A Fellowship of Faith: What is the Gospel?

Introduction

If you have your Bibles, open to Romans 1, if you do not, please grab one of the red ones on the window sills at the outside ends of the rows. You will be better for having the Scriptures open in front of you as we study God’s Word together.

If you look at your handouts you will notice that it has many Scripture references. We are going to be all through the Bible in our study this morning, but please utilize that handout as a resource whenever you need it.

A new series called A Fellowship of Faith

We will be finishing Judges later so keep those study guides around, but we thought with all the changes that have been happening it would be wise to make sure we understand and cling to that which is unchanging.

The goal of this series is for us to be unified as a church in the way that we think about who we are as a church.

Not simply to be unified, but to be unified to what the Bible has told us a church should be.

How sad would it be for us to ultimately be unified to something that we think a church should be without consulting what the Bible has to say about what the Bride of Christ is to be. How sad would it be to reach the end only to be rebuked by Jesus for not reading what the Word of God has to say or reading it and ignoring it. So the goal is to be unified around the biblical definitions of what a church is supposed to be.

Now, let’s turn to the Word of God.

Romans 1:15–17

15 So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. 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.”

Pray

Wisdom from the Father

Speak through me

Illumination of truth and Conviction of sin from the Spirit

Deaf ears where I speak out of turn, not in line with the Scriptures

Discernment for those gathered to seek the truth where they are offended by what is said

Recognition and conviction of unrealized sin in our lives

Faith and Redemption through the work of the Son

May everyone gathered here be awakened anew with a love for Your Word, LORD

Amen

The title for today’s sermon is simply, What is the Gospel?

Now some of you might be thinking “that’s a simple topic that everyone already knows”, but if I asked you that question, “What is the Gospel?” how would you respond? Would you even know how to respond?

There are many, maybe even some in this very room this morning, who have spent their whole lives in church and yet they don’t know how to articulate the gospel, and still more have no confidence to do so.

If that’s you, if you’re sitting in your chair this morning and are confused about what the Gospel is or you’re not sure how to teach the Gospel, please know that you are not alone in this struggle. I was in that same position for a long time, but this message of good news is far too important to keep to ourselves.

Our goal this morning is to help clear some of that confusion and to help your confidence grow in this glorious message that is the power to save those who are lost.

Some ways you might think about the Gospel:

1. One of the first four books of the New Testament detailing the life and work of Christ

– so in other words, the story of Jesus – and this would hold part of the answer, but not all.

2. Euangelion, Greek for “Good News”

Others, with a little more time spent in Christian circles will know that the word “gospel” comes originally from the Greek word euangelion which literally means good news – so in other words, in combination with the previous answer, the gospel is the good news that is the life and work of Christ

– again, we’re getting closer to the answer, but we still are only seeing a fraction of the truth.

3. “Jesus Died for My Sins”

One of the great problems of Evangelicalism (the word for the Christian movement we all belong to which stems from that Greek word for Gospel, euangelion) is that, for those who do have a response to the question, “What is the gospel” they would likely say something along the lines of, “Jesus died for our sins” – and they would be only communicating that partially correct, understanding of the gospel. Let me explain.

i. When we read the Gospel books we see a significant number of passages like

Matthew 4:23, Mark 1:14, Matthew 9:35

Matthew 4:23 (ESV)

23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Mark 1:14 (ESV)

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,

Matthew 9:35 (ESV)

35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.

And still more verses as well. Do you see the problem here?

1. If the Gospel is “Jesus died for our sins”, how is Jesus proclaiming this “good news” before he died? Why would he?

Either

ONE - Jesus was telling everyone he met that he died for their sins before he even died or

TWO - there is much more to the Gospel than what we often think

The Gospel is foundational

1. To our Christian faith,

2. To the way our salvation is achieved

3. To understanding what the price “Jesus died for our sins” actually cost and the priceless treasure it truly is.

Please fight boredom, exhaustion, or even confusion to hear this Good News I am bringing to you this morning.

This morning my goal is to equip you with a framework for understanding the Gospel and then proclaiming that good news to others. To begin to understand more clearly what the gospel is, I find it helpful to look through the framework of the work or actions of four persons or groups:

1. The Father

2. Humanity

3. The Son

4. The Holy Spirit

The Father’s Work: Creation (Gen 1-2)

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created…”

think about this for a minute

It’s not “in the beginning God was born”

It’s not “in the beginning humans learned about God”

It’s “in the beginning God created”

This means

God existed before the beginning.

Try to wrap your mind around this!

Something existed before the beginning! Before time was even created God existed!

Maybe you’re much smarter than I am and you’re able to understand the concept of something existing outside of time, but I’m finding it impossible.

I keep trying, but it wears me out!

It simply does not compute in my brain how something could be unaffected by time!

We think time is a fixed law of the universe that governs everything, but as we learn more and more about astrophysics, we are actually learning that not even time is fixed.

You might know that speed affects time from sci-fi movies and shows: The faster you travel the slower time moves: Time stops at the speed of light.

But did you know that gravity can affect time? That the stronger the gravitational pull, the slower time moves?

I was introduced to the reality of gravity affecting time through the Christopher Nolan movie “Interstellar” and the enormity of that realization led me to worship God for how much bigger He is than my understanding!

The movie “Arrival” is another fascinating science-fiction examination of the relativity of time. Those movie recommendations were for free. Back to the sermon

All of this to say –

“YHWH, the God of the Bible, is infinitely more than we can ever dream or imagine or reason. We simply cannot comprehend the depths of His power and ability. He is bigger and more incredible than we can even dream of understanding.”

Continuing through Genesis 1 we see God create various aspects of creation and declaring them to be good, eventually declaring mankind to be very good (Gen 1)

God said it is not good for man to be alone and created woman (Gen 2:18)

God also said that every tree He created in the garden was good for eating (2:16), except for one tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil which if eaten will cause death.

The infinite creator spends time looking at His creation and determining what leads to pleasure and life (what is good), and what leads to pain and death (what is evil).

The Holiness of God

We’ll return to this in a minute, because I want to focus on one more aspect of God that is massively emphasized in the Bible. His Holiness.

In Isaiah 6:3 The prophet Isaiah had a vision where there were angels whose sole work was to fly around in the presence of God and as they are doing so they are crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

They are spending time in the pure unadulterated presence of the LORD and what is the one attribute they cry out? HOLY

ii. Not only do they cry out that God is holy, but they repeat it three times. In the Hebrew language repetition is used as emphasis. To say “holy – holy – holy” is to say “holy – holier – holiest”.

1. What is Holiness? The late theologian RC Sproul had this to say about holiness.

“I notice in our own language and vocabulary, the term holy seems to be used among us, particularly among Christians, as a synonym for moral purity or righteousness. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it may be a little bit misleading. In the Scriptures, there is one primary meaning and one secondary meaning of the term holy. The secondary meaning is that which refers to personal righteousness and purity. However, the primary meaning of the word is “separate,”… That which is holy is that which is other—that which is different from something else.”

2. The Bible Project adds that “It's helpful to think of God like the sun. The sun is so bright and powerful that its energy radiates out through the solar system. It's a good, helpful thing to be within the sun's energy, but the sun itself is so powerful that it's dangerous to get too close. In scripture, where we see examples of mortal men approaching the presence of the almighty God, the exact same scenario that this metaphor depicts is played out...

It's an intense example of just how overwhelmingly powerful God's holiness is. Other examples of God's holiness in the Bible can be found in verses depicting the Holy of Holies, the inner room of the Israelite temple where God Himself resided. Because the Israelites, and especially the priests that worked within the temple, were in such close proximity to God's holiness, they had to take great care in order to keep themselves pure.”

The holiness of God is so pure and intense that the least speck of unholiness is destroyed in His presence. Isaiah, after seeing this vision of the presence of God cries out just two verses later in 6:5 “Woe is me!” which means “I am cursed! I am in distress!” “For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

1. In the presence of God Isaiah saw his own sin and it tore him apart and that is exactly what happens when sin comes before the Holy God. It is like attempting to introduce anything other than fire to the sun. It will be ripped apart if it is not of the same substance as the “holy” thing

2. With this understanding of God’s role as creator and his intense holiness we return to the story of the Garden of Eden and move onto the second point.

Humanity’s Work: Rebellion

Genesis 3

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate. 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

15 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.””…

22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”

Let’s focus on four things here which are significant to understanding the gospel. Each of these are present throughout the OT and should be remembered when you read the Bible.

1. Humanity quickly and with little encouragement rebelled against God

Humanity’s rebellion is progressive – it gets worse

2. They didn’t die. Something else died to cover them.

God provides grace to cover the wages of our sin, which is death, through sacrifice

The animal skins in Genesis 3

Abraham and Isaac and the ram

The nation of Israel and their laws

3. Their sin caused them and all of their descendants to be driven from the goodness of the garden and from the ability to walk with God.

You might be tempted to think that this punishment is too severe for simply eating a fruit. In a Q&A session of a conference RC Sproul was asked a similar question

Moderator: Since God is slow to anger and patient, then why, when man first sinned, was his wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting?!

Sproul: Time out! Didn’t we just have that question just a second ago? That God’s punishment for Adam was so severe. This creature from the dirt, defied the everlasting, holy God. After that, God had said, “The day that you shall eat of it, you shall surely die.” And instead of dying that day, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe?!? What’s wrong with you people?! I mean this is what’s wrong with the Christian church today. We don’t know who God is. And we don’t know who we are. The question is, why wasn’t it infinitely more severe? If we have any understanding of our sin and any understanding of who God is. That’s the question, isn’t it?!

4. God promised a man would one day crush the serpent

It is no accident that the Bible clearly shows the moral failures of essentially every person except one.

You might be tempted to think that your sins are somehow less than Adam and Eve’s, but examine your heart and I think you will find that to be quite false.

The scratch

Sermon on the mount

Matthew 5:21-22

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ (which means “you good-for-nothing) is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Don’t you see? You are just as guilty of rebelling against God as Adam, the representative of humanity. You need a new representative if you are to have any hope of surviving the holiness of God.

“Your sin is much more grievous to God than you’d like to think. You deserve hell for your rebellion.”

iv. With an understanding of the implications of God’s Holiness and our rebellion against that, we’re finally ready to get to the setting of this gospel that Jesus was teaching.

The Son’s Work: Redemption

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

So what was this Gospel that Jesus preached?

A two part redemption:

1. The redemption of the children of God

- The Prodigal Son

2. The redemption of the Earth

How Jesus Brings Redemption to the Children of God

1. He is Sinless

Fully god-fully man: He is the only man who can stand before God’s holiness

He can intercede for us because he can represent us as both one of us and as God

2. He is the Eternal Sacrifice

Through the shedding of his blood, it is a one and done kind of sacrifice. He is eternal, his payment is eternal.

3. He was resurrected

Resurrection – Jesus’ claims of being the sacrifice for sins were proven to be true by his being raised from death! By raising Christ from the grave God showed that Christ truly was the sinless Son– he is the only human who died who is worthy of life!

4. He ascended into Heaven

5. He intercedes for us as our Great High Priest

Redemption of the earth

Revelation 21

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

The Holy Spirit’s Work: Sanctification

a. The final part of the good news is that while we are utterly incapable of redeeming ourselves, of removing the sin in our souls, God is fully capable to do so

We have a supernatural help because of the third person of the trinity, the Holy spirit.

When we have been redeemed to God, through Christ, he puts his own spirit within us, he changes our desires and continues to refine us into the image of Christ. He makes us holy. This is sanctification.

This is done in two stages in a already/not yet kind of way

As soon as we put our faith in Jesus as the Son of God and as our representative, we are declared legally holy. This is called Justification. We are no longer legally guilty of sin because of the covering of Christ. If you were to die the minute after you truly became a Christian, you would still be part of the family of God.

If you think you have to clean your life up before putting your faith in Christ then you’re dead wrong! Think deeply on that concept and you should begin to see you’re actually putting your faith in yourself!

The second stage is a progressive sanctification that will continue throughout our lifetimes. This is the continuing work of the Holy Spirit

You will not be sinless in this lifetime. 1 John 1:8 says that anyone who claims that to be true in their lives is a liar who is deceiving themselves

What does the Spirit do?

1. He opens our minds to understand the mysteries of God (John 14:26, 16:12-15, Eph 1:17-18)

2. He revives our hearts, delivering us to life from the death of sin (John 3:6-7, 6:63, 2 Cor 3:6, Rom 8:11)

3. He comforts our souls (John 14:26)

4. He empowers us with gifts to strengthen the church (Rom 12:6-8, 1 Cor 12:7-10, 12:28, Eph 4:11)

Conclusion

The Gospel is NOT:

1. Jesus died because you are so intrinsically valuable.

2. Jesus just wants to be your friend.

3. Jesus just wants us to be nice to each other.

A. Application

a. There are a multitude of ways to apply this truth of the complete gospel to our own lives but we’ll focus on three to close.

Why is the Gospel important to our everyday lives as Christians?

1. It protects us against false teaching

2. It brings joy to those who despair in their sin

3. It brings truth of condemnation to those who are arrogantly ignorant to the truth of their own depravity

I will close with this excellent proclamation of the Gospel from the book How to Build a Healthy Church:

“This Gospel, then, is that God is our holy Creator and Righteous Judge. He created us to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever, but we have all sinned against Him, both in Adam as our representative head and in our own individual actions(Rm5:12, 3:23). We therefore deserve death - spiritual separation from God in hell(6:23, Eph2:3) - and are in fact spiritually stillborn, helpless in our sins(Ps51:5, Rm5:6-8, Eph2:1) and in need of God to impart spiritual life to us(Ez37:1-4, Jn3:3). But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man(Plp2:5-11), to die the death that we deserved, and God raised Him up for our justification, proving that Jesus was God’s son(Rm5:1, 1:4). If we would have Christ’s perfect righteousness credited to us, and the penalty of our sins accounted to Him, we must repent of our sins and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation (2Cor5:21, Mk 1:14-15).”

B. Let’s Pray.