The Gospel
Marks of a Healthy Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 18 viewsThe gospel shows the beautiful of Christ
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Introduction
Introduction
What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen? A sunset? A sunrise? before kids, when Steph and I were first married. Drop her off, go to the lake
what shows the beauty of Christ?
Transition: Before we can get very far and what the gospel means for you and I, we really need to understand what the gospel is as the Bible defines it.
History: Here in these verses from 1 to 34, the argument is for the certainty of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. In these few verse we see that fact that Jesus did indeed die and rose again. This is the heart of the gospel, for if this doesn’t happen, we believe in vain.
What is the Gospel
What is the Gospel
says
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
But what is the gospel? If it’s what saves me, what is it? What does it mean for me?
has a concise gospel for us, as it says:
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
Now I would remind you I want to make quite clear to you something that the community here already knows, but has begun to forget.
Vs. 1 This gospel is what your past, present, and future are based on. It’s not just something you believe once, it’s ongoing. We need to be reminded of it ever day.
For Paul, he says in that it is wretchedness and shame for him not to proclaim the gospel
1
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Vs. 2 If you hold fast If statement: The Corinthians were beginning to slide into the thought that Jesus didn’t rise again. Any movement from what Paul had preached and what they received would mean that they believed in vain and that they were never believers.
Here’s a point. The church in Corinth was starting to doubt that Jesus rose again. They had started to take a part of the gospel and throw it out. What happens when we take any part of the Gospel and say, “Hey, this doesn’t line up with what I feel is possible”, rather than taking the Word of God as the Word of God, everything starts falling apart.
The resurrection of Jesus belongs to the teaching tradition of the gospel that Paul has received and passed on to the Corinthian believers. Without Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the gospel is not good news, since sinners would not be saved. The Christian faith serves no purpose (is “in vain”) without Jesus’ resurrection and thus provides no salvation; if one translates the Greek as “without due consideration,” Paul says that people who think of themselves as Christians have an incoherent faith if they do not accept Jesus’ resurrection as a historical fact.
The resurrection of Jesus belongs to the teaching tradition of the gospel that Paul has received and passed on to the Corinthian believers. Without Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the gospel is not good news, since sinners would not be saved. The Christian faith serves no purpose (is “in vain”) without Jesus’ resurrection and there is no salvation. What the text is really saying is that Paul that people who think of themselves as Christians have an incoherent faith if they do not accept Jesus’ resurrection as a historical fact. But it’s not just the resurrection that this text addresses, it’s the other parts.
The resurrection is and always has been the foundation of all preaching about Christ. Without it, the gospel dwindles into an inspiring story of a wise teacher who suffered heroically as a victim of human decitefulness. Paul hints that if they move from this belief, it brings their salvation into question.
The resurrection is the keystone that integrates the incarnation and Christ’s atoning death. If it is removed, the whole gospel will collapse. If there is no resurrection of the dead (15:12), humans remain under the tyranny of sin and death, and their bouts of doubt and despair are fully justified.
Moo, D. J. (2015). The Letters and Revelation. In D. A. Carson (Ed.), NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered on the Gospel Message (p. 2353). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Transition: If I take any part of the gospel, or preach to you any part of the gospel, that adds to or takes away from what God has said, it’s a false gospel. You can’t be saved by it. If I mess around with God’s holiness. Or Jesus’ divinity, or Jesus’ humanity, or that my sins aren’t as bad as they really are. That’s messing around with the good news. It’s no longer shows the beauty of Christ.
Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 679). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic.
Transition: If I take any part of the gospel, or preach to you any part of the gospel, that adds to or takes away from what God has said, it’s a false gospel. You can’t be saved by it. If I mess around with God’s holiness. Or Jesus’ divinity, or Jesus’ humanity, or that my sins aren’t as bad as they really are. That’s messing around with the good news. It’s no longer shows the beauty of Christ.
SOmething that we need to remember. Paul isn’t coming at them guns-a-blazing. He’s coming at them as a local church that has become confused. So he gently reminds them of the thing that they had originally recieved. He wants them to see the beauty of Christ.
BI: The Gospel shows the beauty of Christ and any diveation from it, and perversion from it, and movement from it does not make Christ look beautiful, it doesn’t make him look at sufficient for salvation, he doesn’t look as though he is enough.
So what was being preached to the Corinthians? Why does it show the beauty of Christ? What the text goes on to say is the fundamentals of the Christian faith. If you can’t believe in this, you aren’t believing in the Gospel.
What did he preach? Or what is the Gospel?
What did he preach? Or what is the Gospel?
Christ – the gospel is about the second member of the trinity, Jesus Christ. This long promised Messiah was born of the virgin Mary and lived a sinless life. This last three years of that life were spent doing good and teaching people about God.
Jesus is unique. There is no other like him. He is therefore irreplaceable. There is no other Savior. The world has no other hope.
Ortlund Jr., Raymond C.. The Gospel (9marks: Building Healthy Churches) (p. 30). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Died – Jesus, both fully human and fully God, was put to death on a Roman cross. He really died. To the point that when His body was taken down from the cross it was buried in a Jewish tomb. This death of Jesus was not an accident, however. Jesus, the Messiah, died instead of us (who are siners) and for our benefit. This happened all according to what the Bible already prophecied (
That he was buried Confirms that Jesus died.
Ortlund Jr., Raymond C.. The Gospel (9marks: Building Healthy Churches) (p. 29). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Ortlund Jr., Raymond C.. The Gospel (9marks: Building Healthy Churches) (p. 29). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
For – Sometimes the most important words in our Bible are the smallest ones. The word, “for” means “in the place of”. The death Jesus died was substitutionary. He was dying in the place of or for someone else. This gets explained further with the next two words.
Our – When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he was writing to Christians. That is why he tells them that Jesus died for “our” sins. The death that Jesus died was for all those who repent (turn away from sin) and believe (have faith in Jesus alone to save them).
Sins – All of us were born with an inclination to sin. All of us have sinned in real time. God told the first man, Adam, that if he sinned, he would surely die. The penalty for all sin is death. The message of the gospel is that Jesus came to die in our place. He took our sins on Himself and suffered the punishment of God in our place.
You aren’t good enough. But Jesus is.
The Bible challenges the self-flattery that we cling to in our world today. How? First, the law of God exposes the fraudulence of our virtue by showing us the true holiness of God. We don’t deserve as much as we think we do. Second, the Bible simply changes the subject to how much God loves the undeserving. In other words, the gospel helps us to stop barricading ourselves against God, because it’s evil people in denial whom God loves so massively.
BI: The Gospel shows the beauty of Christ, it calls for a radical response and that our greatest need in the world is the need for a Saviour.
And now the full hand raised.
“…and was raised.”
This is the primary tenet of the Christian faith. A rejection of any of these things is to make the message not the gospel. For the Christian, Jesus is characterized first of all by this reality: “He died to take away our sins. (1:23; 2:2)
When we read those words: Christ died for our sins,” the creed tells us that we were alienated from God because of our rebellion and sinfulness, and the punishment for that rebellion is death.
And Was Raised – God’s giant stamp of approval on what Jesus did for us was raising Him from the dead. Jesus was resurrected on the third day and appeared to many of His disciples
And Was Raised – God’s giant stamp of approval on what Jesus did for us was raising Him from the dead. Jesus was resurrected on the third day and appeared to many of His disciples
The Big Difference between the worlds gospel and Jesus’ gospel: Every other hope is based, explicitly or implicitly, on how deserving we are. Only the Christian gospel is based—clearly, boldly, and insistently—on how loving God is to the undeserving. If you thought you could earn, demand, and fight your way through life on the basis of your own entitlements and cleverness, but now you find within yourself not light but darkness and denial, not freedom but impasse; if you have shocked yourself with the evil you’re capable of and have given up on yourself in despair, the God of love waits for you with open arms today.
Ortlund Jr., Raymond C.. The Gospel (9marks: Building Healthy Churches) (p. 32). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
BI: The Gospel shows the beauty of Christ, it calls for a radical response and that our greatest need in the world is the need for a Saviour.
The Gospel Is, in a nutshell...
Ortlund Jr., Raymond C.. The Gospel (9marks: Building Healthy Churches) (p. 32). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
The one and only God who is holy made us in his image to know him ().
But we sinned and cut ourselves off from him (; ).
In his great love, God became a man in Jesus, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, fulfilling the law himself and taking on himself the punishment for the sins of all those who would ever turn from their sin and trust in him (; ; , ).
He rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Christ’s sacrifice and that God’s wrath against us had been exhausted (, ).
He now calls us to repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness (, ).
If we repent of our sins and trust in Christ, we are born again into a new life, an eternal life with God ().
He is gathering one new people to himself among all those who submit to Christ as Lord (; ).
Transition: The Gospel shows the beauty of Christ it calls for a radical response. The gospel isn’t merely an “additive” that can make our already good lives better. It is a message of wonderful good news for those who know and realize there desperation before God.
So what is the response to the gospel? What should we do when we sense our need, our understanding of who God is and who Jesus is and what he has done? When these things all begin to come together, what should be our response? It is to walk down an aisle? Is it to fill out a card, or to lift up a hand? It is to make an appointment with the pastor, or to decide to be baptized and join the church? While any of those things may be involved, non of them necessarily are. According to the Bible, our response should be to repent and believe. God calls us to repent of our sins and to rely on Christ alone.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
It’s the Five Finger Gospel: Christ died for our sins, and rose again.
BI: The Gospel shows the beauty of Christ, it calls for a radical response and that our greatest need in the world is the need for a Saviour.
Why is it important?
Why is it important?
The gospel shows the beauty of Christ. It comes out in our lives, and magnify our witness to the world about the beauty of Christ.
A biblical understanding of the gospel is important because the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, and it is the only way for sinful people to be reconciled to a holy God.
If we don’t have an undestanding of the gospel it affects all of what we do. There’s no need for preaching, in our counseling, there is no hope.
Not only that, but everything in a church flows from its understanding of the gospel, whether preaching, counseling, discipleship, music, evangelism, missions, and on.
For You:
For Us: When we really get the gospel. When it changes us in a radical way, it makes us different. An understanding of the Gospel creates a culture of grace where good things happen to bad people. A gracious church culture proves that Jesus is the Holy One who forgives sinners, the King who befriends his enemies, the Genius who counsels failures.
Every other hope is based, explicitly or implicitly, on how deserving we are. Only the Christian gospel is based—clearly, boldly, and insistently—on how loving God is to the undeserving. If you thought you could earn, demand, and fight your way through life on the basis of your own entitlements and cleverness, but now you find within yourself not light but darkness and denial, not freedom but impasse; if you have shocked yourself with the evil you’re capable of and have given up on yourself in despair, the God of love waits for you with open arms today.
To really hear the gospel is to be shaken to your core. To really hear the gospel is to change. Have you heard the gospel - not a soothing word about your goodness, or about God’s acceptance, or about Jesus’ inoffensive willingness to befriend all and sundry, or even some convicting word about getting rid of some sin in your life? Have you heard the Bibles great message about God? Does it sound like the best news you’ve every heard? Old sins forgiven! New Life begun! A personal relationship with your God, your Creator, now, and forever!
What better news could you hear?
If we both individually and as a church centred our lives around this message, what would we look like? What would other see? How much more would we display the beauty of Christ to a broken, rebellious, sinful world?
The Gospel displays the beauty of Christ, and God uses broken people who have believed in the gospel, who are living out the gospel, to display the beauty of Christ to our broken, rebellious, sinful world. Let us boldly proclaim the full gospel of Jesus Christ,
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
So What?
So What?
Life is Short
The command is to “go”
Think about how that works out in our church. Think about what that would say to the world around you. Do you see why God judges those who are people who cause disunity among the church? It takes away from the beauty Christ.
The beauty of Christ is most displayed in a believer who is growing in Christ.
Also is shown in a Church that is centred around the Gospel.
So What?
So What?
Let me ask you this then: what is the most beautiful thing you have seen?
A Church that is gospel centred shows the beauty of Christ, because it shows that our greatest need is not frills, but a Saviour, and that there’s a Saviour for all who believe, and that that Savour is Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose again.
How Does the gospel shape us?
When we think of evangelism or going to an other country and telling other people about the gospel? We sure wouldn’t be sitting around but seeing the opportunities God has already put in our laps. Why? Because the gospel tells us:
Hell is real
Life is Short
The command is to “go”
That there is no other way that someone is saved outside of the proclamation of the Gospel. YOu can’t be nice enough to get people to repent and believe. One needs to see their current stance before a holy God and how disperate they are to have a Saviour. Only the GOspel does that.
When we are hurt by someone or feel we have been mistreated somewhat?
There would always be forgiveness offered because we understand what we have been forgiven of.
When someone makes a mistake or sins
Have you ever thought what would make it possible for the early Christians to be able to confess to one another their sins?
How about when it comes to our money? The Gospel shows us the great treasure, that the gospel is more valuable than anything we have, because by the blood of Christ we have been saved from eternal damnation. All I have, all I am, is yours.
BI: The Gospel shows the beauty of Christ, it calls for a radical response and that our greatest need in the world is the need for a Saviour.
My Prayer this week has been: Help us to be a gospel-centred church by...
My Prayer this week has been: Help us to be a gospel-centred church by...
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Ortlund Jr., Raymond C.. The Gospel (9marks: Building Healthy Churches) (p. 39). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
treasuring the gospel as the treasure it is
to be bold with the gospel as hell is real, lefe is short, the command is to “go”
the gospel is a call to follow Christ. You get to be restored with God and experience his love for you.
Prayer
Prayer
by showing each other the same grace you have poured out on us
what would it do in the midst of suffering? In the depist I’d despair, there is still hope
In telling others about Jesus? Hell is real, life is short, the command is to go
By being a family called by your grace
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Prayer
Prayer
God I pray that you would strengthen us in the Gospel. That we would have a greater understanding of who you are and who we are. That our greatest need was that we needed a Saviour, and that you came down, added to yourself humanity, so that you can take our place, our punishment, for all who believe. Make us more and more impressed with you this very day. Cause us to grow in the gospel and to walk in a manner worthy of it.
