What is the Gospel?
Notes
Transcript
What is the Gospel
1 Corinthians 15:1-5
INTRODUCTION
ILL - Gender Reveals- Everything with Millennials became a production.
-Prom Dates-- more than I did to get engaged.
-Anyway= Gender reveals present the baby’s sex to the couple and the world.
-people like to be part of hearing good news.
Christians have the greatest news with eternal consequences and yet we have a tendency to keep it to ourselves.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Set up
Definition of the Gospel
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
The whole story of the Bible is Gospel.
Jesus is the Gospel.
The Bible is the Gospel.
5 Gospel Truths
1- The Gospel Must Be Accepted
1- The Gospel Must Be Accepted
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
ILL- Publishers Clearing House
You win $10,000,000.
Do you accept the check? It will change your life.
The Good News is for everyone- but it must be accepted.
2- The Gospel Has Power
2- The Gospel Has Power
2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
It’s not just a story of something good.
It has power to save you.
18 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.
ILL- Difference between good news for someone else and good news that saves your life.
If you hear a new treatment saves your friend’s life.
If you hear of a new treatment that will save your life.
This Good News has the power to change your life for eternity.
3- The Gospel is Entrusted to Us
3- The Gospel is Entrusted to Us
4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
We have the responsibility to share it with others.
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
We know what will bring hope to the dark world.
It is not for us to keep it to ourselves.
4- The Gospel Must be Proclaimed Boldly
4- The Gospel Must be Proclaimed Boldly
16 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.
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Despite circumstances
22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,
23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
ILL- Peter and John before Council.
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.
15 But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another,
16 saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
18 So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 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,
20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened.
Immediately they were out preaching again.
5- The Gospel Reach is Universal
5- The Gospel Reach is Universal
1 John 15:3
3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Jesus died for all- but only those who accept him benefit from it.
A call to go to the whole world.
Why? Because the whole world is in need of salvation.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
CONCLUSION
What are you doing with the Gospel?
What are you doing with the Gospel?