What is the Gospel?

Introduction

One of the most important things that it is the responsibility of the Church of Jesus Christ to maintain is the truth of the Gospel. It is a distinct possibility in our lives that we will have the opportunity to share the Gospel with a stranger, with a neighbor, a work associate, or maybe just to encourage a fellow believer when they are down or disturbed.

There can be much confusion in the current day what the Gospel actually is. It doesn’t help when “Christian” leaders start to declare things that confuse Christ’s sheep. A couple of months ago, a major religious leader stated during a visit to Singapore that "There's only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God]." One of the items that was controversial some of the church’s leadership during my time pastoring in North Dakota was the statement, “The only way to God is through faith in Jesus Christ.” There are many congregations that profess to be Christian, but either subtlely, and in some cases, brazenly, teach the different gospel that there are multiple ways to God.

There are also additional ways to preach a different gospel than what Jesus gave to Peter that we will see here this morning. There is the gospel of family lineage which says that my parents are Christians, therefore I am too. There is the gospel of denominational membership, which believes that the church I’m in determines my salvation. There is the gospel of antinomianism, where all I have to do is profess faith in Christ and then I can live however I want. I recently had a long discussion with someone that believed that. There is the gospel of legalism that terrorizes people with all sorts of requirements in addition to God’s Law.

When I was asked a while back to preach today, I was debating what passage to preach on. I decided to go on from where I last preached in late June on the first 10 verses of Acts 3. It was great to look at the healing of the lame man, but what about this sermon of Peter. I will have to say that there is much in this passage. The good news of salvation is certainly front and center but also the doctrines of eschatology and the sovereignty of God. There is too much here to go through all of the depths of Peter’s sermon this morning. So, we are going to stay with the main thrust of Peter upon the Gospel.

If you remember with me the healing of the lame man sitting at the gate to the Temple in the earlier verses, we find that this is a continuation of that event. The people are amazed at this miracle and so Peter preaches the good news of Jesus Christ to them. In his sermon, we’ll be looking at 3 main points. The first is The Bad News of our Condition. The second is The Good News of God’s Grace. The third is The Call of the Gospel.

The Bad News of our Condition

Brothers and sisters, as I listen to many who preach, read many writers on the state of our society, you might think that one of the greatest issues we face is a lack of love. Our culture is very confused about what it means to love one another. The truth is that the world takes the principle of love that is emphasized in Christianity and then twists it into something unrecognizable. Loving parents don’t say “no” to their children. Loving people accept and embrace every person’s so-called “truth” even if that truth fundamentally denies reality. Our culture says that if you really love a person, how dare you tell someone the truth of Scripture as it might hurt their feelings or even be “hate speech.” What the world has done is twist true love into ungodly permissiveness with our children. People proclaim pride about their “love” of perversity without realizing that pride is one of the seven deadly sins of Proverbs 6. Accepting every person’s “truth” ends up denying the words of Christ and elevating man above God.

Our Problem of Sin

Friends, the true problem for each of us is our problem of sin. One of the greatest tendencies of human beings is to think that we are not as bad as we really are. One of the great things that the Gospel speaks to is where we are. For the Jews at this occasion, it was their denial and rejection of the promised Messiah, among many other sins. They bore false witness against Jesus, accusing Him of blasphemy when He acknowledged that He was God. To read the Gospels, the sin of coveting by Jewish leadership is clear. For Paul, in Acts 17, when speaking to the men of Athens, it was the worship of any other god except the one true God. Peter’s audience denied Jesus. They murdered the author of life. Peter calls all of this at the end of the chapter…wickedness. The problem of the world around us, and the weakness within us, is sin and wickedness.

Our Lack of Reconciliation

Our condition is not merely sin, but also what that sinfulness brings between us and a holy God. This is Our Lack of Reconciliation. In Peter’s sermon, he makes mention of the Holy and Righteous One. This is in comparison and contrast to sinful men. Outside of Christ, we are not holy. On our own, we are not righteous. Sin and wickedness cannot hold fellowship with that which is holy and righteous. As Peter says in verse 19, repentance from sin and conversion to God is the only way that our sins are wiped out.

Our Need of Healing

The third thing we find is Our Need of Healing. The healing of the lame man that comes before Peter’s sermon points to this reality. There is something wrong within us. When we look around at our society and the broader world we can see the disorder, the confusion, the warfare, the total brokenness….all around us. Our real problem is spiritual brokenness that needs to be healed by the power of Jesus. It is a perversion of thinking that can only be corrected by the truth of God’s Word. It is a rushing toward a lifestyle of death that can only be countered by embracing the Author of Life.

The Good News of God’s Grace

And if we were left to try to work our way out of our sin. We would be most miserable. Matter of fact, the Catechism teaches us that one of the things that we must recognize about ourselves is the reality of our sins and misery. Only when we realize the truth of our sins and misery, then we can truly embrace the truth of God’s grace.

God Sent His Suffering Servant

There are 3 descriptions that Peter gives about Jesus that I want us to look at this morning. Peter declares that God sent His Suffering Servant. Now Peter doesn’t use the term “Suffering” here, but his description of Jesus as God’s servant is very unique. There’s not the time this morning to delve into the original languages, but Peter is pointing his hearers back to Isaiah 53 along with others chapters in Isaiah as prophecy. Pastor Toeset preached on that passage last week. Our healing comes from the stripes of His servant Jesus. This servant was smitten by God, afflicted by God, our iniquity was laid upon him by God. God sent His servant for you and for me, because without his servant Jesus, you and I would be crushed…you and I would have to bear our own iniquities… Without Jesus our problem of sin is without any resolution. Without Him, there is no reconciliation. Without Jesus, there is no healing.

God’s Salvation is Through the Holy and Righteous One

Peter additionally declares that God’s salvation is through the Holy and Righteous One. Without dispute, we can all acknowledge that God is holy, that He is righteous, that He is perfection and beauty in greatest measure. But what are we? Does our sin make us holy? Can we wipe away our unrighteousness before God? As you contemplate the wonder and majesty of God in all His perfections and in all His wonder, what would make us think that we are worthy of dwelling in God’s presence for all eternity on our own? We are not worthy are we? We are separated from God…the profane (us) and the holy (God)…the condemned are separated from the righteous. Yet, because of Jesus, the Holy One, we can be sheltered from God’s wrath.

God Conquers Death Through the Author of Life

Finally, Peter announces that God conquers death through the Author of Life. It is said that there are two certainties in life … death and taxes. We are surrounded by death. Our loved ones die. We can have family members die at a young age. We see the tragedy of abortion around us. There is a movement in our country, but even more so in other Western countries, for physician-assisted suicide. I wonder how many of us have pondered how certain lifestyles can be an embracing of death. The direction sin takes mankind is a path towards death. We cannot escape it. Yet Peter preaches here the good news that death can be swallowed up by life. They killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. Death is defeated.

The Call of the Gospel

This then is the Gospel. We are sinners, and cannot become righteous on our own. We are estranged from God and have no way to be reconciled to God by our own works. We are a broken people. We have a great need of healing, and thanks be to God that He sent his servant Jesus. He is the One who heals us by His stripes. The Holy and Righteous One has come to rescue us from the separation that we each have with God by bringing peace through His blood. His righteousness is imputed to sinners, and the wrath of God against sin was laid upon Him. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

To Repent of Our Sins

The call of God in the Gospel has two aspects to it that can be distinguished but never separated. The first aspect of God’s call to us is to repent of our sins. What does it mean to repent? It means to acknowledge with God that we are indeed sinners…that we see sin for what it truly is...the way of death…and turn from it. Perhaps this illustration will help…you’re driving a car towards a cliff, you acknowledge that there is a cliff and that the bottom of that cliff is nothing but destruction. Repentance is to slam the break and turn the car around away from the cliff and certain death. That is the way of repentance.

To Have Faith in Jesus Christ

The second aspect of the call of the Gospel goes hand in hand with the first. That is to have faith in the author of life, the holy and righteous one, Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is to believe Who He is and to rest upon Him alone for salvation and to begin a life of leaning upon Him.

For unbelievers, faith and repentance is what Peter refers to in verse 19 as “turn to God’, or as older versions called it, to be converted. Conversion, or turning to God, is the command of God to all men. If there are some listening to the livestream this morning or even gathered here this morning that do not have faith in Jesus Christ, God commands everyone in all places to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Jesus from the dead.

But the call of the Gospel is not just for unbelievers, it is also for us who profess faith in Christ. What does the Gospel call believers to do? When we gather for worship each Lord’s Day, it is for a purpose. This morning, we have been reminded of the Gospel throughout the worship service. We start with the call to worship, which is how conversion begins with the Father drawing sinners to His Son. This is also how the Christian life continues. We profess faith in Christ through the words of the Apostles’ Creed. We hear the Law of God read and confess our sin. This morning we read an adaptation from Psalm 86 for our prayer of confession. Listen with me again to part of that prayer:

Hear us, Lord, and answer us, for we are poor and needy.

You are our God; have mercy on us, Lord,

for we call to You all day long.

Bring joy to Your servants, Lord,

for we put our trust in You.

You, Lord, are forgiving and good,

abounding in love to all who call to You.

Turn to Us and have mercy on us;

show Your strength on behalf of Your servants;

The apostles petitioned Jesus in Luke 17:5, “Increase our faith!” In Mark 9:24 we read the heartfelt cry of the father whose child was possessed by a demon when he said to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

The work of the Gospel in the believer’s heart is to urge the Christian on to greater faith, greater trust in God and live obediently. Colossians 3 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ…put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly natures…clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Conclusion

Dearly beloved of the Lord…you who call upon the name of the Lord, Our Father in heaven is forgiving and good and abounding in love towards you. Never doubt the promises of God. He is faithful when you waiver. He is your strength when you are weak. The author of life is the source of your hope of eternal life. The work of the servant Jesus wipes away your sins because it was for your transgressions he was punished.

All those who both repent of their sins and turn in faith to Jesus will experience the times of refreshing that come from the Lord. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and enjoy the blessing that comes from Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.