The Simple Gospel
About this sermon
Dean Odle presents the Christian gospel to wedding guests as the claim that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, lived without sin, died as the atonement for human sin, and rose bodily from the dead. He appeals to changed lives, fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, eyewitness testimony, and his own conversion as evidence that salvation is found in Christ alone rather than religion, karma, reincarnation, or human merit.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle opens by worshiping Jesus as God in the flesh who died and rose, then celebrates a couple whose transformed lives led them to a church wedding. His own conversion from drugs, drunkenness, sexual immorality, and worldly ambition is offered as firsthand evidence that encountering Jesus changes a person.
He explains Father, Son, and Holy Spirit through the human distinction of spirit, soul, and body while maintaining that God is one. Unlike systems based on karma or accumulated good works, Christianity rests on the Creator entering humanity; John 14:6 is used to identify Jesus as the exclusive way, truth, and life.
Psalm 22’s pierced hands and feet and divided garments, Micah 5’s Bethlehem, and Isaiah 9’s divine Son are presented as predictions written centuries before Jesus. Odle cites the pre-Christian Septuagint translation to argue that these prophecies could not have been composed after the crucifixion.
Isaiah 7:14 and John 1 are used to identify Jesus as Emmanuel and the eternal Word who created all things and became flesh. Odle contrasts this incarnation with religions promising that humans can become gods and says resurrection in an incorruptible body is superior to reincarnation.
Genesis 2–3 explains marriage, Satan’s deception, and humanity’s choice to disobey God in pursuit of autonomous knowledge. Odle argues that the fall transferred dominion to Satan, opened humanity to spiritual darkness, and left every person guilty before God and in need of rescue.
Isaiah 53 portrays Jesus bearing grief, transgression, iniquity, punishment, and wounds as the sinless substitute. Odle recounts a three-week conviction in 1987 and a vision of two roads, explaining that he surrendered to Christ and abandoned prospects in modeling and Hollywood rather than continue toward destruction.
John 19 describes Jesus’ scourging, crown of thorns, trial, and voluntary submission to crucifixion despite His authority. Odle argues that the darkness, bodily resurrection, forty days of appearances, and hundreds of witnesses ground Christian faith in public events rather than private philosophy.
The courage of early martyrs and a modern persecuted pastor illustrates Odle’s distinction between information about Jesus and personal relationship with Him. He includes his own experience facing armed soldiers and the couple’s conversions to insist that Christ, not a preacher or meditation practice, produces fearless transformed lives.
John the Baptist’s Lamb of God declaration supports the offer of salvation to people of every race who seek Jesus sincerely. A seventy-seven-year-old woman’s testimony of deliverance from traumatic spiritual bondage and subsequent healing is presented as evidence that Christ still saves, frees, and heals.
Blood and water from Jesus’ pierced side are connected with Adam’s opened side and the formation of Christ’s redeemed bride, the church. Odle compares salvation to a paid prison debt and open cell door, urging hearers to seek Jesus personally, repent, walk out of bondage, and receive the new life He purchased.
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- 0:01:26
can somebody praise the Lord God Almighty in this place hallelujah hallelujah glory to your name Lord Jesus glory to your name glory to his name hallelujah yes hallelujah we praise you Lord God Almighty creator of heaven and earth the one who died on that cross and rose from the dead we worship you this morning the name above every name the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth God in the flesh live the sinless life you willingly let man sinful wicked man beat you and nail you to a cross but your shed blood made the atonement made the way for our sins to be forgiven God we are grateful Lord I'm grateful for the day that you opened my eyes that you drew me you convicted me you showed me that you did that because you loved me and you wanted me to be forgiven cleansed saved from my sins and saved from eternal separation from you and I thank you Lord you opened my eyes because Satan and the demon spirits had me blinded and I thank you for the day you opened my eyes and brought me to know you as my lord my savior my god my redeemer my healer my deliverer and I thank you for all that you have done and all that you are doing and all that you will do and we thank you and we pray this in Jesus name amen amen you may be seated this morning we welcome everyone hallelujah hallelujah well how much better we appreciate everybody here for the wedding that we're going to have immediately after the service this morning this was totally at the request of Craig and Chitra to have their wedding on a Sunday they wanted to be in church because they both love Jesus in fact they're both students in our school of ministry and that's awesome God has done amazing things in their lives just absolute miracles and I couldn't be happier today I couldn't be more honored to be the one doing their wedding today because I've seen them now over several years
- 0:04:33
how Jesus has changed their lives and and folks I just want to say this to you I don't know where everybody is in this place but I could just tell you right now one of the proofs that Jesus Christ is real that he is the savior the redeemer the atonement for our sins the one who died the only one who died for our sins and rose from the dead is because of changed lives but I'm gonna give you more evidence than that today but he changed my life because let me tell you there was a time that this boy was blinded I was living in sin living for the devil living in wickedness I was a drunkard I was a drug user I was uh sexually immoral just doing all kinds of crazy stuff just just a hellion as somebody would say some yeah down here in the south we just called it a hellion you know I was a hellion matter of fact if there was a party somewhere it's probably because I was planning it and started it and got everybody to come to it I was kind of a ringleader here in the Opelika area and in fact one of my friends my old friends from 40 years ago called me this morning and he was like I was talking about you last night he goes you were one of the craziest you know he still he still hasn't come to Jesus but let me tell you he knows he said I know I because he knew me he said I know something supernatural and real happened in your life because you changed see they couldn't get me anymore they can try to hand me a beer didn't work anymore they try to give me some drugs nah didn't work anymore they wanted me to go out and go to the bars and to the club no didn't work anymore because Jesus came in I met Jesus see I don't just talk about Jesus some historical figure some teacher some prophet no I met him myself in 1987 as God almighty in the flesh who came to save me from my sins not in my sins but he came to save me from all of that depression and darkness I was living in and even though I had the time I had a modeling contract I had I just done screen tests I was supposed to be in the first Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis that was I had a part in the movie I was headed to Hollywood I was already signing autographs for people it was crazy I was making $200 an hour as a model in 1986 think about that $200 an hour it's pretty good money that's money good money today so of course it doesn't buy as much as it used to right um it was it was you know everybody in the world everybody in the that did not know God did not know Jesus they thought oh man this is most wonderful thing the way your life is going but I was getting the more I ran after the world and its system the more darkness that came into my heart my mind I got more and more depressed and uh it wasn't until I came into a real
- 0:07:39
what the Bible calls born again encounter with Jesus Christ where he convicted me which that means he convinced me that I was a sinner and the only remedy for the sin is that the true God there's many gods out there there's many claimed to be gods but there's only one true God he's not confused matter of fact the Bible says and put this verse up first Corinthians 14 God is not the author of confusion I'm going to tell you right now the creator did not give us 15,000 different confusing ways to find him there's not many ways to God he's one God he made one way now I know some people get confused say I don't understand you Christians because y'all talk about the Father Son and Holy Spirit let me just explain that to you God is one God but he has three distinct parts to him and he made us the Bible says that he made man in his image and 1st Corinthians I mean 1st Thessalonians 5 23 and you can put this up after that 1st Corinthians 5 23 says this about human beings and even people who are in other religions who have experienced supernatural things understand this right here that the human being a human being has three parts we have a spirit we have a soul and we have a body and these are three distinct things the spirit and soul are not the same thing and through the spirit man we can see in the spirit world sometimes that's where visions and dreams and where we see sometimes allowed to see angels we're allowed to see demon spirits we're allowed to see things people in in different religions do meditations and go into altered states of consciousness and they do see and experience the spirit world people do travel their spirit outside their body but it's either by you know the Lord either comes the Holy Spirit gives you that ability and wants to show you something or you're doing it by demonic power but what I'm saying is the spirit man every human being has a spirit and we have a soul the soul is our consciousness it's who we are it's our personality it's our mind will and emotions our intellect it's our consciousness which science can't recreate and then there's the physical body so we have three parts you don't see three pastor deen standing here but pastor deen has three parts spirit soul and body god has three parts the father son and the Holy Spirit but when you see god if he was to stand here this morning let me tell you what it would be you would see Jesus the Bible teaches very clearly that Jesus Christ is God who became man so that he could live like us be tempted in all ways like us yet not sin and then pay the penalty for sin
- 0:10:44
and this is what makes Christianity unique to all religions of the world because you've got out there all the other gods Allah and all krishna and all the gods of the world that claim to be God all want you to work and earn it karma or you got to do good works and you think that that's going to make you right and that God's somehow going to weigh your good works against your bad works and that's what's going to get you saved no you you can't do you can't save yourself through good works you can't save yourself through other gods you have to come to the true creator the one god who made one way and this is why Jesus said John 14 six he made this very clear Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father or is allowed to know truly no god unless you come through me he said that now if you know you you can't say Jesus was just a good man or he was a good teacher or he was just a good prophet because he made a statement that no other has made not buddha not Mohammed not anybody else he made the statement I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through me now either he is truly god manifested in the flesh or he's a liar and can't be a good man or a good teacher or a good prophet because he's the one who claimed it now let me show you something not only did he say this but see the thing that makes again Christianity different than all the other religions is that it foretold him thousands of years before he came some prophecies are hundreds of years before he came but we're talking about very specific things one of the prophecies in fact put up Psalm 22 one of the prophecies was written by King David and the Holy Spirit the Bible says that the Holy Spirit came upon certain men and moved them by the Holy Spirit to write certain things and one thousand years before Jesus came before he was born he god became man before that happened David wrote this he wrote these words my god my god why hast thou forsaken me the very thing Jesus said when he was hanging on the cross but what's more interesting than that you say well Jesus could control that he might have known that prophecy so when he was hanging on the cross dying for our sins being executed he could have just repeated that but there's one thing he couldn't do and that was nail himself to the cross and this same psalm says they have
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