Know and Stand in The Gospel

Introduction

Scripture

Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can more like You, and more made into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much, that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all to often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possible can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.

15 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Context

Today’s text begins towards the end of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, which as you will remember from our series in acts was a church that he spent a great amount of time in, planting and encouraging it. After leaving this church, some 2-3 years later, this young and once very promising church had found itself in some spiritual trouble, as division and misuse of the spiritual gifts was running rampant within it. So, Paul felt the urgent need to send them this corrective letter to get them back on the right path before he intended to visit them again.

One thing that stood out to Paul, and what had to be made explicitly clear to both the Corinthian church and to churches and believers everywhere, is the need to know what The Gospel of Jesus of Christ is and why it is so important. In our text today, Paul makes this very plain, and in just a few short verses writes it out in what many consider to be the among the most important verses of the bible when it comes to summarizing it in it’s entirety. That is, the whole bible points towards Jesus, our need for Him as savior, and what He accomplished through His death on the cross and His resurrection.

Just for starters, to even become a Christian, a person must have The Gospel presented to them in some way and you must affirm it both in knowledge and in belief. So, Knowing and understanding this point that Paul is making is tier one, first block, the most important, with regards to having and sustaining the faith life of the believer. Without a firm grasp of it, the follower of Christ can go little further. With it in firm grasp, the mustard seed sized faith can grow and see our insurmountable mountains and terrifying giants fall before an unshakeable faith in who Christ is. What i’m saying is, As a Christian, you must know and stand in The Gospel. So, let’s see the gospel as shared by Paul in this text to us unfold before our eyes and commit ourselves to it. Walk with me in the text where, I want you to see and remember these truths so that you may know and stand in The Gospel.

Message

The first to see and remember is that you must: Receive and believe The Gospel 1-2

15 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Paul addresses the brothers and sisters, reminding them about the gospel that had preached them before, which they had received (meaning they believed and made a confession of faith in), in which they have taken their stand (dedicated their life and whole being to), and by which they are being saved from wrath by, that is unless their belief and commitment was insensear, non committal, if so you have followed this religion in vain. Yes, you must receive and believe the gospel to be Christian, no exceptions.

So, before we even look at what The Gospel is, let me share with you what the word itself, gospel even means. Our word gospel comes from the greek word, εὐαγγέλιον, which simply means good news. It is closely related to another Christian word we say often, evangelist, which in greek is said as εὐηγγελισάμην, meaning a person who shares or proclaims the good news to others. So, if The Gospel of Jesus Christ means the Good News of Jesus Christ, then that must mean that their was some bad news right? There must be something bad that needs to be made right, if their is good news regarding. This bad thing, this bad news is to all of mankind. It’s the same for you, it’s the same for your mom and dad and their mom and dad, it’s the same for your children and your children’s children. This bad news is that because of your sin you are separated from God. You are separated from a love filled relationship with Him, you are separated from The Perfect Design of God when Christ returns, you are separated from any future with Him outside of a wrath and destruction filled future. This is bad, this is terrible news indeed, but, their is good news about this because of Jesus Christ sacrifice. Here what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans 6:23, about sin and Christ; “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of sin, you receive death, but the gift you can receive from Jesus is eternal life.

We can only rejoice when their is good news to share. One kind of cheesy time that comes to my mind comes of good news being shared is from 1961 cartoon movie, 101 dalmatians. Maybe you’ve heard of it… In the movie, there is a scene where the momma dog (Perdita) is giving birth to her puppies, and all the women are there with her in a room while the men and daddy dog (Ponga) wait anxiously and nurvously in another room. While it happens, 1 by 1 the trusted and loved nanny comes in and gives good news to boys about how many puppies their are. That is, until she comes in with bad news one time….., they had to take away one from the count, as one puppy didn’t look like he made it. In sadness, she brings the unlucky pup to them. In sadness, Pongo and his owner mourn, while warmly and lovingly rubbing and patting the pup, until much to their surprise, the pup begins whimpering and calling for it’s mom, the lucky pup was alive! And it was time to tell the whole excited family right then! This was good news. While this story is no way related the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it’s excitement in sharing the good news is the correct response to both receiving it and sharing it with others. Do you want to know and share this joy with others? Do you want to go from spiritual death to spiritual life!? Then you must know and receive the gospel because As a Christian, you must know and stand in The Gospel. Let’s keep going, let’s see the gospel unfold more and:

Let’s see and remember that: Christ died for your sins 3

3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

Paul get’s right at it here, he shared with them the most important thing to know and remember for the believer, this is the Gospel and it is as follows. The first part, found in here in verse 3 highlights that Jesus died Christ died for our sins just as the scriptures said He would.

There are several places in the scriptures that Paul would be pointing to here, but we would be here all day, so, I will share with you this passage from Isaiah 53 that would have been no doubt been one of them, this passage says about The Christ that: 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,

and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.

One important point to remember about sin, is that it has always required some kind of blood sacrifice to correct. Before Jesus’ sacrifice, mankind offered animal sacrifices to make a temporary fix/atonement before God. The wages, what we, what you receive because of sin is death…. But these animal sacrifices would only provide a temporary, not long lasting, cover and sacrifice, merely a payment of the interest on your debt to keep the bill collectors at bay for time, so to say. So, what did we need? What did mankind require to be made right before God once and for all? What could we offer to pay such a debt, to write such a wicked wrong? Let me tell you. Get. Ready……….. Nothing. We could offer, you can offer nothing. No, the penalty is to great, the separation so wide and vast, that only God could make it right. So, that’s just what He does, sending the second person of the trinity, God-the-Son, Jesus the Christ to earth so that He can offer His blood as the sacrifice to provide once and for all the payment for the penalty of sin for everyone would trust in Him. Christ, God Himself, died for you sins. You must know this and you must stand in this, as it is a critical point of the gospel and As a Christian, you must know and stand in The Gospel. Let’s move further into the gospel:

The next truth to see and remember is that: Christ rose from the grave 4

4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Paul continues to the second part, the proof in the pudding, where Jesus showed everyone His divinity. After He died on the cross and was laid in a tomb, Jesus, God the Son left the realm of the dead and came back to the living, He Was Alive! Just as the Holy Scriptures said He would.

Again, there exists many old testament scriptures that touch on Christ’s resurrection, but perhaps none is as clear as what Isaiah would write further in the 53 chapter of his book that, He was assigned a grave with the wicked,but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully.10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering,he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. What is this saying? This was clearly about Jesus, he lived a sinless life, and instead of dying in the sad state then men, as fallen creatures, he was rich in the eyes of The Father for His sinless life. Even despite this sinless life that Jesus lived, The Father was happy to destroy Jesus because the person (the member of mankind, which includes you) who takes Jesus as a guilt offering, the Lord’s pleasure (that you are saved and able to be in perfect relationship with Him will be accomplished). When you stand to be judged, instead of God seeing your guilty self, He will see the perfect of God the Son, who’s life The Father has prolonged, and you will be forgiven, you will be saved.

You know what really unique about this? What is remarkable here. It is this, as a rule, DEAD PEOPLE DON’T COME BACK TO LIFE. Once you are gone you are gone, Once the final breath comes in and out and the final heart beat pumps, that’s it. No more. You’re gone. This is a undeniable rule of nature. But, But, Jesus doesn’t fall under the rules and restrictions of nature, as all of creation did; because He was not created, He always was, the I AM, the eternal and supernatural God, who was and is and is to come! So, He did to what our minds seemed impossible, He came back to life! Christ rose from the grave! So Know and remember His Gospel, His Goodnews, As a Christian, you must know and stand in The Gospel. Because it is the very essence and biases in what we believe and live and stand in.

Conclusion

Beloved, I want you to notice something about these verses. Look at verse 3, notice how it is the start of a new sentence, now follow along with your finger through your bible, and look for the end of that sentence, you will find it at the end of verse 5. So, what happened in verse 5? Well it’s the same thing as in verses 6,7, and 8, Jesus shows Himself to person after person, even to a group as large as 500 people at one time and they either already where or become His disciples. What does this mean? It means a truth that remains to every disciple (every student/follower) of Christ today; that they had a real and personal experience with the reality of the risen Christ that caused them to believe and follow Jesus. So, they have a testimony (a personal story) about how they became followers of Jesus. So, this is what I want you to do today in response to this text, I want you to take the space provided for you in your notes and take a few moments, and write out your personal testimony. Let’s Begin…… Once you are done, it doesn't matter who it is to (it can a friend, it can be me, it can be family member, it can be another church member, it can be your spouse), but I want you to practice and share your testimony with 1 person this week. As a Christian, you must know and stand in The Gospel. And a fundamental part of both knowing it and standing in it is to know your testimony, how The Gospel changed your life.

Receive and believe The Gospel 1-2

Christ died for your sins3

Christ rose from the grave4

With all of that being said, I would be remised if I didn’t share the Gospel (or the Good News) of Jesus Christ with you today, for the benefit of both believer and non-believer in the room. This begins all the way back at the beginning, God created everything, and he created all things good. He gave His most treasured creation (us, mankind) the ability of free will, the ability to choose Him or rebellion. Man was deceived by Satan and desired to be like God and sinned (or rebelled against God). This brought the curse of sin and death into the world and it remains with us to this day; which separates us from God. God though, loved His creation (mankind) so much that He worked through history to redeem all mankind that would turn to Him from sin so that we can experience a full and perfect relationship with Him again. This was through the perfect and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the pay for sins. Accepting this free gift from God, makes you new and forgiven. All you have to do accept this free gift by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus and you will get to experience the good side of God’s justice forever. So, now that you know this, you can no longer plead ignorance. I invite and urge you to respond today non-believer and apply this to every part of your life believers in the audience today.

With that, Let’s conclude. Brothers and Sisters, I love you all. During our last song together, if you need prayer, or want to talk more about Jesus, or have something you want to talk about, I’ll be here, don’t be afraid to come on down. Let’s pray. Father God, we thank You for who You are and what You are doing to us here in this place. May whatever it is that You are doing in each of heart here, continue as we leave go out into the world this week. Change us, mold us, make us, re-arrange us, that we can be both better lovers of You and better showers of You. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.