Untitled Sermon

Introduction

Good morning.

I grew up in this church.

I spent the first 18 years of my life and I’ve spent the last 15 away from it. I first heard the Gospel from my mom but then I heard it many times in this church throughout the years from different people.

And now Alicia and I live in the Middle East where we are missionaries with the IMB and where I serve as an elder at a church. Our work is to see healthy churches all over our city preaching the Gospel.

This morning if you will open your Bibles, we will be in 1 Corinthians 15:1-7.

We all need reminders.

Just ask your spouse. How many of you feel like you’re forgetful? Well it turns out that the human memory is really not all that great. We think we can remember more than we actually can. You might even think “I have a good memory” and maybe you do comparatively. But the reality is that we must set reminders for ourselves. We can’t remember everything that we want to remember.

In fact I read a quote recently from a book called the forgetting machine, by a doctor who researches the human memory. He says,

“We remember almost nothing. The idea that we remember a great deal of the subtleties and details of our experiences, as if we are playing back a movie, is nothing more than an illusion, a construct of the brain.” The forgetting Machine

The reality is that we are forgetful people. And if we don’t know it, those around us like our spouse or our kids know it. God knows it too. Throughout the Bible, God reminds his people of who he is, what he has done. Why does he do this? Hasn’t he told us? He has, but he tell us again and again because we are forgetful, we need reminders.

In our passage today, Paul is going to remind us of the thing that we ultimately need to be reminded of daily. The Gospel.

MIS

Read 1 Corinthians 15:1-7

1 Corinthians 15:1–7 ESV

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that 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. 6Then 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.

Since we are jumping into the middle of 1 Corinthians let me give you some background.

1 Corinthians was a letter written by Paul to the church in Corinth. The church in Corinth, like most churches, was filled with problems. But it was especially filled with problems as it was made up of mostly new believers and it was in a very sinful and pagan city. Paul addresses lots of these problems in 1 Corinthians like divisions, lawsuits, sexual immorality, eating food sacrificed to idols. Later in the chapter we are reading today, he addresses the believers resurrection from the dead. So lots of easy topics right? But what is Paul’s remedy to the issues that he is addressing? Is it to do better? To just try harder to solve the problem? No it’s a message as we will see.

From 1 Corinthians 15:1-7 I want to point out 3 things and answer 1 question.

That could be four points. But to be a good Baptist I decided to make it 3 points and 1 question.

First, the Gospel is of upmost importance.

Look back at Verse 1. Paul says now “I would remind you brothers.”

Paul calling the Corinthians to remember. Some of your translations may say “make clear to you”. Regardless of the translation, this signals that Paul is about to say something important right? It says, hey “I think you’ve either forgotten this or you’re going to forget this and I want you to listen”. Right? He’s written, a very long letter to them about lots of issues and he says “Hey, in the midst of all that’s going on, remember what I’m about to say”.

This is a hint that whatever he is about to say is important. But we also see another indication of the Gospels importance.

Look at verse 3. Paul says that the Gospel is of first importance.

Before we moved overseas I was a FF/Paramedic while Alicia was finishing up college. Something in the job we always asked was what’s most important? If you are at a crash scene with multiple patients you must ask: what’s most important? Who is hurt the worst? It’s not that all the patients are not important, we want to provide care to everyone who has injuries. But there is always a priority. If someone is trapped in a fire. Can you rescue the person before putting the fire out or do you need to put water on the fire first so that you can get to the person. What’s of first importance? What is the most important thing? Not that there weren’t lots of important things to do but What was of “first importance” was crucial. It’s not like this just with being a FF/Paramedic but a lot of areas of life right? We have a common saying for this “First things first”. We are always trying to gauge what is most important in our lives and what should receive our attention, whether we know it or not.

The word Paul uses here for first importance could also be translated “Chief”. So Paul says that the The Gospel is the chief thing that he delivered to the Corinthians. The most important. Paul is saying that he may have delivered lots of important things to the Corinthians. Lots of really important things. But this was chief among them. This was the First thing.

Get the Gospel wrong. You get everything wrong. All of life hinges on this message for the Christian. If you do not have the Gospel. You have nothing. It’s of first importance. In fact, compared to the message of the Gospel, everything else is not very important in the grand scheme of things. IN light of eternity. One quote I always go back to as I try to remember what is most important in life is by Greg Mckeown:

“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of almost everything” Greg McKeown.

Paul is pleading with the Corinthians to remember what’s most important.

We place importance on a lot of things.

Family. Jobs. Money. Career. Being A good person. All important things right? Yet none of them are of first importance. None of them are chief. You can have all of them and yet have nothing at all. All of those things will be gone one day. So in Paul saying that he delivered the Gospel as of First importance he is saying “don’t forget it” your whole life hinges on this truth.

One thing I always here preachers saying was “if you take away one thing, here’s what I want you to remember”. I’ve always been a little frustrated by that statement because I’m like you’ve been talking to me for 30 mins, hopefully I’m going to take more than one thing away from this. Well Paul is telling the Corinthians, “If you take away one thing from this super long letter, take the Gospel, it’s the most important thing I’ve told you”.

So we get it the Gospel is important. Here’s the question we must answer:

What is the Gospel?

This is the most important question we can answer when we come to the Bible.

Well he tells us in verses 3&4 clearly and succinctly. And just a reminder here, Paul is writing to Christians. This is not an evangelistic letter to people who have yet to believe the Gospel this is a reminder to those who have already embraced the Gospel.

Look at verses 3 & 4 with me.

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,”

The Gospel is a message.

The Word Gospel means “Good News”. Or “Good Tidings” but no one probably knows what that means anymore, including me.

So the news is that we are sinners. And that Jesus died and was raised for our sins, right? That’s the Good News in a simple sentence. If someone asks you what Christians believe this is a great two verses to point to. We are all sinners and Jesus died for the sins of His people.

And Paul doesn’t just tell us this….the whole Bible preaches this message. Right?

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 2:24 (ESV) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Romans 3:23–25ESV

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. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

This is the Gospel.

God is the Holy creator of the universe. He is glorious and good. But You are a sinner and have disobeyed him. I am a sinner. We have all sinned against a holy God. We deserve Hell yet Jesus took the punishment for our sins on the Cross and if you put your faith in Him you are forgiven. You get eternal life with God, you are reconciled to the creator. This is the best news in all of the world.

If you trust in Christ and this message, all of your sins are paid for. This brings incredible freedom. That our sins our paid for.

When someone pays something for you. It brings joy. Many of us have been in line at Chickfila, or at a restaurant and the person in front pays for our food. Or at a restraint and the waiter says the bill has been covered. But what if someone paid off your house, or your car. How much joy would that bring? A lot. What if someone paid off all the debt you owed and gave you a million dollars. Every more joy.

The reality is that Jesus paid for every bad thing you have ever done.

Every sin. On the Cross, if you trust in Christ. He gave you something better than a million dollars. If you have an eternal perspective you will see that it is better than a million dollars. Better than any earthly treasure he gave you eternal life with him in Heaven. You get to be with God. The Creator of the heaven and the earth. The one who made you. The one who made everything on this planet. The one worthy of worship of every person on the planet. You get to be with him forever, if you believe this news. It’s good news.

And Notice that the Gospel is not something that we do. It’s news.

It’s news that you believe and accept. It’s news that you bank everything on.

Now there is a lot of news in the world today. We are bombarded with news from every direction right? But there are different kinds of news. There is news that you watch and it doesn’t really have any baring on your life and then there is news that really changes things. You may hear that there is a protest in some far away city. Or stocks fell a bit today. Or a bill was passed in DC. Now those news items may have some baring on your life. But they probably are not going to change a whole lot. Right? The Gospel is not that kind of news. If this news is true you bank your whole life on it. You put all of your trust in it. It changes everything. If it’s not true, then it is really just another news item from a long time ago that doesn’t change anything. Right? Well the good news is that it is true. In fact, Paul argues in our passage that the Gospel is fact. That’s point number two.

Another truth that we can see in this passage is that:

The Gospel is fact

Paul shows us this in two ways:

First, he says that Jesus died and was raised In accordance with the Scriptures.

This Gospel message is not just a message of the New Testament. But in fact, all of the Bible was pointing toward and moving toward Jesus’ death and resurrection and our salvation found in him. In other words, your Old Testament isn’t just old stories that are interesting or have no connection to the New testament or your life today, but they foretell and point to the Gospel.

Take Isaiah 53:3-7

Isaiah 53:3–7ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 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. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

Does this sound familiar? Pierced for our transgressions. Crushed for our iniquities. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This was written over 700 years before Christ. This was clearly talking about Jesus. Isaiah was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ 700 years before he came. The Gospel is according to the Scriptures.

Not only does the Old Testament testify to Jesus’ death and resurrection but Jesus foretold his death and resurrection many times. Just one example is

Mark 9:31–32ESV

31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

Clear as can be right?

So the Gospel is according to the Scriptures, as Paul says. Jesus died, was buried, and rose, just as the Scriptures foretold.

Some may say. Well people just propagated this news because that’s what was prophesied in the Old Testament and foretold by Jesus. It didn’t really happen. But that’s leads us to the second way that Paul reminds the Corinthians that the Gospel is fact.

He reminds the Corinthians that many saw Jesus after he was raised from the dead. There were witnesses. He says that he was buried. People put him in the tomb and buried him and yet he rose.

Look back at verses 5-7.

1 Corinthians 15:5–7 ESV

5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6Then 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.

So there is a long list of trusted people who say Jesus after he rose from the dead. He appeared to cephas, who is Peter, and to the twelve disciples. And you could say oh, well those are just his friends. But then he appeared to more than five hundred people at once. That’s a lot of people. 500 witnesses makes something really hard to dispute. That’s why Paul includes that. Not only that but in the time that Paul is writing it most of them are still alive. He’s like, go ask them, they are still alive. There is proof of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Now think about this in a courtroom scenario today. As proof. If someone committed a crime. And we put them on trial. And there were 500 people waiting in line to say that they saw the person commit the crime. Do you think that would be enough evidence to convict? 500 witnesses. Yes, overwhelmingly a jury would convict that person right? I was talking to my friend who is a police officer the other day and he said the Gospel story in the New testament would be the most cut and dry case as far as evidence goes. It’s clear. There was an abundance of witnesses.

Why would Paul point these things out? He wants the Corinthians to know the Gospel is fact.

I read a commentator this week that said that our Gospel is not a “Gospel of ideas? No a Gospel of Facts.”

Sometimes we look at the Gospel story as a fairytale. Or maybe an idea. We teach kids Bible stories and we talk about them like they actually didn’t happen. Like oh this may have happened or it would be nice that it happened but we tell them and talk about them like they are the easter bunny. Like they are myths and stories that we just tell for moral purposes. Maybe they help us live our lives better or be better people. But that is not how the Bible presents the Gospel. It actually happened.

Maybe you are a Skeptic. Maybe you see the story of Jesus as helpful to live your life but you don’t actually believe it happened. That Christ actually died and rose again. Maybe you just like his teaching. And you want to be a good person. The reality is that the Bible does not present the Gospel story as a fairytale, or good teaching, or even simply moral examples. But as a historical reality. In fact, if you don’t believe that Jesus actually died and rose from the dead, you don’t believe the Gospel.

It’s actually really important to believe that Jesus really died and rose again.

Tim Keller, who is a pastor in NYC says,

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

So if we are banking our whole lives on this news. Putting all of our trust in a God who said that he did this. Then we must embrace the Gospel as fact. We must embrace the Gospel that Paul is preaching to the Corinthians, the Gospel that Isaiah and Jesus foretold, and the Gospel that really did happen in history. It’s news that changes everything.

That leads us to the last point I’d like for us to pull out of this passage.

The Gospel is central to all of life.

The Gospel is not just something you believe once and move on from.

Look back at verses 1 & 2. They say,

1 Corinthians 15:1–2 ESV

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

So the gospel is for our past present and future right. If you are a Christian. You have received the Gospel, like those who Paul is writing to.

But Paul also says that the Gospel, in which you stand.

What does it mean to stand in the Gospel? It means that this Good News of the Gospel constantly affects your life. It means that all of the issues, all of the problems, and all of your life is affected by the Gospel. By the news that Jesus paid for your sins on the Cross. You stand in that and that alone.

One of the ways that we do not stand in the Gospel is by believing the lie that our salvation is really based on our works. On what we do. On how good or how bad we are.

We often tell ourselves, if I can just do better. If I can just do enough. If I can be a better husband, father, worker, then God will love me. Or maybe he will love me more if I am better in those areas. I’ll make it into heaven if I come to church enough. If I give enough money away. If I treat people with kindness at work. If I am a good enough person.

Christian, this is not standing in the Gospel. The truth of the Gospel is that all of your sins were paid for on the Cross of Christ. Therefore, that is your only plea before God. You have no other plea. It is not that you are a good person but that Christ has paid your penalty. That is the only ground that you can stand on.

I love the hymn “My hope is built on nothing less”. I wont sing it for you. You don’t want that.

But the chorus says “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand”. This is an amazing song for us to sing and remember. The Gospel of Christ, is our only thing to stand on.

This news changes us. That we can stand on the Gospel.

Romans 5:2ESV

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

It results in worship. It results in praise to God. It results in a changed live. We desire to do good works, not because they save us. Not because they make us any closer to God. Because those things are not true. But because we are rejoicing and standing in the good news of the Gospel.

“We are changed not by being told what we need to do for God, but by hearing the news about what God has done for us.” JD Greear

So how do we respond to this passage. How do we respond to the message of 1 Corinthians 15:1-7?

If you are not a Christian. Believe this news. I’m quite aware that some of you in the room have never put your faith in Jesus, you’ve never truly believed the Good News of the Gospel that we read about today. You may have your reasons. But God has placed you here today to hear this news and to actually believe it. Maybe for the first time. And for you, that means believing this news. It changes everything. For this life and the next. Talk to brother mark.

If you are a Christian. If you have received this message of the Gospel. We can respond to this message by continuing to stand in the Gospel. By reminding ourselves daily of the Gospel. By reading his Word. By preaching the Gospel to ourselves. I mentioned earlier. We have bad memories. We often forget the Good News of the Gospel. But we need to remember it daily. We must stand in it and let it be the true news and story that controls and compels our lives. We need that everyday.

“Preaching the gospel to myself each day mounts a powerful assault against my pride and serves to establish humility in its place. Nothing suffocates my pride more than daily reminders regarding the glory of my God, the gravity of my sins, and the crucifixion of God’s own Son in my place. Also, the gracious love of God, lavished on me because of Christ’s death, is always humbling to remember, especially when viewed against the backdrop of the Hell I deserve.” ― Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God's Love