2023 Easter
Special Service • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 12 viewsNotes
Transcript
2023 Easter
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 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 that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters 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. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
The Gospel - Good News
To really grasp the good news, we have to start with the bad news.
The bad news being our human plight. Sin.
The good news being the solution of our plight - Jesus Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, appearance and ascension.
The traditional prevailing thought regarding the Apostle Paul’s understanding of the Gospel has been from plight to solution. The picture of Paul in this concept is one of looking for an answer to our problems and then the solution appears in Christ.
More recent scholarship based on a better and more complete understanding of Judiasim in the time of Paul reveals something a bit different. We can even look at Paul in Philippians 3, not of one who is downtrodden looking for an answer to his sin but rather one who calls himself blameless in regard to the Law, with his head held high.
Scholarship debates the direction of Paul’s comprehension of the Gospel, was it the plight to solution or the solution revealing the Plight?
Plight
The plight of humanity in Judaism was one of an awareness of the problem of sin. The continual need for sacrifice reminded them continually.
Reading the prophets reveals a constant call to repentance, to turn back to God and their leaving God to worship other gods as the root of their problem. The root of their exile.
Isaiah 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”
The problem with humanity was and is sin.
Solution
Now when we move to the solution, Jesus Christ, The only begotten Son of God, equal with the Father, being crucified, buried, and resurrected… Reveals that the problem of sin was something far greater and darker than anyone could have imagined.
The immeasurable greatness of such a sacrifice, the length God had to go, shows the depth and size of the problem- sin.
In other words, sin is not just a weakness it is a disease that only leads to death.
It is an act of war against a good God.
It is an act of chaos in God’s created order
It is an act of destruction in God’s good creation.
God is the offended party with sin.
Paul’s grasp of the plight of humanity fallen in sin, in light of the greatness of the sacrifice - God’s solution, he uses language such as:
We are dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1)
Ungodly (Romans 5:6)
Alienated from God (Ephesians 4:18)
Hostile toward God (Colossians 1:21)
Active enemies of God (Romans 5:10)
The plight of humanity - we are outsiders, we do not deserve or have any claim to be in God’s family, we are not entitled to anything.
Outside of God, we are destructive, selfish, self-absorbed and rebellious. And Paul summed it up in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
The solution, the Gospel (the good news of Jesus), is wonderfully and transparently honest. It tells you the truth even though it hurts. It shows us the human situation and our inability to do anything about it. This is true love - revealing our plight and going to the lengths God did for our solution.
The solution seen here in Romans 5:6
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Why is this Good News?
God knew everything about us and loved us anyway.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God is fully aware of what we are and the state of sin we are in and loves us anyway and made the way - the solution for us to be reconciled in relationship.
One of the symptoms of this sin fallen world is that we are locked into a mindset that if people really knew us completely, inside and out - we wouldn’t be loved.
Consequently, we can subconsciously project that perspective on God and because we know He knows everything about us, every sin, every behavior = we experience guilt.
Guilt acts as a powerful influence on our thinking.
It blinds us from the unconditional love of God. “God can’t love me, I don’t deserve it.”
It transforms the grace of God in the gospel into a performance based, merit based relationship.
Many believers live tormented, defeated lives because of the way their guilt has distorted the clarity of the gospel.
Some may try to do something for God to feel like they deserve his good blessing. This is self-centeredness, its a ploy to make self feel better rather than humbly accept the free gift - acknowledging you don’t deserve it.
The truth is, nothing we could ever do could bridge the gap between us and God, nothing we could ever do would merit something from God. We are incapable of cleansing ourselves and making us fit for his presence.
That’s why the solution was Jesus not you. And he gets all the credit.
He knows everything about you and loves you.
In fact, nothing we ever do will disappoint God. Because disappointment implies surprise and false expectations.
God doesn’t lack knowledge or have false expectations about you, he has known you all along. He knows you better than you know yourself and He still died for you.
He knows exactly who you are, where you are, and He loves you and He is a master at turning graves into gardens.
Our salvation does not depend on our own performance.
Romans 3:24-25 “and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith...”
Our performance does not make us acceptable to God or unacceptable to God.
It is God through Jesus and by His Spirit that he MADE us acceptable to Himself. We are reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus. The cross and resurrection make us at peace with Him.
The content of the gospel is not about what you’ve done, or might do, or need to do. It’s about what someone else did for you.
Jesus is the sum total of everything needed for an eternal relationship with God.
Galatians 6:14-15 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.”
It is Jesus plus nothing. It is not Jesus plus the Law, Jesus plus good works, it is just Jesus. If you have Jesus (believe in Him) you have everything. If you don’t you have nothing.
The justifiable wrath of God - towards all the sin and evil mankind has committed in an aggressive attack of war against His good creation has once for all been satisfied.
The debt has been paid as it only could be by Jesus. The sinless, spotless lamb. No other debt for our sin must be paid, nor could we possibly offer anything to be released from our debt we accrued. To try and offer anything to God other than faith in Christ is to tell the creator you reject his mercy and devalue his offering.
As the two wooden beams intersect on the cross, so it is the only place of our intersection with the wise creator God. Humbly admitting your insufficiency to save yourself, how undeserved you are for such a sacrifice, and a receiving of it by faith.
This grace towards you is not earned or merited but freely given by the love of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
So What does God want from the Gospel?
Believe. Put your trust in God’s promise and the completeness of what Jesus did.
Which means not believing other teachings or ideas about salvation. There is no other way, no other name by which men are saved. Jesus and He alone.
Transformation
God loves you and loves you too much to leave you the same. Remember all that kept you away from him. Yea, that’s all got to go. Our self-centered ways are removed through discipleship to make way to live in a way to help others believe in him and God’s plan.
God loves you before your transformation, during your transformation and He will always love you.
25 second Benediction
Let me tell you about My God
He is the Lord
The Everlasting One
The Creator of the heavens and the earth
He is All Powerful
He is Ever Present
He is All Knowing
He is the Savior
He is the Good Shepherd
He is Way, the truth, the life
He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
He is the Resurrection and the Life
His Name is Jesus
