Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to the rest. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. But Peter arose and ran to the tomb, and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying by themselves, and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened. Amen. Thank you, Clyde. To come up with a new story or idea when this time of the year comes around is my thing. And well, what's great is I don't have to come up with a new story. I just have to come up with a new way, maybe, of looking at it. Because you come here on a Sunday, on Easter Sunday here, and this is the same story. And it's a great story. And what's cool about it, I mean, when you stop and think about it, we believe this stuff. Think about that. People rose from the dead. Okay, when Jesus was crucified, if you remember that, graves were open and people started walking around. I mean, we believe that. Now stop and think about that. If you read that in the paper today, you'd go, what were they on? And we also believe that our Savior, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead and He is alive right now. And we bank everything on this. This is it for us. We're putting everything in on this, this fact. It's the truth. And yet what an amazing story. And so as I was thinking about this thinking, there's some of you that come today and maybe for you, you haven't been in church in a while and we're just so glad you're here. And I know that other churches, there's different things that go on. I'll get a mailing concerning things. And it's all good. Churches doing what they're doing. But I thought today, what would be nice to you is to kind of show you what church looks like here, like pretty much every week. We're not trying to fool you, I guess is my point. Like, Laika, keep coming. And so what I did was I went around asking single girls at the... Yeah, you're like, whoa. This is a different church. No, but I asked them, what would ruin a first date for you? And I got some pretty good answers. So let me read to you some of the stuff I got. And some of these guys are like, get my pen. I don't usually take notes, but this time I am. So this will help you guys. And then I actually got online and I typed in ways to ruin a first date. All right. And boy, it's amazing what is out there. But this is what the Grace Bible Church girls said. OK. Make her pay. OK. Be too forward. Making it about him on the date. You ever hear about the quarterback that was sitting there and he goes, he sits there at his first date with the cheerleader and he says, enough about me, let's talk about what you think about me. Another one, make a move. Or when you sit down, hey, let's talk about our future. Kiss me without asking. Being a jerk. Talk about ex-girlfriends. Ignore me. Text a lot. And then talking to other girls at the restaurant. When you type, if you typed in, did a search and you said, you know, ways to ruin a first date, like there are five ways, seven ways. We've got 10 ways here. Show up late. When you get there, don't compliment her on how nice she looks. Be floppy. Order for her. By the way, that was like a girl's way of saying amen. Be indecisive and defer to her on everything so she doesn't want you to order for her. But make a decision, guys. I'm just here to help a lot of your life. Be rude to a waiter or service person. And by the way, if you're if you ever were of a girl, if you're ever sitting there and he's being rude to the waiter someday, if you marry him, you're the waiter. All right. That's just I'm just here. All right. Talk only about yourself. Answer a phone call or a text request. She split the bill and don't make sure she gets home safely. So those are all things that would with the ladies say amen to this. Okay. All right. They probably you didn't ask me. I got like 17 more. All right. Well, As I thought about that and making the transition to church and you coming here today, and maybe you're here today and you're like, and this really is the last time I'm coming. This was our first and last date. Fine. That's OK. But I want to encourage you that why we're doing what we're doing here is because we really do believe this. Jesus Christ has changed our lives. And so when I'm sitting across from you at this date called church service, and I promise you I won't kiss you without asking, I'm not going to talk about our future, because if you're not going to keep coming, we really don't have a future together. I could keep going on different things that would fit and correspond to what I just got done talking about in the first day. But I'd like to show you what we've been doing, and if you came again next week or down the road, that this is what Grace Bible Church looks like, for the most part. We're blessed to have the people that lead the music here like we do. We're blessed to have the people that if you were able to come to the breakfast time that serve like they do. We're blessed to have a bunch of people here that just love the Lord and are regular people. And we'd love for you to just be a part of this family. Come in and just come and see. And see what this is like. And we'll get to know you and you get to know us and it's like I heard about a guy named Oliver Cromwell who was having a portrait done about himself. And Cromwell, who was a big leader in his nation, had a face that had like a bunch of warts on it. And the artist was thinking, oh man, I kind of want to retouch this thing back in the day when they didn't retouch everything. And so he paints them and he shows it to Cromwell and he goes, no, paint it over again, warts and all. And so if you, just so you know, we're not trying to fool you. We're not trying to say, you know, you come here and we're always fun and everything's just perfect all the time. We're just people. We're beggars that know where some bread is. We're people that have been blessed and changed by God, but God's still working on us. And even this, I hope doesn't come across like, oh, he's being so transparent and stuff like that. I'm a sinner saved by grace. And there's a bunch of us here and there's people that will say, I don't go to church because it's full of hypocrites. Well, come on and join the hypocrite club. All right. We're all working through this together. And I just want to encourage you that what we're going to do is we're going to work through the Bible. You're not going to come here and hear little moral stories, or, you know, I walk away from that group and they say, you know, and I ought to do that. I'll try harder to be a good person. You can't be a good person. I can't be a good person, except for the work of God in me. And so what we're going to do is, each week, we're going to open this book called the Holy Bible, and we're going to work through it. And we're going to say, this is what the Word of God says, and we pray that we're obedient to it, and we're trusting the Lord to do His work in changing our lives. And so as I say that to you, right now we're working through a book called Acts. It's called the Acts of the Apostles. It could have been called the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and in the early church, but that's kind of long. So, what it is, is when the church first started, what happened and what happened that we celebrate this weekend, Jesus has died, He was buried, three days later He rose from the dead. And then, while He was on the earth, a few days after that, walking around, having meals with people, this is the Resurrected Jesus Christ. Maybe you've never heard that, but that's what the Bible tells us about. And he's spending time with them, and then at a certain point, he ascends into heaven, but he tells them, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go tell everybody else about what I've done. And we're still doing that. It was a job given to us. It's in Matthew 28, if you wanted to look that up, and it's in Acts 1. And then he said, but I'm not leaving you alone. I'm going to give you something, and it's a person, and it's called the Holy Spirit. And I'm just telling you what the Bible says. And what it says is, is that there is this three persons in the Godhead. There's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Maybe you've heard that before. And so this Holy Spirit came down in a day called the Day of Pentecost. filled believers and changed believers' lives. And the Holy Spirit came into my life the day when I literally and metaphorically, figuratively bowed the knee and said, I can't save myself. I'm a sinner. I need Jesus. Come into my life. And He did that, and then He comes into my life. I have God in me, not because I'm any big deal. It's because He's a big deal. And he comes and he washes away my sin. He makes me a new person and he lives in me. Truth, not science fiction, truth. And he's still working on me. He's still trying to make me like Jesus. As much as I fight him, he's still trying to make me like Jesus. So any good you see in any of us, that's Jesus. Any bad, that's us. Now we're in that same book, Acts, and the reason I asked Clyde to read from Luke is because Luke tells the resurrection story at the end of his book, which is the third gospel in the New Testament. So if you want to open up your Bible, maybe you don't have a Bible, like Clyde said, there's some in the pew racks in front of you. You pick it up in the second half of the Bible. That's called the New Testament. Luke also wrote the book of Acts, so we've got in the New Testament, we've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts. So that's where we're at right now, if you want to open your Bible to that. And if you don't have a Bible and you want one, we can get one for you. You open that up and you turn to Acts chapter 4. And we'll give you time to, if you need to look in the table of contents, you go right ahead. But we look at Acts chapter 4. And here's why we're at Acts chapter 4 today. Because the last time I preached, we were in Acts 4. And we're at Acts 4, 32 and 33. We're just going to do two verses today. And the reason we're at Acts chapter 4, verses 32 and 33, I stopped at Acts 4, 31 last time I preached. This is the beauty. We're working through the Bible. But won't that take a long time? That's what we're here for. We're all right. And so today we're going to do two verses, and then next week, guess what we're going to be doing? We'll be doing Acts 4, 33, a little bit farther to the end of the chapter. So what you're saying is, you work through the Bible. Boom. You got it. All right? I'm not trying to hide. I'm not saying... Like me. It's not that it's not the date the date is I'm just being honest with you. Here's what we do. Okay, so Acts 432 if you want to take notes, we put a insert in the Bible to to in the bulletin to To fill in notes and you'll fill in blanks and maybe some other things that you that catch your interest there I know a lot of doodling goes on But that's alright. Alright, so what does the resurrection do? Well, first of all, I Before we keep going, I want to pray again. Okay, so let's pray. Father, this is about You. What we're doing is eternal matters. And so God, we ask You that even in the midst of all the things that are going on, maybe somebody's coming here today and they've really got a heavy heart. You know what they need. We don't. So God, would You show up in Your Word and use it for your glory. Encourage hearts today. Maybe someone's here today, they're having a great day. We ask you to continue to encourage them. Maybe someone needs to be challenged. Maybe somebody needs to come to the end of themselves and they need Christ. God, you know what they need. So Father, thank you that this is your job. All we have to do is just open your word and share truth. Thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. This resurrection thing we're talking about, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead has ramifications for us. It should impact us. It should change us. And so these are some of the things that I look in this context and I see because in the 33rd verse, we're going to talk a little bit about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But these things happen because Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus Christ, the only religious figure that makes that claim. Every other one died and if we could we could go to their grave and look and there's bones or dust or whatever Jesus Gone from the grave First point first point. What does resurrection do it makes people unified? It makes people unified look at the first part of verse 32 32 now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. The full number is what is listed because, or they say the full number because the church at this time is starting to grow off the charts. It started off 3,000 here, 5,000, 700 to begin with. You know, it's all these different numbers that Luke, and by the way, this guy Luke used to be a doctor. or he is a doctor, and later you'll find out he travels with Paul and other of the apostles, and he's got an impact, but he's a detail-oriented individual. And so he would be aware of, in round numbers, okay, there's this many people that are following, there's this many people following. It got to the point where he's not counting anymore. This thing's growing at such an astronomical rate that I'm not keeping track. So what does he say? The full number. of those who believe, had grown as quickly as they could. They're no longer numbered. This amazing result is happening because we see what happened in verse 31. And the thing is that they were filled, second part of verse 31, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. God is changing lives and they're willing to talk about it. And when something changes your life, you have no problem talking about it. You do that with restaurants. Not that it changed your life, but if you like a restaurant, you have no problem talking about it. I could go on with things that you're passionate about. Something you're passionate about, you readily talk about. We're talking about Jesus Christ and what he's done in changing our lives. We can't claim anything else. He was the one and that powerful testimony is making them grow and it's making them become unified. And by the way, Jesus said that would be the case. That people that would look at Christians, they'd go, you know, those two, they're diametrically different type of people. But for some reason, because of Jesus Christ, they come together and they can function and they actually love one another and they care for one another. And Jesus said this would be the case. This would be the thing that would grow the church. Look at this. John 13, 35 said that. John 13, 35. By this, this is Jesus in those latter days, just before His death, He says, by this, all people will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another. So if we want to impact Warrington, if we want to impact Warren County, it's not big extravaganzas, it's not, oh, we do this, this will be the thing. If you and I love one another, and it's real, They'll know something's different. John 17 21 as this discourse continues that they may all be one is where Jesus is praying just as you father are in me and I and you that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Love is what's going to make the difference. And so this first fellowship was an answer to that prayer. They're both in position and in practice. They are loving one another. They're preoccupied with ministering to one another. their focus beyond themselves to reaching a lost world. So, first of all, it makes people unify. Secondly, what does the resurrection do? What does that story that was read just before I preached do? It makes people unselfish. Look at the second part of verse 32. Let me read the first part again. Now, the full number of those who believe were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. This phrase shows that this was the characteristic of everyone. They understood that everything belonged to God. Since everything was God's, if I can help someone, I should help someone. Look at James 2, 15 and 16. James 2, 15 and 16. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? Or 1 John 3, 17. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 1 John 3, 17. And then 2 Corinthians 8, 1-5. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord. begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. And so what happened is when the resurrection story impacts the life, when somebody gives their life to Christ, they cannot help but think this way. It is a life that is so free from the bondage of materialism. You can imagine what the early church was like. There is not one early church member. It seems it seems to be listed. We'll find later in Chapter five about a couple that that has to be dealt with concerning this. But it's it's not necessarily that that it's it's not communism. It's true understanding of who owns everything. And so it isn't kindergarten where, mine! Mine, that's mine. You didn't have anybody going, that's mine, that's mine. By the way, mine. It's, this is God's. And boy, how freeing it is. I've watched how some react to things, and boy, I've got a lot to learn in this area, because I could say, oh, I've got that down. Something happens to our car, my car, look at the dent in my car. As opposed to, if it's God's car, God, you see the dent in your car, would you take care of it? It's very freeing. I think the danger comes when there's an individual, because there's some of us that may fear, boy, if I think like that, people are going to take advantage of me. That's just how it is. Well, that tells you where you're at. And there are some people that really like these verses because they don't got anything. So apply that, pastor. Apply that verse hard, because then I get the benefit from the work of all these other people. It's not saying that either. It's saying, where is my heart? Where's my heart? And that I wouldn't have the perspective of mine. Number three. Number three. It makes people useful. Truly useful. Look at verse 33. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony Here we go. To the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. The great power of the apostles came from the Holy Spirit. It was in His power that they were given this testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This very thing that the Sanhedrin had forbidden them to do was giving. It just kept happening. Look at Acts 4.20. Acts 4.20. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. They can't help it. It's part of them now. They cannot stop doing it. The resurrection of Christ was the main message of the apostles. I don't know if you knew this. I've shared it a few times before. But Christmas, which I love, you know I love Christmas. I love the music, love the time of the year. It's just great. But you rarely hear about Christmas, if ever, in the early church. It was always about Easter, what happened that day, the resurrection Sunday. This idea of great grace was upon them all. Grace, favor, it can be two things. A, the approval of people, Acts 2.47. Praising God and having favor, or that grace, with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Although the religious leaders couldn't stand them, the common men had not yet turned on them. And these men were impressed, these people were impressed by the love and unity of this group of people. So we have the graces, the approval of people, but more importantly, they had God's favor. And this was a fellowship that was characterized by loving unity and zeal for evangelism, and that's what allowed them to receive God's blessings. The grace of God. You know, it's interesting, it says here, and great grace was upon them all. You know what grace is? I was asking Clyde, because Clyde and Lorraine were a couple of the people that started Grace Bible Church. I don't know if you knew, but basically this church started in a home. Some individuals back in the 70s, I believe, that were getting together. And something that was curious to me, I was thinking, why name it Grace? What made you name it Grace Bible Church? And he was looking at some of the minutes, and there was a pastor, they had a meeting, and an individual that loved the Lord and said, this was his recommendation. After praying about it and stuff, this is the recommendation. And there wasn't, no, no, I think it should be! It's like, you know what? That's a great name. Let's call it Grace. And I'm grateful that the name is Grace. Because Grace means this. It's a gift. You can't earn Grace. I share the Gospel with different individuals. And let me just share one basic of the Gospel. Because some of you may be sitting here and you're going, I came here and when I come to church on Christmas or Easter, I hear that Jesus died, I mean that He was born, and that He died. Okay? Let me tell you something. There's a verse in Romans in the Bible that says, for by grace, no it isn't, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And as we're talking about this, I said, do you know what a wage is? And I'll say this, do you know what a wage is? And they'll say, Some people don't know what a wage is, because it isn't necessarily a word that's used. But a wage is pay. You get paid. And I'll ask them this question, when you get a paycheck, how does that play out for you? And some people get it handed to them from their boss, some go to a box and they pull the check out, or some get a direct deposit, or whatever. And I say, when you get that check, when you get that money, do you run over to your boss, fall on your knees and go, I am so grateful that you gave me this money." And they usually look at me like, are you an idiot? And I said, I'm trying to make a point. Because you earned it. You earned your wage. And so, for the wages of sin is death. So, because I do this thing called sin, I'm a sinner, I get paid death. Thank you, boss. But that's the deal. That's what the Bible says. Romans 6.23, if you want to look it up. But there's a great thing. There's this conjunction, and it's contrastive, that says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And I said, you know what a gift is? Of course. You know the difference between a gift and a wage? I don't think so, but keep going. A gift would be like this. And some of you, maybe you have this today. You have people over at your house today. And you all are gathering around and saying, you just have a great time. You're talking about work, or you're talking about old times, or you're talking about family stuff. You're just spending that time together, and you're just enjoying it. At the end of the night, or at the end of the day, as you're leaving, you've been given this gift called a meal. And as you're leaving, you get your wallet out and you say, I just want to know, this is really cool, how much do I owe you? And you wouldn't do that. And here's why you wouldn't. Because it's a gift. And so some of you are here today and you may be thinking, okay, I just got to be a good person. If I'm a good person, that's a good thing and that'll get me points. That'll get me in heaven. I want to tell you, it doesn't work that way. I just want to tell you the truth. Because on the date, if I was trying to fool you, oh yeah, it's all good. No, I'm going to tell you the truth. The truth is, you need a Savior. Your wages are going to pay you debt. But, the gift of God, you don't have to stand at the door there, how much do I owe you God? I want to get in. That would be offensive because you could never do enough. How would you ever know if you did enough to get in? You can't. So I'm piggybacking on Jesus. That's how I'm getting in. And that's not only how I'm getting in, that's how I'm living this life right now. Because I can't live it without Christ. I may tell you the whole story someday, but my first date for Kim and I, we went to a Steve Camp concert. Borrowed my brother's Fiero. Remember Fiero's? White. I washed it that day. And I, you know, got... I mean, I thought I looked good. I don't look like Atticus Fitch, okay? Finch or whatever. Somebody says I look like To Kill a Mockingbird in this thing. I wasn't wearing this suit is my point. Golly, my ADD kills me. Anyway, so I ask her out. We go to this concert, and I've got my brother's piano, and it's really cool, two-seater, you know, just driving and stuff. So we get done, drop her off, and then I let time go by. I don't ask her out again, moron. You'll hear the rest of the story some day, but anyways... No, no. You've got meals to eat. So a little while later, an opportunity comes to ask her out again, and I take her to... Isn't it interesting? A lot of people's first dates are weddings. I don't know if that happens, but... So I ask her, a friend of mine is getting married, so I ask her to that, and then we get serious, and then... Happily ever after. But my point on that is, I didn't have my brother's Fiero at this point anymore. My brother-in-law had given me an orange Datsun B210. Horrible looking car, but it was free. I'll take it. hole rusted in the floorboard that I took a sheet metal plate and put it down there and literally that thing would slide because the car would bump and you could see the highway. It was like literally if we ran out of gas I could do Fred Flintstone. It is that bad. Honestly. Yeah I know. Kim could do Fred Flintstone. She could do Wilma. All right. Thank you honey. Captain romance. All right My book will be out later. Anyways, but but my here's my point. She's still married me And I'm sorry you're gone. I don't And I don't get it and I'm I'm cool with that If you come to Grace Bible Church if you continue to come We're more Dotson be 210 than Piero And it's okay It's okay Because, honestly, you'd find out anyway. You spend any time with us, but we'd love to have you be a part of our church family. And here's another thing. You'll keep hearing about this person, Jesus Christ. We're not that big of a deal. But He is. He's changed our lives. And I just want to encourage you. If you're like, you know, the Bible's a pretty good book. I'd like to work through that. We'll do that here. Boy, they seem to be pretty down-to-earth people, yeah. Boy, are they always this nice? Eh, sometimes. We try. But, Warts and all, we'd love for you to keep coming. It's our invitation to you. And grow with us, because we need a Savior, and so do you. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for this time together. Thank you that you came as a physician because you knew we were sick. And we needed saving. So Father, would you do that? Would you keep working in and through? And we promise you, because you deserve the glory, we are not that big of a deal, but you are. And we will keep telling people. where the bread is because we're just beggars. And we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen.