Wow, thank you choir for that beautiful number.
I think we ought to have the benediction go home.
Amen?
Who said that?
Well, as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted the flow of this morning's service, in my
reading this week I was looking at Revelation chapter 21.
And what the choir just sang about is what that chapter talks about in part because it
says there that God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth and a new Jerusalem.
And John sees the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven.
And it goes on to say several things about God including the fact that God himself will
dwell with us.
Is it not an amazing thing that the eternal God desires, deeply wants to be with you and
me?
We see that in Genesis when God created man and woman.
He was with them in the garden.
He wanted to be with them and fellowship with them.
And the whole story of history and sin and redemption unfolds in the Bible until you
come to the very end of it and once again God is dwelling with man.
Think of that.
He says there, behold I make all things new.
God loves to create things.
Even now God is creating.
Now we know that Jesus is in heaven preparing a place for his own.
And we understand that to be the new Jerusalem that John sees in Revelation 21.
But did you know that God is also in a construction project here on earth?
It is not a building project to do with a physical building.
But God is now building a spiritual temple.
A building that is composed of people.
It is a living thing that God is now creating.
Writing to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul states, you are God's building.
By the grace God has given me, I laid the foundation as an expert builder and someone
else is building on it.
But each one should be careful how he builds.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones or wood, hay or
straw, his work will be shown for what it is because the day will bring it to light.
It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each man's work.
If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
If it's burned up, he will suffer loss.
He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
He is talking to the church.
Do you know that how you and I build Los Gatos Christian Church matters to Christ?
He tells us here that we can build out of things that are worthy or we can build out
of things that will not pass the test of the judgment seat, and it will be tested.
It matters to Christ whether our values, our strategies and our methods are biblical, effective
and worthy of the name of Jesus.
When that test of fire comes at the judgment seat, the quality of what we do will be exposed.
How we have built will then be put to the test and we will be rewarded accordingly.
It matters to Christ how we build his church.
Of course, the foundation is the most important part of any building.
Beyond the foundation, the entire structure rests.
And biblically speaking, the foundation of a local church is whom?
Jesus Christ.
For other foundation can no man lay than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Christ himself.
It is the message of the gospel, the historic death of Jesus Christ for sinners.
His burial, his resurrection literally from the grave to immortality.
That message is the foundation that Paul himself laid for the church whenever he preached.
It was not only true in Corinth, it was also true in Thessalonica.
We have been studying from the epistles to that church in Thessalonica.
In Acts chapter 17, we have the historical background to Paul's ministry there.
When they had passed through Amphipolis in Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where
there was a Jewish synagogue.
As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with
them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from
the dead.
And then Luke quotes Paul, this Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, he said.
Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a large number of God-fearing
Greeks and not a few prominent women.
Paul was absolutely committed to the truthfulness of the message of the gospel.
He was committed to its uniqueness, that there was no other message like it in all of the
world.
The message that God himself came clothed in our humanity and the person of Jesus Christ.
And that God came to rescue us and to recover us from the damage and the loss and the pain
of our sin.
The ones who began to follow Jesus were immediately convinced of the very same thing that Paul
was convinced about.
And the message of the gospel reverberated through their lives.
And as Paul writes the letters to the Thessalonians, that word gospel continues to ricochet throughout
the writing.
Eight times he uses the word gospel as he does in our text today that begins in verse
four of chapter one.
We know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you
not simply with words but also with power and with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.
You know how we lived among you for your sake.
You became imitators of us and of the Lord.
In spite of severe suffering you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy
Spirit.
And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, your faith in God
has become known everywhere.
Here is a church where the gospel of Jesus Christ resonated.
It echoed throughout the whole region because it was so real in the lives of those who believed.
That's the kind of church that I want to join, don't you?
That's the kind of church that I want to build.
That's the kind of church I want to be a part of where the authentic gospel is authentically
presented with resonating results.
Now in our day and age you can find a lot of churches doing a lot of things and many
of those things are good.
Some frankly are not so good.
But the one concern that counts the most is this.
Does this church authentically present the authentic gospel?
I want to talk about that question for a moment.
Let's talk about the authentic gospel.
Paul describes it here.
In the first place an authentic gospel is one that originates with God himself.
In chapter 2 and verse 2 Paul says at the end of the verse, but with the help of our
God we dared to tell you his gospel in spite of strong opposition.
And twice later in verses he calls it the gospel of God.
In other words this news that God loves us, that he came into the world, that he paid
the price for our sins, rose from the dead and went back to heaven to save all of those
who believe in him, that news was initiated by God himself.
It is not a message that was created by Paul or any other human being.
It is God's gospel.
It comes out of his mind and his purpose and his character.
And God originated it before there was even the beginning of things.
That is so amazing to me.
In writing to Titus Paul says regarding the hope of eternal life he says God who does
not lie promised it before the beginning of time.
Now let that sink into your brain cells for a minute.
That before there was time and space and matter God had already promised eternal life.
But he goes on to say, and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through
the preaching entrusted to me, says Paul.
This is a message that originated from God himself before history was in reality, before
time began.
It is also an authentic gospel, is also one that concerns Jesus, God's son.
In chapter 3 in verse 2 and then again in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 8 he refers
to the gospel as the gospel of Christ or the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words it is about Christ.
He is the core of the message.
He is the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.
And Peter reminds us in his book Christ was chosen before the creation of the world but
was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Through him you believe in God who raised him from the dead and glorified him so that
your faith and hope are in God.
My friends more specifically the authentic gospel is simply this.
It is the message that Jesus Christ died and rose again.
To deliver from God's justice all of those who believe.
And the resonating results of that authentic gospel are laid out for us in the first chapter
of 1 Thessalonians.
It results in people turning to God from whatever they've worshipped before in our society,
usually ourselves.
Turning to God from self-worship.
It resonates in our lives also by our serving God and then our patient waiting for Christ
to return.
The authentic gospel is a life transforming gospel.
Have you experienced that transformation?
Who do you worship today?
What gospel have you believed?
Is it the authentic gospel?
Is that where your faith is resting for your soul's salvation?
I want to be a part of a church that believes the authentic gospel but one that also presents
it to others.
This message is not one to be kept to ourselves.
This is a message that is to be declared, to be shared in an authentic way.
What does that mean?
What is an authentic presentation of the gospel?
We have all presented the gospel, I presume, in a variety of ways.
There are lots of tools out there.
One of the ones that has been used most widely is called the Four Spiritual Laws.
How many of you have ever heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?
I heard this morning that the man who arranged the gospel in that little booklet, The Four
Spiritual Laws, Dr. Bill Bright, went home to be with the Lord last night.
We've been expecting that news for some time now because he's been in very serious health
issues.
So he is with Jesus and has received his reward from the Lord.
What is an authentic presentation of the gospel?
I remember what he said very simply.
He says, it's presenting the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and what?
Right.
Some of you are still well up on your training.
It is presenting the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results with
God.
That's simple.
It's not coursing.
It's not twisting an arm.
It's not grabbing somebody by the lapel.
It is simply presenting the gospel, the good news to them in the power of the Holy Spirit
and then leaving the results to God, letting God work it into their lives.
Well, Paul describes in chapter one what an authentic presentation of the gospel is.
In the first place, he suggests that it is personally owned.
Notice that he calls it in verse five, our gospel.
Now Paul in saying this is not saying that he created the gospel, that this is a message
that originated with him.
He makes that clear later.
But he is saying this, I possess this gospel.
It is mine too.
It is one that I share in.
And my friend, before you can authentically present the gospel, you have to own it for
yourself.
It has to be in your heart.
Secondly, he suggests to us that it has to be presented with words.
Now the way he puts it is not simply with words, and we'll go on from there in a moment,
but it does include words.
He says, I presented the gospel in word, not hollow words, not fancy rhetoric, just words.
As you go back to Acts 17, you notice that there are certain words that Luke uses to
describe the way Paul approached it in Thessalonica.
He says he reasoned with them.
And so there were times when Paul dialogued.
He had a discussion group with them.
He says he explained it, which means that he opened their minds through teaching.
Luke says he proved it.
He proved that Jesus was the Christ.
That word is a very picturesque word.
It means to lay things beside one another.
And so apparently what Paul did is he presented his words as he told about what the Old Testament
prophesied concerning the Christ, and then he presented what was true from the life of
Jesus.
And just side by side, he would lay out the facts, demonstrating and proving that Jesus
was in fact the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Christ.
Luke uses the word proclaiming, which means that he stood in public and made an announcement.
And then there's another word that he uses here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 when Paul
speaks about his exhortation.
And so Paul at times would use very persuasive speech.
You see, there are lots of different approaches in presenting the gospel, but they all require
us to open our mouth.
The gospel is a message that requires articulation.
It's not something you get by osmosis.
Jesus is the Word, the logos of God, and for us to communicate His message, we also must
use words.
Words mean something.
They are potent.
That's why the way that we use our tongues is so important to God.
And then an authentic presentation is one that is presented with power.
Paul says that.
He says not simply with words, but also with power, with power.
In other words, he and his team were quite aware of God's involvement in their presentation.
They knew the reality of God working through them.
They could sense that.
We don't always have to sense it for that to be true.
In fact, when you and I share the gospel, there's power just in the message.
Did Paul say that in Romans 1.16?
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the what?
The power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
And Paul, as he was presenting the gospel, was aware that it was not just with words,
but there was power there.
He also says that it needs to be presented with the Holy Spirit.
And of course, that's part of the power too.
Dr. Paul Brand, a Christian physician and author who wrote a book a number of years
ago along with Phil Yancey, passed away this last week as well.
Dr. Paul was speaking in India on an occasion.
And as he was speaking there at the pulpit, there was a shallow bowl in front of the pulpit
filled with oil, and there was a wick sticking out of the oil.
And as he continued to preach, the oil got lower and lower and lower, and finally the
oil was gone.
And so what happens?
The wick begins to burn.
And as the wick began to burn, it produced this acrid smoke that got into his nostrils
and he began to cough.
And he recovered himself from the coughing and he said, some of us here are like this
wick.
We're trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink.
That's what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the
Holy Spirit.
He says wicks can last indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke if the
fuel, the Holy Spirit, is the constant supply.
It's a waste of time for me to share the gospel in my flesh.
When I share the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, just trusting Him, allowing Him
to fill me, then it is with the Holy Spirit that it is shared.
And the Holy Spirit begins to convict the heart and enlighten the mind and then to impart
life.
An authentic presentation is also one that is with deep conviction, deep conviction.
Paul and his team possessed a perfect confidence in their message.
They had an assurance of the truthfulness of their message.
When you and I share the gospel of Jesus Christ, an authentic presentation is one that is filled
with conviction that this is the truth, and God uses that.
And then we notice that he says that it was presented with personal integrity.
An authentic presentation of the gospel has to have the integrity of the life of the person
behind it.
Paul says, you know how we lived, and he begins to explain that in the second chapter of this
book, and we don't have time to look at that this morning.
You and I need to present the gospel with an integrity about ourselves.
And finally, an authentic presentation of the gospel I find in chapter 2 and verse 4.
I want you to look at that verse with me.
Where he says, on the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the
gospel.
An authentic presentation of the gospel is one that is presented with a personal sense
of privilege.
The word entrust here is the Greek word believe.
It means that God has believed in Paul, literally, or God has confidence in Paul and has entrusted
to him therefore the privilege of sharing the gospel.
May I tell you something, my fellow believer?
God entrusts it to you too.
When you and I share the gospel out of a sense of legal obligation, it is often a very ineffective
sharing of the gospel.
Now you and I know that there is a responsibility involved, but the very best, the most authentic
way to present the gospel is to see it for what it is, the greatest privilege you can
have because it means that God has put His stamp of approval on you and says, I can trust
you to share this message.
God trusts you with it.
He has approved you as His spokesman.
He has granted to you the privilege of sharing the only good news there is in this world,
God's good news.
When the authentic gospel is presented in an authentic way, the results resonate in
the life.
I grew up in the Midwest where we had lots of thunderstorms.
We were supposed to have thunderstorms in our area this weekend.
I haven't seen or heard any yet.
Have you?
Maybe we're not in high enough elevation for that.
I think they had some in the Sierra.
I love thunderstorms.
I'm sorry, that's weird, isn't it?
That's like saying I love earthquakes, I know, to some of you, but I love thunderstorms and
I like to sit out on the porch when the thunderstorm is coming, when it's happening, and then after
it's over.
I love the sound of that thunder and the roar, how it reverberates across the sky.
Once you hear it in the distance, just the rumble, it sounds like cannon fire.
And then as it gets closer, it gets louder, it becomes more frequent, it begins to overtake
your senses and there's the flash of lightning, there's the smell of the fresh rain, there
is the sound echoing of thunder.
And then the storm passes on beyond you and then you begin to hear the echo of it all.
That is the picture that Paul uses when he says, as he does in verse 8, the message echoed
out from you.
The message thundered.
It rolled like thunder out from you to touch the whole area around you.
What are the resonating results of the gospel?
Well, first of all, those who hear it welcome the message.
And even though they may face suffering for believing it, they welcome it, they embrace
it into their lives.
Their belief is filled with a supernatural joy.
They are willing to suffer for Christ's sake and they imitate Paul and the Lord Himself
in being willing to suffer for the gospel.
They themselves then become model followers of Christ who reproduce the gospel in the
lives of others because that thunder, that echo continues to reverberate in them and
through them to others.
That, my friend, is the authentic results of the authentic gospel.
It resonates.
It reverberates.
We live for a time in an area of Covington, Kentucky where a Christian church actually
was nearby called Runyon Memorial.
The church was noted because it was a very historic church in that community, but also
because someone at some time had donated to the church a carillon.
And there was someone who would come to that church every day at a certain hour and they
would play on the carillon.
As I recall, it was about five or six o'clock in the evening.
If you were in a several block radius of that church, you would hear hymns being played
on the bells of the church.
It was a marvelous experience.
No matter what you were doing, there was the sweet sound of gospel songs and hymns that
would echo into your life.
It would make a difference.
That's the kind of church I want to be a part of.
One whose carillon is not necessarily in a tower with bells, but who because of its authentic
living out of the gospel and presentation of the gospel, sends out a message to the
whole community.
A message of hope.
A message of salvation.
A message of eternal life.
A message of rescue.
We have a group in our church that helps us understand what our resonating gospel looks
like.
I'm going to ask the group from the Kusher Camden ministry to come forward.
Would you do that please?
Ken and Alba Robertson are part of this group and are going to share with us this morning
something what God has been doing in a neighborhood through the ministry of some people in Los
Gatos Christian Church.
And I know that there are other neighborhoods where this is true, but this is the one I
heard about this weekend, so I wanted to have the opportunity.
Come on up here on the platform.
These folks and some others have been doing some ministry in apartments in that part of
our neighborhood that is just north of here, maybe what, a half a mile, something like
that.
And Ken, are you the spokesman?
Are you the guy that's going to tell us?
Or is it?
They pushed me forward.
They pushed you forward.
I didn't volunteer.
Well, we're going to volunteer you just like they do in the army.
There you are.
You took a step forward.
I cut my hair too.
What are some of the things that have happened?
Tell us what you've done there in the apartments at that corner and in the neighborhood.
Well, I think it all started a couple years ago.
And we were invited to come to Becky's class, Becky Jones.
She's a fourth grade teacher.
And she is a fourth grade teacher at Leets Elementary School, which is right near our
apartment.
And she came to our Sunday school class, Wayne and Janet Niblox Sunday school class, and
asked us if some folks would come and help her one day a week.
So the Lord put that on Elma in my heart.
She started going.
And we built a relationship with the kids.
And then at the end of the year, Becky's evangelical zeal came out in her.
And she said, would you folks be interested in having a backyard Bible club at your house
because it's right near the school?
And so Elma and I said, OK, we'll do that.
And one day we had about 39 kids came.
And a lot of them came from the Arbor Apartments, which a lot of those kids went to Becky's
school at Leets.
So we had, I think, 16 children came to the Lord.
We built a lot of relationships.
And then at the end of that year, the church had a Christmas outreach for neighborhood
folks.
I think the Worship Choir had that up, didn't they?
Yeah, it was very good.
So they were going to have it at the apartments on Blossom Hill Road in Camden.
And Elma said, well, why don't they have it at Blossom Hill or Camden and Couser?
That's the apartments we already had an inroad in.
So she called the church and the church said, sure.
So we had that.
And many of the kids came.
Some of the parents came.
And then after that, we started inviting them to church, Sunday school.
And they came.
And then we had a lot of the families came to Easter breakfast.
And then we had a Valentine's outreach there in the rec club.
And then Dean came with some musicians.
And they had a concert for them.
So we're building relationships all the time with them.
But one thing I do want to mention before I forget, it's been a team effort.
It's been a body ministry.
No one person or two have pushed it forward.
It's just been nine of us.
And it's incidentally Misha is not here, Misha Hecock, because she's in a missionary journey
in Africa this summer.
But she's part of the group here.
Well, let me tell you, we rejoice in what God is doing there in that part of our community
and how the gospel is echoing out.
You see how that ties in with what we've been talking about in Thessalonians.
Isn't that exciting, folks?
You see boys and girls in Paris coming to faith in Christ.
Thank you for sharing that with us.
God bless you guys.
I share scripture.
I like to share scripture.
That would fit in here.
First Corinthians 1558 says, therefore, my beloved brother, and be ye steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil in the Lord is never
in vain.
Amen.
God bless you.
Wow, how exciting.
And I know that there are other ways in which we could get folks from neighborhoods and
workplaces up here and just talk about the resonating gospel.
That's why I'm excited to be here.
That's why I'm excited about the future, because I believe that there are so many of us who
are committed to seeing that the gospel continues to resonate from Los Gatos Christian Church.
When that happens, the message radiates to the surrounding area.
And even though we may face opposition like the Thessalonians did, we continue on persevering
in sharing the gospel.
And the example of that encourages others.
And the result of that is a reverberating result for the kingdom of God.
I don't know about you, but I want to be a resonator.
I want to be a resonator, somebody in whom the gospel is authentically at work.
And so that when I share that gospel, it begins to move out and it begins to echo and thunder
and change lives one person at a time.
And that's what it's about.
That's what it's about.
Let's pray together.
Father, I pray in Jesus' name that the gospel will always be proclaimed in the people of
Los Gatos Christian Church, the authentic gospel.
And that it will be authentically presented.
And then we wait upon you to bring the results.
For Lord, the power is yours, as is the glory.
And we feel like that songwriter who wrote, oh, for a thousand tongues.
God, we pray that you'll help us to use the one tongue we've got.
And then may there be a thousand tongues and more to proclaim our great Redeemer's praise.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.