Life: 1 Cor 15:1-11 Easter 2022

And when God raised Him from the dead, He wasn’t just saying Jesus was the Son of God. He was saying His sacrifice, His death on the cross, satisfied God’s wrath and made atonement for our sin.

Jesus really was The Promised Messiah who would bless all the families of the earth with salvation.

The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

That’s what Easter Sunday is all about. And what makes Easter so great, is without Easter we are still dead in our sins.

But when Jesus rose from the dead, and conquered sin, Satan, and death, God proclaimed once and for all the gospel is true.

You can be forgiven. You can be saved. You can be redeemed.

As we celebrate Easter what we are celebrating is this.

The gospel is the good news that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That’s what Easter is all about. And I want to look at 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 to celebrate what the resurrection of Jesus Christ accomplished for us.

We have three points today.

Because Jesus rose from the dead:

Number one: The Gospel is Good News.

Number two: The Gospel is Powerful to Save.

And Number three: the Gospel is Amazing Grace.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. The Gospel is Good News

1 Corinthians 15:3-8 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

Before we can talk about what the gospel does we need to know what it is, and that’s why we are starting in verse 3.

Paul calls the gospel of first importance.

Its first things first. Absolutely foundational.

There is nothing more important for your life than the gospel.

It is the good news of God’s salvation and how you respond to the gospel will determine your eternity.

It will determine whether you suffer God’s under wrath in Hell, or whether you will enjoy eternal life, rest, and peace, worshiping God forever in the heavenly Promised Land.

And right from the start, we feel the weight of Paul’s words press against us: Is the gospel of first importance to us?

First Importance - Unbelievers

First and foremost, have you believed it. Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? Or are you still living for yourself and your sin thinking I can get right with God later. I can have my fun. I can live my life. There’s always another day to start following Jesus.

Or worse, do you come here week after week, hear the gospel and completely ignore God’s grace?

Do you take what God says is most important, and trample it underfoot?

Do not face the day of judgment unprepared. Receive God’s grace.

As Hebrews says, Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart (Hebrews 4:7).

Enter God’s rest. Trust in Christ. Become a Christian.

But if you don’t. If you refuse the gospel. Jesus says it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for you (Matthew 10:15).

First Importance - Believers

But what about us, believers. What about us who have put our faith in Christ. Is the gospel of first importance?

In a world of easy believeism, here is the temptation for every Christian. The gospel can become just a part of our life and not our whole life.

Just one aspect of who we are and what we do. We live our life and we worship Jesus, but its a life with a little bit of Jesus sprinkled in, when Paul says the gospel must be everything for the Christian.

It must define everything we are and everything we do. When the gospel is of first importance, our whole life becomes about the gospel.

The gospel becomes our greatest treasure. The thing that gives all of our life, all of our hope, all of our work, everything meaning and purpose.

Here’s the idea. If we hold the gospel as of first importance that means all of our life, everything we are and everything we do is for Christ.

We stop living for our sin, we stop living for ourselves, and we live for Him and His glory because everything belongs to Him.

That’s the difference between true Christians and people who think their Christians.

For true Christians, the gospel comes first.

Well, What is that?

What is the Gospel?

Let’s talk about the word, “gospel.”

Literally the word gospel means good news.

And this was not a new idea.

God started talking about “good news” in the book of Isaiah.

So if can we understand how Isaiah used it, we will start to understand how the gospel is good news for us.

The back drop of Isaiah’s preaching is the Exile.

Israel sinned against God, broke his covenant, so God kicked them out of the Promised Land.

God had promised that this was exactly what He would do if Israel defiled the land with sin and idolatry.

If they made the Land sick, then the Land would vomit them out.

That’s because the Promise Land represented God’s Kingdom. His Rest. His blessing and salvation.

God brought them into the Land after delivering them from slavery in Egypt.

But because of their wickedness God brought in the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to rip them out of the Land in judgment.

That’s what Isaiah is prophesying about, but that’s not God’s last word for His people.

The Exile was the low point of Israel’s history. They were ripped from their homes. The Temple was destroyed. They were condemned in their sin, and it looked like all was lost.

But God promised to forgive their sins bring them back.

That was the good news. There was going to be a new exodus. A new salvation. A new deliverance for the people of God.

Isaiah 52:7-10 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

The good news was that God would gather His people from among the nations and bring them back into His Kingdom.

That He would deliver them from all their troubles and distress. Or, in other words, save them.

And this New Exodus, this Redemption would come through the Messiah who would deliver the people of God once and for all, from their spiritual exile that separated them from God.

And that’s exactly what Jesus came to do.

The backdrop for “good news” in Isaiah is sin, exile, and judgment.

And do you remember what Jesus said that day He read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue?

Luke 4:18-21 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

The good news is that Jesus Christ came to save us.

We were lost and dead in our sins. Cut off from God. Exiled.

We were, by nature, children of wrath.

But the good news is God sent Jesus to bring us back into His Kingdom.

That in Christ, He proclaims good news.

He calls us out of the cursed wilderness of our exile, He opens our blind eyes, and frees us from sin and death.

That what the year of the Lord’s favor is all about.

The year of the Lord’s favor is the year of Jubilee from the Old Testament Law.

The Year of Jubilee was every 49 or 50 years and during the year of Jubilee:

Debts were forgiven,

Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery because of their poverty were liberated

And the Land itself was not to be farmed. Nothing could be harvested or sold. Instead, everything that grew naturally, by God Himself, would be open to everyone to eat just like it was in Eden (Genesis 1:29-30).

That’s the gospel. It is the true, eternal year of Jubilee for everyone that believes.

It is full and absolute forgiveness of our debt of sin. Its total deliverance from our slavery to sin, exile, and judgment.

The only question is how? How does God deliver us?

How does God forgive us?

How does God bring the year of Jubilee?

Bring us out of exile and back into His Kingdom. Out of the spiritual wasteland back into back into the Promise Land?

Out of the curse, back into blessing?

Paul tells us: The good news is that God saves us through death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

Paul gives a simple, clear cut definition of the gospel.

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.

And He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

That’s the gospel.

And when Paul says that Jesus died and rose again in accordance with the Scriptures, what he is doing is packing in as much theological truth as he possibly can in this short, simple definition

Let’s start with Jesus’ death.

Death

When Paul says Christ died in accordance in the Scriptures what He probably has in mind is the overarching story of Redemption found in the Old Testament.

The Bible is all about Jesus.

How we sinned against God, and how God, in His love, grace, and mercy promised to save us in the Messiah, the Son of God.

All throughout the Old Testament God was telling His people the redeemer was coming, and He was going to die for your sins.

Genesis 3:15

Even from the very beginning, Genesis 3:15, God promised the Serpent, right after the Fall, right after Adam and Eve first sinned, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Jesus would crush Satan. And when Jesus stomped on the serpent, it would bruise His heel.

Jesus would conquer sin, Satan, and death only by dying.

Sacrifices

Or take Passover Lamb and all the sacrifices of the Old Covenant.

The animal would die in the place the sinner.

And by the blood, a person’s sin would be forgiven.

But Hebrews tells us It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. All the sacrifices pointed to Him.

Law

Even the Law showed us our need for Christ.

Every command God gave showed us just how far we’ve fallen short from glorifying Him like He created us to.

And because of our sin, we were guilty. We needed a savior.

Christ died for our sins because it was the only way God’s Word says our sins could be forgiven.

But there are also specific Scriptures that prophesied hundreds of years before Christ ever came how he would need to die on the cross to save us from our sins.

The Suffering Servant

Isaiah 53:5-6, 10-12 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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all...Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief...

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities...he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was pierced for our transgressions.

God laid on Him our sin. We are healed by His wounds.

And we really are healed. Jesus Christ, the righteous one makes many to be accounted righteous.

Or as Paul said it in 2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The wages of sin is death, and Jesus died for our sins.

And that was proven by His burial. He actually died. He actually bore our sins and paid our debt.

And God proved it, by raising Him from the dead three days later.

Resurrection

he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

The resurrection of Christ can be seen in several places of the Old Testament.

We could look at Jonah. Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. Even the Suffering Servant of Isaiah that we just saw was since Hebrews says Abraham believed God would raise him from the dead satisfied by what his sacrifice accomplished.

How could a dead man be satisfied unless he rose from the dead?

But I want to look at one specific place, where we know the Apostles saw the resurrection of Christ in the Scriptures.

In Acts 2, Peter preaches his sermon at Pentecost.

Pentecost was when Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit on his disciples as proof that when He ascended into heaven, He sat down at the right hand of the Father to reign rule with all authority in heaven and on earth, King of kings and Lord of lords.

On that day, Acts 2:5 says Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

Jews from all over the empire had come, and God brought them there to hear the gospel.

When the Holy Spirit fell on the disciples, they began proclaiming the gospel, and all the unbelieving Jews, no matter where they were from, heard the gospel in their own language, and they were confused.

So Peter stood up to proclaim the good news.

He said, Acts 2:22-24 Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

And then Peter quotes Psalm 16. Verse 25. Acts 2:25-28 “For David says concerning him…You will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’”

And then Peter points out the obvious. David wasn’t talking about Himself. David died. He was buried. And His tomb was still in Jerusalem. You could go visit it.

Instead Acts 2:30-32 “Being therefore a prophet [Talking about David], and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.”

Here’s what Peter is saying.

The reason death could not hold Jesus was because Jesus had no sin of His own to die for.

The Son of God died for His people’s sins. And when God raised Him from the dead, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that God accepted His sacrifice.

That all of our sins were forgiven.

The resurrection proves that Jesus was the Son of God. The King of David who God had promised would rule the nations under the Kingdom of God and deliver God’s people from their sins.

That’s why Peter says Therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:36).

And just like Jesus’ death on the cross was proven by being buried in the grave, His resurrection was proven to be a real, bodily resurrection by all the witnesses who saw Him raised from the dead.

he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

The resurrection of Christ did not happen in a corner or in the shadows.

It was public. He appeared to his closest friends - the disciples, his brother, Paul himself says I saw Him as he writes this, and jesus even appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time.

The most common lie about the resurrection is that Jesus’ disciples stole his body from the grave.

That lie came the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ own day that hated Jesus and they paid off the Romans to make sure that people 2000 years later would still believe that lie today and remain in their sins.

But the testimony of Scripture and history is clear. Jesus really did die on the cross. He really was buried. And he really did rise from the dead.

And that is good news because If Christ has not been raised from the dead, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins (1 Cor 15:17).

But because he has, we are saved.

And that takes us to point number two, the Gospel is good news and...

2000

II. The Gospel is Powerful to Save

1 Corinthians 15:1-2 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

If this gospel is the good news of God’s salvation, then we have to ask: How are we saved by it?

How does the good news become good news for us?

The answer is Faith. And Paul describes the Corinthians faith 4 ways.

First, we must receive the gospel.

1. True Faith Receives the Gospel

And then, once its preached, our job is to receive it. Receive the promises of forgiveness, salvation and life in Jesus Christ, and that looks like faith.

Its more than just knowing the gospel. Or even just thinking the gospel is true.

To receive the gospel is to receive it with all your heart. To put your faith in Christ and Him alone for salvation.

Here’s what the gospel tells us. We can’t save ourselves.

The Bible tells us no one will be justified by works of the Law (Gal 2:16).

Justified means declared righteous. Found not guilty. More than that, being justified means God says there is no sin here, only perfect obedience to God’s Law.

Well that’s a problem because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

None of us are righteous. None is righteous, no not one (Rom. 3:10).

So here’s what we try to do. We try to earn God’s forgiveness.

If I’m a good enough person. If I do the right things. If I’m religious and go to church then God will have to forgive me.

Listen. God doesn’t have to forgive you. When we obey God, we are not giving Him anything that didn’t belong to Him in the first place.

God’s standard is not “good enough.” It is perfect righteousness. Perfect obedience to His Law. Not one sin.

And if all of us have sinned, then how can we be forgiven?

That’s where Christ comes in. Christ died for our sins.

Romans 3:23-25 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

God’s grace is a gift. You can’t earn it. You can’t work for it. You can only receive it.

When you put your faith in Christ, he becomes your propitiation.

That is a $5 dollar theological word that means he is your sacrifice that satisfies the wrath of God on your behalf so that you can be forgiven.

Maybe that’s you. Maybe you think, I need to be saved.

All my guilt and shame is burying me washes away even a single sin.

Maybe you’re cut to the heart and like the people who heard Peter’s sermon at Pentecost, inside you are crying out What shall I do? (Acts 2:37).

Acts 2:38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That’s what faith looks like. You repent and believe.

You repent of your sin. You put it to death. Say I don’t want to go that way anymore.

And you repent of your good works. All the ways you’ve tried to earn your own salvation.

And you believe in Jesus Christ and Him alone for the forgiveness of your sins.

And God promises to save you.

Romans 10:9-10 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

Well then what? Once you receive the gospel, true faith stands firm in the gospel.

2. True Faith Stands Firm in the Gospel

The gospel which you received, in which you stand.

Paul uses this word two other times in 1 Corinthians and both times it means to stand firm.

In other words, you grab onto the gospel and you never let it go.

You anchor your life in it. It becomes the foundation for everything.

It is of first importance.

That when the temptations of your flesh or the pressure of the world tries to make you shrink back from your faith in Christ and devotion to Him you push back just as hard.

You preach to yourself the love of God.

The great grace of Christ.

And you remember that you are not your own but you were bought with a price, and so you live all of your life for Him, according to His Word.

Standing in the gospel means you live out the grace of God.

You deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus.

You Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13).

The gospel worked in works itself out in a new life. Put off the old self, put on the new.

How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2).

When we were dead in our sins we followed the course of this world and lived our lives as children of wrath (Eph. 2:2).

But now, we stand firm in the gospel. We don’t go that way. We don’t love the world or the things in the world (1 John 2:15). We love Christ.

We live for Him. Salt and light. Separated from the world to the Word of God (Nehemiah 10:28).

Or like Paul said it: Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (Romans 12:1-2).

And that takes us to the third mark of true faith in the gospel. True faith...

3. True Faith Is Saved by the Gospel

By which you are being saved.

Well hold on a second. I thought we were already saved. Aren’t we saved when we put our faith in Christ.

Maybe this will be helpful to you. Think of Salvation as the big umbrella. The thing that saves us from the storm of God’s wrath.

And underneath that umbrella there are three different aspects of Salvation. Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification.

Justification is when we are saved from the Penalty of Sin.

The moment we put our faith in Christ, we are saved, once and for all. Forgiven. Done.

Jesus said it is finished and he meant it.

Sanctification is the one in the middle. Its where we are saved from the Power of Sin.

Where we progressively grow in holiness to be more and more like Christ.

Why? Because Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Col. 1:15, Heb. 1:3).

When God first created us, He made us in His image. That means we were made to glorify God in everything we are and everything we do by loving him and obeying His commands.

Sin, though broke that image. But in Christ it is renewed.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Being saved in our sanctification means we are growing day by day into the image of Christ.

Being restored to worship God and love Him as true image bearers like He originally created us to.

And one day, we will be perfectly remade into His image when Christ returns at the resurrection. That’s glorification.

Glorification is our great hope as Christians. One day, when Christ returns we will be raised to new life.

Just like he was resurrected, we will be resurrected and saved from the Presence of Sin forever and ever and ever.

That’s the hope of Easter. Because Christ rose again, we will rise again, and death has lost its sting.

We will live forever with the Lord in His Kingdom and all the blessing that entails.

And we will spend eternity in joyful rest returning those blessings back to the Lord in praise.

We are saved from the penalty of sin in our justification.

We are being saved from the power of sin in our sanctification as the Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ day by day to live a holy life as God’s New Creation Image bearers.

And one day, we will be saved from the presence of sin when our salvation will be complete on the day Christ returns.

Finally...

4. True Faith Perseveres in the Gospel

if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Without perseverance you will not be saved.

Now this does not mean that perseverance is a work necessary to earn your salvation.

What it is, is the necessary fruit of salvation.

Perseverance is the fruit of genuine saving faith.

If believers do not remain in the faith, then their faith was in vain.

Its like the parable of the soils. Some of the seed fell on rocky ground and sprouted up, but when the sun, when a time of testing came, it withered away.

True faith perseveres. And even this perseverance is a work of God’s grace.

If you are sitting there wondering, “what if I can’t persevere?” throw yourself on the grace of God and trust in His promises.

Philippians 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

True faith:

Receives the gospel

Stands firm in the Gospel

Is Saved by the Gospel

And Perseveres in the Gospel

And through this faith, which is a gift of God, the gospel is powerful to save.

Finally, last but not least, The gospel is good news, powerful to save, and glorious, amazing grace.

III. The Gospel is Amazing Grace

1 Corinthians 15:8-11 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 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. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

I don’t want to be long here, so I just want to point out one thing.

At first glance you might think Paul is being a little arrogant here. I worked harder than any other Apostle.

But hear what Paul is saying.

I’m only an apostle by the grace of God.

I hated Christ and persecuted His church. I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to even bear the name.

But God’s grace towards me was not in vain. It was powerful. Amazing. It was the kind of grace that I never deserved and did what I thought would have never been possible.

Think about it.

Paul’s hard work was not about Paul being awesome.

It was this stunned amazement of how powerful God’s grace was.

In Philippians 3:6 Paul says he was zealous to persecute the church.

But after encountering Christ, as much as Paul was zealous to destroy the church, the grace of God that was in Him made Him that much more zealous to build it.

That’s how radical God’s grace is. And that’s how radical God’s grace is for you. It really is amazing.

Paul was arresting Christians, casting his vote to put them to death and even watched with approval as the first martyr was killed.

And he would go from that to being imprisoned, suffering countless beatings often to the point of death.

He was stoned once. Shipwrecked three times. A night and a day adrift at sea.

Always traveling. Danger everywhere he went.

Hungry. Thirsty. Cold and without sleep. Not to mention the burden he had to serve the church. (2 Cor 11:23-28).

So on the one hand, God’s grace is amazing because it is powerful enough to absolutely change everything about your life.

It really can save you.

And here’s what I really want you to see.

Here’s what really makes God’s grace so amazing. There is no sinner too far gone.

No one outside the grace of God.

Paul persecuted the Church.

When Jesus confronted Him he said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

It was as if all the persecutions Paul had done when he Saul, were done against Christ Himself.

And God still saved him.

God’s grace is so amazing that if He can save Paul He can save anyone.

That includes you.

You are not too dirty. Not too broken. Not too lost for God’s amazing grace.

If you come to Christ he will save you. He will change you from the inside out.

He will free you from all your sin and take away all of your guilt and shame.

And the best news of all is He will forgive your sin.

One of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 103:10-14 says

Psalm 103: 10-14 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

He will throw all your sins into the depths of the sea to be remembered no more, all because Christ died and rose again in accordance with the Scriptures.

Conclusion

The gospel is the good news that God saves sinners through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

That’s what easter is all about.

That’s what salvation is all about.

The Gospel is good news that even though we are lost and dead in our sins, we can be redeemed.

We can be brought back to Eden from Exile.

The Gospel is powerful to save.

Through faith In Jesus Christ and His sinless life, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection we really can be forgiven.

And the Gospel is Amazing grace.

God did the impossible.

God showed his love for us in this. That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

Our only response can be to sing out with the Psalmist

Psalm 100 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

Psalm 145:1-3, 8-10 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable...The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!

Psalm 103:1-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

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