Basic Christian Living: The Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10 Titus 2:11-14 Basic Christian Living (The Gospel) Introduction: Today we begin a series on Basic Christian Living. We’re doing so because as human beings we constantly find ourselves in the place to be reminded and recalibrated to what it really means to be and live as a Christian. Maybe you’ve been a Christian for some time and you’ve never been taught about the basics of Christian living. What is the Gospel? What is the Church? What is my relation to the scriptures? what is my relationship to the world around me? What are our individual, corporate, and social responsibilities as Christians? What does God intend us to be as individual Christians, and as the Church. Some of us view the Christian life as a kind of choose your own adventure type of situation. We often view the Christian life as having a set of options of levels of commitment. Unfortunately many pastors and leaders are the one’s that are often to blame for this. Some of this is due to the ongoing debate of whether being a Christian is really about authenticity - being ok with who you are, in all your struggle, yet simultaneously being forgiven and the flip side of feeling that you can never live up (through all your tireless effort) to the name Christian. But in Scripture we have taught and assumed beliefs and practices, habits that need to be put away and new habits and practices that are to be put on; things to avoid and denounce. The scriptures view Christianity as an all or nothing type of commitment. The Scriptures invite us not to simply be our authentic selves but to become, by God’s grace and the working of the holy Spirit upon our will, what he has called us to be, what we were created to be. So we’re going to start this conversation (And I hope it will be exactly that) on what Basic Christian living is with: The Gospel. We can’t talk about what it means to be a Christian without talking about the Gospel. Without the Gospel, Christianity has no meaning or purpose. Without the Gospel the Church, much less the world, has no hope, no peace, no rest, and Christian churches which fail to keep hold on to the Gospel, to remain gospel-centric, will find themselves irrelevant/obsolete to it’s peoples needs - to bring change and true healing, to the problems and needs of the surrounding culture, to the issues that constantly face our world. Therefore we, the Church, need to hear the Gospel preached continually Martin Luther said, “The Gospel cannot be beaten into our ears enough or too much, Yes, though we learn it and understand it well, yet there is no one who takes hold of it perfectly or believes it with all his heart, so frail a thing is our flesh and disobedient to the Spirit.” We, because of our sinful nature, and the weakness of human strength are so prone to wander, so prone to forget, so prone to lose the focus of who God is and what he has done. If we call ourselves Christian - we must keep the Gospel always before our hearts. 1. What is the Gospel? 1. The Greek term “gospel” (ev-angelion) distinguished the Christian message from that of other religions. An ‘ev-angel’ was news of a great historical event, such as a victory of war or the ascension of a new king, that changed the listeners’ condition and required a response from the listener. A life altering event. So in the biblical context the Gospel is news of what God has done to reach us. It is not advice about what we must do to reach God. What is this Good News? 2. God has entered the world in Jesus Christ to achieve a salvation that we could not achieve for ourselves which now 1) converts and transforms individuals, forming them into a new humanity, and eventually 2) will renew the whole world and all creation. This is the ‘good news’—the gospel. 2. It is “Good News” in three important ways: 1. The Gospel is the good news of God’s gracious acceptance. (A Heart Changing Gospel) 1. Jesus lived the life we should live. He also paid the penalty we owe for the rebellious life we do live. He did this in our place -on the cross (Isaiah 53:4-10; 2 Cor 5:21; Mark 10:45). We are not reconciled to God through our moral efforts and record, as in all other religions, but through his efforts and record. Christians who trust in Christ for their acceptance with God, rather than in their own moral character, commitment, or performance, are simultaneously sinful yet accepted. As Tim Keller puts it - In Christ “We are more flawed and sinful than we ever dared believe, yet we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope at the same time.” 1. I love what Gerhard Forde said about the simplicity of believing as opposed to earning: 2. “We are justified freely, for Christ sake, by faith, without the exertion of our own strength, gaining of merit, or doing of works. To the age old question, “what shall I do to be saved?” The confessional answer is shocking: “nothing! Just be still; shut up and listen for once in your life to what God the Almighty, creator and redeemer is saying to his world and to you in the death and resurrection of his Son! Listen and believe!” 2. Without this unique understanding of salvation through Grace, we are left with either a demanding, terrifyingly holy God who requires all our moral effort for his approval (enter lighting, earthquakes, flames…Etc) or the caricature of an old Grandpa God full of benevolence who tolerates everyone no matter how they live. 1. The problem with the first type of God is that it doesn’t radically move your heart to delight, to awe or wonder There is no joy, amazement, or tears. I am not galvanized and transformed from the inside. - What’s so great about God’s love or salvation?? - I earned it. 2. On the other hand, if I think I have a relationship with God because God simply embraces and accepts us all, no matter how we live— that also does not move me to the depths. Like Voltaire, who, on his deathbed famously said, “Of course God forgives—that’s his job.” 3. Any effort to take away the idea of Jesus Christ’s substitutionary atonement (Jesus took our punishment on the cross) and replace it with a moralism (i.e., being moral, working for and serving others, imitating Jesus for approval) robs the gospel of its power to change us from the inside out. 2. In this way the gospel is radically different from religion: Religion operates on the principle: “I obey, therefore I am accepted”. The gospel operates on the principle: “I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey.” So the gospel differs from both religion and irreligion. 1. Irreligion - Some of us seek to be our own ‘lord and savior’ by breaking the law of God. The master of my fate, the captain of my soul.. no one tells me what to do… Rebellion and rejection to the rules. 2. Religion - But you can also try to be your own savior or lord by keeping the law in order to earn your salvation. We clearly see this in the portrayed in the parable of the Two Sons. (Luke 15:11-32) 3. The main cause of spiritual deadness, fear, and pride in Christians, is often due to a lack of belief in the Gospel - because our hearts continue to act on the basis of religion - “I obey, therefore, I am accepted.” 1. If we fail to forgive others–that is not simply a lack of obedience, but a failure to believe we are saved by grace, too. 2. If we lie in order to cover up a mistake–that’s not just a lack of obedience, it’s failure to find our acceptance and justification in God rather than in human approval. 3. This means that the Gospel isn’t just for non-believing people to “get saved” but it is also the way that Christians grow in their salvation. 2. The Gospel is the good news of changed lives. (New creation A Life Changing Gospel) 1. The gospel is not just a truth about us that we affirm with our minds, it is also a reality we must experience in our hearts and souls. It’s a life changing Gospel. 2. Paul says to Christians, ‘your life is hid with “Christ in God’ (Col 3:3), Showing us that all that Jesus accomplished in his life, death and resurrection is ours by faith. But in this same place he tells us, ‘set your mind on things above…put to death the old ways…put on the new self which is in the image of it’s 3. 4. 5. 6. creator..Showing that Christ’s life comes into us by the Spirit and shapes us into a new kind of person. Another example of the life change is Psalm 51 - After David’s enormous moral failure he doesn’t just ask God for a second chance, he recognizes that his need, his depravity goes far deeper than that. David needs a new heart that can only come by God’s work - “create in me a clean heart,” David prays, put something there that wasn’t there before… God does this by putting his truth (His word, and presence of the holy Spirit) in the inward parts that eat away at the lies we believe about ourselves and about God. Another example of this heart/life change is seen in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9. Paul wants the people to give an offering to the poor. He says, “I don’t want to order you. I don’t want this offering to simply be the response to my demand.” He doesn’t put pressure directly on the will (saying ‘I’m an apostle and this is your duty to me!’) nor pressure directly on the emotions (telling them stories about how much the poor are suffering and how much more they have than the sufferers). Instead, Paul says, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). When he says ‘you know the grace’—he makes it so personal - how can they who have experienced the greatest riches of God through Jesus being made nothing, and turn around and hold back from those around them that are in need? He brings Jesus’ salvation into the realm of money and wealth and poverty. He moves them by a ‘spiritual recollection’ of the gospel. Paul is saying, ‘Think on Jesus’ costly grace. Think on that grace until you are changed into generous people by the gospel in your hearts.’ The solution to your stinginess is a re-orientation to the generosity of Christ in the gospel, where he poured out his wealth for you. Now you don’t have to worry about money—the cross proves God’s care for you and gives you a security that money never will. Now you don’t have to envy any one else’s money. Jesus’ love and salvation gives you a remarkable status—one that money cannot give you. 7. Paul does the same thing in Ephesians 5:25, where he urges husbands to be faithful to their wives. What is the point? What makes you a sexually faithful spouse, a generous-not -greedy person, a good parent or child is not just extra effort to follow the example of Christ. - It is deepening your understanding of the salvation of Christ (What he did for you, how much he loves you) and living out of the changes that understanding makes in your heart. That produces a changed life. 8. Ongoing trust in the good news of what Jesus has done restructures our motivations, our self-understanding, identity, and our view of the world. 3. The Gospel is the good news of the new world coming (A Social Changing Gospel) 1. When we only apply the first two perspectives of the Gospel we miss the final component of the gospel and a huge part of our identity and mission. 1. “What was accomplished in Jesus’ death and resurrection is the foundation, the model and the guarantee for God’s ultimate purpose, which is to rid the world of evil altogether and to establish his new creation of justice, beauty and peace (shalom)..” -N.T. Wright 2. This means that the gospel is not just about individual happiness and fulfillment. It is not just a wonderful plan for ‘my life’ but it is about God’s wonderful plan for the world that began back in Genesis 1, was broken or derailed through sin, brought back together through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and will culminate in the coming Kingdom of God that will renew everything. 1. “When we realize that Jesus is going to someday destroy hunger, disease, poverty, injustice, and death itself, it makes Christianity what C. S. Lewis called a “fighting religion” when we are confronted with a city slum or a cancer ward. This full version of the gospel reminds us that God created both the material and the spiritual, and is going to redeem both the material and the spiritual.” - Tim Keller 3. When we only apply the first two perspectives of the Gospel we end up with this… ‘One day Jesus will return and set everything right… So we don’t have to worry or do anything about evil and suffering’ way of thinking 1. Jesus will return one day and set everything right, but it isn’t told to us so that we can wash our hands of the whole thing and concern ourselves with our own affairs, or hopes and dreams - If we are Jesus followers we are invited to enter the fight! To be incarnations of that kingdom of righteousness, justice and peace now - as enemies of sin and suffering, heartbreak, evil and injustice. 1. Gospel-centered churches do not only urge individuals to be converted, but also are to seek peace and justice in our cities and in our world. 2. How? In the same way that Jesus and the early church did Proclaiming God’s good news and incarnating the kingdom of God - His love, forgiveness, reconciliation, self sacrifice, faithfulness, generosity, care for the poor, the weak, the marginalized, the foreigner and the alien.. - the Church is to be “a colony of heaven in the country of death.” 1. When we value people or profit whatever their color, creed or class, when we love and serve the worthless person, when we forgive and love our enemies, when we sacrifice our own comforts for the sake of blessing others, when we care more about truth and right than popularity and praise, that is when the kingdom of heaven and the gospel are affecting the social fabric of our world. when we live this way we are a colony of heaven in the country of death.. 4. This tri-fold perspective of the work of the Gospel - the heart change, the life change, and the social change represent the actual fulness of the work of the gospel. These 3 three ‘perspectives’ are all Biblical and must be held together. There is a tendency for Christians and churches to focus on just one of these perspectives and ignore the others. However they are inseparable and inter-dependent on one another…This full approach to the gospel creates a church that does not fit neatly into the traditional ‘conservative/sectarian’ nor ‘liberal/mainline’ categories but rather fits the the scriptures themselves. 1. Joshua Porter, lead singer of the band showbread, put this very nicely - “I would like to work toward a Jesusy, punk rock center - Disrupt conservative fundamentalists by emphasizing Jesus’ great love, compassion and peacemaking forgiveness. Disrupt liberal post evangelicals by emphasizing the authority of the scriptures, discipline and self denial.” 3. Creating a Gospel Culture/Atmosphere 1. Gospel doctrine creates Gospel cultures called Churches (We’ll talk more about this next week). 2. Ray Ortlund says, the Church is where people should find lots of gospel, lots of safety, and lots of time. People need: 1. Multiple exposures to the happy news of the gospel from one end of the Bible to the other. (This is why we always bring it back to the Gospel in our teaching and preaching) 2. The safety of non-accusing sympathy so that they can admit their problems honestly; and (this is where the humility and the security that the gospel gives us become essential) 3. Enough time to rethink their lives at a deep level, because people are complex and changing is not easy. 1. This creates an atmosphere where no one person is under pressure or singled out for embarrassment. Everyone is free to open up, and we all grow together as we look to Jesus. 2. When the gospel of God’s grace defines both the doctrine and the culture of the church, it’s members can safely confess and forsake sin. Even “extreme” sinners find themselves wonderfully forgiven and freed. - the goal is not to make the church safe for sin; it’s to make it safe for confession and repentance. 3. What if we made this our aim - That what Jesus has done for us in his life, death, and resurrection informed the way we do everything. The way we see ourselves and see one another, they way we treated and spoke to one another, the way we shared our resources, time and money, the way that we prayed and encouraged one another, the way that we helped, corrected, and challenged one another, the way we thought about sinners and saints, religious and irreligious. The way we served our neighbors and loved our city and met needs around us? Conclusion: Where are you in terms of a full understanding and application of the Gospel - The heart change, life change, social change? Which of these 3 views needs more focused attention in your life? How will you make that change in focus? If you need more focus on the heart change - I suggest reading and studying the book of Romans; if you find yourself longing for more of the life change - read and or study the Sermon on the Mount or the Epistles. If you find yourself needing more of the social focus read the book of Proverbs or the OT Prophets looking out for the terms of righteousness and justice and who it applies to. I pray that all of us mull this over and dialogue with one another how we might believe and practice a fuller Gospel. If you are hearing all of this for the first time and are curious to learn more I suggest scheduling an appointment to meet with one of our pastors… It is only by keeping the full Gospel at the center of our lives, as individuals and as a Church that we will be a representation of God’s kingdom on earth, a family that truly loves, accepts and cares for each other, a living body that is unified, built up in spiritual maturity, holiness, and gospel mission, and a dwelling place for the Spirit of God to give him true worship. It is only by daily, weekly, sometimes even hourly, preaching this good news to ourselves and to one another, believing it and conforming our lives to it, that we will enter into the fulness of what it means to be Christian.