INTRODUCTION
• Next week we will celebrate the greatest event in human history! We will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! This one single event has changed the destiny of millions of people over the history of the human race.
• Over the history of mankind there have been many who claimed to know the way to eternal life or the way to see God.
• The problem with all these other people is the fact they could not defeat what seemed to be the undefeatable- death.
• What good is a savior who cannot resurrect you to enjoy the bounties of heaven?
• Over the next 3 weeks or so we are going to look at 1 Corinthians 15. This chapter is the most extensive chapter in the bible on the subject of the resurrection.
• The book of 1 Corinthians was written about 25 years after the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection had been the central theme of the preaching of the church since the event happened. Somewhere along the line some of the people were being convinced that the resurrection of the body could not happen.
• In the 15th chapter of this book, Paul is going to show the folly of that thinking along with the ramifications if the assertion were true.
• As we start this series in 1 Corinthians 15 we will start with a message I have entitled, “What is the Gospel.”
• Paul starts off this great chapter in the first four verses by giving us a brief overview of the Gospel. Today we are going to answer the question, “What is the Gospel?”
• Then we will do an overview of what the Gospel can do for us, and what is expected of us if we are to receive the benefits
• Next week on Resurrection Sunday we will look more closely at the resurrection to see why it is the foundation of the Gospel, and on the following week we will look at why we need the Gospel.
• Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15:1-4. READ
SERMON
I. WHAT IS THE GOSPEL? V 1,3-4
1. The Good news, glad announcement
• Paul begins this chapter by telling his readers that because of the philosophical skepticism, he is going to “make known” to them what they had already accepted as truth in the past, the gospel!
• The word “gospel” literally means, “good news”, “glad announcement”.
• Mark 1:1 says, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
• Isaiah 52:7 says, “How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
• They had apparently forgotten what they what they had initially believed. We do not know what caused this wavering. What Paul is doing is calling to mind the “good news” that they had already believed. He was gently rebuking them for their lack of trust in the truth.
• The Gospel literally is the good news about what Jesus has done for us.
2. The Gospel contains facts to be believed (like the resurrection), commands to be obeyed (like love other people), and promises to be received and enjoyed (peace, joy, eternal life).
3. In this brief overview of the gospel, Paul does not give us all the elements of the good news, but instead he gives us the foundation of the gospel. What is that foundation? Next week we will dedicate the message to the foundation of the gospel.
4. What is the “good news” of the Gospel?
• Jesus died
• There are those who said He did not die, but that does not fit the record we have. When the soldiers reported what happened on Resurrection Sunday, the religious leaders paid the guards to say they were asleep at their post. (Matthew 28:11-15)
• His own followers thought He was dead. (John 20:19)
• Jesus died, but why? According to the Gospel, it was for our sins! (1 John 2:2, 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 8, Isaiah 53.
• Attest to by the Old Testament. The Old Testament Scriptures tell us that the Messiah would die for the sins of the people. READ 1 Peter 1:10-12.
• Isaiah 53; Psalm 22; Daniel 9:26; Zechariah 12:10 are just a few.
• He was buried. All of the gospels affirm the burial. The burial was recorded carefully in all four gospels; this was an important fact to show He did not survive the crucifixion.
• He was raised on the third day! The great thing about the gospel message is not that Jesus died.
• John MacArthur Jr. in his commentary on 1 Corinthians writes, “A follower of Buddha writes of that religious leader, “When Buddha died it was with that utter passing away in which nothing whatever remains.” Mohammed died at Medina on June 8, 632, at the age of 61, and his tomb there is visited yearly by tens of thousands of Muslims. But they come to mourn his death, not to celebrate his resurrection. Yet the church of Jesus Christ, not just on Easter Sunday but at every service of immersion baptism, celebrates the victory of her Lord over death and the grave. (John MacArthur Jr. commentary on 1 Corinthians)
• Notice the verb tense change here. We, died, and buried. The tense of these verbs indicates a one time past act that took place once and for all.
• When we get to the verb “raised” its tense indicates something that took place in the past time, whose result still remains. He REMAINS ALIVE, AND HE WILL ALWAYS BE ALIVE (Gareth Reese 1 Corinthians Syllabus)
• This also indicates that Jesus did not raise Himself, but that He was raised by the work of God.
• There are many proofs of the resurrection; we will look at those next week when we look at the Foundation of the Gospel.
• According to the scriptures. The Old Testament attested to all that was going to happen. After the resurrection Jesus meets up with two men on the road to Emmaus Jesus used the Old Testament scriptures to tell them all about he Messiah.
• LUKE 24:25-27 And He said to them, "O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! "Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?" Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
II. WHAT DOES THE GOSPEL DO FOR ME? VERSE 2
• It offers me salvation. (Verse 2, Romans 1:16-17)
• Verse 2 tells us the gospel saves us! (EXPLAIN forgiveness, peace, etc)
• ROMANS 1:16-17 says, “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. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "But the righteous man shall live by faith."
• The gospel of Jesus Christ offers us eternal life!
• The gospel was the center of the preaching of the early Church. ACTS 14:21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,
• ROMANS 1:15 So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
• In two weeks we will spend more time of this thought. Suffice to say, the only chance we have for salvation is through Jesus. ACTS 4:12 says, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
III. WHAT IS REQUIRED OF ME TO RECEIVE THE BENEFITS OF THE GOSPEL? VERSE 1-2
I am going to give a brief overview of what we must do to receive the benefits of the gospel.
1. We must receive it. To receive the gospel means in part that we accept the facts as truth. Paul said the Corinthian’s received the message, they accepted it when it was preached to them. The Bible tells what we are to do after we receive and believe the gospel message. (FAITH, REPENTANCE, CONFESSION, BAPTISM, NEW LIFE)
2. We must stand on it. This is a kin to taking a stand for something. If you believe in something enough you will take a stand for it. Without the facts of the gospel, we have nothing to stand upon. We receive the gospel at some point in the past, but we now stand upon that message. Without the facts to stand on, Christianity is just another worthless religion. This is why the resurrection is attacked so much. Destroy the foundation, and the whole thing collapses.
3. We must hold fast to it. (Faithfulness) Not only must we stand on it, but we must continue to hold fast to it in the future. This is faithfulness to the gospel. HEBREWS 10:23 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;
• Holding fast means that we do not give up, that we put forth a lot of effort to hold on to what we believe. You cannot come and go as you please, God calls us to be faithful until death.
• REV 2:10 ’Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
4. Failure to do these things will make our faith worthless and empty. If we quit before the race of life is over, there will be n reward for us. The faith we possessed for a time will have been a waste.
CONCLUSION
• What are you basing your salvation on? What promises and what guarantees do you have?
• If you base your eternity on the Gospel of Jesus Christ you will have facts to believe, commands to obey and promises to receive and enjoy.
• Today we offer you eternal life through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When you understand that there is a God in heaven and that Jesus is His Son and that you are a lost soul without Him, it is decision time for you.
• Next week we are going to look at the resurrection of Jesus and we will see why it is the foundation of the Gospel message.
