The Gospel
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Good morning! It’s Easter Sunday which means He is Risen! Isn’t it amazing that we can say this??? He… Is… Risen… period. Death defeated by the son of God who died on a cross and rose again in three days. Simply amazing! what good news this is!
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
“For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
What a God we serve amen!?
So, Easter… that means Christ has risen...
It also means Hot Cross buns
And mini eggs, maybe some little jelly bunny rabbits for the kids.... let’s be real, they’re for us big kids right? Oh! You can’t forget paska! mmmm so good, sweet bread with icing and sprinkles on top...
I don’t know about you, but when I smell fresh baked goods.... oh no, get out the self control reigns because I’m not in control any more. My body smells that bread and says I want this and you must give it to me!
I remember one Easter Sunday I went to a friend of mine’s church and we had hot cross buns for communion instead of crackers. It was sooooo good! I remember thinking to myself how awesome that was, to have an entire hot cross bun to myself for communion.
I am so thankful that God gave us taste buds and that we can create food that tastes amazing. If you know me you’ll know that I love food. I also love creating good food. whether it’s baking or cooking dinner or making a really gourmet grilled sandwich for lunch.
I have to be careful though because I know that food could easily become an idol for me. This is I think, the reason why the bible calls gluttony a sin. Gluttony is an attitude towards food that turns it into an idol in our lives and then instead of being thankful to God for the delicious food we eat, the delicious food we eat becomes our god in that moment.
“Do this, in remembrance of me....” So communion is about remembering Christ’s sacrifice.
In retrospect, I don’t know if I think that was a good thing. The problem is that partaking of the cracker for communion was supposed to symbolize Christ’s body, but that hot cross bun turned the focus from Christ, to all about me.
I’m not saying that the Hot cross bun ruined communion for everyone… but, anyone who tells you that they weren’t thinking about how good that bun was rather than christ as they took the first bite is probably lying.
Easter...
Easter is the celebration of Christ’s death and subsequent resurrection through good Friday (Day 1) and Easter Sunday (Day 3).
He is risen! Historically it has been 3 days since Jesus’ death. That is certainly something to be celebrating! But what happens after Easter? What happens when the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection is over and we return to our lives? Not only that, but the way that we celebrate… Do you think that it is how God would have us be celebrating?
What is the gospel?
What is the gospel?
It’s the good news… of course we all know that, we also know what the news is… The good news or the gospel, is the information that Christ was dead and now He’s risen and alive!
Have you figured out what I’m trying to get at yet? Write it down when you do...
We’re going to get real in this digital world of video today because God is calling us out and He’s not doing it quietly. Wednesday night I couldn’t sleep because of this message that God was downloading into my brain
I was like “God! I can’t preach this! It’s Easter Sunday! so hold onto your couches and please don’t shoot the messenger
If you ask google to define the word news for you, it will tell you this...
News is:
“newly received or noteworthy information, especially about recent or important events.” or “information not previously known to someone.”
Information Not Previously Known to someone.
Every Sunday we gather together to learn, to grow in Christ, to learn more… all so that we can have a better relationship with Christ and so that We might be fed.
This is all true, and it just so happens that we need to do this.
33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
Jesus is telling us one, that we are to be a light. But also that that light needs to be healthy. That unless our eyes and body are healthy spiritually we won’t be able to be the light because we will be filled with darkness that contaminates the light. So we need to come to church, we need to learn, we need to be fed.
There is a big big big problem with this, and almost every. single. church. in North America has this problem. We keep all this information and food that we get fed on a Sunday morning mostly to ourselves! And if not to just ourselves then mostly just our Christian brothers and sisters.
Let me ask you this… When was the last time you shared the gospel or even talked about it with someone who did not previously know the details of this “good news” that we all know as a body of believers?
“good news”.... good… information not previously known to someone… If the gospel is only shared with those of us who already know what it is, who know the gospel message… It is no longer good “news,” and therefore is not the gospel anymore. It’s just good information that we know and can be excited about for ourselves because we already know it.
It’s Easter! We’re celebrating something amazing. We’re in our homes because we have to be, but under normal circumstances we’re in a church building. Why are we not out there celebrating the good news of Jesus’ resurrection in public so that those who don’t know can hear it and see the excitement and adoration we all have for Jesus… That our excitement and adoration would stir in them something that they can’t explain and all they know is that they want more of whatever it is...
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
In this passage there are a few key things I want to draw your attention to.
Confession of hope, so sharing of our own hope in Christ… the gospel
stirring up one another to love and good works… sharing God’s love with others in a practical way...
Friends the gospel is about sharing! Good “News”!
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
This right here, this is the gospel we are tasked with sharing.
And let me tell you… we are a church full of people with gifts and knowledge of the bible and of Christ and of the gospel. If anyone is equipped to share the gospel it is us.
Sure we can go out and work with the salvation army, feed the homeless and the needy, make hampers for people in need, give money to those that are in financial trouble, help someone with a move that they just can’t handle on their own.
All of these things are things God would be pleased if we did them out of the goodness of our hearts. But...
Where is the gospel in all of these things? You might say… well by doing these things we would create opportunities to share the gospel. Okay sure… but I’m going to suggest one thing…
Just doing these things doesn’t create the opportunity. The things are the opportunity. These things bring us in close proximity for a period of time to people who haven’t heard the gospel, and that period of time is the opportunity we so often wait for and miss… because we’re waiting for flashing lights from heaven.
We want to see revival… we need to see revival in our own lives first. And I’m not talking about revival in the sense of the Holy spirit falling upon us. He’s in us already. I’m talking about revival in the literal sense… CHANGE.
Let me tell you… this is something I’ve been grappling with in my own life and if you aren’t then I would suggest you check where your heart is at right now.
This life we’re living… it’s not. about. us. We’ve accepted the good news as something to change our lives. Would you agree that once we accept that Jesus is Lord over our lives, that He rose from the dead and is the son of God… That this world is not our home anymore?
We’re here… But this isn’t home.
If you believe this, why does your job, your hobbies, your dinner plans, your friends, your family even… why do these things tend to take precedents over your prayer life? Over you time with God in His word? If this world isn’t home… if home is heaven and the alternative to heaven is death forever…
I think you could probably finish this message for me but let me help you out.
We need to share the good news! We want to be like Christ, so… we need to start acting like it.
Satan… well, let’s just say that what I’m saying right now is making his blood boil… and he is right now trying to make you take offense at what I’m saying. Do not let him.
This is Easter Monday where we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives. Satan has been defeated already by Jesus Christ who has given us His spirit to help us in this physical and broken world we live in.
If we believe Christ rose… Don’t let satan make you take offense when I say that we, as a body of believers need to shape up and start living a life that is so overflowing with the love of Christ and the words of the gospel, that people everywhere we go won’t be able to walk away from an interaction with us without knowing for one reason or another that we are followers of Jesus Christ… and not only that, but Christ is the reason we live.
In Matthew 16, Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
It’s time we started taking up that cross that’s been lying beside us since we said yes to Jesus. Jesus said take up your cross, and we said “OKAY!” and then let it lie there beside us as a badge of honor that says, “I’m a christian! I will go to heaven when I die.” The problem is we haven’t been carrying it.
I want you to do something for me right now, I’ll give you a couple of seconds to grab something to write on … go go go, get something to write on.
It always amazes me how Satan will let me hear the message, let me get all fired up, let me make all sorts of plans on how to live a Christ like life… and then when I try to do it… that’s when he strikes. When I’m not stepping forward, he lets me be, but as soon as I start walking in a direction that God would be proud of me for, that’s when he comes out of his little hidey hole to distract me and discourage me.
So, this is to combat that attack that will surely come…
I want you to write firstly:
Why should I want to share the gospel?
Then:
how can I share the gospel?
Then:
Who do I know that God wants me to share the gospel with?
Finally:
okay when am I going to share the gospel with that person?
Now, answer the first three questions. Then put the answer to the 4th question in your calendar on your phone.
I don’t know about you but when I think about the amount of times that I could have shared the gospel with someone and didn’t it makes me feel ashamed of myself. And I’m a pastor!
Christ is risen! can we tell the world? can we tell the city of Fernie that Christ is risen? Can we step out of our shells and ask a random stranger (which I know might be difficult in Fernie) or an acquaintance, ask them how they are doing? Then move on from that conversation to one that shares the love and amazing message of the gospel?
Can we be a body of believers so fired up about what Christ has done and continues to do in our lives that we just can’t keep it to ourselves? Can we be a body of believers who will say, “I declare war on your schemes Satan.”
Can we do these things? of course we can because the bible says we can.
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
We can because our strength is in Christ and He can do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us which is the Holy Spirit.
Now will we? will we put aside our earthly existence and desires and fears and take up our cross and follow Jesus’ example?
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
He is risen!
This is something to celebrate, shout from the rooftops, in the street, from your car. He Is Risen!
Let us grow in boldness, let us be children of the light living in the way that we have learned in Christ.
This is the good news. This is the gospel. HE. IS. RISEN. That’s what it’s all about, that’s what our lives are about. Let’s share the message of life and live a life, that is not of this world… but of the one we truly belong in.
let me pray
You are a kingdom people, you are the hands and feet of Christ, go bless and be blessed this week.
Have an amazing Sunday afternoon.