Full text of Pastor D Mohan’s sermon titled ‘The Gospel of Jesus Christ.’
Listen to the MP3 Audio here:
TRANSCRIPT:
D Mohan – Senior Pastor, New Life Assemblies of God
What a great joy to come, and share the word of God with you this morning.
Jesus is totally a different person, if you have an experience with Him. He is not a myth. He is not a philosopher, He is not simply a prophet. He’s totally a different person. If you have relationship with Him, He will change you. He will use you. You will have a purpose in your life.
Please turn your Bibles to the book of 1 Corinthians 15, verse two, three and four.
1 Corinthians 15:2-4: ‘By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed in vain. For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the Apostles. And last of all, He appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.’
What is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Gospel is always the good news. Two things has happened here.
One, Jesus was crucified. It’s a cruel death that the people did, a great wickedness in the world is crucifying the Son of God. God Himself. Brutally was killed and murdered.
One of the worst things happened in the world is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
No one has come down to this world and died for us, and never shed the blood for the remission of sin. You need to have the forgiveness of sin in your life. If you don’t have that experience in your life: you may come to church, you may pay your tithes and offering, you may do all good things to the people, but you must have this experience of forgiveness of sin in your life.
I used to be a very good person in my life, outside. I used to go to church regularly, otherwise my father will beat me. I used to be in the choir with a lot of good robes, like a saint, sitting on an altar, taking the cross, going around the church. I was an altar boy.
I used to read daily Bible. I used to have a family prayer every day, early morning 05:00; every night 9:30 there must be prayer. I used to memorize Scriptures like anything. I used to attend Sunday school. I was a holy person outside. But inner life, I lived a life of hypocrisy.
But one day I came to the meeting like this. My mother prayed for me on a daily basis early morning 04:00 that I must become a minister of God.
But one day, I remember that day and time. September 3, 1968. Some of you were not even born. I met the Lord at about 11:00 beside my bed. Jesus Christ came into my heart and changed my life totally. I received the forgiveness of sin in my life. That is an experience.
From that day onwards. Jesus changed my life. Jesus Christ is real. The experience is really real in your life. But the Holy Spirit is speaking to you this morning in a beautiful way through the skit and the mime. And all those things are so real to you, that Jesus Christ has come to set you free from all kinds of sin in your life.
We don’t convert the people from one religion to another religion. That is not our business. All religions are good. But that experience that you must have, a freedom from sin, that is the most important thing in your life. That only Jesus died for that, and gave that forgiveness of sin in your life. Receive it today. That’s the most important thing in your life.
In this world you see God-less sinners. If you read Romans Chapter One, you see God-less sinners there. Why there are God-less sinners in this world?
Romans 1, verse 21 says, ‘For though they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Instead of worshipping the Creator, they started to worship the creatures. That is why God gave them over to the sinful desire of their heart to sexual impurity.’
Second, God gave them over in the sinful desire of their heart to a sexual impurity. God gave them over to shameful lusts. That is what gay marriage is happening. That is what homosexuality happening. That is what pornography, that is around the world, 82 million of sites in your phone.
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Wickedness is gripping the world in the last days. We are living in the last minute. We must be saved, otherwise you will lose your eternity.
Thirdly, ‘furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents.’
All kinds of wickedness has come into this world. Why? They do not know the real God. They are worshiping the creatures; God gave them to wickedness.
Secondly, you see, if you study Romans chapter 2, it is religious sinners. Those people come to church, they hear the word of God every Sunday; they give offerings, they go to religious places. But yet, they don’t have the repentance. They don’t have changed heart, changed mind, you must give your body to Jesus Christ. That is the real worship.
Your members of your body must do righteousness, not wickedness. That is the real worship.
You have to give your mind. Transformation must happen in your mind. Some people, religious people, change outside. They wear only white; top to bottom, you see them white. They take out all the ornaments. They look like religious people, but they are the best gossipers in the world.
Your mind needs to be transformed by the word of God. You must be a living epistle. People must read the Bible in your life. Religious sinners!
If you ask people, oh, I never committed any murder, I never committed any adultery, I never robbed anything. One day, a ten year old son went to school. Father called him, asked him: Did you do any sin today? And father asked him, did you rob the bank today? He said, no, father, I didn’t do any robbery.
Did you go to prostitute? No, father, I don’t know anything about it.
Did you commit a murder? No, father.
Ten year old boy, nowadays it’s different. But if you ask ten or five years old children, they say, we didn’t do anything of that sort.
What’s the problem with these people is if they are playing, if you call them there’s ice cream, please come and eat and play. They will come and eat ice cream. But if you call them to come and study, they say, I’m not interested now. They don’t like to obey to their parents.
That is the test for him. The same way in your life you would have not committed any adultery, or robbery, or anything. But you see, the spirit of anger is there. Daily fighting. War is going on in your home between husband and wife.
Before marriage, everything was so heaven. They say they go for honeymoon. Everything is honey the first week of a marriage. But after one month you see a continuous war is going on. You’re talking about divorce in your life.
Dear people of God, you are a religious sinner. You will be judged terribly on the judgment day. Coming to the church, not having repentance in your heart. That’s a terrible sin, worse than the sinners of the world.
The religious sinners in the churches are growing. You have to change your life. Come to Christ. Don’t always pray for promotion, pray for money, pray for health. You need to have a spiritual health. Come to Jesus. Your nature must change on a daily basis. That is what Jesus Christ came to die on the cross of Calvary.
And second thing that Jesus did on the cross after that: He buried. He was buried. He was on the earth, center of the earth three days and three nights as Jonah was in the belly of the fish. There is a center place on this earth. He went there after His death in His spirit; there a bottomless pit is there. The two apartments are there; One is the people, those who did all wickedness in the Old Testament time and the New Testament time also the wicked people, after their death, they go into the heart of this earth: bottomless pit.
There another place is there. The Old Testament saints were living there in that place. When Jesus died, He went there, preached the gospel to them, took up with Him, who went to the paradise heaven.
But still the wicked place is still there. Why do you study all these things? If you study Luke, chapter 16, you see how the rich man died, went to that bottomless pit. How that Lazarus, a poor man, committed himself. Even though he was poor, he was Godly person. He was in the bosom of Abraham. That’s a paradise.
Dear people of God, in your life you must study the Scriptures and must know that Jesus Christ died on the cross.
If Jesus would have died on the cross and buried, His life is finished on that matter, we are the pitiest people in the world. But He rose on the third day.
No one in the world has come out of their life like Jesus. There are good leaders, beautiful people in this world. But everyone died and buried that they were gone, they were lost. But only one grave that is still open. That is the grave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Even today, let us all lift our hands and glorify God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a living God. Why I serve God, because my God is a living God. I can talk to Him, He can speak to me. I have a living relationship with Him. That is what the main thing. When God rose again on the third day, what He did, He delivered us from the sin. We can live a victorious life. That is what Jesus Christ came. That is what Jesus Christ has given us: the grace.
Grace means help from God, overcoming your sinful thought, sinful life, sinful desire. The flesh is still there. In the flesh, when Jesus died on the cross, your old man is crucified. That means that desire for committing sin is already dead.
But still we are living on flesh. We have temptations, we have problems, we have difficulties. For that, we need grace. Jesus Christ has risen on the third day, gone to heaven for one thing: He wants to send back the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the standby to live in our life. And He has made our life as a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can live in us and we can live a victorious life. That is what Jesus Christ rose on the third day.
That doesn’t mean we may not fall into sin or something. You may fall into sin, but don’t live in sin. You may have all kinds of temptation in your thought. That is a temptation. Don’t fall and live in that sin continuously; come out of it. Jesus will help you to live a victorious life. Joyful life, gracious life, beautiful life.
You can bless others. When you pray, sick people will be healed. Not the super pastors, not the super evangelists, not the super pastors that you have to stand in line, wait for getting appointment to the people.
On the other day my son was asking me, ‘Dad, would you please give me an appointment? I want to see.’ What is the worst thing.
People are waiting for prophets to pray for them. You must become a prophet. You must become a blessing to others. Every believer in the church must become a worker for Lord. We are in the full time, sometimes that will help you that you will become a useful vessel in the kingdom of God.
That is why God has made us as a servant of the living God in this church. Go to the life group. Life group, all people are not saints there. The leader is not a big saint there, is one among you; can share your life there and join with a life group and become a member of a life group and become a useful vessel in that group. God will bless you for that.
Only Sunday if you come and say hi, bye. If you die, you will go to hell.
You may get angry: ‘Pastor, until this time you talked very nicely but now you’re talking like this. I am the way God created like me this way only.’
Dear people of God, you must become a useful vessel in the kingdom of God. Don’t come and sit in the same chair and break the chair. That is not your ministry. Bring some new people into the services and you must see their life will be changed.
Yesterday there was a man giving his testimony. He came into the church. He was going to all kinds of temple from Kanyakumari to North India. Nothing happened to him. People said you come to this church one day; he came. I was preaching there, it seems. He says ‘Pastor preached, ‘all those people who are carrying heavy load upon your life, come to Jesus, He will give you rest.’
He came with a heavy load on that day. What to do? He does not know what to do. He came inside the church. The very first word that he heard is this: ‘God will give you rest.’
Suddenly his body was shaking and he was shedding tears, and he was looking all the other people. What is happening to them? They are stiffnecked people. The old believers. They don’t move anyway. There’s no tears in their eyes. But they were all sitting there. But only his life was touched on that day.
The second time he came to the church, he was cheated by his builder as his house was building. That I was preaching: ‘Don’t be worried about the builder of your house that you are cheated by; you forgive that fellow. You go to him and ask pardon, because you have done something against him.’
He said what all that I have done? This man is speaking to me. He was looking around other people. They are all very calm. But he went to his builder and asked him ‘sir, I really forgive you and don’t worry if you don’t give money. That doesn’t matter. Jesus is with me.’
That man got shocked, after two [days] gave all the money back to him. And God touched his life. He says that I have a life that God has really beautifully blessed me. Now I am a blessing to other people. All people see there is a great change in my life.
Dear people of God, Jesus is a really living God. He’s living today; you don’t have to worry about your death even if you die. He has really crucified everything on the cross. He rose again on the third day.
The worst enemy to the humanity is death. Death is our enemy. But Jesus rose again on the third day. He has overcome that death.
In the world we will die. Some people are preaching we will not die. Jesus Christ has died on the cross, rose again on the third day. So we are not going to die. And we are not going to have any graveyard in a part of a church. Because no one is going to die. That is a foolish preaching. That is hyper-grace preaching.
Everyone will die until Jesus comes. Death is there, but you can face that death boldly. Nothing will happen to you. Because when you die you will open your eyes in the eternity. That is what our hope.
Shall we raise our hand and praise God for the hope? Amen.
Many people have… different religions speak about their hope; if you die, that you will become, next birth that you will become a dog. Who is going to bark like a dog? Our hope is totally different.
Some other people talk about their hope. ‘If you die for God, you will directly go to heaven. You will have 72 virgins waiting for you in heaven.’ A fellow to live with one wife is a difficult thing on this earth, how you are going to enjoy heaven with 72, that will become a hell to your life.
Living with one man is a difficult things on the earth. Two different people, different ideology, different background, different personality living together is itself a miracle.
I have been living with my wife 45 long years. It is, the greatest joy that I have in my life is my wife. First is my God, second my wife. That doesn’t mean we don’t have any problem. There will be problems. Love the problem. Appreciate her; her differences. You sanctify your life. Salvation comes in the family life also.
So you must be daily saved. That is what it should happen in your life.
Dear people of God, Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, buried, rose again on the third day. That is to give us a good hope in our life. One day Jesus is going to come back. We will meet Him face to face. When we meet Him, we see Him as He is, we will be like Him.
We are not going to heaven to see gold there. Gold is like a dust on heaven. We are not going to see any other things. Some people think I don’t have any home in this world. God is building a big home. What is the use of living a big home in heaven if you are not becoming like Jesus?
You must be with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your refuge. You will have a nature of Christ in you. There’s no more tears in your life. Would you commit your life to Jesus today? He’s going to bless you. Shall we all close our eyes and pray?
How many of you want to have the forgiveness of sin? It is an experience. You must have it. How many of you want to have freedom from sin in your life? You must have an experience. That is why Jesus came into this world, died for you.
I want to pray with you today. Would you please lift your hand? I want to receive the forgiveness of sin in my life. Would you please lift your hand? The forgiveness of sin in your life. That’s the first thing should happen in your life.
You may come to church, if you don’t have this experience. You need to have this experience personally with Christ. It’s not a religious activity, it is an experience. You must have the forgiveness of sin. For that you need faith.
Why Jesus died for you, shed His blood for you on the cross to forgive your sin, rose again on the third day. You have to confess that in your heart, you will be saved. Jesus Christ become your Lord and Savior. He must be your Master. Your life must be controlled by the Lord that you will live a life of freedom. That is why Jesus has come.
Resources for Further Reading:
Billy Graham: Who is Jesus, Really? (Full Transcript)
Martin Luther King Jr. on Why Jesus Called a Man a Fool Speech
The Solution for all Your Spiritual Struggles: The Exchange at the Cross (Transcript)
Discover Yourself In God’s Mirror – Who Am I? (Part 1): Derek Prince (Transcript)
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