WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.480 Alright, well we're starting a new series tonight called Resurrection Hope. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:14.120 It's going to be focused on the whole of 1 Corinthians 15. 00:00:14.120 --> 00:00:18.640 We're going to spend the rest of the Sunday nights in January looking at it. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:23.280 And 1 Corinthians 15 is a chapter about the resurrection. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.960 But as you saw when we just read a moment ago, this is really kind of an intro to that 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:28.960 topic. 00:00:28.960 --> 00:00:33.679 Paul, at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, talks in general about the gospel. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:38.920 And actually what we read there when it talks about the fact that he died and he rose again 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:44.439 and he appeared, according to the Scriptures, that is thought by most scholars, biblical 00:00:44.439 --> 00:00:49.320 scholars to be one of the earliest creeds of Christianity. 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:55.200 So it's very likely that Christians, when they came to faith in the Roman Empire, would 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:59.480 actually recite what Paul writes here at their baptism. 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:03.480 And they would be baptized and initiated into the visible people of God. 00:01:03.480 --> 00:01:07.359 And so this is one of the very earliest things that the Christian community would confess. 00:01:07.359 --> 00:01:13.680 And that is exactly why Paul is repeating it here to them because he's talking to a 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:19.000 Corinthian church who has in large measure forgotten the gospel. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:23.240 It's a church, if you've read through the book of Corinthians, that's divided. 00:01:23.239 --> 00:01:29.319 And there's grave, big time public sin all around that everybody knows about in the midst 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:31.479 of Corinth coming out of the church. 00:01:31.479 --> 00:01:34.679 And they were mistreating the poor and they were doing all sorts of things. 00:01:34.679 --> 00:01:39.000 And so he says at the beginning of the passage, I'm reminding you, brothers and sisters, of 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:45.000 what you had heard lest you begin to drift away from it because they were in real danger 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:50.159 of actually because of a false teacher in their midst abandoning the gospel that they 00:01:50.159 --> 00:01:52.159 had heard from Paul altogether. 00:01:52.159 --> 00:01:56.640 And so here he gets back to the basics and to the foundation to remind them of what they 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:58.640 had first believed. 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:05.560 And it's so important that he does that and to see that because the gospel for Christians 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:08.439 is something that you never graduate from. 00:02:08.439 --> 00:02:12.319 It's not as if in Christianity you start with the gospel and then you move on to the 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:14.359 meteor things later on. 00:02:14.359 --> 00:02:20.120 But actually in the Christian religion, in Christianity, the gospel is the foundation 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:22.000 that everything comes from. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:27.759 And actually everything goes toward it or comes from it and goes through it all at the 00:02:27.759 --> 00:02:28.759 same time. 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:29.919 The gospel is the heartbeat. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:30.919 It's the foundation. 00:02:30.919 --> 00:02:32.400 You never leave it behind. 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:34.319 You never graduate from it. 00:02:34.319 --> 00:02:42.639 And even if you've been a Christian for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, we as Christians and 00:02:42.639 --> 00:02:48.280 sinners at the very same time are always prone to drift away from the core of the faith and 00:02:48.280 --> 00:02:51.599 to drift away from the basics of the faith, which is the gospel itself. 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:56.680 And so we can take nothing for granted because Paul says we can take nothing for granted 00:02:56.680 --> 00:02:57.680 here. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.120 We always have to come back and revisit the gospel again and again and again. 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:06.439 The basics are always so critical and important for us. 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:11.240 It's very possible that everybody in the room tonight is in one of three different places. 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:16.639 You might be here tonight and you've been in the church for years and years and years 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:20.879 and you've never really grasped hold of this gospel. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:23.199 It's very possible. 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:28.439 And it's also very possible that you've been a Christian for years and years, but you feel 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:33.599 that maybe you've drifted away from the core of the faith itself, from the gospel, from 00:03:33.599 --> 00:03:37.319 that being the foundation of your daily life. 00:03:37.319 --> 00:03:41.439 Or it's very possible that you're here tonight for the first time ever in a church or you've 00:03:41.439 --> 00:03:46.400 hardly been around Christianity at all and you're really coming to explore the content 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:47.400 of the gospel. 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:51.400 But what that means is that this is the gospel, it's for everybody. 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:52.400 It's for everybody. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.280 There's no getting out from under it. 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:55.840 It applies to all of us tonight. 00:03:55.840 --> 00:03:59.800 And so the question Paul's addressing here is what is it? 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:03.319 And that's what we're going to ask and we're going to see two lessons that he gives us. 00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:06.120 First, the gospel is history. 00:04:06.120 --> 00:04:09.520 And the second is that the gospel is for us. 00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:15.520 And you might also say there's an objective element to the gospel and a subjective element 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:16.519 to the gospel. 00:04:16.519 --> 00:04:19.039 So first, the objective element. 00:04:19.039 --> 00:04:23.439 In verse three, if you have a Bible, you'll see in verse three, he says, I delivered to 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:27.079 you as of first importance. 00:04:27.079 --> 00:04:32.599 Now that first importance little phrase he uses is not quantitative. 00:04:32.599 --> 00:04:38.419 So it's not as if he's saying there's a first, second, third, fourth thing that's important, 00:04:38.419 --> 00:04:42.279 but it's a term in Greek that's entirely qualitative. 00:04:42.279 --> 00:04:47.159 So he's saying I delivered to you the most qualitatively important thing, that this is 00:04:47.159 --> 00:04:48.159 the most important thing. 00:04:48.159 --> 00:04:52.959 You know, anybody that's coming and searching for some hope in life that they haven't yet 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:58.479 found and they come and explore different religions will ask all sorts of questions of those religions. 00:04:58.479 --> 00:05:04.159 But ultimately, every single one of the religions points us to a foundation of that which is 00:05:04.159 --> 00:05:06.319 of first importance at the center. 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:12.759 I'm sure the religion scholars at Edinburgh Uni might debate about this, but you might 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:18.719 say in Hinduism that which is of first importance is living a life that will get you outside 00:05:18.719 --> 00:05:21.040 of the cycle of reincarnation. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:25.879 Or in Islam, that which is of first importance is observance of the five pillars, the confession 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:28.920 of Allah and Muhammad and the other four pillars. 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:33.039 That's what's first and qualitatively the most important thing. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:38.520 And in Christianity, Paul comes here in the most succinct explanation of Christianity in 00:05:38.520 --> 00:05:44.080 the whole Bible perhaps and says that which is of the most qualitative importance is one 00:05:44.080 --> 00:05:48.200 word verse one, the gospel. 00:05:48.200 --> 00:05:55.360 And this word gospel appears 134 times across the New Testament in the particular form that 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:56.840 we have it here. 00:05:56.840 --> 00:05:58.640 It's the Greek word even Galeon. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:03.399 And that's actually really important to know the short version is the evangel, which is 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:05.759 why we talk about evangelism and things like that. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:10.919 And that this particular word we're reading appears 74 times across Paul's corpus. 00:06:10.919 --> 00:06:13.599 So it's it's all over the place in Paul. 00:06:13.599 --> 00:06:19.560 And the first thing I just want to say it's so important just to know what the word itself 00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:22.240 means. 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:26.599 The word evangel, you'll hear it one commentator points this out the back half of the word 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:29.560 is the word angel in evangel. 00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:30.560 It's the word angel. 00:06:30.560 --> 00:06:36.280 Then that's because an angel is not fundamentally first that word does not fundamentally mean 00:06:36.280 --> 00:06:38.280 one of God's heavenly messengers. 00:06:38.280 --> 00:06:44.320 Actually the word angel in Greek just means messenger or it can even also just mean message 00:06:44.320 --> 00:06:45.720 itself. 00:06:45.720 --> 00:06:50.800 And so God calls his heavenly host sometimes angels, messengers. 00:06:50.800 --> 00:06:57.160 And the beginning of the word is an EV or an EU, evangel, which means good in Greek. 00:06:57.160 --> 00:07:01.759 And so all it means is good message or as we often say, good news. 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:07.639 Now it's so important to get back to that foundation and to say that because in the 00:07:07.639 --> 00:07:14.160 first century when Paul uses this term Christians did not invent the term gospel. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:15.160 Evangel. 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:18.960 This was word was used all around and outside of Christianity. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:25.399 We see the word gospel, evangel being used 500 years before Jesus was ever born. 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:30.719 And the way it would have been used was something like this, you know, in the Roman Empire, 00:07:30.719 --> 00:07:35.560 Rome would go out as they do and they would win a great victory over the barbarians and 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:42.519 the commander of the army would send an angel, a messenger with an angel, a message and he 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:46.159 would come over the hillside outside of the city of Rome. 00:07:46.160 --> 00:07:50.520 He would wave the victory flag and the city would erupt in celebration. 00:07:50.520 --> 00:07:53.439 And what he was doing was delivering the gospel. 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:58.480 That's the word they would have used the good news that Rome has one another victory. 00:07:58.480 --> 00:08:01.080 So this is a term that Paul appropriates. 00:08:01.080 --> 00:08:07.360 He takes up and he stuffs with religious meaning and he says, good news is actually a word 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:12.360 we can take from the Greco-Roman world and used to describe what is at the very center 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:14.480 of Christianity. 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:20.879 And as one pastor puts it like this and this is where the rubber hits the road, it means 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:27.520 what Paul is saying here is that in just using this word that the gospel is more like opening 00:08:27.520 --> 00:08:34.320 the morning newspaper and reading the first page than it is going to see a therapist or 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:36.639 counselor, a pastor or doctor. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:42.800 You know, you go see a pastor, you come meet with me or Derek or you go see your doctor 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:48.319 or your GP and we might offer good advice maybe. 00:08:48.319 --> 00:08:50.319 You might get good advice. 00:08:50.319 --> 00:08:52.719 The gospel is totally different than that. 00:08:52.719 --> 00:08:55.799 The gospel is not advice. 00:08:55.799 --> 00:08:57.559 It is news. 00:08:57.559 --> 00:09:00.399 It is proclamation of history. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:02.259 The gospel is history. 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:05.879 It is what has happened at a given point in time. 00:09:05.879 --> 00:09:08.919 It is not advice, it is news. 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:16.279 Martin Lloyd-Jones says it like this, the gospel is the proclamation of what God did. 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:17.879 Good news from God to man. 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:21.919 Now then you have to ask of course what is the content of that news and that is exactly 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:23.679 where Paul goes here. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:26.439 He tells us exactly what the message is about. 00:09:26.439 --> 00:09:33.079 What is the messenger, the angel come over the hill to shout like the newspaper boy to 00:09:33.079 --> 00:09:35.639 shout and this is what Paul says. 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:41.159 There's four elements he gives us and in each of them it is the facts of Jesus Christ. 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:44.199 It is all about Jesus and what he did. 00:09:44.199 --> 00:09:48.720 In 1 Corinthians 15 it is going to get into so much about how important it is that it 00:09:48.720 --> 00:09:52.519 really happened, that the facts are at the center. 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:55.720 It is objective, not subjective first. 00:09:55.720 --> 00:10:01.080 That what happened really did happen and this is what he says, he died. 00:10:01.080 --> 00:10:03.240 Jesus Christ died. 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:07.519 And that means there is no gospel, there is no good news apart from the cross of Jesus 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:10.200 Christ and he says he was buried. 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:15.600 There is no good news without Jesus being really dead and it says he rose again on the 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:16.600 third day. 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:21.200 There is no good news apart from the resurrection and it says then he appeared, he revealed himself 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:22.600 in a resurrected state. 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:27.360 There is no good news apart from the revelation of Jesus Christ after his resurrection. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:31.600 Now as we close this point what I want you to notice is this. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:37.159 He doesn't talk at all about the teaching ministry of Jesus. 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:44.120 There is not a single word about Jesus' miracles, there is not a word about anything he said. 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:47.639 What Jesus did at the Sermon on the Mount is so important. 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:51.920 All of Jesus' teaching ministry is so important and when Paul says let me tell you what the 00:10:51.920 --> 00:10:55.279 gospel is, it is not there. 00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:59.360 Because if there has ever been good advice it comes from Jesus' teaching ministry. 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:04.279 Jesus' teaching ministry gave great advice, in fact he gave law, he spoke to us exactly 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:05.279 how to live life. 00:11:05.279 --> 00:11:08.759 He showed us through parables and all sorts of things in the Sermon on the Mount exactly 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:09.919 how to live life. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:15.680 But Jesus' teaching ministry is not the good news itself. 00:11:15.680 --> 00:11:20.680 The good news is that he died on the cross and he rose again on the third day. 00:11:20.680 --> 00:11:23.560 It's history, it's news, it's what happened to him. 00:11:23.560 --> 00:11:26.159 You see what Paul is doing. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:30.719 He's saying, well you can never neglect the teaching ministry of Jesus but the good news, 00:11:30.719 --> 00:11:33.439 the good news is that he died and rose again. 00:11:33.439 --> 00:11:34.439 What is Paul saying? 00:11:34.439 --> 00:11:41.000 He's saying Jesus Christ did not primarily come to be a great ethical teacher. 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:45.480 The first order of business in Christianity is not come and find great moral teaching. 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:48.759 It's not come and find great, a great path for life. 00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:53.439 It's not come and rediscover ethics all over again in a fresh. 00:11:53.439 --> 00:11:54.439 That's the other religions. 00:11:54.440 --> 00:11:59.800 Paul says that Jesus Christ came first and foremost to be a savior. 00:11:59.800 --> 00:12:04.520 And so the good news is what he did to save. 00:12:04.520 --> 00:12:05.520 Why? 00:12:05.520 --> 00:12:09.720 That's the next question I'm pointing to. 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:12.640 Why not his teaching? 00:12:12.640 --> 00:12:17.280 And why is it that his death has got to be here? 00:12:17.280 --> 00:12:20.520 Why is it that his resurrection has got to be here? 00:12:20.519 --> 00:12:25.960 And the answer in that comes through considering the subjective aspect of it, the second point 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:28.799 and our final point tonight. 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:33.240 Paul's big emphasis as we have seen is what happened. 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:36.399 He died and he rose again on the third day. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:37.919 It's news, it's not advice. 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.919 But then he adds here the subjective element. 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:46.240 He says that he died for our sins in verse three. 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:51.560 So he combines the objective history of Jesus with the subjective reality that it's for 00:12:51.560 --> 00:12:53.639 our sins. 00:12:53.639 --> 00:13:01.519 Now if you've been a Christian for any time or maybe if you're exploring the claims of 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:05.840 Christianity, this might be a question that's popped up to you. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:09.799 And I think it's a really important one that everybody has got to consider and think about. 00:13:09.799 --> 00:13:11.720 And that's this. 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:17.840 How can, you know, if Paul is saying that the gospel is what happened, it's history, 00:13:17.840 --> 00:13:22.480 it's news about Jesus Christ, it's that he died and he rose again, if that's what Paul's 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:30.680 saying, how can what happened to a man who lived between 4 BC and 29 or 30 AD approximately 00:13:30.680 --> 00:13:36.600 be powerful in any way for me in 2022? 00:13:36.600 --> 00:13:45.759 How can the life of a man so long ago have power over my actions and what I've done to 00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:50.200 forgive my past or forgive my future to change my life from top to bottom? 00:13:50.200 --> 00:13:58.279 How can that history be a part of my history today in the 21st century? 00:13:58.279 --> 00:14:03.879 And when Paul says here, in fact, he died for our sins, maybe one of the questions to 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:06.480 ask is, well, who's the hour? 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:11.639 Because we know, right, that Paul is, of course, talking about himself and he saw Jesus Christ. 00:14:11.639 --> 00:14:14.360 And you say, well, Paul, you saw Jesus. 00:14:14.360 --> 00:14:16.240 Of course, it's for you. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:19.360 You got to see him in the first century. 00:14:19.360 --> 00:14:21.200 But one of the things to know, who else is he talking about? 00:14:21.200 --> 00:14:26.960 He's talking, of course, about his reader and his readers are the Corinthians. 00:14:26.960 --> 00:14:34.480 And it's very probably the case that all of his readers, despite maybe just a few that 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:40.120 would ever read this letter, never saw Jesus Christ in his life on earth, not once. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:44.320 The Corinthians, many of whom would have not even been born when Paul wrote this letter, 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:48.720 or sorry, when Jesus lived before his death and resurrection, they would have never seen 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:49.720 Jesus. 00:14:49.720 --> 00:14:57.800 And Paul says he died for our sins, he's saying you need not have been there. 00:14:57.800 --> 00:15:05.080 The power of this gospel can be for anybody in any season, at any age of life, from the 00:15:05.080 --> 00:15:08.639 beginning of history all the way to the end of history. 00:15:08.639 --> 00:15:12.920 Now the question he addresses here very subtly is how? 00:15:12.920 --> 00:15:16.680 And the answer is in one little phrase. 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:25.359 Paul says that this gospel, he died, he rose again, he was buried according to the scriptures. 00:15:25.359 --> 00:15:30.239 And why is it so important for Paul to add that? 00:15:30.239 --> 00:15:33.719 You say I understand that the gospel is news, it's what happened in history, but why does 00:15:33.719 --> 00:15:38.399 Paul need to also say the gospel is according to the scriptures? 00:15:38.399 --> 00:15:42.959 He's saying that when you read from Genesis all the way to the end of the Old Testament, 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:47.680 that that history, that inscripturated history, everything that happened during that time 00:15:47.680 --> 00:15:55.840 period was always about getting to Jesus Christ, foreshadowing Christ, prophesying Christ, 00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:00.160 moving humanity towards the moment, the fullness of time when Christ would come. 00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:02.920 And you see what that means? 00:16:02.920 --> 00:16:07.920 That means that when Jesus Christ went to the cross and he went to die for my sins, this 00:16:07.920 --> 00:16:10.040 is God's plan. 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:14.079 He's always determined that Jesus Christ would die for my sins. 00:16:14.079 --> 00:16:17.079 He's always determined that Jesus would rise on the third day. 00:16:17.079 --> 00:16:22.799 It's according to the scriptures, meaning it's right there as the heartbeat of the book 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:24.159 of Genesis itself. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:27.319 It's always been the plan from the beginning of time. 00:16:27.319 --> 00:16:28.719 Nothing has changed. 00:16:28.719 --> 00:16:34.319 This is all, when Jesus Christ goes to the cross and we ask the question, who is it that 00:16:34.319 --> 00:16:36.279 sent Jesus Christ to the cross? 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:42.639 Yes, our sin, but also God sent Jesus Christ to the cross. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:47.199 God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit, this was the plan from the fullness 00:16:47.199 --> 00:16:48.199 of time. 00:16:48.199 --> 00:16:49.199 And you know what that means? 00:16:49.199 --> 00:16:55.319 That when Jesus went to the cross, he died to stand before the eternal God and fulfill 00:16:55.319 --> 00:17:02.720 the plan from all of eternity to be in our stead, to be for our sins, to be judged in 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:04.480 our place. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:14.240 And God accepted that justice and resurrected Jesus Christ precisely because of it and offers 00:17:14.240 --> 00:17:15.640 the hope of new life to anybody. 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:22.920 Now, the idea here, and this is what really gets to the question, can God really extend 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:27.880 the power of forgiveness and eternal life to me in 2022 based on the history of this 00:17:27.880 --> 00:17:32.319 man, this God man at the beginning of the first century? 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:34.559 How does that happen? 00:17:34.559 --> 00:17:43.000 You see, if this is God's plan and God stands outside of all time, God has the power to see 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:50.559 his Son and extend his justice forward and backward into every age. 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:55.319 And the way that Paul tells us that he does that, and I'm going to use this word and then 00:17:55.319 --> 00:18:02.240 we'll explain it, is that he federates us to Jesus. 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:06.400 Now I heard somebody use this illustration to explain this once. 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:14.079 What does it mean to say that God federates or covenants, is the other word, us to Christ? 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:23.720 If you're married and you have a joint credit card with your spouse, and one of the partners, 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:30.960 one of the spouses goes and racks up a whole load of debt on that credit card. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:38.440 That saying could be a woman, could be a man, either way, it works both ways, of course. 00:18:38.440 --> 00:18:41.799 You go, you receive the bill, you go, you call the credit card company and you say what? 00:18:41.799 --> 00:18:45.360 You say, you know, I'm not paying this. 00:18:45.360 --> 00:18:49.360 I did not purchase any of this. 00:18:49.360 --> 00:18:54.920 Every ounce, every pound represented on this bill is not things that I purchased. 00:18:54.920 --> 00:18:57.920 And what are they going to say to you? 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:04.560 You're federated, you're covenanted, you're in joint union together. 00:19:04.560 --> 00:19:08.279 Whatever is hers is yours and whatever is his is yours. 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:13.400 And so that means his debt is now your debt, and your debt is his debt. 00:19:13.400 --> 00:19:19.160 And from the eyes of God the Father looking at the Son, he says, for anybody who would 00:19:19.160 --> 00:19:26.000 come to believe on Jesus Christ, anything that is true of Jesus Christ is true of you, if 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:30.559 you believe, because you're federated, you're in federation, you're together. 00:19:30.559 --> 00:19:37.400 He sees you as one, he sees you as one person, he sees you in him and he in you. 00:19:37.400 --> 00:19:42.160 And so when he dies, you died on the cross, Paul says, it's past tense. 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.920 And when he comes to live again, you now live again, past tense. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:50.519 And at the very beginning of this passage, as we start to turn towards the close, at 00:19:50.519 --> 00:19:55.880 the very beginning of this passage, Paul says, I want to tell you about the gospel, I want 00:19:55.880 --> 00:20:00.480 to remind you of the gospel that I received. 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.800 And that's the key, that anybody can receive it. 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:11.080 And if you're a Christian today, maybe you've forgotten this, and if you're not, this is 00:20:11.080 --> 00:20:12.560 the instrument of reception. 00:20:12.560 --> 00:20:16.440 It's faith, and what is faith? 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:18.520 Faith is three things. 00:20:18.520 --> 00:20:25.680 Faith is knowing the good news, hearing the good news, knowing it, understanding it. 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:30.519 It's saying, yes, I believe that really happened. 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:38.480 And thirdly, it's trust in the God of the good news, Jesus Christ, as your salvation. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:43.640 It's knowledge, it's saying yes, and it's trust, and that's faith. 00:20:43.640 --> 00:20:48.039 And today, if you're a Christian, the question that Paul I think is asking us, like he was 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:52.180 saying to the Corinthians is, have you drifted away from the foundation, the core of the 00:20:52.180 --> 00:20:59.440 faith at all in your life, is the gospel actually the heartbeat of your daily existence? 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:01.320 Do you wake up and remind yourself of the gospel? 00:21:01.320 --> 00:21:03.440 Do you wake up and bathe in the gospel again? 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:09.000 Do you wake up and pray about the forgiveness that is yours in the gospel and give thanks 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:10.000 to God every day? 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:11.120 That's for the Christian. 00:21:11.120 --> 00:21:19.680 And if you're not sure today about that, well, do you understand the gospel, that Jesus 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:27.880 Christ died and rose again for your sins, and believe that it really happened and say, 00:21:27.880 --> 00:21:29.840 that's my God. 00:21:29.840 --> 00:21:32.320 And if you do, then you're a Christian. 00:21:32.320 --> 00:21:33.320 You're a Christian. 00:21:33.320 --> 00:21:34.920 You can take hold of this gospel. 00:21:34.920 --> 00:21:42.519 Now, I want to close by just addressing two issues very briefly that also come up in relation 00:21:42.519 --> 00:21:46.519 to the gospel here, one at the beginning of the passage and one towards the end of the 00:21:46.519 --> 00:21:47.519 passage. 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:54.680 The first is this, Paul deals also here when he tells us what the gospel is with just the 00:21:54.680 --> 00:21:58.000 difficult concept of the assurance of faith. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:01.359 And you see something a little bit tricky in verse one and two. 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:07.680 He says, I would remind you, brothers of the gospel I preached to you in which you received. 00:22:07.680 --> 00:22:11.119 They received it because the power was not in Paul. 00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:16.000 They received the power from the gospel itself, from the work of God and the gospel itself. 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:20.480 And now in which you stand, you believed it, and so you're safe and secure. 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:21.980 You stand in it. 00:22:21.980 --> 00:22:26.359 But then he says something a little confusing, and by which you are being saved if you hold 00:22:26.359 --> 00:22:29.160 fast to the word. 00:22:29.160 --> 00:22:31.880 So he said, you've received it and you stand in it. 00:22:31.880 --> 00:22:33.039 That's a military verb. 00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:36.559 You stand in it, secure like armor. 00:22:36.559 --> 00:22:45.039 If you hold fast, and that might raise up nervousness in us about assurance of faith. 00:22:45.039 --> 00:22:47.879 And what I want to say is this, remember the context. 00:22:47.879 --> 00:22:54.480 Paul is writing to Corinthians who are actually in grave danger of abandoning the whole message 00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:56.879 of the gospel altogether. 00:22:56.879 --> 00:23:03.240 And what he's saying to them is, if you believe the gospel, you stand in the gospel. 00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:06.920 Be assured, you're a Christian and you're forgiven today. 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:10.119 And so don't abandon the gospel. 00:23:10.119 --> 00:23:14.559 If you hold fast to the gospel, meaning don't leave the gospel behind. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:17.799 Don't let it not be the core of who you are, the core of your faith. 00:23:17.799 --> 00:23:23.399 He's not saying, he's not saying that the determination of your salvation stands in 00:23:23.399 --> 00:23:26.240 the quality of your faith. 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:30.359 Because your faith might be really good tonight, and then tomorrow morning when you wake up, 00:23:30.359 --> 00:23:33.079 it might have dropped down a little bit. 00:23:33.079 --> 00:23:35.440 The power of salvation is not in the quality of your faith. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:37.119 It's in the object. 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:40.359 Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. 00:23:40.359 --> 00:23:44.519 And so he's saying, do you believe that at all? 00:23:44.519 --> 00:23:48.279 Then rest assured in the gospel. 00:23:48.279 --> 00:23:49.279 Rest assured in the gospel. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:53.799 And one of the things to notice before I go to the second issue is this. 00:23:53.799 --> 00:24:01.759 There's nothing here about a supernatural experience, a visible public extraordinary moment 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:04.400 where you finally come through. 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:09.519 And finally, because of God's great visible power, the gospel is yours and it's true for 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:10.519 you. 00:24:10.519 --> 00:24:11.519 That doesn't happen here at all. 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:16.680 He simply tells us over and over again in the New Testament, do you know it? 00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:17.920 Do you say yes to it? 00:24:17.920 --> 00:24:18.920 And do you believe? 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:19.920 Do you love Jesus? 00:24:19.920 --> 00:24:23.039 Then you're a Christian today. 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:28.440 I've had friends who have come to faith in really extraordinary ways. 00:24:28.440 --> 00:24:38.480 One of my friends at uni, just after uni, who had lived a prodigal sort of life, was driving 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:45.440 a food delivery truck and he was overwhelmed with the weight of his sin at work one day 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:46.960 while he was driving. 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:50.920 And he didn't know why, he didn't know what was happening to him. 00:24:50.920 --> 00:24:58.400 And his grandfather had slipped a Bible in his glove box and he did not know it. 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:02.240 And he opened his glove box while he was driving and saw the Bible there and he pulled over 00:25:02.240 --> 00:25:06.599 on the side of the road and he read through one of the gospels. 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:10.959 It was a hot Mississippi day that had had been the Holy Spirit. 00:25:10.959 --> 00:25:14.519 And he came to faith. 00:25:14.519 --> 00:25:19.679 And another one of my great friends came to faith while he was at a party in the midst 00:25:19.679 --> 00:25:28.039 of all sorts of public sin and he walked out from the party into the pasture as teenagers 00:25:28.039 --> 00:25:31.199 often have parties in rural places. 00:25:31.200 --> 00:25:37.319 And he came to faith right then and that moment having been an atheist prior. 00:25:37.319 --> 00:25:43.680 And almost every other Christian that I've ever known cannot tell you the day, cannot 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:49.160 tell you when and cannot tell you how they came to faith in Jesus Christ. 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:55.279 The question tonight, the most important question, it's so important to give your testimony, 00:25:55.279 --> 00:26:03.039 but the most important question is that Paul is saying is do you believe the gospel today? 00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:06.559 And if you do, then you're a Christian. 00:26:06.559 --> 00:26:13.079 And if you haven't come to join the church and you say yes, I have faith, then come on 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:14.079 and join the church. 00:26:14.079 --> 00:26:19.519 Now the second issue and the final issue as we draw to a final close is this. 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:21.639 He also addresses this other problem. 00:26:21.640 --> 00:26:28.640 Some of us might say today, I want to come to believe, but I'm really struggling with 00:26:28.640 --> 00:26:32.880 the things that I've done in my past. 00:26:32.880 --> 00:26:37.560 Or you might be a Christian today and you say I want to grow in faith, but I really 00:26:37.560 --> 00:26:42.600 am struggling with guilt over the things that I've done in my past and that I continue to 00:26:42.600 --> 00:26:45.320 do and struggle with. 00:26:45.320 --> 00:26:47.520 And you see, that's what he does at the end of the passage. 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:53.039 He says in verse 10, he goes through his own testimony and he says, by the grace of God 00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:57.079 today, I am what I am. 00:26:57.079 --> 00:26:59.279 And that's so important because you see what he's doing. 00:26:59.279 --> 00:27:00.639 He's doing two things. 00:27:00.639 --> 00:27:06.160 He's on the one hand, putting himself up as the great example of what it means to be 00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:07.240 the worst. 00:27:07.240 --> 00:27:13.319 You know, if you're here today, it's probably the case that Paul was worse than you morally. 00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:16.759 He murdered God's Jesus's people. 00:27:16.759 --> 00:27:17.759 That was his job. 00:27:17.759 --> 00:27:22.640 And then on the other hand, then he's saying, and I also became the greatest of the apostles. 00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:23.640 He tells us. 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:28.160 And so, as you see, on the one hand, Paul is saying, I was the worst sinner. 00:27:28.160 --> 00:27:31.319 And on the other hand, now I've become the greatest of the apostles. 00:27:31.319 --> 00:27:34.640 And you see what he's saying in verse 10? 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:45.400 That the gospel, the gospel forgets your past and it relativizes all of your future 00:27:45.400 --> 00:27:48.480 accomplishments. 00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:54.920 The power of the gospel is that it puts away your past, present, and future sins and also 00:27:54.920 --> 00:27:58.640 relativizes your accomplishments. 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:02.480 And let me say that there's real freedom in that. 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:03.480 There's real freedom in that. 00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:04.480 You see what Paul says? 00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:07.080 He says, the Corinthians, they're fighting. 00:28:07.080 --> 00:28:09.320 Some follow Paul, some follow Apollos. 00:28:09.320 --> 00:28:12.680 And he says it, verse 11, it doesn't matter who preached to you. 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:13.680 We preach the gospel. 00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:16.400 The power is not in the person, it's not in the unconscious. 00:28:16.400 --> 00:28:19.240 I'm the best apostle, he's saying, but that doesn't matter. 00:28:19.240 --> 00:28:22.120 That's not where the power of the gospel resides. 00:28:22.120 --> 00:28:24.120 He doesn't matter who delivers the gospel. 00:28:24.120 --> 00:28:25.920 You see what the freedom in that is. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:27.920 The freedom is this. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:33.160 The gospel gives you freedom from your past, present, and future sins. 00:28:33.160 --> 00:28:41.000 And you, 21st century, people of 2022, we need to hear that now more than ever in a 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:46.640 world, a world of toleration where you can be destroyed by one email that you sent 10 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:48.680 years ago. 00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:55.720 A culture without mercy, without any mercy, Jesus Christ comes and says, I don't tolerate 00:28:55.720 --> 00:29:01.160 sin, but I'll come to die for you to put it away. 00:29:01.160 --> 00:29:03.160 He's that merciful. 00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:04.160 That's the power of the gospel. 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:09.279 And on the other hand, the gospel gives you freedom from your successes and accomplishments 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:10.759 because they can be slavery too. 00:29:10.759 --> 00:29:14.920 You know, you neither, if you believe the gospel tonight, you neither need to be defined 00:29:14.920 --> 00:29:18.119 by your failures, nor by what you might achieve. 00:29:18.119 --> 00:29:20.559 Your identity doesn't have to come from either of those. 00:29:20.559 --> 00:29:25.440 You can work and live in peace and not in frantic strivings by the power of the gospel. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:30.480 You can have freedom because the most important work in your past and future and today is 00:29:30.480 --> 00:29:31.480 his work. 00:29:31.480 --> 00:29:37.839 And so it relativizes your accomplishments and it frees you from all your sins. 00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:42.639 One of my seminary professors used to come into our classroom. 00:29:42.639 --> 00:29:44.679 This is in an intro to ministry class. 00:29:44.679 --> 00:29:47.759 It was kind of a, what is ministry all about course? 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:55.079 And every day he would write, quite often he would write on the board, the key gospel 00:29:55.079 --> 00:29:57.559 personality, colon. 00:29:57.559 --> 00:30:02.000 And he said, the more that you believe the gospel and make it the core of your life, 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:03.720 this is the personality it creates. 00:30:03.720 --> 00:30:04.720 And this is what he wrote. 00:30:04.720 --> 00:30:11.559 He would write, ultimately humble plus fully confident. 00:30:11.559 --> 00:30:16.680 And that's, you see what the gospel, the gospel by grace you have been saved, not by faith. 00:30:16.680 --> 00:30:17.680 It's not of your works. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:19.279 You have nothing to brag about. 00:30:19.279 --> 00:30:21.519 The power is entirely in Jesus Christ. 00:30:21.519 --> 00:30:25.680 And so the gospel gives you the freedom to be ultimately humble. 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:30.600 But also because of the gospel, you can be okay. 00:30:30.600 --> 00:30:31.680 You can have peace. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:35.920 You can have rest from your frantic strivings to achieve an identity. 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:39.680 The gospel makes you so humble and at the same time gives you the power to be so confident 00:30:39.680 --> 00:30:41.720 because your confidence is in him. 00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:47.039 No matter what the circumstances around you are doing to suck you underneath the waves 00:30:47.039 --> 00:30:53.279 of despair, the gospel gives you the power to float, to be buoyant, no matter what's 00:30:53.279 --> 00:31:01.160 happening in your life, even to pass through death with gospel joy. 00:31:01.160 --> 00:31:02.160 And that's real power. 00:31:02.160 --> 00:31:04.759 So let's pray together and ask God to give it to us. 00:31:04.759 --> 00:31:14.040 Father, we ask now that you would give us great faith or weak faith and grow us in faith. 00:31:14.040 --> 00:31:21.720 That we would understand, say yes, and believe and trust the Savior tonight. 00:31:21.720 --> 00:31:27.480 Whether we've been Christians for 70 years or we don't know where we are, right now, 00:31:27.480 --> 00:31:33.680 Holy Spirit, would you come and meet with us and do a work in our hearts so that we might 00:31:33.680 --> 00:31:39.559 believe and be people who live through faith in the gospel. 00:31:39.559 --> 00:31:58.240 And so we ask for these hearts in Jesus' name.