What is the Gospel to you?

Introduction

Dismiss Children

It’s great to see you this morning. Thank you for coming here to worship Jesus today.

My name is Dustin, I’m the Lead pastor at Liberty and if I haven’t met you yet, Id like to.

At Liberty we exist to reach 10% of our community with the life giving and life changing message of the Gospel by loving God, serving Others, and Making an impact. If you ever have questions about who we are or how we do what we do, feel free to reach out and ask.

Today we are continuing in our Gospel Story series where we have been going from Genesis to Revelations to see how the gospel has been intertwined throughout scripture.

Here in Acts 10 we are going to examine how the Gospel is one thing to all people and different things to all people.

It is my hope you will be able to identify what the Gospel is to you and how you need to apply it’s life changing truths to your life so that you may glorify God and proclaim the name of Jesus to those around you.

Follow along with me in these first few verses of Acts 10 and let’s hear from the Lord today.

Acts 10:1–8 KJV 1900

1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway. 3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter: 6 He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner, whose house is by the sea side: he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. 7 And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually; 8 And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.

Acts 10:1-8

Exegete:

This passage begins in Caesarea, a town in Israel near the coast. We meet a man named Cornelius who is a roman soldier. He is not your normal roman soldier though. He is a man that feared God.

He was generous to the people, the jews specifically, and was a man of faithful prayer to the Lord.

God has sent an angel to him and lets him know that his prayers have been heard and his alms, or acts of service, his good doing, pleases the Lord.

The angel gives him instructions to go to Peter and let Peter tell him what to do.

Some important things to notice here:

Cornelius was obeying God by faith by performing the religious acts he knew from the teachings of the Old Testament. God was pleased with what he had been doing. We have to remember, the message of the gospel hasn’t got to Cornelius yet. He hasn’t heard about the Messiah. He was following God as he knew from what he had been taught. That doesn’t mean it’s ok for us to do these things today. That’s because we have the truth of the gospel to properly guide which teaches that Jesus fulfilled the law.

Matthew 5:17–18 KJV 1900

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Matthew 5:17-18

Romans 10:4 KJV 1900

4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Romans 10:4

2. I believe we see that it was by faith and not a trite thing to him because of what the angel says to him and his response. The angel says God had received his worship as a memorial. God was pleased with what Cornelius had been doing.

Hebrews 11:6 KJV 1900

6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Heb 11:6

Cornelius was being obedient by faith not by duty.

Illustrate:

There is a big difference between a person living by faith and a person living by duty.

Think of an employee at a company. When the employee believes in the mission and vision of the company, that employee will perform their tasks with diligence and without complaint. They are performing their job because they believe in what they are doing

When an employee doesn’t know, understand, or care about the goals of the company they are late, hard to motivate, and complaining about any work they have to do. They are performing their job because they have to.

There are people in the world seeking to worship God now in these same ways.

Some believe whole heartedly in the unbiblical religious traditions they have been taught. Maybe that was you, maybe that is you. Maybe you grew up under a religious system that made you feel like less of a person because of how you dressed or how often you attended church or how much you gave or how many prayers you prayed or how much volunteer time you put in or how many times you confessed sin to a man.

These are the people like Cornelieus. Believing in God, having a desire to have a relationship with him and doing what they have been taught is right to achieve only to find that there are no works that get us into a relationship with God. No amount of alms can fill that God sized hole in your heart.

The other group of Christians are those that put checks in boxes. They do it because their wife expects them to be at church. Teenagers, as you all discover your faith this is where you can end up and where i was, doing it because parents made me. Are you only coming to church because your parents make you?

Everyone in the room, are you just going through the motions. Floating through life because you don’t want to give yourself over to an all loving God and live for something beside yourself?

Argue:

You may sit there and say

“Pastor, those traditions are what my family always did. My grandmother, their grandmother, isn’t it ok to keep doing these things?” Can’t I trust in Jesus and still perform these ritualistic things too?

No. We worship God in Spirit and truth not in religion and tradition.

The expectation on you from God is not to say so many prayers, give so much money, or volunteer so many hours. It’s faith. He asks you to beleive in Him and His word. Live from the love God has for you and all the dos and don’ts of scripture will be made clear to you. AND, the specifics of those dos and don’ts might be different from others.

That’s the power of the gospel. The power of the gospel in your life isn’t about everyone else’s relationship with Jesus. It’s about your relationship with Jesus. He died for everyone so that he could have a relationship with you that is real and intimate not trite and forced.

Apply:

Cornelius loved God however he was under the burden of the religious practices of the law. He believed he could only have a relationship with God through the temple. that’s the same as someone today beleiving they could only have a relationship with God through a specific church.

No matter what church you’re in you could still be religious without faith. You could be religious with faith and still be burdened by your religion.

What is the Gospel to the religious?

I. To the Religious, the Gospel is a Release

A release from the burden of having to live up to the expectations of a perfect God. The law was given so that we could understand our imperfection and know we needed a Savior.

The Gospel releases you from the religious chains that hold you to a system of belief that will never allow you to know the freedom, liberty, grace, and mercy you have as a child of God.

To the religious the Gospel is a release.

Now we encounter someone else in our passage whose life had already been greatly impacted by the gospel and would be again.

Acts 10:9–16 KJV 1900

9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: 10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance, 11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12 Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. 16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.

Acts 10:9-16

Exegete:

This is the Apostle Peter, the one who preached the gospel at least twice before this where 3,000 and 5,000 were saved.

Now while in prayer the Lord comes to him in a vision.

It would have been a great vision to. It’s the vision that let’s me say God didn’t make us to be vegans. For those of you who choose that lifestyle, God bless you, I don’t hate you, but I love steak and Tony’s cooking too much to only eat vegetables.

After being told to go kill and eat Peter tells the Lord “no” I’ve never done that because it’s unclean.

God reminds Peter of His authority by telling him not to call unclean what God has made clean.

This happened three times.

Peter called the items unclean because according to the law, they were. As we saw earliler though, Jesus had fulfilled the law.

Therefore the meat is no longer unclean and neither are the Gentilles. The non-jewish people.

When he died on the cross for the world, the temple curtain was torn in to symbolizing the free access mankind had to their creator now.

The Gospel is not just for the jew, it is for ever person on Earth.

The love of God isn’t just for a certain set of people based on their geographical location, ethnicity, gender identity, or who they are attracted to.

Illustrate:

I saw a video the other night that I shared on facebook and I don’t believe got much attention due to the time of day.

It was about two ladies name Terrie and Nikki. It was their testimony of how Jesus had worked in their lives.

The video is great and I encourage you to go watch it.

Terrie and Nikki, were married, had custody of one of their sisters children with multiple ethnicities. They went to a church and to keep a long story short, after attending for a while, not being judged, not being looked at weird, and not being shunned because of their lifestyle, they got saved, baptized, and divorced.

That’s the power of an unrestrained gospel. That’s the power of the gospel in the lives of believers to remind us to meet people where they are and lovingly lead them to where God wants them to be.

Argue:

Were Terrie and Nikki living in sin? Yup. Is anyone that fornicates outside of marriage in sin? Yup

Should sin be preached against? Yup. Should sinners be hated on because they are sinning? Nope. Why?

Because the separation of Jew and Gentile was abolished at the cross. In the eyes of God your gender, ethnicity, and sin does not impact whether or not you can be saved by faith in Jesus.

Apply:

If we desire to see the gospel of Jesus make an impact in the lives of those that don’t know Him we have to accept that they will be living like people that don’t know Him.

We often forget our private sins we have now and/or the public sin we had before Christ. We spend so much time around beleivers, which isn’t a bad thing, that we forget what it means to stand with someone who doesn’t know Jesus.

We don’t have to participate in sin to relate to an unbelieving person. We do have to accept they are in sin because they don’t believe and welcome them with open arms.

because

II. To the Saved, the Gospel is a Reminder

The Gospel is a reminder of the grace of God that covers our sin. The gospel is a reminder of the mercy of God that didn’t end our lives before we trusted in Jesus. The gospel is a reminder of the love our Heavenly father has for us that was demonstrated on the Cross.

We live not by the law or flesh, we live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. In doing so we must live by

1 John 4:19–20 KJV 1900

19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

1 John 4:19-20

the word brother is not to be understood as brother in Christ or as literal brother. I believe it is figurative based on it being translated from the greek word Adelphos which could be understood as one that is “much like” If we hate those we can see here on earth and cannot have compassion on them because of how they look, where they are from, or the choices they have made, then how can we say we understand the love of Jesus that had compassion on us regardless of how we look, where we are from, and the choices we have made.

Cornelius’ men have now reached Peter and they have traveled back to Cornelius.

Acts 10:25–34 KJV 1900

25 And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. 26 But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man. 27 And as he talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together. 28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 29 Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for: I ask therefore for what intent ye have sent for me? 30 And Cornelius said, Four days ago I was fasting until this hour; and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and, behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, 31 And said, Cornelius, thy prayer is heard, and thine alms are had in remembrance in the sight of God. 32 Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter; he is lodged in the house of one Simon a tanner by the sea side: who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. 33 Immediately therefore I sent to thee; and thou hast well done that thou art come. Now therefore are we all here present before God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. 34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

Acts 10:25-34

Exegete:

Cornelius begins to worship Peter and Peter has him stop establishing himself as being “aslo a man” Peter was now seeing himself equal with the gentile.

We then hear the truth that Peter got from His vision from the Lord. The divide betwen jew and gentile is gone.

Cornellius shares his vision and then Peter preaches thee gospel.

Further on in the chapter as Peter was preaching Cornelius and those that heard Peter preach was saved.

The result goes like this

Acts 10:44–48 KJV 1900

44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. 45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, 47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

Acts 10:44-48

Those that heard the word were baptized because baptism follows Salvation.

The gift of Salvation by grace through faith has been made available to the World. It wasn’t just right now, this is us seeing Peter being reminded of the death of christ being for everyone.

It’s also us seeing those of the world whether religious or not, coming to faith in Jesus.

The answer to the problems of the world are not in politics or social media. The answer to the problems of the world aren’t found with freudian methods of psychology. The answer to the worlds problems are not found in any bank.

The answer to the problems of the world is in the gospel.

And that’s exactly where we have to start when speaking with people. We have to meet them where they are. They may not know David and Bathsehba. They probably haven’t heard the prophecies of Isaiah or the preaching of Paul.

What they do know and can relate to is your story and how it has been impacted by His story.

Illustrate:

When you go to the doctor and he comes in to tell you whats going on, he most likely doesn’t use the same verbiage as he would if he were talking with a colleague.

Put yourself in the doctors office for a moment. The dcotor walks in and says

It appears as though you are suffering from horripilation. What are you thinking? sounds terrible, I mean it has the root of the word horrible or horrific in it.

In common language it means“the bristling of the body hair, as from fear or cold,” or goosebumps

What about singultus? That’s hiccups.

Why doesn’t the doctor just explain these things to you in their medical terms? because if your like me, your not going to understand them. They won’t solve any problems. they will llikely create more questions.

The same is true about us reaching the world with the gospel. We must keep it simple.

Argue:

While many may beileve that we should be unloading a dumptruck of theology on unbelievers or new bellievers, I disagree.

First, becuase of Pauls example of what he preached to unbelievers and new beleivers.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 KJV 1900

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Second, because when I say theology I mean teaching them the intricacies of scripture. Discussing election and predestination. The determining the meanings of the book of revelaion and teaching words like hamartiology, soterology, and ecclesiology.

Not everyone will come to know or understand those things. Everyone can understand the simple message of Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and rose again.

Apply:

Why preach the gospel only? Why stick with a simplle message to a loost world. Because of what the gospel is to the world.

III. To the World, the Gospel is the Remedy

Understanding the doctrines of the faith are great however the remedy to the individuals problems in the world starts with the foundation of the gospel. The rest will come in timee as wee all grow in our sanctification.

What do you need to be sharing with the world? The gospel. What do you need to tell someone so that they can know how to be saved? The gospel.

Tell them about who you were before Jesus, how you came to trust in Jesus, and what life has been like since you trusted in Jesus. They need the remedy they will understand. See that they know their soul is saved and then teach them all that Christ has commanded you.

Time of Response

What is the Gospel to you today?

have you been religious? Maybe you were brought up in religion believing you had to be a certain way for God to love you or accept you. God said to have faith in His Son. If you have been in religion and need to break free, that’s an easy thing to do.

John 3:16 KJV 1900

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Confirm with prayer

Christian have you been judgmental? Have you been keeping the gospel to yourself? have you been trying to get everyone to believe the rest of the Bible without first trusting the one the Bible is about?

have you not been a witness for Jesus at all? Time to start telling others about Jesus in a simple way.

PRAY