Declare The Gospel

Alba 3-29-2026

DECLARE THE GOSPEL

I Corinthians 15:1-11

Our world is desperately in need of some good news. Suzanne Jennings wrote this song back in 1999:

“I woke up Monday morning, walked out on the lawn. My eyes were barely open, and my mouth began to yawn. Picked up the daily paper, every single headline said, That this ole world is full of trouble, and I wished I'd stayed in bed. Sometimes the bad that's goin' on's enough to bring you down. Turned on my television and began to flip on thru All 100 channels, On Demand, and Pay per view. Not one message had a meaning that was good in any way.”

Is that the way you feel sometimes? You just need to hear some good news? Well God gives us good news! It it the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is why after pointing out in the three chapters before our text for today that the motivating and driving force of any spiritual gift needs to be love, and that all things must be done decently in order, that the apostle Paul comes to the most important focus for the Corinthians.

In fact it is what is the most important for any Christian to have as our focus. It is the bedrock of our faith. It is the good news that the world needs today. Just three words are all that are needed to proclaim the core of the good news message. Those words are “death”, “burial”, and “resurrection”. If there were only two words, it could sound discouraging. But add that third word, and it gives deep meaning to all three!

The message of the New Testament is the gospel, the good news, that we have salvation because of Jesus' death on the cross, His burial in that tomb and His victory over death by His resurrection. If we lose sight of that, we lose sight of the reason for our faith. So beyond any disagreements about which spiritual gift is best, which preacher may be considered better than another, or whether certain foods could be eaten or not, the Corinthian church, and we, need to remember why we follow Jesus. It is not because He was a great teacher, even though He was. It is not because He was a great example for us to follow, even though He is. We follow Jesus because He alone came to redeem us from the penalty of our sinful ways. And to do that He died a substitionary death in our place, was buried and then He rose again.

Paul preached that message when he was in Corinth. And now he writes to the church to remind them of that fact. He says in I Corinthians 15:1-2, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”

Paul says he declared the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ to them and they received it. Romans 10:14-15 asks, “How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?... As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!'”

By the way, just in case you didn't know, the word gospel actually means good news. That is why we refer to the first four books in the New Testament as the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of John. It is because they are filled with the Good News about Jesus. In them we learn of His birth, His life, His miracles, His teaching, His death on the cross, His burial sealed in the tomb, and His resurrection to life again. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and the apostle Paul all declared this good news.

And it is what we declare here each time we come together. We do so by the preaching of the Word and also when we come around the communion table in remembrance of our Lord and what He has done for us. But it must be more than declared. For it to have a result, it must be received. I hope that everyone here has been a receiver of the gospel, having received it in your heart as well as in your mind.

So when the Corinthians heard this good news, they received it, they believed it, they left their pagan ways and became followers of Jesus. They became Christians. Now to be sure that we understand what they received, Paul says exactly what his good news to them was. Look as I Corinthians 15:3-4. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” There you have it. That is good news. That is the gospel.