The Simple Gospel Truth

Intro

Good morning church and thank you for being here this morning as we worship together. Worship is a funny thing when you think on it a bit.

I remember the first time I walked from my house on main street 8 blocks up to First Baptist Church of Owensville for the first time. I wore the best clothes i could find that were clean, I walked in and sat at the back of the service because I didn’t see anyone I knew. I heard them sing songs that I had never heard and the people sing alone. It was like everyone had classes on these songs or something because they all knew the words and the way they were supposed to sing them. However, I had nothing I could do but listen and look at the words on the screen and read them.

I remember them singing about being washed in the blood of Jesus which made me think a little bit but then I heard a song I had never heard that didn’t just stick in my head for the rest of the day, it stuck in my head and laid on my heart like an anvil for the rest of the weak.

Crucified And laid behind the stone You lived to die Rejected and alone Like a rose trampled on the ground You took the fall And thought of me Above all Oh, You were crucified And laid behind the stone You lived to die Rejected and alone Like the rose trampled on the ground You took the fall And thought of me Above all

Tension

It’s funny now, I listened to that song again this week and it sounds like a child created out of 80’s and 90’s Christian music, and this was when Michael W. Smith had that flowing hair that always seems to catch the wind like fans were blowing and even though the style of that kind of music isn’t at the top of my favorites lists, the words still impacted me in a way that reminds me, even now, of what Christ has done for me.

You see, it was the first time I had been confronted with the good news of what Jesus did. Not that I hadn’t heard about Jesus. I knew that he had been born because we celebrated Christmas and even sang happy birthday to him. We weren’t a church Easter family but I knew about the crucifixion from movies and had even been told about Jesus dying to save “us” but that was probably the end of it.

My understanding of God was that he basically wanted us to not be evil and saved us so that we could try. But that song stuck me on one point that I had never really had to deal with up until that time in 7th grade.

“You took the fall and thought of me above all.”

It was my first look at the “me”-ness of the gospel. That Jesus had died for me. That he was crushed for me. that he was trampled for me. While that is not the entirely of the gospel message it led me from ignorance to curiosity, curiosity to realization, and realization to desire to follow.

You see, it wasn’t a song or a prayer, or a service, or a event that led me to Jesus. It was the simple gospel message of Jesus and his love for the sinner, of which i was one. That message, simple as it might be, can move mountains in the lives of those who are willing to hear.

Today, in our time together, as we crack open the word of God to 1 Corinthians 2:1, we are going to talk about the gospel. the good news. The message for which we have been called to be messengers and ambassadors.

Truth

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (ESV)

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Pray

Exposition

Remembering the context here, this passage comes as an explanation of sorts, further clarifying Paul’s earlier arguments.

Remembering that Paul opened his letter by greeting and praying for his brothers and sisters in the church. Meanwhile, also dealing with the struggles of divisions that are dividing the people. The various teachers who have been serving and encouraging them have been made heads of infighting factions. Some thought themselves better than their brothers because they followed Paul, or Apollos, or Peter and their focus had been taken off of those who were dying without Christ. They were focused on personalities instead of the perishing. Arguments instead of opportunities to share salvation. Humanly wisdom instead of Godly purpose. The church was suffering for it and the people had lost their focus.

Paul now seeks to help them refocus their eyes upon their primary purpose and goal as followers and as the church.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (ESV)

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.

Verse 1 tells us a little bit about Paul’s first missionary journey into Corinth. Remembering that we talked about the rebuilding of Corinth turning from a crater of ruins to a boom-town overnight filling up with all kinds of people, merchants, and religious practices. It was a hive of blasphemies and degeneracy and Paul came here, led by the Spirit of God to preach the gospel message to those who didn’t know it. It hadn’t been done here yet and he didn’t know what to expect.

It reminds me of 2007 during the icestorm, while MO was reeling from the weathers grip on everyone, I was in South Africa, in Swaziland, doing outreach with an IMB team, trying to build up and encourage the local churches there. Each morning we would get up and go out with our missionaries, local church ladies, a translator, and local pastors to go door to door and share with people around their churches. We would be invited in and take turns sharing the gospel with them. We were so surprised how, not only people would let you into their home when you simply called to them from the road, “We are here to share with you about Jesus.” But that EVERY house let us in. They would bring out all of their mats and chairs to let you sit in as their guests and they let us share about Jesus. One town we were met immediately by a man wearing clothes so old the dirt was all that was keeping them together, smoking a gigantic marijuana cigar holding an ak-47. He startled us at first but then scared us as he started accompanying us from homestead to homestead. Later we found out he was the local sheriff and even he led us to his house to share with his family.

However, what our missionary, Greg, never told us, that is until we were almost out of the country, our last night in Africa, was that they had never tried that strategy before. They had never done, what we called “hut to hut” evangelism and they tried us out as ginney pigs. They didn’t know if we’d be chased off or shot at or how any of it would go.

Paul didn’t know how this journey to this town would fare. He admits as much, even declaring that he didn’t choose to share the gospel with them in any sort of lofty speech or wisdom.

You could argue that Paul, going into such a self important, Greek and roman comprised city, it would have done him well to “speak their language” so to speak. “Use to fancy words Paul. Speak up to the fine and educated people there. They will love it and you could do a good job,” after all Paul was a very educated and pedigreed Jewish man.

However, Paul wanted the simple Gospel message to be the star of the show. He could do all the rest but they would have been drawn to him, his personality, his teaching style, his words instead of the word of God. So Paul made a choice to only preach the gospel.

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

His lesson for the people was the tell them about the messiah and his death for them. Philosophies, strategies, ideas, opinions, debates. They were not the point. He wasn’t building a following or a brand for himself. Remember, it all comes back to our previous point: whatever you win them with is what you win them too. If they are won by fancy speakers and clever arguments they will just follow the next fancy speaker who if fancier or the better and more clever guy. Paul wanted to make sure that the people knew clearly that Jesus was the messiah and that he had died for them. That they would embrace that truth and that the Holy Spirit would do what only he could do.

3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,

4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Versus 3 and 4 give us insight into Paul the man in a way that I want us to acknowledge this morning. This decision was one that he made and followed through because the Holy Spirit moved him to do so, but one that scared Paul the man. The word “plausible” used here (pith-ano-o-eya) doesn’t mean what we use it as, to mean likely to be true or understandable. It means more “superficially pleasing or persuasive.” Meaning this, Paul knew that these people wanted words and ideas that would tickle their ears. They wanted elegant and pleasing arguments that were persuasive. Yet, he struggling as he knew it was the right decision, chose to instead preach simply and let the Spirit of God take center stage.

In essence, what Adam prays every week before I come up here, that they wouldn’t be my words or my thoughts or my ideas but that the cross would take precedence over every other thing is what Paul had decided to do. In a town that prided itself on arguments and discourses and philosophical debates with winners and losers and fame, Paul specifically chose to not give the people what they wanted so that the gospel would shine through rather than himself.

5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Over 14 years in student ministry this reality started to poke its head up for me in a way that I couldn’t ignore. What I mean is something that I started calling youth camp syndrome. We load up a group of kids from our churches and families and take them to experience a camp. The camp has a fun packed schedule, amazing teachers who contextualize lessons to students, kicking bands, amazing budgets, fun games, lazer light shows, and smoke machines. And in that environment, minus all the distractions of the world adding the influence of great leaders who pour into my life, I hear and respond to the gospel. I accept Jesus. I walk the isle in that amphitheater and pray with a leader. I am ready after that week to charge the gates of hell with squirt gun and share the gospel with all of my friends and family. Yet, as I arrive home and come to church that Sunday I find my speaker to be replaced by my same old pastor, the kicking music to be replaced with classic hymns and worship music, the fog machines and lazers to be replaced with florescent house lights, and all the time I spent with my leaders to be replaced with the same world that I said I would never settle for again. All of the sudden, I can start to feel like I can’t feel the spirit of God moving in my life anymore without the fog machine or the camp experience.

Mind you, this is how I felt the first year I got to go to a youth camp. The experience was so far away from what I had ever seen, felt, or experienced that I felt this is what I’ve been missing all these years. I loved it. But when I came home, there was no one waiting to sing my praises and make me come to church. I was just me and the commitments I had made in my heart and my bible. And as a youth leader I started asking how I could introduce my kids to the real Jesus and showing them that while the concerts may be fun and the conferences can enlighten us, they are supplements to the real meat and potatoes of this relationship. that we would know and follow Jesus. that we could live in communion and harmony with his word. That we would join him in his mission to share his hope with others.

And before we believe that this is a student ministry issue, might i call us back to the conversation adults. How many of us shop and drink at the spicket that runs deep and wide with the wisdom of men. Authors, books, conferences, speaking engagements, retreats, and events. Those things can be great but if our relationship with God is not supplemented by them as much as it is kept on life support, limping from one event to the next, we have gotten the cart before the mule. Such things a supposed to help us refocus and get recharged rather than becoming the main event in our spiritual lives.

Paul is trying to help them see that the real power to live in Godliness doesn’t come from manmade inventions or programs or teachers or philosophies but the real stuff, the good stuff, the lasting stuff can only come from a real, tight, authentic, open, and honest dialog with the Lord. In my prayer class we did when I first arrived in Mount Vernon, we talked about it like this. Imagine every day you were getting ready for work and going through all the things that live entails just to get out the door with all the kids mostly clothed, enough at least.

And every morning Christ was in the same spot in the living room, with your cup of coffee, tailored and piping hot just the way you like it. It was obvious that he knows what you like and put extra attention and time into getting things ready for your daily time together. This time, when you could prioritize it was the best example of helpful you’d ever had in your life. Christ would ask questions about your week, your triumphs and your failures. But these questions weren’t as one who was asking for information but like that of a trusted friend who knew the answer before the question was asked. You were never more clear or solidified in what your goals needed to be or how you could make simple recalculations in how you acted or thought about things to find yourself inside of God’s best for your life. Such time was so profitable that you’d find, some mornings, you’d rush down the stairs to find Jesus there, coffee ready, with his list of things he wanted to talk you through. However, despite the nature of the topics and discussions, each day, whether rebuke and conviction or joy and applause for a job well done, Christ would end each time by putting his hands on you and praying for you in a way that you couldn’t express. Like he knew what you needed more and better than you even did. He’d hug you like he didn’t want to let go and let you know that you can call anytime of the day you need to just talk or things get out of hand.

Now friends, what conference have you ever been too, that could ever transform your heart and life more than that time with Christ every morning. Because, make no mistake, that is what is offered to you each and every day when you step into the word and devote yourself to making prayer more than just an activity before bed and meals. No man made conference, no scheduled revival, no new book can ever be a substitute for the real thing. Paul knew this and so he specifically decided to just make it about Jesus and what he would do if we would but see the light.

Landing

As we think on this passage, and the implications for us, I’d invite us back to changes that scripture requires of us: belief, attitude, behavior.

We must keep the main thing the main thing. Attitude

A couple of years ago IHOP, the international house of pancakes, as a stunt, changed all of their branding to IHOB, without any explanation. Later they revealed that they were stepping out into becoming “The International House of Burgers” and would changing their focus to gourmet burgers. It went absolutely nowhere and the internet turned on the breakfast place almost immediately with a message loud and clear: Stay in your lane.

In recent years the American church has stapled so many trends, initiatives, outreaches, and programs to the outside of the building, we can sometimes feel like a YMCA with a steeple. That is not to say that such things cannot be good or even used to reach out to our communities. But, we must always remember that the main thing, really the only thing that we really have to offer our community is Jesus. It can be a great thing to volunteer at a soup kitchen, fold clothes at the hope center, watch your single mother neighbors kids while she’s at work, start a reading program at the local library, but the real power we have for change is that we know Jesus and can show others how they can know him.

that does not mean, as some have suggested, that everything we do MUST always have a right then and there chance to share the gospel or we should not be involved. Instead, we make it a point, right now, in our head and our hearts, that whatever involvements we have as Christians and followers of Christ, whether it be coaching kids, serving our neighbors, or feeding prison guards, that we will always look for opportunities to share the hope that we have and the reason why we are serving those. When they ask us “why are you so nice? Why are you doing this for me? What is different about you, i’ve never met people that treat strangers like this,” That we will take those divine appointments to tell the story of a God who saved us and made us new. And how he can do that in you. A friend put it this way: “We don’t just serving sandwiches because serving sandwiches is a good thing to do, We serve sandwiches so that we can serve you our Jesus.” That is our lane, and our attitudes must shift so that we take and make opportunities in all that we do, for the glory of God.

The gospel is essential. Belief

The gospel is not an elementary teaching that you hear, get saved, and then move on to the bigger stuff. The gospel is our secret sauce and what we are called to know, own, teach, and preach. Master it. Master telling the gospel in 2 minute, 5 minute, and 10 minute methods. Be able to share your story with people and how you came to faith.

A simple way that I find effective is using 4 words: creation, fall, rescue, restoration.

In the beginning God created everything, all that is, and by the way it was perfect. Perfect world, perfect harmony, perfect humanity.

Humanity, the first man and woman had free reign of God’s creation but had only one rule, to not eat from one tree but they betrayed God and chose to do so. From that moment, choosing ourselves over God’s will, sin entered the story. Sin is an archery term that means to miss the mark, and when they chose to disobey they missed God’s perfection. Since then, sin has permeated all of humanity which is why we can’t ever seem to get it right. We are broken because of sin and because of that, our relationship with Holy God is severed. We can’t be good enough to repair it on our own or flee from sin because we are by nature drawn to disobedience.

But God loved us so much, despite our sin and failure, that he sent Jesus, his only son, to live as a man, under all of the same struggles, temptations, and trappings that we fall into all the time but he lived perfectly, without sin. He willingly gave up his life, being sacrificed on a cross, for our sin. He paid the cost of our sin, making it possible for us accept his life, death, and Resurrection and follow him, and restore our relationship with God. Not because of our righteousness but because of his.

If we will accept Christ as both our savior and our Lord we will restore us starting now and lasting in a relationship that never ends. You can accept him now. This gospel truth is who we are church and we must reclaim that heritage again. Keep the main thing the main thing and that main thing is the Jesus can save sinners. Teach it, preach it, live it out, and be ready always to keep a reason for the hope you have in Jesus.

The day to day can be a “mountaintop” if we will lean into what Christ is offering. Attitude/Behavior

We can all get busy and often do. In those times we can walk right past Jesus, sitting with the cup of coffee, in the living room with a all too often “sorry running late, I’ll catch you tomorrow.” But friends, laser shows, authors, speakers, conferences, camps, and retreats are nothing compared to the relationship help out for you by your savior. He knows you better than you can even know yourself and he waits with anticipation that you would bring your heart to him to heal and restore into his image. Start with one day. Move to one week. Don’t try and eat an elephant or change your entire life. Just meet with Jesus. Open your Bible, and pray through the things that weigh on your heart. See how he changes you.

Application

So, in closing, a quit list of ways you can use these things this week.

Coffee with Christ this week. Plan a time and stick with it. Morning or night, whatever is your best time. Show up.

Read through and pray through the Gospel this week. The Roman’s Road is perfect for this. Look it up. i’ll post it this week. Read over it and pray through it as you remember what Christ has done for you.

Practice sharing the gospel this week and pray that God would give you an opportunity to actually share it to someone. Whether they are saved or not saved practice makes perfect.

Ask God to open your eyes again to the reality that His gospel is more than enough. Pray that he would give you faith to trust that He is enough and to help you when your faith wanes.