The Glorious Gospel

This series is all about the gospel.

The good news about Christ and what He did to save us.

My prayer is:

• That if you are not saved yet, you will get it and understand that you need to be saved?
• That if you are saved you will get it and understand that your life must revolve around the gospel?

Last week we looked at why we need the gospel.

We looked at the terrible predicament that all people are born into because of sin.

That we are enemies of God under His wrath and judgement.

A terrible but true message.

Have you got it? (Home Groups?)

We also saw that God, through Christ, made a way to be saved from God’s wrath and judgement.

This week I want us to look at just how glorious this way of salvation through Christ is … how glorious this gospel is.

Obviously, it is glorious because it saves us from wrath and judgement, but it is also glorious because of who saves us and what was done.

[Pray]

1 Corinthians 15: 1 – 11

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul is correcting those in Corinth that don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead (more likely those that don’t believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead).

He starts by reminding them of the gospel. And the obvious thing that is so important in the gospel that Christ was resurrected bodily from the dead. People saw this, they saw Him. How could anyone say there is no bodily resurrection from the dead.

Either it happens or it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t happen then not even Christ was resurrected and something weird happened. And then everything about the gospel is false.

But Paul is very clear that Christ was raised bodily and they will be too.

I want to go back to that summary of the gospel in 3 – 4 and explain this glorious gospel to you.

The gospel is glorious because it is God’s gospel, God’s good news.

(3) “For what I received I passed on to you”

Paul didn’t invent the gospel, he didn’t even get it from other people. The glorious, resurrected Jesus Christ revealed His glorious gospel to Paul, explained to Paul who He was and what He had done.

He revealed it personally and supernaturally, according to Galatians 1: 11 – 12, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ”.

And then Paul passed that gospel on to the Corinthians and through that gospel, God saved them from their sin (see 1 – 2 + 11). And Paul would see this happen again and again as many others would be saved and the gospel would eventually spread all over the world. That is also what makes it glorious.

And when Paul passed it on, and the Corinthians were saved, he made sure that they understood that such a glorious gospel could not just be some sort of spiritual app that could be added to a smart phone… it would need to dominate their lives, their thinking and action, it would need to take the place of first importance in their lives… (3) “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance”

And this gospel is glorious and of first importance because (3) “Christ died for our sins”

When Christ was on the cross, God the Father placed all our sin on His sinless Son and then punished Him for our sin, poured out His wrath and judgement on Christ for our sin. And as required by God, Christ died because of our sin.

And He suffered all that for us so that we could be forgiven our sins and not have to suffer any punishment for sin at all.

(Illustration of book and light)

And even though we still die, our death is no longer a punishment for sin but a gateway to blessing with God in heaven.

He loved us so much and could not bear to leave us in that terrible sin condition. His love compelled Him to save us! Glorious!

And that salvation is ours if we fully trust in Christ for that salvation and turn away from a life dominated by sin.

And this had been God’s loving plan all along. It was foretold in the OT and perfectly accomplished by Christ (3) “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”

And something else that is glorious about Christ dying for our sins in fulfilment of OT prophecy made centuries before.

And that is when God says He will do something He does it. No-one can stop Him.

And so, when God says that what Christ did on the cross will save us from our sins … you can bet your life on it! Glorious!

And so, Christ died. But that’s only half of the story. You need what happened next for this to be good, glorious news … (4) “that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

If Christ had stayed dead (Dean of Theology at Rhodes) then death would have defeated Him like everyone else.

And if Christ had stayed dead, He would have been a fraud, unable to save anyone because we have eye-witness accounts of Him saying that He would die and rise again three days later.

If Christ had stayed dead, then the Bible is not to be trusted because His resurrection was prophesied in the OT.

But he did rise again, bodily. There were many eye witnesses of this glorious fact 5 – 8.

And because He rose again, we know He has defeated sin and death for us.

Because He rose again, He now offers us this new resurrection life.

Because He rose again bodily, we too are guaranteed a bodily resurrection one day … if like the Corinthians we receive that, take our stand on that and hold firmly to that. If we believe that.

And let’s remind ourselves who did all of this for us.

(3 – 4) “… Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, … he was buried, … he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”

The fact that it was Christ who accomplished this for us makes it even more glorious.

We are the sinners. We deserve the wrath and judgement due our sin…

He is the Christ. The almighty, sinless Creator King of everything. He does not deserve any wrath, punishment and judgement. He could have left us to this judgement, we deserved it, we rebelled against Him.

And yet He chose to humble Himself, become one of us and suffer in our place to save us.

That is glorious mercy … not giving us the judgement we deserve.

That is glorious grace … giving us the salvation we don’t deserve won through terrible suffering for us.

That this glorious King would choose to take the place of sinful, rebellious peasants like us!

What love that is. How glorious this gospel!

Have you got it?

If you have, that is God working in you. Why don’t you reach out in prayer to Him for this glorious gospel of salvation? (Sorry / Please / Thank you)

For those of you that are saved, is this glorious gospel of first importance in your life?

Why wouldn’t it be? Well, it wouldn’t be if someone else or something else is now of first importance. Maybe more than one? Maybe the gospel has slid down the rankings?

It is always easy to tell what is most important in someone’s life.

• They talk about it a lot
• They try to convince others of its importance
• They adjust their lives to keep that important thing important
• They let it influence all their thinking and decision making

Watch two people that have fallen in love with each other and you will see what I mean.

And you know what? In this glorious gospel, God demonstrates His love for you.

And you and I must respond in love to Him by making that gospel of first importance in our lives.

What will that look like?

I hope to give you a more wholistic view of that next week.

But for now, it would at least mean:

• Praising and thanking God for His glorious gospel
• Using the gospel for what it was purposed for … sharing with other people so that they might be saved (telling / inviting)

And do you know what discipleship is? What Jesus has called us all to? Us doing that and then helping others to do the same.

Questions:

Discuss the following from 1 Corinthians 15: 1 – 11.

1. The gospel is glorious:
   1. Because it is God’s gospel (See also Galatians 1: 11 – 12)
   2. Because Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures
   3. Because Christ rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures
   4. Because it is Christ who died and rose
2. The gospel must be on the top of our life’s list of most important things. And then also…
   1. What would our lives look like if that was true?
   2. How would this relate to us being disciple-making disciples?