Sinners Made Saints : Of First Importance

Text: I Corinthians 15:1-11

Theme: Of first importance to the ministry of the Church is the preaching of the gospel.

Date: 03/06/2022 File name: 1_Corinthinas_26.wpd ID Number:

“And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”” (Revelation 5:9, ESV). The atoning death of Christ on the cross saves sinners. “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin,” (Hebrews 9:22).

Unfortunately, there are those pastors and theologians within the church who insist we must de-emphasize the cross and Christ’s crucifixion. These wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing (for that’s what they are) tell us that preaching a “crucified Christ” is too “unappealing” for a sophisticated, 21st century audience.

Take for example, Alan Jones is the Episcopal Dean Emeritus of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. He is internationally known as a “Christian academic.” In 2005 he published his book, Reimagining Christianity: Reconnect Your Spirit without Disconnecting Your Mind. He writes: "The Church's fixation on the death of Jesus as the universal saving act must end, and the place of the cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. Why? Because of the cult of suffering and the vindictive God behind it." Jones goes on to call the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross a “vile doctrine” and the Christianity that believes it as “toxic”. Unfortunately he is not alone in his beliefs.

How can a pastor reject the importance of the crucifixion, and then offer any hope for redemption to a congregation? How do you de-emphasize the cross of Jesus and then sing, “My hope is built on nothing less, then Jesus’ blood and righteousness?”

This is not a “reimagining” of Christianity — it is a gutting of the gospel. John Stott, one of the most influential churchmen of the 20th century, said: “We strongly reject ... every explanation of the death of Christ which does not have at its center the principle of ‘satisfaction through substitution.”

The Gospel the Apostles preached had teeth to it. It bites hard into the kingdom of darkness and rips chunks from it wherever it is preached. Too many pastors and too many churches preach a cheap grace and an “easy gospel.” The result is that multitudes of religious people fill American churches, comfortable in their sin, living at ease in Zion in lukewarm pleasure-seeking religion, serving a “Jesus” that is not the Jesus of the Bible, but is rather the bi-product of their own worldly culture and carnal thinking.

1 Corinthians 15 is the third-longest chapter in the New Testament. It is almost totally about the resurrection — Christ’s, but most importantly ours! But before Paul plunges headlong into his description of and defense of the resurrection, he provides a synopsis of the Gospel. [Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-11].

In this passage Paul writes of

The Declaration of the Gospel

The Efficacy of the Gospel

The Validity of the Gospel

I. THE DECLARATION OF THE GOSPEL

1. the Apostle opens this part of his letter to the believers at Corinth with a reminder of the core message of the Church — the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, who is the Christ

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand,” (1 Corinthians 15:1, ESV)

a. the chapter is, first and foremost, a defense of the resurrection

b. but he begins with a defense of the gospel

1) it is a gospel Paul says, I preached to you

a) the gospel is a message for all people, of all eras, of all places and when it is preached, God’s Spirit will open the hearts of some to believe it

2) it is a gospel which you received

a) the Corinthian believers were themselves living evidence that the gospel is true

b) the fact that some of them came out of the spiritual blindness of paganism, and others out of the legalistic deadness of Judaism, into the light and life of Christ testified to the power of the gospel

3) it is a gospel in which you stand

a) they were delivered from sin’s power and condemnation, and now they hold fast to their profession of faith in the power of the Spirit

2. the proclamation of the gospel must have been the Apostle’s favorite activity in life

a. Paul had encountered the risen crucified Christ on the road to Damascus and it had changed his life

b. now he wants everyone to know that Jesus is Savior and Lord

3. but this all begs the question; What is the gospel?

a. so let me tell you what the gospel is ... The Good News is the message that Jesus of Nazareth is God the Son incarnate, who perfectly obeyed the Father in the place of His people who couldn’t, that he suffered for them, dying a substitutionary death for them, was buried, but who rose from the dead for our justification, and is coming again

b. that gospel is clearly spelled out by the Apostle Paul in vs. 3-4

“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.” (1 Corinthians 15:3–5, ESV)

c. now, for those of you who like to know these things, this is the oldest confession of faith in Christendom

1) when you follow the biblical trail of evidence this confession can be traced all the way back to the very year of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection

2) in other words, there never was a time when the core belief — the central message of the Church’s confession wasn’t the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus

3) the Apostles just didn’t “make it up”

A. CHRIST WAS CRUCIFIED — That Christ Died for our Sins

1. all the major Creeds of the Christian faith confess that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, and that he was crucified

a. that simple statement fixes for us the historical certitude of the life of Jesus

b. how important is it to the Christian faith that we believe Jesus really lived, and really died?

1) it is everything

2. the sufferings of Christ are clearly outlined in Isaiah 53

“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4–5, ESV)

a. four times the prophet uses the word "our" — our infirmities, our sorrows, our transgressions, our iniquities

b. in some profound, vicarious way, we were there at Calvary that day

1) it was our sins that nailed Christ to the cross

2) and in doing so " ... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6)

ILLUS. In our hymnal is a song entitled O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. It is based on a 12th century Medieval poem by Bernard of Clairvaux. Listen to the words of the second verse:

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered Was all for sinners' gain:

Mine, mine was the transgression, But Thine the deadly pain:

Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ‘Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor, Vouch-safe to me Thy grace.

c. that verse captures the whole problem of the entire human race — "mine, mine was the transgression"

3. Jesus Really Lived So That He Might Really Die

a. Jesus Christ died as our substitute

1) he took our place, He took the suffering that we deserve, He took the shame that we deserved, He took the sorrow that we deserved, He took the separation that we deserved, He took the sentence of death that we deserved, He took it upon Himself

2) and that’s good news — that our sins is taken care of

3) our sin was imputed to Christ ... he bore it’s punishment ... he experienced the wrath of God so that we might experience forgiveness

B. CHRIST WAS BURIED — That He was Buried

1. his death was the supreme reason for his life

a. his burial was proof of his death

b. the burial of Jesus Christ is also part of the gospel

1) his burial reminds us of the penalty of sins — the soul that sins, it shall die according to Ezekiel 18:20

2) notice that the prophet doesn’t say, “The body that sins, it shall die”

c. every culture, every society, every religion recognizes this fundamental truth of life ... we die ... we all die physically

1) but the Bible teaches that the soul that sin shall also die

2) this means eternal separation from God in hell and ultimately the Lake of Fire

d. the gospel doesn’t only deal with the God’s judgment on sin, but with the penalty of sin — physical death and spiritual death

1) Jesus not only died to forgive what we did, but he died to change what we are

2) he took all the corruption of our sin and carried it to the grave with him, and buried it in the grave of God’s forgiveness

2. Jesus became a man in order that he might die as a man for sinful men

"For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit," (1 Peter 3:18, NIV)

ILLUS. in 1762 Augustus Toplady, wrote a hymn that has stood the test of time. We know it as Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. In the first stanza he writes of the water and the blood that flowed from the side of Jesus after the Roman guard pierced him with a spear. He says of the water and the blood, “Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure.”

a. the “double cure” is that, not only are we forgiven of our sin, but we’re also cleansed from our sin

C. CHRIST WAS RAISED — That He was Raised on the Third Day

1. Paul writes in his Letter to the Christians at Rome, “[Jesus] who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25, ESV)

2. I’ll be saying much more about the resurrection in the weeks to come

a. altogether the death, burial and resurrection make up the gospel — the good new that Jesus saves

II. THE EFFICACY OF THE GOSPEL

1. OK. I know that efficacy is a fancy word — it’s a word that simply means the ability to produce a desired or intended result

a. it means that, when the Gospel is preached, it will accomplish what God intended for it to do — eternally save those who respond to it

A. THE GOSPEL SAVES

1. Paul preached the gospel, some in Corinth received the Gospel and it saved them

a. because Jesus lived, because he died, because he rose again our sins are justified when we receive Christ as Savior, and we are forgiven

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 cor 5:21, ESV)

b. only Christianity teaches this

ILLUS. Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger was the Archbishop of Paris from 1981 until his resignation in 2005. As Archbishop he once gave a homily that included a story about a group of boys in Orléans, France in 1939. The boys were being mischievous and thought it would be fun to dare each other to go into the local Catholic Church, enter the confessional and confess all kinds of wild made-up sins to the Priest, and see what would happen. One of them, a Jewish boy named Aron, took up the challenge, went into the confessional and began confessing all kinds of weird and wacky sins. The Priest understood at once what was going on, but patiently listened to Aron's list of sins. At the end the Priest instructed the boy to do a penance. He instructed the boy to walk up to the altar of the church where there was a large crucifix of Jesus, to look up at Jesus on the cross and say three times, "Jesus, I know you died for me, but I don't give a damn." The boy, not wanting to renege on his friend's dare went to the altar, stood there for a moment, and repeated the words, "Jesus, I know you died for me, but I don't give a damn." Then he said it a second time. But he couldn't say it the third time. He broke down in tears and left the church a changed person. Aron, raised a Jew, soon converted to Christianity. Cardinal Lustiger said, "I know that story to be true because I was that boy."

c. the cross of Jesus speaks loudly

3. it's amazing how many people have been drawn into the faith, sometimes to their own surprise, because the message of the cross overwhelmed their resistance to it

B. THE GOSPEL SANCTIFIES

1. notice in vs. 2 the Apostle writes that you are being saved

a. salvation is a “total package” deal from God

b. you are continually being saved

1) we have been saved from the penalty of sin — this is the doctrine of Justification

2) we are being saved from the power of sin — this is the doctrine of Sanctification

3) we will be completely saved from the presence of sin — this is the doctrine of Glorification

2. Christ leaves nothing to chance in our Christian walk — we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone, for the Glory of God alone

a. this is why the Apostle Paul writes, “He who has begun a good work in you will carry it to completion,” (Phil. 1:6)

C. THE GOSPEL SECURES

1. the Apostle asserts in vs. 1 that the gospel is something in which the Corinthian believers stand

a. we stand in the gospel ... we stand in the objective truth — that Christ came to save sinners

b. you say, “But pastor, the Christian life is hard. What if I don’t feel like I can stand any longer?”

1) hear the word of the Lord ... “God is able to make you stand” (Rom. 14:4)

2. this word speaks of the assurance we can have in the salvation Christ has given us

a. our salvation is secure because Christ hold us fast; our holding fast to him is evidence that he is holding fast to us!

III. THE VALIDITY OF THE GOSPEL

1. how can the Corinthians be sure that what Paul says is true?

A. THE EYE WITNESSES vs. 6-8

“Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.” (1 Corinthians 15:6–8, ESV)

1. Paul is writing to the Corinthians a mere twenty years after the resurrection

a. many of the eye witnesses are still around

ILLUS. In 2006, Richard Bauckham, an English church historian and scholar, wrote a marvelous little book entitled, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. He draws an interesting parallel between names used in the New Testament and footnotes in modern scholarly works. Today, if you write a serious academic historical work in western culture, you have to have footnotes. Footnotes tell the reader, “This is how you know that the information I’m providing you is accurate. I’‘ve provided the place where you can go look it up. You don’t have to take my word for it.” In ancient cultures, if you were writing a historical work, especially a work of recent history, you dropped names. Name-dropping was like adding a footnote. It said, “You don’t have to take my word for it. You can go talk to those who actually saw this event take place.”

Consider Mark15:21: “And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.” (Mark 15:21, ESV). Now why do we need to know the names of Alexander and Rufus? Because it may well be that both are still alive, and you can go ask them about what they saw that day.

2. Paul is telling the resurrection-doubters in the Corinthian church, “If you’re having doubts about the truthfulness of the gospel, you can talk to those who saw the crucified risen Christ ... Peter, then the other Apostles, then a crowd of 500, then to his brother James, then to all the Apostles again. Oh, and by the way, I saw him, too.”

a. one of the reasons I’m a Christian is because I believe the story of Jesus that has been passed down to us over the millenniums by men who walked and talked with Jesus

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—” (1 John 1:1, ESV)

3. the eye witnesses are one proof that the gospel is true

B. THE EXISTENCE OF THE CHURCH vs. 9

“For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:9, ESV)

1. every 20-30 years social commentary pundits ask the question, “Will the Church survive?”

ILLUS. In Europe pundits are asking “Can the Catholic Church survive in a secularized country like France?” In America pundits are asking “Can the Evangelical Church survive its division over Donald Trump?” And everyone is asking, “Can the Church survive COVID-19, and if it does, what will it look like on the other side?”

a. every time I hear someone ask the question “Will the Church survive?” I want to ask, “Have you never read a history book?”

b. even more, I want to ask, “Have you never read the Scriptures?”

“ ... on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 17:18, ESV)

1) Jesus is pretty explicit ... “It’s MY Church, and it will survive precisely because it is MY Church”

c. a particular church may close its doors, a particular denomination may cease to exist, an entire community of Christians might by martyred, but the Church will survive and thrive as long as Christ is on his throne, the gospel is being shared, and the Holy Spirit is redeeming sinners

2. the survival of New Testament Christianity against overwhelming odds is a remarkable story of preservation explained only by the fact that the passion narratives of the Gospels are true, Jesus is alive and the gospel continues be proclaimed, and when received, will change lives

ILLUS. Jewish opposition couldn’t kill it, Roman Caesars couldn’t kill it, the invasion of Islam into Christian lands couldn’t kill it, petty dictators haven’t killed it, Communism couldn’t kill it, modern liberalism can’t kill it, social secularism can’t kill it.

3. the continued existence of the church for twenty-one hundred centuries is one proof that the gospel is true

C. THE CHANGED LIVES OF THE DISCIPLES vs. 10

“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10, ESV)

1. consider the author of this letter to the Corinthians — Saul of Tarsus

a. if ever there was a man to have been unlikely to believe that Jesus was God’s Anointed One it was Paul

1) a scholar of scholars, proficient in languages, the equivalency of a triple PhD.

2) a man who studied under Gamaliel, Israel’s greatest living rabbinic scholar

3) a member of the Sanhedrin, Israel’s most august political council, and revered religious leadership

b. he was a virulent hater of Christians, violent persecutor of the Church

2. but then he encountered Christ the Lord on the road to Damascus, and his life changed

ILLUS. I met Jesus on Interstate 70 half-way between St. Louis and Columbia, and my life was changed.

a. and so it goes

3. the changed lives of those who have come to Christ is a proof that the gospel is true

Come to Christ! As of 1st importance the gospel has been delivered this morning. Receive him and stand in his marvelous grace.