Most Important

Text: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Children’s Bible Page: 1249

Introduction: Why Jesus?

I want to invite those of you with a copy of the Bible to turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15.

Happy Father’s Day to you.

I absolutely love being a father.

I love that we have a perfectly loving father God.

Father’s are so vital in all of our lives.

I am thankful for all you fathers.

Also, happy baptism Sunday.

We as a church have trusted that as we love God, love others, and share the gospel of Jesus, He is going to bring about His fruit in His season, and we celebrate that today through baptism.

On this special day, I want to look at this passage in the Bible and seek to answer one simple question: Why Jesus?

Why do I need to know and follow Jesus?

Why can’t I just be a good person?

Why can’t I just love my family and friends and do right by other people?

Can’t I just be a genuine person who doesn’t kick puppies, vandalize property, or lie on my taxes?

And why Jesus?

Aren’t there a lot of religions out there that teach the same things and lead you to the same place?

Don’t you think it is prideful to say that following Jesus is the only way to heaven?

Can you really believe that a loving God would send someone to hell for not following Jesus?

Maybe you just believe that because of the family and tradition you grew up in.

Haven’t all these kinds of things been disproven as we’ve moved toward a better state of enlightenment?

I’ve told you this before but while I grew up in a Christian home, by my twenties, faith did not come easy for me.

I experienced a lot of angst and frustration over religion, tradition, hard questions, seeming contradictions, tough experiences with church, and what I saw as my own inability to be a good Christian.

And I believe during that time, God had to tear away a lot of feelings and assumptions I had about faith, and He had to take me back to the heart of what is true.

So, in this moment, I want to share the heart of Christianity that I found in the clearest way I can.

And the heart of truth that overwhelmed my heart is explained in

1 Corinthians 15:1–11 (ESV)

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, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 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. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

1. The Gospel Of Jesus Must Be Received In Order To Be Saved

One of Jesus’ early followers named Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians.

And here Paul is writing to believers in Jesus, and He is reminding them what the heart of the Christian message is.

He calls the center of the Christian message: the gospel, which simply means “good news.”

If you were to imagine with me that there is one God who created all things, and he had something to say to you, what do you imagine He would say?

Do you think it would be good news?

If you are not confident that God would have good news for you, then you are not understanding the heart of God’s message to you.

The heart of God’s message to you today is not condemnation, or disappointment, or apathy, or a low level guilt trip, or a cold and calculated correction.

No, the heart of God’s message to you is good news.

But notice, it is not just good news that you hear and then move on from like me hearing that a stranger had a good day.

I mean, I’m always happy to know someone had a good day, but I don’t have to respond to that news in any certain way.

Yet, notice, the heart of God’s message, the good news, is news that when you hear it, you respond to it.

Notice in verse 1, these readers responded to the good news by receiving it and standing in it, and because they believed in it and stand in it, they are being saved.

So, this good news is presented like a life raft in the midst of the stormy seas.

It is something to hold fast to and stand on in order to be saved from the storm.

And if you don’t receive the good news and hold fast to it and stand on it,

In other words, if you don’t hold onto this good news believing it will save you, it does you no good.

The gospel of Jesus must be received in order to be saved.

It’s not like hearing about some stranger having a good day.

It’s more like getting a call from your doctor that you have a serious illness but that there is a perfect solution that you have to come to the hospital in order to get.

If you believe what the doctor says, you will happily respond by going to the hospital.

If you don’t believe what the doctor says, you will make a personal and active choice to reject his diagnosis as false and his cure as unnecessary.

But, no matter what, you will make a conscious choice.

So the good news must be personally received in order to be saved, but what is the good news?

2. The Gospel Of Jesus Is All About What God Has Done For You

Paul writes in verse 3: I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:

So, whatever it is that Paul is getting ready to tell them, he says it is the most important thing.

It’s the very heart of God.

It’s the very heart of Christianity.

What do you think the heart of Christianity is?

Maybe you think the heart of Christianity is about living up to certain standards and following certain rules.

Or maybe you think that the heart of Christianity is having a certain political leaning or you think it is about preserving certain traditions or customs.

Or maybe you think the heart of Christianity is about being a good and loving person, loving God and serving Him.

Can I say something you may find surprising, the heart of Christianity is not any of those things.

When Paul said that He was going to remind them of the most important thing, the very heart of God,

He says, “Christ died for our sins, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day, and all this is in accordance with the Scriptures.”

In other words, the heart of God’s good news to you is not about what you have to do for God, it is all about what God has done for you!

The heart of God’s message in the gospel is not “do this, and God will love you, do that, and God will approve of you.”

No! God’s message in the gospel is not about what you have to do, it is all about what God has done for you.

What’s the good news from God to you? Christ died for your sins.

Maybe as you have heard me mention being saved, and grasping onto the gospel like you would a life raft, you are thinking - saved from what?

What do I need to be saved from?

I’m a good person. I don’t kick puppies, vandalize property, or lie on my taxes!

How can you say I need salvation?

Well, God’s word is not primarily a book of rules, and it’s not primarily a book of moral codes, and it is not primarily a book of different ancient stories, God’s word one story of who God is, who we are, what is wrong, what is the solution, and where is this whole thing headed.

The very beginning of the Bible tells us that there is one God, and He is the maker of heaven and earth.

Does it not make sense that a universe with such order, such complexities, such beauty, and such design was created by the orderly, complex, beautiful, and designing God?

And God created men and women in his image.

That means that just like God has a capacity to communicate, and a capacity for relationship and purpose and meaning, God created men and women with those capacities in which no other created thing has.

And God made men and women to worship and obey Him.

Which may sound prideful of God until you realize He is God.

If God desired to give his creatures the very best thing in the universe, what better thing could he offer them than himself?

We were created to experience the perfect love and relationship of God, and we were to find all our needs met and desires satisfied in our loving Father God as we have a love for God and as we show loving service to others.

But, obviously, we all know, something has gone terribly wrong.

And what went wrong is that men and women sinned against God.

Instead of finding all their needs met and desires satisfied in God alone, mankind decided they wanted to be their own God and choose right and wrong for themselves.

Mankind disobeyed God in an attempt to be our own God, and does it not make sense that since we have sinned, we are separated from a perfectly holy God,

And the payment of our sin against God is death, because how can we not die when we are separated from the very one who has given and sustained our lives?

And see, sin does not primarily show itself in things like kicking puppies, vandalizing property, or lying on your taxes.

Sin is most clearly shown in our hearts that love other things more than they love God.

The ten commandments, which are like God’s law 101 begin by stating:

You shall have no other gods before me.

You see, our sinfulness is most shown to be sin, not by the types of actions we do or do not do, but by the fact that we all naturally love, and trust, and serve, and sacrifice for created things instead of the Creator God.

And because this is true of all of us, we are all naturally separated from our good, loving, and holy God,

We deserve punishment and death for rebelling against he very purpose God created us for.

But while we were all seeking to place our trust and find our satisfaction in created things instead of the Creator God,

and while we deserved death and hell do our sin,

God loved us so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ.

And Jesus lived the life we were called to live.

Jesus lived a life of love for God and service for others.

Yet, the world rejected him to the point of executing Him on a Roman cross,

But, it was on the cross where Jesus took the punishment for all of our sins onto himself.

The only one who did not deserve the punishment for sin took it on himself,

So that all of us who deserve punishment will be spared from it.

Christ died for our sins.

Christ took the just punishment so that you can be forgiven, and freed, and reconciled to a perfect relationship to your loving Father God.

And notice, Christ was buried.

But, then God the Father raised Jesus Christ up on the third day, defeating sin, Satan, hell, and death for us!

The good news of the gospel of Jesus is all about what God has done for you!

To save you from sin, and punishment, and spiritual death.

Jesus died so that although you will die physically, you will be alive spiritually to live in perfect relationship with God for eternity.

And if you are thinking: okay, I can see why this sounds like good news, but isn’t this more like a hokey fairy tale then a historical event?

I mean, God placing my sin on a man hanging on a cross over 2,000 years ago then raising Him from the dead three days later?

That sounds more like something I saw on the Sci Fi channel than something that actually happened in history.

I want you to consider with me for a moment that the letter of 1 Corinthians was the earliest letter that Paul wrote.

And it was written while many people were still alive and well who saw Jesus murdered on the cross, and then saw him risen, alive and well before He went back to Heaven.

That’s what Paul writes in verse:

1 Corinthians 15:5–8 ESV

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.

Question: how did this historical letter, that is written in the style of history, facts, and figures, not written in the style of fairy tale and once upon a time,

How did this letter make it out of the first generation of Christ followers and into the very documents of the Bible that have now been preserved for over 2,000 years.

As people were reading Paul’s letter, all they would have to do is go ask Cephas and the twelve, then go ask some of the five hundred people to whom most were still alive, and simply ask them if they saw the risen Jesus alive and well after he was murdered on the cross.

Are you telling me that not one of those people would tell the truth and say it didn’t happen if it didn’t happen?

And also, what would the people have gained from holding onto a lie that Jesus had risen from the dead?

The Bible and church history tell us that the first generation Christians were treated brutally by the Jews and by Rome.

They were persecuted, harassed, and sent to the Colosseum to be brutally murdered, all for claiming that Jesus is Lord because He rose from the dead.

Are you telling me that if they were lying, no one ever had the good sense to speak up and say, “Hang on, don’t kill me, it didn’t really happen. We made it all up.”

Here’s the bottom line:

If Jesus was a true historical man who walked the earth, claimed to be the Son of God, was murdered on a cross, then truly rose from the dead, then everything He said about God and sin and Heaven and Hell is true, and Jesus is Savior and Lord.

If Jesus was not murdered on a cross and did not rise from the dead, then He is not Savior and He is not Lord, and you don’t need to believe anything He said.

In my twenties, all my angst and frustration over religion, tradition, hard questions, seeming contradictions, tough experiences with church, and what I saw as my own inability to be a good Christian,

Led me on a journey of study and research to get to the bottom of the true heart of the Christian message and the truth about this historical man named Jesus.

You would think it would be pretty easy to historically disprove something like the resurrection of Jesus, because people don’t rise from the dead.

But, It was the exact opposite that I found.

I stand before you today fully convinced that Jesus was murdered and died on that cross, that he was buried, and that God raised Him from the dead.

And if Jesus rose from the dead, then He is Savior and Lord, and all he said about God, and sin, and Heaven, and Hell is true.

And God has done absolutely everything necessary to hold out His loving hands of mercy, grace, and unconditional love to every human being and say, I’ve done everything necessary to save you, forgive you, adopt you into my family, and be your loving Father for now and eternity.

If it is even possible that what Jesus said about God, sin, Heaven, and Hell, would you not look into it for yourself?

Don’t take my word for it!

Read the Bible!

Check out the stories of people like Lee Strobel, a professional journalist and atheist who took on a project to prove the resurrection of Jesus a shame, and ended up becoming and Christian after He was ultimately convinced that it is true.

3. The Gospel Of Jesus Is For Everyone Who Will Believe

1 Corinthians 15:9–11 ESV

9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

One of the problems I struggled with in my twenties was how Christianity seemed so narrow minded and exclusive.

How can you say that Jesus is the only way to God? How can you say that anyone who does not believe and receive the message of Jesus will spend an eternity in the punishment of Hell?

But think about it: how insulting is it to God for him to unconditionally love us enough to go through the pain and torment of giving His only son to pay the penalty for our sins, and him see his son murdered, and then we say: thanks but, it would be narrow minded of me to say that I need that sacrifice to save me and pay for my sin.

Surely my being a good person will be enough.

Thanks but no thanks on the whole suffering and dying in my place thing!

That would be like standing to speak at the funeral of a person who jumped in front of a bullet to save your life and saying, “I would have been fine if they wouldn’t have jumped in front of that bullet. I’m sure I would have found another way to survive.”

“I want to honor the other ways I could have survived by not honoring what this person did by jumping in and dying for me.”

How offensive toward God to respond like that!

And to the point of the gospel being too exclusive saying that all who don’t believe and receive it will go to Hell - just think about this:

Any and every other secular or religious worldview either claims that there are insiders and outsiders or that we are all outsiders.

A secular worldview saying that we just cease to be at all upon death - we all lose.

Any and every other religious worldview, there are insider and outsiders based on who you are and/or what you’ve done.

No religious worldview includes people like Hitler, and serial killers, and others of the worst who ever lived winning in the end.

It is only in Christianity and the gospel of Jesus Christ that offers the possibility of absolutely anyone winning in the end, through what God has done through Jesus.

Paul was a religious persecutor, terrorist, and murder when He believed and received the gospel of Jesus and was saved by God’s grace.

And God changed Paul’s life and gave him meaning and purpose and He worked in that meaning and purpose sharing the love of Jesus with others for the rest of his days, and when His body died, He experienced the full victory of Jesus’ resurrection when He saw His savior face to face.

The gospel of Christianity is the most inclusive message possible, because Jesus death and resurrection is held out to the worst of sinners to be forgiven, freed, and adopted into God’s family!

It’s why the church through the ages and even today sacrifices greatly to take this message to all peoples in all places spanning all cultures and socio economic groups through missionary service because we believe everyone on the planet needs to believe and receive the message of Jesus’ death and resurrection in order to be saved.

God saved me although I am naturally selfish and judgmental, even though I have struggled with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation even since knowing Christ.

The gospel of Jesus is for everyone who believes.

We have three people being baptized today because they have believed and received the message of the gospel.

So they are coming today to publicly proclaim that Jesus is their Savior and their Lord and they have chosen to follow Him.

Jesus said that after we are saved through faith in the gospel, then we should be publicly baptized in order to identify with the death and resurrection of Jesus as we are buried in the water then raised from it as a picture of Jesus’ death and resurrection for us.

We are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit because in salvation, we have been reconciled to a perfectly loving, intimate relationship with God who has done everything to save us and bring us into perfect community with Him.

We are baptized in front of the church because church is not a building we come to, church is the people who have been saved and adopted into the family of God by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not only saved from our sin, but we are also saved in God’s family - The church.

Let me be clear, baptism does not save you.

You are completely saved when you trust Jesus for salvation.

But, baptism is an outward expression of what has happened in your salvation that you do in obedience to Jesus when you are old enough to embrace your faith in Jesus for yourself and are ready to submit to Him as Lord.

Let me pray.