Man, I love you guys. It's so good to see every single one of you. This week we are in our final week of our series, How to Read the Bible. Has this series been helpful to anyone? Has this series been good? Praise God.

Here's what I want throughout this series. I think so often people can have these moments where they're intimidated when it comes to actually reading the Scripture. And we pray that throughout this series that you have an approach. That you picked a translation that you understand, that you picked a plan that you can keep. And not only that, but you have the right approach. I also pray that even in the last couple of weeks, when we went from week two all the way to now, that you're understanding the overarching idea of Scripture.

Because here's what we need to know more than anything: we have to understand the Word of God. We know that in the Word of God is everything that we need for life and godliness. And yet for so many of us, we don't actually pick it up.

Why this matters right now

In fact, I want to show you this, because as a church we did a survey, and what we realized is y'all said more than anything, what you want to know is how to read the Bible. But this isn't only something our church needs. This is something our nation needs.

The American Bible Society did this stat about active Bible users in America. Now, you need to know this. They defined an active Bible user as someone who picks up their Bible three times in one year. It's a low bar. We are not doing good when we are measuring that way. Three times in one year.

And what I want you to see is 2021. Can you all see that spike? Coming off of COVID, people are like, what on earth is going on? And they're like, I'm going to turn to the Word. And people turned to the Word. But I want you to see the next year is 2022 and 2023, and this is what it looked like. Now, I don't know how long they've been doing these studies, but I don't know about y'all — that looks like a cliff. Where something happened, where all of a sudden people weren't engaging the Bible in the same way that they used to. The challenge is, since that moment — 2024, 2025, 2026 — it is at the exact same percentage. More and more people aren't engaging the Bible like they used to, and that's a problem.

But here's what I love. I don't know if you look at that and that discourages you — that encourages me. Because this is the cultural moment that we are called to. We are called to a moment where we train people how to actually read the Word of God. We care about that here at Spirit Church. In fact, we want to eradicate Bible poverty. What does that mean? I want you to understand the Word of God, but I want all nations to understand the Word of God. Which is why you need to know this: as a church, what we do is we give to Bible translations in areas that do not have a Bible. Why? We are all about eradicating biblical poverty. That's what we want more than anything.

And it's so important. I think about Jesus. When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, Satan came and he was tempting Him, and Jesus responded in Matthew 4:4. He says this: "It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God."

As a nation, in our spiritual warfare, what we need more than anything is to know the Word. And so often we don't respond with "it is written" because we don't know what is written. And then we wonder why as Christians we're getting our tails kicked. Because the enemy is coming and we don't actually have what we need to fight.

Ephesians chapter 6 talks about the armor of God. Every piece of armor is defensive, but the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God — that is our offensive weapon. And so often, as Christians, what we're doing is we're going into culture with no weaponry. And then we're wondering why this isn't working.

As a church, we care about this more than anything. Is it insane? Is it crazy? Yes, but this is the moment that we've been called to. That we're training people, not only here, but everywhere, to actually read the Word of God.

Where we are in the story

So, we've been covering the entire Bible in this series, and today we're hitting the rest of the New Testament. Let's go. We've done it. We've done the Old Testament. We've done the Gospels. We've talked about an approach to Bible reading. And what we're doing today is we're hitting the New Testament. Last week was the Gospels.

Here's what you need to know. As we read about the Old Testament, we were under an old covenant. Jesus came. He came to this earth. He died. He was buried. And He was raised again. And what happens is He ushered in what is called the new covenant. And it's important to understand these letters that we're going to read about in the rest of the New Testament, because they set up our theology that we're under right now.

We are currently New Testament Christians, which means this: if it is stated in the New Testament, generally, to all people, we have to follow it. Amen. We are New Testament Christians. If it's in there, we need to follow it.

The challenge is what is for us and what was for them. Like, five times Paul says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." Five times. Does that mean we're just walking around? It's like, "What — what are you doing?" You're like, "Just being biblical. It's just what I'm doing." We have to understand that was cultural — that wasn't our culture. You do that here, you get locked up. That's what happens. But this was something that they did. You have to understand what applies to us.

So, what I want to do today is I want to answer a number of questions that we have about the New Testament.

How the New Testament is organized

In the New Testament, one of the main questions is this: how is it organized? So, I want you to go to the table of contents, and I'm going to help explain the way that your New Testament is organized. Because even in that study that we saw, here were the reasons why people often didn't want to read the Bible: they don't know where to start, they find it hard to relate, the layout can be hard to understand, and they don't know how to apply it. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to help you understand that layout.

The Gospels

The first four books of your New Testament are the Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It's the first section of your New Testament. I don't want to insult you, but if you're new to faith, those aren't four separate stories. They're separate accounts of the same story. Jesus isn't born, died, and then all of a sudden He's restarting His life. This isn't reincarnation again and again and again. This is four perspectives, and I think that's important to understand. Because God wanted to give us these four perspectives of who Jesus is. Because it was so important that we actually knew who He was. And who He is. The Bible says that He is the visible image of the invisible God. So, God wanted to give us all of these aspects. That is the Gospels.

Acts

Right after that is the book of Acts. The book of Acts is a historical record of the first church, and it was written from AD 30 — that would have been when Jesus was risen from the dead — to about AD 60.

Now, what's good to know is if you're reading the book of Acts, and you read it in a chronological Bible — the next section are the letters, and those letters can actually be inserted into the history of Acts. Like if you're reading, sometimes Paul, he'll go on a missions trip to a certain church, and then all of a sudden you'll start reading a letter that Paul wrote. So, you have this history of the early church, and a lot of these letters — not all of them, but a lot of them — can actually fit into the Acts timeline. Does that make sense?

The Letters

So, you have Acts, and then you go into the letters, also known as the Epistles — which sounds like a mouthful. There are 21 Epistles. Epistle means letter, and they're written by the apostles. Apostle means sent one. These are the disciples that were sent, and what they would do is they would go and plant churches, very much like we did here seven months ago. They would come, they would plant a church, they would establish leadership, and then they would go and continue planting churches.

But how many of you know, church got problems. Sometimes church do church things, people do people things, right? We're not all perfect. So, they would hear about stuff happening, and then they would write letters. That's how we got the letters. They would plant all these churches, and then they would write. And these letters were for encouragement, training, and correction. Like if you read 1 Corinthians, it is all correction.

The first 13 letters were written by Paul. They're called the Pauline Epistles — and maybe 14 if you want to count Hebrews. We don't really know who wrote Hebrews. Some people say Paul, some people say he did it.

Those 13 are broken up into letters he wrote to churches and to individuals. So, Romans all the way through 2 Thessalonians — there's nine of them — that was written to churches. And then the next is 1 Timothy all the way to Filet Mignon. Seeing if you're awake. 1 Timothy all the way to — now I'm going to butcher it every time — Philemon. Philemon, not filet mignon. Those are letters that were written to individuals.

And the letters to the churches are organized longest to shortest. Romans is the longest. Same with the letters to the individuals. Philemon is the — man, I need to stop saying that word. I keep wanting to say filet mignon. Every single time. That is the shortest. So those are the Pauline Epistles.

Then you get the general epistles. These weren't written to specific churches. They're more general in nature. One was written by James, the brother of Jesus. Which, let me say this — that book is more a testament to Jesus rising from the dead than almost anything else. Because James, the brother of Jesus, was not one of Jesus's disciples. Y'all ever try to follow your brother's leadership and you're just like, "No"? Or your sister's leadership, you're like, "No, I saw you in diapers. We're not going to do this."

James, his brother, did not follow him. It was only once Jesus rose again from the dead and started visiting everyone, that He visited James, and James all of a sudden becomes one of the main leaders of the Jerusalem church. So he goes from not following Jesus to literally sacrificing his life for Jesus. That means more than anything. So that is not the disciple James — that's Jesus's brother James.

You get two from the disciple Peter, three from the disciple John, who wrote the book of John, and then you get this little book by the name of Jude. And then you get the final book. The scary book.

Revelation

The book of Revelation. Say Revelation. Not Revelations. Revelation. It was one revelation.

The Greek word for revelation is apokalypsis. It's where we get the word apocalypse from — which we're all very scared of that word. Let me tell you what that word means. It's terrifying. It means this: revealing. It's an unveiling. So what happens when reading the book of Revelation is you are not only seeing prophecy — what's going to happen — but you're actually almost going behind the curtain and you're seeing what's happening even now in the spiritual realm.

Now, I'm definitely not getting into that book today, because we're going to have to do a whole series, and we will do a whole series on Revelation. How does that sound? Praise God. We'll talk about Revelation and end times. It's going to be awesome. It's going to be so good.

But the imagery in Revelation is kind of weird. Like, you need to imagine this. John is talking about things like dragons and all of these things, and there's some scholars that actually believe that what he was doing is he was seeing even modern things today, and he didn't know how to describe it. Like, a first-century Jew — how do you describe a helicopter? I don't know. It's this dragon thing that flies, that fire comes out of. So sometimes you can imagine that he's describing things like tapping to pay. There's certain things that you start reading and you're like, man, this is kind of crazy. You must know he didn't understand even what he was seeing, but he had this vision and now he's writing it down. So we'll get into that. I think the book of Revelation is awesome.

But that takes you through your entire New Testament. So, you have the Gospels, you have Acts, you have these letters — a lot of them insert into the book of Acts — and then you have Revelation. Everyone with me? Praise God.

How do we actually approach these books?

Here's the next question. How do we actually approach these books? This is what people ask: how do I read the New Testament? How do I read it? I'm going to give you some facts and tips.

First thing, you have to have the right approach. We talked about it the first week. You need to observe their home. Remember, we're reading about an ancient culture and context. You have to observe their home and understand their home. It's not like it is today. Only once you have understood their home can you bring it back home to our context, to our culture today, and apply it. So we're going to observe their home, we're going to understand their home, we're going to bring it back home, and we're going to apply it in our home.

These letters were documents written at a specific time to specific audiences by specific authors to address a specific situation. Say that again: these letters were written at a specific time, to specific audiences, by specific authors, to address a specific situation. So sometimes it was a behavior that needed to be corrected. Sometimes it was a doctrine that needed to be aligned. Sometimes it was a misunderstanding that needed to be clarified.

Here's the challenge. At first glance, you do not know why this was written. Has anyone ever listened to a phone call and you only get the one side of the phone call? That's what reading these letters is like. You are getting the answer, but you're not getting the question. They're responding to specific things that have happened. So what you're doing is you're paying really close attention to the one side of the phone call, trying to understand — "Oh, what are they talking about?" "Oh, they're talking about division in the church." "Oh, okay, that makes sense." Does that make sense? You have the answer, but you don't have the question. So you need to read really slowly to try to discern what was the question. Why was this written?

Watch the pattern, and watch when it breaks

Every book follows a very similar pattern, even like you would send an email today. There is an introduction that's always going to talk about the author and the audience. There is a greeting, there's a prayer, then there's the body, which is the point, and then there's the conclusion. And the conclusion will normally have a final greeting, a farewell, or something like, "Hey, I'm praying for you." Or, "Can you pray for me?" Or, "By the way, I'm traveling." He's going to give a bunch of things.

Whenever that pattern breaks, it actually says something about the meaning. So they all follow that pattern — but not always. For example, in Galatians — I love Paul. In Galatians, he don't pray for the church in Galatia. He greets them and he goes straight in. What does that mean? He's mad. Like, literally see it. Galatians 1:6, he says this: "I am astonished that you would so quickly desert the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ, and you are turning to a different gospel." This is holding no bars. He is just going straight in.

Read the whole thing in one sitting

So, when you're approaching these letters, my encouragement to you is this: the first time you read a letter, read the whole thing in one sitting. Now, you get Romans, which is the longest — that's going to take you 45 minutes. So listen to it on a commute. But most of the letters are like 15 minutes. And you can understand them if you read them in their entirety.

Often we don't do that. We jump in the middle. Have you all ever watched the middle of a movie? And you're like, "Who is he? Who is she? Why is he crying? Is he happy? Is he sad? Did he break her heart? Did she break his?" That's what we do when we play Bible roulette, and we're like, "What does this mean?" Yeah, no wonder. You didn't start at the beginning.

Or we do start at the beginning, but we just read three verses at a time. Have you all ever tried to watch a movie in 100 two-minute sections? Like, I'm going to watch this movie over the next 100 days. I'm just going to watch two minutes at a time. By the time you end that movie, you have no idea what's going on. But once you've watched the whole thing, then you can start watching various components, and you know what's happening.

The first time you read a book, my encouragement is: read the entire book. Go from the beginning. Listen to the intro — it's going to give you an idea — and then think in paragraphs. Every book is connected by these paragraphs, and every paragraph has a thought, and every section has a thought, and then they connect everything with words like "therefore," "so that," "because." If you track it, you'll begin to understand the entire picture.

And while you're reading, you're asking the Holy Spirit to speak to you. You're asking these questions: "Who's writing this? Who were they writing to? Why were they writing? What were they trying to get the audience to do? And why was he trying to get them to do it? What was the motivation?"

Go on to YouTube, go to the BibleProject. Literally, for every book of the Bible, they have a five-minute animated video that will help you understand it. Start there and read it in one sitting. And all of a sudden, it's going to make sense.

Context, or we will misuse Scripture

Because if you don't do that, you're going to get all kinds of messed up. Because there's all kinds of context that is happening. Like a historical context — we've talked about this — the fact that we need to understand the Old Testament and how the New Testament comes. There's a historical timeline. But not only that, there's a cultural context. They were under Roman oppression. When they start talking about King Jesus, Caesar wants to kill them, because he's like, "I'm king." That's very different than our culture. There's this cultural context. But then there's a situational context, which is why they're writing the letter. You need to know the whole picture, or else you're going to mess it up.

For example, something that I've heard taught so many times. 1 Corinthians 14:34: "Women should remain silent in the churches." How we feeling? "They are not allowed to speak, but they must be in submission, as the law says." How we feeling now?

Ladies, I'm so sorry. No talking from here on out. Do not say boo. If you want to talk — the parking lot. Parking lot is: grab your coffee. Don't tell them what you want. You're not allowed to talk in church. Grab your coffee, sign, and then go to the parking lot, and then y'all can chat. You can chat away in the parking lot.

I've literally heard people say, okay, girls can't talk in church. What? It says, "If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church."

1 Corinthians 14 — you need to know this. He is correcting a disorderly service. He is talking about all kinds of things. If someone is speaking in tongues, there needs to be an interpreter. If someone's prophesying, prophesy one at a time, that people can understand. And also, women at the time, they weren't trained in theological matters. So as someone's preaching, they have questions. And they're like, "Husband, help me out." And he's saying, "Stop doing that. Stop." Can you imagine if we were just all asking questions? Like, what does he mean by that? What does that mean? He's saying, "No, no, no, no. Just listen, and when you go home, ask questions." Does that make sense?

It doesn't mean females can't speak in church. Why? Literally, if you read 1 Corinthians 11, three chapters earlier, he talks about women praying and prophesying in church. How are they praying and prophesying if they can't speak?

But we love just jumping in, taking one verse, and that verse becomes our bat. Meanwhile, we have misunderstood the entire point of the book. Does that make sense? We have to read the whole thing. Context is important, or else we'll misuse and abuse Scripture. And then people get hurt, and they're like, "Well, it's in the Bible, you just got to follow it." No, you misunderstood the Bible.

Because Scripture interprets Scripture. Scripture never contradicts itself. So, if you see something that seems like a contradiction, it's not a contradiction — we are misunderstanding what it's saying. Because there are no contradictions in this book. So, if you're finding a contradiction, it means that you have to dig a little deeper. Read the whole thing, and you'll begin to understand.

What is the New Testament about?

Last 14 minutes. What is the New Testament about? What is the core message of the New Testament? Now that we know how it's structured, now that we know how we are supposed to approach these books responsibly, what's the overall message of the New Testament?

Going to hit it in Acts. We talked about the Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's the start of our New Testament. Get this. While the Gospels are about Jesus' life and ministry on earth, the book of Acts is about Jesus' ministry as He sits on the throne.

So, Jesus is on the cross and He says these words. He says, "It is finished." He finishes the work. He dies. He is raised again. He goes to be with God. And now what happens is the work that He was doing, He gives to us. He says, "Now you go. You go. You take the gospel. You go out."

Acts 1:8

And you see it happen in Acts 1:8. And the entire New Testament centers around fulfilling Acts 1:8. It says this: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

The entire Bible from that moment is about the gospel going out — to Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He says, "I'm sending you out."

And I love the humor in the Bible. Because listen to this next verse. I think this is hilarious. After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from sight. And they were looking intently into the sky. Can you imagine — they're trying to look for Him. They're like, "Wait, what?" Trying to figure this out. And it says, then all of a sudden, two men dressed in white stood behind them and were like, "Men of Galilee, why are you looking at the sky?"

He told you to move. Move! Like, what are you doing? "The same Jesus who has been taken up into heaven will come back the same way that you have seen Him go into heaven." In other words: start working.

And the entire book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament is about them doing that work. Jesus starts the movement, but the story of Acts is that the church spreads the movement. He starts it, but they spread it.

Pentecost is the reversal of Babel

So, they go to an upper room and they start praying, and they're waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit. And after ten days — Pentecost — the Holy Spirit comes.

Now, a lot of people, they freak out about Pentecost. They're like, "Ooh, it's another scary word, like Revelation." Now, Pentecost actually has a scary definition and meaning. You want me to give it to you? Pentecost means this: fifty. That's really what it means. It means fifty. Because it's fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead. Forty days He was with them, and then ten days they're waiting in this room, and then the Holy Spirit comes.

The book was written by Luke. And Luke shows us what happens when the King is on His throne and He empowers His people. Acts chapter 2 — what happens? The Holy Spirit is poured out. It says that flames and tongues of fire appear on all of their heads, and they start bursting out in other tongues, and there's so much commotion that people come from all over Jerusalem. They're listening. And these are native Jews, and what they hear is people speaking in their own native language. And they're like, "This is crazy."

What that was is a reversal of Babel. Get this. At Babel, humans united in their pride. They said, "Let us make a name for ourselves." But at Pentecost, the church unites in humility, prayer, and dependence on God. At Babel, humans are trying to reach up to God, but at Pentecost, God reaches down to people. At Babel, language divides. At Pentecost, language connects. At Babel, there's a scattering. At Pentecost, there's a gathering. At Babel, the focus was "make our name great." At Pentecost, the focus is "make Jesus' name known."

That's why our vision is a world following Jesus. And not just kind of sort of following Him. No — fully following Jesus. Like, how about everything that Jesus tells us to do in the New Testament? How about we do this? How about we give our lives to doing this? That's the focus. That's what we care about here.

Peter preaches, and three thousand are baptized

So, what you see is this moment happens, and then timid Peter — denied-Christ-three-times Peter — that dude gets up and he preaches this sermon. It says this, Acts 2:14: "Peter stood up with the Eleven and raised his voice and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and those of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I'm about to say. These people aren't drunk. It's nine a.m. in the morning."

He says, "No, this was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on your people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on earth below, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great coming of the glorious day of our Lord. And everyone — everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"

He says, "God raised this Jesus to life, and we are witnesses of it. God exalted Him to the right hand. He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured that out, and that's what you are seeing and hearing. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah."

And it says when people heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" And he said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. This promise is for you and your children and all who are far off — for all whom the Lord will call." With many other words he warned them and he pleaded with them: "Save yourselves. I'm pleading with you today. Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." And those who accepted his message were baptized. About 3,000 of them were added that day.

Why I keep talking about baptism

Y'all, I don't know if you know this. This weekend is Baptism Sunday. Let me say this. If you were not baptized, this is your moment. If you are not baptized, it is now time for you to actually take that step.

If you're like, "I got dedicated as a baby. I got baptized as a baby" — that is a beautiful dedication. That is not believer's baptism. Believer's baptism is you decided to follow Jesus, and now you're deciding to get baptized. It's not a decision someone else makes for you. It's a decision that you make for yourself.

If it is in this Word, we have to follow this Word — because if we're not following this Word, we are living in disobedience. And I don't know why, but we're so casual about this thing. I've heard stories before where there's churches and they're like, "Man, we've seen 2,000 people saved, but 1,000 people are baptized." Something's wrong with that. This isn't optional. Following Jesus — it's what you do.

People are like, "Does baptism save you?" No. Jesus saves you, but baptism shows that you're saved. Baptism doesn't make you a Christian, but Christians get baptized. You see it all throughout the New Testament.

Matthew 28:19: "Go make disciples, baptizing them." Mark 16:16: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." Acts 8:12: "They believed and they were baptized." Acts 22:16: "What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized." Romans 6:3: "Or don't you know that those of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We therefore are buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead, we may have new life too." Galatians 3:27: "All of you were baptized into Christ."

In Acts, you see they get saved and it's an immediate response. The eunuch gets saved and he says, "Who can stand in my way from being baptized?" Acts 16:31: "They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved — you and your household.'" Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all the others in the house. At that hour of the night, the jailer took them, washed their wounds, and then immediately — say immediately — immediately, him and his household were baptized.

Brad, we're talking about the New Testament. Why are you talking about baptism so much? Here's why. That's our mission. Go into all the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Brad, what's our mission here at Spirit? That. That people are made disciples, that people get baptized, and we teach them how to follow the Word of God. Brad, I don't know my purpose. Congratulations, you found it. It's that we can tell people about Jesus, that we can see people baptized, and that we can teach them to follow the Word of God. That's what it is.

It is commanded by Jesus. It's a response to repentance and belief. It's about union with Christ. It's a public identification with Christ, and it's urgent and immediate. Was that hard enough? I love you. Do it. Do it.

Go into all the world, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. Make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey. What's my purpose? Make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey. What's my purpose as a barista? It's exactly that. Make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey. What's my goal as a parent? Make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey.

What's my purpose in life? All throughout the Bible, it says to bring God glory — Isaiah 43:7. Well, how do we bring God glory? By doing His mission. What's His mission? Make disciples, baptize them, teach them to obey. And how do we do that? Through loving God and loving people. We do it in love.

From facts to acts

The book of Acts — the first seven chapters focus on Jerusalem. Then there's persecution and everyone scatters. Eight through twelve is Judea and Samaria. And then God finds a man by the name of Paul — Saul at the time — on the road to Damascus. And He says, "Why are you persecuting me? Why are you doing that?" Paul gives his life to Christ and writes a third of the New Testament.

People are like, "Man, we need more teaching." I agree. I agree. We need a lot of teaching. I don't know if you know this, but we're a teaching church. Also, I don't know if you know this — I don't tell a ton of stories. Why? I really don't think you care about what I had for dinner. I think you care about what this book says. So, we're going to read the Scripture. That's what we're going to do.

But I think so often we also have to recognize this: that at some point we have to shift from facts, which is knowledge, to acts. The Bible says that knowledge puffs up. James 1:22: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." We are followers of Jesus. We are not followers of Jesus in thought. We are followers of Jesus in deed. We're not just followers of Jesus in thought. We are followers of Jesus in action.

So literally the entire New Testament after this moment is them trying to see people become disciples, become baptized, and taught to obey.

Every letter, in a line

The book of Romans — the church is divided. So Paul gives them the gospel. Romans 1:16: "I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power that brings salvation to everyone who believes."

1 Corinthians — they were divided, they're immature. So Paul corrects them. And they get offended.

So 2 Corinthians — is him talking about their offense.

Galatians — the one where he skips the prayer. They're drifting into legalism, and he's like, why are you doing that?

Ephesians — they're struggling with their identity, and he says, "No, this is who you are in Christ." That's the first three chapters. The next three chapters is: now that this is who you are in Christ, this is what you need to do. These are the actions that come with that.

Philippians — they're facing pressure. So he writes Philippians 4:4: "Rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say rejoice."

Colossians — they're influenced by false teaching, and he says that Christ is supreme.

1 Thessalonians — a church is under persecution, and he says, "No, remain faithful." He talks to them about the end times, and then they get confused about the end times.

So 2 Thessalonians — he is now correcting the confusion that they have about the end times.

1 Timothy — a church is struggling with false teachers, and he talks to Timothy and he says, "Be strong. This is how I want you to construct God's church" — which is what we still use today.

2 Timothy — it's the final words of Paul. He's saying, "Keep going under pressure."

Titus — a church is corrupt, their culture is coming in. He says, "No — be there, be full in with the gospel."

Filet Mignon. Philemon. It's about a slave who runs away from his master. And what happens is Paul meets him, leads him to Christ, and he writes a letter saying, "Receive him back, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ." From the beginning, Christianity has flipped slavery on its head. It has always been countercultural.

Hebrews — a discouraged church is tempted to drift away, so he says, "Persevere."

James — a scattered church, and he says, "No, genuine faith is going to be proved through your action."

1 Peter — it's a persecuted church, and he says, "Endure."

2 Peter — it's a church that's threatened by false teachers, and he says, "No, use Scripture to guard."

1 John — they're shaken by false teaching, and he says, "No, true faith is marked by right belief and love."

2 John — they're at risk of welcoming false teachers, and he says, "No, love people without compromising your doctrine."

3 John — a church is dealing with poor leadership, and he calls them to be faithful.

And finally, Jude — a church infiltrated by false teachers, and he says, "Remain grounded in God's truth."

Literally, every letter is trying to bring them back to faithful followership of God — that they stand in unity, that they love people, that they love their neighbor, and they make sure that they show people and help people meet Jesus. They make disciples, they get baptized, and they teach them to obey everything that was commanded. That's what your New Testament is about.

It ends where it began

And it ends the way it began, in Revelation. I love it. You hear about the Garden of Eden. People often say, "Brad, if God's so good, why do bad things happen?" You need to know that that's not the end of the story. And God didn't make things bad. We did. Why is there murder? Because we exist. Why is there pain? Because we exist. But it's not the end of the story.

Final Scripture I want to read. Revelation 21. The Bible ends where it began. It says this, verse three: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them.'" A new earth. New creation. This is after judgment. It says, "They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Those of you who are struggling with pain — why are we living in a broken world? "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old things have passed away." He who was sitting on the throne said, "I'm making everything new." And then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit this, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters, and the liars — they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. That is the second death."

What does that mean? We die and we're raised again for judgment. And people who have chosen God on this earth will be with Him forever. People who have not chosen God will be put into the lake of fire. That is the second death.

So what do I have to do?

So, Brad, based on the New Testament, what do I have to do?

Surrender your life to Jesus

Surrender your life to Jesus. Not partially — fully. Everything. Every aspect. Radical commitment. Surrender your life to Jesus.

Be baptized in water

Second thing: be baptized in water. Stop putting it off. Stop putting it off. Today's the day you make that decision. Today's the day you go all in with your faith. We have photographers. "But my family's not here." It doesn't matter. We'll send them a photo. Today's the day that you're obedient.

Build the Church

And finally, build the church. Man, get on mission. Get on mission. Let's reach this city. Let's love this city. Serve. Give. Start a group. Jump in a group. Tell people about your faith. Evangelize. Build the church. What's our purpose in life? Build His church. It ain't my church — it's His. And if you can't build with us here at Spirit, that's okay. Go somewhere where you can. But build His church. They gave their lives for His church. Let's do the same.

Can I pray for you? Lord Jesus, God, we've done everything that we can. And Lord, I want to pray that for every single person that's here, God, that You put in our hearts this desire to follow You with everything inside of us. Jesus, give us the wisdom, the discernment to know how we are to follow You, and follow You fully. May we be about Your mission.

There may be people here and you're far from God. You're saying, "I have not surrendered myself fully to God." If that's you, no one's looking around. It's just me and you. I want you to say, "Brad, that's me. I've been far away from Him, but I want to come close to Him." If that's you and you're saying, "I'm making that decision" — that's awesome. I praise God for you.

Repeat this prayer after me. The prayer doesn't save you, but believing in your heart does. Say, "Dear Jesus, I believe that You're the Son of God and the Savior of the world. I believe You came to this earth, You died on a cross, and You were raised that I may have life. And right now, I make You my Lord. I make You my Savior. In Jesus' name."

Hey church, can you do me a favor? For everyone who just said that for the first time, can you put your hands together? We love you so much. And if you were watching and you just said yes to Jesus, congratulations. This is the best decision you could ever make. But you do have a next step. We want you to text the word Jesus to the number 480-485-3405 so that you can let us know, because our team has a 21-day devotional that we would love to send you. It's called You Said Yes, so that we can walk with you in this journey. Make sure you know you are not alone on this journey with Jesus.

And also, if this ministry has impacted you, I would love for you to pray about two things. First, pray about sharing this message with someone. You never know how much a simple share could impact someone's life. And secondly, we would love for you to pray about partnering with us financially. Your giving enables us to share messages just like this all around the world. And so, thank you for giving. You can go to spiritchurch.co/give if you want to participate in that today. So, we love you, church, and we will see you right back here next week. And remember that with God, there is more.