Acts chapter 17 and we will be looking at the first nine verses of this chapter. Oh that God would answer that prayer in that song. Oh Lord show us Christ. And thus this word of the Lord, Acts 17 verse 1, And now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.

And some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace and gathered a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason and sought to bring out the people, bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar saying, there is another king, Jesus. And They troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.

So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. May God bless the reading and the preaching of His Word. Would you pray with me? Our Heavenly Father, show us Christ. Oh Lord, we pray today that the name of Jesus Christ, Lord, and all that He is, All that He has done would be exalted before the eyes of your people today.

Lord, I pray that You would show us the beauty of a suffering Savior. Of a Savior who came, who broke through the ranks, and as the captain of our salvation, rescued us. And Lord, I pray for any of those who are here this morning who have not bowed their knee to King Jesus, Lord, that today you would break through and rescue them. Lord, that You would deliver them from their sins and deliver them from the wrath to come. Lord, that they would see Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection.

Lord, that they would see Him seated at the right hand of the Father, full of grace and truth. And Lord that all here this morning would leave in the joy of their salvation. And Father we ask this in the name of Jesus which is above every name. Amen. You may be seated.

As you see there on your outline, the title being Persevering in Preaching Christ. Persevering in preaching Christ. And one of the things that has always amazed me about the Apostle Paul and the other apostles really, but Paul here in this text specifically, is his perseverance of him and his companions to continue to preach the Gospel even in the face of great persecution and great personal loss and pain. Here in Acts 17, we have the apostle, if you'll remember In Acts 16, we have the apostle right on the heels of being stripped of his clothing, being beaten, being imprisoned and shackled, and then having led the prison guard at Philippi, leading him to Christ, along with his whole household, having his stripes cleansed and then put back into prison, and then released again at the behest of the magistrates. What do we do with the Apostle Paul?

And what does Paul do after the hills of all of these things taking place? Well, he does what any normal, ordinary man would do. He walks about 33 miles to Amphipolis. Isn't that what a normal man would do after being beaten and imprisoned and shackled and imprisoned? But he doesn't stop there, he passes right on by Amphipolis to Apollonia, passes right through there and he makes the and they make their way remember Silas is with him they make their way on to a place called Thessalonica another 37 miles away from Philippi.

Was that all in a single day? I don't know. But that is an extraordinary journey for a man, for men who had just been beaten, and been imprisoned, and had blows upon their backs, and their stripes that needed to be cleansed. I do not know, but what seems to me, it was some form of a continuous trip, but this journey being made not in the prime of health but still really in the pains of persecution. One commentator noted 30 miles a day was a somewhat toilsome journey for those who had so recently been scourged.

As with most men of ordinary strength, this was their average rate of travel. What does that say about us? Average? Average rate of travel. Well, that certainly speaks to our generation, doesn't it?

You know, many would be put out by driving 30 miles in a day to go and listen to the gospel preach, much less preach it. But here we have these men so motivated that they would go in risk of imprisonment and possible death, another beating. They are willing to go forward for the cause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are willing to go forward so that they might tell the way of eternal life." What motivated Paul to so do this? What was it that compelled him?

Well of course we read in the Scriptures that He says that the love of Christ compelled him. Ultimately, His desire that Christ would be exalted. He did this so that he could yet again put his life in the hands of the Lord, so that he could yet again pour out his life as a living sacrifice for the sake of preaching the gospel, so that Christ might have all for which He had suffered and died and rose again. And brothers and sisters, my desire is that we too would understand this, that we would be so motivated by the love of Christ and so motivated to see Christ honored in every living soul, that we would be willing to go to great lengths so that Christ might have all for which He had suffered and died and rose again. He loved those who hated him.

He loved them enough to tell them the truth. He loved them enough to travel even in the state of health that he was in, and the condition of pain. But Paul, unlike many in our day, was not one to change his methods and message based upon the supposed outward successes of the preaching. But rather, Paul was a man who stayed the course and was faithful to proclaim the pure and plain gospel everywhere that he went. Now obviously we know that here a little bit later he uses certain avenues by which he can garner their attention and gathers people's attention so that he can proclaim the same gospel to them.

But Paul, we read here in this text, And we're going to look at that in just a moment that as was his custom, he did these things. This was not something new for Paul. This was something that was customary. This is how he acted. This is how he went about the preaching and proclaiming of the gospel.

Paul understood, you see, that Christ had called him to deliver the most glorious message through the foolishness of preaching. We read this in 1 Corinthians, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise?

Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. What kind of wisdom is this?

It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. And so it is through this foolish method and message of preaching the gospel that God has determined to save all those who believe.

And Paul was willing to go through anything in order to take this message of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that people would believe, so that there would be more worshipers of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's worthy. He's worthy. And we see this first in our text as I mentioned just a moment ago, Paul's custom in bringing the gospel to this city as was his custom in other cities. What did we do?

Let's look in verse 1. Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths reason with them from the scriptures. You see knowing again that the distance here of this travel He was going forward and first and foremost, Paul would set his eyes on if there was a synagogue in that city. I don't know why he passed by these other two places.

Why did he just travel on? There's no mention of Him stopping. There's no mention of Him engaging in the Gospel. Was it that He was just being led by the Spirit of God? I believe that He was.

Was it that there was no synagogue there? That wasn't always the case that there needed to be because we see Lydia and the women by the river that he preached the gospel to and God opened the heart of Lydia. So I don't know, and the Scripture doesn't seem to tell us why he passed by, But he did. God had people in Thessalonica that needed to hear the gospel. He must needs go to Thessalonica.

Because there were those there for whom Christ had died. And who needed to hear the gospel of their salvation. You see Paul went to the synagogue. It was a place where not only were the Jews there, but even we'll notice in our text that there were Gentiles there. There were Greeks there, devout Greeks and leading women of the Greeks that he found at least around the synagogue and in earshot of the synagogue.

He found this synagogue and understanding perhaps his reputation as as a Pharisee and perhaps his reputation as a as a teacher they granted him permission amazingly to speak for three Sabbaths in a row. He took this opportunity. You know, as I mentioned about Paul before, Paul is a man that will preach at the drop of a hat, and he will drop the hat. He takes every opportunity to preach the gospel. If you crack the door, he's in.

And so he comes and it says in verse two, he reasoned with them from the scriptures. This word reasoned is as if presenting a reasoned position in public to make a speech. He's preaching a message. He's got a sermon to speak. He's addressing those there.

The same word is mentioned in other places in Acts 17, 17 and Acts 18, 4 and 18, 19. Other places it's mentioned that he goes to reason with them. This was Paul's custom. What did he reason from? He reasoned to them and He reasoned to them with the Scriptures.

Paul did not go there just with his own thoughts, with his own rhetorical abilities, and his own high-mindedness, so that he could somehow wow them with his intellect. He came with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He came with the foolishness of the message preached. He came willing to be thought a fool. One of my Bible professors years ago, he said, you will Never truly preach the gospel until you're willing to be thoughtful.

Because the message of the cross is foolishness to those who perish. And that is to whom they need. That's their greatest need. Those whom think the gospel is foolish. And so what better place to go than to where the very word of God was read every Sabbath.

And I want to encourage each of us this morning, do not think to find light for your souls anywhere else but in the Word of the living God. This is what Paul wanted to do. He was wanting to remove the blinders from their eyes. He wanted to take away the veil. Even in good Christian books you must read them with an eye of caution because all men err.

But when you come before the Word of God, you come to a book that is inspired by the Holy Spirit, it is infallible and it is inerrant and you have no need to look at it or to read it with any form of caution. You know that it is the very words of God and it is for your soul. It's for the good of your soul. Come and feast upon it. You don't have to go to the Word of God as if you would a large mouth bass fish if you're going to fry that thing up.

What do you got in that fish? You've got bones everywhere. You have to be so careful because you get choked on one of those. But what do we have? We have the pure Word of God, sweeter than honey.

It is the living Word of God that you would take it and eat it and live. It is nourishment for your soul. But He reasoned with them from the Word of God so that their veil would be removed. He says in other places that the veil still remained even from the time of Moses over their eyes and over their understanding that they could not see the beauties of Christ. And what did he do?

He reasoned with them. He preached the gospel to them. Can you imagine the clarity of Paul's preaching? The clarity of his ability to reason the Word of God with them. I would love to sit, and we do sit, under his preaching.

We actually saw a good bit of it back in Acts 13 and we'll look at that after a while. But this man came with such reasoning abilities because his reasoning came for the pure and living Word of God. Reasoning that came from a man who bore the scars of the gospel. You know, it seems like those who preach the gospel from actual experience and who have felt the persecution and the pains of the gospel have a greater ability to reason the gospel. As I was studying this and thinking about the sufferings of Christ and even the sufferings of Paul and preaching Christ's suffering, I was considering that here he is coming off of being beaten with sticks or rods, having his stripes so open that they needed to be cleansed, walking 60-70 miles to present the gospel with reasonings.

And I could Imagine that even the garments on his back were sticking to his wounds. A man with that sort of experience in the sufferings of Christ, it added weight to his words. I don't know if they could witness this. Did they see the garment sticking? Was it oozing through his back on his garment as he proclaimed the gospel of truth to them?

I don't know. I could only imagine that it was something like that. He reasoned as a man willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Think about this. A man reasoning the Gospel, who has and is willing again to suffer for the very sake of that gospel so that men would be saved from their sins.

Men who didn't even know that they needed to be saved from their sins. Not only did He reason with them from the Scriptures, but here we read in verse 3, in His reasoning He was explaining and He was demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer. Explaining literally means to be opened. He was opening the Scriptures to them. He labored to do this.

He labored to open the Scriptures with them. No doubt praying to God that the eyes of their understanding would be opened, like even like that of Lydia just a few chapters before, that it says, and the Lord would open her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. No doubt Paul, As he was reasoning and explaining, he was desiring and praying, God, open their eyes, open their heart. You've done it before, Lord, do it again. That's my prayer for you this morning.

Any of you here who have not believed and trusted in the gospel, God opened their heart to receive the things spoken by Paul. Please. He preached as if it depended upon Him. And yet knowing full well that It was all dependent upon God to open the heart. He knew that only God could open blinded eyes.

He knew that only God could take a heart of stone and make it a heart of flesh. He knew only God can raise the dead. Nevertheless, He labored in explaining the Scriptures to them. And then this other word of clarification for us to help us to get the idea of what he was doing. He was demonstrating to them.

He was wanting to show them that it was true. He wanted to place before them something like a chef would do. They would bring out the food or a waiter they would bring and set the meal before you. That's what Paul was doing. He was setting it before their eyes and he was laying it out for them.

He didn't only want to hit the eyes of their mind, but he wanted to lay out the proof of it. He didn't want them just to simply take his word. He said, as I hope that you're doing, open the Word of God and see if these things be so. He wanted them to understand. He wanted them not to blindly believe what He said, but to believe the truth that was laid out for them in the Gospel, and laid out for them really in the Old Testament regarding Jesus Christ.

He wanted to lay this gospel meal out, if you will, with all due respect, and he wanted to declare to them, taste and see, that God is good. They hadn't fully understood the goodness of God. They only saw the goodness of God in a shadow through the sacrificial system wherein God was willing to allow His people to sacrifice animals instead of them. But They had not seen the fullness. They had not seen with the veil removed.

They had not seen with clear eyes and a new heart. But he wanted to present these truths to them of the Old Testament Scriptures regarding the Christ. But what was the main course of this meal that he was wanting to demonstrate before them so that they would see. Well, he specifically focuses upon two things. Simple yet profound.

Things that you know and things that are absolutely essential for salvation. In verse 3 we see here explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer. That the Christ had to rise again from the dead, and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. So I'm going to spend a good length of our time considering the sufferings of Christ and I want us to be engaging our mind into thinking about why Christ had to suffer. There is a there's so much more here than I could even possibly bring out for you this morning and I'm sure that you're going to think of passage after passage after passage regarding the sufferings of Christ that I don't even get to.

And I thank God for that. And I want you to go home today and I want you to look at every one of those. And I want you to meditate and to chew upon the fact and the truthfulness. And what does it mean that Christ had to suffer? Why did He have to?

It tells us so much. But you see, the Christ, the Messiah, the one for whom the Jews were looking forward to, eagerly waiting, they were looking for the Christ, but they weren't looking for the Christ that had to suffer. You see, what were they looking for? Throughout the Scriptures we see different pictures of the Christ that they were looking for. They were looking for the seed of the woman, the messianic promise in Genesis 3.15.

The one who would crush the serpent's head. They were looking for Shiloh in Genesis 49.10. They were looking for the prophet like unto Moses in Deuteronomy. They were looking for Emmanuel in Isaiah. They were looking for the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace in Isaiah 9.

They were looking for the stem of Jesse in Isaiah 11. They were looking for the Son of David in 2 Samuel. They were looking for the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42. They were looking for the branch in Jeremiah. They were looking for the Lord of righteousness, our righteousness in Jeremiah.

They were looking for the Messiah in Daniel 9. They were looking for the Son of God in Psalm 2. They were looking for the King in Psalm 2. They were looking for the messenger of the covenant in Malachi 3. They were looking for the Redeemer in Job 19.

They were looking for the Holy One of Israel in Isaiah and in Psalms. They were looking for the lion of the tribe of Judah in Genesis 49. But what they were not looking for was the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. They looked for all these things. They were not looking for the one who in Psalm 22 would cry out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

Or in verse 16, who said, For dogs have surrounded me, The congregation of the wicked have enclosed me, they pierced my hands and my feet." They weren't looking for that Savior. They totally missed the suffering Savior. They missed the servant of God. Who wants a suffering servant in this world anyway? Who wants a suffering Savior?

A Savior that suffers? How does this help me? How can a suffering Savior deliver you from your enemies? How can a suffering Savior deliver you from the Roman Empire? How can a suffering Savior help you at all?

Well, it all depends on what you understand your need to be delivered from is. What is it that you need deliverance from? What is it that you need a Savior for? Paul understood what they needed a Savior for. What was it that they needed to be delivered from?

What do you need to be delivered from this morning? Do you need a suffering servant and a suffering Savior? Do you need one who has suffered for you? Do you need to be delivered from a wicked and oppressive government? Is that your great need?

No suffering Savior can do that. Do you need a suffering Savior who will deliver you from poverty or social injustice? No suffering Savior can do that. How can a suffering Savior deliver you from sickness or starvation? What could a suffering Savior possibly do to deliver you from these things?

But what if your problem is something different? What if you have a greater problem than all of these things and more? We could sit up here and list all kinds of problems that we have. In fact, that's about all you're going to hear about in the news. All the problems.

And you know what? In all of the problems that they look at, they do not see that a suffering Savior can save them from any of it. Because they do not understand that their greatest need is the need to be delivered from the wrath of God and to be delivered from their sins. What if your problem is that you have a sin-blackened soul full of guilt and right for judgment? Will a suffering Savior do then?

Will He then be able to deliver you? You see, my brothers and sisters and friends and you who are here who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, oh, if this is your problem that you have a sin blackened heart, only a suffering Savior will do. It is only Christ. What is your greatest need? Do you even see it?

Do you see that and feel in the depths of your soul that your greatest need is to be delivered from the wrath of God upon your sins. Do you see that even in this, only a suffering Savior will do? Do you understand that you need a suffering Savior? Because Listen, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is Jesus Christ our Lord. If the wages of sin is death and you're full of sin, then that means you deserve death.

The payment that you rightly deserve is eternal death. All of us deserve this. Do you see the problem? Do you see what Paul understood that Christ had to suffer? Because our greatest need was not that which could be delivered by an earthly king.

Our greatest need was to be delivered from the King of Heaven. He is just and the justifier of those who come to Christ. Why did Christ have to suffer? He had to suffer because if He did not, then we would. He had to suffer because the wrath of God was upon us.

And if you or I were to suffer the wrath of God poured out against us and against our sins, we would never survive. There would be nothing left of us. In eternity, in hell, there would be no escape. You see, the problem with these Jews and these Greeks and the Gentile proselytes and all of these people was that they did not understand yet what their greatest problem and need was. They needed the captain of their salvation to bust through.

They needed Jesus Christ the righteous. They needed Jesus Christ the suffering Savior to bear the wrath of God upon Him so that you could go free. They needed a Savior who would take the cup of the wrath of God and not just sip it but drink it in its full. He turned it up and He waited for the last drop of the wrath of God to be poured out and He drank it all. There's nothing left for you if you are in Christ.

No wrath left for you. He has fulfilled all that He said He would do and Paul is proclaiming that this Jesus had to suffer. This Christ had to suffer. This was the biggest holdup for these Jews. They could not wrap their mind around a Messiah that was going to suffer.

They saw Him only as a King to deliver from enemies like unto David, but not as the King to deliver them from their greatest enemy, sin. They still looked to their outward conformity to the Law of God as if that would somehow make them right in the eyes of God, that somehow they could establish their own righteousness. We don't really need your help here God, we have the law. We just need you to take care of Caesar, take care of the Romans, take care of these other invaders throughout our history, that's what we need you to take care of but don't come poking around in here. What are you looking to be delivered from?

You'll know it by what you pray for most. Paul preached a suffering Savior. Jesus Himself preached His own message about Himself being a suffering Savior. In Luke 24, He says to those on the road to Emmaus, He said, Alt not Christ who have suffered these things and entered into His glory? Alt?

Alt not Christ? Alt not the Messiah? Was there not evidence in the Scriptures that it would be so? And was it not indispensable that He should? Barnes continues in his writing on this, in order to fulfill the prophecies, the necessity of his suffering, these things referred to here, was that it was foretold that he would.

The reason why it was predicted and why it was necessary that it should occur was that it was proper that God would manifest His justice and do honor to His law and secure the due regard for His government while at the same time pardoning the guilty. 1 Peter 3, 18 says this, For Christ also suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust. Why? That He might bring us to God. This is one of the most clearest statements in the Scriptures about the purpose of the suffering of Christ.

He did it to bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but being made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 3, 18, you ought to underline that and meditate on that. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. You see, that's our problem. We're separated from God because of our sins.

We need to be brought to God. But listen, you don't want to be brought to God on the day of judgment without Christ as your mediator. You want to be brought to God through the mediator, through Jesus Christ. You want Him to bring you to God. Oh, unforgiven sinner, what you need most is to be brought to God.

And the only way that you might be brought to God is by a sinless Savior who has suffered in your place. This He did so that you could be brought to God. Spurgeon, as he so wonderfully does, writes much on this. And I want to share some of that with you because I am not about to come close to putting it in the words that he would. He says the sufferings of Jesus have power to bless others seeing they were not necessary for himself.

He had no need to suffer as the result of sin, nor yet that by the discipline of suffering, he might be purged from its evil. He had no need to suffer. The suffering was not a need that he had. It was your need, not his. He goes on, There was no reason in himself why he should ever know pain, or heave a sigh.

Think about it when Christ on the cross and they lifted the sponge of vinegar. His sufferings all had reference to his people. His object in suffering, bleeding, dying was to secure the salvation of his chosen ones. Our souls may now trust Jesus, the perfect man with the utmost confidence. He writes elsewhere, we dare not trust our souls upon a Savior who is but a man.

If all the men, I love this listen, if all the men that have ever lived and all the angels that exist could have worked together and striven throughout eternity to offer a sacrifice that should be a propitiation for the sins of a single man they must have failed. None but the shoulders of the incarnate God could bear the stupendous burden. No hand but that which set fast the spheres could shake the mountains of our guilt and bear them away. We must have a divine sacrifice, and it is our joy to know that we have this in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a picture!

All the angels of heaven could not bear the sins and the wrath of God deserving upon those sins, for even one of us, it would have destroyed them forever. And then heap all of them together, and all of us too, totally useless. There's only one. There's only one who can bear your sins. You cannot do it.

You cannot bear your own sins before the righteous and holy God. And on the day of judgment, think that you will be able to stand. You will not stand unless you are hidden in Christ. 1 Peter speaks about this. He says, For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us.

Leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. Not I'm not speaking here specifically about the example I just want you to understand that. There is an example for us to learn, but what I'm speaking about is what is it that came out of him? What kind of person and God was he? It says that in the midst of this, in verse 22, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, he did not revile in return, when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously." Think about that just for a moment.

Jesus Christ was so confident in His own righteousness that He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously. How about you? How about me? Am I willing to commit myself to Him who judges righteously based upon my own merit? Not a chance.

Oh God, I don't look for justice, I want mercy. Give me mercy. And he says, Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed? You were healed. Hebrews 13, 12, Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Hebrews 2, we heard it earlier, Therefore in all things he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted." And we know right before that it speaks of Christ as being the captain of our salvation. In Mark 9, then he answered and told them, Indeed Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? Peter in Acts 3, 18, but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all of His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.

In Luke 24, and He said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it is necessary for the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem and you are witnesses of these things." In Hebrews 9 25, not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with the blood of another, then he would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the end of the age He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. For both the sinner and the saint, it would be Very good for our souls to spend much time meditating on the sufferings of Christ on your behalf. That has been my pretty much singular goal this week in considering all that it means. What does it tell me about myself that I needed a Savior to die for me? What does it tell you about the holiness of God?

If you want to do a good study, just consider the demand of God and compare that to what you must have been before Christ. This is not only for those who are lost this morning, this is for the believer just to be able to joy in the salvation that God has given you. Have you considered what it took? Have you considered how far gone you were? Have you considered that the captain of your salvation, he broke through the enemy lines, and he rescued you through his own suffering, and you didn't even want to be rescued.

You were enemies of God and He did this. But God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He broke through the line to rescue an enemy. That's the love of God greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. This is the love of God that reaches to the very depths of hell to save you.

He is here to save you. Do you see the greatness of our God and the greatness of His Christ? Do you see the great wickedness of our own sin that demanded such a cause? Can you see the great judgment of God that is coming upon all those who refuse this most gracious and merciful offer? In this you can see the incomprehensible grace of God, in that He would cause His only begotten Son to die on your behalf.

You will see also the indescribable love of Christ, in that He would suffer the full and complete wrath of God down to the last drop in order to rescue you before you even knew you needed to be rescued. Well, there's so much to glean from understanding the sufferings of Christ. This is a topic I'll just warn you that will humble and break your heart and at the same time will heal and fill your heart with so much love and appreciation for your Savior. It's a double cure. Spurgeon describes this great salvation like this, Neither your sins nor mine can ever exceed the merit of the precious blood of Christ.

If our sins be as high as the mountains, the ocean of His atonement, like Noah's flood, covers the utmost summit of the mountains. It prevails twenty cubits upwards till all the highest mountains are covered. Though our sins be never so crimson, the blood of Jesus Christ is more crimson. And the one washes out the other though our iniquities be never so dark and bitter his death was more bitter and dark and the black bitterness of his death has taken away the blackness and bitterness of our sins and therefore it is that he is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. You are not too far gone.

Jesus Christ's atonement exceeds your sins by so far. It's not even close. It's not even close. What a picture. But not only did Paul preach the suffering Christ, but he also preached the Christ that had to rise from the dead.

Christ had to rise again from the dead. Why? Because in Romans 4 we read He was raised for our justification. We needed to be right with God. He had to raise from the dead.

What does it say in Romans 4 23? Now it is it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him, who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. That's why He had to rise from the dead so that we would know and all the world would know and it's proof to heaven and earth that what he did upon the cross was fully accepted by the Father. He was raised for our justification.

In Acts 2 22 men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man attested by God to you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it." Why? Was it necessary? Why did Christ have to rise from the dead? Well, Paul tells us in Corinthians, Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection from the dead?

But if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not risen. And listen, if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified that God has raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up. In fact, if in fact the dead do not rise, for if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile.

You are still in your sins. Heard our brother read this morning from 1 Peter chapter three. I want you to look at that just momentarily and then we'll close here in just a moment. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Apart from the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you have no hope. This is why Paul was proclaiming, this is why everywhere he went, as was his custom, he would go and he would proclaim the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He would proclaim to them that this Jesus is the Christ, and if you do not believe in Him, you are separated from salvation. Brothers and sisters, we all needed a suffering Savior, but we also needed a risen Savior. Without a risen Savior, all the suffering in the world would not have been proven to be to be advantageous for us.

It would not have accomplished what He had set out to accomplish. He rose to prove that He accomplished what He set out to accomplish. He's the captain of our salvation. He's not the failure of our salvation. He is the one who is dead and yet lives again.

This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ. He's the Messiah. He's the anointed one of God. And Paul had set out by sound reason, by explaining and demonstrating that this Jesus whom he preached is that Christ. Why was he so set on this?

Remember Peter's words in Acts 4. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone, and nor is there salvation in any other. For listen, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It is Only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the name of Jesus Christ, that you may be saved.

Apart from this, you have no hope. And I'm going to end in the middle of that message. We will not get to the remainder 5 through 9 this morning, but I want you to consider something. Consider something. Have you bowed your knee to the suffering Savior and the risen Savior?

And I want you to realize that if you do not, there is no other name under heaven by which you must be saved. And I want to encourage you, you believers who have, I want to encourage you that you would spend time this day, this Lord's Day, in meditating upon the sufferings of Christ for you. As I have done this week, I have made that personal in my thinking. I have thought about, even though Christ died for all of His people, I want you to think about He died for you as His people. Make it personal.

I've been thinking this week and meditating upon all that Christ did and all that is said that Christ did throughout the Scriptures and how He suffered for Trent. And if you're in Christ, He suffered for you. And I want you to consider all that that means. Where it threw me was upon the love of Jesus Christ, my Savior. He had no need to suffer, but He had to suffer.

No need in Himself, but every need in the world in you and me. We have no hope apart from it. So would you meditate upon these things this day, and I believe that it would be for the betterment of your soul. It has been a springs of living water to me this week. And I pray it will be for you as well.

Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, what great love is this that you have sent your only begotten son to bear the full and complete wrath of God on my behalf. What love is this? That you would rescue those whom were your enemies. That you would rescue those who were so filthy and defiled and vile.

Had no understanding of their need. Before the foundation of the world, you have determined to do this and you have. Because everything that you set out to do you do and no promise of yours will ever fall to the ground. Christ our Savior suffered and rose again and we are the beneficiaries of that. And Lord I can't help but think that throughout all eternity You are going to just open our understanding and our mind to demonstrate to us the vastness of your love.

Oh God, I pray for your people this morning, even as Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that you would open the eyes of our understanding that we would be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the length and the width and the depth and the height of the love of Jesus Christ for us. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.