Untitled Sermon

1 Corinthians—The Word of the Cross (Chapter 27: The Power of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1–11))

Timothy keller has written: “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said?” If Jesus really defeated death, that gives credence to every claim he made. If Jesus did not defeat death, every claim he ever made is proven false. In the words of Jaroslav Pelikan: “If Christ is risen—then nothing else matters. And if Christ is not risen—then nothing else matters.”

The Gospel is Our Top Priority

The gospel (this is my first point in the outline) the gospel is our top priority. The gospel is our top priority. Now, the apostle Paul is writing to the church in Corinth and, let's try to understand their context, the entire epistle has been the apostle Paul addressing significant problems in a local church there in Corinth, a church that he helped plant by the preaching of the gospel, significant problems there. This is, and it's not an overstatement to say: this is- was a dysfunctional church. They were messed up. They had a lot of problems, and so Paul addresses.

So in chapters 1-3, by way of review, he's addressing the factions and divisions there are in the Corinthian church: “I follow Paul,” “I follow Paul,” “I follow Cephas,” factions and divisions.

chapter 4, he addresses the fact that the Corinthian church yearn to be loved and esteemed and honored by their pagan neighbors who are pagans, who are going after pagan things, and they want to be esteemed and loved and honored by pagan neighbors, you shouldn't yearn to be loved in this world and esteemed and wealthy and comfortable and held in honor. You should yearn to follow Christ wherever he leads. And Christ was crucified in this world, so you have to be willing

Then chapters 5-6, he addresses moral problems in the Corinthian church.

Chapter 6, he addresses lawsuits among the believers, the fact that some of the believers were visiting temple prostitutes, sexual immorality, chapter 5-6.

Chapter 7, he has to address marriage issues, divorce and remarriage, singleness just the whole view of marriage,

Chapters 8-10, three chapters on meat sacrificed to idols. They'd come out recently out of paganism, some had successfully left all the religious baggage behind, but others were struggling with aspects of that religion with meat sacrificed to idols, and Paul has to address the community and how they're going to have a community approach to meat sacrificed to idols, three chapters on that.

Chapter 11, he has to address problems with the Lord's Supper, as some of them were gorging themselves in Lord's Supper bread, others were getting drunk on Lord's Supper wine and there's major problems as a result of their misunderstanding of the Lord's Supper.

Then in Chapter 12-14, he's addressing spiritual gifts in the church, what they are special abilities, and the fact that they're messed up in that too.

then a new difficulty in the life of the church, look at verse

1 Corinthians 15:12 “12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

that's the problem he's addressing.

There were some Corinthians who believed that bodily resurrection from the dead was impossible, they didn't believe in it. Didn't mean that all of them thought that way, but some of them did, and as he said, a little leaven leavens a whole lump, a little bit of bad doctrine can spread, so he's got to nip this thing in the bud.

That's the problem. Now, almost certainly this was coming from their Greek pre-commitments to philosophy, they were committed to Greek systems of philosophy, and many of those systems, like the Epicureans, for example, or Plato, they looked at the body as basically a prison house for the pure spirit the pure soul, it was the seat of all problems, of all the difficulties. The Epicureans, for example, denied the immortality of the soul. They said, "This life is all there is, so grab all the gusto you can in this world," they also believe that the soul was made up of atoms like the body, and so when your body went into the ground and was disintegrated, your soul was gone too. You know, honestly, that doesn't sound much different than what British atheist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking said, before he died, he said this, "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers, that is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark."

So first of all, what do I mean when I talk about the significance of this Good News? Well, just look at the way Paul talks about the gospel here in verses 1-3a.

I Corinthians 15:1-3 “1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,”

First, this is the message Paul (v. 1) “preached”. He wasn't casually acquainted or mildly interested in this message. It was THE message he trumpeted regularly; a message he proclaimed, for which he suffered, all over the Roman Empire. I'd say that's significant.

Second, this is the message Paul (v. 3) “received” from Jesus himself.

Paul clarifies this in

Galatians 1:11-12 “11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Third, this is the message (v. 1) “in which you stand”.

The gospel has brought about and defines the spiritual standing of the Corinthians.

Their position before God, what upholds them,

the eternal life they enjoy is a result of this Good News.

It was not their goodness, or good deeds, but the gospel they accepted through faith alone.

Fourth, this is the message (v. 2) “by which you are being saved”.

The trajectory of these Christians,

their spiritual destiny,

their hope for a future of life and

peace and joy and rest in the presence of God, and not condemnation and suffering apart from God,

all of it is directly tied to this message; to this Good News. I'd say that's significant.

So the message Paul lived to declare, the message the living Jesus gave, the message by which the Corinthians lived, and the message through which they would live forever with God. I'd say this new is significant. Wouldn't you?

And of course Paul would as well. That's why, in verse 3, he reminds them explicitly of the gospel's incomparable significance.

This was the message he “delivered to [them] as of first importance”.

Paul is saying, “This is it. This is first. Numero uno.

This is the main thing.

This is at the top of the list.”

If we do not get this right nothing else matters.

Now, hearing all that, being reminded of the gospel's astounding significance, if you knew nothing about the content, the specifics of this good news, wouldn't you be eager to hear? Someone in Corinth might have said, “Well since you put it that way Paul, I suppose I better listen carefully to your reminder.”

In his best-selling book, ''The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,''

Steven Covey shares a classic illustration about putting first things first.

He asks his readers to envision a large jar on a table.

Beside it are some large rocks, small rocks, sand, and water.

If you put the small stuff in first, the big stuff will never fit.

But if you put the big things, the ''first things'' first, everything else will fit in its place.

When it comes to the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Th ebig stuff ,

I don't know anything more important for a:

Church than standing for the gospel

Christian than sharing the gospel

Lost person than receiving the gospel

First things first.

The gospel must be the firt priority

"Every single church should focus on the gospel, and Christ crucified and resurrected, as a first importance, the top priority."

That's why Paul used this language early in 1st Corinthians Chapter 2:2, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified."

The Gospel is based in the life of Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 “3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,”

There it is. There it is. The gospel! Now is this the entirety of the gospel?

No. But it's the very center of this Good News.

If and when Christianity drifts from this, it ceases to be genuine Christianity.

If any person drifts from this, they call their faith into question. This is of “first importance”.

Every other critical, central, core teaching is connected to this.

Who was it that died and was raised?

He had to be fully man and fully God.

Can anything be added to what Christ did?

No, redemption is by faith alone. Do you see?

“This is it. This is first. Numero uno. This is the main thing. This is at the top of the list.”

Now notice there are two parts to the specifics Paul describes in these verses. First, there is what we could call an historical affirmation. Second, there is what we might call, a scriptural affirmation.

The Historical Affirmation:

#1: Incarnation.

The text does not explicitly address the incarnation, but it implicitly assumes it. The gospel declares that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ in order to carry out his plan of redemption.Gospel piece

#2: Life.

This text does not mention the life of Christ, but it is confirmed by all but the most radical revisionist historians that Jesus Christ was a historical figure. Even Christianity’s radical opponents defend the historicity of the person of Jesus. But the gospel claims that Christ did more than simply exist. He lived a life of perfect obedience to God’s Law, meeting the demands that individuals never could.Gospel piece

#3: Death.

Here is where this text picks up the narrative. Verse 3 says: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” This is a historical reality accepted by everyone who believes that Christ existed. “Christ died”3 for a purpose (i.e., “for our sins”). He had no sins of his own to die for, but the wages of our sin was Jesus’ death. He died in order that individual sinners might be reconciled to God. And this happened “in accordance with the Scriptures.” Christ’s death was according to God’s redemptive plan and in line with what had been foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures.Gospel piece

#4: Burial.

Verse 4 tells “he was buried.” Christ’s death was no mere illusion because his body was treated like any other corpse by the Roman officials and by his friends who grieved the loss of his life.Gospel piece

#5: Resurrection.

Verse 4 tells us “he was raised on the third day7 in accordance with the Scriptures.” A human being in history on a particular day was raised from the dead. The phrase “in accordance with the Scriptures” argues that the historical nature of the gospel hinges on the resurrection. The resurrection would have been just as unbelievable to a first-century person as it would be for a modern individual living in a more developed scientific age.

The Spiritual Affirmation

Two times Paul highlights the fact that these historical events took place “in accordance with the Scriptures”. What does that mean? It means the OT spoke hundreds of years before about what was to come, about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

It means these are not simply events from the pages of history. These were events from the pages of God's plan; the plan He determined and foretold long before it happened. Again, these are not peripheral, negotiable issues. They represent the perfect culmination of God's rescue mission to “reverse the curse” that fell upon us at the beginning, in the Garden.

The key phrase is a spiritual explanation of the historical event. In it's verse 3: Christ died...for our sins. You could see Jesus dying on that Roman cross. What you couldn't see is what we grasp with eyes of faith. He was dying for our sins. The just penalty of our disobedience, stretching all the way back to that first disobedience in the Garden, that penalty was paid for by Jesus.

. So Paul goes back over the basic facts of the gospel message, verse 3-4, "For what I received, I passed on to you as a 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 scripture."

"Every single church should focus on the gospel, and Christ crucified and resurrected, as a first importance, the top priority."

The Gospel is founded on Scripture’s Testimony of Christ

Paul says, "I didn't make up the gospel. I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ." God revealed Jesus Christ to Paul on the road to Damascus, and then he taught him the gospel doctrine directly by revelation. It's revealed, it's not anything we made up, no one could write Jesus like a fiction writer could come up with this, ever. This is something that was revealed from heaven, Paul says.

Now, this revelation though, had been going on for centuries before Paul was born. The foundation was laid in the revelation of Scripture. Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture. Christ was buried. Paul could have added, "According to the scripture," there are scriptures about the burial of Jesus, how he's buried in a rich man's tomb, etcetera, but he doesn't. At any rate, Christ then was raised from the dead, according to Scripture. All of this had been laid out ahead of time in the Scriptures. This is vital because it shows us how the facts of the gospel are tied irrevocably to the Bible, to the written word of God. We know nothing about Jesus apart from scripture, nothing. As I've said before, there is such a thing as natural revelation, we can learn things about God the Creator; we can learn invisible attributes and the existence of God, things like that, from looking at sunrises and sunsets. But you can't learn anything about the Trinity or the second person of the Trinity, or the story of the incarnation, the sinless life of Jesus, his miracles, his atoning death, His bodily resurrection, all of that must come from the pages of Scripture. It's forever tied to the written word of God, that's why John wrote, "In the beginning was the Word." There's a link between Jesus and the written word of God, and so Paul makes that link.

Now, what are these prophecies, what are some of the most important prophecies about Christ's life, death, and resurrection? I think they're five in particular that you need to memorize, you don't have to memorize the words, but these are the five you want to go to, these are the key prophecies. For example, who is Jesus? The identity of Jesus. Jesus circled Psalm 110. He began the discussion with his opponents, he said, "What do you think about the Christ, whose son is he?" "Son of David," they answered, that was the rote answer. "Well, how is it then, that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him Lord? For he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" Psalm 110. So this has to do with the supernatural identity of the God-man. He is descended from David, but David calls him Lord, and so he is God. Psalm 110. Then there is Christ's substitutionary atonement; his death on the cross was a substitution. You could argue all of the animal sacrifices were prophecies of Jesus, they really were. But it was articulated- it was described in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53:4-6 is the most substitutionary atonement passage in the entire Bible, including the New Testament. This is what the prophet wrote six centuries before Jesus. "Surely, he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all." That's substitutionary atonement. That's why Jesus died. He died in our place. Isaiah 53, written six plus centuries before Jesus was born. Psalm 22:14-18 describes the actual mechanics of crucifixion, written by David a thousand years before Jesus was born. And Psalm 22:14-18, He says, "I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death, dogs have surrounded me, a band of evil men has encircled me. They have pierced my hands and my feet." Wait, what? "They have pierced my hands and my feet?" When did that happen to David? There's no record of that ever happening to David. "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones, people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing." Those are the actual details of crucifixion, predicted a thousand years before Jesus was born and predicted four centuries before the Assyrians invented crucifixion. Then there's Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead. He was raised from the dead according to the scriptures. Psalm 16 is the central text. Peter preached it on the day of Pentecost, because Jesus taught it to him. And there, in Psalm 16, it says, "You will not abandon me to the grave nor will you let your holy one see decay,"Psalm 16:10. Then Peter makes the point, "Look, David could not have been writing about himself. He died, he was buried, his body decayed. But he was writing about the Christ, that he would be buried, but not see decay, and God would raise him from the dead."

And then, the most, perhaps, in some overarching sense, the most significant prophecy of all, is the Daniel 7 prophecy of the Son of Man. This is why Jesus consistently called himself the Son of Man. And there in that vision, you have Almighty God on his throne, ruling over planet Earth. And into his presence, riding on the clouds, comes one like the Son of Man, and he receives from Almighty God, sovereign power and glory and the right to be worshipped by all the peoples, nations and people of every language. Who is worshipped but God alone? And there is clear picture of a human being, the Son of Man, who receives worship, and that is Jesus, Daniel 7. Those five. Like, "Pastor, I'll never remember all that." So write down on a little piece of paper or put it on your note section of your smartphone and say, "Okay, it's a witnessing chance, let's go through these five prophecies." These have converting power, because they were written centuries before Jesus was even born. Well, they're unchangeable. And these fulfillments- the fulfillment of prophecy, was the foundation of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Again and again, they use the word, "fulfilled." They cite actual prophecies. That's how we preach Christ.

Christ’s Resurrection is Vital to the Gospel

Thirdly, Christ's resurrection is vital to the gospel. We can't take the resurrection out and still have a gospel. This is Paul's main point. You can't argue that there is no resurrection from the dead, and as time allows in the future, not today, we will see in later verses, how Paul says, if Christ has not been raised, we have no gospel, we have no faith, we have nothing. And so, not only are the Scriptures clearly testifying that Christ would rise from the dead, but also, we have eye witness accounts.

Look at verses 5-8, "he appeared to Peter, then to the 12. 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." Now, eyewitnesses are the key to establishing a historical event, something in the past. It's the basis of our court system, we have to establish what happened and then we can make a judgment on that event, and eyewitnesses are essential to that. Now, in Jewish law, two or three witnesses was what was needed to establish any historical fact. Deuteronomy 19:15, "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." So it is for any historical event, it will never happen again. How do we know the Battle of Waterloo occurred? Well, there were soldiers there that gave eyewitness accounts. And so it is for any historical event, we can never... We can't re-enact it in a laboratory, that's the uniqueness of history, the way you get it is primarily eyewitnesses.

Furthermore, Jesus appeared physically alive over the course of forty days10 to crowds as large as five hundred people at a time.11 It is also significant to note that no credible historical evidence from that period exists to validate any alternative explanation for Jesus’ resurrection other than his literal bodily resurrection.

Now, two or three is all that's needed, but there's a river of eyewitnesses that Paul brings forward here. He lists people who saw him and who testify to him by name, Peter (Cephas), Peter and James, and the 12. The apostles in particular, the 12, had as a central job description, being eyewitnesses of Christ's life, his death and his resurrection. After Judas betrayed and went to his death, they were trying to replace Judas to be one of the 12, and one of the requirements was, there had to be one of the disciples who had been with us the whole time Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism, for one of these must be a witness with us of his resurrection. Eyewitness accounts, that's what the apostles did.

And so he appeared to James, and, it says, to 500 witnesses. Imagine how long it would take to get their testimony one after the other. “I have seen the risen Christ.” 500 eyewitnesses, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. So that is clearly establishing the fact. Now, here's the thing, we don't get any of that, friends, we don't get to talk to eyewitnesses, what do we get? Well, you get this: you get the Bible. You get John saying, "That which we have seen with our eyes, what we have handled, this we proclaim to you." We get the Scripture. And frankly, if you don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the basis of Scripture, you will never believe. There's no other source of information. Old Testament prophecies, New Testament fulfillment. That's what we get.

Now, William Lane Craig, who's an apologist, said that there are basically four facts that everyone agrees on that debates concerning the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Many simply dismiss the idea of resurrection as ahistorical, but in order to do so four clear historical realities must be erased. William Lane Craig argues for these historical realities:Historical reality

#1: The burial of Jesus.

Jesus Christ was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in his personal tomb, and the tomb was guarded by Roman guards. It was a known location that could be checked. Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the Jewish court that condemned Jesus, so this was not likely fabricated by Christians.Historical reality

#2: The empty tomb.

“The tomb of Jesus was found empty by a group of his female followers.” “The fact that the women’s testimony was considered worthless in a first-century Palestinian court gives credence to the historicity of the account” (i.e., they didn’t choose strong witnesses). Everyone agrees that the tomb was empty—either by resurrection or some other explanation.Historical reality

#3: Post-resurrection appearances.

Verses 4–8 say: “… he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and … he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” Jesus appeared to all of the leaders of the early church—Peter, Paul, and all of the apostles. If he only appeared to them, it would make sense that some people doubted the veracity of the sightings. But Paul appeals to a crowd of “more than 500 brothers,” most of whom were still alive and could have confirmed or denied Paul’s claim. Five hundred rational people who did not have a category for seeing a dead person raised claimed to have seen the risen Jesus. This claim itself is a historical reality.Historical reality

#4: The reaction of the early disciples.

Early disciples had every reason not to believe in the resurrection of Jesus unless he had actually been raised. Their leader was dead. Their leader was a condemned heretic—a man under the curse of God because of his death on a tree. Nevertheless, they were prepared to die over their belief in the resurrection of Christ. In spite of the fact that there was no benefit to their believing in the resurrection, they chose to defend this claim at all costs.These four realities must be explained—the burial, the empty tomb, the appearances, and the reaction of the disciples. An actual historical resurrection makes the most sense of the historical realities that we have before us. One must come up with a more compelling alternative explanation if one wishes to deny the historical records of Scripture.The skeptic must come up with a historically feasible, plausible account—an alternative explanation—for why there is an empty tomb, why there was an established burial, why there were eyewitness accounts, why there was the emergence of the early church.

Now, William Lane Craig has gone around debating, he's an apologist, defending the faith, and has debated people all around. He debated this professor from the University of California, and he said these four facts kinda put you in a box. He said, "Well, I have a solution. Jesus had a twin brother, and they were separated at birth, and he came in just around the time of the crucifixion, no one knew he even existed, and he went and moved the stone, buried Jesus's dead body and presented himself as Jesus- as Jesus resurrected from the dead." Do you see the lengths you have to go to try to argue away the resurrection? Let me tell you the simplest way to argue it away. This is how it happens. I shared the gospel, these kinds of things, with a nominal, kind of lapsed Roman Catholic up in Massachusetts, a co-worker named Larry. I went through all the historical things, all the prophetic evidence, I did all this, later I said, "What do you think?" He said, "I guess Jesus rose from the dead." That was it. "I guess Jesus rose from the dead; let's eat." It didn't move the needle for him at all; it just didn't mean anything. It was a scent but it wasn't belief, it wasn't faith. Other people, just like Napoleon, he said, "I don't even think Jesus ever lived." Well, he clearly wasn't much of a historian. So you could say there was no Jesus, therefore there was no Joseph of Arimathea, there was no tomb, etcetera. Those are the kind of things you have to start doing. But let me ask you a question, why then within three centuries did Constantine think it was at least politically expedient to paint the cross on the shields of thousands of Roman soldiers? Some progress had been made. There are just some basic facts we have to deal with. It wasn't some later mythology. The tomb was empty. The tomb was empty.

APPLICATION

Trust Christ

First and foremost: is there anyone listening to me, either live here or by live stream, who doesn't believe that Christ was raised from the dead. I'm begging you. Come to Christ. I'm pleading with you: find forgiveness of your sins through faith in Christ. I say it every time I preach. Say it again. Christ has been raised from the dead; he is the first fruit. Do you know for certain that you're going to go to heaven when you die? This is what the gospel is for. It is the power of God for your salvation. Trust in Christ

The Gospel changes us.

1 Corinthians 15:5-8 “5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

James, in particular, is fascinating. Brother of Jesus, we talked about it when we went through the book of James. Seemingly, it seemed, an unbeliever while Jesus was doing his public ministry. John chapter 7 says even his own brothers did not believe in Him. But something radically changed him. He was in the upper room waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He became a pillar in the church in Jerusalem. What happened? Jesus appeared to him, personally, and James fell down and worshiped him.

Look at Paul

One of my favorite stories to tell is of a man who claimed to have seen Jesus while he was shaving. His pastor asked him, ''What did you do when you saw Jesus?'' The man began to respond, ''Well, I quickly finished shaving and then...'' when the pastor cut him off. ''You didn't see him,'' said the wise preacher. ''Because if you had seen Jesus you would not have kept shaving. For people who've truly seen Jesus don't go back to doing the same stuff they were doing before they saw Him.'' If you are here are you wounded and wayward from your own sins, I want you to see Him with big wide open arms...saying come home, come home. Don't go back to your old life of wandering. If you are struggling with the issues of life and just need a place to rest, see Him today with big strong shoulders to lean on, saying, ''Come unto Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.'' Don't go back to your life of doubt and confusion. And if you are lost in your sins and you've never been saved, see Him today with a heart of love and forgiveness saying, ''Come. Come. Come now let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet they can be as white as wool.'' And don't go back to your old life of sin. In every case, if you'll see Jesus, you'll never be the same again.

Preach the Gospel to yourself Daily

But with all that in mind, look again at the opening words of this foundational passage...Now I would remind you.

Why does Paul begin that way. Because they were forgetting. They were prone to forget.

The same thing was happening with the Corinthians and the gospel. This is why Paul had to go back to basics. Or maybe we could say more specifically, they were forgetting how the gospel, this Good News, was “of first importance” in everything; how it, yes punctuated their past, but also how it influenced both their present and their future.

You see, they were accepting from false teachers an idea that was nonsense in light of the gospel. If they were holding “fast to the word [Paul] preached”, they couldn't also be holding onto these strange teachings about the resurrection (that's the topic Paul goes on to confront in the remainder of chapter 15).

So what does this mean for us? It means, in the same, we constantly need to go back to basics; daily!...to be constantly reminded of that which [we] received, in which [we] stand, and by which [we] are being saved. For we also forget; we are prone to forget. Can you relate?

Listen to what Milton Vincent says about the gospel in his excellent book, A Gospel Primer:

God did not give us His gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness. The wise believer learns this truth early and becomes proficient in extracting available benefits from the gospel each day. We extract these benefits by being absorbed in the gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.

So we taken into account the opening words of our passage...Now I would remind you. But even more importantly, we need to “hold fast” to that phrase from verse 3...of first importance.

Be honest with yourself as you ask this question: “What was of first importance to me this morning, when I woke up to a new day?” It should be. The Cubs AND the Indians didn't both get first place. There is only one first place. Everything else comes after that. This is why you must preach the gospel to yourself every day. What does that mean. Listen to how writer Jerry Bridges defines it:

To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. (Jerry Bridges, The Discipline of Grace)

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge your weakness; utter inability to save yourself.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you stand only by God's grace.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge, apart from that grace, you stand condemned.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge all you can do is trust Jesus did it all.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge all your sins, all your wrongs, all your failures, past, present, and future have been covered by Jesus' death. He paid the ransom!

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you have peace with God.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you are loved to a depth you could not imagine.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge God's acceptance is all that really matters.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge you don't have to live in guilt, that the sins that tempt you even now are the reason Jesus suffered and died, that because of the gospel you have power to die to the old self and put on the new self, that you don't have to be afraid of death, because you will be raised as He was raised.

It is to wake up each day and acknowledge, to embrace, you do not belong to yourself, for you have been bought with a price: the shed blood of Christ. You are wonderfully His and nothing, no one can take that away from you.

What would your day be like if those gospel-centered, gospel-rooted, those gospel-informed truths were “of first importance” in your heart and mind? How do they speak to the fear, the anxiety, the regret, the bitterness, the desires, the anger, the confusion, the pride we all battle with, on a daily basis?

Now, I, as a Calvinist, as a believer in sovereignty of God and salvation, once saved, always saved, I believe that whatever you need to keep believing in Jesus, you will receive. He's going to keep feeding your faith, secretly feeding it, until at last you don't need it anymore, and faith is exchanged for sight. He's going to sustain you. But you need to know that you need to keep believing. You need to be warned to keep believing, there's many such warnings in the Bible, and this is one of them

2. NEEDS THE GOSPEL CONTINUALLY.

The Gospel of Jesus is not only the FIRE that ignites the Christian life, it's the FUEL that keeps Christians going and growing each day of their lives.

C. S. Lewis: ''The gospel is the old, old story that should never feel like the same ole story.''

The good news that saves you is also the good news that sustains you in your walk with Christ. We come to God through the power of the Gospel and we live for God through the power of the Gospel. That's why we don't we don't move on from the Gospel to greater things. There is nothing greater.

Romans 1:16 ''For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.''

Often we hear salvation, and immediately think justification, or the initial moment you become a child of God. Salvation includes coming to God, living for God, and one day being with God.

3 aspects of salvation:

Justification: I have been saved.

Sanctification: I am being saved.

Glorification: I will be saved.

1 Corinthians 1:18: ''For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.''