Gospel Course - What Is the Gospel? - 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

We're going to start a new series tonight that we're

calling the Gospel Course. What is it?

How do we understand it? If we thought about this and a

classroom kind of setting and we build from one thing to another

thing, we should have a full comprehension as a church and as

individuals of what that word means and what God has done for

us. And throughout this time, we're

going to ask questions like, why do I need the gospel?

I feel like I'm doing just fine. Like why would God want to save

me? Maybe we feel like we're not

worth it. Can I truly be forgiven?

And how can I know that I'm saved?

These are all important questions that we can wrestle

with. But tonight an introduction.

We begin with the question, what is the gospel?

And I know you've heard it, but repetition is the price of

learning. So we're going to go over it

again together today because many times when you ask people

on the street, what is the gospel, And we do a lot of

evangelism. We bug people in Portland.

I work in the Pearl District. Me and Ethan were just out this

week trying to talk to people and see if we can share this

good news with other people. And we ask, have you heard the

gospel? Can I share that with you?

And when people say, yes, I've heard it.

And I ask, what have you heard? Many times, the answer to that

question is really interesting. People think the gospel is a

style of music and sure it can be.

Many would say men, it's the life of Jesus.

There's like 4 gospels, right? That's true also.

Some would say that's how you're supposed to live your life or

others would say well it's the good word.

That's what Ethan and I talked to a guy this week.

He said, what's the good word? Well, what is the good word?

So today we're going to get a very clear definition of what

this word is from the Word of God.

It's not up to me to make things up for Christianity.

We go to our source in the Scriptures and what where we get

this definition is out of a book.

The book of First Corinthians is written as a correction to a

church. So we find ourselves in the 1st

century and the Apostle Paul is the guy that writes this letter.

We'll see more about him in our study.

He traveled around Asia and planted churches.

He preached that gospel people got saved and they gathered

together. He left this church and he had

to write these letters back to them to address all the

scandalous things going on in their church.

Listen, you think, I mean, there's some crazy, weird

churches out there, but I'm going to put a list on the

screen just for a second. These are the things that Paul

corrects in this church. There was a sexual scandal and

someone needed to be kicked out. They were taking each other to

court when Paul said, hey, you ought to be dealing with that

stuff in the church. He had to write and address

marital problems and singleness. And there were people showing up

to the Lord's Supper, getting drunk off the wine.

There was abuse of spiritual gifts.

And we'll find today that they were even denying the

resurrection altogether. So what's interesting is that

this letter is written as a correction, and through it we

get the most clear definition possible of what the gospel is.

So I want to take just a moment before we dive in and pray.

I know we've probably prayed a couple times already, but here

we frequently give about a moment of silence.

I talk a lot. We have a lot of moving parts.

Maybe it's been a long day for you.

I would just say clear yourself with the Lord and we're going to

jump in and study. So take a moment, ask God to

teach you, humble you. If you haven't prayed in a

while, you could just say, God, if you're real, show me.

So let's take one moment and we'll pray, and I'll come back

up and lead us in a prayer. God, we come before your word

today. We confess that none of this is

our idea. We're just simply believing what

you said. We know you said that your Holy

Spirit is our teacher and that your word is alive.

So today we give you permission to penetrate our hearts and our

minds. Enlighten us to see the way that

you see open our eyes to who we are and how good you are to us.

I pray today would be the day of salvation.

I pray that we'd all walk away clear and confident and what

you've done for us in Jesus name, Amen.

All right, well, our main text for today, we're going to read

first Corinthians chapter 15 verses one through 4.

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

The Bible says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the

gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have

received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if

you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you

have believed in vain, For I delivered unto you first of all

that which I also received. How?

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and

that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day

according to the Scriptures. So if you're taking notes, point

#1 is what is the gospel? We see in verse one, Paul says,

I declare unto you the gospel. He's letting us know the answer

to that question. The word gospel here is the

Greek word evangel evangelon. I don't speak Greek, but that's

what it is. Something like that.

And it literally means good tidings and that's why we call

it good news. We don't use tidings a whole lot

anymore. Perhaps at Christmas, great

tidings of, you know, good tidings of great joy.

But we see that also in the book of Romans in chapter 10.

I think the reference is wrong, but the verse is right.

And how? How shall they preach, except

they be sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of

them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of

good things. So what this word literally

means is good news. I'm bringing you a message of

joy and hope and goodness. And it's broken down into three

parts here. First, that Jesus died for our

sins in verse 3, how that Christ died for our sins.

The absolute penultimate important doctrine of

Christianity is the crucifixion in the resurrection.

Without these, you simply aren't a Christian, you're just

something else. The good news is not about

racial reconciliation, social justice are making you feel

better. The good news is about a death.

It's about Jesus's death. It says in first Peter.

Peter says who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the

tree. Now that that wasn't good news

for Jesus at that time but what happened on the cross is he took

our sins upon himself. That means it's good news for

us. And just like going to the

doctor the good news is what you want but you need the bad news

1st and the bad news is that we are sinners and we need to deal

with our sin. You may be reading this and

wonder how did Jesus fulfill the scriptures as it says according

to the scriptures. So I've given you a brief list

on the screen. There's many more ways that he

fulfilled the scriptures, but some references from the Old

Testament about his death specifically, He was betrayed,

they parted, they gambled and parted his garment.

He was beaten, obviously, He was crucified, He was pierced.

He was treated like a criminal. Isaiah 53 says that he was like

a lamb. He did not speak, He was silent

in his in all those accusations against him.

All of his disciples scattered and then ultimately his death

was an atonement. These are just some of the ways

the Old Testament is fulfilled in his death.

But it's not just the death. We move on to his, his burial.

Verse 4 says that he was buried. And this is important because

Jesus didn't have like a fake death.

Like I'm dead, I'm alive. It was long enough to be sealed

up in a tomb to be absolutely sure he was certainly dead.

A Roman executioner was able to look at him and say he's dead

and he was buried, as we know, for three days.

We see in the book of John. It records this for us.

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wounded in linen

clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden,

and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man

yet laid. There laid they Jesus.

Therefore, because of the Jews preparation day for the

sepulchre was nigh at hand. And in this in His burial, even

being dead, He was fulfilling the Scriptures, as it says in

Isaiah. He made His grave with the

wicked and with the rich in his death.

But thank God, praise the Lord, we celebrate Easter, and we know

that Jesus rose from the dead. This part is the exceptionally

good news, for honestly, the news of a dead rabbi is not

great news. If he did not raise from the

dead, we would not have much to worship.

His resurrection is really what proved his deity for only God

can be raised from the dead. In fact, Acts chapter 2 it says

Acts 2 · chapter mention

it was not possible that he should be Holden of it meaning

of death. He could not be kept in the

grave because he is the King of glory.

He is the God of life. And you may be asking how did he

fulfill the scriptures in his resurrection as it says in verse

four. Well, again, here's just a few

ways that Psalm 16 says that he would not stay dead.

Isaiah 53 says his days would be prolonged.

You have to be alive for that to happen.

Hosea in pictures says that he would raise on the third day.

And then many times throughout the Gospels he gave his own word

that he was going to die and raise again, and he fulfilled

his own word. If you'll continue reading in

Acts chapter 15 where we are, and you go to verse 5, I don't

Acts 15 · chapter mention

have this on the screen. You have to look in your Bible

verses 5 through 8, you'll see several witnesses as well.

He he was seen of Peter and verse 6, he was seen above 500

brethren at once. So there are eyewitnesses of the

resurrection. This isn't just a story.

We have eyewitness accounts throughout history recorded for

us. But as we look at this, it's

probably one of the most basic things you could hear in

Christianity, that Jesus died, was buried and rose again.

But I have this question, How does the gospel of the Bible

compared to the one you've heard before?

Maybe that is new. Maybe you hadn't thought about

it that way before. That word gets taken for

granted. Honestly, Christians get

manipulated in the media that they're just supposed to do some

good and stuff and help people. And really, our message is much

more sobering than that. Obviously, other religions also

disagree with this. Islam does not believe that

Jesus was crucified. That's a big problem.

Judaism obviously crucified Jesus.

They didn't like that very much. Liberalism doesn't have a

resurrected savior. It's all an analogy and a

picture of some other thing. But the Bible clearly says that

Jesus rose from the dead. In fact, if you don't believe

this, you cannot be saved. But let's move on.

How do we receive the gospel? So you heard the message.

How do I accept that for myself? Because simply hearing it is not

enough to save you. I wish it was.

Right now, we would just send a room full of people to heaven,

man, It'd be great. You guys would all be believing.

It'd be wonderful. I wish I had that kind of power.

Heaven. I'd choose heaven for everyone

every time. But God gives us a will and we

all get to choose. Interestingly enough, the Bible

records for us in Acts chapter 18, the apostle Paul's visit to

Acts 18 · chapter mention

this church in Corinth when he first came there, and as he says

in verse one, which also ye have received.

Now we can see how the Corinthians responded to the

gospel. He says in Acts 18 and verse 8.

And many of the Corinthians hearing believed and were

baptized. Now we didn't necessarily plan

this message today with the baptism stuff, but this is the

pattern in the Bible. You hear this good news of a

sacrificial death, you choose to believe it and say I'm in and

then you're baptized. That is the pattern in the

Scriptures. Jesus says in John chapter 6, he

John 6 · chapter mention

that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

You see, it is faith in the Gospel message.

That is what activates it in our life.

It is not just hearing it. It's not just being raised

around it or in sitting in cathedrals or rooms or Bible

studies. It is faith in the message.

And the message again is that Jesus died, was buried, and rose

again. And all you have to do to

receive this for yourself, as it says in Romans 10, is to confess

with your mouth the Lord Jesus. That's not to me or to any other

person. You begin a relationship with

God and you believe in your heart that God raised him from

the dead and you'll be saved. That's it.

We don't need your money, man. We, we don't need water.

Those things come later if you want to, but what you need to do

is consider, do I believe this in my heart and am I willing to

say it out loud and confess that I believe in Jesus, I believe in

the resurrection, I want to be saved.

That's all you have to do. So let's look next at what

happens when we believe. OK then I just got my little get

out of hell card and put it in my back pocket.

Keep it in my wallet. I've said before, I'm a bit of a

hillbilly raised in Northeast Ohio.

My dad has an NRA Four Life card in his wallet that he's long

time member until he's dead. And sometimes we think about

Christianity like it's some kind of social club that I got the

card in my wallet and I'm in. But really believing that

message that Christ died for you rose again and he becomes your

Lord and he's forgives you of your sin.

It it produces a massive change in your life, whether you

realize it or not. And what we see here in our in

our text is that there are two changes made by the person that

believes the gospel. First, we're given a new

foundation. Paul tells the Corinthians in

verse 1, he says where wherein ye stand this gospel.

He says you stand in the Gospel, people that believe it have

literally been placed into it. And when we look at baptism, the

picture in baptism out of Romans chapter 6, it says we're buried

Romans 6 · chapter mention

with Christ and we're risen again just as he is risen.

We have identified with him so much that I'm literally buried

with him. We stand upon it, as it says in

Romans, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace

wherein we stand. It's kind of like the Psalmist

says in Psalm chapter 41 of my favorite Psalms.

Psalms 41 · chapter mention

He says that God set his feet upon a rock.

We're literally standing upon something that is the most true

thing possible, that Christ rose from the dead.

The gospel changes the very foundation of your life as the

Bible says in First Corinthians three other foundation can no

man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

He is the foundation. So believing the gospel shifts

everything in your life into a new place and you now trust God

by faith. Secondly, and perhaps what gets

us really in is that when we believe the gospel we are saved

from our sin. Again there is that ugly 3

letter word that we really don't like.

But when when we look again at verse 3, it says that Christ

died for our sins. This is important.

Verse 2 says by which also ye are saved in sin.

Often times we think less about it than what God does.

The Bible says in Romans 6 the wages are what we get.

We've earned because of our sin. All of us.

Our immorality is death and all of us will die a physical death.

There is no infinite life on this planet.

We've tried, we went looking for it.

We can just inject Botox and stuff and try to look less old.

We're all going to die a physical death, but the Bible

says later that there's something worse than your first

death. It's called the second death.

Eternal separation from God. But to believe the gospel means

that this is not your future. You are saved and the opposite

is your future. Eternal life through Jesus

Christ our our Lord. Praise God.

Hallelujah. This is why we Christian sing

songs and we we ought to be able to be excited about how good God

is how much he's forgiven us, how I'm no longer guilty man,

praise the Lord. And once we receive that

message, that change is true of our life.

As you heard Austin say, we now have a responsibility to share

it with other people. Maybe you're in so far.

And you think, yeah, I believe that I'm saved.

How are you doing with sharing the saving message with other

people? I don't mean to make anyone feel

bad. You're going to find out today.

It's not going to be as hard as you think it is.

But let's look at how we can share it with other people.

And 1st, we have to receive it for ourself.

I know that I already said this. I am somewhat repeating myself,

but this is on purpose, so hang with me.

In verse 3, Paul says, I delivered unto you, first of

all, that which I also received. So remember the apostle Paul

comes to Corinth, he preaches Christ and he says, I've already

received this. Now you need to hear this, You

need to receive this. So we can't preach a message we

don't believe. You can't lead somebody else in

something you haven't experienced.

We're not talking about just being religious or having some

external dogma. We're talking about having a

true saving experience with Jesus.

And for Paul, his conversion was radical.

He says later in this chapter. If you look at First Corinthians

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 and look at verse #9 he says, for I am the least of

the apostles, that I'm not meet to be called an apostle because

I persecuted the Church of God. See, the apostle Paul was

actually an adversary of Christianity.

He was tracking people down and jailing them for believing in

this new doctrine that departs from Judaism.

He was perhaps the least likely person to be propagating this

message. We see his conversion in Acts

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Chapter 9, the Bible says. And as he journeyed, he came

near Damascus, and suddenly there shined, rowed about him a

light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and

heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou

me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?

And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what

wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him,

Arise and go into this city, and it shall be told thee what thou

must do. This was the moment that the

apostle Paul did. What every Christian has to do

is they have to hear Jesus's voice.

They have to choose to believe. He called Jesus, Lord, Lord,

Lord, what should I do? And obviously he believed in the

resurrection. He heard from Jesus himself.

We all have to have this time in our life.

And if you're an unlikely candidate for that, well,

congratulations, The gospel is for the most unlikely candidate.

I hope that encourages you. If you haven't been religious,

if you haven't been a good boy or girl, if you've blown it big

time, if you've been an enemy of Christianity or conservatism in

some way, you can still believe the gospel and be saved.

Maybe for you, you have family members that you would say, man,

there's just no way that person will ever believe.

Well, Paul is our example that anything is possible and we're

all in the same boat. All we like sheep have gone

astray. Even me, I'm AI, was not always

a pastor. I had to have my own time where

I came to saving faith, where I was baptized.

I had to figure out what this book said and I just gave my

life to get in, getting it to other people.

So first, you have the response yourself.

Paul shared what he had received.

Secondly, you just got to share it with other people.

It's just, it's just not that complicated.

He says, which I preached unto you.

To preach is to persuade, to get it out of your mouth and into

the ears of other people. You need to hear this message.

It doesn't have to come from a pulpit, as we'll see.

We have some examples of how Paul preached to the the

Corinthians in Acts chapter 18. It says he reasoned in the

Acts 18 · chapter mention

synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the

Greeks. So evangelism, we can reason

with people. We can persuade.

Persuade does not manipulate. It is it is to say, man, you

need to hear this. You need to believe this.

I want you to understand what this says.

You don't have to let all of your logic and intelligence go

out the window just to be a Christian.

You have the truth. You can do the math with the

truth. You just keep doing the math.

It's always going to come out the same.

You can reason, and really the end of Paul's reasoning in the

next verse, it says that he testified that Jesus was the

Christ. So if you can do that, if you

can persuade people to just believe in Jesus, that is the

greatest thing you can do with your life.

And as Paul came into Corinth, he learned some lessons from the

last place that he was at. Too much reasoning with people

that don't want to hear doesn't work.

You can't control anybody. It's a choice that everyone must

make. And as he approached Corinth to

preach, he says in First Corinthians chapter 2, I

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and

him crucified. So you don't have to have an

answer for every possible thing in the Bible just to share the

death, burial, and resurrection with other people.

You don't have to know all of the details.

You simply preach Christ crucified.

So I put it to you this way in your notes.

Sharing the gospel is a lot simpler than we think.

In my Christian Church experience, there's a lot of

words, buzzwords. Gospel is a buzzword.

Evangelism is a buzzword. And when people say we're doing

evangelism and then you ask what does that mean?

And it isn't sharing a saving message with somebody else.

That's just not evangelism. It's something different.

So let's not complicate evangelism.

And honestly, if you're not good at it, that's OK.

You don't have to be good at it. Jesus trained fisherman, all

kinds of different people, and we want to help you in the most

simple way also be able to share the gospel.

So April 1st at 6:30, that's a Wednesday night in this room.

We will have a gospel training. It's going to look like a short

workshop. We have a tract that says you're

a Sinner, Jesus died for you. Here's how to accept that.

It's very basic. The verses are on the tract and

we will walk you through how to approach somebody, how to use

the tract, and how to lead them to Christ if they so choose.

You can't. Again, you can't force convert

anybody, but we want to help you with that.

Remember in the beginning I said our church exists to help you

believe, live, and share the gospel.

So if we want you to do that, we want to equip you.

I don't want you to be set up for failure.

Have you ever felt that way before?

Maybe at work or in some situation, somebody gives you a

task with no instruction. Especially as men, if we know

we're going to fail, we're just like, Nah, I don't feel like

being an idiot. Well, we want you to be

successful. We want you to be able to share

the gospel. So come and join us on April 1st

that evening. And lastly, let's end with point

#5 let's ask the question, what does it mean to believe in vain?

Now you may not be asking this question, but it's in verse 2.

Paul says, if if you keep in memory what I preached unto you,

unless you have believed in vain.

Honestly, many commentaries skip over this verse.

I haven't found a whole lot of information on it.

And the word vain means to be empty, meaningless, or

purposeless. And we have to ask what was

going on in the Corinthian church that people were

believing something contrary to the gospel that we had already

laid out, and it ended up being empty.

And if you look in this chapter, First Corinthians chapter 15,

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

and go to verse #12 the answer is there for us.

The Bible says now if Christ be preached that he rose from the

dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of

the dead? As I told you in introduction,

this book is lit written to address a whole bunch of issues,

and this was a critical issue. The whole chapter in chapter 15

is all about the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus's ours. You know, the rest of the world

what's going to happen when we die.

And the one way that you can believe in vain is to believe in

a gospel that doesn't have a resurrection.

If there's no one on the cross and no one raised from the dead,

then you have no salvation. One author said it this way.

Matthew Henry says in vain it is to profess faith in Christ if we

deny the resurrection. Take away this, you make nothing

of Christianity. So your last point in your notes

is that not all faith is saving faith.

There are many well intending people that have faith in the

wrong thing. If your faith is not in .1 what

Jesus did on the cross and raising from the dead, you have

a vain faith. It's kind of like this.

These signs are comical to me. Maybe we'll lighten it up a

little bit. Especially at Christmas sign

time. We see these signs.

They just say believe. Believe in what?

I don't understand some of this stuff.

Or just have faith in what see what you believe in what what

you believe to be true is what determines your eternal destiny,

what you believe to be true about the gospel.

So today you have heard the message.

Now, if you haven't accepted it, it is up to you to choose what

to do with it. Will you believe it to be true?

Will you call on Christ to save you?

Call him Lord? And if you have already done

that, will you choose today to get serious about sharing that

message with other people? Salvation is as simple as

believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and

simply crying out to him in faith and asking him to save

you. But I do want to remind you that

what Jesus did on the cross is totally separated from what your

religious activity looks like. The book of Ephesians tells us

that salvation is not of works. It's not doing more good things

to get right with God. It is realizing that Jesus did

all the things and I'm putting all of my faith and hope and

what he did on the cross. So today, if you died today,

what would your afterlife be like?

Have you believed the gospel? We're going to take a moment and

pray. We'll have a final song and this

will be a chance for you to respond personally.

The Bible says that Jesus was asked a question.

What's the greatest commandment in all of the Bible?

He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind,

soul and strength. And that is something that no

other person can do for you. You have to choose to believe

that for yourself. And it starts in here.

And when it's real in here, it will come out of here and you'll

be saved and born again and you'll have a story.

Your story might be different than the ones we heard tonight,

but we'll rejoice with you over your story.

Man, we get excited in this church.

Anyway. We're stoked for baptisms.

We love that. We love hearing people and how

they come to know the Lord, but also us as a church.

If you've accepted that for yourself, we're going to go the

next 5 weeks through similar subjects.

Would you pray that God uses this time to see people saved?

Who needs to be in this room to hear this message?

We put our stuff online. Who needs to hear have this

shared with them so that they can believe it.

So as we take a moment and pray, you can pray for yourself.

You can pray for the lost in your life and pray for us as a

church that God uses us as we share this message.

So I'm going to give us one moment to pray.

I'll lead us in a prayer, and then we'll have a final song.

Let's pray.