Good News – Everybody!

Good News Everybody

Illustration: Charlotte was a charming, talented, and vivacious young woman, known around Brighton, England, as “Carefree Charlotte.”

She was a composer, an artist, a singer, and the life of the party.

But when this talented woman was just thirty years of age, she was struck with an illness that left her an invalid for the rest of her life. She became listless and depressed.

One day she was visited by Caesar Milan, a well-known Swiss evangelist. Sensing Charlotte’s distress, Milan told her, “Charlotte, you must come just as you are—a sinner—to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Charlotte responded immediately, placing her faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. She experienced an inner peace and joy that lasted until her death at age eighty-two, in spite of her debilitating illness.

Charlotte Elliott did something special to express her joy. She wrote the great hymn “Just As I Am” to describe the joyous experience of coming to Christ just as she was and being saved. That hymn explains how all of us must come to Jesus. We must always come just as we are, and always by faith

• That’s the Good News. That Jesus takes us “Just as I am.”
• The Message of Jesus, the Good News, is meant to go far beyond the walls of the church or the cities we know.
• From 2013 to 2023, Palms Baptist has given, $469,611.92 to the cause of Missions. (That may not sound huge, but this is a small blue collar type church.) We support: 3,532 missionaries through International Mission Board.

1. The Holy Spirit Inspired an Amazing (Acts 10:11-28)

• Acts 10 is about ten years after the Ascension of Jesus. But the early church was not engaged deeply in missions.
• The appearance of an angel to Cornelius is God reaching directly to a people the church as supposed to reach out to. It’s sad that God has to send angels when men were supposed to go.
• The vision is a double vision. Not only to the Gentile Centurion, but also to the Apostle Peter.
• The appearance of unclean animals, and the command to “kill and eat” is not about food. God is using unclean animals to tell Peter that the Gospel must go to people groups the Jews deem unclean, unworthy and disgusting.
• Taking the Gospel to the Nations is the unfinished task. Still: 3,180 unreached people groups.

2. The Spirit Inspired the Preaching of Acts 10:34-43)

• This is the fifth sermon in the book of Acts.
• Acts 10:34, “God shows no partiality” lit, “Not an accepter of faces.” God is not impressed with looks.
• The early church had been behaving like the prophet Jonah. Unwilling to carry the Gospel to the nations, but keeping it close to home.

What Peter preached is the Good News of the Gospel:

• The Good News of His (Acts 10:36)
• The Good News of His (Acts 10:37-38)
• The Good News of His (Acts 10:39-41)
• The Good News of His (Acts 10:43)

Smithsonian: A Brief History Presidential Pardons: In April 1830, George Wilson was found guilty of obstructing delivery of the mail, robbery of the mail, and endangering the life of mail carriers. The court sentenced Wilson and his partner, James Porter, to death. While Porter was hanged in July, President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon to Wilson, thanks to friends lobbying on his behalf. But for inexplicable reasons, Wilson refused the pardon. At that point the case went before the Supreme Court: Did a citizen even have the right to reject a pardon? The court ruled that it had no power to impose a pardon on a citizen: “A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered…” In the end, Wilson was hanged.

• The Good News of His (Acts 10:44-46)
• The Good News of (Acts 10:47-48) In 2022, Missionaries with the International Mission Board baptized 102,417.

3. Two Important Questions: (WHO and HOW)

Question 1: Who is the Treasure Available to?

Question 2: How are we going to get the message out?

Answer: Have to work Together. Mission is big.

• We support: 3,532 missionaries.
• 2022: Went to 67 new people groups
• started 21,231 new churches.