Sermon Notes "The Gospel A-Z" based on 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Introduction: The Gospel is…. Spend 30 seconds finishing that sentence. Tim Keller says, “The gospel is not just the ABC of the Christian life but the A to Z of the Christian life.”
It helps to start with what the gospel is not.
o
It’s a philosophy. For example, the gospel
according to JL.
o
It’s a genre of music
o
It’s evangelism-It’s door to door,
shouting from street corners (Repent)
o
It’s what you say or what is shared at end
of sermon that gets people saved
o
It’s what starts the Christian life, then
we move on to something deeper
o
It’s a lifestyle or how we live (be the
gospel or live the gospel) You might be the only Jesus someone sees.
o
It’s being good. It’s behavior. It’s
religion
o
It’s politics or culture
What It Is (vs. 3-4)
·
Vs. 3-First
Importance
o Paul’s recounting of the gospel message reflects the
fact that it is first and foremost a message about Jesus Christ and what he has
done for us, rather than being a message primarily about us and how we can be
saved.[1]
·
Vs. 3-Christ
died for our sins (and lived)
o Christ is the subject of all the verbs from v. 3b to
v. 8[2]
o Before he died, He had to live. If it was only about death, Jesus could have
been born as a baby and then died on the cross.
Why is his life important?
§ Fully Man-tempted (tempted yet without sin),
experienced death (Jesus wept), Second Adam (Romans 5)
o Christ died on the cross where he defeated sin,
death, Satan, and sickness
§ 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die by John Piper
o Christ
died denotes a single past event[3]
·
Vs. 4-Christ was
buried & raised on third day
o Buried is important because some would try to
explain away the resurrection. He only appeared to be dead or disciples stole
the body
o Easter Celebration-Jesus is alive
o
The
gospel is Jesus-his life, death, resurrection and ascension
·
in accordance
with the Scriptures
o repeated in both verse 3 & 4
o plural Scriptures-not just part of Scripture but the
message of all of Scripture. God since
the fall has been redeeming, restoring and reconciling creation to
Himself. All of Scriptures point to
Jesus.
o A fulfillment of the OT prophecies
What
We Do With It (vs. 1-2)
·
The gospel is an
announcement, not about what we are to do for God, but about what He has done
for us…you cannot confuse the effects of the gospel with the gospel itself.
(J.D. Greear in Gospel pg. 228)
·
Vs. 1-Reminded
of it
o I personally need to be reminded of the gospel daily.
And sometimes we need others to remind us of the gospel-why the church is
important.
·
Vs. 1-Preach it-the
message or good news people need to hear. It is an announcement and is shared.
o It is good news. It must include words (Jesus lived,
died, rose for you)
·
Vs. 1-Stand on
it
o Without the gospel our faith falls down (rest of
Chapter 15)-a defense of the resurrection
o Must be kept pure (social, prosperity, other)
§ Social-makes our activity for Jesus the focus rather
than Jesus
§ Prosperity-makes our success or money the focus
rather than Jesus
·
Vs. 2-Being
saved by it-Good news for believers
o Christ died for sinners is good news for me today,
right now. When we make it only about what
gets us saved and then move on to something else, we lose our focus.
o Vs. 2-Believe it
§ How can you believe in vain? You reject the gospel (good news) and look to
something or someone else to save you.
It’s only by grace alone (free gift), faith alone (not works), Christ
alone (only one way)
[1] Ciampa, R. E., & Rosner, B. S.
(2010). The First Letter to
the Corinthians (p. 745). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[2] Ciampa, R. E., & Rosner, B. S.
(2010). The First Letter to
the Corinthians (p. 744). Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.:
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[3]
Thiselton, A. C. (2000). The First Epistle
to the Corinthians: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 1192).
Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
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