Cross Centered Life - What is the Gospel

What is the Gospel?

Intro:

We are going through a new series. This series is about something that impacts every single thing in your life. We are talking about the lens you view everything around you. Think of it like glasses. If you have sunglasses, you will view things darker than if your wore regular glasses. Or if you were wearing blue tinted glasses vs red. Depending on the lens, if will change how you will see the world around you.

Last week we talked about some of the pitfalls, some of the traps you can run into when you view the world with incorrect lens. I said the correct lens to look at the wold is through the cross. We need to have a cross centered life. We need to view everything around us in light of the cross, based on the gospel.

Now, if you are anything like me, you probably heard “The gospel, the gospel.” But you might grow up hearing this word, but not knowing what it is. If we need to live life and view life in light of the gospel, you think it would be important to know what the gospel is.

So, what is the gospel? “The good news”. Great, what is the news? I could give you a four word definition of the gospel (Jesus Christ saves sinners), or explain in the gospel in four books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Today, I want to give you a one sentence definition with four parts. Then, I want to explain each part.

Here is the definition.

The Gospel is the hope we have in Jesus’ Life, Death, Resurrection, and Return

We have hope in Jesus’ Life

He lived the perfect live we could not

You see, everyone one besides Jesus have sinned against God. We have decided that we are going to disobey God, rebel against God.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Now some, not most. All. And as a result, we deserve punishment, and rightly so.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Colossians 3:6 ESV

On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

Sin, all sin, has a correct, right consequence: Separation from God, and God’s wrath.

You might be thinking, “Caleb, there isn’t a lot of hope in this”. We need to know our correct standing to really appreciate what someone has done for us.

If someone gives a $100 dollars to someone who is a millionaire, it’s like, oh thank you. Give $100 dollars to someone who has nothing, it’s like, oh thank you. Give $100 dollars to someone who has nothing, and owes someone $100 dollars, and if they cannot pay, they get kicked out of their house, lose their family, and get thrown into prison. It becomes, oh, THANK YOU!!!

We need to understand our position.

Jesus came after us

But his life also shows that Jesus comes after us.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus came after us. And it was while we were still against Him! We didn’t clean up our act first. Jesus came after us. And Jesus came after us while we were actively against Him. That is an amazing thing that.

We have hope in Jesus’ Death

Jesus paid the price for our sins

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Think about it. Jesus had a perfect relationship with God.

We have hope in Jesus’ Resurrection

He proved what He said was true

Think about it. If Jesus wasn’t who he said he was, why wouldn’t he say “I’m going to spiritually rise again”? You can prove him wrong.

We now get to have a relationship with a living savior.

If you look at other religions. Those who started them are dead. Muhamma, Buddha, etc. They are all dead. But we get to have a relationship with a living savior.

We have hope in Jesus’ Return

We have a mission while on earth

Matthew 28:17–20 ESV

And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We have a hope of heaven

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 ESV

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.