithful and more patient and more peaceful and have more joy, because you've taught people how to do this in their own flesh, you can't really tell who knows Jesus and who's just religious anymore. The church has created its own personal problem with an unbiblical approach to teaching people. Now, when I say uh what what what do you mean? What are you saying right now? I'm not saying don't be loving, don't be joyful, don't move peaceful. I'm saying this the Holy Spirit inside of you produces these realities on the outside of you. Christianity is not a to-do list for really disciplined people. Oh, I'm gonna be loving and joyful, peaceful if it kills me. It will. It will. Have you ever met somebody that goes to church all the time and has gone to church for 40 years and they're just not enjoyable to be around? It's because they learned the list. They went to study school, they know all the answers, and on the inside, they are just ah, please don't sat next to me at a wedding. This is my own personal thought. Because when I do a wedding, everybody says, Oh, my uncle, he's a Methodist minister. Oh, please, dear God, no. Yeah, you see, here's the thing Christianity is not a to-do list for really disciplined people. Well, then what is it? It's a relationship with a loving God who forgives you, fills you, and then he works inside of you for the rest of your life. Matter of fact, he so worked in this guy, Paul, that at one point he said to God, and he meant this, he said, I wish that I could be accursed. So that my kinsmen, these Jews, these religious people who go to the synagogue every Saturday and argue, have religious discussions. I wish I could be accursed. Translation, I wish God I could go to hell so these cats could go to heaven. Okay? Now, now what when I say connect with people, what you're like, man, you're amped up about this. What's the big deal? The big deal is that I want us to, if you don't connect with people, how can you connect people to these other three realities that the Bible's going to demonstrate? You got to connect with people. You can't just connect with the people that sit around you right here. You shouldn't be uh always with Christians, you should be around unbelievers. Now, see, here's the problem in America, the longer you're a Christian, the harder you have to work to be around people who aren't like you. You just become siloed in your Christian community. And it's like, oh man, I never get around lost people. That's not something you should but brag about. You should confess that is sin. Because the Bible says we're the fragrant aroma of Christ to those who are perishing. You should pee around people who are perishing. This is why Paul went to the synagogue of the Jews every time he had the opportunity because he wanted to connect with people. We do not have year-round programming because we want you to follow the example of Paul and connect with people, okay? When you connect with people, you bring the capacity of the gospel with you. Last week, one of you sent me an email and said, Hey man, you were a little excited today. You kind of got after us. No, I just want you to understand the capacity that you have as a believer, okay? And so I brought you a little equation today: gospel capacity plus gospel responsibility equals gospel experiences. You're like, great, what does that mean? Let me say it again. Gospel capacity. Again, when I became a Christian, the Spirit of God came, God came to live inside of me by his spirit. The Bible calls it the Holy Spirit. I have a capacity that I by nature don't have. I can be patient, I can be long-suffering, I can be a lot of things, okay? That I by nature am not, okay? That's gospel capacity plus gospel responsibility. What do you mean? The gospel makes me responsible to live a certain way. It's not just forgiveness for all the things I want to do, it's a responsibility. Now that is what equals gospel experiences. You should ask yourself, have this conversation over lunch today if you want to really get it going. Ask each other when's the last time you had what you would consider a gospel experience? Where something happened that it can't be explained because the gospel is real and relevant. Because here's my concern: we have gospel capacity and we don't embrace our gospel, the responsibility the gospel puts on us, and therefore we don't have hardly any gospel experiences. Now, you say, what do you mean connect with people? I mean at the neighborhood, at the baseball field, at the volleyball court, at swim uh practice, at dance class, at work, your neighborhood pool, your backyard pool. For Paul, it was the synagogue of the Jews because this was a to quote that great theologian Maverick, this was a target-rich environment. You have to put yourself in target-rich environments. Because if you do not connect with people, okay, there is no power of connection. And you're just getting more religious information, but it's not getting out of you, and you're not connecting people to things they were created for. There's three things that they were created for in the text, which brings us to the second thing. Number one, here's the power of connection: connect with people. Secondly, connect people to the story of God. Connect people to the story of God. It's verses two and three. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. And for some of them, they were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. Again, leading people and devout people. They didn't just kind of go say, hey, we'll we'll take this the cast offs. We're looking for the low-hanging fruit. They're like, hey, where's the mayor? Where's the governor? Can I see the president? Because that's the native environment for the gospel. So when I say connect people to the story of God, this is what I'm saying. In order for this to happen, you and I have to know the story of God. God has been telling one story for a long time, and that's the story He's going to tell over and over and over. You heard Derek talk about it up here. We're going to be storing. Uh, this is this is where you you you take not just now, now when I say connect people to the story of God, you can't just know some stories from the Bible. So it would help us today to ask ourselves, hey, do I do I know the story of God? The whole big picture story. It's why one of our core classes here. We have uh midweek classes that they start at the end of August. We do it for 10 weeks in the fall, 10 weeks in the spring. And inevitably, somebody says, why don't we have year-round Wednesday night classes? Because we want you out there connecting with people. We don't want you down here at the religion factory every night of the week, okay? We want you, but when you would come together, we mean business. We have classes, we have some classes called core classes, which means these are a second-level thing. We want all of our people to rotate through all of these classes. One of those classes is called the Christian story because we want you to understand the story that God is telling, all the way from creation to the consummation, to when Jesus comes back again. That way, if you're at the baseball field sitting in a lawn chair next to somebody, and they make a statement and you're like, ding, okay, here we go. And it's kind of like spinning something on a lazy Susan. You're like, okay, how do I contextualize the gospel for what this person just said? Instead of, well, my church is really growing. We have nine and 10:30 services. Would you like to come sometime, Harry? No, Harry doesn't want to come because you're not connecting to him, okay? And you're not connecting him to the story of God, this story that God has been telling. Now, let me let me apply our inability to tell the story of God to modern day reality in America. In order for you to tell the story of God, for me to tell the story of God, I can't just know some stories from the Bible. I have to know the big picture story that God is telling. Because, see, here's the thing about Christianity. When you become a Christian, you step out of the smallness of your story and you step into the bigness of the story that God is telling. Let me say that again. When I became a Christian, I stepped out of the smallness of my story. Your story is not big enough to live in. I'm not saying it's not important. I'm saying of me and everybody else, your story is not big enough to live in. The only story that's big enough to live in is the story of God. Matter of fact, one of the reasons we have such a mental health crisis in America, it's not COVID. It's not the government, it's not China, it's not whoever you're blaming, blaming these days, it's not the presidential election coming up in five months. It's because you're bumping up against the edges, the margins, the limits of your little story. And you were created to live in a story that's so big you could spend your rest of your life and you'd never exhaust the limits of it. You say, I I don't know what you mean. A guy named Andrew Del Bonco, he is a professor at Columbia University. Uh, and he's just a he's a thinker and writer, and he's he wrote a book about uh the story of hope. It's called The Real American Dream. The Real American Dream, and in the book he talks about, he just says, hey, in the 18th century, our hope was in God as a nation. I mean, as a country, people in America, our hope was in God. 19th century, our hope was in the nation. We're gonna fight wars all over the world. We're America, we're a superpower. 20th century, we got the internet. Now our hope is in self. Now look at me. This is why there's a mental health crisis. You've been educated in the public education system, you've been educated in some Christian schools, Christian schools to put your hope in self. And you wake up one day and you got anxiety and you're depressed. Yeah, because you are trying to make yourself at home in a phone booth. Remember phone booths? Okay, I said phone booth, and some of you kids are like, what's that? Yeah, you're you're trying to, it's like, hey, hey, you got a wife and three kids, and you're all trying to live in a phone booth, and you wonder why your kids are a little bit irritable. Because they're telling you, hey, we were created for something bigger than just softball and tap and jazz and ballet and swim and dee dee dee dee. Great experiences, have all that. But your kids were created for more, and mom and dad, you were created for more. This is what we I mean when I say you got to connect people to the story of God. You can't just know some one-off random stories in the Bible, you have to know the story. Some verbs that Paul used to tell the story are listed in verses two and three. I just want to point to them briefly. He says, reasoning, explaining, and proving. You should underline those in your Bible. He says, as was his custom, Paul went in, as was his custom, verse two, on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, not his intellect, from the scriptures. Can you reason from the Bible? Okay, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for Christ to suffer to die and rise from the dead. We'll get to that in just a minute. But when you connect people to the story of God, make sure you're using the right verbs. To reason means to mingle thought with thought. They have a thought, you have a thought. And you're not trying to win an argument, you're just trying to represent and demonstrate a bigger reality. Explaining means to cause one to open their mind. Later on, in a couple of weeks, we'll get further into chapter 17. And these people that Paul, I mean, like the Uber, like the Harvard, the Columbia, the Yale, whatever you think is prestigious, these smart people, he's talking to them, and he just smokes these fools like a Marlboro red, okay? And they said to him, Hey, you're bringing some strange ideas to our ears. Hear this. We want to hear you again. When's the last time you brought some strange ideas to someone's ears and they said, Hey man, I gotta go back to work, but can we do lunch again? Because I think I something, something tells me I'm gonna be thinking about this for a while. This is what it means to explain, because you call somebody to open their mind and then finally proving. I mean it that means simply to place evidence before. Again, I'm not trying to win an argument, I'm just trying to place something before people and just go, hello. Have you thought about that? Have you considered that? Uh this is what it means to connect people to the story of God. Notice that there's no yelling, the verbs are reasoning, explaining, and proving. There's not the verbs are not yelling, cussing, hating, or canceling. Uh-huh. No. See, here's the third thing you have to do. You have to connect. The power of connection is connecting people to the intellectual integrity of the faith. Connection, connecting people to the intellectual integrity of the faith. Now, you may have just rolled your eyes and reached for your coffee and said, honey, take notes. I'm going to set this one out. No, no, no. It's not like, and this is now for smart people. No, not at all. When I say connecting people to the intellectual integrity of the faith, uh, I want you, it's verse three and four. Just notice that the rest of the passage, the Jews, uh, they're responding to the insufficiency of their arguments because they cannot, they cannot reason and prove and explain. And Paul is there for three weeks, and he is putting a beat down on these people, and they just get angrier and angrier, so much so that they go to this Jason guy. Why this Jason guy? Because Jason, these guys were crashing in his house, okay? And they were like, they went looking for him, they're like, ah, these people have turned the city upside down, and they say there's another king, not Caesar, that the king is really named Jesus. You know why they say that? Because that's true. And they're just like, ah, because they cannot engage in the dialogue. And so what do they do? They can't reason their way out of this, so they resort to violence. Let me say two things about this, okay? Any religion that depends on violence does not believe itself. Any religion that depends on violence does not believe itself. Now you say, What do you mean? I'm going all the way back when I was like 15 years old and I was smoking weed and just I was just an angry kid. And every once in a while, good church kids in my town would come to me because I was like the big sinner, and they were like, Neil, you go to hell if you don't come to Jesus. And I was like, Well, people like you and in heaven, I might think I might enjoy going to hell. Because, dude, you are miserable. I want to be around you. Uh, and and so they would have a little conversation, and when I didn't fall to my knees and say, I believe, they would end the discussion with violence. They go, Well, I hope you enjoy hell. Okay. And so later when I became a Christian, I was like, I would read something like this, and I go, there's no reasoning, explaining, and proving here. Again, a religion that depends on violence does not believe itself. By the same token, a religion that depends on emotion doesn't know itself. A religion that depends on emotion does not know itself. And see, this is kind of where where uh Christians in America have gotten. You should stop making appeals based on assumed emotions in people. Are you tired? Are you sad? Are you lonely? Do you have anxiety? Are you depressed? Are you afraid? Hey, by the way, folks, a Christianity void of reason is not a biblical faith. A Christianity void of reason is not a biblical faith. Therefore, Christians should learn how to reason and explain and prove. Okay? You shouldn't come to Jesus. Let me say this very clearly. You should not come to Jesus because he's better and cheaper than a therapist. You should not come to Jesus because he's a better way of live. Sorry, Andy Stanley. Get some theology. That's a preacher in the land who stands up and tells his people you should you should come to Jesus because it's just a better way to live. No, you should consider the claims of Christianity because it's the truth. And you cannot make sense of life in this world nor in the next, apart from that. That's what I believe, that's what I understand the Bible to teach. Now, you need to understand what he's trying to prove to these people. Because it says right there, that as was his custom, on three Sabbath days, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving. What is he trying to prove? What's he trying? What are they disagreeing about? This is beautiful. Don't miss this. This is what I mean by you got to connect people to the intellectual integrity of Christianity. A lot of people are like, oh, Christianity is just for people that couldn't hack it. You I have a brother that's like, hey, dude, you couldn't hack it. And so you pulled the ripcord and got all Jesus again. I'm like, well, no, I I think it's the truth. I think it's the only thing that makes sense of this life. You say, what do you mean? What was Paul trying to prove to these people? Two things. First of all, that Christ had to suffer. That Christ had to suffer. Now you may now here's the reality. Has anybody ever come up to you and said, hey, can you explain to me why Christ had to suffer? Because I don't believe in Jesus, because he had to suffer. Now there's a good chance that probably hadn't happened to you. But back in the New Testament days, that was a big deal. Why? Because here's what they believed. If you're really God, why would you suffer? Think about it. If you were really God, would you suffer? Or if you were really God, really in charge of everything, wouldn't you just make everybody else suffer? Like I have a confession. I like slam poetry. Anyone know what slam poetry is? Oh, you white people are like, no, I have no idea. Slam poetry is like a poetry recital meets hip-hop. Okay? It is fascinating because these people get up and they just basically riff, and it's wonderful. And my favorite one was it was like this big national competition. And there was this little Asian guy up there. He was maybe five foot four, weighed about 85 pounds after eating three meals a day. I mean, just a little shrimpy guy. He had glasses on so thick he could see the future, okay? And he gets up there, he walks out, and there's just a mic on the stand. And I mean, there's all these guys with dreadlocks and they're flowing and ripping. And this guy walks out, and people in the crowd are snickering, and you have to just announce, you know, blah, blah, blah, the name of your poem. And the name of his was When I Am God. And I just paused and turned the volume up and then unpolished. And this little five's four Asian guide slaughtered everybody. And he ended it by saying, I mean, people were on their feet given a stand in ovation six minutes long. That's a long time for one poem from memory. And he took his glasses off at one point and he ended it with, and when I'm God, everybody dies. And I thought, well, that's not hopeful. Yeah. But the people went crazy. They're like, ah, and he won. It's unbelievable. So this is why people in the New Testament are kind of like, okay, you say Jesus is the Son of God, he's the Messiah. Why must he, why do you have to suffer? Remember, even on the cross, okay? If you grew up in church, on the cross, remember the Roman soldiers standing for the cross? If you are the son of God, come down from the cross. Because in their mind, they were like, see, Christianity has a, it's, it's, it's a, it's partly intellectual. You got to think about things. And now look at me, it doesn't mean you got to be smart to be a Christian. You got to be willing to think about things. And so they were like, dude, if you're really God, why don't you smoke all these fools and let's go home? But you couldn't be God because you're up there dying on a stick, okay? This is just a Jew on a stick. This is not the Son of God. If you are God, come down. So he's having conversations for three weeks. When's the last time you had a three-week running conversation? For three? Because they're stuck on this, they're hung up on this. So he's trying to prove that Christ had to suffer. Why? Well, here's the thing: if he is God, then why does he have to suffer? Uh, here's the here's the response to that. His suffering is not a statement about his nature, his suffering is a statement about our nature. Let me say that again. His suffering is not a statement about his nature. It's not like, oh, you're suffering. You must not be God, you must not be divine. No, no, no. He is God and He is suffering. Why? That's a statement about your nature, because you're sinful. So God's not on trial there. We are. So, so in response to the question, why do you have to suffer? Two things. Because, number one, because sin must be punished. Sin must be punished. When you see the sufferings of Christ, you should be reminded of the heinous nature of your sin. Okay? God said to me one time, now, by the way, when you really start engaging lost people, people that do not believe the truth claims of Christianity, they will say crazy things to you, try to shock you. God said to me one time, I find it hard to love a God who calls it love to kill his own son. And you could tell he was like, put his gun back in his hole. So like, this is gonna end it all. And I'm like, you're just wrestling with a pig, bro. You're getting muddy and the pig's liking it, okay? And I said, That's your big objection. He goes, Yeah, I mean, I find it hard uh uh really to love a God who calls it love to kill his own son. To which I didn't go, oh, don't talk about Jesus that way. Look at me. Christianity is so robust, so juicy, so full of truth, it can take on anything. So I just looked at him, I said, Well, it depends on who you think uh God is loving on the cross. He said, Excuse me. Some strange ideas to his ears. It depends on who you think God's loving on the cross. I mean, is he loving his son or is he loving you? Well, I don't know. You're the guy reading the Bible. I'm on a plane reading the Bible, minding my own business. And the guy on the window wakes up, looks over, and says, huh, a fairy tale. Yeah, it didn't bother me. I I just heard that my favorite scene from Eight Mile. Rabbit, they're calling your name. Everybody from the 313, put your hands up and go with me. And I'm sitting on the aisle and I'm thinking, you ain't getting out, bro. And so he kind of woke up and he's like, I mean, I don't mean to offend you. I said, You don't have that capacity. What do you mean you don't have that capacity? Nothing you can say could offend me or change my mind about this. You want to go? And then I quoted my other favorite line from one of my favorite movies, say when. He said, Well, I mean, that's when he goes, Well, I find a hard love of God to cause love to kill his own son. That's how you think he's loving on the cross. Is he loving you or is he loving his son? Because if God doesn't sacrifice his own son, he has to kill you. So loving you comes at a great cost to God. All of a sudden, Skippy's out of words. And the flight attendant's walking by and he said, Preach, brother. And I just held up my cup and she said, I'll bring you some more coffee. And I yelled up the aisle. If you got some Bailey's, put some of that in there. We're gonna be here a while. That's a joke. I didn't say that. I got that at home. Anyway, it's too expensive on a plane. Anyway, because sin has to be punished. Why was Christ have to suffer? Because sin has to be punished. Okay? Here's the second reason: because God must be understood as holy. God must be understood as holy. Uh the cross offends people only because they're not holy. You see, ask yourself this question. When you talk about God, how often do you refer to his holiness? See, because if God's not holy, see, here's the problem in America. Look at me. We start with man's need. Are you lonely? Are you sad? Do you feel guilty? Blah, blah, blah. Do you lack purpose? You should start with God's nature. God is holy. And if God is not holy, then none of this is necessary. It is just cosmic child abuse, as some liberals say. Stop starting over here and start over here. And so I just ask people, I don't say, hey, God's holy, brother, watch your mouth. I just say, hey, I think you've got a problem with you, you're worried about the wrong people. You're talking about the nature of man, which I think is important, but secondary, what's primary is the nature of God. And every time I say this, somebody goes, What do you mean? Well, God is holy, okay? God think of it like this. If you put on white gloves, and sometimes I say things and you should be able to read people's eyes that they just disconnect. I don't know what you mean. If you say something that doesn't click, I said, you know, God's holy. And so if God's not holy, none of this is necessary. Well, I don't get the connection. Okay. If you put on white gloves and went outside and played in the mud, do the gloves get muddy or does the mud get glovey? And the guy's like, wait a minute, let me uh six plus seven, three carry the one. He's like, Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, the the gloves don't I mean the gloves, I mean, the mud doesn't get glovey. Yeah, yeah. You see, so here's the question. I just asked this how much sin can a spotless, infinitely sinless being allow into his presence and still be holy? And this guy says, I guess none. Okay, so you start with the nature of God, and then you get over here to the nature of man, and then it's really clear what the need of man is. He's like, hmm. I can't disagree with that. See, Paul's trying to prove two things. Number one, that Christ had to suffer. Number two, that Christ had to rise from the dead. Okay, but why? Two reasons. Number one, the resurrection proves the deity of Christ. The resurrection proves that the deity that Christ really was divine, he was the Son of God. The Bible says it like this. This is Romans chapter 1, uh, verses 1 to 4. He says, Paul, this is the part you just skip over. It's kind of the introduction, the salutation. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through the prophets in his holy scriptures concerning his son, who is descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of Holiness. What declared him to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness? By his resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our Lord. And he goes on. You see, this is the reality that Paul is reasoning with these people about. Christ had to rise from the dead. Why is that important? Well, it's important he rises from the dead because the resurrection proves that he is the Son of God. He he he it's the deity of Christ. He's not just a good man, a moral teacher, a prophet. He is the son of God. That's why he says in verse 3 not only does he say, hey, it was necessary Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, but then he drops this on him. This Jesus who we're talking about, who I proclaim to you, he is the Christ. Translation, the Messiah, the fulfillment of promise, of every promise God ever made, the person that you've been hearing about in rabbi school, rabbinical school your whole life, okay? This is a big deal, okay? Because you didn't just kill an upstart Jew, you crucified the Son of God. Uh-oh. It also means that God has acted personally to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. See, here's the second reason it's important he rise. The resurrection affirms God's acceptance of Jesus' death in your place and for your sins. Let me say this again. The resurrection affirms God's acceptance of Jesus' death in your place and for your sins. Let me say it real simply. This establishes the possibility of forgiveness. The reality of the resurrection establishes the possibility of forgiveness. So there's nobody, the guy on the plane, by the way, that wasn't adversarial. He was like, You're kind of funny. I said, Don't encourage me. Because she will come out. Wow. And he said, So do you read the Bible a lot? Nah. Really, I it reads me really well. He goes, What do you mean? The last 30 minutes of flight, we're engaging, fun, lighthearted. And I said, Hey man, wheels are coming down. What do I pray for you next Thursday when you come to mine? I don't know, bro. You give me a lot to think about. I said, Of all the things we've thought about and talked about, what's the one? He said, Man, that that that yeah, that thing you said at the very beginning. I mean, yeah, I mean, I gotta go back to the drawing board. And I said, You need some extra chalk? And he said, No, man, this is good. This is good. And I said, You got any other questions? He goes, Are you really a preacher? I said, Yeah, I really am. And I said, Can I ask you a personal question? He goes, Yeah. I said, Do you have a bad experience with a preacher as a kid? He goes, Yeah. Yeah, that guy just screamed at us as a little kid and scared the hell out of me. Go, oh, I'm sorry. I said, Hell's not a cuss word, it's a place. And he went, you know, I've never thought about that. I said, you should. I said, you notice no one ever says, Oh, that scared the heaven out of me. Here's the last thing. You connect people to the king. The power of connections, you connect with people, okay? Then you connect people to the story of God, you connect people to the intellectual integrity of the faith. Then lastly, you connect people to the king. That's verses five to nine. They're throwing a fit. Oh, they're saying there's another king. Now, if you read the passage, nowhere in the text do Paul and Silas referred to Jesus as king, they refer to him as the Christ or the Messiah, but not the king. Well, where'd they get this? Here's where they got this, okay? Pay attention. We're done in two minutes. Their lives is what sent the message to these people that Jesus is the king. They didn't have a, you know, my my my 20-year-old walked in, confessional. My 20-year-old walked in the kitchen the other night. I sat at our breakfast table late at night and read and study. And she said, Dad, what are you listening to? I said, I'm listening to Run DMC, old school run DMC. I'm down with the king. I'm down with the king. And she's like, What are you doing? Who is that? I'm like, I failed you as a father if you don't. She goes, I know, I remember you take me to school, and they're the guys that sing, it's tricky. That's right. It's tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time. It's tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky, tricky. She just shook her head. She walked back to her room and she said, My dad study and listen to run DMC. Yes. Yes. Because I just want to be reminded. I want that, I want that life song to come out of me. I don't want to be able to tell people I'm down with the king. Yeah. Yeah. And see, here's the thing. You got to ask yourself what message their life sent the message of Jesus as King. I wonder what message is your life sending out about Jesus. Oh, he's provider, he's a blesser, he's forgiven. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But is he the king? Is he the king? It's been probably a year since I told you this. I'm committed to telling you this, at least on an annual basis. This will be for 2024. If you're visiting our church today, you're like, I don't get the whole thing about the king. You need to understand, okay? We believe this. We believe the Bible teaches this. There's a famous preacher back in the 60s named Martin Lloyd Jones, brilliant guy, was a doctor and left the medical profession to become a preacher, okay? Uh and he just got preaching his logic on fire. Very intellectual, accessible man, all right? But he would tell the story. He said, if you want to understand Christianity, the big picture, it's like this that there's a king, he lived in a kingdom and he had an army and he had subjects, and he was a good king. He was benevolent, and people were enjoying life. And they're like, oh, the king's a great provider. But they got word that a foreign army was coming to invade, they're gonna make war on them. And so he sends his army out to meet this other army out on the field of battle, and they engage in this battle. Now, if they lose the battle, then he sends you know military advisors back to say, hey, get the castle ready. We need archers up here, we need to have a battle plan where the cavalry's gonna sweep in like Braveheart, they take them by surprise, and then we're gonna pour hot tar on them, and that's what happens if he loses. But if the king's army wins, he doesn't send back military advisors, he sends back Eangeleons, messengers of good news, to announce to everybody the king is one. Continue to enjoy and live in the peace that the king has secured for you. And so if you're visiting today and you go, I don't want to understand what your church is like, look at me, we're done. We believe that everything in the Bible is summarized in this little phrase the king is won. The king is one. We're not so come November, we're not gonna get some political fight. Somebody asked me the other day, uh, with the presidential election coming in November, how's that gonna inform your preaching? Not at all. Not at all. And you know why? Because the king is won. I can't just just live in and enjoy the just living in the kingdom. The king is won. We're not trying to fight some culture war. Why? The king has already won. I'm just here to appropriate the victory of the king over everything in this world. This is biblical Christianity. And it's what you were created for. Let's pray together. If you're our guests, just relax. We like to teach the Bible and then give you some spaces to think about it. Some questions come on the screen. That is, we we talk about those in our community groups, which are just small groups of people that meet in homes all over our city, just for the purpose of just talking out loud and helping each other get our head around what the Bible's all about. But we like to uh we we talk about connecting to the intellectual integrity of the gospel. We like to give you a chance to do that. So that's what this time is for right now. Just be still and listen and ask the Lord, okay, what had my name on it today? God, we understand the Bible teaches that not only did you suffer, but you died, and you died in our place and for our sin, so we don't have to live under the weight of our sin the rest of our life. That creates anxiety. Some of us aren't anxious, we're under conviction. And so, Holy Spirit, help us to discern the difference in those two. We just understand that you suffered for a reason, and you died on purpose and for a purpose. And it's humbling to have a king that would die for his subjects. Most kings send their subjects out to die for them and their kingdom. The king Jesus dies for everybody that gets to live in the kingdom because the king is one, and that's delicious and amusing and helpful all at the same time. So we say thank you for that in Christ's name. And everyone said, Amen, amen, amen. Again, if you're our guest, uh, thanks for exploring a new church. You're always welcome here. You're always welcome here, okay? You don't have to know everything. You you're like, hey, I'm just kind of that's okay. You're welcome. You're you're welcome. You just keep coming, you just keep listening. God speaks a language you understand. All we ask of you, if you're our guest today, if you just text welcome to that number on the screen behind me, so we can have a record of your visit. Uh, we'll shoot you back a text. We just want to help you get connected to the to the level and to the degree you want to get connected, okay? Now, let me uh uh let me tell you what you're about to see in our announcement video. You know that uh we we've been looking, we've been looking to add to our staff. We uh we told you we're not gonna hire another teaching pastor. Uh we're gonna we're gonna hire just a team member. Someone come on the team. We have hired a young man. His name is Julian Solis. Uh, he and his wife Kelsey were here probably, I don't know, three weeks, a month ago with our two little children, uh Ivy and Ella. Uh, and now we he we you said, well, okay, we're not hiring a teaching pastor. What'd you hire? We hired him as our spiritual formation pastor. Now, if you're part of Grand Park, well, you're thinking, no, wait, we already have one of those. Blake is our spiritual formation pastor. Yes, Blake is gonna be taking on a new role. His title is gonna be our equipping pastor. Uh, now let me speak to this. It's not like oh, Blake did something wrong, right? No, he didn't. Uh, Jim Collins wrote a business book, actually, a long time ago, called Uh Good to Great. And in the book, he says you got to get the right people on the bus and the right people in the right seats on the bus. We want Blake to take on a little bit more of a pastoral role. So he won't be teaching on Sunday morning Bible study. He'll be here in the lobby engaging you all, still doing a lot of things. He'll still teach on Wednesday night. He'll occasionally jump in and teach a class on Sunday morning. Matter of fact, he's teaching a college class uh that's starting up for our college kids to be back home for the summer. Uh, but Julian's gonna come in, and Julian will be the spiritual formation pastor. He'll be over Sunday morning Bible studies, Wednesday nights, all that kind of stuff. It'll be kind of a collaborative effort in the beginning, and then they'll both kind of get into more specialized into their roles, okay? So, part of the announcement video, you will see a video from Julian and his wife and kids. And clearly they're not perfect parents because they can't control their kids, okay? That's all I'll say. Here's this week's announcements, kids.
SPEAKER_06Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_04Hi, my name is Wendy Perry, and I am a teacher and administrator here at Grand Parkway Baptist Church in our ESL program. We meet on Tuesday nights during the school year from 6 to 8:30 and have opportunities for teachers, for subs, for conversation partners, and for a hospitality team that meets from week to week or comes just for special events. We would love for you to join our team because it is an opportunity for you to serve in missions in our own backyard.
SPEAKER_03Hey, my name is Aida Pereira. I've been here in the ESO program like for years. It has been uh a rich experience being in this program because it allowed me to learn a second language. It helped me to find a better job and a better adaptation to this country where my family and I immigrate. It's really an enrichment experience for us. Also, we find here beautiful people. All the volunteers in the ESL program are persons that can help you if you need it. They can teach you a second language, but they become a friend too because they're so lovely.
SPEAKER_04If you would like some more information, please join us at the Mission Center after the service or email us at esl at grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_06Women's Summer Book Groups starts the week of June 2nd and takes place all around town throughout the summer. They are a great chance to digest a great book and connect with other women. We are offering our core class Christian belief this summer just for college students. It'll meet on Sunday mornings at 10:30 a.m. for 11 weeks beginning on June 2nd. We will explore 10 key doctrines that are the foundation to maturing in Christ. Tyler Burge and Blake Hardcastle will be teaching this class. Finally, here's a message from our new spiritual formation pastor, Julian Solis, and his family.
SPEAKER_05Hey everybody, my name is Julian.
SPEAKER_04And I'm Kelsey.
SPEAKER_05This is Ivy and Ella. And we just want to say that's right. We're excited to be with you soon. We look forward to moving hopefully the summer and uh look forward to being with y'all. If y'all can be in prayer for us as we look to sell our home, say our goodbyes here in Gainesville, and transition and be with you all. Thank you. Bye.
SPEAKER_06For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org. If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the foot of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_01Now, I want you to pray two things for Julia. Number one, that he gets a new iPhone. Uh I'm just here to help. And secondly, that they'll learn to spank their kids. That's the that's the fruit of gentle parenting right there. No? Now, you may be wondering, hey, well, what's what's Blake think about this? This is Blake. I'll let him tell you.
SPEAKER_00So this is uh not a surprise to me. I've been in part of the process of Julian coming. We sang a song in the beginning this morning about God being a good shepherd, that it's always sweeter when we watch him make a way. And that's been my viewpoint. He has made the way for this. Part of this is as I was asked, hey, what are some things you might want to stop doing and things you want to do? And so I wrote those all down. Uh, guess what I get to start doing? Yeah, those things. What if you went to work Monday? Hey, what do you want to stop doing and start doing? So, this is for me, I feel like this is a promotion. Uh, the last thing I want to say is in case you don't understand any of that, we're not going anywhere. Okay, this is not slow off, we're not going anywhere. This is our place, these are our people. And so, uh, yeah, that's how I feel about it. Amen. That works.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I have a pastor friend here in the city that he went, wait a minute, you ask them, is it what do you want to give up? What do you want to take on? I said, Yeah, they don't always get everything, but we want the right people in the right seats on the bus. My people here do a job. I said, that's why people quit every 18 months. But anyway, uh uh one last thing I'll make you aware of. Uh uh a while back, we sent some money to Romania to help them build out a building. Uh and we practice full disclosure. I just want you to see this is this is what the building looked like. Actually, it didn't have any of that roof on it, but you paid for all that wood and all those tiles and all those bricks there. Uh and this is uh it's a house of prayer in a village, so people have a place to come and be taught the Bible. Now, a video, our missionary, uh, sent me an email and he said, by God's grace, that this will be finished by the time the group from Grand Parkway gets this summer. And Wade Collier, a man in our church who's going on the trip, Wade Collier will be the first one to preach in this building. So uh be praying for our Romania mission trip, which is coming later this summer, and for Wade Collier, because you that that was just the four walls. No windows, no doors, no roof or anything. And the money you put in the boxes and you give online, we bought all those materials uh because we want to see that thing roofed out, doors and windows, and people can come and be taught the Bible like you were taught the Bible this morning, okay? Well, I appreciate your patience. That's a lot of information. If you have any questions, Blake will be available down front, as will some of the rest of our past, okay? Would I conclude our service with a smoking blessings and standing your feet? Hold your hands out. Because the king is one. You don't have to focus on your defeat.