The Profound, Yet Simple Gospel (outline)

Intro:

Illustration: Fred Sanders. Uncle Dan. Moon. Clouds in Atmosphere going behind Moon. Where is the Moon? Where are the clouds?

Key thought: The gospel is incomplete without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; but the gospel is not ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Why is this sermon needed?

Passive/aggressive verbal statements

Danger of a Minimalistic Gospel

[Motivated by zeal for God and compassion for His people]

A Theology that endures hardship

What is the goal of the message?

Believe that the gospel is deeply profound and simultaneously simple.

Key thought:

The gospel is incomplete without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; but the gospel is not ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

How will you go about this goal?

By showing from Hebrews 4, what is the gospel, when can we be sure we’ve heard the true gospel, what conclusions can we make about the gospel, and how should we respond to the gospel?

Body:

I. What is the gospel?

The gospel is good news.

The gospel is ONE thread [holding together saints of ancient and modern times] (v. 2)

Illustration: One thread that holds the entire seem or hem of the garment together.

Hebrews 4:2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:...”

Same good news for both generations (roughly 1600 year swing).

Key difference: Historically, Jesus had not lived, died, and been exalted in the OT. Despite this, the writer uses one term to identify the same message.

Hebrews 4:3 “...as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

OT good news: That God would fulfill the covenant (Abrahamic) and give that generation the land of Canaan.

Deuteronomy 1:34-35 “34 And the Lord heard the voice of your words, and was wroth, and sware, saying, 35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land, which I sware to give unto your fathers,”

A. Opposite NEWS of Hebrews Generation

Details of message different

Application:

So how could the author of Hebrews say that the same gospel was preached to OT generation as the NT generation?

ONLY if you understand that the good news is not ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus but that the gospel or good news encompasses all of the purposes of God to reconcile ALL THINGS TO HIMSELF.

If the Hebrews author understood the gospel as NOT ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, should we not also consider this possibility?

Application:

What this means is that you cannot force a division between the gospel in the OT and gospel of the NT. They are not different messages, but rather they work together like a primary thread that holds the entire garment together.

Ill: ? String ?

So when someone says that the gospel is ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection they are actually standing against what the writer of Hebrews is saying. [may understand big parts, but not how all of it works together]

Illustration: Gun: Barrel, stalk, slide, ammunition…etc You can have the components but they all work together to accomplish the goal.

This should lead us to ask questions:

Am I part of something bigger than what I am seeing with my eyes?

The gospel is good news. It is the good news that God is fulfilling all of his purposes through the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Jesus Christ.

II Corinthians 1:20 “20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

Notice that this has more than just the death, burial, and resurrection but not less than it.

II. When can we be sure we’ve heard the gospel proclaimed?

Ill: Message recently listened to…many place plan at end.

The gospel is proclaimed when any part of the thread is faithfully pulled (v. 2)

Hebrews 4:2 “For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached...” (interchangeable word here)

A. When there is a clear connection to God’s Big Story

Big Story Gospel Writers - The record of the life of Jesus is divinely called “gospel”(s) - See Mark 1:1.

All of the life of Christ is part of the gospel thread...

Secondly, faithful teaching of the OT necessarily involves showing the Messiah from the OT - Luke 24:44-49.

The gospel thread includes Christ-centered OT understanding

Application:

Connecting to Big Story - God. Man. Christ. Response.

B. Where God is Big, man is little, and Christ is sufficient.

Hebrews 4:2-3 “...did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

God is the Able Rest-Giver. (2-3) The gospel is simple in a macro-element way, but it is unfathomably profound in a micro-element way. God is inconceivable to the human mind. To attempt to unpack the gospel is to attempt unpack God. To unpack God is the eternal quest of mankind.

Illustration: Macro-Elements of Car and Micro-Elements of Car.

Application:

Preach the gospel concisely.

Don’t minimize the gospel by implying it is ONLY death, burial, Resurrection.

The gospel is incomplete without the death, burial, and resurrection but the gospel is NOT ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Introduction to the Gospel was in Simple Terms.

Grow in deepening understanding of God. Man. Christ. Response.

The gospel is good news. It is the good news that God, our righteous Creator, despite our sinful rebellion, has sent His Son Jesus Christ as the penal substitutionary atonement for our sin and commands us to turn from our sin to Jesus as Lord by faith.

So, yes the gospel can be quantified and communicated in simplicity, but it is so deep that we will be learning the gospel for all of eternity; so, we should stay away from passive/aggressive platitudes that say either you’re giving a simple plan or your are complicating the simple gospel.

This is a false dichotomy that allures people into choosing sides between two groups that are on the same side, and typically this is said to try to divide people from one group to another.

Illustration: False dichotomy, “Do you want the wheels on your car or the engine? Do you need the steering wheel of your car or the alternator?”

III. What conclusions can we make about the gospel?

A. The gospel thread is profound [inexhaustible] (v. 2-3)

The gospel is as big as God because God is the gospel. You can never exhaust the breadth, depth, and heights of God.

B. The gospel thread is profound yet simple.

The gospel is both profound and simple. The gospel is simple in that we can mentally grasp the macro-elements, and the way to receive — to enter into — this profundity is One Person — Jesus Christ.

John 14:6 “6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Show both simplicity and profundity. Jesus is the only way, but who is Jesus and who is God?

The gospel is incomplete without the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; but the gospel is not ONLY the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Application

We should be careful that we are NOT minimizing God, His Person, or His purposes by: (1) presenting an either/or between simplicity and profundity of the gospel (2) acting as if we have fully grasped the gospel as Christians (3) treating the gospel as if it is only the macro-elements of the good news.

Conclusion:

IV. How should we respond to the gospel?

A. Response of Professing Christians

Hebrews 4:1 - “Let us therefore fear...”

Continue exercising faith for rest (speaking to Christians)

By continuing to exercise faith, and this means that we:

(1) adopt a position of humility. Faith is admitting that we are not sufficient.

(2) Continue to mine the depths of the profundity of the gospel by reading more than devotional material

Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

grace gets bigger;

Christ gets greater;

his death gets more wonderful;

his resurrection gets more astonishing;

the work of the Spirit gets mightier;

the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;

its global extent gets wider;

your own sin gets uglier;

the devil gets more evil;

the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;

its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;

and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.

[https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/never-let-the-gospel-get-smaller]

Refuse the idea that the gospel is just a simple plan or strategy.

B. Response of Faithless

Hebrews 4:2 - “…did not profit them, not being mixed with faith...”

Find rest through faith (Wilderness generation did not)

The simplicity of the gospel means that you can certainly understand the components of the gospel, but the profundity of the gospel means that it is too big for you to treat it like a simple thought with which you agree.

Conversion is not your work, but it is the work of God in your heart. Would you humbly admit your need for this good news, and would you ask the Lord to truly save you today?