No one, anywhere, at any point, is beyond the reach of the gospel: Part I

Anyways, this is the illustration. Some of you, if you haven't seen this movie, too bad. I'm gonna ruin it. It's called the Prestige, and it's this movie about magic, if you will, right? These magicians. And it's one of those things where, like a lot of movies, if you're anything like me, where you're trying to solve it, right? Whether it's a whodunit thing or you're trying to figure out what in the world's going on. And this is one of those movies where you're like, I can't figure it out. I can't figure it out. And then they reveal it at the end, and it's like, oh, that's because you're actually doing magic, right? You're actually doing something you shouldn't be able to do. That's why I couldn't figure it out, right? It kind of is kind of like that. We're gonna see that in the text this morning with this guy named Simon the Sorcerer, where he's gonna be doing these. He's gonna be doing magic, but then someone else is gonna show up and do, like, actual miracles and things. And he's gonna go, oh, I guess everything I was doing was just. Just a trick. And so we are going to be looking at this. A couple different passages this morning, or one long one, I guess, if we just keep going. But we have been in the book of Acts and looking at how the story continues. And if you've been here through this journey, we've seen just kind of the start of the church and the apostles in Jerusalem, and they're preaching and just thousands of people are getting saved, and they go back home because they're there for this pilgrimage and this. This religious activity. And they leave and they go back and they share the Gospel. And churches are planted all over the known world, and this is happening, and we see the church developing. And so this morning, though, if you have your notes in front of you, we're gonna be looking at Acts, chapter eight, nine through 40. I wasn't able to fit it all on your little sheet there. But we're looking at this. And this is the title of the sermon. The longest title of any sermon I have ever had. And it is this. That no one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the Gospel. Part one. Next week, it will be one letter longer, in case you haven't figured that out, right? No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the Gospel. And so my prayer for us this morning for Myself has just to be. How do we see the Gospel? How do we see the gospel apply in our own lives here? And I don't care how long you've been a Christian, how does the gospel impact you and save you today here? So not to give anyone some psd, ps, pstd, ptsd, Here we go. Start the spread. Remember this? Remember when they were like, stop the spread. Two weeks, spend two weeks in your home. That didn't work. And it didn't work in this situation either, right? Where Jesus is saying, actually, I want you to spread the good news, the gospel. So if we go back to Acts, chapter one, we're gonna see Jesus said to them, his disciples, it is not cause they asked the question, Jesus, are you now at this time gonna restore Israel? Gonna just restore Jerusalem? And he says, no, no, no. Don't worry about the times and dates the Father has set by his own authority. Don't worry about when the things are gonna happen. But this is what I want you to do. You will receive power. Not me. I'm not doing this. You're doing this when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. Like, you're gonna be doing this in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And so last week, Paul was preaching on this idea that these religious leaders are trying to stop the spread, right? They're saying, this is getting a little out of control, right? We killed Jesus. We thought killing Jesus would put an end to Jesus. Well, we killed him, but then he rose from the dead, yada, yada. And then he, like, more people are like, we should follow Jesus. He rose from the dead. Maybe he is the Messiah. And this thing starts to take off, and you're like, well, we gotta put an end to this. And so the religious leaders get together and they kill this guy named Stephen, who's doing and preaching and the power of. In the name of Jesus. And they kill him, right? And Stephen, in his sermon to them, he's like, hey, you guys, you understand that you and your fathers, you have killed the prophets, you've killed Jesus. And they're like, don't you call me a murderer. I'll show you. And then they murder Stephen, right? And then they kill him. They're thinking, why? We're gonna stop the spread here now it's done. We're gonna kill him. And then why would you ever follow Jesus if we just keep killing him? I wouldn't wanna follow that movement. And it has the exact opposite, right? Just like oh, oh, oh, we're watching a movie. I'm trying to figure it out, but it has a totally different ending than what I thought was gonna happen. And the apostles go back to Jerusalem and many disciples go back home, and they keep telling people about Jesus, Guys, you're never gonna believe what I just witnessed. And they tell them about Jesus all over the world. They start fulfilling this command from Jesus that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. This is just a little simple map, but when we think of this command from Jesus, Jerusalem is the city. Think of, like, Samaria and Judea as, like, counties. And then all of Israel is like a state. And just for kicks and giggles, I was kind of like, well, how big is Israel, right? And it's almost exactly the same size as New Jersey, which for almost all of us means absolutely nothing. And so. But New Jersey or Minnesota is 11 times bigger than New Jersey, interestingly enough. And what's wild is that we Minnesotans are the uttermost parts of the earth, right? The apostles were not thinking about Minnesota when this was going, right? It was just a wild. This. This has been fulfilled in this way that Jesus said, my name is going to be spread through all over the world. And we're. We're proof of that this is happening still. The story is continuing. So no one. We're just going to kind of walk through that statement of no one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the Gospel, that no one here. And so Philip, one of the apostles, is moved by the Spirit to go to this place called Samaria, just north of Judah there, just north of Jerusalem. And then it says this. So he goes to Samaria and it says, now for some time, a man named Simon. Some of you, if you're following along your Bibles, it might say Simon the magician, or Simon Magnus or Magi even. It's the same word when you think of, like, the three wise men that go and visit Jesus. It's the same word, but in the context, it's a little bit more than just wise man. It's a magician. And we don't have a whole lot of extra knowledge about this guy. But he had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He bought, boasted that he was someone great. Hey, look at me. Look at what I can do. And all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, this man is rightly called the great power of God. And they followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. Right. It was, again, not a whole lot of information given to us about this guy. But he claims to have the power, the great power from God, and he has a following, but he is also a Samaritan. And so we're gonna see, though, what happens. This next kind of little step here is that. But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed, and he was baptized, and he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw. So again, we don't have a whole lot of information about Simon. Was he actually performing some kind of magic? Was he doing something? Was he in with the, you know, with the occult or doing something that was just not. That was just not normal? And then Philip shows up, who has the power of God. And Simon goes, oh, see, I've been kind of doing little tricks, little coin tricks, you know, and move, you know, oh, look over there. Ha ha, look at this, right? That kind of stuff. And then Philip shows up and people are being healed, and he's going, oh, oh, you're actually doing real stuff here. Right? And his perspective has changed. He believes, and he's baptized. Something different is happening. And so we can see here that no one, even our enemies, are beyond the reach of the gospel. And when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. So what's happening here? Don't need to get a whole lot of information, but basically you had Israel and the Jews that were kind of pure blooded Israelites. And then you had the Samaritans that were like half Jew, half gentile, other nations that were blended in. And the Jews were like, oh, no, you can't be part of us. And the Samaritans were like, well, you can't be part of us. And there was just kind of this infighting within these two circles. And so that's why when you're reading the Gospels and it's like, oh, Jesus went and talk to the Samaritan woman. Like, this actually is a big wild thing that's happening here. They didn't interact with one. They despised each other. But then the apostles here, wow, even the Samaritans are believing in the name of Jesus. So let's send Peter and John. And when they arrived, they prayed for the new believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet descended on any of them or had not come upon them and they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. What's going on here? Why, why would the Spirit of God wait for, for the apostles from Jerusalem to, to. To indwell in them? What, what's going on here? I think it's actually pretty profound. We actually see this, we're going to see this again in chapter 10 and 11 where the holy Spirit waits for the apostles to indwell the gentiles until the apostles get there. And it's beautiful. I'm gonna just read one quote here from F.F. bruce. And he says this. In the present instance some special evidence may have been necessary to assure the Samaritans, so accustomed to being despised as outsiders by the people of Jerusalem, that they were fully incorporated into the new community of the people of God. It was one thing for them to be baptized by a freelance evangelist like Philip. Like is that a. What are you digging on Philip here for? Freelance evangelist? But not until they had been acknowledged and welcomed by the leaders of Jerusalem church did they experience the signs which confirmed and attested their membership in a spirit possessed society. This is the second time where we could have had. We could have like already in the book, you know of Acts in Acts chapter 8 had like third baptism Baptist Church or First Baptist Church of Samaria, right? There already could have been multiple splits. The first one looking at a couple weeks ago, looked at the Hellenistic Jews, these Greek speaking Jewish women who weren't getting the same support as their Hebrew speaking Jewish women. And they said hey we gotta fix this. The apostle's like yeah, we do gotta fix that. There could have been a split there, but there wasn't. God keeps his church together. And then here we've got, oh you're very different, you're Samaritan. And if the Holy Spirit would have said hey cool, you believe we're all in this together. There would have been a First Baptist church of Jerusalem and a First Baptist church of Samaria. And God says no, we're not doing that. We're going to be one people of God. So even our enemies, no one is beyond the reach the gospel. Even in our ignorance. Simon says this. When Simon saw the Spirit was given at laying on the hand the apostles hands, he offered them money and said, give me also this ability so that everyone whom I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit. I really think that Simon means well here, I really do. I think that he believed and he saw holy Cow. You're like, people are being saved. The power of the Holy Spirit. Like, can I give you a gift? Can I give you some money so that I too can do this? He's ignorant. He just simply doesn't understand. He doesn't get the gospel. And Peter has some pretty choice words for him. He says, peter answered, may your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness. Captivity to sin. It is wild. If you were here last week hearing Paul Stiver share his story of his ignorance, if you will, of saying, I'm a good person. He's sitting in his car, he's talking with Allison, yelling. Not at Allison, he wouldn't do that, but yelling towards, in the presence of Allison, I'm a good person. I don't need Jesus. Listen, this is how you know the gospel is real. This is how you know that no one at any point, anywhere is beyond the reach of the gospel. Because you can have someone like Paul Stivers stand this pulpit and preach the name of Jesus Christ crucified. And you can have a total dork like me, who also was completely arrogant and ignorant in my understanding of what the gospel was. This is me, my junior year of high school. I'm the second ghost on the left, in case you can't tell. Like, let's get a bunch of white kids together and print it in black and white. Yeah, all right. That's a good idea. All right. This was preacher boys. All right. This was my junior year of high school. I was learning koine Greek. I was in my junior high school. Man, I knew it. And I was arrogant and I was prideful. I knew better than people. I was my class chaplain and president. I was like, I was a big deal in my super small Christian school, but I was so arrogant. I remember being on a bus one time and I heard people behind me arguing about the dangers of Calvinism. Ooh. And I remember, like, they were like, hey, Brian, what do you think about all this? And I was like, I think you're right. Calvinism is dangerous. And I was like, here's why. Because Calvinism, their whole point, their whole goal is soteriology. Their whole focus is man based. But Arminianism, right? Free will, it actually puts the glory back on God Calvinism is about man. This is about God. See, clearly this is better. I was arrogant and ignorant. I didn't know what I was talking about. I had no idea. But I knew better. And I knew God loved me a whole lot more than he knew loved everybody else because I was good. I yelled the same thing Paul did, but I'm a good person. But I actually believed I was a good, not that he didn't. I was a good person. I was ignorant of the simple gospel. And here I am 20 years, 21 years plus later. This was 0304 when this was. You know, I can still feel so ignorant of the simple gospel so many times, day in and day out, throughout the day. I need Jesus. You guys know my hero, Martin Luther, that he once said that we need to continually beat the gospel into their heads. And I want to someday. I'm like Luther, you should have said our heads in my head. I need this. Just because I'm a pastor doesn't mean I don't constantly need the gospel. I'm arrogant and I'm ignorant of the simplicity, beauty and richness of the gospel in my life, how I interact with my kids, how I interact with you, all the things I need the gospel. And so Simon, in his response and his ignorance but genuine heart, said, pray to the Lord for me that nothing you have said may happen to me. And after they had further proclaimed the Word, the Lord had testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages. Your problem and my problem, I think a lot of times is that I know too much. I think I'm a big deal. I think I know better. I'm a terrible visitor of other churches. I'm awful. Why? Because I would do it better. You missed a layup on preaching Jesus there. You missed it. And I get so frustrated and I get bitter and the Holy Spirit's like, Jesus is here. You know what I mean? Like, the gospel is here and I need that. I'm arrogant. We know too much. We've studied this already. We've taken a class on that. We've written a paper on that. I think a message to those of you who are maybe wired like me this morning is actually be ignorant. Be ignorant in the gospel. The gospel needs you. It requires you to be humble and see how it applies to you. No one anywhere. As we continue in the story in Acts, we're going to be introduced to another individual. It says, now the angel of the Lord said to Philip, go south on the road, a desert road. That goes from Jerusalem to Gaza. And he started out on his way, he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of the treasury of the kandake, which means queen of the Ethiopians. So you've got this wealthy individual who is. I'm read a quote here in just a minute, a little bit more information. But again, a lot of maps this morning. You can't see the dots on that, not even close. But I tried to make AI make me a map because I was struggling to find one. And guess what? AI doesn't do maps, apparently. It was just like, here's rivers. And it was like, what? So, no, so you've got, you know, Israel kind of the southern, you know, tip there, bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. And you've got the Red Sea then. And so Ethiopia is kind of the bottom left there of that Mediterranean Sea. It's a long way. And that's where this guy's from. He's from Ethiopia, but he seems that he worships Yahweh. So he was going to Jerusalem for some kind of pilgrimage. He's a wealthy individual and he's a eunuch. And so no one anywhere, even strangers, says, this man had gone to Jerusalem to worship. And on his way home, he was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah. The prophet and the Spirit. Spirit, the Spirit of God told Philip, go to that chariot and stay near it. One last quote here from Bruce. As the Ethiopian treasurer was probably a gentile worshiper of the God of Israel, he is referred to by a term by which have more than the general sense of chamberlain or the stricter sense of eunuch. Eunuchs were commonly employed as court officials in the Near East. From antiquity until quite recent times, the law of Israel excluded eunuchs from religious privileges enjoyed by other members of the community. The removal of this ban is foreshadowed in Isaiah 56, 5, 3. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, says Philip, my apostle, the one who saw the risen Jesus, who has been sent out by Jesus to talk about Jesus. I want you to go to this Ethiopian eunuch and tell him about me. That's what I want. And I would imagine anytime you grow up in a camp or a circle and something seems outside, it seems. It doesn't seem like it fits in my box. And right here, the Holy Spirit is breaking all kind of boundaries and barriers with the box of what he thought, who God was. Because the Holy Spirit says, I want you to tell him about Jesus. And I would imagine Philip is sitting there and going, what you mean that guy who's excluded from religious activities within Israel. You mean that guy? Yeah, I want you to tell him about Jesus. Well, you mean the guy who's ethnically different from me? Yeah, I want you to tell him about Jesus. You mean the guy who's not from Israel? Tell him about Jesus. And so we have, even in our ignorance. Part two. We read here. Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah, the prophet. Do you understand what you're reading? Philip asked. How can I? He said, unless someone explains it to me. So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. And this is the passage of the scripture the eunuch was reading. We looked at this when we were reading through and we were preaching through Isaiah. So I'm not going to necessarily get into this in depth. I think Paul actually preached that sermon. It says he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and a lamb before the shearer is silent. So he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from earth. And the eunuch asked Philip, tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about himself or someone else? And then Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. He was ignorant. He knew nothing. He had some knowledge of scripture, obviously, but he didn't know Jesus. This past week, Steve, my boss who's here this morning, he sent some of the staff this. This video, I've seen it a million times. It's of this Pastor Alistair Begg. He's Scottish, right? Is he Scottish? So I'm not even going to try to do the accent, so let you. Let you down. But he's telling this story of this individual or basically, like, what is it? We used to ask this question when I was growing up. And maybe some of you, if you're in navs or crew, maybe, I don't know if you'd ask this question, but you would go up to someone and just ask the question, like, if you were to die today, do you know where you'd go? Right? And it's like, is that a threat? Like, what are we talking about? No, no, no. We don't really use that language anymore. Right, but if you were to die right now, do you know where you'd go? Would you go to heaven or to hell? I said, well, I'd go to heaven. Okay, well why? If you say, I know that I would go to heaven, well, why? And he goes into this beautiful dialogue of when you're answering that question. If you answer the question, St. Peter at the pearly gates, why should I let you in? And if your response is in the first person, well, because I believe in Jesus or because I repented. He says, you're answering it wrong. And he goes and says, it should be the third person. It should be, I'm standing here in front of you because he loved me while I was a sinner. I'm standing here before you because he died for my sins. It's got nothing to do with me. And then he goes and he starts talking about the thief on the cross. He says, this is a beautiful example of this. He said, let's look at the thief of the cross. He said, someday, when he gets there. Right. Or when he got there right away. Right. I guess he's already there. He died a while ago, a couple thousand years ago. And he's in front of. I guess Peter was still alive. So whatever, the analogy breaks down. Okay? But he's standing there in front of an angel, and the angel says, why should I let you in? He says, I don't know. Right. And he said, well. And he says, well, hang on. Can you explain to me and describe to me the difference between justification and sanctification? No, I have no idea what you're talking about. Right. Can you talk through the order of Salutis? Right. Can you tell me how you were saved and how the Spirit did that? In what order? No, I don't know what you're talking about. Then why should I let you in? And his response? Alistair Begg says, because the man on the middle cross said I could get here. That's wild, right? I know nothing. I wasn't baptized. I never went to church. Matter of fact, I was spitting on this guy a few minutes ago, and he said, I'm good because he's good. The man in the middle cross. That's why. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm in. We continue reading here. Well, I guess I was supposed to do that. Acts, chapter 8 says this. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized? I think the King James says, is there anything keeping me from being baptized? No. And he gave orders to stop the chariot. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. Some of you might be asking the same question. What's stopping me? And as I mentioned, just two weeks from today, there's going to be Water right there. The cross won't be there because then that would be bad right there. Big old pool. And we can dunk you if you want to get dunked. And what is keeping you? Seriously, what is keep. There's only a few commands, explicit commands that Jesus gives. This is one of them. I want you to go into all the world and I want you to teach all nations. And I want you to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You can do this. If you have questions, please talk to me. But we can get you baptized. Continuing on, it says when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away. And the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way, rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at as to us and traveled about preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea. No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the Gospel at any point. When I say that, I mean it in two different ways. One could be just depravity. You are so far gone. We're going to look more at that next week. But this morning I want to highlight at any point meaning age. You're never too old. You're never too old to believe the gospel, the eunuch, the thief, all those different aspects. I'm going to come back to that. Actually, no, I'm going to talk about it now. Not that long ago, my wife and I were out on a walk. Cause you might say, well, that doesn't happen anymore, right? It's not just like, hey, you need Jesus. And someone's like, yeah, I do. And then someone else is like, oh, you believe the man of the middle cross? Yeah, that's what I need. Like that doesn't happen anymore. Hold your horses. I got something for you. Just a couple weeks ago, Angela and I went for a little walk. And Dave, he's one of our neighbors, ex Marine, 79 years old. And I had just printed. Cause we've been talking through acts and I had just printed those Easter invitation and they're burning a hole in my pocket. I had just printed them and we're going for a walk. We bump into Dave from time to time. We chat, he's a nice guy. And I was like, dude, right? Just you can. I can just like almost audibly hear the Holy Spirit say, what are you waiting for? And I said, hey, Dave, I don't know what you are doing or do you have any plans for Easter? And he said, brian, I gotta tell you, Angela, I gotta tell you this what? And he's like, I got saved just right there. He pointed 30ft from the end of my driveway. I was like, what? He goes, yeah. One day I'm out on a walk with Mandy, his dog. Cause I'm walking my dog and this other woman, I'd never seen her before, she comes up to me and I just say, hey, morning, how's it going? She says, great, how are you? And his response, he's like, I didn't know why. I had no idea why I said this, but this is what I said. I said, I have a joy in my heart and I don't know why. That's a weird thing to say. And then her response was, I have a joy in my heart and I do know why. And he goes, why? She goes, jesus? And he goes, yeah, that's what I need. I need Jesus. And a 79 year old man doesn't know what to do next. So he goes and calls his religious friend and they get him connected with a church, a school church that's connected with my kids school, North Heights Lutheran Church. And he says, what's keeping me from being baptized? And he gets baptized in Lake Owasso. 79 year old guy. And now he talks about Jesus to everybody. No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. Nobody. Not that long ago, Henry and I were, I asked his permission to share this story. Henry and I were in our living room and he's asking questions like all kids do. And I don't know what prompted this, but he said, are the people the United Kingdom? Is that a Christian nation? And the nerd I am was like, well, the UK is an inanimate object. You know, that's like saying, is your Nas Reed bobblehead a Christian? It doesn't work, it doesn't make any sense. I said, now there can be Christians in the United Kingdom. And he was like, yeah, but aren't there more Christians than not? I was like, well no. And he was kind of floored by that. And he goes, yeah, but when you look at our neighborhood, aren't there more Christians in our neighborhood than people who don't believe in Jesus? And I was like, oh bud, no. And his response, ha. He looks at me and he says, what are you waiting for? When Dave was sharing his story, I got a little emotional. Not me, I don't get emotional. And he, because one of, for one of two reasons. One was, this is my brother. I'm gonna spend all eternity glory with this guy. The second part of it was because man, I missed an opportunity. This was some really low hanging fruit, like it's rolling around on the floor trying to roll into my basket. Low fruit. All I had to say to this guy was Jesus. And he was like, yeah, I missed that opportunity. No more. What am I waiting for? We're not doing this anymore. I'm not playing games anymore. We're sharing the gospel. We're going to be bold, we're going to talk about it. No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. And so I just briefly want to look at some gospel implications for us. Who comes to mind when you say, yeah, Brian, I hear you saying that, but whoops, sorry, I was trying to not do that. I hear what you're saying. However, you've never met so and so. You never met my dad, you've never met my uncle, you've never met my boss, you've never interacted with them, you've never gone out to whatever to do this, this business activity and seeing the things that they do. You don't understand. No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. The person that popped into your mind, they're not beyond the reach of the gospel. The person like I have in my past said, I'm done, I give up, I'm no longer praying for them, I'm disowning them, I'm done trying. And then seeing them come to Jesus after I gave up another missed opportunity in my own life to see Jesus work in someone's life, no one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. When I say it's never going to happen, they are so far gone. I hope today, just by seeing some of these examples and again, this is just part one, we're going to see even more next week that no one anywhere is beyond the reach the gospel. So we can pray for boldness to mention Jesus, to talk about the man on the middle cross. And for those of us who need a little bit more understanding, for the majority of people who you're like, let's try it, Jesus. And they're like, what are you talking about? Get away from me, weirdo. That's where, hey, we got a class coming up of John the Evangelist, right? Ben's going to be teaching this class on just how do we talk about the gospel. And you say, man, I just feel uncomfortable talking about Jesus. I feel uncomfortable talking about the good news. I don't know how to do that. Take this class. It's just a one day thing after church, just Go do it for a few hours and just glean and learn from somebody who has spent a lot of their time thinking about this and actually doing it and teaching and sharing the good news of the gospel with coworkers in a space that, no, we shouldn't talk about that. You should do that, be encouraged. It will only increase your boldness in sharing the good news. The other aspect of this is that no one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. This is including you. This is including me in my daily walk. Do you think that you are too far gone? Do you think that you are unlovable? No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. Do you think you're just too entrenched in that repetitive sin for the gospel to really make any impact on you? No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. This is real, it's transformative. It's life giving. It takes people from death to life. It allows you, enables you to fight sin. Do you think that you're a good person like Paul and me? I don't know. I'm good. I don't need a savior. No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. Do you think you're too ignorant? I couldn't possibly share the gospel. Too scared? Are you too arrogant to see the simplicity and beauty of the gospel? No one anywhere at any point is beyond the reach of the gospel. Including you. Including me. So in gospel application, I don't mean this to sound heavy handed, but I'm going to share it with you the same way my son shared it with me. What are you waiting for? And I'm going to leave that purposefully vague this morning in the sense of I want the Holy Spirit to convict you. I don't know what he was doing in your heart and your mind. I don't know if it was. Yeah, I've actually given up on somebody. Keep praying, keep sharing, keep talking about Jesus. Maybe it's baptism, what's keeping me from being baptized. Maybe it is sharing the gospel. Maybe it is your own heart posture. Maybe for some of you this morning it actually is salvation. There may be someone, I would imagine, who's just said, I've actually never done this. I've heard about this Jesus guy, but man, all I've heard about is the rules or I got really hurt by the church. I'm telling you, Jesus is awesome. He is life giving. He can give you a joy that you can actually start to explain. I gotta join my heart And I don't understand it. Jesus. Jesus. And some of you are going through really hard, difficult times, turbulent times. And yet you can have a smile on your face and say, I don't know what's happening tomorrow in my life, but Jesus, there may be some of you who say, I don't have that. Today could be the day of repentance. What are you waiting for? What is keeping you this morning from Jesus? I'm gonna pray, and we're gonna have a time of communion that we have every week here at Hope Lowertown. We have the bread that represents the body of Christ that was broken for us, the juice that represents his blood that was shed for us to forgive us of our sins. Jesus hangs on the cross and he says, it is finished. It's finished. My gospel is sufficient to save you from your sin. My gospel is sufficient to help you fight that sin. My gospel is sufficient to save that person who you've given up on. We get to remember that finished work of Jesus Christ this morning. If you're a follower of Jesus, we'd love to partake of these elements with you as we celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection and ascension of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. As he finished the work that we could not do, as he paid for the sin that we could not pay, as he died to death, that we could not die or that we deserve to die, he did it for us. We get to remember that the worship team is going to play two songs, and so feel free to come and grab those elements as you see fit. Let me pray and we'll continue worshiping through communion. Father, you're good. You are so, so good to us that we do not deserve this. We are the Pharisees. We are ignorant. We are arrogant. We really, truly believe that we are good. So, God, I pray that we would cheer up this morning. We are far more sinful than we could ever imagine. But we would also cheer up knowing that you are far, far more glorious, that your gospel is far more powerful than we could ever imagine. Nobody, no one, anywhere, at any point, is beyond the reach of the gospel, including those of us who say, we know you, Jesus, God, we love you. Pray now that as we take these elements, you'd be honored and glorified, because this is all for you. And to Christ's name we pray. Amen.