What is the Gospel?

So let's read about the gospel now in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 1-11.

1 Corinthians 15:1–11

Paul writes this,

That he was raised on the third day in 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.

For I am the least of all 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 towards 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.

Whether then it was I or they,

so we preach, and so you believed.

This is God's holy word.

All right, we're going to take the next three weeks

to look at 1 Corinthians 15 in the run-up to Easter Sunday.

1 Corinthians 15 is Paul's argument for believing in the resurrection.

And he starts out not with focusing on the resurrection itself,

but focusing on the gospel.

And then he's going to, in the next two weeks,

going to show us how the resurrection fits in with the gospel

and what it means for the whole of the gospel.

Now, the problem that he deals with

at the very beginning of this chapter

is a problem of memory.

So he says, I'm here to remind you, brothers and sisters.

So it's an issue of forgetting.

I don't know how often you forget things.

Lately, I have resorted to really, really, really

intensifying my commitment to Google Calendar

because of missed appointments, missed visits to the doctor,

whatever it may be.

And if I have missed something that I told you I was going to be at,

I'm sorry about that.

Google Calendar is here to help all of us.

Our heads are leaky buckets,

and so we've got to write stuff down,

and we've got to constantly remind ourselves

of what's happening every day.

Paul's coming to say that the memory you struggle with

where somebody at St. Columbus tells you their name,

and then they walk away,

and seven seconds later, you cannot remember it.

Our hearts have an even bigger problem with forgetting.

So the head has a leaky bucket problem,

but the heart is a leaky bucket as well.

And that's what he's really dealing with

is a memory issue deep down in the soul

that we forget the gospel.

And so let's get right into it.

What is it that we've forgotten,

and how is it that we forget?

And then secondly, what is the gospel?

That's really the question Paul's answering for us.

So let's think about those two things.

First, what is it that they've forgotten,

and how did they forget it?

So verse 1, you'll see down in verse 1,

he says,

Now I would remind you.

So the Greek word there,

there's a phrase there for remind,

and it really translates something like,

I need to re-explain it.

So he's saying,

I've got to explain it over and over again to you,

because you're so prone to forget.

And so that's why it's translated remind here.

But you see just before that in verse 1,

the very first word is,

Now I would re-explain the gospel.

And the word now,

that conjunction there,

he's connecting what he's going to do

in 1 Corinthians 15 to the rest of the letter.

And that's a really important moment,

because 1 Corinthians 15 is sort of a moment

where Paul stops and takes a breath,

and says,

Okay, now we've gotten to the big thing,

the most important thing.

And the reason it's just now getting there,

after 14 chapters,

is he's been,

for the first 14 chapters,

basically giving case studies

of all the problems

that have been happening in the Corinthian church.

So Corinth is a port city,

and it's very cosmopolitan,

in the first century,

very urban,

a center for the Roman Empire,

in the west,

in the eastern side of the Roman Empire.

And Corinth is the kind of place

where you could say,

What happens in Corinth,

stays in Corinth.

It's a party city,

for sure.

And what's happened is,

Paul planted the Corinthian church

in Acts chapter 18.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

You can go read all about it there.

He was with them for 18 months,

and he's been gone for a few years,

but he's heard,

through other letters

that have been sent to him,

things are not going well at all

in the Corinthian church.

And basically,

what happens in Corinth

stays in Corinth,

and the Corinthian culture

has gotten into the church

a good bit.

And so,

1 Corinthians was really

a set of case studies

on all the big problems

in the church.

And if you've read it,

you'll know that

one of the problems was,

as soon as Paul left,

people started creating factions

around celebrity ministers.

So they said,

you know,

I followed,

I was baptized by Apollos,

and Apollos is a far better speaker

than Paul.

He's a better preacher.

And so they were latching themselves

on to who discipled who.

You know,

they were saying,

you know,

I knew Tim Keller,

and my grandfather was baptized

by Martin Lloyd-Jones,

and so that makes me better

than the rest of you,

and all this kind of thing.

Right?

So they took the gospel,

and they turned it into

celebrity preacher culture.

And then the next thing

we read about

is constant scandals.

So there was big time scandals

in the church,

things that Paul says

not even the pagan,

in the pagan temples

would have been tolerated.

Very embarrassing.

Very big acts of public shame,

and nobody was dealing with it.

Big sin.

Scandal.

Real scandal in the church,

and nobody was saying

a word about it.

And he goes on from there

and talks about

all sorts of other issues,

like in worship,

it was total chaos.

Everybody was speaking

over each other,

and you know,

it would be like some of you

standing up right now

and saying,

hold on a second,

I would be far better

at explaining this

than you are,

and you try to trade places

with me,

and maybe you probably would be.

But that's exactly

the kind of thing

that was happening

all the time

in the Corinthian church.

And so he goes case study

by case study

of these big issues,

and then finally,

when you get to chapter 15,

he says,

now.

Okay.

How are we going

to deal with this?

It's not,

and what does he do?

He doesn't go

for behavior modification.

He doesn't say,

stop it,

stop it,

stop it.

Though that matters.

What he does is he says,

what you need

is to refill

your leaky hearts

with the gospel.

You need the gospel

over and over and over again,

plunged down into your soul.

Now look,

the central message

of the Christian,

the Christian message,

the core,

is the gospel.

Paul says,

the most important thing

I can say to you

is to repeat the gospel.

And what he's telling us

is that whether you're

a first century Corinthian

or a 21st century

Edinburgh citizen,

resident,

or from somewhere else

in the world,

if you have believed

the gospel

because you heard it preached,

he says,

I preached it to you,

you believed it,

you stood in it,

you put it on

like it was your armor,

and you've forgotten

about it.

He's saying that

every single one of us

struggles to remember

and live out of the resources

of the gospel.

And it could be

that you do

what the Corinthians do.

When churches,

local institutions,

and Christians

get the gospel

into their hands and hearts,

they often,

we will often distort it.

And one of the ways

we distort it

is we do what

the Corinthians did.

We say,

the gospel's all about grace,

it's all grace,

and so I can live

in any way I want.

This is what was happening

in Corinth.

And they say,

we call this antinomianism,

cheap grace.

So we take the gospel,

we distort it

by saying,

if it really is all grace,

if I can be forgiven

for anything,

then I can do anything

I want,

and it's all fine.

Another way

they were distorting

the gospel

is they were saying,

I was baptized by Apollos.

And we say,

boy, I came in

by the gospel,

but I really want

to get a seat at the table

with that celebrity Christian.

Some of us struggle

with that.

And another way

we distort the gospel

is we say the gospel

is just a starting point.

1 Corinthians 12 and 13,

you might remember,

is all about gifts.

And people are saying,

you know,

yeah, I entered in

by the gospel,

but the real measure

in the church

of who's really a Christian

is the people

that have achieved

the ability

to speak in tongues.

Right?

And so they said,

you get in by the gospel,

but you level up

with gifts,

and so the gospel

becomes this hierarchical platform.

You start at level one

and you've got to get

more and more gifts

along the way.

And you remember

in Paul's other letters

like Galatians,

the people had received

the gospel in Galatians,

but he says,

what they did was they said,

Jesus is just a starting point,

but if you want to stay

a Christian,

you have to obey

all the religious traditions

of our culture.

So we take the gospel

and we turn it

into religious behaviorism.

That's another way

we distort it.

When the gospel

gets into sinners' hands,

we often forget about it

and we twist it

and we distort it,

and so we could spend

all day talking

about the fact

that we have often

turned the gospel

into a money-making opportunity.

prosperity,

we talk about

the health and wealth gospel,

the prosperity gospel,

the social gospel,

the therapeutic gospel,

the moralist gospel,

the churchless gospel,

the activist gospel.

All the different ways

right now

the gospel is being twisted

and distorted

and forgotten about.

One that's a little more subtle

that gets into the bones

of the evangelical world

is the gospel message

that says,

if I prayed a prayer

at one time in my life,

I now am free

from the possibility of hell.

a mere get-out-of-hell-free gospel,

and that's a distortion

of the gospel too.

And Paul says,

I preached it to you,

you believed it,

you stood in it

like it was armor,

and you've let your heart,

you've let the gospel

just kind of seep away

and you've forgotten about it.

And what he says

to a very messy

Corinthian church

is not get your life together,

behave yourselves.

He says you need

to hear the gospel again.

You need to hear it,

you need to let it soak down

in your heart again.

At St. Columbus,

this is simple,

this is basic,

I know,

this is old hat

to many of you,

but at St. Columbus,

we want to be so committed

to never graduating

from the gospel

that people get tired

of how much we say

the word gospel.

And sometimes people

do talk about gospel,

gospel, gospel,

all you say is gospel,

all we say is gospel.

And yes,

we want to be gospel-centered

in every way,

but that's what Paul does,

you see?

He says it's not about

behavior modification,

it's that deep change

actually comes out

of the resources

of the gospel.

And so what is it?

That's the question,

point two.

What is the gospel?

You might be here today

and you think,

I genuinely don't know

what the gospel is.

You might be here today

and say,

I do have a pretty good grasp

on being able

to articulate the gospel,

or somewhere in between

and wherever you are,

from whatever background

you come,

Paul says you need

to be reminded,

no matter what condition

you're in,

of what the gospel is.

And so let's think about that.

What's the gospel?

Let me give you four elements

of the gospel

that Paul draws out

for us here.

And the first is

the word gospel.

He calls the message

of Christianity

the gospel.

So if you look down

at verse three,

you can see

what he says about it.

He says that,

when I was here

and I planted this church,

I delivered to you

what is of first importance.

So the word first there,

the most important,

the first thing,

is not a chronology word.

So there are multiple words

in Greek for first.

But this one is not chronology.

So it's not,

I gave you the first thing

on the path.

You learn the gospel first,

but then there's other things

you graduate to.

The word first there

is quality.

It's a quality word.

So the most important thing.

Quality.

The most important thing.

So what he's saying here is

I could say a lot more

about the gospel

than I'm about to say.

But what I want to do

is take the qualitatively

most important things

I must say about it,

the bullseye of the gospel,

the very dead center,

and communicate that to you.

So what we're about to get

is the bullseye,

you know,

the dead center

of what the gospel is.

The gospel has rings

and rings and rings.

It goes out.

It's so expansive.

But what he's saying here is

right now,

I just want to give you

the absolute center

of what the gospel

is all about.

So he uses this word gospel

and gospel

is not a Christian word

originally.

The word gospel

was borrowed

by Christians

from the Greco-Roman culture

that they lived in.

It was a word

that was used

all across the Roman Empire

for just good news.

So you know

this word gospel.

The Greek word gospel

is the word evangel.

And it's got two parts.

The back half

of the word gospel

is the word angel.

And angel

isn't just

a spiritual being

that lives in heaven.

The word angel

in Greek

also just means message.

And the front half

of the word gospel

has the little prefix

!

EV

or EU

and that just means good.

So when we say

the gospel is good news

or a good message,

it's just the literal

transliteration

of exactly

what those two

little words mean.

Evangel,

the good news.

That means

that when Paul

chooses this word,

he's communicating something.

He uses this word

about 70 times

across his letters.

And he's communicating

something really important

and it's this.

The Christian gospel

is more like

opening today's newspaper

and reading the headlines

than it is

going to talk to a pastor

about your circumstances

in life

to get advice.

The Christian gospel

is more like

reading the Wall Street Journal

or the Times

whatever your favorite

newspaper is.

It's more like

reading the newspaper

than it is

going to a therapist

for advice.

The gospel is news

not advice.

The gospel is a proclamation

of a history

not good advice

to get your life better.

The gospel is not a command.

The gospel is a pronouncement

of what has happened

in the middle of history.

What is that pronouncement?

Christ died

Christ was buried

Christ was raised.

That's the history

that's the news.

The gospel is like

if you were there

on Easter Sunday

the Jerusalem Times

on the front page

would have said

Christ died

Christ was buried

Christ is risen

from the dead

and that is the gospel.

The gospel is a history.

So what is

the core message

of Islam?

What is Islamic salvation?

What's the core message?

The core message

to Islam is

surrender your will

to Allah

and seek

His righteousness

in your own behavior

through the five pillars.

So the core message

of Islam

is a command to you

pursue the righteousness

of Allah

and hope

that you will achieve it.

What is the core message

of Buddhism?

The core message

of Buddhism

is embrace

the fourfold

the four noble truths

and live your life

on the eightfold path

to enlightenment

to get beyond suffering.

So what's the core message

of Buddhism?

It's a command.

Behave

along the lines

of the eightfold path

and maybe

you can achieve enlightenment.

Christianity's

core message

is not a command

it's not advice

it is a pronouncement

that God

has done it all

for you.

It's different

than every other

world religion

every other philosophy

that's ever existed

in human history.

This week

the latest issue

of the New Yorker

came out

New Yorker magazine

and in it

there was an article

by a writer

named Adam Gopnik

and Adam Gopnik

wrote an article

by the title

We're Still Not Done

With Jesus

and it was about

the scholarly debates

going on right now

in the New Testament

academy

around the origins

of Christianity

and in this

he gives you

all the different

very predominant

perspectives right now.

So the spectrums

where did Christianity

come from?

How did we get

the stories of Jesus

that we have?

That's what he's

dealing with.

And he says

on the one hand

there's Catherine

Nixie's recent book

which she argues

that the gospel stories

1 Corinthians 15

the message of the gospel

arose out of a

Jewish interpretation

of Greek mythology.

So Catherine Nixie

suggests that

the gospel stories

are just

re-mythologizations

of Greek myths

based in Jewish culture

about some man

named Jesus.

In the middle

of this spectrum

there's a woman

named Elaine Pagels

who wrote a book

where she says

something more

traditional in the academy

she says

the stories of Jesus

are mixtures

of real history

about this man

Jesus

but also an evolution

of legendary fables.

on the extreme side

he quoted

Richard C. Miller

who wrote a book

in 2017

very rare

that anybody

would argue this today

but Richard C. Miller

still argues

that Jesus

never existed

he wasn't even

a historical figure.

Right?

So in this article

Adam Gopnik

takes the origins

of Christianity

and he puts it

on the spectrum

and he says

these are basically

the three views.

Now what's the one

thing missing?

The one thing missing

is the simplest

explanation

and that's the

simple explanation

that what the

gospels record

and what Paul says

here about the history

of Jesus

actually happened.

The one thing

that Gopnik

and the New Yorker

this week

would not allow

and what I want

to say about this

today is simply this

and we're going

to be talking

about the historicity

of the resurrection

the next couple

of weeks

but the one thing

you cannot do

is you cannot come

to Paul

and put him

on this spectrum.

Paul's view

Paul's view

was that Jesus

Christ really

did die

was really dead

and was really

raised from the dead

in real life history

that's the gospel

and so you can come

and look at that

and you can reject it

that's an option

but you can't treat it

as anything else

but a mere

historical claim.

Paul is saying

this happened

and that is the gospel.

Now secondly

of four

and I have to hurry

what does he say

from there?

He says

that means

the gospel

is not about you

it's about Jesus

it's about his history

but the gospel

is for you

that's the next thing

he tells us

and so if you look down

again

at verse 3

he says

I delivered you

the most important thing

the gospel

that Christ died

real life history

then there's the preposition

for our sins

the gospel is not about you

but it is for you

and that little word

for there

is such an important

preposition

in the Greek New Testament

the Greek language

that this Bible

was written in

there are only

18 prepositions

in English

we have 150

so the 18 prepositions

in Greek

do a lot of work

they carry a lot

of weight

and meaning

and you have to discern

really carefully

what they mean

the scholarly consensus

on this preposition

for

is really

really clear

what does it mean

this little preposition

for our sins

translate it like this

he died

on behalf of

our sin

so

this preposition

for is saying

Jesus Christ died

in your place

as your substitute

taking on

your sin

in himself

that's what the

for there

on behalf of

in our stead

in our place

now

what this is telling us

is something so important

so important

it's asking you

do you know

what the gospel

really came to do

really came to fix

what is the greatest

problem we face

and Paul says

the greatest problem

we face

is our sin

our sin

our choice

to trespass

against

who God

made us to be

and to merit

guilt before God

that's what sin does

that's what sin is

he's saying

what is the greatest

problem you face today

that you

you have merited

guilt

before the living God

and you are not

in a state

of communion

with him

apart from the gospel

Paul says

that is the greatest issue

so he comes

and tells us

something so important

Philip Reif

is a 20th century

sociologist

that wrote

a couple of books

about the transition

from pre-modern people

to modern people

and in it

he talks about

the distinction

between what he calls

pre-modern man

quote unquote

as religious man

man by the way

there means

men and women

that's just the old way

of using that word

he says

there's religious man

the pre-modern man

and then he calls

modern people

psychological man

what does he mean by that

he says

the pre-modern person

across all cultures

all times

saw themselves

as people

in a state of guilt

searching for the hope

of salvation

and then he says

but modern man

is psychological man

and he says

we have transitioned

we don't see ourselves

as people

in the state of guilt

seeking salvation

and said

we think of ourselves

in what state

the state of pain

seeking pleasure

he says

modern man

thinks of himself

as the state of

in the state of boredom

seeking entertainment

constantly needing

that dopamine hit

you know

and if you read

a book like

Neil Postman's book

Amusing Ourselves to Death

he says

the key issue

in that transition

from thinking about

ourselves as guilty

in need of salvation

to bored

in need of entertainment

to pain

bearing

in need of pain

freedom

he says

Neil Postman says

the biggest transition

is the screen

so he argues

in Amusing Ourselves to Death

that the reason

we think like that

is because the screen

turned everything

into pleasure

seeking entertainment

he says

even when TVs

came out

and the news

would be put up

on the television

the news became

entertainment

politics became

entertainment

everything became

entertainment

and that created

an entire culture

where we're

entertaining ourselves

to death

now

friend

your greatest

problem

is not

that you have

pain

and need pleasure

not

that you're bored

and you need

to be entertained

our greatest problem

is that we have guilt

we bear guilt

we've accrued guilt

and I think

as a pastor

in my time

as a pastor

I've gotten to talk

to enough people

from all sorts

of different backgrounds

that they know

subconsciously

they know

deep down within

that over

the course

of a life

oh boy

think about it

year on year

day on day

week on week

how many things

we have said

and left unsaid

how many things

we have done

against others

and not done

for others

how many things

we have thought

how many things

we have acted

and enacted

against God

we know

deep down

in ourselves

we have accrued

a great debt

of guilt

before the Lord

before God

that is our

greatest problem

that is what

the gospel

came to deal with

and what we're

being told here

of something

so important

how is a human

being saved

from this great

sin problem

this great guilt

problem

Jesus Christ

died

in your place

on behalf

of your sins

taking your guilt

into himself

and paying the punishment

that you deserved

that's what we're told

now that means

you can come today

and say

the gospel

does not first

bullseye

does not first

come to deal

with our sadness

the gospel

does not first

come to deal

with our mental health

the gospel

does not come

first to be therapy

for us

the gospel

does not come

first

to deal with

our circumstantial

problems

the first

and boy

it will

it will deal

with all that

but the first

thing the gospel

does is it comes

to deal

with the fact

that we owe

that we have

merited guilt

before God the Father

that's the first

thing it comes

to do

that means

you are not

saved

by the power

of your faith

today

if you're a Christian

you're not saved

by the beauty

of your trust

today

you're not saved

by anything

that you do

in your mind

or your heart

to latch on

to the gospel

you're not actually

saved by that

what are you saved

by?

Christ alone

his substitutionary

work on the cross

that's it

imagine

imagine that

you're in the

highlands of Scotland

as I was

a couple weeks ago

and you're

walking

you're hill walking

and you fall

terrible thing to imagine

you fall off a cliff

and you're

barreling down

a ravine

you know

20 meters

30 meters

40 meters

50 meters

my illustration

probably breaks down

because you're going

too fast

to do anything

at this point

but

you're falling

and there's a branch

one branch

that you can latch

onto

and do you sit

there and say

you know

I don't know

how much faith

I have in this

branch right now

you know

and do you evaluate

and think

syllogistically

through reason

can I really

trust

that this branch

is meaningful

and will give me

the identity

that I seek in life

no

what do you do

if you're following

50 flights

you reach out

and you grab

hold of the branch

and you don't know

a lot

there's a lot

you don't know

but you just rest

on it

and you hope

that it's going

to save you

the branch

of Jesse

Jesus Christ

he saves

your falling

on that branch

does not save you

no

falling on the branch

is just how

you receive

his salvation

your faith

is falling

upon that branch

your trust

is falling

upon that branch

it's not your faith

that saves you

boy

you've got

83% faith

right now

while you're

sitting in the pew

on a Sunday

but tomorrow

it's going to go

down to 43

right

and it's going

to go up

and down

all the time

it's not the power

of your faith

that saves you

it's the object

he is for you

he is on your behalf

now thirdly

how does this work

exactly

I wish I had more time

but we'll work

on this the next

couple of weeks

how does this work

let me say this

as brief as I can

because sometimes

we miss

the mechanics

of the gospel

how does the gospel

actually work

let me put it

like this

how can

a first century

man

a carpenter

born of

a backwater town

like Nazareth

a Bethlehem

in Nazareth

matter for you

in 2025

so the Christian

gospel says it

does

but how

how could a man

in 33 AD

mean anything

for me

salvation

for me

in 2025

and here's how

it works

I can say it

very briefly

number one

Paul says

Christ died

for your sins

because Jesus Christ

is a human

he could stand

in your place

for a human

because Jesus Christ

is God

he could die

in your place

and merit

infinite value

to pay the debt

of many

that spans

across every century

backward and forward

because he's human

he can stand

in your place

because he's God

his value

can span

every century

as one who has

paid the debt

for all sin

number two

he says

he was buried

Paul says

how does the gospel

work

Jesus Christ

when he was buried

he

it's saying

that he really

did die

so Paul's

trying to get you

to see the

preposterousness

of this

how in the world

could we imagine

that God

the creator

would now be

buried in a tomb

but what is he saying

he's saying

he really was dead

so much so

that the debt

of your sin

really was paid

if Christ

almost died

then the debt

wasn't paid

but he really

was dead

and so the debt

was paid

thirdly he says

he was raised

from the dead

and appeared alive

to more than 500

people

this is where

now this

if you don't listen

to anything else

just try to

come with me

on this

and grasp hold

of this

because this is

where the mechanics

how the gospel

works

is so important

and sometimes

this piece

is missed

in Romans 425

Paul explains it

in one little line

he says

he was delivered

to death

for our sins

we've talked

about that

he was delivered

to death

on my behalf

paying the price

for my sin

my guilt

but then he says

he was raised

to life

for our justification

and that's the completion

of the gospel

if Jesus Christ

was still dead

there is no forgiveness

of sins

but he says

he was raised

to life

for our justification

what does that mean

it means this

to be justified

is to be pronounced

guilt free

your greatest problem

your guilt before the Lord

to be justified

is when God the Father

says

you're guilt free

you're cleansed

you're forgiven

there is no guilt

hanging over you

any longer forever

how does this work

the resurrection

of Jesus

was the justification

of Jesus Christ himself

okay

the resurrection of Jesus

was the justification

of Jesus

what does that mean

when Jesus rose

from the dead

God pronounced

Jesus guilt free

why

because Jesus

carried all of our sin

in his death

but when he was resurrected

God is saying

he's vindicated

he really did

completely pay

for every single sin

that has ever been

accrued in this world

he paid for it

the debt has been paid

it's over

you know

when a person

when a prisoner

pays their sentence

that they give their time

for the crime

they've committed

what happens next

they're released

you see

in the resurrection

it's saying

Jesus Christ

really did pay

for everything

so he deserves

to be raised

he deserves

to be released

he deserves

to be vindicated

and so Paul says

here's the gospel

here's the gospel

God

who stands

outside of space

and time

can say

of you today

in any century

whether it's

5th century BC

21st century AD

51st century

so long from now

any person

across space and time

that because

Jesus Christ

is God

and human

and has stood

in the place

of all the sins

of the world

God can say

by his justification

I gift you

justification

I can take

what he earned

and I can apply

it to your account

no matter what

century you live in

and that's how

the gospel works

God today

can take

what he earned

and apply it to you

right now

in the middle

of history

J.I. Packer

in his book

one of his books

he talks about

the gospel

and this idea

that Christ

sacrificed himself

for us

in our place

so that in his resurrection

we might be vindicated

we might be justified

and he deals

with a problem

that a lot of us

in the modern world

have with this

we look at that

and we say

is this not just

the same thing

as pagan

ritual sacrifice

is this not just

the same thing

as what many

have called

in the modern world

cosmic child abuse

God the Father

sacrificing a son

is this not just

a big account

of cosmic child abuse

and he goes through

and he shows

yeah

think about it

in every world religion

throughout history

the pagans

no matter what world religion

people come to the temple

and they give sacrifices

to the gods

trying to mollify

trying to pacify

trying to deal

with the guilt problem

they have with the gods

that's everywhere

why

every human

every society

recognizes

that that's our problem

so all religions

tend to manifest that

in some way

we need to pacify the gods

mollify the gods

propitiate

turn the wrath

of the gods

away from us

and J.I. Packer

writes this

what is different

in Christianity

there is something

similar there

a recognition

of guilt

but what is different

in Christianity

in all the world religions

in all of paganism

man

humans

try to propitiate

or satisfy

their guilt

themselves

man tries to propitiate

his God

Packer says

in Christianity

God

propitiates

God

God

satisfies

the wrath

of God

God

turns away

the wrath

the guilt

that we owe

the judgment

that we deserve

God does it

to God

and this is

the heart of

God's radical love

that for

that on behalf of

God did it

to God

God died

unto God

so that we might

be made alive

it's different

than every other message

all of other world religions

and so let me close

with this word

the very last thing

that happens in this passage

verse 8 to 11

Paul

just simply

very simple

Paul just simply

tells his story

and at the very end

of this passage

he says

I was on my way

to murder Christians

and Jesus showed up

in my life

and God showed me

that Christ

at the cross

was for me

and all he does

in verse 8 to 11

is write his testimony

and he says

now I know

that I'm the least

of all the apostles

I'm not worthy

to be called

one of God's children

but by grace

today I stand here

and I am what I am

remember

Paul was a murderous

hate filled

racist

that was going

to murder

anybody he could

that followed Jesus

who hated the Gentiles

Paul

by his religion

said

I am better

than all of these

people around me

and he said

when I encountered

the truth about Jesus

I realized

what do people want

in the modern world

they want equality

boy

Paul found

real equality

he said

in the gospel

I learned

that everybody

is equally a sinner

in need

of God's grace

he realized

he said

you know

I thought

I was better

than everybody else

around me

but then when I found

the gospel

I realized

that I'm the least

I'm the worst

the gospel

is so humanizing

it's so impartial

it brings such

radical equality

to all people

because it says

to every one of us

you're a sinner

in need of grace

all of us equal

all of us

in the same position

you know

if you make your God

a political agenda

if you make

your God

the self-salvation

seeking of your career

and your successes

if you make your God

a football team

yeah

if you make your God

nationalism

a country

saying I just want

everybody to know

that my country

is better than

the next country

if you make your God

any of these things

you will always

look out and say

I am positioning myself

as better than

the next person

somehow someway

I must be

my goal in life

is to have a better

career

a better nation

a better football team

a better this

a better that

and Paul said

that's who I was

but then I realized

I'm just a sinner

in need of grace

that's all of us

do you have a testimony

do you have a testimony

that can say

I'm just a sinner

in need of God's

precious grace

you can have a testimony

let us pray

Father

give us a testimony today

of the power

of the gospel

in our lives

that Christ

Christ died

on our behalf

thank you Lord Jesus

we want grateful hearts

this morning

teach us

the power of the gospel

remind us today

of the gospel

help us to never forget

the gospel

so Lord

send us today

into our city

living out of the resources

of the gospel

we pray

in Jesus name

Amen