1 Corinthians 15:1-11 – Gospel

Morning everyone.

Morning to you if you are joining us online.

My name is Mark.

I am another of the leaders here at City Church.

And it's great to uh be with you at the uh the start of what kind of is the start of our new year.

Uh we kind of run by academic years.

And so first weekend in September, we normally start a new series, and normally it's a series kind of like this, looking at our uh our DNA, what kind of what is our makeup as a church.

Uh it's also a uh significant Sunday, I guess for uh for me, uh, but really for everybody here, in that uh today marks seven years since City Church began to meet in some sort of iteration or other.

Seven years since we started to gather on a Sunday evening as City Church Dublin.

Uh and so, in a sense, happy seventh birthday, uh everyone.

Uh you're look you're looking good, you're growing up.

Uh hopefully we're out of the toddler tantrums uh now, and we're entering into the sweet spot uh until we hit our teenage years, and then it all goes downhill again.

Uh uh that's that's right, isn't it?

Yeah, that's what I've heard.

Uh so but ever since we started as a church, we have had uh three things at the core of who we are, and they've been expressed in slightly different ways.

When we uh when we started, uh we talked about the uh the centrality of preaching, about purposeful community, and about uh and about deep discipleship.

Those were the three that we started with, and those have kind of been clarified over the years because one of the things that church planting is like it's a bit like flying a plane and building at the same time, and you get more efficient parts as you go on.

And uh, and so that's been clarified really into our uh into our three loves, which when we start putting up our role banners again, you see love, uh love God, love people, love Dublin.

Uh, but they could be expressed in another way, and that is that in terms of what makes us, in terms of what our DNA is, the kind of things that we value as a church, it's really simple.

It's gospel, community, and mission.

We're all about the gospel, we're all about community, and we're all about being on mission together.

Those second two things are really outworkings of the first, right?

Uh we believe that the gospel creates a gospel community.

It's the gospel that plants the church, right?

Or it's you plant the gospel, and the gospel grows the church.

That's the way, really, to look at it.

And it's the gospel that sends us out on mission, it's the gospel that gives us something to say to a world that is in need of hope and help and forgiveness.

Uh, and so really gospel is is chief to those.

Those priorities need to always shape who we are uh as a church.

And so at the start of every year or just about, it's good to remind ourselves of these things that we uh that we have affirmed from our first beginnings, uh, especially as we welcome in new people, and as as people learn what city church is about, we want to be saying, okay, we're about these things, we're about the gospel, we're about community, and we're about mission.

It's something that we want to be clear on.

Paul begins in uh the opening line of 1 Corinthians 15 to say, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you.

There is a sense in which he's he he has written this long letter, he's dealt with lots of uh of thorny issues and sins within the church.

And at the end, he says, you know, you actually you need to be reminded of the gospel.

And that is true for us because we forget it.

We forget to live out of its implications for our lives, and so it is important that it remains clear for us.

Uh, some might uh confuse the gospel uh for the gospels uh plural, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the message that is communicated in those uh four books, but uh in all of Scripture.

Uh others might equate the gospel simply with the ethical teachings of Jesus.

Uh the gospel is well, it's the golden rule.

It's love your neighbor and uh don't judge others lest you be judged.

Those are outworkings of the gospel, those are part of the gospel, they are results of the gospel, but they're not the gospel itself.

Uh to make those your gospel is to reduce uh what the biblical gospel is uh down to a kind of a a being nice moralism, uh, and that's not uh what the Christian gospel is.

One of the things that I want us to see this morning is that the gospel is good, that the gospel is true, and that the gospel is beautiful.

Maybe take a moment and think, well, if you were asked, if somebody asked you out on the street or in the course of your life, well, what is the gospel?

How would you say it?

What things would you emphasize?

Is it clear in your own mind what it is?

Paul calls it these matters of first importance.

But overall, I think that the gospel is these three things.

It is good, it is true, it is beautiful.

And so we're going to look at this passage uh through that kind of rubric.

First of all, the gospel is good.

I think it's important to examine it in that sort of way, if for no other reason, then people don't tend to see the message of Christianity as something that is good anymore.

Uh, I don't know if you've noticed that.

And so it's good to remind ourselves that the gospel is indeed good and to see how it is that it is good.

Maybe it is that you're sitting here, you're watching this, and you think the gospel doesn't feel good at various times, or it doesn't look good to me.

The gospel is good.

In fact, the word gospel, believe it or not, means good news.

You might have remembered that from Sunday school days, or you might have even owned a good news Bible.

But the point of that is that the gospel is good news over and against it being good advice.

It's not about how to live a better life, it's a declaration of an event or a series of unfolding events.

It is news about what has happened in history.

It is good news for us.

You see, in uh during lockdown, uh John Krasinski uh did uh these good news uh uh little shows on Facebook and YouTube, little podcasts, uh just trying to lift our spirits and tell us we're hunger for some good news because everything is so negative.

The gospel is first and foremost good news.

It is news about something that has happened in history that is good for you, it's good for me, it's good for humanity.

What is that good news?

Well, that good news is centered ultimately on the person of Jesus.

People uh today often say things like, um, I'm spiritual, but I'm not very religious.

I had to think of myself as a spiritual person, uh, but I wouldn't say that I'm religious at all.

In that sense, their their spirituality is um it's intangible.

There's a um there's a vagueness to it.

Or people say you just have to have faith.

You just have faith.

And somehow the question is left hanging of, well, in what?

Not so with Christianity, not so with what the gospel is, because the gospel is centered on a person, the gospel orientates around Jesus Christ, he is the object of our faith, he is the one that the news that is good is about.

It's about him.

And so Christianity kind of distinguishes itself from it, it's not a vague spirituality, it is centered ultimately on the person and the work of Jesus.

Have a look at verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ, that's Jesus Christ, died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.

And do you see how Paul is joining together here, and he is describing what the good news is?

He is describing and joining together both the person of Jesus and the work of Jesus.

That Christ, so it's centered on him, and what did he do?

Died for our sins.

You see, it would be foreign in the Bible's mind to uh to separate those two things out, to say something like, Well, uh I I like Jesus as a uh as a good moral guide, I like Jesus as a uh as a historical figure, but I don't really uh believe in any of the things that I don't believe that he died for me.

Uh you know, I carry my own sins, uh, thanks a lot.

Is that that's uh the band fun.

There we go, that's how relevant I am in my album connection.

Um we could do Kings of Leon, we could do that, you know, Jesus don't love me, no one ever carried my load.

Uh that sort of thing.

No, the central message of Christianity is that Christ died for our sins.

Not just that Christ died, but that Christ died had a purpose for our sins.

And while you might not realize it at first glance, this is the good news that humanity needs to hear.

You see, the God who made us, who is Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the God who made us is the source of all light and life and love.

But we, starting with our first parents, with Adam and Eve, we have turned from that light and have chosen darkness, that moral darkness.

We've turned from him who is the source of life, and so we face suffering and pain and grief and death.

We have turned from his love for us and wanted to rule ourselves.

Uh, even if you don't think about it in those sorts of explicit terms, there is a uh there's a there is in each of us a quiet, settled resolution that we will determine our own destiny, and that is turning from the God who loves us.

As a consequence, we have ended up loving ourselves, not loving others as we should.

We resent God's claim on our lives as our maker.

Have you ever believed God to be a killjoy?

Or God to be cruel?

That what he has given you in your life must be some sort of cruel, unusual punishment from him.

That is a turning from his love for you.

Which of us has not been self-seeking, self-serving?

Which of us has not loved our neighbor?

Or being deceitful, or being impure?

The list could go on.

This turning from God, this rejection of him, is both an offense to him as our maker, as the one who loved us, and it also harms those around us.

The Bible calls that turning sin.

But Jesus, and this is what Paul is getting at in this little short phrase, but Jesus came into the world and always enjoyed the Father's life and light and love.

He never strayed into moral darkness.

He never loved himself more than others.

And yet, he says to humanity, he says to each one of us, he says, Your darkness will be my darkness, your death will be my death, your rejection will be my rejection.

And so he takes all of that, that, that, that sin, that darkness, that death.

And he dies.

And he plunges it down to the hell that it deserves.

When Jesus dies, what is it that falls across the land?

Well, it is darkness, is it not?

He experiences the terrible punishment that our sins deserve.

And he does it for us.

He stands in our place.

And that is such good news.

That as human beings who have turned from God, there is one who stands in the gap for us, who has taken that penalty that our sins deserve, so that we don't have to.

That is the goodness of the good news.

That is why it is good news that you no longer need to face God as somebody who has been treasonous against his divine majesty, his authority.

We don't like to use words like authority, don't like to think of authority.

If that is you, can I encourage you to think authority is inevitable, even if it is you just living under your own authority?

The question is uh is not will I live under authority or not?

It's which authority is the best?

Which authority maximizes my flourishing?

Which authority is good for my life?

Do you always feel like you make the best decisions?

Uh, maybe you're simply morally better than I am.

No, the goodness of the good news is that we can now come to the maker of the universe, the one who loved us, and call him father.

And know that he holds no resentment, no bitterness, that he has cast our sins into the heart of the ocean.

That is good news.

Not only is the gospel good, the gospel is actually, in fact, true.

And Paul is at pains to show us uh some reasons for confidence in the gospel, and so we should look at them.

But it's worth just saying, uh, so many preachers emphasize uh simply the truthfulness of the gospel.

The gospel's true, and you should believe it.

And that's true, that you should.

Uh, and I would encourage you to do so if you are not.

But note where I started the gospel is true, but it is good for you.

And what we'll see in a moment is that it is also beautiful.

In what ways does Paul point us to the truthfulness of the gospel?

Well, uh, have a look at the end of verse 3.

So he has this repeated phrase.

So he says, Christ died for our sins, and here comes the repeated phrase, in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures.

Read on.

And that he appeared to Kephas.

Uh Kephas is Peter, by the way.

That's uh that's Peter's Aramaic name.

Uh so he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve, and then appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Uh fallen asleep.

Here is Paul's metaphor, that some have died.

Um isn't that good in and of itself?

That in the Christian life, death is seen as falling asleep.

Isn't that what Jesus says?

When he goes into the uh into the home of the little girl, Jarus' daughter, who has died, little 12-year-old girl, and he says to the mourners, do not weep, the child is just asleep.

And they laugh at him.

But he is able to rouse her from death as easily as someone might rouse you from sleep.

But first, from our study here, what Paul is pointing us to in this repeated phrase of in accordance with the scriptures is that the gospel is the fulfillment and the culmination of all that the Bible said would happen.

That what Christ did, what Jesus came into the world to achieve, was not some new idea, but rather was the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament had pointed to.

That his work and the promise of the coming of his person was in accordance with the scriptures, that there is an internal coherence to the Bible.

You think, well, according to what scriptures?

Well, there's there's scores of instances.

You could look to Christ's own predictions.

In in Mark's gospel, you go to Mark's Gospel, uh, chapters eight, nine, and ten form the kind of middle section of the book.

That's the journey to Jerusalem.

So with in the first seven chapters, we're up in Capernaum.

If you want to know the structure of Mark's gospel, here it comes.

Chapters 1 to 7, we're up in Capernaum, and the Galilean ministry, up to the point where he says, Well, who do you say that I am?

And Peter confesses that he is the Christ, and then they start to make their way to Jerusalem.

And on the way, in chapters eight, nine, and ten, he predicts his death at the hands of the religious leaders and the Gentiles, that he'll be handed over, that he'll be crucified and resurrected.

And that indeed is what happens.

And chapters 11 through uh to the end of 15 are all centered in in Jerusalem in that final week of his life.

Or think of what uh Jesus on the road to Emmaus.

Road to Emmaus, that's an account in the end of Luke's gospel and Luke chapter 24.

Luke 24 · chapter mention

What you have is uh some disciples of uh of Jesus are on the road to this town called Emmaus, and they are taught.

About the events that have happened, and and Jesus, while disguising himself, comes and walks alongside these two disciples.

And he says, Well, what are you talking about?

And they said, Well, you're the only one in Jerusalem who hasn't, you know, have you been living under a rock?

You're the only one who hasn't realized what's been going on.

Uh, and you Jesus of Nazareth was handed over, he was killed.

And he what Luke tells us, he says, and beginning with Moses, he told them all that the scripture had projected about the Christ.

The beginning with the uh what he says, in the beginning of Moses, that is beginning with Genesis.

He describes all of the ways that the scriptures pointed to what Jesus would do.

He is the sacrificial lamb, he is the greater high priest, he is great David, the king's greatest son, he is the prophet par excellence, he is the suffering uh servant of Isaiah.

And in fact, for our purposes, I think that that's what Paul is drawing on when he says, in accordance with the scriptures, that he is the one who was, in Isaiah's words, pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement that has brought us peace was laid on him.

You read Isaiah 53, and you must ask, who is this person?

And Jesus and Paul saying it is him.

Paul, just by way of application for us, Paul here is expressing a confidence in the internal coherence of the scriptures.

He is placing a confidence in the Bible.

He is a person of the book.

Isn't that what that is what our Muslim friends call Christians, people of the book.

We are people of the book, unashamedly so.

You want to know what city church is about?

We are people of the book.

The hard bits and the easier bits.

The provocative bits that are hard to hear and the bits that are more palatable.

We are people unwaveringly of the book.

Not only that, but the gospel is true, not just because it accords with the coherent message of the Bible, that overarching, um, to use a pretentious word, that meta-story, that meta-narrative, that big narrative of the Bible, that it is unified in one story of redemption, of God seeking a people for himself.

Not only is that true, and points to the truthfulness of the gospel, but it's true because the gospel's historical.

It's not myth or legend, it's something that actually occurred in history.

And again, Paul would remind us of it.

It's there in verses five and six because he is at pains to say the risen Lord Jesus appeared to Peter.

Okay?

Peter was hallucinating because of his grief.

And they said, Well, no, then he appeared to the twelve.

Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive.

Why does Paul say most of whom are still alive?

Well, because the understanding might be that you could go and ask them.

That what we have in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, is in fact eyewitness testimony.

That is what Paul is getting at here.

Jesus appeared to 500 people.

Most of them are alive, guys.

You don't believe me?

Catch the next horse or boat heading uh over to Judea and find them and ask them.

There's a confidence there that what is being told will stand up to scrutiny.

There's other evidences of that uh in the Bible.

Again, if you've been around the city for any length of time, uh you know the the chief two that I like to go to, so the calming of the storm in Mark chapter 4, where Mark tells us that other boats were there.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Uh the idea being that if you were inclined in the first century to go and verify these things, uh, that you could go to Galilee.

Go and ask the fisher, the fishermen who were familiar with uh the Sea of Galilee, Galilee, Lake and Nessaret, and say, Well, has anything like this ever happened before?

Were you there on the day when the storm was completely calm?

Or in the crucifixion account, where we're told that Simon of Cyrene is the daddy of Alexander and Rufus.

Why be told that if for no other reason than to if you were inclined to do so than to go to Cyrene and to seek out Alexander and Rufus and say, hey, was your daddy there?

Was he in uh the uh in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover when they crucified the one that they called the Christ?

Did he carry the cross of the one that they called the Christ?

To say nothing of Luke uh in the in the preface to his gospel account, where he says that he undertook to make an orderly account of the things that have happened among us.

He is our detective who has gone and spoken to the eyewitnesses on our behalf.

See, the gospel is the gospel is not something to be le to be believed as fanciful, it is not a well-intentioned myth.

It is to be believed because it's true, because it actually happened in history, that Jesus was actually readily bodily resurrected from the dead.

That that is in fact the most plausible explanation for what happened on that first Easter Sunday.

And I would encourage you to scroll through the Facebook feed if you are interested in doing so, and to watch the sermon from this last Easter Sunday, where I go through the uh the evidences for the resurrection, as it were.

Paul wants us to have confidence in the gospel, that it is in fact true, that Jesus was raised for you, that he lives now for you, that Jesus is in heaven as a physical human being praying for you.

Is that not wonderful?

And that because he lives, you will live.

Though you may die, you will be roused from the sleep of death by the voice of the Lord of all.

Isn't that what Jesus says in John 5, that the hour is coming and is now here?

When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and will come out of their graves, put it another way, in that moment when your lifeless body hears the words of your master, you will not be able to stay dead.

At City Church, we know not only believe that the gospel is good, we believe that the gospel is actually true, that it is not a myth that we entertain ourselves with, that we comfort ourselves with as delusional people, though it is a deep comfort, but it is a deep comfort precisely because it's true.

You read the rest of uh of 1 Corinthians 15, and Paul says, if none of this is true, then this is of no comfort to us, and we are above all men and women most to be pitied.

The gospel is good, the gospel is true.

And thirdly, finally, the gospel is beautiful.

The aesthetic of the gospel is something that is stirring and apprehending and beautiful to behold.

Why?

There are many reasons, but Paul would have us focus in on a couple of things.

It is beautiful because it is centered not just on a bloody cross, but on a gloriously empty tomb.

It is centered not just on Christ's death, but on his resurrection.

The resurrection is the resounding yes that what was achieved on the cross was actually achieved.

But it is also the vindication of Jesus.

It is the vindication that he is all that he said he was, but it is also a thing of great beauty for us.

Because you see, the resurrection assures us of certain things.

The resurrection assures us that the sin of your past does not define your future.

The resurrection says that the struggle of your present will not ultimately keep you from glory.

The resurrection says that there is joy even in the midst of sorrow, that there is hope in the midst of suffering.

The resurrection is not the it's not the button on the story.

It's not just simply the the happy ever after of the Jesus story.

It is that God in us is beginning a new creation.

The gospel is beautiful because it changes people.

Paul alludes to his own transformation.

In verses nine and ten, he says, For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.

Why?

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.

The gospel transforms people.

Paul offers himself as exhibit A, as one who hated the Church of God, who was on his way to arrest more and to throw them into prison, who stood and guarded the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen, the first man to lay down his life for the goodness and the truthfulness and the beauty of the gospel.

He was not seeking Jesus, but Jesus found him.

And he came to him and he said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me in identification with his people?

And he transformed Paul's life, and literally the scales fell from his eyes, and he saw the world anew.

But this is not the only instance where we glimpse the beauty of the gospel.

Imagine in your mind's eye that story that is told to us in Mark's Gospel or in Luke's Gospel.

Or Matthew's Gospel as well, in fact.

Where a man with leprosy comes to Jesus, a social outcast, one who people, well, covered their faces for.

One who had to announce his arrival so that those could run away.

Who for years had not experienced the touch of another human being, and comes to Jesus and falls at his feet and says, If you are willing, you can make me clean.

And Jesus, with great compassion, we are told, says, I am willing and touches him.

He didn't need to.

We know that Jesus quite powerful when it comes to his words, but takes this person who has not experienced the intimacy of human touch and touches him.

And he is cleansed.

He is cleansed on the outside to show us the cleansing that happens on the inside when we are forgiven.

Or imagine Mark chapter 2 and see Jesus standing in that house and looking up and seeing this paralytic being lowered down on a bed, and his friends who have tried with all their might to get him into the house so that he can be in front of Jesus.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

And so they go up the outside stairs and they break a hole in and they lay him before Jesus' feet.

And what does Jesus say?

My son, your sins are forgiven.

Because Jesus knows and sees what is his greatest need is not to have his legs work again, but to have his sins forgiven.

But as proof that he has authority on earth to forgive sins, he looks at the religious leaders and he says, then to the man, rise, take up your bed and walk.

Or think of the woman caught in adultery, who is there ready to be stoned by the religious leaders?

And Jesus intervenes, says, He who is without sin cast the first stone and looks at the woman and says, Look around.

Who is there to condemn you?

Neither do I condemn you.

What is it that Paul writes at the start of Romans chapter eight?

There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The gospel is beautiful.

It changes people.

And you know that in your own life, many of you, many of you sitting here, many of you watching, I'm sure, can think of how far you have come by the grace of God.

I imagine that some of you either sitting here or watching this can scarcely imagine that you are here.

And it is all a gift of grace, isn't that what Paul says?

That undeserved, unmerited kindness of God.

Isn't that beautiful in and of itself?

That it is not something to be achieved, worked towards, earned, but is given to you freely as a gift of faith.

We believe that the gospel is good.

We believe that it's true.

But perhaps one of the things that's hardest of all, one of the things that we strive towards is to show that it is beautiful.

The gospel is beautiful ultimately because Jesus is beautiful, because our God is beautiful, He makes beautiful things, He makes beautiful image bearers, He has done a beautiful thing for us.

It is when we see the beauty of Jesus, the beauty of the gospel, that our hearts and our affections will be so stirred to follow him all the more closely.

I encourage you in your reflection on this, on these words, this week, later on today, to reflect on the beauty of what Jesus has done for you, on the beauty of who God is.

Don't allow your heart to be swelled by what it is that He has done for you.

Because that will be the engine of deeper community and greater mission.

So what is the gospel?

Here's my attempt at a summary.

The gospel is the biblical reality that Christ died and rose in history to secure our forgiveness from sins, to transform our present, and to give us hope for the future.

A future with Him.

And all of this is to the glory of God.

It is important, it is essential that we remind ourselves of these things that are of first importance.

It is similarly essential that we allow this gospel, this gospel alone, to shape our life together.

This is what we are about as a church.

We don't do many things, but the things we do, we do out of conviction that the gospel is good, is true, is beautiful.

So if you're watching this and thinking, is this the kind of church that I want to be a part of?

Well, there's our stall.

That's what we're about.

Press in.

Press in, City Church.

To the gospel that is good, that is true, that is beautiful.