What is the Gospel? 1 Corinthians 15 Introduction Some of you who know me pretty well aren t going to be surprised at what I m about to tell you; but for the rest of you I want to let you know a little secret about me...a little insight into who I am. My name is Matthew Millen and I am a geek. Pastor Tim likes to do manly stuff like hunting, camping, chopping wood, and growing nasty, bushy beards...well, I like to do Geeky stuff like playing board games, video games, and watching sci-fi and comic book movies. So we balance each other well. But I think maybe the pinnacle of my Geekdom is my love for Star Wars. PP As you know, unless you ve been living under a rock, a brand new Star Wars movie just hit theaters yesterday. Yes, I went to the midnight showing on Thursday night into Friday, though I stopped short of dressing up. And yes, the movie is awesome. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, I thought it would be fun as we look at the birth of Christ and unpack what the gospel is today to try and weave in as many Star Wars quotes as I possibly can throughout the sermon. But then I remember that I am to try not. Do...or do not, there is no try. So if you re not a fan of Star Wars, first of all, I don t know what s wrong with you. But secondly, I apologize if some of the lines go over your head. And if you hear something that s kind of out of place, it s probably a quote from the movies. I know you may be thinking, I ve got a bad feeling about this, but don t worry...it won t be that bad. And if you are a fan, enjoy the references, but don t forget the focus of what we re doing here is learning from and being transformed by the Word of God. PP Amen. With that said, we re going to be diving into 1 Corinthians 15 this week as we answer the question what is the Gospel? So as you turn to 1 Corinthians 15, you will bow your heads and pray with me now. o As we look at the good news I want us to see the four broad aspects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We re going to begin in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 15 as we see that the beginning of the gospel is salvation PP o So as we turn to 1 Cor. 15:1, we should remember that Paul wrote the following a long time ago, in a city far, far away. The Gospel is a Message of Salvation (v1-8) 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 PP 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. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: PP that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in Page 1 of 8
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. The first thing I want us to see is that the Gospel that Paul is reminding the Corinthian believers of is not something that Paul made up. Verse 3 makes clear that this is the gospel that Paul received from the Apostles and from Christ Himself (see Gal. 1:13-17), and Paul is continuing to pass on what he has received. o Many scholars believe that verses 3 and 4 in particular but really the entirety of 1 Corinthians 15 theologically encompass the standard teaching for the early church of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. o So we see that the core of the salvation message of the good news were four specific events in the life of Jesus Christ: PP his death, his burial, his resurrection, and his appearing again. Many of you know this: Great job kid, don t get cocky. But I want to take some time to break this down so it s clear. Because of the sin that is present throughout the world, God required an acceptable sacrifice to be made that would atone or compensate for the sin of the world. The starting point for the good news the message that we re to proclaim is that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died as an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world. His death satisfied God s requirement that sin be paid for. And to underscore his death, Paul notes that He was buried in a tomb where He remained for parts of three days. o But the emphasis can t stop there...i ve heard plenty of gospel presentations that focus almost exclusively on the fact that Jesus died for our sins. While that s true, His death is meaningless if it wasn t accompanied by His resurrection. We don t worship a dead God Jesus Christ is alive today. It s almost as if Christ was saying, Strike me down, and I will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Because once he was killed, he overcame death and rose again to life and there were hundreds of witnesses to prove it. Which is why Paul went into such detail with regard to who He appeared to. As Paul writes later in this chapter, PP 1 Corinthians 15:17 if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. You see, the fact that Christ was raised from the dead means that His death was an acceptable sacrifice to God the Father and that the world can receive salvation through what Jesus Christ s death has accomplished. And because He was raised from the dead, those who have trusted in Him can be confident that they too will be raised with Him. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. We will all live eternally, the question is where? Page 2 of 8
Therefore, a presentation of the gospel that doesn t include the life, death, and resurrection of Christ...and, as we ll see later, his ascension and second coming as well...if all that isn t included than we re presenting an incomplete message of the Gospel. He did all of that because He loves us and He knew that none of us are capable of doing it on our own because we re all messed up none of us can save ourselves. When the Lord looks down at us he sees that You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy then here on Earth and that includes me and you. Jesus chose to become one of us and lived the perfect life that none of us are capable of living and then died in our place so that we who trust in Christ s sacrifice to make us right before God, instead of trusting in our own human efforts, can be confident in our salvation in Christ. We ve got to cry out and say Help me Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you re my only hope. But here s the mistake that we can make, and it s a mistake that I had made for many years until I began to learn the full scope of the gospel: PP the gospel isn t exclusively about salvation. I want to say that again, the gospel is not exclusively about salvation, nor does the plan of salvation in Christ equate to the whole Gospel, the entire good news. Salvation is the starting point, but it is not the full measure of the Good News. o This may come as a surprise to some of you because so often in evangelical circles the entire emphasis of a gospel presentation is to get someone to make a decision to accept Christ and to receive salvation. And if that s all you ve understood the gospel to be, then you need to realize that you have an incomplete view of the gospel. You will find that it is you who are mistaken about a great many things. If you re doubting me, I m going to have to ask you to Search your feelings, because you know this to be true. And if your feelings aren t cooperating which is often the case then perhaps the Word of God can illuminate things for us. Let s turn over in our bibles to Acts 13. In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas have just been commissioned by the Holy Spirit to go and spread the gospel to the gentiles on Paul s first missionary journey. So Paul and Barnabas get to Antioch in Pisidia and as was their practice they go to the local synagogue before they begin to preach to the gentiles. PP Acts 13:26-33 Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation.... And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus... Page 3 of 8
o The key thing to notice is that in verses 26 and 32, Paul makes a distinction between the message of salvation in Christ and the Good News that what God promised has been fulfilled in Christ. You see God s promises to the fathers, all of which are encompassed in the Old Testament, include salvation but are also far broader than just salvation. God promised many things to His chosen people and 2 Corinthians 1:20 says PP all the promises of God find their Yes [fulfillment] in him [Christ]. o So we ve got to realize that the good news is far more than just a message of salvation and we can t be content with merely sharing the plan of salvation with someone, leading them in a prayer to ask Jesus to save them, and thinking that our job is done. This is not the gospel you are looking for, that s a truncated and incomplete version of the gospel that s only going to mislead and misinform people. o We re going to dive more into this next week, but the fact of the matter is that we can do more harm than good when we present the gospel as solely about an individual s salvation and don t address the rest of the Gospel. So by this point I hope you re asking, what s the rest of the gospel? Have you started asking that question yet? Good, good. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen. As I said salvation is the starting point, but as we turn back to 1 Corinthians 15:9 we ll see that the gospel is also transformation. PP The Gospel is a Message of Transformation (v9-10) 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 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. A full picture of the gospel starts with salvation, but it also acknowledges that throughout our entire lives, even after we ve been eternally saved, we still need more work to be transformed to look more and more like the children of God that we are. The bible calls this being sanctified or being made more holy. And one of God s promises that is fulfilled in Christ, is that He will make His people His children more and more holy like Him. o That s what Paul is referring to in v2 of our passage when he says that it is through the gospel that we are being saved in the present continuous tense and why he uses himself as an example of God s transforming power in verses 9 and 10. People. We don t just need the good news to save us, we need the good news to continue to transform us and keep us saved from ourselves. And the fact that Jesus does that is an integral part of the Gospel. Page 4 of 8
At the moment of our salvation God looks at us and says I am your Father. But then He continues to work His grace in us so that we resemble our big brother Jesus more and more. A gospel message that only focuses on salvation and fails to include the good news that God will work on us throughout our entire lives even when we continue to mess up is missing a huge component of what makes the good news, good news. Not only are we saved, but we re transformed...we re remade, we re new creations. And the Lord will continue to do a good work in us until the day He calls us home. PP o 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. But you see in verse 10 here, while God s grace is the foundation of every aspect of the good news of our continual transformation, we have a part to play as well. Paul says he worked hard to be transformed. And this is something that we don t like to talk about because it starts to sound dangerously close to working and earning our salvation. But that s not what Paul saying at all. He recognizes that even his hard work to be transformed is due to the grace of God, but he still worked hard at it. We ve got to understand that the good news is far more than just trusting in Jesus to be the sacrifice for your sins. o The good news also includes submitting to Jesus as our Lord and master, joyfully and thankfully following Him wherever He leads as He transforms us along the way. Our attitude should be one where we say What is thy bidding my master? throughout our lives as we follow Jesus and submit to Him as our King and work hard at obeying Him and serving Him with every fiber of our being. So we see that the gospel is not only salvation, but it s also transformation as we submit to the ongoing grace of God in our lives. As Philippians 2:12-13 says PP...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. The Gospel is a Message of Invitation (v11) Of course, the gospel doesn t end there. The gospel is a message of salvation, transformation, PP and next we ll see that it is also a message that gives an invitation. 1 Corinthians 15:11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. The third part of the gospel, which is quickly overlooked, is the fact that once we re saved, and as we re being transformed, God invites us to participate in His mission to save and redeem the entire world. When we re saved we become co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17), but we re also sent out by Christ (John 17:18) to share the good news with the world around us. This goes back to what Pastor Tim shared last week about loving the Word of God and proclaiming it throughout the world. This is also why God chose the Israelites to Page 5 of 8
be His people in the first place, so that they would be a light to the nations. And this is why He s chosen us as well. o We aren t saved and transformed so we can sit around on our butts and do nothing. PP Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. God looks at us and says, Join me, and together we will rule the galaxy as Father and son [and daughter]. And the way we rule is by loving and serving those around us with humility and sharing the truth of the whole gospel with them. If we aren t living on mission, and actively seeking ways that we can be used by God, then we don t understand the full gospel. Maybe you don t think that God is calling you to be a part of what He s doing...well that s a lie from the devil because scripture clearly says otherwise. So if that s what you believe then you ve been deceived by the enemy. Don t underestimate the power of the dark side. o Or maybe you don t have the faith to step out and do what you know He s calling you to because you re afraid. Well I would remind you that fear [of anything other than God] is the path to the dark side and frankly, I find your lack of faith disturbing. o And, you know what, I don t want to hear your excuses for not living out what you re called to either. They re probably all the same excuses and rationalizations that I make, and they re wrong. We don t need their scum. The minute we start making excuses we re letting the lies of the enemy in, and you are unwise to lower your defenses and let those lies in. When we do that, the enemy rejoices as he proclaims I have you now. We ve got to get rid of those lies, reprioritize, and reevaluate what God is calling us to and then we ve got to engage with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. It s a privilege to participate in the work that God is doing to redeem His creation, and if we re ignoring that part of the gospel even if we get the rest of it then we re missing the point. o You may believe you re saved and being transformed, but if you aren t living on mission than you re merely experiencing delusions of grandeur because you ve missed a huge piece of the gospel. You ve made the gospel all about you and what you get out of it, and that s not the gospel. You were saved and are being transformed for the purpose of living out God s invitation to be a part of what He s doing. And part of what we proclaim to those around is that not only can they be saved and transformed, but they can participate in God s work too! The Gospel is a Message of Restoration (v20-26) Page 6 of 8
So what it God doing? What s the big picture here? That leads us to the final emphasis of the whole Gospel. You see, we so quickly minimize the gospel down to our little individualistic perspectives of our own personal salvation, and transformation, and invitation...but the gospel is so much bigger than our little individual world. PP The full gospel the complete good news must proclaim the restoration of all of creation when Christ returns to reign forever over a redeemed world. o Paul concludes with this truth throughout the remainder of chapter 15 as he emphasizes the importance of Christ s resurrection and victory over death. 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. PP Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet. As we proclaim the gospel, we not only proclaim salvation, transformation, and invitation, but we have got to proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven after he defeated death and He is coming again to restore and rule over all of creation. o This is what Romans 8 talks about when it says that all of creation groans (Wookie growl) and eagerly awaits the day of redemption. The good news is that there will be such a day of restoration. The Garden of Eden paradise is but a precursor of the awesome beauty, peace, and glory that awaits all of creation when Christ returns and subjects all things to Himself and God the Father. If we minimize the gospel and make it all about salvation, we completely ignore the fact that God s plan is far bigger than just saving us. This is the future hope that we have. Not only that we ll personally be with God, but that all of creation around us will be restored. We can t lose sight of this. We ve got to stay on target...stay on target as we fix our eyes on the return of our Lord and the future promise and hope of restoration that we have. Conclusion Now, I ve just scratched the surface on the gospel here. But my goal is for us to start to see the gospel as something far more than just our personal salvation. Jesus was born for so much more than our salvation; He was also born to transform us, to invite us, and ultimately to restore all of creation to the glory God intended from the beginning. Next week, we re going to dive into several practical implications of our view of the gospel. But this week I want us to see that the gospel should STIR us up PP we should Page 7 of 8
be moved by the whole message of salvation, transformation, invitation, and restoration that the gospel encompasses, and we should seek to STIR others up as we proclaim the good news. o It kind of gives new meaning to PP Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to STIR up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. You see The gospel is what gives a Christian his power...it surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together and it s my prayer that as we go from here the full scope of the Gospel would be rooted deep in our understanding of what the good news is. I want it to be said of each of you that the gospel is strong with this one. So may the gospel be with you, always. Amen. Amen. Page 8 of 8