A Gospel Centered-Church

Knowing the Gospel

Romans 1:16 ESV

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

Not Ashamed of the Gospel

Why would Paul need to state he is unashamed of the Gospel?

1 Corinthians 1:23 “we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles...”

For Jews, the Gospel did not meet their expectations of a Messiah that would have a clear, earthly and present rule.

For Gentiles, the Gospel was foolishness, a Savior that calls us to crucify ourselves clashed with their focus on power, logic, and pleasure.

Our culture is no different than Paul’s culture.

Like the Jews, our culture wants to see God prove Himself in a tangible way.

Like the Gentiles, our culture sees it as absurd that the Gospel tells us to surrender all that we are to God.

How have we chosen to respond?

Have we rejected the Gospel because we feel the same?

Have we failed to share the Gospel because of the offense it might cause?

Paul provides us a reason to respond differently...

The Gospel is the Power of God for Salvation to Everyone who Believes

The Gospel is the means by which God has chosen to save people.

We must make sure that our ministries are centered on the message of the Gospel being preached.

Programs, service projects, ministry positions, conferences, testimonies, and potlucks will never save a soul.

Instead, we should use these opportunities to open ears so that we might share the Gospel.

The Gospel has the very power of God in it.

Just think about it, the Gospel has the power of a God who is omnipotent in it.

The Gospel’s power to save is the same power that created the heavens and the earth, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, and the same power that put life into our bones.

Do we truly look at the Gospel this way?

The Gospel doesn’t need the the eloquence of man to make it more effective.

Our excuse for why we fail to share the gospel is because we lack confidence in our ability to persuade others to the Gospel.

However, if we know that the Gospel is the power of God then this isn’t a lack of confidence in ourselves, but instead a lack of confidence in God.

We are simply called to be faithful to preach the Gospel allowing God to work in the souls that hear it.

The Gospel is for everyone.

The Gospel doesn’t discriminate like our hearts often do.

The Gospel is no less effective for a person who has grown up in church than the person who blasphemes God.

When we reject to share the Gospel of God to someone, we are doubting God.

Living the Gospel

Romans 1:17 ESV

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

In the Gospel the Righteousness of God is Revealed

Only through faith in the work of Christ may we receive the righteousness of God.

Faith is the only way we can enter into the Kingdom of God.

A Gospel from Faith for Faith

It is a mistake to believe that the only purpose of the Gospel is to start our faith.

We do not throw away the Gospel once we put our faith in Christ.

The Gospel is recieved and lived out from the start our relationship with God to the end our journey in this life.

We cannot outgrow the Gospel.

The Gospel must drive us to live by faith.

We must be careful that we don’t start our relationship with God in faith, but then abandon faith for works as we continue our relationship with God.

Our Spiritual disciplines (such as scripture reading, prayer, worship, evangelism, serving, stewardship, and fasting) must take us deeper into the Gospel of Jesus and not away from it into more advanced levels of Christianity.

D.A. Carson best summarizes this by saying:

“The gospel is not a minor theme that deals with the point of entry into the Christian way, to be followed by a lot of material that actually brings about the life transformation. Very large swaths of evangelicalism simply presuppose that this is the case. Preaching the gospel, it is argued, is announcing how to be saved from God’s condemnation; believing the gospel guarantees you won’t go to hell. But for actual transformation to take place, you need to take a lot of discipleship courses, spiritual enrichment courses, “Go deep” spiritual disciplines courses, and the like. You need to learn journaling, or asceticism, or the simple lifestyle, or Scripture memorization; you need to join a small group, an accountability group, or . . . Bible study. Not for a moment would I speak against the potential for good of all of these steps; rather, I am speaking against the tendency to treat these as postgospel disciplines, disciplines divorced from what God has done in Christ Jesus in the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord. . . . Failure to see this point has huge and dangerous consequences. . . . First, if the gospel becomes that by which we slip into the kingdom, but all the business of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall constantly be directing the attention of people away from the gospel, away from the cross and resurrection. Soon the gospel will be something that we quietly assume is necessary for salvation, but not what we are excited about, not what we are preaching, not the power of God.”

Sharing the Gospel

Romans 10:13–17 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

A Gospel Sent, Preached, Heard, and Believed

The Gospel is an urgent message.

Each one of these questions are to be responded with “they cannot”

God has chosen us as the means to which He will save the world.

God has given us His gospel so that people might hear and believe.

Our ministry must be built upon sending believers into our community to preach the Gospel, so that the lost might hear the Gospel and believe so that they might be saved.

Let us not have a single soul in the community that goes without hearing a clear presentation of the Gospel.

It would be a tragedy to have so many churches in this county and there be souls that live and die never hearing the Gospel, spending their eternity in Hell because we failed to share it.

The Gospel Heard through the Word of Christ

The Gospel must be preached with words.

Being a “light” to the world will not cause people not cause people to hear.

Many people quote St. Francis of Assisi

Preach the gospel everyday; if necessary, use words.

Francis of Assisi

The lost can only hear through the Word of Christ

Christ speaks the the lost when we proclaim the Gospel.