What is the Gospel?

Intro

Today 13 people will die for their Christian faith, so roughly one person every two hours, which means during our time at church someone will pay the ultimate price for their faith (open doors statistic)

by this time next Sunday 91 believers will die for their faith

By this time next year almost 5,000 believers will die for their faith

Today in the world their is 50 countries that actively hostile to Christians

I will tell you from experience when you are in one of the top 20 countries you think a lot more about every encounter you get to share the gospel

What had happened before today’s text?

John and Peter had healed a man of 40 years Old who could not walk and they shared the Gospel

This week we get to where the Sadducee's attention had been grabbed, the religious leaders of the time and they did not like it

Why?

That is what we are going to talk about this morning, the Gospel being offensive, but because of it we have been transformed and can proclaim it boldly no matter the opposition

An Offensive Gospel

People done nothing but benefited from the Gospel and what true believers were doing

So why such a rejection?

That is a why we would all like to know, how often do we share the Gospel, go above and beyond to be nice to folks and we are treated with rejection and spite? Why have I been asked to leave town for sharing the gospel?

The Gospel is offensive because it hits so deeply at what it means to be human and brings people to a deep encounter with themselves and the God of the universe

In this moment people either realize their need for a savior and accept or they realize their a need for a savior and reject and lash out

No matter our response to Christ, it is always an active response

So let us get to why the Gospel is so offensive:

1. Annoyance- a disruption of how things are

we do not want our traditions changed

Tradition is going to take a lot of people to hell because people have elevated tradition to a place greater than the Bible and would rather have tradition dictate them rather than a God who calls them to salvation and to die to self to get uncomfortable so that the Gospel may go forward with boldness

Mark 7:6–13 ESV

And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “ ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

Tradition often is just putting makeup on a pig

Often tradition makes it where the lost have to push through us to get to the cross

Let us not worry about our preferences but what allows the gospel to go forward with the most effectiveness in the culture we live in

2. Strips of power

See the Saudacees had a comfortable life where they controlled the religious culture

Jesus came in with a greater teaching that showed the shortcoming of theirs and stripped their religion of power

Since the beginning we have attempted to build our way to heaven

Romans 3:10–11 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

Romans 1:18–19 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.

See people know they are broken and scripture makes it clear they know their is something bigger than them, but yet they do not search out the right solution to their problem

So people build their own versions of the tower of Babel trying to satisfy that God size hole in their heart

as we step into these situations we are asking them to sit down the brick/hammer to stop on their life work that has all been done in vain

That is a tough undertaking getting people to sit down what has shaped their world

That is why we must pray for the Spirit to pave the way and prepare the hearts

That is why we much share the gospel and not opinion

When you go in berating sin, you are attacking the tools they have used to build their tower of Babel, rather than speaking peace into the heart picking up the tools

3. Confronts

Makes us look at our hearts, and causes us to see the shatterness

A song about 10 years ago came out that said this, “I wanna let go, but there’s comfort in the panic”

The same song in the chorus says, “I'm holding on / Why is everything so heavy? / Holding on / To so much more than I can carry”

The singer of that song would go on to commit suicide the same year as publishing that song

Our fixes to our soul only last so long, they can only hide the pain for so long, the numbness to the pain can only stay numb for so long

In other words we get use to the pain and suffering caused by the brokenness, and we create this false comfort that we find through temporary releases

When confronted we can respond negatively:

One the Gospel takes the fix out of our hands, taking the power from our hands and it scares us to let go of our safety nets, it scares us to let go of what numbs us

Can their really be something/someone bigger than my pain? Can their really be a joy that helps me carry the pain better than the numbing

we do not realize the freedom that awaits

Think of riding a bicycle, when you first start you got training wheels, and it scares you at first to have them taken off

Once their off invisible physics help you stay up, and now is you bicycle journey free of pain, no some wrecks are going to happen, especially when you don’t acknowledge the laws that keep you upright

When I done a front flip off my bike it was not physics fault it was me not respecting physics

We see the brokenness and we feel like that is what we deserve, we don't deserve to be fixed, we are not worth the time, we deserve to suffer

The Gospel confronts this mindset, saying you deserve death and eternal suffering, we all do.

But that is not where the Gospel ends the Gospel goes on to say despite everything God desires to redeem you to make you worthy of life and eternal joy

that is what makes the Gospel so beautiful, none of us deserve it but God freely offers it to all

The story of Hosea shows this

Hosea a prophet of God is commanded to marry a prostitute who to no big surprise cheats and wanders off and then God commands Hosea to go find her and bring her back into his loving arms

What a picture of love, one acts undeserving and another freely gives

Realize it does not surprise God when you return to your old ways, and he is there to forgive and help you walk more faithfully

When these offensives are replaced with the true cornerstone transformation happens

Transformative Gospel

The Saudacees accused them of being uneducated, common men

but they realized they had been with Jesus, they were people who got over themselves and let Christ speak into the offensive and heal the shatterness in their souls

Being with Jesus completely turns the situation around

Uneducated

In other words they were not qualified by worldly standards, but because of the one the spent time with they were qualified

Don’t be surprised when the world calls you a bigot and close minded

1 Corinthians 1:18–19 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Common

We do not have anything superhuman about us that make us the prime follower of Jesus

disciples were primarily fishermen

Not exactly the group you expect to be used to start a worldwide movement

Their is nothing special about us, we a bunch of common people meeting in the backwoods of Alabama, how can we even be used mightily

Do not underestimate what God can do through Hurricane

He is not limited by our location, budget, problems, etc.

Because in the end it is not about what we can offer resource wise, it is about offering our heart and surrendering our hearts to him with all abandonment

The transformation from the Gospel gives us the boldness to go forward and not let toff of sharing the gospel

Outro

Acts 4:19 ESV

But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge,

Peter was crucified upside down

John they tried to boil in oil and then exiled him to Pathmos

So this first imprisonment and first bout of persecution did not stop them from preserving, they pushed forward

How much are you willing to pay for an Offensive Gospel?

Do you let the world dictate how you share the Gospel or do you let God dictate how you share the Gospel?