Tawa Baptist

The Gospel

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:1-11

Video Link: https://youtu.be/USnGS04z94s

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The heart of the gospel
  • The truth of the gospel
  • The grace of the gospel
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Some years ago our washing machine stopped working mid cycle, full of water and clothes. I got the repair person to come and take a look.

Turns out there was a hair clip trapped in the water pump. (Not my hair clip, by the way.) I watched to see how he unblocked it and then, the next time a hair clip went through the wash, I was able to fix it myself. (Even when you check pockets, things still find their way into places they shouldn’t.)

Although it was frustrating at the time, if the water pump hadn’t become blocked, I would never have learned how the washing machine worked much less how to remedy a blockage. Problems and mistakes usually provide a learning opportunity.

This morning we begin a new sermon series based on 1st Corinthians 15. Not the whole of Corinthians, just chapter 15. First Corinthians is a letter written by the apostle Paul to the church in ancient Corinth, which is in Greece.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses a number of problems in the church. For example, some people were saying there was no resurrection of the dead, which is sort of the equivalent of a blocked water pump in your washing machine. It basically stalls faith, stops the flow of hope and kills joy. 

In chapter 15, Paul shows us the inner workings of his theology of resurrection. He pulls apart the Corinthians’ thinking, clears the blockage and puts things back together again.

As frustrating as it must have been for Paul to have to correct this breakdown, being able to read how Paul addressed the issue provides a learning opportunity for us. It shows us how to fix the same problem.   

First Corinthians 15 is over 50 verses long, so the plan is to look at this chapter in smaller pieces during the weeks leading up to Pentecost. This morning we cover the first 11 verses, in which Paul writes about the gospel. From 1st Corinthians 15, verse 1 we read… 

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter,and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

As I mentioned before, the main theme of these verses is the gospel. Gospel is a word which simply means ‘good news’. The gospel of Jesus is the good news about Jesus Christ. In today’s message we consider the heart of the gospel, the truth of the gospel and the grace of the gospel.

The heart of the gospel:

When we talk about the heart of something we are normally referring to the core of the matter, the most important part, that aspect upon which life depends.

Paul gives us the heart of the gospel in verses 3-5. Essentially, Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day. The death and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, is the heart of the gospel.

So what does Paul mean when he says, ‘Christ died for our sins’?

Well, there is a mystery to what Jesus accomplished in dying on the cross. So we need to approach these words with a good measure of humility.

Some people think solely in terms of punishment. For them the phrase, ‘Christ died for our sins’, means that God punished Jesus for our sins. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it makes God out to be a monster.

If you have two children and one of them does something bad and the other does something good, you don’t punish the one who did good as a substitute for the one who did bad. That would be child abuse.

In fact, as a loving parent, you are probably not thinking about punishment at all. You are more likely thinking about how best to teach your child the right way. In other words, how can I redeem this situation?

The main emphasis with this idea that ‘Christ died for our sins’ is redemption. Jesus died on the cross for our salvation. The cross is really God’s way of showing his love for us, so we can be close to him.

Kenneth Bailey uses Jesus’ parable of the good shepherd and the lost sheep to explain. When a sheep goes astray the good shepherd acts out of love for the sheep. He goes looking for the sheep and when he finds it, he brings it home so the life of the sheep is redeemed.

The shepherd does not say to himself, ‘The lost sheep has wandered five miles off the beaten track, so I must hike five miles through the bush to pay for the sheep’s mistakes’. No, what would be the point of that? The sheep would still be lost and the shepherd would be tired. When it comes to ‘Christ dying for our sins’, the focus is on the rescue, not the penalty. [1]

Or to put it another way, if we think of sin as a grenade. When we pull the pin of the grenade (when we sin), Jesus is the one who smoothers the grenade with his own body to shield us from the shrapnel. By going to the cross to die for our sins, Jesus was falling on the grenade to save us. Jesus was taking our sin upon himself so that when he died our sin died with him.

With the cross of Christ, the emphasis is on redemption, not punishment. If we put the emphasis on punishment, we end up with a warped idea of God; a God who is graceless and unfair and just waiting for us to slip up. Belief in a God like that is not sustainable.     

There’s an old Star Trek movie (called The Wrath of Khan) in which the Star-ship Enterprise is having engine problems. The core reactor is melting down and needs to be fixed before the whole ship explodes. Spock enters the reactor and fixes the problem but, in doing so, he is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and dies. Spock gives his life to save the ship and its crew.

Jesus dying for our sins is a bit like that. Our sin is causing the whole of creation to melt down. Jesus’ going to the cross is like Spock going into the reactor to fix the problem. In the process of saving us and redeeming creation, Jesus dies.  

The writers of the Star Trek movies must have been reading the gospels because in the very next movie, Spock is resurrected. 

After Jesus had died on the cross for our sins and been buried, God raised Jesus to eternal life on the third day. That is the heart of the gospel. What about the truth of the gospel?

The truth of the gospel:

There are two kinds of truth: objective truth and subjective truth. Objective truth describes reality as it actually is, without bias from an individual. While subjective truth is reality as it is perceived or experienced by the individual.

For example, ‘the sun rises in the East’, is objective truth. That is true, irrespective of what you personally think or feel about sunrises. Whereas, ‘the sunrise is beautiful’, is subjective truth. Some people find a sunrise beautiful and others could take it or leave it; they would rather sleep in.

The good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is objectively true and, for Christians at least, also subjectively true.

In verses 5-8 Paul gives evidence for the objective truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The risen Jesus appeared to Peter, to all the apostles (including James), to 500 others at one time and then later to Paul himself.

Paul was probably writing to the Corinthians about 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. So most of the original eye witnesses were still alive and therefore could provide objective testimony to confirm Jesus’ resurrection.

We know these witnesses were telling the truth because they were prepared to give their lives in testifying to the fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Their encounter with the risen Jesus was stronger than death itself. Indeed, the apostles were not afraid of death because they had seen first-hand how Jesus had conquered death.

Paul talks about those eyewitnesses who have died as having ‘fallen asleep’. That’s the difference the resurrection of Jesus makes. For the Christian believer, physical death is not ‘good bye forever’. Rather, physical death is simply, ‘goodnight my love, I will see you in the morning’.

Given the diverse number of witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, plus their level of commitment to what they had witnessed and the closeness of the written record to the actual events, the objective historical evidence for Jesus’ death and resurrection is very strong. 

In verses 3 & 4 Paul offers the witness of the Old Testament as further evidence to support the facts of the gospel. These things did not happen at random. They happened according to God’s plan.    

But is the witness of Scripture objective truth or subjective truth? It’s both and.

Personal experience is the lens through which we interpret the Scriptures. The early Christians who had actually witnessed Jesus’ death and met the risen Jesus, could see how the Old Testament foretold these things because their personal experience gave them the insight to recognise it.

In talking about objective and subjective truth, it’s not that one is more valid or more important than the other. When it comes to the gospel, both are needed. If we don’t receive and believe in the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection subjectively, for ourselves, then it won’t become a source of hope or joy or comfort for us personally.

Imagine you are out on the open sea. The boat you are in is sinking fast. Then along comes another boat. The captain of the other boat can see you are in trouble and asks if you want to come on board his boat. The rescue boat doesn’t look that flash but at least it is not leaking.

Both boats and the ocean are objectively real. Whereas, how you personally feel about the situation is subjectively real. Two people on the same sinking ship might be experiencing quite different emotions. One might be in a state of happy denial and the other might be frightened for their life.

Subjective truth matters a great deal because how you personally feel about the situation influences your decision. The objective truth is that if you don’t climb aboard the rescue boat you will drown.

In verses 1 & 2, Paul reminds the Corinthians that they did in fact receive the gospel he had preached to them and that they have taken their stand on the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection and furthermore that they are being saved by the gospel.

The gospel is like the rescue boat and Jesus is the captain. The gospel may not appear that flash at first but it is objectively true, it does not leak. What’s more, the Corinthians have accepted the gospel as subjectively true for them. They have taken their stand in the boat of the gospel and it is saving them. To change their mind and jump out of the boat would only result in their death.

The grace of the gospel:

Okay, so the heart of the gospel is Jesus’ death and resurrection. The gospel is objectively true but it also needs to be subjectively true for us personally, if we are to be saved.

Jesus embodies the truth; he is the truth. Jesus also embodies the grace of God. With Jesus, truth and grace go together. Let’s consider then the grace of the gospel.

Grace means gift. Grace is not an entitlement, like wages or the repayment of a loan. It is not earned or owed. Grace is undeserved goodness. Or, to borrow a phrase from years gone by, grace is unmerited favour.  

In verses 5-8, Paul mentions three people by name whom the risen Jesus appeared to: Peter, James and Paul. The curious thing here is that Paul does not mention Mary Magdalene or any of the female disciples by name.

The gospels of Matthew, Mark & John all tell us that Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene on Easter morning. So why does Paul leave Mary out?

Well, we can’t know for sure. Perhaps Paul was only naming individuals that the Corinthians knew and they didn’t happen to know Mary, whereas they did know Peter, James and Paul.

What we can say is that Peter, James and Paul were shown special grace by the risen Jesus. Peter denied knowing Jesus and yet the risen Christ restored Peter asking him to ‘feed my lambs’.

Likewise, if the ‘James’ Paul is referring to here is the biological half-brother of Jesus, then Jesus was reaching out in grace to James. Jesus’ brothers did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah; they all thought he was mad. Seeing the objective truth of the risen Jesus changed James’ mind.

And then there is Paul, who says of himself in verses 8 & 9…

8 and last of all he [Jesus] appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

The risen Christ appeared to Paul, on the road to Damascus, even as Paul was on a mission to kill the followers of Jesus. In his grace, the Lord gave Paul the gift of a new perspective and a whole new mission. Paul’s response to Jesus’ grace was to obey the Lord in faith.

The phrase in verse 8, abnormally born, translates more literally as ‘miscarriage’ or ‘abortion’. It’s a term of verbal abuse. Perhaps Paul was ridiculed by his critics as an ‘abortion’ of a man?

Paul graciously endures the insult and turns it into something positive, for God’s glory. Paul says in verse 10…  

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.            

One way to understand Paul’s thought here is like this: Yes, my work before I met the risen Jesus was a lifeless abortion. My attempts to please God by persecuting Christians were a miscarriage. But, by God’s grace, my work since encountering the risen Christ has been fruitful and life-giving. [2]     

We are talking about the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The grace of Jesus is greater than Peter’s denial, more real than James’ disbelief and more powerful than Paul’s persecution. The objective historical truth is that the grace of the risen Jesus is greater than human sin. 

One other thing we observe about grace. Notice how Paul says (at the end of verse 10), I worked harder than all of them – yet not I but the grace of God that was with me. Paul thought of God’s grace as a co-worker, someone working with him, alongside him. What a beautiful idea.

Have you ever felt like you’ve let God down? That might be your subjective truth (your internal reality) but it is not the objective truth. The objective truth is that you cannot let God down. You are not actually supporting God. God is supporting you, by his grace.   

When we serve the Lord we are not alone. God’s grace is working with us. Yes, we want to give our best but more often than not even our best will fall short. That’s okay. We don’t need to beat ourselves up. God’s grace is sufficient for us. God will see to it that his purpose prevails.

As you start the week, try to imagine God’s grace as a co-worker, supporting you, working with you as you serve God in your home, in your place of work and in the community.   

Conclusion: 

The heart of the gospel is Jesus’ death and resurrection. The gospel is objectively true but it also needs to be subjectively true, if we are to be saved. It is the grace of the risen Jesus which makes the truth of the gospel real for us.

May God’s Spirit of grace and truth make the resurrection of Jesus real for you and me, personally. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Can you think of a time when a problem or mistake created a valuable learning opportunity for you? What happened? What did you learn?
  • What is the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
  • How do we know the gospel about Jesus (his death & resurrection) is objectively true?
  • Discuss / reflect on the phrase, “Christ died for our sins”. What does this mean? Why is it important to emphasise redemption (rather than punishment) when thinking about what Jesus accomplished on the cross?
  • What difference does the death and resurrection of Jesus make for you personally?
  • What practical things can you do to remind yourself that God’s grace is a co-worker, supporting you and working with you as you serve God’s purpose in your home, in your place of work and in the community. 

[1][1] Kenneth Bailey, ‘Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes’, page 432.

[2] Refer James Moffatt’s commentary on 1st Corinthians, page 239.