| |
| Home |
| About Our Church |
| Events |
| Sunday Sermon |
| Pastor's Corner |
| Missions |
| Youth Group |
| Pastor Steve |
| Pastor Don |
| Photo Album |
| African Journal |
| Glorybound |
May 16, 2010
A Definition of the Gospel
Rom 1:2 (Which (the gospel)he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
Rom 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Rom 1:4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
God’s good news concerns His Son, identified as Jesus Christ our Lord. First Paul asserts Christ’s deity as part of who he is.
Was made is literally “came to be” Then he says "according to the flesh," indicating Jesus' earthly life, a reference to its weakness. This phrase implies that Jesus was more than human; otherwise it would have been sufficient to say that he was a descendant of David,
So not only is he God with us, Emmanuel, He was genuinely human too, as His tie with David and His resurrection from the dead show.
That resurrection declared Him to be the Son of God because it validated His claims to deity and His predictions that He would rise from the dead (Joh_2:18-22; Mat_16:21). This declaration was made through (lit., “in accord with”) the Spirit of holiness. This is the Holy Spirit, and not, as some have suggested, Christ’s human spirit.
Paul says that this salvation had been prophesied before so that the Jewish readers should recognize it from their writings, and also the Gentiles should pay attention to those writings for they were valid for them as well.
Remember the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8? Remember Phillip the evangelist was called to the desert to meet with him and explain what he was reading?
He was reading Isa 53:1-
He was oppressed, and he was .
And then in Acts 8 it says :34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?
Act 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
The prophets foretold Jesus. Look at Psalm 22 for a minute with me.
Psa 22:1 -22
Recall at the cross what happened? HE saved others, himself he cannot save? If thou be the Son of God come down from the cross and save yourself..
He continues:
v.9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. 18 They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (that is quoted in Hebrews 2:12 and applies to Jesus)
So the prophets foretold this and the ears of God’s people were seemingly closed to it. John wrote in 1:11 He came unto his own and his own received him not.”
BUT not all ears were closed because verse 12 says
BUT…. The amazing and life changing difference…BUT as many as received him to THEM he gave power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on his name.
Jesus told the Pharisees Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
4
Jesus knew the record of his life had been foretold, his birthplace in Bethlehem, his death burial and resurrection had been prophesied, and Paul goes to that authority here to say to his readers, “This is no new claim, no new thing, it is just a fulfillment of God’s plan made long ago.
The gospel is defined simply in 1 Cor. 15 as well. Paul
States it clearly as this: (1Co 15:1-4 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye 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:
)
R.C. Sproul explains the gospel like this:
The Gospel
“There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
5
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.”
— R.C. Sproul
The Message
1. God made everything that exists out of nothing and made mankind as the pinnacle of his creation designed for a relationship with him. This desire for a relationship is built into us, and one of the evidences for this is our stubborn insistence in clinging onto notions like morality, love, individual choice, nobility and the reality of the conscious self in the face of people telling us we are nothing but a machine.
2. Everyone has Sinned. Following in the footsteps of our first parents from whom we have inherited a self-destructive urge- we all are biased towards sin. Without the constraints of culture we would all be capable of committing the worst of sins.
3. Despite our hatred for God, God still loves us. God does hate sin and has determined that sin must be punished, or else he could not be considered just.
6
4. God loves us so much that he gave his only son to die in our place. Jesus took the punishment instead of us on the cross so that we could receive a pardon for our sins.
The Response
5. God convicts us of our sins and leads us to confess our helplessness in the face of sin and our need for him. We are drawn to God by his Spirit.
6. We then turn from sin and towards God in trust in him and in the work of Jesus on the cross which took our punishment. A wonderful transaction takes place where Christ receives our sin and we get his righteousness. We turn from going our own way and decide instead to follow him. Our whole soul reached toward God and desires to please him.
7. As an outward testimony to the inward reality of what has happened to us in secret we outwardly declare to others our determination to follow Christ by being baptized. Baptism is our seal on the agreement that has occurred between us and God. HE gives us His Holy Spirit, places us into the body of Christ by that Spirit.
8. The church, seeing that this has all occurred welcomes the new believer into membership of the family of God. They commit to care for the new believer and in turn the believer covenants to serve God and his local church. The church is Gods body on earth and exists to demonstrate his attributes to the world together. There is no plan b, the church is Gods answer for a fallen world.
9.
And as verse 4 says Christ was declared SON of God at his resurrection.
The good news for us is that at the moment We are
Placed into the body, baptized into the body by the Spirit, we are killed and raised to walk in newness of life. A fresh clean start, not a new leaf but a while new book.
This is the premiere relationship and on it hinge all other relationships. We can love more fully, care more deeply and honor relationships when we first come to understand and accept this relationship.
John said we love him because he first loved us.
Then he says if God loved us then we should love one another.
That’s a simple as I can make it. What is you response to be? Have you come to understand your standing before a holy God? Have you been drawn to him? Have you accepted him?
Why not now if he is calling you?
AMEN
