The Calhoun Church of Christ Podcast

Why explore God's love? Because our word "love" is cheap, worn out and overused. Our common use of that word can't truly reveal all the power of God's love as revealed in Scripture.

Paul the Apostle prayed with intensity that the church in Ephesus would get an amazing revelation of the love of God:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV)

There is power in prayer, power in the Spirit, and power in the Scriptures to strengthen us so we can grasp the spectacular love of God.

His love isn't a sentimental, greeting card kind of love. His love is fierce, tenacious, relentless, aggressive, protective, profound, eternal, jealous, persistent, and unwavering. It creates universes. It's a permanent part of God's character.

 Want to know more about this love that endures forever? 

What is the final result of the gospel? What is the finish line, the end of all that the gospel accomplishes?

To find out, we look at the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as the pattern for every Christian's life and destiny.

In this episode we look at seven major Scriptures that unfold the story of our triumph with Christ as we enter the new life in Heaven with resurrected, glorified bodies just like his glorious body.

 ^"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'." (1st Corinthians 15:54 NIV)

Study the gospel and you'll soon come across fake or empty versions of it, even in Scripture. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1st Corinthians 15:19 NIV)

He wrote that because some Christians in the Corinthian Church had said they didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead, which sounded logical to them since they'd been raised surrounded with Greco-Roman classical philosophy.

Neither Plato nor Aristotle had believed in the bodily resurrection of the dead, and some of the philosophers in Athens sneered at Paul when he preached the gospel to them, which included the resurrection in Acts chapter seventeen.

So, the church at Corinth had a lot to learn about the place of bodily resurrection in the gospel. That's why Paul challenged them, saying that a gospel without the resurrection was a pity. The real, authentic gospel always includes the bodily resurrection. 

Listen and find out more.

The death of Christ was like no other death. Others had died horrible deaths on crosses, but none were like the Messiah's death.

Not only did he suffer the intense pain just like others had, but according to 2nd Corinthians 5:21...

God "made him who did not know sin to be sin for our sake, so that through him we might become the righteousness of God."

For Jesus, the horror of the cross was that he would have ALL the sin of ALL humanity descend on his innocent, spotless spirit, and he would BECOME sin on our behalf. 

Listen and hear about how even battle-hardened Roman soldiers were shaken and realized who Jesus really is - the Son of God.

It surprises some people that there's an entire chapter in the Old Testament that pictures the crucifixion of Christ 750 years before it happened.

In Isaiah chapter 53, the prophet outlines several features of the cross that would only appear when Christ was crucified and resurrected.

The prophecy even predicts Jesus paying the price to heal our diseases, dying for our sins, and being resurrected from the dead to pay for our resurrection.

Check out this podcast and see if you agree.

Why does the Bible say the gospel is 'eternal'? Does the gospel's power transcend time and space?

Yes. The Bible says God forgave sins under the Old Covenant based on what Christ would do - what he'd do in the gospel, which reached back into that Old Covenant (Romans 3:25-26).

Also, in the story of an Ethiopian nobleman seeking God by reading Isaiah chapter 53, he wanted to know 'who' that chapter was about. Phillip the evangelist "began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:34-35 NIV).

Jesus is the "who" of Isaiah 53. The gospel about Christ is so sharply depicted in Isaiah 53 (written 750 years before Christ's birth) that it became known as the "forbidden chapter" in Jewish synagogue readings after Christ's resurrection (see https://rlsolberg.com/isaiah-53/).

Listen and learn more about this eternal gospel.

 

It's good news to know that the Good News of the Gospel is Spirit-Led. The Holy Spirit empowers the gospel to be more than just teachings in words, but to be the supernatural power that wins human hearts to Christ.

Jesus told his disciples, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 NIV)

Listen and find out more about how the Spirit empowers us to represent Christ in this dark world.

 

The famous writer on prayer E. M. Bounds once wrote, "The gospel moves with slow and timid pace when the saints are not at their prayers early and late and long." (Purpose In Prayer, chapter 3)

The power to get the gospel of Christ into this broken world with soul-saving impact is the power of prayer. Certainly, it takes bold action to move the gospel into areas of this world's darkness, but our mission can fall flat without the power of prayer to thrust it ahead.

The very enterprise of getting the gospel out hinges on what God the Father said to his Son in the second Psalm, “You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession."

Asking, seeking, and knocking are the primary fuel to keep the gospel moving ahead and winning souls - but it's also the way you can stay empowered in your relationship to the Lord.

Listen and hear more connections between prayer and the gospel. 

"God is love." (1st John 4:16)

Most people have heard this, and many know it comes from the Bible. But is it true?

Some skeptics moan, "If God is love, why so much evil in the world?" Or "Why is my life so terrible?"

Yes, we often need a revelation of the scope and range of Divine love. That's what this podcast is about.

Listen and be thrilled to hear about how much God's love has planned for you. He has always loved you.

The Bible often attaches the idea of freedom to the gospel. Jesus said about himself:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news (gospel) to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down... He began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'” (Luke 4:18-21 NIV)

This freedom theme flows through several Scriptures that speak about the gospel.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2nd Cor. 3:17 NIV)

Listen to this episode and get a new insight into the supernatural freedom provided in the gospel.