If you would open up your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15, Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial
start to summer.
Rejoicing.
It's about time.
Summer in southeastern Wisconsin is full of unprecedented opportunities.
Just think about what's going to happen down at the lake this summer.
There's the 4th of July festivities, food folks and spokes right here in the square.
We've got tall ships coming in early August.
I'm really looking forward to that.
But you know what I'm looking forward to most?
The bright sunshine on my face.
And listening to the cicadas croon one another.
That's what I'm looking forward to.
Well, as fellow followers of Jesus living in southeastern Wisconsin, this summer affords
us an unprecedented gospel opportunity.
Okay, six to nine months of the year, we are all cooped up in our homes, running around in
our cars, rarely seeing anybody else because in Wisconsin, we're all holed up in our homes
during the cold months.
But now it's time to get out and mix it up and mix it up for Jesus.
So this morning, I just want to let you know up front, I am going to motivate you to step
out of your comfort zones this summer in order to move towards others with the gospel of Jesus,
Jesus Christ.
A couple months ago, the elders were talking about, hey, how do we help the church see and
take advantage of the gospel opportunities that this summer has?
And so this morning, we're going to take a break out of our series in the book of Revelation
so that we can focus on 1 Corinthians 15, which is all about the gospel.
And so this morning, from 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 11, I'm going to motivate you to step
out of your comfort zone in order to tell others about Jesus this summer.
And I'm going to do it in three ways.
First, I'm going to remind you of the content of the gospel.
That's 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 4.
And then I'm going to impress upon you the power of the gospel, which is going to come later
on in 1 Corinthians 15.
You're going to see that in 8 through 11.
And then I've saved a significant amount of time at the end of the sermon to point you
to five practical steps to move out of your comfort zone towards others this summer.
So, what I want you to see is that the gospel of Jesus Christ motivates the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When you understand what God and Christ has done for you, you're going to want to tell other people about it.
So let's first look at the content of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15.
Chapter 15, 1, let's go 15, 1 through 8.
Let me give you a little background of what's going on in 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul is writing to a church in the first century in the city of Corinth.
This group of Christians, they were immature and they were unhealthy.
And Paul addresses issue after issue throughout this letter to this church to address issues that were of dissension and disunity.
In fact, by the end of 1 Corinthians, he turns his attention to a small group of people in the church
who believed that there was no resurrection from the dead.
And so he's going to address that issue and correct that issue in 1 Corinthians 15
by first explaining what the gospel is.
And then he addresses it.
And so if you look at 1 Corinthians 15, 1 and 2, he says,
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you,
which you received and which you stand and by which you are being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you unless you believed in vain.
And so he's like, I'm going to tell you what the gospel is.
Let's get on all the same page.
Now when you hear that word gospel, here's what you need to understand about it.
Originally, it was not a religious word.
Remember back in the day, first century, they had no TVs.
They had no radios.
The internet wasn't discovered yet.
There were no smartphones.
And so when something good happened, there would be a herald, an announcer,
that would go from town to town heralding the good news of something that has happened.
And so in its most general basic sense, gospel is the announcement of good news.
And it could be anything.
So do you remember when the Cubs won the World Series a couple years ago?
It was gospel.
Cubs win.
They're victorious.
It was gospel to Cubs fans everywhere.
Made believers out of many.
Or maybe you've seen pictures, old black and white photos of 1945 and people holding up newspapers that says,
it's VE Day.
It's gospel.
It's the announcement of good news.
Victory in Europe.
May 7th, Germany surrenders.
Allies win in Europe.
It's great rejoicing.
And so that newspaper headline was gospel announcing.
It's, this is what's happened.
And so we see, even in our day, the gospel of economics.
Every quarter, the Fed will either offer good news or not good news.
There are gospel of medicine.
A cure has been discovered.
That's good news.
Something has happened.
So gospel simply means the announcement of good news.
Something good has happened that you need to know about.
Now, when it comes to 1 Corinthians 15 and the Christian gospel, it's all about Jesus Christ and what he has done.
It's the good news of what Jesus Christ has accomplished.
So, so good that everyone needs to know about it.
And the good news of Jesus Christ, the Christian gospel, is not about athletics.
It's not about politics, economics, or medicine.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that sinners who were separated from God because of their sin have been reconciled.
God has made a way through Christ to reunite them with God.
And so it's this gospel that Paul spells out in 1 Corinthians 15, 3-4.
We see the content of the gospel.
What is to be proclaimed?
What gets announced when we proclaim the gospel to other people?
And we all need to be on the same page on it because simply saying,
Hey, God loves you and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
That's not the gospel.
It's saying true things, but it's not the gospel.
So in 1 Corinthians 15, 3-4, Paul points us to the content of the gospel.
What Jesus has done to reconcile sinners to God.
And I want to show you to see three all-important truths in verses 3 and 4 of the Christian gospel.
You see it, first of all, in this.
The gospel is all about Jesus.
Verse 3,
For I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
that He, Christ, was buried,
that He, Christ, was raised on the third day in accordance to the scriptures.
What you see in the Christian gospel is a message of good news
that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ.
And did you notice in verse 3 that Paul calls Jesus Christ?
It's not His last name.
It's a title.
It means Messiah, anointed one.
The Old Testament, from very early on, spoke repeatedly,
anticipating one sent from God, a Messiah king,
who would come and deliver God's people and establish a kingdom on earth.
This long-awaited Messiah was God's hero to deliver His people.
And what you see in the book of Acts is that Paul goes from city to city,
from synagogue, Jewish synagogue after Jewish synagogue,
and he is arguing to those Jews that will listen
that Jesus of Nazareth is the hero, the Christ.
It's all about Jesus.
The Christian gospel is all about Jesus,
but it's not just about who Jesus is.
It is that, but it's more.
And so the second all-important truth you need to see
is that the Christian gospel is all about what Jesus has done.
Past tense.
Finished.
You see that in the past tense verbs in verses 3 and 4.
For I deliver to you as first importance what I also received,
that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,
that He, Christ, was buried past tense,
and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
past tense.
These are all things that have happened.
Done.
Historic.
Facts.
Objective realities.
That every Christian can point to and say,
it really happened.
The Christ was crucified,
dead,
buried,
raised.
Here's the significance.
He died for our sins.
What this raises is humanity's greatest problem.
Our greatest problem is that sin,
our sin,
has separated us from the living God.
And so we are under His judgment.
And so when Jesus,
we learn in 1 Corinthians 15, 3,
that He died for our sin,
that the Christ died for our sins,
our hero,
who was sinless,
died as a substitute
in our place for our sins.
That is how God saves people.
He died for us.
In Mark 10, 45,
Jesus says,
I came not to be served,
but to serve,
and to give my life as a ransom payment for many.
The sinless Son of God
hung on a cross
and died for the sins of all those who would believe in Him.
He's the perfect mediator between God and man.
He died for our sins,
but that's just one aspect of the gospel.
He was also buried.
In fulfillment of Isaiah 53, 9,
He was buried in the tomb of a rich man,
Joseph of Arimathea.
If after Jesus was crucified,
you rolled out your EKG machine
and you hicked it up to Jesus' body in the tomb,
it would be flatline.
Dead.
The point of Paul saying he was buried
points back to Isaiah 53, 9
and also communicates,
hey, there was no life in his body whatsoever.
He died for our sins.
He was buried.
And then third,
this historic fact,
he was raised on the third day.
It's an extraordinary claim.
If you've grown up in the church,
the teaching that Jesus was raised from the dead,
it can kind of be like wallpaper on the church building.
It's kind of like, okay, I'm used to that,
familiar with that.
But when you start realizing what the actual claim is,
the gospel that we proclaim
is that the Christ,
the long-awaited hero,
he, the sinless one,
died for sinners,
was buried to fulfill a prophecy,
and then was raised to fulfill a prophecy,
and raised from the dead,
you're proclaiming a miracle.
You're declaring something supernatural.
Because we all know that dead people
typically don't rise from the dead,
especially those who say,
I'm going to raise from the dead three days after I die,
and then do it.
So on Friday,
Jesus died for sin,
payment made,
and on Sunday,
Jesus was raised from the dead,
which communicates
that that payment of sin
was fully accepted by God,
and this Savior
is fully vindicated.
Victorious over sin,
death,
and the devil.
It's all about Jesus,
this gospel,
and it's all about what Jesus has done.
So the picture is
of us showing up
and declaring to people,
did you know
that the long-awaited hero,
he died for sin,
buried,
and he's alive today.
He was raised three days later.
That's the gospel.
And then do you know what Paul does
in verses five through eight?
In this text,
Paul does something really interesting.
Here, let me just read it for you.
He was raised on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures,
verse four,
verse five,
and that he appeared to Cephas,
that's another name for Peter,
then to the twelve,
then he appeared to more than 500 brothers
at one time,
most of whom are still alive,
although some have fallen asleep,
then he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles,
last of all,
as to one untimely board,
he appeared to me.
Do you see what he does?
Paul says,
oh, this is a historic reality.
In fact,
let me roll out 500 witnesses for you
that you can actually talk to.
If Paul had a smartphone,
he'd be like,
hey, do you want to talk to,
you know,
Cephas or James
or one of those 500?
Hey, I can share the contact with you.
You can reach out to them
because in verse six,
most of them are still alive anyway.
You can hear from them yourself
how they saw Jesus
after he was raised from the dead.
It's eyewitness accounts.
The point is this.
It's a historic event.
We don't proclaim wishful thinking.
We proclaim objective realities.
The gospel is something
that Christ has done.
And in verse eight,
Paul says,
last of all,
as once and timely born,
he appeared also to me.
Do you see what he's saying?
I'm writing you this
and I myself have seen Jesus
after he was raised from the dead.
I am an eyewitness.
And you know what?
You can read of that eyewitness account
in Acts chapter nine
when Paul has this very interesting encounter
with the risen Christ
on the road to Damascus.
These historical facts about Jesus,
his death, burial, and resurrection,
this is what's accomplished our salvation.
This is what reconciles sinners to God.
It's the heart of the gospel.
So we've seen that it's all about Jesus
and it's all about what Jesus has past tense done.
We proclaim something that's happened.
And then third,
I want you to see this all important truth
is that it's all according to God's plan
for the fullness of time.
Did you notice in verses three and four
that Jesus, that Christ died
in accordance with the scriptures?
That on the third day he was raised
in accordance with the scriptures?
Christ's death, burial, and resurrection?
These are not random events.
These are actually the purposed fulfillments
of God's plan,
fulfilling a passage like Isaiah 53, 3-12,
where the Messiah dies on behalf of others.
He's buried in a rich man's tomb,
and then he's vindicated resurrection.
But here's what you need to see.
If this is according to the scriptures,
that means it's according to a plan.
God had this plan set out
from before the foundation of the world.
And so in order for Jesus
to fulfill something written 700 plus years
before he walked the earth in Isaiah,
that means that there was something else
going on to orchestrate it all.
That God had a sovereign plan
that he is carrying out
to rescue sinners.
What the Old Testament anticipated,
Jesus Christ accomplished.
And so this, according to the scriptures,
reveals a plan for the fullness of time.
And when there's a plan,
there's intentionality.
And when there's intentionality,
there's a motive.
Do you know what the motive is of this plan?
For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only son,
that whoever believes in him
shall not perish but have eternal life.
God loves this world,
the sinners of this world,
and he wants to reconcile them to himself,
which gets at the goal of this plan.
The goal of this plan
is not your self-esteem.
The goal of this plan
is for you to be reconciled to God.
Hear the word of God.
1 Peter 3.18
For Christ also suffered once for sins,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
that he might bring us to God.
The goal of the gospel
is God
to reconcile us
to God
so that we can see him for who he is
and give him the praise and glory
due his name,
that we could live lives
that actually please him.
This morning, I just want to remind you
of the content of the gospel.
It's all about Jesus.
He's the Christ.
It's all about what he has done,
died, buried, raised,
and it's all about God's plan
for the fullness of time.
The goal is to reconcile sinners to God.
You know, you all know this already
because you're probably all Packers fans
with the exception of a couple of you
who are Bears fans,
maybe one of you who's a Seahawks fan.
Vince Lombardi,
at the beginning of every season,
would gather his Packers football club together
and he would hold up a football
and say to those men,
this is a football.
Start with the basics.
What he's saying is,
this game has everything to do
with the movement of this ball.
And this morning,
at the outset of the summer of 2019,
I am holding up the gospel to you.
Christ died, buried, raised.
It's all about the movement of this gospel
and how you can maximize it this summer.
I have in my notes here
to correct a common misunderstanding.
I'm not going to expand on it
for the sake of time,
but I can tell you what it is.
There are a bunch of people out there
who say things like this.
They think that they're quoting
Francis of Assisi.
They say,
proclaim the gospel
and if you have to,
use words.
It couldn't be further from the truth.
First of all,
Francis of Assisi never said it.
And second,
we don't proclaim the gospel
with our actions.
Our actions will either verify
or deny the gospel,
but we proclaim the gospel
with our mouths.
Nobody's going to become a Christian
by watching your life.
But people will become Christians
when they see your life,
verifies the gospel,
and they say,
hey,
how can I be saved?
How can I live for God like that?
And you're able to tell them
the good news
of what Christ has done for them
in order to reconcile them to God.
Okay.
We've got to be square
on the content of the gospel.
And this summer
is going to be
an unprecedented opportunity
to proclaim it.
We've got to be clear
on the content,
but now I want to impress upon you
the power of the gospel.
In my desire right now,
when we look at this,
I want you to sense something.
I want you to sense
that this message of the gospel
is God's power.
that the gospel alone
can do something
that nothing else can.
There's nothing else
on the planet
or in the universe
that is able to reconcile
a sinner
to a holy God.
So let me impress upon you
the power of the gospel.
In chapter 15
of 1 Corinthians 3-8,
Paul kind of walks through
the content of the gospel,
and then in verse 8-11,
he turns,
he pivots.
And the gospel
gets extremely personal.
Did you notice
the shift in language
to first person plural,
first person singular?
Here's what I mean.
Last of all,
as to one untimely born,
he appeared also to me.
For I am the least
of the apostles
and worthy to be called
an apostle
because I persecuted
the church of God.
But by the grace of God,
I am what I am,
and his grace toward me
was not in vain.
On the contrary,
I worked harder
than any of them,
though it was not I,
but the grace of God
that is with me.
Whether then it was
I or they,
so we preach
and you believe.
It gets personal.
Paul knew something
about the power
of this message
firsthand.
First hand.
earlier in the book
of 1 Corinthians,
if you want to flip back
to 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 18,
Paul talks about
the gospel
in the most interesting
of ways.
He says,
for the word of the cross,
verse 18,
the word of the cross,
another way of talking
about the gospel,
is folly
to those who are perishing.
It's stupid
to people
who don't have a heart
to believe it.
But to us
who are being saved,
who actually believe
the gospel,
it is the power
of God.
God's power
explodes
through the message
of the gospel.
Do you remember
Romans 1, 16?
Paul says,
I am not ashamed
of the gospel.
the objective reality
of who Christ is
and what he's done.
Died,
buried,
raised.
This gospel
is God's power
unto salvation
for all who believe.
So here's what
I want to put before you.
The gospel
is not just
a set
of historic
objective realities
about who Jesus is
and what he's done.
It is that,
but it's not just that.
The gospel,
this message
about who Jesus is
and what he's done,
it is God's power
to save.
It's God's power
to save,
transform,
and enable.
In this passage,
in 1 Corinthians 15,
Paul
doesn't use
the word power.
He uses another word.
It's used,
repeated three times.
You probably saw it.
Look at verse 10.
But by the grace
of God,
I am what I am.
And his grace
toward me
was not in vain.
But the grace
of God
that is with me,
grace,
grace.
Paul,
throughout his writings,
will use
God's power
and God's grace
virtually synonymously.
And what God's grace
emphasizes
is God's
loving motive
in the exercise
of his power.
Think about it this way.
Through the gospel
of Jesus Christ,
God graciously
exercises his power
for the good
of sinners.
That's his grace.
God's riches
at Christ's expense.
grace.
It's a power.
It gets stuff done.
It saves.
For by grace,
you've been saved
through faith.
This gospel grace,
this power,
reconciles
sinners to God
so that
a sinner,
upon believing
the gospel,
has a whole new
relationship
with the living God.
The sin
that had separated
them because
of Christ's death,
it removed
the obstacle
so that
a sinner
can now be
in a new
relationship
with the living God
without fear.
He goes from
being a rebel
to a son
or a daughter.
Nothing else
can do that.
Brothers and sisters,
there's nothing else
that can do that
but the gospel.
Someone who
believes the gospel,
that God
and Christ
has done this
for them,
they believe that,
their sins
are forgiven,
their eternity
is changed,
they're transferred
from the kingdom
of darkness
into the kingdom
of the beloved son.
They are no longer
indwelt and controlled
only by their sinful nature
but the spirit of God
has come to live
within them.
They are a walking
temple of the Holy Spirit.
Instead of being hostile
to God
and being at enmity
with them
because of Christ's blood
and his resurrection,
we have peace
now with God.
God
the gospel
does that.
There's nothing else.
The 100,000 people
of Kenosha,
there's nothing else
they can hear
or believe
that will reconcile
them to God.
But it just doesn't save.
This gospel grace,
this power of God,
it transforms.
It gives you
a new relationship
and a new identity.
And you see it right here
in the text.
Paul says in verse 9,
For I am the least
of the apostles,
unworthy to be called
an apostle
because I persecuted
the church of God.
But by the grace of God
I am what I am.
By the grace of God
I am what I am.
He was a persecutor
and destroyer
of God's church
and then he encountered
Jesus on the road
to Damascus,
the risen Christ
and all of a sudden
he's no longer
a persecutor
and destroyer.
He's an apostle
too
and builder
of God's church.
Do you see
the transformation?
Given a whole new identity.
When someone believes
the gospel
and they're reconciled
to God,
they have a new relationship,
they have a new identity,
they're no longer sinners,
they're saints,
they're no longer rebels,
they're children.
They're no longer
enslaved,
they're free.
Free to do what?
To live out your new identity
in new activity.
We see it in the text.
The new activity for Paul
upon his conversion
and his transformation,
new identity,
he is now no longer
crushing the church,
he's building the church
in his apostolic ministry.
God's grace
working within Paul
enabled him,
enabled him
to work hard
at preaching
and planting churches.
You see that?
In verse 10,
on the contrary,
I worked harder
than any of them,
though it was not I,
but the grace of God
that is with me,
within me.
Flip back
to Colossians chapter 1,
verses 28 and 29.
Paul uses
similar language
describing his toil
for building the church.
He says,
in verse 28,
him we proclaim,
Jesus the Christ
we proclaim,
warning everyone
and teaching everyone
with all wisdom
that we may present
everyone mature in Christ
for this I toil,
presenting everyone
mature in Christ,
this I toil,
struggling with all
his energy
that he powerfully
works within me,
his gracious power.
You see,
the gospel grace
that is poured out
enables gospel ministry.
As Christians,
you have a new relationship
with God.
You have a new identity
in Christ,
and now you've been given
new activity
to be a part of.
In addition to new ways
we go about our marriages
and our parenting
and our singleness
and our occupations
and our leisure time,
we have been given
a whole new gospel
activity as well,
fulfilling the great commission.
Jesus commissioned us
to this.
He said,
go make disciples
of the nations,
and the way we do that
is by going and proclaiming
the gospel to all
who will hear.
Let me just throw this by you.
Sharing the gospel
with people
isn't just one nice thing
we do for people.
It is the greatest,
most loving thing
we can do for people
because it's this message
in which God unleashes
his power
to reconcile sinners
to himself.
The goal is God,
and it's the most loving thing
we can do for people
to say,
here's how you can be reconciled
to God through Jesus Christ.
Here's how God takes care
of your sin.
Here's what he has done.
He's been raised from the dead
in order to demonstrate
it's all true.
We get to proclaim
God's power to people
in the person and work
of Jesus Christ.
God's gracious power
supplies what we need
to proclaim the gospel.
gospel grace,
it is able to move us
out of our comfort zones
and move us to people
in order to make known
to them what Christ has done
and what only Christ can do.
this power saves,
this power transforms,
this power enables
whole new activities,
new relationship,
new identity,
new activity.
I know what can give you pause
in sharing the gospel
with other people
because I experience it too.
Let me ask you,
is there someone in your life
right now
that when you think about
sharing the gospel with them,
you're like,
there's no way?
There's no way.
Man, I could be like
crystal clear gospel presentation
and there's just no way
that they would respond.
And what you're saying
in the back of your mind is,
oh, they wouldn't respond
because they're too successful.
Oh, they wouldn't respond
because they're too intelligent.
Oh, they wouldn't respond
because they're too entrenched
in their sinful lifestyle.
There's just no way
that they would respond.
It's too hard for the gospel.
And what we're really saying is,
God's power is insufficient
to radically change this person.
If the gospel is able
to transform a destroyer of the church
into a builder of the church,
it can transform anybody.
If the gospel was able
to change me,
it can change anybody.
If the gospel is able
to change you,
it can change anybody.
The gospel is not insufficient
for the task.
And that's where I want
to move your trust.
To trust in God's power
made known through this message.
The last few days,
I've been so encouraged
by this verse,
2 Corinthians 5.20.
We read this.
Therefore, we are ambassadors
for Christ.
God making His appeal through us.
Did you hear that?
God making His appeal through us?
When we move towards people
and share the gospel with them,
God is making His powerful appeal
through us.
How's that for perspective?
God's power is unrivaled.
It alone reconciles sinners
to the living God.
Okay, we've looked at the content
of the gospel.
We've dwelt on the power
of the gospel.
And now,
I want to point you
to five practical steps
you can take this summer
to move out of your comfort zone
and to move towards others
for Christ.
You ready?
Number one.
The first thing to do
is to get clear
on what the gospel is
and what the gospel is not.
And to that end,
I'd like to recommend
this book for you
by Greg Gilbert,
produced by Nine Marks.
And what this book does
is it provides
a very helpful outline
for you to understand
what the gospel is
so that you can communicate
it faithfully.
It's very simple.
God, man, Jesus, respond.
It's very helpful.
I use it in my own
personal evangelism
to keep me on task.
And wouldn't you know,
look it,
I have ten copies up here
ready to give away
like pancakes.
So,
after the service
first ten up here,
I will gladly give it to you.
One per family.
I would just ask
that you exercise
the golden rule
when you come down for them.
So the first one is
get clear on what the gospel is
and what it's not
and this will help you do that.
It'll motivate you
to move out of your comfort zone
towards others.
The second thing,
and if there's one thing
I would want you to walk away with,
an immediate step
you can do tomorrow morning,
it's this.
Be grateful.
Be grateful for what God
through Christ
has done for you.
Return to me, God,
the joy of salvation.
Let me show you how to do it.
Would you open up your Bible
to Ephesians chapter 2
verses 1 through 10.
Here's what you can do
tomorrow morning
in order to,
by faith,
cultivate gratitude
in your heart
for what God
has done for you
through Christ.
And what it is
is you take Ephesians 2,
1 through 10
and you make it personal.
I'm going to show you
how to do it.
You ready?
You can do this
as a prayer
tomorrow morning.
Chapter 2,
verse 1 through 10.
You're swapping out
pronouns.
And I was dead
in the trespasses
and sin
in which I once walked
following the course
of this world,
following the prince
of the power of the air,
the spirit that is now
at work
and the sons
of disobedience
among whom
I once lived
in the passions
of my flesh,
carrying out the desires
of my body
and my mind
and I was by nature
a child of wrath
like the rest
of mankind.
That was me.
But God,
being rich
in mercy
because of the great love
with which he loved
me,
even when I was
dead
in my trespasses,
made me alive
together with Christ.
By grace
I have been saved
and raised me
up with him
and seated me
with him
in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus
so that in the coming ages
he might show
the immeasurable riches
of his grace
in kindness
towards me
in Christ Jesus.
For by grace
I have been saved
through faith.
This is not my doing,
it's the gift of God,
not a result of my works
so that I'm not going
to boast
for I am his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus
for good works
which God prepared
beforehand
that I should walk
in them.
You see how that works?
Do you see how that
can cultivate
gospel gratitude
in your heart
tomorrow morning?
Here's what's going
to happen.
When you walk
through a passage
and apply it
to yourself like that,
personal gratitude
for the gospel
starts bubbling up
and that personal
gratitude
for the gospel
fuels personal
proclamation
of the gospel.
gospel.
This is the
94 oxhane
of motivation
for the Christian.
Gratitude,
joy
for what God
has done.
It is a really
powerful motivator.
So when you realize
of what God
has done
for you
in Christ
and you have
this growing
gratitude
for his gracious
power
on your behalf
through Christ,
you know what
you're going to want
to do,
who can I tell?
Who can I tell?
My brother needs
to hear,
my sister needs
to hear this.
My neighbor needs
to hear this.
If you walk away
with just one thing,
walk away with that
this morning.
the third step,
tell your story
as a story.
Tell your story
as a story.
And this book
by Sam Chan,
it's called
Evangelism in a Skeptical World.
Matt Sear,
Billy Nye,
and I have been
working slowly
through this book.
In chapter two,
it's titled
Everyday Evangelism.
And in chapter two,
Sam Chan spells out
six strategies
for everyday evangelism.
And the sixth strategy
is to tell our story
as story.
And what he so skillfully does
is he helps Christians
prepare a unique explanation
for how God's grace
intersected their life
and changed them
in story form.
And so here's what I've done.
I've had Mary
produce 30 copies
just of this strategy.
They're on both tables
as your lead,
15 and 15,
14 and 15.
But pick one up
as you're going along.
And here's what you can do
with this.
It's going to take some effort.
It'll take 10 to 30 minutes
to get something together,
maybe more than that.
But you're going to find yourself
having a very effective
gospel tool.
A very effective gospel tool
that can be used
in our life groups.
Life group leaders.
I'm going to bring
our life group
through this in the fall.
I want everybody
in our life group
being able to say,
explain their unique story
and how the gospel,
objective gospel,
changed them.
And then you share it
with each other
in your life group.
Our life groups
are our small groups.
They're a central part
of our life together.
And then,
here's the other way
you can use something
like this.
If you put this together
and you're like,
man, I want to use this,
come talk to me.
Here's why.
We're looking to introduce
more and more
gospel testimonies
during our Sunday morning service.
We want more and more people
hearing what God,
by His grace,
has done in the lives
of the people in this room.
And so,
if you put this together
and you're like,
yeah,
I want to give that a shot
on a Sunday morning,
come talk to me.
Finally,
when you have
a personal testimony,
it's a very effective
and personal evangelism.
When I share my faith,
when I share the gospel,
I introduce it
in two ways.
I either ask
a very straightforward,
have you ever heard
the gospel of Jesus Christ before?
You'd be amazed
at how many people say,
no, I've never heard it.
And then I say,
can I explain it to you?
And you're like,
sure.
And then I go,
God, man, Jesus, respond.
But there's another way
to communicate the gospel
that Sam Chan
really helps us with.
It's when you approach
someone and you say,
can I tell you
how I became a Christian?
It's a very effective
evangelistic tool.
Let me encourage you
to pick this up
because this is
just one step this summer
you can take
to move outside
of your comfort zones
and towards
other people.
The fourth step
is what Matt
was talking about
during the announcements,
The Art of Neighboring.
It's this book.
It's a six-week course
that provides clear
and very practical steps
to move towards
those people
living immediately
around you.
And over the course
of the year,
Jenny and I
have put these principles
into practice.
and we've been
so encouraged
how we've gotten
to know our neighbors,
how it's opened doors.
This is an evangelistic
long-term strategy
with the people
that you're living around.
We're going to have,
offer these
throughout the summer,
Tuesday night,
Thursday night.
Jenny and I
are hosting
the Tuesday night group.
Matt and Elise here
are hosting
the Thursday night group.
And I would just
encourage you
to participate in this
because the genius of it
is having loving accountability
to do it together.
You will not regret it.
Six,
just six,
six sessions.
The last step
you see in your bulletin.
Summer picnics in the park.
Summer outreaches.
We're seeing
these outreaches
as opportunities
to connect people
with a gospel-driven church.
This church
is a gospel resource.
Christ in us.
So here's how you can use
the summer outreaches.
First way is this.
If you're aware
of Christians
who are on the outskirts
of our church,
we want to weave them
into the fabric
of our life together.
And so the way
that you do that
is you risk a little bit,
you approach them,
and you say,
hey,
we got a July 9th
picnic in the park.
Do you want to come with us?
And when they come with you,
you introduce them
to people
from our church.
You're like,
oh,
you like cycling.
Oh,
you need to meet Matt Sear
who's another avid cyclist.
Oh,
you like smoking pipes.
Oh,
you need to talk
to Garrett Goldberg
about pipes.
Now,
if you're new
to Christ the King Church
and you don't know anybody,
you know what you should do?
Just approach anybody
and say,
hey,
can we come with you?
You're not overstepping
your bounds.
But brothers and sisters
of Christ the King,
let's move towards others
to get them in.
Now,
the second group of people,
there are non-Christians
outside of the faith
that we're all interacting with
on a weekly basis.
Let's invite them
to come to one of these picnics,
one of these outreaches.
And here's why.
We want to introduce
non-Christians
to genuine followers
of Jesus Christ
because we want
our non-Christian friends
to be saying things like this.
Oh,
whoa.
Wait,
there are other rational
human beings
besides you
that have decided
to follow Jesus.
It forms what
Chan calls
a plausibility structure.
we want to bring people
to these picnics
to step out in faith,
to move towards others
outside of our comfort zones
and to say,
come,
come meet these people
who have been changed
by the gospel.
Imagine that you bring someone there
and one of your church friends
shares their story
of how the risen Christ
graciously interrupted their life.
Now,
that's what I'm talking about.
Okay,
I've reminded you
of the content of the gospel.
I've sought to impress upon you
the power of the gospel
and now I've pointed you
to five practical steps
to move you outside
of your comfort zone
towards others.
Now,
imagine this.
A bunch of us
from Christ the King Church,
imagine what would happen,
what will God do
if we step out
in full confidence
in the power of the gospel
to change anybody,
anybody,
to save them
and transform them
and enable them
to live new lives.
Imagine what God can do
if we just step out
confident
that God's,
that the gospel
is able to do
what it says
it's able to do.
Do you know
what I think
is going to happen?
It may not be
hundreds of people
coming,
becoming Christians,
but I think
it's going to be
a steady stream.
God making his appeal
through us
and people responding
in repentance
and faith,
being reconciled
to God.
I don't know
about you,
but I can't think
of anything
more worthy
than the summer
of 2019.
let's pray.
God in heaven,
we are so grateful
that you would
send the Christ
to die for us,
to be buried
and to be raised
from the dead.
that you are alive
now,
Lord Jesus.
And so now we ask
that you would
pour out your spirit
upon us
and embolden
our witness
in this city,
that you
would make your
appeal through us
and that many
would respond
in repentance
and faith
this summer
and come September,
that there would
be singing,
people singing
who are not singing
to you right now.
Worthy are you
of our every breath.
Worthy is the Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.